Cast Info and opinions on the casting   

    Some things I've noticed in the serie

  
(Peter Fong) Jordan Chan as Wai Siu Bo. A young teenager (17-18 years old?) who grew up in a brothel because his mother is one if it's prostitute (although not the most wanted ones...) 
WSB is a very carefree person, his goals in life is to earn a lot of money and open a brothel for himself. 

opinion (by peter fong): I really like Jordan Chan as WSB  At first I was like many others really surprised by the casting of Jordan Chan. Can't imagine him in the roll as WSB. I mean, how can I forget the impressions I got from him in the Young&Dangerous series? Or any of his other movies? I was really prejudiced, I agree.I always thought that Jordan looked "too modern" for this serial. But when I saw Jordan in a promotional folder released by TVB six months before the release of DODM 1998, I decided to gave him a chance. He really looked like a "manchu-general" in it, just like the ones I've always seen in those old drawings in history books!! Take a look at the images on this page and you see what I mean. 
And now that I've finally watched DODM 1998 I've made up my mind. He is certainly a brilliant choice!! The best that TVB has ever made!! 

 
(Peter Fong) 

Chan Siu Ha is (Chan) Sheung Yee, a 16-year-old girl who WSB grew up with. SY was an orphan. Chan Kong/ Chan Man Leung found her when she was only six years old. Because Chan Kong is a eunuch he raised SY as his own daughter. 
She and SB got separated and when they found each other again, SY decided to follow SB everywhere to repay him for his deeds for her. SY has worked as a maid before so she takes care of SB with no complaints. She had also learnt a lot of good kung fu while she and SB were separated so she had saved SB a lot of times ever since. 

She is also the most favorite wife of SB, because SB understands that SY is the only one out of his 7 wives that really loves him with all her heart. 

In this version of DODM the story about SY is a bit different than the novel. In the novel, SY and SB met much later, they never grew up together. 
Personally I prefer this version, because it really shows how much SB cares about SY, even before she becomes his “wife”. It’s also partly because of SY that SB had to leave Cheung Yeung-city, making it more realistic. 

Mook Kim Ping (May Kwong Man Shun) is the daughter of general Mook, a general of the previous dynasty (he's dead). Because he had so much power he's been called "king of Yunnan" of Ming Dynasty. That's why people call Gim Ping "little princess". But this "king" didn't have any administrative power in Yunnan province. It was 
just a title. 

MGP is a sixteen year old girl. She's really naive and believes everything WSB says. She also sees SB as her idol. 

Opinion: Well, we all know KMS from several TVB-series already (one of them is Kindred Spirit). So her acting skills should not be too bad. She's doing a good job in DODM, but there's still room for improvement. There are a lot of times that her acting seems a bit unnatural. You can TELL she's acting. But then again, Mook Gim Ping's character is also a very tough one to do. MGP is very childish but cute. KMS' babyface and high-pitched voice make her suitable at first sight, but it's too hard for her to put up that "naive air". 

MGP's character should be a 16-years old girl, but KMS sometimes gives you the feeling you're watching a 12-13 years old.... 

But that's only from time to time. It's absolutely not a torture to watch her act tough (unlike some other people in DODM 1998, like the one who plays Chan Gan Nam.). 

Hilary Tsui Ho Ying plays Fong Yee. She's the "senior sister" (Sze Tze, a senior in martial arts school) of Mook Gim Ping. 

FY was in love with her "senior brother" (Sze Hing), but it didn't work out. FY is a tough lady. There's one time where she had some misunderstanding with SB, and quarrels with him all the time. 

The time when she was injured in the palace she swore to stay with SB and take care fo him (become his wife)

At first she didn't want to do that, But soon she started to have feelings for SB because she kept helping her and her friends all the time. When she later found out that SB is actually a commander of the HES, she understood that  SB isn't that insensitive, egocentric jerk she thought he was, but actually is a brave noble hero who "gave up his own for a great goal" (gave up his manhood to go into the palace as an eunuch). 

Opinion: Hilary is a very good actress, she's also used to playing this type of ladies (tough on the outside, but in the inside...) 

She's really doing great as FY, especially when FY finally fell in love with SB Hilary's acting skill is showing off. She had to made the viewer understand that FY is already in love with SB bust still is too proud and shy to admit it. Not to forget her jealousy when SB sees other women. Hilary manage to this easliy and let the viewer understand FY's character much better.

