Kevin Cheng filming a hair growth ad

Kevin Cheng returned to Hong Kong recently to film an ad for a hair growth company in which he signed a 2 year contract with. He says that he has not seen Charmaine even though they are filming only a short distance from each other. He is still single and it is waiting for the right woman to come along.


Kenneth Ma Denies Breaking Up With Nancy Wu

Kenneth Ma and Lily Ho were at a mall event the other day and Kenneth denied breaking up with Nancy Wu. Nancy recently moved because she was originally renting a place from her relatives and the relatives now wanted to sell the place. He maintains that they are not dating and just good friends.


via the sun

TVB Plans for the new year

I was reading this article and I thought it was very good read. Mingpao got an exclusive with the Program Arrangement Strategic Planner and Production Department Vice-Director (Mr. Ho Koon Chung) about their upcoming plans for TVB and the different broadcast periods. Here are some highlights:
  • They are planning to broadcast Tiger Cubs (Joe Ma, Jessica Hsuan) starting in June on the weekends. There are 13 90-minute episodes which will be broadcasted on Sundays first and then in July it will begin to be on both Saturday and Sunday. This series is a big investment because each episode cost almost $10 million HKD to make. 
  • They have lined up some series to go along with the 4 seasons.
  • The Romance season will coincide with Valentine's Day and they will air 4 in Love.
  • The Off Season is in May and June and since it is an off season, they are planning to air some of their stronger series to get some high ratings. This will include The Boxing King (Kevin Cheng, Raymond Wong) and House of Harmony and Vengence (Bobby AuYeung, Myolie Wu, Linda Chung).
  • The Summer season revolves more around the younger audience since they are on break and Return of the Three Kingdoms (Raymond Lam, Kenneth Ma, Tavia Yeung) is planned.
  • TVB Anniversay Season- Some tentative plans have been made but they have not been revealed yet.
  • Mr. Ho said that he did hear some complaints about series not being broadcast in better time slots, and he admits that there are some weaker time periods. However TVB produces series non stop and he has confidence in the series to do well. Also, TVB is international so even if there are less TV viewers in Hong Kong, there are still many other ways that people watch series. There have been more clicks on myTV and through Mainland streaming sites so HK viewers are not very accurate since there are many ways to watch series now. 
I also thought this quote was very interesting.
TVB's Mr. Ho calmly said: "It is good that there are new competitors, the industry can have a hundred flowers bloom and bring in new strikes. However, please don't 'wear the same pants', steal the same group of artists and shoot the same type of TV programs. The same productions method is not a blessing to audience. (This year, will TVB have to watch out in the battle, as there are new competitors?) In fact, we have long term arrangements for our programs. We also have the flexibility to make changes, it could change by the day and it's not difficult, but actually its a question of will the change be positive or negative? [We] have to consider this. More importantly, we want to pursue stability. TVB employs many skilled and experienced behind-the-scenes crew and we are an old company, so we seek 'within the stability, seek breakthrough and improvement'."

I thought that this was very informative and shows their thought process. I agree that the TV ratings does not accurately reflect the ratings of a series since there are so many more ways to watch series now. I don't think they'll get super high ratings for series because of this reason. It's the same in the U.S. because tv viewership has gone down and the average ratings have dropped as well too.


I think there might be a little bias in picking their anniversary series but I don't think that they give series bad time slots on purpose. They want their ratings to do well so they must have some confidence in a series to do well, even in unfavorable time slots. It happens to everyone so I don't get the whining about it. 


Also, I thought the last quote was funny because it was a pretty good dig at their competition. It's true that they're trying to copy their style but I don't think they'll succeed. ATV tried to do the same thing by paying more money to get TVB stars but it still didn't help their ratings. Basically, why would people watch a copy cat when they can watch the real thing?

Myolie Wu Star Talk Interview

This is an interview that Myolie did with TVB a few days ago, before she left to go to China to film. She talks about her award reactions and a little about her relationship with Bosco. In every TVB interview, they mention that they've been dating for 7 years. It seems like an open secret within TVB since some of their friends had to interview and question them about their love life, even though they know the real truth all along. 7 years means that they started dating while filming the first War of In Laws?

I can only upload the first 6 minutes so go to the source to watch the full video.


