As a follow up to my previous post, I wanted to share another post about my most anticipated movie of the year, Heaven in the Dark! Emperor Motion Pictures (EMP) released a behind-the-scenes production clip for the making of the movie that features interviews with the cast and director. OMG, the more I watch / read about the movie, the more I can’t wait for the movie to come out!
I wanted to also take this opportunity to give a little bit more information on the movie as well as the stage play that it was based on (Candace Chong’s “The French Kiss”). Before I do so though, I have to say that I have no clue at this point how faithful the movie’s script will be to the original stage play script – my understanding is that director Steve Yuen was the one who actually “wrote” the movie’s script (meaning that he was the one who adapted the stage play script to movie version). The original stage play script was very reliant on the brilliantly-written dialogue to make it such the success it was, so hopefully Steve Yuen retained this aspect when adapting the script. In the production clip, both Jacky and Karena stated that each person who read the script had a different perspective in terms of the story and what ‘truly happened’ between Pastor To (Jacky) and Michelle (Karena). Hopefully this means that much of the powerful dialogue that Candace Chong originally wrote in the stage play version was retained.
Someone asked me what genre I would classify this movie into and my answer at the time (based on everything I had read about the movie and the stage play) was that I lean more toward this being a “psychological thriller, but minus the action and with a heavy emphasis on the ‘psychological’ part”. Well, turns out I wasn’t too much off the mark, as the writer of the original screenplay, Candace Chong, was actually a psychology major in college, but after graduating, she felt she wasn’t suitable to pursue the field of psychology as a career, since she found that she is unable to suppress her emotions in order to look at situations objectively. So she decided to pursue an advanced degree in screenwriting – turned out to be the right decision given her success today as a highly acclaimed, award-winning playwright. In all of Candace Chong’s works, she addresses serious issues that the public often faces (whether social, political, economic, etc.), but in a way that is brilliantly interwoven and incorporated into the stories via powerful dialogue. And there is always a psychology-related angle to her works due to her background.
Obviously, because of this movie, I’ve been reading up on Candace Chong and her stage play “The French Kiss” in recent weeks. In addition to the above background on Candace Chong, I found out that the story in The French Kiss is actually based on real-life events: a pastor kissed his secretary and subsequently was sued for sexual harassment. Listening to this pastor recount his experience, someone commented that he can be considered lucky, since he did not have to go to jail and only had to pay a fine as punishment. To this, the pastor replied: “But I compensated with my reputation, family, friends, and my soul.” When Candace Chong heard this, her initial reaction was one of shock and it reinforced her belief that ‘real life is more dramatic than plays’ -- so it inspired her to write this play in order to explore the inner human psyche as well as address issues related to religion, law, and moral values. A quote from a Chinese University interview with Candace Chong a couple years back does a great job summarizing the purpose of the story and its impact: “[In The French Kiss], Chong provokes the audience to re-examine the verdict through the tense conversation between the pastor and the secretary and raises the problem of false memories brought about by self-deception and a selective memory.” This is why, in the original stage play script, there is no real ‘ending’ to the story, as it is impossible to get to the ultimate truth due to the way human nature and the human mind work – throughout the story and even to the end, both the pastor and his secretary are unwavering in their ‘beliefs’ of what happened and their own versions of ‘the truth’.
I will definitely be posting up more stuff about Heaven in the Dark (as well as the stage play) in coming weeks, so those who are interested, please stay tuned. For those who don’t like knowing too much info about a movie prior to watching it, I apologize if you already read this and it spoiled anything for you – if you haven’t read it though (or didn’t watch the clip), I encourage you to come back after you watch the movie and see if these posts answer any lingering questions you might have in regards to the movie.
As mentioned in my previous post, one of the movies that
I am most looking forward to this year is Heaven in the Dark, which stars my
idol Jacky Cheung reuniting with his July Rhapsody co-star Karena
Lam. I was actually drawn to this movie
from the beginning, prior to any filming even being done (so basically when the
‘concept’ for the movie as well as the leads were announced) – of course, a big
reason was due to Jacky, since it has been 6 years since he’s starred in a ‘main
lead’ role (last movie where he was officially lead was Crossing Hennessy in
2010…all the movies he’s been in since then have pretty much been either cameos
or one of the leads amongst a large group of similar level A-listers). But before I get labeled as a ‘crazy fan’
(probably too late for that, since I know some people have already labeled me
as such, lol), let me explain the other reasons why I’ve been so ‘obsessed’
with this movie from the beginning (as well as why the movie is at the top of
my ‘must-watch’ list this year).
Aside from Jacky, the second main reason is because July Rhapsody also
happens to be one of my all-time favorite movies. Even though this particular movie has nothing
to do with July Rhapsody per se (different scriptwriter, director, cast, production team, etc.), the ‘pairing’ of Jacky and Karena, the dark,
controversial theme, the ‘look and feel’ of the overall production, etc. are
interestingly similar (though it’s obvious that Heaven’s script is much
more complex – that is IF the script remained faithful to the original stage
play script written by Candace Chong). I
actually quite agree with one of the points stated in the East Touch article I translated below: that the story feels like a ‘continuation’ of
Jacky and Karena’s distant romance in July Rhapsody.
This leads me into yet another reason why I want to watch
this movie: the chemistry between Jacky
and Karena. Whether in July
Rhapsody or in the music videos that they filmed together for Jacky’s
songs (the most recent being the ones last year from Jacky’s latest Mandarin
album released in December 2014), Jacky and Karena continue to have great
chemistry on-screen. I honestly feel
that if it were any other pairing with the same story, I may not feel as
excited about the movie as I am currently.
Another reason to watch is, not surprisingly, the
supporting cast. With the exception of
perhaps 1 or 2 artists, the supporting cast is comprised of artists I enjoy
watching, so that definitely makes it an easier sell for me. Oh, by the way, I’ve been hearing nothing but
praise for Anthony Wong’s performance in this movie, even though he only has a
few scenes and can pretty much be considered a cameo appearance only. The court scene in the movie (reference the
article below to understand what I’m talking about) is a ‘must-watch’ – I was
told that Anthony’s acting in that scene is beyond stellar (pretty much blows
everyone out of the water, including the leads). Of course, I absolutely believe it, since I
have confidence in Anthony’s acting skills, but I am still going to wait and
see for myself once the movie comes out.
Yet another reason I want to watch – and this is an
important reason – is due to this movie being adapted from a famous stage
play. I’ve always had a liking for
theater and stage plays, it’s just that here in the U.S., it’s a lot more
difficult to watch stage plays unless you live in a place like New York where
the theater business thrives. I try to
catch a few local productions whenever I can, but unfortunately, the ‘big name’
productions are seasonal (plus located in far away cities) and the lesser known
productions only pop up once in awhile.
Even though I don’t live in HK, I do try to keep up with the theater
scene as much as I can -- which shouldn’t be a surprise given my enjoyment of
theater for one, but also the fact that many HK movie and television artists I
follow also participate in theater. If I
ever get the chance to watch the original stage version of this production, I’m
pretty sure I would enjoy it. In the
meantime though, I will settle for watching the movie version. [Sidenote:
Candace Chong actually published 5 of her most famous stage play scripts
into a book that was released last year -- I already ordered the book and am
just waiting for it to get here. I am
definitely planning on reading the original stage play script in conjunction
with watching the movie, I just haven’t decided whether I’m going to read first
or watch first – I guess it depends on when the book actually gets here].
Since the movie is scheduled to premiere in Hong Kong on
3/24 and in Taiwan on 4/15, there will undoubtedly be more promotional events /
material for the movie as the dates get closer.
I will continue to update my blog with more information on the movie as
I see necessary. For now though, I’ve
included an article below from East Touch magazine that actually does a pretty
good job of describing what the movie is about.
There are spoilers in the article though, so please read at your own
risk.
On a related note, I do want to say a few things about the HKFA Best Actor and Best Actress nominations that Jacky and Karena received. For those wondering how a movie that has not been officially released in HK yet can still garner nominations at HKFA -- well, there was actually a 'sneak preview' limited release of the movie in HK theaters back in December (I think there were only 5 showings of the movie over the span of a few days). This was done in order to 'qualify' the movie for this year's HKFA -- some feel it's a bit of a rush and perhaps they should've waited until next year to participate in HKFA. To be honest, I kind of have mixed feelings in regards to this. On the one hand, I am of course tremendously happy for Jacky and there is no doubt that he would've gotten nominated for his performance in this movie anyway, regardless of whether it's this year or next year. This is Jacky's 6th HKFA Best Actor nomination -- previous nominations were for Bullet in the Head (1991), To Live and Die in Tsimshatsui (1995), July Rhapsody (2002), Golden Chicken 2 (2004), Crossing Hennessy (2011). While I have full confidence in Jacky's performance, the competition for Best Actor this year is actually VERY strong (the other 4 nominees include Andy Lau, Tony Leung Kar Fai, Nick Cheung, and Aaron Kwok -- all reputable actors who have won the Best Actor award before). Some people have said that HKFA should give the award to Jacky this year since he's the only one out of the 5 who has never gotten the award, but to be honest, as a fan, I definitely DON'T want that...what I want is for Jacky to be recognized for his acting merit and for him to win the award because he deserves it, NOT because of sympathy (plus I know for a fact that's what Jacky wants as well -- he has said in the past that acting is a secondary profession for him and if he hasn't gotten the Best Actor award yet, it's because he hasn't put enough effort and focus into his performance to deserve the award). In any case, I will absolutely be rooting for Jacky come April 3rd, even though I know his chance of getting the award is not tremendously strong....
