Best TVB Series - Early 1900's

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The Bund
Fate Cast in the Wind
The Lonely Hunter
The Shell Game II
Strange Vampire Soldiers

The Bund
上海灘
Cantonese: Shurn Hoi Taun
Mandarin: Shang Hai Tan
Chapters: 25
Year: 1980
Singer of Theme Song: 葉麗儀
Cast:

This was a really famous series set in the 1940s in Shang-hai. It starts out with a troubled Hiu Mun Kern (Donald Chow) coming to Shang-hai after WWII. There, he reunites with a childhood friend, Fong Yi Mun (Lam Geen Ming). She helps him gain his confidence and he becomes a helper of a rich guy (Lau Taun). Lau Taun has a daughter, Ching Ching (Gigi Chiu Ngar Chi) who likes Mun Kern. Mun Kern helps Lau Taun fight and gain power. His friend, Ting Ah Lik (Ray Lair) comes up and the two becomes enemies due to a power struggle and for Ching Ching. However, Lau Tau sends them on many missions and on the way, they meet a cool Japanese Spy (Au Yeung Pui San). She tries to trick them but they kill her.
Later on, Mun Kern gets framed and is sent away to another country. There, he meets Mirta King, a poor village girl with whom he falls in love and marries. However, Lau Taun sends some people to try to kill him but kills his wife. Mun Kern returns to Shang-hai to revenge. Ching Ching, knowing that he wants to kill her father, marries Ah Lik. At the end, after many deaths and fights, Fong Yi Mun gets killed. Mun Kern finally gets Lau Taun. In this final fight, the two have one gun with one bullet somewhere in the barrel. In this game of chance, the two take turns raising it to their heads and Lau Taun lost. As soon as he kills himself, Ching Ching hates Mun Kern and runs away. Ah Lik and Mun Kern end up to the bosses in Shang-hai. However, at the end, Ah Lik also shoots him to death and the whole series ends with the dead Mun Kern outside a bar which he owned.
There is a Bund I and Bund III that was made right after this series. Bund II has Ray Lair and Wong Sok Yee and Bund III and Ray again with Au Yeung Piu San. The two series also talked of the underworld in Shang-hai through the 60s but, as with all trilogies, the sequels are less well-known than the first one but are as equally good.

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Fate Cast in the Wind
大茶園
Cantonese: Ti Sai Yun
Mandarin: Dai Sha Yurn
Chapters: 24
Year: 1987
Singer of Theme Song: 甄妮
Cast:

