TVB Anniversary Awards 2019 Review
Hello everyone,
We are going to share our thoughts on the TVB Anniversary Awards 2019!
After a full year of new dramas and performances, it's time for TVB to give out their report card at the annual ceremony. This year, it was postponed until January and frankly we forgot it didn't happen in December.
Starting off with a few general comments, we are overall satisfied with the results this year. This is probably one of the better years at the awards show in terms of award distribution. There were no major upsets, and we felt that most award recipients were deserving. The results show TVB's desire to please the audience, while awarding good acting, as well as using the opportunity to advance their favoured artistes. It is also the first year they gave the Most Popular Female Character award to two winners. We saw a trend for people to win the first time they were nominated for their particular category. The fashion this year was a gong show; it seems to be going downhill every year for some reason. There were no particular outfits we really liked. We were also majorly disappointed with the award presenters this year. It was random and uncoordinated, and there were pretty much no special guests. All the presenters were TVB's own actors, and in some cases they randomly called people on the spot to announce the winner.
Lifetime Achievement Award: Lau Dan
Starting off the awards show this year was Nancy Sit presenting the Lifetime Achievement Award. She talked about how it was her 61st year in the industry and how it did not come easy. This year's winner is Lau Dan who has been in the industry for over 50 years portraying all sorts to iconic characters. It is a surprise to us that he hasn't won any awards in the past, but we are glad he finally got the recognition he deserves. These past years he's been entertaining HK audiences in Come Home Love, and more recently established himself as the mischievous 'Tree Gun' in the Lo & Behold spinoff of CHL. Very deserving, and a great humble speech from him. It is indeed a wonderful birthday for him.
Most Improved Male Artiste: Owen Cheung - Justice Bao: The First Year, Finding Her Voice, 12 Summers
The winner of this was pretty evident to us because Owen has been given leading roles now and is heavily promoted by TVB, despite his bad luck of not being able to air many of the dramas he is in. He said he hopes those dramas will have a chance to air in HK so audiences can see his hard work. We are excited to see him perform future roles. Joey Law has been nominated too many times to get this award. The other strong contender was Kalok Chow because his character is well liked by audiences, but at the moment, he's lacking versatility in other roles. Karl Ting has just started in his first drama role (The Man Who Kills Trouble) but looks promising and he has also been in a lot of variety shows lately. We need some new blood TVB. Also, we had no clue who the variety show host was.
Most Improved Female Artiste: Kelly Cheung - Big White Duel, Barrack O'Karma, The Man Who Kills Troubles, 12 Summers
Once again, the winner of this was pretty evident because TVB has been heavily promoting her, and rightly so. We enjoyed all her drama performances thus far with the exception of Flying Tigers 2 which was not a TVB production. She seems to be well liked and has good potential. Kaman Kong has potential as well but comes off as snobbish in her interviews. We think Gloria Tang has improved over the past couple years especially when she first debuted—looking forward to seeing more of her. Lovely to see Iris Lam be nominated and we enjoyed her performance in Girlie Days! Roxanne Tong is alright too and was comedic in My Commissioned Lover, but she hasn't exactly shone in any of her roles yet. We hope she'll get to prove herself in Forensic Heroes IV next.
Best Supporting Actress: Candice Chiu as 王敏儀/何太 - Barrack O'Karma
Happy with this win! She generated some buzz for playing the creepy Mrs. Ho. This is the first time she has been nominated for an award, and she already bagged it. She's a capable actress but we can't see her as leading lady yet. It was emotional hearing her speech about how the path she chose was not really accepted by some of her family. We weren't really rooting for anyone in this category, as some performances seemed lackluster this year. Samantha Ko was good in BOK too, but we are sure that she will have more opportunities coming up. Some other nominees include Gloria Tang in The Defected, and Mimi Kung Chi-Yan in Finding Her Voice, and Yu Miu in Wonder Women.
