Find The Light

charmed

Poster and Chinese discussion here: http://www.maggieshiu.net/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=74

Review @ Spcnet.tv here: http://www.spcnet.tv/reviews/review.php?rID=83

Review by Pink_Ink

Find the Light

Chinese title: 英雄‧刀‧少年

Cantonese Name: Ying Hung Do Siu Lin
Number of Episodes: 20

Cast:
Wong Ng - Ron Ng Cheuk Hei
Tam Chi Tung - Bosco Wong Jung Chak
Chan Do Yeung - Damien Lau Chung Yan
Wong Yuen Sum Yi - Maggie Siu Mei Kei
Princess Cheuk Lan - Shirley Yeung Si Kei
Lee Kwai - Tavia Yeung Yi

Note: I've decided not to write a plot summary, in my effort to not give away any spoilers.

Wong Ng -
His mother Wong Yuen Sum Yi (Maggie Siu) and his uncle Yuen Sum Yut (primarily his mother) raised Wong Ng. He lives his life as a simple poor commoner. He is loyal, direct, straight, and he lives by the simple principle of "If you respect me, I'll respect you. If you mess with me, I'll mess with you". After he becomes friends with Tam Chi Tung (Bosco Wong), and meets Princess Cheuk Lan (Shirley Yeung) and Chan Do Yeung (Damien Lau), his personality and views begin to change.

Ron Ng as Wong Ng -
This is the first series that Ron took as a lead, and I was very impressed with his performance. His acting was very much up to standard as a TVB lead. I thought that he captured Wong Ng's determined look very well. One thing that he could probably improve on is by putting more expression into those large eyes of his. Although Bosco Wong's eyes aren't as big as Ron's, he was able to convey much more emotion in them.

Tam Chi Tung -
His father is a high-ranked official, who expects Tam Chi Tung to follow the same road in life. Tam Chi Tung doesn't mind being an official, but he longs for a simple carefree life like Wong Ng (Ron Ng). He objects to his father arranging a marriage for him to Lee Kwai (Tavia Yeung). A slight misunderstanding makes him dislike Lee Kwai, but eventually he comes to a compromise with his father regarding the marriage and his future.

Bosco Wong as Tam Chi Tung -
Like Ron Ng, I was very happy with the performance of newcomer Bosco Wong. As I mentioned earlier, his eyes are very emotive (even though he wore glasses throughout most of the series). Although most people don't look good with the shaved head in Ching Dynasty style, I actually thought in some scenes Bosco looked better in ancient style than modern. Towards the latter stages of the series, it was evident that Ron and Bosco weren't used to the grueling schedule of being leads in a series, as they looked tired and black eye-bags were showing. To their credit though, they performed well throughout.

Chan Do Yeung -
Chan Do Yeung is a man with unfinished business that he is reluctant to talk about. He once knew the father of Wong Ng (Ron Ng), and feels obliged to repay Wong Ng's father by taking Wong Ng as a pupil.

Damien Lau as Chan Do Yeung -
As always, Damien has shown an excellent veteran performance, not that anything else was expected. He has this ability to just capture attention whenever he is on screen. I can't really think of any faults that he had...in my opinion, Damien was a living, breathing Chan Do Yeung.

Wong Yuen Sum Yi -
Wong Yuen Sum Yi became a widow when Wong Ng (Ron Ng) was just a kid, and she single-handedly raised her son. She is independent, and she likes helping others. Nothing is more important to her than her son, and she is willing to do anything for him to see him succeed in life.

Maggie Siu as Wong Yuen Sum Yi -

As with Damien, Maggie was one of the veterans who lifted the series. I still think she looks too young to be playing a mother of a twenty-something year old, and deserves to be a leading female. But nonetheless, this character must have been a challenge for her, but she played it very well. Maggie convincing switched back and forth from a nice and innocent loving mother, to a stern mother who wanted her son to do as she asked. Thumbs up =).

charmed

Princess Cheuk Lan -
 
Princess Cheuk Lan is a Manchurian princess, who appears to her father as a gentle, sweet girl like a princess should be. Behind her father's back, Cheuk Lan secretly learns martial arts, and she loves to play around.

Shirley Yeung as Princess Cheuk Lan -
  
This is the first series that I've seen Shirley in, and she seemed to fit her character well (although I think the character is not one that is extremely hard to play). Nonetheless, she was convincing as the playful princess, and I'm happy with that.

Lee Kwai -
  
Lee Kwai is a traditional submissive woman. She is arranged to marry Tam Chi Tung (Bosco Wong) and she is disappointed when she finds that he dislikes her. However, towards the end of the series, she shows that she has a strong mind after all.

Tavia Yeung as Lee Kwai -
  
The last time I saw Tavia was in the W Files, and the character of Lee Kwai is very different from the one in W Files. I think this definitely shows that Tavia is capable of being a very versatile actress. I'll definitely be looking for future series with Tavia in them.

Couples -

(I apologise if I've given some spoilers regarding who the couples are - but I thought they were all fairly obvious to begin with).

Wong Ng (Ron Ng) and Princess Cheuk Lan (Shirley Yeung)
  
For some reason, I thought that their chemistry when they were fighting and arguing was better than the chemistry that they had as a couple. The fact that these two were going to be a couple was pretty predictable, so I guess their story line didn't interest me all that much.

Tam Chi Tung (Bosco Wong) and Lee Kwai (Tavia Yeung)
  
At first I was interested to see how they would get together (as in fall in love, because they were already married). It was actually quite interesting - but then towards the end when they had some problems, I thought it was a little unreasonable. What Lee Kwai did was kind of out of character, but I guess the writers felt they needed to split them up somehow.

Chan Do Yeung (Damien Lau) and Wong Yuen Sum Yi (Maggie Siu)
   
This is actually the couple that I found the most interesting, even though they are the older two, because it wasn't actually completely obvious from the start whether they would be together or not. They also seemed to carry much more meaning (e.g their history, the fact that Damien knew Maggie's husband). Also, they were the 'comedy relief' couple, so it was really funny to watch their scenes together, even at the very beginning when they just met. Although Maggie Siu is more than 10 years younger than Damien Lau, I still thought they matched.
 

Small Negatives

- This is one thing that most TV series will have, and that is an overuse of coincidences. But I guess most of these can be justified as 'fate' because they really believed in fate in ancient times.

- The veterans (with the exception of Damien) gained weight (which I guess is hard to avoid seeing they filmed in winter). It seemed a little unbelievable that Ben Ng's character had practised martial arts daily, because he really had a large belly.

- The special effects aren't exactly striking. Much of it looks rather fake - but I wasn't expecting anything too much, because it wasn't a big production series.

Overall

Despite critics saying that this show doesn't have enough "star-power" to pull audiences, I think that the newcomers perform very much satisfactorily. The story is interesting to watch, with a good mix of drama and occasional comedy, and it definitely kept me interested until the end. It's also very refreshing to see some new faces on the screen. In my opinion, nobody performed below what was expected, and I enjoyed watching this series very much. Definitely a thumbs up, and I'd recommend this series to anybody without question.

Rating: 4.5/5

[此贴子已经被作者于2006-11-4 20:30:58编辑过]

charmed

In hindsight, 4.5/5 was way too generous. Not bad, but 4.5 was overboard

shaw_mag

Thx, charmed.

Pink Ink is definitely a fans of Maggie.

In this series, I like Maggie-Damian pairing, also Tavia-Bosco.