[News] 2012/5/10 Maggie Shiu Tries to Help the Departed Look Good

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Maggie Shiu Tries to Help the Departed Look Good

By SETO KIT YAN
entertainment@thestar.com.my

Piping hot: Miao (Lim Ching Miau, left) and Pearl (Maggie Shiu) end up pole-dancing in a club in Simon Sek-helmed supernatural comedy Ghost Buddies.

HONG Kong actress Maggie Shiu looks forward to learning new skills in each new movie. In her latest, Ghost Buddies, she plays a mortuary make-up artist who ends up pole-dancing at a club after being possessed by a ghost. How’s that for a fresh experience?
“I like picking up new skills and fortunately for me, acting allows me to do that very often. In Ghost Buddies, I’ve to learn how to pole-dance. That was new to me and took some effort. It’s a special art that takes time for one to learn well, but time was something we were lacking. So, I did the best I could under the circumstances,” said Shiu, 47, who looked like a college girl in her youthful and vibrant outfit comprising a short-sleeved orange knit top and green pants.

Shiu, whose character in the movie is a Hong Kong-born girl who moved to Singapore, also continued to entertain audiences with her heavily Cantonese-accented Mandarin. “It’s quite easy and lots of fun for me, as I only have to make my lines sound amusing by deliberately mispronouncing certain words to make the whole room rock with laughter,” she quipped, to more chuckles as she made another gaffe with her declaration.
Presented by Double Vision Pictures and Astro Shaw, the horror comedy is a feel-good movie about friendship, love and sacrifice. Directed by Hong Kong TVB director Simon Sek (A Step Into The Past, Eternal Happiness), Ghost Buddies stars an ensemble of actors like Mark Lee, Yao Wen Long, Lenny Ooi, Lim Ching Miau, Chow Kee Moo, Wee Kheng Ming, Vivian Tok and Kelvin Leong. Shiu was accompanied by this ensemble of actors at a media conference to promote the movie in Kuala Lumpur last Wednesday.

The movie was shot on location in the Klang Valley, and its theme song, lyrics and music were all by Malaysian singer-songwriter Ooi, who also portrays one of the ghosts.
Ghost Buddies revolves around two people working in a mortuary, who suddenly find themselves compelled to help three ghosts resolve unfinished business. Feisty mortuary make-up artist Pearl (Shiu) is unaware that her assistant Hui (Lee) is enamoured with her, while she has a crush on dashing salesman Chaoren (Wee).
The haunting begins when Hui finds that he can see and hear the three ghosts – chronic gambler Hu (Ooi) who loves his family, flamboyant teen Miao (Lim) who loves dancing and senior citizen Wang (Bo) who loves Lian, a woman half his age.
After doing some cameos for lunar new year comedy Ngo Ngoi HK Hei Seung Ga Hei (I Love Hong Kong 2) and mainland comedy Bang Jia Da Ming Xing (Kidnapping The Star), Shiu said she will continue to shuttle between China and Hong Kong for her upcoming film and television projects.
Her four TV series this year are mainland dramas Happy General and Bounty Hunter as well as Hong Kong series Master Of Play and Great Eunuch.
> Ghost Buddies opens in local cinemas nationwide today.


Hui (Mark Lee) has a crush on Pearl in the movie.

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I must say I'm quite impressed with this reporter Szeto Kit Yan's effort of doing homework on M.

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From Buddies to family



THE stars of Ghost Buddies were in Kuala Lumpur recently to promote the movie, a collaboration between local outfits Double Vision and Astro Shaw.

The cast — Singapore’s Mark Lee and Yao Wen Long; Hong Kong’s Maggie Shiu and Malaysia’s Lenny Ooi, Lin Jin Miao (Miao Miao), Chow Kee Moo and Wee Kheng Ming — attended a Press conference at Golden Screen Cinemas in Mid Valley.  

Both Lee and Shiu were the centre of attention at the event, as both were poking fun at each other, including making fun of the latter’s Mandarin.

“Half the time none of us had any idea what would come out of her (Shiu) mouth,” Lee said after the Press screening of Ghost Buddies. “But we had great fun working together.”

Shiu, a native Cantonese, then tried answering the media’s questions in Mandarin to show her fluency in the language, albeit with a strange accent.

Lee, a familiar face in Jack Neo’s movies such as Ah Long Pte Ltd and Where Got Ghost, and who had made an appearance in the recent Twisted Love, said that his happiest experience was while working on the set of Ghost Buddies.

“We’ve got to work with people from different countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Initially I thought it would be tough working with stars from Hong Kong but we were one big family,” said Lee.

He added that Shiu is a person can warm up to easily.

“Maggie is indeed a great person to work with. And very friendly too... She doesn’t possess any airs.”

Lee also added that fans waited for the cast, particularly Shiu, at supper at the hotel lobby where they stayed during shooting.

Shiu, who nodded in agreement to Lee’s remarks, said: “It was a great opportunity to try different things. Mark and I hit it off with the right chemistry the moment we met on the set.”

Shiu began her acting career in 1985. She appeared in many TVB series including Perish In The Name Of Love, ICAC Investigation 2004 and Healing Hands III. She has also appeared in movies, notably in Election and Eye in the Sky, where she was nominated for Best

Supporting Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards.

