''The Price of Peace'' is a Singaporean television drama set in Japanese-occupied Singapore during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It starred

Rayson Tan Rayson Tan (; born 12 January 1965) is a Singaporean actor. Career Before joining MediaCorp, Tan worked as a flight attendant with Singapore Airlines. In 1990, he emerged as the 2nd Runner-Up in Singapore's Star Search Singapore talent compet ...

Xiang Yun Chen Cuichang (born 27 October 1961), better known by her stage name Xiang Yun, is a Singaporean actress & television host. She is commonly referred to as MediaCorp's first "Ah Jie" (Senior actress) for being among the first locally trained arti ...

Chen Shucheng Tan Soo Seng, better known as Chen Shucheng, (, born 21 October 1949) is a Singaporean actor and television host. He is one of Mediacorp's few artistes still active from the "black and white" era. Career Acting Chen joined Mediacorp, then k ...

Jacintha Abisheganaden Jacintha Abisheganaden (born 3 October 1957), known professionally as Jacintha, is a Singaporean singer, actress, and theater practitioner who studied at the National University of Singapore and received a degree in arts, majoring in English li ...

James Lye James Lye (, born 17 June 1969), born ''James Lye Tiang Kang'', is a banking executive and former Mediacorp Singaporean television and Raintree Pictures movie actor. Education Lye was educated at Anglo-Chinese School and Anglo-Chinese Junior Col ...

Lina Ng Lina Ng Su Fang (; born 6 May 1974) is a Singaporean actress and host. She was a full-time Mediacorp and SPH MediaWorks artiste from 1993 to 2004 but currently continues to film on an ad-hoc basis. One of the most acclaimed actresses in Sing ...

Christopher Lee Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a long career spanning more than 60 years, Lee often portrayed villains, and appeared as Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, ultimat ...

Ivy Lee Ivy Ledbetter Lee (July 16, 1877 – November 9, 1934) was an American publicity expert and a founder of modern public relations. Lee is best known for his public relations work with the Rockefeller Family. His first major client was the Penns ...

Carole Lin Carole Lin () is a Singaporean actress. She was prominently a full-time Mediacorp artiste from 1995 to 2009. Career Lin joined MediaCorp after taking part in Star Search Singapore 1995. She shot to fame for her role in ''The Price of Peace'' an ...

and Ryan Choo. It was first aired on

TCS TCS may refer to: Organisations * Tata Consultancy Services, an IT company headquartered in India * Taxpayers for Common Sense, a US nonpartisan federal budget watchdog organization * TCS Courier, a Pakistani courier service * Touring Club Suisse ...

Eighth Frequency (now

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 Television Singapura on 31 August 1963 with experimental broadcasts, before going official on 23 November that year. The ch ...

) on 30 June 1997. Although the drama was originally in Mandarin, an English-dubbed version was also broadcast on TCS Fifth Frequency (now

MediaCorp Channel 5 Channel 5 (Chinese: 五頻道) is a free-to-air, English-language television channel in Singapore. Owned by state broadcaster Mediacorp, it broadcasts general entertainment, news, and sports programming. The channel's logo is a big white number ...

) in 1999. The drama has been rerun on MediaCorp Channel 8 several times since its premiere and its last airing was in August 2013. It will air again on Sun-Mon from 2 Aug 2021 to 26 Sept 2021 at 4am - 6am. The series is based on a 1995 book of the same title (published by

Asiapac Books Asiapac Books is a Singaporean publisher that publishes educational comics and illustrated books on Asian culture, history, philosophy, health practices, art and literature. Established in 1983, its publications are now sold in more than 20 count ...

), which contains numerous first-hand accounts of war veterans and eyewitnesses. Starting 1 August 2020, it was made available for streaming on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

along with over 100 Singapore-made films and series. The whole series is also currently viewable via Mediacorp's official streaming website ''

meWATCH meWATCH is a Singaporean digital video on demand service brand owned by Mediacorp. It was launched on 1 February 2013 as an over-the-top media service and an entertainment and lifestyle website Toggle. On 1 April 2015, xinmsn, an internet port ...

''.

Plot

Outline

The plot is divided into seven parts, each focusing on distinct themes and events.

Synopsis

On 7 July 1937, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident sparks off the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

launches a full invasion on

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Dida Cheng, a deserter from the

Chinese army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five service branches: the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, ...

, flees to Malaya, where he meets Cuicui, a

Chinese opera Traditional Chinese opera (), or ''Xiqu'', is a form of musical theatre in China with roots going back to the early periods in China. It is an amalgamation of various art forms that existed in ancient China, and evolved gradually over more tha ...

actress, and Hideko, a Japanese woman. The three of them are drawn into a complex love triangle. Xie Guomin, an anti-Japanese activist, and Zhou Wenlong, the asthmatic son of a tailor, both fall in love with the porridge vendor Wang Qiumei. After Wang is publicly humiliated by an evil businessman, she is saved by Zhou and decides to marry him. However, she is already secretly pregnant with Xie's child. Their relationships become very strained. After the Japanese occupied Singapore in 1942, the

Sook Ching Massacre Sook Ching was a mass killing that occurred from 18 February to 4 March 1942 in Singapore after it fell to the Japanese. It was a systematic purge and massacre of 'anti-Japanese' elements in Singapore, with the Singaporean Chinese particular ...

takes place when thousands of Chinese deemed to be anti-Japanese activists are rounded up and executed. Following his arrest by the

Kempeitai The , also known as Kempeitai, was the military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1881 to 1945 that also served as a secret police force. In addition, in Japanese-occupied territories, the Kenpeitai arrested or killed those suspecte ...

, Xie Guomin becomes a '' hanjian'' and informer after succumbing to the enemy under torture. On the other hand, Dida Cheng becomes a resistance fighter and an ally of

Force 136 Force 136 was a far eastern branch of the British World War II intelligence organisation, the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Originally set up in 1941 as the India Mission with the cover name of GSI(k), it absorbed what was left of SOE's Or ...

, and he continues to fight the Japanese invaders to liberate Singapore. Historical figures such as the war heroes

Lim Bo Seng Lim Bo Seng (; 27 April 1909 – 29 June 1944) was a Chinese-born resistance fighter based in Singapore and Malaya during World War II. Prior to the outbreak of World War II, he was a prominent businessman among the Chinese community in Singa ...

Elizabeth Choy Elizabeth Choy Su-Moi ( née Yong; 29 November 1910 – 14 September 2006) was a Singaporean educator and councillor who is regarded as a war heroine in Singapore. Along with her husband, Choy Khun Heng, she supplied medicine, money and mess ...

and

Sybil Kathigasu Sybil Medan Kathigasu George Medal, GM (née Daly; 3 September 1899 - 12 June 1948) was a British Malaya, Malayan Eurasian nurse who supported the resistance during the Japanese occupation of Malaya. She is the only British Malaya, Malayan wo ...

, the philanthropist

Tan Kah Kee Tan Kah Kee (; 21 October 1874 – 12 August 1961) was a Chinese businessman, investor, and philanthropist active in Singapore and the Chinese cities of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Xiamen, and Guangzhou. A prominent figure in the overseas Chinese c ...

, as well as notorious Japanese military figures such as Ishibe Toshiro and Yoshimura Ekio, are also featured as semi-fictional characters in the drama.

Cast

Main cast

(Lin Mousheng) *

(Cai-Yang Sumei) *

(Chen Jiageng) *

as Chen Dacheng (Dida Cheng) *

as Zhang Cuicui *

as Xie Guomin *

as Xiuxiu / Natsuki Hideko *

as Wang Qiumei * Ryan Choo as Zhou Wenlong

Other cast

* Chen Guohua as Zhang Ada *

Hong Huifang Hong Huifang (born Ang Hwee Fong on 7 January 1961) is a Singaporean actress. Career Hong joined the SBC during the mid-1980s after completing the 5th drama training course alongside Yang Libing and Chen Tianwen, at age 22. She is perhaps ...

as Wang Jinfeng * Brandon Wong as Fang Qinghua * Ken Tay as Zhou Ren * Chunyu Shanshan as Miura Kiyoe * Guo Yikai as Ishibe Toshiro * Wang Jinlong as Yoshimura Ekio * Wang Kangwei as Zhuang Huiquan * Xu Bing as Gan Choo Neo (Yan Zhuniang) * Yang Yue as Konoe * Li Shuyi as Ji Qiuxiang

Music

The opening theme song, which shares the same title as the series, was sung in Mandarin by Sebastian Tan (Chen Ruibiao). The main theme of the 1997 Hong Kong film ''

The Soong Sisters The Soong sisters () were Soong Ai-ling, Soong Ching-ling, and Soong Mei-ling, three Shanghainese (of Hakka descent) Christian Chinese women who were, along with their husbands, amongst China's most significant political figures of the early 20 ...

'' is also extensively used in the series.

Filming locations

The series was shot on location in Singapore at the now-defunct TV World in

Tuas Tuas is a planning area located within the West Region of Singapore. It is bounded by the Western Water Catchment to its north, Pioneer to its east and the Straits of Johor to its west. Tuas also shares a maritime boundary with the Western Island ...

, Tan Teck Guan Building, Danish Seamen's Church, St. Andrew's School,

Chung Cheng High School (Main) Chung Cheng High School (Main) is a co-educational government-aided autonomous Special Assistance Plan (SAP) secondary school in Singapore. Founded in 1939, it is one of the eleven SAP schools in Singapore. History Foundation years (1939–1 ...

The Chinese High School The Chinese High School () was an independent school in Singapore offering secondary education. The school merged with Hwa Chong Junior College on 1 January 2005 to form the integrated Hwa Chong Institution. Founded on 21 March 1919, The Chine ...

, and HQ Tanglin Barracks (Ministry of Foreign Affairs Building), among others. Extensive filming was also done in Ipoh, Malaysia.

Accolades

References

External links

''The Price of Peace'' official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Price Of Peace, The Singapore Chinese dramas 1997 Singaporean television series debuts 1997 Singaporean television series endings World War II television drama series 1990s Singaporean television series Channel 5 (Singapore) original programming Channel 8 (Singapore) original programming