| ARMED REACTION III |
| Themesong – Sammi Cheng (Song #8) Is there something to keep a person truthful? Does a dream have it’s own direction? Is it natural to be this resilient? Is it good to force a relationship? The twists and turns of the road confuses me I turn to look back with each step I take I have to make a decision with every half second that passes Who can I ask for advice? Even if I answered all 990 questions right There were the remaining 10 questions that made me sweat Is there a way not to change someone? Is there a way to make your dreams come true? Is there a way to capture love? Is there a way to keep hope alive? Fate is testing me, asking me how I will handle this Right now, what is it that I need the most? Do you know? Does anyone know? With a blink of an eye, I will determine my fate forever Look at how I have changed From this moment on, I will let go of my insecurities ******************* Subthemesong – Sammi Cheng (Song #10) You would sigh for no reason lately When you see me, you’d walk the other way Cursing the ground with determination What is it I am not seeing clearly? Can I ask why it’s so hard for you to confide in me? Why you’d rather send me out in the middle of a rainy night? Even if the reason is to find the answer I’d say this love needs to be retire Even if it’s for the heaven and earth It should be enough It’s me who should quietly walk out this door You don’t have to over sleep anymore You can sit there and fill up your gas Looking to see if the battery is enough You need to continue to be happy Do you know the fifty thousand reasons to have me stay? I’ll still think of you fondly when I leave Leaving you with sweet memories |
| Pictures provided by tvb.com |
| Synopsis Here is another installment of the popular Armed Reaction series creating a guaranteed hit for TVB. The usual suspects (i.e. Bobby AuYeung, Joyce Tang, and Marco Ngai) are back again but this time around, Ada Choi replaces Esther Kwan. Additional cast includes, Ha Yu as Ada’s father, Ellesmere Choi as Ada’s boyfriend, Moses Chan as a gangster and Hong Wah as Ha Yu’s love interest among many others. Ada plays a rookie cop who’s really into motorcycles. She joins the traffic division just so she can ride a “metal horse” (a Chinese slang for motorcycle among the officers). She reminds the viewer of how Joyce was when she first joined the force; reckless, rash, and defiant but a good cop deep inside. She believes in justice and rules. Joyce is now the head of Ada and others officers who don’t believe she deserve the position because Joyce is not good at riding the motorcycle. She is view by her subordinates as a mean, rude, and cold boss. They don’t really like her nor respect her. Joyce is also under pressure to study for her promotion exams. She only gets 4 chances to pass and she has already failed a couple of times before so she really needs to study hard hence she doesn’t have time to take care of her twins. Ka Ka and Sa Sa are adorable kids and they spend time with their grandparents who take care of them since their parents are so busy. Marco is still the head of his team and takes care of the household. He cooks, he cleans, he takes care of the kids, and most importantly, a loving husband. As a matter of fact, he’s the perfect man. (The more I watch this series, the more I realized that a man like that, DOES NOT EXISTS!) Bobby is still the same funny man as before. He’s been transferred to another division and is head of his own team. At first, he pines away for Esther (who has married another man), but he quickly gets over it and moves on with his life. Bobby and Ada starts off on the wrong foot. A series of mishap occurs that lead Ada into thinking Bobby is a jerk. First, there is the car accident where Ada is riding her scooter when Bobby causes her to almost crash. Bobby doesn’t even notice since he is busy doing other things in his car but Ada thought he did it deliberately so she chases him and causes him to run into a tree. Second, Ada bumps into Bobby at the police station and Bobby has a video camera on him. His friend forgot to turn the camera off so the tape is still running when he gets into the elevator with Ada. She’s wearing a skirt that day and when Bobby is pushed next to Ada, she sees the video camera and thought he is a pervert filming her. Needless to say, she blows the whole thing out of proportion and finds out that he’s an officer. Ada apologizes to Bobby when she found out the truth but still considers him a jerk. Ada also realizes that Joyce is not the tough cop she pretends to be. Ada finds out that the Joyce is afraid of fast turns on a motorcycle due to a prior accident so that’s why she doesn’t drive very fast. Ada helps Joyce overcome her fear and the two becomes friends. Things are not going good for Ada at the station. Moses is this gangster boss who likes to race fancy cars. Racing in Hong Kong is illegal so Ada vows to catch him. Joyce has her eyes on this racing gang and has planned an elaborate scheme to catch them. She gives Ada a look-out position while everyone else has some sort of “action” post so when Ada sees Moses and