I have worked hard, but I think have been lucky as well. Now after 400+ gigs and 11 years later, there are no regrets having taken the plunge into a road less traveled of part fantasy and part real life.
Should you take such a plunge yourself?
Listen in here and find out.
"Anita" the movie is beautifully made, complete with 1980s fashion chic and scored with several of Anita Mui's hits in that era. It chronicles her singing for a living from a very tender age of 4, leading to her superstardom in adulthood. Yet, like many superstars, she dwell in loneliness much of her life, as she had never seen her father, had several failed relationships and was never married. All these probably culminating in her succumbing to cervic cancer and her eventual demise.
Watching it in Cantonese allowed all the little nuances of her life to be felt more closely, something that would be lost in the Mandarin version. In Singapore, we managed to watch the Cantonese version only after an online petition to the government, but even with that, only a limited number of screenings were allowed and only in one theatre. Quite expectedly tickets sold-out in no time. Isn't this telling of what the people really miss deep down?
I managed to get one of the last tickets for a seat right in front. I had to tilt my head as much as I could to capture the entire screen within my peripheral vision. Luckily, I don't need the subtitles, otherwise my eyeballs would have had a hectic workout.
There were happier and lighter moments in the movie of her performing on the small stages of community theatres and nightclubs in the 1980s. Then, she sang HK Canto pop songs, many of which were heavily influenced by their Japanese counterparts at that time.
The later parts of the film are more emotional - of her relationship breakups,; her brush with a mob boss, that drove her to take refuge in Chaing Mai, Thailand; her losing her sister to cancer; and then her own battle with the same disease and death.
I was living in the West and was absent from HK pop fandom in the 1980s and 1990s. We didn't have the Internet like now, so I listened and watched Anita's music and concerts from CDs and VHS cassettes; and eventually on Youtube and TV from the 2000s till 2003 before she died.
"Anita" the movie, fills a bit of the cultural blackhole I missed as a result of living in the West for a long time. In that sense, it feels like a home coming for me.
This is her last concert:
Kid Hero, written and directed by Andy Hui, is about a kid's fantasy about his superpowers and his mini roadtrip adventure to look for his father, who is his idol and hero in his life. I enjoyed working with the very talented actors Ricky Lo and Estovan Reizo Cheah; and Esther Leong.
Here is the film:
