Starhub TVB Awards is an annual awards presentation in Singapore to honour the best of Hong Kong’s TVB series, artists and programmes each year. This year’s Starhub TVB Awards (2016) was held last night (22nd October 2016), becoming the first presentation of annual TVB awards season that will be followed by TVB Star Awards Malaysia in November and end with the prestigious TVB Anniversary Awards in the coming December.

Here is the full result of Starhub TVB Awards 2016 along with my brief opinions for each categories:

TVB Best New Male Artiste: Matthew Ho.

Opinion: I rarely notice his presence in the dramas he is involved in this year.  I think TVB should combine this with ‘Most Improved’ categories. This is like giving out too many unnecessary awards to all the attending artists.

TVB Best New Female Artiste: Moon Lau.

Opinion: Well, she deserved it. She handled her roles quite well with very realistic and natural acting which is considered very good for new actress level.

Bottom Slim The Perfect Figure Award: Rosina Lam.

Opinion: An unnecessary award just to give to the girl with best look and dress.

Tokyo Bust Express The Sassy Award: Tracy Chu.

Opinion: Same thing as the previous category.

TVB Most Improved Male Artiste: Mat Yeung.

Opinion: Well, it’s about time to give him a recognition. I have been seeing him in dramas for a lot of year but he never get the spotlight due to insignificant roles he got in the past. This year is different for him as he finally had some good roles and he deserved this award.

TVB Most Improved Female Artiste: Ali Lee.

Opinion: I didn’t see her before in the past and out of sudden, she appeared in a lot of TVB dramas this year. She is new to me, but her acting is as though she has been long in this industry. Very talented actress.

My Favourite TVB Info-tainment Programme: Not Far But Away (Sr. 2). 

Opinion: Didn’t watch it so no opinion.

My Favourite TVB Variety Programme: Eating Well With Madam Wong In Singapore.

Opinion: Also didn’t watch it, but I guess Singaporeans voted for this because this programme was filmed in Singapore.

My Favourite TVB Variety Show Host: Carol Cheng, Luk Wing & Cheng Sze-Kwan (Do Did Eat).

Opinion: Saw that programme and it’s really fun to see how they collaborated in it. A strange combination for the hosting but worked out surprisingly. They also hosted this awards ceremony.

My Favourite TVB On-Screen Couple: Ruco Chan & Nancy Wu (A Fist Within Four Walls), Benjamin Yuen & Grace Wong (A Fist Within Four Walls).

Opinion: Two couples got this award. They should really just limit award recipient to one. Anyway, I already knew it will be Ruco Chan and Nancy Wu. I’m fine with that other couple in the same drama winning this too, but next time, just keep it to one.

My Favourite TVB Drama Theme Song: ‘Never Know You Are The Best’ by Ruco Chan & Nancy Wu (A Fist Within Four Walls).

Opinion: Also another expected result. The sub-theme song is nice to listen to and it goes very well with the love storyline between the singers (also the two main leads who are on-screen couple) in that particular drama.

My Favourite TVB Supporting Actress: Rosina Lam (Short End Of The Stick).

Opinion: Well, she is a good actress that has been overlooked in the past especially in TVB Anniversary Awards. She is considered new but her acting is generally good already. She had a nice role in that drama and it’s her luck to win this.

My Favourite TVB Supporting Actor: Raymond Cho (Short End Of The Stick).

Opinion: Considered a veteran actor who had contributed so much in this industry. Finally, he won something and it is very well deserved from his funny role in that drama.

My Favourite TVB Female TV Characters (6): Kristal Tin (Brother’s Keeper II), Mandy Wong (Law dis-Order), Alice Chan (Lord Of Shanghai), Grace Wong (A Fist Within Four Walls), Selena Li (Presumed Accidents), Tracy Chu (Over Run Over).

Opinion: I’m fine with all the winners, and I’m particularly happy that they award Selena Li for her challenging role in ‘Presumed Accidents’. She is another good actress who is always not acknowledged. It shall be time for her to take on more leading roles rather than giving them to Grace Chan, Tracy Chu, Sisley Choi (that gang that are not ready at all).

My Favourite TVB Male TV Characters (6): Edwin Siu (Brother’s Keeper II), Benjamin Yuen (A Fist Within Four Walls), Moses Chan (Fashion War), Kenneth Ma (Lord Of Shanghai), Bobby Au-yeung (House Of Spirits), Vincent Wong (Over Run Over).

Opinion: It’s pity that Bobby is being downgraded to just this character award. He did very well in ‘House Of Spirits’ but I think that drama is not that well received in Singapore to my surprise. That drama should have got more recognition.

My Favourite TVB Leading Actress: Nancy Wu (A Fist Within Four Walls).

Opinion: Very predictable result. This is her first Best Actress award in Singapore. She deserved it from her performance in ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’ that is considered the stood-out one this year since ‘House Of Spirits’ is not well received in Singapore as mentioned earlier. If not, Joyce Tang may stand a chance. Kristal Tin may stand a chance too but ‘Brother’s Keeper II’ is not getting good viewership rating.

My Favourite TVB Leading Actor: Wayne Lai (Short End Of The Stick), Ruco Chan (A Fist Within Four Walls).

Opinion: An award for two people again! Oh no…I guess they are bored giving Ruco Chan the Best Actor in Singapore for third time in a row. He still deserved this award from his wonderful performance in ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’. So, they slotted in Wayne Lai this year as well. Fine, he is a great actor and I don’t have big issue of him winning but next time, please limit winner to one for each category.

My Favourite TVB Drama: A Fist Within Four Walls.

Opinion: Expected. This drama is good with great story, great acting, great actions, great setting and great climax. Enough said.

(Images in this post are from TVB Facebook page)

The TVB Star Awards Malaysia 2016 was held successfully last evening in Arena of Stars, Genting Highlands. This annual awards presentation that honours the best of Hong Kong’s TVB series and programmes every year gives opportunity for Malaysians to vote for their most favourite choices. Public votes accounts for 70% while professional judges took the remaining 30% in deciding the winners for the evening. Over 20 Hong Kong celebrities (actors and actresses) attended the event. However, none of them are big names to my disappointment. Well, that is expected since those big names from TVB have either left the station or retired from acting.

The celebrities attending the show were Ruco Chan, Nancy Wu, Kristal Tin, Benjamin Yuen, Sisley Choi, Moon Lau, Philip Ng, Mat Yeung, Cheung Wing Hong, Bob Cheung, Grace Wong, Grace Chan, Mandy Wong, Vincent Wong, Tracy Chu, Eliza Sam, Natalie Tong, Ali Lee, Joyce Tang and Koni Lui. The hosts for the ceremony were Carol Cheng, C-Kwan, Luk Wing, Ashley Chu and Jarvis Chow. The first three in that host line-up also hosted TVB Starhub Awards in Singapore last month and they are expected to host for TVB Anniversary Awards back in Hong Kong next month. Invited award presenters from Hong Kong were Ha Yu and Kara Hui to present the most favourite leading actor and actress awards. The trophy design is a slight improvement from the previous years’ one but still looks bad and a bit too big. The ceremony started at 8.30pm and ended on 11.00pm on 26th November 2016. Here below is the full result of the awards presentation alongside with my brief opinions:

My Favourite TVB Drama Series
“A Fist Within Four Walls”

Opinion: Expected. This drama is considered the best of the year so far with its thrilling actions, fantastic acting and suspenseful plot. It has also sweep some other awards of the evening, making it the biggest winner. 

My Favourite TVB Actor in a Leading Role
Ruco Chan (“A Fist Within Four Walls”)

Opinion: Expected outcome too. Ruco delivered an amazing performance in that drama and most important, his character is very likable. However, he has huge competition from Roger Kwok in next month’s TVB Anniversary Awards as Roger delivered another award-worthy performance in the currently airing drama ‘Dead Wrong’ that isn’t competing in this Malaysia’s awards but in Hong Kong one next month. So, I think Ruco will end up getting My Favourite TV Male Character two times in a row for the Hong Kong one. Still a great accomplishment for this brilliant actor. 

My Favourite TVB Actress in a Leading Role
Nancy Wu (“A Fist Within Four Walls”)

Opinion: There isn’t any strong competition for leading actress category this year. So, Nancy is the only stood out one with a great performance in ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’. It has been a busy year as she appeared in four TVB dramas in this year alone. I think she is going to take home next month’s Best Actress again too. Well, she deserved it in the time when there is no more better actresses around. Both she and Ruco won favourite leading actor and actress awards last year and there they win them again this year. I have no objection for that.

My Favourite TVB Actor in a Supporting Role
Mat Yeung (“My Dangerous Mafia Retirement Plan”)

Opinion: Mat Yeung has appeared in a lot of TVB series for many years. Finally, he gets some recognition with some good roles especially in this year. He usually portrayed very minor characters and finally he gained spotlight this year. He is a good actor but I think there is still a lot of space in between before he can step further to take on leading role. 

My Favourite TVB Actress in a Supporting Role
Joyce Tang (“House of Spirits”)

Opinion: I’m very happy for Joyce Tang. I hardly see her anymore after her success in ‘Armed Reactions’ drama franchise many years ago. This year she has a great role in ‘House of Spirits’ and I’m rooting for her to win this from the very beginning. And yes, she won it. Her hard work paid off. 

My Favourite TVB Most Improved Actor
Cheung Wing Hong (“The Last Healer in Forbidden City, “House of Spirits”, “A Fist Within Four Walls”)

Opinion: I’m also glad that Cheung Wing Hong won this. He is the only nominee in this category that stood out among the rest and delivered some great performances not only in this year but also from the past few years too. I started to notice on his talent few years back when he is still a new actor. 

My Favourite TVB Most Improved Actress
Moon Lau (“Angel In-the-Making”, “Over Run Over”, “Blue Veins”, “House of Spirits”, “A Fist Within Four Walls”)

Opinion: Moon Lau is also a deserving winner. It’s a busy year for her too and yet she still present to us very natural and likable acting in all series she was involved in eventhough she is just a new actress with little experience. 

My Favourite TVB On Screen Couple
Ruco Chan & Nancy Wu (“A Fist Within Four Walls”)
Vincent Wong & Tracy Chu (“Over Run Over”)

Opinion: Two winners again. This is something that I don’t like. The organizer should just stick to one winner. Ruco and Nancy is the more deserving pair. Handing out the award to Vincent and Tracy is like a consolation for them as they will be going home empty handed if they didn’t award this to them. Chemistry between Ruco and Nancy needs no further explanation. They, the currently highly rumored couple look great together.

My Favourite TVB Drama Theme Song
從未知道你最好 (“A Fist Within Four Walls”) – Ruco Chan & Nancy Wu

Opinion: Expected. This song is nice to listen to and it immediately reminds me of that series. 

My Favourite Top 16 TVB Drama Characters
Ruco Chan (“A Fist Within Four Walls”)
Benjamin Yuen (“A Fist Within Four Walls”)
Philip Ng (“A Fist Within Four Walls”)
Sisley Choi (“Presumed Accidents”)
Eliza Sam (“My Dangerous Mafia Retirement Plan”)
Wayne Lai (“Short End of the Stick”)
Mandy Wong (“Law dis-Order”)
Ali Lee (“Law dis-Order”)
Natalie Tong (“Speed of Life”)
Nancy Wu (“A Fist Within Four Walls”)
Grace Wong (“A Fist Within Four Walls”)
Grace Chan (“Blue Veins”)
Bobby Au Yeung (“House of Spirits”)
Joyce Tang (“House of Spirits”)
Koni Lui (“House of Spirits”)
Kristal Tin (“My Lover from the Planet Meow”)

Opinion: They should cut this down to 10 winners and not the other way round now, which is expanding it further to 16 winners so that almost everyone can get one. People not deserving to win in this category are Philip Ng, Grace Chan and Kristal Tin. There are some much more better actors or actresses to take this award. 

My Favourite TVB Variety Programme
“Sunday Stage Fight”

Opinion: Yup, a very entertaining and hilarious show. I remembered I laughed a lot watching this programme once every week last time. 

My Favourite TVB Enrichment Programme
“Wellness on the Go 4 – Going Green and Sustainable Living”

Opinion: No opinion on this one because I didn’t watch it but I actually prefer ‘Do Did Eat’. ‘Do Did Eat’ is an interesting programme and I thought earlier it should win it since Carol Cheng is present in the ceremony alongside with C-Kwan and Luk Wing that hosted that particular programme. 

My Favourite TVB Host in Variety Programme
Mat Yeung & Benjamin Yuen (“All Work No Pay Holidays – India”)

Opinion: I think people voted for them because they are handsome. That’s it. That is not the true way of judging the quality of hosting actually. Carol, Luk Wing and C-Kwan are a bit more deserving to take this award. Now, they end up went home empty handed to my surprise. They came to Malaysia just for the ceremony hosting job. They did very well in their ‘Do Did Eat’ programme actually but didn’t win this. 

Online Most Beloved Artiste Award 2016
Grace Wong

Opinion: A new award this year. Well, her popularity suddenly soared due to her very interesting role in ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’ that makes her way more noticeable than ever. She is also very pretty and cool. So, there isn’t much doubt on her winning this. 

Video highlight of the awards presentation below:

Now, there is one more awards to go, and that is the last and the most prestigious TVB Anniversary Awards in Hong Kong to be held on 18th December 2016. I’m surprised that TVB hasn’t release the nomination list yet. They are so late this year.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

I find it very strange that TVB is so late this year on releasing the nomination list for their upcoming awards presentation on 18th December. They just released it yesterday. Some of the awards will be decided by public and TVB judging panels’ voting while some will be decided by TVB judging panels and their own employed artists’ voting. Well, I have no issue with that as long as they don’t end up handing out awards to those who do not deserve it yet.

As usual, here below is the full nomination list for Hong Kong’s TVB Anniversary Awards 2016 alongside with my predicted Top 5 or 3 in each categories marked with *, my predicted winner, my preferred winner, and my opinions.

(Image source: tvb.com)

PUBLIC & TVB JUDGING PANEL VOTING

Best Leading Actor
Kenny Wong (“The Executioner”)
Raymond Wong (“K9 Cop”)
Wayne Lai (“Short End of the Stick”) *
Moses Chan (“Fashion War”)
Vincent Wong (“Over Run Over”) *
Kevin Cheng (“Blue Veins”)
Kent Cheng (“My Dangerous Mafia Retirement Plan”)
Lawrence Ng (“Presumed Accidents”)
Bobby Au Yeung (“House of Spirits”) *
Ben Wong (“Between Love & Desire”)
Johnson Lee (“Daddy Dearest”)
Benjamin Yuen (“A Fist Within Four Walls”)
Ruco Chan (“A Fist Within Four Walls”) *
Edwin Siu (“Brother’s Keeper II”)
Kenneth Ma (“Inspector Gourmet”)
Alex Fong (“Law dis-Order”)
Liu Kai Chi (“Law dis-Order”)
Louis Cheung (“Two Steps from Heaven”)
Bosco Wong (“Two Steps from Heaven”)
Roger Kwok (“Dead Wrong”) *

My predicted winner: Roger Kwok (Dead Wrong)

My preferred winner: Ruco Chan (A Fist Within Four Walls)

Opinion: It’s quite an intense race for leading actor category with many that are on par to take this award this year. Besides than my top 5 actors chosen above, there are 3 more dark horses; Alex Fong and Liu Kai Chi from ‘Law Disorder’ and Bosco Wong from ‘Two Steps from Heaven’. It will probably end up with a neck-to-neck battle between Ruco Chan since he won Best Actor at both Singapore and Malaysia earlier and Roger Kwok who gave another exceptional performance in ‘Dead Wrong’, a series that didn’t get to compete at Singapore and Malaysia as it has not aired yet that time.

