It's been a long time since I've done one of my "TVB Rants" (I actually had to go back to check which rant number I was on and realized I last did one back in 2016). Not that there wasn't anything to complain about – believe me, with TVB, there is ALWAYS something to complain about, especially nowadays where it seems that they never fail to irritate me in one way or another – it's just that I've had more important things to do so unless the "transgression" was particularly egregious, I didn't want to take precious time out of my busy day to write about them. Well, with TVB's 50th Anniversary Awards that just took place this past weekend, it turned out that there was plenty to complain about – much of it in the "egregious" category – so here I am dusting off my "TVB rant" board once again.
This year's anniversary awards show was beyond disappointing – not just in the results (which I will get to in a minute) but in many other areas as well. First of all, with this year being such a huge milestone (50thanniversary), I would've expected at minimum the following: 1) a grand gala event with all the bells and whistles and whatnot that would've made this year's award show memorable and stand apart from all previous year's award shows 2) special guest award presenters who are non-TVB people and many of whom we haven't seen in a long time, 3) special performances and/or special tributes to commemorate 50thanniversary, like maybe a montage clip showing past winners or something along those lines, 4) one or more award with special meaning / significance to give out only this year (to someone deserving of course) to commemorate the occasion. Not surprisingly, TVB did not deliver on items 1 through 3 and only partially delivered on #4.
1) Instead of the grand gala event I was expecting, we ended up getting the same anniversary awards show that we typically get from them every year – a cheap-looking, disorganized production that felt like it was made on a shoestring budget with limited resources. The hosting was mediocre, the production was nowhere near professional-looking, and the memorability factor was severely lacking.
2) In terms of award presenters, there was no excitement whatsoever – in fact, I would say that I was largely disappointed in this area because every year, I look forward to seeing the presenters more than I do the actual nominees and winners. This year, the award presenters were all mostly TVB people – many of whom were fellow nominees who had to be there anyway so might as well have them present – or people associated with TVB in some way, either directly through actual collaboration on movies (via Shaw Brothers) / TV series (i.e. Wong Jing) or indirectly through a family member's connection with TVB (i.e. Law Kar Ying and Ti Lung). I'm honestly not sure whether TVB decided to go this route with the presenters out of laziness (i.e. not wanting to take the time to come up with a guest list and then having to call up each person to see if they could attend) or they truly couldn't get anyone outside of TVB to support them because the anniversary awards have been such a disgrace in recent years that many non-TVB artists wouldn't bother to waste their time attending. My guess is that it was a little bit of both…
3) I found it truly disappointing that TVB chose not to do anything special to commemorate their 50thanniversary milestone. Sure, it can be argued that they kind of "celebrated" already with the anniversary gala but honestly, this is different, as the anniversary awards is supposed to be their biggest show of the year. I would've expected something similar to what Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards did to commemorate their 50th anniversary (which was to pay tribute to Best Actor and Best Actress winners from the past 50 years by inviting them all to attend the ceremony and having them appear on stage while the audience gave them well-deserved applause – that was one of the most memorable award moments ever for me!). Of course, I recognize that this would've been a difficult feat for TVB, since most people don't take their awards seriously anymore so most non-TVB artists wouldn't even bother attending even if they were invited – ok, fine….but how about perhaps doing a video salute then, like putting together a montage of past winners and then having as many of them as possible record a current video clip expressing their thoughts on the 50th milestone? This would've been simple enough to do, as all of the past TV King and TV Queen winners are still active in the industry (some even still work for TVB now) and several of them even filmed for TVB in the past year or two. But yet, there was nothing….
4) The one "special" thing that TVB did this year was to take the Lifetime Achievement Award and "dedicate" it to everyone who has worked at TVB over the past 50 years (artists in front of the camera as well as those behind-the-scenes). Liza Wang accepted the award on everyone's behalf and gave a speech that basically was a plea to TVB management to treat their artists (and behind-the-scenes crew) better. While TVB dedicating the award to "all" of their past employees is definitely a good thing, I feel that they only partially delivered in this area because it was more of a symbolic gesture than an actual award….though on second thought, I guess a "dedication" is better than no recognition at all?
By now, I'm pretty sure most people know the results of this year's awards and may even have seen the "backlash" on the various forums and social media. I'm not going to comment on all the winners (or losers) because to be honest, I really don't see the point – so the below is mostly my reaction to the few "surprises" that has everyone talking (more like yelling and screaming?) at the moment as well as some comments on a few less heavily contested categories.
