The best actress who topped the trending search list overnight has shown the most hardcore side of Hong Kong women.
Urban elite Hong Kong women and grassroots working-class Hong Kong women may seem to be vastly different, but they share the most unyielding core trait of Hong Kong women at heart: they do not believe in myths, only in themselves; they never rely on others, and always keep a fallback plan in reserve.
Since Michelle Wai won the Best Actress title at the Hundred Flowers Awards for Popular Films with the film The Last Dance by a large margin, she has become the first Hong Kong Chinese actress to receive this honor. The awards ceremony held on August 10 was her first public appearance after she got 50 stitches on her injured lip during filming. In the footage from the scene, she looked "dazed" and even a little "lonely", as if she was an outsider to the Chinese mainland entertainment industry.
After learning that she had won the award, Michelle Wai was somewhat at a loss, and some netizens made her reaction into an emoji package. (Photo from social media)
Obviously, mainland audiences are not familiar with this relatively unknown Hong Kong actress at all. However, anyone who has watched The Last Dance will agree that this Hong Kong production which broke the Hong Kong box office record is indeed a high-quality commercial film among all the shortlisted works, and Michelle Wai's performance is fully deserving of the award, without losing to any other competitors.
She has a temperament rarely seen in the mainland entertainment industry, and she is different from those dazzling Hong Kong actresses who came up in the golden era of local cinema.
On the spectrum of Hong Kong women, they are not only the group with perfect elegant postures
When Michelle Wai got the role in The Last Dance, she was already 40 years old. This achievement is the result of years of accumulated efforts, and also the flower of tenacity forged from grassroots experience amid the harsh constraints of the times.
Michelle Wai won the "Best Actress" award at the 38th Hundred Flowers Awards for Popular Films for her portrayal of the character Moon Yuet in the film The Last Dance, making her the first Hong Kong actress to win the Hundred Flowers Best Actress title. (Photo from Maoyan)
Different from those Hong Kong actresses we are familiar with from the golden era, who were backed by middle-class affluence, pageant titles or famous directors, this generation of actresses represented by Michelle Wai carries the most authentic and most hard-pressed grassroots survival trait of Hong Kong.
Born into an ordinary working-class family, she started working as a part-time model at the age of 16, took private photography jobs that paid HK$200 per hour, and worked as a jewelry salesperson. Later, she was signed by Emperor Entertainment Group. She got some resources, but not a lot. Apart from playing leading roles in Want to See You and GnGn when she first entered the industry, she played countless supporting and minor roles for more than a decade, and her name was not even marked on the water cup prepared by the crew's tea lady.
However, Michelle Wai is persistent, diligent and pragmatic, willing to work hard and endure hardships. She cherishes every opportunity to act when there is a new project, and occasionally gets challenging good roles. For example, in the horror film Insomnia, she played two tragic twin sisters at the same time and delivered a good performance, but unfortunately she did not get recognition from awards. As the major traditional TV station declined and smaller new stations rose, she participated in the new Hong Kong drama The Gutter produced by ViuTV, which showed that her acting range was gradually expanding and the characters she portrayed were getting more and more complex, but she still did not get the attention she deserved.
It was not until the Ready o/r Knot series that she took the initiative to seek opportunities, met her mentor, and brought the script written and directed by Chan Mao Yuen to her company to launch the project. Usually, comedy skit works are unlikely to win awards, but the character "Chan Hoi Yee" earned her first nomination for Best Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
For a long period of time before that, Michelle Wai kept doubting herself: "Is it because my acting is not good enough that everyone can't see me and remember me?" At her most confused time, she went through days when she had no roles to take at all, and could only rely on a few thousand Hong Kong dollars advanced by the company to cover basic living expenses.
The acting profession is inherently passive. She chose to strive for self-improvement in adversity, and obtained various skill licenses like collecting stamps. In addition to diving licenses, boat licenses, light goods vehicle licenses and motorcycle licenses, she also obtained a series of occupation-related certificates including pet groomer qualification, pet communication qualification, diamond appraiser qualification, lifeguard certificate, and primary traditional Chinese medicine certificate. She is recognized as the "License King" in the entertainment industry.
Michelle Wai obtained many skill certificates in her spare time from work. (Screenshot from social media)
She has a sense of crisis that "once you stop working, you can't make a living". She believes time cannot be wasted, and getting certificates is the most practical thing. Even if she loses her job, with all kinds of licenses in hand, she can at least find a part-time job and won't starve. Of course, Michelle Wai loves the acting profession so much that even with all the fallback plans prepared, she still stays in the industry, holding a tenacity for acting as if she is struggling to survive in the mud.
In the past, the popular narrative of Hong Kong women on the screen and in the era was dominated by elite temperament and decency. We are always attracted by that group of Hong Kong women with elegant postures: they wear well-tailored high-end fashion, are proficient in multiple languages, have an international vision, have experienced top celebrity circles, walk between Central commercial buildings and fashion runways, are stylish, capable, shrewd, decisive and have extraordinary demeanor.
Most people's impression of Hong Kong women is that they are elite and decent. (Screenshot from Xiaohongshu)
However, the spectrum of Hong Kong women is actually very broad. In the extremely realistic and high-cost Hong Kong society, girls from ordinary families follow the most simple and most anxious grassroots survival logic: have food to eat, have work to do.
