More Moonlight Resonance News

Source: Mingpao
Translated by: aZnangel @ http://asianuniverse.net/forums/
Posted by: mv_288 @ www.asianfanatics.net

Moonlight Resonance Producer denies bumping Raymond Lam up for TV King

HOG/MR producers speak about the production process of Moonlight Resonances, they two different series

Last year, "Heart of Greed" triggered the "HOG Fever", the audiences were excitingly chasing to see the scenes with Dai Kai and Sai Kai - Lee Si Kei (LSK) and Susanna Kwan, first and second wife battling against each other. The golden lines includes: "Who is a human, Who is the ghost, I can see it with my eyes." and "We are not in the court room, evidence is not needed. My eyes are the evidence!". TVB then hurried to film "Moonlight Resonance", this time won't be using abalone, but instead cakes (moon cakes). The roles are also all switched around, LSK continues to play the miserable first wife, in the last series the sweet young sister Michelle Yim turns into a villain, fighting for "flowery heart" (player) husband Ha Yu. As for Susanna Kwan, this time she plays LSK's sister who is snobby, direct and mean younger sister, also collaborates with Michelle to snatch LSK's old bakery, leaving her in a dilemma both back and front, can't help but excitingly say the golden line "Humans do, Heaven watches" to fight back! The younger generation gets very complicated, Raymond Lam rumored to be the future TV King from this series, where he plays LSK's second oldest son, taking Moses Chan's place as the loyal and caring for family son - "Manage Family Boy" (Goon Ka Jai). For relationships, Raymond and Moses will both be in a triangle relationship. Raymond, Linda Chung and Bosco Wong; Moses, Kate Tsui and Tavia Yeung. Tonight's family crisis premieres again!

Undertaking the last series of breaking TV ratings record of 48 points and was the most focused on at the TVB Anniversary, audience members look forward to this sequel. The production crew of "Moonlight Resonance" (MR) faces invisible pressures, the producer Lau Ka Ho and editor Cheung Wah Bui leads the production of MR.

MR and HOG have two different relationships and stories

Producer Lau Ka Ho emphasizes that "Moonlight Resonances" is not the sequel to "Heart of Greed", the correct regard should be Sister Productions because the relationships and stories are not the same. He frankly said: "'Heart' is actually too powerful, when we needed the whole cast to film a new series, there was definitely a challenge. There were two phrases that constantly reminded us: "Needs to be similar to 'Heart", but cannot be too similar to 'Heart'". The meaning is that the relationships and stories aren't the same, but needs to maintain what the audience liked to watch. This time, the completion of "Moonlight" is a collaborative success, a group of artistes, directors and scriptwriters sacrificed a lot of hard work, I need to Thank them."

Coming up with the Golden Lines, needed to find "Old People Words"

Cheung Wah Biu said: "We hope that "Moonlight" will give audience a moved feeling, actually behind the scenes production crew said that there are many touching stories, everyone worked hard. Following "Heart", scriptwriters were youngsters of 20 or more years of age, they are totally aggressive, where they constantly go home and ask their parents, grandfather what kinds of "old people words" they use. The purpose is to write a good story for families to watch. This time, the series is specially a collective creation, during the meetings each person give their opinion as they put the script together, many difficulties arise." Audience members are also very curious on what Golden Lines that will be used in this series, he said: "In Moonlight, the 'old people's words' were used a lot more than the last series, but as to which ones are the Golden Lines, that will need to be decided by the audience!" Lau Ka Ho added: "Our biggest purpose is that we hope fans would be just as impressed as with "Heart" and will not get disappointed. (A perspective that cannot be defeated?)Absolutely nothing to do with pride (face), being in the television circle for so many years, I understand that its not this is not the matter, the most important thing is to hear audience say that they can't wait to watch "Heart" with its original cast members, don't want to disappoint them."

Michelle Yim's performance of a Villain is very natural

After the collaboration of "Heart", there is a better grasp of the actors' characters. Lau Ka Ho said: "LSK is the pontoon type, others get frustrated, she remains low volumed, everyone then calms down; Susanna Kwan has good speaking skills, all the argument dialogues, is not a challenge for her, she spends a lot of time to get familiar with the script; Ha Yu has a sense of humor; Raymond Lam's last love relationship ended, this time we continued Raymond and Linda's fate, also made him a moon cake boy, a strong contrast to "Heart"; Michelle Yim decided to play the villain, her performance was very natural."

