Catherine Chau to Star in “Children’s Hospital” with Kenneth Ma and Him Law
Returning to TVB eight years after her departure, Catherine Chau (周家怡) is said to be leading new drama Children’s Hospital <兒童醫院> alongside Kenneth Ma (馬國明) and Him Law (羅仲謙).
Graduating TVB’s artiste training class in 1998, Catherine spent a decade playing minor characters. Despite her consistent acting skills in 2006’s The Dance of Passion <火舞黃沙> and 2011’s My Sister of Colorful World <花花世界花家姐>, Catherine continued to be cast in minor roles with little room for development. After 2012’s Master of Play <心戰>, Catherine decided to leave the station to explore other professional opportunities.
Road to Stardom Without TVB
It would be through Hong Kong’s smaller television productions that Catherine was truly able to demonstrate her versatility. Catherine took on leading roles in critically-acclaimed dramas such as HKTV’s The Menu <導火新聞線>, as well as ViuTV’s Margaret & David – Green Bean <瑪嘉烈與大衛系列- 綠豆> and The Gutter <歎息橋>
Broadening her presence in the film industry, Catherine starred in Project Gutenberg <無雙> alongsideChow Yun Fat (周潤發) and Aaron Kwok (郭富城). In 2019, Catherine was nominated for Hong Kong Film Awards’ Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the movie.
Good Terms with TVB
On returning to TVB, Catherine expressed her excitement in working with former colleagues, and stated that she never held grudges against TVB for not promoting her over the years. “We all have to go through different experiences in life before we learn to reflect. I know that to a lot of people, I’ve only played small insignificant roles at TVB, but precisely because of my time spent there, I was able to put everything that I learned during that time to use. There are a lot of trivial things that might seem like difficulties at first, but in reality they serve as forces to push you forward.”
Source: Hket
This article is written by Su for JayneStars.com.
not the prettiest perhaps that’s the main reason she was never promoted but definitely underrated by TVB back then. Can’t wait to see the chemistry she got with TVB veterans. It’s a pity Bowie is not part of it loll
@vodka
probably not being the prettiest was the reason why she wasn’t promoted. there were plenty of pretty girls in tvb back then even now. the supporting roles, i find are often very pretty. like the girl play etusko in exorcist meter
@m0m0 well, no, like you get 2 types: the pretty being supporting roles to gain fans and later on get lead roles, and the “always stuck at crappy support roles”, and she’s belonged to the later one and that’s definitely because of her look
Wow. Is Catherine freelance? I’ve seen lots of mediocre rubbish leave TVB then do nothing special for a few years and come back as lead (Him Law, Sammy Sum etr) This time finally an ex TVB Artist returning as actress powerhouse legitimacy deservedly earning her right to step right in leading a series..
@jimmyszeto Yup she freelances at ViuTV, HK film, and Mainland these days.
@jimmyszeto covid pandemic also main reason many returning to TVB they are constantly still filming drama, the movie production has been halted at least for a good while
@vodka agree with you. HK films taking a halt. With the pandemic, China production mainly will be reserved for mainland China actors and actresses, if there’s any work. Plus the taxes etc are all changing making it more difficult for HK artist to go north. Hence TVB would be the next best platform for exposure therefore we will be seeing a lot more people returning to TVB, as much as they don’t want to.
@jimmyszeto Actually, now I know why Catherine agreed to film this series. I saw an interview she did yesterday where she was asked what her feelings were about returning to TVB and she said she doesn’t have any particular feelings toward TVB, it’s mostly because of the production team. So I looked up the production team and sure enough, scriptwriter is Poon Man Hung and producer is Ben Fong — the same scriptwriter and director for HKTV’s The Menu, which is the series that made Catherine a household name…so once again, TVB is benefiting from artists returning favors to the production people who helped make their careers…argh!!
@llwy12
Now…that makes sense. The disappointing thing is now there are including Catherine, there are 3 possibly confirmed female leads within one series…
She’s the only former TVB actor returning in recent memory that is rightfully deserving of leading actor status. The rest are pretenders and undeserving (ie. Selina, Nancy, Him, Sammy, Linda, Elisa, etc.).
If Selena is undeserving, then idk who is.
@anon to be fair, Selena & Nancy both worked their way up from the bottom unlike others who are handed lead roles.
@luye
I still don’t think they are qualified to lead. Their acting is average at best.
@anon I agree…I would rather watch Catherine over Nancy or Selena any day. And it’s not like Catherine didn’t work her way up….she toiled at TVB for 15 years in essentially kelefe roles and in the few “meatier” supporting roles she did get, she was able to prove herself acting-wise. That’s part of why when she started getting lead roles after she left TVB, she did so well, as she had a solid foundation already. To me, it’s not really about what type of roles you get or don’t get, but rather what you do with those roles that matters. As an actor, you can get small supporting roles your entire career, but if you perform each of those roles well, you can still have a memorable impact on audiences and for me, that’s what counts the most in terms of being “successful” in acting (yes, I’m an outlier when it comes to this, as I don’t give a crap about looks and doesn’t matter to me how “popular” an artist might be – if the kelefe does a better job in their minor role than the lead in their major role, that kelefe is more valuable to me acting-wise).
