Hard Fate [TVB]

Written by Funn Lim

"I dubbed this series, "the series that refuse to end". It is only 30 episodes in retrospect but it seems like a lifetime. There is nothing good in this series except to say it is a series meant to shock and nothing else."

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

Title Deciphered
In cantonese, Fei Chui Luen Kuk, literally A Jade Love Story. The title is totally not suitable for the contents of this series. It isn't a love story, it is a story about holding onto something when you should let go. Maybe alternate titles like

Fei Chui Lin Kuk - A Jade Strangle Story
Fei Chui Luen Kuk - A Messy Jade Story
Fai Chui Luen Kuk - A Useless Comedic Love Story
Fei Jor Luen Kuk - A Flown Away Love Story

Or maybe Fei Yat Bun Luen Kuk - Not Your Typical Love Story

Released In
2004

No. Of Episodes
30

Cast-Character
Damien Lau - Leung Pak Yin
Flora Chan - Tiffany
Kevin Cheng - Ka Meng
Niki Chow - Si Si
Maggie Siu
Stephen Au
Mary Hon
Har Yu
Hawick Lau
Michelle Ye
Micheal Tong
Mark Kwok
Sherming Yiu

And many more well known names who I can't remember in minor but pivotal roles.

Summary
A story which spans 4 generations, all events somehow related to a jade which was broken into two which the main protaganist, Tiffany later on believed it to be cursed. All women related to this jade suffered the same fate, from murderous first wives to death to key members in the family to separation and ultimately a change in character from gentle to vicious.

Plot
This is seriously like 99% of the series' plot revealed. Really complete spoilers so please do not read if you do not want me to spoil it for you.

Damien is a very successful trader who trades, designs and sells jade items in Hong Kong. He has a brother, Stephen who is a rival and who hates his guts simply because their father left the family business, Yuk Loong Hin to Damien instead of the younger brother. Yin is at the same time secretly admired by Maggie, his assistant but her love will never be reciprocrated. At the same time Damien was secretly paying for the expenses of an orphan, Kevin who is also in the jade business but on a smaller scale. He lives with his two friends whom he calls his family whilst he lives with the assumption that his no good father left his mother one day and never returned.

Kevin then met Flora, a 28 year old idealist who is an aspiring jewelry designer through some misunderstanding when Har Ping, Flora's grand aunt lost her favourite jade, the jade that you will hear and see throughout this series. But as the series went on, Flora became friends with Kevin who proves to be a gentleman as well as a very good friend who so happens to be in love with Flora. They even went into business together. But Flora by this time is working for the very temperamental and cunning Damien and she instead falls for this charming older man. Kevin at the same time meets a young pesky girl Niki who pretends to be a friend from his orphanage past but really is a girl looking for Kevin thinking Kevin may be her half brother as she discovers that her father has been paying for his expenses all along. Things seems cheery at first as everybody falls for somebody and relationships settle and then Har Ping dies in her sleep, never finding her husband brother Cheung (played by Michael Tong in flashbacks whilst Har Ping's character was played by Michelle Ye in flashbacks). Flora then begin tohave nightmares, always the same little girl in olden day clothings, then more elaborately the story of a second wife being burnt to death with her baby son (I think a son) as they were trapped inside a room whilst the first wife stood there doing nothing. The story also has the jade that her great aunt so loved in it and it ended with the husband saddened by his beloved 2nd wife's death ignoring the first wife. It was much much later Flora discovered the little girl in question was her great aunt and the first wife was her great aunt's mother.

Things from thereon became full of mysteries and suspiscion.

Flora discovered all was not what it seems with Damien. Niki was actually his daughther, Kevin wasn't his son but connected with his mysterious and shady past. Damien was all along married to Mary Hon who came back to Hong Kong to persuade Flora to leave Damien as Damien wanted to leave her. Flora wanted to and then discovered she was pregnant. Niki who hated Flora began to understand Flora's predicament but Mary didn't and ended up time and time again trying to kill Flora and her unborn child. Then Damien discovered Mary was severely depressed some years before and she was in short insane. It all became one big mess which ended with Mary threatening suicide on top of a building and Damien rushing there and Niki, Har Yu, Kevin and Flora all looking at Mary falling to her death dramatically and shortly followed by a screaming Damien.

Damien didn't die but he lost his memory and police became suspiscious as to how both of them fell from the building. Niki wanted to forgive her father but she saw Flora hugging him and she became angry that her mother was no more than a past for her father. Even her funeral Niki didn't want her father to be there. Things got worse.

