艾美艾尊

SINGAPORE: Asian heartthrob Wu Chun is the picture perfect Prince Charming – pretty face, nice abs, mesmerising smile – and has played roles in various Taiwanese idol dramas that depict a modern girl's parallel of prince charming.


He was a popular jock in romantic comedy "Hanazakarino Kimitachihe", a potential successor of a huge business empire in "Romantic Princess", and lately, a basketball whiz in "Hot Shot".

But the Brunei-born 29-year-old wants to break away from being just a pretty face, and prove that he is worth more than his weight in gold in other areas.

And his debut movie "Butterfly Lovers" gave him just the chance to do that.

He put his experience as a former fitness instructor into good use by personally executing all the stunts and fight scenes in the wuxia version of the Chinese classic.

Playing Liang Zong Shan, Wu had to go through a month of kung fu training in Shanghai to prepare for risky stunts that he had to attempt in the movie such as sword fighting scenes or jumping off from heights as high as three storeys into water – a move that almost caused a stuntman his life.

"The stuntman gave me a demo of how the scene should be executed, and was almost pierced by a stab of wood when he jumped into the water," Wu said in an interview with xin.sg.

"Even though they removed the wood after that, it was still quite scary because you never know what other dangerous objects are in the water. But I went ahead with it anyways, and thankfully, did it safe in one take."

And the combat scenes for Wu’s maiden wuxia role were also not as suave as seen on screen.

"It took me quite a while to get the action scenes right," he said. "I usually hit too lightly because I was afraid of injuring the other party. But the director said I had to exert more strength to make an impact for the move to look realistic. Eventually, I did as the director instructed but I felt really bad about it because I was sure I had hurt my fellow actors.”

Wu said that apart from the action, he also likes it that the film, which is touted as the Chinese equivalent to Shakespeare’s "Romeo and Juliet", can bring the classic story to the younger audience.

“The younger generation may not have read the classic and with this movie, we hope that we can let them experience one of the greatest Chinese stories of all times,” he said.

"Butterfly Lovers" is a tragic love story about a girl (played by one-half of Hong Kong pop duo Twins, Charlene Choi) who disguises as a guy to study in the city. She falls in love with her roommate (played by Wu) but circumstances force the star-crossed lovers apart.

In this remake of the classic, director Jingle Ma has added a modern twist and the wuxia element as “every wield of sword is a symbolic display of one’s deeper desire to fight for one’s happiness.”

Despite Wu’s best efforts, Choi still insists her co-star is prettier than she is in their ancient get-ups.

But the actor is okay with others calling him a pretty face – "oh you're embarrassing me," he groaned with a awkward smile when another reporter complimented him on his good looks – in fact, Wu's fans need not worry about him calling it quits in idol dramas despite his age (he is turning 30 next year) or now that he has had a taste of the big screens.

"It's still ok to act in idol dramas... age is not the problem as long as I can continue to portray the age required," he said. "I've always wanted to act in a movie ever since I stepped into the entertainment scene so I'm really happy and excited [with 'Butterfly Lovers'], but that doesn't mean I'm going to give up acting in dramas, no.”

And neither is he going to give up singing too. Wu who is one quarter of Taiwanese boyband Fahrenheit, also popular for their good looks and catchy songs, is set to return to Singapore with his bandmates for a one-night only concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on December 9.

"Butterfly Lovers" is showing in cinemas.


來源: Channelnewsasia.com