TWS: Black & White 痞子英雄 (2009)

I've just finished watching this drama; following much persuasion from my dear who gave the drama so much credit that I was curious and compelled to watch it for myself too.
(Dear has unusually very high expectations for his dramas/movies/books/food and therefore it just made me feel that this must be really good)


The whole story of the drama and the theme of the black and white focused on our two main protagonists in the story; Chen Zai Tian (Vic Zhou) and Wu Ying Shiung (Mark Chao).
The title was named after Vic's character's nickname which was Pi Zhi; for someone who is sloppy and with that I-don't-care-attitude.


The duo crossed paths when Pi Zhi was in the way of Ying Shiung nabbing the drug ring suspected to be involved in the highly dangerous drug "Dreamer". Pi Zhi's presence obstructed the arrest of the gang which went scot free and since then Ying Shiung aka Hero did not have a good impression of him.

It was much to Hero's displeasure when he found out that Pi Zhi has been transferred from the Northern district police station to his Southern district station. If that was not bad enough, Pi Zhi was placed in the same team as him in the Crimes unit and assigned as his partner in crime.

Hero warned Pi Zhi to stay away from him and was constantly annoyed by his working attitude and flirty behavior with women; especially towards a close friend of his; Lan Si Ying, a forensic expert in the lab.
However, the duo grew closer after a few cases and near-death-experiences. They even fell for the same girl; someone they were not supposed to even fall for; Chen Lin, the only daughter of the leader of country's highest profile and most prominent triad society.

Chen Lin initially thought she was in love with Hero; but realized that she was really falling for Pi Zhi when Hero revealed that Pi Zhi was the one who saved her from the crashing train incident.

The story continues to complicate further following the death/murder of the daughter of the Head of Northern District police station and then the appearances of several new characters; all seem to be secret agents belonging to the military, ex-military, and even Interpol as the root of the plot is slowly revealed in the twist of events.

I am wondering whether I should reveal the story here; I do not want to spoil it for those of you who have not watch it yet and are planning to watch it.

It had a really interesting and intriguing twist in the story; and though my dear was impressed by it, I did not find it really anything conspiring out of the ordinary as I started guessing the whole thing out by the 17th episode through all the various hints dropped in the conversations between the characters.

Anyway, it was all in all a different genre of storyline seen in a Taiwanese drama since a long long time; or was it since the Chinese X-Files craze.

Character Analysis
1. Mark Chao as Wu Ying Shiung/Hero
The typical law abiding and enforcer who follows every rule to the book. He was honest and disciplined and a man of much integrity. It was a pain to see him dealing with the fact when he did something righteous but yet wrong by the laws.

2. Vic Zhao as Pi Zhi/Chen Zai Tian
The total opposite of his partner, this was a total turnover in character as he was totally nonchalant in his attitude towards life and work. The only time he was serious was towards the love of his life but it was later revealed the reason he was behaving in the way he was. However, there was a serious side to him as he deals with conflicts and issues in his life.

3. Ivy Chen as Chen Lin
A feisty and strong-willed girl who earned the attention of two policemen despite being brought up in a triad environment and was constantly struggling to fight off the general perception of her being one of them. She did not meddle with her father's business in the triad but somehow ends up entangled in it despite her abstinence.

4. Janine Chang as Lan Si Ying
A demure and clear-headed girl who is serious with her work and she had a sad past. She was a great friend to have and had always had a thing for Hero who just treated her as a good friend and nothing more. There was just something classy and graceful about her, and it just didn't seem like her to be in the forensics. Did I mention she was my favorite here? =)

What I Like about the movie:
The mysterious twist and how everything seems to look so casual and then inter-connected throughout the remaining of the story to form the whole story.
It's like watching bits and pieces of a jigsaw puzzle coming together, and for crime/mystery lovers like me, this is really cool and interesting.


I like the two main leads; they were really cool and so poised for their roles; especially Hero (Mark Chao).
It was also refreshing to see Vic Zhao in a totally different role/character from the previous introvert role in Meteor Garden.

I love the beautiful actresses playing the lead roles; Chen Lin was played by Ivy Chen Yi Han and the following is my favorite character; Lan Si Ying played by Janine Chang who was such a great picture of demure and purity.

Watch out for her in the drama and you will see what I mean!

