‘The Queen of News’ is top-notch and is Hong Kong’s best series in recent years.

Urrghh…the final episode of ‘The Queen Of News’ has already been released in streaming platform yesterday ahead of its airing date on Friday next week. I would not have any new exciting episode to catch up on evening from tomorrow onward sadly. What should I do?

‘The Queen of News’ (新聞女王) is a Hong Kong drama that centers on the challenges faced by journalists, their dedication to uncover the truth, and the conflicts that arise in their personal and professional lives in and out of their news reporting office. Themes such as journalistic integrity, ethical dilemmas and the pressures of the media industry are explored throughout the series. This 26-episode drama starred Charmaine Sheh, Kenneth Ma, Selena Lee, Samantha Ko, Regina Ho, Venus Wong, Matthew Ho, Eric Tang, Shaun Tam, Mimi Kung, etc.

26 episodes aren’t enough for me (and I believe for many audiences too). The storyline could easily be expanded to 30 episodes or more without losing its intensity and appeal. Some of the characters’ conclusion felt rushed and there are some unanswered questions (maybe hinting a sequel?). I felt like the last episode was way too rushed too although the outcome is still extremely fantastic (and very touching) which featured a case of which Joel Chan took kids at a childcare centre as hostage as he could not come to terms with his own daughter’s death. The ending which saw the five main female leads finally settled aside their differences after the incident is resolved brought a warm and beautiful closure to the series.

Charmaine Sheh impressed everyone with her superb performance and breathtaking charisma in this series. Critically lauded for that, many has already predicted her to clinch her third best actress win at the upcoming TVB Anniversary Awards 2023 to be held next month (its nomination list had just been released yesterday with huge support to this series as expected). However, I would prefer more if both she and Selena Lee were crowned best actress together. Selena Lee also delivered outstanding work in this series and their on-screen intense interactions were brilliantly executed. Selena is always solid in her performance. She deserves best actress and shouldn’t be outshined by Charmaine.

The other actresses who tagged along were doing fine too. Let’s not forget the actors. Kenneth Ma was ordinary until the very last episode on a scene when he teared up during a live broadcast after streaming showing Charmaine in danger at the childcare centre was interrupted and he revealed his honest feeling of Charmaine as his friend (finally not viewing her as work nemesis). Although Joel Chan was only participating in the last episode, but his role as the mentally disabled father who lost his daughter is very engaging. Eric Tang do stood out too in his supporting role as a chief director here.

Excellent script, impressive performances, fast-paced development, engaging storyline, and thought-provoking plots that revealed lessons in journalism and life; what else do you need to be crowned best series of the year? ‘The Queen of News’ is not only the best of the year, but also the best in recent years. Out of 10 points, I rate it 8.7.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Finally! Sammi Cheng won her first best actress honor from Hong Kong Film Awards!

Finally! After 10 nominations in over 20 years, Sammi Cheng finally won her first ever best actress honor from the prestigious Hong Kong Film Awards. The 41st Hong Kong Film Awards which is often known as the Hong Kong equivalent to the American Academy Awards was held a moment ago (16th April 2023) to honor the best in Hong Kong films released last year (2022).

Those who knew me must have been well aware that I’m a fan of Sammi Cheng. She is my favourite idol. She enjoyed immense success in Hong Kong music industry from 1990s till now and is regarded as Cantopop queen/diva. However, the same success cannot be replicated for her involvement in acting industry as her acting in close to 40 films in nearly 3 decades do not appear to receive significant recognition.

All that changes this year with multiple local film awards honoring her with best actress honor from her performance in 2022 film ‘Lost Love’. In the film, she portrayed a grieving mother who lost her 3-year old son to illness and decided to devote herself to foster children with her husband. I watched the film last weekend when I was back in KL and I’m indeed moved by her performance.

