Amusing Performances at TVB’s 51st Anniversary Gala
TVB Anniversary Galas are always full of entertaining and lively segments, and this year was no different. The 2018 TVB Anniversary Gala had three notable performances that made headlines – be it for blunders, humor, or fascinating acts.
As always, there was a choreographed dance performance at the celebration. The artists, including Crystal Fung (馮盈盈), Louisa Mak (麥明詩), Bowie Cheung (張寶兒), Ashley Chu (朱智賢), Tiffany Lau (劉穎鏇), Jarryd Tam (譚永浩), Kelvin Yuen (袁鎮業), Kinlas Chan (陳俊堅), and Kalok Chow (周嘉洛) were all donned in school uniforms, presenting a youthful atmosphere. Although the mini skirts were very attention-grabbing, two female celebrities stole the show in this segment, but for different reasons.
Louisa was caught many times on camera dancing offbeat and stiffly while keeping a “chok” expression. After the show, many netizens left messages of complaints about her. Some of them said, “I don’t even know what you are doing,” while others wrote, “Your arms and legs are not coordinated.”
On the other hand, some netizens blamed Louisa’s poor performance on the lack of time to rehearse. They guessed she was busy filming a drama and thus did not have the time to rehearse the choreography. However, her position at the front of the stage should have been given to a more prepared artist.
The other person who stole the show in the dance segment was Mandy Wong (黃智雯). She appeared on stage wearing black sunglasses with sparklers surrounding her. The 35-year-old actress took control of the stage with her fascinating solo. Even when she joined her younger colleagues for the group dance, she still gave off a very domineering and charismatic appearance.
Likewise, Rebecca Zhu (朱晨麗) also gave a worthy performance in the martial arts segment. She performed cartwheels and jumped onto high platforms together with her Fist Fight <兄弟> cast mates, Tiffany, and Mat Yeung (楊明). In addition, she did a split with Rebecca and Mat carrying her. It was not a difficult feat due to her dancing background. Meanwhile, costar Philip Ng (伍允龍) also showcased his skills and used real Kung Fu to do a slow-motion performance.
Then a group of actors from TVB drama Life on the Line <跳躍生命線> reenacted a scene from the drama. The anniversary became like a program tour with the Fist Fight and Life on the Line stars. The most amusing segment, however, would have to be the bicep competition. Matthew Ho (何廣沛), Owen Cheung (張振朗), and Karl Ting (丁子朗) competed against each other for the biggest bicep during the gala. One by one they took off their blazers and ripped off the sleeves of their dress shirts to get their flexed biceps measured. Owen, who lost at 13 inches, expressed, “I knew I wasn’t going to win.”
Just half an inch bigger in circumference than Owen, Karl jokingly said, “I am just young, I’m still going through puberty.”
Matthew was crowned the winner at 14 inches. He previously disclosed he trained his body to film Life on the Line. Commenting on the results, he said, “I usually work out!”
This article is written by MelodyC for JayneStars.com.
Yeah, great show from beginning till end for the yearly occasion but unfortunately the drama output does not match the same quality.
Not impressed with this years gala but I have to applaud the fact that the lesser known actors/actresses get to perform (and got credit), such as the music/orchestra performance.
Stopped watching during Line of the Life segment, not sure if it got better but I was bored.
Recorded it and watched it 1 hour after live show started. Fast forwarded a few segments, wasn’t impressed with casino theme and at the end of the show came to the conclusion TVB really doesn’t know how to use its own stars’ talent. Lots of big names missing but most frustrating is those who can sing, isn’t, those who can dance, isn’t and Ekin Cheng as a guest is ok BUT come on, get a bigger name perhaps? I quite like the Life On The line segment where actors are being told to do acting and they all did well except for Ali Lee who looked out of place. Well Joe Ma can do live show! And finally we all know what the wife wanted to tell our hero in that series.
Oh and young stars are told to do a kpop ala japanese AKB 48 (as in stuff the stage full of people) and each danced to their own tune and rhythm. Why not make them reenact famous scenes? Ad the court room segment with poor Moses, every year he is the idiot of the show as in has to be in such segment and gets beaten.
Other than that, it is noisy, incoherent, messy and they really hate Malaysia/Singapore don’t they? Reducing the meaning of those awards to nothing and I am not sure who is more embarassed? Those who placed bets on Kenneth Ma or Kenneth Ma himself.
HOWEVER Kenneth Ma best fashion of the night hands down bar none.
