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The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

Posted: 07 Nov 2012 02:13 AM PST

Actress Kate Tsui, known for playing police roles on TV, enjoys comedies more than anything else.

WITH her honey brown tresses swept back in a pony-tail, Kate Tsui appeared in stunning form, clad in her tight-fitting rose pink bandage dress that shows off her slender legs.

The Hong Kong actress, who is the brand ambassador for Methode Swiss thermal oxygen soothing eye cream, was in Kuala Lumpur recently to officiate the product launch.

Seeing how her job keeps her on the go, Tsui admitted that she was often plagued by lack of sleep and thus felt much relieved for such a convenient eye care range to help maintain her "glamorous shining eyes".

Later, she also joined fellow TVB artistes Pierre Ngo and Sharon Chan at another press conference to promote their series airing on 8TV and Ntv7.

Tsui can now be seen playing traffic police officer Ko Lai Sam in When Lanes Merge (2010) on 8TV.

Tsui also has much to be excited about as she is nominated in three categories – My Favourite Actress In A Leading Role, My Favourite On Screen Couple With Raymond Lam and My Favourite Top 15 Drama – for her portrayal of "Drug Queen" Chan Ka Pik in Highs And Lows in the Astro On Demand Awards 2012. The event will be taking place on Dec 2 at Sunway Convention Centre, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Commenting on her tragedy-struck character Ka Pik, Tsui opined: "It's quite a breakthrough for me. Television rarely presents an opportunity for edgy characters that are so extreme.

"Since I've only got one television drama this year, I hope viewers will take notice of my efforts and vote for me. So far, I've heard lots of positive comments so I'm glad for that," Tsui said.

When asked about the recent complaint by Hong Kong TV viewers that her "one-second gang-rape scene" in Highs And Lows was too brief, Tsui responded with a smile: "I've done what the director required and the rest is technical and all about editing to suit the plot.

"The idea is to hint at what had happened, without making it too graphic. I feel that it's better to leave the rest to imagination. After all, it is a TV show and kids may be watching it.

"Moreover, the show is actually trying to convey an anti-drug message, and the character is meant to highlight all the evils that will befall those who are involved in drugs," Tsui, 33, explained.

Tsui, who was named Best New Performer at the 27th Hong Kong Film Awards for playing a rookie police constable in crime thriller Eye In The Sky (2007), has a dozen films and twice as many drama series under her belt.

The lanky actress revealed that she will once again be playing a police officer in a new TVB series that will be filmed next month.

"I'll be playing a member of the SDU (Special Duties Unit).

"It's the seventh time I am playing a police woman and I've portrayed officers from every department, so much so that I feel like I've already joined the Hong Kong police force. I'm anticipating another round of training for more action scenes," shared Tsui about the new drama series, which will star Michael Tse, Kathy Chow and Eddie Cheung.

Apart from the 30-episode Highs And Lows, the pretty lass also featured in action comedy film Buddy Cops that was released in Hong Kong last month and made an appearance in the 25-episode Muay Thai boxing drama Gloves Come Off.

Upcoming projects include a Chinese New Year comedy by Eric Tsang.

Given a choice, Tsui says she would rather star in comedies.

"I'd like to play more fun roles just like the one in Buddy Cops. Though I had to make myself look hideous, I really enjoyed it as the atmosphere on the set was so much fun.

"We were laughing all the time, and thinking up such cute ideas. If we get to have fun on the set and viewers also enjoy watching the movie, then it's a win-win situation for everyone.

"I've had my fill of tragic characters. After all, isn't Ka Pik tragic enough? How is it possible for anybody to have such a tough life? After playing such a miserable character, comedy would be nice for a change.

"I'm open to all sorts of roles, but I'd really love to have more happy roles come my way," Tsui concluded.

The real McCoy

Posted: 07 Nov 2012 02:15 AM PST

On Freddie Roach stands out for giving viewers a raw, unadulterated look at the life of a boxing trainer.

