Heart of Greed () is a 2007 modern drama from Hong Kong's TVB. The main actors involved in this production were Moses Chan, Linda Chung, Louise Lee, Ha Yu, Michelle Yim and Susanna Kwan.
The series received critical acclaim from audiences in Hong Kong at the time, winning several awards at the TVB Anniversary Awards in 2007, including Best Drama. It was tied as the second-best-rated drama within the final minutes of its series finale. This resulted in Heart of Greed being just 2 points behind the best-rated drama on TVB in the 2000s.Sohu: Heart of Greed Smashes the ratings at 48 points(Chinese) A spin-off, Moonlight Resonance (), was produced and released in 2008 featuring the majority of the original cast and a different storyline.
In 2022, the drama was selected as one of ten classic TVB dramas being honoured for a new joint: Youku and TVB programme.
Plot Tong Yan-Gai (Ha Yu) owns dried sea products and abalone store along with 31 shops for rental. He has a total net worth of HK$600 million. He is married to Ling Hau (Louise Lee), a rich man's daughter, and he also has a second wife called Wong Sau-Kam (Susanna Kwan), a former nurse who had previously taken care of Hau when she had cancer. Gai has 4 children: Tong Chi-On (Moses Chan), Tong Chi-Yat (Bosco Wong), and Tong Chi-Yan (Fala Chen) by Ling Hau and Tong Chi-Foon (Lai Lok-yi) by Wong Sau-Kam. Hau had not expected to survive her bout with cancer and wanted Kam to take care of her husband after she died, but she recovered.
Kam thinks that she has no power in the family because she has no true status, as she is not legally married to Gai. She becomes a woman who instigates a range of petty acts that tend to come back to haunt her. She seeks the family fortune, and in order to do that, she causes trouble in the family. Hau becomes extremely frustrated and angry at Kam and expels her from the house. This leads to Hau's cancer resurfacing. One day in the hospital, Hau lies on her deathbed, and Kam comes to beg for forgiveness for her past actions. Hau is unable to speak, but she finally mutters a few words only audible to the ears of her son Tong Chi-Foon. Her words are "普通朋友", which means "ordinary friend". Foon, however, lies to everybody and says that Hau told him that Kam is forgiven. Foon lies because his mother put pressure on him to secure her a position in the family.
Kam starts to make plans to steal the family fortune with Sheung Joi-Duk (Lei Seng Cheung), and together, they cause trouble. Kam even creates false public accusations against her own family in the media. Kam forms her own support group from the worst family members and in-laws to help plot against the Tong household in order to gain their family fortune.
After meticulously planning with Kam, going as far as to give slander to the Tong family, she also drives Gai to severe illness and eventually dies from a stroke. Kam and Duk then begin a long war against the Tong family in an attempt to invalidate the family will to take the family fortune for their own as a means of punishing the Tong family's "mistreatment" towards her. The family is in chaos and they have only one person who can help them, a lawyer, Sheung Joi-Sum (Linda Chung).
Cast Tong Family Actor Role Ha Yu Tong Yan Gai (唐仁佳) Louise Lee Ling Hau (凌巧) Susanna Kwan Frances Wong Sau Kam (王秀琴) Moses Chan Tong Chi On (唐至安) Michelle Yim Ling Lei (凌莉) Louis Yuen Ling Bo (凌波) Tavia Yeung Jackie Cheuk Man Lai (卓文麗) Bosco Wong Gilbert Tong Chi Yat (唐至逸) Lai Lok-yi Tong Chi Foon (唐至歡) Fala Chen Tong Chi Yan (唐至欣)
Sheung family ActorRole Linda Chung Sheung Joi Sum (常在心) Chow Chung Sheung Fung (常峰) Lei Seng Cheung Henry Sheung Joi Duk (常在德)
Cheuk family (the in-laws) ActorRole Lily Leung Wong Lai Mei (王麗薇) Chan On Ying Lei Man Hong (李文紅) Samantha Chuk Cheuk Man Yuk (卓文玉) Cheng Ga Shun Cheuk Man Bong (卓文邦)
Others ActorRole Raymond Lam Alfred Ching Leung (程亮) Yoyo Mung Shui Ming Ha (水明霞) Carrie Lam Lai Cheuk Lan (黎卓蘭) Lei Kwok Nin Dai Gin Hei (戴建熹) Tracy Ip Cherry Cecilia Fong Lee Yuet Ying (李月瑛) Chan Hung Lit Chan Kwok Lit (陳國烈) Natalie Tong Angel Alice Fung So-bor Mrs. Wong (黃大嫂) Johnson Lee Wong Ga Wing (黃家榮)
Characters
Tong Family Tong Yan-Gai – Gai is a 58-year-old man who is in charge of the Tong family. He is a bubbly, fun and witty man who tries to run his family with laughs and joy. He is a self-proclaimed happy man of two wives, Ling Hau and Wong Sau Kam and four children, On, Yat, Foon, Yan. He owns a seafood store and 31 shops for rental worth $600 million HKD. He has a wealthy heritage and enjoys giving the most of his time to his family. However, if things ever go wrong, he is known to chicken out and have no bravery whatsoever, giving him the name of Tong Yan Gwai (turtle). He is extremely protective of his children and would do whatever it takes to keep them safe and happy. Throughout the series, his character matures for the better, leading him to erase his Tong Yan Gwai nickname. Despite declining health due to a stroke, he remembers Hau's words of wisdom in keeping his family together and he becomes a brave, generous and smart man, and he uses his newfound confidence to confront Wong Sau Kam in his final moments in life. Ling Hau – Hau is a 57-year-old woman, and she is the leading lady of the Tong family. Although she is a loving woman who was born into a rich family, she is extremely smart and honest and can tell who is a good person and who is a bad person. She is powerful and strong in her ways and would do anything to keep the Tong family running smoothly with smiles on their faces. She foresees Kam's plotting antics and thus she kicks her out. During her declining health and final days of life, she spent them with her family in a happy manner. Even on her deathbed, she was very straightforward in her act of not letting Kam back into her family. Wong Sau-Kam – Kam is a 52-year-old woman who is second in charge of the Tong family and is a mistress of Tong