Best Leading Actress
Maggie Shiu (“The Executioner”) *
Kitty Yuen (“Love as a Predatory Affair”)
Samantha Ko (“Love as a Predatory Affair”)
Natalie Tong (“Speed of Life”)
Sisley Choi (“Speed of Life”)
Linda Chung (“K9 Cop”)
Tavia Yeung (“The Last Healer in Forbidden City”)
Teresa Mo (“Come Home Love: Dinner at 8”)
Grace Chan (“Blue Veins”)
Eliza Sam (“My Dangerous Mafia Retirement Plan”)
Alice Chan (“My Dangerous Mafia Retirement Plan”)
Selena Li (“Presumed Accidents”)
Sharon Chan (“Come with Me”)
Nancy Wu (“A Fist Within Four Walls”) *
Kristal Tin (“Brother’s Keeper II”) *
Ali Lee (“Law dis-Order”) *
Mandy Wong (“Law dis-Order”)
Priscilla Wong (“Two Steps from Heaven”)
Joey Meng (“Dead Wrong”) *

My predicted winner: Nancy Wu (A Fist Within Four Walls)

My preferred winner: Nancy Wu (A Fist Within Four Walls)

Opinion: On the other hand, this category is very weak this year. There is like almost no competition at all, paving way for Nancy Wu to take home best actress twice in a row. Well, she deserved it as I find her performance in ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’ much better than her role in ‘Ghost of Relativity’ last year that won her first Best Actress. She is also very hardworking this year with 4 series. Perhaps the only other competitor that could bring out the surprise is Kristal Tin who did well in ‘Brother’s Keeper II’. Luckily, TVB didn’t nominate her in ‘My Lover from Planet Meow’ which is an awful series and nobody did good there. 

Best Series
“Angel In-the-Making”
“The Executioner”
“Love as a Predatory Affair”
“Speed of Life”
“K9 Cop”
“Short End of the Stick”
“Fashion War”
“Over Run Over”
“The Last Healer in Forbidden City”
“Come Home Love: Dinner at 8”
“Blue Veins”
“ICAC Investigators 2016”
“My Dangerous Mafia Retirement Plan”
“Presumed Accidents”
“Come with Me”
“House of Spirits” *
“Between Love & Desire”
“Daddy Dearest”
“A Fist Within Four Walls” *
“Brother’s Keeper II”
“Inspector Gourmet”
“Law dis-Order” *
“No Reserve”
“My Lover from the Planet Meow”
“Two Steps from Heaven” *
“Dead Wrong” *

My predicted winner: A Fist Within Four Walls

My preferred winner: A Fist Within Four Walls / House of Spirits.

Opinion: ‘Dead Wrong’ has not finished airing yet and so I couldn’t put that as my top preference first. But so far, it is good that it deserves a top 5 ranking. Hence, the top 2 in battle now are ‘House of Spirits’ and ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’. For me, both series are different but equally good. So, it’s very hard for me to decide. I’ll go with ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’ since more people love to watch drama with more suspense and actions than a drama with light-hearted comedy and warm family values. 

Most Popular TV Male Character
Tony Hung (“Angel In-the-Making”)
Jason Chan (“Love as a Predatory Affair”)
Raymond Cho (“Short End of the Stick”)
Wayne Lai (“Short End of the Stick”) *
Him Law (“Fashion War”)
Vincent Wong (“Over Run Over”) *
Wong Kwong Leung (“My Dangerous Mafia Retirement Plan”)
Mat Yeung (“My Dangerous Mafia Retirement Plan”)
Eddie Cheung (“Come with Me”)
Bowie Wu (“House of Spirits”)
Bobby Au Yeung (“House of Spirits”) *
Benjamin Yuen (“A Fist Within Four Walls”)
Ruco Chan (“A Fist Within Four Walls”) *
Hugo Ng (“Brother’s Keeper II”)
Louis Yuen (“Brother’s Keeper II”)
Alex Fong (“Law dis-Order”)
Eddie Kwan (“My Lover from the Planet Meow”)
Louis Cheung (“Two Steps from Heaven”)
Bosco Wong (“Two Steps from Heaven”) *
Roger Kwok (“Dead Wrong”)

My predicted winner: Ruco Chan (A Fist Within Four Walls)

My preferred winner: Ruco Chan (A Fist Within Four Walls)

Opinion: I have a feeling that TVB doesn’t want to give Best Actor to Ruco yet. It’s not because TVB is biased but whenever he shown strong performance in a year, there must be suddenly another one or two better performances by others in that same year. His role is very popular and likable in ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’, hence, there is no reason for him not to win this twice in a row.

Most Popular TV Female Character
Akina Hong (“The Executioner”)
Natalie Tong (“Speed of Life”)
Linda Chung (“K9 Cop”)
Lin Xia Wei (“Short End of the Stick”)
Tracy Chu (“Over Run Over”)
Angela Tong (“Come Home Love: Dinner at 8”)
Kay Tse (“Blue Veins”)
Eliza Sam (“My Dangerous Mafia Retirement Plan”)
Alice Chan (“My Dangerous Mafia Retirement Plan”)
Koni Lui (“House of Spirits”)
Joyce Tang (“House of Spirits”) *
Grace Wong (“A Fist Within Four Walls”) *
Yuen Chau (“A Fist Within Four Walls”)
Nancy Wu (“A Fist Within Four Walls”) *
Kristal Tin (“Brother’s Keeper II”) *
Jacqueline Wong (“Inspector Gourmet”)
Ali Lee (“Law dis-Order”) *
Mandy Wong (“Law dis-Order”)
Priscilla Wong (“Two Steps from Heaven”)
Joey Meng (“Dead Wrong”)

My predicted winner: Joyce Tang (House of Spirits)

My preferred winner: Kristal Tin (Brother’s Keeper II) / Nancy Wu (A Fist Within Four Walls) / Joyce Tang (House of Spirits)

Opinion: I’m fine with either any of the three names I mentioned above to win. This category is a tough call and it’s very hard for me to decide. There are a number of very good and likable female characters this year. If Nancy win Best Actress, then there is much lesser chance for her to win this.

Most Popular Series Song
我們都受傷 (“Angel In-the-Making”) – Jinny Ng *
真我 (“Angel In-the-Making”) – Aaryn Cheung
相信明天 (“The Executioner”) – Hubert Wu
記住忘記我 (“Wu Xin the Monster Killer”) – Alfred Hui
愛情食物鏈 (“Love as a Predatory Affair”) – Stephanie Ho
同步 (“Speed of Life”) – Justin Lo
你懂我 (“K9 Cop”) – Linda Chung
聽海 (“K9 Cop”) – Vivian Koo
藍天白雲 (“Short End of the Stick”) – Edwin Siu
最真心一對 (“Over Run Over”) – Stephanie Ho
靈魂的痛 (“The Last Healer in Forbidden City”) – Hubert Wu
完美的生活 (“Come Home Love: Dinner at 8”) – Jinny Ng
諸神混亂 (“Blue Veins”) – Kay Tse
天地不容 (“Blue Veins”) – Hubert Wu
The Only One (“Blue Veins”) – Stephanie Ho
火線下 (“My Dangerous Mafia Retirement Plan”) – Fred Cheng *
問天 (“Nirvana in Fire”) – Alfred Hui
可以背負更多 (“Nirvana in Fire”) – Jinny Ng
天地 (“Nirvana in Fire”) – Alfred Hui
命運的意外 (“Presumed Accidents”) – Hubert Wu
講 (“Come with Me”) – Sharon Chan, Louis Yuen, Grace Wong, Hoffman Cheng, Ronald Law & Stephanie Ho
愛的溫暖 (“House of Spirits”) – Edwin Siu *
最後一次分手 (“Between Love & Desire”) – Jinny Ng
爸爸 (“Daddy Dearest”) – Hubert Wu
圍城 (“A Fist Within Four Walls”) – Ruco Chan
從未知道你最好 (“A Fist Within Four Walls”) – Ruco Chan & Nancy Wu *
誰可改變 (“Brother’s Keeper II”) – Ruco Chan *
誘心人 (“Inspector Gourmet”) – Jinny Ng
我記不起 (“Inspector Gourmet”) – Linda Chung
公義的抉擇 (“Law dis-Order”) – Hubert Wu
Can You See (“Law dis-Order”) – Kayee Tam
夢裡花 (“The Imperial Doctress”) – Stephanie Ho
孤嶺花 (“No Reserve”) – Kay Tse
喵喵 ft. C Kwan & Moses Chan (“My Lover from the Planet Meow”) – Alvin Ng, Auston Lam & Penny Chan
得寵 (“My Lover from the Planet Meow”) – Kristal Tin & Nancy Wu
造王 (“Two Steps from Heaven”) – Hubert Wu
不可告人 (“Dead Wrong”) – Vincent Wong
愛需要勇氣 (“Dead Wrong”) – Stephanie Ho

My predicted winner: 從未知道你最好 (“A Fist Within Four Walls”) – Ruco Chan & Nancy Wu 

My preferred winner: 從未知道你最好 (“A Fist Within Four Walls”) – Ruco Chan & Nancy Wu 

Opinion: There is no competition at all. There is no other theme song more memorable than the one by Ruco and Nancy in ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’. 

Most Popular Series Partnership
Wayne Lai, Edwin Siu, Raymond Cho & Power Chan (“Short End of the Stick”)
Vincent Wong & Tracy Chu (“Over Run Over”)
Jimmy Au & Kim Li (“Come Home Love: Dinner at 8”)
Bowie Wu & Helena Law (“House of Spirits”)
Joyce Tang & Koni Lui (“House of Spirits”)
Ruco Chan & Benjamin Yuen (“A Fist Within Four Walls”)
Carat Cheung, Apple Chan, Chloe Nguyen & Doris Chow (“A Fist Within Four Walls”)
Alex Fong & Florence Kwok (“Law dis-Order”)
Eddie Kwan & Vivien Yeo (“My Lover from the Planet Meow”)
Bosco Wong, Edwin Siu & Louis Cheung (“Two Steps from Heaven”)

My predicted winner: Wayne Lai, Edwin Siu, Raymond Cho & Power Chan (“Short End of the Stick”)

My preferred winner: Wayne Lai, Edwin Siu, Raymond Cho & Power Chan (“Short End of the Stick”)

Opinion: This is a new category. It’s not couple award, but partner award. Very new and strange. I will give this to the four males in ‘Short End of the Stick’. Their chemistry is very good and that can be seen in ‘The Confidant’ already, the unrelated predecessor of ‘Short End of the Stick’. It’s also a consolation prize to that drama that received very high rating this year but was released too early hence not getting any award buzz.

TVB JUDGING PANEL & EMPLOYED ARTISTES

Best Supporting Actor
Law Lok Lam (“The Executioner”)
Oscar Leung (“K9 Cop”)
John Chiang (“Short End of the Stick”)
Wai Ka Hung (“Short End of the Stick”)
Raymond Cho (“Short End of the Stick”) *
Power Chan (“Short End of the Stick”) *
Pal Sinn (“Over Run Over”)
Joel Chan (“Blue Veins”)
Lai Lok Yi (“Presumed Accidents”)
Cheung Wing Hong (“House of Spirits”) *
Philip Ng (“A Fist Within Four Walls”)
Carlo Ng (“A Fist Within Four Walls”) *
Oscar Li (“A Fist Within Four Walls”)
Jimmy Au (“A Fist Within Four Walls”)
Hugo Ng (“Brother’s Keeper II”) *
Mat Yeung (“Brother’s Keeper II”)
Matthew Ho (“Law dis-Order”)
Ram Chiang (“Law dis-Order”)
Luk Wing (“Two Steps from Heaven”)
Ku Ming Wah (“Dead Wrong”)

My predicted winner: Raymond Cho (Short End of the Stick)

My preferred winner: Raymond Cho (Short End of the Stick) 

Opinion: It’s not easy to portray a transvestite and it’s not easy to stood out among the rest of the male characters in the same drama. Raymond did that and he is long overdue for this award. 

Best Supporting Actress
Elaine Yiu (“The Executioner”) *
Akina Hong (“The Executioner”)
Rachel Kan (“Speed of Life”)
Lin Xia Wei (“Short End of the Stick”)
Yoyo Chen (“Short End of the Stick”)
Zoie Tam (“Over Run Over”)
Jeannie Chan (“Blue Veins”)
Elena Kong (“ICAC Investigators 2016”)
Kingdom Yuen (“My Dangerous Mafia Retirement Plan”)
Koni Lui (“House of Spirits”) *
Joyce Tang (“House of Spirits”) *
Helena Law (“House of Spirits”)
Roxanne Tong (“Between Love & Desire”)
Grace Wong (“A Fist Within Four Walls”) *
Jade Leung (“Brother’s Keeper II”)
Florence Kwok (“Law dis-Order”)
Vivien Yeo (“My Lover from the Planet Meow”)
Moon Lau (“Two Steps from Heaven”)
Katy Kung (“Two Steps from Heaven”) *
Rebecca Zhu (“Dead Wrong”)

My predicted winner: Joyce Tang (House of Spirits)

My preferred winner: Joyce Tang (House of Spirits)

Opinion: Joyce Tang is also another artist long overdue for an award. Her comeback performance in ‘House of Spirits’ is excellent and putting her into this supporting category is already something that I felt slightly uneasy already. 

Most Improved Male Artiste
James Ng (“Blue Veins”, “Jade Solid Gold”, “Organized Dining”, “Music Power”, “J.S.G. Selections 2016 (Part 1)”, Big Boys Summer)
Matthew Ho (“Brother’s Keeper II”, “Law dis-Order”, “No Reserve”) *
Hubert Wu (“Blue Veins”, “Taipei High Hi”, “Sermon by Sir Ben”)
Mark Ma (“Love as a Predatory Affair”, “Speed of Life”, “Short End of the Stick”, “Come Home Love: Dinner at 8”, “Presumed Accidents”, “Between Love & Desire”, “Inspector Gourmet”)
Bob Cheung (“Over Run Over”, “House of Spirits”, “Between Love & Desire”, “Daddy Dearest”, “Spirits on Vacation”) *
Cheung Wing Hong (“The Last Healer in Forbidden City, “House of Spirits”, “A Fist Within Four Walls”, “Spirits on Vacation”) *

My predicted winner: Cheung Wing Hong.

My preferred winner: Cheung Wing Hong.

