TVB series 2011 ratings in state of emergency, 2012 grand productions to make up for loss

The first half of TVB's 2011 series were rather on the dull side, until the September broadcast of Lives of Omission which became the 'winner'. Even the popular Raymond Lam and Charmaine Sheh's My Sister of Eternal Flower suffered a defeat. The current Men With No Shadows only received average ratings on it's first week. Also there are many TVB FaDan and Siu Sangs heading up north to dig the gold, making it a rare chance for viewers to see talents in TVB.

Hopes are placed on 2012's grand production series, putting full force out to shoot subjected series. Next year, TVB's starts shooting one series after another. In November there is producer Lau Ka Ho's new modern series starring Linda Chung. The series is a Yes Sir Sorry Sir spinoff featuring 'Miss Koo'. There is also producer Nelson Cheung's Policewoman's Ambition currently set for the popular Laughing Sir (Michael Tse) and Anita Yuen as the lead actor and actress. Their main mission is to help promote newcomers William Chak and Oceane Zhu. Some grand productions for next year already started shooting, including Wayne Lai and Kent Cheng's The King Makers.

Nelson Cheung reveals he is currently trying to invite Anita Yuen to shoot Policewoman's Ambitions, but nothing is confirmed. If she doesn't accept, then there re-casting will be necessary. He said: "The topic this time is about a female undercover cop, some people say it's the female version of Lives of Omission. In fact, the story is still under discussion and is subject to change." He will be casting William Chak and Oceane Zhu to give newcomers promotion opportunities. He said if the series just relies on the current FaDan and Siu Sangs, there won't be enough artists and so it is time to give newcomers a chance.

Producer Lau Ka Ho's Yes Sir Sorry Sir boost 'Miss Koo' Linda and 'Home Boy Goddess' Cilla Kung's popularity. In November, the two will be starring in a new series with Bosco Wong. Lau Ka Ho expressed the new series is a 'Miss Koo' sister production with Linda as the lead. In Yes Sir, her role as Miss Koo caught viewers' attention, so this time she will have greater room for development. Looks like Linda is being promoted up to another level, and is in on the list for the TV Queen battle next year.

Next year, the attention focuses on golden producer Lee Tim Shing's Ladder of Heaven starring Moses Chan and Maggie Cheung. Tim Gor also especially supported Benjamin Yuen and Edwin Siu. In the past, Tim Gor successfully got acknowledgement for Wayne Lai and Pierre Ngo, so this time does he support Benjamin and Edwin to be promoted? He said there must be chances given to the next generation actors, but if they are able to be promoted or not, is too early to say. They still need a few more years of experience. As for Rosy Business 3? He laughed: "Lai Chi Ying isn't willing to release Cheung Wah Bui back to HK, how can we start shooting?"

[Mingpao Weekly #2233] In addition, Producer Chong Wai Kin will start a 40 episode pre-modern grand production series entitled Prominent Family starring Damien Lau, Idy Chan, Kenneth Ma, Ron Ng, Fala Chen and Tavia Yeung. The series is set in the 1920s-30s and Damien plays a man with 5 wives. Currently, casting of the female leads have been a headache because the series films through the New Year holidays, a golden period for artists to earn money. Ron Ng admitted he is worried there won't be opportunities to make extra income: "I am extremely worried my chances to earn extra income will be affected. When a series starts, there will be losses because I understand when going out for stage performances, I can't travel too far since that takes about 4-5 days minimum and interferes with the filming process." Fala Chen is also one of the potential candidates for this series, she said: "There is always a conflict with the outside jobs and every series I take part of. The most important is good outcomes for the series. Also, grand productions includes a large cast with more side stories, so filming period shouldn't be too long. I believe we can make room in my schedule." Triumph in the Skies II has been pushed back again and again due to issues with the sponsor and airline. Now, the series has to be pushed back again to March or April 2012 because of Fala, Kenneth and Ron's schedule conflicts with Prominent Family. Producer Tommy Leung expressed: "Both series are very classy, so the schedules can be accommodated. Also TITS2 still has a lot of technical difficulties, including with the sponsor and airline. Although we have confirmed to shoot this series, the schedule still has not been confirmed."           

