I was going to write an entry on ISABELLA and its young star Isabella Leong Lok-Si for today’s post but that would mean I’d have to talk about an actress who was born after 1980. As one of your fellow readers chided me for in an e-mail about my last post, all the actresses I mentioned were, as Jessica Simpson would say, “ancient”. I even mentioned one, Ha Ping, who was born in 1937 — 1937! In my defence, I did mention Joyce Cheng Yan-Yee (born 1987) and came close with Niki Chow Lai-Kei (born 1979). In the future, I promise I will write posts extensively slurping the likes of Crystal Liu Yifei (born 1987), Katrina Bwden (born 1988) and Sarah Carter (born 1980) but, for now, I’ll stick to my old-fogeyism and talk about items I recently discovered on some favourite actresses born before 1975 — even though it puts me perilously close to crossing the threshold between being called 哥哥 (”gor-gor” or brother) and being called “uncle”.

Here we go:

• Ruby Wong Cheuk-Ling is now Mrs. Ruby Yu Cheuk-Ling. Reportedly, she got married in Las Vegas during the summer of 2005 to a non-entertainment circle personality named “Mr. Yu”. This probably spells the end of her acting career.
• Blasts from the recent past: Carrie Ng Ka-Lai, Yvonne Yung Hung, Kathy Chow Hoi-Mei (not to be confused with Kathy Chow Man-Kei, model/sister of Niki Chow Lai-Kei), Loletta Lee Lai-Chun (Lee in action) and Christy Chung Lai-Tai were all contestants last year on LET’S SHAKE IT (舞林大會) — a Mainland television station’s version of DANCING WITH THE STARS. (Click links to see promotional stills of the actresses.)Other HK personalities that participated included: Law Kar-Ying, Shing Fui-On (I guess Baat Leung-Gum aka Bobby Yip King-Sun was busy), Michelle Mai Suet, Lawrence Ng Kai-Wah, Wong Hei, Elvis Tsui Kam-Kong, Karen Mok Man-Wai, Gigi Leung Wing-Kei and EEG starlets: Yumiko Cheng Hei-Yi, Charlene Choi Cheuk-Yin, Gillian Chung Yan-Tung and Joey Yung Tso-Yi. While it’s nice to see Carrie Ng actually doing something (I don’t think she’s been in a film or made a significant television appearance in more than five years), it’s a shame that one of the better actresses of the 1990s — she won the HKFA Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in Jacob Cheung Chi-Leung’s vastly under-appreciated THE KID — can’t get good work.Related LET’S SHAKE IT links: Official site (as with most Mainland sites, it’s very slow), promotional poster, Elvis Tsui (1, 2, 3), Joey Yung, Charlene Choi (1, 2) and Gillian Chung (YouTube video of Gillian Chung dancing).
• As far as movies are concerned, it appears Sammi Cheng Sau-Man continues to be missing-in-action. Meanwhile, Miriam Yeung Chin-Wah is working on a Milkyway Image film called HOOK ON YOU with Eason Chan Yik-Shun. The romantic comedy has the two playing fishmongers. Sounds cute. By the way, Miriam Yeung spent part of 2006 working on a Mainland television series.
• Fennie Yuen Kit-Ying is not doing much besides getting photographed going out to various spots with friends. As far as I can tell, her latest appearance was in an August 2006 episode of the TVB show BEAUTIFUL COOKING (video highlights from the show). Sadly, her skin-and-bones look at the taping (1, 2) has re-ignited suspicion that she’s suffering again from an eating disorder. Also, there were rumours that she is involved in a same-sex relationship. Related link: Fennie Yuen photo gallery courtesy Sing Tao Net.
• Michelle Reis (Lee Ka-Yan) is supposedly going to marry a rich tycoon sometime this year but he, uh, has to finalize his divorce first. They’ve been seeing each other for several months and have, reportedly, already made wedding plans. I’m not a fortuneteller but I could see this coming (Michelle Reis marrying a rich guy not the “have to get divorced first” part) since about, oh, 1993.
• Pinky Cheung Man-Chi is wrapping up her contract with ATV then exploring opportunities elsewhere.
• … and, finally, on a few actresses born after January 1, 1975: Yoyo Mung Ka-Wai, Niki Chow Lai-Kei and Fiona Yuen Choi-Wan are all working for TVB in various capacities. On the personal front: Yoyo Mung is involved with Kozo’s boy Ekin Cheng Yi-Kin. Niki Chow is rumoured to be dating TVB co-worker Kevin Cheng Ka-Wing while Fiona Yuen is supposedly going out with some Canadian dude. Unfortunately, the Canadian dude is not me.

