TVB Anniversary Awards 2023; ‘The Queen of News’ emerged the biggest winner as expected with 8 awards including best series while Charmaine Sheh swept all 3 best actress awards in a record-breaking outcome.

TVB Anniversary Awards 2023, honouring the best of Hong Kong’s TVB series and programmes released last year (2023) was held a moment ago at Grand Lisboa Palace Resort, Macau. This is the first time the awards ceremony took place away from its usual location in TVB studio. The emcee for the evening is Karl Ting. The show originally scheduled to take 3 hours only but ended up overrun for additional half an hour.

Without further ado, here below are the list of winners in all categories except the non-series related ones along with my comments;

Best Supporting Actress: Samantha Ko (The Queen of News)

Opinion: Once the top 5 is revealed, I knew right away it would be Samantha as she is the most experienced among the 5 and her performance in ‘The Queen of News’ is quite good.

Best Supporting Actor: Jazz Lam (The Invisibles)

Opinion: Happy for Jazz to win too but my first choice is Matthew Ho as his mute role in ‘Narcotic Heroes’ is much harder to play and he put so much effort on it (and he nailed it).

Most Improved TV Male Artiste: Mark Ma

Opinion: My pick would be Nicholas Yuen but he isn’t even able to reach Top 5 surprisingly. But Mark Ma is ok.

Most Improved TV Female Artiste: Tiffany Lau

Opinion: Very much expected as she is currently heavily promoted by TVB.

Malaysia’s Most Favourite Series: The Invisibles

Opinion: Now, this is quite surprising. Didn’t expect ‘The Invisibles’ could triumph over ‘The Queen of News’. Something fishy here. I guess TVB doesn’t want all awards to go to one particular series and left many other artistes empty-handed. Anyway, ‘The Invisibles’ is still a good drama but certainly steps behind ‘The Queen of News’.

Malaysia’s Most Favourite Lead Actor: Kenneth Ma (The Queen of News)

Opinion: I thought this would goes to Ruco Chan since he has bigger fanbase in Malaysia. Anyway, happy for Kenneth to win.

Malaysia’s Most Favourite Lead Actress: Charmaine Sheh (The Queen of News)

Opinion: Expected. Her first win of the evening. More to come…

Greater Bay Area’s Most Favourite Series: The Queen of News

Opinion: Expected too as this series gotten huge popularity in mainland China as well.

Greater Bay Area’s Most Favourite Lead Actor: Bosco Wong (Dead Ringer)

Opinion: Oohh…now this outcome is something refreshing. Didn’t see Bosco on stage for a long time. Quite happy that he did although I didn’t watch ‘Dead Ringer’.

Greater Bay Area’s Most Favourite Lead Actress: Charmaine Sheh (The Queen of News)

Opinion: Second award for her in the evening. On the route to record breaking wins. She is so far ahead everyone else in her category.

Best TV Song: ‘Crystal Clear’ by Gigi Yim (The Queen of News)

Opinion: That’s my pick too. Very simple lyrics but beautiful melody and suits very well to the series.

Best Leading Actor: Moses Chan (Narcotic Heroes)

Opinion: Same with my prediction yesterday. As there is no clear frontrunner in this category this year, there’s a feeling that this will go to Moses as the last time he had won this was 16 years ago. Time for another one. My gut feeling was right.

Best Leading Actress: Charmaine Sheh (The Queen of News)

Opinion: Wow…Charmaine broke record by sweeping all three best actress awards for the evening. She also broke record as the actress with most Hong Kong best actress wins at 3 (previous win in 2006 and 2014). Congratulations to her. A bit pity for Selena Lee who also did extremely well in ‘The Queen of News’. Whenever she emerges strong that particular year, there is always another one who did well and is of higher status and won (remember 2019 when she was so phenomenal in ‘Barrack o’Karma’ but ended up only winning Most Popular Female Character (shared with Miriam Yeung) and that year’s best actress goes to Kara Hui).

Best Series: The Queen of News

Opinion: Expected and very much deserving. The only series that truly stood out last year. Impressive production. The series became the biggest winner of the ceremony after winning 8 awards.

That’s it. I think I’m the first one to publish the winners list of the just concluded TVB Anniversary Awards 2023 in English version. Haha…efficiency right there as I wrote this post while watching the whole show just now. Good night and have a great week ahead!

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Finished ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ TV series and my predictions for TVB Anniversary Awards 2023 (to be held tomorrow).

