Eddie Peng on Playing Wong Fei Hung: “It’s Difficult to Be a Superhero”

Director Chow Hin Yeung’s (周顯揚) upcoming kung fu action film, Rise of the Legend <黃飛鴻之英雄有夢>, recently unveiled its international promotional poster. Male lead Eddie Peng (彭於晏), who stars as martial arts legend Wong Fei Hung, shared about his injuries on set, commenting that it was difficult to portray such a classic Chinese superhero.

At a Beijing press conference on June 12, Eddie and director Chow revealed Rise of the Legend’s international poster together. The poster features protagonist Wong Fei Hung, drenched in a torrent of ink and looking like he just underwent a fierce battle. The unique color scheme creates a stark contrast between the golden-yellow background and the black images and lettering.

The press conference also provided a glimpse of a preview clip prior to the addition of special effects. Though Eddie does not have a martial arts background, he trained for eight months to prepare for the role, and the end result on screen is quite impressive.

Despite his continuous practicing, Eddie did end up injuring his hand in a scene where he punches a pillar. Although a professional went through the action with him many times, all did not go as planned when it came to the actual shoot. “The pillar was half-real and half-fake,” he said. “I hit it for real, and when my fist went out, it didn’t go in, and my hand was hurt immediately.”

At the press conference, Eddie was asked about the persistence of rumors between him and former female costars, such as mainland Chinese actress Bai Baihe (白百何), with whom he collaborated in 2013 for A Wedding Invitation <分手合約>. In response, Eddie said that he had not given much thought to anything else apart from acting, since filming movies was already tiring enough.

“It’s given that when we film, everyone is very invested in it,” he mused. “It could be that when the audience watches it, they will become invested as well, so they [the media] will write a little more.”

Rise of the Legend also features appearances by Sammo Hung (洪金寶), Wang Luodan (王珞丹), Jing Boran (井柏然), and Max Zhang (張晉), and is expected to air before the end of the year. The film has also been picked up for an international release by Universal Pictures, much like Jet Li’s (李連杰) Fearless <霍元甲> in 2006.

Source: Sina.com

This article is written by Joanna for JayneStars.com.

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Responses

  1. But Wong Fei Hung is not a superhero. He was a real man. (Chung) Wah Ying Hung is a superhero since a comic book hero. But not Wong Fei Hung. Will his performance be flawed since his reasoning is already flawed?

    1. he is not even a real martial arts star how convincing is that to play a martial arts master? jet li is the best no one can beat him as wong fei hung.

      1. He is not a real gymnast when he was in Jump Ashin, he wasn’t a real MMA fighter in Unbeatable, but he works hard to play his role. I don’t know how well he will do in his film, but what i;ve seen on social media he has put in a lot of work into this film. I do hope it works out for him. He is always pleasant to watch, for me at least!

      2. Agree with ping0. Eddie goes all out to train for his roles, and it’s evident that the producers & directors are impressed with his dedication to keep casting him.

        His IG update today:

        “Lot of ppl asked me have u ever felt tired of taking all these roles? My answer is yes I’m tired! But sometimes I keep my feelings to myself because it’s really hard for someone else to understand them.”

      3. He’s not a real martial arts star but he was great in Unbeatable. I’m sure he’ll do just fine. It’s after all called acting.

  2. Getting sick of period martial arts films. HK/China needs to make more modern action films.

    1. a lot of people can say the same thing about modern action films: too much of the same bs.

      1. I was actually talking about modern martial arts action films, not crime films (like COLD WAR or FIRESTORM) with action in them.

  3. I was actually talking about modern martial arts action films, not crime films (like COLD WAR or FIRESTORM) with action in them.

  4. For me, he is not suitable for a role of a hero.

  5. He trains so hard but I hope he has a higher fat percentage now. The veiny look wasn’t very attractive.

  6. We don’t need a real martial arts expert to portray one. After all it’s called ‘acting’, nothing is real in movies.

    1. Roles of martial arts experts always require real skills in order to authenticate the fighting scenes. There’s a good reason why there’s something called ‘martial arts acting’: to bring authenticity to the martial arts style utilized. In this case, we’re talking about a hung gar master.

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