Oriental Daily interview with “Files of Justice” buddies Michael Tao, Bobby AuYeung, and Felix Lok

As promised, here’s the ‘follow-up’ to the earlier Oriental Daily interview with Michael and Kenix (where they recounted their collaboration in DIF)….Michael actually did 4 interviews total with Oriental Daily – the first one was the Kenix / DIF one, which was published on Father’s Day (June 17th) and the second one is the one below with his “Files of Justice” buddies (Bobby AuYeung and Felix Lok). I know Michael also did a joint interview with actress Kathy Chow as well, but not sure if that will be the next OD interview to be published…as for the 4th interview, not quite sure yet, as Michael didn’t mention anything about it on his Weibo (at least not yet)…

Anyway, back to this interview…FOJ was definitely a classic series, right up there with DIF as one of the best series that TVB made in the 90s (in my opinion). When I first found out about this interview, I was actually hoping that it would be with more of the cast, but I guess it makes sense to have only Michael, Bobby, and Felix, since too many people would make the interview too complicated. Ah well – I guess if I want to see the entire cast again, I could always go pull out my collection of FOJ (yes, I have all 5 installments) and do a marathon rewatch (after I finish rewatching DIF again, that is! LOL!).

One quick note about the below interview – in translating it, I tried as best I could to keep the ‘flavor’ of the original interview in Chinese, though it was a bit difficult considering there was a lot of Cantonese slang that just doesn’t sound the same when translated into English. Therefore, for those who can read Chinese (more specifically, those who can read written Cantonese), I highly recommend that you read the interview in its original language – the impact is definitely different reading it in Chinese versus English!

Lastly, I absolutely enjoyed reading this interview – as is usually the case when Bobby is involved, the interview was hilarious – in fact, I laughed so hard during the parts when Bobby and Michael were describing each other’s “embarrassing moments” that I’m still clutching my stomach even now as I write this (yup, I laughed so hard that my insides hurt…hahaha!).

*****
 
Oriental Daily interview with “Files of Justice” buddies Michael Tao, Bobby AuYeung, and Felix Lok
 

Source:  Oriental Daily

Translation:  llwy12

Classic TVB series Files of Justice《壹號皇庭》helped the series’ stars Michael Tao (陶大宇), Bobby AuYeung (歐陽震華), and Felix Lok (駱應鈞) become lifetime friends. When these 3 ‘buddies’ reunited again to chat about the past, laughter filled the room [throughout the interview] as they voluntarily ‘dished the dirt’ on each other. Known for always having a ‘container full of laughs’, Bobby recounted Michael’s embarrassing ‘pants falling off’ incident while Michael ‘retaliated’ by making fun of Bobby’s ‘PK accident’ – their ages added together are already close to 100 years old, yet they never get tired of poking fun at each other! As for the ‘honest and serious’ Felix, he expressed that the 3 of them reuniting again is a rare opportunity and definitely worth cherishing.

M = Michael Tao
B = Bobby Au Yeung
F = Felix Lok

M: I’ve already come up with a new ‘image’ for both of you so that when the 3 of us get together now, the ‘feel’ will be different….

B: Well, your bowtie sure matches your ‘image’ in the series, however I’m not able to find the old hairstyle I had anymore! In fact, my head seems to become more and more round with each year that passes – soon I will need to sleep upside down so that the skin on my face doesn’t fall down…hahaha!

F: It’s already been 20 years since we did Files of Justice, so for us to get together again is definitely a rare opportunity and is worth treasuring! The thing I remember the most is that when we used to film series, it always involved ‘flying papers’ [TN: ad-lib dialogue / scripts written ‘on the fly’]. But since I’m working for a new company now (CTI), I don’t have to worry about that anymore, since the company does not allow it!

Could not stop kissing Flora Chan

B: Back then, the audiences actually liked watching the scenes when us ‘brothers’ would sit around the house chatting with each other, but I personally liked to watch Michael’s kiss scenes the most! The kiss scenes that he did with Flora Chan (陳慧珊) and Jessica Hsuan (宣萱) – WOW…the kisses were so ‘noisy’ and even when the cameras were shut off, they would still be kissing!

M: Hey, I wasn’t the one who requested it! But usually, the people I kissed were very good to me – for Flora Chan, that time was actually her first on-screen kiss!

F: The two of them have more open, Westernized personalities, so they take the initiative more. But I definitely agree that the kiss scene you had with Flora was truly ‘awesome’!

M: How do you know it was ‘awesome’? Even if it was, I’m the only one who should know….hahaha!