Another sexy lady who appeared in the later part of the series was this model-actress who played Lei Mu Sha by Sonia Sui.

What could have been better?
I think they should have developed the relationships better; instead of creating those trails of love.
Everyone liked someone who didn't love them in return; it's like no one was in a normal and romantic relationship which was reciprocal.

I was rather hoping for Hero and Si Ying to have a relationship; and it was sad to see Si Ying longing after him and trying to be that good friend next to him who supported him in everything he does and having to see him pine after Chen Lin who obviously loved Pi Zhi.
I guess towards the end Si Ying had also fallen for Pi Zhi and that was one funny part in the whole entire drama; I am not sure anyone else noticed.

Did everyone realized that all the men in the drama seems to be in love with Chen Lin and all the women in the drama seems to love Pi Zhi????

Nobody is having a normal relationship and it was just pining and pining after one another and watching the one they love, love someone else.
Arrrrggghhhh, something is seriously wrong with the scriptwriter (no offense)

If I had to pick what could be improved; well, create lovely couples who love each other.
I wanted Hero to fall for Si Ying; and Pi Zhi being together with Chen Lin.
How difficult can that be?

The I don't get it parts
How can Chen Lin get over Hero so soon and fall for Pi Zhi when she realized that Pi Zhi was the one who saved her? I mean, how could one just fall in and out of love like it was some kind of remote control or something?

How can Hero sleep with Mu Sha when he claimed to love Chen Lin so much? Or was this just another of those guy things?

For all that's worth, I really liked the flow of the drama though it did get cheesy and the flow did tend to get a bit of draggy at certain parts.
It was quite a different twist to the usual soppy Taiwanese love soaps and I enjoyed this with the cast and the whole plot.

Go watch it and see the Taiwanese police in a whole different light and be prepared to expect the unexpected! ;)

*Pictures/stills do not belong to me and are taken from the web and other websites for illustration purposes *

The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)

Produced by: Jerry Bruckheimer’s Productions
Distributed by : Walt Disney Pictures
Directed by: Jon Turteltaub

Cast:
Nicholas Cage – Balthazar Blake
Jay Baruchel – Dave Stutler
Teresa Palmer – Rebecca/Becky Barnes
Monica Belucci - Veronica
Alfred Molina – Maxim Horvath
Alice Krige – Morgana le Fay
James A. Stephens – Merlin
Toby Kebbell – Drake Stone
Jake Cherry – 10-year old Dave Stutler
Gregory Woo – Sun Lok

Synopsis
It started sometime in 740 A.D. where one of the greatest wizards/sorcerer of time lived; Merlin, who had three apprentices; Balthazar, Veronica and Horvath whom he trusted and taught all his arts and skills to.
As it was quoted, “He should have trusted only two”, as one of his apprentices; Horvath joined forces with an evil sorceress; Morgana who was intent on destroying Merlin.
During the power struggle, Morgana managed to stab Merlin and the injury left him fighting for his dear life in front of Balthazar and Veronica. Balthazar continues to battle Horvath; and Morgana was about to kill Balthazar when Veronica used her skills to morph Morgana’s soul into herself to prevent her from killing him. This soul unification was a dangerous one as Morgana was more powerful than her, and she starts to kill her from within.
Balthazar then summons and imprisons Morgana/Veronica’s spirit into the Grimhold; a wooden doll-like structure, and when he managed to trap Horvath as well, it the wooden doll had another layer on top of it.

Merlin, who was on the verge of dying, then gives Balthazar his last message and handed him a dragon ring which will find his future successor; the Prime Merlinean who is the destined one and is the one who will be able to defeat and vanquish Morgana.

Thus Balthazar begun his search which lasted for centuries; in the meantime, trapping more of Morgana’s followers (Morganans), and evil sorcerers who tried to release Morgana; creating successive layers on top of the doll.

Dave Stutler was a young 10-year old boy who was headed on a field trip to New York city, and it was when he was trying to attract the attention of his classmate Becky Barnes whom he had a crush on, that he ended up in an old antique store in an alley in the city.

Balthazar led him to put on the ring; which magically coiled around the boy’s finger, which signified that the successor had been found.

