ACTOR Qi Yuwu's mother thinks her son's soups are way too expensive.
'That's because I would call her in Guangzhou and ask her what ingredients I need to buy and how I should boil them,' says Qi, who plays a mute man caught between two getai singers in film-maker Royston Tan's musical melodrama 881, now showing in cinemas.
'She always laughs and says my soups are not cheap because of the long-distance telephone charges.'
Like most typical Cantonese folk, the 30-year-old actor was weaned on soups lovingly brewed by his mother, a retired textile quality controller.
'My mother's soups can 'kill people',' he says, using a Cantonese colloquial term that means 'murderously good'.
'Winter melon with pork ribs, lotus root with pig's kidney, chicken with Chinese herbs, they are so good.'
He then turns pensive.
'Don't you think the flavours you find in food cooked at home can't be found elsewhere? When I eat my mother's food, I don't just taste her skill with flavours, I also taste a special sweetness and warmth.'
His father, he says, is not a bad cook too.
'He was a gymnastics coach in a physical education college and he knew a lot about herbs and nutrition. He often cooked for my brother and me when we were young,' says Qi, whose 33-year-old brother runs a computer business in China. Both siblings graduated with degrees in physical education.
He came to Singapore in 1999 as the Guangzhou representative in the All-Asian Star Search contest after having won the contest in China, and was signed up as an artiste by MediaCorp.
'I never thought of showbiz as a career,' says the 1.81m-tall actor, who was a part-time model in college.
'Throughout college and high school, I was just obsessed about basketball. I'd play every day. I just wanted to be Michael Jordan.'
Roles in Channel 8 TV serials like Master Swordsman Lu Xiao Feng, My Genie and In Pursuit Of Peace came fast and furious, but he says the first few years of his life in Singapore were not easy.
Qi, who is single, recalls: 'I found myself in a strange and competitive environment. The culture here is different, and I could no longer rely on my family to help me.
'What I went through was good for the soul. Sometimes you need to go through difficult experiences to find your own footing in life.'
He has since picked up English, which he now speaks competently, and of course, he's learnt to cook for himself.
He does it whenever he has the time.
'I prefer eating in,' he says. 'Then I can do the stuff that I like. Nothing too fancy, just healthy and uncomplicated dishes.'
He chose to cook a seafood dish for LifeStyle as proof of his cooking prowess.
Is he off poultry after he had to hold a chicken throughout most of 881?
He says: 'No, chicken is quite delicious.'
Not only can he whip up a mean prawn stir-fry, he can also chop, slice and dice like a pro, thanks to his role as a cook who has an affair with an older married woman played by Joan Chen in The Home Song Stories, an Australian production still playing in local cinemas.
He is currently taking a break from TV to concentrate on movies, and he's been enjoying a good run in the cinemas too.
The busy actor has roles in three upcoming movies.
He will play a love-lorn character in the romantic drama The Leap Years, about a woman who pursues a stranger she meets on Feb 29. It is expected to hit movie screens early next year.
Next up is the period gongfu flick Painted Skin, to be directed by Hong Konger Gordon Chan. Qi will be exercising his martial arts moves alongside action dynamos Donnie Yan and Sammo Hung.
Also in the pipeline is a movie called Taller Than Yao Ming, about a group of kids who aspire to play basketball with the famous Houston Rockets player. It is to be directed by former MediaCorp director Samuel Yuen.
When he is not working, he watches documentaries and reads books on the craft of acting, and on the industry.
