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JUSTICE PAO II (1995)
SERIES REVIEW CASE NUMBER 5
It's a dark and rainy night. The sound of thunder is deafening and the lighting flashes across the sky. From and old house a young girl, Sum Lok Ha, emerges holding a pair of scissors in her hands which are stained with blood. At once Sum Lok Ha drops the pair of scissors and sprints away from the house. Meanwhile Justice Pao, Jin Chiu, Kung Sin Chuk, Cheung Lo, Jiu Foo, Wong Chiu, and Ma Hong are rushing through the heavy rain. They find shelter at an old temple. Justice Pao remarks that the heavy rain is a sign that something is wrong. Suddenly Sum Lok Ha enters the temple and informs Justice Pao that she had just stabbed someone by accident. Justice Pao asks Cheng Lo to take Sum Lok Ha to the courtroom as he proceeded to the old house with the others to search for clues. Upon arriving at the old house, Kung Sin Chuk, discovers that the old man was already dead. The old man died not because he was stabbed in the chest, but because he received another blow to the head. Jin Chiu found a pair of scissors on the ground, which was the only evidence found at the house besides the dead body. The following day Sum Lok Ha was questioned by Justice Pao. Sum Lok Ha informs Justice Pao that she was the student of the old man found at the house, who was actually the famous painter, Wan Yin Hing. Sum Lok Ha then informed Justice Pao that she had stabbed her master Wan Yin Hing in self defense, because he had drugged her. Suddenly someone was hitting the alarm drum outside the courtroom. Cheung Lo went to invite that person in. A young man, Wan Hiu Lan, arrived to see Justice Pao. Wan Hiu Lan informed Justice Pao that he was the eldest son of the Wan family and confessed to the crime of murdering his own farther Wan Yin Hing. Justice Pao was stunned by this confession, and questioned Wan Hiu Lan further. Sum Lok Ha suddenly decided to confess to the murder and stated that Wan Hiu Lan was innocent. Wan Hiu Lan stated that he was the actual murderer and stated that Sum Lok Ha was innocent. Justice Pao had heard enough and asked Sum Lok Ha to speak up and told Wan Hiu Lan to shut his mouth. Sum Lok Ha revealed the past to Justice Pao and the events which occurred on the night of the murder. According to Sum Lok Ha, Wan Yin Hing, was an evil man with a compulsive gambling habit. She was brought into the Wan family since childhood. The Wan family consisted of grandma Wan Wong Si, who was extremely kind and loved her grandchildren, the wife Chow Wai Leung, the children Wan Hiu Dan, Wan Hiu Lan and Wan Hiu Bak. Though a fine artist and painter Wan Yin Hing constantly drank and took out his anger on his children for his losses at gambling. Once he beat up his wife, Chow Wai Leung, in public and broke Wan Hiu Bak's leg, which never healed. The only good that Wan Yin Hing did was accept, Sum Lok Ha, as a student and taught her how to paint. However Wan Yin Hing suffered from an unsteady hand as a result of drinking which prevented him from being able to paint. His children were then forced to paint for him, and he would stamp the paintings with his name. Wan Yin Hing was also a greedy man and sold his daughter, Wan Hiu Dan, to a bad person. Wan Hiu Dan could no longer stand her husband and returned to the family. Soon Wan Yin Hing had planned to sell Wan Hiu Dan to a man who was around 70 years of age. This made Wan Hiu Lan extremely angry and he attempted to stand up for his sister. In a fury Wan Hiu Lan leaves the family and starts his own painting store, but he had no customers because they believed that the paintings were the work of Wan Yin Hing. Wan Hiu Lan decided to return to the family to celebrate his Wan Wong Si's 70 birthday. Upon returning Wan Hiu Lan discovered that Wan Yin Hing had beaten the entire family and including Wan Wong Si. Wan Hiu Lan was extremely angry and elected to move back to help her grandmother who fell ill because of being hit by her own son. Later Wan Yin Hing owed a large sum of money to To Sei Ho through gambling. He agreed to sell Sum Lok Ha to To Sei Ho to wipe out the debt. Sum