Mingpao Weekly’s Special Tribute to So Hang Suen: Felix Wong and Michael Tao recount working with their ‘benevolent mother’

MP Weekly recently published a 2 part series (of articles) dedicated to veteran actress So Hang Suen (who passed away on June  ).  Suen Jeh (Sister Suen) was a great actress and definitely a favorite veteran of mine whom I grew up watching in the 80s and early 90s.   She was most famous for her ‘benevolent mother’ roles and rightfully so, as she portrayed the character so well that I would dare to say it was near perfection.  I, for one, remember majority of her motherly characters from many of TVB’s most classic series and to this day, I don’t feel that any other actress could have portrayed those roles as ‘perfectly’ as she did.  Even though Suen Jeh was known for her ‘benevolent mother’ roles, it doesn’t mean she wasn’t good at other roles – in reality, she excelled at every role she played and her superb acting always left a deep impression on audiences (even audiences like me who watched many of her series when I was only a child and probably didn’t even understand completely everything that went on) – the affinity that audiences felt with her were akin to that of a relative or close family member (yes, she was THAT GOOD in her acting).  Throughout the years, Suen Jeh always had a special place in my heart (as a lot of the veterans I grew up watching in the 80s did), so of course when I heard about her passing last month, I was absolutely devastated, especially since she was relatively ‘young’ too by today’s standards (she was 64 when she passed). 

Of course, in my opinion, each of Suen Jeh’s performances were superb and memorable, to the point that I feel listing out only a few of those roles here really doesn’t do justice to her illustrious career.  Therefore, I will let the article do the talking and through that, recount the memories I have of Suen Jeh’s great performances.

The below is part 2 of the tribute article that MP did – I decided to translate this part only because part 1 delves more into Suen Jeh’s early career, which audiences might be less familiar with.  Part 2 of the article is the one that actually starts with Suen Jeh’s career in the 80s and going into the 90s, which was truly the era where Suen Jeh had most of her representative works.

Of course, being a ‘fan’ of TVB’s older series from the 80s and 90s, I definitely enjoyed reading the below article – not only is it a fitting tribute to Suen Jeh told from the perspective of those who had the opportunity to work with her most (in terms of her onscreen ‘children’, Felix Wong and Michael Tao were definitely the ones who collaborated with her the most as far as I can remember), it also brings back many fond memories of some of TVB’s most classic series (i.e. Police Cadet, Looking Back in Anger, Files of Justice, Detective Investigation Files, etc.).  Just to show how ‘classic’ these series were -- I actually remember every scene from the above series that were described in the article as well as captioned in the pictures…..to the point that I actually had those particular scenes in my head as I was reading (I guess when you watch and re-watch those series as many times as I have, certain scenes start to become etched into memory….).

Anyway….once again, great ‘special feature’ article from Mingpao!  Hope that reading the article brings back the same fond memories of Suen Jeh and the mentioned series for you as it did for me!

.*****.

Mingpao Weekly’s Special Tribute to So Hang Suen:  Felix Wong and Michael Tao recount working with their ‘benevolent mother’

MingpaoWeekly Issue 2329

Translation:  llwy12

Entering the 1980s era, So Hang Suen (蘇杏璇) started taking on ‘motherly’ roles and almost every character she played was more than 10 years older than her real age.  Being the professional actress that she was, Suen Jeh took her work seriously and shined in each of her roles – however, she also made it part of her job to guide and support the younger artists she worked with.

Having played Suen Jeh’s son in 1983’s Legend of the Condor Heroes (射鵰英雄傳) as well as 1989’s Looking Back in Anger (義不容情), Felix Wong (黃日華) expressed:  “Suen Jeh would constantly ‘put money in my pocket’!   When people say that I acted well in those series, the credit should really be given to Suen Jeh and the rest of the senior actors I worked with!”

Looking Back in Anger has been hailed as one of the most outstanding series to come out of the 1980s era.  The series’ famous ‘open ending’-style final scene where a ‘mystery woman’ leaves a note for Felix’s character Ting Yau Kin in a chapel and wipes tears from his face has been a subject of ‘debate’ for more than 2 decades:  so was the ‘mystery woman’ truly Felix’s wife in the series Carina Lau (劉嘉玲), or was it his sister in the series, Carrie Ho (何嘉麗)?   Felix personally reveals the truth behind that much-talked about ending scene…

Helena Law doesn’t feel being ‘fierce’ is exhaustive; Felix Wong gladly endures being scolded

Most of us who grew up watching So Hang Suen in TV series during the 1980s era most likely share the same general misconception:  the thought that Suen Jeh must already be at least 50 years old – this was ‘reasonable’ given the motherly figures [with grown children] that she constantly portrayed onscreen.  With this ‘misconception’ in mind, in August 1988, [Mingpao’s reporter] was shocked to read a headline in the entertainment section of the local paper:  ‘So Hang Suen gives birth to a Dragon boy’.  With her mature, ‘benevolent mother with grown children’ image so deeply ingrained in our hearts, how is it possible that in real life, she had ‘just given birth’ for the first time?

When she was alive, Suen Jeh always used to laugh about the ‘misconception’ towards her age.  She would fondly recount how actress Maggie Cheung (張曼玉) once questioned her ‘early maturity’ while they were filming 1984’s Police Cadet (新紮師兄) together:  “Age-wise, I’m actually not that old -- at the time [while filming Police Cadet], I was only 32 years old.  Maggie and I were in the restroom together one day when she told me: ‘Suen Jeh, with your age, having you play Tony’s [Tony Leung (梁朝偉)] older sister is already a stretch!  How is it possible to play his mother?’  I told her: ‘As long as the end result that comes out is believable, then it’s fine.’”

For us audiences to have such a ‘misconception’ about Suen Jeh’s age and maturity is of course a testament to her superb acting skills – at the same time though, collaborating with other remarkable and talented artists is also a huge bonus.  In Police Cadet, Suen Jeh’s ability to establish her character Hui Chau Ping’s ‘status’ as the ultimate ‘benevolent mother’ can partly be attributed to being contrasted with her ‘love rival’ in the series, the ‘fierce second wife’ character Lee Lai Kuen played by Helena Law (羅蘭).  It’s actually a bit ironic because in real life, Helena is one of the nicest, most affable senior actresses you’ll ever meet – for her to play such a fierce character who does nothing but scold people all day, was it exhaustive?  “No, not exhaustive at all!  Actually, back then, practically all my roles were ‘noisy’ characters – like in Return of the Condor Heroes (神鵰俠侶) with the character of Kau Chin Chak, I also had to scream alot.” 

