My Thoughts on CTI’s ‘Sales Presentation and Name Changing’ Ceremony (Part 3) – Feedback on drama series clips

Ok, now that everyone has had a chance to watch the Sales Presentation clips (I mean the actual drama series and variety program clips, not the Sales Presentation show itself), including myself, here’s my feedback on which programs I’m ‘anticipating’ and which ones I will probably ‘pass’ on….


**Note: There’s no special significance to the order in which the drama series are listed – I pretty much listed them based on the order in which the preview clips are shown in the Youtube links.**

Overall feedback: I have to hand it to the CTI/HKTV cast and crew for doing such a great job with the filming and editing of the clips. The high quality filming equipment and techniques really show – the way the preview clips came out, I truly felt that I was watching trailer clips for upcoming Hollywood movies / TV shows!

Due to time constraints, I didn’t actually link any of the series back to the previous posts that I did but if anyone is interested in looking at the cast lists or plot summaries, let me know and I’ll be glad to point you in the right direction.

.****.

Fantasy Love Song 201314 (童話戀曲201314)  [already finished filming]


My Thoughts: This series reminds me of the movie “Chicago” with the whole music / dance theme + love story thing. Anyway, I’m not tremendously fond of the main cast (though I like majority of the supporting cast), but the storyline does sound interesting and the scenery looks absolutely stunning…plus I love musicals – it’s one of my favorite ‘genres’ for one, and two, I haven’t watched a musical in such a long time, so it will be fun to get back into one again. Also, it’s nice to see actual singers in this series (since it’s a ‘musical’ after all) as opposed to actors/actresses ‘pretending’ to sing. Another ‘plus’ is the fact that they got a pretty well-known record producer / songwriter (Mark Lui) to ‘do’ (produce) all the music / songs in this series so at least there’s a bit of ‘name recognition’ there.

Based on what I’ve seen / read so far, this series is definitely on my ‘to watch’ list. Hope the final product lives up to the expectation!


Three Sides of Shape Doctors (三面形醫) [currently filming]

My Thoughts: Definitely interested in this series, since the 3 main leads (John Chiang, Frankie Lam, Wilson Tsui) are among my ‘favorites’ in terms of actors (I like the supporting cast as well). The trailer clip was pretty riveting and the theme is quite refreshing, since very few (if any) HK series explore the subject of plastic surgery in such detail (key word here is ‘HK series’). I know many people said this series is similar to the American drama “Nip/Tuck”, which is probably true, but since I’ve never watched that series, I can’t really comment on this piece of it. The other ‘draw’ with this series is that it will supposedly show real life surgery scenes, though I’m assuming that those scenes will be cut out in the TV version (since the HK audiences are ‘ultra-conservative’ plus there are limitations to what is allowed to be shown on TV based on broadcasting regulations) – so it looks like most of us will need to watch the ‘web version’ of the series in order to get the ‘complete’ viewing experience with this series.

The only thing about this series that I’m not sure about is the fact that it doesn’t have any strong female leads in it (at least none that are familiar to me) – supposedly, Kate Yeung is the ‘female lead’ in this series, but honestly, I have no clue who she is or how her acting is like, so not sure at this point how/ if that is going to affect my ‘viewing experience’ with this series.



Fiery News Catalyst (導火新聞線) [starts filming in 2013]

My Thoughts: This is actually a ‘new’ series that has not been formally announced yet (hence the lack of cast list and series summary) and won’t actually commence filming until 2013. I read a little bit on what this series will be about on Weibo (it’s about the tabloid /newsmagazine reporting industry) and so far, it sounds interesting. Looks like the biggest ‘selling point’ of this series will be Noel Leung playing the part of a ruthless, ethically questionable editor-in-chief a news agency who is willing to go to great lengths for a news story, even if it means harming others in the process -- this type of character is definitely different from the typecasted ‘sweet angelic girl’ roles that Noel usually got when she was at TVB. Noel has always been a ‘decent’ actress to me, so I definitely don’t mind watching her in a series.

The preview trailer for the series was quite gripping with the whole ‘pregnant woman jumping off a building’ scene and the aftermath of that….will definitely be interesting to see what happens. Since the series hasn’t started filming yet, I’m assuming the script isn’t complete yet (that’s one of the big differences between CTI and TVB – filming doesn’t start until a complete script is in hand), which means that the story concept and cast could still change. Anyway, let’s wait and see once more details come out next year (when the series is ‘officially’ announced)…


Still Have Time to Love You Again (還來得及再愛你) [already finished filming]

My Thoughts: Ok, I can already say right now that this series is a ‘skip’ for me, primarily because I can’t stand ‘idol series’ nowadays (I’ve watched quite a few of them in the past and hated them!) plus I’m not a big fan of the vampire theme. Also, the cast of this series is the least ‘appealing’ to me because I barely know any of them (not surprising since this IS an idol series after all, so the main cast consists primarily of youngsters, most of whom are probably newbies).

I know one of the ‘selling points’ of this series is its main lead, Taiwanese actor Danson Tang – sorry, nothing against the guy, but I stopped following Taiwanese entertainment ‘religiously’ years ago, so I have no clue who all the ‘popular’ artists are in Taiwan nowadays. Personally, I had never heard of Danson Tang until CTI/HKTV came along, so to me, whether he is in the series or not doesn’t make a difference – it won’t change my opinion about whether to watch this series or not.


Frightful Century (驚異世紀) [already finished filming]

My Thoughts: This series will also be a definite ‘skip’ for me because, well, I don’t like to watch horror flicks. Ok, fine, I admit I have a ‘weak heart’ and have never been able to ‘tolerate’ that particular genre – way too intense for me! I actually do like the cast of the series and from all the stuff I’ve read, it sounds like the artists had very challenging roles, which means these particular performances could be ‘breakthroughs’ of sorts for them in terms of acting. Unfortunately though, based on the trailer, the series looks way too scary – I actually covered my eyes practically the entire time that I was watching the trailer for the series because the scenes shown were too ‘horrifying’ for me (never did that before!). Ah well – luckily this same cast is in other series as well, so I’ll still get a chance to see them in action elsewhere.