Balthazar, was ready to heave a sigh of relief but when he left to get his book, Dave accidentally released Horvath from the Grimhold and during the struggle, Balthazar and Horvath were both imprisoned in an ancient dynasty urn containing the ashes of the emperor’s least favorite concubines. Dave, shocked by the whole incident and drama in front of his eyes, ran away and threw the Grimhold to the side of the street.

Ten years later, Dave had grown up to be a 20-year old physics undergraduate in New York University where he bumped into his old crush; Becky Barnes.
At the same time, Horvath and Balthazar were both released by an old couple in their apartment. They had bought the urn from a flea market; believing that it was a unique antique vase from China and unknowingly released Horvath and Balthazar.

Horvath and Balthazar both battled against time (and each other) to get to the Grimhold and Horvath was set on destroying the Prime Merlinean; while Balthazar wanted to train him to defeat Morgana and to succeed over Merlin.
Horvath got to Dave first but was intercepted by Balthazar who whisked him away, on a steel eagle initially perched on top of a building.

The chase continued for the Grimhold during which Dave refused to help Balthazar as he only wanted to lead a normal life and not one that is mythical and dangerous. Balthazar struck a deal with him whereby he will only need Dave’s help to locate the Grimhold and after that, he is free to do what he wants.
Dave agreed to the deal and soon, Balthazar tracked the location of the Grimhold using his own navigational system to Chinatown and finally gotten hold of the Grimhold while at the same time, accidentally releasing another evil sorcerer; a Morganian, Sun Lok.


During the ensuing battle with this evil wizard on the streets of Chinatown, Dave used his ring and managed to defeat Sun Lok which ignited his interest in magic. He then agreed to learn magic and became Balthazar’s apprentice.


He slacked once in a while and even tried to use magic to perform his cleaning up chore which backfired.


However, as he slowly encountered obstacle by obstacle and learning the truth about his identity as the Chosen One to be the Prime Merlinean, he soon went against all odds to master magic and finally defeated Morgana and at the same time, reunited Veronica and Balthazar; his mentor who almost died.


He also finally found his own happiness in his lady love, Becky.


What I liked about this movie is the fact that it is associated with Walt Disney? (Hehe, I am a Disney fan after all, ain’t I?) Okay, besides THAT, I liked how the story developed; a simple and generic plot which was quite typical but the flow and the action was not too much at the same time to make it overwhelming as an entertaining story. I also liked the fact that it was associated to Merlin; one of my favorite characters in the books I used to read, the most powerful wizard of all times.
Oh, the OST too, happened to be one of my favorite songs from One Republic!
“Those are old man shoes” says Dave when Balthazar told him to put on the shoes for better magical performances.
I also liked the apprentice of Horvath; who was a part-time magician.
Another interesting aspect of the movie was how they assimilated the concept of science; specifically Physics in explaining the course of magic. I guess it is also to the understanding of the younger generation who are now more intelligent and not as readily receptive towards the idea of magic or any unexplained matter exists without the backing up of science. It is a very scientific world these days, and I felt it was logical and not too ridiculous to make up the pulse of how magic works.
Also, did you realize that they are now focusing a lot on making nerdy, geeky or smart kids the heroes these days? That is a change.

What I disliked was that there should have been more scenes adapted from the actual kids’ book’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice, you know, the Mickey Mouse version. They did adapt the scene which was really well known, where he ordered the mops and the brooms to work themselves in cleaning the place up which backfired but I would have love to see more of how a mortal could do with the world of magic anyway.


What could be better, definitely the lighting and the costumes! Haha, if you noticed, the whole drama seems to be a depiction or campaign of Earth Hour where it was mostly dark and also, the cast didn’t seem to have much to change into; it seems to be the same attire for the whole two hours.

There should also be more scenes on the funny apprentice of Horvath; he seemed to have too short of a screen time.

It would have been more humor-packed had his clumsiness as the apprentice been focused as well.

My Conclusion/Verdict Go watch it if you are a Disney or Jerry Bruckheimer’s or a National Treasure or a fan of magical worlds! It is entertaining and I laughed at their jokes (though no one else in the cinema did). I think it was really simple and just light-hearted to lift the stress from your mind!
Furthermore, if you are a skeptic and a firm science disciple, you would be intrigued by the way they explain magic and of course, the Tesla Circle =)

Rating: 7 out of 10