Deaf Drama: Pianissimo @ NTV7 Feel Good

For all the Deaf viewers, this is the next tv drama you're waiting for!

"WHILE many live by the saying, “When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade”, it’s a different story altogether when life throws a curve ball.

Such is life for Ke Min (played by Jojo Goh of 29 Februari fame) in the new ntv7 drama series Pianissimo. When her mother dies, the deaf and mute Ke Min is abused by her stepfather. She relies on her own strength to overcome life’s hurdles..."
When Goh was offered the role of Ke Min, she immediately accepted the offer to expand her acting skills. To prepare for her role, Goh, the second runner-up in the Miss Astro Chinese International Pageant 2006, took a two-month course in sign language.

“During those two months, I immersed myself in the world of the deaf and mute. But because sign language is based on the American sign language, we had to translate some of the script, which was in Mandarin, to English or Bahasa Malaysia, and later to Mandarin again,” she said during a Press conference in Kuala Lumpur.

Although the script and sign language were given a local flavour, Goh admits that it was not easy. “A lot of times, the signs used did not capture the meaning in Mandarin. We had to be careful with every word so that the meaning was exactly how it was written in the script,” she says.

For her co-stars who had to wait for her cue before continuing their dialogues, the experience was, at times, confusing. “There were times when I accidentally made a gesture that was not part of what we had rehearsed and this made it difficult for the other actors,” she says.

In the story, Ke Min is involved in a love triangle. She has feelings for An Dong Zhe (Seah Song Fan) and is in love with Zheng Nan (played by Huang Qi Ming), who is also the subject of affection of Fang Ru Yan (Wayne Chua).

An orphan, Zheng Nan was raised by a gang and trained to be an assassin. While trying to escape from the gang members, he is injured and seeks shelter in a nearby village where he meets Ke Min and her mother.

Ke Min’s stepfather finds out about Zheng Nan’s past and a quarrel ensues between him and Ke Min’s mother, which results in the latter’s death.

Zheng Nan runs away, but returns moments later to rescue Ke Min from her stepfather. Unfortunately, the gangsters catch up with Zheng Nan and he has no choice but to leave Ke Min behind. Ke Min then runs into An Dong Zhe who decides to bring her home. He teaches her sign language and vows to take care of her.

The story moves forward 12 years later, when Ke Min is now a special education teacher and has grown closer to An.

To prepare himself for his role as Zheng Nan, Huang, who has been missing from Malaysian television for some time, took up boxing and martial arts training. Based in Singapore, he admits to feeling awkward when he had to initially communicate with Goh using sign language. “We were not allowed to speak to one another and it felt really awkward. But it was an unforgettable experience, nonetheless,” he says.

Huang, who shares kissing scenes with Goh in the show, praises the latter for her professionalism. “She told me it was okay to kiss her for real as this would capture the essence of the story,” he says.

Also starring in the 25-episode series are Jordon Voon, Seck Fu Ru and Candy Lin.

Pianissimo airs every Monday to Thursday at 9.30pm. You can also catch it on www.tonton.com.my

Credits and thank you to Anne Loula, Ho Koon Wei and Daphne Ng for teaching Malaysia Sign Language and Deaf culture to the artists involved, Sign Language coach and monitoring, by Jonah throughout the whole series.


Check out on their official website at http://www.ntv7.com.my/shows/drama/Pianissimo.html.
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