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Review of Hong Kong Movies and TV Shows

White War Review

White WarWhite War (战毒) is a TV series from Hong Kong at aired between 9 July to 1 August 2020 and big-name stars Bosco Wong and Ron Ng.

About

Ching Tin, Wai Chun Hin and Hui Sau Ping grew up together and all joined the Hong Kong Police Force together. One of them stays loyal to the force. While undercover one separates from the police taking up a life of crime. The other is framed by a gang pushing him in the direction of crime to pay for his debt and fathers’ medical expenses.

Meanwhile, the drug war intensifies as they are starting to be sourced from Thailand taking the war onto a different turf.

Cast

Bosco Wong (黃宗澤) as Turbo/Wai Chun Hin

Bosco is hugely popular and has appeared in many movies and TV shows. We know him best through a comedy film and TV shows K9 Cop, Flying Tiger seasons one and two. In 2008 he signed a singing contract with East Asia Music, although he is more well known for his acting.

Ron Ng (吳卓羲) as Ching Ting

Another very much in demand actor, he was voted as a Super Idol by TVB. He started off as a dancer which led him into a singing career then acting. He have seen him productions alongside his friend Bosco Wong such as in Flying Tiger seasons one and two. Ron has sung many tracks to TV Themes.

Kenny Kwan (關智斌) as Hui Sau Ping

Kenny Kwan was born in the Philippines but raised in Hong Kong, he is a singer-songwriter. He is signed up to the music label. Emperor Entertainment Group. He is also in much demand as an actor. White War is the first production I’ve seen him in. He is in the same age group as Ron and Bosco.

Review

The start and end of the show were the most exciting, but the middle part was most difficult to get through. It seemed terribly slow and the script repetitive in the middle. At the halfway point I thought I was going to see the pace quicken but alas it didn’t. The last few episodes, especially 29 and 30, were the best and there was a lot packed into the last episode.

The most annoying part of the show was the voice over for Zhang Ya Zhuo (张雅卓). One could tell it was a voice over since all the background noise vanished. Since she is from the Xinjiang region of China I wonder if she couldn’t speak Cantonese. It seemed there was another actor that had a voice over too, a minor role, but he did appear in several episodes.

The plot was ok, like other dramas it made Hong Kong look like the drug capital of the world controlled by rival gangs, some bigger than the other. In between of course we had the back and forth of romantic stuff. There was humour at the beginning and the end but that kind of sidelined in the middle.

The series should have been cut in half to 15 episodes and the story wouldn’t have dragged so much. I do understand they had some difficulties meeting the demands of the censors so I’m not sure if they had to chop and change it.

I would give it a 6/10, most reviews rated it higher, on average 7.9. So, I would say give it a go.

Where To Watch

I understand both Viki and Tencent have it, both with English subtitles.

Trailer

2021-09-29T04:46:46+00:0029 September 2021|Review Hong Kong|

All’s Well End’s Well Review

All's Well End's Well 2009The Hong Kong movie All’s Well End’s Well was a great find and we really enjoyed it, this is my review.

About

There is a series of films called All’s Well End’s Well, these are the ones I know about:

  • All’s Well End’s Well – released in 1992. I believe this is the first one.
  • All’s Well End’s Well Too – released in 1993
  • All’s Well End’s Well 1997
  • All’s Well End’s Well 2009 – this is the one we just saw
  • All’s Well End’s Well 2010
  • All’s Well End’s Well 2011
  • All’s Well End’s Well 2012
  • All’s Well End’s Well 2020

They remind of the “Carry On” movies in the UK.

The 2009 movie focuses on the crafty Casanova relationship advisor Dick Cho and a stern magazine editor/writer Yu Chu who is determined to spend her life single. Cho is hired by Chu’s brother to try and find her a relationship which leads to many hilarious situations.

Cast

The actors in this production were just incredible, from the out takes at the end it appears they were all having such a good time working on this production, it show’s in their performance.

Louis Koo as Dick Cho
We’ve seen this actor in many productions, mainly films, both recent and in the past. His best performance has to be in this film. I’ve been wanting to watch the 2001 TV show “A Step Into The Past” that he starred in, but haven’t had the time, I understand he is reprising this role in a film called “Back To The Past” release date to be announced. He has 6 films he has committed himself to acting in, wow, he must be extremely popular.

Sandra Ng as Yu Chu
We haven’t seen this actress in many productions but recently saw “Enter The Fat Dragon” which was great. Her performance in “All’s Well End’s Well” was just brilliant, so funny. I understand she also appeared in the 2010 and 2012 films. Sandra has directed 1 film called Goldbuster and produced 3 films must recently “Zero to Hero”. I can’t wait to see her other work.

