Friday, May 25, 2012

Mingpao Interview with former TVB artist Dominic Lam: ‘Jump’

Here's another great interview from Mingpao Weekly magazine (issue 2271, which was originally published last week).  This time, the interview is with another one of my favorite veteran artists:  Dominic Lam (林嘉華).

Dominic has been one of my favorite artists (actor as well as host) since the 80s -- even though he hasn't done a whole lot of series in the past 15 years or so due to immigrating to Canada and such, I'm glad that I had the opportunity to see him onscreen again the past few years, as he has always been (and still is) a very talented actor in my mind.

I really enjoyed reading this interview and even though not much of it was a surprise (especially the part about why he joined CTI), I still learned some things about Dominic that definitely makes me respect him more as a person (since I already respect him alot as an actor...LOL).

Anyway, hope you enjoy the article!

*****





Article originally published May 19, 2012

Translated by:  llwy12

Mingpao Interview with former TVB artist Dominic Lam:  ‘Jump’

Our [Mingpao] magazine has a sister publication – a recruitment newspaper entitled《JUMP》: jump out, jump up, jump ship to another company [in terms of jobs]. Recently, with new free-to-air TV stations coming into play, there have been many people ‘jumping’ in the entertainment industry – veteran artist Dominic Lam (林嘉華) is one of those ‘jumping’ to Ricky Wong’s new TV station CTI. Many who have joined CTI talk about Ricky Wong’s ‘sincerity’ as one of the primary reasons for joining the company – though Dominic Lam’s reason is very similar, he also explains for us how Mr. Wong redefined the meaning of ‘sincerity’ for him: “Mr. Wong flew 30 hours [round trip] to come meet with me in Toronto [Canada] and when he arrived, we discussed for over 10 hours – throughout the entire time, he humbly talked about wanting to learn how to ‘do television’ from me.”

Sure, Mr. Wong certainly has charisma, but then again, Dominic is no naïve youngster who hasn’t seen the world – when he was barely 21 years old, he was already hosting the RTHK program Junior Police Call《少年警訊》for the HK Royal Police Force and not long after that, he was ‘poached’ from the police force by Rediffusion Television (RTV)’s mega-producer Johnny Mak (麥當雄) : “He [Johnny Mak] asked me how much I’d get paid if I were to become Superintendent of Police (警司) and offered me a salary that was way more than that!”

After more than a year at RTV, Dominic was ‘poached’ once again -- this time by TVB – with offers of a yet higher salary, which prompted producer Mak to issue a ‘never hire again’ order against him: “Luckily, TVB agreed to honor the criteria and compensation negotiated in earlier discussions.”

Three different ‘poaching’ experiences, three different stories – Dominic Lam can definitely be considered the ultimate ‘jump ship’ [aka changing jobs] example.


Johnny Mak’s salary offer more than that of Superintendent of Police position

At the age of 16, Dominic Lam entered the HK Royal Police Cadet School (RPCS) and after graduating, was recruited by the Police Public Relations Bureau to host a fledgling police informational program called Junior Police Call《少年警訊》 [TN: He was the program’s ‘first generation’ host] and successfully became the ‘face’ of the police force to young audiences.

After 2 years in Cadet School, Dominic’s subsequent 2 years on the police force was spent promoting good relationships between the police and the citizens rather than investigating actual cases. Due to his success hosting Junior Police Call, Dominic unexpectedly became an ‘idol’ to many high school and middle school students – not long after that, RTV’s founder Stephen Shiu (蕭若元) took an interest in him, resulting in RTV producer Johnny Mak seeking him out to participate in his first series Crocodile Tears 《鱷魚淚》:

"He sat me down and told me that he wanted to find someone with no acting experience yet when he appeared onscreen, audiences would recognize him immediately, then told me that I would be perfect for the role as Pat Poon (潘志文)’s younger brother in the series. He also said that he was very familiar with people in the police department and could easily apply to have me film series on the side. I told him that timing-wise it would be difficult because my work in the Public Relations Bureau is practically non-stop. He then tried to persuade me to quit my job in the police force and become an actor instead. He asked me what my ultimate goal was in the police force and if it was to eventually become Superintendent of Police, it would be a slow, long road upward – then he took out a contract and when I saw the salary offer, it was higher than what a Superintendent of Police would make!”

Dominic’s father was also a cop and when he retired, he was still a low-ranking officer, so in the face of such a huge offer, Dominic felt that it was the best option for him at the time – besides, he figured that he would sign on to be an actor for 2 years and if that fails, he could always go live with his Uncle in the U.S. and continue his schooling there.

He decided to sign with RTV, however because he was barely 21 years old at the time, his father had to sign on his behalf: “Johnny Mak was my first mentor in the television industry. He never yelled at people and in fact always had a smile on his face, yet everyone was afraid of him – whenever he would crinkle his brow, everyone in the room would be silent. He was able to invoke such awe-inspiring prestige because he ‘had substance’ [TN: meaning he had ‘impressive talent’] and so everyone respected and admired him.”

Unfortunately, the 90 episode Crocodile Tears was not well-received by audiences – the storyline kept changing as filming was being done and many of the actors were unpopular with audiences, so many of their roles risked being cut short: “If producer Mak wanted my character to ‘disappear’, it was every easy – he could have killed me off, or had me leave to go study overseas, etc. – luckily I did not disappoint and the audiences actually liked my character.”

Afterwards, he filmed 2 more series and a little over a year after he joined RTV, he was poached by rival station TVB.


‘Never Hire Again’ Mandate
 A year and a half into his 2 year contract with RTV, Johnny Mak started new contract discussions with Dominic:

“Without looking at the contract yet, I told Johnny ‘If I told you that TVB hadn’t approached me, I would be lying, however if possible, I would prefer to stay with a company I’m familiar with, so I did not sign with them yet.’ When I looked at the contract though, there was a huge gap in TVB’s offer versus RTV’s, so I told him that if he could lessen the gap, even if the price is a little lower, I would be willing to sign with RTV – unfortunately, he refused to budge with his offer and the manager of the artists’ department [also present for the discussion] said they would have to discuss it internally.”

Later that day, when Dominic returned home, he received a call from a reporter informing him that they had received a news release from RTV announcing that he would ‘never be hired again’ with the company: “Earlier that day, RTV was still airing my artist promotional clip with the slogan ‘RTV’s darling Dominic Lam’, however the marketing department was ordered by producer Mak to remove the clip, so even they [marketing department] called me to ask what was going on.”

