TVB Anniversary Awards 2016 – My Thoughts

Let me just start off by saying that I don’t have too much to say on the award results themselves, since I haven’t watched many TVB series this year and -- as has been the case the past few years -- I also haven’t watched a single TVB series in its entirety (meaning every single minute of every single episode).  With that said, any opinion that I give below regarding the results are based mostly on the episodes/partial episodes that I caught here and there during the times when I happened to be in the same room when a family member was watching the series.  Also, since the TVB awards have grown increasingly meaningless as each year goes by, I’ve become more and more indifferent towards who the winners end up being in most of the categories except for a handful that can pretty much be counted on one hand (i.e. TV King, Best Supporting Actor, Professional Actors Award, Lifetime Achievement Award).  Therefore, don’t expect me to comment on each category or to writeup a detailed recap like I’ve done in the past, as I feel it is a huge waste of time. 

As with past years, I’m more interested in who the presenters for each of the awards ends up being rather than who actually got nominated and/or wins in each category.  Over the years, I’ve found that the choice of presenters as well as the ‘speeches’ they give prior to presenting are often the biggest highlights of the Anniversary award show, sometimes even overshadowing the speeches from the winners themselves.

Ok, so diving right in….

Lifetime Achievement Award:  Chow Chung

This was actually the one award I was most concerned about this year, especially after stupid TVB chose undeserving Nat Chan as the recipient of this award last year (believe me, it was one of those WTF moments of the ceremony that I was pissed off about for months).  This year, they chose to give the award to 81 year old veteran actor Chow Chung, which was a great choice (ok, TVB, you redeemed yourself in this category this year – better not screw it up again next year!!!).  Though Chow Chung may not be the best of actors (to be honest, I’ve never been particularly fond of his acting), there is no doubt about his contributions to the television (and movie) industry throughout his extremely long acting career.   

In terms of presenters for this award, TVB did the right thing by having veterans Kenneth Tsang and Wu Fung do the honors.  Both artists are good friends with Chow Chung and have known each other for many years, plus all 3 were Shaw Brothers actors back in the day and collaborated often during those times, so of course, having them present was appropriate and relevant.  This is one category where I’m happy with the result!

Professional Actors Award:  Jerry Koo Ming Wah, Carlo Ng, Chun Wong

Ever since TVB added this category a few years ago, it’s been one of the few award categories that I pay attention to every year and largely agree with the results.  This year was no exception, though I do feel that only 3 artists receiving the award this year is not enough (I wonder why so few?  The past few years it has always been at least 5 artists receiving this award).  The way I see it, this category was created to recognize those veterans who have contributed greatly to the industry (most of them through stellar acting) but do not have much chance to receive any of the other ‘main’ awards.  I guess we could say that this is TVB’s way of still promoting the people they want to promote (to get the ‘main’ awards) but still throw an olive branch to audiences by still recognizing the veterans who actually deserve those ‘main’ awards way more but will never get the chance to be in the running.  Though I may not necessarily agree with the motive for creating this award, my take is that SOME recognition of veteran actors is better nothing, right?

I don’t have much comment on the recipients of this award other than I was surprised that Jerry Koo was on the list, since it’s not like he hasn’t won any major award with TVB before, plus he has been largely MIA from the small screen the past year or so (I had read that he was actually ill for a long period of time, to the point of having to be hospitalized, so that’s why he hadn’t filmed much for TVB this past year).  Of course, I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve the award because he does, but given that so few artists got the award this year, I was surprised that they gave it to him over others who were equally deserving.  I was definitely ecstatic to see Carlo Ng and Chun Wong receive this award, as it has been long overdue for both of them.  Both are great actors (and in the case of Carlo, he is a great host too) who’ve never gotten recognition from TVB despite their contributions.  In my opinion, Carlo gave the most moving speech of the night with the mention of his wife saying it was a good thing he hasn’t been tremendously popular over the years because that has allowed him to spend a lot of time with his family (indeed, Carlo actually has a reputation for being a family man as well as a good husband and father).  The fact that Carlo prioritizes his family over his work and would rather sacrifice the chance to become popular if it means he can spend quality time with his wife and kids definitely makes him a good man in my book!  Congrats to all the winners in this category!

Best Supporting Actor:  Raymond Cho

For me, this has always been a tough category to choose a winner, as most of the candidates are usually very strong.  This year, TVB decided to go with Top 3 finalists (as opposed to top 2 like they’ve done in the past).  While I agree with Raymond Cho and Hugo Ng making it into final 3, I had no clue what TVB was thinking by putting FAMA’s Luk Wing in the 3^rd spot (my immediate reaction when I heard them announce final 3 was – WTH, Luk Wing made it into the last spot?  What happened to the other more deserving nominees such as John Chiang, Power Chan, Carlo Ng, Jimmy Au, etc.?)  Though in the grand scheme of things, it probably didn’t matter much since the ‘race’ was pretty much between Raymond and Hugo anyway (both were hot favorites for this category), but still – would’ve preferred for the ‘race’ to be tighter like in past years. 

In terms of result, I would’ve been happy with either Raymond or Hugo winning, as I like both actors and both were equally deserving of the award (though I kind of felt that Hugo had a slight edge in that he was pretty much the sole highlight of Brother’s Keeper II and made that series even remotely watchable, so in a way, he single-handedly saved that entire series – no small feat given how horrible that series was overall).  But Raymond definitely did stand out this year as opposed to previous years (though he has actually given enough outstanding performances in the past to make him long overdue for this award).  I was happy to see Raymond finally get this award and also enjoyed watching him give his acceptance speech with the signature humor that has always made him endearing to friends and fans (I chuckled when he made sure to thank his father-in-law John Chiang not once but twice, LOL).  Congrats to Raymond but at the same time, kudos to Hugo for putting in such a strong performance!  I’m actually glad he’s back and look forward to seeing more from him in the future!

Most Improved Male Actor:  Jonathan Cheung

I usually don’t care much about this category and to be honest, this year I didn’t really care a whole lot either.  But since Jonathan Cheung was nominated this time around and he’s an artist I started noticing a few years back as an actor with huge potential, I naturally was interested in this category this year.  After Jonathan’s win at the Astro Awards in Malaysia, no doubt that he was a shoo-in to win again at the Anniversary awards too, but I was curious to see whether TVB would pull an upset or not.  Luckily TVB came through as they were supposed to and chose Jonathan as the winner – definitely a wise choice given the rest of the nominees who made it into top 5 were extremely weak (to the point that I’m sure TVB would’ve gotten major backlash if they chose any of the others to win in this category).  Jonathan gave a great acceptance speech (though not as touching as the speech he gave in Malaysia, which had most everyone in tears) – glad he got the chance to thank people that he had forgotten to thank in Malaysia (such as Andy Lau for instance).  Congrats to Jonathan for a well-deserving win!

