“TEM” Airs Last Episode, Mandy Wong Wants Kenneth Ma to Go Shirtless
On November 26, the cast of TVB’s supernatural horror drama The Exorcist’s Meter <降魔的> including Kenneth Ma (馬國明) and Mandy Wong (黃智雯) gathered together for a dinner banquet to watch their drama’s final episode. The supernatural series also stars Hubert Wu (胡鴻鈞) and Moon Lau (劉佩玥), and is one of the year’s highest-rated television shows.
Kenneth and Mandy were asked about the rating points that they would like to see for the final episode, but Kenneth remarked that ratings are hard to predict, and said, “Fate will decide.” Mandy, however, gave a much more elaborate response, and said with a laugh, “If ratings are high, then Kenneth should reveal his two points [go shirtless].”
“I just said I’ll treat everyone for dinner! But People would be more interested in seeing your two points,” Kenneth joked. “They wouldn’t care about mine.”
Asking Kenneth if there are plans for a sequel, the actor said, “That depends on the producer. To be honest, many characters already died, but because this is a supernatural show, there are stories that can be continued. We’ll have to see what the producer and writers think.”
With the TVB Anniversary Awards coming up, does Kenneth have the confidence to win TV King? “I’ll leave that to fate,” he said. “As actors, all we can do is to work hard in our roles. Awards is about luck. For example, everyone though this year’s [TV King] was between me and Vincent Wong (王浩信), but Michael Miu (苗僑偉) won in Malaysia instead. It’s not that simple. There are many competitors.”
Pointing out that the success of The Exorcist’s Meter (TEM) is giving Kenneth Ma a good chance to win, he said, “I’m already very lucky. Originally, [TEM] was not meant to be an anniversary drama, but it became one. It’s not like this drama was very expensive to make, and nor was the cast big. I’m already very surprised with these results and turn of events.”
Mandy said she would want TEM win Best Drama the most.
Source: On.cc
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
The Exorcist’s Meter is def my top fav tvb show. The casts is weak but i do enjoy watching them and the story is good. I do hope the show win some awards.
Kenneth Ma is so skinny. Guy probably looks like Slender Man without is shirt on lol.
This show tells TVB that you don’t need a big casts, big budget, traveling all the way to Taiwan, Macau, Mainland, Holland, etc. to film a good show. As long as more creativity are put into the writing of the story, and the production of the show is well-executed by all parties, then even a small budget series like TEM could also come out as a big hit.
Kenneth definitely carried his role very well, but not Mandy. As was mentioned in my other post about Mandy’s performance in this series, i truly believe she can do even better, but her performance in this series is just so so…not her best. Even Moon Lau outshines her in the show. I also like Hubert Wu and think he’s the new gem in TVB. Hope to see more of him in future series and listen to more series theme songs sing by him.
@diana80 I think Kenneth did a fab job as the down to earth guy. I do think that he was quite convincing with his emotional scenes yet natural when it came to the comedic parts.
As for Mandy, I think that her doctor role was too bland and flat to be interesting and the demon role too superficial. Both roles are different from each other, but the writing does not give much depth to these 2D characters. I found that Mandy tended to preach a lot in her doctor role and overact +++ (like what Tavia did in BTROC) for the demon role.
Moon is getting better and better with each series. She does have a whiny voice but she carries herself well.
I just like seeing Hubert. He is not a great actor nor is he very handsome but he is natural for a newbie and I love how he is very clear when he verbalises his lines. You can hear every word he is saying, especially when it comes to the ancient terms. I am also watching the other series when is guest starring as a crossdresser and he seems to be fun too. I don’t mind seeing more of him on TV and his songs are fantastic to listen to.
So far, the relationship between Hubert, Kenneth and Tse Suet Sam is what makes me want to keep watching. Not so interested in the love story. I did cry in the arc with Kenneth and his biological parents. I did not see that coming.
TEM is better than “Blue Veins” IMO, I do hope TVB does explore the supernatural themes in the future.
@elizabeth
Totally agree with you.
TEM is definitely a much better and meaningful series than Blue Veins. TVB has made the right decision to include this series as its anniversary series this year. Hopefully this series could grab some awards during TVB Anniversary Awards 2017.
