AUDIENCES ARE used to have their ribs tickled by Miriam Yeung Chin-wah. The pop star turned actress is a dab hand at playing Hong Kong's 'every girl', the one who succeeds in the face of adversity, who climbs out of every predicament with a shake of her hair and a flash of her goofy smile. Whether it be in Dummy Mummy, Without a Baby (2001), Love Undercover (2002) or Elixir of Love (2004). And then there is that laugh. Loud, unabashed and infectious. For her many fans, it's as though it's coming straight from the girl next door. But Hong Kong is about to see a new side of Yeung. In the Fruit Chan-directed Dumplings - Three ... Extremes, Yeung plays an ageing actress obsessed with her looks - and how to keep them. She buys dumplings from a local woman (played by Bai Ling) that seem to help her stay young - but in the making of those dumpling lies a terrible secret. The film is part of the follow-up to the hugely successful Three horror series, the brainchild of Applause Pictures' Peter Chan Ho-sun. Peter Chan directed one of the films - the eery and award-winning Going Home, which starred Eric Tsang - while the others were handled by South Korea's Kim Jee-woon (Memories) and Thailand's Nonzee Nimibutr (The Wheel). This time around, Fruit Chan is joined by Japan's Takeshi Miike (who will direct Box) and Korean Park Chan-woo (Cut). For Yeung, Dumplings is a chance to shed her laughing girl image, to get serious, and to find a new challenge in a career that, as she's first to admit, has so far seen her basically take on roles where she is just 'playing myself'. And while the film promises to reveal a darker side to her character, the Yeung who arrives for our interview at the Applause office high over Tsim Sha Tsui, is thankfully the one we have come to expect. She is relaxed, almost playful. And from time to time she will cackle like a tickled child. Of her character in Dumplings, Yeung explains that it's based on women she's seen time and time again in the local entertainment industry. 'She is really insecure about her life,' she says. 'She always thinks there are other women with her husband. She used to be an actress and she thinks that beauty is the only reason her husband loves her.' And the film has given her a chance to delve deep inside. 'This is the dark side of me, something I haven't shown before,' says the 30-year-old. 'I don't agree with her, but she represents so many women in Hong Kong nowadays. They are so focused on slimming, on beauty. But these are not the ways to happiness. The whole topic is interesting to me. A person's psychology to me can be more scary than ghosts. Human beings can be horrible - and that is what this woman is.' Fruit Chan would later reveal that when approached for the role, Yeung had jumped at the chance. But after two or three days 'she began to think, 'Oh, no, what have I got myself into?'. 'What she does is a very Hong Kong-style comedy,' says Chan. 'So this is quite a challenge for her because her fans here are used to seeing her in a certain way. So we had to transform her.' And Yeung says she did have reservations - but is determined to start testing herself through her roles. 'I wanted to prove to myself that I can be an actress,' she says. 'Because I started as a singer there are so many limitations on my image according to my recording company. So I wanted to break through a bit and go forward. I want to challenge myself. 'As a comedic actress, most of what I have to do is just be myself. In a film like this one I have to forget who Miriam is and change how my mind works.' Yeung says she's aware that some people will come into the theatre simply because they are her fans, some simply because they are curious to see what she has come up with. And her greatest fear is that they might get the wrong impression. 'I am afraid that the audience will laugh when they see this movie - because they are seeing me,' she says. 'I have made so much effort to not be me. Every word I say, everything I do, I have had to come up with a special way to go about it, a way that is not me. I hope they forget that it is me up there.' Originally a nurse, Yeung was famously plucked from obscurity in 1995 when her workmates urged her to enter a local singing contest. After much cajoling, she got up and sang - and the result was a recording contract. 'The theme of my life is, there is nothing to lose,' she says. 'That's the best way to live, to always say that you have nothing to lose. My life as a nurse was very different. It was a life full of stress and pressure. The things you do are dealing with life every day. So I took my chance when it came.' At first her family were sceptical - her father, a teacher, particularly so. 'He thought it was a bad move,' she says. 'He would say 'You will hang out with so many bad guys, drink so much'. It has taken me many years to prove it's not like that. I would report to him every day, telling him what I was doing, where I was going.' Once her singing career kicked off - among her many accolades is best female artist at the 2002 Commercial Radio Music Awards - Yeung worked her way on to small screen roles before being cast in 1998's Rumble Ages and then The Group. It took director Joe Ma to tap her full potential - and his Dummy Mummy and Love Undercover helped make Yeung one of the city's most bankable stars. But she seems to have kept her feet firmly on the ground. And her explanation for why Hongkongers have taken her to their hearts is simple. 'It is because I am common,' she says. 'So everyone can project themselves over me. In a love story, they can fantasise that it is them. 'Comedy is very important here - everyone is trying to find ways to relieve their stress and the pressure they work under. And in terms of business, it is very important to the film industry. But I have been looking for a change, and I think Peter [Chan] recognised that if you put a comedy actress in a role like this it would make some noise.' For the more serious stuff needed for Dumplings, Yeung looked to Europe. 'European films have more references to psychology, to talking about what goes on inside human beings,' she says. 'So I went to films such as The Piano Teacher and Secretary. These are films that make you feel very uncomfortable. In The Piano Teacher she is very normal, but there are other things going on inside.' And now she'll be sitting back and waiting to see what her public thinks of the latest career move. She says she's become used to the fanfare, to the constant glare of Hong Kong's publicity machine and has luckily found a fanbase that accepts most everything that she does without question. 'We are just like friends - they never seem shy and come up to me all the time. They ask advice from me when we talk, 'What occupation should I do', things like that. They never really ask me about show business things, which is strange. 'One thing about being an artist in Hong Kong is that you will be in the public eye for the rest of your life. People will never ever think that I am not an artist. 'Cameras are part of my life. I think that every time I come across problems with them - it is, and will always be, a part of my life. So I have to deal with it.' Dumplings - Three ... Extremes opens on Thursday.