another car racing pass her, she jumps on her motorcycle and starts to give chase. The other car, which the driver is another gang boss, dies and Ada gets the blame for it. For not following orders and endangering another citizen, this big mistake while on duty would have gotten Ada fired if not for Joyce. Joyce makes a plead to her boss to keep Ada on the force by agreeing to transfer her to Bobby’s division since he needs a female cop to go undercover. (You can imagine how happy Ada is to hear that) So they go on this big case where village girls (Bak Goo’s) are forced into prostitution to repay their debts. Ada goes undercover as a prostitute and befriends another prostitute. This woman has a very sad story. She comes to Hong Kong to reunite with her husband and son but her husband dies soon after in an accident and left her with this debt to this gang boss. In order to pay off the debt, she is forced into prostitution. After awhile, Ada captured the attention of the gang boss. Apparently, he’s a psycho who is into S&M. The whole team thought that he was the one behind the murders/attacks of several prostitutes. But after capturing him, the attacks continued on. Bobby and Marco get together to solve this case. The women who survived the attacks tells the police that their attacker wore a mask that resembled another old case (Back in AR2) where Joyce was raped by Ding Yea’s brother who has split personality (Ding Yea is another cop on Marco’s team). The brother is now locked up in a prison/mental institution so they all reasoned that it couldn’t be him. Well, guess what? It is. The brother’s other personality (the one that does all these evil things) became friends with this man named Ah On (played by Kenny Wong aka Vietnam from Kindred Spirit). They communicate by using verses from the Bible where the brother would tell Ah On whom to kill and how. Bobby and Marco realizes that the brother is somehow involved but they don’t know who or how just yet. They tried various ways to get the brother to confess but he never cracked. The two cops finally found out the truth when the woman Ada befriended ends up dead in Bobby’s sister-in-law’s restaurant where she worked with Ah On. They discovered the connection realizes it is Ah On whom the brother is communicating to. Joyce wants in on this case, but Marco tells her no. This case has nothing to do with the traffic division so she needs to bug out. The reason being, he doesn’t want Joyce to relive her nightmare of getting rape by this son-of-gun so he wants to protect her by not telling her anything about this case. But being stubborn-headed, Joyce goes and seeks out the brother in prison therefore engaging his wrath. When Marco found out what Joyce had done, he was really angry and yelled at her but Joyce still don’t get it and visits that evil man again thinking she can get him to confess. Well, her stupidity led her to her son’s death. You see, the evil brother is now really pissed off at Joyce and wanted to finish what he started before so he told Ah On to go after her family. In case you didn’t know, Joyce has become obsessed with this case and wanted to capture Ah On personally so when she sees him across the street, she thought nothing of it and left her son to chase after him. After losing track of Ah On, did Joyce walks back to the store and remembered Ka Ka was with her. But Ka Ka is gone and Joyce is in a panic thinking Ah On took Ka Ka. When she gets back to the house, Marco is there with Ka Ka but is extremely mad. Joyce is relieved to see her son but got a chewing from her husband. Marco yells at her for her reckless actions and tells her that if anything happens to his children, he will never forgive her. Ah On does go after Joyce’s family but it is her sister he went after. Joyce’s second sister is on the rooftop hanging laundry when Ah On appeared out of nowhere and begins choking her. Luckily, the mom and her restaurant’s employees appeared in the nick of time and fought Ah On off. This sets Joyce off again as she vows to get Ah On. Marco yells at her again for being so rash and tells her again to back off and let him and Bobby handle this case. Does she listen? Of course not, since soon after that, Joyce left her son alone again! Joyce is taking Ka Ka to her mom’s house for a birthday party. They stop at a small grocery store to buy something when she spots Ah On. Without thinking twice, she dumps her kid with the little old storeowner as protection and chases after Ah On. What she doesn’t know is that this time is the real deal cause Ah On trapped her in this alley way and locks her up. He comes back holding Ka Ka hostage. A frantic Joyce tries breaking the lock while begging for her son’s life but the crazy man just laughs and walks away with Ka Ka in his arms. By this time, Marco and Bobby have broken the Bible code and discover that Ah On’s next target is Ka Ka so they rush home, but the mom tells them that Ka Ka’s with Joyce and Joyce’s nowhere to be found. The two men search around the neighborhood and finally find Joyce just as she manages to break the lock. A hysterical Joyce quickly tells her husband