Leap Day (TV series)

Leap Day (Chinese: 二月廿九; Jyutping: ji6 jyut6 ja6 gau2; lit.: '29 February') is a Hong Kong television drama series produced by HK Television Entertainment and aired on ViuTV between 2 and 13 March 2020.

Leap Day
Title card
二月廿九
Genre
Written by
  • Yellow Wong (Supervisor)
  • Shek Chun-kit
  • So Sha-long
  • Lee Sui-na (Assistant)
Directed bySteve Law
Starring
Theme music composerDay Tai
Composer(s)Day Tai
Country of originHong Kong
Original language(s)Cantonese
No. of series1
No. of episodes10
Production
Producer(s)Steve Law
Production location(s)
Running time60 minutes (including commercials)
Production company(s)HK Television Entertainment
Release
Original networkViuTV
Picture format1080i (HDTV)
Audio formatStereo
Original release2 March (2020-03-02) –
13 March 2020 (2020-03-13)
External links
Website

Synopsis

Yeesa Cheung (Sofiee Ng), born on a leap day, believes her birthday is squeezed between 28 February and 1 March in common years. When she celebrates her birthday in 2017, she unexpectedly travels to 29 February 2020 in Sapporo. There she is greeted by two strangers, Ryan Ma (Chui Tien-you) and Yu Ka-chung (Terrance Lau), and finds her future self killed in a traffic accident. After she returns to 2017, only one second has passed, but the three have now to work together to circumvent their common destiny.

Production

The crew describe the genre as romance rather than sci-fi. The director, Steve Law, drew inspiration from a friend of his who was born on 29 February, before incorporating the idea of time travel. The filming in Hong Kong was completed before the foreign scenes. The crew initially planned to film in Taipei but later chose Sapporo to add to the mystical atmosphere. They received sponsor from the Sapporo Film Commission to cast Japanese characters at the desired spots. Yamano Hisaji, the coordinator of the cooperating producer company in Japan, was additionally cast to play the role of Kagawa Niro. With limited budget, the crew had a tight filming schedule and some missing scenes had to be added by computer graphics.

Sofiee Ng worked with Steve Law on Margaret & David - Ex the Special Episode and Terrance Lau with Yellow Wong on Limited Education. They both accepted the roles based on the previous working experience with the crew. Ng had three ligaments torn during the filming of a chasing scene in Sapporo.

Cast and characters

Main characters
Born on 29 February 1992, she believes she is unlucky because she has a quarter of birthday wishes compared to others. She aspires to be a professional designer but has not found a permanent job for three years since graduation from a design degree. She describes herself as being indecisive, as she is afraid of bearing responsibility for her decisions. Her character name is inspired by Riisa Naka, the voice actress for Makoto Konno of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.
He aspires to be a professional Japanese chef but is growingly unsatisfied with his job at a supermarket. He cares for his mother and sister more than himself.
  • Terrance Lau as Yu Ka-chung (余家聰)
A doctor of philosophy. He distances himself from emotions

Other characters
  • Deon Cheung as Cheung San (張辰) — Yeesa's father. A grocery store owner.
  • Kaki Sham as Pak Sai-kai 'Brazil Turtle' (白世繼; 巴西龜) — Vice-chairman of Sacred Geometry. Specialised in physics.
  • Ranya Lee as Fiona Tse (謝心雪) — One of Yeesa's best friends. A professional real estate agent.
  • Kiki Cheung as Lee Ka-man 'Kaka' (李嘉敏; 嘉嘉) — One of Yeesa's best friends. A beauty youtuber.
  • Anna Ng as Lee (李姐) — Ryan's mother
  • Krince Mak as Ma Tsz-ching (馬芷晴) — Ryan's younger sister. A senior secondary school student sitting for HKDSE in 2019
  • Will Or as Jonathan — Fiona's boyfriend. A start-up entrepreneur.
  • Eric Leung as Timothy — Kaka's boyfriend. A newspaper journalist.
  • Yamano Hisaji as Kagawa Niro (香川二郎) — A beer deliverer whose son suffers from chronic illness.
  • Leung Tin-chak as 'Jesus' (耶穌) — Member of Sacred Geometry. Specialised in conspiracy theories.
  • Esther So as 'Tripper' (跳掣) — Member of Sacred Geometry. Specialised in hypnosis.
  • Kwan Wing-yu as 'Kwan Yu' (關羽) — Member of Sacred Geometry. Specialised in dimensional analysis.
  • Cheng Man-hei as Alien — Member of Sacred Geometry. Specialised in Extraterrestrial lives.
  • Ho Kai-wa as Thomas — Ryan's coworker at a supermarket.
  • Okizaki Chinatsu as Minano Miko — Yeesa's mother. A native of Sapporo.

