Law dis-Order Promo Clips

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Overview - Come Home Love: Dinner at 8

The television station that Wayne Lai works for is going through an eventful period. Management has brought in Florence Kwok to serve as general manager and implement major changes. The women's program that Wayne produces bears the brunt. On the first day of the show, there is an accident and Wayne has to improvise. He substitutes Teresa Mo, the newly transferred secretary from the accounting department, for the celebrity chef that didn't show up. The show becomes a big hit due to Teresa's eloquence and cooking skills. Wayne pressures Teresa to continue to host the show. Teresa agrees on the condition that her hair stylist friend (Angela Tong) does not get fired and that she has fixed working hours. It is because she has a younger uncle (Power Chan) and step-brother (Ricco Ng) at home, and preparing dinner on time is her natural duty. After her job description changed, this little woman uses all her secret weapons to deal with the demanding Wayne. In contrast, Wayne's career has reached a bottleneck and he is careful with every step. He is afraid that the assistant director (Veronica Shiu) that Florence sent him is a spy. But surprisingly, Veronica and Teresa hit it off immediately. They even intervene in Wayne and his father Chung King-fei's relationship, bringing unimaginable conflicts to Wayne and Teresa's families...

Come Home Love: Dinner at 8 Promo Clips

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Extended Trailer

Screen Time Hoggers

**Word cloud idea was inspired by another TVB blog (but I can't remember where)**

Oscar Leung

This year is most certainly a breakthrough year for Oscar. He went from a small-time actor to being a household name and has a high chance to take home the Most Improved Award at this year’s awards ceremony. His popularity rose with the role of “Kwan Yi Gor” in L’Escargot. He followed up with strong performances as the official historian in Queens of Diamonds and Hearts and Linda Chung’s dance-loving brother in House of Harmony and Vengeance. Oscar captured the hearts of the audience with his portrayal of the winking sniper “Chong Cheuk-yuen” in Tiger Cubs. His character even made a special guest appearance in Highs and Lows. In the anniversary series The Confidant, Oscar has lots of room to show his acting chops as the Tongzhi Emperor.

Raymond Cho

2012 has been Raymond Cho's most fruitful year to date, being featured in 6 series. He started the year off playing Niki Chow’s brother in Bottled Passion. Then he had the role of a heart surgeon in The Hippocratic Crush. Next, he was the ex-lover of Sharon Chan in Queens of Diamonds and Hearts. He was the disposed king "Lee Hin", son of Wu Zetian (Rebecca Chan) in The Greatness of a Hero. He joined the cast of Ghetto Justice 2 to replace Eddie Kwan as the silly policeman in the series. Finally, he has a highly prominent role of "An Dehai" in the anniversary series The Confidant.

Kenny Wong

Kenny has always been a reliable supporting actor. He was one of the main characters in When Heaven Burns and even tried his hand at singing the sub-theme song. He was paired with Elvina Kong in Let It Be Love. He was the gym owner in Gloves Come Off and the personification of Moses Chan’s evil in Master of Play. In Tiger Cubs, he was a loving father and in The Last Steep Ascent, he was the ever-supportive friend of Moses Chan and husband of Aimee Chan.  

Kenneth Ma

Kenneth has successfully established himself as a first-line siu-sang at TVB. He gained legions of fans with his role of “Yat Kin” in The Hippocratic Crush. He shaved his head to be the “King of Thieves” in Tiger Cubs, then travelled back in time in Three Kingdoms RPG. In the anniversary series Silver Spoon, Sterling Shackles, he is the son of Damien Lau. Recently, Kenneth captured the Favourite Actor award at the Astro Awards and has a chance to do so again at the upcoming TVB awards. 

Linda Chung

Linda topped TVB’s first-line actresses with the most productions this year. She took a departure from her normal good girl roles in L’Escargot, where her character was unfavourable for her relationship with the married Michael Tse. But she came back with a positive role in Daddy Good Deeds. She played a semi-villain in House of Harmony and Vengeance while displaying her elegant dancing. Her role as the depressed “Hailey” in Witness Insecurity was her representative work of the year.

Moses Chan

4 series, 4 different roles for Moses. Coming off comedic roles from previous years, Moses was once again serious in When Heaven Burns opposite of Bowie Lam. In Let It Be Love, he plays an ordinary Mongkok guy in love with an international superstar. In Master of Play, he was a serial killer battling against his own five personifications. In The Last Steep Ascent, he was a caring, romantic man who always stood by Maggie Cheung’s side. Recently, he won an award at the Asian Television Awards, gaining international recognition for his acting abilities. 

