“Friendly Fire” Ronan Pak Wants to Film Television Musical
Many TVB stars rose to prominence through playing memorable villain roles – Deric Wan (溫兆倫) became the city’s most-hated during the broadcast of the highly successful Looking Back in Anger <義不容情> in 1989; Nick Cheung (張家輝) won his first acting achievement through 1998’s Secret of the Heart <天地豪情>; Tavia Yeung (楊怡) competed for the Best Actress award for the first time after her successful performance in 2009’s Beyond the Realm of Conscience <宮心計>; and more recently, Ben Wong (黃智賢) came back from the sidelines after winning Best Supporting Actor for his performance in 2011’s Lives of Omission <潛行狙擊>.
The next successor in the villain line may be Friendly Fire’s <法網狙擊> Ronan Pak (白健恩), who joined TVB after competing in the 2010 Mr. Hong Kong contestant. Ronan was virtually unknown prior to his performance in Friendly Fire. It was not until his well-publicized rape scene with Samantha Ko (高海寧) when Ronan’s name was finally known.
In an interview with Oriental Daily, Ronan admitted that his job offers increased after the broadcast of Friendly Fire. “I have a stable income now. I think I’ll be pretty busy in the coming months.”
Musical Background
Ronan is a graduate of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, where he majored in musical dance. After his graduation, Ronan went to New York to partake in a professional musical theater and vocal training program, where he won certificates for his vocal techniques and performances.
Knowing that TVB would be a great stepping stone to jump start his musical performance career, he returned to Hong Kong in 2010 to compete in the Mr. Hong Kong contest. He subsequently signed a management contract with TVB.
Friendly Fire’s “Oscar” was Ronan’s first major role since he joined TVB in 2010. His atrocious character in the drama has drawn strong reactions from the audience.
Having to rape Samantha Ko in the drama, Ronan laughed that his next target should be Friendly Fire costar Tavia Yeung (楊怡). “She was so evil in Beyond the Realm of Conscience. I usually see her playing positive roles, so I was not expecting her to be able to be so evil! My recent villain role has also received praises, so I really want work with Tavia next!”
Asked if Ronan would like to film another rape scene, Ronan shook his head. “Wouldn’t the audience get bored of that? I really don’t mind playing a villain again, but if it’s the same thing over again, it gets boring for a lot of people. I want to be able to play different roles so the audience can see the many different sides of me.”
Ronan revealed that he has always been hoping to be able to perform in a television musical. “Truthfully, I’ve always wanted to be in a musical. Many Western films and television shows have these productions, but they’re rarely seen in Hong Kong. There’s nothing wrong with trying something new. I think this can work!”
Source: ihktv.com
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
He can sing?
And no he wasn’t memorable. Not in the league of some of the actors named above. First Deric and Nick were already very good actors and their roles were memorable. This one isn’t memorable.
Yes he can sing, I think you can see him sing on youtube in some kind of event
His role wasnt memorable but it did struck out to a lot of people attention, including me. If he has good role and tvb support him I think he would have pretty good future ahead of him
Give him a chance. I think he’s pretty memorable although I can’t judge his acting skill yet. Hope to see him in various kind of roles.
Don’t care for him. No star power
I was reading and Matthew ko was meant to play this role ‘Oscar’. I’m glad he didn’t as I can’t see Matthew playing such an evil role
Matthew Ko is no good in acting; he is just reading his lines of dialogues, no good facial expressions and no inner emotions.
Matthew Ko is not very good in acting.He is improving but too slowly though.
Too slowly, and all the newbies surpassed him already.
Mathew’s wiki page say he is fluent in french. Anyone heard him speak at all? I think its bs.
If Matthew Ko went to school in Toronto, he might have taken French all the way in his high school as his second language. He should be able to read and write some French, but I don’t think he is very fluent, especially in conversations.
I think this guy is pretty cool for a 1st timer and not bad looking too. TVB should give more new faces to their dramas instead of the same repeat actors actresses and Friendly Fire has a lot of refreshing new faces eg Sammy Leung, Sammy Shum, Ronan Pak and Alice.
Don’t mind seeing new faces if they can act and speak good Cantonese. Just can’t stand those artistes who cannot act or speak proper Cantonese, such as Christine Kuo and Rebecca Zhu.
It was just irritating to listen to their dialogues in drama series. I had to read the subtitles in order to understand their poor Cantonese.
exactly. when i was watching friendly fire, i was like “dang. this guy could act”
agree, tvb is already putting more new faces in their new series lately,but i still miss the new ekin cheng or louis ko.guys that have captivate charisma is rare today.
Well the only reason why tvb is having so many new faces is because most the better veterans are changing to mainland dramas. But I do think Ronan will have many more roles to come, before you know it he’ll be switching to mainland too.
Rebecca Zhu speaks good Cantonese. If people can’t understand her, that means their own cantonese is itself bad.
Why keep criticising the female artistes, in as many comments? This guy also cannot act, but nobody said a word of that here!
This forum must be full of females, who pour adoration at male actors only.
For male artistes who cannot speak good Cantonese, Stefan Wong, Au-Yeung Jin, Chau Chi Man, Chau Chi Hong, Kong King are some of them. There are many others of course, but they were all in minor roles and not heavily promoted by TVB.
I do like Rebecca Chu’s acting. Her character moved me and she have lots of facial expression. Perhaps needs to see her next performance. I think her Cantonese is ok la, I don’t think it’s a big problem.
“Rebecca Zhu speaks good Cantonese. If people can’t understand her, that means their own cantonese is itself bad”
…that means their own grasp of the cantonese language is itself bad.