Suen Jeh and Helena had many opportunities to work together and so on a personal level, they became close friends, despite their opposite religious backgrounds (Helena is a devout Catholic while Suen Jeh is very dedicated to Buddhism).  Helena expressed that the difference in religions did not affect their friendship in any way:  “Actually, all religions guide people to be charitable, emphasize tolerance and forgiveness, love one another, don’t be stubborn and yell at people for no reason, etc.  Suen Jeh and I are very close – I remember one time when I visited her vegetarian restaurant, we even chatted until closing time!”

As the saying goes:  ‘A peony flower may be good in and of itself, but still requires its green leaves to support it.’  The ‘green leaf’ veteran artists in the past were very willing to mentor their juniors and did so happily in the hopes that these young ‘flowers’ would one day blossom and flourish.  A young Felix Wong – merely a ‘newbie’ at the time – had the privilege of receiving ‘mentorship’ from Suen Jeh as well as other senior artists back in the day:  “The seniors back then were very willing to guide and support newcomers!  To be honest, back when I filmed Legend of the Condor Heroes [TN: abbreviated LOTCH going forward], I basically didn’t have to do much – just listen to the seniors and I was all set!   Barbara Yung (翁美玲) actually excelled in this area [listening to the senior artists] – she was very smart and had high comprehension skills, so she was able to learn a lot from the seniors;  I was a lot slower in comparisons.”  But isn’t that exactly the type of ‘not very smart’ temperament that [his character in LOTCH] Kwok Jing should have?  In response, Felix laughed and expressed:  “Perhaps Uncle Tin Lam [the series’ producer Wong Tin Lam (王天林)] had seen me before and felt that I had the same ‘simplistic’ and ‘honest’ personality that Kwok Jing had, so he felt that it would be easier for me to grasp my character.”

In LOTCH, Suen Jeh played another character named ‘Ah Ping’ – this time, she played the role of Kwok Jing’s mother Lee Ping, which meant that she had a lot of scenes together with Felix:  “Our scenes together were more focused in the earlier half of the series when the story was about our lives in the desert.”  (Real filming in the desert?  That’s so expensive!)  “No, it was actually Lantau Island [in HK] – we filmed there for about 2 to 3 weeks.”   Since all the artists were usually very busy during filming and also outside of work, Felix would take advantage of rehearsal time to ‘do his homework’ [TN: get mentorship from the seniors]:  “Suen Jeh would always study the script diligently in advance, so she always had a very thorough understanding of the storyline, characters, relationship lines, etc.  Therefore, during rehearsals, she always asked us if there was anything we didn’t understand or needed help with.  The advice she usually gave me was to try not to be too ‘deliberate’ with my acting and also to work on my facial expressions.”  For artists who are slow learners and therefore might have a lot of NGs [aka outtakes], did they often get scolded by the seniors?  “Back then, being scolded was actually a good thing because when the senior artists scold you, they are actually ‘putting money in your pocket’.  Whenever a mistake was made, it would be addressed and rectified right away – it helped us to learn and improve quicker.  When filming LOTCH, I was actually scolded the most by Kenneth Tsang (曾江) – his standards were very high and if you weren’t able to meet them, he had no problem scolding: ‘Hey kid, can’t you do it any better?’  If the seniors are willing to scold you, that means they are willing to teach you!”

Felix recalls that back during his ‘newbie’ days, the hardest thing was restraining himself from bursting out in laughter, especially in front of such fun and playful seniors as Lau Dan (劉丹) and Chun Wong (秦煌) for example:  “During rehearsals, the seniors often don’t show their skills completely, instead, they wait until the cameras officially roll to come at you with full force, so for newbies like us, it was easy to get nervous and have a lot of outtakes.”  Back in 1981 when he filmed the series Come Rain, Come Shine (風雨晴), Felix set a new ‘personal record’ when he NG’ed 50 times straight in one scene – luckily, he hasn’t broken that record since:  “I remember that was a night scene that we were filming on location and I had to argue heatedly with someone in the scene.  At the time, I didn’t understand a thing about acting and also couldn’t articulate myself clearly, so I got really nervous – the more nervous I got, the more NGs I had.  The other artists present at the time were Kam Jeh [Lee Heung Kam (李香琴)], Uncle Sun [late veteran actor Wong Sun (黃新)], brother Shek Sau (石修), and Shirley Yim (雪梨)…they kept trying to calm me and encouraged me to slow down and not push myself so hard – unfortunately, I was a huge mess at the time.”

Almost did not get the part of ‘Ting Yau Kin’; the truth about Looking Back in Anger’s ‘mystery’ ending

8 years after LOTCH, Suen Jeh and Felix got the chance to continue their mother/son relationship in the series Looking Back in Anger [TN: abbreviated LBIA going forward] – however, truth be told, this ‘affinity’ almost didn’t happen.  Suen Jeh once revealed that she had thought about turning down the series:  “I definitely have to thank Felix and [producer] Wai Ka Fai!  At the time, I had just given birth to my eldest son and was already back at work filming another series when I was invited to film LBIA– I didn’t know if I’d be able to handle both series, so I thought about turning it down.  Then one day, Felix came to the makeup room and told me ‘Suen Jeh, if you’re not going to film it, then I won’t either!’” 

Asked about this, Felix’s memory of the situation started to come back:  “Now that you mention it, the memory is coming back….yes, when I first heard Wai Ka Fai read me the plot summary, I had felt that Suen Jeh was perfect for the role of ‘Auntie Wan’.  To tell you the truth though, I actually almost didn’t get to play the role of ‘Ting Yau Kin’ either.  At the time, TVB’s higher ups didn’t want to use me because earlier in 1987, I had already expressed to them that I wouldn’t be renewing my contract once it expired in 1990.  It was Wai Ka Fai who insisted on using me – he told the bosses that if he can’t cast Felix Wong in the series, then he’s not going to produce the series…the higher ups had no choice but to give in.”

