Sunday, January 29, 2012

News Article: Many of the HK music industry’s ‘Kings’ and ‘Queens’ to return to the HK Coliseum in 2012

This is a great article that is a MUST READ for all HK music fans! Personally, I’m super-excited to see so many familiar faces returning to the HK Coliseum to perform (though ironically, I don’t live in HK so I won’t be able to watch any of these concerts in person). Ah well – I guess I’ll have to wait for the DVDs of all these concert performances to come out!

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Article originally published on January 28, 2012

Source: Mingpao Weekly, Issue 2255

Translated by: llwy12

Many of the HK music industry’s ‘Kings’ and ‘Queens’ to return to the HK Coliseum in 2012


Aside from Sally Yeh (葉蒨文), other ‘king’ and ‘queen’ level artists will also be returning to the HK Coliseum in this year of the Dragon – amongst them is the original ‘God of Songs’ himself, Sam Hui (許冠傑) . Though still overcoming the grief of losing his beloved older brother Ricky Hui, Sam has expressed that he will return to the stage this year – good friend Clifton Ko has already submitted a request on his behalf to the HK Coliseum for schedule dates.

Veteran singer Jenny Tseng (甄妮) -- who just received the Golden Needle award at the RTHK Top Ten Chinese Songs Awards -- will also be returning to the stage this year. Even though Jenny stated previously that her Farewell Concert from 2 years ago would be her last one, it is known that she has already received confirmation from the HK Coliseum and will be performing there in September.

After a 7 year hiatus [from the music world], 4-time Best Actress winner [for her performance in “A Simple Life”] Deanie Ip (葉德嫻) will also be holding a concert at the HK Coliseum – it is reported that that she has received approval from the venue for November dates.

Upcoming ‘star-studded’ concerts

Edmond Leung’s (梁漢文) concert [which started this week] will have good friends such as Sammi Cheng, Andy Hui, Miriam Yeung, etc. serving as guest performers, while TVB’s Fook Luk Sau (Johnson Lee, Wong Cho Lam, Louis Yuen)’s first HK Coliseum concert will most likely garner the support of Liza Wang as well as TVB’s artists.

As for renowned songwriters Wyman Wong (黃偉文) and Hanjin Tan (陳奐仁), they will be holding special HK Coliseum concerts this year as well. Hanjin has revealed that for his concert, he is trying to invite Jacky Cheung, Sammi Cheng, and Eason Chan as guest performers, while Wyman will have 4 ‘queens’ supporting him, including singer Cass Pang (彭羚), who retired from the music industry 10 years ago – she has already agreed to ‘come out of retirement’ and be guest performer for Wyman’s opening and final night shows. With highly anticipated guests such as Cass, it’s no wonder that Wyman’s very first HK Coliseum concert sold out quickly and additional shows have already been added (5 shows total).


Returning once again

With the support of former artist Money Lo and her husband Kimmy Suen, 80s singer Ken Choi (蔡楓華) successfully held his comeback concert in March last year at the International Trade and Exhibition Centre’s (ITEC) Star Hall. This year, with assistance from the ‘godfather of concerts’ Cheung Yiu Wing (張耀榮), Ken will fulfill his dream of holding a concert at the HK Coliseum – the ‘selling point’ for his concert will be a special guest performance by his long-time friend, 80s artist Samantha Lam (林志美).

In September of last year, another veteran Cantopop Queen, Sandy Lam (林憶蓮), mesmerized music fans with what has been hailed as ‘divine’ singing skills during her 3 show concert, “Sandy Lam In Concert 2011”. This year, Sandy will be returning to the HK Coliseum once again to hold Part 2 of her concert – according to ticket sale reports, the shows are already sold out, proving that this Asia Music Queen still has huge selling power!


The return of veteran bands and groups

Tat Ming Pair (Anthony Wong and Lau Yi Tat) and the 7 member Tai Chi rock band (太極樂隊) were both popular ensemble groups/bands in the 80s. Throughout the past few decades, both groups went through the experience of disbanding, with individual members pursuing music careers on their own, and eventually re-assembling together to perform once again. Coincidentally, both groups will be holding separate HK Coliseum concerts this year. Earlier, Tat Ming Pair already made a ‘comeback’ appearance at the JSG Awards, however that performance was only a ‘prologue’ of what is to come – their return to the HK Coliseum after an 8 year hiatus.


‘Cross River Dragons’ (過江龍)

In this year of the Dragon, there will also be quite a few artists from across Asia coming to perform in HK. From Taiwan, there’s singer/actor Richie Ren and the group May Day, as well as Jam Hsiao and Tiger Huang.; from Malaysia, there’s Fish Leong; and from Japan, there’s ‘national treasure’ level music artist Kitaro. Amongst the ‘cross river dragons’, Taiwan artist Jam Hsiao successful conquered HK music fans last year with his very first concert performance in HK – this year, he will be returning to HK once again for another concert.

Tentative dates for these concerts are:

.—Richie Ren (任賢齊): February 18th and 19th
.—Tiger Huang (黃小琥): March 11th
.—Fish Leong (梁靜茹): June
.—May Day (五月天): June
.—Kitaro (喜多郎): June
.—Jam Hsiao (蕭敬騰): July


Sammi and Eason fighting for coveted New Year’s dates

Every year, there is a ‘battle’ for the much coveted December holiday schedule (Christmas and New Year’s) for the HK Coliseum. According to reliable sources, this year, the ‘battle’ for these dates will be between Sammi Cheng (鄭秀文) and Eason Chan (陳奕迅). Sammi’s “Love Mi” concert from 2009 saw a sold out crowd for all 10 shows and Eason’s “Duo” concert broke his personal record of 18 shows -- as of right now, HK Coliseum has not yet approved the applications for either of the schedules. In the hopes of seeking confirmation, Mingpao contacted Sammi, who responded: “Yes, I have already submitted the request to hold a concert at the Coliseum in December – the request is for the New Year’s dates. If the application is approved, then I’ll move forward with it. I leave the situation up to God!”


Beyond the HK Coliseum

The HK Coliseum is definitely a highly coveted venue for all singers hoping to hold any type of concert in HK -- however this year (2012), God of Songs Jacky Cheung (張學友) and Singaporean artist Kit Chan (陳潔儀) have chosen the Asian Expo Center and the International Trade & Exhibition Centre, respectively, for their upcoming HK performances. Jacky’s ½ Century World Tour Concert (which officially launched on New Year’s Eve 2010) will return to HK in May 2012 for the final leg of its tour – even though ticket prices for the final shows are as high as HKD 880, it has not prevented the tickets from selling like wildfire, resulting in the need to extend the number of shows to 8 in efforts to accommodate those who were not able to purchase tickets; it is estimated that in the end, the number of shows will be extended to 10 total.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

News Article: Mingpao Exclusive Interview with Sally Yeh -- 15 year marriage similar to riding a roller coaster; husband George Lam encourages her return to the music industry

Here's a great article about one of my favorite singers from the 80s/90s -- Sally Yeh!

Enjoy!

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Mingpao Exclusive Interview with Sally Yeh: 15 year marriage similar to riding a roller coaster; husband George Lam encourages her return to the music industry

Source: Mingpao Weekly, Issue 2255

Translated by: llwy12


Despite this past year’s JSG Top Ten Awards Ceremony results being heavily criticized by practically the entire nation, there was one particular highlight of the entire show that was welcomed by all audiences – former Canto-pop Queen Sally Yeh (葉蒨文) leading the group BOY’Z and singer/dancer Tat Dik in a special performance of her classic hit “Believe in Yourself” 《信自己》. Not only did her performance cause all the artists present to give her a standing ovation, it also provided HK music fans with a treasured memory.

Entering the year of the Dragon, many former music industry ‘kings’ and ‘queens’ will be returning to the stage to perform for HK music fans – Sally Yeh will be among them! During this exclusive interview with Mingpao, Sally took the opportunity to officially announce that in September of this year, she will be collaborating with Peter Lam’s East Asia Entertainment Group (EA) to hold a concert at HK Coliseum. After her last concert in 2005 (which she collaborated with the HK Philharmonic Orchestra), Sally has been ‘hibernating’ for the past 7 years, rarely appearing at public events – even during the times when rumors about her marriage to singer George Lam being ‘on the rocks’ were especially strong, Sally never bothered to come out and explain or respond to the rumors. This year (2012), HK music fans got the rare opportunity to once again enjoy the Canto-pop Queen’s beautiful voice – not only that, Mingpao Weekly also had the rare opportunity to sit down with Sally and understand on a deeper level her 15 year marriage to George Lam.

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Sally Yeh and George Lam married in 1996; in 1998, after the conclusion of their special “George Lam / Sally Yeh Good Luck Concert”《林子祥葉蒨文好氣連場演唱會》, Sally left the music industry temporarily. In 2002, Sally released a new album and in 2004, she held a series of concerts to commemorate her 25th year in the music industry – however, after her concert collaboration with the HK Philharmonic Orchestra in 2005, Sally once again ‘disappeared’ from the music industry. All this time, the outside world thought that Sally had ‘retired’, however during our exclusive interview, Sally expressed that the word ‘retirement’ never once crossed her mind: “Back then [after the 2005 concert], I just felt that it was the right time for me to stop and rest. Perhaps because as I started to get older, my thinking matured and I started to slowly realize that we only have one opportunity to live life – given that reality, I started to think about what I really wanted to do while alive in this world and came to the conclusion that I really wanted to learn more things and enrich my life. I’ve been very lucky all these years to have a career of my own that has enabled me to pursue things that interest me – I really wanted to understand the various relationships between people as well as the complications involved with life in general. These past few years, I’ve read a lot of English books that talk about people and their relationships. I’m very happy that I’ve been able to continually increase my knowledge – these past few years have been very fulfilling and have really helped me to grow as a person.”


50 years old and feeling moved

Throughout the past few years, Sally has continued to receive countless offers from various organizers to perform at shows, so why did she choose to return only this year? Sally unhesitatingly responded that it had to do with her approaching the 50 year old milestone: “Before, a lot of people asked me when I would hold another concert and I would respond to them: ‘Maybe when I turn 50!’ because I thought that if I don’t do it by that age, certain ‘things’ would ‘falter’…haha!” (Falter? Your voice?) “No, my voice could be maintained, however I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to maintain my physical stamina and energy after turning 50. I always tell myself: ‘If I still have vitality and energy by the time I turn 50, I definitely wish to come out and see my friends and fans!’”

During her time away from the industry, Sally had also done much traveling around the world. She expressed that her encounters during these travels were another motivating factor for her return to the industry: “Since I didn’t appear at events much anymore, I thought that perhaps people would have forgotten about me already, but it turns out that wasn’t the case – no matter which country I went to, people seemed to remember me. For example, one time, during my travels to the U.S., I was eating at a very small café in an isolated area, a place where I thought no one knew me, yet people would come up to me and ask: ‘Are you Sally Yeh? Why would you come here to eat? I love listening to you sing! When will you come out and sing for us again?’ When I went to Thailand and Vietnam, it was the same thing! Even when I went out shopping, I would always get asked: ‘When will you sing again?’ At first, I couldn’t believe it – all of them have heard my songs before? They still remember me? I was extremely moved! Since there were people out there who truly wanted to hear me sing again, then I happily obliged!”

Asked whether her husband George Lam supported her decision to return, Sally replied: “Actually, he has been telling me to return for many years already! He always asks me: ‘Why don’t you come out and sing again?’ He has encouraged me all along; every time I watch him perform, I would always feel that I still have a passion for singing – perhaps at that time, I didn’t feel I was ready to return, but now, I’m definitely prepared!” Having been married for 15 years already, how does Sally maintain such a strong relationship with her husband? Hearing this, Sally laughed and asked: “Really? It’s been 15 years already? That long?” after which she replied: “Actually, it’s a bit of a mystery to me! In my opinion, how to go about maintaining a long-lasting relationship with anyone is a mystery in and of itself. The important thing is communication; perhaps for us, we’ve been able to maintain because of our mutual respect for one another – we mutually respect each other’s space, way of thinking, etc. and because we understand each other, we are able to show appreciation and empathy for each other.”


