BREAKING NEWS: TVB fined HK$900,000 for anti-competition practices **UPDATED**

**HOT OFF THE PRESS**

I just saw the below article in the news and I must say that I almost jumped up and down for joy after I read it (LOL)!!

FINALLY the government is doing something right!  TVB should have been penalized long ago for their ‘antics’ and it looks like now it’s finally happening (albeit it still took a long time, since according to the article, ATV filed their claims in 2009 and the CA just issued a ruling today – 4 years later!).

The part that I’m most happy about is that the CA is requiring TVB to ‘abandon’ the anti-competitive practices within 3 months – which means that they would no longer be able to restrict artists from appearing on other TV stations and such.  So in other words, there is ‘hope’ that the TVB monopoly will finally be broken (though of course, since TVB is planning on filing an appeal, this could still be tangled up in the courts for awhile).

Anyway, still happy nonetheless…gotta go celebrate now!  See ya!!

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TVB fined HK$900,000 for anti-competition practices

Source:  South China Morning Post

Hong Kong’s free-to-air broadcaster Television Broadcasts (TVB) was fined HK$900,000 by the city’s communications watchdog on Thursday for engaging in anti-competition practices.

These included “harsh and unreasonable” terms in contracts with some artistes and singers, and a “no Cantonese policy” that prohibits TVB contract artistes from speaking Cantonese on other Hong Kong TV stations’ programmes, the Communications Authority said on Thursday.

The authority earlier launched an investigation into TVB, the bigger of the city’s two free-to-air television broadcasters, after rival Asia Television (ATV) lodged a complaint in December 2009 alleging that the station violated the competition provisions of the Broadcasting Ordinance.

Two other policies adopted by TVB concerning its artistes on serial-based and one-show contracts were also deemed to be anti-competition practices, the authority said.

These involved banning artistes on these contracts from using their original voices when performing on other TV stations’ programmes, and from attending promotional activities for the productions of other stations which also featured the performers concerned.

In serial-based contracts, TVB and its artistes agree to a rate for a drama series of varying lengths. In one-show contracts, artistes are only signed for a minimum one-show commitment at agreed-upon rates with the station.

There were also exclusive occasional-use artiste and singer contracts where they were engaged on a show-by-show basis. They would appear in TVB shows “if the need arises” and the broadcaster has no obligation to use the contracted performers.

The authority said TVB had a significant number of artistes under one-show, serial-based and singer contracts, who were not fully engaged during the contractual period and were fully capable of rendering their services to rival local stations but were still subject to the exclusivity terms.

Although artistes and singers could apply to TVB for its consent for appearance on rival stations under these contracts, the station had approved none of these applications between 2007 and 2010.

“The clauses artificially impair rivals’ ability to produce high-quality TV productions to compete with TVB and have also raised rivals’ costs by making it more expensive for them to produce or acquire TV programmes featuring [these] artistes,” the authority said.

“The authority is of the view that the ‘exclusive clauses’ have the purpose and effect of foreclosing rivals’ access to artistes and singers.”

The maximum penalty allowed by law for anti-competition violations is HK$1 million.  Given that the station made remedies, including cancelling one-show contracts, the authority reached the conclusion that a fine of HK$900,000 was appropriate..

Apart from the fine, TVB is required to abandon its anti-competition practices within three months and issue a public statement within two weeks to state that it will no longer require its singers and artistes to refrain from speaking Cantonese on other TV stations in Hong Kong. It also has to submit a report to the authority within four months.

Former TVB artist Felix Wong Yat-wah, now with HKTV, applauded the authority's  findings, caliing them “righteous”.


Additional reporting Amy Nip

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TVB released an official statement a few hours after the CA's ruling in which they responded to the CA's decision and also emphasized 4 main points...

TVB’s official statement in response to the Communications Authority’s ruling:

1)      TVB has given its full cooperation to the Communications Authority throughout the investigation into this matter.

2)      ATV’s ‘complaints’ are unwarranted and without merit.  Therefore, we feel that the Communication Authority’s ruling is disappointing, regrettable, and without basis.

3)      TVB has always been the ‘foundation’ [TN: TVB used the word ‘cradle’] for the training and cultivation of talent for the Hong Kong entertainment industry.  Over the years, TVB has cultivated and trained over a thousand stars for the music, movie, and television industries, with many of these stars entering the international arena and bringing pride to HK people.  The foundation for these great accomplishments are based on our first-rate artist management policies as well as the tremendous investment of resources over the years.

4)      There are countless artists out there who choose to pursue a career in the entertainment industry and are not TVB contracted artists.  Therefore, we feel that our policies with regard to TVB-contracted artists do not hinder the operations of other TV stations or affect the overall development of the industry.

Towards the Communication Authority’s investigation and outcome, TVB will consult with our legal experts and seek further legal action as necessary.

Mingpao Weekly’s Special Tribute to So Hang Suen: Felix Wong and Michael Tao recount working with their ‘benevolent mother’

MP Weekly recently published a 2 part series (of articles) dedicated to veteran actress So Hang Suen (who passed away on June  ).  Suen Jeh (Sister Suen) was a great actress and definitely a favorite veteran of mine whom I grew up watching in the 80s and early 90s.   She was most famous for her ‘benevolent mother’ roles and rightfully so, as she portrayed the character so well that I would dare to say it was near perfection.  I, for one, remember majority of her motherly characters from many of TVB’s most classic series and to this day, I don’t feel that any other actress could have portrayed those roles as ‘perfectly’ as she did.  Even though Suen Jeh was known for her ‘benevolent mother’ roles, it doesn’t mean she wasn’t good at other roles – in reality, she excelled at every role she played and her superb acting always left a deep impression on audiences (even audiences like me who watched many of her series when I was only a child and probably didn’t even understand completely everything that went on) – the affinity that audiences felt with her were akin to that of a relative or close family member (yes, she was THAT GOOD in her acting).  Throughout the years, Suen Jeh always had a special place in my heart (as a lot of the veterans I grew up watching in the 80s did), so of course when I heard about her passing last month, I was absolutely devastated, especially since she was relatively ‘young’ too by today’s standards (she was 64 when she passed). 

Of course, in my opinion, each of Suen Jeh’s performances were superb and memorable, to the point that I feel listing out only a few of those roles here really doesn’t do justice to her illustrious career.  Therefore, I will let the article do the talking and through that, recount the memories I have of Suen Jeh’s great performances.

The below is part 2 of the tribute article that MP did – I decided to translate this part only because part 1 delves more into Suen Jeh’s early career, which audiences might be less familiar with.  Part 2 of the article is the one that actually starts with Suen Jeh’s career in the 80s and going into the 90s, which was truly the era where Suen Jeh had most of her representative works.

