Reunion Dinner director Ong Kuo Sin assures public that cast and crew filming outdoors are tested for Covid-19 regularly

Homegrown movie Reunion Dinner, due to be screened in cinemas during Chinese New Year (CNY) in 2022, is in the thick of filming now amid the Covid-19 pandemic, and its director Ong Kuo Sin is hoping members of the public wouldn't get alarmed if they spotted his crew at work.

In an interview with Lianhe Zaobao last week, Kuo Sin said the public occasionally casts anxious and strange looks at the crew in such situations.

He said: "Perhaps they aren't familiar with our work, and they get scared and uneasy seeing a big group gathered together. We want to tell the public that the cast and crew test ourselves [for Covid-19] and we are very safe."

He added that they test themselves using the Antigen Rapid Test (ART) kit once every two weeks.

"We also follow guidelines set by the Infocomm Media Development Authority regarding the number of crew members present on set," Kuo Sin maintained.

In Reunion Dinner, local actor Lawrence Wong and Chinese actress Cya Liu play a soon-to-be-married couple Chaoyang and Zihong who arrange for their parents to meet for the first time over CNY reunion dinner. But as he's embarrassed about his mother (Xiang Yun), he gets her boyfriend (Mark Lee) and two bit actors (Choo Mimi and Dasa Dharamahsena) to act as his family instead.

Guo Liang plays Cya's father, a retired military man, while Zhu Houren's role as Xiang Yun's old flame will be the "cute" baddie of the show.

Kuo Sin also mentioned the public had complained about a separate shoot of his to the authorities before.

"We were once at a particular [outdoor] location for filming, and the police arrived on two consecutive days to check on us, because someone complained," he explained.

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the set of Reunion Dinner was visited by police. The director was not referring to this movie. The incorrect information has been removed.

ALSO READ: Mark Lee plays Xiang Yun's boyfriend in CNY movie Reunion Dinner: 'I'll ask Edmund Chen if we can have intimate scenes'

kwokkarpeng@asiaone.com