2015 TVB Anniversary Awards -- My Thoughts

The awards ceremony this year was largely lackluster similar to previous years.  One thing I will applaud TVB for though (no, I don’t just criticize TVB – I will give praise where I feel it’s due) is the fact that this time around, they did not let the current political situation in HK influence them – not only did they agree to let Anthony Wong film one of their series (sure, he returned purely because of Amy Wong, but still, TVB had to agree to it), they also did the right thing by giving him the TV King award which he rightfully deserved.   Amid all the controversy with Occupy Central and the so-called Mainland China ‘boycott’ against Anthony, good to see that TVB forfeited kissing Mainland China’s butt for once and instead gave Anthony the recognition he deserved.

Ok, now for the criticisms (lol):

-          The awards ceremony left a sour taste in my mouth from the getgo with the Lifetime Achievement Award going to Nat Chan.  When my family and I were watching the awards presentation and Nat’s name was announced for this award, our jaws literally dropped – the only reaction I could muster was WTF???? Come on TVB, REALLY????  Of all the more deserving veteran artists out there, they choose to give this award to Nat, who, to be honest, didn’t really contribute to TVB as much as the ‘senior’ actors did?  I can actually rattle off at least 20 to 30 artists who deserve the award way more than Nat.  I mean, ok, fine, many of the ‘senior’ (what we call ‘gam cho’) artists have either retired, left TVB, or even passed away, but still, that shouldn’t stop TVB from giving the award to someone more deserving (unless the artist currently works for a rival TV station, which yes, in that case I definitely understand).   How about Kenneth Tsang or Lau Kong (can’t remember if Lau Kong received it before – I don’t think he did)?  Or Lau Dan?  John Chiang?  Chun Wong?  Elliot Ngok?  The list goes on and on.  I would’ve even preferred that they give this award posthumously to an artist who already passed away but had made huge contribution to TVB in terms of acting (i.e. the late So Hang Suen).  What a joke!   (Sidenote:  I thought this was the Lifetime Achievement in ACTING award???  Nat Chan only acted in a few TVB series and mostly early on in his career, like in the 70s – not nearly as many as the veteran artists have.  If it was for hosting, um, well, he’s even less qualified, as there are way more ‘senior’ hosts than him who’ve contributed more to TVB than him – like Ivan Ho, Lawrence Cheng, Eric Tsang, etc.).  I really want to know what TVB was thinking with this award….

-          Most Improved actor/actress – I guess I wasn’t as pissed off with this award category as others were, since I already expected TVB to play favorites and give this award to the least deserving of the nominees.  Nowadays, this is pretty much the only category where TVB can blatantly do their favoritism thing without getting as much as backlash from audiences as, say, the TV King and Queen categories, since it’s the one category where it’s obvious the artist who wins is usually the one TVB is trying to promote.  Personally, I didn’t think Tony Hung deserved to win, as a few of the others nominated were way better than him (i.e. Mat Yeung), but since his acting truly has improved from his earlier series, I can at least swallow the fact that he won.  Grace Chan on the other hand, did NOT deserve the award at all – there has been absolutely no improvement in her acting (in fact, her acting has actually gotten worse), so for TVB to still gave her that award, it’s obviously rigged.

-          As has been the case for many years already, the awards show was hugely disjointed and disorganized.  What the heck was up with the Best Supporting Actor/Actress segment?  One minute the hosts state that the next award to be presented is Best Supporting Actor and then they interview the 5 nominees for the award, but then right after that, they go into announcing the presenters of the Best Supporting Actress award – huh?  And I hate how they stopped doing the top 5 nominee thing for all the categories except TV King/Queen and Favorite Character -- putting myself in the artists’ shoes, even if they don’t win the award, I’m sure they would’ve wanted to know if they had at least gotten into top 5 because that’s still recognition to some extent.  Oh and on the topic of the awards show being disorganized – why does TVB have to rush things every year?  Why can’t they just have one year where they let everyone say what they want to say? Also, those interview snippets they did in between various categories were badly done – they were obviously time-fillers that had no meaningful purpose and instead make things come across awkward every year.

-          I was seriously disappointed at the lack of ‘decent’ presenters once again this year.  Gone are the days when TVB was able to invite big-name presenters to give out their awards – instead, in recent years, they’ve had to resort to their own artists or those who are affiliated with them in some way either by filming series or a variety program for them.  To me, that shows how irrelevant TVB is nowadays, as very few non-TVB artists are willing to give them the time of day (which of course I don’t blame the artists for, since I would do the same thing if I were them).  In the past, I would always look forward to the presenters and their speeches, even more than the award winners’ themselves, but this time around, such a huge disappointment.  Pretty much the only presenter speech I enjoyed was Benz Hui’s ‘humorous jab at TVB’ speech (love Benz – he’s basically one of the few artists who can say whatever he wants about TVB and still be highly valued by them).  And is it just me or did Nancy Wu present twice?  I wasn’t really paying a whole lot of attention but for some reason I felt that she had gone up there twice to present…

-          The hosting sucked again this year, though part of me feels I should blame TVB rather than the hosts because they’re merely going off a script and since the ceremony itself was so disorganized, they had to do the best with what they had.  With that said though, the hosting in general has been largely lackluster for most of TVB’s ‘big event’ shows the past couple years (that includes anniversary gala, anniversary awards, charity shows, etc.).  Really makes me miss those good old days (the 80s/90s) when TVB’s shows were truly grand events and the hosting was just as much a ‘highlight’ of the show as the performances themselves!

