Translation: llwy12@ http://asianfanatics.net
Wayne Lai and Sheren Tang both repeated their TV King and Queen wins at the Anniversary Awards this year, however the one ‘blemish’ in an otherwise perfect night was that their series “No Regrets” did not win Best Series. Unfortunately, there would not be another chance to win for “No Regrets” scriptwriter Cheung Wah Biu, as he has already left TVB and will be starting his new job in Taiwan with Jimmy Lai’s Next TV. The week of the Anniversary Awards, Cheung Wah Biu purposefully made a trip back to Hong Kong (from Taiwan) to be there as his former employer passes out their yearly ‘report cards’, still feeling ‘connected’ somehow.
After all, Wah Biu had worked as scriptwriter for TVB for over 30 years and was the ‘literary mind’ behind many of the stations highest rated series. Starting with the Felix Wong / Barbara Yung version of “Legend of the Condor Heroes” back in the 80s, to the scripts for “Journey to the West” and “Time Before Time” in the 90s (both series broke ratings records that decade), and most recently, the triple success of Best Series winners “Heart of Greed”, “Moonlight Resonance”, and “Rosy Business”, Cheung Wah Biu has built up his repertoire over the years – no wonder he is known as the TV industry’s ‘Golden Screenwriter’.
Even though he now works for a different company, Cheung Wah Biu still has some ‘words’ for his former employer (TVB): “TVB is the place where I grew up and spent most of my life – why would I leave? Actually, I’ve lost faith in them.”
Spends $10,000 taxi money per month
Cheung Wah Biu resigned in April of this year, however the thoughts of leaving TVB actually started 2 years ago at the Anniversary Awards ceremony [TN: The year that "Moonlight Resonance" won Best Series].
Wah Biu: “When we won Best Series that year, the company wanted both the producer as well as the scriptwriters to go up on stage to say a few words. As the producer gave his speech, I started to wonder when it would be our turn to speak? I stood a few steps behind him (the producer)…he thanked his wife, his son, his father, his mother, and a whole bunch of other people – none of whom had anything to do with the series – however, those who actually wrote the script (the entire scriptwriting team) were not even mentioned. At the time, I really felt like walking off the stage and back to my seat – it’s that moment that I started to think in my heart: ‘It’s definitely time to leave this company.’”
The countless ‘golden phrases’ that became such a huge hit with HK audiences after “Heart of Greed” and “Moonlight Resonance” aired were the result of Wah Biu and his scriptwriting team’s creative thinking – one would think that credit alone at least deserved to be on par with the producer in terms of recognition is concerned. But in Wah Biu’s case, he deeply felt that his team’s contributions were overlooked and credit was taken from him.
Wah Biu: “The producer is only good at producing, doesn’t mean he is good at scriptwriting, however he ends up representing both. A script is supposed to be the ‘root’ of a series [TN: Chinese characters for ‘script’ is 劇本, which translated separately mean ‘drama’ (劇) and ‘origin’ (本)] – sure, everyone knows how to ‘say’ it, but not very many truly understand the meaning of it.”
What upsets Wah Biu the most is that some producers never participate in the creation of the script, but yet, they still ultimately have the final ‘right’ to edit the script.
Wah Biu: “One time, we wrote a particular dialogue that was supposed to show someone apologizing to an elder – the dialogue as written was supposed to be: ‘Please forgive me, I will never expose a person’s private matters again.’ The producer ended up changing it to ‘I will never expose a person’s false mask again.’ – this was obviously a misuse of words, as exposing someone’s falseness is a righteous act, not one that requires forgiveness – so the entire dialogue ended up not making sense. At the time, our team had 2 script editors and 5 scriptwriters, so first we sent 2 female scriptwriters to try and persuade the producer not to make the changes, however the producer refused, so next we sent our 2 script editors, but that didn’t work either. In the end, I had to personally approach the producer and after a heated argument, I had to throw in the threat ‘Don’t ask me to write another script!’ before I was able to get what I wanted, which was merely for the producer to not change the script. It made me realize that at the end of the day, the producer is the ‘final ruler’ and when that ‘ruler’ solely holds all the power, he/she can just do as he/she pleases without giving a reason, even if the action does not make any sense.”
