My ‘TVB Rant’ # 25: TVB’s Recent Ratings Slump – Is It Really That Big of a Deal??

First off – quick apology to the readers and followers of my blog for the lack of updates in recent weeks…I’ve actually got a long list of ‘posts’ and translations that I want to publish, but haven’t found the time to truly sit down and polish them off.  Hopefully those posts will get to see the light of day at some point in time (don’t want to promise anything though, since I’ve got a lot of stuff going on right now).

Anyway, while catching up on Weibo and other ‘happenings’ in the world of HK entertainment the past few days, I kept seeing headline after headline about TVB’s recent ratings slump (specifically in reference to the pathetically dismal ratings for TVB’s currently airing series Bullet Brain and Beauty at War) and the reaction from various people (from producers to scriptwriters to artists themselves) towards this issue.  After several hours of being inundated with information, I felt inspired to write this post and express my view on this whole ratings situation.

Before I start my rant, I have to make the following point clear (for the record) in terms of my position / opinion / stance towards the whole ‘ratings phenomenon’ in general (this shouldn’t come as a surprise to those who’ve read stuff I’ve written in the past, as I’ve mentioned this numerous times in various places).  Basically, my position is this:  I don’t give a ‘rat’s arse’ (excuse my language) about ratings – never have, never will!  

For me personally, ratings have never been a ‘reliable’ indicator of whether a program (TV series in this case) is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ because of several (very obvious) reasons: 

1)       Credibility:  Currently, there isn’t a consistent, universal way of calculating ratings that is the same no matter which part of the world you go to – this in itself I find to be a huge flaw, as having different companies each have their own method of calculating and according to their own set of criteria leaves way too much room for argument and dispute (case in point – just take a look at all those ‘arguments’ TVB and ATV constantly have about who truly has the most audience share and claims from both parties about each of their respective rating calculations to be ‘inaccurate’).  If there was only 1 way to calculate ratings and everyone used that same method, then we wouldn’t have any of these arguments – only then would the ratings truly be ‘accurate’ and ‘credible’.

2)       Curiosity Factor:  If you’re a human being, you will have a natural element of ‘curiosity’ inside of you, just like I do.  Unfortunately though, people sometimes seem to forget that this trait exists and ‘conveniently’ brush it aside in their attempts to justify how ‘good’ a series was based on how ‘high’ the ratings number was.  I mean, honestly, how many times have you heard the comment:  “Wow, that series got a 45 point rating – with so many people watching, it must be a good series!”  Um, wrong.  A lot of times, people tune in to watch a series (or part of a series) due to curiosity and not because the series is particularly worth watching --  audiences might be willing to watch a particular series / movie just so they would have something to talk about with their friends or co-workers the next day or they may have heard things about the series (good or bad) and decided to tune in (even if for a little while) just to see what all the hype is about.  I’m sure all of us have done this at some point in time (tune in to watch something out of curiosity) – I know I have, many times! 

3)      ‘Idol’ Factor: How many of us have tuned in to watch a series merely because actors/actresses we like are in the series and we wanted to show ‘support’ for him/her?  Or tune in merely because we are a ‘fan’ of a particular artist and therefore absolutely cannot ‘miss’ any series he/she is cast in?  I call this the ‘idol’ factor (watching certain series to support artists we like), but in reality, it’s not just referring to ‘idols’ or ‘fans’ (I just used the word ‘idol’ cuz that’s the first word that came to mind and was too ‘lazy’ to come up with another word) – it can refer to artists, producers, scriptwriters, and just about anybody who participated in the series in any way, shape, or form.  There have been many times where I’ve sat through ‘horrible’ series just to support certain artists I like (though when it comes to TV series, I do ‘cheat’ sometimes in that I forward through certain scenes / episodes / artists’ performances and only watch the artists I care about).

4)       External Factors: Basically, these are factors beyond our control that could impact audiences’ ability to tune in to a particular series and thereby affect ratings numbers – for example:  timeslot schedules, weather, natural disasters and other acts of God, holidays, and people pretty much just being ‘away’ for any reason (work, vacation, illness, etc. etc.).   Look at how many times we’ve had to ‘argue’ that a particular series could have gotten better ratings if it had been broadcast in a ‘better’ (i.e. non-cannon fodder) timeslot?  Or how about the weather?  I’m sure everyone probably remembers Three Kingdoms RPG hitting 42 points in ratings last year (one time in the series’ entire run) due to the typhoon in HK (and majority of people staying indoors due to safety concerns) – does that mean the series was any good, just because it broke the '40' mark?  (well, depends on who you ask cuz not everyone is going to remember down the road that the weather played a part in it).    So pretty much, in the complicated world we live in, anything can happen and that ‘anything’ can have a huge impact on something as ‘minor’ (in the scheme of things) as our TV watching habits.

Of course, I’m sure people can probably come up with more ‘reasons’ why basing any type of judgment of the quality of a series on ratings alone is ‘foolish’ and ‘unreliable’, but since these 4 reasons get the point across, I’ll leave it at that for now.

