My ‘TVB Rant’ # 23: Recap of My Thoughts on 2012’s TVB Series

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….

Interview: This is ‘So Gay’: Koo Ming Wah’s difficult 18 year career journey

I'm currently watching the TVB series Divas in Distress (巴不得媽媽) -- well, too be specific, 'kind of watching' is the more appropriate way to put it, since I've pretty much been forwarding through most of the episodes due to not liking some of the cast and also parts of the storyline. 

Not planning on commenting much about the series itself, since I technically didn't even watch majority of it, but there are a few characters that I actually like from the series -- one of them is the character of 'So Gay' played by veteran actor Koo Ming Wah (古明華). 

Ok, I'm sure most people probably never even heard of Koo Ming Wah prior to this series -- for me personally though, I've known of him since the 90s, as I remember that he had some pretty good roles back then, even though the roles were small and mostly insignificant (yet he was able to leave an impression, at least on me).  I really started paying more attention to Koo Ming Wah after Gun Metal Grey, since I really enjoyed that series and his performance in there was quite good.  Actually, even back in the 90s, his acting was already very good, it's just that he never had much luck in terms of his career, as he was almost always relegated to playing minor characters (and he's been at TVB for 18 years already!).  This is why I'm glad that Koo Lo (as most people call him) is finally getting recognition for his acting -- IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!  I'm very happy for him and definitely hope that TVB will give him better roles in the future!

By the way....Koo Ming Wah did 6 interviews with various Media outlets recently and after reading all of them, I chose to translate this particular one from East Week Magazine (primarily because it's the most detailed one and also the most moving) .  It's a very touching interview and after reading it, my respect for Koo Ming Wah definitely went up several notches -- the part where he talks about his mother and his daughter really got me teary-eyed!  From these interviews, it's obvious that Koo Ming Wah is a good man!  I wish him the best of luck!

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This is ‘So Gay’:  Koo Ming Wah’s difficult 18 year career journey

 

Source:  EastWeek Magazine, Issue 473 (via HK Channel)

 

Translation:  llwy12

 

 

TVB’s currently airing drama series  Divas in Distress《巴不得媽媽》caused beauty pageant winner Eliza Sam (岑麗香) to become the new ‘Golden [Discussion Forum] Goddess’, but at the same time, it also brought about unexpected popularity for veteran actor Koo Ming Wah (古明華) [known as ‘Koo Lo’ (古佬) to his friends and colleagues], who plays the effeminate character ‘So Gay’ (蘇基) in the series.  Since the series aired, Koo Lo has garnered tremendous praise for his performance, with netizens creating a ‘One Person One Like – Support So Gay for an Award’ Facebook page, showing their support for him to win in either the ‘Most Improved Actor’ or ‘Best Supporting Actor’ categories at the TVB Anniversary Awards this year.  Within a matter of days, the Facebook page received over 60,000 ‘Like’ votes and over 900 comments praising Koo Lo’s performance – despite becoming an ‘overnight sensation’, the 48 year old actor reveals that he’s not sure how to react to the sudden popularity.

 

Take today’s interview for instance – when we asked him to do the photo shoot portion of the interview in his ‘So Gay’ persona, Koo Lo willingly obliged.   As he prepared for the interview, he bumped into various colleagues at TVB City, all of whom greeted him affectionately, loudly yelling out: “Gay Gay!” [his nickname in the series] or telling him: “So Gay!  Support you all the way!” – some of his colleagues even requested to take pictures with him!   Towards all of this, Koo Lo responds with a shy grin:  “Thank you, thank you!”

 

Asked about the success of the character ‘So Gay’, Koo Lo grins sheepishly and states:  “I never imagined the character would become so popular!  Re-watching my performance, I feel that there are still many areas where I could have done better.  Back when we were filming the series, the behind-the-scenes crew would tell me:  ‘Wow, this character will definitely become a hit!’ but I would respond back with: ‘Oh, stop being crazy!  You guys always say that with all of my performances!  Tell me, which performance have you not said would be a hit?’   Hahaha!  Actually, many behind-the-scenes crew contributed to the success of the character ‘So Gay’ – but of course, I have to thank the series producer Tak Gor (Poon Ka Tak 潘嘉德) for being brave enough to cast me in the role!  If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have so many supporters now and wouldn’t be able to understand how wonderful this feeling of ‘perplexity’ [over the sudden popularity] truly is!  But, to be honest, this moment could very well be a temporary thing that will eventually come to pass.”

 

See, this is how ‘So Gay’ is like in real life!

 

 

The past 18 years

 

After the photo shoot, Koo Ming Wah stepped out of his ‘So Gay’ persona and went back to being ‘Koo Lo’ – the difference in his appearance was significant, as his looks instantly returned to being ‘scruffy-looking’ without a single trace of  the character’s ‘effeminate nature’ about him.  Koo Lo states:  “When Tak Gor first suggested me for the role of ‘So Gay’, there were people who doubted his decision, but he simply stated: ‘He can do it!  Koo Ming Wah can do it!’  With that, he gave me the role!   The mutual trust that we have in each other, to be honest, it would probably never happen with any other producer!  Actually, the role I had in the series Street Fighters 《廟街．媽．兄弟》[aired in the year 2000] was also pretty significant and had a lot of screen time – that series was also produced by Tak Gor.  So going from being a ‘nobody’ to being recognized now, I am really very grateful to him!”

