The Last Steep Ascent: Episode 5-9

Ho Sai Man (Katy Kung), the youngest daughter of the Ho family, got married to a Malaysian businessman Ngai Bo Law (Matt Yeung), but it seems like he's just after her money to save his family business. Don't know if he really loves her or not. Sai Man seems like a nice girl for now.

Miu Tin (Moses Chan) got a job at Chai Man's (Joel Chan) medicine shop. Chai Man really admired Miu Tin's knowledge in Chinese medicine so he got promoted really fast. Although Chai Man may sound cocky sometimes, you can tell that he's a good guy. I really enjoy his scenes so far, along with with his wife (Samantha Ko). They make a funny couple!!

When Miu Tin's friends came visit him, Chai Man's wife teased them, making them feel so awkward! Chai Man was being nice and hired all of them to work for him (all except for Tsui Wing who had to return to the village). You can tell that Chai Man really treasures Miu Tin.

Koo Sun Yuet (Maggie Cheung) finally found out about the affair between her husband Ho Sai Cheung (KK Cheung) and Tin Oi Tai (Aimee Chan). Two years ago in San Francisco, Sai Cheung was really sick and Oi Tai was 'bought' to take care of him. After that, they developed feeling for each other. Understanding her family situation, Sai Cheung arranged Oi Tai to leave the States and live closer to him in Guangzhou. Oi Tai continued to take care of him and his health.

Although Sai Cheung and Oi Tai do seem like they truly love each other, it hurts Sun Yuet that Sai Cheung didn't love her enough despite their 20-year marriage and even deliberately made up stories to lie to her. I do believe that Sai Cheung and Oi Tai were true to each other but I also think that Sai Cheung didn't love Sun Yuet enough to tell her about his illness. After all, these two seriously lack communication and understanding, Sai Cheung only cares about his business while Sun Yuet only cares about the kids. Nevertheless, a married man must know what he should and shouldn't do so Sai Cheung is in the wrong here. And Oi Tai, knowing that Sai Cheung was already married and even had kids, still clung onto him so she's at fault too. However, I do pity her character.

Sai Cheung's illness struck him again and this time, he passed away. A lot of people were sad but of course, some people were extremely happy about this!! As for Oi Tai, she got really depressed after Sai Cheung died. She kept wandering in Guangzhou and even got raped when she was drunk.

Sai Leung (Benjamin Yuen) is Sai Cheung's brother. After Sai Cheung died, he took over as the boss of Ho Ching Tong. However, due to his lack of experience, Sai Leung found his task extremely exhausting. In addition, Sai Ho (Edwin Siu) and his father Kwan Yiu (Cheung Yik) set up traps to trouble him even more. As a result, Sai Leung ran away from home. (He looked dead!! Poor guy =.=')

Sun Yuet's mother-in-law (Law Lan) now made Sun Yuet take over the business. Sai Ho and his father of course wouldn't agree to this. They called everyone in the Ho family out and forced her to hand over Ho Ching Tong. And now we get to see the familiar Tim-Gor-style-family-showdown scene!! Shame on these guys, picking on a widow... tsk tsk!!

At a time like this, only one thing will come in handy --- the will!! ~~Yay, will-reading time~~!! So according to the will, Kwan Yiu committed some crime in the past (rape in particular). As a result, his father didn't let him manage Ho Ching Tong even though he was the eldest son. After hearing this, Kwan Yiu got furious and collapsed. Sai Ho felt that they were in great disadvantage after his father was sent to the hospital (he came down with stroke or something). He fell on his knees and begged Law Lan for forgiveness, but of course, he didn't mean it!!

So Sun Yuet got to be the boss again. She may be a good mother, but when it comes to business and medicine, she basically knew nothing. In the midst of great distress, Sun Yuet found the note that Miu Tin wrote for Sai Cheung when he lent him $3000. According to their agreement, Miu Tin would come over to Ho Ching Tong and help whenever they needed him.

Sun Yuet immediately went looking for Miu Tin. But of course, someone's not gonna be happy!!

