Thoughts of a 4 TVB newbie actresses: Mandy Wong, Cilla Lok, Christine Kuo and JJ Jia

TVB has been giving newbies lots of opportunities recently. I think that I tend to like someone's acting easily as I don't think I'm very picky. Here are 4 newbie actresses that we've been seeing on screen recently.


Mandy Wong 黃智雯

Haven't got much to say about Mandy because I think she's very very good. It already seems like I've seen her on screen for a long long time now, all her portrayals have been convincing. I would like to see her in a series where she isn't stubborn or annoyed lots, as most of her characters seem to be like that.  I can see her leading a series in the future. Not in the near future, but not too far way either.






Cilla Lok 樂瞳

My first impressions of Cilla was from "Yes Sir, No Sir". Many people complimented her acting there. Even though I was fine with her acting there all I remembered from her was her yelling and yelling in a high pitched voice. Her next series was "River of Wine" and all I got from her there was yelling and yelling in a high pitched voice again. 


She then played her very different character, her autistic character in Forensic Heroes III. No yelling in that series, but even though she was only in a few episodes in FH3, her performance was believable to me and I started to have a positive attitude towards her acting.

She's continuously improved to me. This year she has been in 3 series, Daddy Good Deeds, Witness Insecurity and Three Kingdoms RPG. I liked her performance in all 3 series. 

Cilla has a rather youthful look. I wonder if she'll get a mature role sometime. Maybe she could portray a young single mother sometime? It'll be nice to see her interacting with a child!



Christine Kuo 苟芸慧

I've seen Christine in The Life and Times of a Sentinel, Super Snoops and Tiger Cubs. I don't remember her character much in the first series apart from she was dubbed. I liked her performance in Super Snoops, which was the first series I saw her in. I think because it was a comedy show her acting didn't have to be that great to be enjoyable, but I didn't think there was anything wrong with her acting in SS.

Then I saw Christine for the second time in Tiger Cubs, both her character and acting annoyed me. Her crying scene made her speech inaudible. She already has an accent, and the way she deepens her voice when she cries makes everything worse.

Again, in Ghetto Justice II, she does that low pitched mumbling again when her character just meets Law Ba again, only to find out that the love of her life is in a relationship with someone else. Christine always has the same expression on her face too. I watched an interview of her in Green Room (今日VIP) and she had that same expression again. Every time she appeared at the start of the series her acting annoyed me a little, but that annoyance receded as the series went on. I think I was annoyed at the start because I was still remembering her acting in Tiger Cubs.
I don't think Christine's acting is great. In my opinion TVB should give her smaller roles for now so she can concentrate on them. It's also more tolerable to see a weak actress with a minor-ish role. I think if someone else had her character in GH2 the show would have been more enjoyable. Still, there's a few more episodes, maybe she'll do something to wow me!

Still, good for Christine to take up this opportunity. I would guess that from GH2, she would've learnt and picked up lots of acting skills, since the majority of her on screen partners are very experienced actors. If she improves I'll be very happy to see her on screen, as she is a new face (admittedly not for longer as she'll be in 3 new planned series too, including Beauty at War II where I hope she gets dubbed). But for now, she needs to brush up her acting and accent. I don't mind her accent too much, but I would prefer it to be more neutral, and that would make her more suitable for ancient dramas too.

JJ Jia 賈曉晨

The first time I remember seeing JJ was in "Short of Love" with Wong Cho Lam. For some reason, I thought she was a leng mo (sorry sorry JJ!). I only realised she was an actress when I saw her in "Beauty has no Pain". I don't remember how I thought of either performances, as I only started noticing her in "'L'Escargot".

I heard of a lot of people attacking JJ, thinking that she isn't natural and a bad actresses. Personally I like JJ. She's played different characters so far, shy and reserved in L'Escargot, evil in scheming in House of Harmony and Vengeance, and her caring character in Ghetto Justice II.

I thought that JJ's character in L'Escargot had a mental disorder so that she's scared of other people. Turns  out she was just shy. But otherwise, I thought her scenes with Ron were excellent, from when she's with him getting over Linda, to when she decides to leave their relationship to leave Ron and Linda together, to when Ron chooses her. I thought that her performance in HOHAV was her weakest, but still pretty good, I could see some evil-ness in her and felt sorry for her when she became good again but got rejected by the man she loved.  Loved her performance in Tiger Cubs though, another evil role. I think being with Kenneth might have helped her get into character!
Enjoyable performance in GH2 too. Her character hasn't been very interesting to me so far but there's still a few more episodes so maybe I'll see something new from her soon!

Like Christine she has an accent. I find her's much more tolerable though. I find that she can talk quicker than Christine too, who sometimes sounds as though she's trying very hard to pronounce her words clearly. I watched JJ on the Tiger Cub special and I thought her cantonese had improved there also.

