A Fist Within Four Walls 城寨英雄 // Review

Overview

A Fist Within Four Walls is a 2016 martial arts Hong Kong action series that was produced by Jazz Boon and TVB. This series premier on several TVB Platforms across South-East Asian countries such as Malaysia and Singapore on 1 August 2016 and aired its final episode on 28 August, totalling 28 episodes. This series stars Ruco Chan, Nancy Wu, Benjamin Yuen, Grace Wong, Moon Lau and Philip Ng ect. Set in the 1960’s this series belong under the genres of action, martial arts and periodic drama which is a rare combination to see, given that this series has been produced by TVB.

Main Cast

Ruco Chan as Chor Au Kuen / Chiu Yeung （左勾拳／朝阳／拳佬）

Nancy Wu as Diu Lan （刁兰／辛未）

Benjamin Yuen as Duen Ying Fung （段迎风／牙佬）

Grace Wong as Fa Man / Chiu Ha （花曼／朝霞）

Moon Lau as  Or Tak-Lei （柯德莉）

Philip Ng as Lung Shing Fu （龙成虎／猫仔）

Yuen Qiu as Yuk Bo Fung（玉波凤／泰婆）

Plot:

This series is set in Kowloon in the 1960’s after a flashback to 1945, starting with the scenes of bajiquan masters Duen Tong Tin and Chiu Mang Shan saving the walled city (Seng Tzai) from triad gangs and hooligans invading it. Realising that both of them are experts of bajiquan of different styles - Duen Style and Chiu Style, they decided to befriend each other. Soon after, a fire broke out in the walled city which results in both of the martial artists to come to the rescue, which causes Duen Tong Tin to die in the building. His death has surfaced and caused a lot of commotion and question marks in the city. People were wondering who or what could’ve killed him due to his exceptional martial art skills and the fact that the fire has been extinguished when he returned back into the burned building after hearing someone calling for help inside. Realising that Master Duen has not come out of the building after a while, Master Chiu walks in in hope of helping him out, when Chiu saw Duen again, Duen seemed to have gone out of his mind and trying to attack him. While defending himself, both of these masters gotten into a fight and when Duen’s brother walk in during their fight, Duen Tong Tin dies in front of him. Chiu Man Shan was then framed for being the murderer of Master Duen despite not having done that at all. Chiu Man Shang and his wife was soon forced to their wit ends by the villagers for having killed their ‘hero’ and died. Both of their children, Chiu Yeung and Chiu Ha has also been separated after that.

20 years after the incident, Chiu Yeung returns to walled city with hope of finding out the truth but now with a new identity of Chor Au Kuen. He mets several obstacles along the way and reunites with his sister as well. Both of them then decides to seek revenge for their dead parents after finding out that an assassin organisation was behind this. They both then met their lovers on their journey, but little do they know about their dark secrets.

Song Thoughts:

Theme Song 主题曲 － 《围城》陈展鹏 Ruco Chan

Ending Theme 尾片曲  － 《从没知道你是最好》陈展鹏，胡定欣 Ruco Chan, Nancy Wu

The theme song of this series which has been sung/performed by Ruco Chan I think is extremely suitable for this series, high power, high dynamics - perfect for an action-packed drama. But, to be honest, it’s nothing more than just a theme song as it’s not melodically ‘attractive’, I guess, or should I say bad. The ending theme-cum-interlude however was rather brainwashing, in a good way. Even though as a song, it doesn’t really stand out but when it’s played in this series, the stories behind this song is extremely touching and makes it so much more than just a song, it’s almost like a token of their love. Part of what makes it so memorable to me was the fact that it was sung by none other than the 2 love birds in the series themselves, Ruco Chan and Nancy Wu. Although their voices wasn’t perfect, I think it helps to form and shape what this song is, imperfect but good enough for the both of them to be happy, just like their relationship.