Source

Myolie Wu and Kevin Cheng- Happy New Year (Updated)

Both Myolie Wu and Kevin Cheng had a good 2011 which ended with them taking Best Actor and Actress at the TVB awards. After winning, they had more commercial and promotional offers as well filming opportunities. Myolie is currently in Mainland filming for The Feast and she has also received many other Mainland scripts. She does not mind taking on more filming opportunities since Triumph in the Skies 2 does not start filming until May. Kevin will also continue to develop in both Hong Kong and China. He is currently filming Hero in China with Michael Tse.


More pictures

I Love Hong Kong 2012 Movie Premiere

Here are a few pictures from the I Love Hong Kong 2012 movie premiere. I mainly put pictures of TVB stars you may recognize like Bosco Wong (as shown below).

Kate Tsui and Raymond Lam with you a Happy New Year!

Kate Tsui seemed to have a  good year with 5 series being aired, but she is not very lucky in the love department since there were rumors of her having an affair with Ron Ng. Raymond Lam won a bunch of music awards and earned a lot of money, but was also hit with the scandal of the released bed pictures of him and his ex-girlfriend. For the new year, they both wish to get rid of the bad luck and have a good dragon year.
Source: the sun


L'escargot Promo Event

The cast of L'escargot had a promo event to celebrate their new series together. They had an average rating of 27 points, with a high of 33 for the scene where Oscar Leung slapped Mandy Wong.


More pictures-

Happy New Year from Wish and Switch

Myolie is currently in China filming "The Feast" but the Wish and Switch cast had a Chinese New Year dinner before she left. Here a few pictures.


2 more pictures

Selena Li and Vincent Wong

Selena Li and Vincent Wong are currently paired up in Wish and Switch. Selena said that she has been in the industry for over 8 years and she has the most kissing scenes with Vincent. For a celebration dinner, Selena suggests that they switch it up and Selena and Myolie can kiss and Vincent and Johnson can kiss. hehe

 More pictures

Chok氣一族 Blessing Ceremony


The blessing ceremony for Chok氣一族 will include: Ruco Chan, Kristal Tin, Louis Yuen, Kiu Bo Bo, Natalie Tong, Jason Chan, Leanne Li, Mandy Lam, Raymond Chiu and many others.


Updated with more pictures

Thunderous Drug Raid 雷霆掃毒 Blessing Ceremony Pictures


Michael Miu was not at the blessing ceremony since he is still filming in China. He will be paired up with Elaine Ng in this series. There will also be a love square of sorts since Ben Wong will like Ella Koon who likes Raymond Lam who likes Kate Tsui. 

More Pictures

Myolie Wu and Johnson Li

Wish and Switch with Myolie Wu is currently airing in which she switches lives with Selena Li's character. Even though this series is airing during the Chinese New Year time, she is not worried about ratings and instead hopes that everyone likes this drama. 

Oscar Leung talking to troubled youth

When Oscar Leung was younger, he was very rebellious and he would steal and always get in fights. Now, he has a fresh start and a newer look on life and he wanted to share his experience with the younger kids and encourage them to stay positive.



That's very cool of Oscar to share his experience and encourage others to stay out of trouble. Oscar signed a contract with TVB about 2 years ago and he should have some prominent supporting roles coming up. I hope he gets some more chances in which he'll be able to shine.

Thunderous Drug Raid 雷霆掃毒 Blessing Ceremony



Michael Miu is the main lead but he is still filming in China so he will not make it to the blessing ceremony. The cast includes Elaine Ng, Raymond Lam, Ella Koon, Kate Tsui, MC Jin, Ben Wong, Law Lok Lum, Derek Kwok, Raymond Tsang, Jazz Lam, and many others.

I believe that Michael Miu and Elaine Ng are paired up together as well as Raymond Lam and Ella Koon.  I'm not sure if the storyline will be the same as the sales presentation clip but Kevin Cheng and Roger Kwok will not be filming this series. I'm looking forward to this- I was excited when I watched the sales clip and the cast changes seem interesting. 

4 in Love Poster


The poster is pretty nice!

Mag Lam and Sheldon Lo dating?

Mag Lam and Sheldon Lo were rumored together ever since they were both on The Voice 2 together and did a duet together. There were also various rumors of Mag with other The Voice contestants but it looks like she really is dating Sheldon. They were captured in pictures holding hands and eating together.


via weibo

Congratulations if they are dating. They make a very cute couple and they had nice chemistry being on the same season together. Does anyone know what Sheldon is up to?

Happy Birthday Sharon Chan!

It was Sharon Chan's 33rd birthday yesterday but she still accepted a job in which she had to dress up in full costume. She planned to celebrate her birthday later in the day with friends and her boyfriend. When asked what her boyfriend got for her, she just said that it was a very sweet gift.


