Episodic Thoughts: “Triumph in the Skies 2” Episode 2
Triumph in the Skies 2 <衝上雲霄II>
TVB Series 2013
Cast: Francis Ng, Chilam Cheung, Myolie Wu, Fala Chen, Ron Ng, Kenneth Ma, Elena Kong, Him Law, Nancy Wu, Rebecca Zhu, Eliza Sam, and Kelly Fu.
Disclaimer: This is a watch as I write episodic thoughts and some information may not be accurate since this is memory based. Certain dialogue is reproduced with some creative license adopted. I apologize if there is any mistake. All opinion remains my own.
“Poor Zoe. Dead before we even know it.”
This is not fair. NOT FAIR!! I feel cheated. I feel shortchanged. I feel like duped. Why I feel so? One word; Zoe.
Anyway remember Sam couldn’t buy that Arsenal shirt thing? Holly ran and then was greeted by Roy who bought the same shirt for $700. Can’t remember pounds or Euro. Point is, that lying cheating Holly!!
Birthday cake ready, gifts ready and someone announced “Zoe is here!” and everyone turned smiling and Zoe is… a white little girl?! WHAT THE HECK?! And so we are told, Zoe had serious heart disease. They married, happily, traveled, she took the risk and did some major surgery and… she died some years back. Sam heartbroken decided to retire and become a pastry chef. 2 years ago came to work at or with Manna, Holly’s mom who also fostered a young white girl called Zoe. Sam became very attached to this Zoe and treated her like his own and sees her as his guardian angel. He had some flashback of an ailing Zoe being cheerful and all.
And that’s what we got of the Zoe from TITS 1. A memory, a name and a namesake. I feel very cheated. How unfair, didn’t even see her die. Didn’t get to say a last goodbye. Poor poor Sam. His heart is broken you see.
Anyway back to our rock stars of Skylette and frankly at this point I am sorta lost as to where I was. Oh yes, a better chunk of this episode dedicated to…
1. Holly and her dream like meeting with the suave and flirtatious Jayden, like so cliche it hurts. Like she selling her probably very dead boyfriend’s jacket, regretting she rushes back to the shop only to see a guy wearing that jacket and emotionally she rushes to him and hugs him and says “Don’t leave me” and it is none other than a rather shocked Jayden and Holly says she wants the shirt back and Jayden says sure, pay me the price I paid and Holly can’t afford it and Jayden cheekily says “Ok, let me kiss you then” and our Meteorologist from NASA wasted her entire education and responded to this blatant sexual harassment (but hey, it’s Chilam, it’s an invitation!) and says “Ok, no tongue” and she puckers up… which sets up quite nicely to a fairytale ending of our guy giving her the jacket and walks away coolly, not even bothering with I believe the 1000 euros he paid for that jacket or something and leaves Holly happy and all that shit. Urghhh…
2. All these accompanied by no less than 2 Adele song. TVB really broke budget this time by probably buying the rights to Adele’s album, either 19 or 21. Can’t be both. I think 19 is the album. Not sure.
All the while we have views of London and of course Paris. Why Paris? Our heroine needs to fix her broken telescope or something and it seems England does not fix telescope so she has to rush to Paris and yes, she speaks French. Double urghhhh.
After all that nonsense, before that we are introduced to Sam bumping into Holly who sneaks into her mom’s house looking for warranty card and let me save you the trouble of wondering OH DID THEY FALL IN LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT? No. She dislikes him for being a busybody when he dared say “How can you now sneak off just like that? Manna misses you!” and insensitively she shoots back “What’s this to you anyway? Don’t you have your own home to be busybody about?”
B-I-T-C-H!!
His Zoe died!! Zoe DIED!!!!!! And you dared ask that!!
But of course later we find out why she is so evasive with life and everything, because she too lost someone called Daniel (Sit). HAH!!! Daniel is true. Sit is of course my lame attempt at a joke. So we have 2 broken individuals destined for one another except our lady will be taking a detour first with a certain individual called Jayden. And what do you expect when first meeting our heroine rushes to him, hugs him from behind and whispers “Don’t leave me” whilst crying although she was thinking someone else. This is TVB’s idea of a romantic first encounter, in real life believe me Jayden will be spooked everytime he wonders “What if she had a knife?!”. Anyway he is charmed by her. And very gallant too.