-          Acceptance speeches – again, nothing exciting with the speeches and definitely no ‘moved me to tears’ moments this year.  I basically had no feeling towards most of the speeches (probably because I didn’t really give a care about the awards this year, so couldn’t really muster up much emotion / feeling towards anyone winning, whether deserved or not).  The only 2 acceptance speeches that caught my attention were Ruco Chan’s (definitely liked his speech) and Anthony Wong’s (his speeches are always exciting to listen to though, whether he’s presenting or accepting awards).  In comparisons, last year’s speeches were much more heartfelt and emotional.  Oh and I swear, if I hear one more artist ‘thanks Sandy’ (Sandy Yu, TVB’s director of variety programs) in their acceptance speech, I think I’m going to start busting out the curse words!  Sure, I understand if those in the variety department thank Sandy (since she does oversee that department) or those who were singlehandedly pushed up by her (i.e. those artists who worked with her at i-Cable and jumped ship with her to TVB), but there were artists in the drama department thanking Sandy when she actually had nothing to do with them or their careers!  (this is one reason why I loved Benz’s jab at people’s acceptance speeches in general, lol).  I’ve always hated how most TVB award winners are kind of ‘forced’ to thank upper management – some feel it’s a PR move, others feel it’s necessary in order to stay on TVB’s good side….whatever the reason, it comes across as fake to me.  I prefer the acceptance speeches where the artists thank who they truly want to thank – i.e. those people who truly helped them in their career – rather than some management person out of fear of what might happen to them or their career if they don’t thank that person.  Argh – major pet peeve!

-          Classic series category – just wanted to add this part in, as I’ve seen some confusion in the forums about this category so felt I should clarify.  The classic series category was actually added due to all the hype surrounding TVB’s midnight timeslot this year.  All of those series nominated were ones that had aired in the midnight timeslot series in recent months.  When the nominees first came out, I thought it was very interesting that out of all the ‘classic’ series that aired in the midnight timeslot this year, TVB would choose to slide in some of their ‘non-classic’ series such as Lives of Omission and Brother’s Keeper for example – go figure!  Though I totally agree with the sentiment that TVB created this category just for the heck of it, I’m glad to see that at least they didn’t screw it up by giving the award to a series that didn’t deserve it.  As I said elsewhere in a different forum (prior to the award ceremony), the winner in this category hands-down should be The Greed of Man – this is a ‘no-brainer’ choice and any other series winning in this category would’ve been a travesty.  Reason being is that TGOM single-handedly ‘resurrected’ TVB’s midnight time slot and therefore is the main reason why TVB was even able to add this category in the first place!  When the series aired in that timeslot back in April/May (I think those are the right months – too lazy to go look it up), it broke all records in terms of ratings (for all series aired in that timeslot) and also brought about a deluge of hype and attention (due to all the nostalgia no doubt)  that no one expected and TVB absolutely benefited from.  During the months that the series aired, it was the ‘talk of the town’ and literally EVERY SINGLE WEEK there was some tidbit about the series in the newspapers, whether it was interviews with the cast (they managed to find and interview practically every single main cast member), resurrecting cut scenes from the series, rekindling the careers of largely forgotten artists (i.e.: David Siu).  Since the beginning, it made the most sense for TGOM to win and definitely glad that it did!

Overall, the awards ceremony was boring and if you didn’t watch, you didn’t miss out.  There was actually way more to criticize than what I listed but I figured I would just hit the highlights (well, I guess ‘lowlights’ is more appropriate in this case) in this post.  If I think of anything else more pressing (which I doubt, as I don’t intend to waste any more time on such a meaningless award ceremony), I’ll be sure to add.  Those who did watch the awards ceremony though, feel free to post your thoughts/comments.

Follow up to TVB’s midnight timeslot series and onTV poll

Those who’ve been following my blog are probably familiar with this whole midnight timeslot thing that I wrote several posts about the past few months.  As a refresher, here are the links to the posts related to this topic:

TVB’s midnight timeslot series

TVB’s midnight timeslot series – part 2 (follow up post)

TVB and OnTV collaboration: Midnight time slot seriespoll

This is my fourth post about this topic and unlike the previous posts, this one will be quite brief.

Basically, I AM PISSED!!!!! 

I just read the below article from on.cc which references back to the TVB/onTV poll that allowed audiences to choose which series they most wanted to watch in the midnight timeslot.  The poll had closed back in September and when the results were announced, the top 3 winners (in order of most votes) were: 1) War of the Genders, 2) Looking Back in Anger, and 3) A Step into the Past.  Back then, onTV claimed that TVB had agreed they would re-air series in their midnight timeslot based on the results of this poll – indeed, on 10/5, TVB started airing War of the Genders, which was the series that garnered the most votes…makes sense and I’m fine with that.  Logically speaking then – and if TVB was true to their word – the next series to air after War of the Genders ends on December 10^th would be the #2 highest voted series, Looking Back in Anger, right?  WRONG!!!!!!   According to the below article (keep in mind that onTV belongs to Oriental Daily, which is actually the one who did this poll in collaboration with TVB), the next series to air will be A Step into the Past, NOT Looking Back in Anger!!  WTH???  Why did they skip LBIA when that series is in the #2 spot and instead choose to air the series in the #3 spot, ASITP???  Does that make any ounce of sense at all?  What gives, TVB??  Why are you once again deliberately skipping LBIA and not allowing it to air in the midnight timeslot?  Especially now when audiences VOTED the series as their 2^nd most favorite series that they want to see re-broadcast in that timeslot? 

I don’t know about you guys, but to me, this is proof right here that the previous “rumor” about LBIA being blacklisted by TVB due to Felix Wong is absolutely TRUE !!  I mean, what other logical explanation is there for why TVB would choose to go back on their word (which was to air the series in order of what audiences chose) and air ASITP instead, completely bypassing LBIA?   In my previous posts, I mentioned the blacklist thing as a possible reason why TVB keeps skipping the series, but in efforts to be fair and give TVB the benefit of the doubt, I kept it as 'speculation only' on my part.  Well, now with this revelation, turns out that, once again, I was right after all (so next time people try to defend TVB whenever I criticize their stupidities, please remember this incident and spare me from the excuses -- because at this point, nothing is going to restore my trust in TVB, especially with the damn incompetent management they have in place right now!)

Another thing’s for sure – the next time those stupid, imbecilic, bastard execs at TVB try to REFUTE the claims of there being a blacklist (they have repeatedly denied the existence of a blacklist, even though some artists have proven there IS a blacklist because they've personally seen it), I am calling them out on this issue and want to see what they have to say (hey TVB, if there is no blacklist, then WHY DO YOU GUYS REPEATEDLY REFUSE TO AIR LBIA?????).  Stop treating your audiences like fools, TVB!!!  And FOR ONCE, have some respect for those whose support over the years helped make you into the powerhouse you are today – otherwise, sooner or later, even those die-hard fans who grew up watching your programs and therefore continue to blindly support you will end up abandoning you as well!

Source article from on.cc:

順應《重播你有Say》民意 《尋秦記》深宵重來

Deric Wan and Maggie Siu "Blood of Good and Evil" Reunion!!!

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!!

News Article: TVB attempts to save its music programs through ‘ice-breaking’ dinner with record companies

I read the below article in Mingpao Weekly over the weekend and since it contains some info that might impact the HK music industry, I decided it would be appropriate to share it here.

I personally don't have much opinion on the music-related changes that TVB is planning on rolling out next year, since I stopped caring about the HK music industry for close to a decade already. Most of the singers I like are veteran artists from the 70s, 80s, and 90s and if/when they release new music, I have my ways of finding out and supporting.  Yes, I still do listen to newer music from the younger generation, but not as much compared to in the past...plus I don't follow most of the newbie singers anyway.

My only comment on the article below:  the part that annoyed me big time was Sandy Yu once again 'boasting' that they (TVB) came up with the idea of having a unified awards ceremony and that they are all for this idea, but the other 3 media companies shot it down.  Well, I will tell you that what Sandy said is B.S.!!!!!   TVB was NOT the one who came up with the unified awards ceremony thing -- in fact, they weren't even supportive of such an idea until about a year or so ago!  The veteran singers -- such as Jacky Cheung for example -- were technically the ones who first suggested that HK should do a unified awards ceremony...in fact, Jacky had heavily pushed for this about 5 years ago and would talk about it at practically every interview.  But all the media organizations (TVB included) were vehemently opposed (most likely because they would lose whatever benefit they got from keeping it separate).  At that time, TVB even went as far as 'boycotting' Jacky because he kept pushing the unified awards thing (though there were other reasons too, such as Jacky saying that alot of the music programs don't respect the singers because they cut off their performances among other things -- indirect jab at TVB, since they were notorious for doing this...plus there was the royalty dispute, since he belongs to one of the record companies that was at odds with TVB).  I don't have a problem with TVB realizing they were stupid not to support the unified awards ceremony thing and therefore are now changing their tune -- but for them to take the credit for 'coming up with the idea' and bragging about it constantly and then worse yet, making themselves seem all high and mighty and the other 3 media stations look like jerks for refusing to cooperate with them...to me, that is utterly ABHORRENT!!   If I hear TVB brag about this again, I swear I am probably going to strangle someone over there...argh!! :-(

*****

TVB attempts to save its music programs through ‘ice-breaking’ dinner with record companies

Source:  Mingpao Weekly, Issue# 2445

Original article published September 18, 2015

Translation: llwy12

In recent years, due to losing many of its first-line actors and actresses, TVB had to cast newcomers in lead roles in more of their series while continuing to watch the ratings for their programs fall.  At the same time, TVB’s music programs have also suffered a significant decline.  Ever since the royalty dispute 5 years ago with the big 4 record companies (Sony, Warner, Universal, and EMI), TVB’s relationship with the record labels has been shaky.   As a result, TVB’s music programs as well as their JSG awards ceremony have lacked significant star power the past few years, which has not only made their programs less attractive, but also severely reduced their impact [on the music industry].

Seeing this, TVB took the initiative to put together a dinner this past Wednesday (September 16^th) to ‘break the ice’ with the record companies.  As host of the dinner, TVB’s director of variety programming Sandy Yu (余詠珊) invited the management teams from all of HK’s record companies, whether big or small, to attend.  At the same time, Sandy Yu also took the opportunity to update those present on TVB’s latest projects related to music as well as roll out a few policy changes resulting from this.  With this dinner, TVB hoped to continue their long-standing contribution to the music industry while at the same time garner some ‘goodwill’ and support for their own music programs.

Three weeks ago, Sandy Yu had already contacted the executives at all the record companies to invite them to the dinner.  Since she took on the position of programming director for TVB’s variety department at the height of TVB’s royalty dispute with the big 4 record labels, this would actually be Sandy’s first time meeting with all the record company execs.   At first, a few of the record companies thought it was odd and were hesitant about attending, however when they heard that some of the major record labels’ execs -- such as EEG’s Ng Yu (吳雨) as well as East Asia’s Chan Chi Kwong (陳志光), etc. – had already confirmed their attendance, they proceeded with plans to participate.  With that said however, Universal Music’s top exec Duncan Wong (黃劍濤) did not attend the dinner, instead sending representatives in his place.

As host of the dinner, TVB arranged a 6 table banquet for the close to 70 execs in attendance.  Though technically one of the goals of the dinner was to have all the execs mingle with each other regardless of record company, the seating arrangements indicated otherwise.  At the first host table,  Sandy Yu was responsible for attending to the execs from Sony, Warner, and East Asia while her husband Herman Ho (何哲圖) – CEO of TVB’s newly formed in-house record company The Voice Entertainment Group (星夢娛樂有限公司) – hosted the execs from Universal and EEG at the second table.  The execs and representatives from the rest of the record companies were seated throughout the remaining 4 tables.

