Liza Wang, Gigi Wong, Him Law, and Mandy Wong at “Mother to Mother” Costume Fitting
TVB held the costume fitting for producer Poon Ka Tak’s (潘嘉德) new drama, Mother to Mother <巴不得媽媽> yesterday. Cast members, Liza Wang (汪明荃), Gigi Wong (黄淑仪), Him Law (罗仲谦), Mandy Wong (黄智雯), Candy Chang (張慧雯), Chung King Fai (钟景辉), and Chin Ka Lok (钱嘉乐) attended the event.
For older audiences, the main attraction of Mother to Mother will be the onscreen unification of Liza Wang and Gigi Wong. It has been 36 years since the actresses collaborated in 1976’s Legend of Book and Sword <書劍恩仇錄>. In the last three decades, Gigi had left TVB, shifted her career focus to Taiwan, immigrated to Canada, and finally returned to Hong Kong. During these years, Liza and Gigi did not remain in contact with each other, since they possessed different career paths.
Although Liza and Gigi were rivals in new drama, Mother to Mother, they did not possess any inability to get along with each other in real life. Gigi stated, “In the past, we did not have any negative rumors and got along fine. The rumors were fabricated by other people.” Gigi stated that she was never envious of Liza’s greater popularity. After learning of the rare opportunity to collaborate with Liza, Gigi immediately agreed to filming Mother to Mother, even delaying negotiations with City Telecom (CTI), who had expressed interest in recruiting her.
Liza was asked whether she had been in touch with Shirley Yeung (楊思琦) since her return to Hong Kong. Liza admitted that she had left a message on Shirley’s Weibo blog earlier wishing her a safe pregnancy, but did not remain in close contact with her over the last few months.
Younger audiences will be attracted by the pairing of Him Law and Mandy Wong, who will portray an onscreen couple in Mother to Mother. Appearing in a plaid shirt and tomboyish outfit, Mandy will portray a renovation contractor in the drama. Him will play Liza’s son in the drama, in which he expressed his excitement in working with the experienced veteran.
Earlier, a netizen posted in an online forum that he possessed explicit photos of Candy Chang and had dated her previously. However, Candy denied that she had ever taken such photos, while negating rumors that she had dated Tiffany Lee’s (李蘢怡) younger brother. The former Miss Chinese International’s popularity surged after the broadcast of The Hippocratic Crush <On Call 36小時>. Candy was rumored to be one of TVB executive, Virginia Lok’s (樂易玲) new favorite actresses to be promoted this year.
Source: Ming Pao, Oriental Daily
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Jayne: Him Law and Mandy Wong rising to first-line actors in “Mother to Mother!” Collaborating with Liza Wang will boost their popularity higher. Mandy suits the role of a tomboy quite well.
Him and Mandy remind me of Bosco and Myolie back in the days. The next golden couple?
yeah that hit me too… wonder of they will become that popular too hahaha.
oh yes totally agree
Him and Mandy were so cute together in Suspects in Love. However, watching them in L’Escargot and The Hippocratic Crush, without any romantic storyline, I find it weird to see them as a couple again. I’m still excited though.
I can’t wait to hear more about this new series. 🙂
It seems that recently Miss Chinese International winners got better luck and promotion by TVB than those local Miss Hong Kong winners. Among all the Miss Hong Kong winners, I don’t see many are being promoted highly, except Charmaine Sheh, Kate Tsui, Myolie Wu, and Aimee Chan now. Many of those Miss Chinese International winners, such as Bernice Liu, Linda Chung, Fala Chen, Christine Gau, Lianne Lee, Angela Tong, and now Candy Chang. It is rather strange though because quite a few of those Miss Chinese International winners cannot even speak Cantonese properly. Perhaps they are younger and prettier!!
The last highly promoted MHK, I believe, is Kate Tsui. Aimee Chan and Rebecca Zhu are highly promoted now.
As for MCI, Bernice Liu and Linda Chung were highly promoted. Fala Chen’s route wasn’t as smooth compared to those two. But, she seems to be at a stable point now.
Aimee Chan was originally competing in Miss Toronto-Chinese pageant. Unfortunately, she lost, so did Janet Chow (same year). They both went to Hong Kong to compete for Miss Hong Kong the year after.
Haha are you kidding me? Fala’s route “wasn’t as smooth”?
This chic won the Best Supporting Actress in 2007 which is only ONE YEAR after she joined TVB. Do you know how “smooth” that is?
There are so many actresses who waited so long just to win that award(Sharon Chan for example) and it took Fala only a year.
@RAWR
Fala Chen had to play calefe and minor supporting roles before she was best supporting actress whereas Linda and Bernice got lead roles straight away. So her career wasn’t AS smooth as them, considering she was MCI.
@RAWR: Obviously, I was comparing Fala’s career to Bernice and Linda’s. Read before you reply.