Review + Opinion

Personally, I was blown away by the quality of this series. As a passionate hater of periodical dramas, I was skeptical about starting this drama but was curious to see how good this drama was to snatch 6 awards at the TVB Anniversary Awards 2016. I started this drama and this drama was one of the few periodical dramas that kept me watching till the end! It had an extremely interesting start which got me hooked in right from the very beginning. The flow of the story was generally very smooth although there are times where it can be rather complicated. The character development in this play was done quite well, I guess, by giving the backstory of the main character at the start and then proceed to give occasional flashbacks throughout the series. A Fist Within Four Walls contained scenes where you would really be able to empathise the feelings of the character, whether they were annoyed or happy. Scenes where you would uncontrollably break down with them and be extremely angry at the same person that they are angry with which is why kudos to the actors for bringing such astounding performances to us and touching the hearts of many watching this series. BUT.. there are several things that I personally found annoying or unnecessary from this series such as the fact that the first death of the series just triggered the deaths of what seems like 9323 others. As well as the point that the characters are able to kill other characters without even hesitating in one scene and is supposed to be a completely different person in another scene where he/she is caring etc. Anyways, I’ll elaborate more of these in the individual character’s review.

Ruco Chan → Chor Au Kuen/ Chiu Yeung / 拳佬

Having awarded the TVB Best Actor awards at ALL 3 of the awards ceremony held respectively in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, he has the pressure of living up to the title for his upcoming series. I also be taking into consideration the titles that he have when reviewing his performance in this series. I think that he did great in this series portraying the naive, righteous and kind Chor Au Kuen. The scenes that he had while being blind was quite something but as a viewer watching it in 2018, I’ve already watched Legal Mavericks starring Vincent Wong as the blind lawyer and needless to say Ruco Chan’s performance couldn’t hold up to his (excuse my bias 😂, but you can’t deny that his performance in Legal Mavericks was 👌 tho 😉). There are so MANY times throughout the series where I get so annoyed with how naive almost to a point stupid HE IS even though this is also the reason why people find his extremely aww-worthy for him to have this innocence of a child which also provides comical relief to this at this quite violence series.

Nancy Wu → Diu Lan/ 刁兰

Nancy Wu being in the same position as Ruco Chan for being awarded TVB Best Actress in all three ceremonies has a lot riding on her performance in this series. Despite being absolutely amazing for playing the caring, outspoken, loud Diu Lan, there were parts of the plot where I simply did not get. First of all, if she was trying to hide in Seng Tzai from the assassin organisation, why in the hell would she be living such a high profile life and having such an unique, prominent personality in the city that she lives in. Aside from that, I don’t get how Diu Lan works, like is she even human? Throughout the series, she managed to be poisoned, loss her heart beat multiple times, dived down from a rooftop, survived and pull through all this, THEN be able to fight in a suit the next morning. The producers are making way too obvious that she is the main lead here. Rant over, I think that Nancy did really well in this series being able to pull off this rather ‘special’ character though her ways of communicating with the other characters and completely nailed the outfits in the series.

Benjamin Yuen → Duen Ying Fung

Benjamin Yuen didn’t do AMAZINGLY WELL in this series but i have to say that he didn’t disappoint either, I guess he did just enough to make his character believable and to make the story flow. His character is extremely calm, collected and tries to stay away from any form of trouble. What slightly bothers me was the amount of effort that he tried to court Fa Man but when she died, it didn’t seem to bother him at all. I mean, some could argue that he has gotten used to his loved ones leaving him but I personally didn’t find it believable that he could be completely numb from that event. I think that the only reason why I think that his acting skills didn’t live up to the other actors/actress was because of the fact that his character had me concluding at the end of the series that there are other actors out there which totally would have been able to nail this character.

