Gods of Honour

Cast
Benny Chan- Ne Zha
Michelle Yip- Lian Hua
Irene Wan- Empress Da Ji
Yuen Wa- Li Jing
Chin Ka Lok- Yang Jian
Yuen Kin Dan- Yin Shi Niang
Angela Tong- Liu Pi Pa
Rain Lau- Deng Chan Yu
Winnie Yeung- Wong Nhan
Lee Kwok Lun: Shen Gong Bao

Storyline
The legend begins when King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty insulted the goddess Nu Wa, so to punish him, the goddess brought about the fall of the Shang Dynasty by introducing the fox spirit Da Ji to become King Zhou's favourite concubine.

Meanwhile, Ne Zha(the protagonist) is born into Li Jing's family. He becomes good friends with Lei Zhen Zhi, who can fly, and Yang Jian who has three eyes. He learns a little magic from his mother Yin Shi Niang and wrecks havoc in the Dragon Prince's underwater kingdom. After this incidence, he is captured by the imperial army. To make up for his sin, he must forgo his physical body and do many good deeds.

Ne Zha becomes a lotus body with the help of a priest. He later joins forces with legendary Jiang Ziya's Heavenly army in the quest to overthrow the Shang Dynasty. He meets other characters: General Deng Chan Yu and Tu Xin Xun, and Lian Hua who has a crush on him. Ne Zha is given back his normal body and is made the commander-in-chief of the army. He also has his speedy Fire Wind Wheels and Fire Spear as his weapons.

Later on, the Heavenly army expands as more of the Shang Imperial troops join in the quest to overthrow King Zhou.

Meanwhile Shen Guo Bao (Jiang Ziya's rival) vows revenge on Jiang Ziya for humiliating him. He joins with the Shang Imperial troops to fight back the rebellion. He also invites immortals to join the army to strengthen the morale.

Who will emerge victorious in the end?

My Comments:
I found the storyline here rather hackneyed as there were too many computer generated effects and the characters were overly exaggerated. For example, Ne Zha's girlfriend (Lian Hua) was too soft a character that lacked confidence. Also, Yang Jian was too dumb to be true. It made it hard to believe that such characters with no backbone really existed.

I also realised that the storyline did not follow the classic novel on Ne Zha. Yes, there was the destruction of the Dragon Prince's kingdom and the fall of the Shang Dynasty, however, there are other parts which did not follow the novel which I have to point out:

- There never was a character of Lian Hua.

- Ji Chang was never the Western Marquis that lived in the Shang palace.

-King Zhou of Shang was burnt to death, not drowned.

Apart from that, TVB really changed my perspective of Ne Zha. In the classics, he was portrayed as a young boy of talent. Yet in the series, he was casted by an adult.

I especially found one character very annoying. That character is Liu Pipa, wife of the general of Shang. All she did was to scream and wail and everybody gave in to her, even more so when she was "pregnant". It made me want to puke every time she came on screen and started her yelling.

However, I found some good points about the series. Though overly-done, the computer generated effects were good. Also, apart from the few characters mentioned earlier, the rest of the cast was good. Another point is that the choreography of the fighting was good. Added with the computer generated effects, it became out of this world.

Screenshots::
http://tvcity.tvb.com/drama/gods/index.html