Of course, being a ‘fan’ of TVB’s older series from the 80s and 90s, I definitely enjoyed reading the below article – not only is it a fitting tribute to Suen Jeh told from the perspective of those who had the opportunity to work with her most (in terms of her onscreen ‘children’, Felix Wong and Michael Tao were definitely the ones who collaborated with her the most as far as I can remember), it also brings back many fond memories of some of TVB’s most classic series (i.e. Police Cadet, Looking Back in Anger, Files of Justice, Detective Investigation Files, etc.).  Just to show how ‘classic’ these series were -- I actually remember every scene from the above series that were described in the article as well as captioned in the pictures…..to the point that I actually had those particular scenes in my head as I was reading (I guess when you watch and re-watch those series as many times as I have, certain scenes start to become etched into memory….).

Anyway….once again, great ‘special feature’ article from Mingpao!  Hope that reading the article brings back the same fond memories of Suen Jeh and the mentioned series for you as it did for me!

.*****.

Mingpao Weekly’s Special Tribute to So Hang Suen:  Felix Wong and Michael Tao recount working with their ‘benevolent mother’

MingpaoWeekly Issue 2329

Translation:  llwy12

Entering the 1980s era, So Hang Suen (蘇杏璇) started taking on ‘motherly’ roles and almost every character she played was more than 10 years older than her real age.  Being the professional actress that she was, Suen Jeh took her work seriously and shined in each of her roles – however, she also made it part of her job to guide and support the younger artists she worked with.

Having played Suen Jeh’s son in 1983’s Legend of the Condor Heroes (射鵰英雄傳) as well as 1989’s Looking Back in Anger (義不容情), Felix Wong (黃日華) expressed:  “Suen Jeh would constantly ‘put money in my pocket’!   When people say that I acted well in those series, the credit should really be given to Suen Jeh and the rest of the senior actors I worked with!”

Looking Back in Anger has been hailed as one of the most outstanding series to come out of the 1980s era.  The series’ famous ‘open ending’-style final scene where a ‘mystery woman’ leaves a note for Felix’s character Ting Yau Kin in a chapel and wipes tears from his face has been a subject of ‘debate’ for more than 2 decades:  so was the ‘mystery woman’ truly Felix’s wife in the series Carina Lau (劉嘉玲), or was it his sister in the series, Carrie Ho (何嘉麗)?   Felix personally reveals the truth behind that much-talked about ending scene…

Helena Law doesn’t feel being ‘fierce’ is exhaustive; Felix Wong gladly endures being scolded

Most of us who grew up watching So Hang Suen in TV series during the 1980s era most likely share the same general misconception:  the thought that Suen Jeh must already be at least 50 years old – this was ‘reasonable’ given the motherly figures [with grown children] that she constantly portrayed onscreen.  With this ‘misconception’ in mind, in August 1988, [Mingpao’s reporter] was shocked to read a headline in the entertainment section of the local paper:  ‘So Hang Suen gives birth to a Dragon boy’.  With her mature, ‘benevolent mother with grown children’ image so deeply ingrained in our hearts, how is it possible that in real life, she had ‘just given birth’ for the first time?

When she was alive, Suen Jeh always used to laugh about the ‘misconception’ towards her age.  She would fondly recount how actress Maggie Cheung (張曼玉) once questioned her ‘early maturity’ while they were filming 1984’s Police Cadet (新紮師兄) together:  “Age-wise, I’m actually not that old -- at the time [while filming Police Cadet], I was only 32 years old.  Maggie and I were in the restroom together one day when she told me: ‘Suen Jeh, with your age, having you play Tony’s [Tony Leung (梁朝偉)] older sister is already a stretch!  How is it possible to play his mother?’  I told her: ‘As long as the end result that comes out is believable, then it’s fine.’”

For us audiences to have such a ‘misconception’ about Suen Jeh’s age and maturity is of course a testament to her superb acting skills – at the same time though, collaborating with other remarkable and talented artists is also a huge bonus.  In Police Cadet, Suen Jeh’s ability to establish her character Hui Chau Ping’s ‘status’ as the ultimate ‘benevolent mother’ can partly be attributed to being contrasted with her ‘love rival’ in the series, the ‘fierce second wife’ character Lee Lai Kuen played by Helena Law (羅蘭).  It’s actually a bit ironic because in real life, Helena is one of the nicest, most affable senior actresses you’ll ever meet – for her to play such a fierce character who does nothing but scold people all day, was it exhaustive?  “No, not exhaustive at all!  Actually, back then, practically all my roles were ‘noisy’ characters – like in Return of the Condor Heroes (神鵰俠侶) with the character of Kau Chin Chak, I also had to scream alot.” 

Suen Jeh and Helena had many opportunities to work together and so on a personal level, they became close friends, despite their opposite religious backgrounds (Helena is a devout Catholic while Suen Jeh is very dedicated to Buddhism).  Helena expressed that the difference in religions did not affect their friendship in any way:  “Actually, all religions guide people to be charitable, emphasize tolerance and forgiveness, love one another, don’t be stubborn and yell at people for no reason, etc.  Suen Jeh and I are very close – I remember one time when I visited her vegetarian restaurant, we even chatted until closing time!”

As the saying goes:  ‘A peony flower may be good in and of itself, but still requires its green leaves to support it.’  The ‘green leaf’ veteran artists in the past were very willing to mentor their juniors and did so happily in the hopes that these young ‘flowers’ would one day blossom and flourish.  A young Felix Wong – merely a ‘newbie’ at the time – had the privilege of receiving ‘mentorship’ from Suen Jeh as well as other senior artists back in the day:  “The seniors back then were very willing to guide and support newcomers!  To be honest, back when I filmed Legend of the Condor Heroes [TN: abbreviated LOTCH going forward], I basically didn’t have to do much – just listen to the seniors and I was all set!   Barbara Yung (翁美玲) actually excelled in this area [listening to the senior artists] – she was very smart and had high comprehension skills, so she was able to learn a lot from the seniors;  I was a lot slower in comparisons.”  But isn’t that exactly the type of ‘not very smart’ temperament that [his character in LOTCH] Kwok Jing should have?  In response, Felix laughed and expressed:  “Perhaps Uncle Tin Lam [the series’ producer Wong Tin Lam (王天林)] had seen me before and felt that I had the same ‘simplistic’ and ‘honest’ personality that Kwok Jing had, so he felt that it would be easier for me to grasp my character.”

In LOTCH, Suen Jeh played another character named ‘Ah Ping’ – this time, she played the role of Kwok Jing’s mother Lee Ping, which meant that she had a lot of scenes together with Felix:  “Our scenes together were more focused in the earlier half of the series when the story was about our lives in the desert.”  (Real filming in the desert?  That’s so expensive!)  “No, it was actually Lantau Island [in HK] – we filmed there for about 2 to 3 weeks.”   Since all the artists were usually very busy during filming and also outside of work, Felix would take advantage of rehearsal time to ‘do his homework’ [TN: get mentorship from the seniors]:  “Suen Jeh would always study the script diligently in advance, so she always had a very thorough understanding of the storyline, characters, relationship lines, etc.  Therefore, during rehearsals, she always asked us if there was anything we didn’t understand or needed help with.  The advice she usually gave me was to try not to be too ‘deliberate’ with my acting and also to work on my facial expressions.”  For artists who are slow learners and therefore might have a lot of NGs [aka outtakes], did they often get scolded by the seniors?  “Back then, being scolded was actually a good thing because when the senior artists scold you, they are actually ‘putting money in your pocket’.  Whenever a mistake was made, it would be addressed and rectified right away – it helped us to learn and improve quicker.  When filming LOTCH, I was actually scolded the most by Kenneth Tsang (曾江) – his standards were very high and if you weren’t able to meet them, he had no problem scolding: ‘Hey kid, can’t you do it any better?’  If the seniors are willing to scold you, that means they are willing to teach you!”