One FM deejay Miao Miao has also appeared in ntv7’s Happy Family. The telemovie was screened during Chinese New Year. She was star-struck when she met Lee and Shiu.

“I used to watch their performances on TV. And I retold some of the jokes that Mark (Lee) cracked on TV to my friends at school. I never got tired of telling the same jokes over and over again,” said the Penang-born. “I thought it would be hard to work with the two veterans of the industry. But I was wrong. They are friendly people who are committed to their work,” said Miao Miao.

Wee, who was nominated Best Supporting Actor in ntv7’s Golden Awards 2012 for his role in Injustice, revealed that he had a tough time shooting a kissing scene in Ghost Buddies.

In Ghost Buddies, Wee plays Superman who has a short relationship with Shiu. “I was a nervous wreck on the day of the kissing scene. I was supposed to kiss Maggie but was too shy once the camera started rolling,” he said.

When asked what he would do if the movie raked in more than RM3 million, Wee was caught off guard and was speechless. Lin grabbed the microphone from him and exclaimed that she would give the actor a kiss, in front of everyone!

“I think RM3 million is an easy target,” she said confidently.

Filmed in Malaysia, Ghost Buddies employs different languages and dialects to reach diverse viewers. The audience can look forward to the dubbed version of the movie in Malay and Mandarin. The movie in Hokkien, was also  re-dubbed in Hokkien.

The movie, is directed by Hong Kong’s Simon Sek, who gained recognition in Singapore’s 1994 The Challenger and  A Step Into The PastTVB series, starring Louis Koo and Raymond Lam.

Ghost Buddies opens in cinemas today.

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A Mark of talent

Posted on 10 May 2012 - 04:59pm
Sharon Wong
lifestyle@thesundaily.com




RENOWNED Singaporean actor Mark Lee has, of late, been coming to here frequently to film movies, the most notable one being Petaling Street Warriors, which received rave reviews.

Ghost Buddies is his latest and he is paired with Hong Kong veteran actress Maggie Shiu.

According to this comedian-actor-director-and-programme host who was in town to promote the movie, it is very different from his previous horror fare.

“Ghost Buddies is a happier movie with many pretty, happy ladies around,” he said at a press conference.

Also present at the press conference were co-stars Shiu and Singapore-based Malaysian actor Yao Wen-long as well as local artistes in the cast.

Yao had several firsts with this movie. Not only is he a ghost but he also gets to bare his chest.

“I had ‘tattoos’ because my chest is not so nice,” he said modestly. The problem was, he tended to sweat a lot and that meant a lot of touch-ups had to be done.
Nevertheless, it was an experience to cherish.

Ghost Buddies, a collaboration between Double Vision Pictures and Astro Shaw, is a bizarre comedy revolving around a make-up artist (Shiu) in a funeral parlour and her geeky assistant (Lee) who is able to communicate with spirits.

What ensues is total chaos as several ghosts vie for his help in fulfilling their last wish. Along the way, the two develop a strong bond …

The movie, which is filmed entirely in Malaysia, also stars local celebrities like singer-producer Lenny Ooi, actor Wee Kheng Ming, comedian-DJ Lim Ching Miao, MY FM DJ Vivian Tok, radio voice artiste Chow Kee Moo and Kelvin Leong.

“Malaysia is a very fertile land nurturing many talents,” Lee said. “Many Singaporean movies are also being filmed here and from that, you’ll know the industry is developing rapidly.”

As to why he seems to be a favourite among Malaysian film companies, Lee cheekily replied it is probably because he comes “cheap”.

On working with Shiu, Lee revealed that initially he was a tad wary as he thought a well-known Hong Kong actress like Shiu would surely be uppity and hard to work with.

“But I had none of that with Maggie,” he said. “She’s great … or she’s a great actress!

“Actually, she has a lot of fans in Malaysia … some would even wait for her with supper at the hotel in the middle of the night when we finish filming.”

At the press conference which was done in Mandarin, Shiu at times looked like she was at a loss and Lee teased her about her heavily-accented Mandarin.

“Initially, they were rather worried about my command of Mandarin,” Shiu said. “They were afraid that it would delay filming. But they have been great, always taking care of me.”

Shiu decided to accept the role because of the benefits that came with it.

The pay was good, of course, and so was “the opportunity to be with some handsome guys”.

“The timing was also right as I felt there was a need for me to try out new things and meet new friends,” she said.

Her accented-Mandarin is also appropriate in the movie as she is supposed to be an immigrant from Hong Kong.

But Lee’s dialogue, whether in Hokkien, Mandarin or Cantonese, was dubbed, and that remains one of his regrets.

“They did ask me to come over to do the dubbing but my work schedules were too tight,” he said. “That was a huge disappointment as I would have loved to do it myself.”

Ghost Buddies opens in cinemas today.

inkio

谢谢分享哦！

冰妍

thx shaw。

“Actually, she has a lot of fans in Malaysia … some would even wait for her with supper at the hotel in the middle of the night when we finish filming.”

hahaaa， so carzy~

Connie

造福英文版区的朋友们，谢谢SHAW

peace

Thanks for sharing. Nowadays it's very hard to find a piece of entertainment news which doesn't focus on gossips. The reporter really respected Maggie as a veteran actress.