Louis Koo will be everywhere at Lunar New Year 2015,3 movies

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Louis Koo will be everywhere at Lunar New Year

It says something about Louis Koo Tin-lok's ridiculously high level of popularity that he feels obliged to deny it - and you get the impression this is less out of modesty than to maintain the illusion that he isn't on the verge of overexposure.

As I remark to him during our late January interview that he's virtually everywhere these days, Koo replies with a succinct "I'm grateful". But when I specifically list the dozen occasions - in TV commercials, Facebook promotions and the entertainment news, on magazine covers and ambassador duties, to name just a few - I have spotted him in the few hours leading up to this afternoon's appointment, he gets defensive.

"It's just that you have great observation skills," says the 44-year-old actor. An expert in generic one-liners, Koo's numbers speak for themselves. In 2014, he topped a chart of highest-earning local celebrities with a reported income of HK$300 million.

After appearing in seven movies released last year - starring in Pang Ho-cheung's Aberdeen, Johnnie To Kei-fung's Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2, action thrillers Overheard 3 and Z Storm, as well as eye-catching cameos in Lunar New Year films Hello Babies and Golden Chickensss, and bawdy comedy Naked Ambition 2 - Koo is already looking on course to repeat that feat.

Only this time around, he has three new movies - Triumph in the Skies, An Inspector Calls, and 12 Golden Ducks - slated to open on the same day: February 19, the first day of the Lunar New Year. Does he see that as a career milestone? Koo pauses for seconds, and says, "Is that my personal record? I don't look at it that way. It doesn't matter how many movies I have around this time. The most important thing is that the audiences have fun."

The Lunar New Year turns out to be one of Koo's favourite times of the year. "It's one of those rare occasions where you can sit down with the entire family to watch a movie. When I'm paying a New Year call to my relatives, I'd suggest going to the cinema too. It's a festive period for all. Watching movies, going to the flower markets, singing karaoke and playing mahjong: these are all options."

Combine that sentiment with the lucrative box office potential of Lunar New Year - according to the HK Motion Picture Industry Association, a quartet of Chinese-speaking titles notched more than HK$118 million in that slot last year - and you understand why Koo relishes the holiday period.

"But that's not a factor when I choose to accept an offer," he says.

For those in the media, it's common knowledge that Koo is a reticent interviewee. And the already tense atmosphere is exacerbated by his long-time manager Ronnie, who continually cuts off questions not directly concerned with the one movie Koo is there to promote. Which means you won't be reading much about An Inspector Calls or 12 Golden Ducks in this piece.

Ironically, of the three festive films Koo is starring in, Triumph in the Skies - the one he's here to talk about - stands out as the only project that didn't begin as a Lunar New Year offering. "When I agreed to this, I didn't know that it would end up opening then," he says.

A spin-off of the popular TVB drama series that ran for two seasons in 2003 and 2013, Triumph in the Skies has added two stars - in Koo and singer-actress Sammi Cheng Sau-man - to the original cast headed by Francis Ng Chun-yu and Julian Cheung Chi-lam. The action is set in Hong Kong and Britain, with Brighton and London providing scenic backdrops.

And while there are three pilots and one flight attendant among its six protagonists, the movie is more romance than aviation drama. Koo remembers enjoying watching the television series. "It's about the joy and sorrows in the careers of airline pilots and flight attendants. People are curious about these professionals because they get to fly to so many different places around the world.

For those who long for Koo to replicate his magic on the small screen - he emerged from a career-shaping spell at TVB from the mid-1990s to early 2000s, and is still contracted to make a 40-episode series that he's been putting off since - Triumph in the Skies will come as some solace as the actor shares an onscreen romance with television mainstay Charmaine Sheh Sze-man.

"She's a very professional actress with a lot of experience," says Koo of his co-star. "Although there are three storylines in this film, we managed to grasp the feeling of romance in the limited time we were given. It was difficult, but I think she did very well."

The occasion also marks Koo's reunion with Wilson Yip Wai-shun and Matt Chow Hoi-kwong, the experienced director-scriptwriter pair behind Bullets Over Summer (1999), starring Koo and Francis Ng. For a change, Yip and Chow are taking on co-directing duties for the new film.

http://www.scmp.com/magazines/48hrs/article/1700417/louis-koo-stars-three-lunar-new-year-films