Review of "The Stamp of Love 肥婆奶奶扭計媳"

This series came on TV recently and since there hasn't been much worth watching (on TV at least) lately, I decided to give this one a try (plus I like some of the cast anyway, so figured this would be better than sitting through some of the recent junk that TVB has been putting out). I have to make it clear though that this is technically considered an "old" series because it's actually from 2001 -- most of the cast from the series are no longer active in the TV industry and 2 of them passed away already within the last 2-3 years (I mention this because it really affected my decision to stick with the series despite some of the 'issues' I had with the plot and such).

Anyways, this series was quite entertaining as a comedy and I wouldn't go as far as to say that it's a "bad" series, but definitely not one of the best -- in fact, it was a very disappointing series for me and the only reason I kept going with it was because of the cast and also the entertainment value. I'm actually glad that this series was only 20 episodes because to be honest, I don't know if I would have been able to sit through it if it were longer -- but at least I didn't give up on watching it, which is already saying alot (since I usually stop watching if a series gets overly boring or just plain sucks).

So what was disappointing about this series? ALOT....but also depends on the way you look at it (you'll see why after reading this review)....

Here are some of the highlights (and "low"-lights)....

First and foremost, the Chinese title of the series was completely misleading! Literally translated, the title means "Fat mother-in-law, incorrigible daughter-in-law" and the poster for the series features Lydia Shum, Anne Heung, and Kwong Wah as the leads. So based on the above, I expected this series to be about Lydia as an opinionated mother whose son Kwong Wah marries Anne against her wishes and so the battle erupts between mother-in-law (Lydia) and her son's wife (Anne) -- if this were truly the premise to the series, I actually wouldn't mind watching (even though this is an age old theme that has been used and re-used many times by TVB) because I like both Kwong Wah and Lydia and can tolerate Anne. BUT.....after the first few episodes, I could already tell that the plot would be nowhere near what I thought it would be -- Lydia is technically not a mother in this series (well, she's a step-mother who "inherits" 2 good-for-nothing sons when she marries the owner of a sauce factory) and she is not related to Kwong Wah at all (Kwong Wah is just some guy who went to school with one of her step-sons and whom she has a good relationship with). As for Anne -- well, her character is a mail-order bride who comes to HK to marry an old man (Lau Dan) due to her family's financial situation, then when he dies (on their wedding day), Kwong Wah agrees to marry her even though he didn't love her (at that time) because he's a nice person and wanted to help her out....but then when Kwong Wah 'disappears' after he loses everything in a bad investment, she moves in with Marco Lo (one of Lydia's step-sons)....so technically, Anne was never Lydia's daughter-in-law to begin with (and despite what the title may say, Anne doesn't become Lydia's daughter-in-law at any point in the series). So WTH??? The plot is a FAR CRY from what is implied in the series title.....

In terms of performances....well, in my opinion, no one really 'stuck out'....a few characters were "likable" but other than those 2-3 people, everyone else's characters were downright annoying!

Let's start with Lydia....her character is very 'misunderstood' in the series. She's actually a good woman who has a very strong personality and can come across as bossy, but at the end of the day, she definitely has a good heart....her goal in life is to take care of her husband (who is paralyzed and can't speak), continue to run the family business (a soy sauce factory), and try as best she can to keep the Bao family together -- including trying to "reform" her husband's 2 bastard sons who are constantly scheming to kill him so they can get their hands on his wealth. Lydia is constantly battling these 2 step-sons (played by Anderson Junior and Marco Lo) as well as the older son's wife (played by Jo Jo Cho), all of whom hate her because she is "in their way" and is always trying to prevent them from hurting their father and messing with the family fortune. Even though Lydia's character is annoying at times with her prejudice against Anne and the sometimes unreasonable / overbearing demands that she imposes, I actually liked her character because of her underlying strength and virtue -- plus everything she does is for the good of her husband's family, which shows how much she truly loved him. Lydia definitely puts in a respectable performance in this series and though I wouldn't call her acting "awesome", I really did enjoy watching her! Plus, let's face it -- who is able to portray the bossy, loud-mouthed, overbearing housewife with the "natural" arguing skills better than Lydia? She was definitely the highlight of this series for me, as her performance was very natural and watching the interaction between her and some of the other characters was hilarious! Reflecting on this series now makes me realize how much I miss Lydia (she passed away in 2008)....

