Sammul Chan - Walk by Faith

Source: Wonderful Grace Magazine, http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/sammultoy/article?mid=3848
Translation : Firesheepy, Reiyi, Cherishheart and Ling gan

Walk by Faith

Sammul Chan has been a christian since young...his family has been christian for 5 generations. According to Sammul, religion is his dependence when he faced problems which he can't tell people and faced stress at the same time. Sammul, who loves to ponder over question, found his answer in the bible, and this become his direction in life.

Sammul Chan, on screen, gives people a sense of uprightness, but actually he is also like that in real life, if he sees people fighting, he will call the police or persuade people to stop, and wont watch at the side, just like his "justice comes first" image. In the future, Sammul hopes to do some activities with more significant, like helping the environment or humanity work.

In Tvb, Sammul has filmed series such as Survivor's Law, The Academy and also hosted On the Road, stepped into Loess Plateau (黄土高原), K100. In this 5 years, Sammul had many opportunities to show his acting skill.

Being successful and gaining the support of the company and audience is the aim of every artiste, being a christian, Sammul frankly said: "In the past, I have a stronger urge to get an award, but now I will still aim to get an award and use this aim to push myself forward, this represents other's recognition to my work, because even an employee will wish that the boss will give him an award and receive praises and recognition for his work." Sammul admit that he will use the award as a goal for himself. Actually, getting the apprasial and recognition from audiences, it is already an 'invisible' award that push himself to do even better.

Sammul smile and said: "If you ask me what kind of award I wish to get, I'll wish that I receive an award non-related to acting skill, but rather an award to do with singing. Because, when I went to sing K(Karaoke) with my manager the 1st time, he said that I am suitable for singing career and to release an album, but this path seems harder, after signing contracts for many times, even recorded the songs, but I have not fulfilled my dream. If one day I could stand on the stage and sing, and even get an award, that is what I wish to fulfil the most." Sammul had joined and sang in the chior since young, thus he had experience, no wonder he has confidence in his singing.

Expanding his artiste career
Growing up in a christian family, Sammul went into the Metro Radio when he was in S6, and was a DJ for 3 years, later he went on to film advertisements and finally series. But what every traditional parents wish is for their children to study more, and Sammul's parents are not an exception. Sammul said "Recalling the past, my father was extremely against my joining of the entertainment circle, that year I was in S6 and I was playful, thus I accompany my friend to have an interview the Metro Radio, and at I ended up passing the interview, thus at that time, I did a part time job at Metro Radio, on addition, I still have to go for my A-Level exam, really tedious at that time."

I remember at that time, I said to my father 'Radio station doesn't often recruit people. Moreover, I was able to pass the (recruitment) test, finished the training and even hosted a few programs. It will be a pity of I give it up. This opportunity is hard to come by.' Sammul thought, among HK 7000,000 people, how many have been DJs before? With an opportunity like this, why shouldn't he seize it? If in the future, he fails in the job and also unable to continue his studies, he still will have no regrets.
At least, in the future, he can proudly say to his son 'I have been a DJ before'. In the end, he decided to use 1 to 2 years to try. This was how he began his acting career.

'I still remember the first time I acted in a TV commercial. There were relatives who wanted my photos but they were afraid to bother me. I heard mother said father purposely went to buy commercial photograph to give to relatives. He even joking said to the shop owner 'Why there are so few photos of Chan Kin Fung?' The shop owner said 'It's because he's popular these days, so, many people buy them'. It can be seen that Papa Chan has slowly accepted and supported his son's decision.

Acting skills accumulated from experience
He started from being a 'lou yan gap' (kelefe, bit part actor) holding a sword stupidly to being Gigi Lai's no.3 bodyguard in 'Heaven Sword Dragon Sabre', and after that, getting a heroic role with more screentime and meatier. Sammul likes to read books, because books can give readers space for imagination, and every author has hie/her own style. For example, the feelings Eileen Chang's novels gave him is 'caustic' and 'harsh'. He will use the feelings he gets from these books in his acting when appropriate.

'All these while, I've been acting in HK. Only after going overseas and seeing dedicated actors who put in a lot of effort reading a lot of books and studying different movies, did I realised my own inadequacies. I have not received standard training in acting, have not attended TVB acting class, just depended on talent to act.' As a professional actor, Sammul will force himself to study, watch movies from different countries. Seeing people from different countries who has different growing up experience and have different method of acting, Sammul will study their expressions.

‘There are many excellent actors in the mainland, recently I watched a movie, I liked it very much, it’s called ‘Assembly’, but after discussing with my friends, there are some room for improvement, the ending could be more tragic, but it wasn’t, I would contemplate, why didn’t the director film it that way? The angle that I’m coming from is why did the director film it the way he filmed it and why did the actors act the way they acted? Not just whether the film is good to watch or not, but to analyse and study other’s work.’

There must be a balance for all things, the hardest thing to do is to find a ‘position’, which can make others feel comfortable, at the same time produce some variety, this is the most necessary thing to grasp, you have to maintain the standard for every series, Sammul is demanding himself to improve in this area.