 

In 1993, Koo Ming Wah earned a ‘Best Newcomer’ nomination at that year’s Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA) for his performance in the film Sex Racecourse《旺角馬場》.  Even though he didn’t win the award [TN:  he lost to future HKFA Best Actress winner Anita Yuen], he did capture the attention of TVB and not long afterwards, he was recruited to join the TV station.  In the 18 years since then, Koo Lo has participated in more than 40 TV series (he had to look up the info in Wikipedia to confirm):  “Counting through the series – The Driving Power《非常外父》, Ten Brothers 《十兄弟》, The Wintermelon Tale《大冬瓜》, Street Fighters, etc. – if you ask me how many series I was truly happy filming, there are probably less than 8 altogether!  And that’s over a period of 18 years!”

 

From our calculation, the reason for Koo Lo’s ‘dispirited’ feeling was probably because the majority of the roles he played in those 18 years were either insignificant villain characters such as a rapist, murderer, criminal, debt collector, etc. or if he happened to play a ‘good’ guy, he was usually a one of a group of workers at a café or perhaps even a street vendor.  There were times when the characters he played didn’t even have a name and his status was even less than that of a 4^th or 5^th line actor:  “Actually, throughout these 18 years, the time I spent NOT working was even greater than the time spent filming!  If we talk about time spent actually filming something, I would say it was only about 100 days out of the year – so pretty much I only spent a third of the year filming!”

 

Koo Lo continues:  “I’ve never been disappointed about not getting to be male lead – all I hope for is that the characters I play can have a little bit more to do.  For example, in the series Gun Metal Grey《刑警》, I played the role of a veteran cop – with that role, I was already very happy that I was able to find myself in that character and in that performance!  Because I truly truly love acting!”

 

 

Path to becoming a voice actor

 

Luckily, Koo Lo still had his job as a voice actor to help him make a living.  As a voice actor, Koo Lo participated in the Cantonese-language dubbing process for foreign films such as Puss In Boots, Toy Story 3, Shrek 2, Transformers:  Revenge of the Fallen, Three Kingdoms, etc.:   “Prior to joining TVB, I worked at the HK Repertory Theatre – one day, Ting Yu (丁羽) [renown veteran voice artist] came to visit and said that he was looking for some ‘new voices’ – just like that, I became part of the theatrical group and from that point on, I would film series as well as do voice work on the side.”

 

Two years prior to accepting the role for Divas In Distress, Koo Ming Wah had actually already made the decision to transfer to the voice acting department at TVB and not film series anymore:  “To be very honest, the first 2 years after I joined TVB, I felt happy because everything was so new and fresh, but then 5 years went by, then 10, then 15 and I started to see creativity becoming more and more limited – I started feeling that my ‘fighting spirit’ was slowly diminishing, so I thought perhaps it was the time for a change.”

 

Koo Lo continues:  “But then prior to switching over, I got the chance to film Gun Metal Grey and work with actors such as Felix Wong (黃日華), Michael Miu (苗僑偉), Vincent Wong (王浩信), Oscar Leung (梁烈唯), etc. – seeing them have such passion and heart for acting, it immediately reminded me that in actuality, the company didn’t really change and such actors were always present, it’s just that my attitude toward acting had changed.  After switching to the voice acting department, I swore to myself that I would take my work and life more seriously going forward – as a result, I was able to learn a lot more about acting, since I had to watch a lot of films for my job in voice acting.  Then, at the beginning of this year, Tak Gor challenged me to take on the role of ‘So Gay’."

 

 

The youthful HKAPA days

 

Koo Ming Wah graduated from the HK Academy of Performing Arts (HKAPA) in 1990.  He revealed that back in the day, he decided to apply to the HKAPA because of his friend, comedian / actor Tat Ming Cheung (張達明):  “Tat Ming and I were classmates in primary school and high school, so we were really good friends.  After graduating, he continued with his studies, whereas I went to work at my brother’s factory as a machine operator.  Not sure what triggered it, but one day, all of a sudden, he came over and asked me if I was interested in joining a theater company with him – just like that, we ended up joining [veteran actress] Law Koon Lan’s (羅冠蘭) theater troupe.”

 

“Later on, we found out about a place called the HK Academy of Performing Arts, so Law Koon Lan suggested that we try to apply.  Since my factory job at that time was extremely boring and I wanted a change in environment, I decided to go with Tat Ming to apply.   Only Tat Ming was accepted the first year  -- I tried applying again the second year and finally got in.”

