What I know about him already: Kay Tse's husband, a singer and actor and dancer, only starred in TVB series not long ago, TVB Most Improved Male Artist, someone with rough skin but awesome actor.
What Wikipedia taught me about him: He is also a songwriter and even written songs for big HK singers such as Joey Yung and Eason Chan and has been in TV shows for longer than I thought.
My thoughts about him: I admire Louis Cheng since I find as someone humble and thankful in his achievements. People may say he doesn't have good lucks to appeal viewers but he definitely has the acting chops to attract the audience's attention. Rewind a few years back and I would of not heard about him but now he is popular in TVB and even promoted to leading actor.
Tuesday, 29 December 2015
TVB Eye in the Sky Theme Song
I played the theme song for the series, "Eye in the Sky" and it sounds pretty good. After listening to it a couple more times, if you pay special attention to the lyrics it sort of gives you a gist of what the storyline is about.
TVB Eye in the Sky 天眼 Review (2015) Brief Thoughts
I have just finished watching Episode 20 (the last episode) and I have come to the conclusion that this is not a bad series at all, just sometimes silly or cringe-worthy moments.
This series revolves around two biological twin brothers (Szeto Shun and Lik Hang) who reunite after more than 30 years of separation due a midwife selling Lik Hang to another family. Lik Hang endures a rough life having a pitiful childhood and the only light in the sea of darkness for him was Terry (portrayed by Tony Hung) who decided to take care of him and they become best buddies. The duo would then seek fortune by means of committing thief. This is in contrast to Szeto Shun, who instead enjoys a happy childhood with his parents beside him the whole time, leading way for him to become a policeman. One incident of Lik Hang committing arson however has led to the attention of Szeto Shun who was eager to find his twin brother. With the help of Jan (portrayed by Tavia Yeung), they eventually find Lik Hang and the drama begins of betrayal, jealousy, misunderstanding and mistrust, leading to a final showdown between the two brothers.
Characters:
Szeto Shun (portrayed by Kevin Cheng).
Some would say Szeto Sir is the goody-goody in this series but he is not perfect or flawless. Szeto in the series would do anything to save his brother from committing crime again, whether it meant breaking his principles or spying on others.
Kevin Cheng > I am impressed by his performance as someone who is serious-looking, unemotional and intelligent.
In my opinion, Kevin had the equal opportunity to flourish like Ruco and he did do well generally but not at the same standard as Ruco. This is because acting is not second-nature to him and he is not a naturally gifted actor. As much as he tries to act well, it sometimes seem to look too forced or deliberate.
Lik Hang (portrayed by Ruco Chan)
This Lik Hang is a calculative, angry and blind fella.
I liked the fact how although he is not a psychopath, he is someone filled with hatred and his grudge will over-weigh whatever conscience he has left. I also liked how this series did not make him a changed person because at the end who he cares is winning. He is jealous on the fact hat his brother Szeto has always been well-respected and superior compared to him and he wants to be the one winning.
Favourite acting scene - The scene where he watched Hor Yee Gu bleed to death. At first it looked like he was concerned for her and was about to see how she was, but then he had a headache and flashbacks of his past emerged. Feeling angry he watches in satisfaction for an agonising five minutes until she finally dies. Ruco then looks up the sky and smiles as in justice has been done. That was one of the many fine acting moments by Ruco and I applaud him for that. In this series you can tell he is a great actor by the fact that he doesn't seem like his trying to act. His hand guestures, his eye expressions all seem natural so you will be convinced of his acting.
Ruco Chan > I don't have a clear favourite role of Ruco because frankly he excels in basically who the roles that he is offered and this one is no exception.
Jan (portrayed by Tavia Yeung) - So far 2015 most wasted female character. I was so eager to see her as an assassin (that was instead given to Vivien Yeo) but instead she was a naive, stupid and rather shallow Jan which was wholly disappointing. What makes things even worse is when she gets considerable time-screen and her scenes w
Favourite acting scene - I guess the first episode where although silly she used her photographic memory skills to escape from the gangsters running after her.
