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Showing posts with label Mandy Wong. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mandy Wong. Show all posts

Monday, 24 September 2012

巴不得媽媽 Review of Divas in Distress


Divas in Distress was surprisingly good! I liked all the relationship lines and they were all very sweet. As I said before, I wasn't actually interested in this series, but I'm glad I watched it. It had the freshest cast for a while and  there were many times I chuckled at the show (I'm not a laugh out loud person).

I quite like the idea of using the 21 December idea for the ending. It got everybody together and made everyone think about who is important in their lives. The ending was an open ending, that I think we can assume that everyone survived and lived happily ever afterwards!

The use of english songs in this show was also very nice! See the list of songs here.


Liza Wang as Hung and Gigi Lai as Ho

Hung and Ho both used to be actresses. They have been rivals for years: Hung's daughter carried Ho's son's baby and died whilst giving birth. Hung blames this on Ho's son. Ho is stubborn and likes to get her own way and will do anything for that. This includes causing her son, Vincent to run away from home when Hung interferes with Vincent and Yi Hei's relationship.

Ho finds out that her children did not like her demanding ways, and that her daughter got married so early to get away from her. She hides away and it is revealed that she has bipolar disorder.

Hung helps Ho get over her bipolar disorder and she realises that people are not against her. The two become friends again.

Later Hung gets led to think that Ka Long not is Sau's (Ho's husband) biological son. Sau and Ho finds out Hung's suspicions and Ho demands a divorce as she feels mocked that her husband should think that she was not loyal to him. Sau later finds out it was all a mistake and that Ka Long is indeed his son. However Ho is still angry at him.

Time approaches 21 December, and the sky turns red. At this time, Hung helps Ho realise that even though she is angry at Sau, she would want to be with him if it was the end of the world. She forgives and and goes to find her husband. It turns out he was fighting over a bottle of salt with a sei lai as he wanted to cook a meal for Ho. Moved, they return home, inviting Hung to their meal.

The show ends with the two ladies playing on the wii with their family.


To be honest, I thought that there would be more rivalry scenes between these two Ah Jies. But that could be a good thing as the show could be annoying if they were arguing throughout the whole series. Liza's character was really annoying when she tried to split Vincent-Yi Hei and Yi Long Shen-Hannah up, but I'm glad her character thought things out quite a few episodes before the ending. I really liked Gigi in this show, her character was comedic and I thought her interaction with everyone was great! As I said in an earlier post, Hung is another one of those characters Liza portrays all the time. She does do it well though! I'm glad they are all good friends at the end and Hung told Ho how she admired her family. At the start Hung had a hard time befriending people. I'm sure she'll have no problem in doing so anymore!

A special mention to Henry Lee who played Sau. He's been in so many series this year! From villain to Sau, he has been enjoyable to watch in all of them!!

Chin Ka Lok as Ka Long and Eliza Sam as Hannah

Ka Long's wife died 7 years ago whilst giving birth to their son. He never forgets her and promises his mother in law that he will never marry another women. His new colleague, Hannah does not like him at first due to misunderstandings. However after Hannah gets to know Ka Long, she develops deep feelings for him. After a while Ka Long also develops feelings for Hannah but does not dare reveal it as he feels that he is doing his dead wife wrong.

One day Hannah gets ran over by a car, and Ka Long manages to lift a car up so Hannah could be taken out . She goes into a coma. Ka Long visits his wife's grave and admits his feelings to Hannah, and Hung secretly records the dialogue and plays it to Hannah in hope that she wakes up. She does, but she pretends to have forgotten all the memories of her and Ka Long after her dislike for him got changed. Ka Lok confronts her for this when he realises this, and she tells him that she did so as she heard his recording in which he said that  he could not love her. After this she quits her job, and no one can find her.

21 December 2012, apparently the end of the world approaches. Ka Long thinks about Hannah and remembers that he once imagined her in front of him, and there, he said that he would be with her if 21 December was indeed the last day ever.
He receives a withheld call but no one answers on the other side. He knows that it is Hannah, and he tells her that he would be with her. Then a man's voice comes from the phone, and the voice says he is Ka Long's old friend.

Ka Long's boss tells him to make some interviews at a church where youngsters were collecting up to change their ways in hope to go to heaven since it was 20th December. He goes, and Hannah turns up and he reveals his feelings in front of her. The youngsters get annoyed at Hannah getting in their way from cleansing their souls and start to run after the couple. Ka Long states that she hadn't changed as things turn out badly she's around. She asks him if he wants her to change. Ka Long tells her that he doesn't want her to change.

