Sunday, April 24, 2011

Weibo Fever #5: More Jacky Concert News -- Jacky and Friends!

Jacky’s ½ Century Concert is currently taking place at the Hong Kong Coliseum – he will perform a total of 20 shows and all 190,000 plus tickets are sold out!

Almost every night since the HK leg of Jacky’s concert tour started back on 4/15, his friends and fans from the entertainment industry have attended one of his shows. It’s been great following Jacky’s concert on Weibo and seeing the various pictures that his friends have posted.

Below is a gathering of recent behind-the-scenes “updates” from Jacky’s concert….enjoy!

Note: All pictures credited as listed

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April 24th @19:48: Vani’s Weibo

陪了阿哥半小時,他剛化好妝,第九場演出一定要成功 妹妹急趕回電台開工了!

Translation: Accompanied Brother for half an hour, he just finished with his makeup. The 9th show (in HK) will definitely be successful – Sister is rushing to get back to the radio station to start work!

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April 24th @00:25: Vani’s Weibo

今日壓軸微博!!請各位熱烈鼓掌 歌神與@吹神 之「世紀合照」!!勁chok!超強!!十級震撼 特別鳴謝動作指導~Eason
Translation: Today’s weibo climax!! Please put your hands together – God of Songs (Jacky) and Eason’s “Photo of the Century”! Extremely chok! Super strong!! Shocking to the 10th level! Special thanks to action director – Eason!


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April 24th @11:39: Bernice Liu’s Weibo

琴晚看了一個show,遇到 @吹神,thanks 歌神學友 !!

Translation: Yesterday, while watching a show, I bumped into Eason! Thanks to God of Songs Jacky!



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April 23rd @00:11 Kevin Cheng’s Weibo

Jacky ar







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April 23rd @22:59: Vani’s Weibo

「頭號學友粉絲」@吹神 來了!表情極度浮誇並於後台瘋狂呼叫!

Translation: “Number one Jacky fan” Eason Chan is here! His expression is extremely ‘exaggerated’ plus back stage, he has been shouting like a mad man!



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April 23rd @22:35: Vani’s Weibo

有個人對學友很體貼,為阿哥出場前整理衣服

Translation: Someone is being very considerate of Jacky, helping him fix his outfit right before he is to go out on stage.



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April 22nd @22:58: Vani’s Weibo

阿哥實在太「堅」!!!講完。
Translation: Brother is absolutely “solid”!!!! Enough said.





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April 22nd @01:31: Vani’s Weibo

哎喲梁光! 阿哥一定是為賀你加入商業電台24週年所以今晚特別改Rundown多唱了「暗戀你」和「藍雨」!! 不過你要上班,所以唱了給我聽

Translation: Aiya, Liang Guong [TN: name of male in the picture, a colleague of Vani’s]! Brother must have wanted to celebrate your 24th anniversary with Commercial Radio, so he especially changed the rundown tonight, adding the songs “Secretly in Love with You” and “Blue Rain”!!! But you had to work, so he sang it for me…haha!

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April 19th @03:25: Vani’s Weibo

刘伟强 劉大導演 你為學友演唱會拍攝之影片和卡通動畫水準超班超正 出心出力 剛剛又再來撐阿哥,灰常感激你 送你照片留念 不過不知為什麼這合照我把你的臉拍成奶白色!莫非因為你真的是「牛奶強」!!

Translation: To Andrew Lau – Director Lau! The mini-movie and animated cartoon that you produced for Jacky’s concert are super high quality and awesome! You obviously put a lot of effort in it. Plus you just came to support Brother again – extremely grateful to you! Sending you this photo as a souvenir gift – but not sure why when I took this photo, your face came out white as milk! Could it be because you are really “Milk Keung [Andrew]!!!

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April 19th @01:14: Vani’s Weibo

名符其實「友」「米」!學友感謝各方友好及歌迷以白米代替鮮花賀他的演唱會,目前已籌得7000公斤白米! 送給聖雅各福群會的眾膳坊食物銀行,幫助貧苦大眾!

Translation: Now this is truly ‘have rice’ [TN: play on Jacky’s Chinese name]! Jacky thanks all his friends as well as fans for giving rice instead of flowers to celebrate his concert – currently, there have already been 7000 kilograms of rice raised! A gift to the St. James Settlement Group’s Food Bank to help the poor and hungry!

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April 19th @00:54: Vani’s Weibo

學友1/2世紀演唱會第五場結束後會見媒體,經紀人陳太突然說不如由我幫阿哥主持記者會啦!由於事出突然 所以入行以來首次素顏加工作人員Look當主持人!街坊到不行!頂自己唔順

Translation: During the media conference after the 5th show of Jacky’s ½ Century tour, manager Mrs. Chan suddenly asked that I help Brother host the press conference! Because of the suddenness of it, this was the first time since I entered the industry that I hosted without wearing makeup and also in my ‘employee look’! Very casual! Can’t stand myself!

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April 17th @17:31: Vani’s Weibo

今晚要上班!契爺要代我好好照顧阿哥啦!

Translation (by me): Need to work tonight! Godfather, please help me take good care of Brother!



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April 16th @20:55: Vani’s Weibo

強大的JC Team!Good show!

Translation: Big and strong JC Team! Good show!




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April 16th @06:17: Vani’s Weibo


蔡一智 @我係雪芳 @容祖儿 限時專送歌神合照!

Translation: To Calvin Choy, Xuet Fong, Joey Yung – Immediately sending your picture with the God of Songs!



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April 16th @00:09: Vani’s Weibo

祖兒待學友完show後迫不及待穿上傳說釘上十一萬顆水晶,重十公斤的「歌神戰衣」!!重的腰也不能挺直了!阿哥見狀都笑了 @容祖儿

Translation: After Jacky’s show ended, Joey [Yung] couldn’t wait to try on the outfit that has100,000 crystals sewn onto it – the “God of Songs battle outfit” that weighs 10 kilograms [approximately 22 pounds]!! The outfit is so heavy that Joey couldn’t even stand up straight! Brother saw her and couldn’t help but laugh.

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April 15th @01:25 Vani’s Weibo

學友香港演唱會首場開場,發哥的出現令紅館後台造成小騷動呀!工作人員全部變Fan屎 還向發哥自薦做保安員帶他去座位坐,阿哥見狀笑説:「怎麼反而沒有人帶我!我不是應該要出場嗎?」 P.S這合照其實是發哥主動叫我和阿哥跟他一起拍的!嚇死我!

Translation: Jacky’s HK concert opening night, Fat Gor [Chow Yun Fat]’s appearance caused a bit of a stir backstage at the Coliseum! All the workers turned into fans and even recommended themselves to him as bodyguards to help him get to his seat! Brother Jacky saw this and laughed, saying: “Hey, why isn’t anyone volunteering to help me get to the stage?! Isn’t it time for me to go on stage now?” (Oops…) P.S.: This photo is actually one that Fat Gor voluntarily told us (me and Brother Jacky) to take with him! Scared me to death!

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April 14th @20:10 Vani’s Weibo

我快要瘋了!看誰來撐阿哥! 賭神vs歌神! 阿妮開心到暈!!!

Translation: I must be going mad! Look who came to support Brother! God of Gamblers versus God of Songs! Vani is so happy, about to faint!

Friday, April 22, 2011

HKFA 2011: Jacky Cheung's Tribute to Willie Chan

Just wanted to share this awesome clip of Jacky singing Frank Sinatra’s classic hit "My Way". This was from the HK Film Awards ceremony that took place last week. Due to the date of the awards ceremony conflicting with his concert date, Jacky did not attend the HKFA ceremony, even though he was nominated in the "Best Actor" category (no surprise here, as it was already a given that he would not attend). But, he did record this clip for the ceremony as a gift for his former manager and good friend Willie Chan, who received the Professional Achievement Award from the HKFA that night (well-deserved in my opinion).

As always, Jacky's performance is awesome and absolutely blows people away -- listening to him sing, it's so easy to become mesmerized and drawn in (which is definitely the feeling I got). This was definitely my favorite segment of the entire HKFA ceremony!

Thanks, Jacky, for showing everyone else how it’s supposed to be done!!!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

2003 HKFA Awards Ceremony (第22屆香港電影金像獎颁獎典禮)

I just finished re-watching the 2003 HK Film Awards Ceremony and I’ve got to say that it brings back a lot of memories.

To be honest, I didn’t purposefully re-watch this show – I just happened to come across it again when I was searching for something in Tudou, so I decided to go ahead and re-watch.

The 2003 ceremony was very different from the previous ones in many ways. First of all, that was the year that SARS hit Hong Kong and the entire population was suffering from the epidemic. It had gotten so bad that there were advisories put out by the government suggesting that non-HK citizens should not travel to HK and if they did, it would be at their own risk. The spirit and mood of the people were at an all-time low. Just when they thought things couldn’t get any worse, the HK entertainment industry is rocked by devastating news: music and film icon Leslie Cheung jumps from the 24th floor of the Mandarin Oriental hotel – and within minutes, he was gone.

