ANDY Lau THE SIMPLETON?
2007/12/12 todayonline.com
Surely, this age-proof, award-winning singer, actor and multi-millionaire does not owe his success to plain dumb luck. Today gets to the bottom of what makes Andy Lau a superstar
When Andy Lau — suave, successful, much-desired Hong Kong megastar Andy Lau — looks you in the eye and tells you he thinks he's naive and innocent, you expect him to break into a hearty laugh two seconds later, smugly run his fingers through his perfectly coiffed hair, and tell you he's just kidding.
.
But he doesn't.
.
Instead, the apparently age-proof 45-year-old star — who was in town last weekend to promote US$40-million ($57.7-million) epic movie, The Warlords, helmed by Perhaps, Love auteur Peter Chan — elaborated on his supposed dimness.
.
"I only act like I'm smart ... I think a lot but at the end of the day, I can't run away from what my heart tells me," he said in Mandarin, drawing comparisons to Zhao Er Hu, the simpleton character he plays in the film alongside Jet Li (Fearless), Takeshi Kaneshiro (House of Flying Daggers) and Xu Jing Lei (Confessions of Pain).
.
The Warlords — set in a war-worn China, when the corrupt Qing dynasty was in danger of being overthrown — tells a heart-wrenching tale of three men bound by a blood-oath of brotherhood, which, as tragedies go, ends in betrayal and inevitably, death.
.
"(Er Hu) tends to make a show of how clever and capable he is, but he's really quite stupid up here," he continued, prodding the temple of his wrinkle-free forehead with an index finger.
.
Okay, say for a moment we take the bait and believe that Andy Lau, the actor, singer, multi-millionaire, is indeed as naive and thick as he professes to be. What then is the secret of his phenomenal success?
.
Lau has starred in no less than 130 films since 1978's Drunken Master. In 2005, he was named "No 1 Box Office Actor 1985-2005", with his movies yielding HK$1.7 billion ($320 million) in 20 years — beating both Stephen Chow and Jackie Chan.
.
As a recording star, the Heavenly King set a Guinness World Record for "Most Awards Won By A Cantopop Male Artiste", having won 292 awards by 2000.
.
Lau also has a heap of chart-topping hits (Thank You For Your Love, If You Are My Legend and Stupid Child) to croon about, the latest addition being The Warlords theme song of the same name. Lau will also be holding his Wonderful World concerts in Hong Kong from Dec 21 to Jan 5, although a Singapore date has yet to be confirmed.
.
And almost 30 years into his career, Lau is still one of the most bankable stars in the industry. Just last month, he signed a reported HK$200-million deal with record company East Asia Music, which also involves the sale of his more than 500-song music library.
.
As an actor, he's now at the top of his game.
.
The eagle-beaked star started out where many international stars from Hong Kong — such as Chow Yun Fatt, Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Maggi Cheung — scratched around for a living: TVB.
.
He is perhaps best remembered on the small screen for his role as Yang Guo in a TV remake of author Jin Yong's Return of the Condor Heroes. Then, with more Hong Kong TV serials — such as The Deer and The Cauldron (also based on Jin's novel) in which he acted alongside Leung — Wah-Chai, as he is affectionately known, quickly became a household name.
.
He moved to the silver screen where he played everything from the funny guy in slapstick comedies like God of Gamblers to the dandy Romeo in rom-coms such as Needing You. But the good-looking actor — who was named in a recent poll by China Daily as the most desirable Chinese man in the eyes of Western women — was acutely aware he was being cast for his pretty face and not for his acting chops.
.
In 2004, he told Time magazine: "You showed your handsome face, maybe stood there in a smart pose, and that was it — that was enough."
.
Lau was not about to settle. Running Out of Time had set the stage for Andy Lau the serious actor, winning him Best Actor at the 1999 Hong Kong Film Awards. He bagged the award a second time for Running on Karma in 2003.
.
Then came his role in the critically-acclaimed Infernal Affairs. The third instalment of the trilogy finally won Lau his first Golden Horse trophy in 2004.
.
