Mingpao Special Feature: Unearthing TVB’s “All Star Challenge” from 30 years ago – A look back at the 5 Tigers’ ‘historical’ first performance

As most of you know, I’m an avid reader of Mingpao Weekly magazine – I’ve pretty much been reading it ever since I learned how to read Chinese back in the 90s.  There are many things I like about the magazine (obviously, otherwise I wouldn’t ‘support’ it for so many years) – aside from the in depth interviews that they do with celebrities (and not just the ‘big name’ ones – they interview a lot of lesser known artists as well as some who we may not have heard from  in a long time), another awesome feature they do is a 集體回憶[literally translated as ‘Collectively Recalling’] segment where Mingpao opens their ‘time capsule’ and shares with its readers some of the HK entertainment industry’s most ‘historic’ events / news, etc. (mostly about artists from the 70s, 80s, and 90s).  For me, reading this segment is always a trip down memory lane, since I’ve been following HK entertainment for long time and actually do remember some of the events they recall – this is one of the reasons why I enjoy reading the magazine so much, since I can get quite nostalgic when it comes to these types of things.

In last week’s issue, the 集體回憶 segment recalled one of TVB’s biggest charity events from the 80s:  TVB All Star Challenge (星光熠熠勁爭輝).  Now, unless you were following TVB in the 80s, most likely you may have never heard of this show before, since the name of the show changed in the mid-80s and also again later in the decade – but regardless of the name, the fact of the matter is that these type of charity fundraising shows were a ‘staple’ at TVB back then….the shows usually took place yearly and often featured performances by the station’s biggest stars (almost comparable to TVB’s yearly anniversary galas!)  Even though the show continued to take place over the past few decades, unfortunately the ‘star power’ has dwindled tremendously – to the point that nowadays, the show is not even worth watching anymore.

Anyway, back to the article….

The All Star Challenge show that MP features in the below article happens to be the one where the 5 Tigers famously ‘debut’ and Andy Lau does his ‘stone-breaking’ routine (which continues to be ‘talked about’ even now).   I was too young at the time that this show took place (1983!!) to have watched it at that time, but fortunately I was able to find the show on videotape several years later (around the time I started following HK entertainment myself) and watch it then.  I honestly don’t recall a whole lot from the show, since the last time I re-watched the show was some time in the 90s (when I did a ‘marathon re-watch’ of all the TVB variety shows from my family’s TVB collection), but I do recall the 5 Tigers’ performance, since that was a huge highlight from the show and would get ‘featured’ over and over again on various shows over the past 2 decades.  This made the experience of reading  some of the backstory to the performance in the below article all the more poignant and interesting (not to mention it reminds me once again how much the artists from previous generations had to endure to get to where they are today).  Of course, the bit about the ‘irate fan’ also reminded me that some things never change – there were a lot of ‘crazy’ fans back then just as there are now…LOL.

Also, I found the piece about Cheung Hing Lung and how he got injured quite interesting because all these years, I don’t think many people knew the actual background story (I surely didn’t – in fact, I don’t even remember that segment from the show at all).  It makes sense now why Cheung Hing Leung left the Little Tigers group and why so few people even knew he existed (when he participated in the Little Tigers reunion tour a few years back, I had read a lot of comments from people who had no clue who he was – some were even harshly criticizing him for trying to ‘piggyback’ on the Little Tigers’ glory, which I felt was totally mean and uncalled for..).  I’m glad Cheung Hing Leung was able to tell his side of the story this time, though it probably isn’t going to have much impact on anything – but at least those of us who care finally know what happened.

Lastly, I do have to say that reading this article and looking through the pictures was a bit emotional for me – especially seeing that many of the artists who participated in that year’s event are no longer active in the industry and some have even left us forever (i.e. Barbara Yung, Roman Tam, Anita Mui, etc.).  On the one hand, it was fun and nostalgic to ‘relive’ the moments from that show (and I definitely enjoyed doing it), but at the same time, it served as a further reminder of how badly the HK entertainment industry has deteriorated over the years.

In any case….hope other fans of 80s era TVB shows enjoy reading this article!   :0)

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Mingpao Special Feature:  Unearthing TVB’s “All Star Challenge” from 30 years ago – A look back at the 5 Tigers’ ‘historical’ first performance

Source:  Mingpao Weekly, Issue 2310 

Translation:  llwy12

One day, while searching through some archive photos, we [Mingpao’s reporters] came across a few rolls of film taken during rehearsals for one of TVB’s charity events from 30 years ago:  1983’s TVB All Star Challenge (星光熠熠勁爭輝).  Interestingly, the rolls of film that we found did not show any signs of being opened or edited, which usually means only one thing – the photographs were never ‘exposed’ prior to this point!

Upon asking around, a fellow colleague who was already employed at that time [back in the 80s] explained that the reason why the rehearsal photos didn’t get published back then essentially boiled down to a ‘timing’ issue:  since the All Star Challenge charity program had already aired on TV, the rehearsal photos were considered ‘old news’ that was not worth publishing anymore.

Now, with all that has happened over the past 30 years, this long forgotten ‘photo trove’ has undoubtedly increased significantly in value.  Therefore, let’s use these photos as an opportunity to reminisce about a show that featured the very first collaborative performance by TVB’s 5 Tigers as well as other sentimental, ‘historic’ moments such as a rare dance performance by late actress Barbara Yung (翁美玲) and her then boyfriend Kent Tong (湯鎮業); music legend Anita Mui (梅艷芳) in her ‘newcomer’ days posing as a ‘cheerleader’ trying to earn points for her team, etc.

TVB’s ‘grand’ production shows of the past were truly that – grand, splendid, and resounding!

Felix Wong reminisces about 5 Tigers’ first performance; Tony Leung chips his tooth

In early 1983, due to the departure of many first-line siu sangs [from the 70s era], TVB ‘announced’ their upcoming intention of heavily promoting 5 ‘new’ siu sangs:  Andy Lau (劉德華), Tony Leung (梁朝偉), Felix Wong (黃日華), Michael Miu (苗僑偉), and Kent Tong (湯鎮業) – the 5 of them would come together and be promoted as a ‘group’ called ‘TVB’s Five Tigers’.    In September 1983, the 5 Tigers made their official debut as a ‘group’ during TVB’s annual charity competition show, TVB All Star Challenge (星光熠熠勁爭輝):  they were featured in one of the show’s most anticipated main segments -- ‘Leaping and Surging Five Tigers’ (飛躍翻騰五虎將) -- during which they were slated to perform challenging acrobatic stunts to win points for their team.

“It was the very first performance that the 5 Tigers did together – of course I remember it!”  recounts Felix Wong with a smile.  He expressed that for their short 10 to 15 minute performance, the 5 of them practiced for close to 2 months:  “At the time, all 5 of us were in the middle of filming series too, so we could only get together to practice after work.  We would go practice on the rooftop of the old CTV building on Broadcast Drive [TN: close to where TVB studios was at the time] nearly every day and when the time got closer, we decided to stop working for the time being so we could focus entirely on practicing.”