Ben Wong

Fresh off being named Best Supporting Actor last year, Ben Wong was looking for another stellar year. He had lesser roles in When Heaven Burns as Charmaine Sheh’s ex-husband and The Greatness of a Hero as the leader of the Turk tribe. In The Hippocratic Crush, he was Kenneth Ma’s superior. In Queens of Diamonds and Hearts, he played a comedic villain trying to usurp the throne. His portrayal of the ultimate evil “Poon Sir” in Highs and Lows was greatly praised by the audience. He followed that with a performance as the sentimental ex-lover of Idy Chan in Silver Spoon, Sterling Shackles. With a strong year like that, it is a wonder why Ben was not nominated for any TVB awards. 

Florence Kwok

Florence has been a constant presence on screen this year in the sitcom Come Home Love. Besides sitcoms, she was Charmaine Sheh’s manager in Let It Be Love and Katy Kung’s sister in Gloves Come Off. The role of a ruthless office executive is no stranger to her, but in No Good Either Way, she pulled it off in an entertaining way. Finally, she was the evil concubine in King Maker, plotting to install her son Chris Lai onto the throne. 


Mandy Wong

Mandy is being touted as the next top fadan. She dropped her image of the shy, glasses girl from her early career to be the loud housewife “Kwan Yi So” in L’Escargot. She portrayed successive strong career-oriented roles as an ambitious doctor-trainee in The Hippocratic Crush and the first female SDU team member in Tiger Cubs. Her pairing with Him Law in Divas in Distress was well-liked by audience. Her year would end off perfectly if she can win an award at this year’s awards ceremony.

Natalie Tong

Natalie has had increasingly more opportunities since winning the Most Improved Award in 2010. In Gloves Come Off, she was partnered with Raymond Wong. She developed a relationship with Jason Chan in No Good Either Way. The role of a crazed psychologist in Tiger Cubs was a refreshing experience for Natalie. In King Maker, she was Wayne Lai’s long-lost sister and later became Pierre Ngo’s concubine. She upgraded from concubine to Empress in The Confidant.

JJ Jia

Despite JJ's accent when speaking Cantonese, it certainly hasn’t hindered her acting career. She was able to win over Ron Ng in L’Escargot. In House of Harmony and Vengeance, she was a semi-villain and conspired with her L’Escargot love opponent Linda Chung. She was quite noticeable with her red wig in Tiger Cubs as the wife of the “King of Thieves” Kenneth Ma. She transformed into a nice girl again in Ghetto Justice 2 and was Sam Lee’s caring girlfriend. In Silver Spoon, Sterling Shackles, she is the 5^th woman in Damien Lau’s life. 

Vote in the Casual TVB Awards 2012!

Historical Context: Song Dynasty

Welcome to the Song dynasty!

If your historical knowledge comes mostly from TVB shows, it’s won’t be surprising if you don’t know very much about this dynasty.  For some reason, the Song dynasty gets very little love from TVB. I believe the last Song era drama was Witness to Prosecution I & II. And TVB has never ventured into the imperial court of Song before King Maker. So here is some background info on the Song dynasty.

The King Maker is set in the Song dynasty.  The Song dynasty is split into two time periods: Northern and Southern Song. This is because the capital was moved when Song lost control of northern China to the Jin (“Gold”) Dynasty. The Song Dynasty was most recognized for its scholarly works, including literature, art, philosophy and science. It placed an emphasis on the merits of officials rather than their backgrounds. Agricultural and economic innovations contributed to the prosperity during the period. Famous people from the Song Dynasty include Bao Zheng (包青天), Song Ci (宋慈, the coroner in Witness to Prosecution) and General Ngok Fei (岳飛).

Specifically, this drama is set during the Southern Song dynasty during the reign of Emperor Ningzong, played by Kwok Fung.  He was the 13^th king of the Song dynasty. He ascended to the throne when his father chose to retire as king and take the title of Taishuang Huang (太上皇). Ningzong was third consecutive Emperor to take the throne before his predecessor’s death.  He had two Empresses. The first was Empress Gongshu (Kingdom Yuen).  

