Celebrity Death News: veteran actress Susanna Auyeung

I'm really sad at the moment, as I just found out that one of my favorite former TVB actresses -Susanna Auyeung - passed away yesterday from illness at the age of 63.  Most people nowadays probably don't know who Susanna is, since she was most active back in the 70s and 80s and retired completely from the industry back in 1993.  However if I were to mention who her husband is, I'm sure current TVB fans will recognize him instantly - he is veteran actor Samuel Kwok Fung.  Samuel and Susanna have been married 40 years and are considered one of the HK entertainment industry's most endearing model couples.  Both Samuel and Susanna have been favorites of mine since the 80s and I've continued to follow their careers all these years.  Even though Susanna already retired, I know she became a Chinese medicine doctor specializing in qigong and has saved countless lives over the past few decades.  Needless to say, I was devastated when I heard the news and seeing how much Samuel loved his wife, my heart is breaking right now thinking about what he must be going through at the moment.  My deepest, sincerest condolences to Samuel and hope that he finds the strength to continue keeping her memory alive.  Rest In Peace, Susanna!  :-(

News Article: Hong Kong’s king of comedy Michael Hui hopes to direct a film again after 25-year hiatus - to give the city some hope

Here is a great interview that SCMP did with one of my favorite HK actor-comedians, Michael Hui.  I was actually quite a huge fan of the Hui brothers (Michael, Sam, Ricky) back in the day – loved watching their movies and of course, with Sam, loved his music too!   The Hui brothers brand of humor was quite unique and Michael especially never failed to crack me up, whether with his comedic antics in his movies or his speaking gigs on various variety shows.  One of the things I loved most about the Hui family (back then and even now too) was the awesome chemistry between the brothers as well as how close-knit the entire clan was – it was always a joy to see how the brothers always supported each other both on and off screen (when any of the brothers would hold a concert, you’re guaranteed to see the other brothers sitting in the audience).   Their type of chemistry and also immense talent within the family is hard to come by nowadays in the entertainment industry (the only other family that comes close in my opinion is the Chiang family, whom I also adore).

Reading this interview brought back so many memories of the good old days for me.  It also made me realize how much I missed the Hui brothers (Michael rarely films anything nowadays and is enjoying a semi-retired life playing with his grandkids, Sam is officially retired and only comes out occasionally to do a concert or two, and Ricky – well, kind of hard for me to mention Ricky without getting teary-eyed since he passed away 6 years ago).   I remember back in the old days whenever Sam would do a concert and both his brothers Michael and Ricky would be in attendance to show their support, then during “intermission” they would go up and do their hilarious comedic segment (which usually included a song or two – that entire family is talented in music too!!).  Michael’s comedic routines (whether solo or with his brothers) were always funny and I always got a kick out of how Michael always managed to keep a straight face during his routines when everyone else was doubled over laughing (he’s known for this actually – he’ll say the most hilarious of things but still have a serious expression on his face, lol).

One of my fondest memories of Michael is how he would constantly “complain” (jokingly of course) that his little brother Sam overshadowed him in everything, whether it be looks (yes, Sam was definitely good-looking, lol), talent (acting and singing – well, Sam WAS the first generation God of Songs, lol), popularity (yes, Sam was VERY popular back in the day), their parents’ affection (Sam was the youngest of the 4 Hui brothers and as the Chinese saying goes, “the youngest son has the keys to the parents’ hearts”), etc .  So when Michael had grandkids first (since his children were older than Sam’s), he said he was so happy and proud because finally there was something where he was “better” than Sam.  The  way Michael described his little “feud” with his brother in interviews (and in his comedy routines) was absolutely HILARIOUS – he said something along the lines of when his first grandchild was born, he deliberately took the child over to Sam’s house so he could rub in his face the fact that he had a grandchild and that finally he had something Sam didn’t….but then later on, when Sam’s sons started having kids too, Michael’s bubble got burst when Sam brought HIS grandkids over to Michael’s house to boast that HE had grandkids now too (hahahaha…just thinking about the expression on Michael’s face when he recounted that story is enough to make me laugh!).  Awww, love these brothers, lol!!  Makes me want to go pull out a Hui Brothers movie now and re-watch it!

A side note about last year’s Golden Horse awards:  to be honest, I was kind of conflicted back when I found out both Michael and my idol Jacky Cheung were nominated in the Best Actor category (Michael for Godspeed and Jacky for Heaven in the Dark) for roles that both of them performed very well in.  I would’ve been happy if either of them won, though of course I would not want to be one of the judges for that awards show because I definitely would not have been able to choose between them (I ended up rooting for both, though it turns out that neither ended up winning).

Anyway…I definitely enjoyed this interview and hope you guys do too!  Oh, and I will most certainly be on the lookout for the next film that Michael is planning to write/direct/act in! 

