My Thoughts on this year’s HK Film Awards

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ok, so onto the actual ceremony itself….

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A few thoughts on "The Challenge of Life 人在邊緣"

I was visiting retrotvb’s blog earlier and came across this review on one of my favorite series, The Challenge of Life – obviously, I couldn’t pass up the chance to comment on the series and in so doing, I guess I sort of ended up doing a ‘review’ of sorts.

I’ve seen this particular series many times and though I have not watched the series recently, I’ve seen it enough to remember almost everything that goes on in the series. So I decided to go ahead and compile the comments I made (with a few modifications) and create a blog post on it, as my feelings on the series come through in it – in terms of ‘official’ review, I will most likely do one later on when I actually get around to re-watching this series.

Note: Some of my comments are in response to retrotvb’s review of the series, so they might not make sense taken on their own – therefore, for those who are truly interested in watching this series and want more detail, I recommend reading retrotvb’s review prior to reading my comments.

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First off, thank you to retrotvb for writing a commentary / review on The Challenge of Life. Even though I've seen this series a gazillion times, I have yet to write a review on it because I just started my blog a couple months ago, so obviously it will take some time (if I had to write reviews on all of the 80s and 90s series I've seen, I would be glued to my laptop for years to come...lol!).

Before I get too far into things, I do want to mention about the friendship between Kitty Lai, Jacqueline Law, and Monica Chan. This is the only series that I know of (other than all the 5 Tiger ones) where the real-life actors continued to maintain a close relationship years after the series finished. Even today, 21 years later, Kitty, Jacqueline, and Monica are still the best of friends – in fact, just last week, Monica posted a picture of the three of them on her weibo – they were at Jacqueline’s house, hanging out together, as they usually do. When I saw the picture, I got a bit teary-eyed because frankly, I really miss Kitty and Jacqueline – 2 great actresses who (in my opinion at least) had successful careers, but now lead quiet, happily married lives. I’m definitely happy for them – but a bit saddened that the only way I get to see them is by watching old TVB series. Oh well….I can always reminisce!

Ok, now that I got that out of the way, on to my actual responses to retrotvb’s review….

I have to make mention of the songs that were used in this series, which I absolutely loved. I remember when I watched this series for the first time years ago, I fell in love with Stephen Bishop’s “It Might Be You” song and absolutely adored it to the point that I was hunting all over for the song….it took me years to find it, but when I finally did, I was so happy (obviously). And when I was actually watching the series, I actually wanted more scenes between Sean and Monica (even though I didn’t really like the pairing) just so I could hear the song again! Anyway, it is an absolutely great song and complemented the series extremely well!

As for the themesong and sub-theme song by Leon Lai – as I’ve said before, most of the songs that I like of his were from the early 90s when he was still with Polygram, plus all of the TV series themesongs. Not going to go into an in-depth analysis of the themesongs, but one thing I do want to mention…the sub-theme song to this series – “If This is Love” – was very popular back when the series aired and for years afterwards…the interesting thing about this song is that it was also used in both of Leon’s subsequent series (though not as a subtheme, since those series already had their own subtheme songs, but rather during a few of the scenes only): “The Breaking Point” from 1991 and “The Legendary Ranger” from 1993. Hmmm…I wonder if TVB was just being lazy and reused the song in the other series or if there was a particular purpose for doing so….guess I may never know!

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The cast of this series consisted of: Sean Lau, Kitty Lai, Monica Chan, Jacqueline Law, Leon Lai, Frankie Lam, Wayne Lai, Andy Dai, Fong Gong, Ng Yuen Yi, Liu Kai Chi (these were the main actors/actresses in the series).

Here are my comments on a few of the main characters / artists:

SEAN LAU – absolutely one of my all time favorite actors…I absolutely ADORE him – not just because of his acting, but because of how he is in real life (let me just say that Amy Kwok is extremely lucky to have a man like him!).

If you want my honest opinion, I feel that Sean’s performance was so successful in this series (and his character so endearing) partly because he is actually playing himself! I definitely see elements of his character in the series that are very similar to how he is in real life. He’s not good looking by any means, but he is cute and adorable and extremely nice, upright, responsible, friendly, and most of all, has an awesome sense of humor – pretty much the type of guy that any sensible girl would have a crush on!

