Modern drama
Main actors:
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- Adam Cheng Siu Chow (鄭少秋)
- Barbara Yung Mei Ling (翁美玲)
- Veronica Mudd (劉敏儀)
- Melvin Wong Kam Sang(黃錦燊)
Production coordination: Daniel Lee Chu
Producer: Li Tiansheng
Copy editor: Cen Guorong
Screenwriters: Chen Lihua , Gary Tang , Xue Jiahua , Cen Guorong
Choreographers: Li Tiansheng , Yecheng Kang , Liu Tianfu , Qiqi Yi , Pu Teng Jin
Assistant director: Yuanying Ming , Jiang Jianmin , Zheng Wood , practicing Xing show
theme song Sandwich man, Compose Joseph Koo, Lyrics WH Tang, Adam Cheng Siu Chow
Episodes; 20
Manufacture year: 1983
Outdoor scenes: British Hong Kong
Production Company: Hong Kong Television Broadcasts Limited
Broadcast date: November 14, 1983 - December 9
Broadcast time Mon to Fri 19:05 - 20:00
This is Yung Mei Ling first modern drama. She doesn’t pair up with any of the 5 tigers but works with the more mature Cheng Siu Chau and Wong Kam Sum instead.
Story/Introduction on characters
1. Kong Kwan Cheng – Cheng Siu Chau
Kwan Cheng works in an advertising company. The sales dip so he has to rope in a lot of customers. He is very disillusioned to eat the humble pie all the time. He becomes poorer after his divorce. To make ends meet, he teaches photography at night, he gets to know a student, Pui Mun and decides to woo her. His company sets a new rule to discourage moonlight so he can’t work part time anymore. Pui Mun stops the course midway and he gets disappointed.
Kwan Cheng gets upset upon knowing that he is being cheated by Pui Mun. he gets drunk. Kar is afraid that he becomes too despair so he puts washing detergent into the empty beer cans to discourage him from drinking. But alas, he doesn’t even look and gulp down 2 cans to be sent to hospital. When he wakes up, he discovers Pui Mun to be a nurse and gets provoked.
He is angry to work with Kar Leung but finally understands Pui Mun’s feelings. He goes to her but she gets the wrong idea that he wants to hurt her again. She decides to have a long holiday and Kwan Cheng intends to resign to join her. However, his boss keeps him and Pui Mun avoids him. He finally moves her but this offends Kar Leung.
The two men try to clinch an important deal. This client has unpleasant encounters with Kwan Cheng so he insults Pui Mun openly. Kwan Cheng gets provoked to resign. He decides to switch to the business line. He works in an export company as a HR manager. He tries hard to establish new relationships with his new colleagues. He doesn’t expect Siu Mei to like him and avoids her. He is dismissed to set up a comical company with Tat Choi.
Even though it is hard for him to manage the company alone after Tat Choi betrays him, all give him support. He hopes to clinch a deal with an airline although the chance is slim. Siu Mei appears and wants to inject funds into his company but he rejects her initially. Later, they have to work together.
To appease Oui Mun, he becomes foster siblings with Siu Mei. That doesn’t make Pui Mun feel secure and he has to give her promises repeatedly. Kwan Cheng rejects her upon knowing that she hasn’t given up on him. The client’s response to his idea is lukewarm so he knows that is the end. Surprisingly, he gets the deal in the end. The person who helps him is Siu Mei.
2. Sum Kar Leung – Wong Kam Sum
He is Pui Mun’s boyfriend who only makes uses of her to get secret information from rival companies. He steals Kwan Cheng’s idea to get a promotion – to come to his company to become the assistant manager. Kwan Cheng is angry to work under him after his discharge from hospital.
Kar Leung neglects his duty to get scolded by the boss. He transfers all Tat Choi and Kwan Cheng’s capable helpers away to put inexperienced staff under him. This forces both to leave. But when he sees them doing well, he asks them to return but they ignore him. When they run into difficulties, he manages to get Tat Choi to betray Kwan Cheng to return.
