Lam Sin (Yu Yeung) sat in the driver’s seat of his taxi stunned after learning that Ah Fan (Tavia Yeung) was his daughter. No wonder her face looked familiar! He parks his car to the side and runs after her with Ah Biu (Raymond Lam). However, to their dismay, Ah Fan could not be found anywhere. They decided to wait for her back at the motel because surely she would come back there.

Unfortunately, by the time they got to the motel, they learned from the front desk that Ah Fan had already checked out a few minutes earlier. Without a cell phone, they had no idea where to find her or where she had gone. Sin sat down in the motel’s lobby, feeling totally useless.

“I shouldn’t have let her leave the car. I’m sorry,” Ah Biu apologizes.

Sin shakes his head. “It’s not your fault.”

Curious, Ah Biu asks, “Why did you abandon her and her mom anyways?”

“I didn’t want to. I didn’t know she was my daughter after all…”

In the 1980’s, Ah Fan’s mom, Ah Kam (Susanna Kwan), had come down to Hong Kong to work on a working VISA. At that time, Sin was not yet working as a taxi driver. He, like Ah Kam, was a worker for a factory. Due to Ah Kam’s timid nature, she was often taken advantage of by her colleagues and sometimes they even played pranks on her due to her limited grasp of Cantonese. Because he felt injustice for Ah Kam, he started to look after her and protect her against other people.

One time, Sin happened to walk in on one of the managers trying to rape Ah Kam and managed to save her. Unfortunately, the manager twisted Ah Kam’s words and said that she offered to sleep with him to get a raise. Thus, Ah Kam was sadly fired from her job at the factory. Sin quit his job too consequently. Because Ah Kam was in Hong Kong only to work, she had to find another job right away otherwise she’d have to return to the mainland. Sin helped her find a job as a seamstress before he even began trying to find a new job for himself.

Due to Sin’s continual protection and help, Ah Kam gradually fell in love with him despite knowing that he already had a wife and two children. At that time, Fa Kei Sam (Mannor Chan) was treating Sin even more badly than usual because he was unemployed. She kept threatening to leave him with their children if he didn’t have income coming in. Sin sought Ah Kam for comfort due to his home-life stress and the two became even closer consequently. He enjoyed the time they spent together and being with Ah Kam was a refreshing escape from Kei Sam.

Of course, Sin never thought about cheating.

One night, though, after an extremely bitter fight with Kei Sam, he went to Ah Kam’s place and the two got really drunk. Ah Kam confessed her feelings for Sin and the two ended up sleeping together. From that night onwards, Sin began cheating on Kei Sam with Ah Kam. They both knew it was wrong, but they were in love.

Ah Kam never requested Sin to divorce his wife. She knew she couldn’t ask him to do that. He had two children to worry about. She didn’t want to break up their family. Thus, she swallowed her pride and kept her sorrows to herself and willingly stayed the secret “third party”. She only knew that she loved Sin and any precious second that she could spend with him would be enough for her because she knew he loved and cared greatly about her. Without him, she would not have survived for so long working in Hong Kong.

When Ah Kam realized she was pregnant, she tried to run off to the mainland to have an abortion. Luckily, Sin was able to stop her in time. Ah Kam decided to return to her home village in the mainland and raise their baby there. Ah Fan was born months later. In order to see Ah Kam and Ah Fan without Kei Sam knowing, Sin decided to become a truck driver and deliver goods from Hong Kong to the mainland. He was thus able to have this “second family” for 10 years, driving to see them whenever he could make the time. He would secretly send them money and other gifts.

He loved them a lot and found himself longing for this family more than the one he had in Hong Kong. Sin grew increasingly tired of Kei Sam’s outrageous ways and barbaric behavior. He brought up the prospect of divorcing Kei Sam to Ah Kam. Surprisingly, Ah Kam was very mellow about the proposal. She didn’t seem thrilled or excited like he was expecting. In fact, her expression remained puzzlingly neutral. She was very quiet.

On Sin’s next visit to see Ah Kam and Ah Fan, he was rather bewildered that they weren’t waiting for him at the village entrance like they normally did. He was stunned to walk into their house and find Ah Kam in bed with another man. He was extremely hurt and wanted an explanation.

In a cold voice, Ah Kam revealed, “I lied to you for the last 10 years. I was only using you for your money… what little you have anyways. It was my intention to ‘bag’ a stupid Hong Kong man who would willingly take care of me… and another man’s child. I’m sorry you found out so soon.”

“So Ah Fan… Ah Fan…”

“She’s not your daughter. You think you were my first?” Ah Kam laughs in an evil manner. “You think I was so stupid to ‘willingly’ be a third party? I was trying to pursue another man at that time. Unfortunately, I realized he didn’t have potential for long-term use. Thus, I lied and said my pregnancy was yours. Thank you for taking care of us for so long.” She smirks.

“But your feelings…!”

“What can I say? I’m an exquisite actress. What qualities do you have that you think I would so whole-heartedly love you? Would a woman really put up with being a shameful ’second family’ for 10 long years? Would a young and attractive woman like myself be so ‘chaste’ and ‘faithful’ to a man who’s only around a few days a year? Would a woman really do that for someone like you? You’re just stupid. Of course… we can continue this game if you want. I know it makes you feel ‘manly’ being with me and getting away from that wife of yours who emasculates you. What do you say we pretend you never saw anything? Let’s pretend you don’t know anything. Ah Fan will be back from playing soon. You can continue to be her ‘father’. What do you say?”

Sin slaps Ah Kam and runs out, holding back his tears.

That was the last time Sin saw Ah Kam and Ah Fan — 10 years ago. Believing that Ah Kam was an evil woman who had lied to and deceived him, he made himself forget about her. Believing that Ah Fan was not his daughter, he reminded himself that he had only two children — Ah Lo (Bondy Chiu) and Ah Gong (Lam King Kong).

“So that’s why you left us!” Ah Fan concludes. She emerges from the back with her bags. She had been inside of the bathroom and had come out just in time for when Sin recounted his story.

“Ah Fan! Ah Fan!” Sin runs up to her.

“It was mommy all along… she lied to you to make you leave us!”

“I’m so stupid for falling for her trick. I should have known better. I should have doubted and questioned her. I should have known that she’s not that kind of woman…” Sin’s eyes are watery.

“You didn’t want to leave us after all!”

Sin and Ah Fan embrace, crying.

Ah Biu smiles at the reunion between the father and daughter pair.

The three of them went out for lunch. The first question that Sin had was the whereabouts of Ah Kam. Ah Fan tearfully told the news that her mom had passed away a few months earlier.

Sin cries upon hearing the tragic news. “I couldn’t even see her again before she died! Ah Kam… why did you do this? We could have been so happy together. Why did you make me leave you and Ah Fan?”

Sin knew the answers to his rhetorical questions though.

It wasn’t because she wanted him to leave her. It wasn’t because she didn’t want him to divorce his wife. It wasn’t because she was such a selfless saint that she sacrificed her own happiness.

Of course she would have liked to be with Sin. Of course she would have liked to be Mrs. Lam Sin with a proper name and title. Of course she would have liked to see him more than a few days a year.

It was because…

It was because from the very beginning Ah Kam never wished to break up his family. She hatched up the plan to make him leave her after he brought up that he was going to divorce Kei Sam, thereby destroying the Lam family in Hong Kong. Ah Kam did not want that to happen. She didn’t want to hurt Ah Lo, Ah Gong, and Kei Sam. As horrible of a person as Kei Sam could be, Ah Kam didn’t have the heart to break other people’s hearts. She would rather break her own heart. She was wrong from the beginning for loving a married man. She was wrong to willingly be a “third party”. She was wrong for accepting to be a “second family”.

Third parties shouldn’t have “good outcomes”; they should not have “happy endings”… so she did it to punish herself.

In less than two months it’s going to be one year since Linda Chung released her debut album. The “Gold Record” One Person Dinner, Two People World [一人晚餐, 二人世界] with sales of over 20,000 copies marks Linda’s entry into the music scene.

Linda’s debut CD is precisely the type of album that one can expect from Linda: innocent and pure. Indeed, her virgin record from beginning to end sounds very “clean”. The songs go along with not only the innocent image and packaging of this record, but with Linda’s image herself.

The melodies of the songs are great — catchy and easy-to-listen-to. Linda’s voice doesn’t fail the [mostly] good songs she is given. Her voice has improved a lot and on this record, her vocals are generally clear, smooth, and carry the tunes. She still, however, struggles to maintain her “air” and control her breathing when singing at certain points throughout the CD. It’s also quite apparent that her voice is not strong. I think Linda’s aware of her vocal limitations and so she doesn’t try to sing anything too out of her range. She mostly stays in her element and sings songs that she does best and is capable of — love ballads.

The most challenging song vocally on the CD has got to be “Heaven’s Matches” [火柴天堂] and surprisingly, Linda doesn’t fare too badly. Despite the difficult, fluctuating tempo, Linda manages to keep up and doesn’t embarrass herself. I was impressed. Of course, I don’t listen to Linda to be impressed vocally (that’s not the type of singer that Linda is nor do I think she is capable of being such a singer). What I like about her singing is that she uses a lot of “feelings” to sing her songs. I can feel that she puts her heart into her singing, so that’s why I enjoy her songs.

I love this CD and have listened to it many times. I think with repeated listening, each song “grows” on the listener and becomes better. My absolute favorite songs though, are the following:

“Actually I’m Not Happy” [其實我不快樂] — This is Linda’s most successful single off the album, winning a lot of praises and it is also a Jade Solid Gold “Gold” song winner — and for good reason. This is a stand-out track that Linda really nails vocally, especially with how much feeling she gives to the delivery of the lyrics. Her voice sounds the best on this song. It’s a powerful and moving song. I don’t like the Mandarin version “I’m Unhappy” [我不快樂] as much. It doesn’t sound as nice and I prefer the lyrics to the original Cantonese version.

“You Don’t Understand My Heart” [你不懂我的心] — Initially I liked the Cantonese version “I Don’t Understand You” [我不懂你] more. However, I grew to prefer and like the Mandarin version more. The lyrics are more refined and mature. The Cantonese version has too many “questions” (the repetitive use of the word “ma”) and doesn’t sound as beautiful. Linda’s Mandarin surprisingly doesn’t sound awkward. I don’t speak or understand Mandarin, but to me Linda sounded pretty fluent with her Mandarin. I really like this track. It’s a beautiful and touching ballad.

“One Person Dinner” [一人晚餐] — This song is absolutely adorable! It sounds really cute and innocent. My favorite part is the chorus. I think this should have been the first single off the album because it really matches Linda. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have “fate” being a single despite being used as one of the two title tracks for the album.

“Have Her (Or Not)” [有沒有她] — This is one of the two tracks Linda composed musically. This ballad is especially moving for some reason. Somehow I think of Heart of Greed when I hear this song. I picture Seung Joi Sum (Linda) singing this about Alfred (Raymond Lam) and his affair with Shui Mak Mak (Yoyo Mung).

“Saiunkoku Monogatari” [彩雲國物語] — This track was included in the “Reloaded” version of the album because of its great success. It won the “Gold Song Award” (voted as the best song out of the top 10 children’s songs of the year) at the TVB Children Song Awards 2008. This song brought Linda a lot of attention musically and it was a popular song. This song is actually the themesong for the anime of the same title. Linda recorded the Cantonese version of the original Japanese themesong to go along with the Cantonese version of the anime when it was aired on TVB. I thought Linda did a superb job with this song. It’s a really cute song as well.

“Swear” [發誓] — I used to be obsessed with this song. This song single-handedly showed how much potential Linda has as a singer when it was released back then and I believe this song opened up the first doors to Linda’s path to becoming a singer. This song made me wait for 2 years to watch Legend of the Demigods. It’s a great, beautiful, and sweet song.

“Heaven’s Matches” — This song is so poignant! This track is actually Linda’s most favorite song from her first CD. It’s also her mom’s favorite song too from the ones that Linda recorded. I really like how tragic-sounding this song is and Linda’s voice was quite surprising since it’s a very difficult song to sing. It’s really a delicate, lovely song.

“Rollercoaster” [過山車] — This song is fun and cute with its up-tempo beat and fast pace. This is the other song that Linda composed the music for.

I don’t care too much for “Two People World” [二人世界] even though I have grown to “accept” it. Sometimes I like it, but most other times I’m indifferent about it. It’s not good, not bad — just “okay”.

The worst track on the CD has got to be “Silent Romance” [浪漫無聲]. It doesn’t flow with the rest of the CD and is just a weird song in general. The song’s title was promising, but the content was so disappointing. This type of song is not suitable for Linda to sing.

My biggest complaint about Linda’s CD is that it lacks “fresh” material.

3 of the 12 tracks are “repeats”. “Swear” was released back in 2006 with TVB’s female compilation album Lady In Red [金牌女兒紅]. “You Don’t Understand My Heart” and “I’m Unhappy” are just Mandarin versions of “I Don’t Understand You” and “Actually I’m Not Happy” respectively. 4 of the 12 tracks are remakes — Cantonese versions of songs from the past. “One Person Dinner” was made from Ariel Lin’s “Lonely Northern Hemisphere” [孤單北半球] while “Silent Romance” was made from Ariel’s “You” [你]. “Two People World” was composed from Jolin Tsai’s “Street of Love” [愛上了一條街]. “Heaven’s Matches” is the Cantonese version of Panda Xiong’s song of the same title.

Despite newly composed lyrics, the recycling of familiar tunes hurts the CD’s originality and makes it harder for Linda to establish herself as a singer since she’s not singing “new” songs that are hers. It restricts her creatively and musically because Linda has to match the original singer’s vocals rather than having freedom to sing the songs the way she chooses. I do understand why her CD had so many remakes/repeats though. It’s because of costs. Linda’s record company is small and therefore not financially wealthy. As a new artist, Linda is “risky” since no one could predict how well she’d sell or how popular she’d be as a singer. Therefore, in order to minimize costs for her debut CD and reduce any potential losses from signing Linda and releasing her CD, they decided to pay for the rights of old songs rather than pay for new songs (which would obviously be more expensive).

Now that Linda is one of the best selling new female artists and has established herself with almost a year’s experience and quite a number of awards, it’s safe to say that her company has increased confidence in her career as a singer. Therefore for her next record, I think they’ll be spending more money on her and so I believe the second CD will be a lot better.

The packaging for the CD was nicely done (especially the “Reloaded” version with its glossy cover and sleeve) and contained a lot of good pictures of Linda. The music videos were disappointing. She filmed mostly all of them in one day, so the final products are rushed and of low quality.

This CD is one of my favorite CD’s and I actually listen to it quite frequently (not so much as during the first few months of course). It’s a good album with nice pop songs and love ballads.

Those who aren’t a fan of Linda’s vocals to begin with won’t like the CD regardless, but those who find her voice acceptable or like it may like her CD. The songs are all mostly good and it’s an easy CD to listen to. It’s a very “pure” CD consisting of mainly love ballads. I highly recommend this debut for those curious about Linda the singer and those who like easy-to-listen-to pop love songs/ballads. Like with her acting, I have strong faith that her singing will continue to improve and consequently so will her future CD’s. One Person Dinner, Two People World does its job at introducing Linda to the world as a singer and is a good starting point.

Rating:

Through a lost jade necklace and a consequent scolding, Ah Biu (Raymond Lam) and Ah Fan (Tavia Yeung) became friends.

“So do you have any starting point in your search for your dad?” Ah Biu asks.

Ah Fan shakes her head. “I don’t have any information on him… I don’t know his phone number, address, or anything…”

“Wow. You’re a risk taker, aren’t you? You just packed all of your things and came to Hong Kong with a mission and no starting point! Well, I’m not surprised. You were pretty ’spicy’ when you yelled at me earlier!” Ah Biu teases.

Ah Fan blushes.

“Do you at least have a photo or a name?”

“Yes, of course!” She reaches into her bag and pulls out an old family photo.

“Wah! You were such a cute little girl. What happened?” Ah Biu jokes.

“That’s my dad, Lam Sin (Yu Yeung).”

“Lam Sin?” Ah Biu muses. “What a ‘kind’ name!”

Ah Fan nods her head, “Yes, my dad was a really nice man. He treated us really well. He was exactly as ‘kind’ as his name suggests!”

“Well, at least we have somewhere to start looking. I was almost scared that you didn’t know what your dad’s name was since he sounds so ‘mysterious’! But of course, it’s still going to be quite difficult to track someone down especially since you don’t know his address or anything like that. But… you’re lucky though.”

“Lucky?”

“You’re looking at a proud Hong Kong policeman!” Ah Biu grins.

“Wah! You’re a cop? Doesn’t look like it! You’re a bit skinny!” Ah Fan teases. “I can’t believe I’m so lucky to know a cop! Guess I was fated to meet you!”

It was getting late so Ah Biu decided that they should find a place for Ah Fan to stay until she found her dad. Grabbing her bags again, Ah Fan followed Ah Biu to the corner to hail a taxi. A taxi came by a few minutes later. Ah Biu got on first carrying Ah Fan’s bags. Ah Fan got on afterwards.

“Where to?” Lam Sin turns around and asks his passengers.

“Daddy?!” Ah Fan exclaims, shocked.

Ah Biu’s jaw drops. The taxi driver was indeed the man that he had seen in Ah Fan’s photo.

Sin gives Ah Fan a puzzled look.

“Aiya! You mainland girls! Calling people ‘daddy’ hoping to get a free meal! So cheap! He’s not interested little girl.” Fa Kei Sam (Mannor Chan) rolls her eyes. She was sitting in the passenger seat in front holding some grocery bags. She looks at Ah Biu and mutters, “Plus she already has a ‘customer’!”

“Honey! Don’t speak to my customers like that,” Sin scolds.

“What? I’m speaking the truth. She’s clearly just came down from the mainland. Look at how embarrassing she looks with her braided pigtails trying to look ‘innocent’. Look at those bags! Listen to her mainland accent trying to speak Cantonese!”

“Hey!” Ah Biu glares. He was quite angry.

Sin was embarrassed. “I’m sorry. Don’t mind her. Where to, miss?”

Kei Sam gives Sin an evil look. “If I didn’t happen to be on this taxi today, who knows where you might have gone with this girl. Good thing the heavens have eyes and arranged it so that you picked me up from grocery shopping. It’s God telling me that I have to keep a close eye on you!”

Ah Fan was shocked at the sight of Sin being scolded by Kei Sam. This was not the dad she remembered. She hadn’t seen him for 10 years so that was why Sin didn’t recognize her, but Ah Fan knew it was him. She could never forget her father’s face because her mom told her many times to remember it since they couldn’t see him often. She had engraved his face into her memory. Lam Sin was her dad. She was saddened because she could no longer deny that she and her mom was his “other family”. For many years she had told herself that her father was only around for a few days every year because he was “busy” with work in Hong Kong. She didn’t want to believe the rumors. Her eyes started to become watery. Deep down, an angry fire started to loom.

“Miss?”

Ah Fan blinks quickly, hoping to flush her emotions.

