Why I would like to see Nancy Wu lead Rosy Business 3!

I just thought I'd like to voice my opinion on the casting of Rosy Business 3...

As you probably know, TVB are producing RB3 in early 2013, and Lee Tim Sing has chosen Myolie Wu to be the female lead since they have been unable to recruit Sheren Tang. I don't think it's a bad choice: even though out of the top of my head, I don't they they match very well, I wouldn't know before I actually watch the series. And I trust the two persuade the audience to like them as a couple anyway, as to me, they are both great at their jobs and can portray all types of characters convincingly. 

However as the title of this post says, it would be awesome if they had cast Nancy Wu as the female lead instead! She was part of the cast in both Rosy Business and No Regrets, so the change of the female lead wouldn't be so out of the blue. She has already been paired with Wayne before in "Forensic Heroes 3" and they will have some sort of relationship line in the upcoming "The Confidant", so they'll already be compatible to some of the TVB audience. 

It's true that Nancy Wu has never lead a series before, but RB3 would be just the right drama to secure Nancy Wu as a leading fadan.  Having her pair up with an experienced actor like Wayne for her first leading series would also give her status that push to make it up there with those like Selena Li. 

I would trust Nancy to make a good job of leading this drama too, even if it's a big production. I've seen many people on forums and other blogs  hoping that Nancy Wu will be promoted soon, and she is such a great actress anyway! I consider her to have better acting chops than some actresses that are promoted much more such as Selena Li and Aimee Chan (I have a post here where I ranked 30 TVB actresses in terms of how much I felt they were promoted).

So there's my mini rant about why I would like Nancy Wu to lead this new series. I'm quite confused if it is supposed to be RB3, or it's just a new drama Lee Tim Sing is producing. He denies its production, now they say it is happening after all? Still, whether it is or not, I want Nancy Wu to be promoted! I really do think that if she does get to lead a series, Wayne Lai should be cast as her partner. Maybe it could be a male dominated drama just so Nancy gets some leading experience before she gets another leading role with more screen time.

Wishful thinking though, sadly it seems that TVB likes to keep Nancy under-promoted. What are your thoughts?

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 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!