So far, audiences’ response to TVB series “The Hippocratic Crush” has been pretty good. In a recent storyline development, the character of Yat Hong (Nathan Ngai) was gravely injured trying to save someone, just moments after starting a relationship with the girl he likes, Jing Jing (Candy Chang), then at the hospital, his older brother Yat Kin (Kenneth Ma) tries to save him, but without success. Upon learning of her son’s death, the mother (Gigi Wong) asks her son Yat Kin through tears why he was not able to save his little brother. In utilizing such tearjerking story elements as the scene described above, it’s obvious that the producer understands how to utilize the ‘heartfelt’ elements usually found in a family soap opera to elicit empathetic tears from the audiences.
“The Hippocratic Crush” can technically be considered the ‘graduation exam’ for Kenneth Ma (馬國明) and Tavia Yeung (楊怡) to successfully move up the ‘lead actor/actress’ ladder, however it can also be said that the series is a reflection of TVB’s current situation in the face of the upcoming ‘battle’ of the TV stations. Traditionally, in a TVB series, not only are the lead artists usually ‘household’ names, even the second and third line supporting artists are generally ‘familiar faces’ – for years, TVB artists have given this feeling of ‘familiarity’ to HK audiences. However with “The Hippocratic Crush”, TVB appears to have parted from tradition – other than the first and second lead roles being specially tailored to the artists who portray them, much of the remaining cast consists of ‘unfamiliar’ faces. For example, how many audiences know the name of the actor who plays Kenneth Ma’s brother ‘Yat Hong’? How about the actress who plays Yat Hong’s girlfriend ‘Jing Jing’? After closely scrutinizing the names listed in the credits, we see that ‘Yat Hong’ is played by Nathan Ngai (魏焌皓) and ‘Jing Jing’ is played by Candy Chang (張慧雯). Despite the lack of ‘familiarity’, the impressive performances of these 2 newcomers successfully left a deep impression on audiences, making it highly likely that they could ‘move up’ at any minute.
Promoting newcomers is definitely necessary, as there would not be the ‘old’ without the ‘new’ – besides, even the best of actors as well as superstars require a constant cultivation of talent. But with “The Hippocratic Crush”, it becomes obvious that the sudden ‘onslaught’ of newcomers is the direct result of TVB’s recent deficit in ‘familiar’ artists rather than a purposeful ‘promotion’ of newcomers – after all, the series is definitely not an ‘idol drama’ (where the focus is normally on a group of young newcomers) and the characters were not specially created and tailored with the intention of promoting the newcomers in the series.
In addition to behind-the-scenes talents [scriptwriters / directors / producers] being ‘poached’, many of TVB’s first-line siu sangs and fa dans have also left in favor of making ‘real’ money through outside opportunities – even many of the second / third line and supporting artists have decided to leave the nest! As more and more series with ‘unfamiliar’ faces and artists that most audiences can’t name continue to air, TVB will slowly lose the ‘familiarity’ element that has been its most favorable asset over the years. On the contrary, if more and more ‘familiar’ faces start appearing on the other free-to-air television stations instead, audiences who are already used to these ‘familiar’ faces may tune in and mistakenly think that they are actually watching TVB. Could this mean that TVB’s ‘customary ratings’ phenomenon may finally be challenged?
Credits: MingPao
Translation: llwy12@ http://asianfanatics.net
Thought this was pretty interesting to know, even if it was published months ago :) I definitely think that Candy and Nathan will move up quickly :)
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