Lastly, a FUN FACT about the movie: watch for a VERY BRIEF cameo appearance by Dayo Wong in the court scene -- he literally only appears for a few seconds so if you blink, you might miss him. He had visited the set due to being friends with some of the production team (plus he's one of Anthony Wong's good friends) and decided to do an 'ad hoc' appearance as an 'extra' (basically, one of the no name audience members sitting at the back of the court listening to the proceedings). If you watch the movie, pay attention to that scene and see if you can spot him (though of course, do it the second time around, since the first time you watch, you should be paying attention to the movie itself, LOL).
****
Heaven in the Dark (暗色天堂)
Cast: Jacky Cheung, Karena Lam, Anthony Wong,
Helena Law, Wong Hei, Edmund So, Catherine Chau, Michelle Wai
Director: Steve Yuen
Distributed by: Emperor Motion Pictures
Premiere date: 3/24/2016 in Hong Kong, 4/15/2016 in
Taiwan (not sure if this movie will be shown in Mainland or not)
Trailer (note that this is the first ‘official’ trailer
for the movie – as premiere date gets closer, there will undoubtedly be more
trailers released):
****
Article:
“A pair of lovers
who overstep the boundaries of love”
Source: East Touch Magazine
Article originally published February 3, 2016
Translated by: llwy12
14 years ago, in the movie July Rhapsody (男人四十),
the illicit love affair between teacher Lam Yiu Kwok (played by Jacky Cheung)
and his student Wu Choi Nam (played by Karena Lam) was heart-wrenching to
watch. As a teacher and husband, Lam
seemed to find himself slowly going down a path that he himself had once
despised, while Choi Nam, as the student, had no burdens at all and freely
sought after the excitement of loving the way she wanted to love. With Lam in a position that did not allow for
certain boundaries to be crossed, this teacher-student love relationship was
destined to fail.
14 years later, Jacky Cheung (張學友) and
Karena Lam (林嘉欣)
reunite once again, but this time, one plays a pastor while the other is a
believer in the faith he preaches. Without the burden of a ‘taboo’ relationship
like they had in July Rhapsody, Jacky and Karena are in the ideal position to
openly and freely develop a love relationship.
Unfortunately, their steps are
not aligned and both bear quite differing goals within their hearts. A passionate kiss that they thought would
help them break the ambiguity in their relationship turns into a regret that
ultimately ends in a life-changing fall from grace.
“A pair of lovers
who overstep the boundaries of love, at the same time it is easiest for them to
become enemies.” These lyrics from July
Rhapsody’s theme song seem especially fitting at the moment. Times have changed, our surroundings have
changed, our positions in life have changed – the one thing that hasn’t
changed: after 14 years, Jacky and
Karena continue to demonstrate [through their newest collaboration] that Love is Difficult (相愛很難).
Continuation of
distant romance
In 2002, both Jacky Cheung and Karena Lam received HK
Film Award nominations for their performances in July Rhapsody – in the
end, Karena was successful in winning both the Best New Artist as well as Best
Supporting Actress awards at HKFA. After
that, Jacky and Karena continued to pursue their separate paths [TN: Jacky continued with his music and movie
career while Karena also continued to film movies, but also left the industry
for a few years to get married and have children] and did not get the
chance to ‘cross paths’ again in movies.
It wasn’t until last year (2015), when Karena’s husband Steve Yuen (袁劍偉)
decided to try his hand at directing movies [TN: prior to this, Steve Yuen
was primarily a director of commercials and music videos], that the
opportunity came up for the two of them to collaborate again in his directorial
debut Heaven in the Dark (暗色天堂). Adapted from
renown playwright Candace Chong’s (莊梅岩) award-winning stageplay The French Kiss (法吻),
Heaven
in the Dark actually has nothing to do with July Rhapsody in terms of
story, characters, setting, plot, etc. – however, due to the chemistry between
Jacky and Karena, their reunion in this movie gives off the feeling that they
are continuing that distant romance from 14 years ago. Even though the movie has not officially
debuted in HK theaters yet [TN: the movie
premieres on 3/24], both Jacky and Karena have already earned HK Film Awards Best
Actor and Best Actress nominations once again for their performances. [TN: This year’s HKFA will take place on
April 3rd].
‘Re-trial’ of
buried memories
In Heaven in the Dark, Jacky takes on
the role of To Tin Ming, a pastor who is also the chief director of a major
international charitable organization for the HK region. With his eloquence in speaking as well as
dynamic personality, Pastor To is popular with the masses and can even be
considered a ‘celebrity’ of sorts.
Karena plays the role of Michelle, a young woman who takes up an
assistant position in Pastor To’s charity and also becomes one of his
congregants after being attracted to his charm and charisma. Both eventually develop feelings for each
other, though neither one pursues the relationship further. Later on, Pastor To decides to accept the
position of chief director for the entire Asian region, a position based in
England. On the night of the farewell
dinner that Pastor To’s colleagues throw for him, he and Michelle go for a
drive at the Peak and before they leave, they decide to finally give in to
their feelings and share a passionate kiss together. Unfortunately, this one kiss changes both of
their lives forever. The next morning,
Michelle goes to the police station and files a sexual harassment complaint
against Pastor To, who is completely shocked at the sudden turn of events. The two end up arguing the case in court and
after an intense, emotionally draining trial, Pastor To loses the case – with
his reputation tarnished, he eventually leaves behind everything he has,
including his position as a pastor.
5 years later, Pastor To and Michelle bump into each
other again – this chance meeting rekindles long-buried memories of that
fateful night where one kiss changed their lives. After a tense verbal exchange, Pastor To and
Michelle are eventually able to piece together the scattered memories from that
night. Through a psychological ‘re-trial’ of those memories, the two of them
discover the shocking truth of what actually happened that night – an ‘answer’
that no court would’ve been able to give them.
Truth revealed 5
years later
In essence, the entire premise of the movie centers
around the question of what truly happened the night of that fateful kiss
between Pastor To and Michelle. How is
it that the situation went from two potential lovers acting on their mutual
feelings for each other to both parties becoming enemies overnight? Both the original stage play and the movie
begin in a similar manner: the setting
for the opening sequence is 5 years after the conclusion of the sexual
harassment court case against Pastor To.
Michelle is married to another pastor and has a child, while Pastor To
-- whose reputation was severely damaged by the guilty verdict handed down by
the courts – is no longer able to serve in the clergy and has become a
businessman instead. The story is
structured in a way that requires audiences to tear away one layer after
another in order to find out what truly happened that night. From Michelle’s point of view, she is
unwavering in her belief that the kiss was forced upon her and she did not
consent. However, from Pastor To’s
perspective, he remembers that there was consent from both sides, but the
influence of alcohol that night caused his memory to be hazy and therefore he
could not be 100% sure. For both, the
situation continued to be a thorn in their hearts for 5 years, despite the
surface appearance of both having moved on with their lives. A pair with the potential to become lovers,
yet due to crossing the boundaries of love, they can only become enemies in the
end.
****
Caption box:
Background on
renowned playwright Candace Chong’s original stage play script
Heaven in the Dark is a film
adaptation of stage play The French Kiss, an award-winning
theater production written by one of HK’s most renowned playwrights, Candace
Chong. The stage play first debuted back
in 2005, right before the start of the Cultural Arts Festival. At that time, the play consisted of only 3
actors performing against a simple backdrop that remained the same throughout
the production -- majority of the plot was brought forth through the dramatic confrontation
scenes between the male and female leads.
Many theater critics have praised the ability of writer Candace Chong’s
meticulous and well-written dialogue to give the story a tightly intertwined,
layered effect. In addition, the
script’s vivid yet simultaneously tension-filled language successfully draws
out the complexity of the sexual harassment case in the story, yet at the same
time, does so in a subtle and unassuming manner. The production has won several
awards over the years, including 2 of its most prestigious – awards for Best Script
and Top Ten Most Popular Stage Plays at the 15th annual Hong Kong
Drama Awards back in 2006.
It has been awhile since I’ve watched a HK film.
Growing up in the 80s and 90s, I am grateful to have witnessed the ‘heyday’ of
HK cinema back in those days (especially given what the HK movie industry has
become today). As an avid follower and huge supporter of the HK
entertainment industry back then, I watched my fair share of HK movies and
found most of them enjoyable, regardless of whether the story was good or
not. Of course it helped that there were so many big stars back then who
possessed both charisma as well as acting skill, plus all the talent
behind-the-scenes in terms of scriptwriters/directors/producers, etc., so it
made it easier (in my opinion at least) to enjoy even the lowest quality of
movies (i.e.: those raunchy slapstick ones where there is no coherent plot
whatsoever yet still manage to be funny and enjoyable).
One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about HK movies is
the distinct ‘HK flavor’ that most HK movies – especially the CNY (Chinese New
Year) ones – possessed back then (those of you who’ve been watching HK movies
for a long time will probably understand what I mean).