 

Koo Lo emphasized that the 4 years he spent studying at the HKAPA were the happiest years of his life:  “If I didn’t have those 4 years, it definitely would have been regrettable!  Since grants and loans were available back then to help with schooling, seven of my male classmates and I pooled some money together to rent a house in Sheung Wan to serve as a dormitory  -- with 8 guys going to school and hanging out together day and night, imagine the fun we had!  Haha!”  [Koo Lo’s 7 male classmates included Sunny Chan (陳錦鴻), Emotion Cheung (張錦程), Tat Ming Cheung (張達明), Joey Leung (梁榮忠), Chung Chi Wing (鍾志榮), Desmond Tang (鄧偉傑)].

 

Koo Lo continued:  “After we got off from school, we would all hang out at the house and review through the stuff we learned or sometimes just sit around and chat.  Of course, we had fun outside of school too, eating and drinking, hanging out with other friends, partying, etc.  Haha!  The school environment was very nice too  -- the buildings were clean and pretty, there were a lot of glass windows with a view of the harbor, pretty girls dancing upstairs [TN: referring to the dance department at the HKAPA]…haha!  Those few years, we didn’t have any burdens and could do pretty much anything we wanted (except for illegal stuff and things that might embarrass our families).  That was definitely the ‘good life’…haha!  It was also during those 4 years that I got the chance to really study acting and explore it in depth – because prior to that, I didn’t feel that I had any talent for performing at all!”

 

 

A mother’s love for her child

 

Aside from Tat Ming Cheung encouraging him, Koo Lo also decided to go into acting because  of something his mother said to him:  “At that time, I asked my family: ‘If I wanted to go back to school, would that be okay?’  The reality is that back then, my family would not be able to support me financially, since our family was big and only my dad was working – therefore, when I asked the question, my dad did not give an opinion, since he knew he would not be able to support me…however….” (Koo Lo’s eyes start to tear up)  “…my mom took the matter to heart…” (the tears slowly start to flow) “…my mom told me: ‘Little brother [his nickname as a child] – life is short!  If going back to school is what you want to do, then go ahead and do it!  Mom will support you no matter what!’” (at this point during the interview, Koo Lo could no longer hold back the flow of tears and sobs silently).

 

After regaining his composure, Koo Lo continued:  “Those words from my mom gave me tremendous strength and energy!  It completely changed my life!”

 

Growing up as the 5^th of a total of 6 children, Koo Lo’s family lived in a small house in Ngau Tou Kwok.  During the day, the place where they lived was a manufacturing center for wicker chairs and at night it become the place where they ate and slept:  “My dad was the only breadwinner in the family.  Every morning, my mom would make porridge and some eggs and that would be our breakfast – once a month, we’d get the chance to go out to the city and have a bowl of noodles.  A lot of times, we would help boil water for the workers making the chairs so they could take a bath, then after they finished eating dinner, we would help clean the tables – after they got off work, we would help clean up the place…life was pretty difficult back then!”

 

Out of the 6 children, Koo Lo was the one who had the closest relationship with his mother:  “My mom and I were very close!  That’s because as a kid and even when I was growing up, she never had to worry about me – at school, I always made sure that I was on my best behavior and never did anything that could get me in trouble.  Even though my mom never went through much education, she was a very reasonable and understanding woman who loved all her children dearly – she sacrificed a lot and invested all her time and energy in raising us to be good people.  She is a model mother!”

 

Two years ago, Koo Lo’s mother passed away:  “She had diabetes as well as heart problems...she went into the hospital one day, but the doctors weren’t able to save her….”  As Koo Lo recounted his mother’s passing, tears once again flowed down his face:  “…but the benevolence and love that both she and my dad showed to us children really impacted me greatly and helped me understand what type of parent I should be in the future!”

 

This is truly what we call ‘teaching with love’!

 

 

He is willing to die for her…

 

Koo Ming Wah is married and has a 14 year old daughter named Tammi:  “I met my wife back during my Acting Academy days – she was in the dance school (specializing in Chinese dance) and I was in the drama school.  We dated for 8 years and this year, we will be married for 16 years already.”

 

After his wife graduated from the HKAPA, she became a freelance dancer – unfortunately, not long after they married, his wife got into a car accident that caused permanent injury to her leg and ended her dancing career:  “After that, she became a ‘lazy bug’ – even when I told her to go out and work, she wouldn’t do it!  Haha!” (He pretends to be upset.)

 

As for his daughter Tammi:  “Hahaha!  She is very independent!  Her classmates know that I am her dad, but they’ve never bothered her about getting celebrity pictures or autographs – but even if they do, she always handles the matter very calmly, though it could also be that I’m just not popular enough! Ha!”

 

Koo Lo continues:  “The great love that my mom showed me definitely affected the love I have for my daughter!  When my daughter was born, she had difficulty coughing up the spittle in her throat and I thought to myself:  ‘can I cough it up for her instead?’  Her health is not very good and even when she was a child, she would constantly get sick – she also has asthma as well as kidney problems.  Sometimes when I see her getting really sick, I get scared that she might not be able to make it through and worry that she might leave us – each time, I pray to God and ask him to take my life instead!  It’s true!  If you ask me who I would be willing to die for…my wife – no, but my daughter – absolutely!”

 

Seeing Koo Lo’s eyes start to well up with tears again, I [the reporter] couldn’t help also feeling a knot in my throat.