[Episodic Thoughts] “Outbound Love” Episode 2

Outbound Love <單戀雙城>
TVB Series 2014

Cast: Ruco Chan, Aimee Chan, Tony Hung, Lin Xia Wei, Matt Yeung, and Samantha Ko

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.

EPISODE 02

I love Ruco.

But…

Episode 2 is still…not good yet. But then every TVB series will take at least 3 episodes to get somewhere and so I will declare episode 4 will be good, hopefully. But this episode answers one very important question I posted in episode 1’s recap:

Why would a guy travel at least 3 hours from his home in Penang all the way to KL? Is he obsessed with her? Since he said he knows her but not sure from where? Or to TVB there is no difference in geography?

The answer is so simple! Drum roll please …

The answer is…

to TVB there is no difference in geography

True! Let me recap and you will know why.

Recap!

Ahhh knight in shining.. errrr.. all white Ruco rushes to save defenseless Aimee aka Sik Sik and he drives those men away with punches and all as Sik Sik groggily sees a man in white doing some punching and away they go punching somewhere else as the 3 friends of Nic rush out and 2 guys chase after the bad guys whilst girl stays behind when Nic appears, in white top and rushes to Sik Sik and Sik Sik sees him and thinks he’s the guy in white who rescued her (nooooooo!!!!!!) and emotionally as Matt Yeung could muster declares he will not let her be in danger again and that she must never let him out of her sight (very very dangerous declaration) and proposes to her. And then she fainted and girl comes back and says she has called the cops. Meanwhile hero Ruco in white punches from no rain till rain from Pavilion to I don’t know where and he is bruised and all when those guys run away. COWARDS! He rushes back and sees Sik Sik safely in the arms of Nic and he looks mighty disappointed. Friends of Nic knows Ruco is the hero but never bothered to correct Sik Sik. And so Ruco goes away. Andddddddddddd one sulky looking young woman looks at Nic cradling Sik Sik. Oh who can she be? I AM DYING OF SUSPENSE!

Next scene Sik Sik wakes up in a hotel room with Xiawei (whose name I have yet to catch) looking at her, teasing her and Sik Sik wonders was she hallucinating when she thought Nic proposed and can’t be sure but is sure her bracelet is lost so it must be true. Anyway the girls go “jalan-jalan” (Malaysian speak for going out as opposed to “lepak” which is hang around but has a very negative connotation). And they’re in.. PENANG!

Pause! Pause!!

So… Sik Sik faints in KL, is rushed by Nic to some hospital in the middle of the night to get her head scanned as she said and wakes up in Penang. I wasn’t sure if it was Penang until my sister said it is Penang. So Nic drives at least 3 hours in the middle of the night and take Sik Sik back to her hotel in Penang? Same as Ruco drives at least 3 hours from Penang to KL in his Mary to just save her? Ahhhhh the mystery! The answer is to TVB there is no geographical difference. Penang can be KL can be anywhere because Malaysia is Malaysia. See, there it is. So we shall suspend our disbelief and like how Looking Back In Anger was where Deric Wan and Maggie Siu in one scene dating happily in Melaka and next frolicking in KL’s old train station all in a matter of minutes. But then Melaka and KL is very near so that is possible. So let’s forget the geography. One X-Files case out of the way. Of course I am not happy with this blatant disregard for geography but well Pavilion looks nice at night, Penang looks great in the morning. Even if you have to cross a bridge and many KMs in between.

Continue.

Sik Sik goes jalan-jalan with Xiawei when suddenly Xiawei says she is having stomach ache.. you know what? I will be brief. Nic proposes romantically and she happily says yes.

Sik Sik goes to Ruco’s travel agency and is asked to fill in a feedback form and in many scenes we are told quite obviously Sik Sik is a very gullible nice girl and so that means she is a protected species. Again here she finds out Ruco has lied to her yet again about receiving many complaints by customer thus jeopardising his career when in fact he has none. Angrily she leaves him and he too is angry because he wants to boast how he saved her but before he can say so she kinda declares him as useless. She sees his bruised face and as he angrily asks her doesn’t she know why he is bruised and all and she just assume he got chased by some moneylender! Ruco huffs and puffs and won’t have the girl’s heart until she has hers broken in the next few episode. Anyway before she leaves Ruco asks again “Have we met before? You look so familiar”. She doesn’t bother to answer him. Let me guess? Schoolmates? Former classmate? Fellow traveler?

