The Populus Coffee & Food Co.

Ouch. Some time has gone by since my last blog, & that's sad.

Good news: I'm back. But I've not been watching much HK series. My best friend Sue and I caught up last Thursday, and in the process of doing so, we walked past this interesting cafe Populus.

Looks nice right? 
 
The Populus Coffee & Food Co.
146 Neil Road Singapore 088875
Opening Hours: 9am – 7pm (Mon, Wed), 9am – 10:30pm (Thurs – Fri), 9:30am – 1030pm (Sat), 9:30am – 7pm (Sun), Closed Tues

So many cafes & so little time. Drop in if you are around there.

Wishing everyone a prosperous Year

Love as a Predatory Affair : 愛情食物鏈

I'm now watching : Love as a Predatory Affair : 愛情食物鏈
This is a review based only on the 6 episodes that  has been aired. So far, I'm seriously LOVING it. I've not like a show so much for a long time. The story flows effortlessly ,supported by a brilliant cast of comic talents. Starring Kitty Yuen, King Kong Lee, Jason Chan Chi-San, Samantha Ko, Stephanie Ho as the main cast.

Kitty Yuen as  Lo Kwai-fong is the glue that holds her dysfunctional family together. She's smart, a great innovative cook, a very good daughter & friend. She's also very short with average looks vs her much more attractive friend. Kitty Yuen does it with style, never over-doing her parts , she's just perfect for the role! Truth is, I find her looking even pretty here than before, I'm serious :)) Did she lose some weight? Go.... girl....

King Kong Lee as Hung Sin is a Taiwanese working "under-cover" in  low level jobs in some of Hong Kong's best restaurants to learn their trade secret. He was kinda dis-illusion after finding out that many of them were actually "cheating" using only  canned ingredients and MSG. King Kong as usual never disappoints. He's such a natural comedian, one just cant help laughing at his accent & looks - perfect as a normal guy but always being mistaken as a creepy pervert.....lol... The story so far has his character renting one of Kwai-fong's family's rooms & learning cooking from her.

Jason Chan Chi-San as Pete, son of Lau Kam (Best Taste Restaurant chain business). Just graduated from abroad & in charge of father's business. All the girls have crushes on him but he seem more interested in the business as he's having major problems there. Employees were not respecting him, his uncle is sabotaging him & problems keep cropping up. Kwai-fong indirectly helps him deal with them. Jason is improving & this is a good role for him. I'm so glad this role does not require him to act silly (which is not his forte- he's too good looking to be acting silly ...lol...). All my girl friends love him, even my mum ....lol... !!!

Samantha Ko as Hestia, Kwai-fong's best friend. She's smart & superficial. On one hand she's ashamed of being a fish monger, on the other hand she understands how lucrative the business is, so she bears with it, using the money made to doll herself up. Her dream is to marry a rich man & her target is Pete. If I'm not wrong, this is her first big role & Samantha Ko is pretty good- her acting is natural & she's pretty & oh...so fair! I like the first scene of her in a snake costume,it's very creative & attractive.

Stephanie Ho as Kimchi, an up-righteous & effective new employee of Pete's. I actually do marvel at her transition from singing competitions to acting. It's seem almost seamless. She's pretty & quite good for a newbie, especially for comedies :))

The other notable characters are:
 Pat Poon & Susan Tse as Kwai fong's parents. Pat Poon (a very popular leading man in his hey days) as a useless father is a delight to watch, very endearing & funny. My mum sort of screams whenever he appears ..lol... Susan Tse, as usual, very beautiful & elegant never fail to disappoint.

C-Kwan as Yang Jip-yuen, a sales person at Kwai-fong's company, is just so damn cute!!! He's part of a Cantonese hip-hop group (農夫)"Farmers" or "Fama" & recently we saw him & partner "6-Wing" ,cracking us up on "DoDo goes Shopping". I seriously hope to see more of him in other shows as well- there's just something about him .... natural comic talent !

Brian Tse as Lo Kwai-lu, if I'm not wrong this is his biggest role so far & it's looking good. Keep up

Timothy Cheng as Regal, Pete's uncle: one thing I noticed about him, he's just so versatile- he can just adopt any kind of roles & he'll be great. He's doing it again here, comedy - no problem. Love his deep voice !

Lady Sour, review 1-3 episodes -END

Last year & beginning of this year I saw a few series but mostly have no time to review. A few I did not even finish as I got bored.

Just last week I begin with Lady Sour. I stopped after only epi 3.

I have to admit I'm a big Myolie fan, but the story is just so so & some of the characters were so badly written.

Myolie Wu as usual is a joy to see her. She looked very cute here. That's the only good thing about the show.

Gigi Wong as her mother, in the most annoying role of her career I guess. Maybe it's suppose to be funny, but it is just not. She spoils everything by her rude & inappropriate behaviour & personality. I stop watching partially because of her. Just could not take it anymore.