After all the hard work switching from her signature early works in romance-comedy movies back in early 2000s to more drama films in later years, her effort finally paid off. For her impressive performance in this film, she had so far swept 4 best actress honors from Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards, Hong Kong Directors’ Guild Awards, Hong Kong Online Film Critics Highlight Awards and the most recent 41st Hong Kong Film Awards in 2023.

She had been very emotional during her acceptance speech just now. She had waited over 20 years for this and it is finally in her hand. Also can feel her immense joy near the end of her speech. Very well deserved. She is now Hong Kong music queen and film queen. An astonishing feat! It is also a beautiful moment when she received this award from her frequent film co-star, Andy Lau who is the evening’s guest presenter for best actress award. What a nice arrangement for him to present this award to Sammi. She had also won ‘best original film song’ earlier at the awards ceremony for her song ‘Live a Life’ in the same film.

Well, I hope her film ‘Lost Love’ will be able to contend at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards near end of this year and also at next year’s Asian Film Awards so that she can go on a winning streak. What a good news for her and also for me. It gives me a much needed ‘feel good moment’ at this period of time when I was seriously feeling very down.

There are actually quite a number of past films where she delivered brilliant performances too but didn’t seem to have the luck to win major awards back then. Those films are ‘Wu Yen’, ‘My Left Eye Sees Ghost’, ‘Everlasting Regret’, ‘Blind Detective’, ‘Fatal Visit’, and ‘Fagara’. I also particularly enjoyed her funny light-hearted roles in ‘Love on a Diet’, ‘Needing You’, ‘Love for all Seasons’ and ‘Marry a Rich Man’. There is no doubt her acting isn’t always the best, sometimes feeling not natural and often her ‘superstar image’ sticks around her making audiences felt like she couldn’t able to dissolve into the characters. However, she had truly improved a lot over the years and is certainly overdue for a recognition. And her well deserved recognition finally comes today.

She will be holding her concert at Hong Kong’s Coliseum at this coming July. I do have a wish to watch it. I have watched her past concerts (I think twice) at Malaysia’s Genting Highlands but I have the desire to watch her performing at her home turf on 4-sided stage at Coliseum. It would be a wonderful experience.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Malaysia’s dream for Olympic gold in badminton has to wait longer.

The on-going Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games is at its halfway mark now and there is only a week left before the games conclude with a closing ceremony on 8th August 2021. As of today, Malaysia still not able to win any medal but I do have huge appreciation for the athletes who have tried their best and many Malaysians have showered them with plenty of words of encouragement through social media too despite losing.

It’s hard to compete at the Olympics because you are competing with the best of the best from across the world. One of the sports that Malaysia has better hope in securing medals (even gold medal) is badminton but luck is not on our side again. Our men single favourite, Lee Zii Jia couldn’t get past top 16 as he is defeated by the reigning Olympic champion, Chen Long (who defeated Lee Chong Wei in the final of Rio 2016 games). Our men doubles pair has the closest path to gold but is foiled with a defeat to Indonesian pair in the semi-final yesterday. Our mixed double (silver medalist at Rio 2016), women double and women single players ended their runs at early group stages.

Yes, they have done their best but I still feel they lack skills and mental preparation when compared to their opponents. It appears to me somehow that there are a lot of distractions to their training and preparation, and they derive partly(if not mostly) from themselves (own disciplines). I felt they don’t work hard enough. Yes, we console them and told the world we will be back again in 4 years. But how many times we have said that and yet every time we are still at the losing end.

Our dream for gold in badminton is crashed again. Consolation is that we only have to wait 3 years (not usual 4) to the next Olympics (Paris 2024). Not only they have to place attention to Lee Zii Jia; they need to also quickly discover and train more elite players across all fields and all sports. We have won multiple silver and bronze medals at Rio 2016, and it looks like there is a possibility that we are ending Tokyo 2020 games with zero medal.

No good news for Malaysia which is very much desired now due to all the bad things happening in the country now (record breaking daily Covid-19 cases recently plus the never-ending lockdown and the present political instability thanks to the failed government and a Prime Minister who has the ‘thickest face’ of all and will never step down).