The Last Steep Ascent: Episode 1-4

I like the theme song 《一生一心》 sung by Hubert Wu. I think Hubert's voice sounds a bit like Chilam's, or is it just me?! However, I don't like the opening theme video. It has exactly the same style as Bottle Passion's, but more poorly done.

Ok let's get started. So apparently, Maggie made my eyes teary within the first 5 min of the first episode!! WTH?! I totally didn't see that coming!! I got so emotional just by listening to her narration. It was her voice, so old-fashioned and so old too. She was able to bring out the mood just by using her voice. I'm impressed!! Good job Maggie!!

The story begins in 1934 in a small village. Miu Tin (Moses Chan) is basically a 'seun poon' in his village because he's nice, filial, capable, blah blah blah... After the death of his parents (a rather sad and touching part... Q.Q)), Miu Tin and his friends decided to go to Guangzhou to sell off the medicine they have grown for the past 2 years.

However, things didn't go well as they planned. When they were trying to sell the medicine to Guangzhou biggest medicine shop Ho Ching Tong, they were 'bullied' by Ho Kwan Yiu (Cheung Yik) and his son Ho Sai Ho (Edwin Siu). Miu Tin's friend Cheng Kiu (Kenny Wong) couldn't hold back and punched Sai Ho. As a result, he got into jail. Miu Tin had to help get him out. But when they thought everything was resolved, their medicine went rotten before they could sell it.

Luckily, Miu Tin met Ho Sai Cheung (KK Cheung), the owner of Ho Ching Tong. After hearing Miu Tin's story, Sai Cheung decided to lend him some money so he can have something to give back to the villagers. Sai Cheung is actually Kwan Yiu's nephew and Sai Ho's cousin. Since Kwan Yiu and Sai Ho were backed up by the whole Ho family, Sai Cheung didn't dare to fire them even if he knew they cheated Ho Ching Tong's money. I can see that Sai Cheung is very troubled!!

Koo Sun Yuet (Maggie Cheung) is Sai Cheung's wife and a loving mother of 3 kids. She didn't want to get involved in the Ho family business and just wanted to take care of her kids. Her mother-in-law (Law Lan) wanted her to be the head of the Ho family but Sun Yuet rejected her every time. I love their interaction, so cute and so childish!!

After giving all the money back to the villagers, Miu Tin once again decided to go to Guangzhou and find a job to pay off his debt. Tin Oi Tai (Aimee Chan), a villager who just returned from San Francisco, joined him. Although Oi Tai was born in the States, she lived in China Town and didn't know English. She returned to the village after her parents died. By accident, Miu Tin discovered that Oi Tai was actually the mistress of Sai Cheung.

Looking forward to the relationship between Sun Yuet and Miu Tin!! They met many years ago when Miu Tin was 10 and Sun Yuet was 18. At that time, Sun Yuet was on her way to marry Sai Cheung. They haven't properly met each other again yet but it seems like Miu Tin recognized Sun Yuet.

I still couldn't get over the fact that Moses got his role as Miu Tin, who's 8 years younger than Maggie's character Koo Sun Yuet. Because the thing is, Moses looks older than Maggie, it's not convincing!! They should have gotten a younger actor for this role (Bosco? Ray Wong? Ruco? or Kenneth??). However, if they insist on using an actor at Moses' age, I prefer Steven Ma!!

From the first 4 episodes, I feel that this series is similar to Rosy Business. The wealthy Ho family and Moses-Maggie relationship are comparable to the Chiang family and Wayne-Sheren relationship in RB. I highly anticipated this series so hopefully it won't disappoint, especially the ending.

And isn't that... RAYMOND WONG?!?! O_o Since when he's in this series?!

 

Master of Play: Episode 3-5

I'm so behind with Master of Play, only up to ep 6... Oh well, let's get straight to business shall we?

I find it really interesting how Ah Kan (Adam Cheng) used his acting skills to look for Luk Bing Ching (Lau Dan), who just got out of jail not long ago. His story is rather interesting too, though a bit draggy. It's giving out clues here and there and make you guess whether he had killed his wife or not. And the answer wasn't what I expected. Yes, I was fooled!! And so was Ah Kan.