Unlike the later trend of ‘flying paper’ scripts, LBIA actually had a 100% complete script ready prior to filming – as soon as Felix read through the script, he already knew that this would be a great series:  “Receiving such an awesome script in your hands, of course you will naturally want to pour in all your effort to do a great job!  There were a lot of intense scenes that we had to film and it definitely took its toll both physically and mentally – I would get headaches every day from the lack of sleep due to the intensity of filming.”  Felix had already taken up the habit of smoking back then and with the hectic filming schedules and lack of sleep, he admits that smoking helped keep him more awake and alert:  “Whenever I felt exhausted, I would go have a cigarette or two with Carina and immediately would feel better!”  Back then, Suen Jeh would often encourage Felix to quit smoking and adopt healthier eating habits:  “Aiye…I wanted to [quit smoking], but it was easier said than done!  Suen Jeh also constantly reminded me that not everyone is as lucky as I am with the opportunities I had gotten and so I should value them and work even harder – this advice has been engraved in my heart!”

With such a highly acclaimed series, there are bound to be many memorable scenes.  One particular segment that touched Felix the most was the scene that talked about how Ting Yau Kin (Felix), Ngai Chor Kwan (Carina Lau), and Yeung Pak Cho (Gilbert Lam) were asked to film a special program for a TV station because the 3 of them happened to be born on exactly the same date – in that scene, Ting Yau Kin ends up crying because he had just lost 2 jobs and was under a lot of stress:  “That segment was filmed halfway through the series – by that time, I was already very familiar with the character of ‘Ting Yau Kin’, so even though the scene involved several pages of dialogue, it didn’t take too much time to film.  After we successfully finished filming that segment, everyone in the studio clapped.”  Looking out into the crowd after filming that scene, Felix noticed someone standing there who wasn’t part of the LBIA production team:  “That night, Paul Chun (秦沛) was filming next door and when he heard that I would be filming this particular scene, he especially came over to watch – I didn’t know he was there until after I had finished that scene.  When he saw me, he gave me a thumbs up – for me, getting praise from seniors is especially gratifying.”

For LBIA’s ending, producer Wai Ka Fai chose to utilize an ‘open-ending’ style – in the final scene, Ting Yau Kin waits for his beloved wife Chor Kwan to return to the chapel to fulfill their 10 year reunion promise; after he falls asleep, a ‘mystery woman’ walks in, wipes tears from his face, and leaves a note with the simple words ‘Kwan is [already] dead, please forget [her]’.  Over the years, there has been much ‘debate’ over the identity of the ‘mystery woman’ in the ending scene – it has been said that the woman is Ting Yau Kin’s sister Chan Siu Ling (played by Carrie Ho), however the woman’s legs in the scene closely resembled Carina’s.  Towards this, Felix laughed and revealed that the script itself actually did not specify who the ‘mystery woman’ was:  “The script did not state who the woman was – perhaps they wanted to maintain a sense of mystery.  However, I did ask the producer (Wai Ka Fai) later on about the identity of the ‘mystery’ woman – was she my wife Chor Kwan (Carina) or my sister Siu Ling (Carrie)?  He very clearly responded:  ‘She [the mystery woman] was truly your sister (Siu Ling), as Ah Kwan had already died.’”  But a ‘question’ still remained – Carrie Ho has a petite, smaller stature and judging by the size and shape of the woman’s legs in that scene, it didn’t look like her at all….Felix goes on to reveal ‘the truth’ behind that scene:  “Carina was actually the one who filmed that scene – those legs are hers!  At the time, both the director and producer felt that Carina’s legs were prettier, so they had her film it, since the face isn’t shown anyway -- besides, the ‘illusionary’ feeling of that scene would give audiences something to talk about.”  [TN:  Haha…smart move!  The ending scene to LBIA has been a topic of discussion for the past 25 years!]

A ‘serious’ actress with ‘zero’ outtakes

A similar ‘benevolent mother’ character can have a different ‘feel’ to it.  In 1992, So Hang Suen participated in the lawyer-themed series Files of Justice (壹號皇庭) [which later went on to became a popular 5 installment franchise].  In the series, Suen Jeh plays a famed barrister who also happened to be a benevolent single mother with 2 grown children played by Michael Tao (陶大宇) and Eugenia Lau (劉美娟).  “[The series producer] Gary Tang (鄧特希) took a less ‘deliberate’ approach when it came to describing the family relationships – for example, it’s known that we didn’t have a father, but doesn’t go into detail on our background and such.”   Michael Tao’s memory of Suen Jeh is that of a very serious, strict, and highly revered senior actress – when she was present, no one dared to fool around:  “We were a fun-loving bunch who liked to play and joke around a lot, but whenever Suen Jeh was present, we didn’t dare mess around – it wasn’t until Suen Jeh took the initiative to joke with us that we dared to joke back.  Later on though, I think the chemistry of the team started to rub off on her, as she started joking with us more.  Suen Jeh isn’t one of those rigid, inflexible artists who wants things done only one way – she’s very flexible and willing to adjust her acting style based on the environment she is in and the atmosphere.  She’s a serious actress, but not inflexible.”  After thinking some more, Michael added:  “I’m not exaggerating – as far as I remember, Suen Jeh rarely has outtakes...my feeling is that she has zero outtakes!”

When he heard the news of Suen Jeh’s passing, Michael expressed that the memories of their experience filming together immediately came back into his mind – the various scenes that they had together all started to reappear:  “There was a scene where I had just gotten into an argument with my girlfriend in the series [played by Iwanbeo Leung (梁婉靜)] and so she ran off to Singapore to avoid me, leaving me behind in HK debating whether I should go find her.  Gary Tang wrote a lot of dialogue between Suen Jeh and myself in that scene and even though it was obvious that the scene focused on my character and Suen Jeh’s character wouldn’t have much development, she still put more than her best effort into that scene and helped me finish that scene comfortably.  It also gave audiences a good feel toward our mother/son relationship in the series.  Suen Jeh was truly a great actress!”

