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The Afternoon Tea Party

Author : Noray, in Chinese

Date :  31 Dec 2000

Translation : Martial Arts Movies and TV Series - Wu Jing

Original Compilation : Jing Wu Men

Part I : The Filming - Within and Without

- Costume Design and Make-Up

When we asked which his favourite character was in terms of costume design and make-up, Wu Jing temporised before answering that it should be Yang Fan of The Bigwig. However, the party was immediately split into two camps - One side argued in favour of Ah-Fei of Swordsman of Flying Dagger while the orther faction maintained that Yang Fan was cooler. We began our own debate, having clean overlooked [Ed: But then, they couldn't see Wu Jing anyway.] that Wu Jing was on the line.

After a while, Wu Jing managed to make use of a short lapse of silence and interrupted that Ah Fei's look was not bad too, in order not to disappoint supporters of Ah-Fei. Actually, the costume designs of both shows were done by the same Hong-Kong make-up artist Bobo. Both were quite good, but Ah-Fei lost due to the "head-set." (The fake hair, that is.) Wu Jing also mentioned that he was partial to the make-up of Meng Xing-Hun in the second half Whipped Horse Roaring Amid the West Wind. The wig took just a short time to be put on. He said that the head-set in Metamorphosis of Heavenly Silkworm was most comfortable. We were shocked and immediately enquired if he was using his real hair in the TV series. His reply was he wished to, but his hair had not grown long enough then.

In addition, we had always been intrigued by the pair of gigantic spherical hammers in Love in the Midst of Turbulent Times and were rather curious about the actual material it was made of. Finally, we got the chance to find out from Wu Jing: There was a pair of real spherical hammers made of solid hardwood and was very heavy. And it was "such a big lump." But a fake pair, each with a hollow sphere head, was used when fighting.

- Explosions

A few meticulous fans of Wu Jing might remember that Wu Jing once brought up in a news report that his right eye was hurt during an explosion scene in Swordsman of Flying Dagger. It happened when Ah-Fei was suffering from amnesia and was chasing Li Xun-Huan with the Thunderbolt Darts. He was not careful enough and some flare got onto his right eye. Since then, he has always been very apprehensive about blowing up scenes, handling them with utmost circumspection.

However, the explosion scene in Love in the Midst of Turbulent Times where Bei Yuan-Qing was tricked into a valley could not be avoided. There were two cameras in the valley used to capture the explosions that were to be generated from twelve points of bursting. It was highly precarious, and while Wu Jing was aware of the locations of the points of detonation, the horse on which he was riding didn't know. A point of bursting blew up near the horse's rear and it reared up and bolted around. Wu Jing had to literally keep a tight rein on the horse. Wu Jing admitted he was rather scared too as it was unpredictable how powerful the explosion might be since it was never an easy task dealing with the explosives.

- Wu Jing, the Equestrian?

Horse riding is Wu Jing's forte. Before stepping into the entertainment circle, he had already learned the art of horse riding. His friends used to poke fun at him: Everyone was driving a car; who would ride on a horse? On the other hand, on seeing that Wu Jing has always been acting in period dramas, his expertise in horse-riding becomes a much cherished skill. Owing to his mastery in horse-riding, Wu Jing was granted an additional scene involving some nifty horse-riding stunts in Whipped Horse Roaring Amid the West Wind.

- King of Gamblers vs King of Dancers

In the Special Christmas Collection, there was a topic entitled, "What types of role do you wish to see Wu Jing portraying most?" There were many suggestions but Wu Jing said that there was a kind of show that was not mentioned - a gambling related one. Once, God of Gamblers, Saint of Gamblers, etc took Hong Kong by a storm. Perchance, there might be a day when we would get to see Wu Jing reliving the glories of some deft gambler. 

Besides horse-riding, Wu Jing holds an opinion that all actors and actresses should learn various forms of arts, and should never regress, as a provision for the future. He expressed his desire to learn dancing. All of us clamoured, "What kind of dance? Ballet, social dance or modern dance?" Wu Jing's response was Latin. We were immediately reminded of the ball-room dance in his debut movie, Taichi 2. [Ed: It's odd. The entire scene took place in an open space. How could it be called ballroom?]

Everyone concurred that his dance was excellent and graceful. [Ed: In retrospect, the ballroom dance looked as if Wu Jing had had years of training in it.] Wu Jing laughed, "I only had two hours to learn dancing before the shooting." We paid Wu Jing full compliments for his flair for dancing and he remarked

unassumingly yet with aplomb, "I have martial arts background!" It implied that he was confident about his flexibilty, agility and sense of rhythm as he was trained in martial arts. Mayhap, we could see Wu Jing doing dances yet again.

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