I know this post might be a little ‘early’ considering there are still 2 TVB series for 2012 that have yet to air [the 2 anniversary series Silver Spoons Sterling Shackles (名媛望族) and The Confidant (大太監) ] but I wanted to do this post anyway, especially since all the other series have already aired (for the most part) so I feel it’s appropriate to share my thoughts on those – plus I’m only interested in watching 1 of the 2 anniversary series anyway and there’s no point holding back this post because of that one series.
Before I go into my commentary on this year’s series, there are a few ‘disclaimers’ that I have to make (yes, I’m anal about this kind of stuff, so my apologies if this seems too long-winded):
** When I refer to ‘2012 series’ in this post, I am using TVB’s Anniversary Awards as the ‘basis’ for the timing – so that means the series aired right after last year’s Anniversary Awards (which took place at the beginning of December last year) are considered 2012 series, even if they technically aired in 2011 (which is why I included both Bottled Passion and When Heaven Burns in this post) .
** Those who’ve been following my ‘rants’ for awhile probably know that my definition of ‘watching’ a series is different from most people’s and the ‘criteria’ I apply for whether I like a series or not is most likely different from mainstream audiences. This has especially been the case in the past decade or so when the quality of TVB’s series started to decline year after year and so I couldn’t bring myself to continue watching their series as ‘religiously’ as I used to (hey, my time is precious nowadays so I’m not going to waste it).
Out of all the series that aired this year, I’ve only actually ‘watched’ 4 to 5 of them in their entirety -- meaning that I watched the entire series from the beginning to end without skipping a single episode or a single scene. All the rest of the series I either only watched partially (which could range from a few episodes only to as much as 2/3rds of the series) or didn’t even bother watching period.
** As with all of my TVB rants, the below is strictly my personal opinion and doesn’t represent majority opinion. Therefore, those reading this post are welcome to disagree with me, as I respect different opinions and don’t mind hearing what others have to say (that is, as long as you don’t bash me for having an opposing opinion). It most likely won’t change my opinion, but it does give me some good ‘food for thought’.
** The below is only a summary of thoughts that come to mind about each of the series and is NOT considered a review of any of the series whatsoever (actually, this ‘recap’ is my LAZY way of sharing my thoughts without having to write a lengthy review…LOL). However, if I did happen to write a review for any of the series mentioned, I included the link to it as well in case anyone was interested in reading it.
** Note that I didn’t comment on every single series aired – only the ones that I felt like saying something about. However, I did list the rest of the series that aired this year at the bottom of this post just as a point of reference.
**Lastly, there is NO particular reasoning behind the way I listed the series – I pretty much just went with what came to mind as I was writing up this post.
Ok, so with all that out of the way, here’s a recap of my thoughts on some of this year’s series:
1) Bottled Passion (我的如意狼君)
Now that majority of 2012’s series have aired, I can safely say that BP was definitely my favorite series of the year! True, the ending absolutely sucked and I wish producer Lee Tim Sing (as well as the scriptwriters) would have done a better ending because of how negatively the ending detracted from the series – but overall (with exception of the ending), the series was quite well-written and pretty much the entire cast put in excellent performances (if it weren’t for the ending, I would have voted this series as the ‘Best Series of the Year’ in terms of awards and such…LOL). Also, this is the first series in probably the last 5 years or so that was truly an emotional roller coaster for me when watching it – I cried a lot during most of Raymond Wong and Niki Chow’s scenes (especially near the middle and end of the series) as well as some of the other heartwarming scenes in the series, but at the same time, I also couldn’t help smiling at some of the ‘light-hearted’ moments interspersed throughout the series (most of the Raymond Cho / Claire Yiu scenes as well as the Raymond Wong / Eric Li scenes).
I’m actually not going to comment too much on the series in this post, since I already wrote a lengthy review about it back in January after the series finished airing. But I will say that I’m currently re-watching BP again and enjoying every minute of it (it’s been less than a year since the series debuted and this is already the 3rd time that I’ve re-watched the series…goes to show how much I liked the series…LOL). Too bad that this series (and its cast) won’t get much recognition at the Anniversary Awards, since most audiences seem to have forgotten about this series already due to it airing so early (and in a ‘cannon fodder’ timeslot I must add)…such a pity!
Link to Series Review: Bottled Passion
Link to Themesong Lyrics translation: ‘Dawn Blossoms Picked at Dusk’
2) The Hippocratic Crush (On Call 36小時)
Out of all the series that have aired this year so far (not counting the 2 anniversary series), I feel that this series truly deserves to be called ‘Best Series of the Year’ because it was the most well put together in so many aspects -- from the near flawless script (a lot of the dialogue in this series was very beautifully written), to the logical plot and flow of storyline (the flow actually made sense and I found very little to criticize), to the good performances from majority of the cast (with a few exceptions of course)….combined with a great ending, this series had all the elements necessary to make it ‘best series’ in my opinion! It’s rare to have a series (especially nowadays) that blends all the elements so well (usually the cast is great but the script sucks or vice versa or both), plus have an ending that is very well done and ties up most of the loose ends without using the traditional cheesy TVB formula (i.e.: tragic ending, group BBQ, wedding scene, etc.) – in my opinion, the ending to THC was the best ending of the year!
Again, I won’t comment too much about this series here because I already said most of what I wanted to say in the review I wrote several months ago. In all likelihood, I will probably be re-watching this series again very soon (especially if the upcoming new series being aired don’t pique my interest). Oh, and just for the record – I am NOT looking forward to the sequel…in fact, I probably won’t even watch the sequel out of ‘protest’ because I was so adamantly opposed to TVB doing a sequel in the first place (I list out the reasons why in my review).
Link to Series Review: The Hippocratic Crush
Link to Themesong Lyrics translation: ‘Serial Drama’
3) Witness Insecurity (護花危情)
Despite a lot of the bad reviews for this series and the fact that the script was hugely flawed and the ending sucked as well, I actually did like this series overall – especially the first half of the series (I do state in detail in my review the reasons why I liked this series, so again, not going to say much here).
Currently this series is still in the number one spot on the ratings chart for this year (whether the series deserves it or not is another story) and if it can maintain its spot, it’s probably a good sign that the series or its cast will be a force to be reckoned with at the Anniversary Awards in December (though to be honest, I highly doubt that WI will stay in its position given that Highs and Lows is still airing and the 2 anniversary series will very likely be ratings winners – all 3 have the potential to knock WI out of the number one spot). Either way, I personally don’t really care, since ratings are not a factor that I consider anyway when I watch series (though of course it’s a driving force in the entertainment industry and for TVB when they determine who to give awards to). To me, whether the series is enjoyable to watch is more important…
Link to Series Review: Witness Insecurity
Link to Themesong Lyrics translation: ‘The Most Blissful Thing’
4) Tiger Cubs (飛虎)
This was another series this year that I liked enough to watch from beginning to end – and pretty much the only one where I will look forward to watching a sequel WITH THE ORIGINAL CAST if they decide to make one (if you haven’t figured it out already, I’m generally very much opposed to making sequels to series – especially TVB series – so the fact that I’m advocating a sequel to this series shows that it makes sense to do one).
It has actually been a long time since TVB has taken a production this seriously – from the costumes to the script to the action sequences, etc. – it was obvious that a lot of effort had been put into research and prep work. I also liked the fact that they (the production team / scriptwriters) stayed true (for the most part) to the concept of what the SDU truly does (tactical operation team that doesn’t get involved in the investigation of cases) rather than try to change things to suit their needs (like other series sometimes do).
Oh and I’m definitely glad that for this particular series, TVB chose to forego the whole romantic storyline thing and instead put most of the focus on the actual profession itself (SDU team) – the way that they kept the romantic storylines at a minimum (they touch on it, but don’t develop in detail) and focus more on the SDU missions and the police investigations made the series more fast-paced and meaningful (I actually learned a thing or two from watching this series…LOL!).
Too bad this series was aired on the weekends though because that timeslot really killed the ratings overall…true, it ‘broke records’ in terms of ratings for that particular timeslot, but the overall ratings sucked – the series didn’t even make it into Top 10, which means it likely won’t get much recognition at awards time (not that I care much about the awards anyway….but it annoys me to see good performances possibly not get recognized…)
5) When Heaven Burns (天與地)
I will admit that I barely watched a third of this series because, well, frankly speaking, the series that producer Jonathan Chik + scriptwriter Chow Yuk Ming have come up with in recent years just don’t appeal to me (I can’t even remember the last Jonathan Chik / Chow Yuk Ming series that I watched entirely from beginning to end – last one might have been back in the 90s some time….). But the ending was pretty good though and the MV concept was quite well-done (though I actually had to read commentary afterwards in order to truly understand the ending…haha…).
Of course I didn’t write a review on this series (since I barely even watched it), but I did put together some overall thoughts about the little I did watch back when I translated and posted the sub-theme song lyrics on my blog (link to that post here). That post pretty much sums up my thoughts on this series.
6) Gloves Come Off (拳王)
Given the sports-oriented theme, I definitely would NOT have chosen to watch this series on my own accord (sorry, but I generally find sports-oriented series / movies very boring, probably because I’m not into sports myself). The main cast also didn’t appeal much to me either, but since I like most of the supporting cast (i.e. Raymond Wong, Power Chan, Nancy Wu, Eric Li, Lau Kong, etc.), plus the series came on TV, I ended up watching it. In all honesty, the first half of the series was pretty good – in fact, the first few episodes especially were very well done. Unfortunately though, in typical TVB fashion, the series pretty much ‘fell apart’ in the second half – that’s the part when they started focusing on relationship issues between the main characters and so the series started to get extremely draggy…plus it didn’t help that the main story (about the whole boxing thing) started to go nowhere and didn’t really come back into play again until near the end of the series. Also, some of the characters were very poorly written and lacked development, which was annoying and definitely detracted from my overall viewing experience with this series – basically the only character who I feel was appropriately developed and stood out to me was Nancy Wu’s deaf girl character….everyone else I pretty much found were either underdeveloped or their characters ended up being annoying. Needless to say, I ended up skipping a lot of the series – to the point that I didn’t even bother tuning in to the finale episode (though I still found out about how the series ended later on).
7) Daddy Good Deeds (當旺爸爸)
This was actually one of the more watchable series from this year -- for a light-hearted comedy, this series definitely does deliver the goods. One of the things I enjoyed most was the witty dialogue, which was delivered with the right amount of comedic timing by the cast – the unique thing about the script was the rhyming dialogue that was interspersed throughout the series, which I felt was quite clever, especially since the way they worked that dialogue in, it sounded very natural and effortless (at certain points, I didn’t even realize the dialogue rhymed until someone pointed it out to me).
The other thing I liked about the series were the pop culture references, many of which were unique to HK culture. This is where I need to give props to the scriptwriters for being brave enough to go down this route because it’s definitely risky, since having too many HK pop culture references and ‘inside jokes’ that most likely only Cantonese-speakers would understand / appreciate limits the potential for this series to break out into other markets. But I guess as long as the HK audiences are able to relate and appreciate the series, that’s what matters most, since the ratings are based on HK audiences. Oh, and I have to mention the ‘guest star’ thing that they did in this series – though it wasn’t unique (TVB has done it before in other series), it was definitely fun to see who would pop up next and under what circumstances. I had read somewhere that some audiences felt the ‘guest star’ thing was merely a ‘gimmick’ to get people to continue chasing the series (curiosity factor) -- yes, that’s probably true but my thought on this is that as long as they incorporated the guest stars in a way that made sense (and didn’t just put them in randomly for the heck of it), then gimmick or no gimmick, I’m fine with it.
One last note….originally, I decided to watch this series primarily because of Steven Ma (since this was his last series with TVB) and Ha Yu (just because I grew up watching his series…haha) – of course, both of them didn’t disappoint in terms of their performances and I definitely enjoyed watching them….but in terms of ‘breakthrough’ performance in this series, Edwin Siu was definitely the one – he absolutely deserves some praise for his portrayal of ‘Ah Yap’, as he was truly pretty funny and his ‘obsession’ with finding his long-lost sweetheart was quite cute (plus his ‘chemistry’ with Steven and the rest of the cast was quite good). Overall, I’d say that this was an enjoyable series!
8) The Greatness of a Hero (盛世仁傑)
Even though I liked this series a lot (to the point of having re-watched it a few times already), I’m not going to comment much on it in this post because I actually don’t consider this a 2012 series. The series was actually produced 3-4 years ago and had already aired overseas (outside of HK) way back in 2009. I have no clue why TVB decided to warehouse this series in the first place or why they decided to all of a sudden air this series in their ‘golden’ timeslot so many years later (especially since some of the artists in the main cast no longer work for TVB). To me, it’s kind of stupid to air a series overseas and even release it on DVD, then ‘premiere’ it in HK years later as though it were a ‘brand new’ series -- given today’s technology, most HK audiences probably already saw the series on the internet back when it aired overseas anyway, so what’s the point of airing it as a ‘new series’ in HK? Kind of awkward if you ask me….seemed more like a space-filler series than anything else….
9) King Maker (造王者)
I’m generally not into ‘political thriller’ type series, but I decided to watch this one primarily because of the strong cast (when I say ‘strong’, I’m referring to the ‘acting’ piece, since the main cast consisted of established character actors who are known for their acting skills). Plus this was supposed to be a ‘follow up’ series to The Greatness of a Hero because of the collaboration between Kent Cheng and Wayne Lai – since both actors are among my favorites, I was definitely looking forward to watching the 2 of them match wits again!
To be honest, I can’t really say that I ‘enjoyed’ watching this series because some parts were a bit too slow and draggy, but overall I was able to ‘appreciate’ the series for the great acting performances from most of the cast (save for a few). Kent was excellent in his portrayal of ‘Tung Chiu’ and even though some audiences felt his acting was ‘exaggerated’, I actually beg to differ – his character was very complicated from a mental / emotional standpoint and in my opinion, the way Kent chose to portray the character was perfect…I actually don’t feel that anyone else would have been able to bring forth the ‘frustration and anguish’ component of his character as well as he did. Wayne was good too in his role, but I sort of felt he didn’t stand out much because the character of ‘Yu Jing’ seemed too much like the ‘usual fare’ for him – his character definitely wasn’t as complicated and interesting as Kent’s. As for the rest of the cast – let’s just say that overall, I was fine with most of the performances pretty much except for Natalie Tong….sorry, but I just can’t stand her in ancient series because she’s not a good fit for them – the way she says her lines and her body language, etc. are just way too ‘modern’ and it makes her performance unconvincing (just like she did back during Life and Times of a Sentinel, I felt that she was ‘reciting’ her lines rather than actually ‘performing’ her lines – maybe that’s why I felt there was little emotion to her performance…).
In comparisons to its supposed ‘sister’ series TGOAH, I have to say that King Maker is on a completely different level altogether – the plot and storyline for KM was way more complicated and the dialogue was more arduous. Both series are worth watching though!
10) Divas in Distress (巴不得媽媽…)
Ok, I will be honest and say that I initially had absolutely no intention of watching this series whatsoever, since I can’t stand Liza Wang (never liked her, both as an actress and as a person) and I knew she would be playing another one of those irritating bxxch characters again in this series, which meant that I would be forwarding through majority of her scenes so I wouldn’t get a headache from listening to her yell and scream at people (LOL). I also wasn’t too fond of most of the cast either (um, sorry, but Chin Ka Lok and newbie actress Eliza Sam being cast as the leads in the series really turned me off)…. so even less motivation to watch.
I actually decided to watch this series primarily because of producer Poon Ka Tak (he also produced THC as well as a lot of my favorite series from the 90s, such as DIF and UE) and even though I was disappointed with the series overall (the script was all over the place and a few of the characters were underdeveloped….plus there were other things as well), there were some good things that came out of the series – for example, the overwhelming support and recognition that veteran actor Koo Ming Wah got for his portrayal of ‘So Kei’! He was absolutely the highlight of this series and if it weren’t for him, I definitely would not have even bothered sitting through the series at all (I did forward through majority of the episodes though, so I guess I technically didn’t sit through the ‘entire’ series per se…LOL). I also did end up liking some of the other supporting cast’s performances too though (i.e. Lee Sing Cheong, Mimi Chu, King Sir, etc.)
Interestingly enough, the series got high ratings and surprisingly, even made it into Top 3 on the ratings chart! Though on the one hand, the high ratings is a ‘good’ thing for supporters of Koo Ming Wah (like myself) in that it raises the chances for him to get the Best Supporting Actor award at the Anniversary awards ceremony (he’s pretty much the most deserving one to snatch that award so far this year), but on the other hand, that also means the other less outstanding (and less deserving) performances in the series also have a bigger chance at getting an award (not going to name names but I’m sure most people know which ‘performances’ I’m talking about). Ah well – I’m probably not going to like the results of this year’s anniversary awards anyway, so it doesn’t really matter, I guess….
