Simply Ordinary |
TVB owns the copyright to the picture above...
Cast | Character Name |
Lam Ka Tung | Lam Sai Wing |
Kenix Kwok | Kam Ah Tai |
Jan Lau | Chu Mah Lai (Mary) |
Ah Sec |
Plot Rating: 3/10
Artist Rating: 7.75/10
General Background
Information of the Characters
Lum Ka Tung is a pig butcher but eventually he becomes the mayor
of the small village or town he lives in with the help of Jan.
Kenix plays a small village girl who has a love for pigs and
raises them for a living.
Jan plays a upper class lady who comes into Ka Tung and Kenix's
village with an underlying motive.
Cheung Kwok Keung is the cousin of the evil guy in the village.
Ah Sec takes over Ka Tung position as butcher after he becomes
mayor. He lives with Kenix's family, but towards the end of the
series, it was revealed that he was one of the King's men
("say dai si wai")
Episodes 1-10
Everyone in the small village trusts Lam Ka Tung's cutting
methods and his accuracy for measuring the portions of pork he
sells. Therefore, all the villagers purchase pork from his store.
However, the antagonist whose name is "hau lo dai" in
this series always hires someone to challenge his cutting
techniques, but none of whom he hired ever succeeded in beating
Ka Tung. Ah Sec also comes to challenge Ka Tung but fails. Ka
Tung is known to most villagers as the best pig butcher.
Then one day, the old mayor of the village (played by na dok in
Kindred Spirit) had a heart attack. The old mayor's health
conditions took a drastic downhill effect. He was unable to walk
or talk and was feed by his family members. As a result of the
old mayor's condition, Hau lo dai seizes the opportunity to
persuade the villagers that a new mayor needs to be elected. Hau
lo dai hires a doctor to demonstrate the horrible effects of
eating pork to the villagers. The doctor reveals to the villagers
that consumption of pork will cause heart attacks to occur. Every
villager blames Ka Tung for the old mayor's condition. The old
mayor's condition starts to improve. With the help of Ka Tung,
they are able to persuade three other people in the village to
run against Hau Lo Dai. However, their plan fails due to Hau Lo
Dai's blackmails. Instead, Hau Lo Dai nominates Lum Ka Tung to
run against him knowing that he would pose no threats.
Hau Lo Dai and Ka Tung have to go through a series of test
including both mental and physical tests. Each time Hau Lo Dai
finds some way to cheat. One of their physical tests requires
them to carry a bag of rice a certain distance through the
village given an incense time. Hau Lo Dai arrives back in time
with the help of his men. However, during the course of the test,
Jan's carriage almost runs over a pregnant lady who goes into
labor. Therefore, instead of carrying the bag of rice to the
finish, Ka Tung carries the lady to the finish. Hau Lo Dai wants
the judges to disqualify him for the election because he did not
carry back the bag of rice in time. However, Jan's carriage
arrives with the bag of rice which she gives back to Ka Tung. She
makes a note of telling the judges that he shouldn't be
disqualified because a mayor's responsibility is helping the
villagers. During the course of the election process, Kenix
sacrifices a lot for Ka Tung such as selling all her pigs and
ruining her name in the village by helping him, but Ka Tung sort
of takes it for granted. < br>
Jan also helps Ka Tung, but with an underlying motive. She helps
him clear up his bad reputation in the village by hiring a
professor to clarify that not only consumption of pork but the
consumption of other types of meat would also cause heart attacks
if a person does not exercise. As a result of the explanation, Ka
Tung gains back the respect he had from the villagers. In order
to get votes from the villagers, Hau Lo Dai starts to buy votes
by giving the villagers money if they elected him to be mayor.
After the election, Hau Lo Dai received more votes than Ka Tung,
but was still unable to obtain the position as mayor because Jan
brought in a picture of Hau Lo Dai giving money to villagers to
get votes. Ka Tung becomes mayor. During all of this, Ka Tung
discovers that he was adopted by Kenix's grandmother when he was
a baby.
Ka Tung thanks Jan for all her help. He believes that without her
he would not be able to be mayor. He trusts everything she says
and is always going over to her place. Kenix dislikes her a lot.
You can begin to see some jealousy developing in her. She is
beginning to like Ka Tung unlike at the very beginning when they
always have quarrels over small matters. Cheung Kwok Keung comes
into the picture. He orders Jan to steal a precious Buddha.
Episodes
11-20
Cheung Kwok Keung threatens to reveal Jan's true identity if she
doesn't steal the Jade Buddha. Jan gets injured in the arm.
However, she is able to escape. Earlier, Jan tells Cheung Kwok
Keung that their partnership would be over after she helps him
steal the Buddha. The guards in the village have been unable to
catch the thief in days. As a result, the higher authority figure
orders Ka Tung, the mayor of the village, to also help find the
thief and the stolen Buddha. After some meticulous deductions, Ah
Sec realizes that the Buddha has to be hidden along the beginning
of the path that the thief took because the thief would be unable
to carry such a heavy object with an injured arm. Ah Sec is right
and leads Ka Tung to the place where the jade Buddha is hidden.
