Moonlight Resonance awarded Next Magazine TV's Best TV Program of 2008

A drama series set in the cutthroat world of the mooncake industry (!) was named Hong Kong's Top TV Program from last year in the Next Magazine TV Awards. The Hong Kong produced Moonlight Resonance (溏心風暴之家好月圓) was shown on TVB in the second half of last year, and ended up being the station's highest ever rating series, reaching a peak of 50 rating points in its climatic episode. The show also picked up 18 nominations at the TVB Anniversary Awards, and took out six awards including Best Drama, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Ha Yu 夏雨), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Michelle Yim 米雪), and Best Supporting Actress (Tavia Yeung 杨怡).

Moonlight Resonance is a kind of sequel to the 2007 hit series Heart of Greed, in that it featured most of the same cast members and was set against the backdrop of a family business (in Heart of Greed it was abalones not mooncakes). In a nutshell, a family is torn apart by the evil machinations of Michelle Yim who seduces the family patriarch, bringing on a divorce, then spends the rest of the series turning other family members against each other. The series has murder, blackmail, bribery, miscarriages and abortions, adultery and even a romance between adopted siblings.

Next Magazine also named its Top Ten TV Artists of 2008, headed by one of Moonlight Resonance's stars, Raymond Lam (林峯 Lin Feng). Lam played the dissipated eldest son who fights a gambling addiction, has an affair with his boss and gets diagnosed with a possibly terminal illness.

Lam is one of Hong Kong's most popular TV actors. He was nominated for Best Actor at the TVB Anniversary Awards for his role in Moonlight Resonance, losing out to co-star Ha Yu, but was awarded Favourite Male Character Role. This year he was also awarded Best Actor in a Drama Series at the Asian Television Awards, for another 2008 TV series, The Master of Tai Chi. Lam in recent years has also begun a successful singing career.

Number 2 on Next TV's Top Ten Artists is Ada Choi (蔡少芬 Cai Shaofen), who has been appearing in TVB drama productions since the early 1990s. Last year she starred in the series The Gem of Life, which was also number two in Next Magazine's Best TV Programs list.

The following website, Simply Fungyi, devoted to all things Raymond Lam and Tavia Yeung, has a full list of the Next Magazine Top Ten TV Programs and Top 10 TV Artists. (By my count six of the top ten actors appeared in Moonlight Resonance, showing the program's dominance last year).