It's only six weeks into the new year, but Felix Lok Ying-kwan has already been seen in two new films. His turn as a belligerent mobster in last month's Lady Cop and Papa Crook is now followed by a more prominent part in Claustrophobia, in which he plays a middle-aged office executive named Karl.
Lok (right) nearly steals the film, his character's brazen talk about the cynical nature of human relationships enlightening what is largely an emotionally subdued piece.
The 55-year-old, who is better known as a TV actor, says it's just a coincidence that he's making back-to-back appearances on local screens. Lady Cop was originally set for release last September before a problem with mainland censors prompted a re-edit and a January 1 release date. Lok's scenes were completed before last Lunar New Year, however, enabling him to film both Claustrophobia and a TVB series concurrently.
Lok hardly seems fazed by such a schedule. More than 30 years of TV work has trained him in the most demanding of routines - after all, this is an actor who, on average, has worked on five series every year for the past decade, with 2006 a particularly busy year bringing roles in a whopping 11 series.
Like so many of his colleagues at TVB, his frequent small-screen appearances haven't translated into an equally prosperous career in the cinema. But the past 12 months have been fruitful for Lok, who has landed roles in Lady Cop, Claustrophobia and the action thriller Connected (in which he plays the headmaster of a school from which a pupil is kidnapped).
But Lok says an industry downturn means fewer roles for actors and, as a full-time TVB employee, he knows where his priorities should lie. 'I didn't really want to let down either TVB or a film director, so usually if the timing's tight, I'd rather give up offers from the outside,' he says, adding that his participation in Claustrophobia was only possible because his supervisors at TVB were willing to give him the time off.
Having drifted through a number of desk jobs after graduating from secondary school, Lok enrolled in Shaw Brothers' trainee programme in 1973. Failing to make any progress at the studio, he terminated his contract there only to sign up with TVB, the studio's sister company.