Ups and downs, but no separation

Over the years, Sally has developed a fondness for golf, which slowly turned into a fondness for badminton – asked about her hobbies, Sally immediately interjected: “Right now, my new ‘love’ is Latin dancing!” It is understood that Sally’s husband George does not share the same hobbies, so he never accompanies her to them: “Yes, that’s true! We each have our own hobbies and interests – he has his, I have mine – there’s no point in forcing them together! If there are things we can do together, we do it, but if there aren’t, then we pursue our individual interests.” Because Sally and George don’t share the same interests or hobbies, there have been many times over the years where rumors have surfaced about problems with their marriage. Asked directly about this, Sally graciously answered: “I admit that the rumors did affect me a little at first -- as a Buddhist, I asked a spiritual teacher in the past how I could go about changing what people thought about me. He replied: ‘You’re wrong to think that way! Don’t be concerned about trying to change other people’s way of thinking – instead, concentrate on controlling your own thoughts.’ That’s a good thing!” (When you heard the rumors at first, were you upset?) “Of course! Anyone hearing such things would be unhappy, but at least now, I don’t let the reports affect me. I have no way of controlling what other people think, so as long as I feel it’s not important, then I let it go. Responding to the rumors and trying to clarify would only make things worse, as it would give them [the tabloids] the opportunity to write even more stuff.”

Asked whether she experienced many ups and downs in her 15 year marriage, Sally candidly replied: “Yes! A lot! Our relationship is like a roller coaster, so there would be ups and downs – actually, many people’s relationships are like this. Of course, my temper has a bit to do with it as well – I’m a bit tempermental, emotional, and have a strong personality – especially working in this industry, we are bound to experience huge fluctuations emotionally, but….that’s what makes it fun! Haha!” (Ever encountered marriage crisis?) “Crisis? Risk? Every marriage has risk! I once heard about a survey that said for every marriage, there’s a 50% chance that the couple will remain together in the end – so that means for every marriage, there is an equal chance of separating or remaining together. I actually think it’s quite funny! To be honest, every relationship will have fluctuations.” (In the worse case scenario, were there ever any thoughts of separating?) “Didn’t go into that! Didn’t go into that conversation! Relationships are really about having affinity – if you have affinity with a person, then you will continue to be together, if there’s no affinity, then there isn’t. Of course, you still have to work hard at it and be willing to invest time – in the end, it depends on which path you want to take.” With that said, is Sally satisfied with her marriage at this period of her life? “I’m satisfied with everything! Actually, I’m the type who is easily satisfied – let me have a good sleep and I’ll be happy with anything!”
Appearing at the JSG awards ceremony again after so many years, Sally admits that she empathizes with the younger generation artists: “I’m happy that I no longer have to sit up there facing the audiences! I remember in the past when we attended the awards at the HK Coliseum – I would sit there nervous and cold, holding a warm water pouch and tissues, wishing I were at home! I also remember clearly how I would stress about whether I’d get a particular award or not. So when I see the younger generation artists now, I can definitely understand what they are going through.”

With regard to the Gold Song Gold award being given to Raymond Lam and causing heavy criticism, Sally replied: “Is Raymond Lam not popular? I thought Raymond Lam was very popular because back in the dressing room, people were repeatedly saying how popular he was.” (Have you heard the song 《Chok》?) “《Chok》? No! But I haven’t listened to any songs at all! Ha! In terms of the current generation artists, I admire Hins Cheung the most. Every awards show has different judges and criteria – the person who chose Raymond Lam must have done so because he/she really likes him. Back in the day, when I received the ‘Most Popular Female Singer’ award, I’m sure there were people who opposed because the other female artists – such as Anita Mui, Sandy Lam, Faye Wong, Sammi Cheng – were just as popular during that time as well. My thought is that there is only 1 award, so if you don’t receive it, don’t be discouraged – just because you don’t get the award does not mean you are not popular!”


George Lam ‘hides’ the good songs

EA has shown interest in working with Sally on releasing a new album this year, however she insists that she won’t come out with a new album until she has a good song for it. Many years ago, George Lam wrote the song 《零時十分》[“Ten After Midnight”] for Sally, which shot her to fame – with the advantage of being married to George now, why doesn’t Sally just have him write her a good song? Is it because of the ‘rumor’ that back in those days, George was only able to write good songs because he was unhappy [with his previous relationship] and now that he is married, all his inspiration is gone? Sally confidently replied: “No! That’s wrong! Actually, many years ago, I had discussed the same matter with Eric Kwok – that time, Eric had asked whether George is able to write songs any time he wanted to or whether he needs to be in a certain mood (for example, happy or sad). The answer is that George can write songs any time he wants – in fact, he has written many songs throughout the past couple years, it’s just that he has them ‘hidden’ somewhere. Why doesn’t he let me sing those songs he wrote? Because sometimes, when I listen to the song, I’ll tell him: ‘Hm, that song is not too good!’ – he’s probably mad so he won’t let me sing it, haha! But recently, he’s been working on re-writing a song that someone else sang before and it really took me by surprise because the song is really really good!” With the way Sally and George interact, how could this couple possibly be going through marriage problems?

Thursday, January 19, 2012

My ‘TVB Rant’ # 16: The 2012 HK Television Wars – What TVB Can Learn From Past History (the 1970s TV Wars)

2012 will definitely be an interesting year for the Hong Kong television industry, as there are some major changes coming down the pike that are sure to change the landscape of the entire HK entertainment industry for years to come.

What are those changes? Well, those who have been following HK entertainment closely (or even somewhat closely) should be aware that the HK government has agreed to issuing 3 additional free-to-air television licenses this year. Currently, there are only 2 free-to-air TV stations in HK – TVB (無綫電視) and ATV (亞洲電視) – so the granting of additional licenses means that starting this year, there will be 3 additional TV stations that will be giving TVB and ATV (mostly TVB, since ATV is pretty much non-existent now) a run for its money. In layman’s terms, this means that TVB’s 30+ plus year monopoly on the HK television industry will FINALLY be broken (more on this later).

Before I talk about the impact that these 3 stations will have, it’s only fitting that I first outline for readers who these new ‘players’ will be (plus I refer to them throughout the rest of this post, so it makes sense to understand who they are).

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Here’s a brief introduction of the 3 companies that have applied for free-to-air licenses:

.-- First, there’s City Telecom (CTI), which is owned by HK businessman Ricky Wong (王維基). CTI is a telecommunications company that was established in HK in 1992 (according to Wikipedia, CTI is also a major broadband internet provider in HK and has more than 3000 employees working for them). To be honest, I don’t care all that much about the telecommunications part of the company, since I’ve never been a ‘tech’ person and all the IT talk goes way above my head anyway. For the purposes of this post, the interesting thing to know about CTI is that the company’s co-founder and chairman Ricky Wong has been in the news a lot this past year and is now probably more ‘famous’ than his company (kind of funny and ironic at the same time).

Those of you who follow HK entertainment closely will probably remember Ricky Wong’s name from his 2 week stint as ATV’s new chief executive back in 2008 (that’s actually how I first learned about him – prior to that, I had no clue who he was since I don’t live in HK and therefore am not familiar with the telecommunications companies in the territory). And many of you may remember his famous ‘exclusive’ interview with TVB’s former GM Stephen Chan (not once, but TWICE – he was interviewed by Stephen Chan both on his regular “Be My Guest” program as well as on the stage production of the show). I won’t go into detail about either incident, since it’s not relevant to this post -- but I will say that ever since that time, I’ve always felt that there was a bit of ‘controversy’ concerning Mr. Wong and so I never really had a good impression of him. Then last year, when he aggressively and actively ‘poached’ many of TVB’s employees and artists while they were still working for TVB (by sending mass text messages and offering large sums of money to recruit them), I had an even worse impression of him. With that said though, I don’t doubt that he is a smart businessman and so far, based on interviews and such, it sounds like he has definitely done his research (making note of TVB’s woes and widespread problems within the company) and is taking advantage of TVB’s recent struggles to build up his own TV empire.

The latest bit of news is that CTI has already recruited dozens of former TVB artists and behind the scenes personnel – they will start filming series in March with anticipated air dates for the series in September / October. Also, Mr. Wong revealed that his company is finishing up building a studio in Tseung Kwan O and once it’s completed, that’s where all of his series will be filmed (no, you didn’t read it wrong – he’s building a studio in Tseung Kwan O, which is where TVB City is currently located…so in essence, he’s building his studio in TVB’s backyard – wow, talk about ‘in your face’ competition…LOL!!).


.—The other ‘player’ coming into the game this year is Fantastic Television, which is owned by i-Cable Communications. I-Cable is a long-time cable operator offering subscription-based programming in HK and has pretty much been in existence since the 1950s. I will be honest and say that I don’t know a whole lot about i-Cable, since I’ve never really been interested in any of its programs (except for a few select ones that I tune into occasionally) – my knowledge of the station is pretty much limited to the information that I’ve read here and there in various sources (though I’m somewhat familiar with some of the program hosts at i-Cable).

In terms of its role in the free-to-air TV realm, I actually don’t have a whole lot of confidence in i-Cable, as the company doesn’t even produce TV series currently (its focus is mainly on news, sports, and entertainment / variety programs) and my understanding is that they function very similar to the cable companies in the U.S. in that they sell various channels and services to subscribers via a ‘packaged’ plan (though not sure if it’s going to operate the same way for its free TV channel). Also, out of all 3 companies that have applied for licenses, i-Cable has definitely been the least vocal in terms of revealing what its plans are once it receives its license (I personally have not heard much about the company recruiting artists or other employees or when they will start filming series). I guess we will pretty much have to take a ‘wait and see’ approach with them…


.—The 3rd company that has applied for a free-to-air TV license is HK Television Entertainment Company (HKTVE), which is owned by telecommunications company PCCW. Coincidentally, PCCW also owns HK’s other popular pay-TV service provider, Now TV. Though Now TV is also a subscription-based cable operator, the difference is that subscribers pay based on individual channels rather than pre-packaged deals – plus there is more of a variety in Now TV programming, as they currently have the most channels of any pay TV provider in HK and many of their channels span the international realm.

Honestly speaking, if I had to pick between the 3 stations, I would actually pick Now TV (PCCW / HKTVE) as the most promising in terms of the free-to-air market, as it has a strong foundation currently with its programming (they already have some awesome interview programs and other informational shows that I enjoy watching). Also, don’t forget that Now TV has someone on their management team who has lots of experience and also pretty high status in the TV world – TVB’s former executive director of variety and special programs, Ho Lai Chuen (何麗全) – he joined Now TV last year and has pretty much become ‘top brass’ over there. Also, Ho Lai Chuen is VERY familiar with how TVB operates, as he worked for that company for close to 30 years before ‘jumping ship’ to Now TV – so in that sense, he not only has high standing in the TV industry, he has also established strong ties with many current and former TVB artists – which means that from a ‘recruiting’ standpoint, he’s definitely at an advantage. The reason I would pick Ho Lai Chuen over Ricky Wong is because so far, he has not done the ‘poaching’ thing like Mr. Wong has – instead, Mr Ho already stated that he will only seek out artists that have already left TVB and won’t purposefully ‘poach’ its employees.

Indeed, Ho Lai Chuen actually has some strong ‘supporters’ in his corner, as it is known that former TVB actors Bowie Lam and Wong Hei have already signed with his company (both had ‘fall-outs’ with TVB and ended their contracts). In addition, TVB’s 2 ‘golden producers’ – husband and wife duo Lau Kar Ho and Mui Siu Ching – have already signed with Mr. Ho’s company as well (both submitted their resignations to TVB a few months ago and will be leaving in February this year).

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Ok, so now that everyone is familiar with the new stations, let’s go back to the original topic at hand…

The addition of 3 new TV stations will definitely mean a huge change for the HK television industry, which has pretty much been dominated by 1 television station (TVB) for decades. What does this change mean for audiences? Well, first and foremost, it means that FINALLY, audiences will have options – meaning Hong Kongers will have the freedom to decide which station’s programs to watch. No longer will audiences be limited to watching crappy programs that they don’t want to watch but still do anyway because there is nothing else out there. On a wider scale, HK will FINALLY be able to ‘catch up’ to other countries – HK is billed as one of the most modern, advanced nations in the world, yet when it comes to the television industry, it has been in the ‘stone ages’ for decades. I mean, come on now – which other modern nation out there still only has 1 television station for its entire population to choose from? I honestly can’t think of any!