Unfortunately, that distinct ‘HK flavor’ has greatly eroded over the years, to
the point that nowadays, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a ‘purely HK flavor’
movie that is meant to cater to the HK market (I’m throwing completely bogus
numbers out there right now, but as a means of comparison, if 8 out of 10 HK
movies back in those days were ‘HK-centric’, then that number is only 1 out of
10 today – if that….). Don’t get me wrong – I’m not trying to diss non-HK
movies in any way, as I don’t feel it’s in my realm to do so…I’m merely
lamenting the erosion and ‘slow death’ of the HK movie industry (actually, the
entire HK entertainment industry as a whole if we think about it) due to
various factors that cannot be explained in one blog post.
When the industry started going downhill in the mid to
late 90s and most of the artists/production people I knew and loved became less
active in movies, I also became less and less interested in watching HK
movies. In the past 2 decades or so, I would venture to say that the
number of HK movies I’ve watched is less than a third of what I used to watch
in the old days – while I do have a few favorites from recent decades that were
absolute gems and that I would re-watch all day if I could, it’s not surprising
that a huge majority of my favorite HK movies are actually from the 80s/early
90s eras.
At this point, you’re probably wondering why I’ve been
ranting on for 3 paragraphs about the demise of HK movies in a blog post that
is supposed to be about movies that I intend on watching this year. Well,
considering how few HK movies I watch nowadays, the fact that there are 3
movies that I plan on (more like WANT TO) watch this year is quite significant
(last year, I only watched 1 HK movie – mostly because my idol was in it…in a
sense, I’m trying to put things in perspective). I have specific reasons
for wanting to watch these 3 movies, which I will attempt to explain below (in
my usual ‘wordy’ way of course, lol) – though in the case of #1 and #3, I admit
that I am also trying to ‘shamelessly plug’ both movies in the hopes that more
people will go see them (#2 obviously doesn’t need any ‘plugging’ from me,
since there is enough ‘hype’ with the movie already and it will do well in the
box office based on cast alone).
So here are the movies:
1) Heaven in the Dark (暗色天堂)
Cast: Jacky Cheung, Karena Lam, Anthony Wong,
Helena Law, Wong Hei, Edmund So, Catherine Chau, Michelle Wai
Director: Steve Yuen
Distributed by: Emperor Motion Pictures
Premiere date: 3/24/2016 in Hong Kong, 4/15/2016 in
Taiwan (not sure if this movie will be shown in Mainland or not)
Trailer (note that this is the first ‘official’ trailer
for the movie – as premiere date gets closer, there will undoubtedly be more
trailers released):
I’m actually working on a blog post dedicated to this
movie that will have details on the plot, background on filming and production,
etc., so I’m not going to say much here. Just note that Heaven
in the Dark is absolutely the MOST ANTICIPATED movie of the year for
me, one that I am very much DYING to see (3/24, please get here quickly!!!) –
to find out why, please stay tuned for my follow-up post (which should be
posted up by this weekend)…
2) From Vegas to Macau III (賭城風雲III)
Cast: Chow Yun Fat, Nick Cheung, Andy Lau, Jacky
Cheung, Carina Lau, Li YuChun, Charles Heung, Jacky Heung, Law Kar Ying, Sean
Yue, etc.
Director: Andrew Lau
Executive Producer: Wong Jing
Distributed by: Wong Jing’s production company,
Shaw Brothers, plus a plethora of other HK and Mainland production companies
Premier date: 2/6/2016 in Hong Kong, 2/8/2016 in Mainland
China
Trailer (one of many):
Sub-theme song MV trailer (incomplete version): "Frozen" (停格) by Jacky Cheung
I was actually already working on this post prior to the
movie premiering in HK, but had to put it aside due to getting busy with stuff,
which of course means I had to re-write some content, so please cut me some
slack if my comments sound choppy or don’t flow as coherently as they should.
Ok, so before anyone gives me crap about why I’m
‘supporting’ a Wong Jing-produced movie, I’m going to come right out and say
that I am watching this movie for 2 reasons only: 1) my idol Jacky Cheung
and 2) the nostalgia factor (more specifically, 80S/90S HK film industry
nostalgia). I will explain more about both reasons in a minute.
First though, for the record, I did not watch the first 2 installments of From
Vegas to Macau and I don’t intend to in the near future either (just to make it
clear: no, I’m not ‘boycotting’ either movie, I just have no desire to
watch, whether from a cast perspective or story perspective). I don’t
normally watch Wong Jing’s movies (I’m referring mostly to his movies from the
past 2 decades or so, not the older ones from the 80s/early 90s) because I find
them cheap, vulgar, and raunchy with recycled plots and storylines, crappy
scripts, and generally bad acting (mostly from the newbies and his ‘Jing
ladies’) – besides, most of Wong Jing’s movies the past several decades have
been low quality category III sex movies anyway, so of course I won’t bother to
watch.
Before I elaborate on my 2 main reasons for watching,
just wanted to give a quick shout-out to the ‘legitimate’ naysayers out there
by saying that I totally GET why you guys don’t want to watch this movie. [Side
note: I use the word ‘legitimate’ because nowadays, people boycott stuff left
and right purely out of political reasons that have nothing to do with the
work/program itself. If people are not watching this movie purely because
Wong Jing holds different political views than them – um, sorry, but your
opinion doesn’t count in my book!) With that said, I personally can’t
stand Wong Jing, but not because of political reasons (I don’t give a crap what
his political stance is to be honest, since politics should be completely
separate from entertainment and therefore – in my opinion anyway – it’s dumb to
refuse to watch a movie just because the producer’s political views differ from
one’s own). I dislike Wong Jing as a person mostly because of his
aggressive attitude toward people as well as his forever childish behavior (the
guy is like in his 60s I think, yet he always acts like he’s 10 or something
with all the tantrums he throws, especially when people criticize him or
disagree with him) – oh and of course, his ‘annoying as hell’ arrogance doesn’t
help things either. From a filmmaker perspective, I’ve actually always
felt that Wong Jing is overrated – like I mentioned above, he’s actually one of
the few directors/scriptwriters/producers in the industry whose formula has not
changed one bit in the 40+ years he has been in the industry…he basically
recycles and rehashes his stories/plots/gimmicks over and over again, to the
point that there is no need to watch all of his works because they all end up
looking similar anyway…if you’ve seen one of his movies/TV series, you’ve
pretty much seen them all. As with most of his movies, the script for Vegas
III was penned by Wong Jing himself, so no doubt this will be more of the same (which,
as of this writing, has been confirmed by those who’ve actually seen the movie –
the basic sentiment is that the script is HORRIBLY written).
So why do I want to watch this movie then? One
reason (actually, the first and foremost reason) is because of Jacky – he
rarely ever films movies nowadays so every opportunity I get to see him in a
movie, I am absolutely taking advantage of it (call me a crazy fan if you want
-- when it comes to Jacky, I have no qualms about being labeled as
such!). While it’s true that Jacky actually doesn’t have a whole lot of
screen time in this movie (technically, his role is less than supporting but
more than cameo), the time that he does have is well-used and his acting still
manages to stand out amongst all the ‘greats’ in this movie. Amidst all
the criticism toward the movie itself (since the movie premiered, the feedback
has been all over the place – some people like the movie and feels it lives up
to CNY standards, some hate it and hugely criticize it for being nonsense and
ridiculous, some are neutral and see it no better or worse than other
run-of-the mill CNY movies), there have been 2 ‘elements’ of the movie that
have been consistently praised in both positive as well as negative reviews of
the movie: the first is Jacky’s acting/performance and the second is the
sub-theme song he sings at the end of the movie (people have commented that listening
to the sub-theme song paired with watching the final scene of Jacky’s character’s
demise in the movie truly moved them to tears, which is unusual for a CNY
film that is supposed to be comedic rather than tragic). Those who have watched the movie have noted
Jacky’s meticulous acting, with special mention of his on-the-spot facial
expressions – despite the horribly written script, Jacky managed to make his
crazy, schizophrenic character Yik Tin Hang amazingly convincing. Of
course, I am not surprised at the positive feedback toward Jacky’s performance,
as he has always been a solid actor who is hugely underrated (mostly because
everyone – including Jacky himself – focus more on his singing career rather
than his acting). The last few days I’ve actually read quite a few
reviews as well as media reports on the movie (from various sources, both in HK
and Mainland) and interestingly enough, there has been one particular common
sentiment amongst all those reports: ‘Jacky Cheung is the only actor
amongst the star-studded main cast who actually took the acting piece seriously
and it shows’ (basically meaning that everyone else still delivered the goods,
but didn’t put as much emphasis on the acting since this is a CNY movie after
all and most audiences won’t care as long as they are ‘entertained’). In
other words, Jacky’s performance is one of the ‘highlights’ in an otherwise
forgettable movie. Again, I am not surprised, as Jacky is a
‘perfectionist’ when it comes to his work and has high standards towards all
his performances – whether it involves singing or acting – so of course he is
going to take it seriously (one of the articles actually said that it’s obvious
from the end result that Jacky put 120% effort into his performance). As
a fan, I am of course happy to see all the praise for Jacky’s performance, though
too bad it was for such a lame movie overall.
However, it does make me proud know that my decision to watch the movie
mainly because of him was definitely not in vain.
Lastly, to touch on the second reason why I want to watch
this movie – the nostalgia factor. For someone like me who grew up
watching HK movies in the 80s/90s, this movie will actually have a little more
significance in that I will be able to recognize a lot of the ‘classic’ scenes
/ dialogues / songs, etc. incorporated into the movie. Also, there are a
BOATLOAD of veteran artists and other familiar faces (whom long-time HK
movie-goers will for sure recognize) that make cameo appearances in the movie.
The nostalgia piece is actually a unique component of this particular
installment of Vegas that was absent from the previous 2 installments – though to
be honest, I’m pretty sure it’s not lost on anyone that the nostalgia piece is
a ‘gimmick’ on Wong Jing’s part to get audiences who have fond memories of ‘the
good old days’ to watch the movie. Ah well – it is what it is, I guess….
3) Ten Years (十年)
Cast: Liu Kai Chi, Leung Kin Ping, Courtney Wu
Zerisawa, Peter Chan, Wong Ching, Lau Ho-Chi, Ng Siu Hin, Tanzela Qoser, etc.
Directors: Kwok Zune, Wong Fei Pang, Jevons Au, Chow Kwun Wai, Ng Ka Leung
Distributed by: Ten Years Studio (low budget
independent film)
Premier date: 12/17/2015 in Hong Kong
Trailer:
Since probably not many people have heard of this film, I
will attempt to give a brief summary of it (though I also attached an article
from SCMP that does a pretty good job of summing it up, plus there’s also
Wikipedia for those who want more detail).
Anyway, this is a low budget independent movie consisting
of 5 short films directed by 5 newbie directors (from the younger generation
obviously, given the movie’s theme).
Basically, the movie is a political satire that attempts to depict what
Hong Kong might be like ten years from now, in 2025 (hence the very fitting
title). Though largely ‘fictional’ in
nature, the very realistic portrayal of political and social issues that HK has
been facing (with some of what has been depicted in the movie eerily ‘coming
true’ already) has made this film a haunting reminder of Mainland China’s
increasingly suffocating stronghold on HK.
Initially, this film did not draw much attention,
especially since all the directors are young newbies, plus the cast is largely
unknown (except for a few veteran supporting artists such as Liu Kai Chi and
Leung Kin Ping, though if you read up on the film, there are other familiar
faces who do have cameos, it’s just not highly publicized). Not long after its release though, ticket sales
went through the roof, with sales surpassing the new Star Wars movie at one
point in a few theaters. That’s when
mainstream media started reporting on the movie more, giving it much needed
publicity. In the short amount of time
the movie has been in theaters, it managed to rake in $5 million HKD in ticket
sales, which is virtually unheard of for an independent film helmed by unknowns
(plus the film only cost $600,000 HKD to make, so the directors definitely got
a return on their investment). So far,
this film has gotten wide critical acclaim (in HK of course) and has been
touted as a film that all Hong Kongers must watch. Those who’ve watched the film praise its daring
yet relevant portrayal of HK’s political and social issues – the film is
powerful on many fronts, but ‘disturbing’ and scary at the same time due to how
closely it hits home with its candid commentary of the HK-Mainland conflict as
well as the CCP’s ominous influence.
As a Hong Konger, I am definitely interested in watching
this movie. For the record, I have
always taken a ‘neutral’ stance when it comes to politics and nothing will ever
change that. I refuse to involve myself
with politics or associate myself with any party / political faction because to
me, there is no party out there that will ever jive completely with my views
and value system – therefore I prefer to remain ‘neutral’ so that I can both
understand and appreciate both sides of the argument, so to speak. Besides, as I mentioned above, I have always
taken the position that politics should be separate from entertainment, so I
don’t allow my entertainment choices (whether in television, movies, music,
books, etc.) to be ‘influenced’ by any political leanings. With all that said, I am interested in
watching Ten Years mainly due to its artistic merit and critical acclaim
– I want to see for myself whether this movie is as poignant and powerful as
everyone has said it is. Regardless of
its heavy socio-political theme, if the movie is good, then it’s absolutely
worthwhile to watch -- no amount of criticism, whether politically-laced or not, will discourage me from watching a worthy film!
As I was posting in a some forums last night, I came to the realization that not everyone may be aware of all the ‘turmoil’ that has been going on in the HK entertainment industry (and in HK as a whole) lately, so I felt the urge to write the below ‘recap’ as a means of summarizing some of the main issues.
First, the obvious piece of news that I’m sure everyone knows about: ATV having to close up shop by April of this year. Despite the shameless (and delusional) management at ATV continuing to keep the station on life support for as long as possible and refusing to accept the fact that their license was actually taken away by the government, the reality is that ATV has an ‘end date’ – whether the management team likes it or not, well, too bad…they just have to deal with it! Personally, I would like ATV to close up shop sooner rather than later, as I’m tired of hearing the nonsensical garbage that comes out of the mouths of their imbecilic management – I mean, ok fine, be in denial all you want, but do you really think, Mr. CEO, that you can continue to be late with paying your employees (which is an issue in and of itself, as it’s obvious despite all the lawsuits and the judge’s warning about what will happen if ATV continues to not pay employees, ATV doesn’t give a crap, since they once again delayed paying their employees in Decemer), do absolutely nothing to prove that you deserve a license, then submit an application for a license and brag to everyone and their mothers that they are “100% certain” that the government will approve and re-issue a license to them? Do you even know how utterly RIDICULOUS you sound?? I’m actually surprised that the government hasn’t taken any ‘drastic’ action against ATV given all the laws they’ve violated this past year, plus the fact that ATV has been ‘implicating’ time and time again that the government is ‘corrupt’, as they keep claiming that the government will approve this and that and will side with them and give them a license due to all their ‘connections’. [Meanwhile, the government relentlessly goes after HKTV and looks under rocks to find whatever way possible to force them out of the HK television market, despite the fact that HKTV followed all the proper procedures and never said or did anything that could be construed as ‘anti-HK government’ (that is, until their license was denied, after which Ricky Wong publicly denounced CY Leung – and rightfully so in my opinion)]. Oh, and what about that ‘new investor’ from Mainland who supposedly bought ATV? After ATV’s ‘high profile’ announcement a few months ago that they had a buyer and the repeated claims that ‘everything will be fine now’, news about the sale has died down in recent months. When asked about the sale and the new investor, ATV’s management appear to be clueless, as all they would say is that they don’t know any details but assume that things are ‘in the works’. Yeah, whatever…I think 99.9% of the HK population doesn’t even give a damn about ATV anymore….
So while ATV is still holding on for dear life, those shameless bastards at TVB (I’m referring to the management team here) are sitting back on their laurels and gloating about being victorious once again with defending their monopoly (with the help of the HK government of course). Despite the endless exit of artists, ridiculously low ratings, and criticism galore, TVB management continue to walk around arrogantly claiming that nothing is wrong and that TVB ‘is, was, and always will be’ the number one television station in HK. I don’t think it’s lost on anyone that TVB has become even more complacent the last 2 years (ever since the government denied HKTV a license) and their programs as well as overall operations have hit the lowest point possible. The current management is absolute crap and the decisions they make are ridiculously stupid – yet no one calls them out on anything and as a result, they continue to feed HK audiences garbage month after month (sad thing is, most of those audiences have no problem with TVB feeding them garbage and ‘happily’ devour it as though it’s the best-tasting stuff in the world….go figure!).
Of course, those of us who’ve been following what’s been going on in recent years know that TVB announced last year that they will be focusing more on the Mainland (China) market going forward (despite the denials by management, it’s obvious this has something to do with the new Mainland investor that TVB is collaborating with). In addition to airing more Mainland dramas in their ‘golden’ timeslot, TVB’s CEO Mark Lee (anyone who follows my comments/blog know how much I hate that guy) recently revealed plans to build an additional studio in Guangdong, China (like that studio they built in Shanghai or wherever TVBC operations is wasn’t enough) so that they can use that location to film the HK/Mainland collaboration series that they have plans for. Meanwhile, TVB’s internal operations continue to be a mess, the management team continues to be embroiled in political power struggles, production quality is going down the toilet, people are leaving left and right, etc. etc. etc. – but of course, no one at TVB cares because, well, honestly, HK as a whole is going down in flames anyway so why should they invest more time and money to improve things there when they can just cater to Mainland and laugh all the way to the bank?
As if it’s not enough that HK’s 2 main free-to-air TV stations are going through issues galore, the radio stations in HK are not faring any better. There has been an unprecedented amount of ‘shakeup’ in the management ranks at all 3 of HK’s radio stations in recent months.
At Commercial Radio (CRHK), their long-time chairman/CEO Winnie Yu announced 2 weeks ago that she will be ‘stepping down’ from her position and leaving CRHK (Winnie has been at CRHK for more than 30 years and is pretty much responsible for making that station the success that it has been, plus she’s a well-respected figure in the HK entertainment industry). There have not been further announcements on who will take over for Winnie or what type of restructuring will take place at the station, but given her influence and the tremendous impact she had, it’s hard for people not to be concerned – especially given the fact that in the past 2 years or so when she has been ‘less involved’ in CRHK’s operations (probably started ‘stepping back’ in preparation for this moment), issues already started to crop up that have put CRHK in the spotlight, and not in a good way either. I will definitely be staying tuned in to the last developments with the management ‘changing of the guard’ at CRHK, as I’m curious to see who (if anyone) will take over. One thing’s for sure though – I hope Stephen Chan won’t be the ‘chosen’ one. Of course, I don’t ‘hate’ him the way I do Mark Lee (and other current TVB management), but I definitely have reservations about his ability to ‘lead’ CRHK.
