3 HK movies I plan on watching this year….

It has been awhile since I’ve watched a HK film.  Growing up in the 80s and 90s, I am grateful to have witnessed the ‘heyday’ of HK cinema back in those days (especially given what the HK movie industry has become today).  As an avid follower and huge supporter of the HK entertainment industry back then, I watched my fair share of HK movies and found most of them enjoyable, regardless of whether the story was good or not.  Of course it helped that there were so many big stars back then who possessed both charisma as well as acting skill, plus all the talent behind-the-scenes in terms of scriptwriters/directors/producers, etc., so it made it easier (in my opinion at least) to enjoy even the lowest quality of movies (i.e.: those raunchy slapstick ones where there is no coherent plot whatsoever yet still manage to be funny and enjoyable).

One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about HK movies is the distinct ‘HK flavor’ that most HK movies – especially the CNY (Chinese New Year) ones – possessed back then (those of you who’ve been watching HK movies for a long time will probably understand what I mean).   Unfortunately, that distinct ‘HK flavor’ has greatly eroded over the years, to the point that nowadays, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a ‘purely HK flavor’ movie that is meant to cater to the HK market (I’m throwing completely bogus numbers out there right now, but as a means of comparison, if 8 out of 10 HK movies back in those days were ‘HK-centric’, then that number is only 1 out of 10 today – if that….).  Don’t get me wrong – I’m not trying to diss non-HK movies in any way, as I don’t feel it’s in my realm to do so…I’m merely lamenting the erosion and ‘slow death’ of the HK movie industry (actually, the entire HK entertainment industry as a whole if we think about it) due to various factors that cannot be explained in one blog post.

When the industry started going downhill in the mid to late 90s and most of the artists/production people I knew and loved became less active in movies, I also became less and less interested in watching HK movies.  In the past 2 decades or so, I would venture to say that the number of HK movies I’ve watched is less than a third of what I used to watch in the old days – while I do have a few favorites from recent decades that were absolute gems and that I would re-watch all day if I could, it’s not surprising that a huge majority of my favorite HK movies are actually from the 80s/early 90s eras. 

At this point, you’re probably wondering why I’ve been ranting on for 3 paragraphs about the demise of HK movies in a blog post that is supposed to be about movies that I intend on watching this year.  Well, considering how few HK movies I watch nowadays, the fact that there are 3 movies that I plan on (more like WANT TO) watch this year is quite significant (last year, I only watched 1 HK movie – mostly because my idol was in it…in a sense, I’m trying to put things in perspective).  I have specific reasons for wanting to watch these 3 movies, which I will attempt to explain below (in my usual ‘wordy’ way of course, lol) – though in the case of #1 and #3, I admit that I am also trying to ‘shamelessly plug’ both movies in the hopes that more people will go see them (#2 obviously doesn’t need any ‘plugging’ from me, since there is enough ‘hype’ with the movie already and it will do well in the box office based on cast alone). 

So here are the movies:

1)      Heaven in the Dark (暗色天堂)

Cast:  Jacky Cheung, Karena Lam, Anthony Wong, Helena Law, Wong Hei, Edmund So, Catherine Chau, Michelle Wai

Director:  Steve Yuen

Distributed by:  Emperor Motion Pictures

Premiere date:  3/24/2016 in Hong Kong, 4/15/2016 in Taiwan (not sure if this movie will be shown in Mainland or not)

Trailer (note that this is the first ‘official’ trailer for the movie – as premiere date gets closer, there will undoubtedly be more trailers released):

I’m actually working on a blog post dedicated to this movie that will have details on the plot, background on filming and production, etc., so I’m not going to say much here.  Just note that Heaven in the Dark is absolutely the MOST ANTICIPATED movie of the year for me, one that I am very much DYING to see (3/24, please get here quickly!!!) – to find out why, please stay tuned for my follow-up post (which should be posted up by this weekend)…

2)      From Vegas to Macau III (賭城風雲III)

Cast:  Chow Yun Fat, Nick Cheung, Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Carina Lau, Li YuChun, Charles Heung, Jacky Heung, Law Kar Ying, Sean Yue, etc.

Director:  Andrew Lau

Executive Producer:  Wong Jing

Distributed by:  Wong Jing’s production company, Shaw Brothers, plus a plethora of other HK and Mainland production companies

Premier date: 2/6/2016 in Hong Kong, 2/8/2016 in Mainland China

Trailer (one of many):

Sub-theme song MV trailer (incomplete version): "Frozen" (停格) by Jacky Cheung

I was actually already working on this post prior to the movie premiering in HK, but had to put it aside due to getting busy with stuff, which of course means I had to re-write some content, so please cut me some slack if my comments sound choppy or don’t flow as coherently as they should.

Ok, so before anyone gives me crap about why I’m ‘supporting’ a Wong Jing-produced movie, I’m going to come right out and say that I am watching this movie for 2 reasons only:  1) my idol Jacky Cheung and 2) the nostalgia factor (more specifically, 80S/90S HK film industry nostalgia).  I will explain more about both reasons in a minute.  First though, for the record, I did not watch the first 2 installments of From Vegas to Macau and I don’t intend to in the near future either (just to make it clear:  no, I’m not ‘boycotting’ either movie, I just have no desire to watch, whether from a cast perspective or story perspective).  I don’t normally watch Wong Jing’s movies (I’m referring mostly to his movies from the past 2 decades or so, not the older ones from the 80s/early 90s) because I find them cheap, vulgar, and raunchy with recycled plots and storylines, crappy scripts, and generally bad acting (mostly from the newbies and his ‘Jing ladies’) – besides, most of Wong Jing’s movies the past several decades have been low quality category III sex movies anyway, so of course I won’t bother to watch.

Before I elaborate on my 2 main reasons for watching, just wanted to give a quick shout-out to the ‘legitimate’ naysayers out there by saying that I totally GET why you guys don’t want to watch this movie. [Side note: I use the word ‘legitimate’ because nowadays, people boycott stuff left and right purely out of political reasons that have nothing to do with the work/program itself.  If people are not watching this movie purely because Wong Jing holds different political views than them – um, sorry, but your opinion doesn’t count in my book!)  With that said, I personally can’t stand Wong Jing, but not because of political reasons (I don’t give a crap what his political stance is to be honest, since politics should be completely separate from entertainment and therefore – in my opinion anyway – it’s dumb to refuse to watch a movie just because the producer’s political views differ from one’s own).  I dislike Wong Jing as a person mostly because of his aggressive attitude toward people as well as his forever childish behavior (the guy is like in his 60s I think, yet he always acts like he’s 10 or something with all the tantrums he throws, especially when people criticize him or disagree with him) – oh and of course, his ‘annoying as hell’ arrogance doesn’t help things either.  From a filmmaker perspective, I’ve actually always felt that Wong Jing is overrated – like I mentioned above, he’s actually one of the few directors/scriptwriters/producers in the industry whose formula has not changed one bit in the 40+ years he has been in the industry…he basically recycles and rehashes his stories/plots/gimmicks over and over again, to the point that there is no need to watch all of his works because they all end up looking similar anyway…if you’ve seen one of his movies/TV series, you’ve pretty much seen them all.  As with most of his movies, the script for Vegas III was penned by Wong Jing himself, so no doubt this will be more of the same (which, as of this writing, has been confirmed by those who’ve actually seen the movie – the basic sentiment is that the script is HORRIBLY written).

So why do I want to watch this movie then?  One reason (actually, the first and foremost reason) is because of Jacky – he rarely ever films movies nowadays so every opportunity I get to see him in a movie, I am absolutely taking advantage of it (call me a crazy fan if you want -- when it comes to Jacky, I have no qualms about being labeled as such!).  While it’s true that Jacky actually doesn’t have a whole lot of screen time in this movie (technically, his role is less than supporting but more than cameo), the time that he does have is well-used and his acting still manages to stand out amongst all the ‘greats’ in this movie.  Amidst all the criticism toward the movie itself (since the movie premiered, the feedback has been all over the place – some people like the movie and feels it lives up to CNY standards, some hate it and hugely criticize it for being nonsense and ridiculous, some are neutral and see it no better or worse than other run-of-the mill CNY movies), there have been 2 ‘elements’ of the movie that have been consistently praised in both positive as well as negative reviews of the movie:  the first is Jacky’s acting/performance and the second is the sub-theme song he sings at the end of the movie (people have commented that listening to the sub-theme song paired with watching the final scene of Jacky’s character’s demise in the  movie truly moved them to tears, which is unusual for a CNY film that is supposed to be comedic rather than tragic).  Those who have watched the movie have noted Jacky’s meticulous acting, with special mention of his on-the-spot facial expressions – despite the horribly written script, Jacky managed to make his crazy, schizophrenic character Yik Tin Hang amazingly convincing.  Of course, I am not surprised at the positive feedback toward Jacky’s performance, as he has always been a solid actor who is hugely underrated (mostly because everyone – including Jacky himself – focus more on his singing career rather than his acting).  The last few days I’ve actually read quite a few reviews as well as media reports on the movie (from various sources, both in HK and Mainland) and interestingly enough, there has been one particular common sentiment amongst all those reports:  ‘Jacky Cheung is the only actor amongst the star-studded main cast who actually took the acting piece seriously and it shows’ (basically meaning that everyone else still delivered the goods, but didn’t put as much emphasis on the acting since this is a CNY movie after all and most audiences won’t care as long as they are ‘entertained’).  In other words, Jacky’s performance is one of the ‘highlights’ in an otherwise forgettable movie.  Again, I am not surprised, as Jacky is a ‘perfectionist’ when it comes to his work and has high standards towards all his performances – whether it involves singing or acting – so of course he is going to take it seriously (one of the articles actually said that it’s obvious from the end result that Jacky put 120% effort into his performance).  As a fan, I am of course happy to see all the praise for Jacky’s performance, though too bad it was for such a lame movie overall.  However, it does make me proud know that my decision to watch the movie mainly because of him was definitely not in vain. 

Lastly, to touch on the second reason why I want to watch this movie – the nostalgia factor.  For someone like me who grew up watching HK movies in the 80s/90s, this movie will actually have a little more significance in that I will be able to recognize a lot of the ‘classic’ scenes / dialogues / songs, etc. incorporated into the movie.  Also, there are a BOATLOAD of veteran artists and other familiar faces (whom long-time HK movie-goers will for sure recognize) that make cameo appearances in the movie.  The nostalgia piece is actually a unique component of this particular installment of Vegas that was absent from the previous 2 installments – though to be honest, I’m pretty sure it’s not lost on anyone that the nostalgia piece is a ‘gimmick’ on Wong Jing’s part to get audiences who have fond memories of ‘the good old days’ to watch the movie. Ah well – it is what it is, I guess….

3)      Ten Years (十年)

Cast:  Liu Kai Chi, Leung Kin Ping, Courtney Wu Zerisawa, Peter Chan, Wong Ching, Lau Ho-Chi, Ng Siu Hin, Tanzela Qoser, etc.

Directors:  Kwok Zune, Wong Fei Pang, Jevons  Au, Chow Kwun Wai, Ng Ka Leung

Distributed by:  Ten Years Studio (low budget independent film)

Premier date:  12/17/2015 in Hong Kong

Trailer:

Since probably not many people have heard of this film, I will attempt to give a brief summary of it (though I also attached an article from SCMP that does a pretty good job of summing it up, plus there’s also Wikipedia for those who want more detail). 

Anyway, this is a low budget independent movie consisting of 5 short films directed by 5 newbie directors (from the younger generation obviously, given the movie’s theme).  Basically, the movie is a political satire that attempts to depict what Hong Kong might be like ten years from now, in 2025 (hence the very fitting title).  Though largely ‘fictional’ in nature, the very realistic portrayal of political and social issues that HK has been facing (with some of what has been depicted in the movie eerily ‘coming true’ already) has made this film a haunting reminder of Mainland China’s increasingly suffocating stronghold on HK. 

Initially, this film did not draw much attention, especially since all the directors are young newbies, plus the cast is largely unknown (except for a few veteran supporting artists such as Liu Kai Chi and Leung Kin Ping, though if you read up on the film, there are other familiar faces who do have cameos, it’s just not highly publicized).  Not long after its release though, ticket sales went through the roof, with sales surpassing the new Star Wars movie at one point in a few theaters.  That’s when mainstream media started reporting on the movie more, giving it much needed publicity.  In the short amount of time the movie has been in theaters, it managed to rake in $5 million HKD in ticket sales, which is virtually unheard of for an independent film helmed by unknowns (plus the film only cost $600,000 HKD to make, so the directors definitely got a return on their investment).  So far, this film has gotten wide critical acclaim (in HK of course) and has been touted as a film that all Hong Kongers must watch.  Those who’ve watched the film praise its daring yet relevant portrayal of HK’s political and social issues – the film is powerful on many fronts, but ‘disturbing’ and scary at the same time due to how closely it hits home with its candid commentary of the HK-Mainland conflict as well as the CCP’s ominous influence.

As a Hong Konger, I am definitely interested in watching this movie.  For the record, I have always taken a ‘neutral’ stance when it comes to politics and nothing will ever change that.  I refuse to involve myself with politics or associate myself with any party / political faction because to me, there is no party out there that will ever jive completely with my views and value system – therefore I prefer to remain ‘neutral’ so that I can both understand and appreciate both sides of the argument, so to speak.  Besides, as I mentioned above, I have always taken the position that politics should be separate from entertainment, so I don’t allow my entertainment choices (whether in television, movies, music, books, etc.) to be ‘influenced’ by any political leanings.  With all that said, I am interested in watching Ten Years mainly due to its artistic merit and critical acclaim – I want to see for myself whether this movie is as poignant and powerful as everyone has said it is.  Regardless of its heavy socio-political theme, if the movie is good, then it’s absolutely worthwhile to watch -- no amount of criticism, whether politically-laced or not, will discourage me from watching a worthy film!

A Look into the Past: Recounting TVB’s Most Influential TV Series of All Time (Part 2)

Here’s the second article in the multi-part ‘TV History’ retrospective that TVB Weekly magazine published recently.   I’ve actually been a bit behind on translations lately, so I haven’t been able to get to as many of these as I would like -- I believe there are 14 or 15 articles to this retrospective, so obviously there is still a ways to go before I finish the entire series of articles….for those who have been ‘following’ this retrospective and are anxious to read subsequent articles, I must sincerely apologize for my ‘slowness’ in working on these.   The magazine scans I used this time around aren’t that great either (pictures rather than actual scans), but they will have to suffice for now....if I get a chance to do so later on, I’ll switch out the pictures with better quality ones (don’t hold me to it though, since I may get busy and end up forgetting…).

Anyway, just some quick commentary on the article itself…

I actually haven’t watched the 1970s version of Legend of the Book and the Sword, so can’t really vouch for whether it’s good or not.  The version I’m actually most familiar with is the 1987 TVB remake with Nixon Pang, Jacqueline Law, Fiona Leung, etc. – despite the horrible casting choice of Nixon Pang as the male lead (I sort of ranted about this in the comments to my ‘Tribute to So Hang Suen’ article), the series overall was quite well-made, not to mention the rest of the cast (outside of the male lead) was STELLAR!  I highly recommend watching the 80s version (try to ignore Nixon if you can…LOL), as the ‘all-star’ cast and well-written adapted script are well worth the effort.  As for the 70s version – well, I guess if you’re a fan of any of the leads (Adam Cheng, Gigi Wong, Liza Wang, Louise Lee, etc.), then it’s probably a nice classic to watch (though I’m pretty sure that the 70s version is hard to find now given that so many years have passed…).

The other 2 series mentioned in this article (The Hotel and A House is Not a Home) I actually have watched, however I don’t remember a whole lot from either series because the last time I watched was like back in the 90s some time.  The Hotel is often mentioned in retrospectives and other shows / features about TVB history, so I do have more memory of that series than the other one – the most ‘famous’ scene from the series is of course the one mentioned in the article where Deborah Lee's character shoots and kills Chow Yun Fat’s character (believe me, that scene is so ‘famous’ that people who haven’t watched the series will probably remember it if they saw it, since TVB retrospective shows love playing that scene all the time…LOL!).  The series was one of Chow Yun Fat’s numerous collaborations with Cora Miao and to be honest, I sometimes get that particular series mixed up with a few other ones from the same time period (that happened to feature much of the same cast).  In any case, I do agree that Fat Gor and Cora were a pretty good-looking couple, but my favorite Chow Yun Fat pairing will always be him and Dodo Cheng (they’re actually my all-time favorite couple from the 70s era).

As for the series A House is Not a Home – well, let’s just say that all I remember is Liza Wang’s Lok Lam (including her famous hairstyle…LOL) and Simon Yam’s controversial character…that’s pretty much as far as my memory extends…

For those who are interested in reading part 1 of this ‘special feature’, the link is included below (though to be honest, that article covers the 1960s and early 1970s eras, which is likely before any of us were even born).  It does make for some interesting reading about early TVB history though!

Part 1:  http://llsmusings.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-look-into-past-recounting-tvbs-most.html

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TVB Weekly Magazine Special Feature:  The Most Influential TV Dramas from the Past 45 Years  (Part 2)

Source:  TVB Zone, Issue 819

Article originally published March 4, 2013

Translated by: llwy12

In 1976, TVB produced its first ‘wuxia’ (武俠) series adapted from one of famous novelist Louis Cha’s (金庸) popular works:  The Legend of the Book and the Sword (書劍恩仇錄).  With its status as the inaugural wuxia series as well as Jin Yong adaptation for TVB, this 60 episode grand production is considered one of TVB’s most important drama series from the past 45 years.   It comes as no surprise then that the series featured an all-star cast, however what made this series truly ‘legendary’ is that it did something that even today is unprecedented:  the series featured all 3 of TVB’s most popular first line ‘fa dans’ at the time:  Liza Wang (汪明荃), Louise Lee (李司棋), and Gigi Wong (黃淑儀) – in TVB’s 45 year history, this was the first and only time that the 3 of them participated in a series together as the female leads. 

The series’ male lead was veteran actor/singer Adam Cheng (鄭少秋), who was already a popular ‘siu sang’ at the time despite only playing lead roles in a few TV series.  In a brave but risky move, producer Wong Tin Lam (王天林) cast Adam in 3 of the series’ pivotal roles (Chan Ka Lok, Emperor Qianglong, and Fook On Hong).  The difficulty of portraying 3 different characters with unique personalities (in the same series) can be a challenge to even the most seasoned of actors, let alone someone who only started playing lead roles a few years back.  However, Adam stepped up to the challenge – his performance in this series not only made him a ‘household name’, it also set the stage for him to be cast in numerous ‘wuxia hero’ roles throughout the rest of his career.

Rounding out the ‘all-star’ cast for this epic production were many of TVB’s ‘heavyweight’ veteran actors and actresses from that generation, including Chu Kong (朱江), Candice Yu (余安安), Wong Yuen San (黃元申), Ha Yu (夏雨), Lawrence Ng Wai Kwok (伍衛國), Deborah Lee (狄波拉), Shek Kin (石堅), Kwan Hoi San (關海山), Ko Miu Si (高妙思), etc.

For the 1976 version of The Legend of the Book and the Sword to have such epic status in HK television history, the ‘once in a lifetime’ collaboration of TVB’s ‘big 3’ fa dans no doubt played an important role.

100 episode full length series The Hotel (狂潮) sets precedence

That same year (1976), there was another grand production series produced that is an important part of any discussion about TVB’s most influential drama series:  the 129 episode family conflict-themed series The Hotel (狂潮).  With Chow Yun Fat (周潤發) and Cora Miao (繆騫人) leading an all-star ensemble cast,  The Hotel was an important series on many levels – not only was it TVB’s first foray into the ‘large family conflict’ theme [which obviously becomes a common theme in many of TVB’s subsequent series], but it was also TVB’s first attempt at producing a full length (each episode was 1 hour) drama series that spanned more than 100 episodes.

With such an important series, the production was definitely not taken lightly – TVB invested heavily in the series on all fronts:  cast, script, and even filming location.  In order to get the best results possible, the production team specially rented a 10,000 square feet factory building in Kwai Chung for filming.  In addition, the cast and crew filmed many of the scenes in real life hotels and cafes in HK rather than on a set inside the studio – the result was a more realistic effect that audiences could more easily relate to.

As far as cast goes – not only did the series catapult the 3 the core characters in the series (Chow Yun Fat’s Siu Wah San, Cora Miao’s Cheng Si Ka, and Deborah Lee’s Lui Yan) to instant stardom, it also had a far-reaching effect on HK society as a whole.  At the time the series aired [November 1976 to early 1977], practically all of HK’s television-viewing audiences would stay home and ‘chase’ the series – as a result, many of HK’s restaurants and eateries saw a huge decrease in business during the usual peak dinner timeslot in which the series was broadcast, especially during the weeks when the series’ story arcs reached climactic moments.  When the series aired its finale episode – which consisted of the ‘famous’ scene where Deborah’s Lui Yan shoots and kills Chow Yun Fat’s Siu Wah San – it was reported that 9 out of 10 eateries (restaurants) in HK were practically empty!  This proved that the popularity of the series had already reached ‘fanatic’ levels.

This grand series also had another ‘unique’ and ‘unprecedented’ characteristic:  the countless number of ‘heavyweight’ stars who participated in the series, whether in a recurring role or guest star/cameo role, each had their own unique story arc and it wasn’t until close to the end of the series that the plot was tied back to the main story of Chow Yun Fat’s character seeking revenge on the Cheng family. [TN: As a point of reference, some of the ‘famous names’ who participated in this series include:  Shek Kin, Chu Kong, Gigi Wong, Damian Lau (劉松仁), Lee Heung Kam (李香琴), Miu Kam Fung (苗金鳳), Helena Law (羅蘭), Cecilia Wong (黃杏秀), Meg Lam (林建明), So Hang Suen (蘇杏璇), Simon Yam (任達華), Susanna Kwan (關菊英), Candice Yu, Lawrence Ng Wai Kwok, Wong Wan Choi (黃允財), Kwan Hoi San, etc.]

Due to its well-written story arcs, numerous climactic and suspenseful moments, talented cast, and meticulous production, The Hotel garnered tremendously high ratings when it aired and also set the stage for TVB’s subsequent wave of 100 episode drama series.

 A House Is Not a Home (家變) gives rise to ‘successful career woman’ craze

On August 1, 1977, TVB introduced another ‘family conflict’-themed grand production – the 110 episode  A House Is Not a Home (家變).  This series is important in HK television history because of 2 main reasons.  First, when the series premiered back in 1977, it garnered unprecedented high ratings of 95%, which was equivalent to approximately 5 million viewers – this makes the series one of the ‘most watched’ series in television history.  The second reason is of course the ‘iconic’ character of Lok Lam (洛琳):  the series’ main female protagonist played by Liza Wang.  The character left such a deep impression on audiences at the time that it led to a phenomenon rarely ever seen in HK television history:  the hairstyle that Liza had in the series was so popular that it spawned a trend-setting ‘craze’ whereby many of HK’s young women would run to their local hair salon while the series was airing so that they could get a ‘Lok Lam style’ hairdo.   In addition, the character of Lok Lam also gave rise to the ‘successful career woman’ (女強人) term that started to become more widely used in HK after the series aired.

Of course, the success of a series doesn’t depend on one person alone.  As the saying goes:  ‘a peony flower may be good in and of itself, but still requires its green leaves to support it.’  If Liza Wang was considered the ‘peony flower’ in this series, then actor Chu Kong should definitely be counted as the best ‘green leaf’ for her -- his character Chim Pak Lam was absolutely the ‘ultimate match’ for Lok Lam.  While the couple’s ‘love/hate’ romance in the series was certainly heart-wrenching to many viewers, the friction between the two characters also provided many emotion-charged moments for audiences.

It can be said that one of the biggest draws of this series was its incredible cast, which included many household names such as Chow Yun Fat, Ha Yu, Simon Yam, Nam Hung (南紅), Lee Heung Kam, Tang Bik Wan (鄧碧雲), etc. – however another important element was its strong, fast-paced storyline.  In order to make the series more relevant to audiences, the production team added in story arcs involving ‘hot topics’ in society at the time – for example, the infamous corruptions involving the ICAC during the 1970s era.

A House Is Not a Home was an ‘innovative’ series not just because of its story, but also with the unconventional way it tackled such things as promotion for the series.  For example, when the episode about Lok Lam’s father Lok Fai’s (played by veteran actor Bak Man Biu 白文彪) sudden disappearance aired, promoters for the series took out front page search ads in all of HK’s major newspapers with a message from the ‘Lok family’ stating how much they miss Lok Fai and for him to contact them immediately upon seeing the message.  Such a promotional tactic was a first in the HK television industry and definitely set a high standard to follow for future generations to come.

Oriental Daily Interview with Felix Wong [Part 4]: “Never in my dreams did I think about becoming a lead actor so quickly!”

Here's part 4 of Felix Wong's interview with Oriental Daily....

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Oriental Daily Interview with Felix Wong [Part 4]:    “Never in my dreams did I think about becoming a lead actor so quickly!”

Source:  Oriental Daily

Translation:  llwy12

Back during his youth, Felix Wong had his heart set on becoming the Chinese version of Pele [TN: famous Brazilian soccer player], however when that dream failed, he ended up joining TVB’s Acting Class instead. After playing bit parts and many ‘ke le fe’ roles, Felix finally had the opportunity to collaborate with established actors/actresses such as Chow Yun Fat, Dodo Cheng, etc. – it was from these ‘senior’ artists that he was able to learn a lot more about acting, eventually developing a life-long interest in the craft. In addition, the right timing as well as luck were other factors that aided Felix on his path to becoming one of the most popular leading actors at TVB back in the 80s.



*** Felix speaks:

When I was young, I actually never thought about becoming a celebrity. Back when I was in school, I had my heart set on becoming a soccer player – in fact, I had even gotten to the point of participating in tryouts. I remember at the time, out of the 2000 candidates who participated, only the top 3 would be chosen to become soccer players – unfortunately, I came in at number 4.

Later on, one of my neighbors suggested I try applying for TVB’s Acting Class – she even got an application and submitted it for me. I actually was not interested in becoming an actor, but seeing all the effort that the neighbor put in to help me, I figured I’d just go to the interview session to please her. I remember one of the things we had to do during the session was read and recite some dialogue – I pretty much just made a half-hearted attempt to recite the lines and get it over with, thinking that would be the end of it. To my surprise, I received a phone call from TVB that night telling me that I had been accepted into the class without having to do a second interview!


Happy, carefree Acting Class days

I was barely 18 years old when I entered the Acting Class. Those were good times, as I basically got to study acting for free, plus I’d get to hang out with classmates such as Michael Miu (苗僑偉), Tam Yuk Ying (譚玉瑛), etc. – those days were very happy and carefree. After 6 months or so, I started getting bit parts in various series, playing roles such as a soldier, a customer at a restaurant, etc. At the time, I got the chance to work with Fat Gor (Chow Yun Fat 周潤發) a lot – even though he was already a big star at the time, he never put on airs and in fact was always very willing to help teach newcomers. He would often approach us on his own and give us acting tips or other advice – learning so much from him helped me to slowly cultivate my interest in acting.


Benefited from the 80s ‘poaching’ crises

At one point back in the 80s, TVB also encountered a ‘poaching’ crisis which resulted in a shortage of siu sangs. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I’d get the chance to play a lead role 3 months after I graduated from Acting Class – in ‘normal’ circumstances, this would have been impossible! I remember the first series I filmed where I was in the male lead role was The Lonely Hunter 《過客》[1981] . At the time, Dodo Jeh [Dodo Cheng 鄭裕玲] and Uncle Yeung Kwun (楊群) [TN: his co-stars in the series] gave me lots of advice and support, which helped me get into my character easier. When the series aired, it was quite well-received by audiences and from that moment on, my acting career officially began.

News Article: Mingpao Special Feature: A career in review – looking back at TVB producer Lee Tim Sing’s Top 5 series

Here's a MUST READ article for 80s TVB fans (well, it sort of extends back to the 70s as well).

As most of you probably know, 'golden' producer Lee Tim Sing (李添勝) has plans to retire next year -- for the past 43 years, he has been responsible for producing many many TVB series, most of which we would consider 'classics'. With his anticipated retirement at the end of next year (as well as the recent success of his latest series "Bottled Passion"), Mingpao Weekly did a special feature on Lee Tim Sing, interviewing him about 5 of the top series he had produced in his career.

I'm sure that many old-school TVB fans have probably watched the 5 series discussed in this article at some point in their lives -- if so, here's some behind-the-scenes information about those series, as recounted by Tim Gor himself.

As an 80s/90s TVB fan (and the 70s to some extent), I definitely enjoyed reading this article! Whether you are a fan of TVB or not, if you've watched any of the 5 series mentioned, I hope that this article will help shed some light on things that perhaps were not previously known about the series.

Anyway, enjoy!! :-)

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Article originally published on January 7th, 2012

Mingpao Special Feature: A career in review – looking back at TVB producer Lee Tim Sing’s Top 5 series

Source: Mingpao Weekly, Issue 2252

Now that “Bottled Passion” has ended and his next series “Stairway to Heaven” is in post-production, TVB golden producer Lee Tim Sing (Tim Gor) has started preparing for his newest series “Detective Columbo” – actor Wayne Lai will star in this new series, which could very well be Tim Gor’s last production prior to retirement: “Unless something unexpected comes up, yes, this will most likely be the last one.” TV fans are surely hoping for something ‘unexpected’ to happen! After spending 4 decades in the industry, will Tim Gor miss the work? “It’s not really a matter of missing or not. I’m already 65 years old – it’s truly time for me to step down.”

With a career that spans 43 years and numerous hit series to his credit, Tim Gor does not wish to deliberately pick any one series as his ‘representative’ work: “I put my heart and soul into every single series I produce and each time, I strive to make the best series possible – though of course, it’s not always possible!” With limited production resources, of course it may not always be possible to achieve the best visual effects, however when it comes to choosing suitable actors and actresses for his series, Tim Gor certainly has an eye for talent. From a casting perspective, Tim Gor feels that “The Duke of Mount Deer” (1984) and “The Emissary” (1982) were ‘very close to perfection’, while classics such as “The Fate” (1981) and “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” (1979) had ‘golden couple’ Chow Yun Fat and Dodo (Carol) Cheng – two of his ‘beloved’ artists whom Tim Gor collaborated with often back in the day. Of course, the most ‘memorable’ experience for him was producing 1985’s grand anniversary series “The Yang’s Saga” in which every single artist employed by TVB at the time participated: “Back then, whenever we had a war to fight, everyone was invigorated!” [TN: the ‘war’ was between TVB and ATV: at that time, TVB produced the series to ‘fight’ ATV’s highly rated inaugural Miss Asia Beauty Pageant].

Looking at the state of TVB nowadays, does Tim Gor’s spirit and vitality still exist?


‘Close to perfect’ casting: Tony Leung (梁朝偉) and Andy Lau (劉德華) in “The Duke of Mount Deer” 《鹿鼎記》and “The Emissary” 《獵鷹》

In April of 1969, Lee Tim Sing joined TVB and was given the worker’s identification number of ‘365’ – perhaps it was fate that from that day forward, Tim Gor would work ‘365 days’ a year, every year, producing series for the small screen.

Having experienced the ‘golden era’ of TVB [back in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s] as a producer, it is of course difficult for Tim Gor not to lament TVB’s dire state today: “Back in the day, TVB truly had many great talents – in addition to the Five Tigers, there were also the more ‘mature’ actors such as Chow Yun Fat, Adam Cheng, Simon Yam, etc. – so in a sense, casting for series was easy!” A ‘classic’ example of this – TVB’s popular 1984 Jin Yong remake, “The Duke of Mount Deer”: “If at that time, our ‘artists vault’ did not consist of an actor named Tony Leung, the series definitely would have lost a lot of its vibrancy!” As Tim Gor describes it, Tony Leung’s portrayal of ‘Wai Siu Bo’ was akin to a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity – since then, the character has become ‘extinct’ so to speak: “When I had Jordan Chan (陳小春) play that role [in the 90s remake], it was a different feeling -- even Tony Leung himself, if he were to do the same role years later, would not be able to pull it off with the same freshness and purity as the original portrayal, since he would have gone through more experiences and his acting matured.”

Thinking back to that time, when TVB’s then Head of Production Lau Tin Chi (劉天賜) called Tim Gor into his office to give him the ‘marching orders’ to start production on “The Duke of Mount Deer”, Tim Gor’s first reaction was: “Ok, then Tony Leung will play Wai Siu Bo and Andy Lau will play Emperor Hong Hei!” Tim Gor revealed that the first time he cast Tony in one of his series was in 1982’s “The Emissary” – he did so primarily because Tony at that time was “a short, young boy who had a pleasant face and was obedient – the perfect fit to play Barbara Chan (陳敏兒)’s younger brother!” However, as filming of the series progressed, Tony’s meticulous acting and focus caused Tim Gor to see him in a new light: “Of course, when most audiences watch series, they will only pay attention to the main leads playing their roles in the front, but as a producer, I have to pay attention to those in the background as well. In “The Emissary”, Tony only played a supporting role and when [main leads] Andy and Barbara were playing their parts in the front, he would usually only be in the background – yet, the way he remained so focused and absorbed in the scene – it was obvious that in the future, that was the type of actor I wanted to work with; after all, who would want to work with a wandering spirit with no focus?”

Andy Lau’s situation was similar to Tony’s – the reason he got the ‘golden’ opportunity to be male lead in “The Emissary” was also because of his ‘background focus’: “In the series “The Lonely Hunter” (1981), there was a scene where a group of youth from the Acting Classes were cast as school students and had to perform the song ‘On the Songhua River’. I was in the control room and noticed that one of the students was especially enthusiastic and put 100% effort into performing that scene, so I asked my assistant to write down that student’s name. When it came time for me to start filming on “The Emissary” (in 1982), the first person that I thought about to play the lead role of a youngster from the police academy was that name I had written down: Andy Lau.”

Therefore, when it came time to film “The Duke of Mount Deer”, Tony and Andy were the first choice to play Wai Siu Bo and Emperor Hong Hei: “I would have to say that the casting for that series was close to perfection – even [veteran actor] Chun Wong playing the role of Mao Sap Bat was so well-suited!” The role that had the most ‘controversy’ at the time was Kiki Sheung playing ‘Ah Ngo’ – Tim Gor admits that back then, when he had decided to cast her in the role, there were definitely some people who objected: “As a producer, I cannot be wishy-washy – once the decision has been made, need to follow through with it. If I were to switch artists around all the time, not only would the artists themselves be unhappy, it would also affect the production. In addition to focusing on the quality of the series, I also need to be concerned with the artists’ feelings.” In deciding to cast Kiki for the role, Tim Gor states that her ‘obstinate’ personality was perfectly suited to the character: “If you say that Kiki is not pretty enough for the part, I probably wouldn’t refute you, but the character of Ah Ngo is the illegitimate daughter born out of wedlock to Chan Yuen Yuen and Lee Chi Sing and from childhood, was raised by a one-armed nun – based on her experiences, the character is supposed to have a self-determined, independent kind of stubbornness about her…Kiki definitely had this temperament that made her perfect for the role.”

In Jin Yong’s popular wuxia novels, anything is possible, however adapting the novels to the small screen is a challenge unto itself, both for the cast and crew alike. Tim Gor responds with a smile: “The scene where Wai Siu Bo finds the treasure was especially difficult to film, as there are limitations to what we are able to do in the studio. We did the best we could at the time, building a special set with an underground passage and tried to make the ‘treasure’ as realistic as we could….but of course, there will always be comparisons made! Look at all the Western films with those types of scenes – all the pillars, stones, etc. always look so grand – then take a look at ours…can’t compare!” When that scene was being filmed, Tim Gor had to give special instruction to the director to be careful with the camera angles and make the scene as short as possible: “No point in embarrassing ourselves!”

At this point in the interview, the scene in TVB’s recent anniversary series “Curse of the Royal Harem” where the Emperor and Empress are ‘riding’ in that makeshift balloon comes to mind….aiye….


Andy Lau and Deanie Ip’s mother/son relationship in “The Emissary”

In the 70s, TVB’s biggest competition was RTV [TN: Rediffusion Television, which later became ATV] and during that decade, a big focus for both stations was filming police dramas. After years of filming heavily male-oriented police investigative series, Lee Tim Sing (Tim Gor) suddenly had a thought – instead of filming regular police dramas, why not film a series about police cadets?: “Just like that, the series “The Emissary” was born!”

Prior to this series, Andy Lau did have some acting experience, however since this was his first time in a lead role, a bit of nervousness was unavoidable: “If you ask me whether Andy’s acting skills were always proficient, I would tell you ‘of course not!’ In the beginning, his acting was extremely stiff – my assistant would tell me: ‘that’s not going to work!’ to which I would reply: ‘give him a few more days and he’ll be fine!’” Tim Gor had a lot of confidence in Andy and very carefully helped him figure out where the problem was: “In times like that, you absolutely cannot yell at the actors because if you do, the situation becomes worse. Plus, at that time, it wasn’t completely Andy’s fault – during filming, there were a lot of people in the studio and it was quite noisy – unless you’re used to that type of filming environment, it’s difficult not to become slightly intimidated. As a producer, as long as you understand the circumstances, then it’s no big deal – the more at ease the artists are, the better the acting becomes. A few days later, when I bumped into Andy in the makeup room, I gave him a pat on the shoulder and told him: ‘You’ve been doing much better!’”

Of course, let’s not forget that Andy also had great ‘teachers’ to learn from, as other artists participating in the series included Deanie Ip (葉德嫻), Paul Chun (秦沛), Lau Kong (劉江), etc. – all of them were veteran artists who are known for their solid acting skills: “The veteran artists were very willing to help teach the younger artists at that time; after all, helping the younger artists was the same as helping themselves, since it meant everyone could get off work on time.” In real life, Deanie Ip and Andy Lau truly have a special ‘mother/son’ relationship and have remained close even now, 30 years later – with regard to Tim Gor’s role in bringing these two together, he states: “Actually, there really wasn’t any special reason why I decided to cast Deanie Ip in the series. My intention at the time was to create a very close-knit, unique mother/son relationship where the two of them could joke with each other and act like sister and brother rather than mother and son. I knew Deanie from years back, around 1972 or so, when I was still in an assistant (場務員) role and she was already singing in “Star Show” – later on, we got the chance to collaborate on a series – I remember that every time I saw her, I noticed that she was always smiling, so she was perfect for the ‘happy mother’ character I had in mind for “The Emissary”.”


‘Golden’ pairing of Chow Yun Fat (周潤發) and Dodo Cheng (鄭裕玲) in “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” 《網中人》and “The Fate” 《火鳳凰》

Talking about ‘classic’ collaborations – Tim Gor’s 1979 production “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” created the ‘golden’ pairing of Chow Yun Fat (Fat Jai) and Carol (Dodo) Cheng: “Chow Yun Fat’s acting skills are unquestionably great and Dodo is an actress I love collaborating with! I remember back when CTV (Commercial Television) closed down, TVB had bought a lot of that station’s series. One of my scriptwriters at the time told me I should go watch Dodo Cheng’s performance in those series – to be honest, in the past, what time would I have to check out CTV’s series?” [TN: Dodo Cheng started her television career at Commercial Television in the mid 70s – when CTV went bankrupt and TVB bought them out in 1978, she became a TVB artist].

As soon as Tim Gor saw Dodo’s performance, he knew immediately that she was a talented actress – but, how she ended up becoming part of the ‘golden pairing’ with Chow Yun Fat was partly due to fate and the right timing. As we all know, in the series “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”, Fat Jai was also paired up with actress Cora Miao (繆騫人) and part of the storyline revolved around which woman he would ultimately choose: “The original plan [for the storyline] was that when a man [Fat Jai’s character Cheng Wai] is faced with two women – one who is a perfect match for him in terms of background, education, and thought process and who he had once been in love with [Dodo’s character Fong Hei Mun] and the other who is his dream ‘goddess’ and who understands him well, takes care of him, and is very considerate of his thoughts and feelings [Cora’s character He Ying] – who will he ultimately choose?”

Before the writers had a chance to make a decision, fate already made the choice for ‘Cheng Wai’: “After Cora Miao resigned in the middle of filming the series, the answer was already obvious, as there was no other choice – Fat Jai will definitely be paired with Dodo in the end. Any other characters who were added as love interests after that (Susanna Au Yeung for example) were all ‘facades’ whose purpose was to ultimately bring Fat Jai and Dodo together and move their relationship forward.” Back when the series aired, TVB claimed to have received 200 letters from audiences on a daily basis complaining about ‘Cheng Wai’ being paired with a different love interest as well as requesting that he and ‘Fong Hei Mun’ reunite. When the pair did get back together in the finale, it appeared that TVB had complied with the audiences wishes, but in reality, Tim Gor already had that ending in mind long ago: “Actually, as soon as He Ying was written out of the script [the character died in a car accident], the storyline of Cheng Wai ultimately getting back together with Fong Hei Mun was already set. When Cora quit, we had to ‘give up’ a lot of the storyline that we had originally planned for her – for instance, we had written that George Lam (林子祥)’s character was originally going to fight Cheng Wai for He Ying, but in the end, his character was forced to ‘disappear’. With much of the storyline gone, there was a huge hole that we had to fill and on such short notice, it was not feasible to switch over artists who were currently filming other series, so in the end, we picked Susanna Au Yeung (歐陽佩珊).” When Tim Gor asked for Susanna’s help to participate in the series, he was very up front with her: “It was necessary to be honest from the start that her character (Au Hui Wah) was ultimately going to die – I told her that it was definitely unfair to her and I felt sorry having to wrong her like that, but since we lost Cora, we really didn’t have much choice.”

In the end, Susanna’s character is killed while trying to save Cheng Wai and his mother and later on, he gets back together with Fong Hei Mun – the series ends with the famous ‘last scene’ where Fat Jai and Dodo kiss for close to 35 seconds, which at that time, was billed as the ‘marathon kiss of the century’: “We never planned the timing of the kiss itself – my only request during filming was that the cart pushing the camera do one full circle. The cart had to be pushed slowly because if it went too fast, the cameraman would get upset – after practicing the speed a few times, we did the official take with Fat Jai and Dodo…we finished in one take.” Why not film a few more takes so that there would be more options to choose from? “Camera film was expensive in those days: it cost almost a dollar a foot, and that didn’t include printing and developing – if you film too many excess scenes, the company didn’t like it!”

The ratings for the series went through the roof and there was also much praise from the audiences. However, there were a few audiences who questioned a few aspects of the storyline: “Some people complained that it didn’t make sense for Fat Jai’s character to ruin his career and life by stealing $100,000 in order to help his mother [played by the late Tang Bik Wan (鄧碧雲)], as he could have easily borrowed that money. When I heard that complaint, I was puzzled – why would someone go borrow $100,000 from someone else for no good reason, especially considering that was the year 1979?” At the time, there were also complaints that Liu Wai Hung (廖偉雄)’s character Cheng Chan eating 30 hamburgers in one shot was unreasonable, to which Tim Gor responded: “Yes, I understand that it is difficult for an ordinary person to eat 30 hamburgers all at once, but the purpose of that scene was to show how foolish and ridiculous the character’s thought process was as well as demonstrate the concept of new immigrants wanting to try Western trends [eating a hamburger].” Indeed, the character of ‘Cheng Chan’ had a huge effect on HK audiences and even helped to coin the phrase ‘Ah Chan’ as a nickname for new immigrants settling in HK from Mainland China: “During that time, it was common for HK people to go back to visit their ancestral relatives in the villages and oftentimes, they would exaggerate how HK was a ‘land of gold’, which caused a lot of Mainlanders to come here illegally. I basically ‘borrowed’ the idea after listening to several brothers from the village tell their stories and based the character on this. As for why we chose the name ‘Ah Chan’ – well, that was due to a lot of the stereotypical nicknames that were prevalent in our old society.”

While “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” reflected the struggles of ordinary citizens trying to survive everyday life, Tim Gor’s series “The Fate”《火鳳凰》reflected a different type of struggle – one on a more psychological and emotional level involving the upper eschelons of society. Once again, Chow Yun Fat and Dodo Cheng were paired together – was this arranged by the company given the couple’s popularity from earlier? “No – the most important thing for me is the character and how suited the artist is to portray the role. The main character in “The Fate” is the adopted son of a former triad king and starting from the first scene, there are already scenes involving his background – when it comes to portraying ‘grassroots’ characters, Fat Jai definitely has a knack for it!”

Dodo’s character in the series is the daughter of a rich lawyer, so in order to emphasize the importance of her family’s background, Tim Gor specially purchased a real leather sofa worth ten thousand dollars (remember, this is back in 1981) to use as part of the setting for the scenes involving her home: “Of course, the company complained about the expense, but from my perspective, the family is affluent and in order to match the background and storyline, it made sense to have an expensive sofa – would you expect them to have a sofa made from cheap fabric in their home? Besides, I only bought that one piece of furniture!” Tim Gor was persistent, but it paid off: “Sure, I got yelled at a little, but I don’t care – as long as I’m able to put the investment to good use and it pays off, those people will stop complaining.”


Filming grand production anniversary series “The Yang’s Saga” 《楊家將》

In 1985, the ‘golden couple’ of Chow Yun Fat and Dodo Cheng was taken to a different level – both became ‘deities’! In the grand anniversary series “The Yang’s Saga”, Fat Jai played Lui Dong Bun and Dodo played Ho Sin Gu [TN: historical characters], however both roles were only cameos that they agreed to do to help the company [TVB] fight a war: “At the time, the ratings for flagship program EYT had dropped drastically (and the company had to battle ATV’s Miss Asia pageant finals) – in order to fight back, the company ordered that all their resources be utilized for a grand production and filming had to commence 10 days from the order being handed down. Back then, the organization and structure of the company was strong – as soon as the order was received, we notified the Artists department and they immediately posted letters to all the artists’ lockers letting them know to be prepared. Artists such as Fat Jai, Dodo, Maggie [Cheung] all had series that they were currently filming, so they were asked to return for 1 or 2 days only to film cameo roles as ‘deities’. The director at that time was Johnnie To (杜琪峰) and he asked me how deities were supposed to appear, as it’s not ‘realistic’ to have them just walk out – after some thought, I realized he was right. The result was that we created a precedent by utilizing 18 wires all at once to have all the deities ‘fly’ out in the first scene of the series!”

The reason why the historical story of the Yangs was chosen for this series was primarily due to the short timeframe with which the series needed to be filmed and released: “If we had done a modern series instead, we would have had to spend too much time explaining the story to audiences and promotion of the series would be too strenuous – however as soon as we say “The Yang’s Saga”, everyone already knows the story.” With the popularity of the 5 Tigers at the time, it made sense that they would be recruited to play major roles in the production: “Michael Miu, Felix Wong, Andy Lau, and Tony Leung were arranged to play the roles of the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th Yang brothers, all of whom carried much of the storyline – the personalities and mannerisms fit perfectly.” (Kent Tong did not participate because he was on hiatus due to Barbara Yung’s passing).

In the studio, everyone was originally in high spirits and ready to fight the battle, however after filming nonstop for a few days without any sleep, the situation became a bit volatile: “Everyone hadn’t slept for days, many people were in bad moods, and people were complaining. Johnnie To was pretty much yelling at people left and right – if the crew did their jobs quickly, then of course everything would be fine, but if they slowed down a little bit, then he would get upset and yell. At this point, I had no choice but to be the mediator and help settle things.” But Tim Gor also was filming without rest, right along with them: “Yes, but if I got upset too, we’d be dead! I had to keep the big picture into consideration.”

Tim Gor is definitely deserving of the title ‘natural born leader’!

TVB Acting Classes: 3rd Year Artists List – Class of 1974 (Part 4 in a series)

Part 4 in my “TVB Acting Class History” series covers the 3rd year acting class – those who entered the class in 1973 and graduated in 1974 (keep in mind that during this time, the acting classes were still a 1 year program).

** Note 1: The artists’ names listed in BOLD are the ones who were actually active in the HK entertainment industry (as far as I know) and /or ones whom most audiences will probably be familiar with.

** Note 2: Under the “Summary & Thoughts” section, I’ve listed various tidbits as well as other descriptive info about some of the artists that I’ve highlighted in BOLD.

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TVB 藝員訓練班（第三期）- 1973 -74年
TVB’s Acting Class – 3rd year (1973-74)

周潤發 (Chow Yun Fat)、吳孟達 (Ng Man Tat)、任達華 (Simon Yam Tat Wah)、林嶺東 (Ringo Lam Ling Dong)、盧海鵬 (Lo Hoi Pang)、鄧英敏 (English Tang Ying Mun)、伍潤泉 (Thomas Ng Yun Chuen)、蕭健鏗 (Hsiao Kin Heng)、林文偉 (Lam Man Wai)


SUMMARY and THOUGHTS:

.— As I stated in my previous post (part 3), starting with the 3rd year class and moving forward, we will start to see a lot of the ‘big names’ in HK entertainment, most of whom still have a significant impact on the industry even today.

.—I’m sure I don’t need to explain who Chow Yun Fat is, correct? In all my years following HK entertainment, I have never encountered a single Hong Konger who wasn’t familiar with Chow Yun Fat – he’s definitely one of the biggest stars to come out of HK and for most of us, he is pretty much a ‘household name’. Therefore, I am not going to go into detail about him in this particular post. However, for those who are interested in learning more about Chow Yun Fat’s life and why he is one of the most respected celebrities on the planet, feel free to check out the Book Review I wrote awhile back ago: Now and Then II: Chow Yun Fat

.—Ng Man Tat (Tat Gor) should definitely be a familiar name to audiences, especially movie audiences (more on that piece later). Known as a ‘golden’ supporting actor, Tat Gor has never played a lead role in his life – he started off in TV as a supporting actor and even when he started doing movies, he continued in supporting roles, eventually making a name for himself and becoming one of the most successful and highest paid supporting actors in the Chinese-speaking regions of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China (he’s actually one of the few HK actors to achieve such success completely relying on supporting roles).

After Tat Gor graduated from Acting Class, he participated in numerous series in the 70s, but mostly had only minor roles. He started becoming familiar to audiences through his performance in the 1979 version of “Chor Lau Heung” (he played Chor Lau Heung’s good friend Wu Tiet Fa). In the 1980s, Tat Gor participated in many ancient series, though he also had quite a few memorable roles in modern series as well, mostly as a ‘stern’ father figure – for me, his most memorable ‘serious’ role from the early 80s was as ‘Yip Sir’ in the “Police Cadet” trilogy (in “Police Cadet ‘84”, he was Tony Leung’s mentor at the cadet training school and in “Police Cade ‘85”, he played Margie Tsang and Jamie Chik’s father – same role but focused more on his family life).

In 1989, Tat Gor collaborated with rising comedic star Stephen Chow (周星馳) on 2 major series (ancient series “The Final Combat” and also modern series “The Justice of Life”) and from that point forward, a comedic ‘dream team’ was born. In 1990, Tat Gor started to focus his career more on movies and with that, continued his ‘dream team’ collaboration with Stephen Chow, participating in almost every single one of Stephen’s movies. He received his first nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the HK Film Awards for his performance in the gambling-themed “All for the Winner” (賭聖) [the Stephen Chow spin-off of Chow Yun Fat’s “God of Gamblers” franchise]. He didn’t win that year, but the following year, he was nominated again in the same category for “A Moment of Romance” (天若有情) [the famous Andy Lau film] and finally took home the award (ironically, in a non-Stephen Chow collaboration). Tat Gor is no longer active in the HK film industry, as he shifted his career to Taiwan and the Mainland in the late 90s, participating mostly in TV series over there. He did reunite briefly with Stephen Chow in 2001 for the film “Shaolin Soccer” however 3 years later when Stephen started filming for “Kung Fu Hustle”, Tat Gor was noticeably absent from the movie (it was rumored that the two had fallen out of favor with each other and therefore ended their long-standing collaboration – supposedly, things are fine now, at least according to Tat Gor).

.—Simon Yam is one of those rare success stories whose decorated career is proof that an actor typecasted as a ‘sex symbol’ can still go on to become one of the most solid and respected actors in the entertainment industry. Prior to joining TVB, Simon worked as a model (not surprising, given his good looks, tall stature, and nearly perfect physique) – after entering the Acting Class and then graduating, he started participating in TV series and films almost simultaneously (though of course at that time, there was more focus placed on his TV career). With such a long career (over 30 years), Simon had the opportunity to play many different roles and is probably one of the few actors who actually had such a wide acting range. But it actually wasn’t like that all the time – in the early years of his career, he was pretty much typecast into either ‘sex symbol’ bad boy type roles or given the role of the villain, though there was the occaisonal ‘honest good guy’ role thrown in there from time to time. Simon had so many memorable performances when he was at TVB, it’s actually very difficult to pick a ‘favorite’ -- though if I had to choose, I would probably count his performances in “The New Adventures of Chor Lau Heung” (1984), “Police Cade ‘85” (1985), “The New Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre” (1986), and his most representative work (at TVB) “War of the Dragon” (1989) amongst my favorites. In fact, I actually feel that his performance in “War of the Dragon” was so good, it was absolutely award-worthy (too bad there were no TV awards back then) – that series definitely secured Simon’s ‘lead actor’ status and proved that he definitely had acting skill. Ironically, it was also around that time that he left TVB and went to ATV – though technically, he was also continuing to focus more on his movie career as well, since it was also around that time (early 90s) that he really started participating in a lot of movies. And then, in the mid-90s, he pretty much left ATV to focus completely on his movie career (though still participating in a series or two here and there) – definitely a wise decision given how successful he eventually became in the movie industry (finally winning the HKFA Best Actor award in 2010 for his performance in “Echoes of the Rainbow.”)

Some interesting facts about Simon’s background – he actually comes from a family of police officers, as his dad was a Police Corporal (he died while on duty when Simon was just 14 years old) and his older brother was the former Deputy Commissioner of Police in HK. Of course, we all know that his wife is famous model Qi Qi and together, they have a daughter named Ella.


.—Ringo Lam is a famous movie director who was most active back in the 80s and 90s. After graduating from the Acting Class, he had a few minor roles in a few series, but then switched to doing behind the scenes work, first as an assistant editor, then as a choreographer. He participated in the production of a few TVB series in the late 70s. He then left TVB in 1978 and went to Commercial Television, but his career there was short-lived, since CTV went belly up not too long after that. Therefore, Ringo decided to immigrate to Canada and study film at York University. He returned to HK in the early 80s and that’s when his career really took off, as he started applying the skills he learned and became a director. The genre that he specialized in was action drama, though he did occasionally direct a comedy or two. I’m actually not too familiar with Ringo’s work, but I do know that he was most famous for the “On Fire” films [“City on Fire” (龍虎風雲), “Prison on Fire” (監獄風雲), and “School on Fire” (學校風雲)] back in the late 80s and had won an HKFA Best Director award for one of the films. Out of the 3 films, I’m only familiar with the first two, which starred Chow Yun Fat.

.—The best way to describe Lo Hoi Pang (Pang Gor) is ‘multi-talented comedic genius’. Even though he was naturally born with a ‘sour-looking’ face, that’s certainly not the image that audiences have of him all these years. As the mainstay of TVB’s long-running flagship variety show “Enjoy Yourself Tonight” (E.Y.T.), Pang Gor made audiences laugh day in and day out with his hilarious comedic routines (usually consisting of ad-libbed dialogue), funny and oftentimes irreverent jokes, and most famously, his great imitation skills. His cutting dialogue in the E.Y.T. skit “The Shrimp Family” as well as his habit of ad-libbing and speaking in rhyme on the show left a deep impression on audiences and to this day, that particular skit still goes down in history as one of the all time classics in HK TV history. Pang Gor was also known for his acting skills and throughout his career, he participated in numerous TV series, movies, as well stage productions. He most recently participated in the stage production of “Shrimp Crazy Family”, which was a reunion of sorts for the E.Y.T. and Shrimp Family cast. (For more information regarding the “Shrimp Crazy Family” stage production, feel free to check out this post: The Return of a Classic)

I remember growing up watching Pang Gor on many of TVB’s variety shows, especially the Anniversary Gala skits and I can tell you first hand that he is absolutely hilarious! He’s definitely the ‘master’ of imitation and was even one of the early artists to perform in drag -- honestly speaking, he puts those imitation wannabees (the current ‘3 gods’, whom I can’t stand, especially when they dress up in drag!!) absolutely to shame! He’s definitely one of the few ‘all –around entertainers’ out there who is able to excel in all disciplines – I can’t think of anyone else in the industry with his caliber of skill.

.—English Tang is another one of those artists whose face audiences will surely recognize, since he participated in so many series in the past few decades and is still active even now (though on the acting front, most of his roles have always been minor ones). English is actually best known for being a host, as that’s where his strength lies – he hosted a variety of shows back in the day, but his most famous ‘gig’ was hosting TVB’s long-running E.Y.T., which he had done from the late 70s until E.Y.T. ended in the 90s (of course, he didn’t host every single episode, but he did host a majority of them). His daughter is Shermon Tang (鄧上文), a former Miss HK contestant from 2005 (I think she won the Most Photogenic award that year, though I’m not sure if she actually made it into top 3 or not, since I pretty much stopped watching the Miss HK pageants in the late 90s) who eventually became an actress and participated in quite a few TVB series (mostly minor roles though).

.—Thomas Ng may not be a familiar name to most audiences, as he is a producer and so works behind the scenes, plus there is so little information about him out there nowadays. Actually, to be more specific, I should say that Thomas is a FORMER producer for TVB (and subsequently ATV) because to be honest, I’m not sure if he’s still producing anymore (again, there is very little information about him, so I’m not too sure what he is doing career-wise now). Back in the 80s, he produced quite a few popular series that most 80s fanatics will be familiar with – for example: “The Legend of Master So” (1982) starring Chow Yun Fat and Andy Lau, “The Fearless Duo” (1984) starring Michael Miu and Barbara Yung, “Siblings of Vice and Virtue” (1986) starring Eddie Cheung, Barbara Chan, Kenneth Tsang, “The Two Most Honorable Knights” (1988) starring Tony Leung and Hugo Ng, etc. The only other thing I found out about Thomas Ng is that he was a very close friend of Barbara Yung’s and during her funeral, he was one of the pallbearers along with the Tigers.

.—The remaining 2 artists listed I’m not familiar with at all, though if they were actually actors onscreen (even in ‘ke le fe’ roles), I would probably recognize them if I saw their pictures. If anyone is familiar with them, please let me know.

Stay tuned for post #5.