Over the years watching TVB series, I have many favorite TVB couples, from classic ones to Louis Koo & Jessica and Michael Tao & Kenix Kwok to younger couple pairings of today such as Ron & Leila and Bosco & Tavia. However, I will have to focus on these other couples at a later date. Today, I'll like to focus on the couple that is at the top of my personal favorites as of this year.
Bosco & Shirley was not a very popular TVB couple and is still not a very popular couple nowadays, but they are at the top of my favorite young TVB couple list. Most of their series are either shelved (
Au Revoir Shanghai, The Price of Greed) or raved as the Worst series made for that year (
Au Revoir Shanghai, Devil's Disciple). And when I first heard they were casted to be in series together like
Au Revoir Shanghai and
The Price of Greed, I wasn't interested at all. They weren't a couple I cared for then, it was like whatever. However, I guess it was a boring summer day or whatnot, that I somehow watched a Shirley and Bosco fanvideo of them in
Devils' Disciple on Youtube with the themesong of
The Whitehair Maiden playing. The way the video was made along with the music really captivated my attention. I was thinking, well someone made this nice video of them together, so the story of their relationship in the series must be very, very romantic and good. Well, obviously I was wrong....but I digress, I should continue on with my story. So I decided to watch
Devil's Disciple. Not only was Shirley not in the series in the beginning for like the first 9-10 episodes, but Bosco never loved her! I guess the only good thing was that they got married and had a kid in the end, and I deduced that he grew to love her eventually, but man, the scene in which he confronted Bernice about marrying Shirley was heartbreaking. Bosco's eyes were like screaming, "I don't want too, but I have too. I love you (to Bernice) but I have to be responsible." (Good job for Bosco really, but absolutely killed Shirley & Bosco as a couple in there). But anyway, I watched on, hoping that they would maybe have more scenes to show Bosco falling in love with Shirley, but nope, throughout the rest of the serie, it was just like watching him respectfully interacting with a friend. So yeah, eventually they had a good ending, but it wasn't exactly a relationship that's worth rooting for. It was a pity though, because they looked absolutely beautiful as an ancient couple (if you don't look at Bosco's hair in the back) and when Bosco wore white along with Shirley. They look gorgeous together, so it was sad they didn't have a good love story to back them up as a couple. But even though their story sucked, I just had to see whether they have any chemistry in previous series because their chemistry in here was pretty much close to non-existent although they look beautiful together. So I watched
Au Revoir Shanghai.
Now in
Au Revoir Shanghai, their story together isn't too bad except Shirley's character liked Power Chan's character for like 3/4 of the whole series, while Bosco was just having a crush on her. They had very few interactions as a couple, but more as just friends most of the time, but nonetheless they had some cute scenes together. So there is hope! In this one, they had a happy ending, but I was not happy about their development as a couple. It was so sudden how she liked Power Chan for such a long time, and then liked Bosco. It just seems like Shirley liked Bosco just because he got hurt and sacrificed a lot. It's like she switched roles with him in
Devils' Disciple haha. But nonetheless, I do think they both liked each other a lot towards the end. Horrible haircuts though, but my conclusion afterwards was that, there's hope because they were cute as a couple. Then, I moved onto
The Price of Greed.
I really didn't expect that much from
The Price of Greed, but this serie pretty much sealed the deal for me actually. It wasn't that their love relationship was written that great. It was actually pretty much one-sided since Bosco treats Shirley as just his sister in the entire serie even though they're not really brothers and sisters with the same blood. Shirley plays a mute girl in this serie, so they had to communicate by sign language and other means. But when they interact in the serie, I find that they do have some chemistry together! Even though their relationship is mostly platonic throughout the serie, the way he hugs her or touches her face, or how she looks at him are all very simple gestures, but yet they seem so comfortable and nice together, like they understand each other very well when they are alone. I think it can be very, very romantic how there's no conversation and the couple is relaxed and comfortable with each other...off in their own world. Their chemistry isn't the type that is explosive, but it's somewhat like a baby fire slowly burning. It's not as strong yet, but it's definitely there so I think if they were given another opportunity with a better storyline to work with, they just might be the next popular admired couple at TVB.
I have watched
Find the Light years ago, but Shirley and Bosco do not end up together. I kind of want to watch again just to see if they have any nice scenes together, but then I remember I loved Bosco and Tavia in that serie (in which I thought BoTa was a very promising couple), So yes, I have faith in my Bosco and Shirley, one day, hopefully they will make heads turn!
However, it's interesting to note, other than
Find the Light, in all 3 series,
Au Revoir,
Price of Greed, and
Devils' Disciple, Bosco and Shirley had a younger counterpart story. In
Au Revoir, they were little kids playing with the radio....in
Price of Greed, they grew up together.....in
Devils' Disciple, I believe there was a scene in which Bosco’s younger version helped saved her or calmed her. And plus, all four series they acted in together were ancient! I thought that was pretty interesting. I would like to see them in a modern serie. Despite being two years older than Bosco in reality, Shirley actually looks the same age or younger than him so it should be ok.
Perhaps I'm being too optimistic with this couple, but I do hope that maybe they would prove me right in the not too distant future. But even if not, I enjoyed their scenes together as a couple in past series, and they did play an initial part in pushing my drive to start this blog and update my other one.
