EPISODE 7

Written by Funn Lim

 

I will be damned if I didn’t first write this in Notepad and then copy and paste into that damn WordPress! Which I did.

Anyway where was I in Episode 6 before my entire recap was missing when I tried to save it?

Frankly I missed about 20 minutes or so of this episode, so when I switched on the TV, I saw a very desperate Yuk Lun. I think he left the prostitute but became addicted to opium and the family is not paying him anymore. So when the baby, Chi Kuan was born and I think had her first month’s birthday, she was decked out in gold and jade. When Yuk Lun offered to hold the baby in a very nice way, it surprised both Yu Fung and even his mom. I think that’s because earlier he denied the baby was his and even Yu Fung said “He never wanted to have anything to do with the baby, so why now?” Well we shall know as moments later we saw Yuk Lun, alone with the baby as he placed her on the cement floor and he robbed the baby of her belongings!!!! ROBBED! THE! BABY! OF! THE! BELONGINGS! How desperate was him? Pretty desperate! Anyway Sin was coming home and saw him doing something and she asked “Master what are you doing?” and he ran like a thief would and Yu Fung and gang ran out and knew Yuk Lun has finally evolved into something worse than a cockroach. Metamorphosis complete. I was calling him Bastardo in my now missing episode 6 recap.

Poor Chi Kuan.

Anyway life went on and I assume I missed how Yu Chi recovered and became more cheerful and all. Anyway this was the very last chance for them to have a life together but again Yu Fung refused and Yu Chi was saying goodbye at the train station. And so they parted ways. Whilst Yu Fung was walking back with Sin and the baby, the bomber planes came and started bombing. Panic on the streets and Yu Fung was very worried about Yu Chi. And so she left Chi Kuan with Sin telling her to run and she ran back to look for Yu Chi. Yu Chi meanwhile was very worried about Yu Fung and so he turned back looking for her.

Amongst the chaos on the street (I kinda have this impression they ran to somewhere with grass instead of street so I shall say …), I mean grass they found each other at opposite end. Feeling overjoyed in a very overacting kind of way, they ran towards each other and almost reached each other with many people in between suddenly a bomb was dropped and both were blasted sideways. Very dramatic.

Yu Fung was blurry but she regained conciousness and she was surrounded by dead bodies at one end. She was hurt. Yu Chi too regained conciousness and was surrounded by dead bodies at the other end. He looked at Yu Fung and was overjoyed she seems ok and so he stood up but Yu Fung saw him and she was in tears when both realised he was pierced through the stomach with a sharp object. Yu Chi fell to his stomach as he laid dying. He began to crawl towards Yu Fung, crying her name “Yu Fung… Yu Fung… Yu Fung…” and Yu Fung too began to crawl towards him crying his name “Yu Chi… Yu Chi… Yu Chi…” with flashbacks after flashbacks and suddenly she vomitted blood and she knew her time was up. Of course they were oblivous to the dead bodies surrounding them because nothing matters except them, hands reaching, straining to reach each other and centimetres away and alas, even in death cruel TVB writers decided to deny them their one last togetherness.

I tell you, I thought that scene would never end! It was like forever. Sad for the 1st 10 seconds but when it went on and on and on with Joe Ma’s awful overacting and Charmaine Sheh’s oblivious to the bodies surrounding them, I mean one second of horror also don’t have, I was like aiyah, die lar! So sloooooooowwwwww, aiyoh, still crawling……flashback? Flashbacks again? And again? and then almost reaching and then die. Classic. Reminded me of how I felt when watching that Princess Cheung Ping series whose title I forgotten at this moment. Do I care they died? Of course. It was very sad. Do I care continously that they died? No because 1, the death scene was too long, 2 I never really feel anything for their love in the first place and 3 mainly because of what happened next.

What happened next after their death scene was… NOTHING. No showing of how they family reacted, how Yuk Lun reacted (I assume he died young since he disappeared), nothing at all. In fact that annoying narrator did not even comment on her great great grandma’s death.