Lydia's husband is played by Spencer Lam [Sheung Yee] (known as "Uncle" in the entertainment circles, he is actually a sportscaster who rarely participates in TV series). Though he doesn't do a whole lot because his character is paralzyed and can't speak, we (the audience) do get to hear his thoughts and see his facial expressions, which gives us insight into his character (plus he has a significant role near the end of the series, which I will refrain from talking about in efforts not to spoil the ending). There's really nothing much to 'dislike' about Uncle's character, except how 'helpless' he is in preventing his sons from doing all those bad things. He's actually the wisest and most righteous character in the entire series and even though he's in a wheelchair or lying on a bed most of the time, that doesn't prevent us from learning alot about what he thinks. His character has a little bit of a comedic element to it because of how he reacts to things that Lydia's character tells him.....also I found it hilarious how the 2 characters are so compatible on all levels EXCEPT the attitude toward the sons – Uncle actually wants Lydia to let the bastard sons have the money so they will leave him and Lydia alone to live their lives together in peace and quiet, yet Lydia thinks that he wants her to "reform" the sons and protect the family business (unfortunately, since he can't speak, he can't tell Lydia's character this and can only watch / listen helplessly). I feel that Uncle also put in a good performance in this series -- especially given the fact that he is not an actor but rather a sports commenter (sadly, Uncle also passed away in 2009).

On to Anne's character....

I already talked a little bit about her character earlier, so I won't elaborate too much -- to be honest though, I found Anne's character to be quite annoying to the point that I really disliked her. For most of the series, she plays the usual "naive nice girl" character, except for whenever she encountered Lydia's character, then she would turn into a screaming mad woman trying to "out-yell" or "out-argue" Lydia. I've never been a fan of Anne's acting and I absolutely cannot stand the "drawl" in her voice when she speaks (especially in dramatic scenes), but at least she was tolerable in this series, probably because she does alot of arguing and yelling (which makes the "drawl" less noticeable). The reason I don't like Anne's character though is because I've always disliked weak, naive, gullible characters and for most of the series, Anne's character was definitely that way....plus I didn't like how her character would always act so virtuous and nice to everyone, yet turn into a different person when she was around Lydia's character. True, Lydia was definitely prejudiced against her because she felt that Anne was a golddigger and had 'complicated' relationships with men (which isn't entirely untrue), but the changing back and forth from "naive and virtuous" to "bxxchy and loud" sort of came across as fake and annoying to me. Plus I was totally disappointed that she actually believed Marco's fakeness and insincerity (he was just using her to get back at Lydia) and ended up moving in with him despite how adamant she was previously about waiting for her "husband" Kwong Wah to come back (not to mention that it absolutely does not make sense for her to move in with another man when she is still legally married). Basically, her character was too wishy-washy and fake, which really annoyed the hell out of me....though she does redeem herself in the last few episodes of the series when she actually becomes friends with Lydia after resolving their misunderstandings, it was too late by then because of how her character was portrayed for majority of the series....

The biggest disappointment of all had to be Kwong Wah's character (I'm talking about his CHARACTER, not his ACTING). I'm sorry, but I thought he was supposed to be male lead in this series, yet he has so little screen time that I don't even know if I can call his role "supporting", let alone "lead"! Not only that, but his character BARELY DOES ANYTHING in this series -- I mean, his character is nice and helps out Anne's character and such, but that's about it....the character is so boring that anyone could play the role. In fact, the impression I got after watching this series is that Kwong Wah's role was primarily to be by Anne's side and "look pretty" -- such a waste of talent! And even though Kwong Wah and Anne are paired up (again) in this series, they technically aren't "truly" together until the end, so there really isn't a whole lot of chemistry between them. Honestly speaking though, I'm sort of sick of seeing Kwong Wah and Anne paired together in yet another series, as I don't feel they match THAT much, especially in modern series -- their pairing in ancient or pre-modern series is ok, but I actually prefer him with Melissa Ng instead (that's a different topic though, so I won't get into it here).

