#And other younger actors whose names I can't remember now and am too lazy to look up…sorry!

[don-dake]

《女人俱樂部》 | 《Never Dance Alone》 (2014)

Had a recent rewatch after a good number of years. Still as enjoyable as ever. I was not wrong to include this as one of my favourite series from TVB, if not the ONLY one still, from post 2010 back then!

Eight years ago (has it been so long?!) when it first aired, this series pleasantly surprised me with its strong script, better than usual production standards and strong performances from almost everyone in the cast, even the young rookies playing the younger versions of the seven main female characters.

(TVB series were already steadily becoming irredeemable rubbish a few years prior, so going in with low, very low expectations and finding myself actually truly enjoying this series came as an unexpected welcome!)

That this series boasted the return of some actors — namely, Carman Lee 李若彤, Rachel Lee aka Loletta Lee 李麗珍, Fennie Yuen 袁潔瑩, Angie Cheong 張慧儀, Gloria Yip 葉蘊儀, Elvina Kong 江欣燕 and Flora Chan 陳慧珊 — who hadn't been seen onscreen for some years then, actors of whom I have fond memories of from my childhood, that was icing on the cake!

(Sadly, what was thought to be a second wind for some of these actors was not to be. With the exception of Carman Lee who had been and still is active in the Mainland China market, the others have more or less gone back into oblivion…)

And now, eight years later, this series' themes of time and friendships found, lost, and found again (if really lucky), are still as relatable and as relevant as ever.

Perhaps more so now than before, as I get even closer in age to the characters on the older side in this story.

Unofficially ‘inspired’ by the 2011 Korean film, “Sunny”), the story is well paced, the two different timelines of the late '80s and 2013 are interspersed well and complemented without over-shadowing each other.

A TV series also allowed for more development of the main characters (of which there were more than usual too) in this story and gave an audience time to know them better.

In all honesty, I thought this adaptation was better than the original movie in a lot of ways; I much preferred the lighter set up of “Never Dance Alone” for one, unlike the original where things tethered on the imminent passing of one of the friends, and the resolution for the friends in the movie had too much of a ‘fairy godmother saves the day with monetary and other tangible rewards’ cliché to it.

NDA's happier and more relatable conclusion resonates better with me.

I also appreciated the fact that efforts were made to cast younger actors who physically resembled their older counterparts. For one, it made relating between the past and present that much easier, and two, it also indicated that if someone in production cared enough about a not-too-crucial detail like that, it probably meant this production had more sincerity and earnestness in delivering a series to be remembered (which they succeeded, in my opinion).

In a culture where there is little room for fussiness, and TV series are churned out in quantity over quality — most meant to be watched and quickly forgotten as soon as the next one comes along — and certainly made more for entertainment value than any real artistic merit, “Never Dance Alone” stands out in being not just another ‘time-filler’ series but a series that strived to tell a good story and has much heart in it, even if its heart was transplanted from a donor named ‘Sunny’.

↑ Third bar from the top shows one of M Club's competitors to be a group called ‘Sunny’! Easter egg? :)

TVB may not have officially acknowledged ‘being inspired’ by the Korean film, but someone in production seemed to have stealthily done so through a blink-and-miss-it shot of the scoreboard from the dance competition the characters took part in in the finale episode.