Police Boundaries (警界線) [started filming, continuing in 2013]

My Thoughts: This is definitely one of my most anticipated CTI/HKTV series! I’ve always been somewhat of a ‘fan’ of cop series – that particular theme / genre just never seems to get old, no matter how many times it is ‘re-used’. Based on what I gather from the trailer as well as the series summary, it does sound like the series will deal with the ‘black cop’ concept again, which has pretty much been filmed to death by both TVB as well as the HK movie industry already, so it will be interesting to see what type of different spin HKTV brings to it.

I’m actually very excited about this series because I love the cast – it’s been years since I’ve seen veteran actor Liu Kai Chi on the small screen --he’s been doing movies for more than a decade already, but since I don’t watch HK movies as much now as I used to, I definitely miss seeing him! Oh and Dominic Lam is in this one as well (his name is listed second after Liu Kai Chi’s), along with Leila Tong, Deno Cheung, Lam Lei, Felix Lok, Annie Liu, etc. – a lot of artists I like and enjoy watching! From the trailer, it looks like Liu Kai Chi will play the ‘black cop’ in the series, which means that he will be taking on a villain role again (it’s been years since I’ve seen him in a villain role) and matching wits against Dominic Lam (wonder whether his role will be good guy or villain – or little bit of both?) as well as Lawrence Chou. Can’t wait!

Oh, by the way – all reports indicate that HKTV is going to air this series as their ‘opening series’ – meaning it’s going to be the very first series they air when they finally get their license and ‘open up shop’. At first I was wondering how this was going to work, since the series is still being filmed and isn’t even close to completion yet – but then I remembered that they said they were going to make a movie version of this series first and then the storyline will continue as a TV series…so it looks like they will probably air the movie version (assuming it will probably be a few hours?), then later on follow it up with the actual series (not sure if there will actually be a time lapse in between). Smart choice if you think about it because cop series traditionally fare well with audiences and since it appears from the trailer that there will be quite a few ‘action-packed’ scenes, it’s pretty much guaranteed to be a hit with audiences…great way to start off with a bang!


Second Life (第二人生) [already finished filming]

My Thoughts: Based on the trailer and the series summary, sounds like this will be HKTV’s ‘time travel’ series – though unlike the TVB ones, it’s not going to be the obvious ‘ancient time to modern time’ and vice versa type. Instead, the characters are going to remain in the modern world and essentially will ‘travel back in time’ to get a second chance at living their lives differently. It’s supposed to be one of those motivational, life inspiring, feel good type of series….whether the series will actually live up to that remains to be seen.

To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of the cast (though I found most of the artists in here quite tolerable) but I’ll probably watch this series just to see how they do the ‘time travel’ theme – plus there’s a huge music component to this series as well (obviously, since majority of the cast consists of singers), so that will be nice to watch. Oh, and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing the special ‘concert’ thing that they did for the series – the first time ever where the cast held a live concert (complete with real life audiences) at an actual arena (the Asia Expo Centre) and integrated it into the series….not sure how the editing is going to work or whether the cast will actually be playing the characters in the series or themselves, but it will definitely be interesting to watch!


Brain Opening Detective (開腦儆探) [currently filming]

My Thoughts: Of course this is a ‘must watch’ for me, given the fact that Felix Wong is the lead in the series (obvious Felix fan here…haha!). Other than Felix, the rest of the cast might not be too ‘impressive’ (other than perhaps Sam Lee and Lo Hoi Pang) but I’m ok with that because I already knew going into it that the cast will consist of quite a few ‘newbies’. Besides, it looks like the ‘draw’ of the series (based on the trailer and series summary) will be the storyline more than the cast – the ‘X-Men’ type spin on the traditional investigative / detective storyline sounds really interesting!

Another reason why I’m looking forward to this series is because it’s also the ‘debut’ series for Felix’s real life daughter Adrian Wong – I’m curious to see how her performance will be (though with her parents’ acting genes plus her dad personally ‘teaching’ her on set, can’t be that bad I’m assuming). And for those who might be curious – no, they are NOT playing father / daughter in this series. Oh, and one other interesting ‘tidbit’ about this series: Felix’s ‘other daughter’ is in the series as well….now before anyone gets confused, I’m referring to the actress who played his daughter in TVB’s anniversary series from 2010, Gun Metal Grey – yes, she(Janice Ting) also joined CTI and will be collaborating with Felix again in this series (though not sure about her role). Interesting!


Kung Fu (功夫) [starts filming in 2013]

My Thoughts: Not sure about this one actually, since this series hasn’t been announced yet, so I have no clue in terms of cast and storyline. All I know is that this is the kung fu themed series Yuen Wah mentioned awhile back ago that he would be filming. Not surprisingly, both Sin Ho Ying and Li Ka are featured in the trailer as well (both have martial arts / kung fu backgrounds so of course they would be in this series) – the others who were featured all have some type of martial arts or action hero / heroine background too…so if all of them will be in the cast, then at least the action scenes and the ‘fighting’ will look decently genuine! Die-hard kung fu / martial arts fans will most likely enjoy this series!

