StuRants

Bobby v. Bosco

We've had a busy time of late with our HK soap operas, which is just as well as now is New Zealand's winter of discontent, apparently. What a fucking awful country.

Anyway, the first of our soaps was 'The Seventh Day', which Sally chose because it features her Sino crush du jour 'Bosco' (rhymes with Rosco) Wong. To give an idea of why Sally is enamoured of this fellow, here's a picture.

I'm told it's his eyes.

The Seventh Day was basically a chick soap (well they all are really) featuring two couples, one serious and tragic, the other silly. I preferred the silly one of course, the tragic one featuring a woman with a gene disorder who gets multiple cancers, and hides it from her rogueish but sensitive boyfriend because he's already looking after his ex-girlfriend dying from Aids (which she didn't get from him). Because a Japanase touris board has thrown money TVB's way, the ex girlfriend happens to be living in scenic Kanazawa Prefecture in winter time (Sally enjoyed this too).

The next one we watched was Marriage of Convenience, where, via a series of ridiculous unlikely events, the married owners of a dating agency divorce but continue to live in the same house (they remain fighting for it), while the husband is forced into marrying a girl from Xinjiang provence who happens to have a brain tumour and is on the run from Triads. By this point I was urging Sally to have a checkup as it seems the cancer rate among young Chinese women is very high.

The husband involved of the titular marriage of convenience is played by Bobby Au Yeung, an actor seemingly genetically modified to have maximum appeal to Cantonese housewives. He's humourous and charismatic, and, with a thick layer of padding around him to ease out any potentially alarming sharp edges on his form, completely nonthreatening. He has warm eyes and a delightful smile. Sort of a cross between a jolly baby and Buddha. In TV terms, he's a license to print money. Dreamy!!!

Okay, so perhaps I am a bit smitten, but if you check out this fan-made vid, you will be too!

(In case you're wondering, I did not make this motion picture.)

Anyhow, I enjoyed Marriage of Convenience immensely. Beats the flaming crap out of Shortland Street anyway.

We've now moved on to a kung fu (with flying and lightning bolts!) soap called Devil's Disciples, also featuring Bosco and the brooding, caring guy from Seventh Day. Both Sally and I are in heaven!

As an addendum, if anyone was thinking of seeing Stephen Chow's latest flick CJ7 at the film festival, best not to if you're expecting anything like Kung Fu Hustle or Shaolin Soccer, or his underrated 1990 classic, Look Out, Officer! featuring Chow being helped to catch some crooks by a the ghost of a policeman. No, CJ7 is pretty much Batteries Not Included set in China, and Chow keeps himself off screen as much as possible. Unless you have children, avoid!

Apparently though there is a sequel coming to Kung Fu Hustle coming in 2010. Chow doesn't have the best of records with sequels (who does?), though in my opinion Fight Back to School II was an improvement on the original. Waiting, waiting...

Posted by stuart at June 24, 2008 10:16 PM