[2024.06.05] FRANCIS NG REVEALS HE AND SEAN LAU HAVE NOTHING TO TALK ABOUT

Sean Lau says that at make up he and Francis Ng are like strangers
courtesy of on.cc

Sean Lau and Francis Ng have been friends for over 40 years, but they rarely work together on screen
courtesy of singtao.com

Sean Lau and Francis Ng have been friends for over 40 years, with a lot of things they understand each other without having to say a lot

Francis Ng in a war of words with Sean Lau

Sean Lau turns from a negotiator to a hostage taker

Sean Lau occupies a police station, Michael Miu (center) is one of the hostages

When a photo from a dinner with Anthony Wong, Herman Yau, Dayo Wong, Francis Ng, Sean Lau and  Cheung Tat Ming surfaces, people are looking forward to a collaboration project between them
courtesy of mingpao.com

The movie CRISIS NEGOTIATORS (TAM POON JUEN GA) starred two Best Actors Sean Lau Ching Wan and Francis Ng Chun Yu. Old friends in private, Ching Wan and Chun Yu only worked together again after 19 years. The two played top negotiators. Lau Ching Wan in the film in order to clear his name of murdering colleagues and being the mastermind of a police corruption case, did not hesitate to occupy a police station and take hostages at the risk of his life. He even asked for the negotiator turned social worker Ng Chun Yu by name to negotiate, as they put their acting abilities in a series of mental tug of war. Ching Wan and Chun Yu let go of their habits and take one step at a time.

Although Ching Wan and Chun Yu had to play negotiators, they did not go to relevant people to get an understanding of the work situation before the performance. Ching Wan has met negotiators when filming in the past, while Chun Yu said, "Making movies is all 'lip service', whether it is a martial arts film or a police movie, there are no rules; only a few previous films as references. In addition videos of real situations with real negotiators talking to people were online, and they too are all 'lip service'. All of them were different." CRISIS was adapted from the 1998 Hollywood film THE NEGOTIATOR. Chun Yu has seen the foreign version, "The pace was too slow, and I can't understand it in English without subtitles. So I fell asleep watching it." Ching Wan on the other hand did not watch the foreign version. He felt that even if it was adapted, he would still mainly read his own script. After all, different directors, environments and actors would make change. Ching Wan had many negotiation scenes in the film, but on the set the shoot was not separated; they truly conversed over the phone from two sets. ""Because delivering the lines is very important, everyone was able to follow the other, hearing the tone of each other in order to coordinate. For example in one scene I talked to my wife in the film (Rosa Velasco) on the phone, the director also asked her to come to my side. Our movie use this method to shoot this scene, so during the performance it could feel even more intimate."

Following HIMALAYA SINGH, the pair of old friends only worked together again after a gap of 19 years, Ching Wan joked that Chun Yu has not changed much and still looked like this. Chun Yu joked. "It's my treat everyday, eating on my dime; he just kept buying me custard tart everyday!" Ching Wan still remembered that they rarely had scenes together in the film, but back then they went to India to shoot the location together. They had to take a 32-hour long-distance ride to the foot of the Himalayas. We took a bus on a very rugged mountain road, one driver drove while the other watched the road. Along the way we would stop to present incense sticks and worship the gods, the road was actually very dangerous. So they have already been through life and death together? Ching Wan joked that many people were going through life and death together, Chun Yu joked, "Even when you are filming in Hong Kong, everyone in theory wouldn't pretend to be close. Unless everyone barely knew each other, then they would become very familiar. I am not lying to you, Sam Gor (Michael Miu Kiu Wai) and I aren't close so we pretended to have a lot to talk about!" He believed that Sam Gor felt that they the juniors were very talkative, because he was the elder he would take everyone out to drink and eat. Even when eating on TVB they relied on his treat, in order to have an extra mouthful of fish to eat. "So I would talk more with Sam Gor, more cordial, but with Ching Wan we don't have much to talk about! We only sat next to each other at make up, Director Yau Lai To and I don't talk either!" With less communication on the set, were they saving themselves for the acting battle on screen? Chun Yu joked, "No, because I spent all my time on chatting with Sam Gor; I don't have time to chat with him!"

Ng Chun Yu said that Director Yau on the set had his mind on many areas and was very busy. He did not have much time to communicate with actors. Ng Chun Yu only relied on experience to try to meet the director's demands, giving more variations in his performance so the director would have more choices during editing. Lau Ching Wan revealed that Director Yau used a new production method. "The director abandoned the format of shooting separately. He rented two studios to shoot the negotiation scene simultaneously. Everyone were truly negotiating over the phone, which made the pace even more realistic and intense. Actor would be able to get into the roles even easier."

