22 November 2004
THE sort of politically correct spiel that avoids any satisfactory engagement of thorny questions is not Rui En’s style. The intrepid singer-actress has, after all, stepped into the role vacated by Steph Song in the sitcom Achar!.
Faced with the fairly generic question of ‘What kind of experience did you have filming Achar?’, she chooses to tackle the unspoken subtext head-on instead.’The experience was quite pleasant,’ says the 23-year-old matter-of-factly in a phone interview last Saturday.
Her experience is in stark contrast to the reportedly tumultuous relationship between her predecessor Song and co-star, Bollywood actor Jas Arora, during the filming of the first season of the Channel 5 sitcom last year.
‘I’m sure everyone has heard all the rumours about the last season,’ Rui En says. ‘When I took on this project, I kept telling myself not to make judgments and to go in with an open mind. And it was fine, really.’
She insists that her screen husband is ‘very well-mannered and gentlemanly in a way that you don’t really see much nowadays’.’He actually does things like opening doors for you. The chivalry is quite refreshing.’
Rui En, who bears some resemblance to Song, first came into the spotlight in 2001, when she appeared in a SingTel TV commercial. She then starred in a Jay Chou music video before releasing a Mandarin album in 2003.
Tackling challenging roles is what she has set her mind on after graduating from her banking and finance course from Nanyang Technological University last year.
‘This character is quite feminine, very different from my previous tomboyish roles and my own personality,’ she recalls.
‘It’s quite a challenge to wear skirts and be graceful. The character’s wardrobe is very different from what I would wear in real life.’
Currently starring in the Channel 8 drama My In-Laws, Rui En has also been nominated in the Most Popular Newcomer category for this year’s Star Awards. ‘I was very surprised when I found out because I’ve only been in a few shows.
‘She adds: ‘I won’t be wearing a dress to the Awards. It’s such a struggle to wear them for work.’
The new season of Achar! starts on Dec 2 on Channel 5 at 8.30pm.
Source: The Straits Times
Categorised in Achar, The Straits Times.
19 November 2004
Twenty artists have been nominated in both the male and female categories. Fans call their respective 1900 numbers to cast votes for their favourites. The top 10 nominees in each category who get the most votes receive the award.
With well-known faces like Tay not in the race for votes, the spotlight this year falls on the Most Popular Newcomer category.
All five nominees this year are women: Joanne Peh, Felicia Chin, Ng Hui, Rui En and Lim Yi Chyi.
The Star Awards will air on Dec 12 on Channel 8 at 7pm. Log on to www.channel8.com.sg for the relevant numbers to call and vote for your favourite artists.
Source: The Straits Times
Categorised in Star Awards, Star Awards 2004, The Straits Times.
06 January 2004
Youth Concert @ South East 2004 will have plenty of artists on hand to raise funds for local charities
FANS of late Hong Kong entertainer Anita Mui have a good reason to attend the Youth Concert @ South East 2004 this Saturday.
Ex-Grasshopper and Anita Mui protege Remus Choy will open the star-studded concert, to be held at the open field next to the Singapore Post Centre (near the Paya Lebar MRT station) at 6.30pm.
Taiwan’s R&B group B.A.D. and singer Joanna Feng Wei Jun, Singaporeans Rui En, Sheikh Haikel and Ben Yeung and Scottish newcomer Derek McDonald will also perform.
Proceeds from the sales of tickets, priced at $2 each, will be donated to three charities: the Goodlife Centre @ South East, the Salvation Army-Bedok Multiservice Centre for the Elderly and the Metta School.
Source: The Straits Times
Categorised in The Straits Times.
07 August 2003
THE world of showbiz can be cruel.
Singers Karen Mok and eVonne Hsu were crowned Best Female Singer and Best Newcomer respectively at Taiwan’s Golden Melody Awards last Saturday.
But they are absent from the list of nominees for the Singapore Hit Awards.
SINGAPORE HIT AWARDS NOMINEES
Best Local Singer
Shaun Yong Bang, Stella Ng, Rui En, Kit Chan, A-do, Wayne ‘JJ’ Lin, Seven, Celest Chong, Ho Yeow Sun, Stefanie Sun
Source: The Straits Times
Categorised in The Straits Times.
