My ‘TVB Rant’ # 23: Recap of My Thoughts on 2012’s TVB Series

I know this post might be a little ‘early’ considering there are still 2 TVB series for 2012 that have yet to air [the 2 anniversary series Silver Spoons Sterling Shackles (名媛望族) and The Confidant (大太監) ] but I wanted to do this post anyway, especially since all the other series have already aired (for the most part) so I feel it’s appropriate to share my thoughts on those – plus I’m only interested in watching 1 of the 2 anniversary series anyway and there’s no point holding back this post because of that one series.

Before I go into my commentary on this year’s series, there are a few ‘disclaimers’ that I have to make (yes, I’m anal about this kind of stuff, so my apologies if this seems too long-winded):

** When I refer to ‘2012 series’ in this post, I am using TVB’s Anniversary Awards as the ‘basis’ for the timing – so that means the series aired right after last year’s Anniversary Awards (which took place at the beginning of December last year) are considered 2012 series, even if they technically aired in 2011 (which is why I included both Bottled Passion and When Heaven Burns in this post) .

** Those who’ve been following my ‘rants’ for awhile probably know that my definition of ‘watching’ a series is different from most people’s and the ‘criteria’ I apply for whether I like a series or not is most likely different from mainstream audiences. This has especially been the case in the past decade or so when the quality of TVB’s series started to decline year after year and so I couldn’t bring myself to continue watching their series as ‘religiously’ as I used to (hey, my time is precious nowadays so I’m not going to waste it).

Out of all the series that aired this year, I’ve only actually ‘watched’ 4 to 5 of them in their entirety -- meaning that I watched the entire series from the beginning to end without skipping a single episode or a single scene. All the rest of the series I either only watched partially (which could range from a few episodes only to as much as 2/3rds of the series) or didn’t even bother watching period.

** As with all of my TVB rants, the below is strictly my personal opinion and doesn’t represent majority opinion. Therefore, those reading this post are welcome to disagree with me, as I respect different opinions and don’t mind hearing what others have to say (that is, as long as you don’t bash me for having an opposing opinion). It most likely won’t change my opinion, but it does give me some good ‘food for thought’.

** The below is only a summary of thoughts that come to mind about each of the series and is NOT considered a review of any of the series whatsoever (actually, this ‘recap’ is my LAZY way of sharing my thoughts without having to write a lengthy review…LOL). However, if I did happen to write a review for any of the series mentioned, I included the link to it as well in case anyone was interested in reading it.

** Note that I didn’t comment on every single series aired – only the ones that I felt like saying something about. However, I did list the rest of the series that aired this year at the bottom of this post just as a point of reference.

**Lastly, there is NO particular reasoning behind the way I listed the series – I pretty much just went with what came to mind as I was writing up this post.

Ok, so with all that out of the way, here’s a recap of my thoughts on some of this year’s series:


1) Bottled Passion (我的如意狼君)
Now that majority of 2012’s series have aired, I can safely say that BP was definitely my favorite series of the year! True, the ending absolutely sucked and I wish producer Lee Tim Sing (as well as the scriptwriters) would have done a better ending because of how negatively the ending detracted from the series – but overall (with exception of the ending), the series was quite well-written and pretty much the entire cast put in excellent performances (if it weren’t for the ending, I would have voted this series as the ‘Best Series of the Year’ in terms of awards and such…LOL). Also, this is the first series in probably the last 5 years or so that was truly an emotional roller coaster for me when watching it – I cried a lot during most of Raymond Wong and Niki Chow’s scenes (especially near the middle and end of the series) as well as some of the other heartwarming scenes in the series, but at the same time, I also couldn’t help smiling at some of the ‘light-hearted’ moments interspersed throughout the series (most of the Raymond Cho / Claire Yiu scenes as well as the Raymond Wong / Eric Li scenes).

I’m actually not going to comment too much on the series in this post, since I already wrote a lengthy review about it back in January after the series finished airing. But I will say that I’m currently re-watching BP again and enjoying every minute of it (it’s been less than a year since the series debuted and this is already the 3rd time that I’ve re-watched the series…goes to show how much I liked the series…LOL). Too bad that this series (and its cast) won’t get much recognition at the Anniversary Awards, since most audiences seem to have forgotten about this series already due to it airing so early (and in a ‘cannon fodder’ timeslot I must add)…such a pity!

Link to Series Review: Bottled Passion
Link to Themesong Lyrics translation: ‘Dawn Blossoms Picked at Dusk’


2) The Hippocratic Crush (On Call 36小時)
Out of all the series that have aired this year so far (not counting the 2 anniversary series), I feel that this series truly deserves to be called ‘Best Series of the Year’ because it was the most well put together in so many aspects -- from the near flawless script (a lot of the dialogue in this series was very beautifully written), to the logical plot and flow of storyline (the flow actually made sense and I found very little to criticize), to the good performances from majority of the cast (with a few exceptions of course)….combined with a great ending, this series had all the elements necessary to make it ‘best series’ in my opinion! It’s rare to have a series (especially nowadays) that blends all the elements so well (usually the cast is great but the script sucks or vice versa or both), plus have an ending that is very well done and ties up most of the loose ends without using the traditional cheesy TVB formula (i.e.: tragic ending, group BBQ, wedding scene, etc.) – in my opinion, the ending to THC was the best ending of the year!

