Entertainment Newsreel #2: More OCTB news + HKFA nominations

Here's this week's HK entertainment news items that I found interesting....

Movie news

Hong Kong Film Awards

-          Nominations list came out today for this year's HKFA (which will be held in April).

-          Ann Hui's wartime epic Our Time Will Come leads the pack with 11 nominations, followed by Sylvia Chang's Love Education and Wilson Yip's Paradox, each with 9 nominations.

-          Best Actor race will be interesting this year, as there are 3 veteran HK actors nominated (Andy Lau forShock Wave, Ronald Cheng for Concerto of the Bully, and Louis Koo for Paradox), 1 newcomer (Ling Man Lung for Tomorrow is Another Day) and 1 Mainland actor (Tian Zhuang Zhuang for Love Education).  This is the first Best Actor nomination for Ronald (he won Best Supporting Actor a couple years ago and also won Best Song twice previously) and I believe the third or fourth nomination for Louis.  No predictions on my part since I didn't watch any of these movies (not yet anyway) but I heard Ronald's performance was good and also quite a departure from his usual comedic roles so if I had to pick someone to root for, it would probably be him.

-          Best Actress nominees were actually anticipated, as most of these were already nominated in other awards shows.  The nominees include:  Chrissie Chau for 29+1, Zhou Xun for Our Time Will Come, Stephy Tang for The Empty Hands, Sylvia Chang for Love Education, and Teresa Mo for Tomorrow is Another Day.  Again, no predictions from my side but considering Stephy Tang already won Best Actress earlier at the Hong Kong Critics Association awards, no doubt that she is one of the hot favorites going into HKFA.  I'm curious to see the results, though I'm not rooting for anyone in particular in this category.

-          I'm not going to recap all the nominees (you can check out the entire list at the link below) however just a few interesting things I saw: 

o   In the Best Supporting Actor category, Philip Keung has 2 nominations – could this finally be his year to win?   Two nominations can be a blessing or a curse, as it could cause the vote to be split, which decreases one's chances.  I like Philip so I'm fine if he wins, though Paul Chun is also nominated in this category again and despite not having watched the movie he was nominated for, I'm still rooting for him because he's one of my favorite actors, lol.  Interestingly, last year's Best Actor winner Gordon Lam is nominated in Best Supporting Actor this year forParadox, which I heard he did a great job in.  

o   Best Supporting Actress category is all over the place, as it pits veteran actresses (i.e. Deanie Ip and Susan Shaw) against film industry newcomers (i.e. Joyce Cheng and Baby Bo).  This will be an interesting race as well, though again, no one in particular that I'm rooting for.

-          Here's the full list of nominees (courtesy of SCMP):  HKFA nominations

Television news

OCTB

- Reference this post I wrote about season 1 airing on Netflix starting this month.  Also, season 2 cast is still a pretty huge discussion point at the moment, with the latest "rumor" being that, due to the Netflix connection, they are currently in talks to secure Hollywood stars to participate in the series.  Details are in the above post.

- I had mentioned in my previous newsreel post that filming for season 2 was scheduled to begin after Chinese New Year.  Well, according to an article that came out today, looks like the plan might have to change now due to an unforeseen circumstance.  In an interview today, producer Jones Soong had the below to say:  "Originally we had already confirmed that a 'big name' artist would participate, someone whom audiences were really looking forward to seeing.  Unfortunately we just received word that there is a slight issue with that artist's schedule, so he will no longer be able to participate.  Of course this will affect the script, so we will need to do some re-writes now."

o   So now, filming will be delayed until March so that the re-writes can be done with the script.  In terms of the delay in filming, Jones Soong wanted to reassure audiences that their intention is to give the very best to audiences:  "I've always been of the mindset that a lot of focus has to be on the script being well-written.  I insist on completing the entire script before commencing filming because in my mind, on-the-fly scripts do nothing to help the production."    Jones also emphasized that he (and his team) won't rush things just to meet a particular deadline or to get their deposit quicker, as they don't operate that way.  The one thing that will be the biggest concern for them is artists' schedules, as that will impact their production significantly.

o   Bummer…looks like we will now have to wait until March for season 2 to start filming.  But I'm fine with it, since they want to make sure the script is properly written before they start.  There are very few production companies out there nowadays that focus on the script like this so kudos to Jones and his team for their efforts!  Though I can't wait for season 2 to start, I also admire and respect the team's decision to make sure the script is 100% good to go before they start – if that means filming is delayed, then so be it!

o   Sidenote:  As to who that artist is who originally committed but had to pull out due to scheduling conflicts?  Of course Jones Soong won't say.  So the reporter tried taking the "highly anticipated by audiences" route and asked Jones about one of the open endings from season 1, which was the identity of "Godfather" Sun Ye's son Michael (featured in a scene with only his backside and also his voice), whose identity was to be revealed in season 2 and whether that is the character affected. [This makes sense to me, as what other character would require the script to be rewritten due to the artist pulling out?].   In response to this, Jones laughed and said:  "Think about who in this industry is named 'Michael'!"  [Ha, that's such an obvious clue, lol!  If the artist Jones is referring to is indeed Michael Tse, then looks like my guess wasn't too off the mark.  Too bad he won't be able to participate in season 2 anymore though, as it would've been awesome to see Chicken (Jordan) and Dai Tin Yee (Michael) reuniting (though of course, they would've been on opposing sides, with Jordan's Phoenix battling Michael's triad leader character).

