At Halloween this year, tune in and get spooky with HBO Asia!
The cable channel has just announced the October 17, 2014 premiere date for new horror mini-series "Grace", a four-part story fully conceptualized and developed by HBO Asia. This is the company's first original mini-series.
"Grace" is set in current day urban Asia and is about an unspeakable horror faced by a family due to a father's mistake. Ooooohhh... Red Dot Diva wonders what horrible boo-boos did Daddy commit. According to HBO Asia, "the Asian views concerning family, sacrifice and vengeance" will be examined in the mini-series.
What's exciting about "Grace" is that the series will feature an international all-Asian cast, including US-based Russell Wong ("Romeo Must Die") in the lead role of Roy Chan - the loving father and cheating husband, and many Red Dot Island familiar faces like Pamelyn Chee, Constance Song ("Point Of Entry"; "The Ultimatum"), Lim Yu Beng, Lim Kay Tong, Jean Toh, George Young and Shane Mardjuki. There is also upcoming Taiwanese actress Teresa Daley who can be seen in "Transformers: Age of Extinction". The director of the series is Tony Tilse ("Serangoon Road", "Farscape").
The mini-series is set to premiere on Friday, October 17, 2014 at 10 PM on HBO / HBO HD (StarHub TV Ch 601), and in both English and Mandarin languages (with subtitles of other languages in selected territories). "Grace" will then wrap up its run with a special two-part finale on Halloween, Friday, October 31. The show will also available on HBO GO one hour after it airs on HBO and on HBO On Demand the Monday after its debut.
While "Grace" is HBO Asia's first fully original series, this was not the company's first foray into more Asian-style stories. Last year, "Serangoon Road" - a joint venture production between HBO Asia and Australian Broadcasting Company) - was aired in Australia and in some territories across the region. Unfortunately, Red Dot Diva found the series very cliched and highly exoticized. This was despite the ever-lovely Joan Chen who usurped screen time with her nuanced portrayal of female lead role, Patricia Cheng. It was also disappointing that local actor Chin Han's role as resident baddie was not fully realized.
Red Dot Diva hopes that "Grace" will prove to be more appealing to Asian viewers, even as it endeavors to take South-East Asian stories to a broader worldwide audience. There is definitely a way to balance the two. With HBO Asia at the helm of such productions together with award-winning, Singapore production company InFocus Asia (and with funding by Singapore's Media Development Authority), there seems to be a brighter road ahead for more localized and regional stories to come.
Come this Halloween, Red Dot Diva will be grabbing her bag of chips and peeking her eyes behind a big fluffy pillow to see what kind of shivers "Grace" will be bringing on screen. Will you be joining her? (PS: She needs someone to hold her hand(s).)
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