Armed Reaction III

TVB had the shame to make another sequel to the "Armed Reaction" story. Sequels usually serve no purpose other than to introduce the same characters who probably had a good ending in the original and make their lives miserable again in the sequel. "Armed III" is no different. Leaving off in part II, we know that Chan Sam Yuen (Joyce Tang Lai Ming) has married Ching Fung (Marco Ngai Chun Kit) and gave birth to a pair of twins, one boy and one girl. Chan Siu Sung (Bobby Au Yeung Chun Wah) had failed to get paired up with Chu So Gor (Esther Kwan Wing Ho) so their ending was left open. Since Esther Kwan has left TVB already and went back to ATV, the producers could only change the story and add another woman cop, Wai Ying Zhi (Ada Choi Siu Fun), into the story and Siu Sung's love life.

There isn't much to summarize about the plot of "Armed 3". I think all cop series nowadays are pretty much the same--bad crooks, some shooting, some injured/dead, crooks get caught finally, another bad crook, start again. Add some personal problems between the main characters in their love life or family and we've got ourselves another cop story.

(Spoilers!): Poor Siu Sung (Bobby Au Yeung) is still single after Gor Je (Esther Kwan) had left and married the doctor who treated her son. He gets off on the wrong foot with the new woman officer, Wai Ying Zhi (Ada Choi), when she thinks he goes around harassing women. She's a new subordinate in the Traffic Department under Madam Chan Sam Yuen (Joyce Tang) and is eager to show off her skills and perform well. Her eagerness and rash actions of course lead her into a lot of scrapes and trouble. Sam Yuen is happily married to Ching Fung (Marco Ngai) and they occasionally have some quarrels. The first time leading a whole team, Sam Yuen finds that her interpersonal skills are severely in need of improvement as her whole group thinks she's a selfish, mean, and unreasonable boss. She later befriends Ying Zhi and the tension is eased off a bit.

A case involving the beating of several prostitutes brings the horror of Sam Yuen's rape incidence in part II back when the culprit is also described as wearing the same mask and outfit. The schizofrenic rapist and killer in part II, Bao Kwok Ping/Yung Man Seng, is locked up in a mental institution but is really communicating through mail and other clever means with the culprit. In one of his instructions, Sam Yuen's son, Ka Ka, is captured and killed. Ching Fung blames Sam Yuen for not heeding his advice and leaving their son alone to try and capture the culprit herself. This splits their relationship and he eventually moves out.

On the other end, Ying Zhi has fallen in love with the son of a wealthy family, Wing Siu Kie (Choi Chi Kin). Siu Sung is harboring good feelings for her but he is bitterly sad to see her fall in love with Wing instead. When Ying Zhi has problems with her relationship with Wing, Siu Sung is there to comfort her and she starts feeling something for him too but quickly evades it. Later, she patches up with Wing and they planned to get married but Wing was involved with some accounting fraud and second degree murder.

During the last case involving several serial bank robbers, Ching Fung could not save his daughter, Sa Sa, from capture and finally understands Sam Yuen's pain when their son was captured. They reunite after escaping death. Ying Zhi also realizes that Siu Sung is very important to her at the end when he saves her from a bullet. The series ends with his marriage proposal to her at her father's (Ha Yu) wedding.

What made "Armed 1" stand out was the introduction of women cops into the story, their point of view, their struggles in the police force, whether it be physical disadvantages or being part of the minority work force in the station. After part 1, the sequels are only there to explain what happens to the love life of these women. I really disliked Joyce's role, Chan Sam Yuen, in "Armed II" as she became a very unreasonable person, always picking fights over petty issues with Ching Fung. In part III, she still does a bit of this when she's so hard headed about forcing her twins to get accepted into a well known private school. She also gets angry with Ching Fung when he's obviously so sensitive to her feelings already.

"Armed" is a series that is supposedly about women cops but in part 3, I thought the two women cops here are pretty much useless and in need of protection. First, Sam Yuen displays how unprofessional a cop she is when she tried to go after the culprit herself when it's not her case. She's in charge of the Traffic Department for heaven's sake, but that doesn't stop her from rashly running after the culprit whenever she sees him. And if she caught up with the guy? She doesn't have a gun on her, she's too puny to beat the guy physically, and I really don't think under her state of mind, she would have the wits to capture him. It really was her fault that her son was captured because not only did she initiate the wrath of Yung Man Seng by visiting him in jail, but she tried hiding threatening notes from her own husband. Plus, it's not the first time she left her son alone to go after the culprit. Where is her professionalism?

All the cases are solved by the men cops in this series. The women only play a role in helping. They usually get hurt or need saving. Sam Yuen was saved when her co-worker blocks a bullet for her at the end. Ying Zhi was saved several times. Once when she was about to get raped and another when Siu Sung defends her with his body from a bullet. The ending case is saved by Ying Zhi but somehow I was hoping for a big shootout instead--their capture just seemed too easy and rushed. The message in Armed 3 is clear--don't be a woman cop. You'd only need to use Sam Yuen as an example: she gets raped, her son gets killed, daughter almost gets bombed.

This series was really tailored for Ada Choi. She gets the most screen time and was probably TVB's intended selling point for the sequel. The only good aspect of the series was that Ada and Bobby have so much chemistry on screen that Esther's disappearance from the trilogy is not too missed. Their banterings is one of the funnier aspects of the series.

I liked "Armed 3" better than the part 2 but I did wish they didn't have to drag the story. Let's just hope that there won't be a need for a part 4. Just imagine what else they can come up with: Joyce and Marco split up again, Bobby and Ada doesn't get together or if they did, they'll break up because of a third party. More of their family members die from the cases they have on hand to add some more drama into it. Can we please spare these poor characters?

I wish that TVB did not reveal so many things in their trailors and themesong sequence. I honestly could predict most of what will happen in the series after watching it. The trailer revealed that Sam Yuen's son will die and that she will split with her husband for a while. The themesong sequence let in that Ying Zhi's father will eventually marry the bar owner, Sum Je, so they obviously won't die (during one of the cases).

Finally, to watch or not to watch. It did have some high points and suspense, such as the whole Yung Man Seng case. There is also nothing really good out to watch nowadays by TVB, so as a cop drama for the time being, watch with the mentality that it is not a series out to promote women power. It is certainly better than "Law Enforcer".