Wayne Lai, Raymond Wong at “Trade Wars” Costume Fitting
Filming one series after another, Wayne Lai (黎耀祥) will star in the upcoming TVB drama, Trade Wars <商戰>. The main cast members are the supporting actors from The Confidant <大太監>, including Raymond Wong (黃浩然), Edwin Siu (蕭正楠), Power Chan (陳國邦), and Raymond Cho (曹永廉).
Packed Schedule For Wayne
As three-time TV King, it is inevitable that Wayne is in high demand among TVB producers. Currently filming period drama, Double Fantasies <無雙譜>, he will have to begin filming Trade Wars in April. Despite the hectic workload, Wayne expressed that he will be playing a confident, rich man in Trade Wars that is unlike any role he has done before. In the beginning of the series, Wayne will get divorced from Becky Lee (李璧琦).
Wayne is also not worried about filming romantic scenes, and jokingly sated, “My wife thinks I’m not romantic enough in my scenes. She says the romance is too bland and there’s not enough feeling.” However, Wayne is excited to work with actors from The Confidant again and looks forward to generating new sparks.
Edwin Siu’s Love Triangle With Miss Hong Kong Winners
Heavily promoted Miss Hong Kong Grace Chan (陳凱琳), and first runner-up Sisley Choi (蔡思貝) are cast as Edwin’s love interests in the series. Despite working with the two pageants winners, Edwin is unafraid of rumors.
Nancy Wu (胡定欣) will have a relationship storyline with Raymond Wong. Nancy said, “We’ve collaborated in other series before, but this is the first time we’ll have scenes together, so I’m looking forward to it!” Since her character will have a crush on Raymond, Nancy expressed that the script gave her nostalgic feelings of her school days as a teenage girl.
Among the large cast are also Maggie Shiu (邵美琪), Jason Chan (陳智燊), Fred Cheng (鄭俊弘), Susanna Kwan (關菊英), and Elliot Yue (岳華).
This article is written by Su for JayneStars.com.
Nancy Wu in a lead, wow that’s a first.
Is it just me or this Raymond Wong also aged quite a bit? wow, they say women who had kids ages but i think men does too? haha lol..he used to be cute i think.
wow…………i don’t think nancy wu would be on
the lead on the ‘trade wars’ she just be the second
lead but sonija kwok might be the lead of it because
they have to count which person is the oldest or youngest
that is the first time for grace chan and sisley choi to
be in a tv film!!!!!!!!! GO FOR THEM!!!!!!!!!
oh sorry this tv film there is no sonja kwok
sorry guys it was a mistake…………………
so u are right nancy wu is the lead of the tv film
of ‘trade wars’ SORRY i was wrong………………………..
Glad to know that Nancy Wu is the 1st lead actress in “Trade War”. Best of luck, Nancy. Hope you will showcase your acting in this drama series and get established as a 1st lead actress.
Great to know that Nancy is finally the lead. I really hope she shines and will get to play the leading role again.
yeah i agree
Don’t get your hopes too high the new Miss Hong Kong Winners might be first lead actress. But Nancy has a chance.
WHAT?? They may have the new MS. HK winners as the leads??? Oh dear, TVB is really sinking ship if they did not learn from their mistakes in the past. In the past, they always promoted new MS HK winners who have no prior acting experience and it did not always work out.
I think Maggie may be the lead actress since Wayne is the lead actor. Also Susnana is in this as well, a majority of her roles are quite prominent. Then after that it’s Nancy.
Yup I think Maggie is the female lead too. I read it from another magazine.
I really doubt that Maggie is the first female lead dince TVB has been relegating her to supporting roles for a few years noe. She does NOT get the same respect by TVB as other fadan actresses from her generation like Sheren Teng or Kathy Chow – they still get to play 1st leads whenever they come back to film for TVB. Maggie gets the whimpy, lovesick 2nd female leads, supporting bland leads like Aimee Chan. So, I’ll have to see this to believe it. However, if Maggie is really paired up eith Wayne, that is already something to look forward to.
Didn’t think I’d be interested in Trade Wars (not too keen on Edwin Siu), but having Raymond Wong, Nancy Wu, Wayne Lai, Maggie Siu and Power Chan added to the cast is brilliant move – all are good actors. Hopefully they’ll get to play significant roles and the script delivers, unlike Born Rich. The Miss HK winners should be the window dressing and eye candy but they can’t carry the drama. No experience.
Typos correction – should read as ‘since’, ‘now’, ‘with’.
Wayne is the lead and Nancy is not pairing with him and it’s most likely going to be with Maggie. Which means Maggie leads over Nancy but she does lead over the younger actresses.
