A man who baffled netizens by seemingly offering to be slapped for the grand fee of HKD10 claims he’s actually a hired extra being filmed for an upcoming movie.
Photos of a young man with a sign which read, “$10 SLAP ME [sic] FACE” began circulating on Hong Kong Facebook groups after passersby said they saw him getting slapped three times in a row by “some white guy” for HKD30 on Friday evening.
The incident took place at around 8:50pm at the Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry pier, a popular spot for buskers and street performers.
A witness told Apple Daily that he suspected the man offering to be a human punching (or slapping) bag was a street sleeper. Some netizens speculated that the man could have been staging a social experiment of some kind, while others commented that he had simply “put a price on his dignity”.
A few hours after the clip surfaced, the young man who was filmed getting slapped came forward and said he was actually an extra in a movie, and was being covertly filmed by a nearby crew member on their phone.
Speaking to Apple Daily, the man identified himself as an electrician surnamed Kwan, and said he was paid HKD500 for his (literal) pains. According to Kwan, the Western man who slapped him was also a paid actor.
When asked by reporters if he thought the clandestine filming methods would cause members of the public to misunderstand, Kwan said he didn’t expect the shoot to get so much attention.
“[Acting in films] has been my side job for six years… I really enjoy it. To me, this was just another gig,” Kwan said, before explaining that his stunt “didn’t hurt” as he had put Vaseline on his face to take the sting away.
Kwan told Apple Daily that he wasn’t at liberty to disclose the film’s name, but we’ve already got a hunch that there’ll be an element of slapstick.
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