Korean drama series

Last months I found that drama series from South Korea were not always about romance, so I decided to try to watch a few. The first one was Criminal Minds. I think it was a good production with a solid cast, but it was very similar to the American version, including the cases. I liked it, but it seemed like watching a rerun with a different cast.

Next, I watched Signal. This one was very good, although at first I thought the communication between the detectives in the past and the present was unbelievable. But it was fun to watch. The cases were purely Korean, including the famous unsolved serial murders of young women in 1986-1991. It was not that the detective in the present told the detective in the past who the killer was; but both had to complete the investigations in their own times, which could make changes in the past that would affect the future.

There are 16 episodes in Signal. I had finished the 12th episode and recommended this to my sister, and, there, the last 4 episodes were quite slow. I think they should have reduced one whole episode, especially the unnecessary flashbacks.

Those Korean names are not easy to remember. The translations sometimes only mention the family name (one word) and sometimes the given name-- so I have to remember each characters's whole name. The next series I watched, Stranger, had 3 characters with the name Lee.

Stranger (a.k.a. Forest of Secrets) was very good. It was quite slow, though--> perhaps because I had expected to see the hero, a prosecutor, solved several cases - but no, here he only worked on a serial murders - and a complicated case of corruption. It's like a long mini-series, about corruption in the justice system involving a big company, prosecutors and an intermediate. The hero had a problem with his emotions, due to a major brain surgery, and believe me, it was nice to see him smile. He smiled 3 times and raised his voice twice during the whole series.

I liked to watch how subordinates had to bow when a boss / superior passing by. [It reminds me when I just entered elementary school. We bowed our head when teachers were passing by and we raced to be the first to help him/her carry his/her bag.] Also, there was a wake scene when the guests had to prostrate.

In my opinion, Stranger was as good as good mini-series made in England and France. [Can't remember right now if America has made any good mini-series.]

Now I am watching Voice. This was a success -- according to Wikipedia -- so I decided to give it a try. So far I find this to be a good thriller. However the policemen were stupid and there was something wrong with the editing. For example: the heroine arrived in a crime scene. She got past the security guards in the front entrance and soon arrived in the victim's office. She called the local policemen for back-up. They soon arrived at the front entrance and got past the guards, but minutes went past before they arrived to help her. How many minutes a group of healthy strong men needed to run up stairs to 3rd floor?

Voice was about 112 call center --> equivalent to 911 in the U.S. The head of 112 call center, founded the Golden Team, whose task was to arrived ASAP in order to be able to solve the caller's problem.

Infernal Affairs (TV) 2016

The movie version of Infernal Affairs starring Andy Lau and Tony Leung was a hit back then. It was a trilogy. I Liked the first one very much, the 2nd one was okay, but I didn't like the third. Can't really remember why I didn't like the third, I think the plot didn't make sense.

I got confused with the title when it first came out. As it was about police, I usually thought of 'internal affairs'; and when I read again that it was 'infernal' instead of 'internal', I thought perhaps that police department really named 'infernal affairs'... But now I know the Chinese title means 'unceasing path (to hell).'

They made the tv series in 2016 and only a few weeks ago I could watch it with subtitles. Compared to the movie version, the movie version was much better.

Sing Luen triad organization, led by Wu Koon-yau, was having rivalry with Hung Lok. Sing Luen's attorney, Hon Long, had sent one of his boys, Wai Chun-hin, to be a policeman, and now he was a senior inspector. This series consists of 30 episodes and before episode 10, Wai Chun-hin's identity was exposed and he had to quit his job. Meanwhile, the police also had sent Bullet as an undercover in Sing Luen, following the death of an undercover police in Sing Luen.

I saw the movie version many years ago, but I think Andy Lau and Tony Leung tried hard not to blow their covers. As a triad member of a policeman, they tried to do their job well and gained trust from people around them. In this series, Wai Chun-hin's cover was blown up soon and when he tried to join Sing Luen, he had to force his way. Nobody really trusted him. As for Bullet, he joined Sing Luen not for long ago, so he was also not to be trusted.

While Andy Lau and Tony Leung are two of the best talented actors in Hong Kong film industry, here we have Him Law and Wang Yang, who are not as good as the previous two - although they are not so bad. Gallen Lo, on the other hand, who played Hon Long, was good. But this is not right, isn't it? In a series about undercover, how can the actor who played the lawyer is better than the two lead roles?

Perguruan Sejati

I don't know the real title of this book. Although it was published with the name of Gu Long, but I cannot find this in the list of Gu Long works. In English the title can be translated to -more or less- "True School".

The lead character was a young scholar, who learnt martial arts secretly, named In Tiong Giok. His teacher left suddenly after leaving a message to In Tiong Giok to deliver a letter. On his way, our hero saw that a sect named Pok Thian Pang was looking for a Sanskrit translator, and since he could speak the language, he applied for the job, and got it. It turned out he was to translate a martial arts manual and that he would be killed after completing the job.

In short, our hero ran away from the sect, taking the book with him. He was chased by people who wanted the manual. To solve the problem, In Tiong Giok went to a printing house and printed the manual 550 copies and gave them away. --> I found this very funny... Often I wonder why in wuxia stories people fight for a manual, why not borrow and copy it...? A kungfu manual usually only consists of not so many pages anyway. Stupid Kwee Ceng even could memorize the whole Kiu Im Cin Keng 九陰真經.

Then they began to fight for a pair of swords, which were hidden in a lake. [This reminded me a bit of King Arthur's sword.] Our hero won, of course.