For me, I’m actually going to hold off judgment until I found out more about the series, since virtually nothing has been released about this series yet (this is the only series out of the 12 featured where there has been no information whatsoever on Weibo or in the various entertainment news sites – at least none that I’ve been able to find). So let’s wait and see…



Hakka Women (客家女人) [currently filming]

My Thoughts: I have a feeling this is going to be one of the more highly promoted series for HKTV because it stars 2 award-winning actresses: TV Queen (Maggie Cheung) and Movie Queen (Prudence Liew). The two will play sisters who grow up in completely different environments and live very different lives – they are at odds with each other but will be brought back together due to some things that occur. From watching the trailer, I do agree that the series looks a bit on the ‘soapy’ side (meaning ‘soap opera’) – not sure if that’s a good or bad thing….but one thing that the scriptwriter / director ‘promised’ on Weibo (yes, I’ve been following the Weibo accounts of most of the behind-the-scenes people) is that this series will be ‘different’ from the traditional ‘see lai’ (housewife) series that we are used to seeing at TVB (for one, there won’t be a ‘love triangle’ thing between the 2 sisters in the series….good!).

In terms of the rest of the cast – well, it looks like Savio Tsang will have a heavy role in this series (I believe he’s second male lead here?), which is great because it’s been years since he’s had a ‘decent’ role (he pretty much got pushed down to 3rd / 4th line status at TVB…). And even though I have no clue how Poon Chan Leung’s acting will be since he’s a theater actor and I obviously can’t watch stageplays due to not living in HK, I read that he’s won quite a few awards in the theater world, so the ‘credentials’ are definitely there. The rest of the supporting cast is made up of actors and actresses that I’m familiar with (and grew up watching) as well, so that’s definitely another ‘plus’ for me. I’ll probably keep this one on my ‘watch’ list, at least based on what I’ve read and seen so far…


Age of Housing Passion (歲月樓情) [starts filming in 2013]

My Thoughts: From a casting perspective, this series is probably the most ‘heavyweight’ one out of all the series -- let’s see, there’s TV King Ha Yu and Movie Queen Paw Hee Ching (2 excellent, award-winning veteran artists) plus Felix Wong (haven’t seen him and Ha Yu collaborate in a series since like back in the 80s), Savio Tsang, and Lam Lei. On the actress side, there’s Emily Kwan (whom I haven’t seen in a long time) and Leila Tong (this is probably her 3rd series now with HKTV?) – both of whom will have some type of relationship with Felix in the series (if I read correctly that is). Hmmm – Felix and Leila….interesting pairing!

Anyway, since this series has not been officially announced yet either and there is no series / plot summary available yet, can’t really tell what the series will be about based on the short trailer. But with the strong cast (and Felix of course…LOL!), this one is also on my ‘watch’ list….at least for now!

News Article: Yuen Wah misses the days when Run Run Shaw oversaw TVB; saddened at TVB’s lack of progress, ends 16 year relationship

Here's a very interesting article that I read yesterday and wanted to share -- it's an 'interview' of sorts that veteran actor Yuen Wah (元華) did recently with a Hong Kong newspaper. 

Before he joined TVB, I always used to think of Yuen Wah as a martial arts guy, since I knew his background growing up in the Beijing Opera troupe with other renown martial artists (his apprentice brothers at the Opera school) such as Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, etc.  After he joined TVB and I got the chance to see how his acting was through the many series that he participated in, I started to develop a certain respect for him over the years as a skilled, versatile actor.  I've enjoyed many of his performances in TVB series, especially his comedic roles (though he also does the serious as well as villain roles quite well too) and he absolutely brought a certain 'charm' to most of his roles, no matter how big or small they were.  This is why when I found out last year that Yuen Wah decided to leave TVB and join CTI because TVB pretty much 'neglected' him by not even bothering to renew his contract, I got pretty ticked off initially (though of course, I wasn't the least bit surprised since I already knew full well how TVB operates).  But now that I think about it, no need for me to get ticked off, since it's TVB's loss, not mine....sure, I won't get to see Yuen Wah in any more TVB series, but hey, if they are going to treat him like that (plus with their restrictive policies and notorious politics), I would rather he leave than continue to stay at a company that doesn't give a crap about him. 

Yuen Wah actually gave an interview to a HK newspaper recently (I'm assuming he was sought out for an interview because CTI has been announcing series more frequently in the past few months and he most likely will be in one of the upcoming series that will be announced soon).  In the interview, he talks very candidly about his decision to leave TVB and in the process, also reveals some of the 'politics' that went on behind closed doors (though to be very honest, for people like me who have been 'following' TVB for decades, none of this stuff is surprising in the least).   

The article is actually quite interesting to read, especially for those who may not be familiar with TVB's politics or, for some reason or another, refuse to believe how messed up TVB really is internally (in terms of politics and management conflicts).  I've actually had someone tell me in the past that they think all the stuff about TVB having such lame policies and all the other 'politics' that I always complain about is actually false and was 'made up' by so-called 'conspiracy theorists' like me (yea, whatever, call me what you want, doesn't matter to me...) -- well, for those 'naysayers', here's yet ANOTHER example of a former TVB artist revealing what 'really' goes on internally at TVB....personally, for me -- well, all I'm going to say is that it's kind of hard to continue denying the existence of TVB's pervasive politics when pretty much we keep hearing the same kind of stuff revealed by former artists over and over again....butof course, as I always say, it's up to each individual whether they choose to believe this stuff or not....

Anyway, happy reading!

*****

Yuen Wah misses the days when Run Run Shaw oversaw TVB;  saddened at TVB’s lack of progress, ends 16
year relationship

Source:  HKChannel (iHKtv)

Translation:  llwy12

“I’m not fond of you because you’re not my cup of tea!”  These words are generally used to describe a romantic relationship between a man and woman, however it can also be used to describe the relationship between employer and employee.   Earlier, veteran actor Yuen Wah (元華) ended his 16 year ‘relationship’ with TVB and decided to join Ricky Wong’s (王維基) newly established company CTI.  In addition to admiring his new boss Ricky Wong’s sincerity and resolute, Yuen Wah explains that one of the reasons he decided to leave TVB [for CTI] is because in the past few years, he felt there was no longer a sense of belonging or loyalty with the company anymore – he candidly states:  “I really miss the days when Uncle Six [Run Run Shaw] ran things!”


