Stephen Au Kam-tong is arguably one of the most visible actors in Hong Kong today. He's a mainstay in Off Pedder, TVB Jade's hit sitcom, and star of The Caveman, a stage play on its third re-run now at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University's Jockey Club Auditorium. Then there's his turn as Wah, the brutal lieutenant of a corrupt tycoon in Overheard, the new Alan Mak Siu-fai and Felix Chong Man-keung thriller that opened in local cinemas on Thursday.
Au's fans, who come from far and wide, will be overjoyed.
'Yes, there have been quite a few who have flown all the way from Japan to watch my theatre productions,' he says. These supporters go back a long way, he says, to a time when What Are You Gonna Do, Sai Fung? was first released, in 1999. Au starred in - as well as wrote, directed and produced - the hour-long film about Bruce Lee.
The film has a big following in Japan and Au - a kung fu aficionado who wrote for the now-defunct New Martial Hero Magazine before joining ATV in the late 1980s - has reworked the film for a DVD re-release there later this month.
Besides starring in two Stephen Chow Sing-chi films in 1996 (Forbidden City Cop and The God of Cookery), his movie career has largely been focused on straight-to-video fare. Au is also a keen photographer (his pictures of Paris were shown in an exhibition, titled Revolving Montmartre of Picasso, in 2005) and an indie filmmaker (his short films Idealism and Ever-changing were entries at the Hong Kong Independent Video and Short Film Awards in 1996).
Why have you spent so many years away from films?
I've always loved cinema but I don't want to make films gratuitously. I once turned down nine films in one year. Some of these productions don't know what they're doing and why they're doing it. And it's hard to take time out from my stage commitments, so I said no to a lot of offers - not many people came back to me again.