Rosy Business () is a 2009 Hong Kong period television drama produced by Lee Tim-sing and TVB. Comprising 25 episodes, it originally aired on the Jade network from 27 April to 29 May 2009. It is the first installment of the Rosy Business franchise. It stars Wayne Lai and Sheren Tang in the 1st installment.
Set in Eastern China during the mid-19th century, Rosy Business follows the mercantile Chiang family, owners of Wuxi's largest rice business Hing Fung Nin. After falling ill, patriarch Chiang Kiu temporarily hands over his leadership to his fourth wife Hong Po-kei, which incurs conflict with his other wives and sons. Meanwhile the impoverished coolie Chai Kau becomes an important figure in assisting Hong Po-kei in protecting the family business from crumbling during the Taiping Rebellion. The script was inspired by the successful Chinese television series The Grand Mansion Gate (Chinese: 大宅門).
The final two episodes were aired back-to-back as a two-hour finale, including a cast interview with Scoop (東張西望). A commercial success, the final week of broadcast peaked at 47 TVRs with 3 million live viewers, becoming the second highest-rated television drama in Hong Kong of 2009. It stars Best Actress winners Sheren Tang, Nancy Wu, and Kara Wai. Rosy Business received twelve TVB Anniversary Award nominations and eight top 5 nominations, winning six of them, becoming the biggest winner of the year. The awards include Best Drama, Best Actress (Sheren Tang), Best Actor (Wayne Lai), Best Supporting Actress (Susan Tse), My Favourite Male Character (Lai), and Most Improved Male Artiste (Ngo Ka-nin). An indirect sequel, No Regrets, was released as a grand production and TVB's anniversary series in 2010.
Synopsis In the mid-1830s, a natural disaster strikes the city of Nantong, tarnishing most of the city's rice fields. Running out of food supply, city mayor Hong Chi-wing (Wong Wai Leung) decides to use the city's military food supply to feed the people. A few days after the disaster, an official from Beijing arrives to the city to check the military supply, and upon seeing empty trailers, he sentences the Hong family to death. His daughter Hong Po-yin (Sheren Tang) escapes and becomes a maid in Prince Wai's mansion, living under the name Hong Po-kei.
Twenty years later, Po-kei reunites with the rich rice merchant Chiang Kiu (Elliot Ngok) at his manor in Wuxi, whom she was betrothed to before the disaster. Chiang Kiu's wife, Yan Fung-yee (Susan Tse) recognizes Po-kei and reveals her identity to Prince Wai, who was there for a visit. Kiu manages to convince the Prince to free her, and marries Po-kei as his fourth wife. Appreciating Po-kei's wisdom and persistence, he entrusts the business to her, with the reason that his eldest son, Bit-man (Ngo Ka-nin), is not yet ready to succeed him. Hungry for power and eager to keep tradition, Fung-yee attempts to strip Po-kei from power but Po-kei manages to keep the business in good shape. She is impressed with second son Bit-ching's (Ron Ng) intelligence and guides him to become the successor, but her efforts are met with challenges from an employee, Chai Kau (Wayne Lai).
Cast and characters
Main Sheren Tang as Hong Po-kei / Hong Po-yin, an intelligent, selfless and compassionate woman who escapes her family's execution, eventually becoming Chiang Kiu's fourth wife and helps manage the Hing Fung Nin rice business. Angel Chiang as Young Hong Po-kei Wayne Lai as Chai Kau, a smart but arrogant and reckless man who becomes Hing Fung Nin's employee. Kau always gets himself into trouble and is vengeful to those who have wronged him but his loyalty to Po-kei changes him. Elliot Ngok as Chiang Kiu, owner of Hing Fung Nin, husband to Yan Fung-yee, Pang Giu, Lau Fong and Po-kei and father of Chiang Bit-man, Chiang Bit-chiang and Chiang Bit-mo. Stephen Wong as Young Chiang Kiu Susan Tse as Yan Fung-yee, Chiang Kiu's first wife and Bit-man's mother Jess Shum as Young Yan Fung-yee Kiki Sheung as Pang Giu, Chiang Kiu's second wife (actually should be third wife) and Bit-mo's mother Josephine Shum as Young Pang Giu Kara Hui as Lau Fong, Chiang Kiu's third wife (originally second wife) and Bit-ching's mother Summer Joe as Young Lau Fong Ron Ng as Chiang Bit-ching, Chiang Kiu's second eldest son with Lau Fong and later Yau Man's husband Lawrence Ng Lok Wang as Young Chiang Bit-ching Ngo Ka-nin as Chiang Bit-man, Chiang Kiu's eldest son with Fung Yee Timothy Ip as Young Chiang Bit-man Kelvin Leung as Chiang Bit-mo, Chiang Kiu's youngest son with Pang Giu Cadmus Chan as Young Chiang Bit-mo Henry Lee as Pang Hang, Pang Giu's older brother and Bit-mo's uncle Oscar Leung as Young Pang Hang Suki Chui as Yau Man, Yuk-hing's daughter and later Bit-ching's wife Helen Ma as Ngan Yuk-hing, Yau Man's mother Nancy Wu as Suen Hoi-tong, one of Pang Hang's girlfriends and later Chai Kau's concubine
Supporting Suet Nei as Gui Yuk-yu, Chiang Kiu's mother Kwok Fung as Prince Wai / Mianyu, Qing Dynasty's Prince Hui of the First Rank Chang Yi as Lee Cheung-fat, Hing Fung Nin's manager and Bit-man's godfather Ben Wong as Chiu Yat-ming, general of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Kwan Ching as Sa Tsun Tin, leader of the Sa bandits and later owner of Tsun Tin's Transportation Business Cheng Ka Sang as Ma Hung, second leader for the Sa bandits under Sa Tsun Tin Bruce Li Hung Kit as Magistrate Lam Wong Wai Leung as Hong Chi-Wing, Hong Po-kei's father Paul Gare as Doctor Brown
Episodes
Production Development and casting Before Lee Tim-sing began preparing for a new production, Sheren Tang approached Lee and explained that she wanted to work on a drama with him. Eager to work with Lee, Tang said that she was willing to accommodate her schedules for the new production. Tang also suggested Wayne Lai for the male lead role since she had never worked with him before and was eager to collaborate with him even though Lai had never been cast in a lead role for a TVB series prior to Rosy Business. At the time, Lai was already scheduled in a role in another drama but Lee negotiated with TVB to allow Lai to star in the lead role in Rosy Business. When both Tang's and Lai's scheduling were finalized, Lee began working on the production in early 2008. Along with producing coordinator Cheung Wah-biu, they submitted an initial script to Catherine Tsang, manager of TVB's production department. She was impressed with the script and development for the production formally began in July 2008. Claire Yiu, who was originally cast as Hoi Tong, dropped out of the project due to her pregnancy. Nancy Wu later replaced her. Susan Tse, who had just left rival network ATV and joined TVB, was cast in the project making it her first series with the network. Suet Nei was cast as Elliot Ngok's character's mother, despite Ngok being 3 years her senior.
