Get a free giffgaff Sim Hi there...: September 2012

Monday 24 September 2012

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

Click on the picture to see it in full size.


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 :)

Monday 17 September 2012

The fate of the characters in King Maker

I was just thinking about the fates of the main characters in King Maker. It's quite depressing,click the picture below to see it bigger:

See my review of King Maker here.

Sunday 16 September 2012

造王者 King Maker review

Spoilers alert!
Click here to see the fates of the main characters from the character map. It looks depressing. 
This series started out great: the first few episodes of this show were the highlights of the show. They were gripping and entertaining to watch. I started to get bored of it when Pierre Ngo's character when back to the palace and became his normal self again as the storyline slowed down. The last episodes got more exciting again, but I then thought the plot in the last two episodes were quite horrible!

In fact, thinking back, the whole storyline after the first few episodes was wibbly wobbly. I'm don't know what the heck what happened. I really wanted to like this show. I did at first too until I watched the last episodes. The Show shouldn't be called "King Maker", it should be "I wonder what Dong Chiu is gonna do next?". The show seemed to be revolved around Yu Jing and Dong Chiu, whilst the next to the throne was just a sub-story. Dong Chiu just creates havoc.


Apart from the first episodes, there are only two good things I remember from the show:

1) I thought it was funny that Dong Chiu called his son "Chuk Sang" (animal) and his son would answer immediately as if it was his real name. I found this funny every time!

2) Yeung Chung didn't die and got a happy ending. I was worried throughout the series that he'd get murdered trying to protect Yu Jing, but he didn't.


The ending reminded me of The Life and Times of a Sentinel. There was a big scene where there was someone trying to steal the throne and talking about who is the King's son. Also Yu Jing giving the false poison wine to Dong Chiu is like Steven Ma giving Kenneth Ma the fake poison. I also started laughing when Dong Chiu said that he would be king and his people got their swords out as once again, because I thought that but was really out of place.

It's a bit sad that there are not many character with truly happy endings. Yeung Chung does, even though he'll have to listen to Yu Ching's woes. Yu Ting does even though I think she's married a silly man.

I think the 3 happiest people will be Guai Wor, his mother and wife. Even though they got sent to a poor place, they have each other, no more schemes and most importantly, freedom.


Overall storylines and thoughts of the main characters:

Wayne Lai as Yu Jing 余靖

He is banished to an island for a lifetime of laborious work after the crown prince, Guai Sing is captured by the King's opposition. He loses contact with his two younger siblings, who he knows have gone missing. 10 years later, he is released from the island when Guai Sing is also released. By now, Guai Sing is no longer the next in line to the throne, for his brother Guai Wor is instead. Yu Jing continues to work for Guai Sing, hoping that he could still be king one day. Since released from the island, Yu Jing meets Sam Niang, a widow and clever women and they immediately bond, trusting each other with their secrets.

Later on Guai Wor gets thrown out of the palace due to taking part in a scheme designed to kill the king.  Guai Sing becomes crown prince again. Later on Ju Ying finds that his two younger siblings are two people he recently met and they reunite.

His enemy Dong Chiu is looking for a way to get rid of Yu Jing as Dong Chiu also took part in the scheme to kill the king. The two men was already in bad grounds from before, Yu Jing did not agree with the methods Dong Chiu used to get what he wanted.

Dong Chiu eventually frames Yu Jing for helping the people that captured Guai Sing. Sam Niang takes all the blame and is imprisoned and sentenced to death. Having developed mutual romantic feelings for each other, Yu Jing vows revenge.

Yu Jing finds out that Guai Sing is not actually the King's son, but still helps him as long as he agrees to give the throne to the King's third son after 10 years, and be a good king in the meanwhile. Dong Chiu finds out about Guai Sing and plans to expose this secret but Yu Jing manages to turn it around and fool everyone.

Dong Chiu's daughter and Yu Jing's old romance Yuk Kiu sacrifices herself to save Yu Jing being stabbed by Dong Chiu's servant. Before she dies, Yu Jing promises that he wouldn't kill Dong Chiu for his evil deeds.

5 years later all the men grow facial hair. Meanwhile, Yu Jing continues to help Guai Sing run the country and keeps Dong Chiu on a deserted island, giving him enough food to survive. Dong Chiu tells him that the real loser of the two is Yu Jing, as he now is trapped into aiding the King forever whereas Dong Chiu can do what ever he wants on his island.
The show ends with Yu Jing considering Dong Chiu's statement.

