21 June 2005 (Singapore, Pan Pacific Hotel) - Because of a delayed flight, the press conference for “Initial D” started almost an hour after the scheduled time. The invited stars, Jay Chou, Shawn Yue, Edison Chen, Anthony Wong and Kenny Bee were supposedly still clearing customs at Changi airport, the conference room was already buzzing with excitement from the host of media.

Finally at the strike of three, the stars arrived to a frenzy of flashlights and commotion from the cameramen (including our very own Leosen). Leading the group is veteran actor-singer Kenny Bee, with his megawatt smile and smooth greeting to the press, the long awaited “Initial D” press conference started with no doubt all attention focused on leading man Jay Chou.

The current prince of pop with his usual trademark of aloofness brushed off comments that he initiated the kissing scene with the female lead, Anne Suzuki in the movie. Instead, he offered an explanation to the media that he got the inspiration from the comics and added that, the scene in fact improved the characters development.

Since “Initial D” is all about car racing and the special technique of “drifting”, Shawn Yue maintained that as much as he loved racing, his skills are still way below as compared to the actual Japanese racers who execute the stunts in the movie.

Jay and Shawn are obviously great pals and were not shy in clowning with each other during the conference. The latter constantly teased Jay for performing magic tricks to win the ‘affection’ of Anne Suzuki whereas the former mocked him for learning the magic tricks from him and in turn, demonstrates his newly found skills to everyone on set.

Edison Chen who has not been a media darling all along hasn’t proved otherwise throughout the session. Other than a forced “Hello” and some short monotonous answers, the American-born Chen was busy doodling on a piece of paper to show interest in the “Initial D” topic. He even direct questions back to his co-stars, Jay and Shawn.

Winner of multiple movie awards, Anthony Wong prove to be quite a hard egg to crack as well. Wong who wore a pair of sunglass answered its crazy for someone to assume he possessed the same traits as the father’s character (in the movie, Wong’s character is a frequent drunkard and beat up his son often) in real-life when prompted by the host.

With Jay declaring that he will give himself 85 marks for his debut on the big screen, the box-office of “Initial D” is sure to accelerate to the top spot. Cool cars, breath-taking car stunts and a great assemble of the most popular stars right now in Asia, seriously don’t hesitate, just strap in and go for this ride when “Initial D” opens on 23 June!

P.S. For those who are interested in what Edison is doodling, moviexclusive.com did not managed to grab that piece of paper (some other guy from ???media??? took it) however we did managed a peek into it. Well, apparently nothing unusual except odd shapes of triangles and circles. Jet-lag, prima-donna, preoccupied with his thoughts or simply unenthusiastic, we leave it to you to make the judgement.

Reported by Linus T.