Backseat

Movies have taken a backseat.

After her last film, the action-comedy Lady Cop & Papa Crook (2008), Sammi has no plans to conquer the big screen again."Definitely not at the moment, I want to take things one step at a time," she said.

"At this stage in my career, I want to strike a balance. There's a time to work, a time to play and also a time to rest."

Back in 2005, an overworked and emotionally drained Sammi was reportedly hit by a bout of severe depression.

According to Apple Daily Taiwan, she buckled under immense pressure while on the set of the film Everlasting Regret, occasionally "tearing up scripts" and "knocking her head on walls".

At one point, it was said that she even "locked herself in her room for 96 consecutive hours".

When shooting finally wrapped up, Sammi decided to take a self-imposed sabbatical from work.

Upon her comeback in late 2008, she opened up about her condition on a Hong Kong radio programme, admitting that she has "finally walked out of depression after battling it for three years".

"Actually, I'm glad I went through it. In life, you need to go through lows in order to achieve more," she said. "Things have been going too smoothly for me before that."

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This article was first published in The New Paper.