YCWB Interview with veteran actress Mary Hon: “Marriage needs to be safeguarded”

Here’s an interview that was published just last week with another favorite veteran actress of mine:  Mary Hon. 

Mary Jeh is another one of those actresses who is hugely talented and so versatile in her acting that she can play practically any role convincingly.  I’m sure most of us have been ‘seeing’ a lot of Mary Jeh lately, since she seems to be in every series nowadays (not that I’m complaining) – I must say though that after close to 40 years in the industry (working for TVB almost the entire time), Mary Jeh definitely hasn’t lost her touch, as she still does a great job in in all the roles I’ve seen of hers in the last couple years (even though a lot of those roles have been ‘minor’).  I loved her performance in SSSS and absolutely felt that she was one of the supporting artists who pretty much ‘held up’ the series  (I personally didn’t like the series overall, but still tuned in to watch parts of it mostly because of her, Damian, Elena [Kong], Ben [Wong], and majority of the supporting cast).   Of course, another highlight of that series for me was getting to see Damian and Mary Jeh act together again because they were one of those onscreen veteran couples that I grew up watching (gosh, lost count of how many times they’ve collaborated together over the years).  I remember the first series that I watched of theirs was Yesterday’s Glitter – even though they technically weren’t the main couple in the series, plus Mary Jeh was the ‘villain’ (she played the role of the 3^rd party mistress who comes between Damian and Liza Wang), I still greatly enjoyed their performances in that series. 

I actually quite like the below interview that YCWB (Mainland paper) did with Mary Jeh because in the interview, she doesn’t just talk about her career, but also gives us a glimpse into some of her past personal struggles as well as her current marriage with voice actor To Yin Gor (whom I have grown to like after watching his awesome performance in Witness Insecurity..LOL).  Reading about Mary Jeh’s struggles with anxiety disorder and how much that had impacted her life was definitely heartwrenching, but seeing how well she was able to come out of that dark period was very encouraging.  Oh and I enjoyed reading the part about Mary Jeh’s relationship with her husband To Sir and how they are still such a sweet couple even after 23 years of marriage – I love hearing about these long-lasting relationships in the entertainment industry!

Anyway, the interview pretty much speaks for itself, so not going to comment too much right now.  Hope you guys enjoy reading the interview as much as I did!

.****.

YCWB Interview with veteran actress Mary Hon:  “Marriage needs to be safeguarded”

Source:  YangCheng Wan Bao (Yang Cheng Evening Paper)

Translation:  llwy12

Article originally published January 18^th, 2013

From ‘eldest wife’ in Silver Spoons Sterling Shackles (名媛望族) to a wretched, sickly mother in Missing You (幸福摩天輪) to an honorable judge in Friendly Fire (法網狙擊), veteran actress Mary Hon (韓馬利) has been a ‘common fixture’ in many of TVB’s recently aired TV series.

During a recent interview with Yang Cheng Evening Paper, Mary Hon not only chats with our reporter about the lessons she learned in her 37 year acting career, she also shares with us her advice on maintaining a happy marriage.

YC = YCWB reporter

MH = Mary Hon

Towards ‘Acting’

Mary Hon started in the industry working for Rediffusion Television [ATV’s predecessor]  back in 1972.  Even though she had graduated from RTV’s acting class at the time  [TN: one of her classmates that same year was veteran actor Damian Lau (劉松仁)], she actually did not go into acting right away – rather, she joined the dance department and worked as a background dancer for 2 years.  It wasn’t until Mary joined TVB a few years later that her acting career actually started to take flight.  In 1975, Mary participated in her very first TV series:  famed producer Wong Tin Lam (王天林)’s wuxia classic Luk Siu Fung (陸小鳳) – despite this being her first foray into acting, Mary was already cast in the lead female  role in the series opposite none other than her acting class ‘partner’ Damian Lau.  Around the same time, she was also chosen to co-host TVB’s popular, highly-rated entertainment news program K-100 alongside ‘golden host’ Ivan Ho (何守信). 

Several decades later, Mary Hon is still active in the HK television industry, participating in one series after another, and sometimes even appearing on HK audiences’ TV screens in multiple series at the same time!   Her performance as Damian Lau’s eldest wife in last year’s anniversary series Silver Spoons Sterling Shackles was well-received by audiences and her cameo roles as 2 distinctly different mothers in this year’s recently aired series Missing You and Friendly Fire both received good feedback from audiences.

YC:  In both Missing You and Friendly Fire, you played a mother who reunites with her long lost son.  When filming both series, did you feel the story idea sounded similar?

MH:   I just thought ‘oh, what a coincidence!’  It originally wasn’t much of a problem, it’s just that both series ended up airing at the same time and therefore the reunion scenes in each occurred only 1-2 days apart – that’s why a lot of audiences felt it was a bit odd.  But hey, no big deal – after all, [veteran actor] Law Lok Lam (羅樂林) also ‘died’ 5 times in the same day, right?  (Laughs).

YC:  With the many characters you’ve portrayed over the years, there are bound to be some that are similar in nature.  Is it tiring to portray similar characters like that?

MH:   Being with the company so many years, I’ve portrayed every character imaginable:  drug addict, street vendor, rich classy lady, evil villain, etc….of course there was a bottleneck period when I would ask myself why I’m playing the same types of characters over and over again.  Is it because I’m only capable of playing these types of characters?  But even if the characters and story concept are similar, there will still be distinct differences – for instance, with the ‘mother reuniting with long lost son’ character, one of the mothers is a respected judge while the other is an ordinary woman suffering from Alzheimer’s – therefore, the method of portraying these 2 characters will definitely be different.  To make each character come across different to audiences, that is not the scriptwriter’s issue -- it’s the responsibility of the actor portraying the character(s).

YC:  Recently, there have been many TVB artists who left to join rival stations – have you thought about changing your work environment?