Again, I won’t comment too much about this series here because I already said most of what I wanted to say in the review I wrote several months ago. In all likelihood, I will probably be re-watching this series again very soon (especially if the upcoming new series being aired don’t pique my interest). Oh, and just for the record – I am NOT looking forward to the sequel…in fact, I probably won’t even watch the sequel out of ‘protest’ because I was so adamantly opposed to TVB doing a sequel in the first place (I list out the reasons why in my review).

Link to Series Review: The Hippocratic Crush
Link to Themesong Lyrics translation: ‘Serial Drama’


3) Witness Insecurity (護花危情)
Despite a lot of the bad reviews for this series and the fact that the script was hugely flawed and the ending sucked as well, I actually did like this series overall – especially the first half of the series (I do state in detail in my review the reasons why I liked this series, so again, not going to say much here).

Currently this series is still in the number one spot on the ratings chart for this year (whether the series deserves it or not is another story) and if it can maintain its spot, it’s probably a good sign that the series or its cast will be a force to be reckoned with at the Anniversary Awards in December (though to be honest, I highly doubt that WI will stay in its position given that Highs and Lows is still airing and the 2 anniversary series will very likely be ratings winners – all 3 have the potential to knock WI out of the number one spot). Either way, I personally don’t really care, since ratings are not a factor that I consider anyway when I watch series (though of course it’s a driving force in the entertainment industry and for TVB when they determine who to give awards to). To me, whether the series is enjoyable to watch is more important…

Link to Series Review: Witness Insecurity
Link to Themesong Lyrics translation: ‘The Most Blissful Thing’


4) Tiger Cubs (飛虎)
This was another series this year that I liked enough to watch from beginning to end – and pretty much the only one where I will look forward to watching a sequel WITH THE ORIGINAL CAST if they decide to make one (if you haven’t figured it out already, I’m generally very much opposed to making sequels to series – especially TVB series – so the fact that I’m advocating a sequel to this series shows that it makes sense to do one).

It has actually been a long time since TVB has taken a production this seriously – from the costumes to the script to the action sequences, etc. – it was obvious that a lot of effort had been put into research and prep work. I also liked the fact that they (the production team / scriptwriters) stayed true (for the most part) to the concept of what the SDU truly does (tactical operation team that doesn’t get involved in the investigation of cases) rather than try to change things to suit their needs (like other series sometimes do).

Oh and I’m definitely glad that for this particular series, TVB chose to forego the whole romantic storyline thing and instead put most of the focus on the actual profession itself (SDU team) – the way that they kept the romantic storylines at a minimum (they touch on it, but don’t develop in detail) and focus more on the SDU missions and the police investigations made the series more fast-paced and meaningful (I actually learned a thing or two from watching this series…LOL!).

Too bad this series was aired on the weekends though because that timeslot really killed the ratings overall…true, it ‘broke records’ in terms of ratings for that particular timeslot, but the overall ratings sucked – the series didn’t even make it into Top 10, which means it likely won’t get much recognition at awards time (not that I care much about the awards anyway….but it annoys me to see good performances possibly not get recognized…)


5) When Heaven Burns (天與地)
I will admit that I barely watched a third of this series because, well, frankly speaking, the series that producer Jonathan Chik + scriptwriter Chow Yuk Ming have come up with in recent years just don’t appeal to me (I can’t even remember the last Jonathan Chik / Chow Yuk Ming series that I watched entirely from beginning to end – last one might have been back in the 90s some time….). But the ending was pretty good though and the MV concept was quite well-done (though I actually had to read commentary afterwards in order to truly understand the ending…haha…).

Of course I didn’t write a review on this series (since I barely even watched it), but I did put together some overall thoughts about the little I did watch back when I translated and posted the sub-theme song lyrics on my blog (link to that post here). That post pretty much sums up my thoughts on this series.


6) Gloves Come Off (拳王)
Given the sports-oriented theme, I definitely would NOT have chosen to watch this series on my own accord (sorry, but I generally find sports-oriented series / movies very boring, probably because I’m not into sports myself). The main cast also didn’t appeal much to me either, but since I like most of the supporting cast (i.e. Raymond Wong, Power Chan, Nancy Wu, Eric Li, Lau Kong, etc.), plus the series came on TV, I ended up watching it. In all honesty, the first half of the series was pretty good – in fact, the first few episodes especially were very well done. Unfortunately though, in typical TVB fashion, the series pretty much ‘fell apart’ in the second half – that’s the part when they started focusing on relationship issues between the main characters and so the series started to get extremely draggy…plus it didn’t help that the main story (about the whole boxing thing) started to go nowhere and didn’t really come back into play again until near the end of the series. Also, some of the characters were very poorly written and lacked development, which was annoying and definitely detracted from my overall viewing experience with this series – basically the only character who I feel was appropriately developed and stood out to me was Nancy Wu’s deaf girl character….everyone else I pretty much found were either underdeveloped or their characters ended up being annoying. Needless to say, I ended up skipping a lot of the series – to the point that I didn’t even bother tuning in to the finale episode (though I still found out about how the series ended later on).


