TVB Anniversary Awards 2017 Review
Hello everyone!
It's time for the final awards show review from us for 2017 (TVB's 50th Anniversary) at TVB that took place on Jan. 21st at TVB City. We're sure you've all seen the list of winners and this year was definitely full of surprises. It was also probably the worst year for red carpet fashions. We'll talk about our thoughts on the winners and a side note on the fashion.
Netizen's Favourite Drama: The Exorcist's Meter
Most Improved Male Artiste: Mat Yeung - My Dearly Sinful Mind, Bet Hur, Love and Construction, All Work No Pay Holidays Sr.2
As he said himself, sorry to all the other nominees but this year is for respecting the elders haha. Mat joined TVB's acting class in 1999, almost 20 years ago and is not dubbed "most improved" lol. We thought Owen or Matthew were better choices for most improved. This award is long overdue for Mat and he should be fighting for Best Supporting Actor next. He's been repeatedly nominated for this award since 2010 and if that doesn't say something's wrong with the turnover of new artists at TVB we don't know what does. He already won BSA in Malaysia last year.
Most Improved Female Artiste: Mayanne Mak - Miss Hong Kong 2017, Sammy On The Go, Line Walker: The Hunting Game, TVB 50th Anniversary Gala
This show was really anchored by Do Jeh and FAMA, the other 3 were just there for some variety in artists. They didn't really do anything to add to the show and must be super lucky to be picked by the company for this and got a bonus award. FAMA has turned from singing to hosting and acting, the music industry in HK is just too small. Guess they found their rightful place which is to "serve" Do Jeh lol.
This was not a big surprise to us because Joel has been with TVB for so many years. Even after his leave, he came back and fought harder and acted in a lot of roles. There really hasn't been a role we didn't like from him so far which is surprising. At TVB, its not about the role you were nominated for and everyone knows this. It's about politics, your seniority, connections, contract and all that. So really in terms of TVB's standards, this award was very fair. In our opinion he outshone the lead played by Ruco in this drama.
It's time for the final awards show review from us for 2017 (TVB's 50th Anniversary) at TVB that took place on Jan. 21st at TVB City. We're sure you've all seen the list of winners and this year was definitely full of surprises. It was also probably the worst year for red carpet fashions. We'll talk about our thoughts on the winners and a side note on the fashion.
Netizen's Favourite Drama: The Exorcist's Meter
This came as no surprise for us even though we haven't finished the drama yet. There has been a lot of comments online praising this production for being heart-warming and original. Because of the good reviews, we're currently working on finishing it instead of watching The Forgotten Valley or whatever its called and Infernal Affairs. So far we can say that it's an agreeable drama, definitely not the best in terms of production quality or a star-studded cast but it's simple and still entertaining. We really appreciate the attempt to not just create a monster-fighting drama, but rather to explore human relationships - and how love can surpass the boundaries of death. Kenneth and Hubert were a great combo in this drama, and their respective characters are genuine and heartfelt. The only let down would be Mandy as one of the female leads; she seems a little bland these days.
Most Improved Male Artiste: Mat Yeung - My Dearly Sinful Mind, Bet Hur, Love and Construction, All Work No Pay Holidays Sr.2
Most Improved Female Artiste: Mayanne Mak - Miss Hong Kong 2017, Sammy On The Go, Line Walker: The Hunting Game, TVB 50th Anniversary Gala
We don't usually watch the variety shows on TVB so we can't comment on Mayanne's improvement. Seems like she is quite favored in TVB. Not gonna lie, we've always thought she was quite loud on screen and a bit over the top whenever she got a chance to be on camera. We do think she is a decent show host and has the ability to keep the atmosphere lively though. Not really much to comment on her. Curious to see that Sisley Choi and Moon Lau got taken off the nomination list. Because we've seen the two of them more, we think they're more deserving.
Best Non-Drama Programme:
Dodo Goes Shopping Sr. 2
Faraway Brides
The Ahistoric Grandpa Show
Cantopop at 50
Bazaar Carnivals
Ok, honestly we don't know why there were 5 winners for this category. The TVB awards have become more and more of a pork award ceremony. Ohhh you participated? Good job! Here's an award from blah blah valued at a whopping $3860000HKD. Whatever happened to separating informative shows from variety shows?
