SINGAPORE: In a recent Facebook post, Singaporean actor Mathi Alagan expressed his pride in fellow actor Sunny Pang. Mathi had watched Pang’s performance in Havoc on Netflix and admired his friend. He said his heart swelled with pride.
“My friend, stunt coach, and fellow actor, Sunny Pang delivered a gripping, fearless performance alongside legends like Tom Hardy and Forest Whitaker,” wrote Mathi on Facebook.
“The blood, sweat, bruises—and yes, even the broken bones—you endured for your craft have not gone unnoticed. Your journey, your grit, and your heart shine through every frame.”
According to Malay Mail, two Southeast Asian stars shared the screen with the one and only Tom Hardy in Netflix’s brand-new action movie, Havoc. Singaporean actor Sunny Pang and Malaysian actress Yeo Yann Yann star in the film, which is ranking high among the most-viewed films on Netflix globally.
International undertaking
Both actors are well-known in the region, but their significant roles, with Oscar winner Forest Whitaker and Hardy (star of Venom), make Havoc their largest international undertaking yet.
In the movie Havoc, there’s this dodgy businessman named Lawrence, played by Whitaker. After a cocaine deal goes completely wrong, he hires this tough, seen-it-all investigator, Patrick Walker (that’s Tom Hardy!), to rescue his son Charlie (played by Justin Cornwell).
However, things get even crazier because there’s this ruthless killer called Mother (Yeo), who’s in charge of a terrifying triad gang. She thinks Charlie and his girlfriend killed her son and are out for serious revenge, which is when all the chaos kicks off.
Pang portrays Ching, a devoted devotee of Mother and another member of the triad.
Acting debut in the 90s
Yeo was raised in Kukup, a tiny fishing village in Johor Baru. She started acting in the 1990s with a theatre show called Comedy of Errors, but more people started to notice her after she was in the movie Singapore Dreaming in 2006. Then, she became even more well-known for her roles in a bunch of Malaysian TV shows, like The Iron Lady in 2009.
Yeo has also received two Golden Horse Awards, which are among the most coveted honours in Chinese-language film. In 2019, she won Best Leading Actress for her role in Wet Season. In 2013, she also picked up the award for Best Supporting Actress for the movie Ilo Ilo.
Yeo debuted in Hollywood in 2023 in the Disney+ fantasy-comedy series American Born Chinese, co-starring with fellow Malaysian and Oscar winner Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh.
And get this – she was even in the running for an International Emmy Award for Best Actress in 2020 for her performance in the HBO Asia series Invisible Stories!
Word has it that Gareth Evans, the writer and director of Havoc, was so impressed by Yeo’s acting in that same show, where she acted alongside Pang, that he knew right away she was the one to play the part of Mother in his new movie.
Do you know those awesome action movies like Merantau from 2009 and The Raid movies from 2011 and 2014? The guy who made them, Gareth Evans, who’s actually from Wales, made a splash in this part of the world over ten years ago. What was really cool about his movies was how he showed off that Indonesian martial art, pencak silat.
Gritty crime thrillers
So while Gareth Evans was living in Indonesia, he became good friends with Pang, who’s from Singapore. Apparently, when Evans was writing the character of Ching for his movie Havoc, he specifically had Pang in mind for the role! For the 42-year-old Pang, gritty crime thrillers are a familiar genre.
Pang, a well-known martial artist and stunt director, has established himself in the action genre with films such as Headshot (2016), The Night Comes for Us (2018), and Geylang (2022).
After four years of development, Havoc made its Netflix debut on Apr 25.