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Dance of Passion @spcnet.tv by Bridget http://www.spcnet.tv/reviews/review.php?rID=1358 Dare I say, not a very Maggie-friendly at all... ------------------------- Chinese Title: "For Moh Wong Sah" (literally translates to fire dance yellow sand)
No. of episodes: 32
Year: 2006 Cast:
Ada Choi Siu Fun as Jiu Yook
Bowie Lam Bo Yee as Yim Man Hei
Gigi Lai Zhi as Kai Ming Fung
Moses Chan Ho as Sung Dong Sing
Kenny Wong Tak Bun as Sung Dong Yeung
Charmaine Sheh Si Maan as Ka Chun Fun
Maggie Siu Mei Kei as Long Yuet
Supporting Cast:
Chung King Fai as Yim Lo Ye (father to Man Hei)
Chan Hung Lit as Uncle Ma
Chow Ka Yee as Siu Kam
Rebecca Chan Sau Yu as Siu Hung (aunt to Man Hei) Foreword
Dubbed 'War and Beauty II' by some due to the reappearance of more than half of its cast, I would consider this drama to be an equally good, if not better, TVB series. I've been waiting and waiting for TVB to return to its days of writing a script consisting of strong characters, secrets, lies, revenge, and hypocrisy and The Dance of Passion gives me all of that. An exceptionally well-acted, compelling series. Highly recommended. Quick Summary Northwestern China, 1930's. Yim Ka Po is a remote desert village located somewhere in northwestern China. It is a village inhabited by two families battling in a power struggle, the ruling Yim family and the more or less useless, gambling Sung family. The Yim tribe is headed by Yim Man Hei, a ruthless, deaf man and the Sung tribe is headed by Jiu Yook, the intelligent widow of the former Sung leader. Their lives are governed by their traditional emphasis on the purity and 'honour' of the women in the village, with any kind of destruction of a woman's honour having the power to bring the entire tribe down. This creates both internal and external tension within the village, with both families engaged in a cat-and-mouse game to reveal any suspicious activity concerning the women of the village. The women, in turn, rise above their suffering in an effort for self-preservation, sometimes befriending each other for support (Ming Fun and Chun Fun) and at other times turning against each other in the worst of ways (Long Yuet and Kwai Lan).
The tension and drama all culminate in one of the most ridiculous endings in TVB history, which all but destroy the credibility of this series. You really have to see the ending for yourself because it is so hilariously out of place that I am pulling my hair out just thinking about it. I'm still mad about the ending. Anyway, for those of you who want to know who dies, here's the list – Jiu Yook, Jiu Yook's son Dong Hiu, Kwai Lan, and Bowie becomes blind too. On Acting Ada Choi was just weird. Usually she plays two kinds of characters. Type 1 is playful, young, and ever-energetic (Armed Reaction IV, Healing Hands I-II, Files of Justice), Type 2 is ladylike, gentle, and intelligent (Where the Legend Begins)... and as a person, Ada comes off as girly, friendly, and genuine. Jiu Yook is none of those things. She is young in age, but old in the sense that she has a high social status and is also a mother. She is calculative and yet everything she did (bad or good) was motivated by one thing only: her beloved son, so in that sense she is compassionate and does have a heart. While Ada did a good job portraying the many facets of Jiu Yook, including her transformation to the mellow, I-live-for-nothing-now-that-my-son-is-dead woman... there is something that isn't quite right with her. It could have been a breakthrough role, but in my opinion Ada was wrongly cast. Gigi Lai's performance gave me the shock of my life. She has never been on the top of my 'Actress to Watch' list, especially after her horribly overrated and overacting performance in War and Beauty (W&B). She's a sweet girl in real life, but she is one of TVB's ugliest criers (along with Flora Chan, Yoyo Mung, and Tavia Yeung). Thank goodness she only has one or two short crying scenes in DOP. In fact, she is exceptional in here and I commend this series for changing my opinion of her. Kai Ming Fung was my favourite character of this series, and Gigi gave her depth, strength, intelligence, and plenty of personality. Dare I say, she delivers the series' strongest female performance. Charmaine Sheh is in her 700th role as the weak, quiet waif and delivers nothing extraordinary. With that said, she has surprisingly excellent chemistry with Moses Chan and her friendship chemistry with Gigi Lai (who her character rivalled in W&B) is equally phenomenal. There are times when she whines too much as Chun Fun, but in general she gains the audience's sympathy with her character's many troubles. I have never really liked Maggie Siu, probably because she often plays icy characters (Healing Hands, At the Threshold of an Era) and even comes off as cold and unfriendly in real life. But I felt she gave a very nice performance here as the gentle, devoted wife Long Yuet. She was equally good when her character became a little stronger and smarter when she had to take over the family's leadership role. Good chemistry with Kenny Wong too. Kenny Wong, the least well-known member of the main cast, gives a good performance of a useless man. Not great, but adequate. But I have two words for him: Button up. No one needs to see your bare chest for more than one episode, thanks. Bowie Lam was excellent as usual. His performance was somewhat overshadowed by other actors whose performances improved so much in this series from past performances (Gigi Lai, Moses Chan, Maggie Siu, even Charmaine Sheh). Bowie, on the other hand, is consistently excellent. In particular, he made a very convincing deaf man who spent much of his life concealing the fact that he was deaf. He also has great chemistry with the entire cast. Moses Chan was a shocker too. I have never liked him in drama, but here he proves that he has improved a lot. He made a lovely couple with Charmaine Sheh's Chun Fun and achieves a remarkable balance between controlled emotion and explosive anger as Dong Yeung that I can only describe as shocking. I guess this series proves that many in TVB can act, as long as they're in the right role. Ke-le-fe nominated for Most Improved Actress Chow Ka Yee was wonderful as Siu Kam. Her performance was impressive simply because she was able to effectively emote even though she was behind a scarf 90% of the time. The older actress who plays Kwai Laan was also really good. Chan Hung Lit's accent is annoying as hell but he is one competent veteran actor and this series proves is once again. The one glaringly bad performance in this series comes from Chung King Fai, who plays Yim Lo Ye. A true pity because he is the oldest actor (and supposedly the veteran one of the cast). Why was he so awful? Because he seemed like a jolly old man, like Santa Claus almost. Yim Lo Ye is supposed to be cold, calculative, and unbelievably chauvinistic, but I see no sign of that kind of sinister intelligence in Chung King Fai's performance. I can only imagine what Lo Hoi Pang would have done with this role. There is also something wrong with the way Chung talks, like his speech is rhythmically wrong. I can't quite explain it. Basically when he talks there are unnatural pauses and he also speaks way too slowly – by the end of his sentences my eyes have already glazed over! Rebecca Chan's totally blank expression as his mentally disabled sister was more interesting to watch.
[此贴子已经被作者于2006-11-27 18:02:28编辑过]
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发表于 2006-11-27 17:59:18
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发表于 2006-11-28 00:39:40
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Thanks for the feedback! 