I wanted to watch something of Wayne’s so that was the reason for tuning in to this one. Then I realized Wayne and Sonija were collaborating again so the better for me since I had liked them together after watching Pages of Treasure (and felt they were kind of robbed as a couple in there). I also didn’t have any problem with the rest of the cast so I dove in. As I was patiently waiting for the plot to unfold, I thought it was just another palace related show. However, I was wrong. Yes, the main story arch was regarding the palace and the uprising of some arrogant dude who thought he would be a better ruler. It always happened that way. What made it different was how it brought back feelings of old series. Mostly feelings of ancient series of the old days. It wasn’t being controversial on purpose or try to dramatize everything. The story just flowed along. I found it funny at first that they had several characters in here in various roles and even their characters looked alike. I soon got past that and realized it would be an interesting one. At least it was different. Then I got pulled in by the story. Sure, some were repetitive and reminded me of Liao Zhai related stories. Yet it was refreshing in a sense of the chemistry between various characters. I felt it strange at first that they let Kristal portray a guy. It was almost as if they were running out of cast or something. But then the character grew on me and so did Kristal’s portrayal. (If they did some Mulan adaptation, she would make a perfect Mulan. Not kidding.)
Anyway, aside from the main story arch, I felt the rest of the couples had a fair share of stories. Although Yat Pan Heung was shown as a greedy, flirty, and despicable character at first, the background story for her made sense. She was a prostitute, what was she expected to do? Then she was living in such a place, how could she not come up with different schemes to triumph over others? Who was she supposed to trust? It made sense. The previous happening with the switch and all was only to teach Chu Yi Dan a lesson. It didn’t allow for Yat Pan Heung to justify herself more than that. Because he wasn’t her fate so he only saw her as the fun person, not like his boring wife–as he mistakenly thought. Chu Yi Dan finally learned that his wife was very talented in her own way and very strong. There were many things she’d done for him but he didn’t realize its importance until she was no longer doing them. It made him realized his unreasonableness and knowing that the wife he wanted had been by his side all along. When Yat Pan Heung finally met Hon Tin Loi, the story unfolded and she found her own happiness and what could be considered a normal life. I actually liked those characters more, lol. Call me bias but scholar versus awesome martial arts dude. But both Wayne and Sonija did quite well in bringing out their different roles.
Then there was the story of the Song prince and Princess Lap Ka. Their story was cute at first and then moved toward the tragic route. However, their story was spread out throughout and not bunch together. It created a sense of mystery to it, making you wonder if there would be some sort of miracle in the end, which there was. But it didn’t make it too corny. The story actually made sense in the fairy-tale or folktale kind of way.
The story regarding the fish spirit and Cheung Chan was a mixture of cuteness and tragedy. Although it turned out favorable in the end. But that story brought forth both humor and mystery. The ideal, sweet girl wasn’t who she posed as out in public and a supposedly fish demon wasn’t so evil like often portrayed in others’ eyes. Eliza actually did quite well portraying both roles. She brought out the innocent, cute side of the fish spirit nicely. Then there was the cunning, scheming side of the royal miss, Hung Mao Dan. Her chemistry with Bosco was cute and likable in their own way.
Aside from all the couples in here, I felt some of the notable mentions went to Lee Kwok Lun, portraying two roles (like some others in here) of the turtle spirit and Justice Bao. He was humorous as the turtle spirit and somewhat grim as Justice Bao. Yet he was convincing in both roles. Koo Koon Chung was given a loyal, righteous role in here, which was hilarious. Well, okay, not like he’d never portrayed a good person type of role before, but I was more used to his cunning side or somewhat playful roles in the past. So having him in this role was a nice change. He was a great addition under the reins of Dyun Fung Sam. At the part where it was thought he had abandon Dyun as well, considering how he had a family and all, it was tragic but understandable. Yet he returned after having settled all his families at a safer place. It proved that he really meant what he said, i.e. caring for his family, and that he wasn’t afraid of death–like initially thought.
After all that was said and done, I think the most tragic couple must be Yuen Sam Yeung and Dyun So Sei. The ending for them was so sad. There was supposedly another chance for them at long last after all those years of waiting. However, in the end, they couldn’t be together. Both Raymond and Kristal acted out their scenes so well. Their chemistry wasn’t bad either.