In less than 5 days from this tragic event, the 22nd annual HK Film Awards ceremony was scheduled to take place – given everything that happened, many wondered if they should move forward with the event as planned. In the end, they decided to proceed with the show as usual. The night of the ceremony, HKFA association chairman (and host of the event that night) Eric Tsang gave the opening speech (a very moving one) and in it, he reveals the reason why they decided to go on with the show. He said that after what happened, he didn’t want to do the show anymore – but then he saw something on TV that made him change his mind. There was a news report about how, at the peak of the SARS epidemic, a group of several dozen doctors were asked who amongst them would volunteer to ‘get in the trenches’ and go into the deepest hit areas to help out (and risk the possibility of losing their lives) – without any hesitation, every single of them raised their hands and volunteered to go. Eric was moved when he saw this and also felt motivated – he indicated that the entertainment industry should not let the events of the past several months beat them down…instead, they should show the same ‘fighting spirit’ as the doctors and do the jobs that they were meant to do – entertain the audiences, bring up people’s spirits, and help everyone – ordinary citizen and celebrity alike – temporarily forget their sorrow and pain for one night.

This particular awards ceremony was also unique and special because of 2 reasons:

Majority of the artists who were nominated in the various categories were not in attendance at the ceremony and even many of those who won did not attend. Now before we start blaming the artists, we have to understand the environment in HK during that time – as I said earlier, SARS was at its peak and so many people were sick that the entire region became a big hospital ward, it seemed. And as mentioned earlier, the government had issued advisories regarding travel to HK….also, the hosts Eric Tsang and John Shum did mention that most of the non-HK artists were advised not to come to HK, so it’s actually not too surprising that they did not attend. In fact, the only non-HK artist in attendance at the ceremony was Zhang Zhen, who presented one of the awards.

Second, despite the lack of non-HK artists and the ‘tense’ atmosphere, this was still one of the most memorable ceremonies in HKFA history because it showed how united the HK entertainment industry truly is. A few of HK’s biggest celebrities who had not attended the HK Film Awards in years were in attendance at this particular awards ceremony.…this may not seem like a big deal, but what makes this truly unique is that most of the ‘big name’ celebrities attended primarily to support HK and the industry – many of them were neither nominees nor presenters. And a few of them were actually out of the country, but purposefully flew back to HK just to support.

For example, film icon Chow Yun Fat and his wife Jasmine attended the ceremony to show their support, as did singer/actor Alan Tam (both had not attended the HKFA in years) – both Fat Gor and Alan were the special guests who gave a 4 minute monologue at the end of the ceremony -- a great speech that was filled with humor and jokes at each other’s expense, but was a great source of encouragement for everyone in HK. Stephen Chow also made a rare appearance prior to the presentation of the Best New Director award (which he was not the presenter for) to say a few words of encouragement to the people of HK. For me though, the biggest highlight of all was the extremely rare performance by of all 4 Cantopop Kings (Jacky, Andy, Leon, Aaron), who had not performed together since the late 90s – they did an acappella rendition of Leslie’s classic hit Dong Nin Ching (當年情) as a tribute to him. I definitely have to applaud Jacky for attending just to do the tribute, given his close relationship with Leslie and knowing that he was probably grieving during that time – plus he was not nominated for anything that year and wasn’t even a presenter (both Andy and Leon were nominated for Best Actor and Aaron was a presenter for the Best Actress award, so at least the other 3 had a reason to attend aside from the tribute).

Also, in the very last segment (after Fat Gor and Alan did their speech), the hosts invited everyone (all the presenters, nominees, and pretty much everyone else who wanted to go up there) on to the stage so that Hacken Lee (who was invited up after the speech) and Alan could lead the entire group in a song that represented HK’s fighting spirit. It was a pretty appropriate closing if you ask me.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Mingpao Weekly: Interview with Felix Wong (黃日華)

This particular article is actually old (from December 2010). The interview was done around the time "Gun Metal Grey" was airing. I had actually translated this article for AF back during that time, but for some reason, didn't think to post it on my blog -- since I've been in a nostalgic mood recently and have been chatting about the 5 Tigers with others on their blogs, I figured I would post this as a 'treat' for me and for my fellow 80s HK entertainment fanatics (LOL)!

Enjoy!!  :-)

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Mingpao Interview: Felix Wong does not chase after fame and fortune, chases after soccer balls

Original article published 12/12/2010
Source: Mingpao (reposted on TVB Channel)

Translated by llwy12

Picture credits as listed

Felix Wong – a 30 year veteran in the HK entertainment industry -- graduated from TVB’s Acting Class in 1980 and almost immediately took on the role of leading actor in TV series. He’s known for being a bit ‘explosive’ at times when it comes to his work, but that is because he takes his work seriously and has high expectations – in other words, Felix is merely trying to do his job well. Felix does not fight for any awards and actually feels that earning too much money is troublesome, so in terms of chasing after fame and fortune, there’s no need to include him – he is perfectly happy living a quiet, leisurely life doing what he loves best: ‘chasing balls’ on the soccer field. So then, what is it that has motivated Felix to film so many classic and memorable television series all these years? Felix replies: “Since I promised to do the job, I have to do it well! Actually, I don’t like this career (being an actor) at all and do not have an ‘acting addiction’ – to me, this is purely a ‘job’, but I still have to do it well!”

Even though he has been doing this ‘job’ for 30 years, Felix never mentions anything about having a passion for acting; instead, he claims that he only ‘loves’ soccer.

Felix: “After graduating from high school, I tried enrolling in the army, but was not successful, so I applied for TVB’s Acting Class. My personality is not a good fit for the entertainment industry, as I dislike being hypocritical and am not the type to ‘network’ or be sociable – I feel that trying to force myself to change in order to accommodate someone else is extremely painful. Even when my work became very difficult and exhausting, I never thought about giving up – I guess this is one of the attributes of those born in the 60s: willingness to endure hardship. I also don’t like changing to new environments, so if I had not entered the entertainment industry, I would probably be a soccer player. Luckily though, I was not drafted to any soccer teams back then because the career of a professional soccer player only lasts about 10 years, so it would have been hard for me to make the type of living that I did in order to have a good life now. I never did too well in school, however those from my generation who did do well in school may not have the same type of leisurely and carefree lifestyle that I have now either. In my opinion, those who are easily satisfied are the happiest.”

More Money = More Troubles

In the past 10 years, Felix has not ‘worked’ a whole lot and gave up on many opportunities to earn money. Why? Because he chose to allow himself to ‘slow down’.

Felix: “I worked very hard in the 1980s because at that time, I had a mortgage to pay; it wasn’t until I had accumulated a decent amount of savings and no longer had to worry about being burdened financially that I was able to choose for myself the life that I wanted to live. The amount of money that I earn from filming series in mainland China is several times greater than what I earn in Hong Kong, plus the filming schedule is already determined at the time the contract is signed, so it’s not as exhausting, however it would require me to be away from home for 4 to 6 months in the year, which won’t work for me. Filming in HK is more exhausting and difficult, but at least I’m able to go home to rest – that’s why I rejected a lot of opportunities to film series in mainland China. Even if it’s live stage performances in China, I try not to do too many either – though if I were willing to accept those job offers, I could have bought several houses already! Actually, my thought is that more money equals more troubles. A person needs to be able to pick up and let go – if the more you are willing to give up physically, the more you’ll eventually gain.” Though the opportunities to earn money are right in front of Felix, he doesn’t bother to pursue them. Even Felix’s assistant admits that when he arranges jobs for Felix, the primary ‘requirement’ is to ensure that the work does not affect his ‘Happy Wednesdays’, as that is the day that he has soccer practice with the HK Celebrity Soccer Team.


Teaches younger generation to build a solid foundation

Earlier, when Felix agreed to film the series 'Gun Metal Grey', he had to sacrifice his ‘Happy Wednesdays’ – now that the series has finished airing, Felix expresses that after not filming a TVB series for 9 years, this was a new experience for him.

Felix: “The artists I collaborated with in this series are all very hard-working and really threw themselves into their roles – it was a very happy experience. I didn’t put myself on a pedestal when interacting with the newer artists, but rather I chose to act as a role model for them by fully preparing my scenes before entering the studio. A newbie once asked for my opinion, saying that he has been in the industry for a year already but still has not encountered many opportunities for growth. I told him to look at artists such as Wayne Lai and Evergreen Mak – they worked for 20 plus years before they encountered such an opportunity. In this industry, a lot depends on fate as well as luck – there are even more older generation artists who never get such an opportunity in their entire lifetimes. Before trying to ‘stand out’ and be above everyone else, it’s necessary to first perform one’s own duties well; once that solid foundation is built, then the opportunities will come. I was one of the lucky few, as I entered the television industry during its golden era, so I was already playing the lead role in my very first series, 'The Lonely Hunter'. I was also most fortunate to encounter many seniors (older generation artists) who were willing to teach me.”

He continues: “In the past, filming series was really about working as a team and even though everyone spent most of the energy hard at work, emphasis was on team spirit. This time, when I returned to TVB, I felt that things have become more ‘systematic’ and no one dares to overstep their bounds. True, the company is physically ‘bigger’, but there is less of that family-like feel – luckily, I had already prepared myself emotionally for the ‘change’ in the work environment, so it was a matter of getting used to it. If TVB asked me to film another series, I’m willing to think about it – if it could be a comedy, that would be great, but most important is to be able to work with a group of colleagues who take their work seriously. My only ‘requirement’ would be to make sure I get good lighting so that I can look younger on screen and the audience can’t see the bags under my eyes…haha!”


Award ‘in the bag’ but ‘fell’ out

Felix’s performance in 'Gun Metal Grey' brought him a TV King nomination, but in the end, he lost out. Does he regret not winning any awards?

Felix: “The awards ceremony is merely a game and I already made it clear that I would not participate. The fact that the series itself garnered good feedback and word of mouth, I am already very happy; I don’t need awards. I’ve never been ‘lucky’ in terms of winning awards and I’ve already accepted this fact – I once had a good chance of winning an award, to the point of it being ‘in the bag’, but in the end, it ‘fell’ out. Back in 1997, during the first year of the anniversary awards, I was nominated for my role as Kiu Fung in 'The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils 1997', the performance was not bad and the fighting scenes were done well – at the time, I thought that I had a pretty big chance at winning TV King, but in the end, I lost to Gallen Lo. It was the same with movies – I was nominated for Best Supporting Actor twice, but the first time I lost by one point to Anthony Wong and the second time, because I did not attend the Asian Film Festival, a Korean actor won instead. If you win an award, you still have to work and if you don’t win one, you’ll still get job opportunities – awards only bring fleeting happiness. If I was asked to film a series / movie for the purposes of winning an award, I definitely wouldn’t do it, as I don’t want the added pressure.”


Enjoy life and it will last longer

Slow down, enjoy life, and it will last longer. These are words of wisdom from Felix Wong.

Felix: “The amount of working I did in the first 20 years of my career is equivalent to 40 years worth of work for someone else, so I should be allowed to rest now, right? This industry is very weird – when I’m working hard, people advise me that I should slow down and rest, but then when I’m ‘resting’, people are endlessly asking me when I will be going back to work. Looks like the best thing to do is knead me together with Andy Lau, then redistribute, as he is quite the opposite – I’m constantly advising him to rest, but he always tells me it’s not exhausting and he likes working.”

Other than his Wednesday soccer practices and occasionally performing in mainland China, how else does Felix keep himself busy?

“Haha! I’m very busy! I ‘hang out’ at home playing video games, watching TV, gardening…also, there are 2 new ‘members’ of the family now, 2 dogs that I have to take care of. I also need to take my daughter to school and take care of some matters related to the Celebrity Soccer Team. Who says that I have a lot of free time? I’m also constantly re-watching my old series – recently, I re-watched 'The Lonely Hunter' as well as 'Legend of the Condor Heroes'. In doing so, I realized that back then, I didn’t know how to act at all! When I watch my performances from back then, I can’t help but laugh at myself!”

'The Lonely Hunter', 'Legend of the Condor Heroes', and 'Soldier of Fortune' are all classic TV series from the 80s, however many of those born in the 90s and after have never seen these series (including Felix’s daughter Zi-Ching). Asked for recommendations, Felix suggests re-watching 'Racking Peak', 'Looking Back in Anger', and 'Secret of the Heart', all series that he really likes. As for series from the 80s, he says that 'Soldier of Fortune' is definitely worth re-watching.

Felix is currently 49 years old – next year, he’ll be at the ‘half century’ mark (50 years old).

Felix: “Next year, I am going to change my name to『半百人』(‘half century person’) or『50人』(’50 person’). I don’t worry about age, as many people who are 50 or 60 years old are still quite healthy and energetic in today’s world. A fan once commented that ‘Felix Wong certainly looks like he has aged!’. Of course, it’s normal for me to look like I’ve aged, as I’m certainly not young anymore, unless I go get plastic surgery, then maybe I can still keep my face looking youthful. Hey, come to think about it…in the past, I never felt that I needed plastic surgery, but in recent years, I’ve been more accepting of it…perhaps I should go get surgery done for the bags under my eyes! Hahaha!!”


Good husband, good father

Felix Wong and former TVB actress Annie Leung married in 1988. Annie was Felix’s ‘first love’ – they dated for 8 years before getting married, so this year, they celebrate 30 years together. All these years, they’ve stood together to face life’s ups and downs and even to this day, Felix has never wavered in his determination to be a good husband and a good father.

Felix’s 20-year old daughter Zi-Ching is the beloved ‘pearl in his palm’ – he plays the part of chauffeur every day driving her to and from school. Ever the benevolent father, Felix even accompanied his daughter last year to meet her idol, Taiwanese boy band Lollipop-F – his great love for his daughter is obvious! As for his relationship with his wife Annie, some of HK’s gossip mags have used words such as ‘boring’, ‘dull’, and ‘each have their own fun’ to describe it.

Felix: “I love soccer and she loves Cantonese opera, so I guess you could say that we do have ‘our own fun’. However, recently, when we had personal gatherings with the GMG cast and crew, she participated as well. As for our marriage, it’s actually not ‘boring’ or ‘dull’ at all, rather, it has ascended to the highest level – being able to understand each other’s thoughts completely and having mutual respect and concern for each other, it has actually made our marriage even stronger. In the past 10 years, as I’ve reduced my workload, I’ve truly been able to enjoy our romance more; plus our daughter is grown up now and is dating, so my wife and I have more one-on-one time together. In the past, I would be working non-stop and any little free time I had would be spent sleeping. But now, I have the time to do the ‘ordinary’ activities that I never got a chance to do before, such as taking a stroll down the street with my wife, going to see a movie, going on vacations, etc. For me, being able to spend that time with my wife doing ‘ordinary’ things, it’s definitely a joy.”

Asked which places Felix likes to take his wife to for a nice dinner, he replied that there are a few places in Tsim Sha Tsui and Kowloon Tong that they go to often. Another ‘hot spot’ for them is the ‘BB Happy Restaurant, a small eatery in the Tai Po district – in fact, when asked where he wanted to do this interview, he picked this particular restaurant. As soon as he sat down at the restaurant, the owner already filled the table with all his favorite dishes and drinks (he didn’t even need to look at the menu)!


Three famous songs

Felix Wong and fellow actor Eddie Cheung are good friends and the 2 of them often perform in mainland China together in one of their famous ‘Fai Wong’ concerts [TN: ‘Fai’ is Eddie’s Chinese name Cheung Siu Fai and ‘Wong’ is of course Felix’s surname]. Every year, they do 20 to 30 shows and sometimes, they even travel outside of HK and China for their shows.

Felix: “It’s a pretty good living. We came up with the 'Fai Wong’ concerts thanks to Liza Wang – one time, she asked me why I don’t try going back to mainland China to perform onstage? I told her that my singing is really bad, but she said not to worry, as the fans won’t mind since I’m not a professional singer – she advised me to learn a few songs very well, then when I get on stage, perform the songs and play a couple games with the fans, and that’s it. So I learned to sing 2 of the themesongs from 'Legend of the Condor Heroes' as well as Liza’s classic song ‘Chinese People’; Eddie also has his own ‘specialty’ songs. For the past 6 years, no matter which event, we pretty much only perform these few songs, however the reaction from the audiences has always been very strong. Finally, I am able to experience the satisfaction that singers get when they receive applause and praise from the audiences.”

Though Felix and Eddie travel to mainland China often, Felix indicates that their wives don’t have to worry, as they don’t participate in any social events over there – in fact, they rarely go outside of their own hotel rooms.

Felix: When we’re performing in mainland China, the only 2 places that we go to are the performance location and the hotel – we refuse all parties and other social events, as it is easy to get in trouble when artists go to KTV places or bars. When we’re not performing, both Eddie and I choose to stay in our hotel rooms and do our own things – Eddie likes to have a cigar and some red wine, while I like listening to music and ‘playing’ Weibo. One time, it was really funny because we traveled to a very underdeveloped city in China and even though we stayed at one of the city’s best hotels, the condition was not too great and there were a lot of flies in the room. The hotel attendant gave me a fly swatter, so that day, my assistant and I played ‘swat the flies’ all day in my room!”


Addicted to Weibo

Felix is an admitted ‘Weibo fanatic’…in addition to ‘bursting out’ at TVB earlier on his Weibo, he also uses the platform to share the latest information about his life and career with more than 70,000 fans.

Felix: “I never thought that Weibo would be so far-reaching! With the ‘outburst’ situation, I was simply expressing what I felt was unfair from an audience’s perspective, didn’t realize the situation would spiral as big as it did. I’m a firm believer that if there’s sufficient evidence to back up a particular situation, it will gain attention and support. When I first started on Weibo, I thought it was merely a promotional platform for artists to interact with their fans, but turns out that it is a good communication tool – in the entertainment industry, artists don’t see each other often and even when we do get together face to face, it’s not always easy to open our mouths to express support for a certain person or situation. With Weibo, it brings us closer together and breaks down some of that awkwardness from a face to face encounter.”

