Here is part 3, which covers the 2nd year acting class (for those who didn’t get a chance to read the first 2 parts, you can do so here: Part 1 & Part 2). The date range is 1972-73 (those who entered the class in 1972 and graduated in 1973). The reason why I did the dates this way is because depending on which source you read, some will refer to the classes by the year the artists entered the class while others will refer to the year they graduated. Therefore, to avoid confusion, I decided to list both.
** Note 1: The artists’ names listed in BOLD are the ones who were actually active in the HK entertainment industry (as far as I know) and /or ones whom most audiences will probably be familiar with.
** Note 2: Under the “Summary & Thoughts” section, I’ve listed various tidbits as well as other descriptive info about some of the artists that I’ve highlighted in BOLD.
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TVB 藝員訓練班（第二期）- 1972 -73年
TVB’s Acting Class – 2nd year (1972-73)
宋豪辉 (Song Hao Fai)、伍衛國 (Lawrence Ng Wai Kwok)、盧宛茵 (Angelina Lo Yuen Yan), 梁鴻華 (Leung Hung Wah)
SUMMARY & THOUGHTS:
.—First of all, I must say that I was surprised to see only 4 names for the class of 1973. I actually checked a few lists and did some additional research, but everything I found only had the same 4 names. However, none of the sources stated whether there were only 4 names because that year, there were only 4 people in the Acting Class (which is sort of hard to believe) or whether there were actually others in the class, but for some reason, only 4 are listed, perhaps because the others were not recorded down somehow (or perhaps were not worthy of mention?).
.—One theory for why only 4 names are mentioned is that this particular year’s acting class is considered ‘the calm before the storm’, as the artists to come out of the classes for the next 10 years following this one will be the ‘most well-known’ – they are also the ones responsible for ‘creating’ the Golden Era of HK entertainment.
.—Out of the 4 names listed, I actually only know 3 of them, so that’s where my focus will be for the purposes of this post. Though I’ve never heard of Song Hao Fai, I did look him up and basically all I know is that he is a director as well as a songwriter – that’s as far as my knowledge goes though.
.—Lawrence Ng Wai Kwok should be a familiar name to most of today’s audiences, as he had participated in a handful of TVB series these past few years, including “The Drive of Life” (2007), “The Silver Chamber of Sorrows” (2008), and “The Season of Fate” (2010). Of course, his roles in each of those series were only supporting, but actually, back in the day (in the 1970s at TVB as well as Commercial Television and in the 1980s at ATV), he played mostly first male lead roles – to the point that he was nicknamed ‘Ng Siu Sang’. He was actually one of the few artists who worked for all 4 major TV stations in HK (Commercial TV, Rediffusion TV, TVB, ATV) at different points in his career. Another ‘record’ that he set was for being one of the few artists who has returned to TVB the most times : he started off at TVB in the 70s, then went to Commercial Television in 1976 – unfortunately, Commercial TV closed down in 1978, so he went to Rediffusion Television in 1979, continuing there even when RTV became ATV in 1982 and staying with ATV into the 90s. In 1993, he returned to TVB and participated in a few series, but then left again, as he was in ‘half-retired’ mode and moved his career to Mainland. It wasn’t until 2007 that he returned to TVB for the 3rd time.
I personally have not watched majority of Lawrence’s series from the 70s, 80s, or 90s, so I can’t really comment on his acting. I did watch his performance in “The Drive of Life” though and felt that he was quite good. Apparently, he was quite popular back in the day, so those who are interested in knowing more may want to ask your parents, as I’m sure they probably know who he is.
.—Angelina Lo should also be a familiar name to most audiences, as she has been consistently active at TVB for the past 3 decades, participating in countless series. 80s audiences are probably most familiar with her breakthrough role as ‘Third Auntie’ in the classic series “The Seasons” (1988) – that role pretty much made her a household name in HK. That was actually the first series that I watched of Angelina’s and she definitely left quite an impression on me – that role was one that audiences pretty much ‘loved to hate’….she wasn’t a villain by any means – it’s just that her character was bossy, loud-mouthed, annoying, rude, and always seemed to ‘hurt’ people with her words (though sometimes not intentionally). She played numerous ‘mother’ roles after that throughout the rest of the 80s, 90s, and 00s, however in my opinion, none of her subsequent roles were able to top her ‘Third Auntie’ role. In the 90s, her best role (in my opinion) was in the sitcom “Family Squad” (1992) where she played the mother of Anita Lee, Lai Hoi Shan, and Joe Tay. In the ‘after 2000s’ era, her most memorable role (again, my opinion) is probably as Roger Kwok’s mother in “Square Pegs” and “Life Made Simple”.
.—Leung Hung Wah is one of those actors whose face I recognize, but never knew his name. He was most active in the 80s, where he participated in numerous series (especially ancient series), but almost all were small roles that couldn’t even be considered ‘supporting’. If I recall correctly, I believe the biggest role in his entire acting career was in “The Return of Luk Siu Fung” (1986) – but it was still a lesser supporting role compared to others in that series. There actually isn’t a whole lot of information about Leung Hung Wah out there, but the little I was able to find pretty much stated that later on in his career, he became a director focusing on horror movies – it didn’t sound like he was too successful, as many of his films – especially later in his career – basically flopped at the box office.
.--.
Stay tuned for part 4….if most of the names in the first few parts did not sound familiar to you, the ones starting with the next post (Class of 1974) definitely will!
LL's Musings 小賢角落
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
TVB Acting Classes: 1st Year Artists List – 1971-72 (Part 2 in a series)
As I promised in Part 1 of my “TVB Acting Class History” series, this post is the first of the Artists Lists that I will be posting.
TVB had a really awesome Acting Class back in the day (I'm talking late 70s / early 80s) but heading into the 90s and 00s, the format of the classes as well as the instructors changed -- to the point that an artist graduating from the Acting Class in the late 90s (as an example) has nowhere near the skill of an artist who graduated from the 70s/80s classes. I talked about this a little bit in my introductory post when I outline the history and evolution of the class.
Just as a point of reference, I felt it would be interesting to go back through the Acting Classes from its start in the 70s until present to see which artists had gone through the classes and which ones did not. I did some research and was able to find various listings related to the classes. I tried my best to compile as inclusive of a list as I could, but of course, some information dates as far back as 30 years and therefore may not be available anymore. So please do not consider this an all-inclusive list because it most likely isn’t (and if there are any inaccuracies with the information, I apologize in advance).
Whenever possible, I tried to list out the artists’ English names, but since I’m not familiar with all the artists and some of them may not even have English names, I decided to use Cantonese pinyin for the translated portion.
** Note 1: The artists’ names listed in BOLD are the ones who were actually active in the HK entertainment industry (as far as I know) and /or ones whom most audiences will probably be familiar with.
** Note 2: Under the “Summary & Thoughts” section, I’ve listed various tidbits as well as other descriptive info about some of the artists that I’ve highlighted in BOLD.
Hopefully, readers may find this list useful. If there are any artists listed that you would like to comment on, please feel free!
.***.
Names list credit to : HKM Mon Amour
TVB 藝員訓練班（第一期）- 1971 -72年
TVB’s Acting Class – 1st year (1971-72)
呂有慧 (Lisa Lui Yau Wai)、陳嘉儀 (Chan Kar Yi)、莊文清 (Chong Man Ching)、郭鋒 (Samuel Kwok Fung)、高妙思 (Ko Miu Si)、蘇杏璇 (So Hang Suen)、黃允材 (Wong Wan Choi)、甘國亮 (Kam Kwok Leung)、招振強 (Chiu Chun Keung)、許紹雄 (Benz Hui)、陳美琪 (Maggie Chan), 劉緯民 (Lau Wai Min)、陳喜蓮 (Chan Hei Lian)、金興賢 (Kam Hing Yin)、關聰 (Kwan Chung), 林偉圖 (Lam Wai To)、林德祿 (Lam Tak Luk)、梁立人 (Leung Lap Yan)、陳婉桃 (Chan Yuen To)、張惠儀 (Cheung Wai Yi)、蔡婉萍 (Choi Yuen Ping)、周如英 (Chow Yu Ying)、覃恩美 (Tam Yan Mei)、何鳳翎 (Ho Feng Ling)、許楚娟 (Hui Chor Jun)、顧小萍 (Ku Siu Ping)、郭雅烈 (Kwok Ya Lit)、鄺靜美 (Kwong Jing Mei)、李佩貞 (Lee Pei Zhen)、李小梨 (Lee Siu Lei)、岑清媚 (Shum Ching Mei)、蘇文儀 (So Man Yi)、孫明貞 (Suen Ming Zhen)、王麗容 (Wong Lai Yong)、汪慧莉 (Wang Wai Lei) 、楊蓮桂 (Yang Lian Gui)、陳培達 (Chan Pei Tat)、鄭樹光 (Cheng Shu Kwong)、張汝棠 (Cheung Yu Tong)、梁大成 (Leung Dai Sing)、施學全 (Si Hok Chuen)、田民族 (Tin Min Juk)、溫燦華 (Wan Chan Wah)、甄怡石 (Yan Yi Shek)
SUMMARY & THOUGHTS:
.-- Lisa Lui participated in many series in the 70s and 80s, however most audiences probably remember her best as Lee Mok Sau in the Andy Lau / Idy Chan version of “Return of the Condor Heroes” (also her most famous role). Current audiences probably know her from the 2010 series “Growing Through Life”, which marked her return to TVB after more than a decade (her last role prior to that if I remember correctly was a guest appearance on the 3rd installment of “Detective Investigation Files” in 1997).
.—Chan Kar Yi also participated in a lot of series in the 70s and 80s. You probably don’t recognize the name, but I’m pretty sure that those of you who were around during that time would probably recognize the face. Interestingly, her most famous role (to the ‘after 80s’ audiences anyway) was as a ‘corpse’ – she played Wong Yung’s (Barbara Yung) deceased mother in the classic 1983 version of “Legend of the Condor Heroes”, a minor character in the series whose story was told primarily in flashbacks .
.—Chong Man Ching was most active in the 70s and 80s and played supporting roles her entire career, usually portraying the ‘friend’ or ‘schoolmate’ of the main female lead (remember Angie Chiu’s friend and schoolmate Wang Yuet Kei in the 1980 version of “The Bund”?). Chong Man Ching was once married to producer Chiu Chun Keung(more on him later on in this post), but they divorced many years later. She lived a pretty difficult life -- she was known as a ‘medicine pot’ who constantly had medicine with her because of health problems, she had a mother who was a life-long gambler that she eventually severed ties with, and her marriage ended in divorce when it was discovered that her husband had an affair. In 1991, she left all the ‘troubles’ of the world behind her and entered the monastery, becoming a monk.
.— I’m sure everyone is familiar with Samuel Kwok Fung, as he is still active in the TV industry even now (he is one of my most favorite supporting actors). He participated in countless series in the close to 40 years that he has been in the industry and actually was one of the few actors who had worked for 3 of the most popular TV stations at the time: Rediffusion Television (in the 70s), TVB (in the 80s and currently), and ATV (in the 90s). His wife is actress Susanna Au Yeung(歐陽佩珊), who retired from the industry in the mid-90s and is currently working in the area of Chinese medicine (as an acupuncturist). Samuel and Susanna have been married for 34 years (wow!) – one of the early ‘golden couples’ who are still together today and still as much in love with each other as they were so many years ago! (awwww....)
.—Ko Miu Si is a another actress whom audiences will probably recognize her face, but not her name. She was most active in the 70s / early 80s and participated in majority ancient series (costume dramas). I would have to do some research to know for sure, but I’m willing to bet that she is probably the only actress who was in practically every single one of TVB’s Jin Yong and Gu Long remakes from the 70s and 80s. I know that she retired from the industry a long time ago (back in the early 90s), but that’s as far as my knowledge goes, since there is so little information about her out there nowadays.
.—If you’re an 80s TVB series fanatic, you better know who So Hang Suen is! Even if you don’t remember her name in real life, I’m sure you will definitely remember the many classic “mother” characters she played: Kwok Jing’s (Felix Wong) mother Lee Ping in 1983’s “Legend of the Condor Heroes”, Cheung Wah Kit’s (Tony Leung) mother in all 3 installments of “Police Cadet”, Ding Yau Kin’s (Felix Wong) and Ding Yau Hong’s (Deric Wan) adoptive mother Auntie Wan in 1989’s “Looking Back in Anger”, etc. (just to name a few). She retired from the industry in the mid-90s and went into the restaurant business, though she did continue to participate in series here and there, primarily in cameo roles (ATV series, not TVB). The latest I heard is that So Hang Suen is helping to teach acting at one of the schools that she and other fellow veteran artists collaborated on opening last year.
.—Wong Wan Choi is another famous supporting actor whom 80s TVB series fanatics will be familiar with – especially if you’re a fan of ancient series. He participated in so many series in the past 3 decades that I can’t even begin to recount them – but of course, one of his most famous roles (and I say ‘one’ because he surely had many famous roles) was the character Au Yeung Hak from the 1983 version of “Legend of the Condor Heroes”. Wong Wan Choi is still quite active in the industry even now, participating in stage productions and various shows in Mainland China. Not only that, he also has his medical license and is a very famous Chinese herbal doctor in Hong Kong (has been since the 80s), with his own medical clinic and everything! As if that’s not enough, he is also a philanthropist who has devoted most of his life in the past decade doing charity work and helping out the elderly especially. Definitely a very admirable man!
.—Kam Kwok Leung is a very talented man who wears many many hats. He is one of HK’s most famous ‘cross-media’ celebrities, as he has been involved in almost every discipline in the entertainment industry (TV, movies, music, radio, theater, etc.). At TVB, he was most famous for his screenwriting talent, as he wrote the scripts for several of the early 80s’ most popular female-oriented series such as “No Biz Like Showbiz”, “Don’t Look Now”, “No One is Innocent”, etc. He’s also a famous movie director, radio DJ / executive, actor, host, etc. Of course, many of us remember him also because of his famous ‘other half’ – he dated actress / host DoDo (Carol) Cheng for 10 years back in the 80s (they broke up in 1990 but are still friends).
.—I mentioned Chiu Chun Keung earlier in this post. He is one of TVB’s most famous producers from the 70s and 80s. Some of the series that he produced include (these are just the most famous ones): “The Bund” (1980) with Chow Yun Fat, Ray Lui, Angie Chiu, “You Only Live Twice” with Michael Miu and Jamie Chik, “Police Cadet 84” with Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, “Police Cadet 85” with Tony Leung and Margie Tsang….just to name a few….he went to ATV in the late 80s but didn’t have much success. He returned to TVB in 1996 to produce his last series “Once Upon a Time in Shanghai” (the remake of “The Bund” with Sunny Chan, Gordon Lam, Nnadia Chan), but then left after that….not 100% sure what he is doing now, though I think he’s working in movies currently. The other ‘situation’ he was famous for was his affair with 80s actress Ng Sai Mei (吳茜薇), whom he married after his divorce with Chong Man Ching.
.—Benz Hui (also known as “Green Leaf King”) is my all time favorite supporting actor! He has pretty much been consistently active in the HK television industry since the early 70s up to today (2011), so I guess I don’t need to do much in terms of intro, since most people know who he is. One interesting tidbit about Benz (other than how his English name came about – which you probably guessed is because he used to drive a Mercedes Benz to work) is that he actually has an aristocratic family background, as his great-grandfather was a high-ranking bureaucrat in Imperial times; also, his great-aunt is the wife of famous Chinese author Lu Xun (other members of his family also have ‘famous’ pasts, but too many to list). Anyway, I love Benz – he’s definitely one of the greatest supporting actors of all time!!
.—Maggie Chan also isn’t a stranger to viewers, as she participated in a lot of series in the late 80s and throughout the 90s. I of course remember her most for her roles in “Detective Investigation Files” (she played Kenix Kwok’s older sister) and “Untraceable Evidence” (she played Flora Chan’s older sister). I’ve always liked how Maggie is so natural with her acting, which is why I enjoy almost all of her performances (even if I don’t like the series itself). Maggie is actually known as a 才女 (‘gifted female’) in the industry, as she is very studious and even obtained an MBA at the same time that she was pursuing her acting career (she’s definitely one of the few artists in the industry who actually continued her studies and has Masters level education). She lives with her family (her second husband and his children) in Shanghai and the past few years, has taken to writing lyrics for songs.
.—Not sure how many people are familiar with Kam Hing Yin, as he is considered more of a 70s actor, since that was the height of his career. In the 80s, he was with ATV and in the 90s was when he returned to TVB. I’m actually not familiar with any of Kam Hing Yin’s works from the 70s or 80s, but I have seen most of the series he’s been in from the 90s. My understanding is that he’s also a movie actor as well.
.—Kwan Chung may not be a familiar name or face to most audiences – unless you are a fan of author Gu Long that is, as his most famous on-screen performance was as Mo Fa Monk in the 70s version of “Chor Lau Heung” (the Adam Cheng version). That role made Kwan Chung pretty much a household name in Taiwan (I wonder why Taiwan?). Also, he has a famous dad – the late veteran senior actor Kwan Hoi San (關海山).
.***.
Sorry to say that I'm actually not familiar with the rest of the artists in the list, so I'm pretty much going to end my summary here.
Stay tuned for Part 3!
TVB had a really awesome Acting Class back in the day (I'm talking late 70s / early 80s) but heading into the 90s and 00s, the format of the classes as well as the instructors changed -- to the point that an artist graduating from the Acting Class in the late 90s (as an example) has nowhere near the skill of an artist who graduated from the 70s/80s classes. I talked about this a little bit in my introductory post when I outline the history and evolution of the class.
Just as a point of reference, I felt it would be interesting to go back through the Acting Classes from its start in the 70s until present to see which artists had gone through the classes and which ones did not. I did some research and was able to find various listings related to the classes. I tried my best to compile as inclusive of a list as I could, but of course, some information dates as far back as 30 years and therefore may not be available anymore. So please do not consider this an all-inclusive list because it most likely isn’t (and if there are any inaccuracies with the information, I apologize in advance).
Whenever possible, I tried to list out the artists’ English names, but since I’m not familiar with all the artists and some of them may not even have English names, I decided to use Cantonese pinyin for the translated portion.
** Note 1: The artists’ names listed in BOLD are the ones who were actually active in the HK entertainment industry (as far as I know) and /or ones whom most audiences will probably be familiar with.
** Note 2: Under the “Summary & Thoughts” section, I’ve listed various tidbits as well as other descriptive info about some of the artists that I’ve highlighted in BOLD.
