No. of Epis: 24Year/TV Stn: 2008/TVB
Cast:
Raymond Lam ~ Cheng Ya Yu/Wu Qing
Kenneth Ma ~ Tie You Xia/Tie Shou
Sammul Chan ~ Cui Lue Shang/Zui Ming
Ron Ng ~ Leng Ling Qi/Leng Xie
Selena Li ~ Lan Ruo Fei
Kate Tsui ~ Sang Zhi Yan
Synopsis: (edited from Thoughts on TVB blog)
Hardhearted and smart Wu Qing became a cripple when he was young. Fortunately for him, he met Zhu Ge Zheng Wo (Dominic Lam), the Head of the Sheriff Bureau, and has learnt from him his unparalleled skills of using concealed weapons. Zhu Ge has once helped the Song Emperor recover an invaluable piece of article that the empire has long lost. To reward Zhu Ge, the Emperor reopens the Sheriff Bureau. In addition to Wu Qing, Zhu Ge recruits Zui Ming, a cunning swindler, Tie Shou, an honest guy who strongly believes in justice and a cold-blooded killer Leng Xie.
The Sheriff Bureau has cracked many difficult cases under the leadership of Zhu Ge. After having gone through thick and thin with the others, Wu Qing is less arrogant & starts to appreciate others. He has fallen in love with Song Zhi Yan, a rookie physician. On the other hand, Tie Shou promises to take care of Ruo Fei, after her father, Chief of Blue Sky sect, was killed in a contest. Soon, Tie Shou was suspected for murder, and someone intentionally wanted to sow discord among the Four. Tie Shou & Wu Qing's relationship deteriorates after their true identities were revealed, and the situation gets worse as Tie Show is convinced that Zhi Yan killed his older brother.
Prince Qi and the treacherous minister Cai Jing are plotting to revolt against the current emperor. Zhu Ge risks his life to ruin their plan but by doing this, he is also driving the bond between him and The Four to the verge of disintegration.
Slacker's review:
I was prepared to watch an average ancient drama, but "The Four" turns out to be slightly better than what I've thought. The storyline was pretty standard, it started out with the guys cracking various cases, but the main focus of the drama was actually how the constables dealt with the prime minister. The pace of the drama was not too bad, though they could have speed up some developments. For e.g. reveal Zhi Yan's real motive slightly earlier. Normally it's not good to reveal too early la, but because of this lady, the super smart Wu Qing looked like a fool as he was betrayed by this lady again & again. (It just doesn't make sense to me, though there's a saying 英雄难过美人关. Haha!) Romances b/w the characters were the weakest part of the plot. Ending was alright, though they rushed with the romance scenes as they wanna give an end to all the couples. There's seriously not much development b/w the couples, except for Tie Shou & Ruo Fei, so the ending for the rest was pretty understandable. The most crappy scene was the last scene, when the Four prepared to fight dunno how many thousands of enemy soldiers. (Shld give a reasonable number la~)
It's Raymond again, after watching his boring role in "Moonlight". His performance was much better this time round, thanks to the character development for Wu Qing. It's rare to see a hero who was confined to his wheelchair, but the guy was pretty mobile. Raymond looked damn smart & handsome in his ancient dressing, and I liked Wu Qing, except for his romance with Ms Sang. Hahaha! (And it's Kate Tsui again~)
It's obvious who are the lead guys in "The Four". Besides Raymond, Kenneth is the other guy. Tie Shou is the standard character in almost all ancient dramas. (There must be a super righteous guy right?) Tie Shou was pretty rash & nearly lost control of himself after so many incidents happened to him. I thought Kenneth did pretty well with those scenes, and I loved his chemistry with Selena! I only liked this couple....they were so funny together~!
Sammul's performance was not too bad here. I never thought that he could be comedic. Haha! Anyway, Zui Ming was the guy who provided comic relief la, but I only started to like him after he "grew up" a little. Ha! His romance line with You Dong, Tie Shou's sister was hardly touched on, and they did not end up together. (I wished Zui Ming stopps her from leaving...)
I never liked Ron. His acting was the same as before, very stiff. It's worse when his lines were limited (Leng Xie was a quiet fella~). I thought this character suited Ron perfectly, but he was underused la. Romance line with Xiao Dao was pathetic, there's no romance b/w them actually. Anyway, it would not be convincing for a cold-blooded ex killer to soften his heart so easily for a girl.
I loved Selena Li. Ruo Lan is not a difficult character to act, but Selena just shine with this character. I liked her bickering scenes with Tie Shou, and when they showed their feelings for each other. It's just so sweet to see the couple la~ XD.
Kate ah Kate....She's beautiful here, but kinda too modern for an ancient role? Anyway, Zhi Yan was quite an interesting character, coz' she did not appeared to be what we saw on the surface. Kate's expressions were quite extreme-lovely smile when she's the good physician, and expressionless when she's on her mission. I was surprised that TVB did not get rid of Zhi Yan in the end! (She shld have die la~hahaha!)
Theme song "Feng Bao" by the four guys. Sadly, the song was boring.