11) Highs and Lows (雷霆掃毒)
I wasn’t planning on watching this series either since I don’t like majority of the cast, but due to Michael Miu and Ben Wong, plus a potentially interesting storyline, I decided to give the series a shot. Quite honestly, the series did start off pretty strong with the action-packed scenes and the interesting first case, but the plot really started to drag around the 5th or 6th episodes and unfortunately, it continued to drag throughout the rest of the 2nd week of airing. Also, the ‘wishy-washy’ nature of the plot – especially the whole thing about trying to figure out who is the ‘black cop’ and who isn’t -- really started to frustrate me…in addition, quite a few elements of the plot don’t make any sense and the slow pace of some of the cases made the middle part of the series difficult to sit through. I also feel that the storyline surrounding Michael is very poorly developed – it started off strong in the first few episodes with him going undercover and such, but lately, it seems the focus is more on his relationship struggles with Elaine Ng (another actress I can’t stand). Oh and maybe it’s just me, but the plot and characters in this series reminds me too much of Lives of Omission….I’m starting to wonder if TVB’s scriptwriters got lazy again and lifted ideas from LOO, then repackaged it into a different series thinking that we audiences won’t notice? In any case, I already dropped the series….though I’ll probably still tune in for the finale just to see what happens (and to see whether the ‘spoilers’ that just came out about the ending are true or not….)
12) The Last Steep Ascent (天梯)
You would think that based on producer Lee Tim Sing’s good name alone (plus seeing how much I loved his previous series Bottled Passion and TLSA is supposed to be similar in terms of the love story theme and the pre-modern genre), that would be enough motivating factor for me to give this series a try? Under normal circumstances, that probably would have been the case, especially since there are quite a few of Tim Gor’s past series that I liked – but with this series…well, um, NO. Why? Two main reasons:
.—The story: TLSA is supposed to be ‘loosely based’ on the real life story of a husband who built a 6000 step ‘ladder of love’ for his wife. I’ve read the original [real-life] story (several times in fact) and it truly is a very touching love story – it brings tears to my eyes every time I read it. Unfortunately though, the series itself pretty much has NOTHING to do with the original story except for like the first and last episodes – everything else in the story is pretty much made up. In fact, producer Lee Tim Sing himself said that he had to add other elements to the story (such as the family inheritance battle and love triangle storylines) because the original ‘love ladder’ story itself is not enough material for a 20+ episode series (he said that if he were to stick only to the original story, it would only be enough for 5 episodes or less). Call me hard-headed if you want, but I’m just one of those people who can’t stand adaptations (whether TV series or movies) that stray too far from their original works (unless I haven’t read the original story or book yet – in which case I’m less likely to care). Plus, as much as I like Lee Tim Sing, he unfortunately has a track record for taking huge liberties when it comes to producing series based on original stories / books (most of the series that I like of his are non-adaptations) – based on everything I’ve read, this series is no exception in terms of the ‘huge liberties’ part…so in order not to frustrate myself, I chose to pass on this series after only watching the first 2-3 episodes.
.—The cast: The other reason why I’m not interested in watching this series is because I don’t like majority of the main cast. Maggie Cheung is a good actress, but she’s just not my ‘cup of tea’ in terms of actresses that I like to watch onscreen (don’t ask me why, but she’s just never appealed to me for some reason) – I don’t dislike her, so I have no problems watching a series with her in it, but I definitely wouldn’t ‘purposefully’ watch a series just because of her. As for Moses Chan….well, to be honest, I’m sort of sick of him now and can’t bear to watch him onscreen anymore – he’s had way too many OTT roles over the past few years, to the point that nowadays when he tries to go back to those serious, dramatic-type roles, it’s just not convincing anymore (plus I find his performances bland and boring nowadays anyway so even more reason not to watch). Kenny Wong is a decent actor, but unfortunately, he’s extremely boring to watch (not sure if it’s him or the characters he’s given to play), so knowing that he is the second male lead in this series diminished my desire to watch. And lastly, there’s Aimee Chan, who is considered the second female lead in this series – no offense to her fans, but I really can’t stand Aimee’s acting….yes, part of it is the poor Cantonese (which is one of my pet peeves and annoys the hell out of me), but also something about her acting just comes across very unnatural and ‘fake’ to me (I heard that her acting had actually improved in this series, but um, sorry, still not interested). Outside of the main cast, I heard that the supporting cast performances have been quite good though….
** Spoiler Alert***
Even though I haven’t been watching TLSA, I’m still planning on tuning in for the finale episode, primarily because that’s one of the few episodes that actually talks about the original ‘love ladder’ story (curiosity factor for me) – plus I just found out that there will be a special guest star in the last episode: Raymond Wong will be making a cameo appearance as one of Maggie’s grown sons – I read that he will be in at least half of the last episode (I’ve been re-watching Bottled Passion again lately, so obviously I’m in the ‘Raymond’ mood right now…LOL).
13) Ghetto Justice 2 (怒火街頭2)
I started watching this series only because my mom was watching it and I was curious to see if it would live up to the ‘hype’ of the first installment (which I actually didn’t finish watching either). Given the fact that I’m NOT a Kevin Cheng or Myolie Wu fan (in fact, I can’t stand either of them in terms of acting), I’m actually not surprised that I dropped this series barely a third of the way into it (though I did continue watching some of the Raymond Cho scenes throughout the rest of the series because I just love the guy too much…haha!)
The biggest turnoff with this series for me was the fact that TVB cast so many ‘non-Cantonese’ speakers in this series and gave a few of them pretty heavy roles. As mentioned earlier, this is one of my biggest pet peeves because, well, when I watch a series, I want to be able to understand what the characters are saying without having to resort to subtitles (having to read subtitles distracts from the viewing experience and is extremely annoying!). I know people will probably think I’m anal for harping on this point, but I don’t care – to me, the language thing is a ‘basic requirement’: if you’re going to film a Cantonese series, then learn to speak decent Cantonese – otherwise, don’t take on a ‘lead’ role and ‘torture’ us audiences with having to listen to your broken Cantonese in every episode! (I’m actually more ticked off at TVB on this one than at the artists, since the casting decisions lie with TVB). For some of the episodes, I felt like I should have just put the sound on mute and read the subtitles instead (yes, it was THAT bad) – needless to say, I’m glad I dropped this series as quickly as I did!
14) L’Escargot (缺宅男女)
Obviously, I watched this series because of Michael Miu and even though his performance was good (Sonjia Kwok’s performance wasn’t bad either), the overall plot / storyline wasn’t anything to shout about. I mean, it was interesting in the beginning to see how Michael’s huge family handled living together in such a small, cramped space and the various challenges they faced because of it, but halfway through the series, that premise started getting ‘old’. Plus I felt the plot was all over the place, so not surprisingly, I lost interest in the series fairly quickly.
With that said though, there were definitely a few standout performances in the series , mostly from Oscar Leung and Mandy Wong (though to be honest, I sort of got annoyed with Mandy’s character after awhile). But the thing that REALLY ruined this series for me was the stupid love triangle storyline thing between Ron Ng, Linda Chung, and Michael Tse! Linda’s character was just downright annoying and throughout the series, I just felt like slapping her silly (I ended up forwarding through a lot of her scenes in the second half); no comment on Ron’s performance because I never pay attention to him anyway in any of the series he’s in (for some odd reason, I always find his performances bland and boring); and Michael Tse – well, let’s just say that I was still in my ‘boycott Laughing Gor’ mood back when I watched this series, so I didn’t pay much attention to him either (plus his character in the series was a jerk anyway).
Overall, I guess you could say that I didn’t like this series much so it was probably wise that I forwarded through majority of the series and only watched a few episodes here and there….would have been a time-waster for me to sit through majority of it!
15) No Good Either Way (衝呀！瘦薪兵團)
I barely watched half of this series, so I’m probably not the best person to be commenting on it. But I will say that the first thought that comes to mind about this series is that I felt like I was watching a sitcom rather than an actual series (perhaps because several of the cast members -- for example, Stephen Au, Florence Kwok, Celine Ma, etc -- are ‘sitcom regulars’?). Plus there were quite a few people from the sitcom Be Home For Dinner in this series as well, so I guess it’s not too surprising that I would get the ‘sitcom feel’ from it.
Overall, I felt that the series was decent and I actually did like the pairing of Ruco Chan and Kristal Tin – but I also sort of felt this series was a waste of their talent because the characters they portrayed really weren’t that interesting. I mean, I’m happy that both of them got lead roles, but still….I definitely prefer to see them collaborate in a more interesting series if possible…
.---.
To round out the list, here are the rest of the series (not including sitcoms) that aired this year (in no particular order)….I don’t have anything particular to say about these series because I barely watched them – I basically included them in this post merely as a point of reference :
Wish & Switch (換樂無窮)
Let it Be Love (4 in Love)
Queens of Diamonds and of Hearts (東西宮略)
House of Harmony and Vengeance (耀舞長安)
Three Kingdoms RPG (回到三國)
Master of Play (心戰)
.****.
That pretty much does it for my ‘recap’ of this year’s series….I may end up doing a follow up post after I watch The Confidant, but not sure yet at this point….depends on whether I end up liking the series or not….
LL's Musings 小賢角落
Showing posts with label "Bottled Passion 我的如意狼君". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "Bottled Passion 我的如意狼君". Show all posts
Friday, October 19, 2012
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Mingpao Interview with Rebecca Chan: A Mother’s Choice
Here’s another interesting interview from this past week’s issue of Mingpao Magazine.
Rebecca Chan is actually another veteran actress whom I grew up watching. She’s definitely a talented actress, as I’ve actually enjoyed her acting even since the 80s, when she was a young fadan at TVB – she had quite a few memorable performances, both back then (during her young actress days) as well as currently. Though she mostly plays villain characters now, I’m actually ok with it because with her level of acting skill, her villain characters are very convincing and her performances are still quite enjoyable to watch – plus it shows that she is versatile in her acting. I actually still remember Rebecca’s performance in The Final Verdict (good series, but very depressing and tragic) as well as in many of the other series she was in back in the 80s – I especially liked Rebecca’s ancient series back then because I felt that she was one of those actresses who always looked great in ancient costume.
I actually knew a long time ago that Rebecca was a single mother because she never hid that fact in her interviews. For those who might not know, Rebecca was actually pregnant with her son back when she was filming Detective Investigation Files IV in 1999. The first time I watched that series, I actually had no clue she was pregnant (goes to show they hid it well at that time) – it wasn’t until I saw an interview she did later on where she talked about some of the creative ways they tried to hide her pregnancy while filming that I found out she was actually pregnant. Of course, afterwards, when I re-watched the series, I then noticed all the stuff she talked about (how she would wear loose fitting clothes or stand behind a counter or at certain angles for particular scenes or hold a pillow in her lap when she was sitting on a couch, etc. so as to hide her belly). Very interesting indeed!
I admire Rebecca for making the choice to be a single mother – it takes a lot of courage and strength to choose that path, especially in a situation like hers where she doesn’t have a huge network of friends and extended family to help out.
Anyway, best of luck to Rebecca and look forward to watching her next series!
****
Source: Mingpao Weekly, Issue 2283
Article originally published on August 11, 2012
Translation: llwy12
This interview was one year in the making. Last year, when War and Beauty《金枝慾孽》was re-broadcast in the midnight timeslot, watching the Empress and Concubine Yu battling wits, I called the ‘Empress’ Rebecca Chan (陳秀珠) in the hopes of getting together for an interview – at the time, she was in the U.S. accompanying her son in his studies. Later on, watching her play an evil woman in Bottled Passion 《我的如意狼君》, notorious Tang dynasty Empress WuZeTian (武則天) in The Greatness of a Hero《盛世仁傑》, and Adam Cheng’s (鄭少秋) ex-wife in Master of Play 《心戰》, each time I called, she was not in Hong Kong. It turns out that this ‘filial’ mother decided to stay in the U.S. for the entire year to accompany her son in his studies.
Thirteen years ago, when she decided to give birth to her son without getting married and subsequently raise him entirely on her own, Rebecca already knew that being a single mother would not be easy. Even though Rebecca is not an ‘Empress’ in real life, at home, her son is definitely a ‘Prince’. Returning to HK with her son in tow this past summer, Rebecca expressed that her son is the center of her life – this is a choice she made, the choice of a single mother.
Having played an Empress as well as WuZeTian, Rebecca believes more and more that there isn’t much that a woman can’t do.
Injured her ribs in an accident
With the blink of an eye, Rebecca’s son is already 13 years old – last year, she accompanied him to the U.S. to start school: “Pursuing an education in HK is much more difficult. My son is not exactly a stellar student – we tried traditional schools, but the pressure was too great, so in his third year, I switched him to an international school in the hopes that it would be easier for him to adapt to the U.S. education system.”
She didn’t feel comfortable with her son staying in the U.S. all by himself, so she decided to stop working and accompany him to San Francisco [located in the state of California] to start school: “For the next 2 years, I plan to accompany him more and help him get adjusted first, then later on plan my own time.”
As for her filming obligations with TVB, it wasn’t until she returned to HK with her son earlier this summer that she had the time to discuss her next series. For the next few years, she plans to only film 1 series per year so she can focus on accompanying her son in his studies.
The last series that Rebecca filmed prior to leaving HK was Bottled Passion. On the last day of filming, as everyone was getting ready to leave, an accident occurred – Rebecca suddenly lost her balance and fell, her chest hitting the corner of a table: “The pain was so great that I thought I was going to die! They had an ambulance take me to the hospital right away and after some x-rays, it was discovered that my ribs were cracked in a few places!”
Due to her injury, she had to completely stop working in order to rest, so she decided to move her plan of accompanying her son in his studies forward a few years: “As the saying goes, life is unpredictable!” Oftentimes, things do not always go as planned. Given the situation, Rebecca decided to take the entire year off from work.
Her son, Tiga Chan (陳迪加), was named after a Japanese anime superhero. Even though he was born in California, Rebecca admits that for the first 6 months after the two of them arrived in San Francisco, adjusting to life there was very difficult: “We had to rent a house and buy furniture. Language barrier was also a problem, as only English was spoken at the schools…help! I also had to take English lessons. I told my son: ‘Let’s give it one year and if it still doesn’t work out, then we’ll leave!’ That’s why I always feel that no matter what you do, never burn your bridges – always leave an ‘out’ for yourself.”
Made the right choice to become a single mom
One person going to school, yet essentially two people were doing the homework. When it came to her son’s studies, Rebecca was right there next to him, helping him look stuff up in the dictionary: “Whether it was Roman history, Islamic history, or U.S. history, I took more notes than he did – it was more exhausting than filming series! Back when my son was born, I had gone back to work in less than a year, so I had never experienced being a ‘full-time’ stay-at-home mom before. It took some getting used to in the beginning, as I not only had to take care of my son, I also had to cook 3 meals a day as well as do the household chores, since there are no maids in the U.S.”
The most difficult thing about being a single mother is having to play the role of both mother and father to her son: “Sometimes I feel like I have split personalities, like the characters in Master of Play – at times, I feel like doting on him more while other times I feel I have to be more strict with him. I do spoil him though sometimes. He loves reading a particular Japanese anime, but I’m not too fond of him reading it – however I often tell him that I’ll buy the comic for him but he has to get certain grade in school. Of course, he always answers with ‘yes, yes, yes’ but after I buy it for him, he doesn’t follow through with the grades. Even now, I still give in to his sweet-talk.”
Her son likes to draw and has quite the artistic talent – oftentimes, he would draw pictures to express his feelings in his journal and whenever Rebecca would see it, she would feel warm inside. Back then, Rebecca made the decision to have a child without getting married and over the course of the next 13 years, her son has been the main motivational force in her life: “I would say that the decision wasn’t wrong at all. Over the years, things have been relatively smooth and I’m enjoying it. I live according to my own plan! When I first made the decision, I already knew the path wouldn’t be easy, but it hasn’t been too bad either – a lot of people are worse off than me. Basically taking it one step at a time – working in order to make a living and provide for my son. The most important thing is that my son is happy and healthy – that’s enough for me. After all, it was my own decision – no one forced me, so I can’t complain. I always tell myself to look on the positive side of things.”
Even if her son ever asks about his father, it won’t be too difficult for Rebecca to answer: “I’m already prepared with answers, but so far, he rarely asks. Sometimes, when he’s watching a series and sees a father mistreating his own son, he would say to me: ‘Luckily I don’t have a father!’ When I hear him say this, I know things are ok because he feels that life with his mother is very happy and he doesn’t feel like anything was lacking in his childhood. I try hard to provide him with everything he’d possibly need and constantly tell him: ‘Other kids may have dads and you don’t, but at least you’re happy – enjoy and live your life happily, that’s already enough.’”
