It's rather late in this part of the world at the moment and I'm really feeling sleepy. But I don't really want my last post of the night to be about the below average TVB series The Biter Bitten so I'll just leave a brief comment on Bar Bender and hopefully return to comment another day.
I've just finished this series and I must say it is surprisingly entertaining. The series is full of characters with character which really help to hook you in inspite of the relatively typical overall story arc and premise of the series. The other thing that is quite impressive about this series are the well researched law cases and the way the lawyers use the law to fight their case. The series also boasts good plot and character progression.
I totally recommend it.
Right, that's it for now, time to sleep =) Good night.
Monday, May 15, 2006
TVB - The Biter Bitten
Goodness, TVB is really never short of bad English titles. While the title itself does try to express a certain series of events in this series. Still, it isn't terribly elegant at all. A buddy and I were talking about amusing TVB series titles at one point in time and we did think of coming up with a list but we never got around to doing it but that's another story all together. =)
Right, back to The Biter Bitten. This series stars Benny Chan, Michael Tong, Shirley Yeung, Linda Chung and a ton of mostly reliable TVB veterans, second supports and extras. I'm not terribly good with summaries nor do I have a great deal of patience when it comes to writing them so I'll try to be as succinct as possible. Briefly, the series is about two smart ass young men played by Benny Chan and Michael Tong who wind up working for a zoo in China and at the same time they some how get involved in mystery solving, treasure hunting, archaelogical digs and the circus. Sounds crazy? Well.... welcome to entertainment Hong Kong style, trust me, their films have tried to do even crazier things.
Anyway, this series is pretty much crap so I don't really want to spend a lot of time talking about it since it'll really be a bit of a waste of time. The series is probably aimed for a rather young crowd, I'm thinking maybe the teenage crowd but they kind of messed that up if they aimed for that crowd since the juvenile humour and the annoying two male leads which are obviously too old for their roles make it seem like the series was aimed at the adolescents.
Basically, avoid at all costs. The only two things that kept me watching to the bitter end was 1) I paid damn good money for this series so I felt like if my mum was going to abandon it then I should at least finish it 2) Shirley Yeung's and Michael Tong's characters' crazy antics in the latter stages of the series were surprisingly quite amusing. Other than that everything about the series was dumb, illogical and badly developed. It felt like they were trying to force National Treasure (a rather entertaining film) and The Touch (a really awful) film together and only succeeded in producing some monstrous hybrid of a tv series.
BTW, I really don't know what's the big fuss about Linda Chung. I don't find her that good a newcomer. Let's just say that I actually like Elaine Yiu, Charmaine Chin and a few of the other new young actresses in TVB more than Linda Chung which really does same something about how unimpressive I find her.
Right, back to The Biter Bitten. This series stars Benny Chan, Michael Tong, Shirley Yeung, Linda Chung and a ton of mostly reliable TVB veterans, second supports and extras. I'm not terribly good with summaries nor do I have a great deal of patience when it comes to writing them so I'll try to be as succinct as possible. Briefly, the series is about two smart ass young men played by Benny Chan and Michael Tong who wind up working for a zoo in China and at the same time they some how get involved in mystery solving, treasure hunting, archaelogical digs and the circus. Sounds crazy? Well.... welcome to entertainment Hong Kong style, trust me, their films have tried to do even crazier things.
Anyway, this series is pretty much crap so I don't really want to spend a lot of time talking about it since it'll really be a bit of a waste of time. The series is probably aimed for a rather young crowd, I'm thinking maybe the teenage crowd but they kind of messed that up if they aimed for that crowd since the juvenile humour and the annoying two male leads which are obviously too old for their roles make it seem like the series was aimed at the adolescents.
Basically, avoid at all costs. The only two things that kept me watching to the bitter end was 1) I paid damn good money for this series so I felt like if my mum was going to abandon it then I should at least finish it 2) Shirley Yeung's and Michael Tong's characters' crazy antics in the latter stages of the series were surprisingly quite amusing. Other than that everything about the series was dumb, illogical and badly developed. It felt like they were trying to force National Treasure (a rather entertaining film) and The Touch (a really awful) film together and only succeeded in producing some monstrous hybrid of a tv series.
BTW, I really don't know what's the big fuss about Linda Chung. I don't find her that good a newcomer. Let's just say that I actually like Elaine Yiu, Charmaine Chin and a few of the other new young actresses in TVB more than Linda Chung which really does same something about how unimpressive I find her.
