December 29, 2013

Hong Kong Source: nandu.com, KuangaiTVB

Translated by: aZnangel @ http://asianuniverse.net

The Tang dynasty musical legendary TV drama The Purple Hairpin starring Michelle Ye and Raymond Lam will be broadcasting on Guangdong TV with the leads' original Cantonese voices dubbed beginning on January 21st. Yesterday the promotional event was held in Guangzhou. The two talked about continuing their fate ten years later. Former TVB FaDan Michelle Ye and current TVB Siu Sang Raymond Lam collaborated in two series in the past Eternal Happiness and Lofty Waters Verdant Bow, but even before Michelle warmed up her TVB FaDan seat, she firmly left the company to develop her movie career and then in Mainland. Ten years later, Michelle and Raymond meet again. Michelle laughed: "Raymond is even more handsome and charming now! Our chemistry remains and our breathing is identical!" Raymond sighed: "Will I go down Michelle's path (work behind-the-scenes) in the future? Its too tiring! I don't think I can do it, I'll just stick to on-screen work."

In 2003 after Triumph in the Skies, Michelle was a young FaDan promoted by TVB, but she left the company and switched to the movie scene. Ultimately she won herself the Best Supporting Actress award at the HK Film Awards, then she moved up north to start developing her work studio and her own productions. From then on, she turned into a chairwoman and have worked as a producer in several Mainland dramas. Michelle told the media: "I debuted at TVB when I was 19, I didn't initially plan to leave TVB, but Wong Jing said to me: 'There are 9 levels in the entertainment circle. If you stay with TVB, your influential level and success as an artist could only get you up to level 6 at most. If you go out and work elsewhere, you could be like Carina Lau or Maggie Cheung, reach level 9.' At the time I was still young, but Wong Jing said I had hidden potential to develop outside of TVB. He has never been wrong! I listened to Wong Jing, he is definitely my talent scout."

So in Mainland, Michelle wasn't just an actress, she was also a producer from Looking for You to the End of the World to The Purple Hairpin. Michelle participated from the pre-production, finding an investor, casting, costume design and creating the script to post-production, the editing and promotion. She said: "I'm not that type of celebrity that just holds a 'producer' title, I do everything myself. One of the reasons is because to really produce great work, the actor is just the painter's brush, the actual painting is painted by the producer. You just have to ask yourself, do you want to be the painter's brush or the actual painter? The Purple Hairpin, I branded every part of it, it is my child!"

In the drama, Michelle and Raymond portray the ancient version of Endless Love, their romance is always a brief encounter with a lot of tears. Raymond said to the media: "Its just so heart-tormenting. I don't understand why I'm always the one being tormented?! But out of all the FaDans I have collaborated with, Michelle gives me the feeling that even if I haven't seen her in 10 years, we are still very familiar. We have so much chemistry in our crying scenes, there is no need to rehearse beforehand, we can just do it in one take. Her passion and perseverance for the drama, there is no doubt or surprise to me that she's the producer!"

It was rumored Raymond intends to retire from the industry in the coming year? He said: "For now, I will keep working hard on my career, but my schedule won't be as tight as before. You have to grasp life yourself, there must be a balance in life. My Mainland dramas in the coming year, TVB arranged those for me. (Concentrate more on love life?) Love is a part of life, if you can enjoy life, then you can be a better actor."