And now for some non-actress related items:

• Heavenly Kings Round-Up: It appears Andy Lau Tak-Wah is still the hardest working man in the entertainment circle while Leon Lai Ming is making more news for being in a relationship with Gaile Lok Gei-Yi than anything else (he has, however, a concert series coming up in April). Aaron Kwok Fu-Sing got some dap for his performance in AFTER THIS OUR EXILE while Jacky Cheung Hok-Yau had problems with a domestic worker in between appearances at various events that included the recent Asian Games.
• Would some kind soul do me a favour and save me the effort of looking up how THE PROMISE and THE BANQUET were received last year? Did they get acclaim or did they stink the joint like previous bloated and over-hyped attempts for international prestige? Are they worth watching? Surprisingly, I’ve seen THE PROMISE on the shelf of my local Blockbuster.Also, anyone know what’s up these days with Stephen Chiau Sing-Chi?

Bringing a close to today’s post:

Some things never change. Back in December, when I heard about Yumiko Cheng Hei-Yi’s “wardrobe malfunction”, I thought it was much ado about nothing. I mean, you didn’t really see anything, so what’s the big deal — right? Of course, at that point, I hadn’t been exposed to Chinese-language media for ten months so I had forgotten some of its idiosyncracies and its fascination with things like “revealing points” and “accidental exposures”. It’s hilarious that this photo of Charlene Choi Cheuk-Yin (courtesy PhoenixTV.com) qualifies as an “accidental underpants exposure” (露底):

This just goes to show how sexually-repressed Chinese culture still is in the 21st Century. Then again, it’s only been 95 years since the Qing Dynasty ended (February 12, 1912) so “one step at a time”. After all, China is only just now trying to get a man on the moon (something the Americans did almost 40 years ago) so it’ll probably be thirty some years before a young Chinese starlet shaves her head bald, smashes a car with a golf club and goes in-and-out of rehab, four, five times a day. I was going to use an Anna Nicole Smith analogy here but well it’s, uh, already sort of happened in the entertainment circle milieu. Remember Pauline Chan Bo-Lin?

Before I begin, a big “thank you” to everyone for welcoming me back to the “Internet Forest” with such warmth and good will. A special thank you to Webmaster Kozo over at LoveHKFilm for helping me get the word out.

A few words about some of the reactions to my first post: I hope that you guys aren’t expecting to come here and find news about recent happenings in the entertainment circle. I have to fill the fourteen-month hole in my entertainment circle knowledge before I can begin talking about the latest events. The HK entertainment database in my brain ends at around the time of the Lunar New Year 2006 release of FEARLESS in HK. The rest is a blank slate. The only things I know about the period between January 2006 and March 2007 are:

• The deaths of Bau Fong, Kwan Hoi-Shan and Bill Tung Piu
• News on four of my favourite 1990s-era actresses from TVB: Jessica Hsuan (Suen Huen) leaving TVB for an independent manager, Maggie Cheung Ho-Yee getting Graves’ Disease, Fiona Leung Ai-Ling getting in a car accident while filming a “religious” video in Australia and Mariane Chan Miu-Ying still going strong in the business world.
• Cecilia Cheung Pak-Chi marrying Nicholas Tse Ting-Fung and now, apparently, pregnant with his child
• The Yumiko Cheng Hei-Yi de-pantsing incident
• The Gillian Chung Yan-Tung/Easyfinder fiasco
• Isabella Leong Lok-Si being “frozen” by EEG for “bad behaviour”
• Ekin Cheng Yi-Kin shaving his head bald to play Huo Yuanjia for a television series
• The Lydia Shum Tin-Ha health crisis. For those of you who don’t know: Last summer, Lydia Shum was asked whether or not her daughter, Joyce Cheng Yan-Yee , had laser surgery to remove acne blemishes from her face. In response, Shum boldly said: “… 做過一次雷射就仆街死!” (if she did laser once, I’ll f***ing die right now!). Soon afterwards, she was hospitalized for weeks with serious health problems involving her liver. Apparently, she’s fine now but — call me Chinese-superstitious — it’s another warning from karma, the Universe, God, Buddha, the Great Whatever, etc. to be careful of what you say and how you say it.

