2015 TVB Anniversary Awards -- My Thoughts

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

Ok, now for the criticisms (lol):

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TVB’s midnight timeslot series

I’ve been wanting to write this blog post for quite some time but just never got around to it.  Well, better late than never, right?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past couple months, I’m sure you probably know that TVB became the “talk of the town” when they decided to re-broadcast their 1992 series The Greed of Man (大 時代) in their midnight timeslot starting in late April.  Produced and written by award-winning film screenwriter / director / producer Wai Ka Fai (韋家輝) back when he worked for TVB (he left the station in the mid-90s to concentrate primarily on movies), the series is considered a ‘godly’ classic.  During its re-broadcast (which ended in June), the series garnered record-setting ratings, the highest ever for any series aired in that timeslot.  Outside of the ratings though, what’s worth mentioning the most is the “media sensation” phenomenon that the series created during its run – practically every day during its re-broadcast, there was some type of article / interview / tidbit in the media about the series and/or its cast (no, I’m not exaggerating – go back and do a simple search of the series’ name and see for yourself).  I mean, the ‘sensation’ got to the point where the HK media even located the former child actors who portrayed the 4 Fong siblings as well as their adult counterparts -- including retired former actresses Carol Yeung (楊羚) and Sher Ng (吳詠紅) – for interviews and to participate in various events.  Of course, that all pales in comparisons to what the rebroadcast did for former TVB actor David Siu (邵仲衡), who had already retired from the industry back in the 90s and became a successful business man during that time -- he himself said that the number of interviews he did as well as the money he made from all the event appearances and projects/job offers he received the past 3 months alone was way more than he got during his 8 years (from 1987 to 1995) working for TVB!  Oh and let’s not forget the “exclusive” interview that NowTV did with the series’ female lead, former actress Yammie Nam (藍潔瑛), who was able to tell the world for the first time through her own words that she is doing perfectly fine despite all the reports of her unstable mental condition throughout the past 2 decades.  Not only did the rebroadcast of the series re-attract ‘old-timer’ fans who had pretty much already given up on TVB, it also gave a new generation of audiences a glimpse into what TVB was like back during the ‘good old days’.

I’m sure the irony is not lost on anyone that a series from 23 years ago being re-broadcast in the midnight timeslot (for the 3^rd time, if the reports by the media are to be believed) could be more popular than even TVB’s currently airing series (and, I dare say, more popular than almost all of TVB’s series from the past decade).  It goes to show how much the quality of TVB’s series has deteriorated – audiences would rather watch a well-made series from 20 years ago than waste their time on today’s poorly produced fare.  Even TVB realizes this, which is why they’re trying to keep the momentum going by continuing to air more hugely popular classic series in the midnight timeslot.

After The Greed of Man finished airing in June, TVB decided to air another popular favorite, 1989’s anniversary series The Justice of Life (他來自江湖), starring Alex Man (萬梓良) and Stephen Chow (周星馳).  Though the series was produced by another of TVB’s ‘golden’ producers, Lau Ka Ho (劉家豪), and is definitely well-deserving of the ‘classic’ title (plus we’ve got ‘comedy king’ Stephen Chow in there with his ad-lib dialogue), it is nowhere near the level of  The Greed of Man in terms of production value and social impact.  Don’t get me wrong – The Justice of Life is a great series and also one of my favorites (it’s pretty much the only Alex Man series that I like, since his regular acting style has never been my cup of tea)….but as a long-time TVB follower, I’m well aware that there are other series more on the level of The Greed of Man that TVB could have aired right afterwards, especially if their intention is to ‘keep the momentum’ going with the high ratings and ‘media sensation’ impact.  If I were the person making the decision on the management team, my choice would’ve been to air 1989’s Looking Back in Anger (義不容情) – another one of producer Wai Ka Fai’s masterpieces and also the best modern series to come out of the 80s era (not to mention it was TVB’s highest rated series of all time up until the 2000s era plus the widespread impact the series had).  To me, airing the widely popular LBIA in the midnight timeslot next was a ‘no brainer’ (and according to reports, LBIA was actually on the list of series being considered by TVB management when they met last month to discuss what to air next).  So then why was TJOL chosen instead of LBIA?  At first I thought perhaps they didn’t want to air another Wai Ka Fai series so quickly after TGOM – but that argument is no longer valid, since TVB recently announced that they will be airing 1987’s The Final Verdict (誓不低頭) – another Wai Kai Fai production -- in the midnight timeslot after TJOL finishes.  And from the looks of it, TVB doesn’t intend to air LBIA at all, as there was no mention of the series at all in recent reports (in the latest reports, TVB management said that they are working on arranging for popular 90s series such as Detective Investigation Files and Files of Justice to air in the midnight timeslot in the near future).  Based on all this, my ‘educated guess’ for why TVB won’t rebroadcast LBIA is because the series’ star Felix Wong (黃日華) as well as co-star Spencer Leung (梁思浩) are both on TVB’s blacklist. Well, I guess I shouldn’t care so much, since it’s the current audience’s loss, not mine.

