L'Escargot is a 2012 Hong Kong television drama inspired by the 2009 Chinese television drama Dwelling Narrowness, starring Michael Miu, Michael Tse, Sonija Kwok, Linda Chung and Ron Ng as the main leads. It is produced by Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) under executive producer Nelson Cheung, and was filmed with a single-camera setup. A costume fitting was held on 20 September 2010. A blessing ceremony was held on 14 October 2010 where production started and ended in January 2011.
Overview In Hong Kong, many people work their entire lives to achieve their dream of owning their own house. Handyman Kwan Ka-On (Michael Miu) and his family have struggled for years living in a cramped apartment and it seems they have almost reached their goal. However, Ka-On's dream is threatened by a number of troubling circumstances relating to his family. Because Ka-On is the eldest son of his family, he has an overdeveloped sense of responsibility towards others, which hurts his wife Long-Kiu (Sonija Kwok), especially when they are forced to live apart from their daughter.
Meanwhile, Ka-On's selfish and greedy sister-in-law, Lau Siu-Lan (Mandy Wong) encourages her husband Ka-Hong (Oscar Leung) to take advantage of his older brother to obtain a house without spending any money of their own, especially after Ka-Hong injures his leg. Ka-On's sister Ka-Lok (Linda Chung), a public relations agent, finds herself entangled in affairs of property developer and real estate agent Ko Wang-Chim (Michael Tse). Her budding relationship drives a wedge between Ka-Lok and her long-time boyfriend, Ting Koon Fung (Ron Ng), who turns to Ko Wang-Chim's shy and sheltered younger sister, Joyce (JJ Jia), and earns the ire of Ko Wang-Chim's wife, Lee Man Wah (Joyce Tang). Finally, Ka-On's youngest brother, Ka-Wing (Him Law) manages to find a stable job, but is frustrated by his independent and overbearing girlfriend Buk-King (Yoyo Chen)'s attempts to ensure that they have a stable and comfortable future together.
Despite everyone's problems, the family is held together by Ka-On's tireless mother (Angelina Lo). However, when something unimaginable happens to her, it threatens to turn everyone against one another.
Cast
The Kwan family Cast Role Description Angelina Lo Cheung Mei Ling張美玲 Kwan Ka On, Kwan Ka Hong, Kwan Ka Lok and Kwan Ka Wing's motherSze Long Kiu, Lau Siu Lan and Buk King's mother in-lawKwan Hau Lam, Kwan Cho Kwai, and Kwan Cho Fu's grandmotherLives in Chun Moon House, Ko Chun Court, Yau Tong with the whole family Michael Miu Kwan Ka On關嘉安 Handyman and decoratorSze Long Kiu's husbandCheung Mei Ling's eldest son Sze Yat Man and Chung Pui Yiu's son in-lawKwan Ka Hong, Kwan Ka lok and Kwan Ka Wing's eldest brotherKwan Hau Lam's father Sonija Kwok Sze Long Kiu施朗翹 Housewife, later bank staffKwan Ka On's wifeSze Yat Man and Chung Pui Yiu's daughterCheung Mei Ling's daughter in-lawKwan Hau Lam's mother Oscar Leung Kwan Ka Hong關嘉康 Van driverLau Siu Lan's husbandCheung Mei Ling's second sonKwan Ka On's younger brotherKwan Ka Lok and Kwan Ka Wing's second brotherKwan Cho Kwai's fatherMandy Wong Lau Siu Lan婁笑蘭 HousewifeKwan Ka Hong's wifeCheung Mei Ling's daughter in-lawKwan Ka On, Kwan Ka Lok and Kwan Ka Wing's sister in-lawKwan Hau Lam's auntKwan Cho Kwai's motherHas many siblings, lived in Tong StreetSelfish and a scoldLinda Chung Kwan Ka Lok關嘉樂 Cheung Mei Ling's daughter Kwan Ka On, Kwan Ka Hong and Kwan Ka Wing's sister Kwan Hau Lam, Kwan Cho Kwai, and Kwan Cho Fu's aunt Ting Koon Fung's girlfriend, later broke up in episode 18 Lee Man Wah's love rival Him Law Kwan Ka Wing關嘉榮 Cheung Mei Ling's youngest son Kwan Ka On, Kwan Ka Hong and Kwan Ka Lok's youngest brother Kwan Hau Lam, Kwan Cho Kwai, and Kwan Cho Fu's uncle A pizzeria worker, later fired. Hired as Country Club staff after Buk King advised him to go work there. Buk King's boyfriend later husband. Yoyo Chen Buk King卜瓊 Country club staffKwan Ka Wing's girlfriend later wifeCheung Mei Ling's