. . . and that’s all I know of the past four-hundred-some days. So, I now formally invite you to help me restore my HK entertainment database by pointing out things that happened in the last year that you found interesting. They can be significant (Jackie Chan became a monk, shaved his head bald, sold all his assets and donated the proceeds to the monastery) or whimsical (Athena Chu Yan admits in an interview that she has “feelings” for a guy who ran some website called HK Entertainment News In Review but it disappeared and now she has no way to get in contact with him). If you found it interesting, I’d like to know about it. You don’t have to go into chapter and verse detail — just say: “Joey Yung Tso-Yi is dating Jack Donaghy” or “Edison Chen is starring in the remake of Tracy Jordan’s WHO DAT NINJA?”. I will look up the rest on the Internet.

In the meantime, here are some of the storylines I plan to research in the near future (if you know what’s going on with any of the following, please don’t hesitate to give me some details in the comments section):

• What’s happened to Sammi Cheng Sau-Man and Miriam Yeung Chin-Wah? Has their time at the top passed? I know Joey Yung Tso-Yi seized the Queen of Cantopop title last year but what about the movies? A quick check doesn’t reveal any big projects coming down the pipeline for either of the women. Is it over for them already?
• What’s going on with Jackie Chan? Is he still undermining his son’s career by publicly criticizing him? Is his box office prowess continuing to decline? Has he done anything embarrassing to himself in the past year?
• Is TVB still going strong? ATV isn’t much of a threat but is the availability of more entertainment choices eating away at TVB’s dominance like specialty channels, DVDs, video games and the Internet have done to network television here in North America?
• More on TVB: Were there any breakout hits last year? Are people still interested in the Miss Hong Kong Pageant? Is TVB feeling any pressure from the huge Mainland television productions?
• What’s going on with Athena Chu Yan, Nadia Chan Chung-Ling (I still refuse to refer to her as Nnadia), Flora Chan Wai-Shan, Yoyo Mung Ka-Wai, Ruby Wong Cheuk-Ling, Maggie Siu Mei-Kei, Jo Koo (Kuk Tso-Lam), Niki Chow Lai-Kei, Fiona Yuen Choi-Wan, Fennie Yuen Kit-Ying, Christine Ng Wing-Mei and Michelle Reis (Lee Ka-Yan)?

What were some of the better movies of 2006? Were there any LOVE BATTLEFIELD/CRAZY N’ THE CITY-type sleepers? I talked briefly to Kozo about this and he suggested ELECTION, ELECTION 2, EXILED, BATTLE OF WITS, MY NAME IS FAME and ISABELLA as essential viewing. He also suggested that I might enjoy THE HEAVENLY KINGS, DRAGON TIGER GATE and ROB-B-HOOD. Does anyone have any other suggestions to add? If you plan on making a recommendation, please keep in mind that my local Chinese video store went out of business while I was sick so now I have to buy every movie I want to see. As a result, please put your recommendation in one of two categories: “must see” or “intriguing and somewhat interesting but it can wait”. I’ve already dropped $40 for HEAVEN DRAGON THE EIGHTH EPISODE (the CCTV adaptation of DEMI-GODS AND SEMI-DEVILS) and $100 on an order for ELECTION, ELECTION 2, EXILED, BATTLE OF WITS and ISABELLA so the DVD budget is stretched a bit tight. I’m also eyeing the Pearl City DVDs of MISSING CINDERELLA and DEAR LOVE (as a kid, I used to love watching the late night airings of 1950s/1960s black-and-white romantic comedies starring Cheung Ying and Ha Ping — like Mary Tyler Moore during the DICK VAN DYKE SHOW days, Ha Ping was quite the hottie back in the 1950s/1960s).