Producer denies bumping Raymond for TV King

"Moonlight" and "Heart" biggest difference is that one ends with a broken family, this one a broken family reunites and ends happily on Moon Festival. When the series started filming, there were negative rumors circulating, stating that this series was to bump Raymond up for TV King, Moses screen time would decrease and won't have a happy ending? Lau Ka Ho had no breathe and said: "Really gonna kill me, the production crew never did thought about this, we arranged Raymond to be "Manage Family Boy" and LSK wanted this series to have a fresh feeling, also we already prepared ahead of time that this will be a happy ending, the rumors are false. But having discussions isn't a bad thing, at least it will be spoken about till the Anniversary!"

Forensic Heroes II (法證先鋒II) - Review (Complete)

*Warning: Spoilers Ahead*
Brief Synopsis:
Forensic Heroes II is the sequel to the highly successful Forensic Heroes I. The characters of FH are brought back to deal with a new series of crimes that, again, challenges the team's wits against those of the murderers. In addition to the old cast, which included Bobby Au as Tim Sir, Frankie Lam as Dr. Sam Koo, Yoyo Mung as Madam Leung Siu Yau, and Linda Chung (though briefly) as Ding Ding, two new characters were added to the mix - Kevin Cheng as Ivan Yeung and Charmaine Sheh as Madam Ma Kwok Ying. The series continues to explore the fascinating world of forensic science through various cases

Main Character Analysis and Portrayal:
Bobby Au Yeung as Tim Sir - I don't think it needs to be stated that Bobby did a great job as Tim Sir. I think it's safe to say that the man has the role of the very professional and knowledgeable official down. He's portrayed this type of role in a number of series, and I think it'd be nice for him to be cast into something a little outside the box. But I digress.. There's not much character development for Tim Sir in FHII, since it seems like the writers were more focused on the establishment of the new characters. However, the qualities that were introduced in FHI were reinforced and strengthened in FHII. He is still the very observant, very intelligent, and very caring, though somewhat workaholic, Tim Sir that we know and love from the first part. Paying great attention to detail, he is able to reenact the crime scene in his head just by looking at the evidence that is present. Though somewhat lacking in the romantic department (often taking cues from Sam), Tim Sir is committed and tries his best to make his relationship with Madam Leung work. In the end, he is successful and the two get married. Overall, excellent portrayal and good character, if somewhat put in the background this time around.

Frankie Lam as Sam Koo - "Kool" and reserved, the character of Sam is another one of the main returning members of the forensics team. He performs the autopsies of victims of crimes and helps Tim Sir gather evidence from from the dead to help facilitate cases. Calm and collected, it is not often that people see the emotional side of Sam. For those who thought that Frankie's portrayal in here was wooden, I would have to disagree. I think it's part of his character. Just look at the scenes involving the death of Ding Ding. He was able to show how much he loved her and how deeply it hurt him to see her depart in such a way. I'm glad that his character stayed faithful to Ding Ding throughout FHII and did not so easily come to realize that he did have feelings for Madam Ma. It just goes to show how much he actually did care about Ding Ding. When he finally did come to the realization that he was beginning to have some feelings for Madam Ma, he was hesitant and did not attempt to tell her, knowing well that his best friend, Ivan, was in love with her. From this, along with the back story of Sam and Ivan, it can be seen how much he valued brotherly friendship. Great character and a good job on Frankie's part.

Yoyo Mung as Madam Leung Siu Yau - Although I'm not a big fan of Yoyo Mung as an actress, I did feel that her part should have been a little more significant. Besides serving as the love interest of Tim Sir, Madam Leung was not really a big part of the series. Due to injuries to her arm and ear, she is no longer able to be on active duty as the madam, passing that role onto Madam Ma. I liked how they showed the doubt and fear that she had after sustaining the injuries, and how Tim Sir was able to gradually pull her out of that. Even though she's a Madam and is trained to be prepared to deal with any situation, a sudden disability like the one she got is bound to cause anyone to doubt themselves. Overall, she really took the backstage in FHII, allowing for Charmaine to take the forefront of the investigations.