Now, let’s look at the situation from the perspective of that ONE television station that has enjoyed a ‘monopoly’ on the HK TV industry for decades: TVB. While the addition of new TV stations is a ‘good’ thing from an audience as well as society perspective, it’s definitely a bad thing for TVB. Despite what their management may try to ‘fool’ some of us into believing -- that there are no problems with the way their company operates, that they welcome competition, that they have loyal audiences who won’t leave them no matter what, that the addition of new stations won’t impact them at all, etc. etc. etc. – the reality is that behind that façade, TVB has A LOT to worry about! (Since I sort of already went into detail about the internal problems that TVB is facing with many artists leaving and such in my previous post, I’m not going to rehash all that here).

My main issue with TVB is that as of right now, it does not appear that the company feels ‘threatened’ by the impending rise of 3 additional TV stations – it seems that they are still in ‘denial’ mode right now…I mean, how else would you explain why the company has yet to take any significant action to protect their assets? Looking at the situation from the outside (based on ‘statements’ that various TVB execs have given to the Media so far), I feel that TVB has been taking a ‘complacent’ attitude towards this whole TV war thing. Could it be that because TVB triumphed back in the 1970s (when the first TV wars took place) and have managed to dominate for the past 30 years that they feel as though history will repeat itself and they will come up on top again this time around? If that’s the case, then the management over there is tremendously short-sighted and foolish!

To understand this point, let’s go back in history to the TV war that took place back in the 70s between TVB and its 2 rival stations at that time, Commercial Television (CTV) and Rediffusion Television (RTV) [RTV is actually Asia Television (ATV)’s predecessor – the name was changed from RTV to ATV in the early 1980s].

RTV (麗的電視) was actually HK’s first TV station -- it started in May of 1957 as a pay TV station / cable operator offering various news and other entertainment programming to audiences on a subscription basis. As the territory’s first (and pretty much only) TV station at the time, RTV was able to enjoy a ‘monopoly’ of its own for close to 10 years (keep in mind that this was during a time when the television industry was just getting started in HK). Unfortunately for them, the ‘monopoly’ was short-lived because in November 1967, the territory’s second television station came into the picture: Television Broadcasts Limited (無綫電視). TVB took the region by storm pretty much because right from the start, it offered something that RTV did not have – transmission of television signals without the need for wires/cables [note that I’m not an electronics expert so I might not be using the correct tech jargon here…but I’m sure you get the picture…]. In fact, TVB’s Chinese name came about precisely because of this ‘unique’ (at the time) quality [the characters ‘無綫’ literally mean ‘no wires’] – of course, this also mean that TVB was able to offer programming for FREE, hence making it the first free-to-air television station in HK. As if that weren’t enough, TVB also started broadcasting in color almost from the getgo (RTV was still broadcasting in black and white at the time) and didn’t just offer news and variety programs, but also hit the floor running by producing and broadcasting its very first TV series in 1968. As much as I despise TVB nowadays, I have to admit that the company’s founders – Sir Run Run Shaw (邵逸夫), Lee How Wor (利孝和), and Sir Douglas Clague (祈德尊) -- were truly quite smart in the way they handled the startup of the company…it’s obvious that they did their research and so were able to target RTV’s ‘pain points’ almost immediately (unfortunately though, can’t say the same about Shaw’s wife Mona Fong or her current management crew, who have pretty much run the company into the ground this past decade!).

So where does CTV (佳藝電視) fit into all this? Well, CTV didn’t actually start up until September 1975 as the territory’s 3rd free-to-air TV station (RTV converted to free-to-air programming in 1973, so it is considered HK’s 2nd free-to-air TV station). In comparisons to the ‘intelligence’ of the TVB founders, CTV’s founders / management probably did not think things through as well because less than 3 years after it started up, the company went back bankrupt and the TV station officially closed down in August 1978 [TVB ended up buying up some of its assets]. The ironic thing is that even though CTV was the least stable television station financially, they actually had many of the most talented artists and behind-the-scenes personnel working for them at that time (most of whom joined either TVB or RTV after CTV closed down) -- as a side note, here are a few names of former CTV artists whom I’m sure readers will recognize: Michelle Yim (米雪), Lau Kong (劉江), Helen Ma (馬海倫), Yeung Chak Lam (楊澤霖), Lawrence Ng Wai Kwok (伍衛國), Teresa Mo (毛舜筠), Paul Chun (秦沛), Law Lok Lam (羅樂林), Carol ‘Dodo’ Cheng (鄭裕玲), Chun Wong (秦煌), Lau Dan (劉丹), Sharon Yeung (楊盼盼), Melvin Wong (黃錦燊).


Based on the above history, it’s obvious why TVB was able to triumph over CTV, but what about RTV (ATV)? With RTV’s ‘rich’ history of being HK’s first TV station, how did they end up with the short end of the stick so to speak and essentially allow the ‘underdog’ TVB crush them all these years? The answer: COMPLACENCY and ARROGANCE. I remember reading about how back in 1967, when TVB first came into the picture as the first free-to-air TV station in HK, the management at RTV took on a very 'complacent' attitude (since RTV was HK's first television station and had been in existence since 1957, albeit they were a cable station, not free-to-air) -- the management even gave an interview to the Media in which they basically looked down on TVB and claimed that they were not a 'formidable opponent'....having that mentality in mind, RTV not only refused to go the free-to-air route (they didn’t do so until the 1970s), they also jacked up subscription prices (stupid move) and continued to broadcast programs in black and white when TVB was already broadcasting in color (another stupid move). Of course, when RTV’s management finally ‘woke up’ and tried to turn things around in the 70s, it was already too late – TVB had already amassed a loyal following. (Since TVB was a 'free' station, it was natural for audiences to tune in when they started, even if it was just out of curiosity, to see what they would be able to do -- of course, TVB also had luck in their corner because back then, even in the late 60s/early 70s, they had the talented artists as well as the quality programs that kept audiences vested in their station). Then of course, going into the 80s, ATV didn't stand a fighting chance, since TVB was in its 'peak' era – after that, ATV continued to struggle (amidst financial woes and a seemingly endless change in management) to the point that the company is pretty much a ‘shell’ now and is rarely even mentioned nowadays. (To be honest, I actually feel that ATV may have had a chance back then if the station was better managed, especially after they converted to a free to air station -- but unfortunately, that wasn't the case....the bad management and poor business decisions made throughout the last few decades really succeeding in 'killing off' whatever potential was left).


.***.

So going back to TVB….

Interestingly enough, it looks like now, TVB's management is taking on the same 'complacent' attitude that RTV took back in the 60s/70s (or at least that's what they've been projecting to the public with all the denials about any problems existing in their company, etc.). I mean, seriously -- having been directly involved in the first television wars and seeing first-hand how their opponents ended up, you would think that TVB would have ‘taken notes’ and learned from past history NOT to follow in RTV/ATV’s footsteps. I guess what TVB doesn’t realize is that just because they won the ‘war’ back then does not mean that they will win it again now, especially given the fact that the environment is completely different now. Back then, TVB had the ‘upper hand’ because of a combination of factors – competent, effective leaders, quality programs, talented artists, etc. Nowadays, the general sentiment is that audiences are frustrated with the crappy programs that TVB has been churning out the past decade as well as the lack of talented artists that are being pushed repeatedly in our faces day after day….therefore, most audiences actually WANT to see a change -- plus audiences are smarter now in that most of us don't just blindly watch what TVB puts out, but also pay attention to what goes on behind the scenes at TVB (how artists are treated, how much they get paid, etc. etc.). Also, there's the whole Big 5 contract dispute thing as well as the Stepphen Chan corruption trial which really brought to light alot of the incompetencies at TVB....so in a sense, the tables are turned this time around and the other stations (CTI, i-Cable, now TV) actually have the 'upper hand' over TVB -- which is why those stations have a higher probability of succeeding now whereas CTV and RTV didn’t back then.

I am going to conclude by saying that as much as I ‘hate’ TVB nowadays (well, more specifically, I hate TVB’s management and politics), I can’t help but still hold out hope that the company will reform and really start taking this ‘war’ seriously – after all, I would like to think that my family and I didn’t support this station for so many decades for nothing!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

News Article: Michael Miu gets reminder from Jamie Chik about 22nd Wedding Anniversary

Awww, this is a sweet article about Michael and Jamie! It was heartwarming to read, so I wanted to share it with all of my fellow 'TVB old-timer' friends...LOL! Anyway, hope you enjoy it!

Oh, and even though I'm kind of late, I still want to wish Michael and Jamie a Happy 22nd Wedding Anniversary!!! :-)

******

Original article published January 14th, 2012

Source: Mingpao Weekly, Issue 2253

Translated by: llwy12

Michael Miu gets reminder from Jamie Chik about 22nd Wedding Anniversary


How many 30 years are there in a lifetime? As one of the HK entertainment industry’s model couples, actor Michael Miu (苗僑偉) and his wife [former actress] Jamie Chik (戚美珍) fell in love back in 1982 while filming the TVB series “You Only Live Twice” 《飛越十八層》-- January 9th marks the 22nd wedding anniversary for this ‘golden’ couple who has remained together through thick and think for the past 30 years [TN: they dated for 8 years before getting married in 1990]. Even though Michael is currently filming in Xiamen [China], he does not have to worry about feeling lonely, as his wife Jamie flew over to visit him on set this week. On their anniversary day, the couple celebrated the occasion by having dinner with the filming crew, with Michael giving Jamie the anniversary gift he had prepared for her -- a bouquet of flowers. This loving couple is truly the envy of those around them!

Every year for the past 22 years, Michael has always given Jamie a bouquet of flowers on their wedding anniversary – though this year was no different in that aspect, Jamie pointed out that there actually was one thing different from previous years: “In the past, every year of our wedding anniversary, we would have a celebratory dinner with a few of our close ‘couple’ friends in HK, however this year, we celebrated with a group of young friends in Xiamen. Actually, Michael is pretty good about remembering our anniversary every year – but even if he were to forget, I would surely ‘remind’ him! Like this year for example – one night, on impulse, I wrote the number ‘22’ on a piece of paper and handed it to him with the intention of ‘reminding’ him about our 22nd wedding anniversary. He took one look at the paper and asked me ‘What?’ – then he turned the paper over, looked at it, and asked me again ‘What?’ When he saw me smiling without answering, he then said: ‘Oh! Hey, I remember – you don’t need to remind me!’ See, Michael never forgets our anniversary!” Asked whether she purposefully flew to Xiamen to celebrate with Michael, Jamie replied: “In HK, I don’t have any work obligations currently and there isn’t anyone to keep me company anyway, so I figured why not go to Xiamen and take care of Michael – plus it’s a way of enjoying life!”

Even though they have already been married for 22 years, Michael and Jamie’s deep affection and love for one another is akin to that of a newlywed couple. Towards this, Jamie expressed that their relationship really isn’t much different from ordinary couples – when they were young, they would argue a lot, but after being together for so long, they grew to understand that the key to a lasting relationship involves mutually accommodating one another, being tolerant and accepting of one another, and also respect: “During our youth, when we were dating, we worked together and we also managed a business together. Now our kids [TN: daughter Phoebe is 20 and son Murphy is 18] are all grown up and continuing their schooling abroad, so all that’s left is the two of us to keep each other company. We rely on each other mutually, as we will be accompanying each other on the long road ahead and into the future.”

In their 30 years together, Michael and Jamie have never run out of things to talk about. Towards this, Jamie smiled and expressed that because she and Michael talk about everything under the sun -- even pointless, silly things – they never have to worry about growing distant from each other: “Some married couples who’ve been together for a long time end up running out of things to say to each other – after all, being together for so many years, you’ve pretty much said everything you want to say – so it’s no surprise that the relationship eventually grows distant. But Michael and I are different in that we talk about everything, even unimportant silly things – even with things like TV series and movies, we could go on and on about it! Actually, I feel that this helps to enliven and enhance our relationship as a married couple.”

