Ending Spoilers for “Reality Check”
TVB modern drama, Reality Check <心路GPS>, is in its final week and viewers are anxious to see the fate of its characters. Several pivotal scenes this week attracted viewers, achieving a high rating that peaked at 31 points. Netizens are praying that TVB will avoid delivering the standard happily-ever-after ending and deliver a satisfying ending during this Friday’s two-hour series finale.
Reality Check stars Ruco Chan (陳展鵬) as its lead character Summer Ha who must resolve conflicts with his foster mother Louise Lee (李司棋) and birth mother Rebecca Chan (陳秀珠).
In the show, Louise Lee’s character, Lau Chui Wan, is a gambling addict and a lenient mother to her children. Her biological daughter, Wah Lui, played by Rachel Kan (簡慕華), and son Chung Jai, played by Owen Cheung (張振朗), prioritized money over their mother’s welfare. It is reported that Wah Lui and Chung Jai will face consequences of their greed. Chung Jai will be lectured by Chui Wan for his wrongdoings. Wah Lui’s husband will lose all of his life savings in stock bets and she will even be beaten in public.
Summer will rescue Wah Lui by paying off her debt using the $400,000 HKD that Chui Wan gave him earlier. After these events, Chui Wan learns her lesson and will no longer spoil her children. Chui Wan will ultimately choose to live with foster son Summer, who finally acknowledges his birth mother Ha Siu Han. The finale is reported to be a happy ending, in which Summer will dance with both his foster and birth mothers.
Louise Lee’s pivotal scene during Monday night’s episode earned many viewers’ sympathy and also boosted the show’s ratings. In the scene, Chui Wan was robbed and hit repeatedly in the face. Netizens complained that TVB used too much make up, making Louise appear overly bruised. Louise laughed and said that she watched the scene on her 50-inch television at home and thought she looked “very beaten up”.
Louise was happy that the scene generated buzz, and would be glad to be hit a couple more times for even higher ratings. Louise commented that she enjoyed playing a gambling addict, as the role was well-written and very realistic.
Reality Check’s finale will be aired on Friday, March 15, 2013.
Source: Ming Pao
This article is written by Katrine for JayneStars.com.
This drama is kinda hard to not have an happy ending an less lau chui wan die at the end which I don’t find it satisfying. The way I see it, the story is built up to have an happy ending not a sad one. Is hard to change it into a sad ending the way the drama is and there is only couple of episode left
i like the storyline, good drama. The acting good too
wont be surprise HK people will vote Louise Lee TVB Queen this year.
Last year we saw Kate Tsui as drug addict, this year Loise as gambling addict. Both of them act very well
Depend on how Sheren Tang perform Beauty at War
louise is a great actress, she should win best actress for this role.
I’m not against happy endings just don’t make it rushed and cheesy. Overall, this show was quite boring.
Really? I thought if you look at the recent TVB stuff, it’s not too bad. Not sure if it’s due to the increasing competition but TVB has ventured out somewhat ideas wise – Missing You the idea is quite fresh for TVB as well as this. Lately, they’ve gone into many more of the gritty characters of society – drug addicts and gambling addicts, a much more realistic approach.
I’ve also noticed the houses/apartments in Reality Check is a little more realstic – not Louise’s house but definitely Evergreen Mak’s and his assistants.
The “fall from grace” due to emotional breakdown upon the death of a loved one is very real and does happen a lot.
iss this a gd drama to watch?
I hate watching louis lee
lolz i cant wait when vincent beats up rachel in public…..i think i saw pictures of them filming on the streets.
Thank God it’s over. I can’t wait to wait Alex Fong. That’s sexy man.
traditional ending, the bad ones will suffer for their misbehavior. Will miss Summer.
I was quite tired of the repetetive self pity of the foster mother but enjoyed the other scenes. I am hoping her children never learn their lesson and turned her back on her so that she accepts her foster child as her real son so to speak whilst Summer forgives his real mother and realises quite happily he has 2 mothers who love and dote on him. That to me is the perfect ending. The spoilers indicate a PC sort of ending which is I don’t like.
I think so too. The biological children have such selfish and greedy hearts if they suddenly became normal and good kids again that will be so tyically a TVB ending. I actually thought the adopted mother is too nice to her kids, you know they are not filial in truth and yet you still leave them a huge sum of money when in fact your adopted son who kept paying her debts got a smaller than small portion of her money. That was kind of harsh in that episode already. But yes knowing TVB, always the same preditable happy endings, those bio kids might be back w/the mother again. If that is the ending, then it will be a lame typical ending.
I can tell both Summer and May is liking each other at the last half an hour of the ending lol:)
I still don’t know why they aren’t calling it by the literal translation “Heartroad GPS”. It’s way more interesting.
Haha…you call those spoilers? All that stuff mentioned was in the summaries for episodes 19 and 20, which came out on Monday, so it’s nothing new actually.