30 May 2003
Readers write in about Lionel Seah’s negative review of the new Channel 5 drama Chemistry, which is produced by Rushes Networks, and Ong Sor Fern’s Tome Raider column and article on The Matrix.
I REFER to Lionel Seah’s review of Chemistry (Chemistry Flunks The Test, May 26).
The show had me glued for the whole half-hour.
Sure it helps that the leads are attractive, but Lu Rui En‘s acting actually draws you in.
Being a woman, it would have been easy for me to hate her for her beauty and I wouldn’t hesitate to criticise her acting skills.
But she came across as natural and definitely outshone Howard Cheung in the first episode.
Acting skills aside, the plot might not be the most original, but it is good enough for some relaxing entertainment on TV. I don’t feel in any way that it flunked the test. I think it only failed Mr Seah’s test.
I hope he wasn’t using personal, biased reasons in judging Chemistry because, honestly, it is one of the more watchable locally produced shows.
Sparks do fly in Chemistry and I won’t put it down so fast.
It definitely deserves better reviews, not prejudiced, immature comments.
FIONA YU
Categorised in The Straits Times.
26 May 2003
The results are in: Channel 5’s new series – Chemistry – doesn’t so much sizzle as fizzle. Will someone light a bunsen burner under it, please?
DRAMA
CHEMISTRY
Channel 5
Thursdays, 8.30 pm
IF THERE is one thing more exciting than watching the debut episode of Channel 5’s new series, Chemistry, it is memorising the Periodic Table.
Judging by the episode last Thursday, the 13-parter is the television equivalent of helium, the most inert element in the table. Half an hour of it is enough to leave viewers bereft of life.
Chemistry is produced by Rushes Network, the production house of Hype Records to which the series’ leads, Lu Rui En and Howard Cheung, are signed on to.
The storyline revolves around a girl and a guy with clashing personalities who finally overcome their animosity and fall in love. Only the words in a Hallmark card can beat this for originality.
In the first episode, the male and female leads, played by newcomers Cheung and Rui En respectively, swopped souls and took over each others’ bodies.
It was very much like Prelude To A Kiss. But, presumably, the scriptwriter has not watched that film before. Or All Of Me. Or Freaky Friday. Or The Hot Chick.
Maybe because the debut episode was expository, setting the scene for what is to unfold in future episodes, there wasn’t much excitement going on.
Thursday’s show moved like a one-legged man with gout, though only to explode in its own face like a bad experiment that went horribly wrong.
The casting of singer and part-time model Rui En as Rachel, a headstrong radio DJ, is a huge mistake.
She is pretty, but no actress. Her acting lacks subtlety and has as much depth as a petri dish in a laboratory.
She carries a wide range of expressions. All, unfortunately, involve her playing cute and putting on a series of exasperated looks. We could be looking at the next Fiona Xie here.
Rui En is actually fine in small doses. In fact, her ‘acting’ is passable in Jay Chou’s Secret Signal MTV clip and in the SingTel HiCard advertisement in which she appears.
And, she’s a much better singer than actress, as those who have heard her self-titled debut Mandarin album would attest to.
Who knows, Chemistry, the musical might have worked better for her?
Thankfully, there are redeeming factors to the show. Each episode is only 30 minutes long. And the colours look rich and deep, like Money, one of MediaCorp’s better series, a few years back.
In fact, the colours are so brilliant that in the first episode, Rui En’s multi-coloured eye-shadow – though no fault of hers, poor girl – made her look like a talking parrot.
The best thing about the show is Hong Kong-based model Cheung. He doesn’t over act, and in an industry known for over-the-top acting, he bucks the trend.
He is also eye candy, which is a requirement in a series that is – like others before and many to follow – essentially a case of style over substance.
And if Cheung goes topless ever so often as Vincent Ng does in Heartlanders, he might well be guaranteed longevity in Singapore’s TV scene.
Chemistry is a wake up call that there should be a Geneva Convention for television, that gratuitous showing of pretty faces without acting talent should be banned.
Admittedly, Chemistry could do a U-turn and show an impressive next 12 episodes. Right now, it positively makes Light Years, the teen series on Channel 5, watchable.