Best Supporting Actor: Kalok Chow as 金城安 - Come Home Love: Lo and Behold
We were surprised about this win, because it was also his first time being nominated and he is considered a newbie in the industry. In the past there has been a trend by giving the BSA Award to veteran actors with lots of experience. Even Oscar Leung who won last year has been acting for over a decade now. This has garnered some discussions online, some saying Kalok does not have the experience yet. We do enjoy watching him in CHL nonetheless, and his really brings the show to life along with his fellow co-stars with his comedic acting. We thought it would be more fitting if he won Most Improved first. He has a lot of potential and hopefully he can try different roles. His acceptance speech was also well articulated. It's also interesting to see how well liked Lo & Behold has become as a sitcom, as we recall that Mandy Lam also won BSA last year from this show. The other top 5 nominees include Stanley Cheung from the same show, Matthew Ho and John Chiang from Big White Duel and Tony Hung from Wonder Women. We heard some great praises for some of the veteran actors in Finding Her Voice, but we can't judge since we didn't watch it. As a side note, what is wrong with the award presenting this year?? They literally just tell people to announce the awards on the spot. Very unprofessional and downgrading. It was awkward enough when Mandy Wong was randomly chosen to announce the Best Supporting Actress with no clue what was going on, and it is even funnier that Kalok had to announce himself as a winner.
Most Popular On-Screen Partnership: Selena Lee as Alex (章瑋)/Coco (楊玉華), Joel Chan as 阿蕭/劉旭輝 - Barrack O'Karma
We are going to share our thoughts on the TVB Anniversary Awards 2019!
After a full year of new dramas and performances, it's time for TVB to give out their report card at the annual ceremony. This year, it was postponed until January and frankly we forgot it didn't happen in December.
Starting off with a few general comments, we are overall satisfied with the results this year. This is probably one of the better years at the awards show in terms of award distribution. There were no major upsets, and we felt that most award recipients were deserving. The results show TVB's desire to please the audience, while awarding good acting, as well as using the opportunity to advance their favoured artistes. It is also the first year they gave the Most Popular Female Character award to two winners. We saw a trend for people to win the first time they were nominated for their particular category. The fashion this year was a gong show; it seems to be going downhill every year for some reason. There were no particular outfits we really liked. We were also majorly disappointed with the award presenters this year. It was random and uncoordinated, and there were pretty much no special guests. All the presenters were TVB's own actors, and in some cases they randomly called people on the spot to announce the winner.
Lifetime Achievement Award: Lau Dan
Starting off the awards show this year was Nancy Sit presenting the Lifetime Achievement Award. She talked about how it was her 61st year in the industry and how it did not come easy. This year's winner is Lau Dan who has been in the industry for over 50 years portraying all sorts to iconic characters. It is a surprise to us that he hasn't won any awards in the past, but we are glad he finally got the recognition he deserves. These past years he's been entertaining HK audiences in Come Home Love, and more recently established himself as the mischievous 'Tree Gun' in the Lo & Behold spinoff of CHL. Very deserving, and a great humble speech from him. It is indeed a wonderful birthday for him.
Most Improved Male Artiste: Owen Cheung - Justice Bao: The First Year, Finding Her Voice, 12 Summers
The winner of this was pretty evident to us because Owen has been given leading roles now and is heavily promoted by TVB, despite his bad luck of not being able to air many of the dramas he is in. He said he hopes those dramas will have a chance to air in HK so audiences can see his hard work. We are excited to see him perform future roles. Joey Law has been nominated too many times to get this award. The other strong contender was Kalok Chow because his character is well liked by audiences, but at the moment, he's lacking versatility in other roles. Karl Ting has just started in his first drama role (The Man Who Kills Trouble) but looks promising and he has also been in a lot of variety shows lately. We need some new blood TVB. Also, we had no clue who the variety show host was.
Most Improved Female Artiste: Kelly Cheung - Big White Duel, Barrack O'Karma, The Man Who Kills Troubles, 12 Summers
Once again, the winner of this was pretty evident because TVB has been heavily promoting her, and rightly so. We enjoyed all her drama performances thus far with the exception of Flying Tigers 2 which was not a TVB production. She seems to be well liked and has good potential. Kaman Kong has potential as well but comes off as snobbish in her interviews. We think Gloria Tang has improved over the past couple years especially when she first debuted—looking forward to seeing more of her. Lovely to see Iris Lam be nominated and we enjoyed her performance in Girlie Days! Roxanne Tong is alright too and was comedic in My Commissioned Lover, but she hasn't exactly shone in any of her roles yet. We hope she'll get to prove herself in Forensic Heroes IV next.
