Faat Yin Yan (2023)

A law drama I actually like? What?

I am not usually a fan of law dramas, there is usually too much legalese and stuff in them that get really boring no matter who acts in it because it can sometimes feel like it is shoving law knowledge at the viewer without their consent, but this drama is completely different. Instead, the focus is on the human relations and the important ties each person has, which effects the decisions made in a court of law. It does not overuse the court scenes and puts in just enough to make each case entertaining to watch as the lawyers battle it out, with Kenneth Ma handing over yellow notes to help push his side to winning the case.

Once again, Kenneth Ma is outstanding here as a highly talented legal executive who approaches his cases in unconventional ways but within the bounds of the law, and coming up with solutions to difficult situations. I really loved watching him act here, making it his 2nd great TV drama this year right after The Invisibles.

Kenneth has a group of 3 other friends he hangs around with, played by Rosina Lam, Jonathan Cheung and Stephen Wong. These guys have been through so much together since their days at law school and we get to see their camaraderie feel like a really real thing as the drama progresses. Who really stood out here was Stephen Wong as I was so tired of seeing him act as the boring, serious, sour-face guy in most of the dramas I see him in. Name one drama where he has been outgoing, obnoxious and friendly, and I can promise you nothing would come to mind until this drama came out. Seeing him as this smiling, laughing, hugely annoying yet endearing guy was a welcome role change for the guy, and he does a great job portraying a massively talented lawyer.

Even Jonathan Cheung has his moments here as well. He is the very sensible and very well-behaved prude of the group but instead of coming off as annoying and boring, he was actually quite entertaining to watch, especially the awkward exchanges between him and his love interest, a strict judge played by Joman Chiang. Watching Joman go from stern judge to being a little bit girly from her interactions with Jonathan was great, but their love story takes seconds place compared to Kenneth and Rosina's.

The romantic tension between Kenneth and Rosina was the best in the drama. They both clearly are attracted to each other but the timing has always been off with Kenneth constantly finding obstacles between him getting with the girl of his dreams. He even decided that deep down it was God telling him that they could not be together so he resigned himself to that fate. But as per many TVB dramas, they do eventually end up together and the build up to it was fantastic as it led to one very touching moment when they finally embraced. The only weird thing about their relationship while they were together was that they never kissed onscreen,. Did their spouses send them a "no kissing allowed" ultimatum? One thing that I do have to call out is Rosina daydreaming about Raymond Lam, who is Rosina's cousin is real life, so it came off as a little creepy and weird.

Overall a great drama to watch and I highly recommend it. It even has a really catchy main theme song that sticks in your head long after each episode is over. The only major thing to ruin it was the repeated overplaying of the great song "Friends For Life" by Ekin Cheng. It is so overused while watching this that I have grown to really hate the song and have to skip it whenever it comes up on my personal music playlist. A great song ruined by overzealous use in this drama.

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