.jpg)
Ratings:
*Contains spoiler*
Episode 1 to 25:
Esther Kwan (Lin Sheung-chun 連雙春) was forced to married into the Kwan family as a concubine in order to pay off her father's gambling debts.However, on the night of her marriage, her husband died. Hearing her screams, Michelle Yim (Wang Yeuk-Lam 汪若嵐), the first wife, rushes in. Seeing her husband's dead body, she assumes Esther is the murderer and tries to stab her, hitting her head on a table in the process. Ever since, Michelle lost her memories of her past and believed that she is still a young girl and that Ester is her mother.
Other than looking after Michelle, Esther slogs her life in the Kwan family and bear the huge responsibility of managing the family's restaurant. Business was poor and there were not much customers in the restarant as it was used to. However, Derek Kok (Leung Kau-mui 梁九妹), the restaurant's chef did not give up and has continuously inventing new recipes to revive the business.
Other than looking after Michelle, Esther slogs her life in the Kwan family and bear the huge responsibility of managing the family's restaurant. Business was poor and there were not much customers in the restarant as it was used to. However, Derek Kok (Leung Kau-mui 梁九妹), the restaurant's chef did not give up and has continuously inventing new recipes to revive the business.
At this time, con-artist Roger Kwok (Ma Wing-ching 馬永禎) and his apprentice Regen Cheung (Tai Kat 戴吉) arrived in town. The two survive using cunning, wits, and lies. They pretended to be people of Yam Fei-Yeung (Lawrence Ng Wai-Kwok), a wealthy and well-known business tycoon and took advantage. The pair also swindle money from Esther's bistro which began the rivalry between the two.
Roger took every available opportunity to take advantage of the Kwan family's kindness but Esther knew better and time and time again punishes him for his schemes. When Lawrence's son, Oscar Leung (Yam Shing-Tin 任勝天), came into town, Roger tricked him into believing that he is indebted to him. The two become good friends and Oscar made Roger his right hand man.
Oscar soon fell for a girl named Vivien Yeo (Wong Kam-fung 王金鳳), and Roger was secretly behind the curtains, humorously coaching both of them. The two start out pretending that they like each other in order to get back at the other person, but then they realized that they may have actually fallen in love with each other.
Meanwhile, Michelle recalled pieces of the past with her dearest senior apprentice who is actually Roger's father. Both looked alike which leads to the mistook by Michelle. Michelle began to foster good relationships with Roger and often shield him from Esther saying he is a good guy.
Her memory was gradually restored, especially by the reappearance of Lawrence who is actually her second apprentice. Roger hope to trigger her memory in order to investigate about his father's past whereby he was executed because of poisoning the Emperor. Hence, he pretended to be executed just like his father and brought back Michelle's memories.
Roger took every available opportunity to take advantage of the Kwan family's kindness but Esther knew better and time and time again punishes him for his schemes. When Lawrence's son, Oscar Leung (Yam Shing-Tin 任勝天), came into town, Roger tricked him into believing that he is indebted to him. The two become good friends and Oscar made Roger his right hand man.
Oscar soon fell for a girl named Vivien Yeo (Wong Kam-fung 王金鳳), and Roger was secretly behind the curtains, humorously coaching both of them. The two start out pretending that they like each other in order to get back at the other person, but then they realized that they may have actually fallen in love with each other.
Meanwhile, Michelle recalled pieces of the past with her dearest senior apprentice who is actually Roger's father. Both looked alike which leads to the mistook by Michelle. Michelle began to foster good relationships with Roger and often shield him from Esther saying he is a good guy.
Her memory was gradually restored, especially by the reappearance of Lawrence who is actually her second apprentice. Roger hope to trigger her memory in order to investigate about his father's past whereby he was executed because of poisoning the Emperor. Hence, he pretended to be executed just like his father and brought back Michelle's memories.
When Michelle woke up, she was confused because to her, Esther is an evil person who killed her husband, while to everyone else who knew her, she is a kind lady who worked hard for her family. Michelle decided to pretend she was still mental until she could uncover Esther's true disposition.