TV King (aka Best Actor):  Ruco Chan

Ok, I will admit that Ruco’s win in this category was unexpected in my book.  Nothing against Ruco, as he is definitely a solid actor – in fact, he’s one of the few ‘current generation’ actors I actually like due to him having true acting talent.   Ruco’s performance this year was solid as usual, but acting-wise, was not as challenging as past roles he’s had, especially when compared to Roger Kwok, who was outstanding in Dead Wrong.  If it was based on acting, I would’ve definitely chosen Roger over Ruco (and yes there is a little bias at play here due to me being a Roger fan).  I don’t think it would be a far stretch to say that Ruco had an advantage due to the popularity of his character and the series itself, plus the fact that Roger’s series aired so late in the game (the final episode of Dead Wrong aired just 1 day prior to the awards).  Those of us who have been following TVB’s awards for a long time know that when it comes to TV King and Queen, it’s not necessarily about whose acting is truly the best – popularity of a series, ratings, hype, etc. can impact the results and it’s obvious that’s what happened with this category (and with the entire awards ceremony in general, since Ruco’s series A Fist Within Four Walls pretty much swept the awards with 6 wins).  With all that said though, I guess it shouldn’t matter to me, since my first choice for this category (Liu Kai Chi, an actor I adore who did great in his series Law Disorder) didn’t even make it into top 5 (can’t even remember if he was nominated or not, since there was like zero hype for his series).  So I guess you could say at the end of the day, I’m indifferent to Ruco’s win – I’m neither for nor against it, just surprised given TVB’s pattern of rewarding veterans the past few years.

That’s it for me in terms of award results (LOL…obviously I didn’t care about the other categories so didn’t even bother mentioning them).  I do want to say a few things about the presenters this year as well as the awards ceremony itself.

I will admit that the choice of presenters for some of the categories was very surprising (in some cases, pleasantly so).  I was happy to see some familiar faces back again and appreciate that TVB put in the effort to do a “partner” theme this year with the presenters.  Of course, the presenters were relatively lackluster in that they were all mostly current/former TVB people (or non-TVB people currently filming series for TVB) and no big names like they’ve had in the past (though this has actually been the case for like what 4-5 years already?).  The “highlights” of the night in terms of presenters (in my opnion) were definitely:  the Virtues of Harmony cast (Nancy Sit, Louis Yuen, Joyce Chen, Johnny Tang), the Come Home Love cast (led by Lau Dan), Frankie Lam and Jessica Husan, Andrew Lam and Johnson Lee (mostly for Andrew’s irreverent humor, which always manages to crack me up, lol), and of course, the biggest surprise of the night, Sheren Tang returning to present the Best Series award alongside Wayne Lai.  No doubt that the 64 million dollar question that has been abuzz since the awards wrapped is whether Sheren will return to film another series for TVB or not -- my gut instinct is “no” given Sheren has such strict requirements nowadays for filming series and TVB obviously is not high on her list of priorities…however, if Wayne is persuasive enough and TVB is willing to meet her requirements (and if they bring back producers/scriptwriters that Sheren is willing to work with), it still might be a possibility in the near future (though my personal preference is for Sheren not to return if TVB is just going to give her crap series, plus the way they treated her, I wouldn’t even give them the time of day if I were her).

Rundown wise, I honestly didn’t really like the format this year.  The whole Dodo + FAMA gimmick has been used/re-used way too much this year and it’s getting old.  They should’ve gone with either having Dodo host the show by herself as she’s done in the past or perhaps just pair her up with Sammy Leung (who is a good host actually) if they truly wanted to switch things up this year.  The way they did it with Sammy officially hosting and the others kind of doing a ‘side-hosting’ thing was a bit unprofessional in my opinion (plus kind of annoying).  Other than that, the show was similar to previous years in that it was largely disorganized and lackluster.

Back from hiatus + Jacky Cheung’s 2016/2017 World Tour Concert – post #2

I’m back!!!! :-)

Yes, after a nearly 3 month hiatus, I am finally back to writing and posting stuff on my blog.  My apologies to those readers who have continued to follow my blog, expecting to read about certain topics, but in the end, the posts didn’t materialize.  I am working on finishing up some of the posts that I’ve had in draft mode for ages as well as hopefully getting around to starting some of the newer posts that I’ve been wanting to do but just haven’t had time to gather my thoughts on.  I am hopeful at being able to do at least a few posts a month rather than the dismal one post every couple months that I’ve been averaging.  To all my blog readers – thank you in advance for your patience!

Ok, so with that out of the way….I can’t think of a better way to “return” to blogging than to blog about my idol, Jacky Cheung!  As I’m sure all of you know by now, Jacky launched his highly anticipated “A Classic Tour” concert on October 21^st in Beijing, China and since then, has already completed multiple shows in other Mainland China cities such as Chongqing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Wuhan.  Jacky kicked off the Hong Kong leg of his tour 6 days ago on 12/4 at the Hong Kong Coliseum (a ‘second home’ of sorts for him given the number of concerts he’s held there in his 30 year career).  He will be doing 23 shows in HK this month, with the last show on January 2^nd.  Not surprisingly, tickets for Jacky’s concert have been extremely hard to get, with each show selling out within a matter of hours from when the tickets officially go on sale – so if you were able to get tickets to watch his concert, I absolutely salute you (though please be careful because there have been an unprecedented number of scalpers in recent months buying up Jacky’s concert tickets and re-selling them for ridiculously inflated prices)!

Even though I haven’t really kept up with posting actual written content on my blog, I’ve been doing my best to keep up with the schedule for Jacky’s concert tour and so have posted up the latest tour dates and venues on the side bar of my blog for those who are interested.  Like many others I’ve talked to, I am anxiously awaiting the announcement of the dates for the “overseas” leg of Jacky’s tour – more specifically, for the U.S. leg, since that’s where I live.  The concert organizers (Jacky’s record label Universal) have confirmed that Jacky will definitely come to the U.S. and Canada for a few shows, but they are still working out the schedule as well as the choice of venue.  This actually does make sense, as Jacky’s concert this year is unique in that he decided to bring back the ‘4-side open stage’ concept to his concert, which is something he hasn’t done in over 20 years (the last time he did a ‘4-side open stage’ concert was back in 1995 if I remember correctly).  And for those who have seen any of the 23 shows Jacky has done so far, I’m sure you can attest to the spectacular effect the stage has on the show this year.  With that in mind, the search for an appropriate venue that would be able to accommodate the stage is crucial and will undoubtedly take some time, so I will continue to patiently wait because I know it will be well worth it.  Of course, just being able to see Jacky perform live is already worth the wait (I already waited 4 years for Jacky to do another concert tour, what’s another few months, right?)!  Admittedly, I am super-excited about Jacky’s concert this year, especially after watching some of the fan-vids that have come out of the past few shows as well reading the various opinion pieces that people (both Jacky fans and non-fans alike) have written after watching the concert.  Please, Universal, announce the U.S. dates soon!!!

While I have been following Jacky’s concert pretty closely since its launch in October, I don’t intend to do a recap of the shows so far, as I don’t feel that I would be able to do justice to all the great moments that have occurred so far (and we’re barely 25 shows in).  With that said though, there ARE a few highlights from the past few shows that I do want to mention.  I will try to post up relevant pictures where I can, but it may not always be possible due to the sheer number of pictures that are out there now, especially on social media.  Anyway, if you weren’t hyped up about Jacky’s concert before, you probably will be after checking out these highlights!! J

**NOTE:  All pictures credited as listed ***

Beijing kickoff – October 2016

**Jacky performed to a sold-out stadium packed with fans who have been highly anticipating his return to the stage.  Of course, Jacky did not disappoint, as the first night was absolutely spectacular, with Jacky giving 110% as he always does and audiences from that night walking away after the concert regretting that they didn’t buy tickets to the other 2 shows as well!

