Lofty Water Verdant Bow


Reviewed by: Charmed^One

November 28, 2004

Rating: four

Main Cast:
Raymond Lam as Gam Sai Wai
Michelle Yip as Lai Shing Nam
Rain Li as Kuk Chi Wah
Mimi Lo as Lee Sum Mui
Chan Kwok Bong as Kong Nam
Ko Hung as Mang San Tung

Synopsis

The story starts off with Gam Sai Wai (Raymond Lam) when he embarks on his journey to find Lui Sei Leong to get rid of the poison that is passed on by his master into his body. Sai Wai’s master had died because of the poison and before his death, he had told Sai Wai to go find Lui Sei Leong because she can help him. During his journey, he makes friends with lots of people and meets two women who love him very much. The two women are Lai Shing Nam (Michelle Yip) and Kuk Chi Wah (Rain Li). He also gets caught in the affairs of the martial arts world during his journey and keeps on helping the good people, especially Lai Shing Nam and Kuk Chi Wah to fight for justice until he becomes the hero without realizing it.

I have never read the novel of this series, so I do not know whether they are really following the novel’s storyline or the actors and actresses are really portraying their characters according to the novel.

Raymond Lam
On the character

Gam Sai Wai is a typical hero in this series – good, kind hearted, helpful, honest, brave and courageous. But then again, he is a bit stupid and clueless about what is really going on between Lai Shing Nam and Kuk Chi Wah and really does not understand why they don’t get along very well. In short, our poor hero here is totally clueless about the women in his life, until near the end of this series, where he gets smarter. He also gets stuck in between Shing Nam and Chi Wah, who love him very much and can’t seem to make up his mind which woman he loves more. Although he never told Chi Wah directly that she is the one he loves at first, he seems to treat Chi Wah nicer than he treats Shing Nam because Chi Wah’s attitude is nicer. In my opinion, he is too kind hearted and often gets himself caught in affairs that does not even concern him at all, in the end, bringing all the trouble to himself. But that’s just him being very helpful until he becomes the hero without he himself realizing it.

On the actor

Is it me, or does he look better in an ancient drama? In my opinion, he looks better and more manly in an ancient drama rather than in a modern drama. Maybe it’s because of the hairstyle. I think he looks better with long hair because he had longer hair in an ancient drama, like in "Eternal Happiness" and in this series. In modern series, his hair is short, and he looks boyish! The character he portrayed here is not much different than his character in "Eternal Happiness". However, this is not one of his best performances yet, as compared to his performance in "Eternal Happiness" and "Survival's Law".

Michelle Yip
On the character

Lai Shing Nam is a spy/professional killer who works for her boss secretly and no one knows about her real identity. She does lots of cruel things and kills lots of people but only because her boss tells her to. If she does not do whatever her boss tells her to do, she will suffer in a torturous way. In my opinion, I do not think that she is cruel or heartless at all and I really feel pity for her because she has no choice but to kill and do whatever her boss tells her to do. It is not her fault that she is a killer. She is forced to kill. As the story unfolds, her tragic past is revealed to the audience on why she has to follow and work for her boss, and you cannot really blame her for that, in fact you will sympathize her. You will also get touched by this character because of all the things she did for Gam Sai Wai, but alas, Sai Wai does not appreciate the things she did for him, until to the very last and sad moment. At times, I find her quite adorably cute too--especially whenever she is together with Sai Wai or when she is thinking about him. Yes, you will certainly like this character – when she is sad or suffering, you will feel her pain. When she is happy, you will feel her joy.

On the actress

With "Eternal Happiness" still fresh in my mind, I needed some getting used to with the different type of character she portrayed in this series. However, she did a great job in portraying her character and she managed to convince me that she is Lai Shing Nam (and not Mang Lai Kuan anymore) and managed to get me to sympathize her. Also, she had improved a lot on her crying skill and she just gets better and better. She really deserved winning the best-improved actress award. However, there are times I find that she sounds kind of weird in this series. It’s like as if she is speaking rather childishly. Could it be that she does that purposely just for the sake of the character she is portraying? I don’t know since I have never read the novel before, thus I do not know whether Lai Shing Nam is supposed to be childish or not.

Rain Li
On the character

Kuk Chi Wah is Lui Sei Leong’s student. She is nice and kind hearted and everybody seems to favour and support her to be with Sai Wai. However, I really dislike her, although her attitude is better than Shing Nam, and I find her very annoying and boring. She saved her evil dad from getting killed by Shing Nam several times, but does her dad appreciate her? Does her dad feel sorry and is willing to turn over a new leaf? NO. Instead, he does more cruel and evil things and kills more people and is even willing to kill his own daughter to reach the top. That is why I find Kuk Chi Wah very annoying and I feel like going into the tv, slapping some sense into her and telling her, “Get real, girl! Your dad will never change; he is even willing to kill you. Save your time and energy saving and advising him and just kill him already!!”

