Green Hope
Cast: Bowie Lam, Stephen Fung, Yoyo Mung, Joey Yung
Rating: *****
Before I watched this series I found that there're a lot of people like this series and also a lot of people think that it was boring.
So, I really don't know what to expect. I know that it's going to be something about people with mental illness and alzheimer and stuff like that. And when
I looked at the poster, it didn't really look promising. I mean...just look at Stephen, it was like he was staring at something and looked a bit weird and Yoyo looked
tired. But since I have nothing to watch I decided to rent it. When I started watching it, I found that I was wrong. This is a great series. The reason why Stephen's look in the poster was like that because
he acted as a man with the mental illness and Yoyo, in my opinion, never looked more beautiful. And the most importanting is the storyline is really good not boring at all.
Brief Summary:
Fong Ka Fai(Bowie Lam) and Fong Ka Him(Stephen Fung) were brothers and their parents broke up when they were kids. Before the divorce Ka Fai happened to see his father hit his mother, so he thought that was the reason
of the divorce and he thought that his father was wrong and bad. He insisted Ka Him to go with their mother...and the result was that they never met meet other again for more than ten years.
When they grew up Ka Fai was a workaholic architect and he had quite a happy marriage with Kwai Kwan(Melissa Ng). But when his father was sick and his last wish was to see Ka Him, Ka Fai hired the detective to find him.
In fact, all these years Ka Fai always thought of Ka Him, but he didn't know where he lived. The detective found his mother and Ka Him, Ka Fai was very happy to see Ka Him again but he also noticed that
there was something with his mother. Later, he went to see Ka Him at the company where Ka Him worked and found out that Ka Him had a mental illness and his mother was a drug-addicted. Ka Him's condition was getting worse because of their mother, Ka Fai decided to take care of Ka Him.
During these times, he started getting troubles at work because of his colleagues and Kwai Kwan wasn't so understanding about Ka Him and treated Ka Him bad.
Finally Ka Fai quitted his job and divorced Kwai Kwan. He set up his own company and later he and Lai Wah(Yoyo Mung) became a couple. Lai Wah used to work at his old company, but she left the company with him when he was in trouble.
Lai Wah had a grandmother who had alzheimer and she had to take care of her. 
On the other hand, Ka Him was also stucked between Wai Man(Joey Yung) and Yuen Ying(Cathy Chui). Yuen Ying also had a mental illness, so Ka Him was especially nice to her and he didn't show his feelings to Wai Man much.
Ka Him met Wai Man before his condition getting worse, and Wai Man started to like him when she heard him play the guitar.
Later on, Ka Him's condition was getting better and he went to study piano and became a pianist.
Review: *spoilers*
I absolutely love this series. Of course, it has some flaws but they can be overlooked. The theme of this series is great. I don't think it's boring at all. When you watch this series, you have to watch it carefully because sometimes they didn't just show what the character feels directly. Take Ka Him for example, I heard so many people complained about this character not showing his love for Wai Man before Yuen Ying's death. The thing is if you really watch it carefully you will see that he quite liked Wai Man from the start. It's the kind of series that you have to watch it with your heart and you'll find that it's one of the most wonderful series that TVB ever made. This series is so different from other TVB series that I have watched. Each scene of Green Hope was very well made and you can see that the producers had put a lot of hard work into it. The music in this series, though repetitive, was very good from the classics to the themesong. I feel that the piano theme that was composed by Stephen Fung suited the series really well.
The characters are also quite well developed. For example, Ka Fai, from a workaholic man turned into someone who appreciated something simple and seemed to enjoy life more than he used to. Ka Him, finally overcame everything and became a famous pianist. Lai Wah, also got someone like Ka Fai, the person that she loves and loves her back. It was so good to see that when they did something good and everything paid off in the end.
Another thing that I like about Green Hope was that they don't make it too sentimental…everything was so simple. Like the story between Ka Fai and Lai Wah. If it was other TVB series I'm sure that they will have Ka Fai 's wife, Kai Kwan, came back for Ka Fai again. Or the scene where Lai Wah appeared in front of Ka Fai for the first time after she started wearing contact lens…if it was other TVB series I think they might make Ka Fai acted so surprised, but here in Green Hope, it seemed like Ka Fai didn't care about Lai Wah's appearance that much, because after all it was the same Lai Wah with the same good old heart. I feel that Lai Wah with the curly hair and glasses is as beautiful as the new Lai Wah.
The performances here are all really good.
Bowie Lam - He was great in here.You can see his despair, his pain when he saw Ka Him was teased by his co-workers because of his mental illness. And the scene where he learned that his mother was a drug-addicted and that he, himself, was the one who put Ka Him to live with his mother…he felt so guilty, sad and confused. He was really good.
Stephen Fung - Before Green Hope I saw him before in movies like Gen-X cops and Bishonen. He was good in Bishonen but I never thought that he can be even better in a role like this. He was great here as a sensitive Ka Him. I found a few scenes that he acted crazy and they were a bit funny, but he gave a really good performance.
Yoyo Mung - I watched Healing Hands 2 before I watched Green Hope. In HH2 I think she wasn't too good…just looked beautiful. But here in Green Hope, she was really good as Lai Wah. I changed my whole attitude about her after I watched this series.
Joey Yung - Well, normally when I saw her in movies, she always acted in the funny role…but here she was a bit more serious than usual. Her acting was quite all right.
Cathy Chui - I've never seen her before I watched this series. Her acting was all right, but I think the way she talked and her voice was a bit weird
Other supporting cast were all very good.
The things that I want to complain about Green Hope were first, I think there're many coincidences in the series...
it was like their world was so small. For example, Princess's parents happened to be the one who wanted to buy
Fai.com, the website that Ka Fai created…and that they just happened to meet each other and they were rich so
they can help Ka Fai. Second, why did Wai Mun have to get into the accident in the very end? I just don't understand…
to add a little of suspense? It was all right, though. I just don't think it was that necessary. The last thing I want to
complain is that…I don't really like the ending, I didn't mean the ending that they showed all the pictures of Ka Fai
and Lai Wah and Ka Him married to Wai Man, because I LOVE that scene. I think it was really good because as you know
TVB's endings always ended with the wedding scenes which are so boring in my opinion. I think in Green Hope,
it suited the series very very well with the news capture and all that. BUT the scene after that is what I kind of don't
like…thay had all the actors and actresses dressed in white and looked like they had some kind of a party, all the
bad guys in the series sat with the good guys and then they showed us the caption of the definition of Utopia. I don't really
feel it was that bad, I just think it was a bit weird and out of place.
Anyway, as I said before these flaws are nothing important because the series itself was really good.
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