Kids' Lives Matter 星空下的仁醫 TVB Review

Hi everyone,

Today we will be reviewing one of this year's TVB anniversary dramas, the much anticipated Kids' Lives Matter (星空下的仁醫). The drama has 25 episodes and aired from Oct. 18, 2021 - Nov. 22, 2021 featuring many comebacks and a touching storyline.

SPOILERS BELOW!

Plot Overview

In 2001, Fong Chung Yan, Amos (Kenneth Ma), Hui Kam Fung, Jonathan (Kevin Cheng) and Cheung Yi Sum, Eman (Linda Chung) were pediatric interns under Chung Wai Seung (Yoyo Chen/ Mimi Kung). Fong and Hui have a falling out over a failed surgery. 20 years later, Amos is the pediatric consultant at Princess Anne Hospital while Jonathan works at a second-rate hospital. Eman has just returned from her time serving with Doctors Without Borders in Africa. They meet again because of a liver transplant and all reunite to work at Princess Anne Hospital along with Mak Hoi Kei, Kay (Catherine Chau), who heads the surgery department. Together, they form a Hard Team to tackle challenging surgeries using new technology for more leverage in opening Hong Kong's first pediatric hospital. 

Our Thoughts:

Story

Overall, the story and acting was good. This might be one of the best dramas of 2021 so far, despite the bad viewership ratings to start. We felt like we could connect with the characters more than in Big White Duel. 

There were a lot of touching cases that left us feeling emotional. We seldom think about the rare cases that affect a small minority of the population, but this lack of attention decreases funding and research for special cases. The initiative that "Hard Team" took was able to create miracles for many patients. Of course there were failures as well because of how complicated these cases were and the lack of knowledge about treatment.

There's been a trend in recent big production dramas to tie in policy and bureaucracy into the main storyline. While it gives us good insight into the realities of the industry, sometimes there is too much focus on that and we lose out on character development. Also, there isn't much resolution after all the petty scheming and we never saw the pediatric center get built. The same thing happened in Big White Duel which is probably why they can make a sequel out of it again.

In particular, we enjoyed these following cases since they were the most impactful for us. Firstly, we have Lesley Chiang's case where her concerns were dismissed by many doctors until Kenneth saw her rushing to the hospital in the typhoon carrying her daughter. We really believed the baby couldn't be saved, especially after losing a pulse for so long. This was a miracle! What really captured us was Lesley's portrayal of the worried and helpless mother. Although Linda is now a mother and that maturity and experience translated into the role, Lesley certainly didn't need the experience to do it. 

Another case that absolutely broke our hearts was the girl who's mom was one of Kenneth's patients. He advised her to get genetic testing done but she ignored it and ended up passing her condition down to her daughter. Due to their financial difficulties, they have avoided seeking treatment. When the results of the scan came back for the girl, they were disappointed to hear the tumour was shy of 3cm. This left Max (Him Law) feeling confused, no patient would want to hear a worse condition. But in order to qualify for funding, they must satisfy a set of requirements to prove their need. It was heartbreaking to see the mother neglect her own health to take care of her child, yet end up requiring an emergency surgery and ultimately dying. Her sacrifice was a great one. If only they had been more proactive in visiting the doctor and agreeing to better treatment, she might've lived longer. This case highlighted the difficulty many patients have in receiving funding, even when their situations are dire. 

As expected, there were some inconsistencies and things that didn't make sense. Like why was Catherine Chau running around trying to shut the front door during the typhoon? Shouldn't there already be protocols and measures in place for events like this? Seems like a big oversight in our opinion that the doors lock you in when there's a power outage... 

There were a lot of ethical issues in the show—obviously some of them were for dramatic purposes, but we found some to be questionable. When Max was on stimulants, it was surprising that despite several health care professionals knew about it (including his superiors), they did not immediately prevent him from going into operations. This is a problem because some stimulants have side effects of dizziness and blurry vision which he showed and would put patients at risk under surgery. We understood they were trying to give Max a chance, but the patients' safety should always be considered first above his personal interests. At least he agreed to get some professional help in the end.

Another smaller issue was when Can searched the hospital database to find her sister's old surgery and medical information. This is not acceptable because she is using her ability as a doctor to access these records for her personal reasons, but the patient is not under her direct care. However, this does not preclude her requesting the report through the hospital by filling out an application as a family member, as that is a different case.

One really poorly handled situation was the suture issue. After knowing those sutures were defective, the doctors only inspected patients who received that company's sutures to see if they were fine at that time. Because they had to keep it a secret, it seemed like they did not notify the parents about what happened and let the children get discharged. Since the sutures can possibly tear apart, how do they know it won't happen in the future? Shouldn't they at least continuously monitor their cases? That does not seem to align with professional conduct by keeping patients and their family in the dark about the risks involved.

Another thing that could be improved is the rushed plotlines. Was there time wasted? Not necessarily because we don't get too many background stories anymore like older medical dramas (On Call 36 Hours). No more going home to mom, drinking her soup and nagging over when you will get married. But even with all that cut out, we felt like things happened then quickly moved on. For example, Eman's stillborn child happened very suddenly and then she went back to work the next episode (or maybe an ep after that) pretty much in her normal state. We wished they sat a little bit more in the character's emotions instead of glossing over big moments like that. 

We felt like the romance in the drama was not really interesting or well done. People only got together at the last episode. If the doctors were all just friends, that wouldn't have really made a difference to us.

