Juniper
It’s been a long time since I last watched a TVB drama because generally the ones I tried to watch had OTT cheesy story lines. The last one I did try watching was one of those and I gave up watching barely 5 minutes into the first episode. “The Forgotten Day” seemed interesting as it stars Roger Kwok whose acting is superb in every drama he’s in. The other male lead is Shaun Tam and I have never watched his dramas.
Basically, “The Forgotten Day” is about the unlikely friendship between an interior designer (Shaun Tam) Mung Yat-yin and a waiter & odd job worker (Roger Kwok) Ng Yiu-chong. Ng Yiu-chong’s tip-off to one of his no-good criminal friends leads to Mung Yat-yin being kidnapped and ransomed. Mung Yat-yin’s father, Peter Ming asks Mung Yat-yin’s wife, Freeya Yau to deliver the $5million ransom money to the kidnappers. She replaces half the ransom money with paper money (which people burn for the dead).
After Mung Yat-yin is released and returns home, he and Freeya have an argument and she leaves with the money in their joint account. The next day, Mung Yat-yin cannot remember what happened, he suffers from partial amnesia. He seeks help from Dr. Yan Nam, a clinical psychologist who hypnotises him during the sessions to help him remember. Dr. Yan Nam happens to be Mung Yat-yin’s younger sister’s best friend (they seem to be hanging out almost every day).
Everything about this drama is too coincidental. Freeya’s good friend is Mable Ng Shun-mei who happens to be Ng Yiu-chong’s younger sister. Mable is a taxi driver and her ex-husband is a friend of Freeya. Everyone in this drama seems to be connected to each other somehow. The ex-husband is Evans and he pretends to be still in love with Mable but has ulterior motives like using her apartment to hide his stash of money. From his actions, it looks like he has something to do with Freeya’s disappearance. Mung Yat-yin cannot contact Freeya and is desperately looking for answers to his kidnapping and his missing wife.
As Ng Yiu-chong caused Mung Yat-yin to be kidnapped, he tries his best to discourage Mung Yat-yin from remembering anything from that incident. Ng Yiu-chong has a mentally disabled brother. I don’t get TVB dramas, so many of their dramas have adults who are mentally disabled in them. Is that supposed to add to the element of cuteness or humour because I don’t think it’s necessary. This drama could have done very well without a character who is mentally disabled, it detracts rather than adds something good to the drama.
Mung Yat-yin constantly seeks out Ng Yiu-chong for company not knowing that his newfound friend has secrets to hide and that he has been lying to him about things regarding the kidnapping incident. Ng Yiu-chong has an estranged wife (not yet divorced) and son who adores him. The son wants his parents to get back together but the wife, Maya is seeing a cardiologist who treated her.
Although there are the usual and unavoidable cheesy elements to this drama, Roger Kwok’s versatile acting saves the day. I am watching to the end to see what happened to Freeya, how Mable’s ex-husband is involved in her disappearance and whether Ng yiu-chong gets back together with Maya. It’s a good thing though that it’s less than 30 episodes long because there’s just so much cheesy scenes I can take.
