Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity 2002

In a bustling neighborhood, the hopeful world of a 12-year-old girl named Mindy Ho grows intertwined with magic, family, and hard knocks. Mindy discovers Taoist charms tucked inside a book from a local shop called Lee Tai Tai’s Fortune Telling and Appliance Repair, and she believes these charms could be the key to a better life for her mother. Her mother, Kin, works as a telephone psychic at night while juggling a daytime shift at a restaurant, always balancing bills and dreams with love for Mindy. Mindy’s quiet mission is to see Kin paired with the warm restaurant owner, Alvin Wong, in hopes of stabilizing their world and giving Kin a chance at happiness.

Meanwhile, Shuck Wong has just lost his job as a security guard. In a blur of shame, he wears his old uniform to pretend he’s still employed, roaming the streets in search of fresh work while his wife Hun Ping Wong navigates her own path to new opportunities. The mounting strain pushes Shuck toward a crisis of faith as he contends with the sense that his worth is slipping away. On the other side of the city, Bing Lai grapples with the expectations placed by his father, a renowned butcher in Hong Kong, and longs to prove himself not just as a son, but as someone capable of building his own future with his own family.

The plot takes a sharp turn when Mindy, in her earnest attempt to secure a lottery win for Kin, is upended when [Bing Lai] inadvertently cuts in line and ends up winning the prize. With money now in his hands, Bing Lai uses it to purchase his own butcher shop, a move meant to bridge the distance with his father and redefine what success could look like for their family. Around this rising tension, [Alvin Wong] makes a bold—but poorly timed—attempt to kiss Kin, which fails in a way that leaves Mindy disheartened and anxious about the future.

Desperation pushes Mindy to experiment again with her charms, this time in an effort to spark genuine chemistry between Kin and Alvin. The spell is ambitious, and the result is unexpectedly theatrical: Kin is drawn to the charm of a new, charismatic presence in Bing’s circle, and the dining-room serenades of the shop’s owner, Nelson Zong. [Nelson Zong] becomes a surprising object of affection for Kin, while Alvin becomes entranced by Nelson’s singing. The love triangle woven by misapplied magic skews relationships in unpredictable ways, and Mindy must navigate the fallout of her choices.

As the money and romance swirl, Bing Lai discovers that his son never desired to follow in his butcher footsteps. Instead, his son dreams of becoming a Zen monk, a revelation that prompts Bing Lai to question his own expectations and, painfully, to distance himself from the boy. Simultaneously, Shuck’s faith in the Yellow God begins to crumble; in a moment of crisis, he even destroys the shrine he once tended, a stark sign of his crumbling beliefs and his own wavering self-worth. Mindy’s frustration grows as her charms appear to lose their efficacy, straining the already fragile bond with Kin.

The story hurtles toward its storm-tossed climax when Mindy searches for a new spell to heal the family’s life. Her spellbackfires in a dramatic park-wide storm, a moment that proves to be both dangerous and revealing. In the same breath, a letter from Bing Lai’s father arrives, declaring that Bing has been “dead to him” since the day he was born—a crushing sight that fuels the tension and shapes Bing Lai’s choices.

In the dramatic turn of fate, Kin and Alvin unexpectedly collide and recognize the genuine feelings that had been developing between them. They band together to find Mindy, who lies unconscious beneath a fallen tree branch, the storm pressing down around them. At the same moment, Shuck faces a final, painful choice: he contemplates ending his life, only to receive a symbolic sign—an encounter with a lost turtle—that rekindles the sense that life is worth continuing. In a courageous and bittersweet resolution, Bing Lai accepts his son’s desire to become a Zen monk, recognizing that true happiness might lie beyond traditional expectations. Mindy emerges unharmed, and the trio—Kin, Alvin, and Mindy—are seen dancing together, a fragile but hopeful union born from resilience, reconciliation, and renewed faith in each other.

A story of love, loss, and unlikely magic, this tale follows a family’s hopes as they navigate broken promises, shifting loyalties, and the unpredictable tides of fortune, ultimately settling into a quiet, hopeful harmony in the wake of a tumultuous journey.