Anyway back to Skylette, plane back to HK. Jayden is sick with flu so he sits out as passenger in first class and is treated like royalty by the lady stewardess who all love him for good reason. Here we see a new head stewardess, Heather who is married to the captain of the flight, Tony (by real life former pilot, Patrick Dunn). Now how tyhe heck she ended up in bed with Roy is a good question. Anyway Roy is the co pilot, with Isaac sitting behind together with the previously not known his name but now I know, Tucker. What a name. The cockpit is still very strange. Anyway nothing major happens, I don’t foresee a plane crash, not in 100% track record of Skylette anyway but they met some turbulence which Roy calmly flew through. Heather was impressed but Jayden was too sick to care.
Anyway poor Roy made the butt of joke when he was told he can choose the meal and he said “It’s ok, I am not choosy” but in the end Isaac says choose and he chose the beef meal and as he was about to bite into that beef chunk, Tony says “Oh I see you are having my meal”. BUSTED!! Poor Roy. Tony doesn’t mind and he says “You owe me 2 meals now my friend” and that’s when Roy finds out Tony married Heather whilst Roy was in Taiwan flying planes.
Meanwhile in episode 1 Jayden was flirting big time with a top model engaged to a rich man’s son and that model is played by none other than Oceane Zhu who should be in one of the main roles instead of in such a thankless role. The girl is pretty, she can act so why is she in this small role? Anyway she had an affair with Jayden and now on the plane she was making things difficult for Heather because Heather refused to let her see Jayden. Coco told Jayden to lie low and Heather acted like a spoilt princess, demanding Heather to find her missing ring which wasn’t missing. In the end Heather said to her “I can keep finding the ring which I suspect can’t be found. So why do you insist on something that isn’t?” and Jayden appeared to save Heather and Coco from more trouble and Oceane (can’t remember her character’s name) said “Why are you avoiding me?” and Jayden brazenly said “I am not” but she wasn’t convinced and says “He wants to marry me. I am ready to sacrifice everything for you” and Jayden once and for all quickly said “Alright, let’s get married. Once we landed, let’s marry” and suddenly, the girl is thinking twice. After all Jayden is a fling, no one would marry a fling and let go of a plump big fish like her ultra rich fiance even if he was sort of a jerk and suddenly girl disappeared and Jayden is left alone. Kinda realistic. Roy admires Jayden’s tactic and Jayden makes a date to meet the guys at pub.
Some side story of Coco’s boyfriend (also a pilot) wanting to propose but in the end chickened out when he heard how Coco feels about marriage (like not ready yet), we see Jayden and friends drinking and discussing about women and last we see is Holly typing a letter to Daniel saying “I couldn’t sell your jacket. But I can’t find the key pendant though…” and we see Jayden holding the key pendant, we see split screen of Holly one side, Jayden the other and we are all supposed to go…
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH TRUE LOVE!! THEY MUST MEET AND FALL IN LOVE BECAUSE … THEY!MUST!!!!
Help me! HELP ME!!!!!
What is a perfectly ok episode spoilt by so much cliches and unnecessary travelogue moments. Next time in London, remember to fix your telescope in Paris ok? And when you see Chilam in HK, remember, run up behind him, hug him and whisper “Please don’t leave me” preferably if you look like Fala but without Anita Yuen nearby. Urghhh…urghhhh…URGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
But the worst had to be the death of Zoe without letting me see the death of Zoe. NOT even a tombstone. I am really really angry at this sneaky way of killing off a major character.
Poor Zoe. Dead before we even know it.
Sorry to say this episode 2 lost a bit of momentum but thankfully Chilam and his Jayden at one point makes this episode good and another, contributes to the urghhhhhhhhh factor but I blame Fala and her impossible Holly character. And I hate the way she dresses. I hate the whole boyfriend-died-I’m-running-from-the-world thing like Same. We all know she is destined for Sam isn’t it? Until new Zoe appears.
I don’t mean to say Fala is terrible. She is not. I like her classiness, I like her aloofness, I like her I-am-way-better-than-you aura but she is a terrible miscast as Holly. Someone said to me Linda Chung. I say someone else but not Fala Chen. Fala Chen should play a sophisticated older colder meaner princessy daughter of the the owner of Skylette like those K-drama but more believable. Surely there must be a lady executive there somewhere. This series has way too many pilot involved with pilots or air stewardess. Of course Myolie will represent ground crew. This is like one pendulum swinging from one extreme end to another. But still there’s no executive represented here. Surely executives of Skylette deserves some love.
