Kids' Lives Matter (; lit. Doctors Under The Stars) is a Hong Kong medical television series created by television network TVB, with Ben Fong serving as producer. The 25-episode series premiered on 18 October 2021 and concluded on 22 November 2021. Set against the backdrop of pediatric surgery, it stars Kevin Cheng, Kenneth Ma, Linda Chung, and Catherine Chau, and chronicles the lives of medical interns, residents, and attendings caring for sick children at the fictional Princess Anne Hospital.
The story begins with a flashback in 2001 introducing Johnathan Hui, Amos Fong, and Eman Cheung as medical interns. An operation causes a rift between Hui and Fong, leading to them becoming estranged. Flash to the present, Hui and Fong are pediatric surgeons and work at North West Hospital and Princess Anne Hospital, respectively. One day, Hui asks Fong to perform a liver transplant operation jointly. An anesthetic mistake occurs during the procedure where Cheung, a cardiothoracic surgeon, appears timely to rescue. She returns to Hong Kong after being a Doctor Without Borders and is now a newly contracted doctor at Princess Anne Hospital.<br> With the ambitious vision of building a pediatric facility, Fong uses tactics to make Hui join Princess Anne Hospital. He then recruits Hui, Cheung, and a few other doctors, including Max Man, a resident specialist, Kay Mak, pediatric chief of service and Fong's loveâÂÂinterest, and Joey Kwok, an anesthesiologist, to create an "elite" surgery team, building themselves an influential reputation to pave the way for Fong's vision. The team faces various obstacles during the process, with Hui and Fong reconciling their friendship. The truth of the operation incident in the past also gets revealed. Although Fong's vision is not yet realized towards the end of the series; the doctors experience growth in both their personal and professional lives.
The series was produced by Ben Fong and script supervised by Poon Man-hung, with direction handled by Fong alongside a rotating team of directors. It marks TVB's first medical drama focused on pediatric surgery, utilizing a team of professional doctors as technical consultants throughout filming. The set for the fictional Princess Anne Hospital was modeled after the Hong Kong Children's Hospital, with principal photography taking place from August to December 2020. The series also marked Linda Chung's return to television after a six-year hiatus from the industry.
The soundtrack consists of 4 individually released singles as follows:
Kids' Lives Matter garnered mainly positive reviews from the audience and media, who commented on the show's "convincing" acting and "moving" storyline. Lam Chun-king from HK01, on the one hand, criticized the series's overall storyline direction for being old-fashioned but nevertheless indicated "the compactness of the script, the richness of the story's content, and the actors' performance set the show as a TVB's masterpiece in recent years and a classic among medical dramas". An editor from Hong Kong Economic Times praised Linda Chung's maturity in her acting skills and wrote that she could fully "express the tenderness of maternal love when interacting with sick children". Although Chung did not win in the end, she was noted by the media to be among viewers' favorites for the "Best Actress" title at the 54th TVB Anniversary Awards.
In Singapore, the series was broadcast in June 2022 on Mediacorp Channel 8 with Mandarin dubbing. The original Cantonese version was made accessible through the Mediacorp OTT service MeWATCH. In Malaysia, the series was aired in October 2022.