The BIG day: Jacky Cheung "A Classic Tour" - Las Vegas stop!!

Ok, well, not quite the BIG day yet, as there are still a few hours until midnight so technically right now it's still the day BEFORE the big day, lol.  But hey, the fact that I'm here at the MGM hotel in Las Vegas and perhaps Jacky is in the same building as well already makes me super happy, lol.  I am SO looking forward to his concert tomorrow night -- can't wait!!

Here are a few pics that I took (sorry for the bad photography skills -- taking pictures is definitely not a strength of mine!).  One thing I noticed this time around -- there wasn't as much promo for his concert here as there was in past years, which I guess isn't too surprising given the organizer of the concert this time is different and I'm sure does not have as much pull (and definitely not as much experience) as the previous organizer.  I remember when it was at Caesar's Palace, Jacky's concert banners actually covered an entire half section of one side of the building, plus there were large posters all over the place).  This time around, there was only a medium-sized banner out in front of MGM hotel and also a bunch of smaller posters in front of all the Asian-themed restaurants in the hotel.  I didn't go into the MGM Garden Arena area yet (passed by it but didn't go in) so not sure if there are any big posters there or not -- I hope there are though!

In any case, I'm EXCITED to be here and totally ready to be BLOWN AWAY by yet another magnificent Jacky performance.  I'll definitely be doing a recap some time after the concert (might not be right after though -- maybe the next day) so be sure to watch for that post!

Meanwhile, enjoy the pictures! :-)

Entertainment Newsreel #2: More OCTB news + HKFA nominations

Here's this week's HK entertainment news items that I found interesting....

Movie news

Hong Kong Film Awards

-          Nominations list came out today for this year's HKFA (which will be held in April).

-          Ann Hui's wartime epic Our Time Will Come leads the pack with 11 nominations, followed by Sylvia Chang's Love Education and Wilson Yip's Paradox, each with 9 nominations.

-          Best Actor race will be interesting this year, as there are 3 veteran HK actors nominated (Andy Lau forShock Wave, Ronald Cheng for Concerto of the Bully, and Louis Koo for Paradox), 1 newcomer (Ling Man Lung for Tomorrow is Another Day) and 1 Mainland actor (Tian Zhuang Zhuang for Love Education).  This is the first Best Actor nomination for Ronald (he won Best Supporting Actor a couple years ago and also won Best Song twice previously) and I believe the third or fourth nomination for Louis.  No predictions on my part since I didn't watch any of these movies (not yet anyway) but I heard Ronald's performance was good and also quite a departure from his usual comedic roles so if I had to pick someone to root for, it would probably be him.

-          Best Actress nominees were actually anticipated, as most of these were already nominated in other awards shows.  The nominees include:  Chrissie Chau for 29+1, Zhou Xun for Our Time Will Come, Stephy Tang for The Empty Hands, Sylvia Chang for Love Education, and Teresa Mo for Tomorrow is Another Day.  Again, no predictions from my side but considering Stephy Tang already won Best Actress earlier at the Hong Kong Critics Association awards, no doubt that she is one of the hot favorites going into HKFA.  I'm curious to see the results, though I'm not rooting for anyone in particular in this category.

-          I'm not going to recap all the nominees (you can check out the entire list at the link below) however just a few interesting things I saw: 

o   In the Best Supporting Actor category, Philip Keung has 2 nominations – could this finally be his year to win?   Two nominations can be a blessing or a curse, as it could cause the vote to be split, which decreases one's chances.  I like Philip so I'm fine if he wins, though Paul Chun is also nominated in this category again and despite not having watched the movie he was nominated for, I'm still rooting for him because he's one of my favorite actors, lol.  Interestingly, last year's Best Actor winner Gordon Lam is nominated in Best Supporting Actor this year forParadox, which I heard he did a great job in.  

o   Best Supporting Actress category is all over the place, as it pits veteran actresses (i.e. Deanie Ip and Susan Shaw) against film industry newcomers (i.e. Joyce Cheng and Baby Bo).  This will be an interesting race as well, though again, no one in particular that I'm rooting for.

-          Here's the full list of nominees (courtesy of SCMP):  HKFA nominations

Television news

OCTB

- Reference this post I wrote about season 1 airing on Netflix starting this month.  Also, season 2 cast is still a pretty huge discussion point at the moment, with the latest "rumor" being that, due to the Netflix connection, they are currently in talks to secure Hollywood stars to participate in the series.  Details are in the above post.

- I had mentioned in my previous newsreel post that filming for season 2 was scheduled to begin after Chinese New Year.  Well, according to an article that came out today, looks like the plan might have to change now due to an unforeseen circumstance.  In an interview today, producer Jones Soong had the below to say:  "Originally we had already confirmed that a 'big name' artist would participate, someone whom audiences were really looking forward to seeing.  Unfortunately we just received word that there is a slight issue with that artist's schedule, so he will no longer be able to participate.  Of course this will affect the script, so we will need to do some re-writes now."

o   So now, filming will be delayed until March so that the re-writes can be done with the script.  In terms of the delay in filming, Jones Soong wanted to reassure audiences that their intention is to give the very best to audiences:  "I've always been of the mindset that a lot of focus has to be on the script being well-written.  I insist on completing the entire script before commencing filming because in my mind, on-the-fly scripts do nothing to help the production."    Jones also emphasized that he (and his team) won't rush things just to meet a particular deadline or to get their deposit quicker, as they don't operate that way.  The one thing that will be the biggest concern for them is artists' schedules, as that will impact their production significantly.

o   Bummer…looks like we will now have to wait until March for season 2 to start filming.  But I'm fine with it, since they want to make sure the script is properly written before they start.  There are very few production companies out there nowadays that focus on the script like this so kudos to Jones and his team for their efforts!  Though I can't wait for season 2 to start, I also admire and respect the team's decision to make sure the script is 100% good to go before they start – if that means filming is delayed, then so be it!

