Personal Blog - Steven D Rowe

Flying Tiger Season Three

Flying Tiger Season 3 (飛虎之壯志英雄) is an action and crime orientated TV series from Hong Kong.

About

The show lasted 30 episodes, it started airing on 16th December 2021 and finished on 11th January 2022, it was broadcast every day Monday through Sunday, seven days a week.

A deadly biological weapon is being made in Hong Kong and threatens the world, it is linked to a number of kidnappings to ensure the virus gets into the hands of a previously unknown secret organisation.

Cast

The regular actors of this show are back. Same actors, different characters.

Michael Miu (苗僑偉) plays Xu Jun Fei
Very extensive portfolio of shows, he started his career in the 1980s and he is now in his mid-60s, although he looks much younger.

Bosco Wong (黃宗澤) plays Zhang Jia Xuan
Actor and singer, his career began in 2003. A popular actor with a long list of shows that he has been in. Often works alongside Ron Ng, as per this show.

Ron Ng (吳卓羲) as Gao Zi Le
An actor and singer who started his career in 1998. A long list of shows and movies to his name. Currently working on a Movie and a TV show.

Oscar Leung (梁競徽) as Hui Sam
He seems more of a character actor to me. His career started in 2000. Always look forward his talent appearing in numerous TV shows.

Review

Flying Tigers season 1 was brilliant. Season 2 wasn’t very good at all, I almost gave up on it. Season 3 restored my faith in the show, it was a very decent send-off to what I envisage to be the last season.

Season 2 was slow and boring but Season 3 was more action orientated. Some episodes were quite slow as though they were fillers to ensure the story would reach 30 episodes.

Every one of these types of shows appears to have stock phrases, whether it be Flying Tiger or Line Walker, about how dedicated and disciplined they are to the criminal justice system.

The show was written and planned out well, it can be split into two. First, there are the altercations with a terrorist group, then a race to make the biological weapon and related kidnappings.

From the start, we had our suspicions about whether a leading character was good or bad and as each episode went by more details would be forthcoming about how bad he is. Yes, he turned out to be very bad indeed, yet cared about those who had known him for a long time. Halfway through the series they introduced another bad character who we had envisaged to be good as well and this was a good twist in the tale.

There is a mix of action, romance and heartbreak. The action scenes were very well done, above average for a show like this. They probably should have named the origin country of the terrorist group something simpler but I’m pleased they chose an imaginary country rather than be political. The last 3 episodes were pretty good, just when you think it’s all over….!

I would give it a 4/5. It was very enjoyable and I didn’t fall asleep once.

Resources

TVB Weekly (in Chinese)
Baidu Hong Kong (in Chinese)
TubiTV (only available in some locations)
TVB Anywhere North America

Where To Watch

Previous seasons were made available to the West pretty quickly but not sure why this took some time. However, I saw this on TubiTV, see the link above.

Steven2023-09-18T23:37:01+00:0018 September 2023|Review Hong Kong|

Ham in a Can

I remember eating “canned” type food, that were non-vegetables, in the 1960s, so I thought I would try current day canned Ham.

Background

Back in the day, pies in a can were very popular and in fact don’t recall fresh versions in the freezer or fridge sections in supermarkets. On the whole, my mother made fresh pies but now and again we had Fray Bentos. They are still around and appear to have extended their range. I wonder if people still buy them as part of their regular meals or just consumed by the curious to see what they are like, and maybe never buy them again. I recall my family buying tinned Corned Beef, not the US kind but UK version, I wasn’t a big fan of it, the fresh version was ok.

Swift Ham (In A Can)

The “canned Ham” I bought was by a company called Swift. I have never heard of them before but looking them up on their website they do a range of Deli type products that are designed for the refrigerator. In the “Quick Meals” section they have frozen pies, and they also produce sausages for Hot Dogs and Bacon (that is Streaky Bacon). I’ve not seen any of their products in the local stores here, just the canned Ham which was on sale at the time.

I’m not sure why we ended up with three, I thought we only bought two. However, we did open one up to our deep regret. A lot of water came out. The ham was like a blob of ungorgeousness that really didn’t smell or even look like ham. I decided to taste a little and it was like no ham I’ve ever had before, it was gross and sickly. To give it another chance, I cut a little off and decided to warm it up in the frying pan which didn’t improve it at all.

I decided to throw it away only having eaten a tiny piece of it. What do I do with the other two unopened cans? Should I give them away to a Food Bank? I’m not sure I would want to wish that on anyone but I will do that. Maybe there is someone out there that can make something of it.