After Files of Justice, the next series  that Suen Jeh and Michael collaborated in was Detective Investigation Files (刑事偵緝檔案) – except in that series, they no longer played mother and son:  “She played Kenix Kwok’s (郭可盈) mother in the series and because the background of her character is that her husband used to be a cop who died in the line of duty, she was very opposed to my character (a cop) dating her daughter.  As a professional actress, Suen Jeh was very much into her character at the time and ‘hated’ my character to the point that even after the cameras stopped rolling, she would still react coldly towards me as though she was mad at me.”  In one particular scene, Michael, Kenix, and Suen Jeh had to work together on a case that involved pulling back a metal screen and breaking open the door to get inside a house – Michael was so much into the scene that he accidentally hurt his finger when pulling open the screen.  When Suen Jeh saw what happened, she immediately scolded him for not being careful and injuring himself – towards this, Michael didn’t get angry at all:  “To others, it might seem like I got hurt and she’s still scolding me, but I know that she did it out of concern for me, she just expresses it in a different way.”

One time, Michael and Bobby AuYeung (歐陽震華) visited Suen Jeh at her vegetarian restaurant and her reaction left a deep impression on them:  “Bobby and I went there to eat as a way to silently support Suen Jeh – we weren’t expecting any special treatment or anything.  Without mentioning it, Suen Jeh seemed to already understand us -- when she saw us, she greeted us and showed us to our table, then continued to go about her business.”  This special relationship that they had will always remain in Michael’s heart:  “Suen Jeh was truly a great teacher and senior – in her presence, I will forever be a little kid.”

Review of series “To Love With Love 水餃皇后” (1995)

This particular series recently came on TV and it so happened that I had never seen this series before, so I figured I’d give it a try. The premise of the story wasn’t bad and actually, the first half of the series was quite interesting, but near the second half, there was too much focus on parts that weren’t really necessary to the plot and were very obviously fillers. If the second half of the series was less draggy, I think I probably would have liked it more.

This series from the mid-90s is a modern series starring Nnadia Chan (陳松伶), Timmy Ho (何寶生), Wayne Lai (黎耀祥), Joyce Chan (陳彥行), Angie Cheong (張慧儀) and veteran artists So Hang Suen (蘇杏璇) and Wong Ching (王青). When I watched the opening theme video and also the first few episodes, I thought that this was perhaps another one of those typical ‘love story’ type series that TVB is famous for doing. Turns out that the series goes beyond that, as the message it tries to convey is not just about love conquering all, but also about perseverance, never giving up, and overcoming adversity in life. To be honest, there were definitely a lot of ‘predictable’ elements to the plot and I could see that the storyline does follow the ‘mold’ of the typical ‘tale of encouragement’ type series – so it definitely wasn’t unique and in fact some segments were too predictable to the point of being a bit boring -- if it weren’t for the cast (especially Nnadia and Wayne), I don’t think the series would have endured.

For the purposes of this review, I’m going to focus mostly on the characters, as I personally feel that this is the type of series where character development is important and it’s really the characters as well as the acting (rather than the storyline) that drives the series forward.


Main Cast / Characters

Nnadia Chan (Chu Yan Ping) – Nnadia’s character (nicknamed Ah Bien) is a poor village girl who lost her mother at a young age and so growing up, she had to take care of her 2 younger brothers while her father worked at a local restaurant. As the only female in the house, she was already cooking and cleaning and taking care of the household even before she reached her teens – though life was difficult, she still maintained a positive and optimistic attitude, as she believed that as long as one was willing to persevere and work hard, things would eventually get better. In the village, she didn’t have too many friends, but she was very close with the two best friends that she had grown up with (played by Timmy Ho and Wayne Lai). When she grows up, she eventually marries one of the ‘best friends’ (Timmy), but of course things happen in her life that test her marriage as well as her relationship with her family – at the same time, she needs to take care of her family and so makes a career out of what she knows best: making dumplings. Basically, the entire story revolves around Ah Bien’s trials and tribulations in life and how she eventually went from being a poor village girl to a well-known ‘queen of dumplings’.

Nnadia is definitely one of my favorite actresses. I love how her acting is so natural and convincing, to the point that no matter what roles she takes on, it never seems as though she is acting – rather, it always feels like she IS the character. Even with a lot of the difficult scenes such as crying or arguing, she does it so naturally (unlike other actresses where you can usually tell when they are faking it). I always enjoy watching Nnadia’s performances, even if I don’t like the series or the character that she may be portraying.

Once again, Nnadia did an excellent job with her performance in this series. If you think about it, the character is actually quite tragic and has to endure through a lot of difficult situations, yet throughout that time, remain positive and optimistic. She was perfect for the role and I honestly feel that no other actress would have been able to do as good a job as her in this series. Even though Nnadia’s character wasn’t my favorite in this series, I couldn’t help but admire and respect her. Interestingly, I think that part of the reason why Nnadia was so good in this series (aside from her natural born acting skills) is because in terms of personality and attitude, the character of Chu Yan Ping is very similar to how Nnadia is in real life. (After reading Nnadia’s interview with Mingpao that I translated back in August, this fact was made even more clear – looking back at that interview, I felt as though the woman being described was in fact Chu Yan Ping!).

It’s really too bad that Nnadia is no longer active in the HK TV industry – she is one of the few naturally talented actresses out there and it’s definitely the industry’s loss.


Timmy Ho (Yu Chi Fung) – Timmy’s character is a ‘young master’ of sorts from a well-to-do family in the village. His family owns the restaurant where Ah Bien’s dad works and for years, the family has run the establishment with an iron first. Timmy’s character in the series is actually quite stereotypical, as he is extremely smart and talented, highly educated (college grad who studied abroad overseas), and excels at pretty much everything he does – however he has a very compassionate personality and despite his status, he is very down to earth. He’s very independent and doesn’t let societal norms govern his life – also, he has no problems speaking out against injustice and rebelling against his overbearing, bossy, unreasonable mother (played by So Hang Suen) whenever her actions would get out of hand. For example, he ends up falling in love with Nnadia’s character Ah Bien and marries her against his mother’s wishes; then when his mother is mean to Ah Bien and her family, he is fiercely protective of her and even moves out with her to prevent her from being treated badly by his mother. With that said though, no matter how much he disapproves of his mother’s actions, he is ultimately still a filial son -- this will be an important fact later on, as it is precisely because of this filialness that he ends up going to jail for 2 years, which changes his life completely and also strains his marriage as well as his relationship with his family later on in the series.

