Bountiful Blessings (simplified Chinese: 万福楼) is a 20-episode fantasy drama serial telecast by
MediaCorp Channel 8
Channel 8 ( zh, 8頻道) is a Singaporean free-to-air television channel, airing in Mandarin Chinese. It was created by Mediacorp, Television Singapura on 31 August 1963 with experimental broadcasts, before going official on 23 November that ye ...
. It stars
Jessica Hsuan
Jessica Hester Hsuan (; PA: syn hyn, also known as Suen Huen, is a Hong Kong actress.
Early life
Hsuan's father gave her the name Jessica, while her mother gave her the middle name Hester. She was educated in Hong Kong at Maryknoll Convent S ...
,
Tay Ping Hui
Tay Ping Hui (born 10 November 1970) is a Singaporean actor and director. In 2014, Tay made his directorial debut with the basketball film ''Meeting the Giant''.
Early life
Tay attended Catholic High School (Primary and Secondary) and Catholi ...
,
Thomas Ong
Thomas Ong Thian Chai (, born 1 February 1969) is a Singaporean actor, television host and businessman who films on an ad-hoc basis. An irregular employee of MediaCorp, he has joined and left the company several times to concentrate on other p ...
,
Ann Kok
Ann Kok (; born 11 January 1973) is a Singaporean actress. She started her acting career in 1993 after emerging as a finalist in the local talent-search competition ''Star Search'', where she won a contract to work on Chinese-language TV chan ...
,
Yao Wenlong
Yao Wenlong (, born 14 November 1970) is a Singapore based Malaysian actor.
Career
Yao entered the local television scene after winning the Star Search 1993 (Male category) organised by then Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (now MediaCorp). W ...
,
Jeffrey Xu
Jeffrey Xu (born 3 October 1988) is a Chinese actor based in Singapore and was named as one of the 8 Dukes of Caldecott Hill.
Career
Xu studied performing major at Shanghai Film Art Academy before being discovered through the tenth season of ...
,
Ya Hui
Ya Hui (; born Koh Yah Hwee; 18 May 1987) is a Singaporean actress.
Early life
Ya Hui was born on 18 May 1987 in Singapore. She was educated at Manjusri Secondary School and Serangoon Junior College. She joined the Dance Team for her Co-Curri ...
&
Zhu Houren
Zhu Houren () is a Singaporean actor.
Personal life
Zhu was educated at Chung Cheng High School.
In 2003, he made his directorial debut in the telefilm '' After School'', while taking on a role in the same film.
During the Star Awards 2010
...
as the casts of the series. It made its debut on 30 August 2011 and has ended on 26 September 2011. It is screened every weekday night at 9.00pm.
It will make its encore from 21 March 2012 to 17 April 2012, at 5.30pm.
Synopsis
Although Zhang Dan (Yao Wenlong) has been deitified as the Kitchen God for a few thousand years, his mortal former wife remains his lasting regret. Thus, he peeks at her every time she is reincarnated, going to her rescue whenever she needs help.
One day, Zhang Dan descends upon earth to visit his former wife, now reincarnated as Huang Fuxi (Jessica Hsuan). They get intimate in a drunken stupor and Fuxi becomes pregnant as a result. To make amends, Zhang Dan decides to fulfill his responsibility by waiting until the child grows up before returning to Heaven to receive punishment.
Zhang Dan opens a restaurant, "Fortune Restaurant", as a means of livelihood for Fuxi and their daughter, Yifei (Oh Ling En). His culinary skills receive widespread acclaim and business prospers. Unfortunately, Zhang Dan is captured and imprisoned in the celestial heavens the moment Fuxi delivers their child.
Worried about his family, Zhang Dan secretly checks on them upon his release only to realise that his 10 days' incarceration in Heaven is equivalent to a decade in the mortal world. Yifei has turned 10. Fuxi's circumstances have worsened after Zhang Dan's sudden disappearance, relying on Fortune Restaurant to make ends meet.
