Interview: This is ‘So Gay’: Koo Ming Wah’s difficult 18 year career journey

I'm currently watching the TVB series Divas in Distress (巴不得媽媽) -- well, too be specific, 'kind of watching' is the more appropriate way to put it, since I've pretty much been forwarding through most of the episodes due to not liking some of the cast and also parts of the storyline. 

Not planning on commenting much about the series itself, since I technically didn't even watch majority of it, but there are a few characters that I actually like from the series -- one of them is the character of 'So Gay' played by veteran actor Koo Ming Wah (古明華). 

Ok, I'm sure most people probably never even heard of Koo Ming Wah prior to this series -- for me personally though, I've known of him since the 90s, as I remember that he had some pretty good roles back then, even though the roles were small and mostly insignificant (yet he was able to leave an impression, at least on me).  I really started paying more attention to Koo Ming Wah after Gun Metal Grey, since I really enjoyed that series and his performance in there was quite good.  Actually, even back in the 90s, his acting was already very good, it's just that he never had much luck in terms of his career, as he was almost always relegated to playing minor characters (and he's been at TVB for 18 years already!).  This is why I'm glad that Koo Lo (as most people call him) is finally getting recognition for his acting -- IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!  I'm very happy for him and definitely hope that TVB will give him better roles in the future!

By the way....Koo Ming Wah did 6 interviews with various Media outlets recently and after reading all of them, I chose to translate this particular one from East Week Magazine (primarily because it's the most detailed one and also the most moving) .  It's a very touching interview and after reading it, my respect for Koo Ming Wah definitely went up several notches -- the part where he talks about his mother and his daughter really got me teary-eyed!  From these interviews, it's obvious that Koo Ming Wah is a good man!  I wish him the best of luck!

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This is ‘So Gay’:  Koo Ming Wah’s difficult 18 year career journey

 

Source:  EastWeek Magazine, Issue 473 (via HK Channel)

 

Translation:  llwy12

 

 

TVB’s currently airing drama series  Divas in Distress《巴不得媽媽》caused beauty pageant winner Eliza Sam (岑麗香) to become the new ‘Golden [Discussion Forum] Goddess’, but at the same time, it also brought about unexpected popularity for veteran actor Koo Ming Wah (古明華) [known as ‘Koo Lo’ (古佬) to his friends and colleagues], who plays the effeminate character ‘So Gay’ (蘇基) in the series.  Since the series aired, Koo Lo has garnered tremendous praise for his performance, with netizens creating a ‘One Person One Like – Support So Gay for an Award’ Facebook page, showing their support for him to win in either the ‘Most Improved Actor’ or ‘Best Supporting Actor’ categories at the TVB Anniversary Awards this year.  Within a matter of days, the Facebook page received over 60,000 ‘Like’ votes and over 900 comments praising Koo Lo’s performance – despite becoming an ‘overnight sensation’, the 48 year old actor reveals that he’s not sure how to react to the sudden popularity.

 

Take today’s interview for instance – when we asked him to do the photo shoot portion of the interview in his ‘So Gay’ persona, Koo Lo willingly obliged.   As he prepared for the interview, he bumped into various colleagues at TVB City, all of whom greeted him affectionately, loudly yelling out: “Gay Gay!” [his nickname in the series] or telling him: “So Gay!  Support you all the way!” – some of his colleagues even requested to take pictures with him!   Towards all of this, Koo Lo responds with a shy grin:  “Thank you, thank you!”

 

Asked about the success of the character ‘So Gay’, Koo Lo grins sheepishly and states:  “I never imagined the character would become so popular!  Re-watching my performance, I feel that there are still many areas where I could have done better.  Back when we were filming the series, the behind-the-scenes crew would tell me:  ‘Wow, this character will definitely become a hit!’ but I would respond back with: ‘Oh, stop being crazy!  You guys always say that with all of my performances!  Tell me, which performance have you not said would be a hit?’   Hahaha!  Actually, many behind-the-scenes crew contributed to the success of the character ‘So Gay’ – but of course, I have to thank the series producer Tak Gor (Poon Ka Tak 潘嘉德) for being brave enough to cast me in the role!  If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have so many supporters now and wouldn’t be able to understand how wonderful this feeling of ‘perplexity’ [over the sudden popularity] truly is!  But, to be honest, this moment could very well be a temporary thing that will eventually come to pass.”

