News Article: Hoping for a breakthrough in relationship and career, Jessica Hsuan confirmed not returning to TVB

*** HOT OFF THE PRESS!! ***

Here's an article that just came out in today's issue of Mingpao Weekly Magazine that I felt would be a good idea to share...

First, for those who were wondering about a "Tiger Cubs" sequel -- well, based on the below article, looks like TVB definitely has plans to film the sequel, but they were waiting to see if Jessica Hsuan would accept the terms of the contract and come back to film it.  BUT, based on the article, looks like those plans will be scrapped now because Jessica just confirmed that she won't be returning to TVB -- she officially turned down their offer.

To be honest, I'm actually a little 'bummed' by this news because "Tiger Cubs" was one of the few series that I truly enjoyed watching last year -- not only that, it's also the only series that I really wanted to see a sequel made because for once, it actually MAKES SENSE (meaning that there's enough material for a sequel due to the 'individual story/cases' format of the series -- basically, continuing the story with the same characters wouldn't be a problem at all from a scripting point of view).  Since Jessica was such a critical part of the series, if she's not going to film the sequel, then that definitely reduces my 'interest' in wanting a sequel.  Such a pity!

Ah well...so much for that....

In any case, I will say that I'm happy to see that Jessica is doing work that she truly enjoys -- from the way she described her South Africa trip (both in the article and on Weibo), it's definitely obvious that she really enjoyed the trip (despite some of the 'issues' she encountered) and learned alot from it. 

Lastly, just a comment about the contract talks....Jessica stated that she was interested in filming the TC sequel and things looked positive on Tommy Leung's side, but in the end, the plans still fell through because of 'things' that both sides couldn't agree upon in the contract.  Well, based on everyone's 'knowledge' about TVB and what was implied in the article, I'm pretty sure we can all figure out what that 'thing' was that prevented Jessica from re-signing with TVB.   Personally, I'm 99.9% positive that the reason she didn't sign was because of the lack of freedom -- I'm willing to bet that TVB probably put some clause in there that restricted her from 'appearing' on other TV stations, which would have been a huge problem given the fact that she was already filming stuff for NowTV and might even collaborate with CTI in the future if the right opportunity comes up.  TVB (being the arrogant powerhouse that they are) probably refused to budge on the matter and Jessica of course was not going to let TVB tie her down again after being 'freed' from their grasp, so that probably caused the talks to break down.  If that's the case, that's truly sad....

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Hoping for a breakthrough in relationship and career, Jessica Hsuan confirmed not returning to TVB

Source:  Mingpao Weekly, Issue 2305

Translation:  llwy12

The lack of siu sangs and fadans at TVB is really becoming apparent.  With many artists leaving the nest the past few years as well as more and more of TVB’s own ‘biological’ sons and daughters heading up north to film series in Mainland China, TVB’s executives and producers are having a hard time finding artists for their series.

Former TVB fadan Jessica Hsuan’s (宣萱) contract with TVB expired back in 2011 and up until this point, she had not yet made a decision on whether she will re-sign a per series contract with the station.  Due to the good ratings and word of mouth for last year’s Tiger Cubs (飛虎), it’s been reported that TVB has been actively trying to persuade Jessica to return to TVB – in addition to using the filming of a sequel to Tiger Cubs as ‘bait’, TVB also sent production head Tommy Leung (梁家樹) to personally discuss the matter with her.  In the end however, things did not work out, as Jessica recently confirmed that she has officially declined TVB’s offer.

Asked about the matter, Jessica admitted that the discussions with TVB have ended:  “It’s true – I’ve officially replied back to TVB already and confirmed that I won’t be returning.  The main reason is because during the contract talks, there were some things that we couldn’t come to an agreement on.  I’m enjoying the position I’m in currently where I have the freedom to choose different types of jobs.”

Even though Jessica’s contract already expired back in 2011, the series Tiger Cubs, which she starred in last year with long-time partner Joe Ma (馬德鐘), became an unexpected success when it aired last year in the weekend time slot.  Not only did the series garner good word of mouth, it also broke ratings records by peaking at more than 30 points – a rare feat in that particular time slot.  To keep up the momentum, TVB already has plans to start filming a Tiger Cubs sequel in June – since the series’ leading actor Joe Ma already re-signed a ‘per series’ contract with TVB last year, all that was left was for the series’ leading actress Jessica Hsuan to return as well so they could move forward with the plans.  However, looks like those plans will have to change now.