So in summary….. very simply put, ratings is merely a ‘quantifier’ – a number that tells us how many people tuned in to watch a particular show at a particular time.  Sure, quantity can perhaps indicate how ‘popular’ something is, but that is totally different from the ‘quality’ of that same something (it’s amazing how many people in this world confuse ‘quantity’ and/or ‘popularity’ for ‘quality’).   Quantity DOES NOT equal quality (by the same token, a ‘lack of’ quantity doesn’t equal a ‘lack of’ quality either)!  I can think of a whole list of series that got poor ratings but were really great series as well as ones that got ‘through the roof’ ratings but pretty much sucked….so yea, basically ratings are not a good indicator of ANYTHING (not in my opinion at least).

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Ok, so now that I’ve clarified my position (no, I’m not done yet…in fact, I’m just getting started!  LOL), it makes what I have to say next a bit easier. 

Even though I personally could care less about ratings and I never use it to judge the ‘quality’ of a series, the unfortunate reality is that, like it or not, ratings are a HUGE DEAL to the TV industry.   In fact, such heavy emphasis is placed on these ‘numbers’ that ratings have pretty much become the primary ‘pass/fail’ indicator to the ‘quality’ of a series – in other words, ratings have become the ‘standard’ by which every series / program and even the participants themselves (artists, behind the scenes crew, etc.) are judged.  While, on the one hand,  I can understand why the TV industry chooses to use ratings as their primary ‘measurement’ tool, that doesn’t mean I agree with it – to me, using the ratings in this manner is merely the ‘lazy’ way out (i.e. it’s easier to take a series with poor ratings and just ‘generalize’ an entire series and the actors/actresses who participate in that series as “they all suck” rather than take each element apart and try to find the root ‘problem’ of the series).  But of course, as usual, I’m ‘in the minority’ on this subject once again, as it’s obvious that not many audiences think this way.

Given the importance of ratings in the TV industry (just remember that ratings = everything), it’s not hard to understand then why even someone like me would sometimes find myself ‘rooting’ for a particular series to get ‘high’ (or ‘decent’) ratings – I may not care about ratings, but everyone else in the industry does, so if I like a series, I would want it to ‘do well’ (ratings-wise) for the sake of that series’ artists and production team.  I know, it might sound a little contradictory at first, but if you think about it more deeply, you’ll understand what I’m trying to get at (ooops, sorry – I probably shouldn’t have used the words ‘think deeply’…people probably don’t want to hear those words anymore after watching Beauty At War…LOL).

Ok, since I’ve bored you guys enough with my long-winded rant, let me wrap things up now with a ‘quote’ that I came across on Weibo a few days ago.  The ‘quote’ is from former TVB ‘golden’ producer Gary Tang (鄧特希) -- TVB fanatics probably know who he is but in case you don’t:  he was the producer of ‘classic’ lawyer-themed drama Files of Justice (all 5 installments) as well as the first installment of Healing Hands [key word is ‘first installment’ – he didn’t produce either of the 2 sequels because he already left TVB by then – this is important because it is widely believed that HH2 and 3 were never able to live up to the ‘glory’ of the first HH and a huge reason for that was because of the change in producer (which resulted in a change in direction/focus of the sequels)].

Apparently,  Gary Tang had been (quietly) observing this whole TVB ratings debacle thing from the sidelines and finally decided to speak up with his thoughts on the whole situation.  As an experienced producer with both ‘successes’ and ‘failures’ to his credit (he produced his fair share of ‘hits’ and ‘flops’ both at TVB and ATV), I feel that Gary’s words are quite powerful and telling and so far, the ‘closest’ match I could find to my own thought process on this whole ratings issue. 

To me, Gary’s message is simple:   let’s stop trying to come up with various excuses and trying to put the blame [for low ratings] on audiences.  At the end of the day, TV series are only a form of entertainment and audiences don’t ‘owe’ the production crew anything, so it’s unfair to place a set of ‘rules’ on audiences trying to dictate to them ‘how’ they should watch series.  The production team should accept the feedback (whether good or bad), reflect on it, and move on.

Definitely ‘words of wisdom’ from one of TVB’s most experienced and respected former producers / scriptwriters! (Note:  Gary Tang started with TVB back in the early 80s and participated in numerous series during that era as a scriptwriter.  Even when he was promoted to producer in the 90s, he still continued to do scriptwriting duties for the series he produced.):

Source:  Gary Tang’s Weibo (posted 5/5/13 at 02:18) [**Source link to be posted later]

Translation:  

“With regard to TV series’ ratings not meeting expectations, there have been various interesting discussions lately, such as:  the pace was slow in the beginning [of the series] due to having to introduce  many characters in the first episode; audiences need to have patience when they watch series; audiences must watch every single episode in order to understand the plot….etc. etc.  TV series are only a form of entertainment – audiences don’t have any obligation to be empathetic or understanding towards the production team.  If the series is good, then watch it; if it’s not good, then go about other business.   Producers should have enough breadth of mind to face and accept opinions from audiences, self-reflect on it, and start off anew.”

My ‘TVB Rant’ # 24: Will the TVB ‘Name-Dropping’ Ever Stop??