Felix recalls that back during his ‘newbie’ days, the hardest thing was restraining himself from bursting out in laughter, especially in front of such fun and playful seniors as Lau Dan (劉丹) and Chun Wong (秦煌) for example:  “During rehearsals, the seniors often don’t show their skills completely, instead, they wait until the cameras officially roll to come at you with full force, so for newbies like us, it was easy to get nervous and have a lot of outtakes.”  Back in 1981 when he filmed the series Come Rain, Come Shine (風雨晴), Felix set a new ‘personal record’ when he NG’ed 50 times straight in one scene – luckily, he hasn’t broken that record since:  “I remember that was a night scene that we were filming on location and I had to argue heatedly with someone in the scene.  At the time, I didn’t understand a thing about acting and also couldn’t articulate myself clearly, so I got really nervous – the more nervous I got, the more NGs I had.  The other artists present at the time were Kam Jeh [Lee Heung Kam (李香琴)], Uncle Sun [late veteran actor Wong Sun (黃新)], brother Shek Sau (石修), and Shirley Yim (雪梨)…they kept trying to calm me and encouraged me to slow down and not push myself so hard – unfortunately, I was a huge mess at the time.”

Almost did not get the part of ‘Ting Yau Kin’; the truth about Looking Back in Anger’s ‘mystery’ ending

8 years after LOTCH, Suen Jeh and Felix got the chance to continue their mother/son relationship in the series Looking Back in Anger [TN: abbreviated LBIA going forward] – however, truth be told, this ‘affinity’ almost didn’t happen.  Suen Jeh once revealed that she had thought about turning down the series:  “I definitely have to thank Felix and [producer] Wai Ka Fai!  At the time, I had just given birth to my eldest son and was already back at work filming another series when I was invited to film LBIA– I didn’t know if I’d be able to handle both series, so I thought about turning it down.  Then one day, Felix came to the makeup room and told me ‘Suen Jeh, if you’re not going to film it, then I won’t either!’” 

Asked about this, Felix’s memory of the situation started to come back:  “Now that you mention it, the memory is coming back….yes, when I first heard Wai Ka Fai read me the plot summary, I had felt that Suen Jeh was perfect for the role of ‘Auntie Wan’.  To tell you the truth though, I actually almost didn’t get to play the role of ‘Ting Yau Kin’ either.  At the time, TVB’s higher ups didn’t want to use me because earlier in 1987, I had already expressed to them that I wouldn’t be renewing my contract once it expired in 1990.  It was Wai Ka Fai who insisted on using me – he told the bosses that if he can’t cast Felix Wong in the series, then he’s not going to produce the series…the higher ups had no choice but to give in.”

Unlike the later trend of ‘flying paper’ scripts, LBIA actually had a 100% complete script ready prior to filming – as soon as Felix read through the script, he already knew that this would be a great series:  “Receiving such an awesome script in your hands, of course you will naturally want to pour in all your effort to do a great job!  There were a lot of intense scenes that we had to film and it definitely took its toll both physically and mentally – I would get headaches every day from the lack of sleep due to the intensity of filming.”  Felix had already taken up the habit of smoking back then and with the hectic filming schedules and lack of sleep, he admits that smoking helped keep him more awake and alert:  “Whenever I felt exhausted, I would go have a cigarette or two with Carina and immediately would feel better!”  Back then, Suen Jeh would often encourage Felix to quit smoking and adopt healthier eating habits:  “Aiye…I wanted to [quit smoking], but it was easier said than done!  Suen Jeh also constantly reminded me that not everyone is as lucky as I am with the opportunities I had gotten and so I should value them and work even harder – this advice has been engraved in my heart!”

With such a highly acclaimed series, there are bound to be many memorable scenes.  One particular segment that touched Felix the most was the scene that talked about how Ting Yau Kin (Felix), Ngai Chor Kwan (Carina Lau), and Yeung Pak Cho (Gilbert Lam) were asked to film a special program for a TV station because the 3 of them happened to be born on exactly the same date – in that scene, Ting Yau Kin ends up crying because he had just lost 2 jobs and was under a lot of stress:  “That segment was filmed halfway through the series – by that time, I was already very familiar with the character of ‘Ting Yau Kin’, so even though the scene involved several pages of dialogue, it didn’t take too much time to film.  After we successfully finished filming that segment, everyone in the studio clapped.”  Looking out into the crowd after filming that scene, Felix noticed someone standing there who wasn’t part of the LBIA production team:  “That night, Paul Chun (秦沛) was filming next door and when he heard that I would be filming this particular scene, he especially came over to watch – I didn’t know he was there until after I had finished that scene.  When he saw me, he gave me a thumbs up – for me, getting praise from seniors is especially gratifying.”

For LBIA’s ending, producer Wai Ka Fai chose to utilize an ‘open-ending’ style – in the final scene, Ting Yau Kin waits for his beloved wife Chor Kwan to return to the chapel to fulfill their 10 year reunion promise; after he falls asleep, a ‘mystery woman’ walks in, wipes tears from his face, and leaves a note with the simple words ‘Kwan is [already] dead, please forget [her]’.  Over the years, there has been much ‘debate’ over the identity of the ‘mystery woman’ in the ending scene – it has been said that the woman is Ting Yau Kin’s sister Chan Siu Ling (played by Carrie Ho), however the woman’s legs in the scene closely resembled Carina’s.  Towards this, Felix laughed and revealed that the script itself actually did not specify who the ‘mystery woman’ was:  “The script did not state who the woman was – perhaps they wanted to maintain a sense of mystery.  However, I did ask the producer (Wai Ka Fai) later on about the identity of the ‘mystery’ woman – was she my wife Chor Kwan (Carina) or my sister Siu Ling (Carrie)?  He very clearly responded:  ‘She [the mystery woman] was truly your sister (Siu Ling), as Ah Kwan had already died.’”  But a ‘question’ still remained – Carrie Ho has a petite, smaller stature and judging by the size and shape of the woman’s legs in that scene, it didn’t look like her at all….Felix goes on to reveal ‘the truth’ behind that scene:  “Carina was actually the one who filmed that scene – those legs are hers!  At the time, both the director and producer felt that Carina’s legs were prettier, so they had her film it, since the face isn’t shown anyway -- besides, the ‘illusionary’ feeling of that scene would give audiences something to talk about.”  [TN:  Haha…smart move!  The ending scene to LBIA has been a topic of discussion for the past 25 years!]

