The Brink of Law 突圍行動 (TVB) - Review

this poster and all other series related photos courtesy of TVB

I've just finished watching The Brink of Law, a 25 episode series from TVB and I must say that it really isn't very good at all and in fact, it is doubly disappointing since I usually have a good opinion of Mui Siu Ching's series. This series is without a doubt one of her misses and is quite possibly one of the worst series she's ever produced. What a pity, since Mui Siu Ching has produced some classics like Where the Legend Begins (aka Lok Sun 洛神) and The Breaking Point (今生無悔) and other really good series like Colourful Life (錦繡良緣) and The Family Man (絕世好爸).

Perhaps Mui Siu Ching is losing her touch or maybe she's just not moving with the times or perhaps she is just not a suitable producer for this kind of epic family dramas. After all, this is more Chik Kei Yi's territory than Mui Siu Ching. Chik Kei Yi excels in epic struggles of good versus bad, Mui Siu Ching excels in detailing relationships and very often her characters are less flat and her inter-personal dynamics more intimate, more moving and more realistic than Chik Kei Yi's who often sacrifices that for action, suspense and effect. Unfortunately, except for the beginning when Tong Chi Ko's (Steven Ma Jun Wai) family seems quite interesting, we don't even get the usual high quality relationship drama from Mui Siu Ching in The Brink of Law.

As usual, I won't write a synopsis of the series but here are a few links for you to read about it in English. Click here and here.

The characters in this series are relatively flat and are painted in broad strokes of either good or bad and no gray at all, with the exception of Chi Ko's father Tong Tai Hoi who is played rather well by Ha Yu. The rest of the characters like Tong Chi Ko and his friend Tung Yat Jun (Ron Ng Cheuk Hei) are either such good people, they come across as almost unreal, or so evil that you know that they deserve a place in hell. And as in any old fashion good vs bad TVB series, the good guys will win and the bad guys will lose and so no suspense at all.


Shirley Yeung Si Kei (Sung Ka Yee) and Michelle Yim aka Mai Shuet (Sung Kam Chi) are delightfully evil in this series.

The main women characters in this series are also quite colourless with the exception of Sung Ka Yee (played quite despicably well by Shirley Yeung Si Kei) and Sung Kam Chi (played with devilish delight by Michelle Yim aka Mai Shuet). Unfortunately for Bernice Liu, whom I actually rather like, she is saddled with a rather boring character and her Tsui Wing only really becomes more pro-active and involved in the series much later on but than since the men are the heroes in this series, Tsui Wing will get sidelined again towards the end. Kate Tsui comes across the worst amongst the leads as she not only got the most boring role in the series, she also played her Yan Heung Ching so poorly that this character couldn't even be liked simply for being a good and simple girl.

The plot twists in the series actually seems quite amateurish too as I guessed most of them quite early in the series. Part of the reason why some of them seem amateurish is because sudden personality changes will give them away. Watch for Tsui Wing's sudden change in attitude towards Tong Chi Ko in the middle of the and tell me that you can't guess instantly what Tsui Wing's secret is. One of the twists is quite well hidden but if you're a veteran viewer of TVB series and this kinds of dramas, you should be able to guess quite early on too that a particular character isn't as good as he/she seems. In fact, the characters seem to change at will just simply to move the often illogical and unrealistic storyline.


Mai Shuet and Yueh Hua (Tung Jin Lung) - the veterans outshine the younger generation.

There is virtually no character development in this series, hence all the characters come across as caricatures. The only thing that prevents some of them from becoming unwatchable is the performances. The veterans performed very well. Mai Shuet plays against type here and is fun to watch. She also has quite a bit of chemistry with Yueh Hua who plays her character's husband Tung Jin Lung. It's been a while since I've seen Yueh Hua and I must say he still has it in him. He carries himself with so much assurance and authority that even when his character doesn't do much or doesn't seem to be that important to the story, you are still quite captivated by his screen presence.


Another fine performance from the often unappreciated Ha Yu (Tong Tai Hoi).

Ha Yu deserves a special mention as he is wonderful in this series. His Tong Tai Hoi may quite possibly be the character you feel for the most in this series. It's not the first time that Ha Yu has played an outwardly boisterous and almost buffoonish man who is actually using his laughter and clownishness as a veneer to cover up his more vulnerable true self. And perhaps it is because Ha Yu is so adept at it that he plays Tong Tai Hoi with so much ease, yet that is not to say that Ha Yu seems to be breezing though his performance. He is a true professional. Even though I've seen Ha Yu play half a dozen of these kinds of roles, yet he's always managed to reach out and move you each and every single time.


Steven Ma (Tong Chi Ko), Ron Ng (Tung Yat Jun), Kenneth Ma (Yan Heung Ming)

The younger generation of stars don't fare quite as well. Steven Ma is decent and perhaps the most watchable of the younger men in this series. He is unfortunately hampered with a bad script and I just don't find his character that engaging. Kenneth Ma Kwok Ming who plays Yan Heung Ming, Tong Chi Ko's best friend and Yan Heung Ching's older brother isn't spectacular. I have to admit though that I don't particularly like Kenneth Ma as I generally don't find him to be a very good actor and his voice and the way he speaks is terribly annoying which means that at least for me, his voice acting is a complete failure. And as for Ron Ng, saying his performance is banal is already pretty generous of me. Okay, so he is probably not helped by the fact that he is given the most goody-two-shoes character in this series, so much so that this character comes across almost devoid of any common sense it would seem but that said, Ron was still quite unable to give this character at least a modicum of personality and he will have to shoulder the blame for that.


