scriptwriter 賈偉南 -- updated with AJCL portion

UPDATED:  11/20/2012 11:49

賈偉南HK: I admit I favor these tvb artists. (The Fistful of Stances) 3 brothers, (Land of Wealth) 2 female leads, (A Journey of Life) brother and sister. 

 我承認我偏心某幾位TVB藝人，《鐵》劇的三兄弟、《滙》劇兩位女主角、《金》劇的兩兄妹。

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From their weibo interactions, Steven seems to have a good relationship with LOW scriptwriter, Koo Wai Nam (賈偉南) . Posting the below entries from Mr. Ka's weibo as tidbits.

From weibo 2011 Nov exchanges on AJCL: 

賈偉南HK:  Linda Chung almost did not become Ka Ka but in the end Catherine Tsang decided on Linda. Myolie was the first choice.

馬浚偉 : Sing Yat On's life philosophy is very similar to mine, even my family felt that way too. Thank you, Mr. Ka

賈偉南HK:  Steven, his character was written with you in mind.  


賈偉南HK:I still recall I was inside Uncle Choi's room watching AJCL scene whereby Steven was up on the patio offering different flavored ice creams to his deceased sister, Zhang jeh just happened to pass by and come into the room to watch that scene, and became teary eyed and coyly scolded me for making her cried. 

馬浚偉 : I couldn't stop crying in that scene because On Boy was so pitiful. Also I remembered my own mother... thank you, Mr. Ka for merging On Boy and me into one. 

 賈偉南HK:回覆@幕后军师shirly: AJCL this kind of subject matter because of its topic being too plain and simple usually is very difficult to sell its story.  Luckily Zhan jeh insisted on doing a solid story that does not deliberately seek out audience's favors with sensationalism, and also suggested using tombstone as the occupation storyline.  As so AJCL was born. 

 

賈偉南HK:回复 @一厘米微蓝的blog : Hopefully in the future will have an opportunity. Actually there is one remake subject matter. Pre-modern series, two siu sangs and two fadns. Steven Ma+李學慶**+Fala Chen+Tavia. The characters very right for them to portray. If ask me to write I would truly recommend them. weibo link

賈偉南HK: The story is quite extremem. Steven because of love deliberately break up Tavia's happy family with 李學慶 (?)  thus creating next generation bad karma, thus squandered Fala's deep love for him.  

陈法拉:  "Squandered Fala's deep love"? Want to reprise Pu Chung Ling and Siu Chui's tragedy?  

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For those who can read Chinese, may be interested to read what 贾伟南 said in his interview. FYI, he is the co-writer of “Beyond The Realm Of Conscience” and more recently 《ATF反恐》. Excerpts are reposted in his weibo 2011 nov

When asked what series he is most satisfied with. He said although there is no one particular series that he is completely satisfied with, of those he is partially satisfied with are Land of Wealth, A Journey called Life and The Breaking Point. weibo link

Q: Which TVB artistes did you enjoy collaborating with?
賈偉南HK：TVB artistes that I would like to collaborate again include: Fala Chen, Tavia Yueng, Sonija Kowk, Linda Chung, Natalie Tong, Steven Ma, Kevin Cheng, Ron Ng, Kenneth Ma, Stephen Wong Ka Lok, and a group of veterans.  Have never collaborated but would like to include: Bosco Wong, Raymond Lam and Myolie Hu.


Q: The themes for TVB series are usually directives from above, if your assignment was on some theme that you are not interested in, how do you handle it?

Every year we have a special conference. Every script editor will propose two ‘ideas’. Everybody will then discuss which one would have a higher possibility of being produced. And afterwards report to the higher up with our decision.  It is not always the person who came up with the original idea would be the one to write it, though it might be, so now can’t remember if the original idea is mine or not.

