Hope_for

Synopsis

A simple light-hearted short series starring Gallen Law, Christine Ng, Melissa Ng, Ha Yu, and many other familiar faces. Gallen is married to Melissa and Ha Yu plays his father. Christine is an old childhood friend and next-door neighbor. Gallen is very content and happy to be selling vegetables in a wet market but his wife feels differently. Brought up in a well-off family, she is not used to the way of life Gallen’s family is from. After 7 years of marriage, she realizes that she does not belong in Gallen’s world. That she wants something better for herself. Christine gets Melissa a job as her fiancé’s secretary. Shortly after, Christine begins to suspect that they’re having an affair so she drags Gallen to this vacation resort to confront them only to find out that Melissa is indeed having an affair but it’s with Steven (played by Marco Lo aka Lap Sun from Kindred Spirit) and not with Christine’s fiancé. Christine is happy of course but Gallen is devastated. He had already known that his wife is seeing another man but didn’t want to face the truth. Gallen bravely acts as if his heart is not breaking when Melissa tells him to leave first. Gallen nods and gently asks if his wife is coming home for dinner.

Outside, Gallen yells at Christine for interfering with his life and tells her to bug out next time. Later that night, Gallen tells Melissa to forget anything happened today and go back to being a happily married couple. Melissa agrees but remains unhappy in the marriage. She tries to stay away from Marco but he is one persistent man. Finally, after seeing how unhappy Melissa really is, Gallen tells her to leave and start her new life. Melissa leaves to be with Marco.

Christine is having troubles of her own when she finds out that her fiancé is cheating on her, just not with another woman, but with another man. She quits her job and help Gallen with his new business. Gallen is determined to make more money and get back in shape so that his wife would come back to him. Gallen slowly change Christine from being a mean, man-hungry woman to a nicer, more understanding woman. Christine also influences Gallen to stand up to his lazy friends by being a stricter boss. The two friends go to this singles club where Christine discovers that Gallen has all the qualities she wants for a boyfriend except for the money part but she finds that particular is not so important anymore. She starts falling for him but Gallen is oblivious to Christine’s newfound feelings. He is still pinning for Melissa.

Meanwhile, Gallen’s younger brother Ah Got (Lee Ka Sing) is in love with Annabelle but she has a crush on Gallen’s friend, Saw Keong (Crazy Keong). After Saw Keong breaks Annabelle’s heart by dumping her, Ah Got comforts her and they have a one night stand which results in Annabelle getting pregnant. Because of this, Annabelle and Ah Got get marry. Due to the fact that Annabelle is carrying the future of the family, she gets control of the entire household and always orders Ah Got around. To please his wife, Ah Got goes to this “build your confidence” workshop so he can be the man his wife wants him to be.

One day, Annabelle finds out about Ha Yu’s little secret so she blackmails him into handing the business over to Ah Got. When Gallen discovers that his father actually goes through with it and he lost his company, Gallen yells at his father for being a coward. He tells Ha Yu that he knew all about the secret. That Ha Yu cheated on his wife with a lounge singer and had him. Gallen knew that the woman he grew up with is not his real mother but he didn’t care because Ha Yu is his father and what he did in his past does not affect the present. What he cannot forgive Ha Yu for is this betrayal. Gallen has work hard to build this company up and now Ha Yu gives it away to his brother who has a habit of screwing things up. Gallen walks away disappointed and disgusted. He goes to work for his real mother at her hot pot restaurant.

Saw Keong finally tells Gallen that Christine likes him and if Gallen doesn’t like her, then he needs to tell her so she can move on. Gallen takes his advice and gently hint to Christine that he is still in love with his wife and that he will continue to wait for Melissa to come back to him. Christine is hurt by his confession but understands. The two continue to be friends. Then out of the blue, Melissa calls Gallen from the hospital to come get her. Gallen and Christine shows up and see Melissa looking sick. Melissa refuses to talk about what happened and about Marco. Gallen takes her away after Melissa tells him that she wants to go home with him.   Christine suspects something is not right but doesn’t say anything. Gallen rents a separate apartment and moves in with her. Both vow to start over and rebuild their relationship. In the beginning, Gallen is happy and content. He has his wife back and he decides to immigrant to Canada to be with his mother. Immigrating has always been what Melissa wanted so Gallen thought she’ll be happy but he can see that she isn’t. There’s a wall between them now and they act more like friends than a couple in love. They try to have a romantic night together but one disaster happens after another until the two conclude that they are better off as friends since the romance is gone.

One day, Christine bumps into Marco and he tells her he has been searching for Melissa. Marco, looking haggard, breaks down as he tries to figure out why Melissa would leave him like him. He thought the two of them were happy together. Christine tells Gallen what Marco told her and Gallen confronts Melissa about it. Turns out that Melissa can’t have any children so she thought it was best to leave Marco so he can have a family with another woman. Gallen takes Melissa back to Marco. Christine decides to leave Hong Kong for a while and go travel. While Christine is away, Gallen realizes how much he misses their talks and finds out that he has fallen for her.

Christine comes back more happy and relaxed. She has found herself and is now comfortable being who she is and does not need a man in order to be happy. During this time, Ah Got gets into trouble with the stock market and he loses a huge sum of money. Annabelle blames him for his failures and his confidence shatters, Ah Got goes into hiding to die. Even then, Ah Got is a coward as he loses his courage at the last second. Gallen finds him and chase after his brother but running across the street, Gallen gets hit by a car and Ah Got runs back to save him. He picks Gallen up and starts running for the hospital asking Gallen to forgive him. Christine catches up with them a few minutes later and joking asks, “Are you guys done playing?” Gallen grins as he is okay. It was all a joke. Gallen forgives his brother and Annabelle becomes a dutiful wife and daughter-in-law after this incident. After all the drama died down, Gallen asks Christine for a chance but she refuse and says let fate decide.

One year later, the family moves back into the wet market business with all the old friends. Ah Got and Annabelle have a baby. Saw Keong and Gallen’s younger sister are dating. Christine’s mom forgave her dad and they move out to be together. Christine’s aunt moves to Europe to be with a former gangster. Gallen and Christine bump into each other at a movie theater but each has a girlfriend/boyfriend.

Three years later, Gallen is sitting inside his car as fireworks go off around him (I think it’s suppose to be New Year’s). He looks at the car next to him and does a double take. It’s Christine! The two gets out and smiles at each other. He asks about her boyfriend and she tells him they didn’t match. She asks about his girlfriend and he gives her the same answer. With fireworks exploding around them, Gallen and Christine just smiles at one another as the series ends.

Personal thoughts: A good series but nothing out of this world. Since this is the first series I’ve seen Gallen after ATE, it was a nice change seeing him play a humble ordinary man instead of an obsessed, power hungry maniac. Chrisitne’s character reminds me of Ups & Downs so it’s the same usual stuff. Her best performance yet is still Cold Blood Warm Heart. Melissa looks so much better in the earlier part of the series when she was still Gallen’s wife. After she hooks up with Marco, her looks just went downhill. So much can be said with just a different hairstyle. And speaking of Marco, they were a possible couple in Kindred Spirit and had some chemistry but here, they had none…zip. In fact, I thought Melissa looks a little too old for Marco. It's nice to see Marco back on screen though, I was wondering what the heck happened to him after Kindred Spirit.

Rating: $$