The Dance of Passion

"Dance Of Passion" 2006 TVB Series Poster © Copyrighted by TVB, Hong Kong

The Dance of Passion (Traditional Chinese: 火舞黃沙) was a 32-episode TV series broadcast in Hong Kong by TVB.

TVB 2006 series

"Dance of Passion" starts airing on May 1st, 2006 and ends on June 12th, 2006 in Hong Kong at the 9:30 p.m. air time slot. Some people prefer to this series as the "War and Beauty II" due to its striking similarity of the cast (with the exception of Maggie Cheung Ho Yee and Sheren Tang), most of the cast remains the same with the addition of Ada Choi and Maggie Siu. Both productions also share the same producer Chik Kee Yee. However, it is not a sequel/prequel and the storyline is completely different from the original "War and Beauty".

TVB had been promoting this series heavily creating a hype for the series even before it starts airing.

The early premier is held on April 24th, 2006 at 7:40 p.m. at International Finance Centre Palace, Hong Kong.

According to the TV Reception Investigation Report, the TV premiere of Dance of Passion first episode has broke the ratings record in recent years with an average of 36 points and 2.31 million audiences. TVB has confidence the ratings of the series will continue to rise.

Unsurprisingly, second episode also maintains the same ratings of 36 points.

However, the ratings seem to be not lived up to it expectation following the next several weeks. Some believe that the premise of the show, which had two rival families constant bickering with each other, and the desert setting (which constantly produces a monochrome yellow color on TV), made the show somewhat tiresome. Though overall, the ratings are all above 30 points and are already very high.

The final episode of the series pulled in 35 points and peaked at 38 points. Though the series received some criticisms, it still holds as one of the top 3 highest ratings TVB series of 2006 just below La Femme Desperado.

Title

火舞黃沙 - Dance of Passion

PinYin: Foh Mo Wong Sa

Literary translation: Dancing Flame on Golden Sand

Vietnamese translation: Hỏa Vũ Hoàng Sa

32-episodes TVB series

Soundtrack:

Theme Song: Bowie Lam - Sandstorm (风沙)

Sub-theme: Charmaine Sheh - Lovers Within the Golden Sand (黄沙中的恋人) from Lady In Red Album (Nui Yee Hung)- 2006

Cast

Ada Choi Siu Fan

Charmaine Sheh Shi Man

Gigi Lai Chi

Maggie Siu

Bowie Lam Bo Yee

Moses Chan Ho

Kenny Wong

Filming Location

Yinchuan, Ningxia in Mainland China

Hong Kong

Producer

Chik Kee Yee (Cold Blood Warm Heart, The Criminal Investigator, Healing Hands, War and Beauty, Blade Heart)

Scriptwriter

Chow Yuk Ming

Synopsis

The story takes place on a desert plains during the 1920's and 1930's in China.

CHARACTER INTRODUCTION:

Sung Clan:

Chew Yuk (Ada Choi)

Sung Tung Shing (Moses Chan)

Ka Chun Fen (Charmaine Sheh)

Sung Tung Yeung (Kenny Wong)

Shu Long Yuet (Maggie Siu)

Yim Clan:

Yim Man Hei (Bowie Lam)

Gai Ming Fung (Gigi Lai)

Yim Man Tin (Vinci Wong)

Yim Kwok Yip (King Sir)

Yim Siew Hung (Rebecca Chan)

Far north, lays an uncultivated land. On this vast plateau, the people are simple and the Yim clan has long lived there. In early years, epidemic struck and half of the clan population died. At that time, Sung clan ancestor has just arrived and taught Yim clan how to cure the disease using gunpowder. In the end, Yim clan was saved from extermination and was taught by Sung clan the technique of producing firecrackers, making them flourish. Because of this, Yim clan ancestor passed on the decree that no matter life or death, the Sung clan must be treated kindly, never to disobey.

Hence forth, Yim and Sung clan co-existed on the plains. However, Sung clansmen were not fruitful, after three generation, none of them are useful and relied on Yim clan. Yim clansmen view the Sung's as their parasite, but did not dare to protest because their ancestor’s decree until Yim Man Hei (Bowie) became the chief. Ruthless and brutal, Hei seized every opportunity to drive Sung clansmen away and revive the Yim clan.

