UPDATES on free TV license issue and HKTV protests

Here are a few recent articles (from yesterday and today) from SCMP that provide some good updates on the whole licensing issue as well as some of the highlights from HKTV’s ongoing protests in front of government headquarters (though the latest news from HKTV Trade Union’s Facebook page is that they will stop camping out in front of government headquarters and send everyone home to rest, since they have another big rally scheduled for November 6^th).

With regard to the specific articles below….

While on the one hand, I’m happy to see all the support that HKTV has been getting, especially from high profile stars like Chow Yun Fat and Andy Lau, the situation is actually looking more and more grim as the days go on.   As much as I hate to say it, HKTV’s chances of getting a license are pretty much zero at this point (I explain why in the comments to some of my previous posts) and despite all the support for HKTV from the HK general public as well as from so many celebrities, there’s basically no chance in hell that Chief Executive C.Y. Leung is going to take any action on the matter (HKTV Trade Union gave the Chief Executive 7 days to provide an explanation and he obviously ignored that deadline).  With the type of leadership they have currently, well, unfortunately, HK is officially ‘screwed’…..

I also wanted to make a quick comment about the Frankie Lam article.  I was actually a bit saddened when I read it because I truly do like Frankie and Kenix (both are definitely on my ‘favorites’ list in terms of actors and actresses I like watching) – it will definitely be unfortunate if they do decide to move out of HK because of  all the issues with the city.  So I guess this means we can add Frankie and Kenix to the list of artists who will no longer be active in the HK entertainment industry in the near future (in addition to Deno Cheung, Wilson Tsui, Rain Lau, and others who have said that they will likely change professions if things don’t work out with the license thing).  Oh and let’s not forget Benji and Lesley, whose careers are pretty much over now (which I’m definitely saddened over because both of them have such great potential in music).  I actually dread seeing how this whole issue is going to ultimately end because so far, I don’t like what I’m seeing.  I hate to be pessimistic, but I can’t help thinking that the fallout from this issue is going to be worse than we expected and that the ‘casualties’ resulting from this free TV license war are only going to increase as the months go on….

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Article 1:  

Andy Lau among celebrities to add support to last night of HKTV protest

Source:  South China Morning Post

Celebrities, including actor Andy Lau Tak-wah, offered their support to the tens of thousands of protesters outside government headquarters last night.

It was the sixth and probably final night of the week-long protest of the government's decision to deny Hong Kong Television Network's (HKTV) free-to-air TV licence application.

The space outside Tamar government headquarters, also known as Civic Square, and Tin Mei Avenue were packed within half an hour of the protest start at 8pm.

Those who were unable to squeeze into the space were later directed to Tamar Park and the Legco car park.

HKTV crew and actors, as well as industry veterans, took turns to share their thoughts on stage.

Celebrities including Anita Yuen Wing-yee and Ekin Cheng were also among the protestors captured in a film shown on big screens erected in Civic Square. Actor Paul Chun Pui also appeared on stage with his children, HKTV artists Benji and Lesley Chiang.

HKTV staff union chairman Henry Yeung Chi-ho estimated more than 100,000 people attended the rally.

Police said that by 10.30pm, the number peaked at 11,900.

Singer and actor Andy Lau, whom some joked would make an ideal chief executive candidate because of his popularity, showed his support in a video broadcast at the rally. When his message was shown on screen, some screamed: "The chief executive speaks!"

The crowd's emotions were stirred when British singer Kashy Keegan performed his London Olympics anthem This is My Dream. The song was later adopted by HKTV.

"I'm really touched people have embraced the song and got behind it ... It's about persevering," said Keegan.

Lyricist Lin Xi also drew a big response from the crowd. "The nature of creativity is revolution," he said. "If you talk about your dream, and no one says you're crazy, your dream stinks like preserved fish."

Veteran actor Chun's arrival on stage came as a surprise. "Support HKTV!" he exclaimed. "When I said I wanted to enter the industry, my parents said, 'You've got to work hard and be prepared.'

"Now my daughter has asked me the same question, and I gave her the same answer. She can do it as long as she likes it and is willing to work hard. But how would I know if the government thinks otherwise?"

Actress Yoyo Mung Ka-wai said: "I have always thought there could only be improvements when there is competition. Why should we make ourselves stop? Why can't we be given the chance to improve?"

Annie Lee, a fashion retailer, was at the rally with her husband, who is a civil servant at the Labour Department. She said they had been sitting outside government headquarters every evening since Sunday, and that they would bring their three children with them to future rallies.

"It's unacceptable that the government ignored the people's will without giving a reason," said Lee.

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Article 2:

Frankie Lam vows to quit HK if government refuses HKTV a licence

Source:  South China Morning Post

A top actor with Hong Kong Television Network says his family will consider leaving the city if the government is adamant about refusing HKTV's free-to-air television licence application.

Frankie Lam Man-lung described himself as "a Hongkonger through and through".

But the government's defence of its licensing decision, without giving a reason, stirred up very gloomy sentiments in both him and his wife, actress Kenix Kwok Ho-ying, about the future of this city, he said.

Lam launched his tirade against the decision in an interview yesterday with the South China Morning Post.

"Hong Kong has turned into a mess. How can people still believe that justice can be upheld in our society?" Lam asked.

"There have been many failed policies, including his [the chief executive's] own illegal structures, since he took office. But still I thought we could give him some time if he admitted his mistakes sincerely.

"If the national education [curriculum] is introduced, I can still choose to send my daughter overseas to study.
But now, this dispute is simply forcing people to turn political," the father of a three-year-old said, during the interview at Hotel Icon.

The couple had agreed to leave the city if there was no turnaround, he said.

Lam said the HKTV rally outside the government headquarters was the only protest he had joined in more than two decades. The last time he joined a protest was in 1989, after the June 4 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

A leading man in countless television dramas, Lam has been in show business for 20 years. He left TVB two years ago to join the new HKTV venture chaired by Ricky Wong Wai-kay and said he has no regrets. "I would never regret that because this is where I have found happiness through the quality of work," he said.

He worked non-stop for five days and nights shooting a TVB drama and sacrifices were made on the show's quality - in a network with no competition.

But at HKTV, he said, Wong would accept nothing but the best. "We are shooting dramas of movie standard. The equipment and the scripts are of the highest standards, and actors get enough rest to enjoy acting and ponder their characters."