Ron Ng as a pun, Myolie's enemy later love interest. Seriously he was never a good actor, but he does better in comedies , unfortunately NOT in this show ! All round wooden, not funny. Maybe it's his voice. This is a silly role, his voice is just so deep & boring not suitable here.

Him Law, Myolie's husband & later X husband- very cute looking but the first 3 epi has little of him so cant say much.

Eliza Sum, Him Law's final wife. She's an example of when you are good you shine through in whatever role . Wish Ron Ng has some of that charisma.

That's about it from 3 episodes. By all means watch it to support Myolie. But Gigi Wong is annoying the hell out of me so far. Will stop watching now.

Happy New Year 2015

Hugo Wong & Otto Chan

Great way to Care 2

Special mention for  Hugo Wong as a wild “Zeus”. He really let it all out- very very well done ! The look & manner were so hilarious & yet convincing. I was very pleasantly surprise. Hope there'll be more chances for him to shine in other series.


Hugo Wong- Hope he'll receive bigger roles, he deserves it !!!

Otto Chan did a wonderful  job as Aimee’s autistic brother; the way he looks & communicates seems so authentic . Impressive! 

Otto Chan Impressive !!!

The cases were not Great,  but it’s enough to keep the series moving at a good pace. Sequels rarely live up to original expectations, but at least this one did a fairly good job.

 

It could have been better if  there's more of Yoyo /Alex. Less on Edwin’s threesome. More on Oscar & Power.
 

The way they focus on Edwin's relationship makes the whole series seem unbalance. We have the heavy weights like Alex, Tavia & Yoyo & they have so little screen time!

Oscar, Power Chan, matthew

Great way to Care 2

Oscar Leung, Power Chan and Eric Li are mostly just sidekicks… which is such a waste! Both Oscar & Power were given interesting characters, they should have expanded on them- that’ll be wonderful.  Henry Lee’s character is great as well, as an actor he never fail- always great to watch.  

Matthew Ko was really bad as usual- totally not convincing as the religious cult leader and he just look uncomfortable & his timing is bad. 

Ben Wong

Great way to Care 2

Ben Wong in the first series was extremely hot-tempered, here he’s different. He’s a good police detective. But I never like him as I feel he’s still wooden after all these years & he does not have the leading man charisma.  I  don’t think pairing him up with Tavia was a good idea. Since they did it, they should have given them more screen time to expand on the relationship. Too much of Edwin Siu’s threesome & too little on Tavia & Ben. 

Edwin, Aimee & Christine

Great way to Care 2

Edwin Siu has  plenty of screen time & I believe TVB is seriously promoting him thru this.
He was given a very interesting role , witty, self-assured buck-toothed character.
However they could have done better with his love interests.  
I don’t mind Aimee Chan but Christine Kuo (though beautiful)  is still very wooden. 
Their triangular love affair takes up too much screen time & it’s painful to watch.
I prefer to have more of YoYo & Alex- they were the fun ones.

Tavia, Alex, Yoyo

Great way to Care 2

Compare to Kate from A Great Way to Care 1,  Tavia  as the female lead has the more interesting role. But her screen time is too diluted .  She looks great & was very impressive as the undercover prostitute and equally good as a crazy killer who took justice into her own hands.

Alex Fong as usual being himself, Love him for never “over-acting” !!!!! I  really enjoy all his casual scenes with Yoyo Mung. Too bad their relationship was badly developed.

Yoyo’s character is fun & colourful, really makes the whole series better. Whatever she says always puts a smile to my face, often I laugh out loud, especially when she request for Alex’s sperm donation. She’s growing on me as an actress, & she does this best. Plus she’s more compatible with Alex than Kate.

A Great Way to Care 2

Cast: Alex Fong, Tavia Yeung, Yoyo Mung, Ben Wong, Edwin Siu,

Plot: A  crime investigation series, focusing on psychiatrists solving the cases instead of police, forensics or lawyers.

Review:

I prefer the original.  First thing I notice is they used back a lot of the same people- which is sort of  nice, adds to a sense of continuity though it’s not related to the first at all. Many themes are rather similar like the religious cult, the schizophrenic , and the vigilante. But to be fair, what else is there…lol…..?  

The original focus more on psychology, the sequel on crime  investigation. The first series had Alex Fong predicting the criminal’s next move or trying to elicit the truth from a suspect via psychological analysis. Here, Alex assist  the police solve cases by noticing clues that others have missed. In most cases, it was actually quite apparent that the criminal wasn’t a psycho.

Eunuch:Power Chan

“The Confidant”

And of course talking about break-through roles, there’s Power Chan…. again at his best.  
From being a great bully & eventually being friends with the group, he is probably the most loyal out of that group in the end. Power Chan portrays his character in such a fun & light-hearted way – such a pleasure to watch. I Love it.

Overall, this was a good show.  The major problem is the leading characters of Empress Dowager Cixi  and Li Lianying has been too drastically changed from the conventional ones we know. I do understand the need to surprise & shock but this didn’t do it well. It’s just not entertaining to see a scary cat Li Lianying or a subdued Cixi. It’ll be fun to see Wayne play an evil Li Lianying. Same goes with Michelle .

