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Monday 24 September 2012

巴不得媽媽 Review of Divas in Distress


Divas in Distress was surprisingly good! I liked all the relationship lines and they were all very sweet. As I said before, I wasn't actually interested in this series, but I'm glad I watched it. It had the freshest cast for a while and  there were many times I chuckled at the show (I'm not a laugh out loud person).

I quite like the idea of using the 21 December idea for the ending. It got everybody together and made everyone think about who is important in their lives. The ending was an open ending, that I think we can assume that everyone survived and lived happily ever afterwards!

The use of english songs in this show was also very nice! See the list of songs here.


Liza Wang as Hung and Gigi Lai as Ho

Hung and Ho both used to be actresses. They have been rivals for years: Hung's daughter carried Ho's son's baby and died whilst giving birth. Hung blames this on Ho's son. Ho is stubborn and likes to get her own way and will do anything for that. This includes causing her son, Vincent to run away from home when Hung interferes with Vincent and Yi Hei's relationship.

Ho finds out that her children did not like her demanding ways, and that her daughter got married so early to get away from her. She hides away and it is revealed that she has bipolar disorder.

Hung helps Ho get over her bipolar disorder and she realises that people are not against her. The two become friends again.

Later Hung gets led to think that Ka Long not is Sau's (Ho's husband) biological son. Sau and Ho finds out Hung's suspicions and Ho demands a divorce as she feels mocked that her husband should think that she was not loyal to him. Sau later finds out it was all a mistake and that Ka Long is indeed his son. However Ho is still angry at him.

Time approaches 21 December, and the sky turns red. At this time, Hung helps Ho realise that even though she is angry at Sau, she would want to be with him if it was the end of the world. She forgives and and goes to find her husband. It turns out he was fighting over a bottle of salt with a sei lai as he wanted to cook a meal for Ho. Moved, they return home, inviting Hung to their meal.

The show ends with the two ladies playing on the wii with their family.


To be honest, I thought that there would be more rivalry scenes between these two Ah Jies. But that could be a good thing as the show could be annoying if they were arguing throughout the whole series. Liza's character was really annoying when she tried to split Vincent-Yi Hei and Yi Long Shen-Hannah up, but I'm glad her character thought things out quite a few episodes before the ending. I really liked Gigi in this show, her character was comedic and I thought her interaction with everyone was great! As I said in an earlier post, Hung is another one of those characters Liza portrays all the time. She does do it well though! I'm glad they are all good friends at the end and Hung told Ho how she admired her family. At the start Hung had a hard time befriending people. I'm sure she'll have no problem in doing so anymore!

A special mention to Henry Lee who played Sau. He's been in so many series this year! From villain to Sau, he has been enjoyable to watch in all of them!!

Chin Ka Lok as Ka Long and Eliza Sam as Hannah

Ka Long's wife died 7 years ago whilst giving birth to their son. He never forgets her and promises his mother in law that he will never marry another women. His new colleague, Hannah does not like him at first due to misunderstandings. However after Hannah gets to know Ka Long, she develops deep feelings for him. After a while Ka Long also develops feelings for Hannah but does not dare reveal it as he feels that he is doing his dead wife wrong.

One day Hannah gets ran over by a car, and Ka Long manages to lift a car up so Hannah could be taken out . She goes into a coma. Ka Long visits his wife's grave and admits his feelings to Hannah, and Hung secretly records the dialogue and plays it to Hannah in hope that she wakes up. She does, but she pretends to have forgotten all the memories of her and Ka Long after her dislike for him got changed. Ka Lok confronts her for this when he realises this, and she tells him that she did so as she heard his recording in which he said that  he could not love her. After this she quits her job, and no one can find her.

21 December 2012, apparently the end of the world approaches. Ka Long thinks about Hannah and remembers that he once imagined her in front of him, and there, he said that he would be with her if 21 December was indeed the last day ever.
He receives a withheld call but no one answers on the other side. He knows that it is Hannah, and he tells her that he would be with her. Then a man's voice comes from the phone, and the voice says he is Ka Long's old friend.

Ka Long's boss tells him to make some interviews at a church where youngsters were collecting up to change their ways in hope to go to heaven since it was 20th December. He goes, and Hannah turns up and he reveals his feelings in front of her. The youngsters get annoyed at Hannah getting in their way from cleansing their souls and start to run after the couple. Ka Long states that she hadn't changed as things turn out badly she's around. She asks him if he wants her to change. Ka Long tells her that he doesn't want her to change.

This was my favourite couple in DID. I think that most people like Him / Mandy, but I fell that this pair is happier and Hannah's character was so cute! I loved their development, and seeing Ka Long from nothing to denial to finally admitting his feelings. I was pretty annoyed when Hannah lost the memories of her and Yi Long Shun. Thankfully she was just pretending and she still liked him! 

Eliza Sam had a big role in the series and although there were room for improvement, I could see that she gave it her best. I really enjoyed her performance! I also thought she tackled the crying scenes quite well. I wonder how her status in TVB will be now, going up or down due to this performance. Right now I think it's nice of TVB to give her such a big role so early to try, but if she doesn't improve and TVB shouldn't continue to give her roles as big as this one.
I also mentioned that I didn't like her accent in my initial thoughts of this series. I got used to it pretty soon after though.