Please don’t let my review put you off trying their products, what is not good for me might be okay for others. On the Walmart website, it receives good reviews, mostly.

Steven2023-09-13T23:30:22+00:0013 September 2023|Food|

A League of Nobleman

A League of Nobleman (君子盟) is a Chinese TV show broadcast between January and February 2023 by Tencent.

About

Zhang Ping is an orphan who is in Beijing to take the civil service entrance exam but due to lack of money makes noodles to sell on the street. Lan Jue is a minister who hides a secret about his youth and his Father’s death. Zhang Ping, has a knack for his being a detective and helps Lan Jue solve a case, and their partnership, rough and smooth, takes off from there.

Cast

Jing Bo Ran (井柏然) as Lan Jue
He is an actor and singer, who formed the duet “BoBo” with Fu Xin Bo. His career began in 2009 and has taken off from there. He is 1/8th Russian.

Song Wei Long (宋威龙) as Zhang Ping
He is an actor and model. He signed up to be a model around about 2015. Then in 2016 he was in his first TV drama; Demon Girl, Season 2.

Review

I thought this was a very well done decent drama.

The main story was good with a few story arcs within it of them trying to solve one main case and other smaller cases seemed interconnected in some way.

There was drama, comedy and some action/suspense. There was some good special effects in some of the “dream sequences”. There were people to love and people to dislike completely.

The introductory theme was mainly drum beats with some whooshing here and there, but it was short and didn’t take up too much of the show like some others. The end theme varied a little bit, from time to time.

The set seemed quite familiar, no doubt many of them are filmed in a similar location.

The last 3 or more cliffhanger episodes were quite well done and exciting as everything reached its climax.

I wish they had made the drama longer.

My Score

I would give it a 4/5. Something was missing but not quite sure what.

Where Can I Watch

I watched it on Viki but it can also be found on WeTV, Prime Video (not sure what countries) and Tencent Video.

Steven2023-09-01T23:16:10+00:001 September 2023|Review China|

Eastern Bandits

Eastern Bandits aka An Inaccurate Memoir [匹夫] is a Chinese movie by Beijing Enlight Pictures, released on 23rd April 2012.

About

Set during the Japanese invasion of China, Gao seeks revenge trying to assassinate a visiting commander. Gao encounters a local mafia, a group of bandits, lead by Fang. Fang has a devoted band of followers, who are also his friend, including his sister. They work together to infiltrate the Japanese.

Cast

Huang Ziao Ming [黄晓明] as Fang
A popular actor with a long list of movie and TV show credits although I don’t recall seeing him before. On the gossip side, he married Angelababy (not sure who she is) in 2015 and they were divorced by 2022.
Not sure if this old “official” Instagram account belongs to the actor.

Yi Zhang [张译] as Gao
I recall seeing one movie he was in before, One Second. He has a long list of films, TV series as well.

Review

The opening was fine and I initially had high hopes for the movie, however, it went downhill after a short wile.

On the positive side there was a good balance of drama, action or comedy.

The cinema photography was good, especially with the overhead shots of the view of the mountains. The acting was pretty good, at least thats how they all came across.

It’s biggest let down was the musical score, in my opinion, it just didn’t match what was going on. It felt as though it was trying to be a Chinese cowboy movie which totally didn’t work.

The saving grace was the comical scenes.

I will give it a generous 3/5.

Where Can I Watch

The movie can be found on Tubi. Not sure where else.

Trailer

Steven2023-08-15T21:49:47+00:0015 August 2023|Review China|

Troubleshooter

Troubleshooter (해결사), aka Trapped, is a South Korean movie that was originally released on 9th September 2010, the duration is 1 hour and 40 minutes.

About

When Private Eye Kang Tae Shik enters a motel to take pictures of a couple for an unknown client he finds someone who has been murdered. At the scene a video plays of the actual murder. The video will show Kang Tae Shik’s innocence but a disembodied voice blackmails him into doing a “job” before he is able to get the evidence. Then life turns very chaotic for the ex-Detective.

Cast

Sol Kyang Gu (설경구) as Kang Tae Shik
He has been making files since 1996 and has won numerous awards.

Lee Jung Jin (이정진) as Jang Pil Ho
He has appeared in more TV shows than films, as far back as 1998. I see that he was in the daily comedy/sitcom SoonPoong Clinic which ran for 682 episodes.

Review

The movie was actually pretty good.

