Sunday, October 28, 2012

2012 My Astro on Demand Favorites Awards Nomination

Voting is open to Malaysian fans only (which sucks!!), so Malaysian fans, go online and vote here.

My Favorite Actor in a Leading Role
For now, I have no preference. I think Raymond Lam will grab this, if not then it's probably Kenneth.

My Favorite Actress in a Leading Role
Kate or Tavia?! Or maybe they'll surprise us with Myolie and Linda!! My pick is Charmaine though. Biased or not, she truly impressed me in WHB.

My Favorite Actor in a Supporting Role
So hard to choose!! Maybe Ram Chiang? I love him!!

My Favorite Actress in a Supporting Role
Elena Kong!! (I have yet to watch her in SSSS though :P) If not then give it to Florence Kwok.

My Favorite Onscreen Couple
For now it's KenTa. I have yet to watch more of Raymond and Kate in HAL.

My Favorite Most Improved Actor
OSCAR MUST WIN!! Nice to see Otto Chan and Glen Lee get nominated.

My Favorite Most Improved Actress
Pretty sure Mandy will grab this.

My Favorite Drama Series
The Hippocratic Crush will probably win, or will it be SSSS?! Though I will always secretly root for When Heaven Burns muahahaha...

My Favorite Drama Theme Song
Can't decide between The Hippocratic Crush 《連續劇》, The Last Steep Ascent 《一生一心》 and Highs and Lows 《幼稚完》... They all sound so good!!

My Favorite Most Popular Artiste
This one is obviously tailor-made for So Kei so he has to get this!!

My Favorite Classic Role (5-year Anniversary)
Lau Sam Ho is classic?! O_o Since when?? Got sick of Laughing, Law Ba ruined himself in GJ2, so between Chai Kau and Cheng Kau Mui, I choose the latter.

Top 15 My Favorite Characters
Let's just make sure that no one is going home empty-handed!!

**Credit to weibo and Astro on Demand

Sunday, October 7, 2012

The Last Steep Ascent: Episode 5-9

Ho Sai Man (Katy Kung), the youngest daughter of the Ho family, got married to a Malaysian businessman Ngai Bo Law (Matt Yeung), but it seems like he's just after her money to save his family business. Don't know if he really loves her or not. Sai Man seems like a nice girl for now.
Miu Tin (Moses Chan) got a job at Chai Man's (Joel Chan) medicine shop. Chai Man really admired Miu Tin's knowledge in Chinese medicine so he got promoted really fast. Although Chai Man may sound cocky sometimes, you can tell that he's a good guy. I really enjoy his scenes so far, along with with his wife (Samantha Ko). They make a funny couple!!
When Miu Tin's friends came visit him, Chai Man's wife teased them, making them feel so awkward! Chai Man was being nice and hired all of them to work for him (all except for Tsui Wing who had to return to the village). You can tell that Chai Man really treasures Miu Tin.
Koo Sun Yuet (Maggie Cheung) finally found out about the affair between her husband Ho Sai Cheung (KK Cheung) and Tin Oi Tai (Aimee Chan). Two years ago in San Francisco, Sai Cheung was really sick and Oi Tai was 'bought' to take care of him. After that, they developed feeling for each other. Understanding her family situation, Sai Cheung arranged Oi Tai to leave the States and live closer to him in Guangzhou. Oi Tai continued to take care of him and his health.
Although Sai Cheung and Oi Tai do seem like they truly love each other, it hurts Sun Yuet that Sai Cheung didn't love her enough despite their 20-year marriage and even deliberately made up stories to lie to her. I do believe that Sai Cheung and Oi Tai were true to each other but I also think that Sai Cheung didn't love Sun Yuet enough to tell her about his illness. After all, these two seriously lack communication and understanding, Sai Cheung only cares about his business while Sun Yuet only cares about the kids. Nevertheless, a married man must know what he should and shouldn't do so Sai Cheung is in the wrong here. And Oi Tai, knowing that Sai Cheung was already married and even had kids, still clung onto him so she's at fault too. However, I do pity her character.
Sai Cheung's illness struck him again and this time, he passed away. A lot of people were sad but of course, some people were extremely happy about this!! As for Oi Tai, she got really depressed after Sai Cheung died. She kept wandering in Guangzhou and even got raped when she was drunk.
Sai Leung (Benjamin Yuen) is Sai Cheung's brother. After Sai Cheung died, he took over as the boss of Ho Ching Tong. However, due to his lack of experience, Sai Leung found his task extremely exhausting. In addition, Sai Ho (Edwin Siu) and his father Kwan Yiu (Cheung Yik) set up traps to trouble him even more. As a result, Sai Leung ran away from home. (He looked dead!! Poor guy =.=')
Sun Yuet's mother-in-law (Law Lan) now made Sun Yuet take over the business. Sai Ho and his father of course wouldn't agree to this. They called everyone in the Ho family out and forced her to hand over Ho Ching Tong. And now we get to see the familiar Tim-Gor-style-family-showdown scene!! Shame on these guys, picking on a widow... tsk tsk!!
At a time like this, only one thing will come in handy --- the will!! ~~Yay, will-reading time~~!! So according to the will, Kwan Yiu committed some crime in the past (rape in particular). As a result, his father didn't let him manage Ho Ching Tong even though he was the eldest son. After hearing this, Kwan Yiu got furious and collapsed. Sai Ho felt that they were in great disadvantage after his father was sent to the hospital (he came down with stroke or something). He fell on his knees and begged Law Lan for forgiveness, but of course, he didn't mean it!!
So Sun Yuet got to be the boss again. She may be a good mother, but when it comes to business and medicine, she basically knew nothing. In the midst of great distress, Sun Yuet found the note that Miu Tin wrote for Sai Cheung when he lent him $3000. According to their agreement, Miu Tin would come over to Ho Ching Tong and help whenever they needed him.
Sun Yuet immediately went looking for Miu Tin. But of course, someone's not gonna be happy!!

