BIRTHDAY WISH FOR PAL: Hong Kong actor Shawn Yue had a birthday wish for actor Eddie Peng, who turned 39 yesterday.

Yue, also 39, wrote in Chinese on Weibo yesterday: "Happy birthday, my favourite Sun Wukong. May you leave singlehood soon."

He was referring to the Monkey King role played by Peng in the Chinese fantasy movie Wu Kong (2017), which also starred Yue as the deity Erlang Shen. The actor also posted two photos, with the first likely taken on the set of Wu Kong, while the second was of them working out together in a gym.

Yue is married to Taiwanese actress Sarah Wang, 32, and they have two children - a son who turns three in May and a daughter who was born in December.

Peng is single and has never admitted to dating anyone. In January, he had to refute rumours he was coming out of the closet with actor Danson Tang, 36.

Yue and Peng rose to fame in the television series Tomorrow (2002), which also starred Rainie Yang and Christine Fan. The popular Taiwanese idol drama is based on a Japanese manga series by Fumi Saimon, which was first adapted into a Japanese serial in 1993 starring Takuya Kimura.

After Tomorrow, Yue went on to star in movies such as Infernal Affairs (2002), Love In A Puff (2010) and Mad World (2016), with the last earning him a Best Actor nomination at the Hong Kong Film Awards.

Peng recently starred in the action film The Rescue (2020) and will be appearing in Hong Kong director Ann Hui's film Love After Love, which is based on a novel by China-born American writer Eileen Chang.