Murder, She Wrote (TV Series) A Death in Hong Kong (1993) User Reviews

Lime Dust by the South China Sea

[WeatherViolet · 7/10 · 4 March 2010]

Season Ten opens with this entry, set in Hong Kong, four years before its 1997 transfer of sovereignty to the People's Republic of China, an anticipated factor affecting its central storyline.

Emma Soon Dunbar (France Nuyen), a wealthy ceramic artist, welcomes her dear old friend Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) to Hong Kong, after vacationing with her in London, and visiting Cabot Cove with Emma's daughter, April Dunbar (Vivian Wu).

Riding with Emma's chauffeur, Chang (Calvin Jung), the old friends visit Hong Kong's business district, to browse the Jade Shoppe, operated by Mr. Li (Raymond Ma).

But when Chang enters to inform Emma that she has received a telephone call outside in the limousine, Chinese Kidnapper (Jen Sung Outerbridge) overtakes Chang and carts Emma away as hostage.

Jessica assists Chang to his feet and asks Mr. Li to notify the police, leading Inspector McLaughlin (David Warner) into the picture.

But when Inspector McLaughlin reports that kidnappings are everyday occurrences in Hong Kong (similar to murders in Cabot Cove), Jessica takes matters into her own hands, by telephoning Emma's husband Brian Dunbar (Barrie Ingham).

Brian Dunbar operates House of Dunbar Fashions, a business which his British family has conducted in Hong Kong for 110 years. Brian's assistants, Louise Walton (Teri Austin) and Mark Tower (James Sutorius) attend conferences and social events at Brian's side.

At the moment, Brian, Louise and Mark meet for a potential merger proposal with Kai Kuan (Soon-Tek Oh) and his son, David Kuan (Dustin Nguyen), who secretly goes with April Dunbar, against their feuding fathers' wishes.

So, Jessica has her hands full during this vacation, what with the kidnapping of her dear old friend, plus young love separated by feuding fathers, plus a murder by lime juice just around the corner.

But when Jessica returns to the elegant Dunbar mansion, Emma appears in her midst, along with Brian, Louise and Mark, as they nonchalantly plan to attend April's singing performance that evening after the rain (although for some reason, it doesn't rain on the hill which houses Dunbar mansion).

Emma, Jessica, Brian, Louise and Mark, indeed, attend April's show, at which April greets Jessica heartedly, and also David, backstage, as Brian walks into her dressing room to evict David from his daughter's life.

After another rainy day downtown, Emma, April, Jessica, Brian, Louise and Mark, as well as Kai and David, plus Inspector McLaughlin, attend the 110th Anniversary banquet of House of Dunbar, where the victim soon collapses at the table, after ingesting 100-year-old egg, topped with almond slivers dipped in lime juice, and laced with Cyanide. (The ones who don't receive the Cyanide somehow survive the menu.)

Jessica must now tie together a series of clues, including one wet windshield while the others are dry, a patch of yellow paint upon a tire which has touched against a curb (how and why workers paint curbs in the rain is anyone's guess), and figure a way for young love to blossom in the aftermath of "A Death in Hong Kong."

This episode represents the first of two "MSW" appearances for Vivian Wu, the second of two each for Barrie Ingham and David Warner, and the fourth of five "MSW" guest roles for James Sutorius.

A pretty good start to series ten.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 2 May 2023]

Jessica has accepted an invitation from her friend Emma in Hong Kong, no sooner has she arrived, then Emma is kidnapped, Jessica soon learns that things are done very differently there, but of course she soon gets embroiled In a murder.

A good, solid opening to The Tenth series, it's not a favourite episode, and I don't think there's anything particularly memorable, but it's very watchable and well acted. Once again, the murder happens later on, allowing that story time to develop. Lots of clues to watch out for, I definitely think this one has shades of Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie.

Interesting to think of Hong Kong still under British rule, it has changed so much since The Chinese took over it.

It's nice to see a little more diversity in the casting, and while I'll admit there are perhaps a couple of stereotypes at play, they don't actually detract.

A decent job making it appear that Jessica is in Hong Kong, there is some pretty good stock footage, mixed in, it looks pretty good.

One of the only times our wonderful Jessica looks horrendous, in a seriously old fashioned frock, fortunately she soon gets back to smart clothes.

Well acted all round, Soon-Tek Oh, Dustin Nguyen and David Warner were both very good I thought.

7/10.

I've been to Hong Kong

[WilliamJE · 8/10 · 20 June 2022]

A Death in Hong Kong was a good Murder She Wrote episode. I'm pretty sure the Dunbar home was the same home as the Governor's Mansion in the sitcom Benson.

Just an old Oriental custom

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 18 May 2018]

This MSW story takes Jessica Fletcher to Hong Kong six years before the British lease is up on the famous seaport. Western owned businesses like Barrie Ingham's fashion design businesses are seeking to merge with Chinese companies. As we see when Chairman Mao could no longer fog a mirror the Chinese embraced capitalism with a vengeance.

Angela Lansbury's arrival is timed to Ingham's daughter Vivian Wu's abduction. It seems as though that's a common thing in Hong Kong. But when Ingham's poisoned with cyanide that's still a matter for the police in this case in the person of David Warner.

There's also an eastern version of Romeo and Juliet going on here with Wu in love with Dustin Nguyen the son of Ingham's rival Soon Teck Oh.

I have to say the solution was really pulled out of left field for this particular episode. Still good viewing.

A pretty typical start to season 10.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 26 July 2023]

Saying this is a 'pretty typical start' isn't any sort of insult. I say this because quite a few season openers of "Murder, She Wrote" are set in exotic locales...most likely to spur interest in these premier episodes.