With 5 vigorous, energetic youth ‘throwing’ each other around and performing risky stunts every day, of course injury was unavoidable:  “Tony was the one who got the most ‘severely’ injured – he was practicing a backflip and accidentally slammed his mouth into the table, resulting in one of his front teeth snapping in half.  We were scared and concerned because when we looked, half of the front tooth was really missing!  But with the date of the performance approaching, it would be impossible to get the tooth fixed before then, so the only option was to stick it back together.”  (Stick it back together?  How?)  “I believe he asked the dentist to stick something on the tooth to cover it up for the time being and then after the show, go back and get it fixed.” (We heard that you [Felix] injured your shoulder as well?)  “That’s nothing –only a small injury!  Andy was also injured – when he was practicing a somersault, he accidentally bit his tongue!”

The only one who didn’t injure himself in the process was Kent Tong:  “He was extremely careful and always considered safety first.  Prior to doing a somersault, he always had to make sure that the floormat was neat and tidy – such an ‘old fox’!  But hey, at least that way he couldn’t injure himself easily like the rest of us – we really should give him a ‘Safety Team Captain’ award!”

In terms of the ‘Best Performance Award’, Felix expressed that no other person deserved it more than Andy:  “He’s not afraid of difficult or exhaustive work;  in fact, when challenging tasks come up, he’s the first to volunteer for them – this is a good attitude to have!   For the ‘stone-breaking’ segment [TN:  the famous ‘highlight’ of the show where Andy gets 2 large slabs of stone broken on his chest], the company (TVB) asked if anyone wanted to do it – Andy was the first to raise his hand and say ‘I’ll do it!’”

Andy Lau reveals the ‘secret’ to stone-breaking segment; his first ‘taste’ of the price of fame

As the saying goes:  ‘In order to win, you need to have a competitive spirit.’  Indeed, Andy Lau’s ‘stone-breaking’ segment was truly the ‘highlight’ of the entire All Star Challenge show – seeing Master Kong To Hoi [TN:  famous stunt coordinator back in the 80s] slamming a huge hammer onto 2 slabs of stone lying atop Andy’s chest was undoubtedly a stunning scene:  “The company hoped to do something different and special this year – at first they thought about having me perform on a unicycle, but later we scrapped that idea because it wasn’t a fresh enough idea, plus it would take too much time to learn.  In the end, Master Kong suggested the ‘stone-breaking’ idea.”   Back in 1983, after the ‘historical’ performance, Andy accepted an interview with Mingpao Weekly during which he revealed the ‘secret’ to his performance:  “The ‘secret’ is really in choosing the type of stone to use – the ones we used for the performance were coarse granite, which is more brittle and easier to break apart.  If we had used regular granite, I would be dead!”

During rehearsals, we saw that Andy only had 1 piece of granite on his chest, however during the actual performance, the 1 piece turned into 2 pieces – Andy described this as ‘taking a gamble’:  “That night, we were scheduled to perform around 8:30pm and it wasn’t until 6pm or so that we decided to use 2 pieces of granite – the reason was because we felt 1 piece wasn’t convincing enough and this was pretty much our only chance to pull in a lot of points.  At the time, we only had 2 pieces of granite left, so we couldn’t practice ahead of time – all I could do was try putting both pieces on my chest to test the weight and take a gamble [that things will work out] during the actual performance.  To be honest, I really didn’t have much confidence.”

The combined weight of the 2 pieces of granite was more than 280 pounds, which was almost double Andy’s weight at the time (he weighed 147 pounds).  During the performance, he had to first expand his chest to support the weight, then use his hands to hold the granite in place:  “Master Kong told me that as soon as I felt the force of the hammer, I should breathe out a bit if I felt the granite becoming heavy on my chest – this would help distribute the force and also prevent injury internally.”  Even with all the advice and safety precautions, seeing the hammer come down on his chest was still a very scary moment:  “When we first practiced it, I would look away when the hammer came down – I was afraid to look.”  After the performance, Andy felt tired, but luckily didn’t feel ill in any way.

The efforts that the 5 Tigers put in proved to be worth it – not only did their team [the artists team] win the competition, they also received tremendous praise and accolades from the audiences.  Even the usually reserved Tony Leung couldn’t help but become excited at how well everyone reacted to their performance:  “After the performance, I may have looked a bit tired and scared, but in reality, I was very excited!  You know, the excitement stayed with me for 3 days straight – every time I closed my eyes, I would think back to that moment [the performance] and remember everything that happened very clearly…every move, every person who applauded, etc…..”

From that moment on, the 5 Tigers truly ‘took over’ and became the ‘pillars’ of TVB.  Even back then, in the early stages of their ‘popularity’, they already got a taste of the price they would have to pay for fame.  Andy recounts:  “That night of the performance, we only had ½ hour for dinner.  When the 5 of us went outside to go eat, we were greeted by close to 200 fans who were waiting to get autographs – we had to explain to them the time restrictions and then rush over to the nearby food area to eat.  When we returned, the fans were still waiting there hoping for autographs.  We realized that if we were to sign autographs for each person, it could take up to ½ hour, which would make us late and we’d get in trouble with the company, so we went back in without signing any autographs.”

Later that night, one of the workers handed the guys an envelope with ‘To Five Tigers’ written on it.  Inside was a letter that started off ‘Dear 5 Tigers’ – however the word ‘Dear’ was crossed out – the rest of the letter consisted of a ‘rant’ by an irate fan [TN: most likely one of the fans who had been waiting outside for autographs]: ‘Even Roman Tam (羅文) was able to autograph for us, yet you guys couldn’t?  Who do you 5 think you are?  You’re trash, annoying fools!’ -- included with the letter were shredded up 5 Tigers posters, photographs, etc.  At the time, Andy [and the rest of the Tigers] couldn’t understand why some fans could get so unreasonable:  “Why aren’t they able to empathize with us?  True, if they like us and support us, we do have an obligation to autograph for them, but if we don’t have time to do so right then, all we can do is tell them next time – some fans are very understanding of this.”

These types of difficulties and challenges that the Tigers faced on their paths to success were a big deal to them at that time, but looking back now, these were simply ‘trivial’ matters.

‘A speck of gold beats ten thousand specks of sand’;  Cheung Hing Lung saves Anita Mui from injury

TVB’s All Star Challenge (星光熠熠勁爭輝) charity show started back in 1981 as an annual fundraising event for HK’s Po Leung Kuk (保良局), a multi-faceted charity organization providing various services to the community.    The show is in a competition format whereby participating celebrities separate into ‘Singers Group’ and ‘Artists Group’ [TN:  ‘artist’ group back then always consisted of actors/actresses from the drama and non-drama departments as well as hosts] and put on various performances against each other – the judges panel consisted of 44 executives and donors from Po Leung Kuk who would press a button to determine which team wins each round.  After 4 years, the name of the show was changed (in 1985) to Platinum All Stars Shine on Po Leung (白金巨星耀保良) and still later, it was changed once again to All Star Gala Spectacular (星光熠熠耀保良), which is the name it currently uses.

As the saying goes:  ‘The nobility journeying out brings on wind and rain’.  This was surely the case with the All Star Challenge show that took place in 1983.  Originally, TVB had wanted to set up brightly lit lights at the entrance of the Lee Gardens stage [TN: the venue where the event took place] to strengthen the atmosphere, however the sudden onslaught of a major typhoon in HK during that time caused plans to be cancelled.  Luckily, the typhoon did not last too long, so the show itself did not end up getting affected.  In terms of ‘line-up’ [celebrities in attendance at the event], no doubt that the Singers group had an advantage, as the number of singers in attendance definitely outnumbered  the Artists group by far.  But, as the leader of the Artists group Ivan Ho (何守信) aptly stated, it was the quality of the performances that mattered, not the number of people:  “We are a small but efficient troop – it’s not about having the most people at all.  Don’t you know that one speck of gold can beat ten thousand specks of sand?”