Another time, Wah Biu was writing a ‘happy’ scene for “Moonlight Resonance” and wanted to complement it with Teresa Teng’s song 《甜蜜蜜》however the producer disagreed, saying: “Teresa Teng is dead, how can her song complement a happy scene?”
Wah Biu: “That’s the life of a screenwriter! We usually only get 4 days to complete 1 episode of a series – with these arguments, 1 day is already wasted. For 4 days a week, the whole team is up until 2am in the morning working on the script – every month, I spend about $10,000HKD on taxi fees for the female scriptwriters so they don’t have to worry about their safety working so late.”
Phone call from Jimmy Lai
Not too long after he had thoughts about leaving TVB, Cheung Wah Biu got the opportunity to work with a different producer, Lee Tim Sing, on the 2 highly-rated series “Rosy Business” and “No Regrets”. Wah Biu describes the experience (working with Tim Gor): “Very lucky to encounter such a good person.”
Wah Biu: “Tim Gor always helped us with the creation of the script, discussing with us constantly – completing the script was always a mutual project involving both Tim Gor and our team. During the script writing process for “Rosy Business” and “No Regrets”, we did not work any O.T. at all – in fact, we would be off work by 7 or 8 pm every night. Not only that, but Tim Gor would also act as chauffeur, driving us to the subway station every night – it was a pleasure riding with him!”
Despite Wah Biu’s pleasure working with Tim Gor, the fact of the matter is that Tim Gor is already close to retirement age and every year, there are talks of him not renewing his contract – from Wah Biu’s perspective, it’s not every day that he would be lucky enough to encounter such a good person. In fact, Wah Biu agreed to write the script for “No Regrets” so that he could collaborate with Tim Gor one last time before his retirement. It was during this time that he received the phone call from Next Media’s chairman, Jimmy Lai.
Wah Biu: “It’s very interesting..he’s in such a high position, so I asked him: ‘Are you sure you have the right person? I’m only a small television screenwriter, not famous at all.’ Mr. Lai replied, ‘I definitely have the right person. Why are some people so stupid? Don’t they know that the script is the most important part of a series?’ After hearing this, I thought about it for 3 minutes, then made the decision to leave the TV station that I serviced for 30 years. I was amazed that the person who truly respected creativity wasn’t one of my colleagues and was not a producer, but rather an ordinary business person.”
There were rumors that Jimmy Lai made an offer of 3 times the salary for Cheung Wah Biu to work for his company – the screenwriter denied this, stating: “It’s not true – industry people made that up. When I agreed to join, we hadn’t even talked about salary yet.”
His only regret is that he would be leaving behind his team of young screenwriters and editors, to whom he truly apologizes.
Wah Biu: “The writers who worked with me on “Heart of Greed” , we endured so many 2am shifts together. Most of them may be young college graduates, but they are very responsible and take their work seriously – unfortunately though, in their positions, they get very little pay (starting position is about $9000HKD) and are often ridiculed by others as ‘lowly’ positions. It’s sad that even with my position as a senior screenwriter, I’m not able to do anything for them – can’t say a word or help them better their lot in any way…this is the biggest regret I have in my 30 years in the industry. In reality, only 1 or 2 of the young screenwriters who worked with me on “Heart of Greed” still continued in the industry – it’s a sad case indeed.”
Regrettable situation at the hospital
TV audiences are getting smarter and smarter – any type of refutable storyline or copying does not escape their eyes. To this, Cheung Wah Biu expresses: “In HK, there are only a few dozen screenwriters — this is quite a ‘hated’ profession, as there is hardly a profession where you’re scolded by so many people. When I was little, I would go watch ball games and see the players get yelled at by thousands of people – screenwriters, however, are yelled out at by millions of people…it’s a deplorable job.”
Several years ago, Cheung Wah Biu’s father was diagnosed with incurable cancer and lived at a hospital long-term, so he would go to visit every night.
