The Greed of Man
| The Greed of Man | |
|---|---|
|
Poster | |
| Genre |
Triad drama Stock market drama |
| Created by | Wai Ka-Fai |
| Written by | Tsang Kan-cheung, Chan Yuk-ping |
| Starring |
Adam Cheng Sean Lau Yammie Lam Vivian Chow Amy Kwok Damian Lau Bowie Lam Michael Tao |
| Opening theme |
Ngo Dik Sing Ming Ngo Dik Ngoi (我的生命我的愛; My Life, My Passion) performed by Alan Tam Sui Yuet Mou Ching (歲月無情; Ruthless Life) performed by Adam Cheng |
| Country of origin | Hong Kong |
| Original language(s) | Cantonese |
| No. of episodes | 40[1] |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Wai Ka-Fai |
| Running time | 45 minutes each episode |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | TVB Jade |
| Original run | 5 October 1992[2] – 27 November 1992 |
| The Greed of Man | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 大時代 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 大时代 | ||||||||||
| Literal meaning | The Great Times | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
The Greed of Man is a Hong Kong television series first broadcast on TVB Jade in 1992.[1] The story, spanning three decades from the 1970s to the 1990s in Hong Kong and Taiwan, addresses various social and financial phenomena of the times, from triad violence to corruption in the Hong Kong stock exchange. It featured a top roster cast, including veteran TVB actors Adam Cheng and Damian Lau and award-winning actor Sean Lau. The series is also well remembered for a Hong Kong stock market cultural phenomenon called the "Ting Hai effect".[3]
Plot
1960-1970s
Ting Hai and Fong Chun-sun were childhood friends. Ting is a stubborn, uneducated and pathologically self-righteous brute who imagines himself to be a living kong-woo hero, while Fong is an honest, cultured and refined leader of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Fong is pressured by some of the most powerful and corrupt bureaucrats in Hong Kong to control the stock market. Immigration officers, police chiefs and government officials all attempted to cash in. Fong manipulated the market such that no one could touch him. The stock guru Yip Tin described the event as a battle to seize control of the "Mandate of Heaven".
Fong develops strong feelings for Ting's girlfriend Lo Wei-ling, and becomes Ting's rival for her affection. In a fit of fury over Lo's disaffection, Ting cripples Fong, and later, during an ill-advised attempt at reconciliation, kills him. Without Fong's moderating influence, the 1973 stock market crash forces many people into extreme poverty. Stock manipulation was one justification for the creation of the Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in February 1974.
1980s
Ting Hai flees to Taiwan, where his unabated violent behavior lands him a 14 year prison sentence. Back in Hong Kong, Ting's four sons manage to build a powerful triad in their father's absence. The four brothers blame the Fong family for separating them from their father, and they harass them unrelentingly. The eldest son, Ting How-hai, replays his father's relationship with Lo Wei-ling on one of the Fong sisters, and is driven to violence when she rejects him. All of Fong Chun-sun's three daughters are brutally killed, while Fong's only son, Fong Chin-bok, manages to survive and escape to Taiwan. With help from his two girlfriends, Fong strikes a fortune by gambling on the stock market (not by investing, but via an indirect gambling method) and returns to Hong Kong to avenge his family. At the same time, the Ting family's wealth and power have increased to incredible proportions via the stock market due to sheer luck in a bear market.
1990s
The final showdown between the Tings and Fongs is inspired by the backdrop of the Gulf War in 1991. Fong Chin-bok's investment company faces the Ting family in a winner-takes-all, last-man-standing stock market epic battle. To raise the stakes, the Tings are financed by criminal syndicates. Fong wins the support of three of Hong Kong's wealthiest tycoons, who want to return the favour as they built their financial empires with help from Fong's father back in the 1960s. The stock market rises and falls correspondingly with news of American forces entering or withdrawing from the war. Eventually, the Tings make the wrong bet and their entire fortune is wiped out, compounded by ending up in billions of dollars in debt. Ting Hai forces his sons to commit suicide by jumping off from the top of the stock exchange building before following suit himself, but he survives and spends the rest of his life in prison.