** On the third and last night of the Beijing leg, Jacky supposedly ‘screwed up’ a little on one of the songs (meaning he couldn’t hit one of the notes in the climax of the song and his voice nearly cracked).  Of course, no one noticed that he messed up, but being the perfectionist that Jacky is when it comes to his singing, he absolutely noticed and essentially beat himself up over it – during the “talking” segment of that show, Jacky apologized to the audiences and to the crew for his ‘mess-up’ and vowed to work even harder to ‘perfect’ that particular song.  To be honest, not a single person in that stadium that night minded that he had messed up (in fact, probably 99% of the audience didn’t even notice), yet Jacky took the issue to heart and took it as an opportunity to do even better.  No other celebrity out there has the type of work ethic and super high standards set for themselves as he does!  Of course, this is one (of the many) reasons why we love Jacky so much, but at the same time, it’s heartbreaking to see Jacky beating himself up over a non-issue.  Aside from that small ‘incident’, the rest of the Beijing leg was spectacular!

**In terms of ‘celebrity sightings’, there were quite a few ‘big names’ and familiar faces who flew to Beijing to support Jacky, including the following (not all-inclusive):

--- Jacky’s former record producer Michael Au (who lives and works in Beijing now) as well as Jacky’s good friend and long-time singing partner Priscilla Chan (loved their frequent collaborations in the 80s and 90s).

--- Songwriter Keith Chan and family (his wife and 2 daughters), who penned the lyrics to many of Jacky’s greatest hit songs back in the 80s/90s and is still a frequent collaborator even now (Keith’s wife is also a former songwriter who wrote some of Jacky’s songs as well).

--- CRHK DJ Vani, who is also Jacky’s god-sister (she also went to Jacky’s HK shows too!)

--- Actress Zhang Zhiyi and her husband Wang Feng; also singer Eason Chan, who also held his concert in Beijing on the same days as Jacky, but still went to Jacky’s concert after wrapping the last show of his own concert. (sorry, couldn't find the actual pics so had to use a newspaper clipping)

--- My personal FAVORITE moment of the night though was ‘Film King’ Tony Leung Chiu Wai attending the concert and surprising Jacky by showing up backstage after the concert.  I’m sure all Jacky fans know how close Jacky and Tony are (gosh, they’ve know each other for what, like 30 years now?) and with both artists’ busy schedules, it’s not always possible for them to get together…so obviously, us fans were overjoyed to see the two of them share such “sweet moments” together, lol (yes, I know – I’m technically a Jacky/Harlem shipper, but hey, I love the Jacky/Tony ‘bromance’ just as much, haha!).  Oh, and big THANK YOU to Vani, as she was the one who took the photos of Jacky and Tony together backstage and shared them with fans via weibo.  [Sidenote:  the pictures of Jacky and Tony were all over various media outlets’ entertainment sections the next day, lol!]

 

 

Hong Kong kickoff – December 2016

** Jacky kicked off the HK leg of his tour on 12/4 and once again, it was spectacular!  Performing in his hometown, Jacky said that he was very nervous because he didn’t want to let HK audiences down.  In interviews with the media after his concert, Jacky said that he would only give himself a score of 80% for his performance, as he felt that there some things he could’ve done better.  Sorry Jacky, but we have to disagree with you -- most of us felt that you were flawless that night!

** The HK shows are special not just for Jacky, but for us fans as well, since it’s also home to many of the celebrities we know and love.  I am highly anticipating all of the celebrities who will undoubtedly attend one of the 23 shows in HK, but so far, the number of celebrities who came out to support Jacky on the first night was enough to make my jealous of those fans / audiences who were able to score tickets for that show!

--- On that first night (12/4), many of Jacky’s long-time friends (the crowd that Jacky usually hangs out with outside of work) came out to support him by attending the concert together as a big group (they all sat together in the same section too – man, those fans who sat behind them were SO LUCKY!!!).  A few of those friends include:  Eric Tsang, Alex To and his wife Ice, Kenny Bee and his wife Fan Jiang, Chingmy Yau and her husband Shum Kar Wai (they also brought one of their daughters with them), Nansun Shi, Margie Tsang, Tina Liu, Anna Ueyama, etc. (I didn’t name everyone, as there were way too many). 

 

--- In addition to Jacky’s friends, other celebrities such as Na Ying, Candy Law, Candice Yu, etc. attended as well. Jacky’s godfather Wu Fung also went to support his godson (Wu Fung is so sweet – so far, he’s gone to 3 of the shows!), as did Jacky’s god-sister Vani (who went again after flying to Beijing to attend the debut shows).

--- I’m still trying to catch up but I know on subsequent nights, other celebrities attended the concert as well, including Nick Cheung, Bernice Liu, Karen Tong, Miriam Yeung, C-Allstar, etc.  I haven’t gone through all the pictures yet so only posted up a few below.

***** TO BE CONTINUED….. 

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due......

I’m sure when you first read the title of this post, you were probably wondering what this post would be about and who in particular I felt the need to ‘give credit’ to.  The answer:  TVB!   Ok, before anyone has a conniption, let me explain why I felt the need to give some rare praise to TVB….

Everyone knows that when it comes to TVB, I have no problems dishing out the criticisms (they actually bring it on themselves to be quite honest, though I’ll save that discussion for a different occasion).  At the same time though, I consider myself a fair person who also has no problems giving credit where it is deservedly due….so when TVB has those rare moments where their management actually decide to pull their heads out of their butts (keyword here is “rare”) and do something right for a change, I feel it’s only fair to call it out.

One thing that TVB did recently that I’m actually happy about is that they FINALLY came through on their promise to open up their online TV series platform to overseas viewers (meaning viewers who reside outside of HK).  Before I explain further, let me give a little bit of background:

When TVB established their GOTV site several years ago (that was their TV series repository that housed all of their series ever produced, from the 1970s to present), I was thrilled because it meant that audiences would finally have access to TVB’s classic series from the old days (most of which were/are 110% better than the crap TVB churns out nowadays).  But of course, typical TVB, they decided to restrict GOTV to HK region only, which meant that overseas audiences would not be able to watch (and to add insult to injury, they made it subscription-based where you had to pay a monthly fee – and if that weren’t enough, they restricted it further to only accepting credit cards from 2 very region-specific banks).  The worse thing though was that they decided to limit to HK region, but did very little promotion for GOTV (raise your hand if you heard of GOTV – whenever I would bring it up in online discussion forums, people seemed to have no clue what I was talking about).  Needless to say, I was pissed at TVB for essentially throwing away the chance to make themselves relevant again (which they could’ve done by opening up their classic series to a new generation of audiences who never even knew of their existence and possibly recapturing some of that past glory from TVB’s golden years).  From day one since GOTV launched, TVB had been promising to extend the platform to overseas viewers – however 2 years passed and still it was only restricted to a very limited number of HK viewers.

Earlier this year, when TVB decided to launch myTV Super, which was basically a more robust version of their myTV online platform, with the difference being that it would be OTT-based but still extend across multiple platforms (i.e. mobile devices, internet, etc.), they announced at the same time that they would be discontinuing GOTV and perhaps merge it with myTV in the future.  Of course I was pissed, since I was waiting for them to open up GOTV to overseas viewers but instead they decide to discontinue it (at that time, all indication was that myTV Super would follow its predecessor myTV’s footsteps and continue to be restricted to HK region only).

Well, it turns out that as part of TVB’s myTV Super project, they also decided to put more focus on their ‘international’ arm, which for us here in the U.S. would be their TVB USA division (which, to be honest, has always been a way better division than TVB HK itself – I’ve interacted with TVB USA numerous times and can say from personal experience that their customer service is quite good).  Several months ago, TVB USA revamped their mobile viewing app (which was kind of crappy if you ask me – I for one had difficulty getting their app to work properly) and TVB as a whole launched the “TVB Anywhere” platform, which in theory allows audiences to watch TVB programs ‘anywhere’ in the world (now you guys know why TVB cracked down so hard on that illegal TVpad thingie, which made headlines all over the place).  Of course, the ‘anywhere in the world’ hasn’t quite happened yet, but frankly, I’m really not that concerned about the ‘world’ part as long as the U.S. part works, since that’s where I reside, lol.

