A Great Way to Care (仁心解碼) starring Alex Fong, Kate Tsui and Raymond Wong became of the Top 10 highest rated series in 2011, peaking at 35 points at its second week of broadcast.
It has recently been announced that a sequel will be produced in July 2012, with some changes in the cast. So who are they?
On the supporting side, Raymond Wong's character will become successful and move away from HK. Edwin Siu will take his place.
For the female leads Tavia Yeung and Yoyo Mung will be casted instead of Kate Tsui.
So what happened to Kate's character? Was her illness too much to handle? Did she die? We don't know yet, but I'm sure that many viewers out there enjoyed the pairing of Alex and Kate and were happy to think of their future after the ending of the first series.
Sadly, the happy endings that TVB give us aren't actually "the ending" sometimes: they make sequels, can't cast the same actors or actresses and subsequently cruelly separate the pairings that viewers like us have grown to love. Even worse, they kill of one of the characters to make it easier to continue with the plot. Or to allow the remaining half to be sad and reserved until their new significant other half pops into their lives and their lives once again becomes bright and colourful.
Pairings where characters had to die in a sequel:
1) Healing Hands 妙手仁心
This franchise is quite sad, for Lawrence as Dr Ching has luck the size of a shrivelled pea when it comes to love.
First there's Ada Choi who does appear in the second series dies in a fire.
Lawrence's character then falls in love with Yoyo Mung, who commits suicide for the third series.
Third comes Gigi Lai, Lawrence's new love interest. As his character has realised now, he and women do not come together well, but finally decides to give a chance for himself and Gigi, confident this time that maybe their relationship will last.
Both fortunately and unfortunately Healing and Hands is combining with The Hippocratic Crush. It will be nice to see Dr Ching again and his developments as a brain surgeon. But since Gigi Lai has left the acting industry, her character is likely to have the same fate as Ada and Yoyo.
2) Forensic Heroes 法證先鋒
Frankie Lam and Linda Chung's pairing in Forensic Heroes also did not last. Linda made an appearance in the second series, but within a couple of episodes her character had already died from a bomb attack.
3) A Pillowcase of Mystery 施公奇案
Kenix Kwok's Character died in the second series when someone bombed a boat she was on. Bobby Au Yeung was paired up with Jessica Hsuan instead.
4) Witness to a prosecution 洗冤錄
Not a couple here as Bobby had two wives, Jessica Hsuan and Mariane Chan. They died at the start of the second series from a fire. Charmaine Sheh was casted as Bobby's love interest instead.
There are most likely other series where the female leads have similar fates. For some reason it is always a female character that doesn't make it to the sequels.
It's lovely to see happy endings where the main characters end up together. But it's sad to know that if a sequel is made to that series, the lovely couple probably won't really have their happy ending.
Watching out for The Hippocratic Crush II. Definitely hope that YuTou will stay together until the end and beyond!
Edit: found out that in Triumph in the Sky II, Zoe (Myolie Wu) will die to make way for another character and storyline. Typical?