that Ah On has taken Ka Ka. The three goes back to Joyce’s mom’s house and set up a surveillance team. The next morning, they receive a phone call from Ah On telling them to go to this empty warehouse to look for Ka Ka. The whole team arrives on the scene where Bobby spotted a suitcase laying on the floor. Marco bravely goes and opens the suitcase knowing deep in heart what he will found. A hand falls out and Marco begins to cry. (Very emotional scene!) Joyce screams Ka Ka’s name as she faints. Marco just kneeled there holding his son as tears of anguish pour down his face. The aftermath of this incident is just as traumatic. Joyce and Marco’s marriage slowly crumbled. Joyce lives with constant guilt. And Marco can’t forgive his wife for her mistake. No matter how much effort Joyce puts into rebuilding their marriage, Marco continues to put distance in their relationship and finally decides to move out. Their daughter Sa Sa moves in with Marco’s parents as they no longer trust Joyce to take care of the kid. Marco puts himself as a target in order to revenge his son’s death. He deliberately piss Ding Yea’s brother’s off so that the evil personality will tell Ah On to kill him. Well, he does so Ah On finds Marco alone in an empty parking lot and tries to kill him. Ah On gets the upper hand as he is stronger than Marco. Looking like he is going to give up, Marco flashes back and sees his son saying his dad is a superman. With that memory, Marco finds the strength to fight back. Marco pins down Ah On down and just when he was about to pull the trigger, Marco remembers his oath as a policeman. He eases his finger from the trigger and handcuffs him. Ah On is sent to a mental hospital. Ding Yea’s brother finally finds out all the murders his “so-called friend” has committed with Ah On. Ashamed that he has disgrace his brother, he jumps to his death so he can prevent his evil personality from further killings. Meanwhile, Ada met Ellesmere by chance one day on her way to her ex-boyfriend’s wedding. Ellesmere rescued her and fate kept putting them together. Needless to say, they begin dating and eventually gets engage. Ellesmere is the second son of a rich family and he created a division of dietary supplements for the family company. The older son (different moms) is jealous of his younger brother and would love to see him fail. A determined Ellesmere works night and day to make his company a success while maintaining his relationship with Ada. Ellesmere’s co-worker (also his ex-girlfriend) is in love with Ellesmere so when she found out that Ellesmere created some fake spreadsheets for his loan, she blackmailed him into sleeping with her. Things between Ellesmere and Ada get bumpy when Ada realizes they have different viewpoints on how a relationship should work. The last straw is when she discovers Ellesmere cheating on her with the co-worker. She breaks things off with him but Ellesmere’s father becomes sick. The father confessed to Ada that his greatest wish before he dies is to see his son marry her. Feeling trapped, Ada reluctantly agrees to go ahead with the wedding in order to fulfill the old man’s dying wish. By this time, Ellesmere is fed up with the woman’s crazy antics, so he goes to her apartment one night to tell her that it’s over. He’s marrying Ada and nothing she can do will get him to change his mind. Of course, the crazy woman threatens to call the cops and blow his little secret. A fight ensues and the woman accidentally falls, hits her head on a glass table and dies. Ellesmere panics and buries her body. Bobby later finds that this woman has been missing and decides that something suspicious is involved so he gets help from Marco and his team. Marco needs more time to search for the body so he tells Bobby to delay the wedding between Ada and Ellesmere since Ellesmere is the prime suspect. In order to interrupt the ceremony, Bobby declares his love for Ada as all the guests looks on with shock. Marco finally arrives to arrest Ellesmere for murder. Ada breaks up with Ellesmere for good this time after having a long talk with Ellesmere in jail. After some soul searching, Ada decides that she can accept Bobby as something more than friends and they get together. She also gets transfer back to the traffic division. In the mean time, Ha Yu’s friend/student (Ho Dee) meets this woman at a nightclub and falls in love with her. Despite the warnings from Ha Yu, Ho Dee is determine that this is the woman of his dreams. Unfortunately, the woman is a robber’s ex-wife. What happens is that 3 ruthless robbers have been successfully robbing jewelry stores by taking over apartments that overlook the stores. This way, they can observe the habits of when the cops and security guards and when shipments comes in. Then they go and rob the stores. Well, Ho Dee’s apartment is across the street from a jewelry store and the robbers decide to make that their next target. When Ho Dee and his lady-love return to his apartment, they were greeted by the three robbers. The head robber is the lady’s ex-husband and he’s been searching for her so he can see his son. Ho Dee is captured while the