Golden Faith
Brief Summary
Golden Faith is one of TVB's grand productions this year with a star-studded cast including seasoned favorites like Gallen Lo, Jessica Hsuan and Deric Wan, and fresh young talents like Raymond Lam and Michelle Yip. Here's the story in a nutshell. Ivan (or Ding Sin Boon, played by Gallen Lo)'s foster father is a successful businessman with a shaky past and complicated connections to the Triad. After his foster father's death, Ivan vowed to accomplish his father's last wish, cleaning up the family business and free it of any illegal ties. The methods he used along the way created many misunderstandings with his girlfriend Rachel (or Ching Tin Nam played by Jessica Hsuan), who's a public defendant working for the district attorney's office, and his long-lost brother Chung Sau Hong (played by Deric Wan), who's a police detective. Mean while, his uncle duped his other brother (foster brother) Oscar (or Ding Sin Hang, played by Raymond Lam) into believing that Ivan had faked his father's will in order to control all the family's wealth. Being misunderstood by both sides, Ivan continued to carry on the family burden, even when it meant that he had to sacrifice his own love and happiness'
General Impression
From this brief summary of the storyline, you could easily see the shadow of many overused elements in other series of similar types - a father who gained riches through illegal means, but desired that his children would not follow the same path; a family member who's unwilling to give up the criminal lifestyle; two siblings on different sides of the law; and siblings feuding over the control for family property. No wander the rating was anything but satisfactory during the earlier weeks of the showing; a disappointing trend lasted till the finale week. Overall, Golden Faith is trite and uninventive due to these overused story elements. Even with a high-caliber cast delivering outstanding performances, it still couldn't draw enough interest from the viewing public. Such a failure is an unfortunate result of the ever improving sophistication of the TV audiences. If the same series of the same quality was made a decade ago, the viewer response might have been drastically different.
Another problem is that the story itself did not strictly focus on drama as I expected. It contained humorous subplots thrown in specifically designed to lighten up the atmosphere. The result is a mixture of half light-hearted comedy and half serious drama that doesn't necessarily appeal to either crowd of views. One welcoming feature is that TVB shot many scenes on location in the beautiful Australia. Filming on location is a money costing practice TVB used in many of its recent productions, which improved the visual spectacle in the newer series.
Character Analysis
Gallen Lo as Ivan, Ding Sin Boon
On the Actor.
Gallen's career has been on a downfall recently, especially after the rumors about his failing marriage and possible involvement with Jessica Hsuan began to surface. This role, which catapulted him to the position of being TVB's best actor of the year will definitely revitalize his troubled career. There is no doubt that Gallen is a good actor. But this role is not particularly refreshing because he had portrayed similar characters in the past. In a way, he's almost expected to perfect Ivan.
On the Role.
Ivan is the anti-hero walking between the fine line that separates right and wrong. His foster father had treated him like a biological son, and in return, Ivan is willing to sacrifice himself for his father and his family. His happiness is built only on the happiness of people he cared about. He put the responsibility to the family above his love for Rachel. Ivan carried too much burden for others and made too many self sacrifices. A person like him lives too strenuous of a life to enjoy anything.
What Not To Miss.
Pay special attention to Gallen's eyes and you will find that they can speak in place of words. These kinds of finder details really impress me. They are what separate the great actors from the average.
Jessica Hester Hsuan as Rachel, Ching Tin Nam
On the Actor.
There's a reason why Jessica received a favorite roles award every year, and is nominated for the best actress award every year. On looks, she's only average compared to so many pageant contestants TVB recruited. Yet she has a mature and womanly presence on screen that I personally find very attractive. Unfortunately, the character of Rachel in Golden Faith is yet another strong and independent career woman type. This is the Jessica I like to see, but because I'm a fan that's obviously in love with her. Other people might find these repetitive roles stale. Maybe TVB should deviate from this success formula and give her a challenge next time by assigning her a different personality in a modern series.
On the Role.
Even though Rachel knows that Ivan is not the type of man who would prioritize her above the responsibility to his family, she still couldn't deny the strong feeling she has. She described their time together as having too little happiness and too much misery, yet she could not forget and move on. She even forgive him for his disappointments and betrayals because she understands his character and his pain. The guardian star will always be her most cherished token.
What Not To Miss.
For some reason, I like to see Jessica breaking off a relationship, and Golden Faith is full of these moments. She broke up with Julian; she rejected Ah Hong; and half the scenes with Ivan felt like parting scenes.
Deric Wan as Chung Sau Hong
On the Actor.
Deric is another old time favorite who seems to have passed his glorious days, and is still as talented as ever. In Golden Faith, he delivered a likable performance as the often self-flattering detective full of witty remarks and silly expressions. I was still a little dissatisfied however, not by the performance, but because I feel that he wasn't given the opportunity to truly show his full range of acting ability. The character Hong is just not on par with his many memorable roles in the past.
On the Role.
Ah Hong's relationship with Rachel is almost destined to fail from the very start. He seemed too insecure and immature for someone like Rachel. His effort is always poorly chosen, badly timed, or too forcible. From another angle though, you will sympathize him for the fruitless effort he put in. It's unfair to him that in his happiest days with Rachel, she had always subconsciously cared more for Ivan.
What Not To Miss.
During the marriage proposal at the candlelight dinner, in a short span of time, Deric showed many expressions from sincerity, to anticipation, to joy, to shock, to confusion and disappointment. That's Deric at his finest performance.
Raymond Lam as Oscar, Ding Sin Hang
On the Actor.
