90s Nostalgia

I was doing my usual YouTube browsing (the wonder and joy that is YouTube - its glorification would deserve a post of its own), looking to hear the theme song to the just-concluded Chn 8 drama, Switched (sung by Shi Xing Hui, in case you were wondering). It was a mini Fann Wong love fest for the next 15 minutes as I clicked on link after link of TV theme songs starring dear Fann, and i thought I ought to embed three of my all-time favourites here so I don't have to search for them when I require my next dosage of nostalgia indulgence.

阳光列车 The Morning Express


I'm sure many from my generation or thereabout know this show well. Fang Lao Shi, anyone? 阳光列车 aired in 1995, catapulting Chen Hanwei to A-list status and was so successful it warranted a sequel (Remember that sequel theme, 蒲公英? Blech). I can't really remember the plot, but I do recall Ann Kok in the show dying of cancer, or leukemia, or some other plot-device terminal illness. For me though, this was the show which really cemented my love of Fann. It was here perhaps that her act-cute shtick emerged, but back then, it was age-appropriate and it worked. She looked adorable in the show. I love the very last shot of her in this video.

The theme song is sung by Emil Chau, and it's called 海阔天空. My 11 year-old self loved its inspirational lyrics and its rousing, singalong chorus. Coupled with the sunshiny images of the TV series, it now evokes this feeling of warmth and a rush of quarter-life crisis-style 'those were the days' laments.

再见萤光兰 Wild Orchids

Back in the 90s, Fann and co-star here, Thomas Ong were the local equivalent of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, a golden on-screen couple. And this breezy, light-hearted show was the showpiece for their chemistry. The plot: Fann and Thomas play students who fall in love, Carole Lin is the cousin (hopefully a far-removed one, I'm not sure) of Thomas who loves him as well, and tried to break them up, drama ensues, will they get together in the end, plus some random shit about glowing fireflies, orchids, and not-even-trying-to-hide-it plugs for Australian tourism, etc.

Like Morning Express, Wild Orchids isn't exactly the pinnacle of Fann's dramatic achievements, but that's not the point of the series. I seem to recall it being about reveling in the glow of youth, about carefree joy and abandon, about livin' like there's no tomorrow. I could be spouting romanticising shit too. Anyway, the series is also noted for being the only time Fann had short, short hair (boy's cut, gasp!) and slightly more than 1.354% body fat, and for Fann's debut attempt at singing! The song's "真爱宣言", and I loved it so much I bought this abominable TCS compilation called Gems for this one song. Fann's singing is very raw here, and using my amateur singing judge prowess, I deduce that she's projecting from her throat, hence the very low, sounds-like-speaking-voice tone and lack of power. She's no Mariah or A-Mei, but Fann did improve on her singing over the years.

步步为赢 Out To Win

Out To Win, I conclude after years of existential agonising, is my favourite Fann Wong TV serial of all time! This '99 10-episode serial is a pure Fann star vehicle. She's an ambitious, go-getting woman who rises up in the ladder as a SIMEX trader; Ix Shen is her neglected boyfriend (think Adrien Grenier in The Devil Wears Prada and Lynn Poh is the mousy girl who, unlike Fann, can't cut it on the trading floor, and pines for Ix. One day, Fann knocks down a boy in a car accident, crippling him (because women who put their focus on career are evil!) and she suffers terribly from guilt. Hence, she tries to befriend and take care of the boy and along the way gets to know his coincidentally single and available father (Chen Tianwen), and thus she begins her humanising process. Then, dum dum dum! Fann slowly loses her hearing, meaning she can no longer do her job (Her career is what defines her, what is she to do?), and Ix leaves her for Lynn! No worries, this is just an opportunity for her to realise that life is more than dollars and cents, and it's about loving your family, appreciating them, sunshine, carebears, hugsandkisses and what not. So, in the end, she gracefully leaves her job, and gets together with Tianwen as a couple and in a pretty-sweet-for-Chn8-standards scene you can see in the video, she exchanges thumbs up with Lynn, who over the series grew the balls required to become a kickass trader. A poignant, rewarding and well-earned, if somewhat obvious conclusion.

I don't know, I just loved Fann in this role, to see how she goes from proud peacock to humbled girl. There is range involved in her acting, and it's refreshing that instead of the usual sweet thing, she's playing a confident, strong woman (who's not the antagonist). And there was the interaction between her and the disabled kid, which was wish-fulfillment interaction with Fann for me and probably many other teens then. Also, I liked that she ended up with Tianwen, who's definitely not pinup material. Again, nice if obvious statement about looks not mattering (Master of subtlety, Mediacorp definitely isn't).

Pop-culture moments of the series No.1 was the whole hand-signing trading shtick, which I remember acting out with (possibly imaginary) friends in secondary school. Didn't we all want to be SIMEX traders after the show, with their cooler-than-sign-language signals and garishly coloured jackets? Pop-culture moment2: The Nokia 8810! It was the Razr or Iphone of that era. Fann was seen craving for it as a status symbol in the show, and boy was it ever! It cost $1000plus when it launched. Remember the oh-so-cool glossy silver surface of the phone, meaning irritating fingerprints which had to be wiped after each use, or the never seen before slider, or those small keypads which made Snake high score attempts a bitch? Nokia 8810, how I loved thee (and I never owned it....)...

So those were three of my most memorable Chinese drama serials of the 90s. [Non-sequitur alert]It's quite damning a sign when one realises that Mediacorp productions have not progressed in writing, directing, cinematography, acting, lighting and any other component you can think of in the decade that's passed. But that's a rant for another post, I guess.