On his journey, In Tiong Giok would find his true identity, became the head of a school, and destroyed the evil Pok Thian Pang. The "True School" in the title was not mentioned much. It was actually a group of 3 people, 1 Buddhist monk, 1 Buddhist nun and 1 Lama: who fought for the pair of swords many years ago.

Ding Mo Trilogy (TV)

There are 3 different TV series and since I won't write much, I think I would put them in a single post. The trilogy can be watched separately and in no particular order.

1. Love Me If You Dare
The original title should be 'He has come, close your eyes' and I like this original title better. The story itself reminded me of Karen Rose or Sandra Brown novels so I guessed Ding Mo must be a female, and I was right. Male writers have different styles.
The series was enjoyable to watch, starring Wallace Huo, Sandra Ma, Yin Zheng, and Wang Kai. A criminal psychologist and his new assistant vs serial killers. The hero would fall in love with his new assistant. Btw, I think Wallace Huo's hairstyle looked funny from the left side. Among Wallace Huo, Yin Zheng, and Wang Kai; I think Wang Kai's hairstyle was the best. And I never thought I'd actually pay attention to their hairstyles.

2. When A Snail Falls in Love
I only recognized Wang Kai as the lead character, but the cast did a good job. I actually wanted to see again Wang Kai and his nice hairstyle - like in Love Me If You Dare - but here he wore a totally different hairstyle... It was short, like a police's should be.
This series had a more serious tone than Love Me If You Dare and less flirting between the two leads. They began with disliking each other anyway. My impression was: the story was fast paced and I got confused in some parts. There was no dumber character whom the smarter one would explain what were happening. I just followed the story and in the end I was happy with the conclusion.
The lead female character, Xu Xu, drew nicely. She thought of herself as a snail and her man as a lion. I like the drawings used on the opening credits.

3. Memory Lost
This series was very popular but I was disappointed. The quality of this one is a far cry from the two above -- but I finished all 36 episodes anyway :-|  The cast was dominated by young beautiful people. I think the police here didn't work seriously. If they spent more time to work on the cases, the series could be shorten to 21 or 24 episodes (like the two above).
Take an example when a fake bomb had been found on a mall. The two leads, Han Chen and Su Mian approached the site and they met a member of bomb squad who told them about the fake bomb. Han Chen told him to take a rest and he would follow the matter. But Han Chen did not enter the mall to inquire, but he stood with Su Mian outside the mall and talked about shopping and how he would take care of her.
The cast maybe too young and did not have solid acting skills. If this series was made for teenagers, why the topic was about serial killers? The lead characters were more trying to say: 'Look at me, I am cool.' than trying to be convincing in their roles. Sometimes they even talked to themselves...

The Disguiser (TV) - 2015

I am not familiar with Chinese histories. We did learnt a bit about Chinese Communist party in  junior high school, but I guess it's normal if by now I have forgotten most of it. I did know that in the middle of 1960's the Communists were strong in China, because it connected to our own history.

This series was set in 1939 in Shanghai. The main characters were from the rich Ming family: 1) Ming Jing, the eldest sister, who took care of the household 2) Ming Lou, her brother, who worked for the new government 3) Ming Tai, adopted since he was a child. Ming Tai's mother had been killed in a car accident when she was trying to save Ming Jing dan Ming Lou. 4) Ming Cheng, sort of Ming Lou's helper, but considered as a member of Ming family.

L-R : Jin Dong, Wang Kai, Hu Ge.

I didn't know the difference between Kuo Min Tang and Chinese Communist, but here they worked as two different groups against the Japanese, who were in the new government.

Ming Tai was kidnapped on his way to Hong Kong to study and trained as a spy. Need not to say that our hero became the best student, a super spy. He would be given (almost) impossible assignments but successfully did them well.

This series was very good, but I can't say I enjoyed watching it. Very often the plots got so intense and I was horrified at times, especially at those torture scenes. It's like that Irish film 'The Wind That Shakes The Barley'... the torture scenes were too much for me. I know they were just acting and effects... still they were too much for me.

However, this is a very good production. Three actors who played the Mings: Hu Ge, Jin Dong and Wang Kai, I think they are very good actors. They are very popular, too. I think they are three of the best actors in Chinese film industry nowadays.

Di Ren-jie (TV) 2017

Like many, I also think that the actor who played the famous judge was too young, but actually he was in his late 20's - so let's take it that he just passed the imperial examination and became a judge in Bian-zhou.

If in Robert van Gulik's books, Judge Dee was a good swordsman; here in the series, our hero could not fight, but he could shoot a steel ball from his pen, like a secret weapon.

Mo Yu (Miao Jun-jie) and Die Ren-jie (Allen Ren)

I like detective stories, so I really enjoyed watching this series. Judge Dee here rarely appeared on his local court, but he was often called by the imperial palace - usually by The Emperor (Li Zhi) or his concubine Wu Mei-niang. Three times the emperor wanted to reward him by giving him a position in the palace and three times also Judge Dee refused the offer. He preferred to become a little judge in Bian-zhou.

From history, Di Ren-jie and Wu Mei-niang were enemies. So it was interesting here to watch Wu Mei-niang changed, from a cute, kind girl to a heartless woman. It was because she had to survive the difficulties in the palace. The Emperor was weak and couldn't protect her, so she must protect herself.

The cases were quite interesting, like the human bomb, a priestess who claimed that she could send people to heaven, the death of the little princess, the phantom army... not to mention some strange deaths.

Judge Dee liked Murong Qing, with whom he studied medicines together. It didn't work well between them because she became an enemy. But I was not unhappy because I knew the judge would end with three wives.

There were also two women, both ex thieves, who helped the judge. I found them sometimes irritating. I hoped that the creator of this series would have sent two men instead to help him.

