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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
Martial Arts Choreography
Action Scenes
It appears that Wu Jing has inextricably forged a bond with martial arts
productions since the day of his induction into the entertainment circle. While Wu
Jing has grown accustomed to the life of a knight-errant, he wishes very much to
be a contemporary person, to act in modern dramas. On the other hand, after
having done so many martial arts dramas, he inadvertently created a Martial
Arts Sutra, gathering all his views and understanding of the way martial arts
sequences are shot.
Wuxia Pian vs Kungfu Pian
A person people who is responsible for choreographing and shooting the martial
arts sequences, who intricately and deftly incorporates the distinctive attributes of real wushu
into a film with engrossing, enjoyable action scenes, is known either as Martial Arts
Choreographer or Action Director. Wu Jing related to us that, Yuen Wo Ping,
Tony Ching Siu Tung and Corey Yuen represent three major schools of choreography.
The school of choreography as headed by Tony Ching Siu Tung, and includes Ma Yu Cheng
(Ma Yuk Sing) and Yuen Bun, places emphasis on the action and uses a technique called
Fragmentation Shooting. It accentuates the beauty of each move and involves plotting and
shooting the action scene in small parts, with one take for each action.
Subsequently, the editing team lumps all the takes together into proper,
coherent sequences,
forming an entire action scene. Hence, editing plays a pivotal role in Fragmentation
Shooting and poor editing results in disjointed action scenes as in the case of
Jet Li produced Telemovie, Invincible.
A best example of Fragmentation Shooting is Young Hero of the Marshes, where Yuen Bun and Ma Yu Cheng are
the Action Directors. Each of the action scenes in the drama is not particularly
long, but the shots were handled with sophistication, the moves were
choreographed with dance-like grace, filled with highly thrilling viewability, as portrayed
in scene where Yue Yun uses his spear against Xi-Men Jing-Ge (Wu Jing) in
bare-hand forms and later with a piece of cloth he grabs randomly.
Another school is the Yuen Clan, as led by Yuen Wo Ping; It focuses on
showing unadulterated, real kung-fu. Basically, it doesn't rely much on
fragment takes and editing. Rather, it employs Long Distance Shooting,
completing an entire martial arts sequence in a single shot. The most classic
example is Master of Taichi, which features ultra-authentic martial arts scenes,
done in a single breath.
Next is Corey Yuen, who combines both action and kungfu. Some Jet Li's films,
such as Fong Sai Yuk, Bodyguard from Beijing, Kiss of the Dragon and The One, were choreographed by
him.
I was reminded of what Wu Jing told Noray about the differences between Wuxia
Pian and Kungfu Pian*. I speculate that what he meant by Wuxia relates to the
independent moves shot in parts, while Kungfu relates to continuity of the moves.
(These are but personal opinions, as Wu Jing did not clarify the differences.)
Firstly, the storylines of the two are different. Wuxia Pian revolves around the
theme of chivalry and love, with the martial arts scenes being of secondary
importance and rather weakly portrayed. Kungfu Pian centres on martial arts,
stressing of expounding martial arts code of ethics, and the storyline usually
revolves around the development of the martial arts ability and maturity in
thoughts of the protagonist.
In terms of martial arts choreography, Wuxia Pian puts priority to the effects in
front of the camera, and relies on Fragmentation Shooting and editing to achieve
the desired effects to
entrance the audience. Kungfu Pian requires real martial arts skills, real moves
and strokes, full-contact sparring, real fights with real weapons, all captured
through Long Distance Shooting and showcases the pyrotechnics of the real
martial artists, unadorned. In other words, the more capable the martial artists
are, the better the actions in Kungfu Pian.
Wu Jing merely pointed out a few examples to show the differences: "Master of
Taichi, Shaolin King of
Martial Arts are Kungfu Pians. Swordsman Lee of Flying
Dagger, Whipped Horse Roaring Amid the West Wind and Metamorphosis of Heavenly
Silkworm are Wuxia Pians."
"In that case, what about Legend of Zu? Science fiction?" I asked unexpectedly,
bringing about a string of laughter.
I Don't Wish to Shoot Wuxia Pians Right Now
After analysing the differences, Wu Jing suprised us with, "Currently, I don't
wish to shoot Wuxia Pians." Is it because he is tired of being a knight-errant or
his strong wish to do a modern-day production?
Wu Jing shook his head, "To carry on shooting them is meaningless."
Unlike Kungfu Pian, Wuxia Pian doesn't put much emphasis on martial arts
sequences. As such, the actions in a wuxia pian are peanuts to Wu Jing. Usually,
besides his own moves, he has to take in to consideration the actions of other
actors and actresses, to the extent of doing preparation works before shooting, the moves
that should be done, how to divide the shots into parts, and even
planning how to edit after shooting is completed. Then Wu Jing would relay
his ideas to to the director and choreographer, discussing with them, in order
to achieve the best effects and give full play to his skills.
