When the news of Lin Mingyang's appointment as director of King of Kung Fu reached Hong Kong, Jackie Chan was both surprised and delighted. He had long expected that Lin Mingyang had revised the script and must have "ideas" for the movie, but he did not expect Lin Mingyang to get what he wanted from Lionsgate so "easily", which showed that the rumor that Lin Mingyang and Lionsgate were close was not just a rumor. This shows that the rumor that Lin Mingyang is close to Lionsgate is not an empty rumor.
Of course, Lin Mingyang becoming the director of this movie is a good thing for Jackie Chan. The two of them have worked together before and are quite familiar with each other; moreover, Lin Mingyang's Chinese blood makes him understand Chinese culture better than other Hollywood directors, so the movie made according to his idea will naturally have more "Chinese flavor".
Jackie Chan is not the only one who has this kind of idea, Yuan Woo-ping, who was invited to be the action director of this movie, is also thinking about this. In the past few years, he has cooperated with many foreign directors in Hollywood, and he understands the temperament of these foreign directors, but Lin Mingyang is a person who makes him somewhat uncertain.
In Hollywood, he heard a lot of things about Lin Mingyang, summed up is a lot of gossip, fame, strong ability, precisely because of the many claims about Lin Mingyang, Yuan Woo-ping is a bit confused. In Yuan Woo-ping's opinion, people like Lin Mingyang, who became famous at a young age and has a few real skills, are mostly arrogant and sometimes can't listen to other people's opinions.
With all the speculations in mind, Yuan Woo-ping finally met Lin Mingyang in person. After making so many famous movies and being the center of attention of the entertainment press and gossip, anyone who pays a little attention to the dynamics of Hollywood will not be unfamiliar with Lin Ming Yang, and Yuan Heping is no exception.
But Lin Mingyang is the first time to see the legendary "eight masters", learned that Yuan Woo-ping has been waiting in the cafe for more than half an hour, he greeted with an apologetic face, "Let Mr. Yuan wait a long time, I'm really sorry!"
"No, no, no, a director as young and promising as Mr. Lin is rare in Hollywood, it's normal to be busy!" Yuan Heping politely shook Lin Mingyang's hand.
Lin Ming Yang said with a sincere face, "Mr. Yuan don't be so polite, if you don't mind, you can call me Felix or Ah Ming, and I'll call you '8th Master', since we've already started to work together, let's not be angry with each other."
Yuan Heping was also a fastidious person, since Lin Ming Yang said so, there was no need for him to be flippant, not to mention that he could also see that Lin Ming Yang's words were indeed from the bottom of his heart.
"Then I'd better call you Ah Ming, I always feel that it's more affectionate to call you in Chinese."
In terms of communication, Lin Mingyang was indeed a master, with a few words, he had closed the distance between himself and Yuan Heping, and the ensuing conversation became much easier and more relaxed.
"8th Master you are a straightforward person, I won't spare any detours with you, this time I invited you over, I actually want to talk to you about the arrangement of the action scenes in this movie... You should have already read the script, I've made a relatively big change on the basis of the original one, the story is mainly divided into two pieces, reality and dream, I think the action design should be separated as well. "
Yuan Woo-ping asked curiously, "Then how are you going to divide it?"
"Regarding the 'reality' part of the plot, I want you to restore the original appearance of kung fu as much as possible when designing the action, what kung fu looks like in reality, the movie should look like. Because many western audiences have an inaccurate understanding of Chinese kung fu, many movies exaggerate the effects of kung fu, which makes many people doubt the reality of Chinese kung fu." Lin Mingyang gestured and said, "I want to use this movie to let people know what real kung fu is really like."
After hearing these words, Yuan Wo Ping stared at Lin Mingyang for half a day with an odd expression. He originally thought that the fact that Lin Mingyang knew Chinese kung fu was nothing more than a deliberate hype by the Hollywood media, but now it seemed that Lin Mingyang should really have had in-depth contact with the Chinese martial arts, and just such a request alone was very different from other Hollywood directors.
"8th Master, did I say anything wrong?" Seeing that Yuan Heping didn't respond for half a day, Lin Mingyang asked again.
Yuan Heping quickly waved his hand, "The Hollywood directors I've worked with before never wanted you to be so demanding. When Ang Lee was filming Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, he even asked me to try to be as engaging as possible when designing the movements, and those Hollywood directors were even more direct, they asked me to design movements that the audience wouldn't have thought of... Hearing you say that, I do feel that instead of letting overseas audiences understand what kung fu is after being in Hollywood for so many years, I've instead introduced them to a misconception. "
Lin Mingyang hurriedly explained, "Whether it is the audience's demand that guides the production of the movie, or whether it is the production of the movie that triggers the audience's demand, this question is as inconclusive as 'the chicken lays the egg, the egg lays the chicken'. After all, the real side of kung fu is not as interesting as most people see it, and the exaggerated presentation of kung fu in the movie can't be said to be bad, it just means that the realistic part of this movie, I want the audience to see what real kung fu is like, so that they can have a rational understanding of it."
