Pretty Okay (Duk Duk Dei)-Raymond Lam
credits: Bape@Raymondforest
translated by: Vickie @ ::The Honeypot:: ::RLzoo::
Mag Scans: http://z4.invisionfree.com/raymondlam/inde...p?showtopic=112
Originally, I wanted the prologue to be written like this:
"Sometime in the past, Raymond Lam was looked down on by the audience. Living in a mansion, driving race cars, a wealthy father. Seeing him is just seeing a spoiled brat. However, in two years recently, his spotlight was taken over by his close friends. On one hand Ron Ng has Ella Koon, Charmaine Sheh, "my favorite", and in debt; on the other hand, Bosco Wong has Myolie Wu, Fala Chan, and his ex-girlfriend that had breat implant. In comparision, "the wealthy kid" Raymond Lam is more stable. After going through what happened in the past, through all hard times, he finally "washed" himself...."
Nobody can predict the future.
This Monday, there was a article saying that Raymond played with a night club dancer when he was in Beijing filming, to say it in simple words, someone told on him. No matter if this was true or not, all of Raymond's effort in cleaning his background is all gone.
"I'll just see it as promotion for 'Heart of Greed', after all I'm a player in the series."
His words of unable to fix the problem is worse than the year where he said he didn't rely on his father. The Showbiz is a place where one is up and the other is down. Originally, Raymond is "good", but now, we only can say "pretty okay".
"Cleaning Up"
A man's weak school, is either women or money. This Monday, there was a magazine publishing an article about Raymond Lam filming in Beijing. There was a night club dancer who claims to be Raymond's girlfriend and talked about what happened in the room.
Raymond Lam took the magazine and read it without missing a word; sighing and mad.
"How is this possible! Crazy! They think I'm dumb! There's lots of paparazzi Beijing, why would I do such thing? This girl is my friend's friend, I barely even know her." Very frustrated.
"A lot of seniors had told me to watch out when we film in Mainland. We must be careful about our friends, because they want to use us. The Showbiz, if there's no ghost then there wouldn't be dead people."
Raymond Lam was originally in an excellent mood, just looking at the first picture; he was only leaning on a small piece of wood. Also, he pulled on the rope and gave the best facial expression he can. However, after he read the article that just came out, he was down.
"If I don't reply then they would say I admited it, if I did they would say I'm just denying it. I'll just let it be a promotion for 'Heart of Greed'. " Although he said it like this, but he really does care.
Just think about it, a few years about, ask yourself if you prejudiced Raymond who lives in a huge house, drives a race car, and his father is a millionaire. Nobody would believe he's taking his job seriously, and would only pay attention to his buddies. "Eh, this Ron Ng is pretty handsome, and this Bosco Wong is pretty good...."
His background is actually what "killed" him. In the recent two years, Raymond Lam filmed more and more series while his friends switch cars and switch girlfriends; after a long time, the audience will compare.
"In the past two years, I felt 'clean', because the audience would only care about my background and no matter what I do, nobody believes I put effort into it."
"This time, I'm very worried that my image in the audience's mind would be marked on."
Heavily Promoted Dramas
Raymond Lam's faster than the ones who started working the same time as he did.He entered the industry in 1998, that time he was only 19 and portrayed roles as soldiers, waiters, etc. After three years of being extras, he filmed 'A Step Into The Past'.
"Eight, around nine years ago, all the 'siu sungs' of TVB are 30 and over, there were rarely ones around my age. I was fortunate and worked with many seniors before they left."
Raymond worked with Louis Koo, Lawrence Ng, Flora Chan, Gallen Lo, etc. The audience thought he was a fresh newbie then, but now he has the protential.
"Gallen Lo left a great impression, he was one of those who always film the grand productions."
Everyone will need to look up, to film, one must film the promoted grand production. We did a small calculation with Raymond. He filmed 19 series total and most of them were 30 or 40 episodes, like 'Golden Faith', 'Bladed Heart', 'Twin of Brothers', 'The Last Breakthrough'', 'Lethal Weapons of Love nad Passion', and the 60 episodes one that was just finished, ' The Drive of Life'.
"In 'Heart of Greed', I'm only a guest star. The producer picked me for the love scenes in the series, but that took up around 30 episodes." Look, how fortunate.
If you were to say that he was fortunate, you might as well say he has the potential and elegance. Some actors who wore the yellow robes don't look like kings or princes, but Raymond does. 80% of his characters were either rich guys or professionals. His "worst" character was in 'La Femme Desperado' and he was a sales.
Speaking with Raymond about "rich guys", he looked awkward. Not wanting to be too humble, but doesn't want to show off.
In these years, he learned to be more quiet about things.
"I admit that I look better potraying those rich characters, but am I able to portray the other ones? Of course, of course! But you have to give me time to examine and obseve."
