cdrama: Twin of Brothers
Nov. 12th, 2007 01:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmoore Short version:
Chi-Ling/Ron Ng suck, is incredibly boring and his "romance" with Fei Huan/Leila Tong is a study in sanctimonious boredom. Really, his entirely storyline and all the "good guys" in it sucks, even though he gets awesome villains.
Kau Chong/Raymond Lam is awesome and compensated for it and had a great and cute romance.
Chi-Ling/Ron Ng suck, is incredibly boring and his "romance" with Fei Huan/Leila Tong is a study in sanctimonious boredom. Really, his entirely storyline and all the "good guys" in it sucks, even though he gets awesome villains.
Kau Chong/Raymond Lam is awesome and compensated for it and had a great and cute romance.
Long Version:
When you see Ron Ng's face on your screen, remember: the ff button is your friend. Seriously. Do not be distracted by his pretty face. He is as dull as they come and is a talent vampire. Seriously, even Raymond, Nancy Wu and Derek Kwok were affected by his talent vampirism. ffx8 or faster is the best option anytime he's on screen, unless those three are around. Don't worry, the rest of it is pretty unimportant to the main plot and is essentially all about how the "truly good" people of the world are a bunch of backstabbing, self-righteous, sanctimonious pricks and the bad guys are supercool. I mean, come on. Let's look at Fei Huan's master. The woman, supposedly the most good and holy in the world, kivks her best friend out of the sect for falling in love, then raises the friend's daughter to be an orphan and think that feelings and desire are bad bad bad evil things. Oh, and then when the Fei Huan find out who she really is, her master tries to kill her in her sleep because she MIGHT be evil.
And how about Wan Wan? Wan Wan/Nancy Wu is "evil" because she's loyal to the master who raised her as a daughter, and then becomes "good" when she betrays her master to save Chi-Ling(why Wan Wan, why? There are so many far more deserving men out there than you!) Oh, and did I mention that Chi-Ling cheats on Fei Huan with Wan Wan. Cheats as in, in the 10 years later epilogue, Wan Wan has a little girl who's 9-10 with her and talks to the little girl about her true love. Fei Huan's reaction? The conversation was essentially this: "I felt sorry for her, so we had sex." "It's OK, you followed your heart." Seriously, WTF? It was later followed by this(I was very careful to get an exact quote) when he made sure he really wasn't in trouble "a man has undergone temptation of the flesh...but he has retuned to me." Me, I'm thinking there are other spawn of his out there. (Also, seriously, what was with Fei Huan's "even if she is Wan Wan's daughter, she is not yours" bit? Does she not know how babies are made yet? If she means "fathering" and "father" don't count, then someone needs to have a nice, long talk with her about that ENTIRE STORYLINE about her and her father, which was based on that plot bunny...
Anyway: Chi-Ling sucks. Wan Wan rocks. Fei Huan I bear no malice towards, she's just really dull and kinda there...but her entire sect sucked. But Wan Wan's sect rocked.
But then there's Kau Chong. Kau Chong rocked. Just pretend Chi-Ling doesn't exist...all the important parts aren't about him anyway. ToB supposedly made Raymond Lam's career, and it's easy to see why. Kau Chung is one of those wuxia heroes who starts small and clueless, but has ambitions, and as he gets more and more skilled, he goes to greater lengths to meet his goals. He's also one of my not-so-secret things...the guy who will(and does) do anything to anyone(though doesn't cros certain lines) but moves heaven and earth to make sure none of it ever touches one person...Yuk Chi. For a lot of the series, Kau Chong thinks he's in love with Sai Ning. Personally, I don't think they ever loved each other, just liked and respected each other, but loved what the other represented. Sai Ning is beautiful, elegant, skilled, kind, and of a social status that would let Kau Chong reach his goals. Kau Chong is simple, uncomplicated(at first) and free of responsibilities and has a good heart. Sai Ning, however, chooses(rightly) respomsibility over love(and, honestly, her husband, though weak, utterly loved her and devoted himself to her, something Kau Chong could never do) and Kau Chong...reacts badly.
Technically, Kau Chong is a flipfloppy feelings hero, but it never feels that way. When he realizes Yuk Chi loves him, he feels horribly guilty because he doesn't want to hurt her by not returning her feelings, and when he realizes he does care about her as more than a friend, he feels like he's betraying Sai Ning, even though she's already married to someone else. Honestly, though, it's obvious pretty early on(to me at least) who he loves, and who he doesn't.
I also love their "parent figures." "Mom" is a spy/assassin who initially tried to kill them, "auntie" is a spy/assassin too, and they're both in love with the enemy general who's the boy's biggest enemy for most of the show(and yes, the amazingly messed up mom/general/aunt story with all it's "enemies in love" stuff and aunt's rabid hatred and the chess and all was my absolute favorite part...I loved when Kau Chong finally killed him, and he and auntie were doing the lovers' goodbyes, and Kau Chong was all "Wait...what...don't we hate him? didn't he kidnap you? Was I not supposed to kill him after all anymore?") Then there's "dad," who started out as a villain, including kidnapping and hotage taking...and they bonded. Then there's "Cutie Shifu" as they called her, who ALO started out as a near-villain(but had no choice) who basically became "Dad's" wife(I loved them so...) For that matter, Yueman(enemy general) was almot paternal half the time.
I love how 80% of all wuxia relationships except the main romance/s are always so screwed up.