 

See, this is how ‘So Gay’ is like in real life!

 

 

The past 18 years

 

After the photo shoot, Koo Ming Wah stepped out of his ‘So Gay’ persona and went back to being ‘Koo Lo’ – the difference in his appearance was significant, as his looks instantly returned to being ‘scruffy-looking’ without a single trace of  the character’s ‘effeminate nature’ about him.  Koo Lo states:  “When Tak Gor first suggested me for the role of ‘So Gay’, there were people who doubted his decision, but he simply stated: ‘He can do it!  Koo Ming Wah can do it!’  With that, he gave me the role!   The mutual trust that we have in each other, to be honest, it would probably never happen with any other producer!  Actually, the role I had in the series Street Fighters 《廟街．媽．兄弟》[aired in the year 2000] was also pretty significant and had a lot of screen time – that series was also produced by Tak Gor.  So going from being a ‘nobody’ to being recognized now, I am really very grateful to him!”

 

In 1993, Koo Ming Wah earned a ‘Best Newcomer’ nomination at that year’s Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA) for his performance in the film Sex Racecourse《旺角馬場》.  Even though he didn’t win the award [TN:  he lost to future HKFA Best Actress winner Anita Yuen], he did capture the attention of TVB and not long afterwards, he was recruited to join the TV station.  In the 18 years since then, Koo Lo has participated in more than 40 TV series (he had to look up the info in Wikipedia to confirm):  “Counting through the series – The Driving Power《非常外父》, Ten Brothers 《十兄弟》, The Wintermelon Tale《大冬瓜》, Street Fighters, etc. – if you ask me how many series I was truly happy filming, there are probably less than 8 altogether!  And that’s over a period of 18 years!”

 

From our calculation, the reason for Koo Lo’s ‘dispirited’ feeling was probably because the majority of the roles he played in those 18 years were either insignificant villain characters such as a rapist, murderer, criminal, debt collector, etc. or if he happened to play a ‘good’ guy, he was usually a one of a group of workers at a café or perhaps even a street vendor.  There were times when the characters he played didn’t even have a name and his status was even less than that of a 4^th or 5^th line actor:  “Actually, throughout these 18 years, the time I spent NOT working was even greater than the time spent filming!  If we talk about time spent actually filming something, I would say it was only about 100 days out of the year – so pretty much I only spent a third of the year filming!”

 

Koo Lo continues:  “I’ve never been disappointed about not getting to be male lead – all I hope for is that the characters I play can have a little bit more to do.  For example, in the series Gun Metal Grey《刑警》, I played the role of a veteran cop – with that role, I was already very happy that I was able to find myself in that character and in that performance!  Because I truly truly love acting!”

 

 

Path to becoming a voice actor

 

Luckily, Koo Lo still had his job as a voice actor to help him make a living.  As a voice actor, Koo Lo participated in the Cantonese-language dubbing process for foreign films such as Puss In Boots, Toy Story 3, Shrek 2, Transformers:  Revenge of the Fallen, Three Kingdoms, etc.:   “Prior to joining TVB, I worked at the HK Repertory Theatre – one day, Ting Yu (丁羽) [renown veteran voice artist] came to visit and said that he was looking for some ‘new voices’ – just like that, I became part of the theatrical group and from that point on, I would film series as well as do voice work on the side.”

 

Two years prior to accepting the role for Divas In Distress, Koo Ming Wah had actually already made the decision to transfer to the voice acting department at TVB and not film series anymore:  “To be very honest, the first 2 years after I joined TVB, I felt happy because everything was so new and fresh, but then 5 years went by, then 10, then 15 and I started to see creativity becoming more and more limited – I started feeling that my ‘fighting spirit’ was slowly diminishing, so I thought perhaps it was the time for a change.”