Jessica expressed:  “I’m definitely interested in filming the Tiger Cubs sequel, since Joe and I collaborate well – on Tommy’s side, everything is fine as well.   But unfortunately, during the course of the contract discussion, there were some things that both sides were not able to agree upon.  I already responded back to TVB – since I’m not able to do it, no point in keeping things open-ended.  Actually, in the past year that I’ve not had any contracts to worry about, I’ve had a lot more freedom in choosing my jobs and the feeling is great!  I want to do work that I enjoy and even if it’s filming series, I still want to have new breakthroughs and try different types of roles.  I understand TV stations wanting to go the ‘safe’ route, but after 20 years of playing the same ‘professional career woman’ roles, it starts to get boring.  That’s why I was willing to accept the role in Curse of the Royal Harem (萬凰之王) – since it was the type of character I had never played before, both my fans and I were very excited about the opportunity.  Even though my performance [in that series] wasn’t tremendously good, at least there was a sense of ‘freshness’ to the role.  I’m not the type of person who just takes a paycheck every month and that’s it – money is definitely not the most important factor.”

All along, there have been rumors that CTI’s Ricky Wong (王維基) has been actively trying to persuade Jessica to join his company.  Towards this, Jessica responded:  “Since I’m a free artist now, of course I’m not going to rule out the possibility of collaborating with any company – at this point, it pretty much depends on the role, the script, the terms of the collaboration, and whether my schedule permits.”


Filming for NowTV as a free artist

With her status as a ‘freelance’ artist for the past year, Jessica recently traveled to South Africa to film a special documentary program for NowTV and in the coming months, will be filming an animal-themed program for them:  “I will be hosting 6 to 7 episodes of the program.  It won’t be a program about pet grooming or taking care of pets, but rather, it will provide audiences with information on how to adopt abandoned cats and dogs.  Jobs like this one where I can share my experiences with others and do something that benefits society at the same time, I’m very willing to accept!  Just like with the South Africa documentary earlier, that was also a job that I really wanted to do – not only did I get the chance to meet new people and expand my social circle, I also got to interact with nature and rare animals – definitely a very enjoyable experience!    This time in South Africa, I also got the chance to try their local foods that were cooked very simply over a fire with only a few spices added, yet it was very delicious and tasty – it made me realize that sometimes, the most simplistic things are the most beautiful and also the happiest;  having lived in a big city my entire life, getting the chance to experience nature like this is a very comfortable feeling.”   As an animal-lover herself, the trip also gave Jessica the opportunity to ‘interact’ up close with various exotic animals such as giraffes, seals, cheetahs, etc.:  “I wasn’t afraid of interacting with the cheetahs because I had Walter Kei (紀曉華) with me [TN: Walter is a renown travel and food columnist in HK and China] – if the cheetahs were to bite, they would bite him first…haha!  But actually, the cheetahs were quite cute.  During my trip, I also ‘kissed’ a huge frog – the production crew teased that I kissed the frog because I wanted it to turn into a prince!”


Potential suitors in her life

Of course the frog didn’t turn into a prince, but what about Jessica’s love life?  Any potential suitors?  Earlier, Jessica was photographed ‘shopping’ with singer Fiona Sit’s (薛凱琪) ex-rumored boyfriend Reggie Martin.  Towards this, Jessica laughed and stated:  “Reggie is only a good friend whom I met through another friend -- we’re not dating!  Sometimes, when Reggie comes over from Macau, we would get together and have dinner along with other friends – in fact, just recently, I had dinner with him and also Michael Wong (王敏德) and a few others.  I actually have a lot of male friends and even though the Media always tries to create rumors, my friendships with them are never affected.”

Entering the year of the snake, a few geomancers predicted that Jessica will experience breakthroughs in her love life and career this year:   “Hopefully!  I also hope that there will be breakthroughs in both this year – happy to hear it!  I might appear very Westernized with certain things, but inside, I’m quite traditional.”  (Any potential suitors right now?)  “Yes, but so far, I haven’t met ‘Mr. Right’ yet.”


TVB’s response

Towards Jessica Hsuan turning down TVB’s offer, head of production Tommy Leung expressed:  “Earlier, producer Lam Chi Wah (林志華) [TN: the producer for Tiger Cubs] did talk to Jessica about it [filming the sequel].  I found out about a week ago that Jessica already responded and expressed that for the time being, she’s not interested in discussing it anymore – therefore, with regard to the Tiger Cubs sequel, we will need to go back and look at the storyline and casting again.  As of right now, Joe [Ma] will most likely still participate in the series."

News Article: With both TVB and CTI fighting for her, Jessica Hsuan intends to ‘return’ to HK television on her own terms

The latest issue of Mingpao Magazine is out and there are actually quite a few interesting articles in it this time around (well, interesting to me, at least...LOL!).  Hopefully I'll have time to translate some of the other articles in this week's issue, but for now, here's an interesting article about one of TVB's former top fa dans from the 90s -- Jessica Hsuan.