7) Daddy Good Deeds (當旺爸爸)
This was actually one of the more watchable series from this year -- for a light-hearted comedy, this series definitely does deliver the goods. One of the things I enjoyed most was the witty dialogue, which was delivered with the right amount of comedic timing by the cast – the unique thing about the script was the rhyming dialogue that was interspersed throughout the series, which I felt was quite clever, especially since the way they worked that dialogue in, it sounded very natural and effortless (at certain points, I didn’t even realize the dialogue rhymed until someone pointed it out to me).

The other thing I liked about the series were the pop culture references, many of which were unique to HK culture. This is where I need to give props to the scriptwriters for being brave enough to go down this route because it’s definitely risky, since having too many HK pop culture references and ‘inside jokes’ that most likely only Cantonese-speakers would understand / appreciate limits the potential for this series to break out into other markets. But I guess as long as the HK audiences are able to relate and appreciate the series, that’s what matters most, since the ratings are based on HK audiences. Oh, and I have to mention the ‘guest star’ thing that they did in this series – though it wasn’t unique (TVB has done it before in other series), it was definitely fun to see who would pop up next and under what circumstances. I had read somewhere that some audiences felt the ‘guest star’ thing was merely a ‘gimmick’ to get people to continue chasing the series (curiosity factor) -- yes, that’s probably true but my thought on this is that as long as they incorporated the guest stars in a way that made sense (and didn’t just put them in randomly for the heck of it), then gimmick or no gimmick, I’m fine with it.

One last note….originally, I decided to watch this series primarily because of Steven Ma (since this was his last series with TVB) and Ha Yu (just because I grew up watching his series…haha) – of course, both of them didn’t disappoint in terms of their performances and I definitely enjoyed watching them….but in terms of ‘breakthrough’ performance in this series, Edwin Siu was definitely the one – he absolutely deserves some praise for his portrayal of ‘Ah Yap’, as he was truly pretty funny and his ‘obsession’ with finding his long-lost sweetheart was quite cute (plus his ‘chemistry’ with Steven and the rest of the cast was quite good). Overall, I’d say that this was an enjoyable series!


8) The Greatness of a Hero (盛世仁傑)
Even though I liked this series a lot (to the point of having re-watched it a few times already), I’m not going to comment much on it in this post because I actually don’t consider this a 2012 series. The series was actually produced 3-4 years ago and had already aired overseas (outside of HK) way back in 2009. I have no clue why TVB decided to warehouse this series in the first place or why they decided to all of a sudden air this series in their ‘golden’ timeslot so many years later (especially since some of the artists in the main cast no longer work for TVB). To me, it’s kind of stupid to air a series overseas and even release it on DVD, then ‘premiere’ it in HK years later as though it were a ‘brand new’ series -- given today’s technology, most HK audiences probably already saw the series on the internet back when it aired overseas anyway, so what’s the point of airing it as a ‘new series’ in HK? Kind of awkward if you ask me….seemed more like a space-filler series than anything else….


9) King Maker (造王者)
I’m generally not into ‘political thriller’ type series, but I decided to watch this one primarily because of the strong cast (when I say ‘strong’, I’m referring to the ‘acting’ piece, since the main cast consisted of established character actors who are known for their acting skills). Plus this was supposed to be a ‘follow up’ series to The Greatness of a Hero because of the collaboration between Kent Cheng and Wayne Lai – since both actors are among my favorites, I was definitely looking forward to watching the 2 of them match wits again!

To be honest, I can’t really say that I ‘enjoyed’ watching this series because some parts were a bit too slow and draggy, but overall I was able to ‘appreciate’ the series for the great acting performances from most of the cast (save for a few). Kent was excellent in his portrayal of ‘Tung Chiu’ and even though some audiences felt his acting was ‘exaggerated’, I actually beg to differ – his character was very complicated from a mental / emotional standpoint and in my opinion, the way Kent chose to portray the character was perfect…I actually don’t feel that anyone else would have been able to bring forth the ‘frustration and anguish’ component of his character as well as he did. Wayne was good too in his role, but I sort of felt he didn’t stand out much because the character of ‘Yu Jing’ seemed too much like the ‘usual fare’ for him – his character definitely wasn’t as complicated and interesting as Kent’s. As for the rest of the cast – let’s just say that overall, I was fine with most of the performances pretty much except for Natalie Tong….sorry, but I just can’t stand her in ancient series because she’s not a good fit for them – the way she says her lines and her body language, etc. are just way too ‘modern’ and it makes her performance unconvincing (just like she did back during Life and Times of a Sentinel, I felt that she was ‘reciting’ her lines rather than actually ‘performing’ her lines – maybe that’s why I felt there was little emotion to her performance…).

In comparisons to its supposed ‘sister’ series TGOAH, I have to say that King Maker is on a completely different level altogether – the plot and storyline for KM was way more complicated and the dialogue was more arduous. Both series are worth watching though!


10) Divas in Distress (巴不得媽媽…)
Ok, I will be honest and say that I initially had absolutely no intention of watching this series whatsoever, since I can’t stand Liza Wang (never liked her, both as an actress and as a person) and I knew she would be playing another one of those irritating bxxch characters again in this series, which meant that I would be forwarding through majority of her scenes so I wouldn’t get a headache from listening to her yell and scream at people (LOL). I also wasn’t too fond of most of the cast either (um, sorry, but Chin Ka Lok and newbie actress Eliza Sam being cast as the leads in the series really turned me off)…. so even less motivation to watch.

