UPDATES on free TV license issue and HKTV protests

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

With regard to the specific articles below….

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

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

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Article 1:  

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

Source:  South China Morning Post

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Article 2:

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

Source:  South China Morning Post

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Article 3:

Singer Benji Chiang says he fears his singing career is over

Source:  South China Morning Post

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He then suffered from depression.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Article 4:  

Bid to use special Legco powers to investigate HKTV case falters

Source:  SCMP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Article 5:

Hong Kong's opaque governance exposes Exco as a joke

Source:  SCMP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stephen Vines is a Hong Kong-based journalist and entrepreneur

News Article: Many celebrity offspring looking to break into entertainment industry actually rely on themselves

Here's an interesting article that I read yesterday about what we call "星二代" in Chinese (aka 'celebrity offspring' -- the children of famous entertainers in the HK entertainment industry). 

I'm actually glad that the reporter from Ming Pao decided to write this article about the struggles that some of the celebrity offspring in the entertainment industry face because it's very true that much of the general public has a 'false understanding' of what it's like to be the children of celebrities.  I remember there was an article that came out a couple months earlier about singer Alan Tam's son wanting to join the entertainment industry and in one of the forums, the sentiment seemed to be that he would definitely 'make it' because of his famous dad.  In fact, alot of the comments were along the lines of 'well, isn't it great to have a celebrity as parent' -- implying that most likely the celebrity offspring will get certain 'perks' by virtue of being the child of a famous entertainer.

Well, to me, that argument doesn't make sense because to be honest, I've seen many celebrity offspring struggle to survive in the entertainment industry and a few of them who actually did end up gaining 'fame and fortune' did so on their own with very little help from their parents (2 examples that come to mind immediately:  Nicholas Tse and Bowie Tsang).  I know the path is not easy, despite what most people may think, so it's refreshing to see these types of articles that attempt to 'dispel' this so-called celebrity offspring 'myth'.

Anyway, this article is definitely an eye-opener.  Hopefully those who read it will have a better appreciation for some of the young artists who actually do work hard and try to become successful on their own accord!

Good luck to all of them!

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Many celebrity offspring looking to break into entertainment industry actually rely on themselves

Source:  Mingpao

 

Translation:  llwy12

 

Actor Nicholas Tse’s (謝霆鋒) interview for TVB’s new show Telling Maria《最佳男主角》was well-received by audiences – in fact, after his multi-part interview segment aired, many audiences praised him as being an ‘exceptionally good man’.  In addition, his shocking revelation at the end of the program that he once had a benign skin tumor took the entertainment industry by storm, with both colleagues and fans alike expressing concern about his health. A few days ago, during a special airing of the interview show’s last episode entitled Telling Maria:  Top Secret Files《最佳男主角: 絕密檔案》, Nicholas Tse revealed yet another surprising secret about himself:  at one point, he only had 2 dollars in his bank account!

A lot of people mistakenly think that the children of famous celebrities for sure will have an easy life and be able to get whatever they want, whenever they want it.  In reality though, the lives of these celebrity offspring are far from ‘easy’ – in fact, many of them encounter the same challenges and difficulties that ordinary people do and oftentimes, if they choose to go down the same path as their ‘famous’ parents [join the entertainment industry], they have to rely on themselves in order to ‘make it’.  

When it comes to overcoming difficulties on the path to breaking into the entertainment industry, two celebrity offspring who come to mind right away are veteran actor Paul Chun’s (秦沛) son and daughter, Benji (姜文杰) and Lesley (姜麗文) Chiang.


CTI takes in many celebrity offspring

Earlier, during a visit to the set of CTI’s currently filming series Three Sides of Shape Doctors《三面形醫》, [our reporter] got to see veteran actor John Chiang (姜大衛) filming a scene with his niece Lesley Chiang [TN:  John Chiang is Paul Chun’s younger brother] – interestingly though, in the series, John actually plays Lesley’s father.  Other artists in the same series include singer/songwriter Benji Chiang (Lesley’s brother) as well as actor Sam Chan (陳宇琛), who is the son of another veteran HK actor:  Shek Sau (石修).  Another celebrity offspring who recently joined CTI is Dexter Young (楊天經) – his mother is famous actress / opera singer Connie Chan (陳寶珠).  Turns out that CTI has been a ‘settling ground’ for many celebrity offspring, especially those who once worked for TVB but were not able to gain much success or recognition – unexpectedly, CTI has become a ‘new hope’ for these celebrity offspring on the path to fulfilling their aspirations in the entertainment industry.   

Many people think that celebrity offspring should not have any problems ‘making it’ in the entertainment industry – after all, with the ‘success’ of their famous parents that they can ‘piggy back’ on plus the support from ‘big’ entertainment companies (i.e. TVB), there’s no reason for them to worry, right?  Actually, no – in reality, whether these celebrity offspring are able to ‘break through’ and taste success or not really depends on their situation as well as fate and luck.


Lesley Chiang saves up money to film MV

Though many celebrity parents do not want their children to follow in their footsteps and join the entertainment industry, fate would have it that many of these children inherited their parents’ talents and/or passion for performing.  More often than not, celebrity parents require their children to finish their educations first before allowing them to join the entertainment industry.  This was certainly the case with most of the celebrity offspring who recently joined CTI, as all of them are college graduates with their own specialized areas of interest – for example, Dexter Young is an Economics major, Lesley Chiang majored in Psychology, and Sam Chan specialized in Architecture.   Chatting with Lesley Chiang earlier about this, she stated:  “Unfortunately, our [Benji and herself] goal was not to become lawyers or doctors!  Even though I majored in Psychology, my true interest actually lies in singing and acting.  After my brother [Benji] graduated from college, he also studied at the HK Academy of Performing Arts (HKAPA) for a few years – he knows how to write scripts and enjoys participating in behind-the-scenes work for various types of productions.”

Benji and Lesley come from a family of celebrities – their father is veteran actor Paul Chun and their uncles are award-winning actor John Chiang and renown HK director Derek Yee (爾冬陞) [TN:  not to mention their grandparents Yim Chun and Hong Mei were also famous celebrities back in the day] – however when this brother /sister team decided to break into the HK music industry as self-financed singers, they still had to endure numerous hardships and jump many hurdles.  Recounting their path to becoming singers, Lesley expressed:  “Even after 3 years in the industry, we still did not have the money to film our own MVs for our songs -- plus last year, my brother was ‘frozen’ by his previous employer [TVB] for 6 months, so we essentially had zero income for a period of time – however, despite the circumstances, we didn’t request any help from our dad [Paul Chun].  This year, after joining CTI, both of us worked hard at filming series and finally were able to save up some money, so in December, we will be able to film our very own MV!   Even though our dad is very supportive of us and set aside a huge ‘safety net’ for us if needed, both Benji and I do not want to carelessly spend his hard-earned money.  When we were little, we would visit Daddy on the set while he was filming – seeing the heavy costumes he wore during hot weather and the hours he would put in, we understood how exhausting his work was.  He has always been a workaholic, but with his age, he’s not able to put in the hours he used to anymore – in fact, he recently had to return to Canada to rest up during a break in filming.  I recently told him not to work so hard anymore, as both my brother and I have good working ability and can take care of him now – Daddy was very moved when he heard this!”


Sam Chan balances school, business, and acting

Some people may think that Dexter Young has been able to ‘survive’ in the entertainment industry because of his mother Connie Chan, however Connie revealed recently that she has never asked anyone in the industry to give her son any acting opportunities.  When he was at TVB, Dexter was actually the one who had to ‘thicken his skin’ and solicit suitable acting opportunities himself from producers – unfortunately, the opportunities he received were mostly hosting gigs for sports programs.  Currently, Dexter has joined CTI and in addition to filming TV series, he is also participating in a few stage plays – he also has plans to hold a mini-concert in the coming months as well and will finally get the chance to realize his dream of performing onstage.