Performance wise, you know how I feel about Fala. Miscast.
Francis Ng is great except he has nothing to do. However he has one very good scene where he is in a pub and sees a pilot in uniform throwing his hat around and he catches the hat and he gently chastises the young pilot “This is your hat, it represents you profession, treat it with a bit more respect. And when are you flying? Remember, don’t drink before flight”. Ahhh the old Sam somewhere in there! I like that scene.
However it is Chilam who continues to dominate. Dresses great, looks great, some memorable scene but I really wished he was more Cool Mort than Jayden Koo. I have trouble with him buddy-buddy with his juniors. This series needs a bad ass and he was one in episode 1. He should continue to be one.
Nancy Wu smiles too much. Too chirpy. Elena Kong is Elena Kong. Nothing much to say.
One person who didn’t get much love is poor Ron Ng as Isaac. I think he is ok. But Chilam took his thunder away most of the time. Seriously, Ron wasn’t bad.
Kenneth is cute. However he takes over from Joe Ma as the guy with the god awful English. At least it isn’t gibberish.
I still wanna see episode 3. But please, less Adele and the whole fated-destined to be together B.S. And come one, no plane crash? At least one major emergency to highlight heroism wouldn’t die instead of flirting with air stewardess.
Also, where got Air Stewardess going to EACH passenger to say “Please, buckle up your seat belt” when realistically announcement would have been made and they checking but not to every one of the passenger? Skylette is truly a fictional airline.
RELATED ARTICLES
This Episodic Thoughts was written by Funn Lim, a Contributing Writer at JayneStars.com, and was originally posted at http://p2e-tits2.blogspot.com/.
hahah,lol zoe died,thank god the character zoe died hahaha!!!
well, i don’t really like Myolie. :/
Is it coincidence that the singers that sings theme song ,ending-theme song & slot theme song in TITS 2 have the same surname?
namely- george lam,raymond lam & mag lam & chilam (lead)
Chilam’s last name is Cheung. But regardless, “Lam” is a very common Chinese name.
Was it necessary to swear in your recap?
And there’s nothing wrong with using Adele songs and what’s wrong with Nancy smiling ‘too much’?
^ if that’s not picky, i don’t know what that is called
i agree. and i did not know what is all these urghh – i didnt think Fala was bad.
exactly Jackson.
We all like different things and collect various items. Women love bags and would spend hundreds if not thousands on them while men would collect sports memorabilia, etc… We all have different interests. I personally would not spend that much on a bag, shirt or anything that is not really needed… That is a lot!!
Oh oops, posted my response in the wrong thread again. It was supposed to be posted down there. Sorry!!
I know init. If you are going to make a recap of the episode, you dont have to say bad things about each actress. Really rude.
yeah i didnt find fala that bad at all.
700 HKD, right? £700 (or Euros) for a football shirt would be a rip-off.
Signed by the Arsenal team though. Like I would defo not pay that kind of money for something like that, but it’s a collector’s item so plenty others would. (I would save the money for a fancy bag but we all have different priorities.)
Ah, okay. Didn’t know it was signed. I’m always wary of those kind of stuff in case it’s fake… Plus, it’s much more meaningful (for me) if I met them in person and got the autograph directly from them instead.
I think it is £700.
It was in pounds.
Thanks for the clarification. 🙂
” like her I-am-way-better-than-you aura”
Ha. You have a similar trait, Funn XD
And that was a compliment btw
i’m in the Sam/Zoe camp but i gather in this role, Summer has more depth and substance. it seems it’s not our regular love story (either lovey or bickering) but the role deals with sibling relationship with Jayden, the awkward situation for Summer/Issac since Issac can’t get passed that Summer resembles Zoe and the the similarity triggered Sam’s emotion/memory.
so i guess there’s more dimension. i mean if Myolie’s paired off with Chilam and Francis, what’s the storyline? just basically, girlfriend boyfriend, then bickering, then love triangle. basic boring stuff. 😛 so i am looking forward to Myolie’s role as Summer. 😉
having watched epi 1 and epi 2, i am surprised Ron actually looked quite smart n hot in his uniform. 😛 but my thumbs up must go to Francis. unbeatable, for me. 🙂
I think Zoe needs to be already dead in order to explain why Sam has been a long-time pastry chef.
