Beauty of the Game (TVB 2009)
Beauty of the Game <美麗高解像>
TVB Series, 2009
Number of Episodes: 20
Cast:
Kate Tsui as Ko Ching Man
Christine Ng as Keung Chi Fung
Sharon Chan as Tong Ho Yee (Cally)
Chris Lai as Chong Dik Kan (Deacon)
Kingdom Yuen as Cheung Lai Hung
Wong Cho Lam as Yuen Kowk Fan
Evergreen Mak as To Tang
Stephen Huynh as Tong Wai Po
Raymond Cho as Wan Sze Wai
Mimi Lo as Ling Kit Yu (Kit)
Jeannette Leung as Bowie Kan
Plot (Warning: Spoilers!!!)
Lai Hung (Kingdom Yuen) and Keung Chi Fung (Christine Ng) were famous actresses in the past. However, due to an accident whilst filming, Kingdom Yuen became disabled and left the entertainment industry whilst Chi Fung’s popularity continued to rise. She became very successful and every year she was awarded best TV actress.
Lai Hung’s daughter Ko Ching (Kate Tsui) is a big fan of Chi Fung. Like her mother, she wishes to enter the entertainment industry but her mum objected. She secretly enters a beauty pageant and won it. Initially, her mother disagreed but later supported her daughter and often gave her acting advice. Whilst filming an ancient series along with Chi Fung, Ko Ching met Cally (Sharon Chan) and Tong Wai Po (Stephen Huynh). Since they were newcomers they would often joke around and Chi Fung was not impressed with the fact that they did not take work seriously. As a result, she often played tricks on them. later, Chi Fung learnt that Ko Ching was her rival Lai Hung’s daughter and treated her badly. Ko ching tried to improve in her acting skills with the help of her mother.
Deacon (Chris Lai) is a series producer and good friends with both Ko Ching and Cally. He is also very rich. Cally discovers Deacon’s wealthy background and they became together. Cally hopes to rise to the top and hides the fact that her family is poor and that her father had suffered from the stroke. Ko Ching discovers Cally’s secret and promises not to tell. Deacon’s father has a secret affair with Chi Fung.
Kwok Fan (Wong Cho Lam) is a paparazzi reporter who often tries to reveal the darkest secrets of celebrities. He often follows Ko Ching in order to take photos of her.
Ko Ching and Cally’s friendship then suffers due to an incident where they both agreed to boycott filming in order to get back at Chi Fung. However, Cally returned to filming and betrayed Ko Ching. The friendship suffered because of Chi Fung and became to side with Cally. Their friendship was further destroyed when they were fighting over Deacon.
Cally got influenced by Wai Po and began to turn to drugs. Meanwhile, Chi Fung started to befriend Ko Ching and they became sisters. Ko Ching moved in with Chi Fung despite her mother’s warnings and the two became very close. Chi Fung tried to get Ko Ching into drugs but it failed. It also turned out that Chi Fung often had botox injections to maintain her youthful looks.
Ko Ching began to see the true side of Chi Fung and plotted her revenge. She used Kwok Fan to reveal the affair of Chi Fung and Deacon’s father. The side effects of Chi Fung’s surgery caused her face to become disfigured and she needed surgical correction. Meanwhile, Cally’s drug addiction became very severe and she often needed the toilet. She collapsed due to drug abuse.
Ko Ching became a different character ever since she met Chi Fung. She lost all her friends and became really aggressive to both her friends and family. However, when she eventually realised that she was wrong and was going to apologise to her friends, Chi Fung hired someone to attack her. The attacker left a large scar on her face. The attack changed Ko Ching and she became her older self again. She persuaded Cally to get treatment for her drug problem and they became friends again. Cally was going to leave the entertainment circle but her mother persuaded her to continue acting and decided to return to the entertainment circle herself.
