"Captain of Destiny" Review

I had originally dropped "Captain of Destiny" after five episodes on the first try, but after having a few friends tell me it gets better, I decided to give it another shot. Next thing I knew, I had binge watched the rest in four days.

After a slow and rough start that makes "Captain" seem like much more of a joke than it really turned out to be, it develops into one of the better and most entertaining series of the year. Unfortunately, by then, most viewers had already tuned out, as evidenced by its low ratings.

Cast-wise, it is easily understood why people were hesitant and turned off by the decision to cast Grace Chan as the female lead and Tony Hung as the titular "Cheung Po Tsai."

Grace can get very irritating as "Wong Tai-Mui" with her widening eyes and love for screaming her lines, particularly in the early episodes. She does tone down more as the series goes on and becomes much more bearable as the focus shifts more to Ruco Chan. Do I still think she has potential? Sure, but it was definitely too early for her to receive a lead role. I thought she was quite natural in "Raising the Bar," and although she has a stronger and more assertive character here, her acting seems to have even retrograded a bit. Wong Tai-Mui could still be likable overall, but I especially disliked her whenever she was so quick to think the worst of the 11th prince. I understand having hesitations, but how about not blatantly accusing someone of framing or murdering someone without getting any information first? Aren't you supposed to be a cop?

I am genuinely surprised by the criticism Tony received for his performance here, even though the harshest criticism was mostly directed towards Grace. As much as I like Tony as a host and ove
rall person, I had huge concerns for him coming into this series. However, I thoroughly enjoyed him as "Cheung Po Tsai" once we got past the silliness of the first few episodes. Tony was able to use his real-life playfulness and easygoing personality to play the titular character with humor and fun. His emotional scenes are unsurprisingly more raw, but the only scene I felt was particularly weak was one in the later part of the series where he confronts Ruco's character from jail. In the end, I'm not sad that Raymond Wong had to pull out of the series, but happy with the way things turned out for Tony. I'll probably receive some flack for this, but I finished this series thinking he did indeed deserve the Most Improved Actor award.

Ruco's role was increased to pick up the slack that came with casting less experienced actors such as Grace and Tony, and of course, he once again rises to the challenge. He nails the "stern but kind" role, where he was much more domineering and intimidating in the beginning before softening to become the passionate and intelligent 11th prince we loved. Timing-wise, I did think this was the right year for Ruco to win Best Actor. But even as the huge Ruco fan I am, even I must admit that solely performance-wise, this character was not a challenge for him and did not provide him with new material. I was however slightly surprised by his performance as the Bandit King, "Bowie." He needs to play another one of these baddie characters!

The rest of the cast performances are a mixed bag. Joel Chan and Mandy Wong may have been third supporting characters who didn't appear until almost halfway through the series, but they were both very entertaining and unpredictable, which is hard to come by with TVB's trite love trianKelly Fu's acting is still raw with a lot of room for improvement, but she surprisingly did not ever annoy me much. While she was overly naive and kept accidentally getting into trouble in the beginning, I came to appreciate her and Otto Chan's loyalty and confidence in Ruco, and how the three really became friends. Maggie Shiu was enjoyable and a reliable supporting actress as usual. Ocean Zhu's character was just plain weird and could have been eliminated. I ended up being most disappointed by Elaine Yiu's performance having already known she received the Best Supporting Actress award for it. She would just give her best resting bitch face and say her lines in a catty way, and I stared at the screen wondering "She won an acting award for this?"

"Captain of Destiny"'s largest problem lies in the disjointedness of its two storylines: the storyline between the pirates, and Ruco's palatial drama. Both have their distinct strengths, as the pirates' provided humor and lightheartedness, while Ruco's storyline balanced it out with more substantial drama. However, it makes the viewer feel like they're watching two completely different series and made for some awkward scene transitions. There could be a very serious scene involving Ruco and his military, and then we would transition into a scene where Grace was being chased around by the pirates in white "ghost" costumes. It is not until around 20 episodes in before Ruco even meets Tony and Grace.