3. Ah Ka – Liu Wai Hung
He befriends Kwan Cheng when he helps to snatch his wallet back from a thief. He washes cars for others in the day and trains his monkey to do street tricks to earn a living at night. When Kwan Cheng accidentally kills his monkey during a commercial, Kwan Cheng feels very remorseful and gets him to stay with him. He borrows money under Wai Mun and Kwan Cheng’s encouragement to become a catery boss.
A female wanton noodle stall owner shows interest in him but he always tries to get away from her. He later feels that Wai Mun is too educated so he decides to try out a relationship with the stall owner. Knowing that the men are in financial trouble, he forks out his savings.
4. Boss Yiu Chi Meng – Tsang Kong
He is Siu Mei’s lover but doesn’t want to declare their relationship openly. He walks out of the hotel with her one day. Upon seeing Kwan Cheng with some colleagues, he gets him to take the rap. When all the female colleagues get to know about it, he wants him to bribe them so that the male colleagues will not get to know about it. Very funny,
5. Kong Sau Kan – Leung Shan
She is Kwan Cheng’s elder sister who helps him a lot in his job search. But this useless brother keeps asking her for assistance in monetary affairs. She still keeps good ties with Wai Kuan.
6. Dong Pui Mun – Yung Mei Ling
When Kwan Cheng meets her again to declare his love for her, she replies that she likes him all along to make him overjoyed. But this is with a motive. She is used by Kar Leung to steal information from Kwan Cheng. But finding him very righteous, she doesn’t bear to deceive him.
She pretends to quarrel with her parents to stay in Kwan Cheng’s home. She steals the documents. This causes Kwan Cheng to misunderstand Tat Choi. When he discovers the truth upon seeing the two together, he slaps Pui Mun. Pui Mun mistakens Kwan Cheng to commit suicide because of this and bears with his insults. She feels terrible upon seeing Kar Leung to be an actress to incease publicity. Upon knowing this, Kwan Cheng hurts her further.
Upon knowing that he is in the wrong, he goes to Dai Yu San to meet her to cheer her up. Even though Kar Leung insults her, her love for Kwan Cheng remains unmoved. Knowing that she misunderstands him to like Siu Mei, Kwan Cheng suggests marriage. Both make up but she feels upset when she is unable to help him in his work.
7. Chung Wai Kwan – Kam Yin Ling
She is a terrible spender who nags at Kwan Cheng constantly. This gives him a lot of pressure. Her unbearable tone offends all his friends. He can’t take it anymore and asks for a divorce. She returns as an important client and keeps picking on Kwan Cheng. This makes him mad. She insults him further when his company is on the verge of folding up.
8. Fong Siu Mei – Lau Mun Yee
She is Kwan Cheng’s sociable new superior. Although Kwan Cheng says bad things about her, she admires his talents and helps him out. His boss admits that Siu Mei is his mistress. To prevent others from checking on him, he encourages Kwan Zheng to pretend to get close to her. Kwan Cheng obeys unwillingly. He gets a promotion and a pay rise. Pui Mun is unhappy to learn about this. Kwan Cheng gets to know Siu Mei better through the meetings and feel sorry for her.
She is actually a rich businessman, Yung Hok Sheng’s illegitimate child. Her mother is a dance hostess who gets ditched after having her. This causes her to be obstinate and to betray herself in order to achieve her aim. She gets half of Hok Sheng’s inheritance.
Kwan Cheng encourages Siu Mei to leave Chi Ming to lead her own life. She agrees and decides to help Kwan Cheng to crave a niche in the commercial world. She confesses her love for him to shock him. He rejects her and she disappears. She reappears to help him and hasn’t given up on him. She gives a secret copy of a proposal to Pui Mun to hint to her to back out. Kwan Cheng has internal struggle within himself but still rejects the offer. Siu Mei is speechless.
