[2009.06.15] HUANG XIAOMING TORTURES ZHOU XUN, LI BINGBING

Photo courtesy of takungpao.com

As several espionage themed television series are airing in the Mainland, a "spy war heatwave" is rising there. The Huayi Brother and Shanghai Film Group join production, the first spy epic THE MESSAGE, held a press conference. To decode the story and the difficulty of the creative journey, the team not only displayed THE MESSAGE: THIRD SECRET CODE film highlight but also over 100 film screens. The film's director duo Chen Kuofu and Gao Qunshu led Zhou Xun, Li Bingbing, Huang Xiaoming, Wang Zhiwen, Alec Su Yau Peng, Zhang Hanyu and others to discuss the film in person.

Director Chen Kuofu said, "As China's first spy epic, THE MESSAGE not only describes a 'killing game'. During the War Against Japanese Aggression, several tens of millions died in China. This isn't something that a war or a game can represent. Five famous artists like Zhou Xun and Li Bingbing in the entire film tolerated both physical and emotional abuse and schemes, hopefully the audience during the October 1 global premiere will be able to see this not so exciting spy film of ours."

At the press conference, the artists through THE MESSAGE Third Secret Code relived a variety of production highlight and described to the media the characters' complex conflicts. Because many artists during the shoot suffered "abuse", even though the film's "abuser" Wu Tianchang, Huang Xiaoming, did not appeared in Shanghai the event finally still turned into a "complaint party".

The film's "puppet army resistance eradication headquarters administrative transceiver specialist Gu Xiaomeng" Zhou Xun complained, "In this production I hated Wu Tianchang, Huang Xiaoming, the most. He and 'puppet army special agent department chief Wang Tianxiang' Wang Zhiwen tried their best to abuse us, I was already used to whipping and electric chair long ago." Zhou Xun frankly stated that the biggest difficulty during the production was to study the condition of being torture. Even the directors required some psychological therapy to be able to continue to shoot some of the ferocious "torture process". She even revealed that Li Bingbing in order to achieve the character's on the edge mental state was never without a drink in her hand on the set and almost forced herself to madness.

Many artists at the press conference "despised" "Wu Tianchang" Huang Xiaoming. The film's "puppet army headquarters telegraph translation chief Li Yuning" Li Bingbing directly said that when she appeared she was shedding tears. In the entire film her own spirit, body and even emotions were thoroughly abused. "I was the only one who Wang Tianxiang didn't torture. Huang Xiaoming who tortured me didn't come." Li Bingbing told reporters that in order to her role well, she learned to smoke and drink in the film despite doing neither in real life. She explained, "Only after taking this role did I realize that it had smoking and drinking scenes. I once even asked Zhang Hanyu how to smoke. This process was very intricate and also very meaningful. This time I truly experienced two different conditions of being drunk and performing drunk. I think these two experiences would enrich my life."

Since THE MESSAGE started production, directors Chen Kuofu and Gao Qunshu rarely made any appearance, but they did so here and gave each artist a review. The directors honestly said that Zhou Xun's character in the film ultimately remained a little tipsy and even danced after getting drunk in the film, a completely different person than her off screen image. Li Bingbing in the film was thoroughly abused. Aside from the female artists, "Wang Tianxiang" Wang Zhiwen tortured the film's leads. The vicious side of the character was bone chilling; Zhang Hanyu and Su Yau Peng in the film had decent performances. Su Yau Peng not only appeared first in the film with a Kun Opera performance but also with "I have to live" thoroughly displayed the grim situation. Gao Qunshu said, that era's countless unsung heroes' unwavering faith touched the production team. This faith was also the spiritual pillar for each creative staff who made every effort to complete the film.