A Smiling Ghost Story

Title: A Smiling Ghost Story
Viet Title: Về Với Nhân Gian
Episodes: 20
Year: 1999
Casts: Maggie Cheung, Roger Kwok, Nick Cheung, Monica Chan
Theme Song by Miriam Yeung

I remembered watching this series when I was small and after re-watching it many years later it still manages to be an entertaining series that can be enjoyed by the whole family.

Maggie Cheung is one of the main characters who, after a tragic accident, died and became a ghost. She is given a chance to reincarnate and finds out her future parents are none other than her cousin (Monica Chan) and the gambling-addict noodle chef (Nick Cheung). However, as both Monica and Nick currently hates each other's guts and could barely stand each other's presence, Maggie's chance of reincarnation looks pretty slim. Therefore, she desperately tries to get them together but it seems Monica’s potential suitors look promising and wealthy too.

Along the way, she gets Nick's best friend, Roger to help her. Roger is a bank manager and for some reason is the only one who is able to see Maggie. They eventually fall in love with each other during the course of the story but as expected, it was not all-smooth sailing for them. There is Roger's temperamental girlfriend, the ugly evil ghost/spirit that lusts after beautiful women (whether they may be ghost or human), and the fact that it is impossible for them to be together. Everything all builds up to an ending that is overused but manages to save itself during the last few minutes after the credits rolled. Typical TVB, but a satisfactory ending overall - one that leaves you 'smiling'.

The Performances

Maggie Cheung: An enjoyable performance by Maggie as the ghost. As usual, her acting never fails to impress me. She actually has two roles here: one as the ghost and the other of a girl whose outlook on life is very negative due to nobody caring for her. She did great in both roles and her chemistry with the other casts was well portrayed too (even though they don't see her 70% of the time). Performance: 3.5/5

Roger Kwok: I actually think Roger's role was small in here until the second half of the series when his love story begins to develop. There was one scene at the beginning when Maggie 'borrowed' his body to help Nick from the gangsters and he looked so funny when he did the girly expressions. Another flawless performance by Roger, although the role didn't require too much from the beginning. Performance: 3.5/5

Nick Cheung: No doubt one of the funniest characters in the show. He provides most of the comedy here and I just love his facial expressions every time he is on screen. I do believe that he outshined Roger in this one, from someone who is addicted to gambling to a responsible man who cared for the one he loves. It was nice to see the transformation in his character. There really are too many scenes that I like to mention but the one I love the most is when he was being chased by a homosexual sumo wrestler and almost got raped. That was a LOL moment. Performance: 5/5

Monica Chan: Another comedic character that had me in stitches. I didn't really like her acting before (the last time I saw her was in the Duke of Mount Deer 2001 with Dicky Cheung) that is, until I re-watched this series again. I think she did an outstanding job with her character and her pairing up with Nick was very entertaining to watch. Performance: 4/5

Best Chemistry:
Nick Cheung and Monica Chan. I love this comedic pairing. When they bicker, fight, laugh or even cried together it was all very emotional. And yes, technically they are the secondary characters, but somehow they outshone the main pairing.

The Verdict: Being a fan of tales that revolved around a forbidden love between a human and a ghost (eg. Time Before Time), this series delivers it nicely. Although, if it wasn't for the great performances of both the main and secondary leads, I'd thought that the script was a tad bit on the average side. Even so, do watch it if you have the time or if you’re a Nick Cheung fan.

Rating: I'll give it a 3.5 stars.