New ViuTV series: The Gutter (歎息橋)

I’m back! Well, at least for now. About a year and a half ago, I had stopped posting on this blog mostly because my life’s priorities at that time had changed to the point that I knew I would no longer have time to dedicate to this blog. It also didn’t help that, with the continued decline of the HK entertainment industry these past few years, I felt that writing about the industry started to become a huge waste of time. I felt like there were better ways to spend the limited leisure time that I have each day and consistently maintaining this blog just wasn’t worth the time.

So you must be thinking — if that’s the case, why did I decide to post again? The answer to that question is a bit complicated. First of all, nothing has changed in terms of my priorities — everything I stated above still stands and I definitely don’t intend on keeping this blog updated long-term. The reason why I decided to resurrect this blog temporarily is because I recently started watching HK series again and finally found one that is not only worthy of my time to actually watch, but also inspiring enough to spur me to write about it.

The series is called The Gutter (歎息橋), which is a production that just started airing on ViuTV this week. The Gutter reunites the creative team behind ViuTV’s earlier series Margaret and David: Green Bean — directors 25 (楊承恩) and Fat Ball (李紹波), award-winning scriptwriter Norris Wong (黃綺琳) — along with actors Bowie Lam (林保怡) and Catherine Chau (周家怡). This time around, Bowie has also taken up the role of producer for the series, so his involvement goes beyond that of lead actor.

As one of the few people who actually enjoyed and appreciated the Green Bean series (which, for those who never heard of it, was another non-mainstream HK series that realistically portrayed relationships and was based on the book series written by Nam Fong Mo Ting), I of course was excited when I heard, as far back as 2 years ago, that Bowie has plans to collaborate with 25 and Fat Ball again on a new series — so basically, this series has been on my radar for awhile.

Since I just started watching and am only on episode 3 (there are 15 episodes total), it will be awhile obviously before I’m in the position to write any type of review (if I decide to write a review that is — I’m still thinking about it). But one thing I do intend on doing (hence the reason for resurrecting this blog) is to share my thoughts on the series as I watch it and also provide a platform for others who may also be watching this series to share their thoughts as well. 

Those of you who know me know that when become interested in a series, I don’t just “watch” the series — rather, I do my research and try to find out everything I can about the series, including reading / watching all the behind-the-scenes stuff about how the series was made, as it enhances my viewing experience (I do the same thing with books that I like....I spend a lot of time researching and reading up on stuff). With this series especially though, research is necessary because it’s not a typical “formulaic” HK series akin to the kind that TVB usually churns out. Instead, The Gutter is a series that requires those who watch to really pay attention, as there are a lot of nuances and nothing is clearly explained — the audience actually needs to think when they watch the series and reflect. According to Bowie (via various interviews he has done over the past week), this is a series that won’t be easily understood with only one viewing — I love the way he put it in his most recent interview for Mingpao Weekly: “If you are able to watch The Gutter only once and completely understand it, then you must be a genius!” Bowie said that he himself had to read the script twice in order for him to begin to understand the message the story is trying to convey.

My intention for this particular post is for it to be an “introduction” of sorts where I wanted to share some of the information I had gleaned while reading up on the series. I’m also sharing links to the 25 minute production special that gives a “making of” behind-the-scenes look at the series as well as interviews with cast and crew that give important insights into the series. I recommend watching those interviews and the production special before watching the series. 

Also, just a word of warning: in order to get the most out of the experience, you need to go into this series without any preconceived notions of what you typically see in traditional HK (specifically TVB) series — in other words, if you are used to watching TVB’s formulaic series and are looking for something similar, you’re not going to find it with this series. The Gutter is very much a character-driven story where the focus is on how each of the main characters evolve and become who they are later in life and how that shapes how each of them view certain events that happen in their lives. I personally love character-driven stories so this series is a perfect match for me, but I know not everyone feels the same way. Also, it has been made very clear in multiple interviews with the cast and crew that this is not a series that you can just turn on in the background and make dinner while watching, nor can you multi-task and do other things at the same time — in other words, this series makes the audience “work” for their reward, taking the position that the audience is intelligent enough to work out the meaning on their own and interpret as they see fit (as opposed to TVB’s series, which mostly takes the position that their audiences are either dumb or lazy or, at minimum, aren’t the type who want to think for themselves). If that’s not something you are up for at the moment (which is perfectly fine given we are in the middle of a pandemic and many people may not be in the mood), then I recommend putting off watching this until you’re ready.

For my thoughts on specific episodes, stay tuned to my blog, and subsequent posts will cover that. For now, here is some introductory info to note:

- First, the significance of the series’ title. The English title “The Gutter” comes from renowned poet and playwright Oscar Wilde’s 1892 play Lady Windermere’s Fan, which is about the events that unfold when the titular character (Lady Windermere), suspects that her husband is having an affair. The title comes from a quote in Act III of the play, where Lord Darlington (Lady Windermere’s friend) comments: “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” [Reference: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Windermere's_Fan]

- The Chinese title 歎息橋 is literally translated as “Bridge of Sighs”, which is a real-life bridge located in Venice, Italy. Built in the 1600s, the bridge connected prison rooms to the government palace rooms where prisoners were interrogated. The bridge’s name refers to how “prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice through the window before being taken down to their cells.” [Reference: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_of_Sighs]

- The style of the series takes inspiration from Japanese director Akita Kurosawa’s 1950 film Rashomon in that it applies “the Rashomon effect” to tell its story. Dictionary.com defines the Rashomon effect as “an instance when the same event is described in significantly different (often contradictory) ways by different people who were involved.”

- Each episode is told from the point of view of each of the 6 main characters (Thomas, Sammy, Ken, Joyce, Catherine, and Kevin).

- The first 15 minutes or so of each episode is dedicated to telling the back story of each character through some of the events that occurred when they were young. The purpose of these scenes is to show how things that happen in our youth, the environment we were raised in, etc., influence the type of person we become later in life. 

- Part of the series was filmed on location in Belgium (the entire series was filmed in early 2019, so prior to the coronavirus outbreak).

- The cast of this series is one of the best I’ve seen in years! From veterans to newbies, the cast is star-studded and from the few episodes I’ve watched so far, the acting is excellent! Even if you’re not keen on the story, I would suggest watching this for the cast alone.