Even though one of the main highlights of the show that night was the ‘debut’ of the Five Tigers, that didn’t prevent the rest of the artists from putting 100% effort into their performances.  In fact, the Artists group put on quite a few strong and refreshing performances that night, including ‘big brothers’ Patrick Tse (謝賢) and Adam Cheng (鄭少秋) collaborating on a ‘shadow dance’, Lydia Shum (沈殿霞) doing a ‘sexy little wildcat’ dance routine, and also popular couple Barbara Yung (翁美玲) and Kent Tong (湯鎮業) performing a dance segment together.  In the end, the Artists group easily beat the Singers group [led by Roman Tam (羅文)] to win the overall competition that night.

Music Queen Anita Mui (梅艷芳) also participated in the show that year, however since she was a newcomer back then (having won the New Talent Singing Competition only 1 year prior to that), her performance was quite limited – in fact, the 2 segments that she did participate in were group performances involving other singers from her team.   During the very last segment where the singers performed various dance moves from the past 100 years, a major accident occurred that may not have affected the show itself at the time, but did end up halting a singer’s career indefinitely -- Anita’s  fellow New Talent Competition teammate Cheung Hing Lung (蔣慶龍) was injured during one of the dance routines and had to be rushed to the hospital.  [TN:  Cheung Hing Lung was one of the original members of HK’s Little Tigers (小虎隊) along with Lam Lei (林利), William Hu (胡渭康) and Suen Ming Gwong (孫明光) but he left the group shortly after his injury].

At the time of the accident, the Media reports stated that during the last dance segment, Cheung Hing Lung was supposed to catch Anita when she was thrown towards him, but because of his severe nearsightedness, the strength he used wasn’t right and even though he did catch her, he ended up severely injuring his back.  Thinking back, Cheung Hing Lung expressed that he remembers the incident very clearly:  “It had absolutely nothing to do with my nearsightedness!   When the person threw Anita towards me, he didn’t use enough strength and the positioning wasn’t right either.  I saw the potential risk of injury, but thought to myself ‘It’s better that I get injured rather than Anita’, so I quickly changed position and stepped forward so I’d be able to successfully catch her.  Actually, the moment she landed on me, I could already feel that my back was severely injured – I could barely stand up straight and they almost had to carry me backstage.  I was immediately sent to the hospital for treatment.”

Turns out that Cheung Hing Lung had injured his backbone – in addition to staying in the hospital for a long period of time, he also had to endure 3 to 5 months of physical therapy before he completely healed.  Unfortunately, by that time, he had already missed the ‘golden’ opportunity of his career:  “Originally, that show [All Stars Challenge] was supposed to be a testing ground for the 4 of us [him, William, Lam Lei, and Suen Ming Gwong] in preparation to attend the upcoming Tokyo Music Festival, but because of my injury, our performance that night was cancelled.  I remember one day when Florence Chan (陳淑芬) [she was one of Capital Artists’ top execs at the time] came to visit me in the hospital, she told me: ‘I’m afraid we won’t be able to wait too long.  You may have to withdraw [from the group] and try other development opportunities instead.’  I felt very helpless!”

Cheung Hing Lung’s record company advised him to wait for other opportunities, but coming from a poor background, how long could he afford to wait?  After his contract with Capital Artists expired, he had no choice but to temporarily leave the entertainment industry and find a more steady job instead.  Asked whether Anita knew the truth of what had happened, Cheung Hing Lung replied:  “I don’t believe so.  I don’t’ blame anyone for what happened though – perhaps it was destined to be, it’s fate!”

Oriental Daily Interview with Felix Wong (黃日華) -- PART 1

For those of you who, like me, can never get enough of 80s/90s TVB nostalgia…well, I’ve got some great news: Oriental Daily did an interview with Felix Wong recently and the interview is being published as a 5-parter this week. Of course I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to post about Felix and the 5 Tigers (LOL), so no doubt that I will be ‘following’ this interview the entire week and posting up the translations as they come out!


Here’s the first of the interviews (which was published this past Sunday), along with some supplemental commentary that Oriental Daily also published about Felix’s series.

Enjoy!

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Oriental Daily Interview with Felix Wong [Part 1]: “I was never mad at Tony [Leung]!”

Source:  Oriental Daily -- PART 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d

Translation:  llwy12

The HK television industry of the 1980s was full of talented artists – that was also the era that brought us TVB’s 5 Tigers: Felix Wong (黃日華), Tony Leung (梁朝偉), Michael Miu (苗僑偉), Kent Tong (湯鎮業), and Andy Lau (劉德華). Despite being promoted together, all 5 siu sangs had different personalities and ended up going down different paths, both in life and career. A few years ago, when the Tigers reunited to film a movie, Tony Leung was not part of the group, leading to rumors that the ‘brothers’ relationship had ruptured and media speculation that perhaps Tony was the cause.

For the next 5 days, during our an interview with Oriental Daily, Felix Wong will talk about the various trials and tribulations behind the 5 Tiger relationship. In addition, he will also speak candidly about the marriage ‘crisis’ he and his wife had experienced, his path to fame as well as how his life was like working for TVB back in the 80s.


** Felix speaks:

Back then, TVB was going through a ‘poaching’ crisis and the company lost quite a few siu sangs – therefore, they decided to push the newer siu sangs up to take their place. The strategy was to take the current popular siu sangs with the most potential and put them together – I was picked as one of those to be promoted, along with Michael [Miu], Kent [Tong], Tony [Leung], etc. Actually, at the time, the 5 of us had never officially worked together – our first collaboration was in a charity event in 1982 where we performed various stunts together. Since there was some difficulty to the stunts that we had to do, we all practiced together for close to 2 months – we saw each other practically day and night at the time, so that’s how we become more familiar with one another. To be honest, we never really spent a whole lot of time together outside of those 2 months – once the charity event was over, we pretty much only saw each other in the makeup room, though our relationship overall remained pretty good. You might not believe it, but all these years, the only TV series that all 5 of us collaborated in was The Yang’s Saga《楊家將》.


Kent Tong was known for being the most good-looking one

Over the years, I know there have been a lot of rumors surrounding the 5 Tigers. One of the rumors was that our relationship with Tony was ‘ruptured’ because he was rarely seen together in public with us. To tell you the truth, back when we [the Tigers] were at the height of our popularity, there truly were a lot of ‘crises’ that we had to endure. At the time [back in 1984], TVB wanted all of their artists to sign a long 5 year contract with them, however quite a few artists had already started movie careers outside of TVB – in order not to be tied down, we had once discussed among ourselves about not signing the contract. One day, we suddenly received word that Tony had already signed the [5 year] contract – of course we were shocked because we didn’t understand what was going on at the time, however I wouldn’t say that we felt ‘betrayed’ because everyone has the right to pursue a career path that works best for them. Besides, it’s not like we had actually come to an agreement not to sign – it was just something we had lightly talked about, so of course we wouldn’t be mad at Tony [for signing].

