Forensic Heroes II

English Title: Forensic Heroes II
Chinese Title: 法證先鋒II
Cantonese Title: Faat Jing Sin Fung II
Vietnamese Title: N/A
Casts: Bobby Au-Yeung, Charmaine Sheh, Frankie Lam, Yoyo Mung, etc.
Length: 30 episodes (Cantonese) // 22 tapes (Vietnamese)
Release Date: May 2008 (Canto) // June 2008 (Viet)
Genre: Modern Drama/Forensic/Investigation/Crime/Mystery/Suspense

Synopsis:

Every contact leaves a trace
Every clue serves as a silent witness against crime

Bomb disposal expert Yeung Yat Sing (Kevin Cheng Ka Wing) returns from England to visit relatives and he comes across a grenade case by accident. With his tactful and level-headed approach, Sing is highly appraised by Senior Chemist Ko Yin Pok (Bobby Au-Yeung Chun Wah) and is being invited to join the Forensic Division. In a little while, Sing becomes the division’s rising star. By work, Sing gets back in touch with his long-lost best friend Koo Chak Sam (Frankie Lam Man Lung). Sam serves as a forensic writer and he is going to get married soon.

Accidentally, Sum’s fiancée Lam Ding Ding (Linda Chung Ka Yan) is killed in an explosion and Pok’s police girlfriend Leung Siu Yau (Yoyo Mung Ka Wai) also loses the ability of holding a gun in the incident. Yau’s duties are passed to Ma Kwok Ying (Charmaine Sheh Sze Man) from the Narcotics Bureau. Both Sam and Sing find Ying extremely charming with her smart and unfathomable characteristics in case handling.

Integrating laboratory techniques, logical reasoning, and forensic knowledge, the trio strive to fight against crimes tremendously. As they get to know each other more and more, the entangled triangle of love also starts to hinder their working relationships…

Comments. I love mystery series because of the suspense it offers! Forensic Heroes was a wonderful series and I hope its sequel will bring equally good ratings. However, personally, I feel that no other TVB mystery-based series has surpassed, in terms of cases, Detective Investigation Files I-III. There is a fourth one to it, but because of the change of the cast, I did not watch it. If you are a fan of Forensic Heroes, and I believe many of your are, you should definately try DIF which was produced from 1995-1997, starring Michael Tao, Joey Leung, Kenix Kwok, Louisa So and many more. According to the news I have heard when the series was still filming, Selena and Leanne will also serve as guest stars in the production. So is Kevin, Frankie, and Charmaine going to be involved in a love triangle? I heard that Yoyo will go abroad to continue her studies or something, what will happen to Bobby? Or am I wrong? I have a feeling that Yoyo is better as the Madam than Charmaine simply because Yoyo lives with those roles. All she portrays ever in TVB is Madam, Madam, or more Madams. She is therefore expert at those roles. I believe Yoyo also has a stronger and more convincing voice than the weak and girly Charmaine. Seriously, no offense to Charmaine fans, but I hope Charmaine has her own stance at attacking the role as Madam!

Credits: Astro On Demand

The Silver Chamber of Sorrows Ep. 1

I just finished the first episode of The Silver Chamber of Sorrows. It seems like a typical pre-modern series about a disordered, wealthy family who experiences financial difficulties as the series progresses. Basically, it is a series revolving a rich family, consisting of the father, several wives, and the children. The father, played by Paul Chun is ruthless, yet smart. Nancy Sit is his “official” wife while Rebecca Chan plays the petty-minded, selfish, and notorious second-wife. Finally, Christine Ng plays the third wife. While Rebecca is the only wife who has a son, she tends to brag about it due to the fact that he will inherit the family’s wealth in the future. Nancy has a daughter, played by Charmaine Li while Christine Ng is childless. While Nancy treats Christine kindly, Rebecca is takes every possible chance to deteriorate her reputation in front of her husband, Paul. Shirley plays Christine’s maid.

