Show 1 have ended and I have concluded my views from that. Now, it's time to share my views on Show 2. Show 2 is basically more on giving out awards to the entertainers who have contributed and have shown outstanding performances from dramas to variety shows to news.
Like what I have mentioned in the previous post, guests overseas were invited to present awards to the entertainers. List of guests include Calvin Chen, Choi Hao-Ran, Chung Hsin-Ling, Ekin Cheng, Karen Mok, Plungon, Sasa, Ivana Wong, James Tseng (Zeng Guo Cheng), Ella etc. Local guests like Li Nanxing, Huang Biren, Zoe Tay and Yao Wenlong were also there to present awards
Before the awards ceremony, I expected Plungon, James Tseng and Chung Hsin-Ling would give exciting speeches during the ceremony. I was right, even the audience area was filled with laughter while they were presenting.
Here are some of the highlights and my views from Show 2.
1. Exciting Speeches made the Awards Ceremony Less Boring
I've watched Golden Bell Awards from Taiwan through cable TV. It was at least 4 hours instead of 3 hours for Star Awards. However, it was a boring awards ceremony. Even if the guests were presenting their speeches, the audience area was very quiet, sometimes a bit of laughter. At that time, you would feel something is wrong.
Star Awards? Yes, there were some incidents when the audience area was quiet but there's always a trick. Whenever the guests or hosts called out an entertainer's name, the fan club members would scream their lungs out. It's good...but TV audience would always hate it. Over the years, there were complaints posted in newspapers from the audience saying that fan club members should control themselves.
This year, screaming was still there but overseas guests this time contributed a lot as compared to previous years. Plungon's creative song, singing out the list of nominated variety programmes, made the ceremony alive. After that, James Tseng and Chun Hsin-Ling's catwalk show once again brighten up the mood. Last but not least, James Tseng and Ella's witty conversations while presenting the 10 Most Popular Male Artiste Awards ended the ceremony in a perfect way.
My question to the Star Awards team, when will I see this kind of perfect combination?
2. Celebrities are Falling Down, Falling Down and Falling Down
The show ended perfectly but there were some incidents along the way. During the Red Carpet, Rebecca Lim fell down. During the awards ceremony, Jeanette Aw and Taiwan artiste, Daisy Fong both fell down as well. Altogether, there were 3 incidents (Maybe more, I could've miscount).
Jeanette's fall was memorable because she was presented the All Time Favorite Artiste Award (To get this, an entertainer has to get 10 awards from 10 Most Popular Male/Female Artiste Awards) along with Vivian Lai. It could be the steps or the dress or the slippery floor. I think that the steps could be the culprit because it was so confusing that it could mislead that it was a plain ground. The team this time really did not take care of the stage. Thankfully, there was not much of an issue and the ceremony continued as it was.
3. Unexpected to be the Winner
Most award ceremonies always have this kind of situation. People thought that he/she/that programme would be the winner for that category but judges seem to have different tastes.
For example, Best Supporting Actress went to Joanne Peh (J) from The Journey: Tumultuous Times. Honestly, I didn't watch that drama serial at all but when I look through Wikipedia, she only acted in 2 episodes (WHAT?!). In that drama, she died from injuries suffered from rape and torture by the Japanese on Episode 2. Another actress, Carrie Wong, from that same drama acted even more than her. Audience and fans were all hoping her to win but ended up losing for no reason. On social media, while many congratulated J for the win, people could not understand why she won.
Possibilities could be though she's only acted in 2 episodes, performance was better than the others? Or maybe judges liked that mature content and gave her a win?
Anyway, it was just unreasonable. Could it mean that in the future, actors/actresses who only acted in 1 or 2 episodes would have a chance to get nominations and also a chance to win the award? As a wild thought, acting in only 10 minutes of the whole drama serial will be possible to see someone getting a nomination and win the award.
Other than that, the winner for Best Info-ed Programme Host also caused an uproar to many.
Best Variety Special went to Star Awards 20. My comment? How on earth would Star Awards win Star Awards? Also, that's not the 1st time they won that award.
4. Blockbuster Drama = Big Win?!
Every year, there would be a so-called Blockbuster Drama. When there's Blockbuster Drama, the 1st thing that comes to my mind is "They are going to win Star Awards next year!".
