Wu-Jing.org

-- Ip Man --

Recently, Fan Siu Wong's getting seen more frequently on the silver screen. He makes a very brief appearance in Benny Chan's Connected, a remake of Hollywood's Cellular, as kidnapper Liu Ye's henchman. The film is about a guy (Louis Koo) receiving a distress call for help from a stranger ("Big S" Barbie Hsu Hsi Yuan) about her being kidnapped.

Fan Siu Wong also has a part in Butterfly Lovers remake, about the reincarnated ill-fated lovers in a wuxia world, again not being able to be together.

 However, it's with Wilson Yip's Ip Man that Fan Siu Wong not only gets a more significant role but also has a chance to flex his wondrous martial arts muscle, as choreographed by Sammo Hung.

In Ip Man, Fan Siu Wong plays a ruthless gang boss Jin Shan Zhao who's out to dominate the martial arts world, except he's thwarted by Yip Man (Donnie Yen). However, he's not going to take it lying down and will do anything he can do get back at latter.
 

More Ip Man photos on Fan Siu Wong Facebook.

-- Ip Man --

Plot Outline:

In the 1930s, Foshan thrives as the hub of Chinese wushu, with various sects actively recruiting disciples. They often compete against each other to prove their strengths.

While Yip Man is an accomplished martial artist, he is unassuming and keeps a low-profile, and doesn't run any martial arts school nor accept students. He only stays at home, quietly sparring with his compatriots in friendly competitions, swapping pointers with each other.

-- Ip Man --

The crew and cast of Ip Man, Raymond Wong, Wilson Ip, Sammo Hung, Donnie Yen, Lynn Hung, Fan Siu Wong, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Simon Yam etc., as well as Yip Man's son Yip Chun, celebrated the completion of the film in Wanchai last Sunday. Some film footage was shown at the party.

Two of the biggest challenges Donnie Yen faced were slimming down and having to deal with affliction in the right shoulder.

-- Ip Man --

Fan Siu Wong gets to clash against Donnie Yen several times in Wilson Ip's Yip Man (Or should it be the other way round?). He says that Donnie Yen is a very worthy opponent who's hard to come by, "Firstly, he knows how to fight; secondly, he's got incredible speed; it's great to work with him. What I fear most is working with non-martial artists, they don't even know how to receive hits."

He says that he's also very happy to work with martial arts director Sammo Hung, who's taken good care of him. There's a scene requiring him to kick with his right leg, however, Fan Siu Wong's has got some problems with the ligament in his right leg. Sammo Hung immediately requested for a change to left leg after reading the script.

In the Ip Man, Fan Siu plays a fiercely competitive martial artist in Foshan, who would stop at nothing - even if it's underhanded means - to achieve the status as number one fighter of Foshan.

Currently playing a proprietor of school uniforms shop in a romance 《爱得起》 by Joe Ma, starring Gigi Leung, Shao Bing, Chen Bo Lin, Shaun Tam, Fan Siu Wong is being asked about whether he'd be used to doing drama scenes. Fan Siu Wong replies, "Don't assume that I can only fight, I like doing drama roles as well."  Sohu

-- Ip Man --
Owing to controversy over the film title, Mandarin Film's martial arts biopic on Yip Man will still be called Ip Man rather than 《一代宗师·叶问》 Grandmaster Yip Man, thanks to unpleasantries from Wong Kar Wai who claimed conflicts with his very version that still remains in development limbo despite being announced several years ago.

Raymond Wong explains, "Actually, all along, we have called our film 《叶问》 Ip Man, but our mainland investors said that Yip Man was a great master of his times, so we changed our title to Grandmaster Yip Man out of respect for him. Yet, this brought about a series of debates over the title. To settle this matter amicably, after discussions with our various investors, movie consultant Yip Chun, director Wilson Yip, we changed back to our original title."

He also believes that it's not worth arguing over a name, "The title is of secondary importance, our main aim in shooting the film is to propagate Wing Chun. All studios should cooperate with and support each other, especially in a time when the film industry is not doing well."

Tony Leung says, "Our film will still be produced. I think Donnie Yen's version will be more focused on martial arts, of younger age, but the Yip Man I'm playing will be more drama-oriented, and it deals mainly with the latter half of his life. The two are definitely completely different works."

