2006.... awaiting

Around TVB:
10 ancient series, 8 modern series are already in production or finished production. Two grand production series "The Dance of Passion" and "War and Destiny". 2006 is very unique, more ancient series than modern series. Also, TVB is filming period drama (in between ancient and modern) more often now. Way to go!

Around TVB Square:
TVB Square's number one new year resolution is: reaching the 2 million mark! Yes! I can do it! Ever since my half million mark (which is a year ago), and a million mark (3 months ago), TVB Square is growing fast. So, getting the 2 million mark in 2006 shouldn't be too hard. Hehe, remember to hit on the TVB Square hit counter, which is locate at the main page (http://www.tvbsquare.com)

Around the Word:
Torino 2006 - winter olympics! I am a huge olympics fan, so, pretty sure I will try to catch most of the games. Support China all the way!

TVB Square's Power Rankings - Dec. 2005

TVB Square's Power Rankings refers to the TVB stars, series or any other TVB related things that grabbed the most attention, and gained the most power within a particular month

Archives: Nov. 2005 Power Rankings

Number Five: Angela Tong - a month after she grabs the award, she still gets more and more popular. Even hosting a TV show, performing many functions in public. How come, I saw Roger and her together more than I saw Roger and Jessica together?

Number Four: Life Made Simple Ending - record breaking, heart breaking (some parts), and yet a happy ending, which earned a peaking at 43 points. Life is not simple for a record breaking ending like this, love is no fool, dreams come true ;-)

Number Three: Boscolie - pretty much all the crazy TVB fans learned this word well, Boscolie, even fans wanted to name their child Boscolie now. So many rumors flying around about Boscolie, are they really dating? Or TVB wants to make it look like they are dating?

Number Two: Ron Ng - he got one function after another, one show after another, one award after another. Even released an EP during this month! 2005 was a great year for Ron, and "Don't Blame Her" was his signiture song now. Winning many awards for a simple song. It seems like no matter where you go, you hear fans talking about him. So, accept it, the guy is hot, he even works really hard, and he totally deserves all the support.

Number One: ATV... what?! TVB is gonna be mad if they read my blog.. No, just kidding! ATV didn't get the most power this month! Of course not, speaking in terms of air ratings. If comparing to TVB, it's like comaring small apples and BIG oranges. I am speaking in terms of fan's reaction. Just about every blog I went (I go to really good blogs), I saw different opinions about ATV vs. TVB, yes, TVB needs to watch out, especially when ATV is releasing two series, that will drive me crazy (Central Affairs and The Great Adventure). Am I thinking skipping TVB to watch ATV? Of course not! I am still 100% faithful to TVB, it has became my religion now. But, I am impressed about what ATV is trying to do this month. Hey... any obsessed ATV fans out there? I wanna affiliate with you! Shot me an email: tvbsquare@gmail.com

TVBsquare 2005 Recap - TVB Inventions

TVBsquare presents 2005 Recap

Part six: TVB Inventions
Have you notice, sometimes, TVB makes something up, which is hard to believe? I call those the TVB Inventions, which makes sense sometimes... If you recall "Greed Mask", you will remember the whole thing about Waynei Lai and Halina Tam's identity. Shocking "face" change, I don't think the technology can be so advance this day, totally a great invention. So, applying the invention thing to this year's series, I found a few ;-)

1. The cakes in Gateau Affairs and My Family. Can't really say those are TVB inventions, but those are amazing cakes. I never see that many cakes in my entire life, but I see them all in these two series. So creative and beautiful, makes my eyes shine all the time.
2. Myolie and Joe's hands in Gateau Affairs. Myolie got the "fire" hand, everything in her hands melt easy. Joe got the "freeze" hand, everything in his hand never melts. Amazing, but could that happen in real life? If yes, then, I want the freeze hand!
3. Mango Dumpling in Life Made Simple. I want it! I really want it! But, who makes it other than Ah Wong? Do mango and sweet dumpling really go well together? I want to try it so bad!
4. Mail the sweet dumpling oversea in Life Made Simple. When Ah Wong said he is going to air-mail his sweet dumpling to Jessica from HK to USA, I thought he was joking, but TVB made it happen! Only TVB can invent something like this. If in real life, we can air-mail each other food, the post offices will be banned by now.

note: if you wanna help me do the 2005 recaps (not just this part, other parts as well ;-) by adding your observations, feel free to leave comments or email me at tvbsquare@gmail.com

TVBsquare 2005 Recap - Apple vs. Orange

TVB Square presents 2005 Recap

Part five: Apple vs. Orange
I am going to compare Apples and Oranges here ;-)

Category 1: HK celebrity vs. American Celebrity
I went to HK this year, and realized the fact that HK celebrities are just like normal people. You can spot them easy on the street because they don't have a zillion body-guards around them. Yet, you can't spot them too easy, because they look too normal. It's amazing, how you can just go shopping in HK, and then, see some cool celebrities (not unknown ones, but famous ones) doing a show or a function at the mall! It's not like US, all the shows you can catch in public are from unknown celebrities...

