Shades Of Truth
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Shades Of Truth (In Chinese: 水浒无间道) is a TV series produced by Hong Kong's TVB in 2004. It consists of 26 episodes (the last episode being 2 episodes long), starring Julian Cheung, Wong Hei, Gigi Lai and Tavia Yeung as its main casts.
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[edit] Title
English: Shades Of Truth
Chinese: 水浒无间道
Pin Yin: Shui Hu Wu Jian Dao
[edit] Main Cast
Julian Chueng as Ha Chung Yum (Dung Chung Cho) / Mo Chung
Wong Hei as Lam Ji Chung / Lam Chung
Gigi Lai as Nicole (Man Fung Lin) / Poon Gum Lin
Tavia Yeung as Hong Ji Sin (Siu Sin)
[edit] Soundtrack
Theme song:: 沒有半分空間 by Wong Hei
Sub-Theme song: In Another Time
[edit] Overview
This is a romantic and yet hilarious tale about justice, brotherhood and family ties that fuses the stories of 水浒传 an old chinese tale and a modern film 无间道 (Infernal Affairs), as its title 水浒无间道 suggests. And yet, it has its own interesting twist and unique style of comedy that sets it apart from the other two stories.
[edit] Synopsis
900 years ago, Mo Chung (known as Wu Song in chinese) and Lam Chung (Lin Chong in chinese) were the best of friends, as the characters in Shui Hu Zhuan were. They were as close as brothers and swore to uphold justice together even in their next lives.
900 years later, Mo Chung has reincarnated as Ha Chung Yum (who calls himself Dong Chung Cho - a name of a herb) and Lam Chung as Lam Ji Chung. Both of them are policemen, Lam Ji Chung being of a higher rank. Dong Chung Cho was just a normal patrol officer. However, when Dong Chung Cho was promoted with very high recommendations to be under Lam Chung's colleague, KY's team, KY approached him to act as an undercover cop. He was supposed to get close and find evidence to nab Song Boh (played by Yuen Wah), a top member of the underworld society.
Dong Chung Cho then got a chance to work under Song Boh by pretending to be a massager. It worked, and Dong Chung Cho rose quickly to become Song Boh's most trusted man.
Initially, when Dong Chung Cho first met Lam Ji Chung, both of them disliked each other immensely. They were still unaware of their identies from their previous lives at that time. Dong Chung Cho disliked Lam Ji Chung because in the day, he was an unreasonable boss who was mean to his subordinates, and often claimed all the credits in cracking cases. However in the night, he was a playboy who frequented pubs and had one night stands. He was never serious with any girl and has never fallen in love before. On the other hand, Lam Ji Chung dislikes Dong Chung Cho as unaware of his actual identity, he assumed to be a follower of Song Boh. Thus he dislikes him as they are on the opposite sides of the law.
Nicole is a DJ who hosts the programme "Desperate Men and Women" on their local radio. He also harboured an immense dislike for her as due to a huge misunderstanding, he thought of her as a slut who has affairs with married/attached men.
Siu Sin is a chinese physician who harbours a deep crush on Lam Ji Chung after he rescues her from a bank robbery. On the other hand, Dong Chung Cho has secretly admired Siu Sin since their schooling days. She meets Nicole during a hot yoga class and they become best friends.
Dong Chung Cho soon recovers a vague memory of his past when he hit his head after slipping and falling on the ground. After seeing flashes of images in his head, he realises that Lam Ji Chung is in fact Lam Chung, his "big brother" from the past, and seeks to help him to recover his memory too, so as to honour their promise of upholding justice together.
Dong Chung Cho and Nicole fall in love with each other while Dong Chung Cho's on his undercover mission. As Nicole turns out to be Song Boh's daughter, Song Boh ordered Dong Chung Cho to be her 24-hour bodyguard to protect her from harm's way. Seeing this as an opportunity to get even closer to Song Boh, KY instructed Dong Chung Cho to make use of the time he spent with Nicole to "nurture their feelings into love".
