Death is never an easy topic to speak about and it may even be harder if you have to act out your own death in a drama scene.
For veteran actress Jin Yinji, who is respectfully known as Jin Jie (Sister Jin), filming a scene which involves her character’s death in the recent Mediacorp drama Cash on Delivery made her think about her own life.
To those who have yet to watch the series, spoilers ahead.
In episode nine, Zhu Ma (Yinji) contracts Covid-19 and is on her deathbed in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). A nurse calls her grandson Lin Juncong, played by Richie Koh, to inform him that her condition has worsened.
However, as Juncong is quarantined in a hotel because of close contact with his grandmother, he cannot go to her. The two end up having a teary exchange over a video call as Zhu Ma takes her last breath.
In an interview with Lianhe Zaobao on June 6, the 75-year-old actress said that she was initially unaware that her character has a death scene.
She told the Chinese daily: “Once I got to know about the scene, I told the production team that we should film it after Chinese New Year, since I am at an advanced age and don’t really want to film a death scene.”
She added that the filming process wasn’t as easy as it may seem, even though she was lying on a hospital bed. That was partly because she had to wear an oxygen mask and act like she was panting for air while delivering her dialogue with Richie.
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Jin Jie said that performing the scene made her particularly emotional, thinking that she too would face death one day.
‘I doted on all the actors who played my grandchildren’
When it came to acting alongside Richie for the first time, Jin Jie said that she felt happy working with him.
She added: “Richie is endearing. I doted on all the actors who played my grandchildren.”
She also recalled that she delivered the wrong dialogue in a scene where Richie had to cry, and because of that, he had to cry “over 10 times”.
“I felt heartbroken and thought that he must be tired from all the crying,” she added.
When Jin Jie heard that Richie, 29, likes to eat spring onion, she even gave him homemade spring onion kimchi.
Richie also spoke with the Chinese daily, and said that acting with Jin Jie made him think about his own late grandmother and reminisce about the times they shared.
He added that filming with her was also a comforting experience for him as they had natural chemistry.
“Jin Jie is every actor’s grandmother. It was very easy to get into character when acting with her,” he said.
Cash on Delivery centres around food delivery riders and the ups and downs they faced while braving their lives to deliver food to customers during the Covid-19 pandemic circuit breaker period.
The series airs on weeknights at 9pm on Channel 8 and is also available for free on meWATCH.
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