Yan Gai. Kam used to be Hau's nurse when she had cancer and was supposed to be the spouse of Tong Yan Gai, but because Hong Kong law made it illegal to have more than one wife, she was forced to be an unofficial second wife to Gai. Kam is an ungrateful and sinister figure, and she strives to do her best to retrieve the six-hundred-million-dollar fortune of the Tong family. Kam is a highly petty and arrogant figure. She's a constant schemer when it comes to making plans to make the Tong family unhappy. She easily likes people that side with her and often surround herself with unsavory characters that appeases her ego and helps her scheme ways to get what she believes the Tong family has long overdue owed her. She is a smart thinker when it comes to making plans to make the Tong family unhappy. She even forbade On, Yat, and Yan to send Gai off on his final journey when he died from a stroke. She is an unhappy woman after thinking that she would have her rightful position of the leading lady in Tong family; instead, she is neglected by Hau in her cheeky ways. At the end, she realises that she had been tricked by Duk and turns for the better, regretting her mistakes and becoming family again with the family. Tong Chi-On – On is a 30-year-old man who strives to do his best for the Tong family. He has a helpful attitude toward his friends and family and keeps the smiles on everybody's faces. Although his manner is regarded as loving and caring, he is gullible in his relationships and trusts in people too easily often leading to disastrous results. His greatest desire is to find his real family, as he is an adopted son of the Tong family and not of true blood. It is later revealed, however, he is really Gai's son with a third woman. His love interest is Sheung Joi Sum and although she doesn't love him, he still cares for her. He is a comic character in the beginning but by the end he matures greatly. He stands in the place of Hau after her death and is also straightforward in his acts, rejecting Kam's return to the family, much to the dismay of his father. Tong Chi-Yat, Tong Chi Foon, Tong Chi Yan – The remaining of Gai's children are 26, 21, and 17 years old respectively. Yat is an ambitious figure who strives to run a happy family with his controversial chain-smoking model wife, Cheuk Man-Lai (Tavia Yeung). Although Yat is ambitious, he listens to his mother and is similar to her in the way he is also straightforward. He is a figure that forgives and forgets. Foon is Kam's only son and he is a growing filmmaker who has just graduated. Foon is an innocent figure who suffers greatly from Kam's sudden outbursts which leads to her getting into trouble with family. He is character trying to find his place in a family without his mother. Yan is a youthful and playful figure who is always a pleasure to be around. She is a flirty at the beginning but slowly matures during the series. She loves her family members but can be very moody when she discovers that some of them are traitors. Ling Lei – Lei is the 45-year-old sister of Hau and is extremely biased and moody, especially against Kam. She wants the best for the Tong family and is the main reason for the Tong family's wealth. She, like her sister is straightforward and willing to forgive and forget. She stands in place of Hau and Gai after their deaths. She is loving of her family but strict in many ways. Ling Bo – Bo is the 37-year-old greedy brother of Hau and Lei. He was a loving uncle when Hau was around, but became greedy after being bribed with cheques by Kam to side with her and with the fact that he inherited HK$8 million before he was 20 when the Lings' father died. He was invited join Kam's side for a stake in the family assets, and created uproars in the Tong family after gambling away large sums of money from his family's bank account. He also developed a great dislike to On, who mistakenly accused Bo of stealing more money. Cheuk Man Lai Jackie and her family – Lai is a 26-year-old woman born to a dentist father and a servant mother. She started off as a controversial chain-smoking model, with a violent husband who she had no more feelings with. However, she continued to respect her husband's father and tried to conceal the details about her affair with Yat. After her divorce with her husband, she entered the Tong family, where very few people accepted her, including Hau. After the realisation of her mistakes, Hau accepts her. After she is accepted into the family and through thorough teachings from Hau, she matures to become a woman who loves the Tong family greatly and is thankful for all that she has in life. Lai's family, in return, is a complete contrast to her. As extremely greedy people, they use the Tong family as a bank and took $5,000,000 HKD in one visit to fund the restaurant that Hau offered them as a gift for Yat and Lai's marriage and once requested 4 shops as a dowry. Lai's family ultimately combines with Kam and Duk's plot to obtain a share of the Tong assets. They are hated by the Tong's including Lai herself. They never regret their mistakes, even by the end. Tong Sum is the baby girl born to Jackie and Gilbert.
Others Sheung Joi Sum – Sum is a peaceful 25-year-old girl and is a friend of Yan and On. She starts off the series as a poor, unconfident, struggling young woman trying to look after her father who has Alzheimer's disease. She rejected On, who had feelings for her, because she loved another man, Ching Leung. She ends up working with Leung in a lawyer firm. They would eventually develop a relationship, but because of their misunderstandings they would often argue and break up various times. Their final break up would be after Leung begins a third-party relationship with her best friend, Ha. Later on in the series she matures into a blooming young lady and becomes a confident emerging lawyer. On finally has a chance to confront her with a proposal after Leung's death.