Just like Michelle Wai, she never regards herself as a lofty "superstar". When her phone breaks, she takes it to repair, she saves money after earning it, her biggest wish is to have new acting projects, and when there are no roles to take, she takes part-time jobs. Her video channel shares content about eating at small cha chaan teng shops, working hard to buy her first apartment, handling property inspection, decoration and furniture purchase all by herself, and various money-saving tips. Some people say Michelle Wai has a very strong "sense of being a real person". In my opinion, she is originally a "real person" who lives earnestly, just like most ordinary Hong Kong women.
Michelle Wai's daily life is very simple. (Screenshot from interview)
This down-to-earth resilience is in the same line with the traditional Lion Rock Spirit of older generations of Hong Kong people who "rise to the challenge" in harsh environments. Urban elite Hong Kong women and grassroots working-class Hong Kong women may seem to be vastly different, but they share the most unyielding core trait of Hong Kong women at heart: they do not believe in myths, only in themselves; they never rely on others, and always keep a fallback plan in reserve.
The fallback plan for the white-collar ladies working in Central is top professional competence and broad vision, while Michelle Wai's fallback plan is the stack of solid certificates in her pocket and the ability to get up and work at any time. Now that Hong Kong cinema has removed its flashy filter, it is exactly these actresses who carry the flavor of daily life and have solid survival skills that can vividly portray the tenacious vitality of grassroots women who have been crushed by life over and over again but still remain unyielding.
The character Moon Yuet is a tailor-made role created by director Chan Mao Yuen for Michelle Wai, and The Last Dance is the perfect combination of right time, right place and right people. With full strength, she naturally wins wide acclaim and high box office once she appears on the stage.
The superstar era is gone, and working-class actors are the backbone of Hong Kong cinema
We have to admit that The Last Dance brought recognition to Michelle Wai, but the box office draw of the film still came from Dayo Wong. In current Hong Kong cinema, there are almost no actresses who can carry the box office on their own.
In the era of co-productions, in order to balance market returns and the demands of investors, a fixed actor allocation model has been formed for a long time: top Hong Kong male stars carry the box office, paired with popular mainland actresses to expand the mainland market. This win-win arrangement has left out local Hong Kong actresses. They are clearly in their prime acting years, but can only play the hero's wife, ex-wife, kidnapped victim or functional supporting roles in large commercial films. Coupled with the decline in the number of Hong Kong film productions, Hong Kong actresses have far fewer performance opportunities than their predecessors. From Cecilia Cheung in Running on Karma to Jennifer Yu in The Narrow Road, it has been a full 20 years before a young local Hong Kong actress won the Best Actress title at the Hong Kong Film Awards again.
Looking at current Hong Kong productions, most of the actresses are people like Michelle Wai. They have to be patient and accumulate acting experience, and when they finally achieve results, they are no longer new actors.
Kathy Chow, who spent more than a decade drifting around in the major traditional TV station, debuted 10 years earlier than Michelle Wai, and always played minor unremarkable supporting roles. Her father once worried about her future and suggested that she pursue further education, so she completed a Higher Diploma in Law at the University of Hong Kong in her spare time from filming. After getting the diploma, Kathy Chow did not change her career. It was not until entrepreneur Ricky Wong's HKTV poached her that she got the leading role in The Menu after switching to the new station.
The first person from the left is Kathy Chow, who played a maid in the drama. In the early days of her debut, she played many small walk-on roles like this. (Photo from War and Beauty)
Unexpectedly, her acting career was full of twists and turns. When she got her first leading role, HKTV was not awarded a broadcasting license, so the drama could not be released as scheduled and her contract was left in limbo, pushing her career into another low ebb. Surprisingly, after The Menu was broadcast online several years later, it became a big hit, and Kathy Chow finally had a turn for the better. She starred in the ViuTV drama Margaret & David - Green Bean which set off a new Hong Kong drama boom, and was later appreciated by director Felix Chong. Project Gutenberg is one of the most outstanding Hong Kong productions in those years. Kathy Chow's breakthrough performance earned her a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards, and she achieved a zero breakthrough at the Huading Awards, winning the first acting award in her life. At that time, Kathy Chow had been in the industry for more than 20 years.
Jennifer Yu had a bit better luck. Born in a large public housing estate, she debuted as a model and started filming movies in 2016. Her debut work Somewhere Beyond the Mist helped her get nominated for Best New Performer at the Hong Kong Film Awards. She delivered good performances in films such as Still Human, Tracey and Far Far Away, but some of her roles had too little screen time, while some lacked depth.
In The Narrow Road, Jennifer Yu finally got the role of an independent female reporter who rushes forward to chase news, which gave her space to show her capabilities. She has a beautiful appearance and a tough, strong temperament, which makes the character convincing, and with accumulated experience, she successfully shaped the character. The year she won the Best Actress award, she had been in the industry for 8 years, and was no longer a new actress.
Jennifer Yu played a highly justice-driven journalist in the film. (Photo from The Narrow Road)
The most promising new generation actress who can carry leading roles independently is probably Louise Wong. She had no acting experience at all when she was scouted in the audition for the film Anita. Biographical films are very difficult to shoot, and the performance she delivered was already quite outstanding, winning the Best New Performer award at the Hong Kong Film Awards as soon as she appeared on the big screen. From Anita to A Guilty Conscience, and then to this year's New Year film Night at the Royal, the not-so-young Louise Wong has been continuously breaking through her acting range and steadily improving her acting skills. She has successfully crossed regional barriers, with all three films she starred in ranking among the top 10 highest-grossing Chinese-language films in Hong Kong film history.
Louise Wong attended the Weibo