Here’s
the second article in the multi-part ‘TV History’ retrospective that TVB Weekly
magazine published recently. I’ve actually been a bit behind on
translations lately, so I haven’t been able to get to as many of these as I
would like -- I believe there are 14 or 15 articles to this retrospective, so
obviously there is still a ways to go before I finish the entire series of
articles….for those who have been ‘following’ this retrospective and are
anxious to read subsequent articles, I must sincerely apologize for my ‘slowness’
in working on these. The magazine scans
I used this time around aren’t that great either (pictures rather than actual
scans), but they will have to suffice for now....if I get a chance to do so
later on, I’ll switch out the pictures with better quality ones (don’t hold me
to it though, since I may get busy and end up forgetting…).
Anyway,
just some quick commentary on the article itself…
I
actually haven’t watched the 1970s version of Legend of the Book and the Sword,
so can’t really vouch for whether it’s good or not. The version I’m actually most familiar with
is the 1987 TVB remake with Nixon Pang, Jacqueline Law, Fiona Leung, etc. – despite
the horrible casting choice of Nixon Pang as the male lead (I sort of ranted
about this in the comments to my ‘Tribute to So Hang Suen’ article), the series
overall was quite well-made, not to mention the rest of the cast (outside of
the male lead) was STELLAR! I highly
recommend watching the 80s version (try to ignore Nixon if you can…LOL), as the
‘all-star’ cast and well-written adapted script are well worth the effort. As for the 70s version – well, I guess if you’re
a fan of any of the leads (Adam Cheng, Gigi Wong, Liza Wang, Louise Lee, etc.),
then it’s probably a nice classic to watch (though I’m pretty sure that the 70s
version is hard to find now given that so many years have passed…).
The
other 2 series mentioned in this article (The Hotel and A House is Not a Home) I
actually have watched, however I don’t remember a whole lot from either series because
the last time I watched was like back in the 90s some time. The Hotel is often mentioned in
retrospectives and other shows / features about TVB history, so I do have more
memory of that series than the other one – the most ‘famous’ scene from the
series is of course the one mentioned in the article where Deborah Lee's
character shoots and kills Chow Yun Fat’s character (believe me, that scene is
so ‘famous’ that people who haven’t watched the series will probably remember
it if they saw it, since TVB retrospective shows love playing that scene all
the time…LOL!). The series was one of
Chow Yun Fat’s numerous collaborations with Cora Miao and to be honest, I
sometimes get that particular series mixed up with a few other ones from the
same time period (that happened to feature much of the same cast). In any case, I do agree that Fat Gor and Cora
were a pretty good-looking couple, but my favorite Chow Yun Fat pairing will
always be him and Dodo Cheng (they’re actually my all-time favorite couple from
the 70s era).
As
for the series A House is Not a Home – well, let’s just say that all I remember
is Liza Wang’s Lok Lam (including her
famous hairstyle…LOL) and Simon Yam’s controversial character…that’s pretty
much as far as my memory extends…
For
those who are interested in reading part 1 of this ‘special feature’, the link
is included below (though to be honest, that article covers the 1960s and early
1970s eras, which is likely before any of us were even born). It does make for some interesting reading
about early TVB history though!
*****
TVB Weekly Magazine
Special Feature: The Most Influential TV
Dramas from the Past 45 Years (Part 2)
Source: TVB Zone, Issue 819
Article originally
published March 4, 2013
Translated by: llwy12
In
1976, TVB produced its first ‘wuxia’ (武俠) series adapted from
one of famous novelist Louis Cha’s (金庸) popular works: The Legend of the Book and the Sword
(書劍恩仇錄). With its status as the inaugural wuxia series
as well as Jin Yong adaptation for TVB, this 60 episode grand production is
considered one of TVB’s most important drama series from the past 45
years. It comes as no surprise then
that the series featured an all-star cast, however what made this series truly
‘legendary’ is that it did something that even today is unprecedented: the series featured all 3 of TVB’s most
popular first line ‘fa dans’ at the time:
Liza Wang (汪明荃), Louise Lee (李司棋), and Gigi Wong (黃淑儀) – in TVB’s 45 year
history, this was the first and only time that the 3 of them participated in a
series together as the female leads.
The
series’ male lead was veteran actor/singer Adam Cheng (鄭少秋),
who was already a popular ‘siu sang’ at the time despite only playing lead
roles in a few TV series. In a brave but
risky move, producer Wong Tin Lam (王天林) cast Adam in 3 of the
series’ pivotal roles (Chan Ka Lok,
Emperor Qianglong, and Fook On Hong).
The difficulty of portraying 3 different characters with unique
personalities (in the same series) can be a challenge to even the most seasoned
of actors, let alone someone who only started playing lead roles a few years
back. However, Adam stepped up to the
challenge – his performance in this series not only made him a ‘household
name’, it also set the stage for him to be cast in numerous ‘wuxia hero’ roles
throughout the rest of his career.
Rounding
out the ‘all-star’ cast for this epic production were many of TVB’s
‘heavyweight’ veteran actors and actresses from that generation, including Chu
Kong (朱江),
Candice Yu (余安安), Wong Yuen San (黃元申), Ha Yu (夏雨),
Lawrence Ng Wai Kwok (伍衛國), Deborah Lee (狄波拉),
Shek Kin (石堅), Kwan Hoi San (關海山), Ko Miu Si (高妙思), etc.
For
the 1976 version of The Legend of the Book and the Sword to have such epic status
in HK television history, the ‘once in a lifetime’ collaboration of TVB’s ‘big
3’ fa dans no doubt played an important role.