Will consider finding a life partner
Rebecca expressed that even her 80 year old dad is able to accept her being a single mother – in this day and age, the whole world shouldn’t have a problem with it: “The most important thing is to be a responsible person. The new series that I’ll be filming talks about an ‘after-90s’ girl who gets pregnant early in life and after giving birth, abandons the baby – obviously a lot of problems occur. But me, I resolve to be a responsible parent! I read designer Eddie Lau (劉培基)’s column in your magazine where he describes his childhood experience – how could a mother be so cruel? Crazy!”
When Rebecca gave birth to her son, she was already 39 years old – though maturity was on her side, her age made the pregnancy higher risk. She expressed that due to this, it was a difficult experience: “That’s why I feel that you should have children when you’re young. Now that my son is grown, he’ll ask me to watch videos on the internet or play video games with him – I don’t have enough energy for all that, very tiring. However I have a huge sense of responsibility – since I already signed up to go visit the Three Gorges [tourist site in China] with my son, I will still go, even if I have to take painkillers for my injury.”
When actress Shirley Yeung (楊思琦) also became a single mother earlier this year, Rebecca expressed that she understood exactly the type of pressure she had to go through: “I sent her a text message to encourage her – I wrote: ‘Women are very capable and can carry the weight of the world on our shoulders, you can do it!’ She’s still young, so definitely in a better position than I was.”
After thirteen years as a single mother, Rebecca expressed that her son will be independent in 2 years and can stay overseas on his own, so she can start thinking about her own life: “At my age now, I would like to have someone to lean on and listen to my troubles.” When she was in the U.S. for a year, she was busy with her son’s matters, so didn’t have time to meet anyone new – luckily, her ‘requirements’ for choosing a partner are quite flexible: “His age and nationality don’t matter to me, the most important thing is that we’re able to click – even if he’s a Westerner, as long as we’re able to communicate with each other, then it’s not a problem. I’ve been single for so long that I’m used to it already, so sometimes it’s hard to have to accommodate someone else. Of course, he must get along with my son – most important is that Tiga likes him as well.”
Rebecca admits that in the past 13 years, she has not encountered anyone whom she feels can be a dad to her son: “The main reason is because I never really thought about it [finding a partner] before; it’s only now that my son is grown up and will be more independent that I’ve started to think about it – plus seeing some of my friends in the U.S. with their significant others and how happy they were also made me think more about it. If I were in HK, my focus would have been primarily on work and wouldn’t have time to think about it at all – now I can consider it.”
Most memorable relationship with her Malaysian ex-boyfriend
Rebecca expressed that all of her previous boyfriends were from outside the industry. The only artist she was heavily rumored with was Shek Sau (石修), however she expressed that the two of them were merely on-screen partners and never had a relationship in real life.
When she went to Malaysia to film series for a few years, she met a man whom she loved enough to stay in Malaysia for: “I don’t’ like the weather in Malaysia, as it’s way too hot – I like places that have clearly defined 4 seasons.” How about Malaysian men? Rebecca expressed that they were not bad – her Malaysian boyfriend was actually the son of a rich tycoon and at that time, their relationship had even reached the marriage stage. So what was their reason for breaking up? She expressed: “The timing wasn’t right – such a pity! Actually, out of all the relationships I’ve had, this one was the most memorable for me. He was a very good man – very simple, not complicated at all. I like simple people.” Rebecca emphasized that their breakup had nothing to do with her boyfriend’s wealth or family status: “It was a compatibility issue between the two of us.”
If she had become a ‘Malaysian bride’ back then, her fate would have been very different: “It’s actually quite interesting – if back then I had continued to work as ground crew at the airline instead of participating in the Miss HK pageant, I probably would have become a supervisor already. I like rotating shifts – if I had to stay in an office all day long, I’d be bored to death.”
The primary reason why Rebecca participated in the Miss HK pageant was to meet her idol Cora Miao (繆騫人): “From the way she [Cora] talked to the way she dressed, she always came across very cool and charismatic.” Cora Miao participated in the 1976 Miss HK pageant while Rebecca was a contestant in the 1979 pageant – both experienced a similar fate in that neither made it into the top 3 rankings: “Unfortunately, by the time I entered the industry, Cora had already left TVB. When I was in San Francisco, I had hoped to bump into her, but it didn’t happen.”
One time, back when she was young, Rebecca had also gone the ‘rebellious’ route and took some sexy photos that had resulted in her losing a few hosting gigs at TVB due to her image not being ‘healthy’ enough – luckily, it didn’t impact her career permanently and she went from being TVB fa dan [in the 1980s] to a steady, talent-path actress.
Wanted to get her mole removed
Rebecca has a mole near the corner of her mouth that has become somewhat of a trademark for her. She states that in the past, she constantly thought about getting the mole removed, however her friends were opposed to it: “A geomancer once told me I won’t have to worry much about putting ‘food’ on the table [meaning ‘making money’]; indeed I’ve tasted many fine ‘delicacies’ in the past but I feel that I may have the fame, but not necessarily the fortune.”
Rebecca has worked for TVB 30 years and throughout that time, she has filmed series after series, playing a variety of different characters. Having filmed series since the 1980s until now, she understands very clearly in her heart that the quality of TVB series has dropped: “I still feel that series from the 1980s were a lot better to watch. My favorite is The Final Verdict 《誓不低頭》 (1988) – every time Adam and I collaborate, our characters in the series don’t have good results. I really liked the script for this series because the story isn’t just focused on the main lead, but rather, it’s very spread out – every character has a chance to shine.”
In terms of recent works, Rebecca is the most satisfied with her performance in Master of Play: “I quite like [producer] Jonathan Chik (戚其義), as he has a unique style to his filming, however I don’t like how his scripts are always done ‘on the fly’ [飛紙仔]. During the broadcast of the series, people would ask me about the plot, but I would have absolutely no clue: ‘Oh, Maggie Siu (邵美琪) kills that many people?’ I told Jonathan not to include me in his future series – I’m too old and can’t remember so much dialogue in such a short amount of time.”
Prior to Master of Play, Rebecca had also collaborated with producer Chik on War and Beauty: “It was a very satisfying experience, especially getting the chance to act with Sheren Tang (鄧萃雯). Whether it was on or off the camera, the two of us would still remain in character and constantly try to ‘outdo’ each other in all aspects, from hairstyle to makeup to costume. I would use the Empress’s tone of voice and facial expression to say to her: ‘I am the Empress, you are only a Concubine, you need to bow to me!’”
In 2009’s The Greatness of a Hero, Rebecca got the chance to play the ‘female Emperor’ WuZeTian: “Definitely no regrets! Playing the role of an emperor was very high – everyone was constantly bowing to you and if you didn’t like someone, you could send them off to to die. What other woman gets a chance like that to sit on the throne?”
For consummate actors like Rebecca who are very passionate about their craft, their work is their entertainment. Rebecca expressed that she is open to collaborating with different parties – whether it’s Mainland China, the new TV stations in HK, or TVB, she welcomes all of them to seek her out. Of course, priority will be given to those with a completed script.
EPILOGUE
Likes to drink
Looking back at the days before she had her son, Rebecca admits that she was a party-goer who enjoyed going around eating and drinking: “It was pretty intensive – every night I’d go out drinking. In Malaysia, there’s a street very similar to Lan Kwai Fong – I liked to drink until I felt a bit high…pretty happy.”
However looking back at those ‘wild days’ now, Rebecca feels that she had wasted her time: “If I didn’t have my son, I think I would have continued that type of lifestyle. I’m grateful for my son, as he is my motivation for working hard. He definitely changed me a lot.”
The only thing that hasn’t changed is Rebecca’s fondness for the taste of alcohol. She revealed that sometimes, when her son is in school, she would have a drink or two at home: “When we’d go out for sushi, my son would let me have a little bit of sake.” When her son was an infant, she had once added a few drops of beer to his milk – having received ‘training’ at such a young age, her son now knows how to drink carbonated wine. Rebecca Chan is that type of ‘playful’ mother.
Rebecca Chan is actually another veteran actress whom I grew up watching. She’s definitely a talented actress, as I’ve actually enjoyed her acting even since the 80s, when she was a young fadan at TVB – she had quite a few memorable performances, both back then (during her young actress days) as well as currently. Though she mostly plays villain characters now, I’m actually ok with it because with her level of acting skill, her villain characters are very convincing and her performances are still quite enjoyable to watch – plus it shows that she is versatile in her acting. I actually still remember Rebecca’s performance in The Final Verdict (good series, but very depressing and tragic) as well as in many of the other series she was in back in the 80s – I especially liked Rebecca’s ancient series back then because I felt that she was one of those actresses who always looked great in ancient costume.
I actually knew a long time ago that Rebecca was a single mother because she never hid that fact in her interviews. For those who might not know, Rebecca was actually pregnant with her son back when she was filming Detective Investigation Files IV in 1999. The first time I watched that series, I actually had no clue she was pregnant (goes to show they hid it well at that time) – it wasn’t until I saw an interview she did later on where she talked about some of the creative ways they tried to hide her pregnancy while filming that I found out she was actually pregnant. Of course, afterwards, when I re-watched the series, I then noticed all the stuff she talked about (how she would wear loose fitting clothes or stand behind a counter or at certain angles for particular scenes or hold a pillow in her lap when she was sitting on a couch, etc. so as to hide her belly). Very interesting indeed!
I admire Rebecca for making the choice to be a single mother – it takes a lot of courage and strength to choose that path, especially in a situation like hers where she doesn’t have a huge network of friends and extended family to help out.
Anyway, best of luck to Rebecca and look forward to watching her next series!
****
Mingpao Interview with Rebecca Chan: A Mother’s Choice
Article originally published on August 11, 2012
Translation: llwy12
This interview was one year in the making. Last year, when War and Beauty《金枝慾孽》was re-broadcast in the midnight timeslot, watching the Empress and Concubine Yu battling wits, I called the ‘Empress’ Rebecca Chan (陳秀珠) in the hopes of getting together for an interview – at the time, she was in the U.S. accompanying her son in his studies. Later on, watching her play an evil woman in Bottled Passion 《我的如意狼君》, notorious Tang dynasty Empress WuZeTian (武則天) in The Greatness of a Hero《盛世仁傑》, and Adam Cheng’s (鄭少秋) ex-wife in Master of Play 《心戰》, each time I called, she was not in Hong Kong. It turns out that this ‘filial’ mother decided to stay in the U.S. for the entire year to accompany her son in his studies.
Thirteen years ago, when she decided to give birth to her son without getting married and subsequently raise him entirely on her own, Rebecca already knew that being a single mother would not be easy. Even though Rebecca is not an ‘Empress’ in real life, at home, her son is definitely a ‘Prince’. Returning to HK with her son in tow this past summer, Rebecca expressed that her son is the center of her life – this is a choice she made, the choice of a single mother.
Having played an Empress as well as WuZeTian, Rebecca believes more and more that there isn’t much that a woman can’t do.
Injured her ribs in an accident
With the blink of an eye, Rebecca’s son is already 13 years old – last year, she accompanied him to the U.S. to start school: “Pursuing an education in HK is much more difficult. My son is not exactly a stellar student – we tried traditional schools, but the pressure was too great, so in his third year, I switched him to an international school in the hopes that it would be easier for him to adapt to the U.S. education system.”
She didn’t feel comfortable with her son staying in the U.S. all by himself, so she decided to stop working and accompany him to San Francisco [located in the state of California] to start school: “For the next 2 years, I plan to accompany him more and help him get adjusted first, then later on plan my own time.”
As for her filming obligations with TVB, it wasn’t until she returned to HK with her son earlier this summer that she had the time to discuss her next series. For the next few years, she plans to only film 1 series per year so she can focus on accompanying her son in his studies.
The last series that Rebecca filmed prior to leaving HK was Bottled Passion. On the last day of filming, as everyone was getting ready to leave, an accident occurred – Rebecca suddenly lost her balance and fell, her chest hitting the corner of a table: “The pain was so great that I thought I was going to die! They had an ambulance take me to the hospital right away and after some x-rays, it was discovered that my ribs were cracked in a few places!”
Due to her injury, she had to completely stop working in order to rest, so she decided to move her plan of accompanying her son in his studies forward a few years: “As the saying goes, life is unpredictable!” Oftentimes, things do not always go as planned. Given the situation, Rebecca decided to take the entire year off from work.
Her son, Tiga Chan (陳迪加), was named after a Japanese anime superhero. Even though he was born in California, Rebecca admits that for the first 6 months after the two of them arrived in San Francisco, adjusting to life there was very difficult: “We had to rent a house and buy furniture. Language barrier was also a problem, as only English was spoken at the schools…help! I also had to take English lessons. I told my son: ‘Let’s give it one year and if it still doesn’t work out, then we’ll leave!’ That’s why I always feel that no matter what you do, never burn your bridges – always leave an ‘out’ for yourself.”
Made the right choice to become a single mom
One person going to school, yet essentially two people were doing the homework. When it came to her son’s studies, Rebecca was right there next to him, helping him look stuff up in the dictionary: “Whether it was Roman history, Islamic history, or U.S. history, I took more notes than he did – it was more exhausting than filming series! Back when my son was born, I had gone back to work in less than a year, so I had never experienced being a ‘full-time’ stay-at-home mom before. It took some getting used to in the beginning, as I not only had to take care of my son, I also had to cook 3 meals a day as well as do the household chores, since there are no maids in the U.S.”
The most difficult thing about being a single mother is having to play the role of both mother and father to her son: “Sometimes I feel like I have split personalities, like the characters in Master of Play – at times, I feel like doting on him more while other times I feel I have to be more strict with him. I do spoil him though sometimes. He loves reading a particular Japanese anime, but I’m not too fond of him reading it – however I often tell him that I’ll buy the comic for him but he has to get certain grade in school. Of course, he always answers with ‘yes, yes, yes’ but after I buy it for him, he doesn’t follow through with the grades. Even now, I still give in to his sweet-talk.”
Her son likes to draw and has quite the artistic talent – oftentimes, he would draw pictures to express his feelings in his journal and whenever Rebecca would see it, she would feel warm inside. Back then, Rebecca made the decision to have a child without getting married and over the course of the next 13 years, her son has been the main motivational force in her life: “I would say that the decision wasn’t wrong at all. Over the years, things have been relatively smooth and I’m enjoying it. I live according to my own plan! When I first made the decision, I already knew the path wouldn’t be easy, but it hasn’t been too bad either – a lot of people are worse off than me. Basically taking it one step at a time – working in order to make a living and provide for my son. The most important thing is that my son is happy and healthy – that’s enough for me. After all, it was my own decision – no one forced me, so I can’t complain. I always tell myself to look on the positive side of things.”
Even if her son ever asks about his father, it won’t be too difficult for Rebecca to answer: “I’m already prepared with answers, but so far, he rarely asks. Sometimes, when he’s watching a series and sees a father mistreating his own son, he would say to me: ‘Luckily I don’t have a father!’ When I hear him say this, I know things are ok because he feels that life with his mother is very happy and he doesn’t feel like anything was lacking in his childhood. I try hard to provide him with everything he’d possibly need and constantly tell him: ‘Other kids may have dads and you don’t, but at least you’re happy – enjoy and live your life happily, that’s already enough.’”
Will consider finding a life partner
Rebecca expressed that even her 80 year old dad is able to accept her being a single mother – in this day and age, the whole world shouldn’t have a problem with it: “The most important thing is to be a responsible person. The new series that I’ll be filming talks about an ‘after-90s’ girl who gets pregnant early in life and after giving birth, abandons the baby – obviously a lot of problems occur. But me, I resolve to be a responsible parent! I read designer Eddie Lau (劉培基)’s column in your magazine where he describes his childhood experience – how could a mother be so cruel? Crazy!”
When Rebecca gave birth to her son, she was already 39 years old – though maturity was on her side, her age made the pregnancy higher risk. She expressed that due to this, it was a difficult experience: “That’s why I feel that you should have children when you’re young. Now that my son is grown, he’ll ask me to watch videos on the internet or play video games with him – I don’t have enough energy for all that, very tiring. However I have a huge sense of responsibility – since I already signed up to go visit the Three Gorges [tourist site in China] with my son, I will still go, even if I have to take painkillers for my injury.”
When actress Shirley Yeung (楊思琦) also became a single mother earlier this year, Rebecca expressed that she understood exactly the type of pressure she had to go through: “I sent her a text message to encourage her – I wrote: ‘Women are very capable and can carry the weight of the world on our shoulders, you can do it!’ She’s still young, so definitely in a better position than I was.”
After thirteen years as a single mother, Rebecca expressed that her son will be independent in 2 years and can stay overseas on his own, so she can start thinking about her own life: “At my age now, I would like to have someone to lean on and listen to my troubles.” When she was in the U.S. for a year, she was busy with her son’s matters, so didn’t have time to meet anyone new – luckily, her ‘requirements’ for choosing a partner are quite flexible: “His age and nationality don’t matter to me, the most important thing is that we’re able to click – even if he’s a Westerner, as long as we’re able to communicate with each other, then it’s not a problem. I’ve been single for so long that I’m used to it already, so sometimes it’s hard to have to accommodate someone else. Of course, he must get along with my son – most important is that Tiga likes him as well.”