The second was Empress Gongsheng (aka Lady Yeung), which is the future Florence Kwok. She was said to be very beautiful and intelligent. It is rumored that when she entered the palace at a young age, she forgot her last name and only said she came from a township called 會稽. Coincidentally, there happened to be an official from the same township named Yeung Chi-san (Joseph Lee), so she said that he was her brother. When the first Empress died, Ningzong had two choices: Lady Yeung or another of his favourites, Lady Cao. A minister tried to persuade Ningzong to choose Lady Cao because he feared Lady Yeung would be too ambitious with her smarts. In the end, Ningzong still chose Lady Yeung to become Empress.

In the series, Pierre Ngo and Chris Lai are brothers and princes of the Song court. They are not the sons of Emperor Ningzong. Ningzong had eight sons, but all died at a young age. He appointed his adoptive son as Crown Prince. However, after Ningzong’s death, the Prime Minister installed one of the brothers instead, as he knew the Crown Prince despised him. The brothers are descendants of Song Taizu, the founder of the dynasty.

So who wins? According to history, the next king was Emperor Lizong (宋理宗), which is the actor…………………

Pierre Ngo

But don’t worry, guy who lost, your son will succeed Emperor Lizong.

Pictures taken from Asianfanatics and Ming Pao

"No Good Either Way" Review

Spoilers!!

Producer: Amy Wong
Genre: Modern, comedy
Cast: Ruco Chan, Louis Yuen, Kristal Tin, Stephen Au, Florence Kwok, Jason Chan, Natalie Tong, Q Bobo

Plot Summary:

Inside the competitive corporate world, Ruco stays away from office politics and works at his own leisure. Tough-lucked Louis can’t seem to get anything going for him, not even sucking up to his bosses. Both are loathed by the manipulative Florence, who wants to consolidate her power in the company. Chaos ensues and the company is miraculously saved because everyone loved the kind-hearted boss (Stephan).

Review:

This is a comedic series that speaks about the hardships of ordinary workers in HK. It is somewhat comparable to L’Escargot, which explores similar themes, albeit in a more irritating/less interesting way. NGEW is only 20 episodes at a fairly good pace. It’s light-hearted and funny rather than yelling/crying. And we don’t have stupid characters do stupid things (ahem, Linda Chung). It’s also not exaggerated humor with rhyming lines, like Can’t Buy Me Love. Often, the audience gets a kick from the characters’ frustration or mishaps. Constructing one’s happiness on another’s misery, as the saying goes. Like when Stephen Au had to deal with his demanding father-in-law, who is constantly trying to show off his richness by insisting that everyone calls him “Boss”.

The supporting characters were what made this series so fun. Already mentioned is Stephen Au’s father-in-law. He speaks in another dialect and calls everyone “Idiot”. There’s also the assumed-to-be-gay fat tenant, who hung all his underwear in the washroom. The old woman being his wife - now that’s rofl material! Even Kakei Leung, annoying in every other series, was funny as the dorky nurse. I was laughing so hard at that scene when she tells how she busted Florence.

But of course, TVB being TVB, can’t possibly make a perfect series, can they? The flaw lies in the hasty character development. For example, Jason Chan was being portrayed as the good man – sweet, handsome, the like. Then we find out that he’s not as perfect as he seems. He’s rather childish and irresponsible. But then suddenly he’s this lowlife that plots to screw over Ruco. For what? Because Ruco “stole” credit for his product design idea? Man up, dude! Same lack of development for how Ruco changed from an easy-going guy to a harsh boss who tried to make life miserable for his subordinates.

The ending was a bit leaning towards unbelievable. It would be extremely difficult to mobilize an entire company of 500 workers to all agree to defer their salary in such a short amount of time. But given what this drama is, there needed to be a happy ending. At least there wasn’t a company-wide BBQ or dance. The final scene left Natalie and Jason’s relationship ambiguous.  I hope they’re not thinking of a sequel with Jason and Natalie as the lead actors.

In terms of acting, generally commendable. There was one shot where Ruco’s face looked really smug and despicable when he was being the harsh boss. Louis’ expressions were exaggerated sometimes, but since this is a comedy, it’s acceptable. (Sidenote: I read somewhere that Louis was actually making up funny lines on the spot while filming this.) One thing that did sort of annoy me was the way Natalie Tong’s eyes bugged out when arguing with her brother or boyfriend. And Jason Chan looked sulky the whole time. Matt Yeung performed better than him as the righteous guy.

Recommendation: Enjoyable. 3/5