回到三國 Three Kingdoms RPG review

Spoilers alert!

I really enjoyed "A Step Into The Past" so I had been looking forwards to "Three Kingdom RPG". I also like   all of the main leads. It was quite interesting to see how they put in the story of borrowing arrows from Cao Cao and tying Kenneth's character with it, as well as when he found Hua Tuo to save Zhu Ge Liang's wife.


Kenneth Ma as Sze Ma Shun / Wun Shun / 司馬信

At the start, Wun Shun does not understand how to respect others, and thinks little about others in his actions. In Hong Kong, he masters the skill of playing video games revolving characters of the Three Kingdoms. Unfortunately that is all he is good at. No longer a young man, he does not have steady source of income, and only works as an extra for TV series. Even in this job he is lazy and takes every opportunity to do as little as possible.

One day, during work as an extra for an ancient series, Wun Shun is transported back to the Three Kingdoms era (and luckly he is in costume, and even has a wig to fit in with the people of that time). He meets Fan Gan who looks up to him as his saviour, giving him somewhere to live. Not long after, Wun Shun meets his idol, Zhu Ge Liang. When Zhu Ge Liang is approached by Lau Bei to help him with war strategies, Zhu Ge Liang does not choose Wun Shun to help him, and Wun Shun becomes irritated with Zhu Ge Liang vowing that their friendship is over. Wun Shun later works for Hon Leung, who carries the same position as Zhu Ge Liang.

Through texting his sister, Wun Shun plans to return to the present time at a certain date. During his last few days, he sings a love song to Song Yau and Song Yau develops romantic feelings for Wun Shun, even though he feels nothing.

Finally, the day comes where Wun Shun can return to the future. He causes choas at Lau Bei's house before leaving. Unfortunately he goes to the wrong place to be transported back to Hong Kong so is still stranded in the past. Having ran away and caused chaos from Lau Bei's house, he is captured as a criminal and put into jail. It is not only because of Song Yau that he is released. However he is demoted to a servant.
Later he finds out that Hon Shun has a plan to kill Zhu Ge Liang and blame it on himself. He thinks of a plan to show Lau Bei that Hon Shun wants to kill Zhu Ge Liang. He succeeds, and Zhu Ge Liang then asks Wun Shun to help him with his work.

Later, he gets shot by an arrow and experiences a near death experience. It is here where he fully re-evaluates his actions and becomes considerate for other. Since he had mislead Song Yau into thinking they were a pair, he tells her that though she is a great girl, he has no romantic feelings for her.

His actions later causes him to have to leave his area, but he is wanted dead by Zhu Yu. Saved by Song Yau, he finally finds that he does indeed have feelings for her, but by the time he decides to tell her, she had already gone.

He is later captured by Cao Cao's strategist, who once worked for Lau Bei. Wun Shun is forced to help them defeat Lau Bei, and cannot just escape when the opposition also captures Song Yau.

Later he finds out that he still had an opportunity to return to Hong Kong and vows to take Song Yau back with him. Sadly when this opportunity comes, only Wun Shun manages to get back to the future, watching Song Yau being left in the past.

Now back in Hong Kong, Wun Shun is no longer the boy he used to be, and works to open his own successful fast food chain, whilst tying history of the Three Kingdoms in his business. He watches the weather every day to look for an opportunity to return to the Three Kingdoms era. 30 years past, and there has been no opportunity for Wun Shun to go back. He as a large painting of Song Yau in his office and has the same sandwich everyday- one he made with Song Yau before. He suddenly finds that there is another chance for him to go back to Song Yau and goes the the place where he was to go back.

As Wun Sun approaches the blue light to take him back, he gets a heart attack. Only metres away from the portal light, he realises he can't get there in time, and sings the love song he once sung Song Yau as he dies, arm reached out for the blue light.

Kenneth's character really annoyed me at first. I didn't like his attitude how he always thought he as right and how he always acted as he was above all others.  For example at that start of the show when he though that Raymond's character should have taken him as his helper and threw a huge strop when he didn't. The two had not met for long, and Wun Shun had done little to show he had any intelligence.


There were some complaints from viewers, saying that Kenneth was too old to portray such a character. I personally really enjoyed it. He does comedy very well and pulls all the right faces. I remember chuckling after he fell down the cliff and was said "I thought you said that even cliffs wouldn't put you in a difficult position" to the dead warrior. 

His ending was so sad! So there he was, waiting every day for 30 years for a chance to go back to the past to meet Song Yau again. When he does get the opportunity finally comes he dies. As in the finale, Song Yau does come to the future, couldn't they let him see her first to fulfil his wish?

