Producer: Lee
Yim Fong
Genre:
Modern, family
Cast: Louise
Lee, Ruco Chan, Priscilla Wong, Evergreen Mak, Rebecca Chan, Stanley Cheung
Plot: A filial foster son takes care of
his gambling-addict foster mother. (Full overview)
Review:
The
take-home messages of Reality Check
are: (1) don’t gamble; and (2) communicate with others to avoid
misunderstandings. There, I just saved you the trouble of watching 15 episodes.
You’re welcome.
Which 5
episodes should you watch? That would be the first 5 episodes, which were
filmed in a rural village. It was fun to watch how a spoiled HK youth (Hero
Yuen) adjusts to village life. Seeing the simple rural lifestyle makes urban
dwellers appreciate all the luxuries of city life. It also gives perspective on
the differences in values between urban and rural people, such as on family and
education. This segment was as refreshing as a breath of fresh air in those open
fields.
Once the
characters returned to the familiar city setting, TVB also returned to its
familiar family genre. The rest of the series is a slew of family problems… and
more family problems. It is irritating to watch simple problems being
complicated, and much of it is due to lack of communication. The characters
witnessed how Hero learned to communicate with his father, yet none of them
picked up that skill for themselves. The rural village segment is almost
irrelevant to the rest of the story because no one, with the exception of Hero,
changed their attitude because of it.
The “novel”
aspect of this series was Louise Lee as a gambling addict. It was an
interesting angle to work from, but suffered from lacklustre presentation. For
the most part, the audience is told that
she has a gambling problem, rather than being shown. The only gambling scenes
are the shots of her playing mahjong. They could have shown her first trip to
Macau – the mesmerizing lights and sounds of the casino, the excitement from
winning, etc. – to emphasize how gambling helps her forget about her troubles,
which is why she fell victim to addiction. By conveying these things through dialogue
only, it is harder to understand her plight and sympathize with her.
The ending
makes complete sense in TVB world. Of course Louise can get rid of her gambling
addiction. Of course her children realize their mistakes and are forgiven. Of
course everyone’s wishes come true. Every single problem is easily resolved in
the last episode for a perfect happy ending. So much for being a Reality Check.
The Chinese title “Heart Road GPS” seems to encourage people to follow
their inner GPS. But actually, all the problems were caused because the
characters acted on emotions from their heart. Louise let her emotional
well-being overwhelm her rationality (she felt better when gambling). Ruco
rejected his biological mother because he was hurt by his childhood experience.
Evergreen’s instinctive assumptions made him unreceptive to his wife’s words. Obviously,
their navigation systems need a little tweaking.
There’s no
need to elaborate on the excellent acting skills of Louise, Ruco and Rebecca,
especially on the emotional scenes. It was a nice change to see Louise deviate
from her usual perfect mother roles. Evergreen Mak gave a pretty standard
performance. Priscilla Wong was natural and genuine in a role that seems
well-suited for her. No comment on Stanley Cheung. Hero Yuen was quite
believable acting as a spoiled youngster. There were complaints about Jenny Lau
(the girlfriend of Louise’s son), but I guess annoying and bitchy was she was
aiming for. Overall, great acting wasted on a forgettable drama.
Rating: An easy skip. 2/5
