“Big White Duel” Celebrate High Ratings, Sequel Considered
The cast of TVB’s Big White Duel <白色強人>, including Roger Kwok (郭晉安), Kenneth Ma (馬國明), Ali Lee (李佳芯), Natalie Tong (唐詩詠), Matthew Ho (何廣沛), and Stephen Wong (黃嘉樂), attended a large banquet hosted by TVB in celebration of the show’s rating success.
According to official reports, Big White Duel achieved an average of 32.1 viewership points in the last seven days of broadcast, reaching 2.1 million live viewers. Roger said, “It’ll be wonderful if it’s only 0.9 points more. The more the merrier.” In regard to talks that TVB is considering a sequel, he said, “I do hope so, and that it’ll be with the original cast. It’s also important for viewers to maintain that interest too. It’s common for sequels to take several years to make, and to have the viewers regard the show in the same way like what they did years before is difficult. If a sequel does happen, it better happen soon. Hopefully ready for broadcast within a year.”
Though talks for a sequel have been ongoing, Roger said it isn’t very likely at the moment. “I’m not sure if I’ll be free yet, and trying to gather the original cast together is also very difficult. We all have our things to do.”
Roger recently took his 11-year-old son, Brad, to a tour in Europe. He said the trip was meant to be educational, as he wanted his son to learn how other people around the world live. “I was surprised at how much endurance he has. After getting off the train, he walked 15 minutes with his luggage without complaints.” Roger added that he would like to take Brad to colder countries in the future.
Roger would call his wife and daughter every day to keep each other in the loop. “I think the most unforgettable thing that happened in that trip was when we were in Naples. Even locals told us that we shouldn’t carry anything expensive, including a watch. It’s better to not carry anything at all. We didn’t stay there long, so everything was fine.”
Ali Lee’s Fate in BWD
Unlike other characters on the show, Dr. Kennis Ching, played by Ali Lee in Big White Duel, had an open ending. Her character was presumably shot while volunteering for Doctors Without Borders overseas, thus her fate is unknown. Ali told reporters that she too had been curious about what happened to her character, and had asked the writers.
“The theme of that scene is to tell viewers that life is impermanent,” said Ali. “I think we can safely assume that she is dead.”
As for talks about a sequel, Ali said, “I don’t know! Maybe it’s because my character is dead. I actually really like her ending. If she does show up in the sequel, that’ll be weird.”
Producer Marco Law (羅永賢) emphasized that he will not make a sequel for the sake of having a sequel. “It was recommended to me, but I won’t start on it until I have a good script,” he said. “If it does happen, I won’t be able to finish it within the year.”
Source: On.cc, stheadline
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
This is just a typo, but can you please fix Ali’s last name? (for the 2nd half of the article, her last name should be Lee, not Wong)
Thanks for the translation 🙂
Anyways, I like Kennis’ ending scene. It gives a memorable closure to her character and the drama. After all, this drama is about doctors and saving lives. This article also reveals a lot more thoughtfulness on the writer’s part now that we know their main intention is to demonstrate the impermanence of life. Life and death is fragile, just like that. We never know what tomorrow will bring. We can live today and die tomorrow.
If this drama was to have a sequel, I’m sure that if they want, they can find multiple ways to bring the character Kennis back alive. If that happens, I don’t think that would bring any less meaning to the ending of the original drama, as the original drama can standalone by itself. And perhaps, hopefully, the sequel would demonstrate a continuing, if not different meaning/value, following it. Sometimes, it the small moments in a drama that make it meaningful. Another “small moment” or rather details that I really liked was the friendship portrayed by Zoe, Kennis and Yan. Their portrayal felt really real and sweet. Don’t we all want a genuine friendship like that in real life?
Back to the drama as a whole, I read some comments that commented the whole medical reform was going nowhere and as a result, was a waste of time. Well, I think about it a little differently. Medical reform, realistically, is a very complicated issue and as the drama demonstrated, also contains a lot of politics. To change that system involves a lot of factors including social, political and cultural values. By not having a successful ending to the medical reform, it shows that life isn’t as black and white as we would like it to be. There are gray issues in the society, big and small, that we as human being have to deal with everyday. Medical reform can be both good and bad depending on what perspective we look at. So should we have medical reform? Or should we not? No one can answer that question definitely.
Overall, I like this drama.
@terry123 Also, if the character Kennis comes back alive in the sequel; after a couple of life and death struggles happened to her in the original drama, perhaps would come back with a much “stronger” persona showing a more expressive depth and understanding. Kennis, though did not seem to be very important compared to the male counterparts, subtly had an inner depth and brought out quite a few special moments in the original. Contradictorily, the drama did not revolve around her, yet everything also got tied together much around her. Out of the 4 main leads, her character has the most potential to grow. She is, to me, nuanced and interesting. I feel the same, though to a much lesser degree, about YT. Zoe and Tong Ming, in contrast, were pretty much black and white characters. It just depends on how good the scriptwriters can incorporate the development of the characters.