Crisis from ten sides … Takeshi Kaneshiro
Milk, cover story
In Zhang YiMou’s new work House of Flying Daggers, captain Jin carries an important role, originally he chases to the edge of the world without regard to life, however an infinitesimal game of love hate relationship, allows his experience to become scary and dangerous; during the filming process, Takeshi Kaneshiro also faced signs of danger occurring everywhere, he fell off a horse and rested for several months, the careless use of bow and arrow shot and hurt Zhao Xiaoding, he fought with real knives in frozen air and snow covered grounds …… Takeshi Kaneshiro delivered many first times this time.
Braver to love in past than present
Milk: After receiving the script for “House of Flying Daggers” what do you feel?
Takeshi Kaneshiro: At that time the script was still not finished, (I) only continued discussion with director Zhang YiMou, no matter what the script is, I had a lot of looking forward to and confidence in him, and hoped very much to cooperate with him.
M: What is your impression of Zhang Yimou…?
T: I feel that he has a lot of substance, whether he is directing our set of skills at the scene, or expectation he carries toward Chinese movies, it has caused me to worship him very much. I most admire his old work “Not One Less”. Although there is no performance from the big class (big names), but the entire film is saturated with a special taste. “House” also gave me a deep impression, for it I delivered many first times, like first time cooperating with Zhang Yimou, first time cooperating with Zhang ZiYi, first time filming a historic costume film…
M: Back to talking about your character, Captain Jin has a very important role; were there any special difficulties in acting?
T: There was, the entire script had many changes, somewhat difficult to comprehend, I didn’t quite understand the character’s emotional changes. I asked the director, when is it real, when is it false. He told me not to mind the truth and the false, but that in contrary made me feel more contradictory, I decided not to think so much at the end, and treated the performance at each scene as one movie to be enough. I asked him, why (Jin) loves this woman this much. The director said, there is no reason to love a person. His stuff in the past contains his uniqueness, so I treated myself to be chess piece at that! He taught me to do what, I then did what.
M: Can you in this short period of time to fall in love with a person?
T: (I’m) not certain, (it) depends on the level! I too do not understand why the character can in three day’s time gave up everything to love one person; I believe the level of love should have their differences. I’m braver to love in the past, but as I grew, (I) would consider more now, for example factors such as work, colleagues, and family.
Crisis occurred frequently
M: In your feeling, what is the biggest difference between filming historic costume film and modern costume film?
T: To me, filming a historic costume movie feels very fresh, I have not wore this type of clothing before, in the beginning I too didn’t know what to do, didn’t know how to walk and stand, even the tone of voice and the way to speak the dialog in order to distinguish the feelings of the past and present too need searching, but, the director didn’t wish me to think too much, because every Chinese actors have different accents, (the director) only need (me) to act well in the movie is all right.
M: This is your first time filming a historic costume movie; nevertheless accidents occurred frequently, just like that matter of falling off a horse…
T: The truth is I never anticipated to encounter an accident, at that time I was very afraid, even breathing was especially laborious, at the time when workers wished to come over to lift me up, I told them not to touch me, because I didn’t know which part (of the body) was hurt, (I) only knew that my whole body was already numb. The reason the accident occurred, maybe because the horse I was riding is too young, energy prospered, wished to run everywhere. Luckily the age of the horse that ZiYi rode is much older, would not chaotically run everywhere. One horse ran chaotically, the other would not run, it’s very funny!
M: When filming the shooting of an arrow, you accidentally shot and hurt Zhao Xiaoding, at that moment you were nervous to death?
T: That’s true! At that time I was really very afraid, the camera was on his left hand side, to him we were about the space of two hands apart, at that time I needed to use energy to pull the bow to shoot the arrow, (I) faintly heard his. When I saw him, he used his hand to press against the side of his eye, bleeding non-stop, (I) believe the arrow head bump into the camera, and then ricocheted to his body. At that time the entire work place was afraid, because accidents were truly difficult
to control. I felt that filming every fight scene became laborious, because I don’t have kung fu background, (I) could only try my best to perform.
M: ever-changing emotional scenes, exhausting fight scenes, which is more laborious?
T: Both are the same! During the filming of emotional scenes, I had to consider whether to use my own present or Zhang YiMou’s idea to act. What cannot be denied, is that the film’s emotional scene is not easy to act. The most laborious, would have to be the filming of fight scene on snow covered ground with real knife with captain Leo, when we actually started to film I forgot all my senses,
(I) performed to the fullest of my abilities. But after the director called cut, I then discovered both hands were already been frozen into ice.
Expecting to step behind the scene
M: Have you expected to receive award through this film?
T: (I) has not. I feel that the opportunity to cooperate with Zhang Yimou has allowed me to turn very happy. With regard to the box office, I of course worry; after all this film has some similarities with Hero.
M: The film has finally gone on screen, when you watched your own performance again, were there any regrets?
T: To recall now, I feel that there are many places where I didn’t do good enough, (what I) regret is injury after filming in Ukraine is finished, when arrived at Sichuan to film, I still had a lot of scenes where I couldn’t film myself, because of the matter of timing, I couldn’t tell everyone to wait for my recovery before starting to work!
M: You discovered which side of you has made improvement this moment in time?
T: If people have discovered that I have made improvements I’m happy enough, even if there’s no improvement it doesn’t matter. Because everyone’s viewpoint to judge beauty is different, also actors, scripts and cultures all have their own differences. Therefore performance from an actor may have no relationship with an actor’s skill, for example if a Japanese were to play a Hong Kong person, or if you want a Hong Kong person to play a Japanese the principle is the same, there has to
be some part where the performance is not to an excellent likeness, therefore it’s very difficult to criticize a person’s acting skill.
M: you are this half Japanese, how do you see this Hong Kong person Zhao Xiaoding?
T: He is a very hard-working person. I remember during the filming he struggled for time to watch DVD, carefully researched Hollywood and other country’s action movie. I asked him how to film a good action movie, he said the primary criteria is to design the actions first, and whether the action is pretty or not is to pay special attention to the feel, instead of only demanding an action to have high level of difficulties.
M: You expect the next “first time” to be what type of character?
T: I try my best not to repeat, (I) hope to try to play different characters. At this moment I’m still at a learning stage, (I) expect to learn something new from different directors. I at present still don’t have a long term plan. Ah! Working behind the scenes is not bad! However, my present work is still not good enough, (I can) only wait for opportunity and fate to arrive before deciding. M
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Credit: squarepeg, la crème d’asie forum http://www.simplytakeshikaneshiro.com
Thanks to squarepeg for translating this article.
