[080401] FACES SPOTLIGHT | LIU YI FEI - Golden Girl - Crystallized

[080401] FACES SPOTLIGHT | LIU YI FEI - Golden Girl

Good article from the Faces Magazine Malaysia

China’s new poster girl is young, beautiful and spunky.

China’s new poster girl is young, beautiful and spunky. Relatively unknown outside her homeland, her turn in the highly anticipated kungfu flick, The Forbidden Kingdom, looks set to transform her into a bona fide star. Ladies and gentlemen, please bid a warm welcome to the lovely Liu Yi Fei!

Liu Yi Fei will be celebrating her 21st birthday this year. Yet, unlike the average girl who receives a token set of keys to celebrate her independence, Yi Fei will be celebrating her starring role alongside legendary actors, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. What more could a girl ask for?

Yet Crystal Liu Yi Fei has always been leap years ahead of her peers. She began modelling at the age of eight, and her earliest pictures are still available today in Wuhan, her birthplace. Yi Fei also dabbled in singing, dancing and playing the piano. When she turned nine, her mother gave her a crystal for her birthday and it was so well-received, that she started calling herself ‘Crystal’ after that.

For a period of time, Yi Fei lived with her mother in the United States, but soon returned to pursue an acting career. She applied to the prestigious Beijing Film Academy. There were an estimated 100,000 hopefuls who tried their luck, but only 500 were accepted. Yi Fei was one of them, and at the tender age of fourteen, was the youngest entrant the Academy had ever had.

The performance begins
Movie and television roles started literally raining down on the young girl once she made it into the school. Her first role was in the television serial The Story of A Noble Family. She was later chosen to take on the role of Wang Yuyan in Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, which was based on the book by acclaimed wuxia writer, Jinyong. This role served as the framework for her fame in China.

Yi Fei eventually starred in her first movie, Love of May. The movie did not do well in the box office, but Yi Fei bounced back with a starring role in the television drama, The Chinese Paladin. The drama was a hit and her fame grew. When she was finally chosen for the role of Xialongnu in the television production, The Return of the Condor Heroes, an adaptation of a beloved book by the prolific Jinyong, it was clear that this precocious young girl was headed for great things.

Such is her appeal that Yi Fei was also offered a recording contract with Sony Music Japan. She spent 6 months honing her talents in Japan and in 2005, released her debut single, Mayonaka No Doa. A Mandarin and Japanese album were later released in 2006.

A lucky break
Having been an actress throughout her formative years, Yi Fei decided to take a break of sorts and concentrate on furthering her studies in America. She also signed with the esteemed William Morris agency in the US, only the second Chinese actress (after Zhang Ziyi) to be affiliated with the organization.

It is at this point, in 2007, that Yi Fei’s fortunes suddenly vaulted well into another galaxy altogether. For the lucky lass was cast in the big-budget, much anticipated, action adventure flick, The Forbidden Kingdom, which boasts the historic, first-ever pairing of legends Jackie Chan and Jet Li! Yi Fei scored the leading female role of the character Golden Sparrow.

The Forbidden Kingdom, which also stars Michael Angarano (of Sky High) and Li BingBing and Colin Chou, tells the story of a kungfu-obsessed American teenager, Jason, who finds himself transported back to ancient China. There, he discovers he must free the fabled warrior Monkey King who is being held captive by the despicable Jade Warlord. Along the way, Jason is joined by wise kungfu master Lu Yan (Jackie Chan) and a merry collection of misfits, including Silent Monk (Jet Li) and the orphaned Golden Sparrow (Liu Yi Fei).

The blockbuster also makes use of the choreographing skills of grandmaster Woo Ping and famed cinematographer Peter Pau. Directed by Rob Minkoff (of Stuart Little), and filmed in various parts of China, the movie is already generating buzz, as rabid kungfu fans hotly discuss the plotline and story, even before its release date in April 2008.

In this candid interview, the effervescent Yi Fei opens up about what it is like to be in a starring role in The Forbidden Kingdom.

1. What attracted you to this film?
First of all, I think this is a great story. It is based on a foreigner’s point of view of Chinese legends and martial arts. I think it is a very special, fun, interesting and attractive story. Especially because there is Jackie and Jet, and it is the first time they are working together, so it’s really a historic moment on film, and a very good opportunity for me!

2. Tell us more about the character you play.
My character’s name is Golden Sparrow. She is very strong and has a very different personality because she is the female lead and she is the only heroine in the film. She also has to constantly be around the other three male leads – Jackie, Jet and Michael, so her personality cannot be weak. She is forced to be a very tough person.

Additionally, in another dimension altogether, my character is an orphan who only cares about revenge. So this gives her more depth and has also given me a lot of room to play with. Golden Sparrow has her own story, her own romance and her own destiny. I am so glad and grateful that I have been given the role of the most important female character in the film.