It seemed like Ah Kan has gone too far with his acting, to the point he got out of control and almost hurt his colleagues. He seemed scary that time.

Ah Kan met a girl whom he thought was his daughter Tansy. It turned out she's Charlie, Tansy's best friend and also the one who's supposed to be kidnapped 25 years ago. Ah Kan saw her working as a prostitute and even doing drugs.

MOP is full of surprises. Charlie was actually an undercover!! And she's dating Matt Yeung's character, whose name I forgot :P

When Ah Kan told Luk Bing Ching he believed that he had killed his wife, Luk Bing Ching got out of control and wanted to kill the triad boss whom his wife had an affair with. Charlie stopped him but unfortunately, she ended up getting killed by that triad boss. Very sad!! Ah Kan has indirectly caused her death.

Adam's crying skill was superb!! He's the best actor so far in MOP!!

Natalie (Aimee Chan) is a very special girl. She can tell a tree's feeling by looking at its leaf color. She seemed to love nature. Natalie is a botanist or something?!

Natalie seemed unhappy about Ivan (Moses Chan) and Esther's (Maggie Siu) wedding. She even got mad at Esther but luckily things worked out for them at the end. It seemed like she felt insecure when Ivan's not around, hence didn't want them to get married.

Finally, Kenny Wong and Rachel Kan made their appearance as Eric and Michelle respectively. Ivan met them at Jekyll bar, a place full of weird people: Edwin an odd bar tender, Martin an angry dude and Henry a timid waiter.

Kenny and Rachel's looks are the most eye-catching... and scary, especially Kenny's!! Imagine having his profile picture in your phone...

... CREEPY!!

When Eric discovered Henry unintentionally overheard his conversation with Ivan, he killed him right away!! Ivan seemed shocked and got mad at first, but went along with him in the end.

Eric seemed to know a lot about Ivan, and it seemed like he's watching over him and even knows what Ivan's thinking. He said that he's the one who lured Ivan into killing his uncle!! I began to think that Eric and the whole Jekyll bar only existed inside Ivan's head, ie. they are only his imagination. (**Don't tell me anything, I don't want spoilers. I want to find out myself!! Thank u**)

It turned out that Ivan and Natalie aren't real brother and sister!! She got kidnapped by Ivan's father and uncle (the dude Ivan killed in ep 2). His father wanted him to kill Natalie because she saw their faces but it seemed like Ivan killed his father instead?! Ivan is now overprotective of Natalie and maybe that's why he killed his uncle?!

Ivan got really shocked when he saw a picture of Ah Kan in Natalie's computer. Natalie may be Tansy afterall!!

Wow... look at Moses' expression!!

Master of Play: Episode 2

Episode 2 was rather suspenseful. It focused a lot more on Moses. However, he still remains very mysterious. Now the killing game just started!!

Aimee played Moses' sister. It looks like she's the mysterious person who has been bringing Tansy flowers to Adam. I'm not used to seeing Aimee in long hair.

Now it's Moses' turn!! He just stood there like that, staring at his target, emotionless!! I think this guy is his uncle or something, I'm not sure...

... and the killing begins!! Moses was strangling him to death.

He wrapped the corpse in plastic bag and put it in a box. I love how so many people were passing by his van, even looking into it, but no one would expect what's in there!!

And Aimee was the one who pushed that box out. Of course, she didn't know what's inside.

They were even sitting on it, still clueless!!

... and she placed it inside Moses' studio.

UH OHHH!! Someone will find out soon...

... and?

NOPE!! He had moved the corpse to the box behind it beforehand. Phewww....

HERE IT IS!!

What will he do with the corpse?
BURN IT!!

... and the ashes?

DOWN THE TOILET!!

Just like in When Heaven Burns, something gruesome was shown in parallel with food!! Producer Chik really wants us to barf haha!!

Next target: Maggie's mom??

And so that was one life already!! I wonder how long he's been doing this. Does Aimee know about this? Does Maggie know about this? It's still not clear what his intention is and why he's like this.