Yammie Nam Gone Missing?
Former Hong Kong actress, 49-year old Yammie Nam (藍潔瑛), has been living a troubled life since being diagnosed with psychological problems in 1999. With her mental state constantly unstable and inability to sustain a job, she also faced personal bankruptcy. In 2010, Yammie refused to take medicine and was admitted to a hospital for treatment. Ever since, she lived off welfare with a few thousand dollars (HKD) per month and received help from friends. Recent reports state she is missing, since many of her neighbors have not seen her around in a while.
To verify the tabloids, reporters visited Yammie’s apartment in the Stanley district of Hong Kong. A resident shared that he last saw Yammie coming home with a friend from church a week ago. “Her condition has gotten better, but she has a lot of white hair now. Before, she would scream and harass little children,” the man said.
The reporters also paid a visit to street vendors around the neighborhood. A few children announced they have not seen Yammie in two or three months. In fact, the last time they saw her was during their summer break. When Yammie’s good friend, Mary Yeung (楊曼莉), was questioned, she reassured the press that everything is fine. “Nothing happened,” Mary reported. “I spoke with her over the phone two days ago.”
Yammie has often been sighted in a trance-like state on the streets of Hong Kong, with her odd behavior attracting a large number of pedestrians gawking due to her popularity as a TVB star in the 1980s. Her friends in the entertainment industry, Meg Lam (林建明), Margie Tsang (曾華倩), Eric Tsang(曾志偉), Michelle Yim (米雪), and Susan Siu (邵音音), have attempted to help her in the past with little success, as Yammie’s mental state often suffered relapses.
Source: ihktv.com
This article is written by Shirley for JayneStars.com.
geez, i wondered what really happened to her to make her this way. must had been something really ugly
Logically, shouldn’t the police just ASK her what injustice is driving her into rages? I know one woman who is quite the neighborhood menace and she’s not crazy just mean and calculating especially to my mother whereas this actress sounds like those raving phantoms of rape victims in China.
I was just thinking that since HK is giving out monthly stipends – her life must be much better these days. I don’t know why I think about this actress. It just seems so obvious that something bad happened to her and based on a traditional outlook, she finds it unacceptable.
I don’t understand how she just got mental unstable. I wonder if she’s just faking it or something. There has to be something that makes you psychologically out of it. She didn’t get into a car accident or something that hurt her brain. So what happened?
Uh, was in an ignorant comment. You don’t just fake these things for decades. And for what purpose?
It’s very obvious that it’s schizophrenia. I feel very sorry for her.
I guess you do not know her story then. It is way too long to tell, but you should not just assume that she is faking it. Since you mentioned car accidents, Yes, she did have some prior to being admitted into a mental institution back in 1999. Heard that her boyfriend at the time left her as well. Two of her boyfriends committed suicide, her parents both passed away, heard that she was raped by a mafia leader,etc… So many tragic events in her life that has led her to the current state that she is in now. I also heard that some think she just could not get out of the character that she played in The Greed of Men. This other poster here said that a spell may have been casted on her by one of her former girlfriends since she wanted to steal her handsome and rich boyfriend back in the days and they are still married to this day. You really wonder. Why would she want to fake any of thus? If she was still able yo act and all, I think her life would not be so bad if she had a career to support herself with.
Are you a 3 year old kid to have this kind of brainless mentality?
Your comments is so stupid, I think your condition is worse than yammie, because you look like someone suffering from a low IQ deficit of 50.
Who is she???
Qwerty,
Yammie was a famous 1980s TVB star. She starred in “Looking Back in Anger” as Felix Wong’s mother and “The Greed of Man” as Sean Lau’s step-mom.
Yammie’s fame/popularity was on par with Margie Tsang and Carina Lau in the 1980s when they all started out in TVB.
Jayne,
Was she the one that acted as the spider lady in Journey to the West by Stephen Chow?
Yup!! She was awesome then! So sad to see her like this now…imagine, she could’ve been like those big sisters in HK film industry.
Yes she was spider lady 😀 she was so hot during these days. Hotter than Athena
Qwerty,
Yes that’s Yammie; she was a real beauty back then.