I mean, you could
You could argue that Sam left his job as a pilot to spend more time with his sick wife, but Zoe wouldn’t have allowed that.
Hope we get some sweet flashbacks of Sam and Zoe…but with TVB promoting the Sam&Holly pairing…most likely not gonna happen.
Haha…nice recap! Episode 2 definitely lost the momentum that episode 1 had…a few good scenes, but overall too much focus on petty things…but ok, fine – since it’s only the second episode, I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt and continue to stick it out (besides, Chilam continues to ‘dominate’ the episode, so that’s a definite plus)….now just waiting for Francis to actually ‘do something’….
Also good to see more of Patrick Dunn in this episode – sure, it was kind of weird to see a real pilot (as Patrick is in real life) pretending to fly a fake plane, but hey, at least TVB doesn’t have to worry about the ‘convincing’ part (and yes, finally, a Skylette pilot who speaks excellent English)! While watching this episode though, can’t help but think how Patrick’s wife in the series (Elena) will eventually end up with his junior Kenneth Ma (obviously I prefer Patrick and Elena over Kenneth and Elena)…I wonder how they are going to develop that story arc….hopefully it doesn’t end up being clichéd and lame (though it’s hard to say, since this IS TVB after all…)
Anyway…thanks Funn for another great recap. Looking forward to reading your thoughts on episode 3….
Agree. Patrick’s character is likable. TVB might go the cliche route just to make Kenneth and Elena look good while poor Patrick becomes evil or something. 🙁
@Shrimpboat: Argh…all I’m going to say is that they better not make Patrick evil! I sort of have a feeling that TVB isn’t even going to develop Patrick and Elena’s storyline much…they’ll probably do some lame ‘they don’t love each other anymore and get divorced’ thing and then cut right to Kenneth and Elena’s line — after all, Patrick is only a minor character in here and they need to save all the ‘good’ story arcs for the main leads (*sigh*).
Personally for me, I actually liked the side relationships of the minor characters in Triumph 1 more than I liked the main relationship lines (i.e. my favorite pairing in Triumph 1 was actually Louisa So and Jerry Lamb — they were really cute together!). Looks like Trimph 2 might end up the same way for me, since I’m already not liking the main relationship lines based on what I’ve seen (and read) so far…
Said buckle up to those non buckled. Anyway it is a mock up plane.
The scenery was amazing (: I felt so trolled with the whole little kid as Zoe moment lol and that Issac’s character should be more highlighted
Omg they lied.. I was expecting a cute Myolie to walk out but then there was a white girl.. I was so angry. Like you give us all this excitement and Myolie hasn’t even appeared yet. Urgghh. And i can’t wait for HimHim to appear! I think Fala is really pretty and stuff in real life, but I don’t think this character suits her.
Zoe this, Zoe that….blah! I for one, miss Belle more than Zoe. Yeah, Belle was annoyingly confused and indecisive about love…but she and Sam had real chemistry. Zoe was overly chirpy and always butting into other people’s business trying to help that when not needed, that I wanted to smack her. She also looked like Sam’s daughter. Now that Zoe is dead, why do they have to bring in a doppelganger for Issac to fall in love with? Why bring in another young kiddo in Fala Chen to play Sam’s love interest? Geez, his love interests are getting younger and younger with each sequel. Why not cast an age appropriate actress for Sam? As if mature women in their mid-late 30s are over the hill unattractive or too independent for a middle aged guy like Sam to handle… Corny and unrealistic, typical storyline of TVB.
I thought Michelle Yim would have been a more fitting pairing for Francis! Sorry but Francis is no young stud and it’s jarring to see him (paired) with Fala.
Forget the elusive Zoe, I don’t get the big hoopla about Sam Tong! Like I don’t think Francis is doing badly or anything, but he’s just basically there. With his poor English and fug as hell wig.
Ron and Kenneth are OK but I feel their roles are a mashup of most of their previous roles. Or is it vice versa since TITS came first?
Nancy is good as usual, I look forward to her “independent woman” character.
I hope Fala’s punk phase is over soon because it’s terrible look. So far she’s doing OK too – quite OTT in some “hyper” scenes, as I would expect a depressed woman who’s pretending to be okay/over her BF’s death. Her best scene was when she chokingly explained how the jacket was important to her.