Sam Chan also recently joined CTI (his dad Shek Sau already joined earlier).  Back when he worked for TVB, Sam was already in the business of jewelry design and in 2007, he established his own company [LLazy Bonez Design Ltd].  After joining CTI, he will be even busier, as he now has to balance his acting duties with taking care of his business – in addition, he has also decided to go back to school in pursuit of a Masters degree.  Despite everything on his plate right now, Sam feels that things are going relatively smooth at the moment – he expressed that going back to school is a promise he made to himself and as an adult now, he has to be responsible and accountable to his promises.

Repost from Benji and Lesley’s Blog: Life As An Actor

I just discovered not too long ago that Benji and Lesley Chiang (the children of veteran actor Paul Chun) have a blog on Ming Pao's English website. They update the blog frequently with stuff about their careers, personal lives, projects, etc.

The latest post updated today was written by Benji and in it, he talks about something that has been a dream of his for awhile -- acting! After 7 years in the industry (primarily hosting music programs for TVB), Benji finally got the chance to try his hand at acting this year -- first with a role in the movie Lan Kwai Fong 2 and then after joining CTI, he got the chance to participate in two TV series (he gets to work with his sister Lesley in both series).

Ever since Benji and Lesley came onto the music scene back in 2010, I've definitely taken notice of them. I will admit that I initially started taking an interest in them primarily due to their father Paul Chun, since Paul Gor is one of my all-time favorite veteran actors -- I pretty much grew up watching Paul Gor's movies and TV series and even now I continue to 'follow' his works (mostly his works in HK though). But after I learned more about Benji and Lesley themselves and started paying more attention to their entertainment industry careers and such, I started to develop a certain amount of respect and admiration for them. As a long-time follower of the HK entertainment industry, I've seen alot over the years and understand how difficult it is to try and make a name for yourself in such a colorful but complicated entertainment world while at the same time remaining true to your core values and inner self -- in the 2 years since they've debuted, Benji and Lesley have done a great job in this area!

There are many things that I admire about this brother / sister duo, but one of the biggest is their passion for music as well as their perseverance in realizing their dreams, even if the path to achieving this is a difficult one. One thing that impressed me about Benji and Lesley right off the bat was the fact that they not only write and sing their own songs but they also used their own hard-earned money to produce their first album as well as finance their music careers -- all of this done entirely on their own, since they are not signed to any record company! I mean, how many singers do you know of nowadays who have gone down such a difficult path and have been able to achieve relatively good results? Not very many, that's for sure! Benji and Lesley's first single -- the upbeat dance tune "Showtime" -- was very well-received and helped propel them to 'Best Newcomer' status in 2010/2011 (and deservedly so in my opinion)!

As I'm sure people who've read my other blog posts probably know, I grew up listening to Chinese music and back in the 80s/90s, I was a huge follower of the HK music industry and was one of its biggest supporters -- but since the industry started spiralling downwards in the late 90s/early 2000s (due to various reasons that I won't get into here), I grew increasingly disappointed with the industry and for the past decade or so I pretty much stopped listening to HK music as much as I used to (with some exceptions of course). Needless to say then, I actually surprised even myself when, back in 2010, Benji and Lesley's "Showtime" debuted and after taking one 'listen' on the radio, I pretty much became smitten with the song (and I immediately bought their debut album containing the song as soon as it came out)! Benji and Lesley brought some much needed 'energy' to the HK music industry with their debut 2 years ago, which was definitely refreshing to see.

What's more, to see 2 aspiring artists continue to remain so grounded despite their initial success and continue to move persistently but humbly step by step along the path to carving out a niche for themselves in the entertainment industry -- honestly, it brought back some of the 'warm' feelings for the HK music industry that I had already lost years ago!  I will definitely continue to support Benji and Lesley and look forward to seeing what they will bring to the acting world!

Anyway, here is the latest post from Benji and Lesley’s blog….enjoy!

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Benji and Lesley Blog﹕ Life as an Actor

Article originally published 9/13/12

Source: Mingpao English Web

Text and photo by Benji Chiang (姜文杰)

*** PHOTO TO BE ADDED LATER***

Writers' Profile:
Benji (姜文杰) and Lesley (姜麗文) are HK's latest singer-songwriter sensations. They debuted with their first single in 2010, and have started their tv acting career this year.


【明報專訊】

It has taken me 10 years to reach this point, and I am having a BLAST right now!

Three months ago, I became a policeman for my role in Lan Kwai Fong 2 (《喜愛夜蒲2》). Dozens of extras and members of the crew worked 24/7 trying to fit everything within the tight filming hours at night. For instance, while I walked and talked like a policeman during the filming process, the other fellows organised bar stools in line so that we actors could work out smoothly together.

After that came the filming for my first TV drama series - CTI's Fantasy Love Song 201314 (《童話戀曲201314》). This is Hong Kong's first ever musical TV drama, and my role is a student of the performing arts in his early teens, with a deep-rooted triad background but is unbelievably inept at everything other than dancing and drumming.

This time the filming felt so different from that of LKF2, as we first had to spend weeks training in a dance studio to look legit; then the hard work was the actual days of filming dance scenes from dawn to dusk, in the summer sun. Bonus? I had the chance to film with Lesley for the very first time, and close friends like Kelvin Kwan, Jason Chan, Evelyn Choi and other young actors kept the atmosphere so high school.

Before I knew it, three months had passed, and our schedules overlap with our filming for another TV drama series Three Sides of Shape Doctors (《三面形醫》). This time I am a 30-year-old actor with a loving wife whom I cheat on, doing nothing other than spending her money. In the story I have romantic relationships with Leanne (wife of Tom, drummer of the band Mr) and YouTube sensation Queenie (who is my long time close friend). Hopefully these "relationships" will not turn out to be embarrassing. Lesley's in this drama as well, and Uncle John Chiang (姜大衛) will be playing her father. Interesting.

Review of TVB series ''Witness Insecurity''《護花危情》(2012)

Producer: Lau Ka Ho (劉家豪)

Cast: Bosco Wong (黃宗澤), Linda Chung (鍾嘉欣), Paul Chun (秦沛), Ram Tseung (蔣志光), Ronald Law (羅鈞滿), Cilla Kung (樂瞳), Queenie Chu (朱慧敏), Rachel Kan (簡慕華), Eric Li (李天翔), Lee Kwok Lun (李國麟), Geoffrey Wong (黃子雄), Savio Tsang (曾偉權), Yeung Ching Wah (楊證樺), Lee Yee Man (李綺雯), Jonathan Cheung (張穎康), etc.


**SPOILER ALERT: For those who haven't watched this series and don't want to be 'spoiled' with knowing some of the details of the series beforehand, then I recommend not reading this review, as there are details mentioned that I feel are necessary in order for me to write this review properly. Not to mention there will also be some mention of the ending as well, especially since there was quite a bit of 'controversy' surrounding it.

Before I start, I will say that I am probably in the 'minority' in terms of people who really liked this series and felt that pretty much everyone (from the main leads to the supporting cast) did a good job with the acting. I know that certain artists in the series have a lot of anti-fans (which is quite obvious based on all the on-line comments I’ve read the past few weeks) and as a result, there may be quite a few people out there who refused to watch this series at all or if they watched, skipped majority of the scenes with particular artists – that’s definitely those audience’s prerogative and I have no intention of changing it. However the point that I want to make is that as a neutral bystander who neither likes nor dislikes the main leads, I am writing this review from the 'neutral' perspective and everything contained in it is my personal impression of the series, regardless of what my feelings are towards any of the artists – so basically, those who hate any of the artists in the series and can't bear to hear anything good said about them should just skip this review completely.

Ok, so with the 'disclaimers' out of the way, on to the actual review....