Internet popularity can qualify a song for JSG

According to those who were in attendance, Sandy Yu revealed at the dinner that TVB would be implementing 2 policy changes in the coming year.  Paraphrasing Sandy Yu’s speech at the dinner: “It’s been quite some time since we’ve gathered together for dinner – thank you to all of you for your support and attendance.  During times like this, the music industry needs unity and needs all of us to work together to make the industry better.  With this goal in mind, we (TVB) will be creating 6 to 12 additional channels in the coming year and also establishing an online TV station to support more music-related programming.  As a result, there will now be 2 new ‘policies’ if you will.  In the past, singers had to be backed by a record company and have a certain amount of name recognition in order to qualify for a spot on the JSG charts.  With the new policy, as long as a song gets recognition by listeners – for example it gets a lot of hits on the Internet – it can still get a spot on the charts; once on the charts, it can then be in the running for JSG seasonal selections and the year-end awards.”  Sandy Yu cited music queen Sammi Cheng (鄭秀文) covering Phil Lam’s (林奕匡) hit song High Mountain, Deep Valley (高山低谷) as an example – Sammi’s version, though not an official release, was popular on the Internet, so we shouldn’t underestimate the impact of these types of songs.  One of the attendees at the dinner revealed that the ‘no show, no award’ rule was brought up and TVB confirmed that, similar to before, if an artist does not attend the award ceremony, they will not get an award.

JSG Awards will take place earlier

The other change in policy involves TVB’s youth-oriented J2 channel.  Sandy Yu indicated that there have been many new singers to emerge in the music industry the past couple years, so they wanted to give these singers a platform to promote their music, whether through airing their MVs or participating in actual music programs.  TVB also indicated that they welcome any feedback from the record companies on the possible ideas to promote the artists under their labels – in addition, they hope to collaborate with the record companies to produce programs revolving around these artists, which will also be a different direction from the past.   Another project that the J2 channel is working on will be to produce a younger version of TVB’s current music variety program Sunday Songbird (Sunday靚聲王).  Sandy indicated that she welcomes any feedback the record companies may have on this project.  It is said that TVB intends to explore OTT set top broadcast format next year, which means that their cable channels and their free-to-air channels will be combined into one package in the near future and sold at a low price to local television audiences.  Therefore, TVB needs to produce more new programs to prepare for this move.

In terms of the annual JSG Awards ceremony, TVB revealed that this year, the show will be broadcast on December 20th instead of in January as in the past – this would make JSG the first of the big four music awards ceremonies to take place this year.  In addition, TVB8’s music awards ceremony, which takes place on January 17^th, will air on TVB’s Jade channel [their regular free-to-air channel] this year.  Sandy Yu indicated that she has already contacted overseas singers from other countries who are working on clearing their schedules so they can come to HK to attend.

Indifference toward new changes

Despite TVB taking the first step to break the ice, the record companies’ response toward the new changes seems to be one of indifference due to doubts about TVB’s intentions.   According to sources present at the dinner, there were a lot of concerns and questions raised about TVB’s new ‘policies’ – for example, someone asked why it was necessary for a singer whose song had already become a huge hit over the Internet to go on JSG and promote their song all over again?  Others brought up credibility concerns with basing awards on number of Internet hits, as it was easy for people to rig the results by increasing their number of hits.  Still others felt that TVB’s new system is backwards – what the music industry truly needs right now is for everyone to work together to make good quality music, not for people to get on the sensationalism bandwagon and rely on gimmicks to increase hit count.

Also, it was mentioned that in addition to the Internet, there are currently many options for singers to promote their music – for example, both i-Cable and NowTV have produced a lot of music shows the past couple years – so there isn’t tremendous concern about the lack of promotional platforms for singers.  Besides, the big international record companies that had lost TVB as a promotional platform the past couple years due to the royalty dispute have still been able to increase their own artists’ popularity and job offers (examples cited were Pakho Chau, Shiga Lin, Kelvin Kwan), which proves that singers can still survive in a different environment.

A sore point that was not even mentioned during the dinner was the issue that had brought about the whole royalty dispute between the big 4 record companies and TVB 5 years ago.  At the time, TVB had taken their JSG program and released it on DVD as well as VCD, however they did not pay the artists involved or their record companies the royalties that should have been due to them from the sale of those DVDs.   Due to this issue not even being acknowledged at the dinner, a few of the record company execs felt that TVB was trying to use their artists to garner support and hype up their own music programs.

Sandy Yu responds:  It was merely a ‘reunion dinner’

 Afterwards, we contacted the dinner’s host, TVB’s variety program director Sandy Yu, to ask about this ‘ice-breaking dinner’ with the record companies.  She responded:  “It was merely a reunion dinner.”  Towards the earlier royalty dispute that caused TVB’s relationship with the record companies to turn sour, Sandy denied that there was any negative impact to their relationship:  “Actually, the relationship never turned sour, it’s just that a few of the international record labels viewed the issue of copyright and royalties differently than we did.  They [those record labels] were only willing to grant us 2 years [license agreement for artists’ songs], which was way too short.    From a business standpoint, we were not able to come to an agreement, but we continue to negotiate and in recent years, there has been increased discussion on both sides – the record companies have been very understanding.”  Sandy emphasized that the dinner gathering was planned over a month ago and the atmosphere that night was actually quite good.  In fact, some people didn’t want to leave and even suggested that they should do these dinners every quarter to facilitate more communication between the record companies and TVB.

As for this year’s JSG Awards being held on December 20^th instead of January the following year, Sandy clarified:  “We are instituting a voting system this year, as we want everyone in HK to get the chance to participate and choose what music they like.  Since we (TVB) were the ones who started the ‘one person one vote’ system [TN: reference their Miss HK pageant several years ago], it makes sense that we should hold our music awards show first instead of last.   Actually, we (TVB) had once suggested having all 4 media organizations [TVB, CRHK, RTHK, Metro Radio] collaborate together on one unified awards ceremony so that there would be a ‘true’ music king and queen each year – we even volunteered to put money into producing the show, but the other media organizations refused, so we gave up on the idea.”