Apart from his little sister, Yu Jing lost everything that was important to him: Sam Niang, his brother and helping the rightful king. It's sad that he probably won't be ever happy again, his life now only consists of running the country. I'm glad he still has Yeung Chung who will stay his loyal friend forever. I don't understand why Yeung Guk sides with him instead of Guai Sing, getting rid of the killers Guai Sing got to kill Yu Jing. I thought Yeung Guk was loyal to the king, which Guai Sing would soon become, but he's working under the orders of Yu Jing now.

I like fact that there aren't any major lovey dovey scenes in any of Wayne's performances. It's not that I don't like them, but sometimes you can see affection between couples without having to have those scenes. 
I don't like how nasty he was to his little brother just because he was an eunuch. Yu Jing doesn't seem to be a person who discriminates other people!

We'll be seeing Wayne in The Confidant soon! Let's see if it's TV king worthy! As the chinese say, his next character is going to turn around by 360 degrees. I also look forwards to seeing Michelle Yim again, and the ambiguous relationship between Wayne and Nancy. I do like their collaborations!



Kent Cheng as Dong Chiu 董昭

A man who will do anything to benefit himself, he lied to his daughter so she would marry a bad man to save the family. He blames his schemes on other people and is the enemy of Yu Jing who does not like his ways of doing things. Dong Chiu gains the trust of the King, Guai Sing and the Queen. In order to make Guai Sing the crown prince, he tricks Gwok Chu, an old acquaintance of the Queen to work together to kill the king, but he actually causes the plan to fail and also cause the king to abandon Guai Wor as the crown prince.

Yu Jing guesses that Dong Chiu is behind everything, and the latter is determined to get rid of Yu Jing. Along the path he frames Yu Jing for working with the King's opposition, but Yu Jing's acquaintance Sam Niang takes the blame and is put to death instead.

He continues to plot, and when he finds out Guai Sing isn't actually the King's son he tries to steal the throne. He fails and Gets put on an isolated island by Yu Jing who regularly supplies him with food. There are subtle hints that he may have gone mad.

I don't really understand what he was evil for. He wanted status and he had it (fair enough with Yeung Chi San). Otherwise he just decided to be evil and kill random people along the way. It seems that Kent just talks very loudly every time he is angry, and occasionally waves his arms about. I didn't like his expression when he was trying to convince the Queen that he was always loyal to her at the end of the series, it just looked like a puppy face a child would pull.

I remember his hand started shaking, the first time when his daughter was really angry at him, but him insisting that he always loved her, the second some time in the palace. Nothing came out of the hand shaking, unless it was the start of him going crazy, but he never did. I think he talked to the dog on purpose as Yu Jing was there to show that being a King Maker does not bring a pleasant future.

Also I thought it was random that a dog was on the island in the end. If Yu Jing didn't bring it there there shouldn't be a dog on the island!


Krystal Tin as Sam Niang 嚴三娘

A smart and caring widow, she meets Yu Jing and even though they know nothing about each other, they quickly develop a strong friendship which later turns into romantic feelings. She takes blame from Yu Jing who is framed by Dong Chiu to have been unloyal to the king and is sentenced to death. Even though the King takes back the sentence after finding she really wan't guilty, Dong Chiu  brings her sentence forwards, and she takes the poison wine just before Yu Jing arrives in attempt to save her. She dies in Yu Jing's arms.

No comment about her character, it wasn't very memorable and it didn't seem to be important at all apart from her sacrifice. It was very sad when she died but at least she got to see Yu Jing before she did. She had many happy moments in her life.


Natalie Tong as Yu Ting 樊紅纓
The long lost sister of Yu Jing, she lost her memory as a child and was bought up by Sam Niang, and thought that Gwok Chu was her Dad. Her "Dad" finds out her real identity, and that her real father caused Gwok Chu's family to be sentenced to death and uses her to harm her big brother before telling her the truth. Yu Ting then remembers who she really is and is reunited with her brother. Meanwhile she gets to know Guai Sing who develops feeling for her.

Gwok Chu attempted to assassinate the King but failed but escaped. Since everyone thought Yu Jing really was Gwok Chu's daughter, they wanted to kill Yu Ting too. Yu Jing reveals to others that she is actually his long lost sister so shouldn't get punishment. Furthermore Guai Sing and Yu Ting lie to the King saying that she was carrying his baby so she could not be murdered.

She is then brought to live in the palace, as the Queen decides to determine her fate after she gives birth to the baby. She does later get pregnant and becomes Queen when Guai Sing becomes King.

