The New Adventures of Chor Lau Heung (2001)

This series has a few good scenes and great performances. Otherwise, it’s a mess. The problem is with the production itself. They gather all the Biggest Stars of the Day and parade these people around to attract their various fanbases. Given so many stars, the writers can’t juggle all the characters and their storylines. And what do writers do with characters they don’t know what to do with? Chop.

Lazy writing aside, there is Richie Ren’s interpretation of our bandit chief, Chor Lau Heung. He is… I don’t know what he is. Neither does Richie, it seems. I can say what he is not. He is not suave, charming, interesting, or even likeable. Half of the time, he is lovelorn. The other half, he seems to forget the girl exists. Sometimes he cares about his friends. Other times he acts like he doesn’t have any. This character is all over the place yet goes nowhere. It’s a shame, because Richie does have a solid supporting cast behind him.

Wayne Lai is his usual awesome self, even when he is stuck playing the archetypical best friend. Angie Cheung is mesmerizing as the femme fatale. Gigi Lai, Jess Zhang, Joey Meng, Ruby Lin and the rest are pretty in their own distinctive ways. You could watch this series for them, but why bother? They all have better works in their filmography. Same goes for Richie, bless his misguided effort.

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