The script was good. The film explains bit by bit what the “job” entails. I wasn’t quite sure where it was leading up to but I will give a hint, dodgy politicians are involved.

There was quite a bit of action and anybody wanting that would be satisfied with this movie. There wasn’t any unique elements of action as I’ve seen it all done bore but it was enjoyable and most of it family friendly.

The best bits for me were the comedy especially from actor Lee Sung Min. At first I was really fooled into thinking he was a scary character then a little later he turned into the comedy element. That part was well done.

All the actors did a pretty good job especially the cute daughter taking no nonsense from her incompetent Father.

I don’t actually remember the theme score or the incidental music.

I’m not sure I would watch it again.

I will give it a 4/5.

Where To Watch

This movie is available on Tubi. I haven’t seen it anywhere else.

Trailer

Steven2023-08-10T21:52:58+00:0010 August 2023|Review South Korea|

New Fong Sai-yuk: The Beginning

New Fong Sai-yuk: The Beginning (新方世玉前传侠者无畏) is a Chinese film that was released in 2020, it is 1 hour and 25 minutes long, or kind of short really.

This film has a number of English-translated titles such as:

New Fong Sai-Yuk Prequel
Fang Shi Yu
New Fong Sai Yuk: Battle In Cliff City

About

Fang Shi Yu and his father Fang De visit Hangzhou City to buy goods, however, gets into a fight with the overlord’s assistant and then goes into hiding with Qui Ming in a fabric store until the dust settles. However, the situation escalates when the overlord’s demands on “taxes” go too far.

Actually, the above is my version of the film description but other summaries I’ve seen appear to be much more complex.

Cast

Narisu Bai (白那日苏) as Fang Shi Yu
Not seen him in any other products but appears to have a steady stream of acting jobs.
He studied martial arts since childhood and studied in Japan for 5 years. Fluent in Japanese, English and Mongolian. He is very sporty.

Su Yue (苏月) as Qiu Ming
She appeared in The Untamed, which I’ve heard of, but also Moonshine and Valentine which we saw quite a few years ago.

Norman Chui (徐少強) as Fang De (Shi Yu’s father)
He is from Hong Kong and has appeared in many productions including ones we’ve seen like The Enchanting Phantom, Word of Honor, and Fights Break Sphere

There were other great actors in this film, too many to mention here. The actress who played the Mother (Whirlwind) was brilliant although I can’t find out who she is, she is awfully familiar though.

Review

The film is only 88 minutes in length and I have the feeling it might just be a “Made for TV” one, if it is the case it’s one of the rare good quality ones.

There was martial arts, action, drama and a lot of comedy. It probably has something for everyone. The fight scenes were actually pretty good, and not too overtly violent which is more towards my level of things. Narisu Bai knows martial arts so I suspect this might be one reason why he was chosen for it.

I enjoyed some of the tech items of this century and how they made Flintstone versions of them in the film, such as the telephone and scooters.

Its one downside was the incidental music which at some points was boring and repetitive.

I will give this movie a 4/5.

Where Can I Watch

I watched over Viki but it’s currently uploaded to YouTube.

Steven2023-07-31T21:15:41+00:0031 July 2023|Review China|

Hachiko Monogatari

Hachiko Monogatari (ハチ公物語) is a highly-rated Japanese film that was originally released on 1st August 1987.

China released a movie on 31st March 2023 that was based on the original. I decided I wanted to watch the Japanese version which is better rated than the Chinese one. There was an American version as well but I’m really not interested in viewing a “Hollywood” version of the original story and they say it just took away all the Japanese cultural references.

About

A puppy was born in Akita Prefecture and sent as a gift to Professor Ueno of Tokyo University. They didn’t want to have another dog but their daughter was desperate to have one, the Professor bonded really well with Hachiko. The dog accompanied the Professor to the train station every morning and would walk back there in the evening when he came home from work. However, one-day disaster struck. The movie is based on a true story.

More about Hachiko and the statue can be found on the Time Out website.

Cast

Nakadai Tatsuya (仲代達矢) as Professor Ueno Shujiro
He is considered one of the best actors in Japanese history. He was born on 13th December 1932 and is now 90 years old. His first on-screen appearance was a judge on the TV show Kouhaku Uta Gassen. He has appeared in many films since 1954. He said he accidentally became an actor, he was previously working as a clerk in a shop in Tokyo.

