Social worker drama touches your heart

February 15, 2001

You Light Up My Life is a meaningful and warm-hearted serial which encourages positivism and tells of the joys and pain of being social workers.

"I believe that there are miracles in this world. There are colourful rainbows even in twilight," says Celest Chong in her role as optimistic and idealistic social worker Yang Fan.

That is her motto and the whole theme of the serial.

Standing proud and emotional during a company function, the young 25-year-old is the recipient of the Best Social Worker Of The Year award.

Everything would be perfect, if not for the fact that she has gone blind again, a past injury that has recurred.

Time flashes back to a year ago.

We see an independent, persistent and dynamic Yang Fan, full of passion for her job; Qiu Bo (Ix Shen), her aloof colleague who has been in a reformatory in his youth and has a 15-year-old daughter; a cheerful and bold Xiaohui (Joey Swee); a gentle and compassionate Jiaxin (Samantha Toh); a serious Madam Yap (Hong Huifang) and a capable Xueli (Wendy Cheng), their Assistant Director.

While other white-collar workers are drawing up proposals and meeting clients, these social workers are monitoring the progress of delinquents and tracking them.

Their job is never easy. A typical work day sees them settling rowdy family disputes over issues of elderly care, finding volunteer nannies for an abandoned child, tracking down the whereabouts and counselling wayward youths.

What is commendable about the serial is that it features delinquents from other ethnic groups as well, which makes it more representative, and surprisingly, the acting skills of these part-time actors and actresses are more than satisfactory.

I found myself drawn to the realistic portrayal of the individual characters in each case; their performances even produced a lump in my throat (albeit a small one).

The MediaCorp artistes are commendably natural and convincing in their roles. Although this is Celest's first Chinese drama, her Mandarin sounded fluent and accurate enough in the trailers. My colleagues and I were duly impressed.

However, watching the first episode last night, I begin to wonder if her voice was dubbed, after all, as it sounded different and more polished. Still, she blends into the role nicely and there is no trace of the glamour from her modelling days.

As the drama unfolds, expect more complicated social cases, which will surely be eye-openers to create more awareness of the twilight zone of society.

How will the love relationship between Qiu Bo and Yang Fan develop now that her blindness has come back to haunt her? Will she regain her sight?

To find out, stay tuned and at the same time, feel deep into your numbed heart to relocate that feeling called Compassion.

You Light Up My Life is shown on Channel 8 from Mondays to Thursdays at 9 pm.

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