SPOILERS ALERT
Although TVB series, When Heaven Burns <天與地>, broke the record for an all-time low in ratings this year, garnering 23 points (approximately 1.47 million people) in its third week of broadcast, numerous netizens continued to praise it. The endings for the various lead cast aroused lively discussion. Allegedly, the increasingly villainous Bowie Lam (林保怡) will die while attempting to save a child’s life. Kenny Wong’s (黃德斌) character will become blind and go to prison. Turning from evil to good, Moses Chan’s (陳豪) character will be lonely for the rest of his life.
Moses Chan Lonely for the Rest of His Life
In the early part of the series, Moses Chan’s character was unscrupulous and committed many indecent acts. Moses’ involvement in the cannibalistic consumption of Stanley Cheung (張景淳) was discovered by Charmaine Sheh (佘詩曼). In her anger, Charmaine plunged a knife into Moses , who fortunately survived the stabbing.
Moses admitted to Maggie Shiu’s (邵美琪) character that he had married her only for her money. The confession hurt Maggie deeply. Moses left the company and started a band at a bar and was humiliated by his former subordinate, Cheung Kwok Keung(張國強). Moses was upset by Bowie Lam’s unscrupulous behavior, including his collaboration with Elaine Jin (金燕玲) to take over Maggie’s company. Moses’ wishes to reconcile with Maggie failed and he remained lonely for the rest of his life.
Bowie Lam Dies While Saving Another Life
Bowie and Moses turned from friends to enemies, with Bowie becoming increasingly ruthless. Due to incomplete evidence for Stanley Cheung’s death, the police closed the case and Bowie avoided calamity.
After failing in his election for public office, Bowie joined Elaine Jin’s company instead. Since Bowie was unwilling to waste ten years of his life, he relied on unscrupulous methods to climb to higher position and became increasingly evil.
In an attempt to recruit Cindy Lee (李思雅) to assist him, Bowie had a one night stand with her which eventually led to her suicide. Befriending Maggie Shiu, Bowie wanted to control the company. Despite this, Bowie’s wife, Astrid Chan (陳芷菁), did not give up on him. Kenny Wong was blackmailed by Bowie to fabricate the accounting books for his company.
When Bowie finally regretted his own wrongdoings, he rolled down a stairway and died in an attempt to save a child who was struck by a moving vehicle.
Kenny Wong Turns Blind and Goes to Jail
Kenny Wong admitted his murder of Stanley Cheung to the police. Bowie claimed that he possessed evidence of Kenny’s wife, Angela Tong’s (湯盈盈) money laundering, thus successfully blackmailing Kenny to fabricate his company’s accounting books. When Moses urged Kenny to not execute Bowie’s ruthless plans, Bowie thought that Kenny had betrayed him. When Kenny’s son was kidnapped, both Bowie and Moses denied the act. After Kenny’s fabrication of the financial statements was discovered, Angela Tong admitted to the crime while attempting to protect her husband. Kenny agreed to help the police and became a witness in the case, finally losing his vision and entering prison for fabricating financial statements.
Charmaine Sheh Forgives the Murderers
Charmaine Sheh discovered that Kenny had killed Stanley Cheung and joined Moses and Bowie in eating Stanley’s body. Charmaine became enemies with the three men. Charmaine and Joe Junior planned to hold a rock concert, but the plans were axed due to location venue problems. When Joe Junior was wrongly accused of drug possession, Charmaine thought it was the truth, gravely disappointing Joe Junior. After an accident and coming down with a degenerative brain illness, Joe Junior was admitted into the hospital. Joe’s words in the hospital touched Charmaine deeply and she forgave Moses, Bowie, and Kenny for their actions.
Accepting a job as a radio host, Charmaine visualized that Stanely Cheung was still alive. When Heaven Burns concludes with Charmaine’s idealistic imagery.
Nick Cheung Originally to Play Kenny Wong’s Role
The role of “Ronnie” was originally offered to HKFA Best Actor Nick Cheung (張家輝), in which he appeared in the sales presentation clip for the When Heaven Burns. Unfortunately, Nick could not allot time from his busy schedule to film the series and Kenny Wong took the role instead. Although public dissent was rife initially, Kenny may have been more suitable for the deeply layered character.
