Review: “A Change of Heart” (By Miriamfanz)
A Change of Heart <好心作怪>
Hong Kong TVB Drama 2013
Producer: Nelson Cheung
Genre: Modern, Suspense
Episodes: 30
Rating: 
Cast:
Michael Miu, Bosco Wong, Joey Meng, Niki Chow, Vincent Wong, Mandy Wong, Elaine Yiu
Plot:
A ruthless businessman has A Change of Heart after heart surgery, which greatly displeases his wife, who then has an affair with her subordinate. She suspects her husband of an affair with the girlfriend of the heart donor who was also his doctor and whom has a twin brother that the girlfriend uses to get close to the businessman so she can investigate her mother’s murder, which makes the wife so jealous that she goes to extreme lengths to get revenge. Yet he remains true to her, except it was too late when she found out because she’s done too many bad deeds. In TVB world, that means you must die no matter what because otherwise there will be complaints pouring in from lots of people with nothing better to do and we wouldn’t want that now, would we?
Review:
A Change of Heart is one of the better series so far this year. Then again, that’s not saying much… To start off, this series boosts an attractive cast. The premise is interesting enough. The storyline itself progressed well and is intriguing with overlapping mysteries and curveballs. Even the most unsuspicious characters get embroiled as the mystery unfolds. The ending had some ingenuity, but was rushed as usual. Obviously, the script was far from perfect, but at least we can appreciate that it wasn’t a straight ride from start to finish.
Joey Meng was hands-down my favorite character. Ever since Consort Yu (Sheren Tang) of the original War and Beauty, I’ve been waiting for a character that would be equally as brilliant, manipulative and scheming. Joey is just that – chilling and evil to the core. She stops at nothing to get what she wants and never feels a tinge of remorse. This is my first time watching Joey and I can see why she’s such a highly-touted actress. She has great acting skills to go with her impressive looks.
Mandy Wong is quickly becoming one of my favorite actresses with her spectacular performances. Not for the first time, she is able to pull off a loud-spoken, selfish character without coming across as annoying. Maybe that’s the reason she keeps getting these roles, because she is so excellent at that. She is completely immersed into her character and outshone the female lead, Niki, who was stagnant.
Niki’s character has a very emotional past, but Niki remained emotionless and distant throughout. At most, she just seemed to be moody. Her character can be unreasonable and too quick to jump to conclusions, which is not exactly a desirable trait for a police officer. Ironically, her best scene was not as herself, but as Joey acting as her in the confrontation with Michael. In that scene, I could really imagine Joey’s character being inside Niki’s body.
The men paled in comparison to the ladies. Bosco Wong plays twins brothers who supposedly differ widely in personality, but he is one and the same for both roles. At times, I was confused as to which person he was. Still, he is charismatic and shares good chemistry with Niki. Michael Miu was entertaining as a super-egoistic businessman, but he lost that appeal after his surgery. I guess I just don’t like watching nice guys. His wife had every reason to be frustrated at him. His altruistic admission of his crime was, frankly, dumb.
Vincent Wong and Elaine Yiu’s pairing was nothing to fawn over, nor were either characters vitally important for the story. But Vincent as a dorky detective wanna-be had his funny moments. He actually reminds me of an old classmate who speaks in the same manner. Benjamin Yuen was criticized in The Voice of Stars as being expressionless, and rightly so, because he’s just as wooden in here. The pairing of Benjamin and JJ Jia never radiated that blissfulness as a couple, so it didn’t matter much when their marriage fell apart.
My suggested alternative ending: Joey as Niki should do more sinister things to frame the real Niki….
The review is written by Miriamfanz, a Contributing Writer at JayneStars.com. Visit Miriamfanz’s blog!
Great review! I thought the series had average premise and really cliche dialogue/plot, which meant the acting really showed through. I could not take my eyes off of Joey through the whole series. Wish they spent less time on leaden Nikki’s back story and more on Joey’s growth and struggle.
@smurf120: i agree, if they focused more on Joey’s character instead of spent more than 10 episodes on the boring Niki, this series would have been so much better.
Joey Meng was so gorgeous in that drama! <3
I really liked this series and agree that Joey was excellent! I can’t believe that this is your first time watching her, but I guess it’s good you didn’t start with watching her in Inbound Troubles since she didn’t really stand out there.
I liked Vincent and Elaine though and thought there relationship was quite cute.
luv joey meng body language ”the way she put her arm across underneath other arm while she talks,cold ,subtle evil.,her hairstyle is gorgeous..
If you can, try to watch the My Date with A Vampire series written by starring Joey and written by her husband. I say you are better off just only watching 2 & 3 if you don’t have enough time. (1 is very low budget and 2 is pretty made with the premise of redoing 1 with a higher budget on an alternative timeline).
She has always been cute and so glad she gets all the recognition she deserves now. She’s probably one of the best youthful looking looking veterans around.
@Miriamfanz: thank you for another great review.
good comparison b/w Joey’s character and Sheren’s character in War and Beauty. True that the series was pretty messed up in term of plot and character developments, but Joey’s character was very well written and well acted out by Joey. on top of that she was so mesmerize and attractive in this series.
I really like Michael and Joey as a couple: good-looking and sweet. They look very compatible. The last scene between them is very touching.
Will Joey be a best actress for this anniversary year?
Mandy’s character is annoying, she does nothing but take up screen time
Joey Meng, in the above picture, is so cute.
Yes, I say cute for a 42 year old woman, and that’s because she really is cute, cuter than those twenty something girls.
Joey, we love you. 🙂
But Mandy is just annoying, and Niki is plain and bland and invites scorn.
Period.
I agree with those who think Mandy’s character is annoying (until the very end)