Character map of Highs and Lows 雷霆掃毒 (English)

Click on the picture to see it in full size.

5 TVB Series that were much better than I expected!

There so many new TVB series every year. Whilst I look forwards to watching some, there are some series that I'm just not interested in. It might be because I'm not interested in the cast, or it might be because the storyline doesn't appeal to me. Some of them I do watch to pass time, some I watch now and then, but some I end up really enjoying. For example I'm watching Divas in Distress now, which I had minimum interest in, but I'm finding myself quite enjoying the show!


Here are another 5 of those series, ranked with the last one mentioned being the one I like the most. Series 4 to 1 were actually one of those series that left me longing for the next episode Monday to Thursday and slightly miffed on Fridays as I had to wait for the weekend to pass before I the next episode was available. 

5. Ten Brothers 十兄弟 (2007)

Story in 3 sentences: 
-Kenix Kwok eats some magic beans and gives birth to 10 sons. 
-Frankie Lam who is her admirer looks after the children with her, which all grew up almost overnight and all have different magic powers. 
-They all develop a loving family relationship but all 10 sons sacrifice their life for their mother in the end.

I didn't see the appeal with 10 men with weird haircuts acting like children. It was quite sweet actually, it was lovely seeing the brothers learning what is happening around them. They all had a kind heart but didn't understand what was right and what was wrong. It was also nice seeing the newly wed Kenix Kwok and Frankie Lam leading together as a pair. The show was quite comedic as the brothers utilised their different powers. The ending was sad though, even though all the brothers died happily and together.

4. Relic of an Emissary 洪武三十二 (2011)

Story in 3 sentences:
-Michael is an unlikable imperial guard who loses his memories and becomes good, and serves Joel Chan, the King.
-He finds out that he actually works for Joe Ma who wants the throne, but is now loyal towards Joel Chan.
-When Joe Ma becomes king he chops his arm off and lives away as a commoner with a princess.

I didn't watch E.U so I never got with the obsession over Michael Tse's "Laughing Gor".  I do think that Michael is a good actor but to this day his presence in a series won't make we interested in it. I also wasn't interested in Elanne Kong either and assumed that she wouldn't do a very good performance but she proved me wrong as I really liked Elanne Kong in this. The storyline was very captivating, rather dramatic but I still wanted to watch it. It was rather unpredictable too!

Question off the topic, can someone tell me if the Laughing Gor in E.U, Turning point and Lives of Omission the same person, or different characters with the same name? I'm a bit confused there, thanks!


3. Wax and Wane 團圓 (2011)

Story in 3 sentences:
-Roger Kwok and Sunny Chan are relatives but their families are against each other with their respective noodle businesses.
-Sunny Chan turns into horrible person, Roger fancies his little brother's girlfriend.
-The two family solves their misunderstanding, Sunny Chan becomes a goody again as Ron Ng and Kate Tsui go back together again.

From the start this series seemed like a rip-off of Moonlight Renaissance, they both have the family feud and the man and women from each side who just wants to be together. I loved the all the acting and seeing the transformation of Roger and his attitude towards Kate and her family. The most annoying thing was Sunny's character when he got jealous of Roger, but I'd say that's down to some fine acting too. The series had a nice ending too with everyone paired, and I like happy endings!

2. Rosy Business  巾幗梟雄 (2009)

Story in 3 sentences
-Wayne Lai begins work at a rice business run by Sheren Tang and her husband in hope of making money to give back to his village.
-The two form a great friendship as they stop Pierre Ngo and his mother try to steal the business as their own.
-Wayne contracts a deadly disease spreading around town and dies, and Sheren lives to bring trucks full of rice back to his village.

I didn't even watch the first couple of episodes. I only started to watch bits of the later episodes when my parents were watching it on TV, but I found myself watching the whole of the rest of the episodes shortly after. This show was so popular after all and won countless awards. I actually liked "No Regrets" more but I can't include that in this list because I wanted to watch that series as soon as TVB announced they were to produce it!

