周德邦 JACKIE CHOW, Hong Kong ACTOR. "Working Hard is FOOD for the SOUL. And yes, TOMORROW can always BE BETTER."

STOP PRESS.

Here's a personal piece on JACKIE CHOW from HONG KONG,

Rookie actor maybe, but I'll vouch for this dude anytime,

For one, he's a jolly nice fella,

In a city known for its continual bustles-and-bustles, notwithstanding the loud and bullish people, JACKIE assails you like a welcome breath of fresh air.

He'll listen to your questions intently, and answers them with zeal and zest.

His tone is genteel, earnest, without pretensions.

The lyrics of the song, "For he's a jolly good fella" couldn't have been more apt to describe him.

And he's firm about his convictions:

"I EMBRACE POSITIVISM,

I TRY TO BE HAPPY WITH MY LIFE,

I WORK HARD,

I STAY HOPEFUL," enthuses JACKIE CHOW, Hong Kong rookie actor.

AND YES, IN ALL THAT I DO, I GIVE MY BEST."

NOTHING VENTURED, NOTHING GAINED is his doctrine.

"As long as you are alive and in good health, there's always hope - even with the ruts and obstacles along the way.

I aim to stay healthy and positive with my body and mind

by keeping the 'chi' energy in balance - the ying and the yang ....

I only have one body this life time, and if I don't take good care of it, then who would?

GAMES AND HOBBIES?

I dig baseball since I was 10. Baseball shows what teamwork, camaraderie and fighting spirit are all about. From baseball I learn about how to cope with failures, about how not to make excuses in life.

I sing to release my soul (chuckles) and I compose lyrics to express my pent-up feelings.

EXPECTATIONS IN LIFE?

I wanna be free, like an eagle taking flight. I abhor boundaries and restrictions. I seek to be an artist, expressing my views of human nature through music and films ..... I do not see life through rose-tinted glasses. In fact, my formative years as an adolescent had not been easy, being brought up by strict parents. I have always wanted a creative job, something out of the normal 9-5 normal routine. And yes, I have always aspired to perform.

VIEWS ON SEX

Sex is a desire, a motivation to me sometimes (laughs). You can understand a person more through sex, yet sometimes the sexual act can destroy you morally if you are addicted to it. I lost my virginity to my second girl friend during high school. Since then, I have matured greatly ....

YOU ACTED IN A GAY GENRE FILM CALLED 'PERMANENT RESIDENCE'. YOU GET TO KISS THE LEAD OF THE FILM. WHAT WAS YOUR FEELING THEN?

Hey, I am as straight as a rod. But when I accept any challenging role, I give my all. I'll psych myself in any difficult part, to adopt the screen persona. If the script calls for me to "fall in love" with a guy, then I'll go all the way out to make myself fall in love with that REEL person, irrespective of gender or creed. That's the name of the game in acting. That's being professional.

WHAT KIND OF ROLE WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY IN FILMS?

I'd like to be experimental, to play all kinds, good or bad. Dark and comedic characters, a paradox, so to speak.

WOULD YOU APPEAR FULL FRONTAL IN ART HOUSE FILMS?

Why not? What do I stand to lose? But only if the camera flatters me, if the camera makes me look artistically good.

SINGLE OR ATTACHED?

Happily single for now. Falling in love saps up latent energy, makes me do stupid things and I cannot afford this.

Heard of this poem by SRI CHINMOY called THE BREATH OF NEW HOPE?

Day and night I shall swim

In the sweetness – hope – river.

May my mind every morning become

As beautiful as hope – dawn – rays

Peace begins

When expectation ends.

Each sacred hope

Is a blessingful gift

From Heaven’s heart.

Hope abides; therefore I abide.

Countless frustrations have not cowed me.

I am still alive, vibrant with life.

The black cloud will disappear,

The morning sun will appear once again

In all its supernatural glory."

That's summing up Hong Kong actor JACKIE CHOW in a nutshell.

"Working hard is food for the soul. And yes, tomorrow can always be better."

PHOTOGRAPHY by NORM YIP from HONG KONG for this special interview.

Thanks, NORM for the jolly nice pictures!

THERE'S REDEMPTION AMIDST SUFFERING, if We CHALLENGE OUR CAUSE.

Last night I had this recurring nightmare:

In recent months, natural and man-made catastrophes are threatening to destroy mankind in full force ...

ripping us apart, back-to-back in different parts of the world.

Are these for keeps?

When are we going to be spared from more impending disasters?

NO, it's not a 3D feature movie.

IT'S NOT REEL,

IT'S FOR REAL.

FEEL THE PAIN AND ANGUISH.

Our mettle is currently being tested

SO WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

EVERYTHING and EVERYONE must go through a process of wear-and-tear.

In eventuality, nothing lasts forever, never in the long run

Even the very ground we are standing on -

how long can it sustain us?

THESE PICTURES PORTRAY A THOUSAND WORDS because they are real.

They are stark reminders that the globe may no longer be a safe haven in the years to come.

