ATV to Air New Series After Two Year Gap
Ridden by financial troubles, ATV has not produced their own dramas in the last two years. Breaking the broadcast hiatus, ATV announced it will air Heroes of the Law <法網群英> on July 26th. The series stars Lawrence Ng Kai Wah, Amy Chan Sau Man, Jacky Lui Chung Yin, Kenneth Chan Kai Tai, William So Wai Hong, and Pinky Cheung. Next week, Lawrence and Jacky will fly in from China to promote the new series in Hong Kong .
Heroes of the Law will be broadcast during the airing of TVB’s Beauty Knows No Pain <女人最痛>, which stars Michelle Yim Mai Shuet, Maggie Cheung Ho Yee, and Joyce Tang Lai Ming. Heroes of the Law is produced by Gary Tang Tak Hei, who formerly worked for TVB and created Files of Justice. On his blog, Gary openly admitted that no one watches ATV dramas. Afterwards, Gary explained that he was referring to his promotional clip at the time.
TVB Deputy Director of External Affairs, Tsang Sing Ming said that TVB was confident about their series and was not concerned about the coinciding broadcast of Heroes of the Law.
Excerpt from Appledaily
Jayne: Heroes of the Law boasts a great cast…I have a soft spot for Jacky Lui. But it is inevitable as to which series will win the ratings battle. TVB has an ace card in Michelle Yim.
I want to watch this series. It has 3 actors I like in its main cast list i.e. Jacky Lui, Kenneth Chan Kai Tai and Pinky Cheung. I hope their voice are not dubbed though. It will ruin the whole experience. One thing I don’t like about some ATV series is that they have to doubt over even HK artist voice because of TVB’s contract rule. I hope none of these actors have any contract with TVB. I want to hear their real voice.
I’ve been waiting for this series since it started filming. The cast is gold! I can’t wait to see Joey Meng and Pinky Cheung again. ATV went out of their way this time to truly promote this series, evident from the many promotional clips they showed and posted on their YouTube channel. I hope everyone gives this series a chance and help ATV make a comeback. 🙂
Btw, Jayne, the official title is now The Men of Justice. (I like Heroes of the Law better since it does not discriminate, given that Amy Chan also plays a lawyer, but whatever.)
It is great to see ATV broadcasting and make their own series again. I thought that Lawrence retired from acting?? It is great to see him act again. Or was this series made years ago and wasn’t aired before??
ATV actually made a lot of very good series in the past with a lot of good casts. I hope that ATV will continue to make more great series so that people do not stereotype ATV as a company that cannot produce any high quality series. I don’t think that is true at all..
The irony in all this being that Michelle Yim used to be with ATV. I do think that ATV can produce good shows, and i do hope they perform up to standard 🙂
I honestly don’t think that it would actually be a good idea for tvb to compete with this particular show, since I don’t think the results will be all too favourable for tvb. Taking another example with Michelle Yim in it, Seasons of Fate. Regardless of the plot, which many said was convoluted and confusing, the cast is strong, but what happened to the ratings? It’s nothing close to stellar, for such a wonderful cast with loads of chemistry. Why? Because they do not have a strong ‘anchor’ (the example of Seasons of Fate sufficiently casts doubt on the opinion that Michelle Yim is an anchor). Like Raymond Lam/Linda Chung/Tavia Yeung/Kevin Cheng/Charmaine Sheh–people like that who have huge fanbases who will follow whatever show of them is being aired, and thereby contributing significantly to the ratings. Looking at the examples of the previous mega productions, like Moonlight Resonance/Beyond the Realm of Conscience, one gathers that the storyline wasn’t stellar, but they all did have actors as stated above, and of course they had an insane amount of promotion and publicity. Given that this particular show does not have this type of actors: i’m guessing that the closest would be Maggie Cheung, but again, think back, Seasons had Roger and Esther, what happened? This, on top of the fact that it is not heavily promoted by tvb. Yes, I know, it has more than its fair share of non-tvb publicity due to the rough spots that all three female leads were going through during filming.
I actually think that ATV did choose a correct timeslot and show to compete with, rather than others like Mysteries of Love, Ghost Writer, World Cup Season, or something like that, where the cast more or less guaranteed the ratings, unlike the question mark that tvb has here. It can be a hit if the storyline is good, but only if. Definitely, I don’t think that ATV’s ratings can beat that of TVB’s, if not that will be a major slap in the face to the director/producer/scriptwriter/publicists of the show. (not so much the actors, since most of them are established and most full well know that they are good), but I do believe ATV can score a victory of their own here if they play their cards right.