As someone who seldom watch American TV series, I am quite surprised that their series are way shorter in number of episodes compared to Hong Kong TV series that I have been watching since my childhood. Anyway, I have just completed the full 10 episodes of ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’. The series follows members of the Monarch organization as they encounter Godzilla and other monsters called Titans, across a half century.

(Image source: @Earstohear from medium.com)

I came into the series with a bit of a wrong mindset. I am very much anticipating for monster fight scenes (only has one great one very briefly shown in the last episode) and the series ended up being mostly not about that. Godzilla only appeared for a few minutes in the entire series. I also couldn’t grasp the complicated plot unfortunately and hence couldn’t immerse myself into the storyline and characters’ development.

Anyway, I’m now looking forward to the next film in MonsterVerse franchise; Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. The movie is set to be released end of this March. Never gets enough of Godzilla. Haha…Also when will the ‘Godzilla Minus One’ be available on streaming platform?

In other news, the TVB Anniversary Awards 2023 is finally going to be held on evening tomorrow. ‘Most Popular TV Male and Female Character’ awards were removed this year and replaced with ‘Most Favourite Lead Actor and Actress in Greater Bay Area’. Malaysia also gets to continue to choose their own ‘Most Favourite Lead Actor and Actress’ (not anymore for Singapore audiences).

I have a feeling that for lead actor categories, TVB is going to distribute the awards evenly to different persons. It is also because there is no clear frontrunner this year. Hong Kong’s best actor would goes to Moses Chan (he last won it very long time ago back in 2007), Greater Bay’s favourite lead actor (same version as best actor) would be Kenneth Ma and Malaysia’s favourite lead actor would be Ruco Chan (due to his huge fanbase in Malaysia).

As for lead actress categories, hands down…it’s Charmaine Sheh. She is going to take all the three best actress trophies due to huge popularity of herself and the drama (The Queen of News) making it a historic night. However, I have a feeling that TVB may want to pull off something exciting for best actress race by awarding two persons for Hong Kong’s best actress trophy; Charmaine and Selena Lee (her co-star in ‘The Queen of News’). Selena deserved this award too from her excellent performance in that series and she should have won last time from her role in ‘Barrack o’Karma’. I do hope for a tie for the best actress. Let’s see how it will turn out tomorrow’s night.

(Image source: hk01.com)

Ending the post with two beautiful pictures I took from my weekly cycling last night at the same route going through Stadium, Bay East Garden, Marina Barrage, Gardens by the Bay and Marina Bay Sands Promenade;

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

My picks for the best of TVB series in 2023 and a little prediction for upcoming TVB Anniversary Awards 2023.

It’s a wrap for Hong Kong’s TVB series in 2023 after I have finished ‘The Queen of News’ over a week ago. It’s the time again for me to choose the best of the year based on my personal judgement, observation and analysis. This is purely my own preference and is limited to only the television dramas of the year that I have watched.

By the way, I have been doing this since 2007. Hence, this is my 17th year of annually selecting my personal best of TVB series. I have watched a total of 8 dramas this year as listed below (along with my rating to each series out of 10 points).

• The Invisibles. (7.8)
• Speakers of Law. (6.3)
• Secret Door. (8.0)
• Unchained Medley. (7.0)
• Narcotic Heroes. (7.1)
• Let Me Take Your Pulse. (8.0)
• Romeo and His Butterfly Lover. (6.8)
• The Queen of News. (8.7)

As expected, ‘The Queen of News’ is my highest rated TVB drama of 2023 while ‘Speakers of Law’ is my lowest rated. You may also look up for my individual review to each of these dramas by using the ‘search’ function in my blog page and key in the relevant drama’s title.

Here below are my personal selection of the best of TVB series in 2023 in 15 categories:

Best Drama : The Queen of News

(4 other finalists: The Invisibles, Secret Door, Narcotic Heroes, Let Me Take Your Pulse)

Best Leading Actor: Kenneth Ma (The Queen of News)

(4 other finalists: Ruco Chan – Secret Door, Owen Cheung – Unchained Medley, Edwin Siu – Narcotic Heroes, Moses Chan – Narcotic Heroes)

Best Leading Actress: Selena Lee (The Queen of News)

(4 other finalists: Charmaine Sheh – The Queen of News, Mandy Wong – Secret Door, Aimee Chan – Romeo and His Butterfly Lover, Sisley Choi – Let Me Take Your Pulse)

Most Favourite TV Male Character: Owen Cheung (Unchained Medley)

(4 other finalists: Kenneth Ma – The Invisibles, Ruco Chan – Secret Door, Kalok Chow – Romeo and His Butterfly Lover, Matthew Ho – Let Me Take Your Pulse)