Good At Planning
Judging from his appearance, people will think he is a very gentle and quiet person, but he thinks he is a person with double characters and rapidly-changing emotions, if someone offended him, he would forget about it very soon. ‘I had gone traveling, watched movies and sang karaoke on my own but I also enjoyed group activities such as ball games with my friends.’ From young he likes to think and plan diligently, he will make 5-year short plans, and evaluate if he can fulfill his goals. If he cannot, he will think through again for the next direction. ‘I am a well-planned person, my friends like to travel with me, because I would arrange all the details beforehand, no matter big or small, such as air tickets, accommodation, meals, itineraries, I would make sure all are pre-arranged.

When asked in this rapidly changing entertainment industry, can everything be planned ahead? He replied, exactly because of this nature, all the more planning is needed, when unforeseen changes come, you still know the direction to go, can avoid being thrown off course when changes come. ‘Especially in the entertainment circle, a lot of things are unstable and not within grasp. You may be very hot today, but the next day the audience can be sickened by you, and you will become of no value, or you may say something wrong and offend someone, then you will be out of business. Or even be involved in a car accident and disfigured your face, then you will also be out of business, from a live fish to a dead fish. Or just as Liza Wang said, ‘Today you can be top of the world, but the very next day you can be upside down.’

Regret
Seeing his peers getting married, also his seniors and even also peers passing away make Sammul feel that he doesn’t have enough time to spend with his parents. “I spend a lot of time to work thus reducing my quality time to chat and eat with my parents. This is one of my regrets.” Sammul is used to living alone. He once thought that maybe he can buy another unit of apartment contiguous with his apartment for his parents to live, but he still needs to save some money to do so.

Ideal Life
One might think that working hard when he’s still young and earning a lot of money will make him feel satisfied, and he doesn't really care whether he's happy or not. If Sammul asked himself whether he has more happy or sad times, he thought he would say that to have beautiful mind and body is balance in doing everything. After you work hard all day, you can treat yourself to a quite expensive dinner, or buy something that you have been yearning to have for a long time to reward yourself. One needs to have some balance in his happiness and unhappiness, also to pay attention to his physical and mental needs.

Praying Is My Remedy
The entertainment world is famous with its all side’s pressures. How can Sammul relieve himself from those? “I lean on God whenever I’m having my tough times. Like for example, hard tests in school, times when I’m so depressed and dispirited, and overwhelming problems that are so hard to solve exist, whatever the problems, you name it. I will feel so much better when I pray in those times.”
“Because of my job, it is really hard to find time to go back to the church where I used to live in. I can’t make it on Saturdays and Sundays either, so I only go back there once every month or once every 2 months. Sometimes I shot series until it’s very late, then I set my alarm clock to wake me up the next day. But on the next day, I still feel exhausted, so I still need some sleep the day after next. I often read the Bible and some encouraging devotional books like Our Daily Bread.”
After all, the Bible is where Sammul can find answers for his questions, and It also helps him not to get lost in this world’s turmoil.

Sammul has been preparing for his future retirement by saving his money in the bank and buying some insurance. He buys a new insurance every 5 years, his monthly installment payment is not much, about hundreds of HK dollars only, for 20, 30 years, then he buys a new one after 5 years, so the insurance that he bought at 20 years old can be fully collected when he turns 40. So if he has any accidents, his family will still have some financial guarantee. “I’m a person who thinks ahead to prepare the worst even in my peaceful times. I have to be alert. I can't be like the prodigal son, squandering my money easily. Then he also joked, “Even if I don't eat, my cats still have to eat. If my cats don’t eat either, then my goldfish still need to eat.”

The Possibility of Changing My Occupation in 5 Years
Sammul has been working in the entertainment world for 10 years, including the years of working in the radio station. It’s the time to review himself and his work results. What is his plan for the next 10 years? “I’m expanding my career in mainland China now. There are some people that ask me why I don’t concentrate on that, and why I still shoot some more series, take some jobs as a host and a dubber. Those works are a lot and can make my works' quality degrading, why don’t I just concentrate on one thing? For me, I still think that what I’m doing now is right, because once I decline all, I won’t have the opportunity to have them again. I just work as hard as I can, as long as I can do them well. “ He emphasized that he’s not greedy, because the dubbing skills that he has now were learned from when he was working in the radio station, so if he doesn’t practice them, he might have lost them.
About the next 5 to 10 years, he said that he wants to meet a lot of new people and try some new things. “I think I might consider to change my occupation in the next 5 years as viewers want to see only the beautiful side (looks) of a person. I think leaving my beautiful side in the viewers’ minds is the best. That’s why retiring at the height of someone’s career is the most clever way for me. So when you’re old, you can have more time for yourself and doing things that you like to do.

Contributing Something for the Environment
Besides those dreams of his, Sammul also has some aspirations to do something for the environment. “I’ve been reading the newspapers and magazines these days, all talk about global warming, the degradation of the nature. It’s very dangerous and needs a lot of attention. People want to do something to save the Earth, but some of them just don’t know how. One person’s contribution won’t make any impact, so people have to unite to save the Earth. That’s why I really want to have much more time to be a volunteer to contribute something for the environment.

Besides these, Sammul, who doesn’t really care about the payment, wants to do something meaningful to help those that are in need, like for example, relieving people in a disaster area, helping the poor, and especially educating kids in the mainland.