So here it goes….
The biggest shocker for me was Rebecca Zhu winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in that time-travel Eunuch series (too lazy to go look up the series' English name right now). My first reaction when I found out she had won that award was WTF????? I was pissed, but even more so when I actually watched the awards and saw who made it to top 5 – honestly, every single one of the other 4 actresses nominated for BSA were better than Rebecca in terms of acting (plus their characters were more memorable), yet TVB chose to give Rebecca the award over them? Ok, so you may be wondering why am I pissed when I barely watched any of last year's series, plus I wasn't rooting for anyone in this category anyway since I didn't like most of the nominees. Well, for me, it boils down to a matter of principle. Those who are familiar with the anniversary awards' history will probably remember that the current iteration of the BSA award actually evolved from the "Powerhouse Actor/Actress" award, which was created to recognize those artists with great acting prowess but didn't qualify for TV King or Queen due to their roles being supporting rather than lead – so in a sense, the BSA award is the one most closely associated with actual skill in acting. Most years, the award usually went to veterans, which made perfect sense -- of course, there were some years where TVB strayed and gave the award to someone less deserving, but for the most part I was ok with most of the past winners (with 1 or 2 exceptions of course). This year though, was especially ridiculous because TVB essentially gave the award to someone who can't act, for a role that very few people even remember! At first I was really puzzled why TVB would choose to give Rebecca this award when she was so obviously the least deserving of the lot, but then it dawned on me that TVB is planning to heavily promote her in the coming year (with a movie in the works as well as lead roles in several series) – so in essence, TVB used this award to advance their internal agenda (not that this is anything new on TVB's part, since they do this all the time with the TV King and Queen awards, but still…). I think this year in particular, it was harder to stomach having this award go to someone so unqualified (and with so little acting experience) because veteran artists were largely shut out from the awards this year, with TVB choosing to award mostly the younger generation.
Speaking of which, that leads me to the second biggest shocker, which was of course Sisley Choi winning the Favorite Female Character award. This one was shocking in that it made no sense whatsoever, especially since this award (along with the Favorite Male Character award) is traditionally viewed as the "consolation prize" for not winning TV Queen (King). Even if we look at this award from the perspective of "popularity contest" (which technically is what this award is about), it makes even less sense because Sisley is nowhere near popular. Yes, she has improved tremendously in terms of her acting from the time she first started (in my book, she went from "previously unwatchable" to "currently tolerable"), but she is still nowhere near the "good" level and quite honestly still has a long way to go in order to get there. It definitely would've made more sense to award her Most Improved and give the Favorite Female Character award to someone else more deserving.
In terms of Natalie Tong winning TV Queen – yes, it was a shock, but not at the same level as the two mentioned above. Acting-wise, Natalie is decent (and depending on who we're comparing to, I would even say her acting skills are quite good) -- however she lacks onscreen charisma and quite honestly is a boring actress overall. One thing's for sure -- she's definitely not an artist I would bother turning on the TV for. The controversy concerning her win of course is whether she should have appropriately been nominated in the TV Queen category in the first place, since her role in My Unfair Lady was largely viewed as supporting rather than lead. Since I didn't watch that series, I can't comment on whether her screen time was enough to warrant a nomination or not but the part I do agree on is that the main reason why she won TV Queen was because Jessica Hsuan did not attend the awards ceremony (my pick for TV Queen was actually Nina Paw, but I would've been okay with Jessica winning it). Overall though, I would say I am largely indifferent toward who wins TV Queen because this award is one that I stopped caring about long ago (the last actress whom I felt truly deserved this award was Sheren Tang back in 2010 – everyone else who won after her was largely undeserving in my book and only won due to the lack of adequate competition).
As for Mayanne Mak's win for Most Improved Female Artist (not necessarily shocking but rather unexpected due to the fact that she is a host, not an actress) -- I actually feel that the problem with her win isn't that she doesn't deserve Most Improved because she definitely does…the fault lies primarily with TVB for combining this award into one when it should have more appropriately been split into two. I remember back in the day when the anniversary awards first started (back in 1997 through the early 2000s), TVB used to separate out their awards into "drama series" awards and "non-drama series" (variety/informational programs) awards. The MI award used to have 2 sets of winners, one for acting in drama series and the other for hosting variety programs. This is actually the way it SHOULD be and the way most awards ceremonies around the world do it, so I don't understand why TVB still combines it. To be honest, out of all the female award categories this year, I actually feel that Mayanne's win was the most deserving, as she truly did do a great job this past year. Personally, I'm actually happy to finally see a female host who has the potential to be Dodo Cheng's successor someday, as it is VERY MUCH needed at TVB right now. There are plenty of up-and-coming male hosts to take over for Eric Tsang but how many are there on the female side? Like two? (I'm talking hosts actually signed with TVB, not the ones they "borrow" from the various radio stations). It's definitely not very many, that's for sure! Hosting is not an easy job and not everyone is cut out for it – I would much rather see TVB having the likes of Mayanne hosting more variety programs than forcing us to endure those awful MHKs trying to fumble their way through a hosting gig that they obviously were not cut out for.
