Andy Lau suffers 'serious' spinal injury after falling from horse

Andy Lau at “The Great Wall” press tour. (Photo: Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore)

Veteran Hong Kong actor Andy Lau reportedly suffered a serious spinal injury after falling off a horse in Thailand on Tuesday (17 Jan).

According to media reports, Lau, 55, was in a rural part of Thailand for an ad shoot when the horse he was riding went out of control and he was thrown to the ground.

Apple Daily reported that horse then stepped on the actor’s waist, fracturing his spine.ue to the nature of the injury, Lau is currently not mobile and has to take a medical plane back to Hong Kong for further diagnosis and treatment.

Filming has also been suspended.

Lau, one of Hong Kong’s most successful actors, was most recently seen in Zhang Yimou’s “The Great Wall”, together with Asian stars like Eddie Peng and Hollywood veterans William Defoe and Matt Damon

Andy Almost Got Himself Killed

Hong Kong superstar Andy Lau was nearly fatally strangled while filming his new movie Saving Mr Wu - at his own request.

This was the only way that the scene, in which he is violently throttled by a kidnapper, would look as realistic as it did, says the 54-year-old actor.

"Maybe it is because the actors who played the kidnappers all grew up watching me on the screen, but they didn't strangle me hard enough at first. As soon as I started struggling, they would stop.

Mr Wu Ruofu

"So I told them that if I really couldn't take it, I would just let go and stop fighting them, and that they shouldn't stop strangling me until I did that. We really put in a lot of effort to express the suffering of the real-life characters," he tells Life in an e-mail interview.

During filming, he also spent 10 hours each day shackled painfully in real metal chains (fake chains would break apart as soon as he tried to free himself) and was confined to just 1 sq m of space.

He never talked about the case. I think he has already said everything that he wanted to say about it a decade ago when he spoke to the police.

ANDY LAU on the real kidnap victim,
actor Wu Ruofu, who has a small role in the film
Still, whatever challenges Lau faced during the shoot probably came nowhere close to the ordeal that China actor Wu Ruofu must have felt during his real-life kidnap in 2004, on which this film is based.

The abductors were sentenced to death in 2005, a year after the incident, but it is clear that Wu is still haunted by the memories of how he was snatched by kidnappers outside a bar in Beijing and held captive for 21 hours - he had rejected the offer to play himself in this movie. Instead, he takes on a small supporting role as a cop.

Lau says: "Director Ding Sheng told me that it was too much for Wu to live through the whole experience all over again as the victim, so he took the part of the police inspector who helped save his life instead. It was his tribute to his rescuer.

"He never talked about the case. I think he has already said everything that he wanted to say about it a decade ago when he spoke to the police.

"But during the filming, we would observe his facial expressions and reactions to try and gauge his thoughts, to see if we were playing this as close to real life as possible. If he looked too deep in thought and his mind was elsewhere, we knew that our observations were accurate."

Now that the film is set for release, Lau hopes that it can help provide Wu with a sense of closure.

"Wu Ruofu is a remarkably strong person, but the experience still haunts him. I hope he can put the past behind him after this movie.

"We actually changed the Chinese character of Wu's last name, with the new 'Wu' meaning 'me'. So to save Mr Wu is also to save me.

"The title thus symbolises the saving of Mr Wu from the abductors, but also the liberation of the real Mr Wu."

Andy Lau puts on some lipstick in this publicity photo for "What Women Want"

BEIJING: Hong Kong star Andy Lau revealed during a publicity event in Beijing on Tuesday that he quite enjoyed cross-dressing for his latest film "What Women Want", a remake of a Hollywood romantic comedy of the same name.

The 49-year-old actor, who often plays rather manly roles, had to wax his legs, put on lipstick and don a pair of black fishnet stockings for his upcoming movie, but he liked the result.

"It [how he looked dressed as a lady] was surprisingly quite beautiful. At the time, I thought I had been possessed by Marilyn Monroe," Lau told Chinese reporters.

Lau's co-star, Chinese veteran actress Gong Li, 45, 'praised' him for managing to pull it off.

"When I saw the production photos, I laughed so much. A sexy goddess!" Gong joked.

The "Shanghai" star went on to reveal that she taught Lau everything she knew about how to look more feminine and was a little miffed that she didn't get to see shoot the cross-dressing scene - the production staff apparently closed the set for Lau's performance.

But Lau explained there was a very good reason to keep her out.

"If you were there, I fear I would feel embarrassed and nervous. When the real goddess is around, this fake goddess would find it very hard to perform," said Lau, adding that nobody else, save the director, was on the set that day.

This is the third time Lau has cross-dressed for a movie – he had previously donned female clothing in 1999's "Running Out of Time" and 2001's "Dance of a Dream".

In "What Women Want", Lau plays an ad exec who can read women's minds. He uses the ability to sabotage his boss, played by Gong, but ends up falling in love with her instead.

The film is scheduled to hit the big screen in February.

- CNA/ha

Miriam Yeung in Andy Lau’s concert with hubby

Andy Lau staged the 7th night of his Unforgettable concert at the Hong Kong Coliseum two nights ago, it attracted Real Ting and Miriam Yeung to watch the concert. When Andy was surprised when he saw the newly weds took time to watch his concert instead of making babies, thus he put on maximum effort in his performance to repay them. When Andy who was wearing his red costume for his dancing, it got Real moving his move to the beat, it remained a high atmosphere on Boxing Day!

The special performing guest was Hanjin Tan, Andy expressed: “He knew my existence when he was born, many people loved his voice but not his looks, actually he’s just not as good looking as me, but still handsome, why not everybody give a loud applause to prove to him!” After winning praise from Andy, Hanjin sang Andy’s debut song ‘Zhi Zhi Dao Ci Ke Ai Ni’ without music.