Voting system doesn’t truly reflect audience’s choices

Despite the ‘one person one vote’ system being implemented for JSG, someone at the dinner mentioned that with the rule of ‘no show, no award’, it still won’t be the true will of the people.  Towards this, Sandy expressed:  “Every year, we never say that an artist who doesn’t attend can’t get an award.”  Asked whether each award category will be subject to voting, Sandy clarified that it would only be limited to certain categories:  “The voting will only count for a portion.  There will also be an audience survey that we’ll be doing, which we’ve already hired a third party company to help us with -- they will call audiences up to ask for their feedback and those results will be incorporated for certain categories.  Actually, we tried to think of every possible method we could come up with.”

Towards the sentiment that some people felt this new system was TVB’s way of saving their own music programs while also attempting to boost the popularity of their own newcomers, Sandy denied and stated: “Why would we want to shoot ourselves in the foot like that?  In order for the music industry to truly prosper, the entire entertainment industry needs to prosper as well, otherwise it’s useless.  We truly do want to contribute more to the music industry and produce more music programs to support this cause.  To be honest, I don’t even have a budget for this, since making music requires time and patience, both of which we are willing to invest.”

One of the attendees at the dinner, hehA Music company’s representative Kawaii expressed her thoughts on what she observed at the dinner:  “It was a nice gesture, as it had been a long time since all the record companies last gathered.  The atmosphere was actually quite happy and comfortable.  While it’s true that there are many platforms for singers to choose from nowadays, TVB is still one of the biggest platforms so their influence can’t be ignored.  Actually, these types of dinner gatherings aren’t bad, since it allows everyone to share their opinions.”  Asked about her opinion toward TVB’s new policies, Kawaii stated:  “For us, things don’t change much, as our artists never had to sign a singer’s contract in order to appear on TVB’s shows.  The way it always worked is that we would sign a ‘pink paper’ agreement and that was it. [TN: the ‘pink paper’ is essentially a copyright release agreement that authorizes TVB to utilize the song in their productions and also sell overseas].  Besides, most of the artists under our management are overseas singers not based in HK, so the impact is not as great.”

Info on new HK independent film "The Merger" (我們停戰吧！)

Realizing that many people may not have heard too much about the HK film "The Merger" (我們停戰吧！), I decided to post up some info that I had gathered from various sources over the past few months.  Of course, this post won't be all-inclusive, since it will take me some time to dig up some of the older articles and interviews related to the movie that I had read several months ago.  I've actually been sharing tidbits of info here and there on AF and other sites, but it's a bit scattered so figured I would post the highlights here.  There's also an article that Skypost published last week that gives some pretty good insight into the movie, so I translated it and posted it below.

Here is some general info:

The cast for the movie consists of:  Frankie Lam, Patrick Tam, Rachel Lam, Kathy Yuen, Pinky Cheung, Meiki Wong, Samuel Kwok, Chan On Ying, Wilson Tsui Charles Ying, etc. (all former HKTV artists except Patrick and Pinky).  Also the director is Jimmy Luk (he directed HKTV’s To Be or Not To Be and Night Shift) – this is his first movie ever, as prior to this, he only directed TV series (for both TVB and HKTV).

Rachel Lam, who is also the lead actress, wrote the script.  Just a little background on Rachel – she actually wasn’t a scriptwriter prior to this – The Merger is her first script.  Prior to joining HKTV, she was a host for a few i-Cable shows and then went into acting, participating in a few HKTV series.  She decided to try her hand at scriptwriting, which she was interested in but didn’t really seriously pursue. After she wrote the script, she and Frankie happened to be filming Hidden Faces together for HKTV and hearing that he was interested in starting his own production company, she asked him if he would be willing to invest in her script. He was reluctant at first but after reading the script, he agreed. And since they were working for HKTV at the time, they decided to invite HKTV people to participate in the series (out of the main cast, the only 2 artists not affiliated with HKTV are Patrick Tam and Pinky Cheung). It was definitely a gamble from the beginning and the path from preparation to filming to distribution was difficult due to all the obstacles they encountered (more on this later).

Despite this movie being a small budget independent film with no big names in the cast (also no big name production team and no big name investors/backing), it was able to win 27 awards at various international film festivals, including major awards such as Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, etc.  Plus the movie has gotten quite a bit of critical acclaim and the feedback from audiences who have watched the movie (in pre-release) have been mostly positive.

Also, just some background on this movie’s ‘path’ to being released in HK.  Originally, when the movie was completed a few years back, the team (Rachel, Frankie) had approached various distributors in HK to discuss releasing it to general audiences in HK.  When distributors watched the film, they praised that it was a good movie, however they rejected the request to distribute in HK because 1) the cast had no ‘big names’ so most likely won’t attract audiences, and 2) the movie wasn’t “commercialized” enough (interpret that how you wish).  Since no one would give the movie the time of day in HK, the team decided to try entering it in various film festivals around the world (not a bad idea, since at least some people would see it).  Well, turns out that was the right move because the movie started sweeping up awards left and right – by the time it had swept up 15 awards, those HK distributors that had refused to release the film in HK theatres suddenly changed their tune.  They approached the production team and asked if they were still interested in distributing the movie in HK – well, now the film will be releasing in all HK theaters September 17^th.  By the way, the movie continued to rack up awards at the film festivals and now, the total count is 27 awards…very impressive!

Lastly, about the theme song – it's called "You Still Have Me" (你還有我)...the lyrics were written by Rachel Lam and she also sings the song.  The musical arrangement was done by Kong Fai (actor and one of HKTV’s musical directors).  The theme song MV was officially released last week, which I’ve linked up to below.  Also, here’s a link to Rachel’s blog where she explains in detail her inspiration for the song as well as why she ended up singing it (sorry, but the post is in Chinese).