With all that said though – in terms of MI award, even though I feel that Mayanne is deserving of the award, I can understand the "backlash" due to the expectation that an actual "actress" was expected to win. However, like I said earlier, the "backlash" should really be directed toward TVB and not Mayanne, since TVB should never have combined that award into one in the first place (it used to be separated out between drama and non-drama back in the old days). Also, by having one MI award for both drama and non-drama, TVB basically locked themselves into a corner, since it's obvious the direction that they were trying to take with this year's awards was to promote up-and-comers – they could've given the MI award on the female side to both Mayanne and Sisley and then give the Female Character award to someone else and everyone would've been happy. Aiye TVB – once again making all the wrong decisions!
In terms of Most Improved Male Artist – sure, Mat Yeung is deserving, but um, he should have won like 10 YEARS AGO!! I mean, how ridiculous is it for an artist who has been in the industry for 20 years (most of that time with TVB) to be receiving an award that is traditionally reserved for newbie up-and-comers? Not only that, but how many times has Mat been nominated in this category? Way more times than necessary, that's for sure! I'm all for rewarding Mat for his improvement, but TVB really needs to work on redefining their award categories so that they line up more with reality. They should either change the criteria of the Most Improved award (i.e. restrict it so that only newcomers who've been in the industry/TVB less than 5 years are eligible to be nominated) – or if they don't want to do that, then create a true "Newcomer" award so people can stop associating MI with newbies and instead let MI be purely improvement-based regardless of years in the industry.
Concluding thoughts…..
I've said many times before that if TVB wants to remain relevant in the awards game, they really need to re-assess what type of awards they give out and see if what they are doing currently still makes sense. I'm sure TVB knows that pretty much no one takes their awards seriously anymore and if they don't change, I can totally see the anniversary awards going down the same path as JSG (in fact, this already started happening years ago). And when I say change, I mean true change, not all this gimmicky crap that they claim to do but never really follow through on (i.e. allowing audiences to vote and actually taking those votes into consideration). One of the most irritating things about the anniversary awards in recent years is how TVB keeps touting the fact that they allow audiences to vote for the "big categories" but looking at the results, that is obviously a bunch of hogwash, as most of the winners are obviously artists that TVB is planning to promote in the coming years. With this year's awards in particular, I think this became even more clear when, after the awards show, TVB exec Virginia Lok mentioned that several of the winners (referring specifically to Rebecca and Sisley) are artists that director Wong Jing especially pegged as his choices to lead in a few of his movie (and TV series) projects in the coming year. So basically, TVB used their anniversary awards as a platform to fast-track the artists they have huge plans for in the coming year to the positions they need them to be in, which to be honest isn't good at all for those artists because they haven't reached those levels yet…forcing them into those "big shoes" that they are not yet capable of filling is going to do nothing but bring them (the artists) backlash and hate. To me, the biggest disappointment isn't really the results of this year's awards, but rather, it's seeing that TVB is up to their old tricks again, which tells me that TVB really hasn't learned anything from their past 50 years in existence.
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteFor me, who wins what I do not care. I always what this show because of it entertainment. But what I've seen this year was awful. Oh, what was it terrible. I thought TVB 50th Anniversary, they will make some good show. But there was no sense of 氣氛 at all. No excitement or 緊張 who will win that award.
The meeting for organizing this Awards Show was like:
We need a stage with some TVB stars sitting over there and yes, that's enough, let's 收工. And for the hosts, let's pick Dodo because she is the face of the show and also add the two followers of her for the gags and fun they can provide. Oh yes, almost forgot, we (the staff who's responsible for this show) really want to go home and rest, so about the awards presenters, let's take our own people, and also some people who needs to promote their movie or something. Yeah, that's all. Thanks for coming!!
All trash TVB, all trash. JSG was even better than this piece of sh*t show.
