Jaynestars.com has translated a recent East Week Magazine article about film and television actress Yoyo Mung (that’s right, “Yoyo”). In it, she mentions that she became a Christian in March 2005.
This was not the first indication of Ms. Mung’s conversion. In December 2005, The Sun published an article in which she expressed admiration for actress Ada Choi: “Not only is Ada pretty and a firm Christian, she also treats people with warmth and sincerity.” Thereafter, the article mentioned that Ms. Mung was a Christian like Ms. Choi.
In May 2006, Ms. Mung appeared in The Room, a production of The Media Evangelism Ltd. - an amazing feat if only because the gap between her conversion and her appearance in an ME project was only fourteen months. It took Ada Choi, perhaps the paragon of a devout Christian Hong Kong entertainer, eight whole years to turn an ME project around.
Ms. Mung’s career is interesting because in some ways it tracks the more recent ups and downs of the Hong Kong film industry. In the late 1990s, she had an auspicious debut appearing in a number of high-profile Johnnie To films. She followed those up with the very good Sealed With a Kiss (1999), co-starring Louis Koo as an island mute.
Thereafter, however, her career began a slow transition out of films and into largely mediocre TVB television serials, where she currently functions as a modestly high-profile leading actress. There was hope for an uptick in both her professional trajectory and the fortunes of the HK Film industry in 2004 when she appeared as part of the hyped-up ensemble of name actors in Wong Jing’s supposedly surefire comedy Sex and the Beauties. However, those hopes proved largely illusory when - how do I put this? - that movie sucked so badly that on its best day it could only hope to sniff mediocrity’s left butt cheek.
Ms. Mung’s last film was 2005’s Where is Mama’s Boy, which marked the HK film debut of William Hung. Enough said.
(Incidentally, William Hung is purportedly a Christian, too. Perhaps ME should cast him in something, like Where is God the Father’s Boy? It could be a parody of a parody. Which is what this world needs - more evangelistic parodies. I don’t know why Media Evangelism isn’t just cranking those things out like Kit Kats. They’re a severely undervalued outreach tool, if you ask me.)
Anyway, there were other interesting tidbids about Ms. Mung in the East Week article. For instance, she had a strained relationship with her parents because they apparently abandoned her into the care of her grandmother when she was growing up and she also wasn’t particularly close with her siblings. Apparently, these relationships have improved in recent years.
Someday, I’ll talk about how early childhood difficulties are a common thread among talented actors and actresses, as well as Christians, active in HK entertainment. It’s interesting because you kind of have to hit a sweet spot of difficulty - if they suffer freakish pain, then they might just flip out and become a serial killer or whatever instead of a good actor. Too little pain and they become like you or me - the average mal-adjusted human being in need of grace.
On a lighter note, here’s an amusing quote from Ms. Mung about what she was like as a youth:
I was unattractive and unpopular when I was a child, due to my overly heavy eyebrows (double my current thickness!) and I wore thick glasses. I had a ‘moustache’ on my upper lip and sported a mushroom haircut. My childhood dream was not to become an actress, but to become a lawyer due to my rebellious personality. I broke the school’s record by not handing in my homework assignments due to my lazy nature. Haha! I was always early for class, since I needed to copy the other students’ homeworks each morning!
Plus her favorite subject was math.
Hmm. Heavy brows, a moustache, a mushroom haircut, and math. What a babe.
Anyway, I’d definitely be interested in learning more about why she decided to become a Christian. I also want to get my hands on a copy of The Room and check it out.
