Tin, friendly real estate agent, is a mess in personal and professional life. He is very disorganized and as a result always at the bottom of scoreboard in office. When a new employee Muk joins the company, the friendly and nice Tin and him becomes friends. Since Muk is looking for. Place to live, Tin offers him his spare room in exchange for Muk doing all household chores, cooking , cleaning etc. Their boss at work is KK, who is a calmed and a professional guy. For some reason KK has developed an intense crush on Tin, putting his 20 year marriage to Francesca in jeopardy. When tin finds out about this, Tin goes in a downward spiral, feeling confused and disturbed by his boss. Meanwhile Muk also Strats developing feelings for Tin. Almost a competition begins between the two men. Tin finds the courage to say no to KK, but eventually gives into Muk's feelings. KK takes this positively but still decides to separate from his wife. Things are going ok between Tin and Mui but slowly Muk starts questioning their relationship. He keeps seeing Tin's best friend who is interested in Tin and both Tin and his family wanting to have kids. He decides to leave Tin all confused, so that Tin can pursue being straight. But things don't go as planned. KK decides to siege this opportunity to court Tin again. A year long assignment to Taiwan seals the deal. When KK takes care of Tin, a confused Tin thinks he also probably loves KK and agrees to marry him, only to realize on the wedding day that it has always been Muk and no one else.
With a charming cast and an upbeat tone, Ossan’s Love Hong Kong retains the same comedic energy as the original series while adding its own unique flavour. It follows the original plot but there are additional storylines, more emphasis on the supporting cast, and a different take on the zany humour. We still have Tin's best friend from childhood, her crazy brother who is a bad chef and tells the stupidest of jokes. We also have the crazy gossip girl in the office who falls for the chef. A good amount of time is also spent of Francesca, her relationship with KK, how she manages to get out of it stranger and find love again. We also have Darren, an employee in the same real estate company, who used to be Muk's boyfriend but is also trying to move on. Coming back to the show, it is still very much over the top and total whacky, just like the predecessor. Most of this comes from Tin and his surprised reactions to everything going around him. His energy is infectious and has an adorable charm to his character. The actor does a tremendous job, which given the popularity of the original could not have been an easy job. I can't ignore all the supporting actors here, who have done a marvelous job in this show. Besides Tin, the one actor who stands out in KK, but somewhere for almost 4-5 episodes he is almost non-existent, which is a problem, because he is supposed to b the titular character. I think a tighter screenplay would have helped. Character of Muk, here also gets a raw deal. He is the kind of person who it seems falls for the wrong guy very easily. The problem of Muk suddenly leaving Tin exists here also, but at least here, with a longer running duration, the makers have tried to give a better explanation behind the reasons for him doing so. Nonetheless, the main actors share great chemistry with each other, and there’s a delightfulness in their interactions together.
I was skeptical before I started watching this, because comparisons were bound to happen between the two versions, but I believe Ossan’s Love Japan and Ossan’s Love Hong Kong are both stellar in their own rights. Even if you already know what happens in the original, there’s still a unique flavour to the Hong Kong series, which interprets the same events in a culturally different way. I loved it as much as the original is not more. (8/10)
Comments
Honestly I was a bit disappointed at first, the energy is different and it didn't quite work as well as the original that had me laugh out loud on many occasions. Many iconic scenes fell flat. The actor playing Tin tried something else and I can't deny he did a great job, just didnt work for me (his frenetic blinking...)
However the extended second part made it way more appealing. We finally get some scenes between the main couple, which was the main problem in the original. Even if they still lack the intimacy a normal couple is supposed to have... It could be a bromance that they would act the same, left me wondering if they ever did something else than hold hands. The added charming scenes after the end credits of each episode helped a lot though. And the emphasis on the support cast were great too. KK is fantastic (and so charming)! The ending is still as stupid as ever, in a weird good way.
All in all, I started disapointed but will end up missing Tin and Muk a lot :)
I think what resonated with me wad the over the top tangy humor, and like you mentioned, more scenes between lead couple.