Thoughts: I really hope Linda will be TV Queen this year!!

[News] Linda Chung Has The Confidence To Fight For TV Queen; Nancy Sit Blows Up Over The Poster Arrangement

Linda Chung (鍾嘉欣) and Nancy Sit (薛家燕) attended the River of Wine《九江十二坊》promotional event yesterday.

When the topic of the TVB Anniversary TV King and Queen awards was brought up, Linda professed that she has the confidence and said, “My reaction in Yes Sir, Sorry Sir《點解阿Sir係阿Sir》was unexpectedly well-received and I gained a lot of fans as a result. Furthermore, the audiences also like my role as Miss Koo in “Yes Sir, Sorry Sir” hence I will be shooting a spin-off series centralizing around Miss Koo in the month of November.”

Linda continued, “Of course I do hope that I could win the “My Favourite Female Television Role” award based on my role as Miss Koo too.”

When mentioned about her ex rumored boyfriend Raymond Lam‘s (林峯) new drama, Men With No Shadows《不速之約》, being accused of plagiarizing Death Note《死亡筆記》, Linda responded, “I’m not too sure. But they will always say that every time when there’s a new drama series. Actually having filmed so many dramas, it is inevitable as there will easily be slight similarities in the plots every now and then. However, I feel that their drama seems attractive and Bobby Au-Yeung (歐陽震華) is also rather comical.”

Nancy Sit blows her top over the alignment of the drama promotional poster

On the other hand, it was evident that Nancy Sit’s image was heavily enlarged on the backdrop, in an eye-catching position, as compared to the first promotional event for “River of Wine”.

This was because during the first “River of Wine” promotional event, Nancy Sit felt that her portrait image on the poster was too small. This made her extremely displeased as it thrust her into a supporting character, which prompted her to reflect it to the producer.

While attending the “River of Wine” promotional event yesterday, Nancy Sit revealed that she had earlier on expressed her dissatisfaction to the producer, Wong Wai-Shen (黃偉聲), about her positioning in the promotional poster.

Nancy continued to say that Wong Wai-Shen explained that it was a printing problem and promised her that he would make sure the problem doesn’t persist again for the second promotional event.

Nancy also joked that she would look at the backdrop first when she enter the venue in the afternoon and would entertain thoughts of leaving if it wasn’t amended by then.

However, upon reaching the venue, she immediately felt happy again upon seeing that there was marked improvement in the poster during this current promotional event.

Nancy professed that she only filmed one to two drama series for TVB every year hence she was obviously uneasy about being treated as a supporting character when she was in fact the main lead of the drama.

Nancy proceeded to say that after seeing her discomfort, the producer was sensible and understanding enough to make the immediate amendments.

Nancy also emphasized that she wasn’t petty but just felt a little unsettled as her relationship with TVB has always been good and they had said that she would be acting as the main lead when they had initially invited her to film this drama.

Since yesterday was the Mid-Autumn Festival, did Nancy remind her children to be careful while celebrating it with their other half?

Nancy replied that she is an open-minded parent and will give them space for their own activities but she did ask them to enjoy and appreciate the full moon and didn’t ask them to “eat the moon”.

Linda Chung likes Raymond Lam’s portrayal of a devil
Although the Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festive season for family reunion, Linda self-professed that her personality was westernized and since her family was in Canada, she didn’t have the habit of celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival.

In other news, Raymond Lam’s new drama was recently accused of plagiarism. About this, Linda replied that there were simply too many dramas in this world hence it was ineluctable for similarities in drama plots and that there were accusations of plagiarism, even in songs.

Linda also expressed that she knew Raymond was portraying a devil and felt that the concept was rather appealing.

Source: Oriental Daily, Mingpao, iHKtv
This article was translated by Ah K, a Contributing Writer at JayneStars.com.