Here’s a brief rundown of the main 6 characters and the actors who portray them: 

- Thomas (李子勇) is played by Bowie Lam (林保怡), younger version is played by Kelvin Chan (陳健朗)

- Sammy (方小薇) is played by Catherine Chau (周家怡), younger version played by Hedwig Tam (談善言)

- Joyce (何樂兒) is played by Michelle Wai (衛詩雅), younger version played by Renci Yeung (楊偲泳)

- Ken (胡啟源) is played by Hanjin Tan (陳奐仁), younger version played by Himmy Wong (黃定謙)

- Catherine (梁淑媛) is played by Christine Ng (伍詠薇), younger version played by Leila Tong (唐寧)

- Kevin (鍾家俊) is played by Kaki Sham (岑珈其)

Other supporting characters also important to the story are:

- Lau Siu Ming (劉兆銘) who plays Thomas’s father 李文滔 , younger version is played by Samuel Kwok (郭鋒)

- Paul Chun (秦沛) plays Joyce’s father 何永昌 , younger version played by Wilson Tsui (艾威)

- Poon Chan Leung (潘燦良) plays Catherine’s husband Ryan 鍾懷安, younger version played by Ling Man Lung (凌文龍)

- Bonnie Wong (黃文慧) plays Ken’s mother 胡彩雲, younger version played by Luna Shaw (邵美君)

- Alan Luk (陸駿光) plays Sammy’s boyfriend 黎銘南, younger version played by Yatho Wong (黃溢濠)

- Angie Cheong (張慧儀) plays Thomas’s mother, who dies early on (not a spoiler since it’s in the summary) 

Here’s a quick translation of the summary that is in the Wikipedia page for the series (though please note that the summary is very incomplete....I translated what was there but there is way more to the story than that): 

Source: https://zh.m.wikipedia.org/zh-hant/歎息橋_(電視劇)

Summary: 李子勇 Thomas (林保怡/陳健朗飾) 出生貧窮，年輕時為了賺取母親的醫藥費，拼命打工賺錢，認識了同在茶餐廳打工的少女 方小薇 Sammy (周家怡/談善言飾)，自此成了好朋友。母親離世後，Thomas開了一間餐應，生意不俗，與 好友兼拍檔 Sammy 一起打拼。一天，Thomas 重遇在比利時結識的 何樂兒 Joyce (衛詩雅/楊偲泳飾)。二人一拍即合，很快便走在一起，但種種跡象均顯示 Joyce 似對 Thomas 不忠。Thomas 決定要當場拆穿她，卻沒料到自己才是第三者。原來 Joyce 與 胡啟源 Ken (陳奐仁/黃定謙飾) 已拍拖八年，當意識到到 Ken 似乎沒有求婚的打算時，Joyce 決定與有主見、有見識的 Thomas 開始另一段新感情。Thomas 知道自己莫名奇妙地做了 Joyce 與 Ken 之間的第三者之後，識趣地離去，本來不想再介入二人的關係…

Translation: In order to raise money to pay his mother’s medical expenses, Thomas Lee, who grew up poor, takes up a job at a cafe, where he meets Sammy Fong, also a worker there. The two of them become close friends into adulthood. After the death of his mother, Thomas teams up with Sammy to open a restaurant, which does good business. One day, Thomas is reunited with with Joyce Ho, a girl he met many years ago when he was working as a poor artist in Belgium. The two of them hit it off immediately and begin dating. Soon however, Thomas starts to notice things that suggest Joyce has perhaps been unfaithful to him. When Thomas decides to confront Joyce, he makes the discovery that all along, he has actually been the third wheel in Joyce’s relationship with her boyfriend Ken. Joyce and Ken had actually been dating for 8 years, but when she gets the feeling that Ken has no intentions of marrying her, their relationship hits a snag. When Joyce sees Thomas again, she is attracted to his ambitious and hardworking nature and decides to enter a relationship with him. After Thomas finds out that Joyce is still seeing Ken, he no longer wants to come between them, so he breaks things off with her....

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Behind-the-scenes production special feature:

Cast and Crew Interviews:

MUST READ: TVB CEO Mark Lee details upcoming changes and development plans

Source: Hong Kong Economic Journal

http://www2.hkej.com/landing/mobArticle2/id/1927147

TVB CEO Mark Lee did an interview with the Hong Kong Economic Journal yesterday where he talks about additional changes that will be happening at the station in the coming months.  In the interests of time, I'm not going to translate the entire article (there is a summarized version on HKEJ's website, which I've linked to above), however here are some main points from the article that are important to know.

Before I list out the main points though, need to preface with this -- several months ago, TVB already announced their intention to switch to becoming a multimedia digital platform, as they recognize that the way audiences consume their entertainment nowadays has changed significantly due to all the advancements in technology.  TVB feels that their previous business model is no longer viable in today's world and so they need to adapt to the changing times.  Of course, this is not something that will happen overnight, so TVB has been taking gradual steps over the past year with the goal of transitioning completely in the near future.  To this point, Mark Lee had actually done an interview several months prior where he had hinted at some of their plans, but at that time, he wasn't very specific on what exactly those plans would entail….with this interview, he lays it all out…

-  Currently, TVB is about two-thirds of the way done with their "digital transformation" plan and estimate that they will need another year or so to finish the remaining one-third.  They are estimating that they should be 100% up and running by the year 2020. 

-  In restructuring the company, there are 4 main areas of focus that will drive TVB's new direction:  increase revenue from advertising, control expenses through proper utilization of investments, increase the number of co-productions with other companies, expand Big Big Channel and other internet-related revenue streams (more detail on each of these aspects below).

-  Staffing – by the end of the year, the plan is to reduce 5% of current staff.  

•   Total staffing right now is 3900 employees, so reducing by 5% means that approximately 200 staff will lose their jobs by the end of the year.

•  This reduction is in addition to the changes they already made earlier in the year.  Here's how the numbers break down:

• Looking at TVB's past annual reports, the number of full-time staff they employ is usually around 4000 or so – this includes all contracted staff in HK as well as overseas (meaning outside of HK – basically wherever TVB has a presence).  

• As of June 2018, total staff count was 4333 – however after closing down the sports/athletic department and laying off staff from the international arm (TVBI) last month, total staff count as of right now is approximately 3900 people.  