Chi Fung’s surgery was successful but she was threatened by her friend who knew all her secrets. He threatened her and consequently, she killed him. Cally managed to solve her drug problem and returned to film with Ko Ching. Both Ko Ching and Chi Fung were nominated for the best actress award. On the night of the event, Chi Fung had hallucinations and was convinced that Ko Ching was going to get the award. She took Ko Ching away and was going to kill her so she would never win the award. However, during the conflict, Chi Fung fell down the building. On the way to the hospital, her assistant told her that she had won the award.
Chi fung was paralysed and could no longer move. Ko Ching and Lai Hung went to visit her and asked whether everything she did was worth it.
Comments on Performances:
Kate Tsui as Ko Ching Man
I did not really like Kate’s previous series. I have always found her very annoying and her crying skills were not very good. However, in this series her acting has improved so much! Her crying skills are so much better in this series and she is very good at portraying the evil roles. She also looked very pretty in this series. Her character was very innocent at the start but because of the betrayal by both Cally and Chi Fung, her character became very manipulative and cunning.
Rating: 4/5
Christine Ng as Keung Chi Fung
Christine Ng was not really as popular until the Korean series Dai Cheung Kim. Everyone had said that she looked like Choi Seung Kong. I think that their eyes are very similar and she has what I would call “evil eyes” which are very useful when portraying the villain. This character suited Christine really well as a villain and i think she should portray more of these roles. Her character was older and very manipulative. She did a brilliant job.
Rating: 5/5
Sharon Chan as Cally Tong Ho Yee
This is the first time I have watched her portray a villain sort of character. I think that in some ways this character resembles her character in Dreams of Colour. However, there is definitely some improvement compared to before especially when she had to portray the drug addict part. That was done exceptionally well. She had a great chemistry Deacon and I really wanted them to be together.
Rating 3.5/5
Overall Comments:
Best performance: Christine Ng
Worse performance:Kingdom Yuen- She has played a lot of comedic roles in the past and having to portray a character like that was harder and she did not do as well.
Best couple: Sharon Chan and Chris Lai
Worse couple: Mimi Lo and Wong Cho Lam
Breakthrough performances: Kate Tsui and Jeanette Leung
Series Rating : 
I think this is one of the best series I have seen in a while. The series show the secrets of the entertainment industry but its aim was to warn young people about the dangers of drugs. I think that this series is definitely worth watching. The three actresses delivered strong performances and the storyline is very interesting. It has been said that the events of the series is based on real life events which makes it even more interesting to watch.
Review written by Colly
Colly, wow thanks for such a thorough review!
The plot sounds very sensational, but intriguing. I can envision that Christine is very suitable to play the role; the character seems custom-written for her.
I wonder which real life events the plot is based on. Anyone willing to take a stab at which real life actresses the plot drew inspiration from?
How was Lai Lok Yi’s acting in this? Was he a capable male lead? I found his acting to be very raw in “Fathers and Sons,” which was the last series I saw him in.
Even though Lai was billed as male lead, he doesn’t really have much to do in the series. This is definitely a women’s series. The men are all just supporting. But, even among the men, I find that the role of Deacon is still not that signification. I felt that Deacon’s father and Tom Tom have more things to do than Deacon and affect storyline more than him. Deacon is a very passive character. Things happen to him and he reacted. He seldom is (if at all) the initiator.
But, still, I think Deacon is a welcome element in the series. I like Deacon. He’s one of the very few completely decent person in the series. You got to have one or two of this kind of character in a series full of schemers and backstabbers.
I’ve always liked Christine Ng a lot and felt it was a shame that she was not very well-appreciated. Maybe people didn’t like her much because of things that happened in her personal life, but she seems to be getting more roles and more recognition now. I hope she continues to be successful.
Yes. I absolutely love this series, and it’s good enough to be in the “favourtite” series list. OF course… with the three leads, kate, christine, and sharon which i absolutely love already.
I always liked Kate.. but this series had made me like her even more. She looks absolutely gorgeous in this series.. and her acting has improved alot. like alot. Like i’ve always liked Kate but in the past series her acting just really “exagerrated”, fake or just annoying… but yes anyway, her acting improved alot.