Ruco is having Nyonya stuff at the restaurant where Xiawei is the dessert chef when he overhears her saying she lost her ring when cooking something. He bites into his curry and there is the ring and quite nicely he returns it to her and she looks grateful. Anyway Ruco seems to know the people there at the restaurant. I am now intrigued who is he? Some rich man’s son in disguise? Wait… this is not k-drama. Maybe he is some sullen hero who lost his heart to someone and turns out to be someone so successful but turns his back on his wealth ala Taiwanese drama? I guess no answer until a few episodes later. He can’t be a bum though. He even knows the hotel manager and such.

Anyway Ruco is shown washing Mary and chatting with Mary when he finds a bracelet and realises it is Sik Sik’s. Tried to call her, goes to message and he says angrily “LECEH!”.

Pause.

Malaysian speak for “troublesome”. Add a lar at the back and there you have it, welcome to Malaysia. I applaud Ruco for speaking Malaysian lingo but I just don’t feel any of it as fluid. Even when he said nasi lemak as in na-si-le-mak, I just feel something’s off. The consistency is the problem.

Continue.

Sik Sik and Nik leaving Penang/Malaysia and Sik Sik hears Ruco’s message of LECEH and is not happy and is leaving when Ruco arrives to give her back her bracelet and could have found her if not for that pesky old woman asking him to take her to the toilet. Oh the wonders of fate! He leaves disappointed. Outside he bumps into Xiawei but doesn’t know she is Nic’s sister. They had a good chat and he offers to give her a ride which she accepts happily.

We are shown map of flight from Malaysia to HK. Back in HK sullen mysterious woman appears before Nic. Nic at the time in KL of course went to see her (so he lied to Sik Sik) and they were kissing passionately in the car. Back in HK, girl asks if he wants to reconcile with her and he says one year ago she told him to get lost and so he did and now she wants to reconcile. He can’t handle her uncertainty and so says he is marrying Sik Sik because he is sure of it. Girl kisses him on the cheek as she says she knows he no longer has her in his heart and leaves and lo and behold, Kei Ying sees them and is shocked.

Pause.

Ahhh so she was his ex girlfriend. He knows Sik Sik for 1 year only so technically I wouldn’t call him a bastard.

Continue.

Kei Ying emotionally asks Nic who was that woman and before we can hear his explanation NEXT SCENE.

WHAT? Come on! The suspense is killing me! Yeah right.

Back with Sik Sik, we are introduced to her active retired daddy that is Elliot Ngok who is into bird photography and you know how expensive the equipment are. If you don’t, well he will explain the art of bird photography to an ignorant boy who kinda represents us. Back home he offers incense to his dead wife. Before that we are introduced to Chin Tsun (Tony)’s mother, a fish seller and his girlfriend called Applebaby (!!) who calls Chin Tsun BB. Cute. Anyway cut the long story short, Helen Ma who is Mrs Chin raised Sik Sik and her sister when their mom died when they were young. Both are good friends and relies on one another which explains the closeness between the family. Applebaby isn’t too happy about that. A party is prepared for old Mr Law Wai the father for some competition thing which he did not win. Nic appears and asks for Sik Sik’s hand in marriage and daddy pretends to be pissed off until Nic explains why he chooses Sik Sik.

Why you ask? Well she is the leading lady and he has to break her heart so she can turn to our leading guy Ruco, that’s why. Of course the answer isn’t that. It is because he loves her smile, her perkiness, her kindness, etc etc etc. Anyway everyone happy but where is Kei Ying?

