Sitting pretty

INSIDE A FREEZING and rusty, old film studio in a deserted part of Clear Water Bay, a dozen crew members are working on a set for a commercial. They focus on their work and don't turn their heads when people pass by. Everything seems cold and clinical.

But a dressing room right at the end of the studio has a completely different atmosphere: the setting is still sparse, but sitting in front of a lit dressing-table is Nancy Sit Ka-yin, and the veteran actress lights up the room with a big smile.

It's the kind of warmth that Sit spreads to the two million locals who tune in every weekday to watch her high-rating TV screwball, soap opera Virtues of Harmony. It's also the smile that's made her one of the most sought-after actresses for advertisements. And the big smile is back on the silver screen, as Sit stars with American Idol reject William 'She Bangs' Hung in his movie debut Where's Mama's Boy?, which opens today.

Sit, 54, was once known as the Fifth Princess of the 'Seven Princesses' who dominated the movie business in the 1960s, alongside the likes of Josephine Siao Fong-fong and Bo-Bo Fung. With that smile and her dancing and singing skills, Sit was never out of work in her prime years. But instead of fading away like many others, her star is shining even more brightly now.

Sit retired in 1983 after she got married, and spent the next 13 years raising her three children, Justina, Jackson and Jamie Shih (now aged 19, 17 and 15, respectively). But a devastating divorce forced her back into the business in 1996.

'All of a sudden, I lost everything,' she says. 'My kids and I were almost homeless and I was broke. I wanted to kill myself. But when I saw my children, I thought, 'My responsibility of raising them is not finished. I have to stay alive.''