Those who followed TVB’s series in the 90s will probably be familiar with Timmy Ho, as he was in quite a few series in the mid-90s (he was most active at TVB from 1995 to 1998 – in those 4 years alone, he participated in close to 15 series, with important roles in majority of those series). Timmy is actually from a very well-to-do family in real life, as his father is a rich bank tycoon with a net worth in the millions. His father was a skilled businessman who passed on his keen business acumen to his son – therefore, when Timmy returned to HK after studying abroad in Canada, he started his own business (in a completely unrelated field) and without any help from his father, was able to become extremely successful. He actually entered the entertainment industry by chance, as he was out singing with some friends and because he had good singing skills, he was ‘discovered’ and signed by a record company. When he joined TVB in the early 90s, he actually wasn’t part of the drama department – he had hosting talent, so he was chosen to host various variety shows as well as entertainment news show such as 娛樂新聞眼 (yes, the same entertainment news show that Leo Ku started in as well). It wasn’t until a few years later that he was chosen to participate in drama series and eventually in movies as well – it sounded like TVB had high hopes for him, as he was very heavily promoted in the mid-90s, with involvement in all three disciplines of music, television, and movies. I’ve actually never heard Timmy sing, so I can’t pass judgement on that piece, but I have seen quite a few of his series and must admit that he definitely had a lot of potential in terms of acting – plus he also had the advantage of being tall and relatively good-looking, so I think that if he had stayed in the industry, he probably would have been able to have a decent career.

So where is Timmy Ho now? Well, some time in the late 90s, he started studying Buddhism and became fascinated with the religion. I had read that prior to Timmy finding the religion, he was actually a bit of a spoiled rich kid (though not as extreme as some others in his same position) with a very bad habit – gambling; but after he started studying Buddhism, his personality changed completely, becoming more low-key and foregoing a lot of the excesses that were once a part of his world (for example, he moved out of the luxury hilltop mansion he had lived in for years and instead moved into a small rented apartment in the city). Timmy once said in an interview that he really felt a great affinity with Buddhism and really wanted to pursue it more in-depth – based on this, I guess it was really not a surprise then that he chose to enter the monastery and become a monk in 2005. Interestingly, he was very low-key about it – to the point that a lot of people (including the Media) did not know that he became a monk until 2 or 3 years ago.


Wayne Lai (Teng Nai Keung) – Wayne’s character Ah Nai is the other childhood friend that Nnadia’s character Ah Bien grows up with – in their childhood, he and Ah Bien along with Chi Fung were very close and had a ‘Three Musketeers’-like friendship. Ah Nai is actually a very interesting character: his father and grandfather were both the head of the village when they were alive, so naturally, he inherited the position after his father died (he was only in his twenties, yet he was already in such a highly respected position overseeing the entire village) – however he was not the typical village head, as he was neither stern nor strict nor did he put on airs or act self-important. Instead, he had a very ‘happy-go-lucky’ personality and was pretty much a kid at heart – he always took an optimistic and cheerful approach to things, no matter how difficult or tragic the situation was. He loved to hang out with the local kids and play video games, or hang out with his friends or help the villagers solve problems / disputes (the scenes where he went around looking for problems to resolve because he was so bored out of his wits – to the point that he had to resort to talking to the floor in his living room and imitating a sitting Buddha statue – were SO HILARIOUS, I was practically on the floor laughing!). Even with his playful personality though, he understood his responsibilities as village head and always made sure things that needed to get done were done. Despite having a crush on Ah Bien since childhood, he was genuinely happy for her when she married Chi Fung, as he knew that Chi Fung was better than him in many ways (talent, education, smarts, etc.) and was a better match for Ah Bien than himself. And throughout the entire series, no matter what situations occurred or what challenges arose, the 3 of them remained very close – their friendship never got affected. Later on, Ah Nai ends up falling in love with Chi Fung’s sister Ah Huo (played by Joyce Chan) and they eventually get married.

Ah Nai was definitely my favorite character in this series. He provided a lot of comic relief in an otherwise tragic story – in my opinion, his character really kept the series lighthearted and uplifting and actually really complemented the theme of the series quite well. For example, even when Ah Nai is diagnosed with a terminal illness (brain tumor) and knows that he doesn’t have long to live, he still remains true to his personality by remaining upbeat and spending whatever days he had left living life to the fullest. I love how the character was able to balance the comedic and tragic so perfectly, to the point that all of the scenes with him in it were thoroughly enjoyable. This was true even up until the end, when Ah Nai eventually dies from his illness – this part of the story was handled extremely well, as it wasn’t overly tragic yet still effectively got the point across.

To be honest, I don’t know who I should give credit to for the great job with the character of Ah Nai – I’m sure some of the credit goes to the writers for the well-written character, but in my opinion, a lot of the credit should also go to Wayne for his brilliant portrayal of the character (and I’m not just saying this because Wayne is one of my favorite actors). Just like with Nnadia’s character, no one else could have portrayed Wayne’s character better than him….which of course brings me back to the point that even back then, Wayne’s great acting skills were apparent and I really feel that once again, he ‘stole the show’ (that seems to be a pattern with many of the series where he is in the supporting role – even with series where I like the main leads, I still thoroughly enjoy Wayne’s role way more). Wayne is definitely ‘the best of the best’ when it comes to acting and so far, with all the series that I’ve seen of his (there are still some out there I have yet to watch), I have never been disappointed by his performance! (And once again, shame on TVB for taking more than 20 years to recognize him for his brilliant acting skills!).


So Hang Suen (Chi Fung’s mother Mrs. Yu) – So Han Suen’s character Mrs. Yu is one of those characters that we as audiences love to hate. For the first half of the series, she is pretty much the typical overbearing mother – bossy, unreasonable, constantly yelling at people for no good reason and never lets them get a word in edgewise, doesn’t trust anyone, etc. – pretty much, her attitude is that everything has to go her way no matter what. I would have to say that her character was downright annoying. Of course, in the second half of the series, after her family loses everything (their restaurant business and all their money), her son goes to jail because of her, and her older daughter betrays her, she becomes humbled and changes her tyrannical ways. She moves in with her daughter-in-law Ah Bien (Nnadia’s character) and after awhile, she realizes how wrongly she had treated Ah Bien in the past. Even though Mrs. Yu still has somewhat of a fiesty personality in the second half of the series, she actually becomes more likable due to her transformation from an overbearing tyrant to a reasonable mother who finally realizes how much her family means to her.

