Posts Tagged ‘rayson tan’

Housewives’ Holiday 煮妇的假期

March 4, 2009 in 2009 Dramas, Dramas
Tags: , , , , , , ,

housewifes-holiday

this drama starts on 4th March 2009, at 9pm on Channel 8.

starring:
Hong Huifang as Chen Simei, Ann Kok as Alice, Xiang Yun as Ai Qin, Brandon Wong as Chen Weibin, Yao Wenlong as Zhang Jia Sheng, Rayson Tan as Brian

official site HERE
synopsis from Mediacorp site

Three housewives become friends when they worked together to nab a thief that stole bras from the neighbourhood.

Each housewife is different in character. Chen Si Mei, 42, is very thrifty and looks out for small advantages. Alice, 40, is the modern one, who enjoys making herself look good. Zhong Ai Qin, 39, is a natural worrier.

Alice looks down on the others and pretends she’s a rich tai tai. Si Mei, in a bid to stand up to Alice, lies that her husband is a rich businessman.

Each has a different set of problems – a philandering husband, interfering in-laws and marriages that have lost their romance.

All things come to a head when Alice discovers her husband has a mistress. Ai Qin, too is shocked when her suspicions about her husband is confirmed. Si Mei is devastated when she finds that her husband has resumed his gambling habit again.

The three women, who had been fighting secretly amongst one another, realise they are all in the same boat. All their sacrifices for their families had come to a nought. It was time for them to live for themselves.

They decide to go for a long holiday and set off without saying goodbye to their families. Their disappearances cause chaos in their families.

Ai Qin decides to divorce her husband but her husband pleads for forgiveness. Alice is touched by her husband, Jia Sheng’s sincerity and forgives him. Si Mei returns home and realises that her husband has finally kicked the gambling habit.

does this drama remind anyone of “La Femme”? Ann Kok’s part of the trio again! haha :) and Yao Wenlong’s in here too – and as a husband who is having an affair. AGAIN!
what’s different is that this drama will concentrate on people in the heartlands. Hong Huifang’s character lives in a 3-room flat; Xiang Yun’s character lives in a 4-room flat; and Ann Kok’s character lives in a 5-room flat.
i think there will be more comedy in this drama than “La Femme”. i think it’s guranteed to be ‘less serious’ than “La Femme”. OK, i should stop comparing it to “La Femme”!!! haha :)

wait a moment. i just visited the forum, and saw the comparison to HK-TVB drama “The Family Link”, which was a drama about housewives. OMG. it’s almost exactly the same!!

  1. Hong Huifang’s character with Kiki Sheung’s character — the ‘ugly’ housewife
  2. Ann Kok’s character with Cecilia Yip’s character — the ‘so-called’ taitai
  3. Xiang Yun’s character with Sheren Tang’s character — the ‘once-pretty-but-has-now-neglected-her-looks’ housewife; a worrier

i’m pretty amazed that in the show, Ann Kok’s supposed to be older than Xiang Yun! another notable point i gathered from the forum is that (and now i remember) Xiang Yun played Ann Kok’s MOTHER in “Kinship”!!! other than that… Hong Huifang really looks so horrible! haha :)

i like the fact that actors and actresses — Hong Huifang, Xiang Yun, Brandon Wong, Yao Wenlong and Rayson Tan, who are always playing supporting roles (with the exception of Ann Kok) are given the chance to play the leading roles! it gives us a break from the princesses and ah-ges, who i think are over-worked, ‘cos we see them in every other show :)

hmm… it’s from the same people as “Nanny Daddy”! i see. i really really DIDN’T LIKE that show.
anyway, it’s a rather simple plot, i don’t know how it’ll fair, but i’ll be watching… more updates when i’ve seen more episodes!! :)

CLICK HERE to see the special preview!!!

Love Blossoms II 心花朵朵开 II

December 5, 2008 in 2008 Dramas, 2009 Dramas, Dramas
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

loveblossoms2

The first part of this drama had 58 episodes. It debuted on Wednesday,
28 May 2008 at 7pm on Channel 8, and ended on Friday, 15 August 2008.

Part II’s debut was on Tuesday, 2 December 2008 at 7pm on Channel 8, and consists of 55 episodes. There will be a 2-hour special from 7pm -9pm every Friday, starting from 2 January 2009.

