[Fans' Prattle] Sammul's Career Path

I feel a bit confuzzled after reading this interview, especially for this paragraph above. I don’t get why Sammul still chooses to work for TVB other than to leave and shift to work in China. As mentioned above, TV shows filmed in China are marketed to the Greater China Area, where obviously way more audience with diverse tastes and of different requirements can be targeted and reached. In my opinion, China absolutely stands for a much more huge market to get in and a much bigger stage to take on. Compared to China, HK is only a tiny place. The taste and demand for the TV shows are pretty much predictable. They're right there, what you need to do is just to grab a calculator. The market also can easily get saturated. And knowing from other interviews that TVB doesn’t treat Sammul very nicely, not giving him enough chances to perform or good opportunities to seek breakthroughs, I don’t think he wants himself to get typecasted or something. And he seems already pretty popular in mainland China. So why not just give another try?

Sammul has answered this before. I forgot where I see it, but, I remember what he said. He said he still film series for TVB because he started out in TVB and whenever he goes back to film a TVB series, he will be able see a lot of friends (i.e fellow TVB actors).

But, even career wise, I don't think it is a wise choice for Sammul to just focus on China market. HK market might be small, but, TVB series is distributed all over the world, the latest being Korea. In HK, if u disappear from HK entertainment circle for too long, you might be forgotten. So, it's good for Sammul to maintain his popularity in HK. For a non-managed artist, TVB actually treated him quite well. They let him film the anniversary program (that Iceland documentary) and he also has a lot of opportunities to try other things like hosting, dubbing etc. He might not be a leading man in his series, but, I don't think he is typecasted in TVB. He has played a villain, a comic character, a righteous character, a jerk/loser, a gay guy and the most recent, a cross-dresser. If he just focus on China market, then he will truly be typecasted, because most of the Mainland series he filmed are Yu Zheng's series. All Yu Zheng's series are heavy on romance. So, if he just filmed Yu Zheng's series, he will just be playing a hopeless romantic again and again and again.

Lastly, Sammul's home and family is in HK. No matter how successful he is outside HK, his root is still in HK. Career is important, but, I believe family is also important. Many actors who has work in Mainland for many years also express their wish to come back to HK one day because it's their home.

reiyi, thanks a bunch for your thorough explanations. I think I understand your main points. Wow~~you definitely know Sammul and the whole Asian entertainment industry way better than I do.I merely assumed TVB was an entertainment/broadcasting company in HK, like NBC or Fox in the states, but it seems like TVB’s influence is way more widespread and more significant than I initially thought, possibly all over the world, which is just like what you and yogurtpo told. I’m not sure if this is sort of like a culture monopoly. To me, the whole thing is just so impressive.

I actually haven’t seen any single mainland TV shows. All I know so far is coming from the comments, news reports and other stuff I’ve read. Yet it’s still understandable that it’s hard to get in and fit in a new market/place holding different cultures, languages and even economical situations, since as I know HK and mainland China quite differ from each other at least considering these respects. And I think what really matters is what Sammul wants to and plans to pursue, as long as he enjoys his work, his life and what he has been doing. You know, that’s his life.

May I ask if it’s difficult for actors from HK to pursue a promising career in mainland China, does the same thing also happen to actors from mainland China who attempt to launch their careers in HK? Such development boundary is more two sides or only a one-side thing?

Kelly, TVB and ATV are the two main broadcasters for Hong Kong, and TVB has beaten ATV's ratings pretty much ever since it existed. Although ATV gets it's fair share of viewers, Hong Kong's television industry is in a way, monopolized by TVB. They also have forages into the international asian market through rental shops and satellite, and is probably the best way for a celebrity from Hong Kong to get the exposure they need. Therefore, it does Sammul every good to stay with them! And not signing a full contract allows him the freedom to do other things on top of TVB (because if you sign TVB's contract, you're locked down to TVB's demands, which are well and good if they're trying to promote you, but really sucks if for ANY reason you accidentally anger the wrong people and they decide to stop promoting you!).

As for Mainland series, their audience is mainly Mainland China only, and very few series from the Mainland gain the popularity to be broadcasted elsewhere, even those with high profile casts. Mainland artists generally don't film TVB series because there is no demand for it since TVB has their own list of actors and actresses to choose from (Plus, unless they are A-list, Hong Kong people generally won't recognise the Mainland actor/actress, and the ones that are A-list would probably never choose TVB productions because of low pay). There have been Hong Kong and Mainland collaborations before though, but these are rare.

Yogurtpo, thanks a million for the detailed explanations. I see the whole TVB thing so much clearer now. I also googled TVB and HK TV industry yesterday. Just as you told, TVB is such a magnate corp and powerhouse in Asia’s broadcasting and entertainment industry. I read an article today saying that even Maggie Cheung started her career from filming TVB shows. Wow~~that’s just amazing, coz Maggie is such a talented and respected actress. It’s also good to learn mainland TV shows actually don’t share the same actor resources with TVB’s and serve different audience. At first I just assumed there might be some overlaps. Now it’s obvious that mainland audience goes for TVB shows, but HKers are not into mainland shows.

I think you guys are probably right and it really can be a wise choice for Sammul to stay at TVB. It makes perfect sense since sometimes it’s influence/coverage that counts, especially in showbiz.