tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758666836317755286.post2983193040302563057..comments2024-03-23T02:53:40.486-06:00Comments on CeeJay's Entertainment: House of Spirits 一屋老友記 TVB ReviewCeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13460655393325459002noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758666836317755286.post-79416929416841674992016-08-15T11:14:02.430-06:002016-08-15T11:14:02.430-06:00Part 2 response:
I honestly don’t think we will e...Part 2 response:<br /><br />I honestly don’t think we will ever get “quality stories” from TVB where audiences watch for the story rather than out of habit or because there is nothing else out there. TVB’s traditional audience pool is not keen on these types of series, which, in a way, is one of the reasons why TVB continues to churn out the stuff that they do. In my opinion, the last ‘quality’ series that TVB came out with was Never Dance Alone (aka M Club) 2 years ago, but that series was actually a departure from tradition, since the cast and crew involved were not regular TVB people (producer was Eric Tsang and scriptwriter was Susan Chan, who was a former TVB scriptwriter but switched to writing for movies in recent years and has won much accolade/awards for her film work). That was a great series and word of mouth was excellent as well, script was also well-written and the performances were good as well….but the ratings sucked and so TVB treated the series like it wasn’t worth crap and ended up shutting it out of anniversary awards contention almost completely (save for in a few categories that didn’t really matter much).<br /> <br />I have actually put AFWFW on my “to watch” list, but probably won’t get to it anytime soon, as TVB series are low priority for me nowadays (my “to watch” list is long, lol), plus I’m not keen on the cast except for maybe Ruco, so it’s going on the bottom of the list unless something happens that motivates me to bump it up on the list (which I’m 99.9% sure won’t happen). In terms of TV series, the priority for me right now is to finish up ViuTV’s series Margaret and David and maybe check out their new sitcom AM/PM. I’ve also got a few RTHK series on the list as well, plus a boatload of variety programs/interview shows that I need to catch up on (there are also a few movies I’m trying to finish watching but that’s a whole other list, lol). Needless to say, I think I will be quite busy the next couple months where “watching stuff” is concerned…llwy12https://www.blogger.com/profile/02401832364832078932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758666836317755286.post-4127045299173502432016-08-15T11:13:17.873-06:002016-08-15T11:13:17.873-06:00Part 1 response (damn character limitations, lol)....Part 1 response (damn character limitations, lol)...<br /><br />@CeeJay: LOL…I actually chuckled at the comment about Herman Ho giving all the awards to Jinny. The HK entertainment industry has changed so much from when I knew it back in the 80s and unfortunately, whether it’s television, music, or movies, things have gotten worse rather than better. I remember when the HK entertainment industry was referred to as “Hollywood of the East” and there truly WAS a point in time when HK did live up to that name, easily giving the ‘real’ Hollywood a run for their money….but all of that is history now, which is a sad reality. With HK becoming less and less “relevant”, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if in 10 years’ time, the entertainment industry disappears altogether….<br /> <br />To be honest, when it comes to veterans returning, I’m actually kind of conflicted. On the one hand, I prefer to watch veteran artists nowadays because the current crop of artists just can’t cut it (and when I say current, I’m actually including the past 15 years as well – so basically post 2000s era). On the other hand, I don’t want the veteran artists to return because TVB right now is so far down in the dumps that I pretty much have zero confidence in them producing masterpieces akin to what they were capable of back in the 80s/early 90s – besides, if we look back over the past, oh, 15 years or so, the showing on TVB’s side whenever a big name artist returned was quite poor…meaning that the series itself sucked big time and TVB pretty much just relied on the veteran artists’ pulling power and nostalgia to rake audiences in (Born Rich, anyone? That’s the example I always use but there are also tons more…). This is largely why I don’t want veteran artists to return, especially ones I care about – I don’t want to see their careers/reputations “ruined” or even temporarily “dragged down” by TVB….<br /> <br />I agree with you about TVB’s inability to groom a younger batch of artists who can actually act, though I can only partially blame them due to this being an issue on a larger scale as well in terms of the entire HK entertainment industry. TVB’s biggest issue is its monopoly on the television industry over the past 20 years or so (ATV actually provided some formidable competition back in 70s, 80s, and part of the 90s), which pretty much caused them to sit back on their laurels and do very little in terms of improvement over the years. The talent we had back in the old days was astounding, no doubt about that, but the management back then also knew what they were doing, so that definitely helped.<br />llwy12https://www.blogger.com/profile/02401832364832078932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758666836317755286.post-39754906141171417512016-08-10T09:48:35.698-06:002016-08-10T09:48:35.698-06:00Hey! llwy12!
