Initial Praises for “Big White Duel”
TVB medical drama Big White Duel <白色強人> aired its first episode Monday night and was met with many compliments for its accuracy and fast-paced action.
The first episode starts off with a multi-car crash accident where doctors Kenneth Ma (馬國明) and Natalie Tong (唐詩詠) immediately help the victims. The camera then pans to the emergency room at the hospital, where the doctors are faced with a variety issues, including a case where a little girl who cut herself, a construction employee that fell, a young lady who suffers from anorexia, and an athlete suffering from food poisoning.
The drama also received a lot of praise for how realistic some of the scenes were. In order to showcase a more realistic surgery room, the production crew even used actual medical machines.
Besides the medical cases, Big White Duel will also be focusing on how the characters’ lives intertwine– including Kenneth’s friendship with Natalie, Roger Kwok’s (郭晉安) troubled relationship with coworker John Chiang (姜大衞) and his mysterious relationship with Ali Lee (李佳芯). Kenneth’s character will eventually violate the Hippocratic Oath, while Ali skirts a gray line in her climb to the top.
Doctor X and Team Medical Dragon Copycat?
Despite having a strong start and most viewers are very excited for the upcoming episodes, Big White Duel is found to bear similarities to Japanese medical drama Doctor X due to Kenneth’s unorthodox ways and Team Medical Dragon for the politics portrayed inside the hospital.
Source: HK01
This article is written by Su for JayneStars.com.
so far so good! cant wait to see more.
So far so good… It’s been a while… Seems to have high hopes. But, knowing TVB, beginning is always good… towards the last few episodes, they rush to end it and miss out on details… Will see. But for now, it’s good, looking forward to catching more.
I just re-watched On Call 36 Hours so I’m a little bummed out to see Kenneth looking so haggard in this series lol still handsome but he has shown his age. It has a very different vibe to On Call; darker, more politics and also doesn’t have the typical TVB hospital scenes. The hospital in this series looks more realistic, grim and cold.
I quite like the pacing and story arc. However, Natalie Tong is terrible. Her script reading is wooden and boring. The newcomers are performing much better than her.
@hazel I actually agree with with you about Natalie… and newcomers.
@hazel
Need to see more of the series before giving my opinion on Natalie but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was just the same usual boring acting from her. She has never excelled at TVB and it’s a miracle that her acting career has lasted this long. Ali easily outperforming her in first couple of episodes I’ve seen so far..
@jimmyszeto I thought Ali was comatose in her performance. She was so cold, so indifferent
@jimmyszeto Natalie recites her lines like she’s doing a table read; zero emotion and forced. She pauses in between lines and ruins the flow.
I must say I disliked Ali when she started out; thought she was terrible in Law dis-Order. However, despite having only seen the first 5 episodes of the Big White Duel, I can tell that she has improved dramatically. I also quite like Crystal Fung and Kelly Cheung.
@hazel
That’s always been the Natalie way. Always zero enthusiasm, zero charisma,zero onscreen presence. She doesn’t even have a captivating appearance nor voice. I feel Crystal is probably the most naturally gifted actress to come from Miss HK, in years. Even Tracy Chu took quite few series to improve. Crystal is already fitting in nicely….
I like it, but I don’t love it yet. At least I am still watching which is an amazing feat for me for tvb series these days. The hospital building is gorgeous but what building is it? Can public hospital look so… nice?
Acting wise…i suppose Ali Lee is supposed to be an emotionally cold doctor? Because her performance is very cold. Natalie is warmer but she is mostly reacting rather than acting but at least a tad warmer than Ali. And is it compulsory that any series must have a positive naive nice one that cries, a lot?
The guys are ok except why Kenneth has that ugly hairstyle? It is funny he is supposed to be same age or around same time as Ram isn’t it? But is he convincing as a good man trying to do good? yes. But is he convincing as a great maverick doctor trying to defy the system, whatever it may be? Nope.
But the worst had to be roger. He’s an amazing actor but in here he is playing his character like a caricature. I just got a feeling his character isn’t that terrible?
because this is like kdrama mode. every episode has at least 2 threats being issued, 1 bargain being struck, few attempts to discredit someone and in the end lives may or may not be saved. But for few consecutive episodes we have patients with questionable mental health and i thought instead of neurosurgery, this is the perfect excuse to bring out psychiatrist or therapist which they have but never shown. What a waste.
I recommend a similar but a better series, New Amsterdam. Ep 1-2 was a fluke the rest was amazing and the doctors are believable. I mean this series has too many young doctors in top position, it doesn’t make sense to me BUT roger being in his position is understandable since he could be someone who keeps himself fit and youthful even if roger looks rather old in here.
I am glad though to see 2 similar actors in same series… whats the name of Matthew Ho’s lookalike in here that always stands next to Roger?
And come on, it’;s public hospital so maybe it is a teaching hospital?More students? I know it is about politics but it is so badly explained (as in not explained) I really do think the only politics here is a battle between 2 egoistical men.
Not a brilliant series but at least good fun.
@funnlim
I’m liking it so far but the director or story is trying to make the characters seem more complicated when in fact they are very simple and each character’s motivations are quite obvious. It tries too hard to use music to add conflicts in the characters in the ‘When Heavens Burn’ mode when it is nowhere near that well written. Kenneth and Natalie’s relationship isn’t at all ambiguous. It’s just a previous marriage where Natalie wanted Kenneth to protect his job but he was more bothered about his patients health and feelings. That’s it! Apart from maybe Natalie, everyone is at their usual decent level of acting with no stand out but this group have always been quite solid. I think we need more changes the personalities in the main characters for the acting to be tested. At the moment this is just heading into a very steadily acted drama which would be a waste of the beautiful scenery of the hospital and the political theme….
@funnlim I feel the same about how the public hospital works being poorly (i.e. not) explained.
I’m enjoying this series so far, and this is a unpopular opinion but I too think Natalie’s acting (or reacting) thus far in the show is a bit better than Ali’s, but I’m sure once I see more of Ali I’ll feel differently as I like both actresses equally.
And I think you’re talking about Stephen Wong, the one Matthew Ho looks similar to!