Witness to a Prosecution II

After watching the first Witness to a Prosecution, I was looking forward to watching the second one. Unfortunately, the second series is a let down.

The series started off with Song Chee's two wives being burnt to death by a vengeful guy, whom Song Chee indirectly caused his wife's death, as he diagnosed correctly that the wife killed her mother-in-law. What happened was that the mother-in-law had been ill and suffering for a long time, and she pleaded with her daughter-in-law to just kill her so she would end her suffering. Song Chee got the daughter-in-law to confess that she killed her mother-in-law, but out of guilt, she killed herself instead of surrendering to the police. As a result, the husband turned mad and burnt down Song Chee's lodgings together with his two pregnant wives.

Song Chee felt so guilty that he resigned his post and went away. He was caught in a storm while out at sea and almost drowned, but was saved by Zou Zilong (Stephen Au). He then decided to stay at that town and met Ruan Yuzhu (Charmaine Sheh), her best friend Yang Danfeng (Joyce Tang), the son of the police chief Kit Siu (Ellesmere Choi), a kind-hearted prostitute Ru Mong (Irene Wong), and the porridge seller Uncle Ming (Liu Kai Chi).

Song Chee decide to live a low profile, but when dead bodies started being found, his sense of justice and to right wrongs prevailed, and he started contributing to the local police by telling them how the victims got killed. Initially they were all impressed by him, but later on, when it was disclosed that a general who died was not killed by Uncle Ming, a former Imperial Physician, but by the Prince Consort, another Imperial Physician, instead, he had to disclose his real identity, with help from the 10th Prince. The Prince Consort was then executed, oversaw by the 10th Prince, and even though the Princess begged for the sentence to be lifted, it was to no avail.

Song Chee then went back to his rank and started working as the chief coroner again. He took Zilong in as his disciple. Zilong initially wanted to be with Yuzhu as he has known her a long time since she was originally betrothed to his elder brother who died before they married, but later on could not stand Yuzhu's controlling ways due to his fun-loving and carefree nature, so fell in love with Danfeng instead. All went well until he met Yubao, his first love and Yuzhu's half-sister, again. She was already married to a rich businessman as his second wife.

Zilong passed his coroner's exam, and since Song Chee was called away to handle another matter in another town, Zilong had to do hold the fort. His first job was to examine the death of Yubao's husband. When Song Chee returned and read through the notes, he felt that the death was not what it seemed. Everyone thought Yubao could have something to do with her husband's death, but Zilong refused to believe that Yubao would murder her husband. Then the guy's first wife and her maid also died in a fire while out praying in a temple. Later on, it was established that it was indeed Yubao and her brother-in-law whom she was having an affair with, that killed her husband as well as his first wife and maid, and they were both executed. Zilong was upset that everyone betrayed him and left town.

The last part was the part that totally did not make sense to me. Zilong came back to town, vengeful and wanted to bring down Song Chee. It was shown that he did succeed, but at the last part, it turned out that it was part of another elaborate plan to bring down the real mastermind - the Princess who wanted to avenge her husband's death and Zilong became a pawn. So was Zilong on Song Chee's side or was he working for the Princess all along? And did he or did he not rape Danfeng, or was it also a pretense as part of the big plan?

The part of Song Chee and Yuzhu's relationship was also draggy. If they do not want to be together, then just say so instead of being so wishy-washy about the whole thing. And why must he leave just because Yuzhu was unconscious after getting injured as she took the blade for him to save him? I find that so cowardly and irresponsible!

It would have been better if the storyline around the end has a stronger plot. Which is why I only rate it 3 stars, which I find a tad generous already.