Overview:
Another Era is a joint production of TVB, CCTV, iQiyi and CRTP produced in 2018. This series is a sequel to the hundred episode hit series back in 2000, At The Threshold of an Era. Production of this drama took 6 months and has a production cost of HKD $100 million invested into it. Another Era stars Roger Kwok, Tavia Yeung, Niki Chow, Frankie Lam, Linda Chung, Benjamin Yuen, Pakho Chau and Gloria Tang. This series has a Mainland version consisting of 34 episodes as well as a Hong Kong version with 36 episodes.
Main Cast:
Roger Kwok （郭晉安） as Leo Ho Tin Sang （賀天生）
Tavia Yeung（楊怡） as Hayley Cheung Ming Hei （章明晞）
Benjamin Yuen（袁偉豪） as Walter Fong Chak Yu （方澤雨）
Niki Chow（周麗淇） as Ella Cheuk Ding Yiu （卓定垚）
Frankie Lam（林文龍） as Duncan Ko Chit（高哲）
Pakho Chau（周柏豪）as Ching Hoi （程凱）
Linda Chung（鍾嘉欣） as Janice Cheng Sze Yu （鄭思妤）
Plot:
Another Era begins with the Global Financial Crisis in 2008. Scheming businessmen Leo Ho and his soulmate/ business partner Hayley Cheung planed to purchase Fong Chung Yam’s (who was Hong Kong’s richest man then) business group. However, Cheuk Kai Tong managed to stop him in time by purchasing enough of Tin Yam’s stocks – heeding the advice of his company’s financial consultant, Duncan Ko who the resigned after. Leo then plans to destroy him and climb to the top of Hong Kong’s financial industry (?) → 金融界
A decade later, Cheuk Kai Tong becomes Hong Kong’s richest men, but the sudden news of his sons’ death caused him to be in a coma. This forces his daughter Ella Cheuk to learn to manage her family’s business. Being a full-time dancer before this，Ella has been deemed to be incapable by the Boards of Directors. After being used by Leo, Duncan returns to Ngo Tong as a Director and teams up with Ella Cheuk to start a business war with Leo. Cheung Ming Hei, Fong Chung Yam’s grandson/ Ella’s boyfriend Walter Fong and rookie entrepreneur Ching Hoi also joins in the war, starting a new era of business politics.
Song Thoughts:
Theme Song 主題曲 – 《烏托邦》Pakho Chau （周柏豪）
Interlude 插曲 – 《為何要背叛我》Jinny Ng（吳若希）
Ending Theme 片尾曲 –《只想與你在一起》HANA Kuk（菊梓喬）
The theme song of this series by Pakho Chau was AMAZING! 《烏托邦》was relevant enough to the story, amazing melody, amazing lyrics, amazing singer – nothing can go wrong. I’ve actually started listening to this song before I started the series (if you’re confused, I only start a series when it has been aired to the 3/4 - ish stages) The interlude wasn’t really that notable despite being the interlude, but after actually listening to the song as a song though, it’s actually quite pleasing and melodical-ish. The ending theme didn’t really stand out per se amongst the other songs. However, towards the last episodes when this song and the interlude has been played more. It became more prominent as a song towards me as the audience. If you’ve been reading for a while, you’d know that me being slightly weird that I am, I personally link songs with stories in a series. e.g 《陪着你走》with Saving and Cherry etc. This song sort of symbolises Walter and Ella’s love story despite it also being played in other occasions. I think this may be because of the fact that this song was played when Cheuk Kai Tong passed away and Walter being there for Ella when she was down. This song then plays again when Walter dies (it was soo sad😭) → that scene hit me, real hard 💔
Review + SPOILERS
This series was BRILLIANT! I’ve been waiting for this series ever since it was said to be produced. To get Roger Kwok, Niki Chow, Tavia Yeung and Frankie Lam in ONE. EPIC. SERIES. Their star-studded cast definitely pulled their weights and made this grand production, a grand production – obviously not forgetting about that BUDGET. Honestly, I thought this series was great as I’m very intrigued and attracted to the economics concept, business politics, stock market theme of this series.
However, I do have to say though, there‘s a lot of business terminologies and concepts in there which may not be everyone’s thing. As compared to other dramas that discusses economic concepts, this drama is a lot more technical and discusses more in depth which may bore some. (which may explain the viewership rating of this series) In addition to this, part of the drama which can be rather boring and draggy. There were several episodes in the middle where it was slightly slow and tedious to watch because of how little the plot is progressing. If you are someone that really doesn’t enjoy business politics/stocks / economics stuff. Don’t watch this.
