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18
September 2008, 3pm at Hotel Intercontinental
Readers might be a tad too familiar with "Painted
Skin", one of the short stories from "The
Tales of Liaozhai". Most notably, there’s
the 1966 classic version and the late King Hu did his
own interpretation with Adam Cheng in 1993 in addition
to other countless adaptations on television.
But
that didn’t deter HK director Gordon Chan from
attempting his own take on the classic story. In the
latest "Painted Skin", Chan manages to attract
action star Donnie Yen as the lead actor, our local
up-and-coming Qi Yuwu and mainland actresses such as
Zhou Xun and Zhao Wei to join the production.
And
on this sunny day, we join Donnie Yen, Qi Yuwu and David
Leong on their Singapore’s promotional tour of
"Painted Skin".
If
you think it’s exhausting jumping from roof to
roof for two weeks in a row, Donnie Yen feels this is
nothing compared to his previous works. Beside the less
than strenuous action, the action star comments at least
he is dressed comfortably when this particular scene
was shot last winter in China. In "Painted Skin",
he plays martial-arts expert Pang Yong who is hired
to capture a fox spirit (Zhou Xun) and the scene above
requires him to chase after the evil chameleon played
by our local Qi Yuwu.
Qi
Yuwu proclaims this is a role which is far more different
than any he has tackled so far. The chameleon character
pins for the love of the fox spirit and will sacrifice
anything to prove his love and devotion. Although he
has many scenes with Zhou Xun, he laments he did not
have enough time to warm up to Zhou Xun prior to filming.
And also it seems that he is the only one in the movie
that has to suffer 4 to 5 hours of make-up for his chameleon
character. Donnie adds in that Yuwu is always the last
to leave the set every day when filming cease because
he has to painstakingly wait for his make-up to be removed.
Newcomer
David Leong who helms from our very own island plays
a fortune-teller in "Painted Skin". He recalls
he has some ghostly 'encounters' while filming in Hengdian
studio although Donnie laughs it off saying his own
‘yang’ energy perhaps is too strong to attract
ghosts as compared to Leong.
Touted
as a drama that delves into intricate emotions and relationships
between man and demon, love and passion, loyalty and
temptation, treachery and integrity, "Painted Skin"
which is partly co-funded by Mediacorp Raintree Pictures
is a movie that you might consider buying a ticket to
when it opens on 25th September.
"Painted
Skin" is reviewed here.
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