i was watching the highly addictive
House on aussie TV, when i inexplicably developed a craving to watch channel 8 drama serials. no, i'm not exactly thrilled by the prospect of watching the new channel 8 serials this coming summer cos' the last time i watched channel 8 dramas when i went home in june, the quality of their serials are woefully pathetic, with crappy shows like 同心园 being aired. what i am really craving for are the old channel 8 serials produced during the good o' 'pre-mediacock' days.
much as you may hate to admit, most of us who are born in the '80s grew up on a healthy dosage of SBC/TCS/Mediacorp channel 8 drama serials. even my non-chinese friends in primary school would duitifully watch each episode, squinting to read the subtitles and discuss the plot with the rest of the class. it is perhaps one of the defining things that makes us singaporeans. channel 8 with all the nationalistic propaganda insidiously slotted into the plots of its dramas like
出路 and 和平的代价 has clearly entrenched itself as THE social-engineering institution. and yes, that title doesn't belong to the straits times, cos' the ST is the political-engineering institution.
when i was back home in june, i bought two albums which featured some of the themes songs from the old TCS dramas. and listening to it really brought back lotsa good memories. you'll be surprised how after all these years, after listening to the song, you can actually remember the lyrics and sing to the theme song of
早安老师 !
anyway, here's my personal list of favourite SBC/TCS drama that brings out the greatest nostalgia from the deepest trenches of memory:
15 Superb Drama Serials
15. 神雕侠侣:
i was never really a fan of fann wong, but this has to be my favourite fann wong serial. many people feel that the serial didn't do justice to Jin Yong's novel but it was certainly certainly one of the best 古装片 TCS has ever produced in my opinion. the scenes were well co-ordinated, the cast wasn't too bad either although the 照型 of 金轮法王 and 李莫愁 was quite buang cos' the 金轮法王 not only had hair, but it was also bright red, while 李莫愁 just looks like she's pregnant and wearing a rabbi cap. the character that i fondly remember was 黄蓉 played by 何永芳. 何永芳 if you remember was an actress from china and back then i felt she was super lao chio dressing up as 黄蓉 . i think the serial aired when i was in sec 3 and back then the entire school was Jin Yong siao cos' just about everyone was playing this chinese RPG game 金庸群侠传 and we were all reading comic version of 神雕侠侣 which drawn by a singaporean cartoonist. watching the characters you play in games or read in comics fight it out on TV was really quite fun.
14. 法医故事
before the CSI induced frenzy into forensics, there was 法医故事 which starred 陈丽贞 as a forensic pathologist. The serial was apparently based on true crimes encountered by the late Prof Chao Tze Seng, Singapore’s top forensic expert. I remember it fondly cos’ just before the serial aired, I read ‘Murder is my business’ a very interesting book which described the bizarre cases which Prof Chao encountered throughout his career.
13. 阳光列车
This was a cult classic that established 陈汉伟’s heartthrob status in which he starred as a maverick teacher. I think the show also starred Fann Wong and Ann Kok. It definitely was original cos’ the show aired way before GTO was made into a Jap drama. I remember the mtv of the 插曲 which sung by 陈汉伟 was rather funny with him pressing his face against the walls and it was parodied by me and my classmates for quite sometime, hehe.
12. 家人有约
This was a super heart –warming serial starring 黄碧仁 and 谢韶光. 谢韶光 was a rather cheebye surgeon who mean to his family and was cheating on his wife played by 黄碧仁, until he met with an accident that made him semi-retarded. The story then slowly describes how the misfortune eventually transforms the family for the better and how 谢韶光 eventually became a less wretched person and how 黄碧仁 stood by him through out all the trial and tribulations. 谢韶光’s acting in this show was perhaps unsurpassed by TCS standards and if I’m not wrong, the serial earned him and 黄碧仁 the best actor and best actress awards in that year’s 红星大奖.
