by WONG KIM HOH
April 2003

Chow Yun Fat, whose Hollywood film Bulletproof Monk opens here tomorrow, speaks about films, family & health

NEVER mind that Chow Yun Fat has spent thousands of dollars on private English lessons just so he could work in Hollywood.

When asked if he would prefer to chat in English or Cantonese, the Hong Kong born actor's decision is a no brainer.

'Aiyah, if you are Cantonese, of course I'd want to chat in Cantonese,' he offers chirpily over the phone from Hong Kong.

And over the next 20 minutes, he makes you chortle as he fields questions in his native dialect. He slips in rhyming proverbs, throws up piquant colloquialisms and even dishes out a few Malay words such as kopi (coffee) and roti (bread) in a voice pregnant with good humour.

Yun Fat is promoting his latest Hollywood film, Bulletproof Monk, which opens in Singapore tomorrow. In the Paul Hunter movie, he plays a mysterious immortal Tibetan gongfu master protecting an ancient scroll.

After traversing the globe for 60 years, he becomes mentor to a street kid (Seann William Scott) and teaches the latter the wonders of his ancient ways.

Filming, says Yun Fat, was 'a little hard'.

'There were a lot of action sequences involving a lot of wirework and I was wearing a lot of heavy robes. It's tough looking composed and elegant when you're fighting and wearing long robes'.

The 48-year-old actor, of course, is being self deprecating. After all, he became an action icon in Hong Kong gangster classics such as A Better Tomorrow and The Killers (sic).

In these movies, Yun Fat would inevitably handle two pistols while diving through doorways and windows in a full suit and a black overcoat.

'When you get old, the machinery gets a little cranky,' he says with a mock sigh.

Bulletproof Monk is Yun Fat's fourth film in Hollywood.

Other than the melodrama Anna And The King (1999), where he played the King of Siam opposite Jodie Foster's English governess, the other two movies - The Replacement Killers (1999) and The Corruptor (1999) - were action
thrillers.

Asked if he's been typecast as the archetypal Action Asian in Tinseltown, he laughs good-naturedly.

'I'm an actor, I provide a service. The market now wants action, so I do it. You do what's necessary. It's not beneath me to do action movies - oh no, no.

'Of course, I'd be more than happy to whisper sweet nothings and hold hands in a movie, but the opportunity has to come along,' says the actor who romanced and fought alongside Michelle Yeoh in Ang Lee's lyrical martial arts drama Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Opportunities to stretch his dramatic talents are not exactly lacking. If all goes to plan, he will work with Michelle once again later this year in another martial arts drama, Hua Mulan, to be directed by Oscar-winning
cinematographer Peter Pau.

There's, of course, also Waiting, based on Ha Jin's romantic novel of the same name. To be directed by Peter Chen (Comrades, Almost A Love Story), Waiting tells the story of a Chinese doctor caught in a loveless marriage.

The project has been in development for a couple of years. The producers are finalising the movie's financing.

'Waiting, what an appropriate title,' he says, laughing. 'But it'd be nice to act in a melodrama again. I'm looking forward to that.'

DISEASE, WAR

His voice turns sober when conversation turns to the woes of the world and how he copes with news of war and disease.

'My parents were farmers and I derived a lot of strength from my childhood,' says Yun Fat, who was known as Little Dog on Hong Kong's Lamma Island where he grew up.

'Life was simple then, and as long as we had two meals, we were happy. But life is complicated these days; everybody hankers for flats, cars, computers, city life. Their expectations are very high. Many just do not know how to cope,' says the former post-office worker and hotel bellboy.

'My mother raised me well. She taught me the virtue of hard work and to know the true meaning of contentment.

'If everyone were contented, there wouldn't be so much trouble in the world,' he says.

Yun Fat claims he doesn't hanker for great fame and fortune.

'I'm an actor. I live all sorts of lives in movies. That's enough. What more can I ask for? All I want is health, for myself and everyone around me.'

©2003 SPH AsiaOne Ltd. All rights reserved.