Linda Chung as Ding Ding - Another character from FHI who took the backseat in FHII. Linda Chung plays the adorable and charming Lam Ding Ding. Unfortunately she is killed by a bomb right before she is supposed to get married to Sam. She loves Sam very much, and the two are very in tune with one another. The idea of having sneakers at their wedding was cute, and it was touching to see how Same hand glued all of the little sparkling beads onto the shoes for Linda and how Linda hand glued all the beads onto the show key chain. Knowing that Ding Ding was never able to see the sneakers that Same spent so much time on was really heart breaking, especially due to the fact that it was only a day or two before her wedding! A good performance by Linda, though she only had about four episodes to show her stuff since she was killed off pretty early.

Charmaine Sheh as Madam Ma Kwok Ying - The cool, collected, and strong in personality, Madam Ma gets things done efficiently by keeping a firm working code. Initially, she is disliked by the other characters for her overly cool personality, but it is revealed that she does, in fact, care for her underlings. The reason she appears so hard on the outside is because of her previous relationship, in which her fiancee was shot right before her eyes as she was about to sign the papers to get married. That would be absolutely horrible, and a good reason for her to cut herself off from others. Her relationship with Ivan was very cute, and I'm glad that it all worked out for her in the end (at least that's what we are led to think). Good performance from Charmaine, though I would like to see her take some new roles. We've seen her as the cutesy "ba ja mui" in series such as Point of New Return and Witness to a Prosectuion. We've seen her as the head strong, independent woman in FHII, Detective Investigation FIles IV, and Drive of Life. Hopefully there will be more types of roles for Charmaine, because she definitely has shown her ability to act in different roles (i.e. War and Beauty, Dance of Passion, and Maiden's Vow).

Kevin Cheng as Ivan Yeung - I really liked the character of Ivan in this series. He is the bomb expert from out of the country who returned and became a forensic scientist under the leadership of Tim Sir. Compassionate, romantic, and goal-oriented, Ivan will sacrifice himself to protect the ones he loves. I love how he was so romantic to Bell (Madam Leung), baking cookies for her and taking her to the pier. He shows how much he will sacrifice for his friends as he tells Sam to leave first on the boat before it explodes. He knows that once he releases the trigger, the bomb will continue its countdown at a quicker rate, but he lies to Sam so that the both of them won't have to suffer. Ivan, along with Madam Leung, really takes the spotlight in FHII. I really enjoyed Kevin's depiction of Ivan here. I don't remember too many series in which he plays such a light-hearted and charismatic character. It's nice to see him smile and laugh more in this series, as opposed to the cool and serious characters that he is often cast into.

Cases
One of the big issues many people have with this series is that the cases are not as good as in FHI. I tend to agree with this point of view. Some of the cases were good, but the majority of them were really, really easy to figure out. It's also kinda boring when they are able to find every single little detail, down to a thread in the most obscure place ever. Combined with the fact that Tim Sir is the "walking encyclopedia" who can figure any case out, the routine gets a bit monotonous. It's like the cases don't even seem challenging to the forensics team and police. So these cases were a bit of a disappointment.

I would have to say my favorite case was the last one, involving Selena Li. I may be personally biased due to how much I like Selena, but I thought it was interesting, and Selena's Kit played a great foil to Charmaine's Madam Ma. It was an interesting interaction as Selena knew all the ins and outs of the law, being a law student before becoming the assistant to the rich guy.

Ending
For me, the ending was not as bad as I had heard from before I watched it. From what people were saying, it seemed like there was absolutely no closure whatsoever with Ivan and Bell and that it was just an absolutely horrible ending. I would disagree with this. It seemed quite clear in the ending that Ivan was ok, even if they did not show it. It wasn't open for interpretation for me. If they had cut to the credits when Charmaine was on the phone, I would have been really upset, but they showed her running to the hospital exclaiming that Ivan is awake! So, for me, the ending is fine the way it is.

