OLDER CINEMA-GOERS might be forgiven a sense of deja vu these days. Recent Hong Kong movie releases are filled with familiar faces from the past - only they're stars who first found recognition on the small screen.
A number of former television actors are emerging from years of semi-retirement to make serious breakthroughs on the big screen. In the new cops-and-robbers drama Wo Hu, for example, Michael Miu Kiu-wai shows his chops as a bona fide movie star. One of TVB's hottest talents in the 1980s, he turned a minor role in 2004 triad romp Jiang Hu into his springboard for a career revival with several hit soaps in the past year, and more film calls.
Rain Dogs, Ho Yuhang's small-budget film about a teenager's search for his brother, features Leo Liu Wai-hung, the character actor who found fame as a country bumpkin in the hit TV series Man in the Net.
And then there's the array of former TV stars in director Johnnie To Kei-fung's latest action movie Exiled - from leading man Nick Cheung Ka-fai, to supporting cast such as Hui Siu-hung and Eddie Cheung Siu-fai.
But the ultimate blast from the past comes in My Mother is a Belly Dancer. The well-received neighbourhood drama stars 80s TV stars Sydney (Suet Nei) and Ken Tong Chun-yip, as well as Gordon Lam Ka-tung and Kristal Tin Yui-lei, all small-screen celebrities of the 90s.
Its director Lee Kung-lok, who started out as an assistant director at TVB before switching to film, says TV actors often have more experience. 'Newcomers in movies lack the training that television actors went through,' Lee says. 'When you began your career at a television station, you were put through a long, intense period of training, and worked your way up through the ranks. You can't give people who jump straight into film that sort of schedule; and that's not good for the development of their acting.'