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Hong Kong’s king of comedy Michael Hui hopes to direct a film again after 25-year hiatus - to give the city some hope

Source: SCMP

Written by Edmund Lee 

Michael Hui in the office of his production company in Causeway Bay.

After being nominated as best director in Taipei’s prestigious Golden Horse Awards for his 1978 film The Contract, Michael Hui Koon-man thought it was going to become a habit. After all, he had just co-scripted, directed and starred in the now-classic The Last Message (1975) and The Private Eyes (1976), and would go on to cement his place as a Hong Kong comedy legend within a decade.

But for the longest time it seemed that lightning was not going to strike twice.

“I remember that when I was nominated 38 years ago, I thought a nomination would follow every year afterwards,” says the 74-year-old, who was finally nominated again – this time as best actor – for his leading role in the Taiwanese film Godspeed. “If they were to give me the prize this time, it’d be because they thought I didn’t have another 38 years to wait – it would be for humanitarian reasons.”

Michael Hui Koon-man on the red carpet at the 53rd Golden Horse Awards in Taipei, Taiwan in 2016. Photo: Reuters

The cruellest part of the experience for Hui is that – despite heading into the November 26 awards ceremony as favourite for the best leading actor prize – he didn’t win this one, either.

Ironically, missing out on the top honour probably suited Hui just fine: during our 45-minute chat, he shows repeated glimpses of the perfectionism that has made him a solitary artist and one who seldom feels his work is good enough.

Michael Hui as a Hong Kong native who has had a hard time since moving to Taiwan in the film Godspeed.

It’s reasonable to think Hui might have put some of his pent-up frustration into his character in director Chung Mong-hong’s engrossing Godspeed – part road movie, part violent crime drama. In the film, Hui brings his funny Hong Kong accent to the role of Old Hui, a Hongkonger who has struggled to make ends meet since moving to Taiwan 25 years earlier.

Coldly received by his family, Hui spends his days and nights driving an old taxi around Taipei to save money for retirement. Everything changes one morning when he chances upon a drug mule (played by Na Dow) who needs to travel to the south of Taiwan to deliver a package. The long and winding journey eventually renews in the unlikely pair a much-needed sense of hope – an element Hui considers essential for any filmmaker with a story to tell.

The Hui brothers (from left), Sam Hui Koon-kit, Ricky Hui Koon-ying and Michael Hui Koon-man

“The reason I haven’t made many films in recent years is because I haven’t encountered any good scripts,” he says. “This one is excellent, so it took me no time at all to accept the part. I hope the Hong Kong audience will find it refreshing to see me in this film, because I haven’t acted in this way before. I was used to exaggerating my body language and my dialogue, but there’s none of that here.”

Born in Guangzhou, Hui moved with his family to Hong Kong in 1950 and first hit the big time when he co-hosted the early 1970s TV comedy variety programme The Hui Brothers Show with his younger brother, the pop singer Sam Hui Koon-kit.

Run Run Shaw (left) shakes hands with Michael Hui at a press conference in Kowloon in 1972

The elder Hui made his film debut in Li Han-hsiang’s The Warlord (1972), and went on to appear in several more films directed by Li, although it was the box office hits he scripted, directed and starred in alongside his brothers – Sam and Ricky Hui Koon-ying – that established him as one of the biggest stars of the ’70s and ’80s, not only in Hong Kong, but also Japan, Taiwan and across Southeast Asia.

Before Godspeed, Hui’s only prominent screen roles in the past decade had been in the mediocre comedies Robin-B-Hood (2006), The Bounty (2012) and Delete My Love (2014). He hasn’t directed a film since 1992’s The Magic Touch, which he made with popular comic Dayo Wong Tze-wah, and the writer-director-actor admits frankly that persistent doubts about his ability prevent him returning to directing.

“The reason I hadn’t directed since The Magic Touch was because I’m not satisfied with myself,” says Hui. “I’m not satisfied with The Magic Touch, either. And I thought to myself, if I couldn’t come up with something new, I should hide myself deep in the mountains. I should only make a film when I have something worthwhile to say; otherwise, what’s the point?”

Michael Hui (right) as a taxi driver who inadvertently walks into some unusual situations in Godspeed.

What Hui envisioned as “a little down time to think” has now spanned more than two decades, during which time he relentlessly tried to write the one story that would live up to his impossible standards. More than a dozen original comedy screenplays now line his bookshelves, waiting to be brought to life to entertain the public.

“I’ve written a lot of scripts that I thought were good,” he says. “Usually I’d write as soon as I got the creative impulse. Then I’d put them away – I’d go fishing or travelling – and later come back to look again and see if the spark is still there. If it isn’t, it means the script isn’t working.”