 

Koo Lo continues:  “But then prior to switching over, I got the chance to film Gun Metal Grey and work with actors such as Felix Wong (黃日華), Michael Miu (苗僑偉), Vincent Wong (王浩信), Oscar Leung (梁烈唯), etc. – seeing them have such passion and heart for acting, it immediately reminded me that in actuality, the company didn’t really change and such actors were always present, it’s just that my attitude toward acting had changed.  After switching to the voice acting department, I swore to myself that I would take my work and life more seriously going forward – as a result, I was able to learn a lot more about acting, since I had to watch a lot of films for my job in voice acting.  Then, at the beginning of this year, Tak Gor challenged me to take on the role of ‘So Gay’."

 

 

The youthful HKAPA days

 

Koo Ming Wah graduated from the HK Academy of Performing Arts (HKAPA) in 1990.  He revealed that back in the day, he decided to apply to the HKAPA because of his friend, comedian / actor Tat Ming Cheung (張達明):  “Tat Ming and I were classmates in primary school and high school, so we were really good friends.  After graduating, he continued with his studies, whereas I went to work at my brother’s factory as a machine operator.  Not sure what triggered it, but one day, all of a sudden, he came over and asked me if I was interested in joining a theater company with him – just like that, we ended up joining [veteran actress] Law Koon Lan’s (羅冠蘭) theater troupe.”

 

“Later on, we found out about a place called the HK Academy of Performing Arts, so Law Koon Lan suggested that we try to apply.  Since my factory job at that time was extremely boring and I wanted a change in environment, I decided to go with Tat Ming to apply.   Only Tat Ming was accepted the first year  -- I tried applying again the second year and finally got in.”

 

Koo Lo emphasized that the 4 years he spent studying at the HKAPA were the happiest years of his life:  “If I didn’t have those 4 years, it definitely would have been regrettable!  Since grants and loans were available back then to help with schooling, seven of my male classmates and I pooled some money together to rent a house in Sheung Wan to serve as a dormitory  -- with 8 guys going to school and hanging out together day and night, imagine the fun we had!  Haha!”  [Koo Lo’s 7 male classmates included Sunny Chan (陳錦鴻), Emotion Cheung (張錦程), Tat Ming Cheung (張達明), Joey Leung (梁榮忠), Chung Chi Wing (鍾志榮), Desmond Tang (鄧偉傑)].

 

Koo Lo continued:  “After we got off from school, we would all hang out at the house and review through the stuff we learned or sometimes just sit around and chat.  Of course, we had fun outside of school too, eating and drinking, hanging out with other friends, partying, etc.  Haha!  The school environment was very nice too  -- the buildings were clean and pretty, there were a lot of glass windows with a view of the harbor, pretty girls dancing upstairs [TN: referring to the dance department at the HKAPA]…haha!  Those few years, we didn’t have any burdens and could do pretty much anything we wanted (except for illegal stuff and things that might embarrass our families).  That was definitely the ‘good life’…haha!  It was also during those 4 years that I got the chance to really study acting and explore it in depth – because prior to that, I didn’t feel that I had any talent for performing at all!”

 

 

A mother’s love for her child

 

Aside from Tat Ming Cheung encouraging him, Koo Lo also decided to go into acting because  of something his mother said to him:  “At that time, I asked my family: ‘If I wanted to go back to school, would that be okay?’  The reality is that back then, my family would not be able to support me financially, since our family was big and only my dad was working – therefore, when I asked the question, my dad did not give an opinion, since he knew he would not be able to support me…however….” (Koo Lo’s eyes start to tear up)  “…my mom took the matter to heart…” (the tears slowly start to flow) “…my mom told me: ‘Little brother [his nickname as a child] – life is short!  If going back to school is what you want to do, then go ahead and do it!  Mom will support you no matter what!’” (at this point during the interview, Koo Lo could no longer hold back the flow of tears and sobs silently).

 

After regaining his composure, Koo Lo continued:  “Those words from my mom gave me tremendous strength and energy!  It completely changed my life!”

 

Growing up as the 5^th of a total of 6 children, Koo Lo’s family lived in a small house in Ngau Tou Kwok.  During the day, the place where they lived was a manufacturing center for wicker chairs and at night it become the place where they ate and slept:  “My dad was the only breadwinner in the family.  Every morning, my mom would make porridge and some eggs and that would be our breakfast – once a month, we’d get the chance to go out to the city and have a bowl of noodles.  A lot of times, we would help boil water for the workers making the chairs so they could take a bath, then after they finished eating dinner, we would help clean the tables – after they got off work, we would help clean up the place…life was pretty difficult back then!”

