Wu Jing Joins Tsui Hark on New Wuxia Concepts

Shenyang Today, 28 July 2003
Tang Xiao Shi

The audience's impression of Wu Jing, whose smile is so particularly infectious, is usually a rare martial arts exponent who transforms into a messenger of righteousness through each move and style. Wu Jing, who's starring in Seven Swords of Mt Tian, is busying himself with martial arts practice and reading Sun Tzu Art of War and Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching (The Book of Taoism). He explained that to do well in a kungfu movie requires deep understanding of literature and culture. Only by thoroughly comprehending the meaning and values of life, and the world, and applying the concepts to the roles would wuxia series can new peaks be scaled.

Liang Style Wuxia

Since Legend of Zu, this is the second time Wu Jing is working with Tsui Hark. As Tsui Hark is very fastidious about Seven Swords of Mount Tian, strict criteria were enforced when selecting the cast. Wu Jing, the first to be confirmed a role in the Seven Swordmasters of Tianshan, anxiously looks forward to this project. Apart from being happy to work with Tsui Hark again, acting in Liang Yusheng's best novels is like a dream comes true.

In order to grasp his role better, Wu Jing met up with Tsui Hark recently. On an early summer evening, the two delved into the current plight of wuxia movies, "Tsui Hark is my mentor, we talked late into the night. While his earlier works won him critical acclaims within the entertainment field, Tsui Hark has never rested on his laurels. He is constantly doing research on Chinese kungfu movies. He told me that the current wuxia market is in dire straits, the filmmakers are often bounded by how conventional wuxia movies are shot. Tsui Hark intends to make use of Seven Swords of Mt Tian to forge a new road, to achieve a breakthrough in the characterisation, and not to put too much reliance on special effects in terms of martial arts sequences, for too much time and effort were spent on CGIs in Legend of Zu that the plot and performance were neglected, effectively putting himself in the line of fire."

In Seven Swordmasters of Tian Shan, Tsui Hark is focusing very much on performances of the actors and actresses. Such skills as Pursuit of Wind Swordplay, Major Vajra Palm, Asura Skill of Malignant Yin Deity in the novel are being painstakingly choreographed, in order to amply portray Liang Yusheng's wuxia style. Wu Jing added that it is a great honour and a luckiest event in one's life to be able to work with mentor Tsui Hark in fulfilling this revolutionary wuxia series.

Accumulating Acting Skills, Changing Direction

The stout Wu Jing, who was made to practice martial arts, by his father, since the age of six, should naturally be the leading force in wushu world. Yet, he inadvertently stepped onto an actor's path, having to adapt to irregular work hours, meals and sleeping times of a hero on the screen; Wu Jing said that this unexpected change brought him lots of hardships, and he wasn't able to master his emotions in the earlier productions. "I have lots of regrets for those works made then. If I could turn back the clock, the results would be better. I only knew how to rush forward blindly then."

However, Wu Jing has matured a lot, in his mind, an actor's position is more important than that of a martial artist. "Everyone says I am a martial arts star, while these words seem to be a compliment, it also proves that I am actor who's limited to certain roles. An actor should be well-rounded, I hope to shoot some contemporary dramas without martial arts, to prove that Wu Jing can do everything." Despite such lofty words, Wu Jing still can't sever ties with wuxia. He says that once he has acquired more acting experiences and sufficient funds, he would seek a new way to present kungfu movies, and like Jet Li, does his part for Chinese martial arts movies.

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