A ‘serious’ actress with ‘zero’ outtakes

A similar ‘benevolent mother’ character can have a different ‘feel’ to it.  In 1992, So Hang Suen participated in the lawyer-themed series Files of Justice (壹號皇庭) [which later went on to became a popular 5 installment franchise].  In the series, Suen Jeh plays a famed barrister who also happened to be a benevolent single mother with 2 grown children played by Michael Tao (陶大宇) and Eugenia Lau (劉美娟).  “[The series producer] Gary Tang (鄧特希) took a less ‘deliberate’ approach when it came to describing the family relationships – for example, it’s known that we didn’t have a father, but doesn’t go into detail on our background and such.”   Michael Tao’s memory of Suen Jeh is that of a very serious, strict, and highly revered senior actress – when she was present, no one dared to fool around:  “We were a fun-loving bunch who liked to play and joke around a lot, but whenever Suen Jeh was present, we didn’t dare mess around – it wasn’t until Suen Jeh took the initiative to joke with us that we dared to joke back.  Later on though, I think the chemistry of the team started to rub off on her, as she started joking with us more.  Suen Jeh isn’t one of those rigid, inflexible artists who wants things done only one way – she’s very flexible and willing to adjust her acting style based on the environment she is in and the atmosphere.  She’s a serious actress, but not inflexible.”  After thinking some more, Michael added:  “I’m not exaggerating – as far as I remember, Suen Jeh rarely has outtakes...my feeling is that she has zero outtakes!”

When he heard the news of Suen Jeh’s passing, Michael expressed that the memories of their experience filming together immediately came back into his mind – the various scenes that they had together all started to reappear:  “There was a scene where I had just gotten into an argument with my girlfriend in the series [played by Iwanbeo Leung (梁婉靜)] and so she ran off to Singapore to avoid me, leaving me behind in HK debating whether I should go find her.  Gary Tang wrote a lot of dialogue between Suen Jeh and myself in that scene and even though it was obvious that the scene focused on my character and Suen Jeh’s character wouldn’t have much development, she still put more than her best effort into that scene and helped me finish that scene comfortably.  It also gave audiences a good feel toward our mother/son relationship in the series.  Suen Jeh was truly a great actress!”

After Files of Justice, the next series  that Suen Jeh and Michael collaborated in was Detective Investigation Files (刑事偵緝檔案) – except in that series, they no longer played mother and son:  “She played Kenix Kwok’s (郭可盈) mother in the series and because the background of her character is that her husband used to be a cop who died in the line of duty, she was very opposed to my character (a cop) dating her daughter.  As a professional actress, Suen Jeh was very much into her character at the time and ‘hated’ my character to the point that even after the cameras stopped rolling, she would still react coldly towards me as though she was mad at me.”  In one particular scene, Michael, Kenix, and Suen Jeh had to work together on a case that involved pulling back a metal screen and breaking open the door to get inside a house – Michael was so much into the scene that he accidentally hurt his finger when pulling open the screen.  When Suen Jeh saw what happened, she immediately scolded him for not being careful and injuring himself – towards this, Michael didn’t get angry at all:  “To others, it might seem like I got hurt and she’s still scolding me, but I know that she did it out of concern for me, she just expresses it in a different way.”

One time, Michael and Bobby AuYeung (歐陽震華) visited Suen Jeh at her vegetarian restaurant and her reaction left a deep impression on them:  “Bobby and I went there to eat as a way to silently support Suen Jeh – we weren’t expecting any special treatment or anything.  Without mentioning it, Suen Jeh seemed to already understand us -- when she saw us, she greeted us and showed us to our table, then continued to go about her business.”  This special relationship that they had will always remain in Michael’s heart:  “Suen Jeh was truly a great teacher and senior – in her presence, I will forever be a little kid.”

Premiere of HKTV Series online -- PART 2

More feedback on the episode 1 trailer clips that HKTV has been posting online the past few days....

Hakka Women (客家女人)

My Comments:

.— Wow -- absolutely awesome first 11 minutes!   Definitely want to continue watching to see what happens next!

.—My only ‘complaint’ with the trailer is that the first 2 minutes or so were a bit torturous, as the 2 actresses who play the younger versions of Maggie and Prudence’s characters really weren’t good at all in terms of the acting.  I have no clue who either young lady was, but I’m assuming they were newbies because their acting definitely needed work – the one who played the young Prudence especially, as she sounded like she was reading her dialogue.  Even though that scene ‘sets the stage’ so to speak, it was very short and not really worth haggling over, so I’ll let it slide…lol!

.— The rest of the 8-9 minutes or so were primarily filled with scenes involving Maggie (her character’s name in the series is ‘Anson’) and her boyfriend Poon Chan Leung (his character is ‘AuYeung Shan’).

.—Of course, with Maggie’s acting chops, no need for me to go into how good her performance was (even if it was only the first few minutes of the series).  As expected, Maggie’s acting was ‘spot-on’:  from her facial expressions to body language to delivery of dialogue, she was great all around!  Definitely enjoyed watching her scenes.

.—Poon Chan Leung was a surprise to me because even though I was familiar with who he was (a well-respected, award-winning theater actor), I had obviously never seen any of his acting performances before, so didn’t really know what to expect.  He was great though and absolutely delivered the goods, holding his own opposite a strong, experienced actress such as Maggie.  But then again, I probably shouldn’t be surprised – since Poon Chan Leung comes from the theater world, of course his acting would be good!  As a sidenote – I personally ‘love’ theater actors/actresses and have a high level of respect for them!

.—So many familiar faces during that ‘wedding’ segment in the last few minutes!  Of course, there were Prudence and Savio (both of whom will have significant screen time, since they are considered leads in the series – yay!!) – glad that we got to see a little bit of them in the first 11 minutes!  Then during the actual wedding ceremony scene itself, there were May Tse and Wilson Tsui (happy to see Auntie May again – hadn’t seen her in such a long time!) – I also spotted Peter Lai and Leung Kin Ping in the crowd of wedding guests as well as a few others whose names I don’t remember at the moment.

.—Lastly (for now)….great ‘argument’ scene between Maggie and Prudence at the end!   Absolutely looking forward to seeing how the relationship between these 2 sisters evolve and how much of an impact they will have on each other’s lives.  Despite the fact that I’m not a fan of either of the female leads, I have a feeling that I’m going to end up enjoying this series!

Hidden Faces (三面形醫)

My comments:

.—Very interesting series indeed!  The clip was only 7 minutes, but yet there was already plenty going on --  we got to see all 3 main doctors (John Gor, Frankie, Wilson) in ‘action’…in those short 7 minutes alone, we already get to see what each doctor’s main specialty is as well as an idea of their personalities. 

.—I’m actually quite excited to see Wilson Tsui playing a doctor again -- so far I like his character quite a lot.  Frankie’s character also sounds interesting – definitely different from the way I’m used to seeing him (he definitely looks a bit haggard and ‘rough around the edges’ in this series, which I think is part of the character?)…anyway, sounds like he will be a doctor ‘with an attitude’!

.—I’m actually curious to find out the name of the actress who played Lun Jai’s mother in this segment – she definitely looks familiar....is that Koei Leung Suet Mei?  Because there's a bit of a resemblance there but the voice doesn't sound like her (unless her voice changed or something).  In any case, she was actually quite good in these first few minutes!

