My Rating: ★★

Gilded Chopsticks [食為奴] is a costume comedy drama from Hong Kong which was broadcast on TVB at the beginning of 2014.

About

Ko Tin Po owns a street bun shop and his fortunes change, or maybe not, when he is appointed by the palace to work as a chef in their kitchen.

Cast

Wong Cho Lam (王祖藍) as Ko Tin Po
I didn’t think we had seen him in any other shows but he was in D.I.E. He is a talented actor, Director, Producer and Executive Producer.

Stephanie Ho (何雁詩) as Mai Siu Yu
We don’t recall her in Line Walker: The Prelude. She hasn’t been in any shows since 2000 as far as I can see.

Nancy Wu (胡定欣) as Nin Yeuk Bik
Probably the most famous face in the show, we have seen her in A Fist Within Four Walls, Tiger Cubs 2, Rosy Business No Regrets, Rosy Business, A Fistful of Stances and D.I.E.

Ben Wong (黃智賢) as Yin Zhen [Fourth Imperial Prince] I don’t recall him in anything we’ve seen before but evidently he was in Rosy Business No Regrets.

King Kong Lee (李信樵) as Kazari Matsugoro
He was a notable guest star in this show.

Review

This was a fun and bubbly show but I could only take it in small doses. Instead of the two episodes per week we only watched one. Some weeks we actually skipped it. So, it took quite a few weeks to get through all the 25 episodes.

The story was good, lots of palace intrigue, story kept developing as did the characters.

There wasn’t much action, more humour than anything.

Wong Cho Lam and Stephanie Ho over acted and it didn’t come across very well. It actually felt like bad acting. This is something that really let the show down.

The theme music of the show was jolly and addictive, something you can say about a lot of Hong Kong TV shows.

The Japanese character that had a Hitler moustache, totally inappropriate but I have to say it just cracked me up.

Summary

I would only give it a 2/5 even though it was watchable.

Where To Watch

You can find it on TubiTV and on an official TVB account on YouTube. The YouTube version has missing sound which is very annoying but I expect this is due to Google rather than TVB.