o   Here's the source of the article for those interested in reading it:  HK01

TVB

-          I read the other day that the series that will be taking over The Forgotten Valley's (the Louisa So series that is currently airing in the regular prime time slot) will be "Watch Out Boss", which is the series starring Flora Chan and Ben Wong that had been filmed 3 years ago (one of TVB's last series that was still buried in their warehouse).  I'm not interested in watching the series, as I'm not too fond of the cast first of all (aside from Flora and Ben, both of whom I like, not really keen on the other 2 leads), plus from what I've seen in previews and such, the story sounds lame (seems like another pointless comedy to me).  However I decided to include a snippet about this series in this post because, well, those who read my first "Entertainment Newsreel" post will probably know that most of the TVB-related stuff I cover in these posts are along the lines of "WTH moments"….given all the controversy surrounding this series at the moment (before the series has even aired), I think this legitimately falls into "WTH" category (ok, probably more like "WTF" territory depending on if you're a Flora fan or not).  So here's the lowdown:

o   Given Flora's popularity with audiences (back during the height of her career, she had won multiple audience-voted "TV artist of the year" awards from a few media outlets), you would think that TVB would cherish the opportunity of having her film for them as a way to get back into HK audiences' good graces (something that TVB desperately needs nowadays).  Well, apparently not – looks like TVB is still its old petty self and continues to have no qualms about playing their internal politics as long as it suits their fancy, even if it is at the expense of their artists and also the audiences who still support them.

o   Earlier, TVB released the trailer for the series as a precursor to the series airing – at that time, fans were already complaining that Flora was barely in the trailer, with her presence being reduced to a teeny tiny shot of her head.  If you think that's bad, wait, there's more...

o   It is now rumored that the episode count of the series has been cut from 20 episodes to 15 episodes.  The reason for the "trimming down" of episodes?  No, not to help the plot flow better by cutting out excess stuff or improve overall quality by editing out mistakes and such (which is what most "normal" production companies would do).  Supposedly, most of the scenes that will be cut are Flora's scenes – the rumor is that through post-editing, TVB is cutting out most of Flora's screen time so that instead of her being first female lead as was the case when she filmed the series, she will be reduced to "supporting" role and the series' second female lead Ali Lee will become first lead instead.  [Sidenote:  I know you're probably wondering how is it even possible to turn a supporting artist into lead and a lead into supporting purely via post-production editing?  Of course it's possible – just go ask world-renown HK director Wong Kar Wai, who practically wrote the playbook on this particular editing skill, though his reasons for doing it has nothing to do with politics – unlike TVB!]

o   So why is TVB doing this?  Some people are saying that TVB is trying to ride the Ali wave and since she's under their management contract, it makes sense that they would try to promote their own people.  While that may be true to some extent, it's not like Ali is a big enough name actress for TVB to give such special treatment to, especially when there are other artists at her level (second female lead whom TVB is currently promoting) filming other series also with veterans, yet same thing (editing out the veteran's scenes) is not happening there.  So to me, this theory doesn't hold any water.

o   The REAL reason why TVB is cutting Flora's scenes goes back to my earlier assertion that TVB is being petty again, as Flora is currently working for their rival station ViuTV.  A couple months back, during ViuTV's sales presentation, it was revealed that Flora will be producing an info series for ViuTV, called "Stages of Marriage".  The program will invite 5 different married couples from different walks of life and also different countries to share their different perspectives on marriage in efforts to help audiences understand how marriage is perceived across cultures.  Flora and her husband will be one of the 5 couples on the show.  Back when she was interviewed during ViuTV's sales presentation, Flora said that she agreed to do this program because the topic interested her but more importantly, it lets her go back to her roots, as audiences may remember that she was a producer for TVB's Pearl channel (their English language channel) prior to becoming an actress.  She indicated that she likes being a producer more because she has more control over the quality of the production (she also said that she is interested in doing more behind-the-scenes work and already completed writing of a script, a society piece  about life choices and decision-making that she hopes to produce / direct herself as a way of giving back to society).

o   While on the one hand, I can understand TVB not wanting to help another station promote their artists, I still feel that it's utterly ridiculous for TVB to take these types of petty actions that do more damage for themselves than good.  I mean, how is the series going to look like after TVB cuts out all of Flora's scenes?  Um, TVB certainly ain't no Wong Kar Wai (not even close!!) and their producers have nowhere near the skill he does.  Besides, I've seen the way TVB edits their programs and believe me, it's horrifying! [Sidenote: It's kind of ironic but subscribing to TVB's channels here in the U.S., we're kind of treated as second-class citizens in that we sometimes get the "shoddily edited" version of their programs complete with scenes cut out – not the same way the program aired in HK – and the ones I've seen have been pure CRAP!  There was one time where I got so frustrated with a variety program that they edited to the point of being unwatchable – literally they were cutting people's dialogue off mid-sentence! – that I actually called up TVB USA and gave them a piece of my mind (luckily TVB USA had and continues to have good customer service and actually is sincere about trying to fix issues – unlike its HK counterpart – so I went easier on them than I normally would other companies, lol)].   So yea, petty TVB is at it again – stroking their own egos and playing politics for politics sake with absolutely zero regard for anyone or anything (even those who support them)!  This kind of bullcrap (which TVB pulls more and more often nowadays) is actually one of the (many) reasons why I've stopped supporting TVB despite being a die-hard fan for 30 years.  IMO, Flora's fans should get together and boycott TVB – or perhaps flood the Communications Authority with complaints deriding TVB's stupid politics and pettiness (though probably this won't happen since HK audiences will always have some amount of sentimentality toward TVB no matter how badly they screw up….).

