Stephen Chow Praises Shu Qi’s Incredible Talent in “Journey to the West”
Stephen Chow’s new film, Journey to the West <西遊降魔篇> will be released in February of 2013. Stephen and the cast attended a press conference at Beijing yesterday to promote the movie. A making of the movie video was shown and the casts revealed the humorous stories while working with each other.
Although Stephen is not in the movie, he was busier than most of the stars. In one of the behind-the-scenes clips shown yesterday, Stephen was coaching Shu Qi (舒淇), who portrays a comedic and crude exorcist, how to perform an exorcism, and shouted at her, “Decapitate him! Tear his hands off! His legs too!” Shu Qi performed the scene to perfection by yanking the hands, the legs, and the head of the extra, while howling with laughter at the same time.
Shu Qi told the media that was the first time she has done a scene with such dramatization, and admitted feeling high when she performed the exorcism. Another clip revealed Shu Qi going after the main character Tang Sanzang (Wen Zhang 文章), in which she savagely smacked Wen on his head and viciously kicked him. At the same time she shouted, “You useless, impotent, moron! Eat crap!” This was a departure from the classic beauty that most people associate her with. Stephen praised her acting as incredible, a guru on par with himself.
When Stephen offered Shu Qi the role, he did not contact her agency or manager. Stephen called her out of the blue and asked if she had time to have a date with him. Stephen said, “I was surprised she didn’t find it exciting having dinner with me; she seemed to be more interested in acting.” Shu Qi enjoyed the filming process immensely, getting a good laugh by asking Stephen to demonstrate the comedic scenes first.
Stephen Chow’s Journey to the West is a nutty version of one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature. In the movie, Wen Zhang plays a comedic version of a filthy Tang Sanzang. Stephen found Wen to be so funny that he felt it was time to retire from acting.
Another leading man, Huang Bo (黃渤), who plays the Monkey King, felt left out when Wen got to do all the intimate scenes with Shu Qi. “I am extremely bitter!” joked Huang.
Source: Apple Daily
This article is written by Lance for JayneStars.com.
Wow. Mainland actors. Forget it, Stephen is finished.
China market much better than HK,TW,SEA market
Somehow his praise of Shu Qi diminishes him in my opinion. That woman is a terrible actress.
Shu Qi was suppose to be doing Zhang Ziyi’s role in Crouching Tiger. If she did it, she will be much more well known in the world…
but her looks not her filmography would have made the integrity of the character unbelievable. ZZY has the face of a Beijing blade albeit a very pretty one – that spartan look evokes the character of a soldier, of self sacrifice whereas Shu Qi’s full lips and squinty eyes and broad facial planes make her a candidate for exactly how she is marketed – a sex kitten.
I didn’t read the article because it is hard to respect Stephen Chow after the way he broke up with Athena Zhu i.e. in the arms of Karen Mok – yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck. I can’t really LOOOK at Stephen Chow now as a result.
Wow I haven’t seen her films in a long time just pretty much those in the early 2000’s and early to late 90’s, not sure how she is now but I don’t think she’s that bad I guess from the roles I’ve seen her in like Young & Dangerous series or some other love interest roles it just wasn’t anything special. I think she’s alright
I’m trying to think of a good film Shu Qi acted in to counteract your criticism….but….I couldn’t think of anything.
Does anyone remember “For Bad Boys Only” where she co-starred with Ekin and Louis Koo? The movie was made to showcase her acting because she played 3 different characters but she was outrageously bad.
You’re wrong.
Shu qi was very overwhelmingly famous in CatIII & CatIV films back in those glory days a decade ago. That’s what makes her so hot and so special among all guys around the globe.
even though she didn’t do real porn, Maggie Q kisses in a very erotic explicit way on her show “nikita” – it does not make for a good impression but I think she tries too hard to keep her job – if HK had not taught her action moves, she would be just another unemployed actress/waittress in Hollywood
something about maggie q.. don’t fancy her at all, didn’t know what it was till now, yeah, she looks like a porn actress
I just think she’s alright but I haven’t seen those erotic films like someone mentioned so no opinion about that, For Bad Boys Only was a bad film the whole plot was useless. I heard she was pretty good in that film with Daniel Wu but I could be wrong then again I haven’t seen any of her latest films for the past few years, last is probably the Transporter where she was bearable.
A majority of her roles usually just serve as a love interest and quite frankly it’s nothing memorable but I’m looking forward to see her in The Assassin since it’s a diff role for her.
But I have been enjoying Shu Qi’s acting in her recent films like “Love” and “10+10”. She’s not a bad actor, but her flaws just get amplified when she acts in Cantonese because even after 20 years of living in HK, she still can’t get the accent right and it detracts from her acting.
You’re wrong. It’s all becoz of her imperfect flaw of cantonese accent that makes her so special and hot among audience & producers these days.
Special and hot amongst the audience…?
@lynette
Christine Kuo and Fala Chen get slaughtered by the local audience because their accent detracts from the acting.
And it should. If your character is supposed to be a HK person born and raised in HK, then people are going to come at you because.. how are they supposed to believe the characterization if the accent is way off?
Regarding Shu Qi’s CAT III films though, she shys away from it lately. I don’t think she should though, it’s what brought her into the industry.
Even if she were to live in HK for 40, 50 years, it’d still be difficult to get rid of the accent… It would have been much easier if she started speaking canto at a younger age.
To me, it seems that when you’re an actor and your line of work includes stuff like lots of dialogue and speaking lines over and over to get the right tone for the perfect delivery, your language progress should be way ahead of some normal non-HK person living in HK.
Alas.
I’m utterly disappointed… I thought Stephen would star in it. I really miss him… and I really hate that so much mainland actors/actress are used in Hong Kong movies.
Lai Ming basically paid to have a private version of Shu Qi after dating the real one. I bet if she hadn’t made those movies, she’d be married to someone who appreciates her willingness to please.
It sounds like this movie will not have any serious but touching moments like ‘A Chinese Odyseey’ did.
Stephen Chow’s career as an actor is exceedingly more successful than his job as a Director/Producer.
Don’t fix what’s not broken, Chow.
Just watching the trailer for his latest movie is full of fail.