[2009.09.16] TIAN ZHUANGZHUANG TAKES THE WARRIOR AND THE WOLF TO TORONTO

courtesy of takungpao.com

The fantasy romance that the big Mainland director Tian Zhuangzhuang planned for years, based on the Japanese writer Yasushi Inoue's novel of the same name and starred handsome Japanese Best Actor Joe Odagiri and international female star Maggie Q, THE WARRIOR AND THE WOLF will premiere at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.

The premiere took place two nights ago at the Varsity cinema on September 13. That night director Tian Zhuangzhuang along with Joe Odagiri and Maggie Q held a premiere press conference at the Toronto International Hotel. Reporters from overseas, Canadian Chinese media, CCTV and Sina all attended. Everyone was very happy and excited at the night of the premiere as none was left untouched by the film. The next day the director and the leads pleasantly faced the international press.

THE WARRIOR AND THE WOLF was known as China's first "wolfman movie". Earlier in the Mainland it already led to an enormous response and anticipation. With the film's Mainland release date pushed up to October 2, just in time for the National Day, was the arrangement deliberate to raise the box office? Tin Zhuangzhuang said that this was the producer's decision. As the director, he felt that patience and professionalism were the most important.

Tian Zhuangzhuang's movies were always drama. Yet THE WARRIOR AND THE WOLF opened with a scene that broke his "traditional" style, a grand and bloody battle scene that resembled LORD OF THE RINGS. With the film's biggest gimmick, A woman (Maggie Q) and Genearl Lu (Joe Odagiri)'s seven day and night heavyweight passion scene undoubtedly made people question whether director Tian Zhuangzhuang has already gone from drama to commercial film. Tian Zhuangzhuang first denied that the people's differentiation between drama and commercial film was not clear. He admitted THE WARRIOR AND THE WOLF's cultural value and its commercial necessity. Although the battle and the passion scenes were expressed very directly, this indeed was the best way to embody a type of "human attitude to tightly hold on to certain type of hope after losing everything". People who become wolves were seen as a curse, a sin, but here it is a high class elevation of emotions. The courage with which the couple are willing to fall in love is extremely valuable and shocking. This story has multiple levels. Aside from love it also has the brotherhood and heroics of two men who appreciated each other.

In addition he did not give a complete answer to the passion level that the outside attention focused on. He never had any issue with the passion level. Each person had different viewing habits and different levels. As for the so-called passion, it actually is a type of spirit that flows from emotions. When emotion arrives, passion naturally explodes. Then it does not need any harden level of standard.