Another major problem the series has is its plot holes and sloppy writing, particularly when it came to the romantic storylines. I understand that romance was not the focus on the series nor should it have been, but since the writers decided to include it, they should have done a better job. Grace is shown clearly falling for both Tony and Ruco and mulling over her feelings for the two men, but then all of a sudden shows that she only loves Tony. Ruco is portrayed as heartbroken over Grace, and then all of a sudden expresses an interest in Kelly, who returns the interest. This isn't a messy love triangle. This is just bad writing, and it seems like the writers changed their minds midway through writing the script, but could not have been bothered to go back and make the revisions. With that said, to my genuine surprise, I quite liked Tony and Grace together, as their relationship was allowed to grow from friendship. Any love line involving Ruco though, was thrown together very haphazardly.

Perhaps the even bigger concern people had going into the series was not the cast, but the CGI effects. Although it could still be obvious what was CGI and what was not, the effects were definitely much better than expected and the battle scene was very well-done. The series may have had many flaws, but the visual effects ended up not being one of them.

Despite its weaknesses though, "Captain of Destiny" is one of the most entertaining series of the year. It can easily be binge-watched if you just make it past the first few episodes because it has good pacing and still has many elements a solid series should have, including some interesting characters, comedy, drama, a little action, and some romance (as haphazard as it was). With all the mediocre series this year, "Captain" should not be completely written off because of its less-experienced leads and rough beginning. It is still very much a grand production.

Rating: 3.5 stars

TVB 48th Anniversary Awards: Results + Comments

This is probably the most entertaining awards show TVB has had in a while. TVB really cheaped out this year by just using their own artists to present all the awards. Surprisingly, this was actually a great move because the banter between the actors was for the most part entertaining. This was probably because all these actors are colleagues and have all worked with each other at some point, so the humor and usual stalling before the announcement of the winner was a lot more natural.  In TVB's continued effort to try to prove they are fair, once again, there were no truly shocking winners.

Most Improved Actor and Actress: Tony Hung and Grace Chan

Although I normally hate when it takes them forever to present an award, the whole bit with the heart rate monitors was a lot of fun, and was my favorite part of the night. The build up to Most Improved Actor was especially fun and gave the audience so many funny and entertaining moments. My favorite moments (the best translations I could provide with my shoddy Cantonese):

Matt: (on why he chose Katy Kung to come up to the stage) Because she looks pretty tonight, and she normally doesn't.
*Katy gives a fake offended look*
Wong Cho Lam: I demand you to come up here!
Sammy Leung: I demand you to sit down!
WCL: I demand you to come up here and hit him!

WCL: Don't even need to ask, Jennifer Shum right?
Benjamin: *quietly and politely* Yes, please.

Priscilla: The most improved actor of the year is...Natalie Tong, the person next to her!

No surprises at all for either the male or female winner. I really was hoping Tracy or Rosina would win but knew Tracy's chances flew out the window when I realized she couldn't even make it to the ceremony. (Side note: Tracy has recently gone back to school full-time to earn a Master's, so I wouldn't be surprised if she had to miss the ceremony to study for or take finals. So relatable right?) With that said, I'm not about to riot over Grace's win or anything, but I do hope she stops screaming all her lines.

While I do think Tony's win is also premature, I think it is also worth commending that he has rose up to the challenge for his first two lead roles, both of which he stepped in last minute after the originally casted actors pulled out. This is a huge contrast to actresses such as Aimee Chan and Niki Chow who have almost always had tailor-made roles for them to help cover up their weaknesses. His acceptance speech was probably my favorite of the night and made me happy he won, even if I do think it's still a year too early. He was humble but humorous, and I especially loved when he thanked Ruco, "the brother he loves and hates," and not only thanking, but apologizing to his family and friends for not being able to spend time with them recently because he has been busy working. I'm also happy Priscilla presented the award to him, and in true Priscilla and Tony-style banter, refused to actually say his name.

Best Supporting Actor and Actress: Wai Ka Hung for "Lord of Shanghai" and Elaine Yiu for "Captain of Destiny"

This came extremely out of the blue for me since I did not watch "Lord of Shanghai," but you know it was definitely a deserving win when Wai Ka Hung got the biggest standing ovation of the night from his colleagues. It makes me happy when actors who have been working tirelessly at TVB for many years (in his case, over 20) earn recognition. I can't help but notice the people who receive the biggest and most wholehearted standing ovations and cheers at the awards are for actors who have been working for a very long time without recognition, such as Ram and Elena in recent years. In contrast, the applause for Grace was very calm and seemed more out of general courtesy. We can all agree that we should be mature and not petty, but it must hurt when you've been working hard for so long while seeing someone else near you have a picture perfect career and raise to the top...