Review

As you might have guessed by now, I really enjoyed this movie, it’s as if it was made for me. It was a typical old school comedy romp that only Hong Kong can produce. It did remind me of a British “Carry On” movie but not so rude.

I can’t think of anything bad to say about this movie. Exceptional story line, character development, most of the main cast had a big part to play, it was well executed, and timing is everything in a comedy. All the actors did a fantastic job.

Summary

As soon as I finished the movie I tried to find where I could watch the others, I did manage to find a place that sold the DVD’s so I will probably buy them at some point.

I’m not sure why it’s so badly rated on IMDB with a 4.8/10 rating, but this is the case with many Asian movies. It didn’t bother me but it’s an observation I keep making. I would rate it as a 9.5/10.

The 2009 movie can be found on Netflix. I really recommend it to everyone.

Trailer

2021-09-13T21:31:13+00:009 September 2021|Review Hong Kong|

Staycation Movie Review

Like many other films, Staycation is another movie I just stumbled across but didn’t know a lot about until we started watching it.

StaycationStoryline

NOTE: SPOILERS AHEAD

A couple’s 15th anniversary, Fai and his wife, they go on vacation to the same place he proposed to her 15 years ago. It is also the 70th birthday of Fai’s father as well. The whole family goes along. The vacation is at a holiday camp where they have to compete with other families. This is a Hong Kong movie in Cantonese.

Crew

I recognized some of the actors in this movie, not by name but just seeing their face. Evidently they are all well-known comedians from Hong Kong.

Johnson Lee Si-jit played Fai. He acted and directed this movie. I don’t know much about the actor but he was also known for Citizen King, a rip off of Citizen Cane.

Yuk-Wah So played Fai’s wife. It looks as though she has had a long and distinguished career but hasn’t done any acting jobs since this movie.

Review

Well, where do I start, I don’t really know what to say.

The film was zany, wild and weird. Dodo birds. Flying saucers. What next? It was acted very well and I’m sure they did their best with a difficult script. If I was being generous I could say there were some touching moments. The movie is for an adult audience but at times it just got a bit creepy. I’ve not seen any Hong Kong Comedy film like this before. If I was being generous I would give it 1 out of 5. I would recommend giving it a miss unless you really want to find out what a bizarre Hong Kong movie looks like.

Trailer

2021-09-21T02:40:07+00:0017 November 2020|Review Hong Kong|

Tiger Cubs Season 1 Review

Tiger Cubs is a TV series from Hong Kong that was broadcast between June and August of 2012.

Background

Tiger CubsThe show follows the lives of the Special Duties Unit (SDU) branch of the Hong Kong police department, as known as The Flying Tigers. Although the main focus is on solving high profile crimes the show also covers the love life and other drama around the characters.

Actors

Oscar Leung: The reason why we watched this show was because of Oscar as we have followed some other shows he has been in, such as K9 Cop. He was born in Hong Kong on 26 March 1979 and appears to have been in demand since his TV career started in 2004. He seems to be more of a character actor as his personality is quite adaptable to numerous rolls; serious, comical, evil, camp and so on.

Other significant cast members include:

Joe Ma: Joe was a member of the G4 prior to his acting job. The G4 is the Hong Kong VIP protection police. Following a modelling gig, at the suggestion of G4 colleagues, his acting career began in 1994 and seems to have been busy ever since. Joe plays the trainer and leader of the SDU team.

Jessica Hsuan: Like Joe Ma she played a significant role in Tiger Cubs with much of the storyline centred around the troubles of her character. As she a very sought after actress in Hong Kong, and moved on from her contract with TVB, she only appears in one season of Tiger Cubs.

Review

The first season was very well produced with lots of action done in the typical Hong Kong fashion. The production company must have put a lot of effort into the action sequences as they were very exciting and on-the-edge-of-your-seat with a gripping music score to boot. Most of the characters were developed really well and there wasn’t any of them to dislike. Even some of the criminals one felt sorry for. The continuing storyline of Jessica Hsuan’s character, and how it interacted with the sub-plots, was very well outlined from the start to the penultimate episode ending the season on an interesting yet comical note.

Summary

This is an absolute must-see Hong Kong drama, especially if you’ve never seen any others before.

Marks out of 5:

2021-09-21T02:45:40+00:0020 May 2020|Review Hong Kong|