News Article: For TVB series “Bottled Passion”, the biggest ‘attraction’ is not the male or female lead

Here's a great article I came across (by chance, quite frankly) about the series that I'm currently watching: "Bottled Passion" 《我的如意狼君》. Quite honestly, I'm 'in love' with this series and for me, it is definitely one of the best (if not THE BEST) TVB series that I've watched this year (and perhaps this decade)!

I'll go more into detail about the series in my review (which will be posted by next week, since the finale airs on Monday). For now, I wanted to share the below article in particular because it is truly very well written and brings out the essence of the series almost perfectly.

What I found extremely interesting is that I had almost the exact same thought as the writer of the article in terms of the qualities that makes this series so good, the great job that Tim Gor (and his scriptwriting team) did on the script, and also the way Raymond Wong portrayed the main lead character of 'Tung Boon Seen'. You'll understand more when I post my review...

Lastly, I just wanted to say that it was EXTREMELY DIFFICULT translating this particular article because of the words that were used in Chinese (which was perfect in conveying the 'attractiveness' of this series) -- it was a bit of a struggle to find the best translation for particular words because I didn't want the meaning to be 'lost in translation'.

Anyway, for all those "Bottled Passion" fans out there (yup, you can count me in as part of that group now...LOL), I'm sure you would probably agree with alot of what was written in this article.

Enjoy!


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For TVB series “Bottled Passion”, the biggest ‘attraction’ is not the male or female lead

Originally published: 12/31/2011

Source: ifeng.com / Nam Fong Daily News

Translated by: llwy12

How long has it been since we’ve seen Niki Chow (周麗淇) in a TVB series? If we recount the last TVB series she was in, it should be modern series “The King of Snooker” from 2 years ago. This time around, seeing her in TVB’s currently airing series “Bottled Passion”, one can’t help but have a ‘long time no see’ feeling. What hasn’t changed is that Niki still gives people a feeling of ‘freshness’.

Not that long ago, the onscreen couple of Niki Chow and Kevin Cheng (鄭嘉穎) attracted many a viewer to their television screens, to the point that it seemed to be only when the two of them were paired together that the series would be especially good to watch. This time around, in “Bottled Passion”, the male lead paired with Niki is Raymond Wong (黄浩然) – a face that has appeared in quite a few TVB series in recent years. This new pairing definitely has a certain ‘freshness’ to it – in terms of looks, Raymond may not be considered the ‘stunningly handsome’ type, but overall, he fits the tastes of most female audiences; as for Niki, since she doesn’t appear often in TVB series, she is bound to garner the attention of audiences who find her appearance in a series refreshing.

The series’ Chinese title was originally《大话情人》[“The Lying Lover”] and was later changed to 《我的如意狼君》[literally translated as ‘My Ideal Wolf Husband’] – one can’t help but praise the wisdom of changing the title, as it brings a more ‘enchanting’ aspect to the series. Even though the cast arrangement in this series may not be considered ‘all-star’, a particular name associated with the series is sure to resound loudly with audiences: ‘golden’ producer Lee Tim Sing (李添勝). Indeed, Tim Gor’s series are generally well worth watching, as the plot is fast-paced and the story-telling effect is strong, which often evokes in audiences the desire to ‘chase’ each episode – each time, he incorporates just enough ‘tension’ in the series to draw audiences in and the more they watch, the more ‘flavorful’ the series gets. It definitely would not be an exaggeration to say that the biggest ‘attraction’ to the series “Bottled Passion” is not the male or female lead, but rather the producer Lee Tim Sing. In almost every episode (usually at the end), there is a climactic moment – this seems to be a unique characteristic in most of Tim Gor’s series. From “Rosy Business” and “No Regrets” to “A Fistful of Stances”, which of his series does not lead the audiences by their noses and evoke a dedicated following? Even with “Bottled Passion” airing in the dreaded post-Anniversary ‘cannon fodder’ timeslot, there is no way to hide the inherent ‘well worth watching’ nature of the series.

In terms of the acting, the character of ‘Tung Boon Seen’ that Raymond Wong portrays in “Bottled Passion” is quite a departure from the mostly ‘simple and honest’ type characters he portrayed in the past. His character in the series is quite complex and can best be described as a ‘semi-villain with the intrinsic qualities of a good-natured person’ – an almost perfect illustration of the expression “guys who aren’t bad, women won’t love them” [男人不壞, 女人不爱]. This seemingly ‘bad’ guy toys with women’s hearts in order to fulfill his plans for revenge against a particular family, but yet at the same time, his genuine concern and insistence on finding his childhood friend ‘Ngau Nai Tong’ [‘Milk Candy’] evokes feelings of sympathy and affection. Towards this ‘conflicted’ and ‘contradictory’ character, audiences will naturally feel both love and hate, though for most, they probably cannot bring themselves to hate him. It’s obvious that Raymond Wong put a lot of effort into portraying this character, as his emotional scenes came across very sincere and meticulous. At times, it even seemed like he was acting with his eyes, as the emotion that his tear-filled eyes conveyed in certain scenes had the effect of momentarily taking the focus away from everything else going on in those scenes.

As for the female lead character of Tsui Sum, her forthright personality suits Niki Chow well – in fact, it can be said that the character is an easy and familiar one for her. Also, her naturally refreshing look is a welcome departure from the heavy makeup and costumes that audiences have been exposed to in recent series. In short, her character is the type that is generally pleasing to audiences.

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Chinese Version:

《我的如意狼君》：最大的牌不是男女主角

2011年12月31日 09:16
来源：南方都市报 作者：林丹丹

有多久没看过周丽淇的戏了？上一部应该是两年前的时装剧《桌球天王》，此次《我的如意狼君》里见到她，略有一种“久违了”的感觉。不变的是，她给人的感觉依然“清新”。

曾几何时，周丽淇与郑嘉颖这对荧屏情侣，吸引了多少眼球与关注，仿佛只有他俩以情侣身份搭档的剧集才特别好看。这次，男主角是黄浩然这张近来在TV B剧集中常出现的面孔。这一组合新鲜得来也蛮有“清新感”，或许黄浩然不是那种很惊艳的帅，但也符合很多女观众的口味；周丽淇不常在TV B露脸，也会让人格外留意几分。

《我的如意狼君》前名《大话情人》，不得不赞叹后来的剧名改得好，更为引人入胜。虽然该剧的演员阵容不算“庞大”，但监制李添胜的名字绝对够响亮。没错，添哥的剧集很耐看，情节紧凑，故事性强，总让人忍不住要追着看，张力十足，越看越有味道。不夸张地说一句，该剧最大的牌不是男女主角，而是监制李添胜。几乎每一集都有高潮，这似乎是添哥出品的独有特色。从《巾帼枭雄》系列到《铁马寻桥》，哪一部不是每一集都牵着观众的鼻子走？即使《我的如意狼君》是在台庆颁奖之后的尴尬档期播出，依然掩盖不住“好看”的本色。

以往看黄浩然扮演的多是单纯或是老实人的角色，这次扮演的佟本善可就“复杂”得多了，可以说得上是有着好人本质的“腹黑男”，几乎是淋漓尽致地诠释了什么是“男人不坏，女人不爱”。这位情场“狼君”为了复仇大计将女人玩弄于股掌之间，俨然是大坏人，但对儿时的玩伴牛奶糖却一直念念不忘，却又令人心生爱怜。对于这一矛盾体人物，观众自然是又爱又恨，估计多数都是恨不起来。黄浩然诠释这一角色也很给力，感情戏显得真挚细腻，各位眼神控们要注意了，他好些时候是在用眼神在演戏，泪光盈盈的眼神瞬间秒杀一切。

女主角徐芯爽快的性格也很适合周丽淇，这种角色对于她来说可以说是驾轻就熟了，清新的妆容在一众浓妆艳抹当中显得尤为脱俗可人，总之就是讨人喜欢。（作者系媒体从业者）

My ‘TVB Rant’ # 15: The Impact of TVB’s Continuously Shrinking Talent Pool

I haven't done a rant about TVB in awhile, so figured it was time for another update...LOL!

Not sure how many of you have been keeping up with HK entertainment news lately -- despite my busy schedule, I've been trying to keep up the best I can (though not as 'religiously' as before)....those who have been paying attention to the news probably know that there have been alot of personnel changes at TVB lately. Normally, this might not be 'big news', but to long-time, die-hard HK TV fans (aka TVB fans), the recent changes could have a significant impact on the direction of the TV industry in the years to come.

For those only interested in the short version -- well, basically, tons of people are leaving (or have left) TVB in recent years (recent meaning the last 2-3 years or so) for various reasons, but mostly because they were being mistreated or neglected (or because those who left finally 'woke up' and realized that their careers will continue to remain stale if they stay with TVB).

For those interested in the long version -- READ ON!

Let's start with the 'big gun' himself, TVB's founder and Chairman, Sir Run Run Shaw. It was recently announced (like last month) that Sir Run Run (aka Uncle Six) will be stepping down from his position as TVB Chairman and current vice-Chairman Norman Leung will take over. To be very honest, this news means nothing to me because 1) it was already anticipated, since Uncle Six is already over 100 years old – people seriously don’t expect him to still be actively running TVB, do they?? 2) Uncle Six hasn't been involved in running TVB for at least a decade already -- his wife Mona Fong has pretty much been running the company on his behalf for many years (and doing a lousy job, in my opinion)....with the announcement of him stepping down, they were pretty much just making things 'official' (yea, tell me something I didn’t already know would happen). So basically, my reaction to this news is…..whatever…

The other 'big news' in terms of management is that TVB's charismatic (and popular) GM Stephen Chan has resigned in favor of 'fulfilling his dream of studying abroad' (hmmm, that's an interesting excuse). To be honest, I'm actually not surprised that SC would take this step, given everything he went through with the corruption case earlier on and basically being left out to dry by none other than his employer TVB (not to mention having his name dragged through the mud by pretty much everyone in HK in the process). Also, with the way TVB treated him during those months when he was suspended from his duties pending investigation, I was actually surprised that he agreed to go back and work for them again in the first place (I'm pretty sure there was some political thing going on there). So I guess you could say that SC resigning doesn't have any impact on me either (as long as that dreaded witch Virginia Lok doesn't take his place -- now if she were to get promoted to fill that position, then that would be a different story!).

Oh, by the way – another key management person who left TVB earlier this year (or was it last year? Can’t remember exactly….) was long-time director of variety / non-drama programs Ho Lai Chuen. He left to work for nowTV (one of the 3 companies granted free-to-air TV licenses) and is now one of the big executives over there. Supposedly, he left TVB on good terms (at least that’s what the public was told), but after working at TVB for 30 years, it’s sort of hard for me to believe that he would decide to leave and go to a competitor just like that if there weren’t issues between him and the company (TVB) in the first place. Anyway, he’s better off at nowTV in my opinion because I honestly feel that out of the 3 ‘new’ stations that will come into play next year, nowTV has the most potential (they already have some great programs being produced currently).

As most of you know, there was an aggressive ‘poaching’ movement by City Telecom’s (CTI) Ricky Wong earlier in the year – his company is one of the 3 that have been granted licenses to operate free-to-air TV stations next year. Personally, I don’t have much respect for the guy because after seeing the tactics he employed in trying to poach a rival station’s employees, he just doesn’t come across as a very honorable person to me (plus I had heard bad things about him back when he was an executive at ATV). Anyway, I mention Ricky Wong and CTI because he will be one of the major players next year and there are actually a few former TVB artists who will be jumping ship to his company (more on that later).

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Now that we’ve looked at the significant changes in management, let’s look next at the behind-the-scenes people: the producers and scriptwriters.

I’m sure we all know that TVB lost one of its best scriptwriters, Cheung Wah Biu, last year – he was responsible for writing the scripts for many of the highly rated and highly acclaimed series over the past few years, with the award-winning “Rosy Business” and “No Regrets” being amongst his last works. After leaving TVB, Cheung Wah Biu went to Taiwan to work for entertainment mogul Jimmy Lai’s Next Media empire. There were rumors of CWB possibly returning to TVB earlier in the year, but those rumors turned out to be false (which is perfectly fine with me, since they were wasting his talent anyway).