LOVE BLOSSOMS microsite

Love Blossoms I wiki
Love Blossoms II wiki

This drama stars:
Chen Shucheng as Tao Dashun, Ivy Lee as Tao Zi Jing, Felicia Chin as Tao Hai Tong, Zheng Geping as Yun Kai Wang, Constance Song as Tao Ling Lan, Patricia Mok as Sammi Yun Cai Xia, Rayson Tan as Kang Qing Xiong, Terence Cao as Yu Wen Hao, Zhang Yaodong as Ma Da Ji, Adam Chen as Guo Zi Peng, Chen Tianwen as Lu Gua, Koh Yah Hwee (finalist from Star Search 2007) as Tao Wen Zhu, Ben Yeo as Wang Zhigang, Priscelia Chan as Yuan Er-bo, Jin Yinji as Su Baozhuan, Eelyn Kok as Yu Mei Wei, Ng Hui as Xiao Lei, Lin Meijiao as Pan Qiulian, May Phua as Xu Yanning, Darren Lim as Huang Yezu, Hong Huifang as Liang Miaochang, Huang Wenyong as Yu Dongcheng, Chen Chuxuan as Yiling, Damus Lim as Jason

new characters on Part II include:
Chew Chor Meng as Wang Zhongkun, Yvonne Lim as Pan Jiaqi, Cavin Soh as Pan Jiaiqang aka Young Peter, Richard Low as Old Peter/ Peter Pan, Aileen Tan as Daisy Ma, Vivian Lai as Fan Fan, Evelyn Tan as Wang Zhongmin, Wang Yuqing as Wang Zhonghui, Zhang Wei as Wang Junling

PART I left off with…

Daji (Zhang Yaodong) leaving for China, where his father is expanding the family business. He also leaves with the hope of persuading his parents not to sell Tao Nursery, and asks Dashun (Chen Shucheng) and Haitong (Felicia Chin) to take care of the nursery till he returns.

Wenhao’s (Terence Cao) mother, Miaochang (Hong Huifang), was about to leave and go back to Australia. Still hoping that her daughter Meiwei (Eelyn Kok) would forgive her, and would see her off to the airport, she spotted Meiwei hiding behind a pillar. Calling her, Meiwei ran, as she couldn’t face her mother. Desperately following her, Miaochang ran onto the road, and was knocked down by a car. She died.

Dashun then acknowleged Wenhao as his biological son. Zijing (Ivy Lee) was in a sorry state, hiding in a relative’s house in Malacca after her addiction to gambling hurt her family members again and again. She couldn’t face them. Even though her husband, Kaiwang (Zheng Geping) and father Dashun tried hard to find her and bring her home, she refused to see them. After talking to Kaiwang on the phone, telling him she’ll return as a new person, she was knocked down by a car, and lay unconscious in a ditch.

Meanwhile, Lu Gua (Chen Tianwen), Dashun’s eldest son-in-law, was peddling drugs. Haitong caught him when she was jogging in the park, and threw the drugs into the drain. Because of this, Lu Gua owed the underworld people a lot of money, and, unable to pay, he was beaten up, and injured his leg badly. This incident also affected Wenzhu (Koh Yah Hwee), the youngest sister, who was doing well as a rising star in the TV station, as she was involved in a tussle, and she hit her head, causing a blood clot. The once bubbly and full-of-life girl had to suffer massive headaches and she was unable to act anymore.

Dashun holds a family dinner, and announces that Wenhao is his son. He wants Wenhao, as well as Linglan (Constance Song) and Lu Gua to move into the house, so that they can all be together and look after each other, especially since Lu Gua is reduced to sitting in a wheelchair.

With unresolved issues, like Wenhao’s position in the Tao family and his ties with the Yu family, the feud between Lu Gua and Haitong, Wenzhu’s health, Zijing’s life or death predicament, Haitong’s long-distance relationship with Daji, Kaiwang’s problems with Zijing, Erbo (Priscelia Chan) – the kind-hearted and demure Vietnamese bride who was Qingxiong’s (Rayson Tan) mistress -‘s misery as the thorn in Sammi’s (Patricia Mok) flesh…

