''Leap Day'' () is a Hong Kong television drama series produced by HK Television Entertainment and aired on

ViuTV ViuTV is a Cantonese language general entertainment television channel in Hong Kong operated by HK Television Entertainment (HKTVE), whose parent company PCCW also operates the IPTV platform Now TV and the media streaming service Viu. The chann ...

between 2 and 13 March 2020. Directed by Steve Law and written by Yellow Wong, the series stars Sofiee Ng, Chui Tien-you and

Terrance Lau Terrance Lau Chun-him (; born 26 September 1988) is an actor from Hong Kong. He is known for playing the leading role in '' Beyond the Dream'', for which he won for the Best Actor award at the 26th Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards, the Best ...

Synopsis

Yeesa Cheung ( Sofiee Ng), born on a

leap day February 29, also known as leap day or leap year day, is a date added to leap years. A leap day is added in various solar calendars (calendars based on the Earth's revolution around the Sun), including the Gregorian calendar standard in mo ...

, believes her birthday is squeezed between 28 February and 1 March in

common years A common year is a calendar year with 365 days, as distinguished from a leap year, which has 366. More generally, a common year is one without intercalation. The Gregorian calendar (like the earlier Julian calendar) employs both common years ...

. When she celebrates her birthday in 2017, she unexpectedly travels to 29 February 2020 in

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city ...

. There she is greeted by two strangers, Ryan Ma ( Chui Tien-you) and Yu Ka-chung (

), 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 more 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 Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a w ...

. The filming in Hong Kong was completed before the overseas scenes. The crew initially planned to set the story in

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

but later chose Sapporo to add to mystical and romantic elements. They received support and sponsor from the Sapporo Film Commission to cast Japanese characters at the desired spots. Yamano Hisaji, the coordinator of the collaborating producer company in Japan, was additionally cast to play the pivotal role of Kagawa Niro. With a limited budget, the crew had a tight filming schedule, hence some missing scenes had to be added by

computer graphics Computer graphics deals with generating images with the aid of computers. Today, computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. A great de ...

and some written plots, such as the ending of Kagawa, were not filmed. The crash scene in Episode 9 was so complicated and expensive that, in order to ensure a smooth filming, Law and cinematographer Dino Wong found a visualiser to draw a

storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, i ...

, which is rare for a television series. The

post-production Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments. The ...

was completed three days before the finale was aired. 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 without reading the script, based on the previous working experience with the crew. Ng had three ligaments torn during the filming of a chasing scene in Sapporo but went on with the shooting.

Cast and characters

Main characters

* as Yeesa Cheung (張麗紗) :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 is a science fiction novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui. Originally serialized from 1965 to 1966, it tells the story of a high-school girl who accidentally acquires the ability to Time travel in fiction, time travel, which leads to a time loop where sh ...

''. * Chui Tien-you as Ryan Ma (馬智浩) :He aspires to be a professional Japanese chef but is growingly unsatisfied with his job at a supermarket. He puts his mother and sister before himself. *

as Yu Ka-chung (余家聰) :A

doctor of philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

and chairman of Sacred Geometry Association. He distances himself from emotions.

Other characters

* as Cheung San (張辰) — Yeesa's father. A grocery store owner. * as Pak Sai-kai 'Brazil Turtle' (白世繼; 巴西龜) — Vice-chairman of Sacred Geometry Association. Specialised in

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...

and

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

. * as Fiona Tse (謝心雪) — One of Yeesa's best friends. A professional real estate agent. * as Lee Ka-man 'Kaka' (李嘉敏; 嘉嘉) — One of Yeesa's best friends. A beauty youtuber. * as Lee (李姐) — Ryan's mother * as Ma Tsz-ching (馬芷晴) — Ryan's younger sister. A senior secondary school student sitting for HKDSE in 2019 *

Will Or Will Or Wai-lam (, born 22 January 1992) is a Hong Kong actor best known for his role in the film '' Drifting''. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in the 58th Golden Horse Awards and both Best Supporting Actor and Best New Performer in ...

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 deliveryman whose son suffers from chronic illness. *Leung Tin-chak as 'Jesus' (耶穌) — Member of Sacred Geometry Association. Specialised in conspiracy theories. * as 'Tripper' (跳掣) — Member of Sacred Geometry Association. Specialised in hypnosis. *Kwan Wing-yu as 'Kwan Yu' (關羽) — Member of Sacred Geometry Association. Specialised in dimensional analysis. *Cheng Man-hei as 'Alien' — Member of Sacred Geometry Association. Specialised in Extraterrestrial studies. * as Thomas — Ryan's coworker at a supermarket. *Okizaki Chinatsu as Minamino Miko (南野美子) — Yeesa's mother. A native of Sapporo.

Episodes

Theme music and song

The original scores, opening and ending themes were composed by Day Tai and his team at D Dome Music. "Sei nin yat yu" (), 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.

Accolades

, - , 2020 , Asian Academy Creative Awards , Best Drama Series – National Winner for Hong Kong , ''Leap Day'' , , , - , 2021 , Asia Contents Award , Best Actor , Terrance Lau , ,

Prequel and sequel

At ''ViuTV 2021'', the channel's presentation show aired on 17 October 2020, a drama series titled ''940920'' was announced, alluding to the secret code between Yeesa and Ka-chung in ''Leap Day''. The series will be produced by the same crew that produced ''Leap Day'' and will star Sofiee Ng,

and

Cecilia Choi Cecilia Choi Sze-wan (; born 23 July 1994) is a Hong Kong actress. She is known for playing the key supporting role in '' Detention'' and the leading role in '' Beyond the Dream'', for which she won for the Best Actress award at the 26th Hong ...

. It will be both a

prequel A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work. The term " ...

and sequel to ''Leap Day'', taking place in two universes and centred around Ka-chung. In the teaser trailer, the new character played by Choi discusses parallel universe with Ka-chung and invites him to be the first member of the Sacred Geometry Association she founded, whereas Yeesa expresses her wish to stay at a universe where she is a stranger. The story was originally set in Hong Kong and

Yilan, Taiwan Yilan City (Mandarin pinyin: ''Yílán Shì''; Hokkien POJ: ''Gî-lân-chhī'') is a county-administered city and the county seat of Yilan County, Taiwan Province, Republic of China. The city lies on the north side of the Lanyang River. Histo ...

and filming was planned for the spring of 2021. However, the schedule was delayed by the global coronavirus pandemic. In May 2021, Law announced that due to ''

force majeure In contract law, (from Law French: 'overwhelming force', ) is a common clause in contracts which essentially frees both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties, such ...

'', the script had to be rewritten to set in Hong Kong only and filming began in September. ''

940920 94 may refer to: * 94 (number) * one of the years 94 BC, AD 94, 1994, 2094, etc. * Atomic number 94: plutonium * Saab 94 The Saab Sonett is an automobile manufactured between 1955 and 1957 and again between 1966 and 1974 by Saab of Sweden. Son ...

'' was broadcast as a ten-episode series on ViuTV, premiering on 7 March 2022.

References

External links

Official website
at

* * — Promotional Instagram account ViuTV dramas Hong Kong drama television series Romantic fantasy television series Hong Kong time travel television series Television series set in 2017 Television series set in 2020 2020 in Hong Kong television Cantonese-language television shows 2020s Hong Kong television series 2020 Hong Kong television series debuts