I know a lot of people will compare her with Carina Lau Kar Ling, but if you ask me, THY's acting skill can easily compete with LKL's back then. So people should give her a chance. 

If you asked me, I prefer Hilary over Carina. Carina's Fy gave me the idea that FY always had hated SB, while Hilary's FY showed that she does loves him a lot even though she acted the opposite.

(more to come later) 

Vivian Leung Siu Bing playes Ah Or.

Ah Or is the student of the one-armed-nun (a former princess) and is the daughter of Chan Yeun Yeun (the prettiest woman of the former generation) and Ng Sam Kwai (or at least taht's what everyone thought, she is actually the daughter Chan Yeun Yeun had with Lee Chi Sing) this fact makes Ah Or the most prettiest of all SB's wives. But her personality is absolutely worthless. She sees SB as a pain in the ass and wants to kill him all the time. 

 Vivian is a very good actress, so it's no surprise that her perfermonce is somewhat flawless. But I can't help having an image in mind of her as a cute girl (she is) who is gentle all the time, so it's sometimes hard to associate her with the bad personality of Ah Or, but Vivian's acting skill compensate that feeling more than enough. (I think Vivian would make a great Sheung Yee too)

Rain Lau Yuk Chui is princess Kin Ling. KL, although a princess, lacks the "royal air" she should have (the reason for that will be revealed later). 

She's really egoistic, only thinks about having fun herself and does not care for other person's feelings. It often occurs that she force SB to play all kind of SM-games, because SB is also the only person that dares to fight back, she started to "like" SB. As she said, "she never had that feeling before" (pain). 

She will leave SB alone whenever there's danger, if it wasn't for the fact that she's the first wife to have SB's baby, I think SB would abandon her anytime. KL might be the most unique wife of SB because of that. She's the only one that SB does NOT like. 

Opinion: LYC is no doubt the PERFECT casting for princess Kin Ling. Who else than "Ah Chi" from Semi-gods,Demi-devils could act better as the selfcentred and sadistic KL? Everyone who have seen SGDD will agree with me. That's also the reason why I don't have much to say about her. She's just too good.. 

Michelle Fung Hiu Man is So Chun/ Hung Fu Yan (real name is So Chun). She's the wife of the Snake's island's Divine Dragon Sect leader. 

So Chun is 24 years old, which makes her the most mature wife of SB. Her Kung Fu is really good, she'll save SB many times. 

It's said that her eyes are so beautifull that whenever you look in her eyes, your soul would be captured. 

Chan On Kay plays Tsang Yau a 17- years old girl, she is a member of a small group of thieves who robs from Manchu's. One time when she tried to rob SB on his way to become a monk she and her friends got captured. But SB let them go and thus stole her heart.

It's hard to tell what the character of Tsang Yau is like, this partly because of the lack of Chan On Kay's acting experience. Sometimes her portrayel of Tsang Yau is a very strong lady, sometimes however it's more of a weak one... In some interviews, Chan On Kay said that Tsang Yau is supposed to be "strong on the outside and soft in the inside (that's what the name Tsang Yau means)" but the restult is more like Tsang Yau is someone with personality problem.

I know it sounds like that I don't like the performance of Chan On Kay, but that's not 100% true. I don't think her performance is good but it's not bad either. At least it's not annoying (at leat not all the time). It's ok for a newbie.

Steven Ma Chun Wai plays Hong Hei, the emperor of China. Altough very young, he's already very mature and wise. He's a very good emperor, always thinks about the life of the normal people first. 

Because of his age, he's a lot of trouble keeping order in his empire. A lot of generals doesn't respect him. The most important two are NG Bai and NG Sam Kwai, but with the help of SB he managed to.."stop" those two from rebelling. 

He became friends with SB at quite an unusual way. At first SB thought that HH was also an eunuch and they had a fight. For more etails on how they became friends, you should read the summaries... 

Opinion: as far as I know, Steven Ma doesn't have that much acting experience. But he's doing fine in DODM. At first I thought he acted too mature. He put up such an mature part as HH that I thought it was impossible that he and SB would become friends. But now I understand that there was no need for worrying. He did fine. Maybe because he's a singer too, he managed to use his voice to strengthen his acting skills. 

Wai Chun Fa (Lo Kwun Lan)  is the mother of Wai Siu Bo. She is the most unpopular prostitute in the Lai Cheun-brothel. She cares for SB a lot even though she understand that SB will never be a successfull person and that SB always get in troubles. (Wonder how she'd react when SB gets back as general Wai^_^) 

How much she cares for SB is shown a lot. Like how he yelled at SB the one moment and treat him to a nice meal she stole for him. Or the fact that she "begged the gods" for SBs safety when he got in the biggest trouble of his life and how she gave all her money to SB to leave town. 