I know I just ‘ranted’ about TVB a few weeks ago and to be honest, I didn’t think that I’d have to rant about them again so soon (LOL), but hey, when the situation presents itself, sometimes got to just let it out…

Recently, a few articles came out (in various newspapers and magazines) detailing how Eric Tsang has plans to produce a new series for TVB (filming to start in May) tentatively titled “Aerobic Girls” and will be casting many ‘heavyweight’ (aka ‘big name’) actors/actresses in the series – many of the actors/actresses will be ones whom audiences have not seen in a long time so it will definitely be something ‘to look forward to’ (his words, not mine).  Almost immediately after Eric opened his mouth (more like before he even finished speaking), speculations and rumors started to formulate about who those ‘long time no see’ actors/actresses would be.  One of the first names ‘dropped’ was award-winning film actor Tony Leung Ka Fai – he was of course an ‘easy target’ for the Media to ‘associate’ with this series, since Eric had very publicly ‘announced’ prior to this that Tony had approached him voluntarily to ask about ‘helping’ TVB out by filming TV series for them.  Around the same time, there were ‘rumors’ that the female leads being considered for the series included Teresa Mo, Veronica Ip, Vivian Chow (just to name a few) – the funny thing is that even though Vivian’s manager immediately denied the rumor and Vivian herself even said that the chance of her returning to TVB to film series was very slim (pretty much ‘zero’), there were still a lot of people out there who were ‘excited’ about seeing Vivian return and started talking about the series as though that particular ‘casting’ was a ‘done deal’ already. 

Of course now, several weeks later, the ‘rumored’ leads for the series have changed (I wonder what those people who previously insisted on the Tony / Vivian / Teresa / Veronica casting think now??) – the latest ‘rumor’ is that Lawrence Ng (aka Dr. Paul Ching – just had to point that out, since I know of at least 3 Lawrence Ngs in the HK entertainment industry and wanted to make sure people didn’t get confused…LOL) will be participating in the series and the ‘rumored’ female leads have changed to Teresa Mo, Flora Chan, and Sheren Tang.  As of right now, none of the 3 rumored female leads have confirmed anything and both Lawrence and Eric are remaining purposefully ‘vague’ about the whole situation (as he did before, Lawrence dropped a ‘hint’ that the 3 leads were actresses he had worked with before – um, yea, like that means anything...).

Ok, so now that I’ve laid it all out, you want to know what my thoughts are on this?  Well, here goes…

I’m pretty sure the piece about Lawrence participating in the series is true, since he as much as admitted it himself already (from what has come out so far, his role supposedly won’t be too significant, so not sure what he is so excited about…haha).  As for the other 3 ‘rumored’ female leads – well, let’s look at it based on the information we know: 

.-- Teresa Mo already said in an interview a few months ago (a Mingpao interview that I actually translated and posted on my blog for those interested in reading it) that she has no intention of going back to filming TV series because of the overwhelming guilt she felt in ‘neglecting’ her family for the 3 years (2008 to 2010) that she had returned to film for TVB earlier -- so she is basically going to focus primarily on her film career and on taking care of her family.   So to me, this means that the likelihood of her agreeing to this series is very slim (unless she decided to change her mind, which I doubt) – in any case, if it turns out she does agree to this series, I for one will definitely want to understand the reason why.

.—Flora Chan stated in an interview a little over a year ago that she was going back to school to get her Masters (and possibly a Doctorate later on) in English so that she can pursue a career in Teaching later on down the road.  She said that when her daughter is older, she plans on moving the family to the U.S. and teaching there (true to her word, she is currently enrolled at HKU and studying English).  Despite that interview, there continue to be ‘rumors’ every other month or so (literally) about Flora returning to TVB to film series (honestly, I’m tired of hearing about it myself….doesn’t the Media ever stop?).   She had said in that same interview that she was going to take a break from filming series for at least 2 years if not more.

However, according to the articles that have come out, Flora is supposedly in ‘final discussion’ with Eric and them on this series – they claim that Flora agreed to film this series because it would be during summer break when she has a few months off from school (so the ‘caveat’ is that the filming needs to be completed before the next semester begins).  I guess it could work out…but still not looking forward to this because the last time Flora returned, she got a really crappy script and made a really crappy series (that barely anyone bothered watching).

.—And finally, there’s Sheren – what are her chances of accepting this series?  Well, at this point, unless the script is finalized, the chance is ‘zero’ because she already learned her lesson from the ordeal she went through filming the WAB sequel and so going forward, will only film series that have a complete script.   Also, knowing the way Eric Tsang operates, I highly doubt Sheren will want to work with him because he does exactly the same thing scriptwriter Chow Yuk Ming does – ‘on the fly’ scripts that change from one day to the next…in fact, in many ways, Eric is way worse because he’s known for being ‘spontaneous’ when it comes to filming and could change things from one minute to the next (remember how Teresa said that she would get the script the morning of filming and a couple hours later, after she memorized everything already, as she’s getting ready to film the scene, she is told to ‘scrap’ everything she just memorized cuz the script changed – Eric had just come up with a new idea for doing the scene and so changed things on the spot).   Based on this, I highly doubt Sheren is going to accept the series, as I don’t feel that she is willing to put herself through all that torture for TVB’s sake (plus it’s not like she’s contracted with TVB anyway – she’s a free artist so she can do anything she wants pretty much).