So Hang Suen is one of my favorite veteran female actresses. I pretty much grew up watching her series and to me, her acting always comes across so natural. Throughout her career, she has played numerous ‘mother’ characters – from the ‘benevolent’ type to the ‘overbearing’ type – and each time, her portrayal is very convincing. I mean, who can forget So Hang Suen’s many ‘classic’ mother characters: Kwok Jing’s (Felix Wong) mother Lee Ping in 1983’s “Legend of the Condor Heroes”, Cheung Wah Kit’s (Tony Leung) mother in all 3 installments of “Police Cadet”, Ding Yau Kin’s (Felix Wong) and Ding Yau Hong’s (Deric Wan) adoptive mother Auntie Wan in 1989’s “Looking Back in Anger”, etc. (just to name a few). If I were asked to give a list of actresses who do the best ‘mother’ roles, So Hang Suen would definitely be number one on my list!

So Hang Suen is retired from the industry now, but she does participate in the occasional series or two when she feels like it (primarily ATV series though). The latest I read was that last year, she and a group of fellow veteran ‘green leaf’ artists opened up an Acting School and she currently teaches there.


Joyce Chan (Ah Huo) – Joyce’s character Ah Huo is the younger sister of Yu Chi Fung. As the youngest daughter in the family, it was expected that she would be the most loved or spoiled, but actually, things were quite opposite for her – even though her dad and brother were good to her and treated her well, her mother always seem to be annoyed with her and yelled at her no matter what she did. She later finds out the reason why her mother treats her this way is because she is actually not her biological daughter – her father had an affair many years ago and she was the ‘result’ of that affair. When she finds out, she becomes depressed and runs away from home – not surprisingly, Ah Nai (Wayne) talks to her and eventually helps her get back on track, which is how they end up becoming a couple.

To me, Joyce’s role in the series wasn’t tremendously important, as it seemed that her function was mainly as a love interest for Wayne’s character. This could be why the writers didn’t spend a whole lot of time developing the storyline involving her.

As far as Joyce’s acting is concerned – well, I pretty much don’t have an opinion either way. I’ve always been neutral towards Joyce, as I don’t watch enough of her series to really be able to formulate an opinion. If you were to ask me what her ‘representative work’ is, I would have to say “Virtues of Harmony”, but that’s only because that series was on for close to 4 years, so it’s hard not to remember that series somewhat. I had read that at one point in the 90s, TVB was planning on heavily promoting her – but I’m actually not sure if they did or not because most of the series that I’ve seen of hers, she only had minor or supporting roles….even when she left TVB (to go to ATV), I really don’t feel she had any type of breakthrough role (maybe that’s why TVB gave up on her?).


Angie Cheong (Cheng Si Nga) – Angie’s role is a supporting one, as she plays Timmy Ho’s ex-girlfriend (coincidentally also named Angie) who breaks up with him, but then regrets it later because she still has feelings for him – but it’s too late because he had already married Nnadia. Even though on the surface, she appears to have gotten over it and even becomes good friends with the couple, she is actually deeply jealous of them on the inside and ‘predictably’ spends most of the series trying to sabotage the couple. (Ok, to put it bluntly, she is once again the ‘bxxch’ in this series). Needless to say, she doesn’t succeed in the end, since Timmy and Nnadia remain together.

Honestly, I really didn’t see the point in having Angie’s character there. Sure, they tried to make the storyline more interesting by putting in the ‘third wheel’ element to the relationship and such, but I feel they could have still gotten the same effect without her character – or perhaps still keep her character, but reduce her screentime (not that she had a lot of screentime to begin with). Some of the draggy scenes in the series were actually between her and Timmy and honestly, they really weren’t necessary to further the plot – I mean, how many scenes do we need to tell us that she still has feelings for Timmy and wants to get back with him, despite him no longer loving her? Not a whole lot, to be honest – they should have just cut out a lot of those ‘filler’ scenes instead of boring the audiences with them.

Those of you who watched “A Kindred Spirit” (which ran from 1995 to 1999) should be VERY familiar with Angie. In fact, for me, that was the first series of hers that I saw – prior to that, I had no clue who she was. Not surprisingly, she came out of a beauty pageant (Miss Asia International?) and actually did not participate in a whole lot of series if you really think about it. I’m actually neutral towards Angie because I honestly can’t tell whether she has acting potential or not – yes, she did well in “A Kindred Spirit”, but in that series as well as almost every other series she did, she had pretty much been typecasted as a ‘sex symbol’ actress (probably because of her good looks and figure) who is always ‘second fiddle’ to the main female leads…all her roles are actually pretty similar.


Honorable Mentions

.—Veteran actress Lai Suen (actress Gigi Lai’s aunt) played the role of Wayne’s grandmother in the series. Not surprisingly, her portrayal was excellent, but what I loved most though was actually her chemistry with Wayne – the two of them portrayed the grandmother / grandson relationship so well that if you were to tell me they were really related, I would probably believe it (of course, we know they aren’t related in real life though). I must say that whoever did the casting for the 2 characters did a great job!

.—Veteran actor Wong Ching played the role of Nnadia’s dad. His character was loud and obnoxious at times and had a big temper, but at the end of the day, he truly did love his children – it’s just that he wasn’t good at expressing it (or, more likely, he didn’t have time to, since he pretty much worked nonstop day and night in order to put food on the table). I enjoyed Wong Ching’s portrayal of the dad – he was funny at times (though he didn’t mean to be funny) but still did all the serious scenes quite well.

.—A very young Ruco Chan was also in this series (I’ve started to notice him in a lot of the older series that I’ve been watching lately). He played one of Nnadia’s younger brothers in the series. I will tell you that I definitely didn’t recognize him at first, as he looked so tremendously different back then. His role was actually a minor one and he didn’t have a whole lot of screen time – but I felt that he still did a good job nonetheless.