Witness Insecurity [referred to in the rest of this review as WI] just finished airing this past Friday and already, I’ve watched the series twice (partly because I liked the series but also because of the convenient timeslot that it airs here in the U.S., which allows for re-airing of each week’s episodes on the weekend). I will be the first to admit that I absolutely did not think that I would like this series, primarily because the premise of the series wasn't fresh or creative (the whole witness protection thing has definitely been done before, more than once in fact) and also I'm not a fan of Bosco or Linda (especially Linda, since her last few series left a bad taste in my mouth and so I didn't think that I would be able to tolerate her in this series). Therefore, I went into this series without any expectations whatsoever and to my surprise, I actually ended up liking the series quite a lot (I was pretty much hooked from episode 1 all the way to the end…)

In my opinion, one of the biggest things that made this series so good was the cast -- from the main leads (Bosco and Linda) to the 'heavy supporting' artists (Paul, Ram, Ronald, Cilla, Queenie, Lee Sing Cheong, Eric Li, Savio Tsang, etc.) to the 'lesser supporting' artists (Lee Yee Man, Jonathan, Lee Kwok Lun, Rachel, the rest of the artists who portrayed either WPU staff or police officers in the criminal investigation department, etc.) -- no matter how big or small the role, practically everyone put in good performances...THAT's really what left a deep impression on me in terms of this series (I’ll go into more detail about each person’s performance later on in this review). I know a lot of people might disagree with me here, but hey, it’s my opinion after all…

Of course, no series is without flaws and this series was definitely no exception -- in fact, I would have to say that there were plenty of flaws and 'inconsistencies' in the script as well as several moments where, while watching the series, I felt like I just wanted to 'kill' the scriptwriters (more about this later). Even though this did detract from the series overall, it wasn’t completely unsalvageable, at least not for me – I still continued watching the series and enjoyed it

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SCRIPT / STORYLINE

My biggest complaint about the series is really with the script. The series actually started off quite good in the beginning, with the engaging storyline involving the WPU and the exciting action sequences as well as the 'setting up' of the romantic storyline between Hui Sir and Hailey -- plus the interaction and chemistry between the entire cast was at its best during these first 11-12 episodes or so: I especially enjoyed the chemistry between the WPU team and was really looking forward to seeing more of them....but unfortunately, during the second half of the series, the storyline sort of 'fell apart' in that the series moved away from the 'witness protection' theme (since the assignment to protect Hailey was over and Hui Sir was promoted and subsequently transferred) and focused primarily on the conflict between the Kiu brothers and Hui Sir. I probably would have been ok with this had they [the writers] developed the romantic relationship between Hui Sir and Hailey more in the second half (since, after all, that was the whole point of the series, right?) -- BUT, that didn't happen either....instead, we have this 'tortured' pseudo-romance storyline between the two main leads and even up until the tragic end, they don't officially even get together. It was definitely disappointing to see the second half of the series stray so far away from the original premise and theme of the series.

Don't get me wrong, there were still quite a few scenes in the second half of the series that I enjoyed, but as a whole, the first half was definitely way better -- the storyline in the second half was too messy and the direction that the writers decided to take was not really logical. Even though I still liked the series overall and continued to stick with it because I like the cast and also because I wanted to see how the relationship between Bosco and Linda's characters develop, I know that alot of people stopped watching the series after the storyline started straying off course, which is very unfortunate.

This series was produced by Lau Ka Ho and one thing I’ve noticed about his series in general is that a lot of times, the storylines veer off course and the scripts are not as tightly written as they could be. When I first started watching WI, I thought this series might be an exception, but now after finishing this series, turns out that it still followed a similar pattern – the only difference is that at only 20 episodes, this series is way shorter than many of LKH’s other ‘epics’ and so there was less room for the ‘dragginess’ that I typically see with his other series (most of which were 30 episodes or more). Given the way the script was written, perhaps this was a good thing? Personally though, I think this series would have benefited from having another 5 episodes at least -- I think that if that had occurred, then the storyline would have likely gone in a more ‘appropriate’ direction and the sub-stories as well as many of the other supporting characters could have been more properly developed.

One last thing about the script….maybe it’s just me, but with the way the script was written, there were quite a few characters in the series who were pretty much ‘useless’ and really were just ‘there’ for the sake of being there – for example: Brian Chu’s character as Jo Jo’s younger brother, Deno Cheung’s character as the leader of one of the police teams, Glenn Lee’s character as Mrs. Kiu’s (Rachel Kan) younger brother (he only appeared for like 2 scenes), etc. Even Rachel Kan’s character was kind of ‘nonessential’ if you ask me – though she gets plenty of screen time compared to some of the others, her character really didn’t do much. To me, these characters were basically just ‘fillers’, as they didn’t advance the storyline much at all and didn’t serve any real purpose in the series. It sort of made me wonder why the scriptwriters even bothered writing their characters into the script and ‘wasting’ precious ‘plot space’ (as well as screen time) that could have been used to develop other sub stories.

Speaking of characters, what an appropriate segue into a discussion of the cast….


CAST / CHARACTERS

As I said earlier, when I first read the cast list for this series, I wasn’t much impressed, as there were quite a few artists in the series that I didn’t particularly care for in terms of acting and the ones I do care about I didn’t think would have significant roles – but after watching some of the preview clips that had aired the week prior to the official premiere of the series (no, not the ‘fake’ promo clip that was pretty much just a ‘gimmick’ and had nothing to do with the series), I decided to give the series a chance, since I saw that a few of my favorite actors (namely Paul Chun and Ram Tseung) would have pretty ‘meaty’ roles in the series. Turns out I made the right decision!

In terms of cast, I definitely wouldn’t consider this one ‘all-star’, as there were quite a few ‘newer’ artists whose names I didn’t even know prior to watching this series. But as I’ve been noticing more and more the past few years, there doesn’t necessarily need to be a whole lot of ‘big names’ in a series in order for it to be a ‘good’ series – with the right combination of good acting, well-written characters, and a decently written script, a series can still have a strong impact on audiences and garner good word of mouth as well as high ratings (as this series did).

Again, unlike some of my past reviews, I’m not going to go into too much detail about the characters themselves but rather just focus on my thoughts toward the characters as well as the artists who portrayed them.

So without further adieu, here’s my ‘take’ on the main cast…


Bosco Wong (Hui Wai Sum / Hui Sir) – Bosco’s character is a cop who, for the first half of the series, is the leader of the Witness Protection Unit (WPU) and due to his success in that role, he’s promoted in the second half of the series and transferred to the criminal investigation unit to head up a team there. In my opinion, the character of ‘Hui Sir’ is definitely one of the biggest draws of this series, as his character is written in such a way that it’s really hard for audiences not to like him or be smitten by his charm. Personality-wise, Hui Sir is the epitome of ‘cool’ and ‘suave’ – he’s smart, handsome, and is pretty much a natural-born leader (which came about in part because of his independence at an early age due to him growing up in an orphanage). It can be said that Hui Sir was born to be a cop, as he has strong investigative instincts as well as an unwavering sense of righteousness and justice. One of the biggest traits that sets Hui Sir apart from others is his extremely high EQ – no matter how difficult a situation is, he is always able to handle it with a calm, composed disposition.

Bosco did a great job with his character in this series and definitely left a deep impression on me with his performance. I will admit that I was never really fond of some of the roles Bosco played in the past – in fact, in general, I can’t really even remember too many of his past performances (probably because I never really paid attention). Therefore, I was actually a little bit surprised myself that I came to like his character so much – of course, part of the credit goes to the writers for the way they developed the character, but Bosco should also be given credit for the way he portrayed the character – in other words, for the way he ‘acted’ the part. When I first started watching this series and read the description of the character, I was a bit concerned in the beginning on whether Bosco would be convincing enough in such a mature, serious role – mainly because most of his roles in the past were sort of catered to his boyish, ‘sunshine’ image (even the past roles where he played a ‘professional’ such as a cop or a fireman, he still had that ‘boyish’ trait to him – probably the only other role where I didn’t get that impression was his villain performance as ‘Bai Co’ in last year’s Lives of Omission).  However, it turns out that my concern wasn’t warranted, as Bosco handled the role of Hui Wai Sum extremely well.

What I liked most about Bosco’s performance in this series was how ‘natural’ and ‘comfortable’ the role came across –with the way his character was written, there was quite a lot of ‘inner acting’ involved, since there were many moments where his character doesn’t say much, but yet still manages to convey his thoughts and feelings through his facial expressions as well as the way he carried himself (this was especially apparent during the first half of the series). Though I’m not a fan of Bosco’s by any means, this was one performance that definitely changed my impression of him as an actor and made me realize that with all the similar roles he played, his potential wasn’t really properly tapped into in the past (which is not surprising since that’s TVB’s typical way of managing their artists). I feel that with the proper cultivation in the right direction, Bosco has the potential to take his acting to a higher level – at this point in his career, he really should be taking on more mature, challenging roles rather than the ‘playful’ ones that he’s had in the past. With his role in his series as well as in LOO last year, looks like he’s headed in the right direction (for now at least…).


