John Dang Yat-Gwan 鄧一君

In the mid-1990s, John Dang Yat-Gwan was one of the most promising actors — he appeared in a string of hit films and even earned an HKFA Best New Performer nomination for Yesteryou, Yesterme, Yesterday. Even so, his career never quite gathered the momentum John had hoped for, so a decade later, in the mid-2000s, he left the movie business and switched to the insurance industry. These days he invests in various small businesses, and his latest venture is a café in Hong Kong.

It should be said that John has long been friends with Louis Koo Tin-Lok, with whom he starred in the hit series Burning Flame (John played Louis's younger brother), and they stayed in touch even after Dang left the film industry. John himself says he planned to get the café on its feet first and only then invite Koo, who is known for his love of local dishes, but Louis found time to drop by shortly after the opening. He had a portion of fish balls and a portion of siu mai, said the former were amazing while the latter could still use some work, snapped a photo with his friend and dashed off — after all, he still has a hundred films to shoot before the end of the year.