All About Amy
The Category III sign symbolizes the English name of Yip Ji-Mei. She looks like Anita Mui, as confirmed by Google’s facial recognition software during reverse searches. They were even in the same Jackie Chan movie - Mr. Canton and Lady Rose (1989). Like Anita, Amy Yip was a professional singer but she only released one album. There is a Singaporean site whose newspaper archive comes in English and Chinese - not necessarily the same articles. In two of the English articles, the journalists translated Amy’s album title as Absolutely Honest and Completely Frank. Either way, it was released in August 1992.
Decades later, she has proven to still have a passion for performing music unlike other actresses who released albums in 1992 i.e. Veronica Yip, Gloria Yip and Brigitte Lin. Rather tellingly, this was Amy Yip’s final year as a working actress. As for Underground Judgement (1994), this review on the Douban site explains: “The film was actually shot in 1992, but because it was a typical money laundering flop, it was delayed until early 1994, just before the Lunar New Year release, when it was released in a lowly, unpopular slot. Amy Yip's Lethal Contact followed the same pattern; the film was shot in 1990, but it wasn't released until the lowly Lunar New Year release in 1992.”
In mid-January of 1993, Amy permitted the inside of her apartment to be visited by the press. Her home was described as a cross between a Karaoke TV lounge and a massage parlour. That last detail is important because, before she became an actress, Amy worked as a masseuse after working as a make-up artist. It was only after working as a masseuse that she joined the ATV network to become an actress. After her two year contract ended in 1987, Amy joined Golden Harvest.
In the April 1988 issue (No. 219) of a Hong Kong magazine called Cinemart, there was a spread titled Golden Harvest Entertainment Has Signed Five More Basic Actors. All five women were credited with both their English and Chinese names. The rest of the quintet were Ellen Chan (as Vanessa Chan), Tiffany Lau (as Teffany Lau), Wong Man-Ying (as Isabella Wang) and Crystal Kwok. Amy Yip was the second actress. Wong was in Jackie Chan’s Police Story Part II (released in August 1988), but it was Amy who was in the Chan-produced The Inspector Wears Skirts II (1989).
Amy Yip became a star in 1990 with Ghostly Vixen. Due to the size of her busom, a better title would have been Ghost Bust. This movie was co-written and co-produced by Wong Jing, and it was released in the same month (May) as Erotic Ghost Story. Chua Lam was a Singaporean man who was in charge of productions at Golden Harvest, and Erotic Ghost Story was his brainchild. In the early nineties, Chua Lam used to host a saucy late-night talk show in Hong Kong where he would chat about sex with studio guests. Amy was one of them.
When Chua Lam produced Jackie Chan’s City Hunter in 1992, director/writer Wong Jing could have cast Amy as the undercover policewoman whose breasts are so big that she falls over when in uncompromising positions. The problem is that Jackie described Amy as the most ugly woman that he had ever seen. In an article titled He Persuades Actresses to Strip, Chua Lam was credited as saying: “Gimmicks are a must when it comes to Category Three movies. One way is to surprise the audiences by hiring actresses whom they will never expect to strip.”
In February 1995, The Business Times published an article about Chua Lam having his own TV channel in Singapore. Catherine Ong typed: “In recent years, he made headlines in the Hong Kong press for his adults-only video magazine, Le Club, hosted by softcore actress Amy Yip. He has since ceased producing this monthly video, which was sold through video stores. In 1991, when Hong Kong’s most famous “ABC” sex trial was going on, Mr. Chua launched a hotline service which gave callers a lowdown on the steamy details emerging from the case involving aspiring actresses and models who were duped into sex by promises of a movie career.”
Perhaps someone should have tricked Amy to wear a dress that would have resulted in a headline that stated: Yip’s Nip Slip. All funny business aside, it’s apparent that Chua Lam was the mastermind behind another phone service. In February 1990, Amy had recorded 10 minutes worth of material. The concept was that there were ten messages but each minute cost $1. As her popularity grew, it got to a point where the service was put to an end in September 1990 because the lines overheated with 10,000 daily calls. It wasn’t like all of Amy’s messages were sexual. Topics ranged from Feng Shui to children’s stories.
In October 1994, The Straits Times published an article inquiring to know the exact whereabouts of Amy Yip. Ho Sheo-Be typed: “In June last year, she was reported to be one of the several stars who appeared at construction site shows in Taiwan - earning about $41,000 by meeting fans, according to Ming Pao Weekly. According to a spokesman for EMI, not only is the star no longer under its wing but she doesn’t belong to any other recording company.”
EMI seemed way too confident in the pre-internet era. I hope that they didn’t put her career on ice like they did with Re-Flex (a British new wave group) in 1985. Like many actresses before and after her, Amy Yip was said to have retired once she found a rich man. She turned 26 years old in July 1992. That’s awfully young to retire. With that in mind, a Hong Kong newspaper managed to snag an interview with her in October 1992. In what should have been words to remember her by, Amy said: “I’ve refused a couple of roles recently in Category III films. Now I’m more interested in branching out into drama and comedy. I’d really like to work on films with directors like Tsui Hark and Ching Siu-Tung, and act with Chow Yun-Fat. I’m considering smaller roles in which I would use Kung Fu instead of sex.”