11. 七月俏佳人
This was a telemovie who starred 陈汉伟 as a terminally ill rich boy from the US who was trying to meet his longtime penpal sweetheart (played by hongkie actress, Athena Chu) before he dies. The plot in itself was not too bad but the acting by the supporting cast like Robin Goh, the bimbotic Ziozio Lim and some other random guy diminished the show. The best thing to come out of the show is definitely the theme song 关怀方式 which for many subsequent years was a staple on the airwaves of 933FM. The song was so popular that even my malay platoon mates in BMT were able to play the song on guitar and we just sang it together, yet another example of the pervasiveness of channel 8.
10. 奇缘
I dun exactly remember much of the plot details from the serial other than the fact that it was a 古装片 with several independent story segments. I was probably very young when I first watched the show and I watched several episodes of it from the afternoon reruns when I came back from school. But the sets, the stories were very intricate indeed. It's a huge pity that Mediacorp dun produce 古装片 like this anymore, and even when they do, they're those sorta crappy collaborations with some random china TV station kind. The theme song really suited the show and it just stuck on my mind for many years. I was fucking happy when I found the mtv of the song on the net. You can view the mtv from here.
9. 迷离夜
It was a serial in the same vein as 奇缘, except the fact that it had a contemporary setting. The show was really very very creepy and its theme song made it worse with its mystical, creepy feeling. The defining scary scene from the show is probably the scene with the ghost of an old auntie dressed up in those super old shamfoo with those sorta head band with a jade on it waving at you. Eee.. The only plot details which I can recall is that it starred 朱乐玲 in 2 of the segments, one which she recalls and is confronted by memories from her previous life, and eventually finds some ornament embedded in her body cos’ she was cremated in her previous life and her lover left the ornament inside the urn with her ashes. The other segment was about butterflies who would swamp her all the time. It is definitely the best horror show SBC ever made.
8. 再战封神榜
This one superb 古装片starring 周初明 as the Deity of Fire who fell in love with another fairy and ended up being re-incarnated as a mortal named 华光. I was told by my grandmother who was a former opera actress that 华光 was also the deity which the opera troupe prays to so I guess 华光 was eventually reinstated as a deity. I can’t really remember much of the plot but I do recall that the costumes and 照型 of the actors and actresses was super cool. The Deity of Fire, for one had long red hair and wears a warrior’s armor. I think it was 周初明 first serious role cos’ he was usually cast into comedies before that and so his acting was a little too idiosyncratic for a serious drama. But anyway, it was a superb show with a really good theme song as well. I think it was sung by a random duo group from Singapore but I can’t for the life of me remember what the name of the song is! Arggg. Oh! But guess what, while googling for pictures of the serial, I stumbled upon a website that offers rmvb downloads for the entire serial! Guess I’ll know where my bandwidth will be going for the rest of the month.
7. 出路
This is one of the all time blockbuster serials ever made by TCS. Of course, being a national education propaganda flick that describes the life of our pioneering forefathers probably helped as well. It has a rather strong cast featuring 许美珍, 谢韶光, Ivy Lee, Tay Ping Hui and Terence Cao. From what I can recall, 许美珍 was a reluctant bride who shaved her head to get out of the marriage and eventually ran away from China to Singapore to meet her beau played by Terrence Cao, only to fall in love with the local gangster played by Tay Ping Hui. 谢韶光 on the other hand was a rich good for nothing brat who detested his virtuous wife played by Ivy Lee. Plot aside, the 2 biggest things that stands out was the aesthetics of the cinematography as well as its theme song ‘我吃得起苦’ which was performed by 动力火车. That was a super inspiring song and considering the fact that I followed the drama which aired somewhere after my woeful O level prelims, and just before my upcoming O levels, I adopted the song as my mugging theme even till today.
