[Review] Deep in the Realm of Conscience (宮心計2: 深宮計)

 WARNING: Spoilers ahead for both Behind the Realm of Conscience and Deep in the Realm of Conscience

I wish they didn't try to make this as a Behind the Realm of Conscience sequel and instead, made it a stand-alone series. TVB tried too hard trying to emulate the success of BTROC. I thought there were too many similarities between the two dramas and that DITROC copied all the wrong things. The weird rhyming they did was also really bizarre and distracting. This was actually my second attempt at watching this. I tried to awhile back but I just couldn't get past the first episode. After finishing the series, I have to say, that this drama wasn't ALL bad and was maybe even somewhat enjoyable at times. The costumes were wonderful and most of the acting were pretty good.

Steven Ma as Li Longji
Steven's character have one goal throughout the series - to become the emperor. He is always in a constant war with Alice Chan who is doing everything she can to prevent him from his goal. Because of his aunt, he was not able get total power and control the courts when he became emperor as his father maintained Taishang Huang status due to Alice's influence. He's not shy to participate in some scheming to get his way, like trying to get Edwin and Annie on his side by telling Pinky to tell Annie that it was Alice who had Annie's sister killed years ago, when in reality, it was him. The biggest thing that bothered me about him was on his wedding night with Chrissie where he raped her because he thought that she had hurt Nancy. At least he finally banished her to the 冷宫 when he gained total control as an emperor. He had a super strong support system that I can't believe it took him 36 episodes to become the sole emperor. He had Eric Li, his brother who gave up the Crown Prince title to him, Kenneth, Edwin, and Nancy (except the part where she indirectly murdered his unborn child). Anyway, overall he is not what I would consider as a good person, so there really wasn't any point where I was rooting for his character.

Nancy Wu as Wang Jun
From intentionally disfiguring her half-sister's face to causing  Chrissie's miscarriage, Nancy's character here is set in the thought of becoming empress and maintaining that position. Her biggest flaw was being unable to bear a child - she miscarried and as a result, she became infertile. This role was similar to Tavia's in BTROC in that she appeared to be a "good guy" but then we realized she was actually evil and super manipulative. However, I felt her schemes were pretty weak and overall, Nancy's character was not as impressive whereas Tavia really sold us Kam Ling. I'm usually a huge fan of Nancy and I think she does great in villain roles, but here, I thought she fell flat. Her on-screen presence wasn't too exciting either.

Annie Liu as Yuen Yuet 
Despite her accent, I really enjoyed watching her onscreen! I was glad she was not like a Christine Kuo. Annie's first appearances made me felt annoyed about her character, but she definitely grew on me. Annie's character went into the palace in order to find out what happened to her older sister who stopped sending her letters. She started out as a palace maid and went on to become Princess Ling Lung due to one of Nancy's schemes. I felt bad for her character when she got super guilty for falling on Chrissie and causing her miscarriage, since this was all due to Nancy's scheming. My favorite scene of hers was when she demanded to see Kenneth Ma when he was accused of having affairs with Chrissie. 

Kenneth Ma as Yam Sam-shu
Kenneth plays the Imperial Guard general and the right-hand man of Li Longji. I enjoyed his scenes with Steven, Edwin, and Jacqueline. There wasn't much to say about him or his character. He was a MEH. He was pretty wooden in here, but I read somewhere that Kenneth did it on purpose in order to maintain the character's stoic and serious personality.

Edwin Siu as Ho Lei
He intentionally made Kenneth want him in the Imperial Guard because he wanted to kill the Emperor for killing everyone at his childhood orphanage. We know later on that this was because he was actually the rightful heir to the throne - the eldest of the sons of the Emperor. However, when he was born, his mother sent him away from the palace secretly to ensure his survival. In the last episode, he was almost murdered by Alice but her maid betrayed her, which I thought was SUPER random. Like, her maid was totally loyal to her throughout the entire series and out of nowhere, with no indication whatsoever, she switched sides. Anyway, he gave up the opportunity for the throne by pretending he was not the prince they were looking for, and left the palace with Annie. I enjoyed his romantic story line with Annie and I'm glad that they got their happy ending. 

Alice Chan as Princess Taiping
This was one of my favorite characters in this drama. We see her as someone who can be ruthless and scheming, wanting to become the empress herself like Wu Zetian, and cared a lot for her older brother aka the emperor. The power struggles she had with Steven were fun to watch. I disliked how the first 10 episodes or so, they were focused on Alice's love for her first husband, but they didn't mention him ever again after her second husband's death. I also felt bad for her second husband, Savio, who loved her but she didn't love him back nor respected him, not until he sacrificed his life to save her from punishment for crimes against a palace maid. But then, he was also never mentioned ever again.

Chrissie Chau as Shunhei
As the niece of Princess Taiping, she had a bit of a 靠山 initially. That is, until Princess Taiping was unable to use her anymore for her schemes. Her story line was pretty sad - married Steven but he resented her because she was Princess Taiping's pick, targeted by Nancy's jealousy and evil schemes, miscarried, and died. This pretty much sums it up. At least she had good friends - Annie and Jacqueline although the latter died. Chrissie's acting felt flat to me, and I didn't think she was that pretty.

Jacqueline Wong as Kam Yeuk-chin
This was my first time watching Jacqueline act in a drama but I guess this would also be my last time considering how TVB is allegedly ending their contract with her due to her scandal. Her acting wasn't too bad and she was pretty adorable, especially in her scenes with Kenneth albeit a bit awkward to watch since she'd cheated on him in real life. I wasn't all that upset when her character died, though. I just wished that they didn't drag out her death and gave us false hope that she'll live because she was initially in a coma of some sort. I thought that it was unnecessary and the only purpose it served was TVB's poor attempt at trying to "surprise" their viewers and pretend that they don't overuse plots and whatnot.

One of the biggest thing that was disappointing to me was the lack of focus on the Imperial Household Bureaus. I wasn't sure which departments the supervisors were part of. Also, don't get me wrong - I do like the actresses they picked, but I thought that their stories paled in comparison to the supervisors in BTROC.

Susan Tse did a good job as Lady Cheung, the Head of Palace Proceedings, but I liked her acting a lot more in BTROC because she pulled off the villain role really well there. I also liked Ching Hor Wai's Head of Palace Proceedings role more. The four department supervisors were played by Candy Lo, Akina Hong, Pinky Cheung, and Angie Cheong. Don't ask me which departments they were in charge of because I had no idea. Honestly, I wasn't even sure which department Annie and Jacqueline were in. 

I enjoyed the interactions between Candy Lo and Angie Cheong, and they were definitely parallel to Michelle Yim and Susanna Kwan because they quarreled a lot in the series. Again, however, whatever they had going on paled in comparison. I did really enjoyed that one bit where they teamed up together to get rid of that one random guy who was playing them and solved the issue that tore the two cousins apart years ago. 

