Live Again 天堂鸟 (Tian Tang Niao)

December 7, 2007 in 2007 Dramas, Dramas

This drama, which started on 13 Nov 07, at 9pm on Channel 8, marks the return of screen couples of Ivy Lee & Shaun Chen (their second pairing since 2006’s C.I.D.), & Edmund Chen, as well as Edmund Chen and Phyllis Quek, whom we’ve not seen on our screens for over a year!

Stars: Ivy Lee as Han Qizhen, Shaun Chen as Du Xiangyi (A-du), Edmund Chen as Chen Haiming, Phyllis Quek as Xie Siru, Belinda Lee as Coco Chen, Chen Shucheng as Zhang-bo, Vivian Lai as Jenny, Huang Shinan as Nelson, Zheng Geping as Gary, Joey Swee as Zhang Baohua, Ong Ai Leng as Zhang Baohui, Jin Yinji as Haiming & Coco’s mother, Ye Shipin as Cai Datong (‘da tou cai’), Xie Shenjie as Sayang

The story starts with what is happening presently. Ivy Lee is Han Qizhen, who, with her daughter Tongtong, is living in her best friend Coco’s (Belinda Lee) house. She suffers from nightmares, and is afraid of a certain ‘Da Tou Cai’ (Ye Shipin), who keeps harassing her.

What Coco and her family do not know, is that ‘Da Tou Cai’ is actually blackmailing Qizhen, for he says she killed her husband, and he buried his body.

She goes and meets ‘Da Tou Cai’ in his flat, and he tries to take advantage of her. She was well aware of the danger in going to see him, and brought a knife along. While struggling with ‘Da Tou Cai’, she reaches for her knife, and stabs him.

Haunted by images of her hitting someone (Shaun Chen)’s head, she breaks down. ‘Da Tou Cai’ is severely injured. Qizhen gets locked up in the police station. She then remembers her past, when her cellmate asks her how she got into this state.

6 years ago, she was a fashion designer who had just taken off. She had her own label, and was seen as having great potential to succeed in the industry. Her rich parents live in Canada, and because she wanted to stay in Singapore, she is at odds with her father. Her mother tries to match-make her with rich men – sons of her father’s friends and business associates.

While on the phone, a man comes suddenly, and snatches her design sketches and her pen. He scribbles down something, and she loses sight of him. He is Du Xiangyi (Shaun Chen), a song-writer, who needed to write down the notes of a song when his inspiration came.

A few days later, Qizhen sees an advertisement in the newspapers, looking for the owner of a sketch. Qizhen immediately recognises it as her own, and goes with Coco to meet with the person. Coco suddenly has something to attend to, and leaves Qizhen with Xiangyi. They end up having lunch, and have so many common interests and things to talk about that they stay for the whole afternoon.

Over time, Qizhen and Xiangyi become closer, and she ends up marrying him, after hearing him sing the song he wrote because of her.

As she remembers the past, things get worse and worse for her and Xiangyi, now with a daughter Tongtong. Xiangyi opened his own music house, but because of financial difficulties, and high stress, he was unable to write any good songs, and his company had to close down. He started quarelling with Qizhen, and was strongly influenced by ‘Da Tou Cai’, who brought him to a gambling den, and got him addicted to gambling.

In the present, Haiming (Edmund Chen), Coco’s brother, who had always held a torch for Qizhen, finds out the truth about Xiangyi. It happened when Xiangyi came home utterly drunk, and he started taking out of anger on Qizhen. He had started abusing her recently, when he was down and out of out of a job. But this night, it was particularly bad. After being beaten up by Xiangyi, and he collapsed, still drunk, Qizhen made the decision to leave with Tongtong. They were about to leave the house when Xiangyi suddenly woke up and stopped them. He started being violent again, and he came to the point of strangling her. In panic, and to defend herself, she knocked his head a few times with a heavy trophy. There was so much blood coming from his head, and she realised that he wasn’t breathing. She panicked, and ran from the house with Tongtong, seeking refuge in Coco’s house.

When she decided to go back with Coco a few days later, there was nothing there. No Xiangyi. ‘Da Tou Cai’ saw them and then decided to use the opportunity to lie and blackmail her.

Later, Xiangyi chalked up so much debt that Qizhen, Haiming and Coco had to borrow from people to pay the loansharks off. Haiming’s concern for Qizhen made his cousin, Jenny (Vivian Lai), very jealous, as she had liked Haiming for a long time.