The collection of finished work has caught his wife’s attention. “Once in a while, she’d come and say, ‘This stack [of screenplays] is your life, wasted. It’s becoming the past and you don’t have much time left.’ I asked why, and she said, ‘Because people get old. How do you know the scripts aren’t working?’ And I don’t know, to be honest, because I’m the one who writes, directs and stars in my films. There’s nobody to give me opinions.”

Hui is hopeful he will start shooting his next directorial effort this year. “I don’t really like to act, but it’s not up to me. The jokes have a lot to do with timing; they won’t work if an actor turns around a second too late. So I’m sometimes forced to take up a part in my own film.”

Although he hasn’t yet given the comedy project a title, Hui is adamant his upcoming films, like Godspeed, will be optimistic. “This film is especially for Hong Kong, where everyone is so grim nowadays,” he says.

“Why don’t I make anything other than comedy? Because the world is sad enough, and there’s no need for me to remind people of that. Some filmmakers like to reflect on how cruel the world is, which leaves me wondering: why do you feel the need to reflect that [when it’s so obvious already]? It’s our everyday life.”

Nevertheless, Hui says a question he always asks himself to ensure a film’s universality is: “Would it sell in Congo? Like Security Unlimited, you can show it to a Japanese audience or an African audience and it’ll still work anywhere,” he says of the film that won him the best actor prize at the first Hong Kong Film Awards in 1982.

Hui understands that his early brand of Hong Kong-centric social satire is irrelevant today because “after 1997, it’s not about Hong Kong cinema any more”, he says. “Hong Kong is now part of China and, in the future, there’ll only be ‘Chinese films’ – and not any distinction between mainland productions and Hong Kong productions. It’s just like you wouldn’t differentiate American films between those made in New York and California.”

Why, then, have we rarely seen him in any notable Hong Kong-China co-productions in the past decade?

“Because it’s not really my…” Hui trails off and then starts again. “I only care about the script. I don’t care where it’s from. Why haven’t I [done any]? First, because I’m not familiar with the China market. It’s very hard for me to write [for it]. I wrote several stories but threw them away. And I don’t want to superficially write about something that I don’t understand, with the intention to [pretend that I do].

“I’ve had several offers [to act], but they’re not like Godspeed, which I find really meaningful in the ways it echoes my personal sentiments. I’m not quite interested in those other offers. At this stage, I’d rather just enjoy life; actually, filmmaking is part of my way to enjoy life. If I were to make a pointless comedy that says nothing after all the laughs, even if it does well at the box office – don’t waste my time.”

Hui looks extremely lively for a 74-year-old, but has he given any thought to real retirement? “I retired a very long time ago,” he protests, with a laugh. “The fact is that I retired 20, or maybe 30, years ago. But when people ask me about my favourite activities in my retired life, I still tell them that I like diving, fishing and making films. So that’s what I’m doing.”

Godspeed opens on January 5.

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! 

Deric Wan and Maggie Siu "Blood of Good and Evil" Reunion!!!

Sorry that this news is kind of ‘old’ now (it’s from last week) -- I’ve actually had this post in draft mode for a few days already but only got around to finishing it today.

All BOGAE (TVB series Blood of Good and Evil) fans need to read this post!!! 

Last week, classic 80s/90s TVB onscreen couple Deric Wan (溫兆倫) and Maggie Siu (邵美琪) got the chance to reunite on the premiere episode of the Mainland reality TV show It Was You (原來是你).  The premise of the show is that the invited celebrity guest undergoes various “transformations” using Hollywood-style makeup and special effects and then interacts with other celebrity friends to see if they are able to recognize him/her.  In this first episode, Deric was invited to undergo the transformation and pull a surprise on his close friends Maggie Siu, Benz Hui (許紹雄), and BOGAE’s scriptwriter Chan Po Wah (陳寶華).  The show invited the 3 unsuspecting friends to attend the show’s recording, telling them that they will be judges for a talent show competition -- Deric will interact with them in various situations, disguised as someone else.

My mom was actually the one who told me about this show, as she has taken to watching Mainland variety shows in recent years and, as a long-time HK entertainment as well as TVB fan, she is always on the look-out for any HK celebrities who appear on the shows.  When she told me about this one with Deric and Maggie (plus Po Wah Jie), I was undoubtedly SUPER-EXCITED because 1) they are one of my all-time favorite on-screen couples, and 2) BOGAE is one of my all-time favorite TVB series.  Even though Benz Hui wasn’t in BOGAE, he’s still one of my all-time favorite ‘green leaf’ actors, so I was excited to see him on the show too.

Watching this show brought back a lot of nostalgia and fond memories for me!  From the opening segment when Deric talks about his days working at TVB and series he filmed to the 3 friends who have a special place in his heart (Maggie, Benz, and Po Wah Jie) to the last segment where Maggie re-enacts the classic ending scene from BOGAE with a transformed Deric (Maggie didn’t know it was him until he revealed himself after the scene), I was absolutely ecstatic – at the same time though, I also had tears in my eyes, especially during that later segment, which was extremely touching, particularly for fans of the series like me. 