Dominic continues: “I don’t feel that Johnny was wrong in what he did – after all, TVB had not signed me yet, so with the ‘never hire again’ announcement, RTV was probably thinking that TVB might try to reduce its price, thereby pushing me against a wall. Looks like they miscalculated though because Ho Ka Lien (TVB’s Head of Artists’ Department at the time) later announced to reporters surrounding my house that the criteria we had discussed earlier would not change and they were only waiting for me to sign the contract.”

Just like that, Dominic left RTV as well as his mentor Johnny Mak behind him – despite what happened, Dominic did not harbor any grudge against the producer. Later on, Johnny Mak mysteriously ‘disappeared’ from the entertainment industry and has lived a reclusive life ever since: “A few years ago, I bumped into him at a mall in Tseung Kwan O – he now does volunteer work for a senior center.”


Received ‘silver whistle award’ in cadet school

Dominic Lam’s representative work at TVB was his hosting gig for the program Sports World 《體育世界》, which turns out did not require the use of his police background.

“For the first installment of the series Police Cadet ’84《新紮師兄》, producer Chiu Chun Keung (招振強) asked me to serve as a consultant. The major characters in the series – Sean Lau (劉青雲)’s ‘Fit Lo’ [Ngai Fung] and Tony Leung (梁朝偉)’s ‘Kit Lo’ [Cheung Wai Kit] for example – were reminiscent of my own days in cadet school. At the time, TVB had also arranged for producer Chiu and myself to do on-site observation at the actual cadet school. The cadet school instructor role played by Ng Man Tat (吳孟達) was based on a person who existed in real life but had since passed away – the real life instructor was of Indian descent, was very tall, and very intimidating. Prior to filming, Ng Man Tat and I would discuss his character in the series – his gesture [in the series] of putting the instructor’s pointer [stick] under his arm was extremely accurate!”

In real life, Dominic feels that he was more similar to Sean Lau’s character – the top student in the class who excelled in all disciplines and the one who would receive the ‘silver whistle’ award in cadet school.

Dominic’s biggest regret is that he only had the opportunity to participate in the 3rd installment of Police Cadet and in that series, he played a villain rather than a cop. After returning to TVB several years ago, he had the chance to play the role of a cop in the series On the First Beat《學警出更》, E.U.《學警狙擊》, and the upcoming series Tiger Cubs《飛虎》(scheduled to air in June).

“When it comes to playing the role of a police officer, I’m very much into maintaining an orderly appearance. If I noticed a problem with the actors’ cadet uniforms, I would help them fix it immediately – everything from the belts to the shoelaces to the berets that each cadet wore had to be perfectly matched and aligned, as that was all part of my training back when I was in cadet school.”

In the upcoming series Tiger Cubs, Dominic finally gets to play the role of Chief Superintendent of Police (總警司) – a role he only had the chance to play in the acting world: “I didn’t want to go any higher than Chief Superintendent and even asked the producers not to make me Assistant Commissioner of Police because those types of positions sit in an air-conditioned office all day – there isn’t much acting needed for that type of role!”

Six years ago, Dominic returned to HK [from Canada] and participated in Pou-Soi Cheong (鄭保瑞)’s film Dog Bite Dog《狗咬狗》in which he played a villainous cop and later in director Benny Chan’s (陳木勝) Invisible Target 《男兒本色》 where he played a corrupt Superintendent who robs an escort vehicle; in 2009’s Overheard《竊聽風雲》, he plays the head of the police department’s Commercial Crime Bureau.

Being a police officer is Dominic’s ‘unfinished job’ – many of his classmates from back then have already reached the Superintendent of Police position. If he had stuck with the police job in real life, of course he wants to be a good cop – in the acting world however, he is most satisfied with his role as a psychotic cop in Dog Bite Dog.


Ricky Wong flew to Canada to recruit him

In recent years, Dominic travelled back and forth between HK and Canada, filming several series for TVB such as Men Don’t Cry《奸人堅》, The Four 《少年四大名捕》, Grace Under Fire 《女拳》, etc. In 2010, his villain role in the series A Fistful of Stances《鐵馬尋橋》won him a Best Supporting Actor nomination at that year’s TVB Anniversary Awards – even though he ended up losing the award to Evergreen Mak (麥長青), he will always remember Evergreen saying to him before the results were announced: “You’re the only one I will be happy to lose [the award] to.”

Dominic recounts his experience filming with ‘golden’ producer Lee Tim Sing (李添勝) in A Fistful of Stances: “Collaborating with Tim Gor and Cheung Wah Biu (former TVB scriptwriter) was very satisfying. When Tim Gor first sought me out for the series, he told me that it would be a 30 episode series and I would pretty much only participate in the first few episodes as well as the ending, however I ended up having an important role throughout the entire series. Tim Gor is a very hardworking producer – whether we were filming on location or in the studio, he would come observe and accompany us on the set; he’s also very quick in coming up with ideas and making changes – filming with him was a very happy experience.”

Even though he lost the Best Supporting Actor award at TVB’s ceremony, he did win the Best Villain Award at Malaysia’s AOD awards ceremony – an award which he made a special trip back from Canada to accept.

In the past 6 years collaborating with TVB again after his return to HK, his experience has been a pleasant one. Each time he discussed contract renewal with TVB, he always received a satisfactory adjustment in salary – therefore, his decision to leave the station and join CTI definitely had nothing to do with money.

During autumn last year, when Dominic received Ricky Wong’s ‘recruitment’ phone call, he was at home in Toronto: “He called me and very humbly said that he wanted to learn from me how to be successful in television. We agreed to meet up and a few days later, he personally flew to Toronto. As soon as he got off the plane, he was ready to meet with me, but I told him he should rest a little bit first. We ended up meeting the next day and after we talked for more than 10 hours straight, he headed straight to the airport -- he was extremely sincere!

Dominic continues: “He [Ricky Wong] is a man who is very clear and resolute with his mission – he wants audiences to have options. Hong Kong used to be the forerunner in Asia and the Pacific when it came to the television industry, but with the quality declining so drastically in recent years, he really wants to do something to turn the situation around. Working for Mr. Wong, there is truly a lot of opportunity for development! We talked for almost an entire day and it wasn’t until the last 10 minutes or so that he actually invited me to join his company – I told him that it was still too early to make a decision.”


Playing 9 different characters in 1 series

Around that time, Dominic had just established a small production company of his own and the amount of work involved with arranging performances in the U.S. and Canada, filming commercials, promotional clips, etc. already took up a lot of his time. Because of this, he decided not to renew his contract with TVB and also did not want to commit to joining CTI either.