MH:  Back during my younger days, I also went through that ‘poaching’ period – there were TV stations in Malaysia and Singapore that had approached me in the past trying to get me to join, but back then, I felt that my love relationships were more important – since I didn’t want to leave my other half behind, I rejected the offers.  Now that I’m older, I feel that affinity with the company is very important – after all, I’ve worked for TVB so many years already and the company treats me relatively well.  In this area, Damian Lau had a huge influence on me – he once told me that he ‘grew up’ at TVB, so when the company is facing a crisis, he should stay and help them fight the battle.  I feel that what he said makes a lot of sense.

YC:  Back in the day, when you were at the peak of your career, you chose to get married.  Looking back now, do you feel any regrets?

MH:  I’m not the type of person who proactively fights for things – filming series, becoming a host, etc., all of that was arranged for me by others.   Popularity would have come easily back then, but yet I didn’t put much effort into grasping it and because of that, a lot of opportunities were lost – looking back now, it was a bit regrettable.  That’s why nowadays, I always tell the younger generation that they need to constantly enrich themselves and when an opportunity comes along, grasp on to it – every character you get is a good opportunity to express yourself, so don’t slack off just because you feel the role is insignificant or there’s little screen time.  You never know – maybe a producer happens to watch that performance and it leaves an impression on them so they decide to seek you out next time.

YC:  In the past few years, you’ve been getting heavier roles and the feedback from audiences has been pretty good.  Any hopes of getting an award?

MH:  Of course I would want to grasp the opportunity if it were to present itself, however as actors, we’re very passive and things often aren’t within our control – you need to have a good script, good director, good actors to collaborate with, etc….otherwise, even if you’re hugely talented, things still might not work out.  Sure, awards are a source of encouragement, but shouldn’t be the main reason for doing our jobs.  Do your job well first, then the awards will come later – you shouldn’t wait until you get an award to start doing your job well.

Towards ‘Pressure’

In the series Silver Spoons Sterling Shackles, Mary Hon played the role of ‘eldest wife’, but in real life, she has always played the role of ‘Big Sister’.  Two years ago, the pressures of work and life caused Mary to develop anxiety disorder – luckily, through the support and encouragement of friends and family, she was able to overcome this difficult period.

YC:  Is it true that you once developed anxiety disorder because of too much stress?

MH:  That happened 2 years ago – perhaps the stress that had accumulated over the years became too great and so it just broke out all at once.  When I was busy with work, I didn’t realize I had such an illness – that time, it happened to be my rest period from filming and that’s when the problems surfaced.  Each time the anxiety attacks occurred, my whole body would shake and break out in a sweat.. at times I would even have difficulty breathing and couldn’t sit down – I would have to stand up and take deep breaths repeatedly.  I was afraid to stay home alone and had to go walk around outside to take in fresh air; even something as simple as taking a shower was difficult because each time I closed the shower door I felt like I was going to suffocate.  Sometimes, I would even hallucinate and hear voices whispering in my ear: ‘Mary Hon, you are so useless, you should just go die!’ or ‘Mary Hon, you’re so crazy, no one is going to care about you!’

YC:  How long did it take for you to overcome this suffering?

MH:  Luckily, I discovered this illness early and was able to seek proper treatment.  At first, I went to the hospital to get it checked out, but the doctors there were very irresponsible – they said that I was healthy physically so probably just imagining things.  Later on, I was talking to a friend of mine who happened to be a psychologist and she told me all those things were symptoms of anxiety disorder – she taught me how to treat it and a few months later, I was well again.  I’m very grateful for the group of friends that kept me company during that time and helped me get through it.  Even though the doctor prescribed medication for me to take, I don’t want to constantly rely on medicine – now, whenever I’m unhappy, I pray.

YC:  After this experience, did it help you better understand how to balance work and personal life?

MH:  All along, I’ve always had high standards for myself – if I didn’t meet those standards, I would get upset at myself.  Plus at home, I’m the big sister, so I’m used to always being the one who takes care of others – whenever someone had a problem, I would take it upon myself to help them resolve it, so over time, it caused the burdens on my shoulder to get heavier.  After this experience [anxiety disorder], I realized that good health is just too important.  What’s the use of earning so much money if it’s at the expense of your health?

Towards ‘Marriage’

Mary Hon has been married 3 times:  at 21 years old, she married a high school classmate of hers who also worked as a director at TVB – unfortunately, a ‘rumor’ ended the marriage a few years later.  In 1981, she married veteran actress Fung Bo Bo  (馮寶寶)’s elder brother Fung Kat Lung, however the marriage only lasted 6 years – the unhappiness and pain of that marriage almost brought Mary to the point of suicide.  It wasn’t until 1989 that Mary finally met her life companion – her current husband, TVB voice actor To Yin Gor (杜燕歌) with whom she has been together for the past 23 years.

YC:  Your husband To Yin Gor recently switched from working behind-the-scenes [as a voice / dubbing actor] to acting in front of the cameras – were you the one who sparked his interest in acting?

MH:  Actually, all along, a lot of people have been telling him to try acting in TV series, but because he is used to speaking Mandarin and filming series requires speaking in Cantonese, he was afraid to try it.  It wasn’t until producer Lau Ka Ho (劉家豪) invited him to play a Mandarin-speaking triad leader in last year’s Witness Insecurity (護花危情) that he got a chance to try acting in front of the camera.  Then later on, producer Jonathan Chik (戚其義) gave him a role as a storyteller in his series Beauty at War (金枝欲孽2) – after both those experiences, he started to develop an interest in acting, so the company signed a new contract with him – hopefully he will be able to balance his work as an actor and voice dubbing artist simultaneously.  I’m very happy that he is able to find a sense of satisfaction in acting because I feel that as a man, it’s important for him to find his own position and confidence – I support him completely!

