Nick Cheung Shaved Head for Comic Road-Movie Role
AM730 · 1 SOURCESabout 3 hours ago5 MIN
Summary
At an advance screening held on September 18, Oscar-winning Hong Kong actor Nick Cheung (張家輝) and Golden Horse-winning actress Chung Suet-ying (鍾雪瑩)'s father-daughter road movie My Father Wants to Travel was discussed by co-directors Norris Wong (黃綺琳) and Wong Hoi (黃鐦) in a post-screening talk. The filmmakers said Cheung himself suggested shaving his head for the character’s comic balding hairstyle, while Chung only came back into contention after they reassessed her potential beyond her earlier collaboration with them
Key Points
- Wong Hoi said that during the first script discussion, Cheung immediately proposed shaving his head, and was visibly excited after adopting the look because it helped him enter character
- Norris Wong said she was initially nervous working with Cheung as both a senior actor and director, but he consciously avoided being the kind of difficult performer he disliked
- The directors said they had first agreed not to cast Chung again after The Lyricist Wannabe, but changed course after watching The Way We Talk and seeing further potential
- Wong said a dinner in Udine with Chung and Cheung, who was there as director of Peg O' My Heart, helped crystallise the idea that all three suited the new project
- The film was shot in Macau and Okinawa, with Wong Hoi saying the weaker yen and a local tug-of-war festival suited the story's wish-making theme
Why It Matters
The discussion shows how My Father Wants to Travel was shaped not only by casting decisions but also by a deliberate effort to fold classic Hong Kong film genres into a contemporary father-daughter story. For Hong Kong audiences, the project also carries a personal layer for Norris Wong, who said she had wanted to make a film about fathers since 2020 after her own father died before seeing her debut feature Suk Suk dedicated to him