Seeing how uncomfortable Ah Fan was, Ah Biu intervened and said, “I’m sorry. We won’t be taking a taxi that insults its passengers. This taxi is worse than a haunted taxi! Come, Ah Fan, let’s go.” He opens the door for Ah Fan and they exit the taxi.

Kei Sam smirks. “Good riddance. We don’t want to drive around people doing ‘illegal’ activities anyways!”

Ah Fan and Ah Biu were left on the sidewalk as Sin drove his taxi away. After the taxi disappeared from sight, Ah Fan bawls her eyes out. Ah Biu holds her, trying to console her. Ah Fan had left everything to come find her dad… to find the truth — the truth she so badly wished wasn’t true.

“It’s him! It’s him!” Ah Fan cries.

“I know,” Ah Biu says softly. His heart breaks seeing Ah Fan cry so pitifully.

“My mom… my poor mom! This is terrible! And I… He! He! He…”

Ah Fan continues crying.

She had found him, but how can she claim a “Daddy” that wasn’t hers to claim?

After calming down, Ah Fan confessed the entire truth to Ah Biu about her suspicions about her father and why she came to Hong Kong so desperately to find him. “The rumors were all true… no wonder why my mom beat me every time I asked. No wonder why people kept talking about it. No wonder why my mom was ‘disowned’ from her family. No wonder why I have no relatives. No wonder why we were so isolated from everyone! It’s all because of him! He’s a lying, cheating bastard!” Ah Fan was bitter and extremely upset.

“Maybe it’s not the full story,” Ah Biu offers.

“Not the full story? What more can there be? It all makes sense now! There’s no way anybody can be so ‘busy’ with work that they can’t spend more than a few days a year with the woman and child they supposedly love! And the ‘disappearance’ act for the last 10 years? Unacceptable, especially now that I know he’s been living fine and well! My mom loved him so much! She died alone! It must have been so painful for her! She knew… but she wanted to protect him so she never let me know the truth. I can’t believe I was so stupid to believe he was a ‘kind’ man for all these years! He’d rather be with that bitch in the taxi than with my sweet, beautiful mom?” Ah Fan shakes her head in disgust. “Did you see the way she treated him? She has him whipped! He doesn’t dare to disobey her words! She totally castrates him… and he’s fine with it! You know what? Maybe this is heaven’s punishment for him.” She laughs.

“Ah Fan! Don’t be like this.” Ah Biu frowns.

“Like what? I’m only stating the truth as I see it! He probably has a whole other family here in Hong Kong! My mom and I mean nothing to him.”

“Like you said, it’s the truth as you see it. There is always more than one side to a story. You should give him a chance to explain himself.”

After a little more consoling, Ah Fan decides to follow Ah Biu’s words and seek out more of the truth and allow Sin to “explain” himself before jumping to any more conclusions.

Ah Biu had taken note of Sin’s taxi number, so the next morning they were able to find him and have him pick Ah Fan and Ah Biu up at the motel where Ah Fan had spent the night. Immediately recognizing the two of them from yesterday, Sin blushed bright red. He was extremely embarrassed and apologized profusely for his wife’s nasty words. Ah Fan had on a cold face the entire time listening to his apologies.

Deciding to break the ice, Ah Biu comments to Sin, “Christmas is coming up soon, huh?”

“It is,” Sin nods his head. “It always gives me a headache thinking of what to buy for my family!”

“Ah… especially that pesky wife of yours, eh?” Ah Biu jabs.

“Oh! She’s easy. Give her money and she’ll be happy!” Sin laughs.

Ah Fan glares at the back of Sin’s head. She was growing increasingly upset.

“So who gives you trouble then?”

“That daughter of mine! It seems like every Christmas I have to buy two more presents! Currently she’s pregnant with twins again!” Sin shakes his head. “Luckily, it’s not my grandchildren this time!”

“Huh?” Ah Biu was confused. “You said she’s pregnant!”

“She is, but it’s not her babies. She’s just a surrogate for her uncle-in-law and aunt-in-law. Modern society sure has invented some crazy things!”

“Wah! So ‘messy’ of a relationship?”

“It can’t be helped! They can’t get pregnant naturally, so my daughter is helping them.”

“Your daughter is quite nice then, like you.”

“I wish! She takes after her mom. She’s only doing it for money!”

“So you only have one daughter and a bunch of grandkids?”

“Oh no. I have a son too. Now he takes after me. He’s rather slow and ‘dumb’, but he’s extremely kind-hearted and always means well!”

“No other family members?” Ah Biu presses.

“Nope.”

Ah Fan’s eyes start to tear up. She looks out the car window hoping to make her sad feelings go away.

“Wouldn’t it have been nice if you had a nice, sweet, kind daughter that took after you?”

“Another daughter…” Sin muses in a rather sad voice.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Oh! Sorry. Nothing. Um… yes, that would be nice. Unfortunately, I’m not so lucky to have such a daughter.”

Ah Fan couldn’t take it anymore so she screams, “You’re not so lucky, huh? That’s because from today I disown you! You’re not my father anymore!” Since it was a red light, Ah Fan was able to get out of the car and runs away. Tears streak down her two cheeks.

Ah Biu (Raymond Lam) was walking down the street playing with his new phone when he noticed that the girl walking in front of him had dropped a necklace. She was a peculiar-looking girl and was quite noticeably not a modern “Hong Kong” girl, even from behind. Her hair was braided into two pigtails. She was carrying around two big “red, white, and blue” plastic bags and seemed to be walking in a frantic.

He picked up the necklace and quickly chased after the girl. “Miss! Miss!” He called for her and then tapped on her shoulder when he caught up to her.

The girl (Tavia Yeung) turned around and gave him a stern, cold look.

“What?” she demanded. Her speech revealed a mainland accent.

“You dropped-” Ah Biu started to say but was interrupted.

The girl drops her bags on the ground and folds her arms. She smirks and says in a matter-of-fact manner, “You want to say that I dropped something and that you’re kind enough to return it to me, right?”

Ah Biu nods his head, a bit scared and puzzled at the same time.

She shakes her head in disgust and yells at Ah Biu, “I didn’t drop any damn thing! You people from Hong Kong think you’re so above us! You think we’re stupid! You think we’re easy to fool! I’m not falling for that again!” She picks up her bags and quickly walks away.

Ah Biu stood there stiff, rather perplexed. He gives a confused expression. He was shocked that he had just gotten told off for wanting to return something to someone. “My luck with women…” he mutters under his breath as he scratches his head. He briefly recalls how Joey (Bernice Liu) used to “abuse” him. He shakes his head and laughs. He takes a look at the necklace. It was a gold necklace with a jade pendant. Engraved behind the pendant was a name. He reads it, “Lam Yuk Fan.” Musing for a second, he comments, “It’s a pretty name and she’s a pretty girl, but… what a shame.” He shakes his head disapprovingly at the girl’s poor personality. “I was just trying to help her and she tells me off.” He shrugs his shoulder and decides to put the necklace into his pants pocket. He would give it in at the police station when he went to work later.

Ah Biu was about to cross the street when he heard a girl calling out, “Sir! Sir! Wait! Hey! Sir! Please!” He turns around and sees the girl from before waving and running frantically at him.

She pants, out of breath when she reached him.

“Oh! Thank God!” the girl says and smiles.

“Can I help you?”

“My necklace, please.”

“Necklace? What necklace?” Ah Biu pretends he doesn’t know what she’s talking about.

“I dropped it… earlier. Please,” she says softly, in an embarrassed tone.

“What? I can’t hear.” Ah Biu lowers his ear to her, pretending he hadn’t heard what she said.

“I dropped my necklace earlier!” she screams in Ah Biu’s ear.

He jumps back, “I could have gone deaf! I thought you said you didn’t lose ‘any damn thing’?”

She blushes and lowers her head to the ground. “I know… I’m sorry! I didn’t realize… I had.”

Seeing the poor girl in this state, Ah Biu doesn’t have the heart to continue the “joke”. He pulls out the necklace and asks. “Is this the one?”

She nods her head eagerly and smiles a big, bright smile.

Ah Biu hands her the necklace. “Be careful next time.” He smiles and winks at her. “Lam Yuk Fan.”

Ah Fan blushes profusely as she watches Ah Biu cross the street. She had not meant to go off on him earlier. In fact, it wasn’t her nature to be “mean”.

Earlier that day she had gotten tricked out of $1000. A man had stopped her on the streets and asked if she dropped $100. Believing by mistake that she had and touched by how “kind” the man was for returning the money to her, Ah Fan had nodded her head and reached to take the money from the man. The moment she did, the man screamed out that he was being robbed. A crowd gathered. He told everyone that she had taken $1100 from him. Everyone ridiculed her. Embarrassed and flustered and not wanting trouble, Ah Fan had to pull out $1000 of her hard-earned money and give it to the man. She quickly ran away, holding back tears.

That was why she had lashed out at Ah Biu. She had mistaken him as another con-artist who wanted to cheat her out of something.

She felt badly about yelling at him, so she decided to run after him to apologize properly.

“Wait! Wait!” she calls.

Ah Biu stops and turns around, surprised to see Ah Fan running after him again. He folds his arms and asks in a joking manner, “What did you lose this time? Whatever it was, I didn’t find it this time. Sorry!” He laughs.

Ah Fan shakes her head. “No, no, I didn’t lose anything. I… I…”

“You can’t think of how to say it in Cantonese?”

“No… I just…” Ah Fan wasn’t used to apologizing.

“Hmm? Do you want me to lean in so you can say it?”

“Sorry!” Ah Fan shouts abruptly.

“It’s a good thing I didn’t lean in,” Ah Biu chuckles, “otherwise this time for sure you’d turn me deaf!”

Ah Fan blushes again, embarrassed. “I’m… sorry.”

“Now that sounds more like you mean it.” Ah Biu smiles. “It’s okay! Not a big deal. I’m used to girls ‘abusing’ me. It seems I don’t have much luck!” He laughs again.

“No, it’s not,” Ah Fan insists. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you. You were only trying to be nice and return my necklace to me. I feel so badly about it.”

“It’s okay, really.”

“Earlier… I got cheated out of $1000.”

“What?! How?”

Ah Fan explained what had happened to Ah Biu. “That’s why I thought you were trying to pull that same trick…”

Ah Biu nods in understand, “Ah, I see. Gosh! That was horrible. I can’t believe people would do that! What a disgrace to Hong Kong!”

“It’s because I’m dumb. I’m a country girl from a small village in the mainland… I don’t know much…”

“So that explains why she looks like that…” Ah Biu mutters under his breath.

“What?”

“Oh! Um, nothing. So… what brings you to the big city?”

Abruptly, Ah Fan’s belly growls loudly. She blushes, embarrassed. “I’m so sorry!”

Ah Biu pretends to look at his clock and declares, “No wonder I’m hungry too! It’s lunch time!” even though it was 3:00 PM and he wasn’t hungry at all. Helping to carry her bags, he took her to a small outdoor restaurant to eat a quick meal. Ah Fan was growing increasingly touched by how nice Ah Biu was. He was a complete stranger who knew nothing about her and yet he treated her so well.

“I came here,” Ah Fan said in-between a bite, “to find my dad.”

“Your dad?”

Ah Fan nods her head. “He works in Hong Kong.”

“Did something happen back at home so you have to find him urgently to bring him back?”

At that question, Ah Fan tears up and starts to cry.

Ah Biu quickly gives her some tissues to wipe her tears.

“I’m so sorry!” Ah Fan apologizes again.

“It seems like ’sorry’ is your favorite word to say to me!” Ah Biu laughs.

Calming down, Ah Fan reveals, “My mom recently passed away. I have no other relative… so I want to find my dad.”

“Wait — shouldn’t your dad be around during your mom’s…?”

“He disappeared on us.”

“Disappeared? What do you mean?”

“Because of his busy career, I never saw him much… maybe a few days a year. However, starting around 10 years ago, he stopped visiting completely. There were also no more letters, no more phone calls, no more contact.”

“Why didn’t you guys go to Hong Kong to find him?”

“I wanted to… but my mom wouldn’t let me.”

“Do you think something bad happened to him?”

“I don’t know…”

“That’s really weird. Well, I’m sure you’ll be able to find him.”

“Why are you so sure?”

“It’s because I recently ‘found’ my parents too.”

“Hmm?”

Ah Biu tells Ah Fan the long story of how he came to find out that Chan Hung (Sheren Tang) wasn’t his real mom but that Sek Dai Chuen (Johnny Ngan) and Chan Kiu (Helen Ma) were. “So, as you can see, anything in this world can happen! As long as we’re bound by blood, there’s no escaping!”

“I thought that stuff only happens in TV! Can’t believe it happens in real life,” Ah Fan laughs.

Ah Biu smiles, happy to see Ah Fan laugh. “Don’t worry!” he assures her.

Ah Fan returns Ah Biu’s smile. Deep down, though, she was growing worried.

Growing up she heard “rumors” about her father and his relationship with her mom. According to gossips, Ah Fan’s father was actually a cheating married man from Hong Kong who kept Ah Fan and her mom as a “second family” in the mainland. Whenever Ah Fan mentioned this to her mom, she’d get a beating. Her mom would always insist that her father was a “good” man and that she should love and respect him as a father. Consequently, Ah Fan told herself to ignore the rumors and believe what her mom told her. Despite their limited time together, Ah Fan loved her father. She recalls vividly the precious time the three of them spent as a family. Whenever they knew her father was coming, they’d wait for him at their village entrance. Her father would always bring gifts, food, and money for them.

When her father stopped visiting, Ah Fan’s suspicions about the rumors being true started to surface again. It intensified when her mom became sick and was dying. Her mom forbade her to find her father and even in her dying hours, her mom still refuted the “rumors”. She continued to tell Ah Fan to love her father and that no matter what he was still a “good” man and that she did not regret loving him. Ah Fan had cried bitterly — mad at herself for not being able to go find her father, mad at her mom for not telling her the truth, and especially mad at her father for abandoning them.

After her mom passed away, Ah Fan made up her mind to leave her village and go to Hong Kong to find this “busy” father of hers. She had to learn the truth.

Of course, she did not tell Ah Biu any of this… nor had she told anyone else.

Man Gwai Fei (Stephanie Che) returned to her apartment feeling the lowest and cheapest she ever felt. She had been drugged and raped — on her birthday.

“Fei Fei, you’re home? Did you have fun last night? I’m still mad at you for not letting me come!” Man Gwai Yan (Celine Ma) says.

Gwai Fei drops to the floor and cries after she closed the door.

Seeing her cousin in that condition, Gwai Yan rushes over to tend to her. “What’s wrong? Are you okay? What happened?”

Gwai Fei looked like a complete mess. Her clothes were not on correctly, her hair was all over the place, and her make-up was smeared. Gwai Yan had never seen Gwai Fei like this before. Gwai Fei looked even worse than she does without any make-up on.

“I’m not pure anymore!” Gwai Fei cries.

“Oh my god! You had sex? Congratulations, Fei Fei! I always knew someone would want to do you. How lucky of you to lose your virginity on your 36th birthday!” Gwai Yan claps her hands and gives her cousin a hug. “You should be happy you’re not pure anymore! Think of poor me! I’m still as pure as ever!”

Gwai Fei slaps Gwai Yan. “You idiot! I’ve been raped!”

Gwai Yan’s eyes widen. “Raped?!” She covers her mouth in horror and quickly jumps up away from Gwai Fei. She didn’t want to touch the “dirty” Gwai Fei.

“It wasn’t even someone young or even middle age. It was… a senior citizen!”

“Are you kidding me? Do you think I’m stupid?” Gwai Yan demands. “How can a senior citizen rape anybody? They can hardly keep themselves up. How can they keep anything else up? Furthermore, what power or force can an old man have that you couldn’t just knock him over and break his fragile bones?”

“He drugged me! I didn’t know anything! I woke up… naked… in a motel…”

“You can’t even trust old men and think they’re harmless!” Gwai Yan sighs. She gasps suddenly. “Oh my god! I’m surrounded by old men every day when I volunteer at the nursing home! Maybe I’m the next victim!”

“I feel so dirty…”

“Fei Fei, let’s get you cleaned up first.”

Gwai Yan helped Gwai Fei into the shower. She stayed in the shower for hours. No matter how much water or soap she used, Gwai Fei still felt icky when she left the bathroom. She felt dirty and disgusting all over. Never could she have imagined that she would be the victim of rape.

“What happened?” Gwai Yan pressed. “I thought you had a big party at the restaurant with lots of people! How did you end up at a bar vulnerable and prey to a disgusting old geezer?”

“They all left me. They ate until they were full. They played until they were done. They took my presents. They took it all. They said they were going to the bathroom, but no one ever came back. I only learned after waiting for a long time that they had all left much earlier…” Gwai Fei cries. “I ended up at the bar because I was so depressed. Then this old man approached me… he told me he would listen to me… I don’t know what came over me but I told him to bring my drink over to the booth and that I’d tell him… next thing I know I wake up… and you know the rest.”

“Aiya! Fei Fei, that’s why you should never talk with strangers! Furthermore, you should never let a stranger give you a drink! Haven’t you seen enough TVB series to know that they always put the drugs in the drinks?!”

“You’re saying it’s my own fault this happened?”

Gwai Yan quickly shakes her head. “No, no! Of course not.”

“It’s those damn Kams! They must have thought it would be funny to abandon me on my birthday! It must be them. If they hadn’t left, I wouldn’t have gone to the bar! I wouldn’t have been raped! It was them! It’s always them! Those damn Kams!” Gwai Fei curses.

A hateful and burning air flows through her body.

“They think they’re so great and above everyone else because everyone seems to be related to them in one way or another. They think they can talk loudly and drown everyone in their spit. They think they’re their own little army and can do whatever they want. I hate them! I hate the stupid Kams! It’s their fault this happened to me! I tried so hard to be nice to them. I tried to be their friend. I sacrificed and gave them my all. I tried so hard to be a good person… but it was all in vain.”

“Fei Fei, calm down!” Gwai Yan urges. “It’s not their fault! They didn’t know! Maybe it’s all a misunderstanding!”

“Misunderstanding? No… definitely not. They hate me! They always have. Well, from today onwards two can play that game. I’m done being nice.”

Gwai Yan shudders, suddenly scared by her cousin’s evil tone. “Fei Fei… what are you saying?”

“They think I’m bad? I’ll show them bad.” She gives a loud, evil cackle.

“Fei Fei, snap out of it!” Gwai Yan gives Gwai Fei a slap. “You’re being possessed!”

Gwai Fei returns the slap with an even harder one and gives Gwai Yan an evil glare.

“My mind is clear as water, do you understand? Don’t you dare touch me like that ever again. I’m tired of being abused. I’m tired of being seen like a joke. I’m going to show the Kams and their friends and family living hell. I’m going to destroy each and every one of them. They’ll pay for making me suffer like I have today. If they thought Rose (Kenix Kwok) was bad… they haven’t seen anything yet.”

Gwai Fei had turned from ‘bad’ to pretend ‘good’ and now… she was just plain evil.

Hell has no fury like a woman scorned and she was a woman on a mission for vengeance.