Hopefully, readers may find this list useful. If there are any artists listed that you would like to comment on, please feel free!
.***.
Names list credit to : HKM Mon Amour
TVB 藝員訓練班（第一期）- 1971 -72年
TVB’s Acting Class – 1st year (1971-72)
呂有慧 (Lisa Lui Yau Wai)、陳嘉儀 (Chan Kar Yi)、莊文清 (Chong Man Ching)、郭鋒 (Samuel Kwok Fung)、高妙思 (Ko Miu Si)、蘇杏璇 (So Hang Suen)、黃允材 (Wong Wan Choi)、甘國亮 (Kam Kwok Leung)、招振強 (Chiu Chun Keung)、許紹雄 (Benz Hui)、陳美琪 (Maggie Chan), 劉緯民 (Lau Wai Min)、陳喜蓮 (Chan Hei Lian)、金興賢 (Kam Hing Yin)、關聰 (Kwan Chung), 林偉圖 (Lam Wai To)、林德祿 (Lam Tak Luk)、梁立人 (Leung Lap Yan)、陳婉桃 (Chan Yuen To)、張惠儀 (Cheung Wai Yi)、蔡婉萍 (Choi Yuen Ping)、周如英 (Chow Yu Ying)、覃恩美 (Tam Yan Mei)、何鳳翎 (Ho Feng Ling)、許楚娟 (Hui Chor Jun)、顧小萍 (Ku Siu Ping)、郭雅烈 (Kwok Ya Lit)、鄺靜美 (Kwong Jing Mei)、李佩貞 (Lee Pei Zhen)、李小梨 (Lee Siu Lei)、岑清媚 (Shum Ching Mei)、蘇文儀 (So Man Yi)、孫明貞 (Suen Ming Zhen)、王麗容 (Wong Lai Yong)、汪慧莉 (Wang Wai Lei) 、楊蓮桂 (Yang Lian Gui)、陳培達 (Chan Pei Tat)、鄭樹光 (Cheng Shu Kwong)、張汝棠 (Cheung Yu Tong)、梁大成 (Leung Dai Sing)、施學全 (Si Hok Chuen)、田民族 (Tin Min Juk)、溫燦華 (Wan Chan Wah)、甄怡石 (Yan Yi Shek)
SUMMARY & THOUGHTS:
.-- Lisa Lui participated in many series in the 70s and 80s, however most audiences probably remember her best as Lee Mok Sau in the Andy Lau / Idy Chan version of “Return of the Condor Heroes” (also her most famous role). Current audiences probably know her from the 2010 series “Growing Through Life”, which marked her return to TVB after more than a decade (her last role prior to that if I remember correctly was a guest appearance on the 3rd installment of “Detective Investigation Files” in 1997).
.—Chan Kar Yi also participated in a lot of series in the 70s and 80s. You probably don’t recognize the name, but I’m pretty sure that those of you who were around during that time would probably recognize the face. Interestingly, her most famous role (to the ‘after 80s’ audiences anyway) was as a ‘corpse’ – she played Wong Yung’s (Barbara Yung) deceased mother in the classic 1983 version of “Legend of the Condor Heroes”, a minor character in the series whose story was told primarily in flashbacks .
.—Chong Man Ching was most active in the 70s and 80s and played supporting roles her entire career, usually portraying the ‘friend’ or ‘schoolmate’ of the main female lead (remember Angie Chiu’s friend and schoolmate Wang Yuet Kei in the 1980 version of “The Bund”?). Chong Man Ching was once married to producer Chiu Chun Keung(more on him later on in this post), but they divorced many years later. She lived a pretty difficult life -- she was known as a ‘medicine pot’ who constantly had medicine with her because of health problems, she had a mother who was a life-long gambler that she eventually severed ties with, and her marriage ended in divorce when it was discovered that her husband had an affair. In 1991, she left all the ‘troubles’ of the world behind her and entered the monastery, becoming a monk.
.— I’m sure everyone is familiar with Samuel Kwok Fung, as he is still active in the TV industry even now (he is one of my most favorite supporting actors). He participated in countless series in the close to 40 years that he has been in the industry and actually was one of the few actors who had worked for 3 of the most popular TV stations at the time: Rediffusion Television (in the 70s), TVB (in the 80s and currently), and ATV (in the 90s). His wife is actress Susanna Au Yeung(歐陽佩珊), who retired from the industry in the mid-90s and is currently working in the area of Chinese medicine (as an acupuncturist). Samuel and Susanna have been married for 34 years (wow!) – one of the early ‘golden couples’ who are still together today and still as much in love with each other as they were so many years ago! (awwww....)
.—Ko Miu Si is a another actress whom audiences will probably recognize her face, but not her name. She was most active in the 70s / early 80s and participated in majority ancient series (costume dramas). I would have to do some research to know for sure, but I’m willing to bet that she is probably the only actress who was in practically every single one of TVB’s Jin Yong and Gu Long remakes from the 70s and 80s. I know that she retired from the industry a long time ago (back in the early 90s), but that’s as far as my knowledge goes, since there is so little information about her out there nowadays.
.—If you’re an 80s TVB series fanatic, you better know who So Hang Suen is! Even if you don’t remember her name in real life, I’m sure you will definitely remember the many classic “mother” characters she played: Kwok Jing’s (Felix Wong) mother Lee Ping in 1983’s “Legend of the Condor Heroes”, Cheung Wah Kit’s (Tony Leung) mother in all 3 installments of “Police Cadet”, Ding Yau Kin’s (Felix Wong) and Ding Yau Hong’s (Deric Wan) adoptive mother Auntie Wan in 1989’s “Looking Back in Anger”, etc. (just to name a few). She retired from the industry in the mid-90s and went into the restaurant business, though she did continue to participate in series here and there, primarily in cameo roles (ATV series, not TVB). The latest I heard is that So Hang Suen is helping to teach acting at one of the schools that she and other fellow veteran artists collaborated on opening last year.
.—Wong Wan Choi is another famous supporting actor whom 80s TVB series fanatics will be familiar with – especially if you’re a fan of ancient series. He participated in so many series in the past 3 decades that I can’t even begin to recount them – but of course, one of his most famous roles (and I say ‘one’ because he surely had many famous roles) was the character Au Yeung Hak from the 1983 version of “Legend of the Condor Heroes”. Wong Wan Choi is still quite active in the industry even now, participating in stage productions and various shows in Mainland China. Not only that, he also has his medical license and is a very famous Chinese herbal doctor in Hong Kong (has been since the 80s), with his own medical clinic and everything! As if that’s not enough, he is also a philanthropist who has devoted most of his life in the past decade doing charity work and helping out the elderly especially. Definitely a very admirable man!
.—Kam Kwok Leung is a very talented man who wears many many hats. He is one of HK’s most famous ‘cross-media’ celebrities, as he has been involved in almost every discipline in the entertainment industry (TV, movies, music, radio, theater, etc.). At TVB, he was most famous for his screenwriting talent, as he wrote the scripts for several of the early 80s’ most popular female-oriented series such as “No Biz Like Showbiz”, “Don’t Look Now”, “No One is Innocent”, etc. He’s also a famous movie director, radio DJ / executive, actor, host, etc. Of course, many of us remember him also because of his famous ‘other half’ – he dated actress / host DoDo (Carol) Cheng for 10 years back in the 80s (they broke up in 1990 but are still friends).
.—I mentioned Chiu Chun Keung earlier in this post. He is one of TVB’s most famous producers from the 70s and 80s. Some of the series that he produced include (these are just the most famous ones): “The Bund” (1980) with Chow Yun Fat, Ray Lui, Angie Chiu, “You Only Live Twice” with Michael Miu and Jamie Chik, “Police Cadet 84” with Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, “Police Cadet 85” with Tony Leung and Margie Tsang….just to name a few….he went to ATV in the late 80s but didn’t have much success. He returned to TVB in 1996 to produce his last series “Once Upon a Time in Shanghai” (the remake of “The Bund” with Sunny Chan, Gordon Lam, Nnadia Chan), but then left after that….not 100% sure what he is doing now, though I think he’s working in movies currently. The other ‘situation’ he was famous for was his affair with 80s actress Ng Sai Mei (吳茜薇), whom he married after his divorce with Chong Man Ching.
.—Benz Hui (also known as “Green Leaf King”) is my all time favorite supporting actor! He has pretty much been consistently active in the HK television industry since the early 70s up to today (2011), so I guess I don’t need to do much in terms of intro, since most people know who he is. One interesting tidbit about Benz (other than how his English name came about – which you probably guessed is because he used to drive a Mercedes Benz to work) is that he actually has an aristocratic family background, as his great-grandfather was a high-ranking bureaucrat in Imperial times; also, his great-aunt is the wife of famous Chinese author Lu Xun (other members of his family also have ‘famous’ pasts, but too many to list). Anyway, I love Benz – he’s definitely one of the greatest supporting actors of all time!!
.—Maggie Chan also isn’t a stranger to viewers, as she participated in a lot of series in the late 80s and throughout the 90s. I of course remember her most for her roles in “Detective Investigation Files” (she played Kenix Kwok’s older sister) and “Untraceable Evidence” (she played Flora Chan’s older sister). I’ve always liked how Maggie is so natural with her acting, which is why I enjoy almost all of her performances (even if I don’t like the series itself). Maggie is actually known as a 才女 (‘gifted female’) in the industry, as she is very studious and even obtained an MBA at the same time that she was pursuing her acting career (she’s definitely one of the few artists in the industry who actually continued her studies and has Masters level education). She lives with her family (her second husband and his children) in Shanghai and the past few years, has taken to writing lyrics for songs.
.—Not sure how many people are familiar with Kam Hing Yin, as he is considered more of a 70s actor, since that was the height of his career. In the 80s, he was with ATV and in the 90s was when he returned to TVB. I’m actually not familiar with any of Kam Hing Yin’s works from the 70s or 80s, but I have seen most of the series he’s been in from the 90s. My understanding is that he’s also a movie actor as well.
.—Kwan Chung may not be a familiar name or face to most audiences – unless you are a fan of author Gu Long that is, as his most famous on-screen performance was as Mo Fa Monk in the 70s version of “Chor Lau Heung” (the Adam Cheng version). That role made Kwan Chung pretty much a household name in Taiwan (I wonder why Taiwan?). Also, he has a famous dad – the late veteran senior actor Kwan Hoi San (關海山).
.***.
Sorry to say that I'm actually not familiar with the rest of the artists in the list, so I'm pretty much going to end my summary here.
Stay tuned for Part 3!
TVB Acting Classes: Intro and Brief History (Part 1 in a series) *Re-post updated version*
NOTE: I decided to start up my "TVB Acting Class History" series again, since the last time I published was back in October 2010. Below is pretty much the original post that I wrote last year, with a few slight edits. Part 2 will be posted up shortly....
*********************************
*** Original posting published in October 2010***
Reading all the articles about Kiki Sheung's wedding last week inspired me to write a blog post on the following topic --TVB's Acting Classes.
Just as a bit of background: Kiki graduated from TVB's 12th Acting Class in 1983 -- which, by the way, was the last year that TVB had the full year acting classes (more on this later). For her wedding, Kiki invited all of her classmates from Acting Class -- and pretty much all of them attended! As an 80s fanatic, I loved reading the articles and seeing the picture because it was basically like an Acting Class reunion -- especially since many of the artists are no longer active in HK's television industry and so we (audiences) may not have seen them for a long time! And I actually thought it was very sweet of her classmates to attend her wedding as well as go on stage to tell stories and give blessings to Kiki and her husband. I'm sure it meant alot to her -- especially since she probably hadn't seen many of the artists for a long time!
This leads me to the original topic at hand -- TVB's Acting Classes. The below is more of a "history" of the Acting Classes based on my memory (growing up in the 80s/90s) as well as some follow-up research that I had done. In the subsequent parts, I will list the artists for each year’s acting class, however note that the list will NOT be complete, as I will only be listing those artists who are either somewhat familiar to audiences or eventually became well-known.
One 'disclaimer' regarding the below info -- the summary as well as the list of artists for each year's acting class is based on a list I found on the internet as well as from my own compiled data from magazines, books, TV shows, and other sources (mostly interviews with some of the artists that I watched/read throughout the past 20 or so years). With that said, if anyone finds any inaccuracies with the information, please let me know. Thanks.
.***
Quick summary / History
TVB's acting classes started in 1971 for the purpose of training up acting talent. In the early days, TVB’s acting classes were a collaborative effort with Shaw Brothers Studios – it wasn’t until the 9th class (1979) that the acting classes were organized exclusively by TVB (no longer collaborative with Shaw Brothers).
The initial classes lasted 1 full year and were full day classes (just like regular school). The 1 year was separated into 2 parts – the first 6 months were dedicated to learning basic knowledge needed for performing in front of the camera as well as various ‘behind-the-scenes’ concepts. Curriculum included: performance, dialogue, dance, martial arts, screenwriting theory, photography basics, television concepts, form and structure analogy, makeup, fashion, hairstyling, etc. The last 6 months were dedicated to ‘hands-on practice’ or internships out in the field. Of course, within the year, there are various tests that the students must take and only those who passed all the tests, went through all the courses, and successfully graduated were allowed to become TVB artists.
.**
Since we’re talking about the TVB acting classes, I feel that it would be appropriate to mention one of the biggest reasons why the acting classes from the 70s and 80s were such a huge success: the instructors who taught each of the classes and were truly responsible for the success of many of the big name artists (i.e.: Chow Yun Fat, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Carina Lau, Sean Lau, etc.). The most famous acting class instructors back in the 70s/80s were Chung King Fai (King Sir), Chan You Hou, and Lau Fong Gong, among many others.
As a side note, I felt the need to talk a little bit about these instructors, as I find it unfortunate that they do not get much mention by TVB or by the general Media, even though their contributions to the industry are so great (fortunately, many of the artists from the 70s/80s who went through acting class DO mention the instructors often and express their gratitude to them for their teaching and instruction). Well, if TVB and the Media don’t care about giving credit where it’s due, that’s their issue – I personally have a lot of respect for these elders and so this is my way of paying tribute to them…
King Sir actually wears many hats, as he is active in both theater as well as television and has taken up posts in acting, directing, producing, teaching, etc. He has a doctorate degree, has gotten many awards, and has dedicated almost his entire life to the entertainment industry. He has actually worked at both TVB as well as ATV and is most famous for establishing the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts back in 1984 -- the HKAPA is the ONLY professional Performing Arts school in HK. (Some of the most famous graduates from the HKAPA: actors/actresses Sunny Chan, Power Chan, Rain Lau, Gigi Lai, Anthony Wong, Wong Cho Lam, Marco Ngai, etc. as well as singer G.E.M.). King Sir currently has gone back to his acting roots and continues to participate occasionally in TV series, though his real passion is for theater, which he continues to participate in actively. His most recent theater work was the stageplay “Richard III”, co-starring Bowie Lam.
Chan You Hou (known as ‘Uncle Hou’) is one of TV’s most senior actors who also started in theater. Ironically, his forte is actually in teaching, but he is probably the most well-known for his acting, at least for HK audiences (I actually never knew he was a teacher until my mom told me, then I went back and researched more about him). He participated in numerous series (too many to count) from the 1970s to the early 1990s and had also worked for ATV’s predecessor Rediffusion TV back in the 1970s. He retired and immigrated to Canada in the 1990s, but then returned to live permanently in Hong Kong later in the decade. Some of Uncle Hou’s most famous students: Chow Yun Fat, Liza Wang, Johnnie To, Alex Man, etc. Sadly, Chan You Hou passed away due to illness in June of this year at the age of 96.
Lau Fong Gong was a film director from Taiwan who formerly worked for the Shaw Brothers in the 1970s, then switched to TVB to become a writer/director and eventually became an instructor for the acting classes – in fact, he wasn’t just an instructor, he was actually the supervisor of the acting classes. Since he didn’t participate in any TV series like King Sir or Uncle Hou, many audiences may not know who he is – but I’m sure many people know actress Gigi Wong, whom he was married to for almost 10 years (they divorced in 1978). Lau Fong Gong is also credited with launching the careers of quite a few artists – the most famous ones were: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Carina Lau, Stephen Chow, as well as director Wong Kar Wai. Lau passed away in November 2004 at the age of 77..**
The acting classes in the full year format lasted 12 years, ending with the 12th Acting Class in 1983 (Kiki Sheung’s year).
Starting in 1984, TVB changed the format of the acting classes completely – instead of doing a 1 year course, they changed to a 3 month ‘crash course’. Also, the classes were no longer known as ‘Acting Classes’ but rather ‘Artist Recruitments’ that was divided into 3 main categories – actors, dancers, and hosts. So pretty much, instead of doing full-fledged classes and training people to become actors, they switched to ‘recruiting’ artists for each of the specific categories, then having them take the 3 month crash course to learn what they needed to know.
In my opinion, this actually wasn’t a bad format, since it allowed artists to focus on certain disciplines rather than just one (hey, you never know – some artists may not want to be actors and may want to be hosts or dancers instead). The only thing I don’t like about this format is the ‘fast-track’ approach, since 3 months really is not sufficient to learn the skills necessary to become truly great actors/actresses. I personally feel that this type of ‘fast-track’ course contributed TVB’s lack of quality artists in the later decades (1990s/2000s). As you’ll see later on when I post the lists of ‘well-known’ acting class / artist recruitment graduates, the number of ‘famous’ or even ‘known’ artists will dwindle drastically (meaning fewer recognizable artists).
In 1987, the official 'Acting Classes' were reinstated, but I'm sure that the curriculum changed from what it was prior to 1984. Also, it's not clear whether the length of the class went back to 1 year or remained at 3 months.
Unfortunately, around the late 1990s/early 2000s is when my ‘acting class history’ knowledge starts to get fuzzy, as that was around the time that I started getting disappointed with TVB and sort of stopped ‘following’ them as closely as I was before (though I resumed again several years ago and was able to ‘catch up’ for the most part). I had heard that some time in the 90s, TVB had reinstated the 6 month format in terms of the courses, but I don’t know for sure.
So there you go….thank you for reading my ‘in a nutshell’ version of TVB’s acting class history.
Please ‘stay tuned’ for the next topic in my ‘TVB Acting Class’ series!
*********************************
*** Original posting published in October 2010***
Reading all the articles about Kiki Sheung's wedding last week inspired me to write a blog post on the following topic --TVB's Acting Classes.