Linda Chung (Kiu Ji Lam / Hailey) – Linda plays the daughter of a rich tycoon who has a mood (anxiety) disorder resulting from a few tragic events that she had encountered when she was a child. In the beginning of the series, she is very anti-social and doesn’t like to talk or interact with anyone – she relies on playing the cello to release her inner tensions and regularly sees a therapist for treatment. However, after meeting Hui Sir and the rest of the WPU team and interacting with them for a certain period of time (since they were assigned to protect her after she witnesses a shooting), she starts to open up more and becomes a more cheerful person. By the end of the series, her personality has completely changed from what it was in the beginning and she no longer needs to go through therapy treatments in order to live a ‘normal’ life.

Contrary to popular opinion, I feel that Linda actually did a pretty good job with her acting in this series (don’t shoot me!). That’s actually saying a lot given the fact that I’ve never been impressed with Linda’s acting because I’ve always felt that somehow, her acting tends to come across as ‘exaggerated’ and ‘fake’ to me – especially when she tries to take on roles that are outside of her realm (such as a ‘bad girl’ type character or someone who is mean-spirited for example). Of course, part of the reason why I’ve never really been able to tolerate most of Linda’s performances in the past is because I can’t stand weak, pathetic, weepy, wishy-washy type characters and somehow she almost always ends up playing these types of characters.

Interestingly enough, Linda’s portrayal of Hailey actually left a completely different impression on me. Some might say that the role of Hailey was not too different than Linda’s usual ‘good girl’ type roles (which I kind of agree with), but in my opinion, the character was a bit better written than some of her other roles and most importantly, the role really suited her well (I heard the role was especially written for her?). Now I will say that Linda’s acting in the first 3 episodes (when she’s supposed to have that mood disorder illness that caused her to be very anti-social and paranoid about everything) was truly not that good (and in a few scenes, were probably ‘cringe-worthy’), but starting with episode 4 up through the end of the series, she actually does get a lot better – to the point that I actually started liking her character and really was able to feel for her throughout the series. One thing that impressed me about Linda’s acting in this series is that she did the ‘I’ve got a huge crush on Hui Sir’ scenes quite well – those scenes were very convincing and sweet. Also, Linda’s crying scenes were more tolerable in this series versus her previous works – I’m guessing that she toned down her crying a bit after being criticized for so many years about it? Well, the improvement is pretty obvious because outside of the first 3 episodes, Linda’s crying scenes were adequately done throughout the rest of the series (at least I didn’t find her annoying in this series at all).

One area that I feel Linda has definitely improved on is her use of facial expressions – there were quite a few scenes throughout the series where I felt that Linda’s facial expressions were very ‘on the spot’ and conveyed just the right amount of emotion. Of course, she’s still young and her acting still has A LOT of room for improvement (for instance, I don’t feel that her acting is mature enough to handle certain roles yet) – hopefully she will continue to get better with time.

With all that said though, my opinion of Linda overall does not change in that I'm still not tremendously fond of her as an actress because I feel that she’s still too much of a ‘hit and miss’ when it comes to her acting and therefore really can't carry a series on her own yet. For me, whether I'm able to tolerate Linda in a series or not really depends upon her role in the particular series as well as who she is paired up with. With my overall low tolerance level, I definitely wouldn't purposefully seek out a series and watch it just because Linda is in it, but if a series of hers happened to come on TV, I wouldn't mind watching it -- in other words, I'm not the type of person to stop watching / not watch a series just because I dislike a particular artist....to me, the storyline matters alot too and without attempting to watch the series, it's hard to truly know whether the series will be any good. Most of the time, I usually give the series a try and let the acting / storyline 'persuade' me to keep watching (or not)....


Bosco / Linda pairing– I never thought I would say this, but I’m absolutely smitten with this pairing after watching this series (yes, once again, I was surprised myself at how much I grew to ‘love’ this pairing). The chemistry that Bosco and Linda had in this series was quite amazing! I can’t think of any other series where 1) the main ‘couple’ never even officially become a couple in the series (from the beginning until the very end, Hui Sir and Hailey never officially get together – their relationship was pretty much ‘doomed’ before it even started), and 2) the ‘love’ feelings are pretty much one-sided throughout the entire series (Hailey has a crush on Hui Sir and even though he later develops feelings for her, those feelings never really turn into ‘love’), yet so many audiences (myself included) loved their pairing. [And I’m not just saying this – the proof is in the numbers: when Linda posted a photo of herself and Bosco (as Hailey and Hui Sir) on her Weibo during WI’s finale week, it received over 40K ‘retweets’ and over 15K comments in less than a day!]

This was actually the third time that Bosco and Linda were paired together as a couple (the previous 2 times were in Gem of Life and Moonlight Resonance – I will be absolutely honest and say that I don’t remember anything about their previous 2 pairings whatsoever, even though I had watched both series. I’m sure they had plenty of ‘sweet scenes’ in those 2 series too, but I don’t remember a single one – either I didn’t really pay attention and completely missed their scenes (which is possible but highly unlikely) or they didn’t have as much chemistry onscreen back then as they did in this series. After watching WI, I ‘adore’ this couple a lot for some unexplainable reason – I enjoyed every single one of their scenes together (even the ‘painful’ ones where they part ways with each other) and every time there was a ‘sweet moment’ between these two (mostly through eye contact or some other subtle expression), I couldn’t help myself from going: “Aww, how sweet!” [Some examples of Hui Sir / Hailey ‘sweet’ moments: the garden scene in episode 4, the cactus scene in episode 6, the Disneyland scenes in episode 8, and of course, the scene in episode 7 when Hailey gets shot and Hui Sir catches her from falling to the floor just in time, then picks her up and protectively carries her in his arms and runs through door after door to get her to the car and to the hospital (and accidentally hurting himself in the process)....true, a bad situation had happened, but the way it was filmed made it more sweet than it was tragic! I even found the scenes where Hailey would ‘steal glances’ at Hui Sir (unbeknownst to him) to be very cute and sweet!].

I definitely miss this pairing now that the series is over (especially with the tragic way that the series ended) – hope that I’ll get to see this pairing again in the near future!


Paul Chun (Kiu Kong San / Big Mr. Kiu) -- Paul Gor’s character is a rich tycoon with a shady past who lost both his wife and his son earlier on, so he focuses all his effort on loving his daughter and giving her everything possible. To be honest, despite Kong San’s past, I really don’t feel that he’s truly a ‘villain’ in this series, as the ‘motivation’ for a lot of the ‘pushing the envelope’ stuff he does in the second half of the series was primarily out of love for his daughter – he just goes about it the wrong way. I actually like his character better in the first half of the series, as his love for his daughter as well as his younger brother (Ram Tseung’s character) was more apparent and the stuff that he did actually made sense – some of his actions in the second half were sort of questionable to me and overall just didn’t jive that well with the overall storyline. I mean, yes, the sub-story about Kong San’s past was intriguing, but I feel that the writers could have written that whole story arc a little tighter and not drag it out for so long.

In terms of the acting – well, what can I say? It’s Paul Gor after all -- he’s one of the best ‘elder’ / veteran actors out there! I grew up watching Paul Gor in movies and television series, so I’m already very used to his style of acting – I love his versatility as an actor and how he can play a wide range of roles: from the most cold-blooded of villains to one of the most benevolent, lovable fathers we’ll ever find. I can truly say that I enjoyed Paul’s performance throughout the entire series, even in the second half when the storyline started to unravel a little bit and strayed from the original theme. I’m actually really glad that Paul Gor had such a significant role in this series (his screen time was actually not that much less than Bosco’s) because even if I didn’t really like the direction of the series in the second half, I could at least still enjoy his acting!