Entertainment Newsreel #1: Television and some movie news…

As promised in my previous post, here's my first entertainment news updates post for this blog..

I welcome feedback so feel free to leave any suggestions you may have.  Also feel free to bring up any other recent happenings you might have read about in the comments if you want to (remember that I only included tidbits that I was interested in and most of the below was done from memory, so it’s definitely NOT all-inclusive).

Movie industry news

HONG KONG FILM AWARDS

-          Louis Cheung may be banned by TVB (through no fault of his own) but his fans don’t need to worry, as his footing in the HK movie industry is pretty solid.  He will be co-hosting this year’s Hong Kong Film Awards alongside Charlene Choi.  Given that this hosting job traditionally goes to artists who are established in the film industry, this is actually a pretty big deal for Louis, though with his experience in hosting TV programs, I think he’ll do fine.  Look forward to seeing his performance!

-          Speaking of HKFA – the news that came out last week is that ViuTV was granted exclusive broadcasting rights for the awards ceremony this year.  HKFA chair Derek Yee said that he is impressed with ViuTV’s sincerity and commitment to HKFA, as the station has a lot of pre-awards show events and programs planned (i.e. exclusive interviews, special feature pieces on the nominees, etc.).  Basically, ViuTV is doing way more than TVB ever did when they held broadcasting rights (not surprising of course, as it’s obvious TVB doesn’t respect the HKFA awards show).  I will definitely be tuning in this year to see how ViuTV does!  Oh, by the way, HKFA nominations will be announced on February 6th, so for those interested, might want to check on that day to see if their favorite movies / artists got nominated.

Television industry news

OCTB

-          This is kind of “old news” from last week but those of us who are dying to find out who will be joining the OCTB cast for season 2 may not have to wait too much longer.  The show’s co-producer (and lead actor) Danny Chan Kwok Kwan attended a function for his new movie last week and when asked by reporters about OCTB season 2, he confirmed that they will commence filming for season 2 right after the Chinese New Year holiday (which means that the final cast will be announced before then).  Not surprisingly, the reporters also tried to get Danny to reveal who will be joining the cast for the new season (with focus on whether any of the rumored Y&D artists will join), but of course, Danny was tight-lipped and refused to drop names – HOWEVER he did say that he just got word that a big name veteran agreed to do a cameo for them in season 2.  Danny said that they had reached out to the veteran thinking that the person would never agree but turns out they were wrong – the veteran will be filming 1 day for them, though not sure what this equates to in terms of screen time.

-          More OCTB news…I think it was last month (end of December), several of the guys from the OCTB cast (most of whom had become best buds during filming) held a party at veteran actor Michael Chan’s house (he played triad leader “Godfather” in OCTB) – though it was not an official OCTB cast party, there were still quite a few people from the series’ cast and crew there.  Justin Cheung had shared some pics on his social media account and of course, netizens seized the opportunity to “read into” the possibility that the pics might reveal some clues as to upcoming cast.  One of the artists spotted in the pics was actor Chin Siu Ho, who was not part of the original OCTB cast, so instantly, there was speculation that perhaps he would be part of the season 2 cast.  True or not, I have no clue.  I guess we will find out in a few weeks.

-      Sidenote (not really news but just a fun little piece for fellow fans of the series) -- in terms of former Y&D cast joining OCTB, my money is on Michael Tse and/or Anthony Wong (those were 2 out of the 4-5 names circulating on the Internet the past couple months).  I'm basing this on stuff I had read over the past few months and also the little I know of the artists' schedules and backgrounds.  Of course, I could be totally wrong and that's fine, but just thought I would throw this in, lol.  :-)

ATV

-          ATV had their official “re-launch” party last weekend (on January 29^th).  I didn’t watch the program (which I heard was aired live on their app as well as their OTT thingie) but according to several media outlets, the program was a “disaster.” I won’t judge whether the “disaster” part holds any water, since I didn’t watch the show, but here’s a quick recap courtesy of HK01 and also Mingpao:

-           

o   First, the biggest name guest star in attendance at the ceremony was George Lam, who opened the night singing several of his classic hits

o   After that, former “golden MC” Ivan Ho chatted up a storm with a bunch of former TVB/ATV people, but instead of introducing any upcoming ATV programs, they mostly reminisced about the “good old days” of the entertainment industry, even mentioning a few iconic “classic” programs that their supposed rival TVB produced (hmmm, I thought this was ATV’s launch party, why would they mention TVB productions?  Well, I guess one thing they’ve got going for them is that they don’t “censor” the mere mention of their rival station’s name like, um, their “rival station” does, lol….)