It should be your understanding of Cantonese. If Rebecca Zhu’s Cantonese is considered to be good, then your Cantonese should be pretty lousy. Sorry. It is a fact.
Well, Rebecca Zhu’s Cantonese could be a bit better than Christine Kuo’s, but I cannot say that Rebecca Zhu speaks perfect (or good) Cantonese.
Agreed. I bet Hello kitty speaks with an accent.
err Rebecca’s cantonese isn’t that good. Still needs more practice
Sorry but I just don’t think just because an actor’s Cantonese is bad that justify them as a bad actor, it’s just like discriminting them it’s like saying those who can’t speak proper English can’t act either.
I believe Ronan has potential, looking forward to see more of his work.
Ronan does look sharp on screen. Hope to see more of him in a different role. He sort of having a puppy eye!
For his first drama, he has very well. A memorable role.
Huh ! a lot of HK actors not even know how to speak Mandarin but acting in China and Taiwan instead …so are they consider good actors eh ? even until now Aaron Kwok doesn’t speak fluent Mandarin and with weird accent ….and yeah here you go heavenly king .Carina Lau and faye wong not even speak fluent Cantonese when they first break into HK entertainment circle…as long u DARE and TALENTED …time will tell . At least they dun dub their sound when they acting in TVB drama…but seem like lot of TVB actors heading to China that dub their voice in mainland drama…lol
*shrugs*. Not fair to target HK actors working in China, since everyone’s voices get dubbed including the mainland actors. Haha, maybe because China is so big that not even the mainland actors speak the language without the affectations of their locality.
Anyway, a lot of actors and actresses started out having language difficulties, if I remember even Bernice Liu. A few years of hard knocks would “settle” them down. They are also lucky that there are more and more “ABC” roles in the dramas… which are more forgiving than ancient or period dramas. Imagine what Bernice Liu had to go through when her first drama was the long running virtues of harmony. I guess she just had to take the criticism constructively and improve.
Exactly, lol yea i am not try to target HK actors and i grew up with TVB drama as well but can speak fluent cantonese doesn’t mean you’s AWESOME and make you good actor ..that very unprofessional view , no ?
Well Shakira doesn’t speak good English but look how famous she is …not only break into latin market but in to US and other non-English speaking countries .
Yea i agree , when Bernice Liu just joined TVB that she doesn’t speak perfect Cantonese as well as she’s from Canada ..but nothing to stop you or to kill your dream become actor .As i say Carina lau and faye wong …even Malaysian Michelle yeoh ( Movie )doesn’t speak fluent cantonese as well.At least they try , willing to learn 🙂 .
i heard he is gay? is that true?
the evidence would suggest so. he had a lot of incriminating photos on his FB frolicking on the beach with his gay friends.
as usual, most of the very handsome & fit guys are gays.. 80%… but i think the girls dont mind as recent polls said girls now prefer tech-geeky guys (example FB & twitter normal guy) rather than (david backham or hugh jackman) type…
jeez no wonder sam didn’t mind doing the scene…..
this toy boy look very sexy and cute…young & dangerous who can be the next “housewives-killer” due to his handsome look….
I find Ronan quite attractive. He looks very sharp, and his acting is actually quite good. He character was convincing in “friendly fire” at least.
agree 🙂
I agree too. I think he’s good looking and played his role really well in Friendly Fire. I hope to see him in a lot of future dramas.
Actually I thought he was much better than Jacky Heung, the guy who played the villian in “Fistful of Stances”. For a newbie in acting, I think he has potential.
This guy can play jerk roles, lol. Aside from that, still needs a lot of exposure and experience to gain an edge, especially in today’s mediocre entertainment industry.
I think he had a nose job. Yeah I did not like him in Friendly Fire so i guess that meant he was good in his role then? lol. Yeah Raymond had his nose done several times but it looked more natural than this guy. Yep, for Raymond Lam’s fans dont be mad. It is true. He had at least 2-3 nose jobs but he only fixed it a little bit over time so you cant see a big difference but trust me try to watch his first few roles as extras and stuff his nose was huge.
Raymond has fixed his whole fave pretty much. His nose and chin and all. But he is still good looking
oh really? whole face? i didnt know ; )
I think Michael Miu is very good-looking.
And no, nothing wrong with plastic surgery. As long as you dont do too much, just to enhance the worst feature on your face. Or let me put it this way, pick one thing that you are most unhappy about your face and fix it. But thats it. Dont get addicted to it. Then your face would still look natural then thats fine 🙂
When i first saw him, my first reaction was , not bad looking…hahha…
And for a first timer, i think he did pretty well, not stiff or awkward at all!
I agree that he is not bad for a newbie but did this writer actually see Deric Wan’s performance in Looking Back in Anger? There is no comparison.
Comparing this guy to any of the actors/actress in the first paragraph is an insult to them. Granted that Nick, Tavia, and Ben Wong were not newbies when they played their role. But Deric was…
I agree that Ronan Pak’s role is not as memorable as Deric Wan’s and Nick Cheung’s role. But, it’s understable. Deric’s and Nick’s role has a lot of screentime, is a major character in the series and has a lot of character development and plot revolved around them. Ronan’s character has only a little screentime. His screentime is around the same as some other guest stars such as Mandy Wong. Hard to compare him to Nick and Deric. I wonder how he will fair in a bigger role which more development and characterisation. I have to say though, he was memorable in his little screentime in Friendly Fire.
His role was not that memorable in FF. I really hate him in FF but gotta admit he is good looing ehehe