Episodes
No.TitleOriginal air date
1"零時零分"
Transcription: "Zero past zero o'clock"		2 March 2020 (2020-03-02)
In 2017, Yeesa Cheung receives a call from her alcoholic and dispirited father, San, to tidy up his grocery store. In the storage room she discovers an omamori from her late mother's momento which she believes to bring luck to her unfortunate life. Having struggled to find a permanent job for three years, she is entrusted by her friend Kaka to run a book store. As she was born on 29 February 1992, Yeesa makes a birthday wish in her bedroom at the exact second that 28 February ends, as she does every year. When she reopens her eyes, she unexpectedly finds herself being approached by a tram on a snowy tramway, but is saved by a stranger, Ryan Ma, before losing consciousness. As she wakes up at a Japanese hospital, she feels uncomfortable with the interactions with Ryan, who seems to know her very well, and decides to escape.
2"時空浪人"
Transcription: "Wanderer of time"		3 March 2020 (2020-03-03)
Yeesa manages to throw off the police with the help from another stranger, Yu Ka-chung. Ka-chung reveals to Yeesa that she has time leaped to Sapporo of 29 February 2020, much to her disbelief. He also hints that he is her boyfriend and, before leaving urgently, gives her a secret code, 940920, that can help them reunify. Despite being told to stay at a hotel room until midnight, Yeesa wanders around the city. At night, she is shocked at seeing breaking news of a fatal traffic accident with a footage of her injury, but fails to find any help. At 23:59, she finds her another future self letting go of some ashes on a footbridge, but before she can comprehend the situation, she is brought back to her bedroom. Back in 2017, as the calendar turns 1 March, Kaka and Fiona arrive to give her a birthday surprise, only to find a hypothermic Yeesa. Yeesa is rushed to hospital, where she bumps into Ryan, but he does not recognise her. Although she fails to convince her friends and her father, she finds and reads Introduction to Time Travel in her book store. An interested customer, nicknamed 'Brazil Turtle', invites her to share her experiences on the online channel of the Sacred Geometry Association, a six-member society that discusses supernaturality.
3"神聖幾何"
Transcription: "Sacred Geometry"		4 March 2020 (2020-03-04)
Yeesa has diarrhea after eating a box of sushi brought from a nearby supermarket. Encouraged by Fiona, she complains to the supermarket, where she meets Ryan, who works as a sushi preparer there, but he again denies firmly any knowledge of the time leap. Yeesa shares her story on the live streaming of Sacred Geometry, but the hosts ridicule her and analyse with different theories instead, and the feedback from the audience is overwhelmingly negative. On her way home, she is chased by a gang, but Ryan passes by and provides shelters for her in his home. The two introduce each other and Yeesa tells him about their future encounter. As Yeesa stays overnight on Ryan's couch, his mother finds her a kind-hearted girl and encourages Ryan to get close to her. They exchange contact but dismiss chances of further development. As a far-fetched future entertainment news that Yeesa told suddenly proves true, members of Sacred Geometry begin to take her seriously; her second online sharing becomes the most-viewed episode.
4"賭徒原則"
Transcription: "Gamblers' mind"		5 March 2020 (2020-03-05)
The chairman of Sacred Geometry, Yu Ka-chung, returns from aboard and is skeptical about Yeesa's story, but switches his mind when Yeesa tells him the secret code. Yeesa notes Ka-chung is cold towards her, unlike in 2020. Deducing that her time leap is a recurring incident that enables her to change the future, Ka-chung theorises that Yeesa is likely to time leap again under the same condition, and suggests she receive an intensive training package . Ka-chung finds his heartbeat rate exceptionally high but is unsure about his future relationship with Yeesa. Ryan convinces San to have a medical check-up, and a grateful Yeesa asks him for a dinner, where she befriends Ryan's younger sister, Tsz-ching, who insists on joining them. Afterwards, Yeesa recalls the best-ever tamagoyaki that Ryan made in Sapporo and encourages him to pursue his dream as a Japanese cuisine chef. At Sacred Geometry, Yeesa's describes her omamori as a charm that has brought her good luck. However, Ka-chung dismisses it as merely 'gambler's mind', saying it is her own belief that attributes her perceived luck to an unrelated object, and goes on to point out that it is her friends and father who secretly help her out. He is again angry at Yeesa when she fails to memorise basic information and calls her irresponsible for her own future. Left with a damaged ego, Yeesa leaves the training but is cheered up by Ryan, who says she has always been lucky to be surrounded by helpful people.
