A Fist Within Four Walls (城寨英雄) is a Hong Kong TV drama made by TVB that aired from the 1st to 28 August 2016.
About
Bearing the grief of losing his family, Chor Au-kuen returns to the Kowloon Walled City in hopes of finding his long lost sister, only to find that the very place he grew up in has become a lawless no man’s land.
The show won numerous awards across Asia.
Official Music Video
Cast
This feels like a “Who’s Who” of TVB dramas, including:
Ruco Chan (陳展鵬) as Chiu Yeung/Chor Au Kuen
A very buy actor currently on multiple productions per year. He appears to be a very “newsworthy” actor concerning his personal life and relationship to property investment in Malaysia.
Instagram | My The Righteous Fists Review
Benjamin Yuen (袁偉豪) as Duen Ying Fung
He is a winner of the Mr Hong Hong beauty contest in 2007 and a model. He was in the top 3 of a martial arts contest, so I understand. We hadn’t seen him in anything else prior to “Fist”.
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Nancy Wu (胡定欣) as Tiu Lan
She finished in the top 4 of TVB’s 18th Annual New Talent Singing Awards in 1999. In 2008, filmed in Hunan, she participated in Strictly Come Dancing Season Two. Quite a busy actress appearing in many TVB productions.
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Philip Ng (伍允龙) as Lung Shing Fu
He has appeared in numerous Hong Kong TVB shows and also numerous shows as Action Director and Martial Arts Choreographer.
Instagram | Ng Family Chinese Martial Arts Association | My The Righteous Fists Review
In this interview Philip mentions A Fist Within Four Walls (it’s in English):
Yuen Qiu (元秋) as Yuk Bo Fung
Appeared in many films since 1972. She trained under the same martial artist master as Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung Kam Bo. She is also has Beijing opera skills. Before she was an actress in films she was a stunt woman and as a student rescuing James Bond in The Man With The Golden Gun movie with Roger Moore.
My The Righteous Fists Review
Grace Wong (王君馨) as Fa Man
Another regular of TVB dramas. She grew up in Brooklyn and Queens then went to Hong Kong on an exchange program at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
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She also sings:
Review
It was certainly one of the best TVB dramas we have ever seen.
The story line was good, a little typical of a TVB drama of that caliber, and quite similar to The Righteous Fists in a way. I thought “oh, they are going to knock off that character before the series ends” and they did. There were a lot of story arcs with romances and relationship challenges.
If you like martial arts TV shows then this is one for you. The outtakes at the end of each show provided some insight at how they created them and for a couple of the actors, who are not quite whippersnappers anymore, it must have been quite a challenge for them. Certainly more agile than me.
The set was great, very realistic. Some had been reused from previous dramas, or we had seen them in drama’s to come.
The story arcs challenged the actors abilities as well, not just from a martial arts perspective but also how they got into different emotions. Philip Ng’s character was very different to that of The Righteous Fists playing anything from scary to “kind of” romantic.
The things I didn’t like about the show:
- Yuen Qiu’s character was nicknamed “Thai Hag”, I don’t think it was necessary to hear that through every single episode. If I was the scriptwriter I would have excluded that or have the character reprimand others for saying it.
- Even though the character was evil he was put down in a vulgar way for being gay, several times. At that point in the show I questioned whether I should finish it off. In the UK this would have generated quite a few complaints to the TV company, realistic of the times or not.
Summary
Overall, a brilliant “must watch” show but will mark them down for the two issues I had with it. I will give them 4/5.
Where To Watch
I watched this show on TubiTV, they have quite a few Hong Kong drama’s on there.
More Information
View a trailer, other information and stills from the show at the TVB Anywhere website.