“The Unholy Alliance” Comes to an End
The following article contains spoilers for TVB’s The Unholy Alliance, which ended on September 13, 2017.
TVB drama The Unholy Alliance <同盟> ended its 28 episode run on Wednesday, September 13 to ratings success. The crime thriller finale starts with Ko Tsz-kit (Ruco Chan 陳展鵬) abducting his mother Ling Hung (Nina Paw 鮑起靜) and brother Kent (Joel Chan 陳山聰) to bring out the true side of Ling Hei (Mary Hon 韓馬利) and Anthony (Jazz Lam 林子善), both who are fighting to be the leader of The Alliance. Hei forges Hung’s signature in a power transfer contract that would make her the new leader, but Anthony threatens Hei to transfer power over to himself instead. The two break into a fight, resulting in Hei’s death.
Anthony becomes the sole leader of The Alliance—but only briefly. Kit uncovers his ploy in time and plants Rainman’s poisonous weapon in the Alliance meeting room. Anthony breaks the seal, sending out a waft of poisonous gas, which kills Anthony and the Alliance members. Hung, upon realizing that Kit had a hand in killing his aunt and cousin, slaps him two times on the face.
Soon after, Rainman sends assassins to kill Hung. Her loyal bodyguard Mr. Yik (Jimmy Au 歐瑞偉), overwhelmed by the number of attackers, dies protecting Hung, who gets captured.
Kit meets the four powers behind Hung’s capture, and exchanges himself for Hung’s life, promising to be their new Rainman. Meanwhile, Kent storms into the church to save Hung. “Rainman” Kam Tin (Elena Kong 江美儀) confronts them and makes her way to kill them, but receives a message that Rainman has been replaced. Kam Tin’s assassins kill her. To be the new Rainman, Kit ends all relations with his family.
Kit spends the next two years tracking evidence to take down the four powers, and manages to put up all of their criminal evidence to the Internet. He comes across Yuen Ching-yan (Nancy Wu 胡定欣) in the streets, who angrily slaps him on the cheek. But their reunion is a happy one, and after two years apart, they can finally be together again.
What did you think about the ending?
Source: On.cc
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
Bad question! The whole series is a mess..
The ending was happy, but rushed, unrealistic and messy.
Another Bad ending from TVB with all their other rushed and careless endings!
I was taken by surprised when it just ended like that. So silly!
bad ending why did they have to kill of Mr Yik at the end
Rushed ending as usual. Ending can be better. Joel Chan did a good job handling his role.
TVB’s ending is always rushed in the last episode.
Joel stands out as Kent. His portrayal as a lawyer, fighter is really good. loyal, street smart and so suave. in fact, his character stands out more than Ruco.
The one very tragic death is Jimmy Au. WHY must he be killed? Nancy is also a hit man but she had a happy ending.
what happened to all the remaining characters like Anthony’s wife, Sunny and Tina? we only saw Chloe and Kelly in the last episode.
Elena’s character was killed off too easily after committing so many crimes. Shouldn’t she be tortured at least?
@janet72, Agreed Joel’s character does stands out more then Ruco. Joel’s acting and the way he handle to deliver his character was much better than Ruco. Ruco’s character is not award quality this time. This Drama merits an award for action, how for not merit the drama of the year.
I like the twist at the end that Kit who wanted his family to sever ties with the underworld ended up making a pact with the devil. How ironic! But this twist could hv been executed a couple of episodes earlier or maybe add a couple more episodes instead of in the final few minutes. I actually felt a shiver down my spine when kit said “if you let my family go I’m willing to be your new Rainman “. An extra 2 episodes would be nice to show us what he did as the new Rainman who was secretly plotting his revenge on the devil instead of the usual convenient chop chop fast fwd to 2 years later. However it was baffling that he faked his death. What use is a “dead” Ko Tz Kit since he can’t make use of the powerful Ling Corporation in his shady dealings for the devil?
@passingby, agreed, it’s funny that you mentioned 2 episodes.. my friends and I just said the same thing. Twist was good but needed more time to cover the story line a bit more.
@passingby they managed to drag the show out to 28 episodes, and still managed to rush the ending! also good point about the dead ko tze kit part; though similarly even if they had just brought him in because of his smarts, there must have been more qualified candidates (like mba’s, phd’s, joel chan)
@rucofan1100 i think his selling point is his connection to Ling Corp as the heir. That’s why i said it didn’t make sense for him to fake his death.