Source: Apple Daily
Jayne: Seems like very plausible ending spoilers for When Heaven Burns.
Tags: Bowie Lam, Charmaine Sheh Si Man, Joe Junior, Kenny Wong Tak Bun, Moses Chan Ho, Nick Cheung Ka Fai, TVB Series, When Heaven Burns
Sounds like some greek tragedy sort of ending. Dramatic, too dramatic. And Nick Cheung is a far better actor than Kenny, but can he bulk up like the rest of the guys?
Kenny acted well in the role. He’s a good replacement.
But in Nick Cheung in this drama ,WHB could easy beaten BT in ranking since Nick is Best Leading Actor in 46 Golden film awards ,Nick is international actor compare to cast in this drama and kenny who a minor actor,his popularity could even beat lives of omission and Forensic hero 3.The shall replace maggie siu with newer actressSire ma ,maggie is old now to play as second lead.
I don’t think WHB could beat BP even if Nick Cheung is in it. Maybe the ratings will be a higher, but, the problem with WHB is not the cast but the pacing and storytelling.
I personally loves WHB, but, I can understand that not everyone appreciates it, just like I don’t know how to appreciate Wong Kar Wai’s work no matter how acclaimed he is. BP suits the taste of more TV viewers than WHB. That’s the reason for the low-ratings.
sire ma would be even worse than maggie. her acting is pretty awful compared to the other “new” actresses in tvb. just goes to show that tvb awards is rigged, cause she doesnt deserve the most improved actress award at all.
“numerous netizens continued to praise it.”
But the article omitted to state that ‘numerous’ netizens also bashed it for being draggy, boring and pretentious with a story that takes too long to tell and, after 2 weeks or so, going nowhere.
I was intrigued by the 1st two episodes but after the 5th episode gave up on it; too drag out for me. Guess I’m not part of the esoteric audience who appreciates ‘artistic’ tv series.
The ending indeed sounds very dramatic, but from past ratings, HK viewers gravitate to this kind of loud and melodramatic ending.
No wonder I feel the role is too big for Kenny. He’s not doing bad but nothing brilliant too. Something is lacking and I think it’s charisma.
I think it’s difficult for TVB to admit that a series with a cast like Bowie, Moses, Kenny, and Charmaine can turn out with low ratings.
To hop on the bandwagon, I can’t imagine Nick playing Kenny’s character.
I hope this series is 20+ episode, and I hope that they all have been imagining things, because of the trauma, seems like this is very much a likely ending.
Such a tragic ending. I loved watching this series. Sad to see them all turn into enemies and deaths occurring. Hopefully this series will get high rating near the finale. All the best
I think this series has become cultish. You don’t see many support for other TVB series that get low ratings. But, WHB continuously has people speak up for it and people lamenting the mentality of HK viewers because they don’t like WHB. You also don’t see other low rating series get so much support from people in the entertainment circle and the news circle.
Despite the low ratings, the actors, producer, scriptwriters continuously get interviews, being featured in magazines etc.
I think because Charmaine in this WHB which result the low ranting compare to Niki Chow BP,Charmaine have more hater compare to Niki because of her voice and rumours she steal Kevin Cheng from Niki ,plus there are some hate in Moses Chan too ,this drama is losing to BP in rating and Niki have more fan than Charmaine.
hahhaha…..niki is still far away from charmanie compare to acting n fans.
Btw regarding the kevin ,niki,n charmanie….sometimes i feel that one hand cant clap….if kevin no feeling to char i bet they cant to be together….sometimes i feel niki should behave her self not to blame others after her wrong relationship!!
Charmaine has more haters, but, also more fans than Nikki. Sorry, Charmaine (or Moses) is not the downfall of WHB and Nikki is not the popularity draw of BP. Most of the praises of BP is for Raymond Wong, not Nikki.
BP win over WHB because of the storyline is more exciting. WHB has depth but can also be very boring for some viewers because it is true that in many episodes nothing ‘exciting’ happen.
This old time rumour of Charmaine stealing Kevin from Nikki, most people already forgotten or don’t care. I doubt it will affect the ratings in any significant degree.
So agree with Kidd.
Niki or Charmaine.. ppl doesn’t care of their triangle relationship anymore..