Felix’s daughter is also on Weibo and is also one of his ‘Weibo fans’, however the 2 of them do not interact on-line. She said that she has already ‘followed’ him on Weibo, however Felix admits that he actually does not know his daughter’s Weibo screenname.

.***.

Chinese Version

黃日華不追名利愛追波 微博玩上癮


在娛樂圈工作30年,於1980年無綫藝員訓練班畢業便當劇集男主角,他火爆是因為他對工作認真有要求;黃日華要做好呢份工。不爭獎又嫌錢太多好煩,追名逐利不要預他的份兒,樂得清閒在足球場上追波。支持他多年來拍攝了多部經典電視劇的動力從何而來?黃日華說﹕「答應了的工作一定要做好,其實我唔鍾意做呢行(演員),也沒有很大戲癮,只視為一份工,我就要做好呢份工!」

這份工做了30年,黃日華沒有說自己多熱愛演戲,他只愛踢波。

「中五畢業我投考南華青年軍失敗後才報名無綫藝員訓練班。我的性格不適合娛圈,不喜歡虛偽、打交道,強迫自己改變去遷就別人好痛苦。在工作最辛苦的階段我又未想過放棄,這是60後肯捱的特質;我又唔鍾意轉新環境,若我沒有入娛樂圈,我可能成為足球員。好彩當年未被選入足球隊,職業球員生涯只有10多年,好難掙到我現在的生活。我讀書唔叻,跟我同年代讀書叻的人也未必可以似我現在優游自在生活。人易滿足才會開心。」

「愈多錢愈多麻煩」

黃日華近10年的工作量不多,有錢唔掙,因為他選擇了讓自己放慢腳步。

「我最搏命搵錢是80年代,因為當時要供樓,直至有積蓄沒有經濟負擔,我可以選擇自己的生活。內地拍戲掙錢是香港的數倍,而且工時是簽約規定,故不辛苦,但要我離開香港4個月、半年便不可以。在香港拍戲更辛苦,但起碼可以回家休息,所以我推掉很多內地劇集。就算接內地登台的次數也不想太多,要是肯多接工作便多買幾層樓了。其實愈多錢便愈多麻煩。做人要拿得起放得低,有捨才有得。」有錢唔掙,華哥的助手為他接工作以不影響他的Happy Wednesday為原則,逢周三是明星足球隊練波的日子。

教後輩打穩基礎

早前黃日華接拍《刑警》也犧牲了他的踢波快樂時光,現在劇集也播完,9年沒有拍TVB劇集,今次讓他有新體驗。

「今次合作一班藝員也很勤力投入,是開心的。我沒有高高在上的跟新一輩相處,以身作則,做好準備才入廠。有新人問我意見,說入行一年也沒有發展機會。我叫他看黎耀祥、麥包,他們做了20多年才遇到機會。做這行一命二運,更多前輩是一世也沒有機會,想出人頭地前不如先做好本分,打穩基礎才有機會。我是少數幸運的,入行正值電視高峰期,第一部劇集《過客》便做主角。最好彩是初出道時遇到很多好前輩給我教導。」

「以前拍劇重團體精神,大家搏命工作,但今次返TVB的感覺是制度化後大家不敢越界。地方大了卻少了親切感,幸好我有心理準備工作環境變了,自己要適應。若果TVB再搵我拍劇,是可以考慮的,最好是喜劇,有一班工作認真的對手便好了;唯一要求是給我好的燈光,令我在熒幕上皮光肉滑,眼袋不太大。」

獎座入袋又跌走

《刑警》問鼎視帝落敗。未曾獲得獎項的榮譽是否遺憾?

「頒獎禮就是遊戲一場,我早聲明不參與的,劇集播映贏得口碑已開心,我不需要獎。我與獎無緣唯有認命,曾遇到有很大機會得獎的,獎座袋了入袋也跌出來。1997年首屆台慶頒獎禮,我在《天龍八部》演喬峰,文戲得、打戲又得,當時以為自己有機會做視帝,但最後輸給羅嘉良的李奇。電影也試過兩次競逐男配角,有次輸了一分給黃秋生,又一次亞太影展因沒有出席,讓韓國演員獲獎了。有獎一樣要工作,無獎一樣有機會,獎項帶來一陣子開心。若果要我拍一部要攞獎的戲,我不會接拍,只怕增壓力。」

享受生活命長久

放慢腳步享受生活,命都長啲,這是黃日華說的。

「入行前20年的工作量是別人做40年的時間,現在也要讓我休息吧。這圈子很奇怪,勤力工作的便有人勸應休息,我休息中卻不斷被追問何時再投入工作。將我跟劉德華搓揉再均分便最好,我經常勸他休息,但他說不辛苦,喜歡工作。」

除了逢周三的踢波日與偶然返內地演出,問華哥如何打發日子?

「我好忙o架!在家中hea,打機、睇電視、種花,最近家中多了兩個新成員,收養了兩隻狗也要照顧。我又要送女兒返學,與處理明星足球隊的會務,誰說我好得閒。我還不時翻看舊作,最近重溫了《過客》與《射鵰》,那時候不懂得演戲,現在看自己的演出也忍不住笑。」

《過客》、《射鵰》與《香城浪子》皆是80年代經典劇,但對「90後」,大部分也未看過,包括華哥的女兒。他強力推介要重溫的劇集是《馬場大亨》、《義不容情》與《天地豪情》皆是他喜歡的。80年代不得不看的是《香城浪子》。

華哥今年49歲,明年便半百(50歲)了。

「明年我會改藝名做 『半百人』或『50人』。我唔介意年紀多大,這年代50、60歲還是壯年。有影迷話歲月催人,黃日華老了!我年紀大了是正常的,除非我整容才保住年輕的樣子。話時話,以前我覺得不需要整容,近年已漸漸接受整容這件事,會考慮整一整眼袋……哈哈哈!」

好老公.好爸爸

黃日華與梁潔華1988年結婚,華女是他的初戀情人,「雙華戀」拍拖8年才結婚,相處了30年。這些年來兩人共同面對風浪,華哥要做好老公、好爸爸的角色從沒鬆懈過。

20歲的女兒芷晴是掌上明珠,每天由父親駕車送返學。去年他還陪女兒追星睇棒棒堂,這個廿四孝父親令人無話可說。但提到他跟太太梁潔華,兩人的生活被周刊形容為「各有各玩」、「平淡無味」。

「我愛踢波,她喜歡粵曲,確實是各有各玩;但最近我跟《刑警》同事聚會,她也有參與。我們的婚姻生活並不平淡,而是昇華到最高境界。互相意會對方的想法與關心,感覺是更鞏固的關係。」

「近10年我將工作量減少才享受到夫妻間的浪漫,女兒長大了,她要拍拖,我跟太太也有二人世界。以前不停工作,有空閒時間便睡覺。現在我有時間做以前未有機會做的事情,逛街、睇戲、去旅行是很平凡的節目,對我而言跟太太有這些活動是享受。」

問華哥跟太太的拍拖勝地在哪裏?他說﹕「我就是習慣了到尖沙嘴、九龍城與又一城食飯。」他們另一熱門蒲點是大美督的「BB開心棧」,正是他提議相約訪問的地點。華哥剛坐下未點菜,老闆娘已將他平日愛吃、喝的堆滿面前。街坊小菜館,沒燭光晚餐兼被蚊叮,他有老婆陪伴便感覺浪漫。

3曲走天涯

黃日華與張兆輝組成「輝黃」經常在內地開騷掙「人仔」,每年平均20至30場,所到的地方遠至海拉爾(近俄羅斯)與鴨綠江等。「山大斬埋有柴,都幾好掙。『輝黃』的組成多謝汪阿姐提點,有次她問我為何不返內地登台?我說因唱得太難聽。阿姐話粉絲不會介意,只要操練幾首歌、在台上玩遊戲便可以。我便專攻《射鵰》的《鐵血丹心》與《世間始終你好》,再加《中國人》;輝哥另有首本名曲。內地很多招商會活動,『輝黃』出馬皆是唱這幾首歌,6年來沒有變。我敢說劉德華在內地唱《中國人》的次數也不及我多。獨自登台時,我也是3曲走天涯。我們每次演出反應很熱烈,我也感受到做歌星獲歡呼支持的滿足感。」

華哥與張兆輝,在內地工作時與異性絕緣,所以沒有機會惹麻煩。

「我們在內地工作的活動範圍就是演出場地與酒店,謝絕額外的應酬。藝人在卡拉OK、夜店易惹麻煩。我們選擇在房間玩『鬥地主』,輝哥愛歎雪加、紅酒,我便聽歌、玩微博。有次到偏遠的地方,難得踏足大草原,我們才走出酒店範圍。最搞笑一次是到二、三線城市演出,住當地最好的酒店,但房間有很多烏蠅,服務員給我烏蠅拍,我便跟助手在房間玩拍烏蠅。」

微博玩上癮

黃日華是「微博瘋」,繼「噴火華」微博現身轟TVB不公平,他也經常向7萬多粉絲分享工作近況,生活感受。

「我意想不到微博威力咁勁,噴火事件我不過將旁觀者認為不公平的意見轉發,竟鬧到滿城風雨。我相信有理據的事情會獲得迴響與支持。當初開微博是認為這是跟粉絲接觸的宣傳平台,原來這也是溝通橋樑,大家娛樂圈中人不經常碰頭,就算面對面也不容易開口說支持!加油!的鼓勵說話。透過微博可以拉近距離,有次我看到巨星二幫的國峰隊長訴苦說不如意,我在網上找了一幅『發脾氣不如爭氣』的圖轉發給他。年輕人需要鼓勵,後來我在台慶亮燈遇見他,大家也傾了一陣子。」

女兒芷晴也是他的微博粉絲,父女卻沒有網上對談,女兒說已「關注」他,但他竟不知道女兒微博的名字。

Jacky's Hong Kong Concert Begins!!!!