The first friend that Deric “surprised” was Benz.  To be honest, I also got teary-eyed at the end of Benz’s segment (ok, well I started off laughing until my stomach hurt) when Deric revealed himself and they hugged each other – Benz’s reaction was priceless, as he hadn’t seen Deric in more than a decade and so was genuinely surprised…Deric looked like he was about to cry, as he was so happy to see his ‘older brother’ again after all these years. 

The second friend was Chan Po Wah.  Po Wah Jie was one of TVB’s former scriptwriters who had left back in the early 2000s and currently writes for TV series in Mainland China.  Po Wah Jie is actually Deric’s mentor, as she was the scriptwriter for BOGAE and wrote the character of Chai Ho Nam, which was one of Deric’s most representative roles of his entire acting career.  Po Wah Jie’s segment was actually quite funny, as they did a ‘discussion’ session with a bunch of supposed contestants and she talked about the artists she most enjoyed working with as well as a few other ‘tid-bits’ about the series BOGAE.  It was obvious from what Po Wah Jie said that she’s very close with Deric and knows him very very well – by the same token, Deric obviously has a lot of respect for Po Wah Jie, which is heartwarming to see, especially since it’s rare for scriptwriters to have such a good relationship with artists who brought the characters they wrote to life.

The ultimate ‘target’ of the surprise was actually Maggie.  After Benz and Po Wah Jie found out Deric’s identity, they collaborated with him to prank Maggie.  Here I must applaud Jiangsu TV station’s seriousness in putting together the ‘fake’ talent show, complete with 'fake' contestants and 'fake' performances in order to make the surprise more impactful and poignant while still being able to tie in most of  Deric and Maggie's past collaborations such as BOGAE, Looking Back in Anger, Conscience….it was a dream come true for Deric/Maggie fans!  At the very end, when Deric revealed himself, Maggie was genuinely touched and so was everyone else – she kept asking Deric why he had to put himself through so much suffering (6 hours of makeup plus he could barely talk correctly or do much facial expression because of it), to which he replied that he is honored to have her as a friend and is willing to do anything for her.  Awww, such a sweet moment – oh and with BOGAE’s themesong playing in the background (one of my all-time favorite themesongs by the way)….everyone was crying, including those in the live audience as well as fans watching from home (I was definitely one of those fans crying my eyes out)!  Oh and great job to Benz and Po Wah Jie, who knew what was happening during that entire segment and played along really well (honestly, Po Wah Jie should be an actress – she was very natural in that segment!)

This was absolutely a fun episode to watch and chances are I will watch it again very soon (especially since I miss Deric and Maggie so much).  It also made me want to go re-watch BOGAE again (for like the hundredth time now)!

Thank you Jiangsu TV for such a great episode!  I’m not really into Mainland variety shows, but whenever there are HK celebrities invited on the shows, I will usually watch.  This episode is an absolute MUST-WATCH for all BOGAE as well as Deric/Maggie fans!

The link to the entire episode is below (courtesy of Jiangsu TV’s Youtube channel).  Enjoy!!

TVB and OnTV collaboration: Midnight time slot series poll

Ok, so I was catching up on some entertainment news today and came across an article from on.cc (which I’ve linked up below).  In the article, on.cc – or, more accurately, their television division ON TV – officially announced yesterday (9/13) that they are collaborating with TVB on a special poll.  Together with TVB, they’ve chosen 10 ‘classic’ TVB series for netizens to vote on (via Facebook) during the 2 week timespan from 9/14 to 9/28 -- TVB has agreed to re-broadcast the series with the most votes in their midnight timeslot starting on 10/5 (once the currently airing series Time Before Time is finished).

According to the article, the voting will go through 2 phases:  in the first phase, OnTV will post detailed information about each series, including cast photos, plot summary, video clips, recommendations on ‘must-watch’ scenes, etc so that each person voting will supposedly have all the details they need to vote.  The second phase will launch next week, though OnTV didn’t give any details on what this phase consists of.  Also, a very important point – there is no limit to the number of series each person can vote for…so for example, if you like all 10 series, you can vote for all 10 if you want.