Since then, Lau has worked in prestigious projects such as Zhang Yimou's House of Flying Daggers, Protégé and now The Warlords. Next year, he stars in a highly-anticipated film adaptation of the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms with co-stars Maggie Q and Sammo Hung.
.
Does that sound like the achievements of a village idiot? Probably not.
.
Perhaps it's his friendship with the right people in the industry — not well-developed media savvy — that has helped his career along. Wrong answer.
.
In Andy Lau's world of fame and riches, friendship — or "brotherhood" as they call it in The Warlords — is a luxury he can't buy with all that he's worth.
.
"I believe in brotherhood," he said, pausing for a moment to contemplate his next words. "But I don't know if it exists in my life. To me, it's an ideal — you think it's a two-way street, but it doesn't always happen that way."
.
With his hands interlocked and stretched out before him, he described the protective wall he has built around him.
.
"I give what I can for friendship, but I'm not so noble as to get cuts and bruises for it ... If I had to choose, I'd rank family and love before friendship," he added.
.
Ah, so maybe it's an unbreakable love with a special someone, an undying romance that propels him along, providing the support he needs. Wrong again.
.
While the famously private Lau admitted his songs are a peek into his emotional world — "they're like excerpts of my biography" — going through his recent albums, you get the sense affairs of the heart are not quite top of his priority at the moment.
.
"I don't sing many love songs now. Everybody is singing love songs," he said. "My songs are more about life and what's happening around us — such as ongoing wars, Aids, the environment ... "
.
Oh well, maybe he owes his success to pure dumb luck. Maybe, but Lau thinks "reality is cruel" — that's what he learnt from making The Warlords. "You just have to accept it. It's okay to have dreams, but don't let it fool you."
.
But just as you're about to write him off as more of a lonely, jaded Scrooge than the innocent knave he's been trying to convince you he is, he tells you all he wants for Christmas this year is to smile. "I would like me, my family and the world to be happy."
.
You roll your eyes at this trite, rehearsed stock answer, and in that moment, you are now the cynical gargoyle, and Lau, as he promised, is the naive innocent.
.
Damn, he's good.
.
The Warlords opens in cinemas here tomorrow. The review is on Page 48.
..........................................
The brothers grim
The Warlords is a gritty, brutal drama with powerful acting
FINALLY, here comes a Chinese blockbuster that has no discernable aspirations to impress the West.
.
No showy pugilistic moves, for one, nor a plot that is as flimsy as the silk of the character's exotic costumes. Needless to say, exotic costumes are not on the bill either.
.
This is real drama, set in a significant period of China's history — the Taiping Rebellion of the 1860s, when widespread poverty sparked an uprising against the Ching dynasty.
.
In the ensuing civil war, the paths of three men cross. General Pang (Jet Li) forms an alliance with a bandit leader Zhao Er Hu (Andy Lau) and Zhao's adopted brother Jiang Wu Yang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) with the vow to stop the rebellion and forge a better life for the country's suffering masses.
.
But the bond between the blood brothers unravels when their shared ideals begin to deviate and Pang falls in love with Zhao's wife (Xu Jinglei).
.
Billed as a war film, the battle scenes are bare, gritty and brutal, an admirable attempt to accurately portray a dark and violent time in history. Yet the strength of The Warlords comes not from the brawn of battle, but the complex layers of human drama.
.
Each brother represents an ideal: Pang for ambition, Zhao for integrity, Jiang for loyalty.
.
As each brother reacts to the call of power in different ways, thus each ideal is challenged.
.
Does integrity make Zhao an honourable man? Yes. But does it help him during the war? Not necessarily, as Pang, with his ruthless drive, begins to command the confidence of their troops.
.
The complexity of the characters gives the actors room for powerful acting, especially from Lau and Li, whose expressions alone can convey the depth of their internal conflict.
.
The conclusion, like the fate of the brothers, is ultimately tragic. None is the better for his beliefs. Empires rise and fall, and these men, with their mighty ideals, are but mere footnotes in history.
xuren0514
candyleung13
静子。10
野荆棘7
aiweis5
tinalin9275
每次す醒來5
wnayous4
格格丹4