Stephen took this opportunity to ally Maggie to his side as she became very disillusioned with Damien who not only refused to return her love, but rather give temporary control of his business to a nobody like Flora instead of her. It was also because she slept with Stephen, a man she never really liked. It ended with Stephen cheating the company of a lot of money and Maggie in disgust leaving the country. Now the company was in shambles but Kevin joined the company with much needed funds backed his benefactor of sort, Loh Hoi Pang. At the same time Damien suffered more setbacks as his eyes got blinded and it was then Niki forgave him. Not long after he was ok again and married Flora and all was happy.

But worse was still to come. His memory began to come back as to what happened and he found out there was a witness during that day who told him something that made him panicked and did all sorts of bad stuff. Niki knew of this too and started to investigate.

The truth was more than she could handle when she found her mother's diary which told of a story of how before they were married her father was smuggling jades in Myanmar together with Mary's gangster-ish father (who before he died he freezed the distribution of Mary's assets to Damien and Niki) and Damien's best friend who was later made into scapegoat, captured and executed, a fact that Damien didn't know until the last minute whilst it was all arranged by Mary's father who did this on the orders of the generals of that time. Niki found out that dead man was Kevin's father and stupidly, she told Kevin who became Damien's sworn enemy.

Worse was still to come. Niki discovered her father may have actually pushed her mother from the building and Damien was arrested. Niki reluctantly testified against her father for motive and Damien decided to save his own skin by accusing his daughter of greed and jealousy. Flora didn't believe any of it but she wanted to believe Damien also. Niki was insanely angered by his accusations and their relationship was never the same again. Kevin backed away from Yuk Lung Hin and the company went almost bust in a way. Damien survived the trial and found not guilty, though in his mind he knew his wife accidentally fell and he was holding on to her and in a moment of fear of what she would do to Flora and himself, he released his grip and ensured she fell. So he was guilty.

But things didn't stop there. Damien did something that caused Stephen's death and Flora found out why and how he did it, all for money. Flora realised the man she loved was a changed man and indeed Damien changed for the worse. He became insanely jealous and he threatened Flora by kidnapping their newborn baby girl. Flora was crazy with fear and panic and it ended with them having this huge fight and Damien taking the baby away and Niki being hit by a car and in deep coma as she tried to stop Damien from taking away the baby.

Then Flora heard a tape left by Damien confessing what happened in the past and apologising for it all. When Kevin and Flora reached the building Damien was on, he was found sprawled in the ground, in critical condition. He jumped to his death but he didn't take his baby girl with him. Kevin at the same time forgave Damien and look to his memory as a teacher and his benefactor. Niki had to go for a 2nd surgery and cue 6 years later, Kevin bought over Yuk Lung Hin and together with Flora ran the business successfully, meeting Damien's dreams of breaking into the European market. Niki we found out died 6 years earlier. Kevin refused to marry another whilst Flora was happy with just herself and her family and her daughter.

THE END.

End note : Maggie bore Stephen a child but she never seen him after she left HK earlier on I think. Stephen was I think executed in China for smuggling drugs in jade.



Comments
If you have seen this series or read my summary above, I am sure you must see the trend or rather the purpose of this series. The themesong does not in any way reflect the later contents of this rather depressing and yet ridiculously over melo dramatic series about perhaps fate and changes due to circumstances. The main focus is actually Damien's character, and what he was driven to do or not to do to preserve his way of life. The story of the jade and the story within the story of the jade spanning 4 generations in total does not in any way connect to the modern day story which is about the 3rd and 4th generation so to speak.

This series tries very very hard, and I stress very very hard to create a connection between the past characters, the jade and the present characters. It resulted with may I say a rojak piece of series with no focus. It reminds me of a M Night Shyamalam movie, except with no sense of purpose, direction and story except to shock, surprise and totally play with our minds.

It started out light hearted and everytime I remembered how Mary fell from the building and followed by Damien (and perhaps this is the most shocking part of this series and any series) I remembered the theme music, wth no lyrics just a lot of shoo-ees and shoo-ahhs. A bit too cheerful for what is essentially a ver dark themed drama about everything but cutesy stuff. Maybe this is most shocking of all. the rest of the series is pure tragedy in Greek proportion. You will need some tissues, not because you will cry and all but rather to wipe your tears of laughter. When things become so unreasonably and unbearably tragic, you will just laugh yourself silly. I have my reasons to laugh.