The series could have better reception if they fleshed out the episodes to 30. The four unknown rich men was tossed in out of the blue without proper background. I was expecting Ruco, Nina, Joel and others confronting Jazz, Mary and Elena in a suspenseful game of wits. Since Jazz is supposedly the smart one ignored by many family members, why not leverage this? As cliche as it sounds, he could unleash his bitterness and hold the family hostage as part of a scheme against Nina, Ruco etc. SMH lost opportunity.
At the very least, they should at least film a scene reuniting Ruco with Nina and her family. Yes Ruco and Nancy are the main couple but Ruco’s relationship with Nina is also key. A lot more touching and fulfilling.
Very poor ending. Rushed and illogical. Same BS these days, kill off like 80% of the cast and the good peeps left live a peaceful life in the countryside.
Strangely, I thought Ling Hung seemed very weak in the last episode. She seems to put more value in blood than in right and wrong. If she dished out the correct punishment when needed and stopped protecting her useless family members, then things may not have ended up like that. And to scream at Kit when he indirectly got rid of Anthony and Hei who tried to kill/betray her over and over again is just bad. I think that she is partly responsible for her family member’s actions as she just keeps forgiving them.
At least Joel didn’t die and he’s not blood related. All other blood related died?
Anyway at least it has an ending, not some amnesia crap or whatever. Still would have worked much better as a wuxia series.
Ruco has been played out by TVB.
@funnlim agreed wuxia series would’ve made way more sense! so much bloodshed in a modern setting with no one caring was quite unrealistic; also prop swords and spears look better onscreen than airsoft guns
@funnlim
“Ruco has been played out by TVB”-obviously.
He’s given such a lousy character in order to promote Joel. People in general admit good role=good acting. So Joel stood out with his perfect character, but don’t think he overshadowed Ruco in acting, he’s too ‘chok’ and his romantic scenes with Elaine were boring as commented by many viewers in some forums. Ah Kit’s character was so inconsistent that it’s more difficult to portray and less favourable.
@66ksc
Wow. For the 3rd series in a row the excuse from fans still is TVB gave Ruco a lousy character to play. Now another delusional statement. ‘TVB were actually trying to promote Joel’ hahahaha
@jimmyszeto
You have the point: 3rd series in a row!
Am looking at the fact not a fan’s view. TBB’ short of actors and Joel has potential, so what’s so funny. It’s their usual tactic.
No more interest to entangle with someone with fixed attitude.
@66ksc
Fixed or not fixed,to say that Ruco was used to promote Joel is a complete joke. Firstly,Joel has been at TVB at twenty plus years and there hasn’t been a drop of hint he has been promoted. In fact he has largely been ignored. If it wasn’t for his charismatic performance in ‘the last steep ascent’and previous his friendships with others in the entertainment circle, I doubt they would have let him back after his scandal. The role Joel was given in the Unholy Alliance was demoted to a nothing role after Ruco’s character came back from Taiwan. In the last few episodes his character was even written out so Ruco could hog the action though Joel’s character was supposed to be much more experienced in martial arts and pressure situations. Maybe you should try listening to comments from others. Everyone has disagreed on your conspiracy theory.
@jimmyszeto
“everyone has disagreed on your conspiracy theory.”-did you go through all comments in all forums to confirm?
From your comments, I realize that your understanding of TBB is backdated to a few years ago. The ratings, the personnel, TBB’s latest situation etc. has changed in the last couple of years. TBB’s tactic to use popular artistes to bring up 2/3 line artistes is nothing new in Hong Kong, since a lot of hot artistes went for gold digging in Mainland China. The quality of dramas is going downhill and to compare with those a few years ago is certainly a joke.
Kent & Kate’s love story was lengthy and occupied much screen time and Rcuo’s showtime was limited to the last 3 episodes that many viewers complained about the sudden change of Ah Kit was unacceptable-refer to comments in other forums. Do more homework before your conclusion.
@66ksc
I’m not saying that they won’t use that tactic to promote a support actor but certainly not in this series. I emphasize that Joel has been at TVB for over 20 years. They aren’t using a fan favourite Ruco to promote a veteran actor. Stop imagining things and fabricating theories to generate excuses for your idol. Don’t be childish. I don’t need to count every single post that have disagreed or agreed with you. I just need to look at the percentage. Statistics are based on mathematics and not on your stubborness and preferences.
@jimmyszeto
Give me the percentage for all forums then-don’t forget you said “everyone”.
Don’t treat those points you disagree as my conspiracy theory which might be facts.Joel was already given more screen time in Burning Hands but that character failed.
Stubborness and preferences are not for me alone. Read your own comments.
Anyway, I will stop here, no way to argue with someone with fixed attitude.
@66ksc
It’s quite obvious that you have no common sense and no concept of mathematics. Without these basic attributes it’s quite difficult for you to enter discussions on this site and also to do well in any profession.