The Merger Themesong

Below are a more few links.  I'll post up more stuff once I dig it up and have time to translate.  Meanwhile, if you're interested in watching various clips about the movie (including behind the scenes 'making of' clips, blessing ceremony, celebration dinners, and also fun clips from many of the cast's friends), check out Global Saga's Youtube page (Global Saga is the production company formed by Tony Wong, Rachel Lam, and Frankie Lam).  Here's the link:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFzBZ5bIRivXLpt6MpunxhQ

Official Trailer:

Themesong MV:

*****

News Article (originally published September 10, 2015).

Frankie Lam and Rachel Lam’s new film:  a teacher/student romance that gives local HK feel

Source:  Skypost

Forbidden love is a pretty common subject matter for movies.  A taboo love relationship – such as that between a teacher and a student – can become especially poignant yet at the same time oddly alluring when presented on the big screen.  On hearing the movie’s Chinese title (我們停戰吧!), the first thought that comes to mind is that The Merger is about teachers and students warring with each other – however, after diving into the plot, the movie actually isn’t about that at all.  Rather, the movie at its core is about a teacher/student love relationship, a story written in a way that is unique in that it gives off a completely local HK feel.   There are also references to major events in HK history interspersed throughout the movie that are sure to trigger collective memories of the past for local audiences who are familiar with them.  This element makes the romantic relationship in the movie all the more poignant and realistic. 

Helmed by HKTV’s former production team, The Merger does not have any ‘big names’ among its cast – yet it was still able to succeed in sweeping up 27 awards in various international film festivals around the world, included amongst those Best Actor and Best Actress awards for its leads Frankie Lam, Patrick Tam, and Rachel Lam.  The movie starts in the 1990s era with the story of high school student Yip Heung Heung (Rachel Lam), who falls in love with her old-fashioned, ultra-conservative teacher Koo Wah Sung (Frankie Lam) – a relationship that ends with a tragic death.  Many years later, during a visit to the high school, Heung Heung’s daughter Yip Ka Ka (Kathy Yuen) accidentally discovers a long-buried secret – that her foster mother was somehow involved in the death of her biological mother’s lover. 

In the movie, Frankie Lam and Rachel Lam have a few daring bed scenes.  Asked about this, Rachel laughed and expressed that filming intimate scenes in a torridly hot old building was definitely NOT romantic – throughout filming of those scenes, they grumbled constantly about the heat.  “It was scorchingly hot during the filming of those scenes, but I was afraid to move too much because I was nearly half-naked and didn’t want to overexpose myself.  It wasn’t romantic at all!  It was embarrassing to film kissing scenes too, as I felt like laughing and it was hard to keep it in.”

Most of us originally thought this movie was simply a sad but beautiful love story spanning 2 decades in HK, but Rachel – who is the scriptwriter as well as executive producer – revealed that one intent of the movie is that the teacher/student love story will lead audiences to reflect upon their own lives and attitude toward HK in the era leading up to the 1997 handover as well as afterwards.  Revealing a little bit of the plot, Rachel explained:  “With her rebellious nature, Heung Heung sees that the handover is approaching and so wants to leave HK.  But then Teacher Koo talks to her constantly about the city’s rich history and it causes her attitude to slowly change – she eventually realizes that leaving won’t resolve the problems they face.  In the end, when disaster befalls HK, she eventually sacrifices herself.”  Rachel further explained that the story weaves back and forth between pre and post-handover HK, utilizing a ‘story within a story’ method and theater stage play style to bring back collective memories of HK’s and China’s histories. 

TVB and OnTV collaboration: Midnight time slot series poll

Ok, so I was catching up on some entertainment news today and came across an article from on.cc (which I’ve linked up below).  In the article, on.cc – or, more accurately, their television division ON TV – officially announced yesterday (9/13) that they are collaborating with TVB on a special poll.  Together with TVB, they’ve chosen 10 ‘classic’ TVB series for netizens to vote on (via Facebook) during the 2 week timespan from 9/14 to 9/28 -- TVB has agreed to re-broadcast the series with the most votes in their midnight timeslot starting on 10/5 (once the currently airing series Time Before Time is finished).

According to the article, the voting will go through 2 phases:  in the first phase, OnTV will post detailed information about each series, including cast photos, plot summary, video clips, recommendations on ‘must-watch’ scenes, etc so that each person voting will supposedly have all the details they need to vote.  The second phase will launch next week, though OnTV didn’t give any details on what this phase consists of.  Also, a very important point – there is no limit to the number of series each person can vote for…so for example, if you like all 10 series, you can vote for all 10 if you want.

Before I list out the 10 series that OnTV and TVB chose, I just want to say this:  maybe I’m thinking too much into things, but I just find it very coincidental that I wrote about this EXACT SAME idea on my blog a few days before this whole thing got rolled out.  Technically, I wrote 2 posts on TVB midnight timeslot – the first one was in July in which I kind of ‘complained’ about TVB’s choice of series and informally gave them some ‘suggestions’ on the next series to air.  Then last week, I did a most detailed post on which series I would’ve chosen if I were the program lineup director.  In addition to that, I also relayed the suggestion of doing a poll to have audiences pick what they want to watch in that timeslot.  Well, looks like now the poll is actually happening – though the part I don’t understand is why OnTV is doing the poll rather than TVB themselves. [Sidenote:  Call me a conspiracy theorist if you want, but there’s a part of me that can’t help but think that OnTV is associated with TVB somehow.  I already suspected this a few weeks ago when I was able to trace a picture that a few websites had used back to OnTV’s video clip – in that picture, OnTV was reporting on news about Lesley Chiang and Fred Cheng’s breakup.  They interviewed Lesley while she was at HKTV’s dinner for their series Hidden Faces, yet in the picture, any reference to HKTV (including their logo and the name of their series) were all blurred out.  When I saw the picture, I had questioned why a mainstream media outlet -- which, in order to maintain credibility and reputability, should take a ‘neutral’ stance when reporting news – would have the need to ‘block out’ another company’s logo and all references to that company’s product (especially since they didn’t block out the logo to the commercial sponsors of that event, Vidal Sassoon).  I later discovered that the picture was ‘clipped’ from the news video posted on OnTV’s website – sure enough, when I went on to check, everything in the video referring to HKTV was blurred out.  This is the first time that I’ve actually seen a mainstream media outlet in HK take such ‘action’ against a company that is not one of their competitors.  Well, now this whole thing with the poll further fuels my ‘suspicion’ about OnTV’s position. I won't go too much into it here, since it's kind of irrelevant to this post, but will probably revisit this topic again later on.]