Lok Ha refuse to be sold to To Sei Ha and planned to commit suicide so To Sei Ho gave Wan Yin Hing six months to come up with the money. Wan Yin Hing then tricked Wan Hiu Lan and Sum Lok Ha into helping him after stating that he would change his ways. However when the six months had arrived, Wan Yin Hing tricked Sum Lok Ha into following to the old house. Wan Yin Hing then drugged Sum Lok Ha and attempted to capture her for To Sei Ho. Sum Lok Ha then grabbed a pair of scissors and stabbed Wan Yin Hing in the chest before leaving. Upon hearing her testimony, Jin Chiu presented the pair of scissors he found at the crime scene to Justice Pao. Kung Sin Chuk then took the scissors over to Sum Lok Ha to examine. She confirmed that they were the scissors she had used. Wan Hiu Lan was then questioned about the night of the murder. Wan Hiu Lan informed Justice Pao that he returned home to discover that Sum Lok Ha had gone with Wan Yin Hing to an old house. Worried about Sum Lok Ha he decided to go to the old house and found Wan Yin Hing who was angry and furious at being stabbed. Wan Yin Hing then attacked him. Wan Hiu Lan then used a piece of broken plate to smash him across the head causing his death. Upon hearing this Justice Pao slammed his block against the table, because Wan Hiu Lan had failed to identify the correct murder weapon. Therefore he was clearly taking the blame for someone else. Justice Pao decided to end the questioning session for the day knowing that both Sum Lok Ha and Wan Hiu Lan were not the murderers. Justice Pao suspected that a third person was involved and informed Jin Chiu and Kung Sin Chuk that finding the murder weapon would be critical to solving the case. Jin Chiu and Kung Sin Chuk then visited the Wan family in the hope of finding some clues. Wan Hiu Dan informed Jin Chiu that she had gone to the old house on the night of the murder to take her grand mother, Wan Wong Si, home but did not know what happened. Yet Chow Wai Leung had told Jin Chiu that the entire family except for Wan Hiu Lan and Sum Lok Ha stayed home on the night of the murder. That evening Wong Chiu followed Wan Hiu Dan who went to pay respects to her dead unborn son. Wan Hiu Dan was pregnant but Wan Yin Hing forced to her to have a miscarriage so that he could sell her into another family. After visiting the family, Jin Chiu, informed Justice Pao that any one of the family members could have been the suspect as each had a motive to kill Wan Yin Hing. Jin Chiu had also found evidence to confirm that Wan Yin Hing was indeed an evil person and a compulsive gambler. Meanwhile Chow Wai Leung thought that Wan Wong Si had accidentally killed Wan Yin Hing to protect Sum Lok Ha. Chow Wai Leung did want the old lady to be sentenced to death so decided to inform Wan Hiu Dan and Wan Hiu Bak to hide the truth. Justice Pao then questioned Sum Lok Ha on the motive behind Wan Yin Hing wanting to drug her. Justice Pao was informed, that To Sei Ho still wanted to obtain her love despite what had happened earlier. To Sei Ho attempted to rape her one day, but she was saved by Wan Hiu Lan. To Sei Ho then swear that he would do everything possible to obtain her love. Justice Pao then decided to take To Sei Ho into questioning who decided to put the blame of the murder on Wan Hiu Lan. Justice Pao then suspected To Sei Ho, who managed to put on an act so that he would not be a suspect. Jin Chiu later found a local who stated that he saw Chow Wai Leung taking old lady Wan Wong Si home on the night of the murder. Chow Wai Leung immediately became the suspect because she had told Jin Chiu lies days earlier and stated that Wan Hiu Dan had taken old lady Wan Wong Si home. Kung Sin Chuk then revisited the Wan family hopping to speak with old lady Wan Wong Si, who was ill and suffered from a loss of memory. Kung Sin Chuk decided to take a sample of the medicine that Chow Wai Leung was giving to Wan Wong Si. Kung Sin Chuk discovered that it was the medicine that made Wan Wong Si suffer from a loss of memory. Later Jin Chiu captured Chow Wai Leung at the crime scene picking up an earring of the floor. Jin Chiu then took Chow Wai