Susanna!
I agree with felicity — Maggie most likely won’t be first female lead, since TVB most likely won’t allow it given the fact that they have other younger fa dans they would rather promote. I doubt that Nancy is leading either — my guess is that Grace and Sisley are the leads.
By the way — Maggie will play Fred’s mother in the series (hmmm…not sure how I feel about that)….to me, that’s already a sure-fire indication that Maggie isn’t the female lead in the series….
@llwy12
Yup, I agree – TVB would rather promote the younger fadans than to give a really prominent role in a big budget drama to Maggie Siu – her only chance of getting a decent role is in a Chik Kei Yee ptoduction. Even if there was a great role for mature actresses (in their late 30s to late 40s), TVB would rather reserve them for others like Elena Kong (whom I like). Maggie Siu has been thrown the scraps and bottom-of-the-barrel leftover roles no other former popular actress her age wants – unflattering, gullible lovesick women or worse – playing mothers to Siu Sangs like Ron Ng. So, her getting cast as the mother to Fred Cheng in Trade Wars is no shocker to me. Of all the former stars from the 80s and 90s, it is very obvious that TVB has treated Maggie with the least respect and appreciation, imo. Lets say, if Nnadia Chan, Gigi Lai or Amy Kwok were to come back to film for TVB now, I bet they would still be cast in 1st leading roles. They are around Maggie’s age but Maggie is the only former fadan who always gets the careless, shoddy treatment by TVB. It’s sad to watch Maggie nowadays and ruins my memory of how awesome her acting was in those TVB classics in the late 80s to early 90s. I often wish she was more self-assertive like her good friend Sheren Teng and not allow TVB to treat her like crap. It’s too late for Maggie who looks old now, she should have ventured outside of TVB when she was younger. I know many of Maggie’s fans who feel pained to see her getting shafted by TVB. Why doesn’t Maggie quit acting since she obviously lost her passion for acting, and her performances have become so phoned-in, one note and uninspired ? I’d have more respect for her if she went all out to focus on her beauty business like Marianne Chan and retire from acting.
Ok, rant about Maggie Siu’s pitiful career at TVB over. lol.
As far as Grace and Sisley are concerned, I believe TVB is going to push them in a big way. Their love triangle with Edwin Siu might be quite the focal point in the drama, just like the way Vivian Chow and Amy Kwok were involved in a love triangle with Sean Lau in The Greed Of Man. So who knows. This drama could propel them to overnight stardom if these two starlets have some raw talent, given their probably very prominent and likable roles in Trade Wars. Amy Kwok shot to stardom with Greed of Man even though she was a newbie fresh out from the Miss HK pageant. Her performance as the ‘poor little rich girl’ was one of the best debut performances by a Miss HK in the past 25 years, me thinks. But then again, back in the 80s and 90s, even the talent of former pageant girls were a much higher level than nowadays – Gigi Chiu, Barbara Yung, Maggie Cheung, Cherrie Cheung, Ada Choi and Amy Kwok are some of the successful fadans who had their start in beauty pagaents.
@felicity: The way I see it, TVB is really the one at fault, not Maggie. I have no doubt about Maggie’s acting and her recent performance in SIAC is proof that she still has it in terms of acting chops (same with her performance in The Confidant a few years back). TVB is the one giving her the crappy roles and unless she leaves, she has no choice but to accept the roles she is given. Also, I’m surprised with the comment about Maggie losing her passion for acting because I don’t see that at all — as I said above, her acting is definitely still up to par, it’s just that the series and characters themselves have not been good.
One part I do agree with though is that the only way Maggie will be able to get the ‘respect’ that the fa dans of her generation did is for her to leave TVB altogether, then perhaps return a few years later to film 1 or 2 series for them . Otherwise, her career will continue to remain stagnant….
i doubt if sussana will get one of the prominent roles,i think more green leaf. grace and sisley will have more chance to get heavy roles since they are linked in a love triangle with edwin siu.but in a grand production like this there are always more than one lead actor/actres.
Well, seeing that TVB’s strategy currently is to appeal more to the younger generation, I also doubt Susanna will be lead. If the recent controversy over TVB ‘sacking’ their long-time children’s program host Helen Tam Yuk Ying due to her age, (despite the fact that she has worked for TVB for over 30 years and is a well-respected ‘icon’ in the hosting department when it comes to children’s programming) is any indication, the story for this series will likely focus more on the younger generation than the older ones (with the exception of Wayne Lai, since he IS 3 time TV King after all).