My understanding is that TVB also lost other scriptwriters as well, but I can’t remember the names at this moment. However, my assumption is that the number of behind-the-scenes scriptwriters and copy editors who left must have been significant because it caused TVB to change their policy to allow scriptwriters to sign ‘per series’ contracts rather than long term ones (this was a ‘privilege’ normally reserved for artists) – plus many of the behind-the-scenes personnel ended up getting pay raises along with early contract renewals.

In terms of producers, that’s actually one area where TVB will be suffering a tremendous loss next year with the departure of 3 ‘golden’ producers – the husband and wife couple of Lau Kar Ho and Mui Siu Ching (who are heading to nowTV in early 2012) and also Lee Tim Sing (who will most likely be retiring).

First, let’s talk about Lau Kar Ho and Mui Siu Ching. LKH and MSC said that they are leaving because they want to expand their opportunities (especially in the Mainland market) – I’m sure that’s true, but part of me thinks that there is also more to it than that. The couple has been with TVB since the 1980s and throughout the past 3 decades, have produced many hit series (in fact, most of the grand productions and anniversary series from the past few years were produced by them). With their status as ‘golden’ producers, they are 2 of the most well-known producers at TVB, so for them to leave suddenly after so many years, there has to be something that triggered it. We probably will never know the truth, but as far as I’m concerned, their departure is definitely TVB’s loss.

As for Tim Gor – well, let’s just say that I’ve always been fond of Tim Gor’s series and he’s one of the reasons why I’ve still been watching some TVB series in recent years. Tim Gor has been with TVB since the late 60s and was pretty much there when the company itself started – throughout the past 4 decades, he has worked in various positions at TVB, even becoming the Head of Production at one point. Since he also used to be a scriptwriter himself, he is very much involved when it comes to writing the scripts for the series he produces (he has a scriptwriting team that writes for him, but he personally does a lot of review and editing of the script). In addition to his numerous contributions to TVB the past 40 years (he produced and wrote many great series), he was also responsible for bringing us some of the past 3-4 years’ most acclaimed series (for example – “A Fistful of Stances”, “Rosy Business, “No Regrets”, etc.).

Tim Gor’s latest series “Bottled Passion” (which is currently in its finale week) is a great series. I won’t go into detail about the series itself, since I will be doing a review on it some time next week – I will say though that BP is actually one of the few TVB series from this entire DECADE that I actually like. The most recent article that came out today stated that BP’s ratings are suffering badly because it was placed in the dreaded December ‘cannon fodder’ timeslot instead of the original October ‘golden’ timeslot as previously planned (it was pulled from the October timeslot and replaced with “Super Snoops” last minute). For TVB to push the series aside in favor of that dumb anniversary series "Super Snoops" (which was so stupid, I felt like I lost brain cells just watching the first episode) is truly pathetic!! If they would have kept BP in the original October timeslot instead of in the cannon fodder December timeslot, its ratings would probably not have suffered so badly (though to be honest, I really don't care anymore at this point because everyone knows that HK TV ratings mean absolutely nothing!). If I were Tim Gor, I would be pissed as well! When Tim Gor retires next year, I am truly going to miss him!

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Lastly, let’s look at the artists who have left TVB recently (in the last 2 years alone)…some of the more significant ones include Bowie Lam, Wong Hei, Steven Ma, Joe Ma, Charmaine Sheh, Bernice Liu (just to name a few). Bowie and Wong Hei have both signed with a management company affiliated with nowTV, so that means their chance of appearing on a TVB program again is pretty much none (since I’m sure TVB won’t take them back given they didn’t leave on good terms). Steven is terminating his management contract with TVB early and will most likely be switching to a per series contract with them once the dust settles (though he will most likely continue to be ‘mistreated’ by them as long as VL is still there). Joe is still under management contract currently, but he has already expressed that he won’t be renewing his contract with TVB once it expires this year. Charmaine already switched to a per series contract with TVB last year and Bernice terminated her contract completely out of disappointment over the way she was treated. Add to this the fact that there are A LOT of non-contracted and/or per series contracted artists who have already stated that they will only film 1 series a year for TVB (or none at all if they don’t have time), which means that there will be even fewer artists in the picture.

Oh, and let’s not forget Ricky Wong’s company CTI (which I mentioned earlier): it was just announced that 20 or so former TVB artists will be joining his company -- these include: Frankie Lam, John Chiang, Wilson Tsui, Jerry Lamb (currently with ATV, since he left TVB a few years ago), Yu Mo Lian, Catherine Chow, Benji and Lesley Chiang (well, they aren't exactly TVB artists, but their father Paul Chun is), etc.

Of course, my list is probably incomplete and there are probably other artists leaving TVB whom I may have missed – sadly though, the few that I already listed is enough to illustrate the dire situation that TVB will be in next year.

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Concluding Thoughts…

With so many key players leaving TVB, you would think that they would finally 'wake up' and start doing something to change their stupid politics. I know that if I were Mona Fong and saw how badly the company was deteriorating (it’s hard to believe she does not see a problem with so many artists and behind the scenes people leaving), I would step in immediately to rectify the situation (with the first step being firing a certain someone). Unfortunately though, it doesn’t look like TVB is going to make changes any time soon – especially since up to this point, they are still ‘officially’ in denial that anything is wrong (it doesn’t take a genius to understand the concept that if you are not able to recognize what is wrong in the first place, how in the world are you going to fix it?)

To be honest, my guess is that TVB probably doesn’t even care as long as they continue to post those big revenue numbers year after year – plus I’m willing to bet that even with the addition of 3 TV stations next year, TVB won’t view them as a threat because of the ‘loyalty factor’ in terms of the audiences (they are banking on the fact that almost all of HK is already ‘used to’ watching TVB, so it won’t be easy for the audiences to switch to other stations – which, theoretically speaking, means that TVB would continue to dominate the TV industry). That’s actually what happened with ATV back in the 70s -- their predecessor RTV was in the business long before TVB even existed, but because they were not free-to-air, people naturally turned to TVB instead – by the time RTV/ATV figured things out and became free-to-air in the 70s, audiences had already been watching TVB programs for close to a decade and didn’t want to switch (though a huge part of this was also due to the 70s being a ‘golden age’ of sorts for TVB, which is definitely not the case right now). Based on the responses from some of the TVB management (back when the whole ‘3 additional free-to-air TV stations’ thing came up), it looks like they are putting their money on history repeating itself.

With 2011 coming to an end and all the TVB-related ‘drama’ that has played out over the past year, it will be interesting to see what happens in 2012!

News Article: Producer Lee Tim Sing blasts TVB for airing “Bottled Passion” in ‘cannon fodder’ timeslot

Article originally published 12/27/2011

Source: Oriental Daily

Translated by: llwy12

** Note: Only the part of the article related to Lee Tim Sing was translated**

With all the changes that TVB has been going through recently, the internal politics have been a mess and now, even elders who’ve always been ‘ratings guarantees’ are falling victim to the internal unrest.

Golden producer Lee Tim Sing (Tim Gor), who contributed greatly to TVB’s success for several decades, invited singer/actress Niki Chow to return to TVB last year to film the series “Bottled Passion” with actor Raymond Wong. Around the time of last year’s Sales Presentation, the plan was to arrange for the series to air during October’s ‘golden’ timeslot. Unfortunately, due to internal politics, “Bottled Passion” was moved to the December ‘cannon fodder’ timeslot and replaced instead with Liza Wang and the three gods’ anniversary series “Super Snoops”.

Currently in its finale week, the storyline for “Bottled Passion” revolves around a love story, which seems to be the perfect fit for TVB’s housewife audience’s tastes compared with the cannibalism-themed series “When Heaven Burns”, which is also in its finale week. However, TVB has arranged for the finale of “When Heaven Burns” to air on Sunday (January 1st), pushing “Bottled Passion”s finale to Monday, Jan 2nd (the first time that a TVB series has aired its finale on a Monday). This further added fuel to an already burning fire. It is rumored that because Tim Gor is planning to retire next year, someone is seizing upon the opportunity to give him the ‘cold shoulder’. Despite his previous accomplishments, including last year’s highly rated anniversary series “No Regrets”, Tim Gor was not given any face, causing his newest series to become ‘high quality cannon fodder’!

Our reporter contacted Tim Gor for clarification. When the issue of his series being placed in a cannon fodder timeslot was brought up, a usually mellow Tim Gor became upset, angrily blasting TVB: “Of course there will be someone sacrificed in the PK timeslot! [TN: 'PK' in this context represents a Cantonese curse word]. Several years ago, my series “A Fistful of Stances” was the same way – whether there is a particular motive to it, I really don’t know! It’s not worth getting upset over anymore – besides, I’m not the first one treated this way – cannon fodder or not, doesn’t matter anymore!” Tim Gor expressed that TVB’s action of moving “Bottled Passion” to such a timeslot was hugely discouraging to the cast and crew and he has been trying his best to bring the morale back up. He stated: “I can’t lie – the ratings truly aren’t that great. The worst part is that the series has good word of mouth….the screenwriting team is definitely upset. Aiye! During the holidays, there are at least 600,000 to 700,000 people who leave town for travel, so of course they won’t be sitting in front of their TVs watching the series. If the series was placed in the October timeslot as originally planned, the ratings would be at least 2 points higher, if not more! But I’m used to it already!”

When the series was originally taken out of the October timeslot, Tim Gor had angrily gone up to the drama department to inquire as to the reason: “I admit that the series [Bottled Passion] is not a ‘star-studded’ production, as the main leads are Niki and Raymond. But Niki has truly shown great improvement in her acting, Raymond is a perfect fit for the role, and Joel [Chan] did a good job as anticipated. I put a lot of heart into coming up with this story and the plot was carefully arranged. When I first heard about the series airing in the October timeslot, I thought to myself that it would surely succeed. Unexpectedly though, the drama department pulled the series out of that timeslot last minute – when I asked why, they said it was because of a ‘particular reason’ and even apologized to me!”

Asked about plans to retire, Tim Gor replied that the final decision will be made at the end of next year: “At the end of next year, I will be 65 years old. The company’s retirement age is 60 years, so I have already exceeded by 5 years – it is enough! I still have the heart for it, but not the strength. My colleagues sometimes see me limping when I’m walking, so I already know that health-wise, it’s taking a toll on me!”

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Chinese Version:

李添勝怒插無綫 周麗淇愁爆

無綫易主，內亂紛紛，任你是公司有收視保證的老臣子亦一樣冇面畀！曾為無綫立下不少汗馬功勞的金牌監製李添勝，去年躊躇滿志邀周麗淇（Niki）夥拍首次擔正的黃浩然合作劇集《我的如意狼君》，年初節目巡禮亦打算安排該劇在十月黃金檔首播，可惜因為政治因素，《我》劇被燉落聖誕炮灰檔期，由汪明荃主演的《荃加福祿壽探案》頂上。

明年退休被冷待
因《我》劇劇情夠老土，迎合師奶口味，本周進入結局周，無綫卻安排周日（一月一日）播比較重口味的《天與地》大結局，《我》劇大結局則安排下周一（一月二日）播出，被節目部高層一燉再燉。據知因添哥打算明年退休，有人借勢冷待他，故這位收視爆燈的《巾幗梟雄》監製亦冇例外，《我》劇慘成極品炮灰！

本報致電添哥，提到嘔心瀝血之作變炮灰劇，一向待人接物不慍不火的添哥亦扯火，怒轟無綫：「實有人食PK檔！我以前套《鐵馬尋橋》都食過，係咪用人唯親真係唔知！都嬲唔到咁多，況且我又唔係第一個，都冇話炮唔炮灰囉！」添哥表示，無綫此舉令《我》劇台前幕後意興闌珊，他早已安撫幕後人員。他說：「唔可以講大話，收視真係普通，最慘係口碑好，搞到啲編劇仲唔開心！唉！假期有六、七十萬人離港，如果擺黃金檔起碼高兩點收視啦！不過我都慣喇！」

讚Niki進步神速
添哥更怒氣沖沖踩上節目部質問《我》劇被抽起原因：「我認《我》劇唔係大堆頭粒粒星，孭飛都係Niki同浩然。不過Niki真係進步得好快，浩然又好適合個角色，山聰做得好一早係意料之內。我好畀心機度呢個故事，成件事都有計算，當安排十月檔仲以為一定得。點知畀節目部臨時抽起，話有某啲原因喎，仲同我講對唔住。」

提到退休問題，添哥打算明年底自有決定，他說：「明年年尾滿六十五歲，公司要六十歲退休，做多五年都夠皮啦！我有心無力喇！同事見我行路拐吓拐吓，就知自己體能唔得！」

News Article: Jacky Cheung’s ½ Century Concert Tour may return to Guangzhou and other cities; fans wait in anticipation

Here’s the article about Jacky’s concert tour that tvbaddict was referring to which mentioned Atlantic City (see Cbox for conversation history).