Anyway, a very good series(though also proof that most wuxia shouldn't be longer than 30 eps...Young Warriors is the exception to that) but just remember to spare yourself unending pain and boredom by ffing through Ron Ng's scenes. Did I mention that every review I've seen ranges from "really boring" to "I hate him" for Chi-Ling, and every single one thinks he chose the wrong girl?
When you see Ron Ng's face on your screen, remember: the ff button is your friend. Seriously. Do not be distracted by his pretty face. He is as dull as they come and is a talent vampire. Seriously, even Raymond, Nancy Wu and Derek Kwok were affected by his talent vampirism. ffx8 or faster is the best option anytime he's on screen, unless those three are around. Don't worry, the rest of it is pretty unimportant to the main plot and is essentially all about how the "truly good" people of the world are a bunch of backstabbing, self-righteous, sanctimonious pricks and the bad guys are supercool. I mean, come on. Let's look at Fei Huan's master. The woman, supposedly the most good and holy in the world, kivks her best friend out of the sect for falling in love, then raises the friend's daughter to be an orphan and think that feelings and desire are bad bad bad evil things. Oh, and then when the Fei Huan find out who she really is, her master tries to kill her in her sleep because she MIGHT be evil.
And how about Wan Wan? Wan Wan/Nancy Wu is "evil" because she's loyal to the master who raised her as a daughter, and then becomes "good" when she betrays her master to save Chi-Ling(why Wan Wan, why? There are so many far more deserving men out there than you!) Oh, and did I mention that Chi-Ling cheats on Fei Huan with Wan Wan. Cheats as in, in the 10 years later epilogue, Wan Wan has a little girl who's 9-10 with her and talks to the little girl about her true love. Fei Huan's reaction? The conversation was essentially this: "I felt sorry for her, so we had sex." "It's OK, you followed your heart." Seriously, WTF? It was later followed by this(I was very careful to get an exact quote) when he made sure he really wasn't in trouble "a man has undergone temptation of the flesh...but he has retuned to me." Me, I'm thinking there are other spawn of his out there. (Also, seriously, what was with Fei Huan's "even if she is Wan Wan's daughter, she is not yours" bit? Does she not know how babies are made yet? If she means "fathering" and "father" don't count, then someone needs to have a nice, long talk with her about that ENTIRE STORYLINE about her and her father, which was based on that plot bunny...
Anyway: Chi-Ling sucks. Wan Wan rocks. Fei Huan I bear no malice towards, she's just really dull and kinda there...but her entire sect sucked. But Wan Wan's sect rocked.
But then there's Kau Chong. Kau Chong rocked. Just pretend Chi-Ling doesn't exist...all the important parts aren't about him anyway. ToB supposedly made Raymond Lam's career, and it's easy to see why. Kau Chung is one of those wuxia heroes who starts small and clueless, but has ambitions, and as he gets more and more skilled, he goes to greater lengths to meet his goals. He's also one of my not-so-secret things...the guy who will(and does) do anything to anyone(though doesn't cros certain lines) but moves heaven and earth to make sure none of it ever touches one person...Yuk Chi. For a lot of the series, Kau Chong thinks he's in love with Sai Ning. Personally, I don't think they ever loved each other, just liked and respected each other, but loved what the other represented. Sai Ning is beautiful, elegant, skilled, kind, and of a social status that would let Kau Chong reach his goals. Kau Chong is simple, uncomplicated(at first) and free of responsibilities and has a good heart. Sai Ning, however, chooses(rightly) respomsibility over love(and, honestly, her husband, though weak, utterly loved her and devoted himself to her, something Kau Chong could never do) and Kau Chong...reacts badly.
Technically, Kau Chong is a flipfloppy feelings hero, but it never feels that way. When he realizes Yuk Chi loves him, he feels horribly guilty because he doesn't want to hurt her by not returning her feelings, and when he realizes he does care about her as more than a friend, he feels like he's betraying Sai Ning, even though she's already married to someone else. Honestly, though, it's obvious pretty early on(to me at least) who he loves, and who he doesn't.
I also love their "parent figures." "Mom" is a spy/assassin who initially tried to kill them, "auntie" is a spy/assassin too, and they're both in love with the enemy general who's the boy's biggest enemy for most of the show(and yes, the amazingly messed up mom/general/aunt story with all it's "enemies in love" stuff and aunt's rabid hatred and the chess and all was my absolute favorite part...I loved when Kau Chong finally killed him, and he and auntie were doing the lovers' goodbyes, and Kau Chong was all "Wait...what...don't we hate him? didn't he kidnap you? Was I not supposed to kill him after all anymore?") Then there's "dad," who started out as a villain, including kidnapping and hotage taking...and they bonded. Then there's "Cutie Shifu" as they called her, who ALO started out as a near-villain(but had no choice) who basically became "Dad's" wife(I loved them so...) For that matter, Yueman(enemy general) was almot paternal half the time.
I love how 80% of all wuxia relationships except the main romance/s are always so screwed up.
Anyway, a very good series(though also proof that most wuxia shouldn't be longer than 30 eps...Young Warriors is the exception to that) but just remember to spare yourself unending pain and boredom by ffing through Ron Ng's scenes. Did I mention that every review I've seen ranges from "really boring" to "I hate him" for Chi-Ling, and every single one thinks he chose the wrong girl?