This is one drama that I thought will become a victim of this dumb trend, but I was pleasantly surprised. Not only does it have a good cast, but also a nice flowing storyline. Even though it could have ended 5 episodes earlier (I actually thought it was 30 eps long) the extra 5 episodes didn't fell out of place, and flowed quite smoothly.
Plot
The storyline isn't very creative. It is essentially another time-travel series in which Carlos Chan from 1948 wakes up in 2018, to which he needs to adapt to a new life with a family who was brought up differently to himself. Chan's character is a honourable, honest, good man who is shocked at his petty, deceitful decedents.
I'm happy they didn't overuse the fact that he's from the 1940s, but rather made use of his honourable personality instead.
Only thing I'll fault is they the should have dropped more hints that Joel's character was also from the 1940s by, say, making him have more knowledge of life in 1948, or liking a food that isn't common now ect. And it'll be nice to have more scenes of his grandchild (also played by Joel) since, to show how different they are, since that's how Macy found out.
Cast
John Chiang and Wayne Lai acted very well, making their characters feel believable. Even though Chiang's role began as a more "unlikable" character, he played the character well enough to be not too unlikable that the viewers hate him. His character's transition to "good" was believable too. Lai's character started out good, but later become corrupt with greed, but he made that very relatable as to not offend the viewers.
I was pleasantly surprised by Carlos Chan, it's the first time I've seen him act and was was very convincing. He stayed in character the entire time and was quite charming through out. I hope to see him more in the future. Joel Chan was okay. He has always been quite consistently good across all his dramas so I'm not surprised.
Considering how dull of a character Rosina played, she did quite well. She stayed in character, as a gentle, elegant Japanese girl, but she needs work on her facial expressions. It seems like she's trying to hard to pronounce her words right (I know she speaks Mandarin). Patricia Ha's face barley moved. She was almost robotic. I know her character was supposed to be elegant and cold hearted, but watching to close ups of her face was quite difficult for me.
Music
The music is hardly memorable o I have nothing to say. I quite like that theme song, considering how tired I am of listening to Fred (he's a good singer but the songs are usually boring). I'm surprised there was no ending theme or insert song, but the opening theme didn't feel over played at all and I don't want to listen to Hana or Stephanie any more so I don't mind.
Overall this was a good series, even though the plot was lacking a bit, it had a good flow and the acting and character interactions were brilliant and you can really feel the emotions and the motives behind each characters decisions. I give this 7.5, could have gotten an 8 is the story was more appealing but overall a good score, particularly compared to recent dramas TVB have been producing.
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