We are now entering into 6th weekend of the circuit breaker. There was only 1 local Covid-19 case here in Singapore yesterday but there were still over 700 cases among foreign workers living in dormitories. With this statistic, it looks like the circuit breaker will most probably ends on June 1st without any more extension (I certainly hope so!) but there would still be many restrictions in place. The number of cases among foreign workers daily are still very high due to the extensive testing and this number isn’t expected to go much lower any time soon since Singapore had over 300 000 foreign workers living in dormitories and only a small percentage of them have been tested so far.
Let’s get back to the main topic of this post; my review to another Hong Kong TVB drama called ‘Brutally Young’ (十八年後的終極告白). I have not had any expectation before watching this 20-episode series, thinking of it as just another drama for me to kill off time on every weekday’s evening. The outcome is; this series is a surprising hit! Starring Shaun Tam, Joel Chan, Mandy Wong, Vivien Yeo, Anthony Ho, Dominic Lam, etc, the drama revolves on the life of seven high school friends through obstacles and worries after a body that they have buried 18 years ago was discovered and led to police investigation. They were unsure of the identity of the killer and trying all ways to keep the secret to their own.
The plot is interesting and the story development is fast paced and intense on every episode. I even find that 20 episode isn’t enough to do this drama a justice. This drama can be delivered in 25 episodes or more. I felt it’s a waste that nice dramas ended so quickly (similar to Barrack O’Karma last year that is also a surprising hit and only has 20 episodes too). And then, we have an awful drama like ‘Airport Strikers’ that has 25 episodes and every single episode is a trash. When you have the urge to know what happened next, or guessing who is the killer, or curious on the conclusion to these characters, then you know it is a good drama. It gets you hooked to the storyline immediately. This series nailed it.
I never liked Shaun Tam as I find his acting is mediocre. However, he improved a lot in this drama as the main male lead. Perhaps it is most probably due to the very good script and overall good quality of the series that elevate his performance. There are many ‘explosive’ scenes of him that demand huge emotions and he started to deliver them satisfactorily. It’s a huge contrast to his typical overly bland performances in the past. Mandy Wong complements him well in this drama and she too delivered a solid performance (she also appears as main female lead in another concurrently airing drama that I’m watching too; ‘The Exorcist’s 2nd Meter).
Joel Chan is good as usual and her romance with Vivien Yeo in this series is quite interesting and touching to watch. I wouldn’t say Vivien Yeo is an excellent actress but I can say without any doubt that this is her best performance to date. Her role as a deaf-mute girl here is very well executed. Her effort in delivering the sign language while showing intense emotions at the same time deserve praises. My last compliment would be to Dominic Lam who takes investigation over his son’s death into his own hands and to Anthony Ho as well. These two supporting actors are above the rest in this series.
The final episode of the series (aired yesterday) gives a worthy ending to the story. Spoiler ahead; Shaun admitted to his crimes in the end and most importantly admitted that his way of using lies on top of lies to cover secrets are wrong. This shouldn’t be the way in our life. ‘Admitting a mistake just took few seconds but having a guilty conscience takes a lifetime’; a very awesome yet hard-hitting quote from the final episode of this series. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Brutally Young’ a total of 8.6. It’s definitely the best series I have watched so far for this year. No competition…This series is also getting rave reviews from most audiences. It deserves all the praise. I do recommend you to watch it especially in this time when all of us have to stay at home most of the time and need something to occupy ourselves.
(Images in this post are from various online sources)
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