Episode 19

A very badly arranged episode. Like out of nowhere, like Groundhog Day, back to square one when it has already passed square 100. This is what dragging means..

A recap of this awfully arranged but otherwise entertaining episode..

I started 15 minutes late so I saw Cho Ba having a happy time playing with everyone except Auntie Sa wasn't there and Yuen once again relegated to the role of apparition that failed to apparate today since he is nowhere to be seen. Earlier I was old Yuen was given the task of running the company by Hung whom Yuen still calls mother BUT then Hung behind his back asked nosy male relative to run the company instead.

Pause here.

What does Hung got to do to have Yuen to say "I HATE YOU!!"? This is unfortunately continuity problem. By this time Yuen should pointedly call her Auntie Hung instead of mother. In fact Yuen is like the most potentially interesting character but again the most least developed so that means Yuen is once again the wandering and wondering (as in "what am I doing here) ghost.

So they were making fun of Auntie Sa, as Cho Ba told everyone he will be leaving on a 2 year holiday with Hung which Hung suggested. Cho Ba didn't want to go when he and the children were bonding again. As Cho Ba begin laughing hard with everyone, suddenly Cho Ba cried and stood up and said "I want you all to tell me the truth, how you all feel about me! Hou you tell me! How do you really feel about me? Tell me!! Tell me so that I can leave with a peace of mind knowing you all hate me and will never forgive me!!" and Hou was suddenly angry and said "I hate you Cho Ba! When Hor Ma fell down, she hurt her back and I was so young, not only did you not care, you didn't even pay for her medical fees!" and Cho Ba said "True true, but Hou, it wasn't that I didn't want to pay, I..." and Hor Ma said "Stop it Cho, the past is the past" and Cho Ba said "No let them say, you Yuet, you're always the most forthright, tell me how you feel about Cho Ba" and Yuet suddenly very emotional said "Cho Ba, I am just a Lor Lui! I was always grateful for both you and Hor Ma and every year in my birthday I always wish that Cho Ba and Hor Ma will be together forever. But since that happened, (as in he left) I have wished for you to suffer!All I ever wanted was for you and Hor Ma to be together again" and Hing signed "Cho Ba, I have never felt bad about my disability, I never blamed God for what happened to me but I blame you for what happened to this family!" and then Cho Ba asked "Ka, what about you?" and Ka said "Cho Ba, I remember when I first moved in you said 'Ka, it's late, go to sleep, your mother and I will sleep now'. Mother? Cho Ba, I hated you then because you called that woman my mother when my mother is Hor Ma!" and then Chung said "Cho Ba, I hated going to study overseas, but when I had to be with you, I always wanted to just go back overseas!"

Pause here.

Yeah coming from the idiot who calls Hung mother, yeah right!

"Father, what about you?" asked Cho Ba to grandpa and grandpa angrily said "My daughter was beautiful and smart, why she had to marry you, the idiot who hurt her, your heartless man, hurting my daughter and making her suffer, I hate you" as he kept beating Cho Ba until Hou stopped grandpa from the beating frenzy and Cho Ba said "I feel better now, I didn't want to go, I am sorry father, I am sorry Hou, I am sorry Ka, I am sorry Chung, I am sorry Hing, I am sorry Yuet, I am sorry, I am sorry" and Hing cried "Cho Ba, I don't want you to go for that world tour, please don't leave us Cho Ba, not now!" and everybody begged him and Cho Ba was still crying and Hor Ma looked on, silent and touched by what happened.

Hung was angry. "Why is he so late? How much longer must he spend at that woman's place?" and she called CHo Ba who was fast asleep surrounded by all the sleeping children and Hor Ma took the phone and quickly and sternly said "Can't you just let him spend some more time with the children?" and she switched off the phone. Hung angry, for the 3rd episode threw the phone at the wall.

Pause here.

Well sponsored by Sony Ericsson, she can throw all she wants!

Next day Cho Ba left with Hou driving him and as he stepped into the van, Hing came and signed "Cho Ba I forgive you" and then Hou signed the same thing and then all the other with Hor Ma lined up opposite the street and signed "I forgive you". Cho Ba was very touched.

At home Cho saw Hung and said to her gently "Hung, maybe instead of a 2 year holiday, we can just go for a few months at a time, that way I can still see my children and go on holiday with you!" and Hung smilingly said "Whatever you say Cho, it is after all just a holiday,let's not quarrell over such small matters" and Cho Ba happy went away but Hung threw his jacket onto the floor angrily.