100 episode full length
series The Hotel (狂潮) sets precedence
That
same year (1976), there was another grand production series produced that is an
important part of any discussion about TVB’s most influential drama series: the 129 episode family conflict-themed
series The Hotel (狂潮). With Chow Yun Fat
(周潤發) and Cora Miao (繆騫人) leading an all-star
ensemble cast, The Hotel was an important
series on many levels – not only was it TVB’s first foray into the ‘large
family conflict’ theme [which obviously becomes a common theme in many of TVB’s
subsequent series], but it was also TVB’s first attempt at producing a full
length (each episode was 1 hour) drama series that spanned more than 100
episodes.
With
such an important series, the production was definitely not taken lightly – TVB
invested heavily in the series on all fronts:
cast, script, and even filming location.
In order to get the best results possible, the production team specially
rented a 10,000 square feet factory building in Kwai Chung for filming. In addition, the cast and crew filmed many of
the scenes in real life hotels and cafes in HK rather than on a set inside the
studio – the result was a more realistic effect that audiences could more
easily relate to.
As
far as cast goes – not only did the series catapult the 3 the core characters
in the series (Chow Yun Fat’s Siu Wah San,
Cora Miao’s Cheng Si Ka, and Deborah
Lee’s Lui Yan) to instant stardom, it
also had a far-reaching effect on HK society as a whole. At the time the series aired [November 1976
to early 1977], practically all of HK’s television-viewing audiences would stay
home and ‘chase’ the series – as a result, many of HK’s restaurants and
eateries saw a huge decrease in business during the usual peak dinner timeslot
in which the series was broadcast, especially during the weeks when the series’
story arcs reached climactic moments.
When the series aired its finale episode – which consisted of the
‘famous’ scene where Deborah’s Lui Yan
shoots and kills Chow Yun Fat’s Siu Wah
San – it was reported that 9 out of 10 eateries (restaurants) in HK were
practically empty! This proved that the
popularity of the series had already reached ‘fanatic’ levels.
This
grand series also had another ‘unique’ and ‘unprecedented’ characteristic: the countless number of ‘heavyweight’ stars
who participated in the series, whether in a recurring role or guest star/cameo
role, each had their own unique story arc and it wasn’t until close to the end
of the series that the plot was tied back to the main story of Chow Yun Fat’s
character seeking revenge on the Cheng family. [TN: As a point of reference, some of the ‘famous names’ who
participated in this series include:
Shek Kin, Chu Kong, Gigi Wong, Damian Lau (劉松仁), Lee Heung Kam (李香琴), Miu Kam Fung (苗金鳳), Helena Law (羅蘭), Cecilia Wong (黃杏秀), Meg Lam (林建明), So Hang Suen (蘇杏璇), Simon Yam (任達華), Susanna Kwan (關菊英), Candice Yu, Lawrence
Ng Wai Kwok, Wong Wan Choi (黃允財), Kwan Hoi San, etc.]
Due
to its well-written story arcs, numerous climactic and suspenseful moments,
talented cast, and meticulous production, The Hotel garnered tremendously high
ratings when it aired and also set the stage for TVB’s subsequent wave of 100 episode
drama series.
A House Is
Not a Home (家變) gives rise to
‘successful career woman’ craze
On
August 1, 1977, TVB introduced another ‘family conflict’-themed grand
production – the 110 episode A
House Is Not a Home (家變). This series is important in HK television
history because of 2 main reasons.
First, when the series premiered back in 1977, it garnered unprecedented
high ratings of 95%, which was equivalent to approximately 5 million viewers –
this makes the series one of the ‘most watched’ series in television
history. The second reason is of course
the ‘iconic’ character of Lok Lam (洛琳): the series’ main female protagonist played by
Liza Wang. The character left such a
deep impression on audiences at the time that it led to a phenomenon rarely
ever seen in HK television history: the
hairstyle that Liza had in the series was so popular that it spawned a
trend-setting ‘craze’ whereby many of HK’s young women would run to their local
hair salon while the series was airing so that they could get a ‘Lok Lam style’ hairdo. In addition, the character of Lok Lam also gave rise to the ‘successful
career woman’ (女強人) term that started to
become more widely used in HK after the series aired.
Of
course, the success of a series doesn’t depend on one person alone. As the saying goes: ‘a peony
flower may be good in and of itself, but still requires its green leaves to
support it.’ If Liza Wang was
considered the ‘peony flower’ in this series, then actor Chu Kong should
definitely be counted as the best ‘green leaf’ for her -- his character Chim Pak Lam was absolutely the
‘ultimate match’ for Lok Lam. While the couple’s ‘love/hate’ romance in the
series was certainly heart-wrenching to many viewers, the friction between the
two characters also provided many emotion-charged moments for audiences.
It
can be said that one of the biggest draws of this series was its incredible
cast, which included many household names such as Chow Yun Fat, Ha Yu, Simon
Yam, Nam Hung (南紅), Lee Heung Kam, Tang Bik Wan (鄧碧雲), etc. – however another
important element was its strong, fast-paced storyline. In order to make the series more relevant to
audiences, the production team added in story arcs involving ‘hot topics’ in
society at the time – for example, the infamous corruptions involving the ICAC
during the 1970s era.
A House Is Not a Home was
an ‘innovative’ series not just because of its story, but also with the unconventional
way it tackled such things as promotion for the series. For example, when the episode about Lok Lam’s father Lok Fai’s (played by veteran actor Bak Man Biu 白文彪) sudden disappearance aired, promoters for the
series took out front page search ads in all of HK’s major newspapers with a
message from the ‘Lok family’ stating how much they miss Lok Fai and for him to contact them immediately upon seeing the
message. Such a promotional tactic was a
first in the HK television industry and definitely set a high standard to
follow for future generations to come.
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