Overview:
Heart and Greed is a 2017 Grand Production, a partnership drama between TVB and Tencent Penguin Pictures. It is also one of the TVB’s 50th anniversary series. This series is the third installment of the record-breaking and popular Heart of Greed Series which was then followed by Moonlight Resonance which was released 9 years ago. This series just like its predecessors belong in the genre of Modern Drama and revolves around family feud. It filming locations include Hong Kong and Portugal.
Main Cast:
Ha Yu as Wong Wing Ching (奶茶王)
Louise Lee as Ling Lai Ying (火姐)
Bosco Wong as Ling Shing Fung (阿九，九少)
Priscilla Wong as Sonia Fong Hei Man (阿爽)
Vincent Wong as Kyle Wong Wai Ka (围家)
Sharon Chan as Venus Wong Yi Oi (以爱)
Joseph Lee as Alan Hui
Michelle Yim as Amelia Yu
Eliza Sam as Belle Hui Bui Yi (许贝儿)
Michael Tong as Nic Cheng
Plot:
This series talks about the couple Lai Ying and Wing Ching who are both the owners of a franchise of a humble coffee shop that has branches all throughout Hong Kong. Wing Ching’s sister-in-law Leung Shun Wah (played by Susanna Kwan) and her younger brother Leung Zhan (Louis Yuen) persuades Wing Ching to get his coffee shop listed but he opposes to it as he thinks that his coffee shop should stay ‘local’ and more intimate to the residents/customer whereas listing it would be more commercialised and the shares of his company would be exposed to ‘outsiders’. But when his benefactor, Alan finds his century-old company in a financial crisis and at risk of going bankrupt, Wing Ching offers to help but faces the opposition of Shun Wah and Leung Zhan as they don’t get along with Alan’s wife, Amelia, who proclaims the Hui’s as elites and holds grudges against them. Soon, both families come to a merger agreement with the Hui’s to form Hui Wong Group. Kyle Wong and Belle Hui slowly find themselves to be in a forbidden relationship, which eventually forced Wai Ka to leave her and for Belle to give up on the relationship for another due to her family. Another scandal arises in the family when Venus falls in love with her lecturer-turned-CEO, Nic, who is a married man. Shing Fung, a playboy soon ends up in a never-ending relationship with his ‘brother’, Sonia.
Song Thought:
Theme Song 主题曲 － 《我本无罪》关菊英 Susanna Kwan
Interlude 插曲 － 《I Promise》钟嘉欣 Linda Chung
Ending Theme 尾片曲 － 《欲言又止》王浩信，菊梓乔 Vincent Wong, HANA Kuk
These songs are quite something, in fact, they are pretty amazing! My song thoughts are mainly going to be focused on the interlude and the ending theme, but the theme song was amazing nonetheless, it was really grand and perfect for the setting and graphics at the start! The interlude by Linda Chung was great too, even though it only started to play towards the end of the series. The song was somewhat refreshing as the melody was extremely calming and it was perfect for some of the scenes in the series, the lyrics was also really clean and simple. The ending theme is like something else! It’s so GOOD! This was HANA’s first duet and she did amazing in this, like always even though there wasn’t a lot of part where they were actually singing together nonetheless this song is amazing. Vincent Wong, like always, is like perfect! Bias aside, he debuted as a singer and I think that from the songs that he sang, you can really tell, he was amazing and the how he poured so much emotion from his character was great! The melody of the song sort of summarises the plot, calm at the start and slowly builds up to a more intense and complex story with mixed emotions. Generally, this song is my favorite out of all 3 and has such a memorable and touching story behind it.
Review + Opinion:
How I feel about this series is... debatable. Honestly, I expected so much more from this series, even though it was good as it is, I think that it didn’t live up to its predecessors. If it wasn’t for it’s name that showed that it was part of the Heart of Greed installment, I don’t think that many would’ve watched it. I personally still would’ve watched it though. It was give, I guess, but the pace of the series was REALLY slow before it got to the climax and most of the drama happens in the last 10 episodes. But I really liked the character development of this series though, for some characters, it was really easy to tell their personalities from the start. But for others, this long drama really helped with showing who they truly are and their personalities would really shine through after certain events that take place in the series. The veterans in this series did really well for their role although they could be quite boring at times nonetheless, they did really well in the first part of the series as the younger generations only become more major in the second half. I have mixed feeling for the acting skills of the younger actors which is why my character review would only be based around them.
Bosco Wong → Ling Shing Fung/ 凌乘风／阿九
Bosco Wong being the only actor of the younger generation that has appeared in ALL three of the installments, I think that he did well in portraying the playboy that he was and the way his character was written might be slightly unrealistic as the personality change for him is quite hard to believe at times. He was really natural when saying his lines and the personality of his character is really consistent throughout the series, though there are sometimes when there are times when I question his character and how easily he is influenced.
Priscilla Wong → Sonia Fong Hei Mun/ 阿爽
I think that Priscilla Wong did well in this series being the very chill and ‘brother-like’ friend of Bosco, but I think that the roles that she get and the characters that gets casted into are very repetitive as her role in this is extremely similar to her role in ‘Line Walker: The Prelude’ and isn’t pushing her enough to her limits which is quite disappointing. But her acting in this drama was really natural and in her elements being the humorous, slightly-blur friend, but can someone seriously get her out of those clothes that she wear with the baggy clothes or that long, brightly-coloured coat!