As a Canadian, I’m more surprised at the amount of Canadian fadans who have entered TVB. Linda, Bernice and Leanne are from Vancouver. Angela is from Montreal. Aimee and Candy Chang are from Toronto. Selena Li (who competed in Miss HK 2003) also went to school in Toronto – same university as me and I think she spent several of her formative years in Toronto.
Tracy Ip was a Miss HK but unexpectedly lost at MCI right?
Seems like many like to take the easy route of entering pageants to get a big break in acting. Those like Sharon Chan and Nancy Wu had to wait ages to even get noticed…. Pageants are nothing but a chance to scout talent.
Sonija Kwok is the last lady who won MHK and MCI at the same time.
You forgot Michelle Yip and Sonija Kwok who were highly promoted at first :). I blv Txb is doing the strategy to promote someone at max in a period then stop to see if this person can have a breakthrough or not to continue the promotion.
For MHK, it started with Charmaine to Anne to Sonija and then Shirley. I remember all of them were everywhere, lol TVB shifted to MCI until Kate Tsui came along.
For MCI, it started with Michelle Ye to Bernice Liu and then Linda Chung. Others weren’t as popular.
Among the three veterans, Liza Wang, Louise Lee See Kee, Gigi Wong, I find that Louise Lee’s acting is the best. She also looks the best, still pretty. She did really well in 《溏心風暴》; 《溏心風暴之家好月圓》,《珠光寶氣》, and “Only You”. Her acting was decent when she was young, but not excellent. I found that her acting had improved tremendously in the last few years. I do enjoy watching her in any roles.
Liza Wang is good in her acting, but not much improvement over the years. However, she looks rather old now and she has been acting some lousy roles recently with exaggerations, such as in “Fook Look Sau”. The only good thing about her is her loyalty to TVB.
It seems to me that Gigi Wong is the weakest one among those 3. She did poorly in “Curse of the Royal Harem” and some other ancient dramas. She looks and acts better in modern ones. I heard that she did pretty well in “Hippocractic Crush”. She looks quite old and is chubby, and if her acting isn’t good, I doubt it if she can survive in the entertainment industry.
i think gigi wong has been in the e-industry for 3 decades already. how would you like to define this survival?
Yea, I also want to know how you define this “survival”??? There are many actors and actresses of today and even back then that could not act as well as Gigi, but yet they still manage to survive so how can Gigi not??
Compared to those other 2, yes, Gigi Wong is the weaker actress. But compared to a lot of other veteran actresses (Nancy Sit, Suet Lei) she’s much better.
I have to admit I find it difficult to take Gigi Wong seriously as an actress sometimes because she hosted a ‘making soup’ program a few years ago and now whenever I think of her, I think of her as a nice old lady who teaches people how to make soup. LOL.
Oh my goodness, I’ve seen the soup programs too! And I kept thinking about them when Gigi’s character kept making soup for relatives and friends in Hippocratic Crush.
She must REALLY like Chinese soup! 🙂
Bridget:
Agree with you that Gigi Wong is much better than Nancy Sit and Suet Lei. Nancy Sit should be better, but Suet Lei has been same since she was young.
yeh love watching her hosting that soup show. I do like watching Gigi even tho her acting is not outstanding. IMO she seem like a friendly n easy going person.
I think Gigi Wong is a good actress and she nails her roles well, from good mother to counting woman. For comedy, like Chik she also did well.
I also think that Gigi Wong is a good actress and have seen her in many roles and she does pretty well…
According to Wikipedia, both Louise Lee and Gigi Wong started acting dramas in 1976, and they both took some breaks in between before they came back to work in dramas for TVB.
Liza Wang started in 1971 and has been with TVB all throughout these years.
Liza Wang (born in 1947, age 64), Gigi Wong (born in 1949, age 62), and Louise Lee (born in 1950, age 61).
Yea, they are all veterans. I remember seeing Gigi as Yan So So in the 78 version of HSDS. THat was the first time I saw her. The first time that I saw Liza was in the Legend of the Book and Sword which was made in 1976. It is great to see that they are all still in the field. Gigi and Liza took breaks for a long time that I thought they both retired for good. It is great that they are back now… Looking forward to seeing them in more new dramas.
Oh yea, it has been 36 years ever since they collaborated in the Legend of the Book and Sword. They played good friends in there as well. Gigi played Li Yuan Zhi and Liza played Huo Qing Tong. It is really great to see them reunite again. It’s like seeing an old friend again after so many years….What a great feeling….
wow both Louise and Gigi don’t look like their age, i would of thought they were in their 50 not 60. I hope i will look as young as them when i’m in my 60 lol i have a couple of decades to go
Louise Lee still looks good and pretty, and not Gigi Wong. When there was a close-up of her in any recent drama series, she looked like a grandmother. She looked older than Liza Wang. In terms of face, Louise is the youngest looking artiste among these three.