Since the Hong Kong leg of Jacky's concert just started yesterday, figured I would post up the latest news about it. Based on what I've read, all I can say is -- the HK fans are EXTREMELY lucky!!! (Hey, I want to be 'up close' to Jacky too!!)

Anyways, here are a few articles regarding Jacky's' concert that I translated today.  Enjoy!


******

Jacky Cheung kicks off Hong Kong leg of concert

Source: Oriental Daily, Mingpao
Translated by:  llwy12

Picture credits as listed

God of Songs Jacky Cheung will kick off the 20 show Hong Kong leg of his 1/2 Century Concert tonight at the HK Coliseum. All 190,000 tickets for the 20 shows have been long sold out. Due to each show being close to 3 hours long, Jacky’s concert organizer and manager Florence Chan encourages all fans / audiences to arrive early so that the show can start on time at 8:15pm sharp.

In efforts to give fans the best experience possible, the concert organizers rebuilt a brand new stage for the concert that is completely different from the one used during Jacky's World Tour in China and the U.S. -- one made especially for the HK Coliseum. The effect is that Jacky will be able to get more 'up close' with the audience -- in fact, during one particular segment, Jacky will be sitting right in front of the fans, with virtually 'zero' distance between them, which is sure to make many Jacky fans very happy!

Earlier in the week, Jacky encouraged fans and concert-goers not to give him flowers this time, but rather donate rice instead to help feed the poor and also protect the environment. Mrs. Chan expressed that the responses from the fans have been overwhelming, so they decided that after Jacky's 5th show on the 18th, they will arrange a handover ceremony backstage for the donations.

,*******.

Jacky's Opening Night Concert at HK Colisum; Chow Yun Fat and ex-wife Candice Yu attend same concert, no chance of meeting

Source:  Oriental Daily, Mingpao
Translated by:  llwy12


Picture credits as listed


Jacky Cheung’s long anticipated “1/2 Century Concert Tour” finally made its way back to Hong Kong last night, with the first of 20 shows kicking off to a full house at the HK Coliseum.

Jacky’s opening night concert attracted both ordinary citizens and celebrities alike -- including a rare appearance by actor Chow Yun Fat (Fat Gor) and his wife Jasmine. Coincidentally, Chow Yun Fat’s ex-wife Candice Yu was also in attendance at the concert -- a few minutes after Candice arrived, Fat Gor and his wife arrived, which caused a bit of a stir among the audience. However, since their seats were separated by about a dozen rows, there was no chance of the ex-couple bumping into each other or possibly finding themselves in an uncomfortable situation.

Even though concert organizers encouraged fans and concert-goers to arrive on-time, unfortunately there were still a lot of people who arrived late, causing the start of the show to be delayed by 10 minutes. For opening night, all 9000 plus seats of the HKC were filled to capacity and fans anxiously awaited as Jacky finally appeared on stage, dressed in a white outfit, starting the night with a tap dance routine that awed audiences.

After that, Jacky changed into a red outfit complete with an artist’s beret and launched into his classic hit <> as the big screen on-stage ran a mini-movie musical starring Jacky himself along with actress Shu Qi. In the movie, Jacky and Shu Qi act out the various stages of a love relationship, from the first meeting, to dating, marriage, separation, and reconciling. On stage, Jacky performed various musical hits to accompany the movie and also re-enacted parts of the story with a female dancer. During one segment, Jacky and the dancer sat atop a bench raised 20 feet above the stage -- even though there were no safety harnesses and the bench kept swaying softly side to side, Jacky did not appear nervous at all and sang many of his classic hits without missing a beat!

Jacky’s wife May Lo and their 2 daughters were not present at last night’s concert, however Jacky indicated that they had already seen the concert when he performed in Shanghai. When asked what his daughters thought of his performances, Jacky expressed that their response was positive: “The most important benefit is that they truly understand what I do. They also know more of my songs now and occasionally, they would have special requests for me to sing certain songs. My younger daughter likes the song <> because of the fast tempo.”

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

My ‘TVB Rant’ #8: Lamenting the lack of ‘good’ TVB series nowadays....

Over the years, as I've gotten older, watching TV has become a secondary pasttime for me -- meaning that the TV is still on all the time in the house (as it had been throughout my childhood), but instead of it consuming most of my time, it has now been reduced down to 'background noise' pretty much, taking a back seat to the other more important things / tasks that I have to do. Therefore, most of the time, even though the TV is on, I'm not truly 'watching' TV, but rather 'listening' to the TV, and I only look up occasionally from what I'm doing if there is a scene that happens to interest me, then after that scene passes, I quickly look back down and continue with the task at hand. So I guess you could say that I'm not really ‘paying attention’ to what is on TV, but rather focusing more on the task I am working on at the moment.

The above has pretty much become a way of life for me, but looking at it from a different perspective, it also helps me to gauge whether a particular TV series or show is 'good' or not.

In my book, in order for a series to be considered 'good', it has to meet 4 criteria.

First, a ‘good’ series must be able to "distract" me from what I am doing at the moment and cause me to ‘pay attention’ to the series for a long period of time. For a series to be considered 'really good', it has to do more than just "distract" me -- it has to cause me to set aside what I am doing at the moment and concentrate fully on what I am watching -- in other words, it has to pull me in to the point that what I am doing at the moment becomes secondary rather than primary. (Another way to look at is: ‘good’ is equivalent to ‘like’ and ‘really good’ is equivalent to ‘love’).

In addition to the above, the other way I can tell if a series is 'good' and/or 'really good' is whether it has the the 'chasability' factor. What is the 'chasability' factor, you may ask? Well, in Chinese, the word that we use is 追 (zui), which means 'to chase after' -- if you put 'zui' in front of the character for TV series, you get 'chase after TV series' -- which to me, has 2 meanings: 1) if the series airs at a certain time every day, then 'chasing the series' means that you don't want to miss a moment of it, so no matter what you are doing or where you are at, you always manage to get home in time to settle down in front of the TV and watch the next episode; or 2) if you are fortunate enough to own the entire series on DVD (my preferred method, since I like to be in control of my time and hate waiting day after day to watch 1 measly episode), then 'chasing the series' means that you can't stop watching the series and keep putting disc after disc into the DVD player and in the end, you finish watching the entire series in like 2 days (ok, 2 days might be an exaggeration -- though I've done it before -- but the point is that you finish the entire series in pretty much one sitting, however many days that may be).

Another criteria for me is that the series must be memorable in some way – now I don’t mean just being able to remember a character’s name or certain events that happen (though that’s certainly part of it)….when I say ‘memorable’, I mean that it had some type of impact on me to the point that even after I finish watching the entire series, I’m still thinking about the series (or certain parts of it) and perhaps wishing that it wasn’t over so quickly.

The last criteria is the “rewatchability” factor, which is basically – how likely am I to re-watch the series again? This is actually an important criteria for me because to be honest, if I am barely able to sit through the series the first time around (meaning I watch the first few episodes and am already bored out of my wits or I miss a few episodes and don’t even bother to rewatch what I missed), then that’s a sure-fire sign that I am most likely NOT going to waste my time rewatching the series again.

So in a nutshell, for me, there are 4 criteria for determining a 'good' (or 'really good') series -- it must 1) distract me from what I’m doing to the point that I really pay attention, 2) give me that 'chasable' feeling, 3) be memorable in some way (whether it’s character, storyline, or both), and last but not least, 4) be re-watchable.

You may be asking how all of this relates to TVB? Simple -- in the last decade or so, there have been very few TVB series that have met all 4 of my criteria for being a 'good' series (and even fewerhave made it into the 'really good' category)....in fact, in the last 7 years or so, it's gotten progressively worse, to the point that nowadays, I struggle to find even 1 or 2 series that are able to meet my criteria. In comparisons, back in the 80s and even part of the 90s, I could rattle off to you series after series that could EASILY fall into either category (‘good’ or ‘really good’). Also, just as a point of reference: I have watched most of the series from the 80s and early/mid 90s more than 1 time (and of course there are a select few that I have watched upwards of 20 times – and I’m not kidding!).

To illustrate my point, let’s takes the series from the past 3 years or so as examples….

Starting with 2010’s series -- out of all the series that TVB produced last year, the only two series that met all of my criteria were “Gun Metal Grey” (primarily because of Felix and Michael, though I ended up liking the series as a whole) and “No Regrets” (the acting was superb, even if parts of the storyline were a bit draggy -- well, when you’ve got Wayne and Sheren as the leads, it’s hard not to have awesome acting). Now don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that ALL the rest of the series that year ‘sucked’ (though a few of them did truly suck) – all I’m saying is that the other ones just didn’t quite cut it for me.