This time a phone has a lucky escape!

Hung was meeting with a man, who is Sum's real father, back to see Sum all these years. Hung of course didn't want Sum to see him so she didn't tell Sum. She sat down and the man wanted to see Sum but since he thought Sum didn't want to see him, he asked how she was. As he was telling Hung what happened to him (became a sailor, had a stint in jail for trafficking something, life was hard for him and deservedly so) and Hung just didn't bother to listen and just ordered her cappucino. I thought she was right to ignore him. What she didn't do right was later...

At home Cho Ba wondered where was Hung when nosy male relative said she was meeting the ex husband. Cho Ba angry saw Hung walking in and quickly scolded her for seeing the man who was irresponsible and never paid for Sum's upbringing and Hung said "He only wanted to know how she is, and I don't see what's the problem" but Cho Ba wasn't satisfied and berated Hung for being foolish for trusting him again when Hung blasted "Well listen to you! You abandoned your wife and children too remember? And now you have been spending so much time at Hou's place! You didn't care how I feel!" and Cho Ba said "That's different. They are my real children, I should see them" and they were arguing when grandma shouted "ENOUGH! ENOUGH! No more arguing! Hung you will stop seeing that man and you Cho will go on that 2 year holiday with Hung! Get it?!" and so Hung won once again.

Hung was with grandma shopping, buying her 2 expensive presents for the 2 years she won't be at home and grandma was very happy. They went drinking tea when Hung sadly said to Grandma her fear of Cho Ba going back to Hor Ma as he was spending a lot of time with her. Grandma said "That fatty never gives up does she? Hung, don't worry, all Cho wanted to do is to see the children" and Hung then said "I am very worried about Sum's father. He has been harassing me, I am just so tired of him" and grandma said "Call the police then" and she said "Well he didn't really do anything yet other than just calls.."

Pause here.

Fact 1 : Sum's father did see Hung and asked to see Sum

Fact 2 : Hung did meet up with Sum's father

Fact 3 : Sum's father did asked how Sum was

Lie 1 : Hung said Sum didn't want to see the father when in actual fact she didn't know

Lie 2 : that man never harassed her

Lie 3 : that man never disturbed her, in fact he was quite polite

Naughty Hung, lying again. Why? You shall know in the next scene...

Then Hung had an incoming call and she listened and it was the doctor saying "Mrs Kam, your mother in law's medical report is ready. I am afraid there is something wrong with her heart.." and Hung calmly told grandma the report was ready. So they went to see the doctor who told grandma her heart is very weak caused by other diseases and grandma was very worried but Hung said "No worries grandma".As they walked along, Hung said "Mother, perhaps Cho and I cancel our holiday. You're not well" and grandma quickly said "No no, go for the holiday, I will be just fine!"

So Hung and Cho Ba and everybody was at the airport with Yuen ignored again by Hor Ma's side. Hor Ma wasn't there, grandpa wasn't there and certainly Auntie Sa shouldn't and wasn't there. Cho Ba said goodbye to all of them and Ka reminded Cho Ba to go for bungee jumping and Hung and Cho Ba left hand in hand.

Meanwhile the most boring scene ever happened here, which I hate to elaborate. Just know Hou called Sum at night when Sum was busy wheeling a very seriously wounded patient into the OR when her phone rang, and she took just a few seconds to speak with Hou about Hou wanted to meet with her but she was busy.

Pause here.

A few seconds, even 30 seconds may mean life and death of the patient. I am simply amazed how she continued speaking as the patient was wheeled in. I am even more surprise the surgeon didn't say "Dr Kam, perhaps you should leave chatting to after work?" because she was utterly unprofessional and careless. I hate what the writers did to a thoughtful Sum into this rather wimpy Sum.

So at night she finished work, drove to the pastry shop but couldn't go in. Don't know why, maybe Hou has yet to confess his love to her again and she was afraid to confess her love and so these two are dangling again. Anyway Hou inside was making heart shaped egg tart with with words "I Love Athena" in Chinese. Is Sum's name Athena? He walked out and saw Hou like some wandering haunting ghost with her back facing him at the opposite street.

Pause here.

Just imagine the lights are dim and there you see a girl with long hair and long white coat standing with her back to you and very still... doesn't that sound creepy to you? Apparently to the writers of this series, that is called romantic.

