劇集 "琅琊榜" 主題曲 Nirvana In Fire TVB, Alfred Hui 許廷鏗, 問天

Hello! Hope everyone's been doing well! We are going to be starting off the month of May on our blog with TVB's newest theme song for Nirvana In Fire. This drama aired last year originally in Mainland China but TVB has bought the rights to it and has dubbed it and it's ready for release. Personally we will be skipping this drama as we don't watch dubbed mainland dramas. (Originals are better in our opinion and they're usually too long for our liking).

Anyways, let's get started with our review! So Alfred has been gone for a while with his last song being the Wuxin Monster Killer theme. Has Alfred taken the spot of singing TVB bought Mainland drama theme songs? There was also that Journey to the West theme song he sang as well... hmmm. Not complaining though since we don't watch these dramas and we like him the least out of the 3. (Alfred, Fred, and Hubert). Something surprising is that this time there's an MV actually out the first day because usually they take weeks or even months to film and upload a mediocre one. The picture for the video looked interesting and we MISTAKENLY had high hopes for this song.

OKAY. THE BEST PART of this song was the first 15 seconds TBH and then it went downhill from there! The moment the song actually started we were like huh? Jay had to crank up the volume to hear Alfred's mumbling! To prevent unnecessary rambling and ranting on everything, we are just gonna start with the song, and then move on to the MV. 

SONG REVIEW:

Song wise, the first listen had us like... what did we just hear??? This is a song? Or is this a mumble jumble thing by Voice Ent again? Tune deserves like a 1/10, we keep saying this over and over again in our song reviews but there are really no tunes to any of these theme songs anymore. Also the violin just does not fit the drama, like this sounds like some pre modern drama song... or a modern drama about musicians. This is Nirvana In Fire! An epic historical drama, what's with the violin? Get out the Er Wu and the Gu Zheng!

Lyrics might be a bit better because they tried to make it poetic with the double character technique and it does follow a nice pattern. The word choice is pretty shallow in some areas and other areas just don't make sense. For example, 無求 名名利利罔罔虛虛,  we get the 名名利利 part and it's pretty standard for someone to say that and all the stuff about the 'Now I feel how deep our connection was because you're gone and it's hitting me now' but 罔罔虛虛? huh? 罔罔? They could've definitely worked to find something better, although it kinda fits, it does sound redundant and 罔罔 just does not really make sense. This song wants to sound deep and all meaningful but it's not doing it for us and the wanna be poetic lyrics aren't helping. Because this was such a critically acclaimed Mainland drama, TVB wanted to show its QUALI at songwriting when they could've just used the original ones that were perfectly fine. Their songwriting quali is at an all time low btw if you haven't noticed it lately. 

Performance wise, nothing much. Why? Because Ol Alf here had like zero expression and looked so done with this song. His enunciation was so bad, we had to read the lyrics to know what the heck he singing. According to a fellow Youtuber who commented on this video, THE EVEN RELEASED THE MV with Alfred mouthing the wrong lyrics @ 3:06! So misleading. We also don't know and don't feel anything from him. It's just like, I got the job done! Cee personally thinks he sounds bored of his own song. All we hear are the long end notes like, dadadadadadadada dadeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, dadadadadadadada dadeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. That's it really. Oh this apparently corresponds to these lyrics: 如何難受終須一別 再見   原來離別方知感覺 深淺.


           許廷鏗 Alfred - 問天 (劇集 "琅琊榜" 主題曲) - Official MV


曲/編:張家誠 
詞:張美賢 
監:何哲圖/韋景雲 

無情 悠悠望盡世態興衰
無眠 淡淡細聽落葉風吹
無名 平平靜靜只跟自己可相對
無求 名名利利罔罔虛虛
無痕 落在寸寸面目身軀
無窮 前塵舊事渺渺炊煙 沒法追

如何難受終須一別 再見
原來離別方知感覺 深淺
誰人兩手縛著是紅線 延續無數懷念
如何流逝匆匆幾年 再見
言詞懸在千鈞一髮 最難辯
誰人眼睛昨夜淚流遍 情義只可問天

