Wednesday November 4, 2009
Just as good
By OH ING YEEN
Recent locally produced Chinese series are steadily gaining viewers.
THE mere mention of local Chinese dramas might draw responses such as: “Who watches local productions?”, “Nice to watch meh?”, or “I prefer TVB lah”. Given a choice, many would opt for Hong Kong dramas or Korean series instead of local productions.
However, of late, locally produced Chinese soap operas are winning back audiences with interesting plots, new faces and the return of veteran actors.
According to ntv7, the average viewership this year for local Chinese dramas (10pm slot) is 531,000 viewers, which is equivalent to a 9% audience share.
Entertaining yet educational: Mr Siao’s Mandarin Class shows its students making hilarious mistakes and is one of the better locally produced shows. Local production Iron Lady which was aired on ntv7 some months back, managed to garner higher ratings than some of the Hong Kong Television Broadcasts (HK-TVB) dramas.
Besides the usual themes of romance, family life and business rivalry, local series have explored different themes such as disability (Love Is Not Blind, 8TV), dance (Step Of Dance, 8TV), crime investigation (The Adjusters, currently showing on 8TV every Sunday 8.30pm), and even the supernatural (Goodnight DJ, 8TV) in recent years.
Perhaps, the presence of new actors, mostly winners or contestants of popular reality TV series, is one of the factors that draw the younger crowd.
For example, 8TV’s in-house production and first local Chinese idol drama, Sky, featured singing competition Project Superstar winner John Wee and runner-up Mei Sim as lead characters, Step Of Dance featured Project Superstar winner Henley Hii and I Wanna Be A Model winner Angie and A Cup Of Love starred winners and finalists of Project Superstar, Star Idol and I Wanna Be A Model.
Local Chinese dramas such as Iron Lady and Age Of Glory (ntv7) with tough-as-nails lead female characters allow actresses to take on meatier roles and show that the fairer sex is no pushover.
Age Of Glory transports viewers back to the 1960s, with Hong Kong-based Malaysian actress Debbie Goh, Danielle Dai and Aenie Wong playing the female leads.
Goh portrayed a showgirl named Rose who leads an eventful yet tragic life.
Age Of Glory transports viewers back to the 1960s and its actresses have meatier roles. In Iron lady, Malaysian-born Singapore-based Yeo Yann Yann plays Gao Shi Qin, who, after the death of her father, is left with the responsibility of running the family business and keeping cunning relatives, who are eyeing the family fortune, at bay.
I feel that ntv7’s Mr Siao’s Mandarin Class, a localised version of the popular British comedy, Mind Your Language, is the cream of the crop.
A class of multi-ethnic students trying to learn Mandarin is a sure recipe for many laughs. Despite their attempts at mastering Mandarin, the students can’t help but pepper their conversations with words from dialects such as Hokkien, Hakka and Cantonese. Often, they succumb to directly translating from their mother tongues, resulting in hilarity.
Aside from having a good laugh, viewers also get the chance to pick up some Mandarin as Mr Siao recaps the day’s lesson at the end of the show. Fans of the series can look forward to its second season next year.
Another drama which depicts our multicultural society is My Kampong Days (which concluded on ntv7 last month), which also features a mix of veterans and new stars. Viewers were able to relate to the characters, who speak in bahasa pasar (colloquial Bahasa Malaysia), such as the pakcik selling nasi lemak, the kopitiam tauke and the sundry shop owners. However, I find some of the dialogue too formal and the actors’ performances, too rehearsed. All it needs is an addition of some lah, loh and mah, and it would be perfect!
Critics may argue that some of the storylines are not new (like the CSI-inspired The Adjusters, Mind Your Language-inspired Mr Siao’s Mandarin Class while A Cup Of Lover (8TV) is similar to Korean drama Coffee Prince), it is nevertheless a start in trying out different themes.
Both Age Of Glory and Iron Lady have done well and both have a strong local flavour; the former is set in Kuala Lumpur’s BB Park entertainment centre while Iron Lady’s main plot revolves around the oil palm plantation.
The bottom line is these shows attest that there are storyline ideas which are readily available in our own backyard.
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