Movie Box Review

Jimmy Wang put cake frosting on Tang Wei's face and Tang Wei strikes back

Sandra Ng dresses up and asks buddy Chingmy Yau to support Peter Chan

courtesy of takungpao.com

Takeshi Kaneshiro (Gum Sing Mo) and Peter Chan Ho Sun yesterday attended a forum at the Beijing People's University. During the event a duel between Gum Sing Mo and Jiang Wu from WU XIA was shown. Actually this scene was removed from the Mainland release, thus yesterday it was a special screening. The event also arranged for three students to perform mountain folk songs to coordinate with the story in the film.

This duel was almost too much for Gum Sing Mo. he had to stand in water for hand to hand combat with Jiang Wu but also had to wield his umbrella as a weapon like acrobats. Luckily action director Yen Chi Tan was on hand to direct. With his natural talent he was able to complete this scene sooner than he expected.

However during the shoot, Gum Sing Mo slipped and fell into the water several times. He almost "poked" Wu Jing in the eye during close combat. Luckily Jiang Wu was fast enough to dodge it. Even Chan Ho Sun was sweating bullets. Gum Sing Mo said, "This fight scene is truly satisfying for me. I consider it as some wu xia fun! Of course I have to thank Yen Chi Tan. I appreciate him very much. He not only has to perform but also handle the action part. I deeply experience his spirit for perfection. No matter how tough it got he would always do his part to its best. No wonder everyone say he is the strongest in the universe."

In another needle to the neck scene, Gum Sing Mo revealed that he has always been somewhat resistant to needles. However he realized that this scene was very key so he toughed it out. The team hired an acupuncture specialist to be on hand to direct. Gum Sing Mo recalled, "That practitioner gave me very detailed explanation and demonstration, so I very quickly understood how and where to apply the needle. I could accept and too afraid about applying it not too deep on the neck. I only wanted to finish sooner so I don't have to keep looking at those needles that make me uncomfortable."

Recently Takeshi Kaneshiro (Gum Sing Mo)'s romance was uncovered. He was still busy promoting WU XIA in the Mainland. Yesterday Gum Sing Mo along with director Peter Chan Ho Sun and Wai Ying Hung attended a Chengdu, Sichuan press conference and finally responded for the first time.

Recently the media caught Gum Sing Mo and a mystery woman going out and appearing to be close. His manager has already denied their romance. Yesterday a reporter asked whether Gum Sing Mo was in love or was the news speculation due to WU XIA's release? Gum Sing Mo said, "Earlier my manager already said it, indeed it was not what it looked like. Everyone know I wouldn't be deliberately low key and not promote. Wu XIA's schedule was moved up by a month. Several actors' promotional schedules were all messed up. Now we would try to coordinate when we can. Thank you media for your care and well wishes."

Gum Sing Mo in the film also talked about the experience of working on WU XIA. He said that in the film she spoke Sichuan dialect for the first time. The team hired a tutor for him. The tutor was very pleased with his performance, at least giving it 80 points. Chan Ho Sun also praised Gum Sing Mo's determination. Everyday after the shoot he would ask for the next day's script so the tutor could record the lines into his MP3 player for him to recite. Gum Sing Mo whether in the film and in life would not try anything dangerous. The Sichuan dialect to him this time was a cliff, he had to decide whether to jump. As a director, he of course had to jump with him.

courtesy of singtao.com

The Peter Chan Ho Sun directed, Donnie Yen Chi Tan, Takeshi Kaneshiro (Gum Sing Mo) and Tang Wei starred WU XIA yesterday held a Beijing press conference. Gum Sing Mo's Sichuan dialect became the entire film's funny and bright spot.

Gum Sing Mo apologized for his less than accurate Sichuan dialect. "I wasn't fluent and no one understood me, I am truly sorry. This was a very huge challenge for me in this film." Tang Wei in the film played a village lady. She did not have much screen time or many lines. When she saw the child actor Xiao Tian who played her son in the film suddenly appeared, she was so excited that she shed tears. Xiao Tian not only wished "Mama" would return to Yunnan where he would cook roast meat for "Mama". He also asked, "When would I have a little brother?"

Chan Ho Sun gave high recognition to Tang Wei's performance. He said that he recognized Tang Wei's performance from CROSSING HENNESSY (YUET MOON HIN NEI SI) so I asked her to perform. The originally minor role due to Tang Wei's very outstanding performance finally added her screen time at the end of the film.

Director Peter Chan Ho Sun two nights ago along with Donnie Yen Chi Tan host a lighting ceremony over a 3,591 square meter WU XIA poster wall on the banks of the Huangpo River in Shanghai. The poster area broke the late Michael Jackson special cover poster's old Guinness World Record of 2698 square meters). The event then aired an eight minute long promotional film. Chi Tan revealed that for this movie he almost buried a brother under a waterfall and choked up several times.