Just as a bit of background: Kiki graduated from TVB's 12th Acting Class in 1983 -- which, by the way, was the last year that TVB had the full year acting classes (more on this later). For her wedding, Kiki invited all of her classmates from Acting Class -- and pretty much all of them attended! As an 80s fanatic, I loved reading the articles and seeing the picture because it was basically like an Acting Class reunion -- especially since many of the artists are no longer active in HK's television industry and so we (audiences) may not have seen them for a long time! And I actually thought it was very sweet of her classmates to attend her wedding as well as go on stage to tell stories and give blessings to Kiki and her husband. I'm sure it meant alot to her -- especially since she probably hadn't seen many of the artists for a long time!
This leads me to the original topic at hand -- TVB's Acting Classes. The below is more of a "history" of the Acting Classes based on my memory (growing up in the 80s/90s) as well as some follow-up research that I had done. In the subsequent parts, I will list the artists for each year’s acting class, however note that the list will NOT be complete, as I will only be listing those artists who are either somewhat familiar to audiences or eventually became well-known.
One 'disclaimer' regarding the below info -- the summary as well as the list of artists for each year's acting class is based on a list I found on the internet as well as from my own compiled data from magazines, books, TV shows, and other sources (mostly interviews with some of the artists that I watched/read throughout the past 20 or so years). With that said, if anyone finds any inaccuracies with the information, please let me know. Thanks.
.***
Quick summary / History
TVB's acting classes started in 1971 for the purpose of training up acting talent. In the early days, TVB’s acting classes were a collaborative effort with Shaw Brothers Studios – it wasn’t until the 9th class (1979) that the acting classes were organized exclusively by TVB (no longer collaborative with Shaw Brothers).
The initial classes lasted 1 full year and were full day classes (just like regular school). The 1 year was separated into 2 parts – the first 6 months were dedicated to learning basic knowledge needed for performing in front of the camera as well as various ‘behind-the-scenes’ concepts. Curriculum included: performance, dialogue, dance, martial arts, screenwriting theory, photography basics, television concepts, form and structure analogy, makeup, fashion, hairstyling, etc. The last 6 months were dedicated to ‘hands-on practice’ or internships out in the field. Of course, within the year, there are various tests that the students must take and only those who passed all the tests, went through all the courses, and successfully graduated were allowed to become TVB artists.
.**
Since we’re talking about the TVB acting classes, I feel that it would be appropriate to mention one of the biggest reasons why the acting classes from the 70s and 80s were such a huge success: the instructors who taught each of the classes and were truly responsible for the success of many of the big name artists (i.e.: Chow Yun Fat, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Carina Lau, Sean Lau, etc.). The most famous acting class instructors back in the 70s/80s were Chung King Fai (King Sir), Chan You Hou, and Lau Fong Gong, among many others.
As a side note, I felt the need to talk a little bit about these instructors, as I find it unfortunate that they do not get much mention by TVB or by the general Media, even though their contributions to the industry are so great (fortunately, many of the artists from the 70s/80s who went through acting class DO mention the instructors often and express their gratitude to them for their teaching and instruction). Well, if TVB and the Media don’t care about giving credit where it’s due, that’s their issue – I personally have a lot of respect for these elders and so this is my way of paying tribute to them…
King Sir actually wears many hats, as he is active in both theater as well as television and has taken up posts in acting, directing, producing, teaching, etc. He has a doctorate degree, has gotten many awards, and has dedicated almost his entire life to the entertainment industry. He has actually worked at both TVB as well as ATV and is most famous for establishing the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts back in 1984 -- the HKAPA is the ONLY professional Performing Arts school in HK. (Some of the most famous graduates from the HKAPA: actors/actresses Sunny Chan, Power Chan, Rain Lau, Gigi Lai, Anthony Wong, Wong Cho Lam, Marco Ngai, etc. as well as singer G.E.M.). King Sir currently has gone back to his acting roots and continues to participate occasionally in TV series, though his real passion is for theater, which he continues to participate in actively. His most recent theater work was the stageplay “Richard III”, co-starring Bowie Lam.
Chan You Hou (known as ‘Uncle Hou’) is one of TV’s most senior actors who also started in theater. Ironically, his forte is actually in teaching, but he is probably the most well-known for his acting, at least for HK audiences (I actually never knew he was a teacher until my mom told me, then I went back and researched more about him). He participated in numerous series (too many to count) from the 1970s to the early 1990s and had also worked for ATV’s predecessor Rediffusion TV back in the 1970s. He retired and immigrated to Canada in the 1990s, but then returned to live permanently in Hong Kong later in the decade. Some of Uncle Hou’s most famous students: Chow Yun Fat, Liza Wang, Johnnie To, Alex Man, etc. Sadly, Chan You Hou passed away due to illness in June of this year at the age of 96.
Lau Fong Gong was a film director from Taiwan who formerly worked for the Shaw Brothers in the 1970s, then switched to TVB to become a writer/director and eventually became an instructor for the acting classes – in fact, he wasn’t just an instructor, he was actually the supervisor of the acting classes. Since he didn’t participate in any TV series like King Sir or Uncle Hou, many audiences may not know who he is – but I’m sure many people know actress Gigi Wong, whom he was married to for almost 10 years (they divorced in 1978). Lau Fong Gong is also credited with launching the careers of quite a few artists – the most famous ones were: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Carina Lau, Stephen Chow, as well as director Wong Kar Wai. Lau passed away in November 2004 at the age of 77..**
The acting classes in the full year format lasted 12 years, ending with the 12th Acting Class in 1983 (Kiki Sheung’s year).
Starting in 1984, TVB changed the format of the acting classes completely – instead of doing a 1 year course, they changed to a 3 month ‘crash course’. Also, the classes were no longer known as ‘Acting Classes’ but rather ‘Artist Recruitments’ that was divided into 3 main categories – actors, dancers, and hosts. So pretty much, instead of doing full-fledged classes and training people to become actors, they switched to ‘recruiting’ artists for each of the specific categories, then having them take the 3 month crash course to learn what they needed to know.
In my opinion, this actually wasn’t a bad format, since it allowed artists to focus on certain disciplines rather than just one (hey, you never know – some artists may not want to be actors and may want to be hosts or dancers instead). The only thing I don’t like about this format is the ‘fast-track’ approach, since 3 months really is not sufficient to learn the skills necessary to become truly great actors/actresses. I personally feel that this type of ‘fast-track’ course contributed TVB’s lack of quality artists in the later decades (1990s/2000s). As you’ll see later on when I post the lists of ‘well-known’ acting class / artist recruitment graduates, the number of ‘famous’ or even ‘known’ artists will dwindle drastically (meaning fewer recognizable artists).
In 1987, the official 'Acting Classes' were reinstated, but I'm sure that the curriculum changed from what it was prior to 1984. Also, it's not clear whether the length of the class went back to 1 year or remained at 3 months.
Unfortunately, around the late 1990s/early 2000s is when my ‘acting class history’ knowledge starts to get fuzzy, as that was around the time that I started getting disappointed with TVB and sort of stopped ‘following’ them as closely as I was before (though I resumed again several years ago and was able to ‘catch up’ for the most part). I had heard that some time in the 90s, TVB had reinstated the 6 month format in terms of the courses, but I don’t know for sure.
So there you go….thank you for reading my ‘in a nutshell’ version of TVB’s acting class history.
Please ‘stay tuned’ for the next topic in my ‘TVB Acting Class’ series!
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
My Thoughts on TVB’s 44th Anniversary Light Switching Ceremony (10/3/2011)
Photo Credit: HKChannel Weibo
** Warning: Yes, this is another one of my ‘bash TVB’ posts…if you have a problem with people saying not so pleasant things about TVB or can’t bear to hear your beloved TV station criticized, then I strongly recommend that you STOP HERE and DON’T READ ANY FURTHER! If you choose to proceed, then you do so at your own risk and I don’t want to see any “if you hate TVB so much, then don’t watch” comments (if you truly feel that way, keep it to yourself please)! Thank you.**
In accordance with tradition, TVB officially kicked off its anniversary festivities this year with the Light Switching Ceremony, which took place yesterday. As I wrote last year in my post about 2010's Light Switching ceremony (read it here), the purpose of the ceremony in recent years is pretty much to showcase upcoming grand production series, especially the anniversary series for the year.
The performances during the show really aren’t that important, as most of it is just nonsensical stuff interspersed between introduction of the series and ‘meeting’ the cast members for each series. The ‘meat’ of the program is really the group photo at the end of the ceremony, where the ‘position’ of each artist is very important, as it demonstrates how the artist is viewed by TVB (or, in certain cases, how TVB uses the opportunity to do some damage control). The basic ‘concept’ behind the group picture is: the closer to the front and middle you stand, the more ‘important’ your status is. Now of course, in recent years due to the lack of first line siu sangs and fa dans who actually attend the Light Switching Ceremony, TVB is often just trying to find artists to ‘fill up’ the front row – this was especially apparent this year, as many of what I would consider first line artists did not bother to attend, so the front row was really ‘empty’ (more on this later).
Before I go into my thoughts about this year’s ceremony, here is the rundown of the ‘standings’ in the group picture (reference pictures above)….note that I focus on the front row and part of the second row only….
Starting with the FRONT ROW:
** Sir Run Run Shaw (Uncle Six) is of course in the middle -- except this time, he is sitting instead of standing (not surprising due to his age). Usually, the two ‘Ah Jehs’ (Liza Wang and DoDo Cheng) stand on each side of him, however this year, Liza was not in attendance at the ceremony, so only DoDo stood to the right of Uncle Six. In a departure from tradition, 2 time TV King winner Wayne Lai stood to the left of Uncle Six (again, not surprising, since he has the next ‘highest status’ out of all the artists there).
**DoDo’s side (from inner to outer): Louis Yuen, Wong Cho Lam, Johnson Lee, Steven Ma, Linda Chung, Kenneth Ma, Selena Li, Ruco Chan, Nancy Wu, Alfred Hui
** Wayne’s side (from inner to outer): Maggie Cheung, Raymond Lam, Myolie Wu, Bosco Wong, Fala Chen, Ron Ng, Kate Tsui, Raymond Wong, Aimee Chan, Mag Lam
SECOND ROW:
I don’t know half the people in the second row, so I’m only going to list the ones I know for sure (and in no particular order, since the way they placed people in the second row makes absolutely no sense at all):
**Right side, behind Uncle Six and DoDo (from inner to outer): Sunny Chan, a few women I don’t know (I’m assuming they are some of the recent pageant winners?), Evergreen Mak, Kiki Sheung (with that awful hair), Eddie Cheung, Mimi Lo, Angela Tong, Pierre Ngo, Sire Ma, King Kong, and the rest I don’t know.
** Left side, behind Uncle Six and Wayne (from inner to outer): Joyce Tang, Kenny Wong, Elena Kong, Ben Wong, Natalie Tong, Vincent Wong, Toby Leung, Patrick Tang, and the rest I don’t know.
My thoughts:
.—This year’s show was absolutely disappointing. The performances were pretty much just nonsense (mostly the 3 gods trying to be funny while the 3 upcoming anniversary series and 1 new sitcom were introduced). Aside from the musical performance from Leo Ku in the beginning and then a short singing sequence from The Voice artists, the other ‘music’ related sequences were the artists singing the themesongs to the upcoming series.
I have to say that the musical performances sucked (yes, even Leo)…I’m not sure what happened, but the sound was really off – throughout the entire time Leo was singing, the microphone kept cracking and his singing sounded like it was in echo. The Voice artists were even worse – they were way off tune and when they were supposed to be singing in unison, they didn’t! I pretty much cringed throughout the entire opening sequence (luckily, it was only a few minutes long).
.—The group photo was also a joke this year! I mean, come on – how many of the artists in the front row were truly ‘first-line’ artists? I’m sure you can count them on one hand (I was only able to come up with 4, maybe 5 at the most). All the rest of the artists are second-line artists and the 2 at the end are neither first line, second line, or even third line (um, Mag and Alfred in front row? They should actually be in the back row!).
This year’s photo is what I would call PATHETIC!! With so many obvious ‘no-shows’ (and not just the first-line artists, but many of the veteran artists were missing as well), the ‘awkwardness’ of the picture was obvious.
.—The hosts and the announcer kept mentioning that ‘over 100 artists’ participated in the Lighting Ceremony. I actually question that but fine if that’s what they want to say. However, one little ‘factoid’ was missing from that announcement: half the artists in attendance were NO NAME artists whom majority of the audiences wouldn’t even know (I’m sure a lot of them were Mr and Miss HKs as well as all those other people who came from the various pageants and contests).
And even for the ‘well-known’ artists – well, majority of them just ‘stood’ there, looking pretty…they had no contribution whatsoever (unlike last year, when majority of those who attended were part of the anniversary series, so they at least had something to do other than just stand there for an hour).
.—Interestingly enough, the 3 gods (Louis Yuen, Johnson Lee, Wong Cho Lam) went from being in the 2nd row last year to first row this year – not only that, they had one of the ‘innermost’ positions, right next to DoDo Cheng . I guess that means they are more ‘important’ than Steven Ma, since he had to settle for ‘fourth’ in line (in the picture at least). That’s truly sad!
.—I was surprised that TVB’s most recent ‘golden boy’ Michael Tse wasn’t there – not that I really care, since I’ve started to dislike him in recent months anyway and frankly, I’m sick of seeing his arrogant, ‘Laughing Gor’ persona everywhere I turn. To be honest though, I would have been interested to see where his ‘position’ would be in the group photo, especially in relation to Steven Ma – basically, I wanted to see if TVB would favor him as tremendously as they have been doing these past few months.
.—I’ve never been one who cares much about fashion -- and to be honest, people’s appearances and what they are wearing, etc. are usually the last things I notice with these types of events (like that one year for example when Charmaine Sheh and Nancy Wu wore the exact same dress at the Lighting Ceremony – I didn’t even notice until the newspapers pointed it out). However, with this particular Lighting Ceremony, I definitely noticed some ‘weird’ fashion stuff (possibly because the show itself was SO BORING, I couldn’t help but notice, since there was nothing else to pay attention to??).
Here are a few fashion ‘misses’ that stood out:
.- Raymond Lam’s outfit – the top part was ok, but the bottom part…WTH? Sorry, but Raymond’s fashion sense has been really bad this past year or so….you would think that with all the models that he’s been dating, he would have learned a thing or two about wearing decent attire? (Actually, never mind that statement, as I almost forgot what kind of women he had been dating recently…)
.- Bosco Wong’s shades – um, was Bosco trying to imitate Wong Kar Wai or what? He wore those shades throughout the entire night, both during the group picture and also during the series introduction segment. I don’t know if he was trying to make himself look ‘cool’ or trying to gain attention – either way, I personally felt it was downright rude for him to wear shades the entire time (dude, at least take them off for the group picture!).
.- Kiki Sheung’s hair – OMG, I couldn’t believe the hairstyle that Kiki had (or perhaps it was a wig)? When she came out with Eddie Cheung during the segment when their sitcom was being introduced, my jaw almost dropped to the floor! That hairstyle made Kiki look like Eddie’s mother rather than his wife! I’m hoping she has a better hairstyle in the sitcom because it would be a definite eyesore to have to endure that for over 100 episodes!
.- The 3 gods were dressed weird – but then again, when do they NOT dress weird? At least they didn’t appear in drag this time , so I guess I should be thankful…
.—Overall, I felt that the show was very choppy and didn’t flow at all…not sure if it was another one of those lousy editing jobs that TVB is famous for doing, or if it’s because the lack of ‘star power’ just made the show uninteresting. Pretty much the only part I found interesting was the introduction of Forensic Heroes 3 – but that was only because the promo segment was suspenseful (plus Wayne and Maggie looked so cool).
Whatever the case, if you didn’t get a chance to watch the show, my recommendation is: DON’T WATCH IT….you definitely WON’T be missing out on anything!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
My ‘TVB Rant’ # 14: Should TVB continue to be an ‘artist management’ company? Is TVB’s ‘jack-of-all-trades’ mentality leading to its downfall?
Ok, I know I had said that I didn't want to do another ‘TVB rant’ post for a few weeks at least, since I had already done so many of them recently....BUT I can't help it, as I've been mulling over this idea for the past few days and really wanted to blog about it...
As I'm sure you've all heard by now, the 'buzz' in the HK entertainment industry these past few weeks has primarily focused on the recent aggressive 'poaching' of TVB artists, producers, scriptwriters, copy editors, artists managers, etc. by newly formed TV stations (especially Ricky Wong’s City Telecom) -- pretty much they reached out to almost everyone at the company (at least that's what the Media has been reporting, but of course, we all know we should take what the Media says with a grain of salt....)
Anyway, one thing that this whole poaching situation has done so far (which I can't really say is a bad thing) is bring to light alot of the internal 'issues' that exist at TVB -- issues that, to be honest, really are not 'secrets' in that most people (both within and outside the industry) know they exist, but just decided (for whatever reason) to 'sweep' under the rug for so many years. As a quick recap, let’s look at some of the ‘issues’ (aka ‘problems’) that have come to light through this fiasco (Note that the below are only the ‘issues’ that we hear about most often and is NOT all-inclusive):
1) TVB is cheap – This is no surprise, neither is it a secret, as TVB is known for not paying their artists much money. The company itself has even admitted on several occasions that what they pay to artists has always been lower than what’s currently in the market.
2) Long hours, no rest – Again, this is no secret…artists and behind-the-scenes crew alike often work long hours with very little rest. (Artists often tell stories of how they get off work at 4am after having been there since 6am the previous morning and only have time to go home to shower, then are back at work again by 6am.) In fact, this is something that has been going on for decades already (dating back even to the 80s). Personally, I’m not surprised -- since TVB runs its operation like a factory where they are churning out their series one after the other like an assembly line, of course this type of situation is going to occur.
3) Blatant (and not so blatant) Favoritism – I think I’ve ranted enough about this topic already, so I’m not going to go into it again in this post (if you’re interested, feel free to read my previous TVB rants, as I touch on this topic in at least ½ of them, if not more). All I’m going to say is that it’s obvious to pretty much everyone (except for die-hard TVB supporters, that is) that the management plays favorites – and I don’t care how much the management tries to deny this, it’s still not going to change the perception.
4) Lack of respect for veteran artists – This sort of goes hand in hand with point #3. And again, this is no surprise either – just look back at the series from the past 7-8 years and it’s obvious what the current management thinks of veteran artists. In their view, the veteran artists are basically a ‘tool’ to help them promote their favorite biological sons and daughters (and also to ‘fool’ the audience into watching the series and thereby boosting the ratings). Just look at the number of veteran artists who have ‘complained’ about TVB in the past 7-8 years -- whereas in comparisons, I have not heard a single one of the ‘favorites’ currently being promoted complain – and the disparity in treatment is obvious.