daughter in-lawKwan Ka On, Kwan Ka Hong, Kwan Ka Lok's sister-in-law Leung Hoi Ching Kwan Cho Kwai關祖貴 Cheung Mei Ling's granddaughterKwan Ka Hong and Lau Siu Lan's daughterKwan Ka On, Sze Long Kiu, Kwan Ka Lok, Kwan Ka Wing, Buk King's nieceKwan Hau Lam's cousinKwan Cho Fu's sister Lam Chi Nok Kwan Hau Lam關巧琳 Kwan Ka On and Sze Long Kiu's daughterCheung Mei Ling's granddaughterKwan Ka Hong, Lau Siu Lan, Kwan Ka Lok, Kwan Ka Wing, Buk King's nieceKwan Cho Kwai and Kwan Cho Fu's cousin Kwan Cho Fu關祖富 Cheung Mei Ling's grandsonKwan Ka Hong and Lau Siu Lan's sonKwan Ka On, Sze Long Kiu, Kwan Ka Lok, Kwan Ka Wing, Buk King's nephewKwan Cho Kwai's brotherKwan Hau Lam's cousin
The Ko family Cast Role Description Michael Tse Ko Wang Chim (Jim)高宏瞻 Main Villain
Estate agent and Property developerLee Man Wah's husbandKo Choi Yiu's older brotherTing Koon Fung's love rivalHas relation line with Kwan Ka LokKwan Ka Lok's superiorGraduated from Middle School, was a Real Estate SalesmanLoves Kwan Ka Lok and pursues herKwan Ka Lok's boss, later lover, finally broke up. Almost boarded the plane that crashed in Episode 15. Joyce Tang Lee Man Wah (Mandy)李蔓華 Former CelebrityKo Wang Chim's wifeKwan Ka Lok's love rivalKo Choi Yiu's sister in-lawHas a mutual benefit marriage with Ko Wang Chim JJ Jia Ko Chi Yiu (Joyce)高采貽 An artistSuffers from shynessKo Wang Chim's younger sisterTing Koon Fung's girlfriend later wife
The Ting family Cast Role Description Jason Pai Ting Hoi丁海 Handyman and decoratorWong Lai Sim's husbandTing Koon Fung, Ting Koon Kwan and Ting Koon Fong's fatherHas a second family in Mainland China and an illegitimate child Manna Chan Wong Lai Sim王麗嬋 Ting Hoi's wifeTing Koon Fung, Ting Koon Kwan and Ting Koon Fong's mother Ron Ng Ting Koon Fung丁冠鋒 Financial broker/Real Estate SalesmanTing Hoi and Wong Lai Sim's eldest sonKwan Ka Lok's boyfriend, later broke up in episode 18Ko Wang Chim's love rivalKo Chi Yiu's boyfriend later husband James Wong Ting Koon Kwan丁冠軍 Ting Hoi and Wong Lai Sim's youngest sonTing Koon Fung's younger brotherTing Koon Fong's older brother Tina Shek Ting Koon Fong丁冠芳 Ting Hoi and Wong Lai Sim's daughterTing Koon Fung and Ting Koon Kwan's younger sister
The Sze Family Cast Role Description Joe Junior Sze Yat Man施逸文 Ex newspaper editorChung Pui Yiu's husbandSze Long Kiu's fatherKwan Ka On's father-in-law Pat Yan Chung Pui Yiu鍾佩瑤 Sze Yat Man's wifeSze Long Kiu's motherKwan Ka On's mother-in-law Sonija Kwok Sze Long Kiu施朗翹 Sze Yat Man and Chung Pui Yiu's daughter
Ting Chim Real Estate Agent Company Cast Role DescriptionMichael Tse Ko Wang Chim高宏瞻 Main Villain Chairman Ron Ng Ting Koon Fung丁冠峰 Property manager Linda Chung Kwan Ka Lok關嘉樂 Public relations senior Vin Choi Kenny Ma Ko Wang Chim's assistant Leung Kin Ping Leung Pak Ho梁柏豪 Staff Kong Wing Fai Peter Staff Lee Kai Kit Dai Hon大漢 Staff
Other cast Cast Role Description Geoffrey Wong Yeung Chung Wai (Paul)楊忠偉 BankerSze Long Kiu's superior and ex-boyfriendLoves Sze Long Kiu Lo Mang Yu Ying Chun余英俊Handyman and decoratorKwan Ka On's colleague Hoffman Cheng Pao For Sun鮑火燊 Handyman and decoratorKwan Ka On's colleague Felix Lok Mr. Cheuk卓生 A billionaireLee Man Wah's friend and confidant Summer Joe Ha (夏竹欣) Leung Kin Ping (梁健平) Irene Wong (汪琳) Teresa Ha (夏萍) Kong Wing Fai (江榮暉) Mak Ka Lun (麥嘉倫) Eric Chung (鍾志光) Chow Po Lam (周寶霖) Ho Man Kit (賀文傑) Brian Wong (黃澤鋒) Poon Koon Lam (潘冠霖) Jim Tang Chan Wing Chun (陳榮峻) Law Wing Han (羅泳嫻) Joe Junior Kelvin Lee (李興華) Calvin Chan Joe Therapist
Story
The story is primarily about the inter-connected trials of the Kwan, Ting, and Ko family in life, money, and romance. Kwan Ka-On (Michael Miu) is the eldest brother of the Kwan family. He's husband to Sze Long-Kiu (Sonija Kwok) and father to Kwan Hau-Lam (Lam Chi Nok). Living as a construction worker, he lives job-to-job based on the contracts he gets from clients. He and his family would develop an unusual tie with Ko family after working with them and getting intertwined in their affairs.
