Lawrence Chou
He looks so young that you might think Lawrence Chou Chun-wai is a showbusiness novice, but he's a seasoned actor who has spent much of the past decade building up his dramatic repertoire, after years as a pop singer in Taiwan.
His image back then as a squeaky-clean pop star is far removed from his latest cinematic role: as an unrepentant rapist in Danny Pang Fat's psychological thriller Forest of Death.
'They wanted me to look pale, so I never went out without applying [heavy] sun block,' Chou says. 'I was hiding from the sun all the time.'
Not getting a tan proved to be the least of his worries. His role was a demanding one, with one scene requiring him to act out the final moments of his victim. 'I had to act as if I was raping someone and being raped at the same time,' he says. 'Not even the director had a clue how I should act that part. I pulled it off by screaming, crying and laughing at the same time. It was totally crazy.'
Chou was born in Hong Kong, but moved to Canada with his parents when he was a child. His career as a performer began when he was in his teens, with singing contests at the age of 13 and then several years of touring with a Canadian dance company that sometimes staged more than 250 performances a year.
He made his name in Taiwan. 'It was 1997 or 1998, when Hong Kong's recording industry was on a down- ward slope and pirated discs were a severe problem,' he says. 'It was my agency's decision to get me to Taiwan - and I stayed there for six or seven years as a singer.'
He branched out into music production, working with such performers as pop duo Asos (sisters Barbie Hsu Hsi-yuan and Dee Hsu Hsi-di) and Mavis Fan Hsiao-shuan.
It wasn't long before the big screen beckoned. In 2001, radio host Jan Lamb Hoi-fung, then embarking on a career as a director, approached Chou about a role in his film Heroes in Love.
Chou now has 15 films under his belt. 'It was so much fun to be able to turn myself into someone else's character,' he says.
'I've always been a film buff. People think movies reflect parts of the society that we're living in, but I see the big picture through movies.'
Having worked with many directors, Chou says he regards Danny and twin brother Oxide Pang as kindred spirits.
'People may see them making horror movies all the time, but they put in new elements and have always offered me a completely different role in every one of their movies.
'They constantly require their cast to give them a breakthrough and I'm that sort of person too.'
Chou worked with the Pangs on last year's Re-cycle, as well as The Eye in 2002.
He's now honing his skills as a director, having made a 22-minute film with Derek Tsang Kwok-cheung called The Interpretation of Dreams, which was shown at last year's Hong Kong Asian Film Festival.
Chou and Tsang went to the same school in Canada and lived across the street from each other. They've worked on scripts together for about five years, their best known being the screenplay for Edmond Pang Ho-cheung's award-winning Isabella.
'We've just finished writing two scripts about love and we're approaching investors to see if they're interested,' Chou says.
'We also hope the HK$300 million [film] fund will give us some help,' he says, referring to a planned financial package for Hong Kong's ailing industry, some of which will be spent training young filmmakers on tight budgets.
'When we heard about it, we were like, 'OK, that's for us!' We've been working so hard for a long time. We love movies, but we haven't yet made a name. We're the new blood, we're young, we're passionate and we have the ability - but we don't have the money to make it happen.'
Forest of Death is screening now