1. A Fistful of Stances 鐵馬尋橋 (2010)

Story in 3 sentences:
-Yuen Qiu's husband disappeared and she had to raise her children up herself but her eldest son is also lost.
-Grown up, she finds the eldest child, Kevin Cheng and they all want to know what happened to her husband, and they are certain it's something to do with Dominic Lam.
-The truth is found, Dominic Lam was the murderer and Kevin Cheng becomes a martial arts master.

I wasn't very sure about the rankings of the other 4 series, but this one definitely tops the list! Another series similar to Moonlight Renaissance but coupled with martial arts action.
I remember the first few episodes being a bit slow when they were revealing the past and questions of the families. I also remember Jacky Heung, who played Dominic Lam's son. He was pretty bad at acting.
However the interactions between the siblings were so warming and Kenneth Ma was so cool in this series! Dominic Lam was so incredibly evil in this series too and Natalie Tong really shone. The martial arts storyline was exciting, and my blood boiled when I saw Nancy Wu's character.
I'm glad it had a happy ending too! It's a series that I would very much like to watch again. 


Any more?

Were there any series that you found yourself not initially interested in but loved by the end of it?

TVB: Ranked Top 30 promoted actresses

As known by most TVB fans, more and more actors and actresses are leaving TVB, either to Mainland China or to other Hong Kong Channels. As a result, the status of many TVB artists has risen to fill in the missing gaps. I’ve made my own list of the top 30 promoted and valued TVB artists. 

The rankings are my own opinion. I’ve omitted the actresses that have left TVB, like Charmaine Sheh, Jessica Hsuan, and Maggie Cheng.

Do you agree with my list? Have I missed anyone obvious out? What changes would you make to ?

Popular 1^st leads

1.      Tavia Yeung / Myolie Wu

3.      Linda Chung / Fala Chen

5.      Kate Tsui

Other 1^st leads

6.      Maggie Siu

7.      Sonija Kwok

8.      Niki Chow (not signed with TVB, but still promoted)

9.      Yoyo Mung

Other 1^st leads, probably in male dominated series, or 2^nd leads of grand productions

10.  Krystal Tin

11.  Selena Li

12.  Aimee Chan

13.  Natalie Tong

Rising actress with big supporting roles

14.  Sharon Chan

Strong actresses only used as fairly major supporting actresses

15.  Florence Kwok / Joyce Tang

Rising actress with big supporting roles

16.  Mandy Wong

17.  Sire Ma

18.  Nancy Wu

19.  Rebecca Zhu

20.  Elaine Yiu

21.  Yoyo Chen

Rising supporting actresses

22.  Cilla Lok

23.  J J Jia

24.  Christine Kuo

25.  Rachel Kan

26.  Katy Kung

27.  Ka Ki Leung

  

Supporting actresses

28.  Angel Chiang

29.  Queenie Chu

30.  Charmaine Li

TVB: Should we believe in happy endings?

A Great Way to Care (仁心解碼) starring Alex Fong, Kate Tsui and Raymond Wong became of the Top 10 highest rated series in 2011, peaking at 35 points at its second week of broadcast.

It has recently been announced that a sequel will be produced in July 2012, with some changes in the cast. So who are they?

On the supporting side, Raymond Wong's character will become successful and move away from HK. Edwin Siu will take his place.

For the female leads Tavia Yeung and Yoyo Mung will be casted instead of Kate Tsui. 

So what happened to Kate's character? Was her illness too much to handle? Did she die? We don't know yet, but I'm sure that many viewers out there enjoyed the pairing of Alex and Kate and were happy to think of their future after the ending of the first series.