“However, Mr. Wong and I continued to stay in touch. In fact, every time his company had plans for development, he would consult with me and ask my advice – for example, the groundbreaking ceremony and other events, I knew about it all. This kind of friend is worth having!”

Two months ago (in March), Dominic received the script for CTI’s new series and realized that everyone in the creative and production teams he had worked with before. He immediately agreed to join the company and in April, he returned to HK earlier than anticipated for the costume fitting. He will start filming this week [TN: actually last week, since this article was published back on 5/19].

“A 10 episode horror / suspense series, 8 individual stories, I will be playing 9 different characters.” The idea itself already sounds fresh. The temporary name for the series is Frightful Century《驚異世紀》and some of the other artists participating include Felix Lok (駱應鈞), Samuel Kwok (郭鋒), Lawrence Chow (周俊偉), Noelle Leung (梁小冰), Leila Tong (唐寧), etc. Dominic is the male lead in the series: “As an actor, to be able to play 9 different characters at one time, I’m very happy to have such an opportunity.”

In a departure from tradition, Ricky Wong decided to forego the role of the producer having complete authority over the production – instead, the scriptwriter, main director, as well as the artists themselves will share authority. With this model, Dominic gets the chance to work directly with the scriptwriter and director and also contribute his own ideas – the creative atmosphere is very open.

Dominic will be filming until August, so for the time being, he will rent a house in HK. Also, he has only signed a ‘per series’ contract with Ricky Wong, not a management contract. With TVB’s Tiger Cubs scheduled to air in June, Dominic states that if he is invited, he is willing to help promote the series:

“My contract with Mr. Wong is very free, so I’m allowed to work for any company. Today I can film for CTI, tomorrow I can film for TVB, the day after tomorrow I can even attend ATV’s Anniversary Gala if I wanted to! During my contract-signing with CTI, NowTV actually sent a crew to interview me and I spoke as I normally would. This day and age, the world is like one big village with all its boundaries erased – all the more reason for the entertainment industry to break down its barriers.”


Beauty Pageants

Dominic Lam’s wife Jumbo Lau (劉寶珍) was TVB’s image consultant in the 1980s – all of the outfits that the Miss HK contestants wore back then were designed by her. Today, Mrs. Lam accompanied her husband to the interview and prior to taking photos, she would help him fix his hair, straighten his outfit, etc. – back in Toronto, she once owned 2 designer shops but ended up selling them later on.

The couple immigrated to Canada back in 1988 – the main reason was to accompany their only son in his studies. Their beloved son graduates from college this year and currently works as a consultant for a fashion website – looks like Mrs Lam has someone to carry on her work!

Nowadays, Mrs. Lam is no longer involved in the beauty pageant world, however her husband still has ties to the pageants – Dominic has been the host of the local Miss Chinatown Pageant for the past 19 years: “Bernice Liu (廖碧兒), Linda Chung (鍾嘉欣), Aimee Chan (陳茵媺), Christine Kuo (苟芸慧), Leanne Li (李亞男), Janet Chow (周家蔚), Sherry Chen (陳爽), and most recently Candy Cheung (張慧雯) – I watched all of them win their pageants. That’s why I always joke that those ladies all gave me their ‘first time’ on the stage [meaning their first time stage appearances].”

In addition to his work in HK, Dominic also continued with his hosting job for Canada’s Chinese TV Station. Back when he was still at TVB, he would record for his program via phone during his breaks: “A few times I would be standing near the speakers doing my program and when they started paging me to enter the studio for filming, I would hurry up and wrap things up.”

Dominic revealed that after our interview, he will need to get on the phone with the station again for his program: “We pretty much talk about everything on the program – housekeeping, furniture, cooking, grocery shopping, etc. There was even one time when a female audience member who had just gotten remarried called me up to ask advice about how to improve her relationship with her stepdaughter – we maintained contact via the program and years later, when her stepdaughter got married, she personally delivered wedding pastries for me to eat!”

Thursday, May 10, 2012

CTI Press Conference: Details on 3 new series being filmed

This is somewhat of a follow up post to my earlier one about CTI’s upcoming series (read the original post here).

As new information continues to emerge (almost daily it seems) about CTI and Ricky Wong’s overall strategy once his license is issued, it will be very interesting to see how things are going to work out for all parties impacted (basically all the TV stations in HK).

Here are a few additional ‘tidbits’ about CTI that I gathered from ‘following’ the behind-the-scenes people and others on Weibo (these are the same comments that I posted on Asianfanatics as well):

.—Regarding Ricky Wong’s comment about currently having 500 staff on board with his company (200 artists and 300 behind-the-scenes people):

Up until this point, we have heard tidbits here and there about who was rumored to have been contacted by Ricky Wong versus who has actually joined, etc. As I mentioned in one of my other comments, the articles that have come out so far only ‘scratch the surface’ in terms of giving us an indication of who has joined CTI and who hasn’t – there are actually quite a few who joined CTI but were not mentioned in any of the recent articles, primarily because their series will not be filmed until later in the year (i.e. Maggie Cheung, Felix Wong, Frankie Lam, Yu Mo Lian, Rain Lau, etc.)

From what I understand based on what has come out via Weibo and such so far, there isn't a full list [of the artists that have joined CTI] out there because the names of some artists who joined can't be revealed yet (meaning their contracts with another TV station have not ended yet)....and with a few others, there are discussions going on but they have not signed yet. (When Felix Wong attended CTI's welcome dinner a couple weeks back, he had even said he saw alot of familiar faces there, some whom he didn't even know joined -- but he couldn't reveal who those people were because they were still tied down by contracts.)

I'm sure that in the next couple months, we will continue to hear information about artists (and BTS people) who have joined CTI -- though I would probably wait for the 'official word' from either CTI or the artists themselves, since there has been alot of 'speculation' and false information out there these past few months about who has joined and who has not....


.-- The other interesting thing too is that Ricky Wong is taking a whole different approach to filming TV series in terms of behind-the-scenes structure – in other words, there are distinct differences between the ‘CTI model’ of filming series versus the ‘TVB model’.

You’ll probably notice when you read the article that none of the new CTI series have 'producers' -- unlike traditional HK TV series, which usually have a producer overseeing everything, the director who shoots the series, and the scriptwriting team (aka the 'creative' team), CTI's series will only have a 'creative director' (aka the scriptwriter) and the 'main director' (the title speaks for itself)....both the creative director and the main director will work together to produce the series and will basically share in the responsibilities that a traditional 'producer' would have.