Another thing that the scriptwriters seem to ignore the fact who killed King Kong? Obviously it was Lik Hang who shot him to prevent him from saying his name but no mention of this throughout the whole series.
Law Lan - A good performance by Law Lan and Samantha Ko did well.
Another downfall was this series was how small-scaled and convenient everything was.
Recommended or not? Definitely worth a watch for Ruco, Kevin and Lau Kong (when we see his true face) scenes. The rest like Tavia and her dad's scenes are all just an overdose for this already short series. Watch it for some brilliant acting, watch it for some dramatic moments and watch it for some heart-wrenching dialogue. But that aside prepare for some stupidity, shallowness and silliness that will equally be scattered throughout the episodes. It's your call.
The Legend of Zhen Huan Brief Thoughts
This is a series that I have previously never intended to watch at all. Interestingly, I really only paid attention to this series when I was watching "The War of the Beauties" and some netizens pointed out that the plot of that series was similar to the one for this series. Given that I was quite impressed with the plot of "The War of the Beauties" and my fascination of Chinese Ancient History, I decided to give this series a try and I don't regret it.
The Legend of Zhen Huan is a palace drama that revolves around the struggles and journey of Zhen Huan who eventually becomes in charge of the harem at the end. Born with a natural beauty and equipped with a sweet charm, she gain favours of the emperor and causes jealousy among some of the concubines (especially Consort Hua and the Empress). Both Consort Hua and the empress do whatever it takes to eliminate Zhen Huan but this only toughens up Zhen Huan ultimately not to take revenge but to be determined to stick up for herself.
No doubt this series was a big hit in Mainland China and other parts of Asia (Japan). Whilst I was impressed with this drama in general, it isn't without its flaws.
At many times this series could have just move forward quicker but refused to do so. Don't mistaken me as the pacing was ok but some dialogue was irritatingly long. There were too much fidgeting in my opinion; a few seconds would be wasted for some characters just to sit down, the overall dialogue is slow with the actors having a tendency to speak rather slow and just some lines that could be cut out completely. Yes these problems are quite petty and slow but if you add them together it can become quite menacing to watch at times. This series was 72 episodes and it could have been more exciting and enjoyable to watch with an adjustment of 25 episodes.
Lack of character development was also another issue that dragged down this series. Looking at it optimistically it's a good thing to just focus on the lead actors but I thought that there were quite a few pointless characters such as Huan Bi and etc.
Performances along ,this series boasted of some fine acting by some actors and actresses that I do not recognise until now.
For instance, Ada Choi was the only few of a small handful of artists I know. I've never really cared about Ada Choi or any of her roles in TVB before (the last memorable performance was when she portrayed the third sister in the Gem of Life?). That being said Ada is not a bad actress. In this series she did a decent job in portraying the phony, jealous and pretentious empress. She smiles with an obvious fakeness but it does in a way look as if she is generous and caring. She does stare at counterparts with some sense of suspicion and makes it as if she looks down at them (to create a sense of authority). The most memorable scene of her would probably be when she was trying to justify her evil deeds to the emperor by blaming him for neglecting her and favouring other girls.
Next one will be Betty Sun who was of course the lead actress in the series. I've never watched any of her series before but from this role of her alone as Zhen Huan she did impress me as a highly capable actress. There were many scenes that she did very much.
Overall a decent series.
TVB's Captain of Destiny <張保仔> Brief Review
Captain of Destiny is a TVB production that revolves on the historical Qing Period where the conflict between pirates and the Qing army came to a peak.
My thoughts on this series? I highly enjoyed it.
Performances alone, some excelled. Ruco Chan as 11th Prince/ Man-Ho - Man-Ho is someone rather eager, filial at times and sometimes nice heartened. Man ho can be said to be quite over eager and ambitious, where his actions of be the hero of the day by travelling to places to solve crimes and investigate bribery however does not earn him much credit by the emperor. Instead, Man-Ho gets cold treatment by the brother as well as his brothers, but Man-Ho is by no means undeterred. He nominates himself to become the lead commander in destroying the pirates down in Southern China.
