SMOKE & MIRRORS
WHEN THE WORLD USHERED IN A NEW MILLENNIUM ALONG WITH THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AT THE TURN OF THE 21ST CENTURY, VIEWERS SAW THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW STAR AMID THE
CONSTELLATION OF ARTISTES IN THE CELESTIAL SPHERE OF THE HONG KONG
ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY WHEN A YOUNG RAYMOND LAM, THEN A FRESH GRADUATE OF THE TVB ARTISTS TRAINING CLASS, MADE HIS PROFESSIONAL DEBUT
AT THE TELEVISION NETWORK.
Following a few minor parts and a hosting gig, Raymond rose to prominence for his role as the first emperor of China in the main cast of A Step into the Past (2001), led by Louis Koo. Recognised for his breakthrough performance, Raymond was immediately offered the leading part in what would be the highest rated drama of the year in Hong Kong, Eternal Happiness (2002), followed by 2003’s legal drama Survivor’s Law, for which he won his first major award, Most Improved Male Artiste, at the TVB Anniversary Awards.
Despite his meteoric rise to stardom, Raymond has since stayed on to become one of the most prolific actors of his generation and an important icon that defines Chinese pop culture across Asia Pacific in the third millennium, particularly with the landmark success of the all-time highest rated series in Hong Kong television history, Moonlight Resonance (2008), with a leading role that won him the TVB Anniversary Award for Most Popular Male Character.
While his other notable work includes main roles in such popular hits as The Mysteries of Love, for which Raymond was awarded My Favourite Male Character in 2010, and the serial adaptation of Hong Kong-based Malaysian wuxia novelist Woon Swee Oan’s The Four Great Constables, Raymond’s most iconic leading role in more recent years is the undercover police agent Bao Seed in 2014’s most watched show and TVB Anniversary Awards’ Best Drama, Line Walker. For his outstanding performance, Raymond was awarded Best Actor at the 15th edition of Huading Awards, while the overwhelming success of the show has since spawned a prequel in 2017 and two feature-length films in 2016 and 2019, albeit with mainly different casts.
Throughout the years, Raymond has also made steady inroads into film and music, and successfully ventured beyond TVB, into the world’s most coveted market, China. Amidst heavy competition from the large pool of
Chinese talents, Raymond landed a leading role in 2014’s The Virtuous Queen of Han, in which he plays the historical Emperor Wu of Han; his portrayal of Lu Xiaofeng in the following year’s Detectives and Doctors was widely celebrated as the most outstanding screen depiction of the title character in Gu Long’s classic wuxia novel series.
Raymond’s on-screen eminence is accompanied by an equally stellar music career, with numerous memorable TVB show theme songs, many from the series he has starred in, credited to him, including Love With No Regrets from Moonlight Resonance. Since debuting his first album, Searching For You in Loving Memories in 2007, the actor-singer has altogether released a total of nine albums, with Trap being the latest - a major feat that has been marked with multiple recognitions throughout the years.
Among the awards presented by the prestigious long-running Jade Solid Gold Best Ten Music Awards, five Top 10 Song Awards, three consecutive Asia Pacific Most Popular Male Singer Awards, two backto-back Most Popular Male Singer Awards, and ultimately a Gold Song Gold Award, were all in recognition of the best song of the year, for his 2011 hit single, Chok.
Upon the release of his third album in 2009, Let’s Get Wet, the multiple award-winner held his own concert for the first time at the historic Hong Kong Coliseum, marking the start of a series of concerts and world tours in the subsequent years, his latest being that in Shanghai just last year. In the wake of his 20th anniversary, Raymond has expressed that he would like to celebrate the milestone with his fans in spectacular style with a major-scale concert and world tour.