無情 平平白白化作止水
無遺 靜靜察看地動風吹
無名 仇仇恨恨千絲萬卷 於心裡
無求 名名利利罔罔虛虛
無痕 落在寸寸面目身軀
無窮 前塵舊事渺渺炊煙 沒法追

如何難受終須一別 再見
原來離別方知感覺 深淺
誰人兩手縛著是紅線 延續無數懷念
如何流逝匆匆幾年 再見
言詞懸在千鈞一髮 最難辯
誰人眼睛昨夜淚流遍 情義只可問天

原來離別只等一日 再見
原來承諾只等一次 兌現
誰人兩手縛著是紅線 延續無數懷念
如何流逝匆匆幾年 蛻變
情緣遺落天邊海角 已沉澱
誰人眼睛昨夜淚流遍 何日方可晴天


MV REVIEW:

Looking sickly and pale he is in this MV... but guess he's just sick of filming these MVs all the time and would rather be back at his dental office! Again, like the song, the first 15 seconds are the best part. 

0:24 - This is what we're talking about with the sickly pale look! 

0:25 - What is with the creepy face? Is this him in hindsight thinking about his long lost gf? We don't understand the storyline with the MV, is there even a story? And side note, why do these signer always have such a hard time mouthing their song on the right time with the right amount of lip movement? They're always a second late and their mouth movement is 1/10 when in reality they sing with at least 7/10! Please be more realistic! Don't they have the song playing in the background when filming? Can't they sing along in real life rather than MOUTH it? We're sure they would have no problem singing it out loud since it will be muted anyways!!! 

0:36 - Oh my this is THE SAME DAMN JUMP that we will rant about down below @ 2:19. SAME DAMN SHOT TOO

0:47 - AGAIN, same as 2:28 FRIENDS TAKE A LOOK AT THIS SCREENSHOT ON OUR DUAL MONITOR... EVERYTHING IS THE SAME AND IT'S AT DIFFERENT TIMES... we were wondering it we were seeing things but nope. This has us CONFIRMED that they are the same thing. So damn disappointed because we were hoping for cool dancing. PLUS, in our hearts, WE KNOW this is a TVB dancer (we see no credit for the dance here either wow.. that sucks) 



1:05 - This graphic is so unappealing and it looks very weird. TVB is trying to step out of its boundaries and have some cool experiments with their new tech but if you're gonna put out something the audience feels weird seeing then we'd advise you, Voice Ent, TO KEEP IT OUT. Their skin tones match 100% so it's not even like she's got an arm tattoo of him, it's like his face is a part of her arm or something. BTW, has any part of this MV corresponded with the lyrics of the song so far?

1:28 - This has got to be the most awkward things in this MV. Alfred looks very uncomfortable and his huge collared costume is not helping. This looks like it should be an intimate scene between the two but they are embracing each other very awkwardly and they aren't looking at each other and what you get out of a supposedly very intimate scene is AI YAH... SO WEIRD.

....... it sounds like we're on a huge lookout for bad things, but that's all we can find. The idea of using new technology to create cool visuals is a PLUS but they are using it in all the WRONG ways. The story isn't fitting and nothing is working well here. We wanna say the set is nice and new but the projections of the dancer and the faces on the clean, white curtain disturbs the audience's ability to comprehend what's going on. Is this a calm head space for Alfred after a harsh break up? Or is this a place of haunted memories?

2:19 - This jump JUST RUINS the dancing for us..



So in general, this is called a stag jump and there are many variations of it. Having said that, it can't be THIS sloppily done! Like was she aiming for THIS below? With both legs bent and feet pointed (stretched)?


http://www.proprofs.com/flashcards/story.php?title=dance-spins-leaps

OR THIS? With her back leg STRAIGHT? and feet POINTED? Like if you watch her jump again, it just looks like she took a leap of faith with her feet doing whatever and her legs coming up at different times and her back leg like half straight and half bent. The legs have to come up AT THE SAME TIME. It's not like a two count hop thing, it's a jump, a leap! Whatever, maybe this is some new move we don't know about projected from her inner emotions...


https://oakartsdance.wordpress.com/photo-gallery/

We're just going to end it here because we have had enough of negatively ranting about this song and MV. The rest of it is just Alfred being pale and awkward with the female touchey scenes and more of the same sloppy dance shots. The song is bad, the MV is bad, what more can we say? Next time, PLEASE keep the original songs and don't do anything new Voice Ent. This is super hea and even Alfred SOUNDS DONE! That's a huge thumbs down. 

