His face is the same. The innocent face that made schoolgirls cry - and a sad few threaten hunger strike - when he was found guilty and jailed. That flawless, delicate face, pre-viously framed by a long, unkempt, rock-star mane, hiding behind dark sunglasses or staring moodily through the bars of a prison van on newspaper and magazine covers.
Nicholas Tse Ting-fung, guitar-smashing bad boy of popular music, and convicted criminal, is the closest thing Hong Kong has ever had to a fully fledged rock 'n' roll hell-raiser. Passionate about his craft, disdainful of public opinion and authority, Tse famously bolted for Vancouver in 1997, running out on his bosses at Fitto Records - now the powerful Emperor Entertainment Group (EEG) - because he was disappointed with Hong Kong's music industry and upset at the way the media treated him. We adored him for it. We couldn't get enough of Tse's indiscretions and rebellious antics: racing the paparazzi in glamorous Italian cars; conducting high-profile love affairs with Hong Kong's most desirable women. In a world of manufactured idols, here was the real thing: damaged, petulant, but always defiant and ever ready to flip the finger.
Then, at about 6am last March 23, all that fast living came crashing in on our handsome anti-hero. Tse skidded on rain-soaked Cotton Tree Drive, smashed his $2 million, black Ferrari F360 Modena into the guard rails and tore off the back of the car. What happened next is still reverberating through his life.
Tse rang EEG driver Shing Kwok-ting, who chauffeured many of the group's artists. After advising Tse to leave the car, Shing and Tse's personal assistant, Chow Chu-fai, suggested the star allow Shing to claim he was behind the wheel when the car crashed. The driver went to the scene and told traffic policeman Lau Chi-wai he would 'stand in' for Tse; Lau agreed. Stupid moves all round, as it transpired.
In April, Shing was convicted of conspiring to pervert the course of justice and was later sentenced to four months in jail. But Tse continued to act up. On May 16 he was caught driving his Audi at 133km/h in an 80km/h zone on the Tsing Kwai Highway; 11 days later police timed him driving his Ferrari F355 convertible at 155.8km/h in a 100km/h zone on West Kowloon Highway as he headed towards Chek Lap Kok. And in June he crashed and injured himself and three others when his $950,000 turbo-charged Audi S4 collided with a Mercedes-Benz on the North Lantau Expressway.
By then, both Tse and policeman Lau were facing charges of perverting the course of justice. To top it all, it emerged Tse was with 22-year-old singer Cecilia Cheung Pak-chi and not his then-girlfriend, pop diva Faye Wong, 11 years his senior, at the time of the Cotton Tree Drive crash. The media went into a feeding frenzy. In October, Tse was found guilty and sentenced to 240 hours' community service; Lau was also convicted, but sent to prison for six months.