"It's definitely fine to design the action according to your requirements...but will the audience enjoy watching it?" Yuan Wo Ping wasn't that kind of idealist, so he asked a very practical question.
"So we're going to fill in this part of the movie 'Dreamland', about how to design the martial arts action in this part, it's up to you to take full responsibility, there's only one thing I ask for, it has to be a great fight!"
----
After Lin Ming Yang's side and Yuan Woo Ping had finalized their talks, Jackie Chan also sent over the information of the actors Lin Ming Yang needed from Hong Kong. According to Lin Mingyang's initial intention, he actually wanted Jackie Chan to find two suitable actresses in China for him to play the roles of Golden Swallow and White-haired Witch in the movie, but later thought that it seemed a bit inappropriate to do so, and then temporarily changed to let the other party recommend.
Golden Swallow's role candidate Jackie Chan recommended over several, in which Lin Mingyang quickly found Liu Yifei's information, because this role in the movie in the dream world and reality to play different roles, the dream of the Golden Swallow should be a classical beauty, while the reality of the Golden Swallow is a Chinese girl.
Comprehensive comparison down, Liu Yifei looks classical and soft, but also has the experience of living in the United States, the role of the Golden Swallow quickly determined by her to play. But the role of the White-Haired Witch made it a bit difficult for Lin Mingyang.
In the original script, the "White-haired Witch" is actually a white-browed Taoist, want to use a male to play, but later Lin Mingyang revised the story that the story lacks female softness, so it was changed to "White-haired Witch", Lin Mingyang's only requirement for the role is to be pretty and able to play. Lin Mingyang's only requirement for the role was to be pretty and able to fight.
I don't know what Jackie Chan was thinking, but he actually recommended to Lin Ming Yang an actor who could not possibly play this role, instead of Li Bing Bing as Lin Ming Yang remembered.
Holding this information about Lin Qingxia sent by Jackie Chan in his hand, Lin Mingyang was constantly thinking about the feasibility of this matter, although the idea of letting Lin Qingxia play the role of the "White-haired Witch" in the movie is really tempting, if the other party can agree to play, then the movie's attraction will be the first screen clash between the two kung fu superstars in the Chinese world. If the other party agrees to play the role, then the attraction of this movie will be the first time two Chinese kung fu superstars collide with each other on the screen, and another exciting topic.
To say that the influence in the Chinese movie world, even if it is resting for many years, Lin Qingxia still has does not belong to Jackie Chan, Jet Li's appeal, said that the audience is forgetful, show business is cool, but everyone has not forgotten Lin Qingxia. Because since her hiatus, the Chinese acting circle has never appeared in the second can freely travel in the yin and yang poles of beauty, her acting style natural and simple, introverted and delicate, sharp and sexy appearance, good at showing the character's thoughts and feelings of the complicated ups and downs of the ups and downs of the feelings.
This special character, who steps from the popularity of the 70s to the popularity of the 90s, does represent a special fashion history. Lin Qingxia, who came out from Qiong Yao films, has used her 21 years of acting history to help people remember the fading era and the fads of the past. Just like her inherent image of looking sideways and out of the corner of her eye, she has slowly become a glittering symbol in the light and shadow of people's memories.
Jin Yong said she has "unmatched beauty", in Tsui Hark's eyes she is "the only and eternal" beauty, and John Woo has been hanging on the lips of the famous saying: "If you haven't filmed Brigitte Lin, you haven't filmed a movie. " Audience members have been recalling one of her classics after another: the white-haired devil practicing Nishang, the East is undefeated, Murong Yan, Murong Yan... New and old directors have been competing to hire her, and there have been invitations for her to return to the movie industry, but they have all been rejected one by one, no matter how big the other party is, and how sincere they are.
The idea of the role of the "White-haired Witch" is largely derived from Lin Qingxia's successful portrayal of the White-haired Witch, Lian Nishang, and it can be said that she is the right person to play this role, especially since she has a powerful star aura that does not belong to Jackie Chan or Jet Li, and the duel between the three in the movie will be very exciting. Every time he thought of this, Lin Ming Yang would feel a vague excitement. But reason kept reminding him that it was almost impossible to ask Lin Qingxia to star in this movie.
Caught in the middle of this passion and reason, Lin Ming Yang felt unusually distressed, he had never encountered such a contradictory choice, knowing that he couldn't get it but refusing to give it up, this could be completely described as a kind of torment for him who was pursuing perfection.
After tossing and turning for several nights in a row, Lin Mingyang finally made a decision.
As the saying goes, planning is in the people, accomplishing is in the sky, Lin Mingyang is not willing to give up so easily, knowing that impossible things still want to try, so he has to go to a trip to Hong Kong!