Thanks for your blogpost,
Leon
iss this Ju Leon from RFD? Wow
DeleteMost unexpected win had to be Natalie Tong for me. The other girls were shocked, look at Paisley Wu and Kelly Fu in the back, their jaws literally dropped and they tried to look happy, but they looked so confused. I was so confused Kristal Tin wasn't even nominated for Destination Nowhere. She had the best performance all year from TVB IMO. How she acted her character's descent into madness was brilliant. That might've been my favourite TVB acting performances in years. I can't remember the last time somebody really floored me with their acting in TVB - and she did it.
@Leon & Anonymous: Agree with both of you. Lol...sh*tshow is absolutely correct! Yea, I would’ve been fine with Kristal winning it as well, though she was probably a longshot since we know TVB doesn’t always reward acting.
DeleteI actually read a few articles today that analyzed the results of this year’s awards ceremony and when added to TVB management’s various comments in recent months, it’s starting to make sense now why TVB gave out the awards the way they did. In the deluge of “predictions” that came out prior to the awards ceremony, not a single one mentioned something that should’ve been obvious going into the awards: Wong Jing and his production company recently signed a contract with both TVB and Shaw Brothers wherein they will be closely collaborating on several movies and TV series in the coming years. Three TVB artists who have already been pegged by Wong Jing to “star” in his movies / TV series are Benjamin Yuen, Rebecca Zhu, and Sisley Choi (this news actually came out prior to the awards ceremony). Ben is already considered “lead” level by many people, plus he already got his share of awards last year, so he “qualifies” to film for Wong Jing, but neither Sisley nor Rebecca were at that level obviously, so in order to boost their status, TVB handed them 2 of the night’s biggest awards – now with their “elevated” status, they “qualify” to be the next “starlets” that Wong Jing supposedly pushes to stardom.
So yea, pretty much the conclusion is that this year’s awards were definitely rigged, though this time, instead of being an internal battle between the various TVB execs, the “power” has shifted to outside forces in the form of Wong Jing and also Mainland China (TVB’s focus on co-productions in the coming year).
So yea, in the coming years, TVB audiences can basically “look forward” to seeing more series along the lines of “Bet Hur” (one of the worst TVB series ever) — not only that, there will undoubtedly be a plethora of remakes / reboots / sequels, etc. that will grace the screen in coming years as well, since Wong Jing has a well-known penchant for “recycling garbage” both with his movies as well as TV series. I don’t know about you guys, but for me, this means that I will finally be abandoning TVB altogether in the coming years, since I have no intention of watching the crap that will undoubtedly come out of that station with Wong Jing “not officially but indirectly” running things….
I can't remember the last time Wong Jing made a TV series that was worth watching. Flaming Brothers? That was 19 years ago!
DeleteI don't know about abandoning TVB entirety. They've made a few shows worth watching this year: Provocateur, Exorcist's Meter, Destination Nowhere, The one about Edwin Siu time traveling and My Ages Apart. There are a lot of interesting actors and actresses at TVB too. But 5/15 series produced being good is really shitty, but I think I'll just keep watching because I don't want my Cantonese to be any worse than it is right now.
What's up with Fred Cheng btw? He did a great job as a lead in Provocateur, I was extremely surprised by how charismatic he was. But I saw him sitting all the way back behind the girls, sitting alone during the awards presentation. Looked like they didn't even want him there.
@Anonymous: You have more patience than I do, lol. Nowadays, I can barely tolerate sitting through even 1 episode of a TVB series, let alone the entire series (even the good ones I don’t seem to have much tolerance for nowadays). Yea, there are still quite a few actors and actresses I support at TVB and most likely I will still keep up with news about them but not sure if I’m going to watch even their series (case in point – I love Roger and have watched pretty much every single one of his TVB series since the 80s, but yet I couldn’t stomach Oh My Grad and pretty much abandoned the series after like 1 episode). I guess for me, after following TVB (and the HK entertainment industry as a whole) for 30 years, it’s gotten to the point where I have to ask myself whether it’s worth it anymore when majority of the time, I feel like I’m wasting my time with them, lol.