Sadly, the happy endings that TVB give us aren't actually "the ending" sometimes: they make sequels, can't cast the same actors or actresses and subsequently cruelly separate the pairings that viewers like us have grown to love. Even worse, they kill of one of the characters to make it easier to continue with the plot. Or to allow the remaining half to be sad and reserved until their new significant other half pops into their lives and their lives once again becomes bright and colourful.

Pairings where characters had to die in a sequel:

1) Healing Hands 妙手仁心

This franchise is quite sad, for Lawrence as Dr Ching has luck the size of a shrivelled pea when it comes to love.

First there's Ada Choi who does appear in the second series dies in a fire.

Lawrence's character then falls in love with Yoyo Mung, who commits suicide for the third series.

Third comes Gigi Lai, Lawrence's new love interest. As his character has realised now, he and women do not come together well, but finally decides to give a chance for himself and Gigi, confident this time that maybe their relationship will last.

Both fortunately and unfortunately Healing and Hands is combining with The Hippocratic Crush. It will be nice to see Dr Ching again and his developments as a brain surgeon. But since Gigi Lai has left the acting industry, her character is likely to have the same fate as Ada and Yoyo.

2) Forensic Heroes 法證先鋒

Frankie Lam and Linda Chung's pairing in Forensic Heroes also did not last. Linda made an appearance in the second series, but within a couple of episodes her character had already died from a bomb attack.

3) A Pillowcase of Mystery 施公奇案

Kenix Kwok's Character died in the second series when someone bombed a boat she was on. Bobby Au Yeung was paired up with Jessica Hsuan instead.

4) Witness to a prosecution 洗冤錄

Not a couple here as Bobby had two wives, Jessica Hsuan and Mariane Chan. They died at the start of the second series from a fire. Charmaine Sheh was casted as Bobby's love interest instead.

There are most likely other series where the female leads have similar fates. For some reason it is always a female character that doesn't make it to the sequels.

It's lovely to see happy endings where the main characters end up together. But it's sad to know that if a sequel is made to that series, the lovely couple probably won't really have their happy ending.

Watching out for The Hippocratic Crush II. Definitely hope that YuTou will stay together until the end and beyond!

Edit: found out that in Triumph in the Sky II, Zoe (Myolie Wu) will die to make way for another character and storyline. Typical?

TVB series 2012, who have we seen the most? (Jan-June)

Again, as in a previous post, http://therearethreehahahas.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/tvb-series-2011-who-have-we-seen-most.html I have created a word cloud to show which actors/ actresses we have seen the most recently, and also who we will be seeing in the series that TVB have shown to air next. The bigger the name the more series the person has been in. It's only the first half of 2012, wonder who we will be seeing next!

As I noticed, Linda has been in a lot of series recently, from the naive girl in "L'escargot" to the graceful but rather stuck up dancer in "House of Harmony and Vengeance".
Second leads Natalie Tong and Kenny Wong have also appeared frequently as has Florence Kwok.

Unlike last year we've had a break from Kate Tsui for 6 months now, not including her guest star appearance in Gloves Come off. Only having "Highs and Lows" and "Seasons of Love" (yet to be produced) we won't get to see her much this year!

As a random note:
Is it me or does it seem that Moses Chan is in half of the series that Kenny Wong is in: "Heaven and Earth", "4 in Love", "Master of Play", and from previous years, "Dance of Passion", "The Gentle Crackdown", "War and Beauty", and probably more I can't think of!
Also expecting Charmaine to drop of the list next year :(

TVB series 2011, who have we seen the most?

I grew up watching TVB and I still am, but this year especially I have been noticing that the same actors and actresses have been appearing in lots of different series.

So I decided to go through the series that have aired and the next few that are to be aired and typed down the main and main-ish characters.

Next I copied the names into a word cloud generator (Wordle) which shows the most common words as the biggest words. So in the picture, the bigger the name, the more the number of series that the actress/ actor has appeared in this year.

So for actors we've seen Michael most this year, and Kate for actresses. I thought I'd seen Kate loads this year. I wasn't wrong!