Most Favourite TV Female Character: Charmaine Sheh (The Queen of News)

(4 other finalists: Selena Lee – The Queen of News, Katy Kung – Unchained Medley, Kelly Cheung – Narcotic Heroes, Sisley Choi – Let Me Take Your Pulse)

Best Supporting Actor: Matthew Ho (Narcotic Heroes)

(4 other finalists: Hugo Ng – Secret Door, Joel Chan – The Queen of News, Max Cheung – Speakers of Law, Ram Chiang – Narcotic Heroes)

Best Supporting Actress: Elena Kong (The Invisibles)

(4 other finalists: Moon Lau – Secret Door, Joman Chiang – Romeo and His Butterfly Lover, Samantha Ko – The Queen of News, Regina Ho – The Queen of News)

Most Improved TV Male Artiste: Nicholas Yuen (The Invisibles, Secret Door, Unchained Medley)

(4 other finalists: Arnold Kwok – The Invisibles, Alex Yung – Speakers of Law, Mark Ma – Narcotic Heroes & The Queen of News, Ricco Ng – Let Me Take Your Pulse)

Most Improved TV Female Artiste: Tiffany Lau (The Invisibles, Unchained Medley)

(4 other finalists: Regina Ho – Speakers of Law & The Queen of News, Bowie Cheung – Narcotic Heroes, Erica Chan – Let Me Take Your Pulse, Joman Chiang – Romeo and His Butterfly Lover)

Most Favourite Drama Theme Song: ‘Crystal Clear’ by Gigi Yim (The Queen of News)

(4 other finalists: ‘They Aren’t You’ by Shiga Lin for The Invisibles, ‘There is No Reason to Leave’ by James Ng for The Invisibles, ‘Blurred in Dream’ by Owen Cheung & Sherman Poon for Unchained Medley, ‘Will Not Say Goodbye’ by Vivian Koo for Let Me Take Your Pulse)

Most Favourite On-Screen Couple: Matthew Ho & Sisley Choi (Let Me Take Your Pulse)

(4 other finalists: Kenneth Ma & Natalie Tong – The Invisibles, Owen Cheung & Katy Kung – Unchained Medley, Edwin Siu & Kelly Cheung – Narcotic Heroes, Moses Chan & Aimee Chan – Romeo and His Butterfly Lover)

Most Favourite TV Villain: Hugo Ng (Secret Door)

(4 other finalists: Ruco Chan – The Invisibles, Max Cheung – Speakers of Law, Mandy Wong – Secret Door, Timothy Cheng – Romeo and His Butterfly Lover)

Best Technical & Production Design: Romeo and His Butterfly Lover

(4 other finalists: The Invisibles, Secret Door, Unchained Medley, Let Me Take Your Pulse)

Outstanding TV Veteran Artiste: Timothy Cheng (Romeo and His Butterfly Lover)

(4 other finalists: Angelina Lo – Secret Door & Let Me Take Your Pulse, Mary Hon – Secret Door & Romeo and His Butterfly Lover, Cheung Kwok Keung – Secret Door & Narcotic Heroes, Ram Chiang – Narcotic Heroes)

Outstanding Cast Ensemble: The Queen of News

(4 other finalists: The Invisibles, Secret Door, Narcotic Heroes, Let Me Take Your Pulse)

‘The Queen of News’ is the most celebrated drama with 6 honours including best series. It is very likely that this drama will snatch the most wins at the upcoming TVB Anniversary Awards 2023 too (to be held in 14th January 2024). I will be going mad if it doesn’t win best drama.

Competition for best lead actor is very weak this year and out of intense scrutiny, Kenneth Ma prevailed from his performance in ‘The Queen of News’ (particularly from his emotional scene in the last episode). This is his second time winning this honour. Anyone could take this win at the upcoming TVB Anniversary Awards 2023.

I was also very hesitant between Charmaine and Selena for best lead actress. They are both outstanding in ‘The Queen of News’ but finally I picked Selena as I find Charmaine had all the charisma and aura in the series but her character lacks a little depth/character’s development when compared to Selena’s character. This is also Selena’s second time winning this honour. I do hope that she could win best actress for the first time ever at the upcoming TVB Anniversary Awards but Charmaine is likely heading for her historic third win. How about a tie, TVB?

Anyway, if you are a fan of TVB series over the years, what are your picks and predictions for this year? Feel free to share your thought.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Belated 15th anniversary to my blog!

If it was not for the reminder notification from WordPress, I would have really forgotten that it was my blog’s 15th anniversary 3 days ago (on 28th September). Happy 15th anniversary to my blog! What a milestone!