Last year, telecommunications giant Ricky Wong decided to try his hand in the television industry – in preparation for his company City Telecom (CTI)’s entrance into the free-to-air television market, he started a massive recruitment mission last September that involved the ‘poaching’ of a large group of TVB’s artists.  As a result, many veteran ‘green leaf’ artists ended up joining  CTI, including experienced artists such as Yu Mo Lian (余慕蓮), John Chiang (姜大衞), Felix Lok (駱應鈞), Sin Ho Ying (冼灝英), etc.  Yuen Wah was also part of this group.

Asked what attracted him to join Ricky Wong’s company, Yuen Wah (Wah Gor) explained:  “Mr. Wong was very sincere when he sought me out to talk about joining his company.  He invited me to have tea at the Peninsula Hotel  and told me that his television station was starting and he wanted me to join – I told him that I would have to think about it, as I was still waiting for the other company (TVB) to contact me to discuss contract renewal.  In the end, I waited a long period of time and no one from TVB approached me, so I decided to go with CTI.  With my career being an actor, it’s impossible for me to just stop and do nothing  -- if I’m offered job opportunities, of course I’m going to do it!”  In the 16 years that he had worked for TVB, Wah Gor always had a ‘per series’ contract with them – his contract would get renewed every 2 years and usually TVB would seek him out 3 to 6 months prior to his contract expiration date to discuss renewal.  But this time around, things were different -- Wah Gor’s contract expired, yet no one seemed to even notice. 

Wah Gor admits that he felt disappointed:  “Was I unhappy about it?  I actually never really thought about it, as I felt that these type of work relationships will come to an end eventually.   In reality, they [TVB] are not obligated to seek you out – unless they feel there’s a need and you’re able to help them – otherwise, they do not have to sign you, since, after all, the company has tons of artists….in terms of whether ‘value’ or not -- if they feel it’s worth it, then they’ll value you.  The company’s attitude has always been one of ‘indifference’ – whether you’re worth ‘valuing’ or not depends on who you are:  if you’re of monetary benefit, then of course you’ll be ‘valued’, but if you’re the ‘dispensable’ type, then there’s no need to value.”

Due to the government possibly issuing 3 additional free-to-air television licenses in the near future, an impending TV ‘war’ has been looming on the horizon -- with ATV’s drastic decline over the years, TVB has pretty much been the ‘sole’ TV station in HK for a number of years already.    Wah Gor agrees that with 3 new stations coming into the picture, the outlook for the industry will very likely change.

He states:  “Every country or dynasty is bound to experience periods of prosperity and decline – this year might decline but next year things might be well again.  With the government issuing 3 licenses, this will bring competition to the television industry, which isn’t a bad thing – in addition to artists, there were also singers who decided to join NowTV and in the variety show department, some behind-the-scenes crew also left.  Here at CTI, there’s a lot more freedom, as we are allowed to appear on other stations if we want to…TVB never allowed that – even artists who went to film series in the Mainland were not allowed to use their original voices – there was nothing you could do, since TVB was pretty much the only game in town due to the lack of competition.   As for whether the era of ‘one station ruling the TV industry’ is over – well, that’s too harsh too say, as ups and downs are inevitable with any company – it happens everywhere.  Remember in ancient times there was the kingdom of Babylon that was very powerful and prosperous, but later it became a huge mess.”


Beautiful memories of the ‘Uncle Six era’

Thinking back to the old days, Wah Gor expressed that it was actually [TVB’s head of production] Catherine Tsang (曾勵珍) who brought him into TVB by inviting him to film series for them – just like that, his collaboration with them lasted 16 years.  Towards his days at TVB, Wah Gor admits:  “During the Uncle Six era was when I felt the biggest sense of belonging – in recent times, it was definitely lacking.”  This ‘lack of belonging’ was one of the factors that caused him to leave.

Wah Gor provided some insight into some of the ‘changes’ that occurred within TVB over the past decade:  “In the beginning, there was definitely a sense of belonging, but later on, not anymore because of the constant change in personnel [TN: specifically in management ranks] – under the new ‘team’, the company’s framework actually changed entirely.   Who oversaw things in the past is very different from who oversees things now and the environment is different – as the saying goes, ‘when a dynasty changes, so does its subjects’.  When I first entered TVB, the management hadn’t changed yet – it was still the ‘Uncle Six era’ and everything was good – everyone was very happy working there and we didn’t have to worry about personnel [management] conflicts.”

Wah Gor continued:  “Within a company, each executive’s policies and direction when it comes to handling matters are bound to be different – if you can’t agree or accept it, then it’s best to find a company that better suits you.  Uncle Six’s way of doing things is different from Ms. Fong’s [TN: Run Run Shaw’s wife Mona Fong] – if they decide to change direction and policy, whether the results are good or bad, they need to take responsibility for it.”  So with the recent trend of artists and behind-the-scenes crew leaving TVB, then should the person at the top [Mona Fong] be held mostly accountable?   Wah Gor replied:  “It shouldn’t be that person alone, as he/she has people reporting to them – just like the different departments in government, they function as a team.”

