AF# 860 - Posted 10 February 2009 - 11:49 AM
Akazukin: Actually after WAB, my dislike against Charmaine has lessen since I think she has improved after so many years. After watching WAB, I was thinking of giving a chance to PITNOL but I hesitate since that series is filmed before WAB so I'm not assured of her acting skill (Well, I was forced to turn off the TV during 'Cuckoo' because of her). What is Steven's character like in PITNOL? Is he a romantic as well?
Tamaya: I thought Charmaine was rather cute and fresh in Cuckoo, though she was a most annoying character. Don't know why the guys go gaga over her. And her acting in WAB was much better than Gigi's. PITNOL is definitely not as good as WTLB. It's abundant use of flashbacks annoyed the heck out of me. Quite a bit of fast forwarding for me. But there are plentiful of sweet and romantic scenes between Steven & Charmaine, not that they would do anything for you, given your biasness. lol! In some scenes, Charmaine looks pretty & sweet, in some, surprisingly, rather plain and average looking. She displays none of the innate poise and elegance expected of an imperial princess, her humble childhood upbringing notwithstanding, inborn good breeding should naturally emanate from deep within. Overall, I wasn't impressed by either Charmaine's or Sonija's performance - (but then I never like Sonija's acting, eta-especially dislike her mincing way of talking.) The male cast did much better. Wasn't Steven's best performance but he did all right. Got him the most favorite male character. And also many Steven's fans became fans because of pitnol. So each to her own. The ending was terrible for me -- tvb had the gall to change a classic tragedy into a happy ending. Urg! Between pitnol & wtlb, pick the latter, you might change your mind on Ada. And Steven was absolutely gorgeous! And the series (WTLB), although, a tragedy, has a good story to tell and enthrall.
Akazukin: [..] Eh, I think romantic scenes between Steven and Charmaine won't do me any good. But what is his character like? Is he serious and loyal type? Or is he playful and loyal? Smart? Etc?
I never like Sonija's acting either, although I have a feeling she would do better in villainous role than kind-hearted roles. Didn't she also have a rumour with Steven?
Tamaya: [..]Steven's Sai Hin is a hero; a romantic, gorgeous, brave, righteous hero. I've enjoyed watching his performance, Moses' and Michael Tong's performances too. plus the storyline is interesting, and romantic too, so overall I did enjoy the whole series. But you might not. Watch WTLB instead.
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AF1752 Posted 09 September 2009 - 02:54 AM
Tamaya: As for pitnol, find the childhood story boring but the story picks up from there. Steven's Sai Hin cut such a romantic and dashing figure. Undoubtedly Pitnol has a very romantic storyline played against the crumbling Ming dynasty background which made the series very interesting to watch. Overall, besides the childhood story in the beginning, the altered corny, happy ending and the endless flashbacks to childhood scenes and their prayers, it was an enjoyable series to watch. But I personally prefer WTLB over PITNOL.
One of the most romantic scenes “ Sai Hin recognizes Fai Ni as Cheung Pin "
- epi 6 - ending scene
-epi 7 Watch the whole clip, if not then forward to these specific scenes.
- the episode starts with Sai Hin wanting to confront Fai Ni as Cheung Pin but is interrupted by the arrival of his fiance played by Annie Man
- after sending Annie home, Sai Hin rushes over to the factory to seek out Fai Ni, whom he is now ascertain is Princess Cheung Pin, but the latter pretends otherwise. Such a romantic scene.
- When Fai Ni finally admits to be Cheung Pin.
related screencaps - Dancing with Annie Man
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Agree, pitnol is a must see series for Steven fans. Enjoyed Steven's performance in both series. But Steven's performance and screen presence in Sits were so much more mature and poignant, making every scene counts. Moreover, Stevia's chemistry can't be beat. (except for Steven/Maggie's)
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Out of all the 4 fadans in Steven's mainland STAR interview (Maggie Cheung, Jessica Hsuan, Ada Choi and Charmain Sheh), Charmaine is my least favorite. I can't stand her voice, and her acting as the perfect princess (Cheung Ping) is not to my liking. In some scenes, she even looked haggard. She was so much better and prettier and fresher in Return Of The Cuckoo. Pitnol dragged too, esp. with all the flashbacks. But Steven looked marvelous as usual, he can't be beat in ancient costumes.
