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HK Magazine

I watched a lot of television growing up in the seventies.
They used to play old black and white Cantonese movies on TV all the time. Now they don’t even play the reruns after midnight.
I had the feeling that I wanted to be an actor in primary school, but I didn’t tell anybody. It wasn’t that I was embarrassed. I just didn’t know how to even express that aspiration at an age when your only options were to be policeman, fireman or postman.
I went to a Catholic primary school. I went to listen to extracurricular sermons, but I only went for the free glass of milk and biscuit.
When I graduated from high school, I still looked like I was 15, so I decided not to risk entering acting school. Instead I looked for jobs in film studios.
I did lighting, I was the sound guy, a camera assistant—I tried everything to accumulate experience, but I knew my love was acting.
I like playing dramatic roles but you can’t always get them. It’s a blessing to get a role in this business already.
I prefer more dejected and gloomy roles—I guess it fits my own personality, I can handle those roles really well. But I did do a lot of comedy when I was younger.
The older you get, the less daring you become. In your youth, you’ll try everything and believe that you can handle anything. That’s why I tend to stick to dejected and gloomy roles, which I excel in.
I met my wife [actress Chan Man-yee] at an actor training course.
It wasn’t love at first sight, but she was definitely noticeable as she was the youngest in class, fresh out of high school.
We weren’t allowed to date classmates during the course. So I dated her afterwards.
My wife converted me to Christianity.
A lot of celebrity couples lead perfectly ordinary, drama-free lives. You just don’t hear about them.
Married life should be perfectly ordinary and drama-free. But there are ups and downs, of course.
My youngest son died in 2006 after struggling with leukemia for three years. He was only six years old.
We weren’t accepting at first, but we came to understand that what you can control in life is really very little. And you have to learn how to have peace with it.
The only support is your faith.
I realized how valuable my faith was at that point.
Without it, you would be living in despair, without hope.
Separation is sad, of course. Even if a relative goes to Guangzhou for a year, it’ll be sad. But it’s not a sadness in despair. It was a very peaceful goodbye.
I still have three sons, but it’s just that one’s in heaven waiting for me.
If I could choose, I would rather not go through that. But it was a learning process.
Being a TVB actor gets you inside every house in Hong Kong. Everyone knows and accepts you.
Television trains your mental patience, your physical perseverance and aptitude for suffering.
I don’t enjoy the physical experience of acting. Usually it’s under wretched circumstances… it’s actually really arduous.
But I love getting into another character’s shoes—to feel what it’s like to be a person leading another life, in another community.
Perhaps I’m a masochist.
Liu’s new film, “Stool Pigeon,” co-starring Nicholas Tse, opens in August.


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Liu Kai-chi

Backup - Liu Kai-chi

Magazines

Liu Kai-chi, affectionately known as Uncle Chi, has been a TVB actor for decades and is celebrated for his poignant “everyman” supporting roles. The two-time Hong Kong Film Award winner chats with Johannes Pong about television, his faith, and his late six-year-old son. 