I could go on forever about Sean because I have ‘followed’ him for a long time and he is one of the best actors this industry has (I cried so hard when he finally won the HKFA Best Actor award after so many years!) – but I don’t want to go too much off tangent, so I’ll stop here (for now).


KITTY LAI – another one of my favorites! She’s another actress that I loved back in the 80s (and early 90s) and one of the few who was actually very versatile -- she could play the meek, innocent characters such as her Ah Wah character in COL, yet do the 180 degree turn to play the strong, willful Chiu Man in HSDS (but that’s another long review altogether, so won’t go there).

Kitty’s character was very well-written in this series and she was given a great opportunity to shine as an actress – and shine, she did!! Her performance was absolutely awesome and perfect – as always, her acting is ‘just right’ and never over the top. This is why I love watching her series because I just feel so comfortable with her!

Her character was definitely tragic and I also kept wondering how so many bad things could happen to her, especially given what a good person she is. To be honest, I preferred her with Sean (instead of pairinig him with Monica), as I felt she was a better match for him over Monica, but then again, I could understand why things happened the way they did in the series.


LEON LAI – to be honest, Leon’s performance pales in comparisons to everyone else’s in this series (not just Sean and Frankie, but the females and also Wayne). But I was fine with his character and performance in this series because – as it was mentioned – it was a great role for him and he suited it well (and with this character being a precursor to his character in the The Breaking Point, I’m totally fine with him in here).

Is it just me, or was his ‘slur’ kind of strong in this series? I know Leon is not a native HKer and Cantonese is not his first language, so when he talks too fast, I’ve noticed that he slurs his speech sometimes – maybe I’m just being nit-picky, but in some scenes, I felt that it was hard to understand what he was saying.


JACQUELINE LAW – another great actress from the 80s era…I liked her as an actress (come to think of it, I liked almost all of the actors/actresses from the 80s) and her character in here was very endearing (funny at times, but serious when she needed to be) – I loved her character and enjoyed the fun and laughter that her character brought (remember that scene where she’s registering for night classes because she wants to please Leon and, pretending not to know English, let’s that dumb teacher put her down with her broken English, but then when Leon leaves the room, Jacqueline puts the teacher to shame by giving a bio of herself in fluent English? Absolutely hilarious and one of many funny scenes in the series!)

It’s such a shame that Jacqueline’s career was cut short after that bad diving accident (not to mention the damage it did to her physically) – that’s why I was glad to see her come back in 2006 to film LFD, even though her role was not hugely significant in that series.

I also felt that Leon and Jacqueline were a cute pairing, despite the whole ‘cousin’ thing. To be honest though, I was already used to their pairing because they also collaborated on “A Friend in Need” a couple years prior (in 1988). Definitely much better as a couple in this series though!


MONICA CHAN – not a whole lot to say about her, because quite honestly, I’m not really a fan of her acting. She’s okay though (WAY better than a lot of the MHKs today) and if you use today’s standards (with the lame MHK / pageant winner turned actresses currently saturating all the series in TVB currently), then I guess you could say she was REALLY good! (LOL!!!) Anyway, I think this was Monica’s first series (if I remember correctly, as I think she was MHK 1989?) and for a first series, she wasn’t all that bad.


FRANKIE LAM – hahaha…I’ve always felt that Sunny and Chilam and Frankie looked alike (that’s probably way all 3 of them are also on my ‘favorites’ list). Needless to say, he was awesome in this series – absolutely convincing as ‘the bad son’ yet not cheesy at all. He definitely played the villain role well (as a sidenote, after ‘falling in love’ with Frankie’s character in “Forensic Heroes”, I almost forgot that he was another one who always used to play villain roles – and excelled at them).

WAYNE LAI – saving the best for last, of course! Wayne absolutely overshadowed Leon in this series (and rightfully so, given the awesome actor that Wayne is – even back then, when he was a virtual unknown). This was actually the first series I watched where Wayne actually had a ‘meaty’ role (all his previous roles prior to this were so minor to the point that they were mostly forgettable) and he of course pulled it off well (no surprise there). Even back then, I thoroughly enjoyed Wayne’s performance (as I still do now) – so much so that I was bummed out at his character’s fate at the end of the series (and for awhile there, it made me hate Frankie)….And I have to stick this in here -- to this day, I’m still pissed at TVB for overlooking Wayne’s talents and waiting more than 20 years later to start recognizing him! (Damn TVB!!!)

