Agnes Monica: Shooting with Peter Ho in ChinaFrom: www.bintangindonesia.com
“She has her own unique. I’m sure if she plays witty roles like Vicky Zhao in ‘Princess Huan Zhu’, she’ll get succeed...”– Albert Lai, The Director. News about Agnes playing a series with one of F4 personnel in Taiwan has been heard since the last year. Many have been waiting the realization of this news; moreover Agnes said by the end of March or April 2005 would start the shooting. It left questions of which of the F4 members who’ll be her co-star. Everybody was happy for this good news, especially Agnes’ fans. This is a new breakthrough she does in her acting career. A proud achievement for the Indonesian artist to stand beside stars like F4. Definitely this is what Indo people have waited, seeing their dearest girl acting with Asian idols. But not few of them doubted the news because it involves the name of
Jerry Yan and Vic Chou, and the departure schedule was delayed, from March to April.
On April 21, all the questions were answered with Agnes’ left to Shanghai, China. Along with her are her management, her mom: Jenny Siswono, her brother: Steve Muljoto and 2 assistants. It’s true that she hasn’t started the series with F4 yet but as she said this was as a “warming up” before acting in Taiwan. She did it to adapt the habits and situation in working with Taiwanese. As a starring guest Agnes will cast 9 episodes in Shanghai. The series in China is titled:
Romance in White House (or in Mandarin:
Pai Wu Ce Lien/Bai Wu Zi Lian). In this series Agnes meets
Peter Ho, famous Taiwanese actor who’s well known in here with some of his films such as:
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Pendekar Awan dan Angin, Starry Starry Night, Summer Scent and the last one:
Love at The Aegean Sea. Acting with foreign artists isn’t something new for Peter. Before that he had an experience with
Chae Rim from Korea (
Love at the Aegean Sea) and
Asaka Seto from Japan (horror film:
Kui Lai Tien).
To make it easy in spelling her name, people call Agnes as Monica on the location. Since the director was satisfied with her act, the scenes and actions for her part was added more and the scenario was changed. Her worried about the adaptation thing and the socialization with others didn’t happened. Bintang that was invited to come to the shooting location in Song Jiang, an hour trip from Shanghai saw Agnes was smart in bringing her self, genial, and well accepted by all the team workers. In the press conference 27 April with local press, Agnes introduced her self in Mandarin she has learned in Indonesia months ago. Not bad, and she got applause from them. Some of the media touted her as
“Indonesian Young Queen of Sky” and the other wrote that she has sweeter smile compare to
Jang Nara of Korea who was in China at the same time. The crew also praised her beautiful eyes.
She also got praises and admiring applause from the director, Albert Lai, for her acting. Albert was touched and also cried seeing Agnes’ cry acting from his monitor screen. Peter Ho and Huo Ya Ming also gave respect on her acting and her voice after watching the VCD of Agnes ‘Live Performance on Trans TV’. “She is a superstar!” praised Peter after listening Bintang about her career history in Indonesia. “She’s been 13 years in the showbiz and I can’t be compared to her”.
Albert also has an idea to shoot Agnes in Kungfu series. “She’s unique. I’m sure if Agnes plays witty roles like Vicky Zhao in Princess Huan Zhu, she’ll be succeed,” said Albert who has experiences in directed Chow Yun Fat, Andy Lau, Tony Leung and etc around 80’s.
Agnes often asked the director to rewind her acting tape and then seriously paid attention on her act. The Chinese TV actor,
Huo Ya Ming who casts as Agnes’ boyfriend in this series, frankly said he likes Agnes. Agnes could sail his emotion in front of the camera therefore both can act totally. The series will be down on September this year. “If I could, I would chase her to Indonesia, I don’t mind at all”, he said honestly.
In this drama Agnes cast as “American Born Chinese” who comes back to Shanghai to work as a secretary and then falls in love with her boss’ son. Because she’s very fluent in English the company tasks her for jobs related to the language.
This role made Agnes’ work pretty easy because she didn’t have to talk in full Mandarin. Some of her scene that needed more emotion used English so that she could express the character better. So, even though she spoke English and the other spoke Mandarin in one scene, people saw them as if they were talking in the same language.
The intimacy with the crews and artists made them crying when Agnes said goodbye to go back to Indonesia last 2 May. In her farewell party the crews made a barbecue and she voluntary performed one song for them. “I hope I can play with Agnes again”, said Peter. He didn’t have difficulties communicated with Agnes since he’s fluent in English too. He didn’t hide his admire to Agnes whose he praised as beautiful and smart. When they took some scenes at the hotel (which became a prison set), Peter who was getting a break was fully spirit taking Agnes pictures with his camera while she was doing her acting. He said he likes photography (but I think it’s just a “reason”

). He also proposed Agnes to stay bit longer so that they could travel around Shanghai. When Agnes wanted to taste mini bakpao
‘Xiao Long Bao’, this tall man (who happened had a mini concert in Brastagi, North Sumatra) accompanied her. He got crushed with her, aight? But Agnes refused to give further comment. She just said, “He’s not my type”.
Wah Peter patah hati dong….
Full acting as a new leading actress will be her next job by the end of the year. By that time, Agnes will not just play with F4 member but also with some top Taiwan stars such as
Dylan Kuo and Angela Chang. The setting will take places in Taiwan and Indonesia. After that, Agnes will continue with another series, also with F4 member. But Agnes makes no promise about his presence in the series. Once again she declared she doesn’t think that much with whom she’ll play. Whoever they are, she will keep her self-professional.
There’s still a homework she has to do to make her perfect before the camera, which is the language. Considering not all Taiwanese artists speak English as fluent as Peter. But Agnes has made up her mind to learn it more. Jia you, Agnes! *
By: Funnywati sucipto