Pics From ATV’s & TVB’s Star-Studded 1999 Calendars Go Viral And They're Seriously Funny

Anyone else cringe in horror while looking back at old photos of themselves? Well, we’re wondering how these artistes are feeling now.

Recently, Hongkong’s Asia Television (ATV) released a bunch of old photos from its 1999 calendar shoot featuring some of its biggest stars at that time. Like its one-time rival TVB, ATV had its own stable of contracted actors over the years, including late cinema legend Leslie Cheung, late comedy icon Lydia Sum, Gallen Lo, and Hawick Lau, many of whom have since moved on to TVB. ATV ceased its free-to-air broadcast in 2016 and was later revived as an over-the-top (OTT) media platform.

Anyway, that’s it for the brief history lesson. The 21-year-old pictures were shared by ATV itself on its official Facebook page, and they definitely make us feel nostalgic, to say the least.

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How many stars do you recognise from here?

Netizens pointed out that some of the calendar stars, such as Annie Man, Kristy Yang, and Alice Chan, have aged pretty well and still look youthful. Others looked back with fondness at the good ol’ ‘90s, while some hilariously roasted ATV for being so stingy that they used PowerPoint to design their calendar.
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Left to right: Alice Chan, Kristy Yang, and Annie Man

However, fans also noticed that the calendar did not include Ruco Chan, who was once fondly known as the “son of ATV”. Before long, a very resourceful user commented with a picture of Ruco and Kristal Tin from a different calendar shoot, and… well. You can see it for yourself:
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A young Ruco nailing the armpit pose

A very amused Kristal uploaded the photo on her Facebook page and wrote that it tends to make an appearance on the internet every few years. “And every time someone sends it to me, I ask myself why I had this hairstyle!” she said, adding the hashtag ‘a series of mistakes from my youth’. Well, at least she’s in a relatively normal pose.
Keep scrolling for the rest of the photos from ATV’s 1999 calendar:
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Clockwise from top left: Gilbert Lam, Wong Mei, Belinda Hamnett, Lawrence Yan
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Clockwise from top left: Stephen Au, Kenneth Chan, Andrew Yuen, Shek Sau, Guo Jin

The walk down memory lane ain’t over yet. Inspired by this little #throwback, netizens decided to dig up the 1999 calendar from TVB for comparison, and they are just as, um, entertaining. One particularly comical shot features Golden Horse Awards Best Actor nominee Gordon Lam with Mariane Chan, both looking very vibrant and cheery in their yellow outfits and questionable poses.
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Seriously, who directed this!
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Giving Gordon and Mariane a run for their “Happiest Poses” money are Louis Koo and Jessica Hsuan…
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… as well as Nick Cheung and Ada Choi
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More from TVB’s 1999 calendar. Spot any of your faves?

Photos: ATV/Facebook, TVB