The Rippling Blossom

The Rippling Blossom is very watchable but there are a few annoying quirks that didn't work for me. For one I found the main drama storyline of Michael Tse fighting with Angelina Lo over inheritance dull. It just wasn't written well and the whole backdrop to the story seemed a bit dated and at times illogical. The highlight of this drama is definitely to the right of the poster - Myolie Wu, Julian Cheung, Damian Lau and Eileen Yeow's part of the story. That section was much more enjoyable to watch and brought the audience a lot of sweetness, though I did find the last episode of the Myolie/Julian pair a bit odd when she left him because she thought she was a lifebuoy to him. I think the Michael Tse/Tavia Yeung story was poorly written, it tried to bring a more serious and dramatic tone to this drama but I thought it fell flat. In the first few episodes I was really confused about the two, I didn't understand where they fell in love, at first I thought they knew each other beforehand but they didn't so that seemed a bit illogical. Also not to nitpick but an annoying error I found is that Luisa Lui is portraying a 50 year old Michael Tse, her son, is 35... Ok I'm not saying it's impossible for Luisa Lui to have Michael Tse but she's a mistress, are they trying to say that Felix Lok impregnated her when she was a teen? Felix publicly recognises Michael Tse as his son so wouldn't there be a media raucous if this was true? I honestly doubt TVB would write such a storyline. I think it should have ditched a lot of the darker side of the storyline and focused more on the light-hearted sweetness of the drama. Anyway onto the nominations.

Best Actor

Julian Cheung

A good job by Julian Cheung, his character was likeable already but Julian put his own slant in his portrayal to make him more likeable. This character won't (or shouldn't) win him any Best Actor Awards but he's definitely in contention to winning my (own) favourite character award.

Best Actress

Tavia Yeung

Tavia always provides a decent portrayal even for some of the more boring characters. Whilst I think Tavia acted her scenes well, especially the emotional ones, I found that her story and character were written quite badly she seems to flip 180 every so often and is rather simple minded for a character that delves into the darker side of this plot. Whilst Tavia is always a delight to watch Tavia's character will not be what I remember for this series.

Myolie Wu

I was debating to myself whether to nominate her, obviously in the end I did. I think Myolie does overact at times but that's why she suits more light hearted roles like this one and she has great comedic timing. I was unsure whether to nominate her or not because of her slight overacting but I think it actually made her all the more adorable in this character.

Best Supporting Actor

Pierre Ngo

One will definitely compare Pierre with previous portrayals of mentally disabled characters as there aren't that many memorable ones. To be honest at this moment I can only remember Myolie Wu in Golden Faith and Roger Kwok in Life Made Simple. With Myolie's portrayal she was still very much a newbie at the time but I found her portrayal endearing and quite accurate, though at times you could also find it hard to distinguish whether her character was a girly teen or actually disabled. With Roger I thought he was endearing, slightly overrated, but still a good performance. Then we have Pierre, I think Pierre did well and in my opinion out of the three I have mentioned he probably did the best in actually portraying a mentally disabled child, I think he was the most realistic. What won me over was that he never actually looked at people, I think he spent a lot of time researching the character and that's what makes him stand out. However I think his acting was still a bit raw at times but I still commend Pierre for this.

Damian Lau

I think Damian was a little out of his depth for this character but he transformed brilliantly into his role. At times he did look a bit over the top but like Myolie I think it made him more endearing e.g. the times when he pouted, I think it's to do with him not being use to this type of character but instead when he did it it made him more likeable. I think acting wise he suits the more serious dramas but this is probably my favourite character of his.

Best Supporting Actress

Eileen Yeow

Eileen seems to be getting a lot more promotion lately, well I like Eileen so that's fine with me. She portrayed her character very well, the soft spoken traditional woman who just wanted to be besides her love. She was a lovely part of the plot, very likeable and demure.

Best Couple

Julian Cheung and Myolie Wu

I love their chemistry and its always great to watch a comedic romance plot. They will definitely be strong contenders for this award at the end of the year. I loved the whole "Common Man's Diary" thing and the post it notes were also very touching, these details are much more well thought out than the darker side to this drama and that's why TVB needs to learn that not all dramas need a dramatic touch.

Favourite Male Character

Julian Cheung

As I said how can you not like this kind of character and Julian suited this role perfectly.

Favourite Female Charcater

Myolie Wu

Myolie needs some recognition and this character should be (though it probably wouldn't be) the one to get her there. 

Best Chemistry

Damian, Eileen, Julian, Myolie

They made this drama work, without their chemistry this drama would be an absolutely snore.