Here in the series, our judge received a bribe. They were looking for a lost fortress and the judge met someone familiar, who didn't want to be recognized. This man quickly fled the place after giving the judge his fortune. The judge would use this jewelry to gamble....😅

Triumph in The Skies (TV)

Triumph in The Skies (2003) is an interesting TV series. After watching this I feel I know better about pilots and stewardesses. I think if I were younger I would try to apply for a job in an airport. What I really like about this series was the tips/knowledge given after each episode.

Solar Airways (based on Cathay Pacific) was recruiting new pilots so we followed them as they studied, from cadets to first officers.

In the drama side, the main love story was a love triangle involving two pilots and a stewardess. It was about fate. For me, the love stories were a bit boring, nothing new. And I dislike a character who was distressed a lot, crying all the time....

Beside pilots and stewardess, there were also chefs who prepared cabin meals and ground crews. The head chef often came up with new menus, which looked delicious.

I myself for the last several years only took short, cheap flights - so there was never any meal on the plane, not even a glass of water was served.

The 2nd series (2013) was also interesting, but it was a pity they did not gave useful tips anymore during end credits. The airways was changed from Solar to Skylette. The new character, Holiday, laughed a lot that I thought there was something wrong with her.

Twisted Prey - John Sandford

I finished The Woman in The Window by A.J. Finn and had no idea why it had become a best selling novel. It was quite slow. After that I tried to read The Girl on The Train by Paula Hawkins, but after a while I lost my interest completely and jumped to the end to see the conclusion. I also had no idea why this became a best selling novel.

I moved on to read the new John Sandford novel - Twisted Prey and was happy to find that there was still a novel to my liking. I really enjoyed reading this book. Compared to the 2 books above, this one had richer plots.

Lucas Davenport, a U.S. Marshal, was asked by his friend, U.S. Senator Porter Smalls, to look into a strange car accident in West Virginia that had taken the life of his mistress. The investigation would take Lucas to his old 'enemy', a beautiful, rich U.S. Senator Taryn Grant. [From Silken Prey] The danger of this task also put Lucas's wife's life in danger.

I actually didn't really believe that a senator would kill with her own hands, and we talk here about a calculative person who planned everything meticulously. The ending, however, was very satisfying and I liked it very much. Our hero was not a saint... not then, not ever.

Face to Fate (TV) 2006

I think compared to Lofty Waters Verdant Bow, Face to Fate is a better series. The main character was a soothsayer/fortune-teller named Li Po-yee, played by Frankie Lam. At that time, the martial art world was divided into the good and the bad, and our hero belonged to none of them.

Every five years, both sides would engage in the Golden Seal Battle and each should send five representative. The one who won 3 fights out of 5, would be the winner and could reign the martial art world for 5 years. The leader of the bad guys, Ko Shu-tin, believed in a divination that said 'Evil prevails, Good disappears' - so he persuaded more guys to join the evil side.

In the beginning of the series, five future representatives from the Good were killed, so the leader of the Good, Shum Shing-nam (played by David Chiang -- or John Chiang) from Flying Fish Village, asked our hero's help to seek other five high skilled fighters to represent the Good in the soon-coming Golden Seal Battle. The journey was quite challenging because the 5 fighters were all outcasts from their own schools. Li Po-yee, however, in the end could persuade each of them to take part in the Golden Seal Battle - although later one of them died in Flying Fish Village and Li Po-yee had to replace him.

Death Wish (Chun Wong) and Li Po-yee (Frankie Lam)

The guys in the Good were not always kind and the guys in the Evil group also had their own merits. Like when one of supposed to be good guys, tortured the Miracle Doctor's girlfriend by cutting off her leg and arm tendons. This false step would make the Good almost lost the fight because the Miracle Doctor chose to be with Evil in order to cure his girlfriend, and this doctor became a strong opponent against Li Po-yee.

Doctor Lai Yeuk-yee (Raymond Lam) and his girlfriend Yin Ye-loi (Selena Li)

The ending was a happy one, with the Good and the Bad -which was no longer bad - lived together harmoniously.

Wong Ching as King Bat

 The happiest event was when King Bat could see again. King Bat was one of the bad guys and he was named like that because he was blind. The doctor later healed him. I wonder if he should changed his name.

Lofty Waters Verdant Bow (TV) 2003

I read reviews saying that this series was so-so, but I think I quite enjoyed watching it. It was only 20 episodes anyway. The story was ordinary, but I like watching Raymond Lam, Michelle Ye, and the interaction between Power Chan and Pierre Ngo.

Raymond Lam played a gallant hero - named Jin Shi-yi, who came from Snake Island - to the mainland, to seek a heroine named Lu Si-niang - who could neutralize the poison in his body. By the way, if you are familiar with Chinese history,  you will recognize Lu Si-niang's name as the heroine who beheaded Emperor Yong Zheng (from Qing dynasty).

Jin Shi-yi would be involved in a love triangle. One was an kind-hearted young heroine, Lu Si-niang's student, named Gu Zhi-hua, played by Rain Li, ; while the other, Li Sheng-nan - played by Michelle Ye - seemed mysterious and come from the enemy's side. It could be guessed that our hero chose the Gu Zhi-hua and seemed to hate the other. But who loved him more? I think this was actually not the question of who loved him more; it should be whom he chose between the two. I think he did really love Gu Zhi-hua. But near the end, when he realized that Li Sheng-nan, whom he misunderstood to be his enemy, had been loving him more; he left Gu Zhi-hua to be with Li Sheng-nan... but it was too late. In the end we see Jin Shi-yi with Li Sheng-nan's dead body on a raft, heading for the island where they had found the ultimate martial-art manual.