.— One thing that I was concerned about is whether the dialogue and some of the scenes will be able to pass the strict ‘censors’ of the Broadcasting Authority (now the Communications Authority).  I have a huge feeling that when the series actually airs on TV, it will likely be heavily edited to fit within the restrictions of television rules (in that case, I prefer to watch the web version!).

.—Overall, this is definitely another series I am looking forward to watching!

Flow of the Years (歲月樓情)

My Comments:

.—For starters…what, only 5 minutes???  NO!!! Definitely not enough!!!

.—I actually really want to watch this series primarily because of the cast, since most of the ‘main players’ are artists whom I haven’t seen in awhile, so it will be nice to see them grace my television screen again! 

.—I have a feeling this is going to be one of those series where even if the script / plot is not 100% up to par, it’s not going to be as noticeable because the acting chops of the main leads will make up for it.  I mean, in what other series do we see such a talented group of actors / actresses?   Ha Yu, Paw Hee Ching, Felix, Emily, Leila, Savio, Lam Lei, etc. – awesome cast!!

.—Glad that this clip actually has Leila in it (I must admit that I was a tad bit disappointed that the Police Boundaries clip didn’t have Leila…lol).  She’s one of my favorite ‘newer generation’ younger actresses and I was really starting to miss seeing her in series!

.— Based on the clip as well as stuff I’ve read, it sounds like this series will have some interesting relationship arcs going on…no, I’m not talking about the typical love triangle stuff that we’re used to seeing, but rather a focus on all the other types of relationships outside of that (i.e. father/son, mother/daughter, friends and neighbors, etc.).  Good to see that we’ll be able to get away from all that ‘lovey-dovey’ stuff for once and actually see some pure, intense relationship stories for a change!

.—And of course, having Felix in the cast is an added plus because that’s pretty much a guarantee that I’ll be watching this series (obviously a Felix supporter…haha!).  His role actually sounds quite interesting in here and I’m really curious to see how everything turns out for him, especially in his relationship with his father (Ha Yu) as well as with Emily and Leila…oh and it doesn’t help that Felix had been ‘dropping hints’ on his Weibo earlier in the year after he read the script and actually started filming the series…made me even more curious to watch the series….lol!

.—Obviously a ‘must-watch’ for me!  If this will truly be the ‘grand production’ opening series for HKTV once they get their license (well, at least that was the rumor, though not sure how true it is), I for one totally support it (though I’m ok with a few of the others being ‘opening series’ too)!

Premiere of HKTV Series online -- PART 1

A few days ago, HKTV started up a ‘movement’ on Facebook asking whether audiences were interested in watching the first 5-10 minutes of the first episode of all their series online.  The response was overwhelming, as within hours of their post on Facebook, they received over 5000 likes/comments from people (like me for instance) who were interested in seeing what HKTV had to offer (and since they still don’t have their license yet, releasing the clips on the Internet is pretty much the only option they have at the moment). 

So far, they’ve released clips for 3 of their series (with more coming) and I must say that I definitely like what I see!!   All 3 clips were very well made, both from a visual standpoint (graphics, etc.) as well as storyline and acting (so far).  Actually, now I’m wishing that HKTV would just put the entire first episode of each series up instead of just the first few minutes because honestly, a few minutes is really not enough (I was so engrossed in the clips that I felt like I blinked and it was over already…LOL).

Great job to the HKTV cast and crew!  Watching these clips was definitely a breath of fresh air for me – especially given the dismal state of TVB’s series in recent months (gosh, I don’t think I actually sat down and seriously watched a TV series since the year started!).  For me, one of the highlights of watching these clips is that I don’t have to keep watching the same artists / pairings onscreen all the time (when you start seeing the same artists playing the same types of roles in series after series -- as TVB has been doing --  it starts to get boring!) – plus I was super-excited to see artists back on the small screen whom I hadn’t seen in a long time (William So, Liu Kai Chi, Yu Mo Lian, just to name a few).  It was also refreshing to see some new faces pop up (well, they may be ‘new’ to me because I’ve never watched their previous works but not necessarily ‘new’ to the industry). 

Lastly….below are a few of my thoughts on the clips released so far (sorry, can’t say much since the clips were so short…bummer…).  But hey, at least we get to see more than what was in the sales presentation, so that’s definitely a plus. 

P.S.:  Damn HK government!!!  Stop fooling around!!!  Issue those darn licenses already, will ya!!!!  Argh!!

.*****.

Once Upon A Song (童話戀曲201314)

My comments:

.—This has got to be my favorite clip so far out of the 3 released!  I love the upbeat nature of the opening segment and the lighthearted humor that made me laugh without even thinking about it (the natural kind of humor that doesn’t try to be funny but ends up being funny because of the dialogue and interaction of the characters). 

.— In the short, few minute clip alone, Jason Chan already left quite an impression on me with his performance as ‘Handsome Chan’ (still can’t get over that name…haha).  His interaction with William So’s character ‘Da Wai Gor’ was absolutely hilarious (I actually miss William’s acting – he always comes across very natural to me in his roles, as though he is playing himself every time).  I especially enjoyed the scene where Da Wai Gor describes all the stuff that his missing dog used to do for him and Handsome agrees to do all those things despite not knowing what most of the stuff meant (LOL).

.—The girls in the clip did a good job as well.  I’m actually not familiar with Evelyn Choi at all, but so far, her performance as ‘Yan Tze Ching’ wasn’t bad at all  (though of course I would have to watch more of the series to really see).  Lesley Chiang also did pretty well with her role as ‘Kalie’ (so far) – her facial expressions were pretty spot on, which is pretty impressive considering this is her first acting gig (oh and her dialogue was pretty funny as well).

.—Overall, definitely looking forward to watching this.  HKTV:  Please release the rest of the episode!!!

Brain Opening Detective (開腦儆探)

My Comments:

.—To be honest, showing a mere 6 minutes wasn’t enough to really get the ‘feel’ for this series.  Unlike the other 2 clips, I actually didn’t feel anything when I watched this  (honestly, all I could think about was ‘Yay, Felix back onscreen again!’  LOL!)

.—The scene showing Felix’s son getting shot was interesting, but I kind of felt they did the ‘kid getting shot’ scene better in Police Boundaries than they did here – the one here was too ‘science fiction-ish’ (if that’s a word), especially with the whole slow motion thing and such.  But I’m thinking perhaps that was done on purpose because according to the plot summaries, this series will have a ‘supernatural’ element to it – if that’s the case, then it explains why those scenes were shot that way.

.—By the way….I’m trying to figure out who plays Felix’s wife in the series (her appearance in the clip was way too brief for me to tell).  I do like the ‘refreshing’ team of Sam Lee pairing up with Felix to solve cases though – now that’s a collaboration we haven’t seen before.

.—All in all, I will probably still watch this because of Felix, but so far, the ‘premiere’ segment wasn’t really too exciting for me.