Rebecca admits that in the past 13 years, she has not encountered anyone whom she feels can be a dad to her son: “The main reason is because I never really thought about it [finding a partner] before; it’s only now that my son is grown up and will be more independent that I’ve started to think about it – plus seeing some of my friends in the U.S. with their significant others and how happy they were also made me think more about it. If I were in HK, my focus would have been primarily on work and wouldn’t have time to think about it at all – now I can consider it.”
Most memorable relationship with her Malaysian ex-boyfriend
Rebecca expressed that all of her previous boyfriends were from outside the industry. The only artist she was heavily rumored with was Shek Sau (石修), however she expressed that the two of them were merely on-screen partners and never had a relationship in real life.
When she went to Malaysia to film series for a few years, she met a man whom she loved enough to stay in Malaysia for: “I don’t’ like the weather in Malaysia, as it’s way too hot – I like places that have clearly defined 4 seasons.” How about Malaysian men? Rebecca expressed that they were not bad – her Malaysian boyfriend was actually the son of a rich tycoon and at that time, their relationship had even reached the marriage stage. So what was their reason for breaking up? She expressed: “The timing wasn’t right – such a pity! Actually, out of all the relationships I’ve had, this one was the most memorable for me. He was a very good man – very simple, not complicated at all. I like simple people.” Rebecca emphasized that their breakup had nothing to do with her boyfriend’s wealth or family status: “It was a compatibility issue between the two of us.”
If she had become a ‘Malaysian bride’ back then, her fate would have been very different: “It’s actually quite interesting – if back then I had continued to work as ground crew at the airline instead of participating in the Miss HK pageant, I probably would have become a supervisor already. I like rotating shifts – if I had to stay in an office all day long, I’d be bored to death.”
The primary reason why Rebecca participated in the Miss HK pageant was to meet her idol Cora Miao (繆騫人): “From the way she [Cora] talked to the way she dressed, she always came across very cool and charismatic.” Cora Miao participated in the 1976 Miss HK pageant while Rebecca was a contestant in the 1979 pageant – both experienced a similar fate in that neither made it into the top 3 rankings: “Unfortunately, by the time I entered the industry, Cora had already left TVB. When I was in San Francisco, I had hoped to bump into her, but it didn’t happen.”
One time, back when she was young, Rebecca had also gone the ‘rebellious’ route and took some sexy photos that had resulted in her losing a few hosting gigs at TVB due to her image not being ‘healthy’ enough – luckily, it didn’t impact her career permanently and she went from being TVB fa dan [in the 1980s] to a steady, talent-path actress.
Wanted to get her mole removed
Rebecca has a mole near the corner of her mouth that has become somewhat of a trademark for her. She states that in the past, she constantly thought about getting the mole removed, however her friends were opposed to it: “A geomancer once told me I won’t have to worry much about putting ‘food’ on the table [meaning ‘making money’]; indeed I’ve tasted many fine ‘delicacies’ in the past but I feel that I may have the fame, but not necessarily the fortune.”
Rebecca has worked for TVB 30 years and throughout that time, she has filmed series after series, playing a variety of different characters. Having filmed series since the 1980s until now, she understands very clearly in her heart that the quality of TVB series has dropped: “I still feel that series from the 1980s were a lot better to watch. My favorite is The Final Verdict 《誓不低頭》 (1988) – every time Adam and I collaborate, our characters in the series don’t have good results. I really liked the script for this series because the story isn’t just focused on the main lead, but rather, it’s very spread out – every character has a chance to shine.”
In terms of recent works, Rebecca is the most satisfied with her performance in Master of Play: “I quite like [producer] Jonathan Chik (戚其義), as he has a unique style to his filming, however I don’t like how his scripts are always done ‘on the fly’ [飛紙仔]. During the broadcast of the series, people would ask me about the plot, but I would have absolutely no clue: ‘Oh, Maggie Siu (邵美琪) kills that many people?’ I told Jonathan not to include me in his future series – I’m too old and can’t remember so much dialogue in such a short amount of time.”
Prior to Master of Play, Rebecca had also collaborated with producer Chik on War and Beauty: “It was a very satisfying experience, especially getting the chance to act with Sheren Tang (鄧萃雯). Whether it was on or off the camera, the two of us would still remain in character and constantly try to ‘outdo’ each other in all aspects, from hairstyle to makeup to costume. I would use the Empress’s tone of voice and facial expression to say to her: ‘I am the Empress, you are only a Concubine, you need to bow to me!’”
In 2009’s The Greatness of a Hero, Rebecca got the chance to play the ‘female Emperor’ WuZeTian: “Definitely no regrets! Playing the role of an emperor was very high – everyone was constantly bowing to you and if you didn’t like someone, you could send them off to to die. What other woman gets a chance like that to sit on the throne?”
For consummate actors like Rebecca who are very passionate about their craft, their work is their entertainment. Rebecca expressed that she is open to collaborating with different parties – whether it’s Mainland China, the new TV stations in HK, or TVB, she welcomes all of them to seek her out. Of course, priority will be given to those with a completed script.
EPILOGUE
Likes to drink
Looking back at the days before she had her son, Rebecca admits that she was a party-goer who enjoyed going around eating and drinking: “It was pretty intensive – every night I’d go out drinking. In Malaysia, there’s a street very similar to Lan Kwai Fong – I liked to drink until I felt a bit high…pretty happy.”
However looking back at those ‘wild days’ now, Rebecca feels that she had wasted her time: “If I didn’t have my son, I think I would have continued that type of lifestyle. I’m grateful for my son, as he is my motivation for working hard. He definitely changed me a lot.”
The only thing that hasn’t changed is Rebecca’s fondness for the taste of alcohol. She revealed that sometimes, when her son is in school, she would have a drink or two at home: “When we’d go out for sushi, my son would let me have a little bit of sake.” When her son was an infant, she had once added a few drops of beer to his milk – having received ‘training’ at such a young age, her son now knows how to drink carbonated wine. Rebecca Chan is that type of ‘playful’ mother.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
TVB series “Bottled Passion 我的如意狼君” (2011): Theme Song Translation
Those of you who have been following my blog know how much I love the series “Bottled Passion”, which just finished airing last week. Since I already wrote a detailed review on the series (those interested can read it here), I won’t go into huge detail about the series itself with this post. However, one thing that my review didn’t talk about was the theme song to the series – a beautifully written song called 朝花夕拾, which translates into English as “Dawn Blossoms Picked at Dusk”.
I loved this song almost from the first time I heard it (which is rare), primarily because I was attracted to the soothing musical arrangement, which was a perfect match with singer Teresa Cheung’s sweet voice. I actually didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to the lyrics of the song at first – I mean, yes, I did read the lyrics and understood the story the song was trying to tell, but it didn’t have too much of an impact on me in the beginning. It wasn’t until almost half way through the series -- as I watched the love story between the main characters Tung Boon Sin (Raymond Wong) and Tsui Sum (Niki Chow) play out -- that I began really studying the lyrics to the song and recognized how appropriately the theme song matched with the series. Now that I finished watching the series, when I look back through the lyrics to the song, I realize that, in essence, the song is a recap of Boon Sin and Tsui Sum’s relationship in the series. It actually summarizes the emotions and feelings that Tsui Sum goes through almost perfectly in step with the storyline: the broken heart that Tsui Sum suffers after Boon Sin’s betrayal; the constant reminiscing of their days together; the conflicted feelings of sadness and anger whenever she sees Boon Sin, yet at the same time knowing that she has feelings for him; finding out about his revenge plans and forgiving him, waiting for him to return; being reunited in their ‘second’ lifetime and hoping to live a happy life together; and finally, the regret of Boon Sin dying and the two of them only being able to meet again in the ‘next’ lifetime....
Listening to the song now after watching the series actually has a greater emotional impact on me because it serves as a reminder of the poignant and touching yet agonizingly bittersweet story of the two main characters in the series (makes me want to go re-watch the series again…LOL).
This themesong is definitely my favorite song of the year and can also be counted as one of my all-time favorite songs of the decade! Teresa Cheung definitely did a wonderful job performing this song – I’ve heard her sing in the past (primarily in the 1980s, though she is technically a 1970s singer) and even back then, I’ve always loved her sweet and soothing voice. TVB old-timers may remember the theme songs that she sang for classic series such as “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” 《網中人》as well as “Return of the Condor Heroes” 《神鵰俠侶》—in my opinion, her voice is just as beautiful now as it was back then! Of course, praise should also be given to the composer of the song (Tang Chi Wai) as well as the lyricist (Cheng Ying Lun) for the beautiful melody and lyrics. This song definitely gets my vote for Best Theme song of the year!
Not surprisingly (seeing how much I loved this song and the series), I decided to translate the lyrics to the song into English. Now, I have to admit that the lyrics have less of an emotional impact in English then they do in Chinese (which is why I always advocate reading / watching / listening to stuff in its original language), but it does get the story across. Also, as a disclaimer, this is purely my own interpretation of the lyrics and so most likely will be different from other translations of the song that may be out there.
For those who understand Chinese, I again highly recommend listening to the original version of the song – I’ve included the link to the song’s MV below for that purpose.
Lastly, if anyone has feedback regarding the theme song itself, please feel free to comment!
*****
Link to MV (as posted on Youtube): Dawn Blossoms Picked at Dusk
[Translated by: llwy12]
朝花夕拾
Dawn Blossoms Picked at Dusk
電視劇《我的如意狼君》 主題曲
TV Series “Bottled Passion” theme song
主唱：張德蘭
Performed by: Teresa Cheung
作曲: 鄧智偉
Composed by: Tang Chi Wai
填詞: 鄭櫻綸
Lyrics by: Cheng Ying Lun
傷透的芯花睜不開 灰的天等你回來
A flower hurt so completely won’t open, grey skies awaiting your return
一天一天應不應該 思憶中聽你示愛
Day by day should I be, reminiscing about your declarations of love?
Ha......
仿似朝花一息間開 凋萎一刻照夕來
Like a dawn blossom opening in a breath, but withering at the moment dusk arrives
漆黑的天一絲星光 悲傷中感到被愛
A thread of starlight in a darkened sky, feeling loved even in sorrow
Ha......
回頭期望見你在步近 如途人
Turn my head back hoping to see you come close, like a stranger
我數百次轉身站在問
Turning around, I countlessly stand there and question
為何還望再見 為何還要等
Why do I still hope to see you again, why must I still wait?
回頭能望見你在步近 如行人
Turn my head back seeing you come close, like a traveler
你我隔世可相聚沒恨
You and I separated by a lifetime, can reunite without regret
離離合合錯過仍還要等
Separating and reuniting, if miss out, still need to wait
Ha......
其後若相見 可認出聲線
Later if we meet again, hope to recognize your voice
情若是不變 愛沒完沒了
As long as the feelings haven’t changed, we will love endlessly
*****
I loved this song almost from the first time I heard it (which is rare), primarily because I was attracted to the soothing musical arrangement, which was a perfect match with singer Teresa Cheung’s sweet voice. I actually didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to the lyrics of the song at first – I mean, yes, I did read the lyrics and understood the story the song was trying to tell, but it didn’t have too much of an impact on me in the beginning. It wasn’t until almost half way through the series -- as I watched the love story between the main characters Tung Boon Sin (Raymond Wong) and Tsui Sum (Niki Chow) play out -- that I began really studying the lyrics to the song and recognized how appropriately the theme song matched with the series. Now that I finished watching the series, when I look back through the lyrics to the song, I realize that, in essence, the song is a recap of Boon Sin and Tsui Sum’s relationship in the series. It actually summarizes the emotions and feelings that Tsui Sum goes through almost perfectly in step with the storyline: the broken heart that Tsui Sum suffers after Boon Sin’s betrayal; the constant reminiscing of their days together; the conflicted feelings of sadness and anger whenever she sees Boon Sin, yet at the same time knowing that she has feelings for him; finding out about his revenge plans and forgiving him, waiting for him to return; being reunited in their ‘second’ lifetime and hoping to live a happy life together; and finally, the regret of Boon Sin dying and the two of them only being able to meet again in the ‘next’ lifetime....
Listening to the song now after watching the series actually has a greater emotional impact on me because it serves as a reminder of the poignant and touching yet agonizingly bittersweet story of the two main characters in the series (makes me want to go re-watch the series again…LOL).
This themesong is definitely my favorite song of the year and can also be counted as one of my all-time favorite songs of the decade! Teresa Cheung definitely did a wonderful job performing this song – I’ve heard her sing in the past (primarily in the 1980s, though she is technically a 1970s singer) and even back then, I’ve always loved her sweet and soothing voice. TVB old-timers may remember the theme songs that she sang for classic series such as “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” 《網中人》as well as “Return of the Condor Heroes” 《神鵰俠侶》—in my opinion, her voice is just as beautiful now as it was back then! Of course, praise should also be given to the composer of the song (Tang Chi Wai) as well as the lyricist (Cheng Ying Lun) for the beautiful melody and lyrics. This song definitely gets my vote for Best Theme song of the year!
Not surprisingly (seeing how much I loved this song and the series), I decided to translate the lyrics to the song into English. Now, I have to admit that the lyrics have less of an emotional impact in English then they do in Chinese (which is why I always advocate reading / watching / listening to stuff in its original language), but it does get the story across. Also, as a disclaimer, this is purely my own interpretation of the lyrics and so most likely will be different from other translations of the song that may be out there.
For those who understand Chinese, I again highly recommend listening to the original version of the song – I’ve included the link to the song’s MV below for that purpose.
Lastly, if anyone has feedback regarding the theme song itself, please feel free to comment!
*****
Link to MV (as posted on Youtube): Dawn Blossoms Picked at Dusk
[Translated by: llwy12]
朝花夕拾
Dawn Blossoms Picked at Dusk
電視劇《我的如意狼君》 主題曲
TV Series “Bottled Passion” theme song
主唱：張德蘭
Performed by: Teresa Cheung
作曲: 鄧智偉
Composed by: Tang Chi Wai
填詞: 鄭櫻綸
Lyrics by: Cheng Ying Lun
傷透的芯花睜不開 灰的天等你回來
A flower hurt so completely won’t open, grey skies awaiting your return
一天一天應不應該 思憶中聽你示愛
Day by day should I be, reminiscing about your declarations of love?
Ha......
仿似朝花一息間開 凋萎一刻照夕來
Like a dawn blossom opening in a breath, but withering at the moment dusk arrives
漆黑的天一絲星光 悲傷中感到被愛
A thread of starlight in a darkened sky, feeling loved even in sorrow
Ha......
回頭期望見你在步近 如途人
Turn my head back hoping to see you come close, like a stranger
我數百次轉身站在問
Turning around, I countlessly stand there and question
為何還望再見 為何還要等
Why do I still hope to see you again, why must I still wait?
回頭能望見你在步近 如行人
Turn my head back seeing you come close, like a traveler
你我隔世可相聚沒恨
You and I separated by a lifetime, can reunite without regret
離離合合錯過仍還要等
Separating and reuniting, if miss out, still need to wait
Ha......
其後若相見 可認出聲線
Later if we meet again, hope to recognize your voice
情若是不變 愛沒完沒了
As long as the feelings haven’t changed, we will love endlessly
*****
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Review of TVB series “Bottled Passion 我的如意狼君” (2011)
Cast (partial list of the main & supporting cast): Raymond Wong (黃浩然), Niki Chow (周麗淇), Elaine Yiu (姚子羚), Jack Wu (胡諾言), Rebecca Chan (陳秀珠), Katy Kung (龔嘉欣), Eric Li (李天翔), Joel Chan (陳山聰), Raymond Cho (曹永廉), Claire Yiu (姚嘉妮), Ching Hor Wai (程可為), Samuel Kwok Fung (郭峰), Vin Choi (蔡淇俊)
I will admit that I had doubts about watching this series at first because I’m not too keen on Niki Chow as an actress and since she is the female lead in this series, I wasn’t sure how things would turn out -- plus I'm not a fan of Elaine or Katy either (their acting has always fallen in the ‘tolerable’ category for me). However, I decided to go ahead and give the series a try primarily because of 3 reasons: 1) I’ve always liked Raymond Wong (male lead in this series) as an actor plus I like majority of the supporting cast, so I figured even if I don’t like the female leads, the rest of the cast would make up for it (and I was right to some extent); 2) I knew this was produced by Lee Tim Sing (which means there will be a certain level of quality to it) – plus Tim Gor is usually quite involved when it comes to writing the scripts for his series and I’ve enjoyed many of the series he has done in the past, so that gave me more confidence that this would be a decent series at least; and 3) the ‘pre-modern’ genre of this series is one of my favorite genres.