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Article 3:

Singer Benji Chiang says he fears his singing career is over

Source:  South China Morning Post

Little more than a week ago, Benji Chiang had high hopes for his career as a musician and actor.
Now he's worried he may completely disappear from Hong Kong television.

"I just got KO'd from the industry altogether [by last week's decision by the government not to give Hong Kong Television Network a free-to-air television licence]," the 32-year-old said.

Unlike other former TVB entertainers who have been invited to rejoin the leading free-to-air channel's "big family", Chiang said his chances were slim. "I'm blacklisted," he claimed.

Chiang was sacked in 2011 after seven years as a host of TVB's music programme Global Rhythm and less than a year after he and his sister - as Benji and Lesley - won bronze in the group category of TVB's Jade Solid Gold Best Ten Music Awards for their album, Showtime.

It marked the first time the award had gone to a self-funded album.

Chiang, son of award-winning actor Paul Chun, said he was sacked after being seen at a party hosted by HKTV chief Ricky Wong Wai-kay.

"A production assistant sent me a message saying 'programme direction change, MC change, thank you'."

He then suffered from depression.

Chiang saw hope when HKTV's Wong approached him, offering him acting jobs and a free hand in direction of music programmes, but now he feels he has lost his future. "I have cried three times a day over the past week," he said. "But I won't give up."

Chiang was among tens of thousands of people who took to the streets on Sunday to protest against the government's decision to deny HKTV a licence without an explanation.

He said the decision meant there would be no change to Hong Kong's music scene, which had been strangled by lack of competition in the television industry.

His TVB show, first aired at 11pm, was then put back to 1.30am and eventually ran at 3.30am. TVB's long-time weekly music chart show Jade Solid Gold was turned into a game show. Young people didn't get a chance to learn about local musicians on television, so they turned to pop music from elsewhere, he said.

TVB host Eric Tsang Chi-wai, who stepped down yesterday as chairman of the Performing Artistes Guild after it was criticised for an ambiguous response to the licence row, said the guild had been fighting for the rights of its members and had called upon stations to hire former HKTV staff. He said TVB had extended an invitation, while Cable TV and Now TV had also expressed a willingness to hire.

"From the artists' point of view, the more licences, the better," he said.

The guild came under fire after it did not put its name to a declaration signed by other film industry associations. Tsang said he stepped down as chairman to take responsibility and to protect the guild from negative comments.

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Article 4:  

Bid to use special Legco powers to investigate HKTV case falters

Source:  SCMP

Pan-democrats have lost their initial attempt to invoke the legislature's powers to order an investigation into the government decision to deny Hong Kong Television Network a free-to-air television licence.

A motion to apply the Legco (Powers and Privileges) Ordinance was defeated 27 to 33 in the House Committee of the Legislative Council yesterday.

Most pro-establishment members who had spoken out strongly against the government's decision did not put their words into action. All of the "yes" votes came from pan-democrats.

Tabled by information technology representative Charles Mok, the motion was intended to force the government to produce all relevant papers involved in the vetting and approval of licence applications.

One lawmaker abstained, while seven others, including Liberal Party leader James Tien Pei-chun and Labour Party pan-democrat Cyd Ho Sau-lan, neither voted nor abstained.

HKTV chairman Ricky Wong Wai-kay said: "I'm very disappointed … Why are lawmakers not listening to public opinion that overwhelmingly supports the revelation [of documents]? Everyone wants to know the truth."

Mok will have a second chance to table the motion at the full council meeting on November 6.

However, the motion faces a higher threshold at the full meeting. Instead of the simple majority needed on the committee, Mok must achieve majority support in both geographical and functional constituencies, which have 35 legislators in each.

Earlier, Tien had failed to get his Beijing-loyalist allies to sign up to a petition with the pan-democratic camp to appeal for a licence for HKTV. Tien had also indicated that all five Liberal Party lawmakers would support the motion in principle.

Yesterday, he did not vote at all on the motion, and the other four Liberal lawmakers voted against it.

Ma Fung-kwok, lawmaker for sports, performing arts, culture and publication, abstained from the vote, despite having joined calls for an explanation of the rationale behind HKTV's fallout.

The motion failed despite a last-minute amendment by Mok limiting the scope of any disclosure of non-confidential files.

Beijing loyalists expressed concern over a looming judicial review and the Executive Council's confidentiality rule.

Michael Tien Puk-sun of the New People's Party, who did not vote, said Exco's files and records risked being exposed by invoking the ordinance.

"A judicial review is the most effective way to force an official explanation," he said.

Wong will file a legal challenge in "two to three weeks".

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Article 5:

Hong Kong's opaque governance exposes Exco as a joke

Source:  SCMP

What purpose is served by the Executive Council? This question comes into sharp focus in the wake of the current TV licensing debacle.

Executive councils were an integral part of the British colonial system, established to ensure governors had the local elite on their side and to provide yet more opportunities to reward allies with the trappings of high office. Notably in Hong Kong, the old executive councils also gave the biggest colonial companies a seat at the top table to ensure the preservation of their interests.

Since their establishment, Excos have largely comprised of senior bureaucrats who run government departments. They are rarely prepared to put their careers on the line by upsetting their bosses, so it is safe to assume that, generally speaking, the advice they proffer is what the boss wants to hear.

No wonder this system appealed to Beijing and the old Exco was incorporated into the new constitution. The Basic Law, however, sheds little light on its functions, merely saying that it "shall be an organ for assisting the Chief Executive in policy-making".

There is now intense controversy over whether its members supported, opposed or even seriously considered the new TV licensing regime that has sparked mass protests. One member, Laura Cha Shih May-lung, has a conflict of interest on this matter but the black-box style of governance favoured by the Leung Chun-ying regime will not even reveal whether this was declared.

Most members of the current Exco, like those of previous councils, are little more than time-servers whose main asset is their loyalty to the chief executive. This situation is not so very different from that which prevailed in the past.

To be fair to Leung, he appointed Lam Woon-kwong as convenor of his Exco. Lam has proved to be independently minded and showed some spirit in leading the Equal Opportunities Commission. It is also possible to make the case for the independence of thought of two other Exco members: Anna Wu Hung-yuk and Bernard Chan. Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee is a wild card but reserves her independence of mind to focus on personal ambitions.

