Take My Word For It

Chinese Title: "Tam Poon June Ka" (The Negotiation Experts/Specialists)
Year: 2002
# of episodes: 30

Cast:
Bobby Au-Yeung Chun Wah as Pang Kwok Dong
Kenix Kwok Ho Ying as Kan Kit (Kit)
Julian Cheung Chilam as Yeung Kwong
Annie Man Jung Han as Yip Ho Yan
Ellesmere Choi Jee Kin as Yeung Hao Mo (Jacky)

Supporting Cast:
Moses Chan Ho as Mok Ka Chung
Winnie Yeung Yuen Yee as Poon Man Jing
Wai Ka Hong as Chai Ka Chuen
Leila Tong Ling as Ho Ngoi

Plotline

The Police Negotiators Cadre (PNC) is a team of voluntary police officers specializing in negotiation and persuasion skills when handling situations where force would not be the best way out (often jumping off a building in the series). The team is led by ultra-workaholics Dong and Kit, who have successful professional careers but neglect their other halves/personal lives. Their lives take an "In the Mood for Love" turn, when they realize that Dong's wife Jing and Kit's husband Chung are having an affair. Although Chung actually loves Kit, Jing convinces him to leave with her, and Dong and Kit are left alone. Already compatible co-workers as the PNC leaders, Dong and Kit slowly grow closer on a personal level as Dong learns to be more attentive to others' feelings and Kit struggles with the concept of becoming a mother (she discovers she's pregnant shortly after Chung leaves).

After Dong is handicapped during a PNC case involving his younger brother, Kit stays by his side supporting him. Just before Dong confesses his feelings for Kit, however, Chung returns requesting a reconciliation with Kit. Although touched that Chung has donated marrow to their son, Kit realizes that it's Dong she loves. However, he has left for Malaysia to teach a course. When Kwong's family becomes involved in a PNC case whose type has only been handled by Dong, however, Dong hurries back and guess what? Kit and Dong get together! Yay.

On the other side of the spectrum, we have the young PNC recruits. Dedicated but clumsy Ho Yan and the playful but bright Kwong win the Dream Team award after their PNC training. In the process, Ho Yan falls in love with Kwong, and while Kwong also has feelings for her, he has been pining for ex-girlfriend Ada and so implicitly rejects Ho Yan. After nursing a broken heart, and winning the interest of psychiatrist Jacky (Kwong's stepbrother), Jacky and Ho Yan begin to date. However, Jacky has also been pining for his player ex-girlfriend Joyce (played by some unknown who is the most horrific actress to taint the TVB screen for the past 30 years) and begins to two-time Ho Yan. When Kwong finds out, he attempts to persuade Jacky to tell Ho Yan the truth, and when Ho Yan finds out herself, Kwong promises that no matter what happens he will always be by her side. But after her break-up with Jacky, she doesn't want to be involved in a relationship so soon. But of course eventually they end up together, and marry at the end of the series.

I wanted to see more of...
1) Dong and Kwong's teacher-student relationship. I thought it was portrayed very well and would have liked the series to be more focused on this mismatch of personalities. But of course, this is TVB. Romance rules.
2) Kwong and Ho Yan together. Many have complained that the ending was rushed, and I agree. They were a very cute couple to watch.
3) The family dynamics in the Yeung family: the epitome of stuffy rich folk. Veteran Ha Ping delivers again as the matriarch of the family (Kwong's step-grandmother).
4) PNC cases towards the last half. They made the series interesting in the beginning, then towards the end they disappeared and the series got dull.
5) The PNC training. Those were good scenes.
6) Moses Chan as the knight in shining armour husband to Kit.

I wanted to see less of...
1) The actress who played Joyce.
2) Winnie Yeung.
3) PNC cases that didn't involve jumping off a building. At the risk of sounding crude, isn't there any other way of killing yourself in Hong Kong?

Why/How?
What's with TVB and the mandatory homosexual character in its recent series? In Take My Word for It, it's Dong's brother (played by very well by an actor whose name I do not know - he also played one of the murderers in Armed Reaction 4). What ticked me off the most is how he became straight at the end of the series.

