Mikeru On Chinese Music Today

Andy Lau Tak Wah is something of an icon in Hong Kong. He's appeared in more than one hundred films, and several TV series. He's one of the "Four Heavenly Kings" of Cantopop. He's the pitch man for a variety of consumer goods. He has appeared in several public service advertisements. Everywhere you go in Hong Kong, you'll see his face: in DVD shops, music stores, on billboards and on television. And it's a very recognisable face: aquiline nose, high cheekbones, a jawline so sharp you could shave with it.


Lau was born on September 27th 1961. On finishing school he enrolled in the TVB acting academy, where he learnt acting and martial arts. His first movie role was in Ann Hui's gruelling Vietnam piece Boat People (1982). This role as an inmate of one of the grim internment camps, forced to crawl over the fields finding unexploded mines, must have been a challenging one. Lau rose to the challenge and gave a fine performance, which served him well in later years.

He gained critical attention, and a 'Best New Actor' nomination, for his performance in Wong Kar Wai's first work As Tears Go By (1988), in which he starred opposite Maggie Cheung. He played a low-ranking triad member, dealing with an uncontrollable 'younger brother' played by Jacky Cheung, another Heavenly King. He would work with Jacky Cheung again, also in the triad genre, in the byzantine Jiang Hu (2004), a world of betrayal and violence and opulent velvet suits.


He also gained renown for his performance as the doomed hero of Benny Chan's A Moment Of Romance (1990). The iconic character of Wah Jai, astride his motorbike with a girl in a wedding dress riding pillion, has appeared in several other films, most recently in Johnnie To's box office hit Needing You.

Andy's motorbike skills were put to use again in the action drama Full Throttle (1995), in which he played a mechanic and road racer dealing with injury, a dysfunctional family, and challenges from an upcoming racer. This performance also received a nomination for Best Actor at the Hong Kong Film Awards, but again he was unsuccessful.

Andy's career includes a lot of triad films: A Moment Of Romance and As Tears Go By, his earliest, showed his talents at playing the 'angry young man', a minor triad member, while his later films, such as Jiang Hu, Century Of The Dragon, and Shanghai Grand (1996), promoted him to triad boss. In these later films, he demonstrates a commanding character and a presence that is totally credible, and even a little frightening.


His career as a singer has been largely due to hard work and perserverance. When he began, he was told he'd never be successful: his voice was too harsh for Hong Kong audiences, who preferred the softer, more romantic, tenor voices. Nonetheless, he continued, and is now one of the most popular singers in Asia.


A star of his magnitude might be expected to behave like a diva. Not Andy: there are no sulky tantrums, no scandals, and no theatrics. At a publicity event some years ago in the US, while other stars wandered off after an hour of signing, Andy stayed for hours, signing thousands of autographs for fans. And despite being the biggest name on almost any production, when necessary he's quite willing to lug cables around and do the menial work with the rest.