A New Charlene Choi

[MingPao exclusive interview] Two years ago, Charlene Choi went solo amid whispers that the magic of the "Twins fairytale" was over. Two years later today, Ah Sa has already established herself as a solo singer, while Gillian Chung has slowly started work in the film industry. As Twins head towards their 10th year in the business, "SaGiu" are back together again, whether people believe it to be a result of Ah Sa leading Ah Giu back towards the stage, or a result of the "Twins fairytale" effect, today's Ah Sa has transformed.

In the past 9 years, Twins have successfully associated Ah Sa and Ah Giu as one entity, but now, are they capable of flying just as well alone? Amid everyone's doubts and concern, we have picked Ah Sa as the 2009 artist of the year, so we have invited her back for an interview at the beginning of 2010. To start off, Ah Sa's solo accolades throughout this year haven't been disappointing. She has won Best Song awards, and has repeatedly participating in movie filming, advertisements, and concerts in the Mainland; clearly, with not much rest, her results have only improved and not degraded.

Worries about misery if she declines work

From the peak of her work, she has overstepped the ravines of Twins' lowest points, changing her thoughts on herself. "Maybe people think that I have a right to choose now, that I don't need to work as hard as before. But I feel that if there is work available, I need to do it, because if people ask you to work and you decline, it is very disrespectful and miserable. However, I have suggested to my company that I concentrate on one aspect at a time, filming only white filming, and only singing during singing projects, which I find works better." After the storm of Ah Giu's scandal two years ago, the two high flying birds have been separated, and Ah Sa had to learn the power of one. She has learned that one never knows what will happen in the next second, so she tells herself now not to doubt herself, if she has already made the decision, she should give it 100%.

Overcomes hardships, improves acting

It has often been said that Ah Sa has been the most lucky out of the two, because she has easily won the love of the audience. They have never demanded that she have superb acting skills and seem satisfied with her just her appearance in movies. Although they don't request it, Ah Sa has chosen to improve her acting techniques, even if she's just acting the same happy character, she wants to be able to express it in 10 different ways, so the audience can see more sides of her. At the end of last year, Jim Chim's French drama master Philippe Gaulier held classes in Hong Kong, citing Ah Sa to take time out of her busy schedule to attend. Although she wanted to quit many times, she persevered in the end, knowing that if she didn't work for it now, how would she be able to taste sweet success? "There were around 40 students, only me and Karena Lam were artists, everyone else were strangers, whom I haven't been in close contact with in many years. As Karena had been to class before, she was like a class president, and me? I had to go to work right after class, or attend half of class and head to work. Everyone I returned, there were many new techniques and skills to practise, which I had to do under the scrutiny of strangers. It was very difficult in the beginning, but afterwards I realized that when acting in movies, I will have to face many different people, so I had to overcome this terror in order to improve, but yes, the process was very difficult."

Confidence increases, becomes happier

After her hard work, Ah Sa hopes that everyone will notice an improvement in her acting skills, but stressed that she would not become stubborn and only pick unique, individualistic parts to perform. "The show business is very realistic, you need to have high ratings in order to have opportunities to act in more deep roles. If someone is willing to assign me a part, I'm very happy, but I also realize that I have to keep the comedy series market in mind, because the general public are my biggest supports."

After a year, having this interview with Ah Sa, I feel that she is happier. "That's true!" she laughs, "Because a year ago, I didn't know what path to take, but now I know my direction, and my confidence grow. Most importantly, I won't be afraid to sing on my own on stage, I will definitely improve in the future."

Source: mingpao
Translation: FeaturedWeekly