“There were a lot of patients at that hospital. Every night, when it came time to watch series, they would be very happy and would all gather in the common room to watch together, so I would go sit in and watch with them. A nurse told me one time: ‘Your dad told me that you’re a screenwriter. Thanks for putting so much heart into what you do and keep it up! The happiest time for these patients is right now, when they get to watch series, though unfortunately, many of them pass away before they get the chance to finish a 40 episode series.’ These words really shook me and made me realize how many HK audiences ‘chase’ series. The one thing I would like to tell newer generation screenwriters: ‘Your jobs are very important because it has the potential to bring a lot of joy to many people.’”
On the other side of the spectrum though, the most complaints about TVB series in the past several years have been about plagiarism and copying others. To this, Cheung Wah Biu admits that the creativity ‘soil’ has changed in substance at TVB.
Wah Biu: “When a person in charge of production is held up as a ‘master of drama’ but the person writing the script is a ‘no name’ whose primary responsibility is to make that production head look good, what type of fool would be willing to invest energy wholeheartedly? If the producer was not once a screenwriter himself, when he becomes ‘the boss’, the person responsible for creativity becomes his ‘guts’ and so needs to be in harmony with his likes – if he (the producer) wants to copy overseas series, the writer can only do as he is told…this type of ‘soil’ will not yield good screenwriters.”
Counting off the few TVB producers who actually started as screenwriters, Cheung Wah Biu names Kam Kwok Leung and Wai Kar Fai as top level talents; after that are Gary Tang and Ella Chan. As for himself, he says that he is only second level when it comes to screenwriting talent.
Regrets not becoming a producer
Cheung Wah Biu entered the television industry back in 1976 after graduating from high school. He started his career with the now defunct Rediffusion TV [TN: which eventually evolved into ATV] as a manuscript writer for commercials, then switched to screenwriting – some of the others in the same class as him include Lawrence Cheng and Clifton Ko.
Wah Biu: “At that time, the way things worked is that we actually did not have to come up with any ideas – our seniors would recite and we would write it down. Plus there was usually some dialogue in existence already, so we would just go home and do some editing. Though they did not exactly ‘teach’ us screenwriting at that time, we still learned a lot just from being around them and doing manuscript for them. I dare to say that in those 2 years, I learned enough to last me a lifetime.”
During that generation, it was very quick and easy to get promoted and within 3 years, he became senior script editor. Not long after that, he followed in the footsteps of his friend Siu Sang and left RTV for TVB – almost immediately, he was given the opportunity to write the script for the “Legend of the Condor Heroes” trilogy.
Wah Biu: “We changed a lot of the events from the book because if we were to film exactly according to the book, it would be impossible to have that many episodes. However Lau Tin Chi (TVB’s Production Manager at the time) was afraid that Jin Yong (the author) would be upset, so he gave us a lot of advice and would help in the discussions with the author.”
In 1990, Cheung Wah Biu produced his one and only series – the series that started Leon Lai on the path to popularity: “The Challenge of Life”.
Wah Biu: “At that time, Tim Gor (Lee Tim Sing) was the Head of Production. He really wanted me to try my hand at being a producer, but I kindly refused. I remember vividly that when I turned over the script to the series “The Challenge of Life” to him, I had put on there ‘Producer: Lee Tim Sing, Screenwriter: Cheung Wah Biu’. When Tim Gor returned the script to me, he had changed it to ‘Producer: Cheung Wah Biu, Screenwriter: Cheung Wah Biu’. When I gave the script back to him again, changing the ‘producer’ field, he again changed it back – so I decided I would give it a try then. I found out then that being a producer at TVB is actually very easy because there are too many departments supporting you behind the scenes. For me though, I discovered that throughout the process, I spent about 90% of my time on writing the script and only 10% on actually producing, so I told Tim Gor: ‘Why waste that 10% of the time on producing when I can spend 100% of the time on writing the script instead?’ Therefore, I went back to being a screenwriter.”
Wah Biu continues: “So many years later, if you ask me whether I regret not going on the producer path, I would have to say yes, I do have regrets. In the beginning, I naively thought that as long as I put my heart into writing a good script, the producer will similarly put his heart into turning that script into a great series, however over the years, I discovered that many producers aren’t able to follow through – those producers who enjoy exerting their ‘power’, in the end becomes a hindrance and even causes the script to lose quality.”
