Saturday June 2, 2007 Hong Kong The finale of "Heart of Greed" was aired yesterday and to mark the occasion, TVB held a special abalone banquet in a shopping mall, where over 400 people, including TVB executives, cast and crew members and their families and some lucky viewers joined together for an abalone feast to watch the grand finale and then play games in a very lively and happy affair. A similar occasion to mark the finale of "War and Beauty" consisted of 38 tables and TVB executive Tsang Sing Ming indicated that that was because it was TVB's 38th Anniversary that year, so this year as it is the 40th Anniversary, they have taken the number of tables to 40, with the first half an hour of festivities aired live on magazine programme "Scoop", followed by coverage of the remaining event on TVB Pay Vision's Entertainment News Channel. To gain entry, fans could either take part in the games played on stage, or they could splash out $588 on a DVD set of the series and a soundtrack CD. One of the first to enter was a nine-year old fan, who has been following the series closely, with her favourite character being Dai Kai (Lee Si Kei) and her least favourite being Sai Kai (Susanna Kwan) and Sheung Joi Tak (Lee Shing Cheung). All the major cast members were present at the event, except for Bosco Wong, who was busy on promotion in Thailand. The female celebrities all dressed up for the event, with Tracy Ip stealing the show in her white deep V dress, even though she had barely 15 minutes of airtime in the series. She denied trying to outshine Dai Kai and Sai Kai, saying that the dress was provided by her sponsors. Ha Yu appeared wearing a $5000 suit and he laughs that he has more expensive outfits at home, so this is nothing special. As for the magazines publishing photos of him with his 'windmill head' [slang - balding?], he says that the magazines are sneaky, but adds: "It does not affect me, I am a character actor. It is not bad, for people only to notice now. I have over ten different wigs for different occasions." Si Kei has also been photographed without her wig on and she says she is very angry, but she is not afraid of it affecting her image. Her outfit yesterday and the diamond necklace were her own. Susanna's outfit was arranged by the company and in reaction to the little girl saying she hated 'Wong Sau Kam', she felt that the girl was very clear about her opinions, but she was not afraid of being scolded, because they are just scolding her character. The event was opened yesterday by a live performance of Susanna singing the theme song to the show. Then Sai Kai and Dai Kai had an argument on the stage. TVB General Manager was asked about his thoughts on the show and he used Dai Kai's tone to say: "We have filmed now for forty years, you can tell at a glance whether the show is good or not." There then followed some previews of the finale and then some 're-enactments' of scenes, in which Moses Chan played Sai Kai and Louis Yuen played Dai Kai in a classic scene that brought them much applause. Two lucky viewers were selected to have a scolding match at Sheung Joi Tak to win abalone, winning six if they lasted a minute. First up was a little girl, but no-one understood what she was saying, so she just took away one abalone. The second contestant didn't do much better and gave up after a few seconds, but still taking away one abalone for her efforts. The luckiest person on the night was Si Kei, who after being presented with a $12,000 abalone by Stephen Chan earlier, was drawn in the raffle to win 40 South African abalone. However, she says she will not enjoy them alone and will share them with the rest of the Tong Family. Source: Takungpao
