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Straits Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Hong Huifang and Chen Tianwen star in Kopitiam Days SG60 film anthology
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Actress Hong Huifang in the short film Meet Me At The Pavilion, part of Kopitiam Days, an SG60 anthology film. SINGAPORE – Veteran local actress Hong Huifang is busier than ever in a period of her life when she thought she would be resting. 'I thought I would be retired by now,' says the 64-year-old, who enjoyed a 40-year career starring in series such as The Unbeatables (1993) and The Price Of Peace (1997). 'I felt I had reached a plateau and could not go any further. I thought only young people had opportunities, and there were none left for me.' Hong was speaking to The Straits Times at a media event in York Hotel Singapore to promote the SG60 anthology film Kopitiam Days. Then the drama Ajoomma (2022) happened, in which she starred as a widow who becomes stranded in South Korea and embarks on a journey of self-discovery. The film, helmed by Singaporean director He Shuming, earned Hong a Best Leading Actress nomination at the Golden Horse Awards. Following that achievement, the idea of retirement was shelved. Her latest projects include local film A Good Child, opening on Oct 9; Taiwanese supernatural series Haunted House Secrets, which aired in June; and the Singapore-Thai mystery thriller series Decalcomania, to be released in 2026. She is starting production on another local drama series co-starring other veteran actors, with details to be announced later. 'I was lucky to be in Ajoomma . It brought me up to another level. People watched my performance, they saw my potential and they gave me another chance. I'm so grateful, and as long as my physical and mental health is good, I will carry on working and find new challenges,' she says. Actress Hong Huifang earned a Best Leading Actress nomination at the Golden Horse Awards for her role in Ajoomma (2022). ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN In Meet Me At The Pavilion – one of six short films that make up Kopitiam Days – Hong plays Ai Hua, a volunteer performer at a Hainanese opera troupe in danger of going broke unless it can persuade a former sponsor (played by Zhu Houren) to step up again. Directed by Shoki Lin and based on his own family's background in the art form, the role required Hong, who was raised in a mainly Teochew-speaking environment, to brush up on what remained of the Hainanese she had picked up from her maternal grandfather, a native speaker. She practised Hainanese with native speaker and co-star Zhu and also with her opera coach, who is a member of Singapore Hainan Society's opera troupe. 'Just as spoken Mandarin is not the same as the Mandarin that is sung in Peking opera, spoken and sung Hainanese are not the same, so I had to train in singing as well as d ancing, especially the hand movements. The gentle, flowing hand gestures are hard to do,' she says. In a separate interview, veteran local actor Chen Tianwen spoke about his part in another short film, the martial arts-inspired action-comedy Dragon Gate Assembly – one that was a decade in the making, he says. Chen Tianwen in the short film Dragon Gate Assembly, part of the Kopitiam Days anthology for SG60. PHOTO: CLOVER FILMS Chen, 62, gained fame in local martial arts series in the 1990s, and became known for playing a fighting monk in The Royal Monk (1997) and The Royal Monk II (1998). At the gala premiere of his 2015 comedy movie Mr Unbelievable, he and Singapore film-maker Eric Khoo chatted, during which the director promised the actor they would work together one day. Khoo, executive producer and creative director of Kopitiam Days, then suggested to Dragon Gate Assembly director Yeo Siew Hua that Chen be included in the project. (From left) Director Yeo Siew Hua with actors Chen Tianwen, Xenia Tan and Tay Ping Hui, who are in action-comedy Dragon Gate Assembly. ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN He and co-stars Tay Ping Hui, Xenia Tan, Richie Koh and Kung Cheung Tak play characters who assemble at a coffee shop, representing the famous inns of wuxia. Chen says: 'So when I talked to Eric again for this short film, I told him, 'I've been waiting 10 years for your call.''