And the rest is parachuted from above telling you to do it. Even though it (subject) is not my request but can make it into something I like. After all, it is just a topic; it has no detailed story or mission. So I can take the topic and create it into some characters or things I like. Like the series: A Journey Called Life. At that time Zhan jeh (Catherine Tsang) &  Uncle Choi (Leung Choi Yuen) were brainstorming on what series to produce. At one point, Zhang Jeh looking up, saw a rock. And so she suggested we should use engraving tombstone as a storyline. When Uncle Choi and I heard that we were both shocked. (smile) because didn’t know how to write a story around a tombstone. So we just took the suggested topic and slept on it. At first I wanted to make AJCL a comedy and moreover, Uncle Choi was worried that tombstone, such a weighty topic, may make story background too somber, so we both thought to make it a comedy but Zhan jeh disagreed and vetoed that idea. After discussing we decided to center the story on real life people and make it a family oriented drama, a story totally without embellishment. During the creative process, we did not even think of the issue as to whether the story would attract the audience or not, so it was done rather relaxingly. And I was very happy writing this script because I did not have to especially write to please the audience. There were not much constraints put on it. I myself like this series very much. Of course, not completely satisfied because there is still some wrinkle in it. Initially there was this one scene that was created for the lead but on second thoughts, worried the lead could not comfortably perform it so changed that scene onto another character, but in the end still felt that this scene handled by the lead would be much more effective, and so all this changing around caused some abruptness in between scenes. (tn: the stillbirth scene)

original Chinese interview report on
The catalyst for his leaving TVB is BTROC.

贾伟南: It is incomprehensible to me that a series I so dislike can become so popular, and stranger still because of it, many producers approached me to write them a similar script… To me, the script is not very good, especially the character of Lau Sam Ho being very unrealistic.  Actually Linda Chung and Bosco Wong were to play Charmaine Sheh's and Kevin Cheng's roles, respectively.  But Linda wanted to take a break so declined the role while Bosco was involved with another filming project.[..] Then Zan Jeh asked me if want Charmaine and Kevin or not, I said 'of course want'. 

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TV Series Mag: BTROC's broadcast garnered excellent ratings but you once said you don't quite like this series?

賈偉南: I felt that the storyline has too many limitations, especially the character construction of  Lau Sam Ho.is not very realistic. During filming this series encountered many constraints.

TVSM: Allegedly the 4 main leads were not the first choice?

賈偉南：At first the plan was to film 25 episodes but at the time our schedule was tight so said only shoot for 20 episodes only.    

賈偉南 2011-11-14 10:33- - The first episode wtih scene breaks was smoothly approved by Catherine Tsang but watching her facial expression I already knew "die lo" ( 死了)  I told other writers be prepared to lengthen the script.  Sure enough, soon after Zan Jeh told me not to do 25 episodes, made it 30 episodes bah; use HD studio to shoot.  Moved up the filming of another producer's series ahead, and postphoned BTROC's shooting to a month's later.  In TVB, this kind of rescheduling was extremely rare.

TVSM: Now you've chosen to leave TVB this very familar place, what gave rise to you wanting to leave?

賈偉南：The main reasons being weary and bored; for the last few years not happy working in the company - a lot of institutionalized stuff can't be avoided. Couldn't shoot a series with my own ideas. Actually what gave rise to my desire to leave was because of BTROC (宮心計). Very unhappy working at it -- so germinated the seed of idea wanting to leave the nest.

------weibo reply to a netizen comment on Lau Sam Ho:--賈偉南HK to (小魚兒快樂長大): You don't think she's too unrealistic? Actually, to promote righteousness does not have to do such a hard sell. This way on the contrary will put off many people. //@小魚兒快樂長大: BTROC is very famous ya! Especially Lau Sam Ho this character, teaches uses us that people should have :3 good" ....


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What I find even more incomprehensible is that no more than five people knew of my resignation at that time….but outsiders instantly knew about it and approached me. (tn:the same way Steven’s contract termination request got leaked out?)

..Many producers are not willing to give new scriptwriters the chance to write hence no chance for them to grow, which maybe why there is now a lack of continuity in the pool of competent scriptwriters in tvb. In the past, we needed to ‘sell’ our script phasing (into episodes) to copy editor, now the scriptwriter and copy editor work together on the script phasing, but actually whatever the latter says, goes. The work for scriptwriters may have gotten easier, but this situation is not beneficial to them, especially their sense of accomplishment and satisfaction would not be as strong as ours in the past.

賈偉南: What’s the difference between working for Catherine Tsang and Tommy Leung? Tsang’s series more realistic, focus on production quality. Tommy more gimmicky, focus more on innovation.

Tommy’s scriptwriters have more say in their work. Tsang’s producers like to control everything including the script with a heavy hand. Some producers are becoming so ridiculously controlling that it is quite impossible to work with them anymore. One of the reasons why I resigned.

