The Charm Beneath

Cast:
Moses Chan
Gigi Lai
Yoyo Mung
Anne Heung
Mandy Cho
Sharon Chan

Storyline:
'The Charm Beneath' is a very complicated series because of its rather complex storyline. As you can tell from the Chinese title 'Yin Zhi Sui Fun' (in Cantonese) it is about makeup. The Zhu family is managing a makeup shop called 'Geng Fa Tong' (in Cantonese). They go through many family and business troubles because the other side of the Zhu family, the second uncle and aunty, are very greedy and always try their best to cause problems so they can have all the money and take full control of the makeup shop. The second uncle and aunty are very devious but surprisingly their son is nothing like them;, he is a kind and good-hearted young man. There are many surprises and twists in this series, which makes it very interesting.

Cast Analysis:
Moses Chan-
In this series Moses was great! He worked well with his character and he could do both humorous and upsetting scenes. Moses played his character wonderfully. He was very good in the comedic scenes because just listening to his jokes and looking at his face would make the audience laugh. He was a really funny character.

Gigi Lai-
Gigi was not a humorous character like Moses. She was much more sophisticated and elegant, taking things seriously. Gigi did a good job in this series but I found that her character was sometimes a bit too serious and this may have made some of her funny lines not as humorous as they could be. But Gigi showed in this series how excellent she can cry because when she was upset you could just see her tears come out so naturally. She also showed that she can work with a variety of characters since this character is has a different background from her 'Shades of Truth' character.

Yoyo Mung-
In this series Yoyo was pretty good but I found that sometimes she would have the same facial expression over and over again. I think that she can be really funny though because she and Moses were both very humorous whenever they had scenes together. Yoyo has improved from her performance in 'Split Second' and this character has showed that she can act well when given a character with more meaning and depth.

Anne Heung-
Anne was pretty good in this series. She had a range of facial expressions and her tone of voice suited her character's emotions. I do think that Anne needs to work on her crying skills though because she cannot cry very well. In the scenes where she cries she would have a sad look on her face but no tears seemed to come out. This is why I think that her performance was not as good as it should have been. Anne's character went through so many upsetting problems but still no tears seemed to come out.

Mandy Cho-
Mandy's character was quite cute and sweet. I think that Mandy has improved from 'Guts of Man' for her crying skills and acting. She acted pretty well as her character in this series, even though it was not as big a role as in 'Guts of Man'. Hopefully TVB will give Mandy more opportunities to improve and have more variety in characters.

Sharon Chan-
Sharon was pretty good in this series but I found that it was a bit unfair that her character didn't have as much scenes as it could have. I guess it is for the storyline's sake but Sharon should be given more chances in TVB. I think Sharon definitely improved in acting since her 'Dreams of Colours' series. Sharon acted very well and her facial expressions were really good! I hope that she will be given more opportunities in TVB too.

Conclusion:
To conclude this review, I would like to say that 'The Charm Beneath' is a fantastic series. Some people say it starts off slowly and boring but I disagree. 'The Charm Beneath' links many things together to make itself a fantastic masterpeice.