Can't Buy Me Love (TV series)

Synopsis

Set during the Tang Dynasty of China, Can't Buy Me Love tells the story of the Third Princess, Princess Chiu Yeung (Charmaine Sheh), of the Tang Emperor (Samuel Kwok), who is beautiful but very unreasonable, and, as such, no one wants to marry her.

The Kam family is the largest gold manufacturer in the grand capital Chang'an, but because they are deceived, the business runs into troubles. The second son of the Kam family Kam Tuo Luk (Moses Chan) has to marry the Third Princess to save the family business, because then they will have the right to manufacture gold pieces for the Tang Palace, the Third Princess only agreeing to the marriage because otherwise she would be married off to the Tibetan king Songtsän Gampo, as schemed by the evil Concubine Wei (Kara Hui).

The Princess brings lots of servants to the Kam family after marrying Kam Tuo Luk, and constantly comes into conflict with the members of the Kam family (Lee Heung Kam, Susanna Kwan, Louis Yuen, Raymond Wong Ho-yin). The Princess brings Szeto Ngan Ping (Fala Chen), with her to the Kam family, who has been awarded "Best Servant" by the Concubine Dowager Chui (Susan Tse) and later became wife of Ding Yau Wai (Kenneth Ma).

The Princess originally decides to leave the house, but when she misunderstands that the Kam family speaks negatively of her, she stubbornly stays. Later, she and Kam Tuo Luk fall in love. When the Kam family is convicted of a capital offence, she divorces Kam Tuo Luk to secretly save the Kam family.

Development

After the huge success of Beyond the Realm of Conscience, the filming of a similarly set costume drama comedy was announced. Can't Buy Me Love was featured in the TVB 2010 sales presentation clip, which was released shortly after the TVB Awards Presentation, and became a highly anticipated drama of 2010 in Hong Kong.

The drama became popularly compared to Beyond the Realm of Conscience due to its extremely similar lavish costumes and sets, cast members, and close time period (both set during the Tang Dynasty of China). They were also compared to as Can't Buy Me Love also had links with the Tang imperial palace, though it had far more scenes out of the palace. It has also been widely and popularly named the indirect sequel (although it should really be a prequel, due to it being set during Taizong's reign) to the other drama, despite their entirely different genres (Can't Buy Me Love being a romance/comedy, while Beyond the Realm of Conscience being a historical palace epic). The two series share the same producer, Mui Siu Ching.

In order to capture the grandeur of the Tang Dynasty, custom-made elaborate costumes and sets were created for the series, resembling those of Beyond the Realm of Conscience in a comical way. Elaborate costumes have been made for grand series produced by TVB in the past, especially costume dramas such as War and Beauty, The Charm Beneath and others. Costumes highly resembling those of the latter include those of the members of the Imperial Household Bureau and personal maids. Other costumes also greatly reminded the audience. A costume fitting was held on 17 December 2009 at 12:30pm in Hong Kong, in front of the Shaolin Temple in TVB City's Ancient Street, Tseung Kwan O, with most of the cast members attending.

Especially grand was Charmaine Sheh's wedding ceremony headgear. A blessing ceremony was held for Can't Buy Me Love on 26 February 2010. The heavy headwear proved to be difficult for the cast; it resulted in injuries and discomforts for the members of the cast during filming. Television Broadcasts Limited created a lot of hype prior to the release of the series, having numerous news on the progress of the series' filming published on TVB Weekly magazine and letting out news on the filming progress.

The filming completed in April 2010. Three official trailers were released near the date of release, the first making a parody out of Beyond the Realm of Conscience. Malaysia's Astro On Demand channel also showed previews of the drama. Because of the drama's high ratings during the early episodes (the series reportedly managed to gain a peak of 36 points in its first few episodes; a celebration event was promised if the drama reached over 30 points in viewership ratings during its first week of broadcast), a celebration party was scheduled.

However, because of the hostage-taking incident in The Philippines, the celebration event was cancelled, due to the tragedy, the Hong Kong Broadcasting Authority received complaints for a comedy being aired at a tragic time.

Format

The television series is a romantic comedy costume drama, featuring lavish costumes and sets intended to capture the luxury and grandeur of the Tang Dynasty, and makes parodies out of other Hong Kong television shows, including dramas and varieties.

The drama is set to have 32 episodes, with a definitive beginning and ending to the story. Each episode is 45 minutes long. This drama format is hugely popular throughout East Asia and also in Southeast Asia. The bickering is a major part of the comedic aspect of the drama. Apart from this romantic plot, the series also focuses on a plot where the protagonists' lives are under threat from the villains, and therefore part of the plot has focus on scheming in the palace. Dramas involving scheming people in the palace (especially those within the imperial harem, such as imperial concubines) have long been in existence in TVB dramas, especially after the hit 2004 TVB series War and Beauty.

The series, apart from the main couple, Charmaine Sheh and Moses Chan, also has the romantic plots of two main supporting couples, Linda Chung and Raymond Wong Ho-yin, Fala Chen and Kenneth Ma.

Historical Trivia

Cast

42nd Ming Pao Anniversary Awards 2010

TVB Anniversary Awards (2010)

16th Asian Television Awards 2011