Grace Wong → Fa Man/ Chiu Ha/ 花曼

When Grace first showed up in this series, I thought that her character would have a minor role in this play and when it has been revealed that she was Chiu Yeung’s sister, I honestly would’ve never expected TVB to come up with such a cheesy plot-twist but personally, I bought it, I thought - it was amazing! Her character development throughout this series I thought was great as her character slowly started to be more prominent in this drama without being too obvious that she was going to become one of the main characters. Grace Wong perfectly fitted this character and if looks could kill, I would’ve been dead by the stares that she makes. Her death was also one that got me questioning, how can someone of such polished martial arts skills be killed under one of the MANY subordinates of an assassin organisation. Don’t forget that she managed to get rid of Or Man Cheung and Fung Chun Mei so easily. I still have my doubts with that but I think this problem lies more with the storyline that with Grace Wong herself so good job to her for this drama, the ‘Most Popular Female Character’ award at the TVB Anniversary Awards was well-deserved!

Moon Lau → Orh Dak Lei/ Audrey

I think that Moon Lau’s character here as Audrey was extremely memorable with her bubbly personality and her fearless spirit. I think that her reaction and performance during Lung Ching Fu’s funeral was what I thought was the selling point of her character. Even though her crying scenes were honestly rather amatuer during his funeral, at least she gave it her all when trying to convey her feelings to the audiences through action which, for me, gave her the edge as a better character compared to Duen Ying Fung. (even though both of the characters have different personalities and hence would react differently to a funeral)

Philip Ng → Lung Ching Fu/ Mao-Tzai

After this series, I was pleasantly surprised by this character and how much he brought to the series. Even though Lung Ching Fu comes across as an extremely cool guy throughout this series, I can’t deny that the scenes that he had with his mum and ‘girlfriend’ was oddly heartwarming. This character gets more charming as the play progresses even though the actor isn’t very good-looking. Overall, I think that this character was extremely successful and his death was quite unexpected and his death scene was extremely touching to know that he died for love even though I felt that his death was more for the impact and the story to move on that having an actual meaning behind it but like in Grace’s situation, this problem lies more with the story than him.

Overall:

I think that this series was extremely successful and the setting of this series was unbelievably realistic as well, the ensemble of actors and actress worked amazingly well together and screen and the chemistry between them was unquestionable. This series was definitely worth watching and I would highly-recommend watching this.

Awards:

As mentioned earlier, I watched this series in 2018 which means that I KNOW ALL OF THE AWARDS that this series this series has, it’s quite a mouthful.. here goes:

• Starhub TVB Awards 2016
• My Favourite TVB Drama
• My Favourite TVB Actress - Nancy Wu
• My Favourite TVB Actor - Ruco Chan
• My Favourite TVB Female TV Character - Grace Wong
• My Favourite TVB Male TV Character - Benjamin Yuen
• My Favourite TVB On-Screen Couple - Ruco Chan & Nancy Wu

 - Benjamin Yuen & Grace Wong

• My Favourite TVB Theme Song - ‘Never Know You Are The Best’
• Best New TVB Artistes - Moon Lau
• TVB Star Awards Malaysia 2016
• My Favourite TVB Drama
• My Favourite TVB Actor - Ruco Chan
• My Favourite TVB Actress - Nancy Wu
• My Favourite TVB Most Improved Actor - Jonathan Cheung
• My Favourite TVB Most Improved Actress - Moon Lau
• My Favourite TVB On-Screen Couple - Ruco Chan & Nancy Wu
• My Favourite TVB Drama Characters - Ruco Chan

- Nancy Wu  

- Benjamin Yuen

- Grace Wong

- Philip Ng

• My Favourite TVB Theme Song - ‘Never Know You Are The Best’

• TVB Anniversary Awards 2016
• Best Drama
• Best Actor - Ruco Chan
• Best Actress - Nancy Wu
• Most Popular Male Character - Benjamin Yuen
• Most Popular Female Character - Grace Wong
• Most Improved Male Artiste - Jonathan Cheung
• My Favourite TVB Theme Song - ‘Never Know You Are The Best’

Phew… that is 28 Awards in total! What a sweep, I think that they were the rightful owners of most of these awards. The ‘My Favourite TVB Theme Song’ award was the awards that I was rather skeptical about. Honestly, that song wasn’t bad but at the same time it wasn’t good either, there were so much songs out there that year that should’ve won that award, but I guess this song won might be due to the story behind it rather than the skills behind it even though it does play a part.

