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Michelle Chong’s age-related issues in Our Sister Mambo

SINGAPORE — “My mother is five — no, six — years younger than me. My elder sister is 11 years younger than me. I know I may look quite young because I’m well-maintained, but still…” quipped Michelle Chong.

Michelle Chong looking all youthful for Our Sister Mambo. Photo: Jason Ho.

Michelle Chong looking all youthful for Our Sister Mambo. Photo: Jason Ho.

SINGAPORE — “My mother is five — no, six — years younger than me. My elder sister is 11 years younger than me. I know I may look quite young because I’m well-maintained, but still…” quipped Michelle Chong.

The 38-year-old actress was referring to Mambo Wong, the titular character she plays in the movie Our Sister Mambo, which opens next month.

In the modern day Singaporean update of Cathay’s classic film Our Sister Hedy, Mambo Wong’s mother is played by Audrey Luo while her elder sister is played by Ethel Yap — and both theatre actresses are younger than Chong.

“I can totally feel the pressure because it’s on the big screen and in high definition. Luckily my acting is fantastic,” she joked at the press conference held earlier today (June 11).

Incidentally, Chong’s on-screen mother Luo revealed playing an older character is nothing new to her (she did it for 881 The Musical back in 2011, for instance). But she admitted Mrs Wong is perhaps the oldest character she has had to play to date. “I’m acting as someone in her 50s!” quipped the 32-year-old.

To nail her character, who’s a tough-loving, K-pop-crazy property agent, Luo did the most logical thing — channel her own mother.

“My mother’s Cantonese, too, and she can be just as ridiculous as Mrs Wong, like constantly taking selfies.”

It was these little modern day Singaporean family dynamics that scriptwriter (and famous playwright) Michael Chiang tried to capture.

“Even though the movie was inspired by Our Sister Hedy, it was only a starting point. Everything else is quite fresh,” said Chiang, adding that he wanted the plot to be as authentic as possible. “You can be a fictional family but there must be something in it that connects with the audience. Something that people recognise, whether it’s relationship problems or being judged by your family, bosses, colleagues. That was something I wanted to reflect.”

Our Sister Mambo was commissioned by Cathay to celebrate its 80th anniversary this year. It was described by its producer, Cathay managing director Choo Meileen, as a “sweet little film” that’s more in the vein of romantic comedies than of the slapstick Jack Neo variety that Singaporean audiences are more used to.

“I have absolutely no idea about how well it’ll do at the box office. It’s an English-language film so it’s an uphill climb. (But) I hope Singaporean audiences will accept it and enjoy it,” she said.

Both Chong and Luo, however, preferred to see it differently. “The characters are speaking Singaporean. This is the way we speak, mainly in English with some dialect, Chinese and Malay,” said Luo. “It’s very natural and doesn’t sound jarring at all.”

In any case, Chong urged everyone to watch the movie. “We must support local works — look at the Taiwanese, they’re always so proud of their own films. And the themes of this movie are very universal — it’s about families, marriage. Also, there are such good actors in the film. Don’t you want to watch them?”

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