Best Host: Carol Cheng, FAMA, Kenneth Ma, Edwin Siu, Priscilla Wong - Dodo Goes Shopping Sr. 2
This show was really anchored by Do Jeh and FAMA, the other 3 were just there for some variety in artists. They didn't really do anything to add to the show and must be super lucky to be picked by the company for this and got a bonus award. FAMA has turned from singing to hosting and acting, the music industry in HK is just too small. Guess they found their rightful place which is to "serve" Do Jeh lol.
Most Popular Drama Theme Song: "到此一遊" by Hubert Wu - The Exorcist's Meter
We weren't surprised to see this song win because there's been a lot of buzz about it. It was especially nice to see Hubert sing his equally good subtmeme "遙不可及" with Ram Tsang. We're happy that Hubert finally got an award after all these years singing so many theme songs for TVB. He's always overshadowed by Alfred, Fred and Jinny even though he's been The Voice's best singer. When HANA sang "live" (we couldn't really tell if she was lip singing) but we couldn't hear anything. It was like she was talking and her voice wasn't powerful enough or something. In contrast, Hubert delivered strong live performances singing both the subtheme and theme of the drama. They sound very close to the original songs that were released.
Most Popular On-Screen Partnership: Edwin Siu, Raymond Cho, Matthew Ho - A General, a Scholar and a Eunuch
This award was well deserved because they worked together really well in the drama and had undeniably great chemistry. The 3 of them held the drama together really well and definitely overshadowed their female counterparts Kristal, Grace and Rebecca. There were a lot of great nominees for this category though, we liked Vincent Wong and Natalie Tong as Saving and Cherry before Cherry ruined it. Kenneth and Hubert were also great in TEM. A side note on the fashion, We have no clue what Matthew is wearing, its like some old lady's oversized shawl. Edwin seemed asleep the whole show and gave a half asleep speech and the moustache really didn't help. He must be speechless, having stumbled across two awards for the night.
Best Supporting Actor: Joel Chan as Kent Ling - The Unholy Alliance
Best Supporting Actress: Rebecca Zhu as Fong Wai Ling - A General, a Scholar and a Eunuch
This was probably the most shocking award of the night. We were kinda confused at how she won this or even placed top 5. She looked genuinely shocked as well and we understand why... She's a newcomer who knew no canto let alone how to act less than 10 years ago. A lot of people said she won because her contract was ending soon, TVB wanted to promote her lots and all that. We thought she had less screentime than Grace Wong in the show and Grace wasn't even in the top 5 which was a surprise to us. Rebecca was probably the weakest of the females in the drama. There was almost nothing memorable about her in her role. She's not a terrible actress, but she hasn't shined in any of her roles yet. We've been watching Come Home Love: Lo and Behold and the actress Mandy Lam nominated in the Top 5 is very entertaining in the show so we're glad to see her recognized. Because she creates such a memorable character, she would have been our pick out of the top 5 for this category.
Most Popular Male Character: Kenneth Ma as Ma Kwai - The Exorcist's Meter
Our first thought was, is Kenneth a vampire? Trying to fit with the theme of his drama? Anyways, Kenneth was lucky enough to be in this successful drama and he gave a good performance. His character is sincere and easily likable which is why he won this character award. He's done much better since his very HEA roles in the past few years after The Hippocratic Crush. There isn't much to say about it because it seemed to fit him just right so we wouldn't say its a breakthrough or anything. It definitely wasn't Best Actor worthy so it would make sense that he won this award, and we do agree with this result.
Most Popular Female Character: Sisley Choi as Deanie - Legal Mavericks
Sisley's speech was just about herself and her struggles since joining the industry. She didn't thank anyone and was probably the only person who didn't which we found weird. This was probably her best role to date, and we have to agree that she has improved and since this award is "fan-based" or "voter-based", if it wasn't her, Ali Lee would probably win for her role in My Ages Apart that we also enjoyed. Sisley isn't that liked by the netizens though, so we find it quite weird that she was most "popular". Her character was unique, but it seems like this title is a bit unfitting for a relative newbie (we think it would make sense if she was MIA). Grace Chan seems like she's completely given up on acting and is ready to marry Kevin and have children lol. Glad she's gone since she hasn't improved at all and Sisley has.
