“Across Heaven and Earth” Trailer Reveals Lack of Originality

*Spoilers*

A 28-minute trailer for Wong Jing’s (王晶) new drama, Across Heaven and Earth <風雲天地>, was revealed last week. Netizens criticized that the melodramatic plot was not fresh and lifted ideas from TVB’s older dramas and Korean shows.

Liza Wang (汪明荃) stars as the matriarch of the Cho family who rose from poverty to set up her own company with her sons, Hawick Lau (劉愷威) and Edwin Siu (蕭正楠). Liza raised adopted son Kenny Wong (黃德斌) and adopted daughter Kimmy Tong (童菲) as her own children. Angie Chiu (趙雅芝) stars as a lawyer who had secretly given birth to Kenny.

The 40-episode drama features Liza facing threats from business rivals Suen Hing (孫興) and Monica Mok (莫小棋), who attempts to control the company by seducing Kenny. As her sons’ bonds break over self-preservation and financial interests, Liza later suffers from temporary amnesia.

Hawick Lau will turn from a kind-hearted man to a ruthless schemer. His greatest wish was to marry girlfriend, Tiffany Tang (唐嫣), who was recovering from leukemia. Although the couple planned a life of bliss together, Tiffany was killed in a car accident that involved Edwin. Going through one betrayal after another, Hawick was charged with rape. Facing vicious inmates in prison, Hawick toughens up and prepares to exact revenge on those who have wronged him. Will his adopted sister Kimmy, who has secretly loved Hawick for years, be able to bring back his former self?

The trailer for Across Heaven and Earth revealed similar plots fold in TVB’s older dramas, At the Threshold of an Era <創世紀>, Secret of the Heart <天地豪情>, and Cold Blood Warm Heart <天地男兒>. Netizens complained that the love arcs and Tiffany’s death scene appeared to be lifted out of Korean dramas.

“Across Heaven and Earth” Extended Trailer

[vsw id=”LyXOrEV7bKI” source=”youtube” width=”500″ height=”375″ autoplay=”no”]

Source: Sina.com

This article is written by Karen for JayneStars.com.

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Responses

    1. Super disappointed that it’s not going to be in Cantonese. Guess I won’t be able to watch it.

    2. I thought the same thing when I saw the cast. Why get Cantonese speaking actors to star in a drama just so you could dub over their voices? Why not just cast Mandarin speaking actors?

      1. Because Cantonese speaking actors are more talented and belong to the higher class among celebrities

      2. That is not true and you should not say that since that is really prejudice.

    3. if you havnt relised, lisa’s voice is actually dubbed.
      This means two things
      1. The series IS in fact going to be in mandarin and decided to dub over her, but why would they? her mandarin should be fine to use, so which comes to the second point. It is in cantonese, lisa spoke in cantonese during filming.

      This was a drama wong jing made part for TVB so defs it has to be in cantonese 🙂

      (it better.) LOL

      p.s saw on wiki, it said Cantonese (mandarin dubbed) hehe so it must be canto~~~

    4. It will be Cantonese if tvb Wants to air this drama but since non of their artist a leads who knows what

  1. looks like every Wong Jing drama produced in the late 90s/early 2000s for ATV

  2. Honestly, is anyone surprised at the lack of originality and the lifting of ideas from other series? Even before the trailer came out, the premise of the series already sounded like “been there, done that” type anyway. And sorry, but Wong Jing is way past his prime already — he hasn’t come out with a decent production in at least 10 years! Deanie Ip definitely made the right move by turning down this series…

    1. Exactly and with soooo many series coming out these days, how can you not repeat plots, stories and ideas??? What has not been done yet??

    1. He looks not that different. His nose is still in normal side and his face isn’t full of botox. Hence even if he did PS, it would have been just some minor ones to enhance his original good look. Acceptable. There are faker examples.

    2. Harwick Lau definitely looks better now than he did in the past. He still looks very young in the above photos.

  3. Adopted siblings or not, that’s still really gross. They grew up together and treated each other as siblings. Nasty nasty.

  4. Doesn’t hurt to watch Lisa Wang and Angie Chiu together again in the new drama. Two of TVB’s big big sister.

  5. Looks good. Can’t wait until it is available to watch online.

  6. this is how it is going to be.. all series will become all mandarin… cantonese will be non existent soon 🙁

    1. I think it’s because Wong Jing’s company is located in China. And besides this drama is dubbed in both Cantonese and Mandarin. I’m guessing that the Mandarin version is broadcasting soon while the Cantonese version may be broadcasted later.

      And actually in the US, Mandarin is more commonly used while here in Canada (at least Vancouver), Cantonese was used more frequently than mandarin but that can also change.

      1. I think Mandarin speaking will be catching up very soon as there are more and more Mainland Chinese immigrating to Canada. I heard more and more people speaking Mandarin in Chinese supermarkets and restaurants.

      2. In the US, whenever I went to Chinatown in the past,they spoke Cantonese the most and would give me weird stares whenever I spoke Mandarin. However, Mandarin seems more commonly spoken now but Cantonese is still widely used.

    2. Cantonese is actually the main , its dubbed in mandarin. They are showing this is the mainlands first thats why.
      i cant understand why people didnt figure that out, its not even lisa’s voice!

  7. Hot mess. Besides the lack of originality, waaaaaay too much overacting. Especially the parts where Hawick is a “good” guy. He needs to always play grey or dark characters because it reigns in his acting. Also, several of the women just blended together for me

  8. LOL, Hawick looks like he’s done plastic surgery, and whats with his clothes and hairstyle? Trying too hard to be a KPOP star.