Opinion: It has to be Cheung Wing Hong. He is the only one among the other nominees that stood out. He was involved in 3 series this year, and he nailed all the 3 roles given. I noticed him few years back in some of his earlier dramas but he went unnoticed. This should be the year for him. A breakthrough year for him.

Most Improved Female Artiste
Tracy Chu (“Speed of Life”, “K9 Cop”, “Over Run Over”)
Stephanie Ho (“Love as a Predatory Affair”, “Blue Veins”, “Dead Wrong”, “Jade Solid Gold”, “I Heart HK”)
Ali Lee (“Fashion War”, “Brother’s Keeper II”, “Law dis-Order”, “Sidewalk Scientist”, “Organized Dining”, “Anchors with Passport (Sr. 2)”) *
Mayanne Mak (“Sidewalk Scientist”, “Anchors with Passport (Sr. 2)”, “A Starry Homecoming”, “Community Chest Charity Show”, “TVB Most Popular TV Commercial Awards 2016”, “I Heart HK”, “Sermon by Sir Ben”, “天與地”)
Moon Lau (“Angel In-the-Making”, “Over Run Over”, “Blue Veins”, “House of Spirits”, “A Fist Within Four Walls”, “Birth of 8 Records”) *
Katy Kung (“The Executioner”, “Two Steps from Heaven”) *

My predicted winner: Katy Kung.

My preferred winner: Ali Lee / Moon Lau.

Opinion: Out of sudden, Katy Kung shot to fame with her crying scene in ‘Two Steps from Heaven’. It is a great timing for her since the awards presentation is just around the corner. I don’t think she will snatch supporting actress award from Joyce Tang, and hence, she has high chance for this category out of a sudden. This will be a major blow to the two other early hot favourites; Ali Lee and Moon Lau. Both of them gave fantastic performances this year too. 

Best Host(s)
Sammy Leung & Sharon Chan (“Sunday Stage Fight”) *
Benz Hui, Oscar Leung & King Kong (“Eat La Men”)
Carol Cheng & Fama (“Do Did Eat”) *
Tony Hung (“Not Far but Away (Sr. 2)”)
Maria Cordero & Luk Ho Ming (“Good Cheap Eats (Sr. 5)”)
Eric Tsang & Various Artistes (“I Heart HK”) *
Evergreen Mak, Elena Kong & Joyce Tang (“Bazaar Carnivals”)
Benjamin Au Yeung (“Sermon by Sir Ben”)
Alice Chan, Michael Wai, Steven Cheung & Tyson Chak (“Wai Gor’s Wok”)
King Kong & Kitty Yuen (“Neighborhood Gourmet (Sr. 4)”)
Helen To (“Kansai Raider (Sr. 2)”)

My predicted winner: Carol Cheng & Fama (Do Did Eat)

My preferred winner: Carol Cheng & Fama (Do Did Eat)

Opinion: Carol Cheng and Fama are going to host the awards ceremony as well. Hence, giving them this award would be a nice touch. Furthermore, they do did well in the ‘Do Did Eat’ programme despite the strange partnership formed. An unbelievable partnership that turned out to be good and fun.

Best Variety Programme
“Sunday Stage Fight” *
“Eat La Men”
“Do Did Eat” *
“A Starry Homecoming”
“Taipei High Hi”
“All Work No Pay Holidays – India”
“All Work No Pay Holidays – Northern Europe”
“The Magicians’ Game of Thrones”
“I Heart HK”
“Spirits on Vacation” *
“Neighborhood Gourmet (Sr. 4)”

My predicted winner: Sunday Stage Fight.

My preferred winner: Sunday Stage Fight.

Opinion: ‘Sunday Stage Fight’ is the programme that gave me the most laughter this year. It’s a very entertaining and hilarious show. ‘I Heart HK’ led by Eric Tsang and many other artists is no longer that much fun to watch as the show has very few games in it only. 

Best Enrichment Programme
“Sidewalk Scientist”
“Not Far but Away (Sr. 2)”
“Touring the Hood”
“My Handy Man”
“The Treadmill Runner”
“Good Cheap Eats (Sr. 5)”
“Bazaar Carnivals”
“Sermon by Sir Ben”
“5 Kids and a Bloke”
“Wai Gor’s Wok”
“Kansai Raider (Sr. 2)”

Opinion: No comment in this category as I have watched none of them.

Best Special Programme
“My Love, myTV SUPER”
“Community Chest Charity Show”
“Hong Kong Heroes”
“Mr. Hong Kong Contest 2016”
“Miss Hong Kong Pageant 2016”
“Gala Spectacular 2016”
“A Time of Love 2”
“TVB Anniversary Gala”
“Tung Wah Charity Gala 2016”
“天與地”

Opinion: Also no comment for this category.

The awards ceremony will be held on the evening of 18th December 2016 (Sunday). The ceremony also marks the end of TVB station’s 49th anniversary celebration this year. By the way, their 49th Anniversary Gala held last month is super dull and boring. I watched it online, and I skipped most parts of it. No big stars to attend, no great performances, no funny segments, and no ‘party’ feel overall. TVB have to seriously work on it especially for next year when they are heading to the big 50th anniversary.

‘Dead Wrong’ (致命復活) is a Hong Kong television drama by TVB that revolves around Vincent, a man who was abducted and imprisoned on a deserted island in Vietnam for ten years. After being rescued, he struggled to adjust to his new life, but soon learns that there was more to his abduction than it meets the eye. It is the last of the three anniversary dramas this year to celebrate TVB’s 49th anniversary. It is also the last drama this year in contention for the TVB Anniversary Awards to be held tomorrow.

Before the series started, I look forward to watch it because I read a number of news about it, highlighting that Roger Kwok (portraying as the main lead, Vincent) has filmed several challenging scenes particularly on his abduction and has also purposely lose down weight for this role. There was hype even before this drama’s release and everyone is anticipating for Roger Kwok’s performance in this one.

Yes, Roger did well in this drama. His acting experience and determination to get into the character enabled him to shine again. However, I have to say that this is not a breakthrough role for him as he is already professional enough and has set a bar that is almost impossible for him to achieve further. He nailed the abduction scenes, he nailed the skinny look, he nailed the crying times, and he also nailed the scenes when he has to carry out his revenge. However, there are times when I find that he overacted slightly and that some of his expressions are a bit forced and exaggerated. Just a bit. But that’s the bit that pull him down in best actor race tomorrow. Well, that is just my opinion. He still stand a strong chance as a dark horse contender for the best actor race tomorrow in the TVB Anniversary Awards while Ruco Chan is the current frontrunner. He has won the prize three times in the past, and so I think it is better to award best actor to Ruco this year for his equally well-received performance in ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’.

Joey Meng also did very well in ‘Dead Wrong’. I don’t really like her in her past TVB dramas but this one changed my mind. She is also a great actress and she still looks young despite her current age. Vincent Wong also did incredibly well as the supporting character who helped Vincent (Roger) a lot in this storyline. He is one young talented actor that I think TVB can give more opportunities to him than many other ‘younger-generation’ artists who are not up to the standard yet. Kenny Wong, taking on the villain’s role in the story, is as expected, unlikable. I don’t enjoy seeing him in any dramas as I always find his acting to be slightly wooden. I would prefer other actor to replace him for this role.

As for the storyline, the first few episodes look quite intense. However, the plot goes slow and draggy after that unfortunately. This series tried too hard to extend the whole story into a 28-episodes drama. It would be better if they shorten it to 20 or 25 episodes so that there would be something intense or exciting for audiences to catch on in every episodes. Hence, it started to feel a bit boring in the middle. The final 2 episodes aired just now was good and saved the day. It was a good ending and the plot twist at the end there is quite shocking yet predictable too.

Overall, this drama still has chance for best actor award (Roger Kwok), and Vincent Wong is snubbed for a nomination in best supporting actor race from his role here, and in the end not the quality yet for best drama honour. I also find it annoying to keep seeing flashback scenes repeating over and over again. Those were too much. I think I saw flashback of the abduction scenes for more than twenty times throughout the whole series. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Dead Wrong’ a total of 7.6.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

TVB Anniversary Awards 2016 (萬千星輝頒獎典禮 2016) concluded a moment ago with some predicted and also some shocking results this year. This awards, held back in Hong Kong is the last of the three awards presentations to honour the best of TVB artists, dramas and programmes annually with the earlier two ceremonies being held in Singapore and Malaysia. For the full nomination list of the TVB Anniversary Awards 2016 before scrolling down to check the winners’ list, you can view back my previous post on that particular nomination list at this link:

https://vincentloy.wordpress.com/2016/12/02/nomination-list-for-tvb-anniversary-awards-2016/

Here below is the full result of the TVB Anniversary Awards 2016 along with my opinions:

Lifetime Achievement Award: Chow Chung

Opinion: Chow Chung deserved this honour. Eventhough he will be already reaching 86 years old next month, he still actively participates in many recent dramas and I admire his commitment to TVB. Eventhough he appeared mostly in very minor or supporting roles, but his dedication is no doubt strong. I’m glad for him winning this award.

Most Improved TV Female Artist: Ali Lee (Fashion War, Brother’s Keeper II, Law dis-Order, Sidewalk Scientist, Organized Dining, Anchors with Passport Series 2)

Opinion: I’m fine with Ali Lee winning as I do see she did very well this year with many good roles. I predicted earlier that Moon Lau to win this as I find Moon Lau slightly better with more notable and likable roles this year. Anyway, I still think Ali Lee deserves this award too.

Most Improved TV Male Artist: Jonathan Cheung (The Last Healer in Forbidden City, House of Spirits, A Fist Within Four Walls, Spirits on Vacation)

Opinion: I’m very happy for Jonathan Cheung. His hard work paid off and I truly saw his excellent performances in all of the dramas he was involved in for this year. He is one good actor and shall be given more opportunities from now on. He nailed all the roles this year and there is no other person to take this award away from him.

Most Popular Series Partnership: Vincent Wong & Tracy Chu (Over Run Over)

Opinion: I didn’t watch ‘Over Run Over’ and so I couldn’t comment much on this one. Anyway, I’m fine with them winning. I believe they did have very good chemistry and have produced some sparks in that series.

Best Supporting Actor: Raymond Cho (Short End of the Stick)

Opinion: Finally! I’m happy that Raymond Cho is finally winning. He has been in the acting industry for decades and finally this year, his work in ‘Short End of the Stick’ is paid off. Not only that an award for him is long overdue, but he also did very well portraying as one of the eunuchs in that drama.

Best Supporting Actress: Katy Kung (Two Steps from Heaven)

Opinion: I didn’t watch ‘Two Steps from Heaven’ and so I couldn’t comment further. Deep down in my heart, I wish for Joyce Tang (House of Spirits) or Grace Wong (A Fist Within Four Walls) to win this. The race in this category is particularly strong this year. I read from news that Katy Kung has the hype due to her crying scene in ‘Two Steps from Heaven’. I don’t like the way that Hong Kong citizens now prefer to judge a person’s acting based solely on his or her crying ability. It’s a poor judgement, and that leads to a poor decision to this result. I’m nothing against Katy but I still think Joyce or even Grace’s performances are more solid than Katy. This is the first shock of the evening.

Most Popular Drama Theme Song: ‘Never Know You Are The Best’ by Ruco Chan & Nancy Wu (A Fist Within Four Walls)

Opinion: An expected result. This song which is only a sub-theme song for the drama ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’ turns out to be a big hit. It’s a nice song and once you hear it, you know which drama we are talking about. That’s how good it is. A deserving win.

Best Variety Programme: I Heart HK

Opinion: I prefer ‘Sunday Stage Fight’ to win this. ‘I Heart HK’ is not much entertaining compared to ‘Sunday Stage Fight’ with much lesser games and funny scenes this time.

Best Enrichment Programme: Sidewalk Scientist

Opinion: No comment on this category as I have not watched any of the enrichment programmes this year.

Best Special Programme: Heaven and Earth

Opinion: Also no comment for this category.

Best Programme Host: Carol Cheng, C-Kwan & Luk Wing (Do Did Eat)

Opinion: I have no issue with them winning this. Everyone wants them to win since Carol Cheng is a very respected figure in TVB. Her partnership with C-Kwan and Luk Wing also turned out to be surprisingly awkward yet good. They created interesting hosting atmosphere.

Professionalism Awards x 3: Koo Ming Wah, Carlo Ng & Chun Wong.

Opinion: Out of these three, I find Koo Ming Wah to be the least deserving. He has won Best Supporting Actor several years ago and that should be more than enough to recognize his contribution. This is a bit too much for him. I would rather have Power Chan to take this one since he is one great actor that has always been left out in races to win awards. Carlo Ng and Chun Wong are very deserving winners of this professionalism awards.

Most Favourite TV Female Character: Grace Wong (A Fist Within Four Walls)

Opinion: Second shock of the evening. I would prefer Grace Wong to win for supporting actress rather than this one. This is also a bit too much for her. She did very well in ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’ but I couldn’t accept the fact that Joyce Tang didn’t win anything for the evening. This is so unfair and unfortunate for Joyce Tang who gave extremely brilliant and likable performance in ‘House of Spirits’.

Best Actress: Nancy Wu (A Fist Within Four Walls)

Opinion: This is a predicted outcome. There is not many strong competitors this year for best actress and so it’s the second consecutive win for Nancy. Anyway, she did a very good job in ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’. There is no other choice as she is the only one that stood out this year. I would prefer her to get this Best Actress for the first time this year as I still think Liza Wang from ‘Limelight Years’ is a much better choice for best actress last year.

Most Favourite TV Male Character: Benjamin Yuen (A Fist Within Four Walls)

Opinion: Third shock of the evening. I hardly put my eyes on Benjamin’s character when I was watching ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’. His role is nothing much and out of sudden, he won this coveted ‘Most Favourite TV Male Character’. I was in shock. I couldn’t believe it. I wonder how Hong Kong citizens vote? They have very poor judgement. Bobby Au should easily win this from his impressive and well-received performance in ‘House of Spirits’.

Best Actor: Ruco Chan (A Fist Within Four Walls)

Opinion: Finally, it’s time for Ruco Chan to be awarded best actor after he lost out to Anthony Wong last year in this category. He is one talented actor and since ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’ is such a hit and is a drama that required him to put in a lot of effort, in the end, he managed to pull it off, and that leads to his victory here. Very deserving. There was one moment when I’m afraid that Roger Kwok may win this again and snatch the best actor prize away from Ruco. Roger is good in ‘Dead Wrong’ but I find his acting is a bit forced, brittle and exaggerated this time.

Best Series: A Fist Within Four Walls

Opinion: Also another quite expected outcome. ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’ is a fantastic drama this year with many suspense, plot twists, great action sequences, incredible cast performances and wonderful production. This drama is a huge hit, gets high viewership rating, and get us all talking about it when it was airing. A deserving win for this drama. It is also the biggest winner of the evening, also taking almost all the major acting awards as well as the song award. I felt pity for ‘House of Spirits’ that got snubbed heavily. They should award something to Bobby Au and Joyce Tang.

