ICAC Investigators 2000

Synopsis/Review:

ICAC Investigators 2000 is a combination of 5 very short cases, therefore, I will review each case separately. Also, the casting is too big with mostly unknown actors so I won't be include a specific casting section, but the obvious cast members of the whole serials are Melvin Wong, Joe Ma, Hawick Lau, Damian Lau, Mark Lui, Kenny Wong, Carlo Ng, Melissa Ng, and Eileen Yeow.

Case #1: (Long's Story)

Zhu Tu was a man who lived an normal life. After being divorced with his wife for several years, he is still in love with her and been loyal. Well, he has a cousin name Li Jun, who plays stocks simply because he wants to be wealthy and win money. And oh duh, he ended up losing all his money and borrowing money from the gangs organization and screams for help to his cousin Zhu Tu. Zhu Tu gave him a little loan which was not enough, but another gang organization came to the rescue before the cousin was beaten up and his debts were pay off. Now, Li Jun owes the other gang leader so he was forced to turn the black money from the gang into clean money. Zhu Tu's ex-wife came back from Canada and met up with him at their "old place". There, she told him that she had just gotten divorced again. You could feel the tensions between the two of them that they still have feelings for each other. Well, she also told him she came back to Hong Kong because she wants to start her own business. Zhu Tu brought her home and gave her HK$30,000 so she can take care of herself. At first, she didn't accept, but she later did. Zhu Tu agreed to help his cousin with his illegal crimes to help his ex-wife with her financial situation quickly. Since he is the manager at the bank, it would be both easier and safer to erase the background of the black money. After succeeding, Zhu Tu wanted to quit, but his cousin took some money from the gang to play stocks and lost all of it. Zhu Tu knows he can't escaped and wanted to stop doing this. He is also afraid that they will harm his ex-wife, therefore, he told her to move back to Canada. During this, the two ICAC members who were undercover had enough evidence to arrest the gang leader. Zhu Tu was also arrested at the end, where he stated that he was about to turn himself in anyway.

Jennie's Review: This case was not all that interesting and didn't really grasped my attention, but it was still viewable. I'll give it 1.5/5 stars.

Case #2: (Private Tuition)

Private Tuition involves a male character name Cat (cantonese) who had always been a police officer who does justice. When he was little, he witnessed a police officer protecting a pregnant women from a criminal in a heroic way. Well, Cat did become a police officer, and his chief recommended him for a promotion for a higher rank. He was transferred into a new department and his new chief practically always picked on him. Also, his girlfriend's mom doesn't like Cat because she doesn't believe he is good enough for her daughter, so she tries to tear them apart. Under all this pressure, he believes that he must get promoted because of all the stress he is receiving back to back. Cat's friend, Zhu, told Cat he has a way to get the test questions and answers, meaning that he can definitely be promoted if he decides to follow the course. He objected at first, but again the S-T-R-E-S-S made him take the offer. He passed, but an ICAC member, I believe one of his old friends from school told him and convinced him that what he has been doing wasn't justice and reminded him about an essay on Justice he wroted at childhood. So Cat betrayed his friend Zhu and helped ICAC get the info they needed for arrest. At the end, after many of them pleaded guilty, Cat and Zhu became friends once again.

Jennie's Review: I didn't like this case because no character really have depth. The lesson in this case is probably to always head in the right direction and don't ever let anyone intefere your path to be a good person. Like the popular saying, one wrong move can make you lose the whole game. Overall rating - 1/5 stars.

Case #3: (Code Raiders)

This case is about hacking and creating false credit cards with real account numbers that don't belong to them. A gang basically made employees that work in an enviroment where a lot of credit cards are used to work for them so they could get the account number and give it to a mastermind to make a fake, but usable, credit card to buy stuff. The victim who was persuaded to do this was a woman who works in a bank. She is divorced but has custody with her little son. Her ex-husband had some major debts and she signed the contract that if he doesn't pay the money, she would. They told her that if she gave them a list of credit cards numbers and those essential others, the debt would be paid off. She didn't agree at first but later did since she didn't think it was going to be a crime. Well, after her debts are pay off, they wanted her to continue to work with them but she refused. She was in fear that they might harm her son, so she moved and change all her phone numbers and even got a new job with her best friend at a karaoke. What a small world it is, they met again. This time though, they persuaded her friend to help them. Her friend was lured by the money so she helped them. The ICAC finally took action and arrested everyone from the new evidence.

Jennie's Review: Code Raiders was one of my favorite cases out of all 6. I liked both the cast and the theme of the story. I believe this case had the best casting out of all the cases. It totally deserves 4/5 stars.

Case #4 (Superdad)

Li Xin works as a waste collector and a minibus driver. He does some illegal activity by picking waste for other people, but charges money which is given to him and not the company. He's very lazy too, he usually won't pick the trash up until it smells really bad and he trains his assistant to smell the garbage(yuck!). After picking some trash, Li Xin will make his assistant drive around because Li Xin has to go to his other job as a mini bus driver. His assistant went to the ICAC and told them about Li Xin because he was afraid he might get in trouble too and he's kind of the honest hardworking guy. Li Xin's other friends had also dealt with some illegal activities such as bribing, etc. Li Xin was found guilty with some of his other childhood friends.[Sidenote: The reason the title is called Superdad is because Li Xin's son praises his dad as the Trash Hero who keeps Hong Kong clean. Even though Li Xin does some illegal activities, he loves his son very very much.]

Jennie's Review: This case wasn't that bad really... I AM SUCH A BAD LIAR. Well, actually, there was something good in this serial. I like the relationship between the dad and the son, because it gives you a fatherly-son feeling. Overall rating on Superdad is 2/5 stars.

Case #5 (Soccer Dreams)

This case is about Li Zhenhua who is obssessed with the sport of soccer. But of course, if you look inside and approach the concept of the story, it's about dreams, friendship, and mother-son bonds. Li Zhenhua's mom is in debt because of the stock market crash on her stocks for HK$300,000. Of course, Li Zhenhua will try to pay the off debt due to his good son nature. Well, he decided to lose the Hong Kong vs. Thailand Soccer game. He decided to help his friend (elder teammate leader) to lose to get the money. At one part of the soccer game, he tried to not play as well, but he went crazy because of the love he has for the game and scored a point for his team. After that, he was reminded about his mother's debt, so he pretended again. They lost 3-1. The ICAC later brought the head leader of the soccer team to show him all the evidence they have of him being bribed to lose the games. Therefore, he told them who else was involved. At the trial, the teammate decides to help Li Zhenhua by denying his participation since they became close friends. Li Xhenhua was freed and lived a normal life with his mother.

Jennie's Review: Soccer Dreams was one of my two favorites cases in this series. I adored Li Zhenhua. His character, personality, talent, and cuteness was all a+ to me. It would been better if he had a special lady (besides his mom - lolz). Jenn's scale gives Soccer Dreams 4/5 stars.