This was my favourite couple in DID. I think that most people like Him / Mandy, but I fell that this pair is happier and Hannah's character was so cute! I loved their development, and seeing Ka Long from nothing to denial to finally admitting his feelings. I was pretty annoyed when Hannah lost the memories of her and Yi Long Shun. Thankfully she was just pretending and she still liked him! 

Eliza Sam had a big role in the series and although there were room for improvement, I could see that she gave it her best. I really enjoyed her performance! I also thought she tackled the crying scenes quite well. I wonder how her status in TVB will be now, going up or down due to this performance. Right now I think it's nice of TVB to give her such a big role so early to try, but if she doesn't improve and TVB shouldn't continue to give her roles as big as this one.
I also mentioned that I didn't like her accent in my initial thoughts of this series. I got used to it pretty soon after though.

Chin Ka Lok was great too. It's not often at all that we get to see him on screen. I hope he gets some recognition from this show as the hot topics will be Him, Mandy and Eliza.



Him Law as Vincent and Mandy Wong as Yi Hei

Vincent is from a rich family and Yi Hei is a decorator with a complicated past. The two give each other a bad initial impression. Vincent's thoughts of Yi Hei changes when he finds her graffiti work and starts to admire her artistic skills. He begins to develop romantic feelings for her and makes excuses to see her more. Still disliking Vincent, Yi Hei insults him and attacks him for being successful by his rich mother and unnecessary body building. Her friend So Gei tells her that Vincent used his own capabilities in his work, and was built up to strengthen his body since he had asthma. He also tells Yi Hei Vincent's admiration of her. Yi Hei decides she likes Vincent, and the two get together.

Vincent's mum finds out, and she does not approve of this relationship. She also finds that Yi Hei has a criminal record and exposes it to Vincent. Yi Hei does not want to share her past with him and they break up after an argument.

Time passes but the two still has feelings for each other. Vincent finds out Yi Hei's past and that she has dysgraphia, he follows her around and sees that she is stuck when applying for a competition to win a holiday in Japan. She cannot write her name and Vincent steps forward to do it for her, writing her name out 68 times. He also convinces her to get  beak together with him.

At this time, Vincent's mum realises she was wrong to separate the two, so makes Yi Hei the winner of the holiday. She hopes the two get back on good terms on this holiday. The two go to Japan and Vincent proposes and she accepts.

Back in Hong Kong Yi Hei finds out that Vincent had won a highly regarded award and that he had proposed to her before she found out in case she had thought she wasn't good enough for him again. She also finds out that he had been taken twice his asthma medication because he had n allergic reaction to her smalls as she is a decorator. She decides to sacrifice for him by giving up her job. Vincent knows that being a decorator is a thing that makes her confident so he doesn't wnat her to sacrifice for him, so he decides to end the relationship and leave HK. Yi Hei realised this and manages to stop him, and tells him that it;s her turn to sacrifice. The two hug and stay together.

Vincent takes Yi Hei to the top of a mountain where there is a beautiful view of HK. The two look at the scenery.

This was my favourite couple at the start. I loved the bickering scenes between the two and the things Vincent did in order to be able see her more, only to give himself a bad impression! Vincent stalking Yi Hei should be creepy but I found it sweet. I was happy when they finally got together, but then Vincent's mum spoiled everything- their relationship didn't feel very romantic any more when Yi Hei repeatedly distanced herself from Vincent. It was just too long winded and draggy! 

I didn't like the forceful nature of Vincent's, trying to force Yi Hei to have lunch with him, trying to force her into inviting him to Japan. I thought it was funny at the start before the two were together, but it must be annoying to be with someone like that! But we could really see how much Yi Hei meant to Vincent. Vincent was always the one in the pair trying to make things work and he even left home when his mother didn't approve of Yi Hei. I guess that makes up for his creepiness :) To be honest if it wasn't Him Law and Mandy Wong playing their respective roles, I would find Vincent to be very creepy.

We know that Vincent likes Yi Hei as he admires her art. I don't know what Yi Hei likes Vincent for: at the start of the day she hated his guts, by the end of the day she decided to be with him. But she did cry for him and sacrificed her job for him in the end which showed that she did love him deeply.

As I mentioned in this post about TVB newbies, Mandy Wong already seems like she's been acting for years. Same stuff here. I'm still looking for a character from her where she doesn't pull a really annoyed face all the time. Such as this one:


Him Law also has a face that I find him pulling in lots of scenes such as


And especially when his character is stalking Mandy's. However I do find that wooden expression of Him's very appropriate for those scenes.

Gu Ka Ming as So Gei
I loved this character! I recognise his face from past TVB series and I'm very happy that I now now see Gu Ming Wah and think "He's So Gei from Divas in Distress!" His stylist did a good job and so did his interpretation of a feminine man! 


