THE NEW ADVENTURES OF CHOR LAU HEONG 2001

And the rants start here...

Richie Ren as Chor Lau Heung
What a total miscast! Chor Lau Heung, in my mind, is supposed to be suave, a lady-killer (to put it bluntly), intelligent, charismatic etc. Richie Ren, on the other hand, looks like he's blur most of the time and most definitely does not have the stature or charisma to carry off the role. Richie Ren is so NOT Chor Lau Heung.

Maybe if I hadn't Adam Cheng (Chor in the 70's) or Miu Kiu Wai (Chor in the 80's) to compare with, I might be more relenting of Richie's Chor. Unfortunately, both Adam and Miu have already formed an impression in my mind of what Chor should be like - suave, charismatic and most importantly they both had presence. Richie does not come even close. I guess the most glaring difference was I felt that this guy had absolutely no screen presence whatsoever. One didn't feel that the room would stand and turn their heads when he walked in. But for Adam and Miu, one would.

Also as for Chor Lau Heung the character, I must say that I really hated how he was depicted throughout this serial. It seemed to me that Chor was fickle-minded with absolutely no opinion when it came to his women. Was it just me or was he falling in love too easily? I mean, come on, a minute ago the love of his life just died and the next minute he's falling for another woman?! The poor man doesn't seem to know what he wants, who he wants or who he loves. One wonders if he was just going with the flow. When the women were going up to him saying, "I love you",you neither see him accept or reject them. What is that supposed to mean? That he's too nice a guy to break a girl's heart? Puh-leeeease.

That brings us back to Richie Ren's acting again. What can I say except that it leaves much to be desired. The only time that I felt any pain with him was when Anita's character died. Then again I could have been saddened by the fact that her passing was pretty tragic. When So Yung Yung died, sure Richie looked sad. But that was about it. Same goes for when Wu Tit Fa died. What's with this Chor Lau Heung? The woman he loved and his best friend had just died but I hardly see him mourning much for their death. It was more like, "okay, he/she died. I'm sad. Now, lets move on to the next scene."

I think you get the gist of my opinion of Richie Ren in the lead role. It also got me wondering if someone else were to play Chor Lau Heung, would it have made any difference? I combed the stable of current TVB actors who could possibly fill the shoes of Adam Cheng and Miu Kiu Wai, and the one person I could think of was Kong Wah. Then again, with such a script, it would only be a waste of talent.

Which brings me to the script.

Boring and draggy.

That about sums up the whole series. I found it an absolute chore to sit through all 35 episodes. Not only that, most of the time I felt cheated. Watching the previews, you get the impression that there are all these big names to look forward. Then when you start watching, you realise that they are only guest roles. I think my biggest disappointment was when Anita's character died in the first few episodes. Not that I'm a big fan of hers but I was looking forward to seeing her as I have missed watching her act for awhile now. Then there was Ekin Cheng as the legendary Flying Dagger - in and out in the blink of an eye. Not to mention Dicky Cheung, Monica Chan, Joey Meng etc.

Then again I guess I shouldn't gripe too much about that because the series did consist of many small sub-mysteries. And of course, there had to be people to play those roles. Not that I can remember much about those sub-plots though. I think I must have slept through all of them except for the last one.

The last mystery - unmasking the leader of the assassins was pretty interesting and compelling to begin with. It had me at the edge of my seat wondering who the mastermind behind the whole assassin group was. I was about to say that it was probably the only redeeming factor for this series. But then when all was revealed, it deteriorated into mere farce yet again.

And let's not even talk about the finale/showdown between our hero and the villain.

Ugh.

I have never seen anything so anti-climatic. One swish of the sword and everything was over. Just like that. Maybe the director/producer/scriptwriter was anxious to put us out of our misery and end the story? If that was the case, I really thank them.

Another gripe I have with this series?

Everybody seems to die! Anita's character dies. Joey's character dies. Chor's supposedly half brother dies. So Yung Yung dies. Sit Yee Yan dies. And the final straw was when Wu Tit Fa died. I thought that was so unnecessary. Why kill off his character? It wasn't as though there was any significance. Or was there? (if there was, maybe someone could tell me?)

How were the other actors in their roles?
Personally, I felt they were not that outstanding too. I hardly felt or fell for any of the characters. Everybody seemed too detached from each other and there was hardly any chemistry between them all. The only person that really caught my eye was Cheung Sai as Lee Hung Jau. Hung Jau, in my opinion, was the coolest of all the Chor girls. Intelligent and with two feet firmly on the ground, I really enjoyed watching Cheung Sai in that role (the only other time I have seen Cheung Sai was as one of Siu Bo's wives in "Duke Of Mount Deer". So this role being so different in character from her previous role really caught my attention). Gigi was adequate as So Yung Yung, Ruby was pretty boring to say the least and Kristy, well, she still hasn't proven to me that she's more than just a pretty face.

All that said, should I give this series a go?
Well, unless you have a lot of money and a lot of spare time on your hands or you're some sado-masochist who likes to put yourself through mindless torture - DON'T EVEN BOTHER.

'Nuff said.

And on a scale of 1 to 5?
The worst end of the scale - 1 star. But that's because I'm just too generous.

This review can also be found at spcnet.
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