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Obviously, I don’t look upon this particular ‘project’ of Eric’s very favorably – at this point, I truly feel that it’s all just Media hype.  And honestly, the name of the series itself (“Aerobic Girls”) already turns me off because it sounds so much like an ‘idol’ series (which I absolutely can’t stand).  I surely hope that the title will be changed because as of right now, based on the title alone, the series sounds lame (and it doesn’t help that Eric is producing it – most of his recent productions have pretty much been borderline ‘raunchy comedies’, so I can’t help but think that this one will be the same…).

Oh, and what about the script?  Again, knowing how TVB operates (some things never change), most likely the script is going to suck (as it usually does in these types of ‘grand’ productions with a supposed ‘all star’ ensemble cast).  In fact, that’s one of the (many) things I can’t stand about TVB – their mentality that as long as you stuff as many ‘big names’ or ‘popular artists’ (aka artists that audiences want to see) in a TV series as possible, you can pretty much take the ‘lazy’ route when it comes to the plot and script because the naïve HK housewife audiences aren’t going to know any better and aren’t going to care as long as the artists they like show up on their screens every night.  No, I’m actually not exaggerating because it’s pretty much a fact that HK audiences have an affinity for ‘familiarity’ (there’s actually been a lot of articles written about this over the past few decades) – it’s one of the (many) reasons why TVB has continued to be so ‘successful’ over the years despite serious decline in the quality of their productions and lack of talent.  This concept also explains the reason why for many years, TVB has been utilizing the strategy of inviting ‘old’ artists back to film for them (though there are other reasons as well, such as the lack of young talent to carry a series, for example).  If you want to see whether this is true or not – well, just take a look around you….if you were to tell friends and family around you (those familiar with HK entertainment of course) that TVB plans on bringing Andy Lau or Chow Yun Fat back to film series, what do you think their reaction would be?  And ‘why’ do you think they would react that way?  I rest my case….

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Some last thoughts about this whole ‘name-dropping’ trend from recent years….

Honestly, I’m sick and tired of all the ‘name-dropping’ that TVB (via the likes of Eric Tsang, for example) and the Media have resorted to the past 2-3 years in terms of artists they hope to ‘invite back’ to film series for them.  Some examples of ‘names’ that have come up:  Chow Yun Fat, Andy Lau, Carina Lau, Sandra Ng, Anthony Wong, Vivian Chow, (big) Tony Leung, Deanie Ip, Jacky Cheung….and the list goes on….pretty much anyone you can think of who was once associated with TVB in one way or another (which is pretty much 90% of the artists in the HK entertainment industry) is ‘fair game’ for a so-called ‘return’ to TVB – that is, unless you do what Gordon Lam did (kudos to you, Gordon!) and outright reject TVB with a firm ‘No! Absolutely not!’ [Gordon revealed in a few interviews recently that he was contacted by TVB inviting him to return and film series for them, but he outright rejected them without bothering to listen to any further details of the series from them.  He said he did so because he already knows what he wants in terms of future career path (which involves a career in film, not TV), so why not just be direct with them and say no instead of going back to do a meaningless project that does nothing for his career goals?]  You hit the nail on the head, Gordon!!  It takes guts to go against an established ‘giant’ like TVB and the fact that he did it so firmly and confidently (without being rude about it) definitely deserves praise in my book! (Boy I would have LOVED to see the look on those lame TVB execs’ faces upon hearing Gordon reject them so bluntly – seeing those fake, smug smiles wiped off their faces for even a minute would have provided one of those ‘priceless’ Kodak moments that no amount of money could buy!  LOL!).  So basically, if an artist gives any answer other than a firm ‘No!’, they will be caught in an endless ‘speculation’ game with the Media and general public (keep in mind that there are many audiences out there who will very readily believe anything the Media says without question).

This is why I absolutely get annoyed when TVB (and the Media) ‘jumps the gun’ and starts ‘leaking’ all this information out prior to anything being confirmed. What’s the point of doing this, since it’s a ‘no win’ situation for both sides if the collaboration doesn’t work out? The only 2 reasons I can think of are: 1) they ‘leak’ this stuff out as a means of publicity / hype for the series – so basically, it’s pretty much a ‘publicity stunt’; and 2) it’s a tactic employed by the company (TVB in this case) to ‘force’ the artist(s) to accept the offer, since all the pressure from the Media (and the audiences / fans) definitely does have an impact (take Francis Ng for example – part of the reason why he agreed to return to do TITS2 was because of audience pressure – he had said in an interview previous that initially, he wasn’t going to film the sequel because he doesn’t believe in doing sequels for sequels sake, but then everyone kept pestering him about it and because he felt the audiences (and fans) really wanted him to return to film the sequel, he gave in and did it).

In conclusion….I have a feeling this won’t be the end of this whole ‘name-dropping’ thing – in fact, this is just the beginning!  I’m sure that there will be many more instances of this in the months / years to come (especially if rival HKTV finally does end up getting their license). 

Let’s see who the next big ‘name drop’ will end up being (anyone want to venture to guess?)....I have a few ‘guesses’ in mind, but for now, let’s just ‘sit back’ and see what happens…

Jacky Cheung scolded for 10 minutes straight to give up alcohol; re-takes wedding pictures with wife May Lo

Here’s a delightful article from the latest issue of Mingpao Weekly (published this past Friday) recapping the interview that Jacky did with Raymond Ng for his NowTV program.  Of course, nothing beats watching the actual interview once it airs (which I hope is soon), but for now, us Jacky fans can enjoy this ‘sampling’ from MP.