This series for one had some supernatural aspect that was never fully explained. How on earth Flora saw those umages of her great aunt as a young child? What has the fates of these poor women got to do with the jade? Was the jade really cursed?

Then there was mystery. Did Damien killed his wife or didn't he? I was very curious at first but it took several episodes and some really slow mo type of flashbacks and yet that story just refuse to reveal itself. It came to a point I was like "who cares?! Get on with it!" and it didn't, and it was mental torture not because I wanted to know if he did it or not (the trend in TVB series is if it takes THAT long to reveal itself in a plot of did he or didn't he, most likely he did) but because I know if this part of the series do not move on, the rest of the story will never come and this series will never end.

And then we have some rather disturbing stuff about human folly. First with Niki telling Kevin about her father's past and how Kevin's father died. I wonder what good would it do to tell Kevin? The past is the past. She knew her father was forced, he didn't know so why tell Kevin? Are all characters in this series so idealistic to the point of disbelief? And then Niki became very angry that her father accused her of greed. Of course she should be angry but then she accused her father of murder! What was she expecting him to do? Sit there and admit when she herself was having doubts of did he or didn't he? The worse was still to come. Everybody, including Flora blamed Damien of creating a trap for Stephen, whilst pretending to be all innocent and desparate. Damien wanted Stephen to be executed as he found out Stephen never made a will and so Damien was the righful beneficiary. He didn't know then Maggie had a child with Stephen who didn't know either and frankly I missed what happened to Maggie and her baby. So Damien was despicable. But everybody seems to gloss over the fact that Stephen at first also used Damien, that if Damien was found with the jade full of drugs Damien would have been executed and Stephen would not have felt remorse either! Why should Damien take all the blame? So he was despicable but Stephen was no angel himself. The surprisingly everybody blamed Damien for causing or rather did not do something to help Kevin's father and yet nobody seems to bear a grudge against the old man (Niki's grandfather) who actually plotted the whole thing!

At this point I was wondering has everybody got their priorities as in hating who and forgiving who all wrong? The series tries very very hard to make the viewers hate Damien, but I thought he was merely misunderstood, at first. Of course when he hid the baby and gave threats, that was when I thought this man was insane.

But one thing I could understand though whilst someone I knew couldn't. She asked; "Funn what is all this bs with Damien becoming insane like this ah? How can a man as dignified and knowledgeable like him could succumb to jealousy and in the end possibly murder of not one wife but 2?"

I guess that is the very proposition of this series. If you have everything and you are threatened one day with the possiblity that you may lose everything, what would you do? Damien made sure he pulled his wife's grip on his hands and saw her fell down. If you have so much experience and tasted success and then suddenly came a younger man like Kevin getting all the limelight for your family business, how would you feel? Damien became unreasonably jealous. If your new wife, whom you were willing to commit murder so as to marry her was leaving you, what would you do?

Indeed, what would you have done?

I thought Damien's actions were over the top but understandably so, since everyday I read in newspapers how fathers kill off the entire family when wife threatens divorce or wives throwing themselves and their children off a building when husbands went to his mistress. It could happen in real life, why not in a fictional world?

Which is why I thought Damien's ending was not surprising but the fact that he didn't throw his baby girl together with himself off the building was ina way a happy ending. It is realistic at this point althought everything leading to that was not.

And everything thereafter was pure shock value like Niki dying. That's a bit cruel isn't it? Why can't she live? And the silliest part was Kevin all of a sudden looking to Damien as his mentor again when the fact that Damien caused his father's death (in his mind, Damien was then a coward) never changed. The sudden sweet remiscing of the past was really unnecessary and very very badly done because it is illogical. Damien's death may have ceased all hatred but still can you speak so highly of a man who caused your wife's death, your father's death and threatened bodily harm to the person you care about? Of course not! So why the sentimental crap?

But not yet. 6 years later Kevin as Ka Ming looked much older with his grandpa's glasses whilst Flora looks interestingly younger with her pony tail. Ka Ming if I am not wrong should be by then only mid 30s or maybe early 30s. Why does he have to look so much older? Because his wife died? 6 years down the road and the writers don't have the heart to give him a second chance at love? That would be my idea of an ending, a happy closure. As for Flora's character, as long as she doesn't irritate me, I count that as a blessing.