This is actually one of the biggest reasons why Ricky Wong was able to get so many scriptwriters and directors to join his company -- especially with the ages old complaint from TVB's scriptwriters that their creative talent is often stifled by the production team (aka the producers)....in the TVB model, the production team is more important than the creative team, so whatever the production team says trumps whatever the scriptwriters say (which is why all those complaints surfaced about producers interfering with scripts and such). It's also a reason why when a TVB series has a bad script, I'm usually reluctant to blame the scriptwriter(s) completely because there's no way of knowing whether the idea came from the scriptwriter or if it was a result of a producer doing his/her own thing (or possibly a result of TVB's politics)....

With the CTI model, both the scriptwriter and director share in the responsibility and get to be involved in making important decisions that affect production, such as casting (which was another big complaint from the TVB BTS people).


.—Another interesting thing to note about CTI’s strategy is that it looks like they are not afraid of being innovative and utilizing the newest technology as well as trends to their advantage. It’s obvious from the details of the 3 series that have been released so far that CTI wants to do things differently and are therefore experimenting with different genres (romance, sci-fi, horror, musical, etc.), which is not necessarily a bad thing given the ‘stagnancy’ that HK television is known for. Also, filming the series similar to a movie as well as using ‘real locations’ as much as possible will definitely give audiences a different, fresher feeling from what they have been used to seeing for decades.

Personally, I feel that CTI is heading in the right direction with some of the things it has been doing related to the production / artistic side of things (i.e. exploring different genres, waiting until the script is completed before filming, giving each artist a chance to voice their opinion about their roles, etc.). Of course, that’s not to say that I agree with everything they’re doing so far because honestly speaking, there are some things that don’t necessarily sit well with me (i.e. the whole poaching thing). With that said though, I’m willing to give CTI a chance to see what they are able to come up with and whether they will follow through with everything they had talked about earlier.

Whether CTI is going to be successful in the long run really remains to be seen (especially given how ‘sentimental’ the HK audiences can be)…it will definitely be very interesting to see how things turn out in the coming months as each of the TV stations reveal more and more of their strategy and structure in the face of the TV wars.

.***.

CTI Press Conference: Details on 3 new series being filmed

Source: ND Daily News

Translation:  llwy12




Even though HK’s new free-to-air television licenses have not been issued yet, that has not stopped City Telecom Ltd (CTI) – led by chairman Ricky Wong – from moving forward with its grand plans for creating a television empire!

Yesterday, CTI held a press conference to announce the details of the 3 TV series that are either in the process of filming or will start filming soon. Based on the details revealed so far, the 3 series cover 3 different genres: youth-oriented romance series “There’s Still Time to Love You Again” 《还来得及再爱你》[TN: this is the sci-fi / vampire-themed series] , horror / suspense –themed series “Frightful Century”《驚異世纪》, and musical song/dance series “Fairytale Love Song 201314”《童話戀曲201314》.

During the press conference, the cast and crew for all 3 series were led on stage by Ricky Wong and were asked to introduce their characters as well as pose for group photos. Out of the 40+ cast and crew present, many of them were ‘familiar faces’ – artists who formerly worked for TVB, such as Bernice Liu, Dominic Lam, Shek Sau, Felix Lok, etc. as well as behind-the-scenes creative personnel [scriptwriters & directors] such as Lam Siu Zi, Leung Man Wah, Ben Fong, etc. These ‘former TVB’ veterans all refer to CTI as ‘a new world’ and during our [ND Daily] coverage of the press conference, they shared with us some of the differences filming at the ‘new’ [CTI] versus ‘old’ [TVB] television stations.


Ricky Wong: License not issued yet, still continue with series

Amongst the more than 40 artists and behind the scenes crew who participated in the press conference, many ‘faces’ that most of us are familiar with from TVB series were present – it looks like the more than 6 months that Ricky Wong spent ‘recruiting’ artists and behind the scenes talents turned out to be a successful venture.

Even though CTI has an unwavering determination to break into the HK television industry and its leader Ricky Wong has taken swift action in starting up the production process for its first batch of series, the fact still remains that the government has not yet issued the additional free-to-air television licenses that have long been talked about. With filming already starting on his first 3 series, Ricky Wong was asked whether he is worried that the issue with the licenses will affect the anticipated airing of these series, to which he replied: “I have a lot of confidence in the government! Since the policy has already been set that the HK television market will be opened up and expanded, I believe that issuing the licenses won’t be a problem -- currently, the ‘hold up’ is mainly due to discussion of a few minor details. Our [CTI] goal is to make sure that when the licenses are issued, we have enough ‘inventory’ [series] in the warehouse to hit the floor running – we’re looking at having 8 to 10 series ready for release.”

Mr. Wong also revealed that currently, CTI has approximately 500 employees, with 200 of those being artists and 300 behind the scenes personnel – the plan is to increase the staffing to 700 by the end of the year: “We recently hired 100 additional people, many of them newcomers -- all of them are currently going through some type of training, whether it’s acting classes or scriptwriting and directing classes.”


Former TVB artists: “There’s a difference filming for a new TV station.”

At yesterday’s press conference, the cast and crew for each of the 3 series took turns going up on stage to introduce their series and characters. Each person in the cast and crew got the chance to speak, introducing their character and also sharing their feelings about filming in a new environment. Since many of the artists (and behind the scenes personnel) who attended the press conference were former TVB employees, it was inevitable that comparisons would be made to their ‘former employer’ -- some of the most common ‘sentiments’ expressed by most of those present include: “Finally, we no longer have worry about ‘flying papers’(飛纸仔)” [TN: this refers to the practice of having to film scenes ‘on the fly’ due to the lack of a complete script at the time of filming]; “First time using movie filming methods to film a TV series”; “The degree of freedom is greater than before”….

Veteran actor Shek Sau (who had worked for TVB since the 1970s) summarized for our reporters the 3 biggest differences he saw filming for his new employer CTI: “First, there is a lot more ‘real location’ filming [TN: meaning that the filming is done on location with real scenery rather than fake studio sets]; second, the filming style is very similar to that of a movie, so the standards when it comes to lighting, equipment, etc. are very high; and third, filming does not start until a complete script has been written, which gives us artists more time to prepare for our roles. In addition, the work hours for the entire cast and crew will not exceed 14 hours in a day.”

Another veteran actor, Dominic Lam, used to play supporting roles at TVB, however in his first series with CTI (horror / suspense series “Frightful Century”), he will take on the male lead role. Since the series will be comprised of 8 individual stories, he will portray 9 different characters in the series -- Dominic expressed that in his more than 30 years as an actor, he has never experience such a challenging role: “There’s a lot of opportunity for development with this role, so I am really looking forward to trying it.”