• If we take the reduction in staff that was made previously (reduction from 4333 to 3900), that's approximately 10% reduction in staff (rough estimate about 430 people)….couple that with the 5% reduction (estimate 200 people) by the end of the year, that would mean that this year alone, TVB would've laid off / fired 15% of their staff, which is obviously A LOT!  I hope those 630 people will be able to find work elsewhere!

-  As part of re-evaluating which areas they will be spending their money, it was determined that they are going to invest more resources (financial and otherwise) into their OTT platform, which includes expanding myTV Super and also increasing their footprint in other markets.

• The money that was previously spent on their "traditional TV channels" (HK free-to-air channels such as Jade, Pearl, etc.) will be significantly reduced.

• As announced earlier, there will be a gradual increase in co-produced series (Mark Lee didn't specify "who" they would be co-producing with but given TVB's recent direction in shifting to the Mainland market, the assumption is that the co-productions will be with Mainland production companies or streaming platforms).  In 2019, they plan on having 4 co-produced series and in 2020, they will increase that number to 6 series.

• The co-productions will utilize more on-location filming (meaning outside of HK) as well as real location filming (no longer limited to filming only inside TVB City).

• Since majority of filming will be done on location, there will be less need for filming inside their massive Tseung Kwan O facility, so they will be shutting down some of the studios within TVB City and in turn, either transferring the staff from those studios to different positions or getting rid of the positions altogether.

• In terms of myTV Super, they will be switching to an On Demand format.  So instead of what they have now, where programming is arranged to air at a certain time, all channels will be replaced by On Demand service whereby the user can pick and choose what to watch and when to watch it.  This will help them further reduce their expenses by not needing to have their staff arrange programming, decide on scheduling and content, etc.

• For overseas viewers, current format will be gradually replaced by TVB Anywhere (their OTT service outside of HK), which also means that whatever events were associated with overseas platform will also be reduced.  [It's a bit vague but the "events" they are referring to are things such as award ceremonies – hence their announcement earlier this year that they're cancelling this year's Astro Awards (in Malaysia) and Starhub Awards (in Singapore) – for those who were wondering, it sounds like based on the above, these cancellations will be permanent!].

• The print edition of TVB Weekly Magazine will be discontinued.  Instead, they will switch to an on-line version, though no guarantees that the content will be the same.  This will help them save on printing and distribution costs.

-  Mark Lee emphasized that TVB is merely "changing with the times" and that these changes aren't being done haphazardly.  He said that their mantra is basically – "reduce where necessary, increase where necessary."  He said that despite the reduction in staff this year, they have actually hired more staff over the past years in areas that count, such as in the scriptwriting department, sales and finance, etc.

-  Increase revenue from ads

• TVB's main source of revenue is (and always has been) advertising – which currently accounts for approximately 57% of their revenue. 

• Mark Lee claims that the ad market for the first half of the year was "dismal" as there was only a minor increase of 2% revenue.  He said that many businesses were hesitant to place ads due to the retail market in HK not doing too well (most of their ad revenue the first half of the year came from businesses mostly specializing in beauty products, medicine, health and wellness options, etc.)

• Mark Lee said that he is confident they will see more of an uptick in advertising in the second half of the year, since that is traditionally the "peak period" for advertisers to get their products out there due to all the holidays and such.  Also, TVB will be increasing the number of anniversary series this year from 2 series to 3 series, which means there will be additional opportunities for businesses to buy advertising during those "prime" timeslots.

• Many companies are placing more emphasis on "new media" (i.e. web series, online streaming, etc.) nowadays due to the ease of getting content out to a wider audience in a quicker manner, plus there are fewer restrictions than with traditional media.  To this point, Mark Lee said that the advertising ratio of "new media" versus "traditional television" has reached 1:9 for the first time (meaning for every 1 ad placed on their internet platform, they would need 9 ads placed on traditional TV platform in order to make the same amount of money).  To this point, their goal is to increase the number by 2% by 2020. 

• The first half of the year, advertising on myTV Super increased by a whopping 76%, which allowed them to turn a profit (where they were "in the red" previously), bringing in $85 million additional revenue for them.

• In terms of OTT format, there is a huge difference between using the app and using set-top boxes to watch their content – the former (the app) is based on how long audiences watch the content for while the latter (set top box) is based on balancing advertising with subscription fees.  Mark Lee cited the following statistics:  starting first week in July, there was an average of 1.26 million audiences streaming their content each week, with each audience member watching on average for 16 hours – if they are able to increase this by 3% each year, those are more than solid numbers to attract advertising.

-   In terms of Big Big Channel, there are plans to expand it beyond a platform where audiences can interact with TVB artists.  Earlier this year, TVB already launched Big Big Shop, which is their e-commerce platform for consumers to buy regular products as well as TVB-related stuff (similar concept to what HKTV did with HKTVmall).  In the near future, they are thinking of expanding to include online games and competitions as well as other "value-added" services.

** Note:  In case you guys are wondering why there are so many "numbers" and "calculations" in this article – well, Mark Lee used to be (and I think still is now) an Accountant – and supposedly a mighty good one at that – so it's no surprise that he's always bringing up numbers and bottom line and revenue, etc.  Based on my personal experience (20+ years working with accountants at the companies I've been a part of), I find most of them are rigid and don't usually consider any circumstances outside of the numbers at hand (they are basically the anti-thesis of customer service).  When customers are late in paying their bills for instance, the accounting people I've worked with our pretty relentless in chasing down the money regardless of the circumstances, even if it means foregoing the relationship with the customer (in other words, they don't care if you offend the customer or if that customer will no longer be a customer because you you're unwilling to work with them or at least give them a little more time to pay or whatnot, they want the money regardless of the outcome).  In that light, not sure if TVB having an Accountant at its helm calling all the shots is a good thing or not….

Mingpao Weekly Interview: Sheren Tang on reprimanding TVB: “The deeper the love, the stronger the criticism”

As a follow up to my post from last week about Sheren Tang and Sunny Chan filming a series for ViuTV, I saw the below interview in this week's issue of Mingpao Weekly magazine and absolutely had to translate and share it right away!  MP printed a condensed version of this interview in their regular entertainment news section so in case you see parts of this interview elsewhere, know that the below is the actual full version as originally printed.