On the actress

Well, I have never seen her acting before. She failed to get me to sympathize her character. Furthermore, her character is supposed to be likeable, but she failed to portray that. Her character’s attitude is also supposed to be nicer than Michelle’s character, but somehow I like Michelle’s character’s attitude better. Rain makes her character seem so weak, too innocent, too goody-goody, too naïve, too clingy and too dependant on Raymond’s character, that it makes her character very, very pathetic. That is why I prefer Michelle’s character because she is stronger and independent. Her facial expressions are poorly done, and I think there is room for her to improve on her acting skills. It’s because of her acting skills that make her character very boring. If TVB had chosen other better actress to portray Kuk Chi Wah, I am sure this character will be very likeable.

Mimi Lo and Chan Kwok Bong

These two are the funny and likeable characters of this series. Mimi Lo had improved a lot ever since the first time I saw her in "Treasure Raiders", where she played a villain and the second time I saw her in "The Battle Against The Evil".

Chan Kwok Bong is just so very funny. You will laugh very hard whenever you see him, but that is just in the beginning of the story. At the end, his funny antics seem to bore me a little. However, I do not really like his character always going against Shing Nam with Sai Wai and always supporting Chi Wah with Sai Wai.

Mimi Lo and Chan Kwok Bong together as a couple is very funny as well. At first, they are always quarrelling but in the end, they end up together.

There is also another very funny character who likes Mimi’s character at first. He is too hygienic, too knowledgeable, too naggy because he is always telling Mimi’s character about what is good for her and always making up funny postures.

Ko Hung

He played the villain Mang San Tung. He is downright evil to the bone. At first, I thought he will change for his daughter, but I was wrong. This is the character you will hate very much.

However, there is another villain who is more evil than Mang San Tung. He is Lai Shing Nam’s boss. But I think that he is evil in a cool and clever way, because he is manipulative and uses mind strategies to defeat his enemies.

Favourite scenes, here comes the long list..

Any scenes with Raymond and Michelle together, of course!

When Raymond and Michelle met for the first time.

Whenever Michelle gets jealous of Rain if Raymond treats Rain nice. Funny, because Raymond is very blur and clueless about why Michelle is acting this way.

When Mimi starts to fall for Raymond.

Some of the funny scenes where Mimi and her brother had together.

The scene where Michelle tries to hold the chopstick to pick her food up, like the way Raymond first holds the chopstick. This shows that Michelle is thinking about him. This scene is kind of funny.

The scene where Michelle was injured and Raymond did not know a thing about it until she fainted. Then Raymond took care of Michelle the whole night. Then Michelle had a bad dream and Raymond held her hand and they slept like that until the next morning. This scene marks the beginning of a good relationship Raymond had with Michelle. Her character will certainly touch your heart in this scene because although she is injured and needs the medicine, she helps Raymond takes care of the leader of the beggar clan without complaining and gives him all her medicine until she is left with none.

A short, brief and funny scene where Michelle and Chan Kwok Bong had together, where they both sneaked into Mang San Tung’s house and disguised themselves as Mang San Tung’s workers to save Mimi’s parents.

When Michelle found out that Mang San Tung is the one who is responsible for her whole family’s death. You can feel her pain, her sorrow, her anger, her hatred and her vengeance towards Mang San Tung.

When Raymond and Michelle are together on the boat going to an island to find a kung-fu book.

When Raymond and Michelle are having a fake wedding. Michelle is very happy about it, but Raymond keeps telling her that the wedding is fake, and do not get serious about it.

Oh yeah, the underwater kissing scene where Raymond and Michelle had together. Actually, Raymond is just trying to save Michelle from drowning by passing air to her using mouth-to-mouth technique. But I view this as underwater kissing.

The best scenes that are very well done by Michelle

The scene where she was alone sitting outside a small coffee shop drinking wine all by herself under the moonlight. She was very sad at that time because Sai Wai still sides Chi Wah although he knows that Chi Wah is actually the evil Mang San Tung’s blood daughter. Michelle’s crying skill in this scene is very good and you will feel her sadness because Sai Wai is always siding and helping Chi Wah and hurting Shing Nam. Her line in this scene is quite heart wrenching too; something like “Gam Sai Wai, how come you don’t know that I treat you so good. Always helping her, and hurting me. Do you know that I am also very hurt inside???”

