Highlight: 1994 Anniversary Battle of the Mini-Musicals

Presenting to you, the two mini-musicals from the 1994 TVB Anniversary - definitely a highlight of the show. So many strong performances that night (unlike the crass kind of things TVB pulls out of its bag nowadays. It's almost like they don't do anything - I just end up feeling empty whenever I watch the new ones) and great hosting. I'm sure the audience was well and truly satisfied that night. Anyway, on with the shows!

"Guy and Gal Hooligans: I Love You"
This was a little number featuring Law Ka Ying, Jacky Cheung, Jaclyn Chu and Anita Yuen. Roughly translated, the name of this act would be something like "Guy and Gal Hooligans: I Love You." Heheheh. So yes, they're all acting like juvenile delinquents.

Note: Just noticed this - there are some audio skipping issues with the video. It seems to be a problem with WMV (Windows Media Video files). Will see if I can upload using a different format and hopefully that'll fix the problems. Okay, just found another version uploaded by an Anita Yuen fan - cool. And yes, that's Veronica Yip and Chung-Ming Poon hosting there.  

My 2¢ & Extra Notes: 
- Man, Law Ka Ying AKA Liza Wang's husband is just so LOL.
- Hah. Jacky's afro. While his "younger brother" Law Ka Ying has no hair.
- Jaclyn Chu actually has quite a suitable voice for singing. But I can't say the same for Anita Yuen - I would've thought Kiki Sheung (who does not appear in any of the performances for the 1994 Anniversary) would have a singing voice like Anita's but Kiki has a very good singing voice, surprisingly. And it can go much higher than her talking voice too.

"Gangster Hero"
The other musical featured Cantopop Queen Sally Yeh and TVB heavyweight Adam Cheng as leads. Former Miss Asia Pageant winner Christy Chung also gets a non-speaking role, along with pretty girl singers Winnie Lau, Gigi Lai, Vivian Lai and Karen Tong as Sally's back-up crew. As for this one, "Gangster Hero" would be a loose title translation for this act.


My 2¢ & Extra Notes: 
- Damsel in distress and former beauty queen Christy Chung was sitting in the chair next to Run Run Shaw for 1993's TVB Anniversary, so it must be good to get up and dance around (as opposed to accompanying an old guy for a 2 hour no possibly longer show). Even though Christy didn't know a word of Chinese when she won the Miss Asia Beauty Pageant, she really did work really hard and is now fluent in both Cantonese and Mandarin (so naturally, I do not feel sorry for ABCs who don't bother to learn the language properly. Don't even mention Mr Hong Kong Stephen Huynh. Christy can also speak Vietnamese, French and English as her native tongues).
- I don't know why this is, but Gigi is the only one in white pants from Sally's gang... maybe they ran out of black pants or something? Because those pants are going to stain.
-Sally sure has a cheeky look in her eye when she brings the ring out magically from the air.

So your pick? Which one was your favorite musical of the night? I think they both did very well but I have a tendency to go for comedy (yes, it was Law Ka Ying) and I guess the audiences that night liked this one more according to the viewer votes anyway - why don't they do that anymore? It was like reality TV before reality TV. So yes, there was this time when TVB actually used to care about their audiences back home. We're the ones who made TVB in the first place- after all, no audience, no TVB.Where's the consumer interaction these days?
Video credits: 永遠@心儀 (tudou.com), taqfiles.blogspot.com 

Highlight: 1994 Anniversary Song Time!

This medley celebrating the last 28 years (it was '94) of TVB theme songs and TV shows is definitely one of my favorites from the whole anniversary show. I'm so glad I have this on tape and have been able to preserve it, using the power of technology. It was the last performance for the show so I think they were wrapping things up (like a summary or timeline) - saving the best for last. The performance consisted of Hacken Lee, Vivian Lai, Ekin Cheng, Linda Wong, Dicky Cheung, Gigi Lai, Leo Ku, Nnadia Chan, along with former lovebirds Andy Hui and Sammi Cheng. There were also 'guest appearances' from: Adam Cheng, Felix Wong, Paul Chu, Liza Wang, Bryan Leung with Roman Tam singing at the end too. I've chucked a tracklist of the songs covered just below the clip - enjoy!