Meanwhile, at rival radio station Metro, long-time exec Daniel Chu (he oversees the entertainment division of the station) also announced his retirement earlier in the month and as of last week, he officially left the station (rumor has it that he was actually ‘forced’ to retire, though he refuses to talk about it). There’s more though – Metro is also going through a massive ‘layoff movement’ whereby majority of the employees who worked in the entertainment department are either being laid off (aka fired), transferred to other departments, or their work hours are being reduced (i.e. change from full-time to part-time). Several of the DJs / radio hosts who were close to Daniel Chu were ‘fired’ on the spot – veteran music personality Chan Siu Bo is one of those hosts who was instantly ‘fired’ and his radio program stopped (of course he is livid, especially given the way the whole situation went down according to him). The latest issue of Mingpao Magazine (published last week) actually details the shakeup at the radio stations and according to that article, the reason for the changes at Metro goes back to finances. Apparently, the revenue numbers were posted for last year and Metro did not do too well overall – in reviewing the numbers, management came to the conclusion that the entertainment department was the main culprit, as entertainment-related programs rarely bring in much money…so the decision was made to ‘cut’ the entertainment department. All entertainment-related programs (i.e. music programs, entertainment news programs, etc.) will be significantly reduced and content of current programs will be ‘changed’ to focus more on non-entertainment related stuff (i.e. current events, societal issues, politics, etc.) How this will impact the entertainment industry remains to be seen, but there are already reports that claim the management team has plans to get rid of Metro’s music charts, which also means the yearly Metro Hit Music Awards may cease to exist in the near future as well (for the record, one of the execs at Metro recently denied this report as being false – but let’s wait and see…).
HK’s government-owned/operated radio station RTHK is also undergoing massive restructuring. Several veteran DJs who had been hosting programs at RTHK for years were suddenly ‘laid off’ or had their programs cancelled and were transferred to other departments. When interviewed, those DJs said that they were not given any explanation for the sudden changes – management only told them that they plan on making the radio station more ‘youth-oriented’, so many of the programs that were targeted to an ‘older’ audience will be ‘revamped’ to meet this need. Coincidentally, most of the programs that underwent changes were ‘politically-themed’ programs that involved discussions about the current state of HK, so of course, with the highly sensitive political atmosphere in HK currently, there is now the ‘controversy’ about these changes possibly being made to suppress free speech. Also, according to those who were affected, the changes don’t make sense – most of the hosts that were “transferred” and the programs cut were amongst the station’s highest rated and most popular. One of the radio show hosts whose program got cancelled said in that Mingpao interview that the reasoning they were given (making things more youth-oriented) doesn’t make sense – his program airs early morning hours each day, during which time most young people aren’t even awake yet and even if they are, most of them don’t listen to traditional radio programs covering those types of topics.
For the record -- both Metro and RTHK management are claiming that the changes are not directed at anyone in particular and that it is ‘normal course of business’ given the state of the economy currently. They also claim that all companies (not just radio) are being affected due to current societal trends and change is inevitable so people shouldn’t read so much into things. Hmmm…well, I personally don’t think so but ok, whatever…I mostly listen to CRHK anyway, so not tremendously concerned about what happens with Metro and RTHK (unless the entertainment department at RTHK is affected, in which case I would be concerned, since I do follow a few a programs there).
So you thought that was it, huh? Nope, unfortunately not! Two more ‘issues’ that have been happening lately that I would like to point out, since both impact the entertainment industry in some way…
The ‘big news’ in the Media realm of late is the recent sale of HK newspaper South China Morning Post (SCMP) to Mainland tycoon Jack Ma (aka ‘that Alibaba guy’). As one of the few English-language papers left in HK, of course there are concerns about the future direction of the paper and what will happen when sensitive topics come up concerning China. In related news, there’s also the imminent transfer of ownership of One Media, which is the parent company of Ming Pao – rumor has it that Jack Ma is also one of the ‘potential buyers’ in discussions to purchase One Media/Ming Pao, but until it happens, we won’t know who the final buyer will be. Both of these media outlets report heavily on entertainment news (in addition to regular news of course) and even though it’s too early to say how / if the sale of those 2 media outlets will impact things, no doubt it’s still something worth paying attention to. For me especially, as a long-time avid reader of Ming Pao magazine and also general news from Ming Pao’s regular news site, I’m definitely interested in the developments surrounding One Media’s sale.
And last but not least – the political turmoil going on in HK currently is starting to have a severe impact on the entertainment industry. Personally, I’ve always hated politics and have always tried as much as I could to stay away from politically-themed issues – well, the past few years, this has become harder and harder to do given how big a role politics plays nowadays in both society as well as my personal life. From the HK entertainment industry side of things, I really started paying attention to politics a few years ago with the whole free-to-air license fiasco and all the ‘controversy’ surrounding HKTV’s failure to obtain a license. Since then, I’ve been much more aware of the impact of politics on entertainment and even though I’m still of the sentiment that entertainment and politics should be separate and one shouldn’t affect the other, I’m not blind to the fact that reality dictates otherwise. The political struggle and Mainland/HK conflict have always been ‘sensitive issues’ in HK, but in recent years, things have truly gotten out of control, especially ever since the whole Occupy Central thing occurred.
Recently, there has been a particular political activist (most people who’ve been following events in HK probably know who I’m talking about) who has taken her so-called patriotism (I say ‘so-called’ because IMO, she’s simply using patriotism as an excuse to wreak havoc on society) overboard, utilizing social media platforms to “report” artists from the HK entertainment industry whom she feels is “anti-China” or whom she deems as ‘supporting’ Occupy Central in any way, shape, or form. Basically she sends out mass messages claiming these artists are “disturbing society’s peace” and asks people to “boycott” them. [Sidenote: For those who haven’t noticed, most of the people she ‘reports’ are actually not Occupy supporters – she basically takes surface information she reads and twists it to suit her whim]. Any reasonable person (like you and me for instance) would see this woman for what she is – a crazy lunatic who spews nonsense and should just be ignored. The sad part is that there are enough people out there who actually believe the stuff this woman says and take action based on it, which of course is incredibly stupid -- though I guess HK should be ‘grateful’ that the activist person isn’t a celebrity so it’s easier for entertainment industry people and majority of the public to ignore her – unlike what they have in Taiwan where the crazy activist is actually a former (current?) celebrity who has a certain amount of influence with producers and such (and the stupid producers of those Mainland programs and shows actually listen to the guy too and ‘cancel’ the offending celebrities’ appearances – or take other drastic action – as a result).
In any case, with all the struggles that HK celebrities already have to go through given the dismal state of the entertainment industry currently, it’s a shame that they have to deal with these stupid activists too and worry about whether what they say or do will be somehow misconstrued and have their lives/careers turned upside down in the process. Unfortunately, I don’t see this issue improving any time in the near future (in fact, it’s only going to get worse)….such a bad time to be a ‘celebrity’ in HK (and Taiwan too)!
*****
Concluding thoughts….
Despite the length of my post (sorry!), the above is actually only a brief summary of a few main issues going on in HK as of late which I’ve read about lately and feel are interrelated in terms of impact to the HK entertainment industry. By no means is this post meant to be all-inclusive or comprehensive, plus it’s all based on memory, so there might be some things unintentionally left out here and there.
As always, I welcome you guys to share your thoughts, whether related to this particular post or not (if you feel like just ranting on something random in the comments section, feel free!).
The awards ceremony this year was largely lackluster similar to previous years. One thing I will applaud TVB for though (no, I don’t just criticize TVB – I will give praise where I feel it’s due) is the fact that this time around, they did not let the current political situation in HK influence them – not only did they agree to let Anthony Wong film one of their series (sure, he returned purely because of Amy Wong, but still, TVB had to agree to it), they also did the right thing by giving him the TV King award which he rightfully deserved. Amid all the controversy with Occupy Central and the so-called Mainland China ‘boycott’ against Anthony, good to see that TVB forfeited kissing Mainland China’s butt for once and instead gave Anthony the recognition he deserved.
Ok, now for the criticisms (lol):
- The awards ceremony left a sour taste in my mouth from the getgo with the Lifetime Achievement Award going to Nat Chan. When my family and I were watching the awards presentation and Nat’s name was announced for this award, our jaws literally dropped – the only reaction I could muster was WTF???? Come on TVB, REALLY???? Of all the more deserving veteran artists out there, they choose to give this award to Nat, who, to be honest, didn’t really contribute to TVB as much as the ‘senior’ actors did? I can actually rattle off at least 20 to 30 artists who deserve the award way more than Nat. I mean, ok, fine, many of the ‘senior’ (what we call ‘gam cho’) artists have either retired, left TVB, or even passed away, but still, that shouldn’t stop TVB from giving the award to someone more deserving (unless the artist currently works for a rival TV station, which yes, in that case I definitely understand). How about Kenneth Tsang or Lau Kong (can’t remember if Lau Kong received it before – I don’t think he did)? Or Lau Dan? John Chiang? Chun Wong? Elliot Ngok? The list goes on and on. I would’ve even preferred that they give this award posthumously to an artist who already passed away but had made huge contribution to TVB in terms of acting (i.e. the late So Hang Suen). What a joke! (Sidenote: I thought this was the Lifetime Achievement in ACTING award??? Nat Chan only acted in a few TVB series and mostly early on in his career, like in the 70s – not nearly as many as the veteran artists have. If it was for hosting, um, well, he’s even less qualified, as there are way more ‘senior’ hosts than him who’ve contributed more to TVB than him – like Ivan Ho, Lawrence Cheng, Eric Tsang, etc.). I really want to know what TVB was thinking with this award….