Personally, I'm not a fan of Jessica's by any means (I like some of her series, but overall, as an actress, she's just not my cup of tea), however she is definitely an experienced, talented actress and I respect her for that.  Plus I've actually been watching the series Tiger Cubs the past couple weeks and must admit that the series is truly quite good, so I enjoyed reading this brief article about Jessica as well as the series itself. 

Anway, not really going to comment much on the article except to say that Jessica's contract with TVB ended last year and as a free artist, she has pretty much been focusing her career in the Mainland.  Ever since her contract ended, there has been speculation as to whether she will join one of the rival TV stations.  Well, now with the success of the Tiger Cubs series and TVB approaching Jessica to re-sign a per series contract with them, looks like the answer to that question is most likely 'no' -- after reading this article, it looks like the chance of Jessica re-siging with TVB is extremely high.

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With both TVB and CTI fighting for her, Jessica Hsuan intends to ‘return’ to HK television on her own terms

Source:  Mingpao Weekly, Issue 2283

Translation:  llwy12

Under the leadership of its chairmain Ricky Wong (王維基), City Telecom (CTI) has been aggressively expanding its footprint in the HK television circle these past few months. After successfully ‘poaching’ a large group of veteran and talent-path artists from rival TVB, CTI is now setting their sights on recruiting first line siu sangs and fa dans, which they currently lack. One of CTI’s latest recruitment ‘targets’ is actress Jessica Hsuan (宣萱), whose popularity once again soared recently due to the TVB series Tiger Cubs《飛虎》. After losing so many artists to rival stations as well as to the Mainland [China] market, it is said that TVB does not want to take any chances and so will likely use the ‘lure’ of a Tiger Cubs sequel to get Jessica to re-sign with them. Towards this, Jessica made her position very clear: “My number one request is for a good role and good script – otherwise, I wouldn’t have declined at least 5 TV series in HK and Mainland. To me, the chance to film the sequel [to Tiger Cubs] is not necessarily the most attractive offer.”

It has been rumored that Ricky Wong’s CTI has been consistently in contact with Jessica, giving her numerous scripts to review in the hopes of recruiting her to join their company. According to behind-the-scenes personnel [at CTI], many of the roles that were offered to Jessica for review were specially written for her and cater to her strength in playing ‘professional’ roles. Asked about this, Jessica expressed: “I have been in discussions with CTI, however the offers so far were to once again portray a cop and other ‘professional’ roles – this is the primary reason why I declined the offers. Tiger Cubs was the last series that I filmed in HK and since a large amount of time has passed, I hope that my return will give HK audiences a different feeling. It’s not that I won’t play a cop or lawyer ever again, but rather I prefer for my ‘return’ series to not be the same type of role.”

Declines offer to film 5 series, loses 8 figure earnings

Jessica continues: “As for TVB, we were in discussions previously and recently resumed discussions once again. However, I still need to look at suitability of the role and also a confirmed good script. There was talk of a possible sequel to Tiger Cubs, but all along, I’ve never been a fan of sequels. For example, back when Dicey Business 《賭場風雲》aired, the audience reaction was also very good, however as soon as the company suggested filming a sequel, I immediately said no. I feel that whether it’s a HK series, movie, or even a Hollywood film, sequels rarely ever live up to the original – I would much rather leave behind beautiful memories of the series and not wait until the story is filmed to death before stopping. Recently, I’ve given it some serious thought and asked myself if a sequel were to be filmed, what would be the most attractive ‘selling point’? But I will say that with the good ratings and word of mouth for Tiger Cubs, it truly does give me a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction. If there truly is a sequel, I wouldn’t mind using my ‘friendship cards’ and invite friends such as Bobby [AuYeung] (歐陽震華), Louis [Koo] (古天樂), Gallen [Lo] (羅嘉良), etc. to participate.” (What do the salary offers look like from both sides?) “Of course CTI’s salary offer is more attractive than TVB’s, however I would not request an amount comparable to Mainland salary. More important for me is who I would be collaborating with – I’m not necessarily requesting to ‘choose’ who I want to collaborate with, but I do prefer working with artists who have more of a professional attitude. Right now, all I want is to be happy doing my work – if the people I work with can’t even meet the ‘basics’ of being punctual and studying their script, I don’t want to get myself all upset over it.”

If the amount of salary is not the most important, does that mean that Jessica has already earned enough money? She replied: “Earned enough? I don’t think anyone will ever say they’ve earned ‘enough’ money! As a kid, when I earned my first dollar, I would think how great it’d be if I earned 10 dollars, then when I have that 10 dollars, I would think about earning 100 dollars – when I started working and earned my first hundred thousand, I’d think about how satisfying it would be to earn more…it’s an endless cycle. However I also know that I can’t earn all the money in the world and slowly I realized that all these years, I’ve put so much focus on my work that I ended up missing out on a lot of things around me….earlier, I actually declined offers to film 5 series in both HK and Mainland – quite a lot of money involved.” (Loss of earnings in the 8 figures?) “Since I already declined the offers, no point in calculating.”

