Michael Miu Didn’t Get Memo for “Line Walker 3”
Attending the press conference for new environmental documentary Planet Earth 2 <天與地II>, Michael Miu (苗僑偉) expressed his excitement in being a documentary narrator for the very first time. However, when asked whether he will partake in a possible Line Walker 3 <使徒行者 3>, Michael said he is not aware of such production arrangements yet.
After the airing of Line Walker: The Prelude <使徒行者 2>, Michael did not deny that there was a chance for a third installment to the drama. In the finale, Kenneth Ma (馬國明) made a special appearance and viewers speculated that Kenneth may be the new villain in the third installment.
Michael expressed, “I didn’t receive any notice, but they definitely left the story open. However, I don’t know whether or not they would actually continue filming, that’s up to the decision of upper management.”
Asked if he would like to film the third installment, Michael said, “It’s important to see if the story could be further developed. The viewership ratings in Mainland China are fairly good, but I think we could do even better. If there were more time, I feel that the script could be improved.”
Leaves Award to the Younger Generation
With his character a favorite among viewers, Michael said he does not have a chance at the TV King award this year. Michael said, “I don’t think it’s my turn! It’s because Cheuk Sir’s emotions aren’t as tumultuous as those of Benjamin Wong (袁偉豪), Priscilla Wong (黃翠如), and Pakho Chau‘s (周柏豪) characters. I don’t mind whether or not I’m in the race for Best Actor. In fact, I have high hopes for the younger generation. Especially Priscilla, I think she has a shot at TV Queen and I think TV King should go to Benjamin. I definitely have faith in them.”
Source: Ming Pao
This article is written by Su for JayneStars.com.
I do think Priscilla could be among the finalists for TV Queen too if TVB is focusing on the younger generation for the awards in order to create a new batch of siu sangs and fadans. I like Priscilla because i feel that her acting is quite natural. But she does need to explore different roles to diversify her acting skills.
As for Benjamin, i have changed my perception of him whom i used to call a woody actor. He has improved and i was impressed with his performance in LW3. He should have win My Favourite Male Character Award for his character in LW3 this year, instead of A Fist last year.
I actually like LW2 and it’s more serious tone vs LW1. The moment I saw the ending, I thought: “Geeze TVB is REALLY confident for the third instalment!” Only reason I wish for LW3 to film is closure Re: Pakho/Priscilla and Benz. Hope Michael will appear in LW3 otherwise it will feel emptier. I will admit the very last scene of episode 30 kind of ruined the emotional scenes in episode 29.
Pakho’s angry expression at Benz makes me wonder if he holds some grudge against him. That’s something interesting for LW3 imo.
Some people wondered if it will cover some of Charmaine, Raymond and Sammy’s early UC days. Not very possible especially for Raymond.
Don’t quote me on this but there’s an unsupported rumour that Ruco and Tracy may be considered for LW3. I could see Ruco as an UC or villain in this.
Benjamin and Priscilla did well but I don’t know if they are ready for the TV King and Queen status. Then again I didn’t watch a lot of TVB dramas this year to assess the candidates. Benjamin’s Tsui Tin Ton is my favorite character here.
@kirigiri I thought the producer was somebody else lol I didn’t see Jazz Boon listed on Wiki.
@tiffany lol you are right. Never mind, I thought he was still involved with So Man Chung. Edited original post.
@kirigiri Haha! It’s too good to be Jazz Boon’s production. I remembered the excessive use of slow-mos and Jinny’s subsong from LW1.
@tiffany the humour at points kind of hurt LW1. Especially the very last ending scene . I like charray pairing but that scene was too cringy
@kirigiri
I know blind Ruco fans and blind Ben haters will always bring up that Ben is wooden whatever new series he’s in. Like I had said in posts expanding from over a year ago, Ben has been continually improving and this is his best performance yet.
@jimmyszeto actually i find ben’s acting not bad in LW2. he should be paired off with priscilla instead of pakho. pakho and priscilla look like brother-sister.
LW must have michael miu.
I really enjoyed LW2. Maybe it’s the collab with China, but TVB put a lot of work into it.
Performances? Michael-Jessica-Moses were solid per usual. From the younger generation, Ben stood out. I thought his character was annoying at first, but he’s a good cop deep down. Pakho was ok. Priscilla’s character was the typical love-sick. Another actress would have been fitting.
@tiffany I’m also a fan of the lighting and makeup. The actresses didn’t wear dramatic fake eyelashes.
