Drama review: The Hippocratic Crush II (2013)

The Hippocratic Crush II (On Call 36小時 II) is a 30-episodes medical-themed drama and is a sequel to the successful series of the same name last year. It is also one of the two anniversary series this year, the other being the Will Power of which I didn’t watch that. Its predecessor last year was an unexpectedly successful series that rejuvenates medical theme implementation in drama after Healing Hands many years ago and saw the series winning several number of awards. Hence, I’m looking forward to its sequel now, but in the end, I am quite disappointed.

I’m happy that most of the original casts (Kenneth Ma, Tavia Yeung, Mandy Wong, Him Law, Benjamin Yuen, etc) returned to this sequel but the huge addition of new casts (Lawrence Ng, Koo Ming Wah, Sherna So, Eliza Sam, Tracy Chu, etc) made things worse. I don’t mind if you add only a few new characters for something refreshing but not this much which significantly reduced screen-time for the original casts that we had interest into. Now, it’s like mixing too much of things into one bowl and I couldn’t really taste well on each ingredients. The pointless cafe setting, excessive unnecessary scenes with annoying Yannis character, and several other stuff worsen the situation.

The story follows from the original series with now the favourite on-screen couple, Kenneth and Tavia now married. People wanted to see more from them and also from Benjamin and Mandy pairing, but what offered mostly now involves the new circle (pathology department, Lawrence and his gang) which is very non-engaging and boring. Their side story basically dragged the whole show and leaving it not as inspiring as its predecessor. I find it very hard to pay attention to the series when they appeared. Even now, the group of former housemen whom now promoted to junior trainees were all ignored and put aside, only appearing in few short meaningless scenes. Very disappointed. The production team made several wrong decisions that got this sequel failed in quite a number of aspects. And I can’t feel any tension in most of the operation scenes which are supposed to be heart-stopping moments.

The series started off very dramatic and exciting with a brilliant and promising first episode. Then, it goes downhill as it develops with nothing meaningful, touching, nor that interesting going on compared to the first series. It’s like nothing is happening. Luckily, things turned better back when it reached episode 27 onwards, but that was almost reaching the finale already. Particularly, Episode 27 and 28 involving death of Che Che character are the most touching and saddest episodes not only of this series but also of all that I have seen in recent years. Honestly, it got my tears out. Very touching and heartbreaking. Awesome, but that is only for one or two episodes. The ending (two finale episodes) was just ordinary and nothing impressive or outstanding. Dr. Cheung’s accident was too fast. Nevertheless, the series still had a good and meaningful conclusion and a happy ending.

The casts delivered strong performance including the newbies, particularly Tracy Chu and Eliza Sam. Him Law did a great job on his crying scenes and I think this is his breakthrough role to date as ‘Yeung Chung’. Kenneth’s role diminishes while Tavia maintains her form. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘The Hippocratic Crush II’ a total of 7.0 only, a mark much lower than expected, and much lower that its successful predecessor (I think I gave 8 points and above to the first one). This sequel just didn’t work out well. I felt boring in most episodes, and it is not that exciting, interesting, appealing nor inspiring like the first one. They are just not good in making sequels. Fortunately, it had a nice theme song named ‘Sequel’ and is also sang by Joey Yung.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

My AOD Favourites Awards 2012 Official Result

My home has Astro but we do not subscribe to Astro on Demand that provides latest Hong Kong dramas. That is why I couldn’t get to watch the live broadcast of My AOD Favourites Awards 2012 yesterday’s night which is only aired on Astro on Demand channel. But then, I stay updated too with Hong Kong’s latest series. The Malaysia’s My Astro on Demand Favourites Awards 2012 was held yesterday at Sunway Convention Centre and was attended by 16 TVB artists, hence making it the award show with highest attendance of TVB artists held oversea (outside Hong Kong). The artists attending were Mandy Wong, Nancy Wu, Kate Tsui, Myolie Wu, Moses Chan, Roger Kwok, Tavia Yeung, Michael Tse, Raymond Lam, Kevin Cheng, Wayne Lai, Oscar Leung, Him Law, Ron Ng, Koo Ming Wah as confirmed earlier. And then at that awards night, Kenneth Ma turned up surprisingly too, making up to 16 in total, and all of them are heavyweight artists.

