[2023.02.09] ANDY LAU MAY ENTER THE VIRTUAL WORLD IN THE WANDERING EARTH 3

courtesy of singtao.com

Andy Lau says that both he and his wife spoil their daughter, but believes that his daughter would submit under their love

Andy Lau originally thought that his special performance in THE WANDERING EARTH II would be light.  He never thought that he would be about half the film, have to wear 1000 degree glasses and heavy space suits.
courtesy of mingpao.com

Two days ago Andy Lau Tak Wa spoke to the Hong Kong media and shred his production experience on THE WANDERING EARTH II (LAU LONG DEI KAU 2). He stated that the production process was more difficult than he first imagined, because he had to wear a heavy space suit and the production was longer than an ordinary film. He said, "I didn't think that my special performance would need so long to shoot, in the end I shot almost 50 units." Wa Jai's role took up half the entire film. Wa Jai also revealed that he would participate in THE WANDERING EARTH 3 and continue the digital life. He also said that he liked science fiction that was rich in human nature, but he had no intention to play a super hero or plan to travel to space.

In the new film Wai Jai's character would study the digital life, finally entering into the virtual world. He pointed out that the team at the initial discussion wanted to extend the digital life to the third installment, but everything would depend on this time's results. Wa Jai revealed that the film would have a third installment. "I know that the production team wants THE WANDERING EARTH to be an enduring intellectual property. The director hoped for characters who appeared in the past to appear again in the future installments, different characters could also be added. (In other words you would take part in the third film?) They hope to have me, but my character has already left with the rice box (meaning the character has already passed away and the actor could get off work). From then on it would be about the start of digital life, parallel universe and immortality."

For his scientist role, Wa Jai spray his hair white and wear aging make up, injury make up near the corner of his eye, and an almost 1000 degree glasses. Wa Jai revealed that because after putting the glasses he felt dizzy and everything he saw was blurry, he at first was a little resistant. Thus he and another actor Ning Li prepared an extra pair of non prescription glasses, when no one noticed they would change them. In the end their "cheat" failed, as under the camera they could tell the difference. Later they discovered that with the prescription glasses, the rhythm of their action performance would be somewhat different and the performance would be more realistic. In addition, the difficult to remember, tongue twister dialogues and writing a lot of theories were just as difficult for Wa Jai. At the same time this experience felt very fresh to him. "In the past I have played scientists, but this time I truly put on a space suit and step on the moon. In addition I played a digital life scholar, I had to be a little more specialized in comparison."

In the film Wa Jai had to shoot a scene underwater. He pointed out that this scene was more difficult in comparison, but the team already did its best to make their shoot the most comfortable. During the shoot the entire set was hung. When it was time to shoot the set was submerged into the water, so the actors would not constantly have to get into the water with the heavy oxygen tanks. He felt that it was a rather large improvement in the production industry, and they also had to learn to save themselves. He said, "Because I have to wear a diving suit, in water I would float. I put a lot of lead on my body, otherwise I would drift back and forth. Each time before work I would predict the dangerous conditions. The shoot had many divers, if anything would happen each of them would be responsible for helping an actor. At the same time they had to calculate precisely how many second the diver would take to be by their side. Everyday before the shoot we would rehearse once, but we didn't need to taking a diving course." Wa Jai pointed out that Ning Li did not know how to dive at all. When everyone got into the water, he instead would be very daring and try to keep his breathing slow. He said, "Since I am a star I couldn't embarrass myself in front of others." Luckily the production process was very smooth and everything was completed within prediction.

Many actors are science fiction film fans. Wa Jai said that he liked to watch science fiction films, but he liked the science fiction films with emotions like E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTIAL. Would he dream about being a super hero? Wa Jai stated that he did not. "I really like the Sandman character in SPIDER-MAN. Aside from science fiction it also mixed with human nature. I really hope to be able to play this type of roles. This time the character is somewhat close to that." Now people can already travel to space. Has Wa Jai thought about going to the stars in the future? He joked, "I don't have this dream, because up there you are still sitting there. You can't enjoy a cup of coffee. I don't have this desire."

THE WANDERING EARTH II performed ideally at the Mainland box office. How would Lau Tak Wa see the Mainland and Hong Kong science fiction film development? He said that the Mainland's THE WANDERING EARTH and Louis Koo Tin Lok's WARRIORS OF FUTURE (MING YUT JIN GEI) opened one after the other. Slowly we learned what was required and the entire flow, which would be very helpful to the Mainland and Hong Kong science fiction films. Science fiction films in Chinese films would be harder to realize, not only needing technology and computers to coordinate, but also screenplays and other things, and for every viewer to believe in it.

He admitted that during this film production he too was suspicious. He said, "In one scene I was chasing the lunar rover on the moon, I ran while I chatted with the actor in the vehicle. Actually on the moon, our drag was the same. I ran just as fast as the rover. At the time I thought, 'did you make that up?' However there was a lot of the data that indicated it was real, but but when I was at the set I still didn't really believe it. When I act the feeling didn't feel real. In the end everyone felt that it might very likely unable to convince the viewers, so the scene was cut because we were afraid it would become a comedy."

As for the quality of Chinese science fiction film, Wa Jai pointed out that it was still in the exploratory process. He and the director during the shoot were studying too, during which they would keep making mistakes. The teams would record the mistakes and hope they would not repeat it in the next installment. He said, "Ultimately we just started, opened the door, as long as we have a lot of people who would humbly learn like this we would be able to do it in the end. Like when Ng Yuen Fai (WARRIORS OF FUTURE director) was willing to take this first step, I feel we have to support him then hope that we would be able to go farther. Maybe in the middle there would be problems and people would laugh. We might not be able to meet the basic demand. A lot of people always say that if you don't do it you can't make a mistake, but since we did it, made the mistake, then we would have opportunity."

In the film he had a several year old daughter, just like in real life. He admitted that after becoming a father, handling child actors became much easier. He said, "When I made LEE ROCK (LUI LOK JUEN), there were two children. I have thrown tantrums at them. Because they kept being noisy, I took them to the back alley and told them to be quiet for awhile." He pointed out that when children worked for awhile they would get frustrated, like when he helped his daughter with her homework. After two hours, his daughter would get frustrated. Thus now he would have more patience with children. This time before the shoot, he and the little girl spent a long time together, for a dozen days or so he took care of her like Papa.

In the film he was very stubborn with his daughter, would he be the same way in real life? Speaking of her daughter Wa Jai immediately smiled. "Whatever my daughter wants she gets, I don't consider myself a kind father. I am actually spoiling her. Both my wife and I are. My daughter isn't afraid of anyone at home, but would submit under our love."

Director Frant Gwo Fan once revealed that Wa Jai was the most bothered when he was helping his daughter with her homework. Wa Jai admitted that helping his daughter with her home online was the hardest. For me the most difficult subject was English, sometimes his daughter would teach him instead. In the film Wa Jai also had to get along with his daughter through a computer monitor. Wa Jai said that being an actor sometimes was not different from being an astronaut. "When my daughter was little and had video chats with me, she has thrown a tantrum and tossed away the phone. She said that she wanted the real Papa, and my wife had to comfort her."