Stephen Chow recently admitted that he has yet to accept the fact that his former onscreen partner, Ng Man Tat has passed away.
As reported on Mingpao, the comedy auteur, who was revealed to have been asking about Ng’s health condition following news that the latter was hospitalised for liver cancer, told reporters that while he was psychologically prepared, he still felt sorrowful and reluctant to accept the news.
“His illness came so quickly, and he was gone too early. He was my best friend for many years. I still can’t accept this,” he said.
Prior to the end of their collaboration in early 2000s, Stephen and Ng have worked together since the 1980s in more than 20 projects, with Ng playing Stephen’s comedy sidekick in hit films like “Justice My Foot”, “Lawyer, Lawyer”, “Hail the Judge”, “A Chinese Odyssey”, and the “Fight Back to School” franchise. The two last worked together in the 2001 hit movie, “Shaolin Soccer”.
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| Stephen Chow and Ng Man Tat have always worked professionally well onscreen together |
It was just last fortnight that Ng, in one of his last interviews, answered mainland media’s query about his collaboration with Stephen, saying that he has no qualms working with the actor again.
“I am not dead yet, and he has yet to retire. There will always be a possibility,” he had said.
In past interviews, Ng also dismissed rumours of rift between them, and revealed that Stephen had actually offered him a role in 2016’s “The Mermaid”. However, the actor admitted that he had to decline the offer due to his poor health condition stemming from his 2014 heart attack.
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| Their last movie together was the 2001’s ‘Shaolin Soccer’ |
(Photo Source: China Times, ET Today)