Gwai Fei begins plotting with Gwai Yan on how she could make the lives of the Kams miserable.

The hardest thing for Ah Mei (Cutie Mui) to believe was Man Gwai Fei’s (Stephanie Che) change into a “good” person. Ah Mei was apprehensive about working for Gwai Fei as her fashion designer. She remembered how Gwai Fei loved to scold her employees and treat them badly, playing them like toys. Ah Mei back then was especially an easy target for Gwai Fei because she was so timid. Surprisingly, this time working with Gwai Fei was flawlessly smooth. She was extremely lenient and friendly to Ah Mei, often buying her breakfast and telling her to “take her time” and “relax”.

“How come Miss Man is acting so nice?” Ah Mei asks one day over lunch.

“She must be scared of heaven’s retribution! She did so many bad things in the past, so now she’s trying to make up for it,” Ah Yuet (Michael Tse) answers.

“Whatever it is, we get to enjoy the benefits, isn’t that right?” Gam (Louis Yuen) smiles.

“It’s just so hard to believe how she made a complete turn-over…” Ah Mei muses. Suddenly, she gasps. “Miss Man’s birthday is coming up!”

Everyone stares at Ah Mei in disbelief. “After 4 years you still remember?!”

Ah Mei laughs sheepishly. In the past, all of the “Ka Yan” employees had to buy Gwai Fei a really nice birthday present otherwise she’d throw a fit and make their lives more miserable. Every year Gwai Fei would always turn “30″ and every year the “Ka Yan” employees would line up one-by-one and regretfully hand Gwai Fei a nice present while cursing her in their head.

This year, though, was different.

Despite everyone favoring her over Ah Lam (Linda Chung) in the company at that point, Gwai Fei knew that she still had some way to go before she could be the “Ka Yan” employees’ friend, especially of the Kam family — her target. She wanted to be a part of their family. She wanted in on their gossips and big gatherings. She was tired of her mundane life as a loner. She longed to be welcomed and accepted. She was building a good name for herself in the community through Man Gwai Yan (Celine Ma) volunteering using her name at a nursing home.

Believing that food, gifts, and a good time were the way into the Kams’ hearts, Gwai Fei decided that she was going to throw a big birthday party for herself. It was going to be an abalone feast just like in “Heart of Giving” with flowing, expensive alcohol. Besides feeding everyone with delicacies, Gwai Fei would also give everyone a goody bag to take home.

Everyone at “Ka Yan” was shocked to receive the lavish invitations for Gwai Fei’s party and was even more shocked when she told them not only were they forbidden from giving her a birthday gift of any sort but that they were also allowed to bring all of their family and friends. Could it be that the stingy and selfish Gwai Fei had truly turned over a new leaf and was willing to suffer a huge financial loss to throw herself a birthday party? It was mind-boggling indeed, but the Kams and their friends didn’t care to think too much about it. At the prospect of such benefits, they eagerly awaited the big day.

The big day of Gwai Fei’s birthday party came. Everyone arrived at the restaurant empty-handed with equally empty stomachs. Gwai Fei was decked out in her most expensive fake diamonds and a revealing, sexy black dress.

“Happy 30th Birthday, Miss Man!” everyone chimed.

Gwai Fei laughs good-heartedly. “30? My friends you’re much too kind. I know I preserve my beauty and youth well, but I am certainly not 29 turning 30! My real age…” Gwai Fei stops herself. “Well, a women’s age is a secret anyways. Let’s just enjoy the food everyone!”

Gwai Fei felt really happy. It was the first birthday that she was spending with so many people. Usually the only gifts that she would get were those she coerced from the “Ka Yan” employees and then she’d spend the rest of the day alone.

Everyone sang her praises for the delicious food. She felt like they really appreciated her and liked her.

Games of mah-jong were being played and people were singing karaoke. Of course, there was much talking going on with all of the people in the room. It was truly a jolly good time for all because everything was free.

“Something isn’t right,” Ah Mei mutters under her breath.

“What isn’t right?” Ah Yuet asks.

“Miss Man. I still can’t believe she is this ‘nice’. I mean, look at this goody bag! It’s actually stuff that people would want! Don’t you remember how in the past Miss Man’s presents were always expired food or unwanted trash? Furthermore, even though she makes way more money than all of us, she never treated us for a meal! Do you remember how she’d trick us into paying for the meal?” Ah Mei reasons.

“You have a point…”

Ah Mei gasps. “What if she’s been pretending to be nice all along so that she can trick us into paying for this expensive party?”

“She wouldn’t! That would be evil!” Ying Gei (Yvonne Lam) exclaims.

“Evil? What’s evil?” Gwai Fei asks, interjecting herself into the conversation.

“Oh… we’re discussing ‘Sunlight Resonance’! We’re talking about how evil Auntie Hung is for pretending to treat her stepchildren nicely when she purposely wants to spoil them rotten!” Ying Gei lies.

Gwai Fei laughs. “Oh yes… that’s quite evil! But you have to admit that she’s smart. She was able to pull off such an evil scheme without anyone knowing — that’s the best type! Okay, well carry on!”

Ah Yuet gulps, suddenly nervous. “Maybe Miss Man is that evil!”

“It would all make sense then!” Ah Lo (Bondy Chiu) concludes. “I mean we all found her sudden ‘change’ into a ‘good’ person quite unexplainable! If she’s been pretending all along to get our trust so she can fool something so big over us, then this makes complete sense!”

“So she lured us all here to chop us like dead meat!” Ah Mei exclaims.

“Dead meat?” Gwai Fei overhears and laughs. “That Auntie Hung is damn evil!”

Ah Lo does some quick calculation on her fingers. “This meal… this party… we’re going to go bankrupt if we have to pay for it all!”

“Let’s do what Miss Man usually does and leave before the bill comes!” Gam urges.

Everyone left to go to the “bathroom” but secretly they all ran out of the doors. Gwai Fei found it suspicious how everyone was leaving, but she rationed that it was because everyone had eaten and drank too much. She waited patiently for everyone to return and for the party to resume. She waited… and waited.

Finally, even she had to go to the bathroom. Before she could head out of the door, the manager stops her.

“Miss, where are you going?”

“I need to use the bathroom if you’ll excuse me please.”

“You need to use the bathroom or do you want to leave and have a ‘free meal’?”

“What? How dare you insult me!”

“The rest of your party has left the restaurant long ago. I assume the party is over. Please pay the bill.”

Gwai Fei was stunned. “What do you mean they all left? They’re in the bathroom!”

“They left the building. There’s no one in the bathrooms.”

“I don’t believe this!”

Gwai Fei dodges from the manager and makes a run for the bathrooms. He runs after her, afraid that she was trying to leave without paying. She busts open the bathroom doors. The Kams and the rest were nowhere in sight. They had all abandoned her… at her own birthday party. The manager continued harassing her to pay the bill. Gwai Fei’s eyes fill up with tears. She was alone once again on her birthday.

They had come to eat and play. They did not come for her. Once the benefits were all taken, they all left. Gwai Fei falls to the floor and cries.

After paying the enormous restaurant bill, Gwai Fei heads to a bar and drinks away her sorrows. She was completely torn.

An old man (Chung King Fai) approaches the drunk and vulnerable-looking Gwai Fei with her strappy black dress nearly falling off.

“Hey baby, what’s wrong?” he asks her.

“It’s my birthday! I can cry if I want to!” Gwai Fei hisses.

“That’s a song!” he laughs.

“Am I such a comedy act? Nothing I say is ever serious?”

“No, no! I didn’t mean that. Come, let’s go over to a booth and you can tell me what’s wrong.”

“Why would I do that? You old geezer get out of this bar and go play with your grandchildren!”

“Because you’re lonely and I’m willing to listen.”

“Fine. Whatever. Get my drink for me.”

The old man nods his head. He watches her head over to his booth. He grabs her drink and secretly drops a pill into it. He smiles maliciously.

After one sip Gwai Fei was a goner…

Gwai Fei wakes up alone the next morning in a cheap motel room with a terrible headache.

“Where the hell am I?”

She realizes that she was lying naked in a bed. Her clothes were all over the floor. She covers her mouth, horrified. The last thing she remembered from last night was meeting an old man.

“I’ve been raped!” she cries.

That birthday was a memorable one for Gwai Fei all right. Not only was she abandoned at her own birthday party in which she threw for herself, but she had also been drugged and raped by a senior citizen in a sleazy motel room! She cries bitterly and pitifully, the tears endless.

TVB has many different types of love stories, each wonderful in their own ways.

TVB’s representative work for “love in the country side” is the “trilogy” unofficially known as “Plain Love”: Plain Love (1995), Plain Love II (1999), and Country Spirit (2001). It’s not a “trilogy” in the traditional sense that the series are linked or even related. In fact, all 3 series are completely unrelated and independent series. They are grouped as a “trilogy” because they all focus on love in the beautiful country side, monopolizing on China’s gorgeous landscapes — giving the viewer a breath of “fresh air” so to speak away from the pollution and busy city life. Who can forget the beautiful, breath-taking field of yellow flowers in Love II? Who can forget all of the beautiful mountains and waterfalls in Country?



Part 1 was about land, part 2 was about tea, and part 3 was about wine. Each topic that the respective series focused on shined new light into those areas of Chinese culture and directly related them to life in usually poignant and meaningful metaphors. All 3 series succeeded in showcasing the importance, relevance, and meaning of land, tea, and wine in a turbulent, trying, and hard time in China’s history.



In addition to the beautiful sights, our ears are also given equally tantalizing songs with exquisite vocals, melodies, and lyrics. Jacky Cheung sings the beautiful themesongs for Love II (the award-winning “Get Closer”) with Priscilla Chan and Country with Kit Chan as well as Country’s subsong “Drunk But Sober”. Kenny Ho’s songs for Plain are also not bad.

I was first exposed to the “trilogy” back in 2001 with Country. I absolutely loved it! It was an excellent 42-episode series starring Charmaine Sheh, Gordon Lam, and Sheren Tang. It really captivated me with its fantastic characterizations and wonderful, touching storyline and equally good performances. It was an extremely sad but beautiful series. Because I was a total fan of Country, I desperately wanted to see its “parent” (or rather “sister”) series. I then watched the 32-episode Love II with Maggie Cheung, Gordon, Louisa So, and Evergreen Mak and also loved it. The storyline was also great with well-written characters and an engaging, moving storyline.

Love II and Country are two of my most favorite series. They are classic TVB productions that I highly recommend. The cast for both are fantastic, the sceneries are breath-taking, and the stories are touching and moving; they are both definitely unique, memorable, and worthwhile series.

Having watched and loved the two “children” series, I had to watch the “parent” series — the series that spun off and started the whole franchise back in 1995, Plain Love starring Kathy Chow, Gallen Lo, and Eddie Cheung.

Prior to watching Plain, I already had high expectations and anticipation because according to some it was the “best” of the three series. Of course, being the “original” series also put a lot of weight into Plain since without it how could the “sequels” exist? I pursued the series for many years and was unsuccessful in watching it until I finally got a chance to watch it a few months ago thanks to a friend who sent me the DVD’s. I was extremely happy and excited to finally have the chance to watch it.

We often say that the “original” is always the best, but is this still the case when one watches the sequel(s) first?

In this case, I found it not to be true.

Disappointingly, Plain did not live up to the hype. I didn’t enjoy it much. The series started off well and had a lot of potential, but unfortunately I never became “immersed” in it like the other 2 series. The characters didn’t captivate me, the storyline wasn’t that great, and I wasn’t particularly touched or moved. The pace was much faster than Love II and Country (and the series was also shorter at only 20 episodes), but somehow it all felt too impersonal. It was one tragedy, one dramatic “twist” after another without really any time for developments. It felt shallow and uninspiring. I didn’t like it much because I couldn’t “feel” for the story.

Plain was noticeably much “plainer” than its predecessors and lacked the “grandness” that I found so mesmerizing about Country and Love II. It is clearly the lowest budget of the “trilogy”. The costumes and landscapes paled far in comparison to the latter series.

What I love most about Country and Love II is of course the “love” as highlighted in the theme; they had very memorable, well-written, and touching love stories for the main couples. I didn’t feel that with Plain. Kathy and Gallen had little chemistry and their characters just weren’t convincing as a couple. I didn’t “feel” the love or strong bond that I felt between Ah Shun (Gordon) & Shun Fung (Charmaine) from Country and Fong Yau Wai (Gordon) & Poon Mui Nga (Maggie) from Love II between Plain’s Fong Sue Gan (Gallen) & Lau Ah Choi (Kathy). Their love felt rather shallow and “forced”. I couldn’t bring myself to believe that they had a profound love because they had far too little romantic moments They spent more time arguing and being upset in my opinion. I actually wasn’t really rooting for them as a couple (a bad thing for a series whose main theme is about love).

Who was I rooting for? Ironically, I was rooting for the “other couple” in the love triangle. I really wanted Ah Choi to be with Tin Yam (Eddie). It was clear to me that they had feelings for each other and I was really rooting for them to be together. I was really happy when he returned and wanted to take her away since Sue Gan was treating her poorly (he had gambled her away). “Disappointingly”, Ah Choi decided to be a “faithful wife & mother” and return to Sue Gan. I felt really sorry for Tin Yam. He loved her so much (he actually ended up staying unmarried and only her “good friend” for the rest of his life — now that’s true love)!

Of course, having Ah Choi leave her son and husband (no matter how much she was hurt and disappointed by him time and time again) would have been morally wrong, but I found it contradictory to her character as a child. In episode 1, I distinctly recall the young Ah Choi asking her mom why a woman cannot have her own opinions and must always listen to a man regardless of whether he’s right or wrong. Her mom replied because it was the “fate” of a woman. It was at that point that I had assumed that Ah Choi would be a strong “modern” woman (since Plain was set in the period where China was modernizing). I guess, however, that it boils down to the fact that Ah Choi is a person with a strong sense of responsibility and duty.

I didn’t like Sue Gan much. He was too stubborn for my liking. I especially disliked him during the times when he kept questioning Ah Choi’s fidelity (even suspecting that their son wasn’t his!) and when he was useless and developed a gambling problem. I did, however, warm up to him at times because I liked how hard-working he was trying to cultivate the land and provide for his family. He is rather hard-headed, hot-blooded, and brash, but he’s not a bad guy; he cares for those around him and has a strong sense of justice.

I love Country’s Shun Fung and Love II’s Mui Nga. Their characters can be called “stubborn”, but they were strong women with principles. As for Ah Choi… yes, she was strong and endured a lot, but I failed to root for and love her like Shun Fung and Mui Nga. I blame Kathy’s acting for that. She’s pretty, but I’m usually just not a fan of her acting and her performance in Plain exemplifies why. Her acting doesn’t seem natural and looks like she’s acting to me. Her crying was also not convincing. Ah Choi was a sympathetic character, but I couldn’t connect with her much because of Kathy’s performance.

Overall, Plain was unmemorable and didn’t leave an impression. It’s not a trashy or “bad” series, but I simply didn’t like it and wouldn’t recommend it.

Fans of Plain will disagree with me, but I found it to be the worst of the “trilogy”. While I love and think fondly of Love II and Country, Plain failed to enter my heart. I believe it failed because it lacked a strong, likable female performance and a strong, touching romance. I also wasn’t a big fan of the leading male character. Maybe it’s because I’m not a fan of Kathy. Maybe it’s because I watched Plain last. In any case, I just know that it disappointed me and that I didn’t think much of it. I believe it lacked “heart”.

As a whole, I love the “Plain Love” trilogy (even if I don’t love all 3 series… just 2). My favorite installment would have to still be Country. Maybe it’s because I saw Country first, but somehow it left the deepest impression with me.

I hope that TVB can produce another installment. As long as TVB has a great cast with a beautiful storyline (and an equally beautiful landscape — which I don’t think they should have trouble doing), then it would be a success (ratings for Country were mediocre/low, but in my book it is still a classic TVB work). The most important is the female lead; she must be able to cry beautifully and portray a strong and sympathetic character. Maggie gave a brilliant performance and Charmaine truly stepped up and improved by leaps and bounds (her breakthrough and best performance, in my opinion). The chemistry between the leads must also be present. Gordon & Maggie had tons of chemistry while Gordon & Charmaine were also a good couple. It will be interesting when and if TVB produces another installment.

Are you a fan of the “Plain Love” trilogy? If so, which installment is your favorite? Least favorite? Do you want a fourth installment?

It looked like another typical day at “Ka Yan” company. Until… the sound of loud clicking of high heels could be heard approaching the company from the elevator. Man Gwai Fei (Stephanie Che) and Ah Lam (Linda Chung) were both inside of their offices and Rose (Kenix Kwok) was long gone, so the “Ka Yan” employees had no idea who was coming. Everyone ran to the doors to see who the visitor was.

“Ah Mei?!” everyone gasp and exclaim in surprise.

Having left “Ka Yan” and Hong Kong for four years, Ah Mei (Cutie Mui) finally returned. She smiles at everyone.

This Ah Mei who returned to Hong Kong, though, was a different Ah Mei from the one who left. The Ah Mei that everyone remembered was a meek, plain, and nice girl with glasses. The Ah Mei that stood before them that day was completely different. Gone were Ah Mei’s signature straight hair, conservative clothes, and glasses. Wild, long curls now dangled elegantly from her head. She was dressed in a trendy, but professional-looking outfit. The “air” that the “new” Ah Mei gave off was different as well. She looked confident and full-of-life.

“Ah Mei?!” everyone repeats, still in disbelief.

“I’m back! Who missed me?”

One by one, everyone in “Ka Yan” gave Ah Mei a hug. The biggest hug was of course from her best friend, Ah Lo (Bondy Chiu).

“Wah! You’ve gained weight!” Ah Mei comments.

“I’m pregnant,” Ah Lo says flatly.

“Again?! You just gave birth not too long ago! Ah Yuet (Michael Tse) can’t seem to leave you alone, huh?” Ah Mei laughs.

“Actually… this baby is H5N1’s.”

Ah Mei’s jaw drops. Her eyes travel from Ah Lo to Gam (Louis Yuen). “You… and H5N1?! Are you kidding me? Ah Lo, how did that happen?!”

“I wouldn’t touch her even if you paid me!” Gam answers before Ah Lo could respond. “She’s just our surrogate!”

Ah Mei lets out a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank God! It would have been quite a scandal if the uncle hooked up with his niece-in-law!” She laughs.

“Welcome back, Ah Mei.” Ah Yuet smiles and gives her a hug.

Ah Mei surprised herself when she hugged Ah Yuet, her long-time crush from many years ago.

Four years ago, she left Hong Kong not only to study fashion design, but also to avoid Ah Lo and Ah Yuet. Her secret crush on Ah Yuet had been revealed and so to withdraw before a love triangle could form since Ah Lo and Ah Yuet were already married at that time, Ah Mei decided that it was best to leave Hong Kong on good terms with everyone. She left to both forget Ah Yuet and to improve herself.

Four years away from Hong Kong and Ah Yuet had done the trick. At first she missed him and her family and friends a lot, but with time, she was able to immerse herself in her studies and move on with life.