BP – ppl just watch it because of RW not Niki.
downfall of WHB – storyline boring..even me don’t watch it.
I didn’t watch for Raymond Wong but the story (it was intriguing starting with a guy waiting for his true love 10 years after 10 years) but yes in the end Raymond Wong became part of the reason. Poor man is so thin though.
U r joking??? I don’t even know who niki chow is. SHe s only known as somebody’s ex. BP does not even have high ratings anyway.
Oh dear, I can’t believe u can come out with such a childish reason for the low rating. Charmaine & Moses definately has more fans than hater. Nikki more popular than Charmaine? Sorry, please don’t make me laugh. 100% agree with u, Kidd.
now those days ppl like to watch those revenge drama o something loving …..
to me WHB is a very special and new storyline.i definity support WHB to the end even the ending not acttractive enough.
all this while i thought moses love the girl is charmanie but in the end is maggie…sometime i feel the storyline a bit mix up….script writer should be more concern to his own script b4 produce.since moses love char for more that 18years how come suddenly love maggie ….human nature always hope to be together with their most love one in their life…..
While Angus probably does love hazel the most, I feel the 3 guys think they love her but actually are projecting guilt towards her.
The story is quite depressing on love, friendship, and family.
This sounds like a lame ending. Very lame, if I might add. I don’t really like Kenny and I don’t think he would be better than Nick Cheung. Obviously this is a different story from the original sales presentation, which in those 30 seconds, seemed like a complete series that was way better already.
actually i agree with u!!!the sales clip totaly different from the storyline…this is all becoz of nick cheung broke the promise…
Its a big call to say he “broke the promise”. While he still has tvb contract to fulfill, but it doesn’t have to be for this series. I mean, there are so many changes from sales presentation to actual series so to say he broke the promise is like saying all Tvb actors and actresses do
Yes, the sales presentation had nick dating charmaine so in effect, stealing ka ming’s life. That betrayal would’ve been much more interesting.
Kenny’s family life and his declining vision are just plain boring.
yeah the sales presentation def seemed better, with an even more epic cast. i remember the part where charmaine shouted at nick, saying she only married him because she wanted to get revenge for her dead bf
wow the sales presentation sounds stupid to me..i mean (I’m talking about this series obviously).. IF Charmaine only married Nick just to get revenge for her dead bf..I think that sound pretty stupid of her..or stupid the storyplot itself.
I’m not saying Nick Cheung is snobbish or diva, if tvb put nick there as kenny’s role..i think ppl won’t be interested in Moses and Bowie’s role anymore since ppl will rather watch the Best best actor Nick? and also.. I doubt Nick will come back to tvb to film series……since he’s now a movie king.
Not really. Didn’t anyone tell you winning movie king is no big deal? I mean it is a big deal but not THAT big a deal? It is on rotation anyway. At some point he or someone else of same calibre would have won. I never thought Nick as a snob at all. Maybe Kenny did well but Nick would have been da bomb. I mean both do great at looking worried, with Kenny being at various degrees of worries even when he is supposed to be crazy happy but Nick, Nick can be more than worried. Yes Nick would have been well cast and I suppose could be a draw for some of his die hard movie fans as well. And cast Esther as against type in this series and voila, maybe more interest generated. Kidding!
Why this series is low rating? Simple. It is that sort of lifestyle no one can relate to. How many can be as glamarous as a rock star cum some rich person? Or a concert organiser stuck between 3 men and a dead boyfriend? Maybe the storyline is too ploddingly slow. It is innovative but you can’t be innovative only; there is a matter of telling a good story well told. And there’s the music; maybe majority of HK-ers can’t relate to the songs. Change the settings to some 72 tenants set up with old HK oldies, maybe it will be a hit but not much hip. I still can’t find myself continue more than half an hour of the story. It just doesn’t interest me although I acknowledge and applaud TVB for being different; but it seems when TVB goes off stream instead of mainstream they seem to lose the pacing, the humour, the touch with the viewers. The select few loves this series, the many dislike it. You can’t be half and half with this. In the end it boils down not on the actors or performances or even the story but the settings and the way the story is told. I personally find it pretentious only as so far because I can’t relate to any of them. And frankly the story is the usual if you look carefully but what made it different is because it is cloaked in music and musicians and rock bands and maybe that is why HK-ers can’t relate. Maybe… well.. maybe use pop idols eh? Maybe in time this series after endless reruns will get appreciated but right now I see it in the tones it is presented; black, dark, cold, too sterile like some clinical experiment or surgery. It just lacks that passion in the storytelling. Did TVB meddle with the pacing perhaps? The writing? The direction?