Michael and I were classmates in the same year Acting Class and since we pretty much ‘grew up’ together, our relationship is especially close. Kent is actually considered our ‘senior’, since he graduated from the Acting Class right before ours, however we were still able to get along pretty well – amongst us Tigers, Kent was known for being the most good-looking one. As for Tony, he truly was the most reclusive one in the group – he didn’t like to talk much and in fact, he could actually go an entire day without saying a word! We once tried to ‘influence’ him and get him to talk more – it worked for awhile, but he very quickly went back to his old ways again.


Tony likes to stay at home, turns down socializing opportunities

Even though he likes to be silent, Tony truly does take his work very seriously. As soon as he starts working, he is 100% focused on what he is doing and doesn’t play around, though he does sometimes have a brief conversation with those he’s working with on a particular scene. Even after work, Tony is the type who leaves quickly and doesn’t participate in any social activities -- he has his own little world. Every time we invite him to go out, even if we get Michael to ask him, Tony’s answer is always the same: “No, you guys go play, I’m going to head home.”


Informed about Barbara Yung’s death, Felix’s initial reaction was: “Stop playing!”

Back when we filmed Legend of the Condor Heroes《射鵰英雄傳》together, Barbara Yung (翁美玲) was actually a newbie at the time. I feel that she was a very smart woman who took her work seriously, worked hard, and had good relationships with each of her colleagues – she got along well with pretty much everyone. Even though I knew that she and Kent were dating, we actually didn’t see each other often because I was very busy with work. Later on, I remember very clearly that I was on vacation in Malaysia one day when a colleague called to tell me that Barbara had passed away – I couldn’t believe it and even told the colleague: “Stop playing!” However, after I found out it was true, I immediately cancelled the rest of my vacation and rushed back to HK to help with pall bearing responsibilities [at the funeral].


Carina Lau would have been crowned TV Queen

During his tenure at TVB, Felix had collaborated with many of the station’s most popular leading actresses -- his collaboration with Carina Lau (劉嘉玲) in 1989’s Looking Back in Anger《義不容情》 is considered a ‘classic’ in the TV industry. Speaking of his ‘old partner’, Felix laughed and stated: “Her character was a pretty big challenge, as she went from being a willful rich girl to a mature woman who was willing to give up the person she loved to someone else. As the filming went on, Carina threw herself more and more into her character. If there was such a thing as the TV Queen award back then, she would have gotten it for sure!

As for his co-star in 1995’s Racing Peak《馬場大亨》, actress Amy Chan (陳秀雯), Felix indicated that their collaboration was a very happy one. In the series, Amy’s character was quite ‘extreme’, as she not only smoked, drank, and had a gambling habit, she also was money-crazy – even Amy herself said that her performance back then was so ‘borderline’ that she wouldn’t let her son watch the series. In any case, Felix and Amy had great chemistry in the series and both had fun filming it.

It is known that Felix likes to help out newcomers by giving them advice on acting. Back when he filmed the series Time Off 《生命有take 2》 [produced in 1998, aired in 2000], lead actress Charmaine Sheh (佘詩曼) was a newbie who had just come out of the Miss HK pageant. Having to take on a lead role with little to no acting experience, Charmaine was under a lot of pressure – at the time, she didn’t even understand how the camera positions worked. Seeing this, Felix gave Charmaine some acting tips and advice. Even though later on, Charmaine herself said that her performance [in that series] was not up to standard, Felix felt that she did okay: “For a newbie, her performance wasn’t bad – she was able to pick up on things fairly quickly!”


Felix chooses his favorite performances

Felix Wong achieved fame during the TV industry’s ‘golden era’ and throughout that time, he participated in many popular classics. Out of all the series that he had filmed in his career, there are 4 that he views as his most satisfactory performances:

.—Soldier of Fortune《香城浪子》: In the series, Felix portrays Wai Lok, a rascal of sorts who grew up in a shady part of town but ends up developing a relationship with a wealthy heiress played by Patricia Chong (莊靜而). His character’s catchphrase in the series (吹乒乓) became one of the most popular phrases amongst audiences at the time. Felix’s meticulous performance in that series helped to secure his ‘first-line siu sang’ position at the time.

.—Legend of the Condor Heroes《射鵰英雄傳》: Felix Wong and Barbara Yung’s portrayal of Kwok Jing and Wong Yung was extremely well-received by audiences and still considered ‘classic’ even today. Felix’s portrayal of the overly honest yet extremely righteous Kwok Jing brought the character to life and made him a household name with audiences.

.—Looking Back in Anger《義不容情》: Felix Wong and Deric Wan’s (溫兆倫) portrayal of two brothers with a conflicted relationship who end up becoming enemies proved to be breakthrough roles for both actors, whose popularity quickly rose back when the series aired. With his performance, Felix’s skill as a ‘talent-path’ actor was finally established.

.—Racing Peak《馬場大亨》: This series paired 2 strong actors Felix Wong and Amy Chan together as a married couple and under the leadership of series producer Wai Ka Fai (韋家輝), their pairing proved to have great chemistry. Felix’s convincing portrayal of the main character’s ‘rags to riches’ story as well as his eccentric personality in the series both left deep impressions on audiences.

Felix Wong’s daughter Adrian first of the ‘Five Tiger’ offspring to join entertainment industry; Kent Tong’s 17-year-old twin sons to follow suit

This is an AWESOME article that one of the veteran reporters at Mingpao wrote and seeing that I'm an 80s girl and Five Tigers fan, I of course would not pass up the opportunity to share this with fellow Five Tigers fans.  Though there is mention of the Four Heavenly Kings in this article, it's really mostly about the Five Tigers and their children -- just wanted to make that clear in case any one reading this was expecting the article to talk about the Heavenly Kings (to be honest, I'm not 100% sure why the reporter even mentioned the Heavenly Kings -- maybe because of the Andy Lau connection?).

At any rate, I'm pretty much excited to see any article about the Five Tigers because it brings back those feelings of nostalgia for me.  It's nice that this article mentioned more about Kent Tong, since most audiences probably are not as familiar with him nowadays due to him no longer being part of the HK entertainment industry anymore.  Though Five Tigers fans like me have continued to keep up with news related to them, I'm sure not everyone has, so it's nice to see updates like this every once in awhile. In the case of Kent Tong, I'm glad this article talked more about his relationship with his children, since in the past, most of the articles that mention Kent usually focus on his prior relationship with Barbara Yung.

Anyway, great article and great 'step back into time' for me (though it was very brief...LOL)!

Enjoy!  :-)

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Felix Wong’s daughter Adrian first of the ‘Five Tiger’ offspring to join entertainment industry; Kent Tong’s 17-year-old twin sons to follow suit

Source:  Mingpao

Translation:  llwy12

Kent and his twin sons Bruce (left) and Chris (right)

Isabella Tong (right) and her mother Jiang Kun



Isabella (middle), Bruce (right), Chris (left)



Kent Tong's  twin daughters Tian Tian and Yuan Yuan

Felix Wong and daughter Adrian

Michael Miu and daughter Phoebe

Michael Miu and son Murphy

The HK entertainment industry’s ‘golden era’ of the 80s and 90s brought us TVB’s ‘Five Tigers’ [Tony Leung (梁朝偉), Andy Lau (劉德華), Michael Miu (苗僑偉), Felix Wong (黃日華), Kent Tong (湯鎮業)] as well as the music industry’s ‘Four Heavenly Kings’ [Jacky Cheung (張學友), Andy Lau (劉德華), Leon Lai (黎明), Aaron Kwok (郭富城)]. Today, almost 30 years later, the Five Tiger and Heavenly King titles may be considered a part of ‘history’ now, but the artists themselves are still very much a part of the HK entertainment world. These ‘Tigers’ and ‘Kings’ have all reached (or exceeded) the half century (50 year old) age milestone and all except for one (Aaron Kwok) have married and started families of their own.