Not impressed.
And Jayne, maybe you can consider doing a live tweet on a live event?
@funnlim “And Jayne, maybe you can consider doing a live tweet on a live event?” I can do live tweets based on breaking news… but most of the time can’t watch these awards events as they are broadcast on TV.
I did a live tweet sort of…in ascending order. Typo included.
START.
Hk tvb anniversary tonight. Gonna watch
Watching tvb 51st gala. Tvb showing gambling casino during family hour. Great.
wow Kenneth ma looks great in that suit. Where’s Ruco?
Orchestra with some minor actors and major veterans playing classical instrument is nice. But the song and orchestra felt a bit high school. Let singers sing pls.
Hubert wu an amazing singer and should be given jacky cheung treatment and here he is doing basketball. And the show so d**n noisy.
I enjoyed the basketball sequence. But dear lord the stunt sequence is lame.
Thank god for Philip who was convincing fighter. Vincent Wong ok lar. Maybe they shld do a theater scene. He can act better. Anyway entire sequence darn pretentious. O lord #lifeontheline preachy
Gotta admit #lifeontheline group acting was good. Reminded me of the series.
So now we know what the wife wanted to tell chay. Interesting sequence.
Now baby sequence. Poor actors having to crawl. Cute but pointless so far. A least they are having fun. Gotta say the set is amazing thus far. I was amazing by the series #lifeontheline set and so am I in this gala show.
Baby race was cute but noisy. Kids looked traumatized.
Beauty kitchen? Funny song. Wonder what is up?
So now we have HK ver of akb48 and they are the young stars. Torture continues. Amateurish. No kpop star. why not make the young ones do impromptu eyt sketches? After all they are hired for acting not dancing.
Fastforwarded the dancing and oh Mandy Wong. She cam dance. But isn’t it grace wong doing dancing? Tvb doesn’t know how to use actors with skills for that particular skills? Dear lord so long. When is dancing ending??
Oh he is called kwok chi ho. Nice body. Good actor with great potential.
Oh the turning round and round on bar is interesting. Poor guys but super fit.
Now recreating #ongyourhonour scene. Quite funny twist of word. Spoilt by the beating. It I surprising #lifeontheline was treated with respect.
Poor moses chan the perennial fool every year. Krystal tin very sexy. But quite funny sequence.
Entire court segment so silly but quite funny.
Ekin Chen singing. Long time no hear. Still not a good singer. And Hubert wu is there and probably the best singer and not allowed to sing. Confirmed. Tvb knows now how to use its talent. But ekin look great
how come best actor Malaysia Singapore now in tvb anniversary show? So now no more shows in malaysia and Singapore? Save budget?
Malaysia tv queen nominees none outstanding. The winner is now used as a joke. As part of anniversarry show game show. Anyway Winner is… Mandy wong. Frankly saw a bit of that series, didn’t like it.
Now malaysia tv king. All 3 competent but roles nothing outstanding. Benjamin yuen maybe? Yeap. Confirmed.
Oh now Singapore tv king. Eh different nominees? Benjamin yuen again? Or ever popular Ruco chan? All are lame performances. I love Kenneth ma’s suit and deco. Anyway winner is… Really Kenneth? Ruco? Oh Benjamin yuen! So now he is double winner. Poor Kenneth. Not 4 that 1.
Singapore tv queen. Same list? Looks like same list. Frankly Nancy wu was a times gr8 but story is lame. Mandy again? I don’t find Benjamin yuen attractive. Anyway… Winner… Mandy wong. But don’t think she will win the tvb one.
I suppose tvb is really making its own award show the exclusive one? y not then move the malaysia and Singapore awards to the HK one? Make other more prestigious and call the awards out of HK award and combine both Singapore and Malaysia? Why minimise those awards?
So now who win the big prize in gala bdayshow? Hopefully someone the prize is better used.
Liza wang should relinquish the chance and give it to someone else.
The guy wins!
Half a million. Good for him. 2nd and 3rd also got hkd30k cash. For. Liza that’s probably quarter of an earring.
And so the show ends. Mascot in tuxedo is cute. Show was ok. As usual too noisy. Half hearted. Shame d msia and spore awards merged into this show negating its importance. Hubert wu no chance to sing. #lifeontheline sequence most heartfelt but preachy. Mediocre show.
#hktvb51gala proves tvb doesn’t know how to utilize its talents. Those can sing can’t sing. Those can dance not dancing. Major big stars missing. Suppose the big show will be the award show later. Shame.