Before I list out the 10 series that OnTV and TVB chose, I just want to say this:  maybe I’m thinking too much into things, but I just find it very coincidental that I wrote about this EXACT SAME idea on my blog a few days before this whole thing got rolled out.  Technically, I wrote 2 posts on TVB midnight timeslot – the first one was in July in which I kind of ‘complained’ about TVB’s choice of series and informally gave them some ‘suggestions’ on the next series to air.  Then last week, I did a most detailed post on which series I would’ve chosen if I were the program lineup director.  In addition to that, I also relayed the suggestion of doing a poll to have audiences pick what they want to watch in that timeslot.  Well, looks like now the poll is actually happening – though the part I don’t understand is why OnTV is doing the poll rather than TVB themselves. [Sidenote:  Call me a conspiracy theorist if you want, but there’s a part of me that can’t help but think that OnTV is associated with TVB somehow.  I already suspected this a few weeks ago when I was able to trace a picture that a few websites had used back to OnTV’s video clip – in that picture, OnTV was reporting on news about Lesley Chiang and Fred Cheng’s breakup.  They interviewed Lesley while she was at HKTV’s dinner for their series Hidden Faces, yet in the picture, any reference to HKTV (including their logo and the name of their series) were all blurred out.  When I saw the picture, I had questioned why a mainstream media outlet -- which, in order to maintain credibility and reputability, should take a ‘neutral’ stance when reporting news – would have the need to ‘block out’ another company’s logo and all references to that company’s product (especially since they didn’t block out the logo to the commercial sponsors of that event, Vidal Sassoon).  I later discovered that the picture was ‘clipped’ from the news video posted on OnTV’s website – sure enough, when I went on to check, everything in the video referring to HKTV was blurred out.  This is the first time that I’ve actually seen a mainstream media outlet in HK take such ‘action’ against a company that is not one of their competitors.  Well, now this whole thing with the poll further fuels my ‘suspicion’ about OnTV’s position. I won't go too much into it here, since it's kind of irrelevant to this post, but will probably revisit this topic again later on.]

Now that I’ve said my piece about the poll and OnTV, here are the 10 series that OnTV and TVB have chosen for audiences to vote.  (Discerning readers will probably notice that a few of these series were on my ‘suggestions’ list as well, except my list was limited to series from the 80s and 90s eras only).

Here are the 10 series from OnTV (in no particular order):

War of the Genders (男親女愛) – 2000

Looking Back in Anger (義不容情) – 1989

The Duke of Mount Deer (鹿鼎記) – 1984

The Feud of Two Brothers (流氓大亨) – 1986

It Runs in the Family (孖仔孖心肝) – 1990

Detective Investigation Files (刑事偵緝檔案) – 1995

Don’t Look Now (執到寶) – 1980

Files of Justice (壹號皇庭) – 1992

Police Cadet (新紮師兄) – 1984

A Step Into the Past (尋秦記) – 2001

And which series do I vote for?  Without a doubt, definitely Looking Back in Anger (not hard to guess considering I’ve been ‘harping’ on TVB since July to air that series in their midnight timeslot and also relayed that thought in 2 blog posts).   Outside of that series, I really don’t want to vote for the others because I actually disagree with some of the series on the list.  I’m actually curious to know how they came up with these 10 choices because as a long-time TVB fan who is familiar with their series from the late 70s to now, there are definitely other more ‘classic’ series that would bump some of these series out of top 10 contention. I'll have to do a little more digging but hopefully, either OnTV or TVB explain their criteria for choosing these series somewhere on their website or FB pages.

Source links:  

OnTV Facebook page (series profiles)

on.cc article (brief series intros)

TVB’s midnight timeslot series – part 2 (follow up post)

Back in July, I wrote a post entitled “TVB’s midnight timeslot series” (read it here).  Well, it’s now September and due to some recent things that transpired, I felt the need to do this follow up post.

First….is it just me or has the ‘hype’ surrounding TVB’s midnight timeslot waned?  Does anyone know which series TVB is airing in that timeslot right now? (the answer is Time Before Time in case you haven’t heard)  I don’t blame you if you don’t because the Media sure didn’t ‘talk about’ it as much as they did the earlier series in that timeslot.  Why?  Not the Media’s fault (for once…lol) by any means.  Rather, the problem lies with TVB’s poor choice of subsequent series lineup, resulting in them not being able to keep up the momentum that had started with the airing of The Greed of Man in that timeslot.  Actually, this problem of TVB making stupid decisions is not new -- in fact, it’s such a common issue with them that they’ve actually become notorious for it over the past decade.   I mean, for a station that has been in existence for 48 years and is pretty much the only local option for ordinary Hong Kongers to watch free TV programming, TVB’s lack of proper decision-making ability is appalling!   The complaint over the years that TVB does not know how to properly utilize opportunities that stare them right in the face, but rather, they only know how to employ 24/7 in-your-face promotional tactics without regard for quality or value, is indeed very valid.  The way they handled the midnight timeslot series thing is yet another example of this.

