One of the better dramas of the year.

This year has been pretty dry for TVB. With the terrible, forgettable ones coming out, this drama was the saving grace for the year. It has a good story, interesting cases and best acting shown possible. More emotions from Ruco Chan in this drama rather than the first installment as it was more personal to him especially from breaking up with Rosina Lin in the first. Action has greatly improved, with more realistic depiction of wounds being shown instead of the characters still looking clean after every fist fight, although it still faces with the intense editing issue from the first, with multiple camera cuts making it feel uncomfortable to watch, and the atrocious low frame slow mo they used. Luckily it wasn't a big deal as there were less action related cases in this drama replaced with much more interesting cases showcased, so it didn't make this drama boring to watch at all. The only complain I have is the way Jonathan Cheung was handled in this drama. He suffered brain damage from carbon dioxide from the first drama, and instead of having terrorists hired by his partner, Alex Fung, who posed as a professor to gather information from the police while trying to find a way to cure Jonathan to initiate their plan to take over Hong Kong, to break Jonathan out of prison when he was being escorted to the hospital after getting into a fight with an inmate (who should have been a hitman in disguise that was hired to be part of the operation of breaking him out), the thing that had the ambulance get into a crash and Jonathan breaking out, was a dog standing in the middle of the road. Really, TVB? Could have been a good opportunity to have some action in it and make it much more interesting but nope, a damn dog helped Jonathan escaped. He didn't even do anything at the end too, it was mostly a comedic gag with Moon Lau where in the end, he managed to escape.

They still used the same theme from the first, with a different singer doing the vocals and a more remixed version, which I much preferred as it feels much more action paced and faster than the original (no offence to Hubert Wu as his voice is still good). The new song which was sung by Ruco Chan, was the love theme for this drama and his voice still outshines the most. TVB please let him sing more songs! He has the voice for them.

Overall, it was a good drama, they should cut down on the multiple camera cuts and let us actually see the action in motion with a few tweaks to the script to make it better. If they were to make a third one, hopefully the writing would be a tad bit better with a satisfying conclusion as well.

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Boring Subplot

This has to be one of the best HK police dramas of this year (emphasis on this year as there are way better police dramas before this with a better story) with intense action scenes, more violence (TVB is finally letting loose after the reduction of violence, hated the black and white filter they used to censor it) new locations instead of using the same places over and over again (I'm tired of seeing the same abandoned oil refinery building that is used several times in many dramas). But, the most obvious problem in this drama, is that they center mostly around the supporting characters, making them feel more like the main characters instead of the actual leads as they got more screentime than them. The fact that there were more problems surrounding Jonathan Cheung more than Joel Chan is absurd, there were even episodes where Joel doesn't even appear in it at all! The chemistry between Owen Cheung and Elaine Yiu were the saving grace of this drama, and their love theme was the best of the drama. However, the chemistry between Adrian Yau and Michelle Tsang was too lackluster and took up most of the episodes. Would've been better if they made it shorter, hired better actors to play them as Adrian didn't have the enthusiasm and Michelle was new to the industry. The rivalry between Benjamin Yuen and Hugo Wong's character was the best part of the drama, and should have been the main focus instead.

OST was pretty good, wasn't the traditional TVB theme song for the intro, but it still sounded cool and catchy. Ending theme was really good, an English song sung by JW who's voice is great as usual, and the love theme for Owen and Elaine was the best part of the drama, which was sung by Jinny Ng who also sung the Line Walker love theme.

Overall, it was a pretty good drama, better action scenes than Sinister Beings 2. If they had a better script writer and actual good gun muzzle flashes (they were too small when viewed on screen which did not have an impact during the gun fights) it would have been the best drama of the year. Competition for this year is pretty small, so this could win best drama of the year, unless No Return can beat it as the trailer impressed me a lot.

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Perfect Story, Perfect Premise but Messy Ending

This drama had a really good pace from start until the 15th episode, where the mysterious person who had killed those who were trying to uncover the mystery of a killing that took place 18 years beforehand, was found and it felt too quick for his reveal with 5 episodes remaining. That caused a lot of problems with the pacing afterwards, as it got boring quick with Shaun Tam losing his sanity after murdering the killer to save his own reputation. The chemistry between Shaun and Mandy Wong's character felt lackluster and did not feel natural at all, which should not have exist as not all dramas need to have love interests in them unless necessary.

OST is good for the most part, as Fred Cheng sung most of the songs for dramas in 2020 which was nice since I like his voice.

Overall, it had a good backdrop for the story, just executed poorly at the end. It was still an enjoyable drama nonetheless when trying to unravel the mystery.

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Drama is pretty good, but did not feel original..

