Jiuzhaigou Valley, Sichuan.
In the story, a battle between Wuming and Changkong was arranged by Zhang Yimou in a chess hall here.
Just to shoot such a fight scene, he spent huge sums of money to build an ancient building imitating the architectural style of the pre-Qin Dynasty. Only a great director like Zhang Yimou could have such confidence.
Of course, compared with his old classmates, Zhang Yimou's handiwork is still smaller.
After all, Brother Chen Kai spent hundreds of millions of dollars to restore the Qin Palace in order to film "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin" a few years ago.
After taking the makeup photos, the shooting officially started.
Zhang Chu has a total of two scenes, one of which is a one-man battle against the seven masters of the Qin Palace, and the other is a duel with Wuming.
Zhang Yimou first spent two days filming the fight scene between Changkong and the seven masters of the Qin Palace. The next step was Changkong and Wuming.
Because Li Lianjie was going to the United States to participate in a charity event, Zhang Chu waited for a few days before meeting the legendary Kung Fu Emperor.
"I've seen your beating video."
When the two met, before Zhang Chu could take the initiative to say hello, Li Lianjie spoke first.
"In actual combat skills, I'm not as good as you."
Li Lianjie is a national martial arts champion. Not only does he know good-looking routines, but his actual combat ability is also quite good.
Yuan Heping once told Zhang Chu that Li Lianjie's kung fu is extremely high and he pays attention to practicality.
His practical Kung Fu covers a variety of different skills, including boxing, Taekwondo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Sanda, and various Chinese martial arts techniques, such as Tai Chi, Xingyi Quan, Baguazhang, Mantis Boxing, etc.
Moreover, his kung fu is not rigid, and is very flexible in its use. He can quickly respond to different opponents and different moves, and flexibly change them, making the opponent unable to resist them at all.
Zhang Yimou was surprised when he heard Li Lianjie say that his actual combat skills were not as good as Zhang Chu's.
Zhang Chu originally wanted to compete with the Kung Fu Emperor, but after hearing what he said, he didn't know what to say.
Seeing Zhang Chu stunned, Li Lianjie smiled and said: "If you want to fight, I won't accompany you."
As long as they have seen the video of Zhang Chu's group match, no normal person would think of competing with him.
There is absolutely no chance of winning, just to compete with the masters, isn't it asking for trouble?
Zhang Chu couldn't help but smile awkwardly when he heard this. It turned out that his thoughts had been seen through long ago.
"If it had been 20 years earlier, I would have fought with you even if I knew I couldn't beat you. But now... I am old, my reflexes can't keep up, and my strength is not as strong as before. I would have to fight you unless I was crazy."
"Okay, okay, let's not talk about this for now. If Li Lianjie and Zhang Chu don't fight, Wuming and Changkong can still fight in the scene. We have to listen to the director on how to fight this scene."
Cheng Xiaodong has been looking forward to this scene for a long time.
Although in this movie, there are several battles between Wuming and Canjian, Wuming and Feixue, Feixue and Ruyue, etc.
But the only scene that can really arouse Cheng Xiaodong's interest is the scene between Wuming and Changkong.
Li Lianjie is a long-famous kung fu emperor. Although Zhang Chu is a rising star, his kung fu is unfathomable.
Before coming to the mainland, Cheng Xiaodong made a special trip to visit Yuan Heping.
When talking about Li Lianjie's kung fu, Yuan Heping was full of praise.
It is said that Li Lianjie knows all kinds of martial arts and is proficient in 18 kinds of martial arts. He is a dictionary of martial arts.
To evaluate Jet Li's Kung Fu style, Yuen Heping used the three words "fast, accurate and ruthless".
When it comes to Zhang Chu, Yuan Heping can only sigh.
He said that he had never met anyone more powerful than Zhang Chu in his life.
Only these two masters can perfectly present the movements he designed.
For this fight scene, Cheng Xiaodong referred to many exciting fighting scenes in movies, extracted the essence, and supplemented it with his action design style.
Now it's finally possible.
For the next whole week, the three people discussed the fight every day.
Li Lianjie knows a lot, and Zhang Chu has been a martial arts instructor. Cheng Xiaodong will naturally not ignore the opinions put forward by the two.
So, as the three people kept discussing and rehearsing, the originally planned four-minute fight scene was doubled in length.
"Isn't it too long?"
Including the dialogue between the two people and other interspersed shots, the total duration of this scene is probably more than 10 minutes.
The total length of Zhang Yimou's project is 110 minutes.
If coupled with the duel between Changkong and the seven masters of the Qin Palace, this character's proportion in the entire film seems to exceed that of Feixue.
More than one-tenth of the entire film.
Moreover, with such a long fight, I wonder if the audience will get bored watching it!
"I have no choice. I am reluctant to delete every action. How about this, we shoot it first, and whether we want to delete it in the end... You are the director, you have the final say."
Well?
Why did you kick the ball to me?
Then... take a photo and see.
Hearing what Cheng Xiaodong said, Zhang Yimou couldn't help but wonder what kind of action design made Cheng Xiaodong reluctant to delete any action.