I actually decided to watch this series primarily because of producer Poon Ka Tak (he also produced THC as well as a lot of my favorite series from the 90s, such as DIF and UE) and even though I was disappointed with the series overall (the script was all over the place and a few of the characters were underdeveloped….plus there were other things as well), there were some good things that came out of the series – for example, the overwhelming support and recognition that veteran actor Koo Ming Wah got for his portrayal of ‘So Kei’! He was absolutely the highlight of this series and if it weren’t for him, I definitely would not have even bothered sitting through the series at all (I did forward through majority of the episodes though, so I guess I technically didn’t sit through the ‘entire’ series per se…LOL). I also did end up liking some of the other supporting cast’s performances too though (i.e. Lee Sing Cheong, Mimi Chu, King Sir, etc.)

Interestingly enough, the series got high ratings and surprisingly, even made it into Top 3 on the ratings chart! Though on the one hand, the high ratings is a ‘good’ thing for supporters of Koo Ming Wah (like myself) in that it raises the chances for him to get the Best Supporting Actor award at the Anniversary awards ceremony (he’s pretty much the most deserving one to snatch that award so far this year), but on the other hand, that also means the other less outstanding (and less deserving) performances in the series also have a bigger chance at getting an award (not going to name names but I’m sure most people know which ‘performances’ I’m talking about). Ah well – I’m probably not going to like the results of this year’s anniversary awards anyway, so it doesn’t really matter, I guess….


11) Highs and Lows (雷霆掃毒)
I wasn’t planning on watching this series either since I don’t like majority of the cast, but due to Michael Miu and Ben Wong, plus a potentially interesting storyline, I decided to give the series a shot. Quite honestly, the series did start off pretty strong with the action-packed scenes and the interesting first case, but the plot really started to drag around the 5th or 6th episodes and unfortunately, it continued to drag throughout the rest of the 2nd week of airing. Also, the ‘wishy-washy’ nature of the plot – especially the whole thing about trying to figure out who is the ‘black cop’ and who isn’t -- really started to frustrate me…in addition, quite a few elements of the plot don’t make any sense and the slow pace of some of the cases made the middle part of the series difficult to sit through. I also feel that the storyline surrounding Michael is very poorly developed – it started off strong in the first few episodes with him going undercover and such, but lately, it seems the focus is more on his relationship struggles with Elaine Ng (another actress I can’t stand). Oh and maybe it’s just me, but the plot and characters in this series reminds me too much of Lives of Omission….I’m starting to wonder if TVB’s scriptwriters got lazy again and lifted ideas from LOO, then repackaged it into a different series thinking that we audiences won’t notice? In any case, I already dropped the series….though I’ll probably still tune in for the finale just to see what happens (and to see whether the ‘spoilers’ that just came out about the ending are true or not….)


12) The Last Steep Ascent (天梯)
You would think that based on producer Lee Tim Sing’s good name alone (plus seeing how much I loved his previous series Bottled Passion and TLSA is supposed to be similar in terms of the love story theme and the pre-modern genre), that would be enough motivating factor for me to give this series a try? Under normal circumstances, that probably would have been the case, especially since there are quite a few of Tim Gor’s past series that I liked – but with this series…well, um, NO. Why? Two main reasons:

.—The story: TLSA is supposed to be ‘loosely based’ on the real life story of a husband who built a 6000 step ‘ladder of love’ for his wife. I’ve read the original [real-life] story (several times in fact) and it truly is a very touching love story – it brings tears to my eyes every time I read it. Unfortunately though, the series itself pretty much has NOTHING to do with the original story except for like the first and last episodes – everything else in the story is pretty much made up. In fact, producer Lee Tim Sing himself said that he had to add other elements to the story (such as the family inheritance battle and love triangle storylines) because the original ‘love ladder’ story itself is not enough material for a 20+ episode series (he said that if he were to stick only to the original story, it would only be enough for 5 episodes or less). Call me hard-headed if you want, but I’m just one of those people who can’t stand adaptations (whether TV series or movies) that stray too far from their original works (unless I haven’t read the original story or book yet – in which case I’m less likely to care). Plus, as much as I like Lee Tim Sing, he unfortunately has a track record for taking huge liberties when it comes to producing series based on original stories / books (most of the series that I like of his are non-adaptations) – based on everything I’ve read, this series is no exception in terms of the ‘huge liberties’ part…so in order not to frustrate myself, I chose to pass on this series after only watching the first 2-3 episodes.

.—The cast: The other reason why I’m not interested in watching this series is because I don’t like majority of the main cast. Maggie Cheung is a good actress, but she’s just not my ‘cup of tea’ in terms of actresses that I like to watch onscreen (don’t ask me why, but she’s just never appealed to me for some reason) – I don’t dislike her, so I have no problems watching a series with her in it, but I definitely wouldn’t ‘purposefully’ watch a series just because of her. As for Moses Chan….well, to be honest, I’m sort of sick of him now and can’t bear to watch him onscreen anymore – he’s had way too many OTT roles over the past few years, to the point that nowadays when he tries to go back to those serious, dramatic-type roles, it’s just not convincing anymore (plus I find his performances bland and boring nowadays anyway so even more reason not to watch). Kenny Wong is a decent actor, but unfortunately, he’s extremely boring to watch (not sure if it’s him or the characters he’s given to play), so knowing that he is the second male lead in this series diminished my desire to watch. And lastly, there’s Aimee Chan, who is considered the second female lead in this series – no offense to her fans, but I really can’t stand Aimee’s acting….yes, part of it is the poor Cantonese (which is one of my pet peeves and annoys the hell out of me), but also something about her acting just comes across very unnatural and ‘fake’ to me (I heard that her acting had actually improved in this series, but um, sorry, still not interested). Outside of the main cast, I heard that the supporting cast performances have been quite good though….

