Malaysia's most famous "son-in-law", Andy Lau, together with director, Benny Chan, were at "Pavilion", to grace the gala premiere for his latest martial arts flick, "Shaolin" (新少林寺). Jet Li's version suddenly came to mind. Although the storyline remains vague (I was still a tyke then), I remembered being so in awe of his skillful moves. Then again, Jet Li is a true blue shaolin kung fu practioner and Andy is just....well, Andy Lau, the hardworking and charismatic movie star. Having said that, with the festive season just around the corner, coupled with Andy and Nic Tse's star pulling power, I'm sure this movie will not fare too badly in the box office.
I'm most suprised to see the full force attendance of his Malaysian fan club - 華仔天地(all members are decked out in orange attire) - from kiddos to the middle age group ,with "Shaolin" fans in hand, all prep-up to welcome 華仔. I thought the numbers would have dwindled somewhat by now but it's still very much alive and kicking !
Andy didn't say much throughout the whole event. Put it this way - he was warm but in a cool and collected kind of way. After greeting the crowd and a short intro about the movie, a few pre-selected fans joined Andy for a short game session. Andy showed off a couuple of simple kung fu steps. The ones who imitated his moves best emerged as the overall winner. GSC also had two martial arts exponents doing their wushu stuff on stage, sort-of launching the movie. Before you knew it, the function came to a wrap as Andy had to rush to GSC cineplex for the premiere of "Shaolin." The organizer played the theme song on an endless loop and oh, boy ! I gotta say, the singing style and melody of the Mandarin number sounds way too outdated.