One of the villains, the wulin leader, Meng Shen-tong (played by Eddie Ko), had slandered Jin Shi-yi's teacher so that everybody hated the teacher. Meng Shen-tong had accused the hero's teacher as a traitor - so that they failed to assassinate Yong Zheng years ago - and the teacher had to flee to Snake Island. The teacher's good name was never restored although Meng Shen-tong had turned into a public enemy because it had been him who had cooperated with Qing government, not the teacher.

The setting in this series should be during Qian Long's era. In Qing dynasty, the men should had shaved the front side of the hair and braided the hair at the back ... I am not sure why they didn't in this series. Were the characters all rebels or the director simply thought it was not a must.

I heard that this series was based on Liang Yu-sheng's book, which I haven't read. Jin Shi-yi should be with Gu Zhi-hua in the end and they went together to a remote island where they would have a son.

The Drive of Life (TV) 2007

This is a long series, consists of 60 episodes. It's quite interesting, actually, about the Wah family and their dream to make Chinese cars.

The main characters are 3 Wah brothers: Wah Man-hon, Wah Man-hung and Wah Man-shek. This series were joint-production of Hong Kong and China. I knew Damian Lau and Michael Miu, but I was not familiar at all with the actor who played the 2nd brother Wah Man-hung. The acting was also different: Damian Lau and Michael Lau were expressive, while the mainland actor was calm and reserved. In the story, Wah Man-hon (Lau) and Wah Man-shek (Miu) had been living for years in Hong Kong, while Wah Man-hung left in Peking /Beijing.

Wah Man-hon is the manager and the brain, Wah Man-hung the technician and Wah Man-shek the salesman. The road is difficult, but they finally succeeded to found Hua-che car factory, with the first Chinese car machine developed by themselves --> so they didn't have to depend on Japan anymore. They succeeded in fabricating 100% Chinese cars. Because of this Wah family, Chinese cars are now roaming the world.

Wah Man-hung (Liao Jing-sheng), Wah Man-shek (Michael Miu), Wah Man-hon (Damian Lau)

Hui Cham-yan (Gigi Wong), Wah Ching-yue (Jessica Hsuan), Ngai Wing-biu (Joe Ma)

Wing Sau-fung (Charmaine Sheh) and Wah Chun-pong (Raymond Lam)

While the car dream is interesting, I find the drama side is so-so. There are intrigues and revenges. Sometimes they are easy to forgive, sometimes a little matter can be huge. Like, 1) Wah Man-hung hated his older brother Wah Man-hon for years because Wah Man-hon cheated him when they were choosing who would be going to Hong Kong and who would be staying in Peking. 2) Wah Man-hon's wife, Hui Cham-yan, had a big fight with her husband because he had not told her that his ex-girlfriend visited him in Hong Kong (from Peking). He just met the ex-girlfriend to say goodbye, nothing else. 3) Wing Sau-fung hated the Wah family after finding out that Wah Man-hon had once been her mother's boyfriend. Later, her mother committed suicide after Hui Cham-yan told her the truth, that she had killed her husband (Wing Sau-fung's father). I really can't understand why Wing Sau-fung put the blame all on the Wah family because her mother was also in the wrong. The worst of all, in the peak of her anger, she demanded that Wah Man-hon and his wife both kneel down for her forgiveness. They were her boyfriend's parents... it was very inappropriate.

This series has two antagonists, Ngai Tin-hang and his nephew Ngai Wing-biu. The latter is secretive and calculative. The amazing thing is, every time his wife finds out about his wrongdoing, he seems to be able to find a reasonable explanation - until the climax when she sees herself what her husband can do.

I love the sub-song 'Searching For You in Loving Memories' sung by Raymond Lam. The melody is familiar, like I have ever heard it years ago.

Lethal Weapons of Love and Passion (2006)

I would like to try to read the original book which this TV series was based on, if there is any in English. I only have read one book by Huang Yi, A Step Into The Past, and enjoyed it a lot. In this Lethal Weapons of Love and Passion - I must say the English title is horrible and not interesting at all - we are taken into the beginning of the Ming Dynasty era. I had never read this topic before, so this series were very interesting to me.

Before the Ming Dynasty, the Chinese people were ruled by Mongolians, the Yuan Dynasty. I am not familiar with the (real) history, but in this series, the present emperor had been one of the generals in the fights against Mongolians. An oracle told him that a descendant of Kubilai Khan would bring his demise, so to play safe, he killed all Mongolian children at the same age as the Mongolian Prince.

The Emperor ordered the Mongolians to pay hard tax and took men, even the old and young,  to become slaves. The Mongolians, led by Pong Pan, tried to find the Kubilai Khan's descendant and overturn Ming.

I like how the antagonists and protagonists here are not really bad. Both sides are fighting for their own country. Some characters do have weaknesses, like too suspicious, too greedy, ... I also like the ending, where The Chinese and The Mongolians could have peace on both sides and live together in harmony.

Nirvana in Fire (2015)

I really enjoyed watching this series, which I think is much better than Princess Agents. Chinese miniseries are usually slow, but when I was watching this, 40 minutes for every episode went fast.

The original title was Lang-ya List. In the story, Lang-ya Hall in Lang-ya Mountain rated many things. The Crown Prince and Prince Yu from Liang were fighting for the throne and they both were trying to invite the number 1 master in the Lang-ya List, Mei Chang-su. Mei Chang-su was the leader of the Jiangzhou Alliance. It was said that whoever got the divine talent (=Mei Chang-su) would get the world.