Suprisingly, Anderson Junior [On Tak Juen] and Marco Lo [Hing Fai] actually had pretty significant roles in this series (I personally think that they had more screentime than Kwong Wah, but I didn’t keep track of the amount of time, so I don’t know for sure). I guess you could say that they were the “villains” in the series, though Marco was the truly ‘evil’ one (Anderson was just pitiful and stupid, but not really ‘evil’). I’m not going to go into details on what their characters were like but rather, I prefer to talk about their performances….

Anderson Junior – sorry, but he really should keep his day job (hosting) because his performance was horrible! His acting was so exaggerated and silly, I couldn’t help but cringe at certain parts….plus he wasn’t convincing at all! I’m actually not the type to concentrate on looks because I firmly believe that as an artist, there's more to it than just beauty and physical attributes (i.e.: having talent is more important and as long as you are good in what you do, I could care less how you look) – but I have to say that Anderson has neither the looks nor the acting talent (and THAT’s putting it mildly). His role was actually not too difficult to play -- there are so many people that TVB could have put in that role and they would have done a better job….bad casting choice right there!

Marco Lo – I didn’t like his character much either, but got to admit that he did way better than Anderson Junior. I remember Marco from the “Kindred Spirit” days and was really impressed with his performance in that series, so I was really wondering if he would be able to do as good a job as he did there….the conclusion I came to is that he was okay in this series, but not great. I definitely would have preferred to see much more of Kwong Wah and less of both him and Anderson!

The rest of the cast includes Maple Hui as a conniving golddigger who uses Anderson for his money; Celine Ma as Lau Dan’s sister and a truly loyal friend, even though she portrays herself as bad-mouthed and obnoxious; Ha Ping as the Bao family nanny who may be old and senile, but ultimately 100% loyal and dedicated to the family (Ha Ping actually did a great job – I was laughing so hard at her scenes!), and Liu Kai Chi as one of Kwong Wah’s business associates…which brings me to the second biggest disappointment of all (ok, this may even top the Kwong Wah one for me) – WTH was the point of Liu Kai Chi’s character? I mean, he pretty much only had a minor speaking role in the series! He is one of my favorite veteran actors and a truly talented one at that, yet he is relegated to such a minor role in this series, it’s ridiculous! Of course, he did his part absolutely well (being the fine actor that he is), BUT such a small role???? And they gave people like Anderson (who can’t act to save his life) a bigger role than him?? Ugh!!!

In terms of whether I would recommend this series….well, that’s a tough question. Whether to watch this series or not really depends upon whether you are a fan of any of the artists because to be honest, parts of the plot don’t really make sense and some of the scenes are draggy. If you’re a Lydia or Anne fan, then yes, this would probably be a series worth watching; if you’re a Kwong Wah fan though, maybe not (though his acting is not bad in this series, it’s just the character is sort of useless) – unless you’re attracted to his suaveness and looks, in which case this series would probably be an okay choice.

Though I didn’t “dislike” this series persay, I probably wouldn’t re-watch it again, at least not any time soon….there are some good qualities to it (some parts were genuinely funny and part of the ending was not really typical of a comedy and came as a bit of a shock to me), but overall, I would say that this is an “okay” series only….

Jacky Cheung ½ Century Concert – Live from Las Vegas!

I just got back from watching Jacky’s concert in Las Vegas (the above picture was taken by me right outside the inner entrance to The Colosseum, where the concert was held).

