Legend: Dream Named Desire (ATV 2000)

Legend: A Dream Named Desire <美麗傳說>

ATV, Series 2000

Number of Episodes: 40

Producer: Lee Siu Gai

Cast:

Monica Chan as Rita/ Shu Ping Ping

Simon Yam as Chris

Loletta Lee as Michelle

Ben Wong as Tim

Alice Chan as Pauline

Tin Yui Lee as Fanny

Plot (spoilers! Read at your own risk!)

This series is focused around 4 girls who decides to enter a beauty pageant to become the next “Princess Hong Kong”.  The 4 girls were Rita (Monica Chan), Michelle (Loletta Lee), Pauline (Alice Chan) and Fanny (Tin Yui Lee).  Apart from Fanny, they were all good friends with Rita and Pauline working together in a big company owned by Chris (Simon Yam).  After a series of events including the kidnapping of Chris’ son, Chris and Rita ends up together much to the dismay of Chris’ wife, BoBo. Chris’ constant infidelity caused BoBo to become mentally unstable and she constantly used their son, Andrew to blackmail him into staying with her. Throughout their affair, Rita felt guilty about splitting up Chris’ family and told Chris that it was over after Andrew begged her to leave his father.

Unable to forget Chris, Rita decided to go out with Tim, the son of a wealthy businessman. Unlike his younger brother, Tim was caring and kind but was deprived of love and affection from his parents as they believed that he was their “black star”.

During the beauty pageant, Rita reunited with her long lost sister, Michelle and despite them not getting on at the start they soon became close. Pauline played by Alice Chan was Rita’s best friend and was jealous of Rita when she was crowned the “Princess of Hong Kong” since she herself was kicked out quite early on in the competition. However she never failed to turn to Rita when she was in need of help (her mother was a gambling addict who always got them in serious trouble).  With all her mother’s debt unpaid she had no choice but to star in pornographic films and later became a mistress to a wealthy Taiwanese businessman.

Despite not winning the beauty pageant,  Michelle became popular as an actress but was forced to leave Hong Kong and the entertainment circle after a series of scandals concerning  her private life. Unable to get Tim attention’s Fanny and tries her luck with his younger brother and ends up marrying him. However, he was just as scheming as she was and only married her because the baby she was carrying was going to be the key to his family’s fortune.

Since Tim was unloved by his parents, Rita also suffered and was often scowled by Tim’s mother. Tim, after being betrayed by his family decided that he was not going to put up with it any more and that he wanted just as rich and successful as Chris. Tim was always insecure about Chris since he knew that Chris was the first man Rita truly loved. Tim became evil and even killed his mother and brother in order to reach his goals. He also framed Chris and got him sent to prison and slept with Pauline after a row with Rita. Rita found out about him and Pauline spending the night together and took her bags and left.

After spending a few years in France, Michelle decided to return and began working on a new movie with Chris to help raise her profile. Breaking his promise to his wife, Chris began seeing Michelle causing Andrew to kill himself. Andrew left a letter to his father prior to his death, explaining the severity of his mother’s mental health and that he wished him and Michelle a happy future together. Chris and Michelle soon got married but she died later from HIV.

Rita promised Michelle that she would look after Chris once she’d died and took care of him by getting him back on his feet.  Tim was arrested for all his crimes and was given a long sentence. Rita avoided visiting him and kept their daughter from visiting him too as she didn’t want her daughter to know that her family was an evil man. Missing his wife and daughter too much, Tim managed to escape prison and kidnaps his own daughter so he could spend some time with her. He asked her whether Rita and Chris were living together and the little girl said no. As he was walking her back to Rita’s he got shot by the police and later died from the wounds.

The Cast:

Monica Chan as Rita

Her character annoyed me a bit as she’d promised Chris’ wife that she wouldn’t be with him but still ended up being with him. I liked how in the ending when Chris asked her to be with him and she said no because she was still in love with Tim.

I think the best actress in this series was the actress who played Chris’ wife. I have no idea what her name is but she was so good in this. BoBo was an extremely hard and character to play but the actress who play her did an excellent job in portraying a woman who is desperate for her husband’s love but because she is deprived of it she takes it out on their son and develops a

Loletta Lee as Michelle

Lotetta was so pretty in this and her hair was just amazing. However her character annoyed me big time! Her boyfriend cheated on her with Pauline and that left her depressed so when she agreed to be Chris’ mistress I was a little taken aback.

I think Loletta played the role of Michelle quite well and her crying scenes were very believable. However she lacked real chemistry with Simon and they were unbelievable as a couple.

Alice Chan as Pauline

Pauline was a pitiful character and slept with many men hoping that they would treat her well and offer her a comfortable life. After getting dumped by her Taiwanese “godfather” she becomes a heroine addict and even sleeps with Rita’s husband. Her character is what I would call, “a waste of space”.

Alice was really good in this and even though I hated her character I still enjoyed watching her scenes

Tin Yui Lee as Fanny

Fanny is a materialistic girl living in a materialistic world. She is a clear-minded woman and knows exactly what she wants in life. I think she was actually in love with Tim’s younger brother and wanted him to care for her as she was genuinely upset when she found out that he was still sleeping around with other women.

I enjoyed her acting the most. This is the first time I’ve seen Tin Yui play such a manipulative character and she did such a good job of it. She played the bitchy role to perfection.

Overall

This series was okay. I loved Tim’s family as they were very entertaining to watch. The actress who played his mother was brilliant. I laughed so much when she was shouting at Rita because most of the stuff she said was ridiculous. I was tempted to skipped the episodes when Chris and Michelle started dating because it got a bit boring. However the ending was good and I was happy that Rita and Chris didn’t end up together. The characters were very well thought out and I would recommend this to anyone.

Review written by Suki