Return of the Cuckoo
(2000)
My Rating: HHH
Cast: Chilam Cheung, Charmaine Sheh, Steven Ma, Nancy Sit
Before I watched it, I had a very high expectation about this series because of its ratings in HK. Anyway, when I watched it I was kind of disappointed. Though it has
some good moments in this series, I still think it's way too melodramatic.
Summary:
At first Man Chor was a typical kid but when his father left his mother, things got worse. His mother was mad at his
father and she tried to kill young Man Chor by forcing him to eat some detergent. Luckily, His mother's friend, QE(Nancy Sit) managed to
send him to the hospital in time. Man Chor was still alive but he was a mute now. His mother left him and QE adopted him. Many years later, Man Chor
(Chilam) lived with QE and her daughter, Kwan Ho(Charmaine). Though he was a mute, he was a very happy person. He usually communicated with others by using sign languague
and by using a whistle which his mother gave him when he was a kid. He and Kwan Ho always had these little fights
like normal brother and sister but they really loved each other like the real siblings. Man Chor also had one close
friend, Kam Sing (Michael Tong). Kam Sing was a son of a rich casino owner in Macau, Sai Kwong (Lau Dan) but he
was the son of the mistress. To make things more complicated, Kam Sing's mother was framed by Sai Kwong's wife,
Man Chu Sai Wah, and she killed herself, leaving Kam Sing behind. Things changed, when Lai Soon(Steven) got into their lives. Lai Soon
was a reporter from HK. He came to Macau and became friends with Man Chor. At first Lai Soon and Kwan Ho always got into fights because Kwan Ho didn't like him. Anyway,
they began to like each other. After Man Chor found out, he realized that he, too, liked Kwan Ho. But being mute and all he didn't think he could be compared to Lai Soon. QE knew about Man Chor's feelings
and planned to dump him in China because she wanted "the best" for her daughter. Anyway, after Man Chor told her that he won't love Kwan Ho anymore, QE gave in and they went back to Macau together.
In the past, QE encouraged Kwan Ho's father to go study abroad and did not tell him that she was carrying their child.
Her father never came back until later. Kwan Ho thought that her parents were seperated and always had a hope that they will back together one day.
But then Kwan Ho found that her father was, in fact, had another wife called Ping Sum. They didn't get along well at first but after some incidents later they finally managed to be nice to each other.
One day, Man Chor accidentally met his own mother in Macau, she didn't recognize him. Later when she found out that he was her son, she didn't accept him. Man Chor was very sad, still he gave her some money and a letter. After she read the letter
she was touched and finally hugged Man Chor. She gave him an address to find her in Malaysia. Anyway, after she walked away from Man Chor and her friend asked her if she really wanted her son to visit her in Malaysia, her answer was that she gave him the fake address...
Later Kwan Ho's father and his family will migrate to the U.S. and they wanted Kwan Ho to go with them to study. Kwan Ho was very happy at first but when she learned that Man Chor won't go there with them, she was mad at him.
Anyway she and Lai Soon still tried to find a good doctor to cure Man Chor. Even though Lai Soon knew about Man Chor's feelings for Kwan Ho, he still found a doctor to cure him. Another reason was because he really wanted to know if Man Chor really liked Kwan Ho and wonder whom will Kwan Ho choose.
Finally Man Chor was able to talk again but his first words were he wished Kwan Ho and Lai Soon to be happy together. This really let Kwan Ho down because deep down she liked Man Chor more than Lai Soon. Anyway, Lai Soon was very happy to hear that.
QE pretended to be bad and greedy in order to let Kwan Ho went with her father. Kwan Ho believed that her mother was bad and felt sad. Moreover, Man Chor asked his friend, Hoi Lam, to pretend to be his girlfriend. Kwan Ho decided to sleep with Lai Soon when she found out and went abroad. Man Chor knew about QE's playing a bad mother,
so he decided not to go to Malaysia(to find his mother) and lived with QE.
Many years later, Kwan Ho came back. She, now, had married to Lai Soon and had twins. She went to see Hoi Lam and thought that Hoi Lam's son was Man Chor's son (in fact it was Pui Kin's son...Pui Kin was a eldest son of Man Sai Kwong, who died years ago.)
Hoi Lam told her the truth and she was mad at herself for thinking that her mother and Man Chor didn't love her. Now Man Chor and QE owned a restaurant. Man Chor was a chef and he seemed very happy. One day, he heard the whistle sound and thought of Kwan Ho, so he went outside. He taught some kids to sing the song that he and Kwan Ho loved to sing to QE.
Kwan Ho happened to be around and she heard that song so she went there. They finally met and...he called out her name and she said something like she miss him. THE END.
Review
After I finished this series, the only feeling that left me was...what kind of ending is that??? It's one of the wierdest ending I've seen in years.
Are they trying to left some room to make a sequel?? I don't think so because there's no way Kwan Ho can get together with Man Chor after having twins. In fact, I really don't understand the ending.
Overall this series is not THAT bad, but it's not THAT good either. It's just so-so and can be VERY melodramatic and boring. I enjoyed the first 3-4 tapes but after Man Chor started to realize his feelings for Kwan Ho, it went down hill. Anyway, they did a good job on the subplot (like..story about Kam Seng), I think it was quite interesting. I don't know if the parents in the real world can be so mean just like those in this series. Well, I guess some are.
That's why I think this series's not too bad. It shows us how low could people go sometimes. Like Man Chu Sai Wah's character, she was such a bad and annoying person and in the final she got a really bad ending. Or QE, she's always been nice through the whole series but when she found out about Man Chor's liking Kwan Ho, she planned to send him away. I think it was pretty mean. I think the good thing about this series was it
shows something about family values...like you should treasure someone you love or...be nice to people and stuff like that. Other than that it's just a plain boring love story of the main characters.
Man Chor- Chilam gave a good performance. He seemed natural when he used those sign languages. Though he looked cute and all, Man Chor still annoyed me sometimes for his low self-esteem. Anyway, can't blame the guy who was mute and being told not to get involve with Kwan Ho by someone he respected like his own mother. Poor character.
Kwan Ho- I have nothing against Charmaine before or after I watched this series. Her performance was better than her previous shows. Not bad at all. I felt that her voice was a bit high-pitched but it's ok to me. BUT I don't like her character, Kwan Ho at all. Kwan Ho was so spoiled and self-centered. All she could think of is her feelings. She was so stupid for not knowing that her mother was pretending to be bad. It seemed non-sense.
QE- I also don't like QE's character. She's very melodramatic. In fact I think she was the main melodramatic factor in this series. Her character, well...yeah she was nice to Man Chor and a lot of people but I really think her character was annoying when she pretended to be bad. I don't think they really need to write her character this way in order to make us, the audience, feel...."Awwww, she's such a good mother"
Way too melodramatic for me.
Others gave quite nice performance, Michael Tong and Sherming Yau were enjoyable to watch. Lau Dan and the woman who acted as Man Chu Sai Wah were great. I don't have nothing to complain about the rest of the cast, they were ok, not too bad.
One more thing about this series, it was nice to see new settings in Macau. It gave me a strange feeling (in a nice way) Quite refreshing. Anyway, overall I don't think it's a must see but it's watchable if you can stand those melodramatic factors or you're Chilam or Charmaine's fans.
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