3. Tell us more about the moment you share with Michael Angarano in the film. How did you prepare for it?
The kissing scene is my first kiss in a movie. It’s a very sad scene because when we discussed it with Rob (the director), he felt that it should be more poignant than just pure romance as it is the first and only kiss the two characters share. It is in fact the last moment they are together. I was very sad and touched by the scene. I think Michael and I did a good job. As it was at the beginning of the filming, it was just after we came back from Wuyi Mountain and the very first scene we had to do. It was very hard as we didn’t know each other very well, yet we had to really get into character and do an emotional scene.

4. This is your first action film, how did you find the filming process?
For anyone’s first action movie, it is a very good opportunity to have Yuen Woo Ping as the choreographer. I like all his films, Kill Bill, The Matrix, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. So working with him, and Jackie and Jet gave me a lot of space to improve myself. My mum was a dancer so I have learnt dancing from young but it is rather different from martial arts. To be a real warrior you really have to have the power to fight, not just pose. That’s why I went to the gym every morning before the shoot because you have to be physically strong as well. You have to really be in character. In this area, Jackie and Jet taught me a lot, about the fighting, the tempo of the fighting. It is not just putting on the wires and flying around. I think I have learned so many things and I had a lot of pressure, because all the other actors that worked with Yuen Woo Ping were all professionals whereas I am new to the big-budget action movie scene.

5. Did you have to work hard or were the action sequences designed by Yuen Woo Ping a piece of cake?
Before the shooting, we had two weeks of horse training, martial arts training and pipa training (a Chinese instrument where I used the tuning pick as my weapon, sort of like a dart). Honestly, the two weeks of training were not long enough for me! For actors, the longer they prepare, the better they get. Overall, I feel that I have learnt so much from the directors and Yuen Woo Ping’s stunt team.

6. Tell us about a memorable fighting scene that you had with any of the other characters.
I like the very first scene for Golden Sparrow in the movie. I wear a cloak. Rob says he didn’t want the audience to know if she was a boy or a girl and if she was bad or good, so the first thing she does is to use a dart to kill two Jade Warriors and then does a back flip and kicks the soldiers. So it was a really cool, fantastic moment and it was one of my favourite scenes.

7. You had to simulate climbing Five Element Mountain with Jet Li. How was that experience?
That scene evokes the most terrible memories for me. That day was the hottest day filming in Hengdian and Jet and I had to climb the mountain set and we had to climb it many, many times as Yuen Woo Ping wanted us to look more authentic, like we were really climbing a mountain. So we had to use actual strength to grab at the mountain surface which is really rough, and we had to use all our power to climb to make it look more believable, even though we were on wires. After the shoot, Jet hurt his hand really badly, and I did as well. We were bleeding. But the scene is really very interesting, as you will see Jet and I climbing amidst various shooting angles.

8. Which was the most memorable scene for you?
There are so many things in my head, which are memorable. For me, I think it is a scene in Xianju. It is the scene where I talk about my family, my background. It was very emotional, and it is the most important scene for Golden Sparrow. She has to try to expose her emotions. So I really wanted everyone to be satisfied with my performance. They did a close-up of my eyes so Peter Pau and everyone was silent waiting for my tears. That’s the hardest moment for an actress, because everyone is waiting and you want your emotions to get there as fast as they can. That day, I think, we shot three or four takes and every take was really good so I like that scene the most.

9. Which was the most difficult aspect of making this film? What challenges did you face?
I think it’s that the people who are working around me, they are so professional and they are the best at what they do - Peter, Yuen Woo Ping, Rob. So you don’t want to disappoint them. You want to make them think you can actually do better. So I was always pushing myself really hard to reach their goals, to really give them the best performance that I could. That was definitely the most challenging thing for me.

10. What have you learnt from Jackie and Jet through acting with them in this film?
I am very lucky as my role is with Jackie and Jet all the time. Everyday on set, we were always happy and laughing. Yet, they are two different people. Jackie is always full of energy and he cares about everyone around him. So I learnt from Jackie that it is not enough just to be successful as an actress, you have to be a good person as well. He is a very smart man. When he shoots, I sit and watch him. He knows every single little technique that the director needs for the actions scenes.

Jet, on the other hand, can be very funny sometimes, he has a great sense of humour, and he was always helping me with the riding scenes. There was one scene in Wuyi, where Jet and I had to gallop very fast and he was worried about me. He kept turning around to make sure that I was alright, because he felt that the horse’s speed might have been too fast, and he was concerned. I really think he is a good man, who makes me feel safe and is a really good master.

The Forbidden Kingdom opens nationwide on April 18.

Original article link and credits:
Faces Magazine Malaysia
http://www.faces.com.my/spotlight/spotlight.asp?id=2734