 

Out of the 6 children, Koo Lo was the one who had the closest relationship with his mother:  “My mom and I were very close!  That’s because as a kid and even when I was growing up, she never had to worry about me – at school, I always made sure that I was on my best behavior and never did anything that could get me in trouble.  Even though my mom never went through much education, she was a very reasonable and understanding woman who loved all her children dearly – she sacrificed a lot and invested all her time and energy in raising us to be good people.  She is a model mother!”

 

Two years ago, Koo Lo’s mother passed away:  “She had diabetes as well as heart problems...she went into the hospital one day, but the doctors weren’t able to save her….”  As Koo Lo recounted his mother’s passing, tears once again flowed down his face:  “…but the benevolence and love that both she and my dad showed to us children really impacted me greatly and helped me understand what type of parent I should be in the future!”

 

This is truly what we call ‘teaching with love’!

 

 

He is willing to die for her…

 

Koo Ming Wah is married and has a 14 year old daughter named Tammi:  “I met my wife back during my Acting Academy days – she was in the dance school (specializing in Chinese dance) and I was in the drama school.  We dated for 8 years and this year, we will be married for 16 years already.”

 

After his wife graduated from the HKAPA, she became a freelance dancer – unfortunately, not long after they married, his wife got into a car accident that caused permanent injury to her leg and ended her dancing career:  “After that, she became a ‘lazy bug’ – even when I told her to go out and work, she wouldn’t do it!  Haha!” (He pretends to be upset.)

 

As for his daughter Tammi:  “Hahaha!  She is very independent!  Her classmates know that I am her dad, but they’ve never bothered her about getting celebrity pictures or autographs – but even if they do, she always handles the matter very calmly, though it could also be that I’m just not popular enough! Ha!”

 

Koo Lo continues:  “The great love that my mom showed me definitely affected the love I have for my daughter!  When my daughter was born, she had difficulty coughing up the spittle in her throat and I thought to myself:  ‘can I cough it up for her instead?’  Her health is not very good and even when she was a child, she would constantly get sick – she also has asthma as well as kidney problems.  Sometimes when I see her getting really sick, I get scared that she might not be able to make it through and worry that she might leave us – each time, I pray to God and ask him to take my life instead!  It’s true!  If you ask me who I would be willing to die for…my wife – no, but my daughter – absolutely!”

 

Seeing Koo Lo’s eyes start to well up with tears again, I [the reporter] couldn’t help also feeling a knot in my throat.

Repost from Benji and Lesley’s Blog: Life As An Actor

I just discovered not too long ago that Benji and Lesley Chiang (the children of veteran actor Paul Chun) have a blog on Ming Pao's English website. They update the blog frequently with stuff about their careers, personal lives, projects, etc.

The latest post updated today was written by Benji and in it, he talks about something that has been a dream of his for awhile -- acting! After 7 years in the industry (primarily hosting music programs for TVB), Benji finally got the chance to try his hand at acting this year -- first with a role in the movie Lan Kwai Fong 2 and then after joining CTI, he got the chance to participate in two TV series (he gets to work with his sister Lesley in both series).

Ever since Benji and Lesley came onto the music scene back in 2010, I've definitely taken notice of them. I will admit that I initially started taking an interest in them primarily due to their father Paul Chun, since Paul Gor is one of my all-time favorite veteran actors -- I pretty much grew up watching Paul Gor's movies and TV series and even now I continue to 'follow' his works (mostly his works in HK though). But after I learned more about Benji and Lesley themselves and started paying more attention to their entertainment industry careers and such, I started to develop a certain amount of respect and admiration for them. As a long-time follower of the HK entertainment industry, I've seen alot over the years and understand how difficult it is to try and make a name for yourself in such a colorful but complicated entertainment world while at the same time remaining true to your core values and inner self -- in the 2 years since they've debuted, Benji and Lesley have done a great job in this area!