IT is three hours to the fight between world boxing champions Amir Khan and Zab Judah. Khan's trainer Freddie Roach is alone in the prep room.

It is pin drop silence here, save for the sound of an adhesive tape being peeled from its roll. Roach tears off a piece of the tape and sticks one end of it to the side of a table. He fights the tremors in his hands before tearing off another piece. His glassy eyes make sure it is almost the same length and sticks it beside the first piece.

He repeats the process several times, performing the task as steadily as he could, until a row of tapes are dangling from the table.

At that moment, I realised a stream of tears had rolled down my cheeks.

Here is a man who has devoted his entire life to winning fights, and after having stepped out of the ring, he faces the toughest fight of his life yet, one that he may never win – Parkinson's disease.

Here is a man who is holding on to even the most simple of tasks, for fear that even these might be taken away from him one day.

At that moment, I also realised how powerful "real" reality shows could be. For once, there is no catfighting, hair-pulling, finger-wagging drama.

There is no "he said, she said", blown-out-of-proportion situations. And there is definitely no one dressed to the nines just for a visit to the grocery store or has a face slathered with make-up just to work out at the gym. Instead, the scene is intimate, it is still, it is quiet.

The beauty of HBO's latest six-part reality series On Freddie Roach lies in its subtleties – the way it recognises simple yet meaningful moments such as these and captures them; in its ability to let Roach's life speak for itself.

In his heyday, Frederick Steven "Freddie" Roach was a lightweight quick-moving, heavy-hitting boxing dynamite. The man won 40 out of 53 professional fights, but retired in 1986 at just 26 after showing symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

Today, the 52-year-old Roach is one of the world's top boxing trainers, winning five Trainer Of The Year Awards from the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Roach is responsible for the success of many of today's most prominent boxing faces, including former middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, and boxer Lucia Rijker (dubbed "The Most Dangerous Woman In The World"), besides two-time world champion lightweight boxer Amir Khan.

But he is perhaps best known for training the world's first eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao (he jokes that he is the third most famous person in the Philippines after Pacquiao himself and the president).

I felt rather apprehensive when I first got to know about On Freddie Roach.

It seemed like the kind of series that was made for the typical alpha male, chest hair-baring, boxing-loving viewers (excuse my overt stereotyping). Naturally, as I knew little and had minimal interest in boxing, I put off watching it.

When I finally got to it, well, true enough, the series focuses a lot on Roach's role in training the boxers, from running with them on the racetrack to sparring with them in the ring and even giving them some good old pep talk before a fight.

But the show took me by surprise when after the lights went out at the testosterone-filled Wild Card Boxing Club (Roach's boxing gym), I saw – not a world-class, highly-regarded Hall Of Fame boxing trainer – but an ordinary, vulnerable man who opens up about his struggle with Parkinson's disease and confesses that the worst part about it is "feeling embarrassed by it".

The disease is linked to incidents of repeated head injuries and concussions and is fairly common among boxers (Muhammad Ali and Floyd Patterson, to name a few).

Roach's speech is slurred, and though his hands do not shake violently, it is noticeably contrived.

In another scene, he contemplates on whether he should have chosen a "safer" career path and settled down and started a family instead.

He admits that it gets very lonely at times, having to live out of a suitcase and travel all over the world to train these boxers.

But just before you start to think this former professional boxer has turned into a softie, Roach blurts out a bunch of expletives when his secretary (and ex-girlfriend) Marie Spivey refuses to put her BlackBerry down and finish her meal.

At other times, Roach also shows he can be quite a cool sport when it comes to being at the receiving end of a prank (one of the managers prank calls him and passes off as an airport staff, asking if he had left behind his luggage).

In the world of reality television programming where the "reality" component is often augmented, it's nice to find candid, unpretentious moments like these. Moments that seem as though they were captured on tape by chance, moments that are by no means picturesque at times, moments that are painfully real.

> On Freddie Roach airs every Monday, 11pm on HBO (Astro Ch 411).

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Selasa, 6 November 2012