I’m not sure how many people remember the interview Catherine did where she talked about her process when preparing for a role (basically she immerses herself in the character by writing up journal entries/summaries of sorts from that character’s perspective that covers every aspect of the character’s life — she does this for all her roles, major and minor). That’s the type of seriousness and dedication to one’s profession that’s way more deserving of respect than those who get lead roles handed to them and they just do whatever to get by…
Wait so is Ali still leading this series or is she bumped by Catherine. It’s good to see Catherine back though cause she deserves the exposure.
@bubbles23 The previous article said Ali, Linda & Kevin were going to star in Children’s Hospital, confusing.
Loved her since The Menu, such a good show. Now that I’m reminded of HKTV again, such a huge loss… !
@linda I enjoyed HKTV. What happened to it?
@luye They never got their licence approved by the HK government to operate legally.
@linda I miss HKTV so much! They only made 16 series/programs in the 4-5 years that they were around, but all 16 were so good! They’re proof that when you’re sincere about wanting to make quality productions and follow through by putting your heart and soul into it (not to mention investing money in areas where It makes sense), it’s possible to achieve what another station wasted nearly 50 years and still wasn’t able to accomplish.
Though HKTV stopped doing TV stuff long ago, I’m still subscribed to all the alerts regarding them and whenever I see an email or something come through (usually an ad promoting the latest product at HKTV mall), I can’t helping hating TVB (and the HK government) a little more each time….
The logic: she was a good actress from the beginning but TVB didn’t give her the chances to shine in television series so she outshined probably every single female lead at TVB by actually getting awards for her acclaimed performances in films, where film companies did let her shine, and now she’s back at TVB to film for them because the television station is lacking talent. I see, I see.
She looks like Jaqueline Chong in the pic.
I thought Ali supposed be in this drama too? I don’t see her name being mentioned. The title sounds like working with little kids only?
Love Catherine and while I’m not surprised that she would return to film for TVB (based on her personality, as I followed her through most of the HKTV days and even back then, she only had good things to say about TVB and how grateful she was for everything she learned there), I have to admit that I’m a bit disappointed because I know regardless of what her role is going to be in this series, it can’t compare to the acclaimed roles she had in HKTV and ViuTV series as well as in movies. It’s a step down no matter which way people try to slice or dice it, since TVB basically isn’t capable of producing anything of depth nowadays. Also, I can’t stand the rest of the cast (Linda? Kevin? Seriously? Neither can act to save their lives!).
Regardless of how much I like Catherine, I have no interest in watching this series whatsoever. Luckily I just finished watching her and Bowie in ViuTV’s The Gutter, so I can afford to pass on this TVB series. If I want to watch another Catherine series, I would rather go rewatch HKTV’s The Menu instead (for like the hundredth time, lol)….
@llwy12 Agreed entirely.
@llwy12
I’m not disappointed in Catherine’s decision but happy for her. Sometimes when you don’t achieve something early in the career where feeling you are capable of, then there is curiosity and feeling of a point to prove. Catherine is pretty much coming back to collect her prize. Also the exposure as lead at TVB will propel her to that too status in the minds of the typical HK people who use TVB lead as the standard measurement of success. Same with brand companies and endorsements which Catherine deserves. It would be the rare occasion where an actress gains success in every platform/every station in Hong Kong.
@jimmyszeto That’s true for most artists, but not Catherine…she doesn’t need to prove anything and she knows it….her performance in The Menu alone was enough to cement her status in majority of audience’s hearts (those not blinded by die-hard loyalty to TVB of course) that she is a competent and capable actress deserving of lead roles (and her subsequent performances in both TV series and movies further cement that fact). She is successful in her own right, with the talent to back it up, but most importantly to me, she is humble about it. In other words, returning to film for TVB does pretty much nothing for Catherine in terms of advancing her career….to me, this is an instance of TVB taking advantage of Catherine’s success and her “happy-go-lucky” personality. Sure, people will likely still watch based on the cast, even if the series ends up being crap, and there’s a chance it might even increase Catherine’s popularity, but to me, it’s still a step down, one that is unnecessary given the success she already had outside TVB.
Watched her series and movie. Acting not bad. TVB neglected or overlooked some potential artists.
I havent seen any other series so cant comment on those. I dont remember her acting as anything special when she was at TVB though.
If TVB not giving her a chance was the major reason for this then there must be hundreds of other minor actors and actresses in TVB that deserve this opportunity.
Its good that shes made something for herself but Im not judging TVB for this one.
@megamiaow
You can’t judge from TVB background extra roles. At TVB small actors/actresses do not get meaty roles therefore they can’t earn their way into lead. The leads are decided if management decides on who to promote. There are occasional opportunities when a director has enough power to hand select a small time actor/actress who have caught their eye but that is very rare. Obviously Catherine was chosen by Jonathan Chik numerous times to appear in his series and she did well. The other supporting role in ‘my sister of eternal flower’ was also good too..
That’s why I said this before, and I’ll say it again. Back then looks was simply a plus, skills came number 1. Perfect examples are Sean lau, Sandra ng, Cutie miu, and Bobby. These actors had pure skills. Nowadays it seems looks come first, acting comes last. That’s why Tvb is going downhill.