In terms of comments about the article….well, the article pretty much speaks for itself, but there are a few things that I wanted to mention:

.—I’ve heard of Raymond Ng’s (Brother Fai) name before and actually did know that he was friends with Jacky, but didn’t realize they were that close.  No wonder Jacky was willing to accept this particular interview (note that he rarely accepts interviews of this nature unless the interviewer is someone he knows well).  Brother Fai sounds like a very interesting person and it sounds like he and Jacky have a lot of mutual friends in the industry based on the names that came up in the interview (which isn’t surprising given the way the HK entertainment industry works).   I definitely look forward to watching his interaction with Jacky in the actual program once it airs.

.—I totally LOL’ed at the segment where Jacky talks about his older daughter Zoe being ‘rebellious’ and not allowing her to go to the mall by herself.  When he responded to Brother Fai (in that cute, innocent way of his) that the ‘Internet didn’t say anything about the mall being safe or not’(I can totally picture that segment in my head too), I almost fell on the floor laughing!   Silly Jacky daddy!  (hehehe)

.—One of the reasons why I enjoyed this article so much (and look forward to the interview) is because this is one of those rare interviews where Jacky talks in depth about his wife and daughters.  It was sweet reading about how much he appreciates everything his wife (May May) has done for him and from the way he ‘gushes’ about his daughters, it’s obvious how much he loves them!   As I’ve said numerous times before – in addition to the entertainer side of Jacky, one of the other reasons why I love him so much to become a fan of his for such a long time (22 years and counting) is because of his personality in real life and his reputation for being a good husband and father (as I’ve said before:  good men like him are pretty much extinct nowadays, so May May is definitely lucky!  Haha!).  This article reinforces that fact.

.—Glad that Jacky clarified that Lehman thing again!  Despite the fact that us Jacky fans have been stating for years that the rumor about him being significantly impacted by the Lehman issue was not true, tabloids continued to insist on it (not surprisingly) and of course, people who don’t know any better continued to believe them (the tabloids).  Hopefully this is the last time that Jacky needs to clarify this issue (meaning let’s put this issue to rest, please!).

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Jacky Cheung scolded for 10 minutes straight to give up alcohol; re-takes wedding pictures with wife May Lo

Source:  Mingpao Weekly, Issue 2316

Translation:  llwy12

RTHK’s former deputy director of broadcasting Raymond Ng Sek Fai (吳錫輝) recently embarked on a new career path:  serving as host for NowTV program Brother Fai’s Culinary Rewards (輝哥的饌賞).  As an interview program that features the host [who is referred to as ‘Brother Fai’ by his friends] inviting his celebrity friends to chit-chat with him while enjoying various delectable dishes, the format sounds very similar to one of TVB’s former popular interview program Be My Guest (志雲飯局). 

Towards this, Brother Fai explains:  “At first, when I saw that HK’s local eateries were being ‘killed off’ by big real estate bosses one by one, I wanted to bring attention to the issue and so I figured that a food-themed program such as this was the best way to do it.  In the beginning, I was only planning to be an advisor – in fact, for the trial episode, I had Kelvin Kwan (關楚耀) and Jacqueline Pang (彭晴) serve as hosts, however [nowTV’s Executive VP and GM of Production] Ho Lai Chuen (何麗全) told me that if I’m not willing to host the program, then he’s not even going to consider having it produced.  Later on, it evolved into a cultural program of sorts that helped to preserve and safeguard HK’s core values, so we persevered with pushing this conviction.”

Recently, ‘God of Songs’ Jacky Cheung (張學友) agreed to be interviewed by Brother Fai for his program.  Towards the ‘rare’ move of agreeing to such an interview, Jacky laughed and explained that when Brother Fai contacted him, he could not think of anything else to say except ‘Ok!’:  “Brother Fai can be considered the person who ‘discovered’ me!  We were both born on the same month, same day (July 10^th) and even though we don’t see each other often, there’s an inseparable connection between us – he’s practically like a father figure to me.”  Their ‘connection’ is indeed a very close one, similar to family:  Brother Fai once scolded Jacky angrily over his excessive drinking and over the years, whenever Jacky encounters difficulties with his daughters, the first person he goes to for advice is Brother Fai’s wife, Blanche Tang (鄧藹霖) [TN: Blanche Tang is a former RTHK DJ turned parenting expert].

No matter how many years pass and regardless of whether he is ‘person’ or ‘god’ [TN: play on Jacky’s ‘God of Songs’ title], Jacky Cheung always has the utmost reverence in his heart for Brother Fai:  “He was the head judge of the singing contest I participated in many years ago, so it’s as though he was the one who brought me into the industry.”

In 1984, Jacky participated in the 18^th Hong Kong District Amateur Singing Competition, which was organized by RTHK – after so many years, Brother Fai still remembers that moment fondly:  “You represented the Eastern district at the time;  as soon as you finished singing Michael Kwan’s (關正傑) classic ‘Fatherland’ (大地恩情), I remember saying to myself: ‘The other 9 contestants are dead!’  No, I wasn’t trying to curse them – it’s just that when all of us judges discussed backstage, our opinion was unanimous:  you were the best [out of all the contestants who participated]!”