Do you know our department situation? From the elevator are two diverging hallways. One to Tommy’s camp, the other to Tsang jeh’s. Their camps are distinctly separated. Each side seldom steps into the other department unless it is work related. I don’t understand since we all work in the same company, why this way? This feeling is very uncomfortable. (tn: like how Steven Ma says he seldom visits Tommy production side of the floor. Couldn’t understand either why such demarcation of department and people)

賈偉南:When I write a story I like indulge myself in stuff that interest me.  In the middle of writing I like to add in some twist; like the storyline of Steven Ma and Tavia Yeung (tn:LOW), actually does not need to write it that way but after all the hard work of researching the material, so decided to add the little details into the writing. Like how I especially put in a lot of thoughts into that segment whereby separated by a wall, they bandied poem to each other. The audience quite like the outcome and that made me happy.

賈偉南: If it were another producer (tn:not Leung Choi Yuen) this segment would have been taken out long ago.

賈偉南:Uncle Choi said these words to me in either 1986 or 87.  At the time I was responsible for writing a segment of the series that is a complete story in itself.  I recall him saying to me: "This younger generation, I don't have much bonding with but nonetheless will give you guys a free rein."  If the majority of the current producers can have this kind of a senior's generosity and open-mindedness, that would be so great.

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TN: I'm so glad that Stevia's flute-guqing segment wasn't taken out because it is absolutely a classic scene to me, a very beautiful and romantic scene and beautifully performed by Steven and Tavia. 

related material: updated info on AF 2012 4/27

tidbits gathered from weibo: --

Don't know who this mainland actor 李学庆** is but he wants to act in the roles that Steven was in . The same guy Ka mentions in his 2 siu sangs and 2 fadans storyline.

賈偉南HK：喜歡拍時裝還是古裝？
賈偉南HK：回覆@李学庆:咪氹我喎，有機會大家合作啦。
李学庆：回复@賈偉南HK: Haha! I want Steven Ma's kind of roles. 哈哈我要马浚伟那样的角色

賈偉南HK：回覆@李学庆:比那些更好的。馬浚偉想我寫部民初劇給他演，曾向他說了一個亦忠亦奸的角色，他大感興趣，不過現在不能在TVB成事了。 (2011-8-9 15:44)
賈偉南HK：回覆@馬浚偉:sure。 (2011-8-9 17:08)
馬浚偉：總會有緣！ (2011-8-9 17:06)


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賈偉南HK：回覆@欣息收集:鍾嘉欣險些就不是施嘉嘉。 (2011-8-11 09:18)

賈偉南HK：回覆@GHIBLI小豬:起初考慮過胡杏兒，結果珍姐敲定用鍾嘉欣。 (2011-8-11 22:27)

馬浚偉: 成日安的人生理念和我最貼近,連我的家人也有此感,謝謝賈生!

賈偉南HK：回覆@馬浚偉:這角色根本就是為你而寫的。(剛巧在看你的文章，便看
到你的留言，緣去緣又來。)

賈偉南HK：回覆@李学庆:好，一言為定。
李学庆:回复@賈偉南HK:那简直是太荣幸啦，哈哈，我强调还是要马浚伟那样的角色

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賈偉南HK: 提早今個月尾離開TVB,下星期有幾日會返公司執清啲嘢，月尾會去日本，所有飯局十
月中至約。
馬浚偉：賈生，祝前途光明、心想事成！馬仔稍後再和你飯聚。江湖再見！ (2011-9-17 12:40)
陳法拉:就是金石開始做了你的妹妹。
馬浚偉 :那場戲我真的哭得停不了，因為安Boy好慘, 我也想起家母...多謝賈生把我和安boy渾為一體！

賈偉南HK: 我仲記得在材叔房睇「金石良緣」馬浚偉在天台用雪糕夜祭亡妹果場時， 珍姐啱啱經過，入嚟睇咗呢段，睇到眼濕濕，嬌嗔我地好衰搞喊佢。

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 幕后军师shirly:对@贾伟南HK 说：金石的确十分好看，证明真正的好剧不一定需要华丽的背景、

 