Needless to say, as a huge Jacky fan, I was very excited about this trip – to tell you the truth, I rarely ever go to Vegas unless I’m going to see a show or concert (the last time I was there was in 2007 for Jacky’s concert). Even now that it’s over, I’m still excited that I got to see Jacky again and experience his always awesome concert once again.

Of course, now that I started this blog, I definitely want to share the highlights of my trip with everyone (both fellow Jacky fans as well as non-fans alike). So here it goes….


I have been looking forward to this trip since last year, when I found out that Jacky would indeed be doing a World Tour this year – of course, as a fan, I kept my eyes and ears open for any information whatsoever about the concert (and any other information / articles about Jacky himself for that matter). This definitely paid off, as I was able to purchase Front Orchestra tickets almost immediately after the official release date, which means that I would finally be in the front section close to the stage (though not as close as I would have liked, but way better than the seats we got for his previous concert in 2007).

I will admit that at first, I was a little bit jealous of those who actually got front row (or first 10 row) seats and how lucky they must be. But then, as I sat in my 15th row seat and saw all the stuff going on in front of me (before, during, and after the concert), my ‘jealousy’ turned into ‘annoyance’ and ‘anger’ – I realized that most of the people who sat in the rows in front of me weren’t even Jacky fans…they were just “there” because they had gotten free tickets from their company or some sponsor and so figured they would just go (some of them didn’t even know who Jacky was and didn’t even care!). This is why quite a few of them ended up leaving before the concert was even over – if they were truly die-hard fans like me who actually paid $300+ per ticket to watch the concert, there is no possible way that they would have left instead of waiting for the concert to end (hey, I even stayed for the ending credits when most of the other people were already leaving)! Not to mention, there were people playing with their phones and stuff throughout the entire concert plus others who kept leaving their seats and coming back (if those people were “coming and going” because of bathroom breaks, then they must have very active bladders…lol!) Oh, and how about those people who brought their infant children to watch the show? I’m sorry, but who in their right minds would pay $300+ to come watch a concert (these people sat in the rows in front of me) knowing that they wouldn’t be able to watch the entire show because their infant children would burst out crying like 10 minutes into it and they would undoubtedly need to run out with the child to feed them or change their diaper? Hello? Is it just me or is that a totally stupid move? (Now, don’t get me wrong – I love children, as we have an infant in our family and I love him dearly, but I know better than to bring him to watch a concert that he is totally not old enough to understand). This is another reason why I say that most of the people who sat in front of me got free tickets and weren’t true fans…

The biggest annoyance of all (and this is a big pet peeve of mine in general) was that more than half the audience showed up late. Um, doesn’t the word “punctuality” mean anything to these people, or am I the only one who cares about being on-time? The tickets (and all the advertisements) indicate that the concert starts at 8pm, yet ¾ of the audience didn’t even arrive until after that time (the show ended up starting around 8:30pm or so). I was the most annoyed with this because I’ve always been a punctual person my entire life, since I equate “punctuality” with “respect” – so when people are late, I view it as being disrespectful.

Sorry about the above “rant”, but I just had to vent, as I felt that it was very disrespectful to Jacky and to the rest of the crew (as well as to his fans and those who are truly trying to watch and enjoy the concert) when people do that kind of stuff -- especially an artist like Jacky, who likes to sing for people who like to listen to him sing or who enjoy his music.

Ok, now that I got that off my chest, onto the actual concert itself….

The format of the concert was very similar to what I had read about in various articles and such (yes, of course I did my research beforehand and read up on the shows he already did in other countries up to that point), though there were a few differences.