YC:  Do you usually give him pointers and advice on acting?

MH:  Definitely not!  Unless he specifically asks me for my advice on acting, otherwise I don’t want to place any unnecessary burden on him.  Since I’ve been acting for so long, he of course already feels that he has less experience than me in this area – if I try to ‘teach’ him too, it will hurt his confidence!

YC:  Outside, you are the ‘big sister’, but when you’re at home with your husband, do you go back to being the ‘little woman’?

MH:  For me, family is the most important and my husband is the number one priority in my life.  Of course, as with any marriage, certain things that are a matter of principle can’t be compromised, but if it’s a harmless matter, I let him make the decision.

YC:  After so many years of marriage, you two still have a very sweet relationship – can you share your ‘secret’ to maintaining such a happy marriage?

MH:  My husband is from Beijing and immigrated to Australia in his teens, whereas I was born and raised entirely in Hong Kong – growing up in different environments, our backgrounds and personalities were very different, so of course it took a long period of time for us to assimilate.  The first few years of our marriage, there were a lot of conflicts and when we were unhappy, we wouldn’t speak to each other – this is actually very unhealthy for the relationship because if there’s ‘trash’ in your heart and you don’t clean it out, it will fester over time and eventually cause irreparable damage.  Later on, I felt that our paths were starting to stray further and further apart, so we sat down and talked through it – we realized that we couldn’t continue like this and had to figure out a way to resolve the problems.  Eventually, we learned to communicate better with each other – now whenever we encounter differences in opinion, we talk it over calmly and try not to say things that we’ll regret later.  And if we happen to say things out of anger that we don’t actually mean, we always make sure to apologize to each other afterwards.

YC:  Having been married before, did it help you cherish each other even more?

MH:  When I was young, I thought that as long as the person had the right qualifications, I just had to marry him, but then after we married, we realized it wasn’t a good fit, so ‘divorce’ was the only way to resolve the issue.  In my second marriage, I was too passive and basically let him make the decisions on everything, to the point that I lost all sense of self and couldn’t even think on my own – this actually put a lot of pressure on him and caused problems in the marriage. 

Now with my current marriage, I approach it more rationally.  We met at a Christian Artistes Fellowship gathering and actually took some time getting to know each other before we started dating – it’s different from the youth nowadays who start dating almost right after they meet and then start becoming intimate after knowing each other for only a few days.  All marriages will encounter problems, but the important thing is to be willing to communicate and not use divorce as an excuse to resolve the issues -- if things go bad and you just ‘throw’ the marriage away, how many times are you able to do that?  I’ve seen some couples where when they get married, their partner is worth 120%, but then when it gets to the point of divorce, they suddenly become ‘enemies’.    I feel that if you make the decision to go down the path of marriage, then you absolutely have to learn to safeguard and nurture it.

HK Headline editorial on the ‘sad state of the current HK music industry

I came across the below editorial that was published in HK Headline newspaper today and felt it was really worthy of sharing because it describes the current ‘sad state’ of the HK music industry perfectly! 

As a long-time follower of the HK music industry, I’m personally very disappointed and saddened at how badly the industry has deteriorated over the past 12-13 years.   As I’ve been saying for the past decade or so, the ‘direction’ of the HK music industry seems to have shifted over the years – instead of being focused on making good music, everyone is focused on making money, becoming popular, and getting awards.

Sure, one can argue that part of the problem is that today’s singers lack the distinctive talent that was a key attribute of many of the ‘superstar’ singers who came out of the 80s/early 90s (and the 70s to some extent) generations.  Yes, that is true and I will be the first to agree with this ‘argument’ – BUT it’s not the ONLY reason.   Of course, many of the previous generation singers had distinctive voices and singing skills / styles that set them apart from others and made them ‘easily recognizable’ as soon as they opened their mouths to sing (who here isn’t able to recognize the voices of Roman Tam, Anita Mui, Leslie Cheung, etc) – but that doesn’t mean these artists didn’t put effort into their singing...just because they had the benefit of being endowed with awesome talent and great voices doesn’t mean that they could just ‘cut corners’ and let their talent alone bring them ‘fame and fortune’.   In addition to sharing good work ethics, one thing that many of the previous generation’s artists shared is a true passion for making good music – basically “ making music for music’s sake” (as opposed to today’s mantra of “making music for money’s sake”).

In the current era where ‘shortcuts’ such as lip-syncing and using technology to ‘enhance’ album recordings (so that singers sound ‘perfect’ when recording a CD) are so prevalent (to the point of being ‘commonplace’), true singers who have the ability / skill to sing LIVE and still sound ‘perfect’ are extremely hard to come by – in fact, I honestly feel that these types of TRUE SINGERS are already reaching the point of ‘extinction’!

Ok, before I really start offending people, I should probably get off my soapbox and just leave my commentary as is….but before I do that, just one last comment I wanted to make about the lesson learned from the last paragraph in the below editorial:   instead of placing all the blame for the HK music industry’s downfall on illegal pirating of music, the industry (including not just singers and songwriters, but also the record companies and multi-media outlets such as radio and TV stations as well) should really look internally first and understand where the problems truly lie….if there is to be any hope for the future of the HK music industry, everyone needs to be going in the same direction and sincerely working for the ‘greater good’ of the industry.  If the current HK music industry could display even 80% of the UNITY and SINCERITY that the industry was known for back in the 70s/80s/early 90s, then perhaps the industry can turn things around and ‘flourish’ again....(holding out hope that this can happen in my lifetime!)

.---.

