Journey of Love

How long
20 episodes

Foreword

It is the story of a widow on how she struggles to bring up her 5 children. She parts from them so how is she going to search for all of them back? Seeing how they have changed, she decides to help them get back on their feet again.

Story/Introduction on characters

1. Ho Ah Chun – Lee Ying
Ah Chun has 5 children. Her last two children are twins – a boy and a girl. Kar Shing gives up his studies while Kar Wai needs to pay her school lodging fees. Kar Chun needs money for an operation. She has no choice but to cheat at a gambling den. Later she goes to the Philippines but gets framed to be jailed.

She is released after 18 years and returns to Hong Kong, hoping to find her 5 children. Some of them are unwilling to acknowledge her but are slowly won over by her. She contracts cancer at this time. But all children are around to give her support. Lee Ying does well for this long-suffering mother role.

2. Cheung Kar Shing – Ngai Chun Kit
He is the eldest son who is married with a son. He owns a café but has a gambling habit. He is caring to his younger siblings but lands into the trap of Lulu to sell illegal cigarettes. He gets caught and has to start all over again. He cuts his finger and it doesn’t stop bleeding. He needs a bone barrow but none of his family fits him. Kar Mei refuses to help him but gives in to have a check up but she isn’t suitable too.

In order not to implicate Yuk Kuen, he signs the divorce papers. Yuk Kuen returns to him upon knowing that he is sick. Kar Chun later donates his bone barrow to save him.

Chun Kit to act as a parent at his young age? Unbelievable but true. He is quite natural in his acting and has chemistry with the boy.

3. Cheung Kar Wai – Cheng Sau Mun
She is the second daughter who often finds excuses to stay in the school hostel to escape from reality. She can’t get over her parents’ tragedy and is still single. She becomes a DPP but never expects her first case to charge her own sister. She even points out that Ah Chun’s negligence causes this. Ah Chun manages to find evidence to clear her name.

Kar Wai removes her records at the orphanage so that Ah Chun will not know where she is. Although Ah Chun suspects her to be her daughter, she denies the fact. Her car is trapped in the soil but is still cold to her when Ah Chun helps her. She is career-minded and keeps on delaying her marriage plans with Jo Yin. She is pregnant and plans to abort the baby but Ah Chun stops her.

Kar Wai agrees to the marriage and is touched by Ah Chun’s concern. She lets her comb her hair before the wedding. Ah Chun brings a lot of things for her and treats her like her own daughter. She feels the warmth and doesn’t feel hostile towards her anymore.

Knowing that Kar Mei kills Siu Lai’s father, Ah Chun takes the rap to be the accused. Kar Wai burns the photo in order to save her. But it is found of their relationship. Kar Wai confesses to her and she is touched. Kar Wai gives birth to a daughter so Ah Chun gets to visit her. Both finally reconcile with each other.

Cold as like in other dramas, you will know why Sau Mun is chosen to act in ‘Files of justice’. She does have the lawyer look and is quite okay in her acting as her forte is still singing.

4. Cheung Kar Keung – Chung Hon Leung
He is the third son who is the most unfortunate. He falls down a building and become retarded. Ah Chun decides to bring him out to get adapted to the outside world. He stays with Kar Shing but Suk Kuen dislikes him – even after he helps him to chase a dog away from hurting Siu Lung. The nursing home then decides to bring Kar Keung back since his family doesn’t treat him well but Jo Yin becomes the witness to let him stay by Ah Chun’s side.

He gets bullied at work in the fast-food restaurant and Ah Chun is very upset. But he works hard to improve himself so the boss keeps him. He is charged for murder but later recalls that Siu Lai’s father falls to his death by breaking his own neck so his mother is released as she takes the rap for him.

How much he has improved from ‘Conscience’! He has improved through heaps and bounds. He starts to shine here – and thus he becomes the lead actor in most dramas later.

5. Cheung Kar Chun – Cho Wing Lam
He is the fourth son who gets adopted but he hates his natural mother. He gets into an argument with Kar Mei as he falls for her friend, Siu Lai. He later sends Kar Keung home when he loses his way. This is how he knows Ah Chun. He invites Siu Lai to his birthday party and Siu Lai is torn between which party to attend as both share the same birthday. That causes ill-feelings between them the next time.

Kar Chun sees Ah Chun borrowing money from his foster parents to pay for Kar Shing’s gambling debts and hates her. His resentment still stays although he saves Kar Shing. So does Kar Mei as she doesn’t know
that he is her elder twin. She still wants revenge. His love life ends in tragedy because of her folly.

He is only passable in acting then as he has trouble dealing with the emotional scenes on hating Ah Chun. He is so much better in acting now.

6. Cheung Kar Mei – Gan Pui Kwan
She is the youngest daughter. She lacks guidance and becomes a delinquent. It is dramatic as the prosecutor is Kar Mei – her very own elder sister to charge her in court. Luckily, she is let off. But she is very caring towards Kar Keung. She gets worked up when Kar Shing’s son leaves him in the garden to return home.

She becomes a salesgirl and her friend breaks a tennis racket. She frames Kar Chun for doing it and gets fired. She then scratches his car and beats him up but he still insists of dating Siu Lai. She then spikes his drink to cause an accident and is jailed for 6 months. She gets bullied there.