o   There were a bunch more musical performances, but almost all of the performances were singers from the 70s/80s who sang classic songs that most of the current audiences (meaning the younger generation audiences that ATV is supposedly targeting) probably had never heard of.  [Sidenote:  I laughed when HK01 noted in one of their articles that they actually thought they were watching TVB’s “Cantopop at 50” (minus the hosts of course) because of the similarity in style (of the launch party) to that program as well as all the veteran singers who participated.]

o   Stephen Chan, whose newly revamped “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” is one of the key “selling points” for ATV’s comeback, was noticeably absent from the launch party.  Supposedly, Stephen Chan fell sick and had to pull out of the show last minute, so his buddy Wong Hei (who will be hosting a variety program for ATV) stepped in to host the ceremony in his place.

o   For me, the biggest “takeaway” from the ceremony in terms of implication for future were:

1)      Singer/actor Richie Jen attended the launch party along with artists under his management company (though the biggest name there from his company was William So…Edmond Leung was originally scheduled to be there too but since his high profile arrest for drunk driving was just a few days prior to the ceremony, obviously he had to skip, since his career has been put on hold at the moment…).  So perhaps this means future collaboration between Richie's artists and ATV?

2)      China 3D’s Stephen Shiu Jr. was in attendance and when interviewed by reporters, he very candidly “talked about” TVB’s ban on his artists and outright said there is a “high probability” that his company will be collaborating with ATV in the future (as a reminder, some of the “bigger names” under his management are -- Chilam Cheung, Myolie Wu, Louis Cheung, Justin Cheung, Gregory Wong).  Don’t be surprised if you see any of these artists filming stuff for ATV in the near future!

-          In terms of the big 64 million dollar question – will ATV resume filming series?  Well, those of you who read my previous 2 posts about ATV’s comeback will probably know that they were originally planning on doing 2 remakes this year:  a TV series remake of John Woo’s iconic movie “A Better Tomorrow” (the one that starred Chow Yun Fat, Leslie Cheung, and Ti Lung) and also a remake of ATV’s own classic hit series “My Date With A Vampire”.  If you read the update to those same posts, you will probably also know that ATV hit a snag with both these planned remakes, as it looks like their new CEO Ng Yu didn’t do his homework prior to announcing their plans (he later admitted that he hadn’t finished going through all of ATV’s old paperwork/records yet, as he was only hired on by the Mainland company that currently owns ATV back in April of last year and so there was still a lot of work to be done in terms of “catching up” with ATV’s past history). 

o   At the re-launch party, Ng Yu confirmed that the remake of “A Better Tomorrow” will move forward despite actor/singer Stephen Fung’s company issuing a statement claiming they hold the rights to ABT and did not authorize ATV to do a remake.  Apparently, Stephen Fung’s company holds the rights to the original TV version while a different company holds the rights to the John Woo movie version – ATV did get permission from the company holding the rights to the John Woo version (that company is supposedly going to release a statement soon), so their remake will proceed.

o   The remake of MDWAV is still a no go (though there was no mention of this at the launch party – not surprising of course given the embarrassment).  Fox Asia still holds the rights to MDWAV (which ATV had sold to them a few years ago but the current execs conveniently forgot) and they are actually planning on remaking the series themselves, so pretty sure they are not going to authorize ATV to do any type of remake.  Ng Yu did say (back in December when Fox issued their statement) that they were going to discuss with Fox and see if they are open to a collaboration – if Fox agrees, then ATV still has a chance…I guess we shall wait and see.

o   Oh and to add salt to the wound -- the series that ATV had previously announced was going to be their “debut” series (Mainland series “The Legend of Ba Qing” starring Fan Bing Bing) which they supposedly spent big bucks to buy….well, it was announced last week that the air date in Mainland China will be delayed, as someone “reported” the series to the authorities and so the producer(s) now need to “fix” some stuff before it will be allowed to air (I had read that the number of episodes will be cut down but I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to the details to be honest).  So ATV is basically in a holding pattern right now, with their execs probably “praying” that the issues will be resolved soon.  

  - What a mess for ATV!  I'm not normally superstitious but man, so many obstacles from the getgo can't be a good thing for a station that is trying to re-brand itself.  Not a good way to start their "re-launch" that's for sure!

TVB

 Of course there will be mention about TVB in a recap about entertainment news happenings – however one “disclaimer” that I would like to make:  most of you who have followed my blog for awhile and/or my comments in certain discussion forums probably know what my attitude is toward TVB nowadays.  Basically, when it comes to TVB, don’t expect to see the “latest and greatest” in terms of new upcoming series or whatnot because I barely follow that stuff anymore.  Nowadays, I don’t pay much attention to which new series are airing in TVB’s prime time “golden” timeslots since I don’t watch their (new) series much anymore.  If you’re looking for latest info on new series and/or current generation of TVB artists, there are plenty of fansites out there so feel free to check those out instead.