Since we all know that the above are already ‘common’ complaints about TVB and have been discussed numerous times in all sorts of arenas in the past decade or so, I’m not going to focus on these particular ‘issues’ in this post. Instead, I’m going to focus on an ‘issue’ that was sort of alluded to in many of the previous articles about this situation, but never really discussed : should TVB even be doing the function of artist management in the first place or should they just stick with what a TV station should truly be doing – producing series?
There has been a barrage of criticism aimed specifically at Virginia Lok (TVB’s director of production and resources and the person overseeing the artists management department) in the past few weeks (which to me, is late in coming – I mean, it took people 8 years to see how much of a bxxch she is??). Most of the criticism has been about how she neglects a lot of the artists (especiall y the veteran ones) and even when their contracts are close to expiring, she doesn’t bother to discuss contract renewal with them (that is, unless the artist is on her ‘favorites’ list of course). There are other complaints as well (I could surely spend an entire ‘rant’ on all of the complaints against Virginia Lok), but for the purposes of this post, I’m going to focus primiarily on the ‘neglect’ one.
One of the ‘excuses’ that TVB (via their spokesperson Tsang Sing Ming) has used to ‘defend’ Ms Lok is that she is not ‘purposefully’ neglecting artists – it’s just that the artists department is so huge and she has so much work to be done that it’s difficult for her to ensure every artist is ‘taken care of’ as well as they would like (personally, I feel that’s a BS excuse, but that’s beside the point right now). Ok, fine – if TVB wants to use this lame excuse, then my ‘response’ to them is: Well, then TVB should think about whether their company is suited to do the ‘artists management’ function in the first place!
I mean, the last I checked, TVB is supposed to be a TV station first and foremost – well, at least that was the intention when Run Run Shaw first started the company back in 1967. But yet, over the years, instead of remaining purely a TV station, TVB has morphed into an entertainment empire, foraying into other arenas such as music and movies. In addition to creating their own music division (TVB Music, which was established in 2003) and their own movie production company (Shaw Brothers studios, which started up again 2 years ago), TVB continued to perform the ‘management company’ (aka ‘agent’) function for artists who choose to sign management contracts with them.
Granted, the function of managing artists has been in existence since the start of the company, but given the complexity of an artist’s career nowdays, how feasible is it for TVB to continue doing this function? I could understand the reasoning behing why TVB would want artists to sign management contracts because that way, they could tie the artist down to only servicing their station and in that regard, control the artist (which I’m totally opposed to, but that’s a whole other ‘rant’). That may have worked back in the beginning years (in the 70s for example) when there were fewer artists to manage and also the artists had less complicated careers. But nowadays, with the ‘norm’ in HK for an artist to be involved in more than 1 ‘arena’ (TV, movies, music) of the entertainment business, it’s no longer as simple as managing an artist’s career in television – as the artist’s manager / agent, there is the added responsibility of managing their movie and singing career as well (plus all the product endorsements, sponsorship events, etc. that go along with it). When all of that is taken into consideration, TVB is no longer purely a TV station, but rather, a TV station / record company / movie studio / management company. If TVB were able to do all 4 things well, then ok fine – but the fact of the matter is that they’ve been doing a half-you-know-what job in EACH AREA in the past few years. Not only that, but the core function of the company’s existence – producing quality TV shows – has eroded to the point that it’s virtually non-existent now (basically, the quality has gone down the toilet – and that’s an understatement!). And on top of that, the artists themselves aren’t happy because of the poor jobs that TVB is doing with managing their careers.
If we are to go with TVB’s argument that they have too many artists to manage and with the complexity of some of the artists’ careers, it’s getting overwhelming for them to handle, so it’s possible that they may have neglected some of the artists – well, then WHY continue to be in that situation? Why can’t TVB just recognize that they can’t be the ‘jack of all trades’ trying to control the entire HK entertainment industry anymore and ‘stop the bleeding’ by scaling back on some of the functions that they really should not have been involved with in the first place?
In looking at all the events that have transpired in the past few weeks (as well as all the ‘issues’ that have accumulated in the past few decades), I feel that in order for TVB to ‘truly’ fix their problems, the action they need to take is to refocus the company back on the ‘core’ of their existence – producing quality TV shows and series (after they fire Virginia Lok, that is – and yes, I’m biased against her). This means that they need to get rid of all the ‘excess’ functions that they were doing (music, movies, artist management) and go back to their roots. Instead of trying to tie down an artist to their station by trying to be the ‘agent’ managing their career, TVB should get out of that business and leave the ‘managing’ to the people who specialize in it (and yes, there are PLENTY of companies as well as individuals out there who specialize in the agent / manager thing). This is definitely a ‘win/win’ solution for both TVB as well as the artists for the following reasons:
1) TVB doesn’t have to worry any longer about being perceived as ‘favoring’ certain artists they manage over others because they won’t be ‘managing’ anyone. All the artists would be ‘free agents’ whose sole relationship with TVB would be to film series for them and that’s it. In a sense, it would work similar to the whole ‘per series / show contract’ that TVB currently has with a lot of artists – the artist would sign a contract agreeing to film a particular series or a certain number of episodes for TVB and once the contractual obligation is fulfilled, they can decide whether they want to continue collaborating on a transactional basis. Overall, the relationship with the artists would be healthier.
2) Image-wise, this would definitely be better for TVB, as it would do away with the whole biological child (artist managed by TVB) versus non-biological child (artist not managed by TVB) problem that has plagued TVB for decades and is the subject of much criticism (as well as scorn) whenever awards time rolls around. It would definitely level the playing field.
3) For the artists, they can gain more experience working with different TV stations and different people – they can truly ‘expand their horizons’ even within HK instead of being stuck working for the same company year after year.
4) By focusing on just ONE thing (producing TV shows / series), it will hopefully allow TVB to go back to producing the QUALITY programs that had once defined them as a TV station. Oh, and by the way – they don’t have to worry about the ‘money’ aspect because if even if they are only doing ONE thing, if they do it WELL (meaning EXCELLENT), the ‘money’ (revenue / profits) will eventually come – I mean, it’s common sense…as consumers, we are more than willing to pay for a quality product, especially if we know it’s well worth the amount we pay – but we are definitely not going to pay for a product that is shoddy and easily broken (the smart ones won’t at least).
Concluding thoughts…
How likely is the above going to happen? Well, honestly I doubt it, given that TVB has been in existence for more than 40 years and is pretty much already ‘set’ in its ways. I think the only way they will be able to do it is if Mona Fong (Run Run Shaw’s wife and TVB’s current Vice-Chairman) rescinds her powers and let’s someone who is willing to embrace the above concept run the company instead. Oh, and definitely they have to get rid of that ‘evil cancer’ Virginia Lok too because so many employees hate her, many of them may not be willing to even give TVB a chance with her still there!
As I'm sure you've all heard by now, the 'buzz' in the HK entertainment industry these past few weeks has primarily focused on the recent aggressive 'poaching' of TVB artists, producers, scriptwriters, copy editors, artists managers, etc. by newly formed TV stations (especially Ricky Wong’s City Telecom) -- pretty much they reached out to almost everyone at the company (at least that's what the Media has been reporting, but of course, we all know we should take what the Media says with a grain of salt....)
Anyway, one thing that this whole poaching situation has done so far (which I can't really say is a bad thing) is bring to light alot of the internal 'issues' that exist at TVB -- issues that, to be honest, really are not 'secrets' in that most people (both within and outside the industry) know they exist, but just decided (for whatever reason) to 'sweep' under the rug for so many years. As a quick recap, let’s look at some of the ‘issues’ (aka ‘problems’) that have come to light through this fiasco (Note that the below are only the ‘issues’ that we hear about most often and is NOT all-inclusive):
1) TVB is cheap – This is no surprise, neither is it a secret, as TVB is known for not paying their artists much money. The company itself has even admitted on several occasions that what they pay to artists has always been lower than what’s currently in the market.
2) Long hours, no rest – Again, this is no secret…artists and behind-the-scenes crew alike often work long hours with very little rest. (Artists often tell stories of how they get off work at 4am after having been there since 6am the previous morning and only have time to go home to shower, then are back at work again by 6am.) In fact, this is something that has been going on for decades already (dating back even to the 80s). Personally, I’m not surprised -- since TVB runs its operation like a factory where they are churning out their series one after the other like an assembly line, of course this type of situation is going to occur.
3) Blatant (and not so blatant) Favoritism – I think I’ve ranted enough about this topic already, so I’m not going to go into it again in this post (if you’re interested, feel free to read my previous TVB rants, as I touch on this topic in at least ½ of them, if not more). All I’m going to say is that it’s obvious to pretty much everyone (except for die-hard TVB supporters, that is) that the management plays favorites – and I don’t care how much the management tries to deny this, it’s still not going to change the perception.
4) Lack of respect for veteran artists – This sort of goes hand in hand with point #3. And again, this is no surprise either – just look back at the series from the past 7-8 years and it’s obvious what the current management thinks of veteran artists. In their view, the veteran artists are basically a ‘tool’ to help them promote their favorite biological sons and daughters (and also to ‘fool’ the audience into watching the series and thereby boosting the ratings). Just look at the number of veteran artists who have ‘complained’ about TVB in the past 7-8 years -- whereas in comparisons, I have not heard a single one of the ‘favorites’ currently being promoted complain – and the disparity in treatment is obvious.
Since we all know that the above are already ‘common’ complaints about TVB and have been discussed numerous times in all sorts of arenas in the past decade or so, I’m not going to focus on these particular ‘issues’ in this post. Instead, I’m going to focus on an ‘issue’ that was sort of alluded to in many of the previous articles about this situation, but never really discussed : should TVB even be doing the function of artist management in the first place or should they just stick with what a TV station should truly be doing – producing series?
There has been a barrage of criticism aimed specifically at Virginia Lok (TVB’s director of production and resources and the person overseeing the artists management department) in the past few weeks (which to me, is late in coming – I mean, it took people 8 years to see how much of a bxxch she is??). Most of the criticism has been about how she neglects a lot of the artists (especiall y the veteran ones) and even when their contracts are close to expiring, she doesn’t bother to discuss contract renewal with them (that is, unless the artist is on her ‘favorites’ list of course). There are other complaints as well (I could surely spend an entire ‘rant’ on all of the complaints against Virginia Lok), but for the purposes of this post, I’m going to focus primiarily on the ‘neglect’ one.
One of the ‘excuses’ that TVB (via their spokesperson Tsang Sing Ming) has used to ‘defend’ Ms Lok is that she is not ‘purposefully’ neglecting artists – it’s just that the artists department is so huge and she has so much work to be done that it’s difficult for her to ensure every artist is ‘taken care of’ as well as they would like (personally, I feel that’s a BS excuse, but that’s beside the point right now). Ok, fine – if TVB wants to use this lame excuse, then my ‘response’ to them is: Well, then TVB should think about whether their company is suited to do the ‘artists management’ function in the first place!
I mean, the last I checked, TVB is supposed to be a TV station first and foremost – well, at least that was the intention when Run Run Shaw first started the company back in 1967. But yet, over the years, instead of remaining purely a TV station, TVB has morphed into an entertainment empire, foraying into other arenas such as music and movies. In addition to creating their own music division (TVB Music, which was established in 2003) and their own movie production company (Shaw Brothers studios, which started up again 2 years ago), TVB continued to perform the ‘management company’ (aka ‘agent’) function for artists who choose to sign management contracts with them.
Granted, the function of managing artists has been in existence since the start of the company, but given the complexity of an artist’s career nowdays, how feasible is it for TVB to continue doing this function? I could understand the reasoning behing why TVB would want artists to sign management contracts because that way, they could tie the artist down to only servicing their station and in that regard, control the artist (which I’m totally opposed to, but that’s a whole other ‘rant’). That may have worked back in the beginning years (in the 70s for example) when there were fewer artists to manage and also the artists had less complicated careers. But nowadays, with the ‘norm’ in HK for an artist to be involved in more than 1 ‘arena’ (TV, movies, music) of the entertainment business, it’s no longer as simple as managing an artist’s career in television – as the artist’s manager / agent, there is the added responsibility of managing their movie and singing career as well (plus all the product endorsements, sponsorship events, etc. that go along with it). When all of that is taken into consideration, TVB is no longer purely a TV station, but rather, a TV station / record company / movie studio / management company. If TVB were able to do all 4 things well, then ok fine – but the fact of the matter is that they’ve been doing a half-you-know-what job in EACH AREA in the past few years. Not only that, but the core function of the company’s existence – producing quality TV shows – has eroded to the point that it’s virtually non-existent now (basically, the quality has gone down the toilet – and that’s an understatement!). And on top of that, the artists themselves aren’t happy because of the poor jobs that TVB is doing with managing their careers.
If we are to go with TVB’s argument that they have too many artists to manage and with the complexity of some of the artists’ careers, it’s getting overwhelming for them to handle, so it’s possible that they may have neglected some of the artists – well, then WHY continue to be in that situation? Why can’t TVB just recognize that they can’t be the ‘jack of all trades’ trying to control the entire HK entertainment industry anymore and ‘stop the bleeding’ by scaling back on some of the functions that they really should not have been involved with in the first place?
In looking at all the events that have transpired in the past few weeks (as well as all the ‘issues’ that have accumulated in the past few decades), I feel that in order for TVB to ‘truly’ fix their problems, the action they need to take is to refocus the company back on the ‘core’ of their existence – producing quality TV shows and series (after they fire Virginia Lok, that is – and yes, I’m biased against her). This means that they need to get rid of all the ‘excess’ functions that they were doing (music, movies, artist management) and go back to their roots. Instead of trying to tie down an artist to their station by trying to be the ‘agent’ managing their career, TVB should get out of that business and leave the ‘managing’ to the people who specialize in it (and yes, there are PLENTY of companies as well as individuals out there who specialize in the agent / manager thing). This is definitely a ‘win/win’ solution for both TVB as well as the artists for the following reasons:
1) TVB doesn’t have to worry any longer about being perceived as ‘favoring’ certain artists they manage over others because they won’t be ‘managing’ anyone. All the artists would be ‘free agents’ whose sole relationship with TVB would be to film series for them and that’s it. In a sense, it would work similar to the whole ‘per series / show contract’ that TVB currently has with a lot of artists – the artist would sign a contract agreeing to film a particular series or a certain number of episodes for TVB and once the contractual obligation is fulfilled, they can decide whether they want to continue collaborating on a transactional basis. Overall, the relationship with the artists would be healthier.
2) Image-wise, this would definitely be better for TVB, as it would do away with the whole biological child (artist managed by TVB) versus non-biological child (artist not managed by TVB) problem that has plagued TVB for decades and is the subject of much criticism (as well as scorn) whenever awards time rolls around. It would definitely level the playing field.
3) For the artists, they can gain more experience working with different TV stations and different people – they can truly ‘expand their horizons’ even within HK instead of being stuck working for the same company year after year.
4) By focusing on just ONE thing (producing TV shows / series), it will hopefully allow TVB to go back to producing the QUALITY programs that had once defined them as a TV station. Oh, and by the way – they don’t have to worry about the ‘money’ aspect because if even if they are only doing ONE thing, if they do it WELL (meaning EXCELLENT), the ‘money’ (revenue / profits) will eventually come – I mean, it’s common sense…as consumers, we are more than willing to pay for a quality product, especially if we know it’s well worth the amount we pay – but we are definitely not going to pay for a product that is shoddy and easily broken (the smart ones won’t at least).
Concluding thoughts…
How likely is the above going to happen? Well, honestly I doubt it, given that TVB has been in existence for more than 40 years and is pretty much already ‘set’ in its ways. I think the only way they will be able to do it is if Mona Fong (Run Run Shaw’s wife and TVB’s current Vice-Chairman) rescinds her powers and let’s someone who is willing to embrace the above concept run the company instead. Oh, and definitely they have to get rid of that ‘evil cancer’ Virginia Lok too because so many employees hate her, many of them may not be willing to even give TVB a chance with her still there!
Monday, September 26, 2011
Mingpao Interview with Bobby AuYeung (歐陽震華): 30 Years of Excellence
Another great interview from Mingpao! Bobby is one of my all-time favorite actors, so I definitely enjoyed this interview a lot. Oh, and of course, with Bobby’s awesome sense of humor, any interview with him is GUARANTEED to be funny!
Some highlights:
.> I loved the part where Bobby talks about his wife and the ‘money-tree’ thing – it was hilarious! Also, the part where he goes from giving his wife a ‘house’ to giving her a ‘button’…hahaha! That’s the quick-witted Bobby AuYeung for you!
.> I’m glad that Bobby talked about the thing with the ‘gam cho’ artists and how there’s a general lack of respect for them in the industry and in society in general. Those have been my exact sentiments for years now. Go Bobby!
.> Wait, Bobby once had a 24 inch waist? Is he sure about that? Hahahaha!
.> It’s obvious from Bobby’s interviews that he has a good head on his shoulders. I like the way he talked about how he was once neglected and even abandoned by TVB, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing because it helped him expand his horizons and see the outside world (plus he made a lot of money). Talk about turning a negative into a positive!
There were more highlights, but I’ll stop here and let you read the article on your own. It’s definitely a great one!
Enjoy!
.******.
Mingpao Interview with Bobby AuYeung: 30 Years of Excellence
Source: Mingpao
Translated by: llwy12
Bobby AuYeung has spent 30 ‘golden’ years in the entertainment industry. In 1981, he participated in TVB’s Acting Class and when he graduated the next year, he officially became a TVB contracted artist. At the time, he still went by his real name, AuYeung Yiu Chuen (歐陽耀泉) – he had a full head of hair and was skinny, with a 24 inch waist; he describes himself as the ‘Danny Chan’ type. In the past 30 years, he has built a career and family – [in 2000], he won the TV King award for his role as Song Chi in the series "Witness to a Prosecution" and he is the only TVB artist to be nominated for Best Actor at the Asian Emmy Awards for his role in "Dicey Business". Bobby admits that in the past, he had been given the ‘cold shoulder’ by TVB and in fact, was even abandoned by them – luckily, in his dictionary, there is no such word as ‘resentment’ (怨恨), only ‘gratefulness’ for his blessings (飲水思源). Therefore, every year, he makes time in his schedule to return to TVB and film series as a form of repayment.