Thus she refuses to let Kar Chun off after her release. She drugs him and Siu Lai to take naked photos of them. She even extorts Kar Chun but gives back to him after that. She quarrels with Siu Lai’s father over the photos and causes him to fall off the building. Kar Keung passes by and is accused of murder. Kar Mei then regrets what she has done as Ah Chun takes the rap for her.

This woman needs to be whipped! Yes – if not, Kar Chun will be a happy couple with Siu Lai and Ah Chun will not have to take the rap for her for so many times. Thumbs up for her acting.

7. Run Suk Kuen – So Yuk Wah
She is very calculative and quarrels with Kar Shing over his siblings. She is upset to find out his affair with Lulu. She wants to divorce him and brings his son away. That wakes him up to make him become a better man. She gets her wish granted later. As young as Chun Kit, I also wonder why she is given a mother’s role. But she also tries her best too.

8. Tang Jo Yin – Cheung Kok Keung
He is a caring doctor and is also Kar Wai’s boyfriend. Kar Keung is his patient at the nursing home and he helps him to get discharged. He wants to marry Kar Wai but she keeps rejecting him because of her past. Knowing that Kar Wai is pregnant, he proposes to her but she refuses to marry him. Ah Chun tells him not to give up. His insistence pays off in the end.

You will love this role. Despite knowing that Kar Keung has odds against him, he knows that Ah Chun will take good care of him so he speaks up for her. He is also a devoted lover to Kar Wai, waiting for her to change her mind.

9. Dr Wong – Bao Fong
He is the doctor who treats and later adopts Kar Chun when Ah Chun is away. Ah Chun meets him at the wedding to learn that Kar Chun is her son. She decides to keep it from Kar Chun as this will affect his future. But we will know that there is nothing we can hide under the sun and sooner or later, the cat will be let out of the bag.

10. Lee Bo Keng – Lo Yuen Yan
She is Ah Chun’s friend who helps to bring up her 3 children when she is away. If adding to her own daughter, Siu Lai, this will be four. She feels bad for causing Kar Keung to become retarded but Ah Chun doesn’t blame her. Her lover steals Kar Chun’s naked photo to extort Kar Chun. Siu Lai later commits suicide because of this.

11. Cheung Siu Lung
He is Kar Shing’s son who doesn’t know how to get along with Kar Keung. But slowly, he adores his uncle and become inseparable from him. He even teaches him how to get his way home. He is bitter over his parents’ divorce and is glad when they are back again.

12. Kong Siu Lai – Chan Kit San
She is Kar Mei’s close friend and also Kar Chun’s girlfriend. She is also Bo Keng’s illegitimate daughter.
Kar Mei opposes to them together because they have an old feud. The twins have the same birthday so she gets cakes for them. Ah Chun mixes them up and Kar Mei is angry that Siu Lai goes for his birthday party too. She spikes his drink and both go car racing. The three end up in a car accident to hurt a policeman.

The policeman finds drugs on Kar Mei and Kar Chun is hospitalized. Ah Chun helps her to reconcile with Kar Chun again. But she mistakenly assumes that Kar Chun likes the rich and ignores Ah Chun. Thus she is angry with him. Both make up after he saves Kar Shing but their romance is short-lived as she dies because of the naked photos.

Conclusion

Even if it is a homely drama, you need to be prepared to face the large amounts of tragedies and overly dramatic. It is sad enough for Ah Chun getting a slow Kar Keung and teaching him how to take care of himself. How does she feel when Yuk Kuen treats him like a disease to force him to stay at the rooftop? She doesn’t hesitate to take care of him to stay with him there.

Seeing how patient she is to get him used to working life is already a chore for her. She needs extra energy to discipline Kar Mei who pedals drugs and gets into the wrong company. She also has to help Kar Shing kick his gambling habit. How many hands does she have? Even though Kar Chun and Kar Mei do not give her extra trouble, she has problems getting them to acknowledge her again.

It is painful for her to give Kar Chun away and Dr Wong’s wife is so afraid that she will try to seize him back. Blood is thicker than water to let Kar Chun realize that his biological family is also closely knitted and he grows to accept them to come into his life. So is Kar Wai who takes time to forgive her too.

I find the path of her journey too long. She gets ill as her children drains too much of her energy. She has suffered a lot in jail and now too. This drama is a soap drama so you will keep on asking yourself –why is she so ill-fated? Because the producer enjoys it so he keeps creating hurdle by hurdle. But in the end, I feel so tired and have to suppress the urge to complain – all right we know, but isn’t it time to move on now? This is a major drawback as my patience is wiped out midway.

Luckily, the cast is well picked or it will become an ordinary drama. They are given enough exposure and do not fail the viewers. Pui Kwan is the best as the brat in the drama. She stirs up so much trouble and can still wait to see how Kar Shing is dying. Setting up Siu Lai is also a terrible act – that is her own friend and she still does it! I totally freeze when her angelic face doesn’t fit her actions.

It also shows how promising some of them are – they are given meater roles to play now – either in TVB or elsewhere. Although others have retired from show biz, they manage to give a deep impression.

Sukting’s ratings :

On acting : *** (Scale of 5)

On story : ** (Scale of 5)