By Yip Wai Yee
It could be the epic storylines, the lyrical dialogue or the promise of grand spectacle in the sets and costumes. Whatever the reason, Asian period dramas have always garnered a strong and steady following.
Life! puts together a list of period dramas that TV buffs should keep a lookout for.
Joys of Life
When: Premieres on Channel 8 on June 26 at 9pm
What: Taiwanese actor Alien Huang (with actress Rui En) is in the lead as Zhao Mingxing, a young man who dreams of becoming a movie star, in this local drama set in 1950s Singapore. Sharing the same house with his family are a number of characters, including a Japanese Occupation survivor (Chew Chor Ming), a womanising wook (Huang Wenyong) and a beautiful woman (Cynthia Wang) who is intent on marrying a foreigner.
Why you would watch it: To see how the ebullient Alien Huang will play out against local actors on home-grown TV, following his role in local flick Already Famous (2011). The show also promises to be a fun trip down memory lane for most Singaporeans, given the retro 1950s outfits and old kampung atmosphere of the setting.
Joys of Life 花样人间 debuts 26 June 2012 9pm on Channel 8.
Source: The Straits Times
Categorised in EN, Joys of Life 花样人间, The Straits Times.
By Eunice Quek
At the Star Awards on Sunday night at Marina Bay Sands, Best Actress winner Joanne Peh did an imitation of Angelina Jolie’s protruding leg stunt at the Oscars earlier this year.
Other MediaCorp artistes, such as Constance Song, let other body bits protrude – the less said, the better.
It was not all hot messes, though, at the awards ceremony honouring the best in local Chinese TV programming.
There were those who, wisely, kept it simple, such as Rui En.
Rui En sleek in her Dsquared2 toga gown paired with Cartier jewellery and her icy demeanour. Asked about her style, she says coolly that it is a “conservative” option.
Winners’ List
Best Drama Serial:On the Fringe
Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes: Rebecca Lim, Yvonne Lim, Rui En, Kym Ng, Vivian Lai, Paige Chua, Jeanette Aw, Cynthia Koh, Joanne Peh, Ann Kok
Source: The Straits Times
Categorised in EN, Star Awards 2012, The Straits Times.
Fan clubs are furious that this year’s event is ticketed with high prices.
By Rachael Boon
For the first time, fans will have to pay to attend the Star Awards, MediaCorp’s annual glitzy affair which honours the best in local television.
The awards ceremony this year will be held at Sands Grand Ballroom at Marina Bay Sands on April 29. Tickets cost $58 and $98, and went on sale from April 5 from Sistic and the MBS ticketing site.
The event was previously held in the MediaCorp TV Theatre and places such as St James Power Station in 2006, and Resorts World Sentosa last year. Tickets were distributed to fans of nominated artists, which depended on the nominations an artist got, or to fans who wrote in.
The admission fee was a surprise to fan clubs of local artists, whose members are regular attendees of the show.
Undergraduate Rina Oon, 24, chairman of Jollity Club for fans of actress Joanne Peh, has attended at least three shows. “I’m shocked. In previous years, MediaCorp allocated tickets to fan clubs but when we wrote in for tickets this year, they said they’d be charges,” she said.
The Star Awards this year will feature a performance by Korean-American R&B singer Jay Park.
Mr Paul Chan, vice-president of MediaCorp Channel 8 Branding & Promotions, said: “In line with the practices of international award shows, the Star Awards will be a ticketed event and 95 per cent of the tickets have been snapped up.”
Some fans, who are students, said the tickets prices were too steep for them. Ms Oon said:”Some of our secondary school members cannot afford to pay.”
Only five Jollity Club members, including Ms Oon, will attend the show this year, compared to more than 20 members last year. They are all working adults who bought the $58 tickets.
To cope with the costs, fan clubs such as RBKD, which supports actress Rui En and the Yverlasting Yvonne Official Fanclub, which supports actress Yvonne Lim, have plans to help members.
RBKD has an instalment plan for student members, who can pay for tickets in three instalments over three months, while an anonymous donor is sponsoring more than 10 tickets for members of the Yverlasting Yvonne Official Fanclub.
Student Yip Kah Yin, 17, who is a RBKD member, took up the instalment scheme. She will pay for her $98 ticket in three parts and has already paid $41.
Freelancer Stephanie tay, 23, president of Yverlasting Yvonne Official Fanclub, said it was unreasonable to ticket the Star Awards. “The event seems to be catering to international fans who went to see artists such as Jay Park,” she said.
This defeats the purpose of the awards, she added, because “this is an event for Singapore, which is a very big deal for people like us who support local stars and it is held once a year.”
Asked if subsequent Star Awards would be ticketed, Mr Chan said: “We will review this on a year-by-year basis.”
The main reason local fan clubs are so furious, said Ms Tay, is because MediaCorp has not been helpful with the tickets.
She said: “I understand they are ticketing it to make it an international show.
But if they want to maintain the standard of being a prestigious event, at least help local fan clubs by blocking off seats or giving better seats, the way organisers block seats for official fan clubs at concerts.”
Source: The Straits Times
Categorised in EN, RBKD, Star Awards 2012, The Straits Times.
Plots involving surgeons, policemen and lovers provide twists aplenty in this week’s crop of serials.
By Foong Woei Wan
Playing it safe is the one thing you can’t accuse Channel 8 police drama Unriddle 2 of.
Would you attempt a psychodrama about a policewoman (Rui En) going off the rails, knowing it could be a tortured mess?
Would you kill off your stronger actors (Tay Ping Hui, as a twitching detective with a brain ailment, and Desmond Shen, as a scar-faced criminal) and leave your viewers at the mercy of a weaker actor (Elvin Ng, as a lollipop-sucking police whiz-kid?)