Cast
Ting family
| Cast | Role | Description |
| Lai Hyun | Ho Chin 何賤 | Ting Hai's mother. She is old and has health problems. As she was the wet nurse for the Fong family, she always sees the Fongs as her extended family, despite the rivalry between the two families. |
| Adam Cheng | Ting Hai 丁蟹 | A stubborn, uneducated and pathologically self-righteous brute who solves his problems through violence and intimidation. He is not exactly intelligent, but has amazing streaks of luck. |
| David Siu | Ting How-hai 丁孝蟹 | The boss of the Ting family triad. He is considered to be the most compassionate of Ting Hai's sons. He becomes cold and ruthless later. |
| Michael Tao | Ting Yik-hai 丁益蟹 | A cruel, vulgar and unforgiving triad member. |
| Ng Kai Ming | Ting Wong-hai 丁旺蟹 | A smart but corrupt lawyer who spends his time making money through unscrupulous means. |
| Derek Kok | Ting Lei-hai 丁利蟹 | An unethical doctor. |
| Ho Chin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ting Hai | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ting How-hai | Ting Yik-hai | Ting Wong-hai | Ting Lei-hai | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fong family
| Cast | Role | Description |
| Damian Lau | Fong Chun-sun 方進新 | A premiere stockbroker who attempts to rid the stock market of corruption. His first wife is killed by a car driven in the wrong direction near a supermarket. He raises his four children with the help of Ting Hai's mother. |
| Yammie Lam | Lo Wai-ling 羅慧玲 | Ting Hai's ex-girlfriend. She seeks protection from Fong Chun-sun after discovering Ting's brutal ways. She helps Fong raise his children like a stepmother, even though she is only a few years older than them. She is driven insane eventually after witnessing the destruction of her family at the hands of the Tings. |
| Sean Lau | Fong Chin-bok 方展博 | Fong Chun-sun's only son. He enjoyed a privileged childhood when his father started off a wealthy man. However, he falls into despair and idleness after his father's death and his family's descent into poverty. When he returns to financial stability, he becomes an aggressive stock holder and vows to avenge his family. |
| Ng Wing-hung | Fong Fong 方芳 | Fong Chun-sun's eldest daughter. She is emotional but clear-minded. She is the most "ordinary" of the Fong siblings, but is overwhelmed by events beyond her control. |
| Loletta Lee | Fong Ting 方婷 | She is beautiful and intelligent enough to earn a good life for herself. Unfortunately, she falls in love with Ting How-hai, the son of her father's murderer and a triad boss. She realises her mistake and tries to end her relationship with Ting, but is unable to escape the disastrous consequences. |
| Carol Yeung | Fong Man 方敏 | The youngest of the Fong siblings. She is the brightest and most innocent of the four. She commits suicide by jumping off a building after being raped by Ting Yik-hai, who promptly had the incident publicised. |
| Fong Chun-sun | Lo Wai-ling | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fong Chin-bok | Fong Fong | Fong Ting | Fong Man | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Others
| Cast | Role | Relations | Description |
| Vivian Chow | Yuen Mui 阮梅 | Fong Chin-bok's love interest | She was a neighbour of the Fongs and witnessed their joys and tribulations. She is sweet, down-to-earth, pure and faithful, but extremely frugal in spending. |
| Amy Kwok | Lung Kei-man 龍紀文 | Fong Chin-bok's love interest; Lung Sing-bong's daughter | She meets Fong by chance and fall in love with him. She is emotional, impulsive, educated and smart. She is a clear contrast to Yuen Mui, her opponent in the love triangle. |
| Kenneth Tsang | Lung Sing-bong 龍成邦 | Lung family patriarch | A corrupt sergeant-major in the Hong Kong Police Force. He flees to Taiwan in 1973 to escape from Hong Kong stock market corruption charges. |
| Kong Ngai | Chan Man-hin 陳萬賢 | Chan To-to's father | He is utterly corrupt and ruthless. He has good stock instincts but not skilled or lucky enough to compete with the Fong and Ting families. |
| Bowie Lam | Chan To-to 陳滔滔 | Chan Man-hin's illegitimate son | A stock market expert who unseats his father from the stock exchange leading position. He leaves New York and returns to Hong Kong after the Fong family is murdered and swears vengeance. |