Source

Sharon looks pretty good in this extravagant costume! It must be pretty heavy with all the beads and the headpieces though. It looks like she will have a good year coming up since she just finished filming her first co-lead role. 

Linda Chung's plan for the end of the year

Some people believe that the end of the world will be on December 21, 2012. Linda says that if this is true, she would prefer to take a vacation and spend the last day on earth with her family. When asked if would spend it with her boyfriend, she still said she would spend it with her family. She says that she will only disclose she is dating if the time is right and that she is in a stable relationship.


 More pictures of her filming Dangerous Protection-

Bosco Wong and Niki Chow at a mall event

Bosco Wong and Niki Chow were at a mall event the other day (which I think is pretty funny since Myolie and Kevin had an event together the day before. hehe) and they each received a kiss from a small kid. They were also told to feed each other apples which led Niki to feel embarrassed but Bosco did not have a problem and obliged. Bosco disclosed that he would like a boy and girl in the future but he has no plans currently to have kids.


Miss Chinese International

Before we get to the results, I just want to say that the best part of the show was this performance! I love Hacken Lee's songs.

Hacken Lee, Mag Lam, Alfred Hui

via 

The winner of Miss Chinese International is #11, Kelly Cheung, from Chicago. Second place is #9, Cheryl Wee from Singapore and third place went to #5, Lenna Lim, from Malaysia.


I actually don't think the pictures give justice to how pretty they are. Also, I think the top 3 answered their questions really were and that's probably why they placed.

More pictures of the contestants and Myolie Wu, Michael Tse, and Raymond Lam-

Charmaine Li and Ricky Fan are now married!

Charmaine Li and Ricky Fan tied the knot last night. Congratulations! Many TVB artists attended the wedding and some of them were even part of her bridal party such as her good sisters Linda Chung and Vivien Yeo. When asked if they're planning for a baby right away, Ricky and Charmaine said that it is not in their immediate future since they want to have some alone time together first, but they might try in a year or so.


What a cute couple! Congratulations! Check out more pictures below.

Kenneth Ma at a mall event

Kenneth Ma was at a mall event yesterday and he said he currently does not have any travel plans. He will be spending the new year with friends and family. Although he says that he does not have a girlfriend, he is also not in a rush to find someone either. He kids around and says that he'd rather have a scandal since scandals can bring him money. 

Ruco Chan Birthday Celebration

Ruco Chan recently celebrated his birthday with a group of fans. He will be turning 35 this year and admitted that he would like to find a girlfriend but work is currently taking up a lot of his time. He is preparing to film a family comedy soon called "Chok戲一族".

That's a really cute cake!


Kevin Cheng and Myolie Wu- Shanghai Spring Festival

Kevin Cheng and Myolie Wu recorded the Shanghai Spring Festival  (東方衛視2012春晚錄影) in China today. They both looked really good! 


第六届腾讯网星光大典 Tencent Award Winners from Hong Kong

Ghetto Justice won for favorite RTHK drama and Myolie Wu, Tommy Leung, and Sharon Chan were there to accept the award.


Sheren Teng won the favorite RHTK actress award.

Congrats!
A few more pictures...

Current Scandals and Rumors

1. This first one is from Sudden Weekly which is Hong Kong's version of National Enquirer and Globe, which means that they are trashy and have very little truth to it. It's saying that there is a prostitution ring which involves an actor acting as a pimp for his girlfriend who is also an actress. They use a phone card to communicate with their clients to see who is interested and describes the girls for sale such as a "leggy beauty at TVB" and a "goddess with a 36D figure". The names are blurred out but then they use pictures of rumored and official couples as some possible suspects.


It's pretty obvious that it's not any of these people because none of them are actually accused but they just wanted to use some famous names to get some more interest in this news story and sell more copies of the magazine. A few years ago, there was a scandal involving a "salty pork hand" at TVB and the gossip magazines featured a lot of leading TVB actors such as Kenneth, Raymond, Ron, Steven, and Joe Ma even though the description did not fit him. They even put Bosco as one of the suspects even though one of the clues was that the culprit was taller than him! Also, if they are making that much money, they would not be slaving away at TVB since all the lead actors and actresses are basically there from morning to night. If this story is true, it is most likely an actor and actress who is not super famous. (I believe the real/rumored culprit for the salty pork hand is Ellesmoire Choi since he was seen going into a "secret" meeting and then he has not been seen since.) They make the big money by making an appearance at events, not by being prostitutes. Check out the ihktv interview- there's a lot of pictures of TVB artists you may recognize mixed in with a bunch of nobodies. 

