Post by idolfan on Apr 4, 2013 8:52:00 GMT 7
The Star Studded Affair of “Saving General Yang”
Renowned Hong Kong Producer, Raymond Wong and Director, Ronny Yu led a star studded entourage to town recently to promote their latest USD 26 million action blockbuster “Saving General Yang”. Their entourage included 4 handsome “Generals” from different parts of the world, Ekin Cheng from Hong Kong, Yu Bo from China, Vic Chou from Taiwan and Wu Chun from Brunei, concregating on the same stage. They had previously done the promotional tours for the movie in Taiwan, Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore. It was a full schedule for the 6 of them as they made their appearances for the movie press conference and interviews, attended the private fans gathering, the meet the fans session and the movie gala premiere at night. Hardcore fans from Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, China, Brunei and even Singapore flew into Malaysia to catch a glimpse of their idols.
L to R: Ekin Cheng, Yu Bo, Director Ronny Yu, Producer Raymond Wong, Vic Chou and Wu Chun
Director Ronny Yu and Producer Raymond Wong
When asked how they came about making this movie, Raymond has this to say “Three years ago, I met up with Ronny in Beijing and talked to him about doing a movie. You know this Ronny is very choosy on what he wants to film but at the end of the day it was my son, Edmond who managed to convince him”. Ronny shared “It was Edmond who suggested to do the story on the Yang Family as from young he has watched many of the Yang Family stories and to use this Chinese Legendary story to show the values of filial piety, honour, unflinching loyalty and remarkable courage. This film can also enlighten the younger people on what those values really mean”. Ronny returns to direct this movie after a seven-year hiatus, his last movie was “Fearless” in 2006.
“After I watched this movie, the first thing I said was, it’s like I’m watching a western movie!” exclaimed Raymond. He said that he could see that these bunch of actors have put in a lot of time and effort into making this movie a success and he is very confident about doing well at the box office. Raymond also commended that the Director did a wonderful job of creating such a fresh and modern period movie. In total they took 3 years to make this movie at a budget of USD 26 million. The preparation time took 9 months, physical photography/production is 3 months and the post production took 12 months.
On how they choose the line-up for cast, Ronny said “Well basically, I told Raymond that we must get all the good looking and coolest actors from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. I set a standard for the height first, they must be at least 1.8m so that it’ll look good when they stand together”. At this point, Raymond joked “I’m 1.79m, short by 0.01m, that’s why I’m not in” drew laughter from the crowd. Ronny continued “Then we filter through and talk to the potential ones and finally came out with this list”.
Ronny shared that his inspiration came from movies like “Godfather”, “Saving Private Ryan” and the old cowboy movies and for the mood of the movie, he got the influence from Japanese auteur, Akira Kurosawa. Watch out for one spectacular scene where third brother, Vic Chou who is an expert archer, had a shoot-out with the enemy in the straw fields. The Director also made sure that he balances all the character equally as this is a story about a family and every member has to have his own very unique moment, the weapon, the design of their fight, costumes, their dying moments, have to be different so that the audience can identify who is who. The Director also shared that many scenes fell on the cutting floor as he felt that certain character was too outstanding.
Bruneian heartthrobe and former member of Taiwanese boy band Fahrenhiet, Wu Chun
When asked why he chose Wu Chun to be the sixth brother, Ronny has this to say “Before making the decision, I spend a lot of time talking with each actor and the sometimes the topic will get into their personal lives and family. The reason is because I have to have a feel of their character whether it is similar like what character I have in mind. When I talk to Wu Chun, I found that he loves his family and is a very filial son and so I felt that he is the perfect person to take up this role".
Former member of Taiwanese boy band F4, Vic Chou
I also spend a lot of time talking to number 3, Vic Chou. I remember meeting him in Taipei and we spoke for almost 2 hours and he only spoke 3 sentences “Hello”, “How do you want me to interpret this role” and “Thank you”. But I realize that he is a very observant character, like a sponge, he listens and absorbs everything. It’s not like he does not want to speak, it’s just that, that is his character. He grew a moustache and a goatee for the character, which is his own design which he thinks, will give him more weight age wise as he is going to play brother number 3. So he is a thinker not a talker and so that is exactly what I had mind about this character”.
The major locations of filming for this movie are just within Beijing. Ronny said “Because we have such a huge production team, 500 horses and 1000 extras every day, we cannot move them too far, basically all within Beijing, the furthest location is about 4 hours away. Oh yes I want to tell you about this, remember the place where the eldest brother died at the valley. When I went on location recce, I met a Buddhist monk. He asked me who am I and I told him that I’m a movie director and I’m making the Yang Family movie and he told me that this is the exact battleground where the Yang army defeated the Liaos. Immediately I got goose bumps after hearing this. The monk further added that if we go further towards the end of the valley, the Liao Empress’s tomb is there but her body is not inside, only all her clothes. Because she is so angry on their defeat, she wants to use her clothes to jinx the Yang Family. Throughout the whole shooting, we felt the spirit of the Yang Family. This is just so amazing but this area has been closed down and turned into a tourist area”.