Ready anytime for new relationship

With all the time that Jessica has spent working, what does she feel are some of her ‘regrets’? Jessica expressed: “I missed out on the weddings of many many friends and it’s something that I can’t make up for anymore. In the past, work always took first priority – when my friends would invite me to their weddings, I would always tell them that I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to make it and in the end, I would choose work over attending the wedding. But things are different now…” (Missed out on [love] relationships as well?) “Yes, but it’s not entirely regrettable, as I believe in fate when it comes to relationships. I once had a 6 year relationship during which I asked myself whether I would regret it in the future if I were to give up my career for the relationship – the answer was: yes, I would regret it! If you were to ask me to choose again now, I would still make the same choice. I feel that modern women, even if married, still need to have a career – I would never be able to endure being locked into a housewife role at home with nothing to do! Doesn’t matter how much money you give me, I just can’t do it – I have my own interests such as going diving or meeting up with friends for dinner and such.”

In recent months, Jessica definitely appears more relaxed and happier, which caused many people to think that perhaps she’s in a new relationship – in reality, Jessica actually hired a personal trainer to help her get back into shape. Asked whether she is currently in a new relationship, Jessica replied: “Nope! Since I’m not currently tied down by any contracts, I figured I’d use the break to get myself back into shape and also to look after my health. Pretty much right now, I’m ready for whatever that may come my way – whether work or relationship. I’ve always been a bit on the skinny side and with age, my body doesn’t work as fast as it used too – therefore I felt it was necessary to tone myself up, do more exercise, upgrade myself. I must admit that after I started doing this, I’ve felt a lot more alert and energetic! Even my fans and other friends have asked me whether I’m dating – it’s quite funny actually!”

Since breaking up with her veterinarian boyfriend Ruan last year, Jessica has not started any new relationships yet. Towards this, Jessica laughed and replied: “Leave it up to fate! My life right now is very happy – I have a pretty steady circle of friends, both male and female. If I were to start a relationship, I’d have to find someone whom I can ‘click’ with – someone I could mutually rely on and take care of each other.” (Are you accepting of an ‘older woman/younger man’ relationship?) “It would depend upon whether the other person is mature in his thinking or not. If I have to ‘take care’ of him like a son, then no thanks! I already have 3 people that I ‘take care of’ at home: my elderly parents and a housekeeper who helped raise me since birth – sometimes I do wish that I had a shoulder to lean on, but if it’s not the right person, can’t force it! My 80 year old father used to nag me about finding a good man and getting married, but now, he actually tells me not to rush into things – if not compatible, then don’t get married…being happy is most important. Those are my sentiments exactly!”

Success of Tiger Cubs opens up a new timeslot for TVB

In the hopes of opening up a new weekend timeslot , TVB arranged for Tiger Cubs to be the inaugural series to help test the waters – the results were very successful, as the series beat out all of the variety shows with its unprecedented high ratings in that timeslot. Previously, the ‘grand production’ variety special TVB Singers Red and White Battle, in which more than 100 singers participated, only averaged 19 point ratings in the weekend timeslot – so far, Tiger Cubs has been able to garner peak ratings of 26 points in the Saturday timeslot, with ratings reaching 31 points in the Sunday timeslot, which is even higher than some of the regular series airing on the weekdays! It’s no wonder then that TVB would try so hard to persuade the series’ stars Joe Ma (馬德鐘) and Jessica Hsuan to re-sign filming contracts with them. Head of production Tommy Leung (梁家樹) has already confirmed that there are plans to film a Tiger Cubs sequel next year and he hopes that they will be able to maintain the original cast. Joe Ma has already re-signed a per series contract with TVB – now all they are waiting for is Jessica to give the green light to re-sign with them.

My Thoughts on "Gun Metal Grey 刑警"

This series was definitely my most anticipated series of 2010 – BUT I learned my lesson with “Born Rich” in 2009 so even though I was really looking forward to watching this series, I had some reservations with what to expect. I didn’t want to get my hopes up like I did with BR, only to be bitterly disappointed…so I definitely made an effort to watch the series with a clear mind.

Luckily, GMG turned out to be way different from BR – it was definitely worth waiting for and absolutely did not disappoint! I really enjoyed the series and it was actually one of the few series from 2010 that I was able to sit through completely (without giving up halfway through) – that definitely says a lot about what I thought of the series.

