[2009.06.17] THE CITY OPENS FOR BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS

courtesy of takungpao.com

The New Year film BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS (SUP YUET WAI SING) yesterday held a city opening ceremony in Shanghai. The 12th Annual Shanghai International Film Festival jury chair Danny Boyle led the international jury members Andie MacDowell, Oh Jungwan, Huang Jianxinand Andrew Lau Wai Keung to celebrate the event. Producers Peter Chan Ho Sun and Huang Jianxin presented the key of the city gate to the Shanghai International Film Festival vice chair Xue Peijian as the trio opened the gate to the "1905 Hong Kong".

Director Chan Tak Sum and the actors waited inside the city. Donnie Yen Chi Tan arrived in a yellow rickshaw. Hu Jun, Fan Bingbing, Eric Tsang Chi Wai came in three horse carriages. Chris Li Yuchun appeared on a sedan. The on screen father and son Wang Xueqi and Wang Po Chieh appeared around the corner on Queen's Road. Bateer and Shi Xingyu appeared with "left and right bodyguards". Finally, the nine stars gathered on Stone Street with quite a "city ambush" flair.

Before the city opening ceremony, a horse wandered around outside and refused to enter the set no matter how hard the crew tried. Yet Fan Bingbing only patted the horse on the head a few times and it very quickly obeyed. Actually Bingbing while making BATTLE OF WITS (MUK GUNG) received horse riding training and learned to communicate with horses. When she rode this horse into the scene, everyone applauded. This grand old city that was the size of 10 soccer fields, cost 43 million and nearly a year to build was first exposed to the media, but Chan Ho Sun expressed that he has already played tour guide to it no less than a hundred times. From the set construction to now, he has already entertained countless friends. Aside from investor representatives they also included friends like Lau Wai Keung, Gordon Chan Ka Seung, Manfred Wong (Man Jun) and Fruit Chan Gor. The most cheerful few days on the set had set visits from Sandra Ng Kwan Yu and her daughter, Cecilia Cheung PakChi and her son, and Bateer's entire family. For the film to make the release date, the film has already divided into two units for simultaneous production. During busier times, the team would divide into three units with a dozen or more actors all at the same time. Chan Ho Sun said, "In order to shoot the entire set, we used 900 actors, 40 horses to make Queen's Road look more crowded."

Director Chan Tak Sum expressed that the film was a thrilling story that took place within 24 hours. A simpler description would be "kill and save". He even introduced each of the key sets, among them the theater would be father and daughter Simon Yam Tat Wa and Li Yuchun's key location. The photography studio would be where Wang Xueqi took Nicholas Tse Ting Fung to propose to Zhou Yun. Shen Chongyang's home would be where Fan Bingbing and Donnie Yen Chi Tan's romance entangled. She loved his loyalty but hated his gambling addiction. Finally she married rich. Queen's Road and Stone Street occupied the most space and would be where the film's climax would take place.