Old Time Buddy - To Catch a Thief

Old Time Buddy - To Catch a Thief (Chinese: 難兄難弟之神探李奇; Jyutping: naan4 hing1 naan4 dai6 zi1 san1 taam1 lei5 kei4; literally "Difficult Older Brother, Difficult Younger Brother-Detective Lee Kei") is a 1998 Hong Kong period romantic comedy television drama created and produced by TVB, starring Gallen Lo, Maggie Cheung Ho-yee, Gordon Lam, Elaine Ng as the main cast.^[1] The series is an indirect sequel to 1997's Old Time Buddy. Filming took place in early 1998 entirely on location in Hong Kong. Original broadcast began on Hong Kong's TVB Jade channel August 3 till September 4, 1998 every Monday through Friday during its 7:30 to 8:30 pm timeslot with a total of 25 episodes.

Although it is the second installment of the Old Time Buddy series the story and characters have no connections to the first series. While the first series focuses on Hong Kong film industry in the 1960s, the second series is adapted from plots of 1960s Hong Kong detective mystery films such as The Black Rose (1965) starring the real life Connie Chan.

Synopsis

Lee Kei (Gallen Lo) is a righteous cop who refuses to follow the majority of most Hong Kong police officers who accepted bribes during the 1960s. Wanting to move away from his supervisor who is a corrupted cop, Kei reports it to his precinct Lieutenant, who is unable to do anything about it since his superior is also corrupted. In order to protect Kei, he has him go undercover to find the infamous cat burglar "Black Rose", who has escaped being captured for over twenty years.

His first clue to finding "Black Rose" leads him to a nightclub, but he gets side tracked when he sees one of his favorite singer is scheduled to perform there. However, when Kei finds out the singer will be a no show he leaves. Walking past the back alley a man crash lands on him. The man turns out to be Tse Sei (Gordon Lam), the slick talent manager of the nightclub who is trying to escape from triads because he did not pay the talent their fees, they refuse to perform which causes the triad boss who sold the tickets to lose money. Sei and Kei are former classmates. Sei seeing that Kei resembles the singer scheduled to perform tricks him onto stage. The two almost gets away with tricking the crowds until Kei drops his sunglasses.

Kei, who is always willing help others offers to take in Sei, seeing that he can't return to his home. However Sei soon worn outs his welcome when he ask to borrow Kei's clothes and accessories to wear. The next day Kei finds out his corrupted supervisor knows about his undercover assignment. His corrupted supervisor tells Kei that if he is unable to solve his undercover assignment in one month he will use it as an excuse to fire him. Life for Kei gets worse later that day when he is returning home. He finds out that the triads that are looking for Sei have burned down his home.

To make it up to Kei, Sei brings him to his uncle's home to live. Sei's uncle works at an amusement park and live together with all the employees in the same apartment. At the amusement park Sei gets re-acquainted with all his former neighbors which includes brassy girl Siu Fong-fong (Elaine Ng), who tends the coin toss game booth at the park. After dinner Sei brings Kei around the amusement park to see other attractions. At one of the attractions Kei is automatically volunteered to be an assistant at a martial arts attraction. After being scare out of his wits he recognizes the martial arts used by the performers is similar to those used by "Black Rose". Kei decides to stay close to the performer Cheng Po-chu (Maggie Cheung Ho-yee) and her mentor who he suspects is the infamous "Black Rose".

Cast

Main cast

• Gallen Lo as Lee Kei (李奇) - based on Lui Kei 呂奇
• Maggie Cheung Ho-yee as Cheng Po-chu (程寶珠) - based on Connie Chan 陳寶珠
• Gordon Lam as Tse Sei (謝四) - based on Patrick Tse 謝賢 whose nickname is Sei gor 四哥
• Elaine Ng as Siu Fong-fong (邵芳芳) - based on Josephine Siao 蕭芳芳

Chung apartment tenants

• Chow Chung as Siu Chung (邵聰)
• Suet Nei as Ching Seung-seung (程雙雙)
• Kingdom Yuen as Ng Yan-lai 吳恩麗
• Chun Wong as Tse Ping (謝平)
• Jerry Lamb as Siu Ka-ming (邵家明)
• Jay Leung as "Lulu" Leung Kum-dai (梁金娣)
• Rachel Poon as Ng Yim-fong (吳艷芳)
• Gladys Ho as Ng Oi-fong (吳愛芳)

Hong Kong Police

• Gregory Charles Rivers as Si sir (史sir)
• Choi Kwok-Hing as Lok Gung (駱恭)
• Annabelle Lau as Lok Bik-gei (駱碧姬)
• Felix Lok as Liu Geng (雷勁)
• Wilson Tsui as Ngan Bun (顏彬)

Extended cast

• Joyce Tang as Yiu Lina (姚Lina)
• Ken Lok as Robert
• Ben Wong as Tang Hong-wing (鄧康榮)
• Kwan Ching as Yu Siu-yuen (于小元)
• Chiu Hung as Snake Man (蛇佬)
• Man Kit-wan as Lai Jan (麗珍)
• Wong Son as Chan Lo-siu (陳老鼠)
• Samson Yeung as Teacher (小室老師)
• Kwok Fung as Tang Gin (鄧堅)
• Johnson Law as White Clouds (白雲)
• Pak Yan as Black Wildcat (黑野貓)
• Lily Leung as Wong Ang (黃鶯)
• Fung So-bo as Female killer 女殺手
• Helena Law as Muk Lan-fa (木蘭花)
• Lily Li as Muk Sau-jan (木秀珍)
• Celia Sie as Ding Ling (丁鈴)

Development and casting

• A sequel to 1997 Old Time Buddy was created due to high ratings and positive reception of the first series. However the sequel was poorly received with low ratings and the series was not continued.
• The role of Tse Yuen/Sei originated by Francis Ng was re-cast with Gordon Lam, as Ng had left TVB to concentrate on film roles.
• The role of Siu Fong-fong originated by Jessica Hsuan was re-cast with Elaine Ng, as Hsuan had an infamous fall out with Maggie Cheung during the filming of the first series.^[2][3]

References

External links

• Official website (Chinese)