With that said, the 2 things I wanted to mention about TVB this week (note that most of my TVB mentions in these posts are along the lines of “WTH moments” -- basically stuff that I found "laughable"....):

-          So you guys remember that disaster of an anniversary series Heart and Greed (the 3^rd installment to the Heart Of Greed franchise), right?  Those who’ve been following entertainment news the past few weeks probably know that HAG’s ratings in HK sucked (though I heard their finale episode actually ended on a high note) and word of mouth was horrible as well.  Throughout the month or so that the series aired, it was pretty much “bashed” every day for one thing or another by netizens and audiences alike (and no, it’s not a coincidence that the series was completely shut out of the anniversary awards, despite the “high hopes” of the cast and crew going into the awards).  Given the above, I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that the series was NOT well-received and therefore, the franchise can officially DIE now…

o   Well, um, not quite….it was announced recently that there are plans for BOTH a movie version as well as stage play version of the series (the 3^rd installment specifically).  Not too many details on the movie yet, though I did see a rumor somewhere that Ha Yu might get pegged as the director for the movie version (which makes sense to me, since Ha Yu has his own production company and already directed/produced a few movies the past couple years).  If Ha Yu does end up being the director, the question I’m most interested in is whether his son Dixon Wong will be involved in the production again (as he was in Ha Yu’s previous works) – reason I ask is because Dixon Wong is a ViuTV-contracted artist currently so it will be interesting to see what will happen with that if the movie is still affiliated with TVB. 

o   As for the stage play, TVB already confirmed it’s definitely a go and the veterans – Ha Yu, Louise Lee, Susanna Kwan, etc. -- stated that they have already started planning for it.  Supposedly, the stage play version will be “comedy-heavy”, which I guess means that we will be spared all of those intensely dramatic arguing + crying scenes that were a “staple” of the franchise?  I guess we shall wait and see….

-          Turns out all the backlash that TVB got after the highly contested results of their 50^th Anniversary Awards “paid off” for them, as the ratings report came out last week and this year’s awards garnered 33.6 points (probably the highest ratings for ANY TVB program – series included – in all of 2017), which, according to the media, are the highest ratings the awards has gotten since 2014. 

o   Of course, TVB held a celebratory dinner to commemorate this (in which the behind-the-scenes crew as well as all award winners were in attendance) and the execs took the opportunity to give a bunch of “motivational” speeches.  I won’t repeat the exact content of their speeches (because quite honestly, some of the stuff they said made me want to puke, lol) but just know that, in typical TVB-style, the execs pretty much praised themselves for a job well-done and reiterated once again that the high ratings means that HK audiences still “love” them (yes, bring on the barf bags!!!)

And last but certainly not least….

HKTV

-          After not hearing anything for like 5 months, HKTV was finally “back in the news” last month (January), though depending on which side you’re on, you might be happy or sad at the reason why they are in the news again (personally, I’m both happy and sad, but that’s just me…).

o   As I stated in the comments to one of my recent blog posts, Ricky Wong gave a presentation last month about the launch of his new e-commerce related project (as you may recall from this blog post I wrote up back in August 2017, Ricky Wong sold his stake in HKTV to his partner, so he is no longer the CEO, however he still oversees the HKTVmall side of things).  In a nutshell, Ricky Wong is basically turning HKTV’s multi-million dollar studio in Tseung Kwan O (near where TVB City is located) into a “training ground” for media students with an interest in e-commerce – the students will be able to “rent” HKTV’s facilities and equipment for free to film essentially whatever they want (i.e. supermarket commercials, product promotional videos, etc.).  The purpose is to cultivate potential future business leaders (more specifically in the e-commerce field) while at the same time not letting the facilities go to waste. 

o   Here are links to the 2 articles (from HK01’s Finance/Business section) that has more details on the project: Article 1 and Article 2

o   Like I said elsewhere, from a business perspective, kudos to Ricky Wong for putting in the effort to cultivate a younger generation of potential business leaders – though of course, none of us should be surprised that RW decided to go this route given his background and the fact that he is known for his creativity and being innovative (the phenomenal success of his previous telecom business is proof that he knows what he is doing when it comes business development).  Personally, I feel that this project is a great idea and one that I wish HKTV (more specifically Ricky Wong) the utmost success on.

o   With that said however, the above news, coupled with the fact that Ricky Wong’s HKTVmall e-commerce business is doing extremely well (there is an article that actually had some impressive numbers in it but I didn’t post it because it’s buried in my list somewhere – if I’m able to dig it out anytime soon, I’ll try to at least post up the link to it) – means that for those of us who were looking forward to HKTV resuming production of their series (something that RW had promised would happen if their 2^nd application for a license is approved), the prospect of this happening has gotten a lot dimmer.   The longer the government continues to drag their feet with the second round of applications (it’s been like what, 3 years already since HKTV’s 2^nd application was submitted?), the likelihood of HKTV resuming filming gets dimmer and dimmer.  Personally, I don’t want to go into my spiel about whether I think it’s a good idea for HKTV to resume production or not, since that topic would take up a full post in and of itself, plus I think I already talked about it previously in my blog….but fellow HKTV supporters definitely feel free to express your thoughts on this in the comments below if you want.

