Nancy Wu and Wayne Lai are great together in this drama 巾幗梟雄之懸崖 , 巾幗4

For those that do not know, the chinese name for this series 巾幗梟雄 is about strong heroines. Regardless of the story background, or which actor portrayed (or should portray) which character, the series overall is about strong heroines. In No Return, the 4th installment, Nancy Wu portrays the anti-heroine Seventh Master, a successful business woman. She is portrayed as strong outside, but very vulnerable on the inside. Wayne Lai is the person that helps turn Nancy from anti-heroine to heroine. The villain in the story is portrayed by Edwin Siu.

No Return is a rare drama for Nancy Wu in that she is the main focus, and given majority screen time unlike in many other dramas where she is not often given a lot of screen time despite the importance of her character. Her acting in this drama is excellent. If you watch the drama, you have to watch carefully and not just casually to see Nancy portray the nuances of Seventh Master. Her use of subtle facial expressions and eyes is important, not many actors can do it without looking unnatural. On the pier with being rejected in love, Nancy deftly portrays the feeling of a emotionally vulnerable, rejected and embarrased woman boss; one who tries to be stoic, and doesn't let her emotions show in public. We see her face subtly go from doubt and confusion to anger and disgust. She clenches her teeth [you have to look at her face to see her clench her teeth] before deciding to leave, but instead falls into the lake [she also refused a stunt double to do the scene she felt was very important] and feeling twice embarassed and refusing all help. The scene where she crys in Big Red Sister lap is heartfelt. and the four times in the drama where she drinks the 'horse piss' bitter medicine the first time she winches in disgust, later she gets used to the bitter taste and her facial expression taking the medicine changes. The way Nancy acts confident in some scenes where she is the boss, and vulnerable and weak, you can tell she puts much thought into every scene. Those that are dismissive of Nancy Wu are just biased or can't distinguish between good acting and those just reading a script.

Wayne's Lai acting in this drama is also very good, mixing a lot of dramatic acting, with a bit of comedy to portray Chai 17 the sometimes humble and obedient, sometimes self-righteous and take charge special assistant to Seventh Master. The chemistry between Wayne Lai and Nancy Wu is very heartfelt and believable; this drama also happened to be the pair's 8th collaboration together on a drama.

There were also the comedic elements of the drama between Nancy and Wayne which were acted very well by both. The one where nancy pulls out the wayne's love letter to hera chan, the timing and execution of the scene was nicely done by the two veteran actors.

For Hera Chan, she was given a great opportunity to learn from so many veteran actors, and improve for the next drama she will be cast in. Edwin Siu was good, wasn't that fond of his singular facial expression throughout the drama, but nonetheless acted competently.

Besides Wayne Lai and Nancy Wu, the best part of the drama is the costumes, scenery, and sets. Nancy Wu's character had around 30 costumes, with sets staged inside two large historic buildings, one for the bank scenes, and one for gwai faa lau restaurant, part of it being chai 17's family medicinal clinic. While there were historical inaccuracies like the Cantonese birthday song, and the singing of the Cantonese classic Red Candle Tears 紅燭淚 [written by 唐滌生 in 1951], and the occasional use of some english words, it's defensible as it adds to the stylized nature of this fiction. the english words can be thought of as a 1920s way of being hip, the cantonese birthday song can be thought of best way of showing the banding together of hing dai, and what better song than red candle tears to represent the feelings of Seventh Master for Chai 17?

Despite the good, the not so good part of this drama is the writing in some parts of it, especially at the end when the plot was rushed toward a conclusion. There were also a lot of guns being pointed directly at Nancy's head all the time including the few times she pointed one at her own head; I felt that was a bit disconcerting, but plotwise was a visual representation showing how vulnerable the Seventh Master was.

In various interviews given by Nancy Wu and Wayne Lai, this drama was mentally stressful for Nancy not just that she had to think about how to develop her character, but the almost 400 scenes and huge amount of dialogue to absorb within a truncated filming schedule of 75 days; Nancy had mentioned she lost weight filming. The screenwriter Zhang Huabiao 張華標 was also the screenwriter for 巾幗1 and 巾幗2.

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