Tuesday December 04, 2007 Hong Kong Leading star of the film Warlords <投名狀>, Andy Lau (劉德華) and director Peter Chan (陳可辛) were guests of Carol Cheng (鄭裕玲) on a TVB Pay Vision interview this week. Andy's character in the film is the same as that played by Chen Kuan Tai (陳觀泰) in the film Blood Brothers <刺馬> from the Shaw Brothers studio in the 1970s, but this version is not a direct remake of the classic. Peter explained that he chose Andy for the role because he felt that Andy had the spirit in his eyes. Asked why he selected Andy, Jet Li (李連杰) and Takeshi Kaneshiro (金城武) to play the leading roles, he explained that there are three brothers in the film, so he had to fine co-stars to play Andy's older and younger brothers, so Jet and Takeshi naturally came to mind. As Jet has not filmed many Chinese movies lately, it took a lot of persuasion to get him on board and Peter revealed that he had to use the depth of the character to win him over because his role is a villain, but not in the traditional way. Of the three male leads, Peter said that Andy's role was the most innocent. There were reports that Andy had refused to shave his hair off for the film because of vanity, but he explained that the film is set during a war and people at the time did not have the need to shave their heads. He added that he had even suggested that he should have a ragged look with his beard as long as his hair, so this proved that he is not vain when it comes to characters. Andy also revealed that he had to cry fourteen times in the show. Originally his crying was not in the script, but when he filmed that scene, his natural emotions broke through and he cried out. Peter was very pleased with the result and decided to build this into filming that meant he had to repeat it for fourteen takes, but he managed it every time. Asked if he would be entering this film for the Oscars, Peter said that he would not be entering for 2008, but he wait and see for 2009. credits: batgwa.