HK Headline Editorial – ‘Brought to the point of tears’  [opinion piece on RTHK Top Ten Gold Song Awards]

Source:  HKHeadline News

Translation:  llwy12

What is a ‘Gold Song 35^th Anniversary Honorary Award’?  What is the difference [between that award] and the ‘Golden Needle’ award?   A few nights ago, Jacky Cheung (張學友) just received the former [Honorary Award]  -- 12 years ago, he already received the latter [Golden Needle award].  Actually, what award he gets doesn’t matter -- because being able to hear Jacky sing live is already a blessing.

Thinking back to the HK music industry of the 80s and 90s, there were tons of great Cantonese songs – the competition at the music awards got to the point where it was too difficult to just pick 10 songs because there were just too many, too many, too many.   Back then, despite having more award-worthy songs than awards, the organizers of the awards shows refused to budge on their ‘only choose 10’ methodology.

Nowadays, trying to pick 10 sings to reward at the yearly award ceremonies is an even more difficult feat because, well, there just aren’t enough ‘good songs’ worthy of choosing.  Ironically though, this year, RTHK ‘insisted’ that due to the ‘fierce competition’, they had ‘no choice’ but to expand the awards from ‘Top 10’ to ‘Top 12’.  Other than responding to this ‘news’ with “Oh…”, I really can’t think of anything else to say.

The [RTHK award show] night pretty much consisted of a bunch of singers ‘hea’ singing [TN:  meaning ‘singing badly/lazily’]:  Eason Chan’s (陳奕迅) performance of ‘Heavy Taste’ (重口味) was horrible to listen to – it was pretty much Eason’s worst ‘live’ performance!  Oh and Raymond Lam (林峰) – may I ask what he was doing jumping around back and forth on the stage?  And that ‘Nice’ phrase is really starting to make people feel uneasy.

Fortunately, Hong Kong still has Jacky Cheung.  His near flawless performance brought those who listened [to him sing] to the point of tears.

Please stop saying that all the illegal downloading of music on the internet caused the HK music industry to ‘deteriorate’ to its current state!    If the quality of today’s singers and songs could reach even 80% of the level back then [80s and 90s], I’m sure you and I would readily go out and spend money buying albums.

.*****.

Chinese version:

頭條娛論: 聽出眼淚來

2013-01-22

何謂「金曲35周年榮譽大獎」？同「金針獎」有何分別？張學友剛拿了前者，而12年前亦拿了後者，其實拿甚麼獎也無所謂，因可以聽學友唱Live已是恩賜。

        想當年，八、九十年代超班廣東歌多的是，競爭的情況是去到唔知點揀年終十大歌曲，因為太多太多太多，但那些年，頒獎禮依然企硬只選十大，但家陣要將廣東歌納入年終十大更難上加難，因為好難揀得落手，但港台竟指因競爭激烈而將年終十大變十二大，除了「哦」，想不到更好的回應。

        整晚，聽了一堆歌手在Hea唱，陳奕迅那首《重口味》相當難聽，是Eason最不知所謂的Live，還有林，請問他在台上彈來彈去做甚麼？那句「Nice」是多麼的令人不安，幸好，香港還有張學友。

        那近乎完美的表現是會令人聽出眼淚來，不要再說網上非法下載令香港樂壇一落千丈，如歌手或歌曲質素可以有當年的八成，你同我都一定會去買碟。

Jacky Cheung receives special award at RTHK Top Ten Gold Song Awards ceremony

As most of you know by now, it’s been at least a decade if not more since I’ve watched any type of HK music award show – back in the 80s and 90s, I used to follow the HK music scene quite ‘religiously’ and watched pretty much every single music award show out there (at that time, the main ones were TVB’s JSG awards, CRHK’s Chik Chak awards, Metro’s Hit Radio award, RTHK’s Top Ten Gold Songs).  However, with the ‘deterioration’ of the HK music industry over the past decade or so, I basically lost interest in the music scene completely – even though right now I still keep myself as up to date as possible in terms of news related to the music industry (only because of my interest in HK entertainment in general), when it comes to award shows, I don’t waste my time anymore.  Nowadays, I only watch segments of award shows pertaining to artists I like or grew up listening to / watching (which, honestly speaking, is few and far between).

This past year (2012) has actually been a ‘boring’ year in terms of music -- there were very few new songs that I actually liked, so pretty much all year, any time I had to listen to music was spent listening to old songs and also TV themesongs.  Therefore, it goes without saying that I had no interest whatsoever in watching any of the music award ceremonies this year.  With that said however, the one exception was of course RTHK’s Top Ten Gold Song Awards ceremony (十大中文金曲頒獎音樂會), since the organizers of that awards show announced a couple weeks back that they would be presenting a special award this year in honor of the show’s 35^th anniversary – this special “35^th Anniversary Gold Song Honorary Award” would be presented to the artist who has received the most ‘Top Ten Gold Songs’ in the past 35 years (note that it’s not the most number of overall ‘awards’, but rather the most number of songs honored with a ‘gold song’ award).  The recipient of this special award was none other than HK’s ‘God of Songs’ Jacky Cheung (yay!!), who had accumulated a total of 23.3 ‘golden songs’ spanning a time period of late 80s to early 2000s (when Jacky announced that he would no longer compete for awards).  The awesome part is that Jacky personally attended the ceremony to accept the award and also gave a very inspirational acceptance speech to encourage his ‘juniors’ to continue to make good music – but of course, for us Jacky fans, the best part was when Jacky performed 4 of his classic hits right after his acceptance speech (he performed 離開以後, 每天愛你多一些, 只想一生跟你走, and 愛是永恆)….boy, those people sitting in the audience sure were lucky to be able to see Jacky singing live!! 

I was able to locate a pretty comprehensive clip on Youtube  that covers almost the entire Jacky segment – including the intro at the beginning where they showed clips from past award ceremonies (omg, totally enjoyed re-living all those ‘award’ moments) as well as Jacky coming on stage to accept the award and give his speech.  If I find any other clips, I’ll be sure to update this post, but for now, this is one of the better clips I’ve been able to locate.  In addition to sharing the video clip, I thought it would be nice to also post the list of 23.3 ‘golden songs’ that helped Jacky earn this honor (as gathered from Weibo sources, RTHK website, and other sources).