5"噩耗"
Transcription: "Starling news"		6 March 2020 (2020-03-06)
Yeesa asks Ryan to participate in Jonathan's proposal surprise for Fiona, who aspires to be a good mother and soon gets pregnant. Ryan feels inferior when compared to Kaka and Fiona's boyfriends and eventually joins a Japanese restaurant as a junior cook. Ka-chung dismisses Yeesa's apology, saying it is essential to distance from emotions in order to make the right decisions. However, Yeesa understands Ka-chung's deep care for her and resumes her training. On 28 February 2018, a well-prepared Yeesa leaps to a male Japanese bathhouse. When escaping from the staff, she hides in a truck until the morning. At Ka-chung's instructions, she confirms being at the same city and time, and observes her 2017 self, thereby proving it is a recurring universe. She also attempts to see the gender of Fiona's baby, only to find her memorial page. Astonished, she calls Jonathan and learns that Fiona, unwilling to give up her baby, died from cervical cancer in September 2018. When she returns to 2018, all the footage she filmed disappears, causing all Sacred Geometry members but Ka-chung to think the time leap has failed. Ryan encourages a davastated Yeesa to treasure this chance to save her friend, so she tells an incredulous Fiona about her fate and pleads that she should have a medical check-up. After the diganosis, Fiona and Jonathan decide to support each other.
6"分岔"
Transcription: "Diversion"		9 March 2020 (2020-03-09)
Frustrated but motivated by Ka-chung, Yeesa shares the details of her latest time leap, and recalls that the fatal accident involves the truck that she hid in; Ka-chung rules out the possibility of coincidence. Yeesa then shares briefly about her mother, who died when giving birth to her, and the omamori she left behind. Ka-chung believes the omamori is crucial to the time leap, but Yeesa refuses to investigate further as she feels insecure with diverting the future. Seeing her closer relationship with Sacred Geometry, Ryan confesses his love to Yeesa, but she is hesitant to accept; nevertheless Ryan tells Tsz-ching he is determined to love her despite the foretold future. Fiona successfully has her uterus removed and survives beyond September 2018, but the sorrow at the loss of her baby persists. Ka-chung travels alone to Sapporo to investigate Yeesa's background, and traces the accident to the driver Kagawa Niro. Returning to Hong Kong, Ka-chung announces that Yeesa has to stop Kagawa from driving the truck. Later, Ka-chung reveals to Yeesa that their secret code is the death anniversary of his mother, who committed suicide over post-divorce depression. Ka-chung feels pity for her and believes love is void, but Yeesa, moved by San's unchanging affection for his late wife, finds it valuable.
7"御守"
Transcription: "Omamori"		10 March 2020 (2020-03-10)
In 2019, Yeesa falls alseep when folding paper crane alone in her book store on the Valentine's day, but Ryan finishes the job for her and leaves a hand-band as a gift. Later, she explained to him that her insecurity makes her always indecisive so that she wants to prepare for the future together but will delay confirming their relationship until 29 February 2020. on 28 February, Yeesa leaps to a 2020 and, in the morning, attempts to disable Kagawa's truck by pouring sugar in the engine. Following Ka-chung's notes, Yeesa visits a shrine where people pray for time; there she learns from the priestess that her parents rushed to the shrine on a snowy night and her mother, holding an omamori throughout the labour pain, prayed to the deity that she was willing to scarifice her life for her child. At night, she saw Kagawa driving his truck before the news reports the accident. Yeesa visits the accident site and recognises her hand-band from Ryan on the ground; Ka-chung is seen crying nearby. After Yeesa leaps back to 2019, Ka-chung advises she should avoid going to Japan at all cost, and she thanks him for leading her to discover her mother's life. Seeing her life counting down, Yeesa asks Kaka to take custody of her passport and also returns the book store to her. Ryan receives appreciation for his hard work and is offered an opportunity of training in Sapporo.
8"迴環"
Transcription: "Recursion"		11 March 2020 (2020-03-11)
