TVB Paves the Way for Matthew Ho to Lead the New Generation
Rising star Matthew Ho (何廣沛) will be teaming up with veteran actor Joe Ma (馬德鐘) for the new TVB drama Leaping Across the Lifeline <跳躍生命線>, a show that centers on the lives of ambulancemen and women. It will be Matthew’s first drama as the second lead.
Matthew is perhaps best known for his role as the eunuch Lee Chun-chung from A General, a Scholar, and a Eunuch <超時空男臣>, currently the year’s highest-rated television drama. However, his image as the “soft and powdery” boy-next-door might undergo an 180 degree change with Leaping—some say his new role in the upcoming show will be reminisce of Louis Koo’s (古天樂) athletic image in 1998’s Burning Flame <烈火雄心>.
The 28-year-old, who is from TVB’s artist graduating class of 2012, earned his first major role in 2014’s Never Dance Alone <女人俱樂部>, portraying the younger version of Lawrence Ng (吳啟華). He subsequently appeared in the high-profile drama Law dis-Order <律政強人> and the critically successful Tiger Mom Blues <親親我好媽>, which brought him to prominence.
Source: Eastweek
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
didn’t know TVB still provides artist class. Anyway Matthew is lucky and likable. Goodluck!
“Still raw but the talent’s there.”
So said I. I was right! But TVB pls don’t kill his career by over exposure and give him voice classes.
@funnlim Yea, he does need to work on his voice. His natural voice is like a little bird chirps lol.
He has more screen time in that Choi San Yee series with Wayne Lai and Pal Sin. I didn’t know Tiger Mom Blue is “critically success…” WTF does that even mean?
28 but he looks no more than 25. bulk up with abs and he can look manly if he sounds manly.
Siu Sangs are become older and older. Raymond lam and co were early 20s when they were being promoted.
Guess 28 is still kind of young although he’s still not lead yet.
@megamiaow Well Ruco Chan was only considered solid siu sang status when he was 35-36, when he started getting consistent lead roles around Brother Keeper’s time. Maybe it’s just TVB’s new tactic to keep their actors around longer. You can tell with Raymond Lam’s batch that they have all left the station around their 30s. If TVB only start promoting their actors at this age then they’re more tempted to stay for job security and opportunities.
@linvin8 Well, Ruco left and came back to TVB. Hence, his promotion was late.
TVB is currently lacking young talent. Raymond Lam and them are no longer with TVB, but it was after a 10+ year commitment.
@tiffany Ruco Chan returned to TVB in 2008 and it was three years before he landed that lead role in The Other Truth (2011) and another 2 years to land a more memorable role in Brother’s Keeper. I’m not saying that he should have been promoted earlier, in hindsight it all seem to be rather good timing for Ruco, if after all age doesn’t really matter.
@linvin8 age wouldnt be that big a deal if tvb didnt insist on their cast portraying characters at least 10 years younger than they are; ruco’s character in “fist within four walls” was 25!!! are characters in their twenties more marketable or something? i love ruco but come on, 25?!?!
@rucofan1100 Lol! So true. Well Ruco is playing a 30s now, I think. Though his character behavior is still early 20s. IDK why they can only write for 20s chars. Update themselves and their script or invest in more youngsters. Only a few, very few can pass off 10+ years older.
I have nothing against him but please don’t tell me that he’s going to win the most improved actor for this year while other work very hard and better actor than he is for example Matt Yeung and Benjamin Yuen or even Owen Cheung so I think tvb should make them as the next siu sang.
@cutie777 Owen Cheung would be a likely contender for Most Improved but I do think the likes of Mat Yeung and Benjamin Yuen are way past that award. Benjamin has already won Most Favourite last year, it would be weird for him to even be nominated in the Most Improved category.
@linvin8 yes I am hoping Owen Cheung will win the most improved actor this year oh I forgot to mention about Hugo Wong he’s a good actor too if he’s on the list for most improved actor that would be great too. Both can act and got the look too.
@cutie777 ben yuen certainly puts in the work, but better actor? eh
why do tvb keeps promoting the wrong guy everytime. im still not seeing any good material coming from tvb acting class. although matthew looks above average but this guy lacks charisma and with his chicken voice he can never be a second louis ko. louis already has a deep manly voice when he start his first drama and draw your attention as a kelefe. matthew may become a good drama actor one day but he can never be a big star on the big movie screen like louis do.
@kolo
I don’t see anything in this Matthew Ho. And no, this guy does not have above average look. If you compare him to the siusangs from 30 years ago in the 1980’s, the TVB 5 tigers can easily beat him by looks and charms. Talking about acting, technology, people’s openness and acting knowledge have improved alot during these years but I don’t see Matthew’s acting better than actors from 3 decades before him.
@rainbow28 i compare him with tvb actors of present day not 30 years ago. all new tvb actors now have no charms.yes the 5 tigers is from a different level, tvb have always produced stars that is charismatic,lam fung and bosco is the last of them. but now the level is not that of yesterday.
@kolo it seems like matthew ho and owen cheung have honestly been the only standouts from tvb’s acting class since the raymond lam era (yea its been THAT bad). matthew’s not great but certainly shows potential. and maybe i forgot, but i always thought post tan louis koo was great, pre tan louis koo was terrrible
@rucofan1100
How old is Owen Cheung;? He looks like 30+. And he doesn’t have the look. Probably he can try Dicky Cheung ‘s style but Dicky was cuter and more lively and bouncy than him.
Agree with previous posters. Owen should be a contender for Most Inproved as well as Matt Yeung. Has Matt nabbed this award already? He hasn’t done significant Supporting role to fight for a BSA this yeat, yet. I still don’t see what they saw in Benjamin Yuen. His fame role in the Walls series was boring af.
Vincent does need to be recognized. He seems serious and puts a lot of effort, out of his own time to research and get into the role. He’s tall and fit and he decent face. He just needs to bulk or put some flesh on the stick figure lol.
The dad in LM needs recognition too! D! I felt his pain watching him. It was satisfyingly uncomfortable. Was it 100% accurate portrayal? Probably not, but d, he sold it to me.
@jjwong Nope, Mat hasn’t yet won Most Improved but like I mentioned in an earlier comment, I think he’s way past that award – he’s basically too good for it.
In terms of Benjamin, I half have a feeling that he only got the award so as not to be left out as Nancy Wu, Ruco Chan and Grace Wong all deserved their respective awards. I was expecting Vincent Wong or Louis Cheung to nab the award instead.
And were you referring to Law Lok Lam? He’s a veteran actor, he hardly needs recognition!
@linvin8 Yes, Law Lok Lam. Agree he’s a vet and a very capable one. Disagree that he doesn’t need recognition. Every hard work or great acting should be recongized or shout out regardless if he’s a old timer or new in the industry.
Don’t disagree that Matt is good, but none of his roles so far this year really deserve a BSA. Then again, TVB awards aren’t based on deserving on acting scale. Their agenda is whack, lol.
@jjwong I don’t mean that he doesn’t deserve the recognition, I’m just saying that with his status as veteran, he’s already been recognised. Whether he gets an award or not, he’s already a great actor. Awards like BSAs are to encourage actors/actresses… but like you also said, TVB’s agenda is whack indeed. I’ve got a feeling Pakho might nab the award because TVB desperately wants him (though I’m not saying that Pakho isn’t a bad actor and I’m also biased because I really like him).
@jjwong @linvin8 They need to give Law Lok Lam one of those professional artist awards (you know, the award they’ve been giving to mostly veterans as consolation prize because they can’t give them any of the other awards)…sure, it’s a “pork” award and like all TVB awards nowadays, it means pretty much nothing, but hey, at least it gives those artists a chance to be heard for a few minutes while they give an acceptance speech (not to mention it gives us TVB old-timers a once-in-a-lifetime chance to root for them!). To be honest, I’m still kind of ticked off at how TVB has been treating many of the ‘kam cho’ (senior) supporting actors in recent years, especially the ones who’ve been around since the 70s/80s and in a way, helped make TVB into the powerhouse it is today. True, no amount of awards is sufficient to thank them for their years of dedication and contribution to the industry, but a little bit of recognition, even if it’s a mere few minutes in the spotlight, does go a long way. Hopefully TVB does the right thing this year and gives more recognition to those veterans come award time or even during the anniversary gala (which has been a joke of a program not worth watching the past decade and a half) – after all, this IS their big 50th year anniversary, so what better time to recognize veteran / senior artists’ contributions (especially when there’s a chance some of them might not even be around anymore in a couple years…).
@llwy12 Actually, Law Lok Lam was given the Professional Actor’s award in 2014. I do agree with you, perhaps with this year being a milestone year hopefully they could award more Lifetime Achievement awards to (more than one) deserving veterans.
@linvin8 Yup…personally, I think they should give out at least double the number of professional artist awards (or whatever they choose to name that award) this year and make sure they all go to veterans who’ve dedicated their lives and careers to TVB (last year was a joke – only 3 professional artist awards when they were giving out 5 or 6 in previous years?). In terms of Lifetime Achievement Award – to be honest, I don’t really care whether they give out more than one out this year or not…I just hope that they choose the right person to receive the award – someone truly deserving, and without taking internal politics or any of that crap into consideration (sorry, but that one year when they gave the award to Nat Chan pretty much tarnished the award forever in my book). And please TVB, don’t cut the damn acceptance speeches, especially for the Lifetime Achievement Award – I felt so sad for Chow Chung last year when his speech got cut and he didn’t get to say what he wanted to say to his beloved wife, who was at home watching (especially when I found out afterwards that his wife was gravely ill and he was essentially “retiring” from acting in order to take care of her – the last part of his speech was supposed to be a dedication to her, something that he had planned to surprise her with knowing that might be his only chance to do it in that type of setting).
@linvin8 Awards need to mean they really have the acting chop and deserve them. I know TVB has been using their awards to promo whoever they deem fit or marketable in their mind. So I disagree that awards, such as BSAs, should be as encouragements. If anything, it’ll go to their heads. Case in point, they gave Grace the MI award and she thought she really improved xD Random comment: Sisley is a contender for MI this year IMO. I don’t follow Pakho so can’t comment on his actual acting. Like you say, I see that TVB would give him the award to entice him though.
@llwy12 Giving Nat Chan that award was as big of a joke as given the BA to Dayo Wong. I like Dayo but that award was all lip-service. Ruco or Francis deserved it more. Never enjoyed Chow Chung acting (only seen him in his older years), but I agree that TVB did him wrong for cutting his speech short. Since it’s their big anniversary year, they might make the show longer and fill with useless MCs “interviews” rather than putting the time in to recognize their vets and loyals. I enjoyed their award show better when they combined it with the gala (I think, where they put on acts and stuff).
@jjwong Yes, give it to actors who deserve them to encourage them is what I meant. Grace WONG deserved her award last year, in fact I wished she even won the Best Supporting Actress award too.
P.S. I agree about Sisley! She really is starting to prove her critics wrong and is showing real improvement in her acting though it is still not time for her to be lead actress so I still feel a little sour that she’s in that drama with Dicky Cheung.
@jjwong Yea, I enjoyed the award show more back then as well (before they separated it out back in 2005) – though truth be told, the best anniversary galas were the ones prior to TVB even starting the awards thing. I miss the old galas – the ones from pre-1997 era when the anniversary celebration was truly a grand affair and all the big stars would attend – it used to be THE television event of the year! Nowadays, the awards show is a chore to sit through – still debating whether I will actually watch the show this year, especially if TVB is not going to “properly” celebrate their 50th anniversary the way they’ve done other milestones in the past (maybe I’ll have my mom – who watches everything TVB, lol – just recap the highlights for me so I don’t have to sit through the torture…)
In terms of the article, I still think it’s too early to push Matthew into lead status. I’ve seen his performances in the series mentioned in the article and while I agree that his acting is better than most of the other newbies, it’s still not where it needs to be…plus the fact that he doesn’t have much charisma on screen doesn’t help things. Honestly, TVB will be doing him a disservice by rushing him into lead status when he’s nowhere near that level – but then again, that’s TVB’s usual tactic so not really surprised, I guess…good luck to Matthew though…
@llwy12 honestly of the recent young actors (like actually guys still in their 20’s) matthew’s shown decent potential; like you said he just need a little more time though. but after seeing guys like jason chan lead series after series, matthew’s a breath of fresh air
@rucofan1100
Well, Matthew Ho reminds me of Stephen Wong’s (黃家樂) type. I think that even Stephen looks better than Matthew but TVB always gives him yucky roles (E.g. rapist, a limb guy who betrays others, etc.) since he left TVB and returned to TVB.
@rainbow28 Always thought Stephen Wong had good looks too. Shame he hasn’t been given any good roles in his time at TVB. He would have been a good idol actor, but it’s not the type of drama TVB does.
@jjwong omg that performance was so uncomfortable! it sold the character but, was just sooo hard to watch
@rucofan1100 Yes, it was hard and uncomfortable to watch LLL. But man, he knocked it out of the park. Though I liked how they only mentioned his death and not showing, they should’ve stick it out saying how bad it had been for LLL. That was the whole idea behind the case right? He had that illness, which will give him painful death in a “inhumane” way. So they fought his “rights to die.” That case dropped/denied/they didn’t pursue further. Which means LLL die “naturally” and the inhumane way. So to have Vincent said he died peacefully totally threw the whole script out the window. And yes, ending sucked big time. They didn’t need the stupid extra drama about him gaining sight and the whole “eyesight vs heartsight.” His heartsight could’ve simply and reasonable affected by the death of his true love. TVB probably think it’s extra creativity; I call it unneccessarily poor script, lol.
@llwy12 You know TVB will push Matthew Ho to lead within the year. Like you said, it’s their M.O. Yea, I can’t sit through their award show or gala for the past years. Skipped a bunch of useless nonsense sections.
@jjwong LLL did die from euthanasia (not naturally), because he went to Switzerland. The case was about Vincent allegedly convincing LLL to commit suicide, since euthanasia is illegal in HK. That’s why Vincent picked all of the jury that would have opposed to euthanasia; because that wasn’t the case they were fighting for, they were fighting to drop the charges against Vincent. Once the charges were dropped, they went to Switzerland to fulfill LLL’s long time dream, and then he died by euthanasia (which is why his death was peaceful).
@melia880 Ooo, you’re right. Ah, Switz, such neutral country. BTW, when i said naturally, I meant death by his illness, and not like die in his sleep naturally.
@jjwong like you said, totally knocked it out of the park (but also no clue whether accurate or not) but very unsettling. i felt so guilty that i was kind of hoping LLL would “exit” earlier; only payoff was that epic court scene, totally cried like a baby
@rucofan1100 Oh yes, Vincent was rly good in that court scene. Everyone did very well in their characters. Each excelled in their emotion scenes. The weakest IMO was Ali; not just her character, but also her acting. It makes more sense if the fire burn her face or neck and not the thigh. She was being progressive in thinking but got boggle down with superficial scar like that. Her cry scenes weren’t as selling nor touching. She is pretty though, got that sexy down.
Caught a glimpse of Matthew Ho and Vincent in Brick Slaves.
Vincent has come a long way to Hope Man in LM. Have been noticing him since his Prince Edward in Swipe Tap Love.
And boy, was Matthew’s voice bad in Brick Slaves. He has the looks and his acting is bearable, but his voice x.x
I watch ‘A General, a Scholar, and a Eunuch’ for the first time yesterday. I think Matthew purposely rise his voice to a higher pitch because he was playing an eunuch. I don’t remember his voice being like that in other series.
@kidd His voice is his weakest link but yes he did make his voice even more high pitch. However Kidd keep watching and there is one scene which made me wish he could play a villain. Even with that tiny high pitched voice he could play ruthless and angry and scary. However as TVB goes, that aspect will never be explored in this series. I do enjoy this series but it is so messy and so over everywhere. One min it was going somewhere then they time jump skip plot skip logic. Even if this is time travel it could be a logical time travel. The actors are good, even Edwin Siu is ok even if he is a total miscast but it’s the story. It feels half hearted, waste of time. By now should have ended and still it is going on.
Unholy Alliance is terribly predictable but would have been a perfect setup for a wuxia series where beautiful costumes would have distracted the oh so familiar storyline. Setting it in modern time is a travesty. And I am sick of the skinship of 2 couples, neither convincing. I wished TVB would invest in wuxia costume series again because all these kung fu fighting scenes in this series is at best lazy. TVB getting very out of practice.
Am watching Lost Love In Times and whilst I don’t get the whole reset time thing (or another dimension? Parrarel time?) and the obsession with butterflies, but the costumes is just jaw droppingly beautiful and the fighting with the CGI and effects are actually rather good. That was TVB in the past. Unholy Alliance could have been that sort of series.
@funnlim
I also miss TVB’s wuxia and fantasy series. Their 90’s wuxia and fantasy series might not look as good as the current china ones, but, it got a certain feel to it that I can’t find in current china series.
” Even with that tiny high pitched voice he could play ruthless and angry and scary. “
It could be a hint to what this character is capable for becoming.
Initially, I dislike the casting of Mathew because I’m partial to another girly looking actor who I think would be perfect for this role. I thought TVB should give this actor more chance since he has been with TVB longer. But, Matthew won me over with his acting. This actor really has potential.