Note: There are some audio skipping issues with the video - seems to be a problem with WMV (Windows Media Video files). Will see if I can upload using a different format and hopefully that'll fix the problems. 

Solos:

1. "Shanghai Bund"/上海灘 (Theme from "The Bund"/上海灘) 

2. "Wild River"/狂潮 (Theme from "Wild River"/狂潮) 

3. "The Giants"/強人 (Theme from "The Giants"/強人) 

4. "The Good, the Bad and The Ugly"/網中人 (Theme from "The Good, the Bad and The Ugly"/網中人)

5. "A House Is Not A Home"/家變（Theme from "A House Is Not A Home"/家變)

6. "Thousands of Knots in My Heart"/心有千千結 (Theme from "Thousands of Knots in My Heart"/心有千千結)

7. "Hard to Divide the Good and Evil"/難為正邪定分界 (Theme from "You Only Live Twice"/飛越十八層) 

8. "Using Love to Steal a Heart"/用愛將心會偷 (Theme from "The Shell Game"/千王之王) 

9. "Swearing to Never Back Down"/誓不低頭 (Theme from "The Final Verdict"/誓不低頭) - 

10. "Meaning of Life"/一生何求 (Theme from "Looking Back in Anger"/義不容情)

Duets:

1. "Love is Warm Inside the Heart"/爱在心内暖 (Theme from "The Misadventure of Zoo"/流氓皇帶)  

2. "You're the Best in the World"/世間始終你好 (Theme from "Legend of the Condor Heroes"/射鵰英雄傳之華山論劍) 

3. "The Romantic Swordsman"/小李飛刀 (Theme from "The Romantic Swordsman"/小李飛刀) 

4. "Purple Hairpin"/紫玉釵 （Theme from "The Legend of the Purple Hairpin"/紫釵記)

5. "Forget About Us in the Smoky Waters"/兩忘煙水裡 (Theme from "The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils"/天龍八部之六脈神劍) 

Last but not least:

"A Promising Future"/前程錦繡 (Theme from "A Promising Future"/前程錦繡) 

My 2¢ & Extra Notes: 

- I particularly like this segment from the whole anniversary because all the singers featured show us how it's done, with excellent song choice and arrangements done all for the purpose of this medley.  

- Nnadia's rendition of "Using Love to Steal a Heart" is really quite impressive indeed, even though she already proved to us that she really could sing when she entered that Sally Yeh impersonation contest when she was just 14.  

- Then they do the whole duets thing and that just kills me (in a good way, of course!). 

- That, and Linda actually sings the duet better than the original (compared to  Louise Lee who sung with Adam Cheng in the series).

- Totally just proves that Vivian is definitely more than just another pretty girl singer with her take on Roman Tam and Jenny Tseng's "You're the Best in the World" with Ekin. That song is all about good timing, power vocals and having a trusting partnership with your singing partner. That, and Felix looks  really smart and handsome in his suit :)

- Actually No. 3 for the duets would be better literally translated as "The Small Flying Dagger of Justice". As a side-thought, I can see why Gigi earned the title "Goddess of Beauty" during her career and I always wonder how Dicky still had a full head of hair at the time. 

- I also prefer Leo and Nadia's version of "Purple Hairpin" over the original version by Liza Wang and Adam Cheng, actually. 

- I'm pretty sure that's Miss HK 1994 Halina Tam sitting next to Run Run Shaw in that chair.

- LOL. Just watch Sammi's expression when Bryan comes out. Bet she didn't expect that. :D

- And Ekin's mentor Roman Tam appears at the end too, singing another one of his well-known theme songs.

Video credits: taqfiles.blogspot.com