and PART II continues…

3 months later

Zijing finally wakes up from her coma. She was saved by Wang Zhongkun (Chew Chor Meng), a good Samaritan, who helps her get back on her feet and turn into a person who can lift her head high and return to her family. Zhongkun is a jewelry designer, and his family owns a jewelry consortium, with branches in many Asian countries. His father, Wang Junling (Zhang Wei) is a strict man who believes in punishing people for their wrongdoings, and rewarding people for a job well done. His brother, Wang Zhonghui (Wang Yuqing) dislikes Zhongkun and always makes snide remarks… this has to do with Zhongkun’s past, where Zhongkun was a compulsive gambler who stole company funds and gambled it all away. Zhongkun’s sister, Wang Zhongmin (Evelyn Tan) trusts him and tries to help him whenever she can. Zijing becomes Zhongkun’s personal assistant, just when Zhongkun is assigned to manage the Singapore branch. Zhongkun will also help Zijing with her gambling addiction, as he had been through it, and helps her regain her confidence. Zijing will end up falling for Zhongkun… but then he falls ill, with a terminal disease.

In Singapore, Kaiwang just opened his flower shop in a shopping centre. Still looking desperately for Zijing, he meets Zhongkun by chance, and drops his wallet in Zhongkun’s car. Zhongkun discovers Zijing’s problems, from none other than Caixia, who paints a ugly picture of her. Even though Zhongkun could have let Zijing and Kaiwang meet, he respected Zijing’s decision to only return and face her family when she has turned over a new leaf. Kaiwang is at his wits end when he realises that Zijing has fallen for Zhongkun… However, Zijing is unable to decide whether to go  back to her husband, and stand by the man who helped her so much, especially since he

Wenzhu goes to Australia to study a multimedia course, and Wenhao goes there to, to settle his late mother’s problems. Wenhao is distant from the Tao family, and even though he originally rejects Dashun’s plan to hand the nursery over to him, he later demands that Dashun buy Tao Nursery back for him. The rift between father and son becomes very big, and it is only because of Pan Jiaqi, a lawyer from Australia, that he lets go of the past, and finally accepts his father. Jiaqi and her friend, Fan Fan end up in a love triangle with Wenhao.

Fan Fan knew Wenhao in Secondary School, and it turns out that Jiaqi knew Miaochang in Australia, and Miaochang treated her like her daughter… Miaochang had entrusted Jiaqi with a box of birthday cards and stuff she bought for Wenhao and Meiwei, but never got the chance to give them, and Jiaqi aims to look for Wenhao and Meiwei. Dongcheng, Qiulian and Meiwei are preparing to emigrate, and they have sold the bak kut teh shop.

With Daji away from Singapore, Zipeng decides to help Haitong unconditionally, professing that he still loves her. Zipeng actually helps Haitong a lot, especially when Lu Gua creates numerous problems, but he also causes many problems for Haitong and Daji, and even resorts to kidnapping her when he loses everything in stock and shares, demanding ransom from Dashun… he was, of course, listening to Lu Gua, who nurses a deep grudge against Haitong, and is yearning for revenge. Haitong and Daji finally manage to overcome all odds – Zipeng’s reappearance, Daji’s aunt Daisy’s appearance which makes life difficult for the couple as she doesn’t like Haitong and forbids them to marry… but she soon understands Haitong better, and agrees to let the 2 of them be together – but when Haitong becomes pregnant, she develops a heart problem and may have to abort the child.

Sammi continues to ill-treat Erbo, and treats her like her maid. She even abuses her when Baozhuan and Kaiwang aren’t around. To get extra money from a karang-guni, she sells Zijing’s ‘ma shang ying (Winning Horse)’ and Erbo manages to get it back from the karang-guni, Peter Pan/ Old Peter. Erbo leaves a good impression on Old Peter, as he does on her, as she thinks he is a kind man. Baozhuan continues to look out for a husband for Erbo, and one of the people turns up to be Old Peter! Erbo is rather happy, and Old Peter introduces her to his son, Pan Jiaqiang/ Peter Junior. It turns out that Erbo had met Peter Junior before, and he had made fun of Sammi and threw stuff at her. Peter Junior is a dimwit. or so he wants people to think when he first meets them. Peter Junior talks to Erbo and finds out that she’s a nice girl. Old Peter then tells Erbo that he isn’t the one looking for a wife, he’s looking for a daughter-in-law. Erbo gets along well with Peter Junior (who is not a dimwit! haha) and he helps Erbo get back at Sammi.

