Expats (TV Series) Mongkok (2024) User Reviews

Interesting

[hazangel-89910 · 8/10 · 26 January 2024]

Okay I was a little harsh in my first review. The story is unravelling at a decent pace. The character development is good and paints an interesting picture.

Quick observations: Gus is one mischievous little cutie for sure. What a handful. There is something so creepy and perverted about David. His wife Hilary is better off without him for sure. She seems very unhappy and in denial. Mercy seems to be lost and trying to find herself and at the same time seeking attention and acceptance.

What a tragedy all around. Hopefully this comes to a satisfactory conclusion. I know this situation can break up families...

The end of this episode was well done.

Has potential but feels very average

[oliviafarag · 6/10 · 28 January 2024]

Episode 2 tells a story but it's not a great story. Seeing a woman sitting on a toilet with her business unflushed and later engaging in a prolonged awkward sex scene where she forgoes an orgasm so her deadbeat husband can groan and squirm all over her is just...kinda gross. In episode 1 we saw his bare naked flaccid bum for no good reason at all.

If it were a story about couples doing ordinary poopy things then fine, but it's also expecting us to 'feel something' for the woman that loses her child in a busy marketplace. I'm not feeling that at all; the directorial choices are not leading up that objective; by the time it happens, it's just another event. I mean, when Tilda Swindon is randomly shoved in a scene (as herself, in episode 1) one is left thinking 'why?'.

I feel the director is trying to cover too many bases rather than making decisive choices about what serves the story, and doesn't. Sometimes you have to cull material that may be edgy (in another context / film) but isn't part of the composition you are trying to frame.

Granted, there are 3 narratives going on here but the main one feels overshadowed by the sex life of the minor characters. This is definitely not interesting nor engaging.

I'm Agreeing with Everyone lol!

[Mehki_Girl · 7/10 · 1 February 2024]

Nicole looks too old to have Gus or even the other children. There's little chemistry between her and the kids and hubby and she looks out of place - too old (for the part), too scrawny, too pale, too tall.

Sticks out like a sore thumb and taking me out of the movie. Aging is natural, but plastic surgery creates unnatural planes on the face, so certain scenes or lighting can suddenly just make the person look weird and I'm sure that wasn't the plan of having the surgery done. I totally understand female actresses feeling it necessary to try to stay as youthful as possible, but...

Okay, enough of that.

This is a slow, drop by drop drama with, as another reviewer points out, scenes that don't seem to be necessary; but maybe they are and we'll find out later. It's slowly coming together. We see a moment between Hilary's husband and Mercy, his kindness (up until then he and his wife seemed in love) that leads to the affair, I guess.

I guess Mercy got over losing someone's kid really quick. At least now we know why she wanted him to slap her (big eyeroll).

The sex scenes are real cringe.

I keep pausing to play video games and do other things, not a good sign.

First episode, there are oblique hints, but it's easy to figure out she lost a child and Mercy figures in.

Hilary, the neighbor, with the cheating, drinking husband is also linked to Mercy and Nicole.

I wonder how the neighbor who stares at him is linked and the, unfortunately, dead older neighbor (which reminds me - people, when you haven't seen your older neighbor walking his dog like usual and the poor thing is barking all day - call the cops, people!)

These people are self-centered and living tiny, separate lives.

Anyway the Nicole character is grieving a young child we, which figured out in the first episode, and in this one we find out how.

Frankly, it's her fault. Why leave your kid in a tremendously crowded and busy place with stranger - a child that you already know slips away and does his own little thing? I actually thought that poor baby was going to fall off the boat. I mean hr's already gone in an elevator. This is a kid you watched 24/7. Why not just buy a pool and take your eyes off him and take a nap!

Nope, inattentive, stupid Mercy,asking someone the most inane questions ignores the little boy, because tapping on her phone is more important!

And Nicole's character left her baby with some immature, unknown stranger! Are you stupid? A bad mother? A crowded store or market place with so many things to look at is the perfect place to take your eyes and hands off a child and for them to go missing!

