[Oriental Daily]

Christine Ng donned a wedding dress for a scene with Bowie Lam in new series "Grey Tracks" yesterday. The scene tells of Christine finding she is pregnant, but whilst trying on their wedding gowns, Bowie finds out that the child is not his. Christine's character is unfaithful to her her husband, so Bowie is always mocking her on set, saying she is very flirtatious. Christine returns the jibe, suggesting that Bowie is a player and causing some amusement to the crew.

When Christine was asked if she was annoyed by Bowie's jokes, she laughs: "I don't mind being called a flirt because in real life I am just like my character and becoming more and more flirty. (Has your husband told you to tone it down?) No because I only do it in front of him and he helps me to choose some of my sexier clothes!"

Bowie and Christine have many kissing scenes in the new show and although this is the first time they have worked together, they are not awkward at all and quickly build a rapport with each other. Bowie says: "Working with Christine is a very happy experience and great fun. She has a rather open-minded personality, so our kiss scenes have gone very smoothly."

http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a59cnt.html



[Ta Kung Pao Special]

As well as filming series, Louisa So has also been taking time out to do a Mandarin Course at the professional further education college of Hong Kong University. She says openly that she is working hard to equip herself to break into the Mainland market and try the filming techniques there. She has also wanted to work with the local acting talent, especially Chen Duming.

She laughs: "Last year when SARS broke out, I stayed at home and was hooked to 'The Kangxi Empire' and I have nothing but praises for Chen's performance because he played the character from his youth to aged and the portrayal at each stage of life was very clear. Although he was playing an emperor, his version was not the usual portrayal you see of an emperor, this was a person will happiness, anger, sadness and joy."

As she is an artiste, Louisa cannot appear in public too much, why didn't she employ a private language tutor? She says: "Learning a language requires you to practise speaking it with other people, so if I am in a class with other students, then I will have more chances of practising. (Is it inconvenient for you?) Actually it is great! They are very interested in my affairs! (Do you have a natural flair for languages?) Yes. Actually, women have an advantage over men in language ability, so whether it is English or Mandarin, we have more accurate accents than the men!"

Louisa believes there is a massive trend towards learning Mandarin at the moment because there is more and more opportunity to come into contact with people from the Mainland. Even outside of work, personal tasks like watching movies will no longer be an obstacle and being able to understand and speak the language will help with communication, so even if filming is busy and hard work, she will still take time to go and learn.

with Louisa's new skills and her admiration for the mainland actors, has she thought about studying on the mainland? She says: "I would really like to and some of my friends have been to sit in at the Central Acting College courses. I would like to apply for a scholarship to study there, but it depends on the progress and development of my work. However, I should be able to fulfil this ambition because I only have a 'per-episode' contract with TVB."

Mentioning that her acting talent is unquestionably good, has she ever thought of turning to direction? Louisa laughs: "I don't think I am good enough yet! Being a director means you have to cover a lot of things, but the perspective of an actor is narrower, concentrating just on the character and your co-stars. It's like the director is sitting in a helicopter looking down on everything, but an actor is looking out of a tower block. Directors have to spend a lot of effort and concentration on bringing everything together." She continues: "I feel that if I want to be classed as a professional in one field, then I have to excel in it, so I will not go into direction for the sake of it. Maybe people will think that I am being too ambitious, but you always have to give yourself expectations."

As she has great acting skills, why doesn't she follow in the footsteps of Law Koon Lan and go into teaching? She says: "I have never thought about it, nor do I have the interest. Although I often lecture at the university, I am only sharing my experiences and profession as an artiste. Even if I am working with a newcomer, I will not teach them because I don't want to enforce my methods onto someone else. I will just drop them hints to inspire them. (Are you mistaken for being arrogant?) No, because those who have worked with me will know I am easy to get along with and if they have thought about the matter before they come and ask me, then I will try my best to help them find a solution, but I will not offer them questions." She feels that the most important thing for a person is being clear about what they are doing and whether they put their heart into what they are doing. Acting is never ending, so she does not feel that she is good at acting, more along the lines of scraping a pass. She laughs: "WHen you have seen some very good actors, you will gasp in admiration and praise. At the same time you will feel how bad you are in comparison and that is the fun about acting, you can always continue to improve."

Reporter: San San

http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-5-2/UL-256217.htm



[Oriental Daily, The Sun and Ta Kung Pao]

The photographic exhibition entitled "Looking at life positively - A reply to AIDS" was held yesterday and Julian Cheung, Niki Chow and Shawn Yu were present as guests. Having been absent for a while, Julian has had a body check earlier and found that he has a problem with his heart where one of the blood vessels appears to be blocked and cannot be operated on. Doctors have given him medication to help, but if it becomes serious, he could die suddenly.

Having just reached his thirties, Julian was originally going to start diving lessons, but after finding out about his condition and reading reports about the danger of diving, he has changed his mind. As he still has many ambitions to fulfill, he wants to make more shows and has therefore decided to drop his desire to learn to dive. Has Julian made a will after finding out about his condition? He laughs that he does not want to talk about this, but he already has many insurance policies and as well as his mother there are many who will benefit if he dies. When asked whether Anita Yuen is very worried about him, he says that she isn't, but he doesn't want to talk about these things.

Knowing little about AIDS, Niki Chow was very willing to take part in the events and find out the facts about the virus so she can help to spread the word. When it was mentioned that the virus can be spread through having unprotected sex, Niki revealed that her sex education is very limited and when she was younger, she thought that you could become pregnant from kissing. In order to avoid the next generation from being so naive, she feels that we should be feeding children the correct facts from the beginning. After becoming more familiar with the fans from her recent show "Hard Fate", Niki was surrounded by a group of young fans and their innocence inspired her even more to become a better role model to them.

Shawn feels that many people are afraid of AIDS and even discriminate against sufferers, so he would like to pass on a correct and positive message at these events. When asked about the recent news surrounding Roy Chow, Chiu Chung Yu and his former girlfriend Candy Lo, Shawn says that it is all too complicated and he does not want to comment on it, he just hopes that Roy is fine.

http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-5-2/UL-256227.htm
http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a58cnt.html
http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20040502/20040502004108_0003.html