Love is Beautiful
(2001)
Cast: Marianne Chan, Anne Heung, Eddie Cheung, Marco Ngai, Evergreen Mak
My Rating: HHHH
Summary:
Ling wan (Anne Heung) and Chor Chor (Marianne Chan) lived in the village
called "Mei Yan"and they were the ugliest girls there. Ling Wan lived with her father
who always taught her to be kind to others, while Chor Chor lived with her
father and brother who didn't care about her at all.
Ling Wan treated Chor Chor as her sister. She cared for Chor Chor, even
though Chor Chor was such a bad person. Ling Wan always thought that
Chor Chor used to save her life once when there were kids. But what she
didn't know was Chor Chor didn't mean to save her at all. Chor Chor was a very
selfish kind of person. She always took advantages of others. One time
she had to stand guard at the cemetery but she tricked Ling Wan to go there
for her. After this Chor Chor learned that Ling Wan, in fact, was
beautiful. She was so mad at Ling Wan and thought that Ling Wan didn't tell her
because she wanted to make fun of her. Anyway, they managed to make up.
One day Chor Chor met the magician, Siu Teow (Marco Ngai). He
had some kind of black magic…he could change people's face. Chor Chor gave
him some money and he changed her to be a beautiful girl (guest appearance
by Charmaine Sheh) but he said it was just temporary. Chor Chor walked
around with her "new face" and felt that everyone treated her much better.
Anyway, all of sudden her face turned back to normal again.
Then there was some kind of festival and the king (Eddie
Cheung)disguised himself to went there. There, he met Siu Teow who told him
that he would be in danger and the ugliest girl will save him.
Then while the king was watching some show, the killer tried to kill him.
Everyone was in panic, including the king. While the king was running for his life, he saw Chor Chor and
thought that she was the one Siu Teow was talking about so he asked her for help. She said
she would help him but he had to pay her.
The king agreed but after the situation became serious Chor Chor ran away,
leaving the king behind. While the king was desperate, Ling Wan came to the rescue.
After that she took him to hide in the cave. There, they developed some mutual respects.
A few days later, Ling Wan took the king back in town and let him stayed at her house. At the same time, Ling wan's father
was trying to marry her off by putting some kind of poster of "beautiful" Ling Wan in the village. Lots of guys came to
her house and said that the real Ling Wan didn't look like Ling Wan in the picture, so they wouldn't marry her. The king heard that
and said he will marry Ling Wan himself. Ling Wan and her father were so glad and Ling Wan went inside to wash her face and then came out beautiful.
Everyone was shocked to see that she was beautiful. Meanwhile, Chor Chor was in trouble and accidentally killed one guy and had to hide.
At the wedding night,(everyone knew that Eddie was a king now) Chor Chor asked Ling Wan to come out and help her. Ling Wan sneaked out and
went to see Chor Chor in some hut. They drank a lot and Ling Wan was unconcious. Chor Chor then got an idea about switching her face with Ling Wan, so she went to see Siu Teow.
Siu Teow felt that it was challenging and Chor Chor said that when she's an empress she will tell the king to give him some big title. So, Siu Toew did it.
<---Now Ling Wan = Marianne, Chor Chor = Anne -->
Ling Wan woke up and knew that Chor Chor went to the palace. Ling Wan tried to tell everyone that she was the REAL Ling Wan,
but everyone thought she was Chor Chor, who didn't want to get caught. Ling Wan got to suffered from the punishment a lot since she refused to accept that she was the real Chor Chor.
Anyway, finally there was one officer believed her and he risked his career by letting her out of jail. After Ling Wan was free, she met Lok Yan (Evergreen Mak) who told Ling Wan that he could take her to
see the king in the palace. But in fact, he just wanted her money. Anyway, he wasn't not a bad guy and he started to feel sorry for
Ling Wan after seeing how she worked so hard to get those money. He helped her out so many times and started to fell for her. Finally, they managed to see the king and proved that
Chor Chor wasn't the real Ling Wan. They got Siu Teow and ordered him to change Ling Wan's face back but Siu Teow couldn't do it. Chor Chor had to go to jail and waiting for the execution. The king was happy with Ling Wan but constantly felt awkward when looking at her face.