The concert kicked off with a “mini-movie” directed by reknown HK director Andrew Lau (of “Infernal Affairs” fame) and starring Jacky as well as actress Shu Qi. Instead of doing an excerpt from his musical this time around (which is what he did for his 2007 concert), Jacky incorporated a short film this time around to accompany his performance on stage. The film basically told the story about how a fictitious couple played by Jacky and Shu Qi meet, fall in love, marry, separate, and reconcile – pretty much an illustration of the various stages of a love relationship. To accompany each “stage” of the relationship, Jacky would sing various hits and play out some of the scenes live right on stage (the ‘female lead’ for the stage performance wasn’t Shu Qi of course – she was just a member of the crew, probably one of the dancers). I really enjoyed this first part and felt it was very clever the way that the film clips and the stage performances complemented each other so well – my only complaint would be that having both the film and Jacky’s on-stage performance going on at the same time made it difficult for me to choose which to watch. I somehow was able to adjust my eyes so that I was able to watch the film clips and Jacky at the same time (don’t ask me how – I guess when you’re as big a fan as I am, you would probably find a way as well…LOL!).

The rest of the show consisted of a tribute to Lydia Shum (Jacky’s godmother), a “salute” to rock (which is a very important component of Jacky’s music), a part entitled “Jacky’s Private Corner” where Jacky shares some of his personal life (rare treat) and also sings a few specially selected songs that he likes, and lastly, a look back at Jacky’s “Golden Hits” (where he sings many of his classic hits from the 80s and 90s that made him famous, including: 每天愛你多一些, 只想一生跟你走, 月半彎, 李香蘭, 分手總要在雨天, 餓狼傳說, 祝福, etc. The format was awesome, as Jacky was able to incorporate his newer hits (i.e. songs from his newest album “Private Corner” as well as his new Mandarin single 三分拍 and everything else in between, from his older classics to his other lesser known albums). Reviewing the song list in my head, I think this is Jacky’s only concert so far where he is able to incorporate songs from such a variety of albums spanning the 80s, 90s, and 00s. It’s certainly a fitting format given that the theme of his concert this year is “half a century” of life.

Anyway, after the tribute to Lydia, Jacky finally spoke to the audience (I love Jacky’s sense of humor so I was just waiting for him to address the audience as he does with each of his concerts). And in typical Jacky fashion, he was absolutely charming with his perfect choice of words, his friendly personality, and his natural humor. One of the biggest highlights of the show was when Jacky did the “splits” at the end of his tribute to Lydia – definitely a daunting task for a 49 year old! As the audience broke out in applause and cheers, Jacky looked up (his face was nearly touching the ground, which made the move even more difficult), sat in a semi-cross legged position, and while rubbing his thigh, he stuck his tongue out, then, smiling, he apologized to the audience, saying: “I know this action [rubbing his thigh] is unsightly, but it REALLY hurts!” At that moment, I couldn’t help but applaud Jacky for his professionalism and his perseverance!

Right before the start of his “Private Corner” segment, Jacky showed an animated clip (also directed by Andrew Lau) that recounted his life from when he was born to now – it showed the various “highlights” of his life (including how he was a mischievous kid always getting into trouble, how he got the scar on his face, his participation in the singing contest that launched his career, the awards he got, his bout with alcoholism, his marriage and his kids, etc.) in a cute, cartoon-like fashion (accompanied by Jacky singing “Life is Like a Dream” live on stage). At the end of that segment, the “real” Jacky showed up on screen and we watched as he slowly transitioned into “elderly” Jacky – that part was really funny (I have to take this opportunity to praise the makeup artist for doing such a great job of transforming Jacky into an “old man” in the clip).

Oh, and of course, I have to mention the “Golden Hits” segment. In the first half of this segment, Jacky sang a few of his popular fast songs (餓狼傳說, 這個冬天不太冷, 頭髮亂了, etc.) – the great thing about this part of the performance was that Jacky’s old MVs of the same songs were playing on the big screen in the background and he did almost the exact same dance moves as he did way back then (for those who have been following Jacky’s music all these years, you’ll notice that most of these songs go back to the early / mid 90s, more than 15 years ago)…again, for someone who will be turning 50 years old this year, to be able to hit those exact same dance moves is not an easy feat (after the fast songs were over, Jacky commented that Aaron Kwok isn’t the only one who knows how to dance…LOL!). During the second half of the “Golden Hits” segment, Jacky sang many of the romantic ballads from the late 80s/early 90s that made him famous (the songs I listed above). Throughout this entire segment especially, most of the audience was singing along with Jacky (me included) and waving our glow sticks enthusiastically.

