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)