Heart of Greed- The review

The Story
The Tong family is famous in Seung Wan for selling abalone. They own 31 shops all over the district and possess 600 million dollars worth of inheritance. These 600 million dollars are a blessing, but they are also a misfortune. From the outside, the Tong family seems like a perfect family to live in, with lots of warmth, laughter and happiness. However, beneath the peaceful surface, the hearts of greed are stirring up lots of currents...

The whole story began because of one person, Susanna Kwan. For thirty years, she could not swallow the fact that she does not have a ‘real’ status in the Tong family. Hence, she keeps creating trouble for the Tong family, no matter how well her husband, Ha Yu treats her, no matter how many times the big wife, Lee Sze Kei forgives her, no matter how much money she already has…

In the Tong family, there are also four children, whose names represent: peace, relax, happiness and joy. Moses Chan is the eldest son, and also the most filial out of all. However, because he is an ‘illegitimate’ child, he faces a lot of problems when handling the family affairs, even though everything he does is for the family’s good. Bosco Wong is the second son. He is basically kind, but too impatient. He fell in love with a rich man’s wife Tavia Yeung, and that gave the family lots of problems. Chris Lai is the son of Susanna Kwan. He is a very innocent boy, but has a horrible mother. Because of that, he is trapped in the middle of two sides. Fala Chen is the youngest daughter, who behaves like a kid, but she is also very filial. These four children live up to their name, and bring lots of laughter to the family. Because of them, the older ones spend lots of time, effort and money, just so that they have a better future.

Meanwhile, Moses meets Linda Chung, and was willing to be her guardian angel. Moses, Linda, Raymond and Yoyo developed a very interesting love rectangle, even though it is a complete different story from the Tong family’s part.

Love Factors

Dai Kai- Lee Sze Kei
It is safe to say, Dai Kai is the most respected member of the Tong family, and she deserves this amount of respect. Without her around, the whole Tong family will fall apart. She is a wise mother, an understanding wife, and she has great ways to deal with the bad ones. Basically, everything she does is right, and every speech she gives is an inspiring one. Even later on, when she is down with the disease, Dai Kai didn’t stop caring for her family until her very last breath. This is indeed a powerful and very worth-remembering character, even though she only appears until episode 28.

Talking about performance, there are two words to describe LSK’s comeback performance: ‘SOLID’ and ‘AMAZING’. Gosh I really love watching her every single performance! I love it when she is firm, I love the way she lectures the different people, and I also love her emotional scenes. One line I remember the best is in episode 13, when she told Susanna, ‘This is not the court, I don’t need evidence to prove your guilt! My eyes are the evidence!’ I will never forget how she said that line! I was going to stand up and applaud! And that was probably how many other felt.

Dai Bao- Ha Yu
Compared to his wife, Ha Yu is a bit useless, because he is more gullible, and his heart is too soft. However, he is also a great father, who loves his family and his kids. You will love him the most before he dies, because of the interesting ways he fights with Susanna. One of his scenes you can NOT miss is at the end of episode 35, when he tells Susanna ‘I Love You’. Gosh I totally love that scene. Ha Yu’s performance is also very very solid from the beginning to the end.

Lei Yi- Michelle Yim
A loving and capable Aunt who takes good care of the family’s business, a very different Michelle from what you just saw in The Brink Of Law, but again, totally solid performance.


Sai Bao/ Dak Dak Dei- Moses Chan
No doubt, Moses is the ‘pillar’ character of the entire series, and I love his character. Moses is a great son, a great brother, and a great friend to have. He may seem dorky and old-fashioned, but he is the most mature and sensible one. I really love the way he protects his family and his younger siblings, and how he is always there for Linda.

Performance wise, I didn’t like Moses’ performance at the beginning, because I found it exaggerated, and confusing. But everything just gets better and better. Soon, I found myself loving his jokes, the way he speaks and acts, and even the way he cries. Yes Moses cries very well (though not very often) in this series. The tears just well up in his eyes, but there’s no sound, it’s very heartbreaking…

Improvement Factors

Seung Joi Sum- Linda Chung
Moving away from the Tong family, let's talk about Ms Linda Chung. Gosh she really did improve! If you don’t understand what improvement is, watch the first scene of episode 37. But actually it's not only that scene. You can really feel her improvements and increased confidence in this series. Plus, her dressing sense is awesome in this series. It is easy to like watching her, and falling in love with her name ‘Seung Joi Sum’.

Yan- Fala Chen
Youthful, energetic little sister, very lovely indeed! Fala did improve quite a lot in her acting and her cantonese.


Give-me-my-screen time! factors

Bosco Wong and Tavia Yeung
You will see the most of them when they were getting married and when Tavia was accused of having an affair. Besides that, Bosco and Tavia’s screen time is actually very little, even less than the ‘guest star’ Raymond Lam. I think even Chris Lai has more screen time than them. I think the producers should develop their story a bit more, especially because Tavia is such an awesome actress. Her crying scenes were totally awesome.

Sui Mak Mak- Yoyo Mung
Yoyo is Linda’s best friend, who is constantly in search of her true love but to no avail, only to fall for Alfred. For some reason I think Raymond and Yoyo's characters match much better, but they fall in love at the wrong time. If Raymond met Yoyo before Linda, then things will be perfect. Anyway, Yoyo’s role is actually very small. At times, you may even forget that she’s in this series!

Dislike factor

Sai Kai- Susanna Kwan

From the beginning to the end, Susanna NEVER stops creating trouble for everyone. It’s annoying, it’s tiring, and it really makes you hate her to the core. What I hate the most about her is how she twists facts to fit her own agenda. Perhaps, this will be the ‘most hated character of the year’. Anyway, Susanna gave an awesome performance, and also sang a marvelous themesong. Sometimes I feel really tired for her, because she has to yell so much!

Kau Fu Bo- Louis Yuen
Another greedy man who is also very annoying; he keeps switching from good to evil back and forth, it gets confusing.

Tavia’s family, especially the mother
This is a family which is SERIOUSLY hungry for money. Every time I see them, I feel like yelling at the screen, ‘If you want money, go earn it yourself!’ I don’t know what kind of upbringing is this, but I’m glad Tavia is different from them.

Linda’s brother
An utterly cheap man ugly inside out

The excessive blog scenes
In this series, Raymond and Linda like to blog a lot, and tell the audience about what they feel about their love life. Their blog entries are all pretty touching, but there is simply TOO MUCH. Some of them got to go! Also, the song ‘My Love Will Get You Home’ gets played way too many times. I like the song 'Vincent' much better.

The sloppy courtroom scenes
I think the courtroom scenes are too short and very substandard. It just makes the series seem a little lame towards the end. It’s like the court is a playground for these rich people…

Don't-blame-me factor
Alfred- Raymond Lam
In this series, Raymond plays Linda’s boyfriend, who bring her lots of sweetness, but also lots of tears. I didn’t really fancy Alfred’s character at first, because he was impatient, and not a very caring boyfriend. Like what he said about himself, ‘I never understood what it is like to be truly nice to someone.” Moreover, he cheated on Linda. That is why many people cannot forgive him. But maybe I can, because I can't help associating his sad family background to his playboy character. In fact you can't really call Alfred a playboy, he just wants to find someone who knows him better...

And surprisingly, after episode 29, things started to change. Alfred turned out much more devoted than I expected. It is true that when you don’t lose something, you won’t know how important it is to you. Losing Linda made Ray realise he loves her the most, and that changed him 180 degrees. For 7 episodes Raymond did everything he could to redeem himself, and this is when you will start to love him more and more. It’s a pity he never knew that Linda had already forgiven him, a big big pity…

Pity factor

Raymond Lam
If you have seen the themevideo it is not hard to guess that Raymond dies in this series. But it is also a great surprise that the producers chose to kill off this character. The most important reason why I pity Raymond is not because he died, but because he never got to know that Linda forgave him before he died. The thought is very de pressing… The ending of episode 36 and the beginning of episode 37 is really sad, makes you shed lots of tears… However, watching the rest of episode 37 gives you a strange feeling, because the aftermath of Ray’s death is a little weird, maybe that’s just what I feel…

Chris Lai
Foon Foon is such a good boy! Yet, he has such a horrible mother. Really pity him, to be trapped in the middle of two sides. Fortunately, he is able to tell right from wrong.

