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Meetings with Wu Jing in Hengdian, the City of Films

Author :  Ninnie, in Chinese

Date :  22 -24 August 2001

Translation :  Martial Arts Movies and TV Series - Wu Jing

Original Compilation :  Jing Wu Men

Metamorphosis of Heavenly Silkworm

According to Wu Jing, the role of Yun Fei-Yang assumes some of his traits in Whipped Horse Roaring Amid the West Wind. Yun Fei-Yang is what he wished to portray as a natural, relaxed and normal person. He had not seen the finished production but in retrospect, apart from the storyline which is not out of ordinary (but very well written), it is well-worth watching.

However, Yun Fei-Yang's part is also a little exaggerated and comedic. As Wu Jing recalled, there is a scene where Yun Fei-Yang was badly beaten and when his fellow senior brother, Bai Shi, approaches him, Yun Fei-Yang conceals his face behind a handkerchief.

"Let me look at you!" Wu Jing imitated Bai Shi.

"I am fine." Yun Fei-Yang refuses to budge.

"Let me have a look!"

As Wu Jing re-enacted the scene, he put down his hand awkwardly and let out a smile. His action looked very bone-tickling.

In the subsequent scene, on the night that follows, Wan-er pays Yun Fei-Yang a visit.. Yun Fei-Yang, on thinking that it could be his fellow senior brothers coming to beat him up again, and as he cannot display his martial arts skills in front of them, grabs a bench and prepares to strike when they show up. Opening the door, he immediately pins the visitor with the bench. On seeing that it is Wan-er, Fei-Yang with a suppressed cry of "Ah!", drops the bench. Then, he puts the bench in place and sits down.

Trying to appear calm, he asks, "What's up?"

"What happened to you? What were you doing?"

"Nothing."

Then Wu Jing imitated He Mei-Tian looking around and eventually Yun Fei-Yang is unable to hide what he was doing.

Seeing Wu Jing narrating and acting by himself, with a rich tone, with vivid and varied expressions, everyone of us was secretly lauding his talent in acting.

Wu Jing claimed that he had been rearing pigs and if there was no comic relief, it won't be so entertaining. (I surmised Wu Jing must be attempting make merry amid hardships). Overall, Metamorphosis of Heavenly Silkworm should be a pretty good drama, if the editing is done well. Hearing Wu Jing's words eased our mind as we had been worried about the serial. Now, we were more confident about this production and eagerly looked forward to its release.

Yun Fei-Yang : The Extraordinary within the Ordinary

Having read Metamorphosis of Heavenly Silkworm, I found Yun Fei-Yang not to be an attention-grabbing character, so I queried Wu Jing if Yun Fei-Yang in the drama serial would look ordinary.

"Yun Fei-Yang himself is one who seeks to the mundane: He only wishes to marry Wan-Er and have kids, to be a true disciple of Chong Zhen Sect, to be able to practise martial arts openly. It's a simple goal. It's his extraordinary encounters and innate qualities that turn him into a great hero."

"The current drama market is vastly different from that of it ten or fifteen years ago. People's tastes are different. To do remake of an old production, there should be some new breakthroughs in order to attract the audience. Even then, we still worked very industriously during the new Metamorphosis of Heavenly Silkworm's production. Hopefully, it won't disappoint you."

Come to think of if, isn't Yun Fei-Yang himself a person who creates the extraordinary out of the ordinary?

Little Endeavour at Martial Arts Directing

Apart from acting, whenever he has the chance, he would attempt to choreograph and direct the martial arts sequences. There are quite a few scenes in Metamorphosis of Heavenly Silkworm which where shot by Wu Jing. As he put in with a tongue in cheek, "Remember, when you see the excellent action scenes in Metamorphosis of Heavenly Silkworm, it could be my directorial effort!"

The Metamorphosis of Heavenly Silkworm was shot during harsh winter conditions. Once, in the mountainous regions, with a freezing temperature below 20 degrees, as the production team burned the firewood to keep warm, they were thinking how that action scene might have to be shot until the daybreak again.

However, when Wu Jing took the office and shot the scene, he finished 46 takes of action within two hours, in one single breath . Usually, it takes a day to complete such an action scene for most martial arts shows. As such, they got to call it a day before the night fell.

Apart from efficacy, Wu Jing demands high standards for action scenes. He always wants to present the best in front of the camera. Whenever he believes an action scene could be done even better, he would request for re-takes. However, owing to time constraint, there are times when the results do not meet his exacting standards - which is what Wu Jing feels as a weakness in television productions.

Sometime, Wu Jing would offer some suggestions to the martial arts director, such as how and when to split up the takes, how to position the cameras in specific angles, to create something new. Often, everyone would feel that his advice could not be carried out. Wu Jing would do it himself to prove his points and the outcome would usually result in everyone lavishing heaps of praises on him. Wu Jing described that his method of filming action scenes was derived from Ma Yu Cheng's school of choreography. And this type of filming creates very movie-esque and wuxia feel after editing.

When watching Metamorphosis of Heavenly Silkworm, why not make a closer scrutiny and guess which scenes were shot by Wu Jing?

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