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Tokyo 2020 finally opens after a year of being postponed due to the pandemic.

I continued to sit in front of my laptop right after my work just now for another 4 hours straight to watch the live online streaming of the opening ceremony of Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games. Already postponed a year due to the pandemic, the world’s biggest sporting event finally opens today with a ceremony that is scaled down and is held in a largely empty stadium with no public spectators.

Yes. There will be no public spectators to the ceremonies and also to all the games events to minimize risk of spread of coronavirus to the local community. The organizing committee earlier faces huge criticisms and public backlash on the decision to proceed with the games during the current pandemic and when the country is under the state of emergency.

The opening ceremony features the standard parade of nations (over 200 nations and that alone took half of the ceremony’s time and we just got about 20 seconds to watch our Malaysian contingent coming out during the parade..haha), boring speeches (especially the very long and repetitive speech by the IOC president who I believed had repeated the word ‘Olympic’ over 30 times in his speech…that’s way too long!), singing of Olympic and Japan (host country) national anthems, lighting of Olympic cauldron, etc.

I usually look forward to the artistic segment of these kind of ceremonies of which the host will deliver some extravagant and beautifully orchestrated/synchronized/coordinated performances to showcase the history, culture, power, and modern identity of the host nation. I understand that the ceremony this time is toned down with limited number of performers and reduced cost. This made the artistic segment which is supposed to be the highlight of the ceremony to be a bit underwhelming with hint of lack of effort. I do find the pictogram part creative and fun though.

I do like the drones show too that forms the image of the Earth and the games logo. This is the only ‘wow’ moment of the entire ceremony unfortunately. Besides that, this part is too quick and the drones show could have deliver more interesting formations. The Olympic cauldron lighting at the end is also a bit underwhelming. If not for the pandemic, I believe Tokyo 2020 would have been an epic games and the opening ceremony would have been one of the better ones. Now, it is just a tiny bit better than Rio 2016 opening ceremony, but definitely falls behind Beijing 2008 and London 2012. The opening ceremony was simple and does its purpose but lacks the usual glitz and glamour (it is understandable though).

I am wishing all the best and good luck to the Malaysian athletes competing in this games. Hope that we can finally win the country’s first ever Olympic gold medal in Tokyo 2020. By the way, it is recently announced that Brisbane has been selected as the host city for the 2032 Summer Olympic Games. Congratulations to Australia for this great news! But I’m curious on why they choose the host for 2032 edition this early though? 2032 is a whopping 11 years from now!

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Awesome new year 2020 countdown at Marina Bay!

Happy New Year again! I woke up quite late today as I just returned home at 2am last night after attending the massive new year 2020 countdown event at Marina Bay, Singapore. It was a very fun and memorable experience as it was also my first time seeing Singapore’s new year fireworks.

Me and my friend reached around the Marina Bay at about 6.30pm and the place was already very crowded. Many people have already booked their spot along the waterfront for the best view of the fireworks in the evening. We considered ourselves being there slightly late already. Anyway, we still managed to get a good spot along the Jubilee Bridge and we only takeaway our dinner to catch that spot early.

Even the view of the surrounding before the countdown event starts was already amazing with the sight of the glittering skyscrapers at the CBD, Merlion and Fullerton Hotel, Marina Bay Sands and Helix Bridge, Singapore Flyer and Esplanade. By 9pm, the whole Jubilee Bridge is packed and was already barricaded to prevent overcrowding (I can’t even get out to to go to the washroom). Felt like we were all animals locked in a cage waiting for release…haha.

First set of fireworks goes off at 9.30pm. Then, there are a number of live performances, light projections and circus act around the waterfront to start off the countdown event. Fireworks display officially went off from 10.30pm onwards…all the way to 12am for the finale. This is the longest ever fireworks display I have ever seen (1 hour and 30 minutes!). At first, I thought that fireworks will only begin at 12am for typical countdown event. Conclusion; Singapore is rich!