Chi Tan said that in a scene in which Takeshi Kaneshiro (Gum Sing Mo) pushed him off a cliff, Chan Ho Sun was worried that it was not perfect enough and gave up on using a computer. He decided to use "wires" at the hundred meter waterfall. Chi Tan's assistant went downhill to

scout the terrain. Hours after he realized that his assistant was missing. As everyone panicked, his assistant suddenly appeared with a face full of blood. Actually his assistant while scouting the location slipped and rolled from the hill to the river. Luckily when he fell he grabbed onto branches by the shore. Otherwise he would have gone over the hundred meter waterfall. Chi Tan got rather upset as he recalled this incident and choked up several times. "Many people look down on stunt people, but in my heart, the stunt professionals are the most respectable people in the entire film industry. My achievements today is because of the group of brothers who would go through life and death with me. I am not battling alone."

When the ceremony was halfway through, drizzle suddenly fell. The screen happened to be showing Chi Tan and the stunt team's "life and death gate" experience during the shoot. Chi Tan even sentimentally said, "People are living, Heaven is watching. Even Heaven is crying, even Heaven is touched." Did Chi Tan feel any fear during the performance? Chi Tan honestly said, "I was afraid, actually everyday I was afraid. Our business is particularly similar to an athlete, we both take risks of our lives. I have experienced many injuries. Several times during the shoot I was almost blind. This shoot was even more special. Chan Ho Sun in order to pursue the solid feel of the house made changes for ordinary people's house instead of building sets. Many locations were several decades or even a century old homes. Running all over the place on top of them, of course I was afraid." Chan Ho Sun also said, "I always thought I was a perfectionist, I never thought Yen Chi Tan was even more demanding than me. I thought an action sequence was already OK after three takes, but after forty or fifty takes he still wouldn't stop." He said that after making this film, he learned something new about Chi Tan. He thought that Chi Tan was not only a great action director but a good actor.

In addition, WU's Jimmy Wang Yu at the end of last month suddenly fainted from a stroke while dining with friends in Zhuhai, luckily his life was not at risk and now he is recovering at home. His daughter Linda Wong Hing Ping said, "Thank you everyone for your concern, Papa is already fine and has returned to Taiwan for recovery. In the future his health will come first." Chan Ho Sun who just worked with Wang Yu was somewhat upset to learn about Wang Yu's stroke. He said that Wang Yu earlier went to Cannes and Beijing to promote WU XIA, perhaps all the traveling led to this. With the film's upcoming release, would he ask Wang Yu to participate in any promotion? Chan Ho Sun said that his health would come first and make the determination based on his condition.

Takeshi Kaneshiro (Gum Sing Mo) in WU XIA played a detective with a mouth full of Sichuan dialect. On the first day of work, director Peter Chan Ho Sun already asked him to "conduct an autopsy". Finally after inspecting over 100 corpses in a day Gum Sing Mo had nightmares all night. The next day at work he was still shaken and complaining to the director. For this autopsy scene, Gum Sing Mo worked until he was completely broken down, as the corpses were truly too realistic. Chan Ho Sun even joked with Gum Sing Mo, "Sorry, although these corpses were made from special material, in order to ensure their 'fresh' quality we must finish the shoot in one day. You might as well tough it all out in one day."

Aside from being familiar with behavior, his look even had an ancient detective feel. Chan Ho Sun did not ask Gum Sing Mo to be handsome but strange. When Gum Sing Mo tried on the small pair of glasses and put on a backpack, he joked, "I look more like an OB/GYN." Chan Ho Sun even revealed, "Actually Gum Sing Mo after the production began was unable to find his feeling. Finally one day Gum Sing Mo said to me, 'You don't want Gum Sing Mo.' I said, right, I want Takeshi Kitano. Actually I not only wanted Takeshi Kitano but Takeshi Kitano and (Stephen) Chow Sing Chi, Takeshi Kitano's illogical behavior and Chow Sing Chi's illogical questioning."

Although Gum Sing Mo's costume looked simple, but from top to button, inside to outside, it was all real antique. Aside from the glasses, the team was the most worried about the hat on his head. Not only was it expensive, more importantly it was the only world in the world. It had its own security box. During the shoot, wherever Gum Sing Mo went, the security box went. In order to find a straw hat that was "wide brim and good transparency", Dora Ng Lei Lo looked all over the world's antique hats. Finally she ordered over 30 from the U.S. for 4,000 to 5,000 each.