Ram Tseung (Kiu Kong Hor / Little Mr. Kiu) – Ram’s character Kong Hor is the younger brother of Paul’s Kong San. The best way to describe Kong Hor is ‘laid-back’– he has a very friendly personality and playful sense of humor that helps him get along well with practically anyone. With the way that he’s always cracking jokes and taking pretty much everything that happens in stride (even something as ‘serious’ as getting shot in the head), he sort of reminds me of a hyper little kid in a man’s body. I really liked his character in the first half of the series especially, where he was the constant ‘comic relief’ and always managed to bring a smile to everyone’s face. His biggest flaw though was that he liked to ‘shoot off his mouth’, especially after he’s had a few drinks (this gets him into trouble early on and almost costs him his life). Unfortunately, his character changes a bit in the second half of the series – no, he doesn’t turn evil (thank goodness!), but his character does become a little more ‘serious’ and loses the humorous ‘charm’ that he consistently had through most of the first half. It’s too bad because I really did like his character and was looking forward to seeing more of his charm…

I actually was a bit surprised at how significant Ram’s role was in the series, especially in the first half – because the past few years, he had been relegated to playing lesser roles (or a villain role) for the most part. Not that I’m complaining though, since Ram has always been one of my favorite supporting actors – I always enjoy watching him in series because he always manages to bring his role to life with his performance, no matter how big or small his part is. In fact, whenever he’s in a series, I usually find myself watching most of the scenes that he’s in, even if I end up skipping the rest of the series because I can’t stand the storyline or the rest of the cast – and whether he’s playing a good guy or a villain, he’s always very convincing with his performance (yes, he’s THAT good!). He’s definitely very underrated as an actor and I really wish that TVB would give him more significant roles to play. Ah well – I’ll still continue to support him regardless of the types of roles he gets!


Ronald Law (Yeung Yiu Dong / Ba Da) – Ronald’s character is a young cop with a lot of potential who looks up to Hui Sir (Bosco) as a mentor and ‘big brother’ of sorts. He first met Hui Sir while at the academy and later when he was assigned to work with him in the WPU, they became best friends – Hui Sir treats him just like his own little brother (hence Ronald’s nickname in the series ‘Ba Da’). Ba Da is actually a very endearing character because he always has a certain earnestness and boyish charm about him – he’s a very sweet, super nice person who pretty much anyone would find likable (of course, those dimples of his help a lot too…LOL!) One of Ba Da’s most admirable traits is that he is extremely loyal and once he makes a decision to follow someone, he’s unwavering in his dedication and loyalty – he’s like that with Hui Sir as well as with Jo Jo (Hui Sir’s cousin), whom he has a huge crush on throughout the series. I actually really liked Ronald’s character in this series and enjoyed his interactions with Bosco’s character – I loved the ‘heart to heart’ conversations that they would have in the series where they would encourage one another and give each other advice (though more often than not it was more like Hui Sir giving Ba Da advice and trying to steer him in the right direction in terms of his life and career). The brotherly chemistry between the two was done very nicely!

In terms of acting, I would say that Ronald did a pretty good job considering he’s a newbie – of course he still needs polish, but he did come across quite natural in his role of you ask me (though part of that could have been because the role fit him well). Prior to this series, I really wasn’t too familiar with Ronald, as the only other series that I had seen him in was When Heaven Burns and his role in that series was definitely less significant compared to this one. I liked him in this series and from his strong performance, it looks like he has does have potential as an actor – give him a couple years and if developed correctly, I think he will do well.


Cilla Kung (Lee Hau Yan / Jo Jo) – Cilla’s character is a typical materialistic youth who is overly ambitious when it comes to climbing the social ladder and is constantly chasing the latest societal as well as fashion trends. Her goal in life is to marry a rich person in the future so that she can be set for life and also be ‘known’ in upper society -- which is why she is ecstatic when she finds out that her cousin Hui Wai Sum (Bosco) is assigned to protect Hailey (Linda), daughter of a rich tycoon. Not surprisingly, she becomes good friends with Hailey and even tries to serve as the ‘matchmaker’ for her and Hui Sir. Jo Jo actually isn’t a bad person by any means, she’s just a little bit annoying at times with her overzealousness in trying to become rich and famous. I was ok with her character, though I really didn’t like the way that she would treat Ba Da (basically leading him to think that he had a shot at being her boyfriend so that he would continue to give her gifts and such). Luckily she redeemed herself in the latter part of the series when she recognizes how wrongly she had treated Ba Da and resolves to be a more responsible person (though of course, it was too late to salvage her relationship with Ba Da, since he was killed off in episode 17). I don’t really have much opinion about Cilla as an actress because I haven’t watched enough of her performances to fairly judge. I will say though that she wasn’t too bad in this particular series – in fact she came across quite natural, since the character she played was probably close enough to her real age and seemed to suit her style.


Eric Li (Tong Jun Gai / Shawn) – Eric’s character Shawn actually does not have a whole lot of screen time, but his character is quite significant in terms of story development. He consistently appears in the first few episodes, then pretty much disappears for awhile and doesn’t appear again until the final 2 episodes. In the beginning, I was a little confused in terms of Shawn’s character and what his relationship was with the Kiu family (they never really properly introduced him) – at first, I thought that he was some sort of relative of the family, but it turns out he’s not related to them at all. Basically, he’s the son of a deceased tycoon whom Kong San takes under his wing and provides for him (we only find out the real reason why Kong San provides for Shawn later on in the series). To be honest, I don’t really like the way Shawn’s character was written because he was kind of all over the place and it was not really clear until the end of the series what the significance was of his character – I think his character could have definitely been developed more and perhaps have the story arc focus more on him in the second half of the series (rather than just in the last 2 episodes). To me, it seemed kind of ‘random’ the way he would pop in and out throughout the series and sort of made it difficult to really get into his character.

I was actually hoping that Eric wouldn’t have to play the villain again in this series, especially after his awesome performance as a good guy in Bottled Passion earlier in the year. Unfortunately, he does go down the ‘villain’ path in this series as well – though I guess if we want to get technical, he wasn’t exactly the ‘bad guy’ in the traditional sense of the word. He basically becomes a totally different person in the last 2 episodes of the series because of the stuff he encounters (losing all his money, taking drugs, etc.) and that’s really what affects his actions – I guess we could say that he was more a confused drug addict than he was a murderous villain. I’ve really got to hand it to Eric for his performance in this series – despite his limited screentime and the not very well-written character, he was quite excellent in his role. He really shined in the last 2 episodes of the series when his character returned as a delirious drug addict – he had changed so much physically that I actually was not able to recognize him from the pictures and spoiler scenes that I had seen prior to those episodes airing! He really played the drug addict role well (couldn’t help but laugh at his “my doctor told me to take lots of medication (drugs)” dialogue). I know, I should probably hate Shawn after what he does to our beloved Hui Sir, but I’m sorry – I like Eric too much as an actor recently that it’s really hard for me to be mad at him for long….


Add’l Cast / Characters

With the way the storyline developed primarily around the Kiu family and Hui Sir, there were actually quite a few artists who participated in the series on a lesser scale with relatively minor roles. Here are a few ‘honorable mentions’ (note that one ‘common theme’ with the below characters is that all of them could really have benefitted from being furthered developed – instead, many of them were ‘short-changed’ due to the way the script was written).

Rachel Kan (Tina) – Kong San’s second wife, Hailey’s stepmother. As mentioned earlier, I sort of felt Rachel’s character was ‘nonessential’ in that she really doesn’t do anything to further the plot except for maybe have a few ‘minor’ conflicts with Hailey in the first few episodes. After that, I don’t see much significance in her character – during the second half of the series, she’s basically just ‘there’. Even after finishing the series, I was still scratching my head and wondering what the writers’ / producer’s purpose was for including Rachel in this series. Don’t get me wrong – she did do a decent job with the acting given what she had (though honestly, I don’t think Rachel is that much older than Linda so for her to play her stepmother was a little bit far-fetched), but it was sort of a waste, I feel

Queenie Chu (Kelly) – Hailey’s therapist and also good friend. Compared to some of the other series she’s been in, Queenie has a relatively minor role in here as Kelly, the therapist / psychiatrist who is responsible for treating Hailey (Linda). Maybe her character wasn’t written well or something because I honestly didn’t really like her character much – I mean, she was a good friend for Hailey and goes beyond what a normal therapist would do by accompanying her on trips and other events, but as a psychiatrist / therapist, I didn’t feel that Kelly was ‘professional’ enough. The ‘advice’ that she gives Hailey throughout the series is sort of ‘suspect’ in that it wavers back and forth – to the point that at times, I felt that Kelly was being insincere (it was like she just tells Hailey what she wants to hear to appease her). I don’t know too much about psychiatry / therapy, so I’m probably not the best person to comment about it, but overall, her character just came across a little strange to me, that’s all.

