Adapting a beloved television drama with 10 years of history, the biggest headache must be how to move the story forward while bringing something new to the audience. Directors Wilson Yip and Matt Chow have jointly taken up the challenging task. With a long history of collaboration, the two share a great chemistry. The perfect candidates to give the Triumph in the Skies series a romantic boost, they aim to make the movie the year’s biggest romance hit.
Triumph in the Skies is Hong Kong’s first television drama on aviation. The first series premiered in October 2003 as one of the year’s biggest productions. The all-star ensemble cast includes Francis Ng, who returned to the station after many years, Flora Chan, Joe Ma, Myolie Wu, Shek Sau and more. The pilot trainees are played by rising TVB stars including Ron Ng, Kenneth Ma, Sammul Chan, Michelle Ye and Bosco Wong.
The series was shot in beautiful locations like Rome, Florence, Sapporo and flight school Flight Training Adelaide. The series was very popular, recording an average rating of 2.12 million viewership and 2.37 million viewership at its final episodes. Even the series’ 2008 late-night and the 2010 afternoon re-runs in 2008 and 2010 were watched by many.
Ten years later, the sequel to Triumph in the Skies began shooting in 2012 and was aired in July 2013. There were big changes to the cast: while people like Francis Ng, Ron Ng and Joe Ma reprised their roles, new characters such as Jayden (Julien Cheung), Holiday (Fala Chen), Heather (Elena Kong) were introduced, alongside young actors like Him Law and Adrian Chau. Instead of playing Zoe from the first series, Myolie Wu plays Jayden’s sister Summer.
The crew shot in England, France, Hainan, Gaoxiong and Kenting. The series, following its last’ popularity, recorded an average rating of 1.99 million viewership, with the final episodes hitting 2.63 million viewership, the highest among recent TVB drams. The series also won many awards at the TVB Anniversary Awards: Elena Kong took home Best Supporting Actress, Julien Cheung My Favorite Male Television Character, and the series Best Drama of the Year.
The series was not only immensely popular, but it also set off many pop culture phenomena. The theme song of the first series Cantabile Years became a big hit and the line “the weather is not as expected” became a well-used phrase on online forums. Julien Cheung’s cover of the song appeared in the sequel, and the song is also used in the opening of the movie. Sam’s hairstyle in the first series was also widely discussed, though it wasn’t accepted by the public. Ironically, ten years later, the hairstyle became trendy, seen on pop stars Pakho Chau and Jason Chan. Jayden Cheung proved so popular in the second series he became a central character. His clever, catchy dialogues in every episode will inevitably become a hot topic.