"Whatever it is, at least now I have a spot. All these years are not wasted. Do you think that we don't have pressure filming those long dramas?"
Pressure
Raymond's pressure is not having to pay bills for his house or car, but it's the most traditional problem.
"I'm not only the eldest son, but the eldest grandson and I have a lot of nieces and nephews too. There's a lot of family members in my family and they all look up to me, so I always am competitive ever since I was young, because I don't want to look bad."
Raymond's father is a famous business man, and has the name of "Xiamen Li Ka Sing", the eldest son should be the one that takes over. Raymond took a year of architecture in California before; if he didn't join the industry, he probably would be an architect.
"I thought about helping my father with his business, but being in this industry for a long period of time and just started to run things smoothly, I don't want to leave. My parents don't force me anyways, so I decided to film for a few more years."
"Even if I do help my father, I will have to learn from the beginning and it won't be easy. He has his troubles, I saw it with my own eyes, he needs more than 3 batteries for his cell phone a day."
Just like Oscar in 'Golden Faith'.
"Yes!" Raymond smiled uncomfortably.
Too many yees are looking at him; it was never like audience looking at actor or fans looking at idols.
"I get really nervous easily. Whenver I have some negative news, I won't be able to sleep and it seems like I won't tonight..."
His parents mostly live in Mainland, but they record his series.
"They would used to criticize me more, saying that I wasn't good enough. My mother would be asking why I'm working so hard. Now, they are more opened minded, and would praise me once in a while." Nothing's as excited as parents' compliments.
" A lot of artists would think about their future, like if they are not in the industry anymore, what would they do? I know that I have a road that backs me up, but I neve think about it, because thinking about it will kill me!"
"Being an artist have to face difficulties in order to have success."
However, he never told his parents that he was filming over night and brushing his teeth near the road while being looked at those office ladies and men.
"My father once said, whatever we are doing, we must learn how to be a person first, then learn to do other things. To let others know that you have the heart, you must put yourself down. Besides, I'm a regular young adult, there's not much of a background or a typical person I have or am."
Survivor
It is different. Raymond Lam who sees wealth since he was a little kid would not let money take him over after he became famous. He didn't buy new cars after buying one and seeing that we prepared a Viktor & Rolf shirt for him, he would say, "$3500? Is it worth it?"
This way, he can actually focus on his work.
"There's a lot of temptations in the Showbiz. I actually think I can stand these temptations."
Three years ago's "Olympics 6 Stars", then "New 5 Tigers", and last year's "World Cup 4"; from 6 to 5, from 5 to 4, not everyone can stay and Raymond is one of the survivors.
"TVB has four different filming areas, and one person can't film all! Now that there are some others that I can compete with, we can compare ourselves."
Being confident, will not be afraid of comparison. Knowing himself and others, Raymond understands his own strength and weakness.
"Because I entered the industry a little longer, of course I'll make a few less mistake. However, my weakness is being quiet. I really don't like showing myself in front of the audience, that's why I rarely appear on game shows."
"Super", Raymond Lam never been on it once, in 9 years, he only went on "15/16". "I was free that day, so I couldn't say no!"
To express himself, Raymond would rather sing. His 07 plan is to release an album, and he has signed EEG.
"When I was little, my hobby is to sing. When I was 7 or 8, my aunt would play the piano while I sing, and my dad would record all the songs I sang. Those old cassettes are still here today."
One summer, Raymond went to Shanghai to take singing courses for two months. Before he entered the training class, he was originally planning to be a singer. The contract was right in front of him, just that he didn't sign it.
"I think it's risky, because I knew that a music company will not give a lot of their budget to a newcomer so being an actor would be more safe."
Epilogue- So So
Raymond says, in the past, he would try to be more "normal". For example, he lived in a big house and went to school in an all boy school Saint Paul. His driver could have drive him for only 10 minutes, yet he chose to take the bus Star Ferry, and from there, transfer buses to his school with his classmates. On average, everyday he would waste an hour more on the bus rides.
"To be equal like my classmates and I don't want to be special."
Having a golden key might not be a good thing.
After entering the industry, he slowly didn't mind what others thought. "Hong Kong audience are the world's hardest group to control and know. If you film carefully, they mithg think you are over exaggerating. If you calculate too much, you often will calculate it wrong. In my experience, to want a series to be popular, you must say it's 'so-so'..."
Therefore, Raymond thinks that "Heart of Greed" is so-so. He's a lawyer, that cheats on his girlfriend. A terrible couple with YoYo Mung.
Raymond Lam's story tells readers that there's no shortcut, no winning path nor rich in the Showbiz.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vickie's note: forgive me for my poorly translated article. Haven't translated for hecka long. Please exucse any grammar error.
