Kenneth Ma and Niki Chow’s “Rogue Emperor” Premieres December 12
TVB’s new romantic comedy drama Rogue Emperor <流氓皇帝> has taken over the time slot of Two Steps from Heaven <幕後玩家>, and will premiere tonight, December 12. The period drama, produced by Poon Ka-tak (潘嘉德) and starring Kenneth Ma (馬國明), Niki Chow (周麗淇), Benjamin Yuen (袁偉豪), and Mandy Wong (黃智雯), is an adaptation of TVB’s 1979 drama The Misadventure of Zoo <流氓皇帝>, which starred Adam Cheng (鄭少秋). Kenneth stars as Adam’s role Chu Kam-chun, an airheaded farmer’s boy who embarks on a whimsical journey that takes him across the country.
Niki Chow stars as Yik Yung-yung, Kam-chun’s love interest. Benjamin Yuen plays Chu Cheung-fun, Kam-chun’s half-brother, and Mandy Wong plays Ng Dor-yu, a servant girl. Tracy Chu (朱千雪) makes a guest appearance as a social worker Kam-chun later meets in his life.
Rogue Emperor was shot in 2014. It was originally scheduled to air in late 2015, but was pushed back several times before TVB finally decided to put it on air this year. For a period of time, it was rumored that Rogue Emperor would only show on myTV SUPER, TVB’s streaming service.
The drama follows Chu Kam-chun from his younger years to old age, marking his life’s journey. He shares a bittersweet romance with the rich girl Yik Yung-yung, but the two end up separating. It was not until many years later, at an old age, when the star-crossed lovers meet again.
Producer Poon Ka-tak said, “This drama is Kenneth and Niki’s first collaboration. Kenneth came across Niki when we were still searching for a female lead. They’ve always said they wanted to collaborate, and since Niki was free, we decided to cast her. What a coincidence!”
Niki said, “We had a great time working with [Kenneth]. It’s been two years since I last got to meet our viewers. I’m also interested in watching my performance in this show. I’m busy doing a mainland drama now, but I hope to go back to Hong Kong soon to greet everyone.”
“Rogue Emperor” Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhXE6wVbl4k
Source: Oriental Daily
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
tracy!!!!
Kenneth Ma in another comedy, not really hyped for this at all, besides the Tracy Chu cameo.
Watched the first episode and it was pretty funny
Excited to watch niki again!
Yay!! Niki Chow finally.
I am not a fan of Kenneth but give it a go for Nicki and Tracy.
I hope this series will be as well received as the original.
Having seen the original Misadventure of Zoo back in the 80s, I watched the first 2 episodes of the remake out of curiosity. Since I wasn’t fond of the original series in the first place, didn’t care for the remake much either, but from what I’ve seen of the first 2 episodes, I have to say this: IF the remake ends up succeeding (that’s a big ‘IF’…), it will absolutely be the credit of the veterans in the series such as Lee Kwok Lun, Ching Hor Wai, Henry Lo Chun Shun, Lau Kong, etc. Lee Kwok Lun and Ching Hor Wai were brilliant in the first episode – their comedic timing was spot on and kept me laughing practically throughout all their scenes (especially Lee Kwok Lun, an actor I’ve loved watching since the 80s). Both veterans absolutely stole the show from Kenneth and Niki, which is of course fine by me, lol (got to take a moment here to praise whoever’s decision it was to cast Lee Kwok Lun in the meatier role of Yik Suk Gong rather than the smaller role he had played in the original 80s version of the series — which, btw, it just occurred to me that Lee Kwok Lun is the only member from the original cast to participate in the remake…). Since I’m not fond of Kenneth’s or Niki’s acting (or Benjamin or Mandy’s for that matter), I’m pretty sure I will drop this series the minute it starts switching focus to their storylines rather than the veterans (which technically already started with episode 2, so I already started not paying much attention anymore). Oh and so far, it definitely looks like they took liberties with the script, even adding characters that were never in the original….it will be interesting to see how far from the original this one strays….
Who played the social worker (Tracy’s character) in the orIginla series?