This year’s result for the TVB Anniversary Awards is not that good. Some are deserving but most of the major awards went to the people who I don’t think deserved them. I believe many out there share similar thoughts with mine too. Not a very good outcome this year. Poor voting decision by Hong Kong audiences in certain categories obviously.

As for the ceremony, I am annoyed by the poor editing of the ceremony as well as very rude cut-off of award winners’ speeches just to make time for the excessive slots for advertisements. I also hate it when they cut off the part when Ruco and Nancy sang their winning drama theme song for advertisements again. Very bad. I only enjoyed the ‘Mannequin Challenge’ done in the introduction part of the ceremony, but for that, it has sacrificed a usual segment to introduce all the attending nominated actors and actresses. Carol Cheng, Luk Wing and C-Kwan should have just stayed on stage all the time to host together with Sammy Leung rather than staying inside a room doing nothing much. The guests presenting the ‘Most Favourite TV Male Character’ and ‘Best Actor’ prizes should be of heavyweight celebrities rather than having two almost unknown young actresses presenting that two highly coveted honours. I hope TVB can do much better next year for its 50th anniversary gala and awards show. This year is pretty bad in almost all areas, and that includes the awards’ result.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

This year, I have watched 11 Cantonese dramas by TVB, the biggest television station in Hong Kong. The station usually released over 20 dramas every year and it’s not bad that I have watched about half of them this year. There are awards presentation in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong to recognize the best of TVB series, actors, actresses and programmes annually. For me personally, I have my own set of selection for which series or cast that I think is the best out of the dramas that I have watched.

Kindly take note that this only applies to the dramas that I have watched and that is unfortunate for the dramas that I missed but are still good and praise-worthy. However, I usually covered major and heavily-debated dramas and this year is not an exception. The previous results from the Singapore’s Starhub TVB Awards, Malaysia’s TVB Star Awards and Hong Kong’s TVB Anniversary Awards are not influencing my decision but serve as the precedents for my selection.

TVB Dramas in 2016 that I have watched:

• Love as a Predatory Affair.
• Short End of the Stick.
• Fashion War.
• The Last Healer in Forbidden City.
• My Dangerous Mafia Retirement Plan.
• Presumed Accidents.
• House of Spirits.
• A Fist Within Four Walls.
• Brother’s Keeper II.
• My Lover from the Planet Meow.
• Dead Wrong.

So, here below is my picks for the best of TVB dramas (excluding their variety programmes) for the year 2016 in 15 categories. Some categories are new and not available in the other awards presentation.

Best Drama – A Fist Within Four Walls.

(Other top 4: Short End of the Stick, Presumed Accidents, House of Spirits, Dead Wrong)

Best Leading Actor – Ruco Chan (A Fist Within Four Walls)

(Other top 4: Wayne Lai – Short End of the Stick, Lawrence Ng – Presumed Accidents, Bobby Au – House of Spirits, Roger Kwok – Dead Wrong)

Best Leading Actress – Nancy Wu (A Fist Within Four Walls)

(Other top 4: Tavia Yeung – The Last Healer in Forbidden City, Sisley Choi – Presumed Accidents, Kristal Tin – Brother’s Keeper II, Joey Meng – Dead Wrong)

Most Favourite TV Male Character – Bobby Au (House of Spirits)

(Other top 4: Wayne Lai – Short End of the Stick, Roger Kwok – The Last Healer in Forbidden City, Ruco Chan – A Fist Within Four Walls, Benjamin Yuen – A Fist Within Four Walls)

Most Favourite TV Female Character – Joyce Tang (House of Spirits)

(Other top 4: Kitty Yuen – Love as a Predatory Affair, Nancy Wu – A Fist Within Four Walls, Grace Wong – A Fist Within Four Walls, Kristal Tin – Brother’s Keeper II)

Best Supporting Actor – Raymond Cho (Short End of the Stick)

(Other top 4: Power Chan – Short End of the Stick, Carlo Ng – A Fist Within Four Walls, Hugo Ng – Brother’s Keeper II, Vincent Wong – Dead Wrong)

Best Supporting Actress – Grace Wong (A Fist Within Four Walls)

(Other top 4: Rosina Lam – Short End of the Stick, Ali Lee – Fashion War, Selena Li – Presumed Accidents, Joyce Tang – House of Spirits)

Most Improved TV Actor – Jonathan Cheung (The Last Healer in Forbidden City, House of Spirits, A Fist Within Four Walls)

(Other top 4: Jason Chan – Love as a Predatory Affair, Mat Yeung – My Dangerous Mafia Retirement Plan, Brother’s Keeper II, Tsui Wing – House of Spirits, Brother’s Keeper II, Bob Cheung – Short End of the Stick, Fashion War, Presumed Accidents, Brother’s Keeper II)

Most Improved TV Actress – Moon Lau (House of Spirits, A Fist Within Four Walls)

(Other top 4: Samantha Ko – Love as a Predatory Affair, Ali Lee – Fashion War, Brother’s Keeper II, Stephanie Ho – Love as a Predatory Affair, Dead Wrong, Koni Lui – Fashion War, House of Spirits)

Most Favourite Drama Theme Song – ‘Never Know You Are The Best’ by Ruco Chan and Nancy Wu (A Fist Within Four Walls – subtheme song)

(Other top 4: My Dangerous Mafia Retirement Plan – main theme, Presumed Accidents – main theme, House of Spirits – main theme, Brother’s Keeper II – main theme)

Most Favourite On-Screen Couple – Ruco Chan and Nancy Wu (A Fist Within Four Walls)

(Other top 4: Mat Yeung and Eliza Sam – My Dangerous Mafia Retirement Plan, Jonathan Cheung and Koni Lui – House of Spirits, Benjamin Yuen and Grace Wong – A Fist Within Four Walls, Edwin Siu and Grace Chan – Brother’s Keeper II)

Most Favourite TV Villain – Hugo Ng (Brother’s Keeper II)

(Other top 4: Lee Shin Cheung – Short End of the Stick, Chris Lai – Presumed Accidents, Ali Lee – Fashion War, Carlo Ng – A Fist Within Four Walls)

Best Visual Effects, Editing, Costumes, Make-Up, Hair-Styling and Production Design – A Fist Within Four Walls

(Other top 4: Short End of the Stick, Fashion War, The Last Healer in Forbidden City, My Lover from the Planet Meow)

Outstanding TV Veteran Artist – KK Cheung (A Fist Within Four Walls, Dead Wrong)

(Other top 4: Helena Law – The Last Healer in Forbidden City, House of Spirits, Chow Chung – Presumed Accidents, House of Spirits, Dead Wrong, Lau Kong – Love as a Predatory Affair, House of Spirits, Angelina Lo – House of Spirits, Brother’s Keeper II)

Outstanding TV Cast Ensemble – House of Spirits

(Other top 4: Short End of the Stick, A Fist Within Four Walls, Brother’s Keeper II, My Lover from the Planet Meow)

‘A Fist Within Four Walls’ topped my list of selection above while ‘House of Spirits’ came in runner-up in number of picks. My selection above has very slight difference only if compared to the awards result in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong this year. It’s more or less the same names in most categories. I believe most of the people out there would be more satisfied with my picks here than the result by the TVB Anniversary Awards 2016 held yesterday.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

‘Recipes to Live By’ (味想天開) is a 2017 historical comedy drama from Hong Kong by TVB with food as the theme. Having 25 episodes, the story centers on Ding Yat-san, a poor village boy who is a foodie and has a ‘golden tongue’ (can identify all ingredients in a tasted food) and later discovered that he is the son of the God of Cookery. He then investigates the past accusation against his father that got him killed. The drama starred Tony Hung, Sisley Choi, Rebecca Zhu, Hugo Wong, Ram Chiang, Mary Hon, Stephanie Ho, Toby Leung, Maria Cordero, etc.

It has been such a long time since TVB last produced a series with food as the theme. Hence, this one got me interested eventhough I’m not that satisfied with the cast. With food as the theme, I’m expecting to see a lot of nice dishes, tricks and cooking competitions throughout the series. Yes, I do see them in this drama but they are not exciting as hoped. The story then swifts to many other directions to cover other smaller plots. That is necessary to keep the series going with more things to catch up. However, the excessive use of plot twists especially near the end of the series which are supposed to make the drama more exciting to watch turned out to be quite anti-climatic. They also forcefully put in too many unnecessarily tragic, ‘misunderstanding’ and ‘curse effect’ storyline to the characters in this drama. I’m annoyed when they are too many. Anyway, overall, the drama still has a decent storyline that goes back to the food theme.

As for the cast and their performances, my expectation is right. Tony Hung is not a good actor and giving him the first male lead role here is a bad decision. There is still much for him to learn in acting. I think he did his best but there is something not right to his expression. Similar issue goes to the first female lead that goes to Sisley Choi. However, I find that she has at least improved. Anyway, I just don’t like her for being too thin and tiny, and having a sharp voice. Just not the right person for a leading lady role. Rebecca Zhu and Hugo Wong are both great in their supporting roles (or I shall say second leading roles). I hardly notice Hugo in the past but after seeing this and also in ‘Burning Hands’ where he is also involved, I think he is one underrated actor. Other veteran cast are great and I wish to highlight on Lee Kwok-lun who portrayed the main villain here. He is one excellent actor and is especially good in taking on bad roles. TVB should honours him with at least a professionalism or a supporting actor award soon.

This drama is worth to watch when you have nothing else to do. It is not a great series but still good enough with some comedic, touching and suspenseful moments. The only problem is the leading cast (Tony and Sisley). Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Recipes to Live By’ a total of 7.0.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

‘Burning Hands’ (乘勝狙擊) is a 2017 Hong Kong drama by TVB that revolves on a team of con-artists and illusionists who are hired by a casino tycoon to find the mastermind behind his casino’s embezzled funds. But the leader of the gang, Chak Koon-yat, has his own reasons for helping the mogul. Things then lead to unexpected development of conflict, betrayal, friendship and hardship to the characters. This 28-episodes drama starred Ruco Chan, Joel Chan, Rosina Lam, Pal Sinn, Kelly Fu, Rebecca Chan, Hugo Wong, Hugo Ng, etc.

This drama is the best TVB drama so far for this first quarter of the year. Having casino as the main theme drives the plot to an interesting direction. It is at least a fresh take on a TVB drama that usually goes with typical occupation themes like doctor, lawyer, or police. Now, it all revolves mainly on a group of con-artists and businessmen. On top of that, the many tricks executed by the characters in the series to excel in their missions are exciting to watch and had me looking forward to watch every episodes. The series also explores into friendship value between friends and business partners as well as love relationship between the young as well as the old couples (surprisingly nice to see the pairing of Pal Sinn with Rebecca Chan).

Ruco Chan is as usual being great in his roles and this one is not an exception. As the leader of his gang, he put in a lot of energy and passion to act the best out of that character and he nailed it. Joel Chan is also convincing as the main villain, a person that nobody expects would turn this bad from the earlier episodes. TVB should give more good roles to Joel and I look forward to him getting some recognition soon. Rosina Lam on the other hand is not doing well. Her expressions were limited and it looks like she couldn’t concentrate on her role here. Also not performing well are the actors acting as his brother and father in this series. The other cast are fine especially the veterans like Hugo Ng, Pal Sinn and Rebecca Chan. Hugo Ng is making a huge comeback last year from his role in ‘Brother’s Keeper II’ and he is great as the other villain in this story too.

One good thing for this drama is that it delivered quite a number of suspense. There are a lot of plot twists especially near the end of the series when things really get intense and literally mad when the villains are ‘betting’ all out to succeed. That was good. The very final scene of the last episode of this drama I had just finished watching revealed to us that Joel survived the bullet, imprisoned, having mental problem and showing to us a deck card of ‘2’. What a cool way of hinting to us that there may be a sequel that continues from this concluded story. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Burning Hands’ a total of 7.5.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

First week of the semester is considered a happy-go-lucky week as no one would like to start on the assignments on the first week itself. Now, even the second week is gone and there is no more time to be wasted anymore. There are several submissions coming very soon already and I’m way not prepared yet. I did do my work, but 24 hours a day is just not enough. I’m not on track in my progress in all the units this semester. Well, I took that off my mind for a while first to enjoy this weekend.

Last Friday, I get back to the court to play badminton with my friends for about 3 hours. That was after a very stressful design studio with nothing from my part to show to the lecturers and I don’t really get what they want with their super-hard-to-understand words. It’s good to be back playing badminton after several months of not playing it already, and unfortunately, my badminton skill has not improve. The gathering did not stop there as we went for some snack and drink after that. Then, yesterday evening, we had another gathering in a friend’s house to enjoy the potluck dinner as well as to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Several hours later, I will heading out with my housemate to watch a movie. So many activities, and hence, not much time to focus on my assignments. Well, I will promise to myself to concentrate on my study from tomorrow onward.

Recently, I finished watching another TVB drama. It’s ‘Destination Nowhere’ (迷), a Hong Kong drama about a female news reporter who get caught up in the problematic collusion scheme between government official and businesses. All the hardship she faced has lead to her to be forced to become cunning and evil especially after the murder of her daughter. Those complicated cases that were actually linked to one another were then investigated by a police inspector who later felt in love with the female news reporter. This 30-episodes series starred Kevin Cheng, Kristal Tin, James Ng, King Kong Lee, Winki Lai, etc.

The plot is very interesting but there are several obvious plot holes that ruin the logic of the story in some major parts. The main cast, Kevin Cheng and Kristal Tin only get to bump onto each other in the very later stage of the series. I’m fascinated by the director’s decision to show them crossing over but not knowing each other in many occasions in earlier episodes but that were taking too many episodes. Once they knew each other, their relationship builds up too quickly. It’s a fresh thing to see this new pairing between Kevin and Kristal by the way. Their acting in this drama were also top notch especially Kristal. I’m stunned yet by another groundbreaking performance by Kristal. Her character is a very challenging one that requires execution of variety of emotions. She has a role that has to show the innocent side, leadership side, crying side, and cunning side all in one drama. She nailed it. There were time when I was sleepy and not paying attention while watching new episode of this drama on late night, and then, I immediately paid attention and went fully awake by her performance. I don’t mind giving her another best actress award but it is too early to tell right now since awards season is at the end of the year. This drama is being shown too early in the year and will be usually forgotten by the time awards season come. Other cast also did good job such as James Ng (still don’t like his face and his crying is too ugly to watch) and Winki Lai. Even the bad guy portraying ‘Wat Dee’ is putting on a very good performance. I don’t know his name but I pity him for always portraying bad guy in TVB dramas. He has the bad-guy look.

Overall, this drama is nice to watch. It is all good due to the amazing performances by the cast. Their acting kept me not wanting to leave my seat watching every episodes of this drama. There is also a good amount of suspense and dramatic moments throughout the whole series to keep engaging the viewers. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Destination Nowhere’ a total of 7.5.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

The 36th Hong Kong Film Awards was held last evening to honour the best of Hong Kong films released in 2016. I didn’t pay much attention to this awards this year (and also last year) as I didn’t watch most of the nominated films. Most of their movies nowadays just didn’t appeal to me with similar genre, similar style, similar story, poor visual effects and too depressed. Their movies also fail to break out of their boundary to reach out to international market due to the reasons I highlighted earlier.

