TVB's Underrated Series "The Green Hope"

新鮮人

The Green Hope

監製﹕曾謹昌
編審﹕曾謹昌﹐朱鏡祺

Air date: October 2000
Watched date: July 26 - July 30, 2000
Cast: Bowie Lam, Yoyo Mung, Stephen Fung, Joey Yung, Cathy Tsui, Melissa Ng, etc.

http://tvcity.tvb.com/drama/greenhope/

The title of the series is literally translated as "New Fresh People."

The writer for this series also wrote "La Femme Desperado" and "Men in Pain".

Fong Ka Fai (Bowie Lam) and Fong Ka Him (Stephen Fung) are separated after their parents divorce. Fai decides to sacrifice himself and go with his abusive father and let Him go with their mother. Him develops neurosis because his mother is a drug addict and constantly beats Him.

Fai and Him reunite and Him's illness relapses. Fai finds out that he is responsible for Him's condition because their father is not abusive. The father hit the mother because she was a druggie. Fai decides to take care of Him, but Fai's wife, Sum Gai Kwun (Melissa Ng), does not want to live with Him and wants Fai to immigrate to Canada with her. Their marriage falls apart when Kwun falls down the stairs and has a miscarriage. Fai also faces problems at work. Fai is an interior designer and is framed by a colleague. Fai resigns from the company and Siu Lai Wah (Yoyo Mung) was the only one willing to leave with him. Later, Fai establishes his own company named 'Fong's Brothers & Associates'. Wah lives with her grandmother who has Alzheimer’s disease, her older sister, and her younger sister. Wah solely takes care of the family because her older sister only cares about her boyfriend and her younger sister is still in school.

Him, diagnosed with neurosis faces, many problems in society such as humiliation and discrimination. Through Him's recovery process, he meets Wai Man (Joey Yung) and Yuen Ying (Cathy Tsui).

*This series is underrated because the newbie artistes did an incredible job in their character portrayals. Many of these 'fresh' artistes have never filmed a television series before. Stephen Fung, a singer, song writer, and movie actor, did a very convincing job as a patient with neurosis. Yoyo's role as Siu Lai Wah is very similar to her real self because, not only does she have a grandmother who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, she also has to support her father's family and her mother's family. Yoyo is actually a very strong-willed person. I really do admire her for that. This was actually her first television series. Bowie Lam, being the only experienced actor among the main cast, in my opinion, gave his best performance. even exceeding "War and Beauty". He was able to express his emotions in which he lacks in his present works. Cathy Tsui and Joey Yung met expectations because they were able to 'dish out the dirt'. Stephen's three friends in the series did an excellent job portraying people with mental illnesses. The 'gold leaf' actress who shined was Mary Hon playing the drug addict mother. Her scenes took away a lot of my tears.

"The Green Hope" is definitely one of the most underrated TVB series. It is a very touching series.

*Credits to tvb.com