Interview with Yifei Liu, Golden Sparrow in The Forbidden Kingdom!!!

Yifei Liu, Golden Sparrow in The Forbidden Kingdom, is a huge star in Asia from her work in music, TV and movies. The Forbidden Kingdom is the first film that will introduce Yifei (who also goes by Crystal Liu Yifei) to international and western audiences.

She gave an interview to Chinese news service Xinlang Media and talks about her character, working with Jackie Chan and Jet Li, dubbing in Mandarin for the Chinese release and scenes you might only see on the DVD, and we’ve got a translation thanks to AngeLLina from the forum Crystallized!

Details after the cut…

Xinlang Media Reporter (XMR): This time for you to play a tough character, may be something you have never tried before, because your original and previous roles were more of the pure and innocent type?

Liu Yi Fei (LYF): I think that what you have said is one sided, because a character isn’t categorised using toughness, pureness, innocence, a character can have many different elements. In the film, I not only play the role of Golden Sparrow, in the modern US scene, I always play the role of an Asian American. Through the 90 minutes movie, the audience can see a tough heroine from the olden days, and also the modern sweet girl. The contrast is very big, and I’m very happy that I can let the audience see such a huge contrast.

XMR: The details in action part, there’s horse riding and darts, did you do any sort of practice of it before this?

LYF: I feel that in the long time of filming of Return of the Condor Heroes, it gave me a strong mental encouragement, so this time, I felt kept relaxed instead. Because our team gave us a day off every week, and I even had sufficient time to sleep every day.

XMR: On the poster, there is a picture of you playing the pipa, it is extremely beautiful, were you really playing it yourself?

LYF: Yes. For Forbidden Kingdom, I learnt the pipa for two months. Because I feel that if it’s just pretending to, it would be very fake. Because the Golden Sparrow uses her pipa as a companion, the playing the pipa is the way for her to express her emotions. When she plays the pipa, she thinks of many things, it is only when I grasp the technique of playing the pipa, when I’m acting, I would not thinking of how to play it, nor whether what I should do if I don’t play it well, it is then that I will have the confidence to let the audience believe me.

XMR: But I know that in North America a small audience has seen it, and it seems that your kiss scene will cut off, is because they made this opinion, that the movie should not be over-romantic, do you feel it’s a pity?

LYF: I think that in reality, my scenes and the male lead’s scenes should be the very stereotypical Hollywood characters and love story. So when they were writing the script, because what he needs is to let both the Western audience and China’s audience to like it, and therefore there must be some adjustments, or some cutting. I heard from the director that in the final film after the cutting, all our characters seem to be very perfect, which is very good. But in reality, for that scene, the main part is not the kissing, but the last profession of love to each other just before the final battle, so I feel that this is just like the feeling of first love, I like it a lot myself, and there is also a sort of melancholy entwined in, because on the second day, they… So now while playing the pipa there are very sad emotions, because when filming that scene, the whole feeling is, why are we talking about this now, (I didn’t get this part) because it’s very touching, it’ll make everyone like it when they see it. I especially want to thank Peter for filming Michael and my scene to be so romantic.

XMR: Will this movie have a Chinese version when showing in China?

LYF: Yes, I’ve already finished recording my voice.

XMR: Maybe now what everyone is very concerned about most is that you have signed on to a very big (famous) management company in Hollywood, and your development in future. Do you mind being compared with Zhang Ziyi?

LYF: No, because everyone will always love to make comparisons. I feel that now there’s nothing much to compare, because every person is different. She is so outstanding. Through her shows, Chinese culture is introduced into the Western world, she is the glory of the Chinese. What I need to do now is to follow my character to develop, and I hope to have more films and areas for learning.

XMR: Actually, your conditions are much better than Zhang Ziyi’s.

LYF: Times are different. During Zhang Ziyi’s times, China’s development wasn’t as good as it was now. Only now that China’s development is so good, that I can chase up, that it’ll be better.

XMR: It’s related to the environment?

LYF: Yes. Without the environment, the Chinese wouldn’t be able to feel so proud and elated towards the foreigners after being suppressed for such a long time.”

Translated By: angeLLina of crystallized forum.

With extra thanks to angeLLina. These new pics of Yifei, the excellent translation, and more can be found at Crystallized!