Now that “Bottled Passion” has ended and his next series “Stairway to Heaven” is in post-production, TVB golden producer Lee Tim Sing (Tim Gor) has started preparing for his newest series “Detective Columbo” – actor Wayne Lai will star in this new series, which could very well be Tim Gor’s last production prior to retirement: “Unless something unexpected comes up, yes, this will most likely be the last one.” TV fans are surely hoping for something ‘unexpected’ to happen! After spending 4 decades in the industry, will Tim Gor miss the work? “It’s not really a matter of missing or not. I’m already 65 years old – it’s truly time for me to step down.”With a career that spans 43 years and numerous hit series to his credit, Tim Gor does not wish to deliberately pick any one series as his ‘representative’ work: “I put my heart and soul into every single series I produce and each time, I strive to make the best series possible – though of course, it’s not always possible!” With limited production resources, of course it may not always be possible to achieve the best visual effects, however when it comes to choosing suitable actors and actresses for his series, Tim Gor certainly has an eye for talent. From a casting perspective, Tim Gor feels that “The Duke of Mount Deer” (1984) and “The Emissary” (1982) were ‘very close to perfection’, while classics such as “The Fate” (1980) and “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” (1979) had ‘golden couple’ Chow Yun Fat and Dodo (Carol) Cheng – two of his ‘beloved’ artists whom Tim Gor collaborated with often back in the day. Of course, the most ‘memorable’ experience for him was producing 1985’s grand anniversary series “The Yang’s Saga” in which every single artist employed by TVB at the time participated: “Back then, whenever we had a war to fight, everyone was invigorated!” [TN: the ‘war’ was between TVB and ATV: at that time, TVB produced the series to ‘fight’ ATV’s highly rated inaugural Miss Asia Beauty Pageant].
Looking at the state of TVB nowadays, does Tim Gor’s spirit and vitality still exist?
‘Close to perfect’ casting: Tony Leung (梁朝偉) and Andy Lau (劉德華) in “The Duke of Mount Deer” 《鹿鼎記》and “The Emissary” 《獵鷹》
In April of 1969, Lee Tim Sing joined TVB and was given the worker’s identification number of ‘365’ – perhaps it was fate that from that day forward, Tim Gor would work ‘365 days’ a year, every year, producing series for the small screen.
Having experienced the ‘golden era’ of TVB [back in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s] as a producer, it is of course difficult for Tim Gor not to lament TVB’s dire state today: “Back in the day, TVB truly had many great talents – in addition to the Five Tigers, there were also the more ‘mature’ actors such as Chow Yun Fat, Adam Cheng, Simon Yam, etc. – so in a sense, casting for series was easy!” A ‘classic’ example of this – TVB’s popular 1984 Jin Yong remake, “The Duke of Mount Deer”: “If at that time, our ‘artists vault’ did not consist of an actor named Tony Leung, the series definitely would have lost a lot of its vibrancy!” As Tim Gor describes it, Tony Leung’s portrayal of ‘Wai Siu Bo’ was akin to a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity – since then, the character has become ‘extinct’ so to speak: “When I had Jordan Chan (陳小春) play that role [in the 90s remake], it was a different feeling -- even Tony Leung himself, if he were to do the same role years later, would not be able to pull it off with the same freshness and purity as the original portrayal, since he would have gone through more experiences and his acting matured.”
Thinking back to that time, when TVB’s then Head of Production Lau Tin Chi (劉天賜) called Tim Gor into his office to give him the ‘marching orders’ to start production on “The Duke of Mount Deer”, Tim Gor’s first reaction was: “Ok, then Tony Leung will play Wai Siu Bo and Andy Lau will play Emperor Hong Hei!” Tim Gor revealed that the first time he cast Tony in one of his series was in 1982’s “The Emissary” – he did so primarily because Tony at that time was “a short, young boy who had a pleasant face and was obedient – the perfect fit to play Barbara Chan (陳敏兒)’s younger brother!” However, as filming of the series progressed, Tony’s meticulous acting and focus caused Tim Gor to see him in a new light: “Of course, when most audiences watch series, they will only pay attention to the main leads playing their roles in the front, but as a producer, I have to pay attention to those in the background as well. In “The Emissary”, Tony only played a supporting role and when [main leads] Andy and Barbara were playing their parts in the front, he would usually only be in the background – yet, the way he remained so focused and absorbed in the scene – it was obvious that in the future, that was the type of actor I wanted to work with; after all, who would want to work with a wandering spirit with no focus?”
Andy Lau’s situation was similar to Tony’s – the reason he got the ‘golden’ opportunity to be male lead in “The Emissary” was also because of his ‘background focus’: “In the series “The Lonely Hunter” (1981), there was a scene where a group of youth from the Acting Classes were cast as school students and had to perform the song ‘On the Songhua River’. I was in the control room and noticed that one of the students was especially enthusiastic and put 100% effort into performing that scene, so I asked my assistant to write down that student’s name. When it came time for me to start filming on “The Emissary” (in 1982), the first person that I thought about to play the lead role of a youngster from the police academy was that name I had written down: Andy Lau.”
Therefore, when it came time to film “The Duke of Mount Deer”, Tony and Andy were the first choice to play Wai Siu Bo and Emperor Hong Hei: “I would have to say that the casting for that series was close to perfection – even [veteran actor] Chun Wong playing the role of Mao Sap Bat was so well-suited!” The role that had the most ‘controversy’ at the time was Kiki Sheung playing ‘Ah Ngo’ – Tim Gor admits that back then, when he had decided to cast her in the role, there were definitely some people who objected: “As a producer, I cannot be wishy-washy – once the decision has been made, need to follow through with it. If I were to switch artists around all the time, not only would the artists themselves be unhappy, it would also affect the production. In addition to focusing on the quality of the series, I also need to be concerned with the artists’ feelings.” In deciding to cast Kiki for the role, Tim Gor states that her ‘obstinate’ personality was perfectly suited to the character: “If you say that Kiki is not pretty enough for the part, I probably wouldn’t refute you, but the character of Ah Ngo is the illegitimate daughter born out of wedlock to Chan Yuen Yuen and Lee Chi Sing and from childhood, was raised by a one-armed nun – based on her experiences, the character is supposed to have a self-determined, independent kind of stubbornness about her…Kiki definitely had this temperament that made her perfect for the role.”
In Jin Yong’s popular wuxia novels, anything is possible, however adapting the novels to the small screen is a challenge unto itself, both for the cast and crew alike. Tim Gor responds with a smile: “The scene where Wai Siu Bo finds the treasure was especially difficult to film, as there are limitations to what we are able to do in the studio. We did the best we could at the time, building a special set with an underground passage and tried to make the ‘treasure’ as realistic as we could….but of course, there will always be comparisons made! Look at all the Western films with those types of scenes – all the pillars, stones, etc. always look so grand – then take a look at ours…can’t compare!” When that scene was being filmed, Tim Gor had to give special instruction to the director to be careful with the camera angles and make the scene as short as possible: “No point in embarrassing ourselves!”
At this point in the interview, the reporter recollects the scene in TVB’s recent anniversary series “Curse of the Royal Harem” where the Emperor and Empress are ‘riding’ in that makeshift balloon….aiye….
**** To Be Continued….****
Source: Mingpao Weekly, Issue 2252
Translated by: llwy12 @ AsianFanatics