So the story part may be inadequate, one doesn't connect with the other no matter how hard the writer tries to connect it, but luckily this series does boast some (read: ONE) memorable character and the rest are non-characters or caricatures.

Most Favoruite Character
Without a doubt, Ka Meng played by the devilishly handsome Kevin Cheng. I shall now introduce Kevin Cheng as devilishly handsome Kevin Cheng because...do you remember the movie where Brad Pitt plays Mr Death who was previously played by Robert Redford? If TVB is ever going to do their own version of Mr Death, I would definitely recommend Kevin Cheng. For me I do not see Ka Meng as Ka Meng because Kevin's presence somehow usurped the role of Ka Meng and this character became Kevin. It's not really a bad thing but it definitely means the character is not as well developed or as well written as I would hoped. I will discuss more on this later. But for now, my most favourite character, my ONLY favourite character in this series is Ka Meng for being such a gentleman, a nice guy, a man with dignity and a man with integrity alhough towards the end his character became very very inconsistent but then the entire series is inconsistent.


Scariest Character
Without a doubt, the wife who can't let go, Mary Hon. She was scary and you would think twice of becoming a mistress if your sugar daddy has a wife like that. If you don't die first by she pushing you, you'll definitely die of harassment by her.

Most Hated Character
Stephen Au? He is a villain. Damien Lau? He became a villain of circumstances. Maggie for betraying Damien? Can't blame her, I too would betray him. Imagine toiling for years for this man you love and in the end not one word of recognition.

My vote would go to Flora's Tiffany. You will know why everytime she cries, and she cries very very often in here.

Best Couple
As in most likeable couple. There aren't a lot. Officially only 2 couples (Damien-Flora, Niki-Kevin), unofficially 3 couples (extra one would be Stephen-Maggie but they were never a couple officially or even unofficially actually really truly). Definitely Niki-Kevin. The girl is cute and pretty albeit very troublesome at first and later very confused chick, the guy is devilishly handsome and nice albeit confused and later very contradictory dude but they both remain throughout nice, really nice. And they look good together with good chemistry. I wished for a kiss though, can't remember them kissing.

Worst Couple
Not so much for their characters or bad acting but I shall admit for purely the outer shell perspective (read: don't look good), my bote goes to the other couple, Damien and Flora. Damien is too old for his role and towards the end you will see all wrinkles and eye bags making him even older. But hey, Flora is no spring chicken. But that is not the issue. It's the fact that they do have chemistry with one another, weirdly so (such as the way theu hug and all) and because I am not very much into senior citizen love story, that makes me feel a bit not quite right. I can't really explain it, I find this couple's relationship more intimate than Kevin-Niki but when earlier on I saw how she left Kevin's gift to her by Damien's bed side, indicating they're sleeping with one another, that totally freak me out. Call me shallow but really, I am not that into such storyline. I don't need too much explanation or graphics for this, just a mere mention will do actually.

Best Could Have Been Couple
Kevin, earlier on really liked Flora to the point he wanted to marry her. Flora gave subtle indication by either bad writing, inconsistent characterisation or pure bad acting that she likes him as much. This story never went further than that because Damien appeared thereafter. At first I didn't quite like Flora with Kevin, because Kevin looks so much younger than his actual age which could be the same as Flora for all I know who looks like her age, but when I saw them together, I quite like them together than Flora with Damien. There is this cute interaction between Kevin and Flora, they don't look compatible but yet they are. Very weird but very true for me. Anyway just a speculation. Niki is fine, because she is young and boundless energy, very rare these days with skinny actressess who are at least a decade older than the characters they play.

Most Impossibly Impossible Moment
I have mentioned a lot above, like Kevin's reaction, Niki's reaction, Flora's reaction, Damien's reaction, everybody s reaction and Har Yu and Hawick's LACK of reaction when Flora said Damien kidnapped her baby girl. I mean Hawick maybe but Har Yu? Having a bad acting moment? Impossible? Well it happened!

But most shocking of all, Flora playing a 28 year old??? Impossible!

At the very start of this series she was acting cutesy and all. I almost couldn't take it, those innocent and cutesy stuff especially when Niki appears and a girl that young didn't act as cutesy or innocent. I was very irritated with Flora but more on that later.

Most Redundant Character(s)
After watching the entire series I realise the writers did not give any credit or room for the characters played by Maggie and Stephen to grow into a proper character. They're like caricatures and just there to fill the void.

