[2009.07.09] EDDIE CHEUNG MAKES MOVIES TO REGAIN SELF CONFIDENCE

Publicly recognized as one of the "acting school", Eddie Cheung Siu Fai worked on TVB series for 20 years. Since leaving TVB in 2001, he focused on his film career and worked on many Johnnie To Kei Fung films. Most recently he and Aaron Kwok Fu Sing worked on the thriller suspense film MURDERER (SAT YUN FAN), the character of which is the fullest one that he has ever played in film. It has a lot of room to showcase his talent. Cheung Siu Fai honestly says that he has been depressed while working on series, luckily he has friends to talk to!

Publicly recognized as one of the "acting school" Cheung Siu Fai most recently worked with Kwok Fu Sing on new director Roy Chow Hin Cheung's film MURDERER. In the film high rank cop Kwok Fu Sing is a suspect in a murder case. Cheung Siu Fai faces a good brother who has been through life and death with him becoming a suspect. His inner trust and mistrust become a tremendous struggle. Cheung Siu Fai frankly says that the hardest to make is internal scenes. Did his mood suffer a lot of disturbance from it? He says, "I already am more relaxed, Sing Sing's character is even more helpless."

Cheung Siu Fai expresses that this character can be considered the fullest and with the most dimensions in his film career. When asked whether he would like to be like Nick Cheung Ka Fai and win Best Actor, he says, "I don't know. When I act I never think about award or not. I only think about doing my part well and enjoy the production process." Cheung Siu Fai expresses that in the film he also has action scenes, the most memorable of which is a roll off a over 10 foot tall dam. He says, "I am afraid of heights but I wanted to try to personally do it. Of course if I wasn't confident, I wouldn't force it and hinder anyone. I have made many car chase scenes. This time I was confident and finally I got it in one take."

Drinking As Stress Relief

Cheung Siu Fai expresses that he and Kwok Fu Sing have worked together on THROWDOWN (YAU DOH LUNG FU BONG) but this time he had the most screen time. Did he feel Sing Sing have a lot of opinions? He says, "No, everyone would communicate together about the characters." Has he been depressed from acting? He says, "When I made the series ULTRA PROTECTION (FEI SEUNG BO BIU) I did. Because I was undercover, I would always be unhappy. It was harder to leave but it was not as severe as a depression. I would go around or meet friends to play ball, drink and chat. Having friends to talk to is the most important for an actor, you can't just bury yourself."

Cheung Siu Fai has made TVB series for nearly 20 years. He says that his decision to leave TVB was to try something new while he was young. Would he return to TVB? He says, "We will see!"

As for whether he has regretted or felt fortunate about leaving TVB, he says, "Once I decided I stopped thinking about it. I came out because I didn't want to feel like I was semi retired. Right now I still have energy." Cheung Siu Fai points out that although Director Chow is new, he has a lot of order and planning in his preparation. Since he constantly works on To Kei Fung films, was it stressful? He expresses that it was not as long as he was familiar with To Kei Fung's working method. Only sometimes he would second guess himself and be afraid that his performance was not good enough. - WAN MAN CHI