This touching series is based on a huge tea garden in Kei Moon in the 1900s. Yu Father (Bao Fong) and his wife, Yu Mother own the whole tea garden and are the richest in the whole village. They have a naughty daughter Yu Yik Zee (Lam Kei Mun) whose fiancee gets murdered and she gets raped. The father of the fiancee, Do Old Man (Gong Ngai), is angry but forgives Yu Father and tries to be his friend. Yik Zee finally has the child but the child is half white. Yu Father is embarrassed so send the baby away where a kind old man picks him up and raises him. At this time, Yu Mother also has a child, Yu Yik Hung (Lawrence Ng) who becomes a sickly boy at the age of five. His mother has him marry a poor girl (Teresa Mo) who will take care of him and bring luck to him, for superstitious reasons.
Sa Chong Yuk is at first mean to Yik Hung but then they become friends. However, she causes Yik Hung to drop into the water and he becomes very sick. She runs away, in fear that he will die and everyone thinks that she has also died in a fire. Yik Hung does not die and he wonder where his friend has gone. Ten years later, he grows up. Yik Zee decides to go to Shang-hai with an older man to learn about western ways. Yik Hung, after fooling around in the garden with nothing to do, also decides to go to Shang-hai with Do Old Man . When he arrives there, he sees that his sister is married to the older man. He also goes to school and meets a prostitute who happens to be Sa Chong Yuk. Sa Chong Yuk had not died and she was working under Shui Ling Long, a famous prostitute owner and her man, Kwai Gong Gong.
By this time, Do Old Man is secretly planning his hidden revenge against the Yu Family for killing his son. He works with some rich people in Shang-hai and the two plan to bankrupt Yu Father's Estate. They succeed in tricking his money. Meanwhile, Yik Zee meets a famous doctor, Chin Ho Fu (Dai Zi Wai). Their affair causes the death of her old husband. But the two do not get to be together long because the white man who had raped Yik Zee ten years ago comes back and tries to get her again. Yik Hung and Sa Chong Yuk also reunite and after some misunderstandings, they want to get married but Yu Father and Yu Mother object since she was a whore. Do Old Man captures Yik Hung because he wants to revenge and kills the Yu Family's son. Sa Chong Yuk, in order to save him, becomes pregnant with Do Old Man's baby. Afterwards, Yik Hung and Sa Chong Yuk run away together and open a restuarant but are forced to come back when she has a child and he joins the Sun Yat Sen revolution.
Meanwhile, Yik Zee kills the man who raped her and runs away from Shang-hai back to home, leaving Chin Ho Fu. She also reunites with her child from ten years ago who is now a policeman. When Yik Hung comes back with his family, he lies to Yu Father that he and Sa Chong Yuk had the baby so his dad will accept them. However, Do Old Man comes back and says that the child is his. He is extremely happy because his first son had died. In this final fight at the end, while chasing on top of a hill and grabbing for the child, Sa Chong Yuk and Do Old Man both falls off a cliff and die. Yu Father claims back the child and Yik Hung hugs his wife as she dies. Yik Zee, hearing that Chin Ho Fu became a priest, also commits suicide in a tragic ending.

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The Lonely Hunter
過客
Cantonese: Gou Hak
Mandarin: Gao Ke
Chapters: 25
Year: 1981
Singer of Theme Song: 關菊英
Cast:

Taking place in the 1930s, this sad story portrayed the mafia and everyone affected by it. It was also one of Felix Wong's first television series. The series starts out with three very good friends who have promised to be blood brothers. One brother (Yeung Quan) has a daughter, Fan Yuk Ying, and a wife who is having an affair with one of the brothers. The last brother (Lau Taun) has a son, Lee Tong, and a very loyal housekeeper named Goon Sei (Kwan Hoi San). The story unravels when the brother having the affair destroys the whole brotherhood and frames Lau Taun, kills him, takes his property, goes after his whole family, and puts the blame onYeung Quan. Fortunately, Goon Sei, taking his own children along with the son Lee Tong, escapes to Shang-hai with the promise for his son to avenge. Soon, the evil man goes after Yeung Quan who also escapes to Shang-hai, leaving his wife with her affair man, and taking his daughter.