I’m actually very glad that I decided to give this series a chance because it turns out that I ended up LOVING this series (I know, it’s hard to believe given how particular I am with series nowadays). In fact, this is such a great series and I enjoyed it so much that it has officially become my absolute favorite series of 2011 (as well as one of my all-time favorite series from the entire decade)! To be quite honest, it has been years since I’ve encountered a series that took me on such an emotional roller coaster as this one: majority of the series made me cry (literally went through an entire box of tissues!) while some of the scenes made me laugh and others made me angry – still others had me sitting on the edge of my seat in anticipation of what was going to happen next (the suspense factor)….very few of TVB’s series in the recent decade have been able to balance all these elements so well in 1 series (usually, 1 or more of the elements is sacrificed), which is part of what made this series so memorable and awesome.
Before I go further, just a word of warning…this review will most likely be quite long, as I enjoyed this series so much that it had sort of become an ‘obsession’ of mine lately (LOL) and so obviously I have a lot to say about it…..therefore, to those willing to spare time reading this review, I sincerely thank you in advance!
.--.
STORYLINE / SCRIPT
Normally, when doing a series review, I would talk about the cast and characters first, since most of my thoughts regarding the storyline / script will usually become apparent in the discussion about the cast. But for this particular review, I felt it was appropriate to talk about the script first because in my opinion, the absolutely well-written script and engaging storyline were amongst the biggest reasons (in addition to the fine acting from majority of the cast) why this series was so enjoyable and successful on many levels. I definitely have to applaud the scriptwriting team for putting together such a great script (and of course, part of the credit goes to producer Lee Tim Sing as well, since he always plays a huge part in writing of the scripts with all the series he produces).
One of the (many) things I like most about the script / storyline is the way the love story between Raymond Wong and Niki Chow’s characters was written (more on this piece later). I like how their relationship in the first half of the series is not the 'obvious' love relationship thing that TVB is so famous for doing, but rather, a more 'subtle romance' approach that really drives up the emotional factor. Indeed, in my opinion, the beauty of this series is in the ‘subtleness’ of the script – there were quite a few scenes where the dialogue was replaced by simple actions by the actors (hand gestures, body language, facial expressions, etc.) that in and of itself, already conveyed a wealth of emotion. With that said however, the important thing is that the writers / producer did a great job of keeping the ‘subtleness’ balanced throughout the series – meaning that they were careful to include just enough of it to keep the emotional level high, but didn’t overuse it (there were other parts of the script that were similar in style like this). Now don’t get me wrong – the careful dialogue was just as important and there was definitely a lot of it in this series -- in fact, there were many memorable lines in my opinion that really contributed to the overall effectiveness of the script.
As the article from Nan Fong Daily News stated so well, one of the biggest attractions of this series is the way the producer Tim Gor handles the storyline / script: “the plot is fast-paced and the story-telling effect is strong, which often evokes in audiences the desire to ‘chase’ each episode – each time, he incorporates just enough ‘tension’ in the series to draw audiences in and the more they watch, the more ‘flavorful’ the series gets.” This quote absolutely suits this series almost perfectly, as I can honestly say that the way the script was written and the series was produced, there wasn’t a single boring scene in this series -- from the moment I watched the first episode all the way up through the tragic finale, I was absolutely hooked! Normally, in most series, even the ones I like, I usually will find some scenes boring or draggy – but that was not the case here…every minute of this series was absolutely worthwhile (to the point that I felt like this series flew by way too quickly).
Now of course, the script wasn’t perfect by any means (no script ever is) and this one definitely had some flaws (the ending itself is a bit contentious, but more on that later) – however this script overall was definitely one of the best that I have seen in years! Once again, great job to the writers and to Tim Gor for such a wonderful script / storyline!
CAST / CHARACTERS
This series absolutely proves that you don’t need to have an ‘all star’ cast in a series to make it successful and accepted by audiences! Even though this series did not have any ‘big name’ artists in it (well, what most people today would consider ‘big name’ anyway), the cast was definitely strong in terms of acting, as most of the cast were truly high caliber actors and actresses who were able to carry this series extremely well with their brilliant acting. It’s rare to have a series where almost every artist who participated pulled off their roles extremely well, to the point that it’s actually hard for me to choose a favorite character in this series because all of them did such fine jobs and there were so many of them that I liked, especially on the male side (though if I truly had to choose, my top picks would be Raymond Wong’s Tung Boon Sin, Eric Li’s Law Yat, Jack Wu’s Dr Yuen, and Raymond Cho’s Tsui Ping).
The other thing that I really enjoyed about the casting in the series (and part of what made this series so great in my opinion) was the awesome chemistry that existed consistently throughout the entire series – not just in terms of the romantic pairing (between Raymond and Niki), but also in the other areas as well (such as the relationship between Niki and her family, the friendships between Raymond and Eric as well as between Niki and Jack, etc.). I truly believe that one of the most important things in a series is the chemistry of its cast and this series definitely illustrated that all across the board. One of the reasons why this series moved me so emotionally (in addition to the script and the acting) was because the chemistry came across so genuine that I truly felt a connection to each of the characters and when things happened to them, I truly felt for them.
Anyway, here’s my take on each of the characters and the artists’ performances:
Raymond Wong (Tung Boon Sin / Lee Ho) – Raymond’s character is actually quite complex. His real name is Lee Ho and when he was 8 years old, he was adopted from an orphanage and therefore had to separate from his childhood friend Ngau Nai Tong whom he was very close with and took care of, since she was crippled. Little did he know that the couple who adopted him did so as part of a plot by Dong Kwok Hing (played by Rebecca Chan), who was planning to use the child to deceive her husband Ko Siu Tong (played by Kwok Fung) so that he would stop looking for the illegitimate child he had with another woman. Afterwards, when the plan falls through and Lee Ho is kicked out of the house, Dong Kwok Hing tries to kill him by pushing him into a ravine so that her husband would never find out she was behind the plan. Amazingly, Lee Ho survived and later ends up in Nanjing, where he has to rely on deceiving people and performing magic tricks in order to make a living. He encounters a kind elderly man, Uncle Shek, who is the butler to a wealthy family – Uncle Shek becomes like a father to Lee Ho and when the master of the house Mr. Tung and his young son dies, Lee Ho takes on the identity of the young master Tung Boon Sin. Using this identity, he returns to Guangzhou to take revenge against Dong Kwok Hing and the entire Ko family for what was done to him as a child. As part of his plan to ruin the Ko family, he deceives Ko Yee Kiu (played by Elaine Yiu) into falling in love with him while at the same time, pretends to make a play at her younger sister Yee Nga (played by Katy Kung) so that the sisters would hate each other. Yee Kiu falls into his trap and ends up losing everything she has – plus the rest of the family gets the punishment they deserve as well. During this process, Tung Boon Sin meets Tsui Sum (played by Niki Chow) and decides to use her as part of his revenge plan, since the Ko family was interested in the land that her family’s soy sauce factory was built on – however he never anticipated that he would actually fall in love with her. Later on, he finds out that Tsui Sum is actually the childhood friend that he had been looking for over the past 20 years. Most of the series from this point pretty much revolves around Tung Boon Sin’s revenge against the Ko family as well as his relationship with Tsui Sum. Even though the character of Tung Boon Sin is billed as a ‘bad guy’ of sorts because of what he does to the Ko family (especially the innocent Yee Kiu), he’s actually a good guy at heart, it’s just that his suffering as a child caused him to want revenge.
Raymond Wong did an EXCELLENT job in the role of Tung Boon Sin -- his performance in this series was absolutely amazing and convincing! Tim Gor once said in an interview that Raymond was well-suited for the role of Tung Boon Sin – well, I would actually venture to say that he wasn’t just ‘well-suited’ for the role, he was actually PERFECT for it! It’s obvious that Raymond put a lot of effort into the role, as his acting in the series was so METICULOUS -- from the first time his character appeared in episode 1 all the way to his tragic end in episode 21….every facial expression, hand gesture, even the crying scenes were all absolutely well-executed, to the point that I truly felt he was the one carrying the whole Boon Sin / Tsui Sum storyline and it’s really because of his fine acting that all those scenes between him and Niki were so emotional (for me at least). Also, I never realized it before, but those eyes of his sure can act! The wealth of emotion that Raymond conveyed with his eyes – whether it’s anger, happiness, playfulness, sadness, etc. – was so amazing, it definitely was difficult not to be drawn in to his character in the series. Raymond definitely deserves a lot of credit for making the character of Tung Boon Sin SO MEMORABLE!
Even though Raymond has been in the industry for a long time, I never really knew much about him until he joined TVB a few years ago. I watched most of the TVB series that he was in prior to this one and even though I liked his performances and always viewed him as a solid, talented actor, I didn’t realize his true potential until now. I absolutely loved Raymond in this series – his performance impressed me so much that I’ve become somewhat of a ‘fan’ now and am definitely looking forward to future performances from him!
Niki Chow (Tsui Sum / Ngau Nai Tong) – Niki’s character Tsui Sum is the adopted daughter of the Tsui family (though this fact is not revealed until halfway through the series) who takes on overseeing the family’s soy sauce factory after her (adopted) father dies. She has a strong-willed personality (which makes sense given that she has to oversee an entire factory), but at the same time, she also has a kind and compassionate heart. When Tung Boon Sin first enters her life, she is moved by his story of his childhood friend Ngau Nai Tong, whom he has been waiting for 20 years to be reunited with and even tries to help him find her. Not surprisingly, Tsui Sum is smitten by Boon Sin’s charm and even falls for him after he repeatedly helps bail her family out of trouble. He persuades her to sign over the rights to her family’s soy sauce factory to him, hoping that he would be able to save the factory from demise, but he ends up selling the factory to the Ko family as part of his revenge plot. When Tsui Sum finds out that the person she trusted with all her heart was deceiving her all along, she is devastated -- but with the help of her family and the doctor friend (played by Jack Wu) she meets at the hospital, she eventually overcomes the pain and starts anew rebuilding the soy sauce factory (that is, until she and Boon Sin cross paths again). Without going into detail, of course Tsui Sum and Boon Sin eventually become a couple, but the twists and turns that occur in between is truly what makes their love story so poignant and memorable.
Contrary to popular opinion, I actually think that Niki did a decent job in this series. Sure, her acting wasn’t great by any means, but it wasn’t horrible either – I actually did not get as annoyed with her performance in here as I have been in her past series. The problem I’ve always had with Niki’s acting in the past is that she’s too wooden at times, which makes her acting look forced – plus she has a certain intonation in her voice which sometimes makes it sound like she is reading the dialogue rather than reciting it, which is why her acting always comes across as very unnatural to me. That being said though, I will say that she has improved A LOT in this series because even though she still had the same problems (yes, I was able to detect it right away), it was not as pronounced as in previous series. And I have to admit that Niki does crying scenes way better than most of the actresses at TVB nowadays (it’s kind of ironic that I find Niki’s crying scenes quite natural and convincing, but her acting overall doesn’t have the same effect).
I think that overall, the reason why I found her character tolerable was because of the chemistry that Niki had with Raymond Wong in this series – I actually enjoyed almost every single scene that the 2 of them had together. Perhaps because of Raymond’s great acting in this series, he was able to bring out the best in Niki because I felt that each time the 2 of them interacted in a scene, the emotional impact was very high. I actually think that NIki and Raymond make a great onscreen couple – for me, this was one of the best pairings that I’ve seen in years!
Jack Wu (Yuen Yau Hin) – Jack plays an established young doctor who actually turns out to be the illegitimate son that Ko Siu Tong (Samuel Kwok)had been looking for and eventually found. He’s a very kind-hearted person whose main goal in life is to be a good doctor and help as many people as possible. Though he and his father reunited many years ago, he does not want his father to acknowledge him publicly because he has no interest whatsoever in the Ko family fortune or their business. However, due to various things that happen, he eventually returns to the Ko family and helps out with the business. He meets Tsui Sum (Niki Chow) after she becomes his patient at the hospital where he works and he helps her through the illness that was brought on by Boon Sin’s deception. Even when he returns to help take care of the Ko family business, he still continues his ‘job’ as the Tsui family doctor. The two of them end up developing a life-long friendship. Also, he is pretty much the only good person in the entire Ko family.
Jack Wu has always been one of those actors whom I’ve found to be extremely underrated. He’s quite solid in terms of his acting skills and I’ve always found his performances consistent and likable. In the past, I always felt like Jack was typecasted into those ‘boy next door’ type roles -- perhaps because of his boyish looks -- and never really given a chance to play more mature, ‘professional’ roles much. That’s why I feel that Tim Gor made the right choice to cast Jack in this series as Dr Yuen because the character is quite different from the roles that he used to play in the past and it gives Jack a chance to show his acting skill. Of course, he still needs a little bit of polish in the role, but overall, he put in a fine performance!
Eric Li (Law Yat) – Eric plays Tung Boon Sin’s best friend Law Yat who is also his ‘partner’ in helping him carry out his revenge plans. His role is more behind the scenes, as he does a lot of investigative work for Boon Sin and reports back his findings, then, based on this, the two of them plan out their next moves. The reason why Law Yat is so devoted to helping Boon Sin is because he saved his life a long time ago, so he swore he would follow him from that moment on. The unique thing about Law Yat and Boon Sin’s relationship is the great chemistry between the two – they understand each other so well that oftentimes, they seem to know what the other is thinking and they are able to execute their plans effectively. The bond that these two share is unique and their relationship is similar to that of brothers rather than simply friends, which becomes more obvious as the series progresses (especially in the last few episodes when Boon Sin’s life is in danger). Law Yat has a playful personality, but when it comes to helping Boon Sin execute his plans, he takes his responsibilities very seriously – once the serious discussions are over however, Law Yat never passes up the chance to ‘tease’ Boon Sin about Tsui Sum. I love watching these two interact – the ‘teasing’ scenes between these two are especially hilarious and provide a welcome comedic respite from the otherwise serious / tragic nature of the series.
I was thoroughly impressed with Eric’s performance in this series! His portrayal of Law Yat was so well-executed and natural, I couldn’t help finding his character endearing and charming. Actually, this isn’t the first time that Eric has pulled off an impressive performance, but unfortunately, most of the roles he’s had in the past were insignificant ones where he never really got a chance to showcase his talent, plus he was mostly typecasted into minor villain roles as well (most audiences probably recognize Eric for his villain roles). His role in this particular series was probably one of the first ‘meatier’ non-villain roles he was given and without a doubt, he absolutely excelled in it!
I actually read up a little bit on Eric after watching this series and was surprised to find out that he has actually been in the industry since the mid-90s – he actually graduated from TVB’s Acting Class in 1995 and has been in numerous TVB productions since then (another actor who has toiled at TVB for numerous years without much recognition). Boy, I really hope that TVB gives him more significant supporting roles to play rather than the usual ‘villain x or y’ because it’s obvious that he has good acting skills and great potential (come on now, he’s 100x better than those Mr. HKs that TVB keeps putting into their series!).
Rebecca Chan (Dong Kwok Hing) – Rebecca played the role of the main ‘villanness’ in the series, Dong Kwok Hing. She is the matriarch of the Ko family and has a significant amount of ‘clout’ because she came from a well-to-do family and her husband Ko Siu Tong (Samuel Kwok) was able to build his business based in large part on funds provided by her family. She and Siu Tong have 3 children: oldest son Yee Tai (played by Joel Chan), second daughter Yee Kiu (played by Elaine Yiu), and youngest daughter Yee Nga (played by Katy Kung). The best way to describe Dong Kwok Hing is that she is a ‘control freak’ -- ever since her children were little, she has always ruled them with an iron fist, arranging every aspect of their lives from where/when they should go to school to whom they should marry. Also, she spends a lot of her time trying to make her children seem like ‘model children’ in front of their father by hiding anything bad that they do from him, primarily because she is afraid that if he found out, he would cut the children off from any future inheritance. Dong Kwok Hing is actually a very important character in the series because it’s really because of her scheming and her actions that trigger the whole revenge thing with Tung Boon Sin and pretty much becomes the catalyst for everything else that happens in the series.
Once again, Rebecca did an excellent job as the villain character (seems like she’s been doing more and more villain roles in the past several years). Of course, as a veteran artist, it’s no surprise that her acting would be great – with her level of experience, she has pretty much mastered the skills when it comes to executing her role well. Not sure how many people notice, but whenever Rebecca does villain roles, she does the facial expressions extremely well, especially with the eyes (the way she stares menacingly at people with those piercing eyes can be quite scary). With that said, she is still able to play the benevolent mother roles well too – now that’s versatile acting! It’s interesting how Rebecca has come a long way from TVB fa dan in the 80s to top villainess in the current era. I grew up watching her series and even when she was a fa dan, I always felt that she looked more mature than most of the other fa dans at the time (though she wasn’t really that much older). Anyway, another great performance from a veteran!
