IT'S ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE not to have formed an opinion about Teresa Cheung Siu-wai. For more than a decade she's been right there in Hong Kong's face. Up close and personal.
From celebrity marriage to Canto-pop star Kenny Bee, through divorce, high-profile affairs, and financial woes (she remains some $250 million in debt after failed property investments), her image and words have been scoffed down like fast food in the tabloid media's feeding frenzy. And her latest career move has done nothing to subdue the city's fascination with her.
Thanks to her long-time friendship with director Yonfan - he took her wedding portraits some 16 years ago - 41-year-old Cheung is now hoping to make the transition from scandal sheet to silver screen. This Thursday, Yonfan's Colour Blossoms hits cinemas. Starring Cheung, Matsuzaka Keiko, Japanese model Sho and local lad Carl Ng, the plot remains something of a mystery. All we know is that it's an erotic tale revolving around five characters: 'a gorgeous Hong Kong estate agent, an elegant Japanese lady of nobility, a morose photographer, an infatuated policeman and a mysterious girl from Korea'.
True to form, Cheung's stills from the film are the ones the city has latched on to. She takes star billing on posters all over town and her sultry stills have graced the covers of magazines for the past few weeks. Little wonder, when they either show her trussed up pouting in leather or reclining sedately in a bath, nipples thinly veiled.
But far from moan about intrusions or rail about any privacy rights (or wrongs), Cheung seems to accept all the attention with an air of indifference. It is, she says, par for the course by now. She's a public figure. And she has to take the good with the bad.
'I think [the attention] is part of the calculation with this project,' she says. 'Yonfan wanted to show a side of me that people haven't seen. And, of course, people are going to see those images and latch on to them - that's the nature of this town. It's a very conservative town in many ways. You find here that there are very artistic, free-thinking people and there are very conservative, traditional Chinese people. So, you either accept these things or you're shocked or surprised by them. There's no middle ground. I just get on with things. I don't worry too much about what people think. If people want to talk to me, I'm here.'