Ten to fifteen years later, Lee Tong (Felix Wong) grows up with Goon Sei's children whom he treats as brothers and sisters. Goon Sei raised these three, his daughter Ah Fong (Money Chan), his son (Joey Liu), and Lee Tong as coldblooded killers to do his revenging for his master. Yeung Quan had had luck in Shang-hai since he came here many years ago. Owning a large business of restuarants and nightclubs, he had accumulated a bunch of wealth all over again. Lee Tong's first step was to enter into Yeung Quan's property, not telling him that he was his former brother's son, and slowly take over everything. Lee Tong did get into Yeung Quan's business, slowly earning his trust, through saving his life and other inccidents working in his favor. Along the way, he meets Au Yeung Gong (Miu Kiu Wai), a cowardly taxi cab driver. Through Lee Tong's help, Ah Gong develops courage and joins in with Yeung Quan's mafia. The two plan to go against Yeung Quan. However, Lee Tong meets Yuk Ying (Dodo Cheng) and they like each other which makes his revenge a little harder. Yuk Ying, being a very nice girl, also made Lee Tong realize that being nice wasn't so bad after all. But Goon Sei constantly reminded him of his father's revenge. Another guy Lau Mun Fu (Sak Sel) also was chasing Yuk Ying but she only liked Lee Tong.
Meanwhile, the evil man also comes back to Shang-hai and tries to make trouble for Lee Tong. Yuk Ying finally meets her mother again but the mother commits suicide in shame. At this time, now that Lee Tong has had control of most of Yeung Quan's mafia, Goon Sei demanded that Lee Tong kill him. Lee Tong, who has developed feelings for both the father and daughter, refuses to do so and escapes from Goon Sei where he tries to live and normal and peaceful life. However, Goon Sei does not let him and wrongs him for a crime so Lee Tong is exported to another island for a few months. When he came back, he finds out that Yuk Ying planned to marry Lau Mun Fu but that does not happen when her father gets killed by Goon Sei on her wedding day. Lee Tong now realizes that Goon Sei is his real enemy and that the old man did not really care about revenging but really wanted power for himself. Lee Tong wants to work with Ah Gong to get rid of Goon Sei and the other evil man, who has now taken over much power in Shang-hai but Ah Gong also turns greedy. The evil man was easy to defeat but Goon Sei was another story. Goon Sei does everything he can to stop Lee Tong including tricking him into taking cocaine (which Lee Tong got out of) and putting him in jail.
Finally, in this gunfight, Goon Sei almost kills Lee Tong but Ah Fong sacrifices for him. She had always liked him but he only treated him like a sister. Goon Sei's son had died much earlier in the story. Mun Fu also gets killed. Lee Tong feels more guilty about everyone he had hurt but ignoring Yuk Ying's efforts to stop him, he continues his plan. In this other fight, Ah Gong gets shot and while in a half-coma, he begs Lee Tong to kill him and ends his suffering. Lee Tong does the most hardest thing in his life and kills his friend. The final part of the series ends with Goon Sei hostaging Yuk Ying. Lee Tong saves her and despite Yuk Ying's plead with him to not kill anymore, he shoots the old man. Yuk Ying gave up on him and at the end, she married another guy and had kids. The last scene has Lee Tong sneaking a peek at her when she is eating dinner with her family and he secretly buys her family ice-cream. She runs out of the restuarant to find who the mysterious person is but he already leaves.