I guessed that he would be with Ka Long's boss (posted that on twitter). What a compatible pair! I love the dance that they did that brought them together!










Chung King Fai as Han Man and Mimi Chu as Jenny
I loved this pair as well! They were really funny and their story was sad. It's great they had their happy ending though! I thought their walk on the beach in their white clothings was very romantic! 

Mimi Chu has always been a comedic character to me, and even though there are comedic sides to her character, I could see the serious side to her which was hurt deeply from her relationship, but still thought fondly of the good memories. 

I liked how Han Man always said "To ____ or not to ___", but I do think he overdid it. But he didn't deny Jenny being his girlfriend which was sweet, but they proceeded to link arms afterwards which implies that he admits in indirectly. What a sweet couple :)

Wednesday, 5 September 2012

List of english songs in Divas in Distress 巴不得媽媽

*Edit on 6/09/12 Thurs 14:04- Download link to Brian Tse's version of "Can't my eyes off you". See end of post.

See my review of Divas in Distress here (link opens in new window).

If you read my post on the song in episode 6 of Divas in Distress played when Mandy Wong and Him Law are on screen, and also the post on english songs used in TVB series, you would've listened to quite a few songs already!

Well, Divas in Distress has played more than one english song, here are the songs. If there are more songs, I'll add them to this list. I'm not sure about the singers though apart from "Can't take my eyes off you". If I post the wrong version it would be nice if someone could correct me so I can change the video :)

1. "Can't Take My Eyes Off You"- song in episode 6 when Mandy Wong and Him Law are on screen.




2. "If you don't know me by now" -song in episode 6 when Liza Wang is talking at her daughter's grave.
Version by Stephanie Ho: See bottom of post for download links.




3) "Separate lives" -song near the start of episode 7 when Him Law is thinking about Mandy Wong.
*Edit (22/09): I had the wrong version before, here's the right one! It's sung by King Lam and Stephanie Ho (林景程 and 何雁詩), another two people from The Voice. It probably means "If You Don't Know Me By Now" is sang by someone from The Voice too! See bottom of post for download link.





As above, here's my other post on other english songs that TVB has used for other series:
8 English Songs Used in TVB series
If you want to listen to more music, you could read this post:
7 of my favourite TVB theme songs


*Edit on 6/09/12 Thurs 14:04!!!
Click here for the download link to Brain Tse's version of "Can't take my eyes off you": (Credits to here. The song was not uploaded by me.)

It's not the whole version, and the song ends mid-sentence. It is 1minute 51seconds.

*Edit on 24/09/12 

Click here for the download link to King Lam and Stephanie Ho's version of "Separate Lives": (Credits to here. The song was not uploaded by me.)

*Edit on 27/09/12

Click here for the download link to Stephanie Ho's version of "If you don't know me by know": (Credits to here. The song was not uploaded by me.)







Tuesday, 4 September 2012

8 English Songs Used in TVB series

In my recent post here about the English song "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" in Divas in Distress I have realised that TVB has pretty good taste in music when picking English songs to put in their series :)

I've posted Youtube videos here of the songs that I remember and really like! Please note that none of these videos belong to me!

1. "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" by Brain Tse. Used in Divas in Distress (巴不得媽媽).
So I was only introduced to this song yesterday by episode 6 of Divas in Distress. Like I mentioned there, I can't find the actual version which was sung by Brain Tse from series 2 of TVB's The Voice.

So here's another version by Barry Manilow


A few of you have sent me youtube links to the full version, and I thought I had updated the post for it, but it turns out I haven't! Sorry! Anyway so here's the full version of Brian Tse's cover!


*Edit: found the download link to Brian Tse's version of "Can't my eyes off you". Find the link at this post.
2. "Some Say Love" by LeAnn Rimes. Used in Ghetto Justice 2 (怒火街頭2).
I think of this as the Ah Deng and Sum Sum song, played when Sam Lee and JJ Jia are onscreen.

There are other songs by a singer called Adele used in Ghetto Justice 2, but I didn't include them in this list as I knew the songs already! For anyone looking for them, the song names are "Rolling in the Deep" and "Someone like you".


3) "Close To You" by The Carpenters. Used in Let It Be Love (4 in Love).



4) "Top of the World"  by The Carpenters. Used in Let It Be Love (4 in Love).


5) "Summerboy" by Lady Gaga. Used in Let It Be Love (4 in Love).
I was surprised when I found that the song is by Lady Gaga as I've never enjoyed her music. I can't deny that I like this one though, and it's pretty catchy!


6) "Wonderland" by Susan Barth. Used in The Rippling Blossom (魚躍在花見).
I think they only played this song once near the end of the last episode. It's a lovely song!


