Triumph In The Skies (冲上云霄) opens in cinemas on the first day of the Chinese New Year (19th Feb 2015) and it is a Hong Kong movie adapted from the popular TVB drama series of the same name, but has a different storyline and some new additions to the cast. This romantic comedy features three separate love stories of the flight crew of Skylette (i.e. the name of the airline). The star-studded cast includes Louis Koo (古天乐), Sammi Cheng (郑秀文), Francis Ng (吴镇宇), Charmaine Sheh (佘诗曼), Julian Cheung (张智霖) and Amber Kuo (郭采潔).
I was privileged to be invited to the gala premiere of the movie, which was held at the MasterCard Theatres at Marina Bay Sands’ Sands Theatre.
There was also a red carpet event held 1 hour before the show at the Skating Rink at The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands and this was graced by two of the actors from the show – Julian Cheung (张智霖) and Charmaine Sheh (佘诗曼), who portray Jayden Koo a.k.a. “Captain Cool” and flight stewardess Cassie Poon respectively.
Fans were allowed into a holding area about 2 hours before start of the red carpet event – this was open to the general public and you could tell that there were several die-hard fans there.
I don’t like crowds and preferred a bird’s eye view, thus I stationed myself at a different location. ^_^
The two Hong Kong celebrities appeared for a brief Q & A session, with local DJ Jiafa (谢家发) as the emcee for the event.
More pictures of the celebrities:
Fans were thrilled when they went over for a photo opp.
The two Hong Kong stars then took a short break, after which they re-appeared at the Sands Theatre just before the screening of the movie. Unfortunately I don’t have a better photo as the theatre staff repeatedly told us to refrain from any photo-taking – typically at movie gala premieres held at other venues, there are no issues with taking pictures of the celebrities before the show and it’s only when the movie starts that the “no photography”/”no videography” rules apply due to copyright infringement issues.
I was seated at at the Dress Circle of the theatre and this was my first time watching a movie from such a height that I was actually looking downwards at the screen! ^_^
What did I think of the show?
There isn’t much of a main storyline, but rather the movie comprises of three unrelated stories of the love lives of the flight crew, with the glue holding them together being the fact that they work for the same airline.
Of the three love stories, I liked the on-screen chemistry between Louis Koo (古天乐) as Captain Branson Cheung and Charmaine Sheh (佘诗曼) as Cassie Poon. There’s a background story to their romance and how it panned out over the years was almost too good to be true (well, to me it was).
My hubby felt that the entire show was like watching a music video, especially with some of the camera effects and filters that were used for several scenes.
Personally I felt the cinematography was quite good, especially the scenes which were shot on location in England. My favourites were of the dramatic sweeping views of the Telscombe Cliffs in East Sussex, aerial acrobatic stunts shot at the White Waltham Airfield and the scenes featuring TM (Sammi Cheng) at Brick Lane in London, as I thought they were beautifully shot. Other filming locations in England included Brighton Pier, the Brighton Wheel (i.e. the ferris wheel) and Rottingdean Windmill.
The show had some comedic moments injected in and I especially LOVED the dancing scenes between the stone-faced Captain Sam Tong (Francis Ng) and rock singer TM (Sammi Cheng)!! Watch the show to find out what the acronym in TM’s name stands for – the first explanation of it was quite hilarious! ^_^
Do stay back to watch the end credits of the movie as the cast will spout Chinese New Year greetings in Mandarin and some of their pronunciation isn’t spot-on. LOL…
Photo: Clover Films
I’ve heard comments from those who have already watched the show, that the movie isn’t as good as the TV series and the story and characters could be developed further. However, there’s only so much that can be packed into a 1 hr 40 min long show and although I haven’t watched the TVB drama version, I thought the movie was pretty decent.
Overall, it is a good date movie and also an entertaining show, which makes a good break for those who may be feeling bored after all the Chinese New Year visiting.
Movie Trailer by Golden Village:
Thanks to Migme for the invite and Clover Films for sponsoring the tickets!
jaznotabi 