The Shell Game II
千王群英會 II
Cantonese: Qin Wong Quan Ying Wui II
Mandarin: Qian Wang Jun Ying Hui II
Chapters: 20
Year: 1980
Singer of Theme Song: 汪明全
Cast:
  • 汪明全 - ???................Lisa Wong Ming Chin
  • 謝賢 - 陶一笑................Patrick Tse Yin
  • 任達華 - ???..................Simon Yam Tak Wah
  • 周潤發 - 阿龍................Donald Chow Yun Fat
  • 莊文青 - 阿寶................Chuang Mun Ching
  • 呂有慧 - ???...................Lair You Wai
  • 劉兆銘 - 大千.................Lau Siu Ming
  • 林綺雯 - ???....................Lam Kei Mun
  • 嚴秋華 - 阿富..................Yam Sel Wah

This famous series, set in the 1920s Shang-hai, paved the way for gambling movies. The series before this (Shell Game I) was also good. However, no later gambling movies can match up to the Shell Game II. To Yut Sui or Last Laugh (Patrick Tse) is a famous gambler in Shang-hai, holding a bunch of property and money. His biggest enemy is Sal Tai Zin or Big Cheater (Lau Siu Lo), an old man with a fake wig. Big Cheater has this affair lady (Lair You Wai) who is smart and conniving and gives him many bad tricks. Ah Long (Donald Chow) comes out as a cool and sauve young boy. He knows how to gamble but does not do the big stakes like Last Laugh or Big Cheater. He meets this reporter (Lisa Wong) and the two become friends. Don't remember the beginning that well.
Toward the middle of the story, for some reason, Lisa Wong marries Last Laugh and becomes the stepmother of his six year old son. Later on, Last Laugh, while betting on a gambling game against Big Cheater, loses all his property as well as his right hand. He becomes distraught and loses his confidence to gamble to anymore. He and his family are now poor while Big Cheater takes all of his estates. Meanwhile, Ah Long gets married to Ah Bo (Chuang Mun Ching), a poor village girl and she becomes pregnant with his child. Big Cheater then comes out and announces a final match against Last Laugh. Last Laugh, with no confidence, refuses to go so Ah Long, now having learned all the tricks, takes his place. Unfortunately, Big Cheater cheats during the game just when Ah Long bets on his life. Ah Long loses and is forced to jump off the high building. Just as he jumps off, his Wife Ah Bo gives birth to a son, supposedly reincarnated into him.
Everyone is shocked to hear of Ah Long's death and Last Laugh is forced to come out again to defeat Big Cheater but he is still afraid. Suddenly, another King of Gamblers (Simon Yam) comes out. He used to be a famous gambler but had retired many years ago. He helps Last Laugh with his old tricks and raises money to do the final battle. Last Laugh regains his confidence.
On the final battle, as Big Cheater and Last Laugh had their cards faced down and doing the last bet. However, Last Laugh has a heart attack and is rushed to the hospital. He tells his wife, Lisa Wong, that the cards are a full house and to play the rest of the game for him, betting on everything they had, including their lives. Lisa Wong goes, full of confidence that she will win and scares Big Cheater saying that she has full house. Big Cheater gives up because his cards are not as good. When they all flip their cards, they found out that Lisa Wong did not have full house but she had win. She did not know the trick her husband had conjured but she pulled it off. Last Laugh had planned this all along because he knew he could not beat his opponent; he did not have a real heart attack. Big Cheater is upset that a lady beat him so he commits suicide. Lisa Wong is upset that her husband lied to her because she could have died if Big Cheater had not fallen for it. She leaves her husband and Last Laugh is left alone.

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Strange Vampire Soldiers
疆屍奇兵
Cantonese: Kern Si Kei Bing
Mandarin: Qiang Shi Qi Bing
Chapters: 25
Year: 1989
Singer of Theme Song: 文佩玲
Cast:

This series first took place in England where the vampire family first started. However, with the help of Yao Lap Yut (Leung Hong Wah), the whole vampire family gets killed except for Nei Gu Ting the Vampire (Gau Se Lak). He and his loyal valet travel to Hong Kong to revive their clan. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, Ah Pao (Ha Yu) and another rich guy, Cheung (Yeung Sap Lam) are constantly fighting for power over the village. Somehow, the Vampire manages to sneak into Hong Kong and for the promise of wealth and fame, Cheung evily agrees to help him regain his status. In exchange, the Vampire agrees to help him get rid of Ah Pao.
The Vampire builds a huge castle in the forest and people start disappearing around the village. Ah Pao and his Taoist friend (Ho Gwai Lam) and his daughter Ching Ching (Lam Kei Mun) work together to try to destroy the vampire. But, the Taoist friend dies in the process and Ah Pao lets Ching Ching marry his son, Ah Leung (Eddie Cheung) because her father was so brave. Another guy, Yao Lap Yut (Leung Hong Wah), comes back from England and helps Ching Ching in the Vampire fight. He likes Ching Ching but she only likes her husband, Ah Leung. A few months later, the Vampire has already tricked most of Ah Pao's family into following him and it seemed like nothing could beat him.
Through a whole bunch of fighting and other incidents with Ching Ching and Yao Lap Yut, they finally figure out a magical way to destroy him forever. However, at that time, most character in the series were wiped out including the whole Ah Pao family, except for his son. Ah Pao sacrifices himself when he sets an explosion in the Vampire's castle, killing all the offspring and other monsters. Cheung then realizes that he has done wrong in helping such a monster, changes his mind, and gets killed. Finally at the end, when Yao Lap Yut, Ching Ching, and Ah Leung are trapped in a cave, they find a Kung-fu book, hidden by the Dharma priest which gives directions and a magical sword to destroy vampires. Yao Lap Yut and Ching Ching, by combining Taoism and western magic, manages to destroy the monster.

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