I had some time recently to check out “TVB Anywhere” and was pleasantly surprised to find that, in addition to providing access to TVB’s currently airing series (which I really don’t give a hoot about), TVB also uploaded many of their ‘older’ series from the past 49 years on the site as well!  Of course, it’s not as comprehensive as GOTV, since they only upload several dozen series at a time and there is a mix of old and new (versus GOTV where it was ALL their series, conveniently separated out by year and you could do various searches by pretty much any category / theme / genre / artist, etc. that you wanted) – but hey, I’ll take it!  For the first time in TVB’s 49 year history, they are actually allowing ALL audiences (basically anyone who has access to Internet) to watch their series online, LEGALLY and FOR FREE!   I actually tested it out and it works like a charm – just go to the designated website, click on the “TV series” tab, choose the series you want to watch, and that’s it (I re-watched a few older dramas on there already – ones that I’ve watched/re-watched so many times already that I practically have the dialogue memorized -- and can tell you that they are the EXACT same versions as the old videotape versions, which means that they didn’t cut out anything…yay!).  I am currently re-watching Blood of Good and Evil from back in 1990 (one of my all-time favorite TVB series) for like the 50^th time (I’ve seen that series so many times over the years, I’ve lost count already) via TVB Anywhere and am enjoying EVERY SINGLE MINUTE of it!!

Ok, now that I’ve given proper credit for a job well done in one particular area, I have to say this:  For the record, this does NOT mean that I am changing course or anything – I am and will continue to be highly critical of TVB and will continue to slam their management for the horrible way they operate.  So yes, consider this praise short-lived, since I don’t have much confidence that TVB is going to do much else that is praiseworthy (especially judging from their usual pattern of taking 10 steps back for every 1 step forward).

Due to time constraints (obviously, since I’m posting this at 1am in the morning), I’m not going to go into too much detail about how to access TVB Anywhere right now.  However, if you would like more details, feel free to leave a comment and I can walk you through it at the next available opportunity I have.

Talk to you all later! 

The Menu -- movie version

Long time no see, everyone!

I’ve been super-busy lately with work (and life in general) so have kind of neglected (albeit unwillingly) this blog the past few months.  Unfortunately, there just isn’t enough time in the day to keep up with everything that goes on, which is a fact that I hate to admit but have slowly started to come to terms with in recent weeks.  Because of this, I would like to take the opportunity to thank those of you who continue to follow my blog and continue to give me words of encouragement, despite the horrible job I’ve been doing with maintaining this blog.  I definitely appreciate the support and will try as hard as I can to carve out more time to update this blog whenever possible!

Ok, so with that out of the way…..

I’ve been meaning to post up something about this topic for months, but just never got around to it.  A few months back, I had written a post about the HK movies that I wanted to watch this year.  I’m sure those who have been following my blog for a while or have been following my posts in other forums probably noticed that there was one particular movie noticeably absent from my list (which was a small list to begin with, lol) – the movie version of The Menu (HKTV’s popular TV series that is also one of my favorite HK television series of all time).  At the time I wrote that particular post, the exclusion of The Menu from the list was actually deliberate on my part, as the movie was still in its filming stages and not a whole lot of information had been revealed about it yet so I didn’t want to put it on my “want to watch” list and regret it later – plus I’m not the type who will automatically like something by default of association without doing some research on it first (which means that just because I liked the TV series doesn’t necessarily mean I want to watch the movie version of the series – sometimes, it’s better not to watch so as not to be disappointed). 

Well, now that the movie has already premiered in theaters (it officially debuted in HK and Macau on 8/4) and everything from plot to characters to behind-the-scenes stuff is out in the open, I can safely say that I definitely WANT TO WATCH the movie version.  I’ve actually been having quite a few lengthy discussions about the movie with fellow The Menu fans over the past couple months and even though I still have reservations on the movie itself compared to the series and some unresolved questions on how certain things are going to turn out, I have more confidence now (based on all the stuff I’ve read/heard/watched related to the movie) that I likely won’t have as negative a reaction to this movie as I’ve had toward every other “movie version of TV series” out there (almost all of which I essentially hated…it got to the point where I was starting to wonder which was worse – doing a sequel to a popular TV series or filming a movie version to it…I came to the conclusion that both options are equally bad…).  Ok, fine, I admit that my aversion to most of the previous ‘TV series to movie’ adaptations was partly because the movie versions were either produced by TVB (i.e. their movie arm Shaw Brothers) or those involved with the movie had nothing to do with the series originally so it was a completely different interpretation.  With The Menu, neither ‘aversion factor’ exists – no TVB involvement since the original series was not a TVB production (thank God!!!) and almost everyone involved with the production of the movie behind-the-scenes (scriptwriter, producer, director, music director, even other crew such as makeup and hairstylists) was also involved with the series when it was filmed 4 years ago.

I haven’t had time to go look up box office revenue for the movie yet, but in terms of word of mouth -- in the 8 days that The Menu has been in theaters, the response to the movie has been overwhelming and so far, all the reviews have been positive (granted, most of the reviews I’ve read/seen were from regular movie-goers who hadn’t watched the TV series so they went into it without set expectations and without a comparison point).  I have yet to talk to any of my fellow The Menu fans who’ve actually seen the movie (as I said earlier, been sort of in a bubble the last 2 weeks due to busy work and personal life), so not sure what their opinion is yet but I’m definitely looking forward to the discussions and am interested in seeing whether our earlier opinions of the movie still stand.

Anyway, when I get the chance later, I do hope to do a recap of some of the discussions we’ve had so far about the movie and maybe even a review after I watch the movie.  For now though, here is the final trailer for the movie that was released in late July.  Enjoy!

Final Trailer: The Menu

My 'TVB Rant' #28: Wow, just....WOW: TVB's bullying taken to new heights.....

TVB did something this past week that I'm so pissed about, I have to write about it to vent my frustration (as if I haven't written about it enough already in various discussion forums and such, lol).

Anyway, the big entertainment news from this weekend was the huge fallout (second one in less than a decade) between record company Universal and TVB over copyright terms for using Universal artists' songs on TVB programs feature on their Internet channels (i.e. myTV, myTV Super, TVB.com).   The way it works is that the record companies give TVB contracted rights to use their artists' music/songs for a period of 3 years and after that, the contract gets renewed if both parties agree on the terms.  Well, TVB's latest contract with Universal expired on 5/1/16 so both parties got together to discuss contract renewal as they've been doing for the past few decades.  TVB sent Herman Ho - the head of their own music label Voice Entertainment - to discuss contract terms with Universal's higher ups (I'll explain in a minute why I have a problem with this arrangement in the first place) and departing from usual terms, this time around, TVB put in a requirement that is at the same time ridiculous and impossible to fulfill.  TVB basically requested that Universal sign over the exclusive rights to use their artists' songs FOREVER (yes, you read it right - the word used was FOREVER!) - which meant that TVB could continue to use Universal copyrighted songs in any program they feature on their Internet portals even after the contract terms are up without having to worry about getting copyright approval (which implies that they don't have to pay Universal royalty fees) and also that Universal can't allow other stations to use those songs.   Universal of course said HELL NO (kudos to them!!!) and decided to not renew their contract with TVB (lol...the Universal execs reacted quite professionally - if it were me, I would've told Herman Ho to go to hell!)  Based on the contract terms, TVB has 3 years from expiration date (so 4/30/2019) to either remove all Universal copyrighted songs from their Internet programs (which of course would be a lot of work) or take down the affected programs from their Internet portals entirely (note that these terms don't apply to programs aired on TVB's regular free-to-air channel).  So basically, TVB was once again trying to be the arrogant bully that they are but this time, it backfired on them because Universal refused to bend to them.

