Beauty Knows No Pain

With TVB Europe deciding to broadcast TVB series straight after Hong Kong a lot of series have been affected. One such example being Sisters of Pearl which you can't watch anymore unless you subscribe to their 5 channel package - stupid I say. That now forces me to watch most of these series online. Anyway I realise I haven't watched about 4 or 5 TVB series this year but I'll start by blogging about Beauty Knows No Pain.

This series was interesting, it felt slightly fresher compared to the drab we've been subjected to this year. Was it a highlight? No. But it was definitely slightly better than previous offerings.

Best Actor

Joe Ma

I think Joe is one of TVB's best actors, sadly the bad press a few years ago has affected his popularity and his chances of ever winning the TVB title. He did a consistent job in this series and it was at times quite cute seeing him struggling to make ends meet with his girlfriend Maggie Cheung.

Best Actress

Michelle Yim

Michelle has got to be one of my favourite actresses of all time. Whilst I still believe her best series are "Mind Our Own Business" and "Down Memory Lane" Michelle manages to win me over with most of her series. Back to Beauty Knows No Pain I empathised with her character and loved her character, she was a strong modern woman who was in unfortunate circumstances. I can't wait for any Michelle series and hearing that she has signed on to a sitcom is all the more exciting.

Maggie Cheung

Place Maggie Cheung alongside Michelle Yim and at once you have a formidable cast, I do find myself watching this series for its cast more than the story, sadly. However Maggie managed to play the "hated" character really well. Her character straddled between good and bad, to be honest that's just human nature. It's great that TVB recognises that these characters provide more realism to plots and thus are using them much more.

Best Supporting Actor

Power Chan

I didn't like Power Chan at the start but as always I slowly began to like his character. TVB realises that modern series will fail with the traditional "good/bad" typecast roles and therefore complementing the god-of-a-character Joe Ma is Power Chan's gritty portrayal of an ordinary Hong Kong man. This series really needed a couple like Power Chan and Joyce Tang to make ends meet.

Best Supporting Actress

Elena Kong

The above picture looks quite old, in that she looks late 20's early 30's but she isn't that age now thus her character was nicknamed "Angela Auntie" - love it. I loved her witty comebacks against Michelle Yim, whilst at times she overacted I think it all worked well in the end. Whilst her character was annoying I couldn't help but love watching her catfights with Maggie and Michelle. Elena definitely deserves recognition.

Joyce Tang

I love Joyce, but sadly she never gets recognised. This time she portrayed a character with a massive bust - her name in the series was Bibi but Power Chan teased her once by calling her "Gigi (GG)". These are some of the jokes that make Beauty Knows No Pain a guilty pleasure. Joyce's transformation from the "unattractive double Gs" to the "hot vixen double Gs" was quite interesting to see but the underlying story was obvious - plastic surgery doesn't help!

 Most Improved Actress

Yoyo Chen

Yoyo has become a formidable contender for Most Improved Actress this year, for me anyway. Sadly she rarely has the chance to stray from her typecast role which makes it hard for her to find a breakthrough but I still find Yoyo an increasing pleasure to watch.

Favourite Female Character

Michelle gets it again!

Best Chemistry

Power Chan & Lily Leung

I loved Lily & Power's scenes, many of them are just so funny and lovely to watch. Power's character was written much better than Joe's despite all the screen time. Lily portrayed a loveable but "naughty" pensioner with diabetes. Classic scenes are when Power screamed "Sui Por" and Lily mistook it as Power scolding her and screamed back at him and Lily trying to set up Power with Joyce.