Andy Lau held at gun point, forced to act in mob’s movie

HONG KONG superstar Andy Lau had four guns pointed at his head when he was forced to act in a movie financed by a powerful underworld leader in the 90s, reported major Chinese dailies.

He finally gave in when the thug threatened to harm his girlfriend.

This incident prompted Lau to do anything to keep his wife Carol Choo away from the cameras.

When the Hong Kong movie industry was booming in the 90s, the secret societies were very much involved in the business.

And Lau - with a record of 16 movie per year - was one of their favourite actors.

This was because any movie featuring Lau as the lead actor had the potential to become a box office hit.

Lau, it was reported, had initially refused to have anything to do with films financed by the secret societies, but a gang leader, said to be powerful in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Holland threatened to harm him at gun point.

For years, Lau kept the incident a secret until a few years ago when he mentioned it during an interview in China.

The gang leader then sent his men to Lau’s home, threatening him to keep his mouth shut.

While they were there, they bumped into Choo and treated her in a very rude manner. The incident, it was reported, was the reason why Lau had sent her back to Malaysia then.

Korean boy band SS501 infected by A(H1N1)

Chinese dailies also highlighted about a member of popular Korean boy band SS501 being infected by the Influenza A(H1N1) virus.

Kim Hyun-jung was said to have been infected with the flu during a promotional tour in Malaysia from Aug 31 to Sept 3.

He was diagnosed with the flu while he was in Japan over the weekend to promote the popular Korean drama Boys Over Flowers.

He is currently hospitalised in a Tokyo hospital. Other band members have been confirmed free of the flu.

Other News & Views is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a sub-heading, it denotes a separate news item.