Concluding Thoughts

Overall, this series wasn’t bad in my opinion…BUT because of the genre and the message that it tries to get across, this series may not necessarily suit the tastes of all audiences. This is definitely one of those series where there is a big focus on ‘inner emotion acting’ (內心戲), which means that the series is a bit slower pace than most audiences would like (especially the second half, which was very draggy). I would still recommend this series (Nnadia and Wayne’s performances alone are absolutely worth watching) to those interested in the genre – BUT just make sure that you have plenty of patience to sit through the second half.

TVB Acting Classes: 1st Year Artists List – 1971-72 (Part 2 in a series)

As I promised in Part 1 of my “TVB Acting Class History” series, this post is the first of the Artists Lists that I will be posting.

TVB had a really awesome Acting Class back in the day (I'm talking late 70s / early 80s) but heading into the 90s and 00s, the format of the classes as well as the instructors changed -- to the point that an artist graduating from the Acting Class in the late 90s (as an example) has nowhere near the skill of an artist who graduated from the 70s/80s classes. I talked about this a little bit in my introductory post when I outline the history and evolution of the class.

Just as a point of reference, I felt it would be interesting to go back through the Acting Classes from its start in the 70s until present to see which artists had gone through the classes and which ones did not. I did some research and was able to find various listings related to the classes. I tried my best to compile as inclusive of a list as I could, but of course, some information dates as far back as 30 years and therefore may not be available anymore. So please do not consider this an all-inclusive list because it most likely isn’t (and if there are any inaccuracies with the information, I apologize in advance).

Whenever possible, I tried to list out the artists’ English names, but since I’m not familiar with all the artists and some of them may not even have English names, I decided to use Cantonese pinyin for the translated portion.

** Note 1: The artists’ names listed in BOLD are the ones who were actually active in the HK entertainment industry (as far as I know) and /or ones whom most audiences will probably be familiar with.

** Note 2: Under the “Summary & Thoughts” section, I’ve listed various tidbits as well as other descriptive info about some of the artists that I’ve highlighted in BOLD.

Hopefully, readers may find this list useful. If there are any artists listed that you would like to comment on, please feel free!

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Names list credit to : HKM Mon Amour

TVB 藝員訓練班（第一期）- 1971 -72年
TVB’s Acting Class – 1st year (1971-72)

呂有慧 (Lisa Lui Yau Wai)、陳嘉儀 (Chan Kar Yi)、莊文清 (Chong Man Ching)、郭鋒 (Samuel Kwok Fung)、高妙思 (Ko Miu Si)、蘇杏璇 (So Hang Suen)、黃允材 (Wong Wan Choi)、甘國亮 (Kam Kwok Leung)、招振強 (Chiu Chun Keung)、許紹雄 (Benz Hui)、陳美琪 (Maggie Chan), 劉緯民 (Lau Wai Min)、陳喜蓮 (Chan Hei Lian)、金興賢 (Kam Hing Yin)、關聰 (Kwan Chung), 林偉圖 (Lam Wai To)、林德祿 (Lam Tak Luk)、梁立人 (Leung Lap Yan)、陳婉桃 (Chan Yuen To)、張惠儀 (Cheung Wai Yi)、蔡婉萍 (Choi Yuen Ping)、周如英 (Chow Yu Ying)、覃恩美 (Tam Yan Mei)、何鳳翎 (Ho Feng Ling)、許楚娟 (Hui Chor Jun)、顧小萍 (Ku Siu Ping)、郭雅烈 (Kwok Ya Lit)、鄺靜美 (Kwong Jing Mei)、李佩貞 (Lee Pei Zhen)、李小梨 (Lee Siu Lei)、岑清媚 (Shum Ching Mei)、蘇文儀 (So Man Yi)、孫明貞 (Suen Ming Zhen)、王麗容 (Wong Lai Yong)、汪慧莉 (Wang Wai Lei) 、楊蓮桂 (Yang Lian Gui)、陳培達 (Chan Pei Tat)、鄭樹光 (Cheng Shu Kwong)、張汝棠 (Cheung Yu Tong)、梁大成 (Leung Dai Sing)、施學全 (Si Hok Chuen)、田民族 (Tin Min Juk)、溫燦華 (Wan Chan Wah)、甄怡石 (Yan Yi Shek)


SUMMARY & THOUGHTS:

.-- Lisa Lui participated in many series in the 70s and 80s, however most audiences probably remember her best as Lee Mok Sau in the Andy Lau / Idy Chan version of “Return of the Condor Heroes” (also her most famous role). Current audiences probably know her from the 2010 series “Growing Through Life”, which marked her return to TVB after more than a decade (her last role prior to that if I remember correctly was a guest appearance on the 3rd installment of “Detective Investigation Files” in 1997).

.—Chan Kar Yi also participated in a lot of series in the 70s and 80s. You probably don’t recognize the name, but I’m pretty sure that those of you who were around during that time would probably recognize the face. Interestingly, her most famous role (to the ‘after 80s’ audiences anyway) was as a ‘corpse’ – she played Wong Yung’s (Barbara Yung) deceased mother in the classic 1983 version of “Legend of the Condor Heroes”, a minor character in the series whose story was told primarily in flashbacks .

.—Chong Man Ching was most active in the 70s and 80s and played supporting roles her entire career, usually portraying the ‘friend’ or ‘schoolmate’ of the main female lead (remember Angie Chiu’s friend and schoolmate Wang Yuet Kei in the 1980 version of “The Bund”?). Chong Man Ching was once married to producer Chiu Chun Keung(more on him later on in this post), but they divorced many years later. She lived a pretty difficult life -- she was known as a ‘medicine pot’ who constantly had medicine with her because of health problems, she had a mother who was a life-long gambler that she eventually severed ties with, and her marriage ended in divorce when it was discovered that her husband had an affair. In 1991, she left all the ‘troubles’ of the world behind her and entered the monastery, becoming a monk.

.— I’m sure everyone is familiar with Samuel Kwok Fung, as he is still active in the TV industry even now (he is one of my most favorite supporting actors). He participated in countless series in the close to 40 years that he has been in the industry and actually was one of the few actors who had worked for 3 of the most popular TV stations at the time: Rediffusion Television (in the 70s), TVB (in the 80s and currently), and ATV (in the 90s). His wife is actress Susanna Au Yeung(歐陽佩珊), who retired from the industry in the mid-90s and is currently working in the area of Chinese medicine (as an acupuncturist). Samuel and Susanna have been married for 34 years (wow!) – one of the early ‘golden couples’ who are still together today and still as much in love with each other as they were so many years ago! (awwww....)