The higher authority figure extols him and gives him some money.
However, he still has to help catch the crook.
The higher authority figure and Cheung Kwok Keung devise a plan
to put Ka Tung behind the bars. (They want to get rid of him.
This higher authority figure is kind of evil. Ie. He participated
in some of the previous illegal dealings with Cheung Kwok Keung).
Therefore, one night they hire someone to steal all the jewels
from the jewerly store and frame Ka Tung as the thief. He gets
thrown in jail and Jan is unable to help him. However, their plan
backfires when the higher authority is asked by his former lover
(Kenix's grandma) to release Ka Tung.
Kenix meets Cheung Kwok Keung by chance when his carriage almost
runs her over. He knows that she dislikes Jan so he uses her to
help him with his devious plans. Kenix is forced to stay at his
house because her foot is injured and he takes advantage of the
chance to urge her to let him change her appearance so that she
can compete with Jan. He turns her into an "upper-class
lady" in appearance and manners, but underneath, Kenix would
rather be the "village girl who raises pigs". She makes
her debut at a ball with Cheung Kwok Keung and Ka Tung is shocked
by her make-over. Ka Tung warns her about Cheung Kwok Keung but
Kenix shoots back at him by reminding him that Jan is up to no
good also.
Later on, a precious necklace is brought to the village for
display. Ka Tung wins the opportunity to be the guard of this
jewel. Kenix and Jan compete to wear the necklace which is shaped
like a teardrop. The lady who owns the jewel puts them through a
series of tests. In the end, Kenix wins because during a dinner,
Jan served a little piglet which made Kenix cry. The lady who
owned the necklace said that she was seeking a female who could
cry to wear the necklace because it was shaped like a teardrop.
In reality, Jan and Cheung Kwok Keung were both after the
necklace. Cheung Kwok Keung provides the lady with a bulletproof
chamber for Kenix to sit in so that the necklace would not be
stolen. Jan had already made plans so that the rest of the guards
were "her people". The day before the jewelry show, Jan
and her people set out to steal the necklace. Ka Tung gets
injured by one of the thieves so Kenix willingly comes out of the
chamber to save him. They run outside and get on a carriage.
Meanwhile, Jan (all in black and covered up) chases them and are
about to kill them when Ah Sec shows up. Ah Sec gets kicked off a
cliff by her. Kenix and Ka Tung fall down a hill and Jan steals
the necklace when they are unconscious. When they awaken, they
are accused of stealing the necklace.
Kenix and Ka Tung are both put in jail. Kenix's grandma begs the
higher authority figure to release them but he is only able to
release one person. Ka Tung takes the blame and thus, Kenix is
released. Kenix meanwhile, found Ah Sec who is injured. Ah Sec
comes up with a plan to rescue Ka Tung before he is persecuted.
They hide him in an old house. Ah Sec reveals to them that Jan is
the thief who not only stole the necklace, but stole some jewels
from the palace. He also tells them his true identity as one of
the King's men. Together they come up with a plan to force Jan to
reveal her true identity.
As part of their plan, they try to make Cheung Kwok Keung and Jan
not trust each other (playing them against each other). Ah Sec
gets 4 of his friends to pretend to be Tzi Shi's (The Empress)
eunuchs, who have come to the village to sell an even more
precious jewel which looks like a veggie. Therefore, Jan tries to
steal this "fake jewel" from them because their
original buyer wanted this piece of jewel instead now but
instead, she gets severely injured. She therefore blames Cheung
Kwok Keung for his faulty information. When Cheung Kwok Keung
sneaks back to the "eunuchs'" house, they pretend that
Jan has stolen the jewel from them and pretend to commit suicide
so that the Empress will forgive them. Cheung Kwok Keung believes
this and thinks Jan is hiding the jewel.
On the day they were supposed to meet the buyer, they try to
steal the necklace from each other instead. Jan kills Cheung Kwok
Keung and tries to escape from the village with the jewel so that
she can sell it to the buyer. The first time, she is prevented
from leaving because of Ka Tung had robbed 6 more jewelry stores
and therefore, many police were circulating the train station,
hoping to find him. The next time, Jan held Kenix hostage. Ka
Tung chased after them but wasn't able to find Kenix. That night
though, he was thinking about Kenix and he accidentally ran into
them at his butcher shop. He kills Jan with his pig butchering
techniques.
After this incident, Ka Tung becomes very well-known and a lot of
people from different villages came to hire him as their security
guard/mayor. He plays a trick on Kenix and pretends that he has
accepted an offer and was leaving. At the end, he stayed with
Kenix and Ah Sec returns to the palace.
THE END
In my opinion, this series was really bad and the script was
poorly written. Furthermore, there was no plot whatsoever. Even
if you like to watch Kenix, this series is totally not worth
renting.
8/28/98
[Home] [TVB Series] [ATV Series] [Mandarin] [Credits] [Links] [About Me] [Sign Guestbook]