TVB Reflections

Ada Choi & Julian Cheung Film ATV Series “Who Is the Winner 2008″
In order for Asia Television Limited (ATV) to increase its prestige, the company has continuously enticed the actors and actresses of Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) with very high prices, hoping they’ll make the move to switch over from its arch-rival. Former TVB actor Lawrence Ng has already accepted such an offer and is currently filming (法網群英). Now, ATV promises TVB “fa dan” Ada Choi 2 million HKD to film its upcoming series Who Is the Winner 2008 (勝者為王2008). In desperate need of money to raise his son, Julian Cheung has also signed on to co-lead the series despite the risk of offending TVB.

Ada Choi, who is still a contracted TVB artist, utilized the “gray areas” in her contract to sign with ATV’s “New Vision” mainland company, thus allowing her to accept the new role. During the one-year period Ada Choi spent filming TVB’s grand production The Gem of Life, she lost many opportunities to make extra income. Since her involvement with Who Is the Winner 2008 is similar to that of other mainland productions, TVB has no way but to let her go.

When reporters asked ATV’s Public Relations executive Gilbert about the matter, he acknowledged that filming of Who Is the Winner 2008 will begin shortly, but neither confirmed nor denied Ada Choi’s contract with his company. He reluctantly answered, “These are just rumors, depending on how you look at them. Whether or not Ada Choi and Julian Cheung will be the leads, I can only say that we will invite the entire cast later and make a public announcement on the identities of the leading actors/actresses.”

The original Who Is the Winner was ATV’s highest rated production in the early 90’s, once peaking at over 21 points. But according to Gilbert, the only similarities between that and the new Who Is the Winner 2008 are the name and gambling theme. He said, “This is a new production. The characters and storyline are new and the series will not be a sequel of the original.” Filming starts mid-June 2008 in Dongguan and Macau.

Source: SDNews
English Translation: Aeris @ TVB Reflections

Recently, TVB has been producing alternative endings by popular demand. Viewers elected not to kill off Roger Kwok‘s character in D.I.E., the highly-rated detective drama that peaked at 44 points. As a result, a silly and senseless ending featuring Bobby Auyeung was released. Again last week, an online clip of another Catch Me Now ending was made available; Jack Ko (Damian Lau) did not take a bullet but was arrested by Kwong Yeung (Joe Ma).

“Happy” endings are often favored by many viewers, but they don’t always make for realistic representations of life. Tragedies, suffering, and pain are unavoidable and occur in every part of the world; the recent devastating earthquake in China and cyclone in Myanmar are two unfortunate examples. At the same time, television shows not only provide an outlet to convey lessons and information, but the power to infuse us with fantasies that may never materialize. We are given the chance to momentarily escape our own realities and live through those of fictional characters. In a way, these are reasons some people are disappointed when a certain character dies or a couple don’t end up together: they invest a lot of time, energy, and emotions into a series that a “good” result is expected.

While I’m glad to know that TVB knowledges the importance of its audience, somehow I feel that it purposely produces these “sad” endings as an excuse to show us “happy” ones. It’s killing two birds with one stone. Those who like perfect endings opt to see the alternative ones and those who don’t can ignore them. But unless an original ending is very sloppy or poorly written, the addition of an alternative ending is unnecessary and likely ruins the impression of the series as a whole due to a lack of definite closure to the storyline.

Returning to the blogging world from a three-week long hiatus, I’ve created some patterns and coded a new layout for the site. Since I’m a huge fan of dark themes, this layout sports another black color scheme. I realize that summer is fast approaching, but I suppose this is a demonstration of my hopeless stance against the warm temperatures.

Regarding browser compatibility, although the safe, flexible, and highly customizable Firefox is recommended, I’ve tried my best to make the layout compatible in all popular browsers – yes, even the buggy Internet Explorer 6 that fails to render some codes properly and lacks support for certain types of images (e.g. PNG). However, please do let me know if you find anything that looks odd. I’m always open to suggestions on improving any aspects of this site.

To view past layouts and banners, click here.