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BIOGRAPHY
Wong Ka Kui (1962-1993)
Nickname: "4-eye kid",
"black kid"
Birthdate: June 10th, 1962
Family Background: Parents,
one older brother, two older sisters, and one younger brother
Primary School: "Sun Wui"
Chamber of Commerce School Secondary School: Bok Wun Middle School
He came from a small, middle class family. His childhood wasn't filled with
materialistic satisfactions, but he played the common games that kids played
during that time, like flying kite, jumping "boxes" and capturing
grasshoppers etc...
From primary to secondary school, he admits that he had bad grades,
especially in math, a class which he was absent quite often. Upon finishing
his secondary school, he immediately joined the working force, holding
miscellaneous jobs, one after an other, but none of the jobs lated long.
Sparkles flew upon a normal life when he fell in love with music, with his
persistent nature.
Influenced by friends, Ka Kui began to take notice of the pop music scene
when he was 12 or 13 years old.
Then it was the emergence of David Bowie. Bowie's unique and strange
appearances, along with his magnetic voice, captured Ka Kui's heart,
initiated Ka Kui's undying link with music.
Close friends of Ka Kui knew him as a very stubborn person, unwilling to
admit defeat.
He began playing guitar when he was 17 year old. At first it was only a
hobby, but then he joined an amateur band, playing rhythm guitar. Once, the
lead guitarist had harsh critisim on Ka Kui, claiming that his guitar
playing skill was too horrible, and that he would never amount to anything
in life. This attack fired up Ka Kui's persistence nature. He sworn to
practice hard, and made his immediate goal to be able to play better than
the lead guitarist.
Ka Kui's dream finally came true. While working, he also jammed with friends
in a band. In 1983, Ka Kui and Sai Wing, along with other friends, formed a
band and entered the guiatr competition sponsored by the Guitar Magazine.
They eventually won the "Best Band" award, and thus began the name of Beyond
in the music scene. For 10 years, with voices of approvals and disapprovals,
Beyond remained as they were, proving their persistence and strength in
surviving.
After Beyond was formed, they've made a few movies aside from working on
music. Movies which all 4 of them were involved with include: Gut Sing Gung
Chiu, Happy Ghost Saves Happy Ghost, Black Maze and Beyond's Diary. Ka Kui
alone was involved with "Lung Munh".
Cheung Chi Leung (the director of "Lung Munh") explained, "I am very
stubborn when it comes to castings. I only find the person who I think will
be right for the role. Some had suggested that I invite all 4 members of
Beyond as cast members. In fact, if I wanted to, it wouldn't be difficult to
do so, but I didn't want to."
"I didn't want to focus on just one person from the band, and use the rest
of the members as "backgrounds". Of course, I had thousands of reasons to
want to do so, but I couldn't convince myself. If I'd done it, I'd have used
the fame of Beyond."
"At that time, I was looking for a young rebel, who had changed his ways
already, but remains to have his own ideals of the world, which differs from
the ideals of the older generation. Among the market at that time, trying to
find such a personality who weren't hateful, Ka Kui fitted the character
very well," Cheung explained his reason for casting Ka Kui.
Cheung remembers Ka Kui as a very energetic young person, who works hard and
thrives for improvements. "Usually, after listening to my explainatin of the
scene, he'd sit aside and start meditating. He really wanted to distinguish
himself from all the other experienced actors, but didn't want to take over
their place in the process. I remember there was this one time when I was
shooting a scene with over 1000 feet of film. Ka Kui was the second to the
last person to speak. We did around 10 takes and was done without much
difficulty. But Ka Kui said to me afterward that he was actually very
nervous, felt like his heart was popping out, because he was afraid that if
he made any mistakes, the 800 to 900 feet of films prior to him would've
been wasted. Although the pressure was great, he still managed to give a
solid performance, and seemed to be a very mature person."
With Ka Kui passing away, "Lung Munh" became his very last file. Cheung
said, "Ka Kui made this movie because he wanted to try something new aside
from his music. His greatest achivement remains to be his contribution to
music."
Indeed, in Ka Kui's life, music was the most important thing.
Once a reporter asked Beyond an interesting question: If you win the
lottery, what would you do? Ka Kui gave a very serious answer, "I will
undoubtedly spend it all onto music by starting a studio for non-mainstream
music, and support new musicians. Note that I said musicians, not singers. I
will respect the local musicians."
Beyond doesn't believe in closing the door and whine about nothing. Ka Kui
once said, "The origin of creating music comes from the daily lives. We like
to pay more attention to the world trends, and bring upon new forces in
creating music." What resulted was the song The Glorious Days, which was
dedicated to Mandela, the human rights leader of South Africa. They also
went on a trip to Kenya in 1991, starting their African journey.
"People often think of Africa as being poor and pre-modern. What we take for
granted here can be very precious materials there. The world is progressing.
It is sad to see that these people's lives are coming to a hault and not
progressing with us. If only we can all give a little, they might be able to
join us to a better tomorrow," said a pre-30 years old Ka Kui.
Unfortunately, he didn't join us into a better tomorrow.
It's undeniable that the departure of Ka Kui has a significant effect on
Beyond. What will happen to the future of Beyond?
Beyond's past agent, Chan Kin Tim, and Lau Cheuk Fai, a lyricists who'd long
been working with Beyond, both believed, "Beyond is a very "durable" band.
They're creative, have their own style, and are comparable to other "big
bands". They can very well be as long lasting as the Beatles."
"With Ka Kui's departure, someone important from the band missing, there's
certainly some effects. But actually, the rest of the 3 members have always
been involved in the music production, only that their style might be
slightly different. If they are willing to continue, they should be able to
survive."
This should be Ka Kui's wish also.
Ka Kui's life has come to an end, but his spirit remains. Beyond will need
to face a new turning point, a new beginning.
Here's to wish that Ka Kui's undefeatable spirit will always remain in the
musical community.
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