Elaine is a decent actress who TVB has never really given good opportunities to, so it's a shame when she finally gets promoted and wins this award, it's for a year she underwhelmed and disappointed. All I can say is, I'm glad she didn't win for her screen time-hogging annoying character with the chronic stink-eye in "Raising the Bar." I hope TVB will give her more of a variety of roles instead of the cold, detached characters. I honestly wonder if TVB really wanted to give her this award, or they really couldn't think of anyone else.

My Favorite Male and Female Characters: Ruco Chan for "Captain of Destiny" and Kristal Tin for "Ghost of Relativity"

When Ruco's name was called, I honestly didn't know whether to feel happy for his win, or disappointed because I knew at that point he had lost the race for Best Actor. You can tell he must have felt conflicted too. He still gave a mature and eloquent speech and I'm sure he is grateful for his fans and for winning his first award, but there was still a visible sadness. But I will focus on the positive side instead and say, I'm so happy Ruco has finally won his first award in Hong Kong. Congratulations Ruco, but you'll always be my favorite. ;)

Kristal's win was not a surprise, and the fact that she has a "Been there, done that attitude" about Best Actress and was so supportive of her "Ghost" co-star meant she was a much better sport than usual winners of this award instead of giving the infamous "black face." She is definitely the most gifted comedic actress TVB has right now. Though, TVB really doesn't want to give this award to Linda huh?

Best Actor and Actress: Anthony Wong for "Lord of Shanghai" and Nancy Wu for "Ghost of Relativity"

If Ruco was going to lose Best Actor to anyone, I'm glad it was to a critically-acclaimed actor like Anthony and not a less experienced and unworthy actor. Once again, I did not watch "Lord" so I cannot personally comment. Although after this and Dayo's truly shocking 2013 win, I'm starting to think TVB is taking this whole "Let's prove to the audience we don't play favorites and are fair" a bit too seriously...

It was obvious Nancy was going to win Best Actress after Kristal won Favorite Character. I'm still a little annoyed she has gotten so much attention for one of her weaker performances. However, the genuinely dazed and shocked reaction Nancy gave before tearing up was truly touching. I also like that she acknowledged that her performance in "Ghost" left a lot of room for improvement. This win also means that Nancy has worked up from winning Most Improved in 2008, to Best Supporting Actress in 2013, to finally Best Actress this year. Is there anyone else who has done this? Now here's to hoping Nancy doesn't fall victim to the "becomes boring after getting promoted to lead actress" curse...

Best Drama: "Lord of Shanghai"

Deserved. Glad TVB didn't decide to give it to "Captain" or pull a completely BS move and give it to "Ghost."


Best Classic Drama: "The Greed of Man"

*breathes a sigh of relief TVB didn't give it to "Triumph in the Skies" or pull another BS move by giving it to "Brother's Keeper" to drum up anticipation for the sequel*


Best Theme Song: Jinny Ng's subtheme for "The Empress of China"

The one BS move TVB decided to make. This category has existed for two years, and Jinny has now won twice. Should we just rename it the Jinny Ng award next year? At least last year's win for the "Line Walker" subtheme made sense, but this was just clear favoritism.

And just for fun, other moments during the awards show I found noteworthy and funny:

• Tavia, Nancy, and Sharon presenting Best Supporting Actress and stating how all the winners of this award had to play tragic roles, except for Elena who essentially just got to make out with Kenneth in her winning series.
• Kristal seems like such a fun, goofy, and straightforward person and was hilarious when she presented. I loved when she was joking about how she has caused so many good things to happen to all her male co-stars. Also loved when Anthony told her they had actually worked together before, but she said she was so intimidated by him that she blocked it out of her memory. Then she proceeded to yell at him for being so preoccupied with talking to her when it was his acceptance speech.
• Ruco and Wayne's banter was much more subtle than the others, but still funny and enjoyable. These two totally need to collaborate (and Wayne in a role where he doesn't just spend the whole time screaming). 
• When Benz called out Ben, Kenny, and Evergreen, and for not greeting Dodo by calling them his "elders."
• Everybody eating fried chicken, some people with gloves. This was obviously some promotional tactic (guessing KFC sponsors TVB), but it was still funny. I wonder if they got the idea from when Ellen ordered pizza at the Oscar's...

How do you feel about this year's winners? Were there any other moments you enjoyed from the awards show?