I enjoyed Akina's story with Wai Ka-hung and it was pretty sad what happened to his character. Pinky Cheung's story was also pretty interesting. She's known for her petty greediness but that was because she was saving all the money for her brother and his wife to buy her a house outside the palace. She planned to leave the palace but decided not to because she realized they had gambled away her life savings and never gotten her the house. They also didn't want her to stay with them and rather had her continue sending them money, so she broke off ties with them.

Honorable mention goes to Mary Hon. I thought she made a great villain! I was not expecting her to be the one who poisoned Rosanne and Taishang Huang.

Overall, DITROC definitely fell into the curse of horrible sequels. It wasn't unbearably terrible though and like I've said, I didn't have a problem finishing the series. I'm glad they didn't try to make another Lau Sam Ho character or throw in any random love triangle, so that's a plus!

6.5/10 but I would NOT re-watch this.

[Review] OCTB (反黑)

Nowadays, I don't really watch anything unless it's on Netflix. Imagine my delight when I saw that there is a Chinese drama on there with several actors I recognize! Now imagine my disappointment when I realize what a BORE this drama was. Granted, it started out pretty interesting, the show was very reminiscing of old-school HK police shows, and I love the veterans' acting, but I just felt like 30 episodes were way too much. They could've cut it down to 20 episodes if they haven't tried to throw more and more characters in instead of developing the presented characters fully. This show took me forever to finish because it wasn't all that exciting to continue watching.

Many commenters are also comparing this show to the Young and Dangerous franchise, but I've actually never seen any of those movies (*gasps*) so take my review with a grain of salt I guess!

The description of Netflix reads as follow: An undercover detective crosses paths with familiar faces in the mafia underworld during the final years of Britain's ruling of Hong Kong.

Anyway, let's get to the characters, shall we? I'm not going to go over most of them because there were too many, most of them weren't fleshed out characters anyway, and I weren't paying attention to them anyway.

As always, watch out for spoilers.

Jordan Chan as Fung-coeng aka Phoenix
He began as a undercover cop who was sent to infiltrate the triads (Wo Hing Sing). After sending both Hon Bun and Cocky Chiu to prison, he resumed his life as a cop. He first had to gain the trust of his superior, Cheung Siu-Kwan, and boy he sure did. Along the way he also found himself a girlfriend (Little Yu) and even a son from his former flame (Hon Bun's daughter, A-yan). His triad connections both help and harm him throughout the show.

A couple highlights I can remember about this character:
1) He asked the Godfather of Wong Hing Sing not to kill Cocky Chiu. Was this due to his guilt of playing a part in turning him like the way he is? Or was this the "righteousness" of being a cop?
2) He helped to send Blackie, Jr. off to Taiwan. This was because Blackie's dad helped out Phoenix a lot back in the days when he was a UC.
3)

Something about his character just seemed off and I don't know if it was poor writing or Jordan's acting. It's as if he was just empty inside? As basically the main protagonist, he was not really a character I could get into/ connect with. Maybe it's because this was not a comedic role, so Jordan's acting was lackluster?

Danny Chan as Cheung Siu-Kwan aka General
(As a play on his name, Cheung Kwan sounds like how you would say general)
This was the actor who looks a lot like Bruce Lee.
General's father was Phoenix's superior when he was still a UC. However, he was a little estranged from him. He was at one point framed for killing someone, but luckily Phoenix saved him. He initially did not trust Phoenix because he felt like he was too close to the Triads world. General himself actually became an UC too in order to find the mastermind behind the corrupted police department.

During his time as an UC, he worked under Mrs. Lui.

Now this was a character I could get behind. I can see the reasoning behind the actions he took, e.g. the struggle he faced having to "live up" to his dad's achievements. A notable and sad scene with General was when his dad died gruesomely.

Sam Lee as Wong Chi-On aka On-Zai
Two things matter the most to this man: his wife and being a cop. He had a falling out with his wife after she suffered a miscarriage when he sneaked out to join his cop buddies in some overt mission. Her entire family also didn't like him. Luckily, things changed for him when he was filmed by some news media showing his "cop swag" in the face of triad members. His wife and her family warmed up to him a bit. Things got even better when he was kidnapped by Cocky Chiu and got a bomb strapped onto him. Well, after he survived that, of course, but his wife and her family was super happy to see him and the father even commented "smart man!" which I thought was a weird comment, but whatever.

Justin Cheung as Chiu-Jik aka Cocky Chiu
He was one of the main villains on the show. He actually disappeared for a bit as he was being drugged up by another villain, George. This happened after he killed another triad boss, Chi-Hung, and failed trying to pass the blame to Siu-Kwan.

I would say that he was a pretty convincing villain. He reminds me of the Joker (the DC villain in the Batman franchise) because he acts so crazily.

Alan Ko as Blackie, Jr.
Son of a deceased respected triad boss, he dipped into the triad world and rose quickly to become head of Wo Hing Sing. However, this was a move planted by the Godfather in order to prevent Hon Bun from becoming the head due to some ruling they had about waiting a certain period before a new guy can be elected after the position has been taken.

An advantage he holds is that he's really good at fighting.

Blackie, Jr. fell in love with Ling-Ling, a friend of Little Yu. He'd saved her from being tricked into "modeling" by another gang. Ling-Ling died after getting hit by a car when they were getting assassinated by some henchmen.

He is friends with Uncle Lard (played by Ng Man-Tat). Blackie, Jr. first got into boxing for one of the triads when he needed money to help save Uncle Lard who developed a liver problem due to his alcoholism. Uncle Lard also helped him during his time being the head of Wo Hing Sing.

Blackie Jr. recruited Baldy (henchman of Ciu Maang) and Sai-Wah (henchman of Sharkie) when he became head of Wo Hing Sing. However, this also brought upon his downfall, as Sai-Wah was still loyal to Sharkie. Sai-Wah killed Uncle Lard, who sent the Dragon Baton to Mrs. Lui before he passed.

He experienced success in Taiwan because everyone there heard about him being the head of Wo Hing Sing in HK. He came back to HK briefly and helped out Phoenix for a bit.

Other triad bosses - Sharkie, Big Pang, Ciu Maang, King Maa, etc.
They all died in one way or another.

One character I want to mention though is Mrs. Lui. I found this character pretty interesting (might be because she is a woman? Who knows...). Throughout the years, her one goal is to find out the mystery behind the "accidental" death of her husband. This was, of course, another death orchestrated by the British forces. She also has a daughter who had a crush on General.

She passed the Dragon Baton to General before she died. I thought she was pretty badass because she managed to kill George's assistant before they killed her.


George
I don't know who the actor is for this character. A main villain, George was part of the British forces involved in tampering with the Hong Kong police department. His goal was to search for the Dragon Baton. I forgot the reason why he wanted it but he did reveal it toward the end of the series to Phoenix and General.

George brought Cocky back and tried to convince the Godfather to have Cocky serve as the head.

He was eventually killed by having all his blood drained by Cocky.