When he first started in the industry, Jacky’s career was pretty smooth – from the ‘Best Newcomer’ to various ‘Golden Hits’ awards, it seemed that success came easily.  Unfortunately though, the good circumstances didn’t last :  in 1988, when Jacky released his 5^th album Last Night in My Dreams (昨夜夢魂中), the sales of the album dropped to a record low of 20,000 copies.  Unfortunately, Jacky’s reputation also took a hit as well – his ‘good boy’ image was tarnished and soon he became known as a constantly drunk ‘alcoholic’:  “To this day, I still can’t figure out why I took up drinking – it’s not like I was under a whole lot of pressure or anything.  But it’s undeniable that the constant drunkenness brought a lot of negative reports and as a result, record sales were affected.” 

At the time, Brother Fai – who loved Jacky like a son – was pained to see him in this manner; one time, they were standing in the street in Wan Chai and Brother Fai started scolding Jacky severely for 10 minutes straight.  At the time, [record company] Polygram’s top exec Chan Yu Hung (陳汝雄) tried to put a stop to the scolding by yelling out: ‘Enough! Enough!’ – however, Brother Fai ignored him and continued to reprimand Jacky:  “Enough what?!  Scolding him for another 5 minutes isn’t even enough!”  Hearing Brother Fai recount this story, Jacky’s memory of the incident returned:  “The worst thing is that at the time, I didn’t take your words to heart and continued to drink!”

After losing his way for a few years, Jacky suddenly realized that he needed to face reality – not only did he quit drinking, he also worked hard to rebuild his reputation and regain the acceptance of friends and fans.  Over the years, Jacky is often praised for his flexibility and willingness to try different things – but even someone like him can have those moments where he finds himself in a difficult to resolve predicament:  “During a concert in the year 2000, I suddenly was not able to sing.  At the time, my eldest daughter (Zoe 張瑤華) was just born so I was already feeling nervous overall – plus my nose allergy flared up again and so when I was singing, I would often force my voice to come out – the result was that I ended up damaging my voice.  This is why I often warn potential singers that they should have a professional singing teacher teach them the proper methods of singing because once your voice is ‘dead’, it’s hard to fix.”

Long distance call to ‘ask advice’

Brother Fai says that both him and Jacky were born on July 10^th and so fall under the astrological sign Cancer – people with that sign have a common trait:  they’re naturally compassionate and also place the most importance on family:  “One time, in the middle of a performance in Australia, you called Sandy Lamb (林珊珊) in a flustered and exasperated state to urgently ask for my wife’s phone number.  When you called, you asked if you could get some advice on how to communicate well with children.”  It turns out that Jacky was desperate to make a long distance call to his friend to ask for advice because of a predicament at home:  his wife May Lo (羅美薇) had gotten into an argument with their daughter (Zoe) back home – in tears, Zoe called her daddy to ‘complain’.  Having just finished a performance on stage, Jacky was beside himself and didn’t know what to do, so he decided to call the only parenting expert he knew – Brother Fai’s wife Blanche Tang.  Jacky recalls:  “My wife is the type who gets extremely nervous over everything and in the process of raising our daughters, she gets flustered often.  She and I handle matters very differently and so sometimes there would be conflict there – nowadays, the 2 of us try really hard to work together in order to accomplish our goals, especially as they pertain to our daughters.  For example, on the topic of whether our daughter should go to boarding school – if we mutually decide that she should, then we analyze the situation together and figure out the best way to help our daughter understand that it’s the best option for her.”

Towards his 2 daughters, is Jacky partial to one over the other?  In response, Jacky practically had to raise his hand to swear an oath:  “With the heavens and earth as my witness, I swear I’ve never been partial to one over the other!  In fact, I’m very very careful when handling matters related to them:  the younger one ( Zia 張瑤萱) is still a little kid, so of course she will be a little more coy and want attention – she’s already at the stage where she sometimes fights with her older sister and will purposefully do things to try and please us to gain favor; the older one (Zoe) will be turning 13 soon and is starting to be rebellious—all day, she complains about things being ‘unfair’.   She constantly complains that her classmates are allowed to go to the mall to watch a movie by themselves, but we don’t allow her to go by herself .  There are lots of people at that mall, plus I’ve never been there myself and when I research on the Internet, it says there are tens of thousands of people there….”  At this moment, Brother Fai couldn’t help asking:  “Which mall?”, to which Jacky responds:  “Festival Walk! [in Kowloon Tong]”  Brother Fai asks:  “What’s the problem?  That’s the safest mall in HK!”  Jacky sheepishly responds:  “Um, I don’t know…the Internet didn’t mention anything (about that mall being the safest).”

Lehman Brothers issue was exaggerated

Last year, Jacky completed 146 shows of his ½ Century Concert tour – such an accomplishment could not have been achieved without the support of his wife May;  Jacky is grateful to his wife for taking care of matters at home so that he could focus on his performances.  Asked what was the most ‘romantic’ thing he had done to ‘reward’ his wife for her support all these years, Jacky replied:  “The biggest thing was re-taking wedding pictures and treating close friends to a ‘wedding’ dinner. [TN:  Jacky and May married overseas (to avoid the prying eyes of the HK Media) so they never had a ‘traditional’ wedding ceremony like others did].  That moment was definitely a very happy one!  Sure, we waited until our daughters were already so big to take wedding pictures, but hey, it’s better than nothing!”