** Spoiler Alert***

Even though I haven’t been watching TLSA, I’m still planning on tuning in for the finale episode, primarily because that’s one of the few episodes that actually talks about the original ‘love ladder’ story (curiosity factor for me) – plus I just found out that there will be a special guest star in the last episode: Raymond Wong will be making a cameo appearance as one of Maggie’s grown sons – I read that he will be in at least half of the last episode (I’ve been re-watching Bottled Passion again lately, so obviously I’m in the ‘Raymond’ mood right now…LOL).


13) Ghetto Justice 2 (怒火街頭2)
I started watching this series only because my mom was watching it and I was curious to see if it would live up to the ‘hype’ of the first installment (which I actually didn’t finish watching either). Given the fact that I’m NOT a Kevin Cheng or Myolie Wu fan (in fact, I can’t stand either of them in terms of acting), I’m actually not surprised that I dropped this series barely a third of the way into it (though I did continue watching some of the Raymond Cho scenes throughout the rest of the series because I just love the guy too much…haha!)

The biggest turnoff with this series for me was the fact that TVB cast so many ‘non-Cantonese’ speakers in this series and gave a few of them pretty heavy roles. As mentioned earlier, this is one of my biggest pet peeves because, well, when I watch a series, I want to be able to understand what the characters are saying without having to resort to subtitles (having to read subtitles distracts from the viewing experience and is extremely annoying!). I know people will probably think I’m anal for harping on this point, but I don’t care – to me, the language thing is a ‘basic requirement’: if you’re going to film a Cantonese series, then learn to speak decent Cantonese – otherwise, don’t take on a ‘lead’ role and ‘torture’ us audiences with having to listen to your broken Cantonese in every episode! (I’m actually more ticked off at TVB on this one than at the artists, since the casting decisions lie with TVB). For some of the episodes, I felt like I should have just put the sound on mute and read the subtitles instead (yes, it was THAT bad) – needless to say, I’m glad I dropped this series as quickly as I did!


14) L’Escargot (缺宅男女)
Obviously, I watched this series because of Michael Miu and even though his performance was good (Sonjia Kwok’s performance wasn’t bad either), the overall plot / storyline wasn’t anything to shout about. I mean, it was interesting in the beginning to see how Michael’s huge family handled living together in such a small, cramped space and the various challenges they faced because of it, but halfway through the series, that premise started getting ‘old’. Plus I felt the plot was all over the place, so not surprisingly, I lost interest in the series fairly quickly.

With that said though, there were definitely a few standout performances in the series , mostly from Oscar Leung and Mandy Wong (though to be honest, I sort of got annoyed with Mandy’s character after awhile). But the thing that REALLY ruined this series for me was the stupid love triangle storyline thing between Ron Ng, Linda Chung, and Michael Tse! Linda’s character was just downright annoying and throughout the series, I just felt like slapping her silly (I ended up forwarding through a lot of her scenes in the second half); no comment on Ron’s performance because I never pay attention to him anyway in any of the series he’s in (for some odd reason, I always find his performances bland and boring); and Michael Tse – well, let’s just say that I was still in my ‘boycott Laughing Gor’ mood back when I watched this series, so I didn’t pay much attention to him either (plus his character in the series was a jerk anyway).

Overall, I guess you could say that I didn’t like this series much so it was probably wise that I forwarded through majority of the series and only watched a few episodes here and there….would have been a time-waster for me to sit through majority of it!


15) No Good Either Way (衝呀！瘦薪兵團)
I barely watched half of this series, so I’m probably not the best person to be commenting on it. But I will say that the first thought that comes to mind about this series is that I felt like I was watching a sitcom rather than an actual series (perhaps because several of the cast members -- for example, Stephen Au, Florence Kwok, Celine Ma, etc -- are ‘sitcom regulars’?). Plus there were quite a few people from the sitcom Be Home For Dinner in this series as well, so I guess it’s not too surprising that I would get the ‘sitcom feel’ from it.

Overall, I felt that the series was decent and I actually did like the pairing of Ruco Chan and Kristal Tin – but I also sort of felt this series was a waste of their talent because the characters they portrayed really weren’t that interesting. I mean, I’m happy that both of them got lead roles, but still….I definitely prefer to see them collaborate in a more interesting series if possible…

.---.

To round out the list, here are the rest of the series (not including sitcoms) that aired this year (in no particular order)….I don’t have anything particular to say about these series because I barely watched them – I basically included them in this post merely as a point of reference :

Wish & Switch (換樂無窮)
Let it Be Love (4 in Love)
Queens of Diamonds and of Hearts (東西宮略)
House of Harmony and Vengeance (耀舞長安)
Three Kingdoms RPG (回到三國)
Master of Play (心戰)

.****.