High blood pressure from creating the script
In 2003, the series “Perish in the Name of Love” (for which Cheung Wah Biu wrote the script) failed miserably in terms of both ratings and word of mouth, which impacted him deeply. His boss (at the time) Catherine Tsang told him: ‘You have not rested in the past 20 something years, why don’t you give yourself a vacation?’
These words were like a hit on the head – he was a workaholic and for so many years, he put all of his energy in script writing, sacrificing his personal life in the process. He was already in his forties, didn’t have a girlfriend and never married. It was during this time that he started going to Church, where he eventually met his wife – they married 5 years ago, when he was already 49 years old.
From that moment on, Cheung Wah Biu’s script creation process changed drastically – when he wrote “Heart of Greed”, he utilized a more interactive approach, acting out the dialogue with his team of screenwriters and copy editors.
Wah Biu: “I like the big group argument scenes; when we worked on the script, we would each become one of the characters and act out the scene – I would yell at you, and you would yell at me, and another person would be writing the dialogue down right that moment rather than waiting until we got home to write it. So when it came time to create the script, my blood pressure would get really high.” Many of Louise Lee’s ‘golden phrases’ from the series (for example: ‘I don’t need evidence – my eyes are evidence enough!’) came from these ‘practice argument sessions’ between the script writing team.
Newer generation screenwriters love to watch foreign TV series and would often use these series as ‘reference’ for their own work. Cheung Wah Biu would often tell them that if they want to ‘reference’ something, they should ‘reference’ real life instead.
Wah Biu: “In real life, there are a lot of ‘bad’ people (villains) – I’ve encountered enough of them that now, when I write these villain characters, the accuracy is quite high. For example, Susanna’s character from “Heart of Greed”, Michelle’s character from “Moonlight Resonance”, Pierre’s character from “Rosy Business”, even Evergreen’s character from “No Regrets” were all pulled from real life.”
Some people feel that the storyline for some of his series are a bit ‘preposterous’– there may be some truth to this, but that’s because real life itself is that way. Cheung Wah Biu has worked at a big company for 30 years – everything he has seen and heard during that time, surely would make for a good script in and of itself.
Respect for intellectual property rights
The next day after the interview, Cheung Wah Biu had to return to Taiwan. Nowadays, he returns to HK 4 or 5 times a month – for him, it’s quite a sacrifice, as his wife continues to live in HK.
The new TV station in Taiwan has not officially started yet, however Cheung Wah Biu is already working on a script for a new series that will start filming in January. The series will be a modern cop drama and the producer as well as actors/actresses will all be Taiwanese, not to mention that the dialogue will all be in Mandarin – for Cheung Wah Biu, this will definitely be a new challenge in a new work environment.
Another familiar face who will be working with Cheung Wah Biu in Taiwan is former TVB colleague and fellow screenwriter Chu Jing Chi. Upon hearing the mention of his name, Wah Biu could not help but speak out at the injustice: “He is the screenwriter who created ‘Laughing Gor’ [TN: Michael Tse’s character in "E.U."]. So many people in Hong Kong know who ‘Laughing Gor’ is, but I must ask, how many people actually know that Chu Jing Chi created ‘Laughing Gor’? From this you can see how little value is placed on intellectual property rights in that place!”
Cheung Wah Biu always says that he is a shy person, yet whenever he opens his mouth to speak, it’s as though the righteous indignation of his characters comes upon him.
***
A few of Cheung Wah Biu’s representative works at TVB (not all-inclusive):
“The Fortune Teller”, 1983
“Legend of the Condor Heroes” trilogy, 1983
“The Challenge of Life”, 1990
“The Big Family”, 1991
“Down Memory Lane”, 1995
“Journey to the West”, 1996
“Time Before Time”, 1998
“Road to Eternity”, 1999
“Point of No Return”, 2003
“Safeguards”, 2006
“Heart of Greed”, 2007
“Moonlight Resonance”, 2008
“Rosy Business”, 2009
“A Fistful of Stances”, 2010
“No Regrets”, 2010
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