If I were to rate this series, I would probably give it a 3/10. There were honestly just too many characters to keep up with and if they had cut the episodes to 20, decrease the number of characters, and just fast-paced some of the parts, I would've probably given this at least a 8/10. There was no doubt that a lot of the acting was A1. Then again, I am usually used to the acting by TVB artistes (most of them new).

[Review] Ruse of Engagement (叛逃)

I love this drama. I felt that the acting was adequate for most actors and even superb for some. The plot was definitely satisfying and intense in many moments. Honestly, I'm not sure why they took forever to air this, because this drama exceeded my expectations. It might not be the best drama TVB has ever aired, but it's definitely one of the best in recent years.

I've found myself unable to finish some TVB dramas that I started nowadays, as they were pretty boring. For some, I finish them for the sake of it. For this particular drama, however, although I thought that it started out pretty slow, I've found myself looking forward to the next episode everyday.

Warning: This review contains major spoilers.

Ruco Chan (陳展鵬) as Carson
I think Ruco won me over in this series, but then again, this was filmed 3 years ago. I'm just not feeling his recent roles. He looks hot in the series. Acting was pretty solid as well. His character was interesting and developed well. I find myself rooting for him, especially in scenes where Ron was being annoying to him. I prefer the pairing between Ruco and Aimee than Ron and Aimee. I feel that Ruco has more chemistry with Aimee (also as seen in Outbound Love), and Ron just seems like a kid. His character truly loves Aimee, and even asked Eddie for a favor in letting her be a witness instead. Unfortunately, Aimee doesn't understand his love for her. Was he too harsh in forcing Aimee to turn herself in? I was thinking that he would live with regret for forcing her to commit suicide, but instead, he turned to suicide instead. I like the way TVB handled this, because he was sitting in his and Aimee's favorite place, and he was peacefully (and happily) sipping his poisoned drink.

Ron Ng (吳卓羲) as Alfred
I feel like Ron is great at acting immature, annoying, and stubborn. He makes an excellent "I'm pissed" face easily. I've never been a Ron fan. I just remember that I didn't like him that much in Rosy Business. He also plays the cute, younger brother part well. Initially, I was drawn to him in ROE, but his character got too annoying. How could he not trust his own brother? Is he really that selfish because he wanted Aimee all to himself? His acting was satisfying, but his character is definitely easy to hate. Why is he even a cop? His emotions get in the way too easily.

Aimee Chan (陳茵媺) as Jessica
Dresses very professionally, similar to her role in Forensic Heroes 3. I've found myself not hate Aimee as much these days. She looks quite cute in ROE, and her crying scene when Ruco "died" was pretty good. However, I thought that it was a huge 180 move to have her look ultra serious in the very beginning of the series, but turn more laid-back when she began dating Ruco. This could be an editing problem though, so I wouldn't place the blame entirely on her. Satisfying acting, except I don't know what the heck she was doing in episode 20 when Ruco and Ron each had a gun pointing to each other and she was just weakly clinging to Ron, trying to stop him from shooting Ruco, while looking at his clothing. Now that part was just mad awkward. Definitely felt bad for her character though - she loves Ruco, but he had to distant himself from her in order to protect her as well as make it more believable that he has gone to the dark side. Now, another 180 move was that it actually turns out that she not only knows about her father's operation, but she also took part in it. And so the mole that Ruco was looking for was actually her. I think it's quite sad that her life was basically planned for her as soon as she was born because of her father. She killed her father (unintentionally) and took the biological weapons away, but with a selfish intention to sell them to other countries for a profit. She suffers a tragic ending with her committing suicide (as she refuses to spend even one night in jail, which Ruco was forcing her to do). Her final words were, "The person who truly loves me is not you, Carson. [I think this is referring to the fact that he wanted to shoot her as she turns away, and Ron stopped him, meaning that Ron is that one that truly loves Aimee.] I'm wrong in loving you. Goodbye." I freakin' teared up at this part. Incredibly sad.

Eddie Kwan (關禮傑) as Ngo Sir
He is the leader of the intelligence team in ATF, and he looks damn hot for his age. He originally seems like a strict boss type character, but it turns out that he is willing to let his subordinates do what they have to do as long as it's for the good of ATF, such as when he lets Ruco have his private mole (Yoyo) and also letting Ruco bomb the place. And so, he was willing to go extremes in order to satisfy ATF's goals. Eddie has a very "righteous" look to him that never made me suspect that he was the mole. There was also no way he would personally tell Ruco that only he and Eddie would know where the safe house is if he was indeed the mole. As always, great acting from Eddie.

Yoyo Mung (蒙嘉慧) as Yip Ting
Her character seemed annoying at first, and her hairstyle is just...I don't even know. She also seems like she should belong in ATF or something, because man, that girl can find out things so easily! You can tell that although she lied to her step father about liking Ruco, she did indeed have some feelings for him. She is an incredibly strong person and definitely very patient, such as when she wanted to get closed to her step father in order to find the truth about her real father's death. She was able to forgive her father at the end. She provides encouragement for Ruco, and I feel that she was the one that is keeping Ruco sane. When her father died, she started to lose focus, but luckily, there was Ruco. In the end, she attained her goal of revenge for her father and step father, because she just wanted Lee Kwok Lun dead.

Louise Lee (李司棋) as Carson and Alfred's mother
Another actress who acts great as being annoying. This character started off being quite annoying, but I appreciated her when she trusted her son Ruco. I remember that one part where she told Ron that he can arrest his brother, but he must not shoot him, and she knows for certain that Ruco wouldn't harm Ron. Although, Ruco did indeed shot Ron (but not fatally) in order to get away, and this caused her to no longer suspect that he was going undercover. She became super disappointed at him. Her hair style was atrocious. I was disappointed that we didn't see her in the last episode - like she never got to see her son again. Perhaps Ron will not tell her that he was an undercover cop and committed suicide and instead keep her at her current state where she's extremely disappointed in Ruco but still like to think that he is alive and well somewhere.

Law Lok-Lam as Yip Ting's father
His character was a bit interesting as he was torn between his terrorist group and his love for his adopted daughter. He can be very ruthless sometimes though. There were two memorable parts for me regarding him and his daughter. One is when he saw that Yoyo had been poisoned by Vivien and saved her, and the other was when he didn't shoot Yoyo because she claims that she saved Ruco only because she likes him. Sadly, he died in the hands of Law Kwok Lun after he wanted to leave the group, and also Vivien didn't save him.

Chris Lai Lok Yi (黎諾懿) as Negative
I had a feeling he was the mole early in the series, because he looks like someone who just is. Sadly, I was wrong, so I must commend TVB for setting it up so it led us to believe it was him. It was unfortunate that he was used by Vivien and later, by Lee Kwok Lun for medical testing purposes. He was eventually saved, but he was left in a state of comatose because of the numerous torture he endured. We never got to see if he woke up.