Anyway, I also wanted to comment on the next ‘midnight timeslot’ series, The Final Verdict.  The series boasts a talented cast that includes Adam Cheng (鄭少秋), Kenneth Tsang (曾江), Roger Kwok (郭晉安), Eugina Lau (劉美娟), Gallen Lo (羅嘉良), Rebecca Chan (陳秀珠), Samuel Kwok (郭鋒), just to name a few.  However, for those who have never seen this series, a word of warning:  it’s definitely NOT a series for the faint-hearted so watch with caution.  The series is actually much ‘darker’ and way more ‘tragic’ than The Greed of Man (in fact, I would consider TGOM ‘tame’ in comparisons – no exaggeration).  In addition to The Final Verdict’s ‘infamous’ murder spree scene (more on this later), there’s also a gang-rape scene, a tragic suicide scene, and an intense murder scene where one of the main characters burns to death after his office is set on fire (and this is just scratching the surface – there are more tragic scenes, but these are the ones I remember most).  I first watched this series back in the late 80s and it left such an impression on me that all these years, I have not been able to muster up the courage to watch it again.  The most infamous scene (and the crux of the entire series) occurs in episode 6 where Kenneth Tsang’s character Luk Kwok Wing (yes, I still remember his character’s name) goes on a crazy murder spree, killing everyone in his uncle’s family with a meat cleaver (and nearly killing his own son too).  That scene was actually based on a real life murder case that occurred in Macau back then and it was so realistically filmed that it was definitely chilling to watch – in fact, TVB was actually fined by the Broadcasting Authority back when the series aired because of the disturbing nature of the scene (we all know that Wai Ka Fai is known for ‘pushing the envelope’ when it comes to his productions, which is why he’s probably better suited for movies where he can do whatever he wants, whereas with television, he’s forced to hold back due to the restrictions from broadcasting rules).

According to the latest reports, TVB has already confirmed that when they air The Final Verdict later this month, they are going to cut out the murder spree scene from the broadcast because they don’t want audiences to be disturbed by the intensity of that scene.  Um, does this mean that they are going to cut out all the other ‘disturbing’ scenes in the series too?  If so, then they might as well just not air the series period!!  Honestly, TVB is being way too conservative – it’s 2015 for heaven’s sakes, not 1988!!  Besides, they are airing the series in the midnight timeslot during the weekdays, not during the ‘prime’ family hour golden timeslot like they did back in the day, so I don’t know what the heck they are worried about.  While it’s true that the murder spree scene is intense and graphic, it’s actually relatively ‘mild’ compared to what you would see in a movie in theaters (again, the limits of television) – most importantly though, that scene is pivotal and is the catalyst for what happens in the rest of the series (in other words, the premise of the series would not exist if that scene were cut).  If they are worried about audiences reacting negatively to the series, then why even bother airing it?  Well, one thing’s for sure – if TVB is going to air the ‘censored’ version of the series, then I definitely don’t care to re-watch it!

So, for all of you TVB old-timers out there....if you were given the choice to decide which series to air next in the midnight timeslot, which series would you choose?  (P.S. I actually have another choice in terms of classic series to air in addition to LBIA, but I will hold off on mentioning it for now, though I'm sure most of you probably already know which series).