I don't think any of us need to be rocket scientists to understand what type of impact this is going to have on the HK television and music industries.  Herman Ho claims that TVB still 'welcomes' all Universal artists to participate in their programs provided their appearance doesn't violate contract terms (meaning there is no singing / music involved), however knowing TVB's track record, that is pretty much lip service, as we all know that TVB is petty and will now be 'banning' Universal artists just like they did during the royalty dispute 7-8 years ago.  Besides, who the hell gave Herman Ho the right to speak for TVB as a whole when he's only the head of their record label?  Oh, that's right - his wife is Sandy Yu, who, on paper, is only the head of the variety programs department (and is at the same level as Catherine Tsang, who is head of the drama department), but in reality, she is the actual one 'in power' at TVB now.  Go figure!  The fact that TVB sent Herman Ho to negotiate with a fellow record company is conflict of interest first of all (since both are heads of rival record companies) and it also reeks of insincerity on TVB's part -- if TVB CEO Mark Lee felt it was beneath him to negotiate with a mere record company, then at least send one of the GMs who oversee all production to negotiate with Universal...after all, the outcome of the talks will for sure impact all of TVB's programs, not just music-related ones.  With this arrangement, TVB already started off on the wrong foot (though to be honest, I'm not sure whether this was a deliberate move on TVB's part to "pay back" Universal for opposing them so many times over the past few years or the current execs over at TVB are just dumbaxxxs who have no clue what they are doing....I personally think it might be a combination of both).  The reason I threw that 'pay back' thing in there is because Universal's execs said that they've had the same contract with TVB for decades and the discussions have always gone smoothly, but this time around, TVB dropped that "forever" clause on them out of nowhere, which is what caused the discussion to go sour (why the sudden change in terms, TVB???)

The latest 'development' in this absurd saga is that as of yesterday, TVB (um, actually Herman Ho - but I guess he represents all of TVB now) was "crying a river" to reporters, claiming that Universal was the one being "unreasonable" by forcing TVB to take down/remove Universal copyrighted content within 3 years.  How INSANE is that????  TVB is the one who started the dispute by putting forth a RIDICULOUS to the max requirement that NO ONE in their right minds would agree to - now when Universal says NO and proceeds with terminating the contract as per terms, TVB is trying to make themselves look like the victim by shifting the blame on the record company instead?  WTF?  Oh, but it gets better....in the same "crying a river" interview, Herman Ho goes on to contradict himself by saying that the 'impact' of this dispute to TVB won't be much at all, as 'only a handful of programs will be affected' (yeah, right!!!!).  Um, if only 'a handful of programs' is being affected, why the bloody hell is TVB (via Herman Ho) trying to shift the blame to Universal?  Herman Ho is actually outright lying, as it's obvious to anyone with a brain that the impact of this is going to be huge, especially since the copyrighted songs date all the way back to the 80s/90s (which includes all the songs under Polygram, which Universal bought out in the 90s).  Even TVB's former GM Stephen Chan said that he hasn't been paying much attention to the details of the issue, but he knows for a fact that if TVB has to remove/take down all copyrighted programs, that will definitely be a huge problem for them.  With Universal being one of the largest international record companies out there with practically half the HK music industry signed to them (including many of the industry's 'biggest names' such as Alan Tam, Jacky Cheung, Hacken Lee, Sandy Lam, George Lam, Eason Chan, Kelly Chan, etc.), it will obviously be TVB's loss if they don't rectify the situation and proceed to 'ban' Universal (as is widely speculated).  Universal definitely does not need TVB, as they have a plethora of other options and platforms to promote their music (including TVB's rival free-to-air station ViuTV - which they already have collaborations with - as well as the cable networks and of course, internet platforms such as Youtube).

To be honest, I am actually a bit surprised that TVB would make such a bonehead, stupid move at such a sensitive point in time when their reputation is already in the toilet, their production quality is at an all-time low, artists and behind-the-scenes people are jumping ship left and right, and their own in-house produced singers (the Voice Entertainment crowd) are being heavily criticized for lacking actual singing skills.  Also, in this day and age, with all the technology and resulting doors that have opened up with Internet platforms, there's no way that TVB doesn't know that the record companies have tons more options than they've ever had in the past to promote their artists' music.  Does TVB really think they are that 'high and mighty' as to demand that the record companies collaborate ONLY with them and forego all other opportunities to make more money?  What record company would be stupid enough to cut off a large part of their revenue source just so they can cater to TVB's ridiculous whims?  (Ok, ok, I know that there ARE some record companies out there who would be willing to do it because they are so pro-TVB...not that I'm going to name names though, lol).  What planet are these TVB execs living on?  Like I said in another forum - either Herman Ho is deliberately trying to sabotage TVB's relationship with other record companies in order to boost his own record label or TVB has gotten to the "arrogant beyond saving" stage where they are stupidly flexing their power to see who will bend to them without giving a crap about the consequences.

Lastly...I don't think it's lost on anyone reading this that there will be one more 'consequence' that none of us HK television fans want to see happen:  the television screen for the next 3 years (and perhaps beyond that) will essentially be 'dominated' by Voice Entertainment singers (argh, please kill me now...) and the JSG awards ceremonies will go back to being "the EEG + Voice Entertainment Music Awards".  TVB just gave me more reason to stop watching their programs!  I swear, TVB is slowly chipping away at the small circle of 'support' that I still have for them - if it weren't for the few artists and behind-the-scenes people I care about still working for TVB, I would've abandoned this station a long time ago.

Words of wisdom to TVB from a long-time 'follower' (me - though of course, not that TVB gives a damn, lol):  Stop testing our patience with the arrogant attitude and pettiness!  Despite the fact that you have let us down time and time again, many of us still continue to 'support' you to some extent because of sentimentality (and other) reasons.   Stop taking advantage of your audiences' goodwill and stop treating everyone like brainless sheep who must adhere to your every beck and call.  Let ATV be a lesson on how NOT to manage a TV station (though looks like it's too late for this one) because if you fall, it will be 100 times worse and the damage will be far-reaching....

Book Review series “Now and Then” (從零開始) -- Revival and Poll

Back in 2010, I started a book review series on a set of 3 book compilations called “Now and Then” (從零開始).  The books are written by veteran Mingpao reporter Wong Lai Ling where she essentially compiles all the interviews she has done with numerous celebrities over the past 3 decades and adds her personal anecdotes to create a semi-biographical first-person account of her experiences with those celebrities.   She covers many aspects of the celebrity’s career as well as personal life, often including her own personal stories and background information on HK entertainment history.  As a means of clarification, Wong Lai Ling is NOT the average unethical entertainment gossip reporter that we see way too many of nowadays -- she was actually a pretty reputable and respected reporter back then and still is even now.  I feel this clarification is important, especially in this day and age when it’s so easy to become jaded with the endless trash and false reports that the gossip rags dish out daily about celebrities big and small.  I don’t want people getting the wrong impression that this is just another one of those gossip rag compilations because it is absolutely NOT!  Granted, some of the stuff mentioned in the books may not be 100% true, since it IS from a reporter’s point of view after all, plus there will undoubtedly be certain biases and perspectives that not everyone will agree with (i.e.:  I had read some Anita Mui fans’ comments that they didn’t like how the segment on Anita talked more about her family than about her career – personally, I didn’t have a problem with it, as I felt the way the author put that segment together actually helped to highlight even more how great of a person Anita was despite having such a horrible family).  At the end of the day, each person’s interpretation and opinion will be different and there really isn’t a right or wrong in my opinion….

