Bobby Au-yeung and James Ng are TVB’s Next Synchronizing Duo
Earlier this week, reporters visited the Kwun Tong set of TVB anniversary drama My Ages Apart <跨時代>, a 50-episode epic starring Bobby Au-yeung (歐陽震華), Moses Chan (陳豪), Louis Cheung (張繼聰), Kristal Tin (田蕊妮), and Maggie Shiu (邵美琪). The drama follows Bobby as Sung Chung-kei, who ends up swapping souls with a much younger man, portrayed by James Ng (吳業坤).
For the Kwun Tong scene, Bobby and James, who also goes by the nickname Kwan Gor, showed up on set wearing matching pajamas and glasses. In the scene, Bobby sees himself in the mirror and notices that he is no longer himself, but in the body of a much younger man. Terrified, he runs out to the streets.
Filming in the hot summer weather, Bobby and Kwan Gor were well-prepared to tackle the heat. Having suffered from a heat stroke before, Bobby made sure to keep himself hydrated.
The scene being filmed required Kwan Gor to mirror Bobby’s movements. Pointing out that they were following Kristal Tin and Nancy Wu’s (胡定欣) footsteps in doing synchronizing performances, Bobby said, “Yes. Look at us. Besides our hair, we look exactly the same.” James added, “Even our bodies.” Bobby laughed and said, “But I’m more fit!”
When speaking about the scene, Bobby said, “Everything had to be the same. The way I ran, how fast I ran, and how my arms moved around had to be the same. [Kwan Gor] had to mirror my moves, so he’s having it much harder.”
“It’s actually not that hard,” Kwan Gor reassured. “Because the one I’m working with is Bobby. He’s so good!”
Upon hearing this, Bobby teased the younger actor, saying, “I call you Kwan Gor [big brother Kwan], and you’re calling me Bobby. You were raised well!” Kwan Gor explained, “I’m just learning from my seniors!” He then turned serious, and said, “Bobby Gor was great. When he’s done shooting, he stayed around to help me out.”
Bobby, who only just recovered from a heat stroke, is actually thankful of his current circumstance. “No matter what, it’s going to be hard work. At least this isn’t a period drama, so we don’t need to wear heavy costumes. I am very well now, but I do want to start working out with Kwan Gor. But it looks like he’s only worked out his chest, and didn’t do much for his abs.”
Asking Kwan Gor if he has gained weight, he said, “I’ve gotten bigger.” Bobby joked, “I actually think you should work out your chest some more, so your waist can look skinnier.”
Source: On.cc
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
slow news day?
Holy fack 50 eps?!?!?!?! Another body swap, woopie *inserts sarcasm*
@jjwong LOL…in the old days, 40-50 episodes was nothing. Many of the big name classics were 40 episodes minimum and to be honest, at times it felt like too little. Nowadays, even 20 episodes is way too much!
@llwy12 Yea, old days, those series have way more people and story arcs to justified 40-50 eps. Now, they can hardly get any artists and their plot sucks. I agree that even at 20, it’s way too long with draggy story. They can’t even write a coherent and good story and characters for only 20 eps… Sad.
Btw, the series with Jessica and Frankie, besides the fact that they used live scenery and better camera equipment, their plot and characters development were rubbish. So sad that Jessica was wasted in such weak series. Their saving grace was everyone acted well enough; with exception of Frankie. He was, well, him, one trick pony, one expression throughout the whole series. Lucky for him, his wardrobes were on par lol.
@jjwong eh, the series wasn’t my cup of tea as well. but man did they make hong kong look amazing; this is what modern tv should be (at least visually speaking). not much of a challenge for jessica’s talents but nonetheless, at least she’ll make a ton of money in endorsements with the show’s success. and you’re right, frankie lam looked like a million bucks in every scene; who needs acting when you look that good!
@jjwong Yup, so true…nowadays, if I see a series is slated to be more than 20 episodes, I already know I likely won’t watch it, since 99.9% of the time the series will be draggy. I recently rewatched Blood of Good and Evil and also Looking Back in Anger — both LONG series (40 episodes and 50 episodes respectively) — yet it felt like I blinked and the series were over (and yes, I bawled like a baby during the memorable endings to both series, despite the fact that I had already rewatched both series too many times to count over the past 20 plus years). Most of the series nowadays just don’t have the emotional pull that many of the old ones did, which I feel is just as important for a series as its script, cast, aesthetics, etc.
@llwy12
Yeh. The older epic series storylines and scripts were not flawed compared to current series so longer series did not felt like a drag.The episodes link were and characters were developed consistently as series progress. Nowadays they just paste scenes together and it usually ends up in one big mess. The last good TVB lengthy drama was ‘At the Threshold of an Era’ and that is a good 17-18 years ago.
@jimmyszeto Agreed! Many of the older classics pretty much had everything we as audiences would want in a series: good cast, good script, good acting, good aesthetics, good overall production, etc…..also something that TVB’s dramas have been lacking for many years — that distinct “HK flavor” that made it easy for Hong Kongers (whether living in the city or overseas) to relate to. I’ve been reading/re-reading several books lately about the HK entertainment industry and artists from back in the day (to supplement my nostalgic re-watching of old TVB series, old HK movies, and listening to old Cantopop songs) — while it pains me to see the industry in its current destitute state, it also makes me more appreciative of having experienced the industry’s “golden age” back in the day, as there are so many fond memories to fall back on. I think part of the problem too is that the attitude toward the arts in HK has changed drastically over the past few decades to coincide with many of the changes in society — changes which I guess have always been inevitable but hard to accept nonetheless. Sadly, Hong Kong as it is today has become unrecognizable to me (this became especially apparent during my last trip back to HK a year and a half ago) and unfortunately, this extends to the entertainment industry as well. The “Hollywood of the East” that we used to be so proud of is now just a shell of its former glory and, in my opinion, no longer deserving of such a title.