There were many things about this series that made me wanted to defend TVB again, although I know they’re a lost cause for the most part. Most dramas nowadays are always leaning toward “love, love, love” and not so much for the theme of patriotism so I thought this series sort of brought that back into focus. Yes, there were various love stories in here–and it would probably contradict my previous statement somewhat, but I think that they made the right calls for the main story arch, i.e. the side stories weren’t that dragged out for the sake of it. It was more plot-driven than character-driven so it made the pace likable and enjoyable in many ways.
The ending? Although not completely satisfying and I’m sure there were flaws somewhere, but I felt it was nicely executed for the most part. A typical ending with a battle between good versus evil. Yet it united some of the key characters for the epic ending. It was nice seeing Raymond in another role, but this time as Prince Wanyan Siu. He joined forces with them to help find the special liquid and also defeated the ultimate bad guy in here. It was a nice battle scene. Not overdone. They actually worked together to defeat the bad guy AND NOT make it like someone hogged the entire scene for some outright exaggerated battle. It brought forward a sense of joint effort like how it was from the beginning, having different characters participate in the events, not one or two-persons all the time. One of the main reasons why I liked this series. And yes, it was indeed a major surprise that I’m praising it.
Nice review!
Just FYI that the reason you probably felt this series “brought back feelings of old series” is because this technically IS an old series: this series is actually a remake of the 1981 classic Double Fantasies (Chinese name of the series is exactly the same, though they changed the English name). The one back in the 80s starred Louise Lee, Maggie Li (John Chiang’s wife), etc. The script was written by Kam Kwok Leung (who was one of TVB’s best scriptwriters back then) and was quite popular at the time due to how ‘different’ it was from traditional series. I can’t find it now but I remember reading a really good article that goes into detail about the meaning of the title and the significance behind having everyone play 2 different characters. Oh and if I remember correctly, Lee Kwok Lun was also in the original series from 1981 and I think he played the same characters back then as he did in the remake one.
I actually didn’t watch the remake outside of the first 2 or 3 episodes, mostly because I wasn’t too keen on the cast (outside of Wayne and a few others) and also not a fan of remakes. Also, by that time, I had already lost confidence in TVB due to all the crappy series they had churned out previously and just couldn’t bring myself to “focus” on their series anymore (I don’t think I’ve watched a TVB series in its entirety for maybe 3 or 4 years already). I guess you could say that my tolerance level for TVB series has really gone down the toilet.
With all that said, I do think it would be interesting to see how ‘faithful’ the remake was to the original. Of course, I don’t expect it to be exactly the same, but it shouldn’t stray too far – at least I hope it didn’t stray too far, otherwise there’s no point in calling it a remake. The reason I’m curious about this piece is because TVB is going the ‘remake’ route more and more (so far they have ‘re-made’ 3 of their classic series, with one more scheduled to start filming next month), which I feel is a worse idea than doing sequels, since it opens everyone up for straight-up comparisons to the original – but on the other hand, seeing how Under the Veil compares to Double Fantasies will at least give us an idea of what to expect with the other remakes that TVB plans on doing. If their remake track record turns out anything like their sequel track record (and we all know how bad that track record is), then I’m hoping TVB abandons the idea immediately before they ‘ruin’ other classic series.
While I was looking for cast names, etc to do review, I think I saw the reference on it being a remake, etc. But of course I didn’t watch the other one. It’s tooo hard to find old series nowadays. But in a way, I was glad I didn’t have the previous filter of watching the other one already so prepare to hate this one mentality (not saying you have it since I’m using it it general ’cause I do understand the backlash of remakes). The only reason why I crawl back to watching a TVB series was because of Wayne. I only do that for Roger and Wayne nowadays. Sad, but yeah. But with that said, it’s going to sound mean, BUT I never really liked Louise Lee except for her role in Duke of Mount. Deer so I guess it doesn’t affect me as much.
And I think yes, some of the feeling of the past was probably due to the ‘remake’ thing. But I think like I stated it had to do with the theme of patriotism, NOT just focusing on love ALL THE TIME. I don’t know, everywhere you look nowadays, dramas are focused on romance. Well, I watch romance and I’m not ashamed to say some are even more sappy than TVB romances, but I just don’t like watching ancient soaps, which are the majority circulating around of recent. So having this series sort of got me all happy, lol.
But as a general idea though, I’m not surprised TVB’s juggling back and forth between remakes or sequels. It’s like a dead case with them. They’re just glad some of the cast are still there at times.