PUBLISHED ONJanuary 04, 2023 9:22 AMByKhoo Yi-HangGoing the extra mile helped to sell the story, but it also meant making a six-year-old child actor cry.
In a recent episode of the new meWATCH talk show The Reunion, Cynthia Koh shared behind-the-scenes information about the 1990s Chinese drama Tofu Street, where the cast and crew had to make a child cry for real in order to shoot certain scenes.
Hosted by Lee Teng, the episode also features other Tofu Street cast, including Zheng Geping, Chen Huihui, Brandon Wong and Peter Yu.
"Sometimes, we needed him to cry," Cynthia, 48, said, later adding: "He couldn't cry easily. They purposely scolded him until he cried."
Samuel Tan, the six-year-old in question who's now a 34-year-old singer, smiled and nodded in understanding as he recalled his sacrifice playing Luo Tou, one of the residents of the iconic Tofu Street (now known as Upper Chin Swee Road).
Curious about how they went about scolding Samuel, Huihui asked him if his mother was on set watching him act and being admonished to the point of tears.
Surprisingly, she wasn't. Instead, Geping, 58, stated that his mother had left him in the care of the crew.
While they were on the topic of revelations, Geping then cheekily joked: "Come, let's spill the tea! Did the director secretly beat you?"
Thankfully, there wasn't any such occurrence, and the scolding was purely meant to prepare him for the scenes where he had to cry, as Samuel elaborated during the talk show.
Additionally, he was never scolded for bad acting, he recalled.
Geping also shared an anecdote: "There was one time I saw (actress) Chen Anna intentionally scolding him until he cried. She told his mum, 'Sorry, it's for the filming.'"
In Tofu Street, Brandon played Luo Tou's villainous father who doesn't pull punches, even towards a pregnant woman.
Despite the 51-year-old being a fresh entry into showbiz at the time, his acting earned him praise from Peter, now 54.
"I felt the pressure [of the role I played] but I have Peter to thank," Brandon began. "He may not know it, but I remember once the drama aired, he gave me a lot of encouragement.
"He might have said it only in passing, but he very casually told me, 'Brandon, you're a newcomer but your acting is so solid.'"
To Brandon, this was a "huge encouragement" — but perhaps his acting was a little too good.
When asked by Lee Teng if any of the public had expressed anger towards him after his convincingly villainous portrayal, Brandon immediately confirmed that they did.
He shared: "There was once I went to get chicken rice… [the stall owners] criticised me to my face!
"They said to me, 'You're awful! You beat your wife on Tofu Street!' They kept pointing at me, I felt very awkward.
"I wondered to myself, 'Should I buy this chicken rice or not?'"
Ultimately Brandon did end up buying the food but had his doubts about eating it because he didn't know if the chef had spat in the dish.
And even Brandon himself felt that his character was far too cruel.
As the cast in the talk show rewatched a scene where Brandon's character used a bat to beat up his pregnant wife (played by Anna), the actor himself looked visibly disturbed.
He said: "So awful — even I feel he's too deplorable!"
Part one of The Reunion's episode with the Tofu Street cast is available for streaming on meWATCH.
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