- Most Improved actor/actress – I guess I wasn’t as pissed off with this award category as others were, since I already expected TVB to play favorites and give this award to the least deserving of the nominees. Nowadays, this is pretty much the only category where TVB can blatantly do their favoritism thing without getting as much as backlash from audiences as, say, the TV King and Queen categories, since it’s the one category where it’s obvious the artist who wins is usually the one TVB is trying to promote. Personally, I didn’t think Tony Hung deserved to win, as a few of the others nominated were way better than him (i.e. Mat Yeung), but since his acting truly has improved from his earlier series, I can at least swallow the fact that he won. Grace Chan on the other hand, did NOT deserve the award at all – there has been absolutely no improvement in her acting (in fact, her acting has actually gotten worse), so for TVB to still gave her that award, it’s obviously rigged.
- As has been the case for many years already, the awards show was hugely disjointed and disorganized. What the heck was up with the Best Supporting Actor/Actress segment? One minute the hosts state that the next award to be presented is Best Supporting Actor and then they interview the 5 nominees for the award, but then right after that, they go into announcing the presenters of the Best Supporting Actress award – huh? And I hate how they stopped doing the top 5 nominee thing for all the categories except TV King/Queen and Favorite Character -- putting myself in the artists’ shoes, even if they don’t win the award, I’m sure they would’ve wanted to know if they had at least gotten into top 5 because that’s still recognition to some extent. Oh and on the topic of the awards show being disorganized – why does TVB have to rush things every year? Why can’t they just have one year where they let everyone say what they want to say? Also, those interview snippets they did in between various categories were badly done – they were obviously time-fillers that had no meaningful purpose and instead make things come across awkward every year.
- I was seriously disappointed at the lack of ‘decent’ presenters once again this year. Gone are the days when TVB was able to invite big-name presenters to give out their awards – instead, in recent years, they’ve had to resort to their own artists or those who are affiliated with them in some way either by filming series or a variety program for them. To me, that shows how irrelevant TVB is nowadays, as very few non-TVB artists are willing to give them the time of day (which of course I don’t blame the artists for, since I would do the same thing if I were them). In the past, I would always look forward to the presenters and their speeches, even more than the award winners’ themselves, but this time around, such a huge disappointment. Pretty much the only presenter speech I enjoyed was Benz Hui’s ‘humorous jab at TVB’ speech (love Benz – he’s basically one of the few artists who can say whatever he wants about TVB and still be highly valued by them). And is it just me or did Nancy Wu present twice? I wasn’t really paying a whole lot of attention but for some reason I felt that she had gone up there twice to present…
- The hosting sucked again this year, though part of me feels I should blame TVB rather than the hosts because they’re merely going off a script and since the ceremony itself was so disorganized, they had to do the best with what they had. With that said though, the hosting in general has been largely lackluster for most of TVB’s ‘big event’ shows the past couple years (that includes anniversary gala, anniversary awards, charity shows, etc.). Really makes me miss those good old days (the 80s/90s) when TVB’s shows were truly grand events and the hosting was just as much a ‘highlight’ of the show as the performances themselves!
- Acceptance speeches – again, nothing exciting with the speeches and definitely no ‘moved me to tears’ moments this year. I basically had no feeling towards most of the speeches (probably because I didn’t really give a care about the awards this year, so couldn’t really muster up much emotion / feeling towards anyone winning, whether deserved or not). The only 2 acceptance speeches that caught my attention were Ruco Chan’s (definitely liked his speech) and Anthony Wong’s (his speeches are always exciting to listen to though, whether he’s presenting or accepting awards). In comparisons, last year’s speeches were much more heartfelt and emotional. Oh and I swear, if I hear one more artist ‘thanks Sandy’ (Sandy Yu, TVB’s director of variety programs) in their acceptance speech, I think I’m going to start busting out the curse words! Sure, I understand if those in the variety department thank Sandy (since she does oversee that department) or those who were singlehandedly pushed up by her (i.e. those artists who worked with her at i-Cable and jumped ship with her to TVB), but there were artists in the drama department thanking Sandy when she actually had nothing to do with them or their careers! (this is one reason why I loved Benz’s jab at people’s acceptance speeches in general, lol). I’ve always hated how most TVB award winners are kind of ‘forced’ to thank upper management – some feel it’s a PR move, others feel it’s necessary in order to stay on TVB’s good side….whatever the reason, it comes across as fake to me. I prefer the acceptance speeches where the artists thank who they truly want to thank – i.e. those people who truly helped them in their career – rather than some management person out of fear of what might happen to them or their career if they don’t thank that person. Argh – major pet peeve!
- Classic series category – just wanted to add this part in, as I’ve seen some confusion in the forums about this category so felt I should clarify. The classic series category was actually added due to all the hype surrounding TVB’s midnight timeslot this year. All of those series nominated were ones that had aired in the midnight timeslot series in recent months. When the nominees first came out, I thought it was very interesting that out of all the ‘classic’ series that aired in the midnight timeslot this year, TVB would choose to slide in some of their ‘non-classic’ series such as Lives of Omission and Brother’s Keeper for example – go figure! Though I totally agree with the sentiment that TVB created this category just for the heck of it, I’m glad to see that at least they didn’t screw it up by giving the award to a series that didn’t deserve it. As I said elsewhere in a different forum (prior to the award ceremony), the winner in this category hands-down should be The Greed of Man – this is a ‘no-brainer’ choice and any other series winning in this category would’ve been a travesty. Reason being is that TGOM single-handedly ‘resurrected’ TVB’s midnight time slot and therefore is the main reason why TVB was even able to add this category in the first place! When the series aired in that timeslot back in April/May (I think those are the right months – too lazy to go look it up), it broke all records in terms of ratings (for all series aired in that timeslot) and also brought about a deluge of hype and attention (due to all the nostalgia no doubt) that no one expected and TVB absolutely benefited from. During the months that the series aired, it was the ‘talk of the town’ and literally EVERY SINGLE WEEK there was some tidbit about the series in the newspapers, whether it was interviews with the cast (they managed to find and interview practically every single main cast member), resurrecting cut scenes from the series, rekindling the careers of largely forgotten artists (i.e.: David Siu). Since the beginning, it made the most sense for TGOM to win and definitely glad that it did!
Overall, the awards ceremony was boring and if you didn’t watch, you didn’t miss out. There was actually way more to criticize than what I listed but I figured I would just hit the highlights (well, I guess ‘lowlights’ is more appropriate in this case) in this post. If I think of anything else more pressing (which I doubt, as I don’t intend to waste any more time on such a meaningless award ceremony), I’ll be sure to add. Those who did watch the awards ceremony though, feel free to post your thoughts/comments.
Those who’ve been following my blog are probably familiar
with this whole midnight timeslot thing that I wrote several posts about the
past few months. As a refresher, here
are the links to the posts related to this topic:
This is my fourth post about this topic and unlike the
previous posts, this one will be quite brief.
Basically, I AM PISSED!!!!!
I just read the below article from on.cc which references
back to the TVB/onTV poll that allowed audiences to choose which series they
most wanted to watch in the midnight timeslot.
The poll had closed back in September and when the results were
announced, the top 3 winners (in order of most votes) were: 1) War
of the Genders, 2) Looking Back in Anger, and 3) A
Step into the Past. Back then,
onTV claimed that TVB had agreed they would re-air series in their midnight
timeslot based on the results of this poll – indeed, on 10/5, TVB started
airing War of the Genders, which was the series that garnered the most
votes…makes sense and I’m fine with that.
Logically speaking then – and if TVB was true to their word – the next
series to air after War of the Genders ends on December 10th would be
the #2 highest voted series, Looking Back in Anger, right? WRONG!!!!!!
According to the below article (keep in mind that onTV belongs to
Oriental Daily, which is actually the one who did this poll in collaboration
with TVB), the next series to air will be A Step into the Past, NOT Looking
Back in Anger!! WTH??? Why did they skip LBIA when that series is in
the #2 spot and instead choose to air the series in the #3 spot, ASITP??? Does that make any ounce of sense at
all? What gives, TVB?? Why are you once again deliberately skipping
LBIA and not allowing it to air in the midnight timeslot? Especially now when audiences VOTED the
series as their 2nd most favorite series that they want to see
re-broadcast in that timeslot?
I don’t know about you guys, but to me, this is proof
right here that the previous “rumor” about LBIA being blacklisted by TVB due to
Felix Wong is absolutely TRUE !! I mean,
what other logical explanation is there for why TVB would choose to go back on
their word (which was to air the series in order of what audiences chose) and
air ASITP instead, completely bypassing LBIA? In my previous posts, I mentioned the blacklist thing as a possible reason why TVB keeps skipping the series, but in efforts to be fair and give TVB the benefit of the doubt, I kept it as 'speculation only' on my part. Well, now with this revelation, turns out that, once again, I was right after all (so next time people try to defend TVB whenever I criticize their stupidities, please remember this incident and spare me from the excuses -- because at this point, nothing is going to restore my trust in TVB, especially with the damn incompetent management they have in place right now!)