Mei Chang-su, using the name Su Zhe as an alias, came to the capital and seemed to be on Prince Yu's side; but he was actually helping Prince Jing. As The Crown Prince and Prince Yu were gradually losing their power and influence, Prince Jing arose in favour. It was then revealed that Mei Chang-su's real name was Lin Shu, and he was the childhood friend of Prince Jing and he came to the capital to prove his family innocence. The Lin family was branded as traitors 12 years ago because the recent Emperor's suspicion.

Every character in this series is good. First time I saw the lead character, he was not interesting at all: thin, pale, ... he was sick, by the way. But the plots and story were indeed very good. I like the battle of wits between Su Zhe and his enemies. Each had to guess what the opponent would do so one could prepare the counter attack. I read critics that the protagonist in this series was too capable, but I like it this way, because I didn't get distressed watching it.

Although Mei Chang-su was ill at the time and could not perform martial arts, we would see why he was ranked #1 on the Lang-ya List.

What had happened to Lin Shu was tragic. 12 years ago he was a handsome, brave, and proud young marshal. In the last fierce battle in Meiling, he was one of the few who could survive the sea of fire and the field of frost snow. His injuries had been so grave that to be cured, he needed to undergo painful operations (something like changing skins and removing bones). When he returned to the capital later, even Prince Jing, his bosom friend, didn't recognize him because the drastic change in his appearance. Also, in the wuxia books it's said that martial arts adepts who have lost their skills are the same as dead.

All That is Bitter is Sweet (2014)

This series was not perfect, but it was nice to watch. Before this, I had just finished Princess Agents - which had been said to be very famous. Princess Agents was beautiful to look at, and I must say that Li Gengxin who played one of the lead characters was very handsome, yet for me Princess Agents was not as warm as this little series from Hong Kong.

Sheung Chun Tong was the biggest apothecary in Foshan, Guangdong. It belonged to To family. The only daughter of the To family, To Ka-kei, was about to marry the deputy mayor, Chong Kei-cho. This deputy mayor was also the eldest son of the mayor. Three days before the wedding, Chong Kei-cho fell ill. It was not grave, but it would take days to recover. The owner of Sheung Chun Tong, To Sum, created a new pill for Chong Kei-cho so that they needed not to cancel the wedding day. However, the pill was poisonous and Chong Kei-cho died. The mayor was so angry so he sent To Sum to jail and closed Sheung Chun Tong. To Ka-kei tried to find proofs why the pill was poisonous so she could get her father out of jail and reopen Sheng Chun Tong.

This series was very promising, until I realized To Sum's step-brother, To Yung, was so greedy and stupid that he wrecked everything. He even sold To Sum's concubine in order to pay for his gambling debt. The antagonist, Police Captain Ngai Chun, was so evil that we didn't feel sympathy for him at all. I think it was never good if characters in a series were too good, too evil, and too greedy. And it would be nice if  Natalie Tong didn't wear such ugly bangs.

Natalie Tong and her bangs. I hoped she wore different hairstyle.

I didn't believe in Chinese medicine, but it was nice to watch how the Chinese traditional doctors treated patients in this series. The size of their pills were big, they had to be munched, or crushed with a spoon then mixed with hot water and served in a bowl. There was also acupuncture. I think whoever found this technique was a genius.

In the story, Sheung Chun Tong had been closed and sealed by the authority. The herbs inside should have been burned. However, To Ka-kei smuggled the herbs out so she could examined them to find which herb caused the pill to be poisonous. When she finally found which herb it was, she told the deputy mayor. But how it was possible? Did she explain to the deputy mayor that she had smuggled the herbs out?

Also, to track down the poisonous herb, To Ka-kei, accompanied by her friend Ting Yat-yuen, went to Yunnan to do the detective work. I also found this too much. I think they should leave the work to the authority. But hey, this was a TV series, where things being exaggerated here and there.

Burning Ice (2017)

I heard that this Chinese mini-series was about a serial killer and since I like detective stories - and it was only 12 episodes - I decided to give it a try.

The police nicknamed the mysterious killer as The Snowman because he built a snowman beside the victim. It had been 3 victims already and the police couldn't solve the case, so they hired a new help, a district officer named Yan Liang. Yan Liang had been a bright detective, but because he had tried to cover a kid's crime - thinking that the kid had a good future, that he should had been forgiven - it was difficult for Yan Liang to get a promotion.

Meanwhile, Guo Yu, a young intern in a lawyer's office, helped his old friend, Hui Ru in a lawsuit. Hui Ru's husband had just been murdered -being one of The Snowman's victims - and the legal wife Mrs Li, wanted Hui Ru to return the restaurant given to her by her husband. Hui Ru refused to give up the restaurant because it was where her brother made his living. Mrs Li sent thugs to terrorize Hui Ru so Guo Yu introduced Hui Ru to Blonde, a criminal, to counter-attack Mrs Li. Unfortunately, Blonde only wanted to take advantage of Hui Ru.

This resulted in the murder of Blonde. The Snowman helped Hui Ru and Guo Yu to cover the crime. However Yan Liang knew that Hui Ru and Guo Yu were guilty. Yan Liang also knew that The Snowman was no other than his old friend, the one who found out about Yan Liang's mistake years ago. It was rather strange, actually, that Yan Liang could guess who the killer was in such a short time. Yan Liang grilled Guo Yu and Hui Ru in the police HQ, hoping that they would confess so the police could arrest The Snowman.

The original title of this drama is 无证之罪, which I think means 'no proof of the crime'*. This Chinese title is easier for me to remember the story in years to come. [*Correct me, my Chinese is far worse than my English.]