Sheren's interview speaks for itself but I have to say that I absolutely love the way she responded to all those media reports about her "betraying" TVB by filming for ViuTV (quite honestly, those reports pissed me off too so I'm happy to see Sheren putting those stupid media outlets in their place, lol!).  Also love what she said about the importance of speaking up when there are issues and not pretending that everything is fine when it's actually not.  And yes, when I read the part where Sheren gave her 愛之深，責之切 speech, I actually got out of my chair and did a happy dance because everything she said is EXACTLY what I've been saying about TVB for like the past 2 decades.  I'm sure those who follow my blog or any of my postings in other forums know how much I'm always criticizing TVB and calling them out on stuff (in my line of work, I call that type of feedback "constructive criticism") -- I've been asked many times whether I keep criticizing TVB because I hate them so much that I can't saying anything nice about them (which technically isn't true because I DO say nice things when it's appropriate, it's just that those "appropriate" times are few and far between -- hey, it's not my fault that TVB rarely does anything that warrants praise).  In response, I always give people my "constructive criticism" speech, which is essentially the same as Sheren's  愛之深，責之切 speech -- if I didn't care about TVB (and the HK entertainment industry in general), I wouldn't bother to give them feedback on what they're doing wrong in the hopes that they'll change it for the better.  One thing that my boss at work told me a long time ago that has always stuck with me is that the more someone cares about something/someone, the more critical they are going to be because they don't want to see that something/someone fail.  Of course, the way the criticism is given is important as well, but the gist of the message is that just because someone is critical of something (or someone else) doesn't necessarily mean that the person has malicious intent or is out to get the other person or whatnot -- there is such a thing as "constructive criticism" and hopefully those who believe that all criticism is bad can perhaps research this term and better understand what criticism is truly about.

Anyway, enjoy the interview and be sure to leave any comments / reactions you might have to it in the comments section below.  

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Sheren Tang on reprimanding TVB:  “The deeper the love, the stronger the criticism”

Source:  Mingpao Weekly, Issue # 2595

Published 8/4/2018

Translated by: llwy12

 

ViuTV has been recruiting heavily in recent days, securing veteran artists such as Amy Chan (陳秀雯) and Liu Kai Chi (廖啟智) to film a new series for them about HK’s school system. Their most successful recruitment recently though is persuading TV Queen Sheren Tang (鄧萃雯) to film a series for them — she will be teaming up with actor Sunny Chan (陳錦鴻) in a new series where they will play a married couple.  At the end of last year, when golden scriptwriter Chan Po Wah (陳寳華) returned to TVB with the intention of producing the new series Wonder Women (多功能老婆) for them, she had indicated that good friend Sheren Tang would be perfect in the role — however in the end, the role went to singer/actress Miriam Yeung (楊千嬅) instead. Now, after several months, Sheren personally clarifies what happened with that situation and why a previously rumored return to TVB ended up being a collaboration with ViuTV instead. 

--

Every time Sheren Tang is rumored to have a television project forthcoming, it’s usually a given that audiences excitedly anticipate her new series.  Last year, when scriptwriter Chan Po Wah announced she would be returning to TVB in early 2018 to prepare for a new series, she had expressed interest in inviting actress Sheren Tang to take up the starring role. Immediately, TVB’s assistant manager of production (non-drama department) Sandy Yu as well as deputy general manager Felix To personally reached out to Sheren to discuss the possibility of her returning to TVB to film Po Wah Jeh’s series.  However, in the end, the role went to Miriam Yeung and instead of returning to TVB, it was recently announced that Sheren will now be filming for ViuTV.  As soon as the news broke, various media outlets started reporting that Sheren, in filming for a rival station, has turned against TVB.

Towards this, Sheren responds: “I actually never turned down [Po Wah Jeh’s series] Wonder Women. In fact, I’m very grateful to Po Wah Jeh for considering me as her first choice to star in her series when it was confirmed last year that she would be returning to TVB. Usually, when a project is still in the discussion stage and I haven’t made the decision to accept yet, I don’t like to talk about it publicly — at the time, the discussion was actually only in very early stages, but as Po Wah Jeh’s good friend, I knew that she really wanted me to support her.  This was the first time she would be returning after so many years and I also admired TVB’s sincerity in inviting her back — all of us shared the same goal in wanting to film a truly good quality series and the fact that they were willing to really focus on the production was already worth supporting.  So I agreed to do that interview in support of Po Wah Jeh [TN: THIS is the interview Sheren is referring to] with the hope that it would bring more attention to the project — besides, I love HK series and am more than willingly to support a good quality production!  At the time, my intention was actually very simple.  After that, I actually didn’t hear anything more about the project and there was no further follow up.  I’m sure they [TVB] have their reasons for choosing Miriam. I’m actually happy for them because to me, the most important thing is being able to produce a quality series so that audiences can see that HK series are worth watching.”

In terms of multiple media outlets reporting that she “betrayed” TVB by agreeing to film for ViuTV and once again bringing up her past gripes with her former employer, Sheren responded:  “Many artists came from TVB and whenever any of them leave, the media always makes them out to be ‘traitors’ — honestly, this type of mindset is so outdated!  In today’s internet-driven world, with people watching series online now and so many different options, the HK market is already so small, why are we fighting amongst ourselves?  Sure, in series I film, there is often a lot of infighting, but in real life, my sights are set pretty far — what is the point of [each station] competing so aggressively against each other?  Does it really prove that you’re the best if you beat other HK series? If it’s really necessary to fight, why not try to beat American, Japanese, Korean, Mainland series instead?  People keep saying that I’m always reprimanding TVB — in response, I really want to tell them: ‘the deeper the love, the stronger the criticism’ [愛之深，責之切]!  If I didn’t love HK series, love my profession, I wouldn’t be so adamant about giving feedback and hoping for improvement – I could just stand back and let things happen without bothering.  All I want is for my colleagues and the entire industry to do well, to be an industry we can be proud of.  Not saying that TVB is regressing, but rather, the film and television industries in the rest of the world are all progressing, moving way ahead of us [HK].  When this is something that everyone can see, how can I possibly close my eyes and continue to pretend that TVB series are perfect, that nothing is wrong?  When even the reporters start to sense that something is wrong and they come ask me for my opinion, as an artist with experience, I am simply stating the truth of what I feel and know. HK series used to be the ‘big brother’, the leader [in Asia], so many people grew up watching TVB – it is because I love TVB a lot that I dare to reprimand them.  Actually, in the past, when having dinner with TVB colleagues and a few of the execs were present, I would pull the execs aside and take the opportunity to tell them about the problems I’ve seen [within the company], but unfortunately that never seemed to do any good.  When the reporters discover the same issues and come ask me, I’m sorry but I’m not a 3 year old who can just pretend nothing is wrong and blindly go along with things, especially when I’ve also seen those issues with my own eyes.  Good acting can’t cover up things that are so obviously visible to the naked eye, such as crude stage sets for example,  [TN:  Sheren is referring to the time when she filmed TVB series No Regrets where she complained that the stage sets looked really fake and also were falling apart right before her eyes – it was a distraction for her when she was trying to film her scenes], also declining ratings, audiences complaining they can’t understand the series, etc. -- in this situation, I cannot just bury my conscience and say everything is fine.  When it gets to the point where even reprimanding them no longer works, then I try a different method, go elsewhere in efforts to prove to them that the advice I am trying to give them can result in successes.  I hope that people will stop slandering me – I am actually the one who loves TVB the most!”