Chilam is the one who stands out. Enjoying how playful and suave he is. Of course, it’s just super cliché how gifted and fortunate he is, too!
Loving the scenery backdrops but the Paris scenes felt very disjointed. How did Chilam and/or Fala get there? The scene could just as well had taken place back in England.
Haha! It’s a running joke how bad Francis sounds each time he opens his mouth tries to communicate in English….key word being ‘tries’. He does try very hard to enunciate his words in English but it sounds like heavy mumbling (as though Francis has marbles in his mouth or something) and he has such difficulty even saying simple sentences that it takes me out of the scene whenever he has any English dialogue. It’s those moments when we are clearly reminded that it’s Francis Ng speaking Chinglish and not Sam Tong, Lol.
Yes, TITS was the first breakout series for Ron and Kenneth, but especially Ron. Even though the main emphasis on TITS was on the ‘Sam-Belle-Vincent’ and the ‘Belle-Sam-Zoe’ love triangles; what I liked best about TITS, aside from giving us an inside look on the airline industry – was the pilot school scenes in Australia and the growing friendship amongst the fledging pilots ‘S4’ (aka Ron, Kenneth, Bosco and Sammul) and the only girl, Zita. Also, the comical family of Sam Tong was fun to watch. Ron was spot on as the brash and obnoxious younger brother to Francis, especially when he was led to believe that he was Sam’s uncle…lol.
Nancy does play the role of Coco quite well. She is no longer the spoilt kid sister who was the apple of Vincent’s eye. I am also looking forward to how her character develops in this sequel. I suppose Coco will mention in passing where Belle is and how she is doing.
Yes, I agree that Chilam’s character is the stand-out so far. He is effortlessly convincing as the cocky and charming playboy pilot. True, it’s a bit unrealistic how gifted and fortunate he is, like the ideal male character in a female fantasy, lol. Holly, as TVB’s creation of a female counterpart to Sam and Jayden, is a bit OTT, yes. Right, I get a woman hiding her grief beneath her carefree and wild demeanour (as exemplified by her goth chick fashion) – but to make her a meteorologist with NASA who then decides on a whim that she’s going to change careers midway and become a commercial pilot to keep the memories of her boyfriend alive? Okaaayyy. *roll eyes*
It is also quite a stretch to make Holly a meteorologist at NASA, who impulsively decides on a career change at 29 years old to become a commercial airline pilot ( in memory of her deceased bf), besides moonlighting as a goth punk chick who scalps for Arsenal t-shirts in her spare time.
@ Felicity
Absolutely. However, I’ve yet to see actual evidence that she is all those things. IF she ever was a meteorologist at NASA, she was indeed as her mother suggested, fired. But to me it seems more like she’s selling collectables to finance her world travels and the “NASA story” is a straight out lie she told her mother so she wouldn’t be worried about her daughter. Why else would she have to sell off her boyfriend’s old jacket to finance the telescope? Not to mention that when we were introduced to the character it seemed like she was homeless.
I also think Belle’s role was more memorable. I never liked Zoe’s character though she seemed to be kind and nice, but it did not stand out in TITS 1. At least I never paid much attention to Zoe’s character.
I liked Joe Ma’s character the best in TITS. It is a shame that he died at the end.
I wanna smack you more than you wanna smack Zoe lol okay jk
…and the crazies come out to play lol jk
Zoe never stood out to me either, her character wasn’t anything really special and neither was Belle. Probably because i didnt really paid much attention to their story or much of the romance but it was the training in pilot that got me interested and it motivated and inspired me.
The stat of this series is starting out alright, Summer will appear at the end of the week, I’m looking forward to see how this turns out.
Idk. Maybe Sam Tong finds the younger partner attractive. Zoe is a happy-go-lucky girl, and Holly supposedly is one at times. Opposites attract I guess.
