Niki Chow Has Good Things to Say About “Threshold Again”
It’s been a while since Niki Chow (周麗淇) has graced TVB’s screens. Last night, the 38-year-old was spotted filming a scene for TVB’s Threshold Again <再創世紀> at a hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui. The Sergeant Tabloid <女警愛作戰> star wore an elegant white gown, reminiscent of a bridal dress, and filmed a scene with costars Benjamin Yuen (袁偉豪) and Frankie Lam (林文龍). Niki shared with reporters that she and Benjamin play a couple, but the two would not have any intimate scenes. When speaking about her role, Niki said she plays an “ordinary girl who becomes an elite in the business world. It is a role where viewers would be growing along with me.” Niki added that she is happy for the chance to take part in the drama, and finds that Threshold Again to be a production “with sincerity.”
Threshold Again is the sister production to TVB’s 1999 epic At the Threshold of an Era <創世紀>, which was produced in celebration of the new millennium. The drama had over 100 episodes and was released in two parts. It starred Gallen Lo (羅嘉良), Roger Kwok (郭晉安), and Sunny Chan (陳錦鴻) as three entrepreneurs who dream of developing a pollution-free system for the city. Louis Koo (古天樂), Kenix Kwok (郭可盈), Liza Wang (汪明荃), Ada Choi (蔡少芬), Flora Chan (陳慧珊), Nicky Wu (吳奇隆), Maggie Shiu (邵美琪), and Paul Chun (秦沛) co-starred. The story spanned 20 years.
Like its predecessor, Threshold Again features a story that spans many years. The HK$100 million production, a collaboration with China’s iQIYI, began production in July. It stars returning cast member Roger Kwok, along with new additions Frankie Lam, Benjamin Yuen, Tavia Yeung (楊怡), and Pakho Chau (周柏豪). Linda Chung (鍾嘉欣) will make a guest appearance.
Source: On.cc
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
Hope Tvb won’t ruin an epic series with this spinoff. Are they really missing their prime times so much? Why don’t they just produce new series with solid plot?
@alicesky
No one can replace Gallen Lo as the ultra ambitious but rule breaking entrepreneur. No one can match Sunny Chan righteous but ultimately evil performance(his best ever). No one can replace the innocence of Kenix Kwok. There are some casts that cannot be matched. No point in hurting the originals reputation with a much worse sequel.
@jimmyszeto true, u said it all. Might people watch it bcoz of Roger?? Perhaps, I don’t mind seeing him in a villainous role again. His role couldn’t be outshined like Gallen’s and Sunny’s. Hope he will save this sequel lol
@jimmyszeto Well-said! It’s sad that almost all of TVB’s major productions this year (and next year technically too) are remakes/reboots/spinoffs / sequels / sister productions, etc of previous productions. TVB is obviously out of ideas and are struggling to justify their existence by rehashing “old stuff”.
Btw, I’m assuming @jayne will do an article on this since it’s the big TVB news at the moment, but it was just announced that Mona Fong passed away yesterday due to illness, at the age of 83. So officially now, it is the end of the Shaw era for TVB (though not like things have been the same anyway since Run Run Shaw stepped down almost 2 decades ago, but with his wife gone too now, all the ties to the previous era are officially cut too, at least in my book…)
Gallen lo = Threshold, he cant be replaced. its a big mistake to not sign gallen back. even there is roger again it will not be the same anymore without gallen. its nice to see frankie, tavia and niki, back in tvb drama but the replacement of louis ko and nicky wu with benjamin yuen and pakho chau is really a joke for this iconic drama.
@kolo Well, seeing that TVB destroyed their relationship with Gallen over that stupid anniversary gala fiasco, chances are he will never film for them again.
I love Roger and no doubt he will give an excellent performance in this series, but the rest of the cast is a joke and can’t compare to the original. TVB needs to stop messing with classics and come up with original ideas for once.
@llwy12 I heard the fall out between TVB and Gallen. What happened?
