[ChinaPress (Malaysia) 09/01/05]

The Date: 08/01/2005
The Time: 8:00 pm
The Place: Wisma MCA
The Event: Astro Wah Lai Toi Drama Awards 2004

After taking the TVB Male Lead award two years ago for his role in "Square Pegs", Roger Kwok has continued his success in Malaysia, with the show not only taking the award for Favourite Drama with "Square Pegs", but also becoming the Favourite Leading Actor. The Favourite Leading Actress award went to Flora Chan, despite "Triumph in the Skies" only airing recently on the channel.

The feeling was that Roger and Flora both did as well, but a quick count reveals that with three awards, Roger was the most successful artiste on the night and narrowly beat Flora's 2.5 awards. When Flora went on stage to receive her award, she seemed very emotional as she thanked her fans for so many years of support and also indicated that this award reminds her that the path she has taken is the right one.

Most of the award winners were as expected by most people, the only surprising result being Raymond Lam taking the Favourite Theme Song award with the theme from "Survivor's Law", beating the hot favourite Eason Chan with his theme to "Triumph" and causing quite a stir among many.

On the other hand, as Roger himself mentioned: "The award is about being happy and having fun." so at the event, as well as the awards presentation, there were also some comedy sketches, singing and even games with the fans to create some atmosphere in the 'party' hosted by Ander Jen and for everyone to have some fun.

Astro Wah Lai Toi Drama Awards 2004 Results

Favourite Characters

Ivan Ding – Gallen Lo [Golden Faith]
Yao Nim Chi – Nancy Sit [Virtues of Harmony]
Ling Choi Fong – Jessica Hsuan [Square Pegs]
Ding Siong Wong – Roger Kwok [Square Pegs]
Princess Cheung Ping – Charmaine Sheh [Perish In The Name of Love]
Fong Ngar Zai – Bowie Lam [Vigilante Force]
Chan Sam Yun – Joyce Tang [Armed Reaction IV]
Chan Siu Sang – Bobby Au Yueng [Armed Reaction IV]
Samuel Tong – Francis Ng [Triumph In The Skies]
Isabelle Lok – Flora Chan [Triumph In The Skies]

Favourite Drama
Square Pegs

Favourite Theme Song
Survivor’s Law – Raymond Lam

Favourite Leading Actor
Ding Siong Wong – Roger Kwok [Square Pegs]

Favourite Leading Actress
Isabelle Lok – Flora Chan [Triumph In The Skies]

Favourite Villain
Princess Chiu Yan – Sonija Kwok [Perish In The Name of Love]

Unforgettable Moment
Ah Wong - cookies for wife - [Square Pegs]

Favourite On Screen Kiss
Sam & Isabelle [Triumph In The Skies]

Favourite On Screen Slap
Kit slaps Chung [Take My Word For It]

Bits'n'Pieces

* With Roger and Jessica Hsuan taking the award for Unforgettable Moment, Ander Jen tried to encourage Roger to kiss Jessica, to which Roger replied jokingly that if he kissed her, then the award will have to be presented again for that.

* Guests for the evening not only included Taiwan's Richie Ren, Malaysia's own female superstar, Siti Nurhaliza went on stage to sing her favourite Chinese Song "The Moon Represents my Heart".

* After "A Kindred Spirit", Nancy Sit has made plenty of money with her character of 'Chi Goo' in "Virtues of Harmony", so no wonder she has recently announced the good news that her three children's school fees are all prepared now.

* Talking of having all the lady luck, Ander Jen was probably the most popular person on the evening as he hugged (male) and kissed (female) award winners on the night.

* Local hosts Phoebe and Hou Gor took part in the comedy sketch "Hokkien Black Rose kills Yeung Tofu" and used Cantonese, Taiwanese and even Hakka dialects in the sketch, making Charmaine Sheh and some of the other artistes laugh out loud and only Bowie Lam was left speechless and emotionless - was this because he could not understand?

* Speaking like 'Ah Wong' all evening, Roger seemed a little embarrassed as he watched his own performance in "Square Pegs" during the announcement of the nominations for the Favourite Drama award.

* It wasn't just the fans who were taking lots of photos, even the artistes themselves were too! When all the stars got onto stage for a group photo, Bowie produced his own camera and as well as snapping away at Nancy, he also took his own photos of Roger and Jessica as they received their awards.

* As a mark of respect, a minutes silence was held before the start of the show. Also, during the intermission, there was also a tribute to the work of James Wong.

* It cannot be denied that Hong Kong artistes are particularly popular [in Malaysia]. Not only at the venue, but all the way down the street, there were fans calling out the stars names and even when Helena Law and Ha Yu passed by, there were plenty of people calling out their names.

* In order to receive her award, Charmaine Sheh took time out from filming in Singapore to attend the event. However, she was in quite a rush because she only arrived half way through the event to receive her award, giving everyone a surprise.