WAB=War and Beauty
WTLB = Where the legend begins
PITNOL= Perish in the name of Love
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related material: a blogger's episodic review
Verdict by blogger Funn Lim on pitnol reviews:
VERDICT
Too much emphasis on the love story, pushing everything else aside, and when the story goes back to everything else, it was much too late. The ending was God awful, no explanation whatsoever, it was like "Nah! You want happy ending? Here's your happy ending!". [.]. This series tried to give a new twist to a timeless tale of love, betrayals, falling kingdom and eternal devotion. I see plenty of devotion between two main characters when I wanted to see devotion in a bigger scale; the relationships between the characters and more. What I had was a glimpse of the surface of what could have been. Believe me, this series if given more care in scripting, more capable actors in certain key characters and a better director with an appreciation for classical dialogue, perhaps there may be a remake worthy of being called better than its predecessors. Now it is just pure messy nonsense.
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ETA nov 10 2015Verdict by blogger Funn Lim on pitnol reviews:
VERDICT
Too much emphasis on the love story, pushing everything else aside, and when the story goes back to everything else, it was much too late. The ending was God awful, no explanation whatsoever, it was like "Nah! You want happy ending? Here's your happy ending!". [.]. This series tried to give a new twist to a timeless tale of love, betrayals, falling kingdom and eternal devotion. I see plenty of devotion between two main characters when I wanted to see devotion in a bigger scale; the relationships between the characters and more. What I had was a glimpse of the surface of what could have been. Believe me, this series if given more care in scripting, more capable actors in certain key characters and a better director with an appreciation for classical dialogue, perhaps there may be a remake worthy of being called better than its predecessors. Now it is just pure messy nonsense.
Luckily i decided to complete the series before visiting this site, otherwise I might be discouraged to watch PITNOL the second time..and oh yes i am one of "those who can stomach the complete disregard for the real history" cos I failed the subject in school hahahah. If Steven was not casting in this series and I read your opinion, I won't waste my time to watch it. Nevertheless, I really like Steven's protrayal as Sai-hin. As for the romance between Sai-hin and Cheung-ping, I would say only the first 7 episodes are appealing to me. Somehow, Charmaine's acting became monotonous and inconsistent after Episode 17. Her singing of the theme song was without emotion. As she is not a professional singer, I guess she was too concern with singing techniques and was unable to manage the emotion part concurrentlly.
ReplyDeleteWell, since I have fanmade 5 MVs on PITNOL, i would not need to watch the full series again the next time :)
Ida, first off, thanks for dropping in. Second, just to clarify, the Verdict is not written by me but by another blogger whose post I transferred here without her permission because I do somewhat agree with her opinion on this series, though not so harshly. I've moved the verdict summary to the bottom of the discussion page. I'm not that versed in ancient Chinese history either so the historical facts went over my head and did nothing to affect my viewing pleasure or displeasure at the time, it is the series bloatedness and dragginess, and performances of certain actors that greatly tempered my enjoyment of this series. But I did enjoy Steven's performance and his songs in here. That being said, overall, I did enjoy the series mainly because of Steven and the novelty of the dai nui fa storyline (heard of it as an opera but never knew what the story was then). As for Charmaine's singing, it was poorly done, so breathy and like you said, emotionless. The song itself is great. And Steven's singing was great too. I think of the series with lots of unrealized potential wannabe. I got tired of Cheung Ping's one dimensional perfectness and Chiu Yan's (blogger dubbed her Superman, haha) one dimensional wickedness very quickly, It is a series I will not be re watching anytime soon so I am greatly indebted to your mvs to view our very dashing Sai Hin. Like his looks as the scholarly engineer than the general, too bad, he was a tad too tan.
DeleteThird, I'm with the reviewer on this (now we know the ending was in fact due to TVB being cheap in not wanting to spend money to buy the dai nui fa copyright): ."The ending was God awful, no explanation whatsoever, it was like "Nah! You want happy ending? Here's your happy ending!". "This series tried to give a new twist to a timeless tale of love, betrayals, falling kingdom and eternal devotion. I see plenty of devotion between two main characters when I wanted to see devotion in a bigger scale; the relationships between the characters and more. [..] What I had was a glimpse of the surface of what could have been. Believe me, this series if given more care in scripting, more capable actors in certain key characters and a better director with an appreciation for classical dialogue, perhaps there may be a remake worthy of being called better than its predecessors. Now it is just pure messy nonsense. "
Well, messy, yes, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it nonsense. And I too can "stomach the complete disregard for the real history" as I didn't know any better. haha!