Looking at 2009’s series, the stats are even worse -- the only series that I liked out of the bunch (that met my 4 criteria) was “Rosy Business”. Even the series “Born Rich” – with it’s ‘dream’ cast consisting of many of my favorite actors and actresses from the 80s/90s – failed to make the cut because of its awful script and just plain boring storyline (I feel so sorry for the artists in that series – and yes, I’m still pissed at TVB for ‘ruining’ their careers).

2008’s series didn’t fare any better -- I liked “A Journey Called Life” and “Catch Me Now”, but to be honest, it was really a stretch – I had to think hard in order to get both series to fit all 4 criteria. Oh and don’t even get me started on the BIGGEST disappointment of 2008 – “Forensic Heroes 2” (basically, I went from loving the original FH in 2006 to absolutely hating the sequel…but I’ll save that rant for another post).

Going back one more year, to 2007 – “Fathers and Sons” was good and so was “Dicey Business” (both happen to be Bobby AuYeung series – love that guy!), but that was about it (though technically, “Dicey Business” started airing in 2006, so I guess you could say that it is really a 2006 series) – so in 2006, there were only 2 series I liked: DB and also the original “Forensic Heroes”.

And the list goes on…..(but I’m sure you get the picture by now, so I’ll stop the list here)….

So yes, I will reiterate the sentiment that I’ve carried for the past decade regarding TVB’s series nowadays – THEY SURE DON’T MAKE THEM LIKE THEY USED TO!!!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Book Review: 從零開始 (Now and Then II) -- post #4…Anita Mui (梅艷芳)

** Disclaimer: The below is a review of one of the interviews in the book and is written from my perspective – it is not by any means a direct translation of the entire interview. For a detailed description of what this particular book is about, please refer to post #1.**

The next 80s/90s artist I chose to write about in my continuing book review series on 從零開始 is the late HK Cantopop Queen Anita Mui.

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INTRODUCTION

2003 was a bad year for Hong Kong....the nation was already reeling from an invasion of SARS and everyone was already in low spirits. As if that weren't enough, even worse news came later that year – the deaths of 3 ‘legends’ in the HK music industry that pushed everyone’s spirits to the lowest point possible and also changed the entertainment industry forever. On April 1st, the industry lost superstar singer / actor Leslie Cheung when he jumped off the 24th floor of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in HK; then on November 16th, they lost award-winning songwriter / lyricist Richard Lam Chun Keung (brother of Eunice Lam) to lymphatic cancer; and finally, on December 30th, they lost legendary music queen Anita Mui to cervical cancer.

This post will focus primarily on various aspects of Anita’s life, love, and relationship (through her own words in interviews with Mingpao compiled for this book). Of course, given the relationship between Anita and Leslie, there will undoubtedly be some information related to Leslie in this post, however I will also be dedicating an entire post to Leslie’s life and career later on in the year.

To be honest, it is impossible to tell the story of Anita’s life in 1 blog post, so I am not even going to attempt to do so (in fact, this post won’t talk too much about her career, since that is the part that most people know about Anita). Instead, with this post, I hope to bring to light some of the struggles that Anita faced throughout her life as well as hopefully let those who may not be as familiar with her understand why she is indeed the ‘big sister’ in the HK music world. Most importantly though, I hope to demonstrate why Anita was (and still is) so respected in the entertainment industry – not just because of her singing or acting, but also because of who she was as a person.

Eric Tsang actually said it best when he talked about Anita’s passing during his “Be My Guest” interview: right before Anita passed away, she was able to see all of her friends for the very last time – several floors of the hospital that she was staying at were packed with her friends from the entertainment industry who came to see her and be with her on the last leg of her short, but meaningful life journey (those who were working in another country immediately dropped what they were doing and flew back to HK). The love and support that Anita received during those last days was unprecedented and as Eric said, even until the end, Anita remained strong – she refused to succumb to her illness until after she saw every last one of her friends and said her goodbyes to them.

When most people think of Anita Mui, they probably think first about her extraordinary strength and endurance as well as her strong, outspoken personality and natural tendency to speak out against injustice. Even Anita herself once said: “I feel that I was naturally born to be one of those noble warriors from Jin Yong’s novels – the only thing is that I was born in the wrong time period.”

True, this was the public’s perception of Anita and in a sense, it was also her own perception of herself. BUT those who knew Anita well also saw the deeper side of her – a side that she rarely showed to others.

The following quote from the book is very fitting in the way it describes the inner conflict that Anita struggled with her entire life as well as the ‘tragedy’ of her life beneath all that glamour:

She [Anita] is open and candid, dares to love and dares to hate. On the surface, she gives the impression of being very strong and brave (In her words: “I have the personality of a man in a woman’s body.”) In reality though, underneath that bold, heroic exterior lies the loneliness and sensibility of a woman’s heart – her only weakness is that she is too used to undertaking responsibility, to the point that those around her start to view it [Anita taking up responsibility on all matters] as an expectation. One time – feeling that the burden on her shoulders was especially heavy – Anita said to me: “I am only a woman.”

On December 30th, 2003, Anita Mui left this world. ‘Towards a Quieter Life (往生靜土)’ – these are not just 4 words on Anita’s funeral shrine, but also something that Anita constantly hoped for. Now, every time I think of her, in addition to missing her, there are also feelings of sympathy and sorrow mixed in. My heart is also full of question marks – why is it that even in her last action of establishing a will for herself, she was not able to get the respect that she rightfully deserved?

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CHILDHOOD / PERSONAL LIFE

It is hard to believe that in 1982, when 18 year old Anita Mui won the 1st annual New Talent Singing Competition, she had already been ‘in the industry’ for 14 years! Anita’s mother was the head of a performance troupe that went around performing at various venues, mainly at nightclubs and disco halls. So at the young age of 4 years old, Anita stepped onto the stage for the first time and along with her older sister Ann, had a constantly busy schedule performing and singing. As Anita herself states: “My childhood was very different from other children’s, so I was always envious of the ordinary lives that other children were able to lead…compared to others of the same age, I always felt very old – perhaps because I have been working since I was very little! I feel that youth [young people] have a special characteristic – that is, to just let it all out and be carefree….but I’ve been carrying a heavy burden since a young age, so in a sense, I never experienced ‘youth’ at all.” In addition to not having a childhood, Anita also had to give up her education – during her first year of high school, she fell extremely ill and had to pull out of school for a long period of time. Unfortunately, after she recovered, she was not able to keep up with the school work and ended up dropping out of school – but she did continue to self-educate herself throughout her life so that she never stopped learning completely.

One thing that Anita longed for throughout her life (but sadly, never got) was love from her family. Despite being the youngest in the family and the ‘little sister’ in the household, Anita did not receive the love or support that one would expect from their family – in fact, the only ‘sane’ (I will explain later why I chose this word) person in the family who truly loved and cared for Anita was her older sister Ann, who was closest to her in age. Anita’s mother was constantly working (or rather ‘scheming’ up ways to earn as much money as possible) and Anita was never close with her 2 older brothers (more on them later), primarily due to the huge gap in their ages.

Of course, it wouldn’t be fair to write about Anita’s life without mentioning her family, as they played a huge role in shaping the person she became. Before I go any further though, I feel that I need to APOLOGIZE in advance for any comments I make in this post in relation to Anita’s family that may be offensive to people, as it is definitely out of character for me to ‘diss’ someone’s family, but I really can’t help myself in this case. I myself am a very filial daughter and love my family very much, plus I have a lot of respect for elders and in general, I’m a pretty mellow person. BUT even someone like me (and I don’t even count myself as one of Anita’s ‘fans’), cannot help being completely disgusted and abhorrent / loathsome towards Anita’s family (with the exception of her sister Ann). I cannot believe that people like her imbecilic, money-crazy mother and bastard (also money-crazy) brothers exist on the face of this earth – and I feel EXTREMELY sorry for both Anita and Ann for being born into such a bad family!

I’ll talk more later on in this post about why I despise Anita’s mother and brothers, but for now, this direct quote from Anita (from one of her past interviews) should give people some insight as to why Anita’s relationship with her mother was so strained:

“I grew up in an ‘abnormal’ household. Mother always locked us up behind the screen door and I was only able to watch from within the confines of our house as the neighbors’ kids went out to play. Towards my family, I’ve always only felt a sense of alienation and estrangement, very little warmth. Whenever I’d try to speak to my mother, she would tell me to stop, shut up, not allowed to speak – so now, I have no words to say to her. I will not go and criticize her, but that DOESN’T mean that I agree with everything she does. No matter what, she is my mother after all – that fact will never change.”

With such strained relations to her biological family, it is no wonder then that when she met Leonard Ho (founder of famous HK production company Golden Harvest) and his wife, she was finally able to possess the parental love that she was never able to obtain from her own family. In the mid-1980s, Anita became the god-daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ho – even though the Ho’s already had a biological daughter of their own, that did not prevent them from treating Anita as their own daughter, showering her with love and support.