B: Talking about kiss scenes – one time, when I filmed a kiss scene with Esther Kwan (關詠荷), I actually learned some ‘tips’ from her! I’m actually a bit shy and nervous when it comes to filming kiss scenes -- that time when I had to do a kiss scene with her, she actually started talking to me while we were in the middle of the scene…she told me not to ‘squish’ her with my face! I told her to quit talking and concentrate. Later she told me that talking while kissing makes it look more real -- sure enough, when the scene came out, the results were truly very good! Michael -- if you don’t believe it, you should try it some time!

M: No, it won’t happen…at this level, I already don’t have the courage to kiss a girl in front of the camera anymore! A quick ‘good morning’ kiss is fine, but if you asked me to do the ‘madly in love’ type kiss now…wah, so ugly!

B: There was a time when I had a passionate kiss scene with Ada Choi (蔡少芬) – I was so scared! I mean, if I had decent facial features like Michael, the kiss scene would look good, but for someone like me who has such a ‘flat’ face, as soon as my face touches the other person’s, it looks as though my entire face (eyes, nose, mouth, ears, etc.) disappears! That’s why I came up with a ‘trick’ for filming the scene, which I told Ada: “So when we actually film, I’ll just kiss your cheek and if need be, I’ll kiss your forehead as well – that should be enough.” I was surprised when she actually responded: “Aiya….I was thinking the same thing!!” Darn….


Felix Lok is more ‘fit’ than Him Law

M: Felix’s police scenes were quite exhaustive for him, as he pretty much ran around all of HK when filming the scenes where he had to investigate the cases. Luckily, Felix has a very disciplined lifestyle…back then, when I went to his home, I already saw that he had his own personal gym – even now, he has been able to keep himself physically fit, even more ‘fit’ than Him Law (羅仲謙)!

F: Back then, when filming the investigation scenes, it could take us up to 11 or 12 days to complete! Of course, we were young back then. Even now, I still try to keep up with my exercise routine, as I still need to be ‘presentable’ in front of the cameras!

M: Actually, all of us desired to look good in front of the cameras. When we filmed FOJ, I requested to change clothes for every scene and each outfit had to be a different color – all of the bowties were from my own personal collection!

B: You (points to Michael) even requested to have all your pajamas made in completely white silk – wearing them made you look like Bak Lung Wong (白龍王)! One time, when we were filming a scene on location, you had quite an embarrassing moment! I remember that day was a Sunday and we were doing a scene at Statue Square [TN: famous location in HK’s Central district] – the two of us were holding the outfits that we were supposed to use for the scene and originally, we thought about changing at the hotel nearby, but since we needed to change quickly, we figured it was best to just change in the trailer at the location. When you unbuckled your pants, you had forgotten that your wallet was in the back pocket – it weighed your pants down and as a result, your pants fell all the way down to your ankles! All the Filipino maids in the area who saw you ‘flash’ your underwear couldn’t help yelling out: “Oh! Michael….small!” I laughed so hard! I remember telling you afterwards: “Next time, make sure you buy new underwear more often -- the rubberband in that pair looks so worn out already!” Hahahahaha….!

M: Well, you also had that embarrassing moment when we were filming at the mall! We were on the escalator and because you were wearing a pair of dark sunglasses and couldn’t see where you were going, you missed a step and ‘PK’ed’ right there! Hahaha! [TN: ‘PK’ actually represents a phrase that is considered a ‘curse word’ in Cantonese slang – the tamer ‘two letter’ version is usually used to describe when someone trips and falls flat on their face].

B: And you dare to even mention it! That time, if it wasn’t for your roaring laughter when the situation occurred, it wouldn’t have caused everyone in the mall to know! Everyone looked over in our direction when they heard you laughing – it was so embarrassing!!


Close-knit brothers, friendly competition

Back then, these 3 ‘brothers’ didn’t engage in any internal fighting or backstabbing – instead, they became close-knit brothers who encouraged and motivated one another. They would even meet together after work for coffee and give each other advice on upcoming scenes.

B: Even though us brothers were a ‘playful’ bunch, when it came to work, we were quite united. Every night after we finished filming, we would go to the nearby café and talk about our scenes – everyone’s mentality was very good! At one point, I had asked producer Gary Tang (鄧特希) why he chose us second line artists to film the series – he said that if he were to choose first-line artists, most of the scenes would probably be focused only on those few artists, but if the entire cast consisted of second-line artists, then the scenes could be shared and it would create ‘friendly competition’!

F: I also discovered an interesting phenomenon – not only did we have ‘friendly competition’ as the producer predicted, there was also never any hostility between any of us and we also never fought for screentime. We were able to maintain a close friendship that didn’t change even after filming 5 installments of the series – it’s definitely very rare! If it was any other series where the cast had to be together for such a long time, arguments are bound to occur!