But only after one has exhausted memorising the Periodic Table.
Source: The Straits Times
Categorised in Chemistry, The Straits Times.
22 May 2003
Will Chemistry, a new Channel 5 romantic comedy premiering tonight, fare better than recent teen drama Light Years and comeback sitcom Under One Roof? The 13-episode series starts off on a Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus footing before twisting into a happy ending.
SAMUEL LEE talks to lead actors Howard Cheung and Lu Rui En.
WHO: Lu Rui En, 22
RUI EN WHO?: I was the ‘running girl’ in the SingTel HiCard ad. I’ve also appeared on Channel 8 drama No Problem and in Jay Chou’s music video for Secret Signal last year. I released my first Mandarin R&B album earlier this year.
WHAT’S UP: I’m now one semester away from a degree in banking and finance at Nanyang Technological University.
WHY SHOULD WE WATCH CHEMISTRY: It’s not the usual boy-meets-girl, enemies-become-lovers storyline. There are lots of supernatural and fantasy elements, and some sleaze and suspense. In Episode 1, Howard and I swop souls and go into each other’s bodies – which means I have to act like him and he, me.
WHAT DO YOU PLAY: Rachel, a stubborn radio DJ quite like me – clumsy, un-girl and jaded about love and men because of my single-parent upbringing. The only difference is that I don’t suan people (make sarcastic jibes) at every turn.
CHEMISTRY MEANS: No bedroom scene and not much kissing – both on- and off-screen – because I have no time to create any chemistry with anyone.
Chemistry debuts tonight on Channel 5 at 9pm, but will air at 8.30pm on Thursdays starting next week.
Source: The Straits Times
Categorised in Chemistry, The Straits Times.
17 April 2003
FESTIVAL OPENERS :
Singapore singers Stella Ng and Lu Rui En will take the lead in opening the Singapore Street Festival next month.
TO ENCOURAGE youths to come out to play, Singapore singers Stella Ng and Lu Rui En will open the Singapore Street Festival on May 31 at 7 pm at the open field next to Faber House in Orchard Road.
Source: The Straits Times
Categorised in The Straits Times.
22 January 2003
HOMEGROWN R&B newcomer Lu Rui En wants to set the record straight.
If her slurry singing sounds suspiciously like that of labelmate Jay Chou, it’s not a case of her being a copycat.
‘It sounds this way because I’m more accustomed to speaking in English,’ Lu, a 21-year-old business school undergraduate at NTU, said in Mandarin during a press conference and mini-showcase at Embassy club yesterday.
‘My Mandarin was unbelievably lan before I was discovered,’ says the former Raffles Junior College student, using the Mandarin colloquialism for ‘atrocious’.
Talent-spotted by Hype Records in 2001 after appearing in a SingTel TV commercial, she went on to do a cameo appearance in Channel 8 drama serial No Problem, last year.
But it was all because of Chou’s concert here in February last year that Lu got her big break.
Mr R.J. Yang, a Taiwanese director from the record label Alpha, was in Hype’s office when he chanced upon her demo tape. He heard it and was impressed.
A month later, she was signed up.
Soon, she was appearing alongside Chou for a mobile phone ad in Taiwan and, more recently, as a love interest in his music video for Secret Code.
He also penned the track White Feather for her debut CD, Rui En Vol.01 Album, which was released last month.
It has sold 50,000 copies in Taiwan and 3,000 here so far.
She performed White Feather during Chou’s sold-out shows as a guest earlier this month at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Though she thanks Chou for opening doors for her, she said that being associated with the Taiwanese R&B superstar puts her under ‘tremendous pressure’.
Some of Chou’s fanatical fans in Taiwan had told her to ‘lay off’ their idol.
More at ease now, she will be playing an uncouth and boyish radio DJ-love counsellor in the upcoming Channel 5 urban romance drama, Chemistry.
Of her acting role, a source close to her said yesterday: ‘The part fits her because Lu’s like that – a bit of a tomboy with no pretence. What you see is what you get.’
Rui ∑n vol. 01 Album is out in the stores.
Source: The Straits Times
Categorised in Rui ∑n vol. 01, The Straits Times.