People say that Line Walker 2 lacks the comedy relief of the original. This is the reason why TVB has been so bad over the years because the company have to make series to accommodate these viewers. Line Walker 2 is a well directed series that can compete with the current web series market. It dosent need the comic relief of Oscar Leung at all because at the end of the day, it’s a corrupt cop/mole series. I know the Hong Kong viewers dislike serious themed series as proven with ‘When Heaven Burns’ and ‘Master of Play’ but if they want TVB to improve then they will have to try look more into the acting than direction rather than feeding on comfort TV. Line Walker 2 was pretty good. The only criticism is the terrible acting of Pakho .Stanley Cheung and Priscilla were miscast. One didn’t feel like a cold blooded killer and the other did not look like a police women at all.
@jimmyszeto I thought Benjamin was the comedy relief. No? lol
Pakho lacks the bad boy swag. The wooden Benjamin stood out next to him lol Priscilla’s character was the innocent, but attractive type. She didn’t fit the bill.
@tiffany
If that is comedy relief then what was Charmaine, Raymond, Oscar in the first series? Comedy relief has been used unnecessarily by TVB over the years to accommodate the audience. Line Walker 2 is quite serious and grim which felt movie like.
@jimmyszeto That was the typical TVB humor in LW1 lol
Ben was funny here and there, which lightened up the mood.
@jimmyszeto IMO, the last drama I remember that was REALLY dark with like very little humour was Lives of Omission
@flocky1
Lives of Omission still had Laughing Gor cracking jokes and it had MC Jin who was brilliant comic relief. ‘When Heavens Burn’ is a very serious themed series and is probably one of the best TVB series ever including a career best performance by Charmaine.
@jimmyszeto lives of omission had a very tragic ending. i was very sad when fala had to die.
It’s disappointing that Michael Miu was given even less character development here than in the first Line Walker. It feels a bit disrespectful to the guy and no chance to even contend for TV king. Please bring back ‘Hau Gor’ from E.U.
@jimmyszeto Michael is obviously playing “babysitter” role for the newer generation, just like most of the veteran artists that have returned to film for TVB the past 15 years or so have been doing. That’s one of the reasons why I never get excited anymore whenever TVB announces that such-and-such veteran is returning to film for them because 99% of the time, the role they get is watered down in order to push up the next generation. Sure, a few of the veterans are letting TVB do this willingly (both Michael and Bobby Au Yeung have said in past interviews that they are fine with TVB essentially “using them” to groom the next generation), but it still ticks me off that TVB continues to resort to this tactic time and time again (which to me is basically them – meaning TVB – being lazy and taking the easy way out instead of actually putting in the effort to train their artists properly). There are ways to utilize the veterans properly and give them well-developed/meaty roles while still supporting the development of the younger generation – web series OCTB is a great example of this: the cast was well-balanced and both the veterans as well as the younger generation in that series put in praise-worthy, impressive performances that successfully upped all their profiles. TVB is obviously still backwards in their thinking and unless they change this mentality, it’s going to be hard for them to truly improve.
We have seen a potential future TVB star and I hope this is not just a cameo. It’s Joman Chiang.Those who have seen HKTV’s ‘The Borderline’ knows that this women can act and she has evil presence as ‘Madam Cheung’. Hopefully she becomes a regular TVB artist rather than move back to her movies.
@jimmyszeto Yes, Joman is good…I started noticing her in The Borderline of course, but even before then, she had a background in stage plays (in addition to movies), which explains why her acting is so good. As for continuing to see her in TVB series – don’t bank on it, as she’s not signed to TVB. I presume the main reason why she was in LW2 is because the producer So Man Chung also produced The Borderline for HKTV a few years back and he knows how good she was in there, so he invited her to participate (plus she is good at playing cops, which is probably why she is always cast in cop series, lol). She actually filmed a series for ViuTV earlier this year too and that series will be doing season 2 next year, so most likely she will be returning for that.
Cheuk Sir was for me like a narrator of the whole drama. He finds out the backstory for each individual, albeit sometimes too late. And yes, he doesnt really hv char development. We actually know very little about this character.
I am thoroughly impressed with Ben Yuen as Paradise. He was very believable and provided the looks, action, and emotions.
A lot of ppl r bashing on Priscilla as usual. I watched ep 29 like three times and unfortunately her perf really isn’t as natural as her other lead roles. I don’t see a UC,, I just see Priscilla being awkward. (But side note her scenes with her mother were good). Ithink half of it is the script, she speaks too much for a noob UC like ah mui and the storyline development between her and lok siu was too erratic and just seemed unnatural bc of the scene progression and their lines.
Joman Chang is truly a gem for HK small screen. She’s a natural actor and has a pretty face. I really wished hktv continued to film The Borderline 2.
You can definitely tell LW2 is very So Man Chung style if u had watched The borderline. Fast story line and no unnecessary scenes with characters to fill the 45 mins, except there are plot holes here n there but you wont notice cause of the thrill. Im okay with a trilogy if they just did a better job at casting ppl!
i like lw2 more than the first one ! great storyline and casts.