That pretty much does it for my ‘recap’ of this year’s series….I may end up doing a follow up post after I watch The Confidant, but not sure yet at this point….depends on whether I end up liking the series or not….

Mingpao Interview with Rebecca Chan: A Mother’s Choice

Here’s another interesting interview from this past week’s issue of Mingpao Magazine.

Rebecca Chan is actually another veteran actress whom I grew up watching. She’s definitely a talented actress, as I’ve actually enjoyed her acting even since the 80s, when she was a young fadan at TVB – she had quite a few memorable performances, both back then (during her young actress days) as well as currently. Though she mostly plays villain characters now, I’m actually ok with it because with her level of acting skill, her villain characters are very convincing and her performances are still quite enjoyable to watch – plus it shows that she is versatile in her acting. I actually still remember Rebecca’s performance in The Final Verdict (good series, but very depressing and tragic) as well as in many of the other series she was in back in the 80s – I especially liked Rebecca’s ancient series back then because I felt that she was one of those actresses who always looked great in ancient costume.

I actually knew a long time ago that Rebecca was a single mother because she never hid that fact in her interviews. For those who might not know, Rebecca was actually pregnant with her son back when she was filming Detective Investigation Files IV in 1999. The first time I watched that series, I actually had no clue she was pregnant (goes to show they hid it well at that time) – it wasn’t until I saw an interview she did later on where she talked about some of the creative ways they tried to hide her pregnancy while filming that I found out she was actually pregnant. Of course, afterwards, when I re-watched the series, I then noticed all the stuff she talked about (how she would wear loose fitting clothes or stand behind a counter or at certain angles for particular scenes or hold a pillow in her lap when she was sitting on a couch, etc. so as to hide her belly). Very interesting indeed!

I admire Rebecca for making the choice to be a single mother – it takes a lot of courage and strength to choose that path, especially in a situation like hers where she doesn’t have a huge network of friends and extended family to help out.

Anyway, best of luck to Rebecca and look forward to watching her next series!

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Mingpao Interview with Rebecca Chan:   A Mother’s Choice

Source: Mingpao Weekly, Issue 2283

Article originally published on August 11, 2012

Translation: llwy12

This interview was one year in the making. Last year, when War and Beauty《金枝慾孽》was re-broadcast in the midnight timeslot, watching the Empress and Concubine Yu battling wits, I called the ‘Empress’ Rebecca Chan (陳秀珠) in the hopes of getting together for an interview – at the time, she was in the U.S. accompanying her son in his studies. Later on, watching her play an evil woman in Bottled Passion 《我的如意狼君》, notorious Tang dynasty Empress WuZeTian (武則天) in The Greatness of a Hero《盛世仁傑》, and Adam Cheng’s (鄭少秋) ex-wife in Master of Play 《心戰》, each time I called, she was not in Hong Kong. It turns out that this ‘filial’ mother decided to stay in the U.S. for the entire year to accompany her son in his studies.

Thirteen years ago, when she decided to give birth to her son without getting married and subsequently raise him entirely on her own, Rebecca already knew that being a single mother would not be easy. Even though Rebecca is not an ‘Empress’ in real life, at home, her son is definitely a ‘Prince’. Returning to HK with her son in tow this past summer, Rebecca expressed that her son is the center of her life – this is a choice she made, the choice of a single mother.

Having played an Empress as well as WuZeTian, Rebecca believes more and more that there isn’t much that a woman can’t do.


Injured her ribs in an accident

With the blink of an eye, Rebecca’s son is already 13 years old – last year, she accompanied him to the U.S. to start school: “Pursuing an education in HK is much more difficult. My son is not exactly a stellar student – we tried traditional schools, but the pressure was too great, so in his third year, I switched him to an international school in the hopes that it would be easier for him to adapt to the U.S. education system.”

She didn’t feel comfortable with her son staying in the U.S. all by himself, so she decided to stop working and accompany him to San Francisco [located in the state of California] to start school: “For the next 2 years, I plan to accompany him more and help him get adjusted first, then later on plan my own time.”

As for her filming obligations with TVB, it wasn’t until she returned to HK with her son earlier this summer that she had the time to discuss her next series. For the next few years, she plans to only film 1 series per year so she can focus on accompanying her son in his studies.

The last series that Rebecca filmed prior to leaving HK was Bottled Passion. On the last day of filming, as everyone was getting ready to leave, an accident occurred – Rebecca suddenly lost her balance and fell, her chest hitting the corner of a table: “The pain was so great that I thought I was going to die! They had an ambulance take me to the hospital right away and after some x-rays, it was discovered that my ribs were cracked in a few places!”

Due to her injury, she had to completely stop working in order to rest, so she decided to move her plan of accompanying her son in his studies forward a few years: “As the saying goes, life is unpredictable!” Oftentimes, things do not always go as planned. Given the situation, Rebecca decided to take the entire year off from work.

Her son, Tiga Chan (陳迪加), was named after a Japanese anime superhero. Even though he was born in California, Rebecca admits that for the first 6 months after the two of them arrived in San Francisco, adjusting to life there was very difficult: “We had to rent a house and buy furniture. Language barrier was also a problem, as only English was spoken at the schools…help! I also had to take English lessons. I told my son: ‘Let’s give it one year and if it still doesn’t work out, then we’ll leave!’ That’s why I always feel that no matter what you do, never burn your bridges – always leave an ‘out’ for yourself.”