.—Ko Miu Si is a another actress whom audiences will probably recognize her face, but not her name. She was most active in the 70s / early 80s and participated in majority ancient series (costume dramas). I would have to do some research to know for sure, but I’m willing to bet that she is probably the only actress who was in practically every single one of TVB’s Jin Yong and Gu Long remakes from the 70s and 80s. I know that she retired from the industry a long time ago (back in the early 90s), but that’s as far as my knowledge goes, since there is so little information about her out there nowadays.

.—If you’re an 80s TVB series fanatic, you better know who So Hang Suen is! Even if you don’t remember her name in real life, I’m sure you will definitely remember the many classic “mother” characters she played: Kwok Jing’s (Felix Wong) mother Lee Ping in 1983’s “Legend of the Condor Heroes”, Cheung Wah Kit’s (Tony Leung) mother in all 3 installments of “Police Cadet”, Ding Yau Kin’s (Felix Wong) and Ding Yau Hong’s (Deric Wan) adoptive mother Auntie Wan in 1989’s “Looking Back in Anger”, etc. (just to name a few). She retired from the industry in the mid-90s and went into the restaurant business, though she did continue to participate in series here and there, primarily in cameo roles (ATV series, not TVB). The latest I heard is that So Hang Suen is helping to teach acting at one of the schools that she and other fellow veteran artists collaborated on opening last year.

.—Wong Wan Choi is another famous supporting actor whom 80s TVB series fanatics will be familiar with – especially if you’re a fan of ancient series. He participated in so many series in the past 3 decades that I can’t even begin to recount them – but of course, one of his most famous roles (and I say ‘one’ because he surely had many famous roles) was the character Au Yeung Hak from the 1983 version of “Legend of the Condor Heroes”. Wong Wan Choi is still quite active in the industry even now, participating in stage productions and various shows in Mainland China. Not only that, he also has his medical license and is a very famous Chinese herbal doctor in Hong Kong (has been since the 80s), with his own medical clinic and everything! As if that’s not enough, he is also a philanthropist who has devoted most of his life in the past decade doing charity work and helping out the elderly especially. Definitely a very admirable man!

.—Kam Kwok Leung is a very talented man who wears many many hats. He is one of HK’s most famous ‘cross-media’ celebrities, as he has been involved in almost every discipline in the entertainment industry (TV, movies, music, radio, theater, etc.). At TVB, he was most famous for his screenwriting talent, as he wrote the scripts for several of the early 80s’ most popular female-oriented series such as “No Biz Like Showbiz”, “Don’t Look Now”, “No One is Innocent”, etc. He’s also a famous movie director, radio DJ / executive, actor, host, etc. Of course, many of us remember him also because of his famous ‘other half’ – he dated actress / host DoDo (Carol) Cheng for 10 years back in the 80s (they broke up in 1990 but are still friends).

.—I mentioned Chiu Chun Keung earlier in this post. He is one of TVB’s most famous producers from the 70s and 80s. Some of the series that he produced include (these are just the most famous ones): “The Bund” (1980) with Chow Yun Fat, Ray Lui, Angie Chiu, “You Only Live Twice” with Michael Miu and Jamie Chik, “Police Cadet 84” with Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, “Police Cadet 85” with Tony Leung and Margie Tsang….just to name a few….he went to ATV in the late 80s but didn’t have much success. He returned to TVB in 1996 to produce his last series “Once Upon a Time in Shanghai” (the remake of “The Bund” with Sunny Chan, Gordon Lam, Nnadia Chan), but then left after that….not 100% sure what he is doing now, though I think he’s working in movies currently. The other ‘situation’ he was famous for was his affair with 80s actress Ng Sai Mei (吳茜薇), whom he married after his divorce with Chong Man Ching.

.—Benz Hui (also known as “Green Leaf King”) is my all time favorite supporting actor! He has pretty much been consistently active in the HK television industry since the early 70s up to today (2011), so I guess I don’t need to do much in terms of intro, since most people know who he is. One interesting tidbit about Benz (other than how his English name came about – which you probably guessed is because he used to drive a Mercedes Benz to work) is that he actually has an aristocratic family background, as his great-grandfather was a high-ranking bureaucrat in Imperial times; also, his great-aunt is the wife of famous Chinese author Lu Xun (other members of his family also have ‘famous’ pasts, but too many to list). Anyway, I love Benz – he’s definitely one of the greatest supporting actors of all time!!

.—Maggie Chan also isn’t a stranger to viewers, as she participated in a lot of series in the late 80s and throughout the 90s. I of course remember her most for her roles in “Detective Investigation Files” (she played Kenix Kwok’s older sister) and “Untraceable Evidence” (she played Flora Chan’s older sister). I’ve always liked how Maggie is so natural with her acting, which is why I enjoy almost all of her performances (even if I don’t like the series itself). Maggie is actually known as a 才女 (‘gifted female’) in the industry, as she is very studious and even obtained an MBA at the same time that she was pursuing her acting career (she’s definitely one of the few artists in the industry who actually continued her studies and has Masters level education). She lives with her family (her second husband and his children) in Shanghai and the past few years, has taken to writing lyrics for songs.

.—Not sure how many people are familiar with Kam Hing Yin, as he is considered more of a 70s actor, since that was the height of his career. In the 80s, he was with ATV and in the 90s was when he returned to TVB. I’m actually not familiar with any of Kam Hing Yin’s works from the 70s or 80s, but I have seen most of the series he’s been in from the 90s. My understanding is that he’s also a movie actor as well.

.—Kwan Chung may not be a familiar name or face to most audiences – unless you are a fan of author Gu Long that is, as his most famous on-screen performance was as Mo Fa Monk in the 70s version of “Chor Lau Heung” (the Adam Cheng version). That role made Kwan Chung pretty much a household name in Taiwan (I wonder why Taiwan?). Also, he has a famous dad – the late veteran senior actor Kwan Hoi San (關海山).

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Sorry to say that I'm actually not familiar with the rest of the artists in the list, so I'm pretty much going to end my summary here.

Stay tuned for Part 3!