No, not really. I don’t see Sam Tong’s type as the ‘much younger happy-go-lucky younger girl’ at all. In TITS, Sam did not fall for Zoe immediately as he only saw her as a little sister, for like the first half of the series. It was Zoe who was very persistent in pursuing Sam and she finally wore down his defences when his concern for her heart condition, slowly changed into love. It was Belle that Sam was attracted to- right from the first time he laid eyes on her. So, I would argue that a sophisticated and feminine woman like Belle is more Sam’s type. Belle is a fully grown woman, not a silly girl who still needs mummy to scold her like Holly, because she breaks into her own house in the middle of the night like a thief. I see Sam and Zoe’s relationship as a special ‘one off’ destiny thing….tied by their fate to the tri-angel doll. Having Sam to fall for another ‘leng mui’ who’s much younger than him, after Zoe, just makes his relationship with Zoe ( and the awkward age gap he had to adaptnto) not that special anymore…it’s repetitive.
But we are assuming Holly is young. She can’t be younger than how Zoe was. I think Holly is older. After all she is a meteorologist from NASA. At least almost 30?
Well, Holly is 29 according to TVB’s info, although she behaves like an unruly emo teenager. Zoe, I would estime her age to be the same as Isaac, or a year older than him. As Issac is 32 in TITS 2, Zoe would be around the same age older than Holly if she was still alive. Sam is 45 in TITs 2. Anyway, 29 is not that young but Holly is rather immature for her age. At least Zoe was 22 when she first met Sam.
As I was replying to advo above but my comment didn’t show up, I’ll repost it here:
Yes, I agree that Chilam’s character is the stand-out so far. He is effortlessly convincing as the cocky and charming playboy pilot. True, it’s a bit unrealistic how gifted and fortunate he is, like the ideal male character in a female fantasy, lol. Holly, as TVB’s creation of a female counterpart to Sam and Jayden, is a bit OTT, yes. Right, I get a woman hiding her grief beneath her carefree and wild demeanour (as exemplified by her goth chick fashion) – but to make her a meteorologist with NASA who then decides on a whim that she’s going to change careers midway and become a commercial pilot to keep the memories of her boyfriend alive? Yeah. Okaaayyy. *eye roll*
Well, Holly is 29 according to TVB’s info, although she behaves like an unruly emo teenager. Zoe, I would estime her age to be the same as Isaac, or a year older than him. As Issac is 32 in TITS 2, Zoe would be around the same age older than Holly if she was still alive. Sam is 45 in TITs 2. Anyway, 29 is not that young but Holly is rather immature for her age. At least Zoe was 22 when she first met Sam.
29 is not young. I think her inability to commit is due to her dead boyfriend, she is hurt and all that blah blah blah. Oh she will be the oldest trainee pilot? Sam only 45? I thought nearing 50. So he was 35 in TITS 1?
How old is Jayden?
Jayden is 38, according to TVB. Chilam does look younger than his age, so it’s believable.
To reply to advo above – Yes, I agree that Chilam’s character is the stand-out so far. He is effortlessly convincing as the cocky and charming playboy pilot. True, it’s a bit unrealistic how gifted and fortunate he is, like the ideal male character in a female fantasy, lol. Holly, as TVB’s creation of a female counterpart to Sam and Jayden, is a bit OTT too. Right, I get a woman hiding her grief beneath her carefree and wild demeanour (as exemplified by her goth chick fashion) – but to make her a meteorologist with NASA who then decides on a whim that she’s going to change careers midway in her late 20’s to become a commercial pilot (I suppose, to keep alive the memories of her deceased boyfriend)? Yeah…okaaayyy.
Yup Sam was 35 in TITS (13 years Zoe’s senior) and Jayden is 38 in TITS 2. Chilam does look younger than his age, so his Jayden is quite believable. I agree with Advo that Chilam is the standout so far as the cocky and charming playboy pilot Jayden, albeit a little too gifted and fortunate as a character (like an ideal hero in a female fantasy, lol).
It is also quite a stretch to make Holly a meteorologist at NASA, who impulsively decides on a career change at 29 years old to become a commercial airline pilot ( in memory of her deceased bf), besides moonlighting as a goth punk chick who scalps for Arsenal t-shirts in her spare time.
Yup Sam was 35 in TITS (13 years Zoe’s senior) and Jayden is 38 in TITS 2. Chilam does look younger than his age, so his Jayden is quite believable. I agree with Advo that Chilam is the standout so far as the cocky and charming playboy pilot Jayden, albeit a little too gifted and fortunate as a character (like an ideal hero in a female fantasy, lol).
Yup Sam was 35 in TITS (13 years Zoe’s senior) and Jayden is 38 in TITS 2. Chilam does look younger than his age, so his Jayden is quite believable.