Category 2: Kisses vs. Slaps
Ever since last year, I started to pay more attention to all the kisses (mouth to mouth) and slaps (on the face) scenes in TVB series, because some fans wanted me to do Best Kiss poll and Best Slap poll. I managed to capture all the kisses, but having hard time capturing all the slaps, because there are too many kisses and not many slaps. The best kiss of the year? I am thinking Bernice Liu and Moses in Love Bond, it's really cute how they "accidentally" kissed each other. The best slap of the year? Got to be Kiki Sheung's slap on Gigi Lai, you can even feel it! Powerful slap, and great sound effects, plus Gigi's tears and Kiki's hand, most unforgetable slap of the year!

Category 3: Extreme Makeover
I had two nomination for this year's best extreme makeover: Angela Tong and Jack Wu. However, Angela already got all the attention she needs, and she will show in my year end polls often. It is Jack, who I need to special mention. See pictures below, and think back "The Gateau Affairs" as well as "Real Kung Fu". His role (and voice) changed from a "gangster" to a "fa dan", if this is not extreme makeover, who else can it be?

TVBsquare 2005 Recap - The Unexpected

TVB Square presents 2005 Recap

Part four: The Unexpected
The Unexpected Good Series: The Charm Beneath, I wanted to name it my number one favorite of the year, however, I have trouble accepting all the flashbacks and Anne Heung's quick ending. Other than those, this series rocks
The Unexpected Great Character: Yoyo Mung - The Charm Beneath. I still remember I hated her after watching Split Seconds, however, she ends up in my favorite list now. Quick transformation, and a perfect example of a "Don't-hate-Yoyo Strategy"
The Unexpected Hate Character: Elaine Yiu - Revolving Doors of Vengeance. I didn't know she got so many anti-fans until I finish the series. Thinking about a lovely Elain back in Hearts of Fencing, I was little shocked. What's my "Don't-hate-Elaine Strategy"? Go watch Hearts of Fencing
The Unexpected Not-Good Series: Food for Life (Yummy Yummy), all my favorite stars are in it, and I waited for this series for so long. Rented all episodes, but returned them the next day. What else can I say?
The Unexpected TVB Moment: the 38th anniversary, please bring the older style back!
The Unexpected TVBsquare Moment: getting 1 million hits in September, I thought I won't get that until next year...

TVBsquare 2005 Recap - By the Numbers

TVB Square presents 2005 Recap

Part three: By the Numbers
Total number of TVB series aired in HK Jade Channel: 26 (including three warehouse series from the previous year: Wong Fei Hung, Lost in the Chamber of Love and Hidden Treasures)
Total number of Warehouse series that won't be aired: 2 (Strike at Heart and Ten Brothers)
Total number of TVB series I watched: 25 (including this year's warehouse series and the ones I gave up watching after couple episodes)
Total number of TVB series I am planning to watch: 2 (Always Ready and When Rules Turn Loose)
Total number of TVB series I gave up watching: 4 (Food for Life, Scavenger's Paradise, Real Kung Fu, Healing Hands 3)
Total number of TVB series I didn't watch at all: 1 (The Herbalist's Manual)
Total number of TVB series I regret watching completely: 2 (Fantasy Hotel, The Prince's Shadow)
Total number of reviews I wrote: 14 (including this year and last year's warehouse series)

Most aired TVB Leading Actress: Myolie Wu, who has 5 series aired in just one year! Did she break the record?
Most aired TVB Leading Actor: Moses Chan, who has 4 series aired. Also honorable mention to S4: Ron, Sammul, Bosco and Kenneth, all had 3 series aired
Highest rating for a TVB series: War of In Laws

The series I watch the fastest: Misleading Track, finished in less then 2 days!
The series I watch the slowest: War of In Laws, I finish the first half in just one day, but the second half took me 5 weeks! Because, at episode 11, I gave it up, and slowly find my way back to watch it after it got so much attention. However, I watched it really slow towards the end. Slow enough that someone else already send me a review before I even want to write it.
The series I watched without paying too much attention: Fantasy Hotel, I have no idea why I finished watching that series.
The series I watched with paying too much attention: Revolving Doors of Vengeance, watched many great scenes over many times.

note: I broke my own record for watching the most TVB series in a year, and wrote the most reviews in a year. yeah...