Cast

Kevin Cheng as Hui Kam Fung: Although Kevin has aged, we still felt his playfulness with the young patients. His charisma is still there after all these years, and perhaps his own identity as a new father has added to his character. Of the leading characters, his was probably our favourite because he always went above and beyond for his patients. For some reason Kenneth and Catherine failed to capture us. There is some talk about him getting the Best Actor award this year since there's not really other competitors. We wouldn't be unhappy if this were the case, but there's also no other competition this year. 

Kenneth Ma as Fong Chung Yan: Kenneth's portrayal of Amos was very similar to his character in Big White Duel so at times, we had difficulty differentiating between the roles. He still has the stone face of seriousness when he's carrying out his diagnosis or surgeries. His English has not improved and was even poked fun at when he came up with the name "Hard" team. Could anyone else have done his role and maybe made it a bit more interesting? Yes. Can we put Ron, Ruco or Bosco in this role instead of Kenneth? We're tired of seeing those 3 as cops and Kenneth as a doctor. Looks like he's got many dramas lined up too, hopefully they're not as boring as this role.

Linda Chung as Cheung Yi Sum: This was Linda's big return to film in HK after settling down with her family in Canada. The script and premise of the drama attracted her as she was now a mother of two. We had no complains with her and thought that this was one of the best roles she has played in a long time. This was a big contrast to her role in Another Era with Frankie Lam, which made us cringe every time she spoke. Her lines felt natural, and the crying scene when she found out her baby died was well done. We were touched during her scenes with Lesley Chiang's daughter's surgery too. We hear she's back in HK now and brought her son too. This is a good sign that she's gonna win an award this year, and there isn't much competition.

Catherine Chau as Mak Hoi Kei: It has been ages since we've seen her on TV and glad that she came back to provide solid acting in case the rest of the actresses faltered. There is not much to comment on her acting because she did the job adequately. Her character was also ok, not our favourite but also not bad. We were just frustrated sometimes with her character's lack of ambition and decision making. We were also surprised that Kelvin Kwan played her husband, somehow we were expecting another veteran actor like Timothy Cheng or Tsui Wing.

Him Law as Man Pak Wui: Perhaps one of our favourite performances in this show. We have been enjoying Him's recent roles with TVB including The Witness and Armed Reaction 2021. With this role, he brings a lot more complexity beyond the muscular hot shot that he used to be typecasted in. Max starts out as a quiet and studious doctor who lacks confidence because he lives in the shadow of his mother. Later, he starts to abuse drugs in order to keep up with his lack of sleep and bad situation at home. He was able to show a wide range of emotions without overdoing it, we were especially wowed during the scene when he yelled at his mother and his eyes were full of rage.

Gabriel Harrison as Chow Chun Yiu: We laughed at a lot of things he said, especially "Kay, you are really more than okay". He did his role as the corrupt, power-hungry Chow well which left lots of netizens angry at Gabriel himself. Gabriel is also in A Love of No Words and appears on singing shows as well. 

General comments on other cast including newcomers:

Bowie Cheung was uncomfortable to watch in the beginning and her cold attitude towards others was never really explained. It seemed like her character had a lot of ambition, constantly socializing with the senior hospital staff. None of that amounted to anything, and instead she just served as the bridge between all the characters due to her sister's case. 

Regina Ho was a pleasant surprise and we felt her sincerity as a pediatric intern. Her storyline with becoming handicapped happened very suddenly, all of a sudden she couldn't walk anymore and resigned from her position. While we were happy with her performance during these heavy emotional scenes, it all felt very rushed. We're not sure if we missed it, but they never really said how her break could affect her intern status and successful completion of the program. 

Kelly Ng was quirky as the registered nurse and Max's cousin. We were surprised that we haven't noticed her in other roles before because her acting was good here. After doing some research on her, looks like she will have some bigger roles in future dramas. 

Arnold Kwok, not really considered a newcomer but had a small supporting role in the drama. We just wished that there was more development on him and why he felt the need to break apart the intern group's friendship. Maybe they gave him a bit of back story but it was ultimately cut? 

Yoyo Chen was a guest star in this drama acting as Mimi Kung's younger self. We were quite surprised with their resemblance to one another, especially with the help of a similar hairstyle and glasses. 

And of course, we must touch on the amazing performances done by all the kids and parents in the drama that we unfortunately cannot find the names of. Without their touching portrayals, the drama would be a lot less impactful. In some cases, the kids charmed the screen and completely stole the limelight from the main cast. 

Production

Needless to say, there is higher production quality due to the higher budget of the drama. The pediatric center was quite spacious and colourful, unlike the majority of hospitals that we see. The doctor's offices were also very modern and spacious. Most of the drama was spent in the hospital, with the exception of Kevin's apartment with his step-mom and siblings, Linda's apartment and some outdoor scenes. 

Filming was standard, it's not amazing cinematography but it tells the story. We're actually interested in some more film like editing and shots in upcoming dramas because it helps set the theme and mood of the show. Sadly, this has been neglected and we doubt the average see lai cares for it. 

On some episodes that we watched online, the surgeries were censored. We assumed that this was the mainland version and they had to keep things blurred because it was too graphic. We don't have a problem with things being shown uncensored, but that's our personal opinion. 

All in all, we enjoyed this drama and our final rating is 7.5/10. We've been writing less reviews these days because we end up skipping or dropping a lot of dramas. Hopefully we will be back at the end of the year for the TVB Awards results and a recap of this year's dramas. Stay safe and healthy!

Links:

https://mydramalist.com/684677-kids-lives-matter

https://ca.duboku.vip/vodplay/2401-1-1.html

- Cee and Jay