Elaine Yiu (Ko Yee Kiu) – Elaine’s character Yee Kiu is the oldest daughter in the Ko family. She’s quite smart, but because of the way she is raised, she is constantly under her mother’s controlling shadow. On the surface, she is obedient to her mother and does whatever she is told to do, even if it means that she must marry a man she doesn’t love in order to further the business relationship between the 2 families – however, inside, she really hates the way her mother tries to control them. Because she wants so desperately to get out from under her mother’s control, she tries to win her dad’s favor by succeeding with the family business, so throughout most of the series, she is battling her older brother Yee Tai to gain the upper hand in the business. She meets Tung Boon Sin during a business transaction and though impressed by him, she doesn’t get involved with him because she is engaged already. However, as the series progresses and she gets more and more frustrated with her mother’s controlling nature (plus her dad doesn’t appreciate her efforts with the family business), she eventually falls for Boon Sin’s charms and starts dating him behind her fiance’s back (which is all part of Boon Sin’s plan, though unbeknownst to her of course). In the end, under Boon Sin’s encouragement, she defies her mother and breaks up with her fiancé (causing him to commit suicide)…after giving up everything she has and running away from home, she discovers that all along the whole thing was a setup – Boon Sin never loved her and was pretty much ‘playing’ her the entire time as part of his revenge plan to destroy the Ko family.
To my surprise, I was actually quite impressed with Elaine’s acting in this series. I haven’t seen a whole lot of her series in the past, but the ones that I have seen I was not impressed with, so I wasn’t really expecting much from her going into this series. I was pleasantly surprised though to see how much more mature her acting has become – with many of the emotional scenes involving herself and Raymond as well as the ‘showdown’ scenes between her and Rebecca, she was able to deliver consistently. In fact, in that one episode especially where Yee Kiu defies her mother and runs away from home, only to find the letter that Boon Seen leaves for her telling her the whole thing was a setup – all of the scenes were done so well by Elaine that I truly felt sorry for her character...when she read the letter, I could sense her pain! Also, that last scene in the finale where her character Yee Kiu seeks out Raymond’s character Boon Seen at the office and stabs him was actually quite well-acted. Great improvement for Elaine!
Raymond Cho (Tsui Ping) -- Raymond Cho plays Tsui Sum (Niki)’s older brother Tsui Ping. He is a very honest and upright person who is not good at making decisions and doesn’t really have much of an opinion on anything, however, he has a heart of gold. Even though he is the oldest son, he knows that with his somewhat shy personality, he’s not suited to manage the family’s soy sauce factory, so he’s perfectly fine with his sister overseeing it. He prefers to live a simple and happy life and let the other women in his life (his wife, sister, and mother) make all the decisions for him – in a sense, he has a ‘happy-go-luck’ type personality. One of Tsui Ping’s best qualities is his unwavering devotion to his family, especially to his little sister Tsui Sum – other than his mother, he is the only one who knows Tsui Sum’s true identity, but that doesn’t prevent him from treating her as his biological sister. The way he loves his sister so much and tries to protect her at all costs is truly very touching and sweet!
Ray Cho never fails to impress me with his acting! No matter what type of role he gets – whether serious, comedic, villain, etc. – he always handles the role extremely well. The character of Tsui Ping may not be a major character in the series and compared to the others, he may not have as much screentime, but his role was still very endearing and enjoyable. I loved all those scenes he had with Niki where the two of them would have their heart-to-heart brother/sister talks as well as those scenes where he would be so concerned for his sister’s well-being that he would be on the verge of tears (moved me to tears as well). Ray’s character (as well as his performance) was definitely among one of my favorites!
Additional Cast:
Claire Yiu (Tsui Ping’s wife Wan Yau) – As Tsui Ping’s wife, she is loud and bossy (in a nice way) with a blunt personality and a bit nosy too, but underneath all that, she actually has a good heart. In fact, her character was quite funny and enjoyable in this series. I especially loved her interaction with her ‘husband’ in the series, Ray Cho – they sure make a compatible, cute couple in my opinion…LOL!
Ching Hor Wai (Mrs. Tsui) – Her character is pretty much the typical ‘benevolent mother’ role, except that she ends up having an illness similar to Alzheimers and slowly starts to lose her memory. Even though her role can be considered minor in comparisons to the others (I think she probably has the least amount of screentime), her character is critical in being the one who knows the background of Tsui Sum’s childhood and eventually revealing those details to Boon Sin. Ching Hor Wai gives her usual steady performance in here.
Katy Kung (Ko Yee Nga) – Katy plays the youngest of the Ko daughters and is actually the one who deserves most to meet a miserable fate in my opinion. Her character is bxxchy and incorrigible – at home, she pretends to be a good girl to win her parents favor, but outside, she shows her true colors as a promiscuous teenager who smokes and has a nasty, arrogant temper. Knowing her personality and temper, Boon Sin purposefully leads her into thinking that he likes her when he actually doesn’t and this causes her to be at odds with her sister Yee Kiu. Later on, when she finds out that Boon Sin’s true love is actually Tsui Sum, Yee Nga gets jealous and ends up pushing her down a cliff – the incident causes Tsui Sum to once again become crippled. Obviously I disliked Katy’s character – she was just way too annoying and fake (and it’s unfortunate that she ended up getting off scott-free thanks to her mother, continuing to live her wild life in another city)!
Joel Chan (Ko Yee Tai) – Joel actually portrayed his role quite well in this series, but since I’ve never really been fond of him as an actor, I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to him in here. Besides, his character had more of a significance in the first few episodes of the series during the whole battle over the soy sauce factory and stuff –later on, he pretty much just follows his mother around and does whatever she tells him to do.
Samuel Kwok (Ko Siu Tong) – I’m actually kind of disappointed that Kwok Fung didn’t have a more significant role in this series, especially given that he is the patriarch of the Ko family. I sort of felt like all he did pretty much was just appear every so often to chide his children and his wife whenever something bad happened in his family. The two scenes where he had the most significance were in the announcement of Yuen Yau Hin as his son and also when he officially disowns his oldest son and sends his wife away after he discovers the nasty things that they did. For such a great veteran actor, too bad his role was less significant.
Tracy Ip (Ko Yee Tai’s wife Bak Wai) – Her performance is probably the only one that I really didn’t like -- her acting came across too robotic and fake to me and it seemed that she had difficulty saying her lines (perhaps because of her slight accent?). Anyway, since her role was relatively minor and didn’t appear a whole lot, I was ok with sitting through it.
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THE ENDING
I normally don’t like to go into too much detail with the ending, but with this series, since the ending was a bit contentious, I figured it’s important to talk about. (The sentiment from the general public seems to be that the overall series was great, but the ending was bad because it was so tragic -- specifically referring to the part where Tung Boon Sin dies tragically and Tsui Sum doesn’t find out until years later).
Indeed, the ending truly was agonizing and absolutely heartwrenching! Episode 20 actually ended very sweetly (and close to the ‘happily ever after’ ending that most of us wanted), but then episode 21 came along and it ended up being so tragic that part of me really wanted to pretend episode 21 didn’t exist (though of course that’s not possible because that’s the critical episode that ties up all the loose ends).
Personally, I had mixed feelings about the ending – on the one hand, I could understand the purpose of making the ending tragic so that it’s more memorable (which the series definitely did), but on the other hand, I could also see how the writers could have written the ending differently, in a way that would have been more satisfying to the audiences (if not ‘happily ever after’, then even a semi-tragic one would have sufficed for me – especially since that’s the type of ending I had in mind anyway).
I actually don’t think that I would have a problem with the tragic ending (the part where Boon Sin dies) itself if that entire segment had been handled better -- because the way it was portrayed in the finale really did not make a whole lot of sense from a logical standpoint (plus the ‘tortuous’ way in which that part was portrayed – the whole ‘tripping through the streets with blood gushing out of wound’ thing -- was really unnecessary in my opinion).
Anyway…as much as I didn’t want to see the series end the way it did, I will admit that it definitely upped the emotional factor and made the series all the more poignant and memorable!
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:
Overall, “Bottled Passion” was an excellent series! Even though the series is technically a romantic love story at its core, there’s actually a good mix of other things in there that make the series well-balanced enough for those who may want to watch this but are not into romantic dramas. I personally enjoyed this series tremendously and for me – taking all things into consideration such as script / storyline, cast, acting, etc. -- it’s truly the Best Series of the year (officially now, since 2011 is over already).
This is definitely a series worth watching (I’m already planning to rewatch it soon, which is rare for me) for all the reasons stated above (plus at 21 episodes, it’s short enough so as not to be draggy). Now of course, if you’re the type of person who doesn’t like watching ‘tearjerkers’ at all (it’s pretty much a guarantee that this series will evoke tears at one point or another), then yes, perhaps reconsider…but if you want to see how a truly high quality, well-written, well-acted, and well-produced looks like, then this series is definitely the one to choose!
I will admit that I had doubts about watching this series at first because I’m not too keen on Niki Chow as an actress and since she is the female lead in this series, I wasn’t sure how things would turn out -- plus I'm not a fan of Elaine or Katy either (their acting has always fallen in the ‘tolerable’ category for me). However, I decided to go ahead and give the series a try primarily because of 3 reasons: 1) I’ve always liked Raymond Wong (male lead in this series) as an actor plus I like majority of the supporting cast, so I figured even if I don’t like the female leads, the rest of the cast would make up for it (and I was right to some extent); 2) I knew this was produced by Lee Tim Sing (which means there will be a certain level of quality to it) – plus Tim Gor is usually quite involved when it comes to writing the scripts for his series and I’ve enjoyed many of the series he has done in the past, so that gave me more confidence that this would be a decent series at least; and 3) the ‘pre-modern’ genre of this series is one of my favorite genres.
I’m actually very glad that I decided to give this series a chance because it turns out that I ended up LOVING this series (I know, it’s hard to believe given how particular I am with series nowadays). In fact, this is such a great series and I enjoyed it so much that it has officially become my absolute favorite series of 2011 (as well as one of my all-time favorite series from the entire decade)! To be quite honest, it has been years since I’ve encountered a series that took me on such an emotional roller coaster as this one: majority of the series made me cry (literally went through an entire box of tissues!) while some of the scenes made me laugh and others made me angry – still others had me sitting on the edge of my seat in anticipation of what was going to happen next (the suspense factor)….very few of TVB’s series in the recent decade have been able to balance all these elements so well in 1 series (usually, 1 or more of the elements is sacrificed), which is part of what made this series so memorable and awesome.
Before I go further, just a word of warning…this review will most likely be quite long, as I enjoyed this series so much that it had sort of become an ‘obsession’ of mine lately (LOL) and so obviously I have a lot to say about it…..therefore, to those willing to spare time reading this review, I sincerely thank you in advance!
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STORYLINE / SCRIPT
Normally, when doing a series review, I would talk about the cast and characters first, since most of my thoughts regarding the storyline / script will usually become apparent in the discussion about the cast. But for this particular review, I felt it was appropriate to talk about the script first because in my opinion, the absolutely well-written script and engaging storyline were amongst the biggest reasons (in addition to the fine acting from majority of the cast) why this series was so enjoyable and successful on many levels. I definitely have to applaud the scriptwriting team for putting together such a great script (and of course, part of the credit goes to producer Lee Tim Sing as well, since he always plays a huge part in writing of the scripts with all the series he produces).
One of the (many) things I like most about the script / storyline is the way the love story between Raymond Wong and Niki Chow’s characters was written (more on this piece later). I like how their relationship in the first half of the series is not the 'obvious' love relationship thing that TVB is so famous for doing, but rather, a more 'subtle romance' approach that really drives up the emotional factor. Indeed, in my opinion, the beauty of this series is in the ‘subtleness’ of the script – there were quite a few scenes where the dialogue was replaced by simple actions by the actors (hand gestures, body language, facial expressions, etc.) that in and of itself, already conveyed a wealth of emotion. With that said however, the important thing is that the writers / producer did a great job of keeping the ‘subtleness’ balanced throughout the series – meaning that they were careful to include just enough of it to keep the emotional level high, but didn’t overuse it (there were other parts of the script that were similar in style like this). Now don’t get me wrong – the careful dialogue was just as important and there was definitely a lot of it in this series -- in fact, there were many memorable lines in my opinion that really contributed to the overall effectiveness of the script.
As the article from Nan Fong Daily News stated so well, one of the biggest attractions of this series is the way the producer Tim Gor handles the storyline / script: “the plot is fast-paced and the story-telling effect is strong, which often evokes in audiences the desire to ‘chase’ each episode – each time, he incorporates just enough ‘tension’ in the series to draw audiences in and the more they watch, the more ‘flavorful’ the series gets.” This quote absolutely suits this series almost perfectly, as I can honestly say that the way the script was written and the series was produced, there wasn’t a single boring scene in this series -- from the moment I watched the first episode all the way up through the tragic finale, I was absolutely hooked! Normally, in most series, even the ones I like, I usually will find some scenes boring or draggy – but that was not the case here…every minute of this series was absolutely worthwhile (to the point that I felt like this series flew by way too quickly).
Now of course, the script wasn’t perfect by any means (no script ever is) and this one definitely had some flaws (the ending itself is a bit contentious, but more on that later) – however this script overall was definitely one of the best that I have seen in years! Once again, great job to the writers and to Tim Gor for such a wonderful script / storyline!
CAST / CHARACTERS
This series absolutely proves that you don’t need to have an ‘all star’ cast in a series to make it successful and accepted by audiences! Even though this series did not have any ‘big name’ artists in it (well, what most people today would consider ‘big name’ anyway), the cast was definitely strong in terms of acting, as most of the cast were truly high caliber actors and actresses who were able to carry this series extremely well with their brilliant acting. It’s rare to have a series where almost every artist who participated pulled off their roles extremely well, to the point that it’s actually hard for me to choose a favorite character in this series because all of them did such fine jobs and there were so many of them that I liked, especially on the male side (though if I truly had to choose, my top picks would be Raymond Wong’s Tung Boon Sin, Eric Li’s Law Yat, Jack Wu’s Dr Yuen, and Raymond Cho’s Tsui Ping).
The other thing that I really enjoyed about the casting in the series (and part of what made this series so great in my opinion) was the awesome chemistry that existed consistently throughout the entire series – not just in terms of the romantic pairing (between Raymond and Niki), but also in the other areas as well (such as the relationship between Niki and her family, the friendships between Raymond and Eric as well as between Niki and Jack, etc.). I truly believe that one of the most important things in a series is the chemistry of its cast and this series definitely illustrated that all across the board. One of the reasons why this series moved me so emotionally (in addition to the script and the acting) was because the chemistry came across so genuine that I truly felt a connection to each of the characters and when things happened to them, I truly felt for them.
Anyway, here’s my take on each of the characters and the artists’ performances:
Raymond Wong (Tung Boon Sin / Lee Ho) – Raymond’s character is actually quite complex. His real name is Lee Ho and when he was 8 years old, he was adopted from an orphanage and therefore had to separate from his childhood friend Ngau Nai Tong whom he was very close with and took care of, since she was crippled. Little did he know that the couple who adopted him did so as part of a plot by Dong Kwok Hing (played by Rebecca Chan), who was planning to use the child to deceive her husband Ko Siu Tong (played by Kwok Fung) so that he would stop looking for the illegitimate child he had with another woman. Afterwards, when the plan falls through and Lee Ho is kicked out of the house, Dong Kwok Hing tries to kill him by pushing him into a ravine so that her husband would never find out she was behind the plan. Amazingly, Lee Ho survived and later ends up in Nanjing, where he has to rely on deceiving people and performing magic tricks in order to make a living. He encounters a kind elderly man, Uncle Shek, who is the butler to a wealthy family – Uncle Shek becomes like a father to Lee Ho and when the master of the house Mr. Tung and his young son dies, Lee Ho takes on the identity of the young master Tung Boon Sin. Using this identity, he returns to Guangzhou to take revenge against Dong Kwok Hing and the entire Ko family for what was done to him as a child. As part of his plan to ruin the Ko family, he deceives Ko Yee Kiu (played by Elaine Yiu) into falling in love with him while at the same time, pretends to make a play at her younger sister Yee Nga (played by Katy Kung) so that the sisters would hate each other. Yee Kiu falls into his trap and ends up losing everything she has – plus the rest of the family gets the punishment they deserve as well. During this process, Tung Boon Sin meets Tsui Sum (played by Niki Chow) and decides to use her as part of his revenge plan, since the Ko family was interested in the land that her family’s soy sauce factory was built on – however he never anticipated that he would actually fall in love with her. Later on, he finds out that Tsui Sum is actually the childhood friend that he had been looking for over the past 20 years. Most of the series from this point pretty much revolves around Tung Boon Sin’s revenge against the Ko family as well as his relationship with Tsui Sum. Even though the character of Tung Boon Sin is billed as a ‘bad guy’ of sorts because of what he does to the Ko family (especially the innocent Yee Kiu), he’s actually a good guy at heart, it’s just that his suffering as a child caused him to want revenge.
