Hong Kong Movies and TVB Dramas

[willystyle]

What the heck happened to these once 2 thriving industries that made a name for themselves back in the 80s/90s?

Watching present day TVB dramas and HK movies is an eyesore that lacks originality, and a complete cycle of the same repetitive entertainers.

TVB Dramas - Poor development of plots, mostly recycled. Endings are predictable. Appears that the same actors play in every drama. Quality of actors has degraded over-time. Newcomers don't have a foundation of acting. Great actors leave, replaced by worse-quality actors. Most significant that I've noticed is that the plots of Ancient drama series have changed completely compared from the 80's and 90's where there was always a developing story. Now the ancient drama series are comedic with one-dimensional plots. To put it bluntly, it's retarded.

HK Movies - There's barely any HK movies being produced anymore. Most of them that are produced are shit, with only a handful that's decent to watch (compared to the 90's). Films are released in Mandarin first, Cantonese last (HK movie production much?). Same recurring gangster themes. I hate how when a movie gets popular, 10 other movie production companies makes a similar movie (think Ip Man and Shaolin Soccer).

If anyone can chime in on why this is happening, please do. I miss quality production of TVB drama and HK cinema back in the 80's and 90's. It seems like the HK entertainment industry is heading down on a path that will fail, and that would be sad, because this industry shapes-up much of the Cantonese (Guangdong) entertainment and language culture.

[Big Earl]

i think it all went down hill ever since the edison incident

[SkinnyPupp]

It happened well before that. I think it was when the triads moved in and took over the industry in the mid-late 90's.

Now everything has to cater to china, so it is devoid of any sort of creativity, or always has an ulterior motive or message.

[LancerBoy]

According to the radio, most of the good script writers and actors allocated to china cuz they get offered 3x the money.

[gYU]

Quality has definitely been going downhill the past few years. For TVB, many great actors/actresses have already left to China (Charmaine Sheh, Bowie Lam, Steven Ma, etc). While some are hopping over to the new TV station by Ricky Wong. TVB is definitely going downhill, considering most of their dramas are quite boring and predictable to watch nowadays. Hopefully the new TV station will come up with good dramas to compete with TVB, and ATV to bring out the competition.


As for HK movies, the same issue bothers me as well. Movies are shot in Cantonese, but yet released in Mandarin... Gangster films in the past recent years have been disappointing as well. No films can even be comparable to the Young and Dangerous series, and Infernal Affairs. Just a heads up, I would not recommend watching Turning Points 2. One of the worst movies I saw, even with such a strong cast, the movie fails.

[6793026]

when you have TVB as the monster, either you get a job there or you don't. So what do they do, they give shit salary and shit wages and hours. People film at 12 AM - 5 Am because it's usually the quiet times before 8 million of people wake up.

So what did TVB do for the last 30 years, it forced people to keep on taking less salary. Now competition is there, good bye to all the good cast, script writers... TVB is having a tough time retaining people now....

[StylinRed]

tvb killed the industry like 679 said

they still air shows from the 80s 90s in the mornings here on fairchild and ill sometimes watch them and im like "damn this is good" and i get into it

when i watch the shows they air in the evenings, the current ones, its like "oh yeah.... ok... uh huh" *click*


ATV still makes some good shows and with TVB struggling hopefully that means more leeway for ATV and more of a drive for TVB to come out with good content some might even say that TVB has been slowly turning around in recent years

[winson604]

I just love how every show is predictable it makes me laugh. I think almost every drama always has somebody who either doesn't have parents or their parents are not their real ones. Then part way through they reunite or find out I know it's TV but come on how often does this happen and how did this idea become like a norm on every show. I won't lie though I still watch that shit, it's good time killer but even then I can only watch certain ones. The Ancient Times ones have been lame for at least 10 years I can't stand them. The Modern Day ones I can still accept and in some cases I don't mind recycled shit as long as it's a Police one those are usually aight.

[BlackZRoadster]

I wonder how much do the "keh leh feh" make in TVB?

Each episode or salary or???

[hsh4]

always a huge fan of tvb drama. was watching it ever since i was a kid. the quality and story line has def gone down interesting to see how the other station dramas will be

[willystyle]

Originally Posted by gYU

Quality has definitely been going downhill the past few years. For TVB, many great actors/actresses have already left to China (Charmaine Sheh, Bowie Lam, Steven Ma, etc). While some are hopping over to the new TV station by Ricky Wong. TVB is definitely going downhill, considering most of their dramas are quite boring and predictable to watch nowadays. Hopefully the new TV station will come up with good dramas to compete with TVB, and ATV to bring out the competition.


As for HK movies, the same issue bothers me as well. Movies are shot in Cantonese, but yet released in Mandarin... Gangster films in the past recent years have been disappointing as well. No films can even be comparable to the Young and Dangerous series, and Infernal Affairs. Just a heads up, I would not recommend watching Turning Points 2. One of the worst movies I saw, even with such a strong cast, the movie fails.

Turning Point 2 sucked. Yeah I've also heard about the recent departure of A-list actors, it's pretty saddening to see. Hopefully the new stations will pick up some slack. Personally, they should've done this a decade ago. Better late than never I suppose.

The HK government has been siding with TVB for too long.