Leung back to Justice Pao for questioning. When being questioned Chow Wai Leung decided to lie about the events that took place on the night of the murder, but Justice Pao had a witness who could place her at the crime scene. The earring was the object which placed her inside the house during the murder. With all the evidence pointing towards, Chow Wai Leung, she decided to confess to the murder of Wan Yin Hing. Chow Wai Leung informed Justice Pao that she was actually Wan Yin Hing's sister in law, before she was raped by Wan Yin Hing. Her sister then passed away and wanted her to look after the two children, Wan Hiu Lan and Wan Hiu Dan. Chow Wai Leung was already pregnant, so she agreed to marry Wan Yin Hing who promised to change his ways. However Wan Yin Hing, did not change his ways and even broke her son Wan Hiu Bak's leg. Chow Wai Leung then stated that she had enough of the suffering and when she discovered that Wan Yin Hing had drugged Sum Lok Ha, she decided to take the opportunity to kill him. Chow Wai Leung stated that she repeatedly beat Wan Yin Hing over the head with concrete block shaped as a pare. Chow Wai Leung then took Jin Chiu to were she had placed the murder weapon. Jin Chiu recovered the weapon at the bottom of the well. Kung Sin Chuk used a model of Wan Yin Hing's head to determine that the concrete block shaped as a pare was the murder weapon. Justice Pao was ready to hand down the sentence when, Wan Hiu Lan, Wan Hiu Dan, Wan Hiu Bak and Sum Lok Ha all arrived to confessed that they murdered Wan Yin Hing. Justice Pao rejected their confession. Justice Pao found it difficult to hand down a death sentence, and had Chow Wai Leung temporary locked up until he could request the King to spare her life. Also Justice Pao became a bit worried when Chow Wai Leung demanded to be executed immediately. Justice Pao then suspected that the Chow Wai Leung was just covering up for someone else. Meanwhile Wan Hiu Lan, Wan Hiu Dan, Wan Hiu Bak and Sum Lok Ha were all released and free to return home. Upon returning home Wan Hiu Lan took charge of the responsibility of looking after the family. Wan Hiu Lan then promised his old lady Wan Wong Si, that he would marry Sum Lok Ha when she recovered from her illness. The following day Wan Hiu Lan refused to sell her sister, Wan Hiu Dan, to an old man and promised that he would have the debt that Wan Yin Hing had owed him. Everyone in the family then chipped in to help Wan Hiu Lan to generate enough money to wipe out all of the gambling debt left behind by Wan Yin Hing. However business was going slow as no one wanted to buy their paintings. One day To Sei ho arrived and wanted to rape Sum Lok Ha, who was then saved by Wan Hiu Lan. To Sei Ho became embarrassed in public and wanted to charge Wan Hiu Lan with assault. Jin Chiu and Kung Sin Chuk then arrived to resolve the situation, and forced To Sei Ho to Back off. Kung Sin Chuk and Jin Chiu then bought some of Wan Hiu Lan's paintings to help them out financially. Later Wan Hiu Lan discovers that old lady Wan Wong Si was the actual murder. At once he became upset with being unable to help out Chow Wai Leung who was content with sacrificing her life to spare the old lady of the suffering. Although Chow Wai Leung was not his real mother, Wan Hiu Lan still treated her as if she was. Wan Hiu Lan then visited Chow Wai Leung and thanked her for taking the blame on behalf of Wan Wong Si. One day Justice Pao was going to take some books from the bookshelf. Kung Sin Chuk rushed in and told Justice Pao not to put the books back on the bookshelf because he wanted them. Justice Pao then stroked his beard and informed Kung Sin Chuk that he was not placing the books back on the shelf but taking them from the shelf. Suddenly it click in Justice Pao's mind that Chow Wai Leung had visited the crime scene not to take away evidence but to place evidence which who incriminate her. Kung Sin Chuk agreed with Justice Pao and suspected that Chow Wai Leung was taking the blame for someone else. Justice Pao and Kung Sin Chuk then visited the Wan family in the hope of speaking with old lady Wan Wong Si. Whilst at the