Indeed, she’s TVB Fa Dan in 80’s era, pretty and talented actress. I enjoy to watch her series such as A Taste of Bachelorhood (1986, Lawrence Ng), It’s Long Way To Home (1984, Tony Leung), Return of Wong Fei Hung (1985, Andy Lau-Kent Tong), etc. IMO, she’s the prettiest Fa Dan at that time, both ancient costume and modern drama. Too bad she’s ended up like that, poor condition 🙁
Yes,her story is indeed really sad. I think she is the fadan from the 80s with the most depressing life,
I would like to know what happened to her as well.
Rumor has it that she suffered from depression. Her parents passed away and then her bf? I don’t know if it’s true. I think I read somewhere that she was raped? Irregarless, it must have been difficult for her battling depression.
Did you read the older articles and comments? We have talked about it a lot already. If you want to, I can re cap on it based on what I know.
I feel sorry for her. Hope she get help one day. I remember her in the series with Simon Yim and Derek Wan.
What’s her mental stage at the moment. Is crazy or insane?
Gosh, what a waste. She was a true beauty and a really good actress in her days.
Yammie Nam was even more popular than Carina Lau and Margie in old days. Feel sorry for her.
Indeed sad to see her in this stage. Wondering how good it would be if TVB (being a huge & successful station) have a funds to help its artiste should anything happens to them…:(
I don’t think it will happen to TVB which is a profit-making public organization. Moreover, Yammie Nam left TVB long long time ago. I think she probably did not even work for TVB for 10 years.
I doubt that since TVB only cares for themselves. Yammie left TVB a very long time ago. She worked for them for a long time but I do not remember for how many years.
Her story is so sad and reminds us all that life is unpredictable and we can rich and famous one moment but poor and unknown the next.
Regardless what experience she had suffered, at the end of the day everyone handles things in a different way. Some people handle things better then others. Yammie obviously doesn’t handle as good as most but hopefully one day she will. Depression is a horrible state of mind to be in.
Even if she was a strong person, she has no family support and friends can only do so much for you. She has no husband or kids to take care of her and with the state that she is in, it is hard to even live well let alone recover. Therefore, how can she get better? She lacks financial resources as well. I truly feel bad for her.
This is my post from IMDb .
I have watched hundreds of Asian movies from Hong Kong , China , Japan and Korea and I am familiar with many of the well known actors and actresses . My favorite are Wu xia oriented and Historical stories , Kung Fu and films that portray Chinese Culture. My all time favorite movie is Hero .
The other night I found the movie ” Chinese Odyssey ” which wasn’t really anything epic but it was fun to watch never the less. That being said I was completely CAPTIVATED by Yammie Lam Kit Ying , and even though I had watched other movies she had roles in It was the first time I took notice of her.
Well it takes a lot to captivate me so I decided to search for more information about this particular actress . I am deeply saddened at what I found regarding her current situation .
So I think to myself this is a strange world we live in , here I am an American man on the other side of the Earth going about my daily routine . I watch a movie from the 1990`s and have a strong impression made on me by this actress who is just plain cool and now here she is on the other side of the Earth suffering more than any human should have to wandering the streets of Hong Kong living in a dirty room and filing for Bankruptcy and totally clueless about how great she really is . That’s messed up.
She is alone and afraid, she is destitute and has no one to take care of her . She has no where to hide from journalists that make money by feeding people’s obsession over watching others fall down. Both of her parents died at the same time , she had one or two of her boyfriends kill themselves and probably feels a great sense of loss.
People ask yourself how is it that a woman with such an strong and amazing presence on screen can end up being thrown away like a piece of garbage , is that what we do ? use them up and then throw them away?
Please , someone help this woman while there is still time. Stop making excuses this is a human being for Gods sake she deserves better .
Remember no matter what she is going through in this life right now she is still an awesome person .
Thanks for your post and I thought that I was the only one that still cared about Yammie. My mom often asks about her as well and still wonders what truly happened to her and expresses a lot of sadness that someone so beautiful and talented can end up like this. It just shows us that you can be beautiful and famous one moment but poor and unknown the next. Life is truly unpredictable.
I rarely watch asian/Chinese movies since I have not seen a single one that I like. But love watching ancient series and have always enjoyed Yammie’s series and love all of her series. But my most favorite series of her is Heir to the Throne with Andy Lau. She was so cute and beautiful in there as the goddess Ho Fa. In that series she sacrificed herself to save Andy towards the end but was luckily pardoned for it after being punished so ended up with Andy happily. I just wished that she would end up happily like that in real life. This is just so sad…
I don’t normally post much online but I felt really compelled after becoming aware of her situation. My impression of her is that of an individual with a lot of inner strength and fire that is being beaten down and made a spectacle of by weak minded people.
