Compiled by C. ARUNO and FAZLEENA AZIZ
DISGRACED China superstar Fan Bingbing (pic), who was spotted filming in Malaysia recently, is set to star in award-winning Malaysian director Chong Keat Aun’s latest film, reported China Press.
The 43-year-old, who has been struggling to get work back home following her tax evasion scandal, will be starring in Chong’s fourth feature film called Mother Bhumi.
Fan will be playing a widowed witch doctor specialising in providing supernatural remedies to villagers living along the Malaysia-Thailand border.
Her character encounters a ghost in the story who helps her unravel the mystery surrounding her husband’s death.
It was reported that Fan even put on around 5kg for the role.
Cast members of Mother Bhumi include Bai Run-yin from Taiwan and Natalie Hsu from Hong Kong, both of whom would be playing the children of Fan’s character in the film.
It was earlier reported that Fan has been finding it hard to continue her career in the entertainment industry after being slapped with an 880million yuan (RM540mil) fine for tax evasion in 2018, which was touted as one of China’s “biggest tax evasion penalties in history”.
With hardly any directors willing to work with her, Fan had to rely on selling goods via livestream to earn a living.
Earlier this year, Fan was appointed ambassador for Visit Melaka Year 2024 and was seen holding meet-and-greet sessions at tourism and heritage sites in the state.
> A temple in Singapore caught the Internet’s attention after it used the popular Labubu devil figurine as a mascot for this year’s Nine Emperor Gods Festival, reported Sin Chew Daily.
Visitors to the Ling Lian Bao Dian temple this year were surprised to see four Labubu stuffed dolls dressed as devotees of the resident deities.
Many took the opportunity to take selfies with the dolls.
Temple chairman Chen Jingliang said the temple committee decided to try something new to attract younger crowds.
“We are not disrespecting the gods. What we hope to achieve is to use the doll’s popularity to help the younger generation better understand what the festival is all about,” he said.
Labubu, a monster with serrated teeth and pointy ears, was created by Hong Kong artist Kasing Lung in his Nordic fairy tale picture books.
The character shot to fame after Blackpink’s Lisa was seen carrying one in public.
It is apparently Lisa’s favourite collectible figure from the Chinese toy company Pop Mart.
The above articles are 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, it denotes a separate news item.
