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Late 1960's. Sung Yat Fu (Simon) & Ying (Michelle)
are a happily married couple with 5 children. They were both Hong
Kong borns but Yat Fu's hope to help China restore peace led them
to reside in the mainland. Yat Fu works for the government but
he is accused of being an anti-cultural revolution, along with
his friends Lai (Yeung Kwan) and Kong. Those guys and their
wives are brought out in public to receive criticisms for their
actions. While Yat Fu's oldest son, Bong, is brave enough to tell
the public that he loves and respects his parents, Kong's son
Hoi humiliates his parents and looks down at them. This eventually
drives Kong to commit suicide. As for the Sung's, the family loses
all their wealth and status and is forced to live in a shack.
But they still live happily because they are together as a family.
Unfortunately, Ying freezes and dies outside on a snowy day while
begging for some matches & Yat Fu gets hit by a car and dies later
from the aftershock of it. Unable to take care of his 4 younger
siblings, Bong tries to give each of them away to someone else
but the sister right after him, Ting Ting, insists that she stays
by him. So Bong & Ting Ting grow up together, with Hoi and his
mother, Chu.
Mid-70's. Hoi (Lawrence) grows up to be a really weak-hearted
and sensitive individual because his mom seems to treat him coldly
for being the cause of her husband's death. Chu rather likes Bong
(Felix). Hoi's only consolation is Ting Ting, whom he falls in
love with. Having been labeled as the children of the cultural
rebels, Bong & Hoi have difficult time trying to fit in the society.
After some grueling stage of life, they find their niche in underground
anti-government movement with other passionate people. Bong writes
anonymous poems criticizing the current era and quickly rises
to be admired by people. During that time, the nationally respected
leader Chou En-Lai dies and the government prohibits anyone from
paying services due his death. But Bong goes against it and starts
up a memorial for this leader, so the soldiers go after him and
his buddies. Bong hides out at his younger brother Guo's house,
along with Hoi, but Guo tells on them to police for money. Bong
& Hoi escape but Bong gets caught and almost is executed, but
a soldier decides to spare his life and doesn't shoot him in the
fatal area. When Bong miraculously survives, he swims across the
sea to Hong Kong with Hoi to start anew.
In Hong Kong, Bong & Hoi are greeted warmly by Bong's paternal
grandmother, but soon she passes away. Bong's uncle drives them
out of the house by giving them money but Bong refuses to accept
it. Bong & Hoi, after getting out of that house, find a job at
some company as cleaners. There, Bong meets a kind and sweet young
lady, Yam Mei Ling (Evonne). Mei Ling, attracted by Bong's
inner strength and determination to succeed, soon starts dating
him. The only obstacle between their relationship is Yam Mei Lai (Jamie), a stingy, mean half-sister of Mei Ling who has
the highest pique. Mei Lai's grandpa and dad take pity on her
because right after she was born, her mother died. So Mei Lai
is mega spoiled and always beats up on her younger siblings including
Mei Ling. But Bong manages to talk her into investing in the restaurant
business he is about to start up. So Bong & Mei Lai become co-owners
and their business starts out very successfully. By this time,
Mei Lai begins to take a slight interest in Bong as well but knowing
that Bong only likes Mei Ling, she is rather disheartened.
In the meantime, Hoi receives news from China that Ting Ting
is pregnant with his child, much to Bong's fits. Bong eventually
consents his sister's relationship with Hoi and later, Ting Ting
gives birth to Hoi's son. Hoi is excited about that but soon,
his life becomes chaotic when he meets a troubled rich girl, Noel
(Patricia). Noel finds his innocent personality to be charming
so she pursues him, not knowing that he already has a girl and
a child. Hoi in turn does fall in 'true' love with Noel, which
upsets Bong very much, but nothing can mend this problem.
Just when Bong's restaurant business is at its peak, his uncle
who drove him out of his grandma's house buys out the building
where the restaurant is located. Bong is thus forced to shut down
and go elsewhere, which leaves him in debts. After trying so many
measures to help his situation, Bong becomes devastated. He goes
back to China and drinks himself to exhaustion everyday, not wanting
to live on. His girlfriend Mei Ling comes to pursuade him but
to no avail. Mei Ling is disappointed in the way Bong is living
now so she goes back to Hong Kong. Then Mei Lai comes to talk
Bong out of his misery but again, it doesn't work. However, Bong
finds some other source of inspiration so he picks himself up
and goes back to Hong Kong, only to be greeted by Mei Ling wanting
to break up with him. At first he is flabbergasted to hear her,
but he tells her that if that's the way she wants, then so be
it. He says he doesn't need someone as unsupportive as her. He
decides to start up a new business of selling antiques, and once
again asks Mei Lai to be his partner. He discovers that Mei Lai
was once again ready to visit him in China to persuade him - he
is touched by the fact that Mei Lai, unlike her sister, didn't
give up on him so easily. Mei Ling eventually gets engaged to
her co-worker, although she still likes Bong in her heart. But
by this time, it is too late to change Bong's mind, as he has
already fallen in love with Mei Lai.
Hoi & Noel are still going out but Hoi is afraid that his wife
Ting Ting would find out about their relationship. Ting Ting in
fact comes to Hong Kong and sees that Hoi has been cheating on
her for the longest time. She goes back to China and knowing that
she cannot change Hoi's heart, she records her last will on a
tape and attempts suicide with her little son. The son dies but
just when she is about to die, her younger sister Ka Ka finds
her. Just then, Hoi comes in and sees all this - and wanting to
keep a secret, he kills Ka Ka and leaves dying Ting Ting alone.
