Trouble brewing in Triad-town

LAST month, Hollywood movie moguls reported they were hoping to make a big-screen epic about triads in the Hong Kong film industry. Producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer were said to be so excited by the idea they threw money at Triads before it hadeven been scripted.

At that rate, it will not be long before they get around to casting. When they do, it will be interesting to see who they choose to play Chan Ka-lai, the 26-year-old administrative assistant who is lying in a Sha Tin hospital bed after her apartment was fire-bombed in the early hours of Thursday morning.

And who will they cast as Ng Suet-man, a budding actress who ended up with a broken collarbone and severe bruising after she was assaulted by a group of men in a night spot days after refusing to appear naked in her latest movie? Where will they find the extras to play the employees of a magazine visited recently by a group of 20 thugs threatening violence because their Big Brother was unhappy with a film review run by the publication? This, Hollywood, is the reality behind Hong Kong's celluloid facade. This, in movie-speak, is a horror story which will not go away.

The fire-bombing of Miss Chan's flat, which also left her 56-year-old mother unconscious, is believed to be the work of triads.

Senior Staff Officer with the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau (OCTB) Albert Kwok said the police had not ruled out a triad connection, although he admitted the attack could be the result of a personal vendetta.

''Sometimes it's difficult to know if the trouble is with triads because people don't dare report it and just want it to die down,'' he said.