@tiffany TVB invited Gallen to attend the anniversary gala and even volunteered to pay for his airplane tickets back to HK as well as accommodations (since he lives in Mainland China now). They told him to calculate the total amount and give it to them and they will make arrangements. When he gave them the amount as they asked, TVB rescinded their invitation by calling up Gallen and telling him he no longer needed to attend. Apparently, TVB didn’t know that Gallen would be in Canada the week of the gala, on a family outing to celebrate his son’s birthday. He was planning on cutting his trip short and fly back directly from Canada so he could make it in time to the gala (thereby sacrificing his time with his family — it was his son’s birthday for crying out loud, yet he was ready to sacrifice that for TVB’s sake). But TVB, being the cheap you-know-what’s that they are, took one look at the amount of money that it would cost for a plane ticket from Canada to HK and freaked out, deciding then to “take back” the invitation. Gallen even said that he has no problems paying the money himself — he was merely doing what TVB asked, since they had volunteered and asked him to give them the amount. Gallen said that he was very disappointed with the way TVB handled the matter. When reporters asked TVB management (specifically Virginia Lok) about the matter, they pretty much acted clueless and said that there must be a “misunderstanding” somewhere.
I honestly hope Gallen never films for them again. The artists need to take a stand and stop letting TVB treat them like crap and get away with it. Like that situation with Bobby earlier where TVB outright disrespected him and basically told him to his face to “take a hike”, yet he “forgave” them quickly and returned to film for them….so of course they are going to continue disrespecting artists, since they won’t ever learn their lesson unless the big name artists take a hard stance against them.
@tiffany When it rains, it pours….TVB had yet another fallout with Power Chan the last couple days and also Louis Cheung announced that he won’t be filming for TVB anymore (although Louis’ situation had nothing to do with him directly but rather his management company falling out with TVB). Add that to the Gallen issue, sounds like TVB is having lots of problems with artists who aren’t managed by them. Don’t be surprised if sooner or later, we will only see TVB -managed artists in their series and no one from outside, since it looks like TVB is pushing away a lot of non-managed artists by treating them poorly.
@llwy12 all they care is money. That’s nasty the way they treat veteran artistes. Seems like we will be able to see many pageant on tv in coming years lol
@llwy12
I feel bad for Gallen. Although i do like to watch him in TVB series again (as i’m not a fan of Mainland series), but knowing the way TVB mistreat him, i’ll support him if he decided not to film for TVB again.
& Louis Cheung also won’t be filming for TVB anymore? What a pity…i like him and is hoping to see more of him in future series. It is really disappointing to hear this piece of news.
With regards to Threshold Again, i’ll watch this for Roger, Frankie, Niki and Tavia. I won’t hold high expectations when watching this later because i know Gallen’s character is irreplaceable and was the reason why i love the series so much back then. Just hope that it will at least turn out as a decent series.
@diana80 @alicesky Yup…and unfortunately, the next time this happens (and it definitely will happen again), all TVB needs to do is send Catherine Tsang over to talk to the veterans and do some damage control, then everything will be all good again (that’s what happened with Steven Ma and Bobby Au Yeung and most likely the same thing will happen here with Gallen). I feel bad for Gallen too (especially seeing how heartbroken he was that TVB would treat him that way — he basically put TVB ahead of his family and this is what he gets) — but knowing how much he cares about TVB, I highly doubt he’s going to be mad at them for long…this brings me to one of the things that frustrates me to no end…there’s no way that TVB will change their behavior unless artists with clout take a stand against them — which, as much as I hate to admit it, probably won’t happen, since very few artists in HK are willing to directly go against TVB (pretty much the only exception out there is Anthony Wong — I loved how he had no qualms about criticizing TVB and calling them out on their faults even as he was filming for them…he’s probably the only artist in the industry with the guts to speak his mind and not give a care whether they retaliate against him).