Saturday, October 6, 2012

[TVB2012] No Good Either Way 《衝呀!瘦薪兵團》 Review

 
 
Genre: Modern, comedy
# of Episodes: 21
Producer: Amy Wong
Casts:
- Ruco Chan as Mo Nga Lik (Alex)
- Kristal Tin as Ling Ning Ching (Ling)
- Louis Yuen as Man Ka Wah (Man Siu Siu / Steve)
- Natalie Tong as Mo Kin Yi (Kin)
- Gill Mohindepaul Singh (Q Bobo) as Interpal Singh (Sing Siu Lung)
- Jason Chan as Yiu Yi Long (Aaron)
- Florence Kwok as Che Wing Han (Violet)
- Stephen Au as Ko Wai Ting (Mr. Ko / Sam)
- Matt Yeung as Ho Jing Jik (Jacky)
- Leanne Li as Shum Hei Man (Flora)

What's It About? A group of working class people experienced through thick and thin as they had to cope with their unreasonable superiors while trying to survive in today world of work.


- Spoilers Alert -

No Good Either Way is much better than I expected. It is one of the funniest series I've watched in such a long time. If you're looking for a decent comedy, this is it. Even though there was nothing special about the storyline and it may not be exceptionally good, I think it was nicely scripted. The witty script-writing is what made this series so enjoyable to watch. It brought out the comedic skills of many artistes, especially Florence Kwok and surprisingly Kaki Leung. The casts also had so much chemistry together. NGEW is such an eye opener because I never thought that there were so many Indians who could speak Cantonese so fluently, even more fluently than a lot of TVB actresses O_o

The story mostly took place at a company called Goaltech. Unlike any other institutions described in the beginning, the boss of Goaltech Mr. Ko is super nice, and I mean SUPER nice to the point that it's kinda unrealistic. However, most of the time he couldn't go to work because his wife was in a coma. Although he was nice, at home, he was bullied all the time by his father-in-law, who kept calling him "idiot", and at work, Goaltech's general manager Violet used this chance trying to take control of everything. This left Alex and Steve in great distress since Violet always picked on them.

The ranking in Goaltech looks something like this:
(Mr. Ko would look less fierce though...)

Ruco Chan as Alex Mo
Alex is the chief product designer for Goaltech. Although he was smart and creative, Alex behaved pretty much like a kid. He would sneak out to play during working hours. He would procrastinate and pull an all-nighter right before the due date. He would pretend to be working hard when someone checked on him. He would be eager to prove to everyone that he was a capable person. He would complain to his big daddy aka Mr. Ko how he felt mistreated at work... There were also times when he became unreasonable, like how he refused help from A3 (A4 excluding Aaron) with the ES project and even mistreated them himself. All in all, Alex wasn't a perfect person. He was capable, but he was also unreasonable at times. He even scolded Ling and Kin for no obvious reason sometimes.


Although I wouldn't say Ruco's performance was flawless, I think he was pretty good in his role. Alex can be difficult but he also had his reasons, and at times, Ruco did convince me to side with his Alex. The way he said his lines was so convincing that even when he was wrong, he made it seemed like he was right. Ruco has this confident look himself, his diction was clear and his intonation was just right, which helped make his portrayal of Alex more believable. Ruco was ok with comedy and was quite good in those light-hearted moments, but he seemed rather weak in the emotional scenes. Maybe it was his confident look that made him a little awkward when he was acting emotional.

Kristal Tin as Ling
Alex's wife Ling on the other hand was a much more simple-minded person. To her, every complicated problem would have a simple solution. However, most of the time things didn't work out the way she wanted. And everything just got worse when she became Alex's superior. Her principles were different from his, which eventually led to their quarrel. Kristal was really natural in her role. Her Ling may seem easygoing but she was not without temper, but whilst she had temper, she still reserved her gentleness. I really like the subtlety in her performance. Kristal also excelled in those emotional scenes, especially when she sat alone and cried quietly. Ruco and Kristal made a sweet couple. Their intimate scenes were not gross at all but rather believable. However, I'm sorry to say that even though they had the majority of the screen time, their storyline was rather bland and uninteresting comparing to others. They had the more serious parts of the story which didn't manage to make them shine. Their characters also weren't as special as the supporting characters so they failed to leave a deep impression on the audience.


