It's work first for Miriam FISHING FOR LAUGHS: Miriam Yeung and Eason Chan play rivals, then lovers in Hooked On You. -- PHOTO: SHAW By Boon Chan IN HER latest movie Hooked On You, Miriam Yeung plays a fishmonger who wants to get married by the age of 30. In real life, the 33-year-old singer-actress is not about to get married just for the sake of it. Speaking from Hong Kong before a promotional event, she says: 'Our lives should not be governed by external numbers. Love and marriage are about enjoyment and should not be a burden. Otherwise it won't last.' She joined a new music label, Amusic, earlier this year, and says that while she 'won't not fall in love', her first priority is work. The former nurse entered the entertainment industry in 1995, after coming in third in Television Broadcasts Limited's (TVB) 14th annual New Talent Singing Awards competition. She has since received various accolades, including song of the year and most popular female singer awards, in annual presentations organised by TVB. Sometimes called the 'fat Sammi Cheng', Yeung is often compared to the Hong Kong pop diva as both have alto voices and act in romantic comedies. Asked about the supposed rivalry, Yeung says calmly: 'People have been saying this since I started out in the business. It doesn't really bother me. I'm just part of a stock phrase 'Sammi and Miriam...' Maybe it's a vindication of my own position?' At Cheng's comeback concert in Hong Kong in May, she was among the Hong Kong glitterati who showed their support with their attendance. Cheng even had her go on stage, along with fellow singer Gigi Leung. On screen, Yeung has acted mostly in comedies, playing silly or clumsy characters - a total contrast to the mature and thoughtful woman on the line. Far from tiring of such roles, she says: 'Comedy is actually the most difficult to film as it actually needs an emphasis and not just a string of jokes.' And personally, she says that if she is unhappy, she watches comedies to lift her spirits. Hooked On You has her reuniting with singer-actor Eason Chan, who plays a fellow fishmonger she fights with, then falls for. Yeung recalls that they had worked together in 1998 in Rumble Ages, about youths from different social backgrounds, when they were first starting out. 'It felt like we were two temporary actors then,' she says. 'Now, he's more mature, better at expressing his emotions more finely.' Hooked is her second collaboration with director Law Wing Cheong. In 2006's 2 Become 1, a top 10 hit in Hong Kong, she played a woman who has to undergo a mastectomy. Yeung is full of praise for him. 'He understands women very well, even better than I do. I told him he must have been a woman in his previous life.' Hooked On You is in cinemas. Source: Straits Times