ANDY DAI – just had to make a quick comment about Andy’s performance. He played one of his typical villain roles and to be honest, he played the part well! He was downright evil in this series – to the point that I applauded when his character died (demonstrates how well he played the part). I personally feel that Andy is one of the most underrated supporting actors – his acting is always right on par and usually very convincing.

Concluding thoughts:

.—Yes, I thought the ending was pretty lame as well….the church scene was so cheesy (though it’s funny that the scene where Leon pushes open the doors to the church was parodied later on in a couple other series – which is why I laugh now whenever I watch that part).

.—I totally felt that TVB didn’t do justice to Fong Gong in this series (he played Leon’s father) – he’s a pretty accomplished veteran actor and famous for playing villains (that’s probably why he has that ‘evil’ look…lol)...the first few episodes he was in was well done and brought out the ‘scariness’ of the character, but then, when he returned later on in the series, it’s almost like he lost all his ‘fire’ and wasn’t the evil / scary person that he was supposed to be. And yes, the way he died was ABSOLUTELY LAME!!!

.—Haha…glad to see that I wasn’t the only one who thought Monica looked weird in that fake-looking long-haired wig! What was the point? They should have just kept her hair short like it usually is – totally ruined it for me at the end!

Oriental Daily Interview Series -- Part 2: Sean Lau

Part 2: Interview with Sean Lau

Original article published 2/13/2011
Source: Oriental Daily

Translated by: llwy12

Pictures credit as listed

Sean Lau clarifies Margie Tsang’s 28 year ‘misunderstanding’
Many of HK’S best actors and actresses graduated from TVB’s 12th Acting Class – for years, these artists have been able to shine on the acting stage. One of these ‘shining stars’ is HKFA Best Actor Sean Lau – even his former classmate, actress Margie Tsang, looks up to him with a sense of reverence and awe. So this time, as Margie bravely invites Sean for an interview, she is surprisingly able to ‘melt’ Sean’s usual ‘coolness’ and get him to talk candidly about certain ‘chapters’ of his life. In the process, Margie is able to ‘dissolve’ a misunderstanding that has lasted 28 years!

M = Margie Tsang
S = Sean Lau

Acting Class: Denies being ‘cool’, sits in a corner and laughs with others

In 1982, a group of youth applied to study in the 12th Acting Class at TVB – with a little bit of that childish innocence still in them, these young potential actors love to play but also love to laugh. Throughout the years, they’ve had their fair share of funny situations as well as misunderstandings….

M: I’ve always felt that you have a very ‘cool’ personality and immersed in your own world. Our group – including Sandra [Ng], Michael [Tao], myself, and a few others – would play around and get pretty wild, but yet you would always sit in a corner.

S: Huh? I don’t feel it’s that way! Perhaps it’s because I’m afraid to be around a lot of people – but I actually do laugh with you guys while sitting in my corner! Actually, in the past, I’ve had doubts about whether I’m a good fit with this industry. Back during the acting class days when I was poorest, I only had a dollar on me, yet I didn’t want to ask my family for money, so I had no choice but to walk to and from school and live off of cup of noodles. You’ve seen for yourself how I didn’t participate in a lot of the activities back during that time.

M: Oh, no wonder! Back in the day, we had a ‘rumor’ that circulated amongst our group that you only had 1 pair of jeans that you only washed once a week, so that’s why you were embarrassed to be around us!

S: No! I actually had 3 pairs – it’s just that they were all the same style!

M: The holes were in all the same places?

S: Yes, the same! Actually, all these years, I still like the same things – even right now, most of my jeans have holes in them!

M: Hahahaha! So we ‘misunderstood’ you for 28 years then! We didn’t know you were that loyal! Back in those days, we were a pretty harmonious group and hung out together from morning till night. There were definitely a lot of happy situations!

S: Yes! Actually, I feel that I was quite playful during that time – especially when we would get together to rehearse for the anniversary galas, it was a lot of fun!