.---.

Details of the 3 series:

Youth-oriented romance series -- “There’s Still Time to Love You Again” 《还来得及再爱你》

.-- Creative Director [aka scriptwriter]: Lam Siu Zi (林少枝)

.-- Main Director: Ben Fong (方俊華)

.—Cast: Danson Tang, Michelle Wai, Terence Yin, Sherming Yiu, Charles Ying, Kathy Yuen, Chan On Ying, Carlos Chan, Sin Ho Ying, Bond Chan, Rachel Lam, Alex Wong

.—Former TVB scriptwriter Lam Siu Zi (whose works included “Armed Reaction”, “War of the Genders”, “My Family”) expressed: “In HK, there has not been a TV series that purely talks about romance – in this particular series, that is exactly what we will do! Also, with the cast, we’ve done something that hasn’t been done before either – having a Taiwan actor (Danson Tang) take on the role of first male lead in a HK series. The main focus [of the series] will be completely on young idols.”

.***.

Horror / suspense –themed series -- “Frightful Century”《驚異世纪》

.-- Creative Director [aka scriptwriter]: Yip Sai Hong (葉世康)

.-- Main Director: Au Yiu Hing (歐耀興)

.—Cast: Dominic Lam, Leila Tong, Lawrence Chau, Felix Lok, Samuel Kwok, Noelle Leung, Eddie Lee, Luk Chun Kwong, Emily Wong, Chow Chi Lung

.—Description: The series will be made up of 8 individual story arcs that will revolve around a hospital, a luxurious mansion, a college professor, a psychologist versus hypnotist, a mysterious elderly senior, a serial murder case, an old camera lense, and the opening of a new luxurious hotel. The series will be filmed in the style of a movie using ARRI equipment / technology.

.***.

Musical song/dance series -- “Fairytale Love Song 201314”《童話戀曲201314》

.-- Creative Director [aka scriptwriter]: Leung Man Wah (梁敏華)

.-- Main Director: Wong Kwok Keung (黄国强)

.—Cast: William So, Bernice Liu, Kelvin Kwan, Jason Chan, Kate Yeung, Evelyn Choi, Shek Sau, Lisa Lui, Mimi Kung, Wilson Tsui, Savio Tsang, Benji Chiang, Leslie Chiang, Zac Koo

.—Description: As the HK television industry’s very first musical, the series will include many singing and dancing sequences. The story will revolve around a young CEO played by Kelvin Kwan and his love relationship with the characters played by Evelyn Choi and Kate Yeung.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

News Article: Jacky Cheung wraps up Mainland China leg of his ½ Century Concert Tour

The COUNTDOWN to Jacky's 1/2 Century Concert Tour Finale has officially begun!! (Well, in my book at least...LOL).

The Mainland China leg of the tour was just completed this past weekend (on 5/6) and on the 12th, Jacky will be in Malaysia for his final show there, which officially completes the "Overseas" (outside of HK / China) leg of his tour.  The GRAND FINALE is scheduled to take place at the end of this month in HK (see sidebar for actual dates).

As a devoted fan, I'm definitely a bit saddened that Jacky's concert will be over soon (since that means we won't get the chance to watch the show again here in the U.S.....*sniffs*).  However, looking at it in a more positive light -- all good things must eventually come to an end, right?  Plus, as a devoted fan, I care alot about Jacky's well-being -- he's already 50 years old and having to perform 145 shows (the number is technically double that, since Jacky does formal rehearsals for every show) is very draining physically (as well as mentally and emotionally)....so from that perspective, I'm fine with the concert ending so that Jacky can get the much needed rest that he deserves (as well as more time to spend with his family).

Since the "countdown" has already begun, expect to see more posts from now until the end of the month about final shows of Jacky's concert (I'm sure there will be alot of stuff about it on Weibo and such, as there was last April when Jacky held 20 shows in HK). 

Note:  I might not be able to translate and post every single thing that comes out about the remaining shows(since I work full-time and have time constraints like most people...LOL), but I will try my best to at least post up the 'major stuff' (i.e. the 'milestones' and such) as currently and quickly as I can.

So anyway....here's the article about the Mainland China finale show....

.---.

Jacky Cheung wraps up Mainland China leg of his ½ Century Concert Tour



Translation:  llwy12


Picture credit as listed


After 89 successful shows in Mainland China, Jacky Cheung wrapped up the Mainland leg of his ½ Century Concert Tour by holding his final show the day before yesterday at the Beijing Gongren Stadium. This week, he will complete the overseas leg of his tour with final shows in Malaysia and starting next Friday (May 18th), he will return to Hong Kong for the ‘grand finale’ – the final 9 shows of his entire concert tour – which will take place at the Asia Expo World Arena. At the end of his tour, Jacky will have completed a total of 145 shows over a span of 1 ½ years, which breaks his previous record of 105 shows [2007’s Year of Jacky Cheung Concert Tour] as well as the record for all HK singers.

After the Beijing show, concert organizer Florence Chan held a celebratory gathering for all the workers and behind-the-scenes crew to commemorate the milestone. Normally, Jacky rarely attends celebratory events such as this, however since the Beijing show was his very last one in the Mainland, plus his concert tour is reaching its final ‘countdown’ stage, Jacky decided to attend the event so he could specially thank the workers as well as the concert sponsors in the Mainland. After hugging each of the workers who had helped out with his concert in the Mainland, Jacky went up on the stage and said to them: “Being able to achieve results such as today’s is truly a miracle! I had no intentions of breaking any records or exceeding previous achievements, but being able to have all this now is a result of the efforts and hard work of everyone here. All of the success that the concert was able to achieve was due in large part to your contributions!” Jacky then sang his classic hit ‘Blessing’《祝福》as a means of gratitude to all those who assisted with his concert, which moved many of the workers and crew to tears!

Asked about his plans after his concert tour is over, Jacky frankly stated that he hoped to rest and spend more time with his daughters: “There was a period of time where I felt that with my youngest daughter especially, my place in her heart was not even equal to that of the nanny! So after the tour, I will focus my efforts on being a ‘nanny’ and take care of my daughters at home. In the future, my goal is to focus more on projects that I greatly enjoy, such as putting together another stageplay (musical), rather than working purely for the purpose of earning money.”

Former TVB artists Bernice Liu, Savio Tsang, etc. comprise cast of CTI’s newest series: “Fairytale Love Song 201314”

This is actually a very interesting article about the second series that CTI is planning on filming at the end of this month.  I'm not a fan of Bernice Liu or Kelvin Kwan by any means, but I do like many of the artists in the supporting cast (especially the former TVB veterans), plus I love musicals (that's one of my favorite genres when it comes to movies, TV shows, stage plays, etc.).....both those factors in and of itself makes this series appealing to me (at least based on the information that has been released so far).

