7 of my favourite TVB theme songs

Following my post on 8 english songs used by TVB that I liked, I thought I'd do a post on the TVB theme songs that I liked too!

I was only going to do my 5 favourite songs, but it turns out I can't count and I chose 6 songs, and by that time I just couldn't take any of them away from the list!

Also it appears that I like songs with creepy beginnings. I'm a weird person.
I'll put an asterisk on those songs :) 

*6) 心竅 from "Ghost writer" by Steven Ma (蒲松齡- 馬浚偉)

My first song with a "creepy beginning. This is not the type of the song I would want on my MP3, but I love Steven Ma's voice in this.

*5) 傷城記 from "L'Escargot" by Ron Ng and Linda Chung (缺宅男女- 吳卓羲+鍾嘉欣)

I didn't like this song at first when hearing it during L'Escargot. It didn't help that the piano at the start of the song got cut horribly in the video at the start of the show. I only started liking it when I listened to the full version. Then I really loved the starting instrumental. I think it sounds quite "creepy" but beautifully creepy as the piano pattern crawls about with the cello in the background. I like the tune and the singing too, I personally don't think Ron can sing very well, but he's ok here. But to be honest this song only made the list because of its first 25 seconds. I liked it that much!

4) 最幸福的事 from "Witness Insecurity" by Linda Chung ( 護花危情- 鍾嘉欣)

The cello introduction is very pretty and I really liked Linda's style of singing here. I think because TVB kept playing this song in the series, it got stuck in my head more, so I liked it more and it made this list :)

3) 有意 from "Burning Flames III" by Kevin Cheng and Myolie Wu (烈火雄心3- 胡杏兒+鄭嘉穎)

This song is played at the end of the show, so it is not strictly a theme song. I like both of their voices. It's a song I can listen to all day!

2) You light up my Life from "My Sister of Eternal Flower" by Raymond Lam (花花世界花家姐- 林峯)

This song is so happy and peaceful. I like the instrumental. I love Raymond Lam's voice too! It's just a lovely lovely song!

*1) 小故事 from "A Journey Called Life" by Steven Ma and Linda Chung  (金石良緣- 馬浚偉+鍾嘉欣)

I count the start of this song as being creepy because of that women's ghostly voice.
I reserved the top spot for this song, there was no competition for my number one favourite song! I didn't watch this series and I only noticed this song by watching random Youtube videos. I then found myself looking for the song to listen to again and again. I think that Steven and Linda's voices match really well and they both have good emotion. I remember thinking that Linda somewhat spoilt the theme song for "A Watchdog's Tale" because Steven Ma sung it so happily and cheekily, whilst I though her parts were just  missing something and unmatchable to Steven's parts. But again, their singing really matched in this number one song.

I've read about this series and lots of people say that this is a really good show. I'm a bit tempted to watch this series now, but even if I do, I'll have to wait until there's an airing TVB series that I don't want to watch. I can't watch 3 TVB series together at one time!



If you've noticed that I've only listed 6 songs here, whilst the title of the post says that this post will have 7 songs, then well done!
I haven't put my 7th song in the list above has it isn't actually the theme song of its series and I don't think it was played at the end either, but it was played in the series instead. I love it too much not to include it in my list. It's also a bit of a cheat to add another song to this list:

愛在記憶中找你 from "The Drive of Life" by Raymond Lam (歲月風雲- 林峯)

This is my all time favourite song of LF's.



Out of the 7 songs, Linda Chung is in 3 of them and both Steven Ma and Raymond Lam are in 2 of them.
I think that Linda Chung and Raymond Lam are in my list more than once because of coincidence, I don't go looking out for their songs even though I think they are both good singers, LF especially!   
However I do think that I listened to the Steven Ma songs initially because they were sung by him and I love Steven Ma. It's such a shame he left TVB! There aren't many people in TVB that can sing and act well, as well as having many other talents.




So these are my favourite TVB theme songs. Which is yours?

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

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!

衝呀！瘦薪兵團 No Good Either Way review

(Scroll to the bottom for a quicker summary and review from Youtube)

No Good Either way has a fresh storyline and cast. It's the first time seeing Ruco Chan and Kristal Tin this year, and we don't seem to see them very often anyway. It was a series I enjoyed. Parts of the story actually made me laugh out loud, which is rare- I usually only do internal laughings at TV :)

Ruco Chan - Alex/ 巫雅歷

Alex is a product designer and good friend with his boss. He feels injustice when Violet stops him and his friend Steve from being promoted. A light hearted character, Alex and Steve pulls pranks on Violet as a sort of revenge, such as putting her on webcam without make up on in front of an audience at Alex and Ling's wedding.

He has good with relationship "A4", his companions who he works with to design successful products. A carefree bunch, they often slack off work and look for "inspiration" by not doing work, much to Ling's despair, who attempts to get them to concentrate.