All that said, in case I do happen to be misunderstood, I do think highly of the cast for Beauty Knows No Pain, and this is not intended to be an attack on Michelle Yim’s (or any other person’s) star power, acting or whatever.
Raymond Lam,Linda Chung,Tavia Yeung,Kevin Cheng,Charmaine Sheh all have starred in series that gets unfavorable ratings. Sure, these people have huge fanbases and contribute to the series’ rating.
But, they alone won’t be able to guaranttee high rating if the series is not to audience taste.
Imho, the reason ‘Beyond and Moonlight Resonance’ gain high ratings is because this is the type of series that attract the audience. They might not have stellar storyline. But, they have lots of scheming and daily arguments in the storyline. ‘Moonlight Resonance’ is especially captivating because audience get instant gratification every 2 episodes. The characters argue and fight and get the audience all worked up. Then the next episode, the good guys will, audience are happy.
I really really hope ATV can score better this time. But,looking at past history, ATV series with stellar cast can also lost to a TVB series without much big cast. Also, don’t look so lightly on ‘Beauty Knows No Pain’. This series is the same genre as ‘La Femme Desperado’ and ‘La Femme Desperado’ was very well received.
THere is much more to a series than just the cast. I think that the plot, script and other factors are more important than just the cast.
i don’t know… i actually think that this series might… just might… do better than michelle’s. ya.. i know that atv series usually don’t get high ratings, but i think the fact that they are using mostly past tvb actors in the new series might just be the key that can get pepo to make the switch. the cast of beauty knows no pain is not really appealing.. the cast is kind of old. i think a good series usually have a balance of veteran actors and rising stars. and it seems that the hk taste do like series like “heroes of laws”- professional series- for ex., justice files, healing hands, untraceable evidence all boost pretty high ratings. n i think that daphne does have a point- yes, all of the actors mentioned did have low ratings dramas, but in general, their popularity can save the dramas to make it look less ugly. for ex. mysteries of love was stupid and boring, but it actually garnered high ratings bc of tavia and raymond. likewise, i think the popularity of lawrence, william, amy, kenneth, pinky, and joey will attract many…. that’s just my opinion
I hope Pinky will play a good guy. I prefer her in roles like her character in ‘Central Affairs 2’. Even though she has a natural sexiness in her, I don’t want her to always play sexpot roles.
ATV has not beat TVB in the past few years. I do not see ATV with any chance this time again.
Not that ATV produces crap but the audience have adapted to TVB’s fast pace drama already. Anything we watch from ATV, we consider it dragging when it actuality, it’s trying to develop its character.
Hopefully there’s not much dragging in this series.
No ATV produces crap . and yes audiences have adapted to TVB that why even they produces crappiest sh*$ and still get ok rating.
I don’t know much about ATV, nor do i watch their series (rarely)… but i think tvb is definitely better.. and if it just be.. or do they ALWAYSALWAYS have the same casts.. like the same group of ppl.. like pinky, jacky, kenneth, joey.. so boring. I prefer TVB more.
The truth is ATV was better in its better years. Their storylines are better, however they seem to have the same people in every series. If I remember correctly most of TVB’s best scriptwriters were from ATV right? And even some of the better actors were trained in ATV. Yes ATV is better in some ways but mismanagement may be the death of ATV?
ATV gave more refreshing ideas in dramas but that does not mean they are better than TVB. each has its own strengths and weaknesses too. Look at how TVB package its dramas compared to ATV. Amy Chan once ticked off ATV for their lacklustre effort to promote their own products. Besides that, it is always Kenneth Chan, Pinky Cheung and etc…the same people in their so-called mega productions. moreover, Hong Kong people are more accustomed to TVB culture regardless of the quality..
anyway, sometimes competition is needed to bring out the best for both tv stations
I’ve checked out episode one. I’m so glad that all the HK actors use their own voice and are not dubbed over. So happy. 😀
Aww my mum used to really like Lawrence Ng so it would be cool to check this series out but I’ve watched Beauty Knows No Pain and it is really addictive and I really like it. Its like a Western drama but with Asian counterparts and it has Maggie Cheung who is awesome!
hay may naym kenza