Yachigusa Kaoru (八千草薫) as Ueno Shizuko (the Professor’s wife)
She was an actress from Osaka Prefecture. She was married to director Senkichi Taniguchi. They have both now, unfortunately, passed away.

Review

The dog is the star of the show, the rest of the cast were on the sidelines, like extras. This is how it should be, Hachiko is pretty much a legend in Japan and the focus was definitely reflected in the movie.

Even though the movie is pretty sad to watch it’s really well done. There are humans who you will love and some you will not like at all, the daughter is the villain. In real life people ask themselves “Oh how can you not be responsible for the dog you wanted so much”, but in the movie at least there was one beacon of hope in the world which was the Professor.

It doesn’t feel as though this movie was made in 1987 and I’m sure most issues in there remain relevant today.

It does seem that Hachiko’s full story wasn’t reflected in the film, the fact that he had a larger human family, was there at the unveiling of his own statue and that he passed away due to cancer.

Whatever happened, Hachiko has turned into an international legend thanks to popular culture.

I will give this movie a 4/5, marked down as it could have addressed more on the dog’s real life.

Steven2023-07-26T17:17:12+00:0026 July 2023|Review Japan|

Bubble World Surrey BC

For quite some time today was a gloomy cold day here in British Columbia, it was great to see some rain. As we were feeling cold we thought a visit to Jade Valley restaurant was in order as they are well known for their Hot and Sour Soup. However, they never opened on time so we decided to go to another favourite of ours, The Bubble World Restaurant.

For the first time, I had a warm drink in there, a milking coffee. I wasn’t expecting such a huge cup and it was warm and milking, really good. It was worth the price and I couldn’t believe I virtually finished it, I may not need a coffee for a few days.

I chose the Beef Brisket on Rice for my lunch. It came with Bok Choi, carrots, and tomato. It actually had a bit of a kick to it as well, which I wasn’t expecting. It was really good.

The hubby had fish, bacon and tofu dish, I didn’t try any but I have it on good authority that was pretty good too.

Thank goodness we took containers with us as there was enough to take home which we shall get another meal out of. It came to around about $38 excluding tip which is a pretty decent price these days, especially for the quality that we had.

I recommend this restaurant, give it a go if you are in the area. I give it a 5/5.

Steven2023-07-24T23:03:39+00:0024 July 2023|Food, Review|

Fatal Mission

Fatal Mission (怒江之战) is a Chinese television show consisting of 43 episodes and was broadcast from June to July 2016.

About

It’s 1942 and the Chinese government receive intelligence that the Japanese may be developing a dangerous biological weapon in a remote part of Burma. A special squad is dispatched to the region to stop the Japanese.

The TV show is adapted from the novel “Nu Jiang Zhi Zhan” by Nan Pai Shu and Qian Kun, see the Internet Archive.

Cast

Sean Sun or Sun Yi Zhou (孙艺洲) as Zhao Ban Kuo
He is best known for his appearance in the high-rating show iPartment, I had to look back at an episode to recognise him.

Jia Qing (贾青) as Liao Yi Fang
Appeared in multiple productions but nothing we’ve seen before from what I can see.

George Christopher Tronsrue as “Old Jay”
He is a bilingual American actor from Chicago who played a contingent of the US Forces. His performance was actually pretty good despite the storyline. Even though he is taller than me he looked shorter than the others on Fatal Mission.
IMDB – https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3540596/

Review

This show received fairly good reviews, it had action, romance and a lot of heartache. The message I got from the show, which is familiar for Chinese shows of this type, is that the people are willing to sacrifice everything for the love of their country. However, my preference would be if people came back alive.

Fatal Mission Sassy Picture

There were numerous issues with this show:

I very much doubt that women in the Chinese military in the 1940s wore mini-skirts
The ending theme gave away major plot lines, so you knew what would happen, to a certain extent, to two main characters.
Sean Sun had a lot of love entanglements.
I didn’t think the US military wore berets until Vietnam.
I swear they had more hair gel with them than arms.
During their mission, they were only carrying backpacks however a huge amount of equipment was seen during their trek like tents, weapons, transmitters
One minute Gusika couldn’t speak Chinese and the next she could, I don’t think there were any language schools in the jungle.
When Knife spoke the aboriginal language someone else with a totally different voice dubbed over him. It was bad.
So many episodes they were dealing with irrelevant issues, it became tedious after a while.
Towards the end of the season, it was a mistake to let Long Hair blow up the corridors, no good military mind would have let that happen.

It was good to see an actual American actor on a Chinese show just like the Longest Day in Changan.