The ending is definitely predictable and of course typical TVB. I’m actually not too concerned about the ending because I was already expecting it given the way the rest of the series was set up and such. The part that I’m definitely looking forward to though is the reunion segment at the Lau Family village (which is slated to take place near the end of episode 20) because to me, those first 5 episodes with Kit Jai (Hero Yuen’s character) and his experience at the village were the best part of the series (too bad that segment only lasted 5 episodes, though the filming actually took weeks).
Agreed. The first five episodes was the best part of the series and although it hasn’t been too bad, it hasn’t quite lived up to its promise.
Does anyone know if Ruco is fully chinese or if he has any other culture? my mom says his features resemble someone that is bi-racial.
I really enjoyed this series, it was a breath of fresh air from alot of the garbage tvb has put out. Granted I wasn’t too keeen on having so many no names in the lead (I dono’t like PC at all, when she speaks its as if she doesnt’ have alot of breath). I get her character is awkward but it was too much imo.
I think the kids should have gotten their just desserts at the end. I mean, Mandy never apologized to Ruco for accusing him of taking their mom’s money. Deplorable. But what drew me to this was that it was very realistic. Unfortunately, gambling is a big issue, particularly within our culture. It’s very accepted imo, it starts off as a pasttime and then it goes too far.
Read from a mag. that Ruco has 1/4 Malaysian blood. Malay has been Colony of UK n I think he does look to have SE Asian + Chinese + European mix features. That’s why he’s so handsome.
1/4 Malaysian… Malaysian is nationality. Which race?
No detailed description. I just translated that simple words from the article, n I feel he looks Ch + SE As + Eu.
Am i the only one who doesn’t sympathize Louise’s character? I find it funny how the screenwriter wants the audience to feel sympathetic with so many unfortunate events when really she deserved it. She was so lenient to her kids that she let them have it their way, sold the house, gave them the money and chose to leave in a rented room when she could have stayed firm and not sell her apartment. And how stupid was it for her to keep so much money in a rented room? Her character totally called for the beating. It made me feel as though the death of her husband was the end of the world…Personally, it didn’t make any sense to me at all
-pd
I totally agree, I got really fed up w/her character as well. I already commented on above and i am glad u feel the same way. I thought i was the only one.
All that self pity and knowing your kids are greedy and selfish w/o any sense of filial piety and yet you sold your house and gave them a huge sum of money when in fact the adopted son who helped covered all your gambling debts, she actually left $400,000? Is that even money compare to those bio kids? Seriously, OMG that was insane even thou she kept on saying how she knew he was a good adopted son blab blab but her actions on splitting the money says otherwise. The script is good esp the parts i love is the going back to a china village that was really in interesting, too bad that topic had to end so soon only a few episodes. Seriously, overly done w/adopted mom’s gambling addiction so the hubby died and that’s how she wanted to live her life? I still have 2 more episodes to go so let’s see if it will be a typical TVB happy ending. To me, as one of the above commentators the perfect endingfor me would also be just his 2 mothers i/o of her children getting back together w/her. That will be more realistic.
Pretty sure that Louise paid off all her debt using her husband’s money and mortgaged her apartment again. And I agree is kind of got annoying when Louise kept on gambling ;(.
Yeah, glad I ain’t the only one! I only liked the first 6 episodes and that was pretty much it…
The ending was very typical of TVB. Why is it always a happy ending… Personally, if I was Louise, I wouldn’t take back the kids straight away… would have let them get a taste of their own medicine for a few days although this might sound harsh…
I really enjoyed watching this series. It’s too bad that the ratings weren’t very good! The ending was a bit rushed and cheesy, but I was expecting a happy ending anyway so overall it was satisfying.
It’s true that Louise’s self pity and gambling problem got kind of repetitive, but that’s what makes it more realistic. I think if someone actually was suffering from an emotional disorder, it would a very repetitive cycle.
As for her children, I can see why she decided to just sell her house and give them money. In the beginning of the series, there was no indication that her kids were spoiled, greedy brats. Before her husband died she thought she had the perfect family. So even when she found out that her kids were after her money, she still loved them. I thought it was really unfair how she gave so much less money to Summer though. And the ending with her kids was the cheesiest part in my opinion.
I’m disappointed that there wasn’t as much focus on Summer and May’s relationship, but that is also why I’m glad they didn’t explicitly end up together. At first I was wary about this series because they casted an unknown actress to be the female lead. The same thing happened for Divas in Distress and I didn’t like Eliza Sam. Priscilla did a good job though. She has a very cute smile and I think she acts better than and is prettier than the “goddesses” Christine and Eliza.
On a side note, why has it become a trend to release spoilers for dramas? The worst is when the title says something like, “so-and-so films death scene for drama” THEN followed by the *spoilers* warning. Um, kind of too late by that point. Personally I prefer the suspense, even though most of the time TVB endings are predictable haha.
