The Mysteries of Love (TVB 2010)

The Mysteries of Love – <談情說案>

Number of episodes: 25

Lead Cast:

Raymond Lam – Kingsley King Pok

Tavia Yeung – Chui Sui Lai (aka Sai Lei Mui 犀利妹)

Kenneth Ma – Gordon Lo Tin Hang

Bernice Liu – Nickole Ling Man Ka

Plot Summary (May contain spoilers!):

Kingsley King is a Physics Professor at a University in Hong Kong. He is very talented in physics and at the same time very good looking. However, in contrast to his best friend since primary school, Gordon Lo, Kingsley has a very boring character whereby his life is portrayed to revolve around reading books and conducting experiments. Upon meeting each other again, the pair decide that they should continue their childhood ‘way’ of allowing Kingsley to solve the problem that they face with Gordon receiving the praise of getting it done.

Through Gordon, Kingsley befriends Chui Sui Lai, who comes from a family who have a history of serving the police force for many generations. There is a painting hung by their dining table that they are all very proud of; the picture portrays two men, one of whom is a policeman and ancestor of Sui Lai and the other a wealthy and educated man. Coincidently, this other man is the ancestor of the King family and they too have the same painting which is hung by their staircase. However, at this point, both families do not know that the other family has the same painting in their house, a painting which represents the bad relations that have been laid since the generation depicted in the painting. The painting becomes an obstacle that Sui Lai and Kingsley must overcome later in the story. Together with Gordon, Sui Lai and Kingsley solve many mysterious cases from those revolving around ghosts to murder cases– all of which are solved through Kingsley’s exceptional physics knowledge.

Sui Lai and Kingsley fall in love and Kingsley expresses his love for Sui Lai by analysing it to her in a scientific way, claiming that he is in “love” due to phenethylamine. Due to Kingsley’s family’s disapproval of the relationship, they exert a lot of pressure onto Kingsley who finally gives in and admits to Sui Lai that he “calculated the sum wrong,” which leaves Sui Lai on the verge of suicide. In the end, the King family realise that those from “poorer backgrounds” are better than some from “wealthier backgrounds” like them – this comes after an incident whereby Sui Lai saves Victoria Cheung Wai Chu (Mary Hon) [Kingsley’s mother]’s life whilst a rich girl had previously abandoned Victoria in a dangerous situation.

In comparison to Kingsley, Gordon’s love life thrives. His constant appearance at Lan Kwai Fong says it all. His “ideal” relationship with a girl is one where there is sex and no responsibility involved. Gordon has various “girlfriends” and Nickole (Bernice Liu) is one who always contacts him when she is in Hong Kong. Nickole travels around often as she is a journalist and so is never in one place for long and like Gordon, she too has a complex love life. However, when Nickole expresses her love towards Gordon in a typed message on a computer, Gordon decides to ignore it, only to later realise that he actually loved her. Nickole and Gordon go through ups and downs following the incident. Nickole is outraged when she overhears that Gordon wants a wife without a “past” after getting together again and Gordon fails to gain Nickole’s forgiveness for a long time. Yet, finally, he manages to persuade her that he definitely did not mean to say such words (because he had had a few drinks) and swiftly logs in to register their marriage on the internet.

Overall, both relationships end happily ever after.

Awards and reasons:

Favourite Male Character / Best Actor: Gordon (Kenneth Ma) –Personally I thought he was the best person to pick for such a role and Kenneth pulled it off very well. Gordon Lo was depicted to be a very able man, and whilst he did not have the brains like his friend Kingsley, his character was much more interesting. [I didn’t like Kingsley (Raymond Lam) as much because of his idea that everything can be calculated like a maths sum including love, resulting in him hurting Sui Lai (Tavia Yeung) a lot.]

Favourite Female Character / Best Actress: Chui Sui Lai (Tavia Yeung) – I felt Tavia’s role this time round was different to those she’d previously played. Here, she portrayed a very convincing (and perhaps stereotypical) woman who was strong on the outside but less so when it came to touchy subjects like love. I also admired very much the justice she hoped to bring through being a policewoman.

Favourite Case: I loved the first one – the one about the murder where someone claimed to hear gun sounds but another didn’t. The explanation of sound “cancelling each other out” was fascinating (although I still don’t really understand…) and the case proved the amazing cooperation between Kingsley and Sui Lai as well as with Gordon.

Favourite Supporting Female Character: Leanne Li as Bowie Choi Bo Yi – Although she was an annoying character, I felt Bowie’s character was the perfect contrast to that of Sui Lai’s. Bowie’s rebellious personality is again one to be expected but I felt that adding in Bowie’s character added a different setting and ‘feel’ to the episodes at the end of the drama.

Best supporting Actress: Candy Chiu as Anastasia King Chi – Candy pulled this character off so well that I hated her from day 1. What can I say?!

Favourite Supporting Male Character / Best Supporting Actor: Raymond Wong as Wong Chi Ho (黃志浩) [aka Ace] – although he was only introduced at the very end, I felt the character was very cleverly portrayed so that the hatred came across very apparently. I liked the name Ace which went against Kingsley’s name very well. Raymond portrayed the character perfectly so that he came across very cunning and calm (in working out such a plan) only to be outwitted by Kingsley in the end.

Theme Song (直到你不找我/Until You Can’t Find Me): This was sung by Raymond Lam. I felt the song was a very touching song and the lyrics were very too the point. There is also something about Raymond’s voice that makes the song all the more likeable for me.

Comments:

I was drawn to the drama because of the science as I enjoy learning it myself, and I was not disappointed as I did gain a lot of knowledge from this drama. I felt the “conflict” between the King and the Chui Family was very stereotypical but it made me have second thoughts over the issue and sadly, the case does exist. My one criticism of this drama is the fact that many of the characters’ attributes seemed to be very stereotypical and at times perhaps overly stereotypical especially in the fact that the main characters, Kingsley and Sui Lai, were to overcome family differences in financial terms to get together.

There were definitely times where I wanted to (literally) hit Kingsley (Raymond Lam) because of his ideas to formulating love although I did feel that the explanation using phenethylamine was very sweet. I was glad that the ending was a happy one and that all conflicts and disagreements were settled. I was on the edge of my seat in the last few episodes when the lives in the hospital were endangered by the bomb and those few episodes were definitely ones which moved very quickly. At times, I felt that the chemistry between the characters were not developing and were slightly lagging whilst the plot thickened around it (almost ignoring the issue).

Overall, it was an amazing drama to watch and at the time, my favourite drama of the year.

Rating:

Review written by Katie, a JayneStars.com contributing writer.