Old Peter’s adopted daughter, Pan Jiaqi, a lawyer, comes back from Australia, because father and son had bluffed her that Old Peter was very ill. They just wanted her to come back, and now, she is insistant on changing their lives. She doesn’t want her father and brother to continue being karang-gunis. She insists that Old Peter should retire, and Peter Junior should learn a skill, which turns out to be cake-baking… she also buys them a new flat, which happens to be right next door to Kaiwang’s, and that antagonises Sammi!

Sammi’s life takes a turn when Qingxiong sinks his money into a scam, and he runs away, leaving her with debt to clear… that’s when we’ll see her cleaning toilets and all that. haha :) serves her right!!! then Qingxiong finally comes back, and tries to make an honest living, and win his wife back.

Lu Gua is the troublemaker. Out to fleece Dashun of his money, he pretends to still be crippled. He is out to get Haitong out of revenge, and makes life difficult for Linglan. He molests his step-daughter, Yiling, and is chased out of the house. He is not done though, and plays a part in Haitong’s kidnapping by Zipeng.

THOUGHTS

The story sounds quite promising, especially with Chew Chor Meng’s appearance, his past and his family, and their business. I’m pleased that Evelyn Tan’s back on screen, even though he role isn’t big, but I was quite surprised to see her! Ivy Lee’s Zijing will undergo a transformation from a housewife to a career woman, and the person who will have more screentime and family problems will now be Terence Cao’s Wenhao. The Yu branch of the family will be written out – Dongcheng, Qiulian and Meiwei, and also Zhigang. May Phua’s Xu Yanning and Darren Lim’s Huang Yezu have been written out too.

I love the comedic antics of Old Peter and Peter Junior – Richard Low and Cavin Soh – and I think they’re great additions to the cast, giving the show, which now has dreary characters who are down and out and full of problems, life :) whats sad is that Old Peter gets dementia after retiring… and it’s great that Erbo, who has suffered so much, can finally find someone who has a good heart, and who loves her and cares for her.

I also really look forward to all the evil and horrible characters getting their comeuppance – Patricia Mok’s Sammi, and Chen Tianwen’s Lu Gua… I saw in the trailers that Sammi was reduced to washing toilets!!!

WHAT I DON’T GET is Mediacorp’s 2-hour special thing. They’ve never done this before, and it’ll take time to get used to it… They’ve done it first with “The Little Nyonya”, on Mondays, then now this, on Fridays (starting on 2nd Jan 09).

Part II’s are usually very disappointing, so i hope this will not be draggy… i hope it’ll be convincing all the way through to the end. let’s hope it doesn’t die off with an insufficient storyline…
I hope this will be GOOD :)

Love Blossoms 心花朵朵开 theme song

May 27, 2008 in 2008 Dramas, Dramas
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

FIRST VIEW!
the theme song of “Love Blossoms” 心花朵朵开
the name of this song is 心花朵朵开, by Cavin Soh 苏智诚

enjoy!!

qingling~

Love Blossoms 心花朵朵开

May 24, 2008 in 2008 Dramas, Dramas
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The first part (55 episodes) of this 110-episode mega-drama debuts on Wednesday, 28 May 2008 at 7pm on Channel 8.

Stars: Chen Shucheng as Tao Dashun, Ivy Lee as Tao Zi Jing, Felicia Chin as Tao Hai Tong, Zheng Geping as Yun Kai Wang, Constance Song as Tao Ling Lan, Patricia Mok as Yun Cai Xia, Rayson Tan as Kang Qing Xiong, Terence Cao as Yu Wen Hao, Zhang Yaodong as Ma Da Ji, Adam Chen as Guo Zi Peng, Chen Tianwen as Lu Gua, Koh Yah Hwee (finalist from Star Search 2007) as Tao Wen Zhu, Ben Yeo as Wang Zhigang, Priscelia Chan as Yuan Er-bo, Jin Yinji as Su Baozhuan, Eelyn Kok as Mei Wei, Ng Hui as Xiao Lei, Lin Meijiao as Pan Qiulian, May Phua as Xu Yanning, Darren Lim as Huang Yezu, Hong Huifang as Liang Miaochang, Huang Wenyong as Yu Dongcheng, Chen Chuxuan as Yiling

SYNOPSIS (credits to Mediacorp for the basic info)
i’ve rewritten the synopsis below by myself. in my own words

Tao Dashun (Chen Shucheng) owns and runs a floral nursery and has 4 daughters – Ling Lan (Constance Song), Zi Jing (Ivy Lee), Hai Tong (Felicia Chin) and Wen Zhu (Koh Yah Hwee). A widower, and having a traditional outlook, his daughters are not very close to him.