Oh yes, the higher ranked executive...Hey! llwy12! <br /><br />Oh yes, the higher ranked executives and such always claim that they were a part of the reason why veterans returned. Honestly, although it is nice to see the veterans back on screen, we also think that it is time TVB fostered some of their own actors and actresses. Nowadays, all the leads are 30-50 something and it is lacking some of that new star power. Many people are flocking to kdramas because there are new faces and they are only in their early 20's sometimes. What is more is that they are also good actors. If they were in TVB, they would be doing kelefe roles for another 10 years before their name would've gotten out there. Also, back to the veterans returning... some of them cite staying home with family and stuff to be part of their reason for filming for TVB. And of course the script, the producer, the cast, etc. You are spot on about the industry being super small and it is lacking creativity these days as well. The film industry is small, the TV industry is only TVB these days for dramas, the music industry is also a joke with Herman Ho giving all the awards to Jinny. A lot of people are leaving for bigger opportunities and larger wages in the mainland as well. So it is even more important to get a new batch of younger entertainment industry stars. The people that are rising now like Nancy and Mandy are already in their 30's. <br /><br />Yeah TVB is riding on gossip magazines for sure. Sometimes we just wish there was actually some quality stories (in the dramas) from TVB so the audience would watch it for the show. Looks like this part of the industry is not going to change though. Even the reporters have nothing to say so one time, we saw this article about Karena Ng shopping in Central... how is this even newsworthy? <br /><br />We agree with you about Brother's Keeper, it was not that good. Especially with Linda's Rachel who kept changing her mind about Ruco and it did not make any sense. We haven't seen Hugo Ng before so we can't comment about his acting. We however can already imagine Grace being loud and immature because apparently, that is her character. Yes, AFWFW is pretty good right now and quite suspenseful and we hope you can give it a try :) Ceehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13460655393325459002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758666836317755286.post-68545626640962391682016-08-08T18:39:44.446-06:002016-08-08T18:39:44.446-06:00Hi again! Thanks for the reply. :)
Yep, I agree ...Hi again! Thanks for the reply. :)<br /><br />Yep, I agree with you guys about the management changes, though the frustrating part for me is TVB management always trying to claim credit for certain veteran artists agreeing to return to film for them when we all know that in almost every case, the management had nothing to do with it (most of the artists return because of certain producers, the chance to work with certain artists, attractive script / story, sense of familiarity, loyalty, they have no choice, etc.). Sometimes I wish the artists would refuse to even give TVB the time of day – but we all know that won’t happen given how the HK entertainment is so small and not many artists are going to voluntarily burn their bridges. And please don’t get me started on Sandy Yu – I get all worked up just mentioning her name, lol! <br /><br />Oh and I’m totally not surprised at TVB’s publicity stunt thing for their series and programs. They’ve been pulling that kind of stuff for decades so of course they are not going to stop now – in fact, with the dismal state they are in right now, I wouldn’t even put it past TVB to heighten the publicity thing even more to draw as much attention to themselves as possible. As the saying goes in the industry, it’s better to be in the news for something negative than to not be in the news at all – at the end of the day, negative gossip is media exposure, which of course is free publicity for TVB…they would never pass up that opportunity!<br /><br />I’m actually not looking forward to any upcoming TVB dramas with the exception of maybe Uncle Chi’s (Liu Kai Chi) series if it does end up airing this year (it’s always a delight watching Uncle Chi onscreen – I definitely don’t mind sitting through a boring series if he’s in it, especially since nowadays, it’s so easy to just forward through the other scenes that he’s not in). I don’t plan on watching Brother’s Keeper 2 because I didn’t like the first one anyway and with Ruco Chan (who was the saving grace in the first installment and made the series even remotely watchable) only having a cameo role, plus I can’t stand Grace Chan and don’t really like Edwin Siu either, so even less motivation to watch (I might tune in for a few episodes just to watch Hugo Ng, but depends on how much screen time he has). I also heard that AFWFW is pretty good (both my mom and my sister-in-law are currently watching the series), though I’m not really keen on that genre of series and not tremendously fond of the cast either…we’ll see though…I may end up giving it a go if I have some time later on (which likely means “never” in my book given how busy I’ve been lately, lol).