Overall, what a disappointment. The dislikes on this video are going up as we type right now. Please let us know what you think down below! 

See you next time,

-CeeJay

Comments

  1. What was TVB thinking by butchering nirvana in fire with this theme song. The original ones fits perfectly with the show. If you can't make it better don't reinvent the wheel. The budget could be better spent elsewhere. Now I'm doubting if they can dub the voices well...

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  2. Well, after the first episode aired, there are already complaints, especially from fans of the original series – the general sentiment is that the dubbing sucks and changing the music was the wrong move because it totally detracted from the series.  I actually have not watched the series so can’t really comment on it – but I will say that TVB always has a way of ruining dramas that they buy with the ‘minor changes’ that they make to it.  Looks like this one is no different.  I wonder if they are going to do what they did with previous the Mainland drama they aired (I think it was that Wuxin Monster one) and chop down the episodes halfway through airing to ‘stop’ the bleeding due to all the complaints…

    Oh and did you hear the comments that Sandy Yu made last week when they were promoting the drama?  She pretty much said that the series was very popular in Mainland and from a production standpoint, there is nothing to complain about.  However,  whether HK audiences will accept the series or not is another story.  If HK audiences understand what they are watching, then it proves that they have good taste and high standards and will be expecting these types of standards with TVB…however, if HK audiences feel the series is boring, then all I can say is SORRY….

    Is it just me or did Sandy Yu totally diss TVB’s audience pool with those comments?  So let me get this straight – TVB is the one that continues to target the housewife audiences and have no qualms about using that to “excuse” the poor quality of their own productions (hey, the housewives love their series so they must be doing a good job), but then when it’s convenient for them, TVB turns around and disses those same audiences that they were praising not too long ago?  Talk about lack of respect for their audiences!   I actually already had a bone to pick with TVB back when they changed the cast of Come Home Love and to quell all the complaints, they made the scriptwriters come out and do a lame interview that essentially angered audiences even more (who wouldn’t be angry when those scriptwriters essentially told audiences to their faces that if you don’t like the new changes to Come Home Love, then you have bad taste!)…really, TVB?  That’s how you’re going to treat your audiences?  Diss them and criticize them for not seeing things your way?  Needless to say, after that interview, I deliberately refused to watch CHL2 (and of course, I got a kick out of the fact that, in the end, the audiences were right and TVB was wrong, since CHL2 ended up a disaster).  I sort of feel the same way now after hearing Sandy Yu’s comments (though I do intend on watching Nirvana in Fire, just not the TVB version, since I absolutely hate dubbed series).  Sandy Yu’s comments prove just how shallow and stupid she is in not being able to recognize the cultural differences between Mainland vs HK audiences, different preferences between younger and older audiences, etc.  With imbecilic execs like her running the station, no wonder TVB is sinking faster than the Titanic, lol.

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    1. Definitely please watch the Chinese version. Not only tvb have changed the theme song (I get it it's hk heart language) they swapped the tracks in the 2 episodes I watched. So now you get obstructive and modern tracks that doesn't fit the show. Plus of course they think they could do a better job and cut some scenes out so the episode I watched it lost some of the artistic scenes and back story. It made it rushed. I don't understand why they did that. There will be more rough chopping going on by the looks of things. Episode 1 was already showing scenes from episode 2. Either air it as it is or don't air at all. Respect their work. I was only thinking to watch tvb version because it's in Cantonese so I don't have to keep reading subtitles. I'm glad I watch the original version (rewatched far too many time as well hehe) awesome show.

