Mingpao Article: Airing outside series starting September, HKTV attempts to find new path to survival via ‘micro-movies’

The newest issue of Mingpao Weekly has a short article about HKTV and its possible new direction. It also addresses the rumors about whether HKTV will resume production or not.  One thing that came out of the article that I actually didn't know about is that HKTV filed judicial review on the mobile television services fiasco that occurred last year and are still awaiting decision from the courts on it (I thought they only filed judicial review on the license decision).  Well, hopefully the court issues the decision soon because HKTV pretty much won't make any plans on whether to resume filming until they see the outcome of that decision....I'm crossing my fingers that it ends up in HKTV's favor as well.

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Airing outside series starting September, HKTV attempts to find new path to survival via ‘micro-movies’

Source:  MingpaoWeekly, Issue 2427

Translation:  llwy12

Ever since it was denied a free-to-air broadcasting license, HKTV has found a way to survive by officially launching online as an Internet shopping network and television station.   Despite the critical acclaim for their dramas, HKTV has essentially halted production of all TV series in the 6 months since its launch due to the licensing issue.  In recent months however, Ricky Wong seems to have found a possible new direction for his station’s survival:  filming ‘micro-movies’ (微電影) for the business partners selling products on HKTV’s Internet shopping platform, HKTV Mall [TN note:  there are various translations of 微電影  currently being used in the industry, including ‘micro film’, and ‘short film’ – for the purposes of this article, I am using the translation ‘micro-movie’.]  With this route, HKTV can still push out new productions while at the same time make more money to continue funding the TV station side of things.  Earlier, HKTV had 2 of its contracted artists – Adrian Wong (黃芷晴) and Bryant Mak (麥子樂) – collaborate with the creative team behind hit series The Menu (導火新聞線) to film the station’s very first micro-movie La Couleur.

HKTV’s very first micro-movie La Couleur is actually a promotional piece for fashion brand EQ:IQ.  At only 10 minutes long, the film is helmed by Ben Fong (方俊華), the chief director of HKTV’s hit drama The Menu, and stars Felix Wong’s (黃日華) daughter Adrian Wong partnered with actor Bryant Mak and child actor Oscar (左珀僑).   In a story about love and family, Bryant plays a single father who encounters overseas-educated Adrian – originally strangers from opposite worlds, the 2 of them become acquainted over a painting and later on Adrian helps Bryant resolve a difficult issue with his son (Oscar); throughout the process, the 2 of them end up falling in love.

Felix Wong encourages his daughter to seize the opportunity

Despite its short length, the production of the film was taken very seriously – in addition to the actual filming taking place over the course of 3 days, the cast also spent 2 days rehearsing their scenes with the director and the rest of the production crew.  With this being the first micro-movie of her career, Adrian Wong expressed that this was a new and different experience for her:  “Even my mom asked me, ‘Adrian, isn’t this a commercial for a fashion brand?  Why do you need to rehearse for it?’  I understand that the director (Ben Fong) has very high standards.  This is my first time working with the crew of The Menu and I feel extremely honored, so I not only participated in the rehearsal, I also took the time to discuss my role with the director.”  Since joining HKTV, Adrian has participated in the series Paranormal Mind (開腦儆探) and Incredible Mama (我阿媽係黑玫瑰), but this is her first time filming a micro-movie.  Because of its length, the filming process for the micro-movie is more meticulous, so grasping the character accurately is very important: “Since I was born and raised in Hong Kong, having to portray a student educated overseas is a bit challenging, plus the story is about art, so some of the dialogue can be a little abstract.”  Adrian expressed that one of the most memorable moments for her was filming a scene where she was wearing high heels and had to chase after Bryant Mak – after running back and forth nearly a dozen times, it was exhausting:  “My mom and dad didn’t visit me on the set to watch the filming, but they gave me words of encouragement and told me it’s a great opportunity for me to polish my acting skills as well as collaborate with such a professional team – they told me to cherish the opportunity.”

