Sere Visions

Tuesday, February 05, 2008 - 8:27 PM

Current Watch List

My current watch list...

The Greed of Man

I've heard many wonderful comments about Greed of Man. I have always been curious to know how it is but I never bothered to watch it because I'm not too fond of Adam Cheng and it is a pretty old drama (1993). Since I had a week off school after exams and plus snow days, I was stuck at home and I decided to give it a shot.

About

Fong Jun Sang (Damien Lau) is a righteous man who hates corruption. Sang is friends with the hot headed and violent Ding Hai (Adam Cheng). They both have four children. Hai is a controlling man who adopts Ah Ling (Yammie Lam) as his girlfriend without her consent or knowledge. Ah Ling is terrified of Hai and has every right to be because Hai’s tempers are extremely frightening. Sang rescues her from her miserable deadlock and thus ignites misunderstandings and problems between him and Hai. Hai concludes that Sang has stolen his “wife to be” and Hai angrily beats up Sang. Due to heavy blows and beatings, Sang falls into a coma for a year. The Fongs are forced to move from a mansion to a one bedroom apartment. Ah Ling who has grown to love Sang takes charge of the torn apart family. She is forced to drop out of school and to work two jobs while taking care of Sang and his four children. Sang finally wakes up from his coma. Tragedy befalls the Fongs again when Sang is unable to regain his memories, how to eat, how to speak etc. Sang has to slowly learn how to eat, how to tie his shoelaces, how to use chopsticks. It takes Sang a long time just to do simple motions. After months and months, Sang finally makes small yet big accomplishments. Sang is able to learn how to use money and he is able to go home without being lost. However, Hai shows up on his threshold. Sang ruthlessly hits him and Hai takes his blows as “trying to murder him”. Not knowing his fatal and deadly strength, Hai unknowingly beats Sang once again – this time to death. Sang’s death was witnessed by his 12 (?) year old son, Bok. Hai then flees to Taiwan and is later imprisoned after beating up a man to paralysis. Years later, their children grow up yet the hatred and rivalry between the Fongs and Dings still exists.

My comments:
And thus, the actions begins with Bok (Sean Lau) avenging the Dings for the death of his father. Hai’s sons grow up to be just as how he is - violent. Damien’s performance is very moving. It is not the first time Damien has played a righteous man with full of justice. However after he had woken from his coma and had to start all over again, he was so wonderful. His dumb-founded expressions and his crying were so damn touching and made me pity his Sang so much. It reminds me of The Awakening Story when Liza Wang has to find her stand in society after waking up from her coma. However, Greed takes a more depressive and realistic take on it. It took Sang forever to simply learn how to tie his shoe laces and just simply uttering one sentence. I can totally understand Bok’s hatred.

Adam brings so much fright to the screen when Hai appears. Hai is a passionate lover. He loves Sang, his kids and Ah Ling. However, because Sang has different values and priorities than Hai, it causes Hai to misunderstand and misinterpret Sang multiple times. He also loves his kids but the beliefs he bestows on his children are sometimes morally wrong. Therefore, his children grows up to be just as how he is. He loves Ah Ling and claims her as his own. He believes that the people whom he loves must also love him back. Hai is one of the most complex characters that I had the fortune to watch. I look forward to seeing him return after he is released from prison. The opening scene with him tossing his sons off the balcony was disturbing and creepy.

It is wonderful to see old faces such as the very cute Leila tong, Michael Tao, Derek Kwok (who has been acting for decades!), the every beautiful Yammie Lam and the super talented Sean Lau.

Greed of Man so far has been daring and I praise the scriptwriters and producers for giving us realistic and violent scenes that clearly depicts how it really is. I can’t wait to watch more and to see how Bok defeats the Dings(at a high cost too).