Vivien Yeo
She's really good at playing both the innocent and the villainous part. I honestly did not suspect her to be part of the bad guys until it was revealed that she was. When she's villainous, she has a really bitch look on her face, and when she's innocent, she resembles a slow lori. I've always thought that her acting is quite well, and although her accent might bother some people, it never affected my thoughts on her acting. Plus, her character is from Malaysia, so her what I assume is a Malaysian accent (since she is from Malay from what I recall) would be appropriate for her character. Anyway, this character is evil. 1) She tried to kill Yoyo, who was her best friend, 2) she killed her boyfriend/fiance(?), 3) she used Chris and had no second thoughts when it comes to discarding him, and 4) she only cares about herself. All her actions are for the group, as she is very afraid of losing it all and going back to Malaysia where she had nothing. However, towards the end, she said that she considers Law Lok-Lam as her father, but I remember that she instantly turned against him when she thought that he was going to kill her. Then again, I would probably do the same to someone who is close to me if I believe that they were going to do me harm. But then I knew that she was lying when at the most critical time, she leaves Law Lok-Lam right after he saves her. Grade A bitch. The way she was killed was well-deserved. She tried to kill Yoyo, only to lose the gun to her. Then when Yoyo told her to leave (and knew about the large sum of money her step father gave to her), she tried to kill her again, causing Yoyo to push her sofa toward her and Vivien fell into some glass.

Leanne Li as Beauty
Not much to say about her, to be honest. She was just a sort of "filler" character to be placed next to Aimee to be her best friend. Her character has an interesting skill where she can usually tell the relationships among her coworkers - sort of like reading them. She usually stays inside the ATF headquarter to do her work.

Kenny Wong (黃德斌) as Wai Sir
Satisfying performance, but his character was kinda boring. He is the leader of the assault team in ATF. He also temporarily took over Eddie's position when the latter was under investigation. He sorta disappeared in the last few episodes.

Lee Kwok Lun as Jessica's father
I had a feeling he was the villain behind the terrorist group, because well, I read somewhere that he was a villain. But it was also because he seems like the type - only caring about wealth. But, you can tell that he really cares about his daughter, and he wants a good relationship with her. He was evil and wanted to make money off of his biological weapon by releasing both the specially made disease and the cure for that. His death was very similar to Vivien's death - he was trying to kill Aimee, she pushed him away, and he accidentally landed on his knife.

I love the opening of the episodes. Instead of going for a song with lyrics, ROE went for some pretty epic music that, when I watch the opening, my friends asked me if I was playing a video game. The song at the end is pretty nice as well, sang by Ruco and Ron.

The last episode was crazy. I was satisfied with the ending, although quite tragic. However, it appears that Ruco never reunited with Louise. Also, if I interpreted it correctly, he committed suicide by poisoning himself (happily). How will Louise and Ron feel?? Also, I like how they've kept his relationship with Yoyo a bit ambiguous.

Overall, I definitely would recommend you to watch this drama. The plot was quite refreshing (for TVB anyway) in my opinion. I appreciated the fact that they definitely kept me guessing on who the mole was, and even led me to believe that someone else was the mole when in fact he was just a victim. For me, I wished that this drama was way more than 25 episodes.

What are your thoughts on Ruse of Engagement?

[Review] Never Dance Alone (女人俱樂部)

This drama centers around a group of friends who called themselves M Club. They were best friends in the 1980s as teens, but they drifted apart and met again in their adult years.

Initially, I had my doubts about this drama, mostly because of the plot. But boy was I wrong! This was a very enjoyable drama, full of laughs and tears, great music, and superb acting from the numerous veterans as well as the newcomers.

Because this drama is kinda character heavy, I will be structuring the analysis with each M Club members with related characters as their individual bullet points, if that makes any sense.

Carman Lee as Mo Siu Sze
She's the most 義氣 of her friends. When she found that her friend Cyndi needed help in managing her dance studio, she was very willing to spend time and money to become responsible for her business which was falling apart and in quite an amount of debt. She was the only one in M Club with a "traditional" family - a husband and a daughter. Unfortunately for her, there's also her husband's mother that was always there to blame her and disrespect her. Only until after her husband die did his mother actually consider her as family. And so I have to say that Carman's role is a very patient person and to her, both family and friends come first. She truly loves her husband, and so she decided not to fall into a relationship with Alan. She is a very strong woman who can be a bit silly at times, but that makes her quite adorable. She doesn't mind that others might laugh at her for pursing her dreams, because she knows she will succeed. Very likeable character. In the end, we see her writing the screenplay for the M Club film proposed by Eric Tsang, who made a guest appearance.

• Anjaylia Chan as Mo Siu Sze (Teenage)
  When she was young, she had a huge crush on Alan; however, Julie confided in her that she was interested in Alan, and so Siu Sze decided to give up even though they were obviously interested in one another. When she realized that Julie liked someone else, it was already too late: Alan went to study abroad.
• Lawrence Cheng as Wong Kwok Leung
  A character whose most important task in life is satisfying the three women in his life: his mother, his wife, and his daughter. He works a lot, so he often do not have the time to spend with his family. He unfortunately died from getting hit by a car.
• Heidi Lee as Wong Ho
  Her relationship with her mother is awful at first, she also takes her grandmother's side, and she was a very annoying character. However, it all changed when she found that her mother is supportive of her dream to become a lingerie designer. This was, of course, after everyone thought that she was gay until Carrie found out that she was just interested in the designs of bras.
• Steven Chueng as Mo Chi KinI found his character pretty boring. I'm not really into Star Wars, so I did not find common grounds with him. He's a loser whose goal in life is to find aliens, and plus, he's unemployed. He did not find another purpose in life until he met Carrie.
  

Rachel/Loletta Lee as Chu Lei/Julie
She's a character who one might call selfish, but I think that her flawed character was interesting and very realistic. When we first meet her, she was ready to marry a super rich guy who turned out to be gay and an asshole. She then tried to pursue Alan when she was broke, all while taking advantage of Siu Sze. She became a sort of aerobic model after a video of her dancing went viral. She vowed not to trust anyone, but she then realized what it means to have friends. She flip-flops a lot in her relationship with M Club.