A restaurateur eyes Fortune Restaurant and he is none other than Tong Dafeng (Thomas Ong), who almost married Fuxi if not for her "one night stand" with Zhang Dan. Heartbroken, Dafeng goes abroad to carve out a career. After slogging for 10 years, he becomes an international chef and even establishes Dafeng Group.
Fuxi's betrayal has been Dafeng's greatest humiliation, causing him to harbour hatred ever since. He returns to make a foray into the local market but his bigger motive is to wreak vengeance on Zhang Dan and his family.
After realizing the situation, Zhang Dan frets over his family's safety and descends to the mortal world in secret to save them. He discovers the culinary skills of the streetwise Xie Donghai (Tay Ping Hui) in a chance encounter. When Zhang Dan learns of his warrant of arrest, he uses his magical skills to land Donghai in Fortune Restaurant, not knowing that Fuxi and Donghai have a feud with each other.
Initially, Fuxi opposes vehemently to Donghai joining the restaurant. However, after tasting the latter's dishes by chance, she relents. Moreover, Donghai's culinary skills have undeniably boosted the business of the restaurant.
At this time, Dafeng opens a restaurant near Fortune Restaurant, offering similar dishes with almost the same flavours but at lower prices. Fuxi and Donghai are baffled by the fact that every time Fuxi is about to introduce a new dish, Dafeng's restaurant will beat hers to it.
All this is the doing of the flower fairy, Yi Pinhong (Ann Kok), who lost her immortal status after Zhang Dan reported to Jade Emperor about her love for a mortal. Thanks to a flower fairy, Peony, Yi Pinhong retains her magical power of reading one's mind and lives in the mortal world under the name "Liang Pinhong". After discovering the relationship between Fuxi and Zhang Dan, Pinhong seizes the opportunity to seek revenge on Zhang Dan by harming his family. Upon gaining Dafeng's trust, she deals a series of blows to undermine Fortune Restaurant.
Although Dafeng condones Pinhong's mean ways, nevertheless, he feels uneasy. At Tianqing's advice, Dafeng decides to stop seeking revenge. Having anticipated this, Pinhong casts a spell on Dafeng to make him fall hopelessly in love with her and to join hands in dealing with Fuxi and her family.
Tianqing (Koh Yah Hwee), Dafeng's younger sister, disapproves of her brother and Pinhong's wicked ways. She frequents Fortune Restaurant and is fond of playing tricks on Fuxi's younger brother, Fuyuan (Jeffery Xu). Reticent and lacking in social skills, Fuyuan is nevertheless savvy in communicating on the World Wide Web. Tianqing often compares him with her idol Kurt, an Internet singing sensation. Little does she know that Fuyuan is none other than Kurt and that he has been secretly in love with her.
Donghai dislikes children but as he is always forced to look after Yifei, a father-daughter relationship gradually develops between the two. At the same time, he finds himself falling for Fuxi in the midst of their constant bickering. Unfortunately, the oblivious Fuxi fails to sense it.
Fuxi falls into Pinhong's trap, landing herself with a huge debt that forces Fortune Restaurant into a crisis. To save the restaurant, Donghai enters a grand culinary competition under the auspices of Fortune Restaurant. Pinhong goads Dafeng into participating in the event and bribes the judges. Fortunately, Dafeng snaps out of the spell in the nick of time and withdraws from the competition, leading to Fortune Restaurant claiming victory.
Fortune Restaurant manages to resume business but this causes Dafeng and Pinhong to fall out with each other, and ends with the latter seizing everything. Fuxi is touched by all that Dafeng has done for her while he expresses his wish to court Fuxi again. At this time, Donghai confesses his love to Fuxi. And when Fuxi finds out that her missing husband is the Kitchen God, she is completely flummoxed...
At the other end, Pinhong remains hostile towards Fuxi and even sets fire to Fortune Restaurant. Unbeknown to each other and with nary a scant thought for their own safety, Donghai and Dafeng dash in to rescue Fuxi who is trapped in the blaze...