Soon, Alex is finally promoted and his funny personality begins to recede. He starts to overwork A4, and when he finds out that A4 had been seeking another company to work for, he treats them badly, putting them in a room with no windows and gives them pointless jobs. He refuses to let A4 help him with a product vital for his company's survival, even when he approach a problem in its design. He becomes frustrated at everybody including his wife and sister as he believes that no body thinks he can design this product by himself.

As he manages to produce a successful prototype of the product needed for his company's survival, Aaron, one of the A4 puts a virus into his computer so the information of the product cannot be seen. In the end he decides that one person is not enough to do things.

In the end he reunites with his wife and sister, and with Aaron arrested, he collaborates with A3 once again to continue to make products for the company.

I enjoyed Ruco Chan's performance, it was the first time he participated in a comedic series with TVB and I thought he was very natural and had chemistry with his friends and family. He performed consistently throughout the whole series, even though I didn't understand why he suddenly become all serious with his job and had a character change.

Louis Yuen- Steve /閔家華

 Many times Steve thinks that he is going to be promoted to manager at his company, but in the end he always finds out that he is not. He loses faith in his company, and opens a fruit juice shop with his Indian friend Inderpal. This business is unsuccessful, and he puts his former job at risk when secretly working at his shop during his office hours. Once filled with the hope of being promoted again, he closes the juice shop. To his dismay, he is yet not promoted. He becomes very unsatisfied again with his job. 
In the end he finally gets promoted to manager.

As usual I though Louis did great. He really is good at the comedic roles. I felt sorry for him, after thinking he is to be promoted each time and not. It wasn't good for him to snoop out of his office work to work in his fruit juice shop though. I was glad he was finally promoted to manager at the end. However to be honest, after seeing him being so depressed and stealing things from his company for his juice shop, it doesn't seem like he really deserves his position. 

It was nice to see him paired up with Leanne Li at the end though I thought it was a bit awkward how she suddenly broke up with her boyfriend and decided to be with Louis instead.

Kristal Tin- Ling / 甯寧靜


Alex's wife and also works in the same company. She puts her personal life and work separately, at home she is a loving wife though she disapproves of her husband's attitude at work. She tries to make her husband be efficient at work and be more responsible, but fails.
Further in the show, her relationship with Alex falls when Alex becomes angry at anyone who intervenes with the product he is making.

Similarly with Kristal Tin, I thought she did her parts well. I find that she is a solid actress. I hope that TVB gives her more opportunities!

Natalie Tong- Kin / 巫健兒

Alex's sister her ambition is to buy a house ASAP and is disheartened by the rising house values. She goes out with Aaron from A4, and the relationship does not go smoothly. They both invest in a house and Aaron does not prepare for paying for his debts by buying impractical expensive things whilst asking Kin to pay for him for now. She later finds that Aaron has told her many lies, and decides to break up with him.
At the end, her boss Jacky asks her to be his girlfriend. Even though he shows that he is a good choice, showing her his health reports and his properties, Kin decides not to be with him.
Later she sees Aaron after being released from jail. It is an open ending to whether the two reconcile.



I thought Natalie Tong did well in this series. Nothing to make me go wow, but it was comfortable watching her. I had always liked her acting, but in The Life and Times of a Sentinel. I thought her performance there was terrible, and I'm still recovering from it. I anticipate her first leading series with Wayne Lai, hopefully with such an experienced actor she can prove to us that she's main lead material!
I liked Kin with Jacky, and did want her to be with him in the end. But thinking about it more, I don't think that Kin would be happy with Jacky in the relationship. He makes a very good friend, but as a partner, he would lack the romance and surprises that Kin would want in her relationship.

Jason Chan- Aaron / 姚以朗


Part of A4, his is part of a designing team led by Alex. He becomes frustrated by Alex when he believes that Alex does not give his work appreciation. When he is approached by another company he accepts, and when Alex finds out the dislike between the two increases further. He later betrays the company by attempting to stop the company from survival after money problems. He serves a year in jail for doing so, and delivers pizzas afterwards. In the end he appears to have become more mature, being more mature as a whole.



I thought that almost all actors and actresses did well in this show. Only Jason Chan bothered me. I thought his expressions were quite often the same, especially during his confrontations with Alex. I also didn't like his character. I thought Aaron was selfish and didn't think of others. It seem to me that he never took his relationship with Kin seriously. He offered to pay of the house they bought together, but didn't plan ahead and had to have his girlfriend pay for his debt. He was not by Kin's side when they were supposed to refurbish their house together as he was scared of it being haunted, and masked it with a lie. I liked Jason Chan in Be Home For Dinner, but I don't think he's ready for being the main lead yet. But I'll get to decide only when his new show with Linda Chung airs!




I have enjoyed this show. It has been great for passing time. Not a memorable series though, but worth it for a simple and relatively quick paced series to watch!

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 :(