The Golden Path 黄金路: after 5 episodes

December 27, 2007 in 2007 Dramas, 2008 Dramas, Dramas

CHECK OUT MY OTHER REVIEW HERE!

From episode 1 to 5, the era is in the 1980s. Xiao-gu (Chen Liping) and her children are still young.

-Kaida (陈勇铭 Chen Yong Ming), Kaijie (马纬翰 Ma Wei Han), Kaiqi (捞毓婷 Lao Yuting), Jin Long (张家奇 Fraser Tiong), Jin Feng (黄磬仪 Huang Qing Yi)

Xiao-gu runs her tzi-cha stall, and lives each day laughing and smiling. Together with her 3 children, Kaida, Kaijie, and Kaiqi, they live in 1 room, and their neighbour is the wanton mee seller Ying (Wen Liling)and her husband Lin (Wang Yuqing). Their wanton mee stall is just next to Xiao-gu’s, and Ying is a very selfish woman who takes Xiao-gu’s hospitality for granted. The children all call her ‘Fatty Ying’, for she is very greedy and eats a lot – especially Xiao-gu’s food.

The drama begins when Cheng (Edmund Chen in a 2 minute role), an underworld boss, and Xiao-gu’s late husband’s good friend, is murdered. Dying, he hands a key to Jin Long, as he happened to be in the same alley, asking him to hand it over to Xiao-gu of ‘Happy Restaurant’.

Cheng helped Xiao-gu’s late husband when he will very ill. He also lent a fair sum of money to them. Cheng-sao (Joey Swee) gets Snake to get Xiao-gu to repay the debt. Xiao-gu later finds out that Snake is Cheng-sao’s lover.

Snake tries to kill her, but she manages to escape, with help from a mysterious man. He is none other than Ah-Jin (Li Nanxing).

A few days later, Jin Long and Jin Feng’s father, known as Ah-Jin, appears to see his children. Ying mistakes him as ‘Oily Man’, and kicks up a big fuss. However, Xiao-gu recognises him as the guy who saved him that night.

When the ‘Oily Man’ does attack, it is Xiao-gu who is the target. With Ah-Jin’s help, they chase him away. Kaijie is determined to find out the identity of the ‘Oily Man’. He suspects Fatty Ying’s husband Lin. While sneaking around looking for clues, he and Jin Feng look in Ying and Lin’s room, and overhear Jin Long extorting money from Lin, as Jin Long knows that he is ‘Oily Man’.

Finally, the ‘Oily Man’ saga ends, with Lin being caught by the police for wielding a chopper and running after Jin Long, Kaijie and Jin Feng, crazed. He gets sent to the mental institute.

Meanwhile, Ah-Jin has a secret. He was one of the robbers involved in a huge jewelry shop robbery. He and his accomplice are the top 2 wanted men by the police, but although the police have obtained an identikit of Ah-Jin’s partner in crime, Hu (Hong Peixin), they know little about Ah-Jin. Ah-Jin remembers how Hu had cold-heartedly shot the third member of their team, as he was injured, shot by the police, and slowing them down. Hu was afraid that the police would be able to catch the injured third member, and hence, their identities would be revealed.

Hu suddenly appears, and approaches Jin to participate in another heist. Jin refuses, but Hu keeps pestering him. Hu insists that policeman Cai (Li Wenhai) is suspicious of him, and attempts to kill him. However, Ah-Jin stops him. The two men get into a fight, and Hu is accidentally killed by Ah-Jin.
After a few encounters, Ah-Jin and Xiao-gu become closer. He proposes marriage. Everyone but Kaijie and Jin Long are happy. Kaijie insists that Ah-Jin is a murderer, as he saw him accidentally kill Hu, but when he returned to the scene, the body was gone.

Kaijie finally realises that Hu was the robber according to the identikit provided by the police, printed in the newspapers. That would mean that Ah-Jin was also involved in the robbery. On Xiao-gu and Ah-Jin’s wedding day, Jin Long overhears Kaijie asking Ying to call the police regarding the robber in the newspapers, and she could redeem the reward of $10,000.

The police arrive, but not before the children serve tea to Xiao-gu and Ah-Jin. Reluctantly, Jin Long serves tea to Xiao-gu and calls her ‘ma’. However, Kaijie did not serve tea to either of them, for he was waiting for the police to come. They did, and Ah-Jin was already prepared, as Jin Long told him what he overheard Kaijie tell Ying.

Taking policeman Cai hostage with his gun, Ah-Jin runs to a run down high-rise building, where he releases Cai, and jumps out the window. On the road, he in surrounded by many policemen. He points the gun to his head and shoots himself.

REVIEW:
AT THIS MOMENT, the story has just been given a background. The personalities of the characters have already been formed, and well… this is just the beginning of what is to come…

These are my favourite episodes. The child actors act so well!! : ) It’s their great acting that bring life to this show, as the plot is not so exciting yet. Bravo! especially to Fraser, who played Jin Long, and Wei Han (whom I’ve not seen before), as Kaijie. Noticeable is the tension between Jin Long and Kaijie, and where the modern story will start off.

But setting these first 5 episodes in their childhood – the 1980s, it prevents excessive flashbacks in the modern era, especially since there was a story to tell – how they all met, and what they all went through together. I also liked the way they showed how time passed by using the television set showing dramas being aired : ) very apt, considering that this blockbuster production celebrates 25 years of Chinese Drama.

Yes, as with any other drama set 10, 20 years back, and attempting to film in modern day Singapore, there will be some minor discrepancies, like out-of-era road signs and the like. But nevertheless, I think the crew did a good job in terms of filming locations. It did give us the sense that it was really in the 1980s.

Other than Chen Liping, another actor who was great here is Wang Yuqing! Bravo to him, acting as a henpecked husband who was so ugly with bucked-teeth, and then as the ‘Oily Man’ who later turned psycho, wielding a chopper and laughing to himself, with a demented look in his eyes.

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