I will say that one of the things I appreciate about this book series is the fact that Wong Lai Ling tries, as much as possible, to include all or part of the original interviews that she had done with the celebrities themselves (so readers can hear from those celebrities directly) – she also provides background information on each interview, which helps chronicle each celebrity’s thoughts and feelings during that time and in some cases, even helps to explain why some of them made certain decisions that they did.  It pretty much reads like an extended story, complete with pictures from Mingpao’s photo vault that accompany each chapter in a chronological timeline format.

Another thing I like about this book series as opposed to other entertainment books released in recent years is that its focus (for the most part, with the exception of the 3rd book) is on veteran entertainers from HK’s ‘golden age’ time period, written by a reporter who actually experienced that era and knew these celebrities personally.  In recent years, I’ve seen too many newer reporters who have no knowledge of that era outside of what others have told them -- they try to write about these celebrities and oftentimes, the stuff they put out lacks depth and substance (some of it even amounts to mere ‘hearsay’, since many of those reporters weren’t even born yet when most of these celebrities were most active in the industry).   Having been one of those people who personally experienced that ‘golden era’ of HK entertainment myself, it kind of irks me to read watered-down accounts of that era from people who will never understand how things were truly like back then.  This is why I love reading stuff from veteran reporters such as Wong Lai Ling (as well as her other counterparts at MP such as Tsui Yong Yong, Charles Chak, etc.), as it brings back so many great memories of that era and essentially takes me on a fantastic journey down memory lane.

There are a total of 3 books in the series and each book focuses on 10 celebrities (for a total of 30 celebrities, though some of the books have ‘bonus’ material that is in addition to the regular content – such as the third and final book of the series where Wong Lai Ling writes a special tribute to Leslie Cheung, whom she had known for over 20 years and was close friends with – she had actually already written about him in the first book, but since the third book was written around the 7th anniversary of his death, she decided to put in a special chapter in honor of him).

I started writing a review series for these books on my blog back in 2010 and got through a handful of celebrities, but then I started getting really busy with life and work, so never got around to continuing the series.  In addition, with the amount of detail in the books and how picky I am about my writing and translations, doing this review series was actually quite draining on me, which is another reason why I haven’t picked it back up the past few years.  With all that said though, I’ve received a tremendous number of inquiries about the series the past couple years, with the interest level peaking especially in the last 2 to 3 years due to the HK entertainment industry reaching such a dismal state and more and more people jumping onto the nostalgia bandwagon (which, of course, I don’t blame them for since there truly is nothing much worth ‘following’ nowadays in the HK entertainment industry). 

Because of the above, I feel that I owe it to the dedicated readers and followers of my blog to revive this review series again.  However, instead of continuing where I left off 5 years ago, I would like to get feedback from you guys, on which celebrities you most want to read about.  Just to be clear though, there will be a few caveats, as there are celebrities that I really don’t care much about, so I prefer not to waste time writing about them, especially given how much time it takes for me to get one of these posts done (though being soft-hearted that I am, lol, if there are celebrities in this category that you absolutely are dying to read about, let me know and I might consider doing a brief, condensed version – but it will be way lower priority).

Here’s the list of celebrities featured in each of the 3 books.  The ones I already wrote about are in BOLD (planning to hyperlink the posts that I wrote, but won’t get a chance to until later – meanwhile, if you’re interested in reading these, please click on the ‘Now and Then’ tag in the sidebar to access the posts). 

Please feel free to indicate your choices and any other feedback in the comments section.

**Note:  Celebrity names are not listed in any particular order!

Book One:

Jacky Cheung (I only did a partial writeup though – I plan on doing a more in-depth piece later on)

Carina Lau

Alan Tam

Leslie Cheung (I will probably update later with the additional ‘special tribute’ that Wong Lai Ling wrote a few years after the first one)

Wong Kar Kui (Beyond)

Jackie Chan

Sammi Cheng

Teresa Teng

Veronica Yip

Brigitte Lin

 
Book Two:

Tony Leung Chiu Wai

Maggie Cheung Man Yuk

Andy Lau

Cherie Chung

Chow Yun Fat

Faye Wong

Danny Chan

Shu Qi

Stephen Chow

Anita Mui

 
Book Three:

Lydia Shum

Eason Chan

Sylvia Chang

Josephine Hsiao

Cecilia Cheung

Daniel  Wu

Sandy Lam

Joey Wong

Rosamund Kwan

Anthony Wong Yiu Ming

*plus special tribute to Leslie Cheung

Jacky Cheung’s 2016 World Tour Concert – Countdown post #1

It’s almost that time again!!!  My idol Jacky Cheung had announced earlier in the year that he will for sure be starting a concert tour this year (2016), however the details have yet to be announced.  A few months ago, an entertainment magazine claimed that Jacky’s concert was originally set to start in October 2016, however due to legal disputes with Jacky’s former concert manager Florence Chan, Jacky and his current concert organizer Universal will be delaying the concert indefinitely.  Universal responded by denying the report and confirming that Jacky’s concert will launch in October 2016 in Mainland China as originally planned.  They did not reveal any other information in their statement though and said that further details will be forthcoming at a later date.  Jacky did confirm in a subsequent interview (during promo efforts for his new movie) that his concert will indeed launch in October and the previous reports of the concert being delayed are false, however he also declined to reveal too much detail and asked that everyone wait for Universal’s official announcement (reporters did ask him about the HK leg of the concert, to which he replied that the ‘earliest’ he would be able to do HK is December due to availability of the HK Coliseum, which is notoriously difficult to book).

 

As of right now, neither Universal nor Jacky have made any official announcements concerning his concert.  With the rise in fraudulent news and scams in the entertainment circle the past few years, especially with the prevalence of social media and ordinary netizens becoming easy targets, I would like to take this opportunity to warn all Jacky fans (and non-fans alike) to be wary of any information you hear / see / read on the Internet pertaining to Jacky’s concert.  Unless the information comes from Universal, Jacky himself, or his official fan club, otherwise, please take whatever you hear with a grain of salt!

 

A few days ago, there was a supposedly ‘leaked’ document from the Mainland company collaborating with Universal for the China leg of Jacky’s concert claiming that the necessary approvals have been received from the Mainland government agencies for the concert to be held in Beijing.  The document claimed to be for the Beijing leg of the tour and listed concert dates, venue, performer, as well as 60 songs that would supposedly be performed (the dates are listed as 10/21 to 10/23 at the LeSports Center in Beijing).  While I’m pretty sure the venue and dates are likely correct, the song list for sure is NOT, for the following reasons: 

 

1) Jacky traditionally sings around 30 to 35 songs at his concerts, which is enough to fill a 2 to 3 hour timeslot – even the shows that go overtime with multiple encore segments have only been around 40 songs max, so for someone to claim that he will song 60 songs in a 3 hour timeframe is ludicrous.

 

2) A few songs from Jacky’s newest album Wake Up Dreaming were not on the list, which is already a huge red flag, since Jacky himself had already said that he will for sure be performing all 10 songs from his new album at his next concert (which is in-line with how Jacky has done it in the past whenever he holds a concert after an album release)

 

3)  Some of the song names in the ‘60-song list’ were actually spelled wrong (there were extra Chinese characters in some of the songs that didn’t belong there while some songs had characters missing, which essentially turns the song into a completely different song altogether).  Obviously this is another huge red flag, as we all know that the official organizers and Jacky himself would never spell the song names wrong – this is not only unprofessional but also hugely erodes credibility.

