“Heart and Greed” is Criticized for Recycled Storyline
Due to the success of Heart of Greed <溏心風暴> and Moonlight Resonance <溏心風暴之家好月圓>, the third installment Heart and Greed <溏心風暴 3> was heavily promoted since last year. TVB was extremely confident in the drama and invested heavily into it. Not only were the cast carefully selected, but they also collaborated with Mainland China. Much to their surprise and dismay, the family drama aired to mediocre reception.
The strong chemistry between the original cast members, including Moses Chan (陳豪), Raymond Lam (林峰), Linda Chung (鍾嘉欣), Tavia Yeung (楊怡), and Fala Chen (陳法拉) is hard to replicate. The new starring cast has not been well-received. Despite the strong performances of original cast members Ha Yu (夏雨), Louise Lee (李司棋), Michelle Yim (米雪), and Susanna Kwan (關菊英), viewers are bored with the recycled plotline of family arguments and fighting over family inheritance.
The previous two installments also produced many memorable golden lines, which Heart of Greed 3 again hoped to replicate. Unfortunately, the deliberateness in popularizing phrases was cringe-worthy and came off pretentious and forced. Having the veteran actors talk in slang also seemed unnatural and raised eyebrows.
Despite all the criticisms, there are still some redeeming qualities in the drama. Having aired for merely a week, there is still much to unfold. Perhaps producer Lau Ka Ho (劉家豪) will surprise with an unexpected plot twist. Furthermore, although Ha Yu, Michelle, Louise, and Susanna are essentially reprising similar roles to their previous characters, their superb acting and the chemistry among the veteran group is undeniable.
Source: HK01.com
This article is written by Huynh for JayneStars.com.
Not only recycled, I just wish for once Louise Lee plays a villain. She’s always the wise matriach. Always, Poor Susanna, always the trouble maker. And I can’t believe they handed the CEO position to a shoe polisher who doesn’t know how to run a small business more so such a big business. The story is just dumb.
I much prefer My ages apart’s version of Heart & Greed where Ali got slapped many times in one scene? that 1000 episodes series? Now THAT is funny!
Tbh third instalment are hit or miss. Many movies tend to fall for that. Look at terminator 3: rise of machines despite 2 strong films.
Also, I am kind of glad people realize how tiring and, to an extent, absurd the usual plot the truly is. Again I speak as someone who thought the first two were overrated. My 2 cents. And I agree with changing the formula. Have a darker instalment too. I thought the first two felt a bit too much of sunshine and rainbows. I mean the villains were forgiven quite a bit in the end from my memory.
@kirigiri I feel that most of the villains in 1st and 2nd installments were Ok to be forgiven.
Susanna in the 1st series just felt very insecure as the second wife and felt unloved and robbed of what she could have had and was misguided by her lover. I think she was forgiven but the family dynamics would never be the same again.
Michelle in 2nd series also had a valid reason for being forgiven. She did have an affair behind Louise’s back but Ha Yu was also to blame. And she did work very hard over the years to build the business and Ha Yu really just slacked off to eat soft rice so I don’t get why he had the face to fight her in court for assets after the divorce.
Kate, I don’t why she was forgiven since her reasons were so blah.
Still watchable but seriously…why give Michelle Yim an identical character to previous instalment and why did she take it? Unreal lazy writing and casting. Also what a waste of Vincent. Seems like they cast Vincent into something brilliant then next up cast him as a useless support…on and on. Not the best method to create superstars…
@jimmyszeto My guess is that everyone accepted the invite to film the series because of the producer. Back when Lau Ka Ho and Mui Siu Ching returned to TVB and announced that they would be doing HOG 3 and BTROC 2, everyone clamored to get themselves into the series thinking this was a tried and true formula that for sure audiences would love. I remember the welcoming back party that they had where all the artists were like if LKH tells me to participate, I’ll do it, no questions asked. Personally, I feel it’s dumb for artists to blindly accept filming offers based solely off of ties to the producer, but unfortunately, that’s alot of times how things work in HK.
Also agree that TVB is being lazy again here and going with same old same old rather than actually putting thought and effort into what they are doing for once…
@llwy12
I’m afraid that all the old veterans seem to have aged a lot. Could tell that Louise Lee has to use a lot of effort to be upbeat with her lines due to her poor health. This will be the last time the cast will act together. Still very watchable compared to the series we get nowadays but not as natural acting as the earlier instalments.
@llwy12 They’ve missed out Chris lai. I wonder why he didn’t join the sequel of Heart of greed 3? It’s not that I’m against them adding new cast members but without all the original cast members, the drama doesn’t feel like Heart of greed anymore.
Lee Kwok Lun’s English is horrendous….
i havent start watching and will give it a miss
Actually i don’t get the logic why TVB wants to put the same cast in the same drama (but with different settings) telling essentially the same story (lots of bickering and back stabbing over money and noisy family politics, biatchy women fighting for control) three times. Twice is already baffling enough. I’m tired just looking at their faces. Will probably check out the first few eps if time permits, just to see how bad it is.
@passingby @mambamentality @jimmyszeto They’ve missed out Chris lai. I wonder why he didn’t join the sequel of Heart of greed 3? It’s not that I’m against them adding new cast members but without all the original cast members, the drama doesn’t feel like Heart of greed anymore.
@unknown hi killer. So now you’re your other persona unknown. I know your style man cos you’re so fond of tagging many people in one post. I see that you haven’t outgrown your copy and paste habit yet except now it’s not about your pet hate Ruco Chan lol.
@unknown
No one cares about Chris Lai. He made no difference to the previous instalment. He wouldn’t bring anything to the table if casted in this series.
@jimmyszeto You don’t like him?
@unknown
No one would think of Chris Lai when thinking about Heart of Greed. It’s basic!
Looks like im the only one enjoying it haha. Yes their roles are similar but there are differences. If nothing is similar then its not the same franchise. This franchise is about family drama, about the battle for inheritances etc. So of course some things are going to be recycled.
I think this series for me is more of a treat. Something Nostalgic. <3 Looking forward to DPS too!
@yummiki24 I’m with you. Blasted through the 15 epidsodes and waiting for the next 5. lol. The fact that most of the cast members are playing pretty much the same characters adds to the deja vu. Loving it tho. I may be the wrong person to ask when judging a series or movie, since I only go by my level of enjoyment. The technical stuff like writing don’t matter to me. I respect where people are coming from tho. Similar atmosphere and themes as the other two series, just different setting.
It is fine to copy as a lot of people are doing it in Asia or in America. But TVB should at least copy something that are not usually used, not recycling the story lines from the first two series. If they want to try something new, try to adopt American renowned novelist, Stephen King’s horror stories. A lot of them can be adopted into TV series such as Carrie, Misery, The Mist, Under the Dome, It, The Stand and many, many.
Lau Ka Ho did an interview with Ming Pao today where he responds to some of the criticisms towards the series, especially the part about the recycled storyline and characters. He basically stated that they (meaning him, production team, TVB) could’ve gone with trying something new if they had wanted to, as it’s not like they don’t have the ability to do so, but he insists that’s not what the audiences wanted (he made the assertion that “deliberately striving for something new and different is not necessarily a good thing” – this is a direct quote from him in that interview). He said that it was obvious to them based on the popularity and success of HOG 1 and 2 that audiences wanted the familiarity of the first two installments and that they are merely putting into HOG 3 the same elements that audiences liked in HOG 1 and 2 (family arguing/infighting and reconciling, fighting over inheritance, etc.). He said this was further confirmed when he and his wife returned to TVB and had mentioned they wanted to do HOG 3, the reaction from friends and colleagues was overwhelmingly positive, with everyone saying that it was a great idea and that they had been waiting a long time for it. Basically, he insists that he clearly understands what audiences want and with HOG 3, he gave them exactly what they wanted.
As for the whole “golden phrases/lines” thing feeling forced and unnatural this time around, LKH said that from the beginning, even with the first 2 installments, they had never deliberately said those were golden phrases. It was the audiences who dubbed the dialogue as “golden phrases” due to how much they were able to relate to what the characters were saying in the scenes. He said golden phrases or not, the most important thing was using those lines accurately and at the appropriate moments in the series.
Based on the above, you guys can formulate your opinion however you wish. Personally though, I think the piece about using recycled storylines and characters because “that’s what the audiences want” is a load of crap. LKH is obviously still of the old mentality where the thinking is that TVB’s target audience is and always will be see lais (housewives) who like to spend their free time reading gossip mags and watching mindless soap operas on TV — they don’t want to watch anything that requires them to think and so script, aesthetics, quality of production, etc, none of that matters as long as it’s something housewives can relate to. It’s this kind of antiquated thinking that leads TVB to continue churning out the same types of series over and over and over again. This kind of brings me back to something that came up several years ago back at the height of the television wars between TVB and HKTV. It came to light back then that TVB had stopped doing audience surveys decades ago and therefore had lost touch with the newer generation of audiences who didn’t necessarily have the same “criteria” for series that previous audiences did. Back then, TVB justified not doing the surveys by claiming that their target audience continues to be housewives and they already know what they want (versus HKTV, who not only did plenty of audience surveys, they also conducted focus groups with audience participation, even making changes and tweaking their series with audience feedback in mind, in the hopes that their series would be advise close as possible to what audiences truly wanted to see).
As for the golden phrases thing – I will give LKH credit for that, as what he said is true to some extent, as a lot of times, the screenwriters/producers don’t deliberately say “oh, let’s put this line in here because it will surely become a golden line”….ultimately, it’s how audiences respond to the dialogue that makes it a “golden phrase/line” (though of course the media hyping it up also helps too).
@llwy12 Good insight as always.
“Based on the above, you guys can formulate your opinion however you wish. Personally though, I think the piece about using recycled storylines and characters because “that’s what the audiences want” is a load of crap. LKH is obviously still of the old mentality where the thinking is that TVB’s target audience is and always will be see lais (housewives) who like to spend their free time reading gossip mags and watching mindless soap operas on TV — they don’t want to watch anything that requires them to think and so script, aesthetics, quality of production, etc, none of that matters as long as it’s something housewives can relate to. It’s this kind of antiquated thinking that leads TVB to continue churning out the same types of series over and over and over again.”
I avoid creators who think people are that dense, TVB or not. Unfortunately, money talks louder than quality sometimes. Even the Star Wars films outside of the original trilogy receive tons of flak (more so prequels) but at the end of the day they make a ton of money in box office. Yes, SW is an extreme example since it’s an international franchise but the principle can apply.
i stopped watching after episode 1. like the article said, the dialog seemed forced and not natural. the plot of over dramatized. everything seem to be too lavish. and of course, same old plot….
I have to admit that I agree with the critics. Only the old veterans make it watchable, as most of the younger cast aren’t good.
I still hate the awkward clapping and rhyming phrases. No normal family acts like that.
@elizabeth Have you noticed what they do at the breakfast scenes? They still eat hotdog sausages and eggs , despite being in a multi-million dollar home!
@bubbles23 lol nothing wrong with basics… who knows it can be an expensive brand of high quality ingredients!
@elizabeth me too. I couldn’t stand the first instalment with the stupid father-son laughter.
@elizabeth This is my biggest beef with the series tied with forced preaching.
yea man…they keep recycle the storylines just like Burning Flame, Forensic Heroes, Healing Hands.
@jack4cool Heard they are making another Forensic heroes haha
@yummiki24 @jack4cool They’ve missed out Chris lai. I wonder why he didn’t join the sequel of Heart of greed 3? It’s not that I’m against them adding new cast members but without all the original cast members, the drama doesn’t feel like Heart of greed anymore.
Honestly speaking, the cast is good even thought the script is not ideal. Try not to be so demanding! i think hk drama are better than korea drama scriptwriter. #hkdrama