P/s Wong Kar Wai is garbage cloaked in pretentiousness. Never know what he is trying to say. WHB is not Wong Kar Wai. I don’t even think of it as an art film at all.
I enjoyed WKW’s “days of being wild”, “chungking express”, and “in the mood for love” very much. They were neither pretentious nor hard to understand.
I think WHB more suitable for girls than boys ,girls will prefer Charmaine over Niki since I noted most poster here are girl.
I don’t usually like Kenny Wong. I find him boring most of the time. But, in this series, the character Ronnie suits him to a T. He exudes a kind of calmness and steadiness that matches Ronnie’s character very well.
Ronnie is a calm man who is always in control. Even when he’s scared, he still try to be in control. This can be shown in the scene where he closed his eyes and cut the vege.
Maybe Nick can do it. He’s a very good actor. But, for now, I can’t imagine Ronnie played by other actor.
Ok, just watch episode 15. I can see now that Kenny is still lacking in the emotional scenes. Nick would have done this scene better.
Let’s face it; kenny is not a good actor. Competent but same face same look same acting.
@Funn: Sadly, same face same look same acting happens to many artists nowaday.
Funn, I do think that perhaps these characters are hard to relate to but then there have been quite a lot of TVB series on characters that the ‘average’ viewer cannot relate to e.g. series like the jewellery biz (with Gigi Lai and Moses Chan) sorry forgot name, the extremely popular family feuding for the megarich, I’m guessing most viewers are not mega-rich at least not like those portrayed.
As an example for this series, Moses is a hedge fund manager/ CIO, I know ppl exactly like him while working in a hedge fund in the US – people who work in a hedge fund by day (well and night) and then go play in a band in their free time..BUT of course I don’t think any of them killed and ate someone.
I seriously think it’s the execution of this series which is really flawed, perhaps the characters are not very interesting either at least to ppl like me..Bowie’s character is so ‘meh’, Ronnie also…Charmaine as a DJ I guess could have been interesting but she comes off as pretentious and trying too hard to be ‘cool’…her wardrobe of always black black black grey is also trying too hard to show how ‘cool’ she is.
I agree with what you said on the story telling part, perhaps that is where they failed mainly and I don’t know about others but all the flashbacks make me get a headache..I thought that the girl playing Charmaine’s role was really annoying too sigh, altogether one of the worst series from TVB in my opinion.
True, some ppl say may say I can’t appreciate an ‘avant garde’ production so be it haha…I think if TVB wanted to do a ‘dark’, ‘meaningful’ or ‘real’ whatever that means series, they failed tremendously. The only emotions this series incites from me are probably boredom/ slight annoyance and impatience since it’s so darn long!!
Not too sure about WKW’s films – I mean if they should be compared to this series as I quite enjoyed some of his movies, although I can’t really put down why exactly lol
I dont think whb is getting low ratings because the audience cant related to characters. I dont think any of us can relate to the ancient costume series buthey still have high ratings. Personally, i dislike whb because of the script and some of the artists are sooo annoying
Annoying because they all pretend to be “COOL” when they’re not. And the storyplot is just too slow pacing plus boring.
WHB is the most boring serial in 2011 ,anyways Niki Chow have better voice than Charmaine seh ,Charmaine voice is her worst part ,she never really shine in movies .
Grumpy pirated bootleg version Kidd, can you stop using Kidd as your nickname?
this guy/gurl must have deep grudges against Yellow Kidd.
Maybe his real name is Kidd. Or maybe the name ‘Kidd’ has special meaning to him, so he has to use it.
If so why no defence on using that name? Not even slightly offended at all!
Yellow Kidd got unidentical twin!
u must be deaf kidd if u say niki haf better voice that char!!!
Agrees!
@Pink angry Kidd: Voice here refers to singing? Uhm, Niki is a professional singer and Charmaine isn’t. But I think Niki’s voice is so-so only.