Delete@Anonymous: Fred Cheng basically did himself in with the horrible way he handled his relationship thing with Stephanie Ho. Not sure if you follow HK entertainment news but Fred basically got “frozen” by TVB last year because he made his boss (Voice Entertainment’s Herman Ho, who is also TVB exec Sandy Yu’s husband) lose face and also get publicly shamed after he stuck his neck out for Fred by telling the whole world that the two of them (Fred and Stephanie) absolutely were NOT dating (and basically said a bunch of things that came across like a guarantee that the media for sure had it wrong this time), only to find out a few days later that they had actually lied to him. I dislike both Herman Ho and Sandy Yu, but to be honest, Fred acted stupidly too by leaving his boss out to dry like that knowing TVB controls his career – if he were already an established artist or whatnot, then that’s another story but obviously he wasn’t….but then again, TVB freezing him was kind of expected because they are petty like that. He also lost a lot of support from the public because of his messy relationship issues (like the rumors that he pursued Stephanie while he was still with his previous girlfriend, causing Stephanie to be labeled the third wheel that caused his breakup with his ex). I can’t speak for others but me personally, I actually lost a lot of respect for Fred not because of the way he handled his relationship with Stephanie or his previous girlfriend or whatnot…and I honestly don’t give a crap about him leaving his boss out to dry (lol…it was kind of funny actually to see Herman Ho all embarrassed like that)…I actually started losing respect for Fred after seeing the way he broke off his relationship with the Chiangs (Paul Chun and his kids Benji and Lesley)…I mean, Paul was like a father to him and essentially took care of him when he was struggling to make ends meet as a no name actor in HK and he was very close with Benji and Lesley (supposedly he and Lesley were dating too)….they even helped promote his music after he won The Voice and released his first album (Benji and Lesley were more “established” than him at that time so they used the little fame that they had to push his music all over social media). I don’t know all the details of what exactly happened but later on Fred ended up breaking all ties with the Chiangs, which included dumping Lesley – this was during the height of the free-to-air license battle with HKTV and since both Benji and Lesley were working for HKTV at the time, the rumor was that Fred broke off ties with them in order to protect his own career (due to the bitter rivalry between HKTV and TVB)….to me, that was akin to Fred abandoning his family for the sake of fame and fortune. I mean, sure, I get that they worked for rival stations and the possible conflict of interest or whatnot, but there are ways to handle that sort of stuff without having to do crap like cutting ties with your family, especially when that family has done nothing but support you for most of your life!
DeleteNo idea, I don't keep up with the HK news like that. Damn, Fred is problematic as hell.
ReplyDeleteYeah, if it's bad, I usually just stop watching pretty quickly.
I've gotten into watching a lot of old series these days. I watched Time Before Time and A Date with a Vampire recently, and it makes me appreciate how much effort they used to put into developing characters and storylines.
@Anonymous: Yea, nowadays, that’s pretty much what I do too – re-watch older series. Have you watched any of the series from the 80s/early 90s? If not, you definitely should, as that time period was TVB’s golden era and most of their best series were made during that time. To this day, many of the series from that era are considered “must-watch” classics and rightfully so too! If you need any recommendations, let me know! :-)
DeleteYep, I have. I've watched Duke of Mount Deer 84 and Greed of Man (I probably watch this every year).
DeleteI downloaded Looking Back in Anger, Challenge of Life, Breaking Point, Conscience, Blood of Good and Evil and Silver Tycoon (ATV). I started Silver Tycoon, and it's really good so far. Haven't started any of the other shows. Have you seen any of these series?
I tried watching Files of Justice I recently, and holy shit is it bad. I really don't understand why it was so popular. The characters were really misogynistic with no redeeming qualities.
Have you watched Heaven's Retribution with Felix Wong and Lawrence Ng? It's an ATV show, and it's about two brothers who went to HK from Mainland China in the 80s. Simon Yam and Michelle Yim have an extended cameo from episode 1-5 as Felix and Lawrence's parents, and they do such a great job. I have an bootleg of this show on DVD, I wish there was a better quality version of this show out there. Definitely recommend watching this if you can find it!
@Anonymous: I‘ve actually been following TVB (and the HK entertainment industry in general) since the 1980s, so I’ve definitely seen all those series you mentioned and then some. I used to watch TVB series (and variety programs) “religiously” up until the early 2000s or so when new management took over and everything started to go downhill….
DeleteLooking Back in Anger and Blood of Good and Evil are 2 of my favorite TVB series and in my opinion, are 2 of the best series that TVB has ever produced. I actually re-watched both series recently (for like the hundredth time, lol) and still love them just as much as I did back in the day. The Challenge of Life and Breaking Point are also favorites that I’ve re-watched too many times to count! If you feel like discussing any of these series, feel free to come back here and post in the comments (doesn’t matter if it’s off-topic, as I don’t have restrictions on that unlike other blogs, lol). Or if you want, you can check out some of the posts I’ve written up on all of the above series (just click on the series’ name in the sidebar on the right hand side and it will pull up all the posts with those series mentioned) and comment in there…I’m fine with whatever you want to do. Conscience I’ve watched but didn’t really like as much as the other series (a little too deep for me but it was also one of those hugely frustrating series to watch due to some of the things that happen). By the way, just curious – are you a Deric Wan fan? Reason I ask is because all of the TVB series you downloaded to watch all happen to have Deric in them (except The Challenge of Life and Silver Tycoon).