So, in theory, the current Exco has the potential to provide a better source of advice than its predecessors. The important caveat is that, under the Basic Law, the chief executive is not obliged to accept their advice but members, by convention, are obliged to back whatever policy he pursues.

It is rumoured that there was dissent in Exco over the TV licensing decision. It is equally possible that the government's policy simply went through on the nod.

Whatever the truth, the only tangible evidence we have of the fruits of the current Exco's labours is a series of disasters, ranging from the national education debacle to the more personal issues of dealing with corrupt officials and Leung's own illegal structures.

If it is the case that sensible advice was offered by Exco members and that it has been ignored by the chief executive, why are those who gave this advice still members? However, it may be that Exco members either did not spot the political minefields the chief executive intended to ignite or, if they did, kept silent. If this is so, they are worse than useless.

The system does not work now, and might not do so in the unlikely event that a democratic system is devised for electing the chief executive soon. Bereft of the proper checks and balances combined with genuine accountability that make governments function better, Exco is likely to remain an obstacle to good administration and even more likely to continue being the kind of running farce that it is today.

Stephen Vines is a Hong Kong-based journalist and entrepreneur

My ‘TVB Rant’ # 24: Will the TVB ‘Name-Dropping’ Ever Stop??

I know I just ‘ranted’ about TVB a few weeks ago and to be honest, I didn’t think that I’d have to rant about them again so soon (LOL), but hey, when the situation presents itself, sometimes got to just let it out…

Recently, a few articles came out (in various newspapers and magazines) detailing how Eric Tsang has plans to produce a new series for TVB (filming to start in May) tentatively titled “Aerobic Girls” and will be casting many ‘heavyweight’ (aka ‘big name’) actors/actresses in the series – many of the actors/actresses will be ones whom audiences have not seen in a long time so it will definitely be something ‘to look forward to’ (his words, not mine).  Almost immediately after Eric opened his mouth (more like before he even finished speaking), speculations and rumors started to formulate about who those ‘long time no see’ actors/actresses would be.  One of the first names ‘dropped’ was award-winning film actor Tony Leung Ka Fai – he was of course an ‘easy target’ for the Media to ‘associate’ with this series, since Eric had very publicly ‘announced’ prior to this that Tony had approached him voluntarily to ask about ‘helping’ TVB out by filming TV series for them.  Around the same time, there were ‘rumors’ that the female leads being considered for the series included Teresa Mo, Veronica Ip, Vivian Chow (just to name a few) – the funny thing is that even though Vivian’s manager immediately denied the rumor and Vivian herself even said that the chance of her returning to TVB to film series was very slim (pretty much ‘zero’), there were still a lot of people out there who were ‘excited’ about seeing Vivian return and started talking about the series as though that particular ‘casting’ was a ‘done deal’ already. 

Of course now, several weeks later, the ‘rumored’ leads for the series have changed (I wonder what those people who previously insisted on the Tony / Vivian / Teresa / Veronica casting think now??) – the latest ‘rumor’ is that Lawrence Ng (aka Dr. Paul Ching – just had to point that out, since I know of at least 3 Lawrence Ngs in the HK entertainment industry and wanted to make sure people didn’t get confused…LOL) will be participating in the series and the ‘rumored’ female leads have changed to Teresa Mo, Flora Chan, and Sheren Tang.  As of right now, none of the 3 rumored female leads have confirmed anything and both Lawrence and Eric are remaining purposefully ‘vague’ about the whole situation (as he did before, Lawrence dropped a ‘hint’ that the 3 leads were actresses he had worked with before – um, yea, like that means anything...).

Ok, so now that I’ve laid it all out, you want to know what my thoughts are on this?  Well, here goes…

I’m pretty sure the piece about Lawrence participating in the series is true, since he as much as admitted it himself already (from what has come out so far, his role supposedly won’t be too significant, so not sure what he is so excited about…haha).  As for the other 3 ‘rumored’ female leads – well, let’s look at it based on the information we know: 

.-- Teresa Mo already said in an interview a few months ago (a Mingpao interview that I actually translated and posted on my blog for those interested in reading it) that she has no intention of going back to filming TV series because of the overwhelming guilt she felt in ‘neglecting’ her family for the 3 years (2008 to 2010) that she had returned to film for TVB earlier -- so she is basically going to focus primarily on her film career and on taking care of her family.   So to me, this means that the likelihood of her agreeing to this series is very slim (unless she decided to change her mind, which I doubt) – in any case, if it turns out she does agree to this series, I for one will definitely want to understand the reason why.

.—Flora Chan stated in an interview a little over a year ago that she was going back to school to get her Masters (and possibly a Doctorate later on) in English so that she can pursue a career in Teaching later on down the road.  She said that when her daughter is older, she plans on moving the family to the U.S. and teaching there (true to her word, she is currently enrolled at HKU and studying English).  Despite that interview, there continue to be ‘rumors’ every other month or so (literally) about Flora returning to TVB to film series (honestly, I’m tired of hearing about it myself….doesn’t the Media ever stop?).   She had said in that same interview that she was going to take a break from filming series for at least 2 years if not more.

However, according to the articles that have come out, Flora is supposedly in ‘final discussion’ with Eric and them on this series – they claim that Flora agreed to film this series because it would be during summer break when she has a few months off from school (so the ‘caveat’ is that the filming needs to be completed before the next semester begins).  I guess it could work out…but still not looking forward to this because the last time Flora returned, she got a really crappy script and made a really crappy series (that barely anyone bothered watching).

.—And finally, there’s Sheren – what are her chances of accepting this series?  Well, at this point, unless the script is finalized, the chance is ‘zero’ because she already learned her lesson from the ordeal she went through filming the WAB sequel and so going forward, will only film series that have a complete script.   Also, knowing the way Eric Tsang operates, I highly doubt Sheren will want to work with him because he does exactly the same thing scriptwriter Chow Yuk Ming does – ‘on the fly’ scripts that change from one day to the next…in fact, in many ways, Eric is way worse because he’s known for being ‘spontaneous’ when it comes to filming and could change things from one minute to the next (remember how Teresa said that she would get the script the morning of filming and a couple hours later, after she memorized everything already, as she’s getting ready to film the scene, she is told to ‘scrap’ everything she just memorized cuz the script changed – Eric had just come up with a new idea for doing the scene and so changed things on the spot).   Based on this, I highly doubt Sheren is going to accept the series, as I don’t feel that she is willing to put herself through all that torture for TVB’s sake (plus it’s not like she’s contracted with TVB anyway – she’s a free artist so she can do anything she wants pretty much).

