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).