Obviously, I could go on and on about the show, but I actually would like to save some material for another post, as there is some deeper analysis that I would like to write about, including posting the song list from the concert (which will take a little while to compile, since I would be doing it from memory).

Overall, the concert was definitely well worth the wait (technically, I waited 4 years if we start counting from the time of his previous concert in 2007 until now) and absolutely worth the price! If I had the money (and circumstances permitted), I would not mind watching his other 2 shows in Vegas as well (he did a total of 3 shows in Vegas). The concert was definitely well put together and was very fitting of a half century celebration of life!

Jacky Cheung kicks off World Tour in Shanghai

Jacky Cheung kicks off World Tour in Shanghai

Sunday, January 02, 2011 Hong Kong

Source: Mingpao & Oriental Daily

Translation: llwy12

Jacky Cheung kicked off his <<1/2 Century World Tour Concert>> in Shanghai on New Year’s Eve. On stage, Jacky gave his usual 100% effort – in addition to singing many of his classic hits, he also invited film actress Shu Qi to perform a special mini-movie with him that was featured in the concert. Jacky also arranged a special tribute to his godmother, the late Lydia Shum (Fei Jie) – not only was there a huge replica doll of Lydia on stage, there were also a few dancers who dressed up as Lydia for the segment.

As jazz music played in the background during the opening segment of the concert, Jacky came out on stage dressed in a white suit. After that, while singing his hit《花花公子》, he pulled open a curtain to reveal a huge screen that played a short movie with him and Shu Qi as the male and female leads – the segment depicted the various stages of a love story -- when the couple meets, falls in love, marries, then eventually separates. To accompany this ‘love journey’, Jacky performed many of his classic Cantonese and Mandarin hits. Since the first half of the concert was in the form of a musical, Jacky invited renown HK film director Andrew Lau to direct and choreograph the segments.

During the first half of the show, Jacky did not speak much, however in the second half, he could not stand it anymore and finally addressed the audience, especially since he had just finished singing the song《天氣那麼熱》and forgot the lyrics during one part. He told the audience: “The most embarrassing part is already over, now I can ‘go for broke’!” Then, the big screen flips over and turns into a slanted, revolving stage -- Jacky stands atop this stage and performs a few more of his classic hits, joking with the audience that he has a little fear of heights, so may have to close his eyes when he performs. The stunning double tiered revolving stage combined with the special-effects lighting was an awesome spectacle, as it gave off the effect that Jacky was performing in midair.

During the special tribute to Lydia Shum, there was a 20 foot replica of the late actress on stage, as well as a group of dancers who dressed up in Lydia’s signature attire for a dance segment with Jacky. To the audience’s amazement, Jacky imitated one of Lydia’s ‘classic moments’ by attempting to do the splits while performing the song specially written for her. Afterwards, Jacky jokingly said: “Very interesting! How did Fei Jie do it back then? I can barely stand up right now!”

At the highest point of the concert, the audience joined Jacky in singing a dozen of his most famous songs, including hits such as 《她來看我的演唱會》, 《一路上有你》, 《心如刀割》, 《愛是永恆》, etc. At the end of the concert, Jacky apologized to the audience: “Very sorry! The first day of the performance and there were so many errors. I will definitely do better tomorrow!”

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My comments: I normally don't post articles in my main blog section, but just absolutely had to share this!

Yay!!! Jacky's 2011 concert has officially begun!! Just from reading the articles, sounds like it will be another AWESOME performance from Jacky! Absolutely can't wait for my chance to watch the concert in person in February!!! You bet that I'll be one of those fans singing loudly during the "sing-along" portion of the show...lol!