Another thing’s for sure – the next time those stupid, imbecilic,
bastard execs at TVB try to REFUTE the claims of there being a blacklist (they have repeatedly denied the existence of a blacklist, even though some artists have proven there IS a blacklist because they've personally seen it), I am
calling them out on this issue and want to see what they have to say (hey TVB,
if there is no blacklist, then WHY DO YOU GUYS REPEATEDLY REFUSE TO AIR
LBIA?????). Stop treating your audiences
like fools, TVB!!! And FOR ONCE, have some respect for those whose support over the years
helped make you into the powerhouse you are today – otherwise, sooner or later, even
those die-hard fans who grew up watching your programs and therefore continue
to blindly support you will end up abandoning you as well!
Sorry that this news is kind of ‘old’ now (it’s from last
week) -- I’ve actually had this post in draft mode for a few days already but
only got around to finishing it today.
All BOGAE (TVB series Blood of Good and Evil)
fans need to read this post!!!
Last week, classic 80s/90s TVB onscreen couple Deric Wan (溫兆倫) and
Maggie Siu (邵美琪) got the chance to reunite on the premiere episode of
the Mainland reality TV show It Was You (原來是你). The premise of the show is that the invited
celebrity guest undergoes various “transformations” using Hollywood-style
makeup and special effects and then interacts with other celebrity friends to
see if they are able to recognize him/her. In this first episode, Deric was invited to
undergo the transformation and pull a surprise on his close friends Maggie Siu,
Benz Hui (許紹雄),
and BOGAE’s scriptwriter Chan Po Wah (陳寶華).
The show invited the 3 unsuspecting friends to attend the show’s
recording, telling them that they will be judges for a talent show competition -- Deric will interact with them in various situations, disguised as someone
else.
My mom was actually the one who told me about this show,
as she has taken to watching Mainland variety shows in recent years and, as a
long-time HK entertainment as well as TVB fan, she is always on the look-out
for any HK celebrities who appear on the shows.
When she told me about this one with Deric and Maggie (plus Po Wah Jie),
I was undoubtedly SUPER-EXCITED because 1) they are one of my all-time favorite
on-screen couples, and 2) BOGAE is one of my all-time favorite TVB series. Even though Benz Hui wasn’t in BOGAE, he’s
still one of my all-time favorite ‘green leaf’ actors, so I was excited to see
him on the show too.
Watching this show brought back a lot of nostalgia and
fond memories for me! From the opening
segment when Deric talks about his days working at TVB and series he filmed to
the 3 friends who have a special place in his heart (Maggie, Benz, and Po Wah
Jie) to the last segment where Maggie re-enacts the classic ending scene from
BOGAE with a transformed Deric (Maggie didn’t know it was him until he revealed
himself after the scene), I was absolutely ecstatic – at the same time though,
I also had tears in my eyes, especially during that later segment, which was
extremely touching, particularly for fans of the series like me.
The first friend that Deric “surprised” was Benz. To be honest, I also got teary-eyed at the
end of Benz’s segment (ok, well I started off laughing until my stomach hurt)
when Deric revealed himself and they hugged each other – Benz’s reaction was
priceless, as he hadn’t seen Deric in more than a decade and so was genuinely
surprised…Deric looked like he was about to cry, as he was so happy to see his ‘older
brother’ again after all these years.
The second friend was Chan Po Wah. Po Wah Jie was one of TVB’s former
scriptwriters who had left back in the early 2000s and currently writes for TV
series in Mainland China. Po Wah Jie is
actually Deric’s mentor, as she was the scriptwriter for BOGAE and wrote the
character of Chai Ho Nam, which was one of Deric’s most representative roles of
his entire acting career. Po Wah Jie’s
segment was actually quite funny, as they did a ‘discussion’ session with a
bunch of supposed contestants and she talked about the artists she most enjoyed
working with as well as a few other ‘tid-bits’ about the series BOGAE. It was obvious from what Po Wah Jie said that
she’s very close with Deric and knows him very very well – by the same token,
Deric obviously has a lot of respect for Po Wah Jie, which is heartwarming to
see, especially since it’s rare for scriptwriters to have such a good
relationship with artists who brought the characters they wrote to life.
The ultimate ‘target’ of the surprise was actually
Maggie. After Benz and Po Wah Jie found
out Deric’s identity, they collaborated with him to prank Maggie. Here I must applaud Jiangsu TV station’s seriousness
in putting together the ‘fake’ talent show, complete with 'fake' contestants and 'fake' performances in order to make the surprise more
impactful and poignant while still being able to tie in most of Deric and Maggie's past
collaborations such as BOGAE, Looking Back in Anger, Conscience….it
was a dream come true for Deric/Maggie fans!
At the very end, when Deric revealed himself, Maggie was genuinely
touched and so was everyone else – she kept asking Deric why he had to put
himself through so much suffering (6 hours of makeup plus he could barely talk
correctly or do much facial expression because of it), to which he replied that
he is honored to have her as a friend and is willing to do anything for
her. Awww, such a sweet moment – oh and
with BOGAE’s themesong playing in the background (one of my all-time favorite
themesongs by the way)….everyone was crying, including those in the live
audience as well as fans watching from home (I was definitely one of those fans
crying my eyes out)! Oh and great job to
Benz and Po Wah Jie, who knew what was happening during that entire segment and played along really well (honestly, Po
Wah Jie should be an actress – she was very natural in that segment!)
This was absolutely a fun episode to watch and chances
are I will watch it again very soon (especially since I miss Deric and Maggie
so much). It also made me want to go
re-watch BOGAE again (for like the hundredth time now)!
Thank you Jiangsu TV for such a great episode! I’m not really into Mainland variety shows,
but whenever there are HK celebrities invited on the shows, I will usually
watch. This episode is an absolute
MUST-WATCH for all BOGAE as well as Deric/Maggie fans!
The link to the entire episode is below (courtesy of
Jiangsu TV’s Youtube channel). Enjoy!!
I read the below article in Mingpao Weekly over the weekend and since it contains some info that might impact the HK music industry, I decided it would be appropriate to share it here. I personally don't have much opinion on the music-related changes that TVB is planning on rolling out next year, since I stopped caring about the HK music industry for close to a decade already. Most of the singers I like are veteran artists from the 70s, 80s, and 90s and if/when they release new music, I have my ways of finding out and supporting. Yes, I still do listen to newer music from the younger generation, but not as much compared to in the past...plus I don't follow most of the newbie singers anyway. My only comment on the article below: the part that annoyed me big time was Sandy Yu once again 'boasting' that they (TVB) came up with the idea of having a unified awards ceremony and that they are all for this idea, but the other 3 media companies shot it down. Well, I will tell you that what Sandy said is B.S.!!!!! TVB was NOT the one who came up with the unified awards ceremony thing -- in fact, they weren't even supportive of such an idea until about a year or so ago! The veteran singers -- such as Jacky Cheung for example -- were technically the ones who first suggested that HK should do a unified awards ceremony...in fact, Jacky had heavily pushed for this about 5 years ago and would talk about it at practically every interview. But all the media organizations (TVB included) were vehemently opposed (most likely because they would lose whatever benefit they got from keeping it separate). At that time, TVB even went as far as 'boycotting' Jacky because he kept pushing the unified awards thing (though there were other reasons too, such as Jacky saying that alot of the music programs don't respect the singers because they cut off their performances among other things -- indirect jab at TVB, since they were notorious for doing this...plus there was the royalty dispute, since he belongs to one of the record companies that was at odds with TVB). I don't have a problem with TVB realizing they were stupid not to support the unified awards ceremony thing and therefore are now changing their tune -- but for them to take the credit for 'coming up with the idea' and bragging about it constantly and then worse yet, making themselves seem all high and mighty and the other 3 media stations look like jerks for refusing to cooperate with them...to me, that is utterly ABHORRENT!! If I hear TVB brag about this again, I swear I am probably going to strangle someone over there...argh!! :-(
*****
TVB attempts to
save its music programs through ‘ice-breaking’ dinner with record companies
Source: Mingpao
Weekly, Issue# 2445
Original article published September 18, 2015
Translation: llwy12
In recent years, due to losing many of its first-line actors
and actresses, TVB had to cast newcomers in lead roles in more of their series while
continuing to watch the ratings for their programs fall. At the same time, TVB’s music programs have
also suffered a significant decline.
Ever since the royalty dispute 5 years ago with the big 4 record
companies (Sony, Warner, Universal, and EMI), TVB’s relationship with the
record labels has been shaky. As a
result, TVB’s music programs as well as their JSG awards ceremony have lacked
significant star power the past few years, which has not only made their
programs less attractive, but also severely reduced their impact [on the music
industry].
Seeing this, TVB took the initiative to put together a
dinner this past Wednesday (September 16th) to ‘break the ice’ with
the record companies. As host of the
dinner, TVB’s director of variety programming Sandy Yu (余詠珊) invited the management teams from
all of HK’s record companies, whether big or small, to attend. At the same time, Sandy Yu also took the
opportunity to update those present on TVB’s latest projects related to music
as well as roll out a few policy changes resulting from this. With this dinner, TVB hoped to continue their
long-standing contribution to the music industry while at the same time garner
some ‘goodwill’ and support for their own music programs.
