Twin of Brothers (42 episodes)
Reviewed by TVB Square

Main Characters:
Raymond Lam, Ron Ng, Tavia Yeung, Li Qian, Leila Tong, Nancy Wu

AN INTRODUCTION
If you read the original novel, I suggest you to leave it behind, and treat this series as a different story. This way, you will find the series more interesting to watch. Anyways, I thought you will like me to do a detail review on this series. Well, in order to prove to you that I am not biased, I will like to make the following statements first:

(1) From a kung fu fan's point of view, please do not think that this series is a kung fu series. I can clearly tell you, it is not. True, there are some fighting scenes, but most of them are made my special effects, in another word, the computer takes over everything. So, if you are looking to find some great kung fu scenes, I suggest you to give up
(2) From a Raymond fan's point of view, please accept that fact that his character is pretty crazy. You will see the most changes come out of him, he is also the one with lots of ambitions, it is nice to know that he did not end up evil... If you watch this series because of Raymond, you are in a right track, Raymond's performances might not disappoint you, but his hair style truly needs to change
(3) From a Ron fan's point of view, you will love him even more after you watch this series. Ron's character is totally different from Raymond; Raymond is the ambitious kind, Ron is the soft kind, however his story mainly focused on the love line. Sometimes, you will enjoy Ron's part of the story more than Raymond's
(4) From a Tavia fan's point of view, please accept the fact that she and Raymond WILL NOT end up together. It is part of the history, so it is what will happen in this series. You might not very use to the "political" Tavia, but it is true, sometimes Tavia can be really selfish, because the only thing she cares is politics
(5) From a Leila fan's point of view, you will see a different Leila, a more mature Leila. I don't know if you can say that Leila and Ron are the perfect fit, but I do agree that their chemistry is pretty good. You might also thank the tvb producer, who combined two women in the original novel into one Leila. This way, we can more sure the fact that Leila and Ron will be happily ever after
(6) From a Nancy fan's point of view, this is the series you will go crazy about. Nancy's character is also THE character you will falling love with. From the moment she appears in this series, you will pay close attention to her; from the moment she falls in love for Ron, you will begin to like her; from the moment she says, "I am Ron's woman," you will pity for her
(7) From a Li Qian fan's point of view, I don't know if there is one before you watch the series, but for sure, there will be some of you, who will be Li Qian's fan after all. Maybe because of the fact that she and Raymond has a much better chemistry. Maybe because you will see her appearances more than Tavia's, so slowly, you will like her

THE OUTFITS
Sure enough, the ancient outfits in this series will not likely to disappoint you, especially for the female characters. The most fancy outfits are belong to the Li family, of course, they will be the emperor family, so their outfits have to be fancy. Just see Tavia as an example, her outfits are the most fancy one, which shows how political she is. As for Li Qian, she is also born in a good family, but her outfits will not be as fancy as Tavia's. From here, you can tell that Li Qian fits better with Raymond, because those two will always fight the war together, and when you in a war, you can't wear something to fancy (this only applies to girls, guys can wear anything fancy during a war). Then, let's look like Leila, she always wear the same outfit, the white one, looks pretty good on her. At least, we can tell that she is the "religious" kind. Nancy is the one wears the least, her outfits are really unique, the same style, but different colors, the red, gold, orange and green. You will see the red one more often, because she looks the best in it. When she wears green, her hair style will also change. Anyways, her outfits are little, even in a snowy mountain, she still wears really little, I wonder why... When she became good, she changed to a new style, very refreshing look, I think Nancy's outfits are the best in the series...

Now, let's talk a little about the guys' outfits, you will see different sets of outfits for Raymond and Ron, of course, those changes tell us that their character also changed...

THE CHEMISTRY
Raymond & Ron
Let's talk about this "twin" brothers first, since you will see them together a lot. There is a big period of time, when they separate from each other, that is when they began to build their own career. There is the time when they are the best friends, there is also the time when they are completely strangers to each other. But, no matter what, Raymond and Ron really has a good chemistry as brothers

Raymond - Tavia - Li Qian
There are 4 sets of words to describe this love triangle: love-at-first-sight, politics, enemies and true-ally. Let's talk about Raymond and Tavia first, you will see Raymond has his love-at-first sight in the beginning of the very first episode. From then, Raymond begins to work really hard to match Tavia. Tavia is very political, she thinks about her family status a lot, because she knew that her family will be the emperor family. They have the power, they have the brain, so Tavia is also really smart. To be able to match Tavia, Raymond made a promise to her that one day he will become a a very successful man. So, they waited as their chemistry developed a little. Unfortunately, there is someone else in between, that is Tavia's real husband, who is a rich guy, he helped Tavia to get what she wanted. Also, due to some misunderstandings, Tavia and Raymond broke apart, not only that, they become enemies. Raymond slowly developed a concept that he wants to be more and more powerful, so he can get revenge on Tavia's betrayal. Well, love truly is selfish, but one door closed doesn't mean another door won't open. Li Qian is our second door, also the most perfect fit for Raymond. You will see them argue a lot at the beginning, but you will also see how Li Qian slowly falls in love with Raymond. At the moment she falls in love, you will begin to like her. When Raymond finally knows about Li Qian's feelings towards him, he was surprised, but from that moment on, you will realized he cares a lot about her. Li Qian always is an ally with Raymond, they fight together during a war, they went through many difficulties together. Slowly, they are very much in loved, Raymond then truly understands what is love, therefore he realized everything about Tavia was a past, everything about Li Qian is his future... However, the two will not end up together, due to the way the series ends... I can't tell you too much of the ending, so just watch it youself...

