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IWantThatDramama

IWantThatDramama

Al Cappuccino hong kong drama review
Completed
Al Cappuccino
1 people found this review helpful
by IWantThatDramama
Sep 28, 2020
30 of 30 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 7.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 6.5
This review may contain spoilers

Refreshing Series for 2020

This drama takes a common TVB plot line (undercover cops) and adds a comedic spin to it.

Music: Pretty catchy, but not enough for me to look it up or listen to it outside of the drama. Vincent Wong sings it. I think my favorite is the upbeat opening song that matches the comedic theme of the series.

Acting: Owen, Vincent, and Brian (the three musketeers) played their roles really well! Wing Tsiu also played his character really well! I think it was nice of TVB to pair novice actresses with Vincent, because he usually has good chemistry with his costars. Winki and Angel (Shui jie) had the best female performances in my opinion. I also liked the older gen actors too. Although I did not like Samantha Ko's character, I thought she played the role well though (it was a hard role to play, especially when she had to be two-faced in the beginning). Kelly Fu wasn't bad, but the character she played was pretty irritating at one point. Serene Lim, Kathy Yuen, and Crystal Fung have room for improvement (this could be biased though bc I also just found their characters annoying).

Characters: I loved the bromance between Sai Lung and Ko Bun (and Luk Chau third wheeling lmao)! Most of the female leads were annoying as hell to watch. I only liked Shui jie and the eldest sister. Angel was pretentious, selfish, and needed to be knocked down like 10 notches, but she did earn some points in the end. Si Tou Sir was a POS and only semi-redeemed himself in the end. I dislike Si Tou Sir more than KT even... bc KT started out as a triad member who infiltrated the police, so you can't really be mad that he has no morals; whereas Si Tou Sir always aspired to be an upright cop yet does borderline illegal stuff to move up in rank. I couldn't feel bad for the second sister bc she is literally so dumb and couldn't see the signs when they were right in front of her (she found out he has a wife and forgave him before they even left the restaurant...). The third sister is so irrelevant and only was there to mess things up. Cherry and Rachel were the absolute worse though. I liked Cherry's morality, but her "innocent" trait came off as annoying eventually (could be the actress's acting). It was especially annoying because her dad is literally a triad boss-- it's not realistic to be that pitiful and helpless. Rachel should be fired as a cop. She basically manipulated a civilian into risking his life as an uncover informant. She also has zero deductive skills and basically only succeeded in the end because she was on the good side. She is pretty much no better than Si Tou Sir (using deceit to move up in rank), except she was just helping the good guy. She prides herself in being "independent" and a "good cop," yet she basically relied on daddy's money and connections to get through everything. Knowing how to use your resources is smart, but pretending you are self-made is hypocritical. Sai Lun is the third worst character. I really like Sai Lung, but Sai Lun is the king of idiots. At first, I thought the IOU notes were cute and gentlemanly, but he helped out the three ladies (Cherry, Angel, and Rachel) so many times I'm pretty sure they owe them now. Sai Lun thought he was being a good person, but I think he just came off as a fool. He let himself be pushed around so much that I eventually just stopped feeling bad for him-- at that point, maybe he deserves to be played... The only redeeming quality he had was his character quirk of being a cinephile; it was good comedic relief.

Plot: I think they timed the serious and comedic scenes really well. I also liked that a lot of the plans hatched by Sai Lung and Ko Bun were based off of movie plots. I also shipped Ko Bun and the eldest sister so much! I loved all their interaction scenes. They have many funny scenes (i.e., when Ko Bun was reluctant to become her Fu Ma in the beginning), and their romantic scenes were light and wholesome (also cute but not cheesy). My favorite scene is when she is being piggy-backed by him after drinking too much but started crying and apologizing bc she lied to him about being 30 when she is 32, the Ko Bun responded with "I knew" (although she already passed out at that point. The main plot is also very interesting. It was exciting to see how an actor would get out of sticky situations without raising suspicion. The subplots of Sai Lung x female lead was kind of unnecessary though. I did like how he ended up with no girl at the end. My main complaints about the plot have to do with the character flaws I listed above. I mentioned that I liked the bromance scenes and found them funny, but there were times I felt conflicted. The general trend of media is becoming more PC and so there were certain scenes where I was worried that the drama was making homosexuality a running gag or punch line rather than something that could seriously happen. However, I think they redeemed themselves by making most of the characters accepting of it (e.g., Luk Chau would have funny reactions, but he still supported Sai Lung and Ko Bun being together and kept their secret).

Cinematography: The series found a good niche for itself, because I don't think any other dramas has done this idea before. They referenced a lot of classic movies and pointed out common movie troupes. In a way, they were poking fun at the film industry. I also liked how they have the episode recaps in a yellow-filtered frame (reminiscent of old movies) and the occasional exclamatory remarks being presented as words on a screen instead of being acted out (reminiscent of silent films).
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