When the two of them hugged, Ah Mei didn’t feel her old feelings for him. She didn’t long to linger onto his body. She didn’t long for him to not let go. In fact, she felt nothing. She gives him a smile. “I’ve finally moved on,” Ah Mei thought to herself.

“What’s all this commotion?!” Ah Lam demands.

Hearing Ah Lam scold the employees, Gwai Fei immediately rushed out to play the role of the “good person” and defend everyone. “Aiya! Michelle, life is hard and this job is plenty stressful! It’s perfectly acceptable to take a few moments to breathe!” Gwai Fei flashes a big smile. “Carry on!”

“Athena, we are paid to work, not to socialize.”

Gwai Fei rolls her eyes and makes a face.

Ah Nin and Joey (Bernice Liu) approach from the back office. “Ah Mei?!” the two exclaim in delight and give her quick hugs.

“I’m so happy for you two!” she gushes.

Ah Lam folds her arms, frustrated. “Visiting hours are over. You’ve disturbed our business long enough.”

Wong Sheung (Lau Dan) emerges from his office because of the hubbub. He gasps. “May?!”

“Mr. Wong!” Ah Mei grins.

Ah Lam shakes her head in disgust, surrendering, and returns to her office.

“What brings you back to ‘Ka Yan’?”

“I need a job!” Ah Mei presses her hands together and bows pleadingly. “I just graduated from my fashion designing course in England.”

“You’re in luck! Athena’s needed a new fashion designer for many months now since Rose left. Welcome back on board!”

“Wow. This easy? With the bad economy and high unemployment, I thought any open position would be filled immediately!”

Wong Sheung smiles. “I guess you were destined to fill this position then. Congratulations!”

“Thank you, Mr. Wong!”

Like that, Ah Mei rejoined “Ka Yan” company’s family not to resume her job as an accountant, but to start her new career as a fashion designer.

Ah Mei stunned her parents Sek Dai Chuen (Johnny Ngan) and Chan Kiu (Helen Ma) when she stepped into “Tung Mat Yuen” later that day.

“Ah Mei?!”

“Oh my god! You’re so pretty now!” Kiu says, “I knew you inherited my beauty! I just can’t believe it took you so many years to grow from an ugly duckling!”

“But now… you’re a swan!” Dai Chuen nods. “My daughter is actually gorgeous! I couldn’t tell before with your nerdy glasses and boring hair and clothes!”

“Aren’t you happy to have your only child back?” Ah Mei grins.

“Actually…” Dai Chuen begins.

“Huh?” Ah Mei blinks and looks at them, confused.

“You’re not our only child,” Kiu finishes.

“What?!”

Equally stunned as her parents were to see her that day, Ah Mei couldn’t believe that she had a twin brother named Ah Biu (Raymond Lam). She also couldn’t believe that her parents no longer lived in their 8B apartment, but had moved in with her aunt, Chan Hung (Sheren Tang).

“I’m only gone for four years and so much has changed?!” Ah Mei’s head was spinning trying to digest all of the information.

That night Ah Mei met Ah Biu and everyone else. It was astounding to her that this whole other side to her family existed. Her mom’s ties with her family had been cut when she chose her dad over money, so it shouldn’t have been too surprising that she had other family members. However, for so many years, their family had been just the three of them. Therefore, it would take some getting used to for Ah Mei.

It made Ah Mei happy to see her parents so happy. Deep down, she was a little disappointed though. She thought that her return would be their sole source of happiness. She was also somewhat jealous of Ah Biu. It was quite obvious to her that her parents adored him, which saddened her because they just reunited. No doubt she did like Ah Biu and she was happy to have a brother, but somehow she felt a little distant from it all.

Perhaps four years away had been too long. She had assumed that things would return to the way they were when she came back, but it seems that she had a lot of rebuilding work to do. Time doesn’t wait for anyone. Changes happen frequently and things can never revert.

Originally Dai Chuen and Kiu wanted Ah Mei to live with them in Hung’s house, but Ah Mei declined. She didn’t want to make Ah Tai (Kate Tsui) share her room and she felt like she was “intruding”. It just didn’t feel right somehow. Ah Mei decided to return to her old bedroom in Apartment 8B and live with her uncle 11th brother (Lee Kwok Lun), aunt-in-law Sa Sa (Kingdom Yuen), and their adopted daughter Ling-ling (Jenny Shing).

Despite her outward transformation and growth in self-confidence, it turns out that the Ah Mei that returned was still the same sweet and shy girl that left Hong Kong.

Six months ago, four main leads from Moonlight Resonance — Ha Yu, Louise Lee See Kei, Raymond Lam, and Linda Chung — came over to the US for a Christmas concert entitled Christmas Spectacular Live in Concert at the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey on December 21, 2008.

Luckily for me, my friend’s uncle happens to have connections with the concert people (I think he works as a promotions manager or something… not sure) so I was able to attend the show for free. Leading up to and even on December 21, I actually didn’t know for sure whether or not I could go since my friend wasn’t very certain that we could get tickets. Why didn’t I just buy the tickets like others? Because no one really buys tickets to these shows, most of them go for free anyways I’m a poor college student. If it was Linda’s solo concert, then perhaps I’d be more willing to fork out the money to see the show, but when I was only really interested in seeing 1/2 of the show (love Louise & Ha Yu’s acting, but seeing them in concert?), it didn’t seem “worth” it to pay. Thus I was willing to risk not being able to attend Linda’s first US concert.

The show was supposed to start at 1:00 AM. My friend & I got there around 12:30 AM, still without tickets. 1 AM was fast approaching and her uncle was still nowhere in sight. I was getting really worried. At 10 minutes or so to 1:00 AM, her uncle finally showed up and gave us the tickets. I was really happy and relieved. We excitedly went down to the concert hall to enter the auditorium.

It was my first time at a Chinese concert, let alone a TVB one. There were tons of people in attendance. With the popularity of Moonlight and the cast, I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised. Anyhow, I was shocked to see that we had really good seats. I sat around 15 rows from the stage in the left front area of seats. I could see the stage quite well, so I was pleased with my seat. I did not have my camera with me and pictures my friend took were really bad (extremely blurry), so the following pictures from the concert are courtesy of forbiddenwaffles.

The concert was supposed to begin at 1 AM, but in the true Asian fashion, it didn’t start until after 1:30 AM.

“Hor Ma” Louise came out first, followed by “Jo Bao” Ha Yu, then “Goon Ga Jai” Ray (the crowd went crazy!), and finally “Yu So Chau” Linda.

I didn’t realize Louise was on stage until I heard music playing. All of Louise’s songs were in Mandarin, if I’m not recalling incorrectly. Ha Yu sang a bunch of old Cantonese songs. Sitting through Louise and Ha Yu’s performances felt really long since I wanted to see Linda & Ray. They weren’t terrible singers or anything and I liked the parts when they talked to the audience. It’s just that their performances weren’t my “cup of tea”. I would much rather see them act.

All hell broke loose when Raymond came out. People ran to the stage, cameras started coming out. There were flashes everywhere. Clearly most people had come to see Ray. I enjoyed Ray’s performance. His voice was fantastic and it was nice to hear songs I actually knew and liked. I was actually kind of “falling asleep” before he came out since it was late and I was rather tired. Ray was funny. He kept asking the audience whether or not he should come off the stage. To this, everyone screamed, “Yes!” He laughed and said that he wanted to, but couldn’t because the security people would yell at him. Whenever he was on stage, he would always “tease” about coming off (which would drive all the fan girls crazy). One time, someone shouted out (in English) “I love you!” and Ray responded back in English, “I love you, too”. Raymond’s introduction before singing “Fond of Searching for You in Memories” [愛在記憶中找你] was funny; I believe he said something along the lines of “All guys should sing this for their girls. It’s a break-up song!”

I felt really nervous for Linda knowing that she would have to go on after Ray. She’s easily nervous and self-conscious, so I was concerned that the stress of going after Ray would get to her and hurt her performance. I actually wanted Linda to go on stage before Ray so that she wouldn’t have to go on after someone so popular. Ray ended and the big moment I was waiting for came…

Linda opened with “Two People World” [二人世界], her debut single. She sang the English song “Hero” which she says she listens to every time she’s really sad (it makes her feel better). She also sang Shirley Kwan’s “Hard to Find a Lover” [難得有情人]. Linda interacted very nicely with the crowd and didn’t look nervous at all (maybe a little in the beginning of “Two People World” though), which was great. She was charismatic and quite charming, which I was pleased with. I was worried that she’d be stiff and anxious so she wouldn’t be able to talk to the crowd much, but this was far from the case. Since 2004, Linda has definitely opened up and become more extroverted — what a transformation! She seemed relaxed, confident, and really nailed her performances. Her vocals were the best live ones from her that I’ve heard yet. She has improved a great deal in terms of singing live since 2006. Before I used to semi-cringe and avoid seeing her live performances, but now it’s quite acceptable and getting better. Linda said it was her first time in the US.

Linda talked a bit about her entry into the music industry and how her album had released. She asked if everyone would support her [as a singer] and the crowd yelled, “Yes!” Linda looked very happy with how receptive the audience was towards her (I think she was pleasantly surprised by how much support she has in the US). She seemed really “into” her performances and loved the energy and being on stage.

Ha Yu took the stage again, followed by Louise. Louise was very nice to Linda and praised her a lot. Like Ha Yu, Louise said that she is fond of Linda’s talents. She said that in her heart, Linda is a “Princess” and that she’s a very good girl. She praised Linda’s hard work, acting, and crying. She said that Linda’s smile is very pretty and that her crying is also pretty too. She mentioned how certain people can do really heart-wrenching crying scenes but look ugly while Linda manages to cry beautifully. That’s why she says she enjoys watching Linda do crying scenes. She says when Linda’s on, she can’t help but watch [her performance] — very, very sweet.

For her 2nd appearance, Linda changed into the outfit she wore at Jade Solid Gold (when her song was announced as the #1 song of the week). She sang her hit single “Actually I’m Not Happy” [其實我不快樂] from her debut album and shared the good news with everyone that the song won the Jade Solid Gold “Golden Song” award. She went on to thank Louise for her kind words and shared a personal story. She said that during filming of Heart of Greed, she wasn’t very acquainted with Louise because their scenes didn’t overlap. Linda says it was very tiring to film Heart and that when she was in the make-up room looking exhausted, Louise would ask her how she was doing, offer her encouragement, and gave her her phone number, telling her to call if she needed anything. She thought Louise was very caring and is grateful for having gotten to know her.

Afterwards Linda sang another Shirley Kwan song and then Joey Yung’s “Don’t Know Yet” [未知] because she felt it was time for a fast song. She was dancing a little bit. Linda then expressed that she wanted to sing a duet but wasn’t sure who to do it with. She was cheeky when asking. The crowd went crazy screaming “Lam Fung!”… and so Ray appeared on stage again! Out of all four, he was the only one who did not change outfits.

The two of them wondered if they should address Linda by her character name in Heart — Seung Joi Sum — or Moonlight — Yu So Chau. Linda said something like, “I think Seung Joi Sum because I don’t think the audience knows the name Yu So Chau yet.” Ray corrected her and said that they knew. The audience confirmed. It was very funny seeing how “confused” Linda was. I guess Linda thinks that US fans are a year behind Hong Kong. She probably assumes so since she’s from Canada (and their series are a year behind) and maybe doesn’t know that people can rent/download series nowadays.

Ray & Linda sang their much-overused (they need a new song!) duet “Appreciated” [心領] from Heart. The crowd went crazy when they held hands during the performance. They were really cute! Honestly, it was probably the best rendition of the song I heard them do yet. After finishing, they thanked each other (kept bowing to one another, which was cute) and Linda left the stage to Ray. He sang a few more songs, including the most popular/anticipated song that night — “Love Without Regrets” [愛不疚] from Moonlight.

At the very end, all 4 came out again and sang George Lam’s “Needing You Every Minute” [分分鐘需要你] (aka Fala Chen’s favorite song from Moonlight) and the show ended at around 3:30 AM. In total, it was a 2 hour show with all 4 singing a total of 6 songs each.

It was a great experience and I am very proud of Linda for doing an amazing job! She sang really well (her vocals have improved so much) and has come a long way in terms of her live singing as I’ve stated previously. She actually messed up on 2 songs because she forgot/messed up the lyrics, but it was okay. She just laughed it off and no one really cared. I loved her interactions with the crowd the most.

After the concert, my friends and I waited outside of a restaurant — Dynasty — in the casino. Our reasoning was that they (the Moonlight stars) would be hungry and go eat (also, a few weeks ago, Fala had a concert there and ended up eating at the same restaurant). After waiting for like 20-30 minutes, we heard screaming. Linda was walking quickly towards the restaurant entrance. I ran up to her and was like “Linda! Linda!” Linda walked really, really fast (she was being held/escorted by some lady) and looked scared because of the big crowd surrounding/following her.

I didn’t manage to get her attention (her eyes were focusing away from the crowd because she was too scared to look at anyone), but I was standing like only a few inches away from her and managed to touch her hand. So for now I can say that I have Linda’s autograph with a personal message and have seen her in real life.

Ha Yu, Louise, and Ray came together in a crowd with a bunch of security. I managed to shake hands with Ha Yu. I was like “Jo Bao!” He saw me and shook my hand and smiled. He was really friendly. I wanted to yell “Hor Ma” (Louise was standing next to him), but didn’t. Ray was literally surrounded on all corners by security since they didn’t want to risk any of the many fan girls pouncing on Ray.

The 4 of them went into the restaurant to eat and we (along with other fans) waited to see them come back out. We waited for an hour only to learn that they had left through the back, which was disappointing but not unexpected. Some lucky fans had connections with people working in the restaurant and were able to get in and meet the stars. One of my friends knew someone who worked as a waitress in the restaurant and she was able to get pictures taken with all four! Another girl walked in with Linda’s CD’s and walked out with them signed.

It wasn’t until later that I learned I could have been one of the “lucky fans” and meet the stars due to my friend’s uncle’s (the one who got us tickets in the first place) connections. I felt disappointed after hearing that, but at least now I know for next time.

Overall, it was a great concert. I had a lot of fun. I was extremely tired at the end of it, but it was well-worth staying up until 5 AM.

I probably would have enjoyed the show a lot more if it was just Ray & Linda (I was bored when they weren’t on stage), but I understand the reasoning for them having Ha Yu & Louise. This way both the “old” and the “young” crowd could be satisfied. It was definitely amusing to observe how “dead” the crowd mostly was whenever Ray & Linda weren’t on and how instantly everyone would wake up and a million flashes would go off when one of them was on.

It was quite a surreal experience seeing all four of them “live” in person on stage singing and talking. I’m so used to them being just on TV or in pictures that it’s hard to imagine that I would see them with my own eyes and ears in “real life”. Furthermore, standing inches away from all of them and being able to make physical contact with 2 of them? Quite a Moonlight experience!

Sek Dai Chuen (Johnny Ngan) and Chan Kiu (Helen Ma) took Ah Biu (Raymond Lam) up to their 8B apartment to introduce him to 11th brother (Lee Kwok Lun), Sa Sa (Kingdom Yuen), and Ling-ling (Jenny Shing). As a cop, Ah Biu observed that most of their things were counterfeit from the mainland. He also saw horse racing magazines and newspapers stashed behind the couch. Even worse, he saw what looked like an adult magazine featuring under-age girls hidden behind the family’s altar. Again, he had to question, what kind of people were these? He found it very difficult to talk to them. He wasn’t used to their loud and rude manners. They often argued over nothing and insulted one another every chance they got.

Things became too much for Ah Biu when Kiu and Dai Chuen were discussing the banquet they would hold to announce their “new” son to the world. He was absolutely disgusted at how cheap and calculating they were. They were scheming on how to gain money and other profits from the banquet. He lost it.

Standing up, Ah Biu exclaims, “All you two ever think about is money and profits!”

“What? That’s not true! Sit down, son, sit down!” Kiu urges.

“No!” Ah Biu shakes his head. “I knew from meeting you two at the police station that you weren’t ‘ideal’ citizens, but the last few hours have made me question whether you two are even decent human beings. All you ever do is argue and insult each other and others. You two are lazy, liars, and hypocritical. You squander your money on illegal activities and feed the counterfeit market. How can you live with yourselves? No! I won’t accept this. You two aren’t my parents. My real mom is waiting for me at home. Maybe the reason you lost me as a son so many years ago was because you didn’t deserve to have a son to begin with. I’m sorry. I am thoroughly disgusted by you two.” Ah Biu storms out.

Dai Chuen and Kiu are stunned by Ah Biu’s harsh words. They cry loudly and profusely.

Chan Hung (Sheren Tang) was pleasantly surprised when Ah Biu returned home. He explained to her what had happened and how he couldn’t believe the type of people that they were. “I know they are my birth parents and I shouldn’t have been so harsh… but I really don’t think I can accept them as ‘parents’. They’re not good people. Other than giving life to me, what have they done?”

A half-hour later Dai Chuen and Kiu showed up pleading and crying. Ah Biu didn’t have the heart to see them like this, so he softened and declares, “Fine. I’ll give you two a chance. Unless you can prove that you two are ‘good’ people, then I won’t accept you.”

Dai Chuen and Kiu quickly agree to the terms.

That night, Dai Chuen and Kiu gathered at the Kams’ apartment. They needed to know how to be “good” people and they figured asking their favorite critics would be a good starting point. The Kams gleefully took the opportunity to critique and ridicule every minute detail about them. Nim Chi (Nancy Sit) decided that turning the two of them into “good” people would be a task that they, the Kams, must take into their own hands. They devised a strict and rigorous program set over the course of 7 days to turn the sleazy Sek couple into, at a minimum, worthy of human life.

“What’s going on with the world? First Miss Man (Stephanie Che) and now Uncle and Auntie Chuen! Everyone is trying to become ‘good’! If everyone’s good, who’s going to be the antagonist in our world now that Rose (Kenix Kwok) is long gone? Oh wait — there’s always Ah Lo (Bondy Chiu) and her mom, Fa Kei Sam (Chan Man Na); isn’t that right?” Gam (Louis Yuen) observes and chuckles.

In those seven days, Dai Chuen and Kiu were punished with a slap whenever they attempted to be lazy, use foul language, or gamble. By the end of the week, their faces were bright red from slap marks, but they were happy because they were making “progress” in their quest to become “good” people.

At the end of the week, Dai Chuen and Kiu held a big banquet to celebrate their reunion with Ah Biu. In order to show their “generosity”, the menu contained only seafood and guests were discouraged from giving money or gifts of any kind. The heart of the couple was aching from seeing their money disappearing into the bellies of their guests and not receiving anything in return. They cried silently, but knew that they had to forgo this money in order to win their son.

“We worked our butts off at ‘Tung Mat Yuen’!” Kiu happily declares.

“I haven’t gambled or looked at porn in a week!” Dai Chuen announces.

“I haven’t gossiped or cursed anyone out in a week!” Kiu chimes.

“We’re holding this banquet without any greedy motive! In fact, we’re losing a bunch of money stuffing everyone’s face tonight!” Dai Chuen grins.