o   Sidenote:  As to who that artist is who originally committed but had to pull out due to scheduling conflicts?  Of course Jones Soong won't say.  So the reporter tried taking the "highly anticipated by audiences" route and asked Jones about one of the open endings from season 1, which was the identity of "Godfather" Sun Ye's son Michael (featured in a scene with only his backside and also his voice), whose identity was to be revealed in season 2 and whether that is the character affected. [This makes sense to me, as what other character would require the script to be rewritten due to the artist pulling out?].   In response to this, Jones laughed and said:  "Think about who in this industry is named 'Michael'!"  [Ha, that's such an obvious clue, lol!  If the artist Jones is referring to is indeed Michael Tse, then looks like my guess wasn't too off the mark.  Too bad he won't be able to participate in season 2 anymore though, as it would've been awesome to see Chicken (Jordan) and Dai Tin Yee (Michael) reuniting (though of course, they would've been on opposing sides, with Jordan's Phoenix battling Michael's triad leader character).

o   Here's the source of the article for those interested in reading it:  HK01

TVB

-          I read the other day that the series that will be taking over The Forgotten Valley's (the Louisa So series that is currently airing in the regular prime time slot) will be "Watch Out Boss", which is the series starring Flora Chan and Ben Wong that had been filmed 3 years ago (one of TVB's last series that was still buried in their warehouse).  I'm not interested in watching the series, as I'm not too fond of the cast first of all (aside from Flora and Ben, both of whom I like, not really keen on the other 2 leads), plus from what I've seen in previews and such, the story sounds lame (seems like another pointless comedy to me).  However I decided to include a snippet about this series in this post because, well, those who read my first "Entertainment Newsreel" post will probably know that most of the TVB-related stuff I cover in these posts are along the lines of "WTH moments"….given all the controversy surrounding this series at the moment (before the series has even aired), I think this legitimately falls into "WTH" category (ok, probably more like "WTF" territory depending on if you're a Flora fan or not).  So here's the lowdown:

o   Given Flora's popularity with audiences (back during the height of her career, she had won multiple audience-voted "TV artist of the year" awards from a few media outlets), you would think that TVB would cherish the opportunity of having her film for them as a way to get back into HK audiences' good graces (something that TVB desperately needs nowadays).  Well, apparently not – looks like TVB is still its old petty self and continues to have no qualms about playing their internal politics as long as it suits their fancy, even if it is at the expense of their artists and also the audiences who still support them.

o   Earlier, TVB released the trailer for the series as a precursor to the series airing – at that time, fans were already complaining that Flora was barely in the trailer, with her presence being reduced to a teeny tiny shot of her head.  If you think that's bad, wait, there's more...

o   It is now rumored that the episode count of the series has been cut from 20 episodes to 15 episodes.  The reason for the "trimming down" of episodes?  No, not to help the plot flow better by cutting out excess stuff or improve overall quality by editing out mistakes and such (which is what most "normal" production companies would do).  Supposedly, most of the scenes that will be cut are Flora's scenes – the rumor is that through post-editing, TVB is cutting out most of Flora's screen time so that instead of her being first female lead as was the case when she filmed the series, she will be reduced to "supporting" role and the series' second female lead Ali Lee will become first lead instead.  [Sidenote:  I know you're probably wondering how is it even possible to turn a supporting artist into lead and a lead into supporting purely via post-production editing?  Of course it's possible – just go ask world-renown HK director Wong Kar Wai, who practically wrote the playbook on this particular editing skill, though his reasons for doing it has nothing to do with politics – unlike TVB!]

o   So why is TVB doing this?  Some people are saying that TVB is trying to ride the Ali wave and since she's under their management contract, it makes sense that they would try to promote their own people.  While that may be true to some extent, it's not like Ali is a big enough name actress for TVB to give such special treatment to, especially when there are other artists at her level (second female lead whom TVB is currently promoting) filming other series also with veterans, yet same thing (editing out the veteran's scenes) is not happening there.  So to me, this theory doesn't hold any water.

o   The REAL reason why TVB is cutting Flora's scenes goes back to my earlier assertion that TVB is being petty again, as Flora is currently working for their rival station ViuTV.  A couple months back, during ViuTV's sales presentation, it was revealed that Flora will be producing an info series for ViuTV, called "Stages of Marriage".  The program will invite 5 different married couples from different walks of life and also different countries to share their different perspectives on marriage in efforts to help audiences understand how marriage is perceived across cultures.  Flora and her husband will be one of the 5 couples on the show.  Back when she was interviewed during ViuTV's sales presentation, Flora said that she agreed to do this program because the topic interested her but more importantly, it lets her go back to her roots, as audiences may remember that she was a producer for TVB's Pearl channel (their English language channel) prior to becoming an actress.  She indicated that she likes being a producer more because she has more control over the quality of the production (she also said that she is interested in doing more behind-the-scenes work and already completed writing of a script, a society piece  about life choices and decision-making that she hopes to produce / direct herself as a way of giving back to society).

o   While on the one hand, I can understand TVB not wanting to help another station promote their artists, I still feel that it's utterly ridiculous for TVB to take these types of petty actions that do more damage for themselves than good.  I mean, how is the series going to look like after TVB cuts out all of Flora's scenes?  Um, TVB certainly ain't no Wong Kar Wai (not even close!!) and their producers have nowhere near the skill he does.  Besides, I've seen the way TVB edits their programs and believe me, it's horrifying! [Sidenote: It's kind of ironic but subscribing to TVB's channels here in the U.S., we're kind of treated as second-class citizens in that we sometimes get the "shoddily edited" version of their programs complete with scenes cut out – not the same way the program aired in HK – and the ones I've seen have been pure CRAP!  There was one time where I got so frustrated with a variety program that they edited to the point of being unwatchable – literally they were cutting people's dialogue off mid-sentence! – that I actually called up TVB USA and gave them a piece of my mind (luckily TVB USA had and continues to have good customer service and actually is sincere about trying to fix issues – unlike its HK counterpart – so I went easier on them than I normally would other companies, lol)].   So yea, petty TVB is at it again – stroking their own egos and playing politics for politics sake with absolutely zero regard for anyone or anything (even those who support them)!  This kind of bullcrap (which TVB pulls more and more often nowadays) is actually one of the (many) reasons why I've stopped supporting TVB despite being a die-hard fan for 30 years.  IMO, Flora's fans should get together and boycott TVB – or perhaps flood the Communications Authority with complaints deriding TVB's stupid politics and pettiness (though probably this won't happen since HK audiences will always have some amount of sentimentality toward TVB no matter how badly they screw up….).