15 years later, I am still here actively updating my blog (or online journal as I would like to personally call it). I do really have to praise my dedication in blogging after all the years. I guess it is really my long-term hobby to jot down and share things that are of my interest. And years later, this journal would be the place I can recall most of the great memories I had or the major events the world see in the past through all the countless pictures and write-up I have posted. That would be pretty awesome.

In conjunction with the anniversary, here’s a quick report card for my blog which has started since 28th September 2008. As of today, my blog has received close to 3.9 million views, over 1.3 million visitors and accumulated over 440 subscribers. I have written close to 2500 posts and for this year alone, I have written up to 48 000 words. There will be only up for these figures as I continue to observe my blog’s 16th, 20th anniversary and so on in the future.

By the way, it’s already October and we have entered into the last quarter of the year. I ended September 2023 with not only a new iPhone 15 Pro but also a new AirPods Pro (2nd generation) to use. It originally costs SGD363 but I had a 100 dollars discount voucher from a friend. Hence, I got it at only SGD263 (that’s about RM900; still expensive but feel better with this reduced price for the wireless headphone). Extra damage to my wallet last month. Haha….

Before ending the post, I would like to extend a belated Mid-Autumn Festival greeting to my family, friends and my blog readers that are Chinese as well. I treated myself a box of very delicious durian snow-skin mooncakes on top of few other mooncakes given by my office and friends. This is the only period I can indulge on mooncakes which I quite like (especially the durian flavoured ones, traditional lotus paste with yolk or even jelly mooncakes).

TVB Anniversary Awards 2022: ‘Get On A Flat’ is the biggest winner of the night with 3 wins including best drama.

TVB Anniversary Awards 2022 was held yesterday to recognize the best in drama series and variety programs for year 2022 from Hong Kong’s largest television broadcasting company, TVB. I didn’t watch many TVB dramas last year as I was occupied with my working holiday and vacations in New Zealand and Australia in the second half of 2022. Anyway, I still follow closely to this annual awards and have indeed watched the presentation ceremony live on last evening.

Here below is the list of winners for TVB Anniversary Awards 2022 (excluding the categories for hosting and other type of programs) along with my comments on some of the categories;

Best Drama: Get On A Flat

Opinion: Have not watch this. Will watch this when I’m back to Malaysia after my current vacation to see how good it is.

Best Actor: Joel Chan (Barrack O’Karma 1968)

Opinion: Very happy for him to win this award. He has improved so much over the years and had been given a lot of good roles in recent years. He deserved the win although ‘Barrack O’Karma 1968’ isn’t as good as its predecessor.

Best Actress: Elena Kong (Get On A Flat)

Opinion: Happy for Elena too as she had been a solid actress for all these years in supporting roles. She finally got a leading role and won immediately. Fantastic! ‘Barrack O’Karma 1968’ isn’t doing well and hence Selena Li unfortunately misses her chance again to win best actress although she had won Most Popular TV Female Character from her role in the first series.

Most Popular TV Male Character: Kalok Chow (Your Highness)

Opinion: I felt like TVB is obviously promoting him very quickly as he has been winning many awards in recent years despite his young age. I felt this award should be given to Andrew Lam (Get On A Flat) instead.

Most Popular TV Female Character: Amy Fan (Come Home Love: Lo And Behold)

Opinion: Weak competition in this category this year. I don’t think Amy is deserving of this win. Would prefer Alice Chan (Communion) or Selena Li (Barrack O’Karma 1968) instead.

Best Supporting Actor: Eric Tang (Get On A Flat)

Best Supporting Actress: Angel Chiang (The War Of Beauties)

Most Improved TV Male Artist: Ricco Ng

Opinion: Good for Ricco. At least we got to see another new young face frequently on screen rather than the same Kalok Chow or Karl Ting everywhere.

Most Improved TV Female Artist: Rosita Kwok

Opinion: I felt she is too new and inexperienced for this award. Moon Lau is the most deserving out of the top 5 nominees.

Most Favourite TV Partnership: Kalok Chow, Jeannie Chan, Joey Wong, Brian Chu, Jonathan Cheung (Your Highness)

Most Popular TV Drama Theme Song: ‘Wish’ by Joey Wong (Big White Duel 2)

Best Variety Show: Super Trio Returns

Opinion: This show is indeed still very entertaining after all these years although most of the participating guests in this show are no longer famous celebrities.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Catherine Tsang (TVB Executive)

Best Dressed TV Artists: Joel Chan, Nancy Wu, Hera Chan

Malaysia’s Most Favourite TVB Series: I’ve Got The Power

Opinion: I will watch this series soon when I’m back to Malaysia after hearing all the good reviews for the series earlier.

