Only looks and a killer bod? Local hunkle Chuando Tan is OK if you think that of him

Almost a year after watching the trailer — with teasing slow-mo scenes of Chuando Tan caressing his washboard abs in the shower — and being told he "took off whatever he could take off" for his debut film Precious Is The Night, we finally watched the artsy movie last week.

Won't spoil it for you in case you're catching it, but we got more skin and sexiness than his 1.1 million Instagram followers could ever wish for (thank you!).

Since the Singaporean hunkle broke the internet in 2017 with his ripped physique, chiselled face, and youthful looks, people the world over are enamoured with his appearance. Still, the question remains: how a 55-year-old man could look this young and good.

(In fact, in Precious Is The Night, Chuando plays two different characters in their 30s quite convincingly.)

Rather than begrudge how his looks might have superseded his talent and achievements — we'll talk about that in a bit — he chooses to see it as a blessing.

"If you have so much bitching around you, you wish that people won't bother you. When people glorify you, you can choose to see it as a positive thing. Compared to someone bitching about you, which one do you prefer?" Chuando told AsiaOne in a phone interview last week.

"A lot of models tell me that people text them to ask them out and flirt with them. I ask them instead, 'Why are you so negative? A lot of people are not as good-looking and can't find a partner. Can't you see this positively and take it as blessing?' It's really how we see the world.

"I don't think it is a bad thing. People look at me not because I'm good-looking, they look to me to learn how to be healthy and to have a healthy outlook in life. They see my (happy-go-lucky nature) on social media – and if I can pass that energy to them, I would."

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Just like how a netizen in China recently thought Stefanie Sun is an "obscure" singer after she switched her focus from career to family, the younger crowd and non-locals might not know another side of Chuando.

He began modelling when he was 15 and was a top model here in the 80s and early 90s, also spending time in Paris, Milan, and New York. In the 90s, he released a Mandarin pop album under the name Chen Yufei; founded the modelling agency Ave Management; and transitioned to become one half of fashion photography team ChuanDo & Frey, shooting for international fashion titles and clients.

In a The Straits Times report from 2006, Chuando was credited with pioneering the use of digital enhancements in fashion photography and "in doing so, he single-handedly raised industry standards".

Because of his creative background, executing the nudity and sexually explicit scenes in Precious Is The Night was not a problem for the first-time actor, he told us.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acVSUu3Slww[/embed]

He plays a writer who becomes drawn into the mysterious unsolved deaths of a Dr Tan (who looks uncannily like the writer) and his lover Madam Yu Kang, who's also the mistress of a powerful man. As Dr Tan is quite the vain lothario, Chuando was involved in a few intimate scenes.

He told us he understood what director Wayne Peng wanted and told himself to be professional and get into character in order not to "waste people's time".

He added his late father Tan Tee Chie was an artist in the fine arts, so he has seen nudity in artworks since young. "As long as my body and the director's works are good, I'm all in."

[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/CNfDhToMp14/[/embed]

Since he has always kept in shape, he didn't have to worry about not looking fine. He did, however, reduce the fat content in his diet for two weeks prior to filming.

What was a little challenging were some intense, impassioned scenes in a car where he had to cry four to five times for the different camera angles. No Eye-mo here, it was real emotions and tears, he said.

After watching the film for the first time last week, Chuando thought: "It's better that what I expected, in terms of my performance – makes this old man look good."

Precious Is The Night is now showing at The Cathay with one screening each night. The movie also stars Taiwanese actresses Nanyeli and Chang Tzu-lei, and local celebs Xiang Yun, Chen Yixin, and Tay Pinghui.

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kwokkarpeng@asiaone.com