The presentation ceremony yesterday has its free online streaming but that service is not available in Australia. Hence, I couldn’t watch it live. Anyway, I still manage to hear part of its live broadcast from Myfm, a Malaysian radio station. It’s a 3 hours and 30 minutes long ceremony. Very interesting poster for the awards ceremony this year (see below):

I’m more excited with the presence of many celebrities in the awards ceremony such as Jackie Chan, Leon Lai, Aaron Kwok, Karl Maka (he is the bald guy in the classic hit film series ‘Aces Go Places’ with Sam Hui), Eric Tsang, Miriam Yeung, (and many other recognizable faces) than the results. Here below is the full list of winners for the 36th Hong Kong Film Awards:

Best film
Trivisa

Best Director
Frank Hui, Jevons Au, Vicky Wong (Trivisa)
Best Actor
Gordon Lam (Trivisa)
Best Actress
Kara Wai ( Happiness )

Best Supporting Actor
Eric Tsang (Mad World)
Best Supporting Actress
Elaine Jin (Mad World)

Best New Performer
Tony Wu (Weeds on Fire)
Best Screenplay
Trivisa
Best Cinematography
Peter Pau, Cao Yu (See You Tomorrow)
Best Film Editing
Allen Leung, David Richardson (Trivisa)
Best Art Direction
See You Tomorrow
Best Sostume and Make-up Design
The Monkey King 2
Best Action Choreography
Operation Mekong
Best Original Film Score
Peter Kam, Yusuke Hatano (Soul Mate)
Best Original Film Song
Anthem of Shatin Martins (Weeds on Fire)
Best Sound Design
Kinson Tsang, George Lee Yiu-Keung ( Cold War 2 )
Best Visual Effects
The Monkey King 2
Best New Director
Wong Chun (Mad World)
Best Film from China and Taiwan
Godspeed

Overall comment:

‘Trivisa’ is the biggest winner of the ceremony with 5 wins, including the coveted ‘Best Film’ prize. The film also won for best director, best actor, best screenplay and best film editing, taking out most of the important categories. ‘Mermaid’ which has a total of 8 nominations failed to win anything at all in the ceremony. The movie which is a critical box office hit and is directed by Stephen Chow is one of the only two films nominated in this awards that I did watched. The other one is ‘The Monkey King 2’ which won for ‘Best Visual Effects’. Gordon Lam is being nominated for the first time in lead actor category and he won it at the first attempt. Kara Hui also won surprisingly for best actress from her role in ‘Happiness’. This is her third best actress win in history of Hong Kong Film Awards. She has also won a best supporting actress award 3 years ago. She is now the second actress that has won the most best actress awards, only behind the legendary Maggie Cheung who has won it five times in the past. On the other hand, past winners and veterans Eric Tsang and Elaine Jin emerged as winners again this year in supporting actor and actress categories respectively from their roles in ‘Mad World’.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Ohh..we have come to the month of May 2017. One third of the year is gone. I have had a very imbalanced past four months. January and February have been a very free and easy months for me since I’m still enjoying my study break. Once my study commenced from March onward, it’s been a hell. I am freaking jealous of my housemates who can be very free and don’t have much to work on for their assignments. They always hang out and chill in the living area or even go out the whole day frequently. I wish my student’s life will be like that too. Too bad, an architecture student will never be able to enjoy to that extent.

Recently, I have finished watching a new TVB drama entitled ‘Mind Hunter’ (心理追兇) and is also called ‘My Dearly Sinful Mind’. It is a 28-episodes drama about a mentally ill psychologist who goes all out to investigate the death of his girlfriend of which he believes that it is not simply caused by just an accident. The drama starred Kenneth Ma, Sisley Choi, Pierre Ngo, Grace Wong, Vivien Yeo, Michelle Yim, Mat Yeung, Raymond Cho, etc.

I always have this mindset that TVB dramas that are released at this time of the year are usually not that good. But hey…this drama goes against my opinion. It is actually quite interesting and intense at some points, and I totally didn’t expect it. The reason I watch this drama is because I don’t feel like watching the one in the other time slot and that I also like most of the cast in this series. The psychological tricks by Grace Wong and later by Raymond Cho are thrilling to watch in this series. I also enjoyed the way they put in some side stories nicely in between to support the whole flow of the plot.

This is a drama that shows off how great the acting was done by the supporting cast. How about the leading cast? Nope. They (Kenneth and Sisley) delivered only average performance. Their roles in this drama are not impressive or challenging. I just don’t like seeing the scenes when Kenneth hallucinates of his late girlfriend in his home with the same song playing all the time. As for Sisley, she is just too small and too unnecessary for a presence here.

On the other hand, Grace Wong did exceptionally great for her evil role here. I am fascinated by how quick she can change her emotion and expression in several scenes. She had some stellar roles in recent year and she had won the Most Popular Female Character in TVB Anniversary Awards last year for her performance in ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’. Looks like there will be more awards for her soon. Pierre Ngo is great as the policeman who has psychological trouble with his leg and Mat Yeung is also excellent in portraying a character that has Asperger’s disease. The ending was also not bad and I’m thrilled to see Grace surrendering herself to the police in the end, right during the plan in killing her own brother who wanted to get rid of her earlier. What a scene. You will usually see bad people that doesn’t admit his or her fault or even want to walk near the police station. In this ending, Grace walks happily to the police station to surrender. The total opposite and that is cool. Kenneth’s ways of resolving the situations with ill intentions are not forgivable and hence his character attempts to commit suicide in the end. I think Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Mind Hunter’ a total of 7.5.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Another new Hong Kong series is watched completely just now with the airing of the final two episodes. It is ‘My Unfair Lady’ (不懂撒嬌的女人) that starred Jessica Hsuan, Frankie Lam, Natalie Tong, Vincent Wong, Samantha Ko, Zoie Tam, Chris Lai, etc. This 28-episodes drama is TVB’s first 4K production (ultra high definition) and also saw the return of Jessica and Frankie to TVB. The series basically revolves around two strong-willed cousins who are great in career but not in romance. The older cousin (portrayed by Jessica) heads an office department with her strict and mean personalities while her younger cousin (portrayed by Natalie) is under her control and supervision all the time.

My review of the drama? Hmm…it’s a very boring drama. I’m not interested in a series that focuses too much on romance. I’m just not into this kind of genre. I think females may like this series more. I’m surprised that this drama received quite a good reception and TV viewership ratings. I felt the opposite. It’s boring, draggy and pointless. The earlier episodes are still fine with me as I’m interested to watch the office politics and the time when Molly (portrayed by Jessica) is still a mean boss. When she and Gordon (portrayed by Frankie) quit the jobs in that office, the plot starts to get really dull and I’m not engaged to it at all since then. The overuse of the romantic song when showing the Saving-Cherry pair (portrayed by Vincent and Natalie) is annoying. Even their pairing in this drama appears to be time-wasting. People who enjoyed romantic stuff will bash me for such comment.

I’m so glad that the drama is over. I first watched it because I’m looking forward to see Jessica Hsuan back in a TVB drama. She did well, but this role is not much challenging to her except in the earlier episodes when she kept on voicing out lengthy dialogues in stressed mode. Some supporting cast did good job in here such as Chris, Vincent, Natalie, Zoie and the man that portray Oscar (I don’t know his name). Their good performance couldn’t save this drama from being almost like a rubbish with nothing exciting or appealing. This is like the first drama this year when I went on to do something else while having most of its episodes playing on my laptop every evening. It’s so boring that I couldn’t have my eyes on it for 40 minutes every day (40 minutes is the rough duration of an episode).

Out of 10 points, I rate ‘My Unfair Lady’ a total of 6.1. I really couldn’t believe it receives good feedback. A lot of viewers now are desperate for some romantic dramas while I’m onto something more action, suspenseful or climactic. It looks like I have to wait till later of this year for release of some really cool dramas. Right now, the line-up of coming dramas are not appealing. It’s bad timing as I will soon have a bit of free time beginning next month as my current semester is ending (I hope it ends very soon…I want to escape from all the madness from the assignments) but have no good quality series to watch during the holiday. Good dramas will only be up by end of this year as predicted and that is the time when I’m working on my thesis. Damn…

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

‘Phoenix Rising’ (蘭花刼) is a TVB drama that is already 10 years old but is only released in Hong Kong this year. It is first released overseas in 2007 and has been warehoused for a decade before a full release this year. It is such a strange move by TVB on releasing a 10-years old drama. Didn’t they have a lot of completed dramas in waiting list for release? Why ‘Phoenix Rising’? Nobody know the answer. And for now, I just treat it as a 2017 drama.

The drama which has 20 episodes revolves on 3 orphan sisters. They are then separated as they leave the orphanage. They were reunited, but under bad event when one of the sisters is receiving death penalty soon for murdering her foster mother. The murderer then uses various tricks and evil plans to escape the death penalty, even by sacrificing her own sisters. The drama starred Kristal Tin, Louisa So and Leila Tong as the 3 sisters and also Sunny Chan, Ben Wong and Jack Wu as other significant characters.

The drama is actually quite nice to watch. I like to watch drama with some vicious plots. I always felt that a series would not be intense or thrilling without those evil plans by the villain characters. I never see Louisa So portraying a villain character before and she did quite well here. Actually, I seldom see her in dramas at all. So, this is actually a great opportunity for me to see back some past artistes such as Louisa So, Sunny Chan and Leila Tong. I wonder what is happening to them right now…

Sunny Chan is the main male lead of the series but this series is never intended to emphasize on the males anyway. It’s mostly about the three sisters. And for that, I’m a bit disturbed by the way that Sunny Chan’s character will occasionally disappear throughout the series, most notably in the last two episodes. Ahh…it’s so nice to see Leila Tong. Eventhough I’m not that fancy of most of her characters in the past as she didn’t leave any memorable or powerful roles, but it’s delightful to watch her in this series. As for Kristal, I didn’t realize she has such good acting skill back then. She handled this lead role well and it is just that her character here that is too unbelievably stupid and being over kind, and in the end she herself ended up to be the one to suffer to protect everyone else. Well, if she didn’t do so, we wouldn’t have a drama to watch.

So, this drama is short and engaging. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Phoenix Rising’ a total of 7.2. And Nancy Wu has a small supporting role as a pregnant prisoner in this drama. Back then, she was not yet reaching her fame. Now, she is a two-time TV Queen. As for now, I’m hoping that TVB will get back to its form by releasing back its recent dramas. Or maybe TVB knew its recent dramas are mostly bad. Come on, get up on your game…it’s your station’s 50th anniversary this year!

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

‘Bet Hur’ (賭城群英會) is a TVB drama directed by famous film director, Wong Jing that revolves on revenge started from a lost in a gambling match between two masters. The revenge continues to the younger generations. The drama is categorized as a gambling drama but gambling is only present on the first and the last episode of the whole 35-episodes series. I was very excited for this drama back then because it is a huge production drama and it has a great cast including those we have long not seen in television before such as Patrick Tse, Nat Chan, and Monica Chan. The drama also starred Kenneth Ma, Charmaine Sheh, Raymond Wong, Samantha Ko, Dominic Ho, Carlo Ng, Joseph Lee, Connie Man, Matt Yeung, Louisa Mak, etc.

What do I think of the drama? One word: Lousy! The drama’s title itself gives a huge false impression. It is so misleading. I am expecting a drama filled with intense gambling, dramatic action scenes and suspenseful plots. I ended up seeing a drama with extremely poor story, illogical plot that doesn’t flow cohesively, and emphasizes more on boring love storyline. I can only see gambling on the first and the last episodes of the drama. That’s it. No thrilling actions or plots going in between. The huge amount of time given to develop the romantic relationship between Dominic Ho and the other two girls is so unnecessary and irrelevant to the whole story. Even the love storyline between Kenneth Ma and Charmaine Sheh is not developed to that level. Everything is not balanced.

The presence of heavyweight cast in this series is a total missed opportunity. They are some great scenes for them to showcase their acting (especially some explosive or death scenes) but they are not enough to save the whole drama. It is a waste to their talents. Nevertheless, Kenneth Ma do has one scene that is amazing but that doesn’t help to push him for any award recognition this year. The old veteran that acted as the nemesis of Patrick Tse in the drama is very poor on voicing out his lines. I always cannot hear what he said. Patrick looks cool at his age but his role is so ’empty’. Nat Chan and Monica Chan couldn’t act and shouldn’t be here at all. Louisa Mak, a newbie actress, performed badly but can be forgiven since this is her first time acting. Her crying (Nat Chan’s crying too) scenes in this drama are awful. Raymond Wong and Connie Man’s characters are very minor and it makes me feel as though they are added to the story just to join in the fun.

I can literally call this drama a rubbish. There is literally nothing going on for almost 30 episodes of the drama. And as the drama nears its ending, the scriptwriter decided to kill as many characters as he/she wants. So many deaths, and surprisingly, I’m not feeling anything. The whole story is badly written. And how about the conclusion? Another bad conclusion. Kenneth’s character has to have evil intentions and has to kill innocent people to win in the end. And he is not going to jail for that? Hmm…that is sending out a bad message to audiences. Charmaine’s character made a good decision to leave him. The only happy thing is at least that the whole bad family is now gone, and the scriptwriter decided to stress on that again and again in the last episode. That is so not necessary.

Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Bet Hur’ a total of 5.0. Out of that 5, 3 points are for the stars and 2 points are for the production effort. No point at all for the story. It’s a total crap. Very disappointed with this series. Let’s get this series out of the mind and I now look forward to the next TVB drama ‘The Unholy Alliance’.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

‘A General, A Scholar And An Eunuch’ (超時空男臣) is a science-fiction comedy drama by Hong Kong’s TVB. Based on the theme of time traveling, it tells the story of three imperial officials from Ming dynasty who accidentally traveled to modern day China while searching for a missing princess. The 32-episode drama starred Edwin Siu, Raymond Cho, Matthew Ho, Grace Wong, Kristal Tin, Rebecca Zhu, David Chiang, James Ng, Tsui Wing, etc.

The series has just aired its final episode few hours ago. Finally, another TVB drama completely watched for this year. This is an interesting drama. A story about time travel. What could go wrong? The series started with many good laughs as the three officials have to adapt to the modern world. I can remember the first few episodes were seriously very funny. As the story progresses to more serious business involving Kristal’s restaurant, I am still engaged. However, I find that this drama is a bit draggy after episode 20. It loses appeal at that point but come back nicely in the last few episodes. The flow and the story would be much better if it is cut short to 28 episodes.

I noticed there are quite a number of illogical points or strange plotholes throughout the story especially when it nears its end. Well, I can ignore them since this drama is never about being logic in the first place. It was a fun premise, then added with some quick romance and challenges in businesses the modern-day characters have to encounter. I have to admit that the conclusion (final episode) was sad and appears more like an open ending. But after a second thought, I actually like this ending. It will be at least more memorable and stays away from typical happy-ending drama from TVB. Well, at least, Edwin finally admits in his heart that he do love Kristal.