| Law Lok-lam | Yip Tin 葉天 | Fong family friend | An honest stock market guru, who fantasizes about being the god of Wall Street. He is the right-hand man of Fong Chun-sun during the 1960s and becomes the mentor of Fong's son in the 1980s. He has the right formula to winning the stock market, but is mentally unstable. |
| Lau Kong | Chow Chai-sang 周濟生 | A drug cartel chief and highly respected elder of the triad community. He is a close ally of Lung Sing-bong during the corruption period. He escapes to Taiwan together with Long and falls from power. He has an unusual penchant for Hangzhou cuisine. | |
Legacy
Ting Hai effect
The series, which centers on the bustling stock market during the early 1990s, has been studied by international stockbrokers for its peculiar effect on the global stock market trend. A phenomenon is observed, that whenever a television drama starring Adam Cheng is aired, the stock market will fall for an unexplainable reason.[4] In 1992 when the series made its debut, the Hong Kong stock market dropped by 1200 points in one month. During an interview that year with Derek Kwok, Kwok said that he did not believe in the phenomenon. In 2009 when Kwok collaborated with Cheng again in The King of Snooker, the Hang Seng Index fell by 600 points again.[2]
Others
Sean Lau's character Fong Chin-bok was involved in a love triangle with Yuen Mui and Long Kei-man, played respectively by Vivian Chow and Amy Kwok. Fong married Yuen eventually in the series, but in reality, Lau dated Kwok and married her in 1998.[5]
Yammie Lam, who played Lo Wei-ling, became mentally insane just like her character in the series. The Hong Kong media has since speculated that she has been possessed and cannot get out of her role.[6] In September 1998, Lam lost control of her car while driving at Repulse Bay, and was admitted into hospital. Her mental illness was announced in the following year.[6]
The series also featured many different songs performed by top singers such as Alan Tam, Beyond and Faye Wong.
Sequels
In 2000, TVB's rival station ATV produced Divine Retribution, as a sequel to The Greed of Man. Both its Chinese and English titles were modified to avoid association with The Greed of Man.
Stock market tip
In the middle of the series, Fong Chin-bok receives a prophetic "Tip for Stock Market Invincibility" from his mentor Yip Tin, who has since become mentally unstable. The words are initially arranged in an incoherent manner and not decipherable. Not until the end of the series did viewers, and Fong Chin-bok, notice what the tip is.
The original "Tip for Stock Market Invincibility" is re-arranged into a poem and then translated to :
"The original intent of the stock market is to allow a place for people to gather capital, which leads to a prosperous society where everyone gains. However, human instinct tends towards the greedy, and many will go to no end to gain unearned wealth. Thus, a paradise turns into hell, complete with ceaseless violence and killing. Countless people become penniless, even lose their lives. The winners lose all conscience and become inhuman. I have been in the stock market for years, and I have never seen a true winner. A smart person should know that this is a battlefield where no winners will emerge. There is only one way to win: leave the market early."
See also
- Divine Retribution (2000 TV series)
- 1973–1974 stock market crash
- Hang Seng Index
External links
References
 |
Wikiquote has quotations related to: The Greed of Man (Chinese) |
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Dianying.com. "Dianying.com." The Greed of Man. Retrieved on 2009-08-11.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Sina.com. "Sina.com." 香港股市現“丁蟹效應” 鄭少秋喊冤:股民又賴我. Retrieved on 2009-08-11.
- ↑ Sina.com. "Sina.com." 丁蟹效應累恒指瀉663點. Retrieved on 2009-08-11.
- ↑ Big5.Chinanews.com. "Big5.Chinanews.com." 何謂“丁蟹效應”. Retrieved on 2009-08-11.
- ↑ HKHeadline.com. "HKHeadline.com." 結婚10年屢傳不育 與郭藹明助養孤雛 劉青雲拒談生育大計. Retrieved on 2009-08-11.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Sina.com. "Sina.com." 蓝洁瑛 靓绝五台山，癫狂一阕梦. Retrieved on 2009-08-12.
| ||||||||||||||