Raymond Wong did an EXCELLENT job in the role of Tung Boon Sin -- his performance in this series was absolutely amazing and convincing! Tim Gor once said in an interview that Raymond was well-suited for the role of Tung Boon Sin – well, I would actually venture to say that he wasn’t just ‘well-suited’ for the role, he was actually PERFECT for it! It’s obvious that Raymond put a lot of effort into the role, as his acting in the series was so METICULOUS -- from the first time his character appeared in episode 1 all the way to his tragic end in episode 21….every facial expression, hand gesture, even the crying scenes were all absolutely well-executed, to the point that I truly felt he was the one carrying the whole Boon Sin / Tsui Sum storyline and it’s really because of his fine acting that all those scenes between him and Niki were so emotional (for me at least). Also, I never realized it before, but those eyes of his sure can act! The wealth of emotion that Raymond conveyed with his eyes – whether it’s anger, happiness, playfulness, sadness, etc. – was so amazing, it definitely was difficult not to be drawn in to his character in the series. Raymond definitely deserves a lot of credit for making the character of Tung Boon Sin SO MEMORABLE!
Even though Raymond has been in the industry for a long time, I never really knew much about him until he joined TVB a few years ago. I watched most of the TVB series that he was in prior to this one and even though I liked his performances and always viewed him as a solid, talented actor, I didn’t realize his true potential until now. I absolutely loved Raymond in this series – his performance impressed me so much that I’ve become somewhat of a ‘fan’ now and am definitely looking forward to future performances from him!
Niki Chow (Tsui Sum / Ngau Nai Tong) – Niki’s character Tsui Sum is the adopted daughter of the Tsui family (though this fact is not revealed until halfway through the series) who takes on overseeing the family’s soy sauce factory after her (adopted) father dies. She has a strong-willed personality (which makes sense given that she has to oversee an entire factory), but at the same time, she also has a kind and compassionate heart. When Tung Boon Sin first enters her life, she is moved by his story of his childhood friend Ngau Nai Tong, whom he has been waiting for 20 years to be reunited with and even tries to help him find her. Not surprisingly, Tsui Sum is smitten by Boon Sin’s charm and even falls for him after he repeatedly helps bail her family out of trouble. He persuades her to sign over the rights to her family’s soy sauce factory to him, hoping that he would be able to save the factory from demise, but he ends up selling the factory to the Ko family as part of his revenge plot. When Tsui Sum finds out that the person she trusted with all her heart was deceiving her all along, she is devastated -- but with the help of her family and the doctor friend (played by Jack Wu) she meets at the hospital, she eventually overcomes the pain and starts anew rebuilding the soy sauce factory (that is, until she and Boon Sin cross paths again). Without going into detail, of course Tsui Sum and Boon Sin eventually become a couple, but the twists and turns that occur in between is truly what makes their love story so poignant and memorable.
Contrary to popular opinion, I actually think that Niki did a decent job in this series. Sure, her acting wasn’t great by any means, but it wasn’t horrible either – I actually did not get as annoyed with her performance in here as I have been in her past series. The problem I’ve always had with Niki’s acting in the past is that she’s too wooden at times, which makes her acting look forced – plus she has a certain intonation in her voice which sometimes makes it sound like she is reading the dialogue rather than reciting it, which is why her acting always comes across as very unnatural to me. That being said though, I will say that she has improved A LOT in this series because even though she still had the same problems (yes, I was able to detect it right away), it was not as pronounced as in previous series. And I have to admit that Niki does crying scenes way better than most of the actresses at TVB nowadays (it’s kind of ironic that I find Niki’s crying scenes quite natural and convincing, but her acting overall doesn’t have the same effect).
I think that overall, the reason why I found her character tolerable was because of the chemistry that Niki had with Raymond Wong in this series – I actually enjoyed almost every single scene that the 2 of them had together. Perhaps because of Raymond’s great acting in this series, he was able to bring out the best in Niki because I felt that each time the 2 of them interacted in a scene, the emotional impact was very high. I actually think that NIki and Raymond make a great onscreen couple – for me, this was one of the best pairings that I’ve seen in years!
Jack Wu (Yuen Yau Hin) – Jack plays an established young doctor who actually turns out to be the illegitimate son that Ko Siu Tong (Samuel Kwok)had been looking for and eventually found. He’s a very kind-hearted person whose main goal in life is to be a good doctor and help as many people as possible. Though he and his father reunited many years ago, he does not want his father to acknowledge him publicly because he has no interest whatsoever in the Ko family fortune or their business. However, due to various things that happen, he eventually returns to the Ko family and helps out with the business. He meets Tsui Sum (Niki Chow) after she becomes his patient at the hospital where he works and he helps her through the illness that was brought on by Boon Sin’s deception. Even when he returns to help take care of the Ko family business, he still continues his ‘job’ as the Tsui family doctor. The two of them end up developing a life-long friendship. Also, he is pretty much the only good person in the entire Ko family.
Jack Wu has always been one of those actors whom I’ve found to be extremely underrated. He’s quite solid in terms of his acting skills and I’ve always found his performances consistent and likable. In the past, I always felt like Jack was typecasted into those ‘boy next door’ type roles -- perhaps because of his boyish looks -- and never really given a chance to play more mature, ‘professional’ roles much. That’s why I feel that Tim Gor made the right choice to cast Jack in this series as Dr Yuen because the character is quite different from the roles that he used to play in the past and it gives Jack a chance to show his acting skill. Of course, he still needs a little bit of polish in the role, but overall, he put in a fine performance!
Eric Li (Law Yat) – Eric plays Tung Boon Sin’s best friend Law Yat who is also his ‘partner’ in helping him carry out his revenge plans. His role is more behind the scenes, as he does a lot of investigative work for Boon Sin and reports back his findings, then, based on this, the two of them plan out their next moves. The reason why Law Yat is so devoted to helping Boon Sin is because he saved his life a long time ago, so he swore he would follow him from that moment on. The unique thing about Law Yat and Boon Sin’s relationship is the great chemistry between the two – they understand each other so well that oftentimes, they seem to know what the other is thinking and they are able to execute their plans effectively. The bond that these two share is unique and their relationship is similar to that of brothers rather than simply friends, which becomes more obvious as the series progresses (especially in the last few episodes when Boon Sin’s life is in danger). Law Yat has a playful personality, but when it comes to helping Boon Sin execute his plans, he takes his responsibilities very seriously – once the serious discussions are over however, Law Yat never passes up the chance to ‘tease’ Boon Sin about Tsui Sum. I love watching these two interact – the ‘teasing’ scenes between these two are especially hilarious and provide a welcome comedic respite from the otherwise serious / tragic nature of the series.
I was thoroughly impressed with Eric’s performance in this series! His portrayal of Law Yat was so well-executed and natural, I couldn’t help finding his character endearing and charming. Actually, this isn’t the first time that Eric has pulled off an impressive performance, but unfortunately, most of the roles he’s had in the past were insignificant ones where he never really got a chance to showcase his talent, plus he was mostly typecasted into minor villain roles as well (most audiences probably recognize Eric for his villain roles). His role in this particular series was probably one of the first ‘meatier’ non-villain roles he was given and without a doubt, he absolutely excelled in it!
I actually read up a little bit on Eric after watching this series and was surprised to find out that he has actually been in the industry since the mid-90s – he actually graduated from TVB’s Acting Class in 1995 and has been in numerous TVB productions since then (another actor who has toiled at TVB for numerous years without much recognition). Boy, I really hope that TVB gives him more significant supporting roles to play rather than the usual ‘villain x or y’ because it’s obvious that he has good acting skills and great potential (come on now, he’s 100x better than those Mr. HKs that TVB keeps putting into their series!).
Rebecca Chan (Dong Kwok Hing) – Rebecca played the role of the main ‘villanness’ in the series, Dong Kwok Hing. She is the matriarch of the Ko family and has a significant amount of ‘clout’ because she came from a well-to-do family and her husband Ko Siu Tong (Samuel Kwok) was able to build his business based in large part on funds provided by her family. She and Siu Tong have 3 children: oldest son Yee Tai (played by Joel Chan), second daughter Yee Kiu (played by Elaine Yiu), and youngest daughter Yee Nga (played by Katy Kung). The best way to describe Dong Kwok Hing is that she is a ‘control freak’ -- ever since her children were little, she has always ruled them with an iron fist, arranging every aspect of their lives from where/when they should go to school to whom they should marry. Also, she spends a lot of her time trying to make her children seem like ‘model children’ in front of their father by hiding anything bad that they do from him, primarily because she is afraid that if he found out, he would cut the children off from any future inheritance. Dong Kwok Hing is actually a very important character in the series because it’s really because of her scheming and her actions that trigger the whole revenge thing with Tung Boon Sin and pretty much becomes the catalyst for everything else that happens in the series.
Once again, Rebecca did an excellent job as the villain character (seems like she’s been doing more and more villain roles in the past several years). Of course, as a veteran artist, it’s no surprise that her acting would be great – with her level of experience, she has pretty much mastered the skills when it comes to executing her role well. Not sure how many people notice, but whenever Rebecca does villain roles, she does the facial expressions extremely well, especially with the eyes (the way she stares menacingly at people with those piercing eyes can be quite scary). With that said, she is still able to play the benevolent mother roles well too – now that’s versatile acting! It’s interesting how Rebecca has come a long way from TVB fa dan in the 80s to top villainess in the current era. I grew up watching her series and even when she was a fa dan, I always felt that she looked more mature than most of the other fa dans at the time (though she wasn’t really that much older). Anyway, another great performance from a veteran!
Elaine Yiu (Ko Yee Kiu) – Elaine’s character Yee Kiu is the oldest daughter in the Ko family. She’s quite smart, but because of the way she is raised, she is constantly under her mother’s controlling shadow. On the surface, she is obedient to her mother and does whatever she is told to do, even if it means that she must marry a man she doesn’t love in order to further the business relationship between the 2 families – however, inside, she really hates the way her mother tries to control them. Because she wants so desperately to get out from under her mother’s control, she tries to win her dad’s favor by succeeding with the family business, so throughout most of the series, she is battling her older brother Yee Tai to gain the upper hand in the business. She meets Tung Boon Sin during a business transaction and though impressed by him, she doesn’t get involved with him because she is engaged already. However, as the series progresses and she gets more and more frustrated with her mother’s controlling nature (plus her dad doesn’t appreciate her efforts with the family business), she eventually falls for Boon Sin’s charms and starts dating him behind her fiance’s back (which is all part of Boon Sin’s plan, though unbeknownst to her of course). In the end, under Boon Sin’s encouragement, she defies her mother and breaks up with her fiancé (causing him to commit suicide)…after giving up everything she has and running away from home, she discovers that all along the whole thing was a setup – Boon Sin never loved her and was pretty much ‘playing’ her the entire time as part of his revenge plan to destroy the Ko family.
To my surprise, I was actually quite impressed with Elaine’s acting in this series. I haven’t seen a whole lot of her series in the past, but the ones that I have seen I was not impressed with, so I wasn’t really expecting much from her going into this series. I was pleasantly surprised though to see how much more mature her acting has become – with many of the emotional scenes involving herself and Raymond as well as the ‘showdown’ scenes between her and Rebecca, she was able to deliver consistently. In fact, in that one episode especially where Yee Kiu defies her mother and runs away from home, only to find the letter that Boon Seen leaves for her telling her the whole thing was a setup – all of the scenes were done so well by Elaine that I truly felt sorry for her character...when she read the letter, I could sense her pain! Also, that last scene in the finale where her character Yee Kiu seeks out Raymond’s character Boon Seen at the office and stabs him was actually quite well-acted. Great improvement for Elaine!
Raymond Cho (Tsui Ping) -- Raymond Cho plays Tsui Sum (Niki)’s older brother Tsui Ping. He is a very honest and upright person who is not good at making decisions and doesn’t really have much of an opinion on anything, however, he has a heart of gold. Even though he is the oldest son, he knows that with his somewhat shy personality, he’s not suited to manage the family’s soy sauce factory, so he’s perfectly fine with his sister overseeing it. He prefers to live a simple and happy life and let the other women in his life (his wife, sister, and mother) make all the decisions for him – in a sense, he has a ‘happy-go-luck’ type personality. One of Tsui Ping’s best qualities is his unwavering devotion to his family, especially to his little sister Tsui Sum – other than his mother, he is the only one who knows Tsui Sum’s true identity, but that doesn’t prevent him from treating her as his biological sister. The way he loves his sister so much and tries to protect her at all costs is truly very touching and sweet!
Ray Cho never fails to impress me with his acting! No matter what type of role he gets – whether serious, comedic, villain, etc. – he always handles the role extremely well. The character of Tsui Ping may not be a major character in the series and compared to the others, he may not have as much screentime, but his role was still very endearing and enjoyable. I loved all those scenes he had with Niki where the two of them would have their heart-to-heart brother/sister talks as well as those scenes where he would be so concerned for his sister’s well-being that he would be on the verge of tears (moved me to tears as well). Ray’s character (as well as his performance) was definitely among one of my favorites!
Additional Cast:
Claire Yiu (Tsui Ping’s wife Wan Yau) – As Tsui Ping’s wife, she is loud and bossy (in a nice way) with a blunt personality and a bit nosy too, but underneath all that, she actually has a good heart. In fact, her character was quite funny and enjoyable in this series. I especially loved her interaction with her ‘husband’ in the series, Ray Cho – they sure make a compatible, cute couple in my opinion…LOL!
Ching Hor Wai (Mrs. Tsui) – Her character is pretty much the typical ‘benevolent mother’ role, except that she ends up having an illness similar to Alzheimers and slowly starts to lose her memory. Even though her role can be considered minor in comparisons to the others (I think she probably has the least amount of screentime), her character is critical in being the one who knows the background of Tsui Sum’s childhood and eventually revealing those details to Boon Sin. Ching Hor Wai gives her usual steady performance in here.
Katy Kung (Ko Yee Nga) – Katy plays the youngest of the Ko daughters and is actually the one who deserves most to meet a miserable fate in my opinion. Her character is bxxchy and incorrigible – at home, she pretends to be a good girl to win her parents favor, but outside, she shows her true colors as a promiscuous teenager who smokes and has a nasty, arrogant temper. Knowing her personality and temper, Boon Sin purposefully leads her into thinking that he likes her when he actually doesn’t and this causes her to be at odds with her sister Yee Kiu. Later on, when she finds out that Boon Sin’s true love is actually Tsui Sum, Yee Nga gets jealous and ends up pushing her down a cliff – the incident causes Tsui Sum to once again become crippled. Obviously I disliked Katy’s character – she was just way too annoying and fake (and it’s unfortunate that she ended up getting off scott-free thanks to her mother, continuing to live her wild life in another city)!
Joel Chan (Ko Yee Tai) – Joel actually portrayed his role quite well in this series, but since I’ve never really been fond of him as an actor, I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to him in here. Besides, his character had more of a significance in the first few episodes of the series during the whole battle over the soy sauce factory and stuff –later on, he pretty much just follows his mother around and does whatever she tells him to do.
Samuel Kwok (Ko Siu Tong) – I’m actually kind of disappointed that Kwok Fung didn’t have a more significant role in this series, especially given that he is the patriarch of the Ko family. I sort of felt like all he did pretty much was just appear every so often to chide his children and his wife whenever something bad happened in his family. The two scenes where he had the most significance were in the announcement of Yuen Yau Hin as his son and also when he officially disowns his oldest son and sends his wife away after he discovers the nasty things that they did. For such a great veteran actor, too bad his role was less significant.
Tracy Ip (Ko Yee Tai’s wife Bak Wai) – Her performance is probably the only one that I really didn’t like -- her acting came across too robotic and fake to me and it seemed that she had difficulty saying her lines (perhaps because of her slight accent?). Anyway, since her role was relatively minor and didn’t appear a whole lot, I was ok with sitting through it.
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THE ENDING
I normally don’t like to go into too much detail with the ending, but with this series, since the ending was a bit contentious, I figured it’s important to talk about. (The sentiment from the general public seems to be that the overall series was great, but the ending was bad because it was so tragic -- specifically referring to the part where Tung Boon Sin dies tragically and Tsui Sum doesn’t find out until years later).
Indeed, the ending truly was agonizing and absolutely heartwrenching! Episode 20 actually ended very sweetly (and close to the ‘happily ever after’ ending that most of us wanted), but then episode 21 came along and it ended up being so tragic that part of me really wanted to pretend episode 21 didn’t exist (though of course that’s not possible because that’s the critical episode that ties up all the loose ends).
