Hong Kong actor and comedian Cheung Tat-ming on beating cancer and winning at the Hong Kong Film Awards
- The 56-year-old recently won the best supporting actor prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards for his performance in I’m Livin’ It
- He has four new theatre scripts in the works and a cameo role in a big movie, but says he now puts health before work
After a nine-year battle with cancer which depleted his finances and brought his stellar showbiz career to a screeching halt, Cheung Tat-ming’s comeback this year is nothing short of extraordinary.
“I’m Livin’ It is a social film. There are many homeless people in society,” Cheung tells the South China Morning Post. “The film explores how people face [challenges in] life. My physical state is similar to that of my character, who has poor health. Helpless, penniless and frail, he walks unsteadily, does not eat well and loves drinking. He is similar to me, who has to walk slowly [now] … My experience of battling illness has enriched my acting.”
Cheung’s 2011 diagnosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma plunged him into the same abyss into which his character in the film falls.