There are many things that I admire about this brother / sister duo, but one of the biggest is their passion for music as well as their perseverance in realizing their dreams, even if the path to achieving this is a difficult one. One thing that impressed me about Benji and Lesley right off the bat was the fact that they not only write and sing their own songs but they also used their own hard-earned money to produce their first album as well as finance their music careers -- all of this done entirely on their own, since they are not signed to any record company! I mean, how many singers do you know of nowadays who have gone down such a difficult path and have been able to achieve relatively good results? Not very many, that's for sure! Benji and Lesley's first single -- the upbeat dance tune "Showtime" -- was very well-received and helped propel them to 'Best Newcomer' status in 2010/2011 (and deservedly so in my opinion)!

As I'm sure people who've read my other blog posts probably know, I grew up listening to Chinese music and back in the 80s/90s, I was a huge follower of the HK music industry and was one of its biggest supporters -- but since the industry started spiralling downwards in the late 90s/early 2000s (due to various reasons that I won't get into here), I grew increasingly disappointed with the industry and for the past decade or so I pretty much stopped listening to HK music as much as I used to (with some exceptions of course). Needless to say then, I actually surprised even myself when, back in 2010, Benji and Lesley's "Showtime" debuted and after taking one 'listen' on the radio, I pretty much became smitten with the song (and I immediately bought their debut album containing the song as soon as it came out)! Benji and Lesley brought some much needed 'energy' to the HK music industry with their debut 2 years ago, which was definitely refreshing to see.

What's more, to see 2 aspiring artists continue to remain so grounded despite their initial success and continue to move persistently but humbly step by step along the path to carving out a niche for themselves in the entertainment industry -- honestly, it brought back some of the 'warm' feelings for the HK music industry that I had already lost years ago!  I will definitely continue to support Benji and Lesley and look forward to seeing what they will bring to the acting world!

Anyway, here is the latest post from Benji and Lesley’s blog….enjoy!

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Benji and Lesley Blog﹕ Life as an Actor

Article originally published 9/13/12

Source: Mingpao English Web

Text and photo by Benji Chiang (姜文杰)

*** PHOTO TO BE ADDED LATER***

Writers' Profile:
Benji (姜文杰) and Lesley (姜麗文) are HK's latest singer-songwriter sensations. They debuted with their first single in 2010, and have started their tv acting career this year.


【明報專訊】

It has taken me 10 years to reach this point, and I am having a BLAST right now!

Three months ago, I became a policeman for my role in Lan Kwai Fong 2 (《喜愛夜蒲2》). Dozens of extras and members of the crew worked 24/7 trying to fit everything within the tight filming hours at night. For instance, while I walked and talked like a policeman during the filming process, the other fellows organised bar stools in line so that we actors could work out smoothly together.

After that came the filming for my first TV drama series - CTI's Fantasy Love Song 201314 (《童話戀曲201314》). This is Hong Kong's first ever musical TV drama, and my role is a student of the performing arts in his early teens, with a deep-rooted triad background but is unbelievably inept at everything other than dancing and drumming.

This time the filming felt so different from that of LKF2, as we first had to spend weeks training in a dance studio to look legit; then the hard work was the actual days of filming dance scenes from dawn to dusk, in the summer sun. Bonus? I had the chance to film with Lesley for the very first time, and close friends like Kelvin Kwan, Jason Chan, Evelyn Choi and other young actors kept the atmosphere so high school.

Before I knew it, three months had passed, and our schedules overlap with our filming for another TV drama series Three Sides of Shape Doctors (《三面形醫》). This time I am a 30-year-old actor with a loving wife whom I cheat on, doing nothing other than spending her money. In the story I have romantic relationships with Leanne (wife of Tom, drummer of the band Mr) and YouTube sensation Queenie (who is my long time close friend). Hopefully these "relationships" will not turn out to be embarrassing. Lesley's in this drama as well, and Uncle John Chiang (姜大衛) will be playing her father. Interesting.

List of CTI Artists and Behind the Scenes Personnel + CTI 20th Anniversary Celebration Attendees (**Recently updated 9/11/12**)

It's been awhile since I've actually updated this list and alot of changes have taken place in the interim -- therefore, I felt that this is a good time to really clean this list up and make the appropriate notes based on all the stuff that has come out. 