Oh yeah, pause here.

I made a huge mistake. Yu Fung is the GREAT GREAT GRANDMOTHER, not GREAT GRANDMOTHER. But does it matter when it is played by the same actress and is within the same family 3 steps back?

Anyway where was I? Yeah perfect opportunity for annoying narrator to say something sad, meaningful, whatever and what did she said in her chirpy high pitched voice?

“In 1919, blah blah blah”.

I was so shocked. No closure. It was like conveyer belt, one couple dead, NEXT! Now I really hate this annoying narrator.

Anyway next story we see circa 1919 I presume. I am relying on the cast list. Doesn’t matter. It is the time when student movements are most active because of the japs and such. During the time of Sun Yat Sen I presume. You know the infamous blue uniform of the students and the standard classic bob hair for girls? Exactly because we see Chi Kuan in these get up, protesting on the street.

Chi Kuan is now a university student, although her grandma, Yuk Lun’s mom didn’t like the fact that she was studying more than learning the business. Chi Kuan was active in the movements, playful, young, you know, vibrant, unlike her mother who was more calm and cool and emotionally dead, she should be someone passionate, do what her heart tells her, etc. Which translates to cute to Charmaine Sheh’s fans and annoying to others. I am unsure which road I am on since I like Charmaine Sheh, I just don’t like her acting.

Anyway, one day Chi Kuan was walking on the street when she mistakenly thought someone touched her buttocks and that someone was Yu Chi! Sorry, I mean Yu Chi lookalike.

Pause here.

Is it the fate of these 4 generations of the same family to fall in love with the man who looks exactly alike but not related to one another? It is like seeing the 1st story all over again, like a rewind only that it is a bad movie to begin with and you will have to rewind it 4 times to finish the darn series.

Anyway it was his umbrella that touched her. So she vowed revenge if she meets him again, that kinda of expression that translates to overacting.

This time Joe Ma is Lee Kat Cheung, a well mannered educated man, looking rather educated in his glasses, oiled hair and the whole chinese get up. I like this look although when he smiles he looks creepy.

Anyway Chi Kuan was participating in some road play with her friends, criticising the Japanese and she was wearing a mask and her grandma and Sin (older) were there where they saw a young girl’s sleeve was torn exposing her hand and her grandma said “What kind of young women would expose themselves this way?” and then her mask was exposed and it was Chi Kuan! Grandma and Sin were shocked. Anyway police came, they had to run and hide. Chi Kuan of course hid under a bunch of rubbish. How dignified is that for a protester?

Anyway in her hiding place she saw Kat Cheung again, this time holding on to a woman who said “Please let me go! Please” and she immediately assumed Kat Cheung was molesting women again and vowed to get him. He left and suddenly someone lifted her basket over her head and it was her grandma.

At home her grandma was fuming. So Chi Kuan bought a plate of scrambled eggs to grandma, with Ka Cheung and her husband and Sin putting in good words and her grandma said “Do you think just because I am old that means I am blind? Chi Kuan did not cook this! You helped her!” and Chi Kuan said “No! I cooked it! I did!” and her grandma said “Show me” and she did to disastrous results ending with her saying in frustration “Grandma, you know I don’t like cooking!” and her grandma was so angry she said “And you prefer to study? Until when? You said you will come to the restaurant to learn when you finished high school and then you said now you will join upon graduation” and she said “Yes grandma” and grandma said “Why not now? Sooner or later so why not sooner?” and Chi Kuan panicked.