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    2. I’m not surprised that TVB butchered the series – they have a track record of not respecting other people’s work and editing out things to the point that the program no longer makes sense (remember HKFA awards show from 8 years ago? And that’s only 1 example….).  Heck, TVB doesn’t even respect their own work, so of course not going to expect them to respect others’ work.  TVB’s mentality is likely that they spent the money to buy the broadcasting rights to the series and with the execs being the arrogant bastards that they are, they probably also think they can make the series better by adding their own touches to it.  If I were the distributor/producers for those series, I would refuse to sell broadcasting rights to TVB or at the very least put a whole bunch of requirements in the contract that would prevent them from altering anything.  I honestly don’t get – don’t these producers care that their works are being butchered?  Not only that, now there’s going to be a large segment of audiences – specifically those who don’t know any better and won’t know that TVB edited the series from its original version -- who will have the wrong impression of the series or even dislike it.  Call me a conspiracy theorist if you want, but I wouldn’t be surprised if TVB butchered the series on purpose to make it look similar to / worse than their own productions so that their housewife audiences won’t get any ideas and pressure them to make better quality productions along the lines of Nirvana in Fire.  Before, I probably wouldn’t think this, but now after hearing Sandy Yu’s recent comments about the series as well as seeing the past few years how she operates (she actually makes Virginia Lok look like a saint, lol), I honestly don’t trust TVB to do things the right way anymore.

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  4. Hey! @llwy12 and choon lean

    Thanks for the comments on this new post! Looks like the sub theme song went to JINNY NG (watch it be like JSG Gold song of the year again) Absolutely corrupted. Not that the sub theme is any better and we're not even gonna do a post on it. We are actually boycotting her song this time.

    Doesn't look like they did a good job of dubbing the original judging from choon lean's comments and a lot of other netizens roasting TVB for it's abysmal cutting of the drama. We agree that if you aren't gonna keep the original and make the plotline logical, then don't even broadcast it. TVB has a lot of other dramas in store that need to air anyways. This is hurting it's own artists, it's viewership points, it's credibility on editing and also the music department. But it does seem like, as llwy12 mentioned, as long as there's hype and news about the show, THAT'S GOOD NEWS to tvb. What are the standards these days even? Why are they ruining their last hope of drama production?

    We remember watching Wuxin the Monster Killer's FIRST ep with TVB and they put in all that modern hippy TVB background music making everything feel so off. It was really weird and we didn't continue on from there. The fact that they are making the producers come out and explain how GREAT the show is is just crazy. They are pretty much pouring out their own rice bowl if you guys know what we mean. TVB thinks their audiences are dumb or something and we remember this one scene from the Curse in the Royal Harem or whatever with Myolie Wu where it was "hailing" and HUGE BRICKS of ice were falling down. Ok it doesn't hail in HK, but don't be that lazy and at least shave it down a bit? What a producer! They also don't help the newbies in acting more natural on screen. It was definitely their fault for the OTT parts from Grace and Sisley and while they were at fault for being newbies and not knowing how to act, the directors should have really said, hey, look, tone it down a bit. Let's take another take. We're sure the actresses are there to learn and improve their acting and wouldn't mind doing another take for something that THEY WON'T get blasted for.OH WAIT.TVB DOES want people to blast them so there's hype online and in the media. That is incredibly irresponsible of them and we don't agree with them "training" their actors like that. Of course, they need that hard training but do it behind the screen to spare them from getting all the hate and then in turn THE COMPANY itself getting hate. Wow, where is this logic Sandy Yu?

    There needs to be a makeover at the TVB drama department and just scrap The Voice Entertainment altogether at this rate! It's so silly of them to introduce a mySuper TV when we have heard literally nothing about it. Why? Because nobody cares about tvb's trashy dramas enough to PAY for them. It's always been a free service to Hker's. Dubbing themselves as the asian netflix is pushing it A LOT. They just broadcast kdramas on there when if you really wanted to, those are all available at the click of a mouse these days. Are the execs that blind to not notice that their audiences are only still there to watch THEIR in house dramas? So either you amp it up. Or you just fold.

    Oh man, the whole GOING TO MAKE SEQUELS the moment Lau Kar Ho is back is like. Halt it right now! Please start new memorable dramas rather than ruining what was once considered good in the audience's eyes. They ruined Burning Flame with the third installment, ruined CHL with that nasty yoga thing that's not about home, ruined The Hippocratic Crush 2 with too many new characters with weird unregulated (lack of a better term) storylines, ruined Triumph in the Skies 2 with again, this huge nasty love DECAGON. We could go on with their pile of rubbish sequels. Are they really thinking when they come up with these ideas to save ratings? Or are they playing us for fools?

