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Out in the wasteland across which the steep cliffs continue, the red and the white troops come face to face. From the white side, the roar of the raging bison herd thunders down the narrow valley. The red, in return, releases millions of their slaves to draw the opponents near. The beasts, raising clouds of yellow dust into the air, make a turn to bolt back the opposite direction, just as the red soldiers tear down from the top of the cliff. The world-class director, Chen Kaige reveals this scene in his latest work, The Promise, as the first climax not long after the beginning of the film. The man wearing a crimson armor in the center of this commotion is the Japanese actor, Hiroyuki Sanada.
“The sight in front of my eyes gave me gooseflesh. I felt as if I was watching a movie, when in fact I was the one being filmed. I could see actual people like the size of peas, and the herd of bison rampaging beneath the cliff. Right there, we plunge down just at the right timing, and so as the story goes. What is amazing about Peter Pao, the filming director, is that he tries to capture all this in one clip. He literally does unbelievable things, (which makes you wonder 'seriously!'), by taking take after take to make it perfect. This does not happen in Japanese or Hollywood films; in fact I think it is not so much the fact that they do not try, but rather they can’t try.
The film depicts the love and the struggle between two men and a women, who face their destinies. Sanada plays the general, Guangming, who meets his downfall after falling in love with Qingcheng, the King’s lover. To play a role of a man, who is “emotionally explicit, and in a way has childish weakness and willfullness”, must surely be a relish for an actor, but there was a different atmosphere of zest at the sites of filming. At any sets, everyone, including the extras for the army, willingly promised to dedicate their complete cooperation towards this film, which proves Director Chen Kaige’s utmost power.
“But once he is out on the sets, he is just like a movie-enthusiast boy. He shows his own performances of even the slave and the princess. He was dead serious about the kissing scenes that I too became engrossed in, which created a strange mood on the sets (Laughs). His way of giving out directions for the acting was so funny. One moment he would tell me to act like a “perverted little boy being caught for his molester act, but is just playing innocent”, and the next moment he writes his direction expressed in a Chinese poetry, written in such a masterly Chinese handwriting, and hands it over to me. The director often said “I represented myself in Kunlun (played by Jang Dong-Gun)”, but on the sets, that is absolutely credible. I bet you could make a more interesting movie by filming the director act instead of any of the actors (Laughs).”
Nevertheless, six months of filming in China seems intense just to hear it. At times, they were forced to live in tents in locations with no hotels, while the climate made a drastic weekly change in the range of 60°C to below 0°C (140°F to below 32°F). However, there is no escaping from an altitude of 10 thousand feet or a site 13 hours drive away from the airport. Obviously, there are no Hollywood union-type conceptions here. They would continue the filming with the armor on without taking a single break.
“The only entertainment I had was drinking or playing catch-ball with Dong-chan (Jang Dong-Gun). Sometimes when we have a hotel to stay in, we would say things like “Okay let’s play pool!” or “why not do karaoke next?” (Laughs). But it wasn’t so unbearable. To find joy in looking at the beautiful clouds or the stars comes to be a great thing as it is.” It could be said that all the hardship brought the all-Asian staff/cast together as one.
“We lived together like in training camps, and as we somehow managed to pull off numbers of difficult scenes that become too developed (molded), a bond forged between us. We were able to build a relationship that even now, after the shootings, if we ever meet again, we would be able to hug each other and say “How are you?” This, as an individual, has been a very big experience. I think I was able to gain an “adaptor” for intercultural relationships in my future career as an actor.”
He, having encountered this project immediately after the Hollywood film “Last Samurai” seems like a fortune. Unlike in his younger days when he was simply pursuing his dream for “the world”, he now has a more definite goal, and it seems as though he can see exactly where he is going.
“No matter how many years of career you have, there are actors of the same age debuting every year. In the end, what matters the most is not so much the skills for acting, but whether you have the appropriate experiences accumulated over the years for a particular role and have a progressive attitude towards it as human being. What is expected from you becomes more profound as the years go by, and since you are continuously stepping into fields of unfamiliarity, you are basically refining yourself as one individual… Whom would I like to work with in the future? The list goes on forever, but that is a trade secret. (Laughs)”
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