Louis Yuen as Steve and Q Bobo as Interpal
They were best buds and their chemistry was amazing. These two were born with comedic talents because they were funny even when they tried to be serious, especially Q Bobo, he's funny by default. Steve was the assistant manager of the marketing department of Goaltech. He was a rather unlucky guy who always got into troubles at work. Feeling that he had no future at Goaltech, Steve and Interpal decided to run various small business on their own for extra income. However, with no experience in business, he was soon back at square one. And to make things worse, Steve also had to take care of his sister and her son because her husband was being a jerk. All in all, a rather unlucky character that you'll feel bad for BUT at the same time, I'm glad that he didn't end up with Dr. Shum (Leanne Li) at the end because it would definitely irk me if that happened!! Not every single main character has to be paired with someone!!


Q Bobo was amazing because like I said, he's funny. Although there isn't much to talk about his character, I laughed so hard at this one scene where he said "What kind of world is this? One job requires you to know Chinese while another job requires you to not know Chinese!!" And when he had to listen to Kin's boss flirting with this rich lady in the car and must pretend that he didn't understand them, oh boy... that face and that expression he had really cracked me up!!


Special mention to Ho Yuen Tung (何遠東), the actor who played Mr. Diu (Steve's tenant). I don't remember seeing him anywhere else but his short appearance here was hilarious. I especially love the part where Steve and Interpal pretended to be gay so Mr. Diu can "back off"!! (Everything he did was so misleading... lol) Great interaction with both Louis and Bobo!! I missed him already!!


Natalie Tong as Kin, Jason Chan as Aaron, Matt Yeung as Jacky
Love Kin and Jacky but hate Aaron to the core!! Kin is Alex's sister. She worked at an insurance company at first but her boss treated her like crap so she quit. Later she worked as a property agent under Jacky, who eventually had a crush on her. Kin, however, only liked Jacky as a friend because she was in love with Alex's subordinate Aaron (Why, Kin? WHY??) Both Natalie and Matt did a good job here. They were natural in their roles and quite a pleasant to watch, especially Matt. I love the part where he confessed to Kin: "Here's my health record and here's my financial status. I'm healthy and I can support you. Will you go out with me?" (or something along those lines). Quite cute!!


On the other hand, Aaron is the true bastard of the series. Everything he does and says just ticks me off so much. I don't understand how Kin can deal with him. If I were her, I would dump him from the very beginning. This guy was born to be hated!! He was lazy, arrogant, jealous, manipulative, and a despicable liar who just loved to show off, definitely not a guy you can rely on. He was just fake in general. Jailing him for only a year wasn't enough for all the stupid things he did. And I don't like how they hinted Kin and him might get back together at the end. Aaron was bad and Jason's acting just made it worse. He tried too hard to act arrogant and always put up a sulky face which just made him even faker. I don't know what TVB was thinking when they decided to cast him as the lead in his upcoming series with Linda Chung. I rather watch Matt than Jason.

Florence Kwok as Violet
One word: hilarious!! Her character Violet wasn't meant to be likeable at all but I just couldn't stop loving Florence in the role. There was never a dull moment whenever she's onscreen. Violet is the de facto ruler of Goaltech. When Mr. Ko was absent, she acted as if she was Mrs. Ko and bossed everyone around. She even purposedly got closed to Mr. Ko and tried to seduce him, hence creating tons of funny moments. I love how there's always some barking noise in the background whenever she's onscreen lol :D Florence did her part very well, her performance was flawless. Such an underrated actress!! I especially love her interaction with her cousin played by Kaki Leung. They tried to be mischievous, but always turned out silly in the end. One of the funniest parts of this series was in the last episode when everyone ended up hiding inside Violet's apartment and got recorded by Kaki. She then later eagerly told Violet how she busted everyone and even asked Violet to thank her. Genius!! Their expressions at that moment were priceless!!


Stephen Au as Mr. Ko
Stephen was excellent in his role as the kind boss of Goaltech. Mr. Ko is probably the nicest boss you'll ever know. He was caring, thoughtful, humble... a saint in general. You can see a big daddy figure in Mr. Ko. Because he was all nice and such, people often exploited his kindness and tried to mess up his Goaltech. I like watching his interaction with his father-in-law the most. Although he was a big boss himself, he often got whacked on the head and acted much like a servant when being around his wife's family. Poor guy!! I felt sorry for him.


For some reasons, the reactions towards this series are quite contradicting. Some enjoyed it (like me!!), some don't like it, and some don't even bother to try it. Why though? I admit that it didn't interest me at first. After watching the first episode, I wanted to drop it as well. (But luckily I didn't!!) And from the second episode onwards, I just couldn't stop watching. The first few episodes were great with Florence and Q Bobo stealing the limelight. It did drag in the middle and got rather annoying with Ruco and Jason's characters, but again, Florence's reappearance saved it. (Yah, Florence is technically the star of the series!!) Personally, I think that this series would work better as a sitcom. Nevertheless, this is a decent comedy and one of the better series that aired this year.

My Rating: 7.6/10

Worth watching? Yes, highly recommended.


**Credit: The pictures are taken from tvb.com and just for illustration purpose**