Police Boundaries (警界線)

 My Comments: 

.—The 11 minute opening segment that they showed of this series was AWESOME!!  I was at the edge of my seat practically the entire time and felt like it went by way too quickly (honestly, it felt more like 5 minutes than 11…).  This has actually been the number one anticipated HKTV series for me since it was announced last year and sure enough, the opening segment didn’t disappoint.

.—Love Liu Kai Chi (he’s one of my all-time favorite veteran green leaf actors), so I’m definitely thrilled that he has such a heavy role in this series (he’s definitely one of the leads and in most of the rundowns, his name is even listed first!  Yay!).  He was witty and cool in the opening segment and by the looks of it, his character is going to be a very interesting one (and no, doesn’t look like he’ll be playing the villain this time).

.—The ‘funniest’ scene for me so far was the one at the convalescent home (yay, Yu Mo Lian is back…haha!).  Loved the interaction between Mo Lian Jie (missed her acting too), Philip Keung, and Liu Kai Chi in that scene (sorry, but I’m not sure who the other woman was in that scene).

.—Too bad that Leila Tong wasn’t in the opening clip (didn’t see Felix Lok or Annie Liu either) – but ah well…she’s one of the main characters so most likely she will show up in the first or second episode.

.—There wasn’t a whole lot of scenes with Dominic Lam either, though he’s also one of the main characters – but the few scenes he was in were definitely very intense…he didn’t have any dialogue, yet just seeing those scenes play out was already enough to give me a sense that there would be something up with his character somehow (and we find out what that ‘something’ is at the end of the clip).

.—Oh and I have to say that I absolutely did not recognize Lawrence Chou at all, even though he had majority of the screen time in the first 11 minutes (not surprising, since the last time I saw him in something was like over 10 years ago!).  He looks so much more mature than how I last remembered him – in any case, he did a great job in the opening segment and really brought out the emotional intensity of the first segment. 

.—As for the woman who played Lawrence’s wife (girlfriend?) in the first segment, of course I had no clue who she was (I know her name is Joman Chiang, but that’s about it), but so far, I’m impressed by her performance (I think this is her very first TV series…if so, then wow….)

.— Lastly, I absolutely must give kudos to the filming techniques for this series – the entire time, I felt like I was watching a movie rather than a TV series.  Oh and I definitely have to mention the scene at the piano recital involving Lawrence, Joman, and the boy who plays their son (he is super-cute!!) as well as the subsequent ‘flashback’ scene showing the ‘event’ (shootout) that happened ‘one year ago’ – those scenes were very nicely transitioned (kudos to the editing team) and quite clever (not sure about you guys, but when the scene cut back to the recital and they showed what happened to the boy as a result of that awful event, I nearly cried…and of course the ‘shock’ of seeing the ‘culprit’ sitting right there in the audience – intense!)  GIVE ME MORE OF THIS SERIES PLEASE!!!

Mingpao Special Feature: Unearthing TVB’s “All Star Challenge” from 30 years ago – A look back at the 5 Tigers’ ‘historical’ first performance

As most of you know, I’m an avid reader of Mingpao Weekly magazine – I’ve pretty much been reading it ever since I learned how to read Chinese back in the 90s.  There are many things I like about the magazine (obviously, otherwise I wouldn’t ‘support’ it for so many years) – aside from the in depth interviews that they do with celebrities (and not just the ‘big name’ ones – they interview a lot of lesser known artists as well as some who we may not have heard from  in a long time), another awesome feature they do is a 集體回憶[literally translated as ‘Collectively Recalling’] segment where Mingpao opens their ‘time capsule’ and shares with its readers some of the HK entertainment industry’s most ‘historic’ events / news, etc. (mostly about artists from the 70s, 80s, and 90s).  For me, reading this segment is always a trip down memory lane, since I’ve been following HK entertainment for long time and actually do remember some of the events they recall – this is one of the reasons why I enjoy reading the magazine so much, since I can get quite nostalgic when it comes to these types of things.

In last week’s issue, the 集體回憶 segment recalled one of TVB’s biggest charity events from the 80s:  TVB All Star Challenge (星光熠熠勁爭輝).  Now, unless you were following TVB in the 80s, most likely you may have never heard of this show before, since the name of the show changed in the mid-80s and also again later in the decade – but regardless of the name, the fact of the matter is that these type of charity fundraising shows were a ‘staple’ at TVB back then….the shows usually took place yearly and often featured performances by the station’s biggest stars (almost comparable to TVB’s yearly anniversary galas!)  Even though the show continued to take place over the past few decades, unfortunately the ‘star power’ has dwindled tremendously – to the point that nowadays, the show is not even worth watching anymore.

Anyway, back to the article….

The All Star Challenge show that MP features in the below article happens to be the one where the 5 Tigers famously ‘debut’ and Andy Lau does his ‘stone-breaking’ routine (which continues to be ‘talked about’ even now).   I was too young at the time that this show took place (1983!!) to have watched it at that time, but fortunately I was able to find the show on videotape several years later (around the time I started following HK entertainment myself) and watch it then.  I honestly don’t recall a whole lot from the show, since the last time I re-watched the show was some time in the 90s (when I did a ‘marathon re-watch’ of all the TVB variety shows from my family’s TVB collection), but I do recall the 5 Tigers’ performance, since that was a huge highlight from the show and would get ‘featured’ over and over again on various shows over the past 2 decades.  This made the experience of reading  some of the backstory to the performance in the below article all the more poignant and interesting (not to mention it reminds me once again how much the artists from previous generations had to endure to get to where they are today).  Of course, the bit about the ‘irate fan’ also reminded me that some things never change – there were a lot of ‘crazy’ fans back then just as there are now…LOL.

Also, I found the piece about Cheung Hing Lung and how he got injured quite interesting because all these years, I don’t think many people knew the actual background story (I surely didn’t – in fact, I don’t even remember that segment from the show at all).  It makes sense now why Cheung Hing Leung left the Little Tigers group and why so few people even knew he existed (when he participated in the Little Tigers reunion tour a few years back, I had read a lot of comments from people who had no clue who he was – some were even harshly criticizing him for trying to ‘piggyback’ on the Little Tigers’ glory, which I felt was totally mean and uncalled for..).  I’m glad Cheung Hing Leung was able to tell his side of the story this time, though it probably isn’t going to have much impact on anything – but at least those of us who care finally know what happened.

Lastly, I do have to say that reading this article and looking through the pictures was a bit emotional for me – especially seeing that many of the artists who participated in that year’s event are no longer active in the industry and some have even left us forever (i.e. Barbara Yung, Roman Tam, Anita Mui, etc.).  On the one hand, it was fun and nostalgic to ‘relive’ the moments from that show (and I definitely enjoyed doing it), but at the same time, it served as a further reminder of how badly the HK entertainment industry has deteriorated over the years.

In any case….hope other fans of 80s era TVB shows enjoy reading this article!   :0)

 .*****.