Some of Bobby’s same year Acting Class classmates include Tony Leung, Stephen Chow, Francis Ng, Eddie Cheung, Eddie Kwan, etc. Upon graduating, each of them rose to ‘leading actor’ status one by one, however at the time, Bobby was still doing mostly small roles [‘ke le fe’] in series. 5 years after graduating from the Acting Class, Bobby had participated in 30 series – unfortunately though, his role in most of those series were so insignificant, most people probably don’t even remember the names of the characters he played.
TVB didn’t promote, but luckily the audiences did
“Back then, it was very rare for someone who came out of TVB not to succeed. I was never promoted, but was able to make it up the ladder on my own. I’m not good-looking, so it’s understandable why they wouldn’t want to promote me, but luckily, the audiences had good taste and knew how to appreciate me – I guess you can say that it’s the audiences who promoted me. Actually, I’m very lucky that the audiences were willing to accept my different types of acting – I’m not the comedian-type, but I’m able to do comedy; in "Forensic Heroes", I wasn’t funny at all, yet the audiences still enjoyed it.”
Bobby started capturing audience’s attention back in 1986, when he participated in grand production series "The Turbulent Decade". To this day, he still has fond memories of the ‘all-star’ cast from that series.
“There were Carina Lau, Margie Tsang, Jamie Chik, Eddie Cheung, Dicky Cheung, Eddie Kwan, etc…just to name a few – in the past, there were plenty of artists. Nowadays, it’s virtually impossible to gather so many first line siu sangs and fa dans all in one series – the norm now is basically one siu sang and one fa dan. This time, in "Men with No Shadows", there is Raymond Lam and myself, which is already a ‘double siu sang’ team.”
Better pay outside of TVB, ‘lucky’ that TVB gave up on him
The breakthrough in Bobby’s career came with the multi-installment series "Files of Justice", which successfully secured his position as ‘first-line male lead’ -- however, it also caused him to leave a company that he had serviced for over a decade.
“Back then, after filming the first and second installments of "Files of Justice", people started to know me and that’s when the invitations for outside jobs started coming in. Prior to my management contract expiring, I had discussed with the Artists Department about changing to a per-series contract, but they pretty much ignored me. All they said was that both parties should think about it more and left it at that – there were no further discussions about the contract. I remember when I was filming "Files of Justice III", the last day of filming was coincidentally also the day my contract was set to expire. At the time, no one sought me out to discuss contract renewal, so having self-knowledge, I took that to mean that they gave up on me! Around the same time, I received an invitation from a Malaysian company that specially liked to ‘pick up’ artists abandoned by TVB, so I accepted. I went over there and filmed a sitcom for them – I was only there for a month but unbelievably received more than 100,000 HKD salary! At the time, my salary at TVB was only about 10,000 HKD a month.”
“I sincerely thank the particular exec at TVB who decided not to renew my contract – if it weren’t for him/her, I wouldn’t know how the outside world is like. That year, the amount of money I made shooting movies and ‘direct to video tape’ series was more than what I had made the previous 10 years combined. Later on, TVB was planning on filming "Files of Justice IV", so the producer requested that I return. In the new contract talks, of course I was no longer going to accept the stipulation of filming 100 shows in 1 year! We ended up re-negotiating the contract terms to a ‘per-series’ contract and that’s the way our collaboration has been up to present day.”
Loves "Armed Reaction" and "Dicey Business" the most
After Bobby returned to TVB, he was tasked as the lead in many series, sometimes filming up to 3 to 4 series a year. At the time, the Mainland China market was not as ‘established’ as it is today.
“There’s a reason why TVB has been at the forefront of the TV industry for so many years. After filming series outside and seeing how sometimes even lighting is lacking, it made me understand that TVB truly has plentiful resources. At TVB, I’ve filmed quite a few series that I personally enjoyed a lot, especially the "Armed Reaction" franchise – now every time I see [the series] producer Kwong Yip Sun (鄺業生), I call him ‘benefactor’ (恩公)! The character ‘Chan Siu Sang’『陳小生』helped me break into the Mainland market and helped me establish the image of ‘good son, good husband, good father’ with audiences. The character was essentially a 100% great character to begin with – having me play the character made it 101% great!”
"Dicey Business" is another one of Bobby’s great works, one that he is extremely proud of. In fact, he highly recommends it as a ‘must-see’ series.
“Earlier, a fan gave me the DVD boxed set of "Dicey Business" as a gift – I spent 2 nights in a row re-watching it. There were a few parts of the series that were especially emotional, to the point that I was moved to tears while watching. It’s not often that I encounter such an excellent script! For most series, the ‘storyline’ comes first and drives the rest of the script – for "Dicey Business" however, the characters came first and drove the storyline. During filming, I didn’t have to change the script at all – I just followed the development of the character and threw myself into the role.”
Specifically praises Myolie Wu and Sire Ma
“In "Dicey Business", Bosco Wong did a very good job. Recently, I watched his performance in "Lives of Omission" and see that he is getting better and better. Earlier in the year, I also noticed Myolie Wu’s performance in "The Rippling Blossom", she has changed as well – in the past, people made fun of her for having a ‘gwing’ look, but now, she really has gotten prettier. I’m not referring to the ‘plastic surgery’ –type pretty, but rather, her looks have ‘opened’ more. I also see the potential for Sire Ma, my sister in "Men With No Shadows" , to be a ‘hot contender’ for the “Most Improved” Award this year – she’s a good girl, very hardworking and doesn’t like to generate rumors.”
Coincidentally, both Sire Ma and Myolie Wu get the chance to collaborate in Bobby’s upcoming series "Yue Fu Hidden Dragon" [temporary name]. Filming an ancient series during the sweltering summer months, Bobby expressed that his ‘record’ was having to change 5 undershirts and 2 pairs of underwear in 1 day due to all the sweat. Laughing, Bobby admitted what attracted him to the series was the group of young actresses that he gets to collaborate with – he says that the fa dans being paired with him are getting younger and younger, inovoking the ‘envy’ of his colleagues. One time, he bumped into long time partner Yoyo Mung in the makeup room and jokingly told her that the next time they collaborate in a series, she should portray his ‘stepmother’!
Collaborating with Mainland artists, he feels like a ‘toad at the bottom of the well’
Last year, after wrapping filming for "Men with No Shadows", Bobby accepted 3 Mainland series in a row, including "Ghostcatcher – Legend of Beauty 2" [天師鍾馗] and collaboration with Charmaine Sheh in "Sword-Bearing Female Constable" [帶刀女捕快] . Filming ancient series in the Mainland can be very difficult as well [due to the weather] – luckily, the production team took care of him and always made sure he had a ‘cow horn fan’ (牛角扇) by his side.
“If I don’t film ancient series, I reduce my workload by 50%. You can say that I’m a ‘money hound’ or that I’m just hardworking – either way, if there’s good opportunity, I don’t mind the toil. As long as I get a 1-2 week rest in between each series for me to re-energize, I can accept filming for 8 to 9 months out of the year. After collaborating with Mainland artists, I realize that I’m a ‘toad at the bottom of the well’. This time around, for "Ghostcatcher", I got the chance to collaborate with Mainland actor Pan Chang Jiang, who has a cameo in the series – he is one of Mainland China’s first class actors and producers, the equivalent to the Mainland version of Eric Tsang – everyone knows him. All of us learned a lot from Teacher Pan.”
‘Experienced’ senior actors, not elder ‘green leaf’ actor
On the subject of ‘experienced’ senior actors (資深演員 ), Bobby’s tone became serious.
“I feel that in HK, there is a general lack of respect for experienced senior actors – the thinking is too utilitarian. Why are these actors called ‘gam cho’ (甘草), ‘green leaf’ (綠葉)? [TN: gam cho’ (甘草) is a term used in the industry to describe experienced, senior ‘green leaf’ actors/actresses over 50 years old]. They are a group of actors with plentiful acting experience, yet they are looked down upon as a ‘side dish’ or ‘flavoring’ for the main dishes? Do you think it would be ‘acceptable’ to write a series about ‘old’ people and have Brother Sau (senior actor Wu Fung) be the male lead? After all, Deanie Ip won Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for her portrayal of an ‘old’ housekeeper and brought glory for HK!”
Awhile back ago, someone had suggested that Bobby become a producer so he could produce his own series. Actually, in this circumstance, it wouldn’t be difficult for him to find a sponsor willing to invest money, but he enjoys working in front of the camera rather than behind the scenes, so he did not consider it. In the future, would he accept becoming a ‘gam cho’ actor himself?
“When that time comes, I may decide to become a producer and film my own series then! If you ask me to stand next to the main lead and play an ‘Uncle’ character, I definitely won’t do it. If they ever arrange for me to play the part of Raymond Lam’s father, I would suggest to them to go have Ron Ng play Raymond’s father instead! Hahahaha!”
Happy to be his wife’s ‘money-tree’
This year marks the 15th wedding anniversary of Bobby and his wife Fu Kit Han. Back then, the couple had a low-key wedding in Canada.
“The exact date is November 25th. I will be working in the Mainland during that time, so there won’t be special celebration. I’m my wife’s ‘money-tree’, so of course, work is more important! Hey, maybe I’ll give her a ‘house’ (樓) as a gift! Haha!”
Playful Bobby pointed to the ‘button’ on his shirt and laughed heartily– apparently, when he said ‘house’ [prounounced ‘lou’ (樓)], he actually meant ‘button’ [also pronounced ‘lou’but different character (鈕)]. However, when it comes to the date of his wedding anniversary, Bobby is very clear with the date 11/25, even mentioning it twice!
Diligently remembers date of wedding anniversary
“We’re an ‘old couple’ now, so not into the formalties anymore. When we have free time, we like to go around and seek out interesting places to eat or to see things – on anniversaries and such, if there’s time, we we usually just go out to dinner with a few close friends. We definitely won’t do any of the ‘formal’ stuff such as putting on a tuxedo and cutting a cake in front of everyone…plus, my wife is not the socializing type and doesn’t like to go to balls or those types of social gatherings.”
When the Media mentions Mrs. AuYeung, they usually attach her ‘title’: Macau Gambling King Fu Lao Yong’s Granddaughter. From the time his marriage was made public to now, it’s been 15 years, yet occasionally, Bobby’s status as ‘rich tycoon’s grandson-in-law’ is still brought up, even making front page news on magazine covers – luckily though, for Bobby, it no longer bothers him. Bobby reveals that all his earnings go to his wife, so she is truly the ‘keeper’ of the house. Because he knows that he is not good at managing finances, Bobby is perfectly happy with being his wife’s ‘money-tree’: “Yes, I’ve ‘shaken’ so much money out that I’m skinnier now! Haha!”
Bobby and Raymond Lam: no generation gap
In “Men With No Shadows”, Bobby collaborates with Raymond Lam for the first time, though on a personal level, they’ve known each other for a long time and are good ‘brothers’. It’s no surprise then that they are able to get along so well on the set and develop good chemistry.
“Raymond is the type of person who is always very calm no matter what type of situation occurs – he’s very persistent with his pace and doesn’t let anyone affect his rhythm. For instance, when we’re filming together, if I happen to be a few minutes late, I’ll start running when I’m within 20 steps of the filming location to show people that I’m trying to hurry over. Raymond however, refuses to run and instead makes his entrance calmly, like a model. I bet you didn’t think that Raymond’s EQ is actually very high, huh? Even when Tavia [Yeung] is yelling at him and saying ‘Raymond Lam, how long are you going to make me wait for you to get here? Feel like it’s been 10 years already!’ In response, all Raymond does is smile.”
“When filming series, if there is a little bit of delay, it’s understandable – after all, we oftentimes film through the night, but at least after work, we can go home and rest. Except Raymond – he often tells me: ‘Good for you! I still have to go shoot a movie!’ At the same time that he was filming “Men with no Shadows”, he was also shooting 2 movies simultaneously, plus he had to set aside time to rehearse for his concert – seeing that, I felt exhausted for him!”
Bobby expressed that he does not have any ‘generation gap’ working with younger siu sangs. Back when he was filming with Raymond, he had already been introduced to Mavis Pan – plus he is able to get along well with other younger artists such as Ron Ng, Joel Chan, etc. Asked whether the 2 of them introduced Viann Zhang or Florinda Ho to him, Bobby laughed and said: “No!”
“Honestly speaking, a lot of the younger male artists like to invite me out to ‘play’, but I actually like ‘playing’ with the younger female artists instead! Hahaha!”
.--.
Chinese Version:
歐陽震華 30年極品
歐陽震華（Bobby）在娛樂圈度過黃金30年，1981年他參加無綫藝員訓練班，翌年畢業成為TVB合約藝員。當年的歐陽耀泉（真名）一頭濃密頭髮，瘦猛猛，腰圍24吋，他形容自己似陳百強的類型。30年來建立事業與家庭，曾憑《洗冤錄》奪視帝，又是TVB第一人以《賭城風雲》角逐國際艾美獎的最佳男主角。Bobby曾被TVB冷待甚至放棄，幸好他的字典裏沒有「怨恨」，只記飲水思源，每年也度期返TVB拍劇當報恩。
歐陽震華（Bobby）在藝員訓練班同期的同學有梁朝偉、周星馳、吳鎮宇、張兆輝與關禮傑等。他們先後跑出當男主角，Bobby卻一直跑龍套，畢業後5年拍了逾30部劇，佔大部分也叫不出角色名稱的。
TVB不捧 好彩觀眾捧
「當年TVB出來的人很少失手，我不被捧也能自己跑出來。我不是靚仔，沒捧我是可理解的，不過，觀眾有Taste懂欣賞我，是全世界捧我出來的。其實我都好好彩，觀眾接受我不同類型的演出，我不是詼諧類型，但又可以搞笑；拍《法証》我唧都唔笑，又一樣受落。」
Bobby在1986年拍《黃金十年》漸被觀眾認識，他至今仍懷念那大堆頭的演員組合。
「有劉嘉玲、曾華倩、戚美珍、張衛健、張兆輝、關禮傑等，以前演員很多。現在怎可能集這樣多小生花旦在一部劇集？根本上只有單生單旦，今次《不速之約》有我跟林峯已是難得雙生組合。」
外闖酬勞厚 慶幸被放棄
Bobby演藝事業上的轉機是《壹號皇庭》，奠定「男一號」的位置，但亦因此令他一度離開工作10多年的娘家。
「當時拍了《壹號皇庭》I、II輯，開始多人認識亦多外邊邀約的工作。合約屆滿前跟藝員部負責人傾約，我提出轉部頭合約，對方唔理我。只是說雙方也多考慮吓，便沒有再傾；我記得當時我在拍《壹號皇庭III》，最後一日廠期就是合約屆滿日期。沒有人再叫我傾約，自知之明即放棄我啦！那時候馬來西亞有工作機會，專收容TVB棄將，我往拍了一個處境劇逗留了一個月，竟然有10多萬酬勞。當時我在TVB一個月只有萬多元人工。」
「我真心要多謝TVB不跟我續約的高層，若果不是他，我不知道外邊的世界是這樣。該年我拍的電影、錄影帶劇集所掙的錢，比過往10多年所掙的總和還要多。後來《壹號皇庭IV》開拍，監製叫我歸隊，再傾約時，我當然不接受1年拍100個騷，條件也再傾，部頭形式的合作至今了。」
至愛《陀槍師姐》《賭場風雲》
Bobby重返TVB後也曾是多產的主將，一年也3、4部劇集，當時內地市場還未成氣候。
「TVB一直坐龍頭位置是有原因的，拍過外邊的製作，連燈都缺乏的，才知道TVB資源豐富。我在TVB也拍了不少劇集是自己喜歡的，特別是《陀槍師姐》系列，每次見監製鄺業生，我都叫他做恩公的，『陳小生』的角色幫我打開內地市場之門，好兒子、好老公又是好爸爸的形象入晒屋。這根本就是100分的角色，由我來演變101分的好。」
《賭場風雲》是Bobby另一得意傑作，他仍大力推薦說一定要看的劇集。
「早前有fans送了一套《賭場風雲》DVD給我，我連續兩晚通宵重溫。有幾場戲我邊睇邊哭，是感動到喊出聲那種。這是可遇不可求的劇本，一般劇集是故事先行，但《賭場風雲》是由角色發展故事。拍攝時我不需要改劇本，就是跟着角色投入了。」
點名稱讚胡杏兒馬賽
「黃宗澤在《賭場風雲》演得很好，最近我看《潛行狙擊》他做得愈來愈好。年初我也留意胡杏兒在《魚躍在花見》的演出，她亦不同了，以前大家笑她冏樣，現在她真的漂亮了，並非是整容的變樣，而是樣子『開』了。我還睇好《不速之約》我個妹妹馬賽是今年「飛躍進步」的熱門，她好乖、勤力又唔搞緋聞。」
馬賽與胡杏兒在Bobby剛完成的《樂府藏龍》皆有合作，這是他今年的報恩之作。在夏天拍古裝，最高紀錄是一日內要換5件底衫、兩條內褲，因流汗濕透。他笑言吸引他接拍的，是一班年輕的女藝員，他身邊的花旦愈換愈後生，拍胡杏兒與鍾嘉欣，連其他同事也妒忌。有次他在化妝間遇到蒙嘉慧，他開玩笑說下次兩人合作，她要演他的後母角色了。
伙內地演員 自覺井底蛙
Bobby去年拍完《不速之約》一口氣接拍內地3部劇集，包括《天師鍾馗II》，與佘詩曼合作的《帶刀女捕快》。他在內地拍古裝劇也很辛苦，劇組在場地會安排一把牛角扇「招呼」他。
「若不拍古裝劇會減50%工作量，你話我勤力或貪錢都好，有機會我不怕辛苦。總之劇與劇之間給我一、兩星期休息充電，一年拍8、9個月戲可以接受。跟內地演員合作，我才覺得自己是井底蛙，今次《鍾馗》潘長江也有客串，他是國內一級演員兼製作人，是內地的曾志偉，無人不識的。大家也很尊重潘老師。」
資深演員不是甘草綠葉
Bobby提到資深演員問題變得很認真。
「我覺得香港對資深演員欠尊重，太功利主義。為何稱他們是『甘草』、『綠葉』？他們是一班演戲經驗豐富的人，竟被貶為配菜、調味？若果有人肯寫一部老人家的劇集，由修哥（胡楓）擔正主角，你話得唔得？Deanie姐（葉德嫻）是演老工人當威尼斯影后，為港爭光呢！」
早有人提議Bobby兼製作人自拍劇集，他要找投資老闆不困難，但他喜歡幕前演出而未有考慮。問他將來會否接受做「甘草」的安排？
「屆時我可能自己做製作拍劇過戲癮，若果你要我演站男主角旁邊的姨丈角色，我一定唔做。想安排我做林峯的父親？我會提議他們找吳卓羲做林峯老竇。哈哈哈！」
樂做老婆搖錢樹
翻查資料，今年是Bobby跟太太傅潔嫻結婚15周年，當年兩人在加拿大低調結婚。
「是11月25日，這段時間我應該在內地開工，沒打算特別慶祝。我是老婆的搖錢樹，當然工作要緊；我可能送層『樓』給她做禮物。」
鬼馬的Bobby說送「樓」時是指着自己的恤衫「鈕」哈哈笑。不過，他提到結婚紀念日子絕不含糊，清楚講了兩次是11月25日。
謹記結婚紀念日
「老夫老妻了，平日有時間，我跟她喜歡周圍去搵嘢食、去玩，結婚紀念日這些日子，就算有空檔也是相約幾個熟朋友食餐飯。肯定不會穿禮服、晚裝在大家面前切蛋糕那形式，老婆也不喜歡社交場合的應酬。」
傳媒提起Bobby嫂，少不了她的title——澳門第一代賭王傅老榕的孫女。由婚訊曝光至今近15年了，Bobby這個「豪門女婿」身分仍是話題，甚至周刊封面；幸好對他已不再是困擾。他自爆收入全歸老婆所有，Bobby嫂是真正的「揸數人」。自知不擅理財，故他樂意做老婆的「搖錢樹」，他得戚說﹕「你睇我搖到瘦晒，落晒形了！」
Bobby林峯無代溝
Bobby跟林峯在《不速之約》首次合作劇集，私底下早已是好兄弟，想不到工作上也很夾，產生化學作用。
任鬧EQ高
「林峯是任何情况下也很滋油的人，堅持個人步伐，沒有人能影響他的節奏。我跟他開工，有時遲到少少，我會在抵場地前20步，急跑兼喘氣，讓大家知道我是趕過來的。林峯卻是20步也不肯跑，要Model般亮相人前。你估唔到林峯EQ很高，他被楊怡鬧到死說﹕『林峯你要我等你等到幾時？我等了你（開工）10幾年了！』他就是笑笑口作回應。」
「拍劇有少少時間差誤是可體諒的，大家通宵工作，收工回家休息。林峯卻對我說﹕『你就好啦！我要繼續去拍電影呀！』拍《不速之約》同時他拍兩部電影，又要抽時間為演唱會綵排；我看見也戥他辛苦。」
Bobby跟年輕的小生沒有代溝，林峯跟潘霜霜拍拖時早已介紹他認識，還有吳卓羲、陳山聰等一樣玩得埋。問他們有沒有介紹張馨予或何超雲給他認識？Bobby一貫口密，笑說﹕「無呀！」
「坦白講，一班後生仔都鍾意搵我一齊玩，其實我比較喜歡跟後生女一齊玩的，哈哈哈！」
Some highlights:
.> I loved the part where Bobby talks about his wife and the ‘money-tree’ thing – it was hilarious! Also, the part where he goes from giving his wife a ‘house’ to giving her a ‘button’…hahaha! That’s the quick-witted Bobby AuYeung for you!