No, it is not a biblical account of MOSES leading the Israelites in their flight from the pursuing Egyptian army that led to the parting of the Red Sea.

Mankind never seems to heed warnings until it's almost too late, right?

Years ago, we were lauded with grim facts about global warming and the thinning of the earth's core if we continue to abuse and pollute our environment

The natural world is rapidly changing to the ways we treat it .....

EARTHQUAKES, TYPHOONS, FLOODS, TSUNAMIS are wreaking havoc all over the world ...

These catastrophes spell impending doom and intensify world sufferings,

Do we care enough to prevent the end-of-the-world from happening?

We are being challenged .....

Unless everyone plays his part ....

The end of the world may be sooner than we thought.

No, I am not preaching the BIBLE,

I am not playing GOD,

I seek solace in comforting words and meditation,

Hopefully, the following phrase makes sound sense:

''Not all trees are felled by storms.

Not every seed finds barren soil.

Not all the wings of dream are broken,

nor is all affection doomed

to wither in a desolate heart.

It won't all end in tears and blood. . . .

Hope is a burden all of us shoulder

though we might stumble under the load."

And if we seek redemption amidst suffering,

Then all of us must play our parts to make the world a better place to live in,

This may be a hopeless rant,

but in order to heal this chaotic world,

We must stay HOPEFUL,right?

MEW the TABBY KITTEN. SHE arrives on a Hungry Ghost Month.

NAH, I DON'T LIKE CATS.

Absolutely not.

They are cold, so arrogant and blah- aloof .....

and they preen like peacocks.

CATS strut with stealth and have this devil-may-care attitude.

They are emotionally attached to places, not their masters.

And when the mating season comes,

They bawl like hyenas and send shivers down our spines .....

CATS can be really creepy,

Or so I thought.

I prefer DOGS, yah.

Now, SEPTEMBER embodies the Chinese month of the HUNGRY GHOSTS.

The Chinese believe that, during this baffling month, the dead stalk the streets at night and might pay the unsuspecting you a visit, so will you please stay at home.

And it was on a SEPTEMBER morning in Bangkok that I heard this desperate "meow" emanating from the derelict storeroom of our office.

This private storeroom has always been locked, closed for months, but the mewing became louder.

On opening the door of the storeroom, I espied this small ball of fur (grey with dark stripes).

A pair of doleful eyes peered at me pathetically, indicating that she was hungry.

How did she get into the closed storeroom?

It's still a ghostly mystery, but in the weeks that followed, she followed me everywhere in the office.

Is she a real kitten or something incarnated, I wondered.

Nevertheless, I named her MEW, after the lead in the popular Thai movie "LOVE OF SIAM".

I already have 2 doggies in my fold, but MEW have "charmed" them over and they are now inseparable buddies.

ISN'T IT FUNNY HOW LIFE WORKS OUT IN STRANGE WAYS

and what seemed like a burden at first -

NOW BECOMES A SOURCE OF JOY!

YEAH, I am now changing my silly mindset about CATS.

They are dependable, full of love, predictable in their actions,

grateful and loyal.

CATS are purrly-lovely and agile.

MEW has shown me so, this SEPTEMBER, the Chinese Hungry Ghost Month.

You have to be a cat lover to believe this one.

It's for real.

TALKing CRAP and TAKing CRAP in SINGAPORE TV DRAMAS. Air Freshener, Anyone?

Buckle up, folks.

I beseech you to read this with a can of air freshener around.

You might well need to deodorize the air.

It's all about CRAP, courtesy of the SINGAPORE DRAMA SERIES.

Stinky affair, this one, besides - we have to go "anal" ....

Yah, my dogs poo, just like all living animals.

It's a part of living, right?

When we were barely in our teens, we learnt that each and every human being .... ugly or so beautiful

live, feed, breathe, excrete, reproduce and die.

That's what the toilet bowl is for.

Then we grew up and when we discovered the wonders of one-plus-one-is-two ....

logic became elementary, and a lot things just happened to be just plain common sense.

After all, some things need not be taught ....

just like masturbation,

Like what goes up must come down ...

Isn't this gravitational pull?

What goes inside your body must come out also...

Imagine yourself gorging in all those glorious foods - three meals per day ..

Where does all the delicious grubs go to?

Into the mouth and out of the anus ...

Argghh ..

As simple as any no-brainer can tell you,

SHIT, man!

You don't shit, you DIE ...

And this ruling definitely applies to all superheroes, supermodels and all gorgeous pies.

Otherwise you'll be carrying this bloated tummy full of gas and toxic waste liken to a clogged sewage pipe ...

Smelling sweet, folks!

Now take a cue from this popular SINGAPORE MEDIA CORP Blockbuster drama series "Housewives' Holidays".

You are treated to generous helpings of raucous jokes pertaining the bodily functions, excretions such as shit, fart and pee aplenty.

Here's one nauseating scene from the " HOUSEWIVES' HOLIDAYS " drama:

Three middle-aged plain janes XIANG YUN, ANN KOK and HONG HUI FANG gleefully participated in a PILATES class for women.