Just a few things that I wanted to mention regarding this article:

.—Not sure about the source of this article, as it appears that it was written by someone in Guangzhou, since it refers specifically to Guangzhou fans.

.-- The way in which this article was written appears to be more of a plea on behalf of fans to persuade Jacky to return to Guangzhou to perform. From my perspective, there really isn’t any useful information in this article and since it doesn’t appear to be a professional article written by a known Media outlet, I wouldn’t vouch for the validity of any of the content in the article.

.-- Whoever wrote this article got some facts wrong. The article lists Atlantic City (U.S.) as one of the cities that Jacky performed at for his ½ Century Tour, but in reality, he never performed there this year. So far, the only North American cities scheduled on Jacky’s Concert tour are Las Vegas (U.S.), Toronto (Canada), and Vancouver (Canada).

.-- This article was published a few days ago, however it looks like the information contained in it is already outdated. Jacky’s concert team already announced that he will be returning to Guangzhou for 2 shows in February 2012.

.****.

Jacky Cheung’s ½ Century Concert Tour may return to Guangzhou and other cities; fans wait in anticipation

Article originally published on December 26, 2011

Source: ent.huanqiu.com

Translated by: llwy12

2011 – a year associated with a name that pierces our ears like thunder: Jacky Cheung. With his world tour concert, he continues to create miracles that extend not only throughout the regions and cities of Mainland China, but also reach as far as the United States and Australia as well as many regions in the Asia Pacific. With over 100 shows completed so far, millions of fans all over the world have been graced with Jacky’s heavenly voice and extraordinary live performances.

Jacky’s ½ Century Concert Tour was originally slated for only 50 shows. Unexpectedly yet not surprisingly, as soon as the concert tour launched on the last day of December 2010, it touched off huge waves around the world. The number of cities requesting to be added to the tour has been unceasing and as a result, the performance itinerary continues to change almost daily!

In almost every city / region where Jacky has performed, fans and local organizers alike have continued to request for added shows: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanchang, Chongqing, Guiyang, Hong Kong, Taipei….even in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Toronto, Singapore, Malaysia….with so many fans out there who still have not been able to successfully secure tickets for Jacky’s concert – many of whom have waited years to , the demand for additional shows has been tremendous. In almost every instance, Jacky and his team have tried to accommodate as many fans as possible by adding additional shows after each sold-out opening performance.

Guangzhou fans got the chance to experience Jacky’s ½ Century Concert back in January 2011 when he performed at the Guangzhou International Sports Arena, however there is a bit of regret in that many fans did not get to attend -- they are hoping that they will get the same chance as fans from other cities to enjoy such a grand production.

Recently, it has been reported that Jacky will be returning to various cities to perform once again for his fans via additional shows. Fun Entertainment Company’s Miss Choi revealed that in March 2012, it is confirmed that Jacky’s Concert tour will be returning to Shanghai, China for a few shows [TN: The concert originally kicked off in Shanghai back in December 2010]. As soon as this news came out, many local organizers in Guangzhou have been actively trying to persuade Jacky’s concert team to return to their city. According to workers affiliated with local entertainment companies, on behalf of the fans, they will try their best to persuade Jacky and his team to return to Guangzhou for additional shows.

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Chinese version:

张学友1/2世纪演唱会或再次回归 广州歌迷翘首期盼

2011年，这一年，一个如雷贯耳的名字----张学友。用他的巡演足迹，续写了奇迹。这奇迹遍及了中国内地大大小小的省市，更远至美国、澳洲及东南亚各地，全世界近千万歌迷，领略到了张学友天籁般的歌声以及实力非凡的现场演出！

　　2011年1/2世纪巡回演唱会，原定计划演出50场。出乎意料却也预想之中，2010年一经推出立即引发了全球巡演的狂潮！不断有新的城市要求加入巡演计划，演出行程表一再更新。

　　已经演出过的城市、歌迷、主办方不断请求再度加演：北京、上海、广州、南昌、重庆、贵阳、香港、台北……乃至拉斯维加斯、大西洋城、多伦多、新加坡、马来西亚……　那些没有及时抢票成功的歌迷们要求加场演出的市场呼声愈加高涨，为了满足强大的市场需求，圆歌迷们多年至臻的“学友梦”，屡次在首场演出爆棚之后立即加场再度返回加演以飨观众。

　　广州的歌迷朋友们只因2011年1月份的张学友1/2世纪演唱会在广州国际体育演艺中心体育馆上演而留下深深的遗憾。因为他们更期待同其他城市歌迷一样-----欣赏到一场在体育场举行的大型盛宴！

　　而近期学友巡演掀起回归热潮，天星娱乐公司蔡小姐透露已确定了2012年3月巡演回归站---上海站！消息一经传出，广州地区便出现各大演出单位百般设法促成巡演回归站的举行。在暂无明确信息，悬而未决的态势下，竟然也已有四十多家文化公司、品牌企业开始争相邀请演唱会回归合作。主办方相关工作人员表示，他们会竭尽全力促成广州回归站！为了广州歌迷，更为了弥补学友留予广州歌迷的遗憾！

Memories of HK Entertainment’s Golden Age: “TV Screen Idols” Magazine (螢幕偶像) – POST #2

As promised in an earlier post, I will be sharing various articles from my collection of “TV Screen Idols” magazine (the now-defunct publication that used to be extremely popular back in the 80s and 90s). With the variety of articles in the magazines, it is indeed difficult deciding which ones to share. Whenever I can, I’ll try to translate entire articles, but when that’s not possible due to time constraints (since many of the articles are very long), then I’ll probably just do a summary (sort of like what I do for the book reviews).

Anyway, here’s the first article that I’ll be posting related to the magazine – I decided to translate this one in its entirety because it consists of the artist’s own words.

The below article is part of a Special Feature that was in one of the “Golden Chinese New Year” editions of the magazine. It was published back on February 3rd, 1986 (over 25 years ago). In that particular section of the magazine, the editors had a few of the entertainment industry’s most popular artists (in music, movies, and television) share their thoughts on whatever they wanted with readers – each of the artists wrote up something and submitted it to the editors to publish as a “In the Artists’ Own Words” feature in this special issue.

The artists chosen for this segment wrote about various topics and in different styles – some artists chose to write a thank you letter to fans (Anita Mui), others chose to recap various milestones in their careers (Leslie Cheung and David Lui Fong), while others took the opportunity to clarify rumors that had been circulating (Andy Lau) or decided to write about topics close to their hearts (Sheren Tang, Margie Tsang, Chow Yun Fat). I would have to say that the most ‘creative’ of the writings by far was Alex Man’s – it reminded me of one of those poems written by those ancient scholars (obviously it was a bit difficult to understand upon first read…LOL).

For this post, I decided to translate Margie Tsang’s (曾華倩) ‘Words from the Heart’.

Here are my thoughts regarding the article:

.—Keep in mind that the below was written by Margie back in 1986 when she was in her early 20s (and not long after she entered the TV industry). Around that time period, she had already filmed about 5 TV series and a couple movies.

.—1986 was the year that Margie broke up with her famous ex Tony Leung for the second time, after having reunited with him for less than a year (though some sources state that they had already broken up in late 1985). Whatever the case, I can’t help but wonder whether Margie’s relationship with Tony somehow played a role in Margie thinking the way she did back then.

.—Interestingly enough, Margie became a ‘housewife’ herself when she married businessman Lam Siu Kei in 1996 and gave birth to a son in 1999. Unfortunately though, Margie and her husband divorced in 2002 due to ‘incompatible personalities’. Since then, there have not been any confirmed reports of a new romance.

.—The below was written 25 years ago…now that Margie has gone through some of the experiences that she described in the article, I wonder if she would still think the same way today? We may never know, but it’s definitely interesting ‘food for thought’….


.*************

“Envious of Young Housewives”

Written by: Margie Tsang

Article originally published on February 3, 1986 in “HK TV Screen Idols” Magazine – Year of the Tiger Golden Edition (金裝螢幕偶像)

Translated by: llwy12

I once heard someone assess me in the following way: too cold and uncommunicative.

Perhaps so. But, there are also times when I feel like being chatty, enthusiastic, and wild.

I constantly feel that my personality is a bit contradictory: one moment I’m this way and another moment I’m that way. Sometimes, I feel like doing certain things, but then afterwards, I get fed up with it – even when I set my mind to it and feel determined to do it, that determination usually does not last long.

This personality of mine has caused me much unhappiness.

I envy those young housewives whose simple, main focus every day is in maintaining their family and toiling for their husbands and children. After dropping their children off at school in the mornings, they [the housewives] go and buy groceries, then after returning home, begin a day full of household chores – clean here, sweep there, and in no time, the house is spotless. When the children return home from school, they keep watch and make sure the children’s homework is done, also giving advice when questions come up. In the evening, they start to cook in the kitchen, preparing a delicious feast for the entire family to enjoy.

I also envy those women who are able to maintain an ordinary life, working an ordinary job. Every day, they start work at a certain time, have a consistent lunch schedule, and after returning home from work, they can go out and watch a movie with their boyfriends. Even though this would be their routine day in and day out, they are very happy with it and very satisfied with life.

How I wish I could be a person who is willing to be ordinary, not wishing for things and not fantasizing. Too much fantasizing, too many beautiful dreams cause sadness when these dreams can’t be fulfilled and I must face reality.

Of course, there are all different types of people in the world; some are more suitable to do this job while others may be better suited for that job – as long as each person does their best and does their part well. Perhaps I’m just too indecisive, wanting to do this and that, starting one thing without first completing another – in the end, I’m not able to gain success in either and just have a bunch of loose ends on my hands.

I thought about it for a long time and, honestly speaking, perhaps what I truly envy isn’t the position of ‘housewife’ or ‘office clerk’ itself, but rather, the ‘concept’ of such simplicity and focus. They are able to put all their effort into doing their jobs well, yet still enjoy it in the process.

If only I am also able to experience that level of comfort and find that sense of belonging in the TV industry, where I can concentrate my efforts fully on doing the job well while at the same time find joy and contentment in it.

Mingpao Article: “Detective Columbo” to be Lee Tim Sing’s last series prior to retirement

This article is sort of related to the previous one I did regarding the 2012 Sales Presentation series, plus Lee Tim Sing is one of my favorite producers, so I figured I would post this article on my blog as well.

A few comments regarding the article:

.—Definitely sad that Tim Gor will be retiring, as he was one of the few producers left at TVB who actually produced good, high quality series. Plus Tim Gor has been at TVB like forever (he started with them in the 1960s), so it’s definitely a huge loss for them. But hey, Tim Gor’s health is more important, so if retiring is best for him, then so be it!

.—The other latest piece of news related to this is that it has also been confirmed that the other 2 ‘golden producers’ at TVB – Mui Siu Ching and Lau Kar Ho – will be leaving TVB early next year and going over to nowTV. So this means that TVB will be losing 3 golden producers next year!

.—Tim Gor’s latest series “Bottled Passion” is an awesome series – I’ve been watching it since it premiered on 12/6 and am absolutely hooked! As most people know, there aren’t too many TVB series that I actually like from the post-2000 era and in the last 5 years, it’s been even more dismal, since it’s a huge struggle for me to find even 1 series each year that I feel is worth watching from beginning to end. So for me to enjoy “Bottled Passion” so much is a huge testament to how good the series is (and how well Tim Gor produced it). Needless to say, I will be doing a review of the series later on once I finish watching it.