@賈偉南HK:回覆@幕后军师shirly:「金石良緣」這類題材因為太平實，沒甚麼特別賣點，一般是很難賣橋的，幸好是珍姐指定要做一個不嘩眾、不取寵、實實在在的劇集，並提議以鑿石碑為主角職業，才有「金石良緣」的出現。

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賈偉南HK：回覆@欣息收集:不瞞你說，寫到大芬姐持刀斬施叔、同埋嘉嘉生死胎呢兩場，自己都喊呢。 //@欣息收集:时装剧 大爱金石良缘 施嘉嘉 //@賈偉南HK:回覆@凝眉入画:個人喜歡「滙通天下」遠超過「宮心計」。

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@馬浚偉: 好！這配搭再加賈生，一句話，等你！哈哈！//@賈偉南HK:回复 @一厘米微蓝的blog : 希望將來有機會，其實有一個重拍題材，年代劇，雙生雙旦，馬浚偉+李學慶+陳法拉+楊怡，角色好啱佢地做，如果真係搵我寫，一定提議
 

電視劇：創作了那麼多作品，有沒有讓自己最滿意的？  

□賈偉南：並沒有最滿意的作品，只有部份滿意的。喜歡的則有[匯通天下]、[金石良緣]和[今生無悔]。因為自己回過頭來看就會感覺到這裏也覺得不妥，那裏也有不滿意的地方，部份滿意的還是會有一些。2011-11-11 01:46

电视剧：TVB一般都是直接空降下来的题材，如果分派下的任务自己不感兴趣，您会怎么处理？
贾：我们每年都会有一个专门的会议，每一位编审都会提 出两个“桥”出来，大家在一起讨论哪一个可行性比较高，然后再报告给上面，通常你提出的桥段并不一定会有本人做，当然也有个别的会例外，所以现在都记不清 到底是不是自己的了。

其中有部分是上面空降下来要你做的，但是即使不是自己提出的，都可以把它给发挥成自己喜欢的东西。因为通常都只是一个主题而已，没有 详细的故事或者任务，那么你就可以拿着这个主题曲创作一些自己中意的人物或者事件。像[金石良缘]那套戏，当时珍姐、材叔和我三个人坐在那里聊， 做一个什么时装戏好呢？后来珍姐突然一抬头看到一块石头，她就提议说要不就做石碑的而故事吧，我和材叔当时听完就很惊（笑），因为不知道石碑可以如何去做 个故事出来，大家就想先确定这个主题了。[金石良缘]开头的时候是想把它创作成喜剧的，材叔一开始会担心石碑这么沉重的事物为背景整个基调会太灰，就想不 如做个喜剧版本，但是珍姐不太中意，她不主张做喜剧。后来大家讨论之后，就决定可以做一个实实在在的，完全是讲真实人物、家庭感觉的戏，完全不去讲花哨， 创作的过程中不去考虑会不会吸引观众的问题，做起来都挺舒服的。這套戲寫得很開心，因為完全不需要刻意的去討好觀眾，很多方面沒有掣肘，我自己也很喜歡這部戲。當然，也不至於太滿意，後面有小小不順暢，一條橋本來是給 主角做的，後來擔心主角做起來不舒服，就轉做到其他角色的身上，但是最後又覺得放到主角身上其實會更好，轉來轉去的，中間的一些部分就有些突兀。

程颖曦：请问是哪条桥段？ (今天 00:22)

賈偉南HK：回复@程颖曦: 生死胎。 (今天 00:34)

賈偉南HK ：天林叔對我說這番話是在1986或87年，當時我負責編一個單元劇，天林叔是監製。這個單元又是一個故事。記得天林叔廿多年前咁樣同我講過：「呢啲後生嘢我冇共鳴，不過放手畀你班後生搞啦。」如果而家大部份製作人有長輩咁嘅胸襟就好嘞。


@賈偉南HK ： 我做故事喜歡做自己鍾意的東西，寫到中間的時候就自己玩花樣，像是馬浚偉和楊怡中間的一些故事，其實不需要那麼寫的，但是自己覺得辛苦找回來的資料，就在寫劇本的時候加入進去尤其是那段二人隔牆聯詞，花了我不少心思，出來的效果觀眾又覺得不錯，我自己都挺開心的。   

回复@苦瓜排骨汤的正装: 若果是某些監製，這一段早沒有了。 //@苦瓜排骨汤的正装:[偷笑]这就是所谓创作人的坚持吧