I’m certainly at a disadvantage since I didn’t bother to watch the first installment, but my impression is also that Sam would and should be attracted to older/more mature women. But I suppose that is the point? Holly will be “transformed” by their relationship/mature through her relationship with the likeminded immature Jayden.
No last goodbyes, no tombstone, no graceful and heart-tugging goodbye to the original Zoe? No!!!! *sob* I loved Zoe so much. Now new viewers will never understand why Sam loved Zoe.
Indeed…why can’t TVB learn to write a beautiful marriage storyline? If anyone gets married, one of them has to be killed off in order to write another falling-in-love storyline for the remaining main character. So sad.
They don’t cast Oceane Zhu in much main roles because her Cantonese is pretty bad still.. Christine Kuo’s Cantonese is bad too but you gotta admit she improved vastly compared to Oceane… But Oceane is a better actress.
Feel so trolled!!!!! Was expecting zoe in episode 2…. But not in this way!!!! Myolie said zoe would die in episode 2…. But it was just a mentioned by Michelle to announced the passing of an original character in part 1!!! So annoyed….
I know how you feel. I know exactly how you feel.
Funn, Thank you for your refreshing stream-of-consciousness recap; it’s like listening to a friend rant and rave! 🙂
I have similar feelings towards the 2 episodes:
The theme song made me shudder but dare I say, it’s growing on me, lol! I’m not sure why the singer (is it George Lam?) has to be so erm, grunty.
Skylette sounds like a ‘play play’ airline. I much prefer Solar as a name but I reckon trademark issues mean they had to drop it. But Skylette…really? The ‘lette’ is just not confidence-inspiring. 😛
The pairings could be more inspired but what to do, it’s TVB with its usual carousel of leads. I did think Francis Ng looks better with Michelle Yim.
Fala Chen looks pretty as always but her character could have been better fleshed out. At present, it’s kind of one-dimensional (the unruly self-absorbed child) with glimpses into her sorrow but that is undermined by her blithe chirpiness.
Chilam, ah, Chilam; always a charmer. This makes me want to watch Xi Gun Dai Siu (? Can’t remember the Cantonese name). That scene with the back-hugging is sooo K-drama. *roll eyes* but I can understand why it would be an ideal romance scene for some. I did like your dry but spot-on comment about it being a potential dangerous situation. In real life, we would be mega startled, to say the least.
As for Kenneth and Elena, I’m curious about their romance – he seems too goofy to be an aunty-killer (though she’s hardly an aunty). Shall wait and see! Thanks for the background info about Patrick Dunn being an ex-pilot; I’d no idea. This is why I like reading recaps from people in the know!
To be honest, I remember Flora Chan but not Myolie Wu, though I cannot for the life of me recall what transpired among all of them. So I’m just diving into this with very few memories of the first series. Guess that helps in enjoying this a little more? 🙂
Here’s to Ep 3!
I too have very little memory of TITS 1 although I did write episodic thoughts for that. Wow, has it been 10 years? All I can remember is my issue with zoe/joey/zoey/zooey and all variations.
Luckily there can only be so much with Holly, right?
Haha, that’s funny! Thanks for sparking that memory about the name game. 😀
At least there’re only so many variations of ‘Holiday’. 😉
I just read about Patrick Dunn on Google. He was educated in Boston University and can speak four languages, English, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), French and German. I don’t know that he is so well educated.
No wonder his English is so good vs. the other artistes in TITS 2.
Actually, there’s another reason why his English is so good — not only did he study in the U.S., he also lived and worked here before he returned to HK to join the entertainment industry. His dad used to own a freight forwarding business over here and Patrick worked for his father for many years — in fact, I believe most of his family is still over here.
I’ve actually always considered Patrick ‘half a foreigner’ because of his background and such.
When I saw the backhugging scene in trailers I was cringing because I thought Holly came off desperate. But in context it wasn’t so bad – for TV anyway. I do suppose if I thought I saw my fictional dead boyfriend I would be desperate too. And I’m not that surprised by Jayden’s reaction since women apparently throw themselves at him all the time, lol.
@makeupmag – I agree that Funn’s recaps sounds like a friend’s rant and rave. Even though I have yet to start watching, reading them enables me to imagine the scenario. I shall decide whether to start watching as I read along the recaps by Funn cos I like reading more than watching.