After Show Party

"Square Pegs" modern version planned, but Ah Wong does not have time to get married....

The award for Favourite Leading Artist has allowed Roger Kwok to gauge his success in the overseas markets and he is currently preparing for the modern 'sequel' to "Square Pegs" that is due to begin filming in April. When asked when he would be getting married, he says that he wanted to plan it last year, but it is still the case of not having any time. However, he hopes that next year or the year after, he will have time to marry Cindy Au.

Flora Chan will be working with Dayo Wong

Flora Chan indicates that for awards ceremonies to be held in different places is a great encouragement for the hardworking artistes. Having changed her contract with TVB, she will shortly be working with Dayo Wong in a new [mainland] series about family conflicts in the 1980's. The funny thing was that Roger jokingly called out to her that when she has made enough money elsewhere, she should hurry up and come back [to TVB].

Jessica Hsuan does not want to get married yet

Jessica indicates that she never thought that a the effect of a series would be spread out so far and she never imagined she would win an award in Malaysia. As for not being a top winner, she says she does not mind, so she is not disappointed. She is currently resting, but she will soon be working with Roger again in a 30 episode series and apart from Winnie Yeung who cannot take part, then all the original cast from "Square Pegs" will be in it. Also when asked about when she plans to get married, she says that she has not planned this yet, but when she feels that the time is right, then she will do it.

Joyce Tang needs to find her husband again

Rushing from the freezing cold Shanghai to the boiling hot Malaysia, Joyce Tang has succumbed to a throat infection after the sudden change in temperatures and she says that she has a lot of sentiments towards "Armed Reaction IV", so she hopes that her fans in Malaysia will write to TVB and urge them to hurry up and begin filming the fifth series. "In series 4, my husband went missing, so you have to let me find my husband again!"

Nancy Sit will miss "Virtues of Harmony"

"Virtues of Harmony" has finished filming now and having worked with the rest of the cast for four years, the 'family' will soon have to go their separate ways and they are all worried that it will seem odd. However, Nancy laughs that among the cast members, there are those who have got married, so for "Virtues" not to end would be hard. At this point, Joyce Tang added: "How about you?", stunning Nancy for a while before laughing and changing the subject back to "Virtues". Also, she revealed that she is currently discussing a stage performance with the "Virtues" cast in Malaysia, but this is yet to be confirmed.

http://www.chinapress.com.my/content.asp?dt=2005-01-10&sec=entertainment&art=0110en01.txt
Additional Details from Astro Wah Lai Toi official website: http://www.astro.com.my/wlt/default.htm

[Em's note: Thanks to Amy and SaffyIreis for the Malaysian artiste names!]



[Ta Kung Pao & The Sun 10/01/05]

Cast members from TVB's new series "Master of Kung Fu - Wong Fei Hung" including Rain Li, Bosco Wong, Sammul Chan and Winnie Yeung held a promotional event in Tsuen Wan yesterday and during the show, Rain, Bosco and Sammul could not stop playing around, with Rain even using Bosco's hairpiece to use as a beard.

The cast members then played 'Rock Scissors Paper' in a rather funny scene. Later, Rain laughed: "We are all young people and when I saw his braid falling off, I pulled it and played with it, but he was very sweaty and it made my lips all wet. We also agreed that whoever lost the game would have medical rub put on their nose. We were just trying to work up the atmosphere." As for whether she was worried about raising rumours of a triangular affair, she said seemingly relaxed: "If you count everyone else from before, there are at least ten parties in this love affair! This series is the only one I have made where there have been no rumours at all. I am actually not used to this, so I want some rumours to appear soon!" When asked who she would like to be rumoured with, she says it is hard to choose so the best thing would be to have rumours with both of them and try two-timing for a change. Especially as they each have their own particular smells, Bosco smelling of sweat and Sammul smelling of healing lotion. She also laughs that the rumoured boyfriends are not real as the chosen one will not appear for another ten years yet.

In response to Rain's jokes that she wants to have rumours with them, Bosco laughs: "Choose Sammul, rumours are not suited to me." However, Sammul says: "I should be so excited, I finally have some rumours. I do like straight-talking girls, but as for whether Rain is suited to me, I will have to check if she has a boyfriend first."

Rain also revealed that she was filming for the film "Ghostly Realms" earlier, but their set in Thailand was destroyed by the tsunami, so she does not know whether she will continue filming in Thailand or not. As for Winnie who is four months pregnant, she says that her current series "Revolving Doors of Vengeance" will soon be filming up in Dongguan and was asked if her husband would be worried about her, but she replied: "No, there are lots of colleagues on the series who will look after me and all my scenes are just verbal ones."

http://www.takungpao.com/news/2005-1-10/UL-351695.htm
http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20050110/20050110000835_0003.html