Remembrance

Cast:
Chilam Cheung
Kenix Kwok
David Siu
Betsy Cheung

Summary: (Spoilers!)
The story starts out as Chilam and his non-blood brother David are going back to Shanghai for a new beginning. There are some flashbacks which tell the two men’s childhood stories. 17 years ago, Chilam’s family went to Shanghai because his father had to start his new job as chief of police. The leader of Shanghai triads wanted to bribe his father so that his father would cover the triads’ illegal work. However, his father was a very good man and he refused to accept any money. The leader of triads then hired his henchmen to assassinate him. Both Chilam’s father and mother were blown up in a restaurant. Chilam then became an orphan. David was also an orphan and he adopted Chilam as his brother. Both Chilam and David grew up to become professional killers.

The two men are in Shanghai and have been hired by a wealthy man to assassinate the leader of the triad. On the same day, Kenix and her father have just come back from France. Kenix's father is hired to be a French-Chinese translator for an important meeting. Kenix and Chilam get to meet each other and Chilam then finds out that Kenix was the baby that he had met on a train 17 years ago. Back then, while Chilam’s family was on their way to Shanghai, Kenix’s parents were trying to run away with her in their arms. A rich and powerful army man wanted to marry Kenix’s mother; therefore, the couple tried to get away. However, they were caught and the mother had to go with the man. Kenix’s father then thought that his wife had committed suicide and was very depressed. He took Kenix with him and they both left Shanghai for France. Chilam, the young boy, had witnessed everything; therefore, even though he only knew Kenix for a day, he already knew of her past.

Chilam and David are preparing for their new mission to kill the leader of the triads. One night, David goes to a bar called Xa Loi Phi and meets the lady owner there. Her name is Betsy. He falls in love with her right away. He tells her that he has to do something very important tomorrow and promises to come back to marry her. Then the two men go off to do their work. The scene takes place at a ball. Coincidentally, Kenix and her father are there also. Chilam sees Kenix playing the piano and then the shooting starts. Kenix is scared and tries to hide from the flying bullets. Her father goes up the stairs to rescue her and Chilam jumps up there also. There is a guard standing between Kenix’s father and Chilam. Chilam tries to shoot the man but accidentally shoots her father. Her father dies. For some reason, Kenix becomes blind; perhaps because of the gunfire smoke.

Chilam and David fail their mission and try to run away. David tells Chilam to go to the bar to take care of Betsy. Chilam gets chased and it is at this time that he meets Ching. Ching is the daughter of the king of triads. The rich man who hired Chilam and David now sees that their mission has failed. He orders his henchmen to kill the two. David has to hide and tells Chilam to go tell the leader of the triads that David knows who wants to kill him. The leader then hides David in jail so that nobody can find him and waits till the day of David’s release to know who is behind the assassination.

Ching falls in love with Chilam. Meanwhile, Chilam finds out that Kenix is blind and that she tried to commit suicide in hospital. He immediately goes there and lies that he is her father’s best friend. Now that she doesn’t have any relatives, he will take care of her. He takes her to Xa Loi Phi bar and leaves Kenix in the care of Betsy. Ching then invites Chilam out on a date with her and while he is not home, things happen. Betsy’s drunken brother accidentally goes to Kenix’s room and tries to rape her. Kenix gets scared and runs out on the street. Because she is blind, she gets lost and is kidnapped by a man. This man then sells Kenix into prostitution. On the way home, Betsy sees a person wearing Kenix’s shoe but she doesn’t know that it is Kenix. Chilam then gets home and gets mad at Betsy’s brother. He runs out to the streets and finds another of Kenix's shoes. Betsy says that she might know where Kenix is and they go to find the man who leads them to the brothel. Ching wants to go with them, but Chilam gets mad at her and yells at her to go home.

At the brothel, Chilam rescues Kenix and is beaten up by the owner’s henchmen. The owner says that if he wants to take Kenix out of there, he has to take part in a boxing match and win because the owner has put a heavy bet on it. Chilam is beaten up so badly but he tells himself that he must win because he has to rescue Kenix. Suddenly, Ching’s father who is the leader of the triads comes and solves the problem. He asks Chilam to work for him but Chilam refuses.