Ruco gave an explosive performance with his role as Man-Ho. He was convincing as assertive, cunning, though quite stubborn. Ruco made his character as someone you will cheer for.
Joel Chan as Wong Yat-Hin stole some limelight with some attention-demanding performance as a merchant. I never quite enjoyed any of Joel's performances in the past (with the exception of the Last Steep Ascent) but I think he fitted his role very well. Sometimes you will feel his Wong Yat-Hin is a bastard, other times you will respect him.
Grace Chan portrayed Wong Tai Mui, who is supposed to be cutesy, opinionated and have a strong personality. By that I mean being stubborn and sticking to her own set of values and beliefs and judging everyone else's as 'wrong'. That already makes her character quite annoying but Grace miraculously managed to make it highly irritating by the end of this series.
No doubt Grace Chan gave an over the top performance. Most of the time she would yell, scream and move dramatically. By that I mean big body movements that were out of shape or looked unusual for the situation. You can say she was a pain to watch in this series with the uncontrolled and loud performance, but there were some redeeming factors such as her expressive facial expressions I think she perfected in some of the rare scenes of this series. Back at the start of the series, her sister was mentioning, "Are there no more good men left in this world?" and Grace said, "Well, there still is" and smiled to the night sky. In the first episode as well Grace was trying to stop a car with the hostage in there and her face of suspecting something was wrong was well done as well. Grace Chan excels when it comes to expressions in my opinion but unfortunately she has to tone down. Her boyfriend Kevin Cheng perfectly translated her performance, "Grace used to too much effort. When you put too much effort it means you didn't put any effort at all" meaning it's inappropriate to always be too hyper. That being said, this horrid performance still cannot deny the greatness of her two performances in 'Overachievers' and 'Raising the Bar' and I'm sure Grace has got the message from everyone so I'm confident she will only get better for 'Blue Veins' and 'Brother's Keeper II'.
As always, Lau Kong gives a competent performance as the emperor even if his emperor was weird. I couldn't read the emperor's mind, did he want the brothers to treat each other peacefully and with virtue or did he not mind them being acting their self-interest? I feel that his character was badly written and inconsistent sometimes.
Elaine Yiu as Imperial Consort Yim - Sorry but Elaine's performance compared to the others was sub-par. The way she speak was no means scary and she lacked aura.
Imagine if the producers casted better actors. Ruco Chan as 11th prince and others like Him Law, Vincent Wong as the other princes, perhaps Charmaine Sheh as Consort Yim. This series would have done much better.
My verdict of this series is that it excelled with some great acting, explosive war battles, grand scenes, sharp dialogue, some impressive computer generated effects, exceptionally nice filming location and sets and a not too bad story with a fusion of palace drama, pirates and navy conflicts. But, a big but, is that this series flattered with the irritating emergence of Wong Tai Mui, Tony Hung's unremarkable performance and a lot of stupid moments.
Worth a watch but prepare for cringing.
My thoughts on this series? I highly enjoyed it.
Performances alone, some excelled. Ruco Chan as 11th Prince/ Man-Ho - Man-Ho is someone rather eager, filial at times and sometimes nice heartened. Man ho can be said to be quite over eager and ambitious, where his actions of be the hero of the day by travelling to places to solve crimes and investigate bribery however does not earn him much credit by the emperor. Instead, Man-Ho gets cold treatment by the brother as well as his brothers, but Man-Ho is by no means undeterred. He nominates himself to become the lead commander in destroying the pirates down in Southern China.
Ruco gave an explosive performance with his role as Man-Ho. He was convincing as assertive, cunning, though quite stubborn. Ruco made his character as someone you will cheer for.
Joel Chan as Wong Yat-Hin stole some limelight with some attention-demanding performance as a merchant. I never quite enjoyed any of Joel's performances in the past (with the exception of the Last Steep Ascent) but I think he fitted his role very well. Sometimes you will feel his Wong Yat-Hin is a bastard, other times you will respect him.