"Raising the Bar" Review

I knew going in "Raising the Bar" would not be case-driven, which allowed me to enjoy it a lot more. However, as a heavily character-driven series, there was very little character growth despite the great potential for it.

First, let's look at the titular "four girls"…

After having experienced sexual harassment by her former mentor, Giselle Tong gave up the year of training she already completed to pursue her ultimate dream of being a barrister. Of all the girls, the real female lead Grace Chan had most potential for a dynamic storyline. I had looked forward to see the intelligent, sweet, ever hardworking, but somewhat reserved Giselle mature and become a great lawyer throughout the series. However, after the first few episodes which heavily focus on Marcus (played by Ben Wong) teaching new pupils Giselle and Quinton (played by Louis Cheung), this storyline is thrown into the background and largely implied. By the end, we don't necessarily feel like she hasn't grown as a person or lawyer, but that we had just missed out on seeing it, and that is a shame.

As an actress, I did not find Grace to be bad in her debut performance in "Overachievers. Yet, she and the character left a sour taste in my mouth and I dreaded seeing her here, especially as she was paired up with one of my favorite actors. Thankfully though, I liked her much more here and only had one major problem with her performance. Giselle did not learn English until she was in 8th grade, yet her English is perfect. I have a lot of trouble believing she could learn at such a stage without even a hint of an accent.

Coming in second in terms of screen time is Brittany Fok, played by Jeannie Chan, who surprisingly went from my most disliked character to one of my favorites. This is mainly because in the episodes that focus on her, Brittany is really the only one who goes through any substantial character development. This is rather ironic as she is the only girl already practicing at the start of the series. Starting off as a spoiled rich girl who treated her friends like dirt (especially Yiu Chui-Fa), midway through the series she matures to become a much sweeter and considerate person while still being assertive and confident. It is quick, but still happens reasonably. I absolutely hated watching Brittany in the early episodes, but enjoyed seeing her become humbled at work, and having that spread to her personal life as well.

Jeannie comes off heavily pretentious in her performance early on (then again, it is in-character) but becomes likable and more natural in the second half. I also loved the character's fun but still professional wardrobe the times her outfits weren't dominated by huge bows.

Newcomer Moon Lau is the most pitiful - and by pitiful, I mean I feel bad that Moon got a character that has no personality for her debut performance. Holly Tsang is nice, is said to be diligent at work, and seems to be a pretty good friend. However, there's really not much else to her. She is bland and boring, and though Moon was decent for a newcomer and neither wooden or exaggerative, there isn't much anyone could do to save the dull character.

The wedding storyline with her and Jayden is the most jarring of the series.  Holly already knew Jayden was cheating. Even more confusing was Jayden's perspective. He did not get Holly pregnant, is a self-proclaimed player, and was not a rich son being pressured to get married by his parents. Why marry her then? What gives guys? I am however vey relieved the writers did not put her into the love triangle with Grace and Louis, instead opting for her to be the friend who observes the obvious attraction the two had for each other and trying to push them together.

The most underused female character is Stephanie Ho's Yiu Chui-Fa, who is mostly around for comic relief. Following her and Lincoln (King Lam) becoming a couple, her screen time becomes virtually nonexistent (Apparently in this series, once you had a storyline that focused heavily on you, you got banished to the sidelines). While Ah Fa may have been irritating played by another actress, Stephanie is absolutely adorable and hilarious, shining in her few scenes. I loved any scenes or interactions that featured her with her mentor Duncan (Timothy Cheng) and love interest Lincoln. Unfortunately, she has absolutely zero development, especially as a lawyer. She's just the funny and cute short girl that fades into the background the second half. My favorite part about the series though is her ridiculously catchy and fun theme song, which is reminiscent of those for older warm and lighthearted TVB series from the 2000s.

Now the titular "Three Bars"...

The three bars refer to the three law firms, headed by mentors Ben, Elaine Yiu and Ram Chiang, and Timothy. All have minimal screen time, and unfortunately the one with the most is also the most irritating and unnecessary to watch.

Ben surprisingly has a few very comical moments in the series, but for the most part has little to do. I did like the balance between him being shown to be very professional and intelligent at work, yet still rather laid back with friends and at home.