Currently, Michael is rushing to complete his work in the Mainland and it is anticipated that filming will wrap prior to Chinese New Year. After that, the couple has plans for a trip to the U.S. and Canada to visit their children and will return to HK after the CNY holiday.

.---.

Chinese version:

戚美珍兩個二字提醒 苗僑偉結婚周年指定動作

人生有幾多個三十年呢?被視為圈中模範夫妻的三哥苗僑偉跟三嫂戚美珍,在八二年拍電視劇《飛越十八層》定情,由拍拖至今共處三十載,周一(九日)是二人結婚廿二周年,正身處廈門拍劇的三哥,當然不愁寂寞,因為三嫂早已飛到當地探班;當晚他們與工作人員食飯慶祝結婚周年紀念,席間三哥特別為三嫂準備一束鮮花,二人恩愛如昔,羨煞旁人。

原來廿二年來,苗僑偉都會在結婚周年向三嫂送上鮮花,不過戚美珍指今年有別於以往,「因為往年我們會在香港約幾對好朋友一起食飯慶祝,今年在廈門同一班後生仔女吃飯。其實每年三哥都會記得這個重要日子,就算不記得,我也會給他暗示,好像今年,我有晚突然在紙上寫了兩個二字給他,提他廿二周年,他看了一看,反問我『做咩?』翻轉張紙看看之後又問我『做咩?』我笑笑口沒有答他,他就話『唓!我記得呀,使乜提我喎!』所以三哥不會忘記慶祝結婚周年。」問到三嫂今次是否專誠到廈門陪三哥過結婚周年?她說:「我在香港沒有工作在身,我不陪他,我都沒有人陪,不如到廈門照顧他,這也是生活樂趣。」

不知不覺已踏入結婚廿二周年,但三哥三嫂感情儼如新婚夫婦,對此三嫂認為他們相處,跟一般情人一樣,後生時會多些拗撬,但相處久了,明白相處之道在於互相遷就、互相包容及尊重,「後生我們拍拖時一起工作,一起做生意,現時小朋友都長大出外讀書,剩下他陪我,我陪他,我倆互相依賴,將來大家伴隨的日子還有很久。」

從沒有隔膜

三十年來他們無所不談,三嫂笑稱無厘頭的話題,令他們沒有隔膜,「有些夫妻相處太久會沒有話題,對得太多年要講的都講完,所以漸生隔膜,但我跟三哥就比較無厘頭,東南西北什麼都講,連電視劇、電影都講一餐,這樣其實可以點綴夫妻間感情。」現時三哥正在趕戲,預計農曆年前煞科,之後他們會到美加探望子女,過年後才返港。

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

TVB series “Bottled Passion 我的如意狼君” (2011): Theme Song Translation

Those of you who have been following my blog know how much I love the series “Bottled Passion”, which just finished airing last week. Since I already wrote a detailed review on the series (those interested can read it here), I won’t go into huge detail about the series itself with this post. However, one thing that my review didn’t talk about was the theme song to the series – a beautifully written song called 朝花夕拾, which translates into English as “Dawn Blossoms Picked at Dusk”.

I loved this song almost from the first time I heard it (which is rare), primarily because I was attracted to the soothing musical arrangement, which was a perfect match with singer Teresa Cheung’s sweet voice. I actually didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to the lyrics of the song at first – I mean, yes, I did read the lyrics and understood the story the song was trying to tell, but it didn’t have too much of an impact on me in the beginning. It wasn’t until almost half way through the series -- as I watched the love story between the main characters Tung Boon Sin (Raymond Wong) and Tsui Sum (Niki Chow) play out -- that I began really studying the lyrics to the song and recognized how appropriately the theme song matched with the series. Now that I finished watching the series, when I look back through the lyrics to the song, I realize that, in essence, the song is a recap of Boon Sin and Tsui Sum’s relationship in the series. It actually summarizes the emotions and feelings that Tsui Sum goes through almost perfectly in step with the storyline: the broken heart that Tsui Sum suffers after Boon Sin’s betrayal; the constant reminiscing of their days together; the conflicted feelings of sadness and anger whenever she sees Boon Sin, yet at the same time knowing that she has feelings for him; finding out about his revenge plans and forgiving him, waiting for him to return; being reunited in their ‘second’ lifetime and hoping to live a happy life together; and finally, the regret of Boon Sin dying and the two of them only being able to meet again in the ‘next’ lifetime....

Listening to the song now after watching the series actually has a greater emotional impact on me because it serves as a reminder of the poignant and touching yet agonizingly bittersweet story of the two main characters in the series (makes me want to go re-watch the series again…LOL).

This themesong is definitely my favorite song of the year and can also be counted as one of my all-time favorite songs of the decade! Teresa Cheung definitely did a wonderful job performing this song – I’ve heard her sing in the past (primarily in the 1980s, though she is technically a 1970s singer) and even back then, I’ve always loved her sweet and soothing voice. TVB old-timers may remember the theme songs that she sang for classic series such as “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” 《網中人》as well as “Return of the Condor Heroes” 《神鵰俠侶》—in my opinion, her voice is just as beautiful now as it was back then! Of course, praise should also be given to the composer of the song (Tang Chi Wai) as well as the lyricist (Cheng Ying Lun) for the beautiful melody and lyrics. This song definitely gets my vote for Best Theme song of the year!

Not surprisingly (seeing how much I loved this song and the series), I decided to translate the lyrics to the song into English. Now, I have to admit that the lyrics have less of an emotional impact in English then they do in Chinese (which is why I always advocate reading / watching / listening to stuff in its original language), but it does get the story across. Also, as a disclaimer, this is purely my own interpretation of the lyrics and so most likely will be different from other translations of the song that may be out there.

For those who understand Chinese, I again highly recommend listening to the original version of the song – I’ve included the link to the song’s MV below for that purpose.

Lastly, if anyone has feedback regarding the theme song itself, please feel free to comment!

*****

Link to MV (as posted on Youtube): Dawn Blossoms Picked at Dusk

[Translated by: llwy12]


朝花夕拾
Dawn Blossoms Picked at Dusk


電視劇《我的如意狼君》 主題曲
TV Series “Bottled Passion” theme song

主唱:張德蘭
Performed by: Teresa Cheung

作曲: 鄧智偉
Composed by: Tang Chi Wai

填詞: 鄭櫻綸
Lyrics by: Cheng Ying Lun


傷透的芯花睜不開 灰的天等你回來
A flower hurt so completely won’t open, grey skies awaiting your return

一天一天應不應該 思憶中聽你示愛
Day by day should I be, reminiscing about your declarations of love?

Ha......

仿似朝花一息間開 凋萎一刻照夕來
Like a dawn blossom opening in a breath, but withering at the moment dusk arrives

漆黑的天一絲星光 悲傷中感到被愛
A thread of starlight in a darkened sky, feeling loved even in sorrow

Ha......

回頭期望見你在步近 如途人
Turn my head back hoping to see you come close, like a stranger

我數百次轉身站在問
Turning around, I countlessly stand there and question

為何還望再見 為何還要等
Why do I still hope to see you again, why must I still wait?

回頭能望見你在步近 如行人
Turn my head back seeing you come close, like a traveler

你我隔世可相聚沒恨
You and I separated by a lifetime, can reunite without regret

離離合合錯過仍還要等
Separating and reuniting, if miss out, still need to wait

Ha......

其後若相見 可認出聲線
Later if we meet again, hope to recognize your voice

情若是不變 愛沒完沒了
As long as the feelings haven’t changed, we will love endlessly


*****

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

TVB series “When Heaven Burns 天與地” (2011): General Thoughts & Sub-theme Song Translation

TVB series "When Heaven Burns" just finished airing last week. I have no intention of doing a review on the series because to be honest, I didn't really "watch" the series, since I only caught various episodes here and there when my family was watching the series (I did tune into the 2 hour finale though and watched that in its entirety). In case you're wondering....no, I didn't decide to skip this series because of the cannibalism theme or the cast or whatnot -- in fact, from the little I've seen of WHB, I could tell that the series was well thought out in terms of script and the filming method as well as acting from artists were all above standard. Unfortunately though, the biggest problem with this series is that it was agonizingly SLOW and draggy (this is the reason why I chose to skip the series)...it's one thing if only the first few episodes were slow but with this series, almost every single episode dragged out, to the point that it became a bit too tedious to sit through and watch. Yes, the series did start to pick up pace about two-thirds of the way in, but unfortunately, it was too late -- I had already given up on the series less than halfway through because I didn't have that kind of time to waste (plus I don't tolerate slow / draggy series very well).

That being said, I did tune in to watch the 2 hour finale episodes (primarily out of curiosity) and I'll be the first to admit that the finale (unlike the rest of the series) was definitely worth the time to watch. I especially enjoyed the 2 musical segments in the finale: 1) the rock concert segment that featured the reunion of Hak Jai (Moses), Gu Lo (Bowie), and Ronnie (Kenny) singing "Youthful Ignorance" (which just so happens to be the sub-theme song of the series itself) -- I felt that segment was particularly moving and well done; 2) the "What If" video at the end of the series (again featuring the sub-theme song) was also nicely put together (plus I felt it was an appropriate ending to an otherwise intense series).

Talking about the sub-theme song..... 年少無知 (’Youthful Ignorance’) has become very popular in recent weeks (and deservingly so in my opinion, as the melody of the song is quite catchy and the lyrics are meaningful). The feedback I’ve heard regarding the song is that many people who haven't even watched the series are able to relate to the song’s lyrics and apply them to their own lives in some way – now THAT’s what I call an influential song!

A few people have asked about an English translation to the sub-theme song's lyrics -- originally, I was surprised that there wasn't already an English translation of the lyrics circulating out there somewhere, given the popularity of the song, however after studying the lyrics further, I understand why.....the lyrics are a bit tough to translate into English without losing some of its meaning.

Anyway, for those who are interested, I went ahead and translated the lyrics of the song into English -- however, I have to put a disclaimer that this is purely my interpretation of the lyrics and may not necessarily be a 100% correct translation. Also, I tried to keep to the flow of the song as much as possible while still maintaining the essence of the lyrics, however keep in mind that the song itself is not meant to be sung in English – so the translation is basically for reference only.

For those who understand Chinese, I highly recommend listening to the original version of the song (which is why I also included the link to the song's MV below).

Lastly, if anyone has feedback regarding the translation, you’re welcome to comment! :-)

.****.

Link to MV (as posted on Youtube): 'Youthful Ignorance'

[Translated by: llwy12]

年少無知
Youthful Ignorance

電視劇【天與地】片尾曲
TV Series “When Heaven Burns” sub-theme song

主唱:林保怡.陳豪.黃德斌
Performed by: Bowie Lam, Moses Chan, Kenny Wong

作曲:黃貫中
Composed by: Paul Wong

填詞:林若寧
Lyrics by: Lam Yeurk Ning

編曲:黃貫中.劉志遠
Musical arrangement: Paul Wong, Lau Chi Yuen

監製:黃貫中
Producer: Paul Wong

(B = Bowie, M = Moses, K = Kenny, T= Together)


林:年少多好 頑劣多好
B: How good is youthfulness, how good is stubbornness

不甘安於封建制度裡迷信上街真理會達到
Unwilling to be content with feudalism, superstitious that on the streets truth will be attained

旗幟高舉 群眾聲討
The flag lifted high, condemned by the masses

不惜犧牲一切去上訴權貴的想法太俗套
Unhesitatingly sacrifice everything to appeal, the thought process of those in power is too conventional

只可惜生活是一堆挫折 只可惜生命是必須妥協
Unfortunately, life is a pile of setbacks, unfortunately, life requires compromise


陳:年少多好 貧困多好
M: How good is youthfulness, how good is poverty

一蚊積蓄足以快樂到廉價結他抒發我暴躁
A dollar in savings is enough to be happy, a cheaply-priced guitar to vent out my irritabilities

財富得到 年歲不保
Riches are obtained, youthfulness cannot be maintained

捐輸不必講究有回報人世間總會有異數
Contribution need not be concerned with payback, the secular world inevitably has its differences

只可惜生活是一聲發洩 只可惜生命是一聲抱歉 怕追討
Unfortunately life is the sound of venting, unfortunately life is the sound of apology, afraid to be chased down


合:如果命運能選擇十字街口你我踏出的每步更瀟灑
T: If, fate could be chosen, each step we’d take at the end of the crossroads would be more natural and unrestrained

如果活著能坦白舊日所相信價值不必接受時代的糟蹋
If, we could be honest with life, the values we believed in the past would not need to accept the ruin of an era


黃:年少多好 朋友多好
K: How good is youthfulness, how good is friendship

一番爭執不會有被告遊戲競爭不會記入腦
A dispute would not require a defendant, competition in a game would not be remembered

年歲增長 無法修補
Increasing age, unable to mend

青春的詩總會老 時間多恐怖
The song of youth will eventually get old, passage of time so terrifying


合:如果命運能選擇十字街口你我踏出的每步無用困惑
T: If, fate could be chosen, each step we take at the end of the crossroads would not need to be perplexing

如果活著能坦白舊日所相信價值今天發現還未老
If, we could be honest with life, we’d discover today that the values we believed in the past have not aged

如果命運能演習現實中不致接納一生每步殘酷抉擇
If, fate could be practiced, we would not have to accept a life of cruelly choosing every step

留守過去的想法我會否好像這樣生於世上無目的鞭撻
Standing behind the previous way of thinking, would I be subject to the blind lashing of today’s world?