“I always tell everyone that I am not making a documentary on the Yang Family history, I am just using the characters to tell the story my way. Everyone is talking about the women side, do you know that it never exist, it’s really just an urban legend. All the males of the Yang Family die off is real but the Chinese people felt that they need to continue the Yang Family saga so they created the widow warriors” shared Ronny.
On his future plans, the Director said “We have a plan to do something contemporary with the same cast along the lines of “Ocean Eleven”. They love it as now they don’t have to ride the horses, they can ride Ferraris and Porsches and shoot guns instead”.
Hong Kong singer actor, Ekin Cheng
Ekin shared his new death experience “We were filming one scene where I was leading in front charging towards the enemy with my brothers and a few hundred soldiers behind me and I felt myself falling off the horse. I told myself that I’m going to die but somehow just before reaching the ground, I felt this force pushing me back up!” Ekin shared that he has no problem taking on the role as the big brother as he has the most experience. We are all too familiar with his role as Chan Ho Nam, the big brother of triads in the Young and Dangerous series.
China's rising star, Yu Bo
Yu Bo who plays the second brother, described his most difficult scene was his dying scene in the movie. He had to hold his breath for a very long time while lying on the ground and waiting for the camera to close up to him from the top and he had re-take the scene several times.
Vic Chou joked “Well I was lucky, I had a very easy and fast dying scene”. Vic plays the third brother who is an expert archer and he had to learn the basics of archery and used real heavy olden time arrows. As the Director wanted everything to be as realistic as possible, the brothers had to wear heavy armor suits and use real weapons that weigh about 30 kgs. Big brother Ekin shared that Vic love horses as he was seen always taking the horse somewhere during rest time. Vic has this to say “Well actually it is the horse who is taking me somewhere. But we do have to spend some time to get to know the horse better as we will be using a lot of them during filming and I felt that I have gotten to like horses more now after making this movie”. Ekin added that they had fun learning how to ride horses together in Beijing, spend a lot of time together and got to know each other more.
Wu Chun shared that he did a lot of research on the Yang Family prior to filming and the more the research he did, the more interested he got in the story. He said that even though he did not die in the story but the final fighting scene was quite challenging and strenuous for him as he had to lug around a 60kg dummy together with a bundle of heavy weapons on his back while riding a horse.
Scenes from Meet the fans session and Gala Premiere at Pavilion
Sypnosis
"Saving General Yang" is a period wartime epic based on the Chinese Legend of the Yang clan. Veteran Hong Kong Actor, Adam Cheng stars as General Yang Ye who heads the clan and has been the military force protecting the Song Empire and its people against their ever invasive neighbour, the Liao, sometimes also known as the Khitans. Yang Ye has seven sons, who possess different characters, skills and temperament, Yang Ping (Ekin Cheng), Yang Ding (Yu Bo), Yang Ang (Vic Chou), Yang Hui (Chen Li), Yang De (Raymond Lam), Yang Zhao (Wu Chun) and Yang Si (Xin Bo Fu).
The sixth brother Zhao is in love with Princess Chai (Ady An) who has been betrothed to the son of a rival clan leader, Pan RenMei (Bryan Leung). The two youngest sons, Zhao and Si enters into a duel for the Princess’s hand and accidently caused the death of Pan RenMei’s son and from this inadvertently started a war between both clans.
When the enemy invaded the Song Empire, General Yang is forced into battle but was played out by Pan RenMei and found himself ambushed and surrounded by a large Khitan invasion led by the Khitan Prince, Yelu Yuan (Shao Bing). The veteran Yang Ye and his remaining strength however managed to seek refuge in the ruin city of Wolverine and shocking news of defeat were sent back to Yang Ye’s wife, Madame She (Xu Fan).
The seven brothers must rescue their father and bring him home. All seven of them have had military training but the youngest two are the most inexperience, Zhao and Si will be riding into battle for the first time. The night before the rescue mission, their mother, Madame She has consulted the outcome through a legendary fortune reader, Master Gui Gu and the Master predicts, “Seven sons go, six return” (七子去六子回) Can the brothers save their father and bring him home to their mother ….
Distributed by Lotus Five Star and RAM Entertainment, "Saving General Yang" will be blazing into cinemas worldwide on 4 April 2013.