“I’m disappointed that there wasn’t as much focus on Summer and May’s relationship, but that is also why I’m glad they didn’t explicitly end up together. ”
I am very glad the focus wasn’t on them but at the end they had this flirtatious moment on a boat in a beautiful cave like place and that to me will be the start of a possible romance. The series’ focus is the romance so to speak between Summer and his 2 mothers and I basically detest the children getting back with mom scenes (see, times of troubles? Give them 10 million and no doubt they will dump her again) but I love the ending where he danced with his 2 moms. It was a beautiful lovely ending. A pity ratings is bad but for me it is ok rating for a series that yes is repetetive but at least different in some sense. This will probably be my most favourite series of the year or one of my most favourite.
-Funn Lim,
I don’t see much of a flirtation w/the leads hahah… I don’t know, I think they seem more like friends than romantically attracted? I like the female lead, as a newcome or whatever i think she did her part well and her cantonese is more than bearable.
I agree, ending was totally rushed and cheesy as expected with TVB. W/the kids being dumped by their other halfs, what a stupid stupid ending with that part of the storyline.
I enjoyed the beginning of the series and then it just went downfall from there. It got so repetitive that I think they could’ve shaved off 5 episodes and it would’ve made a better fit for the story. While I agree thhat it’s a very repetitive cycle for a gambling addict, they could’ve done so much for Louise’s role to show the different treatments and therapies with possible relapse and such from more emotional turmoil rather then just have her moping around for a dozen episodes about how useless he is. It seems like the people that cared for her only wanted to help with words and not take any action. I was really confused with that and I think it dragged the series down.
The ending with her kids was so predictable and dumb, they both got ditched by their other half and all of a sudden they turn good again? I’m pretty sure those greedy bastards would do it again for a good sum of money. The daughter I kind of understand because she was in a very abusive relationship with the husband but the son seemed like he was a tool and they tried to push all the blame on his wife, the one with that annoying “Ah B” whining.
I didn’t see a need for Summer and May to be focused, she wasn’t the main lead anyway. It was always about him and his foster mother. Plus I think with May’s attitude early on after finding out how Summer treated his mother, she would’ve been fired if it was in the real world. Giving your boss attitude because of a difference in opinions is very unprofessional and way out of line.
Overall though, the story could’ve been something better but we got stuck with another medicore script even though it started out well.
The best message this series sent out was “Sometimes what we’re lacking is just Communication”. Easily said, very hard to do sometimes. Also liked the part where they compared Rural and Urban values such as Educatiion to become a useful person vs a good paying job and that Rural areas aren’t backwards, it’s just a different lifestlye and we rely on them just as much as they rely on us to keep the World going.
**SD – Omg, couldn’t have agreed more w/u on everything w/this series.
I like the city side story line alot but then after that it went downhill for me. I skip and FF all the way after that.
I knew it was going to be a typical bs crappy happy TVB ending. TVB endings are always like this i think, rushed rushed like they have no time to spare but then always jams and prolongs all the unncessary episodes in the middles. Surprise us you know, I thought the storyline could have been better w/Louise treating and spoiling her children. If that is realistic in real life, then no wonder kids these days are so spoiled and dependent on their parents already planned out plans and money on the table. They were such selfish and greedy children, just b/c their other 1/2’s leave them like they will turn out to be good again???? Please, OMG I can’t stress enough on how stupid it is w/the biological children’s plot. Esp w/the way this gambling mom selling her house, gave them money and she lived in a dump n giving up and feeling pathetic of herself after the husband’s death. Yes, it’s sad and realistic of this part of the series but leaving these bio kids all that money when you knew they were such greedy children when the adopted one has been done nothing but great to you, all that money he had to help u with and you only give him pocket change when the bio kids have all that big sum haahah..LOL..If they turn the money around n give all the money to the adopted son, wouldn’t that be more excited to watch for the series. It’s like she does NOT even know how to handle her kids even after knowing their greediness and heartlessness.
So true, “Sometimes what we’re lacking is just Communication this is probably the best message so like i said, typicall boring happy TVB ending. How can the ratings skyrocketed w/this kind of BS endings and storyline? ahhah….def a good script in the beginning but die 1/2 so to speak. haha lol
I forgot to mention, it’s too bad they didn’t go on to show that Louise needed psychological help. Summer booked an appointment with a therapist and she stormed out. Clearly, anyone that has a gambling addiction like she has needs professional help. You don’t just lose it based on a few events. It’s compulsion and it’s a pity they didn’t show that.
Otherwise it was a good series, and realistic.
Overall it’s quite realistic series. Gambling addiction is not something that easily overcome. I would say it is nearly the same as drug addict. Witnessed it myself before and take very strong will to overcome it.
Love the ending dance scene, although both kids who got dumped by their other halves are so predictable. Glad they did not focus on the romance, although the scene of evergreen and his wife are a bit too much.
I love this series. It sent out many good messages to the society at the end of this drama. For example, the consequences of being unfilial, being a gambler, learn to forgive and be understanding, help the ones in need