Maggie’s acting is “phoned in,one note and uninspired”?? Have you watched Storm in a Cocoon? Even in The Confidante, she gave a solid performance playing second fiddle to Michelle. I really don’t follow your rant. You seem to be putting her down. I am a big fan of Maggie and I certainly do not feel she is being led down by TVB. In fact she was given the lead role in Will Power opposite Wayne. But she turned it down due to other acting commitments in mainland. I haven’t watched her mainland series. Have you felicity?
Primrose, no I’ve not watched Storm in a Cocoon nor The Confidante, and frankly I have no intention to. TVB series do not appeal to me and I’ve stopped watching them altogether, except for 1 or 2 series that I might watch out of curiosity due to the enormous hype (eg. TITS 2, Brothers Keeper).
Gone are the days when I’d faithfully watch a TVB drama just because my fave actress was starring in it. When Maggie Siu retutned to film for TVB in the 2000s, none of her roles allowed her to shine. She either played thankless roles in Find the Light, or a silly neurotic woman paired up with Kent Cheng in A Watchdog’s Tale, or a second fiddle to Charmaine Sheh in When Heaven Burns, and played a woman who would murder for love in Master of Play (and had love scenes with Adam Cheng. Ewww..). Even though Maggie was supposedly the female lead in Master of Play, I don’t consider her the real lead as the story is about the two men – Moses and Adam. Maggie’s role was just supporting them and not well developed at all, not to mention rather unflattering. You might disagree with me and consider my comments to be putting her down, but it is what I honestly think when I watch Maggie act for some years now. Compared to how fiesty and charismatic she was in the 90s, I find Maggie’s acting in TVB dramas in the past few years to be rather uninspired and repetitive, relying on the same facial tics…but to be fair to Maggie, it is not all her fault if all she gets are crappy roles and nonsensical scripts from TVB. As I mentioned in my previous post, TVB just doesn’t reserve the juicy toles for Maggie Siu. She doesn’t get to play relatable, modern, strong career ladies like Sheren Teng’s role in La Femme Desperado. Trust me, if TVB valued Maggie Siu, things would be a lot different for her. Look at how TVB enticed Terea Mo to come back to film a long running sitcom Off Pedder. Or how Esther Kwan agreed to come back to film for TVB in Always and Ever. Esther came back because she liked the time-travelling story and the chance to co-star with Bobby Au once again. My point is, these veteran fadans all got to star in dramas which revolved around their characters and most importantly, their roles allowed them to SHINE. On the other hand, Maggie Siu gets tossed the thankless supporting parts, overshadowed by other female fadans and TVB doesn’t even try to offer her something better because Maggie appears agreeable to any type of old role they throw her. Acting is just another job for her now, as long as she gets paid, Maggie Siu doesn’t mind being typecast, sadly. I don’t think her heart is in it anymore.
I can’t change your opinion of Maggie’s acting. But I find it unfair that you comment on her performance and label it as “phoned in, one note, and uninspired” even when you did not watch her latest in SIAC or TC.
Maggie did very well in Storm In A Cocoon especially those scenes where she lashed out her hurt at evergreen’s Ka Hin for failing her. It is not the actress but the role and she found a good one in Storm In A Cocoon. The Confidant is just an inadequate series but Maggie was very good in it. She should gave been Cixi.
I did not find Maggie Shiu’s acting good and amazing especially in speaking her dialogues when she was young and pretty in the 90s, but I must say that her acting has improved so much that she is a very solid actress. She acts very well in any drama series ever since she came back to work for TVB. Unfortunately, she is not promoted by TVB in any 1st lead roles. After her unfortunate long-time love life with Ekin Cheng, I guess she wants to dedicate herself more to work now.
Veteran casting seems good, but Wayne not so much.
Raymond’s hair looks….weird….
I am excited to see this. I hope Grace Chan will do fine in her debut series.
yeah i really wanted GRACE CHAN to be part of a tv film
before since last year in 2013 but i am very GLAD that
she is part of a tv film in TVB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think we all expected that.
But I think if she is successful, she may become like other miss HK winners.
yeah i think so as well
Wait did they forget Ron Ng because he didn’t go to the promoting function or they cut Ron Ng out for Raymond Wong?????????]
Wait that could be a good thing cause Ron not going get supporting roles or 2 or 3 or main leading actor role any more. But I really wanted Ron to work with the new Miss Hong Kong Winners. Edwin is a lucky man.
Ron is filming another series with Wayne and Anthony in June.
I just noticed Raymond Wong’s haircut.. and that doesn’t really suit him that great:|
I thought Ron Ng was in the promo trailer??