Ko Wang-Chim (Michael Tse) is CEO of his own company, Ting Chim Real Estates. He's interested in seizing depreciated estates and gaining big returns through major building renovations and selling them off to upper-class buyers. In between, his wife, Lee Man-Wah (Joyce Tang) had hired Ka-On and his crew for a major renovation project upon their new mansion. Things become complicated when Ka-On's second brother, Kwan Ka-Hong (Oscar Leung), got injured due to Wang-Chim.
Ka-Hong and his pregnant wife (first grandson to the Kwan family), Lau Siu-Lan (Mandy Wong), lived in one of the very estates that Wang-Chim wanted to buy, rebuild, and re-sell. Originally, Wang-Chim dispatched his personal assistant to help finalize the contracts and would pay Ka-Hong a large favorable sum of money. Unfortunately, Siu-Lan's shrewd and greedy nature wasn't satisfied with the amount. She felt that Ka-Hong should've haggled more as she knows Wang-Chim wants the building badly. To that end, Ka-Hong relented to his wife and he canceled the contract signing.
Ka-Hong then started public protests to incite unfairness and claimed Wang-Chim was a cheater. Both husband and wife tried to pressure Wang-Chim by attempting to humiliate and pressure him to reimbursed them with more money. Unfortunately, Wang-Chim wasn't pleased with the results and asked his assistant to help him take care of the problem. The assistant dispatched low-level thugs to threaten and scare the couple, but things turned awry when Ka-Hong foolishly attempted to chase down the thugs and accidentally got run over by their getaway car. He was left with a severely damaged leg and required surgery. Unfortunately, Ka-Hong has strong fears against surgery and refuses surgery while crying to have his leg fixed.
When Ka-On learned of his brother's injuries, he confronted Wang-Chim over the matter; Wang-Chim denied personal involvement in his brother's injuries, but offered a large check as a gesture of goodwill to Ka-On. Being a man of old fashioned principles, Ka-On refused the check as he felt this was "hush money" and an insult to him and stormed off. Although the meeting was very tense, Wang-Chim was impressed by Ka-On's sense of nobility in the matter.
In between this time, Ka-On's little sister, Kwan Ka-Lok (Linda Chung), also met Wang-Chim through a near car collision. Ka-Lok was spending time with her boyfriend, Ting Koon-Fung (aka Big Ding, Ron Ng). They just finished their night together and bought a new pair of shoes. Wang-Chim nearly hit her while on the road, but was fine; her shoes on the other hand was badly damaged. Feeling bad over the matter, Wang-Chim wrote a very large check over such low-grade shoes and she never cashed the check. Upon seeing him again, she returned his check and Wang-Chim was impressed by her honesty and unselfish nature and began keeping in contact with her through her PR company, Only You (a company he later buys to keep ties with Ka-Lok), collaborated with him for a series of real estate PR projects.
Because of Ka-Hong's incident, relations between the Kwans and Wang-Chim became tense. To save his brother's right leg without surgery, Ka-On ventured to inner-China in attempt to find a famous Chinese healer that applied non-evasive methods of healing his injuries. When Wang-Chim also heard about Ka-On's mission, he decided to quietly intervene by pressuring the doctor to help heal Ka-Hong. However, Siu-Lan wasn't satisfied over the situation as she blamed Ka-On for their misfortunes (even though it was her fault) and guilt-tripped Ka-On into covering all their medical bills, including letting them move back into the clan's cramped apartment. With Ka-Hong on the road to recovery, things between Wang-Chim were repaired after Ka-On learned he helped convince the doctor to save his brother's leg.