Received complete script prior to filming

Those who invite Sheren to film for them know that she has quite strict requirements, so the fact that she is willing to film for ViuTV means that they must have passed muster.  Sheren explained her decision to film with ViuTV:  “Actually, there were a few reasons why I decided to collaborate with them – I was impressed by their sincerity for one and two, I was attracted by the freshness of the script.  The story revolves around relationships and at its core, it’s about dealing with the various feelings and emotions surrounding this. I like this story’s theme because it fits with my personality – I’m the type of person who feels things especially strongly and acutely.  The character I’ll be playing has her complexities, only a handful of people surround her, yet their relationships [to each other] are linked in countless ways.  I honestly feel that playing characters in palace series, period pieces, even playing strong career women roles, is really not that difficult because at the end of the day, most audiences don’t really know what it is truly like.  Playing an ordinary person dealing with the complexities of marriage, that type of role is challenging because it’s so universal – you have to be very meticulous and careful with your performance in order to make your character resonate with audiences.  The other important piece to this is my physical ability to perform – for me, I need to have sufficient rest and sleep in order to be at my best performance level.  I’ve told you guys in the past that nowadays it’s impossible for me to work long hours day and night without sleep or rest and still be able to give a good performance.  With everything being high definition nowadays, I want the result that audiences see on-screen to be me at my prettiest and most alert, which is why it’s so important for me to get enough rest and sleep.  Also, my other requirement is that I must receive the entire script prior to starting filming – this is something that I refuse to compromise.  The reason for this is because if I don’t have the complete script, it’s impossible for me to fully understand and digest my character and figure out the best way to portray her.  I need sufficient time to prepare and study my character in depth and if I’m not given that time, it directly affects the quality of my performance.  In order to make a truly good series that is able to compete with the outside world, every position at every level is important and no detail can be overlooked.  We have to admit that the market in HK, as compared with the Mainland, is indeed very small, but that doesn’t mean we’re incapable of producing quality dramas that people can respect and approve of.  In order to make this happen, all of us need to play our part and put in the extra effort as well as take the production seriously.”

Since filming for ViuTV’s new series doesn’t start until September, Sheren is spending this next month preparing for her role.  “The producer Ruby [TN: book series “Margaret & David” author 南方舞廳] actually approached me about working with her around the same time that Po Wah Jeh did.  When it comes to production companies that approach me for collaboration, I don’t play favorites – if they are not able to meet my requirements, then I turn them down, it doesn’t matter who they are.  With Ruby and ViuTV, I told them that I must have the complete script in my hands before I agree to film and they were actually able to deliver – I received the entire script more than a month ahead of when filming is scheduled to start!  They told me that even if I didn’t request to have the completed script before filming, they would still do so anyway because they need time to prepare as well – we all have the same goal of wanting to put forth our best work.  Of course, the end result is not something we are able to control, but if a lot of people end up praising the series, that will be a reflection of the entire cast and crew’s efforts.  Our entertainment industry plays an important role in maintaining HK’s reputation.”

Breaking News: Sheren Tang, Sunny Chan, and Amy Chan to film new series for ViuTV

Saw this article and got super excited so figured I post now and elaborate later, lol.

https://m.mingpao.com/pns/dailynews/web_tc/article/20180731/s00016/1532974769985

Basically, I just found out that two of my favorite television actors/actresses – Sunny Chan and Sheren Tang – will be filming a new series for ViuTV.  The series will be produced by   南方舞廳   (whom most people may recognize as the name of the author who wrote the Margaret and David books, the entire franchise of which was turned into a series by ViuTV that aired over the past 2 or so years). 

Sheren and Sunny will play a married couple and the theme of the series will be about older couple relationships (kind of in the same vein as M&D, which was also about relationships except the central couple was younger).  I'm excited (first time I've felt excited for a series in a long time), since Sheren and Sunny are 2 of my favorite actors/actresses,  it's been a long time since I've seen them onscreen, the pairing is fresh (trying to remember but I don't think the two of them have collaborated before), and the theme / plot will be more relevant to society as well as different from typical HK series (no more TVB recycled formula – yay!).

According to the producer, Sheren's only requirement was that she receive the entire script in hand before commencing filming and they've already delivered on that!  Now it makes sense why Sheren didn’t take up the offer to film that new Chan Bo Wah series from TVB...they probably couldn’t meet whatever demands she had.

In related news, veteran actress Amy Chan Sau Man (another actress I like) will also be filming a series for ViuTV but not the same one as Sheren and Sunny.  Wow, ViuTV is really hitting it into the park with the veterans this year – after reuniting “Greed of Man” father and son Adam Cheng and Michael Tao in the Detective Psycho Prequel earlier in the month, now they're bringing on veterans that many of us have been waiting a long time to see again.  Hope they keep this up!!  I for one will definitely be keeping an eye out for their upcoming series!

More to come on this!!!

Fox Asia’s “The Trading Floor” to premiere on May 24th

Saw this article yesterday about Fox Asia's highly anticipated first Chinese-language series, "The Trading Floor."  Many of us were wondering when this series will air and the last I had heard several months back was Spring 2018….well, yesterday they finally announced that the series will officially premiere on Fox's Chinese language channel on May 24^th.

Below are some of the highlights from the article (will translate in more detail when I have time but for those who can read Chinese, I suggest checking out the original article itself).