B: That’s why I’m really hoping that there will be more installments of FOJ in the future. Also, we should definitely arrange more get-togethers….

M: Since most of our ‘playful’ crowd have already entered different stages in life, if we were to get together again for another installment of FOJ, I believe that the producer will need to come up with a different ‘feel’ to match too in order to make it work!

.*****.

Chinese version:

Bobby爆大宇用褲菲女嘲small

過百集的經典劇《壹號皇庭》，造就了陶大宇、歐陽震華（Bobby）和駱應鈞（阿公）成為老友，三人重聚暢談當年軼事，笑料百出。堪稱「笑料貨櫃」的Bobby大爆大宇當街甩褲，更被菲傭取笑「small」！大宇卻反嘲對方當街PK，二人加埋近百歲還樂此不疲，最老正的阿公坦言三人聚首是何等難得和極具紀念性。

陶：我幫你哋諗好形象，三人行埋都有不一樣嘅感覺……

Bobby：你就話打Bow連戲，但我就再搵唔到從前嘅髮型！我個頭仲年復年變圓，遲啲要倒吊瞓，等面皮唔好鬆……哈哈！

阿公：《皇庭》至今已經廿年，我哋再一齊坐埋，認真難得，好值得紀念！以前拍劇就專飛紙仔，不過我依家就轉咗新公司（CTI），公司規定唔可以飛紙仔！

咀陳慧珊唔停

Bobby：其實觀眾鍾意睇我哋幾兄弟嘅屋企戲，但我就鍾意睇大宇嘅kiss戲！佢同陳慧珊、宣萱拍咀戲，嘩……拍到「施施SirSir」，放消夜、收機仲喺度緊！

陶：又唔係我要求，不過通常對手都對我好好，陳慧珊嗰次仲係「螢幕初吻」！

阿公：佢哋個個鬼妹仔性格都好主動，你同陳慧珊嗰場，真係好正！

陶：你又知正？係正都只有我知……哈哈！

Bobby：講到拍咀戲，我遇上關詠荷，嗰次咀戲我真係學到嘢！自己拍咀戲怕醜又「蛇Ger」，點知當日我同佢拍咀戲時，佢竟然拍攝中途講嘢……叫我面口唔好疊住佢，鏡頭後我仲怪佢唔投入，後來佢話邊講邊咀會好逼真，果然拍出嚟又真係好有效果！唔信嘅話，大宇你試吓！

陶：唔會啦……到咗呢個階段，我已經唔敢喺鏡頭前錫女仔，早晨一個輕吻還可以，要談戀愛式激吻，嘩……好核突！

Bobby：我試過同蔡少芬有一場激吻戲，好驚……你話好似大宇有輪廓下巴兜兜拍咀戲就話好睇，我呢啲扁口扁面，一撞埋乜嘢眼、耳、口、鼻都唔見晒啦，所以我想到一個辦法同少芬講：「到時我錫吓你塊面，再唔係錫埋你額頭就夠！」佢竟然答我：「唉喲……我都係咁諗！」頂……


阿公fit過羅仲謙

陶：阿公拍差人戲都好辛苦，拍查案走勻全港，不過阿公生活好有規律，當年我去佢屋企，已經見佢有私人健身室，依家身形仲係Keep得咁fit，比羅仲謙更好！

阿公：當年拍一場查案戲可以拍十一、二日，當年後生，不過依家我都有保持運動量，幕前都要見得人o架！

陶：其實我哋個個都貪靚，拍《皇庭》時我要求場場換衫，要唔同顏色，所有Bow都係私伙！

Bobby：你（指大宇）連睡衣都要全白絲綢，着到好似「白龍王」咁！有一次外景喺街邊換衫大出洋相……當日係星期日，喺皇后像廣場取景，我同你攞住戲服，本來想行過去酒店換，但又想快，索性喺外景車旁換，點知你解開褲頭，竟忘記個銀包袋咗喺後袋，結果墜甩咗條褲，成條褲跌到落腳眼呀，現場大群菲傭見到呢個露底場面不禁大叫：「oh！Michael…… small！」我睇到反白眼！我只好話：「下次勤啲換底褲啦！褲頭橡筋都變成波浪紋啦！」哈哈哈哈……