BREAKING NEWS: OCTB officially airs on Netflix + season 2 news

Not sure how many people remember last year how, practically the day after OCTB's final episode was broadcast on Youtube, the series was "taken down" permanently from the site, which sparked some outcry because many people hadn't watched the finale yet.  At the time, in response to this, I remember producer/director Jones Soong mentioning that they were forced to take the series down for financial reasons (implying that due to the series' success, a media company was interested in buying the series so they had to take it down to protect that company's interests), however Jones insisted that the series will be back "very soon".  At the time, there were rumors that the media company Jones referred to was actually Netflix, but it was never officially confirmed.

Well, it's confirmed now!  According to the below article, OCTB officially airs on Netflix starting today (2/5/18).  Jones Soong said that since removing the series from Youtube, they have spent the last 6 months in post-production, making the series better than  when it originally aired.  For those who are worried that anything substantial changed, Jones said not to worry, as most of the changes were to the aesthetics rather than the plot and also improving upon the visuals such as making the transitions from one scene to the next much smoother.  The biggest change is in the opening theme credits, which will be in English now rather than Chinese.  I don't currently subscribe to Netflix but now I'm considering doing so just so I can check out how the series will look now, lol. 

Oh, and for season 2 news – Jones Soong confirmed that they have more than enough funding for season 2 (most who followed the series last year will probably remember that season 1 funding was a huge challenge and mostly involved Danny Chan, Jones Soong, Sam Lee, and few other friends pooling their life savings together in order to make the series), especially now that Netflix is involved.  When asked whether they will be able to invite "big name" Asian stars to join the cast now, Jones said that they are actually looking at incorporating Hollywood stars.  He said that they are currently in talks with a particular Hollywood star to join the cast – of course, as usual, he won't reveal who the person is but he did say the actor collaborated with famous wrestler-turned-actor The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) in the past (already there is speculation that the Hollywood actor they are in talks with is Fast and Furious star Vin Diesel, however that is of course rumor at this point).  So until the cast is announced, let the speculations begin!!

Link to article: HK01

Entertainment Newsreel #1: Television and some movie news…

As promised in my previous post, here's my first entertainment news updates post for this blog..

I welcome feedback so feel free to leave any suggestions you may have.  Also feel free to bring up any other recent happenings you might have read about in the comments if you want to (remember that I only included tidbits that I was interested in and most of the below was done from memory, so it’s definitely NOT all-inclusive).

Movie industry news

HONG KONG FILM AWARDS

-          Louis Cheung may be banned by TVB (through no fault of his own) but his fans don’t need to worry, as his footing in the HK movie industry is pretty solid.  He will be co-hosting this year’s Hong Kong Film Awards alongside Charlene Choi.  Given that this hosting job traditionally goes to artists who are established in the film industry, this is actually a pretty big deal for Louis, though with his experience in hosting TV programs, I think he’ll do fine.  Look forward to seeing his performance!

-          Speaking of HKFA – the news that came out last week is that ViuTV was granted exclusive broadcasting rights for the awards ceremony this year.  HKFA chair Derek Yee said that he is impressed with ViuTV’s sincerity and commitment to HKFA, as the station has a lot of pre-awards show events and programs planned (i.e. exclusive interviews, special feature pieces on the nominees, etc.).  Basically, ViuTV is doing way more than TVB ever did when they held broadcasting rights (not surprising of course, as it’s obvious TVB doesn’t respect the HKFA awards show).  I will definitely be tuning in this year to see how ViuTV does!  Oh, by the way, HKFA nominations will be announced on February 6th, so for those interested, might want to check on that day to see if their favorite movies / artists got nominated.

Television industry news

OCTB

-          This is kind of “old news” from last week but those of us who are dying to find out who will be joining the OCTB cast for season 2 may not have to wait too much longer.  The show’s co-producer (and lead actor) Danny Chan Kwok Kwan attended a function for his new movie last week and when asked by reporters about OCTB season 2, he confirmed that they will commence filming for season 2 right after the Chinese New Year holiday (which means that the final cast will be announced before then).  Not surprisingly, the reporters also tried to get Danny to reveal who will be joining the cast for the new season (with focus on whether any of the rumored Y&D artists will join), but of course, Danny was tight-lipped and refused to drop names – HOWEVER he did say that he just got word that a big name veteran agreed to do a cameo for them in season 2.  Danny said that they had reached out to the veteran thinking that the person would never agree but turns out they were wrong – the veteran will be filming 1 day for them, though not sure what this equates to in terms of screen time.

-          More OCTB news…I think it was last month (end of December), several of the guys from the OCTB cast (most of whom had become best buds during filming) held a party at veteran actor Michael Chan’s house (he played triad leader “Godfather” in OCTB) – though it was not an official OCTB cast party, there were still quite a few people from the series’ cast and crew there.  Justin Cheung had shared some pics on his social media account and of course, netizens seized the opportunity to “read into” the possibility that the pics might reveal some clues as to upcoming cast.  One of the artists spotted in the pics was actor Chin Siu Ho, who was not part of the original OCTB cast, so instantly, there was speculation that perhaps he would be part of the season 2 cast.  True or not, I have no clue.  I guess we will find out in a few weeks.

-      Sidenote (not really news but just a fun little piece for fellow fans of the series) -- in terms of former Y&D cast joining OCTB, my money is on Michael Tse and/or Anthony Wong (those were 2 out of the 4-5 names circulating on the Internet the past couple months).  I'm basing this on stuff I had read over the past few months and also the little I know of the artists' schedules and backgrounds.  Of course, I could be totally wrong and that's fine, but just thought I would throw this in, lol.  :-)

ATV

-          ATV had their official “re-launch” party last weekend (on January 29^th).  I didn’t watch the program (which I heard was aired live on their app as well as their OTT thingie) but according to several media outlets, the program was a “disaster.” I won’t judge whether the “disaster” part holds any water, since I didn’t watch the show, but here’s a quick recap courtesy of HK01 and also Mingpao:

-           

o   First, the biggest name guest star in attendance at the ceremony was George Lam, who opened the night singing several of his classic hits

o   After that, former “golden MC” Ivan Ho chatted up a storm with a bunch of former TVB/ATV people, but instead of introducing any upcoming ATV programs, they mostly reminisced about the “good old days” of the entertainment industry, even mentioning a few iconic “classic” programs that their supposed rival TVB produced (hmmm, I thought this was ATV’s launch party, why would they mention TVB productions?  Well, I guess one thing they’ve got going for them is that they don’t “censor” the mere mention of their rival station’s name like, um, their “rival station” does, lol….)