Then there was some war and the king and Ling Wan got to go there. Around that time the king's evil uncle helped Chor Chor because he noticed that when Chor Chor was around the king didn't seem to care for the country much.
At the war zone, the king was neither good at military strategies nor strong, so he came back to the palace after awhile. Anyway, many of the generals asked Ling Wan to stay in order to encourage the soldiers to fight.
At first the king and Ling Wan wrote letters to each other and the king obviously miss her. But the king's evil uncle's plan started here...he changed Chor Chor into a lady-like and seemed like a gentle educated woman with a new name "SiSi"
The king liked her immediately when he saw her and she pretended to be a nice girl. As a result, he took her back to the palace. When the war was over, Ling Wan came back and the people love her. Ling Wan liked "SiSi" well enough but Lok Yan and her father
didn't trust SiSi esp. Lok Yan...he knew that SiSi was Chor Chor. Then Ling Wan and Chor Chor both got pregnant. Chor Chor pretended to be nice with Ling Wan but always talking bad about her in front of the king. The king was blinded, believed everything Chor Chor told him. So, the king and Ling Wan's relationship got worse.
Ling Wan and Chor Chor gave birth in the same night, Chor Chor was shocked when she saw her son because he was so dark. Chor Chor even wanted to kill him but others stopped her. While, Ling Wan gave birth to a beautiful boy.
In the next morning, when the king asked to see his sons Chor Chor successfully claimed that Ling Wan's son was hers. And the king was so mad at Ling Wan plus he thought that she was having an affair with a general of the other country, so he decided to execute her.
By the time he realized that he was wrong, Ling Wan was already executed...
But she didn't die. Someone "up there" gave her a second chance to live. Ling Wan decided to ask for another 18 years to take care of Dan, Chor Chor's son (who was kicked out of the palace, too)
A few years passed, Ling Wan tried hard to teach Dan to be a good boy but it didn't seem to work. Dan was a boy who always dreamed of a better life and kind of ambitious just like Chor Chor.
Anyway, after he saw how much Ling Wan loved him, he decided to change and became a good boy. At the same time, Ling Wan's real son, Hei was a kind-hearted boy just like Ling Wan but he was taught to be bad by Chor Chor.
And the king didn't seem to care about his work anymore, not only that he felt guilty of what he did to Ling Wan but he also suffered with some kind of poison from Siu Teow.
Then many years later, Dan was eighteen now and Ling Wan persuaded him to go for the imperial test. Dan didn't want to go there because he was afraid that Ling Wan had to be alone. Anyway, Ling Wan insisted him to do that and she would go with him.
On their way to the capital, they saw that the country was in such a poor condition. Dan didn't like the king much...he thought that the king was no good. Then they arrived and they stayed at the hotel where turned out to be Lok Yan's. Ling Wan met Lok Yan and her father.
After all these years Lok Yan still loved Ling Wan and adopted one girl to be his daughter. At the same time, Hei grew up to be a bad boy who always caused troubles to others. One time he got to fight with Dan because Hei was about to hurt Ling Wan. Then the king and Chor Chor went to some
temple where Siu Teow planned to change the king's face with his. Luckily, Ling Wan was able to save him in time. The king stayed at the hotel and met Dan and he felt that Dan was a good boy and cared for the country. Then the king went back to the palace and started to distrust Chor Chor.
After the king left, Dan overheard Ling Wan's conversation with Lok Yan and learned that he was the king's son. Ling Wan asked him if he wanted to go and be a prince, he said that if Ling wan won't go back, he won't and that he didn't want to be prince...Ling Wan was happy. But then Hei happened to like
Lok Yon's step-daughter and tried to rape her, but Dan was there in time. Anyway, Dan couldn't fight because Hei got lots of men. Hei embarassed Dan before letting him go and Dan was mad.
After Dan got back to the hotel, he told Ling Wan that he wanted go to the palace and be a prince...
After Dan went into the palace he still had a fight with Hei. The king started to prefer Dan to Hei because Dan actually worked for the country while Hei was just fooling around. Anyway, Ling Wan still didn't give up on Hei and tried to teach him to be nice. Hei started to believe in Ling Wan and actually began to think that he was wrong, but Chor Chor always persuaded him that Ling Wan didn't mean well.
