Translated by: Em @ http://tvbspace.blogspot.com/ Source: Ta Kung Pao, The Sun Ron, Sammul & Tavia "On the First Beat" Thursday, May 24, 2007 Hong Kong New series "On the First Beat" will be airing after the finale of "Heart of Greed" and the cast members held a promotional event at a Ho Man Tin secondary school yesterday. However, some of the more senior members of the cast such as the heavily rumoured Michael Tao and Sonija Kwok and guest star Joey Yung were noticeably absent and it was left to the younger leads Ron Ng, Sammul Chan and Tavia Yeung to hold the fort, together with Yan Ng and Rocky Cheng. However, they were all unafraid of being affected by the earlier reports about Michael's divorce and were full of confident for the show. With three of the leads missing from the event, producer Wong Wai Sing indicates that Sonija is on vacation until July, so she will not be taking part in any of the promotions and Michael is currently in Japan filming on location for "Harmony Taste & Passion" and will not be back in Hong Kong until 9th June, when he will take part in the later events. Joey is too busy at the moment, but she will be at the promotional event on Tuesday. Asked if he is worried that this will affect the ratings, he says that the audience is only interested in the show and not necessarily in whether the stars appear at events. He is currently producing another show "Cold Encounters of the Third Kind", but female lead Toby Leung was admitted to hospital with fever and vomiting. Wong says that Toby was discharged earlier and will be returning to work today and this has not affected progress because they had skipped ahead to scenes that did not include her. Ron is not worried that "First" is following on from the hit series "Heart" and says: "I am confident in this series because last time it was about our training as a cadet and this time it tells of how the cadets are out on the job. There are also more scenes of training at the PTU and also rioting scenes, so the content is much more interesting than the first series." Ron will be heading out to Chengdu to film a joint production between a mainland and Taiwanese company, where he plays a wine producer. He plans to be there for two months before heading back to Hong Kong to film for "The Four Great Constables". As he does not want to affect the schedules for "Four", then he will be rushing his filming in China for the next two months and therefore he will not be able to attend any more promotions for "First". Tavia has been busy promoting both "Heart" and "First" and she smiles that if she had a fee for these promotions she would be rich. With two series being aired back to back, she is pleased that this has brought her more stage performances and made her some extra money and she hopes to reward herself with a new car. Does she feel any pressure with "First" being released so soon after "Heart"? She says:"I am confident in the new series, because there are a lot of new cast members and after the hype of "Heart", then the ratings should continue to be good. (Are you not worried about the negative rumours surrounding Michael and Sonija?) No, rumours are not real and they will actually help bring focus on the series. The viewers want to watch the drama and not the gossip." Sammul has just returned from Thailand and it has been two or three years since he last visited Bangkok, so he joined a few friends on a trip there. One night in a bar, when they were going to the toilet, they passed three girls and one of them turned round and pinched Sammul on the buttock. He was rather shocked, but by the time he had realised this, they had gone into the ladies and he was left helpless. Sammul says that he was not angry: "It's okay for a man to be pinched on the bum, it is only used for sitting on and is not an important area. (So what if they had pinched one of those areas?) Of course I would protect myself then! At the first opportunity!" On this trip, Sammul met with many Hong Kong tourists and was asked to be photographed by many 'aunties'. Sammul was sporting a bit of stubble and a shaved head at the event and he explains that it is just for fun and for no real reason. Asked if he has any expectations for "First", he smiles: "I feel that this time it will be even better than last time because there are some evacuation and riot scenes in there. Also with new cast members such as Joey and Yan Ng, then I am confident in ratings and hope that we can have a 'cadet's blog'." http://www.takungpao.com.hk/news/07/05/25/UL-741385.htm http://www.takungpao.com.hk/news/07/05/25/UL-741384.htm http://the-sun.on.cc/channels/ent/20070525/20070524234929_0000.html
Oooh...can't wait for this series. I enjoyed the first installment. Hope this will be just as great! But I thought Tavia's not having much screentime in this series?
Yeah.. Tavia is only a guest star in this series.. but since she's not currently filming, I guess she came out to help promote the series. Sonija, Kate and Joey were all absent from the promo event.. On another note.. I'm glad that Tavia went cuz the pics of her and Ron are adorable.. -clapclap
Finally it is coming out. I've been waiting too long for this serie. So Joey Yung only a guest star, does that mean that she had a very limited screen time?
