Hi Everyone,
It’s been a while since I watched any drama from Hong Kong as the production from the biggest TV station has been really old school and nothing have changed over the years. Big celebrities have moved on and the people left at that station is not really worth watching anymore. Recently one of my friends suggested to check out ViuTV which is a smaller TV station which was only airing their shows on cable but now licence to operate as a free to air tv station for the 12 years. The show my friend suggested to watch is called We are the Littles. At first the name sounded weird but so does many Hong Kong drama translated to English so I just let that past. The topic of this series is about a volleyball group starting from scratch and playing to become the top of their league. It reminded me of the Japanese anime called 'Haikyu!!' so I thought why not especially the two out of 3 main characters used to represent Hong Kong for volleyball before they started in the entertainment industry.
The main female character is played my Stephy Tang (鄧麗欣) who used to play volleyball for her school and representing Hong Kong youth team before joining a girl pop group. I have never really liked her singing or acting and didn’t have high expectations of her. Her character is an injured volleyball player who never overcome her fear of hurting herself on the courts and have been hiding away from volleyball for many years. Until some of the guys from a local high school who also didn’t do very well in their group selection recognised her and try to get her to be their coach. Zeno (顧定軒) thought he was a star player in his school group but he believes he was not chosen to be as the main player because of his height. He was the person to approach Stephy and getting the other guys together to form their team “Littles”. Knowing they are lacking in players with skills, the found Ian from a public volleyball court who was playing with the local high school kids.
The third main character Ian (陳卓賢) who was a representative in the national Hong Kong Volleyball team before joining the entertainment industry then joins the series. In my opinion, he was the star of the series. Due to his training in his high school and uni days, he makes the viewers feel like he is in control. The moment Ian appeared in this series, the whole series seemed to be more interesting with the tension between him and Zeno as both of them wanted to be the best player in the team. The series will slowly evolve from being a competitive environment between team members to helping each other out to bring out the best of each other’s ability.
Ian and the rest of the volleyball team (except for Zeno) is part of a band called “Mirror” who is one of the most popular boy band in Hong Kong at the moment. Not only because they are talented performers, having Ian there who was a professional volleyball player makes the whole series more believable. On top of that, Stephy playing coach and also a pro player really brings the series together which makes the viewers feel like they are not just acting, they are being their old self before joining the entertainment industry. There are no pretty clothes, any scenic views in this series. Most of the scenes are done at the university halls, volleyball courts and training grounds in their sports gear. A low budget production but the series is of high quality. If you are a fan of volleyball, have a bit of time to watch a great story for team spirit or a fan of the band Mirror, this is a must watch series. Highly recommended!
animation by @catwomanteresa
Thanks for reading. If you like my post, please follow, comment and upvote me. There will be more exciting posts & destinations to come.
All photos & videos are taken by me & co in all my blogs/stories unless quoted.
One question, are hong kong dramas the same as k-dramas? i.e. the way the characters act? with a lot of drama?