6. 迷情专访
This is in my opinion the best telemovie ever produced by TCS which starred Zoe Tay as investigative journalist who was relentless in exposing corporate scandals. 谢韶光 stars alongside her as an embittered corporate highflier whose company was under Zoe Tay’s investigation. The script was awesome, laden with imageries and metaphors like those likening a maverick journalist Prometheus who in defiance of Zeus, chose to give light and warmth to the mortals. I know this probably don’t sound very convincing by really it is one good movie. I can’t wait to get my hands on its VCD release from here.
5. 豆腐街
The shows stars 许美珍 as the main protagonist who was forced into marrying to a young little boy called 镙头 as a wife cum nanny according to old Chinese customs or what is termed as a 童养媳. While she initially detests this, she eventually resigns herself to her fate playing the unconsummated wife to 镙头 who refers to her as 姐姐. The most heart wrenching portion of the plot is occurs when 镙头 grew up to be a rather handsome and well-learned young man who fell in love with a young girl his age played by the singer Mavis Hee. Now a middle-aged woman, 许美珍 does not lament her fate nor stops 镙头 from marrying Mavis Hee, but rather offers them her best wishes at her own sacrifice while quietly receding into solidarity, contented at fulfilling her role as just a 姐姐 to 镙头.
Another notable member of the cast is 郑国平 who plays a brutish boar hunter nicknamed 山猪雄, who has a mentally ill and disfigured younger brother played by 陈文聪 as a result of torturing by the Japanese during WW2. 山猪雄 then fell in love with the reluctant bride (played by lo and behold! lao chio bu 何永芳) who was conned into marrying 陈文聪. Much as 山猪雄 struggled to suppress his love for 何永芳, he soon found himself torn between his love for her and his love for his younger brother. The ending was a rather sad one when 何永芳 was accused of adultery or wrongly murdering 陈文聪 I think. and if I’m not wrong, in order to protect 何永芳 as well as to preserve his loyalty to his brother, 山猪雄 chose to confront the police and crowd demanding to get a piece of 何永芳 and eventually getting himself shot dead in the process. It is worth noting that both 郑国平 and 陈文聪 had a superb performance in this serial and it is a huge pity that neither of them found fame nor recognition for their acting prowess. 郑国平 for one is probably one of the most underrated actors in TCS. The theme song ‘城里的月光‘ which was sang by Mavis Hee was really superb as well.
4. 锦绣前程
This was one of those 7pm serials which starred 周初明 as a vocational institute student or VI – the predecessor to the ITE – who had no passion in life other than to get a cheong bike and to play water polo. It also starred Terence Cao as his nemesis who was a rich JC student, and a friend to 周初明 ’s neighbour, a JC girl played by 林璃宾. 周初明 ’s widowed father who was played by 陈树成 was very a really funky cab driver who himself was rather supportive of his son and trying to put off the love interest from his mamasan admirer played by 刘秋莲. There was a very funny scene when Terrence Cao challenged 周初明 to a bike race. At the scene of the race, 周初明 was waiting for a bike which his father promised to buy for him. It turns out that his father bought him a scooter. Other members of the cast include 周崇庆 -who plays the friend of 周初明 who lacks confidence and wanted to commit suicide when he realizes that he was going to VI but eventually goes on to poly after graduating -, 关德辉 who plays ‘cool man’ a classmate of 周初明 who went blind after an accident, and the then very cute Michelle Chia who plays the love interest of 周初明 a westernized friend of 林璃宾. There was one scene where 周初明 was supposed to attend the prom with Michelle Chia but was turned down at the door cos’ he was underdressed. Michelle Chia innovated by removing her scarf or something and made it into a bow tie for 周初明 and somehow they eventually made it in.
The theme of the show was ostensibly an attempt to demolish education-based snobbery by portraying VI students as hardworking and motivated youths, given the right influences given its title. The theme song was brilliant too. It was performed by all of the actors in the serial I think and it starts like this '有谁不曾在生活中受了伤?有谁不曾在期待中迷失方向?' Awesome song, awesome serial. In fact, it had such a huge impact on me and my friends then that we started imitating 周初明 by referring to our pri 3 English teacher by calling ‘ello!’, much to her dislike, heh.