In my opinion the young actors who played Guo Yu and Hui Ru were not convincing at all. I think they were models who picked up by the producers to star in this drama. Also, it seemed to me that the young actor who played Guo Yu wore eye liners.😑 It was not clear what Guo Yu's job in the lawyer's office. His boss was a crook who gambled and helped rich clients by every means. His best friend, also his room-mate, gossiping and reporting him to the boss. Hui Ru, on the other hand, was a kept-woman and didn't work at all.

Dai Xu plays Guo Yu. I think he wore eyeliners

 The jokes were also not to my taste. They failed to make my laugh... or was it because this was a creepy drama, not a comedy. It was cold like the setting of the story: there was a lot of snow from beginning to end. The reason for the killing didn't make sense like in many fictions, so it was okay, I think.

Judge Dee - R.H. Van Gulik

Lately I read Judge Dee books by Robert Van Gulik and have been enjoying them a lot. Before this I only knew a Chinese judge character named Judge Bao - from some popular TV series. Only after I watched movies Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame and Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon, only I knew about this Judge Dee character.

A judge in Chinese administration is responsible for registration of births, deaths, marriages; land registrations, tax collection, the hearing of civil and criminal cases and punishing criminals. In this Judge Dee books the writer focused on the criminal cases, so that is why the movie version changed  the title from 'judge' to 'detective' so the western audience can grasp the meaning easily.

Judge Dee Jen-chieh was a real historical person, lived in the Tang dynasty. He lived from 630 till 700 A.D. Later he became a minister of the Imperial Court. In Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame we could see Dee vs Empress Wu, and this was historically correct. In 692 A.D. Dee was sent to prison, accused of treason. He then petitioned the Empress, who exiled him in P'eng-tse.

In the stories, Judge Dee was helped by Sergeant Hoong Liang, and later also by his three lieutenants Ma Joong, Chiao Tai dan Tao Gan. From the Magistrate of Peng-lai, to Han-yuan, Poo-yang, Lan-fang, Pei-chow, until the capital where he became Lord Chief Justice.

The writer, a Dutch man,  took the plots from Chinese mystery stories and illustrated the books himself. He mentioned, however, that the clothes styles were taken from Ming dynasty era.

An illustration from The Chinese Maze Murders by Van Gulik

Van Gulik (1910 - 1967) entered Dutch foreign service in 1935 and later became an ambassador to Japan and Korea.

It's hard to pick a favourite book from the collection, but I was impressed with the Chinese Nail Murders, where Judge Dee was almost defeated by a woman, when his coroner could not find the sign of a murder. The Chinese Bell Murders was also as captivating, imagine finding a skeleton under a giant bell; and it was a tragic story, too.

The King of Legend (2012)

I finished watching this series yesterday. It's Chinese version of The Count of Monte Cristo. Compared to the movie version with Jim Caviezel and the French mini-series with Gérard Depardieu, I personally think this Chinese version is closer to the original book. It’s rather hard to believe that the Chinese are better than the French in adapting the book, but I think it’s mainly because of the running time. The Chinese series consists of 39 episodes (@ appr. 41 minutes each) while the French series are only of 400 minutes.

This series is rather slow, full of dialogues, and lack of actions. However it’s very riveting and captivating. I think whoever wrote the script must have loved the original story very much.

In this series, the time setting and location were changed. The main character here was Lin Tian-long, a sailor from Jiao’ao village, who lived with his old father. He had a beautiful  fiancée, Mei-zi. Gu Siang-ru and Lei Li-gang who were jealous of him, sent an accusation letter to the police. At that time, Yuan Shih-kai was in power and Dr Sun Yat-sen was the opposition. The letter accused Lin Tian-long to be an agent of Sun Yat-sen. This letter was written in Wan Rong’s café. The prosecutor, Tang Zhen knew at once that Lin Tian-long was innocent, but because the letter implicated his future father-in-law, Tang Zhen sent Lin Tian-long to Prison No.7, a remote prison in an island where nobody ever escaped.

Liu Yun-long plays Lin Tian-long

 18 years in prison, Lin Tian-long befriended the ex-emperor’s teacher and learnt many things. He finally escaped from Prison No.7 and gained a treasure. He was richer than a country.

If in the original story, the treasure was buried in an island. In this version, the wealth was kept in a bank. The translation said it was HSBC. The old teacher gave Lin Tian-long the password to get the treasure.

Back to Jiao’ao, Lin Tian-long found that his father had been dead and Mei-zi married to Lei Li-gang. Wan Rong, the café owner, told him that Lei Li-gang forced his father to drink poison. Lin Tian-long gave a big diamond to Wan Rong and his wife, and this diamond led to Wan Rong’s wife’ death and Wan Rong was sent to prison for killing his wife. This couple reminded of The Thénardiers from Les Misérables. The wife was very irritating, especially with close-up shots.

The scene where Lin Tian-long saved his ex-boss, the owner of Luck the ship, was very touching.

Meanwhile, Gu Siang-ru, Lei Li-gang and Tang Zheng all had climbed the ladder of success and society. They all now lived in Shanghai. Gu Siang-ru was very rich and had a bank. Lei Li-gang had become a general. Tang Zheng was a successful prosecutor.

In this series, Tang Zheng and his right-hand man, Ah Fuk, were very mean. Ah Fuk was some kind of hitman who targeted Tang Zheng’s enemies. For example: Lin Tian-long’s friend, Ah Zheng, back in Jiao’ao petitioned the prosecutor to take another look at Lin Tian-long’s case. Tang Zheng sent Ah Fuk to silence him (but Ah Zheng survived). Tang Zheng went as far as reporting his own future father-in-law to the police, which led to a massacre.