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Upcoming series with Bosco

Info:-Lau Ka Ho's new series: Linda Chung, Bosco Wong. Linda will reprise her role as Miss Koo. Films at the end of November.

-The upcoming series will be produced by Lau Ka Ho in November. Bosco Wong revealed that he will be Linda's bodyguard. She is a extraordinary rich woman. My routine job will be to protect her. As the story progresses, their love story between him and Linda surfaces. It will be a serious relationship this time.

Linda Drop a Message at her Website!!!

Hey fans: I'm just waiting to film rite now, decided to drop a message. As u all know, I have been extremely busy filming dramas this yr. I miss going out to functions and singing on stage(those r the times where I get to see u guys most). Please bare with me as sometimes i may not be able to stop or take pics cuz i dont look my best/tired:( I hope next year 2012, I'll get to spend my work time more evenly. Hope I can produce my 4rth album, maybe have a mini concert, fans gathering, and film 2 dramas a year(that way I can have more time). Anyways, things in life r not controllable. I hope all of u r happy and doing well. God is good, and has a plan for us, so just take things with ease, and love love love:)

Take care everyone, see u soon! Hope next time I won't be sleepy eyes:)
Love,
Kayan

Linda Chung and Steven Ma Fifth Collaboration Feels Familiar

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Steven Ma, Linda Chung, Nancy Wu and the cast of Lucky Father attended at the second costume fitting yesterday. This time will be the fifth collaboration of Linda Chung and Steven Ma.

Linda's character is a tough policewoman and as her fifth time working with Steven, she was not worried about sex scandals being broke and very trusting each other on set. Steven says "Linda Chung is the most cooperative female aritst I've ever worked with.

Slim Beauty Official Posters

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2011 Posters

Lucky Father Street Filming- A Missunderstand Passers Turned On The Motocycle Alarm

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Yesterday Steven Ma and Linda Chung were shooting a car accident scene on location at Shek Kip Mei street for TVB new series Prosperous Father. The scene was so realistic that the passersby were frightened thinking there was a real traffic accident and immediately called the police, "a motorcycle crashed into the pedestrian road, sweeping a few people down." The police and firefighters arrived at the location at once thinking that a catastrophic traffic accident had just occurred. When they got to the scene, the police realized it was all just a misunderstanding. Soon after, a female onlooker suddenly stood next to the motorcycle used for filming and interfered with the shoot. She was urged to leave, but she was unwilling to. The crew was forced to stop the shoot.

Later reporters approached Steven Ma for details of the incident. He said he was just shooting a car accident scene for his new series with Linda. The scene required many Extras to act as students who get hit by a motorcycle. At the time, there was a old woman passing by who got very anxious, misunderstanding that there was a real traffic accident and called the police. Eventually when she found out it was just shooting, she still didn't care.

However, according to Steven, there was another emotional lady at the scene. She was upset because the TVB van parked by the roadside, still had its engine running and AC on, which really caused an impact to the environment. Because of this, she was unwilling to leave the area. Steven said: "We change in the van. There is a limit, after we are done, we turn off the engine. However, she came over to us and kept talking. I just embraced Linda back to the van. I didn't get into a conflict with her to avoid upsetting her again. Later, we waited until she left before filming the rest of the scene. We eventually got it all done."

Steven continued: "But, I do have to praise the police for their prompt response. I couldn't believe that the police would be at the scene so quickly." He also reveals that TVB had always followed the proper procedures to get permission for outdoor shooting; it was no exception this time. Although the car accident scene yesterday was misunderstood as a real accident, the police did not further interfere with the filming process, it was just because of that one emotional person. Steven said: "That lady probably had an emotional problem, she was scolding us nonstop and her words got ugly too. She said we were selfish, heartless and even told us to be careful from spraining ourselves!"           
MORE STREET FILMING

OHHH!! What a big misunderstanding!!! Poor Linda!! I wonder how she react??? She'll probably laugh. She looks so professional just like MISS KOO we know.