His nursery is his labour of love – it reminds him of his late wife – but none of his daughters are interested in taking over. Later, he decides to sell it to help Zi Jing pay off her gambling debts. The buyer is rich ABC (American born Chinese) Ma Da Ji (Zhang Yaodong), a young man who knows nothing about the industry. Hai Tong, being very shrewd, takes advantage of this to make life better for her father, by making Da Ji pay him an enormous amount to run the whole show. Towards the end of this installment, he realises that he actually has a son – Wen Hao (Terence Cao), with his old flame Miaochang (Hong Hui Fang).

Oldest daughter Ling Lan and her father are estranged, as he sent her to the drug rehabilitation centre when she was 18. She has not returned home since then. Her boyfriend ran away, leaving her with their daughter, Yiling (Chen Chuxuan). They currently live with Lu Gua (Chen Tianwen), who is a horrible man. He engages in illegal activity and secretly has designs on Yiling.

Zi Jing is married to Yun Kaiwang (Zheng Geping), they run a flower stall, and they have a daughter, which causes them to be constantly picked on by Kaiwang’s mother, Baozhuan (Jin Yinji), who hopes for a grandson. Kaiwang’s sister, Cai Xia (Patricia Mok), gloats over the fact that she and her husband Qing Xiong (Rayson Tan) have a son. However, they are back to live with Baozhuan because they are bankrupt. With their appearance, the harmony in the household declines further. It is compounded by the fact that Qing Xiong has a Vietnamese second wife, Yuan Er-bo (Priscelia Chan), and when Kaiwang tries to help his brother-in-law cover up, Er-bo ends up falling in love with him. Zi Jing leaves, and her compulsive gambling habits are exposed. Top it up with Qing Xiong’s schemes which make Kaiwang the scapegoat, the couple have many problems which take a long time to solve.

Hai Tong is a very shrewd woman who is proud and confident. With her boyfriend, Guo Zipeng (Adam Chen), they run a floral hamper shop. Zipeng always has to give in to her and as their relationship is not solid, he cheats on her with his old girlfriend. Unable to be humble, she dumps him and returns to her father’s nursery to start anew. There, her relationship with Da Ji advances to a closer level. Hoping that she’ll persuade him to stay, he is disappointed when she lets him sell the nursery and join his parents in China.

Youngest daughter Wen Zhu is a happy-go-lucky undergrad who wins a university beauty pageant and is talent-spotted by the TV station and cast in a drama serial. She likes Da Ji. When in the entertainment industry, she endures the wrath of actress Yanning (May Phua) who makes her life difficult. Image consultant Zhigang (Ben Yeo) becomes her good friend, and he falls in love with her. However, she starts to distance herself from Zhigang when bad media focuses on her fight with Yanning, and speculation that Zhigang is a sissy and maybe gay. Because of her brother-in-law Lu Gua’s antics, she knocks her head and develops a blood clot and is unable to concentrate on her acting career when she is constantly attacked by severe headaches.

MY THOUGHTS

First, it was Nasi Lemak in “Holland V”, then Fish & Chips in “Double Happiness”, and ending the food theme in “Portrait of Home”, was fishballs.
Last year, foot reflexology was the main theme in “Kinship”.

Now, we’re looking at a flower themed mega-drama where even our protagonists are named after flowers! They all run flower-related businesses too!

With more episodes than last year’s “Kinship”, can this drama revive the expectations of our mega-dramas? It has a solid cast – Ivy, Geping, Felicia, Constance, Rayson, Patricia – and the story sounds interesting, the kind where business problems can be focused on (unlike Kinship, where there was not much to foot relaxology than taking over a branch and starting rivals.)

The whole story seems to be mapped out for the first part, and I’m curious to know what they will focus on in part 2. It is usually the second part which disappoints.

Anyway, I’m really looking forward to this! Ivy as a compulsive gambler, Felicia as a strong-willed proud woman, Zhang Yaodong as an ABC (complete with an accent!), Constance as a beer-girl, and newcomer Yah Hwee as a cheerful girl who turns into an introvert.

:) SO EXCITED!!

[BTW, i realised that Felicia’s pairing with Adam again (previously paired in LET IT SHINE!) and Adam’s other love interest is Ng Hui – who was his cousin chasing him in LET IT SHINE!]