Malaysia’s Most Favourite TVB Actor: Ruco Chan (I’ve Got The Power)

Opinion: This is more like a consolation for Ruco as he has been exceptional in ‘I’ve Got The Power’ too but lost in the best actor category. Ruco also has a huge fan base in Malaysia hence it is not surprising that he won this again.

Malaysia’s Most Favourite TVB Actress: Moon Lau (The War Of Beauties)

Opinion: No ‘Most Improved’ award but a much better award straight away for Moon Lau. Moon Lau should win ‘Most Improved’ and leave this award to Alice Chan (Communion) or Selena Li (Barrack O’Karma 1968) who both has not even win this Malaysia’s award before.

‘Get On A Flat’ is the biggest winner of the evening with 3 awards including the final award of the ceremony; best drama. I’m surprised that there are quite a number of heavyweight guest presenters (Simon Yam, Slyvia Chang, etc) present at this ceremony (thanks to Eric Tsang who is now the general manager of TVB and had known many heavyweight stars as his friends over the years he is in this entertainment industry).

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

My working holiday trip to New Zealand is now just around the corner…and my brief review to TVB series ‘Stranger Anniversary’.

It’s the month of June already and four days later, I will be flying to New Zealand to commence my working holiday trip. The trip was planned since March once I got my working holiday visa approved. After nearly 3 months of waiting and preparation, the trip is finally within sight.

Settling on a new place to live is never easy and is pretty daunting at first. Fortunately, I have such experience in the past twice when I moved to Australia for two years for my postgraduate study and then moved to Singapore for work purpose. Haha…I was like a nomad; changing places to settle at once every few years.

I would already be in New Zealand by the time my next blog post appeared. I will most probably write on my first impression of Queenstown, share some stunning pictures of the place during winter (opps…it’s going to be freaking cold over there!), and share some of the things I have to do once I arrived there before I start my seasonal job at the Remarkables ski resort. Looking forward to this view below of Queenstown and the Remarkables mountain at the background when I get there next week.

Before ending my post, I would like to share my quick review to a recent TVB drama that I have watched; ‘Stranger Anniversary’. It is a 25-episode series (cut short to 20-episode for TVB version due to extremely poor rating this series has received) with a story that revolves on two people who are not related by blood, but very similar in appearance. They contact each other, and have been miraculously affecting each other’s life trajectory. The series starred Joe Ma, Roxanne Tong, Winki Lai, Matthew Ho, Alice Chan, David Chiang, Angel Chiang, Tsui Wing, etc.

I understand why the series received such poor rating. A very simple answer; it is simply bad. Comes with a non-engaging storyline and poor chemistry between the cast, the series just couldn’t deliver. Joe Ma is too old for the role and is not compatible at all especially with her much younger female co-stars (Roxanne and Winki). The comedy part of the series was also not funny. For its drama side, it was uninteresting. My only compliment to the series is its effort on putting two Joe Ma’s characters together in the same frame in a couple of scenes which require some hard work. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Stranger Anniversary’ a total of 6.0. A light-hearted show but could not bring anything fresh to the table.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Shaun Tam and Rosina Lam won TV King and Queen at TVB Anniversary Awards 2021 while ‘Battle of the Seven Sisters’ surprisingly snags best TV series.

TVB Anniversary Awards 2021 took place a moment ago to recognize the best from TVB series and programmes aired last year. Although there is no live online streaming of the event on Youtube (unlike last year), but I was still able to watch it from TVB Anywhere app via my mobile phone fortunately (but have to be patient with the unstable streaming).

This is the first time I’m not seeing Carol Cheng hosting the awards presentation ceremony. I wonder why. I’m surprised also at more number of heavyweight guests that are able to be invited to present awards this evening. I think mostly due to Eric Tsang’s (he is general manager of TVB now) many close ties in the industry. Here below are the results along with my opinions (only series related awards are shown. All non-series related awards are excluded as those are not of my interest):

Lifetime Achievement Award – David Chiang

Opinion: Very deserved win for David Chiang. He is a very solid veteran actor who has acted in TV series from 1980s all the way to the present. He had also acted in over 100 films to date. Even my father who doesn’t really remember names of popular actors of his generation also does know his name.

Best Supporting Actor – Brian Chu (Take Two)

Opinion: Disappointed with this result. Brian Chu’s performance in that drama is only average. Cheung Wing-hong or Him Law displayed much better performances last year.