• Venus Wong as Chu Lei, Julie (Teenage)
  She was bullied by Dan Dan for she is from Mainland China because Dan Dan sensed that she was being replaced by Julie. Julie seems like an innocent girl at first, but she turned out to be a lying bitch; honestly though, I can't blame her for leaving Lorelei. What pregnant teenage girl, without her other half and without supportive family members would bear to endure the struggles of raising a kid?
• Not sure as Julie's aunt
  This woman treated Julie awfully throughout her entire childhood and teenage years. Then, when Julie was famous and had financial ability, she wanted to take advantage of her and asked her for money. Despicable woman.
• Eliza Sam as Tong Ga Lai/Carrie/Lorelei
  She initially thought that Siu Sze was her mom, and when she found that Julie was her mom instead, she refused to accept her. She later did, after being persuaded by her father and Siu Sze, but she once again loses her trust in Julie after she found out that, spoilers, Julie was actually the one who abandoned Carrie and blamed the rest of M Club.
• Joe Tay Cheng as Poon Chun Kit/Robert
  Because he was afraid of being tied down, of being changed, he left Julie without a word. He was very carefree, and he's also very artistic, and we saw him particularly as a photographer.
• Amigo Choi as Poon Chun Kit/Robert (Teenage)
  The last time I've seen this guy film was in one of the Gods Must Be Crazy films. I also finally realized who Amigo Choi is (after hearing all about him and his thing with Natalie Tong). Solid acting, dressed really strangely, pretty likeable character. The only question is, why was there a statue of him? Anyway, he wants to settle and find a wife to start a family, and lo and behold, turns out he has a daughter! We saw him reintroduced as a yoga master at none other than the D Fitness dance studio, and at that time, he did not seemed regretful for abandoning Julie. However, was regretful after he found out the truth. So yeah, he ended up back with Julie and Carrie. Happy ending, hooray!

Flora Chan as Yung Dan Dan/Diana
Seemingly heartless at first, but then we discover her softer side - the Dan Dan who is still in love with Alan and wants to be a stay-at-home wife who knows how to cook. She is a pretty good dancer, specializing in funky aerobics. We see her endlessly tried to pursue Alan back, but she felt that sh was losing to Siu Sze. This woman does not like losing - she feels that she will gain everything if she would just win. Fantastic acting.

• Jeannie Chan as Yung Dan Dan/Diana (Teenage)
  She was jealous of Julie so she left M Club. A pretty good dancer, but she uses nasty methods to get her way, such as removing M Club from some dance competition in school. M Club got her back by making her fart in front of the audience though.Good grades, good dancer, decent looking girl, but her Achilles heel is her smelly armpits.
• Lawrence Ng as Yiu Tsz Lun/Alan
  Initially seemed to be a backless guy who wants to avoid women at all cost. His ex-wife is Dan Dan, and he has a "daughter", which is his cat. However, he changed after he met M Club once again. He had a crush on Siu Sze, but he was turned down, and he finally ended up back with Dan Dan as friends. I can sort of understand why he would refuse to go back with Dan Dan, because that character is definitely someone hard to communicate with, let alone love.
• Matthew Ho as Yiu Tsz Lun/Alan (Teenage)
  First off, he has some nice brows! Anyway, he was the crush of a lot of people, including most of M Club. Julie was the first to proclaim to everyone she likes him, but he likes Siu Sze back. Because of wrong timing and Dan Dan's doing, those two did not end up together.

Elvina Kong as Law Fung Sin/Cyndi
The only member of M Club who did not give up on her dreams, she loves aerobic and wants nothing more than dancing and winning aerobic competitions. She also has a pretty terrible stepbrother. She unfortunately went crazy; she got better. but then we found out that she has cancer. Because of this, she was unable to perform with the rest of M Club in their final aerobic competition. It was all she ever wanted - to be able to dance with her friends. However, Carrie had to take over.

• Annice Ng as Law Fung Sin/Cyndi (Teenage) 
  She was constantly bullied by her half brother, but luckily, she has her friends to always be by her side.
• Not sure as Cyndi's half-brother
  One of the antagonist, he's a despicable person throughout his life, and he even tried to steal Cyndi's dance studio away from her. Constantly bullied Cyndi in their teenage years. He somewhat finally acknowledged her as his sister in the end.

Fennie Yuen as Luk Yuen Chau
I remember seeing her in Dragon Love, and so I was glad that she is back onscreen. She felt guilty for losing Julie's daughter, and so she went from being very talkative to not saying much at all. She was desperate for love, and so she was willing to have an affair with her coworker, even though he was an asshole. Tried to commit suicide but was luckily found by Julie. Has two sons in London.

• Cheronna Ng as Luk Yuen Chau (Teenage)
  Super talkative. Her whole family do prominent government things, such as being judges.
  
• Patrick Dunn as LY
  Hey look, another despicable character! He only wants Yuen Chau for sex, and persuaded her to join his business even though she was reluctant by being cold to her when she showed hesitance, knowing full well how this affects her.

Gloria Yip as Leung Gam Yin/Akina/Fei Choi
First, I want to note that I did not recognize this actress until my mom told me that she was in one of the Gods Must Be Crazy movie (the same one that Joe Tay Cheng was in) and boy does she look different! Anyway, in the role she is playing here, she was desperate in keeping her husband, and so she betrayed her friends. However, once she found out that the real culprit was Cyndi's brother, she decided to leave her asshole of a husband. She later accepted Dr. House (played by Brian Burrell) and is truly happy with a man who likes her and won't insult her as well as her best friends.

• Kandy Wong as Leung Gam Yin/Akina/Fei Choi (Teenage) 
  Used to be really fat, so everyone called her Fei Choi. She was also very short, and so her mom thought she might actually be a legal midget.
• Koo Ming-Wah as Yue Dai Hun
  One of the antagonist of this drama, he constantly berates his wife until he needed her, which was when he showered her with insincere compliments and whatnot. He wanted to struck rich, and so he wanted to use his wife to betray her friends. Despicable and selfish.

Angie Cheong as Hui Jan Nei/Jenny
This character went from a maneater to a "si lai" who took no care of her own appearance and spent all her time taking care of her bitter mother. She was so "dry" that she considered having sex with a delivery guy whose appearance was as unkempt as hers was. Personally, I would have gone with him rather than who Jenny went with, which was Chi Kin's friend (Fok Gam Fai) because he's so much hotter. Ahem, anyway! She was finally freed of her tedious life when her mom was no longer being salty, and she started dressing well. She got pregnant by Gam Fai.

• Winki Lai as Hui Jan Ne/Jenny (Teenage)
  The most mature out of her friends. She disliked how her mom seems to be around plenty of men, and ruined her mom's love life by being selfish.
• Rosanne Lui as Hui Sin
  Unlikeable character until she found her Benny, which then propels her into a suddenly loving mother. We also found that she unselfishly gave up Benny in order to keep her daughter happy.
• Luk Wing as Fok Gam Fai
  He has a thing for older women. First it was Julie, and then it was Angie, who he managed to court.

Overall, an excellent series, probably because of the non-annoying cast. The veterans, of course, delivered amazing performances, and the newcomers were actually somewhat decent. This series also made me fall in love with the 80s songs played, both the English ones and the Chinese ones. That final dance M Club had was fantastic and very enjoyable. This is easily one of the best drama TVB made in recent years.

[Review] Tiger Cubs II (飛虎II)

To me, this was a HUGE disappointment in relations to the first season. The first Tiger Cubs was refreshing and exciting. This second season felt like a typical TVB drama that was edited down to fit the 10 one hour long episodes format. Things seemed unrealistic, forced, and random. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there was no build-up. It looked to me as though TVB was just like, "Hmm! Wouldn't it be fun to just stick this event in this scene for no reason but to shock the audience? Haha!"

