series 411: "the green grass of home"

Title: The Green Grass of Home (Yuen Loi Ji Yau Gei)
Casts: Sunny Chan, Christine Ng, Yuen Wah, Law Lok Lam, etc.
Length: 20 episodes (Cantonese) // 15 tapes (Vietnamese)
Release Date: June 2007 (Canto) // August 2007 (Viet)
Genre: Modern Drama/Environment/Enlightenment

Note: Please credit "MetalAZNWarrior" and/or this site if you should use my translation of the series' plot! I worked hard to translate it, so please don't just steal or use it for another site without my permission and/or credit. Thank you!

Synopsis:
The green love destiny already buried
Bickering enemies, calmly awaiting love's seed

After many years competing at the office, interior designer Yip Moon Chi (Christine Ng Wing Mei) not only suffers from poor health, but her relationship with her family members is no longer like before. Therefore, she decides to slow things down and moves to a village lifestyle, in the place in which she grew up as a child.

She never thought that she would suddenly meet her enemy from work, Choi Ka Sing (Sunny Chan Gam Hung), there. Even more, she couldn't have guessed that it's because of Sing that her relationship with her father, Yip Cheung Faat (Yuen Wah), improves. Later, Sing falls in love with Chi, but he still hasn't expressed his feelings for her. She then throws herself back into a materialistic life, once again competing because of her career.

Meanwhile, Faat's farmland is selected by a real estate developer. He doesn't hesitate to file a lawsuit against him and also wants a law to preserve the green countryside. It's a shame his family doesn't support him for this...

My thoughts: I really don't understand why TVB pushed up Grass's release so much. It just finished filming two or three months ago! Is this series so "special" that TVB couldn't wait to air it? To be frank, this series reminds me of At Home With Love - a totally "filler" series with a typical, reused plot. There are so many reasons why I shouldn't even bother with this series and not give it the time of day like I did with Home, but because it's from Producer Tsui, I can't let it go "like that". I don't get it. Why would TVB warehouse Producer Tsui's remarkable and high-quality The Price of Greed and air this one so fast?

I strongly believe TVB is airing Grass so soon because they want to push Suki Chui's TV debut. The self-proclaimed-"I-will-win-Miss-Hong-Kong"-but-ultimately-lost Suki is determined to become a TVB "fa dan". She won the "Female Newcomer" award from Next TV Magazine this year without the audience even seeing what her acting was like. The media called her the successor to Gigi Lai and Charmaine Sheh. Just like how she was with "Miss Hong Kong", she's very cocky about her future at TVB. She's currently being heavily promoted and filming two series (the modern War of In-Laws and the Qing costume comedy with Jordan Chan, Michael Tse, and Charmaine) at the same time. What is it about Suki that TVB seems to love so much? Hmm... they must see something otherwise they wouldn't have rushed the release of an otherwise seemingly unremarkable Grass.

Producer Tsui must be thrilled. His last series A Change of Destiny just finished airing a month ago with rather respectable ratings and good reviews and now TVB is rushing his latest production. [On a side note, I can't wait to see what he will be working on next! I think he's been busy on post-production for Grass, so he hasn't had a chance to work on anything new yet.] Grass contains the staple cast members of a production by Producer Tsui, including Kingdom Yuen and Sherming Yiu. Other cast members feature Evergreen Mak, Lai Lok Yi, Natalie Tong, Mimi Lo, Joel Chan San Chung, Ben Wong, and Leanne Li.

Grass seems like it aims to promote nature and appreciating a simpler kind of life and the environment. It will be talking about how modern life is too materialistic, how everything most people do pollute the environment, and how most people view nature only as a commodity. Grass can very well be refreshing and meaningful, but it can just as easily be overly preachy and lame. Unlike Home though, I quite like the cast of Grass and unlike Producer Lo, I have much more faith in Producer Tsui and like most of his productions. I don't think Grass will be too bad, but it can't be too great either. I think it will be mediocre at best, unfortunately... I hope I'm wrong and Grass turns out to be an enjoyable series, but I am really skeptical about the quality of it.