He also exclaimed that Andy is the role model of the current music industry, he said: “The current music industry required a big brother, his hardworking and dedication to his work is the charisma of a big brother, a role model for youngsters!”

Both of them then duet ‘Ming Xing’ which is the first time Hanjin sang in Cantonese.

A female fan lost control of herself and broke down when she went forward to the stage to give Andy flowers, Andy was not shocked and quipped: “Don’t be like that! People would thought that I cheated you! In the past I still can be a loose person, now I could not!” All the audience burst into laughter.

Karen Mok thanks Andy Lau for Molesting Her on stage

When fans managed to get near their idol, they would get nervous, likewise Andy Lau has the same situation. “Movie-fan Princess” Connie Chan Po-chu brought along her son Dexter Young Tin-King to be the performing guests of Andy Lau Unforgettable concert which got Andy too excited till he lost control. On the same night, Karen Mok was also the guest and successfully “spiced” Andy.

When knew that Connie would appear in the concert, a group of Connie’s fans had touched down in the Hong Kong Coliseum, unexpectedly Andy himself is also a Connie fan. When Andy introduced Connie onto the stage, he expressed: “She’s one of my favorite idol, later her son take me as his idol.” After these words, Connie dressed in a black dress appeared with her son Dexter, the audience reacted with loud thunderous applause.

Andy added: “I remember watching elder sister Connie’s films when I’m young, then I was staying in Hong Lok Yuen, there was once she came, finally I’m able to meet my idol!” Dexter then told Andy: “You’re also my idol, I had watched your films and listened to your songs.” When Andy spotted a nervous Dexter, he told him: “Don’t speak anymore, I experience what you are feeling now!”

Andy seized the chance to give Connie an embrace and said: “When I invite Connie to be the guest of my concert, she didn’t say anything but actually I do feel that this song represent her.” A modest Connie quipped that her singing is only kindergarten level thus it was a breakthrough that she duet ‘Ming Xing’ with her son in the Hong Kong Coliseum, it’s unknown if being his fan, Dexter’s singing has a bit of Andy Lau’s flavor.

Karen wore a polka dots dress to show off her long legs which raise the temperature of the Coliseum, she duet ‘Xin Suan De Qing Ge’ with Andy coupled with close-body dance. Karen expressed: “Every time I meet Andy on the stage, I will become wild. Today I’m wearing polka dots, it represents admiration and concern.”

The previous night’s guest George Lam tested Andy’s memory, Karen used the same stance, luckily not to seek debt payment but seized the chance to thanks Andy. She said: “Do you remember what you told me 18 years ago?” Andy frown and quipped: “You’re asking me if I remember again?” Karen continued: “I think you don’t remember, you have romances with many people, remember when I entered showbiz in 1993, relatively an unknown, but during a post music award ceremony celebration dinner, you walked towards me and whisper to me: “You work harder, you can do it”, these words are more important than winning awards, I will thank Andy all my life!”

George Lam appeared in Andy's HK concert

The appearance of George Lam resulted in another high, as George is an important person to Andy as he was influenced by George to become a singer. Thus, George seize the opportunity to ask Andy to “pay back his debt”, he said: “I first saw him when he was shooting a music video, he was the dancer, that time I feel that this fat boy was interesting, I sent him home, when location shooting on Hainan Island in 1982, I told him why not he tried singing, that time he told me: “If I can, I would return you 82 cents if you give me $1″ Did you remember that you said that? Now you had been a singer for so many years, you owned me a lot, the condition remained the same!” Andy then replied: “Is it? I did said that? Why not the money I earned from singing, 40 cents to Deannie Ip, 40 cents to you and 20 cents for my family!”

George also revealed how he stepped on the wrong platform resulting him fall into the stage and fainted, Andy accompanied him the whole night in the hospital, it can be seem Andy has high respect for his teacher. In the end, when George sang ‘pang jeuk ngoi’, Andy walked towards the audience to imitate as a fan, wave his light stick to motivate the 1200 audience to pay respect to George, it was a heart warming scene.

Andy Lau was Sheren Tang's first guy she brought back home

"Miss Nine" Sheren Tang opened her 'golden mouth' and sang a song at Andy Lau's concert. She exposed that Andy was the first guy she brought back to meet her family.

When Andy introduced Sheren out on stage, he said: "This girl and I were a couple that were friends from childhood. She met me when we were studying, her hard work is seen by everyone, she's known as Miss Nine!" When Sheren came out, she exposed that she gave her 'first time' to Andy, she said: "Andy is the first guy I took to see my Daddy!" Andy said proudly: "Yes! I met her parents!" Turns out that when they were classmates, they played together often and Andy was occasionally a house guest at Sheren's home. Sheren laughed and said that she never thought Andy would use 'a couple who were friends from childhood' to describe their relationship because she had always viewed Andy as a big brother. Andy's hard work never dies, so she made him her striving goal.

Andy recalled the old memories, he said: "I saw that she really wanted to challenge herself, want people to appreciate her acting, so I suggested that she join the training class. I was pretty smart, met an heroine with my intelligant eye. I knew beforehand that she'll eventually become Miss Nine!" Sheren was very grateful of Andy's praises, every time when she's exhausted, she'll rest and sees Andy still hard at work, so she would then remind herself to continue her hard efforts. This time Andy wanted her to sing in HK Coliseum, at first she feared the challenge, but she has to be like Miss Nine, a woman with loyal spirit. Then she sang Star bringing the tone of the blues.