Anyway there she was and Hou was about to run opposite the street when a big truck passed by and stopped in between them. Sum turned and could see only the truck and since she didn't see Hou, that I suppose she thought was fate. So she went into her car and drove off as the truck drove off and Hou saw her driving away and ran after her and stopped and called her and said "Sum, finished work?" and SUm said "Yeah and I am driving home now, reaching already" and so that was that.

Sorry, that is not the most boring. The most boring is the following ...

Sum lost one of her contact lenses at the parking lot and who should she see but Bosco who deliberately stepped on her lenses and said since she is so tired she didn't need it anyway. She then asked him "You know where I can get spicy food?" and my answer would have been "THERE! You can get Ma Lat steamboat there!" but Bosco of course said "Yeah" and Sum said "Don't bring me to some jetty or faraway!" and Bosco said no and when Sum woke up in his car, he was underneath a bridge opposite street far far away and so she was angry and then they say down and he offered...

You know what, I really don't want to elaborate on how they teased each other, how they chatted, how she ran after him and he ran away, blah blah blah. Put some snow in that scene, let them wear winter clothings and have them throw snowballs at one another and it isn't even 1% as romantic as Choi Ji Woo and Bae Youngjun doing the same thing in Winter Sonata, except maybe in the end as boring as that series I spoke of. I mean what a complete waste of time! Give me more of Yuen and his relationship with Hor Ma, give me 10 minutes of Lin Chi Yung making pastries or even 1 hour of Hor Ma preaching, give me 2 hours of Kevin's mom calling Hing MUte Girl! Mute girl Mute girl! repeatedly and none of these are as boring as these 2!

Urghhhhhhh...........

Anyway, exciting stuff back.

Hou was meeting ex girlfriend there to give him a wedding invitation to her sister's wedding and suddenly she asked "So how are you and Sum doing?" and Hou asked "What made you assume we are together?" and the girl I think Ting Ting right? She said "Well I thought you like her very much. Remember that night we broke up, I saw a girl standing behind you (HAUNTING GHOST POST!! HOU YOU HAVE A GHOST FOLLOWING YOU!!!! You know Moonlight Resonance can be a ghost story!) and she was crying as we broke up. I saw her later at some function and knew she was Sum. So I just thought... Hou, you should tell her how you feel. Don't make the same mistake with her like you did with me". Hou was surprised by what she said.


As they were walking on the bridge, grandma was in a car and saw them and grandma called Hou "Hou you naughty boy!" and Hou was very surprised to hear grandma saying that and said "What is it grandma?" in a playful manner and grandma said "I saw you with a girl. Why you never told me you're dating?" and Hou asked "Grandma where are you? You can see us?" and grandma walked up the stairs of the bridge and said "Ahhh I am spying on you! I can see you! I am now following you!" and Hou looked around and asked "Grandma, where are you? I can't see you?" and grandma smilingly said "Well I am just right behind, I can see you" but grandma was finding it difficult to breath as Hou excitedly looked around and said "Grandma I give up! Where are you? Grandma? Grandma?" but at that time grandma had already fainted. Hou panicked and looked around as he said "Grandma! Grandma!" and he saw a lot of people running towards a direction and so he and that girl ran there and saw someone calling an ambulance and he saw grandma on the floor. Hou quickly ran to grandma and cried "Grandma! Grandma! Grandmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!".

Well maybe not as overacting as that.

Next episode, which is Monday so for the next 2 days no updates, grandma was on the brink of death as Hor Ma scolded grandma to hang on for Cho Ba to return.

Will be an emotional scene. Will grandma die? By Monday we should know.

Today's episode is just either plain weird, plain badly written, plain badly edited or just plain boring. I need not explain which part is plain boring. The continuity is a problem. After how Cho Ba scolded Hung previously, why is he still with her?? After how the children scolded her, how they could stand next to her in the airport? After how Yuen and grandma found out what she did, how they can be nice and friendly and appreciative to her? WHAT MUST HUNG DO TO HAVE EVERYONE ABANDON HER? WHAT? WHAT? WHAT?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TVB YOU ANSWER ME, WHAT MUST SHE DO? WHAT?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for my emotional outburst but this series is like one broken record player. Sure there are some really nice songs that can be listened to over and over again (aka those quarrel scenes like Cho Ba being scolded) but repeating the same bad songs and then finish and then grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rewind back to square one can be very very frustrating. What this series should have concentrated on more is

1. Yuen. I feel I have been harsh on this character but he is so badly and underdeveloped that it is such a waste. I want to know his conflict, since the woman may be bad to his family, she does seem genuine to him at first. Betrayed and all, how would he feel and react? Well back to Apparition mode again!