At the beginning of the story, Song clansmen Sung Tung Shing (Moses), a man who is stubborn in love; disregarded the village rules and boldly fell in love with Yim clan widow. After their relationship was exposed, they were punished by [Sky Torching]. Shing did not fear death, but feared witnessing his lover dying tragically in front of him. Shing loudly rebuke Yim chief for being heartless and not knowing what is love. Hei insisted of abide the rules and lighted the firecrackers on Shing's body. The firecrackers exploded halfway when it suddenly pours and Shing survived. He was subsequently expelled from Sung clan and the village forever.

Though Shing survived, he lost his will in life. At his lowest moment, he met Ka Chun Fen (Charmaine), who took pity on him. In order to give Shing a hope in life again, she does not hesitate to climb up the mountains and retrieved the shoe left by his dead lover. Shing was touched and decided to leave and start anew. Fen thought a good turn deserve another, but it turns out that Shing was actually her fiancé and because he had broke the rules, their engagement was broken as well. From that moment on, Fen was branded as jinxed.

Two years later, using his father's funeral as an excuse, Shing returned to the plains. On the appearance, Shing wanted to fulfill his filial duties, but his true intentions are taking revenge for his dead lover, targeting on Yim Man Hei.

Sung Tung Yeung (Kenny), the eldest son of Sung clan chief was also Shing's best friend. He helped Shing to reclaim his status in the household and treated him with sincerity. However, all Shing could think of was vengeance and he used his friendship with Yeung. He was determined to help Yeung to become Sung clan's chief so that he could use Yeung's power to fight Hei. However, Yeung's stepmother Chew Yuk (Ada) was the head of Sung clan. In order to protect the future of her own son Sung Tung Hiu, she refused to let Yeung claim his birthright. By chance, she found out that Yeung was sterile; therefore she swore that if Yeung's wife Shu Long Yuet (Maggie) could give birth, Yuk will immediately hand over her position. Although Shing knew Yeung was sterile, he tried a lot of suggestion, including urging Yeung to 'borrow seeds'. In the end, Yeung does not want to hurt Yuet's feelings and gave up on this idea. When Yuk want Yeung to marry a concubine, which is Fen, Yeung thought that Fen was another spy sent by Yuk, therefore he stayed away from Fen. In addition, on their wedding day, Fen's parent died in an attack by the bandits, therefore she has to mourn for a year and their wedding was postponed. Shing's plan failed one after another and thought of abducting Tung Hiu instead. At a critical moment, he bumped into his benefactor Fen again and felt apologetic when he found out that she was his ex-fiancée. In addition, he met the father of his dead lover Mao To, thus he gave up on this method of revenge and Hiu was saved. From thereon, Shing and Yuk relationship was strained.

Chew Yuk, though a woman, kept her guards against everyone because of her painful experience. When Yeung's father was terminally ill, he wanted Yuk to be buried along with him. Fortunately, servant Gwai Lan (Helen Ma) found out about his intention and rescued Yuk from death. Yuk was grateful, while the real reason Gwai Lan helped Yuk was because she once has an affair with Yeung's father and was forced to abort her baby. After that incident Yuk and Lan supported one another.

Yuk always place Hiu's importance first, paving a path for his future. However, Hiu died after an accident, causing Yuk to lose interest in life and passed the power to Yeung. Shing, who is now Yeung's trusted assistant, finally has enough power to fight Hei...

Taken from: idlemindsehseh.blogspot.com

Ratings

1st & 2nd episodes - 36 TVRs

1st week (05/01/2006 - 05/05/2006) - 34 TVRs (Peaking at 36 TVRs)

2nd week (05/07/2006 - 05/12/2006) - 33 TVRs (Peaking at 35 TVRs)

3rd week (05/15/2006 - 05/19/2006) - 31 TVRs (Peaking at 33 TVRs)

4th week (05/22/2006 - 05/26/2006) - 32 TVRs (Peaking at 33 TVRs)

5th week (05/29/2006 - 06/02/2006) - 30 TVRs

6th week (06/05/2006 - 06/09/2006) - 31 TVRs (Peaking at 34 TVRs)

Final Episode (6/12/2006) - 35 TVRs (Peaking 38 TVRs)

Reviews & Criticisms

The series was being criticized by some audience to be not deserved all the hype that it was circulating before the series was aired. However, many people praised the ending to be very touching and unforgetable.