 

I checked with a few friends in Beijing who are familiar with how the process works there and they told me that the document released was merely a form that the company arranging the concert had to fill out and submit to the Mainland government entities to get permission to use the listed venue.  It is purely a ‘best guesstimate’ procedural document used to secure the facility and by no means should it be treated as any type of ‘official’ announcement regarding the concert.  My friends said that the song choices were most likely the personal preferences of whoever put the form together and therefore should not be treated as ‘the official rundown’ for the concert (one of my friends also told me that the ‘content’ field on the form can’t be left blank otherwise the application will get rejected, which is probably why the person wrote down a list of 60 songs in the hopes that maybe half of them will be on the mark when the official announcement comes out).

 

As I’ve done in past years, I will definitely be posting up concert information in the sidebar section of my blog, however I will only do so once the ‘official’ announcements come out and I am able to validate the information as being correct and accurate.  In the meantime, I encourage those who are highly anticipating Jacky’s concert to be vigilant and carefully filter through any information you receive concerning his upcoming concert tour.

My Thoughts on this year’s HK Film Awards

Not surprisingly, the HKFA was one award ceremony I absolutely was anticipating this year – main reason is of course my idol Jacky Cheung garnering a Best Actor nomination for his role in Heaven in the Dark (and unlike previous years, he was one of the hot favorites this time around).  My other reason for watching was for Sean Lau, as he’s one of my favorite actors and this is actually his first time hosting the awards (director and HKFA association chairman Derek Yee said that it took much persuasion to get Sean to agree to host).

I’m sure everyone has read the results of the HKFA and know who the winners are by now, so I’m not going to bother listing out the winners.  Instead, I am just going to focus on the categories that I actually cared about as well as the highlights (and low lights) of the ceremony this year.

First up – Best Actor (though ironically this was one of the last awards presented last night).  Jacky obviously didn’t win Best Actor (Aaron Kwok won for his role in Port of Call) – if he had won, this post definitely would’ve started with a scream of excitement, lol.  While I’m a little bit disappointed that Jacky didn’t win, I was surprisingly not too upset about it, since I sort of anticipated it already (Jacky just doesn’t have the luck when it comes to film awards).  Of course, us fans were hoping that the 6^th time’s the charm (he was nominated for HKFA Best Actor 5 times previously), but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be. Well, awards are very much about luck and timing and in a way, all stars need to be aligned, so over the years, I’ve learned not to put too much emotion or attach too much significance to awards.  Whether he ever wins the BA award or not, Jacky will always be Best Actor in my heart and I will always support him!

Even though Jacky didn’t win Best Actor, he did win the Best Dressed award alongside his Heaven in the Dark partner Karena Lam, which I felt was well-deserved because he did look extremely handsome last night.  The expression on Jacky’s face when his name was announced was absolutely priceless – he was obviously very surprised!

Outside of the Best Actor category, the other category I was interested in was Best Picture.  I was actually a bit surprised that Ten Years won given how controversial the movie was, plus the great lengths that Mainland China went to in efforts to suppress the film -- including pulling strings behind the scenes to get all movie theaters to quietly ‘remove’ the film from showing after it became such a surprise hit, as well as Mainland’s latest move of ‘banning’ the HKFA ceremony itself due to Ten Years being nominated  (the awards show is usually aired live in Mainland every year, but this year, they released a statement saying that the show won’t be broadcast in China at all).  Ten Years is actually one of the movies on my ‘must watch’ list and I was super-happy that it had gotten a nomination at HKFA, though to be honest, I was like 99% sure that it wouldn’t actually win the award, since, in recent years, much of the HK entertainment industry has been reluctant to take on Mainland China head-on, so I figured the HKFA would continue along those same lines and not take the risk of doing something that is widely considered as slapping Mainland China in the face.  Well, I was wrong and boy am I glad!  This film went through so much and I’m happy that it was able to overcome all the obstacles it did.  With that said though, the movie still faces a difficult road ahead, but hopefully its HKFA win can help the movie in this area.  The producer was indeed correct when he stated in his acceptance speech that the award actually belongs to all the audiences who supported the film, as they were the ones who turned the previously unknown controversial independent film into a runaway hit.  For me though, I actually applaud the HKFA committee members for being so brave and not letting politics influence their decision this time around.  Congrats to the cast and crew of Ten Years for a well-deserved win!

Oh and one thing I just had to mention – I saw a lot of comments from pro-China supporters slamming the HKFA and there were quite a few netizens as well as other members of the general public who were ‘pissed’ that Ten Years won and felt it was ‘undeserving’ due to its status as an independent film with a largely unknown cast and ‘no name’ new directors, plus its hugely controversial subject matter.  My response to that is – those people’s comments can be ignored because it’s obvious their comments are politically-motivated and they don’t have a clue what movies or artistic creativity are about.  If they want to take the HK vs Mainland China thing so seriously (I agree with the sentiment that a lot of times, it’s really Mainland that is making the conflict bigger than it really needs to be), then they are the ones truly missing out.  They don’t see us Hong Kongers complaining when Mainland actors and actresses take home the Best Actor and Actress trophies, even when we feel our actors/actresses are more deserving, do they??

Ok, so onto the actual ceremony itself….

Here are my favorite moments from this year’s ceremony:

-          Sean Lau’s hosting:  he was great!  For someone who doesn’t like to talk, he did a pretty good job for his first time.   And yes, it was super-sweet that his wife Amy Kwok attended the ceremony just to support her husband (aww, love this couple).  I also got a kick out of Sean’s buddy Nick Cheung ‘teasing’ him throughout the ceremony – I actually feel that Nick was the one who laughed the loudest at all of Sean’s jokes, haha.

-          The segment where so many former child actors went on stage to talk about the first film they acted in and how old they were at the time.  At first, I actually thought this was only a ‘tribute’ segment to child actors, which was very appropriate given this year’s HKFA theme, but it turned out this was a ‘2-in-1’ thing where all of those artists remained onstage to present the Best Director award.  I enjoyed seeing so many of those former child actors again, especially the veteran artists who started back in the 1950s and are still active in the industry even now – really admire their dedication to the HK film industry!  For me, the other highlight was definitely seeing John Chiang and Paul Chun together on the same stage – the first thought that went through my mind in seeing them was how great it would be if their brother Derek Yee (who was nominated for Best Director that night) was up there too?  The Chiang family is one of my (and my family’s) favorite entertainment industry families, so I of course was happy to see Paul, John, and Derek together on the same awards show.  Now of course Derek Yee didn’t end up winning (Tsui Hark won instead for The Taking of Tiger Mountain), but it was still an enjoyable – and extremely rare – moment that I will cherish.  [Sidenote:  I also found it so sweet that Benji and Lesley attended the ceremony to support their dad Paul Chun – when he came out on stage, the camera panned over to Benji and Lesley, who were recording the moment with their cell phones…aww, so sweet!  Love this family!]

-          Another presenter moment I enjoyed was when McDull (from the McDull cartoon series) and Wu Ba (from the HK hit movie Monster Hunt) went onstage to present the award for Best Visual Effects.  Both of them were soooo cute!!  And whoever ‘scripted’ their speech did a pretty good job, as their speech was cute and also got quite a few laughs from the audiences. 

-          Andy Lau presenting the Best Newcomer and Best New Director awards alongside the 5 adorable little girls from the movie Little Big Master was also a nice touch.  I actually like it when they have little kids as presenters because it just makes the atmosphere so much lighter and happier (plus everyone is so much more forgiving when the presenters screw up their speeches).