Hei was so confused and didn't know what's right and what's wrong anymore. And things started to get serious when the king decided to entitle Dan as a crown prince. Chor Chor and Siu Teow (they'd been having an affair for a long time now.) started to think that Hei was useless now, so they plotted some new plan. Chor Chor told Hei to kill Dan by telling him that if he didn't kill Dan, she would kill herself. Hei was afraid but decided to do so. To Hei's surprise, when he was about to stab Dan, Chor Chor ran to protect Dan and got stabbed instead. Hei was put in jail. Dan went to visit Chor Chor and she told him that she was his mother. Hei was shocked and very upset. On the other hand, Ling Wan was trying to help Hei out of jail, she even held Dan as a hostage
and accidentally hurt him. She and Hei managed to get away but Dan said their relationship as mother and son was over.
After Ling Wan and Hei ran away, Hei still acted like a jerk. But when he saw how Ling Wan risked her life to save him, he began to come to his sense and be good. Back in the palace,
the king felt sad and one night when he walked around the garden he found his mother's dead body (she was killed by Siu Teow) but there was some poison on the body, so the king was suffered from that poison and unable to talk. At this time now, he knew that Chor Chor was bad.
Dan was suspicious that the king wanted to say something, so he brought some books and told the king to blink if he pointed to the word he wanted to say. Dan was shocked to learn about the truth, but he could control himself to play along with Chor Chor and Siu Teow. One night Chor Chor saw
Dan was talking to the king, so Dan had to pretend to be bad. On the day that Dan was about to take the throne, Ling Wan, Hei, Lok Yan came to the palace to stop him. Dan pretended to say something bad to them, but when
Chor Chor told him to kill Ling Wan he couldn't do it. So, it was revealed that in fact it was Dan's plan to call everyone there in order to investigate about the king's case in front of the officers and generals.
Finally, they managed to proved that Chor Chor and Siu Toew were behind the king's mother's death. Siu Toew was executed by the king himself. As for Chor Chor, Dan begged for her life to the king. He was even willing to give up his throne in order to save her.
Anyway, the king didn't agree to do so. Dan went to the jail and ran away with her. Anyway, when Dan went into some temple to ask for some food, Chor Chor started to get the image of Ling Wan and she's gone crazy and fell down the cliff herself.
Back at the palace, Ling Wan didn't have to die (she was given 18 years after she got executed many years ago) and she finally became beautiful. THE END
Review:
Love is Beautiful is a good series. The storyline was fresh and interesting. Anyway, I felt it was a bit draggy in the middle.
I like the part where Ling Wan was with Lok Yan and the later part of the series.
Ling Wan's character was way too nice sometimes but acceptable because maybe it helps making its theme clear. One BIG complain about this series is the ending.
They really did ruin a good series with that kind of ending. I found myself laughing when I watched that particular scene. They really shouldn't have had everyone turned around and talked to the camera.
It looked so silly.
Besides a good storyline, you'll get to see good performance from the cast, too.
Marianne did a great job as Chor Chor and Ling Wan. When she was Chor Chor, she was very annoying like the character supposed to be. When she was Ling Wan, you could really tell
that it's a different person inside and somehow she looked more beautiful when, in fact, her face was the same as when she was Chor Chor.
Anne Heung, she did a good job here as a villain. She was a whole lot better when she was in other series.
Eddie Cheung - His character as a useless king didn't really gave him a chance to show his acting ability much I think. But Eddie did quite a good job, he expressed his emotion where it supposed to be.
Marco Ngai - I can't really say that he's good in this one. His laughs made him look silly sometimes. Anyway, he's not that bad just nothing special.
Evergreen Mak - Now I've got to say that he's a pretty good actor. I mean he managed to portray in different kinds of roles during these years.
David To Dai Wai as Dan - Not only that he's quite cute, but he's also pretty good. Maybe his acting was not THAT good but he can act. I think if TVB gave him more important role in the future that would be great.
Ngo Ka Nin as Hei (Thanks Funn Lim for telling me his name) - It was the first time I saw him in TVB series and his acting was nice.
The boy who acted as Young Dan - He's one of the best child actor in TVB. He really managed to bring Dan's bad behavior out and when he turned to be a good boy...that was so touching. He's really good.
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