Still haunted by the loss of her child, Fiona attempts suicide, making Yeesa question her own action but Ka-chung discusses free will and fate. Yeesa asks San about his life story and he finally expresses his decades-long guilt over his wife's death. Yeesa then shares her mother's story with Fiona and encourages her to live on with the memories of the departed. Ryan decides to join the training but promises Yessa to return to celebrate her birthday. Yeesa and San's communications greatly improve and they look after the grocery store together. In 2020, Ka-chung sees the fate as increasingly clear and summons Sacred Geometry to ensure Yeesa will stay in Hong Kong. However, he himself goes to Sapporo alone, insisting that he is doing so out of concern for the truth rather than Yeesa. Ryan is now well trained for making tamagoyaki and is asked to delay his departure to 29 February. Without telling Yeesa, San visits his wife's tomb in Sapporo on the morning of 29 February; he is relieved from his grief, but falls into coma after stroke. After spending a sleepover with her best friends, Yeesa learns about his father's critical condition and insists on seeing him regardless of the outcome. Fiona, who believes the future has changed, urges Kaka to return Yeesa's passport to her.
9"二月廿九"
Transcription: "29 February"		12 March 2020 (2020-03-12)
On the night of 28 February, Ryan finishes his last tamagoyaki and is visited by Ka-chung; Ryan is conviced the future has changed but Ka-chung is wary. En route to the airport, Ryan saves 2017-Yeesa from an approaching tram at 0:00 and has his phone broken, cutting short of his call with 2020-Yeesa. Kagawa delivers beer to a bathhouse but is puzzled at seeing 2018-Yeesa running out from the male compartment, and unknowingly locks her up in his truck before staying in the same internet cafe with 2019-Yeesa. Ryan accompanies 2017-Yeesa to a hospital overnight and gives her the tamagoyaki he made. He then calls 2020-Yeesa from the hospital and learns she is coming to Sapporo. 2017-Yeesa is suspicious of the call he makes and escapes from the hospital, then bumps into Kagawa who visits his son every day. As she is pursued by the police, Ka-chung saves her and leads her to a hotel room, where he decides to hint at being her boyfriend. Ka-chung receives a call from 'Brazil Turtle', is shocked at knowing 2020-Yeesa's journey, and urgently leaves after giving 2017-Yeesa a secret code. Kagawa begins his morning delivery, finds his truck stalled by 2019-Yeesa but later managed to deliver beer as usual. Ka-chung has no choice but to adbuct Kagawa, but Kagawa breaks free and knocks him down at night. 2020-Yeesa arrives in Sapporo but realises that Ryan has a same hand-band as hers. Worried about Ryan, she decides to take responsibility and attempts to intervene, but is assaulted by an angry and exhausted Kagawa. Ryan arrives to see an injured 2020-Yeesa and catches a car to hospital. Debt-stricken and now facing job loss, Kagawa learns that his son's health is deteriorating and rushes to hospital. Ka-chung arrives at the accident site and tries to stop Ryan's car but in vain, only to see it crashing with Kagawa's truck; he cries helplessly. Yeesa survives the collision but Ryan dies protecting her, dropping his hand-band on the snowy ground.
10"知命"
Transcription: "Comprehending destiny"		13 March 2020 (2020-03-13)
Ryan dies from the accident, recalling many memories: he was unwilling to accept Ka-chung being referred to as Yeesa's future boyfriend, and did not regard it as fate. Remember the priestess's teaching on sacrifices in all relationships, Yeesa unwittingly invokes the mysterical power of her omamori and leaps back to half an hour before the accident. Understanding someone has to die, Yeesa attempts to stop Kagawa's truck and die in Ryan's place. However, Ka-chung pushes her aside and gets knocked down by the truck, with Yeesa and Ryan unharmed. Ka-chung recalls his memories that his heartbeats have been high whenever when Yeesa is referred to as his future girlfriend, though he was never sure about their future relationship. Devastated at seeing Ka-chung die, Yeesa stands on a footbridge as her omamori vanishes in ashes. On 28 February 2021, Yeesa regains consciousness in the hospital after falling into coma for one year. Ryan, San, Fiona and Kaka are happy, but none of them has any memory of Ka-chung. Yeesa visits Sacred Geometry, only to be told that 'Brazil Turtle' has been the chairman of the 5-member association. Yeesa returns to the bookstore and finds Ka-chung there, but he is a famous novel writer who has no memory of their experiences, not even their secret code. Yeesa realises it must be a parallel universe that Ka-chung told her about. Ryan goes abroad to another one-year training. As Yeesa celebrates another birthday, she is not sure whether she will time leap again. In the post-credits scene, Ka-chung publishes a novel titled Leap Day.

Theme music and song

The original scores, opening and ending themes were composed by Day Tai of D Dome Music.

"Sei nin yat yu" (Chinese: 四年一遇; lit.: 'Quadrennial encounter'), composed, written, arranged, produced and sung by Chui Tien-you, was used as the ending song of Episode 9 instead of the normal ending theme. In the story, Ryan gives this song to Yeesa before he leaves Hong Kong for a half-year training in Sapporo.

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