Personally, I had mixed feelings about the ending – on the one hand, I could understand the purpose of making the ending tragic so that it’s more memorable (which the series definitely did), but on the other hand, I could also see how the writers could have written the ending differently, in a way that would have been more satisfying to the audiences (if not ‘happily ever after’, then even a semi-tragic one would have sufficed for me – especially since that’s the type of ending I had in mind anyway).
I actually don’t think that I would have a problem with the tragic ending (the part where Boon Sin dies) itself if that entire segment had been handled better -- because the way it was portrayed in the finale really did not make a whole lot of sense from a logical standpoint (plus the ‘tortuous’ way in which that part was portrayed – the whole ‘tripping through the streets with blood gushing out of wound’ thing -- was really unnecessary in my opinion).
Anyway…as much as I didn’t want to see the series end the way it did, I will admit that it definitely upped the emotional factor and made the series all the more poignant and memorable!
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:
Overall, “Bottled Passion” was an excellent series! Even though the series is technically a romantic love story at its core, there’s actually a good mix of other things in there that make the series well-balanced enough for those who may want to watch this but are not into romantic dramas. I personally enjoyed this series tremendously and for me – taking all things into consideration such as script / storyline, cast, acting, etc. -- it’s truly the Best Series of the year (officially now, since 2011 is over already).
This is definitely a series worth watching (I’m already planning to rewatch it soon, which is rare for me) for all the reasons stated above (plus at 21 episodes, it’s short enough so as not to be draggy). Now of course, if you’re the type of person who doesn’t like watching ‘tearjerkers’ at all (it’s pretty much a guarantee that this series will evoke tears at one point or another), then yes, perhaps reconsider…but if you want to see how a truly high quality, well-written, well-acted, and well-produced looks like, then this series is definitely the one to choose!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
News Article: For TVB series “Bottled Passion”, the biggest ‘attraction’ is not the male or female lead
Here's a great article I came across (by chance, quite frankly) about the series that I'm currently watching: "Bottled Passion" 《我的如意狼君》. Quite honestly, I'm 'in love' with this series and for me, it is definitely one of the best (if not THE BEST) TVB series that I've watched this year (and perhaps this decade)!
I'll go more into detail about the series in my review (which will be posted by next week, since the finale airs on Monday). For now, I wanted to share the below article in particular because it is truly very well written and brings out the essence of the series almost perfectly.
What I found extremely interesting is that I had almost the exact same thought as the writer of the article in terms of the qualities that makes this series so good, the great job that Tim Gor (and his scriptwriting team) did on the script, and also the way Raymond Wong portrayed the main lead character of 'Tung Boon Seen'. You'll understand more when I post my review...
Lastly, I just wanted to say that it was EXTREMELY DIFFICULT translating this particular article because of the words that were used in Chinese (which was perfect in conveying the 'attractiveness' of this series) -- it was a bit of a struggle to find the best translation for particular words because I didn't want the meaning to be 'lost in translation'.
Anyway, for all those "Bottled Passion" fans out there (yup, you can count me in as part of that group now...LOL), I'm sure you would probably agree with alot of what was written in this article.
Enjoy!
.*********.
For TVB series “Bottled Passion”, the biggest ‘attraction’ is not the male or female lead
Originally published: 12/31/2011
Source: ifeng.com / Nam Fong Daily News
Translated by: llwy12
How long has it been since we’ve seen Niki Chow (周麗淇) in a TVB series? If we recount the last TVB series she was in, it should be modern series “The King of Snooker” from 2 years ago. This time around, seeing her in TVB’s currently airing series “Bottled Passion”, one can’t help but have a ‘long time no see’ feeling. What hasn’t changed is that Niki still gives people a feeling of ‘freshness’.
Not that long ago, the onscreen couple of Niki Chow and Kevin Cheng (鄭嘉穎) attracted many a viewer to their television screens, to the point that it seemed to be only when the two of them were paired together that the series would be especially good to watch. This time around, in “Bottled Passion”, the male lead paired with Niki is Raymond Wong (黄浩然) – a face that has appeared in quite a few TVB series in recent years. This new pairing definitely has a certain ‘freshness’ to it – in terms of looks, Raymond may not be considered the ‘stunningly handsome’ type, but overall, he fits the tastes of most female audiences; as for Niki, since she doesn’t appear often in TVB series, she is bound to garner the attention of audiences who find her appearance in a series refreshing.
The series’ Chinese title was originally《大话情人》[“The Lying Lover”] and was later changed to 《我的如意狼君》[literally translated as ‘My Ideal Wolf Husband’] – one can’t help but praise the wisdom of changing the title, as it brings a more ‘enchanting’ aspect to the series. Even though the cast arrangement in this series may not be considered ‘all-star’, a particular name associated with the series is sure to resound loudly with audiences: ‘golden’ producer Lee Tim Sing (李添勝). Indeed, Tim Gor’s series are generally well worth watching, as the plot is fast-paced and the story-telling effect is strong, which often evokes in audiences the desire to ‘chase’ each episode – each time, he incorporates just enough ‘tension’ in the series to draw audiences in and the more they watch, the more ‘flavorful’ the series gets. It definitely would not be an exaggeration to say that the biggest ‘attraction’ to the series “Bottled Passion” is not the male or female lead, but rather the producer Lee Tim Sing. In almost every episode (usually at the end), there is a climactic moment – this seems to be a unique characteristic in most of Tim Gor’s series. From “Rosy Business” and “No Regrets” to “A Fistful of Stances”, which of his series does not lead the audiences by their noses and evoke a dedicated following? Even with “Bottled Passion” airing in the dreaded post-Anniversary ‘cannon fodder’ timeslot, there is no way to hide the inherent ‘well worth watching’ nature of the series.
In terms of the acting, the character of ‘Tung Boon Seen’ that Raymond Wong portrays in “Bottled Passion” is quite a departure from the mostly ‘simple and honest’ type characters he portrayed in the past. His character in the series is quite complex and can best be described as a ‘semi-villain with the intrinsic qualities of a good-natured person’ – an almost perfect illustration of the expression “guys who aren’t bad, women won’t love them” [男人不壞, 女人不爱]. This seemingly ‘bad’ guy toys with women’s hearts in order to fulfill his plans for revenge against a particular family, but yet at the same time, his genuine concern and insistence on finding his childhood friend ‘Ngau Nai Tong’ [‘Milk Candy’] evokes feelings of sympathy and affection. Towards this ‘conflicted’ and ‘contradictory’ character, audiences will naturally feel both love and hate, though for most, they probably cannot bring themselves to hate him. It’s obvious that Raymond Wong put a lot of effort into portraying this character, as his emotional scenes came across very sincere and meticulous. At times, it even seemed like he was acting with his eyes, as the emotion that his tear-filled eyes conveyed in certain scenes had the effect of momentarily taking the focus away from everything else going on in those scenes.
As for the female lead character of Tsui Sum, her forthright personality suits Niki Chow well – in fact, it can be said that the character is an easy and familiar one for her. Also, her naturally refreshing look is a welcome departure from the heavy makeup and costumes that audiences have been exposed to in recent series. In short, her character is the type that is generally pleasing to audiences.
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Chinese Version:
《我的如意狼君》：最大的牌不是男女主角
2011年12月31日 09:16
来源：南方都市报 作者：林丹丹
有多久没看过周丽淇的戏了？上一部应该是两年前的时装剧《桌球天王》，此次《我的如意狼君》里见到她，略有一种“久违了”的感觉。不变的是，她给人的感觉依然“清新”。
曾几何时，周丽淇与郑嘉颖这对荧屏情侣，吸引了多少眼球与关注，仿佛只有他俩以情侣身份搭档的剧集才特别好看。这次，男主角是黄浩然这张近来在TV B剧集中常出现的面孔。这一组合新鲜得来也蛮有“清新感”，或许黄浩然不是那种很惊艳的帅，但也符合很多女观众的口味；周丽淇不常在TV B露脸，也会让人格外留意几分。
《我的如意狼君》前名《大话情人》，不得不赞叹后来的剧名改得好，更为引人入胜。虽然该剧的演员阵容不算“庞大”，但监制李添胜的名字绝对够响亮。没错，添哥的剧集很耐看，情节紧凑，故事性强，总让人忍不住要追着看，张力十足，越看越有味道。不夸张地说一句，该剧最大的牌不是男女主角，而是监制李添胜。几乎每一集都有高潮，这似乎是添哥出品的独有特色。从《巾帼枭雄》系列到《铁马寻桥》，哪一部不是每一集都牵着观众的鼻子走？即使《我的如意狼君》是在台庆颁奖之后的尴尬档期播出，依然掩盖不住“好看”的本色。
以往看黄浩然扮演的多是单纯或是老实人的角色，这次扮演的佟本善可就“复杂”得多了，可以说得上是有着好人本质的“腹黑男”，几乎是淋漓尽致地诠释了什么是“男人不坏，女人不爱”。这位情场“狼君”为了复仇大计将女人玩弄于股掌之间，俨然是大坏人，但对儿时的玩伴牛奶糖却一直念念不忘，却又令人心生爱怜。对于这一矛盾体人物，观众自然是又爱又恨，估计多数都是恨不起来。黄浩然诠释这一角色也很给力，感情戏显得真挚细腻，各位眼神控们要注意了，他好些时候是在用眼神在演戏，泪光盈盈的眼神瞬间秒杀一切。
女主角徐芯爽快的性格也很适合周丽淇，这种角色对于她来说可以说是驾轻就熟了，清新的妆容在一众浓妆艳抹当中显得尤为脱俗可人，总之就是讨人喜欢。（作者系媒体从业者）
I'll go more into detail about the series in my review (which will be posted by next week, since the finale airs on Monday). For now, I wanted to share the below article in particular because it is truly very well written and brings out the essence of the series almost perfectly.
What I found extremely interesting is that I had almost the exact same thought as the writer of the article in terms of the qualities that makes this series so good, the great job that Tim Gor (and his scriptwriting team) did on the script, and also the way Raymond Wong portrayed the main lead character of 'Tung Boon Seen'. You'll understand more when I post my review...
Lastly, I just wanted to say that it was EXTREMELY DIFFICULT translating this particular article because of the words that were used in Chinese (which was perfect in conveying the 'attractiveness' of this series) -- it was a bit of a struggle to find the best translation for particular words because I didn't want the meaning to be 'lost in translation'.
Anyway, for all those "Bottled Passion" fans out there (yup, you can count me in as part of that group now...LOL), I'm sure you would probably agree with alot of what was written in this article.
Enjoy!
.*********.
For TVB series “Bottled Passion”, the biggest ‘attraction’ is not the male or female lead
Originally published: 12/31/2011
Source: ifeng.com / Nam Fong Daily News
Translated by: llwy12
How long has it been since we’ve seen Niki Chow (周麗淇) in a TVB series? If we recount the last TVB series she was in, it should be modern series “The King of Snooker” from 2 years ago. This time around, seeing her in TVB’s currently airing series “Bottled Passion”, one can’t help but have a ‘long time no see’ feeling. What hasn’t changed is that Niki still gives people a feeling of ‘freshness’.
Not that long ago, the onscreen couple of Niki Chow and Kevin Cheng (鄭嘉穎) attracted many a viewer to their television screens, to the point that it seemed to be only when the two of them were paired together that the series would be especially good to watch. This time around, in “Bottled Passion”, the male lead paired with Niki is Raymond Wong (黄浩然) – a face that has appeared in quite a few TVB series in recent years. This new pairing definitely has a certain ‘freshness’ to it – in terms of looks, Raymond may not be considered the ‘stunningly handsome’ type, but overall, he fits the tastes of most female audiences; as for Niki, since she doesn’t appear often in TVB series, she is bound to garner the attention of audiences who find her appearance in a series refreshing.
The series’ Chinese title was originally《大话情人》[“The Lying Lover”] and was later changed to 《我的如意狼君》[literally translated as ‘My Ideal Wolf Husband’] – one can’t help but praise the wisdom of changing the title, as it brings a more ‘enchanting’ aspect to the series. Even though the cast arrangement in this series may not be considered ‘all-star’, a particular name associated with the series is sure to resound loudly with audiences: ‘golden’ producer Lee Tim Sing (李添勝). Indeed, Tim Gor’s series are generally well worth watching, as the plot is fast-paced and the story-telling effect is strong, which often evokes in audiences the desire to ‘chase’ each episode – each time, he incorporates just enough ‘tension’ in the series to draw audiences in and the more they watch, the more ‘flavorful’ the series gets. It definitely would not be an exaggeration to say that the biggest ‘attraction’ to the series “Bottled Passion” is not the male or female lead, but rather the producer Lee Tim Sing. In almost every episode (usually at the end), there is a climactic moment – this seems to be a unique characteristic in most of Tim Gor’s series. From “Rosy Business” and “No Regrets” to “A Fistful of Stances”, which of his series does not lead the audiences by their noses and evoke a dedicated following? Even with “Bottled Passion” airing in the dreaded post-Anniversary ‘cannon fodder’ timeslot, there is no way to hide the inherent ‘well worth watching’ nature of the series.
In terms of the acting, the character of ‘Tung Boon Seen’ that Raymond Wong portrays in “Bottled Passion” is quite a departure from the mostly ‘simple and honest’ type characters he portrayed in the past. His character in the series is quite complex and can best be described as a ‘semi-villain with the intrinsic qualities of a good-natured person’ – an almost perfect illustration of the expression “guys who aren’t bad, women won’t love them” [男人不壞, 女人不爱]. This seemingly ‘bad’ guy toys with women’s hearts in order to fulfill his plans for revenge against a particular family, but yet at the same time, his genuine concern and insistence on finding his childhood friend ‘Ngau Nai Tong’ [‘Milk Candy’] evokes feelings of sympathy and affection. Towards this ‘conflicted’ and ‘contradictory’ character, audiences will naturally feel both love and hate, though for most, they probably cannot bring themselves to hate him. It’s obvious that Raymond Wong put a lot of effort into portraying this character, as his emotional scenes came across very sincere and meticulous. At times, it even seemed like he was acting with his eyes, as the emotion that his tear-filled eyes conveyed in certain scenes had the effect of momentarily taking the focus away from everything else going on in those scenes.
As for the female lead character of Tsui Sum, her forthright personality suits Niki Chow well – in fact, it can be said that the character is an easy and familiar one for her. Also, her naturally refreshing look is a welcome departure from the heavy makeup and costumes that audiences have been exposed to in recent series. In short, her character is the type that is generally pleasing to audiences.
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Chinese Version:
《我的如意狼君》：最大的牌不是男女主角
2011年12月31日 09:16
来源：南方都市报 作者：林丹丹
有多久没看过周丽淇的戏了？上一部应该是两年前的时装剧《桌球天王》，此次《我的如意狼君》里见到她，略有一种“久违了”的感觉。不变的是，她给人的感觉依然“清新”。
曾几何时，周丽淇与郑嘉颖这对荧屏情侣，吸引了多少眼球与关注，仿佛只有他俩以情侣身份搭档的剧集才特别好看。这次，男主角是黄浩然这张近来在TV B剧集中常出现的面孔。这一组合新鲜得来也蛮有“清新感”，或许黄浩然不是那种很惊艳的帅，但也符合很多女观众的口味；周丽淇不常在TV B露脸，也会让人格外留意几分。
《我的如意狼君》前名《大话情人》，不得不赞叹后来的剧名改得好，更为引人入胜。虽然该剧的演员阵容不算“庞大”，但监制李添胜的名字绝对够响亮。没错，添哥的剧集很耐看，情节紧凑，故事性强，总让人忍不住要追着看，张力十足，越看越有味道。不夸张地说一句，该剧最大的牌不是男女主角，而是监制李添胜。几乎每一集都有高潮，这似乎是添哥出品的独有特色。从《巾帼枭雄》系列到《铁马寻桥》，哪一部不是每一集都牵着观众的鼻子走？即使《我的如意狼君》是在台庆颁奖之后的尴尬档期播出，依然掩盖不住“好看”的本色。
以往看黄浩然扮演的多是单纯或是老实人的角色，这次扮演的佟本善可就“复杂”得多了，可以说得上是有着好人本质的“腹黑男”，几乎是淋漓尽致地诠释了什么是“男人不坏，女人不爱”。这位情场“狼君”为了复仇大计将女人玩弄于股掌之间，俨然是大坏人，但对儿时的玩伴牛奶糖却一直念念不忘，却又令人心生爱怜。对于这一矛盾体人物，观众自然是又爱又恨，估计多数都是恨不起来。黄浩然诠释这一角色也很给力，感情戏显得真挚细腻，各位眼神控们要注意了，他好些时候是在用眼神在演戏，泪光盈盈的眼神瞬间秒杀一切。
女主角徐芯爽快的性格也很适合周丽淇，这种角色对于她来说可以说是驾轻就熟了，清新的妆容在一众浓妆艳抹当中显得尤为脱俗可人，总之就是讨人喜欢。（作者系媒体从业者）
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