The Journey: A Voyage

Beset with foreign threats and internal turmoil, China's concoction of woes compels its citizens to leave for Nanyang in search of a better life. When Shi Tou (Desmond Tan), manages to save enough money after years of working at a tin mine, he returns to marry his childhood sweetheart, Ya Zi (Jeanette Aw). On the return trip, they cross paths with two penniless brothers, Zhang Tian Peng (Nan Xing Li) and Zhang Tian Ying (Allen Chen) with the former becoming Shi Tou's sworn brother out of gratitude. Framed for robbery and murder, Shi Tou is thrown behind bars while Ya Zi desperately seeks help. Feeling sympathetic towards them, Hui Niang (Joanne Peh) and her stepbrother, Zhang Dong'en (Elvin Ng) proves Shi Tou's innocence. When he returns back to the mine, Shi Tou is lured into a destructive spiral of gambling by his scheming boss and runs up a huge debt, while his supervisor, Hei Long (Pierre Png) lusts after Ya Zi's beauty and plots to ruin him. When Zhang Tian Ying is apprenticed to an elderly herbalist who passes on to him the fruits of his research, he eventually sets up a highly successful medical firm with his brother. Zhang Guang Da (Terence Cao), Dong'en's uncle, poisons him and his mother in a bid to take over the family business leading to her death and Dong'en's imminent demise.