Conclusion
For me, Forensic Heroes II was not something I was particularly excited about. I liked FHI but it wasn't something I actively looked forward to. I'm more a family drama type of guy, so my eyes are set on Moonlight Resonance and The Gem of Life. However, I wouldn't say FHII was bad. It was good at what it was meant to be, a forensics TV show. Even though the cases were not the greatest, and some of the older characters were moved back to less important roles, FHII was a decent show.

Final Rating: 85/100

Moonlight Resonance <家好月圓>Trailers and Theme Song!

Since Heart of Greed was one of my absolute favorite series, it seems only right for my first TVB related post to be about its sequel! Here are some trailers that have been posted on Youtube. My thoughts on each trailer will follow each video.
*Credit to vinci90 on SPCTNET.TV for finding these trailers and ihyt123 on youtube for posting them.

Trailer 1:

This trailer was just a mini teaser and has been out for a while now. I'm very excited to see how the Louise Lee Si Kei (李司棋) and Michelle Yim (米雪) story line will unfold. It will be nice to see Michelle in an evil and conniving role here. We also see here the much talked about Raymond Lam (林峯), Linda Chung (鍾嘉欣), and Bosco Wong (黃宗澤) love triangle. What intrigued me, though, was when they showed Moses Chan (陳豪) and Tavia Yeung (楊怡). I knew Kate Tsui (徐子珊) was going to be involved with their relationship, but from this trailer, it seems like Chris Lai (黎諾懿) will also be involved somehow.

Trailer 2:

Now this is what I'm talking about! This trailer introduces the story that will be going on with the veteran actors. It seems that this time around, Louise and Ha Yu (夏雨) will not be the loving couple that they were in Heart of Greed. Susanna Kwan (關菊英) will once again portray the scheming sister (except this time she really is the biological sister of Louise) who likes to spread rumors and create problems within the family. Michelle, as can clearly be seen in this trailer, is taking up the evil role. It looks like there will be a point when Ha Yu turns against Michelle. I wonder why?

Trailer 3:

This one shows the younger generation and some of the problems that will arise with them. It looks like there will be some drama between Susanna and Tavia, probably because Tavia is the adopted child in the family. Linda Chung is shown feeling guilty for helping Ha Yu and Michelle (I think? Couldn't really make out what she was saying) get back together. And Fala Chen (陳法拉) is shown. It seems like she will have some emotional problems with her disability. I'm glad her portrayal here is reverting back to the more innocent look. From the last few series she's been in since Steps it seems like she has been typecast into the bratty, scheming, and rebellious sister role so it's nice to see that she's taking a new type of role.

Trailer 4:

The final trailer shows more of the family drama. Moses and Raymond put their loyalties with Louise and not Michelle, though this time, Raymond seems like he'll be more of the family man. On the other hand, Chris Lai will be loyal to Michelle, rather than Louise. And finally, Linda is seen being comforted by Bosco.

Theme Song/Video:

*Credit to SimplyFungyi for posting this theme video on youtube.

First Post! Introduction

Hi Everyone! I'm Inferno, a TVB series lover and addict! I decided to create a blog for my thoughts on all the different TVB series, especially the very highly anticipated Moonlight Resonance (AKA Heart of Greed 2) and the Gem of Life. I've been watching TVB series for a while now, and I've always found it fun to visit and read all the different fansites and news sites dedicated to TVB so I figured I could try and make my own blog.

My main purpose for creating a blog dedicated to TVB series and news is essentially to share my thoughts regarding all of the different series produced by TVB. As of now, I don't know exactly how I'm going to structure this blog, but I will try to post updated news regarding new series and various TVB artists. I'm considering writing episode by episode summaries and reviews about each series that I watch, as well as revisiting some of the older series that are my absolute favorites (i.e. War and Beauty, Dance of Passion, and Heart of Greed). It really depends on how much time I will have but I will definitely do my best to keep up. I hope this blog will bring to you guys, as the readers, enjoyment and I hope you will share your own thoughts on TVB series. Everyone has their own opinions, and there is no right or wrong. Part of the fun of discussing is to discover new perspectives so I hope everyone will share their thoughts and opinions as well!

With that note, I will stop talking. If you want to contact me, email me at InfernosTVB@gmail.com. I'd love to hear any opinions and suggestions you have!

Best Regards,
Inferno