o   There were a bunch more musical performances, but almost all of the performances were singers from the 70s/80s who sang classic songs that most of the current audiences (meaning the younger generation audiences that ATV is supposedly targeting) probably had never heard of.  [Sidenote:  I laughed when HK01 noted in one of their articles that they actually thought they were watching TVB’s “Cantopop at 50” (minus the hosts of course) because of the similarity in style (of the launch party) to that program as well as all the veteran singers who participated.]

o   Stephen Chan, whose newly revamped “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” is one of the key “selling points” for ATV’s comeback, was noticeably absent from the launch party.  Supposedly, Stephen Chan fell sick and had to pull out of the show last minute, so his buddy Wong Hei (who will be hosting a variety program for ATV) stepped in to host the ceremony in his place.

o   For me, the biggest “takeaway” from the ceremony in terms of implication for future were:

1)      Singer/actor Richie Jen attended the launch party along with artists under his management company (though the biggest name there from his company was William So…Edmond Leung was originally scheduled to be there too but since his high profile arrest for drunk driving was just a few days prior to the ceremony, obviously he had to skip, since his career has been put on hold at the moment…).  So perhaps this means future collaboration between Richie's artists and ATV?

2)      China 3D’s Stephen Shiu Jr. was in attendance and when interviewed by reporters, he very candidly “talked about” TVB’s ban on his artists and outright said there is a “high probability” that his company will be collaborating with ATV in the future (as a reminder, some of the “bigger names” under his management are -- Chilam Cheung, Myolie Wu, Louis Cheung, Justin Cheung, Gregory Wong).  Don’t be surprised if you see any of these artists filming stuff for ATV in the near future!

-          In terms of the big 64 million dollar question – will ATV resume filming series?  Well, those of you who read my previous 2 posts about ATV’s comeback will probably know that they were originally planning on doing 2 remakes this year:  a TV series remake of John Woo’s iconic movie “A Better Tomorrow” (the one that starred Chow Yun Fat, Leslie Cheung, and Ti Lung) and also a remake of ATV’s own classic hit series “My Date With A Vampire”.  If you read the update to those same posts, you will probably also know that ATV hit a snag with both these planned remakes, as it looks like their new CEO Ng Yu didn’t do his homework prior to announcing their plans (he later admitted that he hadn’t finished going through all of ATV’s old paperwork/records yet, as he was only hired on by the Mainland company that currently owns ATV back in April of last year and so there was still a lot of work to be done in terms of “catching up” with ATV’s past history). 

o   At the re-launch party, Ng Yu confirmed that the remake of “A Better Tomorrow” will move forward despite actor/singer Stephen Fung’s company issuing a statement claiming they hold the rights to ABT and did not authorize ATV to do a remake.  Apparently, Stephen Fung’s company holds the rights to the original TV version while a different company holds the rights to the John Woo movie version – ATV did get permission from the company holding the rights to the John Woo version (that company is supposedly going to release a statement soon), so their remake will proceed.

o   The remake of MDWAV is still a no go (though there was no mention of this at the launch party – not surprising of course given the embarrassment).  Fox Asia still holds the rights to MDWAV (which ATV had sold to them a few years ago but the current execs conveniently forgot) and they are actually planning on remaking the series themselves, so pretty sure they are not going to authorize ATV to do any type of remake.  Ng Yu did say (back in December when Fox issued their statement) that they were going to discuss with Fox and see if they are open to a collaboration – if Fox agrees, then ATV still has a chance…I guess we shall wait and see.

o   Oh and to add salt to the wound -- the series that ATV had previously announced was going to be their “debut” series (Mainland series “The Legend of Ba Qing” starring Fan Bing Bing) which they supposedly spent big bucks to buy….well, it was announced last week that the air date in Mainland China will be delayed, as someone “reported” the series to the authorities and so the producer(s) now need to “fix” some stuff before it will be allowed to air (I had read that the number of episodes will be cut down but I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to the details to be honest).  So ATV is basically in a holding pattern right now, with their execs probably “praying” that the issues will be resolved soon.  

  - What a mess for ATV!  I'm not normally superstitious but man, so many obstacles from the getgo can't be a good thing for a station that is trying to re-brand itself.  Not a good way to start their "re-launch" that's for sure!

TVB

 Of course there will be mention about TVB in a recap about entertainment news happenings – however one “disclaimer” that I would like to make:  most of you who have followed my blog for awhile and/or my comments in certain discussion forums probably know what my attitude is toward TVB nowadays.  Basically, when it comes to TVB, don’t expect to see the “latest and greatest” in terms of new upcoming series or whatnot because I barely follow that stuff anymore.  Nowadays, I don’t pay much attention to which new series are airing in TVB’s prime time “golden” timeslots since I don’t watch their (new) series much anymore.  If you’re looking for latest info on new series and/or current generation of TVB artists, there are plenty of fansites out there so feel free to check those out instead.

With that said, the 2 things I wanted to mention about TVB this week (note that most of my TVB mentions in these posts are along the lines of “WTH moments” -- basically stuff that I found "laughable"....):

-          So you guys remember that disaster of an anniversary series Heart and Greed (the 3^rd installment to the Heart Of Greed franchise), right?  Those who’ve been following entertainment news the past few weeks probably know that HAG’s ratings in HK sucked (though I heard their finale episode actually ended on a high note) and word of mouth was horrible as well.  Throughout the month or so that the series aired, it was pretty much “bashed” every day for one thing or another by netizens and audiences alike (and no, it’s not a coincidence that the series was completely shut out of the anniversary awards, despite the “high hopes” of the cast and crew going into the awards).  Given the above, I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that the series was NOT well-received and therefore, the franchise can officially DIE now…

o   Well, um, not quite….it was announced recently that there are plans for BOTH a movie version as well as stage play version of the series (the 3^rd installment specifically).  Not too many details on the movie yet, though I did see a rumor somewhere that Ha Yu might get pegged as the director for the movie version (which makes sense to me, since Ha Yu has his own production company and already directed/produced a few movies the past couple years).  If Ha Yu does end up being the director, the question I’m most interested in is whether his son Dixon Wong will be involved in the production again (as he was in Ha Yu’s previous works) – reason I ask is because Dixon Wong is a ViuTV-contracted artist currently so it will be interesting to see what will happen with that if the movie is still affiliated with TVB. 

o   As for the stage play, TVB already confirmed it’s definitely a go and the veterans – Ha Yu, Louise Lee, Susanna Kwan, etc. -- stated that they have already started planning for it.  Supposedly, the stage play version will be “comedy-heavy”, which I guess means that we will be spared all of those intensely dramatic arguing + crying scenes that were a “staple” of the franchise?  I guess we shall wait and see….

