Bonding over Singlish: Carrie Wong taught co-star Lee Joon-gi different ways to use ‘lah’

SINGAPORE – Local actress Carrie Wong was unfazed about being Singapore’s sole representative in Kidnap Game, her first big-scale international production, saying it gave her the drive to excel instead.

The pan-Asian drama brings together stars from seven Asian markets for a high-stakes suspense thriller.

The cast includes Japan’s Kentaro Sakaguchi, South Korea’s Lee Joon-gi, Taiwan’s Alice Ko, Hong Kong’s Stanley Yau, the Philippines’ Joel Torre and Thailand’s Praew Narupornkamol Chaisang, who attended the world premiere of Kidnap Game in Tokyo on Oct 2.

Filmed across Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul, Tokyo, Singapore, Bangkok, Manila and Okinawa, the 11-episode series is showing on Viu, with new episodes available on Tuesdays at 9pm.

Wong, 32, told The Straits Times in an online interview: “When you feel pressure, (it means) what you are doing genuinely matters to you, and that makes me just want to work harder and give more of myself.

“I don’t let this pressure overwhelm me. I just focus on doing my best and making the most out of this entire opportunity.”

Wong plays Janice, a flight attendant whose boyfriend is abducted in Singapore, in one of seven kidnappings that happen simultaneously in different cities. She then receives a message telling her that she has to play a “kidnap game” and complete a mission before the others to save her loved one.

Wong said of her character in the series: “Janice is a very happy-go-lucky girl, the sort who is naturally funny and does not care about many things in the world. The only thing she wants is to marry her (boyfriend).”

Wong said Kidnap Game’s main director was keen to cast her after seeing her performance in local action drama Shero (2023).

All her scenes were filmed in Singapore, in places such as Joo Chiat and Merlion Park, around November 2025.

Lee, who plays a retired surgeon whose daughter is kidnapped in Seoul, was the only other main cast member Wong worked alongside.

The actress joked: “In a survival game, some characters tend to find teammates.”

Off-screen, Wong found the 44-year-old star of historical film The King And The Clown (2005) and romantic comedy series My Girl (2005 to 2006) to be humble and funny.

She said: “He is so open to listening to others, and I did not feel any pressure on set with him. For someone who has been in the industry for so long, it is amazing to have such a quality.

“And he looks very, very young, like he has not aged in 20 years.”

The K-actor was curious about Singlish and asked Wong to explain to him how the word “lah” has different meanings in different contexts, such as “eat lah” and “cannot lah”, she recalled. “He is just a funny, extroverted person.”

Kidnap Game also gave Wong the opportunity to play a flight attendant, an occupation she had considered before going into acting in 2014.

When she was 17 and studying hospitality and tourism management at Nanyang Polytechnic, the possibility of interning at an airline came up. She eventually chose to intern at another company instead.

She said: “After I got older, my friends and I agreed being a flight attendant would not have suited me. I am too hard-headed.”

Unfortunately, none of her scenes take place on an aircraft. “After the kidnapping starts, there are more important matters.”

That said, she loved the uniform she got to wear for the show, calling it “super pretty”.