Congrats Jacky on the absolutely well-deserved award!  Definitely very proud of you!!   :0)

.****

Youtube video link to RTHK Top Ten Gold Song Awards ceremony – Jacky segment only:

List of Jacky’s songs that won Top Ten Gold Song Award in the past 35 years:

8^th Annual Awards (1985):  情已逝 (‘Love is Over’)

9^th Annual Awards (1986):  月半彎 (‘Half Moon’)

10^th Annual Awards (1987): 太陽星辰 (‘Sun and the Stars’)

12^th Annual Awards (1989):  Linda

13^th Annual Awards (1990):  夕陽醉了(‘Drunken at Sunset’)

14^th Annual Awards (1991):  每天愛你多一些 (‘Love You a Little More Each Day’) and  一顆不變心 (‘An Unchanging Heart’)

15^th Annual Awards (1992):   暗戀你 (‘Have a Crush on You’) and  還是覺得你最好 (‘Still Feel That You Are the Best’)

16^th Annual Awards (1993):   只想一生跟你走 (‘Want to Follow You for My Entire Life’),  等你回來 (‘Waiting for You to Return’),  and 你是我今生唯一的傳奇 (‘You are the Only Miracle in My Life’)

17^th Annual Awards (1994):  餓狼傳說 (‘Born to Be Wild’) and  來來回回 (‘Back and Forth’)

18^th Annual Awards (1995):  離開以後 (‘After Leaving You’), 這個冬天不太冷 (‘This Winter is Not Too Cold’)

19^th Annual Awards (1996):  妳的名字 我的姓氏 (‘Your Name, My Surname’)

20^th Annual Awards (1997):  不老的傳說  (‘A Legend That Never Ages’) and 愛是永恆 (‘Love is Eternity’)

21^st Annual Awards (1998):  頭髮亂了(‘Messy Hair’) and  甲乙丙丁 (‘Strangers Passing By’) [collaboration with Andy Hui and Ronald Cheng]

22^nd Annual Awards (1999):  有個人 (‘There’s Someone’)

23^rd Annual Awards (2000):   一生一火花 (‘One Spark Throughout Life’)

24^th Annual Awards (2001):  有病呻吟 (‘Having Illness Moans’)

***REPOST*** Mingpao Interview with veteran actor Law Lok Lam: ‘Together at the other end of the world’

As most of you have probably noticed, I’ve been posting up quite a few articles that feature interviews with veteran TVB (or, in some cases, ‘formerly TVB’) ‘green leaf’ artists (aka ‘supporting artists’)  in the past few months.  Part of this is actually ‘intentional’ on my part because in all the years that I’ve been following HK entertainment, I’ve always felt that ‘supporting artists’ never get as much attention paid to them as leading artists do (well, by most ‘mainstream’ audiences at least), despite the incredible talent that they have.  Some of these artists toil diligently and endlessly for decades, yet are rarely ever ‘recognized’ by audiences or by the company they work for, which is truly very sad.  As I said in my earlier “tribute” post about green leaf / veteran artists (read it here), these artists are absolutely ‘essential’ to a TV series and in many cases, they are the ones who actually ‘carry’ the series from an ‘acting’ perspective.

Personally, I have a lot of respect for veteran artists, especially ‘green leaf’ ones and to be quite honest, there are many times where I would actually pay more attention to the supporting cast in a series than to the leads.  And of course, there will always be a soft spot in my heart for veteran artists whom I grew up watching back in the 80s (though many of them are no longer active in the industry nowadays).  This is one of the reasons why I decided to translate and post up so many interviews with these artists that I’ve come across in my ‘readings’, especially since many of today’s audiences may not know who these artists are and may not appreciate their talent or their contributions to the entertainment industry.  Hopefully, by doing this, I can do my part in helping to give these artists the long overdue ’15 minutes’ of exposure that they rarely get but absolutely deserve! 

With all that said, one thing I hope to do in the next couple months (hopefully if time permits) is translate and post up on my blog as many of the veteran/green leaf artist interviews as I can—both current interviews as well as older ones (believe it or not, the ones I’ve translated so far are just ‘scratching the surface’ – there are many more interviews with veteran/green leaf artists that came out in just this past year alone that I’ve been accumulating, but just didn’t get around to translating!). 

To kick things off, here’s an OLD interview from an old issue of Mingpao Weekly magazine (Issue# 2215) that was published back in April 2011 (almost 2 years ago).  I had actually translated and posted this interview on AF back then, but for some reason, forgot to post on my blog as well (can’t remember why)…anyway, this interview is with another one of my favorite veteran actors, one who is still active in TVB even today:  actor Law Lok Lam.  Those who followed HK television entertainment back in the 70s era probably remember Law Lok Lam when he used to play lead roles….but since most of us probably don’t remember back that far, I’m sure fans of TVB series from the 90s will probably remember the series Blood of Good and Evil (我本善良) [one of the best TVB series ever made in my opinion!] as well as Law Lok Lam’s critical role in that series.  Even though I’ve seen many of Law Lok Lam’s works and always enjoy his solid, versatile acting, I will say that his performance in BOGAE definitely had the biggest impact on me (partly because that series is one of my all time favorites – loved everything about that series!). 

Unfortunately though, Law Lok Lam has pretty much been relegated to playing minor roles in recent years – even though he is in a lot of series, very few of his roles have been significant or even memorable, which is absolutely a waste of his acting talent!   I sincerely hope that TVB learns to cherish their veteran artists more because these types of artists (versatile, experienced, solid actors/actresses) are very hard to come by – especially at this critical time when TVB already lost so many veteran artists (either to retirement or to rival stations) and therefore need to retain as many of these artists as they can.  Hopefully TVB 'gets the message' and does the right thing...