More scandals and rumors

Jessica Hsuan Radio Interview


Jessica Hsuan was recently involved in a scandal in which she was accused of being a diva and hard to work with while filming in a series in China. Jessica shot back and released a statement about the "7 Deadly Sins" while working there. You can read more about it at Jaynestars, but she also went on a Hong Kong radio station to clarify more about what happened. It's known that Jessica is known for going to work on time and just expects her coworkers to do the same, and that's why there are so many rumors about her being hard to get along with. I think she's also not afraid to speak her mind, which we should all applaud her for since a lot of people may view females as weak and quiet. I'm on her side on this one. She would not have even said anything if one of her co-stars did not try to smear her.

 You can check out the interview on todou.

Tina Shek

19 year old Tina Shek can currently be seen in both TVB dramas that are currently airing- L'escargot and Wish and Switch. She plays Ron's younger sister in L'escargot while she has a bigger role in Wish and Switch as Angela Tong's daughter and Myolie Wu's niece. She praises them as friendly and willing to help her out with her acting. 



I really like Tina! She first captured people's attention as the young prostitute Yoyo in Lives of Omission and I think she has a lot of potential and I see a lot of improvement in Wish and Switch already. Also, I think she looks a lot like Nancy Wu. They could be sisters!


via oriental daily and weibo

Fashion Showdown- Battle of the Capes

Sheren Teng recently wore an all black outfit complete with a cape to the TVB Anniversary Awards. Hong Kong actress, Cherrie Hung, was also seen recently at a Mont Blanc event wearing a cape outfit. Check out the pictures below. Who do you think pulls off the look better?



To me, I liked Sheren's whole look more. It looked more complete with her slicked back ponytail and she gave off the impression that she was a strong female, which she is. Cherrie looks good too but she also looked like she was wearing a costume. I'm also not a fan of the big red embellishment.

Feel free to leave your thoughts below!

Miss Chinese International Event

Some of the judges have been announced for the Miss Chinese International pageant and that includes TVB stars Myolie Wu, Michael Tse, Jason Chan,  and Astrid Chan as well as EEG singer William Chan (based on the bottom picture). Hacken Lee, Mag Lam, and Alfred Hui have been announced as performers. I think it's also rumored Raymond will perform?

Michael Tse unbuttoning his shirt to match Myolie's deep V. hehe


Fala Chen married in 2008?


There have been rumors for a while now that Fala Chen is actually married to Sit Sai Hang, who is the heir to Neway Entertainment. Next Magazine is reporting that they have been married since 2008
and that he gave her a 40,000 square feet mansion with seven bedrooms, six bathrooms, a billiard room, a large garden, and a pool. (via ihktv)

Myolie Wu's busy day

Myolie Wu had a busy day today. First, she started out early in the morning to help represent TVB for a charity walk. Then, she went to a promotional event before heading out to to promote her new series, Wish and Switch. The previous night, she went to Bosco's mom's 60th birthday party.

Myolie and Sharon Chan pose together for the Walk for A Million charity event. They were there to represent TVB along with some other artists.
                   

2011 Music Awards


I am actually not very familiar with the Hong Kong Music Industry since I do not live in Hong Kong, so I mainly know songs by TVB-associated artists. That's why I can't really judge how deserving any of these awards are, but I did want to compile them all together in one post.
-There are 4 main music awards. The Chik Chak 903 awards are mainly based on radio airplay on their station. The Metro awards give out the most awards and seems like it mainly gives them out as a form of engouragement. The RHTK awards are a mix of radio airplay and fan and critic voting. The JSG awards are sponsored by TVB and since they have been in a dispute with some record labels, their artists have been shut out from the awards. They finally came to a compromise but they were too late to compete.
-Most of these awards are based on attendance and if an artist does not show up, they are most likely not to receive an award.
-The newcomer scene is mainly dominated by Alfred Hui (contestant of The Voice season 1), Mag Lam (winner of The Voice season 2), and Joyce Cheng (daughter of Lydia Sum and Adam Cheng and she also acted in a few TVB series). Congrats to all of them. All 3 of them have really good voices. There is no clear cut winner between the 3 of them since each of the 4 main music awards gave out different results. Chik Chak ranked them Alfred, Mag, and Joyce. RHTK ranked them Joyce, Mag, and Alfred. Metro split them up between male (Alfred) and female (Mag and Joyce shared the award). JSG also split them up so Alfred received gold for the males while Mag got gold and Joyce got silver for the females.
-I already bought Mag Lam's cd but after listening to Joyce and Alfred singing their songs on the award shows, I ordered their cds.