The Exorcist's Meter 降魔的 // Review

Overview:

The Exorcist’s Meter is a part of the anniversary series for the 50th year anniversary of TVB. Produced by TVB, The Exorcist’s Meter belongs in the rarely-touched-genres of fantasy and horror. The Exorcist’s Meter stars Kenneth Ma, Hubert Wu, Mandy Wong, Moon Lau and Ram Chiang. This series is also TVB’s first series to have a web series/sidequel named 《The Taxorcists Sidequel - Chapter One》on Big Big Channel which has been produced with a relatively low budget of $1million.

Main Cast:

Kenneth Ma as Ma-Kwai (马季)

Hubert Wu as Shek Gam Dong (石敢当)  

Mandy Wong as Dr.Chong/Felicity (莊芷若) and Salvia (魔)

Moon Lau as Bella (贝贝娜/啤啤 )

Ram Chiang as Yau Wai (莫有为)

Hugo Wong as Guo Zhin Ming (展明)

Kayee Tam as  Li-li (莉莉)

Plot:

This series talks about a taxi driver, Ma-Kwai who was on the night-shift and managed to unintentionally awake a spirit/stone-god, Shek Gam Dong. As a way of thanking Ma-Kwai for waking him, Shek Gam Dong decides to grant Ma-Kwai a wish - only one that he finds reasonable. Since Shek Gam Dong is a spirit, Ma-Kwai decides to get his help to find the spirit of his friend, Hou-Zai. Along the way, they discover Ma-Kwai’s ability to slay demons and as Shek Gam Dong and Ma-Kwai gets closer and closer together as ‘brothers’, Ma-Kwai is subconsciously inheriting more and more of Shek Gam Dong ‘energy’/power since spirits are just a large amount of energy, causing Shek Gam Dong to get weaker and weaker by the day and Ma-Kwai to get stronger and stronger, Ma-Kwai’s third eye has also been opened with the help of Shek Gam Dong, allowing him to see demons and ghosts. Soon they discover the existence of a ‘devil’ which is controlling people to commit extremists level of crimes with the help of supernatural abilities, all of which have a similar feature, their eyes turn red when committing the crime or when trying to exert their power. Shek Gam Dong and Ma-Kwai are then on a quest to hunt the devil down and demolish her.

Song Thoughts:

Theme Song 主题曲 － 《到此一游》胡鸿钧 Hubert Wu

Interlude 插曲 － 《泣血蔷薇》吴若希 Jinny Ng

Ending Theme 尾片曲 － 《遥不可及》胡鸿钧 Hubert Wu

These songs are a few of my favourites right now! Between the three of them, they have some which is fast paced, slow paced all of which shows a part of the series behind it. The theme song of this series is really catchy, at the same time gives a very brief summary of the plot which I think is absolutely perfect to be the theme! The lyrics are really meaningful and gives a new meaning and/or dimension to the song and series. This song has also been crowned ‘Most Popular Drama Theme Song’ which is a sort of recognition for him and would hope to see him on screen! The ending theme is also sung by the singer of the theme song which is also one of the main lead of this series! Hubert Wu is rising and he is RISING FAST! What can he not do! The ending song is amazing, the lyrics are so poetic to a certain extent and since this song is also used as an interlude, it allows the song to be so much more than an ending theme and incorporates a story with the song. The interlude of this series, by Jinny Ng was quite something, it was slow paced, calming but the chorus is the part where it gets more complexed and slightly more fast paced but generally this song was really good, this is the second song from Jinny Ng that I’ve heard, the first being the song from Line Walker which was extremely commendable, so this song has a name to live up to and it did not let me down.