woman runs errands for the robbers. These are very dangerous robbers as they have no mercy. The do not hesitate to kill. After several days with no word from Ho Dee, Ha Yu and Hong Wah (who is Ha Yu’s dead friend’s wife) went to Ho Dee’s apartment to see if he’s okay. They too, get capture and now the three of them are trying to find some mean of escape. Ada, Bobby, and Marco are working on the case and they’re trying to narrow down which store the robbers will hit next. The robbers need a driver so Ha Yu volunteers thinking he can somehow help Ho Dee and Hong Wah escape. Bobby and his team finally locate the store and try to stop the robbers who are en-route. Well, gun fire starts going off and Ada sees her dad getting out of the robber’s car. Ha Yu quickly tells his daughter that Hong Wah is strapped with a bomb and Ho Dee is dead. One of the robbers is fatally shot by Marco while the other two get away. The rest of the team race to save Hong Wah. After Hong Wah is saved, Ha Yu tells her that he realizes that life is too short and he should spend it with the woman he loves which is her. Hong Wah is very happy. Unfortunately, Ha Yu will have to spend some time in jail for aiding the robbers. (Hey, whoever say Justice was fair?) The robbers want revenge on Marco for killing one of their own but doesn’t know how until one day, the head robber sees Marco’s daughter at the same school as his own son so he kidnaps Sa Sa and holds her as hostage. Marco is out of his mind right now with fear as he watches his daughter in the robber’s hands. The robber tells Marco to wait for his phone call. Marco immediately heads back to the station to get his team in locating Sa Sa. They are in the room brainstorming when a fellow cop comes into the room complaining of a big card box sitting out in the hallway. Marco, Ding Yea, and the rest of the team run out to the hall. Everyone stops as they stares at the big box thinking the same thing (How they found Ka Ka’s body). Marco is visibly shaken as he takes a step to open the box. Ding Yea (knowing that Marco could not possibly go through this again) stops him and says he’ll do it. The whole team is relief when the box turns up empty but Marco breaks down. Shouting and screaming, Marco runs up to the roof as Joyce follows trying to find out what’s wrong. Marco sobs in his wife’s arms telling her now he knows what it is like to be in her shoes and he apologizes for treating her poorly and blaming her for Ka Ka’s death. The whole family waits patiently for words of Sa Sa. Finally, a call to Marco arrives telling him to go to a certain mall. One of the robbers (the one whose brother died) straps Sa Sa with a bomb and dumps her on the ventilation system inside the mall and then heads over to the security room to watch the drama unfolds. With this diversion, the head robber and his new crew prepare to rob another jewelry store knowing Marco and his team will be occupied elsewhere. Marco, Joyce, and Marco’s team heads to the mall to save Sa Sa. They search all over the place and finally find Sa Sa hidden in the ventilation system. Joyce, being the smallest one, craws up to disarm the bomb from Sa Sa’s back. The rest of the team tries to get Marco to leave the room while Joyce disarms the bomb, but Marco refuses. He says he rather die with his family and there’s no way he would ever leave his wife and daughter here. Joyce successfully disarms the bomb and Marco is over joy to have his wife and daughter in his arms. The robber can’t believe his eyes as he watch the happy reunion. He grabs his gun to kill Marco but luckily Ding Yea saves the day as he fatally shoot the robber. Meanwhile, the head robber and his crew are heading down on the elevator getting ready to rob when Bobby, Ada (who happens to be there), and his team saw them on the security camera. Ada comes up with the idea of trapping them in the elevator, thus, successfully capturing them. The series ends at the wedding of Ha Yu and Hong Wah. Joyce finally passed her promotion test and is also pregnant. Bobby proposes to Ada and her reply is if Bobby can catch the whistle he gave her then she’ll consider it. Which leaves room for AR4… My personal thoughts: Like many others, I wasn’t expecting too much from this series since Esther is gone. To my surprise, I didn’t miss her at all! All the drama with the kids more than made up for it. It’s been a long time since I had a good cry watching a series (Last time was watching Burning Flame). Give this one a try and you might not be as disappointed as you thought you’d be. Ada is refreshing change and she is good with Bobby but they have more of a buddy chemistry than a romantic one so for the next one, I would like Ada to be with someone else…maybe bring Ellesmere back. Another little negative comment, more cases where Joyce and Ada are in action please. I mean the series did start off as promoting being the first cop series where the action will come from the female leads so instead of them playing second fiddle to Bobby and Marco, please, please let them be in charge for once! Rating: $$$$ |
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