.—At first I wasn’t sure if I would want to watch “Detective Columbo” next year after seeing the sales presentation clip, but now that I know the series will likely be Tim Gor’s last series prior to retiring, plus I tend to like Tim Gor’s series anyway (and Wayne will be in the series), I will most likely put it on my ‘to watch’ list now…

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“Detective Columbo” to be Lee Tim Sing’s last series prior to retirement

Source: Mingpao

Translated by: llwy12

December has traditionally been a ‘bad’ month for TV ratings: students are busy with finals, parents are busy worrying about their children’s grades in school, families are planning for holiday festivities and travel plans, etc. Understandably, arranging for a series to broadcast during this time period is pretty much the same as putting it up for sacrifice. As the ratings reports come out every week, the focus has been on how much the ratings for the series “When Heaven Burns” has fallen from one week to the next. With the upcoming long holiday and guaranteed heavy travel season that comes with it, the concern in the coming weeks is not only about how first-line series “When Heaven Burns” will fare during that time, but also how much second-line series “Bottled Passion” will be affected as well. Not surprisingly, golden producer Lee Tim Sing (Tim Gor) has already expressed concern about his series “Bottled Passion” losing several hundred thousand viewers.

Currently in its 3rd week of broadcast, the ratings for “Bottled Passion” have been acceptable, with an average of 26 points, putting it ahead of “When Heaven Burns” for 2 weeks in a row. However, Tim Gor admits that the ratings have been lower than what he expected, as he feels that the average ratings should be at least 28 or 29 points in order to be acceptable. Always one to speak what’s on his mind, Tim Gor candidly expressed that series airing during this particular timeslot (the month of December) are definitely at a disadvantage. That being said, Tim Gor has a lot of confidence in “Bottled Passion” and in the past few days, the average ratings have slowly climbed to 28 points – though he is happy about the slight increase in ratings, Tim Gor is also worried that the ratings will drop again as viewers prepare to go out of town for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, especially since the critical finale episodes will air during this time. Tim Gor smiled helplessly and stated: “Coincidentally, “When Heaven Burns” will be airing its finale around the same time as well – since its finale is scheduled for January 1st (Sunday), there was no choice but to schedule “Bottled Passion’s” finale for the next day (Monday, January 2nd). To be honest, I’m a bit worried that audiences won’t know the finale is airing at that time, but unfortunately, there is nothing I can do, since I don’t have a right to interfere with program scheduling. I can only attribute it to bad luck.”

Tim Gor expressed that he is very happy with his series “Bottled Passion”, as the storyline breaks away from the traditional ‘romantic love story’ method and is a nice change for the audiences – plus the pairing of leads Raymond Wong and Nikki Chow is refreshing and their performances in the series are quite up to par.

Having just wrapped filming for his next series “Stairway to Heaven”, Tim Gor stated that the series is currently in post-production; after that, he will be preparing for his newest series “Detective Columbo”, which starts filming next year. Tim Gor expressed that “Detective Columbo” will be his last series prior to retirement: “Two of my directors just left, jumping ship to CTI [Ricky Wong’s company], so I don’t dare to take vacation even during the Christmas holiday because I need to personally monitor post-production for “Stairway to Heaven”. After the New Year, I’ll be starting on “Detective Columbo” – so far, there is nothing in terms of storyline, so I can only give you 6 words: 『哥倫布+黎耀祥』[Columbo + Wayne Lai]. This time around, the filming is really taking a toll on my health – after this series, I truly need to retire!”

The recent trend in the TV industry is that even scriptwriters and copy editors get to sign ‘per series’ contracts, so the reporter asked Tim Gor how he would feel about continuing to produce series on a ‘per series’ basis even after retirement? Tim Gor’s response: “I definitely won’t consider filming long-term, but if they are willing to set a precedent for producers to collaborate on a ‘per series’ contract basis, then that’s something to consider!” Even though Tim Gor says he’s retiring, looks like the door isn’t shut completely – there’s still an opportunity if TVB management is willing to take advantage of it!

Asked about recent reports that the low ratings for series “When Heaven Burns” is causing his series to have low ratings as well, Tim Gor voiced support for the series: “There was obviously a lot of thought put into the writing of the script [for “When Heaven Burns”] and the method of filming is quite good. However, whether it suits the tastes of the general public or not is really up to the audiences to decide. I would never be able to film this type of series, but am interested in observing how others do it and learning from it – if I happen to be at home, I tune in to watch as well.”

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Chinese Version:

大姐大手記﹕添哥退休之作
黎耀祥做神探

【明報專訊】12月是電視台收視悶局的月份，學生忙考試，連家長也齊齊閉關，又多節日與公眾假期；以大姐大所知，劇集安排這段時間播映跟慘烈犧牲無異。這陣子，每星期收視調查報告，大家的焦點就是《天與地》收視跌多少。聖誕新年長假外遊又嚟緊，除了《天與地》，連第二線《我的如意狼君》的金牌監製李添勝都牙痛咁聲，話睇住幾十萬觀眾流失。

播映進入第3周的《如意狼君》收視成績算有交代，平均26點，是連續兩星期收視之冠了。添哥跟大姐大呻，《如》劇的收視跟自己預期有出入，應該多2點收視，有28、29點才合情合理。添哥一向有話直說，指劇集在這檔期播映一定蝕底。他對《如意狼君》有把握，早兩日收視已升近平均28點，但睇住收視逐步攀升的同時，亦憂聖誕假期因觀眾外遊收視又流失。連大結局也要安排在1月2日（周一）連續兩小時播映。添哥苦笑說﹕「撞正《天與地》也大結局，安排1月1日（周日）播映，《如意狼君》只有延至周一結局。我都擔心觀眾不知道，但又無法子。我無權干涉節目編排，只有話自己唔好彩。」

添哥對《如意狼君》滿意，是劇情撇掉了陳腔濫調的戀愛，男女主角黃浩然與周麗淇配搭清新，兩人表現也稱職。他剛完成了《天梯》的拍攝，準備做後期，明年再拍《神探哥倫布》，是自己退休的作品。添哥說﹕「我剛走了兩個導演，跳槽到CTI，所以聖誕也不敢放假，要睇住《天梯》做後期。過完年又要做《哥倫布》，暫時沒有內容可言，只有6個字『哥倫布+黎耀祥』。今次真的攞我老命，拍完這部真的要退休了。」

最近無綫連編審也可以部頭合作，大姐大就提議添哥，「部頭」玩吓過戲癮又何妨？「長約真的不能考慮，除非開先例，連監製都可以部頭合作啦！」看來添哥話退休，只要無綫高層肉緊一點，再出力挽留，觀眾還是繼續有李添勝新作品欣賞。

與添哥講開《天與地》被指累街坊拖低收視，添哥就話自己都鍾意睇《天與地》。「這個劇本寫得有心機，拍攝都不錯。不過，是否適合大眾口味要看觀眾選擇。我拍不到這類型的劇集，都要看看別人怎樣拍；若果我沒有出街，在家一定捧場。」

2012 TVB Sales Presentation -- My Thoughts....

I just finished watching the 2012 Sales Presentation clips and also read DTLCT’s post with her thoughts on next year’s series (read DTLCT's post here). Like last year, I agree with most of her comments about the series, and as of right now, I’m not looking forward to any of the upcoming series (with the exception of maybe 1 or 2 at most). Of course, anything could happen between now and when the series actually airs, since most of the series haven’t even been filmed yet so a lot of changes could still occur (though based on how things have gone the past few years, I don’t really see my opinion of the series changing).

Anyway, here are my comments regarding each of the series from the sales presentation:

The King Makers (造王者) – This is probably the only series out of the bunch that actually looks promising and that I will most likely watch. I loved “Greatness of a Hero” and honestly, was waiting for another Wayne and Kent collaboration (2 of my favorites). I had read somewhere though that Wayne and Kent were going to “switch roles” from GOAH in that Kent is going to be the villain this time whereas Wayne is the good person – not sure how true this is though because it really didn’t look like it from the sales preso clip (though we all know that most of what’s in the sales preso rarely rings true anyway). I’m not too fond of Chris Lai either, so no comment about him, but I do like Pierre Ngo, so that’s definitely a plus. This one will most likely be a ‘keeper’ for me.

Btw, DTLCT commented about how the costumes seem to be recycled from GOAH….from what I can see, it looks like she’s right – in fact, I’m thinking that maybe they actually did recycle the same costumes for the clip, since I’m assuming they probably didn’t have time to get new costumes made if the clip was done prior to the actual series filming. Hope they didn’t recycle the costumes for the series itself though because that would be really weird!


Special Duties Unit (飛虎) – Hmmm, not sure about this one. Firstly, not too keen on the main cast (I’ve never been a fan of Joe Ma or Jessica Hsuan – they’re definitely solid actors, but just not my cup of tea), though the supporting cast / guest stars could very well make up for it (we’ll have to see though, since the clip went so fast that I really couldn’t tell who all was going to be in the series). Glad to see that Oscar Leung might have a decent role in this series (he's one of the few newbies I like and whom I feel has alot of potential in terms of acting). However, given TVB’s track record the past couple years, I really don’t have confidence that they are going to do a good job with the ‘cop’ part (meaning yes, just like DTLCT said, they will probably focus on the ‘romance’ part more than the 'cop' part like they normally do). Whatever the case, I’ll have to wait until closer to the airing date of this series and see what other stuff comes out about it before making a decision.


Lucky Father (當旺爸爸) – As much as I like Steven and was really looking forward to his next series after “Life and Times of a Sentinel” (which was pretty much the only series I liked from 2011), I think I’m going to pass on this one because to be honest, the series looks like another one of those dumb comedies that I really should not be wasting my time on. With the exception of Linda, I like most of the other artists in the series (Steven, Ha Yu, Evergreen, Nancy), but the storyline just doesn’t appeal to me…and yes, I’m also tired of seeing the Steven / Linda pairing again (sorry, but 5 times is a bit much, especially when I don’t even like Linda). This is pretty much the only series out of the bunch where I actually like majority of the cast, however the storyline doesn’t sound appealing at all. To be honest, when I first heard that this series was being filmed (and found out what the story would be about), my first reaction was: What a waste of talent! Damn TVB, why do you have to waste talent once again? Quit putting artists I like into crappy series please!


Miscellaneous Morels from Youyang (酉陽雜俎) – Um, okay…they’ve got to be kidding regarding the English title, right? I sure hope so because not only is the title a ‘mouthful’ to say, it also makes no sense in that the title is not reflective of the series and its theme (it looks like the English title is a literal translation of the Chinese title, which would explain why the title makes no sense). Honestly though, I probably shouldn’t complain because I have no intention whatsoever of watching this series for the following reasons: 1) Can’t stand most of the cast – even though I like Ruco Chan and KK Cheung, there’s no way that I’m watching the series if Natalie Tong and Aimee Chan are in it (and based on the clip, it looks like they will be the leads on the female side). Plus, with my luck, they will probably cut Ruco and KK from the actual series anyway, so there’s really no point in wasting my time; 2) I’m just not into that particular genre – whether it’s TV series or movies (this series actually looks like a rip-off of “Pirates of the Caribbean”, which I found extremely boring, so definitely wouldn’t be interested in this one). Definitely a NO for me!


The Prominent Family (名媛望族) – With Damian being one of my favorite actors, you would think that I might be interested in this series – but the rest of the cast doesn’t look too promising to me. I mean, I like Mary Hon and Elena Kong, but not sure how big of a role they will have (or if they will even be in the series at all). Kenneth Ma is ok, since he’s one of the few younger generation actors that I actually like from an acting standpoint….in terms of Ron Ng though, I’m actually sick and tired of seeing him again (he was in so many series this year and his acting is only mediocre, so to me, it’s annoying have to watch him in series over and over again). As for Idy Chan (who of course was not in the sales preso clip) – well, let’s just say that her previous performance in “Catch Me Now” sort of left a sour taste in my mouth – plus I never really felt that she and Damian had much chemistry anyway, so not really looking forward to this collaboration. Lastly (in terms of cast), I’m not too keen on Tavia either (I guess it would be more appropriate to say that I can’t stand her acting, especially in scenes where she has to cry) and since it looks like she is really the main female lead in this series, not sure if I’ll be able to sit through this one. (Ugh – why does TVB have to keep putting Damian in series with artists I can’t stand?)