As a sidenote, former actress May Lo (God of Songs Jacky Cheung’s wife) was also Mr. and Mrs. Ho’s god-daughter – that is actually how she became so close with Anita and why they ended up becoming sworn sisters (hence, Anita referring to Jacky as her brother-in-law). During Anita’s funeral service in January 2004, Mrs. Ho (Mr. Ho passed away in 1997) as well as May and Jacky sat in the ‘family members’ section – Jacky also gave a eulogy at the funeral and was also one of the pall bearers who accompanied Anita’s casket to her final resting place.

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In 1988, Anita filed a complaint in court accusing her oldest brother Mui Kai Ming of extortion and embezzlement. At the time, Anita’s mother (Mrs. Mui) told her daughter Anita to give her brother some money as a form of investment to open a pet store and dog training facility – in less than 1 year, the business posted losses of close to 4 million HKD. It was said that ‘someone’ (Anita’s brother) used the company to borrow money from others and also misappropriate funds, which caused Anita much grief and disappointment. In the end, Anita did not ask her brother to return the money he took from her (since she was her brother after all), however she did make her stance clear that she was not going to give him any money and that she did not want to see him again. From that moment on, Mui Kai Ming did not dare to show his face in front of Anita again while she was alive (what a COWARD!!!!). Anita’s mother also took part in numerous ‘questionable’ financial practices as well and throughout the years, had ‘spent’ a lot of Anita’s hard-earned money.

Ironically, the moment Anita passed away, Mui Kai Ming suddenly ‘reappeared’ again and has become a fixture by his mother’s side these past 8 years. Along with Anita’s other brother Mui Tak Ming, the mother and sons have been in and out of court these past 8 years, protesting Anita’s will and filing appeal upon appeal. They refuse to accept the fact that Anita bequeathed majority of her ‘estate’ to charity in her will (even though she did request that her mother be given a certain amount of money every month as an allowance) and have continued to fight the will in court in attempts to get more money, thereby draining Anita’s estate almost down to the penny.

The following excerpt was taken directly from the book – I decided to include this long passage from the book because it does a good job of illustrating exactly the type of person Anita’s mother was:

Even though her mother’s actions throughout the years brought Anita nothing but trouble and the two were never very close (in fact, Anita always referred to her mother as ‘Mrs. Mui’), Anita continued to fulfill her utmost filial obligations to her mother. In 2003, despite suffering from severe illness, Anita drafted a will that arranged for her mother to receive 70,000 HKD every month in living expenses for the rest of her life until death – Anita made these monthly arrangements to prevent her mother from spending all her money in one shot and possibly descending into poverty in the future. Unfortunately, Mrs. Mui did not understand one bit the filialness that Anita had toward her. In 2005, Mrs. Mui sold the property that she owned jointly with her daughter and despite rendering profits of close to 5 million HKD, she repeatedly requested for the courts to increase the amount bequeathed to her for living expenses. Due to Mrs. Mui repeatedly losing the inheritance case each time it was challenged in court and subsequently filing appeal upon appeal, the funds in the inheritance account established by Anita’s will slowly dwindled and by October 2008, there was only 8500 HKD left in the account, which was not enough to pay for Mrs. Mui’s living expenses. Asked about the funds barely being enough to finance her lifestyle, Mrs. Mui responded: “So? What kind of stormy seas have I not encountered and conquered? It’s simple – I’ll just apply for public assistance!” Oh, and what about the older brother (Mui Kai Ming) who, while Anita was alive, did not dare show his face? From the moment his youngest sister Anita died, he resurfaced once again, accompanying his mother everywhere and becoming her ‘right-hand man’. By July of 2009, Mrs. Mui’s living expenses increased to 150,000 HKD per month.

When I read the section in the book that talked about Mrs. Mui’s actions, I was deeply saddened but at the same time, it also made my blood boil! How could a mother possibly be so cruel? Is it not enough that she did not show any love toward her daughter throughout the 40 short years of her life and instead treated her like a money tree, yet Anita continued to be filial to her and even left money for her in her will? How can it be that when her daughter dies, the only thing that the mother cares about is money and does not even have the decency to respect her daughter’s will?

If you thought Mrs. Mui’s actions in fighting Anita’s will and bilking her money were bad, you haven’t heard the worst of it! Not sure if anyone noticed, but in the 8 years since Anita’s death, there have not been any ‘official’ tribute shows or concerts in her memory (in comparisons, there were dozens of tributes for Leslie, Roman, and even legendary composer James Wong). How is this possible, given Anita’s tremendous popularity and iconic status in the HK entertainment industry? Well, we all pretty much have Mrs. Mui to thank for the ZERO tributes to Anita! Not long after Anita died, there was a fierce ‘verbal battle’ between Mrs Mui (escorted by her cohorts, the Mui brothers) and Anita’s former manager as well as all her apprentice students and close friends (think of it as ‘Mrs Mui versus the HK entertainment industry’). At the time, Mrs. Mui publicly declared that she would not allow ANYONE to hold any tributes or concerts in Anita’s honor because doing so would be equivalent to “making money off a dead person” (in reality, she was probably just bitter that SHE wouldn’t be able to make money off of any tribute/concert shows, since Anita’s friends know how she is and would most likely donate the money to charity instead, so she figured she’d ruin it for everyone). Not only that, she also pretty much ‘threatened’ anyone who ‘dared’ to make money off her daughter in that manner (concerts, tribute shows, etc.) with legal action (plus they would surely ‘rot in hell’ for doing so, as Mrs. Mui so vehemently proclaimed!). So what was the entertainment industry’s (aka Anita’s apprentice students and friends) reaction to Mrs. Mui’s unreasonable, stupid nonsense? As much as they were opposed to Mrs. Mui’s tirades and were disappointed with how badly she was tarnishing her daughter’s memory, they decided to take the ‘high road’ and abide by Mrs. Mui’s wishes – not because they were afraid of a senile old lady, because she was Anita’s mother after all, so they let things be out of respect for Anita and her memory.

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Anita’s relationship with her mother and brothers may have been strained, but amazingly, her relationship with her sister Ann was completely opposite – the 2 sisters were very close. I actually think that Ann was born into the wrong family because she was so different from the rest of them – she was very feminine, sweet, and just an overall wonderful person! And we can actually thank Ann for giving us Anita, as it was because of her that Anita entered the New Talent Contest -- Ann was also a singer and when a friend told her she should enter the competition, she felt more comfortable having her sister there with her, so she submitted an application for her (Anita actually didn’t want to do it). Ironically, Ann never made it past the semi-finals, but as we all know, Anita did – not only that, but she went on to win the competition itself. Even though Ann did not make it to the finals, she was not bitter – in fact, she was extremely happy for her sister and on finals night when Anita’s name was announced as the winner, Ann was right there in the stands, crying tears of joy that her sister had made it (she had always felt that her little sister was naturally talented in the area of singing and was destined to be an entertainer).

As the older sister, Ann always felt an obligation to take care of her younger sister (even though they weren’t too far apart in terms of age) and when reminiscing about their childhood, she admits that it was a difficult – two little girls having to ‘sell’ their singing at such a young age in order to earn money for the family. In past interviews, Anita herself lamented the difficult childhood that she and her sister had to endure: “In our family, the females had to work very hard and do all the difficult jobs, but the males didn’t have to work at all – if the males did work, it was for themselves and they were not obligated to bring money home....we were all born to the same mother, all healthy and able-bodied, we should be equals! Why is it then that I have to work so much harder than them?”

Indeed, Ann was the only ‘sane’ person in the family and the only positive influence (within the family, that is) that Anita had. Unfortunately though, the relationship was not destined to last – in April 2000, Ann Mui died of cervical cancer (the same illness that Anita would eventually die from 3 years later). Anita was devastated by the loss of the sister whom she loved so dearly and vowed to take care of her sister’s family forever, no matter what happened (Ann was survived by her husband and 2 children – fortunately, they did not need Anita to take care of them, as Ann’s husband was a doctor, I believe, so the family did not have to worry financially at least). Her sister’s death made her think hard about life and in an interview that year, Anita stated: “[Her death] made me reflect and changed my perspective on life. I realized that I need to be strong. No matter what difficulties, setbacks, or unhappiness comes my way, I will tell myself: It’s nothing! There is nothing more important than life itself – as long as I’m still alive, I can still start over!”

In March 2003, as Anita herself was silently battling cancer (at this point, none of her friends knew yet, except Eddie Lau), she perhaps recognized that she may not live much longer. In an interview, she stated: “There are so many distressing things in life…I myself have experienced all 4 ‘spices’ in life [sweet, sour, bitter, tart]. In the next life, I would rather be a little bird, flying freely up in the skies.”


RELATIONSHIPS: The men in Anita’s life

The men in Anita Mui's life can pretty much be divided into 3 categories -- her lovers (those with whom she had a romantic relationship), her brothers (those who were not related to her by blood and whom she was not involved with romantically whatsoever, but was very close to -- so close that they can be considered 'family'), and her friends (pretty much everyone else who did not fall into the other 2 categories).