Now that I’ve said my piece about the poll and OnTV, here are the 10 series that OnTV and TVB have chosen for audiences to vote.  (Discerning readers will probably notice that a few of these series were on my ‘suggestions’ list as well, except my list was limited to series from the 80s and 90s eras only).

Here are the 10 series from OnTV (in no particular order):

War of the Genders (男親女愛) – 2000

Looking Back in Anger (義不容情) – 1989

The Duke of Mount Deer (鹿鼎記) – 1984

The Feud of Two Brothers (流氓大亨) – 1986

It Runs in the Family (孖仔孖心肝) – 1990

Detective Investigation Files (刑事偵緝檔案) – 1995

Don’t Look Now (執到寶) – 1980

Files of Justice (壹號皇庭) – 1992

Police Cadet (新紮師兄) – 1984

A Step Into the Past (尋秦記) – 2001

And which series do I vote for?  Without a doubt, definitely Looking Back in Anger (not hard to guess considering I’ve been ‘harping’ on TVB since July to air that series in their midnight timeslot and also relayed that thought in 2 blog posts).   Outside of that series, I really don’t want to vote for the others because I actually disagree with some of the series on the list.  I’m actually curious to know how they came up with these 10 choices because as a long-time TVB fan who is familiar with their series from the late 70s to now, there are definitely other more ‘classic’ series that would bump some of these series out of top 10 contention. I'll have to do a little more digging but hopefully, either OnTV or TVB explain their criteria for choosing these series somewhere on their website or FB pages.

Source links:  

OnTV Facebook page (series profiles)

on.cc article (brief series intros)

TVB’s midnight timeslot series – part 2 (follow up post)

Back in July, I wrote a post entitled “TVB’s midnight timeslot series” (read it here).  Well, it’s now September and due to some recent things that transpired, I felt the need to do this follow up post.

First….is it just me or has the ‘hype’ surrounding TVB’s midnight timeslot waned?  Does anyone know which series TVB is airing in that timeslot right now? (the answer is Time Before Time in case you haven’t heard)  I don’t blame you if you don’t because the Media sure didn’t ‘talk about’ it as much as they did the earlier series in that timeslot.  Why?  Not the Media’s fault (for once…lol) by any means.  Rather, the problem lies with TVB’s poor choice of subsequent series lineup, resulting in them not being able to keep up the momentum that had started with the airing of The Greed of Man in that timeslot.  Actually, this problem of TVB making stupid decisions is not new -- in fact, it’s such a common issue with them that they’ve actually become notorious for it over the past decade.   I mean, for a station that has been in existence for 48 years and is pretty much the only local option for ordinary Hong Kongers to watch free TV programming, TVB’s lack of proper decision-making ability is appalling!   The complaint over the years that TVB does not know how to properly utilize opportunities that stare them right in the face, but rather, they only know how to employ 24/7 in-your-face promotional tactics without regard for quality or value, is indeed very valid.  The way they handled the midnight timeslot series thing is yet another example of this.

In my earlier post about the midnight timeslot, I had informally given TVB a few suggestions on what they SHOULD HAVE aired following The Greed of Man that would’ve allowed them to maintain the ‘hype’ and ‘momentum’ they had gained.  Well, let me lay it out more clearly.  If I were the person responsible for putting together the midnight timeslot schedule, here’s what I would’ve done:  instead of airing The Justice of Life and The Final Verdict (2 great series for the record, but not ‘the best of the best’), the series I would’ve put in the line-up after TGOM is Looking Back in Anger -- um, hello, given this series’ popularity as well as impact on society and the fact that it has been hailed as one of TVB’s best productions of all-time -- well, to me, this is a NO-BRAINER!  (In my previous post, I actually gave my ‘speculations’ for why TVB decided not to air this series).  Then after that I would’ve aired another one of TVB’s greatest productions of all-time:  Blood of Good and Evil (if LBIA was TVB’s best series to come out of the 80s era, then BOGAE is surely their best series to come out of the 90s era!!) – again, this is also a NO-BRAINER.  With those 2 series alone, TVB would’ve had it made, as there are many many audiences who either haven’t seen these 2 series despite hearing such great things about them (probably because they were born after these series aired or they didn’t ‘follow’ TVB back then) or audiences who have seen these series but love them so much that they would jump at the opportunity to re-watch.  Personally, I fall into the latter category – despite the fact that I’ve re-watched both series more times than I can count AND I own both series as part of my TVB series collection, I have absolutely no problem pulling up a chair and doing nothing but stare at the TV screen for the hour or so that the series is on.