Anyway, I'm sort of in 'wait and see' mode right now when it comes to CTI's series (since they just started filming and technically they don't even have their free-to-air TV license yet!).  One thing's for sure though:  with many of my favorite veteran artists all joining CTI and in turn, fewer artists that I like remaining at TVB, the decision on which series to watch will definitely be a difficult one!

Well, let's 'wait and see'.....

****

Former TVB artists Bernice Liu, Savio Tsang, etc. comprise cast of CTI’s newest series: “Fairytale Love Song 201314”

Source:  HK Channel

Translation:  llwy12


Picture credits as listed

Former TVB actress Bernice Liu joined CTI after leaving TVB -- earlier, there were rumors that CTI’s chairman Ricky Wong felt that Bernice’s face was too chubby and so requested that she take botox injections to ‘thin out’ her features or risk losing the starring role in his upcoming series. However, a few days ago, while attending an event, Bernice denied the reports and in fact confirmed that she will actually be starring in CTI’s upcoming series alongside singer Kelvin Kwan. The series will be a musical and the two of them will start filming as scheduled at the end of this month.

With the filming of CTI’s very first series already underway – the science fiction / vampire-themed series “My Boyfriend Mr. V”《我的男友 Mr.V》starring Taiwanese singer/actor Danson Tang and HK actress Michelle Wai – the company has already announced plans for its second series, which is set to start filming at the end of the month. The series, tentatively titled “Fairytale Love Song 201314”《童話戀曲201314》, will be filmed on location in Okinawa, Japan. In addition to the main leads Bernice Liu and Kelvin Kwan, the rest of the cast consists of singers as well as many veterans, including: William So, Jason Chan, Evelyn Cho, Zac Koo, Kate Yeung, Shek Sau, Lisa Lui, Wilson Tsui, Charles Ying, Sin Ho Ying, Benji Chiang, Lesley Chiang, Mimi Kung, etc. In addition, former TVB actor Dexter Young as well as veterans Savio Tsang and Kwong Chor Fai – all of whom recently left TVB and joined CTI – will participate in the series as well.

Veteran actor Savio Tsang, who joined TVB back in 1991 after leaving ATV, was recently asked why he decided to leave the company he served for 21 years [TVB] to join Ricky Wong’s CTI: “I feel that Ricky Wong has a lot of heart. He personally met with me to discuss joining his company – in my many years working at TVB, I’ve never had a high level executive approach me before! Also, I’d heard that he sold the telecommunications portion of his business so that he could focus entirely on building up his TV station – for someone like me who has a huge passion for acting, of course I find this particular action of his very admirable. In addition to personally being involved in discussions with artists as well as all other matters, he is also willing to invest so many resources into it – with this kind of boss, how could I not like him?”

Savio emphasized that he is not trying to say that TVB is a bad company – he is merely looking at things from an artist’s perspective -- if an actor works so hard for many years, yet never gets any recognition from the company, it can definitely be very discouraging: “After so many years of working hard, recognition and feeling valued become quite important. If you’re working endlessly day in and day out, yet no one pays attention to you at all, it truly gets very disheartening. For example, last year, my performance in the series “Yes Sir Sorry Sir”《點解阿 Sir係阿 Sir》received good reaction and feedback from audiences but at the company’s awards ceremony, there was not a single nomination; yet some artists who only did cameo roles in a few episodes of other series got nominated – I admit that I felt a bit dispirited! I’m not getting any younger – since the company is not willing to give me the opportunity, I figured why not try my chances elsewhere?”

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Interview with Raymond Wong: “A magazine once asked me to collaborate on fake rumors!”

This is a pretty interesting interview with an actor whom I've started to notice more and more the past few years -- Raymond Wong (黄浩然).  Raymond actually isn't a 'newbie' in terms of acting, as he has been in the industry for over a decade already (started in the industry in 1997) -- however he only started gaining popularity a few years ago after joining TVB (in 2007)...prior to that, he had small roles in movies and  had a few supporting roles during the few years he worked for ATV.

I actually started noticing Raymond back in 2010 with the series "When Lanes Merge" (even though he had filmed quite a few series prior to that).  I really enjoyed his performance in that series and so far, I've liked his performances in the series I've seen of his after that (even if I don't like the series itself, I still like his performances).  Oh and of course, due to my 'obsession' with the series "Bottled Passion" earlier, it made me pay attention to Raymond even more (LOL...)!

The newest series of Raymond's that I'm watching right now is "Gloves Come Off" (拳王), which has so far been a decent series (though I'm not too fond of the storyline or some of the characters in the series). I'm not as excited about the series as I was with some of the other earlier ones, but at least the acting is decent, so that has helped keep the series going for me.  However, I haven't decided whether I'm going to write a review for this series or not (I'm leaning toward 'not'), so for those interested in this series, hopefully the article will give some insight.

In this particular interview, Raymond shares some of his experiences filming GCO and also talks about his [relatively] new role of becoming a father.   After reading this article, my respect for Raymond actually went up a few more notches (he was relatively high on my list already due to his good acting skills), especially when I read the part about his dedication to his son and also refusing to collaborate with tabloids to create rumors for himself.   In the competitve world of entertainment, an artist like him who is so well-grounded and would rather reduce his media exposure (keep in mind that his acting career is still very much active right now) so that he can spend more time with his family is definitely very very rare!  Kudos to Raymond for his good work ethics as well as dedication to his family!  :-)

******

Interview with Raymond Wong:  “A magazine once asked me to collaborate on fake rumors!”


Translation:  llwy12



Handsome guys may not necessarily know how to fight,however in TVB series Gloves Come Off《拳王》, Raymond Wong not only shows off his sturdy build, he also demonstrates his physical prowess – after many years of practicing martial arts, he is finally able to put his skills to use. From his reserved, scheming character in his previous series Bottled Passion《我的如意狼君》, Raymond turns into the character of ‘Bat Ka Sing’ in Gloves Come Off – a ‘big kid’ at heart with a fearless nature. Towards his role in Gloves Come Off, Raymond expressed that filming the series has been one of the most difficult of his career – at the time, his baby son had just been born and after becoming a father, he realized that it was time for his lifestyle to change: “In the 5 years that I joined TVB, I had not taken a single day off, not even when I was sick. However, after filming Gloves Come Off, I decided to take 3 months off work because after having a baby, I realized that life isn’t just about rushing blindly forward with a career.”