Unfortunately, I have not seen Eternal Happiness. Comparing Raymond's performance in Golden Faith to his performance in A Step into the Past, I see some modest improvements, but not giant leaps. His performance is good but not outstanding, and pales in comparison to the three seasoned pros. TVB is trying to package him as the successor of Louis Koo, and hoping that one day he would inherit the throne of best TVB actor. Seems like lots of pressure on the young star. Raymond definitely showed slight hints for possible greatness, but he's still relatively new and has lots of room for improvement. Reaching and surpassing Louis might be too high of an expectation, but he indeed has some potential for success if he could materialize it.
On the Role.
Oscar is na've and inexperienced. The pressure and eagerness to succeed consumed him and created opportunity for his manipulative uncle to take advantage of. He's hateful but not despicable because he was convinced Ivan had betrayed the family's trust and the sibling's bond. That made his many actions justifiable, though one couldn't help but to be angry at his stupidity and foolishness.
What Not To Miss.
Raymond does a great crazy maniac impression. My favorite is the freeze frame at the end of episode 43 when a raging Oscar fired his gun aimlessly.
Michelle Yip as Ching Siu Yu, Rain
On the Actor.
Michelle's role in Golden Faith is only supplementary, and not crucial to the main story. With the little opportunity presented to her, her effort was pleasing, but not enough to be spectacular. She still has quite a way to go before enlisted as one of TVB's top actresses. And she could benefit greatly if given some more complex secondary roles. Overall, I felt that Michelle's performance was better in the latter parts of the series than the earlier parts, especially that her tears are very natural in the last few episodes.
What Not To Miss.
Michelle looks cute when she's shy or embarrassed, like when she blushed as Ah Hong rubbed her shoulders in one arm-wrestling scene.
Myolie Wu as Yan Yan, Ding Sin Yan
This is by far the most difficult and demanding role. It's hard to comment on the accuracy of Myolie's portrayal of a slightly mentally challenged person. But I find the acting extremely believable and the character itself very adorable. An actress that can deliver such a performance definitely has talents. Myolie deserved the most improved actress award at the anniversary celebration.
Anne Heung as Sabrina, Kwai Lai Fu
Another relatively more challenging role in my opinion. Playing an abused and battered woman isn't exactly something you can ask an actress to draw from personal experience. Anne's performance was only average. She seems to be an actress good enough for secondary roles, but not the leads. Of course, I may be partial towards her because she's Jessica's nemesis in both Golden Faith and Detective Investigation Files 4.
There are also a few other roles that I have no motivation to analyze in great details. For example, Kiko didn't leave much impression on me. Paul Chun (Ding Wing Bong) is a good actor, but his involvement with the show was brief. Golden Faith also lacked a memorable villain. The character, Hung Pak To, had the devious looks, but didn't make too much impact in the story. Generally speaking, the supporting cast did enough not to ruin the show, with a few surprises. But that can be expected for a production on such a scale. My favorite character is Ivan's good friend and lawyer Jack. Jack always walks around with a cool and confident attitude, and more importantly, he always help speaking out what Ivan truly feels but couldn't or refuses to acknowledge. My least like character is Oscar's aunt, Ding Wing Tung's wife, not because the character isn't likable, but because I can never understand any of her dialogs. Moon is a close second for the same reason. (I speak Mandarin, though I can understand a small portion of Cantonese if enunciated clearly.)
Memorable Scenes
The Best Scene. Some people will pick the scene when Rachel and Ivan tightly held each other as the water submerges the sinking vehicle. I felt that it is too clich' to create any emotionally impact. I really like the one, right after the car explosion, Rachel frantically paced back and forth searching for signs of life. Ah Hong rushed out of the fire to embrace her, however she continued to look on nervously and anxiously until spotted Ivan rising up slowly, looking at her with a smile in the distance. The sign of relief and joy in her eyes perfectly described how much she cared and loved Ivan still.
The Least Funny Scene. Many people find the segment where Ah Hong explained the many uses of his hair hilarious, while it had just the opposite effect on me. I personally prefer clever and witty dialogs over these purposely staged and somewhat childish jokes.
My Personal Favorite. When Rachel demanded that Ivan is not to share guardian stars, fireworks, bouncing chickens or cubic bread with Sabrina, because these belong only to her and Ivan. The exchange of the dialog was humorous, but it was sad at the same time to see Ivan sacrificed his happiness and Rachel again for his obligation.
The Best Theme Song. Golden Faith's theme song (嵗月的童話 or 'Fairytale of Time') is one of the best theme songs. I especially like the whistling that begins and ends the song. The peaceful and harmonious melody, together with the gold-tinted introductory sequences, created a longing to relive those happiest moments in our memory.
The Most Profound Line. 'Love between two people is like basic math. When you add two people together, there should be a little more happiness. But if you add two together, and get more burden, guessing and mistrust, then the math is all wrong. You should subtract all that and break up.' Ah Hong said to Rachel after she was heartbroken over her and Ivan's breakup.
The Most Cherished Item. The guardian star.
Rachel - 'You are my guardian star. Protecting me.'
Ivan - 'And it will protect us together.'
If I could rate Golden Faith based on the performances alone, the score would be on the higher end of the scale. However, taking the story into consideration, this series is only average. You won't miss out on anything spectacular if you are not fans of Jessica, Gallen or Deric. Fortunately, this series doesn't feel dragging at all. You will find plenty laughter to keep your mind off the clock even when there's little development in the story. I gave Golden Faith three guardian stars. If you are not very demanding and have time to sit through 45 episodes, then I'd recommend this show to you.
Dugu Yibi (独孤一笔)'s Rating: * * * (Scale of 5)