I see I have got a few common views with the blogger and you on the drama but I am obviously more lenient :) Probably, I was too carried away by the dashing Sai-hin that everything else was in the blind spot :D
DeleteAny drama series more than 20 episodes is considered draggy for me whether the storyline is good or lousy. That is why until to date I still can’t manage to finish 40 epi of OOTTO. I definitely had taken longer than usual to complete a TVB series but at least I did not activate the FF button even on the second watch of PITNOL unlike YYP. I still enjoy every episode of PITNOL despite some dislikes and discrepancies, which are considered trivial to me. Though I do not agree with the blogger totally, I enjoyed reading the write-up, very shiok (extreme pleasure) indeed, hahah..
Like you and the reviewer, I am also puzzled with the ending so haphazardly done without explanation as to how Sai-hin and Cheung-ping got ended up as hawker. But because it was a happy ending, ok lah. LOL
So far to me, Sai-hin is a classic in the early 2000. But of course I am yet to watch WTLB to give a fairer opinion.
The blogger, Funn Lim, has very strong opinions and is unafraid to express them on her blog and Jaynestars.com. Have you read her pitnol episodic summary Many fans of other actors are offended by her strong critiques on their idols' performances, but not me. I take all opinions - good or bad -- with a grain of salt. I enjoy her reviews too, whether agree or disagree. You can check out her reviews on Safeguards and Land of Wealth and her reviews on Steven as actor. But be forewarned, you must have a strong stomach for her critiques on Steven's acting and performances.
DeleteI really, really enjoyed OOTTO despite its length. As the first male lead, Steven could totally carry the series on his own. I've watched the series in its entirety twice. The series would have been better if the 3rd sister's scenes were shortened, like a lot much shorter.
Talking about strong opinion, I had an unforgettable experience last year. I wrote a movie review in my sina blog. One of my idols casted in this Japanese production and I was disappointed with both his performance and the script. Immediately after the review was posted, fans started to criticize and soon it became a personal attack. A few private messaged me that they agreed with my review but dared not do so openly.
DeleteMany of them started to de-fan me in weibo. Most boycotted my MV in weibo and baidu. They even talked badly on my other idols. Mind you, my tone of review was so much gentle than blogger Lim’s. Fans reaction can be extreme but it is a fact that most fans could not accept slaps. They only want to hear claps. The best way to stop their nonsense was not to reply them. Anyway, neither do I need them to agree with my views nor anything I say was going to change their thinking.
As far as I am concern, I continue to write what I think and I continue to make MV as usual. Nothing affected me. So I can take slaps about anything as long as they are reasonable. If not, then simply left ear in right ear out. To me, no good means no good so what if he is my idol. An artiste can’t be in his top form at all times in all roles. Having said that, I find Steven could not carry the role of Emperor Hong Hei well in DOTMD due to his baby face then. Given his short acting experience, actually he acted reasonably well but I still find it a mismatch.
By the way, I would be very much interested to find time to read on your recommended reviews by blogger Lim though not the priority in my to-do-list [I don’t give much of my time in reading stars news or anything related]. As for OTTOO, I will make an effort to complete it and I also miss TTX. These 2 and many more after my short break, yea!
Good for you. Obsessed/fried-brain fans are indeed scary and ugly in their irrational and fanatic personal attacks, all in the name of supporting their idols. Don't they realize their vitriol reflects badly on their beloved idols? And that include some Steven's weibo fans.
DeleteAs for Steven's domd Hong Hei, given the character's young age, he did ok performance wise. And he most certainly looks the part with his Qing makeover. But suffice to say his Hong Hei is not among my favorite SM's characters. Strange how it became a classic among mainland domd fans' . Btw, Lim voiced the same opinion as yours, and was much taken aback when I told her that author Jing Yong considered Steven's Hong Hei depiction his favorite.
Anyway, I think he fared better as the young Hong Hei than the hardened General Sai Hin due to his smooth, baby soft skin, and baby rosy cheeks and baby face. lol!
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