Andy's empire

ANDY LAU TAK-WAH is a busy man - and therefore difficult to pin down for a chat. Which is why this interview had to be done in two parts, a brief 10 minutes in Cannes in May and the rest in Hong Kong during another whirlwind round of promotions for his new movie Fulltime Killer and before his concerts at the Hong Kong Coliseum which begin tonight and run to August 31.

It is tempting to point out that given his success, Lau can afford to cut down on some smaller promotional activities, as many other A-list artists have already done. In response to the suggestion, he tells the story of a film he starred in, Sworn Brothers - a male-bonding flick in the tradition of John Woo's A Better Tomorrow - which was produced by martial arts star Sammo Hung Kam-po in 1987. Lau recalls that it 'wasn't a bad film at all', certainly not deserving of the five marks it got out of 100 when local film industry bible City Entertainment ran a poll of 20 critics on the year's releases. He later found out 19 of the critics had not seen the movie, and the only one who did had given it five out of five: the maximum each critic could bestow. 'I realised then that movies needed to be seen by a lot of people and you need to get feedback to see if you are going in the right direction,' he says.

Since then, Lau, 39, has taken every chance to promote his movies and albums, and if that means spreading himself a little thin sometimes, that's fine by him. 'If my movies are commercial - they're certainly not art-house movies - then I hope more people will see them so I will use any channel I can. But you may realise I don't do as much promotionfor the films I think aren't good. That's because I don't think I should cheat the audience into going to see it. The harm done would be greater than if you don't do anything at all,' says Lau.

'I used to have these terrible rows with my management company over which interviews I needed or didn't need to do. I mean, why should I be laughed at just because I appear on women's programmes? These housewives are another group of a potential audience. I'd like them to be listening to my songs too, not just the young girls,' he says.

It isn't only Canto-pop keeping his schedule packed these days. Unlike other Canto-pop stars who are happy to record their albums, make their movies then take the money and run, Lau has been busy adding new entries to his resume, away from the limelight.

In 1991, he started a film production company, Teamwork Productions, to produce movies he wanted to star in. This was followed by an investment in a record label, New Melody. Both companies focused on Lau's works, giving him better control over his career. In the past two years, however, Lau has visibly been building up his companies to be major players in the industries they represent.