News Article: Revolution put on hold as HKTV wins online support but still no licence

Here’s the latest news article about HKTV.  I haven’t watched the preview of “The Challenge” yet (though I plan on doing so in the next few days) but from what I’ve read about the experience (from the artists’ weibos and various news articles), it definitely sounded like a unique, interesting experience! 

One thing that I was disappointed about after reading the article is that we definitely won’t get to see the next episode of Borderline anytime soon, since Ricky Wong stated that he won’t air it until HKTV gets their license. 

Arghhh!!!  Damn government issue those licenses already!!!

*****

Revolution put on hold as HKTV wins online support but still no licence
But the television station says its plans for a revolution are on hold as it waits for a licence

Source:  South China Morning Post

More than 500,000 internet users have shown their support for Ricky Wong Wai-kay's television station by watching its online drama premiere, but the prolonged wait for a licence has put what might be a revolution in Hong Kong's television industry on hold.

Artists who have jumped ship to Hong Kong Television Network (HKTV) said they wanted to produce programmes that put the audience first, which they say they could not do with market leader TVB.

"We feel so helpless," said Ai Wai, who worked at TVB for 33 years. "We just don't understand that on one hand, [the government said] the licence would be given as soon as possible. But the Executive Council could suddenly take a day off. Why?"

He said a television revolution was under way: "We are challenging the system."

HKTV made its online premiere 12 days ago, showing the first episode of crime thriller Borderline.

It earned nearly 509,000 hits and rave reviews from users, who praised the quality of filming and depth - a stark contrast to TVB soap operas.

HKTV followed this up with a 30-minute preview of its infotainment programme The Challenge - depicting artists' extreme experiences in nature - at a cinema yesterday.

The preview showed Ai, Lau Yuk-chui and Lawrence Chou Tsun-wai on an expedition into the Son Doong cave in central Vietnam. The seven-kilometre cave is the largest of its kind in the world and houses fossils, desert, forest, terraces and underground rivers. The five-episode journey cost HK$1 million to film.

The journey by the 15-member crew, including the production team and professional explorers from Hong Kong and Britain, took a week. People hired to help carry food, fuel and power generators and act as guides brought the number to 60.

"We hope to be creative, and be responsible to our audience," said award-winning actress Lau.

The 20-year TVB veteran said colleagues there wanted to produce quality programmes but the system demanded that they finish as soon as possible. "TVB focuses more on money, and time is money," Ai said.

HKTV now spends an average of HK$1 million on one drama episode and has spent HK$300 million so far.

Chief executive To Wai-bing said the station was financially healthy and would seek to improve its income through investment.

She said the completion of a multimedia production centre in Tseung Kwan O had been delayed by six months because of design changes. During the annual Filmart movie and television fair in March the station had received requests from potential buyers but was in no rush to sell the shows before they were aired, she said.

Wong said he wanted serious infotainment programmes to set the trend, instead of spoon-feeding viewers dumbed-down content.

In response to requests for the second episode of Borderline, Wong said: "You better ask [Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying]."

He said the second episode would not be shown until he got a licence.

HKTV, Fantastic Television, and HK Television Entertainment applied for licences between December 2009 and March 2010 but no timetable has been given for approval.

HKTV Series Police Boundaries (警界線) -- Official Premiere of Entire First Episode (My Thoughts)

Police Boundaries (警界線) 

[Entire first episode from Youtube]

A few days ago, HKTV put up a ‘poll’ on their Facebook page, asking audiences to vote for which series (out of the 8 teaser trailer clips they released so far) they would like to watch the entire first episode of – HKTV would then ‘premiere’ the entire first episode for the series that receives the most votes.  Voting ended on Tuesday and the series that garnered the most votes was, not surprisingly, Police Boundaries (according to HKTV, Hidden Faces came in a close second).  Therefore, HKTV kept their promise and broadcast the entire first episode of Police Boundaries on Youtube yesterday (Friday).