Made the right choice to become a single mom

One person going to school, yet essentially two people were doing the homework. When it came to her son’s studies, Rebecca was right there next to him, helping him look stuff up in the dictionary: “Whether it was Roman history, Islamic history, or U.S. history, I took more notes than he did – it was more exhausting than filming series! Back when my son was born, I had gone back to work in less than a year, so I had never experienced being a ‘full-time’ stay-at-home mom before. It took some getting used to in the beginning, as I not only had to take care of my son, I also had to cook 3 meals a day as well as do the household chores, since there are no maids in the U.S.”

The most difficult thing about being a single mother is having to play the role of both mother and father to her son: “Sometimes I feel like I have split personalities, like the characters in Master of Play – at times, I feel like doting on him more while other times I feel I have to be more strict with him. I do spoil him though sometimes. He loves reading a particular Japanese anime, but I’m not too fond of him reading it – however I often tell him that I’ll buy the comic for him but he has to get certain grade in school. Of course, he always answers with ‘yes, yes, yes’ but after I buy it for him, he doesn’t follow through with the grades. Even now, I still give in to his sweet-talk.”

Her son likes to draw and has quite the artistic talent – oftentimes, he would draw pictures to express his feelings in his journal and whenever Rebecca would see it, she would feel warm inside. Back then, Rebecca made the decision to have a child without getting married and over the course of the next 13 years, her son has been the main motivational force in her life: “I would say that the decision wasn’t wrong at all. Over the years, things have been relatively smooth and I’m enjoying it. I live according to my own plan! When I first made the decision, I already knew the path wouldn’t be easy, but it hasn’t been too bad either – a lot of people are worse off than me. Basically taking it one step at a time – working in order to make a living and provide for my son. The most important thing is that my son is happy and healthy – that’s enough for me. After all, it was my own decision – no one forced me, so I can’t complain. I always tell myself to look on the positive side of things.”

Even if her son ever asks about his father, it won’t be too difficult for Rebecca to answer: “I’m already prepared with answers, but so far, he rarely asks. Sometimes, when he’s watching a series and sees a father mistreating his own son, he would say to me: ‘Luckily I don’t have a father!’ When I hear him say this, I know things are ok because he feels that life with his mother is very happy and he doesn’t feel like anything was lacking in his childhood. I try hard to provide him with everything he’d possibly need and constantly tell him: ‘Other kids may have dads and you don’t, but at least you’re happy – enjoy and live your life happily, that’s already enough.’”


Will consider finding a life partner

Rebecca expressed that even her 80 year old dad is able to accept her being a single mother – in this day and age, the whole world shouldn’t have a problem with it: “The most important thing is to be a responsible person. The new series that I’ll be filming talks about an ‘after-90s’ girl who gets pregnant early in life and after giving birth, abandons the baby – obviously a lot of problems occur. But me, I resolve to be a responsible parent! I read designer Eddie Lau (劉培基)’s column in your magazine where he describes his childhood experience – how could a mother be so cruel? Crazy!”

When Rebecca gave birth to her son, she was already 39 years old – though maturity was on her side, her age made the pregnancy higher risk. She expressed that due to this, it was a difficult experience: “That’s why I feel that you should have children when you’re young. Now that my son is grown, he’ll ask me to watch videos on the internet or play video games with him – I don’t have enough energy for all that, very tiring. However I have a huge sense of responsibility – since I already signed up to go visit the Three Gorges [tourist site in China] with my son, I will still go, even if I have to take painkillers for my injury.”

When actress Shirley Yeung (楊思琦) also became a single mother earlier this year, Rebecca expressed that she understood exactly the type of pressure she had to go through: “I sent her a text message to encourage her – I wrote: ‘Women are very capable and can carry the weight of the world on our shoulders, you can do it!’ She’s still young, so definitely in a better position than I was.”

After thirteen years as a single mother, Rebecca expressed that her son will be independent in 2 years and can stay overseas on his own, so she can start thinking about her own life: “At my age now, I would like to have someone to lean on and listen to my troubles.” When she was in the U.S. for a year, she was busy with her son’s matters, so didn’t have time to meet anyone new – luckily, her ‘requirements’ for choosing a partner are quite flexible: “His age and nationality don’t matter to me, the most important thing is that we’re able to click – even if he’s a Westerner, as long as we’re able to communicate with each other, then it’s not a problem. I’ve been single for so long that I’m used to it already, so sometimes it’s hard to have to accommodate someone else. Of course, he must get along with my son – most important is that Tiga likes him as well.”

Rebecca admits that in the past 13 years, she has not encountered anyone whom she feels can be a dad to her son: “The main reason is because I never really thought about it [finding a partner] before; it’s only now that my son is grown up and will be more independent that I’ve started to think about it – plus seeing some of my friends in the U.S. with their significant others and how happy they were also made me think more about it. If I were in HK, my focus would have been primarily on work and wouldn’t have time to think about it at all – now I can consider it.”


Most memorable relationship with her Malaysian ex-boyfriend

Rebecca expressed that all of her previous boyfriends were from outside the industry. The only artist she was heavily rumored with was Shek Sau (石修), however she expressed that the two of them were merely on-screen partners and never had a relationship in real life.