Three weeks ago, Sandy Yu had already contacted the
executives at all the record companies to invite them to the dinner. Since she took on the position of programming
director for TVB’s variety department at the height of TVB’s royalty dispute
with the big 4 record labels, this would actually be Sandy’s first time meeting
with all the record company execs. At
first, a few of the record companies thought it was odd and were hesitant about
attending, however when they heard that some of the major record labels’ execs
-- such as EEG’s Ng Yu (吳雨) as well as
East Asia’s Chan Chi Kwong (陳志光),
etc. – had already confirmed their attendance, they proceeded with plans to
participate. With that said however, Universal
Music’s top exec Duncan Wong (黃劍濤) did not attend the dinner, instead sending representatives
in his place.
As host of the dinner, TVB arranged a 6 table banquet for
the close to 70 execs in attendance.
Though technically one of the goals of the dinner was to have all the
execs mingle with each other regardless of record company, the seating
arrangements indicated otherwise. At the
first host table, Sandy Yu was responsible
for attending to the execs from Sony, Warner, and East Asia while her husband
Herman Ho (何哲圖) – CEO of
TVB’s newly formed in-house record company The Voice Entertainment Group (星夢娛樂有限公司) – hosted
the execs from Universal and EEG at the second table. The execs and representatives from the rest
of the record companies were seated throughout the remaining 4 tables.
Internet
popularity can qualify a song for JSG
According to those who were in attendance, Sandy Yu
revealed at the dinner that TVB would be implementing 2 policy changes in the
coming year. Paraphrasing Sandy Yu’s
speech at the dinner: “It’s been quite some time since we’ve gathered together
for dinner – thank you to all of you for your support and attendance. During times like this, the music industry
needs unity and needs all of us to work together to make the industry
better. With this goal in mind, we (TVB)
will be creating 6 to 12 additional channels in the coming year and also
establishing an online TV station to support more music-related
programming. As a result, there will now
be 2 new ‘policies’ if you will. In the
past, singers had to be backed by a record company and have a certain amount of
name recognition in order to qualify for a spot on the JSG charts. With the new policy, as long as a song gets
recognition by listeners – for example it gets a lot of hits on the Internet –
it can still get a spot on the charts; once on the charts, it can then be in
the running for JSG seasonal selections and the year-end awards.” Sandy Yu cited music queen Sammi Cheng (鄭秀文) covering
Phil Lam’s (林奕匡) hit
song High Mountain, Deep Valley (高山低谷)
as an example – Sammi’s version, though not an official release, was popular on
the Internet, so we shouldn’t underestimate the impact of these types of
songs. One of the attendees at the
dinner revealed that the ‘no show, no award’ rule was brought up and TVB
confirmed that, similar to before, if an artist does not attend the award
ceremony, they will not get an award.
JSG Awards will
take place earlier
The other change in policy involves TVB’s youth-oriented
J2 channel. Sandy Yu indicated that
there have been many new singers to emerge in the music industry the past
couple years, so they wanted to give these singers a platform to promote their
music, whether through airing their MVs or participating in actual music
programs. TVB also indicated that they
welcome any feedback from the record companies on the possible ideas to promote
the artists under their labels – in addition, they hope to collaborate with the
record companies to produce programs revolving around these artists, which will
also be a different direction from the past.
Another project that the J2
channel is working on will be to produce a younger version of TVB’s current
music variety program Sunday Songbird (Sunday靚聲王). Sandy indicated that she welcomes any
feedback the record companies may have on this project. It is said that TVB intends to explore OTT
set top broadcast format next year, which means that their cable channels and
their free-to-air channels will be combined into one package in the near future
and sold at a low price to local television audiences. Therefore, TVB needs to produce more new
programs to prepare for this move.
In terms of the annual JSG Awards ceremony, TVB revealed
that this year, the show will be broadcast on December 20th instead of in
January as in the past – this would make JSG the first of the big four music
awards ceremonies to take place this year.
In addition, TVB8’s music awards ceremony, which takes place on January
17th, will air on TVB’s Jade channel [their regular free-to-air channel]
this year. Sandy Yu indicated that she
has already contacted overseas singers from other countries who are working on
clearing their schedules so they can come to HK to attend.
Indifference
toward new changes
Despite TVB taking the first step to break the ice, the
record companies’ response toward the new changes seems to be one of
indifference due to doubts about TVB’s intentions. According to sources present at the dinner,
there were a lot of concerns and questions raised about TVB’s new ‘policies’ –
for example, someone asked why it was necessary for a singer whose song had
already become a huge hit over the Internet to go on JSG and promote their song
all over again? Others brought up
credibility concerns with basing awards on number of Internet hits, as it was
easy for people to rig the results by increasing their number of hits. Still others felt that TVB’s new system is
backwards – what the music industry truly needs right now is for everyone to
work together to make good quality music, not for people to get on the
sensationalism bandwagon and rely on gimmicks to increase hit count.
Also, it was mentioned that in addition to the Internet,
there are currently many options for singers to promote their music – for example,
both i-Cable and NowTV have produced a lot of music shows the past couple years
– so there isn’t tremendous concern about the lack of promotional platforms for
singers. Besides, the big international record
companies that had lost TVB as a promotional platform the past couple years due
to the royalty dispute have still been able to increase their own artists’
popularity and job offers (examples cited were Pakho Chau, Shiga Lin, Kelvin
Kwan), which proves that singers can still survive in a different environment.
A sore point that was not even mentioned during the
dinner was the issue that had brought about the whole royalty dispute between
the big 4 record companies and TVB 5 years ago.
At the time, TVB had taken their JSG program and released it on DVD as
well as VCD, however they did not pay the artists involved or their record
companies the royalties that should have been due to them from the sale of
those DVDs. Due to this issue not even
being acknowledged at the dinner, a few of the record company execs felt that
TVB was trying to use their artists to garner support and hype up their own
music programs.
Sandy Yu
responds: It was merely a ‘reunion
dinner’
Afterwards, we
contacted the dinner’s host, TVB’s variety program director Sandy Yu, to ask
about this ‘ice-breaking dinner’ with the record companies. She responded: “It was merely a reunion dinner.” Towards the earlier royalty dispute that
caused TVB’s relationship with the record companies to turn sour, Sandy denied
that there was any negative impact to their relationship: “Actually, the relationship never turned
sour, it’s just that a few of the international record labels viewed the issue
of copyright and royalties differently than we did. They [those record labels] were only willing
to grant us 2 years [license agreement for artists’ songs], which was way too
short. From a business standpoint, we
were not able to come to an agreement, but we continue to negotiate and in
recent years, there has been increased discussion on both sides – the record
companies have been very understanding.”
Sandy emphasized that the dinner gathering was planned over a month ago
and the atmosphere that night was actually quite good. In fact, some people didn’t want to leave and
even suggested that they should do these dinners every quarter to facilitate
more communication between the record companies and TVB.
As for this year’s JSG Awards being held on December 20th
instead of January the following year, Sandy clarified: “We are instituting a voting system this
year, as we want everyone in HK to get the chance to participate and choose
what music they like. Since we (TVB)
were the ones who started the ‘one person one vote’ system [TN: reference their
Miss HK pageant several years ago], it makes sense that we should hold our
music awards show first instead of last.
Actually, we (TVB) had once suggested having all 4 media organizations
[TVB, CRHK, RTHK, Metro Radio] collaborate together on one unified awards
ceremony so that there would be a ‘true’ music king and queen each year – we even
volunteered to put money into producing the show, but the other media
organizations refused, so we gave up on the idea.”
Voting system
doesn’t truly reflect audience’s choices
Despite the ‘one person one vote’ system being
implemented for JSG, someone at the dinner mentioned that with the rule of ‘no
show, no award’, it still won’t be the true will of the people. Towards this, Sandy expressed: “Every year, we never say that an artist who
doesn’t attend can’t get an award.”
Asked whether each award category will be subject to voting, Sandy
clarified that it would only be limited to certain categories: “The voting will only count for a
portion. There will also be an audience
survey that we’ll be doing, which we’ve already hired a third party company to
help us with -- they will call audiences up to ask for their feedback and those
results will be incorporated for certain categories. Actually, we tried to think of every possible
method we could come up with.”
Towards the sentiment that some people felt this new
system was TVB’s way of saving their own music programs while also attempting
to boost the popularity of their own newcomers, Sandy denied and stated: “Why
would we want to shoot ourselves in the foot like that? In order for the music industry to truly prosper,
the entire entertainment industry needs to prosper as well, otherwise it’s
useless. We truly do want to contribute
more to the music industry and produce more music programs to support this
cause. To be honest, I don’t even have a
budget for this, since making music requires time and patience, both of which
we are willing to invest.”
One of the attendees at the dinner, hehA Music company’s
representative Kawaii expressed her thoughts on what she observed at the
dinner: “It was a nice gesture, as it
had been a long time since all the record companies last gathered. The atmosphere was actually quite happy and
comfortable. While it’s true that there
are many platforms for singers to choose from nowadays, TVB is still one of the
biggest platforms so their influence can’t be ignored. Actually, these types of dinner gatherings
aren’t bad, since it allows everyone to share their opinions.” Asked about her opinion toward TVB’s new
policies, Kawaii stated: “For us, things
don’t change much, as our artists never had to sign a singer’s contract in
order to appear on TVB’s shows. The way
it always worked is that we would sign a ‘pink paper’ agreement and that was
it. [TN: the ‘pink paper’ is essentially a copyright release agreement that authorizes
TVB to utilize the song in their productions and also sell overseas]. Besides, most of the artists under our
management are overseas singers not based in HK, so the impact is not as great.”