Currently busy filming TV series As Long As Love is Forever Present (只有情永在) for Mainland China’s GDTV, Adrian revealed that her contract with HKTV will expire at the end of June.  Asked about her plans after her contract ends, Adrian hopes to continue both her careers as an actress and designer [TN: Adrian has her own design business where she makes handmade accessories and sells them online – her brand is called Oh My Deer]:  “I hope to get more acting opportunities, whether in movies, TV series, stage plays, micro-movies, commercials, etc.  I’m currently in talks on a few outside TV series.”

As for fellow actor Bryant Mak, who has participated in many micro-movies throughout his career, he feels that HKTV going down the micro-movie path is a good thing:  “I hope that the company will continue to film micro-movies and show audiences that they are willing to try different things.  Also, I feel that the fast pace of micro-movies will give audiences a feeling of freshness.”  Bryant revealed that in the micro-movie La Couleur, it was his first time playing a father and having to work so closely with a child actor:  “A lot of people say that working with children is very difficult, but this particular child (Oscar) is very good-natured and very smart, plus he definitely knows how to act.  Of course, sometimes he might fuss a little, since he’s a child after all, but he very rarely has outtakes when filming – it’s pretty amazing!”

Enough series to last through next year

Having halted the filming of new series since its license was denied more than a year ago, HKTV’s current inventory of completed series is slowly being depleted.  With only the series Love in Time (還來得及再愛你), Doom+5 (末日+5), The Wicked League (惡毒老人同盟), Paranormal Mind (開腦儆探), P.4B (四年B班), Hidden Faces (三面形醫), and Night Shift (夜班) left to air, it is estimated that all of HKTV’s self-produced series will finish airing in September.  After that, they will start airing outside-bought series, such as Mainland series Detective Di Renjie Prequel (神探狄仁傑前傳) and Home Temptation (回家的誘惑) as well as Korean series Twinkle, Twinkle (閃閃發亮), etc. – with the number of outside series they bought, it’s believed that HKTV will have enough series to air through next year (2016).  As for the rumors that HKTV will resume new series production mid-2015, the station’s assistant director of corporate communications, Jessie Cheng (鄭靜雯) clarified that they need to resolve the judicial review decision handed down by the courts first, then they will make a decision on what direction to take in terms of future series:  “Some of the series that HKTV already aired – such as To Be or Not To Be (來生不做香港人), The Menu (導火新聞線), The Election (選戰), etc. – were well-received by audiences.  HKTV has gained valuable experience from these series and through audiences’ feedback, we’ve also learned a great deal about the market’s attitude toward our series’ content, pacing, overall production, etc.  Based on all this, we feel that remaining solely an internet TV station is not plausible in the long term, as it limits the scope of broadcast and also potential impact.  Also, advertising revenue from internet will always be far off from the advertising revenue gained from traditional media platforms – relying on that revenue alone is not enough to sustain the production of high quality programs.  Even though the courts ruled in our favor with the judicial review, there is still no word on what will happen with our free TV license application.  In addition, we’re still awaiting decision on the judicial review filed over the mobile television services issue – the court proceedings were already completed on November 26^th of last year (2014), but still pending final outcome.   After that, then we’ll be able to decide whether to resume production as well as next steps.”

Highlights from HK Trip

I just got back from a trip to Hong Kong and wanted to do a quick recap of some of the highlights.  Now, I normally don’t like to share personal stuff on my blog, but since this trip ended up being a bit more entertainment industry related than expected, I figured writing about it would be a great way to capture the memories.

It has actually been 10 years since I last visited HK.  In addition to doing the standard visiting relatives and friends stuff that I normally do, I also ended up doing some ‘touristy’ stuff too (even though I’m not a tourist).  The 2 main ‘tourist attractions’ I went to while in HK were Avenue of the Stars at the Star Ferry Pier waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui (better known as the more hip-sounding ‘TST’ nowadays…lol) and Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum at the Peak located on HK island (haha…I’m sure none of you reading this are surprised given how much of an HK entertainment fanatic I am).   I actually make it a point to visit both places every time I go back to HK and this time around, I’m glad I did, as things have changed quite a bit from 10 years ago.