“So… are you impressed that we’re good people now?” Dai Chuen and Kiu look at Ah Biu with hopeful eyes.

Ah Biu frowns in dismay. “It’s only been a week and you expect me to suddenly believe you two have changed into ‘good’ people?”

“We’ve done more good in this week than we’ve done for the past 30 years!” Dai Chuen exclaims.

“What more do you want?!” Kiu demands.

Ah Biu sighs and shakes his head. “Being a ‘good’ person is more than being ‘good’ for a week. It’s a way of life. You can’t expect a week’s worth of ‘good’ actions to convince me that you’ve changed and become ‘good’ people. It’s going to take time… and a lot more effort.”

Dai Chuen and Kiu look at each other, disheartened.

“What’s going on?” Hung asks as she approaches the three.

“They expect me to believe they’re ‘good’ people now,” Ah Biu summarizes.

“Oh?”

“We tried so hard… but it’s not enough,” Kiu frowns.

“I don’t know how to wean myself of gambling and porn forever,” Dai Chuen wails.

“I can’t control myself from gossiping or cursing at others any longer… my mouth itches so badly!” Kiu cries.

They hug each other and cry, “We’ll never be ‘good’ people!”

Hung and Ah Biu both frown and exchange looks. She pulls him to the side, away from the crying couple.

“Ah Biu, let me ask you this, what makes a ‘good’ person?” Hung questions.

“Anyone who is kind, helpful, doesn’t commit crime, and doesn’t have bad habits.”

“Okay. So what makes someone ‘bad’?”

“Anyone who breaks the law or hurts others.”

“Hmm… and you classify your birth parents as ‘bad’ people because…?”

“They’re greedy, lazy, and revolting.”

“Have they broken the law?”

“No…”

“Have they hurt others?”

“With their words.”

Hung gives Ah Biu a kind look. “Ah Biu, I know my big sister and big brother-in-law aren’t exactly… agreeable and sure, they have lots of unpleasant traits. However, I know for a fact that they are not bad people. They’ve never committed a crime or maliciously hurt anyone. They may argue and talk badly about others, but they don’t actually do any harm. Yes, they’re greedy and selfish and have bad habits, but since when was all of that a grave crime? They’re human beings and people — everyone single one of us — have flaws and undesirable traits and habits. I do and you do too. We make mistakes. We’re imperfect. But you know what? We learn and grow every single day. As long as we continue to improve ourselves, then that’s good enough. What big sister and big brother-in-law have done the past week isn’t a lot, but for them, it’s a huge step towards an attempt to change and make progress. They love you and they just want your approval and acceptance.”

“Mama, you’re so right. I’ve been too hard on them.”

Hung nods her head.

Ah Biu walks over to Kiu and Dai Chuen, giving them a smile and addressing them, “Mom, Dad.”

With noses dripping with snot and eyes dripping with tears, they embrace Ah Biu. “You’re accepting us?” they ask excitedly.

“Yes. We’re a family.”

“We promise we’ll continue to try to become good people! We promise! We promise!”

Ah Biu chuckle at them good-heartedly.

Hung gives a content smile looking at the three. Her heart felt at ease now that she’s done a good thing by helping them reconcile and reunite as a family. She was the “bad” person in this story, having hurt them by breaking up their family. However, now she was able to make up for her mistake.

The question of whether or not Ah Biu would move into the crowded 8B apartment came up. Dai Chuen and Kiu had planned for him to take over Ah Mei’s (Cutie Mui) room. However, Ah Biu was unwilling to leave Hung, Ah Tai (Kate Tsui), and Auntie Wan (Lai Suen). It was therefore decided that Dai Chuen and Kiu would pack their bags and move in with Hung in her big house. There would be no more separations — only reunions for the Seks.

The editing and direction matters
I did not feel for Ah Chau (Linda Chung) and Chi Shun (Bosco Wong) when I watched Moonlight Resonance. In fact, I was rather annoyed and frustrated with their repetitive and tiring scenes. I wished Chi Shun never existed and that the writers had just worked on developing the relationship between Ah Ho (Raymond Lam) and Ah Chau, which would have been so much more interesting and coherent to the main story. However, what’s done is done.

I was very shocked when I watched the following music videos created by GeLiGuoLu (whose MV’s are all amazing and extremely well-produced by the way — totally worth watching).

Ling Chi Shun: Yu So Sum, I’m Not the One You Want……
[凌至信：于素心，你要的不是我……]

Yu So Sum: Ling Chi Shun, My Love, My Fate
[于素心：凌至信, My Love, My Fate]

What was shocking was the fact that I actually felt something from and for the couple when I watched those music videos. “I’m Not the One You Want” shows the relationship from Ling B’s perspective while “My Love, My Fate” shows Ah Chau’s perspective. These videos are so well-produced and the scenes used all give such a different “feel” and “meaning” compared to when shown in Moonlight.



These MV’s are proof that good directing, editing, and above all writing are crucial to making something “work”. It further shows that acting cannot save a bad script. Linda and Bosco’s performances in Moonlight are often criticized, but by looking at these scenes alone, I see nothing wrong with their performances. In fact, their scenes were acted fine. I especially love the delivery of the lines in “I’m Not the One You Want” — quite emotional and touching. It’s a shame how people criticized them solely because of their bad characters and even more poorly-written storyline. They did their jobs and successfully acted out what was written in the script given to them.

If I only watched those MV’s and had no prior knowledge of Moonlight, I’d think that their love story was great. But of course, we all know that isn’t the case… Further proof that Moonlight has many great, well-acted scenes (which makes it hard for me to “hate” the series and totally write it off as trash) but these same scenes are poorly strung together in a bad script — unfortunate, really.

Deleted scene from Moonlight Resonance
I was extremely unhappy with the execution and development of Ah Ho and Ah Chau’s relationship in Moonlight. Raymond & Linda’s chemistry improved a lot from Heart of Greed and they shared lots of great scenes in Moonlight, but unfortunately their love story didn’t make the cut because they spent far too little time together as a couple. Ah Chau wasted too much of her time [and thus our time] crying over her stupid Dr. Ling. Thus, Ah Ho & Ah Chau as a couple felt shallow and rushed. I would have loved to see them date, deal with their conflicting “statuses” and family interests, and face all of the issues of them being together. That would have been really interesting and touching to see them fight through it all because of their love for each other and would have gone perfectly with the “family” theme of Moonlight. Instead, we get a dumb and “painful” [for us to watch] love triangle.

Moonlight could have worked. The cast was perfect and the set-up was good. The direction and developments were all unfortunately wrong with choppy and ludicrous writing full of flaws. It just makes me so angry how much of a waste Moonlight was since it had so much potential. Whatever. I ranted enough about Moonlight and don’t want angry fans attacking me again. Moving on…

I was very upset to realize that the scene above was cut. This scene was used in Ah Ho/Ah Chau/Chi Shun love triangle intermission segment. This scene made me anticipate the triangle when I was watching the series during the beginning because the scenes did indeed look very “painful”. Looks are deceiving though…



Judging from the clothes and location of filming, I am 100% certain that it was cut from episode 37 especially since there was a very choppy editing job done in that episode. At 18:26, Ah Chau finished a confrontation with Chi Shun asking him why he was behaving so strangely. In the very next scene, we hear the phone ringing and Ah Ho answering it and learning that his Grandma (Lee Heung Kam) was in the hospital. Ah Chau’s expression seemed very frazzled and the two looked like they were in a middle of a discussion, but were interrupted by the phone call.



I really want to know what they were talking about and why Ah Chau was hugging Ah Ho from the back holding yellow flowers. Who gave her the flowers? I assume that Ah Ho gave her the flowers. I think she was trying to reassure him that she loved him but still cared for Chi Shun as a friend. Ah Chau’s expression as she’s hugging Ah Ho from behind seems quite heartbreaking.

I would have liked to see this scene because it looks like a great one. They should have just cut out one (or 2 or 3… heck, even 10) of Ah Chau’s million crying scenes to make room for this scene.

Why there should not be a sequel to Last One Standing
I love Standing. It was an extraordinary series that was both refreshing and smartly written. It certainly kept me on my toes and the “violence” and “darkness” was a nice change from other series. Over the years, TVB has become less daring like the company’s been castrated or something. If you watch series from the 80’s and 90’s (see Looking Back in Anger and The Greed of Man), you’ll know exactly what I mean.

The ending of the series was open-ended and left the possibility for a sequel. Roger Kwok’s Ah Yin had become paraplegic and was serving time in jail for his evil deeds and was feigning a “redemption”. Kevin Cheng’s Ah Hei and Yoyo Mung’s Carmen (whose characters didn’t end up together) were both fooled by Ah Yin and thought he had changed into a “good” person. Thus, Ah Yin successfully laid the tracks for revenge when he gets released from prison. The ending credits roll with Ah Yin’s spine-chilling and creepy stare and smirk into the camera.

Some fans want a sequel to continue where the open-ended ending left off.

The possibility for Standing having a sequel is slim since ratings weren’t high (although the series built a nice audience near the end thanks to great word of mouth)… and I’m hoping it’s 0%. I don’t want a sequel to Standing because I believe it will ruin the good name of the first series.

The sequel would be extremely frustrating to watch and rather repetitive of the last series since we’ll have to sit through Ah Yin pretending to be “good” and doing nasty things behind everyone’s back and people getting harmed left and right until the end when he’s finally exposed again. It would be tiring to watch. I think my blood pressure would go up way high. Furthermore, much of the cast was killed off in the original series. The number that Ah Yin can target and hurt is much lower and I think the series would feel like a drag consequently.

Even more, we already have such a storyline with the last part of Looking Back in Anger which was already well-done. Ultimate villain Ding Yau Hong (Deric Wan) went to jail after breaking his leg (thus walking with a limp) and came out pretending to be a “good” person who regretted his previous actions and wanted to start a “new life”, fooling his brother Ding Yau Kin (Felix Wong) once again. Under the pretense of redemption, Ah Hong plotted to kill Ah Kin’s whole family for money and revenge. It wasn’t until then that Ah Kin realized Ah Hong had not changed at all and plotted justice.

I really hope TVB doesn’t produce Last One Standing II. I think it’s better not to see what happens after Ah Yin gets out of jail since we can pretty much guess the plot already.

Will The Gem of Life be a success years later?
People love to make fun of Gem for being a flop and criticize it for being a “bad” series. While it’s true that it failed to win ratings (very embarrassing ratings for a grand production actually) and is indeed a “flop”, I don’t think it’s a “bad” series at all. I was recently re-watching various scenes/episodes of the series when my mom was watching it and somehow I appreciated it more the second time around. Of course, the earlier parts of the series was still bad but after episode 20 the series began to pick up and it got good after episode 50 and was great after 60 and became increasingly excellent afterwards. I really enjoyed re-watching it.

Gem’s situation slightly mirrors that of another really long TVB grand production.

Nearly a decade ago, Producer Chik helmed the 105-episode At the Threshold of an Era (which was divided into 2 parts — something that fans of Gem thought Gem should have done too). It was an extremely big and hyped production with the biggest TVB stars around boasting Gallen Lo, Louis Koo, Roger Kwok, Sunny Chan, Flora Chan, Kenix Kwok, Liza Wang, Ada Choi, Maggie Shiu, and many others.

Despite the high production value and hype, the series had mediocre, disappointing ratings (like Gem).

Back in 2005, TVB re-aired Era during its midnight timeslot of old series re-runs. Surprisingly, Era got really good ratings (much higher than when it first aired) and praise. Thus, from a ratings “flop” Era emerged a few years later as a “success” with people appreciating the series. Some fans of Gem wonder whether or not Gem will be a repeat of Era’s success when it re-airs years later. Some people suggest that Gem was released at a bad time because of the economy and the focus on the rich turned some people off. Will people appreciate the series then when the world is hopefully not in such an economic downer?

Time will reveal the answer.

I have not watched Era so I cannot make any comments on whether or not it was surprising that it became a success years later. What I can comment on is that I think many people unfairly wrote Gem off and gave up too early in the series. I’m not defending it as a great series because it isn’t one. It has a bad reputation and I feel really bad for it since I do like the series overall. The pace was often too slow and it had many boring and dragging scenes, but as a whole, it wasn’t a poorly-constructed series. Watching it the second time made me not mind the scenes I previously disliked as much (maybe because I knew what purpose they held). I think that if people had given Gem more patience and a second look, they’d be able to appreciate it.

I’m crossing my fingers that Gem will receive some recognition years later like Era. It deserves some credit.

Review for A Taste of Love
Watching A Taste of Love makes me realize how much I’ve matured, especially in terms of what I expect from a TVB series.

Before I watched TVB to pass time and for entertainment. Nowadays, I watch not to “pass time” (because I have no time to waste) but solely for entertainment. I’m really picky these days. “Mediocre” is no longer acceptable. I think my standards have increased even more than before.

If I had watched Taste 8 years ago when it was released in 2001, I probably would have enjoyed it. It’s a light-hearted comedy/drama with a good leading cast consisting of Lawrence Ng, Raymond Lam, Joe Ma, Flora Chan, Miriam Yeung, and Joyce Tang.

Unfortunately, after many years of watching TVB, Taste was all too familiar. It was extremely predictable and used all of the conventional TVB clichés in its storytelling. Nothing was surprising. Everything played exactly like a recycled series made from plots from past series. After less than 5 episodes, I already knew how the series would develop and end. It was very tiring and boring for me to watch Taste’s 25 episodes. I didn’t laugh despite the numerous “comedic” scenes. I didn’t feel anything for the series and wasn’t interested at all. I basically let the series play in the background when I “watched” it just to finish it because it wasn’t worth my attention.

I probably enjoyed watching Lawrence & Flora the most. They made a good couple. Raymond & Miriam had no chemistry and were unbelievable as a couple. Raymond looked really different in Taste and his acting has certainly come a long way since back then. Miriam’s acting wasn’t bad, but I think she was too “old” for her role and I much prefer her as a singer. I love Miriam’s subsong for the series. Joe & Joyce were annoying (I don’t like characters like theirs).

Maybe I wasn’t in the right “mood” when I was watching Taste so I just couldn’t be bothered with it. Maybe I’m being too critical. Maybe my taste has changed so I no longer like series like Taste with its light-hearted nature and simple plot full of clichés. Maybe it really is just a “bad” series. In any case, I regret wasting my time with A Taste of Love. I’m not even going to bother giving it a rating.

Raymond & Linda galore!
I love this couple! Ah Ho & Ah Chau failed them but they are still successful.

Who knew that Alfred and Seung Joi Sum would become a golden TVB couple? Advertisers love pairing them up and Raymond and Linda have both made lots of money from their appearances as a couple at numerous functions. They have great chemistry and compatibility.

I loved watching the opening for the Astro Drama Award Presentation 2008 (back in February 2009) in which Linda and Raymond reprised their beloved roles as Seung Joi Sum and Alfred.

Seung Joi Sum: Alfred, I really want to tell you that I’m with Dak Dak Dei (Moses Chan) now. He treats me really well. You don’t have to worry about me. If I could, I would tell you that actually — I’ve already forgiven you.

Alfred: Seung Joi Sum. Seung Joi Sum.

Seung Joi Sum: (gasps) How come?

Alfred: I also don’t know why, but knowing that you and Dak Dak Dei are together, I’m really happy. Congratulations to you two! Actually if we are willing to believe, “hope” will always appear before our eyes.

Seung Joi Sum: Exactly. Hey! Look! There’s a shooting star!

Alfred: Yeah! Lots of stars!

Seung Joi Sum: If there are more stars tonight, then that would be great.

Watch the clip here!

What a cute opening monologue featuring Seung Joi Sum meeting Alfred again after his death! It makes me miss Heart and want to re-watch it. I’m really happy to see Heart sweep the awards at Astro; it was expected and deserved. Susanna Kwan should have won Favorite Villain though — what a rob to give it to Shirley Yeung for The Brink of Law (improved and surprising performance from Shirley, yes, but to beat Sai Kai?!)! I’m really happy that Raymond & Linda won Favorite Couple; they deserved it and it is obvious that their pairing is very popular with the Malaysian fans. I’m not upset that they didn’t win On-Screen Kiss because their kissing scene in Heart was not-well done (Linda’s fault). Their kissing looked hesitant, awkward, and unconvincing. Moonlight’s kissing scenes were much, much better.

I love Astro for giving Raymond & Linda so much “focus” and love for their characters and pairing in Heart.

As if I wasn’t spoiled enough with all of the Raymond & Linda from Astro, I was treated to a radio drama starring them less than 2 months later. Although the script was again not good, it was nice to hear their chemistry through just their voices.

Last month TVB aired a special on Raymond to highlight his background and career. Of course, Linda was asked to express her thoughts on Raymond and record a message for him. Although it was a short segment, it was a really cute clip and totally worth watching to hear what they think of each other (not that the information was new though). Watch the clip here!

Linda: He always tells me how he’s ill, has a weak body, needs to take medications, that he can’t take it anymore, and after 10 years he’s not going to do it [the entertainment industry] anymore… things like that. Gradually in these last 2 years, he has more and more work. It turns out he can handle it and can do it so well too! Ah! It turns out that Ah Fung, you lied to me! You faked everything, pretended to be sick! I think that Ah Fung would be a good boyfriend because usually when we work, he would always take care of others. Sometimes to make everyone happy he would treat us to meals. That’s why I think that to be his girlfriend, he would always take you out to eat; I think it would be quite happy!

Raymond: If she was my girlfriend… eh… I think she… I think she would be an appropriate girl to be my girlfriend. But we… actually we get along because our characters are… a bit… a bit… similar. However, I think she will fit being my “good friend” instead, a really close female friend. It’s because she’s a very honest, straight-forward, and innocent girl.

I hope Raymond & Linda can pair up again in another TVB series.

Unable to help herself from thinking about the son that she gave up, Chan Kiu (Helen Ma) went to her young sister Chan Hung’s (Sheren Tang) house. She knew she could never reclaim this son, but she just wanted to see what type of person he grew up to be. Did he acquire her good looks? Her intelligence? Her charm? Was he able to avoid getting his dad’s stupidity? His bad habits? Her mind kept wondering and she knew it wouldn’t stop until she had answers.

Hung was shocked to see Kiu at her door. She was worried because Ah Biu (Raymond Lam) was home, but she let her in anyway.

Kiu’s eyes immediately fell onto the big family picture that hung in the living room. There he was — Ah Biu, the son she lost over 20 years ago. His face looked familiar to her. It was like she had seen him before, but she couldn’t remember where. She wasn’t surprised by his good looks or how respectable and smart he looked. She smiled; of course her good genes had been dominant. She concluded that his face looked familiar only because he resembled her.

“That’s Ah Biu,” Hung says in a confirming tone and adds, “my son.” She points to the girl next to her and explains, “That’s my daughter, Ah Tai (Kate Tsui).”

“Your children are beautiful,” Kiu says, fighting back her tears because it hurt her to hear Hung refer to Ah Biu as “her son”. “Tell me more about them.”