Monday, January 9, 2012

News Article: Mingpao Special Feature: A career in review – looking back at TVB producer Lee Tim Sing’s Top 5 series

Here's a MUST READ article for 80s TVB fans (well, it sort of extends back to the 70s as well).

As most of you probably know, 'golden' producer Lee Tim Sing (李添勝) has plans to retire next year -- for the past 43 years, he has been responsible for producing many many TVB series, most of which we would consider 'classics'. With his anticipated retirement at the end of next year (as well as the recent success of his latest series "Bottled Passion"), Mingpao Weekly did a special feature on Lee Tim Sing, interviewing him about 5 of the top series he had produced in his career.

I'm sure that many old-school TVB fans have probably watched the 5 series discussed in this article at some point in their lives -- if so, here's some behind-the-scenes information about those series, as recounted by Tim Gor himself.

As an 80s/90s TVB fan (and the 70s to some extent), I definitely enjoyed reading this article! Whether you are a fan of TVB or not, if you've watched any of the 5 series mentioned, I hope that this article will help shed some light on things that perhaps were not previously known about the series.

Anyway, enjoy!! :-)

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Article originally published on January 7th, 2012

Mingpao Special Feature: A career in review – looking back at TVB producer Lee Tim Sing’s Top 5 series

Source: Mingpao Weekly, Issue 2252


Now that “Bottled Passion” has ended and his next series “Stairway to Heaven” is in post-production, TVB golden producer Lee Tim Sing (Tim Gor) has started preparing for his newest series “Detective Columbo” – actor Wayne Lai will star in this new series, which could very well be Tim Gor’s last production prior to retirement: “Unless something unexpected comes up, yes, this will most likely be the last one.” TV fans are surely hoping for something ‘unexpected’ to happen! After spending 4 decades in the industry, will Tim Gor miss the work? “It’s not really a matter of missing or not. I’m already 65 years old – it’s truly time for me to step down.”

With a career that spans 43 years and numerous hit series to his credit, Tim Gor does not wish to deliberately pick any one series as his ‘representative’ work: “I put my heart and soul into every single series I produce and each time, I strive to make the best series possible – though of course, it’s not always possible!” With limited production resources, of course it may not always be possible to achieve the best visual effects, however when it comes to choosing suitable actors and actresses for his series, Tim Gor certainly has an eye for talent. From a casting perspective, Tim Gor feels that “The Duke of Mount Deer” (1984) and “The Emissary” (1982) were ‘very close to perfection’, while classics such as “The Fate” (1981) and “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” (1979) had ‘golden couple’ Chow Yun Fat and Dodo (Carol) Cheng – two of his ‘beloved’ artists whom Tim Gor collaborated with often back in the day. Of course, the most ‘memorable’ experience for him was producing 1985’s grand anniversary series “The Yang’s Saga” in which every single artist employed by TVB at the time participated: “Back then, whenever we had a war to fight, everyone was invigorated!” [TN: the ‘war’ was between TVB and ATV: at that time, TVB produced the series to ‘fight’ ATV’s highly rated inaugural Miss Asia Beauty Pageant].

Looking at the state of TVB nowadays, does Tim Gor’s spirit and vitality still exist?


‘Close to perfect’ casting: Tony Leung (梁朝偉) and Andy Lau (劉德華) in “The Duke of Mount Deer” 《鹿鼎記》and “The Emissary” 《獵鷹》

In April of 1969, Lee Tim Sing joined TVB and was given the worker’s identification number of ‘365’ – perhaps it was fate that from that day forward, Tim Gor would work ‘365 days’ a year, every year, producing series for the small screen.

Having experienced the ‘golden era’ of TVB [back in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s] as a producer, it is of course difficult for Tim Gor not to lament TVB’s dire state today: “Back in the day, TVB truly had many great talents – in addition to the Five Tigers, there were also the more ‘mature’ actors such as Chow Yun Fat, Adam Cheng, Simon Yam, etc. – so in a sense, casting for series was easy!” A ‘classic’ example of this – TVB’s popular 1984 Jin Yong remake, “The Duke of Mount Deer”: “If at that time, our ‘artists vault’ did not consist of an actor named Tony Leung, the series definitely would have lost a lot of its vibrancy!” As Tim Gor describes it, Tony Leung’s portrayal of ‘Wai Siu Bo’ was akin to a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity – since then, the character has become ‘extinct’ so to speak: “When I had Jordan Chan (陳小春) play that role [in the 90s remake], it was a different feeling -- even Tony Leung himself, if he were to do the same role years later, would not be able to pull it off with the same freshness and purity as the original portrayal, since he would have gone through more experiences and his acting matured.”

Thinking back to that time, when TVB’s then Head of Production Lau Tin Chi (劉天賜) called Tim Gor into his office to give him the ‘marching orders’ to start production on “The Duke of Mount Deer”, Tim Gor’s first reaction was: “Ok, then Tony Leung will play Wai Siu Bo and Andy Lau will play Emperor Hong Hei!” Tim Gor revealed that the first time he cast Tony in one of his series was in 1982’s “The Emissary” – he did so primarily because Tony at that time was “a short, young boy who had a pleasant face and was obedient – the perfect fit to play Barbara Chan (陳敏兒)’s younger brother!” However, as filming of the series progressed, Tony’s meticulous acting and focus caused Tim Gor to see him in a new light: “Of course, when most audiences watch series, they will only pay attention to the main leads playing their roles in the front, but as a producer, I have to pay attention to those in the background as well. In “The Emissary”, Tony only played a supporting role and when [main leads] Andy and Barbara were playing their parts in the front, he would usually only be in the background – yet, the way he remained so focused and absorbed in the scene – it was obvious that in the future, that was the type of actor I wanted to work with; after all, who would want to work with a wandering spirit with no focus?”

Andy Lau’s situation was similar to Tony’s – the reason he got the ‘golden’ opportunity to be male lead in “The Emissary” was also because of his ‘background focus’: “In the series “The Lonely Hunter” (1981), there was a scene where a group of youth from the Acting Classes were cast as school students and had to perform the song ‘On the Songhua River’. I was in the control room and noticed that one of the students was especially enthusiastic and put 100% effort into performing that scene, so I asked my assistant to write down that student’s name. When it came time for me to start filming on “The Emissary” (in 1982), the first person that I thought about to play the lead role of a youngster from the police academy was that name I had written down: Andy Lau.”

Therefore, when it came time to film “The Duke of Mount Deer”, Tony and Andy were the first choice to play Wai Siu Bo and Emperor Hong Hei: “I would have to say that the casting for that series was close to perfection – even [veteran actor] Chun Wong playing the role of Mao Sap Bat was so well-suited!” The role that had the most ‘controversy’ at the time was Kiki Sheung playing ‘Ah Ngo’ – Tim Gor admits that back then, when he had decided to cast her in the role, there were definitely some people who objected: “As a producer, I cannot be wishy-washy – once the decision has been made, need to follow through with it. If I were to switch artists around all the time, not only would the artists themselves be unhappy, it would also affect the production. In addition to focusing on the quality of the series, I also need to be concerned with the artists’ feelings.” In deciding to cast Kiki for the role, Tim Gor states that her ‘obstinate’ personality was perfectly suited to the character: “If you say that Kiki is not pretty enough for the part, I probably wouldn’t refute you, but the character of Ah Ngo is the illegitimate daughter born out of wedlock to Chan Yuen Yuen and Lee Chi Sing and from childhood, was raised by a one-armed nun – based on her experiences, the character is supposed to have a self-determined, independent kind of stubbornness about her…Kiki definitely had this temperament that made her perfect for the role.”

In Jin Yong’s popular wuxia novels, anything is possible, however adapting the novels to the small screen is a challenge unto itself, both for the cast and crew alike. Tim Gor responds with a smile: “The scene where Wai Siu Bo finds the treasure was especially difficult to film, as there are limitations to what we are able to do in the studio. We did the best we could at the time, building a special set with an underground passage and tried to make the ‘treasure’ as realistic as we could….but of course, there will always be comparisons made! Look at all the Western films with those types of scenes – all the pillars, stones, etc. always look so grand – then take a look at ours…can’t compare!” When that scene was being filmed, Tim Gor had to give special instruction to the director to be careful with the camera angles and make the scene as short as possible: “No point in embarrassing ourselves!”

At this point in the interview, the scene in TVB’s recent anniversary series “Curse of the Royal Harem” where the Emperor and Empress are ‘riding’ in that makeshift balloon comes to mind….aiye….


Andy Lau and Deanie Ip’s mother/son relationship in “The Emissary”

In the 70s, TVB’s biggest competition was RTV [TN: Rediffusion Television, which later became ATV] and during that decade, a big focus for both stations was filming police dramas. After years of filming heavily male-oriented police investigative series, Lee Tim Sing (Tim Gor) suddenly had a thought – instead of filming regular police dramas, why not film a series about police cadets?: “Just like that, the series “The Emissary” was born!”

Prior to this series, Andy Lau did have some acting experience, however since this was his first time in a lead role, a bit of nervousness was unavoidable: “If you ask me whether Andy’s acting skills were always proficient, I would tell you ‘of course not!’ In the beginning, his acting was extremely stiff – my assistant would tell me: ‘that’s not going to work!’ to which I would reply: ‘give him a few more days and he’ll be fine!’” Tim Gor had a lot of confidence in Andy and very carefully helped him figure out where the problem was: “In times like that, you absolutely cannot yell at the actors because if you do, the situation becomes worse. Plus, at that time, it wasn’t completely Andy’s fault – during filming, there were a lot of people in the studio and it was quite noisy – unless you’re used to that type of filming environment, it’s difficult not to become slightly intimidated. As a producer, as long as you understand the circumstances, then it’s no big deal – the more at ease the artists are, the better the acting becomes. A few days later, when I bumped into Andy in the makeup room, I gave him a pat on the shoulder and told him: ‘You’ve been doing much better!’”

Of course, let’s not forget that Andy also had great ‘teachers’ to learn from, as other artists participating in the series included Deanie Ip (葉德嫻), Paul Chun (秦沛), Lau Kong (劉江), etc. – all of them were veteran artists who are known for their solid acting skills: “The veteran artists were very willing to help teach the younger artists at that time; after all, helping the younger artists was the same as helping themselves, since it meant everyone could get off work on time.” In real life, Deanie Ip and Andy Lau truly have a special ‘mother/son’ relationship and have remained close even now, 30 years later – with regard to Tim Gor’s role in bringing these two together, he states: “Actually, there really wasn’t any special reason why I decided to cast Deanie Ip in the series. My intention at the time was to create a very close-knit, unique mother/son relationship where the two of them could joke with each other and act like sister and brother rather than mother and son. I knew Deanie from years back, around 1972 or so, when I was still in an assistant (場務員) role and she was already singing in “Star Show” – later on, we got the chance to collaborate on a series – I remember that every time I saw her, I noticed that she was always smiling, so she was perfect for the ‘happy mother’ character I had in mind for “The Emissary”.”


