Lady Flower Fist


Reviewed by: Tammy

March 08, 2008

Rating: four

Cast: Esther Kwan, Kong Wah, Rain Lau, Cheung Fung Nei Wai Ying Hung Ha Ping, Cherie Chan, Dickson Lee Ka Sing

Warning! Spoiler Review!
Okay, why review an old series like this? Actually as I was writing the "Colorful Life" review, I came across the title "Lady Flower Fist" and I thought it might be fun to write about it. Anyway, the review and story are below and it's really simple. Really. But if you don't understand it, you can e-mail me.

Okay, here we go. Esther is a naive girl coming from the countryside ("heung ha") to visit her father in the city. However, when she arrives there, she makes one big mistake and her whole life changes. First of all, she becomes "enemies" with a rich man, who is played by Kong Wah. Then she accidentally injures a high official's son, which causes his son to become mentally retarded. Therefore, the official is trying to capture her and what he plans to do to her was not very clear. Anyway, because her father is the "lifesaver" of Kong's family, Kong thinks up a plan. And because he is in a situation where he must choose a fourth wife (he was being pressured by Prince Kung), he accidentally blurts out that Esther is his fourth wife. That's the beginning of this long and dull series.

Esther is forced to marry Kong and eventually becomes part of the family. Like "Colorful Life", the women in here are always arguing. It seems like only Esther and the Grandma are the only ones who are quiet. The two wives and the sister-in-law treats Esther harshly in the beginning because of her background. Since then, Esther tries to pursue fun outside the family home. She goes out dressed as a man and she rescues the character played by Cherie, Lei Siu Wan.

Because Cherie's father doesn't want her to marry the mentally retarded son of the official, they decided to have a "lui toi" meaning, Cherie will have a duel with man, and if the man wins, he gets to marry her. Esther fights Cherie and she wins. The problem is that Cherie doesn't know that Esther is a woman and she falls deeply in love with her. To get out of this mess, Esther spills the truth to Kong and Kong tries to help her. They set a fake execution and they put Esther to death. But in reality, Esther was saved. Cherie witnessed the whole thing and she became devastated. Later, when she found out that Esther was lying to her, she began to hate Esther. Although Esther meant no harm, Cherie still didn't forgive her. When Cherie was put to jail because she refused to marry the retarded son (and because of something else), Esther tries to save her but Cherie still did not feel like forgiving her.

Kong's two children arrive home. They are the craziest creatures around and they like playing tricks on the second and third wives. On the other hand, they were being nice to Esther because she showed some amazing things to them, which the other wives did not. As the children and Esther grew closer, so did Kong and Esther. They had slowly begun to like each other and for the sister-in-law, it was bad news. His sister-in-law had been secretly admiring him since she was little. But, he had only loved her older sister who was dead. He had no intention in marrying her. Devastated, she decided to leave the family and go live somewhere else on her own. Because she had studied in Britain, she became the British Ambassador's assistant.

Soon Kong gets into some important business. Esther's father is involved in some revolution movement and he needed Kong to help hide three fugitives (they weren't really fugitives). This begins another story. The high official knew what Kong was doing and he wanted revenge for what Esther did to his son. Kong did not know what to do but to ask his sister-in-law for help. She was resentful at first because she knew that he never loved her. Then, she helped him, only under one condition: marry her and make her the first wife. Moreover, Kong didn't want his family to be involved, he and his sister-in-law acted really ridiculous and unreasonable. The worst thing was that he had only begun to fall in love with Esther. He didn't want her to be mad or anything so he tried explaining to her, but she didn't understand.

The sister-in-law decided that it was time to let the family go, so she acted like she was abusing the kids. That angered the wives and the grandma. To go along with her, Kong also acted disrespectful to his grandma. Angrily, the whole family left, thinking that what Kong did was real and cruel. What he did was cruel, but it was the only way to save his family because he knew that he had hidden the three fugitives and he was going to be in deep trouble. The women lived alone for a while. They all learned that women can be strong without men. Esther meets Cherie again. This time Cherie forgives her, telling her that it was the high official's fault and not hers. At the same time, Cherie and Tiger, Liu Lo Fu, (someone whom she didn't really like but ended with) were also on their own. Cherie's father wanted revenge from the high official but he failed. He was caught by the official and ended up being a prisoner. Cherie was mad and she wanted to free him, but she had no plan. Tiger decided to help free Cherie's father. Unfortunately, he was injured but Cherie's father was saved. They fell off a mountain (because the soldiers were going after him) but they didn't die. Cherie went to the mountain and found her father and Tiger alive.

Kong is captured by the high official. To get help and to clear things up, the sister-in-law goes to find Esther and the women. They finally know the whole truth and decided to have a duel with the high official. Cherie also wants to help. But, their kung fu wasn't good enough. Then, Esther's father shows up with a nun. The nun teaches Esther, Cherie, and the third wife a set of martial arts. Finally the day of the duel comes. After a long battle, Esther kills the official by kicking him in the neck with her powerful leg. Everything is cleared up. Then the story speeds to a couple years later, where it is the Grandma's birthday. The sister in law wants to study in school again and planned to leave the country. Everyone is seen at the party, but Esther is nowhere in sight. Kong finds her in the courtyard, helping their little son, Fong Sai Yuk, bathe. The end.

So, what do you think? A good story or not? To me, it was an average movie, but I did enjoy watching Esther and Kong Wah. Besides, I don't see many series about Fong Sai Yuk's mother (yup, Esther was Miu Chui Fa!). Esther did an excellent job portraying Miu Chui Fa. She was very tomboyish at first and then she matured into a grown woman at the end. Isn't Esther a great actress? Too bad, she left TVB. I hope she will return soon because I don't watch ATV series much. Kong Wah was cool. Besides watching him as the Tang monk in Journey to the West, I also like his character Fong Dak in this series. He was afraid to die at the beginning but at the end, he risked his life for the country and the three fugitives. BUT! To be honest, I like his "Ha Shuet Yee" in Crimson Sabre the best. Rain Lau was pretty annoying, I guess. Her portrayal of the sister-in-law was unreasonable but hey, she wasn't that bad. Cherie was also good. Her portrayal of Lee Siu Wan wasn't that bad either. I have no complaints, right? Wrong. I do. But it's only minor complaints. None of them are serious. Besides the unreasonable part where Kong made his family leave, it has to be the character of the high official. He turned a simple problem into a big one. But, other than that, no other complaints.


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