house, Kung Sin Chuk, noticed that all of the equipment in the house was for a left-handed person. Sum Lok Ha informed Kung Sin Chuk, that all of the equipment was left handed because Chow Wai Leung could not use her right hand as a result of the beatings that she took at the hands of Wan Yin Hing. With this in mind, Jin Chiu, wanted Chow Wai Leung, to demonstrate how she used the concrete block to kill Wan Yin Hing on the night of the murder. Chow Wai Leung struggled to pick up the concrete block which fell on the floor. Justice Pao then rose out of his seat, because Chow Wai Leung, clearly did not have the strength to murder Wan Yin Hing. Justice Pao then summoned Jin Chiu to bring Wan Hiu Bak in for questioning. Wan Hiu Bak confessed to the murder and was able to pick up the concrete block and demonstrate how he murdered Wan Yin Hing. Chow Wai Leung then informed Justice Pao that she had been covering up for her own son, Wan Hiu Bak who was indeed guilty of the murder. Wan Hiu Lan, Wan Hiu Dan, and Sum Lok Ha then rushed in to claim that Wan Hiu Bak was innocent. Wan Hiu Bak then requested Justice Pao to sentenced him to death immediately because he was guilty. Justice Pao once more suspected that Wan Hiu Bak was covering for someone else, and decided to lock him up temporally. The other members of the Wan family were set free. Upon returning home, Wan Hiu Lan, once again thanked Chow Wai Leung who was willing to sacrifice her own son to protect old lady Wan Wong Si. Chow Wai Leung then stayed up all night making clothes for her son, Wan Hiu Bak, to wear on the day of execution. Chow Wai Leung then made preparations to eliminate the final piece of evidence. She found a yellow bag at the crime scene with a pearl stitched to it and thought that it belonged to old lady Wan Wong Si. Chow Wai Leung remembered that when she entered the room on the night of the murder, Wan Yin Hing was already dead. She found old lady Wan Wong Si on the floor next to Wan Yin Hing with the concrete block besides her, saying that he deserved to die. Below Wan Yin Hing was a yellow bag with a pearl stitched on it. Chow Wai Leung decided to take the yellow bag and drop the concrete block into the well. She then carried old lady Wan Wong Si away from the crime scene. When Chow Wai Leung went to see old lady Wan Wong Si, she discovered that old lady Wan Wong Si had not lost her yellow bag. At once Chow Wai Leung took old lady Wan Wong Si's bag with the bag that she found at the crime scene, to a Taoist to see who it belonged to. Before Chow Wai Leung left she informed the rest of the Wan family that she was going to visit Wan Hiu Bak in prison. Shortly after Chow Wai Leung had left, To Sei ho, arrived and overheard Wan Hiu Lan and Sum Lok Ha talking about how unfair it was to have Wan Hiu Bak cover up for the murder committed by old lady Wan Wong Si. At once To Sei Ho, rushed in and tried to use what he had heard to blackmail, Sum Lok Ha into sleeping with him. Sum Lok Ha refused and attempted to commit suicide when Jin Chiu arrived to prevent her. Jin Chiu arrived to take To Sei Ho into questioning because he had found a witness who placed To Sei Ho at the crime scene on the night of the murder. To Sei Ho then informed Jin Chiu that her personally witness, old lady Wan Wong Si, murdering Wan Yin Hing on the night of the murder. Jin Chiu was then forced to capture both Wan Wong Si and To Sei Ho into questioning. Justice Pao found it difficult to pass down a death sentence on an old woman who was now in her 70's and is suffering from a loss of memory. But with To Sei Ho's testimony he had no choice but to lock up old lady Wan Wong Si until further evidence was found. the following day Cheung Lo and Jiu Foo, reported that Chow Wai Leung had drowned to death. Jin Chiu and Kung Sin Chuk examined the body and found no traces of foul play. Justice Pao suspected foul play however, because Chow Wai Leung had died without seeing her son Wan Hiu Bak, one last time. Also Jin Chiu located some articles that belonged to Chow Wai Leung including a yellow bag. With this Justice Pao visited the Taoist who produced the bag, and discovered