Her rich boyfriend was a bone surgeon named Sam Lui Sik-Chiu, but he wasn’t what you would call a dreamboat like Dr. Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd - the character that Patrick Dempsey played in Grey’s Anatomy. In April 1995, Amy told Hong Kong’s Ming Pao Weekly that she was having problems in her “four year” relationship with Sam. A week later, she proclaimed proudly that the report worked wonders because her beau’s mother demanded that he apologize. In July 1996, Amy announced to the media that she had split up with him, and wanted to return to acting. But she stressed that she would not act again in Category III movies. Amy said she would do films that she liked but would not give details. They had separated in June but, somehow, it became August’s news.
With eight being a lucky number for the Chinese, and with August being the eighth month, Amy was hedging her bets. Dr. Sam Lui, however, was confident that their break-up was merely a cold war. In late May 1997, Amy Yip could be seen holding a shopping bag that was covered with multiple iterations of the same word: singer. But that wasn’t the story. The story was that Amy wasn’t looking for a new partner despite the fact that she failed to make a career comeback earlier that year. In all fairness to her, Amy called it way back in February 1991 when she said: “I know my acting days are numbered, so I want to go all out to make money in these next two years. I don’t think I would still be acting when my hair turns grey.”
As for what prompted this deadline, I suspect that it was due to the sexual harassment that she received now and then (if those Singaporean newspapers are anything to go by). A few days before her above comment, Amy Yip made it clear that she put more stock into one facet over an asset: “There was a time when I could fall hopelessly in love, but no more. Career is now the most important thing.”
By the time that we get to January 1992, Amy and other stars were reaching the end of their tether when it came to holding their tongues about Triads. Amy, in particular, was threatened with a razor blade when she turned down a role in an adults-only movie made by a Triad-backed film company. The company not only offered her miserly film fees but also wanted her to appear nude. The incident took place in December 1991. To protect herself, she signed on with Raymond Chow’s Golden Harvest, who then negotiated with the film-makers to change the script. Amy was quoted as saying: “They’ve agreed. Now I don’t have to strip.”
I’m sure there was an outpour of rage and sympathy over what she went through. For every gangster that threatens you, there should be a rival gang who can either protect or retaliate. A woman as desirable as Amy Yip needed to be escorted by an entourage of bruisers at all times. This brings to mind two lucrative actresses with different kinds of boyfriends. In 1992, Sharla Cheung Man was the girlfriend of a gangster whereas Carrie Ng was the girlfriend of a policeman. Imagine what conversations transpired when Sharla and Carrie worked together on two 1992 films: Cheetah on Fire and Call Girl ‘92.
In November 1992, it was revealed that Amy’s doctor boyfriend was already married. She was not a homewrecker because he had already separated from his wife (a white American) in October 1991. This was before he met Amy. In November 1992, it was revealed that it took four months for the bone surgeon to woo her on the phone before he won her heart. This would be from April to July, during which Amy was in Taipei doing shows and recording her debut album. Little has been said about Amy’s previous boyfriend: Yeung Yee-Woh. Besides a spell at the TVB network in the early ‘80s, his film career began in 1986 before ending in 1990. His final production, A Tale from the East, featured Amy and Yeung in cameos.
The company behind the film, That’s Entertainment, was co-founded by himself alongside the writers: Manfred Wong and Philip Chan (a former policeman). Manfred directed the film whereas Philip produced it. Yeung Yee-Woh was not just Amy Yip’s boyfriend but her manager. He had previously cast her in Mr. Sunshine (1989). I’m sure that she enjoyed going down on his Mr. Happy. Their relationship was kept under wraps until the infamous 1990 story of a Chinese banker hoping to transfer over two million dollars (U.S.) into her bank account. It was a big enough news story that Amy was interviewed on CNN. While the banker, Peter K.L. Chan, was officially exposed in December 1990, the first rumbling of this story leaked in September i.e. Amy had been asked by the Commercial Crime Bureau to help police in an attempted fraud case concerning US$2.5 million.
In December 1990, Peter K.L. Chan was jailed for two years and three months. He told the court that he caved in to Amy Yip’s constant demand for money. Apparently, she knew him for two years. For example, Peter gave her a Chanel handbag that cost over a thousand bucks. When the swindle story first broke out in September 1990, it had been two months since A Tale from the East was last screened in Hong Kong cinemas. As for what really prompted Peter’s altruism, it was reported elsewhere that Amy’s basic needs were HK$50,000 per month.
In a January 1992 article titled The Risk HK Stars Face, there is a blind item which makes me think that the mystery woman is Amy due to the above figure. Basically, there was an actress who was detained for three days after being repeatedly tardy during the filming of a Triad-produced movie. When she pulled out of the contract with the Triad company, she was forced to withdraw $50,000 in cash. Once assembled, the Triad boss burned it in front of her.