Lessons from 争分夺秒

For the past month I have been living a committed lifestyle devoted to catching Hong Kong's TVB drama 争分夺秒 from 10-11pm every weekday night. (Apart from keeping me from updating my blog, this is now the source of frustration inspiration for this latest entry.) The drama traces the police's month-long (1-30 April 2004) efforts to bring HK's biggest druglord, Hou Wenhua, and his father, Zheng Kun, a fugitive from HK and Thailand's major druglord and richest businessman, to justice. The concept of the show is refreshing, each episode chronicles a full day from midnight to midnight. As the story involves several characters, events are fast paced and over the course of the police-and-thief chase, characters buckle under the pressure of interrelated events, and circumstances unfold unexpectedly due to cause-and-effect. It was enough to hook me and my mom to the TV every night. We finally caught the last episode half an hour ago and what remained was lots of 闷气. What promised to be a thrilling Infernal Affairs-like drama became a satire of man's folly.

In the show, 6 main characters died - 4 policmen and the 2 bad guys.

All the characters (except policeman Feng) saw this 龙王 in Thailand who is well-known for his accurate prophecies. Thirty years ago,龙王 predicted that Zheng Kun, then a fresh penniless fugitive, to be able to start life anew in Thailand and indeed he prospered and became successful economically and politically. Thirty years later, Zheng Kun lost both his sons and wanted to kill 龙王. After receiving two strikes from Zheng's walking stick, 龙王remained unfazed (I wonder if he predicted that Zheng would come to hit him??) and in the nick of time, he saved his skin by asking Zheng to take a gun to help him "disperse the hatred in him". Zheng fired a few shots at 龙王 at close range but missed miraculously. 龙王calmly asked Zheng to point the gun at himself so that he can end his suffering by killing himself and miraculously too the gun was unloaded. Zheng was overwhelmed with emotion and cried. Again 龙王 had his say that Zheng was now "reborn" and hence no more hatred in him. Zheng saw the awakening and decided to confess to the HK police his wrongdoing and he died in peace waiting to be deported to HK. You would have figured out by now that 龙王is a F#%king 神棍, he gave a wink to Zheng's companion, Dong, when the latter found out that the gun was loaded after all. I guess 龙王has a few 真言ready to suit all occasions.

Prophecy 1: 龙王 told Hou Wenhua, the biggest villain, in the show that month end will signal either his fall or victory. Hou died on 28 Apr way before the events climaxed.

Prophecy 2: 龙王 told Huang Sir (who wanted to know what he revealed to Hou previously) that Huang would not live to see the fate of Hou. Huang did not tell 龙王that he had final stage cancer and had only few days to live. Huang died on 30 Apr 11.28pm

Prophecy 3: 龙王 told Sam, Thai police undercover as Zheng's foster son, that he would die in his mission in HK. He died in Thailand cos he lost his life on a coin toss.

Prophecy 4: 龙王 told Zheng that he will lose one son at the expense of another. Zheng lost two sons and later under gunpoint 龙王said that his loss is due to his 执迷不悔and evil deeds. DIAOx4

Actually the source of my complaints has nothing to do with 龙王's phony prophecies but rather lives were lost not due to heroism but plain foolishness. A real mega letdown to the competency of the policemen in the show!

Hou, the incumbent villain with lotsa bite, died cos he was shot first by a very very irritating Peng Hui, who was his mistress but left him for Feng the policeman, and then later by Feng. Three days before, he suffered a serious injury after being stabbed by Peng who wanted to keep her lover safe from the crutches of Hou. What a glorious end to the 大坏蛋 who has no qualms about even murdering his own brother. Peng Hui has no contribution to the story except to mess up the lives of Hou and Feng and later indirectly Sam's and Dong's. She fell in love with Feng cos she kept seeing him appearing in the places she frequented, started following him (early signs of her psychosis), insisted on cooking a meal for him, and waited a day and night like an idiot for Feng at a supermarket. This incurred the wrath of Hou who kidnapped and killed Feng's daughter. Feng's life as a boring unambitious policeman took a 360 degree turn after knowing Peng and to protect the crazy hallucinating woman, he killed Hou, made all police efforts to arrest Hou on charges of drug dealing futile, hence rendered Dong doing undercover for three years for nothing, shot his good friend Sam and finally went mad himself and shot Dong the long-suffering undercover. Damn ridiculous.

Sam and Dong could have survived their gunshots but they chose to be complete wimps and died wasting time. Sam walked all the way to his fav street stall and chatted up the noodle seller he had a seven-month crush on. He limped to the flower stall, stared at the roses he wanted to get his girl and collapsed there. Dong got shot by the lunatic Feng and on the way to the hospital, declined treatment and obstinately went to find his girlfriend. Earlier he was still persuading Feng to surrender to the police, that to protect Peng, he had to stay alive! If they had gone to the hospital, they could have lived! 白痴大笨蛋! 这么简单的道理也不知道！

My fav character of the show, the grim-faced Huang Sir, was a real hero from start to finish. (He had a phenomenal rise to the top ranks of the Criminal Investigation Bureau and was noted for his flair in writing reports -- the nerdy me LIKEx3..) He died too but at least he completed all his tasks before he sat down, smiled (probably his first in the show), called his girlfriend and then lost consciousness. He knew where to place his priorties correctly. Not like the other stupid men in the show, of whose foolishness I have encountered in real life time and again. For someone who anticipated his death, Huang Sir lived his life for the few days he had and not squandered them for blind romantism. I want a man like that.