TVB Reflections

Official Launch of “Beyond the Realm of Conscience” Fansite

Aeris — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:57:39 +0000

An English fansite of Beyond the Realm of Conscience has been launched! To enter, please click the image below.

Comic: Growth Curve

Aeris — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:32:40 +0000

What about pageant winners, you say? Flip the curve horizontally.

80’s Portrait: Barbara Yung

Aeris — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:11:19 +0000

This painting required approximately 60 hours of work to complete, with the original sized at 2500px on the largest side. The late Barbara Yung Mei Ling (翁美玲) was best known for her brilliant portrayal of Huang Rong in the unparalleled 1982 adaptation of Jin Yong’s The Legend of the Condor Heroes.

The images below may not be re-posted elsewhere. Please respect my work. Thank you.

Tools: Photoshop CS4 and Wacom Intuos 3 Tablet
Brushes: Customized with soft and hard edges

Basic Painting Process

New “You’re Hired” Album

Aeris — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 05:05:54 +0000

Feel free to browse through the high-quality screen captures of new TVB series You’re Hired added to The Scrapbook.

New gallery launched

Aeris — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 21:58:48 +0000

TVB Reflections Scrapbook is now up and running. The War and Beauty album currently contains the highest amount of screen captures, but all albums are going to be filled with additional images in the coming weeks. My primary focus is on costume and wuxia series, particularly those produced during the golden ages. Please feel free to look around.

Upcoming Plans

Aeris — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:56:18 +0000

Leaving a blog idle for three months is carefree (not to mention slightly embarrassing)… until the cleanup work begins to pile up to a frightening level. The first item I need to check off is the relaunching of the Gallery section that has been down for nearly half a year. With the ongoing sale of DVD releases at YesAsia (consider stocking up now!), I have managed to add a few new sets of 80’s classics to my inventory, and consequently have more screen captures to share.

Perhaps the most important task to complete though is “doing research”, meaning watching a new TVB series. Rosy Business and Emergency Unit have both been generating positive reviews and ratings, but I am leaning a lot more towards the former; the fierce combination of Sheren Tang and Wayne Lai demands attention, and the script appears to be equally strong regardless of whether it is a duplicate of a Mainland drama. In addition, the “Lucky Prince and Little Princess” blog romance in Emergency Unit already turns me off. If you have seen these series, I would love to read your thoughts on them. What are your impressions on the various characters, plots, and performances?

Next on the list is writing a fan fiction. I realize the idea is cliché, but my goal is not penning a love story between two TVB actors who are not actually dating. It is more a matter of preference than it is one of quality, as there must be many well-written, romantic fan fictions dedicated to specific pairings in cyberspace. I am an inadequate writer of romance that is not geeky, so having my contributions will not help that part of TVB fandom. My target genre is science fiction, and the story will most likely be a satire/parody and structured as a script. I want something that is fun for me to write and read, and hopefully, for others as well.

Everything is still being brainstormed, so I have nothing too unexpected to announce while I slowly reform the blog.

Item > Phoenix Down

Aeris — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:59:55 +0000

Greetings from the other side of the fence (mine is overrun with invasive and noxious weeds)! As promised, I have returned in June, and not a nanosecond sooner. My initial plan was to come back from hiatus a week ago, but my extra classes during the summer are still taking up slots in my schedule usually reserved for “slack off time”. In summary, I looked at the math, panicked, and procrastinated. Then I did nothing until today, which resulted in an incomplete layout. While I continue to edit it, I hope you enjoy the revival of a dark design for the blog. And do notify me of any broken links or misaligned elements. I feel relieved to be back.

Thank you all for the support and patience! Please don’t underestimate the power of your kind words.

Comic: An Observation

Aeris — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:21:20 +0000

Try adding velociraptors dressed in trench coats – really levels off that black curve near the end.

A Chiseled “Gem”

Aeris — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:19:20 +0000

More than four months ago, I expressed my belief that the 82-episode blockbuster The Gem of Life would become a modern classic. It had the largest budget to date, a list of experienced actors, and what seemed to be a script soaked in richness of twists and turns. Even with the passing of Gu Long adaptations in the 70’s and those of Jin Yong in the 80’s, I still harbored a thread of hope that TVB producers and writers today could deliver a very memorable series. Now, four months later, I must retract that earlier statement; Gem is neither a classic of the past nor present. It is rather an incomplete product with missing scenes and a lack of continuous flow, leaving viewers to answer their own questions and fill in the blanks. Another point often raised is the slow pace of buildup to climaxes or significant events, but the experience is less tiresome for me than for many others. Ironically, Gem is like a chiseled diamond, a gemstone robbed of its prestige. However, I disagree with some of the harsh comments on various forums declaring it to be the “worst series in TVB history” and that “the producer and writer should be fired” when Guts of Man, Devil’s Disciples, and other low-quality series have been given screen time. There are two factors that ultimately save Gem from being taken down a few more notches:

Solid performances given by main cast members (e.g. Ada Choi and Bowie Lam)
Existence of non-stock characters with ambiguous morality

Jessica is the only Hong sister who captures my attention, and if I were to resume the series later (white flag on episode 60), it would be to finish her story. On the other hand, I am not looking forward to Constance. She may be the “pure” sister of the trio, but the degree of stubbornness, ignorance, and whining she demonstrates rivals that of Terrence – they are truly made for each other. Of course, even with strong output from the cast and a few colorful roles, what still drags down Gem and its contemporaries is the lack of creative writing and direction. We are no longer seeing gut-wrenching dramas centering around revenge, such as 1992’s The Greed of Man, or others based on controversial themes that force us to think outside the box. Nearly every series uses the same formula and is approved for family viewing. For years writers have stopped experimenting, and if the trend continues, I may stop watching altogether.

The Guide to Becoming a TVB Singer

Aeris — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 06:13:16 +0000

No feelings were hurt during the making of this comic.