Everyone in the cast did a good job in this drama. Kristal Tin has a lot of series coming up this year and I’m sure she was tired working on all of them. It must be stressful for her. However, she still managed to deliver to her role here as the anchor of the story. I’m still rooting for her to win Best Actress this year so far, not from this drama, but from ‘Destination Nowhere’ drama released earlier this year. I seldom see Edwin being good in taking on main lead role, but hey, he is actually not bad in here. His consistent posture and expression (to reflect his Ming dynasty period when he is a general) show how much he dedicated to this role. Grace Wong on the other hand is well known to be able to elevate her expression in her acting and still people don’t get disturbed by it. Due to this ability, she shined in all her recent roles including her award-winning role last year in ‘A Fist Within Four Walls.’

I do have fun watching this drama. A great and a hilarious beginning, a steady story development but a bit draggy in the middle, and an unusually sad yet memorable ending. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘A General, A Scholar And An Eunuch’ a total of 7.5. I’m guessing the four of them (including the princess portrayed by Grace) have no choice but to return to Ming dynasty to avoid rewriting the history that will affect its future (the present).

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

I was reminded by a person that leaves a comment to me here that the nomination list for the Singapore’s Starhub TVB Awards 2017 is out and asking me whether I will be writing a post about it and putting in my thoughts and predictions. I didn’t realize that the nomination list is out and it marked the first of the three annual major awards presentation honouring the best of TVB series and programmes (the other two awards that will come later are the TVB Star Awards Malaysia and Hong Kong’s TVB Anniversary Awards).

I find that it is a bit too early for Starhub TVB Awards to be held in October every year. This automatically puts those usually better series released in November and December to be placed in contention for the next year’s awards. This is a huge disadvantage to these series. However, in the same time, I find that Hong Kong has been very biased and putting too much of their attention to their anniversary dramas while forgetting other good dramas released in early parts of the year. As for Malaysian voters, they tend to just simply vote for their favourites without really judging wisely which one is truly the best in terms of performance. Pros and cons to these 3 respective awards.

Let’s get back to this coming Singapore’s Starhub TVB Awards 2017. It is going to be held on 21 October 2017 and the nomination list is out two days ago. Only Singaporeans are eligible to vote for this awards. Malaysia and Hong Kong citizens will have their turn later on. Here below is my predictions for each categories: (There’s asterisk marks (*) that indicate my top 5 predictions for several categories)

Nomination list for Singapore’s Starhub TVB Awards 2017

My Favourite TVB Drama Theme Song:

Sand in Hand – Hana Kuk (My Unfair Lady)
I Would Not Pout – Stephanie Ho (My Unfair Lady)
Walk With You – Kayee Tam (My Unfair Lady) 
King – Hubert Wu (Two Steps from Heaven)
That’s The Way I Am – Nancy Wu (The No No Girl)
Insight – Vincent Wong (Legal Mavericks)
In Front Of Love – Stephanie Ho (Legal Mavericks)
The End Of The World – Fred Cheng (Provocateur)
Trigger On – Ruco Chan (The Unholy Alliance)
Alone – Gallen Lo (Provocateur)
Conquer – Fred Cheng (A General, A Scholar, And An Eunuch)
Skynet – Pakho Chau (Line Walker: The Prelude)
Forgot Myself – Hana Kuk (Line Walker: The Prelude)
Behave Oneself – Vivian Koo (Line Walker: The Prelude)
After Graduation – Mag Lam (Oh My Grad)

My Pick: Walk With You – Kayee Tam (My Unfair Lady)

Opinion: I hardly remember most of the nominated theme songs above. Looks like ‘My Unfair Lady’ and ‘Line Walker: The Prelude’ is overwhelming the list. I have not even heard anything from the latter since the drama is not released yet. So far the most beautiful song this year is ‘Walk With You – Kayee Tam’ that is always playing whenever there is a romantic scene between Vincent Wong and Natalie Tong in ‘My Unfair Lady’.

My Favourite TVB On-Screen Couple:

Tony Hung & Priscilla Wong (Married But Available)
Frankie Lam & Jessica Hester Hsuan (My Unfair Lady)
Vincent Wong & Natalie Tong (My Unfair Lady) *
Ruco Chan & Nancy Wu (The Unholy Alliance) *
Ruco Chan & Rosina Lam (Burning Hands)
Edwin Siu & Priscilla Wong (Two Steps From Heaven) *
Joel Chan & Elaine Yiu (The Unholy Alliance) *
Eddie Cheung & Adia Chan (The No No Girl)
Kenneth Ma & Charmaine Sheh (Bet Hur)
Vincent Wong & Ali Lee (Legal Mavericks)
Raymond Cho & Grace Wong (A General, A Scholar, And An Eunuch) *
Matthew Ho & Rebecca Zhu (A General, A Scholar, And An Eunuch)

My Pick: Joel Chan & Elaine Yiu (The Unholy Alliance)

Opinion: I feel like Ruco Chan & Nancy Wu will win this since their relationship is very much hyped now eventhough obviously there is nothing happening between them. Vincent Wong & Natalie Tong may win this too since I remember their romance outshine even that of the main leading pair in ‘My Unfair Lady’, Frankie & Jessica. They missed out Edwin Siu & Kristal Tin pairing in ‘A General, A Scholar, And An Eunuch). I prefer this pair to replace Matthew Ho & Rebecca Zhu. Very tough competition.

My Favourite TVB Variety Show Host:

Pauline Lan – Lady First Singapore Season 5
Alice Chan – Wai Gor’s Wok
Tony Hung – Retiring in Paradise
Kenny Wong, Brian Tse, Chris Leung, Mayanna Mak, Alychia Chan, Ashley Chu – Peak to Pit
Benjamin Yuen, Mat Yeung – All Work No Pay Holidays (Series 2)
Lee Ka Ding, Helen Tam – The Ahistoric Grandpa Cooking Show (Series 2)
Samantha Ko, Auston Lam – Chef Minor in Singapore
Maria Cordero, Luk Ho Ming – Good Cheap Eats (Series 6)
Gigi Wong – Eating Well With Madam Wong (Series 3)
King Kong, Kitty Yuen, Jarvis Chow – Neighborhood Gourmet (Series 4)

My Favourite TVB Infotainment Programme:

Big Big World III
Retiring In Paradise
Easy Come, Easy Health
Belt And Road Initiative
Cantoxicating!

My Favourite TVB Variety Programme:

Wellness On The Go Singapore *
Lady First Singapore Season 5 *
Chef Minor In Singapore *
The Ahistoric Grandpa Cooking Show (Series 2)
Spirits On Vacation
Peak To Pit
50 Golden Classics *
Good Cheap Eats (Series 6) *
All Work No Pay Holidays (Series 2)
Side Walk Scientists (Series 5)
TV Awards Presentation 2016
Dinner Ma’s

My Pick: Anything that has ‘Singapore’ name in it.

Opinion; I didn’t watch most of the nominated programmes. I enjoyed watching ‘Spirits On Vacation’ but I don’t think it will have any winning chance. I heard many have been enjoying the ’50 Golden Classics’ particularly in Hong Kong because those classic Hong Kong songs are mostly great (unlike now).

My Favourite TVB Supporting Actress

Elaine Yiu (The Unholy Alliance) *
Samantha Ko (My Unfair Lady) 
Katy Kung (Two Steps From Heaven) *
Rebecca Zhu (A General, A Scholar, And An Eunuch)
Koni Lui (Tiger Mom Blues) *
Alice Chan (Two Steps From Heaven)
Kelly Fu (Burning Hands)
Jacqueline Wong (Provocateur) *
Vivien Yeo (My Lover From The Planet Meow)
Tracy Chu (Legal Mavericks) *
Roxanne Tong (The Tofu War)
Jeannie Chan (The No No Girl)

My Pick: Elaine Yiu (The Unholy Alliance)

Opinion: Elaine Yiu shines in her role in ‘The Unholy Alliance’. Her character goes through a lot of things in the series and she nailed it well, particularly the many emotional scenes she had in the series.

My Favourite TVB Supporting Actor

Owen Cheung (Legal Mavericks)
Mat Yeung (My Dearly Sinful Mind) *
Hugo Ng (Burning Hands) *
Jonathan Cheung (The Tofu War) *
Luk Wing (Two Steps From Heaven)
Joel Chan (The Unholy Alliance) *
Eddie Kwan (My Lover From The Planet Meow)
Kenny Wong (Dead Wrong)
James Ng (Destination Nowhere)
Benz Hui (Line Walker: The Prelude) *

My Pick: Joel Chan (The Unholy Alliance)

Opinion: This should be Joel’s year. He has been impressive in these few years and many even said he outshined Ruco Chan in ‘The Unholy Alliance’ so far. He has improved significantly and I have no doubt seeing him taking on lead roles in the future.

My Favourite TVB Female Character

Jessica Hester Hsuan as Ling Man (My Unfair Lady)
Natalie Tong as Ling Yu-ken (My Unfair Lady) *
Nancy Wu as Yuen Ching-yan (The Unholy Alliance) *
Priscilla Wong as Koo Shing-seung (Two Steps From Heaven)
Rosina Lam as Ho Ching-fa (Burning Hands)
Elena Kong as Cha Heung-sin (Tiger Mom Blues) *
Ali Lee as Wong Lai-fan (Legal Mavericks)
Grace Wong as Guo Cian / Wong Yi-san (A General, A Scholar, And An Eunuch) *
Sisley Choi as Chiu Ching-mui (Legal Mavericks)
Samantha Ko as Tian Mi (My Unfair Lady)
Kristal Tin as Fong Wai-chi (A General, A Scholar, And An Eunuch) *
Adia Chan as Law Lai-ching (The No No Girl)
Charmaine Sheh as Sze Shiu-tung (Bet Hur)
Alice Chan as Koo Shing-fun (Two Steps From Heaven)
Katy Kung as Carmen Ching Sze-Yue (Two Steps from Heaven) *
Tracy Chu as Tai Tin-yan (Legal Mavericks)
Moon Lau as Emma Yip Yip (Two Steps From Heaven)
Mandy Wong as Lung Lai-sa (Nothing Special Force)
Rebecca Zhu as Fong Wai-ling (A General, A Scholar, And An Eunuch)
Elaine Yiu as Kate Wai Yee-yau (The Unholy Alliance)

My Pick: All 6 names above with asterisks (*).

Opinion: Singapore’s Starhub TVB Awards presented this award to 6 characters last year unlike in Hong Kong’s awards when there is only one winner. I didn’t watch ‘Two Steps From Heaven’ but I picked Katy Kung because she is lauded last year for her crying scene that led to her winning Best Supporting Actress in last year’s Hong Kong awards. Anyway, I’m still having doubt of that and Ali Lee, Elaine Yiu or Tracy Chu may steal that spot from her.

My Favourite TVB Male Character

Ruco Chan as Ko Tsz-kit (The Unholy Alliance) *
Raymond Cho as Zuo Guang-dao / Fung Yat-bo (A General, A Scholar, And An Eunuch)
Bosco Wong as Chun Sing-hoi (Two Steps From Heaven)
Edwin Siu as Yuen Chong-huan / Wan Tai-kwan (A General, A Scholar, And An Eunuch) *
Frankie Lam as Man Nim-sum (My Unfair Lady)
Benjamin Yuen as Chui Tin-tong (Line Walker: The Prelude)
Pakho Chau as Lok Siu-fung (Line Walker: The Prelude) 
Michael Miu as Cheuk Hoi (Line Walker: The Prelude) 
Moses Chan as Sit Ding-kap (My Lover From The Planet Meow)
Vincent Wong as Man Sun-hop (Legal Mavericks) *
Kenneth Ma as Chung Tai-yin (My Dearly Sinful Mind) *
Wayne Lai as Kong Sheung-hung / Kazuo Suzuki (No Reserve)
Tony Hung as Au Yeung Tsz-chung (Married But Available)
Mat Yeung as Tung Yat (My Dearly Sinful Mind)
Owen Cheung as Kuk Yat-ha (Legal Mavericks)
Raymond Wong as Cheung Chin-pok (Married But Available)
Eddie Cheung as Chong Fu-ho (The No No Girl)
Joel Chan as Ling Tsin-yau (The Unholy Alliance) *
Chris Lai as Wong Siu-ming (The Tofu War)
Wong Cho-lam as Choi Sum (Oh My Grad) *
Matthew Ho as Li Jin-zhong/ Li Siu-tung (A General, A Scholar, And An Eunuch)
Roger Kwok as Wai yat-sing (Dead Wrong) 

My Pick: All 6 names above with asterisks (*).

Opinion: Singapore’s Starhub TVB Awards presented this award to 6 characters last year unlike in Hong Kong’s awards when there is only one winner. ‘Oh My Grad’ isn’t released yet but I think Wong Cho-lam is going to be super funny again and that would make his character easily likable. I didn’t pick anyone from ‘Line Walker: The Prelude’ because I have less expectations from it. Usually a TVB prequel or sequel isn’t doing well and putting in so many new major cast in the drama isn’t helping either.

My Favourite TVB Leading Actress

Kristal Tin (Destination Nowhere) *
Jessica Hester Hsuan (My Unfair Lady)
Nancy Wu (The Unholy Alliance) *
Elena Kong (Tiger Mom Blues) *
Nancy Sit (The Tofu War)
Ada Choi (Oh My Grad)
Rosina Lam (Burning Hands)
Grace Wong (A General, A Scholar, And An Eunuch) *
Ali Lee (Legal Mavericks)
Adia Chan (The No No Girl)
Nina Paw (The Unholy Alliance) *
Mandy Wong (Nothing Special Force)
Sisley Choi (Legal Mavericks)
Charmaine Sheh (Bet Hur)
Niki Chow (Rogue Emperor)
Priscilla Wong (Line Walker: The Prelude)
Myolie Wu (No Reserve)
Natalie Tong (My Unfair Lady)

My Pick: Kristal Tin (Destination Nowhere)

Opinion: There is no other performance this year so far that can surpass Kristal’s acting in ‘Destination Nowhere’ even when you place the males into the picture as well. She is exceptional and handled the challenging role very well. The dark horse in this category would be Grace Wong and Nina Paw. Nina Paw is a Film Queen and she did a wonderful job in ‘The Unholy Alliance’ too. How about Nancy Wu that been winning a lot of Best Actress awards in recent years? Well, her role in ‘The Unholy Alliance’ is poorly written. She has the skill but the role didn’t need her to do much.

My Favourite TVB Leading Actor

Bosco Wong (Two Steps From Heaven) *
Roger Kwok (Dead Wrong) *
Kenneth Ma (My Dearly Sinful Mind) *
Ruco Chan (The Unholy Alliance) *
Frankie Lam (My Unfair Lady)
Edwin Siu (A General, A Scholar, And An Eunuch)
Gallen Lo (Provocateur)
Vincent Wong (Legal Mavericks) *
Ben Wong (Nothing Special Force)
Eddie Cheung (The No No Girl)
Tony Hung (Married But Available)
Moses Chan (My Lover From The Planet Meow)
Chris Lai (The Tofu War)
Pakho Chau (Line Walker: The Prelude)
Benjamin Yuen (Line Walker: The Prelude)
Wayne Lai (No Reserve)
Kevin Cheng (Destination Nowhere)
Michael Miu (Line Walker: The Prelude)
Matthew Ho (A General, A Scholar, And An Eunuch)
Raymond Cho (A General, A Scholar, And An Eunuch)

My Pick: Roger Kwok (Dead Wrong)

Opinion: Roger Kwok is great in that series and there is no particular impressive acting by the other males in the dramas this year so far. Ruco Chan is no longer getting his winning streak because his performance in ‘The Unholy Alliance’ is ordinary so far.