How come factor

The 2-in-1 story
If there has to be one bad thing about this series, it has to be this. The Tong family catfights, and the Moses, Linda, Raymond, Yoyo love rectangle are really NOT RELATED. Even though I enjoy BOTH stories A LOT, it is tiring and awkward to see the scenes jump randomly from one line to another. I think the love story should be filmed as a separate shorter series, and I’m serious. I really can’t accept the fact that these two stories are force-fit to such a large extent. I keep wishing Linda, Raymond and Yoyo could be more related to the Tong family. I just hope Raymond and Linda could fight more cases related to the Tong family. I just hope the courtroom scenes weren’t so lame…

What about the ending?
There are 3 words to describe the ending—rushed, unfair, surprising
Let’s talk about Susanna first. Boy I really think her ending is lame. For 39.5 episodes this woman gave the Tong family nothing but trouble, trouble and trouble. But in less than 10 minutes, she shed two drops of tears, repented, and the Tong family accepted her again? I also don’t understand why the producers keep pushing the blame to Linda’s brother, because Susanna was already evil to begin with. Basically, I think the producers were way too kind to her. Her ending was way too fast, and way too easy.

What about the other evil ones? Okay I don’t care about Tavia’s family or Linda’s brother, but what about Louis Yuen? He is part of the Tong family, and I’m quite sure he is better-natured than Susanna. Did the producers forget about him?

Then finally, it’s the Linda and Moses thing. I was surprised that Linda and Moses ended up together, but I’m okay with that, because it’s good to move on and find your own happiness. I just found it too sudden. Why did Moses have to buy a ring? Why did Moses have to say ‘Marry me?’ We watched 39.9 episodes of Linda and Moses being good friends. It’s hard to stomach 0.1 episode of them being ENGAGED.

Favourite scenes:
Episode 13: Who is the human, who is the ghost
Lee Sze Kei gave one of the most powerful lectures. She said two golden lines. The first line was, ‘this is my home, not the courtroom, I don’t need evidence , my eyes are the evidence!’ The second line was ‘who is the human, who is the ghost, I can tell!’ These are the two lines i'll never forget

Episode 16: Bosco and Tavia’s wedding
There was a lot of trouble during Bosco and Tavia’s wedding day. That made Bosco mad, it also made Tavia cry. I really love watching Tavia cry, and watching how Lee Sze Kei solves all the problems. The best part is of course, when the family performs. The whole scene was really grand, and really touching. Basically, don’t miss episode 16.

Episode 21: Chasing Susanna out
During the last two episodes, you will be very puzzled why did Lee Sze Kei forsake her own family. At the end of episode 21, you will understand why.

Episode 35: I will not give you a single cent!
This is the scene where Ha Yu comes out of the hospital and chased the villains out of the house. Ha Yu told Susanna he will not give her a single cent. I love the way he says that. I love the way he finally wakes up and protects his children. Another awesome scene.

Episode 36/37: Please forgive me
Let me warn you first, Raymond’s death scene was really sad! We all know, Raymond’s biggest wish was to get Linda’s forgiveness. But at the phone booth in his last breath he did not say a single word about that. He talked to Linda like it was a normal conversation. Linda had no idea she was going to lose him, but Raymond’s eyes were tearing. The way Raymond said ‘Bye bye’ was so emotional! After that, the police called Linda. Linda was shocked. She said ‘I just talked to him on the phone how can it be him?’ She was in denial until the doctors pushed him out. Linda screamed and cried until your heart shatters. But the saddest part is when Linda pieced the broken pieces of the seashell, and found the words ‘please forgive me’ engraved on it. That is Raymond’s biggest wish, but it was never fulfilled until he died…

Episode 38: Ha Yu’s death scene
Even at his deathbed, Ha Yu managed to trick Susanna. It was a cool death scene. I really hate Susanna, who didn’t even allow her husband to leave in peace! What kind of woman is that!

Episode 38: Chris Lai stands up for himself
Chris Lai tells the reporters that yes he has a very good mother, and he started telling many stories. It was then you slowly realize it wasn’t Susanna he was talking about, but Lei Sze Kei. That was cool ~.~ The scene ended with a powerful slap. O.o I really don’t think Susanna should slap him, because every single word he said was right!

Worth Watching?
You CANNOT miss this series. If you miss this series, you might as well not watch any series this year. Yes there are flaws. But if you skip this series because of those flaws, you are missing out a lot…