 

Note that in putting this post together, I tried my best to pull the most accurate information possible, however with so many reports out there (and many of them conflicting), it's hard to be 100% accurate.  I went ahead and fixed some of the more obvious errors from my original post that I was able to identify (i.e.:  some artists who were reported as joining CTI but actually had not...I went ahead and crossed them off the list for now), but I might not have caught everything.  Therefore, if anyone has questions regarding the information, feel free to let me know.  :-)

News Article: Yuen Wah misses the days when Run Run Shaw oversaw TVB; saddened at TVB’s lack of progress, ends 16 year relationship

Here's a very interesting article that I read yesterday and wanted to share -- it's an 'interview' of sorts that veteran actor Yuen Wah (元華) did recently with a Hong Kong newspaper. 

Before he joined TVB, I always used to think of Yuen Wah as a martial arts guy, since I knew his background growing up in the Beijing Opera troupe with other renown martial artists (his apprentice brothers at the Opera school) such as Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, etc.  After he joined TVB and I got the chance to see how his acting was through the many series that he participated in, I started to develop a certain respect for him over the years as a skilled, versatile actor.  I've enjoyed many of his performances in TVB series, especially his comedic roles (though he also does the serious as well as villain roles quite well too) and he absolutely brought a certain 'charm' to most of his roles, no matter how big or small they were.  This is why when I found out last year that Yuen Wah decided to leave TVB and join CTI because TVB pretty much 'neglected' him by not even bothering to renew his contract, I got pretty ticked off initially (though of course, I wasn't the least bit surprised since I already knew full well how TVB operates).  But now that I think about it, no need for me to get ticked off, since it's TVB's loss, not mine....sure, I won't get to see Yuen Wah in any more TVB series, but hey, if they are going to treat him like that (plus with their restrictive policies and notorious politics), I would rather he leave than continue to stay at a company that doesn't give a crap about him. 

Yuen Wah actually gave an interview to a HK newspaper recently (I'm assuming he was sought out for an interview because CTI has been announcing series more frequently in the past few months and he most likely will be in one of the upcoming series that will be announced soon).  In the interview, he talks very candidly about his decision to leave TVB and in the process, also reveals some of the 'politics' that went on behind closed doors (though to be very honest, for people like me who have been 'following' TVB for decades, none of this stuff is surprising in the least).   

The article is actually quite interesting to read, especially for those who may not be familiar with TVB's politics or, for some reason or another, refuse to believe how messed up TVB really is internally (in terms of politics and management conflicts).  I've actually had someone tell me in the past that they think all the stuff about TVB having such lame policies and all the other 'politics' that I always complain about is actually false and was 'made up' by so-called 'conspiracy theorists' like me (yea, whatever, call me what you want, doesn't matter to me...) -- well, for those 'naysayers', here's yet ANOTHER example of a former TVB artist revealing what 'really' goes on internally at TVB....personally, for me -- well, all I'm going to say is that it's kind of hard to continue denying the existence of TVB's pervasive politics when pretty much we keep hearing the same kind of stuff revealed by former artists over and over again....butof course, as I always say, it's up to each individual whether they choose to believe this stuff or not....

Anyway, happy reading!

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Yuen Wah misses the days when Run Run Shaw oversaw TVB;  saddened at TVB’s lack of progress, ends 16
year relationship

Source:  HKChannel (iHKtv)

Translation:  llwy12

“I’m not fond of you because you’re not my cup of tea!”  These words are generally used to describe a romantic relationship between a man and woman, however it can also be used to describe the relationship between employer and employee.   Earlier, veteran actor Yuen Wah (元華) ended his 16 year ‘relationship’ with TVB and decided to join Ricky Wong’s (王維基) newly established company CTI.  In addition to admiring his new boss Ricky Wong’s sincerity and resolute, Yuen Wah explains that one of the reasons he decided to leave TVB [for CTI] is because in the past few years, he felt there was no longer a sense of belonging or loyalty with the company anymore – he candidly states:  “I really miss the days when Uncle Six [Run Run Shaw] ran things!”


Last year, telecommunications giant Ricky Wong decided to try his hand in the television industry – in preparation for his company City Telecom (CTI)’s entrance into the free-to-air television market, he started a massive recruitment mission last September that involved the ‘poaching’ of a large group of TVB’s artists.  As a result, many veteran ‘green leaf’ artists ended up joining  CTI, including experienced artists such as Yu Mo Lian (余慕蓮), John Chiang (姜大衞), Felix Lok (駱應鈞), Sin Ho Ying (冼灝英), etc.  Yuen Wah was also part of this group.

