Where the Legend Begins

Starring:
Ada Choi - Yun Fok
Steven Ma - Cao Zhi
Moses Chan - Cao Pi
Lau Don - Cao Cao
Sonjia Kwok- Huen Huen

Where the Legend Begins is another TVB attempt at historical adaptation starring Steven Ma and Ada Choi as star-crossed lovers but suffered the separation fate similar to Romeo and Juliet. This storyline is based mainly on brotherly problems, fierce competition for control over kingdoms, and the beautiful flowering-effects of love and separation. Besides that, numerous times this story focused on sudden ups-and-downs in life---particularly Steven's loss of the title prince and his marriage with Ada due to a mistake of getting drunk, the disappearance of brotherly love that once existed in the Cao family due to the emergence of Ada, and the defeat of the Wei dynasty due to the existence of "Zi Ma Ye".

Steven Ma
Steven Ma did a great job faring as the kind-hearted, loving poet. His voice was strong and concrete, which added to his poetic tone, and also the sparkling effect in his eyes and his compelling emotions contributed to his magnanimous kind nature. His compassionate love for Ada was greatly shown through his emotional breakdowns that he expressed through the conjunctures of his face and through his great acting.

Ada Choi
Even with her bony, pointy chin, Ada was strikingly beautiful dressed up as Yun Fok, displaying the cunning, intellectual, and kind nature within the character. Perhaps Yun Fok is too idealistic and perfect, for no one in this world can actually be like her, making Ada's performance not as striking or flagrant as Steven Ma, but Ada did do a great job. I especially liked her smile-behind-the-fan effect during Steven's proposal and at the end during Steven's attempt to come up with a poem within 7 steps, for it just added a kind of warming and contented effect to me.

Moses Chan
Moses Chan did an average job playing the belligerent and mischievous nature of Cao Pi, but somehow lacked the "stunning" emotions of a person with that nature. His stern face sometimes seemed redundant and too over-reacted, for he just didn't exactly capture the image of Cao Pi I pictured, but I was compelled by the jealousy and threatening looks he displayed during Ada's runaway with Steven.

Sonjia Kwok
My first impression of Sonjia was during the year 2000 beauty pageant where she surely outperformed the others and won, while, my second impression of her was from A Step Into the Past where I never truly noticed her acting ability due to the easy character of Cam Ting. As this series was the true test for Sonjia's acting ability, it emerged showing fatal flaws to Sonjia's future in TVB, especially if no improvements are shown. Her overly bad attempts to provide a jealous wicked look, only seemed to have angered the audience more, as numerous numbers of critics, including me, have seriously criticized and condemned her to hell. I was greatly angered by the poor performance she showed and could only roll my eyes seeing her try to steal everything from Ada. I was pleased though when Sonjia actually loses her ability to bear children and the lost of her own son due to her own stupidity and her jealousy to get at Ada. Some may ask, if I truly dislike Sonjia because of her character in Where the Legend Begins, or her acting fared in this series, and I can certainly and strongly say, it's her acting.

This series was a very complicated story, filled with political and poetic conversation where many can be confused. Because I was raised in America and never truly learned the full history of China, I was many times bewildered at what exactly was occurring. TVB should had done a better job trying to reach out to the audience by actually providing some kind of historical references like a narrative voice that just speaks out informing the audiences during certain events somewhat similar to series like Journey to the West. Overall, it was a good series, and I enjoyed it.