Chin Ka Lok was great too. It's not often at all that we get to see him on screen. I hope he gets some recognition from this show as the hot topics will be Him, Mandy and Eliza.



Him Law as Vincent and Mandy Wong as Yi Hei

Vincent is from a rich family and Yi Hei is a decorator with a complicated past. The two give each other a bad initial impression. Vincent's thoughts of Yi Hei changes when he finds her graffiti work and starts to admire her artistic skills. He begins to develop romantic feelings for her and makes excuses to see her more. Still disliking Vincent, Yi Hei insults him and attacks him for being successful by his rich mother and unnecessary body building. Her friend So Gei tells her that Vincent used his own capabilities in his work, and was built up to strengthen his body since he had asthma. He also tells Yi Hei Vincent's admiration of her. Yi Hei decides she likes Vincent, and the two get together.

Vincent's mum finds out, and she does not approve of this relationship. She also finds that Yi Hei has a criminal record and exposes it to Vincent. Yi Hei does not want to share her past with him and they break up after an argument.

Time passes but the two still has feelings for each other. Vincent finds out Yi Hei's past and that she has dysgraphia, he follows her around and sees that she is stuck when applying for a competition to win a holiday in Japan. She cannot write her name and Vincent steps forward to do it for her, writing her name out 68 times. He also convinces her to get  beak together with him.

At this time, Vincent's mum realises she was wrong to separate the two, so makes Yi Hei the winner of the holiday. She hopes the two get back on good terms on this holiday. The two go to Japan and Vincent proposes and she accepts.

Back in Hong Kong Yi Hei finds out that Vincent had won a highly regarded award and that he had proposed to her before she found out in case she had thought she wasn't good enough for him again. She also finds out that he had been taken twice his asthma medication because he had n allergic reaction to her smalls as she is a decorator. She decides to sacrifice for him by giving up her job. Vincent knows that being a decorator is a thing that makes her confident so he doesn't wnat her to sacrifice for him, so he decides to end the relationship and leave HK. Yi Hei realised this and manages to stop him, and tells him that it;s her turn to sacrifice. The two hug and stay together.

Vincent takes Yi Hei to the top of a mountain where there is a beautiful view of HK. The two look at the scenery.

This was my favourite couple at the start. I loved the bickering scenes between the two and the things Vincent did in order to be able see her more, only to give himself a bad impression! Vincent stalking Yi Hei should be creepy but I found it sweet. I was happy when they finally got together, but then Vincent's mum spoiled everything- their relationship didn't feel very romantic any more when Yi Hei repeatedly distanced herself from Vincent. It was just too long winded and draggy! 

I didn't like the forceful nature of Vincent's, trying to force Yi Hei to have lunch with him, trying to force her into inviting him to Japan. I thought it was funny at the start before the two were together, but it must be annoying to be with someone like that! But we could really see how much Yi Hei meant to Vincent. Vincent was always the one in the pair trying to make things work and he even left home when his mother didn't approve of Yi Hei. I guess that makes up for his creepiness :) To be honest if it wasn't Him Law and Mandy Wong playing their respective roles, I would find Vincent to be very creepy.

We know that Vincent likes Yi Hei as he admires her art. I don't know what Yi Hei likes Vincent for: at the start of the day she hated his guts, by the end of the day she decided to be with him. But she did cry for him and sacrificed her job for him in the end which showed that she did love him deeply.

As I mentioned in this post about TVB newbies, Mandy Wong already seems like she's been acting for years. Same stuff here. I'm still looking for a character from her where she doesn't pull a really annoyed face all the time. Such as this one:


Him Law also has a face that I find him pulling in lots of scenes such as


And especially when his character is stalking Mandy's. However I do find that wooden expression of Him's very appropriate for those scenes.

Gu Ka Ming as So Gei
I loved this character! I recognise his face from past TVB series and I'm very happy that I now now see Gu Ming Wah and think "He's So Gei from Divas in Distress!" His stylist did a good job and so did his interpretation of a feminine man! 


I guessed that he would be with Ka Long's boss (posted that on twitter). What a compatible pair! I love the dance that they did that brought them together!










Chung King Fai as Han Man and Mimi Chu as Jenny
I loved this pair as well! They were really funny and their story was sad. It's great they had their happy ending though! I thought their walk on the beach in their white clothings was very romantic! 

Mimi Chu has always been a comedic character to me, and even though there are comedic sides to her character, I could see the serious side to her which was hurt deeply from her relationship, but still thought fondly of the good memories. 

I liked how Han Man always said "To ____ or not to ___", but I do think he overdid it. But he didn't deny Jenny being his girlfriend which was sweet, but they proceeded to link arms afterwards which implies that he admits in indirectly. What a sweet couple :)

1 comment:

Anonymous said... [Reply]

Yeah, SoGei really leaves an impression here! I noticed this veteran supporting actor too!
And i love the fact that tvb seems to be very fond of us Malaysians, linking many of the storylines to us... Mimi Chu and Eliza Sam even spoke Malay in this show which really made my jaw dropped!

You r right abt this DID show - it started throwing surprisingly funny twists from Episode 13 onwards.