On the Track or Off

On the Track or Off
(2001)

Cast: Steven Ma, Ada Choi, Bondy Chiu, Frankie Lam, Shek Sau

Rating: ***1/2

Pros: Good actings from the main leads, interesting and refreshing storyline and the chemistry between Steven and Ada.
Cons:Sometimes slow-paced, sometimes boring, rush ending.

Brief Summary:
Gam Yuen(Steven Ma), Ah Dong(Frankie Lam) and Ah Tong(Bondy Chiu) were friends for a long time. Ah Dong and Ah Tong were dating, though. Gam Yuen always had an admiration towards horses and wanted to be a horse master. Gam Yuen happened to meet Ah Tong's sister, Ah Yi(Ada Choi). They didn't get along well at first because Ah Yuen thought that Ah Yi was his jinx. Anyway, they grew to like each other later on. On the other hand, Ah Dong and Ah Tong began to have a problem and it was getting serious when Ah Dong learned that Ah Tong used to like Gam Yuen. Ah Dong also had a problem about his gambling and things were getting worse and worse and he statred to have a mental problem. Ah Tong (who never showed her love and care to Ah Dong much) decided to dump him after he caused her and Gam Yuen a lot of troubles. Ah Dong, so, decided to jumping off the building in front of her for a revenge. But what he never knew was Ah Tong was actually glad that he did that because she finally could get a chance with Ah Yuen. Ah Yuen was sad about Ah Dong's death and he went drinking and ended up sleeping with Ah Tong. Ah Yi was very sad to learned about that and couldn't forgive him, so finally Ah Yuen and Ah Yi had to end their "about-to-be" relationship and remained friends. Many things happened later on, Ah Tong became meaner and meaner, Ah Yi also met someone new like Wyman(Shek Sau), a matured social worker. There're also more on Ah Yi's sister, Ah Yan(Yu Wing Sze) and her friend, Ah On(John Tang) story like how they developed their relationship and how they became jockeys.

Review: *Spoilers*
I think it was an okay series, not really that good especially the ending. I liked that in the series all the characters had flaws and another fun thing about watching OTTOF is that I can learn about hierarchy in the stables that I never knew about and also some knowledge about horses. I also like how they put the family values in the series. Like no matter how bad Ah Tong was, people in her family, after all, still cared about her a lot while nobody else did. Anyway, I just don't know why I didn't love this series that much…maybe it just wasn't entertaining enough I guess.

During the episodes where Ah Dong began to change was quite entertaining in my opinion but then after he died but when Ah Tong began to show her ambition and selfisheness wasn't that great. It was enjoyable but developed in a slow-paced fashion…and I was bored. And the story between Ada's sister, Ah Yan and John Tang's Ah On really put me to sleep, I had to fast forward the whole part. Maybe it wasn't as bad as I said, but still I found it uninteresting. The love story between Ah Yuen and Ah Yi was very fun to watch in the beginning but after Ah Yuen slept with Ah Tong because he was drunk, for me, everything went down hill. Their funny and cute love story turned to be slow and going nowhere.

It was like you just reached the peak and then they brought you down. I know they tried to make Ah Yuen become more mature and all that but the character just lost its charm in my opinion. Ah Yi sometimes might annoy you because she was easily bullied by Ah Tong and she forgave her easily. Anyway, I guess it was logical since she loved her sister a lot. All in all, OTTOO was a story about horses, ambitions and love. Not badly done but I hope it would have been more exciting and intriguing.

I wouldn't say it was a story about friendship. Because when Ah Tong turned bad in the middle of the story, making her family sad(Well, Ah Yan wasn't that sad because she always thought that her

eldest sister was kind of selfish) and Ah Yuen felt confused because he didn't understand how people could change in such a short period of time. But that was it for Ah Yuen. Unlike, Ah Yi who still cared for her sister a lot and especially when Ah Tong went to the hospital and all that. Ah Yuen didn't show much of emotions when he learned about Ah Tong's health condition. I mean after all there were friends for more than ten years and I expected Ah Yuen to be more compassionated to Ah Tong.

The ending wasn't that good in my opinion, not because Ah Tong didn't die and everyone still loved her but because it was too rush. You see Ah Tong redeemed herself for like two minutes and the process of why she was touched by Ah Yi's taking care of her was skipped. They just had her told us that after the past monthes Ah Yi took care of her and now she realized that all she ever needed was her family. Well, it was partly true and all but I hope it would have been longer than that one scene. Not to mention that Ah Tong also said that after all she didn't love Ah Yuen and implied that Ah Yi could go back to him. Ah Yi, in the next scene, went to see Ah Yuen and they made up after avoiding him for more than ten episodes. Of course, the last scene made me happy because it was cute and funny and I love happy endings, but I couldn't help feeling that why was it so rush?? So I was a little disappointed. I also hope to see Ah Tong and Ah Yuen cleared things up after she redeemed herself. Because when Ah Tong was bad, Ah Yuen really hated her but now that she changed to be a better person…I want to know if their friendship was still there or it will lost forever.

The Cast:

Steven Ma - His performance was okay, not that compelling but he was fine as Gam Yuen. He can be funny and playful at times. He looked very energetic and full of hope. Anyway, there weren't many emotinal scenes for him except when his beloved horse, Dumbo, died. That scene, he did a great job. It was really sad, I almost cried.

Ada Choi - Ada was good as a good girl and easy to bully, Ah Yi. In some scenes I found her did it very well. For example, the scene where Bondy called her and told her that she spent all the money and if Ada told the press, no one would believe her then Bondy hung up the phone. Ada was shocked and told her mother about what Bondy said. You could see how shocked and sad and disappointed she was. It looked so real. She did a very nice job.

Bondy Chiu - She acted very well as a villian of the series. Her gestures, the way she walked and talked and everything…you could feel that this was a very confident woman who would do anything to get her way. She didn't care much about others and can be very selfish. Bondy did a great job and also looked beautiful here.

Frankie Lam - His character can be viewed as a poor guy or an annoying one. I never really think that he's a great actor but he was okay here in my opinion.

Shek Sau - I haven't seen him acted for a long time. Now he still looks quite nice and he did a pretty good job as matured, caring Wyman. He didn't look too old to pair up with Ada.

Rain Lau - I found her very enjoyable to watch. She was vry funny here, especially when she tried to compete with Ada in winning Gam Yuen.

Yu Wing Sze - She's not a professional actress, so I didn't really expect anything from her. She did an okay job, though she was so stiff in some scenes.

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