Lee Sing Cheong (Ho Siu Leung) – Kiu Kong San’s ultra-loyal assistant. Ah Leung is the person whom Kong San (Paul) trusts the most outside of his own brother. He has worked for Kong San for decades and is super loyal to him, even willing to sacrifice his own life for him. In the first half of the series, his role is relatively minor, but near the middle / end of the series (for probably about 2-3 episodes), he becomes more of a critical character. Even though his role was small in this series, Lee Sing Cheong definitely delivered the goods (as usual) – his few ‘essential’ scenes in episodes 15 to 17 were done really well, especially the crying scenes. Lee Sing Cheong is another veteran actor whom I grew up watching – his villain roles are generally quite good and very convincing….too bad his role was relatively minor, as I would have liked to see more significant screen time from him.

Savio Tsang (Poon Sir) – As the head of the criminal investigation unit, Savio’s character only appears once in the first half of the series – it’s not until Bosco’s character Hui Sir is transferred to Poon Sir’s department that he takes on a more significant role (since Hui Sir reports to Poon Sir directly). With that said however, Savio actually doesn’t have a whole lot of screen time either, which was a little disappointing for me because I like him as an actor and his character had good room for development. I liked how Poon Sir was a very cool, understanding boss who goes very much by the rules, but still is able to maintain a good relationship with his subordinates. I also liked the way he interacted with his staff, especially with Hui Sir, whom he treated more as a friend than as his staff. Though I can understand why his role was less significant in the scheme of things, I really would have liked to see more of him as well.

Joseph Lee Kwok Lun (Sapura) – Rich tycoon from Indonesia with ties to the Kiu brothers’ past. He only appears in a few episodes during the second half of the series and even after he dies, most of the storyline in that segment of the series revolves around his case. This was yet another ‘run of the mill’ villain role for Joseph – a role so easy that he could have probably done it with his eyes closed (especially with his acting experience and skill). Again, I’m not really complaining because Joseph is another one of my long-time favorite veteran actors and I’m happy to still see him in series nowadays – but his appearance just seemed way too short…

Law Lok Lam (Yung Sui Bong) – Another actor I like a lot, but unfortunately his character was kind of insignificant as well. He’s one of the rich tycoons in the series on the same level as Paul Chun’s character, but we really don’t get to see much of him and when we do, it’s usually at some sort of gathering with Kong San and his other rich tycoon friends. Law Lok Lam is definitely underutilized in this series, which is really a shame because he’s too good of an actor to be given such a minor role. TVB should have just had someone else play this role instead and not waste LLL’s time!

WPU team: Jonathan Cheung (Wong Chi Tong / ‘Flat Tire’), Lee Yee Man (Cheung Lai Kuen / ‘See Jie’), Yeung Ching Wah (Chan Ka Si / ‘Sa See’), etc. – Considering the WPU team consisted mostly of newbies and artists whose names I didn’t even know, I was surprised by how much I liked watching this team interact with each other. As a team, they really did a great job of bringing to light a lot of the ‘essential elements’ of the WPU – including team spirit and cooperation, reacting quickly to unexpected situations that arise, being constantly on alert and ready to take action, etc. – they were very ‘serious’ about their work when they needed to be, but outside of that, they were a playful bunch. The chemistry between the entire team and their leader (Bosco) as well as with the other ‘main players’ (i.e. Linda’s and Ram’s characters, etc.) was excellent and very well portrayed – in fact, I was quite saddened to learn that we wouldn’t be seeing anymore of this team after episode 10 (well, except for a brief appearance in episode 17 at Ba Da’s funeral) because I really really liked them as team. Together, they were key in making the first half of the series so good and even though a few of them get pulled over to the criminal investigation department along with Hui Sir, it just wasn’t the same ‘feeling’ anymore. Definitely makes me wish that the writers would have kept to the witness protection theme in the second half of the series as well and somehow still incorporate the team into the rest of the series…

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THE ENDING / CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Ok, I decided not to completely give away the ending after all (though it probably doesn’t make a difference at this point since the ending was already plastered all over Weibo and entertainment news sites even before the finale aired last Friday). All I’m going to say with regard to the ending is that it wasn’t really as bad as people made it out to be – true, I didn’t want the series to end the way it did given how much I loved the character of Hui Sir as well as the Bosco / Linda pairing, but I actually felt that the ending was appropriate given the circumstances. I mean, it was pretty much already a given that a ‘happy’ ending was impossible given everything that had occurred leading up to that point – and to be honest, forcing a ‘happily ever after’ ending would have been worse because it would have been too fake. Though the ending was tragic and yes, some parts of it was a bit overdramatic, I would have to say that overall, it was a fitting ending and appropriate ‘closure’ to the Hui Sir / Hailey relationship – the ending made sense and most important of all, it was both bittersweet and memorable (though not exactly favorable). [I’ll probably talk more about the ending later on in the comments section, since I don’t want to ruin it for those who haven’t watched the series].

As for the the massive ‘movement’ of netizens to push for a sequel or change the ending to the series – I’m actually on the opposite side of the fence in that I absolutely do NOT want a sequel (because TVB would just screw it up like they do with all their other sequels – plus the chemistry won’t be the same anyway) and do NOT want the ending changed (I’ve never been a fan of alternate endings because most of the ones that I’ve seen have been lame and stupid). What’s done is done, so just leave the series the way it is please!

So do I recommend this series? Obviously, yes!! As I mentioned earlier, the script is a bit flawed and as a result, the flow is a little inconsistent, but taken as a whole, this was definitely one of the better series of the year so far. The series has a good enough combination of action sequences, suspense, romance, family drama, investigative scenes, etc. that there should hopefully be something in there for all interests. The first half of the series was especially awesome and almost guaranteed to go by quickly (most of the big action sections are in the first half) – it’s only when we reach the second half of the series that things slow down a little bit too much (for me it wasn’t really a problem, but some people found the change in pace annoying). If the inconsistencies in the script is a big issue for you, then I recommend watch this series for the cast – as I said earlier, the performances from pretty much everyone were quite good….even those whom I’m usually not too fond of I ended up liking in this series.

Despite its flaws, I felt that this was a great series overall – one that I would rewatch in a heartbeat and still enjoy it as much as I did the first time!

Review of “The Legend of Master Chan 吉星報喜” (1989)

It’s been a long time since I watched this series, so of course, when I saw that it was coming on TV, I was ecstatic. Despite having watched this series several times already, I didn’t mind rewatching again, since I love old TVB series (“old” meaning from the 70s/80s/early 90s) and this series in particular is especially enjoyable.

Even though this series is set in the Qing Dynasty era, it has nothing to do with the Imperial palace or anything of that nature – this is important to note because in recent years, most of TVB’s Qing dynasty era series have been dramatic epics filled with stories about the Imperial palace, the emperor, and infighting between various magistrates, concubines, etc. (to the point that I’m sick and tired of watching series with that theme). This particular series is way different – first of all, it is a comedy rather than a drama, and second, it focuses on the “adventures” of ordinary people as well as those who work for the government bureaucracy…the emperor and his wives are nowhere to be found and in fact only get a mention or 2 in the series (thank goodness!!).

There is definitely a lot to like about this series – the “intelligent” comedic humor interspersed throughout the series (the jokes and such are genuinely funny, to the point that I got a stomach ache afterwards from laughing so hard – and the humor is very wisely done..there’s none of that stupid raunchy slapstick stuff that is characteristic of many TVB comedies nowadays), the storyline is well thought out and fast-paced, the characters are well-developed and believable, etc. But what really drew me in to this series was the cast, which consists of many of my favorite actors/actresses (many of whom are no longer active in the HK TV industry).

