How long? 30epis
When & which tv stn? 2006/TVB
Who's in?Frankie Lam as Li Bu Yi
Raymond Lam as Lai Yao-er
Tavia Yeung as Ye Meng Se
Selena Li as Yan Ye Lai
John Chiang as Shen Xing Nan
Anne Heung as Yue Lan/ Mi Qian
Nancy Wu as Shen Jiang Hong
Derek Kwok as Liu Fen Yu
What's it abt?Every few years, the White and the Herectics (Black) would take part in the Golden Seal Battle to determine who takes reign for the upcoming few years.
Li Bu Yi is a fortune teller with great martial arts skills. He travels through life helping people and wants to avenge for his Master by stopping his Senior from controlling the world. His senior turns out to be Ge Shu Tian, the leader of the herectics (Tianyu Palace). Although Li Bu Yi does not want to interfere b/w the White & Black, he ends up helping the White by finding another 5 martial arts experts after the original 5 participants were mysteriously killed by the Herectics. After that, he is accused of helping the Herectics by Shen Xing Nan and becomes a wanted man.
Lai Yao-er is the descendant of the Shen Yi family. He has the ability to cure any disease known to man, yet he cannot cure his family's own genetic disease, Premature Degeneration. As time passes, his brother and him continue to age away. Along the way of finding a cure, Yao-er meets Bu Yi and others. He slowly breaks away from his selfish self and accepts their friendship and even finds the love of his life. Later, he served Ge Shu Tian in order to find the last hate from the "7 Hates" and to save Ye Lai.
Ye Meng Se is one of the disciples of Flying Fish Villa who is helping Bu Yi to find the new experts. Her world changed after she found her real father is Ge Shu Tian, and the real traitor in the Villa, who is her master.
Yan Ye Lai is an ex-thief who tries to be an average woman. She owns a inn in a small town and lives through life as if she does not have a secret past. She has the responsibility of taking care of her deceased husband's son and mother. Although she hides herself by pushing people away, the others eventually discover her secrets. Later, she fell for Yao-er and was seriously injured by the one of the White Sect leaders.
Shen Xing Nan is the alliance leader of the White and the head of Flying Fish Villa, but secretly, he cooporated with the Herectices in order to get the last part of the "Red Sand Palm" manual. His wife,Mi Qian, once had an affair with Bu Yi before they got married. She's faithful to Nan, until she realises that he's the real traitor and in order to keep his secret, Nan killed her.
Shen Jiang Hong is Nan's daughter who is always in some sort of trouble because she was desperate to prove herself to her father that she can contribute to the villa too. She becomes Liu Fen Yu's hostage during one incident, but instead of killing her like what an assassin would do, he fell in love with her and she fell for him in return.
Love & Hates:Plot-Actually,I think this drama's plot and the cast seemed ordinary to me, that means, not really a big production. Butta, ordinary TVB production is still watcable though you can guess what will happen as the drama moves on. So, not much of a surprise to the twists and turns. I definitely gotta agree with what many others said abt this drama. Too much talking and too little action. Haha! Seriously, whenever the characters wanna fight, they would have to talk first, and sometimes in the end, there's no fight. e.g Liu Fen Yu wanna kill Bu Yi in one scene, but Bu Yi told him to save Jiang Hong. So, Liu Fen Yi left lo...and didn't kill Bu Yi. If there are more actions b/w the white & the black, may be the drama would be more interesting.
Cast-Frankie Lam's acting is average most of the time, with little expressions. He's alright for Bu Yi la, though I think there may be better choices. Chemistry with Tavia was alright too, I somehow did hoped that Tavia would click with Raymond's character. Haha! The two seemed to be more compatiable. Raymond's character has much more developments, he's not exactly a kind fella initially, then he helped Bu Yi to find the masters (sort of turned good), but then, in b/w he's binded by evil forces because he wanna find cure for his bro la...(so sort of bad again)...he's always b/w good and evil until the very last minute. Haha! As for his chemistry with Selena, I wld say they're not too bad ne...getting better as their characters got closer to each other. Tavia's character is with some developments too...but then, she's still a gd person all the way. The guy whom i really need to applaud is John Chiang. haha! He really got onto my nerves everytime he "zheng zhe yan shuo xia hua". Haha! Really want him to die quickly in the show sia. Lolz...He's really good in his character...2 faced "hero". Other cast did a relative gd job as well, but I find the "flying fish villa" disciples and the other sect leaders annoying. Haha!
Song- Themesong by Raymond and ending theme by Frankie & Tavia. I like the themesong ba, nice lyrics.
Worth watching?Hmm...would recommend to those who like to watch TVB's wu xia dramas. Or else, you can skip this drama as it's not really a must-watch. It's not a boring drama though.
The noodles didn't taste fishy, the fried fillet was delicious, and so was the fishball soup. Yummy~