.> I’m glad that Bobby talked about the thing with the ‘gam cho’ artists and how there’s a general lack of respect for them in the industry and in society in general. Those have been my exact sentiments for years now. Go Bobby!
.> Wait, Bobby once had a 24 inch waist? Is he sure about that? Hahahaha!
.> It’s obvious from Bobby’s interviews that he has a good head on his shoulders. I like the way he talked about how he was once neglected and even abandoned by TVB, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing because it helped him expand his horizons and see the outside world (plus he made a lot of money). Talk about turning a negative into a positive!
There were more highlights, but I’ll stop here and let you read the article on your own. It’s definitely a great one!
Enjoy!
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Mingpao Interview with Bobby AuYeung: 30 Years of Excellence
Source: Mingpao
Translated by: llwy12
Bobby AuYeung has spent 30 ‘golden’ years in the entertainment industry. In 1981, he participated in TVB’s Acting Class and when he graduated the next year, he officially became a TVB contracted artist. At the time, he still went by his real name, AuYeung Yiu Chuen (歐陽耀泉) – he had a full head of hair and was skinny, with a 24 inch waist; he describes himself as the ‘Danny Chan’ type. In the past 30 years, he has built a career and family – [in 2000], he won the TV King award for his role as Song Chi in the series "Witness to a Prosecution" and he is the only TVB artist to be nominated for Best Actor at the Asian Emmy Awards for his role in "Dicey Business". Bobby admits that in the past, he had been given the ‘cold shoulder’ by TVB and in fact, was even abandoned by them – luckily, in his dictionary, there is no such word as ‘resentment’ (怨恨), only ‘gratefulness’ for his blessings (飲水思源). Therefore, every year, he makes time in his schedule to return to TVB and film series as a form of repayment.
Some of Bobby’s same year Acting Class classmates include Tony Leung, Stephen Chow, Francis Ng, Eddie Cheung, Eddie Kwan, etc. Upon graduating, each of them rose to ‘leading actor’ status one by one, however at the time, Bobby was still doing mostly small roles [‘ke le fe’] in series. 5 years after graduating from the Acting Class, Bobby had participated in 30 series – unfortunately though, his role in most of those series were so insignificant, most people probably don’t even remember the names of the characters he played.
TVB didn’t promote, but luckily the audiences did
“Back then, it was very rare for someone who came out of TVB not to succeed. I was never promoted, but was able to make it up the ladder on my own. I’m not good-looking, so it’s understandable why they wouldn’t want to promote me, but luckily, the audiences had good taste and knew how to appreciate me – I guess you can say that it’s the audiences who promoted me. Actually, I’m very lucky that the audiences were willing to accept my different types of acting – I’m not the comedian-type, but I’m able to do comedy; in "Forensic Heroes", I wasn’t funny at all, yet the audiences still enjoyed it.”
Bobby started capturing audience’s attention back in 1986, when he participated in grand production series "The Turbulent Decade". To this day, he still has fond memories of the ‘all-star’ cast from that series.
“There were Carina Lau, Margie Tsang, Jamie Chik, Eddie Cheung, Dicky Cheung, Eddie Kwan, etc…just to name a few – in the past, there were plenty of artists. Nowadays, it’s virtually impossible to gather so many first line siu sangs and fa dans all in one series – the norm now is basically one siu sang and one fa dan. This time, in "Men with No Shadows", there is Raymond Lam and myself, which is already a ‘double siu sang’ team.”
Better pay outside of TVB, ‘lucky’ that TVB gave up on him
The breakthrough in Bobby’s career came with the multi-installment series "Files of Justice", which successfully secured his position as ‘first-line male lead’ -- however, it also caused him to leave a company that he had serviced for over a decade.
“Back then, after filming the first and second installments of "Files of Justice", people started to know me and that’s when the invitations for outside jobs started coming in. Prior to my management contract expiring, I had discussed with the Artists Department about changing to a per-series contract, but they pretty much ignored me. All they said was that both parties should think about it more and left it at that – there were no further discussions about the contract. I remember when I was filming "Files of Justice III", the last day of filming was coincidentally also the day my contract was set to expire. At the time, no one sought me out to discuss contract renewal, so having self-knowledge, I took that to mean that they gave up on me! Around the same time, I received an invitation from a Malaysian company that specially liked to ‘pick up’ artists abandoned by TVB, so I accepted. I went over there and filmed a sitcom for them – I was only there for a month but unbelievably received more than 100,000 HKD salary! At the time, my salary at TVB was only about 10,000 HKD a month.”
“I sincerely thank the particular exec at TVB who decided not to renew my contract – if it weren’t for him/her, I wouldn’t know how the outside world is like. That year, the amount of money I made shooting movies and ‘direct to video tape’ series was more than what I had made the previous 10 years combined. Later on, TVB was planning on filming "Files of Justice IV", so the producer requested that I return. In the new contract talks, of course I was no longer going to accept the stipulation of filming 100 shows in 1 year! We ended up re-negotiating the contract terms to a ‘per-series’ contract and that’s the way our collaboration has been up to present day.”
Loves "Armed Reaction" and "Dicey Business" the most
After Bobby returned to TVB, he was tasked as the lead in many series, sometimes filming up to 3 to 4 series a year. At the time, the Mainland China market was not as ‘established’ as it is today.
“There’s a reason why TVB has been at the forefront of the TV industry for so many years. After filming series outside and seeing how sometimes even lighting is lacking, it made me understand that TVB truly has plentiful resources. At TVB, I’ve filmed quite a few series that I personally enjoyed a lot, especially the "Armed Reaction" franchise – now every time I see [the series] producer Kwong Yip Sun (鄺業生), I call him ‘benefactor’ (恩公)! The character ‘Chan Siu Sang’『陳小生』helped me break into the Mainland market and helped me establish the image of ‘good son, good husband, good father’ with audiences. The character was essentially a 100% great character to begin with – having me play the character made it 101% great!”
"Dicey Business" is another one of Bobby’s great works, one that he is extremely proud of. In fact, he highly recommends it as a ‘must-see’ series.
“Earlier, a fan gave me the DVD boxed set of "Dicey Business" as a gift – I spent 2 nights in a row re-watching it. There were a few parts of the series that were especially emotional, to the point that I was moved to tears while watching. It’s not often that I encounter such an excellent script! For most series, the ‘storyline’ comes first and drives the rest of the script – for "Dicey Business" however, the characters came first and drove the storyline. During filming, I didn’t have to change the script at all – I just followed the development of the character and threw myself into the role.”
Specifically praises Myolie Wu and Sire Ma
“In "Dicey Business", Bosco Wong did a very good job. Recently, I watched his performance in "Lives of Omission" and see that he is getting better and better. Earlier in the year, I also noticed Myolie Wu’s performance in "The Rippling Blossom", she has changed as well – in the past, people made fun of her for having a ‘gwing’ look, but now, she really has gotten prettier. I’m not referring to the ‘plastic surgery’ –type pretty, but rather, her looks have ‘opened’ more. I also see the potential for Sire Ma, my sister in "Men With No Shadows" , to be a ‘hot contender’ for the “Most Improved” Award this year – she’s a good girl, very hardworking and doesn’t like to generate rumors.”
Coincidentally, both Sire Ma and Myolie Wu get the chance to collaborate in Bobby’s upcoming series "Yue Fu Hidden Dragon" [temporary name]. Filming an ancient series during the sweltering summer months, Bobby expressed that his ‘record’ was having to change 5 undershirts and 2 pairs of underwear in 1 day due to all the sweat. Laughing, Bobby admitted what attracted him to the series was the group of young actresses that he gets to collaborate with – he says that the fa dans being paired with him are getting younger and younger, inovoking the ‘envy’ of his colleagues. One time, he bumped into long time partner Yoyo Mung in the makeup room and jokingly told her that the next time they collaborate in a series, she should portray his ‘stepmother’!
Collaborating with Mainland artists, he feels like a ‘toad at the bottom of the well’
Last year, after wrapping filming for "Men with No Shadows", Bobby accepted 3 Mainland series in a row, including "Ghostcatcher – Legend of Beauty 2" [天師鍾馗] and collaboration with Charmaine Sheh in "Sword-Bearing Female Constable" [帶刀女捕快] . Filming ancient series in the Mainland can be very difficult as well [due to the weather] – luckily, the production team took care of him and always made sure he had a ‘cow horn fan’ (牛角扇) by his side.
“If I don’t film ancient series, I reduce my workload by 50%. You can say that I’m a ‘money hound’ or that I’m just hardworking – either way, if there’s good opportunity, I don’t mind the toil. As long as I get a 1-2 week rest in between each series for me to re-energize, I can accept filming for 8 to 9 months out of the year. After collaborating with Mainland artists, I realize that I’m a ‘toad at the bottom of the well’. This time around, for "Ghostcatcher", I got the chance to collaborate with Mainland actor Pan Chang Jiang, who has a cameo in the series – he is one of Mainland China’s first class actors and producers, the equivalent to the Mainland version of Eric Tsang – everyone knows him. All of us learned a lot from Teacher Pan.”
‘Experienced’ senior actors, not elder ‘green leaf’ actor
On the subject of ‘experienced’ senior actors (資深演員 ), Bobby’s tone became serious.
“I feel that in HK, there is a general lack of respect for experienced senior actors – the thinking is too utilitarian. Why are these actors called ‘gam cho’ (甘草), ‘green leaf’ (綠葉)? [TN: gam cho’ (甘草) is a term used in the industry to describe experienced, senior ‘green leaf’ actors/actresses over 50 years old]. They are a group of actors with plentiful acting experience, yet they are looked down upon as a ‘side dish’ or ‘flavoring’ for the main dishes? Do you think it would be ‘acceptable’ to write a series about ‘old’ people and have Brother Sau (senior actor Wu Fung) be the male lead? After all, Deanie Ip won Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for her portrayal of an ‘old’ housekeeper and brought glory for HK!”
Awhile back ago, someone had suggested that Bobby become a producer so he could produce his own series. Actually, in this circumstance, it wouldn’t be difficult for him to find a sponsor willing to invest money, but he enjoys working in front of the camera rather than behind the scenes, so he did not consider it. In the future, would he accept becoming a ‘gam cho’ actor himself?
“When that time comes, I may decide to become a producer and film my own series then! If you ask me to stand next to the main lead and play an ‘Uncle’ character, I definitely won’t do it. If they ever arrange for me to play the part of Raymond Lam’s father, I would suggest to them to go have Ron Ng play Raymond’s father instead! Hahahaha!”
Happy to be his wife’s ‘money-tree’
This year marks the 15th wedding anniversary of Bobby and his wife Fu Kit Han. Back then, the couple had a low-key wedding in Canada.
“The exact date is November 25th. I will be working in the Mainland during that time, so there won’t be special celebration. I’m my wife’s ‘money-tree’, so of course, work is more important! Hey, maybe I’ll give her a ‘house’ (樓) as a gift! Haha!”
Playful Bobby pointed to the ‘button’ on his shirt and laughed heartily– apparently, when he said ‘house’ [prounounced ‘lou’ (樓)], he actually meant ‘button’ [also pronounced ‘lou’but different character (鈕)]. However, when it comes to the date of his wedding anniversary, Bobby is very clear with the date 11/25, even mentioning it twice!
Diligently remembers date of wedding anniversary
“We’re an ‘old couple’ now, so not into the formalties anymore. When we have free time, we like to go around and seek out interesting places to eat or to see things – on anniversaries and such, if there’s time, we we usually just go out to dinner with a few close friends. We definitely won’t do any of the ‘formal’ stuff such as putting on a tuxedo and cutting a cake in front of everyone…plus, my wife is not the socializing type and doesn’t like to go to balls or those types of social gatherings.”
When the Media mentions Mrs. AuYeung, they usually attach her ‘title’: Macau Gambling King Fu Lao Yong’s Granddaughter. From the time his marriage was made public to now, it’s been 15 years, yet occasionally, Bobby’s status as ‘rich tycoon’s grandson-in-law’ is still brought up, even making front page news on magazine covers – luckily though, for Bobby, it no longer bothers him. Bobby reveals that all his earnings go to his wife, so she is truly the ‘keeper’ of the house. Because he knows that he is not good at managing finances, Bobby is perfectly happy with being his wife’s ‘money-tree’: “Yes, I’ve ‘shaken’ so much money out that I’m skinnier now! Haha!”
Bobby and Raymond Lam: no generation gap
In “Men With No Shadows”, Bobby collaborates with Raymond Lam for the first time, though on a personal level, they’ve known each other for a long time and are good ‘brothers’. It’s no surprise then that they are able to get along so well on the set and develop good chemistry.
“Raymond is the type of person who is always very calm no matter what type of situation occurs – he’s very persistent with his pace and doesn’t let anyone affect his rhythm. For instance, when we’re filming together, if I happen to be a few minutes late, I’ll start running when I’m within 20 steps of the filming location to show people that I’m trying to hurry over. Raymond however, refuses to run and instead makes his entrance calmly, like a model. I bet you didn’t think that Raymond’s EQ is actually very high, huh? Even when Tavia [Yeung] is yelling at him and saying ‘Raymond Lam, how long are you going to make me wait for you to get here? Feel like it’s been 10 years already!’ In response, all Raymond does is smile.”
“When filming series, if there is a little bit of delay, it’s understandable – after all, we oftentimes film through the night, but at least after work, we can go home and rest. Except Raymond – he often tells me: ‘Good for you! I still have to go shoot a movie!’ At the same time that he was filming “Men with no Shadows”, he was also shooting 2 movies simultaneously, plus he had to set aside time to rehearse for his concert – seeing that, I felt exhausted for him!”
Bobby expressed that he does not have any ‘generation gap’ working with younger siu sangs. Back when he was filming with Raymond, he had already been introduced to Mavis Pan – plus he is able to get along well with other younger artists such as Ron Ng, Joel Chan, etc. Asked whether the 2 of them introduced Viann Zhang or Florinda Ho to him, Bobby laughed and said: “No!”
“Honestly speaking, a lot of the younger male artists like to invite me out to ‘play’, but I actually like ‘playing’ with the younger female artists instead! Hahaha!”
.--.