Asked to describe TVB’s current situation, Yuen Wah states: “Stuck in the same place, not moving forward.”  Towards the company’s non-proactive attitude, he states that its employees are helpless to do anything:  “The only thing we can do is sigh helplessly – after all, with the company getting to this point, what else can be done?   The ‘helpless’ part is because the company itself doesn’t care enough to make things better – take the Big 5 record company dispute for example, look at how long that situation dragged out?  Same with the Ricky Wong situation as well [the poaching of artists and crew] – add to that the ‘attitude’ that the company takes towards certain employees….that’s why nowadays whenever TVB is mentioned, most of us just sigh and don’t want to talk about it.  As for what type of ‘attitude’ the company takes towards its employees, well, you’ll have to go ask them – for me, it doesn’t really matter as much because I’ve always had only a ‘per series’ contract.  Some employees are ‘long-term’ workers who signed long contracts with the company – if their contract terms are based on ‘shows’ and they don’t meet those terms by the time the contract ends [TN: meaning they don’t have enough ‘shows’ to fulfill the terms of their contract], they not only don’t get paid, they also have to pay a fine to the company.  Can’t really say if it’s a ‘miserable’ plight or not – after all, it comes with the territory and the terms are agreed upon by both parties.”


Return to TVB some day?

As people always say, ‘the world is round’ – this is true in the entertainment industry especially, where the chance of coming full circle is especially high.  Wah Gor himself expressed that he will not rule out the possibility of collaborating with TVB again in the future:  “It’s definitely possible, but it depends on who is calling the shots – those people who don’t like you, why would they seek you out again?  If new people [management] enter TVB and they feel ‘hey, Yuen Wah is pretty good, why don’t we invite him back?’, I don’t have a problem with it at all.  The name ‘TVB’ may not change, but the interior [personnel] generally will – if they invite you back to film series for them, it’s usually based on personal relationship.”   Asked if there were people  in the company who didn’t like him and so didn’t ‘value’ him, Wah Gor replied:  “There will be people like that in every company – people who will feel: ‘I don’t like you because you are not my cup of tea, so I’m not going to bother discussing contract renewal with you’.  It’s inevitable in any organization – even our current government is not exempt from such issues, let alone  a company such as TVB!”


Retire to go till land

Even though he is approaching 60 years old, Yuen Wah has not only signed with Ricky Wong’s CTI, he also continues to go up North [Mainland] to film series when he has time.  Asked if he has considered retiring, Wah Gor expressed:  “I guess you could consider me ‘retired’ now – retired but not resting.  Working right now is pretty much a pastime for me – it keeps me alert and vigorous -- if I don’t work, I’ll get bored.  I rented a plot of land in the New Territories area recently where I actually grow vegetables and such – it’s almost like going back to the countryside to till land.  With all the talk about the environment and eating organic nowadays, growing my own vegetables to eat is a pretty good thing.  My children are all grown now, so I don’t have any more burdens.  If in the past, when my children were still young and TVB didn’t seek me out to discuss contract renewal, the situation would have definitely been disastrous!”

Yuen Wah used to be one of the ‘Seven Little Fortunes’ (七小福). [TN:  The Seven Little Fortunes were a Beijing Opera School troupe under Master Yu Jim Yuen who were trained in martial arts and various other disciplines at a young age.  Other ‘famous’ members of the Seven Little Fortunes include Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, and Yuen Biao…].   Back during those days of training, Wah Gor was one of the more mischievous ones, constantly ‘fighting’ with his fellow apprentice brothers and when things went wrong, all of them would point at each other.  Wah Gor states:  “Thinking back now, those days were actually the happiest – we had no burdens and could be as carefree as we wanted.  Now as grownups, we have to worry about so many things – paying rent, buying a car, our children’s educations, etc."

Review of “Forensic Heroes 3 法證先鋒III” (2011)

Cast (partial list of the main & supporting cast): Wayne Lai (黎耀祥), Maggie Cheung (張可頤), Ron Ng (吳卓羲), Kate Tsui (徐子珊), Nancy Wu (胡定欣), Yuen Wah (元華), Edwin Siu (蕭正楠), Aimee Chan (陳茵媺), Ram Tseung (蔣志光), Ruco Chan (陳展鵬)

I finished watching FH3 a few weeks ago (simultaneous broadcast with HK), however I actually put off writing a review about this series until now -- mostly because the series sort of wore me out after watching the finale and I really didn't feel like talking about it any more (I guess you could say that I was just glad it was finally over).

Now, don't get me wrong -- I'm not saying that this series was entirely bad because to be honest, I've seen way way worse (and as I will mention later, there were definitely some 'enjoyable' moments in the series) -- but by the same token, compared to many of the other TVB series that I've seen, this one definitely doesn't live up to my standards (now that I think about it though, how many TVB series from the last decade have lived up to my standards? not very many!). I actually wanted to use the word "disappointing" to describe my feeling towards this series, but after thinking about it further, it's really not accurate to say that I was "disappointed" in this series because in actuality, I didn't have any expectations of this series going into it (I've learned to stop 'expecting' anything from TVB series anymore...LOL). In fact, I wasn't even planning on watching the series in the first place, since when I first heard a few years ago that they were going to do FH3 but was going to change the cast, I was quite bitter about it (come on now -- Forensic Heroes is not the same without Bobby and Frankie, just like Burning Flame is not the same without Wong Hei) -- and quite honestly, based on the 'original' storyline concept for FH3 (the one that TVB pitched during their sales presentation a few years ago), I was actually planning on "boycotting" the series altogether (those who watched that sales presentation or read the original concept summary will probably know why I felt that way at the time). Anyway, it's a moot point now, but needless to say, at that time, I was quite ticked off, so pretty much the series didn't start off on the right foot with me, even as far back as the 'conceptual' beginning (prior to it becoming the series it eventually became). The only reason why I decided to give the series a chance was pretty much because of Wayne (and the fact that there was nothing else interesting to watch on TV, since the other series airing around the same time were extremely boring). More about Wayne's role later....