<br />llwy12https://www.blogger.com/profile/02401832364832078932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758666836317755286.post-26418858065443767132016-08-08T17:36:06.959-06:002016-08-08T17:36:06.959-06:00Hey! llwy12, thanks for checking out our review ag...Hey! llwy12, thanks for checking out our review again! :) It's always nice to hear from you. <br /><br />We agree with you about how sloppy TVB has been these couple years with dramas and even their shows. We are now watching the dramas with a blind eye and trying to overlook their many fundamental mistakes. Like how Grace Chan had unlimited bullets for COD, that's still ticking us off to this day. And how it hailing ice bricks in Curse of the Royal Harem... wow. We do however recommend HOS just to get back into TVB for the family style and the general feeling of home with a mix of comedy and good acting from Bobby for the most part. A Fist Within Four Walls is also pretty good so far with the exception of this one scene that is so cringe. We are doing weekly reviews for AFWFW as well. <br /><br />The management swapping with TVB is of course a huge part of what's making its shows diminish in quality. For example, we read about a new drama that's coming up with Tony Hung and Priscilla Wong. Not that we have anything against them but them again? Together even? Seriously? We are not only really feeling the power of Sandy, but we are also getting a bad feeling that this drama is using their rumours and separate, new romances to fuel for gossip magazines and create buzz for the drama. That is so low and cheap in our opinion. Watch there be an article every week about the reporters asking if Natalie is jealous that Tony is filming with best friend Priscilla. At this point, TVB needs a solid script, a solid team both in front of and behind the scenes to pull off some quality dramas that will bring the audiences back. We are not interested in hearing more petty reports of TVB's set up for publicity. <br /><br />Anyways, let us know if you are interested in any other TVB dramas. The list right now is Brother's Keeper after AFWFW (hope Grace doesn't ruin it and half the original cast is gone anyways). Then it is Inspector Gourmet after Daddy Dearest and after that is Law Dis-Order. Thanks for stopping by :)Ceehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13460655393325459002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8758666836317755286.post-75502174043043041772016-08-08T16:08:20.522-06:002016-08-08T16:08:20.522-06:00Thanks for the review. I haven’t watched House of...Thanks for the review. I haven’t watched House of Spirits yet, but have been keeping up with the various news topics about it and am glad to see that the series did well overall. I’m actually not too surprised at the positive reviews for the series though, since it was kind of a given already that the series would do well when the cast (what I would consider a “strong cast” given it is comprised of mostly veterans leading rather than newbies) was first announced way back when, plus it’s a remake of an old TVB classic that already had a good script to begin with (besides, can’t really go wrong with Bobby as the main lead – even if the rest of the cast sucks, at least we can count on his performance being good, lol). <br /><br />It’s pretty obvious that TVB is trying to turn over a new leaf this year with all the changes in management and the huge effort to recruit veterans we haven’t seen in a long time back to TVB (i.e. even recruiting those who were supposedly ‘blacklisted’ previously due to working for rival stations or were labeled as ‘traitors’ for badmouthing TVB). Unfortunately though, it’s “too little, too late” in my opinion, as TVB is too far gone already that I really don’t think they’ll be able to salvage even a third of the ‘glory’ they had in the old days (and it doesn’t help that for every step they take forward, they take like 10 steps backward). I still haven’t decided whether I’m going to watch House of Spirits or not, despite the good feedback towards the series. In fact, come to think of it, I actually haven’t really watched any TVB programs this year -- I guess I finally had it with the endless crap that TVB had been churning out the past couple years and have become a bit ‘jaded’ to the point that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to watch anything TVB-related without getting ticked off somehow, so I don’t really bother anymore, lol. I will be lucky to have watched even 1 TVB series in its entirety before this year is over….<br />llwy12https://www.blogger.com/profile/02401832364832078932noreply@blogger.com