Colorful Life

Cast:
Wong Suk Yee as Sheung Koon Dan Fung/Second Madame
Lo Yuen Yan as Shum Gum Hing/Third Madame
Frankie Lam as Cheng Chi Heen
Annie Man as Dun Chu
Florence Kwok as Shuet Siu Siu/Chi Pok Wife
Yuen Siu Cheung as Cheng Chi Pok
Ronald Cheng as Cheng Chi Yung
Mui Siu Wai as Cheng Yeen/Chi Yung Wife
Myolie Wu as Cheng Wing Chi/Fifth Sister
Law Kong (unsure about hisname) as Cheng Chi Sing
Louisa So as Chow Mon Han/Chi Sing Wife
May Kwong as Chow Mon Sze
Ellesmere Choy as Fung Tai Sung
Irene Wong as Ah Yi Ma
Deng Siu Chuen as Koo Ho Nam
Mark Kwok as Gong Suen Mun Boon

Warning! Spoiler Review!

During the Tang dynasty, as we all know, lived a great emperor Tong Tai Chung. His own sister, Princess Man Sing was married to the king of To Po (uncertain). Then Tong ordered a marriage between a To Po princess and a wealthy family's son. Unfortunately, the Cheng family's fourth son, Chi Heen was chosen. Guess who the lucky bride was. Dun Chu. No, not a dumb pig, but a young and intelligent princess (so you think) who just has a funny name. When the two met at first, everything turned awkward. They became enemies instead of husband and wife. But like many other series, these two develop a friendship and would later on fall in love.

What makes this series complicated is the family relationship. Besides the Second Madame, Wing Chi and Chi Sing's wife, everyone else talks trash behind each other's backs. The "He said She said" kind. That's why there are a lot of arguments. It's not only the women; the men also do trash talking.

The Cheng family consists of two major roles: Second Madame and Third Madame. The husband and the first wife died. Second Madame's children are Chi Yung and Chi Heen. The Third Madame's children are Chi Pok and Wing Chi. The eldest son is Chi Sing, whose mother is the first wife. So there you go, that's all the Chengs--isn't it? Nope. Let us add in their house cleaner, the house cleaner's son, Fung Tai Sung, Dun Chu, and her maid Ah Yi Ma. So we have one big family.

Anyway, Chi Heen disliked Dun Chu because she was not respectful and mostly he had someone else on his mind. It was his sister-in-law's Chow Mon Han's younger sister Chow Mon Sze, who he had known when they were younger. He had fallen for her intelligence because she could be as witty as he could be (he's a smart scholar). Dun Chu understands what they're going through and tries to make Chi Heen and Mon Sze a couple. That doesn't work out though. Meanwhile, a rich and cunning young man comes into Mon Sze's life. He was Gong Suen Mun Boon. He also fell for her intelligence and her beauty. In addition, Dun Chu and Chi Heen were starting to care for each other even more (after so many unhappy events). This clearly meant that they were beginning to develop some feelings for each other. It really showed when Chi Heen was off to take the Imperial Exams (which she caused him to miss the first time) and Dun Chu sewed him a pig on one of his robes so that he had something to remind him of her.

Meanwhile back home, things were going wild. Chi Pok's wife was kicked out of the family because she was accused of poisoning Chi Pok's mistress, Tung Mui, who was pregnant. Tung Mui wasn't really in love with Chi Pok, all she wanted was wealth and power. All she needed to do was bear him a son. Then when some evil old man did some evil-doing to destroy the Cheng family, she escaped, taking all the precious gold and jewels from the Chengs. What a bad woman! The other wives, however, stood by their husbands and never thought of leaving. Well, at least none of them really left. The Chengs ended up living in a small, ugly house. Third Madame got tired of Second Madame's orders and wanted to split the money. Besides the money, they split half of everything including the house. Suddenly, Third Madame gets a disease by eating a chicken and ended up being sick. Second Madame and the others couldn't just stand there and do nothing, so they spent their money on medicine. Third Madame finally knew that everyone was nice to her and she apologized for everything she did in the past.

A secret is revealed when Chi Heen arrives back home as a minister. After some clue diggings, it turns out that Chi Heen is the prince of To Po. How? In the beginning, Dun Chu was supposed to be married Chi Heen, right? At the same time, she was helping an official find his long lost son (yeah right). He offered some clues and she began helping him. However, when Dun Chu brought Chi Heen to the official, he wanted to kill Chi Heen instead. Confused, Dun Chu wasn't sure about what to do until someone tells her that Chi Heen is the prince of To Po and she was assigned to bring Chi Heen back to his native country. Meanwhile, the king of To Po and his beautiful queen are captured by his evil brother. The brother sends a message to the Tang emperor which said that the Queen (Tang princess Man Sing) is about to die and that the Chengs are engaged in the planning. The Chengs are sentenced to death. But, the brother fails because Dun Chu rescues the king and his queen and tells the king the whole story. The king immediately delivers a message to the Tang emperor, telling him that the Chengs were innocent.

At last, everything was settled, Chi Pok's wife was back and Second Madame learns that Chi Heen isn't her son, but she still takes him as her own son. Chi Yung and his wife finds the son that he and Tung Mui (she died) had. At the end, it was Second Madame's birthday and the whole family makes her favorite gift, "Fung Wong Chun Yeem" (cloth made of out some shiny material and it glows in the dark). The whole family gathers and Dun Chu announces that she's pregnant. The end!

Additional Comments:
Annie Man's Dun Chu was above average. Is it just me or is she doing a much better job at TVB than at ATV? I also want to say that this series wasn't that good, although I liked it. I mean, first of all, the story was very much like "Lady Flower Fist". The point that Annie Man was married to Frankie and they hated each other then fell in love was so like "Lady Flower Fist". In that series, Esther was married to Kong Wah,they despised each other and then they fell for each other. Why doesn't TVB get some ideas from us audience? Hey, we might be "little people"but we have "big" ideas.

Screenshots (TVB Copyrighted).