Thanks in advance for your tips and suggestions. I look forward to chasing down leads and catching up on some HK movie viewing.

A note on one of the comments from the last post: How does an English-only fan get into the wuxia genre? At this point, I’d say it’s kind of difficult. There are a couple of English translations available for purchase: “The Deer and the Cauldron” and “Flying Fox of the Snowy Mountain” have been translated into English. However, they aren’t exactly the best examples of the wuxia genre. “Flying Fox” is mediocre and introducing yourself to wuxia by reading “The Deer and the Cauldron” is like introducing yourself to Clint Eastwood’s cowboy movie career by watching UNFORGIVEN instead of THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY or A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS. Moreover, fully translating wuxia into English is quite challenging. There are a lot of concepts that simply don’t have English equivalents. I’d say your best bet is to try and buy one of the DVD sets of wuxia novel TV adaptations. I believe the CCTV adaptations have English subtitles and TVB has released English-subtitled versions of their classic 1980s adaptations of LEGEND OF THE CONDOR HEROES and RETURN OF THE CONDOR HEROES.

Welcome to 聚言莊 (The House Where Words Gather). I’ve set this place up as a temporary Internet home while I figure out what to do about my old site: Hong Kong Entertainment News In Review. For those of you who don’t know me, here’s my story — presented wuxia style (so please allow me some dramatic license and pardon my referring to myself in the third-person):

Day in and day out, day after day, the Hong Kong entertainment circle winds through the lives of its followers by majestically producing projects, personalities, rumours, and, sometimes, titillating scandal on its quest for profit and fame. For years, Sanney Leung — the Short-Haired Webmaster of the Western Plains — would use his “Ten Fingers Conquering Dragons” writing kung to chronicle events and happenings for entertainment circle fans around the World. He started out by writing a few article translations for friends by e-mail. Soon, the e-mails grew larger and larger so he established a website where his friends could see the articles with greater ease. After many years and many transformations, the website evolved into Hong Kong Entertainment News In Review — an online fixture of the HK entertainment scene with a modest but respectable following.

Things were going fine until the Short-Haired Webmaster of the Western Plains was stricken with nasopharyngeal carcinoma — a cancer common among the people of South Eastern China. Suddenly, he was forced to abandon the website and concentrate on fighting for his life. Following a bitter struggle of many months, the Short-Haired Webmaster won the battle with cancer (though the war continues) and returned to his online home only to discover that a dishonourable opportunist had invaded and seized his domain, holding it hostage in hope of being paid a ransom. Exiled, the Short-Haired Webmaster wandered the Internet for weeks before deciding to set up 聚言莊 (The House Where Words Gather).

So this is where I am today, unsure of how to proceed with my role in the HK entertainment “Internet Forest”. Do I go down the road of Mo Yung Fuk (Murong Fu; 慕容復) and try to restore my “online empire” or do I go down the road of Fung Ching-Yeung (Feng Qingyang; 風清揚) and retire to living out my days in seclusion in the backwoods of Mount Wah? As with any life decision, it’s a complicated one. I’m still recovering from my cancer treatments but, when the healing is done, it will be back to the world of paycheques and bill payments so I don’t know what the time, energy and passion situation will be for me then. Much will depend on what kind of work I end up doing, how my health ends up shaking out and what the Cold Hand of Fate has in store for me.

In the meantime, the House Where Words Gather will serve as a place for me to practice my writing and scrape the rust off my brain by sharing my thoughts on things related to the HK entertainment circle and re-connecting with friends and former readers. Right now, I’m slowly plugging in the 14 month gap in my HK entertainment knowledge. I’m hoping to use this place to talk about things I discover during the process and solicit comments from people on what events I should catch up on and what movies and things I should see. Don’t worry, I won’t be boring you with minutiae like what I ate for breakfast or the color of the shirt I’m wearing today.