[2026.01.11] LOUIS KOO: BACK TO THE PAST HAS A LOT OF ROOM FOR DEVELOPMENT

Bai Baihe "parachutes" into BACK TO THE PAST, but actually is the highest paid actor in the film

Louis Koo's return will be linked to the box office revenues

Although Raymond Lam is the lead, he is not as "expensive" as Bai Baihe

Jennifer Yu runs into the BACK TO THE PAST premiere in Taiwan
courtesy of on.cc

The movie BACK TO THE PAST (CHUM CUN GEI) was officially released in Taiwan recently, producer and starring Louis Koo Tin Lok and Jessica Hester Hsuan (Suen Huen) went to Taiwan to promote it. This time would also be Koo Tin Lok's first time in 12 years to go to promote in Taiwan. He admitted that he has thought about making a sequel to BACK TO THE PAST, and a good box office would also make the sequel more promising. Koo Tin Lok also said that he has never thought about failure since the early days of preparing for the BACK TO THE PAST filming, and only felt that the production had a lot of room for development.

The movie BACK TO THE PAST continued the story of the 2001 Hong Kong science fiction TV series A STEP INTO THE PAST, which has been known as the pioneering work of Chinese time-travel dramas. The film version has been well received after its release in Hong Kong and Macau, has now exceeded 50 million (Hong Kong dollars) at the box office in both places, and is expected to become the fourth Hong Kong film to exceed HK$100 million at the box office after "THE LAST DANCE" (POR. DEI YUK), "A GUILTY CONSCIENCE" (DUK SIT DAI JONG) and "TWILIGHT OF THE WARRIORS: WALLED IN" (GAU LUNG SING JAI JI WAI SING).

Koo Tin Lok and Suen Huen were interviewed by Taiwanese media yesterday to share their filming experience. Koo Tin Lok said that his schedule in Taiwan wouled be very tight this time, and he looked forward to the opportunity to take the time to walk around next time. If the film would perform well at the box office, next time he would like to bring the other lead Raymond Lam Fung to celebrate in Taiwan. This movie promotion seemed to have gone back to 25 years ago, Koo Tin Lok and Suen Huen revealed that they were very happy and moved to see Taiwanese fans. Suen Huen said that she saw some fans so nervous and excited that their hands were shaking, and she was super surprised to learn that some fans were moved to tears.

Koo Tin Lok and Suen Huen have been a screen couple everyone has been familiar with. Suen Huen smiled and revealed that although the outside world often thought that Koo Tin Lok was very serious, he was quite funny in private. Suen Huen said, "Because he has more things to manage now; but he wouldn't be very mean in private! As long as you don't touch his sore spot he's OK." In this regard, Koo Tin Lok teased Suen Huen and asked: "What is my spot?" The "bickering pattern" between the two continued to Taiwan.

BACK TO THE PAST the movie has been released after 25 years, Koo Tin Lok bluntly said that he had no idea of failing or worrying about the box office from the early stages of preparation, "On the contrary I felt that there was a lot of space. Like the story more than ten years later, (finding) a different points to shoot would be fine. I think it's very good!" Koo Tin Lok said that he was very moved to see most of the actors again after many years. The only regret was that some people have left the entertainment industry and had no contact information, so they could no longer be contacted.

Regarding the possibility of making a sequel to BACK TO THE PAST, Koo Tin Lok said that he has thought about it but it still had to be measured from an overall perspective. A good box office would of course be a good thing and would make the sequel more promising, but investing in a movie was not an easy task, and could not be judged only by box office numbers.

Koo Tin Lok has also been the boss in recent years, investing a lot of money to support the films of young creators. He also admitted that when selecting actors he would be more inclined to choose young people. "I will choose the younger generation of actors to help the next generation make movies. Not everyone would recognize these actors, but I would ask them to make movies more, because they would be the hope of the future."

