Working 20 Hours Daily, Vincent Wong Has No Time for Family
Vincent Wong (王浩信) and Natalie Tong‘s (唐詩詠) popularity rose after the broadcast of TVB drama, My Unfair Lady <不懂撒嬌的女人>. Appearing at a promotional event for a makeup brand, Vincent and Natalie drew a large number of fans and spoke about their upcoming projects.
Currently busy filming The Time of Tung Yan <棟仁的時光>, Natalie spoke about fainting on set, “I’m okay, I actually was better on the second day. I’ll take better care of my body once filming ends. Working makes a person have the will to keep going – and I usually take care of my body once work ends. So I can’t stop, I have to work every day.”
Vincent also said his energy comes from receiving good roles. Busy filming TVB dramas that require working 15 to 20 hours each day, Vincent’s family complained that he does not spend enough time at home. Vincent sighed, “Let me wrap up the projects I have on hand and I’ll make it up to them. I hope to take a vacation with my family.”
Although My Unfair Lady has ended, Vincent’s fans will not have to wait long to before the airing of The Unlawful Justice Squad <踩過界>. Vincent said he does not have too much faith in his new series. Playing a blind lawyer, he is unsure how viewers will react. Vincent added, “I hope the ratings will get better, reaching 25 or 26 points. Maybe it’ll surpass 30 points if it’s lucky because My Unfair Lady was 0.9 points away from 30.”
Jeannie On Stephanie’s Alleged Suicide Attempts
Also present at the makeup event, Jeannie Chan (陳瀅) appeared in the same pale pink dress that Candy Lo (羅霖) and Heidi Chan (陳慧玲) wore previously at other functions. Asked if she felt that her physique was not as good as Candy or Heidi in the dress, Jeannie awkwardly answered, “That’s why I had to use fashion tape to secure the front area. I know a lot of people like this style of dress. The outfits are arranged by the organizers and they hope it’ll coordinate with the theme of the event.”
With recent suicidal rumors surrounding Stephanie Ho (何雁詩), good friend Jeannie said the reports are false. Jeannie firmly replied, “She’s resting right now; her mood will improve during the break.”
Source: Ming Pao
This article is written by Su for JayneStars.com.
Hmm…interesting that most of the mainstream media failed to mention the “controversy” over TVB choosing to premiere The Unlawful Justice Squad on IQiyi starting next week while in HK, they are going to air Wong Jing’s The Shell Game remake instead. There were initially no plans to air The Unlawful Justice Squad anytime soon on TVB Jade. HK audiences complained about how ludicrous it was that TVB would choose to air their brand new Cantonese-language drama on a Mainland China platform rather than on their own Jade channel (so essentially, Mainland audiences get first dibs over HK audiences). So now, due to all the backlash, TVB will be airing 2 episodes of Unlawful Justice Squad twice a week, on Saturday and Sunday nights, which also means the series will continue to air through September. (And yea, good luck with the ratings, since we all know that weekend ratings are traditionally lower, especially with the broadcast being dragged out over several months….Vincent, you can kiss those possible 30 points goodbye!).
Honestly, I don’t know what the hell is wrong with TVB’s management recently. First they choose to air an old series from 10 years ago (Phoenix Rising) in their “golden timeslot”, which not only killed their ratings (the series has been averaging less than 20 points), but also wasted precious timeslot space where they could have put a new series in there. And of course, typical TVB, they did not provide an explanation for this bonehead decision (even the artists who were called up to promote the series – Sunny Chan, Louisa So, Kristal Tin, etc. – were scratching their heads wondering why the series is being aired now). HK audiences were already ticked off at TVB’s antics (and of course Phoenix Rising was bashed liked crazy the moment it started airing a few weeks ago)….now instead of trying to appease audiences, TVB is adding fuel to the fire with this whole Unlawful Justice thing. (It also doesn’t help that there are currently rumors going around that TVB is doing all this because their Jade channel is free so they are trying to discourage audiences from watching that channel in the hopes that they will fork out the money for a myTV Super subscription — or better yet, buy/install the OTT boxes that are specially equipped with myTV Super. So yea, it goes back to TVB being greedy at their audiences’ expense).
I personally think that both these moves, along with the other “controversies” from earlier – such as switching the subtitles for some of their newscasts to simplified characters, allowing their Mainland investor to put out a buyback proposal for their stock, etc. – plus the fact that almost all of their 50th anniversary “grand productions” are being filmed in collaboration with Mainland production companies…..all are indications that TVB is making good on their announcement earlier that they will be shifting their focus more to the Mainland market in the coming years. I wouldn’t be surprised if TVB abandons the HK market altogether in the near future….
@llwy12 it come down to them not giving a damn because they own the market there now….
@llwy12 TVB saw ludicrous in China market just as many HK talents did. Not surprised like them, TVB is flocking to China. HK gov’t needs to recognized that and do something to retain and/or imrpove the entertainment in HK. Look at Korea. It’s gov’t subsidized and it’s booming
However, as time already tell, HK gov’t rly doesn’t give a crap as long as the one in charge gets somr pocket money. How else has TVB monopolizing all these years.
@jjwong @happybi Yea, government doesn’t give a crap….they pretty much already cemented their “I don’t care” attitude toward the television industry 4 years ago with the license debacle. If the government cared, they wouldn’t have turned a blind eye to ATV’s shenanigans and also wouldn’t have let TVB monopolize the industry for so long.
The way I see it, if TVB wants to focus on Mainland market and abandon HK audiences, then fine, let them (personally, I actually think it’s better, since there isn’t much talent left at TVB anyway – I saw announcements last week for 3 new TVB series that will commence filming in the coming months and couldn’t get excited about any of them). Besides, it’s not like HK audiences have no other options now. TVB’s rivals may not be able to catch up with them anytime soon, but at least there is some effort being made to give audiences different options. Fantastic Television hasn’t done much since its debut last month, but ViuTV has been making some headway, which is good to see — their current series Detective Psycho has been generating good word of mouth and the station has already announced plans to film 10 more series in the coming months. And for once, it’s refreshing to see a station that doesn’t give a crap about ratings — average ratings for Detective Psycho has been in single digit territory ever since its debut, which is expected of course given how the HK television industry works, however that hasn’t stopped ViuTV from celebrating the series’ success with a celebratory dinner as well as confirmation of plans for season 2. Sure, ViuTV is essentially doing what HKTV already did in terms of creativity and exploring genres / subject matter that HK audiences are not used to seeing (and it’s obvious they have adopted much of HKTV’s modus operandi as well), but at least they are now finally trying to give TVB a run for their money after a year of not doing a whole lot…..that part I appreciate.
@llwy12 Is Detective Psycho honestly any good? Haven’t seen much media coverage or promo.
@jjwong I actually haven’t watched the series, since it’s horror / supernatural genre so not my cup of tea. However, from what I’ve read / heard / seen, the feedback from audiences has been pretty good so far (target audience is obviously the younger generation though). Of course, can’t compare to TVB’s “steep pockets” in terms of production budget, so visual quality is not going to be “high definition” like TVB’s recent series (with the exception of Phoenix Rising, which is being bashed daily for its horrible visuals and aesthetics). Acting wise, the series stars David Siu and Joman Chiang (both good actors/actress) alongside a diverse supporting cast made up of newbies and veterans (many of whom I’m sure people will recognize from TVB and ATV series). If it weren’t for the genre, I would probably consider watching, since I like the cast. Oh well – guess I will have to wait until next month when ViuTV airs the next installment of Margaret and David to tune in….
By the way…there’s actually plenty of promo and media coverage for ViuTV’s programs, just depends on which media outlets you go with. HK01 has been doing a pretty good job covering HK entertainment stuff (very detailed interviews and exclusives too), Mingpao is still a relatively good source as well but less detailed coverage and some of the articles have gotten wacky in recent years (I’m talking about the news side, not the magazine…MP Weekly is still one of the best HK entertainment/lifestyle magazines out there), Apple Daily has some good stuff too but unfortunately their reputation is horrible so they have least credibility, Oriental Daily I’ve pretty much given up on (still read some of their stuff but sparingly) because they’re too TVB biased and I get ticked off a lot when reading their poorly written articles (many of which are short and contain only cursory info). Outside of mainstream media, I would recommend the radio stations, as they are excellent sources of HK entertainment info (the artist interview shows on CRHK, Metro, and RTHK are especially entertaining and informative).
@llwy12 I’m intrigued with this series now lol. Didn’t you watch or like the HKTV that filmed all at night? That’s kinda supernatural.
Idk, it just seems like other than TVB, media doesn’t treat or give as much attention. Sure, things can explode on social media but that doesn’t seem to do any good. So many praises for HKTV series and I mostly saw negatively covered by mainstream. Eh, then again, I’m not from HK nor keep up daily so it’s probably not true. I really hope ViuTV does well and goves TVB a run for their money and HK peeps accept changes. Like most, I have yet really really enjoy anything from TVB or HK as of late. Sad.
@jjwong You mean HKTV’s Nightshift that starred Dominic Lam and Frankie Lam (that’s the series that was filmed entirely at night)? That wasn’t supernatural (except for the ending, which I personally thought was stupid…the series itself was not bad but the ending was hugely disappointing, though I cut them some slack knowing the story behind why they did the ending that way). Doom+5 had supernatural elements too (it was kind of the premise of the series) but it wasn’t heavy stuff, plus only 5 episodes so it was fine. The HKTV series I didn’t watch (despite the awesome cast) was Karma, since it was full on horror series.
Detective Psycho is more of a supernatural cop series with some horror elements to it. Joman Chiang plays a cop (again, lol) and David Siu plays a Maoshan master / geomancer guy (sorry, not familiar with the terminology in English) tasked with hunting out and getting rid of the ghosts and spirits wreaking havoc in people’s lives. Some of it is based on real events and some of it isn’t. Supposedly some of the cast did encounter some “situations” when filming, which is why they have a real-life Maoshan master accompanying them on set during filming (he serves as consultant and also can “step in” if needed).
Yea…non-TVB stuff a lot of times is covered negatively by mainstream media because at the end of the day, they all have their biases. Social media does help though, as a lot of times mainstream media doesn’t pick up on things until it becomes a “sensation” on a smaller forum….which is essentially what happened with Detective Psycho — the traditional free TV ratings suck but internet hits are off the charts supposedly and feedback from audiences have been largely positive (lucky for them ViuTV management doesn’t care much about actual TV ratings – unlike at TVB…)….so now some of the mainstream media outlets are covering it more….
Yup, I hear you about not enjoying much from TVB (and HK in general) as of late…not interested in any of the new series currently being filmed either. I’m waiting for ViuTV to announce the details on their upcoming 10 series….looks like they are taking HKTV’s route in exploring different genres (so far, I heard there is a musical in the works and also a sci-fi themed one based on an internet novel)…hopefully something good will come out of that lot….
@llwy12 please if you ever find out why tvb decided to broadcast phoenix rising, update me pls!!!!! there is no greater mystery; forget where humans came from, loch ness monster, or atlantis —- pls i must know why dafuq they decided to release that garbage! so much warehoused and unreleased material and they broadcast that?!?!?! in primetime?!?!?!
@rucofan1100 Well, if it makes you feel better, looks like everyone from TVB’s middle management on down don’t know why the top brass decided to air Phoenix Rising in that time slot. I read an article today that said the decision was supposedly the result of a “power struggle between Catherine Tsang and Felix To” and so far, every time reporters have brought the issue up in interviews, Felix To would either change the subject or refuse to answer, which of course fuels the rumors even more. TVB’s official response when asked about the Phoenix Rising time slot thing was along these lines: they said that Phoenix Rising was one of their “good series left unnoticed in the depths of their warehouse” so it deserved to see the light of day (they used the phrase 滄海遺珠 in Chinese, which literally means “a pearl left behind in the vast ocean”). Of course, this is typical TVB generic non-answer meant to get reporters off their backs…when pressed further, TVB basically said they will no longer respond to anything (whether questions or rumors) related to this issue.
@llwy12 thanks for the update. i can only imagine felix must have had a huge role in producing the show; he fought tooth and nail to broadcast this?!?! must have been a case of, 君子报仇，十年不晚, literally
What happened to Nat? Her face really changed and not for the better. She looked so diff from still-pics om google. Wikia said she was a model??
That dress doesn’t look good on Jeannie…
None of them has a choice about the long and horrendous filming hours. Vincent’s wife should know, she filmed for TVB before.