One thing that really annoyed me was the characters. TVB wanted to focus on the characters this time around instead of the action, and this made the series, well, BORING.

Mandy Wong's character seemed weaker than the first season. For example, she was in danger of being kicked out due to her failing some practices or something. She was then also randomly pregnant and had to abort her baby. It was happening too quickly, and you just really don't have the time to feel sympathetic or anything. She was really no huge help to the team except for that one time where she chucked a bottle of fake bio warfare at the enemy. That was it. I was really hoping her character would've been more badass, but apparently not. Her character development was disappointing, as with many other characters' developments.

Christine Kuo. I think that it wasn't really exactly the character that annoyed me, but rather the actress. I don't quite remember the episode, but I remember a part where she was rubbing her head on Oscar Leung's arm like a fricking dog. Her acting is more awkward than  her speaking.

Speaking of the actors/actresses themselves ruining roles, can we talk about Linda Chung's bulging eyes and clenched jaw? Can we see one episode without her doing that face?

Also, the entire SDU team just sucks. Weren't they supposed to be the "best of the best"? The criminals seem to easily match against them. SDU seemed very incompetent, especially when compared to the first season.

The cases were also pretty disappointing. Here is a quick rundown of the episodes and the involved cases. This is pretty much written from memory so bare with me.

1. Johnson Lee and his crew took over a court. Lots of hostages. He demands to see Linda Chung who is an undercover cop everyone believed took down his boss. The thing is, she was believed to be dead, so basically his demand would have been impossible to fulfill. Coincidentally, she is not only alive, in HK, but she also saw the news coverage regarding his demand. In the end, he died, but not before shooting a curtain down to cover the ocean. Why? It's revealed in the last episode that he did it to either mask his death from his beloved Nancy Wu, or to cover the fact that she was in a speedboat so that she can escape before SDU noticed. That, I thought, was somewhat clever so I enjoyed it. Timmy Hung, who was Linda Chung's handler, became SDU's new commander.

2. SDU were to protect a drug-ring leader, Pal Sinn, and his personal doctor, Sam Tsang so that they would not be killed before standing in trial. Unfortunately for them. they were targeted by a some group. Spoiler alert: Sam Tsang was the real drug leader, and Pal Sinn was actually a cop who was determined to send this guy to jail. Benjamin Yuen was angered at Pal Sinn because well, one, he was pretty much playing the role of a complete asshole, and two, his friend was a victim of drug abuse or something. This episode was decent because of Pal Sinn.

3. This episode features a team of disabled girls whose goal is to be the next Robin Hood. The group leader is Jade Leung, who coincidentally was a childhood friend of Joe Ma and used to love playing the violin, but now she can't speak and so can only use sign language to communicate. This was not very memorable, but I remember that Jade was forced to rob a bank or something because her team was held hostages by some gangsters.

4. This was an episode about a Japanese game show of some sort called "Running Army". Four members of SDU was sent to investigate a doomsday cult's participation in this show. It turns out that in addition to some of the participants in the show, the host was also part of this cult. Again, I don't remember much, but there were weapons that were hidden in some tombs, one of which was bio-warfare which turned out to be harmless.

5. Koo Ming Wah is a retired SDU sniper. In addition to being a bar owner, he also hunts down criminals to collect monetary awards. He retired from SDU at a relatively young age, and the reason was because of his guilt over shooting some guy dead who was holding a fake gun or something. He then questions if it's really necessary that SDU always shoot to kill. Anyway, he was used by the brother of the guy he killed, Wai Ka Hung. and he got caught up in a gunfire fight against SDU. Oscar was ordered by Timmy to shoot to kill Koo Ming Wah. It turns out that Wai Ka Hung also kidnapped two kids to garner sympathy and more money from Koo Ming Wah.

6. Wai Ka Hung claims he was illegally shot, and it turns out that the claim was legitimate. Oscar, guilt-ridden by having to kill his SDU brother, rose up to attempt to take the blame. There is fall-out in A team, and Him Law is unhappy with Joe. Linda also added oil to fire by helping Wai Ka Hung for personal reasons (so that he can tell her who ratted her out before). The real shooter was revealed, and he left SDU and took over Koo Ming Wah's bar.

7. Oscar continues to be troubled and asked to transfer to CIB. This episode also features a group of killers who are out to kill some people for revenge. Again, not very memorable.

8. Stefan Wong helps Middle Eastern groups make money by messing with the stock market. Joe's grandpa lost a bunch of money. Speaking of him, he is annoying by forcing Joe and Linda together a lot. If not for him, Joe wouldn't be with Linda. I think that was the only reason for his character to exist. Anyway, Grace Wong and her brother asked Him to help them. Stefan died, and Grace's brother fell from a building or something. In any case, he became a vegetable.

9. Linda suspects that Timmy Hung is not all what he seems to be. Oscar was sent by Timmy to keep track on Linda. Linda is taking medication for her anxiety due to PTSD. It turns out that Timmy killed some guy while he was a UC himself, and Vincent Lam has his evidence. So Timmy was the guy who ratted Linda out. He also tried betraying the entire SDU team by leading them to Vincent and ordering them to drop their guns. This was all to save his wife and daughter. Timmy escaped by jumping into the ocean, and Vincent was saved by a mysterious van (spoiler: it was Nancy and her crew). Christine Kuo died (yassss!).

10. Nancy Wu's character was introduced as a CIA agent. She asked Joe to show her around SDU's base. I was just thinking that that was totally a terrible idea. I mean, come on, Joe, you're better than this. Anyway, I believe that the best and the only noteworthy episode to watch is probably the last one. Maybe I'm biased toward one of my favorite actress, Nancy Wu, who portrays a villain (she honestly does a fantastic job portraying this type of character). In any case, I felt the adrenaline rush I felt when watching the first season. Nancy and her team took over SDU's base. This episode involved quite a lot of bombs. Both Timmy and Vincent were killed. Another fantastically coincidental part was how Oscar used bubbles from the bubble toy gun that coincidentally fell over and released bubbles in the air to see the reflection of the shooter on the other building. WHAT? Anyway, Nancy died by falling on a bomb in attempt to kill everyone. Failed, but Joe ended up in a coma. In the end, we see him seeing someone is probably Linda, although we didn't see her face. Why though? There was NO reason for TVB to do that. Lame ending. I'm guessing there were budget cuts or this was filmed last minute, and TVB couldn't get the real Linda to show up, so they just dress up her stunt double.

I give the entire drama a 3/10, except for the last episode, which I felt was a 7/10. This sequel significantly paled in comparison to the first season. Despite the flaws, the first season was exciting and refreshing, none of which describes the second season.

[Summary & Analysis] The Monkey King (2014)

Journey to the West is probably my favorite Chinese story there is, and it had been retold so many times. And so I tried to look at this particular "adaptation" with an open mind. Now, I watched this one in Mandarin with English subtitles, and so I might not have gotten everything correct. Also, I watched this last night, and so the chronology of this retelling is probably off.