Conflicts between brothers led to crying scenes a 60% of total screen time in Jiu Jiang Twelve Wine Mills

TVB has recently placed more importance on scenes between males. In [Lives of Omission], a moral of good vs evil is portrayed, while in [Jiu Jiang Twelve Wine Mills], a value of kinship and integrity is conveyed. In [JJ], Bowie Lam, Sunny Chan and Pierre Ngo act as 3 brothers from 2 families. They have to face with the toughness of operating their own family’s wine mills, and also each obstacle in the path of their individual relationships. Even though each has their own “man sufferings”, once all of them shed tears, tears can flow non-stop even in an all-man scene. Nancy Sit has described that about 60% of all screen time is devoted to crying scenes, “when we come back to ancient dramas, we see a lot of scenes about kinship, the scenes have a clear distinction between good and evil as well, so it is suitable for all ages in the family to watch”. Yesterday, producer Wong Wai Sing as well as the main casts Nancy Sit, Pierre Ngo, Linda Chung, Kong May Yi, and Evergreen Mak turned up for the outdoor promotional function for [JJ]. During the interview for Information Times, they revealed first-hand information about the best scenes in the drama.

Wine Making Skills over Wine Quality

Since [JJ] has a setting in “Wine Culture”, the function can’t possibly lack an element of wine. The cast showed up at the function in their Qing Dynasty costumes, and opened the seal for the wine that was sealed all throughout filming. Thereafter the artists challenged each other’s wine drinking ability. As Sunny Chan and Bowie Lam were absent due to filming elsewhere, Pierre Ngo was the only male artist present in the event. He bottoms up one glass of wine, and was praised by the audience for great wine drinking ability. After the wine drinking, the cast split up into groups to play wine tasting games, where they have to differentiate between the 4 main wines of Jiu Jiang by looking, sniffing, asking and cutting. Also, the group that can list out the 12 wine mills of Jiu Jiang in the shortest amount of time will win the game. In the end, the group with Nancy Sit and Pierre Ngo won the game. After the function, Pierre Ngo laughed and said that he only has average wine drinking ability, and that “the one who can drink the best in the entire cast is actually Sire Ma, for she had to be carried back to her room after she got drunk the last time”.
Thickness of kinship over thickness of wine

[JJ] depicts the conflicts between the Sung and Leung families in their wine mills. The drama is set in the town of Jiu Jiang in the city of Fo Shan. The town of Jiu Jiang had 12 very prosperous wine mills in the past. Bowie Lam acts as the elder brother of Pierre Ngo, and their brotherly relationship has never been affected by the fact that both of them do not have any blood ties. Pierre Ngo acts as the eldest son in the Sung family, and initially learns the wine making techniques from Bowie Lam. Later on, he was misled by some bad people and nearly made his family and friends leave him. Pierre said that his character is a very complicated character, much more different than the “pai guat tzai” that he acted as in [No Regrets]. This character has a lowly side (like a beggar) as well as a cunning side. But in the end under his family’s help, he turned good, and that is very touching to watch.

Nancy Sit mentioned that due to filming in the wine mills, she could feel the warm hearts of the people in Jiu Jiang, “the villagers are very warm hearted, they would take out all the nice wines that they have, and we would have wine to drink in every meals. Also, they would make lots of fresh river seafood for us. I have never come to film in the mainland for a long time, and it is really warm hearted.”


Characters give off positive energy (Linda portion)

Linda acts as a daughter in the Sung family, naturally born with uneven length of the legs. The villagers are afraid that this will be hereditary, and as a result no one dares to marry her. Eventually she falls in love with Bowie Lam’s real brother Sunny Chan, but is not accepted by his mother Nancy Sit. Even though everyone has a tough situation that they cannot change, they still accepted the predestined fate, no wonder the production team praises this drama as one that is very warm hearted, and is full of positive energy.

Linda Chung: “I act as Sung Tze Tsing, she is like a sunflower, even though she has a born disability, she does not feel inferior, but rather becomes very objective.”

Translated by Joshick @ LindaCottage