Most Improved TV Female Artiste – Lesley Chiang

Opinion: Didn’t watch any of her works last year and so couldn’t comment much. I also have no particular preference for this category.

Most Improved TV Male Artiste – Joey Law, Karl Ting

Opinion: Happy for both of them winning. Both of them put a lot of effort and deserved recognition. Karl is very energetic on his works in non-series programmes and he is also very good and natural in ‘Battle of the Seven Sister’. Didn’t see any Joey Law’s works last year though.

Best Dressed TV Female Artiste – Jeannie Chan

Best Dressed TV Male Artiste – Shaun Tam

Malaysia’s Most Favourite Leading Actress – Linda Chung (Kids’ Lives Matter)

Opinion: She is my second choice. I prefer Ali but I’m not too disappointed with Linda winning. However, she had won this award (Malaysia) before. Ali has not if I’m not mistaken.

Malaysia’s Most Favourite Leading Actor – Shaun Tam (Take Two)

Opinion: Yes. He is my pick. The competition is very weak last year for lead actor categories. Out of the nominees, the ones who have not win before is Owen and Shaun. Out of these two, Shaun has the edge. His acting still has huge room of improvement but is certainly much better than Owen’s stiff acting in ‘The Ringmaster’.

Malaysia’s Most Favourite TV Series – Kids’ Lives Matter

Opinion: Disagreed with this outcome. This series is so boring. My choice is ‘AI Romantic’ which is more fun and interesting.

Best Supporting Actress – Yoyo Chen (Plan B)

Opinion: Quite a well deserved win. She had been in the industry for over 17 years but had been always sidelined to minor roles. She finally had a breakthrough year in 2021 with her winning a voice-acting contest show and a great performance in ‘Plan B’ as a fierce mother.

Most Popular TV Partnership – Mandy Lam & Jack Hui (Come Home Love: Lo and Behold)

Opinion: Didn’t watch this long running sitcom so nothing to comment for this category. The top 5 lists are also not of my interest.

Most Popular TV Male Character – Kenneth Ma (Kids’ Lives Matter)

Opinion: Wow…this is his 4th time winning this award. He is really super popular. I would prefer Billy Luk from ‘AI Romantic’ to win instead. Kenneth Ma won too many times. He doesn’t feel anything already after this 4th win which he himself find very surprising too.

Best Leading Actor – Shaun Tam (Take Two)

Opinion: Luckily is not Owen. Like I said earlier, if between Shaun and Owen, my choice is Shaun. Although his performance is not really exceptional but is good enough in 2021. Owen delivered a very bland performance in ‘The Ringmaster’. Shaun’s character in ‘Take Two’ is more interesting and he quite succeeded in it. Looking forward to see him further improving on his acting in future works.

Most Popular TV Female Character – Ali Lee (Beauty and the Boss)

Opinion: Didn’t watch her performance in ‘Beauty and the Boss’ but I do really like her in ‘AI Romantic’. I’m still glad she win though. She never win this before despite winning best actress few years ago. A very solid young actress.

Best Leading Actress – Rosina Lam (Battle of the Seven Sisters)

Opinion: I am almost 100% certain that Linda will take this. I’m very shocked now. She is robbed. I didn’t expect Rosina Lam to win. Her performance in ‘Battle of the Seven Sisters’ is indeed better than in ‘Sinister Beings’ (both were aired last year). But I still felt it is not her time yet. Her emotional scenes were still quite unnatural and felt forced. Perhaps it is TVB’s way to keep Rosina to continue filming for the station while Linda is now staying mostly at Canada already. This is supposed to be Linda’s year. Her emotional scenes in ‘Kids’ Lives Matter’ were great and many were already picking her.

Best TV Series – Battle of the Seven Sisters

Opinion: Disagreed with this series winning best series. Nothing spectacular or outstanding about this series. Out of the top 5, my choice is ‘Sinister Beings’. Disappointed that ‘AI Romantic’ does not even make it into top 5. It was my personal favourite in 2021.

Ok. That wraps up TVB report card for 2021. Time for new TVB series to watch this year soon.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

‘The Ringmaster’ is my final TV series of the year.

‘The Ringmaster’ (拳王) is a 25-episode TVB drama that is themed on boxing and starred Wayne Lai, Owen Cheung, Brian Chu, Elaine Yiu, Winki Lai, Shaun Tam, Huge Wong, Timothy Cheng, etc. It is one of the 4 anniversary series in conjunction with TVB’s 54th anniversary celebration this year. It is my 15th watched TVB series of the year and is also the last.