That’s it for now, but note that since this is the first post in this particular series and I’m technically a little behind with it (most of the above news was from mid-to late January, some even from December), I will probably be doing another post in a couple of days to “catch up” with this past week’s news.  After that, the plan is to do these posts probably weekly (maybe bi-weekly depending on my schedule) with more current news.

Enjoy! :-)

My Thoughts on this year’s HK Film Awards

Not surprisingly, the HKFA was one award ceremony I absolutely was anticipating this year – main reason is of course my idol Jacky Cheung garnering a Best Actor nomination for his role in Heaven in the Dark (and unlike previous years, he was one of the hot favorites this time around).  My other reason for watching was for Sean Lau, as he’s one of my favorite actors and this is actually his first time hosting the awards (director and HKFA association chairman Derek Yee said that it took much persuasion to get Sean to agree to host).

I’m sure everyone has read the results of the HKFA and know who the winners are by now, so I’m not going to bother listing out the winners.  Instead, I am just going to focus on the categories that I actually cared about as well as the highlights (and low lights) of the ceremony this year.

First up – Best Actor (though ironically this was one of the last awards presented last night).  Jacky obviously didn’t win Best Actor (Aaron Kwok won for his role in Port of Call) – if he had won, this post definitely would’ve started with a scream of excitement, lol.  While I’m a little bit disappointed that Jacky didn’t win, I was surprisingly not too upset about it, since I sort of anticipated it already (Jacky just doesn’t have the luck when it comes to film awards).  Of course, us fans were hoping that the 6^th time’s the charm (he was nominated for HKFA Best Actor 5 times previously), but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be. Well, awards are very much about luck and timing and in a way, all stars need to be aligned, so over the years, I’ve learned not to put too much emotion or attach too much significance to awards.  Whether he ever wins the BA award or not, Jacky will always be Best Actor in my heart and I will always support him!

Even though Jacky didn’t win Best Actor, he did win the Best Dressed award alongside his Heaven in the Dark partner Karena Lam, which I felt was well-deserved because he did look extremely handsome last night.  The expression on Jacky’s face when his name was announced was absolutely priceless – he was obviously very surprised!

Outside of the Best Actor category, the other category I was interested in was Best Picture.  I was actually a bit surprised that Ten Years won given how controversial the movie was, plus the great lengths that Mainland China went to in efforts to suppress the film -- including pulling strings behind the scenes to get all movie theaters to quietly ‘remove’ the film from showing after it became such a surprise hit, as well as Mainland’s latest move of ‘banning’ the HKFA ceremony itself due to Ten Years being nominated  (the awards show is usually aired live in Mainland every year, but this year, they released a statement saying that the show won’t be broadcast in China at all).  Ten Years is actually one of the movies on my ‘must watch’ list and I was super-happy that it had gotten a nomination at HKFA, though to be honest, I was like 99% sure that it wouldn’t actually win the award, since, in recent years, much of the HK entertainment industry has been reluctant to take on Mainland China head-on, so I figured the HKFA would continue along those same lines and not take the risk of doing something that is widely considered as slapping Mainland China in the face.  Well, I was wrong and boy am I glad!  This film went through so much and I’m happy that it was able to overcome all the obstacles it did.  With that said though, the movie still faces a difficult road ahead, but hopefully its HKFA win can help the movie in this area.  The producer was indeed correct when he stated in his acceptance speech that the award actually belongs to all the audiences who supported the film, as they were the ones who turned the previously unknown controversial independent film into a runaway hit.  For me though, I actually applaud the HKFA committee members for being so brave and not letting politics influence their decision this time around.  Congrats to the cast and crew of Ten Years for a well-deserved win!

Oh and one thing I just had to mention – I saw a lot of comments from pro-China supporters slamming the HKFA and there were quite a few netizens as well as other members of the general public who were ‘pissed’ that Ten Years won and felt it was ‘undeserving’ due to its status as an independent film with a largely unknown cast and ‘no name’ new directors, plus its hugely controversial subject matter.  My response to that is – those people’s comments can be ignored because it’s obvious their comments are politically-motivated and they don’t have a clue what movies or artistic creativity are about.  If they want to take the HK vs Mainland China thing so seriously (I agree with the sentiment that a lot of times, it’s really Mainland that is making the conflict bigger than it really needs to be), then they are the ones truly missing out.  They don’t see us Hong Kongers complaining when Mainland actors and actresses take home the Best Actor and Actress trophies, even when we feel our actors/actresses are more deserving, do they??

Ok, so onto the actual ceremony itself….

Here are my favorite moments from this year’s ceremony:

-          Sean Lau’s hosting:  he was great!  For someone who doesn’t like to talk, he did a pretty good job for his first time.   And yes, it was super-sweet that his wife Amy Kwok attended the ceremony just to support her husband (aww, love this couple).  I also got a kick out of Sean’s buddy Nick Cheung ‘teasing’ him throughout the ceremony – I actually feel that Nick was the one who laughed the loudest at all of Sean’s jokes, haha.