Although we can’t guess as to what she might be going through , I have some thoughts about it myself according to my own observations. It may be possible that she encountered people in the film industry , powerful people that have threatened her at some point . She may have knowledge about some people that they don’t want exposed perhaps information that could ruin their careers and she feels powerless and trapped. This may have also to do with whoever sexually assaulted her in the past. There may be good reason why she seems to frequent public places where she feels safe as well .
Generally most people that end up hitting the bottom have some kind of drug or drinking problem but she isn’t this kind of person. I see fear and betrayal around her also some people she thought she could trust betrayed her and with her parents both gone she probably feels like she has no one to turn to.
Her hostile behavior in public is likely a result of being harassed by photographers all the time which is something she will have to come to terms with and rise above. Once a person becomes a celebrity they are going to be treated like a commodity that people want to buy and sell whether they are up or down , she needs to understand that she won’t escape this by trying to mingle with everyday people on the street she has to accept what she is and rise above it. I don’t believe all of the conjecture either about her being mentally unbalanced or being stuck in a role , these are the kind of rumors people like to thrive on in order to feel better about their own lives . Someone has scared her really bad and shes been running from it for a long time.
Thank you for responding HeTie all it takes sometimes is for someone to care. I will continue to look for updates about Yammie and keep her close to my heart as I wish all the best for her.
You made some good points, but I think Yammie’s situation is a lot more serious than you think. With her parents gone, she has no husband or kids to take care of her,no siblings(not sure since I heard she has an older sister that does not care for her, but not sure since I always thought that she was an only child), or anyone to take care of her makes her very vulnerable.
I also heard that she may have been put under a spell by one of her former girlfriends who wanted to steal her boyfriend away from her. I heard that that friend is now still married to her former boyfriend. She had 2 other boyfriends who committed suicide as well. One of them committed suicide while she was filming Heir to the Throne is but she kept professionalism and did not allow that to affect her performance. I feel that Yammie should be emotionally strong but regardless if how emotionally strong you are, there is only so much anyone can take, especially when you have a lack of support. She also has no career or income now so she has nothing. It is so sad that anyone can easily end up like that. I don’t know if you read about that one former lawyer that used to help her and later proposed to her but she refused. However, we all then heard that he said he did not want her and even if she climbed into his bed, he would kick her off. Basically, you really wonder if he was only using her name to get publicity. It is sad that she seems to have been betrayed by everyone around and even that incident about her possibly being raped was leaked by one of her friends from the circle. It is hard to be in the e circle. Sometimes I wonder if Yammie did not become an actress, would her life have been better or different?
Thanks for your message as well! My mom is a fan of Yammie as well and often asks about her. It is truly sad that she ended up this way.I also hope and pray for her and hope that she can enjoy the rest of her life.
By the way, have you seen her series?? If not, I suggest you do since she is a very talented actress so it is a big pity that she is the way she is now.
I have never seen series but maybe when I have time I will watch.
Another thought I had is that she may be feeling a great deal of guilt perhaps even blaming herself for the deaths of her loved ones , this could cause a great deal of self hatred and lead her to feel like she doesn’t deserve to live .
However It’s not logical for us to speculate on her condition I guess because really only she knows whats in her own mind . What we can do is not forget who she really is and continue to care about her well being.
The lawyer guy seems like a loser . for him to say he didn’t want to be friends with her after she spent the money he was giving her is pathetic. At least she had good enough instinct to not marry a man that doesn’t love her , I have to give her credit for that.
It’s very painful for me to watch her suffering like this , I hope that she will stop punishing herself and consider letting her friends help her get back on her feet .
I highly recommend her series since that was where she started and how it made people notice her. Her performances are very memorable. I think you are right that she does feel guilty over the suicides of her boyfriends.
It is true that it is not logical for us to speculate, but they is all we can do since even her friends and people that know her does not know for sure what is truly on her mind. But yea, lets hope she has a
miracle and will live a better and more stable life.
That lawyer guy is a loser and I am also glad she did not marry him or else I think things could be worse.
I think we all hope that she can get help but it is not so simple. As you know, she psychological problems so it may be hard for her to think rationally and clearly.
I forgot to say that some also believe that she could not get out of her character that she played in the series, The Greed of Men where she went crazy. Her performance was excellent but it may have affected her in real life. But not sure since that is only a speculation.