She still helps him to get the deal. Kwan Cheng is confused – does he get it because of his own ability or through her? He has no answer for this.
9. Chan Tak Choi – Lee Kok Lam
He is Kwan Cheng’s selfish close friend and doesn’t like Kar to get close to Wai Mun. Thus he tries to break them up. He borrows Kar’s shop to shoot a commercial and the crew suffers from food poisoning. He accuses him for getting jealous of him and Wai Mun to make him infuriated. He helps Kar to get back his principal money when his catery is forced to move.
He is a selfish man – to force Kwan Cheng to help him in his new company, he tells Chi Ming about Siu Mei liking Kwan Cheng. That costs Kwan Cheng his job. Both men end up fighting but Kwan Cheng has no choice but to help him. Both try to hire their ex-colleagues and Tat Choi even persuades Kwan Cheng to sell off his apartment. The two get a lot of business but it turns into a crisis when one client turns out to be a bankrupt.
10. Chung Wai Mun – Wong Mun Yee
She is Kwan Cheng’s ex-sister-in-law. She doesn’t like Tak Choi to pester her. Once, she sees Kar following her and makes fun of him. However, she likes him for being a righteous chap so she gets a job for him. She initially treats him as a friend to be with Tat Choi. She is angry with Tat Choi for betraying Kwan Cheng to break up with him. But she later becomes Kar’s girlfriend.
Interesting scenes
Kwan Cheng nearly gets a nervous breakdown due to Wai Kuan’s overspending. He gets so bored that he switches on the television. He regards Mu Yung Fu as his idol after watching ’82 Demi Gods, semi devils.’ Why? He is so merciless to kill Duen Cheng Chun’s wives! He has pleasure seeing how he kills every woman one by one.
After that, he has a dream of an ancient setting. Mu Yung Fu ties up Wai Kuan and threatens to kill her. To his horror, Kwan Cheng rejoices at it and keeps urging him to kill her fast! Seeing that she poses no threat, Mu Yung Fu sighs to walk away. Kwan Cheng runs after him to beg him to do it. That is the most hilarious moment I've seen so far. You must not miss it!
Kar trying to earn a living to make ends meet. This shows the truthful life of the lower class. I can feel the anguish when his monkey dies.
Pui Mun suffers from acute appendix and has to be hospitalized. Kwan Cheng comes anxiously and she doesn’t wish to see him. She keeps turning to both sides of the bed, making him tired by running around!
Song
The theme song is by Cheng Siu Chau. Quite a fast paced song but easily forgettable.
Conclusion
The script is very badly written but it is a breakthrough for most of the actors. Cheng Siu Chau is the only star in the drama. I wonder if he is so afraid of his wife in real life as a pen pecked husband, though so it is so lifelike but yet comical. Kwan Cheng is really sandwiched between his ex-wife and work indeed.
Kam Sum has few scenes to project his image so I don’t find him as hateful he should be. Even Kok Lam shines over him as the detestable brat, Tat Choi. I enjoyed Wai Hung’s performance most. He is so different from his usual comedian roles to take up a serious role to act so well. Even Tsang Kong’s role as Chi Ming sends me laughing non-stop to keep his affair from his wife.
The women are only serving as tigresses in the story . They demand a lot from the men, either hurting them or giving them undue stress. I doubt any man will want them as their wives. The only actress who stands out is Kam Yin Ling. She really immerses into the role well, showing why Kwan Cheng is so fearful of her to have that nightmare.
Mei Ling doesn’t fare well as her role is very much subtle. It derails her acting ability as it makes her to be silly and gullible. It is quite unfair to her as she did quite good dramas for the rest of the 3 years she was with TVB. This drama is only strictly for fans who wish to see how this new combination of artistes work.
references:
http://baike.baidu.com/subview/824295/824295.htm
https://www.spcnet.tv/TVB-Series/Sandwich-Man-review-r2095.html
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