Michael Miu’s children sent far away from industry

Back in the day, each of the ‘Five Tigers’ and ‘Heavenly Kings’ possessed their own charm and charisma that endeared them to fans and audiences around the world – therefore, it is not surprising that their offspring would possess a similar charm and interest toward the entertainment industry.

Recently, Felix Wong’s daughter Adrian Wong (黃芷晴) signed with fledgling [soon to be] TV station CTI and has already started filming a TV series for them, thereby becoming the first of the Tiger and King offspring to follow in her father’s footsteps and join the entertainment industry. As the saying goes, ‘all children are the best in the eyes of their parents’-- so when their children decide they want to pursue a career in the industry, it is natural for celebrity parents to try and help them out any way they can. Even though Adrian may not necessarily stand out in terms of looks, she does have a sweet smile and friendly personality, so hopefully, with ‘special training’ from her dad Felix, she will be able to gain the audience’s favor in her new acting career.

Actor Michael Miu and actress Jamie Chik (戚美珍)’s children – 20 year old daughter Phoebe (苗彤) and 18 year old son Murphy (苗俊) – inherited their parents’ good looks and definitely possess future ‘star’ potential. However Michael and Jamie decided to send them overseas to pursue their studies – far away from the ‘colorful’ HK entertainment industry.

With Felix’s daughter already starting in the industry and Michael’s children continuing with their educations, the next Tiger offspring likely to join the industry will undoubtedly be Kent Tong’s 17-year old twin boys Bruce (湯君慈) and Chris (湯君耀). The twins will be graduating this year and both are interested in pursuing a career in the entertainment industry – of course, Kent’s fellow ‘Tiger’ brothers have already voiced their support and encouragement.

Kent Tong’s eldest daughter has ‘star potential'

Back in the day, Kent Tong was considered the most handsome of the Five Tigers. Though that may no longer be the case now (as his mid-life weight gain and hair loss will tell you), one thing that hasn’t changed much is Kent’s affinity with females. After his well-known relationship with 80s TVB actress Barbara Yung (翁美玲) ended with her death in 1985, Kent has been in several subsequent relationships, two of which turned into marriages. His first wife was actress Jiang Kun (姜坤), who was a known beauty with looks resembling a younger version of veteran actress Brigitte Lin (林青霞). Not long after she joined the industry, Jiang Kun married Kent and together they had 3 children – eldest daughter Isabella (湯愛嘉) as well as the twins Chris and Bruce. Isabella is very much a beauty, as she inherited many of her parents’ handsome features -- in terms of looks, she resembles a ‘hybrid’ of Gigi Lai (黎姿) and Cecilia Cheung (張栢芝). It’s rumored that many of Kent’s friends in the industry hope to persuade 19 year old Isabella to join the HK entertainment industry, since it’s rare nowadays to find her type of young, fresh beauty in the industry.

Despite the invitations to join the entertainment industry, Isabella has expressed that she enjoys going to school more – therefore, she plans to finish college first, then decide at that time whether to join the industry. Instead, her brothers Bruce (the older twin) and Chris (younger twin) have actually expressed an interest in joining the industry. Earlier this year, the twins got the chance to introduce themselves on the Mainland variety program Tian Tian Xiang Shang《天天向上》—fortunately, the audience’s reaction was quite positive, so it looks like they may not have a problem gaining audience affinity. However, when the hosts asked the twins why they wanted to join the entertainment industry, they candidly replied: “To earn more money!” Perhaps the boys understand their father’s burden in taking care of their large family, so they hope to start working early to help him out.

During the program, Kent shared with his sons his personal experience being part of the entertainment industry and gave them some sound advice: next year, they will turn 18 and with the ‘official’ transition to adulthood, they will have the freedom to do things on their own, such as learn to drive, date girls, go to bars, etc. – though Kent encouraged them to be independent, he also reminded them to work hard, set goals for their futures, maintain a healthy lifestyle, and be responsible to their family, their friends, and to society in general . Even though his sons don’t live with him, Kent’s relationship with his sons is still very deep.

Two marriages, six children

Kent and his first wife divorced many years ago and he has since married second wife Alice, who is 20 years his junior – together, they have a pair of 3 ½ year old twin daughters, Tian Tian (甜甜) and Yuan Yuan (圓圓). Prior to his second marriage, he and his girlfriend at the time were together for a few years and they had a son – therefore, Kent has a total of 6 children to take care of. Towards his family responsibilities, Kent once said: “Even though I’m nowhere near as popular as Andy Lau or Tony Leung [in terms of career], I feel lucky to have my kids – seeing them grow up happy and healthy, that is my greatest happiness!” Kent may have had a lot of relationships in the past, but at the end of the day, he is a responsible man.

.----.

Chinese version:

大姐大手記﹕多仔公湯鎮業 17歲孖仔攻娛圈

「五虎」下一代 黃芷晴接第一棒


【明報專訊】「四大天王」與「無綫五虎」都是80年代演藝界的黃金代號，30年後的今天，這些封號已變「古董」，無論天王與五虎都已是5字頭的熟男，人生走到半百之齡，都各自有自己家庭與仔女，只有郭天王郭富城依然充滿活力，未肯成家立室延續下一代。


苗僑偉仔女遠離娛樂圈

當年的「五虎」與「天王」，個個都是萬人迷，大家期待他們的下一代都是靚得出色。最近黃日華的女兒黃芷晴，就成為五虎與天王的下一代之中，第一個繼承「父業」，加入娛樂圈做藝人。老實講，「父母眼裏的仔女都是最棒的」，更出於愛仔女之心，一定出盡力為仔女鋪路。雖然在大姐大眼中這個世侄女樣子未算突出，不過她勝在笑容甜，所以希望在父親的特訓下，可以在演技上取得觀眾緣。苗僑偉的一對仔女苗俊與苗彤亦都好有做明星條件，但父母早已將兩人送到外國，希望兩個仔女遠離娛樂圈，不會心郁郁想入行。

大家又估一估，下一個加入娛樂圈的五虎、天王第二代又會是誰？大姐大知道應是五虎中的多仔公湯鎮業一對17歲孖仔，二人名叫湯君慈與湯君耀，他們今年預科畢業，已積極部署進軍娛圈，相信一班叔伯又要為世侄發功了。


大女湯愛嘉靚女有星味

當年有型有款的湯鎮業，雖然中年發福，濃密頭髮都一去不返，不過他卻好有女人緣，與已故的無綫花旦翁美玲的感情故事之外，他的第一任老婆亦是出名美人姜坤。當年姜坤加入娛樂圈被形容為縮水林青霞，不過出道不久已被阿湯追求成功而結婚，然後就生了一女兩子；女兒湯愛嘉兼備了父母優點，非常靚女，樣子有如黎姿與清純版的張栢芝混合體。聽聞不少娛圈世叔伯都游說19歲的愛嘉入行，因香港娛樂圈已很少找到這類清純女星。