that Chow Wai Leung had approached the Taoist days earlier. Chow Wai Leung had questioned the Taoist about a yellow bag with a pearl stitched on the outside. The Taoist recognize the bag and told Chow Wai Leung that it belonged to To Sei Ho. With this information, Justice Pao, suspected that it was To Sei ho who had murdered Wan Yin Hing. Jin Chiu later uncovered that To Sei Ho was suffering from impaired vision and could not possibly seen the murder by standing out side in the rain. Knowing that To Sei Ho would never admit to the murder, Jin Chiu, set a trap for him with the help of Wan Hiu Lan. To Sei Ho was tricked by Sum Lok Ha and Wan Hiu Lan that they had located the matching pearl which matched the pearl stitched on To Sei Ho's bag. The missing pearl was found inside the old house which placed To Sei Ho at the crime scene on the night of the murder. To Sei Ho then became desperate and fought with Wan Hiu Lan. To Sei Ho then captured Sum Lok Ha as hostage. Wan Hiu Lan then laughed and threatens to burn down the house so all of them would die together. Fearing for his life To Sei Ho admitted to the murder of Wan Yin Hing and Chow Wai Leung, and begged Wan Hiu Lan not to burn the house. Jin Chiu then burst in from the roof and captured To Sei Ho and saved Sum Lok Ha from his clutches. Outside Justice Pao, and Kung Sin Chuk were waiting to take To Sei Ho back for questioning. With all of the evidence before him To Sei Ho admitted to the murder of both Wan Yin Hing and Chow Wai Leung. To Sei Ho then begged Justice Pao to spare his life claiming that he had killed Wan Yin Hing in self-defense. Justice Pao dismissed the claim stating that self defense does not in itself justify the repeated brutal beating to Wan Yin Hing's head which led to his death. Also To Sei Ho murdered an innocent person, Chow Wai Leung to cover up his crime. By taking two lives he was sentenced to death through beheading. Old lady Wan Wong Si was then released and Justice Pao then visited the Wan family. Old lady Wan Wong Si thanked Justice Pao for his help in solving the crime and freeing all family members from the charge of murder. Old lady Wan Wong Si then presented Sum Lok Ha with Chow Wai Leung's hairpin as a gift to the future wife of Wan Hiu Lan. Now that Wan Yin Hing was dead, the Wan family was able to live a happy and peaceful life which pleased Justice Pao. RATING (5) This story was very emotional, and tragic. Whenever a case covers a family dispute it is usually very wicked and evil. This case is not one for the faint hearted. In the end despite all of the evil things that Wan Yin Hing has done, none of the family members took the drastic step of murdering him despite the reasons that they possessed. From the outset of the story I was expecting a tragic and sad ending. However my expectations were not fulfilled with another happy ending. Because this story is focused on the concept of "family", it is not intended to be action packed. Instead this series is more like a murder mystery. This kept the story very interesting because many suspects were presented each with a different motive and only by at the end is the real murderer exposed. Overall the acting was okay. Lai Yiu Cheung, gets the main role as Wan Hiu Lan in this series. I have usually seen Lai Yiu Cheung in funny and amusing roles. He has that silly tone of voice which works well in comedy series. However he seems to lack the ability to take on serious roles. Rain Lau's performance was probably the best amongst the cast members. Before this series, I've only seen Rain Lau act in annoying roles like that of Ah Chi in "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils". So I was presently surprised at how well she acted in the role of Sum Lok Ha, who is a total contrast of her past roles. Carol Yeung didn't really make a big impact as Wan Hiu Dan as she was only playing a minor role in a sort series. Gary Chan like, Carol Yeung only played a minor role in this story so it is hard to comment on his acting. As usual Felix is always putting on a good performance to help the other cast members.
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