First, the Avenue of the Stars.  One reason why this is a ‘must-visit’ place for me each time is, of course, to go see my idol Jacky Cheung’s star and handprint (even though I’ve seen it many times already…lol).  Fortunately, there wasn’t much ‘wear and tear’ on the star and it still looks as good as it did 10 years ago – only thing is, it’s further than I remember it to be in terms of location, as I had to walk all the way around to almost the end of the pathway before I was able to find it.   No worries though, since I was planning on checking out each star anyway, so I didn’t mind the walk (plus I needed the exercise…haha).  The beginning part of the pathway consisted of the stars of film artists and directors/producers from the 1950s/60s/70s (i.e.:  Cho Tat Wah, Li Li Wah, Wu Fung, Chor Yuen, Josephine Hsiao, Lin Dai, Bao Fong, etc.) – in addition to the famous names, there were a few obscure ones in there too – regardless though, all were names that I recognized and definitely deserved to be there given their contributions to the HK film industry.  In addition to the stars that have been there for decades, there were also a few newly added ones near the end of the walkway, such as Nicholas Tse, Louis Koo, Carina Lau, Kara Hui, Kenneth Tsang, Simon Yam, etc. (I know none of those were there 10 years ago).  In terms of statues, the newest addition of course, is the Anita Mui commemorative statue that was added to the walkway a couple years back – I had read about the unveiling of the statue in the news, but wanted to check it out for myself.  It’s a nice statue with the words ‘Hong Kong’s daughter’ engraved at the base, though features-wise, it didn’t look like Anita at all – nonetheless, it’s a nice gesture that I’m sure all of us who loved Anita appreciate.   

The popular Bruce Lee statue was still there as well, though good luck trying to get close to it, as there are crowds of people around that statue all the time (I gave up trying to take pictures of the statue – I even had to fight to take pictures of Eric Tsang’s star, which was located right by the statue, so there were constantly people blocking it).  The second most popular ‘attraction’ there was Jackie Chan’s star and handprint (I could tell by the amount of ‘wear and tear’ on his star as well as the hordes of non-Cantonese speaking people clamoring to put their hands in the handprint and take pictures).  Of course, I’m not surprised at what I saw, since Avenue of the Stars is a major tourist attraction after all and is mostly frequented by tourists outside of HK who may be most familiar with international stars such as Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.  It’s rare for a non-local Hong Konger like me to visit and actually be interested in seeing the stars of other celebrities aside from these 2 (as a sidenote – it was kind of funny, but I think I was one of the few people there who actually recognized all of the celebrities’ names).

The other tourist attraction I went to was the wax museum.  I went on a weekday hoping to beat the crowds, but then I remembered that this was another place where very few locals go anyway, so it actually didn’t make a difference the time of day, there were still tons of tourists there (while I was there, I noticed groups of tourists coming in by the busload…it was amusing but annoying at the same time).   I must say that the wax museum changed a lot since I was last there 10 years ago – they renovated it a bit and added a few new areas that weren’t there before as well as many new wax statues that weren’t there previously.  I vividly remember on my last visit, I had ‘complained’ to my mom how ridiculous it was that HK’s wax museum had so few HK celebrities in it (at that time – I’m talking 10 years ago here -- there were only a few wax figures of local celebrities – all the rest were Hollywood stars, political figures, the Royal family, and sports personalities).  Well, someone must have heard my complaint (lol) because this time around, there were a lot more local celebrities in the museum as well as ones from Taiwan (i.e. Jay Chou, Ethan Ruan, etc) and also Mainland China (pianist Lang Lang, Huang Xiao Ming, etc.).  Oh and for fans of Korean entertainment out there, they actually added an entire section dedicated to Korean celebrities and singers (I think it’s called the K-wave section or something like that).

I like how the museum is a lot more organized now than it was in the past.  There are new placards next to each wax figure introducing each celebrity (in Chinese and English), more ‘special features’ on some of the figures (i.e. Andy Lau’s beating heart, Miriam Yeung’s laugh, Sandra Ng in her “Sparkle Club” setting with a couch where you can sit and pretend to be interviewed by her, etc.), and also the wax figures are separated into featured areas that actually make sense (i.e. most of the singers are in their own section, the local HK film and television stars are in their own sections, etc.).  Another new section added was a ‘making of’ section where they actually walk you through step by step how they create each of the wax figures, from the initial selection and measurement process to the final result – Donnie Yen’s wax figure (another new one that was added the past few years) was used as an example and there are actually video clips of him talking about the process on various monitors.   Another thing I noticed is that they gave the museum more of a “something for everyone” feel in that they added a Superhero section (with statues of Marvel comic book figures such as Spiderman, Incredible Hulk, Ironman, Wolverine, etc.) as well as a ‘Kids’ section with Hello Kitty, Doreamon, Mak Dou Dou pig, etc.  Another new section that I believe is only temporary is an area dedicated to the Journey to the West movie from 2013 (the one with Donnie Yen as the Monkey King and Aaron Kwok as the Bull Demon) – not sure why they decided to feature this movie in particular, maybe because of the costumes?  The figures themselves didn’t look like the artists much but the elaborate costumes were very definitely very similar to the real thing!

Overall, my visit to the museum was quite worthwhile (despite the crowds of rude tourists I encountered – but then again, most of the people in HK were rude…not sure if they’ve become jaded or dissatisfied with life or what….this is the first time in my many visits to HK where I was actually treated so rudely by my own people…I miss how nice people were 10 years ago…..).  Anyway, rude people aside, I definitely recommend that anyone who gets the chance to visit HK go see the wax museum and Avenue of the Stars at least once, especially those who are very ‘into’ all aspects of the HK entertainment industry.  Of course, if you get the chance to meet a celebrity in person, that’s a different story, but for those of us who are usually not that lucky, well, I’m happy with just looking at wax figures and handprints (and thereby taking that nostalgic trip down memory lane for a brief instant).

Speaking of celebrity sightings….I was lucky enough to ‘bump into’ a celebrity on this trip without even trying.  (As a sidenote….for those of you who are serious about ‘chasing’ celebrities, the best place to go is definitely Hong Kong International Airport in Chek Lap Kok.)   Actually, on my visit to HK 10 years ago, I had actually bumped into a few celebrities at the airport too, but they were lesser known artists, plus it was just a glance from far away, so probably not much worth mentioning.  This time around though, I bumped into not 1, but 3 artists in close proximity while at the airport – I  saw Calvin Choi, Remus Choi, and Edmond So from the famous HK singing group Grasshopper!  Here’s how it went down:  my mom and I were standing in line in the departure area waiting to go through security….since the line was long and we had nothing else to do, I started glancing around and suddenly, about 20 people in front of us, I spotted a familiar-looking guy with long hair putting his stuff on the conveyor belt for x-ray – I looked closer and sure enough, I was right – it was Calvin Choi from Grasshopper.  A few people behind him was Edmond So, still standing in line, playing with his Ipad (I assume it was an ipad – could’ve been a tablet too).  There were a few people with them, whom I’m assuming were their assistants.  They went through security and went into the gate area, all relatively low-key (not sure if anyone else recognized them…didn’t sound like it though).  I pointed it out to my mom and we were both wondering where Remus was, as we were assuming that they were going out of town to perform, so all 3 of them should’ve been there.  We didn’t see him though so we thought perhaps he went in already…then, when the security people opened up another line, we got into that line and as I was putting my stuff on the conveyor belt, I noticed another familiar face in line right behind me – yup, Remus Choi (looks like he might have gotten there a little late?).  I didn’t say anything or linger around after my stuff went through, as he was probably in a rush to catch his flight just like everyone else there, so didn’t want to bother him.               

So there you have it….a few highlights from my trip to HK.  I had fun overall and definitely looking to go back again in the near future.  I included a few pictures below, mainly from Avenue of the Stars, since those pictures turned out better.  Enjoy!

Entrance to Avenue of the Stars

Anita Mui commemorative statue

Jacky's star at Avenue of the Stars :-)