My Favourite TVB Drama

Two Steps From Heaven
Burning Hands
Destination Nowhere *
My Dearly Sinful Mind
My Unfair Lady
Tiger Mom Blues
A General, A Scholar, And An Eunuch *
The Unholy Alliance *
Legal Mavericks *
Line Walker: The Prelude *
Oh My Grad
Dead Wrong
Provocateur
The No No Girl
Bet Hur
The Tofu War
Married But Available
Nothing Special Force
My Lover From The Planet Meow
No Reserve

My Pick: The Unholy Alliance

Opinion: So far, the best series of the year that I have watched is ‘The Unholy Alliance’. It has suspense in every episodes, it has cool actions, some exciting characters, has engaging and fast-paced storyline, and has great cast. I don’t understand why there are some harsh critics that pan the drama. After the top 5 listed above, my next 5 picks would be ‘Two Steps From Heaven’, ‘Tiger Mom Blues’, ‘My Dearly Sinful Mind’, ‘Dead Wrong’ and ‘Burning Hands’.

Once you look at the nominees above, you will notice that most TVB anniversary dramas have been left out as they have not been released yet. Hence, the result of this Singapore awards usually differ with that of Hong Kong and Malaysia. And there are no public voting for ‘Most Improved TVB Artiste’ or ‘Best New TVB Artiste’.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Hmm…I was disappointed. That’s my feeling right after watching the final episode of ‘The Unholy Alliance’ (同盟) just now. It is an action crime-thriller television drama of 28 episodes produced by TVB that revolves on a modern Hong Kong crime family, led by the matriarch Ling Hung. She reunites with his son, Ko Tzi Kit who is sent to Taiwan to avoid any danger linked to the business empire her family is owning. That leads to many dangerous events and Ling Hung’s desire to leave the crime world. This drama is a follow-up production after the successful ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’ drama last year and brings back most of the cast and production crew members.

Why am I disappointed as mentioned earlier? The series started with a ‘bang’! Things are so intense and heart-stopping in every episodes. Yes, every episodes. There are suspenseful and chilling scenes in every episode. The story is fast-paced, the action sequences are awesome, the cast is doing great job (will talk more about it later), and every ending part of each episode had me yearning for more every day. This is a sign of an exciting series.

But then, as its last few episodes near, I sense downfall. The story just went downhill after Elena Kong is revealed to be the ultimate villain. I’m not saying her character is bad but every plots that are surfacing after her character is shown in the drama are terrible. Elena Kong is actually nailing this cool villain role and its definitely not her fault. It’s the storyline after her character appears that is so poorly written and messy. Those very awesome tricks in earlier episodes pulled of by Ling Hung (Nina Paw) are what made this drama intense. However, over usage of them in the last few episodes and with each covering very short span of the drama delivers no intensity. If you watched the drama, you will know what I mean. Short-lived plot twists….

Before the release of the final episode, everyone is guessing that Anthony (portrayed by Jazz Lam) is the ultimate big boss behind Kam Tien (Elena Kong). Even I am guessing the same too ever since the scene when he whispered something very evil to his brother, Ricky (Pierre Ngo) at the airport in earlier episode. There may be something evil behind this quiet kid. Yes, he is doing something wicked in the end but his character is immediately wiped out as he is not the main focus (the ultimate big boss). That role is revealed to be a group of four unknown wealthy men. This definitely puts me off. The last few episodes are messing the whole series up. It is this TVB’s recent pattern when they usually couldn’t finish a good series nicely.

How about the cast? Nina Paw did a good job taking on the role of Ling Hung. This is the first time I’m seeing her on television drama as she only works in film industry and has been crowned Film Queen before (won Best Actress in Hong Kong Film Awards). A great veteran actress. However, I find that her way of presenting her dialogue has been very rigid and being too similar (voice control and facial expression). The other two leads, Ruco Chan and Nancy Wu won both best actor and actress last year for their wonderful performances in ‘A Fist Within Four Walls’. Can their winning continues to this year with their role in this sister production? Definitely no. They have no challenging roles here and their characters are too ordinary. Ruco’s sudden transition from a very naive innocent guy to an immoral and manipulative man (not considered evil but still cunning) in the last few episodes (you will notice even his clothing style changes) is too unbelievable. Many people are praising Mr Yik (portrayed by Jimmy Au) but I personally felt he is just fine. A tough guy with cool stunts delivered….nothing more. On the other hand, I have to say Joel Chan and Elaine Yiu did well. I’m supporting them for the best supporting actor and actress awards end of this year for their roles here. They are doing great. Joel is a very talented actor and his character is very likable (I thought his character would turn evil in the end, but he is a nice guy all the way to the end). Elaine nailed her role too which is very demanding as it requires a lot of emotional scenes as her character is stuck between her family (who are plotting to kill Ling Hung) and Ling Hung’s family.

So…the series is very impressive on its first three quarters. It then goes downhill to a poor, rushed and unnatural script and disappointing conclusion. It would be much better if the production team placed more effort and thinking into the script for the plot’s ending and extends the drama to a little over 30 episodes. The drama should be fine (or even much better) with few more episodes. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘The Unholy Alliance’ a total of 7.8. If it does well on its ending part, I could have easily given this drama over 8. By the way, there are too much sexual innuendos going on between Ruco and Nancy. I knew this pairing is very much hyped now, but in real life, they are just friends. The producers made a bad decision to put in a lot of awkward sexual-related scenes for them in this drama. It felt distasteful and very unnecessary.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

This year, Hong Kong’s biggest television station TVB is celebrating its 50th anniversary. In conjunction with this significant and historic golden jubilee, the station has released many big-production series this year that includes many artists that we have not seen for a long time (although the overall quality is still questionable). So far, I have watched over 12 TVB dramas this year and I’m expected to watch few more before the end of the year. This makes 2017 the year with highest number of dramas that I have watched.

The anniversary celebration started with a lighting ceremony held last weekend. It is attended by Liza Wang, Carol Cheng, Ha Yu, Louise Lee, Michelle Yim, Moses Chan, Kristal Tin, Kenneth Ma, Bosco Wong, Vincent Wong, Maggie Shiu, Elena Kong, Sharon Chan, etc. It is the standard practice by the station to have this lighting ceremony to mark the start of many anniversary events to follow and also to introduce the anniversary dramas and programmes. Before this ceremony, there has been many speculations that there would be 7 anniversary dramas this year, rather than the typical 3 or 4. To allow all these dramas to finish airing and compete for this year’s awards, there has been rumour that TVB is pushing its annual TVB Anniversary Awards to early next year rather than in their usual mid-December slot.

The lighting ceremony has squashed all the rumours. There is only 4 anniversary dramas and they are ‘Heart and Greed’, ‘Oh My Grad’, ‘My Ages Apart’ and ‘The Exorcist’s Meter’. ‘Oh My Grad’ which is the third series in ‘Inbound Troubles’ franchise headed by Wong Cho Lam is currently airing and I am watching it too. Wong Cho Lam only has a very minor role in here and the result is there is not much fun and humor to be enjoyed from this series as expected earlier. The other series currently airing that I’m also watching is ‘Line Walker: The Pelude’ which is a prequel to the successful 2014’s Line Walker series. It is not bad but not up to the intensity and drama we have seen from its predecessor. I’m surprised that it is not selected as one of the anniversary dramas. On the other hand, I’m surprised that a supernatural drama (The Exorcist’s Meter) is one of the anniversary dramas. This genre usually doesn’t appeal to most audiences and are usually delivering mediocre result and yet is picked as one of the highlight of the station’s 50th anniversary. Hmmm…

I’m now only excited for the release of ‘Heart and Greed’, the third entry of the famous ‘Heart of Greed’ franchise about family feuds. The first two are classic and I hope this one could live up to that but I doubt it. I’m happy that the veteran cast are all back (Ha Yu, Louise Lee, Michelle Yim and Susanna Kwan) but I don’t like the junior line-up. It would be awesome if the previous cast (Moses Chan, Raymond Lam, Tavia Yeung, Fala Chen, Linda Chung, etc) all return but that would be impossible since most of them has gone their own way and left TVB.

So now this means that the ‘Deep in the Realm of Conscience’ (sequel to ‘Beyond the Realm of Conscience’) and a series starring Dicky Cheung (forgot the title) are not anniversary dramas and will only be released early next year. Media have been reporting on them since early this year and everyone is hyped but now they are pushed to next year. I can understand that since the station is not able to fit in all these dramas before the end of the year which is now fast approaching. So I guess these dramas will not be competing for this year’s TVB Anniversary Awards too. The awards will be held on end of December most probably, a week before Christmas. Before that, there will be the Anniversary Gala to be held on mid of November. There would be a special party next month to celebrate 50th anniversary of Liza Wang in the station too.

(Image in this post is from TVB’s Facebook page)

Before going with the drama review, I would like to take this opportunity to wish to all my Indian friends Happy Deepavali! This day reminds me of some warm and delightful Deepavali open houses that I have attended in the past, some very cool ‘kolam’ (artistic creation by using rice flour) that I have seen at malls, and some Bollywood films with excessive dancing or over-the-top scenes. Living in a multiracial country like Malaysia allows me to be exposed to variety of cultures and I’m loving it. Happy Deepavali once again!

Okay, now back to the review. ‘Line Walker: The Prelude’ is a Hong Kong drama that revolves on the effort of a police inspector on finding and working with his undercover agents in solving a large criminal case. It acts as a prequel to the successful 2014’s Line Walker that won Best Drama in that year’s TVB Anniversary Awards. Many of the original cast (Charmaine Sheh, Raymond Lam, Sammy Shum, etc) didn’t return but you can still catch a glimpse of their photographs in the final episode that tries to link back to the story in 2014’s series. Benz Hui and Michael Miu are back to lead this drama along with new cast (Priscilla Wong, Benjamin Yuen, Pakho Chau, Moses Chan, Jessica Hsuan, etc).  This new line-up of cast looks promising too.

Although this drama couldn’t live up to the intensity and the fast-paced flow of its predecessor, it is still an enjoyable drama to watch with decent story and performances. Moses Chan who portrayed the main villain in this drama is unconvincing. In 99% of his scenes, he only sat on a chair and gave out his speech (that’s so plain). He literally don’t need to do much for this drama. I couldn’t really see or feel his ‘bad’ or ‘powerful’ side in him except from his very quick and cool shooting scene in the very last episode. But that too is illogical. He can shoot around 10 person in a split second and not giving the others a chance to return fire in one scene (it shows how fast his skill is), and then get shot by Benz Hui’s character easily after that.

The ending is good but it could be better. The drama should just end with the scene of Kenneth Ma loading a gun and mentioning that he will be taking revenge on behalf of his brother (Moses Chan). He looks great as a villain and I really hope to see him in the next one since the ending gave a big hint that the series will continue again before the event in the first ‘Line Walker’ series. And then there was this scene of Benz Hui and Pakho Chau in Thailand. How can Pakho suddenly came back and didn’t die from severe gunshots in earlier episode? I prefer his character to die and it will give more sense and meaning to the ending. He just left Hong Kong and stay with Benz in Thailand. For me, it was a very irresponsible act especially to Benjamin Yuen, Priscilla Wong and Michael Miu. On the other hand, I think Pakho is still not comfortable in filming drama (he has acted in many films previously but never in drama before). I can feel that his performance in here is a bit unnatural and restrained. Priscilla Wong and Benjamin Yuen are good but they are still not ending up together (what a pity since Benjamin did a lot for Priscilla but she just couldn’t sense it) even after Pakho’s ‘departure’. Recent Miss Hong Kong winner, Louisa Mak has been criticized for her performance in ‘Bet Hur’ but she is actually doing quite well in here especially in her last crying scene before her death.

Generally, this drama is a good effort to continue this franchise that has also expanded on the film side (there’s a ‘Line Walker’ film last year that starred Louis Koo, Charmaine Sheh, Nick Cheung, Francis Ng and Benz Hui). I also like the ending theme song for the drama. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Line Walker: The Prelude’ a total of 7.7. It couldn’t go past 8 because it still lacks the intensity as seen in the first ‘Line Walker’ drama. I remember there are a lot of explosive or climatic scenes in the first drama but not much in this one. The first drama also sparked a lot of debates and discussions especially on questioning who is the real UC during its run. No for this one. Okay, enough writing for this review; now I have to go back to focus on my thesis work.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

The nomination list for the TVB Star Awards Malaysia 2017 has been out many days ago ever since its voting started on the end of November. I didn’t have time to post that up earlier as I was very busy recently. But, hey, now I’m back to post the nomination list and putting in my thoughts and predictions as usual. I would like to thank Joshua who posted the nomination list to me in English version earlier as I still couldn’t find any source that provides the list in English version yet.

Alright…without wasting more time, here you goes: (the asterisk indicates my top 5 or top 3 picks)

My Favourite TVB Drama:
Dead Wrong
No Reserve
Rogue Emperor
Recipes to Live By
Burning Hands
Tiger Mom Blues 
Destination Nowhere *
Provocateur
Married but Available
My Dearly Sinful Mind
The No No Girl
My Unfair Lady
Come with Me
Bet Hur
Legal Mavericks *
The Unholy Alliance *
A General, A Scholar and A Eunuch *
The Tofu War
Line Walker: The Prelude *
Nothing Special Force
Oh My Grad

My pick: The Unholy Alliance

Prediction: The Unholy Alliance

Opinion: Although ‘The Unholy Alliance’ is not doing well in its final few episodes, but it is still an enjoyable and intense drama to watch. It has win the similar award in Singapore’s Starhub TVB Awards earlier, and so I don’t see why it’s not going to do the same in Malaysia too. I haven’t watch ‘Legal Mavericks’ yet but I have been hearing a lot of positive words about it. I will list it as a dark horse for now.