Also, in terms of the storyline, I honestly have to say that the sales clip gave me a ‘been there, done that’ feeling – and I could already spot some similarities to other series that I’ve seen in the past (both TVB and non-TVB) – which means that this is probably going to be one of those series that I will likely get frustrated watching….not sure if I want to put myself through that…


Thunderous Drug Raid (雷霆掃毒) – Initially, this series looked promising to me, since I adore both Michael Miu and Roger Kwok and it looked like this would be another ‘serious’ role for the both of them (I prefer both of them in serious roles rather than comedic ones). And even though I’m not keen on Kevin Cheng, I would have been willing to watch this series if he was in it because of everything that has happened this past year. But based on DTLCT’s post, looks like Kevin won’t be filming this series and will instead be replaced by Raymond Lam – hmmm…that actually changes things tremendously for me because the chance of me wanting to watch this series now has gone way down (obviously I don't like RL either). Also, once again, the female cast not only looks extremely weak, it also consists of artists I’m not fond of (namely Kate Tsui)…and I’m sorry, but it looks like Kate will be paired up with Michael in this series and to me, that is a complete turnoff (never liked her in the first place, plus I still have a bone to pick with TVB for putting her in so many series this year with some of my favorite artists). As for Joyce Tang, I’m neutral towards her, as I’m ok with her acting overall, but I just can’t stand how TVB has been putting her in similar roles for like the past 8 or 9 years, so it was starting to get boring watching her (based on the clip, looks like her role in this series will pretty much be more of the same).

Anyway, let’s see what happens when the series actually starts filming (though I think it may have started already because I saw some stuff about it on Weibo earlier)….if Michael and Roger are still in it and the storyline remains the same, I will most likely still watch it (though whether I’ll like it or not is a different story).


4 In Love – OMG, this looks like another lame comedy along the lines of “Fly With Me” and “Super Snoops” – which means that I’m definitely not watching it, since I can’t stand lame, silly comedies (I didn’t watch FWM or SS either – couldn’t get through the first 2 episodes without feeling like I was losing brain cells from watching something so stupid). Plus it definitely doesn’t help that Moses and Charmaine are in it (another collaboration / pairing that I’m sick and tired of)…I used to be ok with Moses until he went the comedy route – let’s just say that his OTT comedic performances annoyed me so much over the years that nowadays, when I hear the words ‘Moses Chan’ and ‘comedy’ in the same sentence, my response is an automatic “No!” I’m definitely passing on this one. Period.


House of Harmony and Vengeance (耀舞長安) – UGH!!!!! They’re putting Bobby in YET ANOTHER lame comedy???? Come on TVB – just because Bobby is loyal and already stated that he will film 1 series for you guys every year no matter what, doesn’t mean that you guys can keep putting him in crappy series!!! I couldn’t bear to watch most of the series that Bobby was in the past few years because the storylines were so stupid and the casts were so unappealing (not to mention all the badly matched pairings that they did for Bobby). TVB really needs to stop “using” Bobby to promote their favorite sons and daughters because not only is it starting to get old, it’s also extremely ANNOYING! Oh, and of course, I can’t stand Linda or Myolie (the female leads in this series) and the plot sounds freakin’ lame, so not going to waste my time with this one!


The Hippocratic Crush (On Call 36小時) – This one is another ‘maybe’ for me…though I like majority of the cast (mostly the males, as I couldn’t even recognize most of the females), this sounds to me like an attempted remake of “Healing Hands” (which I wasn’t too fond of in the first place and probably wouldn’t have watched if it weren’t for the cast). Also, as I said earlier, I can’t stand watching any crying scenes with Tavia in them (and it looks like there will be A LOT of those scenes in this series), so that will definitely factor in to my decision of whether to watch. Part of me wants to watch this just to see how Kenneth does, since it looks like he’s the main lead in this series (that is, unless he gets replaced) – plus if Ben Wong and Ray Cho are in it, I know I’ll enjoy their performances at the very least – BUT on the other hand, not sure if watching it just for those 3 is worth frustrating myself over everything else I don’t like about the series. Definitely ‘on the fence’ with this one.


War and Beauty 2 (金枝慾孽2) – I’m actually one of the few people who was not a huge fan of the original WAB and thought it was way overrated (though I admit that there were definitely a few brilliant performances from the cast). With that said though, I was fine overall with watching the original series and thought that certain parts of the script were very well-done. The sequel however, is a completely different story. First off, if they keep the storyline from the sales presentation, then it’s going to suck because that means that once again, TVB will be using a ‘lame’ excuse to explain why the characters that were in the original series are not in it this time around (in the sales preso clip, they made it sound like everything that happened in the original series was merely a story that Moses Chan’s character made up to tell to the Empress in order to amuse her). If they’re going to do that, they might as well just make it a completely different story.

As far as cast is concerned, I’m glad that they at least got Ada Choi to participate in the series and it sounds like she will have some good chemistry with Sheren Tang – but the rest of the cast doesn’t look appealing and depending on how the storyline turns out, not sure if I really want to sit through another utterly depressing series. This one is a ‘maybe’ at this point.


Detective Columbo (神探哥倫布) – Part of me really wants to watch this one because Wayne hasn’t done a comedic role in a long time and I really miss watching him do comedy (many of my most favorite Wayne roles in the past were comedic ones). Plus it’s another Wayne / Evergreen collaboration (at least based on the sales preso clip) and since they have good chemistry and I like both artists, there’s another reason right there. My only thing is that I’m not sure if the comedic humor is going to be similar to “Good Against Evil” (which I enjoyed a lot) or “Super Snoops” (which I absolutely hated) – since the series is set in the same time frame as both series, there’s a possibility that it could go either way.

One other thing to consider: the last few times that TVB tried the ‘comedic detective series’ thing, those series ended up being huge disasters (in my opinion anyway) – so that means this series could very well go in that direction as well. Plus there’s also the ‘Tavia’ factor (see some of my other comments above) – that is, if she does end up being the female lead. This series will definitely be another ‘wait and see’ for me.


Triumph In The Skies II (衝上雲霄II) -- I watched the original series a few years back and to be honest, I wasn’t too fond of the series in the first place because it was a bit too draggy and there were some segments that were truly unnecessary. I wouldn’t say that I disliked the series though because there were some really good parts in the series that made me want to continuing watching, but I wouldn’t count it as a series I would want to re-watch.. The only reason why I gave the original series a chance back then was because of the cast: Francis was awesome in the series and I absolutely loved Flora -- Joe was actually quite good as well and I really enjoyed some of the supporting cast (for example: Louisa So, Jerry Lamb, Shek Sau, Mary Hon, etc.). I actually wasn't too keen on the rest of the cast though, especially the younger generation artists (and everyone knows how much I can't stand Myolie) -- if it weren't for the Francis / Flora / Joe storyline, I probably wouldn't have bothered watching the original.

That being said, I have no interest whatsoever in watching the sequel...one reason of course is because the cast is completely changed. But the primary reason is because I have ZERO faith in TVB when it comes to doing sequels -- for the past decade or so, TVB has pretty much been doing sequels just 'for the heck of it' in my opinion and majority of them have been disastrous (with a few exceptions, of course). And if the sequel is supposed to be a continuation of the original (or related to it in some way or another), then that's even worse because I already know TVB is going to make up some stupid excuse for why certain characters who were in the original are no longer there (i.e. the person died or fell in love with someone else or something like that).

Bottom line -- I will most likely 'pass' on this series because I already know there's no way in hell that they are going to get Francis or Flora back -- without the 2 of them, this series is not worth watching!


Concluding Thoughts:

Looks like 2012 will be another year of uninteresting series with the same artists showing up over and over again. From around 2003 until now, even though I dislike most of the series and can’t stand most of the current generation TVB artists, I still continued to watch some TVB series here and there because most of the supporting artists that I grew up with (and still enjoy watching) were still in the series. Therefore, even if I didn’t like the leads, I could at least find a ‘reason’ to watch the scenes with the supporting casts. HOWEVER, next year, things will be very different because it looks like a lot of the supporting artists that I like have left or will be leaving as well (it actually already started to happen this year because with most of the series that aired in 2011, I noticed that there were a lot of new faces in supporting roles whom I don’t recognize) -- plus there will be competition for TVB next year with the addition of 3 new TV stations, so there will definitely be options in terms of TV series. If I were given the choice of watching series with artists I recognize and like, of course I would go that route rather than watching series with untalented or newbie artists whom I can’t stand!

Eddie Cheung's (張兆輝) Interview with Mingpao

Here's another great interview from Mingpao! It's actually "hot off the press", as it was published in the latest issue of their magazine that just came out this past weekend.

Eddie Cheung is another one of my favorite actors from the 80s and prior to this year when he returned to TVB, it had been awhile since I heard much about him. Even though I follow Eddie's weibo and from there, I can tell that he is a great father, I didn't realize just how great until I read this interview (you'll know what I mean once you read the interview). His wife and kids are definitely blessed to have such a great husband and father as him!

Anyway, hope you enjoy the article. :-)

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Mingpao Interview: Eddie Cheung – The Golden Decade

Source: Mingpao Weekly, Issue 2249

Translation: llwy12

Back when he was 20 years old, actor Eddie Cheung was one of TVB’s popular ‘siu sangs’ – unfortunately, even though he had fame, he didn’t get any ‘profit’. Eddie describes his situation back then in this way: “Worked like a dog, but barely had a penny to my name.”

When Eddie finally endured to the point where his salary was in-line with his workload, he was already heading into middle age and the new, younger generation ‘siu sangs’ had already overtaken him. In the series “Lofy Waters Verdant Bow” (2002), Eddie’s role was akin to a ‘prop’ in the background whose purpose was to enhance main lead Raymond Lam’s role – disappointed, Eddie left the company that he had served loyally for 19 years.

It turns out that when a man is in his forties, that’s truly his ‘golden’ period. For Eddie, middle age was definitely his ‘golden’ period: he became a doting father to 2 lovely children (a son and daughter); he participated in a movie directed by Johnnie To and not only had the opportunity to walk the red carpet at a film festival, he also took home a Best Supporting Actor award; together with his wife, he started a business, bought a house, made some smart investments, and eventually accumulated assets of close to 50 million dollars.

This year, he returned to his ‘maternal home’ (TVB) to participate in the sitcom “Til Love Do Us Lie”, but he agreed to do so not because of fame nor profit. “It was primarily because of the stable schedule – start at 9am and end at 7pm. I’m able to go home and hang out with my 2 ‘bosses’ [his 2 children],” the 48 year old ‘Family Man Eddie’ replied with a laugh.


Returned to TVB because of his daughter

Eddie Cheung refers to his two ‘treasures’ – his son and daughter – as his ‘bosses’. Indeed, his children ‘call all the shots’ in his household because from Eddie’s point of view, everything revolves around them: working, earning money, and even the decision to film series again.

Pointing to the television set, Eddie’s 7 year old daughter would constantly ask him: “Daddy, I wonder how it would be like if you were in there. Can you film one for me to see?” She likes watching her Dad portray an Emperor in the series “Love is Beautiful”, which Eddie filmed prior to leaving TVB, so he asks her: “You can always watch the series when it repeats on TV, right?” to which she answers sweetly: “But that’s an old one!”

Throughout his 10 year absence from TVB, the management invited him back many times, however each time, he always found a reason to decline their offer. This time around, since his beloved daughter was the one who asked, Eddie agreed wholeheartedly: “I’ll just treat it as ‘settling a debt’ for my bosses.” Plus it also helps that in the sitcom “Til Love Do Us Lie”, Eddie portrays a benevolent father who, together with his onscreen wife (played by Kiki Sheung), has a teenage son in high school. In real life, Eddie’s children are not that old – his daughter is 7 and his son is only 11 – and both stick to him a lot: “The most important thing for me is that no matter how late I film, I can return home and sleep in my own bed – it’s better than going to the Mainland to film and having to stay at a hotel.”


Was disappointed in TVB 10 years ago

In 2001, Eddie Cheung decided to terminate his contract with TVB early. At the time, the company was trying to reduce its expenses so instructions were sent down to cut its artists’ shows. Eddie acknowledged that his work opportunities were greatly reduced and was only allowed to film 2 series per year – since he would have much more time on his hands, he decided it would be better to just leave and find better opportunities elsewhere.