@66ksc i don’t think tvb deliberately gave Ruco a lousy role in order to promote Joel. It’s just a conspiracy theory his fans like to throw up. Blame it on the shortcomings of the scriptwriter. I also dont agree good role = good acting. A good role requires a good actor to make it come alive. The reverse is also true ie a good actor requires a good role to shine just as in Ruco’s case. He has been given lousy roles of late and this is made worse by lousy scripts.He is capable of regaining his former glory if the right role comes along. Anyways i don’t think Joel’s role is that great either nor did he outshine Ruco. He was boring and predictable but he did pull off those fighting scenes as convincingly as Ruco and Kent was very suave indeed.
@passingby
“He has been given lousy roles of late” – agree.
No bad regards for Joel. He’s a decent actor. Yet his role of Kent the good guy was used to compare to Ruco’s and thus the chance to give unfair criticism to the latter-just refer to some other topics on TUA.
Terrible ending, how do you expect Ruco to be able to find and present incriminating evidence of the 4 power brokers within 2 years. If those 4 people were truly the bosses that the show described them to be, they would never be that careless and Ruco would have been eliminated. Elena had worked under them for years and still hadn’t flipped on them yet, and she was described to be a much more calculating character initially. Overall they should have gone to 30 episodes, or removed 1 of the “Wai Ye going around Ling Hung’s back” storyline in order to flesh out the ending storyline.
Also what happened to the corrupt cop and the gov official?
If they were planning on killing Mr. Yik anyways, he should have died in Taiwan. He shouldn’t have died at all actually. He would have never gone alone with Ling Hung in the garage with Rainman (Elena) still at large and out for blood. They would have had plenty of other bodyguards there for protection.
@babyfaced agreed 2 years is way too short to be believable; how much could he have even accomplished in that time to earn their trust?
Ling Hung shouldn’t have slapped Kit for killing off her sister and nephew. They wanted to kill her once and remove her from her position…as head of a powerful company, she is too soft.
why must Mr Yik be killed off? it’s unfair for a loyal assistant to die like that. the best part is not knowing who the 4 bosses are. we should see the enemies after them instead of sitting there playing bridge.
the corrupt cop…when did he become good?
last scene should be one when Kit is reunited with his entire family instead of just Yan.
@janet72 blame it on the poor characterization but Ling Hung didn’t come across to me as the mafia big sister. I don’t see her ruthlessness, only the motherly side of her. Also with all due respect i dont think her acting is flawless either. There were moments when she looked like she was reciting her lines. Maybe the dialogue was too much for her to remember.
Is there anything which suggests that Law Lok Lam’s character is a corrupt official? Just wondering if i missed out anything. I think his role is just to act as the nemesis of Kam Tin.
@janet72 I am just sick of Nancy’s Yan screaming ” You don’t tell me everything cos you don’t trust me and I am not important to you!” I felt she should have had some trust in Kit after all they have been through.
I just feel that it is hypocritical of Ling Hung to lecture that Kit is too soft and needs to do what is right in order to be the boss, yet she cannot do the same herself. Seems like bad plot writing to me.
Seriously, I would have preferred a sad ending where Kit gets killed by the 4 bosses after exposing them and he dies a few steps from being reunited with his family. This ending is very anti-climatic.
@elizabeth
No point in being analytic because the whole series is a mess. We would be here for weeks.
@elizabeth Or he dies in her arms and half episode later we have a cool scene of Ling Hung and Kent embracing their true mafia destiny and just kill everybody off.
@janet72 She values family. She obviously knows her own family was up to no good but she couldn’t do the worse and kill them all. Well her son did it for her on the justification that he wanted to keep mom safe? The thing is Kit is innately cruel. There’s justification but he could have done many ways I suppose but he chose murdering his family. Well he hardly knew them. But I understand why she slapped him and it is relatable. If she didn’t then it is surprising.
Yik has to die since son and adopted son not dead.
@funnlim she slapped herself not him. She blamed herself for turning him into a cold-blooded murderer.
@funnlim No. It doesn’t matter how we try to slice or justify, Ruco’s char makes absolutely no sense. He was a walking billboard of changing from black to white and had no connection with his mom until recently and besides behind blood related; then all of sudden he became overly protective of her. What Ruco did should’ve been Joel’s character. It made more sense for Kent to be ruthless because he grew up in the black environment. He lived through times and times again how Nina’s family mistreated or went after her; surely they didn’t all turn against her when Ruco showed up out of nowhere. Kent had the qualification and experience to be more cunning and could remotely more feasible for him to outsmart Rainman and the poker bosses at the end.