Also, I have to say that GMG was definitely one of the better series that TVB has made over the past several years. The cases were suspenseful and interesting – but to be honest, some of the cases were downright scary and actually gave me the creeps…I had to avert my eyes at certain scenes because I didn’t want to get too grossed out. But I’m actually not too surprised that some of the cases were so gruesome, since the blueprint of the cases were based on the top criminal cases in HK’s history.

As usually happens with cop-themed series, especially ones that revolve around a bunch of cases, there is of course a lot that can be covered in a review. But for the purposes of this particular review, I wanted to explore the different characters in the series as well as the relationships and storyline outside of the cases (plus some of the cases were way too freaky, so I would prefer not to dwell on them too much).


So here are the highlights:

1). Characters and Artists’ performances:

Michael Miu (Mad Sir): Of course, as the leader of the team, it is necessary for Michael to have a presence and be the ‘boss’ so to speak. His character has a very suave and cool personality, but yet gets along well with his colleagues. I actually think that Michael’s character is kind of cute and provides some much needed comic relief to the series. I don’t know how many people noticed, but I found it interesting that his character is supposed to be in such a high position (and leader of the team), but yet there are some parts where he is portrayed like a little kid – for instance, the scenes when he is sucking on a lollipop or eating ice cream on the rooftop). I’m not sure if this was done on purpose or inadvertently, but I actually got quite a kick out of it (I couldn’t help laughing at the sight of Michael eating ice cream out of a cup with an itty bitty spoon while Felix is standing next to him sipping coffee…lol!).

I also found it interesting how Michael’s character always acts so nonchalant and gives off the impression that he doesn’t care or takes his sweet time with stuff, but in reality, he is extremely smart and actually takes his responsibilities as a cop very seriously (not to mention that he is very efficient). There will be more analysis of Michael’s character later on in the review when I talk about his relationship with Jessica as well as his friendship with Felix.

Felix Wong (Stone Sir): Felix’s performance was excellent. Yes, he has done villain roles before, but somehow, those pale in comparison to his character in GMG. Maybe because Felix’s character in the series is pretty well-developed, so there is plenty of opportunity for Felix to utilize his great acting skills to bring out the depth of the character.

And the big question with Felix's character is whether his actions throughout the series can really be considered "wrong"? In my opinion, this is a difficult question to answer because it really depends on which perspective you're looking at it from....I'm actually not even going to try to answer the question in this review, because this topic would trigger a long debate in and of itself.

Again, there will be a deeper analysis of Felix’s character later on in the relationships section, so I will refrain from repeating myself in this section.

Jessica Hsuan (Kim Hui): If I had to choose a least favorite character among the main leads, I would have to choose Jessica’s character. It’s not that I don’t like her character, but I just feel that her character in this series was very similar to the characters that she normally plays – the typical strong woman character who at times can become a bit annoying with her overpowering nature. One redeeming factor to her character though (in my opinion at least) is that she does act ‘silly’ at certain times throughout the series – it’s almost as though the writers are trying to balance her “strong” nature by putting in some ‘schoolgirl type’ traits (which coincidentally matches perfectly with Michael’s “playful” personality). Even though I was not too fond of Jessica’s character, I actually loved her chemistry with Michael in the series (which I will touch on more later on).

Nancy Wu (Hui Man Sze): Ok, I really have to compliment Nancy’s performance in this series – she definitely put herself out there and gave an excellent performance. I’ve seen quite a few of her series in the past and up until this point, none of her other performances really had much of an impression on me. Don’t get me wrong – I think that her acting has always been pretty consistent and she is definitely one of the newer generation actresses with the most potential – but I just never really got “into” her performances in the past. It could be perhaps that her character in GMG was quite well written, so that helped her performance stand out. I personally was quite impressed with her performance – even though Nancy’s character was tough and strong, there was a good balance to the character and so I ended up liking Nancy’s character way more than Jessica’s. To summarize, Nancy’s performance came across very natural to me and I was really able to see the maturity in her acting.

Vincent Wong (Carson Yeung): I must say that I was quite impressed with Vincent’s performance in this series. Yes, he is a newbie and has not been in many series, plus his acting skills still need some work, but I was drawn to his character for some reason. Personally, I find his acting and mannerisms are very similar to Joe Ma (which means that his acting is a bit stiff and not very ‘natural’ looking), so I was surprised that I actually like Vincent’s performance in this series – again, just like with Nancy’s performance, I think part of the reason why I was drawn to Vincent’s performance was because his character was well-written in the series and was very appealing. To be honest, in the beginning, his character was a little annoying because the impression he gave off was that of a rich young kid who is only concerned about getting attention and doesn’t take anything seriously, but later on, when we find out that his character is actually very righteous and serious about his job, plus how he is toward Nancy’s character, he actually becomes quite endearing.