Best Supporting Actress: Candice Chiu as 王敏儀/何太 - Barrack O'Karma
Happy with this win! She generated some buzz for playing the creepy Mrs. Ho. This is the first time she has been nominated for an award, and she already bagged it. She's a capable actress but we can't see her as leading lady yet. It was emotional hearing her speech about how the path she chose was not really accepted by some of her family. We weren't really rooting for anyone in this category, as some performances seemed lackluster this year. Samantha Ko was good in BOK too, but we are sure that she will have more opportunities coming up. Some other nominees include Gloria Tang in The Defected, and Mimi Kung Chi-Yan in Finding Her Voice, and Yu Miu in Wonder Women.
Best Supporting Actor: Kalok Chow as 金城安 - Come Home Love: Lo and Behold
We were surprised about this win, because it was also his first time being nominated and he is considered a newbie in the industry. In the past there has been a trend by giving the BSA Award to veteran actors with lots of experience. Even Oscar Leung who won last year has been acting for over a decade now. This has garnered some discussions online, some saying Kalok does not have the experience yet. We do enjoy watching him in CHL nonetheless, and his really brings the show to life along with his fellow co-stars with his comedic acting. We thought it would be more fitting if he won Most Improved first. He has a lot of potential and hopefully he can try different roles. His acceptance speech was also well articulated. It's also interesting to see how well liked Lo & Behold has become as a sitcom, as we recall that Mandy Lam also won BSA last year from this show. The other top 5 nominees include Stanley Cheung from the same show, Matthew Ho and John Chiang from Big White Duel and Tony Hung from Wonder Women. We heard some great praises for some of the veteran actors in Finding Her Voice, but we can't judge since we didn't watch it. As a side note, what is wrong with the award presenting this year?? They literally just tell people to announce the awards on the spot. Very unprofessional and downgrading. It was awkward enough when Mandy Wong was randomly chosen to announce the Best Supporting Actress with no clue what was going on, and it is even funnier that Kalok had to announce himself as a winner.
Most Popular On-Screen Partnership: Selena Lee as Alex (章瑋)/Coco (楊玉華), Joel Chan as 阿蕭/劉旭輝 - Barrack O'Karma
Though it was mostly expected, we are content with this partnership winning! They had undeniable chemistry and a sad heartbreaking story. We are glad Joel got something, since he's not quite at the level to get the bigger awards yet, but he still did a good job in this role.
Best Non-Drama Programme:
Best Non-Drama Programme:
Faraway Brides Sr. 3 嫁到這世界邊端
A Chef And A Gentleman 懿想得到
Sammy on the Go Sr. 3 森美旅行團
Here We Go Again 出走澳洲
Do Do Midnight Quests 晚間看地球
We did not watch any of these so no comment. Interesting to see how Faraway Brides and Sammy on the Go has won for their 3rd time. It also seems like in recent years, Dodo and FAMA always get some sort of award. FAMA was also the award presenters for this category, so they gave themselves the award.
Best Host: Liza Wang, Sammy Leung, William So, Dickson Yu - Liza's Online
This is a given because of Liza Wang's participation in the group. What's with William So's glasses? We haven't seen this show so we can't comment on the hosts but it sounds like a fun show with lots of games and guests.
Most Popular Drama Theme Song: "讓愛高飛" by Pakho Chau - Wonder Women
First of all, the two kid actors (one who played Dong Dong in BOK and one who was Kai Kai in WW) who presented the award were adorable! As for the winner, we enjoyed listening to this song, especially in the context of the drama. We've been listening to Pakho for a number of years now and have always liked his voice. It's definitely a better song than Kayee's "Can You Hear" which we thought would win, since some of its English lyrics are awkward. Hope he recovers soon from his illness.
Most Popular Male Character: Pakho Chau as 榮浩田 - Wonder Women
We were surprised that Pakho won two awards. He looked pretty shocked himself, running out of things to say for the speech since he already expressed his gratitude in the previous speech for the theme song. We are satisfied with this win since he truly played the most popular character this year in WW, winning over the hearts of many 師奶 who may have watched the show. Oppa was practically the dream character who was caring, rich and young, giving the audience every reason to like this character.
