"Drive of Life" Stars Reveal Poor Mandarin Skills at Beijing Ceremony

Credit to Bebe from www.shehsheh.com.
Download the clip here.

[Ta Kung Pao 21/03/07]

Joint venture production between TVB and CCTV "The Drive of Life" held a special ceremony to mark the start of Beijing location filming at the Film and Television Entertainment Expo yesterday, attended by cast members including Sheren Tang, Jessica Hsuan, Charmaine Sheh, Myolie Wu, Raymond Lam, Damian Lau, Toby Leung and Ng Wai Kwok. TVB's General Manager Stephen Chan and CCTV International Television Company Assistant CEO Ma Yunsheng were also on hand to conduct the proceedings. The ladies were not dressed particularly sexily, but took care over their appearances, with Sheren wearing a long coat, but with five inch sparkly heels catching the attention. Charmaine wore a thin silk dress, but her choice of underwear revealed some unsightly bumps.

During the event, the host asked the cast to use Mandarin to describe their characters, but they seemed rather frightened at the prospect and Sheren pushed her speech onto Raymond, saying his Mandarin was good. Although Charmaine is often working in the mainland, her Mandarin was only so-so. As they had to hand over the venue to the next event, the ceremony only lasted 30 minutes. Even as the final group photos were being taken, the crew were already dismantling the set behind them, worrying the artistes a little and causing some amusement. Despite rumours of animoscity, Raymond and Jessica were laughing and chatting away. Jessica reveals that she will be going to Beijing for two weeks, so she is improving her Mandarin. When it was suggested that Raymond could teach her as he is so fluent, she smiles: "When does he have time? I have already bought a pile of DVD's to teach myself." As for the rumours with Raymond, Jessica says that there are no problems between them and there is no awkwardness.

Sheren will be heading out to Beijing at the end of the month for location filming and she has always liked Beijing a lot, because she finds it very romantic and free there. She also has a soft spot for Beijing men as she feels that they are very manly as they are always very energetic when they talk. So will she buy a property there? She says: "I have thought about it, but my family and friends stopped me." Talking of her being rather wrapped up, she smiles: "As long as I put my effort into my acting, it is okay." Myolie will be flying out to Beijing today and she says that she will have a lot of scenes with the mainland actors, so fortunately her Mandarin is okay. When Charmaine was asked about her Mandarin being very average, she says: "The most important thing is that you understand me. I have been speaking the most im Mandarin today."

As "Drive" will be aired simultaneously in Hong Kong and Beijing, so CCTV will be arranging for dubbing artistes to dub the shots very soon. When it was mentioned that Raymond could dub his own voice, he laughs: "Don't joke, it is better to leave it to the dubbing professionals." As for the rumours of animoscity with Jessica, he says lightly: "We all know what is happening and in this industry it is either romance or animoscity. As long as we understand, it's fine."

News translation credit to Em.

Sehseh: Lol... the kissing scene is so funny. Less than 4 months until [Drive of Life] airs!

***I have also updated Charmaine, Ray and Damien's character synopsis. Beware of spoilers though.

Filming updates, clips and loads of picture coming up tomorrow!