7) "Save The Best For Last" by Vanessa Williams. Used in Fly With Me (飛女正傳).
I didn't really like the series itself, and the only good thing I remember from it is this song. Otherwise I remember Moses Chan's wig and the silly storyline which wasted Ada Choi's appearances in TVB.


8) "In Another Time" by Jodie Simmons. Used in Shades Of Truth (水滸無間道).
From 2002, I don't actually think I watched this series fully. It was 10 years ago! The only thing I remember from that show is Gigi Lai's hair and that Chilam is in it. The song however I still remember, and I still remember the majority of the lyrics!



...9) Any more?

These are the english songs that I remember TVB using. There must be ones that I've missed out though, leave comments below if you know remember any others! 

If you enjoyed this post, you can listen to mores songs in this post:

Monday, 3 September 2012

Divas in Distress: The song for Him Law and Mandy Wong

I watched the preview today for episode 6 of Divas in Distress:


The english song in it is pretty nice even though we only hear a snippet of it. I've spent over an hour trying to find it now!

The lyrics in the bit of the song played there:
You're just too good to be true,
I can't take my eyes off you,
You'll be like heaven to touch....

I love you baby

I quickly found that the song is called "Can't Take My Eyes Off you". Only problem is that there are lots of covers of the song! I've gone through the original and all the covers noted in this Wikipedia article and I swear that none of them is the one played in the preview!

The nearest one I found is this version below: (* Edit: see below!)


It's definitely not this one, in my opinion they sound most similar.

Here is Brian Tse's full version:


Does anyone which version it is that they used in the show?

More of the song will probably be played in episode 6. I wonder if it will be a song they play for Mandy and Him like they had one for JJ Jia and Sam Lee in Ghetto Justice 2?

Meanwhile the trailer looks good :) Mandy and Him are my favourite pair in this series and I'm interested in the hardships that they have to go through to hopefully be together in the end. I also wonder how Him will feel when he finds out about he is starting to like this "lower class girl" who causes him to cover his nose every time he sees her!

*Edit: Mandy has stated on her Weibo that the cover is by Brian Tse, 謝東閔, who came from The Voice 2. I can't find the full version but I will post its whereabouts if I do find it!
** Edit: This song has made me think about other english songs that TVB has used in their series. Click here to see my new post to listen to some of those other songs!

Monday, 27 August 2012

巴不得媽媽 Divas in Distress initial thoughts and Character chart (in English)

I think that Divas in Distress is a rather daring series. It doesn't have any of the top fadans or siu sangs. The only 'in' casts are Mandy Wong and Him Law, who funnily enough are paired together in this series.


To be honest, it's one of those series I'm not interested in. I'm not really that interested in the plot of this series, and probably wouldn't watch it if I were at school or university. But as it's holiday time for me, I'll watch anything TVB puts on!


I think it's quite nice though, having two veteran actors Liza Wang and Gigi Wong as the main characters then some new-comers. Don't forget Chin Kar Lok, who debuted in the acting industry at 1985 who is the male lead here for his third series. I thought he was excellent in A Bride for a Ride which was a massive comedy, so I wonder how he will be in a slightly more serious role!


I've only watched the first episode of Divas in Distress so far. I'm not really drawn into the series yet. The start of the episode bored me at the start but got a bit more interesting towards the end when they start to draw the characters together and show that Liza and Gigi have some ongoing feud. 


Newcomer Eliza Sam had the most screen time for the actresses in this episode. I was looking forwards to her performance. It's a new face, and even though this character might be a bit too main for her since she's only started acting, I hope she starts well, or she's going to flop, like Matthew Ko who hasn't had a dominant role since "Man in Charge" with Kenneth Ma.
I'm neutral towards her performance so far. I didn't notice her accent much in Ghetto Justice 2, but as soon as she opened her mouth in Divas in Distress I heard it. I think it's quite light, but just in a way that makes her quite hard to understand. I think it's better than Christine Kuo's, but not as good as JJ Jia's. As there's 22 episodes of "Divas in Distress", I hope that I will get used to it! 
Acting wise I could see that she's giving it all her throwing herself into it which is quite nice. Because of this though I think she's exaggerating sometimes with her facial expressions and movements. For her first major role though, I'd say she's doing quite well so far. Let's see how she performs through the whole series.


Haven't seen much of Liza or Gigi yet. Liza always tends to play the rich lady with a good posture but bad temper, and it looks like it's going to be the same again. I don't remember seeing Gigi in any major roles before so I look forwards to seeing her on screen too!


Here are the character maps for Divas in Distress, the original one and one that I translated to English. The relationships seem much more simple than the ones in King Maker!







Tuesday, 21 August 2012

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.
Posted ImageI 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.