Betsy understands Chilam and she says that Chilam must have fallen for Kenix for he risked his life to rescue her. Chilam starts to realize that he loves Kenix. However, he knows that one day when Kenix regains her sight, she will recognize that he was the one who shot her father. He refuses Ching’s love for him. Ching gets depressed and decides to be a nun. Meanwhile, David is released from prison. The leader of the triads find out that his friend’s son is the person behind his assassination. He solves his triads’ problem and wants David and Chilam to work for him. David is really happy because he sees that this is his chance to get rich and become a leader. Chilam doesn’t care about the work and only stays to support David.

David later finds out that Kenix’s father was shot by Chilam and that Chilam has fallen for her. David tells Chilam that it is dangerous to keep her with them. From that time on, he starts to suspect Kenix of pretending to be blind and always picks on her. Chilam sees that and he decides to buy a new house and takes Kenix out with him. He buys a ring and asks her to marry to him. However, at this time, Kenix has to do a surgery for her eyes, which means she can see again. Chilam knows that when Kenix can see again, he will lose her. However, he can’t be that selfish so he lets her do the surgery. He asked Betsy to take care of Kenix because he has decided to leave Shanghai. He doesn’t want Kenix to see him. When Kenix can see again, she starts looking for him. When she sees him, she recognizes the murderer and then realizes that the man she loves is the murderer. She goes mad, holds a knife and accidentally stabs him near the heart. She runs outside and Chilam chases after her. She says that everything he has told her was a lie. Chilam tells her that he has lied a lot to her but his love for her is true. He says that he has known this day but he couldn’t control his feelings for her. He cries and says that he truly loves her. Kenix declares him to be her enemy and that she cannot love the person who has killed her own father. She buys a ticket and decides to leave for France but later, she cannot leave. Chilam goes wild when he thinks that Kenix has left. David punches him on the face and tells him to wake up to make a new start. Chilam obeys David but deep inside, he isn’t happy.

David and Chilam are the trusted aides of the leader but the leader somehow likes Chilam more. He judges that Chilam is a good person and David can betray him at any time. He later decides to kill David and wants to give his properties to Chilam. Chilam of course doesn’t want money but David starts to suspect that Chilam will betray him. He also thinks that his love, Betsy, is falling for Chilam. He begins to get jealous and beats Chilam. Betsy then tells him that Chilam doesn’t love her. He only loves Kenix.

After leaving Chilam and Betsy, Kenix has nowhere to stay. She runs out of money and wants to find a job. She reads the paper and sees that someone is hiring a translator who knows French. She wants to apply but then finds out that the place is really a brothel with professional prostitutes. The owner there persuades her to be a prostitute and she in her depressed moments agrees. At the club, Kenix gets noticed by a very wealthy man named Fung who loves her at first sight. He pays her to be his partner for one month. While they are on the street, Chilam sees Kenix and chases after her into a drug place. He asks Fung about her, but Fung says Kenix’s name in French. Fung doesn’t know Kenix’s real name and says that she is a professional prostitute. Chilam thinks that he has mistaken, so he leaves.

Fung takes Kenix to a meeting with other people. Coincidentally, those people include David and Chilam. Kenix sees Chilam and starts to run away. Chilam chases after and catches her. She has changed her name and doesn’t admit that she was the girl he knew. She says words that hurt Chilam’s feelings and leaves. However, deep inside, she is hurt as well. Chilam becomes so depressed that because of him, she has decided to ruin her own life by being a prostitute.

Fung’s identity is then revealed. He is actually a secret agent who works for the Chinese government. He and his people do underground work to help prevent the Japanese from invading China. Suspecting that Fung is not just an ordinary man, Chilam forces Kenix to leave him. Fung then tries to kill Chilam because Chilam has known everything. However, when Fung is about to shoot Chilam, Kenix, who always wants Chilam to die, pushes Fung to the side and the bullet doesn’t hit Chilam. Then Fung tells Kenix to leave him because he has his missions. He doesn’t know that if someday, he will be forced to kill her to keep the secrets. Chilam tells Kenix to leave the prostitution but she doesn’t listen. He then goes to see the Shanghai’s leader of triads’ wife, who is Kenix’s long lost mother. Kenix insults her mother for re-marrying another man and she then leaves Shanghai without telling anyone. Also at the same time, David keeps suspecting that Chilam might betray him. Chilam says that he won’t fight with David just for money and feels guilty about Kenix’s mischief, so he decides to leave Shanghai and heads for A Nhi Bang, his homeland.