I couldn’t avoid but to be quite harsh on my review to this drama. The storyline is boring. I couldn’t get myself engaged to the dramas the characters are going through in the series. I hate that they kept on putting in intense powerful background score to lift up intensity of many scenes that aren’t really climactic or dramatic at all. It doesn’t work that way and it puts me off every time.

Owen Cheung put in a lot of effort to bulk up his body for this role. I am amazed by his effort and dedication but I think that has taken a toll on his acting. I find that his acting is a bit expressionless, stiff and bland in here. Wayne Lai is still a very solid actor but he alone cannot save the boredom of the storyline. And I can’t stand the fact that Owen defeated Wayne for this drama to be placed in top 5 in running for best actor next weekend. Wayne’s acting is much more refined and layered as compared to Owen’s bland performance here. Owen’s dedication in bodybuilding for this drama is not equal to his acting performance! Certainly poor judgement by these Hong Kong voters. And now I keep seeing Owen and Brian Chu in many recent TVB series. It is very obvious that TVB is heavily promoting them…and their muscular body. Brian especially…I knew it is not his choice but in both ‘Take Two’ and ‘The Ringmaster’ (back to back series), he has to purposely take off his shirt in some scenes. He has to show and prove his acting, not his body. TVB, please take note!

Although Shaun Tam only plays minor role in this series (as the deceased elder brother of Owen Cheung), but his storyline is actually the most engaging one. Elaine Yiu is the first female lead here but I don’t really see her presence as the lead. There is a huge group of friends of Owen in the boxing circle in the drama and each of them has their fair share of story arcs too but I couldn’t care less. By the way, Jacky Cai is the most annoying of all. I couldn’t stand her character. She has to magnify her voice and expression every time she act in this drama and that is very disturbing. I have not seen her before in any previous series too.

Out of 10 points, I rate ‘The Ringmaster’ 6.6. Features quite a number of award-winning actors and actresses but felt flat due to its boring and unappealing plot. Quite disappointed. Even the final episode contained very draggy and unnecessary long scenes of closures for each characters. They should have aired ‘Barrack O’Karma 2’ (expecting it to be good as its predecessor) instead of this series to end the year with a great finale.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

TVB Anniversary Awards 2021’s nomination list is out and my movie review for ‘Anita’.

It’s almost end of November. One more month left before we say goodbye to 2021! It is yet another full year of Covid-19. That’s unfortunate. More on the recap of this past one year will be detailed out soon in one of my posts near end of December as usual. And by the way, my 30th birthday is just around the corner; it will falls on this coming Saturday! Steady…steady…

Okay..let’s get back to the two main topics of this post. TVB had recently released its nomination list for their annual TVB Anniversary Awards for the year. As usual, everyone is nominated as long as you are involved in anything in this whole year. TVB should really cut down the nominees to like top 5 or top 10 rather than nominating everyone. There are also several new categories introduced this year (they are breaking down hosting award to male and female categories, etc). The awards presentation will be held on 2nd January 2022.

My choice for best drama would be ‘AI Romantic’ but I think TVB will give this to ‘Kids’ Lives Matter’. My choice for best lead actor would be Shaun Tam from ‘Take Two’ (Vincent Wong did very good in ‘Murder Diary’ but that series is a flop). No particular choice for ‘Most Popular TV Male Character’. Maybe Billy Luk from ‘AI Romantic’ but his chance of winning is very slim. My choice for best lead actress would be Linda Chung from ‘Kids’ Lives Matter’ (Kara is excellent in ‘Murder Diary’ but as mentioned earlier, the drama is bad). Ali Lee will most likely take home ‘Most Popular TV Female Character’ instead since she had won best actress before while Linda has not win any. ‘Murder Diary’ is a very complicated but boring drama (not up to majority’s taste and with very low TV rating) but we can’t ignore that the series showcased excellent performances by the two leads, Kara and Vincent. However, they both won before and so their chances are close to zero of winning again this soon.

The late Anita Mui was one of the most beloved Hong Kong artistes who tragically died from cervical cancer at the age of 40 in December 2003. Famously known as ‘daughter of Hong Kong’ and Cantopop diva, she excelled in both her singing and acting careers. Although she is in the era earlier than my generation but I do like some of her iconic songs and movies (especially her comedy films). There is a new biopic film titled ‘Anita’ that tells her story from being a kid performer to her death in 2003. I watched the film yesterday. It is quite a moving film (especially near the end) with excellent performance by Louise Wong who portrayed the late Anita Mui. The film also boasts great cinematography and production design.