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
TVB - Lethal Weapons of Love and Passion
Having somehow pulled my calf muscle rather badly over the weekend sometime back (it turned out to be worse than a pulled muscle but that's another story), I decided to go see the doctor and rest the leg for the day and took two days of leave from work. At that point in tiem, I thought, this would be the perfect opportunity for me to talk about one of the shows I'm currently watching. Unfortuanately, that post languished unpublished and in a draft format for weeks on end till I decided to just amend it and publish it anyway.
But before I get to the series, let me just say.... god, what an unweildy title. A buddy and I were joking about it the other day and we concluded that that title could easily be construed as a bondage type porn flick. =D TVB seems to have a knack of coming up with the strangest English titles for their series. But that's something I'll leave for another post. =)
I'm not done with LWOLAP yet. I'm only up to disc 5 (ep 13-15) of a 40 episode series but so far I find this series rather entertaining. It has unsual storyline and is rather different from many of the typical wuxia series we've seen.
The setting is in the Ming Dynasty during the reign of the peasant Emperor Hongwu aka Zhu Yuanzhang. What is of particular interest here is the take the production team had on this period in history. Zhu Yuanzhang lead a popular peasant rebellion to overthrown the unpopular Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty.
Hmmmm.... I left this comment unfinished and saved as a draft for sometime but have left LWOLAP unfinished for a while so can't quite remember what I wanted to say. I'll post this up first and when I get around to finishing it I'll add more comments in a later post.
Meanwhile I'm trying to finish a lighter and surprisingly watchable series, Always Ready, and if I've time and the inclination, I'll also also trash The Biter Bitten in a separate post.
rgds
But before I get to the series, let me just say.... god, what an unweildy title. A buddy and I were joking about it the other day and we concluded that that title could easily be construed as a bondage type porn flick. =D TVB seems to have a knack of coming up with the strangest English titles for their series. But that's something I'll leave for another post. =)
I'm not done with LWOLAP yet. I'm only up to disc 5 (ep 13-15) of a 40 episode series but so far I find this series rather entertaining. It has unsual storyline and is rather different from many of the typical wuxia series we've seen.
The setting is in the Ming Dynasty during the reign of the peasant Emperor Hongwu aka Zhu Yuanzhang. What is of particular interest here is the take the production team had on this period in history. Zhu Yuanzhang lead a popular peasant rebellion to overthrown the unpopular Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty.
Hmmmm.... I left this comment unfinished and saved as a draft for sometime but have left LWOLAP unfinished for a while so can't quite remember what I wanted to say. I'll post this up first and when I get around to finishing it I'll add more comments in a later post.
Meanwhile I'm trying to finish a lighter and surprisingly watchable series, Always Ready, and if I've time and the inclination, I'll also also trash The Biter Bitten in a separate post.
rgds
TVB - Safe Guards
Starring: Steven Ma, Wayne Lai, Kwok Fung, Elaine Yiu, Chuang Zhi Guang, Kara Hui Ying-hung, Suet Nei etc
I finished watching this series early last week and have put off writing any comments on it till now simply because I've been too busy.
This is simply the best TVB series I've watched since Yummy Yummy (Food for Life). Even though Elaine Yiu is uneven in her first lead role, given that this is only her fourth series (I think), I feel she aquitted herself well enough.
The performances in this series and the very strong script is what makes this a memorable series. The setting is the Qing Dynasty and it centres round a family runned "biao ju" (security escorts) who are like the Cisco guards in Singapore today. If you pay them money, their courier your stuff and ensure that it gets anywhere you want it.
It's been a long time since TVB has managed to depict business so well. The last time they did it was in Point of No Return which was only a partially good series since the romance in there was soooo silly and juvenile that it destroyed the series for me.
SG suffers no such flaws. Instead, the business of running the "biao ju" is portrayed quite well and although I don't think it is anywhere close to the truth, still it makes exciting stuff and seems reasonable realistic. The almost larger than life portrayal of Kwok Fung's and Steven Ma's characters give them a heroic edge which works really well in this series since men of the "biao ju" must surely have been strong, tough and fearless men. But what made the series shine was also the portrayal of these men outside of the business. At home and in private, these men exhibit personalities and flaws that not only make them human but make them believable and so likeable.
SG's characters are often multi-facet and fully developed and also progress quite logically. This is quite often a series flaw in TVB series. They often start off by giving you interesting characters only to have them be completely incomprehensible as the series progressed. But SG is a rather consistent series and while each character does grow and develope, this developement is well explained and fully within reason for each character.