Most Popular Female Character:
Selena Lee as Alex (章瑋)/Coco (楊玉華) - Barrack O'Karma
This was well deserved, Selena has been a great actress for so many years and she's finally getting some recognition! We have waited for a long time. Can't wait for her to embark on more adventures outside HK. Her role as Alex/Coco was definitely the hot favourite of the year and probably the best character she's received at TVB. We were relieved that TVB decided to listen to the audience, and not just give awards to their own actors/actresses since Selena is no longer with TVB.
Miriam Yeung as 藍飛- Wonder Women
We didn't see the point in giving Miriam the award because this feels like they're just splitting the 'pork' between people so everyone goes home happy. It takes away meaning from the award and felt like TVB had to kiss up to Miriam because she's a film queen and household name for the Asian community. Miriam wasn't bad, but really, it should have been Selena who got the award for herself. We thought she wouldn't get an award since we didn't see her there at the beginning, but as soon as she arrived, we knew TVB wouldn't leave her empty-handed.
Best Actor: Kenneth Ma as 唐明 - Big White Duel
A long overdue pity pork award for Kenneth after so many years of being snubbed of it. This should have gone to him for The Hippocratic Crush or The Exorcist's Meter. His performance here was acceptable, but mediocre in comparison to some of the other roles he has played in. We would say he deserves this award in the sense that he is a long-time, hardworking TVB actor, and not really because of his "best acting" in BWD. It also helped that the other contenders were not as strong this year including Joel Chan, Vincent Wong, Pakho Chau and Benjamin Yuen. The only other nominee we were surprised to not see in Top 5 was Philip Keung. Philip definitely had the best acting in The Defected this year and should have at least placed Top 5 (not Ben). That said, we kind of already knew that Kenneth would win. He was very humble and seemed genuinely surprised he won (he was probably used to being let down after 12 fruitless nominations of not getting BA) It was nice seeing the huge amount of support he got and also funny to see how his good buddies (from the Fistful family), Jazz Lam, Stephen Wong, and also Natalie Tong, seemed more excited with his win than himself.
Best Actress: Kara Wai as 萬晞華 - The Defected
We definitely saw this coming (especially since Kara was there in person) because Kara is such an accomplished actress. Of course that does not automatically guarantee her an award, but this year's competition was not too strong besides Selena Lee in Barrack O'Karma. Since she got the Most Popular Character, it would make sense for Kara to get Best Actress. She is a more experienced actress and we enjoyed her performance in The Defected as we said in our review earlier in the year.
Best Drama: Big White Duel
This felt like a win because of the big budget and hype they tried to garner more than anything. It was also the case with Life on the Line last year as well which also features Matthew Ho and Kelly Cheung. This was another win we saw coming, although it was not our top drama of the year. However, we did appreciate the seriousness of the story, attempting to realistically portray operation of the hospital and numerous surgeries.
All photos are from TVB's Official Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/tvb
Let us know what you think in the comments below,
- CeeJay
A Chef And A Gentleman 懿想得到
Sammy on the Go Sr. 3 森美旅行團
Here We Go Again 出走澳洲
Do Do Midnight Quests 晚間看地球
We did not watch any of these so no comment. Interesting to see how Faraway Brides and Sammy on the Go has won for their 3rd time. It also seems like in recent years, Dodo and FAMA always get some sort of award. FAMA was also the award presenters for this category, so they gave themselves the award.
Best Host: Liza Wang, Sammy Leung, William So, Dickson Yu - Liza's Online
This is a given because of Liza Wang's participation in the group. What's with William So's glasses? We haven't seen this show so we can't comment on the hosts but it sounds like a fun show with lots of games and guests.
Most Popular Drama Theme Song: "讓愛高飛" by Pakho Chau - Wonder Women
First of all, the two kid actors (one who played Dong Dong in BOK and one who was Kai Kai in WW) who presented the award were adorable! As for the winner, we enjoyed listening to this song, especially in the context of the drama. We've been listening to Pakho for a number of years now and have always liked his voice. It's definitely a better song than Kayee's "Can You Hear" which we thought would win, since some of its English lyrics are awkward. Hope he recovers soon from his illness.