Standing in the ancestral hall, the grandma sadly said “Yu Fung, I have failed you. I have failed miserably. All your hard work and your daughter refuses to learn the business, Yu Fung I am so sorry” and Chi Kuan I think said “Grandma, I just don’t like cooking. I want to study, I want to lead the revolution, I want to join in the protest and make a change in our politics!” and grandma was angry now and she said “Then how can I leave the business to you? You’re the only heir to the business, your mother worked very hard for the restaurant, and you wish to protest and not learn the ropes?” and sensing there would be an outburst of emotion Ka Cheung, Sin and gang piped in and said “She is still young, let’s talk about who will inherit the business later shall we? It is still too early for her” and grandma disappointed with Chi Kuan leave things as it was whilst Chi Kuan was happy to know she has avoided another potential confrontation.

Next episode, some comedic moments as Chi Kuan meets Kat Cheung and played a trick on him only later to know that he is her new class teacher.

Where is Yuk Lun? Dead? I have said what I want to say about how disappointing the transition from one story to the other. And frankly I was not impressed with the 2nd story. Again I don’t know why, don’t know who’s fault, don’t know what and where and how and why is the problem, but in most and in fact all Charmaine Sheh series, there are always something big happening and something personal going on and somehow the storyline has it in such a way that something personal is always the be all and end all and that something big was triviliased into nothing. Dozens of dead bodies and they had eyes only for each other. At least one moment of looking over the dead bodies, a bit of fear of what might happen to the other and then discover both aren’t dead but seriously injured and start crawling towards one another would have been better story, and better acting than maintaining what I just wrote but deleting the first line of realising the dead bodies everywhere. It felt so wrong, so insignificant that so many have died as well and they only had eyes for one another, damn the others to hell in such a way. And the worse was that even in that final moments, can’t even touch hands. And the worst was that annoying narrator, skipping through the momentous time in her past generation’s sad end and just skip to the history in such a chirpy manner that it just irritate the hell out of me. So this I can’t blame Charmaine Sheh, not her fault with the jumpy storyline but still, such chirpiness. I can say for sure if she was narrating a story about the Japanese torturing her grandma to death and then skip to next story it will be as chirpy. It just seems so wrong.

New story is boring at best. Student protest and yet the moment police came she ran into the garbage dump area to hide. I don’t see the students doing that in Lust, Caution. A bit more diginified will be better.

If you ask me is there a difference between Yu Fung and Chi Kuan I would say of course, magnified 10 times over. The temperament, the perspective, the personality so vastly different it was like a put on just so to say “See! Got difference! See!” but to me is still scene per scene acting and terrible also at that. And frankly the whole bob hair do just makes her face longer and she looks older. When she was Yu Fung she was far prettier and as she got older she looked better suited for the role. I can’t wait for the 60s simply because after the 60s comes modern world and after the modern world, the end.

Joe Ma fared better although like I said when he smiled he looked like a lusty man. He as Yu Chi was overacting when it came to death scene. I had little pity for this couple, not because their death was not pitiful but because it was much too long, much too senseless and much too much of everything and yet so little on everything else. Very hard for me to put into words, just watch the entire story and I am sure some of you may feel as detached as I was when watching them die. It is considered a failure when two leads are dying in such a pitiful state and the viewer screams “OH GET ON WITH IT!” and any credibility left to their sad end in terms of the storyline is of course destroyed by that chirpy narrator.

The 1st story could have been much better but sorry to say, it was terrible.

The idea that the whole same story should be repeated 3 times but in different era is torture. I finally understood what my friend meant “Well it is the same story 4 times over, seeing the same people again and again” when I asked her how was the series. This series should have been a celebration of performances, same set of actors, different eras, different characters, different stories but the problem was same actors, different eras, same story. It is just A meets B, fated to be apart, tried to be together and in the end either ends up together or not. Nothing new and nothing refreshing. A pity. And in this kind of format, at least find leads who can actually present different facets to the same story. I don’t consider Joe Ma and Charmaine Sheh, the two anchors of this series where the entire series depends heavily on them as really multi faceted actors. So it would have been better as I have suggested that same actress, 4 different actors or 4 actress, 4 actors. That would have been a ratings success. A pity.

 

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