In this case, Jessica has been invited by a friend (France Nguyen) and pretty soon things get pretty weird. First, Jessica's friend is kidnapped! Later, the woman's husband is killed with cyanide! What more can happen to these people?!

This episode is enjoyable and with no obvious plot holes or problems. The location change was also nice, though I suspect it was actually filmed around Chinatown in Los Angeles. Oddly, IMDB doesn't really say if it was filmed there or Hong Kong. Regardless, it's a good episode and kept me guessing.

A death in Hong Kong

[coltras35 · 7/10 · 2 June 2022]

Jessica Fletcher finds life imitating art (like always) when she visits a Chinese friend in Hong Kong. Before long, the friend's husband is murdered. Poisoned with cyanide at a banquet table in the well-worn murder mystery fashion, however Jessica is baffled at when and how the victim took the poison, but, of course, not for long. This is a decent entry with nice settings and location. The characters and the mystery is well done.

Murder in China

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 9 November 2017]

Have always been quite fond of 'Murder She Wrote'. It is a fun and relaxing watch that makes you think as you try to unwind in the evening. If one wants more complex, twisty mysteries with lots of tension and suspense 'Murder She Wrote' may not be for you, but if you want something light-hearted and entertaining but still provide good mysteries 'Murder She Wrote' fits the bill just fine.

"A Death in Hong Kong" is a decent start for Season 10 and indicative of Season 10 being a better one than Season 9, which on the most part it is. Much better than last season's season opener "Murder in Milan" (one of my least favourite 'Murder She Wrote' episodes and the weakest of the season openers). It's far from a 'Murder She Wrote' high-point and there's far better in the season, but it is a long way from being one of the show's worst episodes and there's worse in the season too.

The episode has a few points are deducted for the less than great (some of it is pretty bad actually) dialogue, the kidnapping subplot feeling under-explored compared to the other story elements and some of the support acting barely rising above the forgettable in sketchy roles (can't remember Soon Tek-Oh's character that much).

On the other hand, Angela Lansbury is terrific as always, while she gets very reliable support from Teri Austin, David Warner, Barrie Ingham, France Nuyen and Vivian Wu.

Production values are slick and stylish and the setting and scenery looks beautiful. The music has energy and has presence but also not making the mistake of over-scoring, while it is hard to forget or resist the theme tune.

Mystery-wise, "A Death in Hong Kong" is decent without being exceptional. It's not a dull one and it's neither simplistic or confusing, silly at times and some parts are better explored than others. However the corporate intrigue is intriguing, the murder is a clever one and the solution is surprising and plausible, although the motive could have been given a little more thought to.

In summation, not bad at all but not great at the same time. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Guest starring Dustin Nguyen and France Nuyen

[safenoe · 6/10 · 1 February 2022]

A Death in Hong Kong debuted eight years after Jackie Chan's Police Story, one year before Wong Kar-Wai's Chungking Express, and four years before the handover. Anyway, A Death in Hong Kong is the Americanized version of Hong Kong, and you see lots of second unit shots. The primary shooting was in America, and I was amazed by the authenticity of the streets of Hong Kong at the beginning, with even an elderly Chinese woman pyjama-clad wandering the streets as an extra.

Dustin Nguyen, who became a star in the 21 Jump Street series guest stars, along with France Nuyen, who is now a counsellor for abused women.

The 100 year old egg makes a famous cameo in this episode.

Stereotypes again and totally unseen, unheard clues

[FlushingCaps · 3/10 · 20 April 2023]

Plot details I will skip-others have covered it. I have complained in the past about stereotypes in this series. One of them is that, other than Italians, killers are never part of a racial or ethnic group other than white Anglo-Saxons. So in this episode, everyone Jessica encounters in Hong Kong is Asian except for four-one being the husband of her 4,785th good friend Emma, played by France Nuyen, who used to be a doctor on St. Elsewhere. She and her husband Brian live in a mansion in Hong Kong, and it must have been expensive to move the Southern California home that used to be the governor's mansion on Benson over to Asia.

The two other main non-Asians are Brian's business assistants. We are given clear reason to suspect one of evil deeds early on, so when a white person is killed, we really know there is a "red herring" leaving the almost-only other white person as the killer. Sure enough, that's the case. There is one other white person featured, but never a hint of any personal involvement to make him a suspect.

More disturbing is that Jessica, once the killer is caught, explains what let her know who the killer was based on information from a phone call we saw her make-but we heard none of the message that was important, only her question to the person. She also told about seeing wet paint on a curb providing important info. Too bad we viewers never saw the "wet paint" sign on the curb as shown during Jessica's reveal.

They also had another trap Jessica used to get the killer to reveal their involvement. Like too many times before, once the killer got the needed piece of evidence from Jessica, there was plenty of time to kill Jessica with the gun in hand, but the killer thought it necessary to announce what was about to happen, giving the police time to rush in and prevent Jessica's murder. Time and again, killers in real life would have simply shot Jessica right before the police burst in, but the killers wait to talk more than necessary and that is how Jessica has survived all these years setting herself up in these traps. Luckiest lady in the mystery-solving business if you ask me.

I loved the wonderful Jim Hutton "Ellery Queen" series partly because every clue Ellery used was clearly seen or heard by the viewers. We just needed to be clever enough to put them together. Murder, She Wrote has done this many times. Usually we get most of the clues in sight or sound, if not all. This episode saw us get NONE of those key clues that let Jessica solve the case. There was one clue we did get but we had no way to tie it to anyone because the "who" involved there was never revealed to us until the final explanation scene.

I never saw this when it first aired. I had tired of the series some time before. Weak stories like this were surely the reason why a formerly wonderful series became so ordinary, or worse, by its last years. Too much of the same "formula" woven into all of the plots, along with the objectionable things I have pointed out make me give this one a score of 3.