How long does it take someone to fly from Malaysia (or wherever Dong was) to Hong Kong? Surely with the waiting at airports and stuff, it would be a couple of hours at least? How did Dong make it back in time to help with the very last case?

Evaluation of the Cast and Characters

Bobby Au-Yeung, known for playing the happy-go-lucky hahahaha character who's agreeable and funny, is almost unrecognizable here as the self-centred and unbelievably chauvinistic Dong. He appropriately exudes arrogance on the screen as the egotistical man whose nose is higher than his forehead. The way he smiled even seemed cordial and forced, and although his portrayal of the cold Dong was initially a little unnatural, I became used to it. A very good performance from Bobby here. But his character? A pompous ass, and that's putting it mildly. Unfortunately, there's no chemistry between Bobby and Winnie, and neither is there any between Bobby and Kenix.

As for Kenix Kwok, three cheers for her character! Yet another heroine who kicks some major butt. Good performance from Kenix as the calm but also stubborn and determined Kit. Kenix and Moses make a nice couple, and Kenix herself looks classy and chic as the successful career woman. She is one of the rare TVB actresses who makes a convincing professional (the other being Flora Chan) and this is perhaps due to her real-life personality. I especially enjoyed the scenes where her character argued with her chauvinistic father; those scenes were terrific. It wasn't a great job, but it was a good one.

After winning the hearts of audience members everywhere with his heartbreaking performance as the mute in Return of the Cuckoo, Julian Cheung delivers the best performance of this series and is the reason I kept watching. With his dimples and baby-faced good looks, Julian Cheung is easily one of the most likeable actors to grace the TVB screen. And in Take My Word For It, his acting and yuppie character Kwong are like a breath of fresh air. Kwong was also my favourite character of the show. He was just so "aw, shucks" cute and remarkably unwilling to be promoted, get rich, etc. etc. and constantly looks for ways to relieve his non-existent stress i.e. play. His witty scenes make us forget about wanting to kick Dong in the shins or getting bored by Kit's overdone "I'm a woman but I can do it all!" character. Julian Cheung nailed this character. Excellent performance.

Annie Man has never really caught my eye at all as an actress. Ever since she started acting I've thought that she looks like an animal, but never figured out what. After watching this series, I finally know what animal she looks like! A giraffe! Yes, a giraffe with her pointy face and giraffe-like eyes (sorry to Annie fans). She's ok in here... too skinny to look at, constantly looks malnourished although her eyes are bright and expressive. I liked her best in her scenes as the clumsy, clued out but hardworking Yan, and she does make an ok couple with Julian. She's not talentless, but does not have what it takes to be a TVB Big Sister. She's missing that extra... something. Now, after Kwong, Ho Yan was my favourite character of the show. Although slightly clued-out and klutzy, she was so dearly hardworking and dedicated, putting every ounce of effort she had in her PNC training.

Winnie Yeung is predictably terrible as the mean Jing. I am not joking, she really should consider leaving the acting business because she's been around for almost a decade and is consistently a horrific actress with her big goldfish eyes not exactly adding to her appeal. And Jing... what a manipulative, petty woman, although I did feel sorry for her as the long-neglected wife to chauvinistic pig Dong.

Moses Chan does a competent job as the attentive husband although I don't really understand why Chung left with Jing since I felt he loved Kit all along. Wai Ka Hung again delivers as the mentally-challenged Chuen, and Leila Tong shines in her minor role as the chirpy younger sister to Yan. Who is the actress who played Joyce? She played Cherry in Armed Reaction 4 and to put it bluntly, is the ugliest actress I've ever seen. She also gives the year's most annoying performance, overacts and her voice is like fingernails on a blackboard. She doesn't even deserve to be a ke-le-fe and is worse than Winnie Yeung. And that kiss in the pool between her and Ellesmere Choi? I almost barfed. I was hoping they'd kill her off somehow in one of the PNC cases. I would have cheered and that alone would have brought my rating of this series by one whole star. But I guess you can't have it all.

From the Grapevine

My deepest sympathies to Julian Cheung who was recently diagnosed with a severe heart disease. Hope he and Anita Yuen are doing very well! 10 years and still going strong. As for Kenix Kwok, congratulations to her also for her recent marriage to actor Frankie Lam. Wish them many years of happiness.