We were actually more fascinated by the flying drones show than the fireworks display itself during the event. I was captivated by the different animated patterns that the 500 drones manage to create on the sky. The sight was simply wonderful and breathtaking!

Finally it’s 12am after we were there waiting for over 5 hours. The moment that we have anticipated for long. The surrounding exploded into massive noise and cheers when clock strikes 12am and it’s now officially year 2020. The fireworks ended few minutes later with an epic finale that got us jaw-dropped.

Then, seeing the massive amount of people leaving the area after it all finished also made me jaw-dropped again. The crowd is insanely huge. Fortunately, the MRT will be extended to 2am for the night. We waited a while for the crowd to disperse before we leave. That’s the reason why I only managed to reach home at 2am.

It was really a fun, spectacular and memorable way to end 2019 and start off 2020 with a bang!

Sammi Cheng shines in ‘Fagara’ while ‘It: Chapter Two’ still delivers despite with lesser scares.

Singapore could no longer escape from the haze brought by our neighbouring Indonesia. Malaysia has been hit with the haze for about a week or two already while Singapore still enjoyed the clear sky. That is no longer the case since yesterday. I immediately smell the pollution once I made my first step outside my house yesterday. Buildings slightly further away are no longer visible and there were even news that the PSI reading here in Singapore has crossed unhealthy level. Thanks Indonesia for the bad air that comes from your serious forest fire that occurred almost annually.

Singapore and Malaysia should really take serious action and put huge pressure on Indonesia to solve this. It gives negative impact on a lot of areas, particularly on our health. Due to the haze, I have to avoid outdoor activities and spent the whole day inside mall and watched two movies consecutively. And here’s my review for the two movies below;

‘Fagara’ is the first Chinese language film that I watched in Singapore theatre. The reason I watched it; Sammi Cheng. As stated countless of times, she is my favourite artist and I do follow closely on her latest development and of course I will not miss out on this latest film of her. ‘Fagara’ revolves on a Hong Kong girl (Sammi) who discovered that she has two step-sisters after her father’s death. To settle her father’s debt, she must reunite with them to run the family’s hot pot restaurant. Besides Sammi Cheng, the film also starred Megan Lai, Li Xiaofeng, Kenny Bee, Richie Jen and Andy Lau.

The star of the film is certainly the main lead, Sammi Cheng. This is one of her best performances (if not the best) in films. She nailed the role as the eldest sister who has resentment towards her father. She has to carry the weary looking character with contained emotion until nearing the end. And when it comes to that part near the end, she explodes in tears after finally feeling regret of being cold to her dad in the past (that explosive scene near the end really got me moved to tears). That scene alone is already sufficient to win her overdue first best actress award at Hong Kong Film Awards next year.

There were also sufficient storylines given to her two other sisters portrayed by Megan Lai and Li Xiaofeng. Each characters were given great character’s development and that includes the male co-stars despite them having very few scenes compared to the females. The film also has outstanding script (there are some very meaningful ‘golden quotes’ too), impressive cinematography, beautiful set designs (particularly the interior of the hotpot restaurant), and of course a wonderful song (titled ‘Speak Properly’) sang none other than Sammi herself that plays out at the ending credit which further enhances the moving conclusion of the film. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Fagara’ a total of 8.1. A touching family drama that enables all of its three female leads to shine (particularly Sammi Cheng who delivered an award-worthy performance from her best form here). I would seriously boycott Hong Kong Film Awards if they do not hand over her overdue best actress win next year.

The other film I have watched is ‘It: Chapter Two’. Twenty-seven years after their first encounter with the terrifying Pennywise the Clown, the Losers Club have grown up and moved away, until a devastating phone call brings them back. The kids from the first film (2017 ‘It’) do return in this film for the flashbacks while the adult cast (James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, Jay Ryan, etc) continued the charm. The casting for the adults is excellent and the plus point is that they do really have very similar features to the kids that portrayed their younger self.