Ron - Leila - Nancy
There are 3 sets of words to describe this love triangle: good-and-evil, pity and acceptance. If you have a choice to falling in love with an angel or a demon, what will you choose? Of course, most of you will choose the angel. Leila is that angel, who is very religious at the beginning, her believes made her think that love is not possible. So, when her feelings toward Ron began to develop, she rejected it. Ron loves her, every since the first second he saw her face. For Ron, one girl will occupy his whole heart, and left no room for any other woman. When Nancy falls in love with Ron, she did everything to let Ron accept her, but she failed, realizing the fact that Ron's heart has no room left for her. However, an acceptance is all she is wishing for, she didn't expect that Ron will falls in love with her, she only wants Ron to accept her. For that, she changes, she chooses love over anything else. As the audiences, we will pity her, we will like her sacrifices, but we will also know Ron will not love her back... As for Leila, we learned that she is the daughter of the evil emperor, all the sudden, she is also a demon. Thanks to Ron, who keeps helping her, and finally, Leila was willing to accept the fact that she is the evil's daughter, at the same time, Ron and her became a great couple... For me, I enjoyed watching Nancy and Ron together, even though Ron never loved her, they still look great together. Especially after they had a "one-night-stand", Nancy truly changed, she began to betray her master, she is becoming good. From that moment, you begin to wish those two can end up together. However, that isn't the truth...

THE STORY
If you haven't scan through my episode blog for this series yet, I recommend you to do so, because you will find some great lines and scene descriptions in the blog. For the fans of this series, I believe you will enjoy it. Anyways, I am not going to talk about what is happening in this series, because there will be too much to talk about, and it will take me too much time. I am good at reviews, not story-telling.

Overall, I think this story is not bad at all, consider the fact that it is made by the same producer of "A Step Into the Past". What makes this Twin Brothers series interesting is the fact that it uses many new stars, and some old stars, and some never-seen-computer-effects. To tell you the truth, I didn't care about that computer effects, because they look too fake. Maybe the producers used too much special effects, and all the fighting scenes don't even look real. So, forget about the special effects, the story itself is mainly focused on Raymond and Ron, their journey, their changes, and most importantly, their love lives. Yes, the story concentrates more on the love lines, so, please be more prepared. The love stories over all is very interesting, it is also refreshing. Sometimes, a great love story can make up any disadvantages of the series... Besides love stories, the story also focus on the changes of both Raymond and Ron. Their changes have a lot to do with the person they falling love with, so, no surprise at all, Raymond becomes more political, towards the end, he wants to be the emperor. As for Ron, he becomes more "religious", for him, power and money takes no affect on him. Ron is the peaceful kind, so there are great differences between the two...

What about the ending? This series ends with a perfect way, TVB finally makes a great ending, with high tech kiss, and a little of ghost story... If you want to know how it ends, go read my episode blog

THE CHARACTERS
The Supporting Cast
I have talked enough about the main cast, so, let's talk about the supporting ones. However, I can't talk about them all, because there are way too many. Some characters only appeared in one or two scenes. So, let's just talk about the important ones:

Lee Chi Hung	He is bad, sometimes evil, but he also knows love. Because of love, he died, so you might think that he is not that evil after all. However, you will never forgive him for his ambitious, and the way he frames Raymond...
Christine Ng	She plays two women, who looked the same. One is the twin brothers' "mother", who died in the beginning of the series. The other is the aunt, who seeks revenge for her sister, however, she falls in love with the enemy
Mr. Ruan	Out of that many TVB stars, why the producer choose him to play emperor Li? First of all, he doesn't have the emperor look, second of all, he is not a good actor after all. This casting choice destroys the image of emperor Li
Derek Kwok	He plays one evil person, with two different identity, but he is evil, he just pretends to be good, so that he can be Ron and Raymond's friend. Deep down inside him, he is the evil, even more evil than the evil emperor
Ewong Yung	She is the "evil queen", she is obsessed with being evil, and controlling the world with evil. She is also obsessed with the evil emperor. She is willing to do anything to make sure that the evil emperor is truly evil
Wai Kuen	The evil emperor, you can say he is not that evil, because 20 years ago, he tried to be good. 20 years later, he can do the same thing again. Thanks to Leila, his daughter, who helped him to become a good person
Ai Wei	The twin brothers' "father", he is a very interesting character, at the beginning, he is very ambitious. But, then he becomes the twin brothers' "father", and soon, everything about him changed...
Miss Choi	Here is the one character changed from innocent to bad. Thanks to our Raymond, who truly breaks her heart. Raymond only used her to get what he wanted, so she seeks revenge back on him. Perhaps, this is the one you will hate the most
Mr. Mao	As a man, he loves Tavia, perhaps even more than Raymond. As a husband, he becomes more and more mature in politics. As an actor, he is not too good at acting, I really dislike his serious look or mad look

THE PERFORMANCES
Both Raymond and Ron did great in this series, they present their changes really well. Raymond is really good at being crazy, when he starts to kill people, you can feel his madness. Ron is really good at being "religious", everything he said is so cute, his character is really smart as well. So, I am not sure who should get the best actor award, it is left for you to decide. However, because of this series, I began to obsess with Ron, hehe, can't help it...

The best actress award goes to Nancy, her character is the first character I like in this series. Not only that, her performances are very fun to watch, especially when she keeps bothering Ron. I also like to mention Li Qian's performances, as a mainland actress, I wasn't expect anything from her. But, she gives you a big surprise and a refresh look. For Tavia, I like her performances, but I don't like her character, she is way too selfish... As for Leila, she has a more mature look, but her character is a little boring, comparing to Nancy, Nancy's character is more interesting...