Most Popular Male Character: Pakho Chau as 榮浩田 - Wonder Women
We were surprised that Pakho won two awards. He looked pretty shocked himself, running out of things to say for the speech since he already expressed his gratitude in the previous speech for the theme song. We are satisfied with this win since he truly played the most popular character this year in WW, winning over the hearts of many 師奶 who may have watched the show. Oppa was practically the dream character who was caring, rich and young, giving the audience every reason to like this character.
Most Popular Female Character:
Selena Lee as Alex (章瑋)/Coco (楊玉華) - Barrack O'Karma
This was well deserved, Selena has been a great actress for so many years and she's finally getting some recognition! We have waited for a long time. Can't wait for her to embark on more adventures outside HK. Her role as Alex/Coco was definitely the hot favourite of the year and probably the best character she's received at TVB. We were relieved that TVB decided to listen to the audience, and not just give awards to their own actors/actresses since Selena is no longer with TVB.
Miriam Yeung as 藍飛- Wonder Women
We didn't see the point in giving Miriam the award because this feels like they're just splitting the 'pork' between people so everyone goes home happy. It takes away meaning from the award and felt like TVB had to kiss up to Miriam because she's a film queen and household name for the Asian community. Miriam wasn't bad, but really, it should have been Selena who got the award for herself. We thought she wouldn't get an award since we didn't see her there at the beginning, but as soon as she arrived, we knew TVB wouldn't leave her empty-handed.
Best Actor: Kenneth Ma as 唐明 - Big White Duel
A long overdue pity pork award for Kenneth after so many years of being snubbed of it. This should have gone to him for The Hippocratic Crush or The Exorcist's Meter. His performance here was acceptable, but mediocre in comparison to some of the other roles he has played in. We would say he deserves this award in the sense that he is a long-time, hardworking TVB actor, and not really because of his "best acting" in BWD. It also helped that the other contenders were not as strong this year including Joel Chan, Vincent Wong, Pakho Chau and Benjamin Yuen. The only other nominee we were surprised to not see in Top 5 was Philip Keung. Philip definitely had the best acting in The Defected this year and should have at least placed Top 5 (not Ben). That said, we kind of already knew that Kenneth would win. He was very humble and seemed genuinely surprised he won (he was probably used to being let down after 12 fruitless nominations of not getting BA) It was nice seeing the huge amount of support he got and also funny to see how his good buddies (from the Fistful family), Jazz Lam, Stephen Wong, and also Natalie Tong, seemed more excited with his win than himself.
Best Actress: Kara Wai as 萬晞華 - The Defected
We definitely saw this coming (especially since Kara was there in person) because Kara is such an accomplished actress. Of course that does not automatically guarantee her an award, but this year's competition was not too strong besides Selena Lee in Barrack O'Karma. Since she got the Most Popular Character, it would make sense for Kara to get Best Actress. She is a more experienced actress and we enjoyed her performance in The Defected as we said in our review earlier in the year.
Best Drama: Big White Duel
This felt like a win because of the big budget and hype they tried to garner more than anything. It was also the case with Life on the Line last year as well which also features Matthew Ho and Kelly Cheung. This was another win we saw coming, although it was not our top drama of the year. However, we did appreciate the seriousness of the story, attempting to realistically portray operation of the hospital and numerous surgeries.
All photos are from TVB's Official Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/tvb
Let us know what you think in the comments below,
- CeeJay
Thank you, Cee and Jay for summarizing this year’s TVB Awards. The pictures are very high quality and they really accompany the text well. Overall, the awards are fair, except for two of them. First one is about the Most Popular Female Character. I don’t understand why there are two award recipients and why the second one is given to Miriam Yeung. Selena Lee’s acting is so much better than Miriam Yeung. There should be only one to make it unique. As you are saying, the only explanation is simply to 太公分豬肉. The second one is the Best Actor. I think Philip Keung as Bingo in The Defected should win, not Kenneth Ma. Kenneth Ma’s acting is very average. TVB gives it to him is partly because of the Best Drama is Big White Duel. For me, the Best Drama Award should go to The Defected. I really like Kalok Chow in Lo and Behold; he reminds me of 周星馳. I’m happy that he got an award. I also think the Most Improved Actor Award would be more appropriate for him at this stage.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
HawkLo
Hello HawkLo, thanks for your comment and thoughts on this year's awards. We agree with the pork award and some people even say if they were to split the award, they should split Best Actress for Selena Lee so at least it means more for her. We agree with Kalok Chow embodying a modern day Stephen Chow and hopefully he's able to show it in different roles.
