[2022.06.03] EDDIE CHEUNG TAKES ON 78 PAGES OF DIALOGUE

courtesy of on.cc

The Eddie Cheung Siu Fai, Dada Chan Jing and Timmy Hung Tin Ming starred suspense film A MURDER ERASED (BEI SIU SUT DIK HUNG ONG) will open soon. The film would continue director Dennis Law Sau Yiu's violent and bloody style with a cast of actors of substance. However a 78 page Department of Justice scene stumped many actors. Brother Fai, Maggie Siu Mei Kei before the shoot kept quietly reciting their lines -- completely like students making a final push before an exam.

In the film a building rebuilt uncovered 8 year old human remains. The police was certain that the victim Yung (Tony Ho Wa Chiu)'s ex-wife Yin Fung Ping (Chan Jing) and their landlord Chiu (Hung Tin Ming) conspired to commit murder. Yet as the police investigated, all the suspicions left the issue unresolved. That 78 page scene was a discussion of the case between police captain Brother Fai, inspector Maggie, prosecutors Stephanie Che Yuen Yuen and Joe Junior. Brother Fai said, "Before the shoot I already had a complete script, but during the shoot the director would come up with better ideas, lines or scene order. Later everything would be rearranged and the dialogues would be fixed live on the set. This time I don't have any action scene, but it's harder on the brain." On the set, Brother Fai often had a script in hand and asked the director whenever he had any question. Then he would return to his seat and bury his head in the script.

Also stumped by the long dialogues, Maggie revealed that the 78 page case discussion took two days to shoot. She said, "This time was a huge challenge, because the dialogue mostly analyzed the case a lot of the information couldn't be said wrong. As soon as I heard 'action' it was like a test, and 'cut' it was like the end of school bell. It was really interesting, the actors were like a group of classmates."