-          The segment where so many former child actors went on stage to talk about the first film they acted in and how old they were at the time.  At first, I actually thought this was only a ‘tribute’ segment to child actors, which was very appropriate given this year’s HKFA theme, but it turned out this was a ‘2-in-1’ thing where all of those artists remained onstage to present the Best Director award.  I enjoyed seeing so many of those former child actors again, especially the veteran artists who started back in the 1950s and are still active in the industry even now – really admire their dedication to the HK film industry!  For me, the other highlight was definitely seeing John Chiang and Paul Chun together on the same stage – the first thought that went through my mind in seeing them was how great it would be if their brother Derek Yee (who was nominated for Best Director that night) was up there too?  The Chiang family is one of my (and my family’s) favorite entertainment industry families, so I of course was happy to see Paul, John, and Derek together on the same awards show.  Now of course Derek Yee didn’t end up winning (Tsui Hark won instead for The Taking of Tiger Mountain), but it was still an enjoyable – and extremely rare – moment that I will cherish.  [Sidenote:  I also found it so sweet that Benji and Lesley attended the ceremony to support their dad Paul Chun – when he came out on stage, the camera panned over to Benji and Lesley, who were recording the moment with their cell phones…aww, so sweet!  Love this family!]

-          Another presenter moment I enjoyed was when McDull (from the McDull cartoon series) and Wu Ba (from the HK hit movie Monster Hunt) went onstage to present the award for Best Visual Effects.  Both of them were soooo cute!!  And whoever ‘scripted’ their speech did a pretty good job, as their speech was cute and also got quite a few laughs from the audiences. 

-          Andy Lau presenting the Best Newcomer and Best New Director awards alongside the 5 adorable little girls from the movie Little Big Master was also a nice touch.  I actually like it when they have little kids as presenters because it just makes the atmosphere so much lighter and happier (plus everyone is so much more forgiving when the presenters screw up their speeches).

-          I had fun with the segment where Jacky and Nick presented the awards for Best Screenplay and Best Action Choreography.  They continued to play off their ‘real-life brothers’ relationship right from the getgo, with Nick introducing himself as Jacky.  Throughout their presentation speech, they just kept acting silly, even dragging Sean into it at one point (of course, since Sean is one of Nick’s close friends, lol).  Jacky and Nick also sat together off-stage as well and there was a lot of interaction between them, which was of course expected given their close friendship.  And I swear, based on the number of times the camera panned over to Jacky and Nick, the camera man must be a fan of theirs or something, haha! 

-          Best presentation speech in my opinion goes to Carina Lau, who presented the award for Best Actor.  She did a great job livening the atmosphere and in my opinion, gave a speech that was both witty and fun – she got a lot of well-deserved applause and chuckles, which was definitely needed given that the Best Actor award was the second to last award of the night and everyone had been sitting there for 3 hours straight already.  Good job Carina!

-          Best acceptance speech in my opinion goes to the production team of Ten Years.  As a Hong Konger, I was actually quite moved by their speech, especially the part where they said that the last thing on their minds was that the movie would do well or get any awards – their intention was just to do a little something for HK, their hometown and a city they love.  And both producers humbly acknowledged that their film doesn’t measure up to the others in terms of technical standards (of course, since Ten Years was a low-budget independent film whereas all the others were big-budget commercial films), so they were all the more grateful that the HKFA recognized their efforts.

Concluding thoughts:  Aside from the issue of not very many ‘big stars’ attending the ceremony outside of the nominees (which, to be honest, has been an ‘issue’ with the HKFAs for like the past decade already), this year’s HKFA ceremony still ended up being one of the better HKFA shows the past few years in my opinion.  I enjoyed watching this ceremony more than any other awards show this year.

Congrats to all the winners and hopefully next year will see the emergence of more great films!

Tribute to a Legend: The 10th Anniversary of Leslie Cheung’s Passing

As most of you already know, April 1^st 2013 marks the 10 year anniversary of superstar Leslie Cheung’s death.  Given how important Leslie was to the HK entertainment industry, there will undoubtedly be a lot of tributes and events taking place in the next few days to honor his memory.  The event that I’m really looking forward to this year is the special tribute concert that Leslie’s former manager Florence Chan will be putting together, during which some of Leslie’s closest friends in the entertainment industry will gather together with his fans at the HK Coliseum and perform many of his greatest hits.

Even though 10 long years may have passed since Leslie left us, the memory of him and his tremendous contributions to the entertainment industry continue to live on in our hearts.  Of course, nothing can replace the pain that many of us went through when we found out that one of our most beloved entertainers decided to leave us forever…and not surprisingly, many of us still find it difficult to come to terms with this horrible fact.  Regardless of whether you’re a fan of his or not, I’m sure you would agree that Leslie was a charismatic entertainer and overall great person who impacted the lives of many, many people – be it his friends, colleagues, fans, and even people whom he didn’t even know!  

No one knows what the future will bring and in the case of the HK entertainment industry especially (depending on how you look at it), the outlook may not necessarily be a positive one – but no matter what happens in the coming years and what direction things end up going, one thing’s for sure:  Leslie will always be an important part of HK entertainment history – an absolutely irreplaceable legend whose influence and impact will continue to be felt for decades to come!