I actually did like Files of Justice, though more the earlier installments rather than the later ones. Hmm, it’s been too long since I re-watched FOJ so my memory is a bit fuzzy but yea, I think you’re right about the characters being misogynistic, though if I remember correctly, they don’t remain that way throughout the entire franchise (there are 5 installments of FOJ total, all with roughly the same characters). For me, FOJ was more about the quality of the production overall in terms of script, acting, production value, etc. It’s not perfect by any means and I have a lot of gripes about certain installments but overall, I would say that FOJ was one of the better franchises to come out of TVB.
For the ATV series you mentioned – I know of them but haven’t really watched, as I wasn’t really into ATV series back then…there’ve been a few that I’ve watched and others that I missed – for the ones I didn’t get a chance to watch, I’ve been slowly making my way through them the past couple years (harder for me due to my busy schedule) but I do intend to get to them before I die, lol…
I am a fan of Deric, but I just downloaded those shows because they were the only ones in 720p on icdrama. I'll definitely be commenting here afterwards. I tried watching Conscience last night, the 1st episode was a little weird. A bit jarring to see Deric play an autistic character...
DeleteI've been on a ATV kick lately. I went to Chinatown with my dad recently and I saw this store was selling a bunch of ATV bootlegs so I just decided to check these shows out. My Date with a Vampire is so much fun though. Silver Tycoon is pretty good so far. Also bought this show with Frankie Lam, Annie Man and David Siu, looks like a serious version of Time Before Time and it came out a year before Time Before Time too.
Always miss TVB old days, so many memorable series in the past. BOGAE, LBIA, Challenge of Life, The Greed of Man, The Breaking Point, The Bund, Withered In The Wind, Time of Taste, The Change of Time, etc. they're million times good than current production. Don't count their wuxia genre, so iconic & classic of all time. Sadly to see TVB quality declining drastically...
Delete@jadul80: So true!!! All of those were such great classic series...the great thing was that everything from cast to script to acting to overall production was good with all those series...unlike now where there is not even 1 series that has the "whole package" -- either they sacrifice cast for script or script for cast or something else is lacking...and almost every single series the aesthetic quality / production values suck.... :-(
DeleteIMO, the satisfaction standard of current generation isn't same with us who grown up in 1980's-early 90's era. For example they regard Heart of Greed, Moonlight Resonance are considered excellent drama as the rating displayed while we judge that's pretty crappy dramas due to predictable plot and cheesy ending :p
Delete@jadul80: Totally agree! As I always say, I feel fortunate to have grown up during TVB’s “golden era” when numerous great series and talented artists abound! Much of what today’s audiences praise as “great series” really can’t compare to what we had in the past, but unfortunately, those series (the likes of HOG and MR) are being used as the “gold standard measurement” nowadays because most were never exposed to the older classics. I sometimes see people in forums and/or bloggers talking about “the best TVB series of all time” but when I fact-check their lists, almost all of them only go back to like the late 90s – further proof that majority of audiences nowadays who actually watch TVB series and are active online are newer generation folks who probably weren’t even conceived yet back when us “old-timers” were enjoying TVB’s classics back in the 80s. In a way, it’s a little sad given how badly the industry has deteriorated and despite all the technology, many of today’s audiences may still never get the chance to watch the older series (since many of them are hard to find now and even remastered versions aren’t necessarily the original versions). I’m glad that there are still a handful of us “old-timers” out there keeping the memory of the classics alive, lol!
DeleteSorry since I haven't watched TVB for 5-6 years I had no clue who most of the actresses. Many of which are either unknown, lack skills and looks. The show added way too many necessary performances and pork awards that I got the winners mixed up even after watching! Anyway I seriously thought Sisly Choi only won support actress which was already shocker but the fact that she wont most favorite female character WTF?! Ok that means they butchered up both support actress and most favorite female character awards. It shows how low they've fallen because both actresses are neither famous, can't act, nor have the female lead appearance.