Most Redundant Scene(s)
Everything to do with the jade, the past story of the second wife played by Sherming Yiu and the love story of Michelle Ye, Micheal Tong and the nicest boss in the world, Mark Kwok. No connection, tries to have a connection but comes out as superficial and redundant. And I still can't understand how Flora would have those dreams.


Most Shocking Scene(s)
The entire series is built on shocks and more shocks. So here are my Top 5 list.

Number 5
Damien is actually married and nobody, and I mean not even his brother knows! This man should be a secret agent!

Number 4
Har Yu and Hawick's reaction to Flora's hysterical cries that "Damien took my baby girl, I am oh so worried" was like "Aiyah, he won't harm her wat!". Just shows how little they know of Damien's desperation to hold on to Flora at that point.

Number 3
The Flora-Damien fight. Ding ding! Round one, Flora wins when she used a big piece of wooden stuff hitting him on the forehead, blood! Round two, Damien wins by pulling her roughly and slapping her and knocking her unconcious. Round three, Damien wins again by lying next to her and said those things he said which probably hurts more than a slap on her face.

Number 2
Damien jumping to his death, and tie here, he didn't take the baby with him.

Number 1
And the number one most shocking scene of this series...that Mary Hon falling onto the roof of a car with a deafening sound followed by a screaming Damen falling on the top of a shed I think. Probably the most shocking, disturbing and yet entertaining scene of the entire series.

Honourable mention : Everytime Mary Hon appears to push Flora down the stairs. Scary woman.

If I Were The Boss, I Would ...
For one, fire the person who did the editing. You see one second the scene was really serious and sombre and the next suddenly cue chirpy music or flashback of the Michelle Ye-Michael Tong story. It's like split personality for me, no connection between two scenes and no continuation. How can you be chirpy and happy when tragic things just happened?

Tell Flora Chan to please get acting lessons in so far as crying lessons. I am already used to her poor diction, especially when crying so I'll just forget about that. But when she cries, the worst acting ever, and can never hear a word she is saying. Never.

Tell Kevin Cheng being cool is great, the ability to exude coolness naturally is wonderful but the expression of cool shock to cool anger to cool love to cool affection to cool worry to cool sadness to cool acceptance to cool desparation is just way too cool for me. He must have more than cool in his acting abilities.

Get another actor to play Leung Pak Yin. I love Damien Lau but this role is not for him.

Give Stephen and Maggie something to do if not not write them a role at all.

Fire the themesong composer. Shoo-bee dooo shoo bee doooo shoo bee dooo ahhh ahhhh ahhhhhhahhhh and just the episode before the first wife just tried to push the mistress down the stairs. Should be "ching ching ching ching chinggggggggg" ala Psycho.

Fire the person who arranged the opening scene, at first everybody is happy and suddenly 100% turn, everybody is crying. There is no middle ground here, just 2 extremes.


Performances Evaluated
Kevin Cheng, the devilishly handsome man is find in so far as not doing something overboard. In fact in all his series he looks hardly stressed. His performance has improved in so far as his likeability has improved but acting wise, to me he is still weak. He is dangerously becoming just another actor with a pretty face. I am still waiting for his breakout role, something he could do so well no other can do better or maybe other can do better but in any way he did it first. Maybe a cool villain you know. Or better yet, like in Changing Lanes, a heartless bastard who went through a journey to self discovery and became a better person. I would definitely love to see him in such a role. The cameras when not focussing on him likes him, and I am sure his fans will definitely love his character in here and so his performance. I watched this series for him, and I love looking at him. And that is the problem. I love to LOOK at him and no more. I still find his performance weak and at times without much substance. This man has got loads of charisma, he is devilishly handsome (and I shall repeat that often), he looks good with a lot of female stars and yet I do get tired of looking at him when I do not see any new contribution by him. I suspect because Ka Meng is a very straightforward character, or you may say one dimensional. Or maybe it is bad acting. The only time I see him looking a bit stressed, a tiny bit was when he became very emotional about his father's sad ending, Niki's ending. But still not enough. Which is why I feel he can play a cold heartless bastard very well. As for his portrayal in here, he did well but I suspect, if Gordon Lam is still with TVB, he would have been Ka Meng. The first half of this series seems destined for Gordon Lam actually. But if Kevin is not in this seriess, I will not watch it because everybody else is just not watcheable.

Stephen Au's character is one dimensional and not going any further than one dimensional. Maggie's character had more angst but then she was written off without exploring more on it.