Before I go any further....for those of you who are regular readers of my reviews of TVB series (thank you!), I'm actually going to do this review a bit differently than the other ones I've done in the past. Instead of doing an in-depth analysis of each character / artist like I normally do, I'm going to take a different approach and basically just talk about my 'likes' and 'dislikes' about the series in general (figured that this was the easiest way to do this particular review).

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STORYLINE / SCRIPT

One of my biggest "issues" with this series was the seriously flawed script -- there were so many things that didn't make sense, it totally detracted from the series as a whole and made it difficult to enjoy watching it (for me at least). Over the many years that I've been following TVB and HK entertainment, I've watched plenty of TVB series and I can honestly say that I can't recall encountering a series (that I've watched from beginning to end that is) with as many 'head-scratching', 'what-the-heck' moments as this one (and I'm not exaggerating either -- I was pretty much able to find at least 1 thing from each episode that fit into the "WTH" category!). I don't know if the writers were under pressure to produce the script in a short amount of time so they rushed things without realizing it or if there was a particular intention behind the way the script was written (I'm leaning toward the latter, since the 2 writers Choi Ting Ting and Leung Mun Wah are experienced scriptwriters), but whatever the reason, the fact is that the script was very poorly written.

Amongst the most "glaring" of flaws in the script (series) was the very obviously 'rushed' storyline -- the writers didn't spend enough time developing the areas that should have been developed (for example, the relationships of the various characters, some of the details of certain cases, etc.) and instead wasted alot of time with cases that were boring and lame (i.e. that case about the tenants and the owner of a building where the tenant dies after slipping in the bathroom and also that cosplay case near the end of the series, just to name a few). I understand that with these types of series, the premise is about crime-solving, so that should definitely be the focus, but the relationships of the characters are important as well, since, as humans, we spend most of our lives interacting with each other – so in series like these, it’s necessary to have a good balance of both. Unfortunately though, the writers didn’t do a very good job in this area….not only that, but the lack of development in the relationships with this particular series had a significant impact for me because throughout the whole time that I watched, I didn’t feel anything for any of the main pairings – it was almost as though I could care less who was paired up with whom (of course, part of this could have also been due to the lack of chemistry between the artists themselves).

Here are a few examples of the “rushed” parts that I had a problem with (not an all-inclusive list):

.-- Nancy / Wayne divorce – the way the writers wrote the divorce storyline between Nancy and Wayne’s characters was way too ‘purposeful’ to be realistic. Considering how long they had been together as a loving couple, plus they had a daughter that they needed to think about, I was surprised at how quickly they reached the decision to divorce (and pretty much over 1 incident too). The feeling I got was that they went from being the ‘model couple’ one minute to a ‘I don’t love you anymore and can’t stand the way you operate’ relationship the next minute. And of course, this whole thing pretty much happened over the course of like 1 episode (actually, not even, since there was other stuff interspersed throughout the episode) – plus with the way the whole thing played out, I definitely got the impression that neither character (Wayne and Nancy) was too emotional / distraught over the breakup (so maybe they didn’t really love each other that much after all). In any case, the way that whole piece was written was definitely lacking.

.-- Maggie / Ruco breakup – ok, I have to say that as much as I disliked the way the writers handled Nancy and Wayne’s divorce, the way that they handled Maggie and Ruco’s breakup was way worse….in fact, it was so lame and stupid, it’s not even funny! Sure, it’s not like they spent a lot of time developing Maggie and Ruco as a couple in the first place, but at least the writers did bring them together over the course of a few episodes (well, I guess you could say half the series) and up until the point they broke up, there was no indication whatsoever that they were incompatible or planning to separate in any way. Then, at the end of one of the episodes, they ‘suddenly’ mutually realize that they don’t love each other as they thought they did and literally within like 1 scene, they decide to part ways. WTH??? It was so totally random and came out of nowhere that it left me wondering what the whole point was of having Ruco and Maggie together in the first place! Oh, and at least with Nancy and Wayne, they had 1 episode to ‘divorce’ – with Ruco and Maggie, it was like 1-2 scenes max (and at the end of an episode too – by the first scene of the next episode, Ruco’s character was already ‘gone’)….how lame! If they were going to write the breakup this way, then they shouldn’t have put Ruco and Maggie together from the beginning (they definitely could have had Ruco participate in the series without making him a ‘love interest’ for Maggie)!

.-- Wayne / Maggie relationship – with the ‘rushed’ way that the breakups of the 2 main characters were done, it definitely seemed to me that the main purpose of the entire series (from a relationship perspective at least) was to have Wayne and Maggie become a couple. It’s almost as though the writers were trying to say ‘let’s get their previous relationships over with so we can get the 2 of them together’. (The two of them got together pretty much right after Maggie and Ruco broke up, plus the lame way that they did that breakup made it too obvious that the Wayne/Maggie get-together was their main objective). To be honest, I wasn’t too keen on Wayne and Maggie as a couple because I felt that their characters lacked chemistry -- to me, there was actually no difference in their relationship prior to them becoming a couple (when they worked together as partners in the forensics team) and afterwards….


The other major flaw with the script (as far as I noticed at least) was the ‘randomness’ of some of the elements / scenes / characters related to each of the cases. There were some characters and scenes ‘interspersed’ in the series that were completely irrelevant to the development of the storyline and seemed to serve no purpose whatsoever (pretty much you could take those characters out and it would have very little, if any, impact to the script / series). This actually got annoying after awhile because it didn’t just happen once or twice – it was a recurring ‘issue’ throughout the entire series.

