Devotion (TV series)

Devotion (simplified Chinese: 阿娣) is a Singaporean Chinese drama which was telecasted on Singapore's free-to-air channel, MediaCorp Channel 8. It made its debut on 28 June 2011 and ended its run on 1 August 2011. This drama serial consists of 25 episodes, and was screened on every weekday night at 9.00 pm.

The storyline spans 40 years, and is also dubbed the mid-year blockbuster-cum-47th anniversary drama.

Synopsis

Liu Zhao Di (Zoe Tay), better known as Ah Di, is born in the 60s amidst sand quarries during the heyday of sand quarrying. Zhao Di, the fourth daughter in the family and whose name means "brings a younger brother", is given away to an uncle after her mother finally gives birth to a boy. He mistreats Ah Di like a maid. When she was little, Ah Di falls into a quarry pond and was saved by Huang Dake (Chen Hanwei). Love blossoms between them after they are reunited in adulthood but Ah Di is forced by her foster father, Liu Huoyan (Ye Shipin) to marry Xu Zhongzheng (Huang Wenyong), the boss of a garment factory.

Ah Di was also kidnapped trying to save three girls, Yuanfang (Zhou Ying), Shanshan (Cynthia Wang) and Siwen (Kate Pang). They were later being saved.

Not long after Ah Di marries Zhongzheng, he was manslaughtered by two subordinates, (Brandon Wong and Lin Meijiao). After Zhongzheng died, Ah Di works in a soy sauce factory. She becomes the object of love of Hong Keqin (San Yow), the boss of a soy sauce factory. However, she rejects his overtures because of her deep love for Dake whom she thinks is dead.

A sequence of events lead to Ah Di adopting five children from different families - Wang Yuanfang, Fu Shuangjie (Zhang Zhenhuan), Xu Siwen, Lin Shanshan and Wu Feng (Adeline Lim) and raising them while working at Keqin's factory, "Home Flavour". Raising five children has been a bittersweet experience for Ah Di who never once entertained the thought of giving them up even in life's most difficult moments...

Cast

Trivia

• This drama is one of three drama blockbusters in 2011, the other two being The Oath as well as A Song to Remember.
• This drama marks Zoe Tay's return after The Ultimatum in 2009.
• The drama coincidentally stars all three of the Star Search 1988 contestants still in the entertainment industry: Zoe Tay, Chen Hanwei and Aileen Tan.
• Dai Yang Tian was offered the role Fu Shuangjie, but he turned down the role. The role was played by Zhang Zhenhuan instead.
• This drama marks Taiwan star Chloe Wang's first Singaporean drama.
• This drama also marks Star Search 2010 artistes Adeline Lim, Jeffery Xu and Darryl Yong's first drama production.
• Cynthia Wang's role Lin Shanshan's surname was originally named Zhang.
• This drama is currently encoring from 13 June 2012 to 17 July 2012 at 5.30pm. Unriddle 2 was supposed to make a quick encore the weekday after The Oath's encore finale, which is on the timespan stated and also planned to end a week earlier, but the channel wanted to encore this drama due to strong rating symbol guide in Singapore media.

Accolades

Devotion won a string of nominations at the awards ceremony, including a record three for the Young Talent Award and two for the Best Newcomer Award.The other dramas are nominated for Best Theme songs are Secrets of Sale, A Song to Remember, Kampong Ties & The Oath.

See also

• List of programmes broadcast by MediaCorp Channel 8
• List of Devotion episodes

References