Also I think that he thought that he really belonged to the Three Kingdoms era after he got back to the future, for when he was trying to go back he said "Song Yau, I'm coming back". It just makes everything that little more sad :(



I think Kenneth Ma is great character. Wun Shun differs greatly from his doctor role in The Hippocratic Crush and his evil role in Tiger Cubs or Grace Under Fire. 



Raymond Lam as Zhu Ge Liang

Zhu Ge Liang is a scholar who is seeked by Lau Bei to work as on of his strategists. He has an intelligent mind, helping Lau Bei to solve many different problems. This causes jealousy from others such as Hor Leung and Chow Yu who both plot to murder him. Luckily both of their schemes fail. He meets Wun Shun before becoming Lau Bei's strategist. After getting to know Wun Shun, Zhe Ge Liang thinks of him as a good friend and trusts him greatly. Zhu Ge Liang cares deeply for his wife, a women with poor health but with a good understanding of war strategies and who can help him in developing his own strategies.

He continues to help Lau Bei fight his wars.

Wasn't very fond of Raymond's moustache at the start of the series, but I got used to it! 

I really did like Raymond's portrayal of Zhu Ge Liang. It was different to any other characters he had done, and he came across as a modest, wise and calm person. I liked how his character cared for his wife, and they had great interactions in the series. It did seem like Zhu Ge Liang wouldn't have got very far in his career without his wife though since she was always helping him with war strategies and translated old scripts. 
It was also nice to see him trusting Wun Shun as a close friend. 

His character didn't really get an ending, as in he was still doing what he'd been doing the whole series which is fine. It was lovely to see that his wife could stand up again though.

Tavia Yeung as Song Yau

Song Yau is a housemaid at Lau Bei's house. Having worked there since she was young, Lau Bei and his wives see her as their daughter. Wun Shun affected her life from the start when he told of freestyle loving in Hong Kong, leading her to not accept a marriage proposal from a well-educated, good natured man from a rich family.  She is later mislead into thinking that Wun Shun had romantic feeling for her, and she started to have feelings for him too.
Wun Shun develops guilt after a while, and leaves Song Yau heart-broken when he tells her that he never had feelings for her.

She is later captured, by the opposition of Lau Bei to force the also captured Wun Shun to help them defeat Lau Bei.

Wun Shun tells her that he would take her back to Hong Kong. When the time comes, Song Yau is unable to travel to the future with him, watching him leave her. At the end of the finale, it shows Song Yau arriving in the future 30 years after Wun Shun went back. However, Wun Shun was already dead. Song Yau tears up.

Tavia was the female lead of Three Kingdoms, but I felt that Leung Ka Ki had more screen time for her. I enjoyed Tavia's limited screen time, even though she isn't important in the series apart from being Kenneth's love interest. To be honest, I think she was also there to make watchers feel pain when she and Wun Shun could never get together.

Top notch acting though as usual. This was her first collaboration with Kenneth. They shot The Hippocratic Crush later. I think it certainly helped with their chemistry there!

Others

There wasn't any weak acting here. I loved the acting of Lau Bei and his two brothers. All the interaction between the men was very likeable to me. I've heard some complaining that the relationship between the men seemed homosexual, but I didn't think so. To me, it showed that they were loyal to each other and caring to others as well: if they treated each others with such respect they should also care for other people.

I also really enjoyed Leung Ka Ki, as Zhu Ge Liang's wife. Wearing minimal make up to portray the ugly and ill- healthed wife of Zhu Ge Liang  (personally I thought she was still quite pretty), I thought she gave it all. I look forward to seeing her again in another TVB series!

Fan Gan was a great addition to the series. I got worried about TVB killing his character a few times. I felt sorry for him when Wun Shun kept bossing him about but he wouldn't complain. It was sweet when Wun Shun started to think of him as a good brother of his. I hope that he got promoted to a high rank on the war field and got lots of money!
Fan Gan is a great loyal friend. Great portrayal too! I didn't remember seeing the actor either, but he definitely left a deep impression on me here!

It was nice watching Kenneth's character meeting the ancient people, especially Zhu Ge Liang, who was his idol. It was also funny how he often used Hong Kong Slang and even some English when he was in the past. You'd think that after being in the past for so long he'd get used to talking proper chinese right? Another scene which I remember finding very enjoyable was when he just got transported back, and saw loads of pandas on the mountains (however fake looking they were!). It just seemed to add the cherry on the top for me to show how different things were to be for Wun Shun!

Again with the ending: it just wasn't very nice for me! Even though we only saw Wun Shun missing Song Yau, no doubt she also missed him until she got to the future too. Then she saw an aged and dead Wun Shun. It's going to be awkward for her as she's in the future now, and has no Hong Kong identity, which basically means she'll be thrown out of Hong Kong. Her only hope would be Wun Shun's little sister who only knew of her. So it's a sad sad ending for both characters. As again, it seems like Song Yau's character was to distress the audience watching this series. If she wasn't there, Wun Shun would be happy in the future, whilst still becoming rich and successful.

