TVB’s new drama, The Hippocratic Crush <On Call 36小時>, starring Tavia Yeung (楊怡) and Kenneth Ma (馬國明), aired this week in Hong Kong. It was unexpected that after the broadcast of only the fourth episode, netizens have already revealed the developing plot details. It turned out that The Hippocratic Crush may have plagiarized 2008 drama, Healing Souls <生命有明天> starring Francis Ng (吳鎮宇) and Jessica Hsuan (宣萱)! Asked to comment upon the plagiarism accusations, The Hippocratic Crush producer, Poon Ka Tak (潘嘉德), replied, “No comment!” In recent years, TVB’s dramas were often accused of plagiarizing other productions and lacking creativity. After ATV secured the broadcast rights for Healing Souls, ATV aired the drama in 2008. Comparing The Hippocratic Crush with Healing Souls, numerous similarities exist. In the first episode, neurosurgeon intern, Kenneth Ma, rescued the life of a traffic accident victim. This resembled a scene in Healing Souls where neurosurgeon, Francis Ng, rescued a victim in an automobile accident as well! Same Characters and Background Just A Coincidence The similarities in the background story between The Hippocratic Crush and Healing Souls may have been a “coincidence.” Both Tavia Yang and Jessica Hsuan portrayed “interns” and were bickering couples with Kenneth Ma and Francis Ng. Worse still, Tavia grew up in a single-parent family as a child; while her mother was pregnant, her mother remarried. Years later, Tavia met her sister, Mandy Wong (黃智雯), for the first time [without recognizing their sister relationship] at the hospital that the both of them work at. In Healing Souls, after Jessica’s parents’ divorce, her father had another daughter. Many years later, Jessica met her half-sister at the hospital that the pair worked at. The contents of both dramas were coincidentally the same! Asked to comment regarding the plagiarism claims, Producer Poon Ka Tak, only said, “I have no response! Creds: Oriental Daily/Jstars
with all this similarity no wonder the producer had no comment. But it is kind of funny to copy a rival drama. I thought TVB can do better at least copy something further away. ATV is like next door only.