The main cast consists of Deric Wan, Kathy Chow, and Margie Tsang, with a strong supporting cast (for the most part) with the likes of Hugo Ng, Paul Chun, Lau Siu Ming, Bak Yan, Michael Tao, Nixon Pang, Gallen Lo, Angelina Lo, etc (there are many more people in the series – I only named the ones that most audiences would be familiar with). The chemistry between this particular cast – especially the trio of Deric, Hugo, and Paul – is absolutely awesome, which is interesting given that it was the first time that a few of the main actors had worked together.

I will admit that one of my primary reasons for watching this series was because of Deric Wan – he is just such a brilliant and versatile actor, it’s very hard not to be drawn in to his series. “The Legend of Master Chan” was actually Deric’s first ancient series and -- if I remember correctly – the only Qing dynasty era period drama that he starred in at TVB (it’s known that Deric dislikes acting in period dramas because he hates shaving his head)….so of course, this series is particuarly special for Deric fans.

As is typical of most of my series reviews, my focus will be on the characters / cast rather than the storyline itself, since most of the time, certain aspects of the storyline end up being revealed in the character analyses anyway.

Here are the highlights:

Deric Wan (Chan Mong Gat) – Deric plays the historical scholar Chan Mong Gat, who is known for his intelligence and wisdom. In the series, his character is extremely smart and talented, but because he has a very playful personality, he sometimes lets that get the better of him and does some mischievious things that make people think that he is a “brat”. His dad (played by Lau Siu Ming) owns a rice shop in the Chan village and is constantly lamenting to his wife (played by Bak Yan) how naughty his son is and how it’s her fault because she spoils him so much. Instead of being serious about his studies in school (which he could definitely excel in if he had put in the effort), Mong Gat spends most of his time hanging out with his classmates and playing tricks on others. Later on, he ends up fleeing the village because of the woman he loves (To Yi Mui) and settles down in Guangdong, where he meets Lau Wah Dong and Fong Tong Gang (more on them later). Also, he re-encounters the ‘fiancee’ Kam Ngin Fung, whose family used to live in the same village, however the parents broke off the engagement when both were just children (mainly because at the age of 10, Mong Gat didn’t know how to talk and Ngin Fung’s family thought he was a mute). They are enemies at first, constantly arguing but then end up falling for each other.

Of course, it’s Mong Gat’s smarts that eventually makes him successful, as he soon becomes a rich and successful businessman (with ties to both the underground world as well as the bureaucracies) and later on, becomes one of the “Three Great Advisors of Guangdong” due to his quick thinking and intelligence. The interesting thing about the character is that he may appear to be a ‘brat’ on the outside, but on the inside, he is actually a very righteous, good man who has a great sense of humor but also is willing to help others and has a certain amount of respect for elders – also, he has no problem forgiving those who have wronged him, primarily because he is able to see the good qualities in them and he respects them.

I love Deric’s performance as well as his character in this series! He is so funny in this series and his interactions with the other artists / characters comes across so natural that you feel like you are right there with him, experiencing what he is experiencing. His portrayal of Chan Mong Gat is very endearing and also refreshing (he’s wearing ancient costume, yet has cool sunglasses on – now how often do you see that?). Watching how Deric’s character deals with the two women in his life (who are constantly arguing with each other) is just plain hilarious – despite his “smarts” and his success everywhere else, his one “weakness” lies in the difficulties he encounters in ‘taming’ these two strong women.

As for how close Deric’s portrayal of Chan Mong Gat is to the actual historical person – well, to be honest, I can’t really comment on that piece because I don’t know too much about the real person. Therefore, when I watched the series, I pretty much took out the historical aspect and treated it as a regular series.

Kathy Chow (To Yi Mui) – I would have to say that Kathy is really the female lead in this series (over Margie), as she has the most screentime (appearing throughout the entire series). Kathy’s character Yi Mui is the daughter of a group of ‘Robin Hood’ type bandits (led by Angelina Lo) and so growing up, she has always carried with her a sense of justice and righteousness, sticking up for people and situations whenever she feels that an injustice is being carried out. Even though she is not too educated, she is a smart woman and very strong-willed, plus she is extremely skilled in martial arts. She is actually a great match for Deric’s Chan Mong Gat, as she is very much on the same level as him in terms of ‘street smarts’. In the beginning of the series, she passes herself off as a male, as her mother sends her to the local school in the village town so that she could get an education (the school only accepts males) – therefore, she has many opportunities to ‘match wits’ with Mong Gat and his classmates. Initially, she falls for Mong Gat’s classmate Chan Gwan Yat (played by Nixon Pang), but after he betrays her and cuts ties with her (and she sees the guy for who he really is), she realizes that Mong Gat is truly good to her and so ends up falling for him.

I like Kathy’s character in this series – she’s smart and loud, but not annoying. Plus she’s a strong character, not meek and shy like traditional Chinese women of that era – I also like how she is very straightforward and isn’t afraid to show her emotions (she is definitely not what I would characterize as ‘weak’ or ‘stupid’, which is great because everyone knows how much I hate weak, badly developed characters).

I also enjoyed the interaction between Deric and Kathy in this series – knowing how many times the two have collaborated, mostly in modern series (though not always paired together), it was interesting to see how they interacted in an ‘ancient’ setting and in a comedy. These two definitely shared a lot of funny scenes together!

Margie Tsang (Kam Ngin Fung) – Margie actually does not have as much screen time compared to Kathy, as she really only appears in the later half of the series (after Deric and Kathy escape to Guangdong). Her character Ngin Fung is supposed to be the polar opposite of Kathy’s Yi Mui, as Ngin Fung had a more Westernized upbringing and so she dresses and talks like Westerner as well (she even has a Westerner boyfriend when she first appears). As is typical of an only child of a somewhat well-to-do family, Ngin Fung is spoiled and has a very willful personality – she likes to throw her weight around and have people heed her every whim. She’s also quite strong-willed as well (yay – another strong character) and sometimes, when she encounters someone she doesn’t like, she purposefully tries to be unreasonable, just because she can (for example, her relationship with Mong Gat in the beginning). When Ngin Fung ends up falling for Mong Gat later on in the series (in the typical TVB formula), she does change her ways a bit in that she is less obnoxious and willful, but still loud-mouthed and strong-willed.

I’ve always liked Margie as an actress and I definitely enjoyed her performance in this series, even though her role was not unique (she’s usually typecasted into playing willful characters). As always, Margie’s acting is very natural (which is one of many reasons why I like watching her performances). Her endless bickering with Kathy in the series is funny, though to be honest, I find Deric’s reaction (as well as the reactions of the other characters) to the arguing to be even more hilarious – the things that they do to try and sabotage each other in order to gain Deric’s attention are a bit formulaic, but funny nonetheless.

As for the Deric and Margie pairing – well, considering how rare it is for the two of them to be paired together (I’m having difficulty thinking of another series that they even collaborated on, let alone being paired together!), I have to say that I would have loved to see more of them. Too bad they didn’t have a whole lot of screen time together (compared to Deric and Kathy, that is).

Paul Chun (Fong Tong Gang) – Paul’s character is a smart aleck who is cunning and smart but can't exactly be described as 'righteous'. I wouldn't call him a villain, but he's not necessarily a 'good' person in the traditional sense because he does things in a way that can be deemed 'inappropriate' or 'outside of the rules'. Most of his time is spent trying to outwit and outsmart Chan Mong Gat, though in the end, he proves unsuccessful in this endeavor and ends up submitting to Mong Gat, even becoming his friend and confidante. And it's pretty much because of him that Mong Gat and Ngin Fung end up together.

As always, Paul Gor puts in an awesome performance as the devious assistant to the magistrate who eventually reforms and changes his ways. Paul Gor has always been one of my favorite veteran actors (I've been watching his series since the 80s) -- what I love about him is that he always puts 100% effort into his roles and whether he plays a good person or a villain (or a somewhat comedic role as with this particular series), he is ALWAYS convincing with his acting. It was alot of fun to watch the 'battle of the wits' between him and Deric in this series, with their characters constantly trying to outsmart and outdo the other, yet in the end, they are able to see each other's good qualities and mutually become friends.


