27-year-old Eurasian actor Jon Foo was pleasantly surprised with the warm welcome accorded to him by the Filipinos right from the very moment he arrived at the airport last July 24.
Jon made a brief stop in Manila to promote his first lead role film, Tekken.
While credit should also go to the staff of Pioneer Films for orchestrating a well-planned promotional effort, Jon's successful visit could also be attributed to the popularity of the Tekken video game even here in the Philippines.
Jon's busy itinerary started with a special film preview at Megamall in Mandaluyong City immediately upon his arrival. A press conference-screening was held the following day (July 25) plus a few cinema visits around the metro—all crammed in a single day despite the sudden heavy downpour and weekend traffic.
"It was crazy!" Jon could only mutter as he traveled from one city to another.
PRODUCT OF HARD WORK. Bagging the lead role of Jin Kazama in Tekken was just the icing on the cake for all the hard work invested by Jon ever since he decided to take on an acting career.
Jon—whose father is Singaporean-Chinese and his mother full-blooded Irish—started training in kung-fu at the tender age of eight.
"But I started training hard when I was 15," recalled Jon during a press conference held at My Cinema in Greenbelt 3, Makati City.
"Training hard" for Jon means studying martial arts including Wushu.
Jon's knowledge of Asian combat sports allowed him to bag roles in the movies. The neophyte actor had to start by taking on bit roles like starring as an extra and stunt double in action films.
The movies Jon appeared in include Shi cha qi xiao shi (2004), Left for Dead (2004), The Myth (2005), House of Fury (2005), Tom-Yum-Goong (2005), Batman Begins (2005), Jogoan Bouginville (2009) and Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2010).
Some of the movies mentioned did not even include Jon's name in the final credits.
TEKKEN AND STAYING FIT. For the movie Tekken, Jon had to go through a screen test in Thailand and America.
"Luckily, they liked me and they decided to put me for the lead role," smiled Jon, who described the entire audition process as "scary."
Tekken—which will make its Philippine cinema debut on Wednesday, August 4—tells the story of Jin Kazama, a young and determined fighter who is out to avenge the death of his mother at the hands of a big corporation by joining the popular yet vicious Tekken competition.
Aside from the fight scenes, the film also boasts pretty women characters: Kara (Mircea Monroe), Nina Williams (Candice Hillerbrand), Anna Williams (Marian Zapico), and Christie Monteiro (Kelly Overton).
"I will go for Christie Monteiro any time," replied Jon, when asked to mention his preferred leading lady among the characters in the movie.
Will there be any love scenes in the movie?
"Yeah, something like that" Jon said with a grin. "But we got interrupted."
Being identified more by the fans as an action star requires Jon to consistently work out to maintain his good physique. But years of extensive training also provided the actor the luxury to take it easy during some off-days.
"I used to train a lot when I was starting out. But now, I am also looking out to relax after all the hard work," he mentioned.
Fans and viewers will see more of Jon in the coming months as two of his other films—Street Fighter: Legacy and Fireball Begins—are earmarked to be exhibited very soon.
Jon, who will play the character of Ryu in Street Fighter: Legacy, confided his desire to portray various roles in the future. He remarked that being typecast as an action movie actor "sometimes limits the stories because it usually revolves around revenge."
He continued, "But I'm happy with where I am now and the genre [action film] has opened a lot of doors for me."