-          Turns out all the backlash that TVB got after the highly contested results of their 50^th Anniversary Awards “paid off” for them, as the ratings report came out last week and this year’s awards garnered 33.6 points (probably the highest ratings for ANY TVB program – series included – in all of 2017), which, according to the media, are the highest ratings the awards has gotten since 2014. 

o   Of course, TVB held a celebratory dinner to commemorate this (in which the behind-the-scenes crew as well as all award winners were in attendance) and the execs took the opportunity to give a bunch of “motivational” speeches.  I won’t repeat the exact content of their speeches (because quite honestly, some of the stuff they said made me want to puke, lol) but just know that, in typical TVB-style, the execs pretty much praised themselves for a job well-done and reiterated once again that the high ratings means that HK audiences still “love” them (yes, bring on the barf bags!!!)

And last but certainly not least….

HKTV

-          After not hearing anything for like 5 months, HKTV was finally “back in the news” last month (January), though depending on which side you’re on, you might be happy or sad at the reason why they are in the news again (personally, I’m both happy and sad, but that’s just me…).

o   As I stated in the comments to one of my recent blog posts, Ricky Wong gave a presentation last month about the launch of his new e-commerce related project (as you may recall from this blog post I wrote up back in August 2017, Ricky Wong sold his stake in HKTV to his partner, so he is no longer the CEO, however he still oversees the HKTVmall side of things).  In a nutshell, Ricky Wong is basically turning HKTV’s multi-million dollar studio in Tseung Kwan O (near where TVB City is located) into a “training ground” for media students with an interest in e-commerce – the students will be able to “rent” HKTV’s facilities and equipment for free to film essentially whatever they want (i.e. supermarket commercials, product promotional videos, etc.).  The purpose is to cultivate potential future business leaders (more specifically in the e-commerce field) while at the same time not letting the facilities go to waste. 

o   Here are links to the 2 articles (from HK01’s Finance/Business section) that has more details on the project: Article 1 and Article 2

o   Like I said elsewhere, from a business perspective, kudos to Ricky Wong for putting in the effort to cultivate a younger generation of potential business leaders – though of course, none of us should be surprised that RW decided to go this route given his background and the fact that he is known for his creativity and being innovative (the phenomenal success of his previous telecom business is proof that he knows what he is doing when it comes business development).  Personally, I feel that this project is a great idea and one that I wish HKTV (more specifically Ricky Wong) the utmost success on.

o   With that said however, the above news, coupled with the fact that Ricky Wong’s HKTVmall e-commerce business is doing extremely well (there is an article that actually had some impressive numbers in it but I didn’t post it because it’s buried in my list somewhere – if I’m able to dig it out anytime soon, I’ll try to at least post up the link to it) – means that for those of us who were looking forward to HKTV resuming production of their series (something that RW had promised would happen if their 2^nd application for a license is approved), the prospect of this happening has gotten a lot dimmer.   The longer the government continues to drag their feet with the second round of applications (it’s been like what, 3 years already since HKTV’s 2^nd application was submitted?), the likelihood of HKTV resuming filming gets dimmer and dimmer.  Personally, I don’t want to go into my spiel about whether I think it’s a good idea for HKTV to resume production or not, since that topic would take up a full post in and of itself, plus I think I already talked about it previously in my blog….but fellow HKTV supporters definitely feel free to express your thoughts on this in the comments below if you want.

That’s it for now, but note that since this is the first post in this particular series and I’m technically a little behind with it (most of the above news was from mid-to late January, some even from December), I will probably be doing another post in a couple of days to “catch up” with this past week’s news.  After that, the plan is to do these posts probably weekly (maybe bi-weekly depending on my schedule) with more current news.

Enjoy! :-)

New blog series: Entertainment news updates

I wanted to put up this quick message to let everyone know that I've decided to try something new with my blog this year. Those of you who've been long-time followers of my blog probably know that nowadays, I don't update my blog as often as I used to. The main reason why I don't update as much anymore is because I'm usually super-busy trying to juggle work and personal life and everything else in between so time management is a huge issue for me (more often than not, I find myself needing more than 24 hours in a day, lol). The secondary reason (which goes hand-in-hand with the first one technically) is because I'm very very "particular" (I usually use the word "anal" but that word sounds kind of rude) about my writing, especially when it comes to translations, as I'm somewhat of a perfectionist in this area and am quite obsessed with choosing my words carefully so as not to mislead or offend. I also tend to be very long-winded and do not have the gift like others do of being "short and sweet" when it comes to writing, which is why, as I'm sure you've noticed, most of my blog posts are long, wordy, and probably contain more detail than you care to read about. In this context, despite the fact that I'm a writer and I love to write, when it comes to this blog, writing up posts is actually very draining for me and with everything I've had (and still have) going on, it's been hard to keep up. As a result, I haven't been updating this blog as frequently as I would like, even though I continue to read and follow entertainment news (almost religiously) on a daily basis and often come across quite a bit of interesting news stuff I want to share, but don't have time to write up long posts about them.

So back to my first sentence about trying something new (see how long-winded I am? LOL)….basically, I'm planning on starting a new series of posts dedicated to updating readers on various HK entertainment-related stuff that either I found interesting or I know it's stuff that a few of us have been "following" (i.e. HKTV, Fox Asia, OCTB season 2, etc.). Think of it as a "newsreel" of sorts with short (hopefully no more than 1-2 sentences) tidbits on some of the current "happenings" in the entertainment industry. The plan is to do this on a weekly basis (haven't decided which day of the week yet) and it will be stuff that I read about that week (or the day I'm writing up the post). Whenever possible, I will try to include a link to the news source where I got the information, but don't expect this to be a regular occurrence, as I read from (and watch) a multitude of different sources and sometimes it may have been something I read in passing so a link just isn't available (however I will still try to at least reference the news source if I remember).