I must add that Gigi Wong looked very pretty when she was young, tall, slim and pretty. I think she hosted too many cooking shows (including tasting), she gained too much weight now.
I know Louise Lee likes cooking and she is pretty good in it. Otherwise, she would be slimmer.
Liza Wang is very smart. She eats very little and very healthily, and she does not like to cook (she lets Law Ka Ying do all the cooking), she can afford to stay reasonably silm.
In fact, Angie Chiu Nga Chi is the only 1970-80 TVB artiste who can stay slim until now.
People often forget when we get older we age. This is old age. Yes they’re a bit bloated but not too bad looking. Not everyone can look 40 in their 60s, slim and all.
Wow, Him and Mandy are luckier than the other actors and they lead a serie in just a few years.
It’s a chance for them. If they can make it, they’ll be the next generation leaders of Txb
They’re lucky because TVB is lack of actors but honestly they have potential and i believe they can make it
Hi Jayne, if you look at the cast list for the costume fitting, you’d realise that Him and Mandy are not the leads. Many names ahead of them! So I would hesitate to say that they have been promoted to first-line artistes.
Anonymous,
I realize that “Mother to Mother” is anchored by veteran artists such as Liza and Gigi, however, Him and Mandy were obviously cast as the young “first line” artists, to lift their careers to the next level.
Agreed. In this series Himhim and Mandy will be the first line for the younger generation because Liza and Gigi Wong are old generation
Him and Mandy are the main leads for their age group. Liza, Gigi, chung kin fai, and chin ka lok are experienced/veteran actors, of course their names are place at the front of the list. It’d be disrepectful so put their names ahead of the veteran actors.
yeh definitely not first leads. other sites are saying Him and Mandy are only supporting acts not first leads. The official cast list (which is not listed here) actually had Chin Ka Lok before there names as well. And Chin Ka Lok, despite him being a ‘veteran’ usually has his name at the back of the list for his usual series. If veterans’ name was suppose to be put first out of respect, then Gigi’s Wong should’ve been first in THC, but it wasn’t.
I would call them supporting acts more. It most likely revolves around the mothers more than the children – hence the title. Some ppl are misled into thinking Him and Mandy are leads but they’re not really.
It’s only a matter of time. I would say Chin Ka lok, Him, and Mandy will probably have equal amounts of screen time.
The article itself doesn’t even talk abt Him or Mandy. 2 lines for these so-called leads lol. A bit optimistic ppl. The focus is on Liza and Gigi. The writer just assumed the former were leads but the media and tab actually never mentioned them as leads.
Well, I wouldn’t expect Him and Mandy to lead over Liza.
Anyway, as Jayne said, this series will propel Him and Mandy to first-lead status. I guess TVB wants a veteran to boost their popularity. Wasn’t it like this with Bosco and Myolie?
Him Law and Mandy both can act, so it’s good TVB are giving them the chance at lead roles. Was Candy Chang in The Hippocratic crush? She was horrible in that, acting was so forced >.<
Candy Chang wasn’t that bad for her first series and with no acting background. I remember Charmaine sheh was horrible with her first series, and I didn’t like her. However, with experience, her acting got much better and showed more emotion. We should cut candy chang some slack.
Candy Chang look so stiff next to Him him who’s doing it more naturally!
Agree that Candy Chang did not do well in “Hippocratic Crush”, and she was not pretty either.
Kayi Cheung (Miss Hong Kong in 2007) has not been promoted much by TVB. She acted pretty well in “Beauty Knows No Pain” 女人最痛, but I haven’t seen her in many drama series. She hosted “What’s On” on Fairchild Television, Canada, until April 2007. She was a pretty good host and her mother tongue is Cantonese.
Kayi’s look became a matter for the promotion.
I think Kayi is quite pretty, prettier than Candy Chang. There is nothing wrong with her pretty face. She acts better, as well.
I think she is cute and pretty, too. However HK ppl seem to dislike her look.
I don’t think Kayi has a very versatile look?
They probably need to give her more hosting shows since her mother tongue is Cantonese.
But I actually thought Candy Chang was really pretty in the Hippocratic Crush. I didn’t even recognise her because she looked different. She does need to improve on her acting but then she didn’t have much screen time so I cold never grasp exactly what personality her character was supposed to carry.
Let’s support the Him him and Mandy couple!
I will be interested to watch Liza Wang and Gigi Wong’s interactions in this drama series. Two veterans act in the same drama …….. fascinating!!
This cast is excellent, as all of them are very talented and versatile actors. This should be a great watch!
I hope to watch a drama series with all three top TVB artistes in 1970, i.e. Liza Wang, Louise Lee, and Gigi Lai. It will be fun to see them acting (and competing) in the same drama series.
can’t wait to see more of HIM HIM and Mandy