‘Golden’ pairing of Chow Yun Fat (周潤發) and Dodo Cheng (鄭裕玲) in “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” 《網中人》and “The Fate” 《火鳳凰》

Talking about ‘classic’ collaborations – Tim Gor’s 1979 production “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” created the ‘golden’ pairing of Chow Yun Fat (Fat Jai) and Carol (Dodo) Cheng: “Chow Yun Fat’s acting skills are unquestionably great and Dodo is an actress I love collaborating with! I remember back when CTV (Commercial Television) closed down, TVB had bought a lot of that station’s series. One of my scriptwriters at the time told me I should go watch Dodo Cheng’s performance in those series – to be honest, in the past, what time would I have to check out CTV’s series?” [TN: Dodo Cheng started her television career at Commercial Television in the mid 70s – when CTV went bankrupt and TVB bought them out in 1978, she became a TVB artist].

As soon as Tim Gor saw Dodo’s performance, he knew immediately that she was a talented actress – but, how she ended up becoming part of the ‘golden pairing’ with Chow Yun Fat was partly due to fate and the right timing. As we all know, in the series “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”, Fat Jai was also paired up with actress Cora Miao (繆騫人) and part of the storyline revolved around which woman he would ultimately choose: “The original plan [for the storyline] was that when a man [Fat Jai’s character Cheng Wai] is faced with two women – one who is a perfect match for him in terms of background, education, and thought process and who he had once been in love with [Dodo’s character Fong Hei Mun] and the other who is his dream ‘goddess’ and who understands him well, takes care of him, and is very considerate of his thoughts and feelings [Cora’s character He Ying] – who will he ultimately choose?”

Before the writers had a chance to make a decision, fate already made the choice for ‘Cheng Wai’: “After Cora Miao resigned in the middle of filming the series, the answer was already obvious, as there was no other choice – Fat Jai will definitely be paired with Dodo in the end. Any other characters who were added as love interests after that (Susanna Au Yeung for example) were all ‘facades’ whose purpose was to ultimately bring Fat Jai and Dodo together and move their relationship forward.” Back when the series aired, TVB claimed to have received 200 letters from audiences on a daily basis complaining about ‘Cheng Wai’ being paired with a different love interest as well as requesting that he and ‘Fong Hei Mun’ reunite. When the pair did get back together in the finale, it appeared that TVB had complied with the audiences wishes, but in reality, Tim Gor already had that ending in mind long ago: “Actually, as soon as He Ying was written out of the script [the character died in a car accident], the storyline of Cheng Wai ultimately getting back together with Fong Hei Mun was already set. When Cora quit, we had to ‘give up’ a lot of the storyline that we had originally planned for her – for instance, we had written that George Lam (林子祥)’s character was originally going to fight Cheng Wai for He Ying, but in the end, his character was forced to ‘disappear’. With much of the storyline gone, there was a huge hole that we had to fill and on such short notice, it was not feasible to switch over artists who were currently filming other series, so in the end, we picked Susanna Au Yeung (歐陽佩珊).” When Tim Gor asked for Susanna’s help to participate in the series, he was very up front with her: “It was necessary to be honest from the start that her character (Au Hui Wah) was ultimately going to die – I told her that it was definitely unfair to her and I felt sorry having to wrong her like that, but since we lost Cora, we really didn’t have much choice.”

In the end, Susanna’s character is killed while trying to save Cheng Wai and his mother and later on, he gets back together with Fong Hei Mun – the series ends with the famous ‘last scene’ where Fat Jai and Dodo kiss for close to 35 seconds, which at that time, was billed as the ‘marathon kiss of the century’: “We never planned the timing of the kiss itself – my only request during filming was that the cart pushing the camera do one full circle. The cart had to be pushed slowly because if it went too fast, the cameraman would get upset – after practicing the speed a few times, we did the official take with Fat Jai and Dodo…we finished in one take.” Why not film a few more takes so that there would be more options to choose from? “Camera film was expensive in those days: it cost almost a dollar a foot, and that didn’t include printing and developing – if you film too many excess scenes, the company didn’t like it!”

The ratings for the series went through the roof and there was also much praise from the audiences. However, there were a few audiences who questioned a few aspects of the storyline: “Some people complained that it didn’t make sense for Fat Jai’s character to ruin his career and life by stealing $100,000 in order to help his mother [played by the late Tang Bik Wan (鄧碧雲)], as he could have easily borrowed that money. When I heard that complaint, I was puzzled – why would someone go borrow $100,000 from someone else for no good reason, especially considering that was the year 1979?” At the time, there were also complaints that Liu Wai Hung (廖偉雄)’s character Cheng Chan eating 30 hamburgers in one shot was unreasonable, to which Tim Gor responded: “Yes, I understand that it is difficult for an ordinary person to eat 30 hamburgers all at once, but the purpose of that scene was to show how foolish and ridiculous the character’s thought process was as well as demonstrate the concept of new immigrants wanting to try Western trends [eating a hamburger].” Indeed, the character of ‘Cheng Chan’ had a huge effect on HK audiences and even helped to coin the phrase ‘Ah Chan’ as a nickname for new immigrants settling in HK from Mainland China: “During that time, it was common for HK people to go back to visit their ancestral relatives in the villages and oftentimes, they would exaggerate how HK was a ‘land of gold’, which caused a lot of Mainlanders to come here illegally. I basically ‘borrowed’ the idea after listening to several brothers from the village tell their stories and based the character on this. As for why we chose the name ‘Ah Chan’ – well, that was due to a lot of the stereotypical nicknames that were prevalent in our old society.”

While “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” reflected the struggles of ordinary citizens trying to survive everyday life, Tim Gor’s series “The Fate”《火鳳凰》reflected a different type of struggle – one on a more psychological and emotional level involving the upper eschelons of society. Once again, Chow Yun Fat and Dodo Cheng were paired together – was this arranged by the company given the couple’s popularity from earlier? “No – the most important thing for me is the character and how suited the artist is to portray the role. The main character in “The Fate” is the adopted son of a former triad king and starting from the first scene, there are already scenes involving his background – when it comes to portraying ‘grassroots’ characters, Fat Jai definitely has a knack for it!”

Dodo’s character in the series is the daughter of a rich lawyer, so in order to emphasize the importance of her family’s background, Tim Gor specially purchased a real leather sofa worth ten thousand dollars (remember, this is back in 1981) to use as part of the setting for the scenes involving her home: “Of course, the company complained about the expense, but from my perspective, the family is affluent and in order to match the background and storyline, it made sense to have an expensive sofa – would you expect them to have a sofa made from cheap fabric in their home? Besides, I only bought that one piece of furniture!” Tim Gor was persistent, but it paid off: “Sure, I got yelled at a little, but I don’t care – as long as I’m able to put the investment to good use and it pays off, those people will stop complaining.”


Filming grand production anniversary series “The Yang’s Saga” 《楊家將》

In 1985, the ‘golden couple’ of Chow Yun Fat and Dodo Cheng was taken to a different level – both became ‘deities’! In the grand anniversary series “The Yang’s Saga”, Fat Jai played Lui Dong Bun and Dodo played Ho Sin Gu [TN: historical characters], however both roles were only cameos that they agreed to do to help the company [TVB] fight a war: “At the time, the ratings for flagship program EYT had dropped drastically (and the company had to battle ATV’s Miss Asia pageant finals) – in order to fight back, the company ordered that all their resources be utilized for a grand production and filming had to commence 10 days from the order being handed down. Back then, the organization and structure of the company was strong – as soon as the order was received, we notified the Artists department and they immediately posted letters to all the artists’ lockers letting them know to be prepared. Artists such as Fat Jai, Dodo, Maggie [Cheung] all had series that they were currently filming, so they were asked to return for 1 or 2 days only to film cameo roles as ‘deities’. The director at that time was Johnnie To (杜琪峰) and he asked me how deities were supposed to appear, as it’s not ‘realistic’ to have them just walk out – after some thought, I realized he was right. The result was that we created a precedent by utilizing 18 wires all at once to have all the deities ‘fly’ out in the first scene of the series!”

The reason why the historical story of the Yangs was chosen for this series was primarily due to the short timeframe with which the series needed to be filmed and released: “If we had done a modern series instead, we would have had to spend too much time explaining the story to audiences and promotion of the series would be too strenuous – however as soon as we say “The Yang’s Saga”, everyone already knows the story.” With the popularity of the 5 Tigers at the time, it made sense that they would be recruited to play major roles in the production: “Michael Miu, Felix Wong, Andy Lau, and Tony Leung were arranged to play the roles of the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th Yang brothers, all of whom carried much of the storyline – the personalities and mannerisms fit perfectly.” (Kent Tong did not participate because he was on hiatus due to Barbara Yung’s passing).

In the studio, everyone was originally in high spirits and ready to fight the battle, however after filming nonstop for a few days without any sleep, the situation became a bit volatile: “Everyone hadn’t slept for days, many people were in bad moods, and people were complaining. Johnnie To was pretty much yelling at people left and right – if the crew did their jobs quickly, then of course everything would be fine, but if they slowed down a little bit, then he would get upset and yell. At this point, I had no choice but to be the mediator and help settle things.” But Tim Gor also was filming without rest, right along with them: “Yes, but if I got upset too, we’d be dead! I had to keep the big picture into consideration.”

Tim Gor is definitely deserving of the title ‘natural born leader’!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Review of TVB series “Bottled Passion 我的如意狼君” (2011)

Cast (partial list of the main & supporting cast): Raymond Wong (黃浩然), Niki Chow (周麗淇), Elaine Yiu (姚子羚), Jack Wu (胡諾言), Rebecca Chan (陳秀珠), Katy Kung (龔嘉欣), Eric Li (李天翔), Joel Chan (陳山聰), Raymond Cho (曹永廉), Claire Yiu (姚嘉妮), Ching Hor Wai (程可為), Samuel Kwok Fung (郭峰), Vin Choi (蔡淇俊)


I will admit that I had doubts about watching this series at first because I’m not too keen on Niki Chow as an actress and since she is the female lead in this series, I wasn’t sure how things would turn out -- plus I'm not a fan of Elaine or Katy either (their acting has always fallen in the ‘tolerable’ category for me). However, I decided to go ahead and give the series a try primarily because of 3 reasons: 1) I’ve always liked Raymond Wong (male lead in this series) as an actor plus I like majority of the supporting cast, so I figured even if I don’t like the female leads, the rest of the cast would make up for it (and I was right to some extent); 2) I knew this was produced by Lee Tim Sing (which means there will be a certain level of quality to it) – plus Tim Gor is usually quite involved when it comes to writing the scripts for his series and I’ve enjoyed many of the series he has done in the past, so that gave me more confidence that this would be a decent series at least; and 3) the ‘pre-modern’ genre of this series is one of my favorite genres.

I’m actually very glad that I decided to give this series a chance because it turns out that I ended up LOVING this series (I know, it’s hard to believe given how particular I am with series nowadays). In fact, this is such a great series and I enjoyed it so much that it has officially become my absolute favorite series of 2011 (as well as one of my all-time favorite series from the entire decade)! To be quite honest, it has been years since I’ve encountered a series that took me on such an emotional roller coaster as this one: majority of the series made me cry (literally went through an entire box of tissues!) while some of the scenes made me laugh and others made me angry – still others had me sitting on the edge of my seat in anticipation of what was going to happen next (the suspense factor)….very few of TVB’s series in the recent decade have been able to balance all these elements so well in 1 series (usually, 1 or more of the elements is sacrificed), which is part of what made this series so memorable and awesome.

Before I go further, just a word of warning…this review will most likely be quite long, as I enjoyed this series so much that it had sort of become an ‘obsession’ of mine lately (LOL) and so obviously I have a lot to say about it…..therefore, to those willing to spare time reading this review, I sincerely thank you in advance!

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STORYLINE / SCRIPT

Normally, when doing a series review, I would talk about the cast and characters first, since most of my thoughts regarding the storyline / script will usually become apparent in the discussion about the cast. But for this particular review, I felt it was appropriate to talk about the script first because in my opinion, the absolutely well-written script and engaging storyline were amongst the biggest reasons (in addition to the fine acting from majority of the cast) why this series was so enjoyable and successful on many levels. I definitely have to applaud the scriptwriting team for putting together such a great script (and of course, part of the credit goes to producer Lee Tim Sing as well, since he always plays a huge part in writing of the scripts with all the series he produces).