-          Chinese name of the series changed from  香港華爾街   to 東方華爾街

-          Producer for the series is Andy Lau

-          Director is KK Wong (he was the director/producer for HKTV's "The Election")

-          Cast features ensemble of actors/actresses from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China

-          Partial cast includes:  Francis Ng, Joseph Chang, Patrick Tam, Maggie Cheung, Liu Kai Chi, Poon Chan Leung, Law Kar Ying, Cheung Lui, Carlos Chan, Jacky Cai, Fish Liew, etc.

-          Season 1 will be 5 episodes

-          Story is about the finance sector in Asia and the changes that it goes through over a 20 year time period.  Francis plays a finance expert who will do everything he can to climb to the top and become finance boss – throughout the process, he will face off against his apprentice student Joseph Chang

There is a trailer included in the article, which I haven't had a chance to watch yet so I'm not sure if it's the same one as previously released.  The 2 posters are new though and both versions (which have been dubbed "Cash 1.0" and "Cash 2.0" by the director) look AWESOME!

I honestly can't wait to watch this series!

Link to article: https://www.hk01.com/即時娛樂/186166/東方華爾街-吳鎮宇張孝全師徒決裂-記錄亞洲金融戰場20年

Entertainment Newsreel #5: Mostly movies and a little bit of TV news...

Lots of movie news this past week due to the start of FILMART + HK Film Festival and also award show season with the Asian Film Awards and Director's Guild Awards, so the focus this time will be on movie industry news.  There is some TV industry news too, but not as much compared to the recent happenings in the film world.

Also, FILMART actually just started yesterday but I didn't want to wait until the end of the week to do this post, since there is so much info already, so if need be, I'll do a follow up later in the week to cover whatever may emerge from there, whether movies or television (I actually have a feeling the news we are waiting for on OCTB will be announced at FILMART – just a hunch, no inside info or anything….anyway, I'll post something up once I hear further).

Movie industry news

ASIAN FILM AWARDS & DIRECTORS GUILD AWARDS

-          The big news coming out of the HK film world this week (aside from Leon's news but I'll get to that later) has to do with one of this generation's most prolific movie actors – Louis Koo.   This year's Asian Film Awards and Director's Guild Awards were held within days of each other and Louis won Best Actor at both award ceremonies (for his role in the movie Paradox, the much touted second installment in the SPL franchise).   As Louis himself said during his acceptance speech at the Asian Film Awards (which was held first), this is his first ever movie-related award so of course it means a lot to him.  I'm glad to hear him say this because in my opinion, being able to win at the Asian Film Awards is more "prestigious" than winning in one of HK's awards shows because the artists are going up against other artists / movies from across Asia – to be able to defeat other talented actors outside of Hong Kong is quite an accomplishment!  Congrats to Louis!!

-          Personally, I've never been a fan of Louis' acting, whether back when he was at TVB or after entering the movie world and filming boatloads of movies (honestly, the word "prolific" is an understatement – at one point, Louis seemed to be in every single movie out there, lol).  Don't ask me to explain why because I don't know – his acting just never appealed to me for some reason.  With that said though, I do have a lot of respect for Louis as a person and that respect has grown over the years after learning about his charity work (which he rarely talks about) as well as seeing his contributions to the film industry and his efforts at improving the industry as a whole.  [Sidenote: Louis was recently voted in as HKPAG (Hong Kong Performing Artists Guild) Chairman (taking over for previous Chairman Jackie Chan) and hearing his ideas on how he plans to support the industry was very encouraging!]  I'm happy for Louis with both his wins and I'm sure this is a boost of confidence for him heading into the HK Film Awards next month – he's up against some tough competition though so even though he is the "hot favorite" to take him the award there too, the results are hard to predict so let's see what happens.

-          At the Director's Guild Awards, the highlight of Louis' win is that people kept playfully teasing him about going up on stage and gracing the audience with his singing again.  This was actually a reference to Louis attending the annual HK Film Workers' Spring Dinner event last week  where he was pulled on stage during one of the performances and invited to sing a few lines from one of his songs with them.  Louis actually obliged (and was very gracious about it) – the video of him singing was uploaded online and of course it took the internet by storm, since it's very rare nowadays for Louis to be willing to open his "golden mouth" to sing.  So now, at every event, his colleagues as well as the reporters "tease" him about going on stage and singing for them – of course, Louis politely turns everyone down, but I love that he is so good-humored about it, even playing along with them in some instances and "pretending" to leave when the word "singing" is mentioned, lol.  It's rare for us to see Louis' playful side (he always looks so cool and serious) so I can definitely see why everyone is taking the opportunity to "tease" him while it lasts.  My respect for Louis actually went up a few notches this past week after seeing how he handled the whole "singing" thing….

-          On the Best Actress front – Sylvia Chang took home the Best Actress award at the Asian Film Awards for her performance in Love Education, which she also directed.  She wasn't able to repeat the win at the Directors Guild Award, however she did end up taking home the Best Director Award at that ceremony.

-          The winner(s) of the Best Actress award at the Directors Guild Awards ceremony were Teresa Mo for Tomorrow is Another Day and Stephy Tang for The Empty Hands.  Yes, you heard right – there were 2 winners for Best Actress because both actresses ended up in a tie and so the Guild decided to award both.  There's actually a funny story to this, which Teresa Mo told during her acceptance speech.  Teresa said that she threw away her husband Tony Au's voting form for these awards because he was away on a trip and she didn't feel it was right to vote on his behalf, even though she knew that he would've cast his vote for her in the Best Actress category anyway.  It turns out that 'one vote' mattered in this case, since it meant the difference between her winning the award and having to share it. 

-          The Best Actress race at the HK Film Awards next month will be interesting, as all three actresses -- Sylvia Chang, Teresa Mo, and Stephy Tang – are in contention for the coveted award (rounding out the category are Zhou Xun for Our Time Will Come and Chrissie Chau for 29+1).  The Directors Guild Awards is generally seen as a precursor to HKFA, as the winners there usually go in to win at the HKFA as well – true or not, I'm pretty sure they are not going to do another "shared win" thing at HKFA (can't remember the last time – if ever – that they had such a win at HKFA).  Personally, I'm rooting for Teresa (since she's an awesome actress and also one of my favorites) – this will be her 7^th time being nominated for HKFA Best Actress so it's about time she won, though in all honesty, doesn't really matter to me who wins since I haven't watched any of the nominated films this year so can't really complain.  From various reports, I know that Stephy has done a great job this year and has already won multiple Best Actress awards already at other awards shows, so she is definitely the "hot favorite" going into HKFA, however I think both Teresa and Sylvia will give her a run for her money.  I'm fine with whoever ends up winning in this category. 