Best Actor: Vincent Wong as Hope Man - Legal Mavericks
This award was already in Vincent's hands pretty much hence his rehearsed acceptance speech. It was really well deserved and he played the role well. It's not easy playing someone with a disability, but he was convincing. A lot of actors put themselves into every role they play, but we're able to differentiate between Vincent's many characters, whether they're comedic or reserved like Hope Man.
Best Actress: Natalie Tong as Cherry - My Unfair Lady
There's been a lot of argument over this award because Natalie wasn't the lead character in the show. She was just a supporting character and her story with Vincent Wong became popular which is what caused the buzz for her. There would have been a lot less complaints if she won BSA instead, but the issue is her character is a bit more than a supporting actress, but not quite the "main" character yet. This is basically how TVB picked the award. Jessica isn't coming so no award. Nina already is Best Actress for movies and its not like she's gonna film anything else for us. Nancy can't win 3 times and honestly, the series was a flop and she wasn't great. Ali is good but she's still a rookie and already won overseas so that's good enough for her. Kristal can't win again and everyone's forgot about Destination Nowhere. We're not saying that Natalie is a bad actress, but she isn't Best Actress level yet in our opinion. She isn't the leading lady and is still waiting for a role to be the leading lady. We are still having a hard time picturing her carrying a whole drama by herself. Sure, she's had good roles throughout her many years at TVB, but it would be nice if she won for an actual leading role where she shone.
Best Drama: My Ages Apart
We expected this drama to win, because it is an Anniversary Drama and it was a trememdous production with a huge cast and many guest appearances. The drama's ratings were decent and were much better than the other anni dramas which flopped big time, so it probably seemed suitable to give this award to MAA, also taking into account that The Exorcist's Meter already got an award. We really enjoyed this drama and definitely thought it was better than The Exorcist's Meter even though we haven't finished it yet. The laughs were bigger, it was more complex in a creative way and really reflected Hong Kong through a unique satirization. There were so many good examples of them poking fun at the way Hong Kong culture is shaped today. Everyone is driven by taking short cuts to make the most money and climb higher on the social ladder. The characters themselves represented your typical HK stereotypes like Anjaylia Chan who was the typical HK girl (Gong Lui). Everyone in the cast performed well and it wasn't confusing despite having so many characters and spanning 50 episodes; the exaggerated plot twists and characters are themselves a reflection of how people live with the mindset that only things worth our attention in the world are things that are grand and extravagant. We especially liked Moses Chan's Mike Kwong and thought he was hilarious especially with his little mannerisms. Ali really improved and was surprisingly natural as Paris, who provided many laughs especially with her chemistry with Moses. This is her best role to date. All the sisters had their own story which we enjoyed watching. Walking played by Louis Cheung was another awesome character, along with Bobby Au Yeung who never fails to disappoint. It's been a while since Helen Ma has had such a big role and we were happy to see her return. This drama also had a lot of cameos from people (Liza Wang, Charmaine Sheh, Nancy Sit...) so many people came in and disappeared but they were all well executed. Yes, some parts were over the top and bizarre, but in a way that still made sense, connecting to bigger picture as a manifestation of the current issues and the situation in Hong Kong. It really is a 50th anniversary drama for us.
More pictures:
So those were our thoughts. In conclusion, there were a lot of well-deserved awards on the male side of the show, while the female awards were a complete disaster (mainly because there weren't many great female actresses that really stood out this year). The awards were pretty well spread out in terms of the drama which got most awards. The fashion this year was horrendous as you saw from the pictures. We aren't sure what half of them were thinking when they chose their outfits. The overall show seemed a little underwhelming as the grand 50th anniversary awards, and the award presenters were mostly TVB's own actors, and we can't say that the winners were chosen fairly for the most part. Thanks for reading our thoughts! Let us know what you think!
