I like to be surprised by TVB once in a while 🙂
I am pleasantly pleased with how Last one Standing turned out. Unlike most people, I found the story only ‘ok-ish’ from the beginning. I guess I still wasn’t too thrilled about pretty much only watching Kevin and Roger at each other and I felt the story was kind of ‘heavy’ but it was definitely an eye-opener. The ideas were quite fresh however and different from the usual TVB series so I kept watching on. The story turned out quite intense and exciting to watch, especially in the middle-latter half of the story and I really felt myself wanting to know what would happen next! The thrillers in here were somewhat what I had anticipated for Love Exchange before I watched it (but that didn’t happen) so I’m glad TVB has produced this to feed my thriller-appetite. The story is quite intriguing and well written. I have to say the script is quite decent too!
As for the cast, I haven’t doubted Roger’s acting abilities before but him as the villain was totally woah!! He is SO convincing and scary!! His portrayal is so realistic and I can see how his character is able to deceive everyone! (excluding the wise Granny though ^^) The way those eyes and grin changes in front of some people to others sends me chills lol..I never want to meet someone like him in real life XD That would be so scary…
On the other hand, Kevin who I hadn’t expected too much from acted really well and his expressions were really realistic! I felt his pains, anger, frustrations and desperations when dealing with Roger, his loss in hope again and again after the evidence kept getting destroyed, the way his own mother has given up on him and doesn’t believe her own son…and then we have those cute little scenes where he turns into a gentle guy around the women, i.e Yoyo (Carmen) , Macy(Kelly) and Elaine [I wonder if it was really ‘him’ or part of his act] I really emphasized with his character and was rooting for him all the way!
I was quite impressed by the performance delivered by these two leads 🙂 They did a great job! I think Roger and Kevin both did a great job in their roles. My whole image of Roger changed though >< haha. As for Yoyo I didn’t find her character/performance any different from her other series though.
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The Story *contains spoilers*
The story starts off where Kevin is working out alone at night when he receives a phone call from his sister, saying that their stepfather has been harassing her again. The raging Kevin went to find their stepfather and started beating him up. Later however, he gets wrongly accused and convicted for murdering his stepfather when his cousin/best friend Roger stands up as a witness in court. 10 years later, Kevin is freed from jail and he is back to find Roger for revenge! However, Roger gets evidence which points to Kevin’s brother in-law (played by Ellesmere) being actually the one who killed the stepfather. Torn by how much his sister ‘needs’ him, Kevin painfully decides to forgive his brother in-law and keep it to himself rather than clearing his own name for his sister’s happiness awww…
Clues starts emerging and Kevin starts to realises the so called ‘evidence’ was misleading, only manipulating him into believing so. Thus Kevin secretly attempts to gather evidence to find out the truth and slowly realises Roger being the one behind it all- killing his stepfather because he had evidence of Roger’s illegal activities. One fateful day, Kevin meets the girl he likes again- Yoyo who was a volunteer who visited him during his time in jail and he started to feel hope in his life again. However, it turns out Yoyo is actually Roger’s current girlfriend! Kevin becomes really desperate with time to find solid evidence against Roger in attempt to let Yoyo see his true nature and to stop her from marrying him! Sequence of investigations lead on to others, but each time the evidence would end up getting destroyed- like the tape recording getting burnt in a fire! No more evidence existed.
Just when he thought there was no more hope left, Kevin gets inspired when he sees a guy perform a magic trick in front of a girl, saying that as long as he can deceive people, then he could make it reality, just what Roger is doing. From that episode onwards, Kevin’s character is acting in front of everyone in hope to get close to Roger and gain his trust. Knowing that Roger is a greedy person who would more attempts to make big money, Kevin hopes to catch him then. Kevin starts working at Roger’s insurance company and Roger’s assistant and accountant, Macy(Kelly) falls for him. Kevin ends up using her feelings to get access to all important documents etc.
Because of Roger’s act in front of everyone, his whole family who adopted him believes he is a very honest, filial, genuine nice person and has complete trust in him. He manages to persuade his mum to have a linked bank account with him, his dad to sell off their home, and got him to be the trustee of all the assets on his will. Only Grandma was cautious and knew he was not as simple as he seemed, and hasn’t ever liked him from the day they adopted him from the orphanage. However, no one would believe or listen to her.