ReplyDeleteAs for Natalie Tong's win I agree that they could've given it to BaoHeiJing "Bao Jeh" or Jessica Hsuan! It's also questionable because her nominated role was more of a supporting role than a lead one! Add on the fact that I never liked her acting and yes she has ZERO charisma! No one would would watch a series with her as female lead that's for sure! I can't even remember if she ever even lead a tvb series as the solo female lead! Giving her the award was a complete disrepect for all past winners!
The more I think about it the more disgraceful the award show was!
There was only 3 highlights to the show,
Vincent Wong winning male actor
Matthew Ho sweet words to Rebecca Zhu about giving his own award to her if she lost.
The out fiasco of 6Wing being cheeky with Nat Chan causing him to go black face and in turn got those in charge of the show to yell at 6Wing behind the scenes. Of course both parties made excuses and denied but we all know what kind of person Nat is and for a veteran to bully a younger host just trying create atmosphere was uncalled for! If TVB ever goes down the gutter which they totally are heading towards the ATV route, please bring the likes of Nat Chan down with them and never spread his toxicity to the masses again!
@sport: LOL…yup, that seems to be most people’s sentiments toward this year’s awards! Though of course for me personally, TVB’s anniversary awards have been going downhill for years already, so I guess nothing new there, haha.
DeleteYea, I kind of felt sorry for 6Wing. Some of the media reports are trying to spin it saying that netizens basically overreacted or read too much into things and that the whole segment was scripted so they were making a big deal out of nothing. Yes perhaps that’s partially the case but regardless, I agree that all of us know what kind of person Nat Chan is so I definitely wouldn’t be surprised if he was trying to bully 6Wing. And if it’s true that 6Wing got “scolded” backstage by management (which we still don’t know if it’s true or not because notice that 6Wing glossed over this part in his “clarification” on social media and didn’t really say either way whether he got lectured), then shame on TVB for treating their artists that way when 6Wing was merely doing his job!
The fact that many ATV past behind the scenes and management who caused their down fall jummp shipped to TVB already marked their doomed fate!
ReplyDeleteMany of Wong Jing's series over at ATV were crap just like his movies not to mention his history of remakes, low IQ and brainless comedies. Collaborating with Wong Jing will definitely cause TVB's ratings to stoop even lower and not even that own combination of internet ratings can save them! they will drop to low 15 ratings for most of their series! Who knows maybe they'll go as far as combining it with Mainland view counts to save face.
@sport: Yup, exactly! You already know my opinion on Wong Jing so not going to rehash it here but yea, I agree that it’s definitely not a good thing that TVB will be collaborating so closely with WJ in the future. I honestly feel like TVB is being stupid because they know full well what Wong Jing’s reputation is in the industry (and I guess they forgot already that both series he produced for them the past 2 years were duds) – but it’s obvious they don’t care about any of that because they know WJ has connections and access to big stars and that’s really what they’re after. Many of the TVB veterans from the 70s/80s still support Wong Jing because of his dad Wong Tin Lam (who truly was a great producer back in the day) so they will likely participate in any project he asks them to do…on the movie side, as much as I hate to admit it, he DOES have access to nearly all of the big names in the industry, which is something that TVB severely lacks right now with the complete change in management. Also, with all the controversy surrounding Eric Tsang as of late, TVB needs another person with widespread connections who can also help them stabilize their footing in the Mainland market – Wong Jing is the ideal person for this in TVB’s eyes, since most of the other big name HK directors aren’t going to give TVB the time of day.
DeleteAt times like these I truly hope fate will pity us Cantonese speakers and that HKTV's CEO will announce their resume of productions. At least back then when shxt hit the fan, TVB already took over as winner. Now TVB is hitting dumpster and HKTV isn't there to take its place like they should've!
ReplyDelete@sport: Yea, I agree…though as I’ve said in the past, I wouldn’t get my hopes up because even if HKTV does resume production (which I honestly don’t think they will), things have changed so much that I honestly don’t know if they even stand a fighting chance now. I think the key factor will be whether Ricky Wong will still be motivated enough to stay involved in the production side of things, since both you and I (and the few others who’ve been vocal supporters of HKTV) know that it was Ricky Wong’s drive and determination as well as his unique vision that shaped HKTV into what it was and without him leading, things are definitely not going to be the same. The partner that he sold his shares to may not share the same vision as him (we already know for sure that the partner doesn’t have the same tenacity and loud personality as him) so that in itself will be a problem…
DeleteTVB probably will never completely “die” like ATV, since they didn’t have the financial issues and constant change in management that ATV did (both of which played a huge role in ATV’s downfall) – however there’s no doubt that they will soon live up to the “CCTVB” moniker that audiences have been assigning to them the past couple years. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few years down the road they move their headquarters to Mainland and officially make themselves a “China TV station”….