@funnlim I am so gonna do one for that TVB award thingy. Probably curse a lot.
@funnlim Thanks for the recap! I need to go find pictures of Kenneth in his suit. This HK Actors’ fashion has been, um, interesting… LOL. Would have liked to hear Hubert sing too.
@funnlim LOL! Love this, especially since I stopped watching the Anniversary Galas long time ago..this recap reinforced for me that my decision to not waste my time with TVB crappy variety shows anymore was absolutely spot on, lol!
This anniversary show is getting more worse every year. This year it was filled with Anniversary Drama’s promotion, (Ekin Cheng’s concert promotion) and the TVB awards of Singapore and Malaysia. There was nothing that stood out this year, the previous year was this also the matter. But previous year there was a funny moment with Luk wing imitating Dodo, this year nothing stood out.
This is been going for a while because I think of low budget and they have to celebrate this so they have to make a show anyway.
The MC’s this year was also very bad. The opening was like not rehearsed, they couldn’t catch each other and sometimes it was a “hen house”. I think that Liza has to stop doing this shows, most time she couldn’t catch the situation and was out of space. The same for Nat, he was just mumble some words out of his mouth and was interfering other people with talking. And I still don’t know why they put Louisa and Crystal in a live show, they already have done multiple live shows, but until now they’re still doing a bad job. I know their program at J2 is doing great, but that doesn’t mean that they can MC a live show.
One surprise of the MC’s was Dickson Yu, for the first time doing a live show was pretty good. Even better than those two Miss HK.
The comedy segment of the show was this year the most worse one. I mean, what were they doing in that segment. Only hitting each other with some plastic hammers. Luckily there was no cream this year. It was not funny at all, you can’t create a funny segment with those top artists of TVB because they’re actors and not comedians.
One I was the most disappointed in this show was the lottery segment (the ending who will win a big prize). There was no excitement at all and often in the past this was the highlight of the show. It was like “fast fast fast because we’re running out of air time”.
All in all it was a worse show (as expected like how they do these shows the last few years).
I think this year’s anniversary gala is quite good compared to the others in recent years. I enjoyed most of the segments. They’re not perfect but it was interesting and a joy to watch. I actually appreciate that TVB is utilizing and showcasing some of the newer and not so famous actors and actresses. It gives them an opportunity to showcase themselves like the orchestra segment was really good in my opinion.
I can understand why sometimes the big stars are not performing at the event. I think they may be too busy with filming and other events that they don’t have enough time to rehearse for the show. Some of them probably didn’t show up due to their busy filming schedule.
The part that I actually hated most was Ekin’s singing. He’s never been good at singing so I’m surprised TVB asked him to come be the guest singer. He was off key and has no ‘air’ when sining. Horrible performance.
I agree that the Singapore/Malaysia awards should not be at this event. They should really present them at the TVB anniversary awards show. It minimizes the significance of these 2 awards. Hopefully TVB can consider that for next year.
@kokomo It actually makes sense for TVB to minimize Malaysia and Singapore awards. Don’t be surprised if next year there’s no Malaysia or Singapore anything at all, as the rumor has been out there for at least a year now that TVB is planning on pulling out of the international market completely and focus entirely on Mainland market. Sure, management has continued to deny it, but it certainly doesn’t help their case when they’ve made so many changes this year that support this rumor (ie: dismantling their international arm and laying off those staff, cancelling Malaysia and Singapore award shows, pulling out of broadcast bidding contention for all international sports events such as World Cup and Olympics, etc).
The big stars didn’t show up because most aren’t going to bother giving TVB the time of day anymore, especially when TVB is no longer the “only option” out there as well as them becoming less and less relevant (both in HK and abroad). More and more, TVB has been showing that they are perfectly happy with “playing the game” their own way and shutting out everyone who doesn’t agree with them or their rules…nowadays, it’s all about what management thinks will help them continue to expand their Mainland footprint and to hell with what everyone else thinks/says…
I hope this supposedly ‘Big Superstar’ invitation for Ekin does not mean that he will be returning to lead a TVB series soon. I’ll rather watch a series with the trio of Edwin Siu, Grace Chan, Linda Chung and some extras than have Ekin come back. After watching his latest movie ‘Golden Job’ containing the Young and Dangerous cast, I can see Ekin’s acting is so bad that he has nowhere to go. Wouldn’t be surprised if he makes a return to TVB…