Home-grown heart-throb

A DECADE ago, Michael To Tai-yu was just another face among the countless who regularly appeared in secondary roles in television dramas. Then in an effort to stand out, he made the radical decision to appear in three explicit films.

If people started recognising him, it was usually with a sneer. Who would have thought that today, To would be known in Chinese as the 'housewife slayer', the heart-throb of local women? After struggling for more than 13 years, To Tai-yu has finally become an 'overnight success', thanks to the TVB serial Detective Investigation Files II which has a 31 point rating or 78 per cent of the total audience.

Detective Investigation Files I, which ran last March, topped all drama programmes on TVB in 1995, representing 32 rating points or 80 per cent of total audience.

'I don't think I am very popular. I am just an 'experienced' rookie,' To said modestly. 'I still have a lot to learn.' Still, he does notice differences in the ways others regard him now. Fame has brought with it a certain measure of the respect that he had always hankered after.

'This circle is very practical. I am getting more respect. People are friendlier and their attitudes have changed a lot.

'In the past, people would look at me with disdain or gossip about me behind my back. But now, they will approach me in a friendlier way, chat with me or ask for my autograph,' he said.

Even the Hollywood-bound Chow Yun-fatt has recommended that To be cast in the role of Shanghai triad member Hui Man-keung, in a remake of the television serial The Bund which shot Chow to stardom.