不過愛嘉喜歡讀書，所以準備完成大學，再考慮是否加入娛樂圈。反而阿湯一對孖仔卻好想以Twins姿態入行，17歲的孖仔、大寶叫君慈（Bruce）、小寶叫君耀（Chris），以後者性格較活潑。兩人今年一起上過內地節目《天天向上》初露頭角，原來內地觀眾對他們反應不錯，故應有觀眾緣。不過主持人問他們為何要加入娛樂圈？兩人坦率說﹕「想掙多啲錢！」可能孖仔了解到老竇擔子不輕，所以早點出身可幫輕家計。

大姐大看到在節目裏阿湯給一對孖仔的一番話，大致是說兒子明年就18歲成人，可以學揸車、交女朋友、去酒吧、睇成人電影，不再是兒童，也不能再依賴父母；要學會獨立，也不應互相依賴，要為自己將來定一個目標，努力奮鬥，不單要身體健康，還要有健康人生，對家庭、對朋友、對社會負責。父子雖不是一起生活，不過父子情卻濃。


兩段婚姻共6個仔女

阿湯雖已另有家室，展開了第二段婚姻，娶了個年輕他20多年的老婆，再生了一對孖女叫甜甜、圓圓，已經3歲半；在第二段婚姻之前，亦有一名紅顏知己為他生了一個兒子，所以他一個人要養6個仔女。阿湯說過﹕「雖然我沒有劉德華、梁朝偉般紅，不過我有一班仔女，見到他們健康成長就開心。」大姐大認為的阿湯雖然情多，但起碼也是個負責任的男人。

Kent Tong's interview on 《魯豫有約》("Appointment with Lu Yu")

It's been a long time since I've heard anything about Kent Tong (well, he does appear with his Tiger brothers occasionally, but for the most part, he has focused his career in Mainland China, so he is not in HK as often). Of course, as a 5 Tigers fan, I perk up my ears whenever I hear anything about them, so that's why when I found out that Kent was invited to appear on 《魯豫有約》[loosely translated 《Appointment with Lu Yu 》, I really wanted to watch the interview.

The below is an article that I found summarizing his appearance on the interview show -- since it only covers some parts of the interview (mostly the segment about Barbara), I plan on doing a follow up post (or two) about the actual interview itself (after I watch it, that is) -- sort of like what I did for the LOTCH reunion show....so stay tuned for that.

Meanwhile, here's the article (the English version translated by me as well as the original Chinese version:


*Article originally published 8/17/2011 (the interview itself occurred back on 8/8/2011)*

Source:  Sina News

Translated by:  llwy12

Picture courtesy Sina Weibo

Picture courtesy Sina Beijing & YangChing Evening News

.***.

Actor Kent Tong goes on Mainland interview show, Michael Miu makes him cry

In the popular Mainland series《宮》[loosely translated as “Palace”], which recently finished airing on Hunan TV, Hong Kong actor Kent Tong successfully portrayed the role of Qing Dynasty Emperor Kangxi. Last week, Kent Tong appeared on Mainland interview show《魯豫有約》[《Appointment with Lu Yu》] with his wife and twin daughters as well as his older brother, fellow actor Tong Chun Chung. During the interview, Kent shared aspects of his current happy life with his family as well as his thoughts regarding the various relationships in his life, including brotherhood, love, family, and friendship.

In the past 2 decades, every time Kent appears on any type of show, he is inevitably asked about his relationship with his former girlfriend, late actress Barbara Yung. With Barbara’s death from suicide 26 years ago, Kent was subsequently labeled as a ‘heartless man’ by the general public and the Media, as it was widely believed at the time that Barbara committed suicide because of him. All these years, Kent endured much contempt and criticism because of Barbara’s death and even had to move to Mainland China to start his career (and life) over again – despite all that he has endured, in the 20+ years that followed, Kent rarely spoke about the tragedy and never once provided any type of explanation in his own defense.

Last week, during Kent’s appearance on 《Appointment with Lu Yu》, fellow actor and good friend Michael Miu decided to speak out in defense of his ‘Tiger’ brother. Through a pre-recorded video segment, Michael sought to put the matter to rest by providing the long-awaited ‘explanation’ that Kent had kept in his heart for many years: In actuality, Kent and Barbara had broken up already long before Barbara decided to commit suicide – it’s just that the Media did not know about the breakup so it was rarely reported on. After Barbara died, Kent was immediately subjected to all sorts of criticisms and angry comments coming from every direction, yet he decided to remain silent. Instead of defending himself and refuting the Media’s harsh speculations, Kent silently threw himself into helping to arrange Barbara’s funeral – seeing all this, the close friends and family who knew the truth about the situation were both moved and saddened. As Kent’s close friend and ‘brother’ for over 20 years, Michael Miu – who had the best understanding of the entire situation as well as the Kent/Barbara relationship due to his close friendship with both artists – felt that after so many years, it was finally time to reveal the truth in the hopes that his ‘brother’ Kent could be vindicated. Michael also stated that he hopes now people will stop misunderstanding Kent.

Upon hearing Michael’s words, Kent was visibly moved by his Tiger brother’s efforts to help clear his name – for over 20 years, Kent never provided a single explanation and never publicly shed a tear despite all the ‘persecution’ he endured from the Media – yet, sitting there and listening to Michael’s explanation, he could not hold back his tears any longer and cried.

Back in the 80s, after the situation occurred, Kent did not want to be a burden on his friends or family, so he left Hong Kong and hid himself from the public, keeping a low profile and also leaving the entertainment industry for a period of time. Years later, he met his first wife, with whom he had a daughter and twin sons; after that marriage ended in divorce, Kent dated a woman from Guangzhou, with whom he had another son. In 2008, he married his current wife Wen Jing, a woman from Qingdao who is 26 years younger than him, and shortly thereafter, he became a father once again to twin daughters. Currently, Kent is a father of 6 children and expressed that his family life is very happy and fulfilling.

With regard to his children, Kent expressed that he will make sure all of them get a good education, however he also revealed that he is less strict with the girls than he is with the boys: “The girls are raised rich and the boys are raised poor.” A few months ago, in June, Kent and his twin sons participated in a photo shoot for a magazine – upon seeing the pictures of the shoot, netizens commented that Kent’s sons are very handsome and encouraged them to follow in their Dad’s footsteps and join the entertainment industry.

.***.

Chinese Version:

湯鎮業做客談話節目 被曝翁美玲死前兩人已分手

近日，在《宮》中成功塑造康熙皇帝的湯鎮業(微博)攜妻女、與哥哥湯鎮宗一起做客《魯豫有約》，展示如今的幸福生活，並與觀眾分享他的兄弟情、愛情、親情和友情。

　　湯鎮業每一次出場，都會被提到翁美玲的名字以及他們之間的感情糾葛。二十多年前隨著“俏黃蓉”翁美玲的自殺，湯鎮業身上被貼上了“負心漢”的標籤，很多人覺得翁美玲是因他而自殺。湯鎮業背負罵名二十多年，從未辯解過一句。但是在這次訪談中，當年與湯鎮業同為“無線五虎將”之一、人稱“三哥”的苗僑偉，通過視頻卻給出了一個截然不同的答案：湯翁戀情其實在翁美玲自殺之前一段時間已經結束，只是媒體不知道沒有報導；事情發生後，湯鎮業即使受到各方的惡評，一直不作解釋，默默為翁美玲辦理後事，讓知情人都非常感動。所以三哥覺得在可以公布真相的今天、作為最了解整件事情始末的自己，想為兄弟討回一個公道，希望大家不要再誤會湯鎮業。