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Obviously, I don’t look upon this particular ‘project’ of Eric’s very favorably – at this point, I truly feel that it’s all just Media hype.  And honestly, the name of the series itself (“Aerobic Girls”) already turns me off because it sounds so much like an ‘idol’ series (which I absolutely can’t stand).  I surely hope that the title will be changed because as of right now, based on the title alone, the series sounds lame (and it doesn’t help that Eric is producing it – most of his recent productions have pretty much been borderline ‘raunchy comedies’, so I can’t help but think that this one will be the same…).

Oh, and what about the script?  Again, knowing how TVB operates (some things never change), most likely the script is going to suck (as it usually does in these types of ‘grand’ productions with a supposed ‘all star’ ensemble cast).  In fact, that’s one of the (many) things I can’t stand about TVB – their mentality that as long as you stuff as many ‘big names’ or ‘popular artists’ (aka artists that audiences want to see) in a TV series as possible, you can pretty much take the ‘lazy’ route when it comes to the plot and script because the naïve HK housewife audiences aren’t going to know any better and aren’t going to care as long as the artists they like show up on their screens every night.  No, I’m actually not exaggerating because it’s pretty much a fact that HK audiences have an affinity for ‘familiarity’ (there’s actually been a lot of articles written about this over the past few decades) – it’s one of the (many) reasons why TVB has continued to be so ‘successful’ over the years despite serious decline in the quality of their productions and lack of talent.  This concept also explains the reason why for many years, TVB has been utilizing the strategy of inviting ‘old’ artists back to film for them (though there are other reasons as well, such as the lack of young talent to carry a series, for example).  If you want to see whether this is true or not – well, just take a look around you….if you were to tell friends and family around you (those familiar with HK entertainment of course) that TVB plans on bringing Andy Lau or Chow Yun Fat back to film series, what do you think their reaction would be?  And ‘why’ do you think they would react that way?  I rest my case….

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Some last thoughts about this whole ‘name-dropping’ trend from recent years….

Honestly, I’m sick and tired of all the ‘name-dropping’ that TVB (via the likes of Eric Tsang, for example) and the Media have resorted to the past 2-3 years in terms of artists they hope to ‘invite back’ to film series for them.  Some examples of ‘names’ that have come up:  Chow Yun Fat, Andy Lau, Carina Lau, Sandra Ng, Anthony Wong, Vivian Chow, (big) Tony Leung, Deanie Ip, Jacky Cheung….and the list goes on….pretty much anyone you can think of who was once associated with TVB in one way or another (which is pretty much 90% of the artists in the HK entertainment industry) is ‘fair game’ for a so-called ‘return’ to TVB – that is, unless you do what Gordon Lam did (kudos to you, Gordon!) and outright reject TVB with a firm ‘No! Absolutely not!’ [Gordon revealed in a few interviews recently that he was contacted by TVB inviting him to return and film series for them, but he outright rejected them without bothering to listen to any further details of the series from them.  He said he did so because he already knows what he wants in terms of future career path (which involves a career in film, not TV), so why not just be direct with them and say no instead of going back to do a meaningless project that does nothing for his career goals?]  You hit the nail on the head, Gordon!!  It takes guts to go against an established ‘giant’ like TVB and the fact that he did it so firmly and confidently (without being rude about it) definitely deserves praise in my book! (Boy I would have LOVED to see the look on those lame TVB execs’ faces upon hearing Gordon reject them so bluntly – seeing those fake, smug smiles wiped off their faces for even a minute would have provided one of those ‘priceless’ Kodak moments that no amount of money could buy!  LOL!).  So basically, if an artist gives any answer other than a firm ‘No!’, they will be caught in an endless ‘speculation’ game with the Media and general public (keep in mind that there are many audiences out there who will very readily believe anything the Media says without question).

This is why I absolutely get annoyed when TVB (and the Media) ‘jumps the gun’ and starts ‘leaking’ all this information out prior to anything being confirmed. What’s the point of doing this, since it’s a ‘no win’ situation for both sides if the collaboration doesn’t work out? The only 2 reasons I can think of are: 1) they ‘leak’ this stuff out as a means of publicity / hype for the series – so basically, it’s pretty much a ‘publicity stunt’; and 2) it’s a tactic employed by the company (TVB in this case) to ‘force’ the artist(s) to accept the offer, since all the pressure from the Media (and the audiences / fans) definitely does have an impact (take Francis Ng for example – part of the reason why he agreed to return to do TITS2 was because of audience pressure – he had said in an interview previous that initially, he wasn’t going to film the sequel because he doesn’t believe in doing sequels for sequels sake, but then everyone kept pestering him about it and because he felt the audiences (and fans) really wanted him to return to film the sequel, he gave in and did it).

In conclusion….I have a feeling this won’t be the end of this whole ‘name-dropping’ thing – in fact, this is just the beginning!  I’m sure that there will be many more instances of this in the months / years to come (especially if rival HKTV finally does end up getting their license). 

Let’s see who the next big ‘name drop’ will end up being (anyone want to venture to guess?)....I have a few ‘guesses’ in mind, but for now, let’s just ‘sit back’ and see what happens…

Weibo Fever # 7: The Return of a Classic – E.Y.T. Skit “The Shrimp Family (蝦仔爹哋)”

70s/80s TVB fans take note! Those of you who miss TVB’s famous long-running flagship variety show “Enjoy Yourself Tonight” (known as E.Y.T for short), which ran for 27 years (from November 1967 to October 1994) are in for a treat – one of the most popular skits from the show is coming to a theater near you! Well, sort of….

Long time TVB fans may remember “The Shrimp Family (蝦仔爹哋)”, a hilarious skit within the E.Y.T. program that starred veteran comedic actor Lo Hoi Pang, comedic (and serious) actress Meg Lam, singer/actor Louie Castro, singer/actor Tam Bing Mun, and actresses Jamie Chik, Helena Law, and Sandra Ng (main cast) plus cameos from many famous HK stars throughout the 70s, 80s, and early 90s. The skit played out live in front of audiences every week (the E.Y.T. program aired every night, Monday to Friday, back then) and much of the dialogue was ad-libbed right on the spot by the actors and actresses (especially the immensely talented and funny Lo Hoi Pang) each time.