-CeeJay
Great review, CeeJay! I like how you guys actually recapped the results and had comments for each category -- in comparisons, my "review" on my blog was basically just one big "what-the-hell-was-TVB-thinking-rantfest", lol! I agree with all the points you made and like I said on my review, the awards show itself was a huge letdown given that this was supposed to be the "big 50" celebration.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of Rebecca and Sisley's wins, I've been reading alot of the analyses from the various media outlets the past couple days and I think it's pretty safe to say that the main reason the two of them won was because of director Wong Jing. Apparently, he (and his production company) signed a few huge deals with both TVB and Shaw Brothers to produce some supposedly "blockbuster" movies and TV series in the coming year(s) and both Rebecca and Sisley were "hand-picked" by him to star in those productions (TVB exec Virginia Lok made it a point after the awards show to tell the media once again that both ladies have been pegged for Wong Jing's next big projects -- even though they had already done a press conference prior to the awards to announce the plans). Obviously neither actress is at the "lead" level yet and technically have no true "skill" or "popularity" to speak of -- and definitely it would be hard for both of them to pass muster as the "next big superstars" on their own merit, so what better way for TVB to push them up than to give them 2 big awards? This way, both TVB and Wong Jing can say "see, these are 2 award-winning actresses we're casting here"....
It's a shame that TVB used their 50th anniversary awards -- the one year where the awards would've truly been meaningful due to the tremendous milestone -- to push their internal agenda and basically ruin what could've been their moment to shine as well as finally regain some of the audience favor that they had lost over the past decade. Instead, TVB "succeeded" in pissing off and alienating the little audience they have left. Some of the media outlets have commented that in recent years, TVB has given less and less heed to what their audiences want, to the point that they come across as not giving a crap about what HK audiences think, since their focus now is on elevating their profile in the Mainland. With everything that has happened in the past year or so, I would have to say that, for once, I actually agree with what the media is saying....
Hi llwy12,
DeleteSorry for the late reply - we've been quite busy these past few days. We read your post, and we actually found it nice how you decided to focus your review on some different aspects rather, than solely looking at the award winners. We totally agree with your thoughts! It's incredibly ironic how the big 50th anniversary turned out to be one of the worst and cheapest awards presentation in these recent years, with barely anything to commemorate the past 50 years. About the award presenters, we weren't surprised to see most of them as TVB actors since it's been a growing trend for the station's award show- but what was more outrageous was half of the presenters had no relevance to the award being given out and just talked randomly to waste some time. We found Benz Hui and Moses Chan's part of presenting the show host award very amusing with how Benz was just going on and on about Moses' coffee, and when Moses tried to get him back on track, he was just like: "What has presenting the award got to do with us?" Obviously, there is no relation to these actors to the award they are presenting, so we don't know why they were chosen. Also, not to mention that Tavia Yeung and Niki Chow were only there to "promote" their upcoming drama "At the Threshold of an Era Again." The only highlight in award presenters for us was Michael Hui's anecdote before presenting the Best Drama award. It was comedic with his recurring line of "bloody hell", but in the end, a meaningful message came through where he acknowledges the numerous trials and errors that one will experience in their lifetime, assuring that one day each and every individual will find the path they are meant to take, even if one feels uncertain about their future right now.
Thanks for sharing the information of why Sisley and Rebecca won their respective awards! It is truly disappointing to see that TVB is using their show as a mere tool to advance their future plans.
Thanks for your review! It's quite interesting to see a more neutral review, esp one that isn't blindly supportive of The Exorcist's Meter. Don't get me wrong, I could probably write a 10 page essay on why I like The Exorcist's Meter, but some of hate against Vincent by Kenneth supporters has been getting really out of hand!
ReplyDeleteThis is the first awards that I've paid attention to in 5+ years, so I don't know how it compares to the usual anymore but I was quite disgusted by how rigged the awards felt.
Whilst I agree that Mat has improved heaps since his early days, '飛躍‘ isn't really the best way to describe his improvement - in fact I've heard his improvement being described as 'ant crawling'. I have nothing against him, but it's quite distasteful that he got nominated here with all the others that people were rooting for, especially knowing that TVB wanted to give him an award in prep for the upcoming but all the other male categories got taken. Mayanne was a pleasant surprise though- I was so sure that they'd give it to Jacqueline since she's so hyped up now.