2. Ka. More on his past, more on his difficulties, his company, how Hung crushes him, that would be nice since he would be the most annoying child

3. Hing, if love story give her a proper love story, not one wimpy dude and a love story finished in 2 episodes

4. When is Kate Tsui coming into the scene? Is she like 5 episodes appearance and the end?

5. More on Hung and how she struggles in getting back Cho Ba and doing evil deeds! I mean by now Cho Ba should dump her and her plotting on how to hurt everyone! Thus far her actions though devious are just simple stuff only. When is the major stuff coming? When is she moving on from small minded devious to all out devious?

Why are they wasting time with plot based stories when it should be character based stories? Why aren't any of these consistent?

But I must say, I enjoyed how grandma was being playful with Hou and Hou with her. She truly loves him and he loves her. Which makes it so funny he wasn't the one being asked to live with Cho Ba and Hung because I SWEAR!! I SWEARRRRRRRR that in Episode 1 Cho Ba said grandma loved Chung the youngest the most so they took him and not Hou! I SWEARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!

And talking about Chung, I am so annoyed by this jobless leech! Go learn pastry making for god's sake you lazy bum! And what is Ka with his signature raincoat? Jacket? Whatever? Do HK people ever take off their coast, jackets and raincoats in their house? Or do they wear them like they carry their handbags even in their houses?

WHY? I love this series but WHY TVB WHY MAKE ME BEGIN TO DESPISE IT? If there is one character that should die now, let it be Bosco's character and THE END TO THAT SAPPY LOVE STORY!

Like Forensic Heroes 2. My ideal ending would be one bomb to kill off all characters with one KA-BOOM! and if there is a FOrensic Heroes 3, an entirely new cast, new writers, new directors, new direction and be gone with that CSI stuff! I am tempted to say the same to this series.

And funnily the ad break title scene it is called Heart Of Greed 2 : Moonlight Resonance! Cheap marketing ploy! CHEAP ! CHEAP! CHEAP!

Sorry, this is a very emotional post but let me calm down..

Calm...

Calm..

Calm...

Calm...

WHAT THE HELL DID THEY DO TO THIS SERIES?!??!?!?!??!

Ok. Calm. Blood pressure... check. No heart attack. Ok, cool...........

Perfomance wise, great but uneven. One second laughing like hyenas (Heart Of Greed mode) then next minute arguing and pushing and shoving and crying and scolding (Moonlight Resonance mode) that is the Cho Ba bashing scene. Nice scene as they all resent him but I would have hoped for more one to one rather than all at one go in one single scene.

Anyway anyone writing any comments can just use HOG Mode to explain the overly too happy scene with hyena type laughter which in the end is just so fake and MR Mode to explain the overly angry pushing shoving angry quarrel scenes. I will know what you mean.

ANyway performance wise, ignoring the continuity problem, every did well except for Chris Lai for the lack of screentime and dialogue and Chung for sheer bad acting and Bosco for being annoying simply because for hogging the time. Linda Chung was ok but I can't blame her for the shift in her character because it is bad writing. I am still freak out over Linda calling Bosco Gor Gor and Bosco to Linda Mui Mui. In fact do they work in the same hospital?

Anyway (3 anyways!!) my sis asked me something really funny as she saw Linda pulling a patient into the OR and she asked me "What is she doing now?" and I was like "Ermmm, doing her day job? She is a doctor you know". SO FUNNY!!

The standouts is of course manipulative Michelle Yim (but too underground right now, I want her to go all out evil!), Lee Heung Kam for that lovely scene with Raymond Lam, Raymond Lam for obvious reasons and Har Yu for being the punching bag realistically.

One note; when it was Tavia's turn to bash Cho Ba, I was already expecting her to raise her voice loudly and scold him. And I was right. Tavia, be very careful at being predictable!!

Anyway, for everything that I screamed about, it was a pretty entertaining episode except for that most boring scenes.

Just wanna ask you all...

Team Raymond or Team Bosco? Based on their characters in this series UP UNTIL THIS EPISODE ITSELF??

Now favourite quote/scene, let me think...

Cho Ba, I remember when I first moved in you said 'Ka, it's late, go to sleep, your mother and I will sleep now'. Mother? Cho Ba, I hated you then because you called that woman my mother when my mother is Hor Ma!

- Ka to Cho Ba