I think the actors did their best with what they were given, some parts of the storyline were daft.

The ending, well, I would have written it differently. However, I have seen endings like this in other Chinese TV shows and films.

I give this show a 2/5, they scored a point for the explosions.

Where Can I Watch

I saw this show on Viki, a poorer-quality version can be seen on YouTube.

Steven2023-07-23T20:54:30+00:0023 July 2023|Review China|

Outlook vs Apple Mail vs Thunderbird

I’ve not been happy with Microsoft Outlook for some time now and have been looking for a potential replacement but don’t want to spend beyond what I’m already paying out. This is what an ideal candidate would look like:

Simple to use
Pleasant interface
In-software local folders to pull messages off the server
Rules
Links with Apple Contacts
Categories (or Tags)
In-software calendar

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft has been working on a “New Outlook” for 3+ years now, that and the “legacy” versions are available. The New version is clearly a long way off from being finished…still. I was forced to reboot into New, found out that it was rubbish, and then went back to Legacy losing emails, rules and other functionality. I was less than impressed. Legacy was useable before that happened. Rather than lose more data I’m sticking on New.

Current observances re New

HTML emails didn’t load the graphics properly in Legacy but in New, this is improved.
You cannot add or subtract column headings in email.
“All Accounts” is not an accurate summary of what appears in other accounts, still need to scroll down all email addresses or set them as favourite.
Categories for non-Outlook dot com accounts do not show in the email view as they did in Legacy.
No rules for non-outlook dot com accounts
Contacts you had on the desktop rather than Outlook dot com don’t show categories properly. I’m getting the feeling Microsoft want you to upload your contacts into the online version of Outlook but I don’t want to do that.
You are “locked out” of viewing emails with digital signatures after you’ve opened them once, no such issue in Legacy, Thunderbird or Apple Mail.
“My Day” doesn’t show items entered in Microsoft To-Do (they said it’s supposed to, but maybe its coming later).
Doesn’t work well with an iCloud account.
For every email attachment, an empty text file is received as well.
There is some wording in the program that refers to Windows rather than Mac infrastructure.
UX/UI is improved but that is useless if so many features don’t work.

I’ve tried funnelling this feedback through to Microsoft but nothing ever improves, I guess it might take them another 3 years to fix this stuff.

Apple (Mac) Mail

This is a very decent program. Nice UX/UI. Local (On My Mac) folders. Links with Apple Contacts well.

Observances:

Painfully slow connectivity to IMAP servers. I notice many others have this issue. Makes the program unusable.
Doesn’t integrate well with Apple Calendars or Reminders, Outlook does this better. Sharing a calendar with other Apple family members works ok but meeting invites to others don’t work, branding especially sucks. Calendar invites go through the Apple server and arrive from no-reply @ email dot apple dot com. There is little room for branding or customisation of these invites.
They don’t have categories.
Rules under settings work well
The iPhone/iPad version of Mail is much better.

Thunderbird

They have just released version 115 and it is much improved. It still has a clunky interface but that may be part of its charm, not for me. It has local folders, an in-built calendar, and access to Apple Contacts. IMAP server connectivity is the fastest out of both Outlook and Apple.

Observances:

No folder displaying all emails from every account. However, it does have favourite folders which is helpful.
I love how you can assign a custom sound when an email arrives.
Can’t really get email and calendar to work well together and the recipient receives an ugly meeting invite. I can’t include an attachment, only a web link. I sent 2 calendar invites to my Yahoo account, the second one took about 30 minutes to arrive, it did include [yes – maybe – no] and that updated the calendar but there are two ics files attached which is a little confusing – the text I sent with the invite never arrived. The layout of the calendar invite workflow is better than Apple Calendar, the only downside is the UX/UI. Since I send quite a few meeting invites this solution doesn’t work for me.
The program uses Mac Contacts which is helpful.
UX/UI is improved but could be much better, much better. The calendar is still pretty bad.
I like my emails displayed in a list and you can turn on/off column heading, which is great compared with New Outlook.
When I last tried out Thunderbird newsgroups they don’t work very well but I can’t find these in version 115.

Summary

None of the above programs really do what I want them to do. The one I will have to stick with is New Outlook because it acts as a more business program with an integrated Calendar, and the UI/UX is easier to work with than the other programs. Unfortunately, I don’t see any of the important features I need on their In Development List so I expect I am screwed.

Steven2023-07-19T23:35:25+00:0019 July 2023|Technology|