What are your opinions on the results? Is there any songs or artists that you would recommend?

All the results:

Sally Yeh at the 2011 JSG Awards

葉蒨文《信自己》@ 2011年度十大勁歌金曲頒獎典禮

via sallyyehchannel

Sally Yeh returned to the TVB stage to sing one of her classic songs (and present an award) and she was amazing. Not only did she look great, she also sounded great and kept up with all the dancing. It's hard to believe that she's 50!

War and Beauty 2 Updates



The confirmed cast for War and Beauty 2 includes Sheren Teng, Ada Choi, Moses Chan, and Astrid Chan as seen in the trailer. The latest addition is Christine Ng. I am so happy for her because I think she is really underrated as an actress and am glad that she will take part in such a grand production. Elaine Yiu also confirmed in another interview that she will also take part, so that makes her one of the additions from the younger generation. I believe Kenny Wong is also confirmed since Producer Chik likes to use him. Some of the people from the original cast that is not returning includes Gigi Lai, Maggie Cheung, Charmaine Sheh, and Bowie Lam. I'm sure that people will be sad that the entire cast will not be back to film the sequel, but I think the most important return that they could have gotten is Sheren Teng so that's why I'm okay with the cast change. I wonder who else they will add to the cast? I think they have enough heavyweight female actresses so I wonder which actors they will get to fill the cast. Other than Elaine, what other younger actresses will they add? Christine Kuo was featured in the sales presentation but the last time she participated in an ancient series (Life and Times of a Sentinel), they ended up dubbing her voice. Is there anyone you want to see added to the cast?
Source: ihktv.

More Darizi Wedding Ad Pictures

Here are some more pictures of Myolie Wu's wedding ad. I really like all these pictures and the hair, jewelry, and dresses are all beautiful.


More pictures:

Linda Chung still filming while sick

Linda Chung and Cilla Kung were on the streets of Hong Kong filming their latest series, Dangerous Protection, even though Linda was sick and coming down with a fever. She took a lot of Vitamin C to keep her immune system up and you could see her resting her eyes during the down time. I hope she feels better soon!

 More pictures:

2011 TVB Series Rankings

Series                                                                     Avg. Ratings

*These stats have been taken from Wikipedia. This does not include the half-hour sitcoms.

Notes:
-The series in red are ones that aired at the 8:30pm time slot and the series in blue aired at 9:30. It seems like an advantage to be aired at the later time slot.
-The general ratings may be down from previous years but a big factor is due to people watching these shows online including TVB's official streaming site: MyTV.
-No wonder TVB is planning a bunch of sequels next year. The highest rated series of the year was an indirect sequel and the 2nd highest rated is a spinoff of a popular character. The Rippling Blossom is the highest rated original series, and it aired around Chinese New Year.
-Forensic Heroes 3 and Curse of the Royal Harem had the highest peak with 43 points each.
-If you look at the ratings, it's no surprise that Myolie Wu won the TV Queen award. All of her series for 2011 ended up in the top 5. Congratulations!
-There are 3 sequels planned from the 2011 series. Ghetto Justice 2 finished filming, Miss Koo (a spinoff from Yes Sir, Sorry Sir) is currently being filmed, and there are plans for a sequel for The Other Truth.
-A Great Way To Care was originally warehoused and released overseas, yet it still produced good ratings and finished in the top half.

Do you have any thoughts on the ratings? Is there anything you want to point out? Leave your thoughts below.

Bottled Passion and When Heaven Burns Ending Thoughts



Spoilers:
I'm not going to give an in-depth review of each of these series, but I did want to give my final thoughts on them.

Darizi Wedding Ad

Myolie Wu did a photoshoot for a wedding company. You can download the wallpapers here: http://wedding.darizi.com/hk/download/. I love these pictures and that fuschia color on her.

Wish and Switch Promo Event


The cast of Wish and Switch held their first promotional event where they all got dressed up in costume. I'm excited to watch this series mainly because of the cast. I think it's an interesting combination with Myolie Wu and Selena Li as the leads and I believe it's also the first time for Johnson Li as a male lead.

Photos via Weibo, Oriental Daily, and The Sun