護花危情 Witness Insecurity review

Witness insecurity is probably the last Linda Chung series of 2012. It's nice and fast paced, and doesn't drag as it's only 20 episodes. If anything, I don't think that some things were explained very well: it was rumoured that the show was meant to have 28 episodes, but apparently that rumour is false.

Bosco Wong as Hui Sir / 許瑋琛

Hui Sir is a witness prosecution unit officer. He has to protect Hailey when there is fear of her being murdered. He learns that she doesn't like to talk to others because she has post traumatic stress disorder. He is patient with her and fulfils his job by protecting her from any danger. When Hailey was not in danger any more, Hui Sir did not have to protect Hailey anymore, and they parted.
Not long after, Hailey was bought back into his life when, his cousin Jojo (to Hailey's request)At this time, her father makes Hui Sir decide between Hailey and his police job. The situation gets more complicated when Hui Sir finds evidence that Hailey's father may have committed a crime decades ago.
When Hui Sir does find enough evidence and Hailey's father gets arrested, he gets ran over by a car.
He then gets on his motorbike, drives to find Hailey, and tells her that he'll protect her from the stars as he died.

I liked Bosco's portrayal as a calm and competent policeman. I never saw Hui Sir having much feelings for Hailey. He didn't really think of her as a friend when he didn't have to protect her any more and he wasn't going to keep in touch with her. He seemed a bit confused when he first learned that Hailey had feelings for him and quickly stated that he felt nothing for her. 
His found some feelings for Hailey when she went missing and did struggle to decide between his job and Hailey. I thought that TVB could've shown more of his struggle to emphasise his feelings.  

It seemed a bit silly when he got ran over in the last episode. He was not bleeding on the outside at all, not even a scratch. He colleagues let him drive off after getting off the floor and looking a but woozy. It was sad that his character died, I hadn't expected it!
For some reason though, I was more sad when Ba Da died. Probably because it was more believable. It was so sudden too :(


Linda Chung as Hailey 喬子琳

Hailey has Post traumatic stress disorder. She saw her own brother die when she was young, and since then she became scared of new people and crowds. She has an attitude that people mistake as being arrogant. When Hui Sir comes into her life, she gradually loosens up. She accepts talking to new people and learns how to be in places with lots of strangers again. She even takes the initiative to get to know Hui Sir, and waits for his love to return when he tells her that he can't forget his deceased ex-girlfriend.
Her father does not approve of Hui Sir as his daughter's boyfriend. Hailey is stuck in the middle when Hui Sir tries to find evidence that her father did illegal things, and her father says that Hui Sir is only interested in her money.
In the end her father is arrested by the police and Hui Sir finds her, dying, but tells her that she does have a place in her heart.

I did like Linda's portrayal. I could really see how scared and irritated she was at the start of the series at other people. However I did think that her change to accepting other people too quick. It also seemed that her love with Hui Sir was more brotherly than romantic love, as it came when he saved her cello (which used to be her brother's) from the fire and knew about the same star constellation as her brother. I only seemed to see romantic love appearing when Hui Sir did not have to protect her anyone and she hadn't seen Hui Sir for a while.
Near the end of the series, I didn't think her character was any different than any other character Linda has portrayed in the past. Her character even became a bit boring for me then.

Paul Chun as Gong San 喬江山

Gong San is a successful business man, and cares about his daughter Hailey the most in his life. He objects to her and Hui Sir as a pair, forcing Hui Sir to leave the police force if he was to be with his daughter. It turns out that 33 years ago, he, his brother and another man named Sapura kidnapped and murdered a rich man to get their first amount of money to start their businesses. The police never traced the evidence back to him.  He tries and failed to prevent Hui Sir from finding this out, and is arrested in the end. He does regret his actions in the end when he is arrested.

A veteran actor, of course Paul did not disappoint! Gong San's actions were quite clear from the start. He cared for his daughter, wanted the best for her and was scared that people will find out what he did in the past and have everything he accomplished taken away from him. A well rounded character. I wonder if he would've let Hailey and Hui Sir together at the start if he wasn't a policeman.

Other thoughts

This is another series that won't stay in my head for long. The ending of Witness to a Prosecution was rushed. It was paced so fast that it only took 6 minutes from where Hui Sir was chasing Gong San to the ending where he died. In some series the climax and resolution are shown within the first 10 minutes of the last episode and the remainder of the episode shows everyone being all happy and gathering together for a BBQ ending.

I think this show is Bosco's first proper male lead, as in the show wasn't about women. He's been second lead enough times with different characters to portray to be able to carry a show by himself. I look forwards to watching him lead another series soon!