3. 双天至尊
This is without a doubt a TCS classic featuring the 2nd generation golden couple of Caldecott hill, Li Nan Xing and Zoe Tay. (the original was perhaps 黄文永 and 向云) . For some inexplicable reasons, 双天至尊 II was enacted into the all time top 50 serials on the mediacorp website instead of its predecessor. In my opinion, the 2 subsequent installments was crap, especially 双天至尊 III. Needless to say, the characters are now eternalized as part of TCS folklore. Li Nan Xing plays the gambling prodigy 言飞 who’s being coached by his father played by 陈树成 who wants him to avenge his defeat in the hands of his mortal nemesis 龙庭光 played by 朱厚任 whose daughter, 龙嘉嘉 (played by Zoe Tay) is the love interest of 言飞.
I think the serial aired when I was in pri 4 and that really sparked a gambling craze in my class when we imitated 言飞 by trying to guess the dice roll by moving our ears (I could still do the ear moving thingy now) and trying to throw the cards across the air like the way how 陈树成 coaches 言飞 by flipping to random chapters of the 三国演义 book and asking his son to throw a card specifically to that chapter. The theme song ‘沉默的羔羊’ sang by 赵传 was a sleeper hit which although wasn’t famous, is probably still residing in the deep recesses of the minds of every one who’s a kid in 1993.
2. 最后一个大侠
I simply cannot understand why this serial wasn’t enacted into the all-time top 50 list. Throughout primary sch, sec sch and even JC, I just cannot find a guy my age who do not like this serial or anyone who cannot sing its theme song. Go ahead, just try and ask any Chinese guys who’s about 22 years old if they can sing the song from 最后一个大侠 and chances are that they will start singing ‘为什么武林高手都要做天下第一, 为什么人在江湖都要说身不由己….’
If it isn’t obvious by now, i was quite a 周初明 fan when I was young. The serial stars 周初明 as wild jungle-book-like child named 英武 who was brought up in the forest and has hair all over his body like a monkey who is yet again the long lost son of 陈树成 who plays a top martial arts exponent named 骆传风 I think (quite similar to the names of one of 黄药师’s disciples I think). When 英武 grew up, he was treated by a 神医 and coached by this highly skilled Taoist priest who was able to stretch his hands. The priest was the mortal enemy to this 江湖恶人 named 紫逻刹 or purple killer. The interesting thing about 紫逻刹 was that he is an ah-gua with purple eye-shadows and purple long nails who leads a double life as a some well respected person when he isn’t 紫逻刹. He was apparently the friend of 骆传风 and the reason why he became ah-gua was cos’ 骆传风 passed him his martial arts manual which are lacking in some pages, and so when 紫逻刹 tried to practice the kung fu on the manual, he 走火入魔 and have yin-yang imbalance and hence become ah gua. Then I think both the priest and 骆传风 got killed by 紫逻刹 and 英武 wanted to seek revenge and somehow managed to kill 紫逻刹. But then, 紫逻刹’s son who is also 英武’s friend also mastered his father’s skills and also became ah-gua and so wanted to avenge his father by fighting 英武. I think in the end, the new ah-gua got killed and 英武 退出江湖 to live happily ever after with his love interest the神医 ‘s daughter played by Zoe Tay leaving a unsurpassable kung fu accomplishment, hence becoming 最后一个大侠.
Man, this really brings back lotsa fond memories. There’s this guy in our class called Cai Zi Cong who always fantasied himself as 杨过 cos’ whenever we play fighting during recess, he would fight with only one hand and tucking in the other behind his back…nevermind the fact that he always kenna zham big time cos’ everyone will be fighting him at the same time. So when we started playing 最后一个大侠 and designating roles, we always bullied him and make him 紫逻刹 cos’ his face was pale and had dark rings around his eyes resembling 紫逻刹’s eye shadows whahahaha! His protests din help, so he was 紫逻刹 everytime. But unfortunately for us, he remained just as enthu about his role and so zealous was he that we all kenna scratched by his fingernails when he imitated 紫逻刹’s killer moves. Poetic justice eh.