Well, their presence at that night actually is a confirmation that everyone of them would be receiving at least an award from a total of 26 awards given out. It acts as an early prize for them before another round of much serious battle at the upcoming TVB 45th Anniversary Awards 2012 to be held on 17th December at Hong Kong. I was glad that this Malaysia’s awards presentation is getting bigger in scale and more popular, and that it is able to invite so many popular artists to the country. However, I find the number of awards presented is a bit too much, making the awards appear so easy to be given out to as many individuals as possible and unchallenging. Hence, I prefer the awards for top 15 drama characters to be reduced to top 10 or even only top 5.

Without wasting any more time, I would post the official result here below with my overall comments in the end. Before that, you can view the nomination list of this awards released quite a long time ago from one of my earlier posts found in my blog here too. By the way, congratulation to all the winners, and may this awards presentation gets more and more popularity and broadcast live to all Astro subscribers (unlike now showing only to Astro on Demand subscribers).

My Favourite Drama Series
“The Hippocratic Crush”

My Favourite Actor in a Leading Role
Kenneth Ma (“The Hippocratic Crush”)

My Favourite Actress in a Leading Role
Tavia Yeung (“The Hippocratic Crush”)

5th Anniversary: My Favourite Classic Role
Michael Tse (“E.U.”)

My Favourite Actor in a Supporting Role
Him Law (“The Hippocratic Crush”)

My Favourite Actress in a Supporting Role
Nancy Wu (“Gloves Come Off”)

My Favourite On Screen Couples
Kenneth Ma & Tavia Yeung (“The Hippocratic Crush”)

My Favourite Promising Actor
Oscar Leung (“L’Escargot”)

My Favourite Promising Actress
Mandy Wong (“L’Escargot”)

My Favourite Drama Song
Raymond Lam (“Highs and Lows”)

My Favourite Top 15 Drama Characters
Him Law (“The Hippocratic Crush”)
Ron Ng (“L’Escargot”)
Linda Chung (“Witness Insecurity”)
Kate Tsui (“Highs and Lows”)
Michael Tse (“Sergeant Tabloid”)
Kenneth Ma (“The Hippocratic Crush”)
Roger Kwok (“Queens of Diamonds and Hearts”)
Tavia Yeung (“The Hippocratic Crush”)
Raymond Lam (“Highs and Lows”)
Wayne Lai (“The Confidant”)
Kevin Cheng (“Gloves Come Off”)
Bosco Wong (“Witness Insecurity”)
Myolie Wu (“Ghetto Justice II”)
Ruco Chan (“No Good Either Way”)
Moses Chan (“Master of Play”)

My Favourite “Outstanding” Popularity King
Koo Ming Wah (“Divas in Distress”)

Many others have voiced out their satisfaction and positive feedbacks over this result, saying that this result is much pleasing to major audiences, compared to TVB’s decision that is too biased to certain artists or dramas in their awards presentation. Finally, Kenneth Ma took the best actor (most favourite actor in leading role)! His hard work is paid off. Sorry to Raymond Lam, as I find Kenneth performed better this year as Yat Kin in The Hippocratic Crush. Tavia Yeung is likeable as Zi Yu at the same series too, so giving best actress for her isn’t a problem as she had been in acting career longer than her other threatening opponent, Kate Tsui as a controversial drug queen in Highs and Lows. But at TVB awards 2012, I see that Kate Tsui had a higher chance. Yes, on-screen couples goes to Kenneth Ma and Tavia Yeung in the same series. They are so compatible and had chemistry together in the series. Love them both. Drama song goes to Raymond Lam for his theme at Highs and Lows. Well, that’s a good song but I still prefer the theme song for The Hippocratic Crush by Joey Yung. However, since The Hippocratic Crush sweep most of the awards, and so one major one is left for Highs and Lows. I am very happy that The Hippocratic Crush did so well eventhough it is aired earlier this year. Too bad, Michelle Yim didn’t get any award from The Confidant (and yet, Wayne Lai did). I hope she gets one but this awards gave disadvantage to The Confidant as it hasn’t finish airing yet. For favourite actor in supporting role, I actually prefer Power Chan over Him Law for his wonderful performance at The Confidant, but like I said earlier, many Malaysian audiences have voted even before the release of The Confidant. Well, can they broadcast this awards presentation on Channel Wah Lai Toi (311) soon? I want to watch it eventhough it’s over.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

The Hippocratic Crush; a very impressive TVB drama that caught my surprise and attention.