****

Mingpao Interview with veteran actor Law Lok Lam: ‘Together at the other end of the world’

Article originally published in April 2011

Source:  HK Channel (Original Source:  Mingpao Weekly, Issue 2215)

Translation:  llwy12

Having to die 5 times in 24 hours, this type of career can be considered a ‘tragic drama’, but it can also be considered a ‘farce’ -- netizens composed a song entitled  ''同是天涯羅樂林'' for him and also gave him the title of ‘extraordinary person’.   Veteran actor Law Lok Lam (羅樂林) played the ‘first generation’ Yang Guo [TN:  the role Andy Lau made famous in Return of the Condor Heroes] in 1976, but never became popular or famous from that role. In the classic love story, Yang Guo waited for Siu Lung Nui for 16 years – a story that is at the same time inspiring yet tragic;  for Law Lok Lam, after several decades as a ‘green leaf actor’ (supporting actor), he suddenly becomes an international star – a situation that similarly evokes tears among laughter.

Law Lok Lam married at a young age and after having 2 daughters, he and his first wife divorced.  After that, he married actress Chan Po Yee (陳寶儀) and became famous actress Connie Chan Po Chu’s (陳寶珠) brother-in-law [TN:  Chan Po Yee is Connie Chan’s younger sister].  With those types of connections, Law Lok Lam could have lived a glamorous ‘star’ life, but instead, he chose a lifestyle that is both simple and unadorned – he enjoys going to the local open-air street market in Kowloon City to buy groceries and sometimes meets up with friends at a Kowloon City sushi restaurant for some drinks and chit-chat.  In fact, for this interview, he requested for the reporter to meet him in Kowloon City to chat over a meal of ox tendon noodles.  With regard to his lifestyle, Law Lok Lam expresses:  “I like ‘genuine’ -- to me, the worst thing in life is being ‘fake’.”

Whether it’s bumping into him in the street, seeing him at a local HK diner, or seeing him on TV for a ’24 hour’ timespan, Law Lok Lam indeed lives with us ‘under the same skyline’.

From a background dancer to one of director Chang Che’s core actors

Law Lok Lam was born in ChaoZhou, a prefecture in Guangdong, but immigrated to Macau in his teens.  In terms of education, he dropped out of school after his first year in high school and at the age of 14, came to Hong Kong with his family.  During those years, he worked at a plastics factory and was responsible for following the truck drivers on their trips to deliver freight.  As the only son in the family, Law Lok Lam decided to help out his father when he opened up a small travel agency a few years later, becoming a tour guide for the agency.  At the age of 23, during the last year that the Southern Drama Group (the Acting Class for Shaw Brothers artists) was in existence, he made it into the final class and studied there for 1 year.

“After I came out from the class, I was a ‘ke le fe’ (extra), pretty much just stood around and didn’t have any lines…once the stuntman finished his action sequence, I would lie down on the floor and be the corpse.”

When he first started 40 years ago, Law Lok Lam was already doing ‘death scenes’, so with his ‘expertise’ in this area, having to ‘die’ 5 times in 1 day is not unusual at all.  However, the job of an ‘extra’ was too low-paying, so luckily, he had a side job as dancer to help him earn more money.

“In the Acting Class, there was an instructor, Mrs. Ng, who taught dance – I would go with her to various dance performances, both big and small – even if most of the time, I was just part of the ‘background scenery’, I was satisfied because I was learning a lot and eventually, I became part of the dance group.  One time, director Chang Che (張徹) was filming a movie with John Chiang (姜大衞) and Tik Lung (狄龍) as the leads – there was a scene where he needed some dancers, so our group took on the task.  The director took notice of me and wrote my name down – a few months later, Shaw Brothers’ production department called me and said that director Chang Che recommended me to sign a contract with them.  That was when my acting career officially began.”

One would think that being able to join the Shaw Brothers Company, plus being part of director Chang Che’s designated group of actors, Law Lok Lam’s career should be bright and promising, right?  Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, as the huge production company had very precise separations when it came to position and rank.

“I was not one of Chang Che’s ‘god-sons’ – his true god-sons were John Chiang, Tik Lung, Chan Koon Tai (陳觀泰), Danny Lee (李修賢).  However I did get to participate in almost every one of Chang Che’s films, so I guess you could say that I was a ‘core member’ of his acting troupe.”

So as a ‘core member’, it would make sense that Law Lok Lam should become a ‘martial arts actor’, since Chang Che’s forte was in martial arts action films, however his case was exactly opposite, as Chang Che wanted him to focus on artistic films instead.

“The film where I had the most screentime was Young People (年輕人), which I believe was Agnes Chan’s (陳美齡) first film – we were paired together in the film, she would play the guitar and sing while I danced.  After about 2-3 years with Shaw Brothers, I decided to leave, as my career wasn’t really going anywhere – Chang Che signed me, but didn’t use me for martial arts.  Coincidentally, at that time, there were also other directors outside who were willing to give me opportunities, so I left to shoot action films – it was pretty much after I left Chang Che that I became a martial arts actor.”

Kung Fan Hung was opposed to Law Lok Lam dating her daughter

With his heavyset features, Law Lok Lam was perfect for the martial arts action hero roles – indeed, he expressed that he has already forgotten how many action films he has done, but in most of them, the roles were mainly supporting.  In the late 1970s, he joined Commercial Television (佳藝電視) and got the chance to participate in their version of Legend of the Condor Heroes (射鵰英雄傳), where he played one of the Senior leaders of the Beggar Clan.   After that, he was chosen by producer Hsiao Sheng (蕭笙) to play the role of Yang Guo in the Commercial Television version of Return of the Condor Heroes (神鵰俠侶) -- at the age of 28, this was the first time that Law Lok Lam got the chance to be the male lead.