“I just said I’ll treat everyone for dinner! But People would be more interested in seeing your two points,” Kenneth joked. “They wouldn’t care about mine.”
haha…………kenneth always has such a filthy mouth.
I thoroughly enjoyed this show. I hope it will win Best Drama, Best Actor and Best Song in the TVB Anniversary Awards.
I think this is potentially best drama of 2017. I demand a sequel. The last 5 min had me scratching my head. Since this is to me a super hero origin story much like super villain as well sequel will be most suitable. New stories and all. Cried many times. Fantasy series but grounded.
Yes kenneth is thin but today i saw bosco halfbnaked and he looks dry thin.
By the way shocked at my ages apart mame pole dancer. Very daring. Still going strong.
Dude, the ending was a WTF slap to the audience. I mean if that’s a prelude to another sequel, then okay. But from what Kenneth stated above, it doesn’t seem like they ever planned to do this! Which means, if there is NO sequel, this is the only ending we get. I like this drama. It’s not right to end it this way. How irresponsible!!!#@$@$(@
Kenneth’s parents arc wasn’t a huge surprise to me since I kinda seen this exact storyline happen in the Korean movie “Hello Ghost” so I did suspect something. Nevertheless, the impact didn’t lessen for me. Buckets of tears, I tell you.
Overall, I think this was a herculean team effort and everyone did their part tremendously well. I especially enjoyed Moon, Mandy and Susan’s Tse’s performances. There’s something mesmerizing with the way Mandy & Susan speak their lines. Mandy was awesome as the demon. Someone mentioned above that she’s too exaggerative, but I actually find her acting somewhat restrained. She didn’t go crazy a la Tavia in BTROC. She was measured and domineering, although not powerful enough to be scared of. Susan was all kinds of batty mom in this show, but her acting was never overboard either. She’s always the supreme professional in all her roles. I admire her so much. Lastly, Moon has always been great as the cutesy character. She excels at this! She’s still very cute in this drama and probably the most undeserving of death. Which brings me to another point – I think her death was SO unnecessary. Fatty taxi driver died as consequence of Kenneth’s inaction, which is necessary. Then, Mok Yau Wai died directly because of the demon, which concentrated Kenneth’s hate. They’ve already constructed the perfect reasons for why Kenneth needs to kill the demon, but why did Beh Beh have to die?
Think Beh Beh’s death left better resolution to the artificial love triangle. Since Kenneth obviously chose Mandy.
@smurf Obviously. Bella is in friends zone even when she is dead. Oh I remember her scene where she spoke of her dreams and she is very dead and oh tears falling. So very sad. I think on average I am almost in tears or in tears every 3 episodes or so with the last 10 like almost every episode.
@coralie I expected Kenneth to end up with Moon so when she died I was shocked. I do think her death is necessary because it pushes Ma Kwai to take up the mantle.
“Kenneth’s parents arc wasn’t a huge surprise to me since I kinda seen this exact storyline happen in the Korean movie “Hello Ghost” so I did suspect something. Nevertheless, the impact didn’t lessen for me. Buckets of tears, I tell you.”
I didn’t expect that. I truly didn’t. Was very shocked and cried buckets too. In this series a lot of good people died terrible deaths, they drop like flies and the bad guy? Died of seemingly heart failure. I do like it when Ma Kwai shot him but I hated that why should he have felt it was a sin to kill someone who is born evil as opposed to him who was born decent? One attracted a good spirit, the other bad sort. A scene should have been added where Ma Kwai is told he shouldn’t feel guilt for killing evil dude because that’s his duty, there can be no sin in ridding evil and perhaps whatever that demon said was just her own biased opinion. I mean why listen to someone who uses seduction or affection to make you kill someone? Her credibility to me is none.
Other than that, awesome series even if I disagree with how the mother clinging on to the dead son. There should be a darn sequel because I mean where is Little Ho??
Really loved this series more than I thought I would. I liked the decision to develop the side characters more which seems to be lost art at TVB.
Tone reminded me more of the late 90s semi serious supernatural films, making fun and respectful of subject matter at same time. Most supernatural stories either veer too hard one way or the other. I like the skepticism here.
