Ten Tigers of Guangdong (1999)

This is not a story as much as a series of events, many of them totally unrelated to each other. The whole series felt rather disjointed and draggy. You’re supposed to follow the lives of these ten heroes, then watch them come together near the end to try and save China. The problem was that most of them were boring. When they teamed up it got even more boring. And they didn’t save China.

The series covered a depressing time in Chinese history, the Opium War. I get that they can’t rewrite history to give everyone a happy ending, but they should at least give us viewers something to chew on. There was no message of hope, and certainly not of brotherhood. Not much time was spent in building up the camaraderie between the heroes.

The only bright spots were Kenny Lin’s So Chan and his love interest played by Claire Yiu. He was a rich playboy who liked a poor girl but didn’t know how to get her attention and so ended up teasing her mercilessly. Their courtship was charming and not overly cutesy. Both matured in a realistic, if not idealistic, way. Pity they didn’t have more screen time together. If the writers made this whole thing about the life and love of So Chan, it would’ve been a much better series.

If you’re looking for great kung fu scenes, you’ll be sorely disappointed. The action sequences were uninspired at best. The few things I did like were the set designs and costumes. There were no green screens, saturated colors, or skin smoothing photoshop. Everyone dressed according to their station. It felt very natural and true-to-life. After all, this show was an ode to the common people, not the elite.

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