This series knew it had nothing really much to offer, so it tried hard to make it interesting, meaningful and thought-proactive, when really it just tries to send one simple message; don't judge a book by it's cover.
If only I judged the serial's cover and decide not to watch it.
One of my least anticipated series of 2016, it was embarrassing to watch the sales presentation clip where the CGI was awful to say the least, the cast was weak and the storyline looked nothing particularly interesting. Does this mean this series is pure trash? Perhaps, but it was still watchable because of several redeeming factors.
The redeeming factors is the ok performance by the cast. King Kong as Hung Sin played a role that was obviously was tailored for him, with his Taiwanese background. What I don't understand is his perseverance and love towards Hestia (portrayed by Samantha Ko). He was amused at Hestia's eye-watching figure, but what else? Doesn't that make his blind love swallow? His character was silly to say the least but King Kong didn't fortunately tried the best to make his character watchable.
Lau Kong as Lau Kam was also fine. Not much to comment on his veteran performance but it was adequate. Lau Kong these days seem to the TVB producer's first choice for any veteran role (also because there aren't many left), but at least Lau Kong does the job. Hestia's mum/mom was also fine though she acts the same way. For instance I watched her performance in 'Beneath the Charm' which was 2005 series and now here her expressions was almost the same! At least she's consistent.
Same goes for Susan Tse whose performance was adequate although she is in the danger zone for getting sidekick roles now. In the past, she would have been offered grand roles with heaps of room to show her acting chops such as in Rosy Business, Beyond the Realm of Conscience and a few other series, but now she seems to be underappreciated as an actress. Pity I say.
Pat Poon as Lo Sat gave another adequate performance but a dejavu one. His facial expressions and interpretation in terms of characterisation was almost identical to his role in 'All That is Bitter is Sweet'. No much to comment since he didn't have much to do.
Not much to comment about Susan and Pat's children in the series, except that their acting abilities left much to desire.
Ronald Law gave a decent performance. He looked the part and played the part well. Same goes for Tavia's sister and Timothy. Credit however goes to the little kid who was rather funny and attention-grabbing as a spoiled and demanding son.
Should I get to the big three main character? Should I?
Ok. Samantha, Kitty and Jason did ok in their respective roles but again left much to be desired.
First, Samantha Ko. Have yet to have a favourite performance of her's except for maybe when she in 'Friendly Fire'. In here her role was also tailored to her. Someone looking dashing, but can't cook. She relies on her good friend Kitty who on the other hand can cook but short. I think Samantha gave a good performance as Hestia. At times she is a bit shaky, but she did fine in some scenes, especially those that required minimal but expressive indicators, like the slight gesture of guilt or uncertainty in her expressions. That being said, I still don't think she carried the series as being the lead and found her character to be highly insulting to those who have good looks but with good personality. Deep inside, she is a nice person, but her desires to be rich and be into fame and her wants to wipe her less flashy background setting makes her quite disgusting and blind in seeing what is right and what is wrong, what is worth it and what isn't, and what is decency. Put it this way, this character could have been multi-dimensional and Samantha make it two-dimensional although it could be four-dimensional. At least it wasn't one-dimensional.
Yep one-dimensional is Jason Chan. I am still baffled how like many others in this series can interpret his character in a similar light to all his other roles. His tone of speech, his repetitive hand movements, the uncertain or speechlike expressions and his effortless attempt at bringing his character to life. Give this to Raymond Lam or Ruco Chan or even to Kenneth Ma and I'm sure they would do a much better job. That being said, I will stop short of calling it a rubbish performance by Jason Chan but simply an inadequate one. He is stuck to one-dimensional expression and while he matched and managed to convince what his character is, a nice, well-mannered and gentle person. At the end, Jason gave a minimal and bland portrayal of what his Pete could display.
Did Kitty fare any better? Yes she did. As Kwai-Fong she did fine although again nothing spectacular. The producers of this series focused on her and I think she is the lead in this series. Like her role 16 years again in 'War of the Genders' she is innocent-looking, bubbly and kind-heartened type of girl. Small, but does a big favour to others such as Hestia. She is someone you would want to be friends with. I do think Kitty gave a consistent performance.
It wasn't the performances though that dragged this series down, but rather the simplicity and underwhelming storyline of this series that might turn others off.
P.S Stephanie Ho was refreshing in this series. She didn't have much to add to the storyline in this series yet gave a memorable performance as a restaurant worker and self-driven type of person. Watch her performance to know what I mean.
There's one thing that I am sure some will tell me, don't like it, don't watch it. But I watched it before I failed to dislike it even though there were a lot of unlikeable aspects in this series. I managed to watch it without much problem. Primarily because it was simple to watch. It's an old formula that TVB producers have long produced once again and again, but I guess it was a watchable series. That being said, my verdict is watch it if you have time, watch it if you can swallow anything, and watch it expecting... well nothing.