Ng Wai Kwok is Paul’s younger brother and have left the family eight years ago. In the past, Ng Wai Kwok and Christine Ng were dating while Paul took her in as his third wife knowing that he stole his brother’s lover. Ng Wai Kwok, from that point on, married Winnie Yeung and left the family. Only recently did he return to celebrate his father’s 70th birthday. Unfortunately, one day before his birthday, Rebecca’s son (sorry, I do not know the actor’s name) caused him to have a nervous breakdown and died. Everyone in the family looked towards Rebecca and her son while she blamed it on Ng Wai Kwok and his affair with Christine.

Comments. The series sounds interesting. Hmm… Jack and Nancy haven’t appeared yet and I hope to see them soon. I’m not a fan of Christine, Nancy, Ng Wai Kwok, Paul, and Winnie even though they are all good actors and actresses. On the other hand, I am overhyped about Shirley, Jack, and Nancy’s performances. I hope TVB promote Nancy more. Look at her roles. It’s just like a guest star in all series. Although the series seems very common, like all other pre-modern series, TVB haven’t done a series like this for a long time. Every series contains some comedy while this seems more like a tragedy. Let’s see WOIL II is a comedy. D.I.E. has many funny scenes as well. Gentle Crackdown is another comedy. Master of Tai Chi is not a comedy, but I haven’t seen that one yet.

THE SILVER CHAMBER OF SORROWS

The Cast: Paul Chun, Nancy Sit, Christine Ng, Ng Wai Kwok, Rebecca Chan, Shirley Yeung, Jack Wu, Nancy Wu

The Sypnosis:

A Rich Family is Ruled by Lust
A Hymn is Mourned Over by Feuds

Prestige Silver Chamber”, the largest jewel company in Foshan, Guangdong Province China, is facing serious financial difficulties. In order to obtain a loan from SHUM’s family, SHEUNG HANG (Chui Pui), owner of the Chamber, together with his primary wife, CHOI SIU-DIP (Sit Ka Yin), plot to arrange marriage between SHEUNG WAN (Ng Wai Kwok), HANG’s younger brother, and SHUM WING-TUNG (Young Yuen Yee), daughter of SHUM’s family. Fueled by hatred, CHING SAU-HANG (Ng Wing Mei), WAN’s lover, marries HANG and ironically becomes WAN’s sister-in-law. WAN falls out with HANG, and opts to live abroad and disconnects from his family. After leaving home for years, WAN does not return home until the occasion to celebrate his father’s birthday. Tension between the two brothers comes to a head when HANG is reluctant to pay ransom to save the youngest son of WAN. WAN is determined to disconnect completely from his family ever since.

Since WAN’s return, SAU-HANG suffers from her husband’s neglect and gets framed for causing the fourth concubine FEI FEI’s (Wu Ting Yan) miscarriage. Hatred leads her to commit act that revenge. She seeks to subvert SHEUNG’s family by luring KWAN. Intentionally, she unveils TSAU GUK(Yeung Sze Ki), the maid in the family, is HANG’s illegitimate daughter. The dark age of a once-prominent family begins.

Comments. Yay! Jack is finally in another series. This guy is such a great actor, but he isn’t highly promoted. Since I’m also a fan of Shirley, I’m quite excited for the series. Although I’m not as thrilled about the other cast members, I think I will watch this one.

Additional Info on The Legendary Ren Jia

Sorry, haven’t updated in quite a while. I actually read this news one or two weeks ago, but haven’t had time to post it.

Genre: Costume series, Tang dynasty political intrigue/mystery case

Cast: Kent Cheng, Lee Heung Kam, Bernice Liu, Sunny Chan, Sonija Kwok, Leila Tong, Wayne Lai, Rebecca Chan, Lam Yi Kei, Raymond Cho, Claire Yiu, Matthew Ko, Lawrence Ng, Mimi Chu, Lai Kai Fong, Stephen Wong Ka Lok, Eric Li Tin Cheung, Stephen Huynh, Queenie Chu, Tracy Ip, Kwong Chor Fa

Characters:

Kent Cheng as Di Ren Jia
Leila Tong as Shuangguan Wan’Er

Rebecca Chan as Empress Wu

Filming: began on January 2008

Comments. I am actually very excited about this film due to the fact that it takes place during the Tang Dynasty. However, whether it’s about the political intrigue during Empress Wu’s reign or a series involved in mystery cases is still unknown as far as I know. Personally, although I prefer to see something with politics since TVB haven’t produced something like that in ages, it is more likely that it’s about mystery cases. Simply because TVB tends to produce many of these serials these days. Honestly, TVB’s ancient mystery cases aren’t really interesting (I prefer modern more). The Gentle Crackdown is a good example with predictable cases. In the past, I think Witness to a Persecution is quite good, but I want to see something for a change. Furthermore, the series stars many historical figures such as the famous Empress Wu and her loyal subject, Shuangguan Wan’er. Of course, there is also one of Empress Wu’s official Di Ren Jia.

The cast does not look very strong, but there seems to be many people in this series and the costumes and hairstyles are fresh and original, they are elaborate and exaggerated. I do not like the flowers on the concubines/empresses dresses. It makes the attires look horrible, not royal to me. I wonder what happen to the silky royal attires TVB use to make in the 80’s.

Will there be a Princess Taiping since she is quite an important character under Empress Wu’s reign?

D.I.E.

English Title: D.I.E.
Chinese Title: 古靈精探
Cantonese Title: Koo Ling Ching Taam
Casts: Roger Kwok, Sonija Kwok, Kenneth Ma, Margie Tsang
Length: 25 episodes (Cantonese) // 19 tapes (Vietnamese)
Release Date: March 2008 (Canto) // May 2008 (Viet)
Genre: Modern Drama/Investigation/Crime

The Sypnosis

Falling into a trance-like state
helps him crack case in mystery

The “Death Investigation Extension (D.I.E.)” in the police force was established to accommodate those who have been sent away by their supervisors. As everybody knows, members of the Extension are to investigate unsolved cold cases. YUE CHI-LONG (Kwok Chun On), who has cracked a large number of difficult cases by extrasensory means, is assigned to the D.I.E. believing that he will get promoted soon. Later LONG finds out that his supervisor still has a long way to go before he reaches retirement age. Hoping to leave the Extension as soon as possible, he gets to solve a lot of intriguing cases. New appointee YING CHING-CHING (Kwok Sonija) is a good-looking girl but she means to act tough and sassy in front of others. She takes an uncompromising stand over every case she deals with, which leads her into constant quarrels with LONG. The relationship between the pair is deteriorating day after day.

LONG’s elder sister, YUE CHI-CHING (Tsang Wah Sin), has been living with him. While investigating an old case, LONG gets to find his long-lost father YUE TAI-HOI (Leung Ka Yan). Through close collaboration with LONG, CHING-CHING has gradually developed affection for him. As she is still torn between LONG and her two-timing boyfriend SHING KA-TSUN (Ma Kwok Ming), LONG has started to try to avoid her without rhyme or reason. Feeling so confused about what is happening, CHING-CHING decides to do some probing and is shocked to discover that LONG has been dogged by a female ghost called SIU SIN (Yuen Kitty).

Comments. I have been looking forward to this drama since like forever simply because Margie is one of the actresses. Haven’t seen her in a while. Unfortunately, according to the sypnosis, her character doesn’t sound as singficant as I thought it was going to be. At first I thought Margie and Roger will play a couple, but it sounds like they will only be brothers and sisters. Anyway, does Margie even look older than Roger since she will play his ELDER sister? I mean in real life Roger is one year older than Margie if I have my dates correctly. Anyway, so does that mean Kenneth and Margie will play a couple instead or will she be single? I cannot really imagine them playing a couple despite the rumors because Margie will obviously look older than Kenneth. I just hope that her character will have more to do with the story and not just another typical character in the plot.

Sonija’s character here is quite similar to the tough Madam she played in On the First Beat. I didn’t really like her character and her acting is still kind of weak. I don’t like it when she yells. As for Roger and Kenneth, I am looking forward to their performances. I hope Kenneth will have an interesting character because he was really good in Survivor’s Law II.

Credits Astro on Demand