Immersing himself completely when shooting, participating in every aspect of
it, Wu Jing seems to have deeply experienced the shortcomings of commercialised
wuxia pians in terms of shooting and performance. Sometimes, the choreographer
cannot meet the requests of Wu Jing to do actions of high standard and
difficulty, and Wu Jing could not help but to give way. Sometimes, such
objective issues such as budget and time constraints lead to sacrifices in the
quality, with the outcome being far from perfect. Wu Jing feels so handicapped, so resigned that he is not particularly keen in doing wuxia serials anymore.
Actually, Wu Jing understands that he has today's standing in the entertainment
circle is due to Master of Taichi, which features cream of the crop martial arts
sequences from top-notch martial artists. It's a pity that Yuen Wo Ping is unlikely to do another drama serial
and the production team of Master of Taichi is hard to come by. While Wu Jing's
acting skill has improved considerably in the subsequent productions, he doesn't
have much chance to tap into his martial arts ability in most of them. This is
what Wu Jing feels regretful about, yet, it's not something an actor could
forcibly demand for.
Never tired of Meeting Worthy Opponents
"When shooting Young Hero of the Marshes, you might have noticed, there are
times when I was fighting and laughing, crying, going berserk, or
talking simultaneously. I very much wish to find someone who can do this to act with me."
In the olden days, the highly skilled pugilists would jump for joy on meeting
someone who could stand up against them. They even led a vagrant life in order
to look for worthy opponents. At this moment, Wu Jing seemed to carry similar
thinking.
Wu Jing said that most of the time, his co-actors and co-actresses are not
trained in martial arts, and when fighting with them, the standard of action has
to be lowered. When it comes to real fights, they would be replaced by doubles.
The originally planned scene with actors and actresses fighting and acting
concurrently is thus gone.
Why does Wu Jing possess such a strong thirst for a matching opponent, to act
with them from the beginning to the end? Only then would there be true action shows;
Only then would the action scenes come alive. However, nowadays, in most wuxia
series, the actors and actresses would merely strike a pose and put on a certain
expression in the beginning and ending of the takes, and what the viewers see are
always the mere back view of the doubles fighting. We complained that doubles and
special effects are over-used, even though there are still many viewers would
prefer real actions.
Wu Jing, with a heavy heart, lamented that the problem lies not just on the
action show but the show itself. Examining the serials he has done before, the
only exception is Master of Taichi. In Master of Taichi, apart
from real martial artists such as Yu Hai, Wang Chun, Xu Xiang Dong and Billy
Chow, all the main stars such as Amy Fan Yi-Min, Kara Hui Ying-Hong and Cheng Kui-An did
the action scenes personally.
Wu Jing mentioned that if it's only him doing a solo martial arts performance,
it's not a problem to shoot directly with his face in front of the camera;
However, where fight scenes are concerned, if the opponent is a double, then the
camera has to be done with care to avoid exposing that it's the double doing the
work, thus, it can't show the faces of two persons at the same time on the
screen. As such, even though Wu Jing has given his best shot, fighting with
physically exhausting moves, what the screen shows are but half of his effort.
At most, he would be given a comment, "Wu Jing, you have fought better than the
double." This is Wu Jing's sorrow and his impediment as an actor.
Another point is that, the producers and directors tend to choose someone from
in drama schools rather martial arts actors to act in Wuxia Pians. They
subjectively believe that martial arts actors lack acting ability. While actors
with drama background are not martial arts trained, they can be helped by
evasive camera
tricks. On the other hand, it's impossible to use camera effects to make up for
the short coming of martial arts actors who can't act. Under such prejudices,
even one who is great in acting, such as Wu Jing, is invariably on the loosing
end.
In
Wu Jing's representative work in martial arts, the twenty-eight episode Master
of Taichi, all the martial arts sequences add up to about sixty minutes. Usually,
each episode of a drama serial is about 45 minutes; In other words, Wu Jing
fought for one and a quarter episodes. What was he doing in the rest of the
twenty over episodes? Standing there doing nothing? He's doing the dramatic parts!
What about Young Heroes of the Marshes, Swordsman Lee of Flying Dagger, The
Bigwig, Love in Turbulent Times, Whipped Horse Roaring Amidst the West Wind or
Metamorphosis of Heavenly Silkworm? How much lesser are the fight scenes in
them? Aren't the viewers appreciating his acting abilities? Aren't they
attracted, moved by his role?