At night we see older sister of Sik Sik being playful with Sik Sik and taking all her clothes which Sik Sik doesn’t mind since she is a good natured girl when in episode 1 the sister as in Sui Sui (serious! even she complains her name is sui) has no problem selling out Sik Sik to save her husband’s skin. Ahhh family! Anyway Chin Tsun says Kei Ying is in a bar and they rush to her and bartender says she left with a gwailo (this time really a gwailo) and Sik Sik isn’t happy with her behaviour when they find her making out with the gwailo in some alleyway and they chase the gwailo away, take Kei Ying back to her place and they argued big time. Kei Ying isn’t happy her happy time is ruined and Sik Sik is angry her friend could so cheapen herself and Kei Ying angry being called cheap retorted her Nic isn’t some angel and that makes Sik Sik even more angry to the point Kei Ying angrily said Sik Sik can be the nice girly virginal girl and she the bad slut and cries doesn’t Sik Sik have urges? Like as if she never had sex and she told Sik Sik to go away and Sik Sik angrily leaves and Chin Tsun is thrown out too and then Kei Ying crumbles to the floor and cries her heart out.

Ruco ends this episode to explain that Penang is part of World Heritage site.

The end.

Question is why Kei Ying so upset? Let me guess. She is two timing her best friend with Nic? Can’t be yet… maybe she is in love with Nic and is disappointed to find out Nic has an ex girlfriend or Nic is marrying Sik Sik? Could be. Either way Nic is the potential douchebag and Kei Ying the bitch.

Next episode, I suspect Sik Sik has her heart broken.

This episode is much better in terms of storyline but I still not used to the inconsistency in certain parts as pointed above.

Performance wise, I still like Aimee who has a happy smile and mournful suck but nothing in between. This lack in nothing in between does not convince me she is some good natured gullible nice girl. She doesn’t fit the character. Ruco also doesn’t fit the happy go lucky sort of Bohemian whatever guy. He can do anything but playful? Ruco can be flirtatious but playful? Not convinced.

But generally performance by these 2 are ok.

The rest is also ok except for Lin Xiawei who to me totally lacks screen presence. Matt Yeung is also ok except he looks like he is ready to kill someone.

Anyway a lot of viewers mistaken Slow Boat Home as this series or vice versa since very very familiar. Frankly I feel the same cast can be transported to this series. Raymond Wong looks more like Luk Kung Tzi than Ruco. And he does look like some Malay guy truth be told. Selena can be Aimee’s character since she is all fluffy like Sik Sik. Ruco can be another character. But my dream cast for me is Linda as Sik Sik and Steven Ma as Luk Kung Tzi and Ruco as some big shot CEO. I don’t care! Ruco = CEO! I do hate his costume in here.

Hopefully in Episode 3 onwards there will be some geographical integrity.

MALAYSIAN SLANG IN THIS EPISODE
Hey correct me if I am wrong!

Policeman in HK is called “chai yan” but in Malaysia we usually call them “ma-ta” after “mata-mata” as in eyes. Which is why I am annoyed why the Malaysian girl-friend of Nic’s said “chai yan” instead of “ma-ta” unless of course she is NOT Malaysian. But then nowadays a lot of Chinese here kinda like the HK-speak so frankly I can’t be sure anymore.

Leceh as I said is troublesome or rather something or someone so waste of your valuable time and effort in a negative way.

Nasi Lemak is what HK calls “Ye Cheung Fan” aka Santan rice aka Coconut Milk rice aka fattening but we have it for breakfast. It is a Malay dish typically.

Ruco said “Selamat Pagi” at one point and that is “Good Morning” in Malay.

In episode 1 I did hear Ruco said “cin-cai” which is in Mandarin is “Sui bian” which is HK’s “chui bin” or in English “Anything also can lar” but since we love shortcuts, “cin cai lar” sort of explains it all.

Just a moot point. Is “Sup Sup Sui” Malaysian speak by the way? Sorta like “Mou Man Tai” which means no problem at all but “Sup Sup Sui” is very easy/simple which we usually use to express a task done and we wish to say it was an easy thing to do. English does not really explain certain phrases well. Until now I have yet to find an English word or even a sentence or even a paragraph that has the same punch as the Cantonese word “Chin” which is really not a very nice thing to say to anyone.

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This Episodic Thoughts is written by Funn Lim, a Contributing Writer at JayneStars.com, and was originally posted at http://outboundlove.blogspot.com.