Eddie remembers that on his very last day, when he went to his locker to gather his personal belongings, he bumped into fellow actor Felix Wong; true to his ‘flame-shooting’ nickname, Felix also had much to complain about regarding TVB – turns out that it was also Felix’s last day at TVB as well.

“A lot of things caused me to become indifferent toward the company. For one, they started to lack the ‘human touch’. Before it became a publicly traded company, TVB used to be all about teamwork – everyone working together towards a common goal; later on, everything started to regress – a lot of the talent left and they started to focus on quantity over quality.”

Eddie’s last series with TVB was “Lofty Waters Verdant Bow” – the purpose of the series was primarily to promote Raymond Lam, so Eddie’s role was reduced to that of primarily that of a ‘vase’ -- a ‘glorified extra’ in a sense: “After having been with the company 19 years, I felt it was time for me to change my working environment; if I continued to stay, there would not be much more opportunity for development anyway and sooner or later, I would just become a ‘gam cho’ actor [elder veteran supporting artist]. At the time, I was only in my thirties – still at a prime age and nowhere near ‘gam cho’ status yet. Thirty to fifty years of age is the best time for a male, as that’s when we truly start to mature in thinking and have enough experiences – both good and bad – to help guide us, plus on a physical level, we no longer look like young boys. Unfortunately though, many audiences at that time preferred to see new, younger-looking faces – they preferred what was on the ‘outside’ rather than the ‘meat’ on the inside.”

After leaving TVB, Eddie focused his efforts on starting a beauty product business with his wife, who was an esthetician. In 2004, his wife gave birth to their second child, a daughter [their son was born in 2000] and Eddie decided he would take on the role of caretaker for the children. “When a child enters kindergarten, you need to really watch them. As parents, if we don’t take good care of our children and something happens to them, it could affect them for life. Sometimes, when I would visit children’s hospitals and see small children who lost all their hair or were disfigured or severely injured in accidents, it saddened me. At that time, a lot of people invited me to film in the Mainland, but I refused to go because I couldn’t bear to be away from my children – I didn’t want to be filming in a far away place and have to worry about them all the time. Of course, if it was absolutely necessary to go in order to put food on the table, then that’s a different story – ‘luckily’ though, we didn’t have to worry about that.”


50 million in assets

Eddie’s ‘luckily’ is a humble way of putting things in perspective. It’s well known that Eddie and his wife’s beauty product business has been quite successful – currently, they live in a luxury home in Residence Bel Air (on Hong Kong Island), plus they own various properties in HK which, all combined, are said to be worth close to 50 million HKD.

“So embarrassing….not worth mentioning! Many people say that I have a lot of ‘bricks’ [property], but it’s really nothing – there are so many people who have 90 times more than me…rich people are everywhere!”

Eddie has always been the type of person who speaks humbly and carries himself in a very simple, unadorned manner – therefore, people often say that he is actually a ‘pearl in the straw’. In reality, he belongs to the generation of artists who slowly climbed to the top after enduring years of hard work and toil. TVB produced a lot of ‘big stars’ back in the day, but Eddie was not necessarily one of the stars that shined the brightest. He graduated from TVB’s Acting Class in 1982 and some of his ‘famous’ classmates include Tony Leung, Stephen Chow, Francis Ng, etc. – all became huge stars one after the other. When Eddie first started in the industry (after graduating), he took on the role of ‘Mr. Vitality’ for 3 years straight – his responsibility was to help the company promote a healthy and energetic image to audiences: “I was never envious of others – my philosophy has always been that if the company assigns a particular task to you, it’s your obligation to put 100% effort into doing it well. My personality has always been the passive type – very disciplined and obedient. The young people nowadays always seem to be concerned with ‘rapid advancement’ and become worried when they don’t get the same opportunities as others. When I found out that the actor who plays my son in “Til Love Do Us Lie” (Dickson Wong) signed a 7 year contract with TVB, the first thing I told him was: ‘Work hard and put your heart into it. If you decided to give TVB 7 years of your youth, then you need to work hard and consider this as a way for you to gain valuable experience – don’t be envious that others might be making more money elsewhere.’”

Looking back now, Eddie admits that back during his time, he took the ‘steady’ path and as a result, missed out on many opportunities to make a lot of money. The HK movie industry was flourishing at that time and in any given month, there could be several dozen movies being filmed – many of his classmates would go out and earn some ‘fast money’ on the side, but he stayed behind, relying solely on his TVB salary of 2000 HKD a month: “Actually, I was able to save up money at that time. I would give my family 400 HKD every month, my expenses would be about 1000 HKD, and I would still have 600 HKD to put away in savings.”

In 1986, 4 years after graduating from acting class, Eddie got his first lead role in the series “Siblings of Vice and Virtue”. After that, he continued to film one series after another, but never really became tremendously popular. It wasn’t until he renewed his contract during his 8th year with the company that his salary increased to 9000 HKD.


Start up business with his wife

With Eddie’s diligence in saving money, he was able to save up enough to buy his first house in 1991, when he was 28 years old.

“I made little money, but was able to save up a lot. Back then, the price of real estate was not extremely high and I occasionally got the chance to go do live performances – didn’t have to spend much money at all and whenever I was paid, I would put the money directly into the bank, so eventually, I was able to save up a lot.”

At one point, Eddie had also partnered up with a friend to open a restaurant and since it was profitable, he was able to make some money there as well. This occurred when he was in his thirties: “I only had a few shares in the restaurant, but received profit every month – we decided to close up shop when the landlord started increasing the rent. It took awhile, but step by step, I was able to get there. Nowadays, I tell the younger generation all the time, don’t expect to take one giant leap to the top.”

After that, he met his wife and even though they were not married at that time, they decided to start a beauty product business together: “Relying solely on my acting career is too short-sighted, as there are no guarantees that I would be able to act forever. Since she [his wife] had good business sense, we felt that it would be a good idea to start a business together. At that time, we were already in a steady relationship and were close to getting married, so I didn’t mind investing the money. The location of our first beauty salon was not big at all, just a few hundred square feet – we set up shop in the To Kwa Wan region, since that’s where my wife lived at the time and she was familiar with that area. Once we were able to turn a profit there, step by step we expanded the business into other areas.”

Eddie and his wife Gigi dated for 3 years – they went from being boyfriend / girlfriend to business partners, and finally, to husband and wife when they married in 1997. Together, the couple gained much success in the business sector, venturing out from the world of beauty products to fashion to real estate distribution. “Too exhausting! When you start a business, it’s necessary to be involved personally, otherwise you won’t be successful. We didn’t want to open too many shops, since it would take too much effort to manage, so we only had 5 beauty salons – also, we were only in the fashion industry for 1-2 years, plus the real estate business as well…all of them were joint partnerships with others.”


Received threats at one point

At the time that Eddie left TVB, he and his wife decided that they would concentrate their efforts only on the beauty salon business: “My wife’s dream is to one day have her own beauty product line and finally, she was able to accomplish this.”

During those 3 years, Eddie went from being an actor to full-time businessman: “I was in charge of overseeing the staff, basic operations, and finances while my wife was responsible for marketing and coming up with ideas for various products. I’m not the creative type, but my wife has a very creative mind and can come up with good ideas in a short amount of time. In fact, I spend a lot of time learning from her in this area. My wife and I actually spend a lot of time together due to the businesses we manage – true, some might feel that spending so much time together could cause a couple to get bored with each other, but when we’re apart too long, we miss each other a lot. One time when I had to be away for a few months filming in Hengdian, we would keep in touch via WhatsApp every day and I even asked her to send over some pictures of herself so I could see her face.”

Of course, being in the business sector, there are bound to be issues that arise. The scariest situation that Eddie encountered was when someone drove a car through the front window of their shop, shattering glass everywhere, and also left a threatening note. The incident was assumed to be the result of a business conflict: “We called the police, but in the end, no one was arrested due to lack of evidence. I’m pretty sure that whoever was behind the incident hired someone else to do the dirty work for them. Don’t think that I’m not familiar with those types of tactics, it’s just that I don’t advocate using them – we’re all just trying to compete fairly in the business. A few elders once told me that it’s not a bad thing to encounter these types of incidents because it helps us to realize that managing a business is not easy.”

In the beauty business, these types of situations actually happen quite often. Eddie explained that he and a business competitor once got into an argument over one of their products and in the end, he and his wife had to issue a joint statement to clarify: “That’s why it’s not always a good thing to be famous. Even now, there are still people out there who try to misuse our names on their products. And when other countries are involved, it makes things even more difficult, since the regulations in each country can be very different.”


Best Supporting Actor

While he was at TVB, Eddie Cheung never had a series that could be considered his ‘representative work’, however during his past 10 years in the film industry, it was as though he had turned over a new leaf – he participated in a slew of Johnnie To’s films, including: “Running on Karma”, “Breaking News”, “Election”, “Exile”, etc. His performance in the film “Throw Down” in 2003 earned him Best Supporting Actor nominations the following year in several of the region’s biggest award ceremonies, leading to an eventual win at the Chinese Film Media Awards in 2005.

“Why is it that when I was at TVB, every series that I filmed seemed to be very similar, yet outside TVB, every role seemed so different? I’m really grateful to Johnnie To, as he was brave enough to give me different types of characters to play – plus whenever we collaborated, he would always tell me exactly what his expectations were…good communication is very important! At TVB, the producers were mainly concerned with Eddie Cheung portraying a ‘good person’, so it was very easy to get typecasted into certain roles. Working with Director To was a completely different experience – there was much more depth to the characters he would have us portray. For example, he would give me the role of a lawyer with a huge character flaw of stuttering; or he would have me portray a triad gang leader with a mental disability; even the role of a cop could have many different variances!”

In the TV industry, Eddie was considered a ‘siu sang’, but when he entered the film industry, he became a ‘major’ supporting actor. How difficult was it to make this adjustment?

Eddie’s response: “It wasn’t too difficult really, since at the time, I considered it a pastime of sorts. I had my own company and the business was stable, so participating in films became something I did to entertain myself – I took it as a chance to see some of my old colleagues again. Besides, the job of ‘supporting actor’ was not easy, especially when it came to working for Johnnie To. Oftentimes, when we arrived on the set, Director To would give us a few sheets of paper with ideas for a particular scene and while we were getting our makeup done, he would explain the scene to us – within those 2 hours, the concept for the entire scene would be completed.”

Aside from Johnnie To, Eddie had also worked with several other big name directors, such as the Pang Brothers (“The Detective 2”) and Ann Hui (“All About Love”), before deciding to return to TVB this year: “In the 10 years that I left TVB, I was able to start a business and launch a movie career; most importantly though, I was able to stay at home and watch my children grow up – for me, this was the most desirable ‘golden decade’.”


Epilogue: The most comfortable actor

A lot of people wish to be their own boss and be successful in business – Eddie Cheung was able to accomplish this and even earned a lot of money along the way. But ultimately, he still has a passion for acting.

“I always tell my wife – taking everything into perspective, what is more comfortable than being an actor? As an actor, we are given a script to memorize and once we’ve done that, we go in and do our jobs…everything else outside of that – such as booking the location for filming, arranging costume fittings, etc. – is none of our business. For instance, if the director was to tell me ‘I couldn’t book the location today, so filming will have to be canceled’, I can just leave without having to worry about anything.”

Overseeing a successful business is a completely different story – for instance, when preparing for a beauty product launch, even small details such as what kind of paper to use for the fliers at the convention is something that Eddie needs to be involved with. After years of being a businessman, Eddie realized that being an actor is one of the most comfortable careers one could have. With his new sitcom “Til Love Do Us Live” estimated to film 120 episodes, he anticipates that he will be filming until March of next year – plenty of time for him to ‘savor’ the experience!

Memories of HK Entertainment’s Golden Age: "TV Screen Idols" Magazine (螢幕偶像) – POST # 1

**Note: Picture taken by me (my apologies for the slight blurriness of the picture -- my photography skills aren't that great!)

I was cleaning out my closet the other day and came across my collection of old entertainment magazines (when I say "old", I mean it in the literal sense, as the magazines are actually from the 1980s and 1990s -- in fact, the oldest one dates back more than 25 years!). Those who have been around for awhile (like me) and had followed HK entertainment back in the 80s and 90s might be familiar with the magazine: 螢幕偶像 (translated as "TV Screen Idols").