TVBsquare 2005 Recap - The Most Unreasonables

TVB Square presents 2005 Recap

Part two: The Most Unreasonables
TVB always makes unreasonable scenes, or stupid endings, or can-be-deleted scenes, so many of those, can't even keep track. But, what are the most unreasonable factors of 2005? Here are my categories.

Category 1: The Ending
The Gateau Affiars: Myolie went through an operation, and then Joe got a phone call, which says Myolie was fine. Then, that was it. This ending is way too short, consider the fact that Joe and Myolie went through so much together! I was in love with the series, but hating the ending made me eliminate the series out of my top 5 favorites of the year.

Category 2: The Death
Most unreasonable death of the year got to be Michael Miu in The Academy. He wasn't suppose to have any gun-shooting duties, also, he didn't wear any protection. What kind of police doesn't wear protection before gun-shooting activities?

Category 3: The Kiss
Ron and Elaine in RDOV: many fans will agree me on this, Ron and Elaine have way too many kiss scenes in that series. Plus, the bed scene, totally useless, but a good catch ~.~

Category 4: The Episodes
Episode 16-19 of Just Love, totally delete-able. After Jessica and Sunny's baby won the baby award, the series can pretty much end there, or maybe combine with some parts in episode 20. However, adding Selena to Jessica and Sunny's marriage problem doesn't make the episodes worth watching.

Category 5: The Beginning
If one series has to re-film a beginning, and that got to be Food for Life (Yummy Yummy). The first three episodes are so dragging, pointless, and drove many fans away (including me). No matter how much better it gets later, I can't find my way back to watch that series.

TVBsquare 2005 Recap - The Little Factors

TVB Square presents 2005 Recap

Part one: The Little Factors of 2005
Sometimes, the smallest character makes the biggest impact in a TVB series. However, this does not happen very often. But, when it happened, you can never forget.

This year alone, I found three little characters that impact the most. All three came towards the end of the year.

Two of them from Into Thin Air, and that's Michelle Yim and Patrick Tang. Together, they showed up about 5-6 episodes in a 20 episode drama. So, I do consider them as the small characters, however their story is the most emotional part in the entrie year. I want to give them many thumbs up for the wonderful crying scenes, piano scenes. Therefore, they will keep pop up at my End of Year polls, and that particular death scene is now in my "Pityful Death Scenes" collection (by the way, the death scene has to be really powerful in order to be in my collection, consider the fact there are so many of those!) The Impact = many fans cried their hearts out (including me); lots fans become a Michelle fan; most fans hated the second half of this series because the first half is too perfect.

The other one is from The Charm Beneath, and that's Ngo Ka Nin (the guy played Kiki Sheung's son). Adding all the scenes he is in, I think he has about 4-5 (out of 30) episodes of time. Indeed, a very small character, however, his kindness, his struggle between right and wrong, his respects with his evil parents, and his death scene... made him an unforgetable character of the year. This character also proves that evil parents can have great kids... The Impact = I never notice him before, because he always play small characters and bad characters, but this time, his character becomes one of my most favorite character of the year.

Small Logo, Huge Contest

About 3 weeks ago, TVB Square started a Logo Drive, asking the creative fans to send in logo entries, so that TVB Square can have a logo. By the time the logo drive ended, I got 88 different logo entries (cool number). This is a great event, also the most successful contest TVB Square ever did so far. I remember, back in March of this year, the TVB Square Birthday contest generated about 81 entries from icons, banners and posters. This time, just a small logo alone, I got 88 entries. Many thanks to all the designers and the fans, TVB fans are truly, the greatest fans in the world.

Click the link to view the logo entries ~.~
http://forum.tvbsquare.com/forum/index.php?topic=564.0

The day all the Ron fans are waiting for...

Ron Ng's first EP "The Fast Pass", limited edition, which will only have 2005 copies available for sale, starting today! Of course, I pre-order it long time ago, because I am afraid it will sold out. Hopefully, it will sold out fast, I am sure there are more than 2005 obsessed Ron fans out there, lol... Wish him the best, and CD sells fast ;-) Cheers

New series filming: Charmaine+Sammul+Joe

New series filming, this series starring Charmaine Sheh, Sammul Chan and Joe Ma, it will be focous on four different period of time, something very unique. Charmaine looks so pretty ;-)

Who needs to have an album?

Almost all the TVB series this year (other than Real Kung Fu) has themesongs sang by the star(s) within the series. Not sure why TVB wants to let the stars sing the themesong, but I liked it, because I get to hear many differen TVB stars sing, very refresh feeling. Some TVB stars already released their album, such as Steven Ma, Niki Chow, Alex Fong, etc. Ron Ng is also going to have an album this month. So, who else should release an album? Here are my thoughts.