In Shanghai, Lin Tian-long patiently set traps for his enemies. He wanted them to perish in their own desires. I think the innocent victim here was Gu Siang-ru’s daughter.

The ending was very good. Lin Tian-long, Ah Zheng and Li San together roamed the sea. It also showed Lin Tian-long read The Count of Monte Cristo book.

Please note that South Korea also has a series with the same title, but a different story.

A Fist Within Four Walls (2016)

Finished watching this last night. I think it's one of the best recent series TVB ever made. Although I don't know each series TVB have made, I rarely met one like this. In the 1980's I remember there were quite a few series like this one, but it is rare these days. I think TVB lately made lots of drama/comedy series, police themed series, but not one with fist fighting.

The original title should be 'Walled-city Heroes' - which I like better than the English title. In the beginning of episode 1 it was explained the background of the situation. I must say I enjoyed the explanation. I remember the Donnie Yen movie 'Chasing The Dragon' also situated in the walled city, but I don't remember if they also gave the background - other than the large scale of corruption.

It was explained here how the walled city became a no man's land. After Qing's defeat in the two opium wars, Hong Kong Island and part of Kowloon were ceded respectively to Britain. Then under pressure, Qing leased to Britain the New Territories and the rest of Kowloon. However the Qing Court fought hard and excluded the Walled City from this. So in the following years, the walled city was left with no government. It was independent of colonial rule (Britain), but Hong Kong police also could not get in. Criminals wanted to take the walled city over and residents had to stand up for their own protection.

The story in this series began in 1945. Duen Tung-tin of Duen Style Baji [Baji fist = eight-extremities fist] and Chiu Meng-shan of Chiu Style Baji protected the walled city from criminals. In a chaos following a fire, Duen Tung-tin was murdered, but the only witness pointed Chiu Meng-shan as the murderer. Chiu Meng-shan insisted that he was innocent so he agreed to be taken to a police jail outside the walled city. In the jail, he was ambushed by three men, so he returned to his home in the walled city. The residents thought that he broke jail, so they bludgeoned him and his wife to death. Chiu Meng-shan's two children, a boy and a girl, ran away. The boy was taken by the grand-aunt to Macau, but the girl was missing.

Fifteen years later, the boy, who by then had changed his name to Chor Au-Kuen, returned to the walled city in order to look for his lost sister. He met with Duen Tung-tin's son, Duen Ying-fung, and they became friends. They stood together to protect the residents from the 3 criminals who ruled the walled city: one sold opium, one had gambling houses and one in the prostitution business.

Beside the 3 criminals, there was also a group of mysterious killers. They also had to find who had murdered Duen Tung-tin and framed Chiu Meng-shan. As for the why, it was easy to guess.

I like all the characters in this series. Even Miss Audrey was worth watching, she was not very spoiled and was strong. If there is something I hate, perhaps it was Tiu Lan's lipstick colour... but maybe in the early 60's it was common. I also think if a woman has a defected heart, it's very dangerous for her to give birth. So I was at lost when Kuen expected many children from her.

The Winemaker - Noah Gordon

The other title of this book is La Bodega. I enjoyed reading this book. Noah Gordon is one of authors whose works I like, anyway. Set mostly in Spain in the 19th century, it followed the story of Josep Alvarez.

Being a second son of a winemaker, Josep knew that he should be looking for a job soon. His older brother, the eldest, would inherit the land. The opportunity came when a stranger arrived in the village, recruiting new soldiers. Josep enlisted, along with some boys in the village. After the training, they were taken to Madrid, where they became accessories in the assassination of  President Prim. Josep was the only one left alive when witnesses had been getting rid of. He fled to Languedoc and worked for a winemaker for four years, until when he heard about the death of his father.

Josep returned to Catalonia and found that his older brother wanted to sell their father's land. He bought the land. Later he bought his neighbour's vineyard and married the widow who lived next to this neighbour. The widow had a son and a vineyard, too. To become a successful winemaker, Josep began to make good wine, adopting the technique he had learned from the winemaker in Languedoc. Before this, they had grown grapes only to be made as vinegar.

Noah Gordon's writing style is easy to follow and the story flows well.

Black Heart White Soul (2014)

At first I didn't expect much from this series. I happened to come across this series when I was searching for Ron Ng's works. I had had watched him in The Four (TV series) and wondered why people liked him because in The Four he had few dialogues, almost had no expression,... anyway I was just curious.

Black Heart White Soul turned out to be a very good series. At least when I watched until episode 20 (out of 30) I liked how the story went. Roger Kwok, Kristal Tin, Ron Ng, and Waise Lee played important parts.

Ron Ng played a policeman who indirectly caused Roger Kwok's paralysis.  To atone for this mistake - and to ease his conscience - Funny (Ron Ng) befriended Mark (Roger Kwok) and told him [Mark] that if he ever needed for anything he could come to him [Funny]. Mark was a lawyer, an easy going guy who seemed to not mind of what happened years ago.

Because of his paralysis, it was not easy for Mark to get a client. His first client was May (Kristal Tin). May had been accused of being her boyfriend's accomplice in a robbery case, in which someone died. Mark was so good on defending May's case that Funny Sir who had arrested her in the first place became convinced that May was innocent. However, in the last minute, a new evidence came up and in the end May had to go to jail.

After this incident, Mark was getting well-known and hired to work in a big firm. When May had finished her term, they became close to one another. Mark liked May because she accepted his disability, and May liked Mark because he didn't care that she was an ex-con. However, Mark had a fear: that one day May would find out the real reason why she had to go to jail, because the robbery was not as simple as it had been.

