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Elaine Yau

For Hong Kong film stars who are native Cantonese speakers, a poor grasp of Mandarin has often been a big hindrance to their careers in mainland China.
Myolie Wu Hang-yee, who turned 41 on Friday, is among the few to have overcome this obstacle; indeed, she speaks a number of Chinese dialects so fluently she is often mistaken for mainland Chinese by audiences.
The actress and singer’s linguistic prowess came to the fore recently when she spoke flawless Anhui dialect while competing in a Chinese reality TV show.
Everybody Stand By pits 40 actors against one another in a contest to re-enact classic scenes from TV dramas and movies.

Hugely popular, the second season of this Tencent TV production was launched in early October.
Wu says she felt a lot of pressure joining the show, in which she had to re-enact a scene from the﻿ film Dearest, in which she played a poor village woman who unwittingly adopts two kidnapped children after she and her late husband are unable to have any of their own.
Film review: Dearest – Peter Chan’s kidnap tale a slow burner
“I only knew of the character I had to play two days before shooting. [Mastering] the dialect was the biggest challenge, [but] I forced myself to learn it. I also kept watching the original movie,” she tells the Post.
The original character was played by Vicki Zhao Wei, who won multiple best actress awards for her performance in the 2014 movie. Together with directors Chen Kaige, Derek Yee Tung-sing and Guo Jingming, Zhao appeared on the judging panel and was tasked with coaching contestants in the show.
Wu’s portrayal of a wretched woman who has to part with her daughter after the police learn she was kidnapped awed the judges, with Zhao saying Wu mastered the Anhui dialect even better than her. Wu says she watched Zhao’s scenes in the movie so many times that she dreamt about the actress.

“Coincidentally, I didn’t see my son for the two days before shooting. [This separation] made me get into the role more emotionally,” says Wu, a mother to two boys.
Wu says she had no qualms portraying a physically unappealing character with sticky hair and an oily face. Being an actor is like putting on a mask, she says.
“An actor wears a mask when working. The mask alone is amorphous, it attains a form through make-up or costume. We shouldn’t mind [how we look].”

Wu began her show business career after winning second runner-up in the 1999 edition of the annual beauty pageant run by Hong Kong broadcaster TVB. She went on to become an actress and won multiple awards for her performances in a number of TVB dramas.
Known as “the queen of the small screen”, Wu’s acting skills and unassuming demeanour made her one of the top TVB actresses before she left the TV station in 2015 and got married. Recalling her decision to quit to study biochemistry at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, she says she has no regrets.
“The ultimate aim of studying is to get better choices when finding a suitable job. I am very lucky that I found the job I love having skipped [university when I was younger].”

Since her marriage, she says, her challenge has been to find a balance between work and family. “This is an unavoidable problem that every woman faces. I won’t complain. I will try [to do] my best,” Wu says.
Despite media reports that the actress went into a hiatus after her marriage and is now making a comeback, Wu says: “I never left.
“I just took a break after childbirth. I took only one to two months off after each birth. I am grateful that I recovered very fast. Being an actress is not much different from other career women who take the 10-week maternity leave [Hong Kong law requires]. I will keep doing jobs that suit me.”

While her husband, a businessman, took care of their older son (he is three) in Hong Kong, Wu took her one-year-old son to China – and had him in tow even when she was on set.
“It’s a new experience for me to bring him to work with me,” says Wu. “In the past, I was afraid that people would think I am not professional by doing that. But I made the decision because of the Covid-19 outbreak, which entails long separations [because of border controls].
“Although I need to do many things to take care of him, it is worth it, as I can hug and cradle him every day.”