Grace Chan portrayed Wong Tai Mui, who is supposed to be cutesy, opinionated and have a strong personality. By that I mean being stubborn and sticking to her own set of values and beliefs and judging everyone else's as 'wrong'. That already makes her character quite annoying but Grace miraculously managed to make it highly irritating by the end of this series.
No doubt Grace Chan gave an over the top performance. Most of the time she would yell, scream and move dramatically. By that I mean big body movements that were out of shape or looked unusual for the situation. You can say she was a pain to watch in this series with the uncontrolled and loud performance, but there were some redeeming factors such as her expressive facial expressions I think she perfected in some of the rare scenes of this series. Back at the start of the series, her sister was mentioning, "Are there no more good men left in this world?" and Grace said, "Well, there still is" and smiled to the night sky. In the first episode as well Grace was trying to stop a car with the hostage in there and her face of suspecting something was wrong was well done as well. Grace Chan excels when it comes to expressions in my opinion but unfortunately she has to tone down. Her boyfriend Kevin Cheng perfectly translated her performance, "Grace used to too much effort. When you put too much effort it means you didn't put any effort at all" meaning it's inappropriate to always be too hyper. That being said, this horrid performance still cannot deny the greatness of her two performances in 'Overachievers' and 'Raising the Bar' and I'm sure Grace has got the message from everyone so I'm confident she will only get better for 'Blue Veins' and 'Brother's Keeper II'.
As always, Lau Kong gives a competent performance as the emperor even if his emperor was weird. I couldn't read the emperor's mind, did he want the brothers to treat each other peacefully and with virtue or did he not mind them being acting their self-interest? I feel that his character was badly written and inconsistent sometimes.
Elaine Yiu as Imperial Consort Yim - Sorry but Elaine's performance compared to the others was sub-par. The way she speak was no means scary and she lacked aura.
Imagine if the producers casted better actors. Ruco Chan as 11th prince and others like Him Law, Vincent Wong as the other princes, perhaps Charmaine Sheh as Consort Yim. This series would have done much better.
My verdict of this series is that it excelled with some great acting, explosive war battles, grand scenes, sharp dialogue, some impressive computer generated effects, exceptionally nice filming location and sets and a not too bad story with a fusion of palace drama, pirates and navy conflicts. But, a big but, is that this series flattered with the irritating emergence of Wong Tai Mui, Tony Hung's unremarkable performance and a lot of stupid moments.
Worth a watch but prepare for cringing.
2015 Miss Hong Kong Winner: My Thoughts on Louisa Mak
I have watched Miss HK Pageant recently and without any surprise Lousia Mak (Contestant Number 1) was the winner, garnering a staggering amount of over 90,000 votes from Hong Kong fans. I congratulate Louisa Mak for being the champion but for reasons I am feeling that TVB is benefiting from her rather her benefiting from being a Miss Hong Kong. The way TVB also promoted Miss Hong Kong was cringe worthy to be honest. It was advertisements of previous winners such as Grace Chan talking about being famous and getting to fame as being the purpose of winning (in which it is), but the fact they shamelessly advertised Miss HK to be like that is cringe-worthy.
FanBingBing's performance in 'Empress of China'
As you may have realised, I 'was' currently watching TVB's edition of 'Empress of China', which circles around the struggles of Meiliang and how she transitions from an innocent and compassionate girl to a bitter and less forgiving Empress. Her role itself offers plenty opportunity to show off some great acting chops in a lot of scenes, but most of the time I feel FanBingBing gives an effortless performance that drags the whole series down. The main reason was because she hardly emoted. She was either a little bit shocked (with her mouth one quarter open) or looking innocent and pure with her eyes wide open and curious. A one dimensional performance for a role that had heaps of opportunity to display one's acting ability. The uninspiring storyline doesn't help much either. If this role was given to Betty Sun (the lead actress from The Legend of Zhen Huan, i'm sure the series will be much better overall). What a pity.
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