If they want Ruco to do more stuff since he is the lead actor, they should’ve given Ruco Joel’s character. I think Ruco could’ve pull off as Kent.
@jjwong “If they want Ruco to do more stuff since he is the lead actor, they should’ve given Ruco Joel’s character. I think Ruco could’ve pull off as Kent.”
Sigh…
@jjwong I always assume Kent will be the bad guy. Anyway it is possible for Kent to be as reluctant as the mother because he grew up with greatest respect for her so he knows how she feels about her family. And he grew up with these people so to have that reluctance is understandable. Ruco not having grown up with them is obviously not as attached but he respects his mom and so does the dirty deed for her. I can accept that actually. And if properly fleshed out would have made one hell of a great series. It isn’t.
@funnlim Respect doesn’t equate to being a cold killer, especially we had 2-3 eps of Ruco mobbing around for killing his cousin. Initately (sp) evil doesn’t make sense since the first 27 eps keep yaking about how saint Ruco is.
We obviously have oppposite opinion on which char makes more sense to be ruthless for Nina and we can go on in circles. So let’s agree to disagree, especially since whichever character it is can be more believable if they are developed properly. We know that is not TVB M.O. so it just become sloppy and stupid regardless xD
Three important lessons I learn from TVB’s Unholy:
1) Do NOT bring guns to a fight. It doesn’t matter how big or the capabilities of your guns, you will not kill anyone. Bring KNIVES; small, 10 inches, toy looking knives should be your weapon of choice. Because the knives not only can kill the top dog of assassins, but also hold someone as hostage without them knocking it out of your hand. When you point a gun at someone, it apparently inventible to have it knock out of your hand and use it back against you. When you have a knife though, it’s glued to your palm apparently. And your victim is more frightful to make the switch-a-roo move on you.
2) Be very afraid, leery and look out for all of your nerdy/geeky game friends. You never know when one of them will turn into skillful fighter who can take down assassin after assassin, into a sharpshooter and kill-shot sniper, and into martial arts expert. Better yet, invest and master all one-person video games and extreme sports. Apparently holding a remote control trains you how to not only hold and fire handguns and semi-automatics, but also turns you into a great shot. Also, being into “extreme games” like surfing, jumping on walls or buildings or stepping stools, will put you leaps over those who have been trained as martial experts, shooters, and assassins for years.
3) Don’t waste your time in school to learn how to be a business person or go to work for any field experience. Because after a couple months of following someone around, the ruthlessness, business savvy, and cunning strategies will just pop into your head. You will become the master of deceive AND win, have a leg up over an organization that has deep roots in both black and justice markets. Who needs experience, resume and reference! Just waltz up to your big boss or supervisor and tell him/her that hey I CAN be better than my team lead. Don’t worry about me have no knowledge of how a business work, can’t show any accolades or back anything I’m claiming right now. Just trust me. I can do better than that lead. So give me the position. Then viola! You WILL be top honcho and set for life.
TVB! Thank you! I’m so glad that your series is not only so eye opening (my whole life has been a lie essentially), but also it’s great to see J. Boon is a Wong Jing in the making with cheap insulations, stretch 30 mins script into 28 episodes, and shallow, flat and boring characters. You will go far! xDDD
i rate shows based on pre-bet hur, and post- bet hur; as such this show was quite fun. had some head scratching moments,but overall not bad, emphasis on not bad. only felt cheated by how they spent the whole show talking about ling’s alliance and how it was such a menace to society, when there turned out to be a much bigger, badder alliance in the background no one knew about. it’s like they made a show on the b-list alliance
@rucofan1100 i tried watching Bet Hur but gave up cos i cant stand Nat Chan. Plus it was so painful to watch Patrick Tse cos he looked like a walking corpse.
@passingby
U made a brilliant decision to stop watching Bet Hur. Trust the majority of us here when we said Bet Hur is the worst series of its genre. If you want to watch a crime drama, why not watching Line Walker: The Prelude that is airing now? I’m sure LW2 will be a much better and worth-watching series than Bet Hur.
Meanwhile, you are right that the Ling’s alliance in TUA didn’t look like some manipulative and intelligent (supposed to be) business crooks. TVB needs kelefes with the look of the Taiwan mafia boss to be members of the Ling’s alliance so as to look more convincing, but unfortunately TVB seems lack of kelefes to cast too lately.
@rucofan1100 ling’s alliance looked more like a bunch of clowns than some manipulative businessmen crooks. Now i like that Taiwan mafia boss, the one that killed Kate’s brothers. He looked pretty menacing i wouldn’t want to mess with the likes of him.