I’m actually not surprised that this series did so well, since the original script came from a recruitment contest (the winner of the contest got their script made into a series) rather than written by TVB’s usual scriptwriters, which is why it’s not typical TVB fare. Of course, TVB’s scriptwriters had to modify the script somewhat to fit within the restrictions of broadcasting rules, but the original concept and “bones” of the script were kept intact. The producer admitted in an interview recently that they didn’t have high hopes for the series and were pleasantly surprised at how well the series was accepted by audiences. As for whether there will be a sequel or not, it’s hard to say since this series didn’t go the typical route….though I did hear that the script was originally a three-parter but they changed it a bit to make it work as a series, so depending on how they changed it and what they took out, it could possibly be enough for a sequel (or spinoff perhaps)…
@llwy12
it’s amazing how when scripts are kept toned down and can relate to real life then they become very watchable. Although the theme is supernatural, it has a more sense of realism than the action series such as Highs and Lows, Burning Hands and the Unholy Alliance where the storylines and character spirals out of control. The characters are kept real. Not since Time before Time and Female Masculinity have we received such a pleasant surprise for a warm supernatural or ghost themed series that families can sit to watch together. Love the ‘small horse’ character. Wish he was my taxi driver to be honest.
@jimmyszeto Yup, so true! A lot of audiences want to watch stuff they can relate to, connect with, series that are more grounded in real life rather than having to suspend disbelief all the time. TVB used to be really good at this, like back in the 70s and early 80s when they did a lot of series about “grassroots” characters with realistic storylines that the average joe could relate to due to its connection to a societal concern such as education, housing, family life, etc. Unfortunately, as TVB got bigger, they also got lazier (and greedier), churning out scripts that were more commercialized and largely for show, with lots of theatrics, action, gimmicks and whatnot but very little substance.
@llwy12 oh thanks for the info, no wonder why this show is so original! i hope TVB do more script contest in future.
@hannah You’re welcome! The guy who “won” the contest is actually a TVB employee, but he works in a completely unrelated department (I think he’s in the marketing department or something like that). He did get 10,000 HKD prize money and TVB did fulfill their promise of turning the script into a series, but looks like he didn’t get any scriptwriting credit for it, which leads me to believe that TVB changed enough of whatever he submitted originally that it didn’t warrant further recognition in terms of “credit”. Either way though, at least he got some prize money out of it (probably more than he’d ever make working for cheapo TVB, lol), so it wasn’t all in vain.
@llwy12 typical TVB lol
@llwy12 that’s how it works. Tvb owns the rights so no need to credit him. Let him write the sequel!!
@llwy12 I am shocked the producer had no foresight or he was just being humble because how can a series like this NOT get high ratings? Even if out of HK? It has issues that both young and old will enjoy save for incredibly bad acting and there wasn’t any. The ending must have been changed which is typical TVB. Just give a proper ending and do a proper sequel and just give us a proper story. This series technically can go on for seasons like American TV shows.
Anyway shows producer is out of touch. How many heart of greed or whatever the name is now can HK audience take? Somehow Exorcist’s metre is more grounded with its stories about ghosts and demons and whatever than that part 3 of the perpetual feuding family in HK. Even My Ages Apart which may be silly and it is supposed to be is more grounded silly than that so called family feud drama. It is so stereotyping. I am thinking with all the money they have earned can’t they have given at least their son a better education.
Anyway now I am loving My Ages Apart. Everytime you think it is silly, there comes an element where makes it not silly but witty. Every line is delivered with panache.
I do miss exorcist’s metre. I have decided it is TVB’s best drama for 2017, possibly for the last 3 years even if it had a terrible bad ending and an anti climatic fight. And it won’t win awards because that’s not how TVB works.
If you guys want to watch something relatable and heart warming.. you guys need to watch “Because this is my first life” and “Go back couple.” Excellent KDrama with lots of heart and an excellent script/cast!
@happybi I don’t know. I find kdrama rather detached although its not supposed to be that way. They amp up Ramp up shock value and not too good at quiet moments.
@funnlim Trust me on those two drama.. I think you will enjoy it.. As a Mom, you can relate to “go back couple.” I know I did. It was very heart warming… the story of her with her Mom was love…. I cried in a few scene.. As for “Because it’s my first life.” it’s very relatable too.. and the cast was awesome!