Colourful Life
(2001)

Cast : Annie Man, Frankie Lam, Ronald Cheng, Cutie Mui, Florence Kwok

My Rating: HHHHH

Colourful Life is one of the most favourite series of mine in 2001. Many people said there're many similarities between Colourful Life and Lady Flower Fist. I don't really know because I haven't seen Lady Flower Fist. But what I can tell you guys is that this series is very very funny and very good. Definitely a MUST-SEE.   

Brief Summary: Colourful Life is the story about one big family that always get into fights with each other mostly because of the money issue. Here's the description of the characters.




Wong Sook Yee as The second mother
= Head of the family = She's a very good, reasonable, responsible person. She runs the family business, a textile shop and takes care most of things that happened in the family. She has two sons one is Ronald Cheng (the third son of the whole family) and the other one is Frankie (the youngest son)


xxxxxxx as The third mother
She was a servant but then got married to Mr.Ching (the father who died years ago) She's very annoying at times because she always picks up on others and sometimes very very selfish. She wants the best for her children, Ching Chi Pok (the second son of the family) and Ching Weng Chi (the only daughter in the family) that she did some selfish deeds to others.



xxxxxxxx as The first son, Ching Chi Seng
The son of the first mother (who died years ago like Mr. Ching) He was sick when was a kid and after that he was like...remained in that age forever. Most of the people in the family treat him badly except for second mother and Frankie.


Yuen Siu Cheung as The second son,Ching Chi Pok
The one that always brags and brags. At first he wanted to be a scholar but he's never really good at studying, so he cheated in the exam and failed. After that he tried to persue his other interest that is "the family business". He always pretends to work hard in front of second mother so that she would give him the business in the future. He always got into fights with Chi Yung (played by Ronald Cheng) since they both wanted to run the textile shop.


Ronald Cheng as The third son, Ching Chi Yung The laziest person. He always skips his work. Although he fights with Chi Pok (played by Yuen Siu Cheung) for the family business, he never really had a passion for the business. He did that because his wife said if he gets the shop, no one can force him to work anymor. The things that he really loves to do is enjoying his life as a rich guy. That is to do things like...collecting antiques, buying some birds and sleeping.



Frankie Lam as The fourth son, Ching Chi Hin
The good son. He's good and upright but a bit arrogant espeacially when it comes to Dun Chu (played by Annie Man) Anyway, he's the most favourite in the family (I think) because he doesn't argue with anyone. Everybody knows that he wants to be a scholar and he doesn't care about running the family business, so there's no one picks up on him.



Myolie Wu as The fifth daughter, Ching Weng Chi
She's the only daughter and the youngest in the family . Her mother is very strict since she wants her to be a "lady" and she hardly let her out of the house.Her mother's real amibition is that she wants her daughter to be a concubine, so Weng Chi has to study about a lot of things e.g. how to walk like a lady, how to paint etc.. Anyway, after Dun Chu comes in the family, she teaches Weng Chi some easy kung fu and also brings Weng Chi out of the house to see the outside world.

Louisa Soh as A wife of Chi Seng (1st)
She came from a rich family and she was engaged to Chi Seng since they were young. Unfortunately, Chi Seng can't be a perfect husband for her due to his being like a child. Anyway, she's a good person, she takes care of Chi Seng and always protects him. The third mother, Florence Kwok and Cutie Mui always talk behind her back that she's luxurious, arrogant and stuff. But in fact she's very nice.

Florence Kwok as A wife of Chi Pok (2nd)
She came from quite a poor family. Her moter-in-law and Cutie Mui always say that she's cheap and stupid. Her mother-in-law also always complains that Florence didn't have any children, even though she married to Chi Pok for a long time. As for herself, well...you could say that she's not so smart and she's not very nice...a bit greedy at times, but she's not THAT bad. At least I can see that she loves her family quite a lot.

Cutie Mui as A wife of Chi Yoong (3rd)
I guess she didn't come from a poor family like Florence, but didn't came from a rich one like Louisa either. She always argues with the third mother and Florence. Usually, she picks up on Chi Pok being just a talker not a doer and that Florence being childless. Anyway, Chi Pok,Florence and the third mother always have a chance to pick up on Chi Yung's laziness, too. Cutie has to yell back to protect Chi Yung's reputation. So, in the end they're even. Cutie's character is not a really nice person, sometimes she can be a bit mean but overall she's not really bad and I found her hilarious.

Annie Man as A wife of Chi Hin, Dun Chu (4th)
She is the daughter of a high-ranked general in some foreign country called Tou Puo. The king of Tou Puo forced her to marry Chi Hin. But she and Chi Hin had some misunderstandings before the marriage, so they both didn't like each other. But after a while she found that Chi Hin actually is not so bad and they becomes friends. She even tries to match him with his dream girl. But then Dun Chu falls for Chi Hin herself.

May Kwong as Louisa's sister, Mung Si
She was everything that Chi Hin dreamed of. Well-educated, beautiful, elegant and stuff. But they met too late. Chi Hin met her before he married to Dun Chu but he didn't get to know her. She was his love at first sight. They even secretly went out together for a while (with Dun Chu's help) But then she married to someone else because she felt that Chi Hin and her were impossible.


There are a few more minor characters like...

Kwok Yiu Ming as a bad guy here. He's rich and everything. He always thinks that he's better than others, but the truth is that he's so bad. A very avengeful man.
Choi Chi Kin as a worker in the textile shop. A low self-esteem kind of guy. He's in love with the fifth sister but thinks that he's not good enough for her because he's poor and uneducated.
Tang Siu Juen as a woman hater. He always has a fight with Wong Lam's character (Annie's maid)but they end up together anyway.


Review:
At first I didn't want to watch Colourful Life much because it seemed to be too normal and uninteresting. Anyway, I decided to rent it and it turned out to be one of the best comedy series from TVB. I watched the first tape with a really really low expectation but after I finished the first tape I watched the second one immediately. The story of Colourful Life is simple, it's about family values. In the beginning everyone always fought with each other (well, the second son, the third son and their wives to be specific) but after some rough time together they learned to care about each other and learned that money isn't everything. TVB did a great job here in this one because they didn't make it too sentimental and it wasn't like they tried to preach us or something. Besides, we also have quite a cute love story between Annie and Frankie, too. I have nothing to complain about this series at all...it's really that good. I really enjoyed the whole series and it had such a happy ending. I like it. So, overall if you're looking for something funny or entertaining...RENT this one.

- - The Cast - -

Annie Man - Great job here for Annie. She is so cute and very funny in Colourful Life. She portrayed the character Dun Chu really well. I can feel the innocence and eagerness in Dun Chu. After Colourful Life, I think she's a very promising actress and I hope to see her more in other series.

Frankie Lam - Well, he did an OK job but compared to others in the series...he was still quite lack of charm. I don't know why. I mean he's quite a nice looking guy...maybe his acting need some improvements or a bit more techniques.

Ronald Cheng - This is quite a surprise for me. I'd never seen Ronald Cheng acted before and after I watched Colourful Life...I have to admit that he was sooo funny. His performance as Chi Yung was excellent. He managed to make Chi Yung my favourite character in the show.

Cutie Mui - Just like some of her other series, she was very hilarious. She and Ronald Cheng acted really well together.

Louisa So Yoke Wah - She did a good job in Colouful Life. She almost made me forget that she was the same person who played Gigi in DIF 1-2. She's a good actress.

A new comer like Myolie Wu is OK. Maybe Myolie's acting was not that good but she did a passable job and she looks really cute. Tang Siu Juen was also very funny. Overall, I think everyone in this show did a fine job.




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