118

Plot

Hong Daming is a kopitiam owner. As his kopitiam and house number are both "118" and the numerals sounded like Yeo Yeo Huat or 要要发, the people around Hong gave him the nickname of "118", much to his delight. Together with his wife, Liu Meimei, he makes a living by running a traditional kopitiam. Hong was well-known and well-liked in Tiong Bahru such that whenever someone is in need, they would always seek Hong for help.

Hong and his family lives in a 3-room Housing and Development Board Flat and shophouse directly above his kopitiam, which was built during the pre-war years, both of which are also located at Tiong Bahru as well. He has four children named Wang Shunfeng, Hong Shunshui, Hong Jinzhi and Wang Yuye.

Despite the family of six living in a shophouse, Hong rents out a room to Li Weiliang, known as "Ah Niang" to others, a middle-aged man. Li had studied fashion design in France, but circumstances led him to simply run a stall at Yeo Yeo Huat, selling zongzi with the recipe that his mother left for him.

Li was not the only addition to the cramped flat. Later, Meimei's elder sister, Liu Jiejie and her family also came to live with the Hong family when her husband, Zhang Tiancheng's business failed. Daming's own younger sister, Hong Shanshan, and her daughter Viveka Lee also came to live with him "temporarily" when her husband Alex Lee disappeared mysteriously. Kind-hearted by nature, Hong felt that they must have come to him because they were at their wit's end. He make room for them by having his own sons Shunfeng and Shunshui sleep in the living room and sleeping at Yeo Yeo Huat himself, than to reject them.

Hong's eldest daughter Jinzhi also run a stall selling wonton noodles and his best friend Lin Zhigao run another stall selling fried bee hoon at Yeo Yeo Huat as well, and even allowed Zhang Tiancheng and his family sell pizzas, spaghettis and beers at Yeo Yeo Huat during the evening and night and convert the kopitiam into a restaurant by placing a few board labels to allow them to do business at night.

Cast

Chew Chor Meng as Hong Daming 洪达明, the owner of Yeo Yeo Huat, a traditional kopitiam

Xu Bin portrayed a teenage Hong

Pan Lingling as Liu Meimei 刘媚媚, the wife of Hong Daiming and former getai singer along with her elder sister Liu Jiejie

Fang Rong portrayed a teenage Liu

Dennis Chew as Wang Shunfeng 王顺风

Alston Yeo portrayed a younger Wang

Ya Hui as Hong Jinzhi 洪金枝, Wonton Noodles stall owner

Xu Bin as Hong Shunshui 洪顺水, Hong Daming and Liu Meimei's son. Xu also portrayed as a teenage Hong Daming.

Hong Ling as Wang Yuye 王玉叶, a polytechnic student

Liu Lingling as Liu Jiejie 刘洁洁, Zhang Tiancheng's wife and Liu Meimei's elder sister, a former getai singer along with her younger sister Liu Meimei

Huang Jia Qi portrayed a younger Liu

Leron Heng portrayed a teenage Liu

Chen Tianwen as Zhang Tiancheng 张天成, Liu Jiejie's husband, a former businessman whose business failed.

Dawn Yeoh as Zhang Keke 张可可, Zhang Tiancheng and Jiahui's daughter

Nick Teo as Zhang Zhenhui 张振辉, Zhang Tiancheng and Liu Jiejie's son, a private university student

Carrie Wong as Zhang Ke Ai 张可爱, Zhang Tiancheng and Yue E's daughter

Cameo appearance

Note: Only credited cameos are listed.

Chen Meiling 陈美龄 as Hong Daming's mother

Zoe Tay as herself, Lin Zhigao refused her as a taxi customer as Lin was on a call

庄义川 as a passerby who grabbed Zhang Meiyou by the collar after Zhang pestered him looking for his daughter

卢冠耀 as middle-aged man who is Chen Meizhen's former boyfriend

廖永辉 as Simon's steward

Lee Tze Yuan and Emily Sin as themselves (2015 SEA Games Singapore's wushu representatives)

Eugene Teo and Ang An Jun as themselves (2015 SEA Games Singapore's water polo representatives)

Chen Shucheng, Aileen Tan, Rayson Tan, Felicia Chin, Aloysius Pang as themselves portraying as Mediacorp artistes in the drama series Life - Fear Not

Hao Hao as Xiao-qiang 小强, a hospital doctor

Production

The storyboard for the series, Ang Eng Tee, said in an interview with My Paper that the show may need to be re-scripted even after the script for all 255 episodes has finished writing. This is because speculations that the general elections may be held in 2015 is trending, and that the political parties are already introducing its candidates progressively. If the elections are held in September, the show will need to re-insert the GE buzz, and the director and cast will need to do re-takes. The election dates were announced on 25 August, and the GE buzz was inserted on episode 225 (7 September 2015), where Dennis Chew and Sheila Sim mentioned the election campaigns. However, as the show was pre-empted six times during that period, episode 225 could have been aired on 28 August if there were no interruptions, causing the campaigning period, which were held on 2 to 9 September, to have happened earlier than usual.

Awards and nominations

Star Awards 2016

118 has the third-most number of nominations for Star Awards 2016, with 11 nominations in 10 award categories. The series has at least one nomination in every performance award for drama programmes.

The Star Awards are presented by Mediacorp.