Cast
Trivia
*This marks
Ann Kok
Ann Kok (; born 11 January 1973) is a Singaporean actress. She started her acting career in 1993 after emerging as a finalist in the local talent-search competition ''Star Search'', where she won a contract to work on Chinese-language TV chan ...
's return after
The Family Court
Family courts were originally created to be a Court of Equity convened to decide matters and make orders in relation to family law, including custody of children, and could disregard certain legal requirements as long as the petitioner/plaintif ...
, playing villain for the consecutive second time. In that drama, her being villain was under the influence of another part-time antagonist. This time, her being villain was being a natural hatredism.
*This also marks
Thomas Ong
Thomas Ong Thian Chai (, born 1 February 1969) is a Singaporean actor, television host and businessman who films on an ad-hoc basis. An irregular employee of MediaCorp, he has joined and left the company several times to concentrate on other p ...
who returns after The Illusionist and
Secrets for Sale.
*我是你的天空 by Ocean Ou is
Taste of Love's theme song, reused as Fuyuan also sung this song.
5.30pm encore
This drama would be encored at 5.30pm despite a few episodes having violence, similar to ''
The Family Court
Family courts were originally created to be a Court of Equity convened to decide matters and make orders in relation to family law, including custody of children, and could disregard certain legal requirements as long as the petitioner/plaintif ...
'' and ''
The Score''. It was planned for an
Unriddle 2
Unriddle 2 (simplified Chinese: 最火搭档 2) is a Singaporean Chinese police crime drama which was telecast on Singapore's free-to-air channel, Mediacorp Channel 8. It stars Rui En, Chen Liping, Rebecca Lim, Tay Ping Hui & Elvin Ng as the ...
quick encore, which has similar violent scenes, the next weekday after the finale, but however ''
Be Happy'' would be encored instead.
2012 Accolades
This series garnered two nominations in the performance category for
Star Awards 2012
Star Awards 2012 (Chinese: 红星大奖 2012) was a double television award ceremony held in Singapore. It is part of the annual Star Awards organised by MediaCorp for the two free-to-air channels, MediaCorp Channel 8 and MediaCorp Channel U. '' ...
. Results would be announced on 29 April 2012 at
Resorts World Sentosa
Resorts World Sentosa (abbreviation: RWS) is an integrated resort
An integrated resort (IR) is a major resort property that includes a hotel with a casino, together with convention facilities, entertainment shows, theme parks, luxury r ...
during which the award ceremony will be televised 'LIVE' on
MediaCorp TV Channel 8
Channel 8 ( zh, 8頻道) is a Singaporean free-to-air television channel, airing in Mandarin Chinese. It was created by Television Singapura on 31 August 1963 with experimental broadcasts, before going official on 23 November that year. The ch ...
.
Show 1
Show 2
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Star Awards 2012
Star Awards 2012 (Chinese: 红星大奖 2012) was a double television award ceremony held in Singapore. It is part of the annual Star Awards organised by MediaCorp for the two free-to-air channels, MediaCorp Channel 8 and MediaCorp Channel U. '' ...
Show 2 红星大奖 2012 下半场 , ,
Tay Ping Hui
Tay Ping Hui (born 10 November 1970) is a Singaporean actor and director. In 2014, Tay made his directorial debut with the basketball film ''Meeting the Giant''.
Early life
Tay attended Catholic High School (Primary and Secondary) and Catholi ...
郑斌辉 , ,
Best Actor 最佳男主角 , ,
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,
Ann Kok
Ann Kok (; born 11 January 1973) is a Singaporean actress. She started her acting career in 1993 after emerging as a finalist in the local talent-search competition ''Star Search'', where she won a contract to work on Chinese-language TV chan ...
郭舒贤 , ,
Best Actress
Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress awar ...
最佳女主角 , , {{nom
See also
*
List of Bountiful Blessings episodes
Singaporean television series
Fantasy television series
Chinese-language television shows
2011 Singaporean television series debuts
2011 Singaporean television series endings
Channel 8 (Singapore) original programming