The day before yesterday, Raymond Wong accepted an interview with Information Times during which, in addition to sharing his joy at becoming a father, he also reveals how he was once contacted by a magazine and asked to ‘generate’ fake news for them.


Partner: Kevin Cheng filmed Gloves Come Off while injured

In the series, Raymond Wong and Kevin Cheng go from a ‘brotherly’ relationship to ‘enemies’ fighting to obtain the ‘boxing champion’ title. Outside of the series, action scenes consultant Sin Ho Ying blasted Kevin Cheng, accusing him of questioning certain sequences and refusing to do them because he was afraid of getting hurt. In response to this, Raymond Wong put in many good words of support for his ‘brother’, stating that Kevin filmed the series while already injured and so being especially cautious with the action sequences was very normal: “Before filming on the series started, Kevin had accidentally injured his back when he was filming Startling with Each Step 《步步惊心》in the Mainland. Therefore, when filming for Gloves Come Off started, he had to see a doctor to get therapy for his back at the same time. All of Kevin’s action scenes were actually filmed at the end – the first half of the filming focused primarily on his scenes with his son and also his romance storyline.”

Raymond continues: “When audiences watch on TV, our boxing sequences appear so easy, but in reality, filming those few minute scenes actually took us hours – it was normal for us to film from 4pm in the evening to 4am the next morning just on that one scene.” Raymond expressed that most of the scenes in the boxing ring were filmed on a specially built set at TVB City. Oftentimes, in order to let the equipment [used in the series] cool down, the air conditioning would be turned on full blast, to the point that some of the crew actually had to wear down jackets in order to keep warm: “Despite the cold, we had to film the boxing scenes shirtless – not only that, we also sprayed water on our bodies to make it look like we were sweating. We were so cold, we would be trembling!” In order to make the boxing sequences look as realistic as possible, they would often film each scene at least 10 times – and that didn’t even include NG scenes – which obviously consumed a lot of the actors’ physical strength and energy. “Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to prepare much for the role ahead of time, as I started filming Gloves Come Off almost immediately after I finished Bottled Passion – I didn’t have time to get into shape. Luckily I had a little bit of martial arts background and generally kept up with exercising, so I was satisfied with the end result in terms of how things turned out physically.”

In the series, Kevin Cheng’s character ‘Tong Sap Yat’ has a reserved, quiet type of manliness to him while Raymond’s character ‘Bat Ka Sing’ comes across like a big kid who still has not grown up, with exaggerated facial expressions and constantly moving about, unable to stay still for a minute. Raymond expressed that the series’ producer [Marco Law] wanted the huge contrast between the 2 characters: “I exaggerated some of the movements on purpose so that later on in the series when my character’s personality changes, the audiences will notice the changes more.” So far, his performance has been both praised as well as criticized, however Raymond expressed that he does not mind either way, as he is already satisfied that he got the chance to play such an interesting character. Most importantly, with his performance in the series, Raymond gained a lot of little kid fans – as a new father himself, this made him especially happy.

Starting with this week’s episodes, the relationship between Raymond and Kevin in the series will slowly start to deteriorate – when the friendship between these 2 ‘brothers’ starts to rupture, it cannot be mended in a short amount of time: “There’s the saying that ‘sincere advice is jarring on the ears’ – unfortunately, both men allow the bad advice of the people around them get to their heads, causing the misunderstandings between them to deepen.” Raymond bluntly stated that his own personality is very different in that if he were to encounter a similar situation, he would clear it up with the person face to face and not allow the misunderstanding to fester: “Communication is a mutual thing – how much you give is how much you’ll receive. There are some people that it’s easy to become ‘brothers’ with and confide in them about all matters, while there are others who are only suitable as ‘acquaintances’. Each person has their own ‘list’ in their hearts.”


Father: Return home to accompany son every chance he gets

In the series, Raymond marries his girlfriend (played by Natalie Tong) after she becomes pregnant and he ends up ‘reluctantly’ becoming a dad. In real life, Raymond and his wife have been together 10 years and are still a loving couple -- 3 years after the couple married, Raymond became a dad and almost instantly, he went from being a ‘workaholic’ to a devoted father. The filming schedule for Gloves Come Off was quite intense and there were days where they filmed for 20 hours straight, so by the time Raymond returned home, his son was already asleep, which definitely caused him to feel guilty about ‘neglecting’ his family. As soon as the subject of his son came up, Raymond’s voice became softer and with a smile, he expressed that his son is just learning how to walk – seeing him teetering back and forth as he learned to balance himself was extremely cute: “After my son was born, I realized what it truly meant to have a sense of responsibility. I don’t want to miss a single minute watching my son grow up! In the past, I always felt that my career was the most important thing in my life and so I never wanted to take time off, but now, whenever I have even a 2 to 3 hour break, I rush home to be with my son.” After a 3 month hiatus, Raymond’s first ‘job’ upon his return was filming the series The Confidant《大太监》, which required him to be away from his family for a few weeks due to filming on location in Hengdian [China]. As soon as Raymond left HK, he received word from his wife that their son was sick: “It’s one thing when they’re by my side, but when I’m away, of course I worry about my son being sick and whether my wife will be able to handle the situation by herself – therefore, I chat with them via webcam every night.” Raymond feels that parents have a huge impact on their children, so he insists on sharing in the responsibility of taking care of his son right alongside his wife, even if it means sacrificing their personal time. Raymond states that he often waits until after his son is asleep before he studies his scripts or he and his wife chat about their days: “There are only 24 hours in a day and now with an additional person in our lives, it’s inevitable that we’ll have less personal time.”


Rumors: Refuse to collaborate with tabloids in creating ‘false’ news

Raymond Wong is an ‘infrequent visitor’ when it comes to tabloids, as he rarely has any gossip reports or rumors surrounding him. Raymond revealed that one time, a tabloid reporter called him up to ask if he was willing to collaborate with them in ‘making news’ – for instance, having him ‘photographed’ holding another woman’s hand while walking down the street or eating dinner together: “This kind of thing is actually very common within the industry -- everyone knows it and a lot of artists will actually go along with it, since they know that the tabloids need to have something to write about. However, I absolutely refuse to go along with this kind of thing! I would rather have less media exposure and go slower [in terms of career path] than to be involved in these types of negative reports. I have enough pride and confidence in myself! I’ve never had to purposefully generate rumors like that and I’ve still been able to survive on my own for this long – I have not let myself down!” Raymond expressed that he normally only agrees to interviews during the promotional periods for his series – when he became a father, he especially wanted to dedicate more time to his son, so he purposefully reduced his media exposure even more.


