realizing awards

After a month's wait and endless voting, the winners of TVB's 39th Anniversary Awards are here!

Best Actor - Kevin Cheng (Under The Canopy of Love)

Oh... my... god! I was shocked when Kevin's name was in the top 5 for both Most Improved Actor and Best Actor. I knew something off was going to happen. Kevin wasn't going to win Most Improved Actor as expected. Apparently, Miss Lok felt that that award wasn't "enough" for her favorite boy toy, so she decided to give him Best Actor instead. I can't say I'm surprised. I knew that Kevin held a high position at TVB because of Miss Lok's fondness of him, but I couldn't believe they would give him Best Actor so soon. He only got popular because of Under the Canopy of Love. Truthfully speaking, I thought Bowie Lam would win again because of his over-confidence. Even though I don't like Bowie much and hated his cocky attitude about being so sure of winning Best Actor a second time, I would rather he have won over Kevin. It is such a disappointment that Bobby Au-Yeung didn't even make the top 5. At least TVB listened to me and didn't give it to Joe Ma... maybe I should be "happy" they answered that request. But Kevin? I'm appalled. I don't like him (as most of you know) and TVB is making it even harder for me to like him by pushing him so high when he's not that great.

Best Actress - Charmaine Sheh (Maiden's Vow)



This is not surprising. It was either going to be Myolie Wu or Charmaine for Best Actress. Ada Choi and Sheren Tang didn't have a chance. I haven't seen Charmaine's performance in Maiden's Vow, so I can't comment whether or not she deserved to win for her roles in that series. I can say, though, that I'm glad she didn't win for The Dance of Passion because her performance as "Chun Fan" was so lack-luster. For me, the best performance Charmaine ever gave to this day was as "Lai Shun Fung" in Country Spirit. She surely put her "ability to cry in 30 seconds" to use during her acceptance speech when she claimed she didn't believe she'd win. For that - I believe she deserved the award.

Best Supporting Actor - Kenny Wong (The Dance of Passion)



I was hoping that Wayne Lai would win, but sadly, he didn't get any recognition. I'm indifferent towards Kenny. He's not bad, but somehow, I can't feel anything from his performances. He was drab in The Dance of Passion, but he was acceptable in War and Beauty. It was pretty obvious that Kenny was going to win because his popularity surged thanks to the many shirtless scenes in Dance. I just didn't believe TVB would award him Best Supporting Actor just because he was the most popular of all the candidates...

Best Supporting Actress - Shirley Yeung (Always Ready)



So this was why Shirley was hopping around getting molested as she tried to be "sexy" and "grown up" and saying that she wanted to get Best Supporting Actress and was "hopeful" for it. It seems like she and TVB had already "arranged" for her to win. This is such an insult to all of the wonderful veteran actresses who were nominated. I'm sorry, but aside from the fact that her role in Always Ready couldn't walk, Shirley still acted the same as she always did with the shouting, exaggerated and fake expressions and mannerism, and the same incredibly irritating role. If it's any consolation, however, this means that TVB now considers Shirley a "supporting actress" - which is news to rejoice to! We no longer have to suffer with her "leading."

Most Improved Actor - Kenneth Ma (The Herbalist's Manual, La Femme Desperado, Love Guaranteed, To Grow With Love)



Maybe it's the roles that Kenneth gets, but I've never liked him very much. He annoys me somehow. The only time I kind of liked him was in Wong Fei Hung - Master of Kung Fu when his character was actually pretty decent. Somehow, I can't click with him and he doesn't make me feel for his characters. I wish Sammul Chan had won this award instead. Luckily, Steven Ma and Michael Tse didn't get this award. It would have been such a slap to their faces!

Most Improved Actress - Linda Chung (Always Ready, The Biter Bitten, Forensic Heroes)



Between the two Virtues of Harmony beauties, who could have ever imagined that Linda would win Most Improved Actress before Bernice Liu? I've said before that I didn't want Linda to win because she's not deserving of the award yet and I honestly do believe that. I prayed and hoped that she wouldn't because I know the haters will have a field day with this probably until next year. Linda will definitely be the target of criticism and I hoped she could have avoided this by not taking the award this year. Everything pointed the award to her as she was the "strongest contender." Alas, she did win and being a fan, I can only support her and congratulate her for the win.

I can't say I'm "happy" because I don't think she should have gotten it, but then again, I wonder if I would have been "upset" if she lost after being such a "hot favorite." I really don't know. My feelings were and remain conflicted. I just hope that Linda will be able to prove herself competent with her upcoming releases. This is the only way she can assuage the "upset" of all the haters. I have faith in her.

Obviously, the stakes have been raised for Linda and she will have to work much, much harder. Within 2 years, she has filmed 8 series (over 200 episodes), attracted the eyes of numerous advertisers and sponsors, and now she has won Most Improved Actress. She's gone way up shockingly fast and now she will have to prove that she has what it takes to stay around. She's pretty much done and accomplished everything that every newcomer aspires to do in such a short period of time. It makes me wonder what's next for Linda... I'm glad she admitted in her acceptance speech that she still has much to work on and I know for sure that one day she can mature into a great actress. She already has had a great start and she is willing to learn and likes to act. For that, I am happy to be her fan and support her all the way.

It's going to be tough dealing with all of the criticism, but in the minds of many people, this award already had Linda's name on it, so it doesn't make much of a difference now that she actually won it after all. Linda looked absolutely beautiful at the awards ceremony. She plays the whole pure and innocent thing wonderfully.

Most Favorite Male Character - Steven Ma - Seung Chi (Safe Guards)



Thank god TVB didn't let Steven walk home empty handed! "Seung Chi" is my most favorite male character of the year, so I am very pleased with this. I expected Raymond Lam to win because these "character awards" are supposed to be "consolation awards." Luckily, that didn't happen. If Charmaine Sheh could pick up Best Actress and Most Favorite Female Character, Steven should have been able to do the same. Unfortunately, he hasn't enticed the eyes of Miss Lok. However, it's great that he won this award! It's awesome news. Hopefully he can bag Best Actor next year.

Most Favorite Female Character - Charmaine Sheh - Ngai Ju Fung, Wong Jee Gwan, Bak Wai Jan, Dai Sze Ga (Maiden's Vow)



Poor Myolie Wu - she gained a bunch of weight to play "Fat Tin" and didn't even get a consolation prize. In Hollywood, she would have gotten something for her great sacrifice, but in Hong Kong, she has gotten nothing but criticism for "making fat people look bad" in To Grow With Love. On the plus side though, at least she gained cup sizes and hey - that's a pretty decent trade off.

Who would have expected that Charmaine would pick up not only Best Actress but Most Favorite Female Character as well?

Best Series - La Femme Desperado



I'm upset that Michael Tse and Sheren Tang didn't pick up any awards of their own. I can't say that I'm disappointed because I knew their chances weren't great. Still, I was hopeful... However, La Femme Desperado winning Best Series is much in part due to them, so it's very nice. Femme deservingly won this award and I'm so happy it did. My prediction for this category was spot-on. There was no other winner for this award besides Femme.