2). Relationships and Chemistry in the series:

I do have to compliment the writers (and producer) on how they handled the relationships in this story, as I feel that the various relationships – whether it’s romance, friendship, or family – were very well done. In this section, I am going to focus primarily on the romantic relationship between Michael / Jessica and Vincent / Nancy as well as the brotherly friendship between Michael / Felix.


Michael / Jessica relationship:

Though the Michael / Jessica relationship was somewhat 'typical' of what TVB usually does in their series, I actually didn't mind this time around because I found the relationship to be quite witty and clever the way it develops. IMO, Michael and Jessica matched quite well -- though they had alot of opposite qualities (i.e. Michael's personality is very suave and nonchalant, giving off the feeling that he is always playing around and doesn't take things seriously whereas Jessica is very rigid, hardworking, and takes her responsibilities too seriously to the point of going overboard)....maybe that's why they end up together (as the saying goes, 'opposites attract'). I read in a few forums that some people who watched the series felt that Michael and Jessica had zero chemistry – I actually disagree….their chemistry may not have been “the best”, but it was definitely there.

The bickering scenes between Michael and Jessica throughout the series were absolutely hilarious!! I got many good laughs out of seeing the two of them going at it, probably because most of the time, they were arguing over silly, childish things (the two of them actually provide a lot of ‘comic relief’ in the series without even intentionally doing so).

I especially love the scenes where Michael 'plays' Jessica and gets her ticked off on purpose, knowing that she has a certain impression of him and rather than trying to 'correct' that impression, he purposefully 'misleads' her, just for fun. That one scene where Jessica is discussing one of the cases with both Michael and Felix at a cafe had me cracking up so hard -- how Jessica would speak to Felix in a soft, 'womanly' way but then she would turn around and speak to Michael in a curt, short-tempered manner. Then, when Michael playfully asks her why she gives him an attitude but speaks to Felix in such a soft way, she snaps at him that he should reflect on why she treats him that way -- Michael's facial expressions during that scene were very funny (almost like the 'innocent little child' look....which is in line with some of the previous 'child' imagery of him sucking on a lollipop and eating ice cream).


Vincent / Nancy relationship:

Surprisingly, I really like this couple and was rooting for them throughout the series (those who know me will understand why I use the word ‘surprisingly’). The way that the relationship developed between Vincent and Nancy was really well-done -- I liked how the relationship wasn’t “rushed” and was allowed to take its natural course.

From the beginning, Vincent obviously had a crush on Nancy and he was very open about it when he realized he had feelings for her. I like how he had no qualms about letting her know early on that he likes her and wants to pursue her – the directness of it was refreshing because normally, these relationships are handled in a way that makes the guy out to be very wishy washy or not sure of what he wants. Even though Nancy didn't like him in the beginning and sort of 'hated' him about a quarter of the way through because his dad was indirectly responsible for the deaths of her biological parents, he never gave up on his love for her. And I like how their relationship didn't follow the 'typical' formula -- for instance, after that huge car accident scene halfway through the series (when Nancy is captured by the photographer and Vincent goes to save her), my expectation was that Nancy was going to 'accept' Vincent's love because she was so touched by how he saved her life and so they would become a couple after that. But it turns out not to be the case -- instead, Nancy symbolically 'forgives' Vincent for what his father did and they become good friends and colleagues again -- in other words, she sees how sincere he is and so can't find it in her heart to hate him, but yet knows that she doesn't 'love' him (at least not yet), so doesn't even try to 'repay' him by being in a relationship with him when she knows she's not ready. Of course, the two of them end up getting together later on (obviously), but only when the timing was right and Nancy realized she truly did have feelings for Vincent.

I also liked how there were alot of "sweet" moments between Vincent and Nancy, even before they ‘officially’ got together as a couple – but the 'sweetness' was done in a way that wasn't cheesy or totally obvious….pretty much, these “sweet” moments were “nuances” throughout the series that were perhaps a hint of the relationship to come, but not ‘in your face’ type stuff.

One of my favorite “sweet moments” was in episode 18 (or was it 17?) when Nancy had gotten into an argument with Jessica earlier and so went to do some kickboxing to relieve her anger. Vincent shows up (he ‘says’ that he happened to go there to work out, but in reality, he knew Nancy goes there often so wanted to keep her company) and tells her that if she is upset, to ‘fight’ with him. She takes on the challenge and ends up giving him a bloody nose (not on purpose though). When he’s driving her home afterwards, she asks him to stop by the 7-11 to buy some stuff – when she gets back in the car, she gives him a band-aid for his nose. When he puts the band-aid on, he realizes it’s one of those ‘kiddie’ kind with like cartoon characters on it, yet he keeps the band-aid on – not only that, but he has this really happy, smiling expression on his face (probably overjoyed that Nancy cared about him enough to give him a band-aid for his sore nose, even though part of the motive on Nancy’s side was guilt over giving him a bloodied nose in the first place). This scene was quite funny and cute (I couldn’t help saying to myself – aww, how sweet!).