Damien Lau is wrong for this role of a very attractive older man who has money, authority and earlier on dignity. I can't imagine who else for this role but I must know, how old is this character? Late 40s? Then there will be plenty of good looking suave actors but Flora has to be changed because she probably looks as old as the actor. And Damien Lau somehow looks very ackward in later scenes as a desparate man hanging on to his wife, and the tears and the hysterical outbursts. He did well with that evil look but very inconsistent in his performance. I just didn't enjoy it.

Niki Chow, the first time I think I am watching her series and mistaken her as Sharon Chan who was in Dreams of Colours. Sharon had this more arrogant look whilst Niki a cuter disposition but lots of teeth was my impression. Her hair looks constantly wet in here but it's just the cut actually. Her performance is better during the light hearted scenes so I do think she will do well in light romantic comedy or even comedy but in dramatic scenes, her anger towards her father was no more than a tantrum in my opinion. Like you just heard your father accused you of greed and you then throw the music box, sat down to cry and sulk. I expected something more than that. I like her, I see her potential and I definitely would look out for this actress in future roles but I would think that she needs major improvement in dramatic scenes. Everybody nowadays can act because proclaiming someone as she can't act will probably get you 10GB worth of spam mail but the trick now is to exert your presence by either having the charisma like Kevin Cheng or the acting abilities. Niki does not have acting abilities to that point but she has a bit of charisma. Time can only tell if she can go beyond just looks and give a performance I would rave about.

Har Yu was ok, though his character's reaction in later part so weird, Mary Hon was scary, Hawick Lau, pity him had little to do, Har Ping looked nothing like Michelle Ye but she was ok, Michelle Ye always excels in smaller roles and she did ok in here, Michael Tong as boring as ever, Sherming Yiu beautiful but nothing much except for tragic.

Flora Chan was altogether on a different stratosphere of her own. I can't say she can't act, as I reasoned why. I can't say she can act very well because she can't. In light hearted scenes she was bearable, in dramatic scenes she looks truly stressed and hysterical about her lost baby. But when she cries and speaking her lines at the same time, not one word I can hear and she is probably the worst and ugliest crier of TVB, and since she left, someone must replace her soon since if there is a best, there must be a worst. Her good moments are those shared with Kevin or Damien, when she is alone, she is really not watcheable at all. I miss her Healing Hands type of character, unapologetically bitchy and loose woman, very independant and very opinonated. She looks like it but somehow these days she is too much into "I am innocent girly girl" that I can't buy it because she looks middle aged. I hope her success in mainland production but I hope she stops portraying young girls type of roles or older character with innocent disposition type of roles because she doesn't look like it. It is cruel to say this but when you're past that age, you're past that age. Her performance in here is excruciating to watch because she has to cry a lot and embarassing to watch because she has to act innocent a lot and boring to watch because every scene there's her and I don't like her in here. For me the worst performance.

Verdict
I dubbed this series, "the series that refuse to end". It is only 30 episodes in retrospect but it seems like a lifetime. There is nothing good in this series except to say it is a series meant to shock and nothing else. The reasonings why some characters quite suddenly changed for the worst is weak. I do understand why Leung Pak Yin descended to what he became, for the very mistake of not saving his wife, he descended to become an animal. The ground work for this series is there, but the writing subsequent to that is bad that at the end of the day, with all those meaningless and unconnected flashbacks, change of behaviour, unpredictable reactions, all meant to make this series unpredictable and therefore fresh made it a very tiring series to watch. I was sick of the constant twist and turn and sudden flashbacks and suddenly chirpy music and chirpy scene and then back to tragedy and more tragedy. Then there are constant unending fighting between the brothers which in the end one must die since it will never end any other way. The repetition is as tiring as the mention of the jade which in the end I wonder what happened to it?

This series at the end of the day does not know what it wants to show so it shows everything making it too long, too predictably tragic (if Damien doesn't die, I wonder how it will end?) and the ending too long. The music just went on and on and on and I kept saying for the last 10 minutes that "it just won't end! Oh please end!". If a viewer can't wait for a series to end, it can only mean one thing. This series is really not worth your rental money. I am sure there are other better mystery-supernatural-chirpy-tragedy series out there. But for Kevin Cheng alone, you might want to sample a few episodes and I recommend the earlier parts. Just skip the last 15 episodes or so. If you just want shocks, try the last 15 episodes.

Best avoid this one.