The Little Nyonya in 2008, Together in 2009, Breakout in 2010, The Dream Makers in 2013 and The Journey: Tumultuous Times in 2014. Those were blockbuster dramas and they were big winners. However, not all dramas turned out to be best from TV audience. The Little Nyonya was the only drama to win the Top Rated Drama Serial award based on TV ratings so I feel that Blockbuster Drama does not really mean a big win when they did not get best ratings. It's like the ceremony is "forced" to give the awards to the Blockbuster Drama.
Other highlights include overly-competitive popularity contest resulting in many young artistes winning the 10 Most Popular Artiste Awards, filming of the red carpet not up to expectations, muting of one of the winner's speech considered rude but could not afford to delay the ceremony and touching the black rose turned out to be the award winner.
That wraps up with my views for the 2 Star Awards shows. Next year, would there be more unexpected results when they move into a new location? We shall see next year.
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
My Views from Star Awards 2015: Show 1
Honestly, I have been obsessed with Korean entertainment, from Infinity Challenge to Running Man to Gag Concert to dramas such as Good Doctor... (Yes, that was the latest drama that I have watched in full). Well, it's time to switch back to Singapore where the annual Star Awards was held over the last 2 Sunday evenings.
This year's Star Awards consisted of 2 shows. It has been this format since 2010. Previously Show 1, which was for the technical category, newscaster and current affairs, and young talent award , was held at a gala dinner separately and was shown on TV (which is Show 2, for the entertainers) for merely 5 minutes (Just guessing). This year was also the final year where the awards ceremony took place at Caldecott Hill before moving to a new venue, Mediapolis.
Overall, Star Awards 2015 was better than last year except for the fact it turned out to be an overly-competitive popularity contest. Other than that, I always feel something fishy about the judges' decisions over presenting the award to someone whom we felt that the other one deserved to be won.
Show 1 will be discussed here while Show 2 will be updated in the next entry.
Star Awards Show 1:
This year was the first year I've recorded the show as I was away from Singapore. Since 2010, I like watching Show 1 even though the awards given out are to the people behind the scenes. In between the ceremony, there's skits and performances especially in previous years, entertainers will portray people behind the scenes which audience could rarely see it. It gave a good laugh although I really don't know whether the people being portrayed really did those actions.
Below is the list of what I liked about Show 1:
1. Hong Hui Fang (H) and Chen Han Wei (C) portraying some of the drama roles they have acted in such as "Samsui Women" and "Cupid Love" while presenting the Best Costume and Image Design
While C acted as Wenqiang in "Cupid Love", I predicted that he would say "S'il te plait" which he always uses it in another drama. Indeed, he said it while talking to another entertainer, Desmond Tan (D), in the audience area. Reason? D "stole C's song" (referring to the song "关怀方式" used in Cupid Love).
2. "7 Princesses of Caldecott Hill" Spoof Skit
No more portraying of people behind the scenes! This time, it was the famous "7 Princesses" which was a "hot topic" back in the late 2000s. I like Kate Pang portraying Rui En in "Against the Tide" and the unexpected Chua En Lai portraying Joanne Peh in "The 'Mole' Makers" (Originally, it was called "The Dream Makers", one of the blockbuster dramas in 2013). The placement of his prosthetic mole really made me laughed hard as different positions representing different entertainers such as himself, Phua Chu Kang, Rui En and back to his role.
3. Big Bang came to the ceremony? Erm...It's "Big Bank".
I didn't hold much expectations when I heard Big Bang performing as rarely you would see guests overseas being invited in Show 1. Show 2? Yes, there are. As the faces were revealed while performing, it was another portraying act again. Guo Liang (G), Dennis Chew (D) and Jeremy Chan (J) were the ones performing as Big Bank. Initially I didn't know they were called "Big Bank" as I didn't the Chinese translation "大银行" until I watched again on Youtube They performed the fruits version of "Fantastic Baby" where Papaya, Banana and Rambutan etc... were heard in the lyrics. It's creative but don't know how the real Big Bang fans would feel.
Before I forget, J performed as "G-Dragon" or "G-龙", D performed as "Taeyang" and G performed as "T.O.P" or worst "TOP 洗衣粉" (TOP Detergent Powder in Chinese, a detergent brand).