Later, Roger’s dad dies (potentially caused by Roger) and Grandma becomes more protective over her family. Seeing that Grandma always bad-mouthed him and was in his way, Roger deliberately did things to scare grandma (like the fish in the toilet, cutting up her plant etc), but then cover it up again, making Grandma seem like she was going mental so that no one in the family would trust what she says 🙁 Those scenes so creepy! I was rooting for the poor Grandma!! but I knew she was too fragile to fight against Roger herself. I admired all that she went through and tried her best to protect her family but there really is only so much she could do alone. She even went through all the trouble to install web cams in the whole house, but unfortunately Roger discovered those too and he threw them all away…except one!! 😀 ~ a very crucial one which was placed in Roger’s room. She managed to record him speaking on the phone with the lawyer, shifting all the will’s funds into his own account. Thinking she had enough evidence, Grandma quickly called Kevin who she trusted and wanted to give the disk to him! However, being chased and scared by Roger, Grandma desperately wanted to get to Kevin and ends up getting run over by a car!!
Still, Grandma handed the disk to him and she thought she could rest in peace but it turns out it wasn’t enough to hold charges against Roger. Thus, the only way to maintain Roger’s trust was for Kevin to pass the disk onto him. When grandma found out, she was so hurt and betrayed by Kevin, she ended up dying in vain..
Slowly everyone – his mother, sister (Elaine), Yoyo (Carmen) and his friend played by Evergreen starts seeing Roger’s true nature! However, it appears to be too late… Soon Kevin’s cover also gets blown, not because of investigating him, but betrayal as he blames Kevin for coming in-between him and Yoyo and sacks him from his job. The only hope Kevin had left was Yoyo as he secretly passed on the evidence to her. Roger ends up going crazy and even captures Yoyo so he could “keep” her…torturing the one he claims to love the most.
The Ending
I’m glad the deaths ended there. I actually thought Roger’s mum would get killed in the process too, especially how fragile and sick she was. It would have been so sad if she actually killed herself from all the misery…
I’m kind of glad that Yoyo didn’t end up with Kevin…yet. After all that Roger put them all through, it would be really hard for her to forget about him. Hopefully later they will:)
The ending to the whole series- that final shot was so creepy & scary XD (I screamed!! LOL) but suited the whole theme/series/ title of the series “Last One standing” or its Chinese title which roughly translates as ‘Along with the enemy’. The act and deceiving between the two characters in attempt to gain each other’s trust is ongoing- there will be no end- not until one of them is dead. That last shot of Roger in jail is like him saying ‘the game has just started’ *chills!*
From watching the whole series, it would be terribly unrealistic if Roger really turned good at the end after being imprisoned. It’s very unlike his nature and he was born with that selfish desire and greed since young. Even being crippled, Roger will bound to come back out for his revenge.
Random notes:
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- I watched the first 2 episodes at night and it got a bit creepy XD
- Doesn’t TVB sorta send the message to the audience not to adopt anyone from the orphanage? XD
- I don’t quite understand why even earning so much money Roger wasn’t willing to invest some money to cure his mum’s disease. I thought he really cared about her…but then again- the moment he dropped her onto the ground- no way.
- I thought Macy (Kelly) turning evil in the end seemed a bit forced
- I also like to mention I really like Elaine (Roger’s sister) & Ellesmere’s character (Kevin’s brother in-law) .
- Elaine’s acting has really improved from the past. I don’t find her character/acting annoying at all and she appears more natural. I grew to like the way her character stands up against Roger and the determination she has to save her mum and make her happy.
- As for Ellesmere, I started liking him from the time he started working with Kevin. It’s comforting to see Kevin have a companion who he could really talk to about what he is facing because he is the only one who knows what Kevin is doing. The two continue to pretend they don’t get along to help find evidence against Roger, but they do share some funny scenes hehe XD
- This series reminds me of elements from The Price of Greed ! It gives me a similar feeling: All the plotting, and much like the two-faced Sammul, Roger’s character really scares me! It’s that thrill that’s worth watching- Fear for Kevin getting caught and us hoping desperately that Roger will disappear from the world lol Also, like Phoenix Rising, it’s really creepy how Roger kills off the people one by one, much like Louisa’s character in PR.
Recommend? If you like a series with some mystery & thrillers, then Last one Standing is a TVB series that should not be missed!
It’s not probably not a series I would want to watch again though. I guess it’s the genre which only makes me wanna watch it once, and enjoy it for that one experience 🙂
Features Kate Tsui, Kenneth Ma, Raymond Lam, Ron Ng, Sammul Chan, Selena Li