On the other hand, if we examine most wuxia pians, the actors and actresses do
nothing more than putting up a pose and lack the charisma and presence of real martial
artists. How could they portray the glamour, mannerism and chivalry of pugilists? I think
I am not the only one with such concerns. As wuxia pians still continue to be
produced one after another, the image of the ideal hero collapses one after
another. Or we should say, in these years, wu and xia are drifting further apart
from each other.
Empathy with Counterparts, Without any Fear, Rivalry
In the entertainment circle, there aren't many martial artists who are
particularly famous. How does Wu Jing feel, when people are constantly comparing
him with Jet Li and Zhao Wen Zhuo. As far as martial arts skills are concerned,
Wu Jing subscribes only to Jet Li as being more capable. Wu Jing humbly said that Jet is
stronger than him in many areas and that, "he indeed fights better than me." On
the other hand, Wu Jing also said frankly that, he has never been convinced of
anyone's martial arts skills other than Jet.
A few months ago, a director from Whipped Horse Roaring Amid began shooting
Drunken Hero - Da-4 Zu-4i Xia-2 - in Wuxi. It was intended that Zhao Wen Zhuo and Wu Jing would work
together in this series. Zhao Wen Zhuo would be the on the righteous side, while
Wu Jing would be on the opposing side. Wu Jing felt that the opposing role is
more suited to Zhao Wen Zhuo. Wu Jing himself was not as convincing in terms of
appearance for that role. As such, he did not take up the role which was later
given to Max Mok.
| Drunken
Hero Drunken Hero
- Da-4 Zu-4i Xia-2 - is about Zhao Wen Zhuo and Max Mok, the two princes, who lost contacts with each other
when young. Due to different circumstances, one becomes a magnanimous
Drunken Hero, while the other becomes a mean East Wing Eunuch. Zhao Wen
Zhuo is pretty satisfied with this production, for not only does he get to
show his martial skills, but also his dramatic skills. Christy Yeung, who
was doubled throughout the series in the action scenes, is particularly
happy with her period costume. This is the first time Max Mok acts as an
incorrigible bad egg. However, Max Mok feels that it is great being a
villain for the villain always gets to live an extravagant life, wear
beautiful clothing while the hero, due to their self-righteousness or
austerity, nearly
always lives in dilapidated temple or house. A major
selling point in the TV series is Zhao Wen Zhuo's kungfu, complemented by
love entanglements from the three ladies: Christy Yeung, Yang Ruo Xi and
Liang Jing.
||Net
and TV: Zhao Wen Zhuo Video Interview |
Max Mok Interview |
Xiao Ding Dang Interview || |
In my view, Wu Jing very much looks forward to collaborating with Zhao Wen Zhuo
since both are martial artists who work in the entertainment circle. Wu Jing
thirsts very much for a worthy counterpart and it's not easy to find an actor
who doesn't need stunt double in the entertainment industry. Facing a
counterpart who can stand up against him, rather than breeding jealousy, Wu Jing
empathises greatly with them, hoping to work together with them. Wu Jing's
empathy towards his counterparts can also be shown in that whenever he has the
chance, he would spare no effort in recommending his fellow martial arts
students, or giving
chances to martial artists who enter the industry later than him. Wu Jing feels
that, entering the entertainment circle from the world of sports and achieving
success is particularly not easy and the process is also full of hardships.
As such, fellow martial artists should help, support each other, rather than
fighting for ranking and prestige.
Respect for Martial Artists
In a scene in Guangzhou Street involving stopping a prison chariot, Qi Shao
Zhang would ride on a horse and than with a flip in the air, land in front of
the prison chariot and rescue the prisoner. Wu Jing, in white monk robe, walked
towards us from a distance.
"Don't you have to do the scene?" we asked.
"This action is simpler and the director wants the double to do it." Seeing that
the doubts on our face, Wu Jing explained, "Usually, a scene would be split
into different takes to capture it from various angles. For example, it may
require two to three hundred takes to film a three minute martial arts sequence.
In a production, the martial arts sequences alone account for countless takes.
If I were to do everything myself for every single take, apart from being
physically taxing, I was told by some directors and seniors that the stunt
doubles would not be able to make a living, especially when I did the action
better. So, 'have to let them do some work, so that they can fend for
themselves."
Even then, Wu Jing's vision never left the set and would intermittently remind
his double to do better. When the director had completed the shots, he still did
one take himself, with really neat moves. Wu Jing said that even though he had
now achieved some successful results, he still regards himself as a newcomer. He feels that
he is not perfect and still has lots to learn. He never looks down on any stunt
doubles just because he is a national wushu champion or a star. He modestly
feels that they are in this line longer than him, are more experienced, and
should show them due respect. This may perhaps be the reason for him to be often
lavished with praises by the production crew.
* Wuxia - martial arts and chivalry
* Pian - a film or drama serial |
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