They were cajoled by the instructor to tuck in their tummies, bend over with legs outstretched.

Guess what?

There was a farting noise emitted by actress HONG HUI FANG who looked non-plussed.

Her two friends displayed disdain by the stench.

Not only that, she split her pants and rushed for the toilet.

Before she could even reach her destination, she lost bowel control and promptly shat in her exercise attire.

More! She promptly washed her soiled undies, displayed it to her chums and merrily announced that she was going to re-use it.

Would this incite laughter or disgust?

It's a two-way prong, depending on which side of the target audience you are on.

To the Singapore heartlanders, this kind of gag is absolutely hilarious!

After all, the intended core audience comprises the aunties, uncles, grannies, grandpas and kids, mostly.

Corporate heels would frown on this kind of spoof.

One young Singapore professional swore to me that he'd never watch made-in-Singapore dramas as they are mostly "brainless" and "full of crap".

I wonder that, if he did not watch, then how could he know?

Is he voicing the opinions of the disdainful minority segment - the yuppies and chuppies who prefer the "classier" foreign acts?

Actress HONG HUI FANG earned our respect for her realistic portrayal of a stingy and fussy housewife who had to stoop to demeaning acts, as demanded by the series' producers/directors.

Being the consummate professional as she is, she took the job in one stride, without complaints.

If she does not bag the coveted BEST ACTRESS AWARD this year, then her efforts would be in vain as we cannot think of a more deserving artiste.

VIVA, MISS HONG!

Would be nice, for a change, to watch FELICIA CHIN, JOANNE PEH or JEANETTE AW "taking dumps" in Singapore dramas, since the station is awfully good in producing genre of this kind.

And there are also other notable "SHIT" dramas as my producer friends asserted

citing "JUST IN SINGAPORE" and "THE SHINING STAR" as other examples.

In "JUST IN SINGAPORE", people mayhem abound when a priceless ancient tub, filled with human excreta, was wheeled around the corridors of a HDB apartment building to distract thieves.

And in THE SHINING STAR, even a cute little girl was nonchalantly mimicking farting "sounds" in various scenes,

whilst another limp character played by actor HUANG SHI NAN was regularly reading the girlie magazines whilst crapping.

More .... but we rather end here for a breather.

Too much of any good thing kills, for sure.

Maybe the regular scriptwriters are constipated in terms of comedic ideas?

We may never know but one thing's for sure.

SINGAPORE is renowned for producing "CRAPPY" dramas such as these.

Little wonder that "swear" words such as SHIT and ASSHOLES are immensely popular,

With the TV station and the various media propagating to the mass family audience

what would you expect?

Notwithstanding the good ratings too!

Meanwhile, would someone be kind enough

to pass the air freshener, please?

PATRICK SWAYZE. It's still "UNCHAINED MELODY" after all these YEARS. It's still LOVING WITHOUT REGRETS.

The air is crisp and cool.

It's 3 am pre-dawn as I am writing this

The ambience is serene,

and the music is playing softly in the background.

No, the owl is not in sight,

Neither is there any hooting,

So there's no sign of haunting.

The Righteous Brothers on CD are performing their long time hit UNCHAINED MELODY.

Soulful, insightful, stirring ...

I am saddened by the fact that PATRICK SWAYZE has passed on recently ....

"LIFE IS FRAGILE " -

so said SWAYZE during a 1990 interview with PEOPLE magazine.

Yeah, nobody can foretell the future.

I realize long ago that time and tide wait for no man,

and one day it'll be everyone's turn to bid this world farewell as well.

Goodbye to all those who have loved and stood by us through life's drudgeries ....

We might be up there on the highest cloud one moment

then down to the deepest depth the next,

What would we ever do without memories?

LIFE WOULD HAVE NO COLORS.

We need the rainbow hues,

We need the sunshine,

We need the rain,

We need the darkest storm,

Or LIFE WOULD BE JUST ONE BLANK PAGE.

IF ever there's any hit song that can stay atop the HIT chart of our minds after more than one decade and still retains its latent fervor then it must be "UNCHAINED MELODY" from the stupendous film GHOST.

The lyrics are so powerful, so potent ....

They surge deep into your heart and mind,

and beckon you to rush home to hug and kiss your loved ones.

There are simply too many nostalgic scenes in this movie that evoke a sense of longing in us

and these will stay in our memories for a life time,

Thank you, PATRICK SWAYZE and DEMI MOORE for putting us onto that platform,

For transporting us to a world of surrealistic paradise of love each time that song plays ....

"LIVE YOUR LIFE FOR THE PRECIOUS MOMENTS."

Because we really do not know when we would depart from this earth.

That was what the late PATRICK SWAYZE told the PEOPLE magazine in 1990,

Right after the colossal success of his movie GHOST.

That's sound advice,

That's what we should all do.

If we do not communicate well with the people we love,

If we just ignore their existence,

If we take them for granted,

We are setting ourselves up for incredible pain when we lose them.

Farewell, PATRICK SWAYZE,

You may be gone but never forgotten,

Adieu, buddy, adieu!