From the beginning of the series until they officially got together, Vincent was definitely Nancy’s “guardian angel” – constantly concerned for her and watching out for her. Seeing how much I liked their relationship, needless to say that I was saddened when Vincent’s character dies near the end.


Michael / Felix friendship and chemistry:

Ok, I admit it – I’m a huge 5 Tigers fan (it’s hard not to be growing up in the 80s), so of course, I was looking forward to the chemistry between real life Tiger brothers Michael and Felix. As I said earlier, I was unsure of what to expect of the series itself and didn’t want to put my hopes too high, but one thing I was definitely sure of from the beginning – the chemistry between Michael and Felix would be awesome, no matter how the rest of the series turns out.

I absolutely loved seeing the interaction between Michael and Felix – each of the scenes where there was just the two of them either talking (discussing a case, for instance) or arguing (Michael reprimanding Felix for ‘crossing the line’ and Felix defending his actions as justified) were so satisfying…it was definitely a real treat for a Tiger fan like me!

All those rooftop scenes (where Michael and Felix go to talk about the cases or if they don't want the others to hear what they are saying) were quite defining -- it's as though that's Michael and Felix's personal "space"....what I found really interesting though was how the setup reminded me of the whole 'rooftop' thing in the movie "Infernal Affairs" (coincidentally starring their fellow Tiger Buddies Andy and Tony). I'm wondering if that 'imagery' was done purposefully or not?

Of course, how could I do a review on GMG and not talk about the ‘conflicts’ that Michael and Felix encounter (the core of the series)? Obviously, Michael's character and Felix's character are complete opposites in the series: Michael is a righteous cop who may not necessarily follow the rulebook 100%, but knows very clearly where the line is and does not cross it; Felix, on the other hand, can also be seen as 'righteous' in a sense, but his definition of 'righteousness' is different from everyone else's, due to his own experience spending 15 years in jail for a crime he did not commit -- he ends up crossing that 'line' and doing things that are "wrong" and even criminal, but to him, are completely justified (basically carrying out justice on his own rather than trusting the legal system).

Surprisingly, I actually liked Michael's character -- even though he was an 'enabler' in a sense because he didn't 'rat' Felix out when he suspected him of crossing the line and also covered up for him a few times (partly because he felt guilty that his testimony contributed to Felix going to jail), he didn't do "stupid" things such as blindly defending Felix or being in denial that Felix had issues. He was smart enough to suspect that Felix may be 'crossing the line' and knew that he didn't have any proof (so he kept his suspicions a secret until he gathered evidence) and also asked Vincent to help keep an eye on Felix behind the scenes. For me, this was very refreshing because TVB is notoriously bad when it comes to handling these types of characters (they usually make the lead character overly righteous to the point of being naive and stupid and allowing the bad people to walk all over him/her) and I usually end up hating the character(s) rather than liking them. Once again, I really have to compliment the writers this time around for doing a good job in terms of character development (for Michael, Felix, Nancy, and Vincent, at least).


3). The flaws and ‘low-lights’

Of course, every series has its flaws and this one is no exception. No matter how much I like or enjoy a series, I will undoubtedly always find fault with it because the fact of the matter is that no series is perfect. Despite the flaws, my enjoyment of the series will not change and I still feel that the series was well-made – especially in comparisons to the crappy stuff that TVB has been putting out as of late.

In GMG, I did notice quite a few ‘implausible’ and ‘cheesy’ situations that occur in the series which definitely could be improved. Here are the main ones that come to mind right away:

>> The fact that Felix was able to get his old policeman job back without much difficulty (even after he was in jail for 15 years) and then to be promoted not too long after that (keep in mind that his name isn’t actually “cleared” until later on) -- not very realistic if you ask me. Logic tells me that even if they allow him to be a cop again (which is already rare), they would wait until his name is completely cleared and he is truly proven innocent before doing so…right?

>> I totally did not get that part about Michael having 'extraordinary' hearing abilities (he can hear people's heart beating and such) due to the tumor in his brain…was that supposed to be a way of incorporating some ‘supernatural’ element to the series? Whatever the case, I don't think that was really necessary.

