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SINGAPORE: The first season of "Unexpected Access" had quite a number of disturbing scenes, ranging from the bloody slaughter of animals at an abattoir to the graphic sequence of an embalmer carrying out his macabre task at a funeral home.
If you have watched "Unexpected Access", you would probably be prepared for what is coming up in the second season. Right?
Wrong.
Andrea De Cruz, who takes over from Wong Li Lin as host of the hit show, feels that nothing can quite prepare you for the stuff you will see in the upcoming instalment.
"I went in prepared or at least I thought I was until I got there," she said.
When the show returns to Channel 5 on February 4, viewers will get to follow the exploits of a group of volunteers from the Por Teck Tung Foundation in Bangkok, Thailand, who tend to the injured, collect the bodies (and sometimes what's left of them) of road accident or crime victims and provide funeral services for them, as a service to the city.
"When we got to an accident site, it was a fresh body, warm, still laying there from a motorcycle accident and you were just like two feet away from it," said De Cruz, adding that she was amazed at the type of events they covered in Thailand like a domestic dispute that went horribly wrong.
"We saw a man bleeding out because his wife actually wanted to cut off his [genitals]," she said, "but she didn't manage to you see, so in the end he got stabbed in the groin, the wife just sat down like nothing happened."
And that was just while shooting the first episode.
The shoot was especially challenging for De Cruz because of her own issues with death that stem from her near death experience back in 2002. At that time, the 34-year-old actress-host suffered from liver failure after taking the controversial Slim 10 slimming pills.
She only survived after getting a liver transplant from her actor husband Pierre Png, with whom she was engaged at the time. Even till today, she has to take anti-rejection medicine daily to live.
"I don't even go to funeral wakes if I can help it because I have a problem with dealing with death," she said.
Personal issues aside, there were also practical problems to consider, like how to avoid vomiting.
Other episodes in the series had her watching a surgeon cut open his patient to do reconstructive surgery and touching rotting food at the IUT Singapore food waste recycling plant.
All rather unpleasant things to do for a pretty lady who is more often associated with hosting elegant events like beauty pageants than wading around in swill.
"You could almost taste the smell of the plant. You had to take multiple showers and like three, four hair washes to get rid of the smell," De Cruz said. "When we [the crew] congregate the next day, it was like 'Wah, how many times you have to wash your hair'," she said, adding that the whole crew felt sick after the first day of shooting for that episode.
"Always bring kana (sour plum), in case you barf and always bring like Axe oil or something, some nice-smelling things," she advised in mock seriousness before breaking into laughter.
Very often, sequels come along that do no justice to the original work but "Unexpected Access" season two is shaping up to be an exception. Containing even more gore and more controversial subject matter than the hit first season, the completely unscripted show looks set to shock audiences once more and probe the limits of television censorship.
"In all honesty, there is a lot of gore, it's a matter of what can be televised on local television," De Cruz said. "Eat your dinner waaay before the show."
"Unexpected Access" season two debuts February 4 at 10pm on Channel 5. Uncensored, uncut episodes will be available online later in the season.
- CNA/ha
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