The film is extremely long (2 hours and 30 minutes) but I do not feel anything draggy at all as complained by some critics. The story is engaging. The things that I’m not happy with this sequel are the lesser scares and the over-usage of CGI-created monsters / creatures near the end. I still think that the original clown form of Pennywise is already terrifying enough. The build-up in the middle part of the film is interesting but the climax at the end is a disappointment (the idea of making ‘It’ turning small in the end to defeat it is too simple and unimaginative). There were also some parts that are intended to deliver the horror, but instead the audiences laughed (that’s not good). Anyway, the film still delivers in my opinion but could have been a lot better if more quality scares are offered. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘It: Chapter Two’ a total of 7.0. The first movie is still better.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

‘The Defected’ has so much potential with great cast but couldn’t impress in the end.

‘The Defected’ (鐵探) is a Hong Kong television drama that currently attracts a lot of audiences. The 30-episode series starred Benjamin Yuen as Inspector Sheung Sing, a policeman who becomes embroiled in a conspiracy plaguing the high-ranking officials due to an incident that almost cost him his life. The other main cast include Kara Wai, Philip Keung, Sisley Choi, Oscar Leung, Mat Yeung, Benz Hui, Ben Wong, Grace Wong, etc.

What I first like from this series is the focus on the rivalry of high-ranking police officials to get promoted rather than being another typical police drama that is all about showing undercovers and catching bad guys. The series at least went into a different direction with an uncommon plot. However, I find that the series didn’t do enough on exploring into this area.

Throughout the entire series, only Kara Wai’s character has the upper hand in almost every situation. The plot can be so much more exciting. One of my suggestions is to have several high-ranking officials (such characters with more prominent roles) plotting out some schemes to take down one another (and not just Kara Wai). There are such characters in the series such as Benz Hui, Ben Wong and Lee Shin-Cheong but they formed no important part of the story. What a wasted potential or opportunity to turn this series into one intense and memorable one.

This series had a great cast. Kara Wai is a good choice to portray the ruthless superior. She stands a chance for best actress win at the end of the year with this performance. She had win a lot from film awards but never from television awards. If the best actress competition this year is very weak, she do have a shot at it. However, in my opinion, there is not much from her role that requires her to deliver memorable acting. In most of the time, she just needs to get her eyes opened wide to show the anger while being confronted, and gets to cry for the death of her son near the end of the series. There is particularly no standout or explosive moment from her alone.

Philip Keung on the other hand nailed his role as the undercover named Bingo. He got me immersed into his performance and I particularly enjoyed his interaction with his mother (portrayed by Angelina Lo). He may have a shot at TV king title but I felt that his role is more of a supporting one (preferred him to get best supporting actor or most favourite male character). His character development is great except at the end when he died so suddenly without any honor for his contribution and sacrifice, and incomplete work that should have been finished by him too. Benjamin Yuen took that job since he is the main lead in this drama. His effort to lose weight and gets pale just for this drama is admired but there’s still huge room of improvement for his performance.

The series started off great with high expectation from me. However, it continues to be quite draggy and concluded with a rushed ending (not much climax even when it is near the end). At first, I saw similarity of quality of this series with ‘Line Walker’ (this series is very good). But in the end, ‘The Defected’ wasted most of its potential and becomes just a slightly above average drama this year to my disappointment. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘The Defected’ a total of 7.0.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

 

‘The Nun’ can be much better but it is still a good addition into the ‘Conjuring’ universe.

I was so looking forward to a full length film for the demonic nun named Valak that first appeared in ‘The Conjuring 2’ movie released 2 years ago. The horrifying doll ‘Annabelle’ that is first introduced from the very first ‘The Conjuring’ film (and is actually based on a real haunted doll of the same name) gets its own 2 movies. After ‘The Conjuring 2’ is released, people couldn’t get their mind off from the haunting visual of the nun and its very own spin-off film is finally released now. I was a little worried before watching it just now as I knew it received mostly negative reviews (scored less than 30% in Rotten Tomatoes). After watching it, I think it deserves more than that rating.