I can’t stand Fala is here. I find myself fast forwarding all the scenes with her in it.
I am so so so so glad Zoe dies in the sequel!!!!! She is so annoying and unrealistic!!!! I prefer Belle with Sam. They have way more chemistry.
hoping to see Myolie in the 2nd eps and by the look of preview for 3rd eps I still cant see her 🙁
Funn – I LOVE your synopsis!
The *eye-rolling* and sarcastic flair to the recap is perfect 🙂
(reminds me of some of the writers from TWOP).
Keep it up! 🙂
Funn, may I advise you to get someone to edit your articles. It’s a good idea if you want to continue to write.
Also, I understand the episodic thoughts are based on your opinions. However, it seems like the article is more about your personal likes and dislikes and less about the episode itself. We get it that you don’t like Adele, Fala and her character Holly, and Zoe dying. We get it. You’ve repeated it enough times, we can’t miss it. Perhaps constructive (and hopefully objective) criticism would be more suitable??
“Perhaps constructive (and hopefully objective) criticism would be more suitable??”
The entire recap is my constructive criticism. How constructive must I be if I criticise an actress and I get accused of not being constructive enough? Then what more can I comment on? That I don’t like the colour purple of Skylette?
Funn,
First of all, I wanna say thanks for your hard work!!!!!!!!! I appreciate you spending time and writing this.
But Mt was just giving constructive criticism to your work and you did not take it so well.
Its ok that you nip picking on other people’s comments or acting skills, then it should be ok for others to do that to you.
Everyone should respect other people’s opinions if they want others to respect his or her own.
Go, Funn, go!! I enjoy your writings immensely. Keep up the good work. It’s like your thoughts and feelings were dumped onto paper as the show progressed…
It’s not a filtered, censored or politically correct piece of work with the intention of keeping everyone happy. Not like you can please EVERYONE. So, if you like how it’s written, read it. If not, don’t. I trust you did not force everyone to read your work, right?
However, it’s also entertaining to read all these comments. You should get Jayne to pay you for all the traffic you created…
Yeh i agree with Mt. Im not trying to be nasty or anything, all i wanted to say is that you are reviewing what is happening in each episode but u end up adding all the negative about each actress etc. I know its your opinion but u can keep it to yourself instead of telling everyone your thoughts and some here maybe is fala’s fan, so i think you need to consider other people’s feeling. Sorry if that offended you in any how, really wasn’t trying to be horrible
Oh Jade, just let Funn do whatever she wants or you will become one of those “others” in Funn’s comment: “I make 1 statement and gets thrown a whole lot of others and negating my right to question, to wonder”
I waitted all these years to see sam and zoe again and they decide to kill her off like that i wanted to see the part where zoe dies
and when does sam return to hong kong
Oh fala so pretty nice body and attractive sexily. Hmm.
Cheung Chi Lam played himself in the series well.
CHI LAM IS JUST A GREAT ACTOR. BELIEVE ME, THIS DRAMA WILL RAISE UPTO AT LEAST
40 POINTS!!!
Holiday Ho (which is a very ridiculous name), a 29 year old punk emo nasa meteorologist turn backpacker turn pilot, who is also a budding linguist/ ebay magnate. What a mouthful.
I can actually see fala as holiday if they get rid of that silly punk look, which makes fala looks older. I think thats why funn said eliza seems more suitable for the role, because that look makes me think of someone younger.
lol, the punk look is not doing Fala justice. The way her character is written is rather unrealistic. Holly is old to be sporting the punk look. Maybe someone depressed fits her character more.
Fala wont have the punk look in another few more episodes.
Have you guys notice that Fala’s name is Holiday and Myolie’s name is Summer.
and together they are Summer Holiday! Hehe how cute .
oh yeah the names put together are so cute.
“. But please, less Adele and the whole fated-destined to be together B.S. “
I guess as a sequel to the original, the series must stay true to the TITS’s theme of fated-destined love.
TITS also do that with the doll and the bracelet thing.
hi. can i know what’s the title of the song at the end of the episode?? 😀
I’m looking for the name of the song too. Anyone???
I’m looking for the song too… Anyone???
Hiiii I’m looking for the name of the song after holiday got the old bird and enters the other part of the museum i supposed. Anyone?