*For the purposes of this post, I will not be talking about the 3rd category, as Anita has alot of friends (as I mentioned earlier) in the industry and it would take a long time to discuss her relationship with each one of them. Also included in the 'friends' category are all of her apprentice students (for the purposes of this post at least), which I'm not going to talk much about either (maybe some other post?).*


For such a huge celebrity, Anita was actually quite open when it came to admitting to her romantic relationships. The boyfriends that she had after entering the industry include: actor Michael Miu(with whom she filmed her one and only TVB series, “Summer Kisses, Winter Tears”), wealthy young socialite Stephen Chau Sai Lung(yes, the same man whom Barbara Yung was involved with back in 1985), part-time model Michael Lau (not really considered part of the industry, since he only modeled part-time for commercials and such), a man known only as Paul, whom she met at the gym while preparing for her concert in 1990 (not part of the industry), actor Ben Lam Kwok Bun (a martial arts instructor turned third/fourth line actor who had minor roles in movies and such), mainland actor and martial artist Vincent Zhao WenZhuo(Anita was actually older than him, so at the time, the media went crazy over the whole older woman/younger man romance), and Japanese singer/actor Kondo Masahiko(sorry, don’t know too much about him, since I don’t follow Japanese entertainment).

So out of all her boyfriends, which one was truly the ‘love of her life’? Anita was asked this question in March 2003, when she was in the last stage of her life, reflecting on her past. Her response: “I won’t say who specifically…all I can say is – the one with whom I had the long-distance relationship. If I were given a second chance to choose, I would still choose to love him. In other words, that was the relationship most worthy of remembering fondly.” The only ‘long-distance relationship’ that Anita publicly admitted to was with Japanese artist Kondo Masahiko – and throughout their courtship, it was very obvious to everyone (she even admits it herself) that she was extremely in love with him, flying to Japan often to meet up with him. So it is safe to say then that he was the ‘love of her life.’

In January 2004, as Anita’s friends gathered at her funeral to pay their last respects to her, something that is rarely seen in the entertainment industry occurred: pretty much all of Anita’s past boyfriends (except for the ones who were outside of the industry) were in attendance at the funeral – including Kondo Masahiko, who had purposely flown to HK from Japan to attend. Regardless of how her relationship was with each of her past boyfriends or what their reasons were for breaking up, it is obvious that in the end, with Anita’s passing, all misunderstandings and differences were buried along with her. Personally, I was touched to hear about Anita’s former boyfriends attending her funeral – it was definitely a very sweet gesture!

Despite the seemingly endless line of suitors, all of Anita’s romantic relationships were short-lived. Throughout her entire life, Anita longed to be loved, but ironically, she never found the love that she longed to have. She once said that she would give up everything she had in a heartbeat in exchange for true love, but it was not meant to be. She had once talked about being with the man she loved, having children, starting a family – in the end though, knowing that she did not have much longer to live, she decided to be ‘married’ to her work (show business)… ironically, Anita finally did get to wear a wedding dress – during her very last concert in November 2003, she wore a wedding dress with a long train, walked up the long flight of stairs while singing her classic song “Treasure the Time We Meet Again”, and – after looking back one final time to bid everyone farewell, she turned around and walked out into the darkness (backstage), the huge doors to the set shutting behind her.

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Aside from the various romantic relationships she had, Anita also had quite a few male friends with whom she was very close – a few of them she was especially close with, to the point that she considered them ‘family’. Anita’s entertainment industry ‘brothers’ included: Leslie Cheung, Danny Chan, Jacky Cheung, Eddie Lau, and Andy Lau (I’m sure there were probably more, but the book only touches on those who were more publicly known in terms of their brotherly relationship with Anita).

Leslie Cheung: True to his nickname ‘Gor Gor’ (big brother), Leslie was indeed like an ‘older brother’ for Anita – they were very close. The unique thing about Leslie and Anita’s relationship was that they always had awesome chemistry both on and off the stage. When Anita heard the news about Leslie’s suicide in April 2003, she was absolutely devastated and cried endlessly – at his funeral, Anita was so upset that her friends had to accompany her throughout the entire time, gently holding her by the arm and helping her make it through. Her closest friend and confidante, designer Eddie Lau, once said that upon seeing Leslie’s lifeless body not long after he died, Anita was heard telling him: “I will be coming to keep you company soon!”

Danny Chan: Back in the 1980s, Danny was like a ‘younger brother’ to Anita. The two of them were brought together through their love of dancing – in fact, even outside of work, they would sometimes bump into each other at discos and end up dancing to the music together. In the 1980s, the two of them would often be musical guests at each other’s concerts and undoubtedly, dancing would play a huge role in those concerts. One thing to note is that Danny is actually older than Anita, however in Anita’s heart, she felt that she needed to protect Danny from harshness of the industry, so she always considered him a younger brother whom she protected and loved.

Jacky Cheung: I already talked about Jacky’s relationship with Anita earlier in my post – he is Anita’s ‘brother-in-law’, as she is sworn sisters with Jacky’s wife May. One of the reasons that Jacky was so close with Anita is because she has always been very supportive of him throughout the 20 plus years they knew each other. Back in the late 80s, when Jacky was struggling with alcoholism and constantly got into fights with his then girlfriend May, Anita was the one who would be the ‘peacemaker’ between them. And the few times when Jacky and May broke up after getting into arguments, Anita was the one who got them back together.

Eddie Lau: Eddie was definitely the most important man in Anita’s life. Eddie was one of HK’s most famous fashion designers in the 80s and he was responsible for designing / dressing all of the biggest names in the entertainment industry. Eddie was an instrumental part of each of Anita’s concerts and he was the only person she trusted to design her attire. Out of all the men in her life (those who were not her boyfriends), Eddie was closest with her – he was Anita’s brother, friend, confidante – she pretty much told him everything and he knew exactly what made her tick. Whenever Anita felt down or needed someone to talk to, the first person she would call was Eddie. He was also the first one to find out that Anita had cancer and for almost a year, he was the only one who knew. And he was the only male who was able to go in and out of her house whenever he wanted. The relationship between Eddie and Anita was very unique, especially in the entertainment industry where it’s very hard for a male and female to be so close and not be romantically involved whatsoever.

Andy Lau: To make things absolutely clear – Andy and Anita NEVER DATED!! The reason why Andy always got linked up to Anita in the tabloids was because Anita admired Andy a lot as a person and being the straightforward person that she is, she would publicly praise him a lot. During an interview in the early 90s, Anita ‘hinted’ that she had a little bit of a crush on someone – she never revealed who that someone was, but it was widely speculated in the media and tabloids that the ‘someone’ was Andy. In fact, Andy’s relationship with Anita was more like a brother than anything else. True, she did admire Andy a lot, but that does not mean she had a crush on him…in fact, when she was being hounded by reporters about the issue, she once said: “No crush. Truthfully, I have a lot of admiration for Andy, but admiration is NOT the same thing as having a crush. It is possible to admire someone from afar.” Now that Anita is gone, we may never know for sure, but based on my understanding of how Anita is and her personality, I believe her when she says that she did not have a crush on Andy.

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CONCLUSION

After best friend and ‘brother’ Leslie Cheung died in April 2003, Anita’s grief caused her to reach her lowest point emotionally – but despite her pain, she still continued to care about society: “The SARS situation is very serious and dire. Leslie’s death awakened me and made me realize the importance of life. In front of the Buddhist altar, I asked Leslie to give me strength – I don’t want to waste anymore time. I hope to do something for Hong Kong.” Anita put her words into action – as the first female chairman of the HK Artistes Guild, Anita led the entire HK entertainment industry in arranging the 1:99 concerts to raise money for the victims of SARS.

In August 2003, as rumors of Anita’s illness circulated like wildfire in the media, she decided to end all the speculation. In a press conference where she was surrounded by many of her long-time friends, she told the world about her cancer and vowed to fight the illness until the very end.

Not too long after that, Anita realized that her cancer was getting worse and so during the last leg of her life journey, she decided to fulfill her biggest dream: to meet up with her friends and fans for one last time and say farewell – and, most importantly, to don a wedding dress and ‘get married’. Despite being very weak physically from her chemo-therapy, Anita showed almost unbelievable determination and strength in completing 8 shows at the HK Coliseum in November 2003 (about a month before her death). Even her doctors said the fact she was able to complete the shows was a miracle, a gift that the Heavens especially gave to her.

Though I did not get a chance to watch Anita’s final concerts in person, I did watch on DVD afterwards and I will admit that I was absolutely in tears almost the entire time. Her performances during those last shows were absolutely flawless in my book and I will forever remember that last concert of hers, more than any other concert she has done in the past.

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As I said earlier, there is so much to talk about when it comes to Anita that this post is only a small scratch on the surface in terms of knowing what type of person Anita was. And indeed, there is so much more that I could write about her – for example, her singing and movie career, her charity work, her relationship with her other friends, etc. etc. With this post, I simply want to give some insight into the life of a woman who was so instrumental in shaping the HK entertainment industry – an icon and legend who will truly be missed, but whose legacy will love on for decades to come. Rest in peace, Anita!