Kristal Tin played May very well, or is it because I like her strong character. Other female characters here were: Denise (she was okay), Miu-miu and Gillian. Miu-miu was overweight yet pretty, but I often couldn't stand her comments. She shouted a lot. Gillian was more irritating: she cried all the time and got hysterical easily. She accused Funny of using her to incriminate her father without remembering that it had been her who had tried to commit suicide in order to force him to marry her.

The last episodes didn't go as well as I had expected. Funny worked under-cover that his character was different. A while ago I had seen him arguing with Mark and in the next scene he was agreeable to him again. The feeling was similar as when I was watching Line Walker (TV series) - one of the best TV series I have seen -  where Bao Seed jailed his enemies in sort of dog cages [reminded me of a scene in Gone But Not Forgotten] and Cheuk Sir turned evil. The characters just changed.

I think this series is one of TVB's best. 

Magpie Murders - Anthony Horowitz

I see this book as a tribute to Agatha Christie. It consists of two stories. The first one could be considered as a book within a book, a detective story about 2-3 murders. The detective was a survivor from German concentration camp, a dying man named Atticus Pund. If Sherlock Holmes has Dr Watson and Hercule Poirot has Arthur Hastings, Atticus Pund has James Fraser. In this story, a young woman came to ask the detective's help to clear her fiance's name. The boy had been accused of murdering his own mother, a housekeeper in Pye Hall. At first Pund didn't want to take her case, until when he read a news about another murder in the same house, where the owner of the Pye Hall had been found decapitated. Were the two murders related?

The 2nd story tells about the publishing house who had published 8 books of the Atticus Pund series by Alan Conway. The last book, called Magpie Murders, was missing the last chapters, where the conclusion was, where Atticus Pund told the readers who the killer was. The heroine in this part of the story was the editor, Susan Ryeland. Susan had been given the 9th book (also the last) of the series by the publisher, the CEO of the Cloverleaf Books, Charles Clover; but it lacked the last chapters. Meanwhile, the author, Alan Conway, had been dead. It had been said that he had committed suicide by throwing himself from the tower of his castle. Susan believed that Alan Conway had been murdered, so she started her own investigation to solve the mystery of the murder and to find the missing chapters.

I quite enjoy the book and thinks that the idea of this book was good. However I found the reason behind Alan Conway's murder was silly.

Violent Crimes - Phillip Margolin

Having read Phillip Margolin's books before, I was eager to read this one. It was an easy and quick read and I finished it in 2 nights. However I read this book right after I finished Huang Yi's A Step Into The Past and compared to Huang Yi's work, Violent Crimes was quite disappointing. It's a far cry from Gone But Not Forgotten.

I supposed this book was okay if someone wanted to make it into a blockbuster movie. There was nothing new in the plot. The heroine, Amanda Jaffe, was a lawyer who tries to free her 2 innocent clients, one was accused of brutal murders - and the other one had admitted to killing his own father.

A Step Into The Past (book) - Huang Yi

It took me more than 3 months to finish this book. I am not sure if there is a copyrighted English translation, but this one I read was available at internet, translated by several volunteers. (Thanks to you all!) I converted it to .epub format contained 2850+ pages.

The author, Huang Yi, was fond of science fiction – and wrote very thick books. I know 3 of his books have been made into TV series, including this one, with Raymond Lam in all of them. [The other two are: 'Lethal Weapons of Love and Passion' and 'A Pair of Dragons in Tang Dinasty'/'Twin of Brothers'.]

When I was reading about a hundred pages I began to regret what I was doing, realizing it would take months to finish the book. It was because I had many books to read. I had that same feeling when I was reading Romance of Three Kingdoms. A Step Into The Past, however, was more interesting and attractive to read, and after finishing the book, I was satisfied with how it ended and glad that I spent some time to read it. It is definitely one of the best historical fictions I have ever read.

The main character was a 20 year old elite soldier, a member of a task force, named Xiang Shao-long. He was sent with a time machine to the warring states era. He was supposed to land in the year when Qin Shi-huang, the first emperor of Qin, who united 7 states in China, ascended the throne, in 246 B.C.  But he landed 5 years earlier.

So the story in this book spans 5 years, from the time when Xiang Shao-long arrived in the warring states era, until when Qin Shi-huang ascended the throne. We see the development in Xiang Shao-long’s character, especially in the field of love. When he first arrived he was a lecher and would sleep around, but after the ones he loved died one by one, he then took the matter of love seriously.  From a troublemaker in the 21th century, in a few years Xiang Shao-long became the Great General of Qin and was respected by many.

With his background and knowledge from the 21th century, it was easy for him to impress people and also to win the heart and hands of the most beautiful ladies in that era. We also see how he met and interacted with famous and important people, the one most interesting was with Ying Zheng, the Qin Shi-huang. There were some twists, of course, and the moral lesson is: It is the winner who writes (or re-writes) history.

In the 2001 TV series version, Xiang Shao-long was given a sort of disc, a tool that could make him return to the 21th century. He did tried to return to the 21th century, although actually from the start we knew that in the end he didn’t, because in the beginning of episode 1, the disc was found in the ancient grave with the terracotta soldiers. In the book, we know clearly that he could not return because right after he had been sent to the warring states era, the time machine and the laboratory were blown to pieces.

Xiang Shao-long had one son, Xiang Bao-er; who would later became the famous Chu general: Xiang Yu. Bao-er was actually the 2^nd son of Teng Yi, one of Xiang Shaolong’s sworn brothers. Perhaps due to time machine radiation, Xiang Shao-long could not impregnate his wives; so Teng Yi gave him his 2^nd son.