The steps that life takes can be very strange – for Law Lok Lam, he first had marriage before he had a career.  At 21, he got married and not too long after that, he had 2 daughters.

“My first wife was a distant relative of my cousin’s family.  I don’t know how to explain why we got married and why we divorced – all I can say is that when fate comes, you can’t push it away and when fate is at its end, you can’t force it to stay.”

After his divorce, Law Lok Lam met actress Chan Po Yee, who had just entered Commercial Television and had already made a deep impression on audiences with her performance in Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢).  Even though there was a big age difference between them, that didn’t stop them from falling deeply in love.  Chan Po Yee’s background is quite unique:  her biological parents separated when she was very little and she ended up being adopted by a neighbor -- renowned Cantonese opera star Kung Fan Hung (宮粉紅).  Her older sister Connie Chan [Po-Chu] was also adopted by Kung Fan Hung from a young age, however the relationship between the sisters and their adoptive mother was very close.   When Law Lok Lam and Chan Po Yee first started dating, Kung Fan Hung was opposed to their union.

“I call Kung Fan Hung ‘Mom’ and have the utmost respect for her.  At that time, it made sense that Mom would want her daughter to marry someone who was more of a match for the family in terms of status and background.  Even though I had lead roles during that time, I was still a ‘small actor’ after all, so it was natural for Mom to be opposed.  I did not purposefully try to do anything to change Mom’s view of me – as she got to know me better, she eventually saw what type of person I was.  That’s how my personality is – I hate being ‘fake’;  it’s very easy to deceive others and pretend that I’m a very good person, but to be honest, the deception won’t last long and the truth will eventually come out.  Later on, Mom ended up loving me like her son and we were all very happy together.”

Law Lok Lam calls sister-in-law Connie Chan “3^rd Sister”;  even though he is brother-in-law of such a famous star, he expresses that he does not feel any pressure at all – he still takes the bus and the subway whenever he needs to go somewhere, he still goes to the street markets to buy groceries, etc. – basically, he continues to be himself and because of that he is able to live a relaxing life.

“Connie is a woman whom I respect a lot.  In my life, there are 2 ‘seniors’ [in the industry] whom I respect the most – one is ‘master of drama’ King Sir [Chung King Fai (鍾景輝)] and the other is 3^rd Sister [Connie].   3^rd sister’s absolute professionalism, her reverence toward her elders and those who once taught her – in today’s generation, it’s very hard to find these qualities.  Also, her piety and obedience toward her mother is absolutely admirable – she continued to live with Mom all these years, up until Mom passed away last year in her 90s [TN:  Kung Fan Hung passed away after she was rushed to the hospital when she fainted right before Connie’s Cantonese opera performance at HK Coliseum last year].  The piety and strength that she showed during that difficult time deeply moved me – the goodness that she shows toward others is not reliant on words alone, she truly demonstrates it through her actions.  Her fans are very loyal to her and every year, during the Lunar New Year holiday, they would bring their children and families to come give her well wishes…very amazing!”

A loner

When Commercial Television abruptly closed down in the late 1970s, Law Lok Lam was not only out of a job, he also was not able to get back the salary that he was still owed.  Luckily, almost immediately, Rediffusion Television [TN:  ATV’s predecessor] hired him – not long after that, his youngest daughter was born.  Soon, Law Lok Lam and his wife Chan Po Yee as well as their 3 daughters became a ‘celebrity family’ that would show up in the news every so often.

“Alex Man (萬梓良) and I were sworn brothers, so when my youngest daughter was born, he ‘adopted’ her as a god-daughter.  Even though we were from different backgrounds – he is Hakka and I am ChaoZhao – we got along quite well and always had a lot to talk about.  Alot of people say that Alex is a very ‘explosive’ person, but I didn’t think he was too bad.”

From one of Commercial Television’s ‘siu sangs’ (male lead) to ATV ‘zong sang’ (middle-aged male lead) to TVB ‘green leaf king’ (supporting actor), Law Lok Lam admits that as he got older, he started to change.  In the past, he loved to hang out with groups of friends, going to bars, playing Mahhjong, etc. – pretty much he liked to socialize and be around people.   Now, he has become more of a ‘loner’ who enjoys going to Kowloon City in the middle of the night and having a drink or two.

“At my age, it’s not unusual at all.   I like going out by myself to study the script for the series I’m filming and prepare for the next day’s work – it’s very relaxing and I’ve never felt bored.  Actually, I do have a lot of friends in various places – at night, no matter which eatery I go to, I know almost everyone at all the tables, so I don’t feel as though I’m all alone by myself.  And for those who say that I am trying to ‘drink away my troubles’ with alcohol – well, just because I have a few drinks does not mean I’m drunk or do crazy things.  Actually, people say that my ‘alcohol disposition’ is very good  -- in my case, I’m ‘enjoying’ alcohol, not ‘abusing’ it.”

Law Lok Lam admits that he is a bit of a wine connoisseur – he enjoys drinking whiskey, red wine, and brandy the most.  Many of the things that he had once ‘obsessed’ over in his life he has been able to give up – except wine.

“I understand that the benefits of wine are very few and in fact, it does more harm than good.  But I had already given up smoking decades ago and gambling too (in the past, I would often meet up with friends and we’d go play mahjong or bet on horse racing) – the only thing left now is wine.  Don’t tell me to give up wine because if I do, then everything’s over – if one day, I eventually do give up wine as well, then that means that my body is sending me a message to stop.  Everyone needs to have a hobby – I’m in my 60s now and if I had to give up wine too, then I don’t know what else I can do.”

In a different world from his wife

With his sudden popularity, there have been rumors recently of possible trouble with Law Lok Lam’s marriage to Chan Po Yee and that they still remain together purely because of their daughter.  Though he admits that he and Po Yee have been sleeping in separate rooms for quite some time, he denies any problems with his marriage.