Best Actress Jennifer Yu Heung Ying contributed her voice to the movie BACK TO THE PAST, dubbing the Cantonese version of Ken's (Michael Miu Kiu Wai) daughter Galie (Bai Baihe) , and the end credits also posted "Special thanks to Yu Heung Ying". Yet when BACK TO THE PAST premiered in Hong Kong, Yu Heung Ying was unable to attend. Yu Heung Ying recently went to Taiwan to work. Coinciding with the premiere of BACK TO THE PAST in Taipei, she specifically went to Taipei to support the promotion and took a photo with Koo Tin Lok and Suen Huen. After that, she supported and appreciated the movie DOUBLE HAPPINESS starring her and Taiwanese actor Liu Kuan-Ting. Yu Heung Ying posted on social networking sites that she expected both films to be a big hit at the box office. "I missed the premiere of BACK TO THE PAST in Hong Kong, but I actually had the opportunity to see the premiere in Taiwan. While the film exceeded HK$ 50 million at the Hong Kong box office, tickets in Taiwan these days were also hard to come by. Thank you for giving the ticket to Ting-Sheng and Dai-Ling, the pair of newlyweds to be (Liu Kuan-ting and Yu Heung Ying's "DOUBLE HAPPINESS" roles), I hope that Taiwanese audiences will go to the theater on January 9th to support BACK TO THE PAST, and then support DOUBLEH HAPPINESS on February 17th, when both movies would be box office hits, it would really be a double happiness!"

Liu Kuan-ting has worked with Koo Tin Lok before, and he also made a surprise appearance in the Taiwanese promotional event of BACK TO THE PAST. He also specifically presented a "rotating potato bouquet" to wish for an enduring box office success. Liu Kuan-ting said that to be able to work with Koo Tin Lok was very romantic, and Koo Tin Lok also said that he missed Liu Kuan-ting very much, praised Liu Kuan-ting for being very handsome, and hoped to collaborate again in the future.

The compensation chart of the actors of the movie BACK TO THE PAST was exposed, among which Louis Koo Tin Lok, as one of the film investors, had zero salary. Mainland actor Bai Baihe received an astronomical salary of 16.89 million yuan, which was equivalent to 8 times the salary of the lead actor Raymond Lam Fung of 2 million and caused heated discussions.

BACK TO THE PAST is a box office hit. Industry analysts expected it to break through the HK$100 million mark, and even have the opportunity to challenge the Hong Kong box office record. Recently a mainland website disclosed the actor's salary chart. As the soul of the movie version and one of the investors Koo Tin Lok performed for zero pay, his return will be linked to the final box office revenue. Among the Hong Kong actors, Lam Fung as Ying Zheng became the highest-paid Hong Kong actor with 2 million. As for the other original cast "wife group" Suen Huen and Sonija Kwok In Nei's salaries were 1.5 million and 800,000 respectively, and Joyce Tang Lai Ming's salary was 500,000. The late Dick Liu Kai Chi made a guest appearance at the time, after 3 days of filming Goo Jai gave a 660,000 lai see to express his gratitude.

Surprisingly, "parachuted" into the film the mainland actor Bai Baihe received an astronomical pay of 15 million yuan RMB (about HK$ 16.89 million) to became the highest in the whole film. Regarding Bai Baihe's salary, which is equivalent to 8 times that of Lam Fung, the highest paid Hong Kong actor, and far exceeded all leading actors, some analysts pointed out that the reason why Bai Baihe can get a sky-high salary is because she has a strong box office appeal in the mainland market.

Since 2009, Bai Baihe has become the hottest top-tier actress in the mainland with many works. She starred in films such as "LOVE IS NOT BLIND" with a box office of 300 million yuan, "MONSTER HUNT" with a box office of 2.436 billion yuan, and "MONSTER HUNT 2" with a box office of 2.237 billion yuan, all of which are guaranteed box office successes. For high-cost co-productions, inviting her to join is undoubtedly to leverage the huge mainland market.