Timeless Gift Preview

Inheritance Wars, Singapore Style

By Han Wei Chou • UrbanWire
email reporter • email story • printer friendly

Death, succession and wills are ultra sensitive subjects for many ethnic Singaporean-Chinese, especially the older generation, due to their inauspicious inferences. However, in a bid to educate TV audiences on the importance of writing a will, while providing them quality entertainment, MediaCorp’s latest drama serial Timeless Gift,made in conjunction with the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) addresses these issues head on.

Timeless Gift traces the life and times of the troubled Wang family. The Wang brothers, Wang Yongding (Richard Low) and Wang Yongtai (Chen Shucheng) have carved a career for themselves in the food and beverage industry.Elder brother Yongding heads a leading food conglomerate while Yongtai manages a small restaurant.

On retirement, Yongding passes on his fortune to his 2 sons, who promptly abandon him after inheriting his money. To make matters worse, he falls ill and faces large monthly medical bills, forcing him to beg his unfilial sons for help.

Soon after, Yongtai’s second son Wang Yu (Edmund Chen) suddenly dies. Yu had been a successful man who owned many assets like a condominium, co-ownership of a restaurant and shares. By law, because he died without leaving a will, his wife Guo Yueli (Huang Biren) inherits half his estate while his parents get the rest. Yu’s mother Pan Xiuping (Li Yinzhu) felt that it’s unfair for Yueli to inherit half of Yu’s wealth and quarrels incessantly with her.

Meanwhile, Yu’s elder brother Wang Xi (Zhang Wenxiang) plots to take over the restaurant they co-owned. The plot thickens when a woman named Fang Yinzhang (Michelle Chong) appears with a boy whom she claims to be Yu’s illegitimate son while Yu’s lawyer friend, Zhong Ziliang (Rayson Tan), attempts to swindle Yueli and even Yu’s sister Wang Fei (Joey Swee) of their money.

After witnessing Yongding’s plight and the trouble that followed Yu’s death, Yongtai decides to write a will. Shortly after, he ends up in a coma following a fall. With Wang Xi and his wife Zhang Peiyun (Patricia Mok) busy scheming to get their hands on the comatose Yongtai’s money, only Wang Jie (Christopher Lee), Yongtai’s youngest and least favourite son, remains to look after him.

The fresh subject matter and labyrinthine plot are not the only highlights of 20 parter. The drama also marks the first time Michelle Chong plays dual roles in a drama serial. In Timeless Gift, she plays both Fang Yinzhang and her sister Fang Yinyu. At the show’s press conference last week, Michelle said in Mandarin, “It was very difficult playing 2 characters. Although both are victims in this serial, they have very different characters. I had to keep reminding myself who I was playing.”

Veteran and award-winning actress Huang Biren also had some trouble with her role as Guo Yueli, and felt that it was one her most challenging roles to date.

Because she and Edmund had virtually no actual scenes together, she said in Mandarin, “It was very hard to get into Yueli’s character because I could only piece together how she felt about her husband’s death and the ensuing inheritance tussles by looking at the few short flashback and dream sequences which she shared with him [Wang Yu].”

Watch how both actresses manage their difficult roles and find out how the Wangs resolve their disputes in Timeless Gift, every weeknight on Channel 8 at 9pm starting Sep 22.