On Call 36小時, ‘The Hippocratic Crush’  is a 2012 medical drama from TVB that explores on a group of young interns working in the same hospital under the supervision of few seniors (mainly the two main characters portrayed by Kenneth Ma and Tavia Yeung). The other casts include Him Law, Ben Wong, Benjamin Yuen, Mandy Wong, Derek Kok, Raymond Cho and a line up of new actors and actresses.

So, from this drama alone, we were able to see performance from new people (the juniors) in TVB, which is a good start after the event of a huge group of experienced artistes leaving TVB not long ago. After watching all the twenty five episodes with the finale on yesterday, it is no doubt that ‘The Hippocratic Crush’ would be one of the best TVB series of the year. Too bad, it is not aired near November, the anniversary month of TVB which would brings more recognition and attention to this series. This drama would be easily forgotten by the time of awards presentation on December. However, I still support this drama for some awards. There are quite a number of strong reasons why me and most others like this series, particularly:

1. Extremely well written script with heartfelt dialogues, meaningful phrases and touching moments.

Eventhough there are no ‘golden words’ or any ‘memorable quotes’ can be found from this drama unlike in ‘Heart of Greed’ or ‘Moonlight Resonance’, but some of the dialogues are really touching and provided a lot of good lessons in life to the viewers. I do not only take this drama as an entertainment, but also learn some good principles or philosophies of life from this drama itself, which is very beneficial. There are quite a number of touching scenes from this drama that almost got tears falling from my eyes. Yes, those scenes are really sad, particularly on Helena Law’s death, Yat Hong’s death and the effects to Yat Kin, and Yat Kin’s confession and proposal to Zi Yu in front of all his colleagues.

2. Decent and realistic-looking performance from most of the casts, from the juniors to the seniors.

This especially can be seen from Kenneth Ma’s performance as Cheung Yat-kin in the drama. He seriously improved a lot after involvement in many series on these few years. His acting skill stunned me, particularly from the scenes of his brother’s death, scenes of him being pursued by Tavia whom he pursued later on the other hand, and definitely his crying scene. He seriously deserved an award at the end of this year, perhaps ‘Most Favourite Male Character’ or even the highest honour of grabbing the  ‘Best Actor’ award. Tavia Yeung did not bad too. Her facial expression is great. While for the junior casts, many are acceptable and this is a good start for them in the acting career. I can truly feels their emotions, expressions and gestures while they are doing their best for their respective characters.

3. Balanced and adequate amount of screen time for the vast number of characters including the supporting ones.

There are a lot of characters especially the group of new interns in this drama. At first, I worried that these people would not be given a good role. However, each of them, despite being a supporting characters, are given sufficient screen time to present their own issues and problems, which then their characters are particularly explored and developed too. The return of Helena Law for some episodes in the drama is well received too. The only weakness in this aspect is the less amount of screen time between Kenneth and Tavia after they started their relationship because it’s already the final episode when they started to do so. That is a bit of disappointment for the fans who love this pairing.

4. Extremely well chemistry between Tavia and Kenneth in the drama as a couple.

Forget about the rumours between Tavia and Him Law who also starred in this series. The limelight is on Tavia and Kenneth. Both of them are very compatible together, and I can see a very realistic and natural performance from both of them as a love couple. It would be good if it’s true in real life too. The way they looked at each other, the way they missed each other, the way they cared for each other; all that are pretty well done. A great love in a drama doesn’t need a kissing scene, and this pair proved it.

5. Simply good story, as well as an accompanying great theme song by Joey Yung.

A drama’s success mainly depends on the story itself, and for this one, the story is clearly good. Forget about ‘Healing Hands’. ‘The Hippocratic Crush’ has a much more interesting story to tell with a whole new approach on telling that; through the training of the young interns in the hospital and supervision and guidance from the seniors, unlike in ‘Healing Hands’ when all the main casts are certified doctors. There are also a number of surgery scenes and a bit of explanation on the medical stuff for an extra knowledge regarding the profession. The theme song by Joey Yung for this drama is a very beautiful song and that suits this drama very well. I like the song now, and it’s very meaningful.

——-Overall, out of 10 points, I rate ‘The Hippocratic Crush’ a total of 8.0, and that’s a very good rating from me. An ordinary medical drama that turned out to be a very interesting, moving and meaningful drama for us to enjoy and learn as well. The series ended yesterday with an open and happy ending which is a good simple conclusion to the characters that left me smiling in the end.