Martina

The drama starts with Fei Foon undercover, using the identity of Ah Keung, when he unexpectedly encounters Leuk Tou, the CEO of Tinping Group. Their first meeting is chaotic enough to tell us exactly what kind of relationship this is going to be: Fei Foon is confident, capable and completely unimpressed by Leuk Tou, while Leuk Tou is used to getting what he wants and clearly isn't accustomed to someone treating him like an ordinary person.
Fei Foon is a police officer, but he is not written as some perfect, morally spotless hero. He is sharp, arrogant, occasionally reckless and very good at what he does. Leuk Tou, meanwhile, is a wealthy businessman whose family has connections to the criminal world. He isn't simply “the bad guy,” but he also isn't completely detached from that world.
That ambiguity makes their relationship much more interesting.

There is a lot of teasing, tension and physical attraction, but the relationship gradually becomes something much more complicated. What begins as something neither of them expects to take seriously slowly turns into genuine attachment.
And this is where Kingston and Leo Peng really impressed me.
Their chemistry is fantastic.
They have that kind of chemistry where even a simple conversation can feel loaded because you know there is something happening underneath it.
heir relationship isn't presented as a perfect fairytale. They make mistakes. They hurt each other. They misunderstand each other. And sometimes they are both so stubborn that you just want to grab them by the shoulders and yell, “JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER.”
But, to be fair, they actually communicate more than many BL couples do.

I also loved the visual symbolism surrounding them. The sun-and-moon design on the lighters and the recurring cigarette/ashtray imagery fit the title surprisingly well. Ash is full of things that remain after something has already burned away, and that feels very appropriate for Fei Foon and Leuk Tou. Even when their relationship is supposedly over, traces of it are everywhere.
Then comes the final confrontation.
By this point, the drama has thrown almost everything at them: undercover identities, betrayal, separation, criminal organizations, murder, mistaken assumptions, obsession and the constant possibility that one of them could actually die.
And somehow, despite everything, they keep finding their way back to each other.
I would have happily watched a few more episodes, especially because the relationship between the leads is strong enough to carry them.
That is probably my biggest takeaway from Ash: I wanted more.
More Fei Foon and Leuk Tou simply being together. More of their everyday relationship. More conversations after everything they went through. More time to see how they function once they aren't constantly trying to survive or hide something from each other.

Fei Foon and Leuk Tou are complicated, stubborn, occasionally infuriating and sometimes absolutely terrible at making sensible decisions. But their relationship feels earned because we actually see them hurt each other, lose each other and eventually realize how much the other person means to them.
I started Ash expecting a dark Hong Kong BL with crime and undercover missions.
I ended up staying because I desperately needed to know whether these two idiots would finally figure out how to stay together.
And honestly, that's probably the best compliment I can give the drama.