    As for Wong Jing, seriously? the dude hasn’t churned out anything good since the turn of the century. Don’t understand why most of you would think he’d be able to produce a quality production. He needs to retire.

    1. i think he looks normal. he has those kind of clothes and hairstyle in most of his other mainland dramas.

  9. glad its not in cantonese hong kong people have been waiting years for a drama like cold blood and finally here we have one and theres all these complaints hong kong people can kiss wong jing thank you for this drama

    1. this drama is US style its too big for a place called little hong kong

  10. I was very excited b/c of some good actor/actresses here but disappointed with the plot. Hawick is handsome as always. I don’t really think b/c of ps.

  11. Hawick and Liza were in ATE together, but Hawick was a nobody there.

  12. It’s ok that series is similar to a tvb series cuz it’s filled with a lot of former and current tvb artists.

    HAWICK LAU = TVB REJECT
    (SURGERY DID HIM WELL)…GOT HIM YANG MI AND MAINLAND CHINA LEADING ROLES

    1. Agreed. He looks like he took Botox with his forehead so flawless. Hawick you’re a guy, why any need for this?

      1. Agreed, and if you think botox is bad for a guy, I wonder what you think about Uncle LF, who had waaaayyyy more PS. haha 🙂

      2. @MW: LF is free from botox. The master of injection is someone else in Txb. You refer to wrong person in term of injection (including botox), lolz.

      3. You missed my point, that botox is minor compared to PS (nose, chin, jawline, eyes, etc.).

      4. Oh MW, your description sounds like other person than him. And Anthony is talking about Botox which isn’t really PS. You missed his point.

  13. Is that really Harwick Lau??? He looks so different and weird looking….The series is so mainland style, I dont think I will watch it…

  14. This series is defs in cantonese! they dubbed it in mandarin, lisa’s voice is not hers~ on wiki it said the language was cantonese then in brackets (mandarin Dubbed) so YAY :’D

  15. somehow the camera angles and format looks like ATV’s 2006 drama Relentless Justice 義無反顧 … and a swap of Hawick acting Patrick Tam’s role =P

  16. Why is this news shocking to anyone. TVB have been known to lack creativity and recycle ideas for a while now … they took ideas from 1, 2, 3 different past series, put them together and their you go … a new drama 🙂

  17. if not original cantonese is played… skipping can’t stand watching actor/actress I knew without their original voice.

  18. this still looks better than any modern drama that tvb has produced over the last 10 year this drama would have not happen if tvb didnt ask wong jing to produce a drama.. i believe tvb wanted wayne to be the leading actor not hawick lau

  19. ….wait why is this not in cantonese??? i suddenly loss all interest in this. i hate the way they dub the voices…

    1. It is dubbed in Mandarin because it is most likely broadcasting in China first.

      The date of HK broadcast is unknown yet but it will be shown sometime this year in HK with Cantonese..

  20. Like all of you folks, I got excited and thought this was going to be another recycled TVB drama, but with fresh faces. I was even surprised that Hawick Lau would return! But guess what? NOPE. And it’s in mandarin too. I’m done here. Trash after trash.

    1. I have a feeling it is mandarin because of broadcast in china. When it is in hk I am sure it will be Cantonese. The trailer may be meant for china market.

  21. You people complain about everything. After millions of series and movies how can there be anything else to write about. Let’s just enjoy the series and the actors/actresses . When I watch anything it’s because of their acting not really much the plot or theme because I think every different actor can deliver differently.

  22. Hawick is very handsome has always been. I always thought TVB would have missed out a lot when they didn’t appreciate him or promoted him to be lead. And I do feel the same way about Joel Chan. They are both handsome and can really act.

    1. Totally agree with you. And the actors TVB chose over Hawick and Joel during that time, guess what happened to them? Either NOTHING happened and they never got far or they left TVB.

  23. hmm…might watch a few episodes just to see if it’s good. The frozen trailer was terrible but the movie turned out to be enjoyable.

  24. Tvb has to stop this mainland chinese actors collaboration. HK movie is already not even a
    100% made from HK I dun relate to those HK movies anymore. But HK drama is something I rely on to reinforce my Cantonese language and sense of belonging. If tvb starts to introduce mainland cast
    Then what’s the point of tvb’s existence? What’s the point of me as a Cantonese speaker from overseas watch tvb? I might just stick to US drama or give up tvb and teach my kids mandarin instead.

    1. There has been a concerted effort by the Chinese government to install Mandarin as the official and ONLY Chinese language. They’ve enacted laws prohibiting Cantonese to be used in mainland news broadcasts, to forcing signs to use simplified characters.

      1. I don’t see how is that a criticism to have one united language and one united way of writing, however much I despise simplified chinese which won’t help with classical literacy with the next generation of chinese.

      2. I don’t see a criticism in my comment 😛 I was merely explaining to Panda why s/he might not be able to use TVB to reinforce her “Cantonese language” in the future.

      3. TVBFanatic has made a very critical point here. The day of clamoring or insulating oneself in a “Canto-speaking only” world is numbered.

        At present, only 30% of the people in Guandong Providence speaks the “HK canto” dialect and even that number is declining. And if weren’t for the influence of HK, the ‘HK canto’ dialect would have gone the way gaelics did in Scotland and Ireland a Century ago.

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