2 R OR NOT 2 R: A brief history of Hong Kong pop idols.
The whole concept of manufactured Asian singing stars began in Japan, with the rise of ‘talentos’. These were girls picked from obscurity because of one extraordinary feature (enormously large eyes, perhaps) and groomed for a very plastic kind of stardom. With their every movement and moment carefully choreographed, these starlets could pack sports stadiums with screaming ‘otaku’ fans, without ever exhibiting the slightest evidence of individuality.
This concept of ‘grow your own’ starlets was imported to Hong Kong early, and with the greatest success, by the Emperor Group. Certain of the Japanese talentos had gained fame in Hong Kong, and the company decided to start generating their own. One of the earliest examples of this was singer Grace Ip, who was positioned as a Cantonese popular music (Cantopop) idol with a hip hop flavour.
I met Grace when I worked on my first major action film, Gen-X Cops. She played a streetwise punkette called Y2K. She was very easygoing, and gung ho in the few action scenes she was given. Grace originally had more dramatic and comedic scenes in the film, but these hit the cutting room floor. Regardless, she got good notices in Variety and elsewhere, and I was surprised that no-one ever gave her another action movie role of note. We worked together again on a Japanese-Hong Kong co-production, Kakashi, in which she plays a Chinese girl living in a Japanese village, one with a strange secret involving soul-stealing scarecrows. Subsequently, apparently frustrated at the limitations imposed by her long-term management contract, she faded from the scene, to be replaced by Emperor’s biggest female solo star, Joey Yung. (Joey is a great gal and a decent singer. She’s yet to really make an impression as an actress, though she was almost cast in our Dragon Dynasty release Dragon Heat.)
The Japanese idols making their mark in Hong Kong included the impassive pop duo Puffy. (They would later break in the west with the Puffy Ayumi cartoon series, and their theme song for the Teen Titans animated show, which my sons play obsessively…)
EMG created their own Puffy in the form of ‘Twins’: Charlene Choi (Ah Sa) and Gillian Chung (Ah Gil). I’ve worked with Twins, and, in particular Gillian, a bunch of times, most memorably on their breakthrough local film hit The Twins Effect. Contrary to the trend, the pair did develop very differing personas. Charlene is regarded as the more talented and accomplished actress, and Gillian the gung ho action princess. (I’ll reveal more on my experiences with Twins, and especially Gil, in a separate blog.) The one aspect that no-one could have anticipated about Twins is their longevity. They seem to be easily as popular now as they were when they first exploded onto the Hong Kong entertainment scene in 2001.
Besides Emperor, another key player in the Hong Kong pop scene is Paco Wong of Gold Label. Paco has a midas touch as both a concert promoter and music impresario, and has also enjoyed some success as a film producer. Among the pop idols, he also manages kung fu star Wu Jing, who stars in the current and future Dragon Dynasty releases Kill Zone, Invisible Target and Fatal Contact. This last also features two of Paco’s singing stars, Theresa Fu and Miki Yeung, in demanding acting roles, and they acquit themselves surprisingly well. Both were members of a nine (yes, 9!) piece girl group called Cookies. We managed to shoot interviews with both for the upcoming Invisible Target DVD, and you’ll see from those featurettes how funny and charming they both are.
The latest female pop idols to make my acquaintance are, in some ways, the most impressive. Race and Roseanne Wong were launched, as 2R, to counter the success of Twins. Despite receiving saturation coverage on local magazines and television, the pair was unsatisfied with the direction their career was heading. They ended their existing management contract, and are now working to redefine themselves as musicians and actresses.
I met the sisters Wong through Jaycee Chan. This was in a pool hall called Racks (and, hey, any girls who hang out in a pool hall can’t be all bad, right?). I found them to be tri-lingual and bi-charming, and they definitely have more to offer, both as singers and actresses, than they’ve hitherto been given a chance to. They’re also pretty easy on the eye. (That’s me with them at the top of the page, along with their friend and fellow artiste Kelly Fu.)
As singers, they can actually perform acapella and without lip syncing (which is surprising rare for Hong Kong pop idols.) As actresses, they acquitted themselves well in the Pang Bros directed horror flick Abnormal Beauty. They haven’t done much kung fu training yet, but we’re going to fix that.
Usually these blogs focus on folk who are in a Dragon Dynasty release. With Roseanne and Race, I’m introducing two new stars that are going to be!
Comments
- Marie, North Carolina, US | 2007-11-21 05:41:19
- Phoenix, littlebhudda2007 @yahoo.com | 2007-11-21 11:14:32
- H.A.M., Darkest Pordor | 2007-11-22 06:03:27
- Wade, Minnesota, USA | 2007-11-21 00:46:33