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 3rd 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.
Hi llwy12,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review! We agree with you how the side hosting from Dodo and FAMA was very awkward with how they left Sammy to do the whole show and they were just enjoying snacks.
For the award presenters, we wish it weren't just TVB people and that people weren't just advertising for their own shows upcoming in TVB. But we did enjoy seeing Sheren back. The presenters for the Best Supporting Actress Award, by Moses, Louis, and Kenneth was very unprofessional - although it's understandable that they were put on the spot. Moses didn't even read off the title of the award, he was just like: 'Katy, come get your award."
Anyways, thanks for your thoughts! Have a Merry Christmas!
@CeeJay: Thanks for commenting! Hope you guys had a great Christmas! :-)
ReplyDeleteYea, the presenting piece definitely did come across like a hard-sell promo piece for TVB series, which was unprofessional in my opinion, but then again, everyone knows that the Anniversary Awards are a 'closed-door game' that only a select group of people get to participate in, so it's not like "professionalism" is very high on the priority list. Whether past or present, TVB has pretty much always existed on hard-sell promotional tactics and with the exodus of so many artists and behind-the-scenes people in recent years, plus their reputation being in the toilet for years already as well as the competition from other TV stations, no surprise that this year, of all years, TVB would push the promotion thing even harder. Of course, it's super-annoying, but absolutely expected from TVB.
I'll keep these comments short, as I also posted some comments on your awards recap on your blog. Talk to you later!
Our reply failed to publish before so this is a very condensed version, maybe it was too long before. Anyways, thanks again for commenting on our blog and apologies for a late reply as the holidays have been a busy time.
ReplyDeleteWe actually saw a replay of the Malaysian awards two days ago and it confirmed, or supported our feeling that Nancy is quite arrogant (much like the feeling you are getting from her). The first thing she said when she walked on stage was, "The thing I like to hear the most is Malaysians giving me and applause." Then she waited for them to applaud and she beamed. She didn't say it with tears or humbleness, it was in a boasting manner with a demure smile in our opinion HAHA. That whole speech just irked us right from the start! After her win for a mediocre role in a mediocre drama, her confidence was boosted and she had four dramas as the first female lead this past year. All were performed adequately, but something special, something that touched our hearts? Nope. To be honest, Tiu Lan in AFWFW could have not existed in the drama and it would have been just as exciting a drama and even more condensed! She kinda shared the same background as Grace Wong's Fa Man and all she did was be funny and cause drama as an ex-assassin. The comedy with Ruco was nice, but could have been cut.
Our confusion and unhappiness with My Fav Male Character and Best Supporting Actress has died down over these few weeks haha. We now feel that TVB has discredited themselves even more by giving out the awards to the wrong people. To think that KAty was also nominated for Most improved... how does one become BSA when they have just improved? We thought that BSA was to be won by someone who had a dynamic role that contributed to the plot and executed the role with refined acting that supported the main leads or even stole the show from them! Did we get that? Nope. Vincent Wong was just robbed of My Fav Character in our opinion!
DeleteThank you for telling us about the Chow Chung interview! We didn't even know that he wasn't able to thank his wife! The speeches are always so rushed with TVB and the winners even say, "Oh no, they're cueing me, gotta go (cuz shampoo commercials are more important than me thanking people who have helped me along the way)". Maybe they should cut the useless ramble of kelefe award presenters looking lost and allow more time for winner speeches!
@CeeJay: Thanks for the response! Sorry that I didn’t get a chance to see the “long” version of your comments – probably Blogger didn’t allow it to be published due to its length. I hate how Blogger places character limitations on comments – I often have to break up my comments into multiple parts just so it can get published. So annoying!
DeleteUnfortunately, the more I see/hear Nancy nowadays, the more I dislike her, as it seems that she is letting fame get to her head. As I said before, she is not a great actress by any means and unlike some of the past TV Queen winners, she essentially won both her trophies “by default” due to lack of competition, so for her to take the attitude she has is very telling of the type of person she is. Sure, I can understand when an artist goes without recognition for so long and then suddenly they are the ones at the top, it’s not unusual for them to go overboard with their reactions – but to me, it takes a greater artist to still remain humble in that type of situation and THOSE are the artists who will truly be able to stand the test of time in terms of their careers. I always like to refer to Wayne Lai as the ultimate example of this – it took TVB more than 20 years to recognize his talent and even with 3 TV King trophies under his belt now, he is still as humble as he was prior to winning. With that said though, seems to me that the arrogance thing is an issue with many of the current / younger generation artists, not just limited to Nancy. The older generation artists seem to be more humble….just my opinion based on what I’ve observed the past decade or so.