I just want to say that the CGI for this film is on point. Sure there are still some parts that is way below today's standards, but it definitely excels many of the Chinese films.

The film begins with the explanation that deities are forever in a war against the demons. We then see a battle going on between the Jade Emperor (is it just me, or is he also a dragon king??) and the Bull Demon. As the Jade Emperor was about to finish him off, Princess Iron Fan flies in and pleaded for mercy, because this deity had actually fallen in love with that demon. How romantic. The Jade Emperor reluctantly agreed (for it is forbidden for a deity and demon to be together), and let them go.

Because of that battle, however, the entire heaven was destroyed. Nuwa decided to sacrifice herself to rebuild the entire place as well as becoming millions (billions?) of crystals to construct a sort of force field around heaven. This wall repels any demons that attempts to force their way inside heaven and burns them to ashes. A single crystal happened to fall on Earth and gave birth to a monkey. Ok then. Pretty sure it's supposed to be a stone. But I suppose it's because the creators of this film wanted to have something prettier - you have to admit, crystals look prettier than gray stones.

Anyway, the next part was super cute as we see a baby (infant??) monkey inside the see-through crystal interacting with a white fox outside the crystal. They held up their paws to each other, but then the white fox was suddenly carried off violently with a dark cloud. Very sad.

What happens next? Don't remember, but I believe that Guan Yin and Puti had a conversation about how the monkey was born from both good and evil, and I think she asked him to take care of the monkey. This is a major theme - the fact that he was born both good and evil, because how he ends up is the path that he chooses.

We then see the monkey grown up-ish, with other monkeys. We can see that he's some sort of leader to them, because he chose to climbed up some trees to grab fruits for all the other monkeys.

(There was one particular monkey with a ginormous nose.. what?)

Anyway, after grabbing the fruits, he noticed a blue butterfly, and he wants to catch it. He did, and fell down because of it. He opened his hand just to see that the blue butterfly is dead (or, well, Puti shows up and tells him it's dead). Puti blew on Monkey's fist, and behold, the butterfly is back from the dead. Naturally, Monkey asked Puti to teach him this, so he went off with Puti to learn magic.

We see the other disciples of Puti here (is it just me or is there so many pretty girls in this film?). Monkey was given a name by Puti, and he is now known as Sun Wukong. This monkey sure loves collecting names, because soon his complete name would be Flower Fruit Mountain, Water Curtain Cave, Handsome Monkey King, and Great Sage Equal to Heaven Sun WuKong. He believes that he needs such an amazing title to introduce himself. Anyway, we see that he already knows like everything, but he also has a hard time controlling himself, as we see him changing from a tiger to a rhino to chase a particular classmate. This, here, is another major theme - WuKong is unable to control himself, and this will cause him many troubles. He was asked to leave by Puti (I forgot the reason why... I think it was because he had taught WuKong everything he can already). So he leaves very sadly and returns to his fellow monkeys, who were being bullied by this funky-looking Confusion(??) Demon. It was definitely confusing, but WuKong saved them.

Now, as you've probably noticed, I've written several paragraphs, and yet, we're still at the beginning of the story. Sure, it may be my long-winded writing style, but it can also probably be because this film is just so slow. I say that the best part of the film is probably the end. Not the ending, but the parts that lead to the end. I'm sure there's a literary term for it that I learned in 6th grade, but I forgot.

Anyway, to move on, we see the Bull Demon plotting to overthrow heaven once again. We see some woman (man??) with a single flame as her (its??) face prophesying (this is apparently a word) the end of heaven's reign will come about with the help of a crystal monkey. We also see that the Bull Demon is a ruthless king of the demons, as someone spoke up, and the Bull Demon just decided to kill him. He also decided to enlist Yang Jian (Erlang Shen) who was unhappy with being assigned the task of a gatekeeper to help him with his plan.

Wukong decided to find weapons for his fellow monkeys from the Dragon King. By find, I mean steal, and by steal, I mean to "borrow" according to WuKong. His concept of "borrowing" is that he takes them with the promise of returning them...some day. That logic. He also took the Golden Cudgel, which was used to help calm the sea, and which was unable to be taken by anyone else before. The Dragon King was mad, he complained to heaven (but was stopped by Yang Jian). Yang Jian told him that there is no need to bring this matter to the Jade Emperor. He told NaZha to take care of the monkey.

Now the monkey was happily hanging out with his white fox friend who he recently reconciled with (now a pretty girl, because she is a demon as well and can transform between fox and demon). Little did he knew that this friend was actually taken by the Bull Demon and now placed near him as part of the demon's plan. It was obvious that WuKong likes the white fox as he was even flirting with her with his tail.

Anyway, they got attacked, and WuKong was almost incinerated by NaZha's fire balls, but the Bull Demon came to rescue him. WuKong now regards him as a friend. It was also obvious that at this point, WuKong was not strong enough to take on Heaven. The plan is to get him to Heaven and take an elixir pill which will strongly increase his power (by 100 times, I believe). Somehow he did decide that he wants to be up there, and he met the Jade Emperor as well as became the Protector of the horses, which is probably the lowest rank possible in heaven.

One day, Yang Jian provoked WuKong by whipping the horses. After smacking Yang Jian a couple times WuKong escapes. He found some special peaches, which he ate, and a bunch of immortals flew around him annoying him. He once again escaped, and this time he came upon a girl (who was actualy Yang Jian in disguise) who says she is guarding an elixir pill. He was tricked into being accused of trying to steal the pill. Puti tries to stop him, but Yang Jian tries to goad WuKong into taking the pill. He did, and came out super powerful.

He leaves Heaven only to find that his home had been attacked and burned with all his friends dead. Most importantly, his crush, the white fox, is dead as well. He fruitlessly tried to bring them back to life. The Bull Demon comes by and shows him a scene of the Heavenly Army attacking. We later found out that this army was an army of demons in disguise. WuKong rages and goes to attack Heaven.

I also forgot to mention that the Bull Demon was creating an ultra Demon Axe weapon that is, of course, supposed to be all-powerful. So he takes this weapon and he too begins to attack Heaven with his army. He fought against the Jade Emperor, and now he is too strong of a match against the emperor, and so he fell into unconsciousness. He then kills Puti, but before he dies, he tells WuKong that "the butterfly is now dead". I'm not quite too sure how to interpret this. This is, after all, THE major theme of this film - death.

Anyway, he noticed that Puti has a black ring cloud around his neck, just like how the white fox died, and he suddenly realized that it was the Bull Demon who killed her. He sets off to fight the Bull Demon, but the demon was winning, and suddenly, he had a vision of Guan Yin talking to him. I think the conversation was about the path he decides to take or something like that. Anyway, he's now suddenly more powerful than the Bull Demon and beats him and took off one of his horns.