The next day, it started to rain lightly early in the morning. Zhang Yimou was so happy that he quickly ordered the whole team to get ready.
When he arrived at the set, Zhang Chu changed his clothes, put on makeup, wore a wide robe with big sleeves, and long hair shawl. He looked like a master.
Li Lianjie is also dressed in black, with short clothes and small sleeves. This is the Qin warrior attire analyzed by archaeologists.
The nameless character in the play appears to be a pavilion chief in the Qin Kingdom.
"Little pavilion chief, what do you want to do?"
Zhang Chu spoke slowly, obviously not taking the other party seriously.
"Since I am the chief of the pavilion, this place is under my jurisdiction."
Zhang Chu's originally expressionless face revealed a faint smile, as if he didn't understand how a small pavilion chief would have the courage to cause trouble for him since he knew his name.
"how?"
"You are the most wanted criminal by the king. I will arrest you and bring you to justice."
The brief conversation ended, and the next step was the peak showdown between the two masters on and off screen.
I previously filmed the showdown between Changkong and the seven masters of the Qin Palace. Changkong's marksmanship was sharp and powerful. There was no defensive style from beginning to end, only offense.
But now facing Wuming, as soon as Fang fought, Changkong felt Wuming's power.
With a clanging sound, the two of them hit each other in the courtyard.
According to the original design, some actions were completed with the help of wires.
But Cheng Xiaodong didn't call for stop from beginning to end, and let the two of them have a good beating first.
Although every move was designed, Zhang Chu could feel that if Li Lianjie had the same reaction speed and strong physical fitness as him, he would probably have to take hundreds of moves to defeat Li Lianjie.
Swords and guns flew back and forth, and the battle never stopped from beginning to end.
Zhang Yimou and the crew were all dumbfounded.
They have all been with the crew all year round, and they have met many kung fu stars, but fighting like this...
Unparalleled.
ha!
Zhang Chu shouted loudly, jumped up, and slammed the barrel of his gun down. Li Lianjie held his sword forward and blocked it upwards. But at this moment, Zhang Chu, who had jumped into the air, suddenly turned sideways and flew over Li Lianjie's head. A backhand shot.
Li Lianjie also reacted very quickly. He directly used an iron bridge and at the same time sent the long sword behind him.
In an instant, the offensive and defensive positions changed.
"Director Zhang, which action do you think I would be willing to delete?"
Zhang Yimou was speechless now. Even if he didn't understand kung fu, he knew that as long as the fight scene between Zhang Chu and Li Lianjie could be filmed, it would definitely be a milestone in Chinese martial arts movies.
The two people who were fighting suddenly separated. One stood with a sword in one hand, and the other held a gun in front of him.
At this time, the old actor who played the blind luthier walked over tremblingly.
It seemed that he felt murderous intent and subconsciously stood still.
"Old man, please play one more song."
After speaking, he took out a coin and placed it in the bowl of the blind luthier.
The melodious sound of the piano sounded again.
This section focuses on the rhyme of the piano and martial arts. Although the two are different, they also have similar approaches and the same effect. They both emphasize the sound of great sounds.
The duel between Wuming and Canjian later focuses on the contrast between calligraphy and martial arts.
Next in the play, Wuming and Canjian had an imaginary duel.
Of course Zhang Chu and Li Lianjie couldn't stand still and let the audience imagine, so they hit one spot again.
The guns and swords collided, making a harsh clang, and the two quickly retreated, finally ending the eight-minute fierce battle.
"CUT!"
Cheng Xiaodong shouted, and then took the lead in applauding.
Only then did the others react and applauded.
Being able to see such a wonderful peak match made everyone feel that their life was worth it.
Fierce battles that only appeared in martial arts in the past are now happening in reality.
"Director Zhang, what do you think?"
What else can you think?
Zhang Yimou now wants to delete characters such as Can Jian and Feixue, leaving only the story line of Changkong and Wuming.
With such a wonderful sky, what more is needed about Broken Sword and Flying Snow.
However, we can only think about it. If he really did that, the structure of the entire story would not exist.
He is not Wang Jiawei, and he cannot do such crazy things.
However, can the story line of Changkong be extended?
Zhang Yimou quickly rejected this idea, because if the storyline of Changkong is extended any longer, Canjian's sense of existence will be weakened.
In that case, the core content of using force to stop war will not be reflected.
However, it would be a pity if Zhang Chu only showed such a good kung fu.
After so many years of acting, Zhang Yimou has never been so entangled with an actor.
"Keep them all!"
After saying that, Zhang Yimou stood up and walked towards Zhang Chu.
"We will definitely have opportunities to cooperate in the future."
In an impulsive move just now, Zhang Yimou almost promised Zhang Chu the leading role in the next movie.
"Then, thank you, Director Zhang."
Zhang Chu said, and thrust the spear into the ground with great force.
Zhang Yimou suddenly realized that the person standing in front of him was really an indomitable hero.
The thought deep in my heart could no longer be suppressed.