A few of the most obvious examples of this:

.-- The ‘nephew scene’ during the tenants vs landlord case (which was already a lame case to begin with) – the guy who played the nephew (whom I found out later was one of the newer Mr HKs) only appeared for like 10 seconds in one scene (he basically had one line of dialogue), then disappeared and was never heard from again. He was mentioned briefly later on during the investigation of the case (yea, for like a minute), but turns out he had nothing to do with the case whatsoever. So what was the point in putting his character in there, especially if he was going to appear for only a few seconds and had nothing to do with the case? Totally didn’t get that part…

.-- Sire Ma’s brief appearance during the case about the murder of the college student was totally random as well. She was only in 2 scenes and had probably about 5 lines of dialogue – her total screentime was probably close to 10 minutes or so (maybe even less). I mean, I could understand putting her in the series if her character had anything at all to do with the case, but she didn’t – she was pretty much just the murdered guy’s ex-girlfriend and was never even considered as a suspect in the case. Totally random character…

.-- Felix Lok’s character was another random one that the writers put in there for no significant reason. He was literally only in 1 scene at the end of an episode, though they did talk about his character a little bit in one of the scenes prior to that. Basically, in those 2 scenes, they made him out to be some sort of powerful mob boss / businessman whom Nancy decides to work for (that’s part of her reasoning for divorcing Wayne and leaving for the U.S.) – based on the way that set things up, made it seem like he would play a significant role in one of the future cases perhaps. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case at all -- after that, his character is not mentioned again until Nancy returns – but even then, the ‘mention’ is lame because he isn’t involved with any type of case. Even with the case involving Nancy at the end of the series, he was completely irrelevant – they pretty much ‘mentioned’ that he was still in the U.S. and was sick on his deathbed (or something like that) and that’s it – never mentioned again. Huh? What was the point of his character then?

The above is just scratching the surface – there were a lot more instances / characters that were ‘interspersed’ the same way. After watching this series, it totally made me question the experience of the scriptwriters (the horribly written script made it seem like newbies who didn’t know what they were doing actually wrote it) and what they were thinking when putting together this script. It was definitely annoying to say the least.

Despite all of the ‘shortcomings’ of the script, there WERE a few enjoyable moments in the series, but unfortunately, not enough for me to ‘overlook’ the flaws. Still, here’s a brief mention of some of the ‘highlights’ of the series for me:

.-- Nancy’s court scenes and her ‘showdown’ with Wayne and Yuen Wah (who played Wayne’s father) during that one murder case involving the rich guy were definitely exceptional and well done. I literally was at the edge of my seat watching those scenes – too bad that it was short-lived though.

.-- The case involving Ram Tseung’s son in the series (the murder of the college student case) was very interesting as well and for me, it was probably one of the best cases in the series (partly because it wasn’t as easy to guess the killer). Another reason why I enjoyed that case was because Ram was heavily involved in those few episodes – since he’s one of my favorite ‘green leaf’ actors, it was definitely a ‘treat’ for me!

.-- Yuen Wah’s character was hilarious (without intending to be) – I enjoyed almost all of his scenes, especially the one in particular with Angela Tong’s character. It’s sort of sad that even though Yuen Wah didn’t have very much screentime, I absolutely enjoyed his performance over everyone else’s – even the main leads.

.-- Ruco’s character is another one that I enjoyed – in fact, I was one of those people who liked his pairing with Maggie (just about the only ‘pairing’ that I liked and felt a connection to in the entire series) – but the stupid writers had to go ruin it with that lame breakup thing that I mentioned earlier! Plus his screentime was way less than Yuen Wah’s and the way they ‘wrote him out of the series’ was quite dumb (and didn’t make sense). For me, the entire series pretty much went downhill after that -- well, it was already starting to go downhill before that quite honestly, but at least there were still scenes worth watching – but after Ruco’s case, the remaining episodes were so boring, I pretty much lost interest and stopped paying attention to the series until the finale episode.

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CAST / CHARACTERS

Like I mentioned earlier, I’m not going to do a detailed character analysis in this review, as I feel it would be a waste of time to do so, especially since many people have already seen this series.

Therefore, just some brief thoughts:

.-- Wayne Lai (Pro Sir) – as much as I love Wayne, I really feel that the character of Pro Sir doesn’t suit him all that much. With Wayne’s caliber of acting, this particular character is way too easy for him and in my opinion, is a complete waste of his talent (literally, he can do that character in his sleep!). He needs more dynamic, challenging roles (ones with more depth) that will truly be able to showcase his talent. Hopefully, Wayne chooses his roles more carefully in the future – with his status and position, he can definitely afford to be picky with his roles and not just take whatever (crappy) roles TVB gives him!

.-- Maggie Cheung (Dr. Chung) – Out of all of the 90s fa dans, Maggie has always been near the bottom of my list – nothing against her personally or her acting, it’s just that she has never been my ‘cup of tea’ when it comes to actresses that I enjoy watching -- so to me, her participation in this series doesn’t make much of a difference to me. Overall, I would say that Maggie did a pretty good job in her role as forensic pathologist Dr. Mandy Chung – she was convincing enough in the role and handled the complicated dialogue quite well. Other than that, I don’t really have much opinion on her performance.

.-- Ron Ng (Wind Sir) & Kate Tsui (Madam Ling) – I’m not fond of either artist, so didn’t really pay a whole lot of attention to their scenes…but even then, it was definitely obvious that their characters were ‘second fiddle’ to Wayne and Maggie’s. Honestly, I really didn’t see the value of Ron and Kate’s cop characters because it’s not like they were the ones doing most of the crime-solving anyway – in most of the episodes, it actually seemed as though Wayne and Maggie were the cops instead of Ron and Kate, since they were almost always present when the ‘big reveal’ occurred in many of the episodes (which is one of the other things that didn’t make sense about the script, but oh well). Their roles definitely weren’t memorable and in my opinion, any one of the current TVB 2nd line artists could have done the same role and it wouldn’t have mattered (actually, the other artists may even be able to do it better!).