The magazine was immensely popular back in the mid-80s through the mid-90s or so (during the time when HK entertainment was at its peak), primarily because of the colorful posters and glossy pics of TV stars from that era. Of course, the magazine also consists of many great articles related to various celebrities (a treasure trove of information for me, since it's hard to find stuff about 80s/90s celebrities nowadays, especially the ones that are not active in the industry anymore) as well as detailed spreads and pictures related to TV series from that time (mostly TVB, but there's alot of ATV related stuff in there as well). The magazine is actually no longer in print, as the company that published the magazine pretty much closed up shop (officially) in early 2000 (though I did find out a few years ago that the owner of the publishing company, Mr. Hung, still has a small shop somewhere in HK filled to the brim with old pictures and such of celebrities from the 80s and 90s and still has a few devoted customers who frequent his shop....).

The other unique thing about this magazine is that they would come out with "special editions" every so often -- for example, every Chinese New Year, they would come out with a "Golden Edition" to commemorate the occasion (where they would have various celebrities on the covers holding CNY related items) or if a particular series was extremely popular, they would dedicate an entire issue (almost) to that series (these special editions featured exclusive behind the scenes stuff as well as pictures and posters galore – a few of the ones in my collection include the special editions for "The New Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre", "The Book and the Sword", “The Yang’s Saga”, “Police Cadet”, etc.). And of course, the commemorative issues dedicated to special events are ones that are absolutely worth cherishing – for example, the special ‘celebrity weddings’ issues (Michael Miu / Jamie Chik, Felix Wong / Annie Leung, Liu Kai Chi / Barbara Chan, etc.) as well as the ‘tribute’ issues to celebrities who left us during that time (Barbara Yung, Danny Chan, Wong Ka Kui, etc.).

Unfortunately, my collection is incomplete, as I only have about 60 or so issues of the magazine out of the approximately 95 issues that were published back in its existence. BUT I'm not going to complain because I'm lucky to even have the issues that I do (especially knowing how hard it is to find even 1 issue of this magazine nowadays).

Those who know me know that I’m somewhat of a ‘sentimental old-timer’ when it comes HK entertainment – one of the things I enjoy doing is pulling out old magazines, books, videos, etc. and re-reading / re-watching them…it’s actually quite fascinating to see how certain celebrities have changed throughout the years (or in some cases, how much they haven’t changed) – plus it’s interesting to read about what some of the celebrities experienced back then, which in some way helped to shape how the entertainment industry is currently.

Anyway, seeing that I've been in a "nostalgic" mood lately (and found the magazine collection at the right time), I will be going through and re-reading some of the magazines throughout the next few months – of course, when I feel up to it (and if time permits), I’ll also share excerpts of some of the articles from various issues on this blog (though it might take some time due to having to translate the articles from Chinese to English). In any case, I’m looking forward to taking the trip down memory lane! :-)

TVB Anniversary Awards 2011 (萬千星輝頒獎典禮2011) – My Thoughts

** Note: I made a slight revision to the part about Felix...see "Best Supporting Actress" section.**

*********

I'm sure by now, everyone knows who this year's winners are, since it's all over the (entertainment) news outlets in HK and also on Weibo.

To be honest, this year especially, I really had no interest in watching the awards show because almost all of the series this year basically sucked (except for a select few that I could pretty much count on one hand) and most of the performances were mediocre at best. But the biggest reason why I had no interest in watching was because very few of my favorite actors / actresses were nominated and those who did make it into the top 5 were artists I didn’t much for – even the winners I wasn’t too keen on, except for maybe 1 or 2.

I guess you could pretty much say that my only reason for watching the award show this year was for the presenters, since I was interested in seeing who would present and what type of clever speeches they would come up with (though I was a bit disappointed in this area as well – but more on that later). Mostly, I watched the show because there was nothing else to watch on TV (since they pretty much pre-empted every single show that was to air and kept re-broadcasting the award show over and over again) – plus I wanted to have something to blog about (LOL).

Anyway, back to the results…below is the list of winners this year, my reaction to the results, as well as my opinion on a few of the categories and the show overall.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Lee Heung Kam

.—In my opinion, this was one of the most deserving awards of the night (though it was already announced a few days back, so it’s not like no one knew). It’s about time they gave Kam Jeh this award, as her contributions to the HK entertainment industry is unquestionable. It was great how Kam Jeh was accompanied by a few of the people closest to her – veteran actor Ray Lui (her god-son), senior actor Wu Fung (good friend), veteran actor Felix Wong, veteran actress Cecilia Wong (Nat Chan’s wife), and also Kam Jeh’s doctor and one of her relatives. I definitely enjoyed seeing so many familiar faces again – plus I have a lot of respect for Kam Jeh, as she is one of my favorite ‘gam cho’ (elder) artists and truly a ‘legend’ in the industry.

.-- A few things about this particular segment of the awards ceremony:

.> It was absolutely annoying how they cut Kam Jeh off near the end of her speech -- sure, it was only a few seconds and probably barely noticeable to some people, but still….she’s 80 years old and has been in the industry for 60+ years – before any of us (and maybe even some of our parents) were even conceived, so at least give her some respect! Sheesh!!

.> The beginning part of that segment where Vice-Chairman Norman Leung came out to give an intro on Kam Jeh was really unnecessary, as the video clip that they played right afterwards basically said the exact same thing. What a waste of time for Norman Leung to come out and speak (plus he spoke annoyingly SLOW) – they should have just cut his speech and given Kam Jeh more time for her acceptance speech (instead of rudely cutting her off). Once again, TVB has their priorities wrong!

.> Also, did anyone catch Norman Leung’s ‘jab’ at ATV? That particular piece was pretty much the ONLY thing he said that was not already part of the video segment…it makes me wonder that perhaps the opportunity to take a jab at ATV was the reason why TVB had him come out and give that lame speech of his?

Most Admirable Program: “Hong Kong Back Then”

.-- I actually don’t have much opinion about this category, since I didn’t watch any of the shows that were nominated. However, I do find it ironic that the show that ended up winning the award (which was determined by an independent panel of judges not related to TVB) was the one hosted by Wong Hei.


TVB.com Weibo Popularity Award: Kevin Cheng

.—To be honest, I sort of consider this a ‘pork’ award so I don’t really care who wins it…though knowing now that Kevin ended up with 3 awards, it would have been nice if someone else won this particular award….sure, it might be an insignificant award, but hey, for some people, getting any type of award is better than none right? Oh well…I guess I should just be grateful that Raymond Lam didn’t win this award again (how many times has he won this in the past? Lost count already….)

.—The presenters of this award were Wu Fung and Lau Yi Dat. I’m fine with Wu Fung as presenter, but honest to goodness, who the heck invited Lau Yi Dat? That guy is a nutcase and always looks (and acts) as though he is half asleep (or perhaps in a drunken stupor?) – it’s annoying that he’s rarely ever coherent when he speaks, yet TVB invites him to be a presenter. And when he read Kevin Cheng’s name wrong? Some people may have thought it was funny, but I actually found it annoying!


Most Improved Male Artist: MC Jin

.—I actually didn’t really care who won this award, since I wasn’t too keen on any of the nominees. The only ones that I actually recognized were MC Jin and Jazz Lam, but I don’t know either artist well enough to give an opinion on who deserved the award more – therefore, not really going to comment on the ‘deserving’ part of it. All I will say is that I did like MC Jin’s performance in “Lives of Omission” because it was refreshing and different – but considering that this is the ‘Most Improved’ award we are talking about, it shouldn’t be based on only one series. Also, the winner of this award is usually someone who will be heavily promoted by TVB in the future, so it was interesting that TVB gave it to MC Jin (a non-contracted artist) over the others (I believe all the rest were contracted).


Most Improved Female Artist: Sire Ma

.—I didn’t really care about this category either, since I don’t like any of the artists nominated – though I would probably say that acting wise, I would have probably chosen Mandy Wong over Sire Ma, only because I feel that Mandy has more potential as an actress based on what I’ve seen so far. Also, one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to watching series is not being able to understand what the characters / artists are saying – and of course, Sire Ma falls into this category because of her accent…I watched most of the series that she was in this year and honestly speaking, it was hard to get past the dialogue, since it always sounded like she was exerting a lot of effort trying to ‘recite’ the dialogue with the correct pronunciation – plus to me, her acting always seems a bit forced (probably because of the dialogue thing).

.—In terms of her acceptance speech, it actually didn’t sit well with me – it sounded fake to me…also, I found it interesting that she was one of the few to specially thank Virginia Lok (and only VL, not anyone else)…sounded a little like a ‘kiss up’ to me…


Best Supporting Actor: Ben Wong

.— Out of all the awards, this was by far the most deserving of the night! Ben was excellent as ‘Spicy Ginger’ in LOO (I will admit that I only watched that series because of him and Damian Lau) – in fact, he performed well in every series that he participated in this year (LOO, “Life and Times of a Sentinel”, “Curse of the Royal Harem”, and even his cameo in “When Heaven Burns”), plus he has always been a consistently good actor, so he absolutely deserves to win! I’m glad to see him finally get the recognition he deserves (though of course I feel that he should have gotten recognized a long time ago – better late than never I guess).

.—It’s interesting that every year, the Best Supporting Actor category is the one that is the most ‘intense’ for me and the one I get the most emotional over – probably because every year, the really talented actors are nominated in this category and most of them are my favorites (yup, since most of my favorite lead artists left TVB, the only ones left that I like are pretty much the supporting artists).

.—Out of all the winners, I enjoyed Ben’s speech the most – short, sweet, and to the point, yet at the same time, very encouraging and heartfelt. And it was nice of him to mention Catherine Tsang inviting him to play ‘Ah Hoi’ in “A Kindred Spirit” back in the 90s, which was pretty much the role that put his name on the map in the first place.


Best Supporting Actress: Sharon Chan

.—It was obvious from the start that in this category, the ‘battle’ was between Sharon Chan and Nancy Wu, so I wasn’t surprised in the least that Sharon won. I’m actually ok with either Sharon or Nancy winning because both truly did great jobs this year – both of their performances really stuck out in their respective series so it was definitely hard to choose.

.—The presenter of this award was none other than one of my favorite actors, Felix Wong. It was great to see him (though I’m already ‘stalking’ him on Weibo every day, so it’s not like I haven’t seen him in a long time…LOL) and I loved how he came right out and told everyone why he is constantly criticizing TVB. He is always ‘cute’ in my book and his great sense of humor is infectious! The other thing I love about Felix is how he is always so supportive of the younger generation – what he said about Nancy was so sweet and touching (if I were Nancy, I would feel that hearing that compliment from him is better than winning any type of ‘rigged’ award from TVB!) – and even though Nancy didn’t win, Felix was still very happy for Sharon and was very gracious…it was so sweet of him to hold Sharon’s hand and purposefully ask the artists sitting onstage to give her applause once again…such a gentleman! Felix’s segment was definitely one of the highlights of the entire award ceremony for me.

.-- One more thing regarding Felix's segment. Obviously, both Felix and Michael support Nancy for this award and both of them had actually been dropping hints on their Weibos encouraging people to vote for Nancy (which is why when Felix opened the envelope and saw that Nancy didn't win, he said ' 3 gor, our mission failed')...also, Felix has been filming in the Mainland (the movie "Glory Days" with Eric Tsang, Max Mok, Michael Miu, and other veteran artists) and purposefully re-arranged his schedule to return to HK in order to attend the awards ceremony and present the Supporting Actress award. Knowing all this, I respect Felix even more as a person because even though he was rooting for Nancy (and wasn't shy about making that known to everyone, since he openly praised Nancy as being the "best in his heart"), he was still very genuine in his praise of Elena's acting as well as his happiness for Sharon. That type of gracious attitude is definitely hard to come by -- especially in the entertainment industry!


Best Variety Program: “All Star Glam Exam” & Best Variety Program Hosts: Grasshoppers (for “All Star Glam Exam”)

.—These were 2 separate awards, but I’m actually going to talk about them together, since it makes the most sense. Not surprisingly, Grasshoppers won for their hosting of “All Star Glam Exam” and the show itself won Best Variety Program. The reason why I say this is not surprising is because TVB has a pattern of giving this award to the ‘guests’ who host shows for them (previous winners include Susie Wong, Harlem Yu, Sandra Ng) – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing given that most of the time, the shows hosted by the guests are way better than the ones hosted by their own people (with a few exceptions of course).

