‘Limelight Years’ (華麗轉身) is a Hong Kong’s TVB modern drama of 22 episodes which starred Liza Wang, Damian Lau, Linda Chung, Alex Fong, Eliza Sam, Michelle Yim, etc. It mainly revolves on an unlikely friendship blossomed between a veteran singer (whom is successful in her career but failed in two marriages and her relationship with her two daughters) and a photographer (whom doesn’t want to move on after the death of his daughter and wife) when they met in a flight to Taiwan. 
First of all, I like the overall concept behind the drama’s storyline which is hinted in the drama’s title that is translated directly to ‘elegant transformation’. This drama teaches us that no matter how far or successful we go, we should look back to our root, turn around and mend the mistakes we make in our life. It also taught us not to give up, but to stand up elegantly from the problems, overcomes them and move on. It is certainly a drama filled with positive messages to all. The series also came with heavy emphasis on friendship and romance and touched on issues like fame and materialistic world we are in now.
Generally, I enjoyed every episodes of this drama. There is nothing intense or anything of actions, but there are still some dramatic moments, some hilarious scenes, some touching segments, some impressive acting-showcase bits, some beautiful sceneries (from Taiwan where parts of the shooting of the drama took place), and some meaningful messages as mentioned earlier. I am also surprisingly in the position to like the two songs (one always played almost in every episodes throughout the whole drama and another one is the main theme song) by Liza Wang, also the main actress in this drama. Both are very touching and have meaningful lyrics, and suit very well to this particular series.
Liza Wang is wonderful in this drama. Her character is fully presented, and she had no problem of taking this interesting character. She nailed all the emotional parts in the drama very well. She stands a chance for Best Actress award again by the end of this year. Damian Lau is also as good as always. Linda Chung is also far more natural on her acting in this series but her character here is too dumb and is easily fooled by Alex Fong. Talking about Alex, it has been many years of which he had not filmed any TVB dramas. Good to see him back but his acting is only at average. Even his buddy is more convincing than him. Eliza Sam is very bad (her shouting and facial expression are stiff and awkward). Even the newbie actor that portrayed her mentally-ill brother in this series did better. 
The final two episodes had just been aired yesterday. I like how it ends for Linda and Alex as a pair. I’m glad that it’s not the typical happy ending for this couple of which I’m not too happy for. It’s good that now Alex has to wait for Linda after she had done so for the whole drama. That’s a good conclusion for both of them. It’s also nice to see Liza Wang and Damian Lau becoming best friend after all the things they have been through from Hong Kong to Taiwan. This is a good quality ending to a good quality drama. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Limelight Years’ a total of 7.7.
(Images in this post are from TVB.com)
