28-08-19
Simon Yam is a stylish, energetic, veteran and extraordinary actor in Hong Kong. He has been acting from 1970s and never lived the same year over and over again. For him, life and career are about evolving mentally, spiritually & emotionally.
Good appearance and acting are the 2 legs of an actor, though some can do single leg deadlift. Chris Hemsworth is good looking but cannot act well. Yet he stood tall. Tommy lee Jones did not look good but acted well. Dwayne Douglas Johnson, The Rock, is neither good looking nor a good actor. He is very popular. The ultimate victor is of course the one having both such as Leonardo DiCaprio.
Simon Yam is an actor in Hong Kong who also possesses both qualities. He was a fashion model when he was a student. Having finished his hotel and tourism course, he became a TV actor. After wrestling for many years in TVB, the biggest TV station in Hong Kong, Yam resolved without doubt to quit his TV career and worked his way up in the movie world. He was not heedless or indiscreet but just eager for accomplishments. He accepted challenging roles of all kinds: gigolo, psycho, villain, murderer, desperado… When one googles, Simon Yam will be described as ‘Tomb Raider actor’ because he did perform in a number of Hollywood and European films. He is right now very hot in the western media such as Vanity Fair, Variety, Independent, The Hollywood Reporter and Fox News sadly due to an incident in July 2019. Yam attended a marketing event in Zhongshan city, China on a Saturday and he was stabbed onstage in the stomach with a knife. The police said the 64-year-old star’s injuries were not life-threatening but the motive for the attack was still unclear. A suspect was detained following the attack.
Yam has appeared in more than 125 movies and 40 television series. He won innumerable awards and seems to be able to get more. The charm of Yam is his real passion for film. Despite his enormous wealth, he loves acting and keeps on working extremely hard. Fatigue is never a sign for him and ‘idol’ is a tag which he genuinely does not care about. His goal is to take part in good films so that he can feel good ― sometimes at the expense of himself getting a fair reward in some meaningful projects. Yam’s best acting dexterity is his behaving naturally, convincingly and truthfully even under very imaginary circumstances, like his recent impressive performance in the Taiwan film The Tenants Downstairs in which he played the role of a landlord who was a grotesque peeper keeping his several strange tenants under daily surveillance for a secret reason.
His natural acting is actually a disguise of his deliberate and structured efforts to create a subtle character that looks existent and credible. It is Yam’s common way to create an uncommon and distinctive personae. I remember Yam has not taken part in a play. I asked if he would do so. Yam smiled, “Likely I would not. Acting naturally in a play, in the usual dramatic setting, is probably a difficult thing for me who did not receive any formal training.” It has been said that a great actor has to work on his face, body and voice; but the most important thing that the actor has to work on is his mind: the ability to analyse, research, construct and express afterwards. Yam is indubitably a role model.
For those who are keen to find out the acting triumph of Yam, they can watch 3 recent Hong Kong movies. Sara is a film in which Yam played the role of a married and confused high-level official in the education department who fell in love with an underage student who was at the same time a prostitute. Secondly, it must be The Tenants Downstairs in which Yam played the role of an insidious landlord. The last one is a film which is in theatres called Little Q, a simple story how a blind pastry chef got along with a guide dog. Yam developed the impressive character into 5 emotional stages of being lonely and alone, learning to live with the dog, trusting and loving the cute animal, saying goodbye to Little Q and reunion with the little darling.
While most actors in Hong Kong are not ‘acting’ but merely ‘reacting’ to the commands from the directors or primitive audience, Simon Yam is one of the best in Hong Kong who does not imitate or resemble. He creates and every his successful creation is a gift of art.
This article can also be found at the following sites:
