Look who's talking

WHILE HOLLYWOOD regularly provides actresses in their 30s and 40s with vintage film roles, the same cannot be said for the Hong Kong film industry.

Joining the 30-somethings can often sound the death-knell for women in the SAR's youth-obsessed industry.

But a growing trend in the talk-show business may begin to extend many actresses' careers. One of the latest hoping this will be the case is Teresa Mo Shun-kwan, who starts a new job as a talk-show host on Cable's Entertainment Hot Stuff tonight (Channel 12, 10.30pm).

Mo built up a successful career as a comedy actress in movies such as Lady Super Cop, All's Well, Ends Well Too and 92 Legendary La Rose Noire, before marriage and motherhood took her to Toronto in 1995. She returned to Hong Kong a year ago and has so far only been cast in one supporting role, in And I Hate You So. A surprise pregnancy may have curtailed some acting plans but Mo admits she has found few good roles for women over 30.

'It's something that's more evident in Hong Kong. If you look at the list of Oscar winners, you can see most of them are mature women and not young girls. It's only when women are more mature that they can portray the emotional and dramatic roles convincingly because of life experiences,' says Mo, who would not reveal her age.

'So in Hong Kong, talk shows have actually opened up a new career path for us women because it allows us to share our experiences in a different way,' she adds.