1. 早安老师
tada!! Is it any surprise that 早安老师 is my all time favourite? I guess it is probably the all-time favourite of most gen-y guys or gals my age. If every guy can sing the最后一个大侠 song, then CONFIRM every guy AND girl can all sing the theme song from 早安老师 that goes ‘老师早, 同学们好. 我们开始上课了!’ If you can’t get enough of the song, you can view the MTV here.
The serial stars 陈莉萍 as the ‘Aiyoyo’ 老师 who’s a rich girl who was sent to teach in a kampong primary school called 立仁小校, i remember this cos’ I’ve got a pri school classmate called Yang Li Ren who always prides himself sharing the same name as that primary school. There she met many students like this two damn funny and cute fat twins called 旺财 and 发财. Their father was a widowed fisherman who fell in love with the principal of 立仁小校, 张校长 played by 洪慧芳. At the kampong, Aiyoyo met 四眼周 played by Li Nan Xing whom she eventually married, much to the dismay of 四眼周’s father, a medical hall owner who disapproved of Aiyoyo’s westernized behaviour.
There was also a paikia student who would always play truant and ran away from home to the city and joined gangs there. It was Aiyoyo who eventually brought him back and reformed him. 朱厚任 also acted in this show where he played a poor but upright teacher. His wife played by 陈丽贞 was a go-getter who couldn’t stand sharing poverty with her husband and hence left him. Then there was this overage female student played by 朱乐玲 who had a crush on 朱厚任
but her love was unrequited by 朱厚任. Then I think one night when 朱厚任 was getting all upset over his wife’s departure and getting drunk or something
朱乐玲 went over to his place to console him and 朱厚任 mistook her for his wife and gave her a kiss (they probably din shag, cos’ the serial is very G one not PG). The next day, 朱厚任 realised his mistake and told 朱乐玲 that he din like her, thus prompting her to run away from home. Her mother complained, made a big fuss and 朱厚任 was forced to resign.
There is also this really obnoxious teacher played by 王昌梨 who was a relative of one of the directors of the school who always tortured students who misbehaved. Then somehow, the board of directors decided to sack 张校长 for some damn stupid reason I think by making her responsible for 朱乐玲’s 离家出走 and the obnoxious teacher was then made principle in her place. This new principal made things very difficult for the rest of the school and eventually accidentally burnt the school down when he one of his unstubbed cigarettes set fire to the school. I can’t really remember the ending but I think they managed to rebuild the school and the cheebye principal was sacked and 张校长 was reinstated. During her hiatus, 张校长 served as a home tutor to this mentally disturbed rich girl. Apparently the young girl became mentally disturbed when she resulted in the death of her grandma cos’ she willfully insisted that her grandma retrieve her doll which fell into the river thus resulting in her grandma’s drowning. 张校长 somehow managed to open her up and cured her I think. That was I think the only disturbing aspect of who was a rather light-hearted and cheerful serial.
The popularity of 陈莉萍 itself is testament to the success of the serial. For like 10 years after the show, 陈莉萍 always found herself among the 十大 of the star awards even when she appeared in little or no drama serials. Her Aiyoyo character also created a huge number of spin off education programmes that features her speaking in her clichéd ‘Ai yo yo ‘ punctuations. I just cannot think of any other serial that can surpass this in terms of popularity and nostalgia factor.
On the other hand, there are quite a few ‘buang’ cases throughout the history of TCS. Here are a few:
Buang Cases:
- 敢敢做个开心人-
The show is not even funny at all. The fact that the stupid sitcom survived for like 4 seasons and created spin offs featuring its characters like Lobang King only makes it worse. The theme song is fucking irritating somemore the one that goes dunno what dunno what ‘made in singapore’. It’s those sorta pathetic brand humor that really destroys whatever little sense of humour we Singaporeans have left.
