May-June Variety Shows

It’s time for another round-up of TVB’s variety shows under the direction of Eric Tsang and Wong Cho Lam. Through May and June, it felt like TVB was producing variety shows at a breakneck pace and ended up giving short shrift to its shows. Many of the concepts have potential, but was not given enough time to develop. 

• Dub of War (好聲好戲): The show shined a spotlight on the unseen voice actors at TVB. It was amazing to learn about how dubbing works and all the skills it takes to do a good job. I was genuinely surprised by the excellent performances from some of the participants. Rating: 9/10. 

My top five most impressive performances: 

5. Yuki Law and Marktwo Lee - For newbies, this was an impressive performance. Especially when Marktwo says his first line, I thought they were using Ron Ng’s voice.

4. Moon Lau and Tedford Wong - Moon and Tedford were better at dubbing characters outside of their age range than the three finalists. 

3. Sisley Choi and Owen Cheung - They sounded as if they were playing the original clip. The chip goes through a lot of emotions and both of them were handled it well. Owen Cheung has always been more impressive doing imitations than using his own voice. 

2. Yoyo Chen - Yoyo was able to speak in another dialect as if she was fluent and no one even taught her!

1. Joey Thye - I was most surprised by Joey’s performance. She sounds just like Grace Chan and even timed her breathing and crying perfectly with the clip. 

Bonus: Coty Wong and Tinson Lung - They are instructors for a reason. Their performance was at the next level. 

• Case Unclosed (死因有可疑): In the first head-to-head battle with ViuTV, TVB brought a knife to a gunfight. The show looked like an amateur production next to ViuTV’s serious efforts. It is disappointing because I really like the concept of a murder-mystery show. Rating: 5/10. [Full review here]

• Top Sales (識貨): This was essentially an advertising spot disguised as a show. Zero interest from me when I couldn’t (and wouldn’t, even if I could) buy the products they were selling. But Yoyo Chen is on a hot streak. Rating: 2/10. 

• Prelude to TVB All Star Games: The Ring (明星運動會前哨戰: Fight盡): The show suffered from some major cutting issues. Training, interview and competition clips were haphazardly thrown together like a tossed salad. The show also makes a lacklustre effort to introduce the fighters to the audience. The audience can’t feel like they are part of the fighters’ journeys when they only see them for seconds at a time and barely know who they are. Rating: 4/10. 

• Mean Talk: I loved the juicy gossip that was being spilled on the show! Six episodes was definitely too short. There’s plenty more tea to be spilled. Rating: 7/10.

Overview - Murder Diary

Years ago, Kara Hui almost poisoned her son (Vincent Wong) and daughter (Joey Thye) because of her schizophrenia. Experiencing great change, Vincent develops an alter-ego who is physically weak but highly intelligent. His alter-ego works hard and becomes a handwriting expert, helping the agile Vincent carry out his undercover mission. A double bomb case and a case featuring bloody words on a nude corpse prompts Chief Inspector Chris Lai to create a task force to find the perpetrator. The task force includes Vincent, psychiatrist Benjamin Yuen, bomb disposal officer Mandy Wong, and forensic entomologist Venus Wong. The four of them get involved in a love pentagon! The “Father of Criminal Investigation” Philip Keung has recovered from bipolar disorder and is appointed to lead the task force as they investigate various mysterious cases. But he discovers Kara may be involved in the mystery behind his wife's (Alice Chan) disappearance. As the puzzle is revealed piece-by-piece, how will they each face the truth?

An non-photoshopped look at the poster:

Brutally Young Theme Song

The theme song for Brutally Young is "Confession" (告白), by Fred Cheng.



The sub-theme song is a remix of "Need You Every Minute" (分分鐘需要你), originally by George Lam. Joey Thye performs two different versions.

Happy version:


Sad version:

Joey Law Broke Up With Auston Lam's Sister-in-Law?

If anyone has been watching the YouTube channel 威武WHEREWOLF, they may have picked up on the fact that TVB actor Joey Law was dating the sister-in-law of Auston Lam. But it appears their romance was short-lived.

Wherewolf is a channel started by a group of TVB actors, including Auston, Joey, Tammy Ou-Yeung, Brian Chu and Kelvin Lee. They produced ten episodes where they played the game "Werewolf." They even recruited guest stars, like JW, to appear on the channel.

One of the players on the channel was Bu. She is Tammy's younger sister and Auston's sister-in-law. (Auston and Tammy married in 2018.) Bu is often teased on the show because she tends to make critical mistakes that leads to her team losing.

In episode six, the group organized a surprise for Joey's birthday. While Joey had his eyes closed for the game, the rest of the group quickly changed their clothes and put on make-up. When Joey opened his eyes, he was shocked to see everyone wearing T-shirts with handwritten messages for him. They went around the circle for everyone to show off their T-shirts and say their message. When it came to Bu's turn, Auston said "Don't interrupt Bu. Cue some romantic music and let's turn it over to Bu."

Bu blushed and said "Don't be like that." She looked down at her shirt and said "I wrote it already." Someone called out "Say it!" She shyly said "I love Joey." The group cheered as Joey looked on sweetly. 

When it came to Tammy's turn, she said "Mine is related to Bu's. It is 'I love Joey. Let go of Bu.'" She pleaded with Joey, "Please don't use your charm on Bu anymore."

There were other hints of a romance between Joey and Bu. Earlier in the episode, when Bu spoke after being voted off, she urged the witch in the game to poison Joey. Someone shouted "So that he can keep you company outside?" Two hearts popped up on the screen. 

In another episode, Bu was eliminated after incorrectly guessing that her sister was a wolf. Plato Lai (former TVB Entertainment News channel host) asked "Did you do that purposely so Joey can carry you away?" Other people joined in the teasing. Auston asked "Before, when Brian Chu was carried away by Joey Law, Bu, were you angry or upset?" Mark Ma (TVB actor) said "You just wanted take that spot," pointing to the spot next to Joey. Indeed, Bu was in the spot next to Joey and both smiled as they were teased.

Bu's Instagram page (@bubuubu) shows that she is a make-up artist who has worked with Auston, Tammy, Daniel Chau, Adrian Chau, Rainky Wai, and of course, Joey. 

Bu's Instagram has other pictures of her and Joey hanging out (click to see). 

After a special episode on Halloween, Wherewolf stopped posting videos. Around Christmas, a new channel called 陋室 New Set was created, featuring Auston, Tammy, Bu and a few other players from Wherewolf. Yesterday, Wherewolf posted a video announcing that they will be returning with a new team in February. Curiously, Joey had remained with Wherewolf while Bu stuck with Auston and Tammy. 

Even more interestingly, Bu deleted an Instagram post she had made on Joey's birthday. It was a group photo from Joey's birthday party. In the comments, someone had wrote in Chinese "Must be blissful!" She also deleted the post that promoted the Wherewolf episode for Joey's birthday. (I don't have screenshots, so you will just have to trust me.)

Coincidentally, in December, rumours started that Joey was dating TVB actress Joey Thye, after the pair were caught having dinner and walking on the beach together. The Joeys denied the rumours and said that they were just friends who play basketball together.