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Chinese culture

Actress Myolie Wu’s mastery of Mandarin Chinese makes her a rare success as a Hong Kong star in China

Handout image shows Myolie Wu Hang-yee, the rare star from Hong Kong whose Mandarin has been so impressive that audience mistake her for a native mainlander. [06NOVEMBER2020 FEATURES] CREDIT: Wang Wen

Handout image shows Myolie Wu Hang-yee, the rare star from Hong Kong whose Mandarin has been soimpressive that audience mistake her for a native mainlander.[06NOVEMBER2020 FEATURES]CREDIT: Wang Wen

Handout image shows Myolie Wu Hang-yee reenacting a classic scenes from the 2014 movie Dearest in the recent reality TV show - Everybody Stand By Season 2. Wu, the rare star from Hong Kong whose Mandarin has been so impressive that audience mistake her for a native mainlander.[06NOVEMBER2020 FEATURES]CREDIT: Tencent

Myolie Wu is one of the rare stars from Hong Kong whose Mandarin has been so impressive that audiences mistake her for a native mainlander. Photo: Wang Wen

Racism and sexism in Hollywood: women stunt performers speak out about film industry bias in documentary

A still from Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story (2020), which highlights the dangers of the job and the biases that exist in the film industry today. Photo: Stuntwomen

(Original Caption) Picture shows a train stunt with a man and woman on the train tracks. Undated photo. ÒThe history is that women were doing stunts a hundred years ago at the beginning of cinema,Ó says Chicago native April Wright, who directed  Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story  ÒAnd then when the studio system formed, a lot of men took over Ð not just stunts but also the key writing, directing and producing positions, many of which were held by women in the early days of cinema Ð so stunts become a heavily male-dominated industry and stayed that way for a while.Ó

"Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story" director April Wright during the Bentonville Film Festival opening event at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art on May 8, 2019. (Brent Soule'/Zuma Press/TNS)

Stargirl actor Anjelika Washington posted a photo on Instagram of her standing next to her stunt double on an unnamed project. “I was very uncomfortable [as anyone would be to meet your double in blackface] so I spoke up for myself,” she wrote.

A scene with Jamie Lee Curtius in True Lies.CREDIT: 	Universal Pictures

Five Years on, Ten Years directors reflect on the spooky political predictions of their Hong Kong Film Awards best picture

Liu Kai-chi in a still from the segment Local Egg, directed by Ng Ka-leung, from omnibus film Ten Years (2015).

A still from Extras, directed by Kwok Zune, one of five short films included in Hong Kong film Ten Years (2015).

A still from the segment Season of the End, directed by Wong Fei-pang, of the anthology film Ten Years (2015).

A still from Chow Kwun-wai's mockumentary Self-Immolator, one of five short films included in Hong Kong film Ten Years (2015).

A still from the segment Local Egg, directed by Ng Ka-leung, of omnibus film Ten Years (2015).

Hong Kong movie producer Andrew Choi, fourth left, and director Ng Ka-leung, third left, pose with members of the cast and crew after winning the Best Film award for their movie “Ten Years” during the Hong Kong Film Awards. 03APR16 SCMP/Edward Wong

Actor Leung Kin-ping in a still from Dialect, one of five short films included in the omnibus feature Ten Years (2015).

The directors of Ten Years (from left) Kwok Zune, Wong Fei-pang, Jevons Au Man-kit, Chow Kwun-wai and Ng Ka-leung, in 2015. Photo: SCMP/Nora Tam.

How-to-make Chinese food videos aimed at foreigners have turned this YouTuber into a star

Chinese YouTuber Mandy Fu is the creator of the popular Souped Up Recipes channel that teaches how to make Chinese food in clear, simple steps. Photo: Courtesy of Mandy Fu

Lifestyle

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Myolie Wu is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, unlike some Hong Kong actors, and wowed actress Vicki Zhao Wei with her proficiency in Anhui dialect on a TV show
In Hong Kong Wu was known as ‘queen of the small screen’ for her TV drama roles, but she quit them to marry and have children. Now she is enjoying a renaissance



Many native Cantonese speakers come a cropper in China. Not Myolie Wu, whose mastery of Mandarin Chinese and its dialects wowed actress Vicki Zhao Wei, fellow jurors and audiences on a recent reality TV show.


Chinese language cinema

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Cinema