SB cares a lot for his mother too. His dream is to open a brothel and let his mother run it. 

Opinion. LKL is really hilarious as Wai Chun Fa. She's soooo funny. Everytime she shows up you should get ready for a good laugh. Her acting skills is of coure excellent. It's too bad she won't be shown that much. Only in the beginning and in the end.... 

Mao 18 (Shun Wong) is a criminal in the eyes of the empire (he thinks he's a great hero). Mao, although a bit ahum.. not too intelligent, is certainly very rightous. He's always following the "code of honor" much to the dislike of SB.

When he got captured in the same jail as Sheung Yee, SB accidently freed him instead of SY. 18 escaped, but promised SB to save SY. Because it's his fault that SB is being suspected as his partner and because he promised SB, he took SB with him to the Emperial City to save SY.

Saving SY didn't worked out and SB and 18 are both captured by HTF. but 18 escaped although hurt badly while SB had to stay with HTF. 18 got rescued by the HES and even became a member of the HES.

Opinion: CW as 18 is really a good choice (If I recall correctly, he also played the "old 18" with Tony Leung) Absolute no comment on his acting skills.

Ha Siu Sing plays Chan Gan Nam, the leader of the Heaven & Earths sect. He might be one of the strongest martial artist at that time, but it's for sure that he's one of the most respected. 

He becomes SBs master when they met and he's also the one that made SBa HES-member (SB even became the leader of a department of HES) 

Opinion. no need to say much... It's really a pain to see HSS act as CGN. He doesn't suit the character at all! The way he talks is really unbearable. CGN should be a charsimatic "Tai Hap"-type, but HSS doesn't have that "air" at all. It's ok if you only watch him (from the trailers) but once he started to talk.... It's like he's out of breath and will suffocate anytime!! How could one of the most stongest martial artist of that time, with such incredible inner power, talks like he's got something stuck in his @$$? 

Ching Ho Wai plays the Real/Fake Empress. The "empress" as HH and KL know is actually an imposter and a very good one. She managed to stay in the palace for years without anyone noticing. KL is her daughter with a guy (dressed up like a maid), that's why KL is also her favorite.

Athough she's an imposter, she had helped HH a lot, by giving him advices and even teaching him martial arts.She stayed in the palace because she wants the 42 scriptures and also because she wants to find HH's (presumed dead) father. She's probably in love with him or something.

Her character is very important in the story, but she doesn't has that much scenes...

Some examples:

Sheung Yee met SB later in the novel. In this version she grew up with him

Sheung Yee doesn't have a god-father in the novel

SB left his hometown only because of Mao 18. In this version he left partly because of SY too.

In this version SB got captured by HTF because of the godfather of SY.

SB met Fong Yee and Mook Gim Ping before he became a department leader of the HES.

The lighting in this version is TOO natural. Example, when it's dark, they only lits some candles, and that's also the only light they use!! That's the same story during day. A room will only have indirect lightfall (coming through the windows or doors) and no extra light sources. That's really too dark IMHO. You hardly see the actor's facial expression because you get too much shadows... Sometimes it's the other way.. then it's TOO bright!! Although most of the time they use extreme close-ups to compensate the lost, it's still very annoying. Especially when some pretty girls are shown and you can't see their faces....

Decors: the decors are less detailed in this version. A room in the palace or in a house only has some pilars and a few bookcases. Nothing more. There are less "nice stuff". They really need to put some decorations in it's place.. Maybe a vase here, or some statues there. (but htis is again compensated by the strange camera angles and extreme close ups, but when you watched the serial a few dozens of times, you'll notice it)

Camera angles:  The director likes to use very strange angles for his shot. Like from the floor or the roof, through a partly opened door, beneath a table, etc etc. And as I told before, extreme close-ups. This gives a really strange effect. And because of the fast "jumping" from one angle to another, this serial gives the viewer an uncomfortable feeling.

Martial Arts: the choreography in this version is really good. TVB has hired a lot of "doubles" to do the fighting so the fights looks much more spectacular than the old one. But it's kinda strange to see it sometimes. Like when Mao 18 fights. The actor is quite a fat guy, and when there's a fight, TVB will use a stuntman that's at least half of the actor's weight. You can tell the difference right away.

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