The scene suddenly turned to Princess Iron Fan who was walking with a kid to a bull (with a missing horn) and told him that, no matter what he becomes, she and their son will forever be by his side. The feels! Anyway, WuKong and the now conscious Jade Emperor sits together and discussed about how long it will take to rebuild heaven (which was destroyed once again) and it was said that it would take a couple hundred years. As WuKong was wondering how to rebuild the place, he was caught by Buddha and is now placed under a Five Pillar Mountain until his next mission, which he happily complies.

So, if you know the original story of Journey to the West, or at least have some sort of understanding of it, you can see that there are many differences.

Here, I will list a few.

1. Crystal vs. stone
2. No mention of the special eyes he got from the samandhi fire (only a visual representation)
3. The monkeys found the Water Curtain Cave only because WuKong was brave enough to jump in (not mentioned)
4. There was no Bull Demon vs. Heaven fight
5. Hell's attempt to collect WuKong's soul
6. WuKong was strongly unhappy to be trapped under a mountain for forever
7. No white fox in the story

Some of these differences are pretty minor, and honestly, I don't mind the changes that much, because it does create a new story. The only complaints I have of this film is that it is just way too slow, there seems to be way too many details added in, some characters' decisions aren't thoroughly explained, and towards the end, some scenes changes seem sudden. What I like about this film are the CGI, the costumes, the aesthetics, and Donnie Yen was a pretty good monkey. In fact, I didn't even recognize him even though I knew it was him, because pretty much the only movie I've seen him in was Iron Monkey and Yip Man, and he looks pretty stoic in both. Overall, I think that this movie is just average, and it wasn't definitely worth my 110 minutes. If the movie was paced faster or was shorter, I might enjoy it more. but I can't say that for sure. I think that the graphics was amazing, but the plot just fell short.

[Summary & Analysis] Infernal Affairs (2002)

The film begins with the triad boss (Eric Tsang) planting several gang members in to the police force. It focused on a specific man named Lau (Edison Chen). We were then introduced to another young police officer, Yan (Shawn Yue), who has a great attention to details. And because of this impressive trait, he was expelled from the force so that he could instead become an undercover cop. This fact was known only by Yan himself, Superintendent Wong (Anthony Wong), and another police. However, as years passed, only the former two knows.

We then see the two main characters, Yan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and Lau (Andy Lau), grown up, each performing their roles as moles. Although they were in the same police academy and had a brief glance at each other as Yan was leaving the force, they were not able to recognize each other, even when they hold a conversation together at a stereo shop. And while Lau is rising in ranks at the police force, with possibilities of a promotion on the horizon, Yan was getting more and more desperate, trusting no one but the therapist (Kelly Chen) he’d fallen in love with. Promised that it would only be three years, it had already been nearly ten years since he’d left the police academy.  We also see his relationship with Wong – although he resents having been put in this situation, he still cares a lot for Wong and vice versa.

During an operation, these two men were once again placed against each other. On one hand, Yan was communicating with Wong about the cocaine with the Thai drug dealers using Morse code. On the other, Lau had to find a way to let the triad boss know what the police are planning while appearing to be trying to capture them. This incident reveals a turning point in the film: both sides now that there is a mole, but they are both unsure as to who it is. We also see the relationship between Wong and the triad boss – it was obvious that the triad boss was doing illegal activities, but Wong never seemed to be able to find enough evidence to prosecute him. They also both know that one of them are going to lose this battle.

What is probably the most ironic part ensues, as both Lau and Yan were assigned to locate the mole in their group respectively – themselves. And so, Yan follows Wong in an attempt to find out who the mole is in the police force, and then follows this mysterious mole, only to be discovered. And now, both mole knows about the existence, and even clues, of each other, but they did not see each other’s face.

In a meeting between Yan and Wong, the triad boss suddenly called for a meeting where the one who does not show up must definitely be the mole. In an attempt to protect Yan, Wong sacrificed himself while Yan escapes – Wong was beaten up when he got onto an elevator and was thrown down the building. A gunfire fight began between the gang members and the police. Yan, filled shocked, was taken away from the scene by a fellow gang member, who later died because of a fatal gun wound. It was reported that this deceased man, Keung (Chapman To), was an undercover cop. This now begs the question of if this was true or if the police planted this information in the news in order to protect Yan. However, because the only other person who knows about his true identity is dead, I’m going to lean toward the former. This might also explain Keung’s last words to Yan, which was an advice on how to identify cops dressed civilian/plain clothes. Perhaps Keung was also a police once himself and behaved the same way. And perhaps this was why he chose to take Yan out of the gunfire fight. On one hand, it could be because he feels like Yan is his good friend, but on the other, it could be because it was his duty to protect him. Whichever it was, his death led the triad boss to believe that he was the only mole, and thus felt less suspicious of Yan and the other triad members.

Using Wong’s cell phone, Lau contacted the mole, and together, they worked on a plan to rid the triad boss. The plan works, and this should mean that Yan was allowed back into the force, correct? But no, to make things more complicated, Yan found out that Lau was the mole when he noticed a certain marked envelope in his possession. Lau realizes this, and because he badly wants to become a legitimate cop, he, with the help of Yan himself, deleted the secured undercover file from the police database with the password “undercover” in Morse code, which he was unable to access before. And thus, the last strand of evidence that could bring Yan back into the force was destroyed. But it didn’t end here. Yan has an ace up his sleeve – a recording of a conversation between Lau and the triad boss. Yan and Lau met again on a rooftop, Lau’s fellow police officer, Inspector B (Gordon Lam), showed up and killed Yan, coincidentally in an elevator, just like Superintendent Wong. It was then revealed that Inspector B was also one of the moles that the triad boss has implanted into the police force. This poor guy obviously did not know Lau’s true goal in becoming a true cop, and he was also met with the fate of death for knowing too much. 

But was Lau truly a bad guy who only wanted the mask of being a good guy? Shortly before meeting with Yan, Lau left a message for his wife (Sammi Cheng), a password for evidence that would prove Yan as truly a cop. And so it appears that Lau was indeed attempting to be “good”. Or perhaps it was just sympathy, as a previous conversation possibly highlights this. Lau was told by Yan that he would not understand how his ten years of being an undercover feels. But of course, if there was anyone in the film who could understand this, it was Lau. 

And in the end, Yan was finally revealed to be the undercover cop to the world – dead, but known as a good man, buried next to Wong, and the mole in the police force was determined by the police force to solely be Inspector B. A flashback of Lau shows that Lau had always wanted to be a good cop – a scene where when Yan left the academy, the police asked who wanted to trade place with him, and Lau says that he does. And so perhaps he knew – he knew that this guy being expelled wasn’t because he broke any rules and rather, it was because he was to become an undercover cop – but for the good guys. And now, at the end, Lau got what he wants – to be part of the good guys.

As for the film itself, it was well-made, fast-paced, and had no unnecessary scenes. You can feel the tension intertwined in every moment, invisible battles being fought. Entertaining, and yet, filled with so much depth, this is a thrilling film with not police chases and over the top gunfights, but a beautifully woven story about the contrasting and yet paralleled lives of Yan and Lau.