I pretty much grew up watching E.Y.T. and I remember laughing so hard at the skits (especially “The Shrimp Family”) that my insides would hurt afterwards! And it was definitely a lot of fun to see which famous celebrity would ‘guest star’ each time and also see how Lo Hoi Pang would make up dialogue on the spot and ‘trick’ the other artists, causing them to burst out laughing instead of saying their lines (that’s the beauty of doing the skit live!). The skit was definitely one of the highlights of E.Y.T. and will go down in HK entertainment history as one of the “classic” skits of all time.

As a treat for us ‘old-timer’ fans, the cast of “The Shrimp Family” will be re-uniting next this month (September 20th to 23rd) and the skit will be turned into a stage play, complete with musical numbers, singing, and dancing. And that’s not all – due to Louie Castro and Jamie Chik’s connections in the industry, they have invited many of their famous friends from within the HK entertainment industry to participate in the stage play, taking on cameo roles!

In addition to the regular cast consisting of Lo Hoi Pang, Meg, Jamie, and Louie, plus ‘newer generation’ artists Hanjin Tan, Jerry Lamb, and Oscar Leung, here’s just a partial list of some of the ‘guests’ who will also be participating (I’m sure that long-time TVB watchers will recognize most, if not all, the names): Dodo Cheng, Teresa Mo, Felix Wong, Michael Miu, Eric Tsang, Nat Chan, Susanna Kwan, Annie Liu, Elvina Kong, Michelle Yim, Yu Mo Lian, and Mak Jing Ting (formerly known as Mak Lai Hung). It was recently announced that a few famous singers will also join the cast with cameo roles, including Eason Chan, Miriam Yeung, and Sammi Cheng.

Wow such a stellar veteran cast and so many great guest stars, this will definitely be an awesome event! Just reading the cast list and seeing all of the ‘behind the scenes’ pictures (as well as reading all the articles and posts on Weibo) already made me feel as though I have been transported back to the ‘Golden Era’ of the 1980s and definitely brings back so many awesome memories! My only regret is that I don’t live in HK, so I won’t be able to watch the stage play live (darn!) – I guess all I can do is read up on it and also hope (more like pray hard) that they will end up doing a tour of sorts and perhaps come to the U.S. to perform (pretty please with a cherry on top?!?!?!). NOTE TO THOSE WHO LIVE IN HK: If you’re a long-time TVB fan and/or HK entertainment follower, you have to go watch this!

Anyway, here are a few pictures from the behind the scenes dress rehearsals and practices in preparation for the ‘main event’ in a few weeks (courtesy of Louie Castro’s Weibo).

There will definitely be more follow up posts to come on this...but in the meantime, enjoy!!

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All Photos credited as listed.

2003 HKFA Awards Ceremony (第22屆香港電影金像獎颁獎典禮)

I just finished re-watching the 2003 HK Film Awards Ceremony and I’ve got to say that it brings back a lot of memories.

To be honest, I didn’t purposefully re-watch this show – I just happened to come across it again when I was searching for something in Tudou, so I decided to go ahead and re-watch.

The 2003 ceremony was very different from the previous ones in many ways. First of all, that was the year that SARS hit Hong Kong and the entire population was suffering from the epidemic. It had gotten so bad that there were advisories put out by the government suggesting that non-HK citizens should not travel to HK and if they did, it would be at their own risk. The spirit and mood of the people were at an all-time low. Just when they thought things couldn’t get any worse, the HK entertainment industry is rocked by devastating news: music and film icon Leslie Cheung jumps from the 24th floor of the Mandarin Oriental hotel – and within minutes, he was gone.

In less than 5 days from this tragic event, the 22nd annual HK Film Awards ceremony was scheduled to take place – given everything that happened, many wondered if they should move forward with the event as planned. In the end, they decided to proceed with the show as usual. The night of the ceremony, HKFA association chairman (and host of the event that night) Eric Tsang gave the opening speech (a very moving one) and in it, he reveals the reason why they decided to go on with the show. He said that after what happened, he didn’t want to do the show anymore – but then he saw something on TV that made him change his mind. There was a news report about how, at the peak of the SARS epidemic, a group of several dozen doctors were asked who amongst them would volunteer to ‘get in the trenches’ and go into the deepest hit areas to help out (and risk the possibility of losing their lives) – without any hesitation, every single of them raised their hands and volunteered to go. Eric was moved when he saw this and also felt motivated – he indicated that the entertainment industry should not let the events of the past several months beat them down…instead, they should show the same ‘fighting spirit’ as the doctors and do the jobs that they were meant to do – entertain the audiences, bring up people’s spirits, and help everyone – ordinary citizen and celebrity alike – temporarily forget their sorrow and pain for one night.

This particular awards ceremony was also unique and special because of 2 reasons:

Majority of the artists who were nominated in the various categories were not in attendance at the ceremony and even many of those who won did not attend. Now before we start blaming the artists, we have to understand the environment in HK during that time – as I said earlier, SARS was at its peak and so many people were sick that the entire region became a big hospital ward, it seemed. And as mentioned earlier, the government had issued advisories regarding travel to HK….also, the hosts Eric Tsang and John Shum did mention that most of the non-HK artists were advised not to come to HK, so it’s actually not too surprising that they did not attend. In fact, the only non-HK artist in attendance at the ceremony was Zhang Zhen, who presented one of the awards.

Second, despite the lack of non-HK artists and the ‘tense’ atmosphere, this was still one of the most memorable ceremonies in HKFA history because it showed how united the HK entertainment industry truly is. A few of HK’s biggest celebrities who had not attended the HK Film Awards in years were in attendance at this particular awards ceremony.…this may not seem like a big deal, but what makes this truly unique is that most of the ‘big name’ celebrities attended primarily to support HK and the industry – many of them were neither nominees nor presenters. And a few of them were actually out of the country, but purposefully flew back to HK just to support.