The surprise comes from Raymond Cho’s & Power Chan’s portrayal of the 2 eunuchs. That really rise the bar for the whole show.

Eunuchs: Raymond Cho

“The Confidant”

For Raymond Cho, I believe this is his ‘break-through” role.
He did it so well.
He switched from being “bad’ to good to being loyal to the ‘brotherhood’ with ease & finesse.
He totally stole the show from Wayne, what a great job !
  
 

The Eunuch :Wayne & Raymond Wong

“The Confidant”

Wayne Lai’s portrayal of  Li Lianying was refreshing and different from his classic roles, but the script failed him.
In the beginning, he is a cowardly, small-time eunuch. 
One would expect him to change but no!!!!!!!!! his self- righteousness, drags on & on & it gets tedious just watching him.
This role- certainly not well written. It’s very bland & lacks excitement compared to Raymond Cho’s or Power chan’s character.

I’ve never been a fan of Raymond Wong.
I never like the way he looks as well- he looks so tense & uncomfortable -he seem to be from another era to me….lol….. The way his character falls in love with the princess just don’t feel right, as in -a person like that should know he shouldn’t have done that. Everything about his character seem off , from going from super good to evil (do you call that evil even?). Quite annoying on the whole, & so much of him…..sigh….

“The Confidant” :The Royal Family

Michelle Yim lacks a presence because of her small frame. Plus we see too much of her compassionate side, everything lacks power & authority. The conventional Cixi is nowhere to be seen, it’s a BIG disappointment. It just don’t seem authentic to have a “nice” Cixi. I don’t understand how she can tolerate being “blackmail” by Prince Gong, regarding the secret imperial edict that could order her to be executed- & do nothing about it! 

In comparison Maggie Siu is more interesting going from nice to evil to delusional. She’s pretty good at it.

Aimee Chan was fine in those cute scenes but I feel there’s too much of her without moving the story forward. However I don’t understand why people have an issue with her accent which I thought is fine! 

Natalie Tong has too little scene time, I feel they should have expand her story line instead of that of Aimee’s. 

Selena Li, appear in the first five episodes, surprised me. She never looked better- it really makes me sit up & notice- well done.

Oscar Leung portraying a teenage emperor did great. He looks the part too.

 KK Cheung as usual never disappoint as  Prince Gong. Unfortunately the focus is not on him, so our lose.

 

“The Confidant”

Cast: 

Wayne Lai as Li Lianying

 Michelle Yim as Empress Dowager Cixi

 Maggie Siu as Empress Dowager Ci’an

 Oscar Leung/Pako Au as Tongzhi Emperor

 KK Cheung as Prince Gong

 Raymond Wong as Yiu Sheung-hei

 Power Chan as Pang Sam Shun

 Raymond Cho as An Dehai

 Edwin Siu as Ling Tim Sau

 Nancy Wu as Sing Yung

 Aimee Chan as Princess Wo-shek 

Plot

You wont find this in your history books- this is solely TVB version of  what happened &

how Empress Dowager Cixi and Li Lianying come to rule over China. Nothing is familiar which makes this rather interesting. 

Review

 

The scenery was beautiful.  They went to Hengdian to film in the replica Forbidden City.  But what I don’t understand is why the formal meetings with all the officials & emperor is being held in a tiny crampy room? A little odd there. But in this way, they actually show us how Empress Dowager was the one who actually decides on things, sitting behind the young emperor, hidden by the curtain. Thought that was an interesting perspective.

In terms of plot, The Confidant is different from other palace dramas because it focuses on the life of being a eunuch, rather than political struggles or concubines fighting for the emperor’s affections. The beginning offers a glimpse of how life was for the different levels of  eunuch. The ambitious ones like Edwin Siu, peaceful ones like Wayne Lai, powerful ones like Raymond Cho & bullies like Power Chan.

The love story between Raymond Wong & Aimee Chan the princess, was I thought a waste of time.......... Didn’t like it one bit.......... draggy. Wayne and Nancy’s story was even worse because he can’t make up his mind on being with her, which really bugs me!

Liza Wang

In recent years, Liza Wang has dap with more comedies & it’s working. We get to see the other side of her & it’s rewarding as fans love it. Her role is well written, she played a multi-faceted , ‘flawed’ character-a celebrity at the centre of the universe, with the world revolving round her.

She gave a good performance. She’s mean, sad & mostly funny . It’s just so fun watching her make a fool of herself-priceless!

Koo Ming Wah as So Kei

Before this, noone knows his name. This is the role of a life time for him. We see him in numerous supporting roles before  but this is the one. The character So Kei is fun to play & the “look” is perfect. Love the wardrobe!!!!

Love the way he switch from playing a very fun So kei & sometimes he gets all serious. He did it well & it’s fun to watch. Mandy should learn from him. It’s like he gives it all,  so it makes it believable. Well done!