Mingpao Special Feature:  Unearthing TVB’s “All Star Challenge” from 30 years ago – A look back at the 5 Tigers’ ‘historical’ first performance

Source:  Mingpao Weekly, Issue 2310 

Translation:  llwy12

One day, while searching through some archive photos, we [Mingpao’s reporters] came across a few rolls of film taken during rehearsals for one of TVB’s charity events from 30 years ago:  1983’s TVB All Star Challenge (星光熠熠勁爭輝).  Interestingly, the rolls of film that we found did not show any signs of being opened or edited, which usually means only one thing – the photographs were never ‘exposed’ prior to this point!

Upon asking around, a fellow colleague who was already employed at that time [back in the 80s] explained that the reason why the rehearsal photos didn’t get published back then essentially boiled down to a ‘timing’ issue:  since the All Star Challenge charity program had already aired on TV, the rehearsal photos were considered ‘old news’ that was not worth publishing anymore.

Now, with all that has happened over the past 30 years, this long forgotten ‘photo trove’ has undoubtedly increased significantly in value.  Therefore, let’s use these photos as an opportunity to reminisce about a show that featured the very first collaborative performance by TVB’s 5 Tigers as well as other sentimental, ‘historic’ moments such as a rare dance performance by late actress Barbara Yung (翁美玲) and her then boyfriend Kent Tong (湯鎮業); music legend Anita Mui (梅艷芳) in her ‘newcomer’ days posing as a ‘cheerleader’ trying to earn points for her team, etc.

TVB’s ‘grand’ production shows of the past were truly that – grand, splendid, and resounding!

Felix Wong reminisces about 5 Tigers’ first performance; Tony Leung chips his tooth

In early 1983, due to the departure of many first-line siu sangs [from the 70s era], TVB ‘announced’ their upcoming intention of heavily promoting 5 ‘new’ siu sangs:  Andy Lau (劉德華), Tony Leung (梁朝偉), Felix Wong (黃日華), Michael Miu (苗僑偉), and Kent Tong (湯鎮業) – the 5 of them would come together and be promoted as a ‘group’ called ‘TVB’s Five Tigers’.    In September 1983, the 5 Tigers made their official debut as a ‘group’ during TVB’s annual charity competition show, TVB All Star Challenge (星光熠熠勁爭輝):  they were featured in one of the show’s most anticipated main segments -- ‘Leaping and Surging Five Tigers’ (飛躍翻騰五虎將) -- during which they were slated to perform challenging acrobatic stunts to win points for their team.

“It was the very first performance that the 5 Tigers did together – of course I remember it!”  recounts Felix Wong with a smile.  He expressed that for their short 10 to 15 minute performance, the 5 of them practiced for close to 2 months:  “At the time, all 5 of us were in the middle of filming series too, so we could only get together to practice after work.  We would go practice on the rooftop of the old CTV building on Broadcast Drive [TN: close to where TVB studios was at the time] nearly every day and when the time got closer, we decided to stop working for the time being so we could focus entirely on practicing.”

With 5 vigorous, energetic youth ‘throwing’ each other around and performing risky stunts every day, of course injury was unavoidable:  “Tony was the one who got the most ‘severely’ injured – he was practicing a backflip and accidentally slammed his mouth into the table, resulting in one of his front teeth snapping in half.  We were scared and concerned because when we looked, half of the front tooth was really missing!  But with the date of the performance approaching, it would be impossible to get the tooth fixed before then, so the only option was to stick it back together.”  (Stick it back together?  How?)  “I believe he asked the dentist to stick something on the tooth to cover it up for the time being and then after the show, go back and get it fixed.” (We heard that you [Felix] injured your shoulder as well?)  “That’s nothing –only a small injury!  Andy was also injured – when he was practicing a somersault, he accidentally bit his tongue!”

The only one who didn’t injure himself in the process was Kent Tong:  “He was extremely careful and always considered safety first.  Prior to doing a somersault, he always had to make sure that the floormat was neat and tidy – such an ‘old fox’!  But hey, at least that way he couldn’t injure himself easily like the rest of us – we really should give him a ‘Safety Team Captain’ award!”

In terms of the ‘Best Performance Award’, Felix expressed that no other person deserved it more than Andy:  “He’s not afraid of difficult or exhaustive work;  in fact, when challenging tasks come up, he’s the first to volunteer for them – this is a good attitude to have!   For the ‘stone-breaking’ segment [TN:  the famous ‘highlight’ of the show where Andy gets 2 large slabs of stone broken on his chest], the company (TVB) asked if anyone wanted to do it – Andy was the first to raise his hand and say ‘I’ll do it!’”

Andy Lau reveals the ‘secret’ to stone-breaking segment; his first ‘taste’ of the price of fame

As the saying goes:  ‘In order to win, you need to have a competitive spirit.’  Indeed, Andy Lau’s ‘stone-breaking’ segment was truly the ‘highlight’ of the entire All Star Challenge show – seeing Master Kong To Hoi [TN:  famous stunt coordinator back in the 80s] slamming a huge hammer onto 2 slabs of stone lying atop Andy’s chest was undoubtedly a stunning scene:  “The company hoped to do something different and special this year – at first they thought about having me perform on a unicycle, but later we scrapped that idea because it wasn’t a fresh enough idea, plus it would take too much time to learn.  In the end, Master Kong suggested the ‘stone-breaking’ idea.”   Back in 1983, after the ‘historical’ performance, Andy accepted an interview with Mingpao Weekly during which he revealed the ‘secret’ to his performance:  “The ‘secret’ is really in choosing the type of stone to use – the ones we used for the performance were coarse granite, which is more brittle and easier to break apart.  If we had used regular granite, I would be dead!”

During rehearsals, we saw that Andy only had 1 piece of granite on his chest, however during the actual performance, the 1 piece turned into 2 pieces – Andy described this as ‘taking a gamble’:  “That night, we were scheduled to perform around 8:30pm and it wasn’t until 6pm or so that we decided to use 2 pieces of granite – the reason was because we felt 1 piece wasn’t convincing enough and this was pretty much our only chance to pull in a lot of points.  At the time, we only had 2 pieces of granite left, so we couldn’t practice ahead of time – all I could do was try putting both pieces on my chest to test the weight and take a gamble [that things will work out] during the actual performance.  To be honest, I really didn’t have much confidence.”

The combined weight of the 2 pieces of granite was more than 280 pounds, which was almost double Andy’s weight at the time (he weighed 147 pounds).  During the performance, he had to first expand his chest to support the weight, then use his hands to hold the granite in place:  “Master Kong told me that as soon as I felt the force of the hammer, I should breathe out a bit if I felt the granite becoming heavy on my chest – this would help distribute the force and also prevent injury internally.”  Even with all the advice and safety precautions, seeing the hammer come down on his chest was still a very scary moment:  “When we first practiced it, I would look away when the hammer came down – I was afraid to look.”  After the performance, Andy felt tired, but luckily didn’t feel ill in any way.

The efforts that the 5 Tigers put in proved to be worth it – not only did their team [the artists team] win the competition, they also received tremendous praise and accolades from the audiences.  Even the usually reserved Tony Leung couldn’t help but become excited at how well everyone reacted to their performance:  “After the performance, I may have looked a bit tired and scared, but in reality, I was very excited!  You know, the excitement stayed with me for 3 days straight – every time I closed my eyes, I would think back to that moment [the performance] and remember everything that happened very clearly…every move, every person who applauded, etc…..”