In my earlier post about the midnight timeslot, I had informally given TVB a few suggestions on what they SHOULD HAVE aired following The Greed of Man that would’ve allowed them to maintain the ‘hype’ and ‘momentum’ they had gained.  Well, let me lay it out more clearly.  If I were the person responsible for putting together the midnight timeslot schedule, here’s what I would’ve done:  instead of airing The Justice of Life and The Final Verdict (2 great series for the record, but not ‘the best of the best’), the series I would’ve put in the line-up after TGOM is Looking Back in Anger -- um, hello, given this series’ popularity as well as impact on society and the fact that it has been hailed as one of TVB’s best productions of all-time -- well, to me, this is a NO-BRAINER!  (In my previous post, I actually gave my ‘speculations’ for why TVB decided not to air this series).  Then after that I would’ve aired another one of TVB’s greatest productions of all-time:  Blood of Good and Evil (if LBIA was TVB’s best series to come out of the 80s era, then BOGAE is surely their best series to come out of the 90s era!!) – again, this is also a NO-BRAINER.  With those 2 series alone, TVB would’ve had it made, as there are many many audiences who either haven’t seen these 2 series despite hearing such great things about them (probably because they were born after these series aired or they didn’t ‘follow’ TVB back then) or audiences who have seen these series but love them so much that they would jump at the opportunity to re-watch.  Personally, I fall into the latter category – despite the fact that I’ve re-watched both series more times than I can count AND I own both series as part of my TVB series collection, I have absolutely no problem pulling up a chair and doing nothing but stare at the TV screen for the hour or so that the series is on.

After both of those awesome series, next in my line-up would probably be The Breaking Point (another one of my favorites that I’ve watched a gazillion times), which, coincidentally, TVB is actually re-airing right now during the weekends here on their U.S. satellite channels [sidenote:  I’ve got to say that whoever puts together the lineup for TVB’s overseas satellite channels is much smarter than their counterpart in HK…lol].  TBP was a hugely popular series at the time it aired and rightfully so given the awesome cast and acting (though in my opinion, there were definitely issues with the script/story, but taken as a whole, it’s not hard to overlook those flaws).  Then, to give audiences a ‘break’ from all the heavy, serious dramas (which I personally don’t feel is necessary but fine), I would choose a light-hearted comedy to air.  Actually, from what I read, it sounded like this was TVB’s original intention back after The Greed of Man aired (to give audiences a break by airing something less ‘heavy’).  While that’s not a bad idea, unfortunately TVB picked the wrong series.  If they wanted to air a Stephen Chow classic, they should’ve picked The Final Combat instead, as that series was the most representative of Stephen’s TVB career and was truly the series that shot him to stardom (plus he was the lead in that series whereas he was only supporting in The Justice of Life).  Oh and let’s not forget that while Stephen did show a bit of his trademark ‘mo lei tou’ comedy style in TJOL, it was really in The Final Combat that it’s unleashed in full force – plus the series was unique in terms of being a ‘wuxia comedy’ (which was a rarity back then, since most of the wuxia dramas at the time were pretty serious).

Speaking of wuxia…..how many times have you heard audiences complain about the lack of true wuxia series the past 15 years?  I, for one, hear that complaint every year and my response is always the same:  TVB can’t make wuxia series like they used to – they lack the resources for one and two they lack the know-how (I’m talking about the ‘traditional’ skills and knowledge involved in choreographing complicated fight scenes and working with wiring, not the crappy, fake CGI stuff that they love to use nowadays).  Of course, the fact that they no longer have the rights to remake Jin Yong’s works also doesn’t help (not that I would want another JY remake, as there have been way too many already, plus the remakes get worse every decade).  In terms of program line-up though, to feed the wuxia series drought, I would’ve seized the opportunity to re-broadcast a few classic wuxia series in that timeslot -- anyone familiar with the old days of TVB would know that there are plenty of great wuxia series from the 80s to choose from – for example: Legend of the Condor Heroes, Return of the Condor Heroes, The New Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre, The Two Most Honorable Knights, etc. – all are good choices in terms of wuxia classics that were popular back in the day and absolutely well-made/produced (plus, judging from the comments I’ve heard over the years, it’s obvious that many of the newer generation audiences have not seen the JY remakes from the 80s – well, this would give them the opportunity to see why us old-timers keep praising the 80s remakes as ‘the best’).

If we go back to modern series, other great choices include:  The Bund, Police Cadet ’84 as well as its sequel Police Cadet ’85 (don’t bother with the third and final installment, Police Cadet ’88, because it sucked), The Feud of Two Brothers, The Challenge of Life, Files of Justice, Detective Investigation Files, etc.  I could keep going on forever on this topic actually (I’ve got plenty more ‘classics’ that I would definitely include in the lineup), but I think those of you reading this get my drift already.  