Other highlights include Rui En's "Black Face" during the presentation of the Favorite Male and Female Characters awards which turned out to be a hot topic but after that, it was resolved in Show 2, and Jeanette Aw bagged 6 awards (Most Popular Regional Artiste Awards for Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia, Social Media Award, Favorite Onscreen Couple with Zhang Zhenhuan and Favorite Female Character) but expressed her wish for withdrawal from those voting-based award categories due to fans leaving messages that they would harm themselves if she didn't win. Well, even if my favorite didn't win the award this time, there's still next time. I feel that there's no need to be fully obsessed with the voting-based awards and focused on other things. Ending your life for that doesn't worth it.
That's all for the wonderful Show 1 performances. Show 2 is in the next entry.
This year's Star Awards consisted of 2 shows. It has been this format since 2010. Previously Show 1, which was for the technical category, newscaster and current affairs, and young talent award , was held at a gala dinner separately and was shown on TV (which is Show 2, for the entertainers) for merely 5 minutes (Just guessing). This year was also the final year where the awards ceremony took place at Caldecott Hill before moving to a new venue, Mediapolis.
Overall, Star Awards 2015 was better than last year except for the fact it turned out to be an overly-competitive popularity contest. Other than that, I always feel something fishy about the judges' decisions over presenting the award to someone whom we felt that the other one deserved to be won.
Show 1 will be discussed here while Show 2 will be updated in the next entry.
Star Awards Show 1:
This year was the first year I've recorded the show as I was away from Singapore. Since 2010, I like watching Show 1 even though the awards given out are to the people behind the scenes. In between the ceremony, there's skits and performances especially in previous years, entertainers will portray people behind the scenes which audience could rarely see it. It gave a good laugh although I really don't know whether the people being portrayed really did those actions.
Below is the list of what I liked about Show 1:
1. Hong Hui Fang (H) and Chen Han Wei (C) portraying some of the drama roles they have acted in such as "Samsui Women" and "Cupid Love" while presenting the Best Costume and Image Design
While C acted as Wenqiang in "Cupid Love", I predicted that he would say "S'il te plait" which he always uses it in another drama. Indeed, he said it while talking to another entertainer, Desmond Tan (D), in the audience area. Reason? D "stole C's song" (referring to the song "关怀方式" used in Cupid Love).
2. "7 Princesses of Caldecott Hill" Spoof Skit
No more portraying of people behind the scenes! This time, it was the famous "7 Princesses" which was a "hot topic" back in the late 2000s. I like Kate Pang portraying Rui En in "Against the Tide" and the unexpected Chua En Lai portraying Joanne Peh in "The 'Mole' Makers" (Originally, it was called "The Dream Makers", one of the blockbuster dramas in 2013). The placement of his prosthetic mole really made me laughed hard as different positions representing different entertainers such as himself, Phua Chu Kang, Rui En and back to his role.
3. Big Bang came to the ceremony? Erm...It's "Big Bank".
I didn't hold much expectations when I heard Big Bang performing as rarely you would see guests overseas being invited in Show 1. Show 2? Yes, there are. As the faces were revealed while performing, it was another portraying act again. Guo Liang (G), Dennis Chew (D) and Jeremy Chan (J) were the ones performing as Big Bank. Initially I didn't know they were called "Big Bank" as I didn't the Chinese translation "大银行" until I watched again on Youtube They performed the fruits version of "Fantastic Baby" where Papaya, Banana and Rambutan etc... were heard in the lyrics. It's creative but don't know how the real Big Bang fans would feel.
Before I forget, J performed as "G-Dragon" or "G-龙", D performed as "Taeyang" and G performed as "T.O.P" or worst "TOP 洗衣粉" (TOP Detergent Powder in Chinese, a detergent brand).
Other highlights include Rui En's "Black Face" during the presentation of the Favorite Male and Female Characters awards which turned out to be a hot topic but after that, it was resolved in Show 2, and Jeanette Aw bagged 6 awards (Most Popular Regional Artiste Awards for Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia, Social Media Award, Favorite Onscreen Couple with Zhang Zhenhuan and Favorite Female Character) but expressed her wish for withdrawal from those voting-based award categories due to fans leaving messages that they would harm themselves if she didn't win. Well, even if my favorite didn't win the award this time, there's still next time. I feel that there's no need to be fully obsessed with the voting-based awards and focused on other things. Ending your life for that doesn't worth it.
That's all for the wonderful Show 1 performances. Show 2 is in the next entry.
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