Production of Ip Man has wrapped up in Shanghai, after around three to four months of filming. Ip Man, directed by Wilson Yip, featuring action by Sammo Hung and starring Donnie Yen, Simon Yam, Lynn Hung, Fan Siu Wong, Xing Yu, Li Qi Long, To Yu Hang, is targeted for a Christmas 2008 release.  Shanghai Daily | Posters: Eastday

-- Legendary Assassin --

Twitch has just posted a preview of Legendary Assassin's promo reel at this year's Cannes Film Festival:

"Also up on the Hong Kong action tip, I got to check out a promo made up of completely raw footage for Wu Jing’s Legendary Assassin. Beyond the fact that it was still in very rough form and graced with one of the most hilariously over the top bits of English narration ever – apparently done a bit tongue in cheek – it looks decently well shot and there is certainly no shortage of action in this movie. Nope. And it’s all old fashioned Hong Kong ass whuppin – fists and feet meeting faces. Wu must’ve been tired."

Besides Legendary Assassin, Twitch also reports on two Donnie Yen projects - Painted Skin and Legend of Yip Man - being marketed at Cannes:

"Anyway, there were still good things to be had.  Such as?  The promo for Ip Man, the Wilson Yip directed, Donnie Yen starring bio pic of Bruce Lee’s mentor.  The current promo is largely behind the scenes footage but also includes some final work and it all looks very, very impressive.  Donnie looks strong - you’d expect a strong effort from him considering how highly he regards Bruce Lee - as do the production values and the supporting cast. Fans of Fan Siu Wong - who we talked about a little while back thanks to his part in The Moss - will be glad to know it looks as though his role is pretty significant."

-- The Moss, Kinta 1881 --

Twitch Player has recently been loaded with trailers for The Moss and Kinta 1881.

The Moss, directed by Derek Kwok and produced by Mei Ah, is about Shawn Yue playing an undercover cop in nightspots and falling for a streetwalker Bonnie Sin while Fan Siu Wong plays someone conned into coming to Hong Kong and forced to worked as an assassin. The film is scheduled for release in late June. Some photos of Fan Siu Wong grubbiness at CRI.

Kinta 1881 is Malaysia's first martial arts film starring local wushu champions Robin Ho, Michael Chin, Kuan Fei Jun, Shawn Lee and David Bao. Chin Kar Lok and Philip Ng, currently in production of Hands of the Dragon, choreographed the action sequences. The movie is set in the Kinta Valley in the 1880s, when tin ore was discovered in the area and Chinese immigrants flooded the valley in the hope of making their fortune.

-- Yip Man --

On Saturday afternoon, on the set of 'Yip Man', under martial arts choreographer's Sammo Hung's coaching, Li Qi Long and Fan Siu Wong begin going through the moves for a duel between them. Li Qi Long is training very hard, trying to get himself fully prepared. This scene will be shot in a day or two, and Li Qi Long is set to bring about an exciting bout between Fan Siu Wong and him. Following this might be the exchange between Li Qi Long and Donnie Yen.  Li Qi Long's Blog

-- Yip Man --

Zhang Yan Bin, casting director for Yip Man, which began production on March 4, says that casting for the production, which took three months, is settled; his job with the production is done and he's proceeding to other projects. He also mentioned earlier regarding looking for someone to fill up the role of adolescent Bruce Lee and teaching lead child actor(s) acting. Below is the cast list.

-- 'Yip Man' --

Before he could finish work at his charity school that provides free education and lodging for talented teens with financial difficulties, Li Qi Long received call sheet from the production of 'Yip Man', directed by Wilson Yip. So, he arrived on the set of 'Yip Man' in Shanghai on Feb 17 morning. After having finished his makeup in the afternoon, Li Qi Long met Donnie Yen on the set. They previously collaborated on Painted Skin over a month ago.

After briefly greeting Donnie Yen, he proceeded for training with Sammo Hung. The Martial arts choreographer Sammo Hung asked the Shaolin disciple Li Qilong to display his skills, so that he could choreograph the martial arts sequences accordingly. Li Qi Long hopes that he would have outstanding performances in the film.  Li Qilong's Blog

 Cast update: Zhang Yan Bin, who's the casting agent for 'Yip Man', lists Fan Siu Wong and Xing Yu as part of the production too, playing Jin Shan Zhao and Martial Fanatic Lin respectively, while Li Qi Long takes on the role of Green Dragon and HK Changquan champion 杜宇航 To Yu Hang, 27, plays Hu Wei.