Dong Chung Cho hesitated at first as he has always looked upon Nicole as a slut, the reincarnation of a slut - Poon Gum Lin - who seduced Mo Chung in his previous life, after her husband, his brother, passed away. When they slowly began to fall for each other, Dong Chung Cho refused to believe that he has actually fallen for a 'slut' and continued the self-denial that he was only pretending to love her.
Lam Ji Chung finally recovers his memory of the past after a fire broke out during a mission. He became a changed man, and was even kind to his subordinates. After putting two and two together, he realises that Dong Chung Cho's an undercover cop.
On one occasion when Dong Chung Cho almost got caught by Kwan, one of Song Boh's most trusted and capable aides, for stealing information/evidence from a computer in Song Boh's company, Lam Ji Chung went to his rescue. He pretended that he was the one who wanted to steal information, and ended up being suspended from all duties.
Dong Chung Cho's undercover identity was soon exposed by the very suspicious Kwan. Song Boh was devestated at the news, and so was Nicole when she realises she had been used. Dong Chung Cho resumed his normal duty as a good cop, but he could never forget Nicole despite his self-denials.
After getting rid of Dong Chung Cho, Kwan slowly reveals his true colours and is determined to take over Song Boh's position. Song Boh, being driven to the brink, attempted suicide.
From here, the story takes a very complicated and exciting twist that isn't what it appears to be on the surface, everything to be explained in the last episode.
Lam Ji Chung and Dong Chung Cho put up a good act, fooling even viewers that they were on very bad terms. Lam Ji Chung even proposed to Nicole as part of the act, knowing that Nicole would agree to the marriage because she wanted to spite Dong Chung Cho. Dong Chung Cho on the other hand, finally got together with Siu Sin, only to realise that they weren't each other's true love. When Nicole finally came to her senses and called off the marriage, Lam Ji Chung appeared to hate Dong Chung Cho for stealing his girl and strayed to the bad side.
To prove that he wasn't putting on an act, Lam Ji Chung even had to open fire at Siu Sin, and it appeared that she was killed by him. But in actual fact, Lam Ji Chung had already got her to put on a safety bullet-proof vest beforehand, and thus she was safe.
Then, together with Song Boh, they managed to very brilliantly fool Kwan (and even viewers) that Lam Ji Chung actually worked as an undercover for Song Boh in the police force. Thus Kwan finally falling for their trick, seeked Lam Ji Chung for help to retrieve some weaponry that was confiscated by the police and ended up outsmarting himself as he was finally nabbed by the police.
In the end, Lam Ji Chung realised that he truly loved Siu Sin. When he had to shoot her, he felt as heart-broken as he felt 900 years ago when Lam Chung's wife killed herself. Dong Chung Cho on the other hand, could not get over the fact that Nicole was Poon Gum Lin the Slut. Unable to get over this psychological barrier, he didn't do anything when Nicole left for Shang Hai to publish a book.
After much persuasion from Siu Sin, Nicole finally returned to help Dong Chung Cho overcome his psychological barrier. Lam Ji Chung fed Dong Chung Cho something that knocked him out totally. When he finally awoke, he was in Mo Chung's clothes and with him was Poon Gum Lin replaying a scene where she seduced him. This particular scene had haunted him in his sleep many times before, and 900 years ago, Mo Chung stabbed Poon Gum Lin with his sword, killing her. But this time, he hesitated to kill her and he could not figure out why. Lam Ji Chung and Siu Sin then reveal to him and the viewers that they were actually in modern times and he should forget the past and hold on to the present.
Dong Chung Cho finally overcomes his psychological barrier and he and Nicole end up together, happily ever after.
Song Boh on the other hand served his time in jail, but before doing so he finally proposed to Nicole's mother (whom he couldn't marry 20 years ago due to a huge misunderstanding). He also did good by filming an advertistment to discourage youngsters to join the triads. All other characters also end up well.
A happy ending. :)
[edit] See Also
TVB Square's Review
spcnet.tv's Review
Melinaaa 08:41, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