Vincent Wong → Kyle Wong Wai Ka/ 黄围家
Vincent Wong is like borderline perfect with everything he does, same goes for him in this series! Even though there are some stuff that he could’ve done better in the first half of this series, such as being slightly more emotive when delivering his lines, his performance in this series is really good, especially with his crying scenes as well as the scenes with Bosco and the court scene, feels slightly weird to see him in the court as Kyle not as Hope Man.
Eliza Sam → Belle Hui Bui Yi/ 许贝儿
I have not watched any dramas with Eliza Sam in it during the recent years and the last series I saw with her in it was ‘The Hippocratic Crush 2’ where she played ‘Che Che’, her performance in this series in comparison to that is stellar! She did amazing in this series, with the Princess image, but without the ‘princess syndrome’, not spoilt and an extremely lovable character in this series which I thought really suited her. Her crying scenes in this drama was also really natural, at times you can really tell that battle that she is having in her mind and the dilemma that she is facing when she had a to make a decision to marry to a guy who she doesn’t like or to be together with Kyle, who she slowly fell in love for.
Sharon Chan → Venus Wong Yi Oi/ 黄以爱/ 黑面神
Sharon Chan’s character has a really unique personality in this series and I think that she portrayed that image really well and throughout the series, as the audience I can see the character development of this role and how much the character has grown and matured throughout the series as well as through every event that occurs throughout the drama which contributed to who the character is. Her acting in this series was really believable and the scenes where she confronts Nic after their relationship have been exposed was really heart-wrenching to watch as, afterall Nic was the first guy who she has really had feeling for given her personality in this series yet she is being turned down by him time after time again and having to face her caring yet skeptical family when it comes to issues like this.
Partners:
Bosco Wong & Priscilla Wong → Shing Fung & Sonia
This pair kind of brings back memories from ‘Two Steps From Heaven’ where both of them played the villain but in this series, I think that both of them are a great pairing to be on-screen together. They contributed most of the comedic element in this series which was great and they way that they communicate with each other is so nice to see! How comfortable these 2 characters are in front of each other is like practically #goals, and for this to work I think that the chemistry between these two actor/actress has to be there too. Overall, I really liked this pairing and would love to see this more often. But I think, this is Bosco’s last series in TVB as he is leaving to China for more job opportunities (I’m not sure how reliable this information is).
Bosco Wong & Vincent Wong → Shing Fung & Kyle
These two is my favourite pairing of the series, both of them are freaking amazing together and I really enjoy their screen time together as both of their roles are really cheeky and still seem to have this kid inside them both. The way that 阿九 influences Kyle is really evident is the way that they behave as well as the things that both of them like, but their taste in their significant other is REALLY different. One’s a playboy while the other one is extremely loyal. When both of them were in court with each other, I was quite surprised that both of them could still have meals together as if nothing has happened. But the reference to them when they were younger really helps to show how close they are and how they grow up together since their age gap isn’t that huge. These two understand each other most probably better than their parents does and knows how to make each other feel better, they have similar hobbies and do things together which is so cute to see! 😂
Vincent Wong & Eliza Sam → Kyle & Bell
Kyle and Belle, the Romeo and Juliet of 2017, I think that both of them are really cute together and the way that their relationship develops in this series is not commendable, but acceptable. The pace is extremely slow at the start but after they start to work in the same company, it starts to move at a more reasonable place but the thing is… (Spoilers Alert!) they only end up in the last episode, like honestly, WHAT THE HELL!😤 Nonetheless, this pairing is one of my favourites and each of the events that they go through together, is like stepping stones towards their relationship, I think the most memorable one for the audience would be the one where they went as volunteers to help out for an earthquake and ended up coming back, being closer with each other.
Ending:
The ending for this series is quite underwhelming in my opinion, it does leave some space for a sequel but honestly, I don’t think that there would be another installment especially after coming back from the TVB Anniversary Awards 2017 empty-handed. To be honest, the ending was really good but not at the same time, sorry for being so confusing. But there are parts of the ending which I liked and some which I don’t the VERY last scene, where Wing Ching is on the hospital bed and Alan delivered a speech on how he let him down etc. and he ends in him waking up and saying, ‘恩公’. Like honestly, WHAT TYPE OF ENDING IS THIS? It doesn’t mean anything, it doesn’t wrap anything up, and it has absolutely no purpose at all other than the fact that it allowed us as the audience to know that he wakes up from the come in the end, could they not have slotted this part in somewhere in the middle. I expected so much for the ending especially after the roller-coaster ride that this series went on in it’s last 15 episodes but that ending just let that roller coaster completely off the track. But the fact that Kyle and Belle ended up together was nice, but like in the last episode of the whole series?! I don’t mind as I have mentioned in a previous post that I’m a sucker for happy ending so this ending satisfies me but I just expected more. But I genuinely enjoyed this series and liked the plot 🤗
P.S. Sorry for appearing too harsh for the ending, got a little too impulsive there! 😅
Talk to you guys soon in my next blog post!