(1) Raymond Lam! I heard from an interview that he is going to release an album, that's so great, because I think he sings the best among most of the TVB stars.
(2) Charmaine Sheh. Ever since Steven and Charmaine sang the themesong for "Perish in the Name of Love", I just could not forget Charmaine's voice, I love her singing skills. Really hoping that she can release an album.
(3) Myolie Wu. She sings the hight note really well, I love her themesong (with Ron) in "Lost in the Chamber of Love", that song is amazing, and she did an awesome job. She NEEDS to release an album.
(4) Bernice Liu. Oh my god, that song "Into Thin Air" is amazing, the tone is great, and Bernice sings so well. I think Bernice can improve even further, can't wait to hear her sing again.
(5) Bosco Wong. If Bosco does decide to release an album, I will suggest he sings rap songs. He is so good at it.
(6) Jessica Hsuan. Don't be shy, Jessica, you can sing, and sing well, even sing a solo. I love the songs in Life Made Simple, but I hope she can sing a solo.

Other than the 6 above, I also think Kenix Kwok sings pretty good, but not good enough to have a solo album. Also, Michael Tong is good too, I like his song in "Fantasy Hotel". Another one I have to mention is Angela Tong, she sang in "Life Made Simple", if she did sing (I mean, using her true voice), then, she is awesome.

"Tiger Head Snake Tail"

There is a very famous saying in Chinese, if I translated it word by word, it is "Tiger Head Snake Tail", which refers to the things that has a strong beginning but a weak ending. Well, I can use this line to describe most of the series in 2005. Or maybe not just 2005? But this year, this "Tiger Head Snake Tail" thing is getting very obvious...

Let me begin with my favorite series of the year, Revolving Doors of Vengeance, I was enjoy every single part of the series up-until the end, a happy ending just don't fit into this kind of series. The Gateau Affairs, I was so in love with the series, but I was also so mad with the ending, which almost driving me crazy and end up hating the series instead. But, I controlled my anger, however, I did regret watching that ending.

Also, there are many series in this year were so awesome because of the beginning, but later on gets so boring. Not only the ending was bad, the storyline towards the ending was even worse. For example, everyone's favorite War of In-Laws, it took me so quick to watch the first half, because it was fun and exciting and cute, but it took me so long to watch the second half, because it was so dragging, and I am getting tired of it. Same thing apply to Into Thin Air, the first half and the second half of that series feels like completely two different series. When I was madly in love with the first half, the producer decided to drag my interest away, one bit after another. Also think back, Just Love was perfect until the last four episodes, which the producer can totally cut it off. The Gentle Crackdown was so dragging towards the end, and I couldn't even find it funny anymore...

Anyway, I feel like very time there is a great opening for a series, that series could end up badly...

"Don't Hate & Neutral" Strategy

I know I said in my blog somewhere (don't remember where), that I used to have "Hate Factors" in my reviews, and not anymore. The main reason behind this was that, everytime I have a "Hate Factor" going on, I was about to get into trouble, and getting hate mails. All the sudden I realized, no matter how much I hated whoever, there are always fans supporting whoever. You see, TVB Square taught me great things. I learned that if I do plan to hate someone, the first thing come out of my mind is to skip that person's series, then, I won't able to write the review, then TVB Square won't event grow. The consequences are not so great, aren't they? So, throughout the years, I have learned not to hate any TVB stars, I always try to remember this: it is the character I am hating, not the star, because I don't even know the star.

Someone told me, there are fans, and there are also anti-fans. That is so true, just about every celebrity has fans and anti-fans. The main thing I want to do is trying to be neutral, even though I am not so good at it. (It is kind of obvious who I like just by reading my reviews, isn't it? Sort of?). Staying neutral is hard, especially for a crazy fan like me, I am easy to express my Love Factors... Plus, I don't think a review needs to be neutral. All I want is to make anti-fans happy , and make the fans happier. I guess I can archieve that goal, hopefully ;-)

When December gets Bored...

Holidays are coming! Schools are out! Havn't make any plans for December yet? Nothing to do? No vacation plans? Don't feel like going out of town? Wants to stay at home? Bored? No TVB series to watch? LOL, whatever it is, try to spend more time here at TVB Square!

In case you haven't noticed, there are a lot of activities going on here at TVB Square.
First of all, if you still haven't visit the TVB Square Forum, you are missing too much stuff! It's time to catch it up, fans ;-)

Second, the TVB Square Logo Drive and E-Card Drive, have you attend any of those?

Third, I just opened up a TVB Square Portal, still trying to develop more contents before I promote it further, but so far, a lot of great stuff are there! Have you check it out yet? Inside the portal, there are lots of quotes collected from the fans around the world, bringing back lots of memories, that's very valuable, especially during the holiday season ;-)

Happy December, Happy Holidays, and have fun surfing TVB Square ;-)