Ching Wan and Chun Yu were good friends, but would it be more difficult to make the audience feel that they were negotiators who were trying to convince the other instead of two good friends acting? Ching wan said that it was not particularly hard, but he had to first let go of some habits when they were together. "Because Ng Chun Yu and the character had some difference, I don't want the audience to see Lau Ching Wan is asking Chun Yu for help" Ching Wan even felt that Chun Yu during the performance would guess how he would perform, which Ng Chun Yu denied because he would not look at the other character's script. "Because we shot at different studios, we didn't see each other. Guessing was useless. Even I don't even know how I would act. Because the director shot very fast, I could only just take one step at a time. At home I have already given up on reading the script, I would worry about it when I get there! Because the filming was fast I was very nervous. I haven't memorized all the dialogue, where would I get the time to design characters? I was afraid that I wouldn't be meticulous, so I didn't want to read the script too much at home. Actually in one scene Ching Wan and I both had lines, talking about why he would ask me to negotiate. I made the little change into being negative, was he take advantage of my sympathy? Ching Wan truly didn't know why I would ask, because such a change would make the scenes later more comfortable." There was a lot of psychological warfare in the dialogue, did they have a lot of fun from the performance? Chung Yu joked, "Actually it wasn't enjoyable, it was messy. I had to go up and down and hang up, I was pretty lost. I don't even know how the real mastermind is in the movie! I really don't want to watch other people's acting, I don't have that much time. There is no point to do that anyway, after watching it may be too late to regret it. As soon as you watch you would say you have 32 more scenes than me, then you would just be counting how many scenes people have." Ching Wan had action scenes this time, which he said that were not considered a lot and were relatively simple. However even the "acting" part was not easy, in the film he held several hostages at gun point, which made the hostages very frightened. He slowly knew that he would not shoot at them, and the position in between must be well handled. "I have also told everyone that the gun I was holding was fake, but if it was a real gun how would everyone feel about it? So many actors had their own ideas, and with (Michael) Chow Man Kin, I thought he was really funny. I am very happy to see him back!"

Although Ching Wan and Chun Yu did not see each other often, they knew each other from top to bottom. Ching Wan pointed out that Chun Yu was not a long-winded person, he could tell a 100-minute story in three sentences. Anyone who gets it would get it. He would not explain too much. Ching Wan also did not like people who explain, but he would understand them.

A photo from Lau Ching Wan, Ng Chun Yu and Director Yau's dinner with Anthony Wong Chau Sun and Dayo Wong Tze Wah earlier appeared online, as people looked forward to whether they had any plan to work together. Ching Wan has not thought much about it, as he and Chau Sun have worked together on BOMB DISPOSAL OFFIER: BABY BOMB. Ng Chun Yu pointed out that Chau Sun seemed aloof, but on the set Chau Sun would leave nothing to chance while he himself would be more 'hea' while acting. Lau Ching Wan joked, "Chun Wan on the set wouldn't 'hea' at all, he just pretends to 'hea'." Was he confident that CRISIS NEGOTIATORS would exceed Dayo Wong Tze Wa's A GUILTY CONSCIENCE over HK$ 100 million box office? Ching Wan felt that this was not for actors to say, but of course he hoped for the box office to be good. "We worked together to make this movie, so we would feel happy to hear everyone's praise. The praises ten years later would still be pretty good." Ths time Andy Lau Tak Wa was the producer, did he frequently came to supervise the set? Chun Yu said that he has seen Wa Jai visit Sam Gor. He was not too close with Wa Jai and he was shy too.

During the filming of CRISIS, Ching Wan had health issues. He pointed out that one day during the filming of the hostage-taking scene, although he had a lot of dialogues but they were not be difficult. He however had four or five bad takes. "I asked myself why, there was no reason. Then I felt unwell and coughed a few times. At the time I moved out to live during the filming. As soon as I checked I actually tested positive, so I sent it to the director, As a result, I rest five days before returning to work. Because it was too serious, my wife wasn't too worried because I had all kinds of immunization shots." Later Ching Wan was a guest performer at the Hong Kong Film Awards, but ended up missing it with Louis Koo Tin Lok pretending to him in his place. Ching Wan said, "Actually that time at the Hong Kong Film Awards was pretty funny, I went to the rehearsal but coughed a few times. I wore a mask. When I got home I thought why would I cough, the more I thought about it the more I wanted to get tested. Actually I had the flu, so I immediately sent the test results to (Derek) Yee Tung Sing and said that I caught it and probably wouldn't be able to come. Because I saw the news that some kids caught the flu and got much worse, so I had to be more responsible!"