Ching, who is a nun right now, misses Chilam and decides to go to A Nhi Bang looking for him. They meet each other at A Nhi Bang and encounter the Japanese soldiers. The soldiers try to kill them and they have to hide in an empty house located in a snowy mountain. Ching’s church-uniform is accidentally burned, a sign that Ching is no longer a nun. At one night in the house, Ching somehow induces Chilam so the two sleep together. Chilam promises Ching to take care of her forever. On the next day, Chilam wants to go down the mountain to look for people and food. He hears voices of children from a school. He goes near and surprisingly, Kenix is the teacher of the class. She tells him that she has forgiven his guilt and that she wants to be with him. Hurtfully, Chilam already has a relationship with Ching but he tells Kenix that no matter what happens, she is the only one he loves the most. Kenix decides to stay at A Nhi Bang and tells Chilam and Ching to go back to Shanghai. Ching then discovers that she and Kenix are half-sisters. Later, all of them go back to Shanghai.

While Chilam is at A Nhi Bang, David plans to assassinate the leader of triads. However, his plans fail and he has to hide from the police and the guards. Chilam finds David and tries to get him out of Shanghai. The leader’s guards follow them and send guards to kill David. David knows ahead and now he mistakenly believes that Chilam has betrayed him. He then reveals to Chilam that he was the person who put the bomb in a restaurant to kill Chilam’s parents. Chilam is shocked by the news and says that he has to kill David to get revenge for his parents. However, Betsy stops Chilam; David and Betsy then get on the truck and drive away. They don’t know that a bomb is set on the truck so everything explodes. Chilam believes that David and Betsy have died. The leader soon finds out that Chilam is the son of the chief police who he had murdered 17 years ago. Knowing that Chilam is looking for the enemy who killed his parents, the leader sends people to murder Chilam.

At this time, Ching wants to get together with Chilam. Kenix meets Fung again and Fung reveals that he truly loves her. Chilam gets jealous and wants to leave Shanghai with Kenix. He is afraid to tell Ching the truth, so he writes her a letter. Ching guesses the content of the letter and wants to speak with Chilam in person. At this time, the leader has his guard to shoot Chilam. Ching runs to Chilam and accidentally gets shot. She becomes unconscious and doesn’t want to wake up. Chilam promises Ching that he will marry her and that the letter is a proposal. Then Ching wakes up and they have to prepare for the wedding. On the night before the wedding, Chilam and Kenix spend their last time together. In their saddest moments, they indeed sleep together.

The next day at the wedding church, David phones Chilam and tells him who is really behind his parents’ assassination, and that is the leader of triads, Ching’s father. The leader knows that Chilam has known everything, he still agrees the wedding because he knows that his daughter truly loves Chilam. At that night, he commits suicide so that his daughter will have happiness with Chilam. He also passes his entire legacy to Chilam. David wants the leader and Chilam to kill each other. However, it turns out that Chilam gets the entire legacy, David has gone wild. Therefore, he decides to join into the Japanese forces and indeed becomes one of their leaders. At this time, Kenix finds out that she is pregnant. Fung asks her to marry him and that he will accept the baby as his own child. Kenix agrees and after the wedding, they both leave for France.

Three years later in Shanghai:

It is the 3rd anniversary of Chilam and Ching's marriage. Kenix and Fung come back to Shanghai because Fung has another mission to do. Chilam, Ching, Kenix, Fung, and Betsy all meet again at Betsy’s bar. Chilam and Kenix still have feelings for each other. Chilam keeps wanting to see Kenix so he goes to Kenix’s house. At this time, Betsy has a son by David. Kenix also has a three-year-old daughter named Nhu, who is also Chilam’s daughter but he doesn’t know. Ching gets mad upon knowing that Chilam keeps seeing Kenix, so Chilam promises her that he won’t anymore. He starts to concentrate on being a good husband.

