[2020.05.01] HONG KONG FILM AWARD CLASSICS: CHOW YUN FAT, JOSEPHINE SIAO AND SHAOLIN SOCCER

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"Hong Kong Film Award Classic, Let Me Decide!" Oriental Daily earlier invited 100 artists to vote on past Hong Kong Film Award classics! The "Best Actor of Best Actor" nominees included A BETTER TOMORROW (YING HUNG BOON SIK)'s Chow Yun Fat, DAYS OF BEING WILD (AH FEI JING JUEN)'s Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing, HAPPY TOGETHER (CHUN GUONG JA SIT)'s Tony Leung Chiu Wai, BEAST STALKER (JING YUN)'s Nick Cheung Ka Fai and COLD WAR (HONG JIN)'s Tony Leung Ka Fai. Finally Chow Yun Fat won with 45 votes! Fat Gor during the interview humbly said that he was lucky to have run into a good team, otherwise he would not be able to do it alone.

As for "Best Actress of Best Actress", the nominees included SUMMER SNOW (NUI YUN SEI SUP)'s Josephine Siao Fong Fong, ROUGE (YIN JI KAU)'s Anita Mui Yim Fong, C'EST LA VIE MON CHERI (SUN BUT LIU CHING)'s Anita Yuen Wing Yi, IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (FA YEUNG NIN WA)'s Maggie Cheung Man Yuk and LOST IN TIME (MONG BUT LIU)'s Cecilia Cheung Pak Chi. Finally Siao Fong Fong ran away with 41 votes. She humorously described her mood with lyrics from ETERNAL LOVE (CHUK CHOI WU BUK GWAI). "My heart is full of joy, my heart is full of panic" and joked that she only won because everyone "respected the elderly".

Chow Yun Fat humbly said that he won completely due to good luck, as he ran into good roles and good teams. "I really want to thank everyone for their love for me. Actually I am lucky, throughout different eras of television and film I have had good characters for me to work with. If I didn't have outstanding screenwriters, directors and on and off camera workers' contribution, I alone couldn't even be scary if I was a ghost!"

From the television series THE BUND (SEUNG HOI TAN)'s Hui Man Keung to the film A BETTER TOMORROW's Mark Gor and AN AUTUMN'S TALE's Bow Ruler, he has played all character tragic and comedic. Which one was his favorite? Chow Yun Fat made a surprise revelation that he has never seen a single episode of THE BUND. "In the early 80s I had to make it to fight for ratings with the rival station, so it aired as we shot. We shot day and night, how would we have a chance to take a glimpse at our own performance? So until now I still haven't seen an episode of THE BUND!" Although working day and night made remember each character in detail difficult for him, some valuable footage would always stay in his mind. "After I finished each role I would toss 'him' out of my mind. what 'he' has done in front of the camera, what line was said, I would completely delete them all. Only beautiful memories with the group of workers remained."

Siao Fong Fong with SUMMER SNOW won "Best Actress of Best Actress" and truly deserved the award. She humorously sang a song from ETERNAL LOVE, then said, "Thank you to so many colleagues for their love for me. You really have embodied the excellent 'traditional Chinese culture'! What culture is it? Right now I can deeply sense it, 'respect the elderly', haha!"

After decades in entertainment, Siao Fong Fong has played countless character. Her favorite and the most memorable was the Patrick Tse Yin starred, Patrick Lung Kong directed THE WINDOW (CHEUNG). She said, "I really like that blind woman role, also because of the way Lung Kong 'directed' my 'performance' I understood that the supreme realm of acting is getting into the spirit and completely forgetting myself, naturally and automatically. However my background was poor, the state was completely beyond my grasp." In recent years many of the younger generation gave brilliant performance, who did she like more? She joked that she did not dare to say, "This question puts me at a little disadvantage, haha! You want me to insult people! Actually who is the best, I believe everyone has their idea because the audience's eyes are crystal clear."

As for Chow Yun Fat winning "Best Actor of Best Actor" and the Stephen Chow Sing Chi directed SHAOLIN SOCCER (SIU LUM JOOK KAU) as the "Hong Kong Film Award Ultimate Film", Siao Fong Fong praised they truly deserved them. "I really enjoy watching A BETTER TOMORROW's Mark Gor Chow Yun Fat, Fat Jai truly is a great actor!" She also praised SHAOLIN SOCCER, "Sing Jai's comedic rhythm really is top notch, I really admire it. I was fortunate enough to work with him on FIST OF FURY 1991 (SUN JING MO MOON 1991) and FIST OF FURY 1991 II (MAN WA WAI LUNG), in the process 'I learned a lot'!"

The Hong Kong Film Award will celebrate its 40th anniversary next year. Each year it would choose a Best Film. To be the best of the best, the film had to be of certain caliber. The nominees included the Mabel Cheung Yuen Ting directed AN AUTUMN's TALE, the John Woo (Ng Yu Sum) directed A BETTER TOMORROW, the Chow Sing Chi written, directed and starred SHAOLIN SOCCER, the Andrew Lau Wai Keung and Alan Mak Siu Fai directed INFERNAL AFFAIRS (MO GAN DOH) and the Wong Kar Wai directed DAY OF BEING WILD (AH FEI JING JUEN). In the end SHAOLIN SOCCER became the "Hong Kong Film Award Ultimate Film" with 30 votes.

From the film "Third brother" Tin Kai Man and "Sixth brother" Lam Tsz Chung talked about "three big secrets" from the film production. Tin Kai man revealed that the film actually had a "mystery actor" but because Chow Sing Chi in the end switched to another "car repairman" Fung Min Hung's scene, this "mystery actor" was cut out. He was Bob Lam Sing Bun! Tin Kai Man said, "Bob at the time just came back from overseas. We asked him for a soccer scene on sand. Originally it was shot and wrapped, but Sing Yeh changed his mind and cut him off. He changed it to the car repairman scene. This probably was Lam Sing Bun's first film, but no one knew." Chubby Chung added, "Actually we asked him if he would be willing to stay for a few more months and try again, but because he had to work at the radio station he had no way to stay."

Chubby Chung revealed that he had a "flub". "Many people told me that they have seen the film several hundred times, but they couldn't see the flub. During the shoot the wire broke and I injured my leg, so in the finale when all the brothers ran out to kick the ball I didn't run because I couldn't run. However in the next shot I was on the field, suddenly appearing like the magic ball. You really have to pay attention to be able to see it."

Chow Sing Chi was known for being serious about filmmaking. Tin Kai Man and Lam Tsz Chung pointed out that when the movie started production, they first went to Zhuhai to shoot "eldest brother" Wong Yat Fei's bar scene. Then the team flew to Shanghai to start production, but because Chow Sing Chi felt that the bar scene still had room for development the team "turned around" and went back to Zhuhai to build the set again for the shoot. Not only did we spare no expense, his dominance on the set was thoroughly on display. Every detail had to be just right. he was very detail oriented and serious even when making a comedy!