-          I had fun with the segment where Jacky and Nick presented the awards for Best Screenplay and Best Action Choreography.  They continued to play off their ‘real-life brothers’ relationship right from the getgo, with Nick introducing himself as Jacky.  Throughout their presentation speech, they just kept acting silly, even dragging Sean into it at one point (of course, since Sean is one of Nick’s close friends, lol).  Jacky and Nick also sat together off-stage as well and there was a lot of interaction between them, which was of course expected given their close friendship.  And I swear, based on the number of times the camera panned over to Jacky and Nick, the camera man must be a fan of theirs or something, haha! 

-          Best presentation speech in my opinion goes to Carina Lau, who presented the award for Best Actor.  She did a great job livening the atmosphere and in my opinion, gave a speech that was both witty and fun – she got a lot of well-deserved applause and chuckles, which was definitely needed given that the Best Actor award was the second to last award of the night and everyone had been sitting there for 3 hours straight already.  Good job Carina!

-          Best acceptance speech in my opinion goes to the production team of Ten Years.  As a Hong Konger, I was actually quite moved by their speech, especially the part where they said that the last thing on their minds was that the movie would do well or get any awards – their intention was just to do a little something for HK, their hometown and a city they love.  And both producers humbly acknowledged that their film doesn’t measure up to the others in terms of technical standards (of course, since Ten Years was a low-budget independent film whereas all the others were big-budget commercial films), so they were all the more grateful that the HKFA recognized their efforts.

Concluding thoughts:  Aside from the issue of not very many ‘big stars’ attending the ceremony outside of the nominees (which, to be honest, has been an ‘issue’ with the HKFAs for like the past decade already), this year’s HKFA ceremony still ended up being one of the better HKFA shows the past few years in my opinion.  I enjoyed watching this ceremony more than any other awards show this year.

Congrats to all the winners and hopefully next year will see the emergence of more great films!

CRHK radio program "On A Clear Day" Special Edition -- recap + my thoughts.... (part 1)

In light of all the changes in the HK television industry in the past few years as well as the 'TV war' that will be in full swing next month when ATV goes off the air and ViuTV officially launches, CRHK (Commercial Radio) did a special 'discussion forum' on the topic of 'competition in the television industry'.

Stephen Chan did a special edition of his “On a Clear Day” radio program where he invited the ‘higher ups’ from the main TV players (minus TVB of course) to discuss the HK television industry and also their future plans. He also invited representatives from the HK Advertising Association to get their take on the TV industry from an advertising and sponsorship standpoint. Those invited include: LeTV (now LeEco) CEO Mok Chui Tin, HKTV chairman Ricky Wong, former ATV chairman Ip kar Bo, ViuTV’s CEO Lofai Lo, and HK Advertising Association (aka HK 4As) representative Raymond Ho.

Below is the program in its entirety from Youtube.  For those who have been following the free TV license saga and everything else that has been going on in the HK television industry, I absolutely recommend watching this program, as it is VERY informative and there is alot of fascinating stuff that comes out of it.  It's quite long (almost 2 hours), but well worth the time!

For those who might not get the chance to watch, I will attempt to do a detailed recap, however just note that the recap is written from my own perspective, so there will obviously be personal opinions and commentary incorporated into it (had to make this clear in case some people get on my case about it).

Also, even though the program itself is one continuous clip without breaking up into parts, my recap will be spread out in multiple blog posts, as there is just way too much information for me to cram everything into one post in one sitting (plus need time to digest everything as well organize my notes).  There is no significance to the way I separated out things in terms of part 1, part 2, etc. -- it's pretty much what I had time to organize and type up at the moment (though I will try as much as possible to keep things in chronological order the way they occurred in the program).

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On A Clear Day special edition:  電視擂台 在晴朗的一天搶收視

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Recap + My Thoughts - part 1

First of all, I wanted to give kudos to CRHK and Stephen Chan, as they did a great job with the program.  The questions that the hosts asked were very relevant and some I would even consider 'brave' given the circumstances.  And it's obvious that the CRHK team did their homework, as the comments they made showed that they had put alot of work into incorporating alot of the current happenings in the TV industry.  Oh and even though I'm not fond of Stephen Chan, I do have to say that watching him host this program reminded me once again what a flamboyant host he truly is (and of course why TVB wanted to get rid of him -- his jab at TVB in the opening segment was so funny, yet at the same time so absolutely true!).  I also loved all the 'innuendos' in the program that people who haven't been following the TV industry or HK news in general probably won't understand (like that 'chocolate local egg' gift that they gave Finance Commissioner John Tsang -- I couldn't help chuckling at the symbolism behind that!)

I'm not surprised that petty TVB decided not to participate.  It's obvious from Mark Lee's comments in the audio clip they aired that TVB does not support competition.  It's actually kind of funny and sad at the same time.  I think if you ask 10 out of 10 people, they would say that "with competition comes improvement" -- the only way for a company to continually improve and get better is through competition.  However, as we all heard, TVB's stance is:  "competition does NOT bring improvement".   This shows that all the criticism we've been saying about TVB being complacent and arrogant and not wanting to improve is absolutely on the ball!

Having the representative from the advertising association (Raymond Ho from HK Advertising Association) there was absolutely a smart move, as he was able to clarify alot of things regarding the advertising piece.  Plus, we all know that one of the main 'excuses' the government gave for denying HKTV a license is that they felt the HK market cannot support an additional TV station and that there was not enough advertising to go around -- a point that TVB also adamantly supports and has reiterated time and time again (lost count already how many times those TVB execs threw the advertising thing in people's faces).  Well, based on what Raymond Ho said, the conclusion that I've come to is that TVB IS LYING!!!!  They are trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes since most ordinary folks won't understand the advertising process anyway.  As Raymond Ho emphasized (which is the same thing that Ricky Wong has been saying for like the past 4 years), the 'advertising pie' is fairly large and there is enough to 'share' with everyone.

There are a few other  points about the advertising piece that I found very interesting:  

1) HKTV got 80% support from advertisers back when they were in the running for a license. Raymond Ho explained the workshop and survey process they did, which he said they repeated this year with ViuTV and Netflix coming on board:  he said the response was less enthusiastic from advertisers, partly because of the economy, but a big reason too is because those stations weren't as 'high profile' and vocal as Ricky Wong in communicating their programs and such, so with the element of unknown there, some advertisers wanted to take the 'wait and see' approach.  The result of the survey was only 60% support from advertisers (still good, but obviously lower than what HKTV got)

2) The part about TVB 'forcing' advertisers to only work exclusively with them by offering better rates and better ad spots was an eye-opener for me -- had no clue that TVB was doing that, though it does make sense given their obsession with monopolizing the industry.  Turns out they are 'monopolizing' the advertising too by increasing rates year after year so that they can broker 'deals' with advertisers to only place ads with their station  by offering incentive packages and lower rates for doing so.  

3) It was obvious from Raymond Ho's comments that many advertisers have had enough of TVB's antics and 'games'.  He emphasized that HK4As' stance (which represents the stance of most of HK's advertisers) is that they WELCOME new TV stations and competition to join the industry.  Stephen Chan asked him whether that meant they are opposed to having only 1 TV station monopolize the entire industry, to which Raymond Ho responded:  "We are strongly opposed to having only 1 TV station".  In fact, he revealed that the Advertising Association had sent letters to the Communications Authority in the past and also released official statements expressing that from an advertising standpoint, they would like to see more TV stations join the industry and more variety in programming content for audiences.