My Favourite TVB Actor in A Leading Role:
Wayne Lai (No Reserve)
Ben Wong (Tiger Mom Blues)
Kevin Cheng (Destination Nowhere) 
Gallen Lo (Provocateur)
Tony Hung (Married But Available)
Kenneth Ma (My Dearly Sinful Mind) *
Eddie Cheung (The No No Girl)
Frankie Lam (My Unfair Lady)
Vincent Wong (Legal Mavericks) *
Edwin Siu ( A General, A Scholar And A Eunuch) *
Raymond Cho ( A General, A Scholar And A Eunuch)
Matthew Ho (A General, A Scholar And A Eunuch)
Ruco Chan (The Unholy Alliance) *
Chris Lai (The Tofu War)
Moses Chan (Line Walker: The Prelude)
Benjamin Yuen (Line Walker: The Prelude) *
Chow Pakho (Line Walker: The Prelude)
Michael Miu (Line Walker: The Prelude)
Roger Kwok (Oh My Grad)
Wong Cho Lam (Oh My Grad)

My pick: Vincent Wong (Legal Mavericks)

Prediction: Vincent Wong (Legal Mavericks) / Ruco Chan (The Unholy Alliance)

Opinion: Although I haven’t seen ‘Legal Mavericks’ yet, but I do think Vincent is the front contender now (since he also won the same award in Singapore). I do saw him in other dramas and he is good. I do think he did exceptionally well in ‘Legal Mavericks’. However, this is a popularity contest and Ruco Chan has a huge fanbase in Malaysia. Ruco had also actively participated in promotion events to this awards lately. He has won the same award in Singapore for three consecutive years not long ago. He can get the same record in Malaysia this year too. So, Ruco is the dark horse although his role in ‘The Unholy Alliance’ is nothing spectacular. Benjamin Yuen also stands a chance as he is great in ‘Line Walker: The Prelude’. Putting Wong Cho Lam as lead actor in ‘Oh My Grad’ is a joke. He had such a minor role in that one. Roger Kwok should be nominated for ‘Dead Wrong’ instead.

My Favourite TVB Actress in a Leading Role:
Myolie Wu (No Reserve)
Niki Chow (Rogue Emperor)
Joey Meng (Dead Wrong)
Rosina Lam (Burning Hands)
Elena Kong (Tiger Mom Blues) *
Sharon Chan (Tiger Mom Blues)
Kristal Tin (Destination Nowhere) * 
Grace Wong (My Dearly Sinful Mind) *
Adia Chan (The No No Girl)
Jessica Hsuan (My Unfair Lady)
Natalie Tong (My Unfair Lady) 
Charmaine Sheh (Bet Hur)
Ali Lee (Legal Mavericks) *
Sisley Choi (Legal Mavericks)
Nina Paw (The Unholy Alliance) *
Nancy Wu (The Unholy Alliance)  
Nancy Sit (The Tofu War)
Mandy Wong (Nothing Special Force)
Priscilla Wong (Line Walker: The Prelude) 
Ada Choi (Oh My Grad)

My pick: Kristal Tin (Destination Nowhere)

Prediction: Ali Lee (Legal Mavericks)

Opinion: I think this is the category that would be the most controversial for me. Why? The above top 5 picks are my preferred choices but since this is a popularity contest rather than really awarding who gave the best performance, it’s all going to be narrowed down to young ladies and this would narrow down the list to another set of 5; Grace Wong, Natalie Tong, Sisley Choi, Nancy Wu, Ali Lee. If this is really judged by best performance, Kristal Tin would be the most deserving as she nailed that challenging role in ‘Destination Nowhere’ in a way that surprised me. But I don’t think she would have any chance here…or even in Hong Kong’s awards later since that drama was aired a bit too early. So for my prediction to this Malaysia’s awards, I’m so far sticking to what Singapore had chosen; Ali Lee. I do think she is too early for leading actress award. This award has no clear frontrunner.

My Favourite TVB Supporting Actor:
Kenny Wong (Dead Wrong)
James Ng (Destination Nowhere) *
Pierre Ngo (My Dearly Sinful Mind) *
Mat Yeung (My Dearly Sinful Mind) *
Yuen Man Kit (My Unfair Lady)
Owen Cheung (Legal Mavericks) *
Joel Chan (The Unholy Alliance) *
Dominic Lam (The Tofu War)
C-Kwan (Nothing Special Force)
Ram Chiang (Oh My Grad)

My pick: Joel Chan (The Unholy Alliance)

Prediction: Joel Chan (The Unholy Alliance)

Opinion: I do have a feeling here that since Ruco and Nancy are highly likely to lose in leading actor and actress categories this year, the organizer would still want to reward ‘The Unholy Alliance’ in acting categories. This would be it. Joel has not win anything before in Malaysia and it’s time for him. I am amazed by some of his earlier performances already. He even outshines Ruco in ‘The Unholy Alliance’. Dark horse here would be Owen Cheung from ‘Legal Mavericks’ who had just won the supporting actor in Singapore.

My Favourite TVB Supporting Actress:
Koni Lui (Tiger Mom Blues) *
Jacqueline Wong (Provocateur) *
Alice Chan (Married But Available)
Jeannie Chan (The No No Girl)
Samantha Ko (My Unfair Lady) *
Tracy Chu (Legal Mavericks) *
Rebecca Chu (A General, A Scholar and A Eunuch)
Elaine Yiu (The Unholy Alliance) *
Roxanne Tong (The Tofu War)
Eliza Sam (Oh My Grad)

My pick: Elaine Yiu (The Unholy Alliance)

Prediction: Elaine Yiu (The Unholy Alliance) / Jacqueline Wong (Provocateur)

Opinion: Elaine is doing great in ‘The Unholy Allisnce’ but she had just won the same award last year. Would she win again this year? There is a possibility. But that also allows for higher chance to other strong contender like Jacqueline Wong who won the supporting actress in Singapore earlier. Koni, Samantha and Tracy are good too.

Most Improved TVB Actor:
Matthew Ho (Tiger Mom Blues, A General, A Scholar And A Eunuch) *
Brian Tse (Rogue Emperor, The No No Girl, Line Walker: The Prelude) *
Owen Cheung (The No No Girl, Legal Mavericks) *
Arnold Kwok Zi Ho (Tiger Mom Blues, Nothing Special Force)
James Ng (Destination Nowhere, A General, A Scholar And A Eunuch)

My pick: Matthew Ho

Prediction: Matthew Ho

Opinion: I have watched the two series that Matthew was in. He is doing well. However, I find that his kid-like voice is still hampering him. On the other hand, Brian only stood out a bit in ‘Line Walker: The Prelude’ while Owen was in ‘Legal Mavericks’ (I supposed since he won supporting actor for that role in Singapore). Matthew has two solid performances this year. One number higher. So, I’m giving this to him than the others.

Most Improved TVB Actress:
Zoie Tam (Dead Wrong, My Unfair Lady, Legal Mavericks) *
Kaman Kong (Tiger Mom Blues, My Unfair Lady)
Jeannie Chan (The No No Girl)
Roxanne Tong (Provocateur, My Dearly Sinful Mind, The Tofu War) *
Gloria Tang (My Unfair Lady, A General, A Scholar And A Eunuch)

My pick: Zoie Tam

Prediction: Roxanne Tong

Opinion: I enjoyed Zoie’s performance in ‘Dead Wrong’. However, she only has very minor roles in the other two dramas while ‘Dead Wrong’ is aired late last year. That’s a bit of disadvantage and it pushes Roxanne Tong as the predicted winner since she won new artist award in Singapore earlier.

Most Favourite TVB On-Screen Couple:
Frankie Lam, Jessica Hsuan (My Unfair Lady)
Vincent Wong, Natalie Tong (My Unfair Lady) *
Vincent Wong, Tracy Chu, Sisley Choi (Legal Mavericks)
Owen Cheung, Ali Lee (Legal Mavericks)
Edwin Siu, Kristal Tin (A General, A Scholar And A Eunuch) *
Ruco Chan, Nancy Wu (The Unholy Alliance) *
Joel Chan, Elaine Yiu (The Unholy Alliance) *
Chris Lai, Roxanne Tong (The Tofu War)
Benjamin Yuen, Chow PakHo, Priscilla Wong (Line Walker: The Prelude) *
Moses Chan, Jessica Hsuan (Line Walker: The Prelude)

My pick: Joel Chan and Elaine Yiu (The Unholy Alliance)

Prediction: Joel Chan and Elaine Yiu (The Unholy Alliance) / Vincent Wong and Natalie Tong (My Unfair Lady)

Opinion: I find that chemistry between Joel and Elaine is so much better than Vincent and Natalie in their respective dramas. But everyone is simply falling in love with the Vincent-Natalie pair since ‘My Unfair Lady’ has been emphasizing so much on romance storyline (and it made me so bored of watching it last time).

My Favourite TVB Theme Song:
Tam Kayee (My Unfair Lady) *
Hana Kuk (My Unfair Lady)
Vincent Wong (Legal Mavericks)
Stephanie Ho (Legal MAvericks) *
Chow Pakho (Line Walker: The Prelude) *

My pick: Tam Kayee (My Unfair Lady)

Prediction: Tam Kayee (My Unfair Lady)

Opinion: I’m very surprised that the winning song from Singapore’s Starhub TVB Awards isn’t even getting a nomination here. That ending theme for Line Walker: The Prelude by Hana Kuk is beautiful and yet not nominated. I would prefer that to win actually. So, now I’m left with no choice but to choose the second best (not really); the song by Tam Kayee in ‘My Unfair Lady’.

My Favourite TVB Drama Characters :

(I think they will award this to around 12 winners. So the 12 names with asterisk are my picks and predicted winners)
Joey Meng (Dead Wrong)
Kenny Wong (Dead Wrong)
Niki Chow (Rogue Emperor)
Wayne Lai (No Reserve)
Myolie Wu (No Reserve)
Rosina Lam (Burning Hands)
Kelly Fu (Burning Hands)
Elena Kong (Tiger Mom Blues)
Sharon Chan (Tiger Mom Blues)
Ben Wong (Tiger Mom Blues)
Koni Lui (Tiger Mom Blues)
Kaman Kong (Tiger Mom Blues)
Arnold Kwok (Tiger Mom Blues)
Kevin Cheng (Destination Nowhere)
Gallen Lo (Provocateur)
Jacqueline Wong (Provocateur)
Fred Cheng (Provocateur)
Tony Hung (Married But Available)
Alice Chan (Married But Available)
Raymond Wong (Married But Available)
Kenneth Ma (My Dearly Sinful Mind) *
Grace Wong (My Dearly Sinful Mind) 
Mat Yeung (My Dearly Sinful Mind) 
Adia Chan (The No No Girl)
Eddie Cheung (The No No Girl)
Jeannie Chan (The No No Girl)
Jessica Hsuan (My Unfair Lady)
Natalie Tong (My Unfair Lady) *
Chris Lai (My Unfair Lady) 
Frankie Lam (My Unfair Lady)
Samantha Ko (My Unfair Lady)
Yuen Man Kit (My Unfair Lady)
Charmaine Sheh (Bet Hur)
Vincent Wong (Legal Mavericks) *
Ali Lee (Legal Mavericks) 
Sisley Choi (Legal Mavericks) *
Tracy Chu (Legal Mavericks)
Owen Cheung (Legal Mavericks)
Edwin Siu (A General, A Scholar And A Eunuch) *
Matthew Ho (A General, A Scholar And A Eunuch)
Raymond Cho (A General, A Scholar And A Eunuch) *
Kristal Tin (A General, A Scholar And A Eunuch) *
Rebecca Chu (A General, A Scholar And A Eunuch)
Ruco Chan (The Unholy Alliance) *
Joel Chan (The Unholy Alliance) *
Elaine Yiu (The Unholy Alliance) *
Nina Paw (The Unholy Alliance) 
Nancy Wu (The Unholy Alliance) *
Nancy Sit (The Tofu War)
Jonathan Cheung Wing Hong (The Tofu War)
Roxanne Tong (The Tofu War)
Michael Miu (Line Walker: The Prelude)
Benjamin Yuen (Line Walker: The Prelude) *
Chow Pakho (Line Walker: The Prelude)
Priscilla Wong (Line Walker: The Prelude)
Mandy Wong (Nothing Special Force)
Roger Kwok (Oh My Grad)
Ada Choi (Oh My Grad)
Wong Cho Lam (Oh My Grad)
Ram Chiang (Oh My Grad)
Eliza Sam (Oh My Grad)

Opinion: Cast from ‘The Unholy Alliance’ is going to take a lot of spots here. ‘A General, A Scholar And An Eunuch’ is also expected to win at least in this category for a minimum of two awards. Benjamin is a sure as a sole representative winner from ‘Line Walker: The Prelude’. Same goes to Kenneth Ma for representing ‘My Dearly Sinful Mind’. And of course not to forget the critically-acclaimed cast from ‘Legal Mavericks’.

My Favourite TVB Variety Programme:
Spirits On Vacation *
Peak To Pit
Cantopop At 50 *
All Work, No Pay Holidays
The Ahistoric Grandpa Cooking Show
Sammy On The Go
The Sisterhood Travelling Gang *
Anchors With Passport
Priscilla Wong’s Show
Maria Cordero’s Auspicious Recipes

My pick: Spirits on Vacation

Prediction: Cantopop at 50

Opinion: I love seeing ‘Spirits on Vacation’ which is a spin-off variety programme from the drama ‘House of Spirits’ last year. It is very entertaining. However, it was released way too early and many may have forgotten or have not watched it. ‘Cantopop at 50’ may snatch this quietly as a way for organizer to indirectly honour the 50-years long history of Cantopop music.

My Favourite TVB Informative Programme:
Big Big World
Neighbourhood Treasures Repack
Retiring In Paradise 
Easy Come Easy Health
Sermon By Ben Sir 2
Litigation@Home
Faraway Brides
All Things Girl Malaysia Edition
Sidewalk Scientist

Opinion: No comment or picks for this category as I have watched none of them.

My Favourite TVB Variety Show Host:
Ashley Chu, Mayanne Mak, Alycia Chan, Brian Tse, Kenny Wong, Chris Leung (Peak To Pit)
Maria Cordero (Maria’s Auspicious Recipes)
Nancy Sit, Raymond Cho, Michael Lai, Tong Bo Yu (Cantopop At 50)
Tony Hung (Retiring In Paradise) *
Benjamin Yuen, Mat Yeung (All Work, No Pay Holidays) *
Steve Lee, Helen Tam (The Ahistoric Grandpa Cooking Show)
Janis Chan (Faraway Brides)
Myolie Wu, Elaine Yiu, Selena Lee, Nancy Wu, Paisley Wu, Mandy Wong (The Sisterhood Travelling Gang) *
Elena Kong, Sharon Chan, Elaine Yiu, Sarah Song, Katy Kung, Joyce Tang, Priscilla Wong (All Things Girl Malaysia Edition) *
Sammy Leung, Mayanne Mak, Samantha Ko, Jacqueline Wong (Sammy On The Go) *

My pick and prediction: Benjamin Yuen & Mat Yeung (All Work, No Pay Holidays) / Myolie Wu & Elaine Yiu & Selena Lee & Nancy Wu & Paisley Wu & Mandy Wong (The Sisterhood Travelling Gang)

Opinion: The group of six ladies is entertaining to watch in ‘The Sisterhood Travelling Gang’. Their chemistry and bond are affectionate. Benjamin Yuen and Mat Yeung are two young handsome men and people will vote for them simply because of their look here and not because of how great their hosting is.

There you go. The end of the nomination list along with my own choices and predicted winners. The predictions do differ with my own picks in some categories. Now we have to wait and see for the result to be unveiled on the awards ceremony to be held on November 25th, 2017 at Avenue of Stars, Genting Highlands.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)