文：玲子

8频道前几部长寿剧屡屡失利，5月底首播至今的《老友万岁》力挽狂澜，似乎奏效。

总共130集的《老》播到今晚已54集，据新传媒提供的收视数据，首42集覆盖观众达176万人次，高过《新明日报》之前报道的首24集152万覆盖人次，看来相当受到观众支持。

老人角色真实、有看头

徐彬、瑞恩有火花

剧情突破以往敏感区

第二阶段令人期待

RBKD: 欲读全文可点击以下衔接。

Source: Zaobao

Categorised in CH, Old Is Gold 老友万岁, Reviews, Zaobao.

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文: 玲子

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A post shared by Official Fan Club of Rui En (@rbkd) on Mar 31, 2019 at 8:14pm PDT

明晚即将落幕的《阴错阳差》开播后评价两极化，拥护者对其赞誉有加，无法认同的观众也不少。

2005年上映的本地剧《阴差阳错》，陈之财到阴间与祖先相遇，趣事连连，与其说新版的《阴错阳差》仿效韩国电影《与神同行》，倒不如说是向这部14年前的经典片致敬，尤其两剧同时选用林俊杰作品当主题曲，致敬之意尽在不言中。

《与神同行》同样以地府及鬼差为主线，口碑票房兼收不无道理，不乏本地剧可取经学习之处，例如《阴》节奏可以更精准，故事方向更有深度，增加预算强化场景，对白也可再加强。

构思有新意的《阴》表现已在近年本地剧平均水准以上。编剧温雪莹以不说教的方式，传达正面讯息，寓教于乐，让观众反思自己的言行是否有资格获得“圣人之光”。

编剧以温馨、新鲜但不失创意的方法，处理死后世界的概念，观众即便信仰和理念不同，也能接受。美中不足的是编剧将家喻户晓的牛头马面、黑白无常塑造成贪官污吏，不仅导致角色存在性重叠，也让原本扮演惩恶劝善的地府，沦为跟世间无异的官僚机构。虽说创作可异想天开，但这些改动违背了传统民俗的认知，也让部分观众无法苟同，甚至评为荒谬。

瑞恩结局演技大爆发

本来觉得瑞恩此番回归的首作，不生锈便好，期待不大。她久未拍片，要凭这种奇幻题材的角色突围较不易。观众虽认同瑞恩是能演之人，总希望看到演员更上一层楼的表演。

瑞恩这次回归荧幕，引人瞩目的身形变化，我不想多谈。但瑞恩是哭戏哭得漂亮的本地演员之一，她在大结局的演技可谓大爆发，第20集接连几场戏悲痛到位，让观众动容，很有震撼力。另外，瑞恩或许是长假归来充足电，所以更能带出角色的开朗与活泼。

陈泓宇和瑞恩之前在《志在四方》的配对记忆犹新。这次再聚首有默契，演技也棋逢对手，看了舒服。陈泓宇的深情角色绝对是迷妹首推，他如若眼神更深情应该会更有吸引力。

阎王迷恋女色，找戏做？

郭舒贤出走后的作品大多是哇哇制作。这一次的角色很特别，个性古板却有少女情怀，她和瑞恩的闺蜜情是本地剧里跨年龄女星少见的桥段，意外有亮点。加上陈泓宇，三人行的戏也是让人看得很愉悦。

新版阎王陈汉玮不够威严，少了霸气也少了架势。本地剧常年以家庭剧为主，陈汉玮近年演惯小男人，稍嫌少了点领袖和王者风采。郭舒贤和陈汉玮的配对让我想起当年的《阳光列车》，集体回忆涌现。但两人戏里的感情线铺排不深，让观众觉得找戏做。编剧倒不如专注发展瑞恩和陈泓宇的感情线，无须另辟这条有心无力的感情线。如此一来，阎王也不必被塑造成迷恋女色，昏庸无能，真是得不偿失，两边不着岸啊。

资深演员令观众忆当年

本地剧因预算有限，往往主角不是少了个爸，就是少了个妈。这一次全剧共有四个爸、三个妈、两个阿公、一个阿嫲。老演员聚首，满满回忆。荪保玲、陈国华第9集戏里面对女儿去世的悲哀，朱玉叶第19集里睡梦中忧郁地惊醒，真是精彩。

扮演牛头马面上身的洪慧芳、王昱清比本尊陈天文和黄炯耀的表现更突出亮眼，也更搞笑。尤其后来他们的性格还原，反差极大，看出演员的功力。可惜同样的笑果看多了会腻，还须见好就收。

最后不得不提《阴》里的“无脸功臣”主题曲和插曲。《阴》不仅适时播出林俊杰《醉赤壁》的悦耳歌曲带出情感，更利用五月天《知足》的歌词，顶替第16集的一段台词，甚有异曲同工之妙。

我已预先看了大结局，未免剧透，只能说：结局有惊喜。喜欢此剧的人看了会意犹未尽，或许得备着纸巾拭泪，而且大结局最好从头看到尾，因为前面几场戏甚是感人。

Source: Zaobao

Categorised in CH, Hello From The Other Side 阴错阳差, Reviews, Zaobao, Zaobao.

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By Joanna Goh

If Only I Could

RBKD: “If Only I Could” was complimented for being a welcome change from the usual family dramas, exploring “deeper themes of fate and destiny – something we’d never expect to encounter in a local TV series”.

Toggle listed the following as the drama’s best aspects: theme song, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law’s squabbles, Andie’s chemistry with Rui En.

Rui En’s acting as an aunty was also singled out and named as a defining role in her acting resume.