Hugo Ng (Lau Wah Dong) – Hugo’s character is another wise and intelligent man who, when he first appears, works for one of the bad guys, but eventually realizes his faults and becomes a righteous person, going over to Mong Gat’s side and helping him manage his businesses. Wah Dong is actually a friend of Fong Tong Gang’s and even though he didn’t work for him, he supported Fong Tong Gang at first in trying to ‘outwit’ Mong Gat and sabotage him, until he realized that both of them were no match for Mong Gat. He is moved when Mong Gat easily forgives him for doing him wrong and becomes dedicated to helping him, evenutally becoming a good friend.

Hugo does a great job in this series, however his role is very small in here – in fact, I would venture to say that he has even less screentime than Paul Chun. I’m not sure if he was perhaps filming other series at the time because I noticed that there were some group scenes in the latter half of the series where it seemed like he should have been in the scenes, but he wasn’t.

Anyway, I’ve always felt that Hugo was a bit underrated as an actor. He certainly had the potential to be ‘leading man’ material (the looks as well as the acting), but for some reason, he just never really made it very far. I’m actually used to seeing Hugo play serious characters or villains (he’s one of those actors who is perfect for ‘ancient’ series because he looks good in ancient costume and just has that overall ‘ancient’ era feel), so to see him play a somewhat comical character like this one is quite refreshing.

Nixon Pang (Chan Guan Yat) – The best way to describe Nixon’s character in this series: A PIECE OF WOOD!!! (hey, that’s actually pretty similar to his acting in real life…LOL!). His character is one of those ‘book-smart’ types who excels in school, but pretty much sucks in everything else. He’s the “boring” type who doesn’t really know how to think for himself (relies on his dad and the servant boy who takes care of him to think for him and give him advice on stuff) – because he is so ‘rigid’ and ‘by the book’, he is not able to think outside the box and so in a sense, is inferior to Mong Gat, who may not do well in school, but has the street-smarts and intelligence to survive in the ‘real’ world. Nixon becomes a magistrate in the second half of the series, but that’s only because he got lucky (and also because of his dad’s ‘connections’ as the village leader). Both Yi Mui and Ngin Fung like him at first, but after he betrays Yi Mui and then later avoids Ngin Fung because of her “incident” with Mong Gat, he ends up in an unhappy marriage with a woman that his dad arranged for him.

If I had to choose a character to dislike, it would definitely be Nixon’s character – his character is so dense and weak, it’s not even funny! I got so annoyed and bored with his character that I just kept wishing for his scenes to hurry up and be over!

I hate to say this, but I’m glad Nixon is no longer in the industry – the guy just cannot act! He wasn’t in very many series to start with and was only the “lead” in one series while at TVB (bad decision on TVB’s part) – good thing because his “acting” his extremely wooden and boring. Can’t stand watching him!


Angelina Lo (To Dai Leung) – Angelina plays Kathy’s mother and also the leader of the bandits who steal from the rich and give to the poor. Despite being a bandit, she is still a very ‘righteous’ and ‘upright’ woman who understands very clearly right from wrong. Even though she always has to appear strong on the outside because of her position as a leader, it’s obvious that she is also a loving and caring mother, as is constantly looking out for her daughter and wanting what’s best for her future (one of the reasons why she sends her to the village school to get an education). Also, when she finds out that Gallen’s character is actually her long lost son, she is overjoyed that she is finally able to reunite with him, but also understood that in his position as magistrate, he may not want to acknowledge her as a mother, so she was ready for that (luckily, he did acknowledge her).

Angelina is another veteran actress whom I enjoy watching – I remember the first time I saw her was in the “The Seasons” (which coincidentally also starred Gallen Lo) and I’ve watched most of the series that she was in before and after that. She’s a very versatile actress who can play both the benevolent mother as well as the evil, bxxchy roles really well!


Gallen Lo (Magistrate Wun) – Gallen’s character only appears in a few episodes near the end of the series, so I wouldn’t really say that his role was even ‘supporting’. He plays one of the higher Magistrates (Chan Guan Yat’s boss) who comes to Guangdong for the purpose of capturing Mong Gat’s ‘sifu’, who has been on the run for over 20 years (the ‘sifu’ is a blind monk who used to work for the emperor in the palace but ends up going on the run because he accidentally revealed the ‘fate of the Heavens’, which the emperor didn’t like, so he became a fugitive). The Magistrate is actually a very ‘rigid’ person who is very upright and does everything by the rules, so it’s very hard to find fault with him. It is later revealed that he is actually To Dai Leung (Angelina Lo)’s long lost son and because he is a very filial person, he accepts and acknowledges Dai Leung despite her ‘bandit’ lifestyle.

This was actually one of Gallen’s earlier series and it’s obvious that his acting skills were not very polished back then – as is typical of his earlier series, Gallen’s acting in this particular series is a bit wooden (though in my opinion, better than Nixon’s). The thing that stood out most to me about Gallen in this series is that he looked extremely thin and pale, almost as though he was sick or something (maybe filming too many series and didn’t get much sleep?). Anyway, those who are interested in seeing how much Gallen has changed in terms of appearance as well as acting, this series is a good choice for the ‘earlier works’ part.

Michael Tao (Yat Dim Hong) – Michael’s role in this series is also relatively minor, as his character is one of the members of the bandit group led by Angelina’s character (his name Yat Dim Hong comes from the big red mole that he has on his face). He’s the type of person who acts before he thinks (he’s already not very bright to begin with, but add to that the fact that he sometimes acts brashly and doesn’t use his brain when he should, and you’ll see why he finds himself in ‘awkward’ situations more often than not).

Michael may not have much screen time in this series, but his character is absolutely hilarious! I know I had said once that Michael’s strength in terms of acting skill is in dramatic and villain roles, but he doesn’t do too well with comedic roles – at the time I said that, I completely forgot about his role in this series. I definitely enjoyed Michael’s performance in this series – it was funny seeing him make a fool of himself in a lot of different situations!

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Honorable mentions:

Lau Siu Ming / Bak Yun (Mr & Mrs Chan) & the actor who played Deric’s ‘sifu’ – Definitely need to give an “honorable mention” to these 3 veteran artists, especially Ming Sir, who had some of the funniest scenes in the entire series (special ‘kudos’ to Ming Sir for maintaining his hilarious accent throughout all of his scenes!). I don’t know if it’s the tremendous amount of experience that these artists have or if it’s just that they are truly excellent actors – whatever the case, it was a joy to watch these artists’ performances!

Gregory Lee (the young Chan Mong Gat) – Yup, you guessed it – child-actor (at the time) Gregory plays the ‘kid’ version of Deric’s character…I guess you could say that he has a cameo in this series because he’s only in the first episode and only in a few scenes. As usual though, he does a great job with those crying scenes!

Lam Yien Ming (Lo Yuet Ngor) – She plays Chan Guan Yat (Nixon Pang)’s precocious, outspoken cousin who at first is ‘smitten’ with Kathy (when she was pretending to be a guy), but then when she finds out Kathy’s true identity, she supports her cousin’s efforts to court her. Her character is actually quite funny because of all the ‘messy’ situations that she gets herself into – especially near the end when she ‘re-appears’ after being gone for a number of episodes and almost messes up all of Deric and Kathy’s plans (another funny moment)! An interesting fact about Lam Yien Ming (the actress) – for those who may not know, she is actor Kent Cheng’s wife in real life…of course, she retired from the industry long ago and nowadays, is a housewife taking care of her children with Kent.

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I definitely recommend this series for many reasons. First of all, if time is of the essence, this series is only 20 episodes, so it won’t take too long to get through (plus the storyline is quite fast-paced, so that adds to the overall ‘quickness’ of it). Also, the fact that this is a comedy is another advantage, as you will probably spend most of your time laughing, which will help you forget some of the flaws in the series (which is pretty much what happened in my case). The biggest reason why I recommend this series though – obviously – is the CAST….this series has an absolutely great cast (with a few exceptions), so definitely it is high on the ‘recommend’ list for me!