bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Richard James Havis

Hong Kong actress Carina Lau Ka-ling always brings a strong sense of presence to her work, whether she is appearing in drama or comedy, as a leading actress or a supporting player.
Here we chat with film historian Frank Djeng about her long-lasting career.
Carina Lau has been acting since the 1980s – that is a long time for a Hong Kong actress to keep working.
Yes, she started her career back in the mid-1980s at TVB, and she has kept going strong, although she has had quite a lot of career breaks to do other things.

Most of her early works were light comedy, with the exception of the 1987 triad drama Rich and Famous and follow-up Tragic Heroes, in which she played Chow Yun-fat’s wife and did a great job.
After she appeared in Wong Kar-wai’s Days of Being Wild, she started to get more dramatic roles. Overall, her filmography has fluctuated between comedy and more serious works.
Unlike Maggie Cheung Man-yuk, Lau has never really made action films.
No, she has never really been involved in action at all. Anita Mui Yim-fong and Maggie Cheung made action films like The Heroic Trio, but Carina stayed with semi-dramatic or light comedic roles in films like La Brassiere.

It’s interesting that when she started to work more on the [Chinese] mainland in the 2000s, they really saw her as a dramatic actress and the comedy fell away in films like Jiang Wen’s Let the Bullets Fly. Mainland filmmakers noticed she was very good in dramatic roles and wanted her to focus on that.
The TV series Looking Back in Anger put her in the public eye. What was that about?
Looking Back in Anger, which screened in 1989, is one of the most popular TV series in TVB history. It’s a tragic story about the life of a tycoon. It’s very melodramatic, with a great cast including Felix Wong [Yat-wah], Deric Wan [Siu-lun] as the villain, and the sadly departed Kathy Chow [Hoi-mei].

Lau played Felix Wong’s wife in one of the main roles. It established her credentials as an actress who could play dramatic roles as well as light comedy, and enabled her to move into films.
Lau herself has often credited Wong Kar-wai with pushing her towards more serious roles.
It was Wong who elevated her acting with Days of Being Wild – she played Mimi, the dancer who falls in love with Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing’s character. She did get a best actress nomination at the Hong Kong Film Awards for that role, but she didn’t win.
Wong did a lot to show off her more mature side. He realised that she could play a character with a tragic, lonely side to her – she’s looking for true love and she falls for Leslie.

Mimi also asks some of the characters to call her by different names, which gives the impression of multiple characters, and that gave Lau a chance to expand her range.
In the comedy Forbidden City Cop, Stephen Chow Sing-chi also got a great performance from her.
Stephen Chow saw her potential as a comedy actress, and the role of his wife in Forbidden City Cop was one of her best.
The best thing about her in the film is that she is really natural – you can see where Chow is obviously improvising his comedy and she is cracking up laughing. That’s really great to watch!

She goes with the flow of what he’s doing and plays along with it. She gets the jokes, she understands the humour and she knows what he’s trying to do.
What qualities are special about her acting?
I think the fact that she is originally from [mainland] China has led to a more interesting side to her acting.
The way she talks, when she is not dubbed by voice actresses (Hong Kong films used to have the voices dubbed on after the scenes were shot) – sometimes she would dub her own voice – has a stoic, serious quality.
She comes from Suzhou, near Shanghai in Jiangsu province, and they have the reputation of being an educated and sophisticated bunch of people. I think her roots show in her acting.

Her Cantonese was originally accented as she was from the mainland, but audiences did not seem to mind that.
She grew up in China and learned Cantonese by watching TV series there. As a result, she speaks Cantonese with an accent and Hongkongers can tell she’s not from Hong Kong.
People gradually accepted her because of her hard work and her acting ability. Later on, because of her work with Wong Kar-wai, she became thought of as a local actress.
She always stands out, even if she’s playing a supporting role, as in Stanley Kwan Kam-pang’s Centre Stage or Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Flowers of Shanghai.
She is always noticeable, no matter what kind of role she’s playing.
She only appears in a few scenes in Ashes of Time, waiting by the little pond for the blind swordsman to reappear,but she is memorable. Her reactions are just fantastic when she realises that her lover is not coming back, as he’s dead. You can see all you need to see to understand her sadness by looking at her face.

She often seems to ‘act with her eyes’, like Brigitte Lin Ching-hsia used to do.
Yes, in Saviour of the Soul where she plays the “Madame of the Cats”, her face is covered most of the time she’s on screen. So she has to act with her eyes. She does that in Ashes of Time as well.
What did you think of her performance as Empress Wu in Tsui Hark’s lively Detective Dee films?
That was great, and she surprised everyone with her intense portrayal. She did a really good job and finally won best actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards after being nominated five times.

