The Lady Iron Chef new year reunion dinner

[Ta Kung Pao 15/02/07]

The cast of New Year movie "The Lady Iron Chef" joined together for a reunion dinner earlier and executive producer Wong Jing offered a number of lucky packets for the draw. The dinner was attended by Hacken Lee, Yuen Chau, Alice Chan, Cheung Tat Ming, Chow Chung and Lau Yeung and female lead Charmaine Sheh rushed over after attending the TVB spring banquet. She joined straight in with the games, making sweet soup dumplings with Lau Yeung, which were judged by Hacken, Yuen Chau and Master Chow. However, Hacken had to take a breather after his sharks fin soup before he tried the dessert.

This film will be premiered on International Womens' Day on 8th March and Hacken says that his greatest memory of the film was wearing a highly amusing wig and his first ever scene where his pants fall down. At first when he read the script, he found this a little hard to bear, but in the end he convinced himself that he should not have any reservations as an artiste, so he locked away his 'pop idol' ego for the film. The scene in question tells of him falling from a rooftop and on the way down, Charmaine holds onto his legs, but his pants give way and he falls to the ground. When it was mentioned that this is similar to what happened earlier to Yumiko Cheng, who also appears in the film, but was absent at this event, Hacken denies this, saying: "No, it is not related." He has not discussed this scene with her though.

To avoid revealing himself during the scene, Hacken made sure he had plenty of layers on and he wore two pairs of underpants and a pair of boxer shorts below his trousers. When he arrived at the set, he borrowed another two pairs of shorts from the crew, so altogether he had five pairs of underpants on. He was still a little embarrassed though because he says he is rarely seen in his undies. He says: "I am not filming kung fu series, but I always end up on wires whenever I film a movie. The scene took a whole night to shoot and I was taking my trousers off and putting them back on numerous times during the shoot. It felt strange and uncomfortable because normally you would only do this if you had diarrhoea. (Was Charmaine embarrassed?) I don't think she felt anything, we just don't discuss it and it was nothing really because I had so many layers on." Talking of a scene where they closed off streets in Mongkok to film, Hacken comments that it has been many years since he walked down a street in Mongkok so happily. Howeverhe says that he has never been insulted on the streets, proving how accepted he is. He says that the only unhappy incident during filming was that he fell ill and he is still coughing.

Asked if he will be hosting the forthcoming new series of "Minutes to Fame", Hacken says openly that he is not sure yet and if the timing is right then he will do it. He is currently working with TVB on a slot in his schedule and he says that maybe he is just one of many choices for TVB. As for the rumours that TVB only wants one out of him or Joey Leung, he says he does not know and in the first series, he did not have time to do it originally and only found the time at the last minute. Moreover, he and Joey were the second choice options for the original job.

When Charmaine was asked about Hacken's trouser scene, she says she did not see a thing and she felt concerned more for his safety because he was on wires all night. Asked if after becoming TV Queen, her new goal is on the Best Movie Actress title, she says: "This is very far off and I would like to make more movies. It is great fun, especially comedies and the atmosphere is happier." There have been reports that a fortune teller predicts a death in her family this year and although this angered her, she does not feel there is any truth in what he says and good things always happen to good people. She does smile and hope for good luck. The reports also suggest she does not have the fortune to marry into a rich family, she says she would rather depend on herself.

Alice plays a cameo role in the film and she will not start work again until after the new year. Since selling her home, she has lived in a hotel for the past two years and recently she has moved to a serviced apartment. She reveals that she has not bought another property because she has been given advice from a soothsayer that she has to wait until 2008 before she does, otherwise there will be a flood. For Valentines Day, she is working during the day and she has an appointment with the dentist in the evening because she does not have a date. Having been photographed hand in hand with a man earlier in Mongkok, she says this is not her boyfriend, just a friend.

News translation credit to Em.

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