I only managed to catch the top 12 this year. The top 12 consisted of:
#1. Halina Tam Siu Wan (譚小環)
#2. Theresa Lee Yi Hung (李綺紅)
#3. Astrid Chan Chi Ching (陳芷菁)
#5. Kitty Chung Kit Yee ()
#6. Annamarie Wood Lai Ming (活麗明)
#9. Maggie Cheung Ho Yee (張可頤)
#10. Bui Hon Mei ()
#11. Chiu Mei Yu ()
#13. Akina Hong Wah (康華)
#14. Natalie Wong (黃紀瑩)
#17. Kwong Ching Che ()
#18. Dorothy Ng So Shan (吳素珊)
The hosts for this part of the show were: Eric Tsang, Natalis Chan, and Lawrence Cheng. The theme this year for the top 12 was pirates. The guests were Jacky Cheung (of course), Leon Lai, Faye Wong, and Kenny Ho. Alan Tam was one of the judges. The opening of this part was quite lively and the humor wasn’t over. Eric made a good team with Lawrence and Natalis. The twelve contestants were princesses like last year but this time they were princesses under a pirate captain. The first part was seeing who wanted to be the next captain but the princesses wanted to vote for one another, lol. Most of the girls voted for #3, Astrid Chan. (I know I’m slow but I just realized it was Astrid! I meant I didn’t realize it was her until I re-watch it this time.) Then the others voted for #1, which was Halina Tam. There were, of course, others too, but Halina and Astrid were the most popular among the girls. While they were deciding which one to make as captain, the island was invaded and was threatened. So Eric and the others were thinking of ways to defend the island. Lawrence jumped in finally and told the others that he found a famous swordsman to come and train the princesses for the upcoming battle. This was the part where Kenny Ho came in. He got to show off his swords moves as well as his singing skills. Refreshing indeed since there was a mix of singers.
Shirley Kwan came into the scene shortly after as Medusa. Well, I like to give her that name since she has snakes on her head and all. She was just one of those sent to sabotage the island and paved way for her people’s take over. It was funny that Eric won with his mirror! That was funny!
Now they finally found an excuse for the questioning part, lol. There was definite disparity with their answers. Leon came on after that round of questions as the son of the God of the Sun. Man, he was so lucky, getting all those kisses from the girls. (YES, I’m probably the rare few who thinks so since come on now!) Leon was singing one of the rare few songs that I liked of his. The princesses were supposed to convince Leon and borrow his sword. This was also the part where they got to show off their evening gowns.
So after they convinced Leon with the kisses, Leon agreed (of course) to let them have the sword. Then they have to give the sword to Jacky so he could fight with Faye Wong (who was the real leader pulling all the strings in trying to take over the island). Awesome performance! How could I complain, right? It’s Jacky and Faye! Jacky was singing one of my favorite songs when he appeared aka 餓狼傳說. (I rewinded it around two times before letting the program continue! LOL!) I don’t know. For some reason, I enjoyed the performances more than the contestants’ answers, except for some. AND Jacky did not need the Leon sword to defeat Faye! (He’s awesome by himself!)
After that performance, they, of course, reverted to the modern time again to continue the last part of the program. The usual announcing the Miss Friendship first before announcing the top 5. Dorothy Ng got the title, which made sense since she seemed friendly enough. Top #5 as announced: #6, #9, #14, #1, #2.
The last part of this year was more enjoyable (to me) since they had a variety of challenges for the top 5. First part was the persuasion thing. Theresa was hilarious in her responses. Maggie couldn’t convince Theresa to cry but it was still cute seeing Maggie tried to convince while Theresa was staying firm with her belief, lol. Annamarie couldn’t convince so she gave in! LOL! Honestly…
The next part, the contestants had to change into sportswear to answer questions. Halina and Maggie dominated the scene. Annamarie had a disadvantage because they were too fast. Maggie got the highest score for that round with 160. The second part was they had to run to get the questions. Speed and intelligence were required. Halina and Maggie dominated again but this time Halina was leading. Understandable. Halina was honestly smart. And Maggie was sort of nervous so she reacted a tad slower during the second part.
