[2021.03.11] SHAUN TAM FORCES TI LUNG TO RETIRE AFTER HEALTH SCARE

Shaun Tam now holds his own and can handle pressure from all over

Shaun Tam is concerned about Ti Lung's health after he fainted on the set
courtesy of on.cc

Shaun Tam Chun Yin 5 years ago returned to work in Hong Kong and silently toiled away at TVB. With many father and son artists performance, he was not tempted to invite father Ti Lung. He revealed that his father several years ago during a shoot suddenly fainted. At the same time he was deeply afraid that the new generation of actors would not respect their elders, he placed the order and forced his father to retire!

Tam Chun Yin came from a show business family. His father is the Golden Horse Best Actor Ti Lung, his mother Tao Man Ming is also an actor. He once said that after getting into the business he had excessive pressure from always being called "Ti Lung's son", for a period he even turned down father and son photo opportunities. Now the pressure has lessen in comparison. He understood that his father has contributed a lot for him. In new second generation stars he even saw "shadow" of himself. "Earlier I saw (Joe) Ma Tak Chung's son. First don't criticize his acting, no one knows how to act in their first one. As soon as you look at the online criticism, they all say 'of course Daddy took care of it!' Hey man, do you know him? I can sense this type of pressure, when I see the report my heart would ache."

Although Tam Chun Yin let go of his "preconceived notion" of his father, he stated that he did not long to be in a series with him. He would even say no to only a guest starring role, completely because Ti Lung fainted once and set off the "alarm". "Not now! Especially in the past few years I saw many elders passed away after finishing a series, Sister Lily (Leung Shun Yin), Kuen Kuen (Savio Tsang Wai Kuen), I feel health really is very important. My papa a few years ago fainted out of the blue while working in the Mainland! He was too hot but he refused to take off his clothes, working in costume in 40 degree (Celsius) he fainted. He had to drink 'herbal water' to regain consciousness, then I said, 'Don't ever go to work again.'"

He also felt that the older generation of actor demanded a lot of themselves. He was afraid that his father would not be able to withstand the "baptism" of time. "His memory isn't what it used to be. Actor's dignity is very important. Many people don't like many bad takes. I have see many elders used to be articulate, delivering all 10 pages of lines. Now maybe with two lines they say, 'Sorry, I don't know why today would be like this.' Our generation, maybe the generation before ours would respect him very much, but at any minute a 20 year old (actor) could show up, who is Ti Lung? Do better old man! I don't want him to withstand that! He can enjoy his time with his children and grandchildren. Sometimes when I see him with my son he is very happy. My son resembles me a lot, which let him make up for certain lost time. When he was young he was busy with work, so he didn't have the time."

He demanded his father to retreat from the front line, on the other hand he let his children appear on television on their free time. "It's good for them to go play on children's program like KID, THINK BIG and be guests, because they can chat with other people. Acting wouldn't be good though, it would take away their childhood too soon because they would have to act to please others. You can't say something like 'if you act well then you get to play video games'. So for now acting wouldn't be good!"

Whenever he mentioned his children, Tam Chun Yin had happiness written all over his face. He said that recently he watched his new series A FORGOTTEN DAY with his children, something unexpected happened. "Although it was a comedy, the first few episode had many argument scenes. My daughter couldn't accept parents divorcing, so she cried! Then I took a beating, she asked me why. I feel this is my childhood trauma, seemingly happening again to her. When I was little and watched my Pa act and kill people, I cried like that too!" He said that his new series character was straight lace and innocent, drastically different from his own personality. He could only learn from children in order to successfully "revert to childhood".