　　聽到三哥這席話後，這個背負了多少罵名都未曾開口解釋一句、流過一滴淚的男人，竟忍不住流下了眼淚。當年，湯鎮業不願拖累別人，離開香港將自己隱藏起來。之後，湯鎮業曾有一段婚史，與前妻育有一女及一對雙胞胎兒子，還有一名與廣州的紅顏知己所生的兒子。2008年，湯鎮業迎娶小自己26歲的青島姑娘文靜，再添一對雙胞胎女兒。如今的湯鎮業已是6個孩子的父親，一家人生活其樂融融。

　　湯鎮業表示，6個兒女的教育他都會把關，但是對待兒子女兒的教育方法卻不同：女兒要富養，兒子要窮養。今年6月，湯鎮業還與雙胞胎兒子───大寶小寶為某雜誌拍攝一組時尚照片，網友大呼：帥氣的大寶小寶進軍娛樂圈吧！(王普)

POLL RESULTS: Barbara Yung and the 5 Tigers

On the eve of the 26th anniversary of Barbara Yung's death, I'm sure that there are many fans out there (like me) who would like to pay tribute to her memory. So together, let's take a trip down memory lane to the 1980s and look at a few of Barbara's most significant performances.

In answer to the poll question "From 1983 to 1985, Barbara Yung collaborated with 4 out of the 5 Tigers in all but 1 of the series she had participated in during her short career. Which of these collaborations is (was) your favorite?", here are the results (out of a total of 24 people who voted):

1) The Legend of the Unknowns 十三妹 (1983) – Barbara + Kent = 0 votes

2) Legend of the Condor Heroes trilogy 射鵰英雄傳 (1983) – Barbara + Felix + Michael = 20 votes

3) The Foundation 決戰玄武門 (1984) – Barbara + Felix + Michael = 0 votes

4) The Fearless Duo 天師執位 (1984) – Barbara + Michael = 0 votes

5) United We Stand 生鏽橋王 (1984) – Barbara + Michael = 0 votes

6) The New Adventures of Chor Lau Heung 楚留香之蝙蝠傳奇 (1984) – Barbara + Michael = 2 votes

7) The Rough Ride 挑戰 (1985) – Barbara + Tony = 2 votes

Obviously (and not surprisingly), "Legend of the Condor Heroes" is the winner (yay!!).

.--.

So who did I vote for? Just like with the previous poll, it was a VERY DIFFICULT DECISION. Except for "The Legend of the Unknowns", I pretty much liked all the series listed, so for me to have to pick ONE only -- well, let's just say that it was agonizing! At the end, it basically came down to a choice between "Legend of the Condor Heroes", "The New Adventures of Chor Lau Heung", and "The Rough Ride". Even though I loved Condor Heroes, I purposefully didn't vote for it because I knew already that most likely, that would be the series to come out on top due to its immense popularity -- so that left me with 2 choices (still an agonizing decision nonetheless)...

In the end, I voted for "The New Adventures of Chor Lau Heung", primarily because I loved the interaction between Barbara and Michael in the series (and because in "The Rough Ride", Tony and Barbara weren't the only leads and with the talented cast and the way the storyline was written, she actually had less screen time in that series than she did in Chor Lau Heung).

For those who participated in the poll, if you would like to share who you voted for and why, feel free to comment!

In case some of you are not familiar with the series in the poll, below is a quick recap that I put together as well as a description of Barbara's and the Tigers' roles in each:

1) The Legend of the Unknowns: 20 episodes (1983)

.> This was Barbara Yung’s first series after she joined TVB in 1982 (she was a finalist in the 1982 Miss HK pageant). Actually, Barbara only had a supporting role in this series, as the main female leads were Cecilia Wong Hang Shou and Sharon Yeung Pan Pan. The series is set in the Qing Dynasty era and Barbara played the role of Emperor KangXi’s little sister Princess Shuang.

.> The greatest significance of this series (other than it being Barbara’s first series and her performance really standing out) was that Barbara and Kent’s romantic relationship started because of their collaboration in this series. Ironically though, neither of them were paired together in this series: Barbara was paired with Simon Yam and Kent (as the male lead) was paired with Sharon and Cecilia (in a ‘love triangle’ of sorts).

.> To be honest, I don’t remember this series much, as I watched it once a few years ago when it was released on VCD. I just remember that Barbara was very cute in the series and even though this was her first ‘stab’ at acting, you could already tell from the way her performance stood out that she was a natural actress. Other than that, I’m not going to comment much on the series, since I don’t remember anything else about it.


2) Legend of the Condor Heroes: 59 episodes (1983)

.> Judging from the overwhelming number of votes for this series, looks like I don’t need to elaborate much about this series, since it’s obvious that everyone has seen it and love it!

.> This ‘classic’ version of Jin Yong’s will always be THE BEST version of Condor Heroes in the history of HK television. Barbara Yung’s portrayal of Wong Yung was absolutely perfect and to this day, her performance in this series has been unmatched and undisputed. I know that I certainly can’t imagine anyone else in the role now, which is one reason why I prefer not to watch any other versions / remakes of it.

.> Of course, the rest of the cast was awesome as well – both the leads as well as the supporting cast! Felix Wong as Kwok Jing, Michael Miu as Yeung Hong, Sharon Yeung as Muk Lim Chi, Kenneth Tsang as Wong Yeuk Si, Lau Dan as Hung Chuk Gong, Chun Wong as Chow Bak Tong, Lau Siu Ming as Yat Dang…..the list goes on and on!

.> This is definitely one of my all time favorite series – one that I can watch over and over again without ever getting bored of it! In fact, this is one of the few series that I actually own on video tape, VCD and DVD (talk about obsessed….hahahaha)!


3) The Foundation: 20 episodes (1984)

.> In theory, this should be another awesome and memorable series, as it reunites Barbara with her Condor Heroes partners Felix Wong and Michael Miu as well as her real life lover Kent Tong. This time around, Barbara is technically paired with Michael, though in the beginning she is paired with Felix and there is that infamous TVB love triangle thing that goes on. Kent isn’t associated with Barbara in this series at all (in fact, they don’t even have much screen time together) – I honestly think that they did that on purpose, because I don’t think Kent and Barbara’s romantic relationship was completely out in the open yet when this series was made (which had to have been in 1983, since it aired in February 1984 and it wasn’t until some time in 1984 that their relationship was revealed).

.> For those of you who may not have seen this series, the story is supposed to be loosely based on some true events that occurred in Chinese history – namely, how one of the most famous Emperors of the Tang Dynasty, Lee Sai Mun, came to power (Chinese history buffs will probably know the story). Note that the key word here is LOOSELY – because as is the case with most history-themed series, a lot of the events are changed around and characters are added / removed to fit in with the message that the scriptwriters / producer want to get across.

.> Barbara portrays a woman named Chun Sik Sik in this series and the character is the complete opposite of her famous Wong Yung role in Condor Heroes. Chun Sik Sik is an ordinary woman who just wants to live a simple life taking care of the man she loves. Her personality is very ‘womanly’, even to the point of being ‘fragile’, but definitely NOT weak. Felix plays a fictional character named Gong Fung, a ‘village boy’ whose goal in life is to be the best martial artist in the world and so becomes obsessed with perfecting the craft at all costs, even if it means sacrificing the love of his life (Barbara’s character). Michael plays the future Emperor Lee Sai Mun, who is portrayed as young, handsome, talented, and extremely intelligent. Kent plays Lee Sai Mun’s younger brother Lee Yun Kut (a villain of sorts, since historically, he was one of those good-for-nothing rich kid type people).