When Sincere Fine Watches recently launched its sensational “100 Masterpieces” exhibition
ACTING FOR TV, I FEEL, CALLS FOR A MORE DIRECT APPROACH IN ORDER TO CATER FOR A WIDER AND MORE DIVERSE AUDIENCE. THIS OFTEN INHIBITS AN ACTOR FROM EXPERIMENTING OUTSIDE THE BOX. FILM, ON THE OTHER HAND, HAS ALLOWED ME MORE ROOM TO INNOVATE AND PUSH MY BOUNDARIES.
in Pavilion KL, in collaboration with esteemed independent watchmaker Franck Muller, Raymond Lam graced the event in a special appearance as the celebrity guest of honour. We took the opportunity to speak to the pop star on his 20th anniversary, his film undertakings and the highly anticipated resumption of his iconic role in Line Walker for the third instalment of the series franchise in 2020.
How has your journey been since venturing beyond TVB and pursuing your career on your own?
Following my departure from TVB, I spent the first two years focusing on my music as well as giving myself the time to reflect on my overall career because since my debut at the age of 19, I spent over a decade working non-stop and learning the trade and, as a result, I did not get much time to digest what I have learned and put it all into perspective.
How do you feel about reprising one of your most iconic TV roles for the third instalment of the Line Walker series franchise?
It’s been five years since I last worked on the series, so I’m very happy to be able to reprise my role and work with many of the cast and crew again. If you’re an avid follower of the Line Walker franchise, you’d notice that there’s actually a few year’s gap in the timeline between the first and the second series. The third Line Walker instalment serves to tell the story of the events that went down in those years, bridging the gap between the two shows, which is why you will see various characters from the first two shows come together and the plots that form the coherent whole of the Line Walker franchise.
What is your approach to the character this time around?
Today, after some growing up and further understanding of my character, Bao Seed, I hope to unveil a deeper view into my character
and offer a new dimension to his life, making it more memorable and personal for the audience.
You’ve expressed your interest in taking your film career further. What has inspired that?
Since last year, I’ve managed to take on more challenging roles, particularly in film, some of which have already been released. Personally, they represent a real breakthrough, a leap forward, because I’ve mostly played more straightforward characters in the past, but finally, after so many years of honing my skills and yearning for new challenges, I was able to put my game to the test and offer the audience a more refined delivery of my craft.
How is acting for TV different than acting for film?
I’m extremely excited about challenges and I take them in stride, as my chances to greater success. Acting for TV, I feel, calls for a more direct approach in order to cater for a wider and more diverse audience. This often inhibits an actor from experimenting outside the box. Film, on the other hand, has allowed me more room to innovate and push my boundaries. I’m glad that, for the past two years, I’ve been able to take on roles that allowed me to delve deeper into human nature, at times even to the point of befuddlement and needing to decompress and retune my thoughts. A case in point is the upcoming crime thriller Cold Detective (Detective vs. Sleuths) by Wai Ka-Fai, whose work, as many would regard, has reached “godlike” status. It was the first time I ever had to take two to three weeks off for a mental reset after filming a movie.
And the rationale of your personal approach to TV?
TV series typically run for a very long period of time. Its primary purpose is to entertain and keep the audience engaged. So if you have a very grim character or storyline throughout the series, the audience might get tired of it at a certain point. I feel that a good show needs to have a combination of different tones - from relaxing to sombre, emotional to light-hearted, intimate to dramatic, etc - only then will it be complete.
What are your preferred roles these days?
In recent years, I’ve taken on more crime drama and police procedural roles, which tend to have a high success rate, because the cases are always different, with mystery and suspense that keep the audience hooked. In addition, the wide range of agencies and units in the police force offers the opportunity to play different roles every time. Whether I’m portraying a detective or an undercover agent, I get to immerse myself in different worlds and gain varied insights, which I find give me the most pleasure as an actor.
How do you plan to celebrate your 20-year milestone in 2020, and what are your plans going forward?
I’m planning to celebrate it with my fans, big time, with a major concert and tour as I appreciate them so much, and hopefully record some new songs. Going forward, I would like to explore more opportunities in film and pursue roles with more action sequences involved, which I feel are more visually engaging for the audience, whereas for me, more physically stimulating as an actor.
I’VE MOSTLY PLAYED MORE STRAIGHTFORWARD CHARACTERS IN THE PAST, BUT FINALLY,
AFTER SO MANY YEARS OF HONING MY SKILLS AND YEARNING FOR NEW CHALLENGES, I WAS ABLE TO PUT MY GAME TO THE TEST
AND OFFER THE AUDIENCE A MORE REFINED DELIVERY OF
MY CRAFT.