For example, film icon Chow Yun Fat and his wife Jasmine attended the ceremony to show their support, as did singer/actor Alan Tam (both had not attended the HKFA in years) – both Fat Gor and Alan were the special guests who gave a 4 minute monologue at the end of the ceremony -- a great speech that was filled with humor and jokes at each other’s expense, but was a great source of encouragement for everyone in HK. Stephen Chow also made a rare appearance prior to the presentation of the Best New Director award (which he was not the presenter for) to say a few words of encouragement to the people of HK. For me though, the biggest highlight of all was the extremely rare performance by of all 4 Cantopop Kings (Jacky, Andy, Leon, Aaron), who had not performed together since the late 90s – they did an acappella rendition of Leslie’s classic hit Dong Nin Ching (當年情) as a tribute to him. I definitely have to applaud Jacky for attending just to do the tribute, given his close relationship with Leslie and knowing that he was probably grieving during that time – plus he was not nominated for anything that year and wasn’t even a presenter (both Andy and Leon were nominated for Best Actor and Aaron was a presenter for the Best Actress award, so at least the other 3 had a reason to attend aside from the tribute).

Also, in the very last segment (after Fat Gor and Alan did their speech), the hosts invited everyone (all the presenters, nominees, and pretty much everyone else who wanted to go up there) on to the stage so that Hacken Lee (who was invited up after the speech) and Alan could lead the entire group in a song that represented HK’s fighting spirit. It was a pretty appropriate closing if you ask me.

TVB 43rd Anniversary Gala (萬千星輝賀台慶2010)

TVB’s annual anniversary “birthday party” occurred today (yesterday in HK) – it was a bit lackluster compared to years past (well, it’s actually been lackluster for the past decade and can’t compare at all to the ones from the 80s and 90s)….

Anyway, here are some of the highlights from this year’s anniversary gala that I felt were worth mentioning (good or bad):

.> It was obvious that Moses and Wayne were the biggest ‘stars’ of the anniversary gala show, as they were probably the biggest names there in the ‘fa dans & siu sangs’ category. Many of the other ‘big names’ and TVB’s current ‘favorites’ (i.e.: Charmaine, Sheren, Raymond, Steven, Myolie, Bosco, etc.) were all no shows . There was also barely any representation from anniversary series GMG (well, the 3 main leads didn’t show up at least) – it was pretty much the NR / CBML anniversary gala if you ask me (the cast from both series were the focus and pretty much overshadowed everyone else).
*** SIDENOTE: Found out some more information about the GMG thing, but gonna save it for my next post, which will be another one in my “TVB Rant” series….

.> TVB pretty much recycled some of the same ideas from last year’s anniversary gala this time around – namely having artists who are not known for singing partner up and perform songs, having the veteran green-leaf artists (the 50+ year old crowd) do a song and dance number, doing the whole ‘wet dance’ thing, etc….the only difference is that TVB shuffled things around in terms of order and also they had different artists perform in those segments from the ones who did so last year.

.> I must say that the anniversary skit that they did this time around was one of the funnier ones from this decade (though not as funny compared to the ones from the ‘old days’) – it was pretty clever how Eric Tsang did a parody of Virginia Lok and TVB’s infamous internal politics (I was cracking up because a lot of it was so true and he would irreverently poke fun at it). Oh, and for once, they didn’t make a huge mess and ‘torture’ artists with whipped cream, water, etc. (though I did feel sorry for Moses, who was pretty much the only one who ‘fell victim’ to Eric’s shenanigans….).

.> The ‘3 Gods Award Ceremony’ was interesting – I was actually expecting it to be funny, but it wasn’t really. The only thing I liked about that segment was the first part when they showed pictures of a few artists when they were young – the Kiki ones were nice and the Evergreen part was hilarious (the Evergreen / Raymond Lam pictures were quite clever –hey, who would’ve thought that Evergreen as a teenager would resemble Raymond Lam?

.> The last segment where TVB artists whom we are not used to seeing them sing were paired up with the Voice contestants for a ‘sing-off’….the 4 artists who sang were King Kong, Evergreen, Kiki, and Eric Tsang. All 4 of them did pretty good jobs, but I was most impressed with Kiki and Eric’s performances: Kiki sang like a pro – the way she carried her pitch and tone…wow, she sounded like a real singer! And Eric – well, I’ve always known that he’s a good singer because I’ve heard him several times, but he definitely did an awesome job (hey, in my opinion, he sang way better than his partner Mag Lam!!!) Evergreen was ok, but I think he could have done better – probably because his Mandarin pronunciation wasn’t that great, so it distracted me a bit from actually concentrating on his singing. As for King Kong, well, he did good, but I’m actually not surprised because I thought I had heard of him before back when I was following Taiwan entertainment in the late 90s / early 00s and if my memory serves me correctly, I think that he was a professional singer? I could be wrong, but his name just sounds familiar.

Overall, the show was a disappointment – though of course, not too surprising given TVB’s lack of star power in the past few years. My assessment: if you didn’t get to watch it, don’t worry – you didn’t miss anything!

“72 Tenants of Prosperity” – My Thoughts

I just recently watched this movie – yes, a little late, but I didn’t want to watch it illegally on the web, so I decided to wait until it came out on DVD so I could go buy it instead….and considering that it stars my idol Jacky Cheung, of course I was anxious to watch it!

The interesting thing about this movie is its definite “Hong Kong flavor.” Airing in HK during the Lunar New Year holiday, the timeslot is definitely fitting – the comedic, upbeat, 喜喜洋洋 atmosphere of the movie endears it to audiences during a happy time when everyone is celebrating the holiday with their families.

Not only does it boast a cast of well-known actors and actresses, it is also filled with TONS of “inside jokes” and Hong Kong cultural references – so much so that I honestly don’t feel that anyone who isn’t already familiar with Hong Kong culture would be able to truly “appreciate” the movie. This is where I feel that the “cleverness” of the movie comes in – it is actually able to cover a lot of ground in terms of cultural and current event references in a short amount of time. Not to mention the 100 plus current and former TVB artists who appear in the movie – albeit mostly in bit parts and cameos -- but it was really fun to play “spot the star” though…

I feel that there were 2 primary purposes of this movie. One was to make audiences laugh – and it certainly achieves this goal! True, some of the content was not necessarily in good taste and it could be said that at times, it could be characterized as borderline ‘crude’ (especially with the curse words, indirect sexual references, etc.) – hence the IIB rating….but overall, the movie was truly very funny. This is one of those movies that I would watch for its light comedic humor, just to get a “good laugh” – not expecting anything else out of it.