Hung explained that Ah Biu is a police officer and had graduated from the academy not too long ago while Ah Tai is an aspiring actress at TVB.

It suddenly occurred to Kiu where she had seen Ah Biu before. He was the police officer she had criticized a few days ago! What a small world it is. Originally she had only wanted to see him, but now that she learned she had already met him, Kiu wanted more. She got on her knees and begged Hung to arrange a meeting for them. She cried and pleaded, saying how she knows it is against their arrangements, but she really wanted to talk to him… just once.

Hung was reluctant. She was afraid of letting the truth of Ah Biu’s true birth parents be known.

“Please! I promise I won’t tell Ah Biu I’m his mom! This truth will never be known! I swear! The only mom he will know of is you! He will never know I’m his birth mom. Do me this one favor as your big sister. Please, Ah Hung, my younger sister, please!” Kiu cries.

“What?” Ah Biu asked. He had overheard the conversation and ran downstairs.

Kiu’s watery eyes looked at Ah Biu. She didn’t want the words to come out, but she couldn’t help but call out, “Ah Biu, my son.”

“What?”

Hung slaps Kiu, insisting that she was a crazy woman.

Unfortunately, Ah Biu had heard too much from upstairs. He ran to the family’s study to find the fire-proof safe that held all of their important documents. He found the birth certificate papers and to his shock, there wasn’t only one discovery, but two. Printed in clear black ink, the names of his parents were not the ones he knew — Sek Tau (Tony Leung) and Chan Hung — but were the names of the outrageous, unreasonable, and bizarre couple he had encountered a few days ago — Sek Dai Chuen (Johnny Ngan) and Chan Kiu. The second discovery concerned his sister, Ah Tai. The father listed on her birth certificate was their father, but the mother was again not Hung. It was some lady named Chan Yuen Yuen.

“Ah Biu, I can explain!” Hung cries.

Ah Biu shakes his head. “This can’t be true. You’re not my mother? She is?! Ah Tai isn’t my sister? She’s not even your daughter either? What is going on?!” He drops the birth certificates on the floor and then runs out, ignoring the cries and pleas from both Hung and Kiu. His world had suddenly been shaken again, just as he had let go of Joey (Bernice Liu) and was trying to move on. The life he thought he lived and the things he thought he knew suddenly became so unclear. He was a confused and hysterical mess. What was the truth anymore? He had no clue.

Hung drops to the floor and sobs.

“Ah Hung, I’m so sorry. I had no idea it would end up like this… I don’t know what possessed me. I shouldn’t have said what I did. In fact I shouldn’t have even come here,” Kiu apologies.

Hung looks at Kiu. She wasn’t angry. She didn’t blame Kiu. She blamed herself. She hugs Kiu and cries into her shirt. “Big sister, big sister.”

Kiu comforts Hung and brings her a cup of hot milk tea, “Tung Mat Yuen’s” famous drink.

After crying her heart out, Hung had begun to calm down. She looked completely exhausted. “I’m so tired… I deserved this. I should not have done what I did 28 years ago. I was so stupid. I should never have taken your son away from you… Big sister, I’m sorry. I was so foolish.”

Twenty-nine years ago, Hung’s marriage with Tau became rocky when the couple was unsuccessful in conceiving. Her husband became cold to her and spent more and more time at the office. Desperate, Hung decided to fake a pregnancy in order to save her marriage and win back her husband’s heart. Her plan worked like a charm. The only problem was that she had no baby inside of her. Luckily for Hung, Kiu happened to be pregnant at that time. She offered her sister money to “buy” her baby, but Kiu declined.

Dai Chuen went to Macau to gamble and ended up borrowing a huge sum from the loan sharks. He ultimately became detained in Macau by the loan sharks, who demanded that Kiu pay the sum otherwise they’d do horrible things to Dai Chuen. This news shook Kiu so much that she went into labor and gave birth to twins, Ah Mei (Cutie Mui) and Ah Biu.

Kiu cried in despair, not knowing where she could get that much money. Three years before she had cut ties with her billionaire dad when she decided to be with Dai Chuen and was now struggling to get by. For sure her dad would not help her. She then remembered her younger sister and decided to go beg for her help.

Despite just giving birth and the hard rain that night, Kiu carried her newborns over to Hung’s house to plead her help to settle Dai Chuen’s huge gambling debt. She had to save her husband. Hung refused to help Kiu unless she gave her Ah Biu so that she could pretend to give birth and then say that he was her son. Kiu was put in a difficult situation, but for the sake of saving her husband and possibly giving Ah Biu a “better” future, she decided to “sell” her son. She fought back tears handing Ah Biu to Hung. She took the money and went to Macau with baby Ah Mei to save Dai Chuen.

Dai Chuen and everyone else therefore never knew Kiu gave birth to twins that night. No one knew that Dai Chuen and Kiu had a son and thought that they only had a daughter, Ah Mei. Kiu forced herself to never think about this night and she, too, “forgot” she had a son. It worked… until she saw Hung again.

Hung took Ah Biu in quickly and successfully staged a fake labor to “give birth” to him. She thought that her family of three would be happy from then on.

Sadly, plans never go so smoothly.

It turns out that Tau had been cheating all along with his just-out-of-high-school secretary, Chan Yuen Yuen. He was planning on leaving Hung when she told him she was pregnant. He therefore gave her another chance and wanted to give their marriage another shot. Unfortunately for Hung, Yuen Yuen became pregnant and Tau’s heart went back over to her. Despite Ah Biu, Tau still decided to leave Hung the day after Ah Biu was “born”.

Hung contemplated returning Ah Biu to Kiu and committing suicide, but ultimately the precious baby Ah Biu was able to convince her to continue living and raise him.

A few months later, Hung received a phone call from the hospital. Tau, Yuen Yuen, and their baby daughter, Ah Tai, had gotten into a car accident. The two parents died protecting baby Ah Tai. Tau’s dying wish was to have Hung adopt Ah Tai as both he and Yuen Yuen were orphans and did not want their daughter to go through what they went through. Hung was extremely bitter and angry at Tau and Yuen Yuen, but seeing the innocent baby Ah Tai softened her heart. She decided to take in Ah Tai and raise her with Ah Biu.

Thus, Hung became a young single mother of two children who were not her own at the age of 21. She kept this secret to herself for 28 years.

“I was selfish. I felt lonely after Ah Tau left me. Ah Biu was all I had… I’m so sorry, big sister.”

Kiu hugs Hung. “It’s all right.”

Ah Biu returned home after he was able to calm down. More than anything, he just wanted an explanation. He needed to know how and why things ended up being the way they were. Hung and Kiu took turns in relaying the long-winded and ironically tragic story to Ah Biu. He tears up hearing the story and at the end of it, he no longer felt sorry for himself, but could only feel sorry for Hung and Kiu. The three cry and embrace in a hug.

“We can’t let Ah Tai know about this. She has a weak heart. She won’t be able to handle this,” Ah Biu decides.

Hung nods her head. “And you?”

Ah Biu smiles and says, “You’ll always be my mama.” He turns to Kiu and continues, “But I have a duty towards you too.”

Kiu’s eyes are watery as she shakes her head rapidly. “You don’t. I gave you up. You don’t owe me anything. You can pretend you never learned about this. You can go back to your normal life and pretend I never existed. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have come here in the first place. I shouldn’t have destroyed your world again. I made the decision 28 years ago… and I have to live with it.” She gets up to leave, but Ah Biu intercepts her.

“Don’t. Mom.”

Kiu looks up at Ah Biu, shocked that he would address her like that. “I’m not your mom. That’s your mom sitting right there on the couch. She raised you into the bright young man that you are. She loves you a lot. You should be thankful I gave you to her… Otherwise you’d end up like your sister, Ah Mei… plain, disadvantaged, and without a spine. Really, it’s better this way.”

Ah Biu shakes his head. “You didn’t want to give me up. You were forced to because you had no choice. You wanted to save dad. You wanted… to save me. I know it must have been real painful for you to lose a son 28 years ago, but you did it so I could have a good future. I can’t pretend you don’t exist. I can’t pretend I don’t have you as a mom. Starting today, you have your son again.”

Kiu is moved to tears. She hugs Ah Biu tightly, crying out, “Son! Son!”

Kiu brought Ah Biu to “Tung Mat Yuen” to show off her newly reclaimed son. Nim Chi (Nancy Sit) immediately recognizes Ah Biu when he stepped into the door from the last time when Joey introduced him to her. She was excited to see him again, but bewildered by the fact that he came in with Kiu.

“Stupid Woman! Where have you been? Do you know I’ve had to work twice as hard today?” Dai Chuen yells at her.

“I had a doctor’s appointment! Auntie Chi knows about it.”

“I’m sure you did.” Dai Chuen rolls his eyes. “Mah-jong or gossiping this time?”

“Stupid Man! Do you think I’m like you? I don’t randomly run off from work to go horse betting! I would never lie to Auntie Chi when I request some personal time off!”

“That’s such a lie! You’re a liar!”

“Well, I suppose being near ‘darkness’ makes one ‘dark’.” Kiu rolls her eyes. “Stupid Man!”

Ah Biu is stunned by the exchange he just witnessed. He knew from his previous encounter with them at the police station that they weren’t “ideal” people, but the extent of their barbarism was shocking. Did they even love each other? What kind of people, in fact, were his birth parents?

She was so caught up in her “argument” with Dai Chuen that she momentarily forgot her purpose for showing up at “Tung Mat Yuen” until Dai Chuen asked her who the young man was beside her. “Oh! It’s our son, Stupid Man!”

“What? The only child we have is Ah Mei! Don’t tell me you want to repeat the fiasco of the other day’s event with adopting a son. Did you already forget that crazy we ‘adopted’?”

“No, no! Not adopted! This is our real son.”

Dai Chuen cracks up. “You’re going to tell me you got pregnant at your ripe age of 52, gave birth, and then our ’son’ grew up to be this big all in the last few hours? You’re delirious!”

Kiu goes up and grabs Dai Chuen’s ear. She sceams into it, “You Stupid Man! Listen up! I lied to you 28 years ago! We actually had twins! Ah Mei was not our only child born that night. We had a son, Ah Biu, but I gave him up to save you from those loan sharks in Macau! Do you understand me?”

Dai Chuen drops the milk tea he was preparing. His eyes widen. He looks at Kiu and then runs to up to Ah Biu to look closely at him.

Abruptly, he hugs Ah Biu tightly. “I have a son! A son at last! Someone to carry on my surname! At last, someone to take care of me when I’m old and gray! I don’t have to depend on that useless Ah Mei!”

Kiu joins him and hugs Ah Biu from the other side.

Nim Chi and the rest of the Kams were shocked. How could the low-class Dai Chuen and Kiu have such a son as Ah Biu?

This was the exact same question that ran through Ah Biu’s mind. “How come I have such parents?”

Issue #12 featuring The Gem of Life

TVB Series A Kindred Spirit (Episodes 865 – 903) – 78 captures

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Gam (Louis Yuen) grew to accept the fact that everyone in the family knew of his shortcoming causing the difficulty for Ying Gei (Yvonne Lam) getting pregnant. Nim Chi (Nancy Sit) made everyone swear never to say a word and keep the secret within the family… but that didn’t last too long. Everyone knows the Kams have big mouths and so his secret soon spread through “Tung Mat Yuen”, “Ka Yan” company, and the rest of Hong Kong.

Luckily for Gam, his being the topic of discussion subsided thanks to the latest celebrity sex scandal and so life moved on.

Gam and Ying Gei went for their third in-vitro fertilization treatment, both rather tired, but still hopeful. Unfortunately, Dr. Chow (Anne Heung) delivered the sad news that implantation had once again failed to occur. Gam and Ying Gei were extremely disappointed because they were sure that this time would be the miracle they were praying for. Dr. Chow suggested that maybe they would have a better chance getting pregnant if they sought another woman.

“What?! You want me to cheat on my wife?! I won’t! I won’t! If I can’t have a baby with Einstein, I’d rather no baby at all!” Gam protested.

Ying Gei was very touched by Gam’s declaration.

Dr. Chow clarified that she meant getting a surrogate to implant the fertilized eggs into. She explained that the baby would have all of their genes. The only difference would be that the 9-month pregnancy would happen in the body of another woman.

Gam and Ying Gei pondered who would be the best candidate for the surrogacy.

Joey (Bernice Liu) immediately crossed their minds. She was the youngest and had a “baby-producing” body according to Gam. However, Ah Nin (Frankie Lam) refused. Joey already had enough on her plate helping him take care of baby Hoi Sum. She didn’t need a pregnancy to further stress her.

Ah Yat (Joyce Chen) was next considered, but she turned them down for her career.

Gam gasped, “Fiona (Sherming Yiu)! She’s young and doing nothing but staying at the mental hospital!”

Ah Sing (Hawick Lau) quickly shot the idea. “No way! Are you crazy? She can’t even take care of herself! How do you think she can nurture a baby inside her womb at this point?”

Ah Lo (Bondy Chiu) clears her throat, eagerly waiting to be asked so she can turn them down. However, to her surprise, the next person Gam asked was Nim Chi!

“Me?! I’m over 50! I can’t possibly do that!” Nim Chi protested.

“Hm… Michelle (Linda Chung) certainly won’t do it. She cares about her career more than Ah Yat. I won’t even ask Sa Sa (Kingdom Yuen) for fear of my baby ending up all yellow. Auntie Chuen (Helen Ma) is too ugly and old. Ah Mei (Cutie Mui) is overseas… and I don’t want my baby to be timid and personality-less like her. I guess there’s no one else…” Gam sighs.

Ah Lo stands up, placing her hands on her hips, and demands, “No one else?! What about me?! I’ve given birth to four! Four! Count them! I’m clearly the most fertile woman around here!”

“Even if I asked, you wouldn’t agree, isn’t that right?”

“So? You should at least give me the choice! Don’t just decide for me!”

“Fine.” Gam rolls his eyes. “Mrs. Kam-Lam Yuk Lo, would you do the honor of having my baby?”

“Absolutely not! It took me many months to get back my great body. I’m not ruining it again with another pregnancy, especially for someone like you!” She smiles triumphantly, glad to have the chance to say those words.

“I knew it.” Gam rolls his eyes.

“But… for the right price, I’d consider it,” Ah Lo finishes.

“Honey!” Ah Yuet (Michael Tse) hisses.

“What? Money is money. Not only that but I can reap the benefits of being a pregnant woman again. Society gives a lot of benefits for the pregnant… I should know. I’ve been pregnant twice! Not only will I always have a seat on the bus but I can cut lines and even get free gifts from random strangers! Plus, I can take a pregnancy leave from work again! Therefore if the price is right… then sure, I’ll do it.”

“Second daughter-in-law! Don’t be so greedy! We’re family,” Nim Chi scolds.

“Mother-in-law, you remember how stressful, tiring, and painful it is to be pregnant! The toll the pregnancy is going to have on my body is going to cost me thousands on diet pills and gym membership not to mention all of the time and sweat I have to put forth. Let’s not forget that I’m not even going through all of this effort for my own baby. I am justified in getting some compensation. It is not greed. It’s called reasonable compassion for the person who helped to bring your child to this world,” Ah Lo defends herself.

“Ah Lo has a point…” Ying Gei nods her head in understanding. “Okay! How much do you want?”

“$100,000,” Ah Lo frankly states.

“$100,000?! Are you crazy?!” Gam demands.

Ying Gei turns to him and says, “Gam Gam, for the sake of us having our own child, we need to spend this money. Clearly, Ah Lo is the best candidate out of everyone we know.”

“There are more women than men in Hong Kong! We can even go to the mainland! Anything will be cheaper than paying this greedy bitch! We can ask Lily (Rain Lau), she gave birth to four daughters! Maybe Sugar (Yau Ching) or even GiGi (Josephine Shum)! Maybe even Man Gwai Fei (Stephanie Che)! After all, she’s turned over a new leaf and has become a good person now! We don’t need to spend this money!” Gam says in exasperation.

Ying Gei shakes her head and says, “I believe in Ah Lo.” She turns to Ah Lo and says, “Okay. We accept that price. We’ll give you $10,000 first and after you’re successfully pregnant, you’ll get another $40,000. Once the baby is born, we’ll give you the remaining $50,000.”

Ah Lo and Ying Gei shake hands to confirm the deal.

After doing all of the preparations and then getting implanted with the fertilized eggs, it was confirmed that Ah Lo was pregnant! As luck would have it, she was pregnant with, for the third time, twins. Who knew that Ah Lo, who swore she’d never be pregnant again, would once again carry two growing babies for H5N1 in her womb? “Fertilicious” she is indeed.

“See?” Ah Lo smiles triumphantly after Doctor Chow delivered the good news.

Ying Gei and Gam both kissed her on the cheeks due to their sheer happiness and gratefulness. Ah Lo cringes in disgust, but the thought of the money that was coming to her thanks to the babies was enough for her to swallow any disgust she had.

“We’re finally going to be parents!” Gam and Ying Gei cheer.

Episodes 865-903

A Kindred Spirit continues to deliver more excellent episodes. The series keeps getting better and I really hope it’s able to maintain its groove for the final 200-something episodes.

Kindred has many great mother-in-law/daughter-in-law pairs each with different “feels” and stories, representing an array of relationships (which is what I love about Kindred — the numerous storylines and relationships). Joining this list is Auntie Ho (Nancy Sit) and Principal Ko (Lam Siu Jaam), who are shaping up to be a very fun duo to watch. I already liked them before Auntie Ho married Ko San Ching (Yu Yeung) and now that they are related, the comedy is even better. Auntie Ho is very much the opposite of the “ideal” daughter-in-law for Principal Ko and Auntie Ho likewise doesn’t really like her mother-in-law.

Well aware of his wife’s distaste for his mother, San Ching decides to pay Auntie Ho to be good to her — hilarious! I cracked up watching Auntie Ho counting up how much money she was making by pretending to be a great daughter-in-law by appeasing her mother-in-law’s every wish. Even more hilariously, Principal Ko misunderstands Auntie Ho’s family as “abusive” and believes that Auntie Ho never got true family love (since she was sold as a child) so this makes her love Auntie Ho and stick to her, hoping to give Auntie Ho proper “warmness” and “family love”. The two of them have a lot of chemistry together and I really enjoy watching their light-hearted and comedic subplot. It’s very fun watching them bond and even more fun when they clash.

While we’re on the topic of a “new family”, I love how Lap Sang (Marco Lo), Auntie Ho, San Ching, and Ah Jing (Wallis Pang) are forming a very cute 2-generation family. I’ve always loved the mother/son relationship of Auntie Ho and Lap Sang. Young children are expected to take their parent’s new spouse (when their parent remarries due to divorce or death) as their new parent, but grown children obviously are not so it’s really great that Lap Sang is viewing and treating San Ching as his “dad”.

It seems happiness never lasts too long in Kindred. Another tragedy struck and another unfortunate death occurred. The death of Ah Kam (Louisa So) will always be the most powerful and memorable for me, but Sophie’s (Poon Bing Seung) death is a close second. I’ve always liked her character since she appeared 400 episodes ago. I enjoyed how refreshing and different her mistress/second-wife character was. The way she handled and talked about her status as the “small” Na-Duk (Chor Yuen) wife was quite humorous. Her character was always quite sweet.