Just to clarify though -- I still intend to write up my usual long (wordy) blog posts and do full/partial translations of certain articles whenever I can but with my schedule, this will likely happen less frequently than I would like. And on that note, I would actually like to take this opportunity to apologize to anyone whom I may have promised at one point or another to translate a particular article or write about a particular topic but never delivered on it – definitely wasn't intentional on my part and hopefully I will be less of a flake in this area in the future (or I just need to be more careful about not over-promising, lol).

Lastly, a big THANK YOU to those who continue to follow my blog and actually read my lengthy posts. I may not be good at expressing it but I definitely appreciate all of you and am grateful for the continued support!

My TVB Rant# 29: TVB’s 50th Anniversary Awards – the “lowlights” and “WTH” moments…

It's been a long time since I've done one of my "TVB Rants" (I actually had to go back to check which rant number I was on and realized I last did one back in 2016).  Not that there wasn't anything to complain about – believe me, with TVB, there is ALWAYS something to complain about, especially nowadays where it seems that they never fail to irritate me in one way or another – it's just that I've had more important things to do so unless the "transgression" was particularly egregious, I didn't want to take precious time out of my busy day to write about them.  Well, with TVB's 50^th Anniversary Awards that just took place this past weekend, it turned out that there was plenty to complain about – much of it in the "egregious" category – so here I am dusting off my "TVB rant" board once again.

This year's anniversary awards show was beyond disappointing – not just in the results (which I will get to in a minute) but in many other areas as well.  First of all, with this year being such a huge milestone (50^thanniversary), I would've expected at minimum the following: 1) a grand gala event with all the bells and whistles and whatnot that would've made this year's award show memorable and stand apart from all previous year's award shows  2) special guest award presenters who are non-TVB people and many of whom we haven't seen in a long time, 3) special performances and/or special tributes to commemorate 50^thanniversary, like maybe a montage clip showing past winners or something along those lines, 4) one or more award with special meaning / significance to give out only this year (to someone deserving of course) to commemorate the occasion.  Not surprisingly, TVB did not deliver on items 1 through 3 and only partially delivered on #4.  

1)      Instead of the grand gala event I was expecting, we ended up getting the same anniversary awards show that we typically get from them every year – a cheap-looking, disorganized production that felt like it was made on a shoestring budget with limited resources. The hosting was mediocre, the production was nowhere near professional-looking, and the memorability factor was severely lacking. 

2)      In terms of award presenters, there was no excitement whatsoever – in fact, I would say that I was largely disappointed in this area because every year, I look forward to seeing the presenters more than I do the actual nominees and winners.  This year, the award presenters were all mostly TVB people – many of whom were fellow nominees who had to be there anyway so might as well have them present – or people associated with TVB in some way, either directly through actual collaboration on movies (via Shaw Brothers) / TV series (i.e. Wong Jing) or indirectly through a family member's connection with TVB (i.e. Law Kar Ying and Ti Lung).  I'm honestly not sure whether TVB decided to go this route with the presenters out of laziness (i.e. not wanting to take the time to come up with a guest list and then having to call up each person to see if they could attend) or they truly couldn't get anyone outside of TVB to support them because the anniversary awards have been such a disgrace in recent years that many non-TVB artists wouldn't bother to waste their time attending.  My guess is that it was a little bit of both…

3)      I found it truly disappointing that TVB chose not to do anything special to commemorate their 50^thanniversary milestone.  Sure, it can be argued that they kind of "celebrated" already with the anniversary gala but honestly, this is different, as the anniversary awards is supposed to be their biggest show of the year.  I would've expected something similar to what Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards did to commemorate their 50^th anniversary (which was to pay tribute to Best Actor and Best Actress winners from the past 50 years by inviting them all to attend the ceremony and having them appear on stage while the audience gave them well-deserved applause – that was one of the most memorable award moments ever for me!).  Of course, I recognize that this would've been a difficult feat for TVB, since most people don't take their awards seriously anymore so most non-TVB artists wouldn't even bother attending even if they were invited – ok, fine….but how about perhaps doing a video salute then, like putting together a montage of past winners and then having as many of them as possible record a current video clip expressing their thoughts on the 50^th milestone?  This would've been simple enough to do, as all of the past TV King and TV Queen winners are still active in the industry (some even still work for TVB now) and several of them even filmed for TVB in the past year or two.  But yet, there was nothing….

4)      The one "special" thing that TVB did this year was to take the Lifetime Achievement Award and "dedicate" it to everyone who has worked at TVB over the past 50 years (artists in front of the camera as well as those behind-the-scenes).  Liza Wang accepted the award on everyone's behalf and gave a speech that basically was a plea to TVB management to treat their artists (and behind-the-scenes crew) better.  While TVB dedicating the award to "all" of their past employees is definitely a good thing, I feel that they only partially delivered in this area because it was more of a symbolic gesture than an actual award….though on second thought, I guess a "dedication" is better than no recognition at all?

By now, I'm pretty sure most people know the results of this year's awards and may even have seen the "backlash" on the various forums and social media. I'm not going to comment on all the winners (or losers) because to be honest, I really don't see the point – so the below is mostly my reaction to the few "surprises" that has everyone talking (more like yelling and screaming?) at the moment as well as some comments on a few less heavily contested categories.  

So here it goes….

The biggest shocker for me was Rebecca Zhu winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in that time-travel Eunuch series (too lazy to go look up the series' English name right now).  My first reaction when I found out she had won that award was WTF?????  I was pissed, but even more so when I actually watched the awards and saw who made it to top 5 – honestly, every single one of the other 4 actresses nominated for BSA were better than Rebecca in terms of acting (plus their characters were more memorable), yet TVB chose to give Rebecca the award over them?  Ok, so you may be wondering why am I pissed when I barely watched any of last year's series, plus I wasn't rooting for anyone in this category anyway since I didn't like most of the nominees.  Well, for me, it boils down to a matter of principle.  Those who are familiar with the anniversary awards' history will probably remember that the current iteration of the BSA award actually evolved from the "Powerhouse Actor/Actress" award, which was created to recognize those artists with great acting prowess but didn't qualify for TV King or Queen due to their roles being supporting rather than lead – so in a sense, the BSA award is the one most closely associated with actual skill in acting.  Most years, the award usually went to veterans, which made perfect sense --  of course, there were some years where TVB strayed and gave the award to someone less deserving, but for the most part I was ok with most of the past winners (with 1 or 2 exceptions of course).  This year though, was especially ridiculous because TVB essentially gave the award to someone who can't act, for a role that very few people even remember!  At first I was really puzzled why TVB would choose to give Rebecca this award when she was so obviously the least deserving of the lot, but then it dawned on me that TVB is planning to heavily promote her in the coming year (with a movie in the works as well as lead roles in several series) – so in essence, TVB used this award to advance their internal agenda (not that this is anything new on TVB's part, since they do this all the time with the TV King and Queen awards, but still…).  I think this year in particular, it was harder to stomach having this award go to someone so unqualified (and with so little acting experience) because veteran artists were largely shut out from the awards this year, with TVB choosing to award mostly the younger generation. 