M: So back then, which of the male artists did you feel would succeed?

S: Michael [Tao] was the most carefree, plus his acting was good – if you told him to cry, he could do so immediately! Lawrence [Ng] was the good-looking one, definitely perfect for the ‘melancholy scholar’ type roles.


Opportunities: Success in television and movie based on taking the initiative

Sean has a very low-key personality, yet it’s because of the 2 times when he took the initiative and was proactive that he gained unexpected results. The first time landed him in the television industry, and the second time allowed him to break into movies.

M: Back in the days, why did you decide to enter the acting class?

S: Actually, my dad was the one who told me to apply. After the interview, I didn’t hear back for a long time – I thought to myself that there’s no reason why I wouldn’t be accepted into the class, so I bravely called to ask about it. That’s when I found out that they lost my application – plus that day was the deadline, so I rushed over there with my dad and we made it just in time.

M: Wow, luckily you made that phone call – sometimes, things are just meant to be! So later on, how did you end up entering the film industry?

S: There wasn’t a particular reason, I just felt that it was the right time, but unfortunately, I didn’t have any connections in the film industry at the time. Later on, I met director Derek Yee and he told me about the script that he wrote for the movie "C’est La Vie, Mon Cheri". I immediately recommended myself for the movie, but he didn’t promise me anything – shortly after that, TV series "The Greed of Man" aired on TVB and when Derek saw it, he felt that I had potential, so he sought me out to collaborate in his movie.

M: Oh, so it sounds like you got pretty lucky…as soon as you open your mouth, you get good opportunities! So what is your opinion on the TV series made nowadays?

S: Primarily, technique and equipment has advanced a lot. Actually, I’ve been ‘chasing’ "No Regrets" recently, as I am a fan of Wayne Lai!

M: Back in our time, we actually collaborated in quite a few series. I remember when we were filming <>, there was one scene where you were trying to make me leave you because you didn’t want me to die with you – so manly!

S: You still feel so touched even now? You’re so silly!

M: Well, the character was likable, as it gave audiences the impression that you are a good man. By the way, I know a lot of people who really like you – since you’re not good-looking, perhaps they are attracted to your personality?

S: They probably just like the characters I play! Luckily, most of my roles have been favorable with audiences. Several years ago, the night I won the Best Actor award at HKFA, I heard a lot of applause from the audience, which surprised me a bit. I’ve ‘pretended’ to receive awards in movies, but when it’s the real thing, it’s definitely different! I was very touched! Afterwards, I was at the market and a husband/wife couple came up to me – they were crying and told me how happy they were for me. I was very surprised and moved!


Relationship: Tries to surprise his wife, but she always sees through it

Sean is rarely associated with any rumors or gossip – in fact, he and his wife Amy Kwok are known as a model couple in the entertainment industry. Sean admits that he is not romantic and on the occasion when he tries to ‘surprise’ his wife, she always manages to see through it.

M: That night, at Kiki’s wedding banquet, I saw the expression in Amy’s eyes when she looked at you – I could tell that she is so in love with you! Are you her idol?

S: (Laughing) Hahaha! Her eyes are like that, it always looks like she’s smiling! As for me, I have that mean look…but honestly, since I see her every day, I don’t notice anything special.

M: Have there been times when the two of you would get together and it seems like there is nothing to talk about?

S: Occasionally, but we’ve been married for more than 10 years already – after such a long time, it’s normal!

M: Have you ever wished that your wife wasn’t part of the industry?

S: Never thought about it. It’s her personal decision…to be honest though, she really has sacrificed a lot because of me.

M: How do you two celebrate during the holidays and such?

S: We don’t celebrate any holidays. Occasionally, on our wedding anniversary, we may have a little bit of celebration – I usually give her flowers.

M: What was your most romantic move?

S: None really, since it’s very hard to give Amy a surprise. I remember one time, the day before our wedding anniversary, right when I was about to go out, she asked me if I remembered to take the address with me. I asked her what address? She immediately handed me the business card to a flower shop – obviously, she saw right through it already. I guess the ‘biggest’ surprise would be giving her a ring or some jewelry for our anniversary.

M: Do you give all the money you earn to your wife?