Asked what attracted him to join Ricky Wong’s company, Yuen Wah (Wah Gor) explained:  “Mr. Wong was very sincere when he sought me out to talk about joining his company.  He invited me to have tea at the Peninsula Hotel  and told me that his television station was starting and he wanted me to join – I told him that I would have to think about it, as I was still waiting for the other company (TVB) to contact me to discuss contract renewal.  In the end, I waited a long period of time and no one from TVB approached me, so I decided to go with CTI.  With my career being an actor, it’s impossible for me to just stop and do nothing  -- if I’m offered job opportunities, of course I’m going to do it!”  In the 16 years that he had worked for TVB, Wah Gor always had a ‘per series’ contract with them – his contract would get renewed every 2 years and usually TVB would seek him out 3 to 6 months prior to his contract expiration date to discuss renewal.  But this time around, things were different -- Wah Gor’s contract expired, yet no one seemed to even notice. 

Wah Gor admits that he felt disappointed:  “Was I unhappy about it?  I actually never really thought about it, as I felt that these type of work relationships will come to an end eventually.   In reality, they [TVB] are not obligated to seek you out – unless they feel there’s a need and you’re able to help them – otherwise, they do not have to sign you, since, after all, the company has tons of artists….in terms of whether ‘value’ or not -- if they feel it’s worth it, then they’ll value you.  The company’s attitude has always been one of ‘indifference’ – whether you’re worth ‘valuing’ or not depends on who you are:  if you’re of monetary benefit, then of course you’ll be ‘valued’, but if you’re the ‘dispensable’ type, then there’s no need to value.”

Due to the government possibly issuing 3 additional free-to-air television licenses in the near future, an impending TV ‘war’ has been looming on the horizon -- with ATV’s drastic decline over the years, TVB has pretty much been the ‘sole’ TV station in HK for a number of years already.    Wah Gor agrees that with 3 new stations coming into the picture, the outlook for the industry will very likely change.

He states:  “Every country or dynasty is bound to experience periods of prosperity and decline – this year might decline but next year things might be well again.  With the government issuing 3 licenses, this will bring competition to the television industry, which isn’t a bad thing – in addition to artists, there were also singers who decided to join NowTV and in the variety show department, some behind-the-scenes crew also left.  Here at CTI, there’s a lot more freedom, as we are allowed to appear on other stations if we want to…TVB never allowed that – even artists who went to film series in the Mainland were not allowed to use their original voices – there was nothing you could do, since TVB was pretty much the only game in town due to the lack of competition.   As for whether the era of ‘one station ruling the TV industry’ is over – well, that’s too harsh too say, as ups and downs are inevitable with any company – it happens everywhere.  Remember in ancient times there was the kingdom of Babylon that was very powerful and prosperous, but later it became a huge mess.”


Beautiful memories of the ‘Uncle Six era’

Thinking back to the old days, Wah Gor expressed that it was actually [TVB’s head of production] Catherine Tsang (曾勵珍) who brought him into TVB by inviting him to film series for them – just like that, his collaboration with them lasted 16 years.  Towards his days at TVB, Wah Gor admits:  “During the Uncle Six era was when I felt the biggest sense of belonging – in recent times, it was definitely lacking.”  This ‘lack of belonging’ was one of the factors that caused him to leave.

Wah Gor provided some insight into some of the ‘changes’ that occurred within TVB over the past decade:  “In the beginning, there was definitely a sense of belonging, but later on, not anymore because of the constant change in personnel [TN: specifically in management ranks] – under the new ‘team’, the company’s framework actually changed entirely.   Who oversaw things in the past is very different from who oversees things now and the environment is different – as the saying goes, ‘when a dynasty changes, so does its subjects’.  When I first entered TVB, the management hadn’t changed yet – it was still the ‘Uncle Six era’ and everything was good – everyone was very happy working there and we didn’t have to worry about personnel [management] conflicts.”