May May (Celine Ma) and Sophie have always been the unconventional mother/daughter pair. May May is always very rude to her mom and always calls her by her name and shouts orders at her. Even though May May rarely calls Sophie “mom” or tells her she loves her, it’s quite clear to me that May May cares a lot about her mother, especially after she was disowned by Na-Duk. I really liked their small family of three (with baby Dan Dan).

It was also very apparent that Na-Duk loves Sophie and May May. Even though they tricked him about May May’s identity, those feelings were all real. His anger was understandable and even though he said he’d never forgive them, deep down he missed them. He would always want to know updates about them (even if he acted like he didn’t care). Therefore, I was not surprised at all to see how loving he was to Dan Dan (who he considers his grandson) and how he readily helped May May and Sophie pay for Dan Dan’s surgery (he developed a tumor in his brain). I was really excited to see Na-Duk finally starting to forgive them. He and Sophie arranged to meet for dinner. Unfortunately, because Sophie was so overly-concerned about this date that she wasn’t paying much attention, she gets run over in a very tragic car accident.

Na-Duk fortunately makes it to the hospital in time to see Sophie off and tells her that he already forgave her. Sophie’s untimely demise really brought tears to my eyes, especially her long monologue about her life. Her life was truly pitiful. Her parents sold her as an actress for money, her siblings consequently didn’t like her because she was an actress, and her friends all tricked/lied to her because she was stupid. She says that she made many mistakes in her life and never seems to be able to do anything right, but the one thing she did right was being with Na-Duk. It’s such an emotional spiel of final words and is probably my favorite “hospital farewell” scene in Kindred (Ah Kam’s death in the hospital was tragic, but the dialogue wasn’t as great). I’m really going to miss Sophie. She always gave so much to others that she often short-changed herself and suffered consequently. I liked the mini-tribute to Poon Bing Seung that Kindred did after her character died with pictures from her past days. I wonder how much of what Sophie said about her life as an actress (the roles she played in particular) can be applied to the actress who played her.

Sophie’s death, of course, makes Na-Duk realize how pointless his anger was and he decides to truly forgive and let go of the past. Even if Sophie’s dying wish wasn’t for Na-Duk to reconcile with May May, I think he would have done it anyways. The reunion of May May, Na-Duk, and baby Dan Dan was very touching. I’m really happy that May May is able to have Na-Duk as a dad again because she does love him a lot. With her status as the rich and powerful daughter of Na-Duk restored, I wonder how May May will act in the future episodes. There’s going to be comedy involved, that’s for sure (there’s always some comedy with May May involved). I hope the writers don’t undo or “reverse” May May’s personality too much though because she has grown so much as a person in these last few hundreds of episodes. She’s become a real person with feelings and morals (even though at times she may not act so); I was definitely touched by her love for her son and mom.

Alzheimer’s is possibly the most devastating disease to have. 2008’s The Gem of Life effectively used the disease to its advantage to concoct some extremely powerful and emotional scenes that meshed so well with its storyline. Kindred also addresses the disease with Uncle Hong (Bao Feng) developing Alzheimer’s. Uncle Hong’s condition is often treated more “lightly” in Kindred with comedy spun from his disease, but as with all stories in the series, there’s a time for fun and a time for seriousness. Lap Sang and Ah Jing’s discovery of Uncle Hong’s journal which contained his greatest fears from forgetting and his greatest wish (to witness their marriage) before he was incompetent was quite sad.

It amazes me how in-touch the Kindred writers are with their characters and storylines. Repeatedly, they have addressed and focused on many issues I’ve had with certain characters. Once again, they surprised me by having Auntie Sin (Louise Lee See Kei) ask this very question to Lap Sang after he had another fight with Ah Jing: “Ask yourself, what have you ever done for Ah Jing?” Wow! Just wow. How many times have I asked those exact words since Lap Sang & Ah Jing’s relationship began?

Heeding Auntie Sin’s words and realizing even more that he hasn’t contributed much to their relationship, Lap Sang decides to be supportive of Ah Jing’s decision to study abroad in England by going there with her. Finally, at long last, Lap Sang does something to prove his sincerity to Ah Jing. While it would have been nice to see him do that from the beginning instead of being pushed, it would have been uncharacteristic if it happened otherwise. Ah Jing’s plans, though, come to a stop when she learns that she’s pregnant (surprise, surprise). This paves the road to marriage for the expecting couple.

I love Lap Sang & Ah Jing! I was always rooting for this couple (even though I was often rather critical of them with how unbalanced Lap Sang’s love seemed to be in their relationship). They are extremely cute and had lots of wonderful moments in these episodes. They have so much chemistry and look extremely compatible. They are probably the most good-looking couple in the show (just take a look at their wedding pictures). I really liked watching them interact as a future husband and wife.



You know what else surprised me about Kindred? The shear fact that it was revealed that Lap Sang did not forget about Ah Suet (Joyce Tang)! Lesser series would never have mentioned Ah Suet again (especially with how conclusive the Ah Suet/Lap Sang/Ah Jing storyline was a while ago) let alone hint that Lap Sang does sometimes think about her. No doubt that Lap Sang loves Ah Jing, but he’s human. He cannot simply “forget” his first marriage with Ah Suet, his feelings for her, and all of their memories. Sorry, he doesn’t have amnesia. I really like that he still wants to hold on to his wedding picture with Ah Suet. This shows that Lap Sang’s love for Ah Suet was real. I love Kindred for being so authentic because it adds new layers to its characters and stories.

The other thing I love about Kindred is how it so often brings back old storylines — stories and characters that are long passed — because it makes the series feel very continuous… like real life. Lap Sang has a rich history with three women and two unborn children. I really liked the conversation that Ah Jing and Lap Sang had about his fears about babies. Because of Rebecca’s (Mok Hor Yan) abortion of his first child and Ah Suet’s unfortunate miscarriage of his second child, Lap Sang was really scared that something might happen to Ah Jing’s baby. He wondered if he had done something bad to warrant such bad karma. Ah Jing was able to assuage his fears at that time, but it seems like Lap Sang’s “curse” with babies might be true…

Sze Kam (Fiona Yuen) is fast becoming one of my favorite characters. Shocking, right? Not too long ago I didn’t like her because she was so fake, but now, I really like her. The character is very well-written and Fiona’s debut performance is surprisingly good. She ranks up there with Angie Cheung and Joyce in terms of a great debut performance in Kindred. It seems the only bad actress debut is Winnie Yeung (whose performance as Ah Man does admittedly get better as the series continues). Fiona is also looking prettier by the episode (similar with Wallis’ case).

Ah Fat (Leung Gin Ping) gets Sze Kam pregnant, which nearly screws up her plans. In a completely shocking and unforeseeable twist, it is revealed that Ah Fook (Cheung Chi Kwong) had gotten a vasectomy a few years back so that Ah Kam wouldn’t have to get her tubes tied. Therefore, Ah Fook rightfully suspected Sze Kam and wanted to send her away. Luckily for Sze Kam, she had a run-in with an attempted rapist earlier and was able to spin the story to make herself the victim of a rape. Thus, she was able to salvage her plan. Ah Fook, not wanting to disappoint his parents (especially his dad who for whatever reason desperately wants another grandchild), decides to keep his infertility a secret and pretend that Sze Kam’s baby is his. Sze Kam lives another day in the Li household to further her “evil” plans.

The more that Sze Kam interacts with the Li’s, especially with the angelic Auntie Sin, the more moved she becomes by their sincerity and how well they treat her. It’s the kind of love that she longs for — the warmth and care that she desired since she was young. I also surprisingly really love Ah Fook & Sze Kam. Somehow I’m really touched by their scenes. Ah Fook treats Sze Kam so well that I’m really rooting for her to fall in love with him for real even though they are a complete mismatch. The sweet and emotional scenes they share touch my heart. I think Sze Kam lacked true love and care since she was little and was surrounded by too much negativity, which was why she became “evil” in the first place. She believes that everyone has a motive (see the scene in which she asks Ah Jing what it was that she wanted after Ah Jing gave Sze Kam a scarf that she had knitted) and that no one can ever just be “nice” or “kind”. Consequently she became superficial and greedy. It wasn’t until she spent time with the Li family that she got and saw “true feelings” (sorry, couldn’t resist!).

Sze Kam may have thought up the plot of marrying into the Li family in order to steal their fortune, but I think the really bad people are Ah Fat and his mom (Li Lai Lai). God! They are despicable excuses for human beings. They are probably my most hated characters in Kindred and I’m so glad that their scenes are limited. They are extremely greedy and always cause trouble for Sze Kam. The more I watch, the more Sze Kam feels like a victim — trapped and helpless. They don’t care about her and only want money.



I love that Sze Kam isn’t the new villain to replace the void left by Tsz Ho (Cheng Tse Sing) as I previously thought. I love how real and multi-dimensional her character is. She’s really interesting with how stuck in the middle she is. Her dilemma is intriguing and I love her moral ambiguity. Sze Kam totally has my sympathy. I desperately root for her to make the “right” choices. I want her so badly to love Ah Fook for real, to be Lok Lok’s (Ding Lik) new mom for real, and to be the Li’s new daughter-in-law for real. I think she fits in nicely with the rest of the cast in the big family/group scenes.

The friendship between Sze Kam and Ah Jing was surprising because all along Ah Jing had doubts about Sze Kam which of course made Sze Kam wary of Ah Jing one day exposing her big secret(s). Of course, their unlikely friendship isn’t nearly as shocking or wonderful as May May and Ah Gwai’s (Angie) turn as friends. Initially Sze Kam was jealous of Ah Jing, but Ah Jing managed to touch Sze Kam and they became friends. Their bonding scenes although short-lived were sweet since the two could relate with both being pregnant at the same time and both in a new marriage (or about to enter one). Their friendship didn’t feel forced or rushed (even if it was rather sudden). Their friendship was used to make what happened to Ah Jing even more powerful.

Ah Jing happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time (or maybe the right place at the right time… depends on how you look at it) and ends up learning the whole truth about Sze Kam. Previously she had caught Ah Fat and Sze Kam in a rather “suspicious” interaction (they were flirting/fooling around) and later she questioned why the “Sze Kam” from the past differed from the “Sze Kam” in the present. She finds out that Ah Fat and Sze Kam aren’t related because Sze Kam actually isn’t Ah Fat’s sister. She was actually “purchased” by Ah Fat’s mom after Sze Kam (the real one) died. Ah Jing is horrified to learn all about Sze Kam’s dirty laundry and evil deeds.

Wanting to stop the truth from coming out, Ah Fat tries to hurt Ah Jing. Sze Kam tries to save Ah Jing several times, but unfortunately, Ah Jing was destined to meet a violent and tragic fate. Ah Fat pounds Ah Jing’s head several times with a brick, delivering severely hard blows to the pregnant Ah Jing. She is left in a pool of blood, barely conscious, when Lap Sang manages to find her.

Kindred likes to give Lap Sang many big emotional scenes. Unfortunately, Marco fails to deliver them and it’s quite embarrassing watching him act. Generally his acting is acceptable and I do like him as Lap Sang, but his emotional scenes are always terrible. It’s so sad watching the beautiful Ah Jing with a bloody face. She was supposed to be so happy about to get married and be a wife and mother. Luckily, Ah Jing doesn’t die and also maintains her pregnancy. The bad news is that she’s in a coma with an indefinite wake-up time.



Soap operas love to utilize the “coma” storyline so it was inevitable that Kindred would also have one as well. Who knew it would be Ah Jing? Fortunately, it works out well. Of course it’s a great tragedy and I feel really sorry for Lap Sang & Ah Jing, but it definitely keeps the series interesting. Poor Lap Sang. This guy can’t seem to escape tragic events. Just as things were looking up for him with his whole life turning around with his leg being fixed, his career thriving, and his love life ideal… this happens.

I am so, so thankful that Sze Kam did not induce or play a direct hand in Ah Jing’s accident. I had previously read spoilers that Ah Jing goes into a coma because of Sze Kam. Ah Fat being the person to hit Ah Jing makes complete sense (and makes me hate him even more). Sze Kam doing the crime definitely wouldn’t have. I love that Sze Kam tried to stop Ah Fat and pleaded him many times to let her go. This shows that even though she’s terrified of her secrets coming out, she definitely has a heart and is the Sze Kam I’m growing to love.

If and when Ah Jing wakes up, it’s the end of Ah Fat and Sze Kam. He pushes her to end Ah Jing’s life (I’m assuming by cutting her oxygen supply in the hospital). Sze Kam is extremely conflicted. She feels really bad for Ah Jing (after all they are friends and she cares about Ah Jing) & Lap Sang, but she also fears what will happen to her if everyone knows her secrets. She cannot bring herself to harm Ah Jing. She cries pitifully in the hospital. What will Sze Kam do? What’s going to happen next?

I’m dying to know! I can’t wait to watch more A Kindred Spirit episodes!

I love this show!

“Season Three” was intended to be a return to the former more “fun” and “lighter” days of season one after the dark and dramatic story-telling of season two. At only 27 chapters long, season three is certainly “lighter” than the other seasons. A crazy and busy year prevented me from spending time working on this season and the season ended very abruptly. The eventual “finale” (Chapter 217: no rehab) for season three was originally just another chapter, but due to a long hiatus and a reformatting of the series for season four, it was by default made into the “finale”. Despite the short length, I enjoyed this season and found it refreshing.

The story picks up 6 months after season two ended so that we can jump right into the action… the impending birth of baby Hoi Sum and consequently Rose’s (Kenix Kwok) death. I always intended to have Rose’s baby be a girl and named Hoi Sum. Why? Because Rose’s name (Seung Sum) was inspired by the name Hoi Sum — which was Kenix’s name in 2004’s Love Bond. I really love the fact that Rose designed clothes for baby Hoi Sum. Whenever baby Hoi Sum wears the clothes, it’s a piece of her mommy and there’s just something so personal about that. Even more, it’s so clear that Hoi Sum represents the life that Rose wish she could have — a complete family with true love and kindness. She didn’t have that at all growing up without a mom and surrounded by people who were insincere. I actually didn’t have the heart to kill Rose because she’s such a tragic and interesting character, but she must face heaven’s retribution for her many evil deeds.

Michael (Kevin Cheng) & Rose… what a beautiful love story! I was totally rooting for them. Unfortunately, as is often the case, Rose failed to see and appreciate who loved her the most. As a writer, there are some things you can plan and there are other things that just happen based on response; Michael & Rose is a perfect example of such. The Michael & Rose love story wasn’t part of my original storyline; it just kind of happened… and worked. I love their ending in Chapter 193: until death do we part. I don’t promote suicide or the clichéd notion of “dying (and in this case, killing too) for love”, but for Rose & Michael, it worked. I like the fact that Rose recalls her pretend childhood wedding with Michael in her dying moments; it was sweet and also shows that Michael has a place in Rose’s heart. Who could have thought that their childhood wedding carried over to their adult lives? Although they faked vows, Michael meant those words. He stood by her through it all and it’s only in their death did they part (hence the chapter’s title).

I actually really miss Rose. She was a fun character to write for because she was so deliciously “bad”. It was more fun for me because I knew all along the big secret she was harboring and the tragic reasons why she became the person she was. When I was nearing the end of season two, I was actually trying to think of ways to keep Rose [alive] in the story because I liked her character so much. However, I was too intrigued by the irony of her dying once her baby (her rebirth — the person she could have been) was born and the beautiful ending for Michael & Rose that I was ultimately swayed to make the decision that I did. I think it was for the best.

I originally thought of writing Ah Nin (Frankie Lam) and Joey (Bernice Liu) temporarily out of the storyline at the beginning of the season just because it was getting too “crowded”. I wanted to leave them in Shanghai with baby Hoi Sum. I wanted them to rebuild “F&B” (Rose’s company) into their own. For those who haven’t already figured it out, “F&B” stands for Frankie & Bernice. I thought it would be a lovely idea to picture the young couple in Shanghai taking care of baby Hoi Sum, letting her grow up in the city that her mom lived in. I ultimately decided not to because I know fans would protest the idea and also it just wasn’t very plausible. How can “F&B” be run after the big drug trafficking scandal? Furthermore, would Nim Chi (Nancy Sit) allow it? Didn’t think so.

One of my favorite scenes that I’ve written is the ending scene in Chapter 197: forgiveness. We all know Ah Lo (Bondy Chiu) can be a real bitch, but it’s so nice to see the softer side to her. Her “hate” for Rose is understandable (who can forget Foon Foon & Hei Hei being exposed to cocaine because of Rose?), but the transferring of her hate for Rose to baby Hoi Sum isn’t. I like the fact that she admits her wrong. I love Ah Nin’s speech to Ah Lo about Rose (and what baby Hoi Sum means to Rose) and how he was able to forgive her. Honestly, hate is a vicious cycle that leads to nowhere and what Ah Lo was doing was continuing a senseless hate. Yes, Rose did a lot of bad things and she could never make up for all the harm that she did, but what’s the use in hating her? Letting go and moving on is most important. Of course, forgiveness is easier said than done, but it was nice to see Ah Nin & Ah Lo (along with baby Hoi Sum) share that moment. It’s rare to see Ah Lo apologize, but when she does, it’s sincere — and that’s why I love that scene.

Virtues’s strength lies in its ensemble format. The best scenes are always those that are most crowded. My most favorite chapters this season would probably be the two-part one hell of a party. It was hilarious and captured the Virtues magic. As we can expect from Virtues, the party was a disaster of hilarity and arguments! I loved every moment of it and the fact that I got to write for pretty much the entire cast in those two chapters.

One of my favorite developments this season was Man Gwai Fei’s (Stephanie Che) quest to turn into a “good” person. Her crazy antics and backwards reasoning to realize this goal are just so hilarious. It cracks me up because we know how hard she’s trying to fake her “goodness”. I love the fact that Gwai Fei gets Man Gwai Yan (Celine Man) to do all of the work and then she gets credit for it all. Gwai Yan using Gwai Fei’s name will lead to a hilarious misunderstanding next season while Gwai Fei’s quest to turn “good” will actually… make her turn evil. I have a surprising and sad twist coming up for Gwai Fei that will propel her into the series’ big villain. She’ll be more wicked than Rose, but still be the silly and hilarious Gwai Fei we love to hate. Yes, Gwai Fei will finally be stepping away from the background and coming into the spotlight. I’m very excited about it.

Ah Biu (Raymond Lam) — my most favorite male character — makes his return. I was missing him so it was nice to be able to write for him again. Of course, before I could write for him as a main character, I had to first write a conclusion to his story with Joey. I liked Ah Biu & Joey; there was definite chemistry there and it was really refreshing to write Joey’s interaction with a guy besides Ah Nin. I think they shared some really nice moments and their interactions were so cute. However, there’s no denying that Joey used Ah Biu. Whenever she needed something she called him. He helped her without hesitation. Of course, the motives for the two for being in the other’s life weren’t exactly pure. Joey kept him around as a “back up” (terrible and cruel concept, I know) while Ah Biu stayed around “hoping” that the thing with Ah Nin would fall through and then Joey would fall into his hands. Obviously this “couple” was doomed from the start, but I enjoyed the prospect of them.