The past few years, there have been constant rumors that Jacky lost a lot of money due to the Lehman Brothers situation and that’s the reason why he had to do his ½ Century Concert tour.  Towards these rumors, Jacky expressed his helplessness:  “The matter was definitely super exaggerated!!  After I finished my 2007 concert tour, my bank contacted me and proposed an investment plan that included investing in Lehman Brothers stock – the Lehman Brothers portion was only 20% of the entire investment plan, so even if I were to lose money, it would very little – no big deal at all.  When I was asked about it at the time, I admitted to investing in Lehman Brothers and jokingly said that I’ll need to work harder now – after that, the reports came out saying that I had lost everything in that investment and had to resort to taking up a lot of job offers to make up for it!  That rumor continued to spread for a number of years – in fact, in 2011, people were still saying that I did my ½ Century Concert because of the Lehman issue!  At the time, it was more than 4 years already [since the Lehman investment] – if the rumor were true, I would have already starved to death by then!”

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Picture captions

First page, top middle:  After his bout with alcoholism, Jacky has since given up on drinking:  “For a period of 7 years, I didn’t touch alcohol at all – not even one drop.”  Brother Fai smiles and responds:  “Unfortunately, you have a buddy named Eric Tsang (曾志偉) – he’s a bad person, don’t hang out with him so much.”   Nowadays, when it comes to alcohol, Jacky only dabbles in it occasionally.

Second page, top left box:  When it comes to food, Jacky does not have any particular preferences, as he views food as “a source meant to maintain my life.”   For this interview, Brother Fai treated Jacky to dinner at Tak Lung Restaurant [in San Po Keung, HK island] – when the restaurant’s owner Mr. Tsang brought over a dish of pickled cabbage with pork, Jacky was ecstatic and ate one bowl of rice after another.  In fact, he liked the food so much that he gestured over to Alan [lead vocalist for the music group Mr.], who was at the other end of the room, and shouted out:  “Alan, come try this!  It’s delicious!”

Tribute to a Legend: The 10th Anniversary of Leslie Cheung’s Passing

As most of you already know, April 1^st 2013 marks the 10 year anniversary of superstar Leslie Cheung’s death.  Given how important Leslie was to the HK entertainment industry, there will undoubtedly be a lot of tributes and events taking place in the next few days to honor his memory.  The event that I’m really looking forward to this year is the special tribute concert that Leslie’s former manager Florence Chan will be putting together, during which some of Leslie’s closest friends in the entertainment industry will gather together with his fans at the HK Coliseum and perform many of his greatest hits.

Even though 10 long years may have passed since Leslie left us, the memory of him and his tremendous contributions to the entertainment industry continue to live on in our hearts.  Of course, nothing can replace the pain that many of us went through when we found out that one of our most beloved entertainers decided to leave us forever…and not surprisingly, many of us still find it difficult to come to terms with this horrible fact.  Regardless of whether you’re a fan of his or not, I’m sure you would agree that Leslie was a charismatic entertainer and overall great person who impacted the lives of many, many people – be it his friends, colleagues, fans, and even people whom he didn’t even know!  

No one knows what the future will bring and in the case of the HK entertainment industry especially (depending on how you look at it), the outlook may not necessarily be a positive one – but no matter what happens in the coming years and what direction things end up going, one thing’s for sure:  Leslie will always be an important part of HK entertainment history – an absolutely irreplaceable legend whose influence and impact will continue to be felt for decades to come!

For my personal tribute to Leslie this year, I’ve decided to ‘re-visit’ some of the older posts I wrote about him on my blog and in so doing, ‘re-live’ some of those past ‘Leslie moments’ – be it happy moments or sad ones – that had made me either laugh or cry at some point.  I’ve included the links to some of these past blog posts below in the event that anyone who reads this is interested in ‘re-visiting’ as well (though one ‘disclaimer’ I have to make is that this list is NOT all-inclusive, since I only update my blog whenever I have time and so there may be a lot of things that I wanted to write about but didn’t get a chance to yet).

A few last words....

Rest in peace, Leslie!   No matter what happens, you will forever be in our hearts…MISS YOU MUCH!! 

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Post #1:  Book Review – Now and Then (從零開始): Leslie Cheung

Post #2:  Remembering Leslie Cheung:  Jacky’s Eulogy Speech at Leslie’s Funeral

Post #3:  2003 HKFA Awards Ceremony (Tribute to Leslie)

Post #4:  Jacky and Leslie’s Taiwan Trip (11th Annual Golden Melody Awards)

Post #5:  Tony Leung’s 50^th Birthday Party:  Leslie’s friends pay tribute to him

Post #6:  Jacky pays tribute to Leslie during his ½ Century Concert

Post #7:  Book Review – Now and Then (從零開始):  Anita Mui

Post #8:  Book Review – Now and Then (從零開始):  Danny Chan

Latest HKTV/CTI update: Information on HKTV’s new series “The Menu” (導火新聞線)

It’s been awhile since HKTV (CTI) held a press conference announcing upcoming series that they’re working on. Of course, this doesn’t mean that HKTV stopped  filming series – in fact, they’ve actually been working hard filming quite a few new series, it’s just that they haven’t been making formal announcements recently.   Not sure if they’re trying to keep things relatively low key now or something but I’ve noticed that overall, the ‘noise’ seems to have died down a bit (those who have been following this whole free TV licensing thing probably know what I mean).