The second was to bring forth the "spirit of Hong Kong" theme that is appropriate and fitting during the CNY holiday. This is probably why I get that "feel good" reaction after watching it -- because even though some parts were a little 'cheesy' (which to be honest, I think they made it that way on purpose), I couldn't help but laugh and be in a cheerful mood afterwards.

So yes, I feel the movie does it's "job" so to speak...

Some of my favorite parts from the movie:

>> The “Try Your Best” scene between Jacky (Shek Kin) and Eric (Ha Gong): I just thought it was hilarious that Jacky kept trying to tell Eric that his English is bad, so Eric tries to prove him wrong, but he ends up saying “Try Your Best” wrong anyway (and making it sound like he said it correctly)….I laughed so hard at that scene!

>> The scene where Jacky sings a few lines from his classic “Love is Eternal” song: well, first of all, I of course loved this scene because I get to hear Jacky sing (yay!!!!). The other reason why I liked it was because of the irony – after Shek Kin (Jacky) sings a few lines, his ‘son’ Kin Jai (Wong Cho Lam) says: “Quit imitating Jacky – you don’t even sound like him....Jacky actually sounds like this….” then Kin Jai launches into an imitation of ‘the real Jacky Cheung.’ Afterwards, Shek Kin says: “Wow, that does sound like him.” The irony of the entire scene (Cho Lam supposed sounds more like Jacky than Jacky does) totally cracked me up.

>> The Bosco / Myolie scene at the end (after the credits): I’m not going to attempt to describe it because I wouldn’t be able to do justice to it, but it was funny how Bosco kept insisting she is Myolie and in the end we find out it is her….the way it plays out is funny….and this is another little “tidbit” that only those who are familiar with Hong Kong entertainment would know about…

>> The scene where Jacky’s Shek Kin and Anita’s Siu Tao bump into each other at the café: both try to make themselves look “pretty” (Anita “touches up” her makeup and Jacky “fixes” his hair), but they end up making themselves look horrible because they end up using whatever is on the table. Then, when they look at each other, the reaction is like “Wah!”.

>> Shanghai Lady scene: I really liked this particular scene from the beginning of the movie. Joyce really did a great job of imitating her mother as “Shanghai Por” – not only the facial expressions and the actions, but also the overall “feeling”. It got me laughing from the start and definitely set the comedic tone for the entire movie. Her mother would be very proud!

There were other funny scenes as well, but these ones really stood out for me. I recommend this movie, but like I said before, my suggestion is to watch it purely for laughs -- don't think too much into it, and you will enjoy it as much as I did.

HK Film Awards 2010 -- My Thoughts

The 29th Annual HK Film Awards were held this weekend at the HK Cultural Center. After watching the awards ceremony broadcast, there were actually quite a few interesting things that I really wanted to blog about. So here goes....

First of all, the fact that the awards ceremony is being broadcast by ATV rather than TVB is already a small victory for me. Not that I had anything to do with this occurring, but I was one of the thousands of viewers who complained about the way TVB ripped the Film Awards broadcast to shreds last year. Basically, when TVB aired last year's broadcast, they did a VERY POOR editing job and as a result, alot of stuff was edited out that really should not have been -- namely, the acceptance speech by Best Actress Paw Hee Ching (because she is contracted with rival ATV on the television side) as well as other "mentions" of rival stations. Frankly, I'm not surprised that TVB would do this because they have a reputation for being PETTY and cannot bear even the slight mention of rival station's names (let alone allowing their actors/actresses to appear on their screens). And of course, they totally ignored the fact that this award ceremony is purely a FILM INDUSTRY event and has nothing to do with TV -- so it doesn't matter which station the winners are from -- they are being recognized for their work in film, NOT in television.

After TVB broadcast the ceremony last year, there was such a huge backlash over what they did -- people both within the industry as well as the general public complained about how disrespectful TVB was to the winners (and rightly so!!!). In response (primarily as a means of damage control), TVB decided to re-broadcoast the show IN ITS ENTIRETY on their HD TV station -- which in my opinion, shows a lack of sincerity because not everyone in HK has HDTV (or is able to afford it), so in a sense, the re-broadcast would have only been available to a small audience. But the thing that upset people most is TVB's lack of remorse for their poor editing job....when they were hounded by the media about the situation, the LAME excuse they gave was: "It was not our intention to edit out ATV related content. The person doing the editing acted on his own -- he did not clearly understand the company's intentions and thought he was doing what was best for the company." YEA, SURE -- BLAME IT ON THE EDITING GUY!! I mean, really -- who does TVB think they are fooling? Do they really expect us viewers to be that stupid and believe that the "editing guy" has THAT much power? And what does it tell us about TVB when they so readily push their employees out there to take the blame when bad things happen so that their stupid management can be absolved of all responsibility? No wonder people don't want to work for them and their turnover rate is so high! (but that's another topic, which I'll save for later)....

Several months ago, during the bidding process for the broadcast rights to this year's ceremony, TVB had the audacity to bid for the show again (probably to save face, since it would look bad for HK's primary TV station not to bid for the event -- plus it would be an admission of wrongdoing if they didn't bid, which is strictly forbidden with them). After reviewing the bids, the HK Film Awards Association decided to grant the broadcast rights to ATV -- primarily because ATV was willing to pay more money for the rights, but also because of what TVB did to the award ceremony broadcast last year (the reps from the Association actually stated this, so it's not an assumption on anyone's part). When ATV received the good news, they took the opportunity to promise that they would air a COMPLETELY UNCUT version of the awards ceremony, no matter what is said during the ceremony (a definite "put-down" of TVB).

So back to this year's awards ceremony.....ATV definitely kept their promise, as they aired the uncut version of the awards ceremony live IN ITS ENTIRETY. In fact, ATV definitely gained alot of points this time around with viewers, as there was mention of TVB almost throughout the entire broadcast (of course, many of the presenters took the chance to poke fun at the situation -- mostly at TVB's expense), and ATV did not edit out anything. The ironic (and funny) part was that one of TVB's top managers -- Virginia Lok -- was in the audience that night and throughout the event, the camera kept panning over to her (probably to see what her reaction would be to all the 'TVB talk') -- so in a sense, Lok was "forced" to appear on ATV throughout the night, thereby doing "free promos" for the rival station (I got such a kick out of this! Knowing how much TVB hates "supporting" rival stations -- Lok herself once pushed away the microphone from a rival station during an interview and "gave them her back")....yet, in this instance, she had to "indirectly" support ATV (LOL!)....