S: I give it all to her to manage for me. I’m too lazy to read all those letters written in English – it’s too much hassle to look up each word in the dictionary.

M: You two have decided not to have any children?

S: Pretty much. Haven’t really thought about it much.

M: I agree. Pregnancy is already not an easy feat, but having to raise a child is even more difficult…it’s a lifetime commitment.

S: That’s why I just play with other people’s babies. Those parents actually envy how we still have our freedom!


Epilogue: Afraid of being tortured, so not used to granting interviews
Generally speaking, Sean Lau is a man of few words, yet this time around, when he recounts the ‘old days’, he talks non-stop. He explains the reason why he rarely accepts interviews: “It’s difficult to talk about the same feelings over and over again.” Upon hearing this, Margie felt so honored and excited that Sean decided to let her interview him, she kept ‘teasing’ him playfully, causing Sean to laugh and say to her: “I grant an interview and you torture me like this! Now you know why I don’t like to do interviews!” Old friends getting together to reminisce about the past, of course there will be endless topics to talk – and laugh – about!

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Chinese Version:

劉青雲釋曾華倩28年誤會

無綫第十二期藝員訓練班造就一班好戲之人，他們在這個演藝舞台上發光發熱，當中表表者包括金像影帝劉青雲，連同期同學曾華倩對他也有一種敬畏感，不過華倩今次大膽相約談心，沒料能將cool爆的青雲「溶掉」，華倩把冰山劈開同時，從中更「化解」了一場28年的誤會！

曾：曾華倩　劉：劉青雲

訓練班篇：唔認cool 坐埋一邊陪笑

82年，一班年輕人報讀「第十二期藝員訓練班」，童心未泯的他們愛玩愛笑，鬧出不少笑話，當中又有很多誤會……

曾：我成日覺得你好cool，沉醉喺自己個世界，我同吳君如、陶大宇成班人玩到好癲，你就坐埋一角！

劉：吓？我唔覺得係咁架喎！可能我怕多人，但我有陪笑架！我都有懷疑過自己適唔適合做呢行，訓練班最窮嗰時，身上得一蚊，但又唔想問屋企攞錢，惟有行路返學放學，又捱杯麵，你見我當年好多活動都冇去架。

曾：唔怪得！我哋當年流傳你得一條牛仔褲，一星期先洗一次咋！

劉：唔係喎！我有三條，不過一樣款之嘛！

曾：穿窿位都一樣？

劉：都一樣呀，其實我咁多年鍾意嘅嘢都差唔多，依家條牛仔褲都有窿嘅！

曾：哈哈哈！咁我哋誤會咗你廿八年呀！原來你真係咁專一！當年我哋算係團結，由朝對到黑，有好多開心事！

劉：係，其實我覺得自己好貪玩，當年一齊排台慶就好好玩喇。

曾：當時你睇好邊個男仔跑出？

劉：大宇就好開朗，做戲又好，話喊就喊！吳啟華就靚仔，係憂鬱小生型格。

際遇篇：勇闖影視 全靠主動

青雲個性低調，卻因為兩次做主動換來意想不到的收穫，第一次令他有機會踩入公仔箱，第二次則讓他闖進影壇。

曾：當年點解會報讀訓練班？

劉：其實係我爹哋叫我報，面試之後好耐都冇通知，我覺得冇理由唔得，於是膽粗粗打電話問，原來封信寄失咗，嗰日仲係截止，我即刻同爹哋飛的士去報名！

曾：好在你打電話咋，有時啲嘢真係整定，咁之後點解去拍戲？

劉：冇架，覺得係時候，但係一個電影人都唔識架。之後遇到爾冬陞（小寶），佢同我講《新不了情》嘅劇本，我即刻自薦，佢冇應承我，冇幾耐，電視劇《大時代》就出街，小寶覺得我得，先搵我。

