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The show centers on two police officers: Lee Pak-Kiu (Sammul Chan), a fussy, by-the-book neat freak, and Chung Lap-Man (Ron Ng), the sloppy and more rebellious one. (short for “Emergency Unit”) is actually a sequel to 2007’s On the First Beat, which itself was a follow-up to 2005’s The Academy. Somehow, he’s able to be magnetic and charming, even when his character is acting outrageous or just plain weird.īut still, if the show isn’t expressly about Laughing’s personal arc, then what’s it all about? Running thirty episodes, E.U. That’s not meant as a slight to Michael Tse he thoroughly owns the role of Laughing. Funny, unpredictable, and oddly righteous, Laughing is basically the kind of character that Francis Ng would play if E.U. Even after taking in a few episodes, it’s not hard to see why audiences fell in love with Laughing. Still, Tse demonstrates enough charisma to outshine them all. Similarly, Kathy Chow (returning to TVB after a long hiatus) and Elanne Kong are actually more central to the plot than Laughing. Ron Ng, Sammul Chan, and Michael Miu share that honor instead. Despite Laughing’s popularity, Michael Tse is not the star of E.U. Of course, E.U.’s real claim to fame is the introduction of a character named Laughing Gor (Michael Tse), who proved so popular that he was given his own spinoff film in 2009, the Herman Yau-directed Turning Point.
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As the series develops, however, these limitations strain the boundaries of verisimilitude. While that statement may sound like an out-and-out slam, this curious transformation is actually part of the show’s initial appeal. takes the familiar trappings of your average Hong Kong crime thriller and domesticates the genre for mainstream consumption. And while a television program of this kind may indeed exist, E.U. The format of episodic television lends itself well to developing a character fully and also allows for ample coverage of how an undercover agent could conceivably rise up the ranks in the triads in order to take them down from within.
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But a single movie can explore only so much imagine what a television series could do with such a premise. Hong Kong audiences are no stranger to movies about righteous cops, badass triads, and the undercover agents caught somewhere in between. The resultant television show is as refreshing as it is irritating thanks to the limitations of broadcast television. The TVB series that introduced Michael Tse’s popular character, Laughing Gor – not to mention the subsequent prequel film, Turning Point – is a “cops n’ triads” soap opera that takes the familiar tropes and characters from Hong Kong crime films and domesticates them for public consumption. Miu Kiu-Wai, Sammul Chan Kin-Fung, Ron Ng Cheuk-Hei, Kathy Chow Hoi-Mei, Michael Tse Tin-Wah, Elanne Kong Yeuk-Lam, Lam Lee, Dominic Lam Ka-Wah, Kam Kong, Leung Ka-Ki
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