Review Hong Kong

White 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

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

The 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