陶：你夠因為戴黑超，喺商場睇唔到路，行扶手電梯踩錯腳PK啦！哈哈！

Bobby：你仲好意思講，嗰次唔係你笑聲震天，都唔會全個商場啲人都知道啦！個個望過嚟，我不知幾尷尬！

兄弟同心良性競爭

當年三個後生仔，不為上位明爭暗鬥、互篤背脊，反而兄弟同心，衝勁十足，連收工都約埋歎咖啡度戲。

Bobby：我哋兄弟雖然貪玩，不過工作就很團結，每拍完都會去附近茶餐廳傾吓戲，每個人心態都好好、好Fit！我都有問監製（鄧特希）點解搵我哋這班二線演員演出，佢話搵一線演員可能戲份會集中一個人身上，但係全班都係二線，就可造出良性競爭！

阿公：我都發現一個現象，我哋兄弟不止有監製計算嘅效果，就連互相交惡、爭戲情況都冇，感情之好，仲可以合作五輯都冇變，實在好難得。要是其他劇，大家演員長時間對住，好多都會有爭拗！

Bobby：所以我好期待《皇庭》長拍長有，仲要搞多啲聚會……

陶：我哋呢班爛玩兄弟已踏入人生另一階段，時至今日要再走埋一齊，相信監製都要諗一啲「新口味」配合至得！

Review of "Gambling on Life 賭霸天下"

This is an 'old' series from 1993 that came on TV a couple weeks ago, so I decided to watch it (while multi-tasking of course....lol). To be honest, I had never heard of the series before -- which means it was probably a low-budget series with not alot of hype, since I was pretty actively following HK entertainment in the 90s, so I probably would have at least heard about the series if it were a 'big production'. And the cast wasn't exactly 'all-star' (male lead was Eddie Kwan and female lead was Fiona Leung, with Vincent Lam playing the role of the villain -- the supporting cast was comprised of elders such as Felix Lok, Lau Siu Ming, Lo Lan, Kong Hon, etc.), plus there were some parts of the storyline that were flawed and confusing. Yet, surprisingly, I actually liked the series and even stopped 'multi-tasking' during the later half of the series so I could concentrate on watching it (those of you who know me know that it is rare of me to do this). In fact, I preferred watching this series over most of the TVB series that were made this year (which already tells you something) and it brought back for me the "chasing series" feeling (the 'I can't wait to watch the next episode to see what happens next' feeling) that I haven't felt for a TVB series in a LONG time.

Needless to say, based on the title, the theme of the series is gambling -- which doesn't surprise me one bit because during that era, the industry was saturated with tons of gambling-themed movies and TV series. This is partly the reason why I say that I'm surprised that I liked the series because I originally thought it was going to be another one of those 'run-of-the-mill' gambling series (a theme which I am already bored to death with because it has been overused so many times). Plus the first few episodes of the series were sort of boring and some parts dragged on way too long. Things started to really move along in terms of action in the second half of the series and the focus shifted from Vincent (who was dominant in the first half) to Eddie and Lau Siu Ming, Lo Lan, etc. (dominant in the second half), with Fiona dominant throughout both parts.

So with the slow start and draggy parts, what made me continue to watch the series? Well, I was definitely impressed with the awesome performances from the cast -- of course, with the seasoned veteran artists in the series, I knew I wouldn't be disappointed with the acting, even if they were only supporting cast and didn't have a whole lot of screen time. However, I was also definitely surprised with Eddie’s performance in the series. I've always been ok with Eddie as an actor (neutral -- don't like or dislike), but I've always felt that he was never able to mimic the short-lived success he had in the 80s with the "Police Cadet" and "The Battle Among the Clans" series -- plus the roles he got when he made his comeback in the 2000s were quite lame. As for Fiona, well, I’ve always liked her, but I could tell from the opening theme video that her character would be paired up with Vincent Lam, whom I was not fond of at all (I watched his first series “Romance Beyond” and hated his performance in it, though I liked everyone else) – plus this was only Vincent’s second series (yet he was already second male lead – though some could argue that he was actually first lead, since he had more screen time than Eddie, it seems) and his acting is too exaggerated and unnatural for my tastes. Therefore, going into this series, I didn’t have very high expectations at all. However, it turns out that Fiona plays two characters in this series and the first character (who was Vincent’s love interest) is not really the ‘main’ one, as she dies halfway through the series (which I was fine with since I didn’t like the character that much anyway). Her second character is paired with Eddie, which is what I was rooting for all along, and the storyline started getting more interesting, so that’s when I really started getting more ‘into’ the series.