For my personal tribute to Leslie this year, I’ve decided to ‘re-visit’ some of the older posts I wrote about him on my blog and in so doing, ‘re-live’ some of those past ‘Leslie moments’ – be it happy moments or sad ones – that had made me either laugh or cry at some point.  I’ve included the links to some of these past blog posts below in the event that anyone who reads this is interested in ‘re-visiting’ as well (though one ‘disclaimer’ I have to make is that this list is NOT all-inclusive, since I only update my blog whenever I have time and so there may be a lot of things that I wanted to write about but didn’t get a chance to yet).

A few last words....

Rest in peace, Leslie!   No matter what happens, you will forever be in our hearts…MISS YOU MUCH!! 

.*******.

Post #1:  Book Review – Now and Then (從零開始): Leslie Cheung

Post #2:  Remembering Leslie Cheung:  Jacky’s Eulogy Speech at Leslie’s Funeral

Post #3:  2003 HKFA Awards Ceremony (Tribute to Leslie)

Post #4:  Jacky and Leslie’s Taiwan Trip (11th Annual Golden Melody Awards)

Post #5:  Tony Leung’s 50^th Birthday Party:  Leslie’s friends pay tribute to him

Post #6:  Jacky pays tribute to Leslie during his ½ Century Concert

Post #7:  Book Review – Now and Then (從零開始):  Anita Mui

Post #8:  Book Review – Now and Then (從零開始):  Danny Chan

HKFA 2011: Jacky Cheung's Tribute to Willie Chan

Just wanted to share this awesome clip of Jacky singing Frank Sinatra’s classic hit "My Way". This was from the HK Film Awards ceremony that took place last week. Due to the date of the awards ceremony conflicting with his concert date, Jacky did not attend the HKFA ceremony, even though he was nominated in the "Best Actor" category (no surprise here, as it was already a given that he would not attend). But, he did record this clip for the ceremony as a gift for his former manager and good friend Willie Chan, who received the Professional Achievement Award from the HKFA that night (well-deserved in my opinion).

As always, Jacky's performance is awesome and absolutely blows people away -- listening to him sing, it's so easy to become mesmerized and drawn in (which is definitely the feeling I got). This was definitely my favorite segment of the entire HKFA ceremony!

Thanks, Jacky, for showing everyone else how it’s supposed to be done!!!

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.

My 'TVB Rant' #2: Why I Can’t Stand TVB’s Politics – Part 2

It is a truth universally acknowledged that no one is perfect and everyone has their faults / weaknesses. There is nothing "bad" about this, as it just proves that we are all human.

This same truth applies to businesses and organizations as well. It makes sense, since businesses and organizations are run by humans, whom we have already determined are imperfect and make mistakes. It's okay to make mistakes, as long as we admit them, learn from them, and don't let the same mistakes happen again.

What is so difficult to grasp about the above concept? Well, plenty, it seems -- especially with a powerhouse organization like TVB. Maybe it's the "power" that they feel they have over the entire HK entertainment industry due to the virtual "monopoly" they possess in the television world (their closest competitor ATV is in shambles due to the revolving door in their management ranks) and the "usual" high ratings that all their series get due to lack of competition -- so basically, TVB can put out crappy series (like they have been doing the past 7 years at least, with a few exceptions) and still "own" majority of the market.

You would think that with a company that has been in "business" for so long (42 years), TVB should understand the above concept (admitting mistakes, learning from them, preventing them from repeating). Ironically, TVB has never been one to admit to their shortcomings.

With all the TVB-related "happenings" the last couple months (royalties dispute, favoritism in awards ceremonies, Stephen Chan's corruption scandal, etc.), it has really brought to light some of the inherent "issues" and "problems" that plague TVB -- though, in typical TVB fashion, they would never admit to any of this.

Below is my list of "untruths" that TVB has told (via its various spokes people) in the past few months. This is purely my opinion based on what I have read in various news articles / interviews / statements, etc.


13 "untruths" that TVB has told
**Note: This list is NOT all-inclusive – there are many other instances as well. The below are just a few examples**

1) There are no parties / cliques / groups at TVB

2) There is no favoritism at TVB

3) They always promote based on talent, not favoritism

4) They always promote those who are "most deserving"

5) Upper management has never accepted expensive gifts from its employees

6) They welcome differences in opinion

7) Artists from the Big 4 record companies (i.e.: Eason Chan, Hacken Lee, Hins Cheung, etc.) would not have won at last year's JSG awards even if they were in the running because their "points" would not be "high enough" to overtake Raymond Lam

8) Their Anniversary Awards are always fair and rewards the "most deserving"

9) Their awards shows (TV, music, etc.) are never rigged

10) Asked about whether their artists were being interrogated by ICAC when the Stephen Chan corruption scandal broke out, TVB's response was basically "no comment" and there has been "no effect" on their artists or production.

11) TVB did not “ban” Ekin when they refused to let him promote his movie on their network – it was all a “misunderstanding”

12) They did not purposefully “cut out” references to ATV in last year’s HK Film Awards broadcast – it was a “mistake” by the person doing the editing and he was acting on his own accord based on what he “assumed” was best for the company.

13)  The reason why they changed the lineup to their programming last Sunday night was not because they wanted to compete against the HK Film Awards on ATV, but because they "wanted the audience to be able to watch the finale for the series 'Fistful of Stances' earlier in the night."

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!