天梯 The Last Steep Ascent Review

I wanted to watch The Last Steep Ascent from the beginning as I thought it was lovely how the script is based on a real story. I'm glad I watched the series, it was never boring and it didn't drag. The ending was quite rushed in my opinion though, as I later talk about!

Moses Chan as Miu Tin and Maggie Cheung as Sun Yuet

Miu Tin first meet Sun Yuet, 8 years his senior when she was 18 on her day of marriage. Sun Yuet had left a deep impression on him ever since. Being born in the countryside, Miu Tin has an excellent knowledge of the quality of chinese medicine. When Sun Yuet's husband and owner of their family business dies the business lies in the hands of Sun Yuet who also has to protect it from the villains Kwan Yiu and Sai Ho. Since Sun Yuet has had no experience of running a business she is under deep pressure. Luckly, Miu Tin comes over to help her, even angering his then boss Chai Man who had promoted him to high positions quickly in his own business.

Miu Tin works with Sun Yuet together to protect the business from a variety of problems. The two trust each other entirely on everything and always have endless conversations. This leads people to start talking of the two having a affair even though the two are innocent.

Later Kwan Yiu and Sai Ho finds a secret of Sun Yuet's husband. Exposing it to the rest of the family, all the seniors decided that the business should be given to Sai Ho to manage. Sai Ho has a plan to make the business fail so he can open his own afresh, so he does not have to share the profits with the other family members. He almost succeeds: he ruins the business and sells it to get a load of money. He escapes to Hong Kong. However, Miu Tin could see his plans and he was the buyer of the business and contacted the police to arrest him. His father, Kwan Yiu suffered a second stroke and became wheel bound. Even though he wanted the business for his son, he had always wanted the business to do well.

Since the business went to Sai Ho's hands, Sun Yuet and Miu Tin hardly saw each other any more. When Miu Tin saves teh business once again Sun Yuet's mother-in-law tells her to leave with Miu Tin as she understands that Sun Yuet had developed feelings for him. Sun Yuet decides to find Miu Tin. She is lead to him by the moon and they decided to live up at a mountain where they could see a laughing moon. She brings her three children to the mountain too. Even when the children grow up and leave the mountain, the couple stay there. Mui Tian spends 50 years to make a staircase from the top of the mountain down for Sun Yuet to walk down safely. Mui Tian dies of age old after these 50 years, telling Sun Yuet to live well and long after he leaves and that he will build another stair case for her in heaven if it is hard to get there. When he dies, Sun Yuet leaves the mountain with her children.

I wouldn't say that this pair is boring. It was always nice to see their interactions. I could see their deep trust for each other but not quite where they fell in love. I guess Miu Tin had always remembered Sun Yuet from when he met her as a child, but I don't see how Sun Yuet would feel anything more for him than extreme gratitude. It was nice watching the series though, knowing that the two would end up together and spend a number of  happy decades together! 

Like I said in this post, it's unbelivable how Miu Tin is so clever. Determining the quality of the chinese medicines ok, but now runnning an actual business?? It's even worse when they promote Cheung Kiu to his position. Even thought he's a great guy I don't know where he would have the knowledge to run his own business. Cheung Kiu had never made any big decisions, it had always been up to Miu Tin.

I thought that Maggie's acting was a bit too "see lai" at times especially when she talks. I will miss her though. I remember seeing her on TVB all those years ago before she got ill and now she's leaving TVB again only after filing a few series with them. I like Moses' acting though. I do think he's portrayed almost every single type o character he can now. The only bit of his acting that bothered me was when he was dying. He's this 80 year old dying man but he still manages to talk like he's full of energy will no pauses in between his lines. Also I didn't like their "old" make-up. It didn't look real at all!



Kenny Wong as Cheung Kiu and Aimee Chan as Oi Tai

Cheung Kiu lives in pain as his wife and son had deceased due to him being drunk when his wife gave birth so there was no one around to give her help. Similarly Oi Tai lives in pain. Being the 3rd party of Sun Yuet and her husband's marriage, she is left with nothing when Sai Cheung dies. Worse still she is raped by a stranger and becomes pregnant. When Cheung Kiu finds out after she attempts to commit suicide he assumes that the child belongs to Sai Cheung. He decides to elope with her to a place where no one knows them to start fresh. However on the day where they were to escape Sun Yuet finds out and brings Oi Tai to her home. Oi Tai follows her as she doesn't want to be a burden to Cheung Kiu: she belives that he would be much more successful without her. However it is soon found out that her child doesn't belong to Sai Cheungs. Sun Yuet and her mother in law sympathises with her and forgives her. Cheung Kiu and Oi Tai finally both decide to be together and they get married. Later Cheung Kiu  runs the business owed by Chai Man.

I quite liked this pair, even though like the former pair I didn't really know how they fell in love. I did wonder of Cheung Kiu would look after Oi Tai so much if she didn't have the same name as his wife. But after all the beating ups and sacrifices he made for her I knew that he loved her for who she was. I was very very happy when they finally got married. They deserved it so much! Infact I was worried that they would kill of Cheung Kiu's character just for laughs. Luckily they didn't!

Also as I said on my previous post I enjoyed Aimee Chan's performance in this series. Maybe it was because her character was so pitiful and likeable too. She's going to be in a new series "Cold Mountain, Hidden Dragon"  with Kenny Wong again. I wonder if they will be paired up together again?

Joel Chan as Chai Man and Samantha Ko as Yim

The Cheung Kiu and Oi Tai couple is fighting this one to be my favourite couple. As I said in my previous post it's the first time I've actually seen Samantha Ko acting. I think she did pretty well for her first time in a more prominent role. I thought her crying scene was pretty good when she was in the hospital talking to Moses. The scene dragged on a little though and her crying became slightly whiny and annoying. I'm still suffering from the horrible crying that Christine Kuo does though, so if I can understand what the actress is saying when she is crying, I tend to think she did a good job of it!

I'm happy the pair got a happy ending. It would be too sad if Chai Man stayed blind. I was also worried that the two would die in a plane crash (yeh, I'm always scared that TVB will kill random good character off). I'm a little confused of the two's relationship though. I thought she was his third wife, but then he bought her a ring and said that she would be his first wife?? Can anyone clarify that for me?


Raymond Wong
Raymond Wong woo! I thought I'd dedicate a little paragraph to him. I kept seeing him in the theme song but he never turned up until the finale. I was thinking "RAYMOND WONG!" as soon as I started to hear his voice over. I like Raymond Wong. And that ends my little paragraph :)

The Ending
I said at the start of the post that the ending was rushed. I thought this especially when the police arrested Sai  Ho. It felt like TVB was forcing the baddy to be captured. But then I guess it's revealed that it was because Miu Tin had been watching his steps. 

I also think that Miu Tin wasted 50 years of his life making the staircase for Sun Yuet. She only used it once when he was dying then she left the mountain anyway. Even so it's a good thing. She's accepted his death and is willing to carrying on living for as long as she can for him. It'll probably be scary for her though since everything below the mountain will have changed in the 50 years. As her son said, the mountain had no TV or mobile phones!

I'm happy with the ending though. Everybody lived happily ever after. That's always good!