Ten Brothers

Cast:

Frankie Lam- Chan Dai Ha
Kenix Kwok- Kei Hau Yee
Lai Lok Yi- Ah Tai (1st brother)
Lam Yuen Ying- Ah Yee (2nd brother)
Jack Wu- Ah Sam (3rd brother)
Don Li- Ah Sei (4th brother)
Law Kwun Fung- Ah Ng (5th brother)
Kwok Jing- Ah Lok (6th brother)
Matt Yeung Ming- Ah Chat (7th brother)
Cheung Chi Hin- Ah Pat (8th brother)
Ip Wai- Ah Gao (9th brother)
Wong Ping Hei- Ah Shap (10th brother)
Leila Tong- Hong Siu Lan
Nancy Wu- Yuen Tung Tung
Ellesmere Choi- Chow Ka Lai
Liu Kai Chi- Man Sai Hung

Summary, with spoilers ahead:

Kei Hau Yee (Kenix Kwok), a wealthy girl, eats 10 magical seeds by accident and becomes pregnant. Her childhood crush, the poor sweet soup seller, Chan Dai Ha (Frankie Lam) lies that he is responsible for her pregnancy, even though he knows Hau Yee dislikes him and the couple is kicked out of their village, together with the 10 strange sons Hau Yee give birth to who all seem to grow into adults overnight. She and Dai Ha later dote on them and treat them like their own children. However, the couple lose their second and third son by accident and they are brought up to be unkind children by the wealthy but cruel Man Sai Hung (Liu Kai Chi), Marshall of the new village.

Hau Yee and Dai Ha are too poor to provide for their sons and are forced to give Ah Sei (Don Li) and Ah Shap (Wong Ping Hei) away to a theatre troop where they are mistreated by their teacher but are helped by the kind Siu Lan (Leila Tong) whom later Ah Sei and Ah Tai (Lai Lok Yi) both fall for. Ah Gao (Ip Wai) is given to an eldery couple with no children but the three sons later reunite with the family and Dai Ha and Hau Yee find out that the boys have magical powers. Ah Tai has brilliant long-sightedness and can see even miles away, Ah Sei has elastic skin, Ah Ng (Law Kwun Fung) has wings that can fly, Ah Lok’s (Kwok Jing) head is hard as steel, Ah Chat's (Matt Yeung)legs can grow, Ah Pat (Cheung Chi Hin), whose powers come out the last, can drill his way underground, Ah Gao can expand his mouth to yell to one miles away as well as blow huge gusts of wind and Ah Shap can cry buckets of tears.

Even the lost brothers back at Man Sai Hung’s house discover their powers. Ah Yee (Lam Yuen Ying) can hear things miles away and Ah Sam (Jack Wu) has incredible strength. When the two finally reunite with their family, the 10 brothers use their powers to assist their parents in doing good for the village. They however sacrifice themselves in the end for their parents and rise to the sky as 10 shining stars.

Comments:

A typical light-hearted TVB series, which I rather enjoyed though some parts were quite boring such as the love triangle between Hau Yee, Dai Ha and Ka Lai. I was interested to see the chemistry between Kenix and Frankie since they’re married in real life, but sad to say that they didn’t have much chemistry in this series. My mom, who is a fan of Kenix, thought she looked better onscreen with other actors such as Michael Tao and Joe Ma. It’s probably the script’s fault as well since they only made Hau Yee discover her feelings for Dai Ha at the last quarter of the show and their marriage was rather rushed and unconvincing.

The other couples in the series such as Ah Dai with Siu Lan and Ah Sam with Tung Tung weren’t very matching as well, since the series focused more on the family relationship between the ten brothers and their parents which I felt was rather touching. There were many, in fact too many sad bits such as the family being too poor, separating and all. The series also doesn’t have much humor in it, which is an irony since it’s supposed to be a comedy.

Other than the horrible make up on the brothers and the silly hairstyles, I found the series to be a more touching and rather sad one than a funny and clownish one. The CGI effects used for the powers of the brothers were rather convincing though certain CGI used such as when they were in the sea in the last episode and the giant fish model were too fake.

Characters:

Frankie Lam- Chan Dai Ha
Da Hai is the typical poor simple chap, with little wits but has a kind heart. In my opinion, the character wasn’t hard to portray and I thought Frankie did an average job with this role but at times when he isn’t required to speak, he tends to just stand there and look wooden instead of trying to inject some extra expressions to react to whichever characters were talking.

Kenix Kwok- Kei Hau Yee
She filmed this series earlier than ‘Love Bond’ and ‘Revolving Doors of Vengeance’ and was nominated for this year’s TVB awards for the latter two series but I thought her acting in here was better and more natural than those two series. Kenix’s character in here is more of a stressed, agitated one who is often moody and tends to cry a lot but I thought that those emotions of a tired mother who has to bear the burden of being wrongfully accused and to bring up ten cheeky boys was well-portrayed by Kenix. She does have that loving mother image in the series when dealing with the boys and her crying was pretty good. She did outshadow Frankie Lam in this series.

Lai Lok Yi- Ah Tai
I believe this is the first time I’ve seen Lok Yi on screen and I find his acting to be somewhat average. I don’t know whether his character is supposed to be like that because of his special eyesight but he tends to look expressionless and stoned often, like he’s blind. And he does under act in certain scenes, though he does the blind scenes really well, such that sometimes I can't tell whether he’s still blind or not. He however did portray the big brotherly figure well with his more serious and sensible emotions as opposed to the immature and cheeky ones the other brothers have.

Jack Wu- Ah Sam
His character is the most arrogant and stubborn amongst the brothers and the most detested one since he’s spoilt by his foster father, Man Sai Hung and grows up to be a somewhat evil brat who changes in the end. I thought Jack was one of the most, if not, the most convincing actor among the brothers and his bratty attitude and arrogance were well-portrayed.

The Other Brothers

Besides Ah Tai and Ah Sam, the other brothers were more like supporting characters and did above average jobs. However, I thought Law Kwun Fung who acts as Ah Ng exaggerated too much and was pretty unnatural. Don Li as Ah Sei was pretty convincing in his immature scenes when he acted all jealous when he found out that Siu Lan liked Ah Tai and not him. I rather like Wong Ping Hei who acted as little Ah Shap, he’s one of the few TVB or Hong Kong child actors who is natural and injects enthusiasm in his acting, and his Ah
Shap was very adorable.

Leila Tong- Hong Siu Lan
Siu Lan is a typical sweet and nice lady and Leila has played similar roles often so I don’t think she had any problems faring well. There is also a tint of stubbornness and arrogance in the character, which was naturally portrayed by Leila who also has a flair for bratty roles. However, since the role is a supporting one, it is somewhat a flat one which limits Leila’s acting skills to pretty much the typical sweet smiles, kind expressions and occasional sad ones especially when searching for her lost father and when Ah Dai pretends to hurt her at the end.

Nancy Wu- Yuen Tung Tung
Nancy, like Leila, is one of the few young TVB actresses who can actually act naturally and she was good as the cheeky and outgoing Tung Tung. One complaint was that certain of her crying scenes were too forced and turned out looking fake. Otherwise, there isn’t much fault I can find with Nancy’s acting in here and she managed to make Tung Tung an adorable and likeable girl, even more so than Leila’s Siu Lan.

Conclusion:

Overall, though nothing spectacular about the plot or CGI, it’s a rather nice and light-hearted series with rather good acting, considering that most of the cast, especially the brothers are mostly young, inexperienced actors. I would still have preferred that they injected more humor in the series though.