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Su Li Zhen
Joined: 22 Nov 2006 Posts: 20 Location: Pepperland
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Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 3:24 pm Post subject: THE GRANDMASTER in NY - The Diva Review |
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Hey all, The Diva Review has just posted exclusive coverage of the New York promotion of The Grandmaster, including interviews with Director Wong Kar-Wai, Zhang Ziyi, and of course, Tony himself. We’d rather not post the entire article, but here’s a teaser to tempt you to read the rest of the piece and see the exclusive photos. Please enjoy it.
Here is the link to the full article: http://www.thedivareview.com/The_Grandmaster_Exclusive_Coverage.htm
The Lady Miz Diva: For Mr. Leung and Ms. Zhang, the film is based not only on the life of Ip Man, someone who lived and still has people alive who remember him, but also deals with very authentic principles of martial arts that are practised today. Did that basis in reality affect your approach or your own research into playing Ip Man and Gong Er?
Tony Leung: I was lucky because I had a real character to work on this time. Kar-Wai showed me a lot of books; martial arts novels in the new republic period so I had a chance to understand all the culture and the customs of the martial arts world during that period of time. And he asked me to merge Bruce Lee’s character into Ip Man, too. Of course I didn’t know why: I didn’t know how can I merge Bruce Lee when I cannot fight like {Does Bruce Lee kung fu imitation}, but he asked me to, so I studied, and because Bruce Lee left us a lot of books about his vision of kung fu and the philosophy of kung fu and his understanding of kung fu and this really helped me to build up the confidence; to build up the soul of The Grandmaster. It really helped. For Ip Man, I only had information after he settled down in Hong Kong. I saw his picture. I learned about Ip Man from my kung fu master because he was the student of Ip Man, and I learned about how difficult his life was in Hong Kong. What I saw from his picture is that he didn’t look like a kung fu man; he looked like a scholar. Very refined, erudite and graceful. I could feel the dignity in his eyes and he always wore a smile. I think that is so amazing; how can someone look like that if he went through that difficult life in Hong Kong? I wanted to know how he can do that? So after all this study, I think kung fu might’ve inspired him something. Kar-Wai said, “He is very optimistic.” I said, “No, not just optimistic. Kung fu might’ve inspired him something to deal with life.” After I studied all the books from Bruce Lee, I know that kung fu is not just fighting techniques, but also a way of training your mind, kind of like meditation in Buddhism. How to keep your mind free from emotion and desire. Actually, the goal of kung fu is not to oppose your opponent, or to give way, but to be harmonised with your opponents. If you put it in real life, it’s just like you tried to be in harmony with nature and the whole world and not trying to oppose or give way. I think kung fu really inspired this man, so he can move on.
Zhang Ziyi: I didn’t have any books because the character is fictional, but for me this kind of training and feeling is not so strange because I used to be a dancer and I trained for six years professionally. So I understand what Tony said, because it’s not only to train your body - physical work - it’s about training your brain and building up the strength. That’s what I learned with my dance background. For this movie, I didn’t think that much, I didn’t do any research. For me, I don’t want to think too much, I just wanted to concentrate on the training, and slowly, because I didn’t know my character at all and Wong Kar-Wai didn’t tell me that much, as well, so I think we built up the character together as we are shooting, so I understood her a little bit more and better. I knew that she is living in this kind of a world: She needed a lot of strength and power to get the life that she wants. Because the story of her is she’s not allowed to do a lot of things, but she doesn’t believe this, that’s why she represents the independence and she represents the strength. |
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In The Mood For Leung
Joined: 13 Jan 2010 Posts: 361 Location: State of Nirvana, USA
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Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 9:48 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks Su Li Zhen.
A very insightful interview with two of my favorite actors!
I would like to see TL and ZZ act together in a film a la Truffaut's "The Woman Next Door" or Hitchcock's "Vertigo" one day...directed by WKW, of course, or by Ang Lee.
A 'Vertigoesque' film set in Hong Kong is a very spectacular proposition. |
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Jamaica
Joined: 27 Mar 2011 Posts: 664 Location: Lexington, KY United States
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Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 9:01 am Post subject: |
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I like that, Joe! That would be neat! _________________ "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx |
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