I liked Natalie Tong here. I'm still recovering from her performance from The Life and Times of a Sentinel as I also mentioned on my review of No Good Either Way

I was not impressed by the scene where she stabs Yu Jing in the chest, and thought it was rather a fail. Not the acting, but that bit of storyline. When Yu Jing stabs Yu Jing, Pan Gwok Chu comes out all proud because he achieved his goal of seeing the Yu siblings harming each other. Apart from Yu Jing looked pretty fine and still managed to smack his head on the ground 36 times before fainting (in fact I think that's what made him faint, the headbutting, not the stabbing in the chest. Then when Sam Niang comes out she and Pan Gwok Chu seem to be equally matched in fighting, but Fan Bong Jue remains unharmed when all the other Fan people came out to fight him too. I don't understand too how he managed to escape, his loyal person came out and suddenly all the Fan men forget about capturing him? So he manages to escape with 2 people against about 20 people. Yeah right. At least she had a happy ending.

Pierre Ngo as Guai Sing 趙貴誠
He is the crown prince, but due to his brother's scheme, he gets captured by the King's enemies. He loses his status and his dignity as the capturers frequently abuse him. He is released back to his home after 10 years a nervous wreck and took a period of time before returning to his usual self with the help of Yu Jing. He becomes crown prince again after scheming by Dong Chiu. Guai Sing later finds out about the bad deeds Dong Chiu commits.

Guai Sing also finds that he isn't actually the King's son. Dong Chiu also finds out and plots against Guai Sing, however he fails. Guai Sing puts him in Jail and leaves Yu Jing to sort him out.

Guai Sing becomes king. His third brother dies of illnesses, therefore he gets to keep the throne.

Much like the series, his character was best to watch in the first few episodes. Even though what happened to him was cruel, it was touching to see. He randomly got evil for a bit in the end as he wanted to kill everyone. But I don't think the killing personality is his personality, but just there to show how greedy someone can be to become king. I'm still not convinced. But I think it might also be because he is really indecisive and can't make his own mind so when his real dad says "Kill Yu Jing" he thinks "ok then", but then Yu Jing says "don't kill me" he thinks "ok then". Without Yu Jing, he would be a terrible king as he doesn't seem to be intelligent at all. In fact, if the king is not blood related to previous king he should let Yu Jing be king instead. Silly king solved.


Elaine Yiu as Yuk Kiu 董玉喬
Yuk Kiu was the most pitiful character. Her life just went wrong after Yu Jing got sent to that island for 10 years. She got tricked into marrying a villain by her father and was not treated well and beaten. The love of her life, Yu Jing does not want her anymore. When she finally gets to leave her husband she leaves as a scheming bitter women who will trust no one at all. Which is a pity because before that I very much hoped that one day she could get together with her step son Yeung Guk. 

I thought her character would get really annoying after she got crazy and slapped her servant, thinking she was Sam Niang. Apart from nothing actually grew from that random crazy-ness so it was a pointless scene. Also the scene were she was really determined that she would never get used again and hated everyone was also pointless as she still got used and still head over heels with Yu Jing.


Then she got used again by her father, what a poor girl. Then she died for Yu Jing too.

Patrick Tang as Yu Ting 余清 (Sheung Hei 常喜)
I don't know why his big brother had to be so nasty to him at first. I also thought that Sheung Hei was a villain for some reason. The ending would have been much happier if he hadn't died, as Yu Jing would have had both his siblings alive. Sheung Hei's life is sad too, he lost his family at a young age and was deceived into becoming an eunuch. But his last part of his life was happy as he was reunited with his family, and at least he took his own life, not murdered.


Samuel Fong and Kingdom Yuen as The King and Queen

The King is quite a useless king. He listens to and then believes in everything anyone says and does not seem to have much judgement himself. I remember in the scene where the men were blaming the failed attempt of the assassination of the king on each other, everyone had their say, Yeung Chi San, Dong Chiu, Yu Jing... and the King just believed in the latest story he was told. I like the actor that played the king. He can do any character at all and be really convincing...

...I hadn't seen Kingdom Yuen for a while and she had a measurable amount of screen time here. It was quite weird for me watching her play such a proper character. I'm used to her playing those feisty and comedic characters so I just couldn't watch any of her expressions without feeling like I'm watching something weird. I can't really comment on her acting because of that, there's an image of Kingdom Yuen that has formed in my head from the past and I can't get rid of it. My Mum says that she did really well though.




Friday 14 September 2012

天梯 The Last Steep Ascent: English Character Map

Click on the image below to see it in full size:

I haven't watched the finale of King Maker yet, but I will be writing a review when I do!
*Edit: I have done so now, read it here.

Tuesday 11 September 2012

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?






Monday 10 September 2012

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?


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!

Sunday 2 September 2012

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?