After both of those awesome series, next in my line-up would probably be The Breaking Point (another one of my favorites that I’ve watched a gazillion times), which, coincidentally, TVB is actually re-airing right now during the weekends here on their U.S. satellite channels [sidenote:  I’ve got to say that whoever puts together the lineup for TVB’s overseas satellite channels is much smarter than their counterpart in HK…lol].  TBP was a hugely popular series at the time it aired and rightfully so given the awesome cast and acting (though in my opinion, there were definitely issues with the script/story, but taken as a whole, it’s not hard to overlook those flaws).  Then, to give audiences a ‘break’ from all the heavy, serious dramas (which I personally don’t feel is necessary but fine), I would choose a light-hearted comedy to air.  Actually, from what I read, it sounded like this was TVB’s original intention back after The Greed of Man aired (to give audiences a break by airing something less ‘heavy’).  While that’s not a bad idea, unfortunately TVB picked the wrong series.  If they wanted to air a Stephen Chow classic, they should’ve picked The Final Combat instead, as that series was the most representative of Stephen’s TVB career and was truly the series that shot him to stardom (plus he was the lead in that series whereas he was only supporting in The Justice of Life).  Oh and let’s not forget that while Stephen did show a bit of his trademark ‘mo lei tou’ comedy style in TJOL, it was really in The Final Combat that it’s unleashed in full force – plus the series was unique in terms of being a ‘wuxia comedy’ (which was a rarity back then, since most of the wuxia dramas at the time were pretty serious).

Speaking of wuxia…..how many times have you heard audiences complain about the lack of true wuxia series the past 15 years?  I, for one, hear that complaint every year and my response is always the same:  TVB can’t make wuxia series like they used to – they lack the resources for one and two they lack the know-how (I’m talking about the ‘traditional’ skills and knowledge involved in choreographing complicated fight scenes and working with wiring, not the crappy, fake CGI stuff that they love to use nowadays).  Of course, the fact that they no longer have the rights to remake Jin Yong’s works also doesn’t help (not that I would want another JY remake, as there have been way too many already, plus the remakes get worse every decade).  In terms of program line-up though, to feed the wuxia series drought, I would’ve seized the opportunity to re-broadcast a few classic wuxia series in that timeslot -- anyone familiar with the old days of TVB would know that there are plenty of great wuxia series from the 80s to choose from – for example: Legend of the Condor Heroes, Return of the Condor Heroes, The New Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre, The Two Most Honorable Knights, etc. – all are good choices in terms of wuxia classics that were popular back in the day and absolutely well-made/produced (plus, judging from the comments I’ve heard over the years, it’s obvious that many of the newer generation audiences have not seen the JY remakes from the 80s – well, this would give them the opportunity to see why us old-timers keep praising the 80s remakes as ‘the best’).

If we go back to modern series, other great choices include:  The Bund, Police Cadet ’84 as well as its sequel Police Cadet ’85 (don’t bother with the third and final installment, Police Cadet ’88, because it sucked), The Feud of Two Brothers, The Challenge of Life, Files of Justice, Detective Investigation Files, etc.  I could keep going on forever on this topic actually (I’ve got plenty more ‘classics’ that I would definitely include in the lineup), but I think those of you reading this get my drift already.  

In addition to airing all these series, the other thing I would’ve done is ‘poll the audience’ – meaning that I would send out a survey to audiences with the question:  “Which classic series from the 80s/90s era do you most want to see re-broadcasted in the midnight timeslot?” (keyword here is ‘80s/90s era’ because unfortunately, everyone’s definition of ‘classic’ is different).  This method sounds familiar, you say?  Yes, very discerning!  This is the exact thing that those ‘smart’ people over at HKTV did when they were preparing to launch their station last year – they put up a poll on their website and asked audiences to vote for which series (out of the 16 series they had produced) they wanted to watch first.  As we all know, the outcome was that their political-themed series The Election came out on top.  Originally, the plan was for HKTV to air their cop-themed series The Borderline as their debut series due to the tremendous reception the first episode had garnered months earlier during its ‘test run’ on Youtube.  But last minute, they decided to do a poll instead (which is not surprising since HKTV has had heavy interaction with audiences from the getgo – much unlike TVB who doesn’t give a crap about what their audiences think/feel/want).  I’m sure they were thinking that The Borderline would end up being the winner (so they could just move forward with original plan) but surprisingly (well, maybe not given that this was post-Occupy timeframe), their newest filmed series The Election ended up garnering the most votes (with The Borderline coming in at second place).  So what did HKTV do?  Well, this is where the ‘smart’ part kicks in (no, I didn’t use that word just because I felt like it):  they decided to air both series simultaneously – The Election was aired first, debuting on the weekend, and The Borderline followed right after, debuting the following weekday [sidenote:  for those wondering why The Election aired on a weekend, it’s because the series had just wrapped filming and there was still post-production work that needed to be done on it – by airing it once a week instead of every day, it gave the production team more time to complete the post-production].  So it ended up being a win/win situation for both sides:  the audiences got their pick (The Election) and HKTV still got to move forward with their original plan (air The Borderline as debut series).   See, it’s not that difficult to make audiences happy – so why can’t TVB get it right?? 

In any case, it’s obviously ‘too little too late now’, since TVB already lost their momentum with the midnight timeslot and who knows whether they will be able to gain it back (I highly doubt they can with the idiotic management team running the station currently).  Such a shame!  It’s sad how ‘not in tune’ TVB’s current management team is with their own programming and the station’s history / trends.  My advice:  change out this management team and get people in there who actually know what they are doing and can make proper decisions.  Otherwise….well just take one look at ATV – seeing what happened to them should be enough motivation for TVB to want a competent management team in place that is capable of making wise decisions that actually benefit the station.  I know it’s wishful thinking on my part but hey, I tried….

TVB series recommendations from the years 1990 and 1991

This is part 6 in a multi-part series of posts about TVB series from the 80s (and now 90s) era that I recommend.  Please read this Introductory post for details about how this came about:  TVB series recommendations from the years 1980 and 1981.

** Note:  I used Wikipedia in conjunction with TVB’s website and a few other sources to gather the information for each series.  Note that the cast lists are not all-inclusive and the English song titles are rough translations.**

Here's my list of recommendations from 1990 and 1991: