Sorry that this news is kind of ‘old’ now (it’s from last
week) -- I’ve actually had this post in draft mode for a few days already but
only got around to finishing it today.
All BOGAE (TVB series Blood of Good and Evil)
fans need to read this post!!!
Last week, classic 80s/90s TVB onscreen couple Deric Wan (溫兆倫) and
Maggie Siu (邵美琪) got the chance to reunite on the premiere episode of
the Mainland reality TV show It Was You (原來是你). The premise of the show is that the invited
celebrity guest undergoes various “transformations” using Hollywood-style
makeup and special effects and then interacts with other celebrity friends to
see if they are able to recognize him/her. In this first episode, Deric was invited to
undergo the transformation and pull a surprise on his close friends Maggie Siu,
Benz Hui (許紹雄),
and BOGAE’s scriptwriter Chan Po Wah (陳寶華).
The show invited the 3 unsuspecting friends to attend the show’s
recording, telling them that they will be judges for a talent show competition -- Deric will interact with them in various situations, disguised as someone
else.
My mom was actually the one who told me about this show,
as she has taken to watching Mainland variety shows in recent years and, as a
long-time HK entertainment as well as TVB fan, she is always on the look-out
for any HK celebrities who appear on the shows.
When she told me about this one with Deric and Maggie (plus Po Wah Jie),
I was undoubtedly SUPER-EXCITED because 1) they are one of my all-time favorite
on-screen couples, and 2) BOGAE is one of my all-time favorite TVB series. Even though Benz Hui wasn’t in BOGAE, he’s
still one of my all-time favorite ‘green leaf’ actors, so I was excited to see
him on the show too.
Watching this show brought back a lot of nostalgia and
fond memories for me! From the opening
segment when Deric talks about his days working at TVB and series he filmed to
the 3 friends who have a special place in his heart (Maggie, Benz, and Po Wah
Jie) to the last segment where Maggie re-enacts the classic ending scene from
BOGAE with a transformed Deric (Maggie didn’t know it was him until he revealed
himself after the scene), I was absolutely ecstatic – at the same time though,
I also had tears in my eyes, especially during that later segment, which was
extremely touching, particularly for fans of the series like me.
The first friend that Deric “surprised” was Benz. To be honest, I also got teary-eyed at the
end of Benz’s segment (ok, well I started off laughing until my stomach hurt)
when Deric revealed himself and they hugged each other – Benz’s reaction was
priceless, as he hadn’t seen Deric in more than a decade and so was genuinely
surprised…Deric looked like he was about to cry, as he was so happy to see his ‘older
brother’ again after all these years.
The second friend was Chan Po Wah. Po Wah Jie was one of TVB’s former
scriptwriters who had left back in the early 2000s and currently writes for TV
series in Mainland China. Po Wah Jie is
actually Deric’s mentor, as she was the scriptwriter for BOGAE and wrote the
character of Chai Ho Nam, which was one of Deric’s most representative roles of
his entire acting career. Po Wah Jie’s
segment was actually quite funny, as they did a ‘discussion’ session with a
bunch of supposed contestants and she talked about the artists she most enjoyed
working with as well as a few other ‘tid-bits’ about the series BOGAE. It was obvious from what Po Wah Jie said that
she’s very close with Deric and knows him very very well – by the same token,
Deric obviously has a lot of respect for Po Wah Jie, which is heartwarming to
see, especially since it’s rare for scriptwriters to have such a good
relationship with artists who brought the characters they wrote to life.
The ultimate ‘target’ of the surprise was actually
Maggie. After Benz and Po Wah Jie found
out Deric’s identity, they collaborated with him to prank Maggie. Here I must applaud Jiangsu TV station’s seriousness
in putting together the ‘fake’ talent show, complete with 'fake' contestants and 'fake' performances in order to make the surprise more
impactful and poignant while still being able to tie in most of Deric and Maggie's past
collaborations such as BOGAE, Looking Back in Anger, Conscience….it
was a dream come true for Deric/Maggie fans!
At the very end, when Deric revealed himself, Maggie was genuinely
touched and so was everyone else – she kept asking Deric why he had to put
himself through so much suffering (6 hours of makeup plus he could barely talk
correctly or do much facial expression because of it), to which he replied that
he is honored to have her as a friend and is willing to do anything for
her. Awww, such a sweet moment – oh and
with BOGAE’s themesong playing in the background (one of my all-time favorite
themesongs by the way)….everyone was crying, including those in the live
audience as well as fans watching from home (I was definitely one of those fans
crying my eyes out)! Oh and great job to
Benz and Po Wah Jie, who knew what was happening during that entire segment and played along really well (honestly, Po
Wah Jie should be an actress – she was very natural in that segment!)
This was absolutely a fun episode to watch and chances
are I will watch it again very soon (especially since I miss Deric and Maggie
so much). It also made me want to go
re-watch BOGAE again (for like the hundredth time now)!
Thank you Jiangsu TV for such a great episode! I’m not really into Mainland variety shows,
but whenever there are HK celebrities invited on the shows, I will usually
watch. This episode is an absolute
MUST-WATCH for all BOGAE as well as Deric/Maggie fans!
The link to the entire episode is below (courtesy of
Jiangsu TV’s Youtube channel). Enjoy!!