Review + Opinion

First of all, I’M BEYOND amazed by this series, the only reason that I started to watch this series was because of the results from TVB Anniversary Awards 2017 where Kenneth Ma won ‘Most Popular Male Character’ and as mentioned previously, Hubert Wu won the ‘Most Popular Drama Theme Song’ both for this series, in addition to the buzz from the internet about this series I was then intrigued because the ensemble of cast, to be honest, wasn’t the most mind-blowing casts that are out there but I have to say that they did absolutely amazing in this series and the way there communicate with each other on screen was nice to see. I’ll have to apologize as I didn’t have high hopes for this series as all because I just thought that this was a fill-in drama between the ‘blockbusters’ of the anniversary line-up but I really liked it. It wasn’t your run-out-of-the-mill horror dramas, it was so much more than that, it has an extremely moving storylines and some unique relationship going on there, warmth and friendship was also one of the main theme running through this series. Despite the amazing storyline and song, the CGI in this series really CMI (cannot make it), as astounded as I was with some of them such as Shek Gam Dong’s bow and arrow etc. and Li-Li’s battle effect but there were some of them where it was so obvious and so badly done where I just can’t 😂 . Nonetheless, this was one of the dramas that had truly touched my heart and has a touching storyline. Let’s jump into character reviews!

Kenneth Ma → Ma-Kwai/ 小马／马季

Kenneth Ma did freaking amazing in this series, his character was very nicely portrayed by him and every facial expression that he does contributes to the flawless ways that he delivered his lines and he is extremely amazing with using his eyes to communicate with the audience and his fellow actors and actress in the series. I think after ‘The Hippocratic Crush’ series where he played Dr. Cheung and gained a lot of recognition, this series is the next one where he received such good response from the audiences. To be honest, during the TVB Anniversary Awards 2017 where he posed as a HUGE threat to Vincent Wong for TV King, I was really triggered hence refused to watch this series despite the buzz it gained online but now that I’ve watched it, I regret not watching it earlier. (but I still would’ve hoped for Vincent Wong to win 😉  )

Hubert Wu → Shek Gam Dong/ 石敢当／神石

I think that for this drama to be part of his first 5 series and for him to be a leading role is like absolutely LIT! In addition to the fact that he did amazing in this series for being the ancient and wise spirit that he was acting in goes to show how talented he is, I think that he is great in acting and would be really successful if he chooses to do acting. But after all, he started out as a singer and is amazing at singing as well, so I think that this series is a great representation of him since it showcases both of his acting and singing skills. I really liked his character in this series as well as his personality since he is so wise and the language that he uses is very ‘ancient’ which I sometimes find really funny, and his only weakness of 啤啤 is so cute and to think that a 1000-years-old spirit being a fan of a 21st century paranormal variety show!

Mandy Wong → Dr Cheung /莊芷若／魔／Salvia

Mandy Wong, dual role in this series, female lead… it was quite disappointing. Let’s talk about her role as Dr. Cheung, a beautiful and kind doctor who regularly goes home by Ma-Kwai’s taxi. Mandy Wong was able to pull this role off and her looks was made for this role being the innocent young lady who is the crush of many and the way she talks to Ma-Kwai was really nice and occasionally from the tone that she speaks in you would be able to tell her feeling which I thought was great. On the other hand, there is Salvia, the evil devil who is the mastermind of most of the crimes committed and encouraging others to become devil-like too. Mandy Wong is way too pure for this role which is why I don’t think that her acting for this role is a slight let down, personally, I think that Salvia should be someone that is evil, flirtatious and someone who is a master of mind games. In her defense, Mandy Wong has portrayed Salvia with such qualities but it’s extremely toned down and not that extreme. I personally have such a strong opinion on this character is because I think that Salvia is a character with a lot of potential is pulled off correctly but unfortunately it hasn’t. To be fair, there is only a handful of actress who would be able to pull off both character of a pure, kind doctor as well as a scheming, flirty devil.