Speaking of which, that leads me to the second biggest shocker, which was of course Sisley Choi winning the Favorite Female Character award.  This one was shocking in that it made no sense whatsoever, especially since this award (along with the Favorite Male Character award) is traditionally viewed as the "consolation prize" for not winning TV Queen (King).  Even if we look at this award from the perspective of "popularity contest" (which technically is what this award is about), it makes even less sense because Sisley is nowhere near popular.  Yes, she has improved tremendously in terms of her acting from the time she first started (in my book, she went from "previously unwatchable" to "currently tolerable"), but she is still nowhere near the "good" level and quite honestly still has a long way to go in order to get there.  It definitely would've made more sense to award her Most Improved and give the Favorite Female Character award to someone else more deserving.

In terms of Natalie Tong winning TV Queen – yes, it was a shock, but not at the same level as the two mentioned above.  Acting-wise, Natalie is decent (and depending on who we're comparing to, I would even say her acting skills are quite good) -- however she lacks onscreen charisma and quite honestly is a boring actress overall.  One thing's for sure -- she's definitely  not an artist I would bother turning on the TV for.  The controversy concerning her win of course is whether she should have appropriately been nominated in the TV Queen category in the first place, since her role in My Unfair Lady was largely viewed as supporting rather than lead.  Since I didn't watch that series, I can't comment on whether her screen time was enough to warrant a nomination or not but the part I do agree on is that the main reason why she won TV Queen was because Jessica Hsuan did not attend the awards ceremony (my pick for TV Queen was actually Nina Paw, but I would've been okay with Jessica winning it).  Overall though, I would say I am largely indifferent toward who wins TV Queen because this award is one that I stopped caring about long ago (the last actress whom I felt truly deserved this award was Sheren Tang back in 2010 – everyone else who won after her was largely undeserving in my book and only won due to the lack of adequate competition).

As for Mayanne Mak's win for Most Improved Female Artist (not necessarily shocking but rather unexpected due to the fact that she is a host, not an actress) -- I actually feel that the problem with her win isn't that she doesn't deserve Most Improved because she definitely does…the fault lies primarily with TVB for combining this award into one when it should have more appropriately been split into two.  I remember back in the day when the anniversary awards first started (back in 1997 through the early 2000s), TVB used to separate out their awards into "drama series" awards and "non-drama series" (variety/informational programs) awards.  The MI award used to have 2 sets of winners, one for acting in drama series and the other for hosting variety programs.  This is actually the way it SHOULD be and the way most awards ceremonies around the world do it, so I don't understand why TVB still combines it.  To be honest, out of all the female award categories this year, I actually feel that Mayanne's win was the most deserving, as she truly did do a great job this past year.  Personally, I'm actually happy to finally see a female host who has the potential to be Dodo Cheng's successor someday, as it is VERY MUCH needed at TVB right now.  There are plenty of up-and-coming male hosts to take over for Eric Tsang but how many are there on the female side?  Like two? (I'm talking hosts actually signed with TVB, not the ones they "borrow" from the various radio stations).   It's definitely not very many, that's for sure!  Hosting is not an easy job and not everyone is cut out for it – I would much rather see TVB having the likes of Mayanne hosting more variety programs than forcing us to endure those awful MHKs trying to fumble their way through a hosting gig that they obviously were not cut out for.

With all that said though – in terms of MI award, even though I feel that Mayanne is deserving of the award, I can understand the "backlash" due to the expectation that an actual "actress" was expected to win.  However, like I said earlier, the "backlash" should really be directed toward TVB and not Mayanne, since TVB should never have combined that award into one in the first place (it used to be separated out between drama and non-drama back in the old days).  Also, by having one MI award for both drama and non-drama, TVB basically locked themselves into a corner, since it's obvious the direction that they were trying to take with this year's awards was to promote up-and-comers – they could've given the MI award on the female side to both Mayanne and Sisley and then give the Female Character award to someone else and everyone would've been happy.  Aiye TVB – once again making all the wrong decisions!

In terms of Most Improved Male Artist –  sure, Mat Yeung is deserving, but um, he should have won like 10 YEARS AGO!!   I mean, how ridiculous is it for an artist who has been in the industry for 20 years (most of that time with TVB) to be receiving an award that is traditionally reserved for newbie up-and-comers?  Not only that, but how many times has Mat been nominated in this category?  Way more times than necessary, that's for sure!  I'm all for rewarding Mat for his improvement, but TVB really needs to work on redefining their award categories so that they line up more with reality.  They should either change the criteria of the Most Improved award (i.e. restrict it so that only newcomers who've been in the industry/TVB less than 5 years are eligible to be nominated) – or if they don't want to do that, then create a true "Newcomer" award so people can stop associating MI with newbies and instead let MI be purely improvement-based regardless of years in the industry.

Concluding thoughts…..

I've said many times before that if TVB wants to remain relevant in the awards game, they really need to re-assess what type of awards they give out and see if what they are doing currently still makes sense.  I'm sure TVB knows that pretty much no one takes their awards seriously anymore and if they don't change, I can totally see the anniversary awards going down the same path as JSG (in fact, this already started happening years ago).  And when I say change, I mean true change, not all this gimmicky crap that they claim to do but never really follow through on (i.e. allowing audiences to vote and actually taking those votes into consideration).  One of the most irritating things about the anniversary awards in recent years is how TVB keeps touting the fact that they allow audiences to vote for the "big categories" but looking at the results, that is obviously a bunch of hogwash, as most of the winners are obviously artists that TVB is planning to promote in the coming years.  With this year's awards in particular,  I think this became even more clear when, after the awards show, TVB exec Virginia Lok mentioned that several of the winners (referring specifically to Rebecca and Sisley) are artists that director Wong Jing especially pegged as his choices to lead in a few of his movie (and TV series) projects in the coming year.  So basically, TVB used their anniversary awards as a platform to fast-track the artists they have huge plans for in the coming year to the positions they need them to be in, which to be honest isn't good at all for those artists because they haven't reached those levels yet…forcing them into those "big shoes" that they are not yet capable of filling is going to do nothing but bring them (the artists) backlash and hate.  To me, the biggest disappointment isn't really the results of this year's awards, but rather, it's seeing that TVB is up to their old tricks again, which tells me that TVB really hasn't learned anything from their past 50 years in existence.