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  5. @CeeJay -- agree with everything in your post. And to add insult to injury, the big news this weekend is that TVB was once again trying to be the arrogant bully to record company Universal and it has backfired on them big time, as Universal is refusing to renew their Internet program contract with TVB now. Stupid TVB requested Universal to sign over exclusive rights to use all their artists songs on their (TVB's) internet platform FOREVER -- which meant that even after their contract is over, TVB has the right to use the songs without having to pay Universal, plus Universal can't let other stations use those songs. That is the most RIDICULOUS requirement I ever heard of! No wonder Universal essentially said HELL NO and decided to part ways with TVB. Herman Ho from Voice Entertainment was the one who negotiated with Universal, which in and of itself is an issue because of the conflict of interest for one and two, it shows that TVB has no sincerity whatsoever -- they send the head of their own record company to negotiate with a fellow record company instead of sending the actual execs?

    Well, TVB is in a pickle now, as their contract with Universal was officially over on 5/1 and since Universal has decided to not renew, this means that according to the terms, TVB has 3 years from 5/1/16 (so by 4/30/19) to take down/remove all Universal copyrighted songs from their Internet platform -- this includes songs from former Universal artists dating back to the 1980s and 1990s (even the ones under Polygram, which merged with Universal several decades ago).

    So what does this mean? Well, since all Universal artists will surely be banned from TVB now (Herman Ho claims that they still 'welcome' Universal artists to appear on TVB programs as long as it doesn't conflict with contract, but we all know that's just lip service). So I guess this means we will see even more of Voice Entertainment's so-called singers...and it also means that JSG Awards will once again be Voice Entertainment/EEG Awards Ceremony! Lovely....

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    1. Wow that's not a smart move. It's almost unbelievable. Surely they are not that dumb. I'm not familiar with hk market, does Universal need to relie on TVB to survive? It doesn't makes sense who will counter offer such ridiculous terms.

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    2. @choon lean:  

      Universal definitely does NOT need to rely on TVB to survive, as they are one of the biggest international record companies with some of the industry’s biggest singers signed to them.  Universal actually didn’t have TVB as a platform after their first royalty dispute 8 years ago – out of the 4 big record companies (Universal, Warner, Sony, EMI), they were the ones who actually held out the longest in terms of not bending to TVB’s unreasonable demands.  Whereas the other record companies caved in not long after the dispute, Universal only broke the ice with TVB a few years ago.  Universal of course is not going to agree to such a ridiculous demand, especially given the fact that they currently have collaborations with other TV stations (i.e. Eason Chan singing the theme song for ViuTV’s launch ceremony and also releasing his newest MV exclusively in that channel’s primetime slot).  I actually wouldn’t put it past TVB to use this as a way to underhandedly give Universal a hard time as “payback” for the record company going against them on so many occasions (Universal said that the contract renewal talks had always been smooth and this is the first time in decades of collaboration that TVB has put such a ridiculous and impossible demand in their contract).

      It’s definitely not a smart move on TVB’s part.  The way I see it, either Herman Ho is trying to sabotage TVB’s relationship with other record companies in order to boost his own record label (Voice Entertainment) or TVB has gotten to the “arrogant beyond saving” stage where they will try to get everyone to bend to them merely because they can and not give a damn about the consequences.

      The funny thing is that TVB is now crying a river claiming that Universal is the one being unreasonable by requesting that they remove all copyrighted programs from their internet sites within 3 years.  But then stupid Herman Ho contradicts himself in the same interview by claiming that the impact to TVB won’t be huge and it would only affect a handful of programs – um, yeah, right!!!  Even TVB’s former GM Stephen Chan said that he hasn’t really been paying much attention to the issue, but if TVB has to remove all copyrighted programs from their Internet sites, that will definitely be a huge problem for them.

