Leap Day (Hong Kong TV series)

Lore & Background

The series centers on Yeesa Cheung (Sofiee Ng), born on 29 February 1992, who believes her birthday is squeezed between 28 February and 1 March in common years. When she celebrates her birthday in 2017, she unexpectedly travels to 29 February 2020 in Sapporo. There she is greeted by two strangers, Ryan Ma (Chui Tien-you) and Yu Ka-chung (Terrance Lau), and finds her future self killed in a traffic accident. After she returns to 2017, only one second has passed, but the three must work together to circumvent their common destiny.

Production was shaped by a limited budget and tight schedule. Director Steve Law drew inspiration from a friend born on 29 February and incorporated time travel. The crew initially planned to set the story in Taipei but chose Sapporo for mystical and romantic elements, receiving support from the Sapporo Film Commission. Some missing scenes were added by computer graphics, and written plots such as the ending of character Kagawa Niro were not filmed. The crash scene in Episode 9 required a storyboard drawn by a visualiser, rare for a television series. Post-production was completed three days before the finale aired.

Sofiee Ng and Terrance Lau accepted their roles without reading the script, based on previous working experience with the crew. Ng had three ligaments torn during the filming of a chasing scene in Sapporo but continued shooting. The original scores, opening and ending themes were composed by Day Tai and his team at D Dome Music. Chui Tien-you's song 'Sei nin yat yu' (lit. 'Quadrennial encounter') was used as the ending song of Episode 9.

Reader's Guide

Leap Day is significant as a Hong Kong television drama that blends romance with time travel, produced by HK Television Entertainment for ViuTV. Its narrative, centered on a leap-day birthday and a common destiny, explores themes of fate and choice. The series is notable for its production challenges: a limited budget, tight filming schedule, and the use of computer graphics to fill missing scenes. The crash scene in Episode 9 required an unusual storyboard approach. The series also spawned a prequel and sequel, 940920, announced at ViuTV 2021 and broadcast in March 2022, which continues the story across two universes. Leap Day's legacy lies in its creative use of a leap-day premise and its influence on subsequent Hong Kong television, as well as its demonstration of resourceful filmmaking under constraints.

Did You Know?

• The series aired on ViuTV between 2 and 13 March 2020, with 10 episodes.
• Sofiee Ng had three ligaments torn during a chasing scene in Sapporo but continued filming.

Creative Vision & Genre Identity

The crew deliberately positioned Leap Day as a romance rather than a science fiction piece, even though its plot hinges on a character being flung from 2017 to 29 February 2020 in Sapporo. Director Steve Law traced the show's seed to a personal connection: a friend of his was born on the leap day, and that simple fact became the emotional anchor before the time-travel mechanism was layered on top. The choice of Sapporo over the originally planned Taipei setting was made specifically to enhance the story's mystical and romantic atmosphere. The Sapporo Film Commission provided sponsorship and logistical support, enabling the crew to place Japanese characters in authentic locations. This commitment to atmosphere over spectacle is echoed in the show's musical identity: the original scores and both theme songs were crafted by Day Tai and his team at D Dome Music, while Chui Tien-you personally composed, wrote, arranged, produced, and performed the special ending song "Sei nin yat yu" for Episode 9, a track that in-story Ryan gifts to Yeesa before his departure for Sapporo.

Production Under Constraint

Leap Day was made on a limited budget with a tight filming schedule, and the constraints left visible fingerprints on the final product. Some scenes missing from the shoot had to be filled in with computer-generated imagery, and certain written plotlines—including the ending of the character Kagawa Niro—were never actually filmed. The crash sequence in Episode 9 proved so complex and costly to execute that director Steve Law and cinematographer Dino Wong brought in a visualiser to draw a detailed storyboard, a practice the crew noted is rare for television production. Post-production was completed just three days before the finale aired on 13 March 2020. On set, Sofiee Ng tore three ligaments during a chasing scene in Sapporo but continued shooting. Notably, both Ng and Terrance Lau accepted their leading roles without reading the script, relying instead on prior positive experiences working with Law and writer Yellow Wong respectively. The Japanese collaborator Yamano Hisaji, coordinator for the co-producing company, was additionally cast in the pivotal role of Kagawa Niro, a beer deliveryman whose son suffers from a chronic illness.

Character Architecture & World-Building

The narrative orbits three central figures whose personal insecurities mirror the show's thematic preoccupation with fate and choice. Yeesa Cheung, born on 29 February 1992, views her rare birthday as a mark of bad luck, feeling she receives only a quarter of the birthday wishes others enjoy. Three years out of a design degree, she has not secured a permanent position and describes herself as indecisive, fearing the responsibility her choices would entail. Her character name draws inspiration from Riisa Naka, the voice actress behind Makoto Konno in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Ryan Ma aspires to become a professional Japanese chef but is trapped in a supermarket job, consistently placing his mother and younger sister ahead of his own ambitions. Yu Ka-chung, a doctor of philosophy and chairman of the Sacred Geometry Association, deliberately distances himself from emotion. The Association itself is a colourful ensemble: members specialise in geometry, physics, conspiracy theories, hypnosis, dimensional analysis, and even extraterrestrial studies, giving the show a quirky, almost mythic undercurrent beneath its romantic core.

Legacy & the 940920 Continuation

Leap Day's narrative threads extended well beyond its thirteen-episode run. At ViuTV's 2021 presentation show on 17 October 2020, the channel announced a follow-up drama titled 940920, a title that directly references the secret code shared between Yeesa and Ka-chung in the original series. The project was to be produced by the same creative team and would star Sofiee Ng, Terrance Lau, and new addition Cecilia Choi. Structured as both a prequel and a sequel, the story would unfold across two parallel universes and centre on Ka-chung. In the teaser trailer, Choi's character discusses parallel universes with Ka-chung and invites him to become the founding member of a Sacred Geometry Association she has established, while Yeesa expresses a wish to remain in a universe where she is merely a stranger. Originally planned for filming in Hong Kong and Yilan, Taiwan in spring 2021, the production was derailed by the global pandemic. By May 2021, Law confirmed that force majeure had necessitated a full script rewrite to a Hong Kong-only setting, with filming resuming in September. The ten-episode series ultimately premiered on ViuTV on 7 March 2022.

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