Portraying the funny and charming Duncan Yam, Timothy's character and performance was a nice change of pace for an actor who is usually stuck in evil roles. He had great comedic timing in the few scenes that allowed him to show it. On his own, he is great. Yet his and Natalie Tong's storyline is left mostly vague only to be suddenly put together in the end. Natalie is given too "cool" and mature of a character here, and the result is that the usually youthful and natural actress comes off as pretentious and cold instead of professional and reserved due to her tough childhood.

No complaints on Ram's character and performance as the kind and lighthearted solicitor Woody Lam here, other than he does not get enough screen time. But then there's his firm partner Elaine Yiu…

Elaine wins the award for least likable lead. On paper, the character is already hard to warm up to, always giving everyone including her own husband the stink eye, except bookstore owner Don. Vivian is unsympathetic, cold, and treats an otherwise great and understanding husband unfairly. Their affair was incredibly unnecessary and a waste of time that could have been allocated to the development of the four girls instead. Performance-wise, she perpetually gives everyone the resting bitch face and like Natalie, seems to think acting professional means acting cold and pretentious.

And finally, the two guys…

It would have been amusing if the Chinese title was translated to "Four Girls, Three Bars, and Two Boys." It is not, which does not seem fair to Louis and King's characters, but I digress.

Aside from Giselle, Louis' "Quinton Chow" also had the most potential for great character growth. He is implied to be around 30 years old and having already worked in the construction and engineering field for several years. Despite this, he gives up what he already has worked for in favor of pursuing his dream of becoming a barrister. It sounds like the story of considerable sacrifice, hardship, and questions of whether Quinton made the right choice. He breaks down once early on as he starts to follow Marcus and becomes overwhelmed with his new path. However, afterwards, he seems to easily float through. By the time he becomes a barrister, we are under the impression his career change was a piece of cake. I didn't want a bunch of emotional scenes, but I did want to see Quinton grow as a student of the law and eventual barrister and feel at least a little rewarded at the end when he is finally shown in the wig and gown.

With that said, Quinton is still perfectly lovable enough. Having portrayed many heavy semi-vilain roles lately, Louis appears very comfortable and laid back here. It was nice to see a quirky and playful side of him, especially when he would lovingly talk to his plants and speak about aliens to his parents. I enjoyed his scenes with Grace. The friendship turned mutual romantic feelings came about rather organically. I loved when he playfully pushed Grace to admit she is "Black Angel" with the stuffed bear (which ended up in hilarious awkwardness for him when she gives it to Brittany). Louis makes Quinton a very endearing character to watch even though the writing of the character leaves much to be desired.

"The Voice" alumni King Lam is a surprising treat to watch as the slightly goofy but goodhearted and
blunt lawyer with a crush on Ah Fa. I loved whenever he wasn't afraid to speak his mind in situations even when not exactly appropriate. (For example, the scene where he suddenly yells at the girl who flushed her baby down the toilet that she had given birth to a kid, not a piece of BBQ pork honestly had me laughing so hard). I was sad to see his screen time was significantly reduced by the final episodes.

Louis and King round out the dominantly female friend group well, and make the friendship aspect more dynamic. I loved the scenes the two shared together, especially whenever they would make fun of each other about the girls they had feelings for.

Overall Thoughts

The few cases that the series manages to churn out are either boring, convenient (such as the case of Brittany's family friend getting acquitted of assault against his mistress with CCTV footage), or sloppily concluded (such as the compensated dating and rape case). As a result, I'm still looking for another great legal drama from TVB.

As for the series itself, the script apparently decides they want to focus on the friendship of the four girls and to a lesser extent, the two guys. I would have been welcoming of that, only this focus on friendship is largely on superficial things like them going on trips together (Do pupils and trainee lawyers have that much free time?). I don't doubt they are all great friends, but it is all skin deep and fails to show any deep connections. This is not necessary for a series in general, but I believe this is necessary for a series that decides to be so character and friendship-driven, or else you have little of any substance.

"Raising the Bar" ends up being the stringing together of some entertaining and fun scenes between the core friend group and some bad story lines. The cast is too large, which led to a strange allocation of screen time. After 23 episodes of not doing much, the finale also strangely decides to shove in a large rape case against a main character, a parent's death, another parent dying of illness, a wedding, and two surprise cameos from Tony Hung and William Chak. Other than that, the series is easy to watch while easily forgettable. This is the norm for TVB lately, but what makes it disappointing in this case is that it could have been something much more.

Rating: 3 stars