One of my favorite sequences of the show is an overlooked one. Remember that episode when Hui Mun Keung went to the warehouse to see just what kind of "cargo" Fung Ging Yiu had imported (machine guns for killing the Ching Wu School students; not automobile parts as Fung Ging Yiu had claimed)? I loved the creepy atmosphere of that scene...Hui Mun Keung, with his hat and overcoat, going into this dark, creepy, foggy warehouse, and confirming his worst fears: his boss was planning on helping the Japanese to mass murder innocent Chinese.
Many of THE BUND's key scenes took place in churches (because Fung Ching Ching was a devout Catholic). The church scenes lent a sublime atmosphere to the series. I don't know if director Chiu Jen Keung was himself Christian (let alone Catholic), but there seemed to be underlying themes of sin, sacrifice, redemption, and salvation (or condemnation) running throughout the series.
There was definitely a highbrow element to it: references to Anton Chekov's THE SEAGULL (which Ching Ching acted in), and when Hui Mun Keung went through the rainstorm to propose to Ching Ching, she was performing the act from ROMEO & JULIET just before the fateful suicide of Romeo. All very literary stuff that you don't see in too many TVB dramas of *any* era. This series was special.