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  6. @ llwy12 and choon lean

    Wow, can't believe TVB would put out those terms for Universal. It really does seem like they think they're the top in the industry. But just because they are the most popular HK TV station does not mean they have the best songs, artists, dramas, programs, etc. In this day and age, many people head to Youtube to listen to new songs and nobody even cares about what TVB broadcasts in terms of songs, or at least that's what we both think. This is not improving the music industry in Hong Kong because if TVB continues to blacklist all these record companies, their stupid awards show is just gonna be The Voice Ent and EEG... and that just shows to the world how LIMITED Hkpop is. It would help for TVB to look at the big picture. We're all in for improvement and a growth of hkpop but this is going backwards. What type of policies does TVB have? What overshadowing power does TVB have to even have the audacity to offer Universal such ridiculous demands. It is right for Universal to say, BYE BYE TVB. And heck they don't need TVB. In fact, TVB needs to save its own butt before they meddle with other companies. With many artists gone and the recent resignation of Kwan Wing-Chun, TVB is going downhill for sure. It is just a matter of time before other stations like ViuTV to surpass TVB in quality, actually, maybe they already do since we haven't seen ViuTV yet.

    Hello to three more years of brainwashing, crappy songs.

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    1. Well, ever since TVB started up their music division back in the early 2000s, I’ve always said that they had a hand in destroying the HK music industry by pushing out mediocre singers who were all better off sticking to their day jobs of acting (though many of those artists couldn’t even do their day jobs well either, lol).  TVB has essentially let fame and power get to its head and the fact that the government has allowed them to monopolize the industry for 4 decades does not help things.  The thing that I hate is that TVB always acts like their shxx doesn’t stink and tries to meddle in areas that they have no business meddling in the first place (i.e. music industry – they are a TV station, not a radio station or music platform – they should be more concerned with producing quality programs rather than trying to get a piece of the music industry pie).  My feeling is that TVB thinks they have the right to control the entire HK entertainment industry just because they are the premiere TV station in HK and probably close to 80% of the artists in the HK entertainment industry (my rough estimate) either came from their station, worked for them at some point, or were contracted to them (i.e. singers’ contract), which meant that they had a hand in making some celebrities famous.  To be honest, for the past 15 years, TVB has essentially been piggy-backing off their past success and they absolutely know it (I’ve lost count already how many times their management and artists have “used” TVB’s past glory from the 70s/80s/90s to “promote” their current programs and artists…Nat Chan especially is one who keeps bringing up how “awesome” TVB is with all the great programs it produced 30-40 years ago).  It makes me sick listening to the way current TVB people talk and act, especially the execs who are forever in denial mode and act like nothing is ever wrong (just like ATV’s former chairman Ip Kar Bo was constantly in denial that anything was wrong with ATV, even after that station had lost its license and was on its last leg and it was obvious to the whole world and their mothers that ATV was not sustainable).

      ViuTV unfortunately is not going to be much competition for TVB, as their target audience is way different (they target the younger generation, specifically those audiences who no longer watch TVB or HK television at all for that matter), plus their business model is way opposite (focus on “factual entertainment” programs rather than TV series, which doesn’t sit well with a population that is TV series-crazed and has been used to watching TV series for more than 50 years).  From a production standpoint, the quality of ViuTV’s programs is definitely better than TVB, but they won’t be able to do much damage to TVB due to TVB’s core audience still being the traditional brainless housewives, most of whom don’t give a crap about production quality and prefer watching stuff that doesn’t require them to think anyway.  In my opinion, the only company that could’ve given TVB a run for their money and really do some serious damage to TVB was HKTV, but of course they couldn’t get a license.  TVB is well aware of this fact, otherwise they wouldn’t have meddled and prevented HKTV from getting a license – a revelation that HKTV’s chairman Ricky Wong made last week in an interview with Stephen Chan (Ricky Wong told Stephen Chan that he had confirmation from a reliable source that TVB higher ups had indeed gone to the Central government in Beijing to plead their case and used RW’s high profile poaching of their artists as ammo to get their way).

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    2. I think for me, what pisses me off the most is that I personally experienced the ‘golden age’ of the HK entertainment back in the 80s/90s and know exactly how things were like back then, so to have to sit here and watch TVB continue to act all ‘high and mighty’ when they are nowhere near what they were in the past and continue to pull the wool over people’s eyes and treat their audiences like brainless sheep who will continue to support them no matter what they do, it’s frustrating (though on a larger scale, having to watch the HK entertainment industry as a whole deteriorate into the pathetic state it’s currently in has been just as painful for me).

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