Bountiful Blessings

Bountiful Blessings (simplified Chinese: 万福楼) is a 20-episode fantasy drama serial telecast by MediaCorp Channel 8. It made its debut on 30 August 2011 and has ended on 26 September 2011. It is screened every weekday night at 9.00pm.

It will make its encore from 21 March 2012 to 17 April 2012, at 5.30pm.

Synopsis

Although Zhang Dan (San Yow) has been deitified as the Kitchen God for a few thousand years, his mortal former wife remains his lasting regret. Thus, he peeks at her every time she is reincarnated, going to her rescue whenever she needs help.

One day, Zhang Dan descends upon earth to visit his former wife, now reincarnated as Huang Fuxi (Jessica Hsuan). They get intimate in a drunken stupor and Fuxi becomes pregnant as a result. To make amends, Zhang Dan decides to fulfill his responsibility by waiting till the child grows up before returning to Heaven to receive punishment.

Zhang Dan opens a restaurant, "Fortune Restaurant", as a means of livelihood for Fuxi and their daughter, Yifei (Oh Ling En). His culinary skills receive widespread acclaim and business prospers. Unfortunately, Zhang Dan is captured and imprisoned in the celestial heavens the moment Fuxi delivers their child.

Worried about his family, Zhang Dan secretly checks on them upon his release only to realise that his 10 days' incarceration in Heaven is equivalent to a decade in the mortal world. Yifei has turned 10. Fuxi's circumstances have worsened after Zhang Dan's sudden disappearance, relying on Fortune Restaurant to make ends meet.

A restaurateur eyes Fortune Restaurant and he is none other than Tong Dafeng (Thomas Ong), who almost married Fuxi if not for her "one night stand" with Zhang Dan. Heartbroken, Dafeng goes abroad to carve out a career. After slogging for 10 years, he becomes an international chef and even establishes Dafeng Group.

Fuxi's betrayal has been Dafeng's greatest humiliation, causing him to harbour hatred ever since. He returns to make a foray into the local market but his bigger motive is to wreak vengeance on Zhang Dan and his family.

After realizing the situation, Zhang Dan frets over his family's safety and descends to the mortal world in secret to save them. He discovers the culinary skills of the streetwise Xie Donghai (Tay Ping Hui) in a chance encounter. When Zhang Dan learns of his warrant of arrest, he uses his magical skills to land Donghai in Fortune Restaurant, not knowing that Fuxi and Donghai have a feud with each other.

Initially, Fuxi opposes vehemently to Donghai joining the restaurant. However, after tasting the latter's dishes by chance, she relents. Moreover, Donghai's culinary skills have undeniably boosted the business of the restaurant.

At this time, Dafeng opens a restaurant near Fortune Restaurant, offering similar dishes with almost the same flavours but at lower prices. Fuxi and Donghai are baffled by the fact that every time Fuxi is about to introduce a new dish, Dafeng's restaurant will beat hers to it.

All this is the doing of the flower fairy, Yi Pinhong (Ann Kok), who lost her immortal status after Zhang Dan reported to Jade Emperor about her love for a mortal. Thanks to a flower fairy, Peony, Yi Pinhong retains her magical power of reading one's mind and lives in the mortal world under the name "Liang Pinhong". After discovering the relationship between Fuxi and Zhang Dan, Pinhong seizes the opportunity to seek revenge on Zhang Dan by harming his family. Upon gaining Dafeng's trust, she deals a series of blows to undermine Fortune Restaurant.

Although Dafeng condones Pinhong's mean ways, nevertheless, he feels uneasy. At Tianqing's advice, Dafeng decides to stop seeking revenge. Having anticipated this, Pinhong casts a spell on Dafeng to make him fall hopelessly in love with her and to join hands in dealing with Fuxi and her family.

Tianqing (Koh Yah Hwee), Dafeng's younger sister, disapproves of her brother and Pinhong's wicked ways. She frequents Fortune Restaurant and is fond of playing tricks on Fuxi's younger brother, Fuyuan (Jeffery Xu). Reticent and lacking in social skills, Fuyuan is nevertheless savvy in communicating on the World Wide Web. Tianqing often compares him with her idol Kurt, an Internet singing sensation. Little does she know that Fuyuan is none other than Kurt and that he has been secretly in love with her.

Donghai dislikes children but as he is always forced to look after Yifei, a father-daughter relationship gradually develops between the two. At the same time, he finds himself falling for Fuxi in the midst of their constant bickering. Unfortunately, the oblivious Fuxi fails to sense it.

Fuxi falls into Pinhong's trap, landing herself with a huge debt that forces Fortune Restaurant into a crisis. To save the restaurant, Donghai enters a grand culinary competition under the auspices of Fortune Restaurant. Pinhong goads Dafeng into participating in the event and bribes the judges. Fortunately, Dafeng snaps out of the spell in the nick of time and withdraws from the competition, leading to Fortune Restaurant claiming victory.

Fortune Restaurant manages to resume business but this causes Dafeng and Pinhong to fall out with each other, and ends with the latter seizing everything. Fuxi is touched by all that Dafeng has done for her while he expresses his wish to court Fuxi again. At this time, Donghai confesses his love to Fuxi. And when Fuxi finds out that her missing husband is the Kitchen God, she is completely flummoxed...

At the other end, Pinhong remains hostile towards Fuxi and even sets fire to Fortune Restaurant. Unbeknown to each other and with nary a scant thought for their own safety, Donghai and Dafeng dash in to rescue Fuxi who is trapped in the blaze...

Cast

Trivia

• This drama stars Hong Kong actress Jessica Hsuan, returning from Parental Guidance.
• This marks Ann Kok's return after The Family Court, playing villain for the consecutive second time. In The Family Court, her being villain was under the influence of another part-time antagonist. This time, her being villain was being a natural hatredism.
• This also marks Thomas Ong who returns after The Illusionist and Secrets for Sales.
• This is the third Mediacorp drama in 2011 which used music for the opening theme, after A Tale of 2 Cities and C.L.I.F..
• 我是你的天空 by Ocean Ou is Taste of Love's theme song, reused as Fuyuan also sung this song.
• In the drama, the mastermind from episodes 5-20 turns out to be Liang Pinhong, the Kitchen God's enemy.
• This drama is a fantasy series, but however this drama is much more look like a combination of Love and Unriddle (60% portion) rather than Happily Ever After (40% portion).

5.30pm encore

This drama would be encored at 5.30pm despite a few episodes having violence, similar to The Family Court and The Score. It was planned for an Unriddle 2 quick encore, which has similar violent scenes, the next weekday after the finale, but however Be Happy would be encored instead.

Star Awards 2012 nominations

This series garnered two nominations in the performance category for Star Awards 2012. Results would be announced on 29 April 2012 at Resorts World Sentosa during which the award ceremony will be televised 'LIVE' on MediaCorp TV Channel 8.

Show 1

• Chen Jiagu clinched the Best Drama Set Design award.
• Tay Ping Hui was nominated for the Most Favourite Actor award, but the award goes to Elvin Ng in C.L.I.F.

Show 2

• Tay Ping Hui clinched the Best Actor award.
• Ann Kok was nominated for the Best Actress award, but the award goes to Joanne Peh in A Tale of 2 Cities.

See also

• List of programmes broadcast by MediaCorp Channel 8
• List of Bountiful Blessings episodes