When she went to Malaysia to film series for a few years, she met a man whom she loved enough to stay in Malaysia for: “I don’t’ like the weather in Malaysia, as it’s way too hot – I like places that have clearly defined 4 seasons.” How about Malaysian men? Rebecca expressed that they were not bad – her Malaysian boyfriend was actually the son of a rich tycoon and at that time, their relationship had even reached the marriage stage. So what was their reason for breaking up? She expressed: “The timing wasn’t right – such a pity! Actually, out of all the relationships I’ve had, this one was the most memorable for me. He was a very good man – very simple, not complicated at all. I like simple people.” Rebecca emphasized that their breakup had nothing to do with her boyfriend’s wealth or family status: “It was a compatibility issue between the two of us.”

If she had become a ‘Malaysian bride’ back then, her fate would have been very different: “It’s actually quite interesting – if back then I had continued to work as ground crew at the airline instead of participating in the Miss HK pageant, I probably would have become a supervisor already. I like rotating shifts – if I had to stay in an office all day long, I’d be bored to death.”

The primary reason why Rebecca participated in the Miss HK pageant was to meet her idol Cora Miao (繆騫人): “From the way she [Cora] talked to the way she dressed, she always came across very cool and charismatic.” Cora Miao participated in the 1976 Miss HK pageant while Rebecca was a contestant in the 1979 pageant – both experienced a similar fate in that neither made it into the top 3 rankings: “Unfortunately, by the time I entered the industry, Cora had already left TVB. When I was in San Francisco, I had hoped to bump into her, but it didn’t happen.”

One time, back when she was young, Rebecca had also gone the ‘rebellious’ route and took some sexy photos that had resulted in her losing a few hosting gigs at TVB due to her image not being ‘healthy’ enough – luckily, it didn’t impact her career permanently and she went from being TVB fa dan [in the 1980s] to a steady, talent-path actress.


Wanted to get her mole removed

Rebecca has a mole near the corner of her mouth that has become somewhat of a trademark for her. She states that in the past, she constantly thought about getting the mole removed, however her friends were opposed to it: “A geomancer once told me I won’t have to worry much about putting ‘food’ on the table [meaning ‘making money’]; indeed I’ve tasted many fine ‘delicacies’ in the past but I feel that I may have the fame, but not necessarily the fortune.”

Rebecca has worked for TVB 30 years and throughout that time, she has filmed series after series, playing a variety of different characters. Having filmed series since the 1980s until now, she understands very clearly in her heart that the quality of TVB series has dropped: “I still feel that series from the 1980s were a lot better to watch. My favorite is The Final Verdict 《誓不低頭》 (1988) – every time Adam and I collaborate, our characters in the series don’t have good results. I really liked the script for this series because the story isn’t just focused on the main lead, but rather, it’s very spread out – every character has a chance to shine.”

In terms of recent works, Rebecca is the most satisfied with her performance in Master of Play: “I quite like [producer] Jonathan Chik (戚其義), as he has a unique style to his filming, however I don’t like how his scripts are always done ‘on the fly’ [飛紙仔]. During the broadcast of the series, people would ask me about the plot, but I would have absolutely no clue: ‘Oh, Maggie Siu (邵美琪) kills that many people?’ I told Jonathan not to include me in his future series – I’m too old and can’t remember so much dialogue in such a short amount of time.”

Prior to Master of Play, Rebecca had also collaborated with producer Chik on War and Beauty: “It was a very satisfying experience, especially getting the chance to act with Sheren Tang (鄧萃雯). Whether it was on or off the camera, the two of us would still remain in character and constantly try to ‘outdo’ each other in all aspects, from hairstyle to makeup to costume. I would use the Empress’s tone of voice and facial expression to say to her: ‘I am the Empress, you are only a Concubine, you need to bow to me!’”

In 2009’s The Greatness of a Hero, Rebecca got the chance to play the ‘female Emperor’ WuZeTian: “Definitely no regrets! Playing the role of an emperor was very high – everyone was constantly bowing to you and if you didn’t like someone, you could send them off to to die. What other woman gets a chance like that to sit on the throne?”

For consummate actors like Rebecca who are very passionate about their craft, their work is their entertainment. Rebecca expressed that she is open to collaborating with different parties – whether it’s Mainland China, the new TV stations in HK, or TVB, she welcomes all of them to seek her out. Of course, priority will be given to those with a completed script.


EPILOGUE

Likes to drink

Looking back at the days before she had her son, Rebecca admits that she was a party-goer who enjoyed going around eating and drinking: “It was pretty intensive – every night I’d go out drinking. In Malaysia, there’s a street very similar to Lan Kwai Fong – I liked to drink until I felt a bit high…pretty happy.”

However looking back at those ‘wild days’ now, Rebecca feels that she had wasted her time: “If I didn’t have my son, I think I would have continued that type of lifestyle. I’m grateful for my son, as he is my motivation for working hard. He definitely changed me a lot.”

The only thing that hasn’t changed is Rebecca’s fondness for the taste of alcohol. She revealed that sometimes, when her son is in school, she would have a drink or two at home: “When we’d go out for sushi, my son would let me have a little bit of sake.” When her son was an infant, she had once added a few drops of beer to his milk – having received ‘training’ at such a young age, her son now knows how to drink carbonated wine. Rebecca Chan is that type of ‘playful’ mother.