“Back when we were dating, of course there was a lot of passion and happiness, just like what any other young couple would experience.  But as time goes on, the passion will lessen and no matter how vigorous our love was back then, love will eventually turn into affection and affection will eventually become ordinary.  I will very honestly tell you that after so many years together, there are many aspects of our relationship that are different now – the most obvious is religion.  In the past, both of us were Buddhists – every morning, I had a ritual of getting up and cleaning out the water on the blessing altar and lighting an incense stick before going to work.  My wife is a Christian now, so with our religions being different, our circle of friends is different as well – she has her world and I have mine.”

His wife is an insurance agent now, so she has more opportunities to attend social events necessary for her work – Law Lok Lam still enjoys a simple life and keeps social events to a minimum.  His biggest ‘extracurricular activity’ is hanging out in Kowloon City – even though he and his family already moved from Kowloon City to Clearwater Bay decades ago, he still has a special place in his heart for the city and in his spare time, still goes back to the local shops and eateries there.

“A lot of people think that I still live in Kowloon City – even the local police think that I am a Kowloon City resident because they see me around so much when they’re walking their beats around the city.  Sometimes, I would go to Kowloon City two to three times a day for various things – yes, there are supermarkets everywhere, but when I go to the market, I always choose to go to the ones in Kowloon City.”

Today, prior to our interview, Law Lok Lam allowed us to follow him around so we could understand a typical day for him (on days he doesn’t have to work, that is).  First, he goes to a vegetarian restaurant for some dim sum and 2 pots of very strong tea (to ‘clean the insides’, he says), then he takes us to a local diner for a simple meal of ox tendon noodles.  If he doesn’t have to work, then he follows his routine of going to the Kowloon City street market to buy fresh groceries, after which he goes home and cooks dinner for his wife and housekeeper (domestic helper). 

“The housekeeper doesn’t know how to cook – her job is mainly to clean the house and take care of the dogs – so I usually cook for the family.  If I have to work that night, then they usually eat take out.”

Not enough money to retire

At home, he tightly guards his kitchen; at TVB, he tightly guards his supporting actor position, working hard behind the scenes without complaint or fanfare – surprisingly, television fans were still able to ‘notice’ that he had ‘died’ 5 times in 5 different TV series within 24 hours – I guess you could consider that a type of accomplishment.

“It’s the same with all jobs – the most important thing is to actually do the work. Like with this instance, if I hadn’t filmed so many series, then there wouldn’t be the ‘coincidence’  that occurred – a lot of things were meant to be.  I don’t really choose which series I participate in – to be honest, at my age, it’s not up to me to choose anyway.”

This month, Law Lok Lam has 3 series that he is filming at once – he expresses that his ‘record’ was actually filming 5 to 6 series all at once;  in fact, there have been instances where in one night, all 3 third-line series that were airing had him in it.  With so much effort that he puts into filming series, does he feel that what he is getting in return is comparable?

“For a Hong Kong artist, it’s considered comparable.  But with my career path – doing lead roles in my youth and still working hard decades later – if I were in an international arena, I would probably have several houses, cars, and even bodyguards, by now.  However in Hong Kong, I am only an ordinary person – that’s the way things work.  If I were to constantly think about that kind of stuff, I would be depressed all the time.  That’s why I don’t think about it – as long as I still have money to pay for wine and can still buy the things that I (and my family) like to eat, then it’s OK.”

It’s hard for outsiders to understand the ‘plight’ that TVB artists endure and for most (including Law Lok Lam), the ‘suffering’ is often in silence.

“Not enough sleep, filming all day and all night – this kind of procedure is definitely problematic and you won’t find it anywhere else in the world.  The physical demands of filming a series is quite high – for example, filming two series at the same time, there is a high possibility that you won’t get to sleep for 1-2 days straight.  I’m already in my 60s – occasionally, I still have to do martial arts scenes, ride horses, wear thick ancient costumes in the scalding heat, take off my costume and have water poured on me in freezing cold weather, etc.  If one day, you want to continue filming but your body is no longer able to endure it, then you know the day has come for retirement.  If you were to ask me right now whether I have enough ‘qualifications’ for retirement, I would tell you ‘no’ – I haven’t earned enough money yet.”

Law Lok Lam laughs that he has been in the industry for over 40 years already and still, he only knows how to act, but doesn’t know how to invest, and especially doesn’t know how to do business.  As for when he will be able to retire, well, he’ll have to wait and see what the Heavens arrange.

Epilogue

Law Lok Lam only has a first year high school education, however oftentimes, he is chosen to play roles of famous professionals or generals.  His performance as famous general Yuen Sai Hoi in the series In the Chamber of Bliss (蔡鍔與小鳳仙) received much praise – Law Lok Lam expressed that his ‘research’ for the character wasn’t reliant on reading books, but rather on his ‘drinking’ habit. 

“In the process of going out for my drinks, I actually learn a lot.  Believe it or not, a lot of highly educated professionals actually like to come out for a drink at night too, so sometimes we would drink together – I would ask them what type of a person Yuen Sai Hoi was and they would tell me a lot of stories.   I also like to drink herbal tea, so on one of my trips to Kung Wo Tong [TN:  a famous herbal tea shop in HK], I met a business person who is very knowledgeable in Chinese history, medicine, and herbs, so for my character in The Herbalist’s Manual (本草藥王) for example, that’s how I did my research.”

Ever since his accomplishment of ‘dying 5 times in 24 hours’ made international news headlines, Law Lok Lam’s ‘drinking buddies’ have ‘celebrated’ by drinking the best wines with him – hopefully now, people will no longer think that he is ‘using’ alcohol to ‘drink away his troubles’ anymore.