I wanted to scream at the screen! I do like seeing some of Korea, but really this is a rather common and boring story that could be set elsewhere, anywhere.

I'm willing to stick it out to see where it goes and what the possibilities might be.

Still I can't believe the character didn't have a plan for the little boy. If you ever get separated from mommy, go to a nice old lady and stay with her; ask her to call the police. Put a tracker on the kid! Hang a tracker tile around his neck! Put a harness on him! Chain him to you! Don't trust him with strangers in a foreign country! Give him a cellphone!

My mom was a safety freak for little kids so if anything, that screen did get some emotion from me...lol!

I love the ending jump cut. Very effective. Not one cop looking for the missing boy, as promised. I would have slept on the street in case he was hiding!

Perfect partner pairing to Episode 1

[indiapaige · 8/10 · 9 February 2024]

Mongkok, Episode 2 of Expats is the second of a pairing with episode 1, The Peak.

Hopefully, viewers can binge these 2 together, in sequence, to gain the full grasp of past and present within this character driven plot. Many reviews have termed this a tragedy, or examination in grief. Albeit I completely disagree. This is life, with this chosen setting as Expats, not Hong Konger's, they're surrounded by bustling busy bright examples of lives, loves, the businesses that drive the Pearl of the Orient. The balance of lighting, cinematography matches both the beauty and density of Hong Kong. An island nation that's both full of beauty and intensity in more abundance than non Hong Konger's particularly are accustomed to. Authors and filmmakers remind us these characters are in unfamiliar territory in every sense compared to lives they're more accustomed to or were born into. The filmmaker and author have woven together the challenges of daily lives centered around three women who emerge from dramatic circumstances to find their ways forward with this episode offering brilliantly lit flashbacks, set against dramatic subtly lit present day events. These three women, Mercy, Margaret and Hilary blend perfectly into the multicultural landscape of Hong Kong, on the exterior. With each episode these womens inner character is revealed somewhat as a slow burn for Hollywood viewers. If not for the absence of any cantonese dialect, the leaning toward European dramas, it's not certain they'd be seen as Expats. This story set in 2014, when both English and Cantonese remained listed as the official languages of Hong Kong. Albeit, in day to day life of Hong Kong it's difficult not to pick up some working knowledge of Cantonese idioms and phrases, the series weakness and obvious targeting of only English speaking audiences. Mongkok represents in filmmakers visual sense the idealized Hong Kong. The remaining market streets that once flourished throughout Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and Macau. This is an essential episode paired with The Peak to set the plot and move the dramatic tone for the series. This will likely be a career launching series for actress Ji-young Yoo.

Here we go back in time... why not start with this one?

[dierregi · 1/10 · 11 February 2024]

Margaret, her son Gus, and the rest of their family are on a sunset cruise on a luxurious boat. Gus is a spoiled brat and I disliked him from the first scene. Misty, the Korean snotty, morose young woman is also at the party, making a fool of herself and telling uninterested guests how she's cursed.

Margaret takes a shine to her because Misty likes children. In the following scene, Gus is shown not liking his mom, pining for the nanny, and spitting the food Maggie prepared. Consequently, Maggie locks him out of the apartment. Much as I do not lament the loss of such a brat, I find the disciplinary stance of locking a child outside his house kind of weird.

Third expat Hilary is shown taking a pee and we can see the gold-tinted results because the toilet doesn't flush. What's the point of that scene? To show that Hong Kong orphanages are neglected? Isn't there any other way? Do we have to see cr*p floating in toilets to understand that HK is a dirty place? Anybody who visited knows what's like.

After the short meeting on the boat, Maggie decides to have dinner with Misty and her children and go to the night market. Question - would you trust with taking care of a toddler someone you met twice, and who seems unpleasant, gloomy, and distracted by non-stop messaging?

Finally whomever is in charge of Hilary's costumes must hate her because she's wearing only tight trousers or jumpsuits that make her hips and backside look positively enormous. Unless the purpose is to distract from other body parts...