HK television industry news: TVB’s new “cross-platform” ratings system

At the end of the last year, I recall mentioning (though can't remember if it was on my blog or in one of the discussion forums) that TVB will be adopting a new ratings system starting in 2018 (there was a general mention at the time that other stations in HK would be adopting the same system as well by default).  Well, this went into effect already and the first reports are already out.    Before we look at the actual numbers though, let's first understand what goes into the calculation.  For TVB specifically (all the articles out so far are TVB-centric – I have yet to see anything about the other TV stations so not sure how specifically they will integrate this new system), the ratings number will now be a calculation of the following 3 things:  1) traditional TV ratings (those who watch via traditional TV set same time as broadcast– these are the same ratings we have now),  2) myTV Super "live" ratings (those who watch via myTV Super platform same time as broadcast), 3) myTV Super 7 day re-watch ratings (those who don't watch same day as broadcast but go back at a later time to watch).

In order for the above method to make sense, here's a little bit of background and explanation.  We all know that nowadays, in HK especially, very few audiences watch TV on a traditional television set (by "traditional", I'm talking about those "vanilla" TV sets that are only capable of receiving free channels and maybe cable subscription – doesn't include the ones with OTT/set-top boxes) .  With all the advances in technology (and the fact that Hong Kongers are known for leading busy lives that are always "on-the-go"), the trend in recent years has been for audiences (those who still bother with television content that is) to "watch TV" via the Internet (online on a computer or hooked up to a television set via OTT set-top box) or via mobile devices such as cell phone or tablets.  In addition to watching via multiple platforms, the time of day that audiences watch has changed as well – gone are the days when a typical HK family would sit around the dinner table with the TV on and watch programs together while they ate (those who grew up with TVB in the old days like I did would probably be familiar with the phrase "rice mixed with television", lol).  Instead of watching a TV program at the same time that it is broadcast, many audiences nowadays do "catch-up" watching – basically watching all of that week's episodes at one time, either at the end of the week or on the weekend.  So then supposedly, this means that the ratings going forward should, in theory, be more "accurate" in the sense that it takes into account modern audiences' viewing habits.  

According to a Mingpao article I read today, TVB released their first ratings report under the new system and this is how a few of their programs fared (this covers the week of 1/1/18 to 1/7/18): 

Golden timeslot – 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd line series:

Come Home Love: Lo and Behold = average 23.5 points, 1.53 million audience share (households)

My Ages Apart = average 26.1 points, 1.7 million audience share (households)

Heart And Greed (Heart of Greed 3) = average 25 points, 1.62 audience share (households)

Midnight timeslot (this is the timeslot at midnightwhere TVB usually airs old series / classics)

Files of Justice V = average 7.4 points, 480,000 audience share (households)

Weekend timeslot 

Cantopop at 50 (Anita Mui Tribute special) = average 18 points, 1.17 million audience share (households)

Source: Mingpao 

https://m.mingpao.com/ldy/showbiz3.php?nodeid=1516100418360&subcate=latest&issue=20180116

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Obviously, the above is not an all-inclusive list, plus there is no comparison point in terms of what the ratings would've been for that same week if the old method was used, so personally, I am hesitant to say whether this new system is truly "more accurate".  While it does reflect better the viewing habits of audiences in the current environment, I have some reservations as to accuracy due to a few reasons. 

-          First, it appears that the calculation method for the first number (traditional TV ratings) is the same as it was previously – this number has always been a bit convoluted, as it is based on a series of algorithms and formulas performed on data that is a bit suspect to begin with, since it looks at "average" households and takes a "sampling" based on population.  I'm not a math whiz and hated Statistics in school so maybe I'm just not understanding the calculation properly but I've always been suspicious of this ratings number and what it represents, which is why I rarely ever take ratings into consideration when it comes to TV series (I basically could care less what the ratings are, since it won't impact whether I like the series or not).

-          Second, I'm not totally clear how the second number (online platform "live" ratings) is calculated.  With traditional TV ratings, despite not understanding the formulas and algorithms specifically, I at least DO have a general idea overall how the ratings are calculated (which is basically installing some type of device into the TV sets that will monitor when it is tuned to a certain program, measuring down to the minute, then sending that data to the data processing centers to get put into their various formulas).  With online ratings, how does this work?  I'm assuming it's based on number of unique clicks or something of that nature but honestly, I'm not too sure.  I was able to Google some information in general about the different methods that Internet ratings are usually captured and calculated, but without knowing which method TVB (or whoever is putting together the reports over there) is using, I can't say with any amount of confidence that this number is capturing what it's supposed to capture.

-          The third number is the most "mysterious" one in my book because honestly, how do they even capture who is going back to watch the series and who isn't?  And does it depend on how many episodes are being watched?  So like what if I missed 2 weeks worth of episodes and I binge-watch the first 7 episodes on Saturday and the last 3 episodes on Sunday?  How does that affect the number?  And what if I watch outside of the 7 day window – does that get captured in the following week's data or it doesn't get counted at all?   Obviously there are a lot of "unknowns" still with this one so until I have time to do more research and truly look at what this number is capturing, I can't really say a whole lot about it.

So in conclusion – for me personally, nothing much really changes because as I said earlier, I'm not a ratings-watcher so how well a series does or doesn't do won't impact whether I choose to watch or not….it's the content and the quality of the production that matters in my book.  With that said though, it will be interesting to see how this new ratings system evolves in the coming months as more and more people catch on and start digging into things more.  I'm sure TVB will be asked to explain their calculations at some point and if they do, then I'll be sure to post an update at that time.

Jacky concert - Confirmation of additional Las Vegas show!!

The below picture says it all!  Those who didn’t get tickets for the 2/17 show, make sure to put 1/4/18 on your calendar as that is when the tickets for the added show on 2/18 goes on sale!