She was also very good in the lesbian relationship with Charlie Yeung [Choi-nei] in Jacob Cheung Chi-leung’s Intimates, which isn’t often seen these days. It was certainly unusual for someone of her stature at that time to play a lesbian, and it’s a very delicate performance.
Lau has not played a lot of leading roles, even though she is one of the city’s big stars.
She didn’t start getting leads until Intimates. Then she was a lead in Infernal Affairs II, which was fantastic. But most of the time, she hasn’t played leading roles. People seem to just like watching her in films, whether she has a leading role or a supporting role.
In this regular feature series on the best of Hong Kong cinema, we examine the legacy of classic films, re-evaluate the careers of its greatest stars, and revisit some of the lesser-known aspects of the beloved industry.
Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook


How Hong Kong documentary Never Too Late shows the healing power of the city’s nature

Chow Yun-fat’s mainland Chinese films, from Confucius to Let the Bullets Fly

Struggles of emigrating from Hong Kong and returning to it depicted in short film

Under Current movie review: Aaron Kwok, Francis Ng seek justice in fun but silly thriller

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

How Hong Kong actress Carina Lau became a top film star and her best movies

Carina Lau in a still from Let the Bullets Fly (2010). Photo: SCMP

Hong Kong actress Carina Lau attends the 42nd Hong Kong Film Awards presentation ceremony on April 14, 2024. Photo: Sam Tsang

Lau in a still from Rich and Famous (1987).

Gigi Leung Wing-kei (left) and Lau in a still from La Brassiere (2001).

Lau and Felix Wong in a still from Looking Back in Anger (1989). Photo: TVB

Lau and Jacky Cheung Hok-yau in a still from Days of Being Wild (1990). Photo: Media Asia Film Distribution

Stephen Chow and Lau in a still from Forbidden City Cop (1996).

Lau in a still from Let the Bullets Fly (2010), a mainland Chinese film directed by Jiang Wen. Photo: SCMP

Lau in a still from Ashes of Time Redux, the 2008 re-release of Wong Kar-wai’s 1994 wuxia film Ashes of Time. Photo: Jet Tone Productions

Lau in a still from Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010). Photo: Emperor Motion Pictures

Why prostitution drama Queen of Temple Street is one of the best Hong Kong films ever made

Sylvia Chang in a still from Queen of Temple Street (1990), a Hong Kong film directed by Lawrence Lau that is one of the best to ever come out of the city.

A promotional poster for Queen of Temple Street for its release in Taiwan.

Rain Lau (centre) makes an impressive debut in Queen of Temple Street.

Film director Lawrence Lau at an interview with the Post in 1988. Photo: SCMP

A still from Gangs, Lawrence Lau’s 1988 film.

Lo Lieh (left) and Sylvia Chang in a still from Queen of Temple Street.

How Hong Kong movie star Louis Koo fared in his action roles

Hong Kong actor and singer Louis Koo in a still from the action thriller Paradox (2017).

Louis Koo in a still from Drug War (2012).

Sun Honglei (left) and Louis Koo (right) in a still from Drug War (2012). Photo: Media Asia Distribution

Louis Koo plays an undercover police officer in The White Storm (2013). Photo: SCMPost

(From left:) Lau Ching-wan, Louis Koo and Nick Cheung in a still from The White Storm (2013). Photo: SCMP

Louis Koo in a still from Paradox (2017). Photo: Bravos Pictures

Better looking than Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao’s rise as a martial arts star

Yuen Biao (right) and Lily Li in a still from Dreadnaught (1981), directed by Yuen Woo-ping. Yuen was the youngest of the trio known as the “Three Dragons”, which included Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung. Photo: Golden Harvest

Yuen Biao at an interview with the Post in 2014. Photo: SCMP

(From left) Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan in a still from Wheels on Meals (1984). Photo: Fortune Star Media

Sammo Hung (left) and Yuen Biao in a still from Knockabout (1979). Photo: Fortune Star Media

Kwan Tak-hing (right) and Fung Hak-on in a still from Dreadnaught (1981)

(Front, from left) Cheung Kwok-keung, Yuen Biao and Tong Tin-hei in a still from The Champions (1983).

1980s Hong Kong pop idol Danny Chan’s bittersweet success story: his talent, fame, the tabloid rumours, his retirement and early death

Singer Danny Chan Pak-keung puts one of his albums in a time capsule in 1991. Photo: SCMP

Danny Chan was one of Hong Hong’s “Three Kings and A Queen of Cantopop” in the 1980s, with fellow idols Leslie Cheung, Anita Mui and Alan Tam. Photo: SCMP

Yvonne Siu, project manager of TVB, presents a souvenir to Danny Chan in 1984. Photo: SCMP

Chan singing at his own birthday party in 1988. Photo: SCMP

Chan (left) and Jacky Cheung Hok-yau at the Top Ten Pop Stars Election in 1987. Photo: SCMP

There were numerous rumours about a relationship between Pansy Ho and Chan. Photo: Weibo

Chan performing at a concert to promote Aids awareness in 1990. Photo: SCMP

Chan was taken to Queen Mary Hospital after collapsing at home on May 19, 1992. Photo: SCMP

Flanked by singer Anita Mui Yim-fong and actor Chow Yun-fat, Danny Chan’s older brother Chan Pak-ling carries his younger brother’s picture at the singer’s funeral in 1993. Photo: SCMP

Lifestyle

Entertainment

Culture

Film & TV

Despite her many supporting parts, Lau’s ability to put her mark on her work means she’s always great to watch. We look back at her career


Despite her many supporting parts, Lau’s ability to put her mark on her work means she’s always great to watch. We look back at her career.


How Hong Kong actress Carina Lau became a top film star and her best movies

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Despite her many supporting parts, Lau’s ability to put her mark on her work means she’s always great to watch. We look back at her career

Despite her many supporting parts, Lau’s ability to put her mark on her work means she’s always great to watch. We look back at her career