A clean world without smoke – is this the real life, or is this just fantasy? Through the Unsmoke Your World photo exhibition that took place late last year, in conjunction with Philip Morris International’s ongoing Unsmoke campaign, Malaysian photographers SC Shekar, David Lok and Nadirah Zakiraya shed light on what this utopian world might look like, and the roles we can each play towards achieving this
WHILE SHEKAR PHOTOGRAPHS the obvious, fellow senior photographer David Lok instead touches on the not so obvious.
“For Unsmoke, I want the imageries to be as inconclusive as possible, to allow for the works to present questions challenging my own points of view and perception. In so doing, I hope that these works will inspire the viewer similarly, to question what they see, and to alter their perception of what is presented,” explains the prominent and award-winning photographer, whose work is steeped in philosophy and thought, drawing inspiration from his Malaysian roots.
Lok tackles the psychological aspect when it comes to the habitual routine of smoking, through his photography series of surreal quality, featuring impressions that linger between Chinese inkbrush paintings and manifested reality; from beginning till the end, an in-depth thought process of what smokers may go through to become “unsmoke”.
From illusive photographs that hold Oriental-like characteristics at first glance, encouraging viewers to change their perspectives to truly see what lies right in front of their eyes; to visual depictions of the human psyche, pointless entanglements we trap ourselves in, when we put our minds into breaking free.
A believer in giving back to the society through his craft, and having initiated numerous photography programs to benefit the community over the years; the most recent being a 10week workshop created to empower the visually impaired with photography skills, encouraging them to rely on their intuition and senses to capture their emotions, Lok spent two to three weeks on this new series for the Unsmoke campaign, “something to add to my portfolio of anti-smoking campaigns I have worked on,” he adds.
“When it comes to smoking, it’s a habit instilled that’s instilled in the smokers; every morning there has to be a cigarette in hand before starting the day. We don’t question this habit, you could say it’s almost natural,” Lok says. “I’m a person who questions everything, and through this series, I’d like to encourage curiosity towards the habitual things: why am I doing this?”
“Once you start to question your everyday routine, you start to see things from a changed perspective,” he concludes. “We need to see the changes in us to move forward as a human being.”
FOR THIS YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHER, she presents to us “a world that could be in the near future” for Philip Morris International’s Unsmoke campaign; a world where the sore images of cigarette butts littered everywhere are replaced instead with the organic beauty of flowers.
“I was born into a world where cigarettes have already existed for a very long time; in fact you could even ask: what is a world without cigarettes?” Nadirah says. “The keyword ‘beautiful’ immediately stands out for me when I answer that question. Cigarette butts are such an eyesore everywhere we turn in the city, but what if we replace cigarettes with something else that is better?”
The polar opposite of these littered waste to Nadirah is instead flowers; “naturally biodegradable, that even if you ‘litter’ these flowers, in a way, they go back to the earth.”
In the span of two weeks, Nadirah spent six solid afternoons at The Sepat House, an artist residency for female artists, where she let her muse take over ‒ in this case, ashtrays and the day’s floral picks from Floristika within a stone’s throw away.
Much like her previous works exhibited at the Lornagraphy Gallery in New York, as well as the Leica Gallery and Ilham Gallery in Kuala Lumpur, Nadirah’s works are like poems, each line representing a path leading into the next, with a rhythm and rhyme, unfolding together a story of a “Utopic Future”.
“Malaysia is still a long way away when it comes to being an eco-friendly country, you don’t have to go far to see that there are still trash littered everywhere,” she comments, when asked about the subtle pro-environment theme the Unsmoke campaign is in support of. “But you know, I’m hopeful. We have to practise what we preach, starting from homes and among friends, only then we may have the chance to meet the deadline.”
“While we’re in the midst of educating the younger generation on the importance of the environment, we as adults also have to sort of re-wire how we think and how we go about our day to day lives,” she adds.
Find out more about Philip Morris International’s Unsmoke campaign at www.unsmokeyourworld.com