The young female leads - Bernice Liu (Tsui Wing), Kate Tsui (Yan Heung Ching), Shirley Yeung (picture left)


The supporting cast includes Stephen Wong (seated, Tung Yat Lung), Vin Choi (Tung Yat Chiu) and Yoyo Chen (Tong Chi Man). Both Vin Choi and Yoyo Chen acquitted themselves quite well with Yoyo Chen even more watchable than lead Kate Tsui. Stephen Wong once again proves just what a wooden actor he can be.

The younger women actors don't have it much better than the men with the exception of Shirley Yeung who, although gets a pretty stereotypical character and who doesn't quite turn in a classic performace, plays her character with so much enthusiasm that she had me rooting for her. Shirley Yeung's Sung Ka Yee's arch nemesis in this series is the insipid Yan Heung Ching. Sung Ka Yee actually had me agreeing out loud when she raged at Yan Heung Ching at one point in the series, asking her "Are you brainless or simply retarded?" Okay, that was probably loosely translated but the sentiment is there and I wholeheartedly agree with it. Yan Heung Ching is so boring it is hard to see how a person like her, a person who doesn't seem to have any strong opinions, a person who prefers to let her boyfriend run her life, can actually be a fashion designer of so much talent that she can go from junior designer to head of a huge project in a matter of months. No wonder Sung Ka Yee is pissed at her. It doesn't help that Kate Tsui plays Yan Heung Ching so poorly that I can't see why even the almost equally colourless Tung Yat Jun would be interested in her. It doesn't help too that Kate Tsui and Ron Ng have so little chemistry and that their romance often felt quite pointless and a waste of precious and expensive on-air time and everytime they cut to their scenes, the pacing of the series would suffer.


The romances among the younger generation include the triangle between Tung Yat Jun, Yan Heung Ching and Sung Ka Yee. All I can say is it's a pity the script doesn't have Sung Ka Yee come to the realization that Tung Yat Jun and Yan Heung Ching should be left to bore each other to death. The other romance is the much thwarted love affair between Tsui Wing and Tong Chi Ko and although this affair won't set any fires burning, it was still more interesting than the Tung Yat Jun and Yan Heung Ching one because Steven Ma and Bernice Liu are simply better actors and just have more chemistry together.

The plot in this series really feels like it's stuck in the 80s and early 90s. The scenarios are so typical of an epic family drama of that time and parts of the story seem equally fantastical that it doesn't seem to gel with the more realistic and more rounded plotting and characterization from the late 90s onwards. For example, Tung Yat Jun goes from vet in one episode to a very capable businessman in a fashion industry in the next episode. That's ridiculous.

It also really doesn't help that this series suffers from a serious case of misrepresentation. The series is called The Brink of Law in English and seriously, no one really works on the brink of law in this series. They are all either clearly on the good side or clearly on the bad side. There is no brink, no edge and no gray in this series. The Chinese title is even more guilty of misrepresentation. "突圍行動" could be quite literally translated as "Sudden Surround Movement/Action/Operation" and even if my translation didn't make that much sense, you can still get the sense that the title really denotes action and actually implies more specifically police action because of the term "行動" which can be translated as "operation". Now this series has a lawyer in Steven Ma's Tung Chi Ko but he's not seen practising law that often and the law in this series isn't the main focus. There are several policemen and women in this series but the series isn't about them either and they don't really launch that many operations in the series and even if they do, they feel more like they are peripheral to the main plot. But with a title like that, one can be forgiven for thinking that you've rented a police procedural or a series that is about lawyers and court cases etc. That added false expectation can only contribute to a greater sense of dissatisfaction when it is revealed that this is essentially an old-fashion family drama and worse, not even a very good one.



The ever reliable unsung heroes of TVB dramas are the support cast. This support cast boast the talents of Lee Kwok Lun, June Chan Kei, Lo Lok Lam, Yvonne Lam Yi Kei, Mary Hon Ma Li.

In short, I do not recommend renting The Brink of Law at all. Go rent The Price of Greed (千謊百計). That was not only a much better series, it is actually a rather good series and Kate Tsui's performance there is actually far more watchable than her performance in The Brink of Law. And if one has already seen The Price of Greed and is bored beyond words, then rent Dicey Business (賭場風雲). Even though the second half of Dicey Business is really not very good at all, at the very least you'll get more colourful and sympathetic characters and then there is the added pleasure of seen Tavia Yeung Yee (楊怡) putting in another very fine performance in a very different role from the ones she's normally given.


photo courtesy of Buttercrab

Finally, a little pressie for my TVB fans friends. =) Here's a photo of Kevin Cheng Ka Wing (鄭嘉穎). This was taken when he visited Singapore and attended an event at Vivocity. This photo was shot by a friend who goes by the nickname of Buttercrab. If you wish to take a look at the rest of the photos please visit her blogspot. But before I give you a link, please don't post these photos anywhere else, instead direct people to her webbie and also tell those you direct to the site to do the same. Buttercrab is new to the world of blogging and hasn't taken the precaution of watermarking her photos. I know she's worried folks would just philfer her work so please don't scare her off from blogging. Thanks. Right, here's the link.

enjoy =)