One of the (many) things I like most about the script / storyline is the way the love story between Raymond Wong and Niki Chow’s characters was written (more on this piece later). I like how their relationship in the first half of the series is not the 'obvious' love relationship thing that TVB is so famous for doing, but rather, a more 'subtle romance' approach that really drives up the emotional factor. Indeed, in my opinion, the beauty of this series is in the ‘subtleness’ of the script – there were quite a few scenes where the dialogue was replaced by simple actions by the actors (hand gestures, body language, facial expressions, etc.) that in and of itself, already conveyed a wealth of emotion. With that said however, the important thing is that the writers / producer did a great job of keeping the ‘subtleness’ balanced throughout the series – meaning that they were careful to include just enough of it to keep the emotional level high, but didn’t overuse it (there were other parts of the script that were similar in style like this). Now don’t get me wrong – the careful dialogue was just as important and there was definitely a lot of it in this series -- in fact, there were many memorable lines in my opinion that really contributed to the overall effectiveness of the script.

As the article from Nan Fong Daily News stated so well, one of the biggest attractions of this series is the way the producer Tim Gor handles the storyline / script: “the plot is fast-paced and the story-telling effect is strong, which often evokes in audiences the desire to ‘chase’ each episode – each time, he incorporates just enough ‘tension’ in the series to draw audiences in and the more they watch, the more ‘flavorful’ the series gets.” This quote absolutely suits this series almost perfectly, as I can honestly say that the way the script was written and the series was produced, there wasn’t a single boring scene in this series -- from the moment I watched the first episode all the way up through the tragic finale, I was absolutely hooked! Normally, in most series, even the ones I like, I usually will find some scenes boring or draggy – but that was not the case here…every minute of this series was absolutely worthwhile (to the point that I felt like this series flew by way too quickly).

Now of course, the script wasn’t perfect by any means (no script ever is) and this one definitely had some flaws (the ending itself is a bit contentious, but more on that later) – however this script overall was definitely one of the best that I have seen in years! Once again, great job to the writers and to Tim Gor for such a wonderful script / storyline!


CAST / CHARACTERS

This series absolutely proves that you don’t need to have an ‘all star’ cast in a series to make it successful and accepted by audiences! Even though this series did not have any ‘big name’ artists in it (well, what most people today would consider ‘big name’ anyway), the cast was definitely strong in terms of acting, as most of the cast were truly high caliber actors and actresses who were able to carry this series extremely well with their brilliant acting. It’s rare to have a series where almost every artist who participated pulled off their roles extremely well, to the point that it’s actually hard for me to choose a favorite character in this series because all of them did such fine jobs and there were so many of them that I liked, especially on the male side (though if I truly had to choose, my top picks would be Raymond Wong’s Tung Boon Sin, Eric Li’s Law Yat, Jack Wu’s Dr Yuen, and Raymond Cho’s Tsui Ping).

The other thing that I really enjoyed about the casting in the series (and part of what made this series so great in my opinion) was the awesome chemistry that existed consistently throughout the entire series – not just in terms of the romantic pairing (between Raymond and Niki), but also in the other areas as well (such as the relationship between Niki and her family, the friendships between Raymond and Eric as well as between Niki and Jack, etc.). I truly believe that one of the most important things in a series is the chemistry of its cast and this series definitely illustrated that all across the board. One of the reasons why this series moved me so emotionally (in addition to the script and the acting) was because the chemistry came across so genuine that I truly felt a connection to each of the characters and when things happened to them, I truly felt for them.

Anyway, here’s my take on each of the characters and the artists’ performances:

Raymond Wong (Tung Boon Sin / Lee Ho) – Raymond’s character is actually quite complex. His real name is Lee Ho and when he was 8 years old, he was adopted from an orphanage and therefore had to separate from his childhood friend Ngau Nai Tong whom he was very close with and took care of, since she was crippled. Little did he know that the couple who adopted him did so as part of a plot by Dong Kwok Hing (played by Rebecca Chan), who was planning to use the child to deceive her husband Ko Siu Tong (played by Kwok Fung) so that he would stop looking for the illegitimate child he had with another woman. Afterwards, when the plan falls through and Lee Ho is kicked out of the house, Dong Kwok Hing tries to kill him by pushing him into a ravine so that her husband would never find out she was behind the plan. Amazingly, Lee Ho survived and later ends up in Nanjing, where he has to rely on deceiving people and performing magic tricks in order to make a living. He encounters a kind elderly man, Uncle Shek, who is the butler to a wealthy family – Uncle Shek becomes like a father to Lee Ho and when the master of the house Mr. Tung and his young son dies, Lee Ho takes on the identity of the young master Tung Boon Sin. Using this identity, he returns to Guangzhou to take revenge against Dong Kwok Hing and the entire Ko family for what was done to him as a child. As part of his plan to ruin the Ko family, he deceives Ko Yee Kiu (played by Elaine Yiu) into falling in love with him while at the same time, pretends to make a play at her younger sister Yee Nga (played by Katy Kung) so that the sisters would hate each other. Yee Kiu falls into his trap and ends up losing everything she has – plus the rest of the family gets the punishment they deserve as well. During this process, Tung Boon Sin meets Tsui Sum (played by Niki Chow) and decides to use her as part of his revenge plan, since the Ko family was interested in the land that her family’s soy sauce factory was built on – however he never anticipated that he would actually fall in love with her. Later on, he finds out that Tsui Sum is actually the childhood friend that he had been looking for over the past 20 years. Most of the series from this point pretty much revolves around Tung Boon Sin’s revenge against the Ko family as well as his relationship with Tsui Sum. Even though the character of Tung Boon Sin is billed as a ‘bad guy’ of sorts because of what he does to the Ko family (especially the innocent Yee Kiu), he’s actually a good guy at heart, it’s just that his suffering as a child caused him to want revenge.

Raymond Wong did an EXCELLENT job in the role of Tung Boon Sin -- his performance in this series was absolutely amazing and convincing! Tim Gor once said in an interview that Raymond was well-suited for the role of Tung Boon Sin – well, I would actually venture to say that he wasn’t just ‘well-suited’ for the role, he was actually PERFECT for it! It’s obvious that Raymond put a lot of effort into the role, as his acting in the series was so METICULOUS -- from the first time his character appeared in episode 1 all the way to his tragic end in episode 21….every facial expression, hand gesture, even the crying scenes were all absolutely well-executed, to the point that I truly felt he was the one carrying the whole Boon Sin / Tsui Sum storyline and it’s really because of his fine acting that all those scenes between him and Niki were so emotional (for me at least). Also, I never realized it before, but those eyes of his sure can act! The wealth of emotion that Raymond conveyed with his eyes – whether it’s anger, happiness, playfulness, sadness, etc. – was so amazing, it definitely was difficult not to be drawn in to his character in the series. Raymond definitely deserves a lot of credit for making the character of Tung Boon Sin SO MEMORABLE!

Even though Raymond has been in the industry for a long time, I never really knew much about him until he joined TVB a few years ago. I watched most of the TVB series that he was in prior to this one and even though I liked his performances and always viewed him as a solid, talented actor, I didn’t realize his true potential until now. I absolutely loved Raymond in this series – his performance impressed me so much that I’ve become somewhat of a ‘fan’ now and am definitely looking forward to future performances from him!


Niki Chow (Tsui Sum / Ngau Nai Tong) – Niki’s character Tsui Sum is the adopted daughter of the Tsui family (though this fact is not revealed until halfway through the series) who takes on overseeing the family’s soy sauce factory after her (adopted) father dies. She has a strong-willed personality (which makes sense given that she has to oversee an entire factory), but at the same time, she also has a kind and compassionate heart. When Tung Boon Sin first enters her life, she is moved by his story of his childhood friend Ngau Nai Tong, whom he has been waiting for 20 years to be reunited with and even tries to help him find her. Not surprisingly, Tsui Sum is smitten by Boon Sin’s charm and even falls for him after he repeatedly helps bail her family out of trouble. He persuades her to sign over the rights to her family’s soy sauce factory to him, hoping that he would be able to save the factory from demise, but he ends up selling the factory to the Ko family as part of his revenge plot. When Tsui Sum finds out that the person she trusted with all her heart was deceiving her all along, she is devastated -- but with the help of her family and the doctor friend (played by Jack Wu) she meets at the hospital, she eventually overcomes the pain and starts anew rebuilding the soy sauce factory (that is, until she and Boon Sin cross paths again). Without going into detail, of course Tsui Sum and Boon Sin eventually become a couple, but the twists and turns that occur in between is truly what makes their love story so poignant and memorable.

Contrary to popular opinion, I actually think that Niki did a decent job in this series. Sure, her acting wasn’t great by any means, but it wasn’t horrible either – I actually did not get as annoyed with her performance in here as I have been in her past series. The problem I’ve always had with Niki’s acting in the past is that she’s too wooden at times, which makes her acting look forced – plus she has a certain intonation in her voice which sometimes makes it sound like she is reading the dialogue rather than reciting it, which is why her acting always comes across as very unnatural to me. That being said though, I will say that she has improved A LOT in this series because even though she still had the same problems (yes, I was able to detect it right away), it was not as pronounced as in previous series. And I have to admit that Niki does crying scenes way better than most of the actresses at TVB nowadays (it’s kind of ironic that I find Niki’s crying scenes quite natural and convincing, but her acting overall doesn’t have the same effect).

I think that overall, the reason why I found her character tolerable was because of the chemistry that Niki had with Raymond Wong in this series – I actually enjoyed almost every single scene that the 2 of them had together. Perhaps because of Raymond’s great acting in this series, he was able to bring out the best in Niki because I felt that each time the 2 of them interacted in a scene, the emotional impact was very high. I actually think that NIki and Raymond make a great onscreen couple – for me, this was one of the best pairings that I’ve seen in years!


Jack Wu (Yuen Yau Hin) – Jack plays an established young doctor who actually turns out to be the illegitimate son that Ko Siu Tong (Samuel Kwok)had been looking for and eventually found. He’s a very kind-hearted person whose main goal in life is to be a good doctor and help as many people as possible. Though he and his father reunited many years ago, he does not want his father to acknowledge him publicly because he has no interest whatsoever in the Ko family fortune or their business. However, due to various things that happen, he eventually returns to the Ko family and helps out with the business. He meets Tsui Sum (Niki Chow) after she becomes his patient at the hospital where he works and he helps her through the illness that was brought on by Boon Sin’s deception. Even when he returns to help take care of the Ko family business, he still continues his ‘job’ as the Tsui family doctor. The two of them end up developing a life-long friendship. Also, he is pretty much the only good person in the entire Ko family.

Jack Wu has always been one of those actors whom I’ve found to be extremely underrated. He’s quite solid in terms of his acting skills and I’ve always found his performances consistent and likable. In the past, I always felt like Jack was typecasted into those ‘boy next door’ type roles -- perhaps because of his boyish looks -- and never really given a chance to play more mature, ‘professional’ roles much. That’s why I feel that Tim Gor made the right choice to cast Jack in this series as Dr Yuen because the character is quite different from the roles that he used to play in the past and it gives Jack a chance to show his acting skill. Of course, he still needs a little bit of polish in the role, but overall, he put in a fine performance!


Eric Li (Law Yat) – Eric plays Tung Boon Sin’s best friend Law Yat who is also his ‘partner’ in helping him carry out his revenge plans. His role is more behind the scenes, as he does a lot of investigative work for Boon Sin and reports back his findings, then, based on this, the two of them plan out their next moves. The reason why Law Yat is so devoted to helping Boon Sin is because he saved his life a long time ago, so he swore he would follow him from that moment on. The unique thing about Law Yat and Boon Sin’s relationship is the great chemistry between the two – they understand each other so well that oftentimes, they seem to know what the other is thinking and they are able to execute their plans effectively. The bond that these two share is unique and their relationship is similar to that of brothers rather than simply friends, which becomes more obvious as the series progresses (especially in the last few episodes when Boon Sin’s life is in danger). Law Yat has a playful personality, but when it comes to helping Boon Sin execute his plans, he takes his responsibilities very seriously – once the serious discussions are over however, Law Yat never passes up the chance to ‘tease’ Boon Sin about Tsui Sum. I love watching these two interact – the ‘teasing’ scenes between these two are especially hilarious and provide a welcome comedic respite from the otherwise serious / tragic nature of the series.