.-- Nancy Wu (Pro Sir’s wife Eva Chow) – Nancy’s character definitely stood out in this series, as her character was quite strong and she had some of the best scenes -- her portrayal of a lawyer was very convincing and her court-scenes were well-acted. But too bad that her character changed in the latter half of the series after returning from the U.S. (she quit her attorney job and became a freelance writer for a legal journal) – basically, her role became more of a ‘vase’ character later on in the series, which was really dumb of the writers to do when her character had so much potential in the first half of the series. Not sure what the reasoning was behind why her character was written this way, but I know that if I were writing the script, I would definitely have written her character differently, perhaps even making her role more significant than Kate’s (since the cops in this series were pretty useless anyway). The writers pretty much wasted the character’s potential.

.-- Yuen Wah (Uncle Hing) – Yuen Wah’s role as Wayne’s dad in the series was actually quite enjoyable. His somewhat comical character (not purposefully comical, but he just came across that way) provided an interesting juxtaposition to Wayne’s ‘serious’ Pro Sir role. I will admit that I had my doubts at first with how Yuen Wah would fit into the role given his background (I always think of him as a kungfu guy) and with Wayne’s character being so serious and professional, but it actually worked out just fine in my opinion. In fact, I liked the chemistry he and Wayne had as father and son and definitely would have liked to see more scenes of them together. Oh, and I must mention that the scene with Angela Tong (where Yuen Wah thinks she is interested in his son and so tries to play matchmaker for them, only to find out that she is actually interested in him) was absolutely hilarious – I got quite a few good laughs out of that part! And there were other great scenes involving Yuen Wah as well (i.e. the court scene with Nancy, his reaction afterwards, etc.) – both serious and comical – that were thoroughly enjoyable. He was definitely my favorite character in the series.

.-- Ruco Chan (Jim Fong) – I liked Ruco’s performance, but unfortunately, he had WAY too little screentime – which also means that his character wasn’t developed enough for me to ‘enjoy’ his character as much as Yuen Wah’s. I really feel that they should have given Ruco a more significant role in the series (and develop his character more) because the little screentime that he had just wasn’t enough. In my opinion, they (the writers / producer) should have just cut Ron and Kate roles (or reduce their screentime if they wanted to keep them) and expanded Ruco and Nancy’s roles because both of them definitely outshined the ‘main’ characters in this series.

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CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Overall, I would say that this series fell into the ‘tolerable’ category for me: the first half of the series had some good potential, but the second half of the series was sort of bad – the series definitely has that typical ‘strong start, weak ending’ element that is notorious in many of TVB’s series nowadays.

Of course, it’s hard to write a review about FH3 without mentioning FH1 and FH2, since the series IS supposed to be a “sequel” after all (though this installment has absolutely nothing to do with the first 2 in terms of storyline and cast). Without going into a huge comparison / analysis thing (because honestly, FH2 and FH3 can’t compare with the original), I will say that, as part of the same franchise, FH3 definitely did not live up to its hype. I absolutely adored the first installment of FH and the awesome chemistry that the original cast (Bobby, Frankie, Yoyo, and yes, even Linda) had – plus the cases were well-written and the storyline was fast-paced enough without rushing through things ( it’s one of the few series from the post 2000 era that I actually like and can re-watch over and over again without getting bored). FH2 ruined that chemistry with the addition of Charmaine and Kevin, thereby resulting in a reduction in screen time for the original cast (so that the focus could be on 2006’s TV King and Queen, no doubt) – in my opinion though, the script was already poorly written starting with that installment (as I remember there were a lot of scenes that didn’t make sense in that installment as well, though not to the extent of FH3)…the only ‘redeeming factor’ for FH2 that made it watchable was the fact that it still had Bobby and Frankie, so it was less of a struggle to sit through (since I could just forward through other people’s scenes). Now with FH3, not only was the cast completely changed and the characters poorly developed, the script was also poorly written – for me, those 2 factors alone made the installment worse than the previous two.

Lastly, I’d like to briefly talk about the ratings for FH3 – those who know me know that I’ve never been one to care much about ratings, since to me, ratings mean nothing when it comes to determining a ‘quality’ series (high ratings DOES NOT EQUAL quality!). In the HK entertainment industry especially, TV ratings mean absolutely nothing given that the entire industry is monopolized by only 1 TV station (which means that HK audiences pretty much don’t have a choice in terms of which TV station to watch, so naturally the ratings would be high, since basically the entire region watches the same station). I personally feel that the HK media’s obsession with TV ratings is stupid given the dynamics I just described, but for the sake of argument, I will ‘entertain’ the ratings thing for a second – when FH3 aired in HK, its ratings were so high that it became the ‘highest rated series’ of 2011, taking the #1 spot from the Laughing Gor series “Lives of Omission” (for me, the only ‘good’ thing about FH3’s ratings is that it knocked LOO out of the #1 spot – nothing satisfies me more than seeing another series finally beat the crap out of that arrogant Laughing Gor, even if it’s something as stupid as meaningless TV ratings!). Ironically, out of all the FH installments, FH3 was the highest rated, even though it was the worst one of the 3…go figure! Well, whatever – my viewing habits and opinions toward TVB series are rarely in line with the brainwashed HK audiences’ anyway.

One last thought….obviously, I’m not too fond of this series, but if you were to ask me whether I recommend it or not – well, it depends on what context we’re looking at. If you’re looking at 2011 TVB series only, then sure, this series was probably one of the better ones in the bunch (after “Sentinel”, FH3 was the only other series from this year that I was able to sit through from beginning to end), but it definitely was NOT the best series of 2011. If you’re looking at the entire FH franchise (or if you’re like me and have a certain affinity for the original FH series), then no, I wouldn’t recommend it because most likely you will get ticked off (as I did) at how TVB ruined yet another ‘franchise’!