While waiting for the result, the hosts made the contestants write down the possible winner. The difference from last year was that they had to write who was going to be #1 and then who will lose out. Halina wrote #2 for the win and #9 and #14 lose. WOW. That was strange but she was right regarding the other two. Theresa wrote down #1 as the winner (which she was smack on) and #9 and #2 would lose. Theresa’s answer, lol! And it was kind of predictable that Maggie wouldn’t win. (TVB had to haul her regarding her potential actress prize.) Theresa got her wish! She didn’t win the crown, lol. At least Halina won and not #14. I’m sorry, but #14 didn’t impress me at all.
@llwy12 – I’m not much of a Faye songs either but I do admit she has her own style (aka bringing out some uniqueness unlike those repetitive ones nowadays). I must admit that those collaborations get me excited most of the time, considering how I was really excited regarding how cool it was each time all the artists/guests invited sang together.
Halina – You know what? It’s strange but I like the Halina and Wayne Lai chemistry in ‘The Gentle Crackdown II’ and ‘Trimming Success’. LOL! It’s rare ’cause sometimes I have issues with the age thing. YET I prefer the guy being the older one rather than older girls and younger guys. (EXCEPT if the girl look really young and convinces me BUT rare cases.)
#14 – Seriously? BUT maybe she’s one of those having strange attractions that draws him in? I have no idea.
Leon songs – I’ll find it later and share it since I don’t remember much, LOL. I know the lyrics but not much of a title. I’ll search it out later.
Sorry for the delay…just got around to reading this one.
Once again, great summary! After looking through the top 12, I realize that this was one of the years where alot of the contestants entered TVB as actresses — I recognize at least 7 of the names as having a subsequent career at TVB (though most were only 3rd or 4th line actresses and lower).
Hahaha…the part about Leon and the kisses from the contestants…reminds me of the one part during the JSG awards in 1991 when Jacky was presented an award by the MHK contestants from that year and he was given a surprise when all of them surrounded him and kissed him (there was lipstick on his face and clothes afterwards)–lucky ducks! Anyway, back to Leon — which song of his do you like? Just curious, since I know you’re not too fond of him…
Oooh…another great Jacky and Faye performance!! To be honest, I’ve never been a fan of Faye’s because most of her songs are too ‘odd’ for my liking — but I’ve enjoyed all of her collaborations with Jacky though — definitely classics!!! And of course most of the songs that I like of Faye’s are ones that I’ve heard Jacky sing, since he’s always able to make other people’s songs sound so good!
Ok, back to the MHK contest…I agree with you regarding TVB not letting Maggie win — it’s the same reason why they didn’t let Kenix win the previous year….too obvious.
I’m actually ok with Halina winning as well — though after she left TVB and returned, I’m surprised at how much she changed (or maybe it’s just she got more mature and older)…I remember back in 1994, she was so young and looked like a cute little girl, but now, she always plays the roles that get paired up with the older actors (well, the middle-aged actors)…I don’t know why, but with her in particular, it just seemed odd to me.
Oh, and I agree with you regarding #14…she has always seemed ditzy to me (and not to be mean, but she has never been pretty looking). That’s probably why she always only plays 5th and 6th line ‘nobody’ roles in TVB series. Also, not sure if you knew this, but she was supposedly Louis Koo’s former girlfriend (yea, when I first found out, I was like — darn, what in the world does he see in her???).
This will be shorter, since didn’t want to sound too repetitive…
OMG, it’s amazing how much we think alike (LOL)! I was going to say the EXACT same thing about the Wayne and Halina pairing — especially in “Trimming Success”. Loved the 2 of them in that series (Wayne was just awesome and the way he interacted with Halina in that series was SOOO funny!!!!).
#14 — don’t know. Well, I guess I’ll leave it at that.
Leon songs — sorry to make you do research again…but definitely curious….whenever you have time — you can just IM me via messenger.