Wah Gor continued:  “Within a company, each executive’s policies and direction when it comes to handling matters are bound to be different – if you can’t agree or accept it, then it’s best to find a company that better suits you.  Uncle Six’s way of doing things is different from Ms. Fong’s [TN: Run Run Shaw’s wife Mona Fong] – if they decide to change direction and policy, whether the results are good or bad, they need to take responsibility for it.”  So with the recent trend of artists and behind-the-scenes crew leaving TVB, then should the person at the top [Mona Fong] be held mostly accountable?   Wah Gor replied:  “It shouldn’t be that person alone, as he/she has people reporting to them – just like the different departments in government, they function as a team.”

Asked to describe TVB’s current situation, Yuen Wah states: “Stuck in the same place, not moving forward.”  Towards the company’s non-proactive attitude, he states that its employees are helpless to do anything:  “The only thing we can do is sigh helplessly – after all, with the company getting to this point, what else can be done?   The ‘helpless’ part is because the company itself doesn’t care enough to make things better – take the Big 5 record company dispute for example, look at how long that situation dragged out?  Same with the Ricky Wong situation as well [the poaching of artists and crew] – add to that the ‘attitude’ that the company takes towards certain employees….that’s why nowadays whenever TVB is mentioned, most of us just sigh and don’t want to talk about it.  As for what type of ‘attitude’ the company takes towards its employees, well, you’ll have to go ask them – for me, it doesn’t really matter as much because I’ve always had only a ‘per series’ contract.  Some employees are ‘long-term’ workers who signed long contracts with the company – if their contract terms are based on ‘shows’ and they don’t meet those terms by the time the contract ends [TN: meaning they don’t have enough ‘shows’ to fulfill the terms of their contract], they not only don’t get paid, they also have to pay a fine to the company.  Can’t really say if it’s a ‘miserable’ plight or not – after all, it comes with the territory and the terms are agreed upon by both parties.”


Return to TVB some day?

As people always say, ‘the world is round’ – this is true in the entertainment industry especially, where the chance of coming full circle is especially high.  Wah Gor himself expressed that he will not rule out the possibility of collaborating with TVB again in the future:  “It’s definitely possible, but it depends on who is calling the shots – those people who don’t like you, why would they seek you out again?  If new people [management] enter TVB and they feel ‘hey, Yuen Wah is pretty good, why don’t we invite him back?’, I don’t have a problem with it at all.  The name ‘TVB’ may not change, but the interior [personnel] generally will – if they invite you back to film series for them, it’s usually based on personal relationship.”   Asked if there were people  in the company who didn’t like him and so didn’t ‘value’ him, Wah Gor replied:  “There will be people like that in every company – people who will feel: ‘I don’t like you because you are not my cup of tea, so I’m not going to bother discussing contract renewal with you’.  It’s inevitable in any organization – even our current government is not exempt from such issues, let alone  a company such as TVB!”


Retire to go till land

Even though he is approaching 60 years old, Yuen Wah has not only signed with Ricky Wong’s CTI, he also continues to go up North [Mainland] to film series when he has time.  Asked if he has considered retiring, Wah Gor expressed:  “I guess you could consider me ‘retired’ now – retired but not resting.  Working right now is pretty much a pastime for me – it keeps me alert and vigorous -- if I don’t work, I’ll get bored.  I rented a plot of land in the New Territories area recently where I actually grow vegetables and such – it’s almost like going back to the countryside to till land.  With all the talk about the environment and eating organic nowadays, growing my own vegetables to eat is a pretty good thing.  My children are all grown now, so I don’t have any more burdens.  If in the past, when my children were still young and TVB didn’t seek me out to discuss contract renewal, the situation would have definitely been disastrous!”

Yuen Wah used to be one of the ‘Seven Little Fortunes’ (七小福). [TN:  The Seven Little Fortunes were a Beijing Opera School troupe under Master Yu Jim Yuen who were trained in martial arts and various other disciplines at a young age.  Other ‘famous’ members of the Seven Little Fortunes include Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, and Yuen Biao…].   Back during those days of training, Wah Gor was one of the more mischievous ones, constantly ‘fighting’ with his fellow apprentice brothers and when things went wrong, all of them would point at each other.  Wah Gor states:  “Thinking back now, those days were actually the happiest – we had no burdens and could be as carefree as we wanted.  Now as grownups, we have to worry about so many things – paying rent, buying a car, our children’s educations, etc."