The best scene (and also the saddest scene), which is Michelle’s best performance throughout the series, is the ending in last episode. Get ready your tissues, because I can assure you that you will surely cry when you see Shing Nam dying on her wedding night with Sai Wai. Michelle’s crying skill in this scene, plus the touching words that she said to Sai Wai before she died is PERFECT and you will cry with her when she told Sai Wai that she would never do anything to harm him and had taken the risk to kill her boss and in the process, had sacrificed her own life. She also told Sai Wai that she knows he loves Chi Wah very much and blesses both of them to be together until old, but she only wants him to know that once, there was also another person who also loves him very very much. This scene is very, very sad and emotional because the most likeable character in this series is dying and our hero here cannot do anything to save her because it is already too late. The sad part is when Sai Wai realizes that Shing Nam is dying, but the saddest part of all is when he realizes that Shing Nam is still the same old Shing Nam; she never betrayed him, he had wrongly accused her and did not believe in her and that she did all these things for him before she died. However, I feel that Raymond did not excel in this scene because he is lacking of tears and I feel that he could have done better with his crying skill in this scene. He did better in his crying skill in "Eternal Happiness", so what happened here?? Rather disappointing for Raymond!

After Shing Nam died, you will feel a tremendous loss that Sai Wai is feeling and it will make you feel like wanting to go into the tv and punch Sai Wai for not believing in Shing Nam and not appreciating her and all the things she did for him all along, until it is too late and he has to live in regret for the rest of his life!

The “huh??” factor

Anyone’s first impression when they saw the title will think that this series is about a magical and powerful bow, and all the characters will fight one another to get this bow. Well, that is what I thought at first. The title “Lofty Water Verdant Bow” has got absolutely nothing to do with this series’ storyline. In fact, the storyline does not revolve around a certain bow at all and the bow is insignificant in this series. The title should be changed to “The Adventures of Gam Sai Wai” or something more suitable and relevant.

Another big “huh??” in this series is the part where Chi Wah nearly gets raped by Yong Cheh Fu, one of the followers of Shing Nam’s boss. Isn’t Chi Wah supposed to be very good in martial arts and physically strong??? Well, at least, in my opinion, she is good because, hello, she is one of the students of Lui Sei Leong, and also, she had a duel with Shing Nam in which she would have won, if not for Shing Nam’s trickery. Then how come she seems so weak and cannot escape or fight back at Cheh Fu at all?? It is either that the directors want to make Chi Wah a weakling or they had totally forgotten that Chi Wah is a very good martial artist.

Some major complaints

Raymond’s character in this series really ticked me off. Gam Sai Wai is perfect in everything and everything he does. He has the looks, the kung fu skills, the leadership quality, the decision-making and the problem solving skills. Except for one thing. The way he manages his love life. Believe me, you will hate him for that.

I read other reviews from the Internet, and everyone seems to say that he loves Kuk Chi Wah at first. But in the series, he never told Chi Wah directly that he loves her. So, there is no proof that she is the one he loves. He also seems to me like he has on and off feelings towards Lai Shing Nam. So ok, he likes Chi Wah better just because her attitude is nicer but when Shing Nam is dying in the last episode, he can just immediately change his heart and realize that Shing Nam is the one whom he really loves? Or is that called love? I can’t help wondering if he really loves Shing Nam in the end, or he is just choosing her over Chi Wah out of conscience because Shing Nam sacrificed her life and died because of him and he feels that he is responsible for her death. If he still loves Chi Wah in the end but chooses Shing Nam out of responsibility and guilt, then it would be very disappointing. Come on, he can’t carry the whole world’s responsibilities (this really reminds me of Gallen Lo’s character, Ting Sin Pun in "Golden Faith"). This is one major issue that I don’t like about Raymond’s character.

Another thing that annoys me is the hairstyle they used in this series. This series is supposed to be set in the Manchurian era, because most of the characters tie their hair up in pigtails. However, some characters let their hair loose like Gam Sai Wai, and the beggar clans’ hairstyle. Mang San Tung’s hairstyle is like in the modern era. I have to say that Kei Hiu Fung’s hairstyle is the worst of all; partly Manchurian era and partly not.

Conclusion

Well, this is an ok series. It has its funny moments, happy moments and sad moments. However, there is not much of a plot and storyline and you can say that the main plot of this series is the love triangle between Michelle, Raymond, and Rain. I probably will not watch this series if not for Raymond and Michelle together again in this series, after their unforgettable pair-up in "Eternal Happiness". If you have watched "Eternal Happiness" first and you like their chemistry, you will not want to miss this series because in this series, their chemistry is 100% perfect, while the chemistry between Raymond and Rain is a perfect ZERO. Also, check out the fighting scenes in this series because if I am not wrong, I think this is the first time TVB used matrix-like fighting style in a drama series. Well, some will like it because of the special effects, while others will hate it because it is too unrealistic. So, watch it if you are a Raymond and Michelle fan and you like them together as an on-screen couple, or forget it if you don’t like them at all, because as I’ve said, there is not much of a plot in this series.

If I were to rate Michelle’s performance alone in this series, I would have given this series a 5 out of 5 because she outshines all the other actors and actresses in this series, but this is so not the case. Because the storyline is not appealing enough, (but luckily, Michelle and her dying scene save this series) I guess I’ll have to settle for 4 out of 5.


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