Greed Mask

Cast:
Roger Kwok - Ko Fung
Christine Ng - Szeto San
Lo Hoi Pang - Ko Cheuk Man
Annie Man - Toan Toan
Halina Tam - Pui Pui
Wayne Lai
Angie Cheung
Gilbert Lam

Storyline:
The first couple of episodes are about Halina pulling a scam to get insurance benefits from killing her boyfriend, Roger. She pretends to be possessed by a spirit making everyone think she is delusional. Roger suspects Christine is the one behind Halina's illness. Then Roger finds out the truth. Halina's car brake fails in a police car chase and it explodes in the sea, causing her to be lost at sea. Then life goes on until the murder of Lo Hoi Pang. The rest of the series is about finding the murderer. Roger knows the murderer is within the family so in trying to find out the culprit, he finds out a lot about his true identity. Every family member has his or her own story, which helps the episodes pass. At the very end, Halina returns... but in one of the creepiest way possible.

"Greed Mask" wasn't too big, if any at all, of a thriller for me. I admit the first few episodes captured my attention because it was indeed pretty creepy. But after that, it kind of went downhill. The murder of Lo Hoi Pang really dragged on. C'mon, about 10 episodes focused on that. Wouldn't you get sick of it? Especially since every time there's a story behind another story. For example, Annie Man admitted that she is the murderer. And then it turns out she is only covering up for someone else. And then Christine Ng realizes she is the one who is the killer but then it turns out she was only hypnotized into thinking that. Holy crap, it just got so annoying. After a while, I didn't really care who did it.

Casting:

Roger Kwok gave a satisfactory performance in this series. It wasn't amazing or anything but maybe it's because I'm such a big fan of his, I subconsciously only look at the good things he give, not his flaws. But what was up with his scarf in the beginning? Horrible, horrible, horrible taste. His hair might look cool to some people but it just annoyed me. It reminded me of a hen. And throughout the series, his gold highlights change so you can kind of tell which scenes were shot first and how good/bad of a job his highlights were. I generally didn't like Roger's character. If it wasn't him playing that role, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have watched this series and if I did, I probably would've hated it.

I think Christine Ng was a total miscast in this series. I don't like the way she said all her lines because she put too much emotion or face expressions into it. Her voice contradicts her face. Her voice makes her sound older than she looks. Her voice suits her more in "Cold Blood, Warm Heart" with Adam Cheng. Also, her hairstyle was horrible. She didn't look pretty with it at all. Her clothing was also very bad on her. She always wore these ankle dresses and they were very ugly. I thought she and Roger would really pass off as siblings because they are about the same height and had the same hairstyle. I didn't want Roger paired up with Christine. They didn't look good together at all. The kissing scenes between Roger and Christine were disturbing.

Annie Man is Roger's deaf cousin in this series. She is deaf partially because of Roger so Roger feels guilty and responsible for taking care of Annie. He learns to use sign language to communicate with her, therefore creating a special bond between them. He is the only one Annie can turn to when she is troubled, which makes her like him, but they are cousins. When Roger finds out about his true identity, it is no problem for her to feel the way she does. Annie is a cute person but I don't really like her acting too much. I don't really want to see her paired up with Roger but it seems like she is the most compatible one with him in this series. That's sad.

Halina Tam didn't do much and didn't get much screening time at all. She only appeared in the first three or four episodes and was gone after that, except when Roger was having flashbacks. Then they have voiceovers in the last episode. She doesn't look that great with Roger either.

----
The best thing to look forward to is really the last few episodes. That's when everything kind of unravels and things get to their creepiest. It's actually kind of predictable but nonetheless, it's still freaky. Wayne Lai gave a very good performance, as he always had. He was a great Jui Bak Gwai in "Journey to the West", there is no one better for that role. Wayne is such a humorous person that even though he usually plays the greedy and selfish guy in most series, you can't help but love him.

I would only recommend this series if you're really into those investigation stories within a big family. "Greed Mask" was nothing special. I would rather recommend you guys watch "Not Just A Pretty Face". It was much better than "Greed Mask". The cast from both series are somewhat similar: Roger Kwok, Lo Hoi Pang, Lau Koon Lan, Lee Sing Cheong and more.