So far, the feedback for the first episode has been overwhelmingly positive (based on comments in Weibo, discussion forums, HKTV’s Facebook page, etc.).  Since this is one of the series that I’ve been looking forward to watching since HKTV first announced the filming of it last year, of course I wasn’t going to miss the broadcast of the first episode (I don’t think I would have been able to forgive myself…LOL).

Anyway,   below are my initial comments from watching the first episode – I will most likely have more feedback later on (tomorrow) once I get the chance to re-watch the episode again in more detail…

My comments (so far):

.— I don’t know what to say except for – WOW!!  The first episode as well as the preview for episode 2 absolutely made me want to watch the rest of the series! 

.—The episode was fast-paced, thrilling, suspenseful, and so full of twists and turns that it literally kept me at the edge of my seat the entire time I was watching!  When the 11 minute teaser aired last week, I had already remarked how awesome that trailer was (reference this link for my initial comments on the episode 1 trailer) – well, the first episode was even better because we (the audiences) got to understand more of the plot as well as get a better picture of each main character.

.—I was actually quite shocked to find out the relationship between Dominic Lam and Liu Kai Chi’s characters (though from what was revealed in the first episode, it still isn’t 100% clear…but at least we know that, at minimum, the 2 of them, along with Dominic’s deceased wife, are very close friends).  But I’m actually really curious about Uncle Chi’s character – it’s obvious that he was an undercover cop at one point, but is he truly a good guy or will it turn out that he’s actually the main villain?  Whichever it ends up being, I am looking forward to seeing how this all unfolds – and with Uncle Chi’s top-notch acting, I am absolutely certain that his performance will be stellar!

.—Dominic was also absolutely brilliant in the first episode!  After watching the initial 11 minute trailer, I remember commenting that he didn’t have much screen time, but it turns out he does – it’s just that majority of his scenes are concentrated in the middle and second half of the episode.  The scene at the gun shop was quite intense – I will admit that I was so worried Dominic was going to hurt the little boy (Lawrence’s son)…the expression on his face was pretty scary (plus that little boy is just too darn cute and adorable…can’t bear to see anything else bad happen to him!). 

.—I know the feedback to the initial trailer from last week was that Lawrence’s acting was subpar – but after watching the entire first episode, I actually don’t think he was that bad.  Of course, when you’re up against such established veteran actors as Liu Kai Chi, Dominic Lam, Felix Lok, etc., anyone’s acting will seem like ‘child’s play’…however, if we put aside the comparisons to the veterans, I actually feel that Lawrence’s performance wasn’t really that bad at all.  At the very least, I (as an audience member) was able to connect with his character on an emotional level (that’s half the battle right there) and also feel sorry for his plight in the series.  Sure, some of his facial expressions, delivery of dialogue, as well as the way he handled certain emotional scenes still need some work,  but overall, I would actually say that he did a decent job for such a heavy role.

.—I am definitely interested in learning more about Joman Chiang – her performance in this first episode was very impressive, especially knowing that she is a ‘newbie’ in the area of acting!  She had good control over all of her scenes and even with the complicated dialogue (I’m assuming she is the female ‘military weapons expert’ character described in the plot summary), she was able to deliver the goods extremely well.  I don’t know about you guys, but watching her performance, I absolutely could not believe that this series was her first attempt at acting!  Looks like Joman has a bright future ahead of her as an actress….

.—Interesting that Lam Lei’s character dies in episode 1 – I actually thought that he would have a more significant role.  Also, is it just me, or does Lam Lei look really really old in this series?  His first few scenes were fine, but the ones later on in the episode weren’t – he looked way too old, thin, and sickly (so different from how he used to look).  Not sure what happened there but I just found it a little hard to concentrate on his scenes because I couldn’t get over how haggard he looked.  In any case, the plot twist involving his character was quite interesting and I assume that story arc is going to be an important one throughout the rest of the series.

.—No Leila in the first episode (bummer) – though it’s obvious from the second episode’s preview clip that she will appear starting with that episode.  Definitely look forward to seeing her.

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!!!