Here are a few highlights in terms of the artists and their performances:

Eddie’s portrayal of the ‘useless’ little brother who becomes a disappointment to his ‘Gambler King’ father because all he knows how to do is play around all day was quite interesting, especially when we see how his character transforms into a mature young man set on avenging his father’s death later on in the series. I think that the most challenging part for Eddie was in the middle of the series when his older brother (played by Vincent) tried to kill him and he wound up in a mental institution after suffering brain damage. Eddie actually did those mental health patient scenes quite well, despite not having much dialogue during those parts. And even though his pairing with Fiona in the second half of the series (her second character is a worker at the mental institution) was quite predictable, I rooted for them because frankly, I prefer her with Eddie way more than Vincent.

Talking about Fiona, well, I don’t have too much to say because her 2 characters were not extremely complicated, though both had different personalities. But as I said earlier, I’ve always liked Fiona and have confidence in her acting, so no matter what type of character she plays, I would probably still watch. I definitely feel that when she was with TVB, she was very underrated, despite being a good actress – she was the lead in many series, though career-wise, she never made it to the ‘first rate fadan’ level (perhaps because there was too much competition back then in the 80s/90s and she was not the type who wanted to ‘fight’ for things). She is one of the few artists who came out of a contest (“Super New Talent Contest” in the 80s, which ironically was only held for 1 season and was axed) and didn’t get formal training whom I actually like because of her acting.

Another highlight of the series was Ming Sir’s (Lau Siu Ming) performance, which was absolutely brilliant and convincing. He played Vincent’s biological father and was the TRUE undefeated ‘Gambler King’ until he lost to Eddie’s father in a secret matchup, attempted to commit suicide, then went crazy. Of course, he winds up living at the mental institution, since his intelligence is that of a little kid now (the parts where the workers kept trying to bribe him with chocolate were hilarious) – despite going crazy however, he still retained all of the ‘special powers’ that he had when he was Gambler King, which eventually come to the surface as the series progresses. Ming Sir was absolutely convincing as a kid-like mental patient with special powers – the acting was very natural, which is a difficult feat for most artists, since a lot of them can’t play that type of role without making it look cheesy. This goes to show how superb Ming Sir’s acting truly is (especially given all the villain and tough father roles that he usually plays). Ming Sir has always been one of my favorites in terms of elderly ‘green leaf’ actors and continues to be, even now, though he doesn’t do too much acting anymore (not in series, at least).

Even though I don’t know what the purpose was of Felix Lok’s character (a bit pointless if you ask me), I actually did like the character he portrayed – way better than Vincent’s character. I like how Felix’s character was still very righteous and a man of his word, even though he was obsessed with being Gambler King and did some bad things as a result. I definitely would NOT describe his character as evil, because he wasn’t (at least he didn’t kill anyone like Vincent’s character did) – he was just a very self-confident man obsessed with being Gambler King (because of his love of gambling), even if it means sacrificing himself. What happened to his character in the end was quite tragic (though predictable) – however, as always, Felix did a great job with his role. He is another one of the veteran supporting artists who is on my ‘favorites’ list because of his awesome acting skills. And I like his personality as well – I read an interview about him a while back ago and he’s actually a very quiet person in real life. He doesn’t like to socialize and hates all of that political and ‘game-playing’ stuff that goes on, so he pretty much keeps to himself. The amazing thing about him is that when the cameras roll, he is 100% absorbed in his character and is able to portray whatever role he is given absolutely well, but once the cameras stop rolling, he’s a completely different person. And like many great talented actors, he takes his acting very seriously and actually studies each of his characters in depth before portraying them. (Ah, I miss those days when artists actually took their jobs seriously!!)

Lastly, I just wanted to mention how much I hated Vincent Lam’s character. And no, this is NOT one of those instances where hating the character means that the artist did a good job portraying the character (I call it characters we ‘love’ to hate). In fact, this one was quite opposite – first of all, his character itself was lame to the nth degree! It was stupid how he was always so obsessed with Fiona, to the point of trying to her force her 2nd character to marry him, even though she made it known that she hated him. And then when he started acting like a madman and killing people left and right just because they opposed his whim – the best way to describe it is that he came across to me like a gangster boss-wannabe in overdrive! Add to that the fact that Vincent’s acting in this series was absolutely horrible all the way through…for the first half of the series, before his character ‘turned bad’, his acting was like a piece of wood – very fake and forced. In the second half, as the ‘villain’, his acting still came across as forced, but now, instead of being wooden, it was very exaggerated (100 times worse than Alex Man, who is known for exaggerated acting – but at least Alex’s exaggeration looks natural) – to the point that I actually cringed every time I saw him on the screen (I just wanted to say “shut up already with your mad rants and get off my TV screen!”). Needless to say, it took A LOT of self-control on my part to avoid picking up the remote and fast-forwarding through all his scenes!