OTHER MOVIE-RELATED NEWS

-          Speaking of Louis Koo – I'm sure Louis fans will be happy to know that there is finally more news on the movie version of his "classic" TVB series A Step into the Past.  Rumors have been circulating for several years already that Louis plans to do a movie version of the series and invite back the original cast to participate.  It was confirmed last year that Louis will indeed be producing the movie and starring in it, but beyond that, there weren't a whole lot of details available.  Well, yesterday at FILMART, they unveiled the official poster for the movie and provided some more details as follows:

o   The Chinese name of the movie will be the same as the series but the English name will now be called Back to the Past. 

o   Louis's own production company One Cool Film will be producing this, which I assume means that Louis will be given the Executive Producer title for the project (I didn't catch who the director will be though), however this will also be a co-production with Mainland company Huace Pictures.

o   Filming is scheduled to begin at the end of the year.

o   Confirmed "original" cast from the series are Louis, Raymond Lam, and Jessica Hsuan (this is actually not surprising, as it was already revealed earlier on that both Raymond and Jessica signed to Louis' management company, so it makes sense that they would re-unite for this film).  

o   The big question now is whether other "original" cast members will return as well.  There was no mention of additional cast at FILMART (at least not yet), so no doubt there will be further announcements and possibly press conference forthcoming in the next few months.  Current speculation though is that most likely the rest of the cast won't return, since majority of them have retired from the industry already or are have other filming obligations, plus the movie is a co-production with Mainland, which means that they have to save a few of the "top" roles for Mainland artists. 

-          My take – I was never a fan of ASITP the series so I'm indifferent toward the news of a movie version now being filmed, but I know a lot of people out there loved the series, so if those of you reading this are a fan of the series, I'm curious to hear your thoughts – please feel free to comment!  The way I see it, one good thing about this production is that Louis is producing it himself and with how involved he had been in the series (supposedly he had even written parts of the original script) and how much he cared about it, at least you know he will put in the effort to make it good and not butcher it like others would (I'm sure people still remember the previous movie remakes of TVB series that were done by different companies and ended up being horrible / un-watchable).     

-          The other "big" movie industry news (though technically not really specifically movie-related but since the artist is a film actor now, figured putting it here was more appropriate) this week – this one is "hot off the press"….Heavenly King Leon Lai finally confirmed that he will become a dad soon.  For those who were not aware (which is kind of impossible given how big this news has been, lol), media reports had surfaced last week that Leon and his assistant Wing (she works for his record label A-Music) were dating and that Wing was photographed with a bulging belly, which in the HK media world, meant that she is "most likely" pregnant.  So of course, rumors started flying that Leon will be a dad soon, though he had yet to confirm anything.  Leon had actually attended FILMART yesterday and refused to say anything when reporters asked him, but then a few hours later he posted a formal announcement on his Facebook page confirming the news that he and his girlfriend are indeed expecting (I'm sure all the media outlets – Chinese and English – will be re-posting his FB post so not going to bother posting it here).  With Leon joining the ranks of fatherhood now, he is the last of the 4 Heavenly Kings to settle down and start a family (though whether he will marry Wing or not remains to be seen – there was no mention of marriage in the post, only that he will become a father soon).  Congrats to Leon!  Even though I'm not a fan of his, I'm still happy for him, as having a child is a huge milestone and deserves to be recognized.

TV Industry news

HKTV

-          The big news in terms of HKTV is that they have sold the rights to their series to i-cable arm Fantastic Television, who will be airing their series on their free-to-air channel starting on April 17^th.  I won't go into detail here, since I already wrote up a  post on this a couple days ago and also stated my thoughts on this already.  Those that are interested can read that post here.

FOX ASIA

-          Fox Asia released a new extended trailer for their series Stain'd.  The trailer is 2 minutes, 12 seconds long and all 3 A-list leads – Anthony Wong, Kara Hui, Tse Kwan Ho – are featured.  This article from HK01 has a link to the trailer so you can watch it there, though I'm sure Fox Asia's webpage and also Youtube channel have it as well.  I actually haven't had a chance to watch it yet so can't really comment right now, but once I do get around to watching it, I'll definitely post something up about it.  Also, if I hear any news about when Fox Asia's series are scheduled to air, I'll make sure to post an update.

OTHER TV INDUSTRY NEWS

-          This one I'm actually excited about!!  If, like me, you're a fan of the TVB series Untraceable Evidence and have been "dying" for another Bowie Lam / Flora Chan collaboration (they did film Healing Hands together, but I wasn't a fan of that series / franchise so that doesn't really count, lol), rest assured that your (our) wish might be granted some time in the near future.  Bowie and Flora attended an event the other day (no, nothing related to entertainment stuff – it was an environmental / beach cleaning event that was sponsored by one of their mutual friends, former actress Sharon Kwok) and so reporters seized the opportunity to ask them when they are going to fulfill fans' wishes for them to collaborate again.  Bowie said that it's something he and Flora have talked about and that when they had their Untraceable Evidence cast reunion dinner a few weeks ago (I saw the pictures – ah, the memories!!!), he had already told Flora to save some room in her schedule for him.  Flora's answer was more of a "we'll see" response because she is currently working on her PhD in Education and so her schooling comes first (aside from her family of course).  She said that she had agreed to film that program about marriage for ViuTV because it fit her schedule for one, and two, they allowed her to produce the program and gave her free reign to do the program how she wanted, so she decided to add some educational elements to the show. 

-          Bowie opened his own production company recently and currently has a few scripts on hand that he is reading through (I wrote in my Entertainment Newsreel #4 about Bowie's plans to produce  and star in his own series – you can read the details here) – he said that from day one of opening his production company, he was already planning to invite Flora for another collaboration.  He said that there will definitely be another chance for them to collaborate again, but he can't confirm when that will be due to Flora's studies being her top priority right now.  Both of them are for it though, so it's just a matter of time. 