Moon Lau → Belle/贝贝娜／啤啤

I think Moon Lau has gained quite a lot of fame for her works in 2016 such as ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’ and ‘Two Steps from Heaven’. She did really well in this series for being the bubbly, cheerful host of the paranormal show as well as being a really loyal friend of Shek Gam Dong and Ma-Kwai. She is really fit for the role of Belle and delivers her lines really well. Her emotional scenes are also really well acted out as you can really tell when she is crying that her tears are filled with emotions and when she liked Ma-Kwai and finds out that he liked someone else, instead of giving up on him and hating her, she quietly hopes that the person she likes would be able to find happiness and it's really nice to see the small actions that she does to care for Ma-Kwai. Overall, I think that Moon Lau did really well for this drama and the best amongst all of the female character.

Hugo Wong → Guo Zhin Ming / 郭展明

Hugo Wong played one of the main antagonists of this series and I have to say that he did really well, despite having a role which has an unpleasant personality. Nonetheless, he portrayed Chin Ming perfectly especially with his evil side as well as the times where he is extremely at the people around him whether it be his ‘girlfriend’, Ling or his own father, you would really be able to tell the hate or the anger that are present in his eyes even when they aren’t red which I think is quite impressive.

Partners:

Kenneth Ma & Hubert Wu → 马季 & 石敢当

I think that these 2 actors share a great chemistry between them and their scenes together are really natural. When they are in front of the camera together, they are comfortable around each other which results in them enhancing each other’s performances. Both of their characters in this series ends up to be ‘brother-like’ level of friendship and they trust each other when faced with obstacles as well as the fact that they would be willing to risk their lives in order  to protect each other. I would love to see these two on-screen together again. In the last few episodes where Shek Gam Dong was willing to sacrifice his life so that Ma-Kwai would be able to use his energy to kill the devil and to save the world. Bearing in mind that contained in that crystal is the energy that he has derived from himself after thousands of years, personally I found that scene to be the best scene of the entire series and shows how noble he is. This scene got me tearing up and is extremely impressed by both the producers and the actos as to how touching they have managed to make that scene.

Moon Lau & Kayee Tam → 啤啤 & 莉莉

I think that both of them has a really special friendship between them that I find really sweet and I also really like the bond between them. Kayee Tam’s role in this series as a doll was something that I find quite cool, even though there are times where I find Moon Lau’s face to look slightly more like a doll but both of them did suit the role that they had in this series. I liked how Li-Li’s personality really suited a doll and the feeling that Belle was so much more than an owner to her, they were more like best friends who they would like to share practically everything with, where you can see being presented throughout certain scenes in this series.

Kenneth Ma & Mandy Wong → 马季 & 莊芷若／魔

Whenever I see this pair, they just bring back so much The Hippocratic Crush’s (On Call 36 小时) memories. Anyways, I am sort of on the fence for this pair as I’m not a huge fan of them but I don’t hate them either. Their scenes together sometimes appear to be quite awkward and I just can’t picture them together in any way. Don’t get me wrong, both of these actor/actress did really well for their roles but I just can’t see these two characters being together. They look okay as friends, but as a couple, I think there’s just something off about it.

Kenneth Ma, Hubert Wu, Kayee Tam & Moon Lau → 马季 ，石敢当，莉莉 & 啤啤

These quartet ruled the series and I enjoyed seeing these four on screen so much and would hope to see more of them in the future. Even though there seems to be a love triangle-ish situation going on in this situation, I think that the characters in this series might be too conserved or safe(?) to confess to who they like and would rather their crushes to be happy even if that means that they wouldn’t be together, I feel that the producers did not focus on this aspect much as romance isn’t one of the main genres of this series. Back onto this quartet, it’s really nice to see when they work together towards a common goal such as defeating the devil. This quartet was definitely something that I didn’t see coming but I ended up liking them a lot.