Chinese Version:
歐陽震華 30年極品
歐陽震華（Bobby）在娛樂圈度過黃金30年，1981年他參加無綫藝員訓練班，翌年畢業成為TVB合約藝員。當年的歐陽耀泉（真名）一頭濃密頭髮，瘦猛猛，腰圍24吋，他形容自己似陳百強的類型。30年來建立事業與家庭，曾憑《洗冤錄》奪視帝，又是TVB第一人以《賭城風雲》角逐國際艾美獎的最佳男主角。Bobby曾被TVB冷待甚至放棄，幸好他的字典裏沒有「怨恨」，只記飲水思源，每年也度期返TVB拍劇當報恩。
歐陽震華（Bobby）在藝員訓練班同期的同學有梁朝偉、周星馳、吳鎮宇、張兆輝與關禮傑等。他們先後跑出當男主角，Bobby卻一直跑龍套，畢業後5年拍了逾30部劇，佔大部分也叫不出角色名稱的。
TVB不捧 好彩觀眾捧
「當年TVB出來的人很少失手，我不被捧也能自己跑出來。我不是靚仔，沒捧我是可理解的，不過，觀眾有Taste懂欣賞我，是全世界捧我出來的。其實我都好好彩，觀眾接受我不同類型的演出，我不是詼諧類型，但又可以搞笑；拍《法証》我唧都唔笑，又一樣受落。」
Bobby在1986年拍《黃金十年》漸被觀眾認識，他至今仍懷念那大堆頭的演員組合。
「有劉嘉玲、曾華倩、戚美珍、張衛健、張兆輝、關禮傑等，以前演員很多。現在怎可能集這樣多小生花旦在一部劇集？根本上只有單生單旦，今次《不速之約》有我跟林峯已是難得雙生組合。」
外闖酬勞厚 慶幸被放棄
Bobby演藝事業上的轉機是《壹號皇庭》，奠定「男一號」的位置，但亦因此令他一度離開工作10多年的娘家。
「當時拍了《壹號皇庭》I、II輯，開始多人認識亦多外邊邀約的工作。合約屆滿前跟藝員部負責人傾約，我提出轉部頭合約，對方唔理我。只是說雙方也多考慮吓，便沒有再傾；我記得當時我在拍《壹號皇庭III》，最後一日廠期就是合約屆滿日期。沒有人再叫我傾約，自知之明即放棄我啦！那時候馬來西亞有工作機會，專收容TVB棄將，我往拍了一個處境劇逗留了一個月，竟然有10多萬酬勞。當時我在TVB一個月只有萬多元人工。」
「我真心要多謝TVB不跟我續約的高層，若果不是他，我不知道外邊的世界是這樣。該年我拍的電影、錄影帶劇集所掙的錢，比過往10多年所掙的總和還要多。後來《壹號皇庭IV》開拍，監製叫我歸隊，再傾約時，我當然不接受1年拍100個騷，條件也再傾，部頭形式的合作至今了。」
至愛《陀槍師姐》《賭場風雲》
Bobby重返TVB後也曾是多產的主將，一年也3、4部劇集，當時內地市場還未成氣候。
「TVB一直坐龍頭位置是有原因的，拍過外邊的製作，連燈都缺乏的，才知道TVB資源豐富。我在TVB也拍了不少劇集是自己喜歡的，特別是《陀槍師姐》系列，每次見監製鄺業生，我都叫他做恩公的，『陳小生』的角色幫我打開內地市場之門，好兒子、好老公又是好爸爸的形象入晒屋。這根本就是100分的角色，由我來演變101分的好。」
《賭場風雲》是Bobby另一得意傑作，他仍大力推薦說一定要看的劇集。
「早前有fans送了一套《賭場風雲》DVD給我，我連續兩晚通宵重溫。有幾場戲我邊睇邊哭，是感動到喊出聲那種。這是可遇不可求的劇本，一般劇集是故事先行，但《賭場風雲》是由角色發展故事。拍攝時我不需要改劇本，就是跟着角色投入了。」
點名稱讚胡杏兒馬賽
「黃宗澤在《賭場風雲》演得很好，最近我看《潛行狙擊》他做得愈來愈好。年初我也留意胡杏兒在《魚躍在花見》的演出，她亦不同了，以前大家笑她冏樣，現在她真的漂亮了，並非是整容的變樣，而是樣子『開』了。我還睇好《不速之約》我個妹妹馬賽是今年「飛躍進步」的熱門，她好乖、勤力又唔搞緋聞。」
馬賽與胡杏兒在Bobby剛完成的《樂府藏龍》皆有合作，這是他今年的報恩之作。在夏天拍古裝，最高紀錄是一日內要換5件底衫、兩條內褲，因流汗濕透。他笑言吸引他接拍的，是一班年輕的女藝員，他身邊的花旦愈換愈後生，拍胡杏兒與鍾嘉欣，連其他同事也妒忌。有次他在化妝間遇到蒙嘉慧，他開玩笑說下次兩人合作，她要演他的後母角色了。
伙內地演員 自覺井底蛙
Bobby去年拍完《不速之約》一口氣接拍內地3部劇集，包括《天師鍾馗II》，與佘詩曼合作的《帶刀女捕快》。他在內地拍古裝劇也很辛苦，劇組在場地會安排一把牛角扇「招呼」他。
「若不拍古裝劇會減50%工作量，你話我勤力或貪錢都好，有機會我不怕辛苦。總之劇與劇之間給我一、兩星期休息充電，一年拍8、9個月戲可以接受。跟內地演員合作，我才覺得自己是井底蛙，今次《鍾馗》潘長江也有客串，他是國內一級演員兼製作人，是內地的曾志偉，無人不識的。大家也很尊重潘老師。」
資深演員不是甘草綠葉
Bobby提到資深演員問題變得很認真。
「我覺得香港對資深演員欠尊重，太功利主義。為何稱他們是『甘草』、『綠葉』？他們是一班演戲經驗豐富的人，竟被貶為配菜、調味？若果有人肯寫一部老人家的劇集，由修哥（胡楓）擔正主角，你話得唔得？Deanie姐（葉德嫻）是演老工人當威尼斯影后，為港爭光呢！」
早有人提議Bobby兼製作人自拍劇集，他要找投資老闆不困難，但他喜歡幕前演出而未有考慮。問他將來會否接受做「甘草」的安排？
「屆時我可能自己做製作拍劇過戲癮，若果你要我演站男主角旁邊的姨丈角色，我一定唔做。想安排我做林峯的父親？我會提議他們找吳卓羲做林峯老竇。哈哈哈！」
樂做老婆搖錢樹
翻查資料，今年是Bobby跟太太傅潔嫻結婚15周年，當年兩人在加拿大低調結婚。
「是11月25日，這段時間我應該在內地開工，沒打算特別慶祝。我是老婆的搖錢樹，當然工作要緊；我可能送層『樓』給她做禮物。」
鬼馬的Bobby說送「樓」時是指着自己的恤衫「鈕」哈哈笑。不過，他提到結婚紀念日子絕不含糊，清楚講了兩次是11月25日。
謹記結婚紀念日
「老夫老妻了，平日有時間，我跟她喜歡周圍去搵嘢食、去玩，結婚紀念日這些日子，就算有空檔也是相約幾個熟朋友食餐飯。肯定不會穿禮服、晚裝在大家面前切蛋糕那形式，老婆也不喜歡社交場合的應酬。」
傳媒提起Bobby嫂，少不了她的title——澳門第一代賭王傅老榕的孫女。由婚訊曝光至今近15年了，Bobby這個「豪門女婿」身分仍是話題，甚至周刊封面；幸好對他已不再是困擾。他自爆收入全歸老婆所有，Bobby嫂是真正的「揸數人」。自知不擅理財，故他樂意做老婆的「搖錢樹」，他得戚說﹕「你睇我搖到瘦晒，落晒形了！」
Bobby林峯無代溝
Bobby跟林峯在《不速之約》首次合作劇集，私底下早已是好兄弟，想不到工作上也很夾，產生化學作用。
任鬧EQ高
「林峯是任何情况下也很滋油的人，堅持個人步伐，沒有人能影響他的節奏。我跟他開工，有時遲到少少，我會在抵場地前20步，急跑兼喘氣，讓大家知道我是趕過來的。林峯卻是20步也不肯跑，要Model般亮相人前。你估唔到林峯EQ很高，他被楊怡鬧到死說﹕『林峯你要我等你等到幾時？我等了你（開工）10幾年了！』他就是笑笑口作回應。」
「拍劇有少少時間差誤是可體諒的，大家通宵工作，收工回家休息。林峯卻對我說﹕『你就好啦！我要繼續去拍電影呀！』拍《不速之約》同時他拍兩部電影，又要抽時間為演唱會綵排；我看見也戥他辛苦。」
Bobby跟年輕的小生沒有代溝，林峯跟潘霜霜拍拖時早已介紹他認識，還有吳卓羲、陳山聰等一樣玩得埋。問他們有沒有介紹張馨予或何超雲給他認識？Bobby一貫口密，笑說﹕「無呀！」
「坦白講，一班後生仔都鍾意搵我一齊玩，其實我比較喜歡跟後生女一齊玩的，哈哈哈！」
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Weibo Fever # 9: Opening Performance of "Shrimp Crazy Family" Stage Play
Here's an awesome article recapping the opening night performance of the highly anticipated stage play, "Shrimp Crazy Family" (refer to the previous few posts for details).
The article pretty much says it all, but I also wanted to share some of the behind the scenes pictures and other info from the Weibos of the various 'stars' who participated in the show (majority of them have Weibo accounts, so there is tons of stuff on it).
Here's some behind the scenes stuff that wasn't in the article (which I gathered from Weibo):
.—Even though Michael Miu and Felix Wong did not have to perform on opening night, both of them were present the entire time, primarily backstage. Felix said that he and Michael had very important roles as “阿四”, helping to ‘take care’ of the cast (getting them coffee, tea, water, food, etc.,)…basically, they were ‘busboys’…LOL!
.—The “Shrimp Crazy Family” stage play actually has no affiliation with TVB at all. It was organized by Louie Castro and Jamie Chik as a reunion of sorts for them as well as the artists they worked with back in the day.
.-- Watching / reading all the updates about the show on Weibo and on TV really brought back alot of memories for me. And seeing how 'united' all the artists were (many of the artists who weren't performing until later on still came to support or even help out the cast / crew backstage) almost brought tears to my eyes. This was how the HK entertainment industry used to be in the 80s (before it spiraled downhill in the next 2 decades) and it saddens me to think that we may never see such unity and coming together of veteran artists again. This is partly why I'm taking the time to write up blog posts about each of the performances....I hope to cherish this 'trip down memory lane' as long as I can!
Anyways, hope you enjoy the article and the pictures!
**************
Original article published 9/22/2011
Source: Mingpao
Translated by: llwy12
Opening performance of “Shrimp Crazy Family”: Andy Lau and Eric Tsang ad-lib dialogue, make fun of Jamie Chik’s figure; Joey Yung is publicly ‘touched’ by Meg Lam
The stage production “Shrimp Crazy Family” starring Lo Hoi Pang, Meg Lam, Jamie Chik, and Louie Castro, had its debut show in HK day before yesterday. The opening performance was truly a ‘star-studded’ event, both on stage and off. The special ‘mystery’ guests for opening night were Andy Lau and Joey Yung, who, together with Dodo Cheng, Eric Tsang, Annie Liu, and Elvina Kong, made audiences laugh onstage. Off-stage, many artists came to support the show, including Liza Wang, Michael Miu [technically part of the crew], Michael Tse, Bosco Wong, Chin Kar Lok, Angela Tong, etc.
‘Squinty Eyes’ Lo Hoi Pang continued his comical ways, speaking his dialogue in ‘rhyme’ and also ad-libbing all night – occasionally, he would also incorporate his famous imitation routines, pretending to be Roman Tam singing his hit song《激光中》. When Squinty Eyes’s “arch-enemy” – Meg Lam’s ‘Big Shark’ -- appeared on stage, she headed straight for Pang Gor, purposefully bumping her head repeatedly against his, causing the audiences to laugh non-stop.
Years ago, when Meg Lam was filming a show for ATV, one of the boards on the set accidentally fell on her, causing a head injury that makes it difficult for her to concentrate for long periods of time. Therefore, the script was specially written to give her time to rest backstage in between acts – indeed, while resting on a sofa backstage, she actually fell asleep. It wasn’t until Joey Yung – who played the role of a 3D song goddess – came on stage, then Meg immediately returned on stage, continuing to ‘battle’ with Lo Hoi Pang and steal his scenes. While Joey sang, Pang Gor did numerous funny routines, including purposefully breaking a table to make audiences laugh, while Meg swept her hands around Joey’s body – luckily, Joey was able to contain her laughter and finish singing her song.
When it came time for Eric Tsang and Andy Lau to come on stage, the ‘playfulness’ escalated – the two of them played the roles of Jamie’s ex-boyfriends who ‘showed up’ to fight for her affection. During the skit, there was a scene where Eric and Pang Gor were exchanging a check, however Meg suddenly ran onto the stage, accidentally tripping and falling on the floor – of course, the 2 comedians [Eric and Pang Gor] took advantage of the situation to poke fun at Meg, even saying some curse words and making audiences roar with laughter. Andy Lau appeared near the end of the show – not only did he perform a song (one of the climaxes of the night), he also ad-libbed the dialogue for his role. He pointed out that Louie Castro [who plays Jamie’s husband ‘Shrimp Boy’] cannot compare to himself and Eric: “One is tall, the other is short, one is handsome, the other is ugly”, which threw Louie off and caused him to forget some of his lines. After that, Andy and Eric ‘ganged up’ on Jamie, mocking her and making fun of her figure by saying that she had ‘sagging’ parts.
During interviews after the show, both Andy and Joey indicated that they were happy to be able to participate and had a lot of fun. Asked about being publicly ‘touched’ by Meg, Joey laughed and replied: “It felt like being searched at the airport, but doesn’t matter, as long as everyone had fun. These ‘memories’ are once in a lifetime!” Andy revealed that prior to the show, he had requested to play the part of Jamie’s ex-boyfriend, as he wanted to get the chance to have some fun with acting: “Originally, I was supposed to play a 3D song god, but I wanted to have some dialogue, so I took on the role of one of the ex-boyfriends instead.” Jamie Chik indicated that she was already anticipating that there would be a lot of ad-libbing from the artists and did not mind that Andy made fun of her figure.
Meg Lam admitted that during the performance, she wasn’t 100% alert, which resulted in her nodding off onstage: “Because of my illness, I get sleepy easily, but sometimes, upon hearing Pang Gor’s funny dialogue, I’m laughing so hard that I’m not able to sleep. I will definitely rest more the next couple days in preparation for the remaining 3 shows.”
When Pang Gor was asked about ‘cursing’ onstage during the performance, he refused to admit it, instead saying: “When did I curse? I was following the script exactly!”
.---.
Chinese version:
華仔志偉爆肚 踩阿戚身材
容祖兒被沙姐摸勻全身
【明報專訊】盧海鵬、林建明（沙姐）、賈思樂及戚美珍主演一連四場的音樂舞台劇《蝦仔爹哋》，前晚於灣仔伊館首演獲群星拱照，台上客串的嘉賓有劉德華、容祖兒、鄭裕玲、曾志偉、廖安麗及江欣燕，台下捧場的則有董趙洪娉、汪明荃、苗僑偉、謝天華、黃宗澤、錢嘉樂及湯盈盈等。
沙姐沙發瞓着
「矇豬眼」盧海鵬貫徹搞笑風格，整晚大玩押韻金句兼爆肚，又羅文上身大唱《激光中》，加上扮演「大白鯊」的沙姐甫出場，即衝向死對頭鵬哥，玩頭撞頭，逗得台下笑不停。不過，沙姐早年在亞視拍攝《今日睇真D》時被佈景板撞傷頭部，自此令她難以集中精神，故演出期間，劇情安排她在台上休息，她果然躺在沙發睡着了。直至祖兒扮3D歌后出場時，沙姐立即回魂與鵬哥鬥搶戲，鵬哥刻意掃跌枱搞笑，沙姐則伸手摸勻祖兒全身，幸祖兒施展「忍笑功」能唱完整首歌。
賈思樂難招架
輪到曾志偉和劉德華出場，大家更加玩到癲，兩人飾演前度男友出場爭阿珍，劇中志偉、鵬哥進行遞交支票，不料沙姐撲出場時因體力不支，腳軟仆倒地上，志偉和鵬哥不錯失機會，爆粗搞笑。華仔壓軸出場獻唱再掀高潮，又爆肚指蝦仔賈思樂不及自己和志偉「一個高一個矮，一個靚仔一醜樣」，不夠資格爭女，令賈思樂接不上。之後，華仔與志偉又聯手取笑阿珍身材好「dum」。
完騷後，祖兒與華仔均指有份參演非常好玩。祖兒談到被沙姐摸身，她笑說：「好似海關搜身，但無所謂，好玩就得，這些回憶可一不可再。」華仔則自爆騷前要求換角過戲癮，他說：「原本我演3D歌手，但我想有對白，所以扮埋前度男友一份。」戚美珍預了華仔爆肚，所以不介意被踩身材。
鵬哥不認爆粗
沙姐承認演出時精神不足，在台上睡着了，她說：「因為我有病，所以我有在台上瞓，不過有時聽到鵬哥對白好笑到瞓不到，我會休息多一點，以應付之後三場演出。」鵬哥對於被指激動爆粗，他死口不認，並說：「幾時講過粗口？我跟足劇本的！」
記者：鍾一虹
攝影：黃梓烜
***********
Some additional pictures from Weibo:
The article pretty much says it all, but I also wanted to share some of the behind the scenes pictures and other info from the Weibos of the various 'stars' who participated in the show (majority of them have Weibo accounts, so there is tons of stuff on it).
Here's some behind the scenes stuff that wasn't in the article (which I gathered from Weibo):
.—Even though Michael Miu and Felix Wong did not have to perform on opening night, both of them were present the entire time, primarily backstage. Felix said that he and Michael had very important roles as “阿四”, helping to ‘take care’ of the cast (getting them coffee, tea, water, food, etc.,)…basically, they were ‘busboys’…LOL!
.—The “Shrimp Crazy Family” stage play actually has no affiliation with TVB at all. It was organized by Louie Castro and Jamie Chik as a reunion of sorts for them as well as the artists they worked with back in the day.
.-- Watching / reading all the updates about the show on Weibo and on TV really brought back alot of memories for me. And seeing how 'united' all the artists were (many of the artists who weren't performing until later on still came to support or even help out the cast / crew backstage) almost brought tears to my eyes. This was how the HK entertainment industry used to be in the 80s (before it spiraled downhill in the next 2 decades) and it saddens me to think that we may never see such unity and coming together of veteran artists again. This is partly why I'm taking the time to write up blog posts about each of the performances....I hope to cherish this 'trip down memory lane' as long as I can!
Anyways, hope you enjoy the article and the pictures!
**************
Original article published 9/22/2011
Source: Mingpao
Translated by: llwy12
Opening performance of “Shrimp Crazy Family”: Andy Lau and Eric Tsang ad-lib dialogue, make fun of Jamie Chik’s figure; Joey Yung is publicly ‘touched’ by Meg Lam
The stage production “Shrimp Crazy Family” starring Lo Hoi Pang, Meg Lam, Jamie Chik, and Louie Castro, had its debut show in HK day before yesterday. The opening performance was truly a ‘star-studded’ event, both on stage and off. The special ‘mystery’ guests for opening night were Andy Lau and Joey Yung, who, together with Dodo Cheng, Eric Tsang, Annie Liu, and Elvina Kong, made audiences laugh onstage. Off-stage, many artists came to support the show, including Liza Wang, Michael Miu [technically part of the crew], Michael Tse, Bosco Wong, Chin Kar Lok, Angela Tong, etc.