What TVB has consistently been able to do well is to depict epic family struggles. Good examples of this would be Secret of the Heart, Instinct, Greed of Man and to some extent Point of No Return and The Charm Beneath. No exception here. SG has a very involving and absorbing family struggle at the heart of it's story. Wayne Lai plays the oldest son and the logical heir to the family business if only he was a capable man. The second son is far more capable then Wayne Lai's character but he is only the second son and the son of the second wife to boot. But the most capable of Kwok Fung's character's son is Steven Ma's character but he is an adopted son and that practically disqualifies him from the position. While it seems in the beginning that Steven Ma's character would be the stereotypical good and grateful adoptive son, the script fleshed this character so well and Steven Ma played him so well that one never feels that he is colourless and bland. It is characterisation like this that really sets SG apart from many TVB series.
Kwok Fung was really good in this series and played the stern and commanding patriarch with authority and yet managed to portray with great conviction the childlike side to this man when he is with his wife. Although in the end, my favourite couple is the couple played by Zhuang Zhi Guang and Kara Hui Ying-hung. They had a great deal of chemistry and even though they were very different in nature, the script and their performance made them feel like they were born to be together.
SG is a great series and I've not liked a series this much since Yummy Yummy. Under the Canopy of Love came close for a moment with it's strong beginning, witty script and quirky, charming characters but the last section of the series evolved into the usual romance tale that the series suffered somewhat in the end.
Now if only TVB can make more series like SG. I would be a happy happy person. =) Here's hoping that Dance of Passion would be great. It has a strong cast and Ada Choi's in it, so I'm really looking forward to this series.
I finished watching this series early last week and have put off writing any comments on it till now simply because I've been too busy.
This is simply the best TVB series I've watched since Yummy Yummy (Food for Life). Even though Elaine Yiu is uneven in her first lead role, given that this is only her fourth series (I think), I feel she aquitted herself well enough.
The performances in this series and the very strong script is what makes this a memorable series. The setting is the Qing Dynasty and it centres round a family runned "biao ju" (security escorts) who are like the Cisco guards in Singapore today. If you pay them money, their courier your stuff and ensure that it gets anywhere you want it.
It's been a long time since TVB has managed to depict business so well. The last time they did it was in Point of No Return which was only a partially good series since the romance in there was soooo silly and juvenile that it destroyed the series for me.
SG suffers no such flaws. Instead, the business of running the "biao ju" is portrayed quite well and although I don't think it is anywhere close to the truth, still it makes exciting stuff and seems reasonable realistic. The almost larger than life portrayal of Kwok Fung's and Steven Ma's characters give them a heroic edge which works really well in this series since men of the "biao ju" must surely have been strong, tough and fearless men. But what made the series shine was also the portrayal of these men outside of the business. At home and in private, these men exhibit personalities and flaws that not only make them human but make them believable and so likeable.
SG's characters are often multi-facet and fully developed and also progress quite logically. This is quite often a series flaw in TVB series. They often start off by giving you interesting characters only to have them be completely incomprehensible as the series progressed. But SG is a rather consistent series and while each character does grow and develope, this developement is well explained and fully within reason for each character.
What TVB has consistently been able to do well is to depict epic family struggles. Good examples of this would be Secret of the Heart, Instinct, Greed of Man and to some extent Point of No Return and The Charm Beneath. No exception here. SG has a very involving and absorbing family struggle at the heart of it's story. Wayne Lai plays the oldest son and the logical heir to the family business if only he was a capable man. The second son is far more capable then Wayne Lai's character but he is only the second son and the son of the second wife to boot. But the most capable of Kwok Fung's character's son is Steven Ma's character but he is an adopted son and that practically disqualifies him from the position. While it seems in the beginning that Steven Ma's character would be the stereotypical good and grateful adoptive son, the script fleshed this character so well and Steven Ma played him so well that one never feels that he is colourless and bland. It is characterisation like this that really sets SG apart from many TVB series.
Kwok Fung was really good in this series and played the stern and commanding patriarch with authority and yet managed to portray with great conviction the childlike side to this man when he is with his wife. Although in the end, my favourite couple is the couple played by Zhuang Zhi Guang and Kara Hui Ying-hung. They had a great deal of chemistry and even though they were very different in nature, the script and their performance made them feel like they were born to be together.
SG is a great series and I've not liked a series this much since Yummy Yummy. Under the Canopy of Love came close for a moment with it's strong beginning, witty script and quirky, charming characters but the last section of the series evolved into the usual romance tale that the series suffered somewhat in the end.
Now if only TVB can make more series like SG. I would be a happy happy person. =) Here's hoping that Dance of Passion would be great. It has a strong cast and Ada Choi's in it, so I'm really looking forward to this series.
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