The Dream Makers II / 志在四方II (first week)

With this year's highly anticipated “The Dream Makers II” (aka The Dream Makers 2 or simply ZZSF2 if transliterating the Mandarin 志在四方II) MediaCorp Channel 8 brings back most of Singapore's top talent and pan-Asian idols for a second season, albeit three years later, while introducing some new talent and on-screen parings.  For instance, in the 40-something generation, reining Queen of Drama, Zoe Tay, won't be re-matched with her former longtime “frenemy” played by Chen Liping last season.  This time her rival is a character played by Huang Biren, marking their first dramatic collaboration in 27 years.  As before, there will be three generations of romantically entangled leads to garner as wide an audience as possible:

How We Got Here:

All unfolding in and around the fictional VBS television production and broadcasting studios (a hardly veiled stand-in for MediaCorp, itself), the original series' theme was “Everyone Wears a Mask” - perhaps a more sinister re-visioning of William Shakespeare's “The World is a Stage”.  Although this sequel didn't so formalize its own theme, the first week's subplots all seem to share the need to let go of the past in order to move on.

The 40-somethings:

Zhou Weiyun (Zoe Tay), ever concerned with quality over raw popularity or gimmickry and always compassionate towards her employees, has moved from her position as VP of Variety at VBS Studios to VP of Drama; however, due to falling ratings (partially due to Internet competition) her division is split in two with half to be run competitively by newly hired ice cold Ms Guan (Huang Biren), a no-nonsense executive that doesn't allow anyone to address her by her first name, Xie En.  Although calculating, manipulative and ready to fire entire departments on-the-spot, she is never-the-less a straight shooter and won't cheat.

Zoe Tay as Weiyun and Huang Biren as Ms Guan

Lin Tao (Li Nanxing), has taken over the Variety department left by Weiyun after her move to Drama.  Operationally, he's the polar opposite of Weiyun and will pull any kind of publicity stunt to boost ratings.

LT seems interested in Weiyun, but as usual, she either doesn't or won't notice him.  The only thing missing from Weiyun's otherwise successful life is a happy marriage and she feels she's run out of time, but her luck with men has always been abysmal.  Last season her longtime, non-advancing relationship turned out to be with a man who had a secret wife in Hong Kong, the sister of a Triad boss, no less.  Then, when she finally notices and warms up to the one who had always been by her side, Yu Fan (Chen Hanwei), he dies of a sudden heart attack.  Will she ever find the marital bliss that has so far eluded her?  It's pretty obvious that we will see a relationship develop between Weiyun and LT but only after a protracted delay until she begins to notice his better qualities.

For her part, Ms Guan has achieved success in her profession partially by earlier abandoning her family for a business opportunity in the United States.  To be fair, she was the only bread-winner supporting a non-contributing husband and their two children.  But in the mean time, the younger brother thinks his mother is dead and the older one has grown to hate her.  They've been raised by their aunt since their father died, but she has three children of her own.  LT befriended the older of the two after the later was injured in a fight and has been acting as a secret godfather to them both ever since.  Now both brothers have found their way onto VBS Studios and have come into the presence of their estranged mother.

The 30-somethings:

Last season closed with professional and romantic rivals Zhao Fei'er (Jeanette Aw) and Fang Tonglin (Rui En) becoming best friends after the object of their shared desires, Jason Lam (Qi Yuwu), too hastily abandoned by his first love, Fei'er, in her bid to advance her own career, announced he would be engaged to Tonglin.

Jeanette Aw as Fei'er with
Qi Yuwu as Jason and Rui En as Tonglin

But Jason's career is stalled as he's produced three unsuccessful films since that time and doesn't want to be a burden to his award-winning actress girlfriend, Tonglin.  Now, however, Tonglin has decided to propose to Jason, instead, and this causes cracks in her relationship with Fei'er, who has never lost the hope of eventually reuniting with Jason.

Waiting in the wings (but probably unknown to both of them, at least initially) is Fei'er's current drama on-screen love interest, Zhong Yiming (Romeo Tan) – self absorbed and suffering an extreme mysophobia disorder (which Fei'er finds endless amusement in aggravating).

Romeo Tan as Yiming gets champagne
comfortable with Fei'er in the men's restroom

Both got very drunk at a corporate party, Yiming because it's a natural talent, Fei'er because of her advancing stress concerning the actual engagement of Tonglin to Jason.  Yiming finds Fei'er sprawled on the floor in the men's bathroom beside the toilette in which she's just vomited.  Later, they both wake up in the extravagant home of Yiming, who's excessive wealth, it turns out, comes not from his popularity as an idol, but due to his mother Zhong “Empress Wu” Qianyi (Chen Meifeng) - the chairwomen of an international conglomerate who has very different plans for her son's future.  Startled at first by the initial disorientation, and secondly when Yiming, realizing Fei'er is wearing the same vomit-stained clothes she had on while lying under the toilet in the men's bathroom, throws a fit -  to which Fei'er responds by rolling around and deliberately contaminating everything is his bedroom.

The 20-somethings:

It's probably too early for me to fairly describe the 20-something generation characters just now because the first week descriptions will end up being misleading or incomplete.  The surprising true identities of some of these characters will be revealed next week, so I'll hold off on details until then.  Also, at least one relationship will cross generations, so we'll save that for later, when it happens, too.

I've already mentioned Ms Guan's wayward son, but not his name.  He's Eddy (Edwin Goh) who through the efforts of godfather-benefactor LT is hired on as a stunt-double (“fighting is all he does well”).

Richard Low as Fei'er's father, De, and
introducing Julie Tan as Zihuai, newly
arrived from Taiwan to join Fei'er's fan club

Dong Zihuai (Julie Tan) is introduced in episode 4 when Fei'er's father picks her up from the airport in his taxi.  Noticing the dashboard photos, she claims to be a huge fan of Fei'er and without revealing his relationship, Fei'er's father, Zhao De (Richard Low) promises to get Zihuai signed publicity photos of her idol (“she's my neighbor's cousin's...” something).  For her part, Zihuai only reveals that she is “known” herself... in some circles.  Her true identity will be revealed next week in episode 7.

The other-somethings:

Chen Guang (Zhang Zhenhuan) is the host of variety show “Minute to Ace It” and a close friend of Ms Guan.  He is glib in speech and dishonest in looks and has a brother in jail for bribery.  His importance will emerge later.

Finally, Richard Ma (Rayson Tan) was LT's former partner in Taiwan, but the two have had a serious falling out.  Richard is going to invest in a new film to be directed by Jason, who is unaware of the former relationship, compromising the delicate alliances within the VBS family.

-obnoXious.