I'm so happy for Hubert that his is the only undisputed award of the night. When he won, it really did feel like he was representing his cast - he really captured how a good theme song and a good drama go hand in hand! Btw, I think there's a small mistake/typo. Hubert won for 到此一遊, the one that he sang with Ram was 遙不可及.
Rebecca and Sisley's Wong Jing wins were definitely so awkward. Rebecca's improved from her early days, but I don't think she deserved Most Improved, let alone Best Supporting. For Sisley, I feel like it's such a shame because her char was actually my fave female, after Moon's character. It's sad because although people were ready to accept her as Most Improved, no one was ready to accept her as Fav Female. It's like TVB is trying to make sure Sisley has haters.
I'm quite satisfied with Kenneth and Vincent, though I would've preferred their awards to be reversed. Personally I think Kenneth's performance is worth 90%, whereas Vincent gave 110%. By that I mean that Vincent tends to overact, which can be a good or bad thing depending on your preference. I have nothing wrong with different acting styles, in fact both of them are equally far from 100% for me. I think I mainly prefer Kenneth because it's rare for him to get roles that aren't terrible, whereas I have faith Vincent can get it in the near future when more people think he's deserving.
I don't find Natalie's win too rigged. She's a decent actress, but her win was another case of 'there was no one else suitable so I guess we'll just choose her'. I feel like it's more of a commentary on how TVB really needs to fix their ways.
It's so disappointing that TVB obviously doesn't care about what the audience thinks. It's one thing to play by politics, but it's another to completely go against public opinion in favour of it. I kinda wanna slap them for labelling any award as 'audience vote' when it's obviously just a promotional tactic to raise ratings. Even with the Most Popular Series, which actually did seem to be consistent with audience voting, it felt kinda 'hea' that they made it the first award of the night - they could've at least tried to make it feel less pork award by awarding it in the second half??
On a lighter note, it didn't hit me that Edwin actually walked away with two awards until you mentioned! Kinda amusing now that I think about it.
Hi Vaneffle,
DeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts about the awards!
We are honestly still a bit puzzled about Mat's win. He's been nominated several times in this category that it's more of a discouragement rather than an encouragement when TVB hands him an improvement award after twenty years ago.
Oh oops, that was definitely a mistake about Hubert's song. I think we wanted to say that we enjoyed the sub-theme performance with Ram and the other actors of the series earlier that night. Good catch! Hubert's win was one of the few awards that was fair and well-deserved that night
We finally finished The Exorcist's Meter, and we agree that it's a great drama - but yeah, we do think that some people may be overreacting a bit with how angry they've been for it not winning best drama and with Kenneth not getting BA. It is quite outrageous how Moon wasn't even in the nomination list for BSA, while Alice Chan, who was onscreen for a couple minutes at most for Line Walker received a nomination. She's a very natural actor, and it's too bad she's not as favored as some of the other rising female artists. We do hope Kenneth continues getting some more decent roles where he can truly showcase his acting.They definitely should have given the global netizen drama award near the end though; right now it seems like that award doesn't mean anything since it was given out so early.
A comment about Vincent's win. Personally, I feel that he was most deserved for TV King and so to me, his win made perfect sense and I definitely wouldn't consider it rigged. With that said however, Vincent is actually another one of the artists whom TVB already announced will be foraying into movies and filming a "big project" for Wong Jing (the other 3 artists are Rebecca and Sisley as mentioned earlier and also Benjamin Yuen). As stated above, Rebecca and Sisley already "benefited" from being pegged by WJ by winning 2 of the night's biggest awards...Benjamin already got his award(s) last year, plus some audiences (depending on who you talk to) already consider Ben as "lead" level, so there was no need for TVB to "rig" a win for him this year in order to push up his status. According to the latest issue of Mingpao Weekly magazine (which came out yesterday), Vincent is already slated to film a movie this year and will be co-starring opposite Donnie Yen. So based on the fact that Vincent was also pegged for an upcoming WJ film, it's pretty safe to say that Vincent would've gotten an award that night no matter what, it's just that he happened to already be a hot favorite for TV King going into the awards and was deserving of his win due to his truly excellent performance so the WJ factor is kind of a moot point with him.
ReplyDelete