In addition to airing all these series, the other thing I would’ve done is ‘poll the audience’ – meaning that I would send out a survey to audiences with the question:  “Which classic series from the 80s/90s era do you most want to see re-broadcasted in the midnight timeslot?” (keyword here is ‘80s/90s era’ because unfortunately, everyone’s definition of ‘classic’ is different).  This method sounds familiar, you say?  Yes, very discerning!  This is the exact thing that those ‘smart’ people over at HKTV did when they were preparing to launch their station last year – they put up a poll on their website and asked audiences to vote for which series (out of the 16 series they had produced) they wanted to watch first.  As we all know, the outcome was that their political-themed series The Election came out on top.  Originally, the plan was for HKTV to air their cop-themed series The Borderline as their debut series due to the tremendous reception the first episode had garnered months earlier during its ‘test run’ on Youtube.  But last minute, they decided to do a poll instead (which is not surprising since HKTV has had heavy interaction with audiences from the getgo – much unlike TVB who doesn’t give a crap about what their audiences think/feel/want).  I’m sure they were thinking that The Borderline would end up being the winner (so they could just move forward with original plan) but surprisingly (well, maybe not given that this was post-Occupy timeframe), their newest filmed series The Election ended up garnering the most votes (with The Borderline coming in at second place).  So what did HKTV do?  Well, this is where the ‘smart’ part kicks in (no, I didn’t use that word just because I felt like it):  they decided to air both series simultaneously – The Election was aired first, debuting on the weekend, and The Borderline followed right after, debuting the following weekday [sidenote:  for those wondering why The Election aired on a weekend, it’s because the series had just wrapped filming and there was still post-production work that needed to be done on it – by airing it once a week instead of every day, it gave the production team more time to complete the post-production].  So it ended up being a win/win situation for both sides:  the audiences got their pick (The Election) and HKTV still got to move forward with their original plan (air The Borderline as debut series).   See, it’s not that difficult to make audiences happy – so why can’t TVB get it right?? 

In any case, it’s obviously ‘too little too late now’, since TVB already lost their momentum with the midnight timeslot and who knows whether they will be able to gain it back (I highly doubt they can with the idiotic management team running the station currently).  Such a shame!  It’s sad how ‘not in tune’ TVB’s current management team is with their own programming and the station’s history / trends.  My advice:  change out this management team and get people in there who actually know what they are doing and can make proper decisions.  Otherwise….well just take one look at ATV – seeing what happened to them should be enough motivation for TVB to want a competent management team in place that is capable of making wise decisions that actually benefit the station.  I know it’s wishful thinking on my part but hey, I tried….

TVB series recommendations from the years 1990 and 1991

This is part 6 in a multi-part series of posts about TVB series from the 80s (and now 90s) era that I recommend.  Please read this Introductory post for details about how this came about:  TVB series recommendations from the years 1980 and 1981.

** Note:  I used Wikipedia in conjunction with TVB’s website and a few other sources to gather the information for each series.  Note that the cast lists are not all-inclusive and the English song titles are rough translations.**

Here's my list of recommendations from 1990 and 1991:

BLAST FROM THE PAST: 1985 JSG Awards – Opening Music Segment

In a few of my recent posts, I had mentioned the general sentiment that the quality of TVB’s series has declined drastically over the years and there are very few series worth watching anymore.   Well, the same sentiment applies to TVB’s variety programs as well.  Ok, actually, on second thought, the situation with TVB’s variety programs is actually worse than what’s been happening with their series.   At least with their TV series, I can still find a handful of series that are either ‘worth watching’ or I’m willing to sit through (however begrudgingly) in order to support certain artists I may like (though technically, nowadays I just watch certain episodes or scenes and skip the rest of the series)….with their variety shows however, I’ve pretty much lost all motivation to watch.

Growing up in the 80s and 90s, TVB’s variety shows used to be ‘must-watch’ events for me back then.  From JSG to Miss HK to the annual charity shows and of course the anniversary galas, all were grand events where the ‘big’ stars (as well as the ‘not-so-big’ stars) would usually all be in attendance.  Every minute of each show was truly worth watching and it was so easy to be drawn in to the point that I would pretty much do nothing except stare at the TV screen for an hour or two.  Even their specialty programs, game shows, documentaries, etc. were excellent and worthy of watching regardless of whether well-known / popular celebrities were involved or not.  Anyone here remember TVB’s flagship variety program E.Y.T. (Enjoy Yourself Tonight)?  That program served as a ‘launching pad’ for many of HK’s biggest stars, as it gave artists – especially newbies – a platform to showcase their talent (whether in acting or singing) and hone their skills (I personally feel it was especially beneficial for actors/actresses, as they got to ‘practice’ their acting skills by participating in various skits in front of live audiences every night).  E.Y.T. was one of my favorite variety programs back then, so you can probably imagine how sad I was when it ended back in the mid-90s (note:  I’m referring here strictly to the ‘original’ E.Y.T. program that lasted from 1967 to 1994, NOT the ‘failed’ revival attempts of the program that TVB did in the late 90s and once again in the mid-2000s era). 

