UPDATED Sep 7 Steven Ma Does Not Want to be a Mr. Nice Guy.

【Mingpao Weekly # 2339】
By: Tsui Yong Yong
I had previously made an appointment with Steven, who was filming a new TVB series, Property Protector, on-location in Foshan to meet up there at the end of August after he returns from attending the upcoming TVB press conference at the Films and TV Series Exhibition in Beijing. But turn out Steven did not attend the press conference as planned, instead he asked me to bring along certain medications for him at our appointed date of August 28th in Foshan. I suspected something was wrong with him.

On August 28th afternoon, Foshan’s temperature reached the high of 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 F). When my car arrived at the filming location in Foshan I saw a wide open space packed with people. After searching for a long time I finally saw a ‘water person’ standing in front of me. Though Steven was soaked through, his expression, fortunately, was that of delight.


The next day in the afternoon, taking advantage of his half day off Steven hired a driver to drive them to eat Double Layer Milk Custard (雙皮奶 – a local specialty) in Da Liang (tn: an hour's drive) Only then did Steven tell me: “Shooting this series is truly arduous. At first I had planned to go to Beijing but the day before departure during filming I suddenly felt a tightness in my chest, very uncomfortable. Uncle Choi (Producer Leung Choi Yuen) immediately sent me to the hospital. The doctor diagnosed the problem to be cardiac related, and I must rest immediately. And that I should not get on a plane as the air pressure changes might affect my heart, that’s why I was absent.”

Returning to TVB to film a series, Steven was very happy to see so many ex-colleagues, like returning to an alma mater. “Uncle Choi designed a new image; the series character - Poon Ka Yong is very stubborn. After being baptized by the flames of war his person has a righteous side but at the same time because he has been through countless life and death situations and has seen the dark side of human, he is very ruthless towards bad people. For self-preservation he continually has people killed. A rather complex character.

“I want make the character more three-dimensional, for him to go through changes; so I employ a different kind of acting, which is to portray a person forced by circumstances to become a ruthless character. I don’t want to always portray a Mr. nice guy. This is the real human being; a human being has many sides and is rather complex.”

After completing Property Protector TVB immediately approached Steven to film Apprentice Chef 3 and another new series. Steven said: “I have to go to Beijing to film a movie first, and also I have mainland tv series on hand to consider. So it’s all depend on timing whether I can collaborate with TVB or not.”

sources: ohtavia.forum weibo ;
tsui y/y weibo 2013-09-07 10:25 
tsui y/y weibo 2013-09-07 10:19

enlarged pix link
related tsui yy weibo 8/28
Related tsui yy weibo 9/7

previously published on 9/7/13 8:10 AM

 

Elliot Ngok reminded Steven that since he frequently got drenched in the scenes, he should drink ginger water to expunge the chill inside the body.  Elliot even personally made some for Steven, making the latter extremely grateful.  So when Steven was having double layer mil custard he did not forget to also order tong yuen in ginger soup and ginger pork trotters.  He praised the ginger pork trotters for dissolving once inside the mouth.  

Given the heat wave, and sealed inside the costumes, Steven had a sense of hyperventilating. So he had some local made a big pot of chilled water chestnut dessert soup to be sent to the site.

Maggie Siu, Tavia, and Katy applauded loudly at Steven's heroic antics.  In the past, Steven and Tavia never have a good ending, we hope this is an exception.  When asked Uncle Choi of its ending, he refused to divulge -  truly a mystery.

Steven jests that filming PP was truly filled with calamities. "Maybe it is truly difficult to maintain the business? For me, first had my nose busted, then later had a cardiac problem.  In Foshan, Ching Hor Wai was administered saline IV 3 times.  Tavia hurt her neck, Lee Kei Man hurt her foot.  Despite all that all employees had work ethics, none applied for sick leave.  Truly testing but everybody was united, and also we finished filming on schedule.