曾：咁你都幾開口中！一係唔出聲，一出聲就有得着！係喇，咁你點睇依家啲電視劇？

劉：主要係技術、器材進步咗。我有睇《義海豪情》架，我係祥仔（黎耀祥）fans！

曾：我哋當時拍劇合作都算多，記得同你拍《大運河》，有句對白你要趕我走，因為你唔想我陪你死，好man！

劉：你依家仲好touching？你咪傻囉！

曾：個角色令人覺得你係好男人，話時話，我識好多人都好鍾意你，你又唔係靚仔，可能覺得你有性格。

劉：鍾意我啲角色啫！好在我多數角色都係討好嘅。前幾年我攞影帝嗰晚聽到好多掌聲，嚇咗一跳！拍戲攞獎我有試過，但真嘅又唔同，好感動！之後我去街市，有兩公婆喊晒話好戥我開心，好surprise！

感情篇：製造驚喜 老婆玩踢爆

向來甚少緋聞的青雲，與太太郭藹明堪稱圈中模範夫婦，不過他自嘲不浪漫，偶爾想搞驚喜都會被老婆識穿！

曾：嗰晚娥姐（商天娥）餐喜酒，見到你老婆望住你嘅眼神，愛到不得了！佢當你係偶像？

劉：（笑晒）哈哈！佢對眼係咁，生成一個笑樣啫，我就惡樣，日日對住真係唔覺喎。

曾：會唔會坐埋一齊成日冇嘢講？

劉：都會架，結咗婚超過十年，有時耐咗，好正常啫！

曾：唔想太太係圈中人？

劉：冇咁諗，係個人嘅選擇，不過佢真係為咗我放棄咗好多。

曾：過時過節點慶祝？

劉：我就唔慶祝節日嘅，結婚周年紀念就有慶祝吓，送吓花咁。

曾：最勁係咩浪漫招？

劉：好難畀驚喜，有次周年紀念前一日我落街，佢問我有冇帶地址，我問咩地址呀？佢即刻遞張花店嘅卡片畀我，佢識穿晒我啲嘢啦，最大驚喜都係送戒指同飾物咁囉。

曾：賺錢係咪畀晒太太？

劉：都係交畀佢管理啦，費事睇啲英文信，要逐個字查字典。

曾：決定唔生小朋友？

劉：唔喇！冇諗呢樣。

曾：我都贊成，懷胎十月好似好辛苦，但之後養仲難，係成世人嘅包袱。

劉：所以會玩吓朋友個BB，佢哋都羨慕我好free架！

後記：怕糟質唔慣受訪

平日寡言的劉青雲談起往事即滔滔不絕，他解釋甚少接受訪問的原因：「一段感受點可以講咁多次？」令華倩大感榮幸，high爆的她影合照時更不停在青雲身後整古做怪，青雲即笑說：「一出嚟就畀你糟質，知我點解唔出嚟啦？」老朋友敍舊，有說不完的話題，也令餐廳充滿歡笑聲！

採訪：立影

攝影：黎志輝

場地：Grand Central

HK Film Awards 2010 -- My Thoughts

The 29th Annual HK Film Awards were held this weekend at the HK Cultural Center. After watching the awards ceremony broadcast, there were actually quite a few interesting things that I really wanted to blog about. So here goes....

First of all, the fact that the awards ceremony is being broadcast by ATV rather than TVB is already a small victory for me. Not that I had anything to do with this occurring, but I was one of the thousands of viewers who complained about the way TVB ripped the Film Awards broadcast to shreds last year. Basically, when TVB aired last year's broadcast, they did a VERY POOR editing job and as a result, alot of stuff was edited out that really should not have been -- namely, the acceptance speech by Best Actress Paw Hee Ching (because she is contracted with rival ATV on the television side) as well as other "mentions" of rival stations. Frankly, I'm not surprised that TVB would do this because they have a reputation for being PETTY and cannot bear even the slight mention of rival station's names (let alone allowing their actors/actresses to appear on their screens). And of course, they totally ignored the fact that this award ceremony is purely a FILM INDUSTRY event and has nothing to do with TV -- so it doesn't matter which station the winners are from -- they are being recognized for their work in film, NOT in television.