-不老传说-
Sad to say, this is yet another buang case that features周初明. I never really watched the serial cos’ I was damn put off by the first few episodes I watched and it was obviously a rip off from the more successful Hongkong serial about vampires : ‘我和僵尸有个约会’. To think medicorp has the cheek to hail it as one of the top 50 all time serials.
-金枕头-
Hongkong accents aside, just seeing the far too overaged and overweight 万梓良 acting as a heartthrob who wins the hearts of not only Zoe Tay and Fann Wong is just too much to take. If that isn’t bad enough, the fucking serial actually drags on for like 40 episodes with one pseudo arty farty ambiguous ending with Zoe Tay, Fann Wong and 万梓良 pressing their ears against that oversized gold nugget while asking ‘你听的到吗? 我听到了’. No wonder this scene is always parodied in the old 搞笑行动. And believe it or not, this was also enacted into the all-time top 50 list! PUI!
-卫斯里传奇-
For some reason, TCS simply cannot produce sci-fi flicks for nuts. The plot setting was just too over convoluted for its setting, and the details of the progression of the plot just too flippantly dealt with. Acting was crap, action was too random. I think they even got their story wrong cos’ in one of their story segments ‘蓝血人’ the 蓝血人 was portrayed to be a villain when in 倪匡 novel he was supposed to be a good alien who’s marooned on earth. Pathetic.
-莲花争霸-
This comes as a close second for the all time buang case, If not for the fact that it was a swordfighting serial so the action probably mitigates the damage. There is little to no originality to the plot. First the shows stars 刘秋莲 as a sultry proprietress of a tavern who in secrets has a team of assassins placed under her charge. She fell in love with the younger handsome, cool assassin played by Li Nan Xing. Come on lor, this is obviously a rip off from the plot of 流星蝴蝶剑. And if that wasn’t bad enough, there’s this owner of a castle played by 朱厚任 who adopted this sidekick as his foster son played by…..female actress 塔灵托雅!! And the best part, this foster son eventually castrates himself to learn the some 神功 from a 武林密集 which is named –wait for this- 莲花宝典 and eventually becomes feminine and sultry!This is CONFIRM guarantee plus chop a plagiarizing of the storyline from movie version 笑傲江湖之东方不败, and not even from the novel version cos’ it is in the movie version that 东方不败 was portrayed as young, pretty and sultry. In the novel, 东方不败 is just a lao bapok. Super duper jialat. The worst part, when I was googling for pictures from this serial, I actually found out that some vcd company in china is ACTUALLY SELLING THIS CRAP to the china market. I hope the china viewers dun go blind after watching this shit.
All time buang case -错爱今生 –
The show is so buang that I dun really recall much despite being forced to watch it cos’ it airs at 7pm and my grandma and auntie would watch it while we have dinner. I do remember that it stars Christopher Lee, Jaclyn Tay, Irin Gan and one other random actor. Together, they form 2 couples and the two guys were good friends. Then for some weird ass reasons, the couples broke up and they ended up switching partners! Wah lan eh, might as well all go and have a good foursome together! I remember my grandma cursing at the immorality which the show preaches and the serial did draw a lot of flak from the media. The acting was damn bad also. Plus the fact that the plot was super incoherent as to why they ended up breaking up. So that has to be the worst serial ever. The only mitigating factor which I can think of is that we get to see Irin Gan strut around in the show, and even so, she isn’t exactly super chio.
There’re probably tons of worse serials out there, and when I last checked, that irritating show with Pierre Png acting as a retard who kept repeating ‘美人渔’ is probably a strong contender for the top spot if not for the fact that I only got to watch one or two episodes. Also there're a couple from Channel 5 as well, such as Masters of the Sea and the serial with unsurpassable tacky names 'VR MAN' featured erm, the VR Man and professor click click.
And of course, there're probably many more good serials that i haven't mentioned. Gosh, this could even be a meme in itself.
So what are your favourite old channel 8 serials?