‘The Nun’ is the fifth film in ‘Conjuring’ universe but has a story that acts as a prequel to the whole thing. Sets in 1952 at Romania, the movie revolves on a priest and a novice who are sent by the Vatican to investigate the death of a young nun at a monastery. They together with a guy who first found the corpse of the nun encounter a malevolent force in the form of a demonic nun. Many are criticizing the film for having poor story or narrative but I’m in the opposite opinion here. I find that the film has quite a clear plot and an easy to understand flow of story. It is simple and it’s good in a situation where it is not distracting the horror purpose of the movie.

What’s lacking from the film is that it has not much of suspense or building up of fear going on even as it reaches its climax near the end. The previous horror films in this franchise especially the first ‘The Conjuring’ film succeeds because it is extremely good on delivering scenes that build up the tension and intensity to get us to the edge of our seats. This movie relies too much on loud jump scares instead. There are also excessive scenes of the demon lurking and stalking behind the characters without any real frightening content later on besides than those expected jump scares. The film ends up being not as scary as anticipated. The nun appears briefly in ‘The Conjuring 2’ and it scared the hell out from a lot of people. Now, it has its own movie and appeared for a lot of scenes but it already losses its frightening effect. Sometimes (or maybe always) it is good to keep the ghost appearance to be as minimal as possible to make its horror effect much more lasting from various other means.

The production design for the film is brilliant nonetheless. A lot of effort has been put into that to create a creepy ambience that is perfect for a horror story. The setup of the monastery and its interior is worth a praise. The music perfectly fits in and it helps a lot to elevate and magnify the horrifying presence and arrival of the demonic nun. The cast did well on their acting especially Frenchie (the guy who first found the corpse) who are adding some unexpected hilarious content to this horror film. Last but not least, I also like how the first scene and the last scene of the movie link back to the whole ‘Conjuring’ universe. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘The Nun’ a total of 6.8. It is not that bad actually and it’s a good addition into the ‘Conjuring’ universe. I don’t mind if there is ‘The Nun 2’ since ‘Annabelle’ also has its second film already.

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

Malaysia at the concluded Asian Games 2018.

Asian Games 2018 had just ended few days ago. The biggest international multi-sport event after the Olympics saw China topping the medal ranking as expected. This sports powerhouse won 132 golds, 92 silvers and 65 bronzes to sit comfortably at first place finish. Japan came in second with 75 golds, 56 silvers and 74 bronzes while South Korea is in third place with 49 golds, 58 silvers and 70 bronzes. The host country, Indonesia definitely has its best performance due to home advantage and claimed the fourth spot with 31 golds, 24 silvers and 43 bronzes. Some images of its closing ceremony on 2nd September 2018 (last Sunday) below:

Malaysia is placed at 14th with 7 golds, 13 silvers and 16 bronzes. Looking at all our past participation in this games, this is actually one of our best performances. One week before the games closes, I have a feeling that we may not be able to reach our 7-gold medal target. Fortunately, we managed to hit that mark with our squash team delivering our final gold medal. Our squash team delivered while on the other hand, we are getting weaker in other sports we are previously strong in such as badminton. We failed to win a single medal (not even a bronze) in badminton. None of our players manage to get into semi-final and only two men doubles pair got into quarter final. This is worrying.

On the other hand, I am surprised that Malaysia defeated India in men hockey semi final match. India is the defending champion and they are superbly good in hockey. I am quite excited that Malaysia succeeded into the final and if we win the gold here, we would be guaranteed an Olympic ticket to compete in hockey event at Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games. We were up against Japan in the final. We were leading from the very beginning of the match but in the last 20 second of the match, Japan managed to level it up to 6-6. I watched the last crucial segment of the match live. Then in the critical penalty shoot, we lost unfortunately and had to settle for silver. A great opportunity to shine here but we missed it. As for other sports, I didn’t give much attention.

