Why movie star Louis Koo feels the need to take Hong Kong film industry in ‘new directions’ to secure its future

Louis Koo Tin-lok may have been Hong Kong’s biggest movie star for more than a decade, but that doesn’t mean he has lost touch with the plight of everyday people.

One of the prolific actor’s recent films, writer-director Cheuk Wan-chi’s Vital Sign, sees him play a character struggling to deal with problems in his personal and professional life. His character, Ma, is a middle-aged ambulanceman who’s been on the job for so long he’s not afraid to bend the rules to get things done.

“I wanted to share a story about ambulancemen with film-goers,” Koo told the Post in a recent interview in New York, where he was attending the New York Asian Film Festival [NYAFF] to receive its Extraordinary Star Asia Award.

“It’s a way to let audiences know how hard they work. Think of their schedule – they work for six to seven days a week, and sometimes they don’t even get time to eat. They are also under serious pressure all the time from the work that they do.”

Koo says he found time in his own busy schedule to research his role. “I was making other films at the time, but I still managed to take some emergency medical training to prepare for the role. That experience inspired me, and I wanted to make sure the ambulancemen looked good in the film.”