AsiaOne
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- AsiaOne
'We bonded over kaya toast and kopi': SG60 film Kopitiam Days premieres with 14 cast members and President Tharman in attendance, Entertainment News
SG60 film Kopitiam Days held its gala premiere last evening (Aug 5) at The Sands Theatre at Marina Bay Sands with its six directors and 14 cast members. President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Ms Jane Ittogi also graced the event with Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo and Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information Tan Kiat How. Local director Eric Khoo, who serves as the film's creative director and executive producer, said at the event that the inspiration for the film came to him one morning while he was having a local breakfast. "I was eating my soft-boiled eggs and drinking my kopi-o kosong (black coffee without sugar) and I thought I want to treat myself to something special for Singapore, and so we assembled these amazing directors to come onboard," the 60-year-old shared, adding that it's his "gift" to the nation. Kopitiam Days is an anthology which features Singapore in the past, present and future. While each of the six stories are independent, the kopitiam Heap Seng Leong — a real coffeeshop located at North Bridge Road — is a familiar place in all the characters' lives. The movie opens with director Yeo Siew Hua's Dragon Gate Assembly, which is an action-packed love story set in the kopitiam in 1975 that serves as a tribute to the wuxia genre and ode to the heartland uncles and aunties. It stars Richie Koh, Xenia Tan, Tay Ping Hui, Chen Tianwen, Douglas Kung and Tang Fu Kuen. Siew Hua said during event that the inspiration came from his love for the wuxia genre: "I was thinking, what if I mix the idea of a kopitiam and inn... the idea is that there are always very interesting characters that appear in the inn [in wuxia stories], and just like in our kopitiam where there are many interesting characters — rich and poor and old and young — so I think putting the two together kind of makes sense to me." Xenia, 30, who plays coffeeshop assistant Ling Ling, talked about the positive vibe on set. "I think the most memorable moments would be all the funny scenes, trying to hold my laughter, because I think Tianwen is a natural and Richie is really good with comedy. So, acting alongside him, the toughest part of my job is controlling my laughter and not having NG (no-good takes)." Richie plays Ling Ling's love interest Lim, and the 32-year-old shared that while they rehearsed most of the scenes before filming, they improvised a lot in the end when the cameras rolled. Ping Hui, whose character visits the kopitiam to hunt down Lim, said that while filming was done overnight in warm Singapore weather, he enjoyed the process of it. "If you watch it, you will realise that it's a very distinct kind of humour and it's the first time I'm doing something like this, so it was very interesting," the 54-year-old added. The second film in the anthology is director Shoki Lim's Meet Me At The Pavilion, which centres on Hainanese opera actress Chen Aihua (Hong Huifang) finding self-confidence and the possibility of romance with Mr Li (Zhu Houren) through opera in modern-day Singapore. Shoki shared that the story was inspired by his Hainanese relatives who were opera singers and one of his aunts served as a consultant for the opera performances in the short film. Huifang, 64, said about her experience: "I realised there's actually a difference between speaking Hainanese and performing in Hainanese and it's really not easy, so there's a need for [Shoki's aunt] to help in articulation." Director M. Raihan Halim's IZ-1 features an elderly woman (Zaliha Hamid) navigating life and relationship with her daughter Hannah (Siti Khalijah) in 2035 when the latter bought an android caregiver with the titular name to care for her. About the film, Raihan said: "It's a love letter to two women in my life, my mum and my grandma. They are getting older and it's very hard to actually convince them to have a helper or someone to stay home with them. And I thought, what if it's not human? Maybe they'll accept it as opposed to a human being, and the idea of a robot came to me." Siti, 40, shared the theme of the story resonates with her, as she is also living with her mum and her helper: "In terms of the mother-and-daughter relationship, the clashes that they have and their moments of connection, they're all very relatable to me." The anthology continues with director Tan Siyou's Red Plastic Chairs on Sticky Floors, which follows young Singaporean filmmaker Christina Goh (Iris Li) who works in the Netherlands and begin to miss home while working on sound design for her latest project. The short focuses on Christina trying to capture familiar and distinctive sounds — such as plastic chairs scraping on the floor — heard in a kopitiam. Siyou said at the event: "I think the film is about listening and about sounds and so that's why we pulled back on the dialogue to give it a bit more atmosphere and the sounds of the environment." Director Don Aravind's One Last Song is inspired by the 1986 Hotel New World tragedy and tells the story of forbidden and everlasting love between Michael (Stephen Zechariah) and Latha (Keerthana) that persists after unspeakable loss. Don shared: "I think when we talked about SG60, the common theme that we all resonate with is home and of course, what is closest to home is love, so this film encompasses that." The film comes full circle with director Ong Kuo Sin's The Morning Call, which centres on the blossoming relationship between May (Jennifer Wilkinson) and her grandfather Lim (Yang Shi Bin) when she returns to Singapore with her mother Chui Hoon (Yvonne Lim) and accidentally loses her grandfather's orange payphone from his kopitiam. Yvonne said the film resonated a lot with her as she had just returned to Singapore this January after living in Taipei for a decade with her family. The 48-year-old added: "It's so much fun and even though it was a short period of filming, we bonded somehow, we bonded over kaya toast and kopi, so this is a very local [experience] for us and it's an honour to be part of this SG60 film." Kopitiam Days will be released through community screenings and on streaming platforms. [[nid:716777]] No part of this article can be reproduced without permission from AsiaOne.