DeleteSee you next time, CeeJay
Thanks for your review! I always love reading your thoughts on the dramas and awards! I also agree that this year has the most balanced and deserving awards overall ever! Most recipients were my ideal picks, and even if they weren't, they still went exactly as I expected. Although an expected win, I actually think Owen was least deserving in the Most Improved category this year. He should've won in 2017 (if it weren't for TVB desperately trying to find a category to give Matt an award), but this year I'm a bit hesitant. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought this was only Joey's second year being nominated? Nonetheless, I think he's improved heaps since his sitcom days. Karl and Telford are also very promising artistes. My pick would definitely have been Kalok, as he really brought his character to a whole new level this past year, but I agree he lacks proof of diversity. That being said, I disagree that he should've won Most Improved before Best Supporting Actor. He seriously deserves this, and I'm so happy that he's broken the age, experience and sitcom barrier with this win! There were many other deserving actors (Eric, Savio, Lau Kong) and I do think it's nice to award veterans who have been waiting for many years, but I also think that young actors should be recognised for their hard work too! This is one of the first times TVB has awarded based on acting and hard work only, and not out of favouritism, seniority, pity, or to make up for previous years. I'm really impressed that TVB has broken the hierarchy of awards for a bit, and I hope to see more of the awards being decided purely for the category rather than their association to other awards or related politics. I haven't watched Wonder Women yet, but I can tell Pakho's award is similarly awarded based on the category itself -popularity of the character as the name implies.
ReplyDeleteBack to the award presenting, it's obvious TVB doesn't have the budget or pull to get anyone else to present an award, so I guess they went all out on sacrificing professionalism to create some special moments. Blatantly asking if anyone wanted to present, or asking those who had no confidence in winning to present was EXTREMELY awkward and downgrading, but you can't deny that it ended up with some really special moments. Mandy totally seemed like a kid who just got caught by a teacher in class, but her crying upon seeing Candice's name shows how close they are as friends. And it's clear TVB knew Kalok would be humble enough to volunteer, purposely making him announce himself because they knew his reaction would be absolute gold. I'm so used to his comedic personality that I thought he was joking at first, but I genuinely cried when I realised he legitimately won. The method of announcing Most Improved was nothing but awkward though.
Also on the topic of being unprofessional and downgrading, I really hate what they did for Most Popular Female Character! As much as I understand that Kara, Selena, and Miriam all need to win awards for TVB to pay their respects, sharing an award not only implies "pork award", but also makes us question why other categories can't have two winners too! It's just super disrespectful to everyone! Besides, Miriam seems like a nice enough person to not mind missing out on an award.
Also really happy for Kelly, Candice and Kenneth's wins. Kenneth may not deserve it as much as he did in 2012 or 2017, but I do agree his win is a mix of no strong contenders and years of hard work. I wouldn't say it's out of pity, but rather that it's finally his turn. It's always amusing to see how every single other artist cares more about him winning than he does! As for Kara, I feel like we have very different tastes haha. I respect her seniority and have no doubts about her win but I found her portrayal too one-dimensional and didn't really capture the layers of her character as I would hope.
Hello Vaneffle,
DeleteThanks for checking out our blog again and commenting despite us being MIA for a while.
You are probably right that Joey has only been nominated twice now, for some reason we thought he's been nominated more because he's been in the industry since 2008. He just hasn't really had a breakthrough yet. As for Kalok Chow, it was so sweet to see Iris Lam (Bonnie) and Andrea So (Hung Sum-Yu) also crying when Kalok won the award. We are happy to see the traditional stereotypes being broken too, about status of the actor and drama they're in. Hopefully it will continue and we will be able to see awards given based on acting alone and not all the TVB politics.
We thought about the awards show some more and in the same logic of splitting awards, why was an award not given to Philip Keung? He is also an award winning actor, although his character was not as popular with audiences.
-Cee and Jay