The only downside of the film are the draggy plot involving her futile love life and the exaggeration of her loneliness, sadness and perhaps depression from small causes (that may seems to be not the actual case) in this film. Anyway it is still a very beautiful and touching film that brought us back to the golden years of Hong Kong from 70s to 90s. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Anita’ a total of 8.1. I do really admire Anita Mui’s unmatched dedication especially from her decision to hold her farewell concert just 45 days before her passing. She is truly a legend and it is very understandable why she is so beloved even until today, 18 years after her death.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

End of the year is near and it means the hype for this year’s TVB King and Queen is up again!

TVB, Hong Kong’s largest television station had successfully held its 54th anniversary gala on last Friday with the attendance of over 200 artistes from both the acting and singing fields. Popular veteran actor Eric Tsang may have hosted the annual gala show many number of times in the past but this year’s gala is the first under him as the newly appointed general manager of the station in charge of content operations.

Famous actors and actresses in attendance include past TV kings (Vincent Wong, Kenneth Ma, Moses Chan, Ruco Chan), past TV queens (Natalie Tong, Sisley Choi, Ali Lee), Mandy Wong, Chris Lai, Benjamin Yuen, Shaun Tam, Elaine Yiu, Owen Cheung, etc. Famous singers present at the gala include Hacken Lee, Gin Lee, Joyce Cheng, Hana Kuk, Jinny Ng, etc. Carol Cheng, Nat Chan, Liza Wang hosted the gala along with many other young artists.

Recently, I have completed watching another two TVB series, ‘Take Two’ and ‘Kids’ Lives Matter’. These two are part of the four anniversary series this year. Out of the two, I find that the former is better with more interesting and engaging plot although the twist at the ending is short-sighted.

‘Take Two’ is a 25-episode series that revolves on a engineer who is transported back to months before (yes…time travel!) the collapse of a residential building and his death to find out the culprits behind all these. The series starred Shaun Tam, Gloria Tang, Brian Chu, Cheung Wing Hong, Angel Chiang, Moon Lau, Gilbert Lam, etc. This drama has quite an interesting storyline only to be disappointed by the plot twist at the end which I have highlighted earlier. Shaun has improved in his acting and even Gloria did quite well taking on her first ever lead role here. Gilbert Lam nailed the villain role. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Take Two’ 7.9. Second highest rated TVB series this year so far.

The same cannot be said for ‘Kids’ Lives Matter’. This medical drama which has quite a strong cast (Kenneth Ma, Kevin Cheng, Linda Chung, Him Law, etc) couldn’t excel in my opinion although I have read from reviews that many actually quite like this series. I’m in the opposite. There are quite a lot of sad or touching cases involving sick children in the hospital of this drama but I just couldn’t feel or get immersed into their stories that only scratch at the surface level. They just couldn’t pull me in unlike past similar drama like ‘The Hippocratic Crush’. Full of realistic surgeries’ scenes but lack emotional drama or intensity. The cast performed fairly well but that’s not enough. I’m starting to get tired of seeing Kenneth Ma portraying a doctor again. People are touched by Linda’s crying scene in this drama but I don’t find it exceptional as I have seen the same from her in the past However, that is actually good enough to win best actress in TVB standard nowadays. Same goes to Kevin who did not bring anything new to the screen after not acting for quite some years. Just an average medical themed drama that will be easily forgotten. Out of 10 points, I rate this series 6.6.

So..whose names are brought up so far in contention for best lead actor and actress for this year’s TVB Anniversary Awards? While it is still quite early and the nomination list is not out yet, I am starting to predict that the best actor race will be between Owen Cheung (from the upcoming ‘The Ringmaster’), Shaun Tam (Take Two), Wayne Lai (The Ringmaster), Kenneth Ma (Plan B) and Vincent Wong (Murder Diary). Vincent gave the most impressive performance but he had won it twice already and ‘Murder Diary’ series performed badly in rating (so nope). I am thinking Shaun Tam may take it.

Best actress race will be between Ali Lee (AI Romantic), Kara Hui (Murder Diary), Rosina Lam (Battle of the Seven Sisters), Priscilla Wong (Battle of the Seven Sisters) and Linda Chung (Kids’ Lives Matter). Kara Hui gave the best performance out of the five but the series is not for everyone and failed in rating as mentioned earlier (so nope). The trophy most likely goes to Linda Chung but my own preference is actually Ali Lee but she had won before. Where is ‘Barrack O’ Karma 2′? I thought this series will be released end of this year (anticipating it for very long already!). If so, it will give a good fight for the awards.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)