Click here to read the full review of Toggle’s compliments for “If Only I Could”.

C.L.I.F. 4

RBKD: CLIF4 was complimented for its heart thumping car chases and memorable action scenes, such as Elvin’s bicycle chasing scene, “the smartly-choreographed fight scene” between Rui En’s Zhijie and Fang Ruoting, and the bus hostage scene involving Zhang Yaodong and Rui En’s characters

Click here to read Toggle’s compliments for CLIF4 in their exact words.

Source: Toggle

Categorised in C.L.I.F. 4 警徽天职 4, EN, Facebook, If Only I Could... 十年...你还好吗？, Reviews, Social Media, Toggle SG.

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By Joanna Goh

Bring back the action and excitement: Why it’s time to reboot the C.L.I.F. franchise. More: https://t.co/yV8rSkGeb1 #clif4 pic.twitter.com/AJo12F1nG9

— Toggle (@ToggleSG) October 4, 2016

RBKD: We recommend you click on the link for the full review as we only provide a summary here.

Toggle thinks that it’s time to reboot the C.L.I.F. series after four thrilling seasons. Compared to its predecessors, Toggles finds C.L.I.F. 4 muted and pared-down with less action and more talk except for a few nail-biting fight and intense scenes – episodes 14/15’s bus hostage scene and episode 16’s kickass fight between Huang Zhijie (Rui En) and Fang Ruoting (Grace Teo) were singled out.

The breadth of cases covered were thought to be less extensive this season, focusing more on characters hatching and exacting revenge plans and tackling seemingly-mundane love and family problems etc..

Slide 2: The drama has reached its maximum story-telling lifespan for its current set of characters
Slide 3: To give the actors better roles and character developments
Slide 4: To have the perfect excuse to bring back other actors formerly from this franchise
Slide 5: To flesh out a different side of the SPF and showcase more high profile cases
Slide 6: Making a case for having a mole in the police force

Source: Toggle

Categorised in C.L.I.F. 2 警徽天职 2, C.L.I.F. 3 警徽天职 3, C.L.I.F. 4 警徽天职 4, EN, Reviews, Toggle SG, Unriddle 2 最火搭档 2.

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By Joanna Goh

RBKD: Toggle said that “If Only I Could” is more than just a regular family drama: it is based on three characters traveling to the past to change their unfortunate lives.

Check out what the writer likes about the show.

Slide 1: If Only We Could…
Slide 2: If only we could have more dramas with such story-telling calibre

A photo posted by Official Fan Club of Rui En (@rbkd) on Jun 27, 2016 at 5:34pm PDT

Slide 3: If only we could give Rui En an award for her convincing transformation as an aunty
Slide 4: If only we could give Hong Hui Fang a meatier role in the drama
Slide 5: If only we could give the theme song an award
Slide 6: If only we could pair up Rui En and Andie Chen in another drama – again
Slide 7: If only we could reduce the number of intimate scenes Paige and Elvin in the drama
Slide 8: If only we could get a better payoff from Xi Wen and De Gang’s outcome
Slide 9: If only we could tweak the abrupt non-ending

Source: Toggle

Categorised in EN, If Only I Could... 十年...你还好吗？, Reviews, Toggle SG.

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By Foong Woei Wan

In Crescendo, the current Channel 8 drama about the music business, Jiang Chufan (Tay Ping Hui) is the musical genius responsible for countless songs in the Singaporean songbook and his friend Yang Yiwei (Christopher Lee) is the businessman.

Yiwei is also the hero here. As the chief executive officer of a struggling record label he started with Chufan and another friend, Luo Dawei (Darren Lim), Yiwei takes real risks, from gulping a mystery drink (possibly urine) to appease a Chinese investor to mortgaging his own home to finance the debut of Alixia (Olivia Ong), a Singaporean singer championed by Chufan.

To be specific, Yiwei is a Singaporean hero – the latest in a long line of mavericks imagined by WaWa Pictures in dramas including Secrets For Sale and Game Plan – who runs the quantifiable risks that Singaporeans understand, but might not take.

Singapore, in founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew’s formulation, is a country that can’t afford poetry and it follows that music is an extravagance too.

In Crescendo, Yiwei, Chufan and Dawei have to face the costs, financial and human, of being in the music business.

In early episodes, Yiwei and Chufan lock horns over the former’s plan to enter a lucrative contract to produce vanity records for a Chinese tycoon’s goddaughter, which will delay the debut of the composer’s talented, disheartened student, Alixia.

And in a strain of melodrama, Chufan is still good friends with Yiwei’s estranged wife Wang Yafang (Cynthia Koh), who sang with the boys back in junior college, during the surge of xinyao, Singaporean folk-pop, in the 1980s.

Later, after the label decides to put Singaporean talent first and promote Alixia in the more significant Taiwanese market, she has second thoughts.

Typecast as a dummy on a Taiwanese variety show, she tires of having to play-act to draw viewers’ attention, when all she wants to do is sing.

She also bumps into Xueli (Ann Kok), a former xinyao singer who is now a walking cautionary tale. Xueli, who is also Dawei’s first love, landed in Taiwan years ago, never made it big and has been reduced to singing at a steakhouse.

But her unhappiness has a way of fading, or being transformed, when she sings Mavis Hee’s I Know And Yet.

And in flashbacks to Yiwei and Chufan’s youth, in the innocent years before the business grew prominent, the music shines: a wealth of xinyao, intimately performed by actors including Bonnie Loo, back when the characters had nothing and yet everything.

Source: Straits Times

Categorised in EN, Reviews, Straits Times, The Straits Times.

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