In regards to HKTV: they recently announced that their media studios and equipment is going to be opened to university media students, social media and youtube stars and people in the multimedia industry with less than 8 years work experience. If you fit that criteria you will be able to use HKTV resources and produce whatever you want (probably for a small fee). The plan is to create a young multimedia hub where young people can express their creativity.
DeleteI really like the idea of this scheme. First of all it means all the multimedia equipment and studio space they built is not going to go to waste. It also gives young people a chance to prove themselves and I guess from a commercial stand point, if HKTV sees something/ someone they really like or a project that manages to get media attention, then they can invest early.
Ps. HKTV e commerce business is also reportedly going very well in terms of sales.
@Phixster: Yup…Ricky Wong is definitely trying to make good use of his studio, which is a good thing. See, this is one of the areas where he triumphs over TVB (and why he has gotten support from people in the industry) in that he is actually trying to help the future generation as well as the industry by cultivating potential talent in the media realm. Can you imagine TVB doing something like this (they would for sure charge those students money and not give everything to them for free like RW is doing, lol)? I’m also happy to hear that HKTVmall is doing well (I actually still get emails from them almost daily, since I’m on their mailing list, so I occasionally pop in to see what kind of products they have, though I can’t buy technically since I’m overseas, lol). RW is essentially doing what he does best, which is building and maintaining a successful business from the ground up…
DeleteOf course, this means that HKTV won’t be resuming filming anytime soon, but to be honest, I’m kind of ok with that because the environment has changed drastically the past couple years and until I know what type of plan(s) HKTV has (which they probably won’t reveal if they don’t get their license – lesson learned from the first time), it’s hard to say whether they have an even remote chance of surviving in the current climate. Almost every media company – both HK-based companies as well as outsiders -- is jumping on the web series bandwagon nowadays and with so many big companies in the mix (TVB, EEG, Media Asia, ATV, Fox Asia, even Netflix and HBO, etc.), it will be tough to survive….of course, the best option would be to go the Visual Brothers (OCTB) route and film series that are 100% HK flavor (since EVERY SINGLE ONE of the other companies filming web series are collaborating with Mainland China in some form) but with RW no longer helming HKTV (production side), it’s hard to say what their modus operandi is going to be if they do re-launch. At this point, I’m just hoping for the best and continuing to keep an eye out for any information they may drop here and there…
Still shell shocked over Sisley Choi winning a supposedly major award that it just goes on to show there are no more credibility to TVB awards. Even her speech sounds like a dumb beauty queen, understand she is nervous or excited but there was no eloquence or poise in there at all. Basically TVB is just living on a lifeline. I would rather a mainland company took over rather than the cheapo director Wong King outdated ideas. Mainland series has much higher production values & they have such top notch actors like Hu Ge, Sun Li, Liu Tao etc which is what is lacking in TVB. Some dramas that were good were ignored unfortunately like Destination Nowhere or Law Disorder,these dramas imo dare to be different from the usual goody unrealistic boring dramas but HK citizens are to be blame too as I felt there are still old timers who sticks to simplistic dramas instead
ReplyDeleteTVB future is bleak & there needs to be a changed of management before it goes down the drain
@Anonymous: Sorry for the late response, as I just realized that I had missed your comment earlier. Actually, the head of TVB right now IS a Mainland investor -- media mogul Lai Ruigang, who on paper is merely an “investor” in TVB (he can’t put is name down as the official “owner” because of residency requirements attached to free-to-air license agreement) but in reality, he’s the one calling the shots (kind of similar to what Mainland businessman Wong Ching – not related to HK director Wong Jing – did with ATV). This is partly why TVB announced that they will be focusing more on the Mainland market now…with that said however, TVB is producing their own programs catered to the Mainland market, which is different from adopting Mainland production values to film a Mainland series with Mainland actors/actresses. So in other words, you’ve basically got a HK television station creating supposedly HK television dramas but geared toward Mainland market – it’s basically a half-baked approach.
DeleteI agree that TVB’s future is bleak if they continue to operate the way they do and their management needs to be changed. And yes, I agree that HK audiences are partially to blame, especially in their continued acceptance of TVB’s mediocre programs and unwillingness to take a stand against them.