In terms of actual content, I feel that the awards ceremony was nicely done this year. There was alot of talk prior to the ceremony that this year's show lacked "big stars" but I think that was exaggerated because after watching the entire 3 hour broadcast, I saw plenty of "big stars" there -- if the media was referring to the big international stars like Chow Yun Fat, Jackie Chan, Tony Leung, etc., then they are just trying to be picky because honestly, how many awards shows do these stars even show up to nowadays? I mean, with their busy schedules, they're not expected to have time to show up to these shows.

I really liked how the HK Film Awards Association chose Lawrence Cheng Dan Shui to be the host. He was one of the best hosts of the late 80s/early 90s and I haven't seen him host for a long time. As a host, he is definitely more refined, yet still very funny -- the kind of high quality host you would expect at this type of event. To be honest, I was getting tired of Eric Tsang's rowdy, "wu nao" type of hosting, so it was refreshing to see Lawrence bring his signature style of hosting to the event -- at least I don't get the feeling that I'm watching baseless, slapstick-type comedy (which is the perception that I get with Eric's style of hosting) and instead am treated to a higher class of comedy that is more appropriate to the event.

Of course, the endless "references" to TVB was a unique factor to this particular award ceremony, as everyone (guests and winners alike) were taking advantage of the fact that ATV promised a completely UNEDITED broadcast, which meant that everyone could pretty much say anything they wanted. Since this "never happens" with TVB broadcasts, everyone wanted to "test the waters" and see if ATV was going to keep to their word. I personally found it quite humourous because the more they "referred" to TVB, the worse it made TVB look -- because it brings forth TVB's pettiness tenfold.

One of the "references" I especially liked was Dayo Wong's monologue, where at one point he goes: "ATV is so good....they let me talk as long as I want...so how much time do I have left?" This is an indirect "bash" on TVB because during last year's awards ceremony, not only did TVB cut out all references to ATV, they also chopped up people's acceptance speeches (even those who did not refer to ATV) to the point that what the people said did not end up making any sense. Plus they had people at the actual ceremony signaling to the winners to cut their speeches short, so some of the winners either didn't get to speak or had their speeches cut. This year, ATV proved to be very "dai fong" about the whole ceremony -- they let it overrun by 1 hour (and losing money in advertising in the process) because they wanted to honor their promise to viewers of not cutting anything out. TVB, on the other hand, would never do such a thing because they are so greedy that they wouldn't want to lose even a penny in advertising in order to satisfy the viewers -- so they would rather sacrifice the broadcast and screw the viewers rather than lose money (their typical mentality).

All the TVB versus ATV talk aside, one of the highlights of the show for me was the dialogue from the presenters. For me, one of the primary reasons I like to watch these shows is to see who the presenters are and what they will say -- if it was just about the results, there would be no need to watch, since I could just read about it in the papers the next day. My favorite presenters were definitely the duo of Sean Lau and Nick Cheung -- they were presenting the Best Actress Award (which was like the 2nd to last award of the night). I could tell from their banter back and forth that Sean and Nick have a great friendship, as they were able to make fun of each other so comfortably. And forever the actor, I loved how when Sean told his jokes, his face looked so serious, yet he was actually joking the whole time! And Nick had a smile on his face the entire time – even though he was being made fun of by Sean!

Here are some of the excerpts from their hilarious 5 minute dialogue (of course, my paraphrasing below pales in comparison to watching the actual video segment and seeing them in action).


1) Opening dialogue:

-- Sean (to Nick): I found out from the association that they were actually planning to have 4 people present this award: you, me, Anthony Wong, and Francis Ng.

-- Nick (to Sean): So why isn't Anthony here?

-- Sean: Well, the association felt that Anthony is too "old" and "passe", so they booted him out. So what about Francis? I think he's working, right?

-- Nick: Um, Francis is actually in a jailcell somewhere in Lai Chi Kok.

-- Sean: What? I thought they let him out already!

-- Nick: Oh, you didn't hear? This is a different case -- not that same one! (audience laughs)

-- Sean: Hmmm...let's talk about something else....


2) Sean blames Nick for making him lose the Best Actor award and Nick makes fun of Sean's dark skin tone

-- Sean: Actually, I already knew that I would not be able to win the award today.

-- Nick: Why's that?

-- Sean: Because of where I am seated. I noticed that in the past, all of the Best Actor winners were always seated right in the middle -- this year, I'm actually seated way over there on the end (points to the right side of the audience).

-- Nick: Oh.

-- Sean (to the audience): And the other thing I discovered -- if you want to win Best Actor, never sit near Nick Cheung!

-- Nick: (smiles and looks at the audience with quizzical expression on his face)

-- Sean (to Nick): I remember a couple years back, when I was nominated for Best Actor and you were nominated for Best Supporting Actor. You ending up losing the award to someone else -- which of course is expected! But then when you lost, you stayed in your seat for the rest of the show and didn't leave! You were sitting there in that horrific white suit and had this expression on your face -- (bows his head and looks down at the floor with a sad expression on his face). I remember turning around and telling you to leave because you're just going to make me lose.

-- Nick (smiles): Yes, I remember -- at first when I saw a "dark" hand reach over to me, I was moved thinking that someone was sympathizing with me. But then I see that it's you turning around and berrating me for causing you to lose the Best Actor award with my depressed looks. But hey, I was actually just doing you a favor by sitting there! The venue was so dark that if it weren't for MY bright white suit reflecting the lights onto you, no one would have noticed that you even came to the ceremony! (The whole audience laughs and the camera pans over to Sean's wife Amy Kwok, who is also giggling).


There are some more funny parts but it's hard to translate that dialogue (since I wouldn't be able to do justice to it), so just going to leave it at these highlights.

And lastly, I am extremely happy that Simon Yam finally got the Best Actor aaward -- he's been in the industry 34 years and has been nominated multiple times, but the award has always eluded him until now. He is one of the finest actors in the industry and very humble too! His acceptance speech was quite touching as well. Definitely well deserved!