Originally Posted by LancerBoy

According to the radio, most of the good script writers and actors allocated to china cuz they get offered 3x the money.

I am not surprised.

Originally Posted by Big Earl

i think it all went down hill ever since the edison incident

It happened way before that.

Originally Posted by StylinRed

tvb killed the industry like 679 said

they still air shows from the 80s 90s in the mornings here on fairchild and ill sometimes watch them and im like "damn this is good" and i get into it

when i watch the shows they air in the evenings, the current ones, its like "oh yeah.... ok... uh huh" *click*


ATV still makes some good shows and with TVB struggling hopefully that means more leeway for ATV and more of a drive for TVB to come out with good content some might even say that TVB has been slowly turning around in recent years

I had the exact same thought whenever I had the chance to catch the morning drama's from the 80's and 90's, which is partially why I sparked this debate. The shows from those era actually captures the viewer's attention making them crave for more. The shows now have lost that appeal.

Originally Posted by BlackZRoadster

I wonder how much do the "keh leh feh" make in TVB?

Each episode or salary or???

Depending on their contract, it can be on a per episode or series basis, I remember reading an article that an A-list actor (Linda Chung, Jessica Hsuen, Ada Choi, to name a few) get paid about $15,000 CAD per episode. The supporting cast are probably in the thousands. The ones that don't get much of a role are probably in the hundreds.

[6793026]

the gap will get worse. China will make SHIT shows in Mandarin with awesome actresses and actors from HK. People are greedy and they want money. The only thing that can come from this is 1) the famous actors gets richer in China, but they will soon lose out cause they have shit scripts
2) the younger generation gets to act more

I'll give you an example.

Andy Lau does amazing movies, he's expensive but if there's a good script he'll do it. When was the last time you see him in a SHIT ass movie.
Well, there was 1 in 2010; it was called Future X-Cops





I can't even get through the previews.

FUTURE X-COPS

All in all, the movie claimed to have a 20 million budget and it was just trash. Even Andy Lau had to bow down to doing a shit movie like this...

[SkinnyPupp]

Is that the one where he is wearing the fake muscle suit?

[6793026]

u're thinking of this one back in 2000

The one i posted was in 2010... it was worse than crap.. i would have happily walked out.

[StylinRed]

Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp

Is that the one where he is wearing the fake muscle suit?

that is 'Running on Karma' its pretty good though

i cant even bring myself to watch his 6million$ man/iron man film

[willystyle]

Yeah Future X-Cop was arguably the worse Andy Lau movie I've ever seen, it's not a coincidence that it was also filmed by the Chinese.

Aside from the script, they need to get rid of the crappy CGI. It looks really amateur compared to Hollywood.

[SkinnyPupp]

IMO even the best CGI looks crappy when combined with live action. So I can't imagine how shitty a china CGI movie would look

[noob2012]

totally agreed

Originally Posted by willystyle

What the heck happened to these once 2 thriving industries that made a name for themselves back in the 80s/90s?

Watching present day TVB dramas and HK movies is an eyesore that lacks originality, and a complete cycle of the same repetitive entertainers.

TVB Dramas - Poor development of plots, mostly recycled. Endings are predictable. Appears that the same actors play in every drama. Quality of actors has degraded over-time. Newcomers don't have a foundation of acting. Great actors leave, replaced by worse-quality actors. Most significant that I've noticed is that the plots of Ancient drama series have changed completely compared from the 80's and 90's where there was always a developing story. Now the ancient drama series are comedic with one-dimensional plots. To put it bluntly, it's retarded.

HK Movies - There's barely any HK movies being produced anymore. Most of them that are produced are shit, with only a handful that's decent to watch (compared to the 90's). Films are released in Mandarin first, Cantonese last (HK movie production much?). Same recurring gangster themes. I hate how when a movie gets popular, 10 other movie production companies makes a similar movie (think Ip Man and Shaolin Soccer).

If anyone can chime in on why this is happening, please do. I miss quality production of TVB drama and HK cinema back in the 80's and 90's. It seems like the HK entertainment industry is heading down on a path that will fail, and that would be sad, because this industry shapes-up much of the Cantonese (Guangdong) entertainment and language culture.

[FerrariEnzo]

there hasnt been any good TVB shows in the since 2000.... its all been mediocre, its the new gen of actors/actress... they arent really good..

[Drow]

I laugh at whoever still watches TVB

Mostly honger kids in van trying too hard

[ilovebacon]

Try watching this drama called "gloves up." Its really good imo.

[miss_crayon]

I can't even remember the last decent TVB series I watched. Maybe the 2 "Jo ba" (Heart of Greed and Moonlight Resonance) series....and Beyond the Realm of Conscience. I love a good series that can keep me on my toes and make me watch it within 2 days with no sleep.

[Gt-R R34]

Reminds me, I just watched something from my childhood.

Iron Monkey - HK version. One ofthe best martial arts movie ever!

[winson604]

Originally Posted by ilovebacon

Try watching this drama called "gloves up." Its really good imo.

It's not bad so far and I like how it's different. Not very much HK Dramas about thai boxing that's for sure.

[SkinnyPupp]

I saw that show while my wife was watching, and I don't get how you are supposed to be sympathetic to that deaf girl's boyfriend. The guy is a total cunt in every way... but somehow he's not the antagonist of the show...