The Japanese are invading China. Chinese important people have problems with each other; one person doesn’t believe the other. They have to unite to fight back Japan. There is a man whom everybody trusts. He will come to Shanghai to unite the Chinese forces. However, the Japanese wants to kill him, therefore, he will only come if he knows that he is under a perfect protection. Fung and his leader see that at Shanghai right now, Chilam is the only person who can take this responsibility. Fung goes to see Chilam and asks him to provide forces and guards to protect this important man. Chilam refuses to help. He says that he doesn’t know anything about politics, so he won’t join them. Fung tries to persuade Chilam to help but he fails. At the end, Fung thinks of a plan which he knows that once he applies this plan, he will lose his happy family. He takes Kenix’s daughter, Nhu, and hides her. He then goes to tell Chilam that Nhu is his daughter with Kenix and that if he doesn’t agree to help, Nhu will be killed. Chilam indeed agrees. Kenix gets angry at Fung and decides to leave him.

Chilam provides his people to protect the important man. On the other hand, David with his Japanese forces tries everything to kill this man. David doesn’t mean to help the Japanese; he just wants to make Chilam’s life miserable. Ching then finds out that her husband and Kenix have a daughter. She gets mad and slaps Kenix. Kenix tells Ching the truth that Chilam only loves her, that they had planned to leave Shanghai together, and that the letter wasn’t a proposal but a break-up letter. Ching then realizes that Chilam doesn’t love her. So she now tries to help her sister to get Nhu back.

David later discovers the hiding place of the important man and goes there to kill him. The man dies and the Chinese forces have broken. Fung’s leader gets Chilam to be the responsible person, so Chilam gets caught. Chilam tells Betsy to take everybody out of Shanghai to avoid danger. Kenix wants to rescue Chilam so she agrees to get back with Fung so that Fung will release Chilam. On the day that Ching, Betsy and her daughter leave Shanghai, Chilam is released. Fung drives Kenix and her daughter to the train station to unite with Chilam. Fung knows that Kenix doesn’t love him and he also has his missions to do. He can’t go to France with her. Chilam finds out that Kenix leaves with Fung, so he goes find her. They all leave Shanghai together and head for Thien Son.

The Japanese people are invading Thien Son. Kenix wants Chilam and Ching to be together, so she takes her daughter and leaves. Ching also wants Kenix and Chilam together, so she also leaves. Betsy meets David again and David thinks that his wife and Chilam are living together. He gets mad and shoots into their house wildly. He accidentally shoots his own son who is also in the house. David takes his son’s body and leaves the place. Chilam and Betsy get chased by the Japanese and then get separated. Months later, Chilam meets Ching at a hospital. She is now a real nun and taking care of the wounded people from the war. She tells him that she now has found her true happiness. He then joins a group of soldiers and goes back to Shanghai.

Years later, he becomes a policeman and the Chinese have driven the Japanese people out of China. He goes back to Xa Loi Phi Bar and meets Betsy there. Betsy takes him to a pagoda to see a person. That person is David. David has become a monk to live a quiet life. He has regretted his guilt and now wants to do good work. Chilam then goes to a clock repairing shop and recognizes Kenix’s clock. He keeps standing in front of the shop to wait if somebody will take the clock. One day, a girl comes in and takes the clock. He follows the girl to a house. He recognizes that this house was the one he bought for Kenix when she was blind. A woman comes out and it is really Kenix. She recognizes Chilam and they hug each other.

My Opinion:

Performance:
Chilam Cheung: During this time Chilam just entered showbiz; therefore, I'm very surprised and impressed to find his acting so natural and convincing in this early work of his. He has successfully portrayed every trait of his character. Great job!

Kenix Kwok: Even though this was only her second serial for TVB, she has indeed done a wonderful job. She was very convincing playing a blind girl. You could tell her eyes were not moving but still speaking to give you the feelings. She was also excellent at playing a girl who was torn between love and hatred toward her man. Kenix did a great job as a newcomer in this piece of work.

David Siu: No doubt, David has never disappointed me in any role he played. He was just simply excellent, very convincing as an ambitious man who never trusted anybody.

Betsy Cheung: I notice this actress rarely appears in series nowadays. The last series I saw of her was Cold Blood Warm Heart. She was a great actress who was good in every role she got.

The overall plot:
Remembrance was indeed one of the best TVB works I saw. The story was very well plotted and well casted. It is definitely worthy of collection.

Favorite character:
Chilam Cheung

Favorite villain:
David Siu

Favorite couple:
Chilam-Kenix: It is a shame that TVB does not pair this couple again in a second series. They definitely have chemistry. If TVB ever pairs them again as a love couple, it's like a dream come true for me.