In hospital, Haiming and Qizhen talk to ‘Da Tou Cai’, who survived the surgery. He demands an enormous sum of money from them, and promises that he won’t appear in front of them again. Haiming agrees to give him the amount if he tells them where he buried Xiangyi.

It is obvious that ‘Da Tou Cai’ never knew what happened to Xiangyi, for he saw him, lying on the floor of his house, with blood coming from his head, and he didn’t feel Xiangyi breathing. But ‘Da Tou Cai’ was careless, and he slipped and knocked his head, and fell unconscious. When he woke up, Xiangyi was gone.

Of course, Xiangyi wasn’t dead. But he had lost his memory, and fell very ill, nursed back to health by a retard, Sayang, and he met Zhang-bo, a garang-guni man. By this time, he had became dumb, speaking like a toddler. But he was determined to help Zhang-bo, whether on his rounds as a garang-guni, or at his flea market store.

Zhang-bo chose to ignore him, for he thought that Ah-du was sent by his children to spy on him. His greedy children and their spouses are eyeing a diamond – – the ‘Star of Africa’. Only youngest daughter Baohui and her husband are not greedy and eyeing his things.

Zhang-bo’s children all suspect each other of hiring Ah-du. They beat him up and humiliate him by throwing money at him. He is saved by Siru (Phyllis Quek), who questions his motives and asks him why he allows himself to be humiliated and why he didn’t retort. She suspects that he is suffering from amnesia.

END OF FIVE EPISODES~

There isn’t much development in this story, and with its rather bland storyline and predictable ending, I didn’t expect anything spectacular, so I gave up after 5 episodes.

The 1st 4 episodes were very painful to watch. But only because THE ACTING WAS BRILLIANT! Shaun Chen’s portrayal from a normal song-writer, to an abusive, addicted to gambling husband, to a dumb guy who can’t even say his own name, is JUST GREAT! So is Ivy Lee’s portrayal of a normal, happy and contented modern woman, to a supportive, but rather miserable wife, to an abused wife, to a guilty “murderer” (the 2 parts after she hit Ah-du and ‘Da Tou Cai’, were AMAZING)… JUST BRILLIANT : )

Edmund Chen’s return to screen is not spectacular at all, his role as this helpful guy, holding a torch for Qizhen, and trying his best to protect her. To a certain extent, his character Haiming, is a bit of a loser.

But he is being pestered by his cousin, Jenny, who is, in fact, a wolf in sheep’s clothings. She does evil and horrible things behind his back, and pretends to be OH SO GOOD in front of him. Vivian Lai is perfect for these kinds of roles, where she looks so innocent, but has such an evil heart! : )

Phyllis Quek’s return to screen is not spectacular either, as Zhang-bo’s god-daughter, who falls in love with Ah-Du. With her care, he slowly regains parts of his memory, and now functions as a normal person. A normal person who falls in love with Siru. But Siru finds out about Qizhen, and is worried for his safety, especially when a certain criminal, Nelson (Huang Shinan), would not let her off, even though he is wanted by the police.

THE ENDING:

Xiangyi and Siru are now in love. He proposes to her, and she finally accepts. However, Nelson creates trouble for all of them. First, he kidnaps Xiangyi, but Sayang saves him. But Xiangyi has a blood clot in his brain, and if he doesn’t get surgery, he may turn blind. Then Siru goes missing. Nelson had kidnapped her.

Xiangyi regains his memories, because of the blood clot, but his heart is no longer with Qizhen. So Qizhen makes the decision to marry Haiming. There is bound to be trouble with ‘Da Tou Cai’ still around. He introduces Jenny to Nelson. Jenny is angry to know that Qizhen and Haiming are getting married, and Nelson would help her solve her problems.

Qizhen and Haiming register their marriage.

The final showdown: Xiangyi postpones his surgery, and goes to rescue Siru. Siru is forced to call Qizhen, who arrives at the go-down with Haiming. All four lives are in danger… Haiming probably gets hit on the head in the struggle with Nelson, for he went into a coma (as seen in the clips in the beginning). Xiangyi’s fate is also unknown… will he go blind or go for the surgery in time? will he survive the surgery? will Haiming wake up?

FINALE on 10 December 2007.

The theme song 爱 (Ai) by 小人国 (Xiao Ren Guo):

CLICK HERE for the lyrics

Sub-theme songs include:
让我为你 (Rang Wo Wei Ni) by Daren Tan 陈世维 LYRICS
再说一遍 (Zai Shuo Yi Bian) by Chen Diya 陈迪雅, and
最初的现场 (Zui Chu De Xian Chang) a duet by Diya and Daren