It’s a shame that TVB is no longer capable of making good variety programs anymore.  Yes, part of it is the lack of talent, but a lot of it also has to do with TVB’s own antiquated policies and ‘modus operandi’, especially where music-related programs are concerned.  This is why TVB has not been able to draw any star power into its music programs for at least 10 years now.  Of course, I don’t blame the big name stars, as I wouldn’t cave in to TVB’s restrictive policies either if I were them – I mean, why limit yourself to only appearing on TVB and be forced to speak only Mandarin in all non-TVB interviews when there are so many media platforms/options to choose from nowadays, especially as it pertains to music?

Anyway, the reason for my post is actually to share the below video (my ‘intro’ above was intended to set-up for this video clip, but I ended up ‘venting’ again about TVB – sorry, couldn’t help myself..LOL).  This video clip is an excerpt from TVB’s 1985 JSG Music Awards.  For those who might not be familiar with how the awards ceremony worked back then (can’t speak to whether it’s the same thing now since I stopped watching JSG more than 10 years ago), the ceremony always started with a huge musical number where all the artists with nominated songs would sing snippets of their songs – think of it as a huge 15 minute remix segment.  Well, the below clip is that ’15 minute remix’ – the intro segment to 1985’s JSG where all the nominated artists who attended sang a few lines of their songs as a refresher for audiences (even those who didn’t attend got to ‘sing’).

In watching this clip, I was of course super-excited -- it has been a long time since I watched the 80s era JSG awards (that’s the next ‘binge re-watching marathon’ that I intend on doing after I finish re-watching all these old 80s/90s era TVB series that I’m doing currently), so getting to re-live that moment was absolutely awesome!  And of course, since I’m familiar with all the songs that were nominated (ah, 80s Cantopop – boy do I miss it!!!), I couldn’t help singing along for the entire 15 minutes (gosh, can’t even remember anymore when I felt the urge to sing along to a TVB music program!).  With that said though, I must admit that part of me was a little bit sad at the same time – one reason of course is because I miss those stars who left us already (Anita, Leslie, Danny), but the other reason is because of the dismal state of the HK music industry nowadays (and the dismal state of the entire HK entertainment industry as a whole).  It definitely makes these ‘nostalgic’ moments worth treasuring, no matter how fleeting they may be….

So, for the next 15 minutes, sit back and enjoy this ‘blast from the past’ (or if you’re an ‘old-timer’ like me, you might feel the urge to stand up and actually sing/jam along to each song and have your own personal karaoke session for 15 minutes…LOL).  For convenience’s sake, I also posted the song list underneath the video clip (wow – they actually sang 40 songs in the clip….it went by so quickly, I didn’t even realize they were actually able to cram all 40 nominated songs into the opening segment!).  And yes, in case you were wondering, I DID go back afterwards and pull all 40 songs from my music collection so I could re-listen to the full versions, since only listening to a few seconds worth in the video wasn’t enough in my opinion.

***

**Video credit to cyberwarrior**

Song list:

1) 十分十二吋 - 林子祥

2) 愛情陷阱 - 譚詠麟

3) 此刻你在何處 - 譚詠麟

4) 蔓珠莎華 - 梅艷芳

5) Smile Again 瑪利亞 - 張學友

6) 愛情組曲 - 張學友、鍾鎮濤、蔡國權

7) 誰可相依 - 蘇芮

8) 不羈的風 - 張國榮

9) 少女心事 - 張國榮

10) 情已逝 - 張學友

11) 200度 - 葉蒨文

12) 等 - 陳百強

13) 空凳 - 夏韶聲

14) 雪山飛狐 - 關菊英、呂方

15) 愛不是遊戲 - 蔡楓華

16) 邁向新的一天 - 梅艷芳、李中浩

17) 為你而歌 - 甄妮

18) 日本娃娃 - 許冠傑
19) 壞女孩 - 梅艷芳

20) 雨夜的浪漫 - 譚詠麟

21) 玩的格言 - 譚詠麟、彭健新

22) 長夜 My Love Goodnight - 葉蒨雯

23) 夢幻的擁抱 - 梅艷芳

24) 淚之旅 - 鍾鎮濤

25) 再坐一會 - 鄺美雲

26) 第一次 - 張國榮

27) 全賴有你 - 張國榮

28) 深爱着你 - 陳百強

29) 花店 - 陳慧嫻

30) 你令我快樂過 - 呂方

31) 聽不到的說話 - 呂方

32) 順流逆流 - 徐小鳳

33) 辛運星 - 譚詠麟

34) 情是永願着迷 - 譚詠麟

35) 輕撫你的臉 - 張學友

36) 我願意 - 張國榮

37) 每一個晚上 - 林子祥

38) 從未如此深愛過 - 呂方

39) 暴風女神 Lorelei - 譚詠麟

40) 最緊要好玩 - 許冠傑