>> It would have been better if they did not have that one scene where Felix is in the storage room holding a gun and you see the "evil Felix" on the wall, then all that fire sprays out like in a comic book or something...that was totally unnecessary and pointless. My hunch is that the producer put that part in to show Felix's 'official' transition to 'villain' so to speak in terms of him doing something a righteous cop should not have done. But to be honest, it wasn't necessary because this was already obvious from the previous scenes (when he 'shot' the evil Sau Dai Fu with another cop's gun and lied about it) -- to me, they were "trying too hard" with the 'fire imagery' scene.

>> Vincent’s role as one of the Senior Inspectors on the police squad who is actually on the same level as Michael does not seem very plausible. First of all, he seems too young to have that high of a position. Second, if I remember correctly, he had become a cop because of his father and actually liked his previous job (as a stock broker??) better at first – with his age, how could he have been promoted to such a high level position so quickly? Third, Vincent’s character is not mature enough to be the team leader of a police unit in the same capacity as Michael – it’s just not convincing given his age and the development of the character.


Concluding comments:

This series is definitely on my “favorites” list for the ‘after 2000’ era – not only because I liked the series itself, but also because I really liked the chemistry of the cast as well. I truly enjoyed following the cast on Weibo as the series aired in HK and seeing the various commentary as well as behind-the-scenes ‘tidbits’ about the filming, the artists, the series, etc. From everything that I’ve read about the dinner gatherings of the cast, various interviews, etc., I could definitely tell that the GMG cast really enjoyed working together on this series and were able to develop a genuine friendship outside of work as well.

Overall, awesome series, awesome cast, awesome chemistry! Definitely a keeper!

Thoughts on “Sisters of Pearl” Promo Segment

I happened to be watching TVB's entertainment news on TV yesterday and a segment came on regarding their new series "Sisters of Pearl." The cast was attending a promotional event for the series and everyone was dressed in their costumes from series. Very few of the series that TVB is coming out with this year look interesting and most consist of the same 'recycled' artists and scripts. But I think I may actually consider watching this particular series, primarily because of 3 reasons: First, the cast consists primarily of veterans (Michael Tao, Jessica Hsuan, Bowie Lam, Kiki Sheung, etc.), several of whom I haven't seen in awhile (namely Michael and Jessica) and second, the storyline sounds promising, as it is set in the pre-modern era and that time period / genre usually lends itself to some good storytelling.

The third reason is because of the chemistry of the cast. Michael, Jessica, and Bowie collaborated in "Files of Justice" in the 90s, which proved to be very successful -- so this series can be viewed as a 'reunion' of sorts for the 3 of them. Also, Kiki Sheung was in the same acting class as Michael (they graduated same year), so they are old "schoolmates" so to speak -- plus I'm pretty sure they collaborated back in the 80s, though probably not directly (they may have been in the same series, but did not share any scenes together). And of course, Michael collaborated with Joyce Tang in "Wasabi Mon Amour" so they're comfortable with each other as well.

Back to the promotional event segment....it's interesting to note that during the event, Michael stood out like a sore thumb. He was dressed in 'casual' clothes rather than the formal 'pre-modern' attire that everyone else was dressed up in. I mean, to a stranger with no knowledge whatsoever, it would look like he was just a bystander being asked to 'join the crowd' -- the only way you could tell he 'belonged' to the same series was the red "Sisters of Pearl" sticker he had stuck on his shirt. It makes me wonder whether he was actually 'invited' by TVB to promote the series along with the rest of the cast or whether he just decided to 'show up'.....in any case, I feel it's an indication of the strained relationship between Michael and TVB, which is unfortunate because this series is likely to be the last for Michael, possibly in HK. He has shifted his career to China recently and even openly said in an interview several months ago that there is 'very slim chance' that he would collaborate with TVB again. I won't go into all the history here, since it would go on forever, but basically, Michael was not treated well when he returned to TVB several years ago and has been quite outspoken about the unfairness of their internal politics and favoritism in the past few months, which of course ticked off TVB, since they don't like people saying 'negative' things about them (even though it's the truth)....so with this background, I am curious to see how Michael's character will be like in "Sisters of Pearl" and whether TVB once again gave him a lesser quality role or not....

To be honest, I was initially surprised that TVB is airing this series so early because I had thought at first that they were going to warehouse it. Reasons why I thought this -- because the series does not star any of TVB's current "favorites", the cast is comprised primarily of veterans (which TVB has a history of treating poorly), and in recent years, the trend with TVB is that they would warehouse all the 'quality' series and broadcast all the 'crappy' ones. The other reason why I thought this series would be warehoused is because of Michael Tao (for the reasons stated above). Now that I think about it more though, I can understand why TVB would not want to warehouse this series -- because they don't want to make it too obvious that they are 'retaliating' against Michael for talking bad about them....it makes sense and is pretty in-line with TVB's usual politically charged decision-making....

Well, at this point, I guess only time will tell.....I'll have to see what happens as the series actually airs.