Yea, Louis made the announcement on his social media I think it was yesterday. Even though My Ages Apart is still airing and his scenes in the series weren’t impacted, he was removed from all promotional activities for the series (so you won’t see him in any of the promo events going forward). His management company China 3D (Stephen Shiu Jr’s company) is currently in a major financial dispute with TVB over the movie Return of the Cuckoo (which was produced by Stephen Shiu Jr’s company in collaboration with Shaw Bros), to the point that both sides are going to court in order to settle the issue. As a result, TVB is essentially boycotting all of China 3D’s artists (not sure whether indefinitely or only until the issue is settled in court). Stephen Shiu Jr. said that they are fine with the boycott, as they are planning to have Louis focus more on his movie career anyway (luckily Louis has made pretty good strides in terms of his movie career the past 2 years, so not filming for TVB anymore won’t affect him too much).
As for Threshold Again — despite how much I love Roger (and his role in the series does seem interesting), I don’t plan on watching the series, as I won’t be able to help comparing it to the original Threshold and it will only frustrate me. So far, I haven’t liked any of the series that the various veterans returned for (I’ve been forcing myself to watch My Ages Apart the past 2 weeks — mostly because of Bobby — and so far my original instinct about the series has been correct — the series is kind of dumb and mostly unfunny…Bobby is wonderful of course, but sorry, he alone won’t be able to keep my interest — especially for 50 episodes! Needless to say, I already dropped the series). I’m pretty sure I won’t like Threshold Again either (and no, watching the trailer from the Sales Presentation did nothing to change my mind)….
Many artists really ungrateful. Does gallen lo really need to be reminded to attend the 50th tvb birthday? Even no money or not to be told also should attend it bcoz its their mother station n where they got their acting skills n fame. N a single management person does not represent whole tvb. Dont giv reason bcoz u angry one person at tvb n you hate TVB. Without TVB they are ntg! Same goes with kevin cheng, louis koo, bobby au, tavia, raymond lam, andy lau, and many more that never bother to attend!. They impossible got chance to celebrate tvb 100th birthday but 50th also no attend.
@lam86, gallen was invited by tvb to join the show and while he had prepared everthing to fly back to hongkong, tvb called him on the last moment and told him that they didnt need him anymore. this is very rude especially for gallen who had worked for tvb more than 3 decades its really painfull. the one to blame is the management of tvb and not gallen.
you are right that tvb have brought many actors to stardom but without these talents tvb wouldnt reached this high. especially when in the 80ties and 90ties they fight rating battles with ATV station, all these actors had contibuted all they have and worked all day and night. they deserve more credit.
@kolo dun giv excuse la. Where the evidence people ask him, SORRY u not needed to attend! He such ungrateful. Need people invite only attend? TVB will still survive even without them but they wont get the acting skills n fame without tvb. They got ntg when they joined. If they never join also will got new blood that will shine. All those ungrateful people really hopeless after popular then wun remember TVB. If anita mui n loh kei still alive they confirm will attend TVB 50th birthday even without being told!!!
@kolo Don’t bother responding to that person, as he/she is a known troll and die-hard TVB fan who doesn’t like to hear anything negative said about TVB. To him/her, any artist who leaves TVB is a traitor and anyone who criticizes TVB is an idiot.
Legend troller stop trolling if u cant argue anything with facts. You are just a sore loser while tvb is a winner. Who cares whether u watch those series or not lol not ashame.
@llwy12 Whaf a douche move! TVB shrinking their pool of artists. smh
Gallen should had been in this instead of the provocateur and Ada should also be in this instead of oh my grad .
They could have continued the story where the first part left out and tell a story on how they are going to expand the eco friendly city . And the challenges they face etc
They won’t even have to bother about Louis Koo and Sunny being in this since they both died in the first part .
They also could throw in a young actors and actresses ( Niki chow and the rest ) as Roger’s children .
Gallen , roger and Ada’s ages even fit their age at the end of the original haha
Oh how I wished tvb went on this route 🙂