'Some found the smell to be quite strange': Raymond Wong feasts on durian and lok lok at Penang film set

For Hong Kong actor Raymond Wong, his memories of Malaysia mostly revolved around good food.

Speaking to AsiaOne last Friday (Nov 17) at Goodwood Park Hotel while promoting his new movie The Locksmith, which was shot entirely in Penang between December 2022 and January this year, the 48-year-old shared the delicacies he enjoyed.

"Every time I go to Malaysia, I would enjoy the food, such as curry mee, prawn noodles and char kway teow, thoroughly," he said.

He added that director Goh Pei Chiek, who is Malaysian, would treat them food in between filming.

"He would find a lok lok catering van and we would eat skewers on set," Raymond shared.

In The Locksmith, Raymond plays detective Liu Yexin, who is good friends with Cheng Haoren (Phillip Keung), a locksmith who is proficient in his work and often hired by the police to break locks.

After Haoren meets his old friend Li Quankai (Eric Chen) during work, mysterious occurrences start to happen one after another. When someone turns up dead, Yexin and Haoren's friendship is put on the line as the latter becomes the number one suspect.

The suspense crime drama also stars Hui Siu Hung, Samantha Ko and Yumi Wong.

'They really respected us'

Raymond added that fans in Penang also gave them one of Malaysia's most important exports.

"Fans sent us a lot of durians, so we ate durians on set… some staff who don't eat it found the smell to be quite strange."

Recalling his time there, Raymond said he was grateful to his fans and the locals.

He said: "We were very happy that during filming, a lot of fans came to support us on set. They wanted to take photos with us and see us perform. They would also ask if they were disrupting us. But what I am really happy about is they really respected us. When we were filming, they would quiet down immediately, and when they wanted to take photos, they would ask if they could.

"Sometimes when we were filming an emotionally intense scene, we would turn them down and they were very understanding about it… We wanted to take photos with them too, but sometimes we couldn't because we were rushing for time."

We also asked Raymond if he is familiar with Singapore and he replied he hoped to be able to visit more often.

He shared: "I was here previously for other drama promotions. It was also for a short time, maybe about two or three days and the schedule was also quite packed, so there wasn't really any time to walk around. It's the same for this trip, so I really hope to have a chance to come here more often and feel the atmosphere here.

"I really love the sunshine. The sky is very blue here, there is a lot of sunshine and a very good atmosphere."

During their visit here, Raymond, Philip and Pei Chiek also attended the movie's premiere.

The Locksmith opens in Singapore on Nov 23.

Watch for our E-Junkies interview with Raymond Wong.

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yeo.shuhui@asiaone.com

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