[Ta Kung Pao & The Sun 01/10/04]
"War and Beauty" will finish airing on Saturday and the next series to air will be the TVB and Thai joint production "Split Second". The show's cast, including Patrick Tam, Kevin Cheng, Moses Chan, Mandy Cho, Lai Lok Yi and Marco Ngai took part in a war game promotion for the show yesterday where they were split into two games for a paintball match. Eventually Mandy, Kevin and Lok Yi's team lost and had to give up their backs as a target for the winning team to fire at them. Afterwards, Mandy indicated that her legs and thighs were hurting but she dare not turn around for fear of being hit in the face.
This is Mandy's first appearance in a series and although she does not have a very big part, she still hopes for good ratings. Kevin and Lok Yi really looked after her whilst filming and this made her very happy indeed as she felt very fortunate.
As for the show being aired straight after the highly popular "War", Kevin admits that he feels some pressure, but he will just have to see how the ratings go. He says: "After all the two shows are very different, one is very feminine and the other is more masculine. We all had a very happy time filming and we enjoyed the experience, so we feel we have already won." Talking of there being a lot of gossip in the female shows, but there being no gossip in this 'masculine' show, will this mean they lose out on the promotional stakes? Kevin says: "Men fight more openly! They wouldn't be so jealous or devious because that just looks bad!"
Patrick Tam has just finished filming the new Jackie Chan movie "King Tin Juen Kei" (Direct Translation: "Amazing Legend") and he says that Jackie arranged for a fast food trailer on the set for them, just like they do in Hollywood and this opened his eyes because he has never been treated this well. Later, Patrick will be heading back to the mainland to film CCTV production "Yang Nai Wu and Xiao Bai Cai" where he will star opposite Christy Chung in the title roles. It will be at least next year before he returns to film for TVB again.
Talking of the recent incident of 'acting becoming reality' [Ref: Dicky Cheung and Nicholas Tse were accused of beating up some Mainland actors off camera.], Patrick indicates that he will would like to see how Dicky is and as for one of the victims Wang Bai Zhao feeling that their apology was insincere and insisting on taking the incident to court, Patrick says: "As a friend, I would urge Dicky to write another notice because there is no point in ruining one's career in the mainland. There are often injuries during filming and as for whether it was intentional or not, then this is hard to tell because as an actor, you do not wish for NG's (retakes), otherwise you will be be even more injured with the extra blows. (Some people feel that Dicky does not respect Mainland actors?) I have worked with Dicky before in 'Duke of Mount Deer 2000' and from what I know of him, he is not that kind of person. He is very friendly to even the actors playing the smallest roles."
Also, with his role in "Split Second", Patrick says that he does have hopes for each show that is aired and this time, his hopes are even greater because he has quite a large role. Talking of the audience seemingly preferring the more feminine shows, he laughs: "I believe that the company will have calculated it correctly, after all series have to be varied and I hope that the men will not let us down. (Do you feel pressure from what can be gained?) Of course, I hope it will not be far off the ratings for 'War and Beauty'."
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http://www.tvbspacenews.blogspot.com/