After TVB broadcast the ceremony last year, there was such a huge backlash over what they did -- people both within the industry as well as the general public complained about how disrespectful TVB was to the winners (and rightly so!!!). In response (primarily as a means of damage control), TVB decided to re-broadcoast the show IN ITS ENTIRETY on their HD TV station -- which in my opinion, shows a lack of sincerity because not everyone in HK has HDTV (or is able to afford it), so in a sense, the re-broadcast would have only been available to a small audience. But the thing that upset people most is TVB's lack of remorse for their poor editing job....when they were hounded by the media about the situation, the LAME excuse they gave was: "It was not our intention to edit out ATV related content. The person doing the editing acted on his own -- he did not clearly understand the company's intentions and thought he was doing what was best for the company." YEA, SURE -- BLAME IT ON THE EDITING GUY!! I mean, really -- who does TVB think they are fooling? Do they really expect us viewers to be that stupid and believe that the "editing guy" has THAT much power? And what does it tell us about TVB when they so readily push their employees out there to take the blame when bad things happen so that their stupid management can be absolved of all responsibility? No wonder people don't want to work for them and their turnover rate is so high! (but that's another topic, which I'll save for later)....

Several months ago, during the bidding process for the broadcast rights to this year's ceremony, TVB had the audacity to bid for the show again (probably to save face, since it would look bad for HK's primary TV station not to bid for the event -- plus it would be an admission of wrongdoing if they didn't bid, which is strictly forbidden with them). After reviewing the bids, the HK Film Awards Association decided to grant the broadcast rights to ATV -- primarily because ATV was willing to pay more money for the rights, but also because of what TVB did to the award ceremony broadcast last year (the reps from the Association actually stated this, so it's not an assumption on anyone's part). When ATV received the good news, they took the opportunity to promise that they would air a COMPLETELY UNCUT version of the awards ceremony, no matter what is said during the ceremony (a definite "put-down" of TVB).

So back to this year's awards ceremony.....ATV definitely kept their promise, as they aired the uncut version of the awards ceremony live IN ITS ENTIRETY. In fact, ATV definitely gained alot of points this time around with viewers, as there was mention of TVB almost throughout the entire broadcast (of course, many of the presenters took the chance to poke fun at the situation -- mostly at TVB's expense), and ATV did not edit out anything. The ironic (and funny) part was that one of TVB's top managers -- Virginia Lok -- was in the audience that night and throughout the event, the camera kept panning over to her (probably to see what her reaction would be to all the 'TVB talk') -- so in a sense, Lok was "forced" to appear on ATV throughout the night, thereby doing "free promos" for the rival station (I got such a kick out of this! Knowing how much TVB hates "supporting" rival stations -- Lok herself once pushed away the microphone from a rival station during an interview and "gave them her back")....yet, in this instance, she had to "indirectly" support ATV (LOL!)....

In terms of actual content, I feel that the awards ceremony was nicely done this year. There was alot of talk prior to the ceremony that this year's show lacked "big stars" but I think that was exaggerated because after watching the entire 3 hour broadcast, I saw plenty of "big stars" there -- if the media was referring to the big international stars like Chow Yun Fat, Jackie Chan, Tony Leung, etc., then they are just trying to be picky because honestly, how many awards shows do these stars even show up to nowadays? I mean, with their busy schedules, they're not expected to have time to show up to these shows.

I really liked how the HK Film Awards Association chose Lawrence Cheng Dan Shui to be the host. He was one of the best hosts of the late 80s/early 90s and I haven't seen him host for a long time. As a host, he is definitely more refined, yet still very funny -- the kind of high quality host you would expect at this type of event. To be honest, I was getting tired of Eric Tsang's rowdy, "wu nao" type of hosting, so it was refreshing to see Lawrence bring his signature style of hosting to the event -- at least I don't get the feeling that I'm watching baseless, slapstick-type comedy (which is the perception that I get with Eric's style of hosting) and instead am treated to a higher class of comedy that is more appropriate to the event.

Of course, the endless "references" to TVB was a unique factor to this particular award ceremony, as everyone (guests and winners alike) were taking advantage of the fact that ATV promised a completely UNEDITED broadcast, which meant that everyone could pretty much say anything they wanted. Since this "never happens" with TVB broadcasts, everyone wanted to "test the waters" and see if ATV was going to keep to their word. I personally found it quite humourous because the more they "referred" to TVB, the worse it made TVB look -- because it brings forth TVB's pettiness tenfold.