Low point: Practicing ‘dai sing pik gwa’ martial arts helped bring positive energy

In the series, Raymond’s Thai boxing moves are very nimble and agile – part of that can be attributed to him practicing ‘dai sing pik gwa’ martial arts in real life with Master Sin Ho Ying: “I started practicing martial arts back when I was experiencing a low point in my career – it was during a time when I didn’t have much work and was constantly unhappy.” Later on, he discovered that physical exercise, jogging, practicing martials arts, etc. all made him feel happier, so he continued on this path and now exercise is as natural to him as eating: “When I have time, I go practice martial arts and on days when I don’t need to film, I get up at 6am to go jogging, then shower and start my day with attending events and such. I realize now that happiness truly cannot be bought with money!”

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Weibo Fever # 14: Still More Celebrity Childhood Pictures (answers included)

Since I last posted about the celebrity childhood pics that I came across on Weibo (courtesy of netizen Chok桐regina), there have actually been about a dozen more pics released.

I will try to post as many as I can here and continue with additional posts as more pics are released, so stay tuned!

Have fun and happy guessing! :o)

.****.

All pictures credited as listed

Pic 7: Combined Male and Female Artists – TV Kings and Queens


** Hint: Ok, this is a combined one, containing pics of both male and female artists. All of these artists had won TVB’s TV King or TV Queen award at one point (this should make it easier to guess, since there are only 25 or so artists to choose from). One further hint (this one is a freebie, just cuz I feel like it..hahaha): pretty much all of these artists won the award in the year 2000 and later (only 2 amongst the bunch won prior to 2000).

Answers (place cursor on 'period' and highlight to read):

.Top row (left to right):  Roger Kwok (郭晉安), Gallen Lo (羅嘉良), Liza Wang (汪明荃)
Middle row (left to right): Wayne Lai (黎耀祥), Kevin Cheng (鄭嘉穎), Moses Chan (陳豪)
Bottom row (left to right): Sheren Tang (鄧萃雯), Bobby AuYeung (歐陽震華), Louis Koo (古天樂)


 .---.

Pic 8: Combined Male and Female Artists – Martial Arts Stars



** Hint: Another combined one (males and females) – all of these artists are what we would consider as ‘martial arts’ stars – meaning that they made their names in the industry through being involved in martial arts / kung fu. Again, this one shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out, since there aren’t too many famous kung fu stars in the entertainment industry. One additional hint – don’t limit yourself to just Hong Kong martial artists…

Answers (place cursor on 'period' and highlight to read):

.Top row (left to right): Yuen Wah (元華), Sammo Hung (洪金寶), Jackie Chan (成龍)
Middle row (left to right): Jet Li (李连杰), Bruce Lee (李小龍), Donnie Yen (甄子丹)
Bottom row (left to right): John Chiang (姜大衛), Louis Fan (樊少皇), Michelle Yeoh (楊紫琼)

.---.

Pic 9: Female Artists – HK Singers (and a few ‘Queens’ of Cantopop)



** Hint: It should be pretty obvious from the title that these artists are all female singers from HK. A few of them rose to fame back in the 80s and 90s, while a few others started in the after 2000s era. There are quite a few ‘queens’ of Cantopop in the mix (though there are also a few who I definitely wouldn't call 'queens'). Anyway, see how many you are able to recognize?

Answers (place cursor on 'period' and highlight to read):

.Top row (left to right): Anita Mui (梅艳芳), Karen Mok (莫文蔚), Joey Yung (容祖兒)
Middle row (left to right): Faye Wong (王菲), Gigi Leung (梁詠琪), Sammi Cheng (鄭秀文)
Bottom row (left to right): Kelly Chen (陳慧琳), Twins [Charlene Choi (蔡卓妍) & Gillian Chung (鍾欣桐)], Priscilla Chan (陳慧娴)

.---.

Pic 10: Male Artists – Former TVB Artists



** Hint: This one might be a bit harder, as there are so many male artists who had worked for TVB over the years, so I will try to give as many clues as possible. All of these artists didn’t just film series at TVB, they were all male leads at one point (though some were only lead for a few series). Also, none of these artists are work for TVB anymore – some of them have moved into the HK film world while others moved into other ‘disciplines’ such as radio and hosting. Lastly, half the artists have shifted their careers to the Mainland.

Answers (place cursor on 'period' and highlight to read):

.Top row (left to right): Adam Cheng (鄭少秋), Ekin Cheng (鄭伊健), Ronald Cheng (鄭中基)
Middle row (left to right): Steven Ma (馬浚偉), Joe Ma (馬德鍾), Benny Chan (陳浩民)
Bottom row (left to right): Michael Tao (陶大宇), Kwong Wah (江華), Joey Leung (梁榮忠)

.---.

Pic 11: Female Artists – After 90s TVB Fa Dans



** Hint: This one should actually be quite easy, as all of these artists are currently active in the TV industry and all but 2 are currently employed by TVB (the 2 are former TVB younger generation fa dans who recently jumped ship to one of the new TV stations). Easy enough, right?

Answers (place cursor on 'period' and highlight to read):

.Top row (left to right): Myolie Wu (胡杏兒), Tavia Yeung (楊怡), Fala Chen (陳法拉)
Middle row (left to right): Kate Tsui (徐子珊), Bernice Liu (廖碧兒), Linda Chung (鍾嘉欣)
Bottom row (left to right): Niki Chow (周麗淇), Leila Tong (唐寧), Nancy Wu (胡定欣)


.---.

Pic 12: Male Artists – Current (and former) TVB ‘Eyecandy’



** Hint:  First, I have to clarify that the ‘eye candy’ part is pretty much the original poster’s opinion, not mine [the ‘hint’ that is given by the original poster is that all of these males are ‘handsome guys’ (帥哥) [very important that I clarify that…hahaha]. Pretty much all these artists are currently active at TVB except for 1 person, who has already left TVB and moved his career to the Mainland. Bonus ‘giveaway’ hint: for all you “Triumph in the Skies” fans, yes, this is the set of pics that has all the original ‘S4’….

Answers (place cursor on 'period' and highlight to read):

.Top row (left to right): Raymond Lam (林峰), Ron Ng (吳卓羲), Bosco Wong (黃宗澤)
Middle row (left to right): Kenneth Ma (馬國明), Sammul Chan (陳鍵鋒), Ruco Chan (陳展鵬)
Bottom row (left to right): Edwin Siu (蕭正楠), Stephen Wong (黄嘉樂), Raymond Wong (黃浩然)