This situation was being recorded by the tape player Ting Ting
had left on, and her brother Guo finds this tape and blackmails
Hoi. Hoi buys the tape so the secret is kept but because he didn't
dispose it completely, the tape is found by Noel. Noel then realizes
that Hoi had a hidden wife and a child all this time. Hoi becomes
so upset while trying to calm Noel down that he butchers up her
face with a knife. He is then brought to court and is sentenced
to serve in prison.
Bong grieves for the death of his 2 sisters and lashes out at
Guo for hiding the truth. Bong does not want anything to do with
Hoi from then on and harbors a deep hatred for Hoi in his heart.
His antique business has been well-off, especially after Chu (Hoi's
mom) shared her investment with him. While Bong's life seems to
be on a smooth sail, his ex Mei Ling's life is not so dandy -
she breaks off her engagement with her boyfriend Sam, who still
continues to follow her around. One day while she tries to stop
Sam from jumping off a building, she falls off herself and becomes
paraplegic. This incident makes her turn into a very bitter person.
Her heart full of pain and bitterness makes her become close to
Hoi, who has just been released out of the prison.
Bong & Mei Lai decide to be wed but they learn about Mei Lai's
illness - she is diagnosed with leukemia and must get a bone marrow
transplant. Only Mei Ling has the matching qualities but she refuses
to help her sister for all the things she has done to her in the
past. Bong proceeds with the marriage anyway but after they get
married, Mei Lai becomes worse. Bong is then disturbed when Chu
brings her son Hoi into the company to work for them. While Bong
is having an argument with Chu & Hoi, Mei Lai comes to see Bong
but Hoi accidentally throws water at her, which makes her more
ill than she already was. This upsets Bong very much so he decides
to split his company from Chu. Hoi becomes very unstable mentally
so he gets locked up in a mental asylum.
Meanwhile, Mei Ling tells Bong that she doesn't believe in true
love, so if Bong can jump off the building to show that he truly
loves Mei Lai, she'd help her. To Mei Ling's surprise, Bong does
jump off the building and gets severely injured. Mei Ling gives
her bone marrow to Mei Lai as she promised, but now Mei Lai has
to be confined in a rehab center for 2 years to avoid bacterial
infection. So Bong & Mei Lai are separated but their love grows
stronger everyday with hope. Bong has a jar that he has been filling
up with a marble each day ever since the day of their marriage
to symbolize that by the time the jar is completely filled up
with marbles, Mei Lai would be all fine and healthy.
On the day Mei Lai is released from her rehab center, she reunites
happily with Bong. But then he receives a call from Hoi who has
escaped out of his ward. Hoi talks all crazy to Bong and since
Bong has always felt some sort of guilt about Hoi's unhappiness,
he goes out to tame Hoi. Despite Mei Lai holding him back because
she has bad feelings about this, Bong rushes out to where Hoi
is. Bong & Hoi, after having some conversations, get into a physical
fight. Hoi ends up shooting Bong & himself. Hoi dies instantly.
Mei Lai and Guo rush to this scene to spot dying Bong on the ground.
But Bong wakes up and reassures Mei Lai that he won't die so easily.
Mei Lai gets in the ambulance with Bong but on their way to the
hospital, Bong's 'marble of the day' falls out of his pocket.
When the car stops moving, she asks the driver why it's not going,
and the driver answers that there is a traffic jam.
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What an ending. I thought ATV promised the viewers a sequel for
this series to let them know what happened to Felix. But did it
ever come out? NOOO. So now I'm left to wonder forever whether
Felix died or not.
But as I've mentioned before in my featured thoughts : Open
Endings, I think Felix died. I perceived his marble falling
out of his pocket as his life going away. And with the traffic
they had, he would've died before he made it to the hospital anyway.
But since it didn't say whether he died for sure or not, the ending
would always be open for each viewer's interpretation.
To me, the series ended on a very unfair note for Felix. No other
character deserved to be happy as much as he did, for he worked
so hard to be successful 'the right way' and lost so much in his
life, including his entire family except one brother. It's just
so pitiful that he got shot on the day he reunited with Jamie.
Felix was an inspirational character because he never gave up
in any situation. He did have his moment of slumps but he snapped
back out and was always ready to start anew. On the other hand,
Lawrence was hard to take pity on. I would've empathized with
his character more if he had been the kind to persevere. Instead,
he always complained about how Felix was so lucky and always had
his way - he didn't see all the work Felix had put in behind his
success. I do acknowledge that Felix had some dictatorial ways
when making business decisions with Lawrence, but this was because
Lawrence was so stupid and didn't take initiative in any productive
things. Felix did the best he could to help Lawrence but it was
Lawrence that lacked the wills to make anything work towards his
favor. Therefore, I don't feel sorry for Lawrence at all.
I liked Jamie Chic a lot in this series because her character
made up some of the funniest parts of the plot. Her transition
from being bitchy to a submissive and supportive wife reminded
me of Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew." There was one killer
scene where Jamie first appeared and every animal around her began
crying, and some cat meowed at her - when she meowed back at the
cat, the cat shut up. =P I just couldn't stop laughing at this
scene.
One of the most touching scenes was when Felix got shot, his
brother cried for him. Felix then told him that "I thought you'd
never cry for me." His brother was such a bastard kid from the
beginning of the series, he was the one who didn't even cry when
his sisters died. But he cried when Felix was dying away and that
really had a strong impact on me.
I wished for a happy ending as always but then again, had Felix
ended up happily ever after with Jamie, this series wouldn't have
left such a strong impression as it did to me. The series was
a keen reflection of reality - that life ain't so peachy - and
the ending threw a message that not all good guys gain ultimate
happiness. This is somewhat discouraging to know that anything
unfortunate can still occur no matter how much I try to live a
happy life, but that's just how real this world is. In that sense,
the writer of this story really knows the magic touch to make
a long-lasting script in the viewers' memories.
But for anything, I wish Felix could've had a happier ending.
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