[2013.02.07] TONY LEUNG CHIU WAI GETS MORE SCREEN TIME IN THE GRANDMASTERS INTERNATIONAL VERSION

Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Cung Le's fight scene sees the light of day again
courtesy of on.cc

The 63rd Berlin Film Festival opens tonight, the Wong Kar Wai directed THE GRANDMASTERS (YUT DOI JUNG SI) will open the event. The film's leads Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Zhang Ziyi yesterday morning already flew from Paris for Berlin in preparation for the film festival opening.

The film's international version has 8 less minutes than the China and Hong Kong version of 130 minutes, but Wai Jai's role only increased. Two major scenes like Wai Jai's fight with Cung Le and Bruce Lee's childhood meeting with Ip Man would appear in the international version! Wai Jai said, "I never thought that my role was less in the Mainland version, so I don't feel anything too special about the added scenes. Instead I feel some adjustments to the story make it more intense!"

As for the fight scene wing Cung Le, Wai Jai remembered it like it was yesterday as he joked that he was already scared off before the shoot. "I already had pressure from working on a fight scene with him. Every time I saw him he would ask if I brought any protective gear, which added to my pressure. As the shoot went on, his martial arts truly were very high quality. He was able to control them at will. Our collaboration was very pleasant."

Because the international version was shorter, director Wong Kar Wai was in depth consideration finally removed some of Zhao Benshan's scenes. Because his role discussed kung fu with metaphors, foreigners might not understand. Thus he could only removed this part.