After successfully hosting this games, Indonesia is now seeking to bid for 2032 Summer Olympic Games. Huge dream over there. 2020 edition will be in Tokyo, 2024 will be in Paris while 2028 will be in Los Angeles. The formal bidding and selection process for 2032 edition will be held somewhere in 2025 (usually 7 years before the games). We are still in 2018 now but Indonesia is already eyeing to host 2032 Olympics. Great ambition. Why not Malaysia has such ambition too? We should at least put our hope in being determined to host Asian Games first and foremost. We have not hosted it before (Indonesia hosted it twice while our neighbour Thailand have hosted it 4 times already.

2022 Asian Games will be in Hangzhou, China while 2026 edition will be in Nagoya, Japan. So, we should eye for the 2030 spot. We should be financially stable and ready by that time (now we are in poor financial situation thanks to all the debt accumulated by our previous government). As for the 2032 Olympic bid, we can try to work and submit a co-host bid with Singapore as our country alone may not be good enough to host event of this magnitude.

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

Ending the weekend with final episodes of TVB ‘Succession War’.

Saving money is the priority this weekend after a heavy spending on Universal Studios last weekend. I already had an outing yesterday plus a movie and so for today, I will just stay at home most of the time. That’s the best way to keep the money in the wallet. End of the month is near and I can’t wait to get my hard earned salary. I have been spending the day mostly being online on Facebook and YouTube, taking a nice rest in preparation for busy weekdays ahead as usual, and had just watched the exciting final two episodes of TVB drama ‘Succession War’.

It is a historical drama that starred Ruco Chan, Shaun Tam, Selena Lee, Elaine Yiu, Natalie Tong, Angelina Lo, Yoyo Chen, Jonathan Cheung, Stephanie Ho, Matthew Ho, etc. The drama revolves on the last 28 days of the life of Qing dynasty court official Heshen, who is known for being the most corrupt court official in Chinese history.and focuses on the Emperor’s attempt to eliminate him. The drama has 28 episodes, and each episode reflects one day of the storyline. That’s a cool approach and it helps to get the story fast-paced and not lacking any depth, thanks to the multiple helpful flashback scenes.

Ruco Chan is very convincing as Heshen while on the other hand, Shaun Tam who is portraying as the emperor is doing very poorly in this drama. I have never seen him in any dramas before and so I think he is inexperienced. All he do in this drama is to forcefully show his very angry face in every scenes. One same facial expression (and the deep ‘Batman’ voice) for almost the entire drama. An emperor can still convey his power and fearfulness through many subtle ways, but Shaun Tam is just not knowing how to do that or is not given any useful advice by the production team. I hope he do knew all these criticism and improve on his acting skill since we will be seeing him in more dramas in the future.

The girls in this drama are just taking on minor and supporting roles but they too shine due to their great performances and story arc that binds the whole series together. Selena Lee is beautiful and excellent as the imperial noble consort. She has improved a lot over the years and I can say that by now, she is a best actress material. Too bad, this drama isn’t focusing on the females and she will not get any recognition or awards from her role here although she nailed it very well. Elaine Yiu and Natalie Tong are also great in their respective roles that are very similar (helping Ruco on his mission with all kind of sacrifices while being his lovers). Also not to be missed out is the fantastic performances by the veterans such as KK Cheung as the retired emperor and Angelina Lo as the dowager noble consort.

The number of good TVB dramas every year has been decreasing rapidly. ‘Deep in the Realm of Conscience’ is a poor drama and I was surprised by the huge rating and critical reception it gets especially from mainland China. On the other hand, I’m shocked that this ‘Succession War’ receives very low audience viewership and isn’t getting the popularity that it deserves. I personally think that ‘Succession War’ is so much better than that boring ‘Deep in the Realm of Conscience’. The former is very engaging and delivers exciting storyline in every episode up until its aired finale just now. The only bad thing from ‘Succession War’ is Shaun Tam’s acting. Other than that, everything is good. Even my dad who seldom watch dramas is praising it. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Succession War’ a total of 8.1. The best TVB drama of the year so far.

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