.-- In terms of the Grasshoppers winning this year, I’m actually fine with it because they did do a good job and the show was actually interesting and refreshing (at least it wasn’t the absurd, stupid stuff that Super Trio had being doing the past couple years). Personally, if I were to choose a winner in the host category, I would have picked Steven Ma (and no, I’m not just saying this because I like him as an actor). The reason I would have chosen Steven is because I feel that both of his hosting jobs (for “Book of Words” – which was not nominated -- and “Apprentice Chef”) were very challenging because it requires that the host do alot of 'homework' and other prep work in order for the outcome to be as good as it was ...it wasn't the typical game show host type stuff, which I feel that pretty much any experienced (or even unexperienced) host with an outgoing personality can pretty much do….now, I’m not saying that Grasshoppers had it easy or didn’t have to do any prep work, but compared to what Steven had to do to prepare for his hosting gig, it's just different.

.—In terms of presenters, I really hated that they had Ng Yu there – he just kept going on and on about a bunch of nonsense…plus I always feel that he sounds arrogant and condescending when he talks, so I always get annoyed listening to him.


Best Informational Program: “Water of Life”

.—I didn’t watch this program (no interest in watching it either) or any of the other ones in this category, so to me, it didn’t matter who won. No opinion on my side.


My Favorite Female TV Character: Myolie Wu (“Ghetto Justice”)

.—This category (along with the Male TV Character award) is generally known as a ‘consolation’ prize for whoever doesn’t win TV Queen – though there have been a few years where the same actress who wins TV Queen also takes this award. The Top 5 finalists in this category were: Linda Chung (“Yes Sir, Sorry Sir”), Maggie Cheung (“Forensic Heroes 3”), Myolie Wu (“Ghetto Justice”), Fala Chan (“Lives of Omission”), and Aimee Chan (“Forensic Heroes 3”).

.—First of all, what the heck was TVB thinking putting Aimee Chan in the top 5? Her character wasn’t memorable at all! There were so many more deserving characters that could have taken that spot – totally pathetic of TVB to put her in there just because they are planning on promoting her in the coming years (obviously, I can’t stand Aimee…her horrible acting totally annoys me).

.—I honestly don’t care for any of the artists nominated in this category because to be honest, I felt that all the female performances were pretty weak this year….but given the top 5, if I had to choose my favorite, I would have probably picked Maggie Cheung’s character from FH3 (for the record, I’m not a Maggie fan at all – in fact, I don’t even like her – but she was quite good in FH3 and her character was the most memorable to me out of the 5).

.—Though I don’t have a problem with Myolie winning in this category (since I don’t like any of the actresses nominated this year anyway), I would have preferred for someone else to win in this category because to be honest, it was a bit much for Myolie to win this award and TV Queen. They should have nominated her for TV Queen with “Ghetto Justice” and used “Curse of the Royal Harem” for this category – this way, most likely someone else would have won the award.


My Favorite Male TV Character: Kevin Cheng (“Ghetto Justice”)

.— The Top 5 in this category were: Kevin Cheng (“Ghetto Justice”), Ruco Chan (“The Other Truth”), Michael Tse (“Lives of Omission”), Bosco Wong (“Lives of Omission”), Wayne Lai (“Forensic Heroes 3”)

.-- Looks like TVB decided not to do the consolation prize thing with this award like they did last year. Well, that’s a good thing actually, but unfortunately, they gave the award to Kevin when they really didn’t have to (especially since they were already planning on giving him TV King). I was actually rooting for Ruco Chan to win this award, as his character of Keith Lau in “The Other Truth” was definitely a stand out and he pretty much shot to popularity due to that role. I guess I should be happy that he got into the Top 5 at least…but still, really was hoping that he could win this one.

.— I was actually surprised that TVB decided to give this award to Kevin instead of to Michael because I really thought that they would at least give Michael an award as consolation, since there was no way that they were going to give him TV King. Personally though, I’m fine with Michael Tse not winning anything because to be honest, I can’t stand him now…the Laughing Gor thing has gotten really overboard now to the point of being annoying (plus his arrogant attitude totally turns me off).

.—The highlight of this segment was seeing Marianne Chan again (she was the presenter for this award). Since she gave up her acting career and is a successful business woman now, it’s rare to see her at these types of events, so I definitely enjoyed seeing her again. She looked absolutely awesome – so elegant and pretty…she was better dressed than most of the nominees themselves! Also, I absolutely loved her speech – it was so clever how she was able to relate her speech back to business while at the same time, incorporating stuff about the nominees – very well put together and memorable! Hers was definitely the best speech of the night amongst the presenters.


Best Series: “Lives of Omission”

.—The Top 5: “Lives of Omission”, “Forensic Heroes 3”, “The Other Truth”, “Ghetto Justice”, “Yes Sir, Sorry Sir”

.—First of all, it’s very obvious that this was a ‘consolation’ prize for LOO due to them losing out on many of the awards (especially the big ones). I definitely would have preferred TOT or GJ to win, since both of those were better series than LOO in my opinion (though not the best, but given the 5 nominated, those would be my picks).

.—I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that YSSR got into Top 5 for Best Series…WTH??? That stupid series was so silly, it wasn’t even worth watching (I personally couldn’t even get through the first episode) – and it’s consider good enough for top 5? Huh? I could think of so many other series this year that would have been better candidates! Whoever nominated that series for Top 5 must not have their head screwed on right!

.— Also, it was weird seeing this award being presented in the middle of the ceremony…it’s usually presented last, right before the Lifetime Achievement award, as a type of ‘last hurrah’ for the cast to all come on stage. Not sure if there was a certain purpose behind doing it this way…not that it mattered really, but it just felt awkward. I wonder if they will do it the same way next year?


TV Queen (Best Actress): Myolie Wu (“Curse of the Royal Harem”

.—Top 5 in this category: Liza Wang (“Home Troopers”), Linda Chung (“Yes Sir, Sorry Sir), Myolie Wu (“Curse of the Royal Harem”), Fala Chan (“Lives of Omission”), Maggie Cheung (“Forensic Heroes 3”)

.—In terms of the Top 5, it really ticked me off to see Liza Wang in there once again! It seems like every single time Liza participates in a series, TVB always puts her in the Top 5, no matter how she performs. That is just so unfair and so stupid! Come on now – first they had to ‘rig’ the game thing at the Anniversary gala so that Liza could participate and get prize money and now, they have to ‘rig’ the awrads so that she gets a spot in the final five for TV Queen? WTH??? I mean, REALLY??? Why is it that Liza always has to be in the limelight? Is she afraid that audiences will forget her so she has to hog the spotlight all the time instead of giving other artists the chance? Ugh!!! I get so pissed now whenever I see TVB giving Liza such blatant preferential treatment at other artists’ expense – ok, I understand that Liza has “tenure” with the company and she has a reputation for being overbearing and bossy, but does that mean that TVB has to give in to her every whim? The way Liza is the focus of attention all the time, TVB should just rename their company the Ah Jeh station or something! Goshdarnit!!

.—Other than my ‘rant’ about Liza Wang getting into Top 5, I really don’t have an opinion when it comes to who took home the TV Queen award because as I’ve said in previous posts, the actresses’ performances this year were all fairly weak – besides, I didn’t like any of the actresses nominated anyway, so it really didn’t make a difference to me, as long as it made sense why the person won. In fact, as much as I dislike Myolie, I actually expected her to win given that the rest of the field was quite weak.

.—The presenters of the TV Queen award were Patrick Tse and Francis Ng (the ‘real’ and ‘imitation’ Brother Four). I’m not a fan of either artist, but it was fun to watch the two of them taking jabs at each other – and I loved how Patrick Tse was saying that Liza Wang talked too much and basically indirectly told her to shut up (since the host Dodo Cheng kept asking for her opinion on stuff, which was the other thing that annoyed me – why keep interviewing Liza when it’s obvious it wasn’t her night?)…only Patrick would have dared to say something like that, given his close relationship with Liza…LOL!


TV King (Best Actor): Kevin Cheng (“Ghetto Justice”)

,-- Top 5: Moses Chan (“Yes Sir, Sorry Sir”), Kevin Cheng (“Ghetto Justice”), Michael Tse (“Lives of Omission”), Bosco Wong (“Lives of Omission”), Wayne Lai (“Forensic Heroes 3”)

.—Just like with TV Queen, I really was not too concerned about who won in this category either, as long as arrogant Michael Tse didn’t win. Basically, the only thing I wanted to know in terms of this category was whether TVB was going to make the stupid move of 'rewarding' Michael Tse for his arrogance by giving him the TV King award -- other than that, who got what award didn't matter to me, since I don't care for any of the artist who were nominated (except for Wayne, but I already knew he didn’t have a chance). Turns out that ‘cocky’ Laughing Gor got shut out completely from the awards, as he went home completely empty-handed (I’m considering that ‘icing on the cake’ for me, since I was only hoping that he wouldn’t get TV King – never thought that TVB would shut him out completely!).

.—In terms of Kevin winning TV King – well, as I had said in an earlier post, I pretty much expected it because he really stood out this year with his GJ role as well as his Mainland series “Bu Bu Jing Xin.” I’m still very much anti-Kevin Cheng as I’ve always been, but I will acknowledge that he has shown huge improvement in his acting from when he started – and given how the rest of the field was relatively weak and the other series were quite horrible, giving him the award made the most sense. Hopefully he is able to live up to the TV King title and doesn’t take steps back in terms of his acting.


Extraordinarily Elegant Male and Female Artists: Bosco Wong & Myolie Wu

.—To be honest, I don’t know what the heck this award was for, as they never really explained it. Basically, the hosts (Dodo Cheng and Vincent Wong) kept referring to a screen where it showed the names of the male and female artists who had the most votes. Then, about two-thirds of the way through the show, they announced the winners as Bosco and Myolie.

.—Not sure what the point was of this award – perhaps it was just an excuse to give Myolie another award? Or maybe to give Bosco an award, since Kevin basically swept all the other awards (he and Myolie took home 3 awards a piece). Whatever the case, doesn’t really matter to me because I consider this a ‘pork’ award anyway.


CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:

Overall, the award show itself was so-so….if it weren’t for some of the interesting presenters and their awesome speeches, I probably would have passed on watching the show.

.—It was very obvious from the start that TVB is not what it used to be. There were actually very few fa dans and siu sangs present – most of the artists who attended were 2nd and 3rd line (some even 4th and 5th line or below). It was actually sort of sad to see, since the awards shows in the past came across way more glamorous since more people showed up. The audience was lacking too, as I spotted quite a few empty chairs when the cameras actually panned over to where the audience was sitting – most of those in the audience were TVB employees who probably HAD to be there….

.—I don’t know about others who watched the show, but I personally felt that it wasn’t as well put together this year as in years past. There were a lot of moments where there was awkward silence and the applause (when there was applause that is) was barely audible. I wonder if TVB was too cheap to hire a music and sound person – or maybe that person left too? Whatever the case, it felt weird….

.—It was nice to see Ruco Chan sitting in the front row – TVB is finally recognizing him it seems (or it could be that so many artists left and there were so few first line siu sangs in attendance, they had no choice but to put him in front). Either way, I’ll enjoy it while it lasts…hahaha!

.—I definitely have to give kudos to Wayne Lai for being such a good sport. He already knew that his chances of getting TV King this year was pretty much non-existent, yet he still came to show his support. And when Dodo asked him why he was there if he didn’t feel he had a chance, he humbly answered that he was there to show his support for all of his colleagues, since they put in a lot of effort in their performances.

.— I was actually surprised that Kevin and Myolie got so many awards – honestly, I felt it was excessive to give them 3 awards a piece…there was really no need for that (but oh well – it’s TVB…can’t expect anything logical from them). Other than that piece, the rest of the results were pretty much anticipated. As I've been saying previously, overall I really don't care who wins this year, since I'm not too keen on many of the artists nominated and I know that it's never going to be 'fair' anyway considering that this is a TVB award show after all...for me, as long as MT didn't win TV King, then I'm happy. Goes to show that being cocky and arrogant won't get you anywhere…that’s probably the biggest ‘lesson’ that came out of this whole awards show!