TVB has always performed poorly when it comes to balancing presenter speeches versus winners speeches – and not just at anniversary awards either (all of their award ceremonies across the board have the same issue). There have been times when an artist would step on stage to accept an award and barely open their mouths to start speaking, yet are already getting “cued” to hurry up before they even started their speeches. And yes, it’s pretty obvious that TVB feels allowing more time for commercials (and sadly, censorship of speech in certain cases) is more important than award winners giving their speeches, which is demonstrated time and time again with the horrible editing jobs they usually do with these award shows – this has been a sore spot with them for a long time and unfortunately doesn’t look like it will ever change.
Hi llwy12,
ReplyDeleteLong time no see, can you remember me lol? Happy Chinese New Year ! When I was watching the video below, I suddenly thought of you and the good old TVB days. My '3 ge' and 'Jing gege', so nostalgic. Did you know that '3 ge' is cast in the latest remake of The Legend of the Condor Heroes? But I don't think I'll be watching because in my eyes, nothing can beat the 83 version even though it is not faithful to the novel. If I want to re-watch, it'll definitely be the 83 version & nothing else.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1RahRi8K-I
Then I went and watched all the specials produced by CCTV. I realize, I miss all the old TVB wuxia drama songs as well as the dramas very much. I can't read Chinese but I can sing most of those songs. So I want to share them with you, if you've not watched them before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQQLZio4sxA
I've not been watching TVB much lately so nothing to comment in your blog. I am busy watching this mainland drama with my favorite Wallace Chung, called General & I :)
Hi BOGAEfan! Of course I remember you, lol! Long time no talk..how have you been lately? Happy Chinese New Year to you as well! :-)
DeleteThanks for the links, though I actually already saw that program last weekend when I was at my sister-in-law's parents' house. To be honest, I've never really been fond of those types of Mainland variety programs, even if it IS the special Spring Festival thing that they do every CNY, but of course, I'll take a Michael/Felix reunion any time, haha! I enjoyed that segment they did on the Mainland show, though it was too short of course, lol...
Yea, I had heard about Michael being part of the cast but to be honest, doesn't matter to me because in my book, all the 80s adaptations that TVB did will always be the best...all these years, no other Jin Yong adaptation (whether from HK, Mainland, or Taiwan) has been able to surpass the 80s versions.
I miss those "good old TVB days" as well, even more so now with TVB being in such shambles now. I actually have not watched a TVB program in a long time (though my mom still watches so probably will never be able to completely "get away" from TVB, haha) and also don't follow their news as much anymore (unless it's something about a veteran artist, then I might pay attention for a short while). I didn't watch any of last year's series and this year, I don't even know what series are airing because I don't bother to check anymore. I still scan cast lists and such whenever new series are announced (mostly out of curiosity), but majority of the artists at TVB nowadays I don't care for so I don't waste my time finding out more about the series, since I know I'm not going to watch anyway. It's kind of weird, but this is actually the first time in close to 30 years that I've been so completely disinterested in TVB current events...I think my disappointment with them has finally gotten to breaking point, lol. With all that said though, I'm still as keen as ever on nostalgia from the good old days -- nowadays, if I want my "TVB fix", I'll just go pull out an old 80s/90s era series to watch or go flip through my old Hong Kong idol magazines (which primarily featured TVB-related artists and stuff) from those eras.
I'm also currently doing a "binge" reading/re-reading of all the HK entertainment industry-related books that I bought over the years (some of which I read a long time ago but others I hadn't gotten around to reading at all). Of course I'm enjoying it immensely, since I'm basically swimming in HK entertainment industry / TVB nostalgia, lol! Who needs the current TVB when I can just immerse myself in the old TVB whenever I feel like it? Haha...