In any case…. HKTV finally announced another new series a few days ago – though to be honest, I’m not sure if I would call this series ‘new’ persay because I’ve already known about this series for months.  HKTV actually included a trailer clip for the series already back when they did their sales presentation in December and throughout the past couple months, there has been much talk about this series on Weibo, so for me, it was pretty much just waiting for them to ‘officially’ announce it.

Back when I summarized my thoughts about HKTV’s sales presentation (those interested can read it here), I had already expressed an interest in this series and was pretty much just waiting for more information to come out.  Well, after seeing the cast list and reading the official plot summary, I’m definitely still interested! 

Just for the record, I’m not a fan of any of the 3 leads at all, but in this case, it’s fine because I like most of the supporting cast and also the storyline sounds refreshing.  I honestly can’t remember TVB doing a news media themed series in a long time (if ever) and certainly not one as intense as what this series (HKTV’s attempt) sounds like it will be (I recommend watching the trailer clip for the series – it was quite gripping!).  Also, like I said in my earlier post, this will be the first time that Noel Leung gets to do a ‘villain’ type role (she will play the ‘ruthless, ethically questionable’ chief editor described in the summary), which is definitely different from the ‘goody goody’ type roles she always used to get at TVB, so that will definitely be interesting to watch.

I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more information about this series – that’s for sure! :0)

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Latest HKTV/CTI update:  Information on HKTV’s new series “The Menu” (導火新聞線)

Source: HK Channel, Sina Weibo

Translated by:  llwy12 

HKTV held a blessing ceremony for its new media-themed series The Menu (導火新聞線) today.  Led by the series’ script coordinator Poon Man Hung (潘漫紅) [TN: former TVB scriptwriter who helmed the popular medical drama The Hippocratic Crush (On Call 36 小時)] and main director Ben Fong (方俊華) [TN:  former TVB director with dramas such as Moonlight Resonance (溏心風暴之家好月圓) to his credit], the cast and crew will join forces to create a brand new series that explores the theme of safeguarding freedom of the press while simultaneously pushing the boundaries of news reporting ethics and morality.   To increase the series’ dramatic element, the storyline will bring the rush of minute by minute news gathering techniques to the forefront through the depiction of newspaper reporters’ unwavering efforts to uphold societal righteousness and ethics in the midst of uncovering the truth about the movement to stifle freedom of the press.

The Menu features a cast consisting of both veteran and newcomer actors/actresses, including Kate Yeung (楊淇), Catherine Chau (周家怡), Noel Leung (梁小冰), Gregory Wong (王宗堯), Shek Sau (石修), Samuel Kwok (郭峰), Benji Chiang (姜文杰), etc.   During today’s press conference, the cast gathered on stage and introduced each of the characters that they would be portraying in the series.  Afterwards, the cast and crew were led by HKTV’s Managing Director To Wai Bing (杜惠冰) in a blessing ceremony to offer best wishes in advance for a smooth production and filming process.

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The Menu (導火新聞線)

Creative Producer:  Lam Siu Chi (林少枝)

Copy Editor (Scriptwriter):  Poon Man Hung (潘漫紅)

Main Director:  Ben Fong (方俊華)

Cast: Kate Yeung (楊淇), Catherine Chau (周家怡), Noel Leung (梁小冰), Gregory Wong (王宗堯), Shek Sau (石修), Benji Chiang (姜文杰), Samuel Kwok (郭峰), Felix Lok (駱應鈞), Dexter Young (楊天經), Anita Chan (陳穎妍), Li Fung (李楓), Brian Wong (黃澤鋒), Maggie Wong (黃美棋), Lee Hong Kit (李鴻杰), Kwan Wai Lun (關偉倫), Chan On Ying (陳安瑩), Cherry Pau (鮑康兒), Rachel Lam (林熹瞳), Jones Lee (李忠希), Leung Kin Ping (梁建平), Eddie Li (李雨陽), etc.

Plot Summary:

Supervising and maintaining an orderly society has always been a responsibility that the Media should partake in and support –however, the perception of the news media is oftentimes synonymous with the promotion of violence, sex, bloodiness, and overall havoc in society.  The series will revolve around 3 female news agency workers with very different philosophies on life who, in efforts to gather material for publication of their free newspaper Smart Post (囧報), engage in nearly daily arguments and conflicts.  The chief editor of the newspaper is a woman driven by profit who does not hesitate in publishing unscrupulous, sensationalist reports, even if it means sacrificing moral reporting standards and ethics.  At the same time, the agency’s supervisory staff and reporters are filled with an almost patriotic desire to make the voices of the weak and vulnerable in society heard loud and clear, while simultaneously bringing to light society’s many injustices.  In the face of reality – that is, a commercialized society and the injustices that go along with it -- a newspaper that even those in the same industry look down upon, continues to persevere;  ultimately motivated by different goals, its staff continues to struggle daily to reveal – and, in some cases, hide – the truth.  In such a pressure-filled environment, how will the news agency’s staff uphold righteousness while at the same time protect their own reporting aspirations?