.> I don’t want to go too in depth about this series because I intend to re-watch it one of these days (since it has been years since I last saw it), so I want to save the detail for the review.


4) The Fearless Duo: 20 episodes (1984)

.> Another Barbara / Michael collaboration (the 3rd one in less than a year) – the difference here is that the other Tigers are not involved (no more Felix…awww) and Barbara and Michael are truly a couple in this series. Barbara’s character Lam Chor Yan is sort of loud-mouthed and obnoxious in this series, but definitely not to the point of annoying – in fact, her character is very well-written and very three-dimensional, which actually makes her a very likable character (or I could be biased too because I just love Barbara Yung’s acting). Michael’s character isn’t bad either (though he also gets obnoxious at times as well – I guess that’s why he matches so well with Barbara’s character…LOL!).

.> This is another classic series that I like a lot! The chemistry between Barbara and Michael in this series is absolutely awesome – whether it’s their constant bickering in the first half of the series (when their characters supposedly hate each other and don’t want anything to do with the other) or their moving declarations of love for each other in the 2nd half of the series (to the point that they are willing to sacrifice their own lives for the other).

.> Again, I don’t want to go into too much detail because I also intend on rewatching this one sometime soon and want to save the details for the review. But I will say this much: this series has one of the best and most memorable endings I’ve seen (and for those of you who follow TVB series, you know this is a huge compliment) – one of the few endings that I actually feel closes the loop perfectly, but at the same time, incorporates both tragic and comedic elements (when I rewatched the series a couple years ago, I almost cried during the ending).

.> Bonus: this series has the largest number of ‘recognizable extras’ I’ve seen to date (what I mean is that alot of today’s most popular film and TV stars were ‘ke le fes’ / extras in this series – names that you would probably instantly recognize: Sandra Ng, Lawrence Ng, Sean Lau, Francis Ng, Michael Tao, etc.)


5) United We Stand: 20 episodes (1984)

.> Ok, I will admit that I don’t remember much about this series at all because the last time I watched it was almost 20 years ago. All I remember is that Barbara plays 2 different characters in this series – twin sisters who are completely opposite in terms of personalities. I actually don’t remember Michael Miu’s character at all, though I do recall that Michael Tao was also part of the cast, along with a bunch of veterans (many of whom are still active today).

.> I’m not surprised that no one voted for this series because I actually don’t think that too many people have seen it (which also isn’t surprising because this isn’t a very well known series – and it’s a very hard to find series nowadays, whether on VCD, DVD, or even videotape).

.> Fortunately, I have this series on DVD, so I am definitely going to be re-watching it, since I remember close to nothing about it. So if you’re interested in this series, stay tuned….


6) The New Adventures of Chor Lau Heung: 40 episodes (1984)

.> Aside from Legend of the Condor Heroes, this is probably the other Barbara Yung series that people are most familiar with. By this time, Barbara and Michael had already collaborated on 4 series, plus in real life, they were really close friends, so establishing the chemistry in the series was a piece of cake, in a sense. I loved how Michael and Barbara interacted in this series – so natural and so cute!

.> Barbara's role as Princess Wing Jing in this series is a perfect role for her, as she plays the part with such ease and naturalness. And Michael's portrayal as the charming, chivalrous, dashing Chor Lau Heung is absolutely brilliant -- I admit that I fell in love with him after watching this series! TVB surely knew how to utilize their artists' strengths back in those days, as both Barbara and Michael absolutely had that 'ancient / wuxia era' look and feel, so they were absolutely perfect for ancient series roles.

.> Similar to Condor Heroes, this series also featured a stellar cast with artists who were perfect for their roles (makes me lament the abundance of talented artists that we had back then in the 80s and makes the lack of talent at TVB nowadays even more apparent).

.> Again, I'm not going to go into too much detail on this series because it just recently came out on DVD (finally!) and I have every intention of re-watching it (for like the gazillionth time), so I'll save most of my comments for the review.


7) The Rough Ride: 40 episodes (1985)

.> What do you get when you take a gorgeous, talented leading actor (Tony Leung), a beautiful, talented leading actress (Barbara Yung), and a talented supporting cast (Ray Lui, Money Chan, Ha Yu, Lau Dan, Susanna Au Yeung, Kwan Hoi San, etc.) and put them together in a series? AN ABSOLUTELY AWESOME SERIES!!

Seriously though, this series may not necessarily be 'the best' and it definitely cannot compare to Legend of the Condor Heroes in terms of popularity, but it is definitely a great series that is worthy of watching over and over again. I mean, with the 2 main leads alone (Tony and Barbara), that's already enough to get me hooked on this series.

.> I've always felt that in this series, Tony's character is actually a modern life version of Cheung Mo Kei (the role he played in ancient series The New Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre, another one of my favorites) – all the character traits are very similar when you think about it. Even the 'indecisive' nature of the character is the same! On the other hand, Barbara's character is quite unique in that the role she plays is a pretty huge departure from the roles she's had in the past -- she plays a tomboyish police woman in this series who is very assertive and has a bit of a stubborn temper. To be honest, even though Tony and Barbara's characters in this series were pretty much opposite ends of the spectrum, they were actually a very compatible couple (not to mention a cute, lovable one!).

.> This series will always be a special one for me because of several reasons:

First, it's one of the few 'modern' series that Barbara filmed (if I remember correctly, I think this was only the 2nd modern series of her career -- all the rest of the series she did were ancient / wuxia series). This is significant because her immensely popular role as Wong Yung in Legend of the Condor Heroes was so classic and so ingrained in audience's hearts that it's pretty much how most people probably remember her. But there is actually way more to Barbara than just Wong Yung -- and her role in this particular series definitely shows her depth as an actress.

Second, this was Barbara's last COMPLETE series that she filmed before she died in 1985. (She was working on another series at the time, but it never got completed because of her sudden passing). The significance of this series was that it aired from April to June 1985 -- before the series had finished airing, Barbara had committed suicide on May 14, 1985. I don't live in HK, so I wouldn't have been able to watch the series on TV like HK audiences and experience that moment for myself, but I can absolutely imagine how fans and audiences must have felt when the female lead to the series that you are currently watching dies so suddenly and tragically – it makes the series all the more poignant and memorable. I remember when I watched the series for the first time a few years later, I instantly felt an emotional connection to it -- a connection that has stayed with me each time I re-watch this series. Also, each time I re-watch this series, the thought that always comes into my mind is how great an actress Barbara was and if she hadn't died, how big her career would have been....

Third, this was Barbara's one and only collaboration with (one of) my favorite actors of all time, Tony Leung. Up until this point, Barbara had collaborated the most with Michael Miu (5 series) and Felix Wong (2 series, though technically 4 if you count Condor Heroes as 3 separate series), so it was refreshing to see her with Tony, who has a markedly different acting style than the other 2 Tigers. I will admit that at first, I wasn't sure if Barbara would be able to achieve the same on screen chemistry that she had with Michael and Felix (since they had collaborated so many times in the past), but it turns out that I had nothing to worry about, as the chemistry was absolutely perfect!