MALAYSIAN bombshell Christy Yow has pulled out of Singapore director Eric Khoo’s movie, The Charming Rose.
The 24-year-old model-actress has also relocated from her hometown in Ipoh to Taiwan, and put her blossoming career on hold, all in the name of love.
Her Taiwanese businessman boyfriend, 29-year-old Alansk Wang, proposed on Christmas Eve when they were at the top of the Taipei 101 skyscraper.
They met in February last year at an acting class in Taiwan. Mr Wang manages his family’s tea business.
Yow insisted that she did not pull out of the film, which portrays famous 1950s striptease dancer Rose Chan, because of pressure from her fiance and his family.
She had got the role before they met, and Mr Wang and his dad knew about her playing Chan, she told The New Paper in an e-mail interview from Taiwan.
It was a personal decision made out of respect for her fiance and future in-laws, Yow added.
She said: “Alansk’s open-minded and cool about it, though I know he’d rather not have me play Rose Chan if he had a choice.
“I felt that since I’ve agreed to marry him, I want him and his family to be most comfortable with me.
“They may not object to it now, but it may be different when the movie is shown internationally. I would probably be the centre of discussion.
Quitting the project was the most difficult decision I’ve had to make.”
She added that although she does not discuss her roles with Mr Wang before agreeing to them, she makes sure “he knows what I’m doing”.
Mr Wang’s family has no qualms about her sex-bomb image. They love the real her, she said.
“I’m very different from the images you see of me in magazines. They understand and know the difference.”
Yow decided to move to Taiwan because the distance and the time spent travelling to visit each other were disrupting their work schedules.
No wedding date has been set, she added.
When contacted, director Khoo, 43, said he’s “not disappointed” that Yow has pulled out of The Charming Rose.
He had spent 11/2 years and auditioned 200 applicants to find the perfect Rose, according to previous media reports.
Yow, who had even gone for a character imaging session and put on 5kg for the role, told him of her decision a week ago.
Khoo said: “I’m very happy for her. Marriage is more important. She can send me tea leaves.
“I understand where she’s coming from. The role of Rose Chan is very graphic because there’s nudity involved.”
He said he was just kidding with Yow when he told her she had to put on weight for the role.
Yow, who is 1.69m tall, said she now weighs 53kg.
Khoo joked: “I didn’t know she would take it so seriously. Now it’s kind of wasted.”
Filming of The Charming Rose is scheduled to take place later this year after Khoo wraps up his current animation project, which is based on the life and works of manga artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi.
Khoo said he is already looking for a replacement. And he will welcome Yow back on the project if she wants to play some other character.
For Yow’s fans, there’s still one last chance to catch her on the big screen, in October.
Upcoming local Mandarin film Ge Ai (Love Cuts), which co-stars local actor-host Allan Wu, will be her swan song.
Ge Ai – a Health Promotion Board-funded Clover Films movie – centres on a 40-year-old woman (played by Zoe Tay) who struggles with breast cancer and inspires those around her.
Yow plays a model diagnosed with breast cancer and Wu is her boyfriend who remains devoted to her despite her ailment.
Yow said that she felt strongly for the message in Ge Ai and wanted to finish “at least one local movie after all the hype about me here”.
In one scene in Ge Ai, Wu’s character, who has returned from an extended overseas business trip, looks for Yow’s character at a photo studio where she is having a photoshoot.
Love scene
Overcome by passion, they make love at the studio while Yow’s character is taking a lunch break.
There will be no full-frontal nudity in Ge Ai, so viewers won’t get to see Yow’s famous 36C chest.
To protect their modesty for the filming of the scene, Yow and Wu wore thongs. Yow also wore a nude bra.
Yow said: “The director tried to capture (the scene) from an angle that gave the illusion that I was completely naked.”
Being the more experienced actor, Wu, 37, said he was concerned with making the atmosphere as relaxed as possible.
He added: “I was just thinking, just treat her like anyone I’ve worked with. Christy’s willing to do what it takes, but she’s also a conservative lady.
“I didn’t want to make her feel bad. So I joked around to make the atmosphere less serious.”
That said, Wu admitted Yow knew how to use her allure to “work the situation”.
He said: “She’s a model by experience. She knew how to tease. She knew which angles worked.”
Yow admitted it was “uncomfortable” filming the scene because “I had to dress and undress at the command of the director for retakes”.
Both Yow and Wu said this is their most daring silver screen performance to date.
Last year, Yow was in local straight-to-DVD film Aunties United in which she played a sweet young thing.
Yow said her fiance was “cool” about her bare-all scene.
Although Wu has posed naked when he was a model, he said this is the first time he has bared so much skin in a film.
The furthest he has gone was being topless in Hong Kong mystery thriller Night Corridor (2003) in which he and Hong Kong actor Daniel Wu shared an intimate scene.
To prepare for the scene, Wu said he hit the gym a few days before the day of filming “to make sure all the muscles were where they were supposed to be”.
He joked: “I had to have a decent body to show the public, you know. I’m still the aspiring hunk.”
Wu’s wife of seven years, local actress-host Wong Li Lin, had poked fun at him about it.
They have two children – daughter Sage, 6, and son Jonas, 4.
He said: “I was eating a little less in the days leading up to the day of filming and Li Lin was teasing me about it.
“She’s secure and confident. It helps that she’s in the industry so she understands.”
Yow said her move to Taiwan doesn’t mean she’s quitting showbiz.
She admitted her premature departure from the local scene is “a pity” but “success cannot replace a lifetime of happiness”.
We may even be able to see her again next year.
“I am taking time off to be with my boyfriend now so that he can concentrate on his family business.
“His family is financing a new movie in Taiwan so that I can continue my love for movies. So maybe I’ll see you in summer next year.”
This article was first published in The New Paper.
