Post by idolfan on Jul 4, 2013 8:22:16 GMT 7
An “Unbeatable” Combination
Fresh from winning the recent 16th Shanghai International Film Festival’s Golden Goblet Award for Best Actor and Best Actress, Hong Kong actor, Nick Cheung Ka Fai and our very own young startlet, Crystal Lee Xin Qiao met with guests and media in a special event organized by Ram Entertainment. It was a winning combination as both of them swept the highest award in their respective category, Nick Cheung taking home the Best Actor award and Crsytal Lee, the Best Actress award for the film “Unbeatable”, directed by famed Hong Kong action director, Dante Lam. This film is the first Hong Kong film to win multiple awards at the Golden Goblet Award and also the first film in the history of the event to achieve the feat.
During the press conference, guests and media were shown the premiere trailer of “Unbeatable” and also a video of the awards presentation in Shanghai was played to reminisce the joyous moment for both the best actor and best actress awards. The event also saw the celebration of the double win with a cake cutting and toasting ceremony.
When asked how he came to act in this film, Nick Cheung said “I have always been in discussion with Director Dante Lam, to think of new stories. It seems like we are always doing some film on police story. We wanted to come up with something different which has nothing to do with police. We also thought of “Muay Thai”, Thai boxing and then we discovered that MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) is very popular nowadays so let’s do something in that line”. Nick shared he has already started getting himself fit for the character even before the film was confirmed as he knows that it will be much tougher than doing “Muay Thai”. He said he took about 6 months of intensive training to earn his 6-pack abs for the film. “This is no easy feat and the training is very intensive and every morning I feel that my muscles are going to explode, even my family said the same thing”. Nick said that he will not continue hitting the gym as he has no interest at all in working out, he did it just for the sake of the film and he was surprised that he could do it.
Nick started his career in show business after 4 years with the Royal Hong Kong Police force and starred in his first film “Thank you Sir” in 1989 and has since taken home 8 best actor awards including this latest one. He swept seven Best Actor awards for his performance in Dante Lim’s “Beast Stalker”. Even with winning all these awards, Nick shared that he is not a dreamer and he don’t have any long term targets. “I will just work hard and concentrate to do my best each time and never really thought about winning any awards. But what I would really like to do after each win is to spend some time alone with my trophy, stare at it quietly and take time to appreciate it”.
During the initial filming of “Unbeatable”, Nick severely injured his left pinkie, it was broken like a “Z” shape and he was very worried as they just begun filming and he has to continue training as well. “The doctors told me to stop training and stop doing all the fight scenes as it will aggravate the injury further but I cannot just stop like that”. So Nick has to rely on Chinese medicine and physiotherapy for his finger and did the surgery once filming was over. “During the surgery, the doctor saw a lot of scar in there and said it’s because I did not treat it immediately and still kept on training. Even now it has not fully recovered yet”.
Our little young starlet, Crystal said she learn many things from “Ka Fai Gor Gor” (brother Ka Fai) “There was one scene where Ka Fai Gor Gor had to teach me how to box and I was quite scared and nervous and Ka Fai Gor Gor told me to believe in myself, that I can do it and I did it”. When asked what is the most challenging thing about doing this film she said “Actually there is none” and Nick exclaimed “No challenge and she can win the best actress award!” Crystal said that she never thought that she would win any awards. Nick has plenty of praises for Crystal saying that she is very talented and not afraid of the camera. “Seeing her so at ease in front of the camera, I did not treat her like a kid, I treated her as an adult and we communicated and bonded very well. We had a very natural chemistry and she also handled everything very well and managed to deliver in the emotional scenes”.
Crystal’s foray into the television drama series came when she was cast in NTV7’s “Lion Hearts” in 2009, then she even took on the role as a boy in “Forget Me Not” in 2011 and in 2012, she won the Best Newcomer Award at NTV7’s second Golden Awards for her performance in “Footprints In The Sand”. Her very first big screen debut was in “Great Day”, a Malaysian flick by Chiu Keng Guan in 2011. Her very first Hong Kong flick was playing Nicholas Tse’s daughter in “Viral Factor”, also by Hong Kong director, Dante Lim in 2012. Crystal will be hitting the big screen again in September this year, in Pang Bros’ fire-fighting movie, “Inferno 3D” with Louis Koo and Sean Lau.
“I am a person who dares to take risk and it may result in failure but I am willing to give it a try and risk failure but I would also have the opportunity to succeed”. Nick is taking a daring attempt to make his first movie in Malaysia. “This is very new and challenging for me and being my directorial debut I wanted to do something that no one expected which is a ghost story. Even though there are many people helping me, it is still very challenging for me to direct and act at the same time”. Nick concluded “I may fail, my movie might not be scary at all but at least I have tried my best and will not have any regrets. But I do hope that it will do well”. “Yu Lan Magic” will feature actresses Carrie Ng and Annie Liu and is produced by Malaysian, Adrian Teh (The Wedding Diary) and backed by Kuala Lumpur-based Asia Tropical Films.
Unbeatable is scheduled to hit local cinemas on August 22.