“Murder Diary” Faces Off “Ossan’s Love”
While TVB continues to lead viewership ratings over rival station ViuTV, the latter is winning over younger viewers with its creative programming. One of ViuTV’s most high-profile projects is the remake of Japanese boys’ love (BL) drama Ossan’s Love <大叔的愛>, which will be airing June 28. TVB will counter with its flagship drama Murder Diary <刑偵日記> slated for free-to-air broadcast on the same day in Hong Kong, although the drama first premiered on June 15 on paid platforms, myTV Gold and Youku.
“Murder Diary” Takes Psychological Suspense to New Levels
One of TVB’s biggest productions this year, Murder Diary features a stellar cast consisting of Kara Hui (惠英紅), Vincent Wong (王浩信), Philip Keung (姜皓文), Benjamin Yuen (袁偉豪), Mandy Wong (黃智雯), Lai Lok Yi (黎諾懿), and Venus Wong (王敏奕).
Murder Diary promises horror, suspense, and a thrilling crime storyline. Each episode is carefully crafted to include psychological suspense and surprise twists. The series will predominately be led by a team of crime investigators with expertise in four major fields: handwriting identification, bomb disposal, forensic anthropology, and criminal psychologists who are skilled in studying serial killers. To get ready for filming, the production team spent over two years gathering information and doing research on each of the departments.
The story revolves around Yeung Pik Sum (Kara Hui), a woman who has schizophrenia and causes her son, Yip King Fung (Vincent Wong) to suffer from Dissociative Identity Disorder – also previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder. Chu Kei, the split personality from King Fung, is a talented handwriting identification expert and criminal profiler who eventually helps King Fung uproot a large criminal organization.
However, due to a series of suspicious circumstances, King Fung becomes the primary suspect in a murder case. A victim in the case, his younger sister (Joey Thye 戴祖儀) is heavily traumatized and enters a mental hospital.
Feeling guilty for abandoning her children when they were younger and causing them psychological stress, Pik Sum attempts to get closer to them by working as a health assistant at the mental hospital where her daughter is residing.
With murder cases unsolved and the real serial killer still loose, superintendent Lip Shan (Philip Keung 姜皓文) pulls together a team of elites to investigate and tries to put an end to the unsettling killings.
First BL Series in Hong Kong
Although Murder Diary will inevitably have high viewership ratings, ViuTV’s Ossan’s Love will be making history as the first boys’ love (BL) drama in Hong Kong. Ossan’s Love has already generated a lot of buzz since it stars popular boyband MIRROR members Anson Lo (盧瀚霆) and Edan Lui (呂爵安) as officemates caught in a love triangle with their boss, Kenny Wong (黃德斌).
A youth comedy, the trailer showcases classic scenes from the original Japanese version flavored with Hong Kong humor. Besides a scene where Anson corners Edan in the bathroom, the men were seen feeding each other food. In another scene, Edan accidentally loses his balance on a bus and falls onto Kenny’s shoulders, causing him to suddenly realize his romantic feelings. To express his feelings, Kenny gifted Edan with a large bouquet of red roses and proudly exclaimed, “Tin Tin, I love you!”
With Ossan’s Love becoming the first male-male romance series in Hong Kong, many look forward to the refreshing and light-hearted storyline.
This article is written by Su for JayneStars.com.
Kenny Wong gets to showcase a different side of him, not the typical wooden character. I will give it a go. I love when other stations give actors a chance to play a different character.
I will watch both. Very excited to see Kara and Philip again. The mirror boys together with Kenny Wong in a comedy is fresh. Finally the blockbusters are coming this year!
Also, tvb began reporting viewership ratings for cable and Viutv. Tvb definitely feels threatened now that Viu is becoming mainstream.
I’m interested in both. The OL’s trailer looks quite promising and I’m also eager to see how Kenny Wong will do in OL. On another thought….If they could cast Lau Dan as Kenny’s role, I bet it will be more funny but I guess HK people prefers handsome lead more…:P
As for Murder Diary, I’m excited to see Vincent Wong and Kara Hui in this drama. I hope the story is not too confusing to follow, Btw is Kara Hui the only Female lead?
I watched the first episode of Murder Diary and found it absolutely uninteresting. Weird setting and the pacing is really all over the place. Only thing worth noting was Kara’s psychotic look, as always you can count on her acting carrying any series.
@xystus I tried 2 episodes and nothing convince me to continue….when will TVB realise Mandy cannot act? I now think even Sisley is better than Mandy.
@conan2209 totally agree, Mandy Wong can’t act
(no spoilers) I am 6 episodes in and the plot has a lot of missing holes already and the development of some of the storylines dont make sense e.g. the relationship between Mandy and Vincent’s alternative personality. They have zero chemistry, it‘s hard to watch. Also Mandy is supposed to be a calm level-headed bomb expert but she overreacts (overacts tbh) to everything.
Ben is also the wrong actor to play his character. He doesn‘t have the depth or skill to pull off the character. Someone like Ruco would have been much bettter, heck even Vincent would have been a better fit. Obviously they would never put those two together but Ben is such a disappointment.
Also 6 episodes in and no Phillip yet. I still have hope and will continue to watch, hoping that once Phillip comes in things will make more sense but so far it’s not what I expected.
@tt23 sounds like Philip will be the one carrying this series (not surprisingly though). And yet again Ben fails to deliver. Waiting for Monday so I can watch both Ossan’s Love and this.
@tt23 couldn’t continue after 2 epi. Mandy is too levelheaded(?) and thus never really into her roles and thus we can never feel the chemistry between her and her co-star.
Then again, guess that’s how she remains rumours free