"Shades of Truth" on DVD

Cast: Julian Cheung, Wong He, Gigi Lai, Tavia Yeung
Duration: 25 episodes
Producer: Siu Hin Fai
Air Date: December 27, 2004 - January 29, 2005

Synopsis:

Mo Chung and Lam Chung were best friends in their past lives. After generations, they meet again. Mo Song is reborn as Ha Chung Yum, and Lam Chung is reborn as Lam Ji Chung. Chung Yum joins the triads, while Ji Chung is a cop. Chung Yum gets his past memories back and tries to convince Ji Chung that he is his long lost brother, Lam Chung. Will they stay friends or will they become enemies?

My Thoughts:
The series was about to be warehoused because "Shades" producer Siu Hin Fai was no longer a TVB producer, and it was only aired because of Gigi's 'My Favourite Actress' award win for "War and Beauty". I remember I was really excited when I first heard that both Chi Lam and Ah He were in it because they are one of my favourites. With so much anticipation before watching it, there was absolutely no possible way I was going to miss this series. However, after watching it, I was very disappointed. Maybe I was thrown off by the Chinese title, which is a mixture of an old Chinese tale, "Siu Wu Juen", and the movie "Infernal Affairs". I was expecting a lot from the series. The writing was not great, especially the ending was a bit rushed and everything was explained in the final episode. [The writers for the show were Chan Jing Yee and Ng Siu Tung. Chan was one of the writers for "The King of Yesterday and Tomorrow" and Ng wrote "Family Man" (the only series that I can think of off the top of my head)].

Despite the not-so-incredible storyline, I found it was still enough to keep me entertained. I can't lie; it was all because of Chi Lam, Ah He, and Tavia. However, the HK audience was not so hot about this series. There were two main reasons why people didn't watch the series. One, the series was aired during the holidays. The average for the first week of airing was 26 points, and the last week's average was 28 points. It peaked at 31 points, and the overall average was only 26 points. Two, people were still upset about Gigi winning the award over Sheren Tang.

Since Gigi has announced her retirement, is TVB trying to pull a marketing scheme by releasing "Shades of Truth" on DVD? I am not sure, but I will not exclude any possibilities, since this is TVB we are talking about.

NOTE:

Chi Lam will be returning to TVB at the end of the year to film with Tavia (maybe Steven Ma as well). He was spotted at TVB, and he revealed that the series will be produced by Tsui Yu On and it will be a love story revolving around horoscopes. Can't wait!

Check out "Shades of Truth" at YesAsia!

*Credits to tvb.com