I always like to bring back past characters/stories because it gives the series a sense of unity. Returning to the “One Cup of Sweet Soup” shop with the talkative and friendly Sandy (Charmaine Sheh) seems to be an area I like revisiting, mostly because of its significance to Ah Nin & Joey’s story. It was great to see Ah Biu unleash his pent-up anger at Joey. He has every right to be mad at her for the horrible ways in which she “abused” him. Clone Joey rocks! How awesome is she? I love the fact that she always knocks some sense into our Joey and gets her to reveal her true feelings. Her big apology to Ah Biu was nicely delivered.

The ending to Ah Biu & Joey’s story had definite closure and I really liked its bitter-sweetness. It was touching how Joey acknowledged that Ah Biu helped her find her happiness and I thought it was sweet that they gave each other blessings. Ah Biu is a great guy, but he’s not “the one” for Joey, as she says herself. I whole-heartedly believe that without Ah Nin and if Ah Biu had met Joey first, I think they’d have a shot at being a couple. Unfortunately, Ah Biu came too late and Joey’s heart could not be won. It’s rather sad to think we won’t be seeing Ah Biu & Joey anymore, but really, on what occasion would they need to meet each other alone anymore? They can pretend to be friends all they want, but rather than drag things on and letting there be awkwardness, it’s better to just have an ending.

Oh, Ah San (Steven Ma)! How can you betray Ah Lam’s (Linda Chung) trust and love by listening to your scheming cousin Sze Gan (Ron Ng) and replacing her birth control pills with fake ones? If you think this will lead to something bad, I can tell you right now that it definitely will. The consequence of Ah San’s actions will be much greater than he could ever have imagined — which is exactly what Ah Gan wants. I’m really excited about Ah San & Ah Lam’s storyline next season. It’s going to be really exciting and fun to explore. A lot of drama is heading their way…

Sek Dai Chuen (Johnny Ngan) & Chan Kiu (Helen Ma) crack me up with their greedy and lazy personalities. No matter what, they will always do anything that’s “profitable”. Even an action as noble as adopting can be tainted by them into a selfish and greedy act to “profit” off the benefits of having a son/daughter. I love the fact that they end up “adopting” a crazy man (Moses Chan) who apparently was too much into the Heart of Greed craze and thought he was Dak Dak Dei.

Who knew that Kiu is related to “Red Beauty” owner/cosmetic surgeon Chan Hung (Sheren Tang)? It was a surprising introduction. I love Sheren, so I had to create a role for her. Hung is a very cool, smart, and collected woman. She seems independent and strong, but as she hints in Chapter 211: red beauty, this wasn’t always the case. Her past is actually quite sad and we’ll learn about it in season 4. Her growth from a weak woman who depended on a man into the one that she is today — a matriarch of her own happy family with a strong career — is quite a feat. I look forward to developing her character.

Chapter 215: son was a fantastic, emotional chapter that had a really nice flashback to explain more of Hung’s back story, how Ah Biu came to be Hung’s son, and why no one knows Dai Chuen & Kiu have a son. It’s different to see Kiu in a “dramatic” light since we’re so used to her comedic ways. Learning about her decision to give up her son for the sake of saving her husband from gambling debt was very heart-breaking. It was a sad flashback with a moving ending. Obviously the big secret of Ah Biu’s identity will not be kept for long…

The Kams got to play a bigger role in this season and it was nice to see them hanging around discussing various topic. I love their conversations because it’s always hilarious and crazy and bring up many different points and perspectives. This season they dished on topics such as babies, plastic surgery, and drug abuse/rehab. My most favorite scenes to write were probably those scenes of pure dialogues. I really truly love these characters so it’s always great for me whenever I’m able to write for them.

All in all, season three was a nice short season. There was a nice balance of comedy and drama with some memorable moments. It was definitely a more relaxed season. I think I told some good stories and there were good developments in the plot. The season could have been a lot more if I had more time to devote to it, but overall I’m pleased with the work that was done and am proud of these chapters.

I’m extremely excited for the last and final season. The storylines that I’ve planned to write for the past 4 years will finally materialize. More will happen in season four than in the past three seasons. There will be many new characters, relationships, and developments. The series finale will be shocking. It’s not the ending that everyone expects but it will be a satisfying ending that will tie Virtues of Harmony as a complete series together with a nice pretty bow.

What were your favorite stories of season three? The most memorable scenes/moments? Reflect, dish, discuss.

“Season Four” is just around the corner!

Instead of wasting my time since no one really cares I decided to write an unconventional review for the unconventionally long The Gem of Life.

The Good

The cast. I don’t even need to drop names. Gem’s cast is an all-star ensemble of seasoned veterans and bright stars. If there’s one thing that TVB never fails in is to deliver the “grand” casting for its “grand productions”. Although, yes, I do have to admit that I’m rather sick of the War and Beauty/The Dance of Passion crew…

The last 23 episodes. As I explained in this post, I was a fan of Gem starting with episode 60. The series really came together and pulled through, delivering what I wanted to see from the start. It was exciting and entertaining with all the heightened drama and emotions. I hesitate to recommend skipping episodes 1-59 and just watching episodes 60-82 only because the “impact” of the last 23 (particularly the spectacular final 13 episodes that I love) episodes is dependent on having experienced the preceding episodes.

The performances. As a whole the acting of Gem was expectedly good, but in particular, there were a few stand-out performances.

The main star in Gem I feel is Ada Choi. She anchors the series wonderfully with her multi-facet and captivating performance. It’s amazing how quickly and naturally her expressions can change from one moment to the next. Her Jessica was a complex role that offered Ada a lot to act and she nailed it. She had many scenes of heightened emotions (be it crying or going crazy) and in the hands of a less capable actress, those scenes would come off as over-the-top, but Ada avoids over-acting. While I don’t really like Jessica as a character (she’s too selfish and conniving), I liked watching Ada. It’s rare to see Ada in TVB, so it was a treat watching her for 82 episodes.

Do I feel sorry for Jessica? I have mixed feelings for the character. I don’t like her for being pretentious and selfish, but I did feel sorry for her when she lost her son and when her husband no longer trusted her. However, it’s quite unacceptable how she betrays everyone to get what she wants. I like that she comes to peace and decides to “let go” in the end. She had taken on too much hate and burden, and for what? She lost sense of everything and thus lost everything that mattered to her. I think she got what she deserved and at least she’s peaceful in the end.

Do I think she ends up with Ah Wor (Wong Hei)? I don’t. No matter how much he does for her (his ending was tragic and his speech about being a farmer who plants things knowing it won’t sprout into anything was poignant and sad), she just doesn’t have any romantic feelings for him. I do think, though, that she will treat him a lot better now and appreciate this friendship rather than abusing it like she had before.

Surprisingly, Ada and Eliott Yu made a “nice” couple. They were compatible despite the huge age difference. I think that initially Jessica did set Martin on her radar because of his status, but she eventually fell in love with him for real. I don’t believe that she indirectly killed him or let him die. I liked that Martin’s death was a mystery until the end (when it was revealed that Jessica was actually not afraid of Martin haunting her [implying that she did not cause his death] and that she truly did love and miss him). I didn’t like Eliott’s acting in The Brink of Law, but he did well in Gem.

My favorite couple was Calvin (Bowie Lam) & Sylvia (Maggie Shiu). Out of the three sisters, I “liked” Sylvia the most though all 3 were annoying and unlikable at one point or another. Bowie & Maggie were great in their roles and they had amazing chemistry together. Their characters were interesting. Their final scene in the finale was very touching. In fact, I teared up. While I wasn’t a fan of how their relationship developed in the middle, I’m glad that they’ll have a happy ending in the future.

Sylvia changed so much from the beginning to the end. At the start, she was a career woman who had no time for love or family. Thus, her marriage fell apart and she found herself alone and desperate. I think part of the reason why she changed so much and sacrificed so much for love was because she wanted to prove that she could be a woman who did things for love. She wanted to prove that she wasn’t cold and only cared for business. Thus, she did many unthinkable acts to help/save Calvin. Sylvia was the only sister to be clear-minded and logical at the start; she thought things through and didn’t act on emotions. Despite her objectionable actions, I could never bring myself to dislike Sylvia. I cried when she kept saying to Jessica, “I’m your big sister!” after learning that Jessica betrayed her darkest secret.

Initially I didn’t like Louise Lee See Kei’s character or performance. I thought her portrayal was lacking something… just didn’t feel right somehow. However, I warmed up to her as the series progressed. Her acting was so realistic when her character was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease! I really loved her performance from that moment on. She is one amazing veteran and truly exquisite. At the beginning I thought she only cared about advancing in the social ladder and was willing to sacrifice her daughter’s happiness to “climb up”, but later on I realized that she does care for them.

Linda Chung successfully does away with her goody-two-shoes image and gives her best performance to date in a truly amazing and refreshing portrayal of “bad girl” Elise. From the moment she first steps onto the screen with the clicking of her high heels and the way she holds her purse, you know that it’s going to be a completely different Linda… and it is! Her performance is not only fun to watch, but exciting and surprising too. It’s hard to believe that the actress playing Elise is the same girl who is famous for her wholesome and innocent roles and image. Linda modeled her Elise after American socialite Paris Hilton and she accomplishes her goal. Her speech, expressions, and movement are all natural and convey those of a spoiled rich bitch. She does it so deliciously well that you love to hate her.

Elise is not the first time Linda has tackled an “evil” role. A Journey Called Life’s Sze Ka Ka is Linda’s other venture into the “dark side”. However, she doesn’t do the “bad” and “crude” Ka Ka as well as Elise. There’s evident stiffness, discomfort, and sometimes over-acting that makes her “bad” Ka Ka not as plausible. With Elise, I don’t sense any hesitation or discomfort from Linda. I thoroughly enjoyed her breakthrough performance and regard it as her best performance to date. I love her evil expressions and scheming look! I also think she looks extremely pretty in Gem too.

My favorite scenes of Linda in Gem are when she’s arguing with her co-stars (especially with Jessica — love Ada & Linda’s acting!) or scheming. It’s just so deliciously fun. I really hope TVB can give Linda a true villainess role in the future. It’s so entertaining watching her be bad.

Out of all the characters, I think Elise shows the most growth and development despite her limited screen time. She became spoiled and haughty because she lacked parental guidance and wasn’t given proper morals. Because of her family’s money, she believed she was powerful and could have anything she wanted. She never valued or appreciated anything consequently. She held herself on a high ground because of her status and looked down on others. It was only after she was shown kindness and genuine attention from Ah Wor that she began to change and see things differently. She further woke up when her family lost money (and thus power). From that point Elise started to change because she realized that if she didn’t, she wouldn’t survive. Yes, she continued to scheme for revenge, but I think she did it more to help her grandpa than anything. All in all, an interesting character that’s wonderfully brought to life by Linda.

The songs. I love Gem’s themesong sung by Shirley Kwan (yay for a professional singer!) and the subsongs by Linda and Bowie & Gigi Lai. I like how all 3 songs use the same melody and just vary it to create completely different feelings and sounds — very, very clever. You can tell the songs are related, but all 3 are stand-out tracks on their own. I like how they sound different from the typical TVB song. It has a “Latin” and sexy feel. I was most pleasantly surprised to hear Linda’s subsong because I had no idea she recorded the song and also because she pulled it off so well. Her singing has definitely improved. Bowie & Gigi’s voices blend so nicely together in their duet.

The money. TVB truly invested a lot of money into this series because it shows in the clothes, accessories, props, and sceneries. They didn’t hold back putting forth the money to make the series look as grand as possible. The richness is a sight to behold.

The Bad

The rich. I have nothing against rich people and obviously Gem is a fictional representation of the elite, but I seriously couldn’t stand most of the characters. It was especially bad in the first 20 episodes when things were being set up and we were getting introduced to all of the powerful players and their lives. There’s nothing that ticks me off more than pretentiousness… and that’s exactly how all of the characters were behaving. Everything was so fake! I didn’t like it and that was partially why I had trouble connecting to Gem and didn’t enjoy it until after episode 60.

The useless characters. Yes, I’m particularly talking about Catherine (Florence Kwok). Florence’s talent was totally wasted in this role. While I understand Catherine’s purpose, I’m really not a fan of desperate and needy characters. She had no spine and her sole purpose was to cling to Calvin. While I initially liked her, I grew annoyed with her. Her character lacked development and layers. I also wasn’t a fan of Sung Sai Man’s (Chan Hung Lit) four “wives”. The purpose was to show his “power” and lead to his ultimate downfall, but the scenes with his four wives were often boring and I felt unnecessary. Eddie Kwan’s Ah Fat was stupid and irritating at the beginning, but his character grew and developed into a rather likable one in the end when the misunderstandings were cleared.

The most annoying couple ever… none other than the serendipity-believing Terrence (Moses Chan) & Constance (Gigi).

Moses & Gigi make a good-looking couple and they do have chemistry, but God, their relationship was awful. I liked them at first, but I eventually grew to dislike them. I wanted to roll my eyes every time they talked the crap about them being “fated”. It was a constant cycle of breaking up and getting back together. It was so annoying and repetitive. I didn’t believe in their love at all and I’m not pleased that they will get a happy ending. They hurt everyone around them and made of a mess of things. Their relationship was shallow.

Moses & Gigi’s acting was the weakest of the main cast and their characters were also the most unlikable. I honestly didn’t care for them at all. Constance was irritating with her constant crying and holier-than-thou stance. She had no backbone and was an emotional mess. I cringed every time she wondered why the world was so unfair and mean to her. Terrence was immature and useless. In fact, I think I prefer Ah Fat over Terrence. It’s unfortunate that Gigi’s last performance is Gem because it’s not a good performance or character to remember her by.

The script. There’s only so much a good cast can do. Gem’s ultimate downfall was a result of its script. It (especially in the beginning) relied more on its flashy backdrop rather than on actual substance and story. The pace was too slow for much of the series. It was often a dragging and boring mess. There was too much talking and not enough action. I didn’t like how we were often just told things rather than allowing us to see what happened for ourselves.

Some of the developments were quite ridiculous. The prime example that ticks me off is the badly-constructed “triangle” of Will (Bosco Wong), Ah Wor, and Elise. All of a sudden, Ah Wor announces to Will (and the audience) that the person Elise loves is actually Will. What the heck? Thanks Ah Wor for if you hadn’t told me, I would have believed Elise loved you from all the scenes you two shared. It was incredulous. It seems Bosco & Linda are not fated as a couple. They were annoying in Moonlight Resonance and in Gem they presumably get a happy ending (I think Will goes to the US to find Elise and they will manage to patch things up), but their love story is poorly written and not given proper time or development.

The themevideo. Ugly! Cheesy! I commend TVB for trying something different with their themevideo, but I hated how horrifically over-done Gem’s themevideo was. I got dizzy watching the scenes of the themevideo zoom horizontally across. I guess TVB got complaints from the way the themevideo was made because they changed it into a much slower-paced and easier-on-the-eyes version (basically screenshots of their original video) shortly after the series began airing. I also thought the title shot with the three sisters on the runway was a really bad picture. Ada is standing too far away from Gigi & Maggie (but I guess that’s to show how her character’s vanity and love for “standing out”). The expressions just don’t work. I would much rather the ending title shot be one with the entire cast — kind of like the poster only Photoshopped better.

The Unbearable

The draggy-ness. To TVB, a series length is somehow supposed to be indicative of how “epic” or “grand” it is. Therefore all grand productions are a minimum of 40 episodes. Gem had aspired to go all-out and be a classic to be remembered, so it was given 82 episodes to “wow” the audience. With a huge cast of big names, you’d think there’d be tons of stories and character development that would validate the “need” for 82 episodes. Unfortunately, as is always the case, 82 episodes were way too much. For much of the series, Gem was a drag that didn’t seem to have a point or an end in sight. I almost didn’t finish the series because it just seemed way too long and not worth all the hours of watching.

The business talks. Business, business, and more business. The thing I hate most watching in a series is business talk. Being a series about rich business people and corporations, Gem had plenty of it. There were so many lengthy scenes about business proposals, deals, and “schemes”. I was totally uninterested and often had no idea what they were even talking about. It all seemed so pointless and unnecessary. I watch series for characters and relationships, not for fake business transactions. Then again, I guess 82 episodes is a lot to fill out so they needed “filler” material and I assume TVB wanted us to be “impressed” by all of the “grand” business happenings…

Final Thoughts
The Gem of Life is ultimately a worthwhile series despite its unnecessary length and not-so-great or memorable script. While for over half of the series it’s not very good and can be a chore to watch, the series delivers in its final stretches. It’s quite a powerful and exciting drama to watch near the end. To some it may feel like too little too late, but for others (like myself) it makes the experience of having watched the series feel worth it. Although never too great, Gem is also not too bad. I enjoyed watching this series overall and especially love the last 13 episodes. I would not go out of my way to specifically watch Gem because honestly you wouldn’t be missing out, but I would recommend sticking it through if you watch it.

Rating:

When I began writing Seeking Happiness (Virtues of Harmony III), in the back of my mind, I was hopeful that Virtues of Harmony would come back in a year or so and return to the TVB screen. I had foolishly believed that TVB cared about the fans and that they would bring Virtues back to give it a proper conclusion and farewell. I figured that by the time or even before I finished writing my fanfic, Virtues would come back and I would have my precious series again. Sadly, reality is often times harsh. It’s been 4 years since Virtues said its “good-bye” to the audience and it doesn’t look like it will be saying “hello” ever again, much to my dismay.

Although my dream of a Virtues continuation or new series from TVB with this cast is now shattered, my initial goal to give the series a proper conclusion is still very much alive. It’s kind of amazing that I’ve been writing this fanfic for 4 years now. 217 chapters have passed, but I still have so many more stories to tell. I initially planned to write for at least 500 chapters. There are just so many characters and stories that I have in mind. Unfortunately, I do not have the time to write all those chapters.

I won’t be like TVB and leave my fans hanging. Seeking Happiness will receive a proper conclusion by the time August rolls around.

How is that possible when there’s still so much that I have to write and develop?

The answer: by cheating.

No longer will each chapter play like an episode. No longer will there be heavy dialogues with little action. Instead, every chapter will sprint the storyline forward. I am reformatting the fanfic so that I can still tell all of the stories I want to. This means that details will be sacrificed. Each chapter will more or less play like an extremely fast-paced novel. Although the chapters will lose its original Virtues feel, the writing, though, will maintain its top quality. It will still be engaging and interesting. When it’s fitting, I’ll include dialogues and comedic scenes. It’s a big change, but this is the only way that I can continue and finish the story. It’s simply much easier and faster for me to write and develop the story. The original way was too time-consuming.

Season 4, the last and final arc will be coming shortly. I’m hoping to post at least 2 chapters every week.

Last and most importantly, thank you for everyone’s patience and support!

Issue #11 featuring Moonlight Resonance