TVB: A Pillow Case of Mystery (施公奇案) 2006

Cast
• Bobby Au Yeung as Sze Sai Lun
• Kenix Kwok as Mai Heung Yung
• Benny Chan as Wong Tin Pak
• Tavia Yeung as Ming Chu Gak Gak / Princess Ming Chu
• Eileen Yeow as Ga Sau Yuk
• Annie Man as Chin Lai Su
• Rosanne Lui as Pong Got Ngoi
• Lo Hoi Pang as Tong Do Fuk / Jam San (Pillow Spirit)
o Lawrence Ng as young Tong Do Fuk
• Mary Hon as Siu Gau Neung
• Cheung Ying Choi as Lo Si Yea
• Savio Tsang – Golden Fox
• Chun Wong – Chang Kak Nam/
• Henry Lo

Summary of story:
The town welcomes a new magistrate, and the court assistant, Mai Heung Yung (Kenix Kwok) staged a welcoming show with the villagers. Si Sai Lun (Bobby Au Yeung Chun Wah) arrived with his mother and three wives and got on the wrong side with Heung Yung, whom they call Mai Nga Por. Sai Lun disapproved of her mean ways of soliciting money everywhere.
Si Sai Lun(Bobby Au Yeung Chun Wah) arrives at the village as the new magistrate and soon got on the wrong side of court assistant Mai Heung Yung/Mai Nga Por and her younger brother, Wong Tin Ba (Benny Chan) due to his wrong conclusion on a case which took their close friend’s life and at the same time, his disapproval of Nga Por’s solicitation of money from others.



The townsfolk soon discovered that Sai Lun was not the magistrate meeting their expectations when he failed to even solve a simple case of a petty dumpling thief. Under pressure and during his search for evidence, Sai Lun slipped and fell atop a pillow in the forest, where his blood dropped onto the pillow and he was sucked into a dream where he met a wise old man (Lo Hoi Pang) who gave him hints to solve the case. With the help of the pillow, he managed to solve most of the cases, with the tips and advice from the mysterious man in his pillow dreams.
His relationship with Heung Yung improved following their cooperation in solving most of the cases and also his belief that Heung Yung was his luck charm, as told by the mysterious man in his pillow.

Sai Lun fell in love with Heung Yung and married her as his fourth wife, promising her that he will never marry again in the future, no matter what happens.


Heung Yung started to grow suspicious of Sai Lun’s attachment to the pillow and when Sai Lun told her about his secret, he brought her into the dreams to meet the mysterious man who helped him in solving his cases. Heung Yung then realized that the mysterious man was actually her deceased maternal grandfather and soon was involved in the investigation of her whole family’s mass murder when she was a child, where she started to suspect Sai Lun’s father as the murderer. This possibility led to the rift between Heung Yung and Sai Lun’s relationship and Heung Yun decided to leave him while Sai Lun worked hard at tracking the evidence to prove his father’s innocence.

In the meantime, Tin Ba had also fallen for Princess Chang Kak Ming Chu (Tavia Yeung) who initially pretended to be a pickpocket on the streets to cheat others and was caught by Tin Ba.

Ming Chu turned out to be the foster sister of Sai Lun and soon, during the series of events, their friendship turned to a close relationship, and they only realized their feelings for each other when Ming Chu’s fiancé, the 14th Prince arrived in town to bring her back to the capital.


Tin Ba was worried for Ming Chu’s future upon seeing the Prince’s behavior and tried to persuade her to stay back with him. Their love, upon being discovered by the Prince, led to Tin Ba as the target of his revenge. When they thought they can finally be together after the Prince’s death, Tin Ba was involved in his family’s mass murder investigations.

Tin Ba then found out that Ming Chu was responsible for all the misunderstandings leading to Sai Lun’s father to be accused of his family and it even led to the bigger picture, where Ming Chu’s father, Prince Chang Kak Nam was the one behind the whole picture.
Ming Chu felt guilty about the whole incident and decided to leave Tin Ba, who found out that she was paralyzed from waist down while trying to save him from being hurt by her own father.


Heung Yung reconciled with Sai Lun and it was a happy ending for the whole series.


Review:
This is a simple and humorous drama with a unique twist to your usual flavor of case-solving stories.
The pillow was not just an object but was also the main subject in the drama as it was not just the key to the mysteries solving but it was actually the key to the complex story behind both the main characters.

I find it a rather refreshing idea to an ancient drama series and Bobby, somehow, still reminds me of his role as the coroner and not a magistrate as depicted here.

He somehow looked weird as a magistrate, or perhaps he had too much of a stereotypical role as a coroner and a medical examiner in both ancient and modern series that it just does not deem fit to see him in other roles.

Kenix Kwok on the other hand, had been too long away from the screen and it was good to finally see her in this drama, playing a materialistic and calculative woman who soon matures towards the end, taking on a calmer posterior when dealing with matters in life.

I do find some of her acting and reactions in the drama a little exaggerated and unnatural sometimes too, guess it's all that being away too long from screen?


Benny Chan’s performance in here was a little exaggerated in his emotions and facial expressions. I don’t know why, somehow Benny seems to be have deteriorated in his acting over the years, and I just feel that he over reacts in most of his scenes; carrying that exaggerated expression in every scenario. However, he was more natural when he portrayed the doe-eyed lover towards Ming Chu.


Tavia Yeung was as usual, just good and natural to look at in her role. Playing the mischievous and spoilt princess to perfection, Tavia also never failed to show that she too has her compassionate side when she cared about Tin Ba and also her father.

It was another character which progressed towards the end, whereby she had learnt to give herself up for others to seek true happiness.

The other supporting characters; Rosanne Liu, Eileen Yeow and Annie Man who played Bobby’s other three wives respectively.

Rosanne Liu was just normal playing the calm and simple-minded first wife, which is just almost her generic role in almost every drama, except that most of the time she plays a kind and fair empress, while this time, she had to play dumb.
Eileen Yeow was not bad, playing the busybody and nosy second wife, who always had to poke her nose into everyone else's business and creating small chaos in the family.
I love the scenes with all the wives, they were just so cute! (although I am not fully WITH the idea of having so many wives!)


I must say Annie, being my favorite actress, did not disappoint me at all, though it was rather weird that she played the role of being Bobby’s third wife.

I just don’t think they look compatible to be husband and wife, perhaps due to the age gap. They just look more like brother and sister!

Mary Hon and Liu Kar Fai was another hilarious couple, I just love the way they teased and flirted with each other; giggling like young teens in love!
It was really sad that Mary Hon had to die in the end, just when they were finally married! =(


It was a light-hearted comedy and slightly suspense-filled drama which was quite entertaining throughout the series.
I enjoyed it, well, being a TVB drama, it does not usually disappoint me.
I heard that there is a sequel to this, but the cast has changed and it is to be released this year? Yet another sequel but with a change of cast makes one wonder, what is the point of having a sequel when you don’t have the main cast anymore?