RETURN OF THE CUCKOO [TVB]

Written by Kamie Leung

This review was posted many years ago, exactly when I am not sure but it should be within months from the original broadcast of this series. I am posting it as I have posted it originally.

SPOILERS ... SPOILERS ... SPOILERS

Title
Moonlight or Return of the Cuckoo or The Macau Streets
I also don't know why this serial has so many names!

Characters
Chilam- man chor
Charmaine sheh- gwan ho
Michael tong- gum sing
Nancy sit- q-yee
Steven ma- lai shun
Sherming Yiu Lok-Yi - ying mun
(and a lot of other characters who i don't know their names)

Plot

Chilam/Charmaine/Nancy: Nancy took care of Chilam when his mother abandoned him after she almost killed Chilam by making him drink something that damaged his vocal cords. Chilam could not talk but could hear so he communicates with sign language until later on in the episodes when he gets his voice back. Charmaine is Nancy's daughter, but her dad left and married someone else( but the dad is a really nice guy). He sees Charmaine about once a year. Charmaine's character is a tomboy and she and Chilam is very brotherly and sisterly towards each other. Chilam loves Nancy like she is his mother. For Charmaine’s own good, Nancy was really mean to her. That was Nancy’s way to provoke Charmaine to go to the US. It worked. Nancy didn’t even see Charmaine off at the airport even though she watched her from afar. (quite touching actually)

Chilam/charmaine/steven: charmaine did not like steven at first because of some misunderstanding and due to charmaine's stubborn nature. But as the story unfolds we find that steven, chilam, and michael's character likes charmaine. But charmaine liked steven in the beginning and later realized her feelings for chilam. She never developed any kind of romantic feelings towards michael because she considers him a friend only. Chilam likes Charmaine but he knows that she is better off with steven. So he asked Charmaine’s best friend to pretend that she is his girlfriend so that Charmaine will go to the US with Steven. Charmaine believes the whole dating thing and moves to the US. She comes back to Macau years later and finds out the truth. She always thought that Nancy and Chilam didn’t love her anymore and forgot about her. But everything they did was for giving her the best the world has to offer to her. (the ending is very touching… I won’t give it away but if you really want to know… please email me!)

Michael/ Sherming: Sherming is like a whore in this series but u really sympathize with her character even though she remains a slut till the end. She likes michael but michael does not like her. She likes money but when michael was in danger she did try to help him. Too bad michael liked charmaine because if he liked yung hung she'll love him and only him even though he is poor despite the fact that his dad is rich. His dad has three sons, michael included. But michael has a different mother. The oldest brother is the nice one, he has a relationship with charmaine's friend. But the youngest brother is a jerk. When Sherming finds out that michael does not like her, she went with the youngest brother because he's rich end.

Charmaine’s best friend/ Michael’s older brother: Since Michael’s family is rich, the older brother was not allowed to date Charmaine’s best friend (sorry I don’t know their real names!) The older brother was tricked into marrying this rich girl when all along he thought he was going to marry Charmaine’s best friend. He did end up marrying the rich girl, hurting his REAL love very badly. But in the end, they did get back together after Charmaine’s best friend forgave him. But unfortunately, he died in a car accident along with his youngest brother. (very sad subplot story)

Best Performances
chilam!!!! He was simply adorable as man chor and he did an excellent job with the sign language and everything. Everyone else in the series was good but chilam's performance was the best! In the end you wished that he had romantic love in his life. But that doesn't mean that i wanted him to be with charmaine. You could tell that he did love charmaine because of the sacrifices he made for her. But well... I didn't feel the love from charmaine!(read below) like i said in the end you wish that chilam had a love interest! Anybody! Because he deserves love!

Good performances
nancy sit- she was very good here. But nothing spectacular except maybe the scences where she sacrificed her own happiness so that charmaine can continue forward with her life. She was really mean to charmaine for her own reasons but her pain was shown when charmaine left with steven to the us. Her performances in "kindred spirit" were much better. But, overall a nice job!

Most improved
charmaine! She was convincing as a tomboy. But i didn't feel much for her character even though her character is likable. She did improve but she rehearsed too much for her scenes i think. Everything was not as natural as some other actresses even though i think she could be consider a "good" actress now. Her character did love chilam. But i only feel that she loves him in that brother type way... Not the love chilam has for her. And maybe that's where her performance goes wrong. I think she was cuter with steven because their interaction with each other was more romantic as opposed to her interaction with chilam where it's brotherly. Maybe it is because chilam is more experienced and a better actor than her so it's hard not to see her flaws when she is acting with chilam. But she still improved a lot!!!!!

Most irritating
I would say Michael’s character. He treated Sherming in an unfair way, in my opinion. He should have treated her nicer. He did care about her, but he didn’t express it. He bothered me at some points because his character wasn’t nicely developed. But he did do a good job with a bad character!

Final comments
This series was very touching. Chilam is definitely worth the money! This series got very very very high ratings. Did it deserve it? Not that high of ratings! A poll was done and it said that most people watched it for chilam. The series itself is nothing original and the love stories weren't as interesting. The only thing in the series that remotely come close to being the reason of the high ratings is chilam. But this series was entertaining. I highly suggest renting it!!!!!