I thought I was making progress climbing out of this slump but looking back it doesn’t feel like I’ve watched much these past couple of weeks. Maybe it’s just the ‘illusion’ of making progress because I watched the first ep of Rock N’ Road and got the motivation back for 100% Entertainment again.
WATCHED DRAMAS
Files of Justice V (approx 85% complete) – My perception about this drama definitely changed after this re-watch. I think nostalgia has a lot to do with the thinking that old TVB dramas are better. It’s quite comforting to see actors like Michael Tao, Jessica Hsuan, Flora Chan and Bowie Lam on screen (I didn’t include Lawrence Ng and Bobby Au Yeung here since they still appear every now and then.) but the storyline of FOJ is starting to bug me because I’m totally expecting a legal drama but instead the Michael/Flora/Jessica love triangle took up so much time. Maybe I chose the wrong FOJ instalment to rewatch. By Part 5 they’ve probably ran out of ideas and revert back to normal TVB storylines which they’re still using today. I’ve lost a lot of the love I had with this drama. Maybe some things were better left in the past.
PMAM Eps 1 to 12 – I think I’ve pretty much covered all I wanted to say in this post here. For the short version, this is better than I expected. Not to be taken seriously of course but it’s good to mix it up a little and the life of party-goers / models is not a topic that gets explored often in dramas. It’s actually quite funny as well. More Xiu Jie Kai please that is all.
Rock N’Road Ep 1 – Enjoyable, although I cringe everytime I see this type of loud, in-your-face, totally clueless about ‘real life’, borderline obnoxious but you can’t hate them because they’re kind hearted female characters. However, I see a glimpse of ‘normal’ in her, so hopefully there’s more of that and less of the silly in upcoming episodes. Chris Wu though – I have one word – YES. He makes me want to continue watching.
It’s unfortunate that a drama about the entertainment industry, music industry in particular doesn’t have someone in the cast who is actually a singer? It’s weird when you see the actors in a band ‘playing’ a song and the music coming out is by May Day. This lipsyncing thing is weird. Maybe they should concentrate on the people side of the story instead of the music.
Ruse of Engagement Eps 1 to 5 – OK, this is another one of those dramas I started watching but I actually know the reason why. I don’t have any strong feelings towards the cast (maybe the female cast is less appealing to me than the male casts) and it’s worrying this series have been warehoused for three years so you start to wonder what’s wrong with it. HOWEVER, the first week is actually okay. The problem is you feel like you’ve seen it all before. It’s like a mash up of all the police dramas TVB had done in the past. Of course it’s hard to come up with new ideas for a genre that’s done to death, but I do like the brotherly interactions between Ruco and Ron, and at times it’s unintentionally funny. I guess sometimes I just want to watch something I don’t have to pay 100% attention to. I can watch this while doing other things.
On the English dramas front I only watched the first two eps of series 3 for Whitechapel! That needs to be corrected. I know it sounds silly but it gets a bit gruesome at times so I can’t watch it before bed LOL. However, series 8 of Law and Order: UK started last week which makes me happy. Sad about the cast change (again) though. I know that’s like a trademark of the L&O franchise but it’s feels more painful for the UK version because it concentrates a lot more on the characters than the cases (compared to the US version).
WATCHED VARIETY SHOWS
Feels like I’ve been in a BFB slump lately since their guest list hadn’t been too exciting (for me) UNTIL… last week when Xiu Jie Kai was there to promote his new film. (I don’t know why XJK is appearing all over this blog at the moment!!!!! It’s completely unintentional.) I love a good BROMANCE and it’s great to see Alien and Xiu are such good brothers LOL. They had to do a ‘safety kiss’ (there’s like a clear plastic? thing between them) – well, it’s not really a kiss as much but they had to touch the area between the nose and the lips which made it look like a kiss LOLOLOL.
The conversation before was pretty funny too but I don’t know how to describe it!!! They were discussing how the area between Xiu’s nose and lips is very long so it was perfect for this type of safety kiss. Kai Le/Butterfly then asked who Xiu wants to do the ‘kiss’ with…
Xiu: Of course Alien Huang. Alien, is yours long or not?
Alien: (looking embarrassed then covers his mouth) When you asked me whether mine was long or not, my mouth wasn’t the first area I covered.
LOLOLOLOLOL.
Just the way their heads turn, so much 默契 HAHAHAHA. When Dou Hua Mei and Kai Le/Butterfly did it the girls were a bit awkward and took more time to adjust where their heads would be etc… but for Xiu and Alien? There’s like no awkwardness at all!!!
The conversation afterwards was equally funny.
Alien: Last time I did this with Da Da too…
Xiu: The same thing?
Everyone: ?!?!?!?!
Kai Le/Butterfly: The crew was like, who’s Da Da?
Alien: Kun Da! Xie Kun Da!
HAHAAHAHAHAHAHAA~ Why must you people be so cute!!!!
As a side note, now that Butterfly changed her name to Kai Le it’s so strange hearing it. Butterfly was such a pretty name it’s going to be hard to get used to.
RANDOM NEWS
I’m cautiously excited (if there’s such a thing) that Pegasus Entertainment bought the rights to adapt the popular Wisely novel series. A while ago someone (I think it was Raymond Wong) posted a question on weibo asking who fans think who play Wisely and Raymond Lam and Louise Koo came up. I’m very curious not because Raymond Lam is mentioned, but because I was a huge fan of Ni Kuang’s books when I was at school!!! (Probably read more of the 原振侠 / Dr Yuen series than Wisely though…)
Despite its popularity and various earlier adaptations already, I’m not sure whether anyone can ever adapt it ‘properly’ because some of its ideas are just crazy shit. eg. In the future, robots control humans (humans effectively became their ‘toys’) because humans were too reliant on technology. Or hair’s real function is to transmit brain waves or whatever… plus lots of stuff on aliens, afterlife etc. I know it probably doesn’t sound as crazy now because even shows like Futurama include some of these ideas, but keep in mind he started the Wisely series in the 60s. Plus Sci-fi is just not something that HK cinema does very well? Guess we have to wait and see how this one pans out. (Especially with how they’re going to cater for the Mainland market given the subject matter.) I personally don’t mind if Raymond or Louis play Wisely, but I’d probably prefer Louis? Or even Nic Tse?!
FINALLY…
Since I didn’t post a Bolin pic last time I thought I’d rectify that by including this one. It’s just too hilarious!
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