A press conference and costume fitting for the cast was held on July 25, 2008 with the working title "Red Powder Merchant" (紅粉商人). Filming began August and ended four months later in November 2008 in Hong Kong. Lee explained that the production was temporarily called "Wives and Concubines" (妻妾成群) when the initial script was first submitted, but was later renamed to "Red Powder Merchant." Colleagues criticized the new working title, and Lee later finalized the official title to "Veiled Heroine, Ruthless Hero" (巾幗梟雄) and its official English title to Rosy Business. "Veiled Heroine" (巾幗) represented Tang's role of the fourth wife, while "Ruthless Hero" (梟雄) represented Lai's role 'Chai Kau'. A trailer was release at the sales presentation in December 2008. The drama was also sponsored by Bawang Shampoo.
Reception
Broadcast and viewership The drama aired in TVB's main TVB Jade channel for five days a week, from April 27 to May 29, 2009, with a total of 24 episodes. While production planned for 25 episodes, the two final episodes were aired together. A special Scoop watch party celebration, which took place at the Discovery Park Shopping Mall in Tsuen Wan and attended by hundreds including the cast, crew, TVB executives, and fans, aired during commercial breaks with the finale lasting for approximately two hours.
Before the broadcast of grand production anniversary drama Beyond the Realm of Conscience, Rosy Business was 2009's most viewed drama, with an average rating of 33 points (2.1 million viewers) per episode. The finale episode peaked to 47 rating points (3.3 million viewers; 3.4 million including TVB's HDTV sister channel), the second highest in 2009. The highest peak of average ratings in one week reached to 42 points (2.8 million viewers), also the second highest in 2009.
Critical reception Rosy Business has received commercial and critical acclaim in Hong Kong. While ratings went to as high as 47 points, critics claim that if the points included the viewers who watched the drama through TVB's HDTV and other sister networks, the rating results may have been comparative to the viewership success of Moonlight Resonance and Korean drama Jewel in the Palace, in which both dramas reached to a rating of 50 points.
The roles of the "fourth wife" and "Chai Kau" propelled both Sheren Tang and Wayne Lai to stardom, particularly Lai who was a lesser known actor prior to Rosy Business' release since he had not yet played the first male lead in a significant series. His character's line "人生有幾多個十年?" meaning "How many decades are in one's life?" became an instant catchphrase in Hong Kong while his character Chai Kau became a recognized icon. The hype around Tang's acting in the series also became a noteworthy topic as many believed she had been snubbed from winning the Best Actress award back in 2004, causing a firestorm online with thousands of netizens threatening to protest in front of TVB City if she did not win the award this time around following rumours that TVB wanted to give Tavia Yeung the Best Actress award since Yeung was under full contract with the network. Yeung announced publicly at the awards show before the award was handed out that if Tang did not win, she would join the protest outside TVB headquarters. Ultimately, Tang and Lai both respectively won the title as Best Actress and Best Actor at the 2009 TVB Anniversary Awards.
The series also won the Best Drama Award over Beyond the Realm of Conscience, the other fan favourite that year. Additionally, the series swept all four MingPao Anniversary Awards: Best Actor for Lai, Best Actress for Tang, Best Programme, and Best Backstage Crew for writers Cheung Wah-biu and Chan Ching-yee.
Rosy Business aired in Mainland China with mixed to positive reviews. Some viewers expressed that the story was similar to The Grand Mansion Gate, despite having a different plot, historical time period, and characters, and claimed that Hong Kong script writers were beginning to lack creativity, having remade a few Mainland dramas already in the past. Despite that, the series still garnered a high rating of 8.7 out of 10 on Chinese website Douban.
Time Out Hong Kong named Rosy Business among the best 17 Hong Kong television dramas of all time.
Sister productions No Regrets
After the success of Rosy Business, TVB announced plans to produce a companion piece starring the original cast, slated to begin filming in March 2010. However, Fala Chen and Raymond Wong Ho-yin were cast to replace Kiki Sheung, Ron Ng, and Suki Chui, who were reported to be not taking part in the production due to scheduling conflicts.