From that moment on, the 5 Tigers truly ‘took over’ and became the ‘pillars’ of TVB.  Even back then, in the early stages of their ‘popularity’, they already got a taste of the price they would have to pay for fame.  Andy recounts:  “That night of the performance, we only had ½ hour for dinner.  When the 5 of us went outside to go eat, we were greeted by close to 200 fans who were waiting to get autographs – we had to explain to them the time restrictions and then rush over to the nearby food area to eat.  When we returned, the fans were still waiting there hoping for autographs.  We realized that if we were to sign autographs for each person, it could take up to ½ hour, which would make us late and we’d get in trouble with the company, so we went back in without signing any autographs.”

Later that night, one of the workers handed the guys an envelope with ‘To Five Tigers’ written on it.  Inside was a letter that started off ‘Dear 5 Tigers’ – however the word ‘Dear’ was crossed out – the rest of the letter consisted of a ‘rant’ by an irate fan [TN: most likely one of the fans who had been waiting outside for autographs]: ‘Even Roman Tam (羅文) was able to autograph for us, yet you guys couldn’t?  Who do you 5 think you are?  You’re trash, annoying fools!’ -- included with the letter were shredded up 5 Tigers posters, photographs, etc.  At the time, Andy [and the rest of the Tigers] couldn’t understand why some fans could get so unreasonable:  “Why aren’t they able to empathize with us?  True, if they like us and support us, we do have an obligation to autograph for them, but if we don’t have time to do so right then, all we can do is tell them next time – some fans are very understanding of this.”

These types of difficulties and challenges that the Tigers faced on their paths to success were a big deal to them at that time, but looking back now, these were simply ‘trivial’ matters.

‘A speck of gold beats ten thousand specks of sand’;  Cheung Hing Lung saves Anita Mui from injury

TVB’s All Star Challenge (星光熠熠勁爭輝) charity show started back in 1981 as an annual fundraising event for HK’s Po Leung Kuk (保良局), a multi-faceted charity organization providing various services to the community.    The show is in a competition format whereby participating celebrities separate into ‘Singers Group’ and ‘Artists Group’ [TN:  ‘artist’ group back then always consisted of actors/actresses from the drama and non-drama departments as well as hosts] and put on various performances against each other – the judges panel consisted of 44 executives and donors from Po Leung Kuk who would press a button to determine which team wins each round.  After 4 years, the name of the show was changed (in 1985) to Platinum All Stars Shine on Po Leung (白金巨星耀保良) and still later, it was changed once again to All Star Gala Spectacular (星光熠熠耀保良), which is the name it currently uses.

As the saying goes:  ‘The nobility journeying out brings on wind and rain’.  This was surely the case with the All Star Challenge show that took place in 1983.  Originally, TVB had wanted to set up brightly lit lights at the entrance of the Lee Gardens stage [TN: the venue where the event took place] to strengthen the atmosphere, however the sudden onslaught of a major typhoon in HK during that time caused plans to be cancelled.  Luckily, the typhoon did not last too long, so the show itself did not end up getting affected.  In terms of ‘line-up’ [celebrities in attendance at the event], no doubt that the Singers group had an advantage, as the number of singers in attendance definitely outnumbered  the Artists group by far.  But, as the leader of the Artists group Ivan Ho (何守信) aptly stated, it was the quality of the performances that mattered, not the number of people:  “We are a small but efficient troop – it’s not about having the most people at all.  Don’t you know that one speck of gold can beat ten thousand specks of sand?”

Even though one of the main highlights of the show that night was the ‘debut’ of the Five Tigers, that didn’t prevent the rest of the artists from putting 100% effort into their performances.  In fact, the Artists group put on quite a few strong and refreshing performances that night, including ‘big brothers’ Patrick Tse (謝賢) and Adam Cheng (鄭少秋) collaborating on a ‘shadow dance’, Lydia Shum (沈殿霞) doing a ‘sexy little wildcat’ dance routine, and also popular couple Barbara Yung (翁美玲) and Kent Tong (湯鎮業) performing a dance segment together.  In the end, the Artists group easily beat the Singers group [led by Roman Tam (羅文)] to win the overall competition that night.

Music Queen Anita Mui (梅艷芳) also participated in the show that year, however since she was a newcomer back then (having won the New Talent Singing Competition only 1 year prior to that), her performance was quite limited – in fact, the 2 segments that she did participate in were group performances involving other singers from her team.   During the very last segment where the singers performed various dance moves from the past 100 years, a major accident occurred that may not have affected the show itself at the time, but did end up halting a singer’s career indefinitely -- Anita’s  fellow New Talent Competition teammate Cheung Hing Lung (蔣慶龍) was injured during one of the dance routines and had to be rushed to the hospital.  [TN:  Cheung Hing Lung was one of the original members of HK’s Little Tigers (小虎隊) along with Lam Lei (林利), William Hu (胡渭康) and Suen Ming Gwong (孫明光) but he left the group shortly after his injury].

At the time of the accident, the Media reports stated that during the last dance segment, Cheung Hing Lung was supposed to catch Anita when she was thrown towards him, but because of his severe nearsightedness, the strength he used wasn’t right and even though he did catch her, he ended up severely injuring his back.  Thinking back, Cheung Hing Lung expressed that he remembers the incident very clearly:  “It had absolutely nothing to do with my nearsightedness!   When the person threw Anita towards me, he didn’t use enough strength and the positioning wasn’t right either.  I saw the potential risk of injury, but thought to myself ‘It’s better that I get injured rather than Anita’, so I quickly changed position and stepped forward so I’d be able to successfully catch her.  Actually, the moment she landed on me, I could already feel that my back was severely injured – I could barely stand up straight and they almost had to carry me backstage.  I was immediately sent to the hospital for treatment.”

Turns out that Cheung Hing Lung had injured his backbone – in addition to staying in the hospital for a long period of time, he also had to endure 3 to 5 months of physical therapy before he completely healed.  Unfortunately, by that time, he had already missed the ‘golden’ opportunity of his career:  “Originally, that show [All Stars Challenge] was supposed to be a testing ground for the 4 of us [him, William, Lam Lei, and Suen Ming Gwong] in preparation to attend the upcoming Tokyo Music Festival, but because of my injury, our performance that night was cancelled.  I remember one day when Florence Chan (陳淑芬) [she was one of Capital Artists’ top execs at the time] came to visit me in the hospital, she told me: ‘I’m afraid we won’t be able to wait too long.  You may have to withdraw [from the group] and try other development opportunities instead.’  I felt very helpless!”

Cheung Hing Lung’s record company advised him to wait for other opportunities, but coming from a poor background, how long could he afford to wait?  After his contract with Capital Artists expired, he had no choice but to temporarily leave the entertainment industry and find a more steady job instead.  Asked whether Anita knew the truth of what had happened, Cheung Hing Lung replied:  “I don’t believe so.  I don’t’ blame anyone for what happened though – perhaps it was destined to be, it’s fate!”