As I really loved A Fist Within Four Walls, I decided to check this drama out as by the posters and trailers, it looks to be a different adaptation with the same period martial arts piece attached. However, when I watched the drama, first episode did not intrigue me to watch the second episode, nor the third as the story felt the exact same. Main characters' fathers get killed, one father was accused of killing the other. In the end, it was revealed that a mastermind was behind killing them. It all got boring too fast. Even with that exact same formula, I got back to watching it again after the fourth episode when I saw a clip online of the fight scene. The fights are an improvement from AFWFW, although it was only good for the first few episodes. The final climax fight scene never lived up to expectations with close camera shots, which made it feel uncomfortable to watch, unlike AFWFW with cool wide angled shots, along with the high quality slow motion shots, which in this drama they never used which was a bummer. But as time passes, camera quality improved greatly, but it would've been nice to get the slow-mo cams again.

Just like AFWFW, even more characters die in this drama. Even Ruco's character dies at the end of the drama who suffered from heart problems as he was too focused on finding his love interest Natalie Tong who disappeared after the final fight with the mastermind, who was Carlos Chan's character, father of Natalie and Grace Chan's characters, who was asked by him to pose as Ruco's long lost sister. The chemistry between Natalie Tong and Ruco Chan didn't feel natural, there were barely any emotional scenes between them like Ruco and Nancy's characters from AFWFW, but Joel Chan and Elene Yiu's chemistry was pretty good for the most part. Philip Ng's character went from a Bruce Lee badass from AFWFW, to a dumb but pure innocent minded character in this drama. His character still fights well though, so he's still a badass in this drama and thankfully he didn't die in the end as his character was too cute! That can't be said for Yuen Qiu's character as she plays Ruco's mom who barely have any fight scenes. Like come on! This is one of her last TVB dramas and you can't even give her a proper departure! Thankfully the emotional scenes, especially her goodbye to Ruco when she found out about his heart condition and forces him to leave her and find Natalie was really effective and made it a huge tear jerker when he read the letter given by her.

And then we have the two baddies of the drama, Jimmy Au and Cheung Kwok Keung's characters, who dies too fast in the drama! We barely get to see Jimmy Au fight in the drama, as we've seen how capable he is in AFWFW, and Cheung Kwok Keung could've gotten more action scenes as well. They got rid of both to save room for the big baddie of the drama, Carlos Chan, who was the killer of Ruco and Joel's dads as he had used an acupuncture to manipulate Ruco's dad into thinking Joel's dad is the bad guy they were fighting, resulting in their deaths, just so he could take over the streets, which his plan failed as Jimmy and Kwok Keung ambushed him so that Tong Yan Street can be theirs instead.

The OST in this drama was pretty good. It was one of the first dramas Ruco get to sing again after he sang the theme for Succession War in 2018, and didn't even get a chance to sing the theme for his 2021 drama, Sinister Beings, so it was nice they let him sing in this drama as I like his voice. Even if the drama was actually supposed to release in 2020 but got delayed to make room for a different drama, Go! Go! Go! Operation C9. Ending OST by Hana Kuk was also good as usual as her voice is one of the best in the industry.

Overall, if you're looking for good fight scenes again, this drama is your go to. But if you're watching this for the story, do NOT watch AFWFW then watch this as it will ruin the experience for you. I'm guessing this is more for the ones who hasn't seen AFWFW, but they should've treated it better with including new stuff for the story for the long time TVB fans like me.

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Highly Recommended TVB Drama

This is one of the best TVB dramas out there. Although made and released in 2016, the camera quality is not that good, however the acting and fight scenes make up for it, so it's not much of a bother if you don't mind the old camera style. This is not the first time Ruco Chan and Nancy Wu had collabed in a drama as they were both in Forensic Heroes 3, but this is the first time they were leading a drama together, and it works so well because their chemistry in this drama is one of the best on screen relationships. Benjamin Yuen and Grace Wong's characters also have good chemistry, although the chemistry between Moon Lau and Philip Ng's character felt awkward at times, but it shouldn't ruin the experience as they do have funny moments. This drama has a mix of emotional, action-packed intense moments, as well as some funny ones as Jazz Boon always love to add in his dramas.

However, the story does fall flat at times with some deaths being unnecessary. Spoiler alert, Grace Wong and Philip Ng dies in this drama, but it wasn't even for the story to progress as it was mostly done so for either shock value or showing that the main bad guy, who is Jimmy Au's character which was revealed as a plot twist that killed Benjamin Yuen's father, who Ruco Chan's father was accused of killing which resulted in him and his wife's death, is extremely powerful and can kill everyone easily, except for the main characters because of plot armor.

The OSTs are great as well, Ruco Chan's Siege has a very powerful feel to the song with electric guitars playing which gets you pumped up for each episode playing. The interlude love song, sung by Ruco Chan and Nancy Wu, is one of the best songs ever in TVB history and never gets repetitive even if it plays a lot in the drama. Background music felt dated but sets the mood well as this is a period martial arts drama.

This is a really good TVB drama for its time, and I highly recommend for you to check it out. Rewatch value is also really good, but only for the action scenes as it wouldn't be as interesting since you would already know the plot twists. So if you're rewatching it solely for the story, don't.

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