-          As a fan of the Bowie/Flora pairing in UE, I'm one of those waiting for them to collaborate again.  Now that Bowie has his own production company and the freedom to film whatever he wants, looks like we are closer than ever to seeing another collaboration between these two, the only thing is timing.  Flora did say during their joint interview that she also wants to collaborate with Bowie again, however she still has another 3 years to go in terms of her studies (for her PhD) so it will really depend on whether she is able to carve out some time in between.  I'm secretly praying that Flora will find the time in between her studies to take Bowie up on his offer.  PLEASE PLEASE Flora, please don't make us wait 3 years for another collaboration! 

News Article: HKTV series to air on Fantastic Television starting in April

Some interesting news that came out a few days ago:  starting in April (on the 17^th to be exact), i-Cable’s free-to-air channel Fantastic Television will be airing HKTV’s series.  According to the below article, the series that will be aired first is To Be or Not To Be (來生不做香港人), which also happens to be one of my favorite HKTV series (I wrote a review on this series a couple years back – those interested can read it here).  When the reporter for media outlet HK01 contacted Fantastic Television, they gave a bit of a vague response and would only confirm that they will indeed be airing To Be or Not To Be starting 4/17 but declined to state whether they will be airing all the rest of HKTV’s series.  There are also (so far) few details on how the deal went down – meaning, did Ricky Wong sell the broadcasting rights for the series to Fantastic Television back when he was still in charge of HKTV or were the rights sold to them by his partner after he sold his stake in HKTV to him a few months back?  Also, did he sell ALL 16 of their series or only select ones?

My initial reaction when I heard this news – I wasn’t shocked, since I had already been anticipating something like this would happen…from the moment HKTV was denied a free-to-air TV license and their option to operate as a mobile broadcaster was also shot down by the courts, the writing was on the wall that something like this was inevitable.   With that said though, my only question is:  why Fantastic Television?  That is the one station with the least amount of standing in HK audience’s eyes right now – I mean, the station launched last year to little fanfare (to the point that many people had no clue they had launched) and since then, they have been the “quietest” station in that basically no one knows what programs they are filming and when they will air.  In fact, I heard that Fantastic Television had aired one of their own locally produced series a few months back yet barely anyone watched it because no one knew it was on.  To be honest, I would much rather that HKTV sell their series to ViuTV, as ViuTV at least has already established decent presence as a free-to-air channel and has a steady audience base already (albeit their audience pool is more of a “niche” group, but hey, having a steady audience that watches their programs on a consistent basis is better than having no audiences at all, right?). 

Given the circumstances, I am actually very curious how this “deal” came about and the reasons behind it.  If I have time, I’ll try to do some “digging” and see what I find.  Meanwhile though, fellow HKTV fans, I would like to hear your thoughts – do you think this is a good move on the part of HKTV, or a bad one?  Or neither?  Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section!

.***.

**Translation of article below – please note that I took some liberties when translating this article due to my more in-depth knowledge of the series and HKTV itself, so there were some facts added that weren’t in the original article itself.  Therefore, I consider the below to be more of a “paraphrase” of the article rather than a straight translation.**

Article originally published 3/15/2018

Source:  HK01

Fantastic Television to air HKTV series:  To Be or Not To Be will “re-broadcast” in mid-April

HKTV’s former chairman Ricky Wong (王維基) had tried his hand at building up his TV station HKTV (香港電視網絡) from scratch, at one point investing heavily in the production of over a dozen high quality series such as The Election (選戰), Borderline (警界線), The Menu (導火新聞線), etc.  Many of the audiences who watched HKTV’s series praised the subject matter for being fresh and also the overall high quality of their productions.  Unfortunately, despite audience support, HKTV was unable to obtain a free-to-air television license from the government, which forced them to halt all television production indefinitely and later on switch to becoming an E-commerce business instead.  Awhile back ago, HKTV decided to upload all of their series to Youtube so that all HK audiences could get a chance to watch their series, however later on, it was changed so that only overseas audiences could access, resulting in many HK audiences who wanted to watch not getting a chance to do so. [TN:  I actually didn’t know about this part, as I tried “re-watching” a few of HKTV’s series back when they first uploaded them to Youtube and didn’t have a problem accessing at all —but then again, I’m an “overseas audience” since I live in the U.S., so maybe that’s why?  If anyone who currently lives in HK happened to try accessing HKTV’s series on Youtube and indeed wasn’t able to, I would be curious to know if this part is true or not…].

For those audiences in HK who didn’t get to watch HKTV’s series, here’s your chance to do so, as their series To Be or Not To Be (來生不做香港人) will be broadcast on new free-to-air station Fantastic Television’s channel 77 starting on April 17^th.

Actually, To Be or Not To Be is a pretty good series that had received acclaim back when it first aired on HKTV.  Led by a strong veteran cast consisting of Maggie Cheung (張可頤), Prudence Liew (劉美君), stage actor Poon Chan Leung (潘燦良) [he is known as ‘Prince of Stageplays’], Savio Tsang (曾偉權), Mimi Kung (龔慈恩), Wilson Tsui (艾威), etc., the series tells the story of two sisters and their differences in upbringing [one in Mainland China and one in HK] that highlights their disparity in culture as well as value systems.  Even with the 3 to 4 year gap from the time the series initially aired to its re-broadcast next month, the series does not feel ‘outdated’ at all and in fact the subject matter is very much still relevant today.  With this news of Fantastic Television airing HKTV’s series, plus the earlier news that Fantastic Television had hired actor Wong He (王喜) as their Director of Programming, it appears that the station is now finally preparing to take some action on the TV series side of things. [TN:  I wrote about the Wong He thing in my Entertainment Newsreel post last week.  You can read about it here].

Towards broadcasting HKTV’s series, Fantastic Television responded to HK01’s inquiry as follows: “Fantastic Television will begin airing HKTV’s series around mid-April, with the intention that HK audiences will be able to enjoy their series on a free-to-air TV station.  Fantastic Television is committed to searching out and bringing high quality programs to its viewers.  As one of HK’s free-to-air television stations, Fantastic Television encourages growth and development of the television industry so that audiences can enjoy diverse and quality programming and truly have a choice in the free entertainment realm.”

In terms of whether the rest of HKTV’s series will be scheduled to air in the near future, Fantastic Television’s rep did not respond directly, only stating that there will be announcements of other productions airing at future dates [TN: They did not specify which productions so they could be referring to either their own productions or HKTV’s productions].