One of the "references" I especially liked was Dayo Wong's monologue, where at one point he goes: "ATV is so good....they let me talk as long as I want...so how much time do I have left?" This is an indirect "bash" on TVB because during last year's awards ceremony, not only did TVB cut out all references to ATV, they also chopped up people's acceptance speeches (even those who did not refer to ATV) to the point that what the people said did not end up making any sense. Plus they had people at the actual ceremony signaling to the winners to cut their speeches short, so some of the winners either didn't get to speak or had their speeches cut. This year, ATV proved to be very "dai fong" about the whole ceremony -- they let it overrun by 1 hour (and losing money in advertising in the process) because they wanted to honor their promise to viewers of not cutting anything out. TVB, on the other hand, would never do such a thing because they are so greedy that they wouldn't want to lose even a penny in advertising in order to satisfy the viewers -- so they would rather sacrifice the broadcast and screw the viewers rather than lose money (their typical mentality).

All the TVB versus ATV talk aside, one of the highlights of the show for me was the dialogue from the presenters. For me, one of the primary reasons I like to watch these shows is to see who the presenters are and what they will say -- if it was just about the results, there would be no need to watch, since I could just read about it in the papers the next day. My favorite presenters were definitely the duo of Sean Lau and Nick Cheung -- they were presenting the Best Actress Award (which was like the 2nd to last award of the night). I could tell from their banter back and forth that Sean and Nick have a great friendship, as they were able to make fun of each other so comfortably. And forever the actor, I loved how when Sean told his jokes, his face looked so serious, yet he was actually joking the whole time! And Nick had a smile on his face the entire time – even though he was being made fun of by Sean!

Here are some of the excerpts from their hilarious 5 minute dialogue (of course, my paraphrasing below pales in comparison to watching the actual video segment and seeing them in action).


1) Opening dialogue:

-- Sean (to Nick): I found out from the association that they were actually planning to have 4 people present this award: you, me, Anthony Wong, and Francis Ng.

-- Nick (to Sean): So why isn't Anthony here?

-- Sean: Well, the association felt that Anthony is too "old" and "passe", so they booted him out. So what about Francis? I think he's working, right?

-- Nick: Um, Francis is actually in a jailcell somewhere in Lai Chi Kok.

-- Sean: What? I thought they let him out already!

-- Nick: Oh, you didn't hear? This is a different case -- not that same one! (audience laughs)

-- Sean: Hmmm...let's talk about something else....


2) Sean blames Nick for making him lose the Best Actor award and Nick makes fun of Sean's dark skin tone

-- Sean: Actually, I already knew that I would not be able to win the award today.

-- Nick: Why's that?

-- Sean: Because of where I am seated. I noticed that in the past, all of the Best Actor winners were always seated right in the middle -- this year, I'm actually seated way over there on the end (points to the right side of the audience).

-- Nick: Oh.

-- Sean (to the audience): And the other thing I discovered -- if you want to win Best Actor, never sit near Nick Cheung!

-- Nick: (smiles and looks at the audience with quizzical expression on his face)

-- Sean (to Nick): I remember a couple years back, when I was nominated for Best Actor and you were nominated for Best Supporting Actor. You ending up losing the award to someone else -- which of course is expected! But then when you lost, you stayed in your seat for the rest of the show and didn't leave! You were sitting there in that horrific white suit and had this expression on your face -- (bows his head and looks down at the floor with a sad expression on his face). I remember turning around and telling you to leave because you're just going to make me lose.

-- Nick (smiles): Yes, I remember -- at first when I saw a "dark" hand reach over to me, I was moved thinking that someone was sympathizing with me. But then I see that it's you turning around and berrating me for causing you to lose the Best Actor award with my depressed looks. But hey, I was actually just doing you a favor by sitting there! The venue was so dark that if it weren't for MY bright white suit reflecting the lights onto you, no one would have noticed that you even came to the ceremony! (The whole audience laughs and the camera pans over to Sean's wife Amy Kwok, who is also giggling).


There are some more funny parts but it's hard to translate that dialogue (since I wouldn't be able to do justice to it), so just going to leave it at these highlights.

And lastly, I am extremely happy that Simon Yam finally got the Best Actor aaward -- he's been in the industry 34 years and has been nominated multiple times, but the award has always eluded him until now. He is one of the finest actors in the industry and very humble too! His acceptance speech was quite touching as well. Definitely well deserved!