Li Bingbing speaks! Plus new photo shoot with the cast! *UPDATED!*

Star News Online posted a profile and interview of the fascinating Li Bingbing in which she talks about the movie and her co-stars, as well as the origins of her character and seminal performance by Brigitte Lin in Bride With White Hair…

Also, a new photo shoot showing the stars of the film in full glamour mode! More after the cut…

Li Bingbing at Star Online!

In this interview, Bingbing gives some insight into the origins of her character…

The 32-year-old beauty from Harbin, Heilongjiang, plays the White-haired Demoness Lian Nichang, which was inspired by Ronny Yu’s wuxia (martial arts) film The Bride with White Hair. That movie, made in 1993, was based on Leung Yu Sang’s 1954 novel of the same name and starred Taiwanese star Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia as the titular character.

“I feel very fortunate to have gotten the opportunity to play the Bai Fa Mo Nu (White-haired Demoness) character in the movie,” Li said at an interview in Beijing.

“At first, the White-haired Demoness did not exist in the script. The character was originally Bai Mei Dao Ren (White-browed Taoist priest, a Shaolin martial arts master fictionalised in the late 70s Hong Kong wuxia flicks). Then the script was brought to China, where it was discovered that present wuxia enthusiasts were better acquainted with the White-haired Demoness compared to White-browed Taoist (who is historically often portrayed as a traitor).

“I personally feel that many women viewers would like White-haired Demoness, for she is single-minded in love, unwavering in her convictions, and outstanding in martial arts,” added Li.

Peter Pau, who was cinematographer on that seminal wuxia film, paid special attention to her character as it was the prosaic descendent of the Bride With White Hair:

The original Bride.

“It must have been some 15 years since Pau made the movie. It’s like his precious baby. He particularly loved the White-haired Demoness immortalised by Brigitte Lin. I feel that they created a legendary character on the Chinese stage, who made such an impact that she has become a classic wuxia figure widely loved by audiences.

“Now, almost two decades later with such technological advances, our challenge lies in recreating the White-haired Demoness for the new millennium. It was a very stimulating exercise for us.”

When she was filming, she could feel Pau paying special attention to detail.

“While I was filming some mid-air fight scenes, Peter would rush up on a platform some two to three metres high and gently fan me so my hair would flit about my face lightly just the way he wanted it.”

And like everything else involved with the movie, she has good things to say about Mr. Chan and his propensity for taking care of everyone on-set.

“Jackie knew I had numerous fight scenes, so he gave me a special wire-suit, the very best for the wire-acts, costing a whopping US$1,600 (RM5,000). The ordinary ones we usually use only cost RMB1,000 (RM450). He takes very good care of everyone on the set. He even taught me kung fu while we were filming.

“During my fight scenes with Jackie, he’d be the one getting injured. I’d be alright because, I was wearing very thick padding and a metal armour. He gets very worried when fighting with me because I’m no kung fu expert. But, I’m very happy when fighting him because he can adapt to every action, even if I make the wrong move, hit too high or too low. He’d be able to make everything look just right.”

Read the whole thing at Star Online: ‘Man Hating Spirit’

New Glamour Shots of the Cast!

Thanks for Tramy for alerting us to this cool photo shoot of the cast! We previously saw one of these shots on a magazine cover, but here it is in much better quality:

The spread also has some stunning pictures of Sparrow, Yifei Liu…

Thanks to the lovely Tramy and Ngoisao.net!

Also, a big thanks to Firdonyt for sending in these two new shots from the same photo shoot!

From LiYiFei.org!

New Pictures from the Photo Shoot!