@jimmyszeto Exactly.
@llwy12 IMO, one of TVB biggest issues is the lack of change or reluctant to change. They seem stagnant as far as production and quality when everything around them changed/changes. They didn’t invest in more and better acting classes. They didn’t upgrade their technology. They didn’t look at new business models. They’ve been doing business as-is. An example is, you’ve mentioned before, cultivating talents. Back then, you have vets who’s willing to teach and newbies willing to learn because a “meal ticket” sort of speaking. Now, vets aren’t willing because they feel newbies are disrespectful. The latter doesn’t necessary feel they need to listen because there are other form of “meal tickets,” e.g. looking good, other way to get attention and make it back, join MHK, so forth. So instead of changing with the time, like invent more ways to harvest talent, TVB let training classes die or invest nothing in them but still plucking MHK to film series.
@rucofan1100 Agree that the series made HK looks amazing. Since I’ve already seen it can happen with HKTV series, I wasn’t as impressed with TVB series. Another rip-off is Frankie’s look; it reminds me a lot of Poon Chan-lueng’s look in TBONTB, from outfit to facial hair. Even the characters are similiar, both were a player at first but had a change of heart and only truly loved one person really.
@jjwong Yes, well-said and all very true! With that said though, the other big factor is that TVB has pretty much lost all of the people who actually “cared” (whether about producing quality programs or about the employees who made them successful in the first place), which is one reason why they’ve gotten to the state they’re in. As with all companies, it starts with the leadership and we all know the issues that have plagued TVB’s leadership the past decade (or two). I hate to say this, but I wouldn’t be surprised if TVB ends up in the same predicament as ATV (I read last week that TVB is currently being “investigated” by broadcasting regulators for potentially violating license requirements due to the “stunt” that its Mainland investor Li Ruigang and their company pulled several weeks ago in trying to buy back TVB shares – the deal didn’t go through but it did raise a red flag and now the CA is being forced to “look into it”). Just like the writing was on the wall back when the late Uncle Six stepped down and his wife Mona Fong took over (and pretty much let her staff run the station rather than be personally involved like her husband was), the writing is on the wall again now, with the difference being that TVB won’t be able to get out of their predicament as easily due to the lack of support from audiences and also increasing competition from outside — not just the 2 new free-to-air stations (which honestly are not much competition and probably won’t be for awhile), but also the “foreign” companies such as Fox Asia, Netflix, and HBO (of those, Fox Asia is the most formidable, as they already have movie industry A-listers producing and filming series for them – like their recent “Hong Kong Wall Street”, which is produced by Andy Lau and stars Francis Ng, Liu Kai Chi among others, plus there’s another series that Anthony Wong and Kara Hui are filming). Of course, TVB can always turn to Mainland market (which is what they seem to be positioning themselves to do since like 2 years ago), which is good for them but not necessarily good for HK audiences. Either way, things don’t bode well for the HK market and TVB plays a huge part in that with its complacency and refusal to make strides in improving itself for the better.
Who is this guy? And why is everyone calling him Gor while he’s looking like 18? I saw him a few times on TVB show, still not sure what his talent is, and not funny, not cute, not cool. Pairing him up with Bobby? I can’t understand this madness.
@kaykay408 Careful now, cause that’s how Kwan Gor rolls; he’ll swallow you whole with his unassuming, boy-next-door charm. in the span of 1 year he went from extra at the anniversary gala to award winning singer, highly promoted tv star, and renowned ladies man (no bs, women are fighting over him)
@rucofan1100 Haha…but wait, isn’t Kwan Gor a huge fan of Chrissy Chau? He probably wouldn’t mind giving up all the ladies for Chrissy…but of course she’s one of the few people who won’t give him the time of day, lol.
In terms of music — um, you know that the HK music industry is in dire straits when someone like Kwan Gor, who at the time barely released one full-length album, yet gets a chance to hold a concert at the HK Coliseum — an opportunity that some veteran singers who’ve been in the industry 20, 30, 40 years (and who have a decent reperatoire of hit songs) were never able to have. Kwan Gor honestly isn’t that special and many artists have had sad back stories and struggles, not just him (some have had it even worse than him in terms of career and life experiences), so to me, I don’t see why people make him into such a big deal. Goes to show how little there is nowadays in terms of quality entertainment that many audiences resort to latching onto artists who really aren’t all that….
@rucofan1100 You’re being sarcastic right? … o_O The whole ladies man thing…. Please say you are… Or else HK girls are faaaack xD
I don’t understand his appeal either. Is he really that popular in HK now? One thing I gotta give it to him though, the ability to ride the waves and somehow get into the “household.” Seems like a smart guy at least and knows how to gain the system.
@jjwong https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMLV9oLoJOY how does one choose? katy kung or a miss hong kong?
@rucofan1100 LOL!!! First, the narrative (the words they use and the innuedo) makes me cringe. Second, why do female always attack and/or blame the other female? I have yet seen one went crazy-b on the male. It takes two to tango, dude. xD I’m baffled, I really am that he has such play!