Cover Michelle Wai, the leading lady in ‘The Last Dance’ (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Hungmc)
Michelle Wai, the leading lady in ‘The Last Dance’ (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Hungmc)
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‘The Last Dance’ actor Michelle Wai, who won Best Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards this Sunday, looks back at her role that defies social stereotypes and inspires understanding and change for the better
Michelle Wai plays Yuet, a paramedic, in Anselm Chan’s The Last Dance (2024), which will represent Hong Kong in the race for best international feature film at the Oscars in 2025. But the Hong Kong actor is nothing like her character in real life. “I’m always full of love and enthusiasm. But Yuet is cold, practical and strong-willed,” she says. The character is also the daughter of a Taoist priest, while Wai knows very little about Taoism; she learnt a lot more about it for the film, which sees her performing the Taoist funeral ritual called “breaking opening the gates of hell” in one of the movie’s now celebrated scenes.
The film is about a Taoist priest who goes into business with a former wedding planner, and who is struggling to maintain good relationships with his adult children. While Taoism traditionally frowns upon female priests, Yuet has to perform the funeral ritual. It involves chanting, dancing, brandishing a sword and jumping over a fire to guide the souls of the dead out of hell; Wai spent a year learning the movements and chants. She won best actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards this year.
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Above Michelle Wai, who stars in ‘The Last Dance’ (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Hungmc)
Above Michelle Wai, who stars in ‘The Last Dance’ (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Hungmc)
Michelle Wai, who stars in ‘The Last Dance’ (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Hungmc)
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In an interview ahead of the ceremony, she tells Tatler that, despite not knowing much about Taoism and how different she is from her character, she didn’t hesitate when she was offered the role. “I’ve loved acting since I was a child,” she says. Wai and her brother were child models, and at one shoot, a producer invited them to a film casting. Wai was cast—her brother wasn’t—and so began her love for the world of moviemaking. “It’s a dream factory. My mother told me that I was so passionate about acting that even in the harder days or when I had to wake up at 4am to shoot a scene, I’d have my backpack and a big smile on my face. She said I looked like a child heading to a playground.”
Wai is fascinated by “every moment and everything in a studio”—whether it’s what lighting technicians and set designers are working on to how directors and actors interact—because she loves seeing how stories are told. Acting also gives her the chance to learn about the lives, perspectives and experiences of people she thought she would never encounter.
Above Michelle Wai, who stars in ‘The Last Dance’ (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Hungmc)
Above Michelle Wai, who stars in ‘The Last Dance’ (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Hungmc)
Michelle Wai, who stars in ‘The Last Dance’ (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong/Hungmc)
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Such is the case with The Last Dance, which completely changed her understanding of the spiritual world and the concept of death. “One of the biggest hurdles for me during the shoot was the psychological aspect: I had little understanding of Taoism,” she says. “At first, I was scared of the ghosts and deities when I was practising the rituals, but that was because I was ignorant. In the past, when I saw a hearse, I felt uncomfortable and thought it was bad luck. I was frightened by those Chinese paper dolls made for the dead.” But this movie gave her the chance to learn about the Taoist scriptures and rituals. She also took the initiative to get in touch with young women who grew up Taoist to better understand her character’s upbringing.
“After this movie, I learnt that death is only a natural process, in that you go from life to the next step. It isn’t as scary as I imagined,” she says. This changes the way she looks at places associated with death and funerals. “Nowadays, instead of saying that a place is haunted, I’ve learnt to understand the meaning behind the rituals or the different religious perspectives.”
Credits
Photography Assistant: Steven Lam
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Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