‘Squinty Eyes’ Lo Hoi Pang continued his comical ways, speaking his dialogue in ‘rhyme’ and also ad-libbing all night – occasionally, he would also incorporate his famous imitation routines, pretending to be Roman Tam singing his hit song《激光中》. When Squinty Eyes’s “arch-enemy” – Meg Lam’s ‘Big Shark’ -- appeared on stage, she headed straight for Pang Gor, purposefully bumping her head repeatedly against his, causing the audiences to laugh non-stop.
Years ago, when Meg Lam was filming a show for ATV, one of the boards on the set accidentally fell on her, causing a head injury that makes it difficult for her to concentrate for long periods of time. Therefore, the script was specially written to give her time to rest backstage in between acts – indeed, while resting on a sofa backstage, she actually fell asleep. It wasn’t until Joey Yung – who played the role of a 3D song goddess – came on stage, then Meg immediately returned on stage, continuing to ‘battle’ with Lo Hoi Pang and steal his scenes. While Joey sang, Pang Gor did numerous funny routines, including purposefully breaking a table to make audiences laugh, while Meg swept her hands around Joey’s body – luckily, Joey was able to contain her laughter and finish singing her song.
When it came time for Eric Tsang and Andy Lau to come on stage, the ‘playfulness’ escalated – the two of them played the roles of Jamie’s ex-boyfriends who ‘showed up’ to fight for her affection. During the skit, there was a scene where Eric and Pang Gor were exchanging a check, however Meg suddenly ran onto the stage, accidentally tripping and falling on the floor – of course, the 2 comedians [Eric and Pang Gor] took advantage of the situation to poke fun at Meg, even saying some curse words and making audiences roar with laughter. Andy Lau appeared near the end of the show – not only did he perform a song (one of the climaxes of the night), he also ad-libbed the dialogue for his role. He pointed out that Louie Castro [who plays Jamie’s husband ‘Shrimp Boy’] cannot compare to himself and Eric: “One is tall, the other is short, one is handsome, the other is ugly”, which threw Louie off and caused him to forget some of his lines. After that, Andy and Eric ‘ganged up’ on Jamie, mocking her and making fun of her figure by saying that she had ‘sagging’ parts.
During interviews after the show, both Andy and Joey indicated that they were happy to be able to participate and had a lot of fun. Asked about being publicly ‘touched’ by Meg, Joey laughed and replied: “It felt like being searched at the airport, but doesn’t matter, as long as everyone had fun. These ‘memories’ are once in a lifetime!” Andy revealed that prior to the show, he had requested to play the part of Jamie’s ex-boyfriend, as he wanted to get the chance to have some fun with acting: “Originally, I was supposed to play a 3D song god, but I wanted to have some dialogue, so I took on the role of one of the ex-boyfriends instead.” Jamie Chik indicated that she was already anticipating that there would be a lot of ad-libbing from the artists and did not mind that Andy made fun of her figure.
Meg Lam admitted that during the performance, she wasn’t 100% alert, which resulted in her nodding off onstage: “Because of my illness, I get sleepy easily, but sometimes, upon hearing Pang Gor’s funny dialogue, I’m laughing so hard that I’m not able to sleep. I will definitely rest more the next couple days in preparation for the remaining 3 shows.”
When Pang Gor was asked about ‘cursing’ onstage during the performance, he refused to admit it, instead saying: “When did I curse? I was following the script exactly!”
.---.
Chinese version:
華仔志偉爆肚 踩阿戚身材
容祖兒被沙姐摸勻全身
【明報專訊】盧海鵬、林建明（沙姐）、賈思樂及戚美珍主演一連四場的音樂舞台劇《蝦仔爹哋》，前晚於灣仔伊館首演獲群星拱照，台上客串的嘉賓有劉德華、容祖兒、鄭裕玲、曾志偉、廖安麗及江欣燕，台下捧場的則有董趙洪娉、汪明荃、苗僑偉、謝天華、黃宗澤、錢嘉樂及湯盈盈等。
沙姐沙發瞓着
「矇豬眼」盧海鵬貫徹搞笑風格，整晚大玩押韻金句兼爆肚，又羅文上身大唱《激光中》，加上扮演「大白鯊」的沙姐甫出場，即衝向死對頭鵬哥，玩頭撞頭，逗得台下笑不停。不過，沙姐早年在亞視拍攝《今日睇真D》時被佈景板撞傷頭部，自此令她難以集中精神，故演出期間，劇情安排她在台上休息，她果然躺在沙發睡着了。直至祖兒扮3D歌后出場時，沙姐立即回魂與鵬哥鬥搶戲，鵬哥刻意掃跌枱搞笑，沙姐則伸手摸勻祖兒全身，幸祖兒施展「忍笑功」能唱完整首歌。
賈思樂難招架
輪到曾志偉和劉德華出場，大家更加玩到癲，兩人飾演前度男友出場爭阿珍，劇中志偉、鵬哥進行遞交支票，不料沙姐撲出場時因體力不支，腳軟仆倒地上，志偉和鵬哥不錯失機會，爆粗搞笑。華仔壓軸出場獻唱再掀高潮，又爆肚指蝦仔賈思樂不及自己和志偉「一個高一個矮，一個靚仔一醜樣」，不夠資格爭女，令賈思樂接不上。之後，華仔與志偉又聯手取笑阿珍身材好「dum」。
完騷後，祖兒與華仔均指有份參演非常好玩。祖兒談到被沙姐摸身，她笑說：「好似海關搜身，但無所謂，好玩就得，這些回憶可一不可再。」華仔則自爆騷前要求換角過戲癮，他說：「原本我演3D歌手，但我想有對白，所以扮埋前度男友一份。」戚美珍預了華仔爆肚，所以不介意被踩身材。
鵬哥不認爆粗
沙姐承認演出時精神不足，在台上睡着了，她說：「因為我有病，所以我有在台上瞓，不過有時聽到鵬哥對白好笑到瞓不到，我會休息多一點，以應付之後三場演出。」鵬哥對於被指激動爆粗，他死口不認，並說：「幾時講過粗口？我跟足劇本的！」
記者：鍾一虹
攝影：黃梓烜
***********
Some additional pictures from Weibo:
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
My 'TVB Rant' # 13: My Thoughts About Veteran Artists Returning to TVB
I must be in my 'TVB rampage' mood recently because I felt the urge to write yet another rant on TVB (the 3rd one in just 2 weeks)...hopefully I won't have to write another one for awhile (hear that TVB? Stop ticking me off please! ) LOL....
Anyway....
I've been reading recently about how some veteran artists return to TVB to film a series or two after being away for a long time. The reason they usually give for why they return is because TVB helped launch their careers back in the day and helped them become popular, so they are 'repaying' the favor out of gratitude (in Chinese, we call it "飲水思源").
First of all, I must applaud the veteran artists who think this way because to be honest, the younger generation nowadays don't have those types of morals. Nowadays, many artists don't have such 'traditional' way of thinking and pretty much could care less about who helped them get to where they are now (hence the stories I hear constantly about the lack of respect for seniors / elders in the industry).
With that said though, I will very frankly admit that I'm not too keen on the veteran artists returning to film series for TVB. Now don't get me wrong -- the reason I think this way isn't because I have anything against the veteran artists or feel that their skills aren't up to par. In fact, it's quite the opposite -- I don't want them to return to TVB because I care alot about those artists (since I grew up watching TVB shows and therefore grew up with many of these veteran artists) and therefore don't want to see them mistreated.
As most people know, TVB has severely deteriorated over the years -- in the past 8 to 9 years especially (since the current management took over), TVB's blatant favoritism of their own contracted artists (alot of whom aren't talented and can't act/sing to save their lives) as well as them allowing their rampant politics to run amok, have severely crippled the management team's ability to run the company properly. The recent surge in artists 'leaving the nest' as well as the increase in 'complaints' against TVB (plus a bunch of other things that have happened the past few years) are proof that things are not as "peachy" as the company would like us to believe.
In TVB's view, all artists are 'dispensable' and can be quickly replaced with a snap of the fingers -- after all, the artists need TVB more than TVB needs them, right? Right -- so that's why the artists must adhere to alot of 'unwritten rules' (and yes, there are unwritten rules -- many artists and industry veterans have confirmed it), such as being 'obedient', always portraying the company in a good light, not complaining about anything bad that goes on, don't be vocal even if an injustice has been done, etc. Oh, and did I mention that they also have to be good-looking (based on the standards of a certain female executive that is) and 'kiss-up' to the right people? (Also, don't forget the 'designer handbag' requirement -- that's an important one! LOL!) If you don't follow these 'rules', don't even THINK about getting promoted!
To clarify, these are the 'rules' that apply to contracted artists -- as much as TVB may try, it is very rare that they are able to get the veteran non-contracted artists to adhere to such ridiculous 'rules'. But, being the greedy company that they are, they don't want to give up on the lucrative opportunity to have these artists in their series.....So what is the best solution? Simple! Put all of the veteran artists in a poorly scripted series and even give them pathetic characters to portray -- after all, the storyline and character don't matter, since the audiences will tune in anyway due to the artists' "star-power". Better yet, put them in series with heavily promoted younger generation contracted artists so that their "star-power" can rub off on them too!....I can just imagine the 'conversations' that go on during the management team's weekly Tuesday meetings: "Ooooh, so and so is coming back to film XYZ series! Since he/she is such a popular artist and well-liked by audiences, let's take advantage of the situation and use them to promote our own contracted artists! After all, this 'opportunity' doesn't come often...besides, they [the veteran artists] won't mind -- they're loyal to TVB -- after all, we gave them their success so they are eternally indebted to us! We definitely have the upper hand here!" [hypothetical dialogue]
Ok, in all seriousness....with all the inherent "issues" that TVB has (and all the complaints), you would think that the logical thing to do is take steps to improve the situation and make changes for the better (as well as to protect the company's future). Yet, for some reason, TVB can't seem to grasp that concept and even now, continues to be in denial that any problems exist (which means that no action will be taken any time in the near future). Instead, they continue to take the 'arrogant' approach, thinking that they can do anything they want because they are essentially 'the only game in town'.
So given this type of environment, why should the veteran artists return and 'help out' TVB by filming series for them again? I mean, most of these artists have been in the industry a long time and have already paid their dues -- why should they subject themselves to mistreatment from a company that is 'arrogant' and doesn't appreciate them? It's almost like these artists are getting 'punished' for being loyal -- which is REALLY messed up!
In a sense, I can understand the 'loyalty' reasoning, but the truth is -- most of the people who had helped these veteran artists get to where they are at now are NO LONGER AT TVB! With the exception of (head of production department) Catherine Tsang and Tommy Leung -- both of whom have been at TVB like forever -- everyone else has pretty much moved on. Ok, granted that some veteran artists may feel a sense of 'loyalty' to TVB's big bosses Run Run Shaw and Mona Fong (aka Uncle and Aunt Six), but really, is it "worth it" to subject yourself to such treatment just to 'give face' to 2 people who are no longer involved as much in day to day operations and probably don't really care anymore anyways? If the veteran artists want to show their loyalty, they can do so in other ways -- they shouldn't need to sacrifice their careers, reputation, money, and most importantly, their personal dignity in order to fulfill or prove their loyalty!
One last point that I've been thinking more and more about over the past few years....
True, TVB may have helped 'launch' many of the veteran artists' careers and so, in a sense, contributed to their current success (though technically, I could argue that it's really certain individuals and not really the company who were responsible for the success) -- BUT, by the same token, where would TVB be if it weren't for these same veteran artists who worked day and night to build up the company's reputation and image to what it is today? Do you think that TVB was able to become such an internationally renown institution over the past 4 decades entirely on their own? Do audiences tune in to watch TVB shows because they want to see the faces of the management team? Of course not! (and in the case of a certain female executive, I'm already annoyed that she keeps showing up at events, so please don't put her on TV too!) The veteran actors and actresses (and many of the behind-the-scenes people such as producers and scriptwriters) were a HUGE reason why TVB became so successful and why they were able to become the 'powerhouse' that they are today!
So my question to TVB is: Where's the APPRECIATION for all of the blood, sweat, and tears that the veteran artists put in to build your company up? I don't see you guys being GRATEFUL to them for their efforts all these years! A healthy relationship is one where there is mutual support and genuine concern for each other -- after all, it's supposed to be a 'two way street', not a one-sided road! The day will come when these veteran artists will finally realize that they've had enough and won't want to work for you -- and when it does, I hope that all the untalented "eyecandy" you've invested in will be able to carry you through!
Anyway....
I've been reading recently about how some veteran artists return to TVB to film a series or two after being away for a long time. The reason they usually give for why they return is because TVB helped launch their careers back in the day and helped them become popular, so they are 'repaying' the favor out of gratitude (in Chinese, we call it "飲水思源").
First of all, I must applaud the veteran artists who think this way because to be honest, the younger generation nowadays don't have those types of morals. Nowadays, many artists don't have such 'traditional' way of thinking and pretty much could care less about who helped them get to where they are now (hence the stories I hear constantly about the lack of respect for seniors / elders in the industry).
With that said though, I will very frankly admit that I'm not too keen on the veteran artists returning to film series for TVB. Now don't get me wrong -- the reason I think this way isn't because I have anything against the veteran artists or feel that their skills aren't up to par. In fact, it's quite the opposite -- I don't want them to return to TVB because I care alot about those artists (since I grew up watching TVB shows and therefore grew up with many of these veteran artists) and therefore don't want to see them mistreated.
As most people know, TVB has severely deteriorated over the years -- in the past 8 to 9 years especially (since the current management took over), TVB's blatant favoritism of their own contracted artists (alot of whom aren't talented and can't act/sing to save their lives) as well as them allowing their rampant politics to run amok, have severely crippled the management team's ability to run the company properly. The recent surge in artists 'leaving the nest' as well as the increase in 'complaints' against TVB (plus a bunch of other things that have happened the past few years) are proof that things are not as "peachy" as the company would like us to believe.
In TVB's view, all artists are 'dispensable' and can be quickly replaced with a snap of the fingers -- after all, the artists need TVB more than TVB needs them, right? Right -- so that's why the artists must adhere to alot of 'unwritten rules' (and yes, there are unwritten rules -- many artists and industry veterans have confirmed it), such as being 'obedient', always portraying the company in a good light, not complaining about anything bad that goes on, don't be vocal even if an injustice has been done, etc. Oh, and did I mention that they also have to be good-looking (based on the standards of a certain female executive that is) and 'kiss-up' to the right people? (Also, don't forget the 'designer handbag' requirement -- that's an important one! LOL!) If you don't follow these 'rules', don't even THINK about getting promoted!
To clarify, these are the 'rules' that apply to contracted artists -- as much as TVB may try, it is very rare that they are able to get the veteran non-contracted artists to adhere to such ridiculous 'rules'. But, being the greedy company that they are, they don't want to give up on the lucrative opportunity to have these artists in their series.....So what is the best solution? Simple! Put all of the veteran artists in a poorly scripted series and even give them pathetic characters to portray -- after all, the storyline and character don't matter, since the audiences will tune in anyway due to the artists' "star-power". Better yet, put them in series with heavily promoted younger generation contracted artists so that their "star-power" can rub off on them too!....I can just imagine the 'conversations' that go on during the management team's weekly Tuesday meetings: "Ooooh, so and so is coming back to film XYZ series! Since he/she is such a popular artist and well-liked by audiences, let's take advantage of the situation and use them to promote our own contracted artists! After all, this 'opportunity' doesn't come often...besides, they [the veteran artists] won't mind -- they're loyal to TVB -- after all, we gave them their success so they are eternally indebted to us! We definitely have the upper hand here!" [hypothetical dialogue]
Ok, in all seriousness....with all the inherent "issues" that TVB has (and all the complaints), you would think that the logical thing to do is take steps to improve the situation and make changes for the better (as well as to protect the company's future). Yet, for some reason, TVB can't seem to grasp that concept and even now, continues to be in denial that any problems exist (which means that no action will be taken any time in the near future). Instead, they continue to take the 'arrogant' approach, thinking that they can do anything they want because they are essentially 'the only game in town'.
So given this type of environment, why should the veteran artists return and 'help out' TVB by filming series for them again? I mean, most of these artists have been in the industry a long time and have already paid their dues -- why should they subject themselves to mistreatment from a company that is 'arrogant' and doesn't appreciate them? It's almost like these artists are getting 'punished' for being loyal -- which is REALLY messed up!
In a sense, I can understand the 'loyalty' reasoning, but the truth is -- most of the people who had helped these veteran artists get to where they are at now are NO LONGER AT TVB! With the exception of (head of production department) Catherine Tsang and Tommy Leung -- both of whom have been at TVB like forever -- everyone else has pretty much moved on. Ok, granted that some veteran artists may feel a sense of 'loyalty' to TVB's big bosses Run Run Shaw and Mona Fong (aka Uncle and Aunt Six), but really, is it "worth it" to subject yourself to such treatment just to 'give face' to 2 people who are no longer involved as much in day to day operations and probably don't really care anymore anyways? If the veteran artists want to show their loyalty, they can do so in other ways -- they shouldn't need to sacrifice their careers, reputation, money, and most importantly, their personal dignity in order to fulfill or prove their loyalty!
One last point that I've been thinking more and more about over the past few years....
True, TVB may have helped 'launch' many of the veteran artists' careers and so, in a sense, contributed to their current success (though technically, I could argue that it's really certain individuals and not really the company who were responsible for the success) -- BUT, by the same token, where would TVB be if it weren't for these same veteran artists who worked day and night to build up the company's reputation and image to what it is today? Do you think that TVB was able to become such an internationally renown institution over the past 4 decades entirely on their own? Do audiences tune in to watch TVB shows because they want to see the faces of the management team? Of course not! (and in the case of a certain female executive, I'm already annoyed that she keeps showing up at events, so please don't put her on TV too!) The veteran actors and actresses (and many of the behind-the-scenes people such as producers and scriptwriters) were a HUGE reason why TVB became so successful and why they were able to become the 'powerhouse' that they are today!
So my question to TVB is: Where's the APPRECIATION for all of the blood, sweat, and tears that the veteran artists put in to build your company up? I don't see you guys being GRATEFUL to them for their efforts all these years! A healthy relationship is one where there is mutual support and genuine concern for each other -- after all, it's supposed to be a 'two way street', not a one-sided road! The day will come when these veteran artists will finally realize that they've had enough and won't want to work for you -- and when it does, I hope that all the untalented "eyecandy" you've invested in will be able to carry you through!
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