Ekin Cheng and Jerry Lamb on why Young And Dangerous could not be made today

SINGAPORE — Mention Hong Kong superstar Ekin Cheng and most will recall his iconic role in the gangster flick Young And Dangerous — made nearly two decades ago. And that is why the man is still fielding questions about the film, which spawned a series of sequels, to this day.

Cheng and his Young And Dangerous co-star, Jerry Lamb, were in town recently to celebrate the first anniversary of cHK channel on SingTel mio TV. The channel, which broadcasts Hong Kong movies and television series, will be airing a series of Ekin Cheng movies that includes Young And Dangerous 3, Once A Gangster, A Man Called Hero and The Storm Riders.

But while Young And Dangerous lives on in people’s memories, host-turned-singer Lamb, who played the sidekick Pou Pee to Cheng’s hero Chan Ho Nam, felt a movie like Young And Dangerous could not be made today.

This is because the world has changed, Cheng said. “Young And Dangerous was adapted from a comic book that was actually about brotherhood. I find that people don’t communicate as much today, not like we did in the past. If you work in an office, you might not even speak a word to your colleague. In the past, it was all about the communal struggle.”

Lamb added that this is on top of the fact that gangsters back in the day were hoodlums. “But now, they are all restaurant bosses or have emigrated from Hong Kong!”

Of course, we had to ask if he is personally acquainted with these gangsters-turned-bosses, which caused Cheng to recoil from Lamb in mock panic and exclaim: “I don’t know him!”

Lamb laughed and recalled that back in 1996, “after watching the movie, people walked the streets trying to look like Chan Ho Nam or Mountain Chicken”, which would never happen today. “We were lucky,” Cheng said. “It’s rare to have a movie that everyone remembers watching when they were young, so it was our good fortune to have had the opportunity to do it. Back then, it had good and bad effects but in the end, I think there were more good than bad.”

The bad was that “people felt that our image wasn’t good, so they didn’t want to hire us. They felt we were leading young people astray. But now, it’s very clear that it was just a movie”, said Cheng, who just completed work on the movie Break Up 100 and is currently starring in the Chinese version of The Amazing Race.

One also wonders if the two actors are good friends off-screen. “No,” Cheng deadpanned immediately, while Lamb exclaimed: “With him? You must be joking!”

If there’s one thing they do agree on, though, it’s that neither wants to get inked — unlike their tattoo-ridden characters in the films.

“It’s very hard to find a good design. And it stays on your body forever,” Cheng said. “Plus, when it’s on your own body, you don’t get to enjoy it. They look much better on someone else’s body! Tattoos are for others to see … They are like art.”

Lamb said: “I’m afraid of the pain.” “He might faint,” Cheng teased.

Catch Once A Gangster on Nov 8, A Man Called Hero on Nov 15, The Storm Riders on Nov 22 and Young And Dangerous 3 on Nov 29, all at 9pm on cHK (SingTel mio TV Ch 510).