Some parts of this plot doesn’t really make sense. It’s not that there’s a loophole in the storyline, but more so the logic behind stuff that happens. For example, Leo Ho going into jail. Seriously. I mean just imagine the richest man in Hong Kong aka Lee Kar Shing going to jail. (This may very well just be me being dumb, but… ) How easily Hack Net (克网）managed to get the company’s infomation of which they are planning to completely demolish is extremely fascinating but this may also have just been done to show just how powerful Hack Net is. All in all, I genuinely enjoyed this series. Let’s move onto individual reviews：
Frankie Lam （林文龍） → Duncan Ko （高哲）
Frankie Lam was amazing in this series, his character Duncan was my favourite character of this series with his cool and collected personality. The way which he delivers his lines in this series were rather interesting, even though it was slightly monotonous, it does contain feelings in it which baffled me. 😂 The way he presented this character was quite remarkable, making you love and hate this character at the same time.
Benjamin Yuen（袁偉豪） → Walter Fong （方澤雨）
Despite being the perfect other half of Niki Chow in this series, Benjamin seems to be quite rigid with his performance, if that makes sense. He rarely incorporates any emotions into his speeches in this series making most of his scenes rather boring to watch. However, this sort of comes into use during some scenes such as his scenes with Ching Hoi when he was mad at him for not turning up to meetings as well as during the first time where he decided to break up with Ella. Unfortunately, during the majority of the series, his monotonous delivery of lines dulls the scene hence making it very boring to watch.
Niki Chow（周麗淇） → Ella Cheuk（卓定垚）
Congrats to Niki Chow for her 《中國當代題材電視劇最佳女演員》award at 第二十四屆華鼎獎 for her role in this series! Needless to say, her performance in this series was amazing! Not mind-blowing, but above average. She perfectly pulled off the slightly damsel in distress character of Ella Cheuk, she also presents this character without appearing too spoilt or temperamental. She managed to execute all of the crying scenes and emotional scenes throughout this series naturally without appearing too forced or fake – especially during all of the deaths of her brothers and her father.
The pairings in this series were rather interesting. Despite being the exact same age, Niki Chow and Tavia Yeung’s pairing were quite different. Tavia was paired with Roger Kwok who is 15 years her senior whereas Niki was paired with Benjamin Yuen who is 2 years her junior. Cue… Pairing Reviews!
Roger Kwok (郭晉安) & Tavia Yeung（楊怡）→ Leo Ho(賀天生) & Hayley Cheung (章明晞）
To be completely honest, their performances as individuals were amazing coming from 2 veteran actors. It added a lot to this series, but something about them as a couple is just really unnatural. I don’t expect them to be seamless, but it was extremely unconvincing to me that they are a couple to say the least.
Benjamin Yuen (袁偉豪) & Niki Chow (周麗淇)→ Walter Fong (方澤雨) & Ella Cheuk (卓定垚)
Benjamin Yuen and Niki Chow were so compatible together! They managed to pull off a rather weird love story. They were together → split → together → split → together, and the scriptwriter decides to pull a ‘rebel’ card and makes one of them die. I really liked seeing them on screen together though. These 2 characters were amongst the minority who weren’t constantly coming up with evil schemes to make Hong Kong’s economy collapse. They were really natural on screen with each other, making this couple highly believable to the audiences. Would love to see them as a couple, but I don’t think it’s going to happen anytime soon.😢
Frankie Lam (林文龍) & Linda Chung (鍾嘉欣) → Duncan Ko (高哲) & Janice Cheung (鄭思妤)
Forensic Heroes 2 fan service! 😍Leaving a lot of fans heartbroken back in 2008, these two return being the ONLY couple with a happy ending! I loved seeing them on screen together again, the feels and their chemistry together on screen was undeniable. The fact that Janice is the only one that Duncan would open himself too and the fact that both of them still loved each other even after 10 years is #goals. Their scenes together were heartwarming and often contrasts the heated business war happening around them. To be HONEST after 飛虎2, Linda Chung’s acting disappointed me to summarise. The breakup scene after Janice find out that Duncan indirectly killed her parents could have been so much better, so much more impactful, but it just seemed so flat. I’ll just briefly rant review Linda Chung’s performance in this series, I honestly thought that she did pretty well in this series and it’s really nice to see her onscreen again. However, I just think that sometimes her performance in this series is slightly forced, I guess making it slightly fake to an extent. BUT, back to the couple, I really enjoyed seeing these two on screen together again. 🤗