Eventually, Esther, Roger and Derek discovered that they were childhood friends during the time of the Qing Dynasty. The three made a heartfelt reunion and Roger began to change for the better. Slowly, Roger and Esther started to fall in love. Derek secretly harbors feelings for Esther, but decides that he should be happy for her now that she has found her true love.
One day, in order to compliment Esther for being a hardworking and loyal widowed, the villagers decided to present her with a title of "most loyal widowed". This means that Esther could no longer remarried. Michelle felt that this is a good opportunity to investigate the death of her husband as on the night of his death, she saw Esther talking to a mysterious man who could be her lover. Roger and Esther had no choice but to leave the village. On the night of the departure, Roger did not turned up and ask Derek to leave with Esther as he felt that he and Esther would have a hard life and eventually became con-artist. At this time, he already knew Derek's feelings for Esther. Esther did turned up and was surprised to find Derek. She actually want to explain to Roger that she can't leave and have to bear the responsibility to look after the kwan's family. In the end, both got captured by Michelle and the villagers and was sent to jail awaiting trial.
Roger wanted to help the pair by admitting he was Esther's lover but this could not solve Esther's crime for having a date late at night. In the end, Derek was force to reveal the secret that he was an eunuch amd he was the mysterious man that Michelle was referring to. However, the crime committed was not valid and no punishment was given but Esther and Derek would have to be kicked out of the village whereby Roger secretly asked his friends to look after them in the remote village that they settled in.
With Esther gone, Michelle reverted back to normal and took over the role to look after the Kwan's business. Only then did she realised how hard Esther had worked during the days in the restaurant. She often consulted Lawrence regarding recipes issues and was grateful for his help. To continued his investigation about his father's crime, Roger interviewed Michelle about his father in the past. Both believed that his father would not poisoned the emperor.
Consequently, they seeked the view of Lawrence who is Roger's father junior. In contrast, Lawrence gave a letter as evidence stating his father admitting to all the crimes committed. It was checked that it is Roger's father handwriting. However, Roger did not believed the evidence and found out that the quality of the paper diff from the Qing Dynasty and knew that Lawrence was lying and he was the culprit for his father's crime. Another shocking news was that Oscar was actually Roger's younger brother that he had been searching for all these years during the war outbreak.
In the end, the true, nightmarish face of Lawrence was revealed. He tried to threaten Roger not to disclose his relationship with Oscar. Moreover, he managed to convince Derek to his side as it turned out that Roger is the cause of Derek's being Enunch and that he became Roger's scapegoat. Time and again he tried to push the blame for all his crimes to Roger.
Together, with the help of Esther and Derek who finally realised Lawrence evil deeds, Lawrence was then shot in the head and caused him to become handicapped. They came to truly understand the five flavors of life. The sweet, happy times, the sour and sad times, the bitter times, the spicy, exciting times, and the salty, difficult times.
My thoughts:
In the end, the true, nightmarish face of Lawrence was revealed. He tried to threaten Roger not to disclose his relationship with Oscar. Moreover, he managed to convince Derek to his side as it turned out that Roger is the cause of Derek's being Enunch and that he became Roger's scapegoat. Time and again he tried to push the blame for all his crimes to Roger.
Together, with the help of Esther and Derek who finally realised Lawrence evil deeds, Lawrence was then shot in the head and caused him to become handicapped. They came to truly understand the five flavors of life. The sweet, happy times, the sour and sad times, the bitter times, the spicy, exciting times, and the salty, difficult times.
My thoughts:
I know that season of fate was aired some time ago, but still decided to write this review since I had watched it just recently. The characters in this series did not show much hatred to each other e.g between Roger and Lawrence whereby they could still eat together and chat happily. There are not truly firm in their stand. All I can say is that it is an average drama and watch if you have the time to spare. Any comments regarding "The season of fate" is truly appreciated. ^_^