Haven’t seen this series yet, but I have a feeling I will like it. The KARMA ending is appealing to me. What goes around comes around! Karma is coming! *evil laughs* o,0
Eh, karma is when they all get eaten. Or is that irony?
Wait! Irony would be if they get eaten by the son of the guy they ate? or they get eaten by the people who ate the guy they ate?
jesus what a trainwreck ending
I just wish this would end already..seriously..I can’t believe there are 31 episodes..-_-
31?! What else is there left to happen?
I have no idea haha…I can’t sit through one episode.
What a long boring series. Should have cut it down to a condense 20 episodes.
10 would have been more than enough
But I guess that’s too much wishful thinking.
Totally agree why cant they make bp 30 episodes and freakin cut whb.
In Japan it would have been 10 episodes, 1 special, 1 movie.
Tvb script writers just ruined the whole drama. Tvb needs something fresh and entertaining like bottled passion. I agree that whb is different from the usual tvb dramas, but its soo slow and boring. Plus im tired of watching moses and charmaine pairings. Im sorta glad that she left tvb so we can see other artisits. However, i dont really like any of the tvb artists.
I wouldn’t call Bottled Passion fresh but it is immensely entertaining because I must credit Raymond WOng for being a good actor and Rebecca Chan as well.
Oh Rebecca chan really act evil, she’s good at it..but RW…I still feel the “wood” in his acting..
I can’t feel the emotion or acting from looking at his eyes.
But RW is really handsome though.
How can!! RW in that scene where he cried whilst eating the soy sauce dinner was rather heart breaking. if I were that girl I too will forgive him in an instance; to hell with Ka Fook!
If I had to keep eating that soy sauce food, I’d cry too.
I was rather impressed by Raymond’s crying scenes. He has really made a quantum leap in his acting skills.
No it’s not bc of the soya souce food, lol. Give it to Ron and he will still remain emotionless…
haha, that’s because Ron is currently under spell…his eyes are lifeless, its either he had too much of B00bs at night or just can’t sleep because of Viann’s constant disburbing.
@Funn,
Maybe I didnt know why he was crying while eating the soy souce rice (I was like why is he’s crying while eating?) as I’ve been there and here around in my house didn’t really sit down watching the tv.. hehe.
But Funn, dunno why I can still the “wood” in his eyes..maybe he’s scared to look into the actresses eyes in BP?
*feel the wood in him*
Veejay, he was crying because he remembered Tsui Sum cooking the same for him, that he loves her very much and yet can’t admit because his desire to avenge/revenge is stronger than his love for her. That is until he finds out who she is I will say!!
I didn’t care to comment but what part of Bottled Passion is considered fresh? This is real question not rhetorical statement.
It is revenge drama set in the 20′s or 30′s about rich family selling cloth vs. poor family selling soy sauce. This doesn’t remind anybody of River of Wine combined with hundreds of revenge dramas.
I really like When heaven Burns. Sure it’s not yr conventional TVB series with typical plot and storylines. This was really fresh and sorta makes u contemplate on life and friendship. Kudos to TVB!
Love the final 2 episodes. overall it is a great drama, although there are parts which are quite boring. the final episodes are amazing. charmaine portrayed the character brilliantly. a little surprised that WHB did not get good ratings. perhaps the viewers are still not able to accept unconventional series. happy new yr everyone!
i’m glad to know that i’m not the only one that came back to this article after watching the ending. definitely loved how it ended. the scene where they got together and played at the rock fest and the scene where bowie died made me tear. but i have to admit, it was a good way to end it. for the first time in the longest time, i’m content with how a tvb drama ends.
I liked how Joe killed and ate Ka Ming and he saved the little Ka Ming! >.~
WHB – Well done
One of the best endings from TVB I have seen in a while. There were so many times where I wanted to pull the plug on this series but am glad that I clung on. The ending was definitely well worth the wait
Such a depressing series. I cant believe ratings went back up at all. And Charmaine forgiving the 3 of them and still wanting to be friends after they murdered and *ate* the love of her life? I dont think so.
The details are all presented so sketchy for the Mountain incident as well. How long were they up there? How did they get rescued? You can survive pretty damn long without eating anything unless your talking months.
The acting was stella, but its worth nothing if the script is a load of mess.