Would you risk your actors’ dignity in an amateurish shoot-out scene, knowing they could look like they all have two left hands and two left feet?
MediaCorp does all of the above, and it sure seems to like living dangerously. It isn’t entirely inept though.
In its first season, the series packed an emotional punch whenever it placed its every-woman (Chen Liping, as a reluctant informant of Rui En’s) in peril.
In its second season, it drags her adopted family members into trouble too and puts her in the painful position of deciding whom to save.
Source: The Straits Times
Categorised in EN, The Straits Times, Unriddle 2 最火搭档 2, Unriddle 最火搭档.
UNRIDDLE 2 (DEBUT)
Channel 8, 9pm
Rui En plays a police officer who investigates murder of a Japanese man.
Catch #Unriddle 2 最火搭档 II from 5 March 2012 9pm on Channel 8.
Source: The Straits Times
Categorised in EN, The Straits Times, Unriddle 2 最火搭档 2.
Two new areas facing Marina Bay will allow more revellers to be part of Singapore’s biggest New Year countdown party tomorrow night.
A 3,000 sq m lawn next to the recently opened Marina Bay Financial Centre and the 5,000 sq m promenade in front of the Marina Bay Sands ArtScience Museum will provide extra standing room for some 16,000 partygoers to ring in 2012.
Where else to party
With new immigrants and expatriates at Tiong Bahru Park: This party will feature local DJ Andrew T and local youth indie bands Eleventh Hour and Juz Members. MediaCorp artist Rui En and Singapore Idol Hady Mirza will also perform.
Starts at 9pm. Admission is free.
Source: The Straits Times
Categorised in EN, The Straits Times, Tiong Bahru Countdown Party 2012.
CODE OF HONOUR (DEBUT)
Channel 8, 7pm
Zheng Geping stars in this martial arts drama set in 1960s Singapore.
Code of Honour 正义武馆 debuts 5 December 2011 7pm on Channel 8.
Source: The Straits Times
Categorised in Code of Honour 正义武馆, EN, The Straits Times.
By Rachael Boon
Ongoing series Love Thy Neighbour has sparked a wave of criticism against local Mandarin TV dramas.
Channel 8 drama Love Thy Neighbour has not been feeling the love. In recent weeks, it has been the lightning rod for all kinds of criticism directed at locally produced contemporary dramas. Viewers have taken issue with the show’s lack of subtlety and poorly written dialogue, among other things.
The gathering storm of protest eventually involved two Members of Parliament.
Last week, one of them, Mr Lee Yi Shyan, questioned in a Facebook post the need for characters to shout or scream in order to express themselves.
Mr Lee, who is also Minister of State for Trade and Industry and National Development, tells Life!:”It was not just a particular episode that I based my comments on, but over a period of time. I find that Chinese local drama production has a lot of conversations that feature raised voices, a bit of screaming and shouting to express anger or frustration.”
“Of course human emotions are complex and there will be moments when you will be really angry. But I think in a good drama, everything should be in proportion – you have some gentle, soft moments and then the emotional moments and so on.”
Lianhe Zaobao senior correspondent Ang Ming Hwa agrees, saying that frequent arguments in a drama have become “the focus of the show” over the years. “It becomes a habit they find hard to break. They think that with loud voices, they will catch the audience’s attention but they actually lack creativity,” he adds.
In response, Mr Paul Chan, vice-president of MediaCorp Channel 8 Branding & Promotions says:”For each drama, the dialogue is specially crafted and relates strongly to the social status of the characters, the genre and era. For instance, in a youth drama such as On The Fringe, the teen characters would have more youth-speak dialogue. If we do not capture the essence of the different characters or genres in each drama, we would not be reflecting reality.”
Civil Servant S.L.Leong, 43, has been turned off by Channel 8 dramas because of the quarrelling scenes, which she says happen “most of the time”. She now prefers to watch Channel U’s local productions, some of which are made outside of MediaCorp.
She likes the more “wholesome themes” of shows such as Secret Garden (2010), which looks at psychological problems.
In contrast, she says Channel 8′s recent youth-oriented drama On The Fringe glamorised teen gangs. She adds:”I thought it was a negative portrayal of youngsters, even though the ending was good.”
Assistant Professor Liew Kai Khiun of Nanyang Technological University’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information says the problems he has observed in recent Channel 8 dramas have to do with “little imagination, inspiration and realism in the plot of grumbling parochial and unconvincing characters.”
“I am not convinced that the audience would be pleased with the frequent pretexts for explicitly explaining government policies and the reminders on how fortunate Singaporeans are in receiving handouts.”
This trend of poorly written scripts with propaganda-like dialogue was also seen in shows such as police drama C.L.I.F., which aired in the middle of this year, says student Hubert Wah, 23.
“The police would be introduced into the scenes mid-way, which made part of the show seem like a corporate video or propaganda. It was so fake to me.”
Source: The Straits Times
Categorised in Dramas - General, EN, On The Fringe 边缘父子, The Straits Times.
If things go to plan, more Channel 8 drama serials filmed across the Causeway will air here.
As the first MediaCorp Studios Malaysia drama commissioned by the channel makes its debut this month, the television company says more made-in-Malaysia dramas are to come.
Upcoming dramas include Code of Honour and The Quarters, says the studio’s head Yeo Saik Pin,50.
Code of Honour 正义武馆 debuts 5 December 2011 7pm on Channel 8.
Source: The Straits Times
Categorised in Code of Honour 正义武馆, EN, Ratings 节目收视率, The Straits Times.
