Au Revoir Shanghai

Cast:
Michael Miu Kiu Wai - Lip Jun
Anne Heung Hoi Lam - Ah Siu
Bosco Wong Jung Jut - Gau Jai
Shirley Yeung Si Kei - Lip Man Wa
Power Chan Kwok Bong - Gu Hok Ji
Derek Kwok Jing Hung - Chun Bong
Go Hong - Gu Cheung Sing

Synopsis:
Lip Jun used to be a part of a gang and was a very good gang member. Gu Cheung Sing was the leader of this gang. Everything changed for Lip Jun when his wife died and he retired from the gang to open a shop making 'Siu Long Bao', which is a very delicious food that his wife made before she died.

Ah Siu is a widow who is looking for the killer of her husband. She encounters Chun Bong, who is an extremely righteous police officer (unlike the other money-hungry police officers). Chun Bong promises to help her find her husband's killer.

Gau Jai is an orphan who really admires Lip Jun, therefore he wants to be part of a gang as well. He eventually joins Gu Cheung Sing's gang and works for him, but being part of a gang isn't all Gau Jai expected it to be. Gau Jai is very loyal to Jun and secretly harbours feelings for Man Wa.

Lip Man Wa is Lip Jun's daugther. Man Wa has a crush on Gu Hok Ji who is a very clever friend of hers. Hok Ji studied at a foreign country and Man Wa admired his intelligence. Man Wa and Hok Ji begin dating but he places his work before her and is often busy, therefore he doesn't have time to go on dates with her. It also becomes very obvious that Man Wa likes Hok Ji more than he likes her.

Gu Hok Ji is very faithful to his father Gu Cheung Sing, however his father always looks down on him and never treats him as a true son. Hok Ji frequently attempts to help his father with his business dealings, but he doesn't accept his assistance.

Comments:

Plot:
The plot of the series is quite good but only when it is concerning Gu Cheung Sing's gang and Lip Jun's past. I think that the series becomes boring when it is focusing on the shop selling 'Siu Long Bao'. It ruins the exciting and often suspenseful plot of the series. I also didn't like the development of the romantic relationships because it doesn't develop very smoothly. I liked the suspenseful moments and the parts where secrets were revealed and all was not as it seemed. Those parts were the highlights of the series.

Cast:

Michael Miu Kiu Wai - Lip Jun
I found Michael Miu to be a very good cast choice as Lip Jun because he maintains the serious and at times mysterious-looking face. Sometimes you would be guessing what he is thinking about. When Michael was in those moments where he was making 'Siu Long Bao', however, it was very strange. This was because it completely contrasted the serious character of Lip Jun. I think that the plot's jump from the gangsters storyline to the 'Siu Long Bao' storyline was too big a change. I would say that Michael Miu did best in the parts where he was in serious moments.

Anne Heung Hoi Lam - Ah Siu
I really enjoyed Anne Heung as Ah Siu because she could be annoyed at Lip Jun during the moments where she had first met him and could also be gentle and understanding to him when she slowly got to know him. I think she did well because she has a very gentle and kind-hearted looking face. I liked how stubborn she was when she had just moved in to Lip Jun's house and immediately did chores for him to pay for the rent. It showed different sides of her in contrast to her gentleness when making 'Siu Long Bao' with Lip Jun. Anne was a very good choice for Ah Siu's character.

Bosco Wong Jung Jut - Gau Jai
I found Bosco Wong to be very good as Gau Jai. He really showed the loyalty and admiration of Gau Jai to Lip Jun. He also did the gangster parts very well and was also showed a soft-hearted part of him when he was with Ma Wa. Although Gau Jai made rash decisions and could sometimes be short-tempered, he was also a very kind and caring person. Bosco acted this out very well. He could also be very comedic, especially when he was telling people what to do and they wouldn't listen. He told Lip Jun that the 'Sai' don't listen to him, but he learnt from Lip Jun that to be 'Dai Lo' wasn't all about giving orders.

Shirley Yeung Si Kei - Lip Man Wa
I think Shirley Yeung acted too modern in this series. Her actions (for example: when she clicked her fingers and says she thought of something) and the way she spoke wasn't right for the time period that this series was set in. Shirley Yeung did act well as the lovable Lip Man Wa but I don't think that she does well in the scenes where her character is upset. She doesn't do those scenes very realistically. Sometimes she would seem like she is just reading her lines from a piece of paper. I don't fully blame her for how she modernised her character because this could be part of the script. But I still don't think that she was very good as Lip Man Wa; she only did well in the scenes where she was being cute and showed how she really admired Gu Hok Ji and his intelligence.

Power Chan Kwok Bong - Gu Hok Ji
I think that Power Chan was pretty good as Gu Hok Ji. This was because he shows different sides of him as to before and after he betrays his father. I really sympathised with him when his father was being mean to him and looking down on him because he was only trying to help his father improve his business. I really disliked it when Hok Ji told the gunman to shoot Man Wa. But when Power Chan was in these scenes he led me to believe that his character had really changed. I liked the slow change in Hok Ji's personality because sometimes I would wonder what his true motives were. Power Chan was great in this series.

Derek Kwok Jing Hung - Chun Bong
I liked Derek Kwok's performance in this series because it really contrasted with other characters he played in different series. This was the first time I saw Derek casted as a police officer. I think he was really good as the honest and righteous police officer. I sympathised with him because he was in a place where few police officers such as himself actually existed. His enthusiasm in solving cases was clearly shown in this series, which showed that he was a good police officer. I liked the scenes between Derek and Michael and also the scenes where he was opposite Anne Heung. He showed how righteous he was as a police officer when he was with Michael because he really wanted to put him behind bars. He also showed a gentle and caring side to him when he was trying to help Anne find the killer of her husband.

Go Hong - Gu Cheung Sing
I think Go Hong was a good actor in the role of Gu Cheung Sing. He is good at being a person who pretends to be kind and understanding, when he is actually making evil plans. He played this part very well and was quite an important character in the series because he had many secrets. I liked the scenes where he was with Gu Hok Ji the most because it showed his true colours. He was only using his son and never cared about him. There was a part where he used Hok Ji to avoid a bullet. I couldn't believe that he would do that to someone who cared so much about him. I think that Go Hong was very believable as Gu Cheung Sing.

Romantic Relationships:

Lip Jun and Ah Siu
They didn't develop very well and they seemed to be quite awkward as a couple. I think that the plot should have given more focus in the development of their relationship to make it work because they did pretty well when they were arguing but when they were starting to like each other it didn't seem that realistic.

Gau Jai and Lip Man Wa
They were pretty cute together when they were arguing but you could tell they did care deeply for one another. However it was not good for them to suddenly get married at the end because it was much too fast. I think it is hard to accept it because it didn't show them dating and only showed that Man Wa liked Gau Jai towards the end.

Lip Man Wa and Gu Hok Ji
I quite liked them together if it weren't for Gu Hok Ji betraying her. They were cute in that Man Wa is quite naive and Hok Ji is very clever and devious. I liked the development in their relationship but I think that Hok Ji only started dating Man Wa because he thought that she was the only person that cared about him.

Ah Siu and Chun Bong
It would be pretty good if Ah Siu and Chun Bong were together at the end because it was very obvious that Chun Bong liked Ah Siu. They are both very compatible as friends so they might be as compatible as a couple. I think that their personalities were compatible as well.

Conclusion:
Overall this series is okay. The best scenes are the suspenseful ones. I would recommend this to anyone who likes a suspenseful series as well as a lighthearted series because 'Au Revoir Shanghai' is a mixture of them both. I would also recommend it to fans of Derek Kwok and Bosco Wong.