https://www.straitstimes.com/life/entertainment/new-film-gives-actor-peter-yu-hope-to-reconcile-with-estranged-daughter-eleanor-lee
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New film gives actor Peter Yu hope to reconcile with estranged daughter Eleanor Lee
UPDATED 50 MINS AGO
SINGAPORE – When local actor Peter Yu read the script for his latest movie, The Last Letters, in late 2022, the source material hit home and he even thought it was based on his own life.
Like his on-screen persona, the 54-year-old is a former heavy gambler with a daughter who is not on speaking terms with him.
The Mandarin- and Hokkien-language film set in 1980s Singapore is in production, with scenes shot in Singapore, Malaysia and the United States. It is directed by local film-maker Chai Yee Wei (Blood Ties, 2009; That Girl In Pinafore, 2013) and is slated for release end-2023 or early 2024.
In between takes on set last Wednesday, Yu says: “Imagine my surprise when the writers told me my character was not inspired by my past. I guess gambling addictions and difficult family situations must be quite common in Singapore.”
In The Last Letters, Yu plays Tan, a man who has a strained relationship with his daughter due to his alcoholism and gambling tendencies.
The subject matter is uncannily personal for Yu, whose real-life daughter Eleanor Lee, 23, is estranged from him.
Her mother is local host Quan Yifeng, who was Yu’s wife from 1998 to 2008.
Yu reportedly last saw Lee in 2010, when she was 11. She is now a popular actress-singer-model based in China.
Yu is married to Ms Brenda Leow, 42, who works in sales, and they have two sons – Christian, 10, and Israel, six.
The actor, a born-again Christian, says: “Since I found religion, I have been a changed man. I have gained back most things that I had lost, but one.
“I hope that when (Eleanor) gets married and becomes a mother, she will understand and reunite with me some day. This film gives me that hope.”
The Last Letters also stars local actor-comedian Mark Lee, who plays Loke, a single father who works hard to ensure his only daughter Eileen (Xenia Tan) gets the best education overseas.
In The Last Letters, Singaporean actor-comedian Mark Lee plays a hardworking single father. PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO
Loke convinces her to go to New York City to further her studies, selling his kampung house and moving into a one-room flat to afford this.
The illiterate Loke soon meets Tan and comes to rely on the latter to read letters from Eileen and to reply her. Tragedy strikes when Tan receives bad news about her and, unable to tell Loke the devastating truth, fabricates a lie that becomes a full-blown deception.
Lee, 54, is married to housewife Catherine Ng, 49, and they have three children – daughters Calista, 14, and Calynn, nine; and son Marksonn, 11.
In 2018, Calynn was diagnosed with glomerulonephritis, a progressive kidney disease, which caused Lee to be worried about her health. But the girl’s immune system is slowly recovering, and he believes she will be considered fully recovered by 18 or 19.
He says: “I used to be very concerned about her health and hygiene, but over the years, I have relaxed a bit. Nowadays, I treat her no differently from my other children. She just takes her medicine when she needs to.”
Unlike his character, Lee has told his children that he will not sponsor them for overseas studies.
He said: “I think our local universities are already very good. I will consider paying for them only if they want to study a course that is not offered in Singapore.
“If they want to go overseas just to travel or for the prestige, they will have to partly pay their way there.”
Lee says of his latest serious, dramatic role: “Although my cross-dressing character in Number 1 (2020) had dramatic elements, his drag performances were still quite comedic and humorous.
“This time, however, there is nothing funny about my character, and all the conflict is almost entirely internal. Through this character, I hope audiences will see a different side of me and my abilities.”
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