I was thoroughly impressed with Eric’s performance in this series! His portrayal of Law Yat was so well-executed and natural, I couldn’t help finding his character endearing and charming. Actually, this isn’t the first time that Eric has pulled off an impressive performance, but unfortunately, most of the roles he’s had in the past were insignificant ones where he never really got a chance to showcase his talent, plus he was mostly typecasted into minor villain roles as well (most audiences probably recognize Eric for his villain roles). His role in this particular series was probably one of the first ‘meatier’ non-villain roles he was given and without a doubt, he absolutely excelled in it!

I actually read up a little bit on Eric after watching this series and was surprised to find out that he has actually been in the industry since the mid-90s – he actually graduated from TVB’s Acting Class in 1995 and has been in numerous TVB productions since then (another actor who has toiled at TVB for numerous years without much recognition). Boy, I really hope that TVB gives him more significant supporting roles to play rather than the usual ‘villain x or y’ because it’s obvious that he has good acting skills and great potential (come on now, he’s 100x better than those Mr. HKs that TVB keeps putting into their series!).


Rebecca Chan (Dong Kwok Hing) – Rebecca played the role of the main ‘villanness’ in the series, Dong Kwok Hing. She is the matriarch of the Ko family and has a significant amount of ‘clout’ because she came from a well-to-do family and her husband Ko Siu Tong (Samuel Kwok) was able to build his business based in large part on funds provided by her family. She and Siu Tong have 3 children: oldest son Yee Tai (played by Joel Chan), second daughter Yee Kiu (played by Elaine Yiu), and youngest daughter Yee Nga (played by Katy Kung). The best way to describe Dong Kwok Hing is that she is a ‘control freak’ -- ever since her children were little, she has always ruled them with an iron fist, arranging every aspect of their lives from where/when they should go to school to whom they should marry. Also, she spends a lot of her time trying to make her children seem like ‘model children’ in front of their father by hiding anything bad that they do from him, primarily because she is afraid that if he found out, he would cut the children off from any future inheritance. Dong Kwok Hing is actually a very important character in the series because it’s really because of her scheming and her actions that trigger the whole revenge thing with Tung Boon Sin and pretty much becomes the catalyst for everything else that happens in the series.

Once again, Rebecca did an excellent job as the villain character (seems like she’s been doing more and more villain roles in the past several years). Of course, as a veteran artist, it’s no surprise that her acting would be great – with her level of experience, she has pretty much mastered the skills when it comes to executing her role well. Not sure how many people notice, but whenever Rebecca does villain roles, she does the facial expressions extremely well, especially with the eyes (the way she stares menacingly at people with those piercing eyes can be quite scary). With that said, she is still able to play the benevolent mother roles well too – now that’s versatile acting! It’s interesting how Rebecca has come a long way from TVB fa dan in the 80s to top villainess in the current era. I grew up watching her series and even when she was a fa dan, I always felt that she looked more mature than most of the other fa dans at the time (though she wasn’t really that much older). Anyway, another great performance from a veteran!


Elaine Yiu (Ko Yee Kiu) – Elaine’s character Yee Kiu is the oldest daughter in the Ko family. She’s quite smart, but because of the way she is raised, she is constantly under her mother’s controlling shadow. On the surface, she is obedient to her mother and does whatever she is told to do, even if it means that she must marry a man she doesn’t love in order to further the business relationship between the 2 families – however, inside, she really hates the way her mother tries to control them. Because she wants so desperately to get out from under her mother’s control, she tries to win her dad’s favor by succeeding with the family business, so throughout most of the series, she is battling her older brother Yee Tai to gain the upper hand in the business. She meets Tung Boon Sin during a business transaction and though impressed by him, she doesn’t get involved with him because she is engaged already. However, as the series progresses and she gets more and more frustrated with her mother’s controlling nature (plus her dad doesn’t appreciate her efforts with the family business), she eventually falls for Boon Sin’s charms and starts dating him behind her fiance’s back (which is all part of Boon Sin’s plan, though unbeknownst to her of course). In the end, under Boon Sin’s encouragement, she defies her mother and breaks up with her fiancé (causing him to commit suicide)…after giving up everything she has and running away from home, she discovers that all along the whole thing was a setup – Boon Sin never loved her and was pretty much ‘playing’ her the entire time as part of his revenge plan to destroy the Ko family.

To my surprise, I was actually quite impressed with Elaine’s acting in this series. I haven’t seen a whole lot of her series in the past, but the ones that I have seen I was not impressed with, so I wasn’t really expecting much from her going into this series. I was pleasantly surprised though to see how much more mature her acting has become – with many of the emotional scenes involving herself and Raymond as well as the ‘showdown’ scenes between her and Rebecca, she was able to deliver consistently. In fact, in that one episode especially where Yee Kiu defies her mother and runs away from home, only to find the letter that Boon Seen leaves for her telling her the whole thing was a setup – all of the scenes were done so well by Elaine that I truly felt sorry for her character...when she read the letter, I could sense her pain! Also, that last scene in the finale where her character Yee Kiu seeks out Raymond’s character Boon Seen at the office and stabs him was actually quite well-acted. Great improvement for Elaine!


Raymond Cho (Tsui Ping) -- Raymond Cho plays Tsui Sum (Niki)’s older brother Tsui Ping. He is a very honest and upright person who is not good at making decisions and doesn’t really have much of an opinion on anything, however, he has a heart of gold. Even though he is the oldest son, he knows that with his somewhat shy personality, he’s not suited to manage the family’s soy sauce factory, so he’s perfectly fine with his sister overseeing it. He prefers to live a simple and happy life and let the other women in his life (his wife, sister, and mother) make all the decisions for him – in a sense, he has a ‘happy-go-luck’ type personality. One of Tsui Ping’s best qualities is his unwavering devotion to his family, especially to his little sister Tsui Sum – other than his mother, he is the only one who knows Tsui Sum’s true identity, but that doesn’t prevent him from treating her as his biological sister. The way he loves his sister so much and tries to protect her at all costs is truly very touching and sweet!

Ray Cho never fails to impress me with his acting! No matter what type of role he gets – whether serious, comedic, villain, etc. – he always handles the role extremely well. The character of Tsui Ping may not be a major character in the series and compared to the others, he may not have as much screentime, but his role was still very endearing and enjoyable. I loved all those scenes he had with Niki where the two of them would have their heart-to-heart brother/sister talks as well as those scenes where he would be so concerned for his sister’s well-being that he would be on the verge of tears (moved me to tears as well). Ray’s character (as well as his performance) was definitely among one of my favorites!


Additional Cast:

Claire Yiu (Tsui Ping’s wife Wan Yau) – As Tsui Ping’s wife, she is loud and bossy (in a nice way) with a blunt personality and a bit nosy too, but underneath all that, she actually has a good heart. In fact, her character was quite funny and enjoyable in this series. I especially loved her interaction with her ‘husband’ in the series, Ray Cho – they sure make a compatible, cute couple in my opinion…LOL!

Ching Hor Wai (Mrs. Tsui) – Her character is pretty much the typical ‘benevolent mother’ role, except that she ends up having an illness similar to Alzheimers and slowly starts to lose her memory. Even though her role can be considered minor in comparisons to the others (I think she probably has the least amount of screentime), her character is critical in being the one who knows the background of Tsui Sum’s childhood and eventually revealing those details to Boon Sin. Ching Hor Wai gives her usual steady performance in here.

Katy Kung (Ko Yee Nga) – Katy plays the youngest of the Ko daughters and is actually the one who deserves most to meet a miserable fate in my opinion. Her character is bxxchy and incorrigible – at home, she pretends to be a good girl to win her parents favor, but outside, she shows her true colors as a promiscuous teenager who smokes and has a nasty, arrogant temper. Knowing her personality and temper, Boon Sin purposefully leads her into thinking that he likes her when he actually doesn’t and this causes her to be at odds with her sister Yee Kiu. Later on, when she finds out that Boon Sin’s true love is actually Tsui Sum, Yee Nga gets jealous and ends up pushing her down a cliff – the incident causes Tsui Sum to once again become crippled. Obviously I disliked Katy’s character – she was just way too annoying and fake (and it’s unfortunate that she ended up getting off scott-free thanks to her mother, continuing to live her wild life in another city)!

Joel Chan (Ko Yee Tai) – Joel actually portrayed his role quite well in this series, but since I’ve never really been fond of him as an actor, I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to him in here. Besides, his character had more of a significance in the first few episodes of the series during the whole battle over the soy sauce factory and stuff –later on, he pretty much just follows his mother around and does whatever she tells him to do.

Samuel Kwok (Ko Siu Tong) – I’m actually kind of disappointed that Kwok Fung didn’t have a more significant role in this series, especially given that he is the patriarch of the Ko family. I sort of felt like all he did pretty much was just appear every so often to chide his children and his wife whenever something bad happened in his family. The two scenes where he had the most significance were in the announcement of Yuen Yau Hin as his son and also when he officially disowns his oldest son and sends his wife away after he discovers the nasty things that they did. For such a great veteran actor, too bad his role was less significant.

Tracy Ip (Ko Yee Tai’s wife Bak Wai) – Her performance is probably the only one that I really didn’t like -- her acting came across too robotic and fake to me and it seemed that she had difficulty saying her lines (perhaps because of her slight accent?). Anyway, since her role was relatively minor and didn’t appear a whole lot, I was ok with sitting through it.

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THE ENDING

I normally don’t like to go into too much detail with the ending, but with this series, since the ending was a bit contentious, I figured it’s important to talk about. (The sentiment from the general public seems to be that the overall series was great, but the ending was bad because it was so tragic -- specifically referring to the part where Tung Boon Sin dies tragically and Tsui Sum doesn’t find out until years later).

Indeed, the ending truly was agonizing and absolutely heartwrenching! Episode 20 actually ended very sweetly (and close to the ‘happily ever after’ ending that most of us wanted), but then episode 21 came along and it ended up being so tragic that part of me really wanted to pretend episode 21 didn’t exist (though of course that’s not possible because that’s the critical episode that ties up all the loose ends).

Personally, I had mixed feelings about the ending – on the one hand, I could understand the purpose of making the ending tragic so that it’s more memorable (which the series definitely did), but on the other hand, I could also see how the writers could have written the ending differently, in a way that would have been more satisfying to the audiences (if not ‘happily ever after’, then even a semi-tragic one would have sufficed for me – especially since that’s the type of ending I had in mind anyway).
I actually don’t think that I would have a problem with the tragic ending (the part where Boon Sin dies) itself if that entire segment had been handled better -- because the way it was portrayed in the finale really did not make a whole lot of sense from a logical standpoint (plus the ‘tortuous’ way in which that part was portrayed – the whole ‘tripping through the streets with blood gushing out of wound’ thing -- was really unnecessary in my opinion).

Anyway…as much as I didn’t want to see the series end the way it did, I will admit that it definitely upped the emotional factor and made the series all the more poignant and memorable!


CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:

Overall, “Bottled Passion” was an excellent series! Even though the series is technically a romantic love story at its core, there’s actually a good mix of other things in there that make the series well-balanced enough for those who may want to watch this but are not into romantic dramas. I personally enjoyed this series tremendously and for me – taking all things into consideration such as script / storyline, cast, acting, etc. -- it’s truly the Best Series of the year (officially now, since 2011 is over already).

This is definitely a series worth watching (I’m already planning to rewatch it soon, which is rare for me) for all the reasons stated above (plus at 21 episodes, it’s short enough so as not to be draggy). Now of course, if you’re the type of person who doesn’t like watching ‘tearjerkers’ at all (it’s pretty much a guarantee that this series will evoke tears at one point or another), then yes, perhaps reconsider…but if you want to see how a truly high quality, well-written, well-acted, and well-produced looks like, then this series is definitely the one to choose!