Chapter 14 Chapter 12 Kung Fu Emperor Beats Himself

2001, the first year of the new century, was also a year full of hope for Jet Li. He took over the filming of "The One" (Chinese translation of "Savior").The investment in the film was huge, and Jet Li's salary alone was nearly tens of millions, and he began to enter the ranks of Hollywood's first-line actors. Speaking of "Savior of the Mundi", the director (James Wong) and screenwriter Huang Yiyu are well-known in the American entertainment industry. They are called "diamond partners" by the entertainment industry.The well-known series of sci-fi TV series "X-Files" came from the two of them.Their screenwriting techniques are novel and unique, highly imaginative, and they pay great attention to setting off and exaggerating the suspenseful atmosphere, which is quite like the suspense master Hitchcock.

After the script was written and the investors were found, James Wang approached Jet Li, hoping that he would play the leading role in the play.After reading the script, Jet Li decided to take over the play.Li Zhi said: "Why did you take this movie? What is the most attractive part of this movie?" Jet Li said: "There are three reasons why this film attracted me. One is the confrontation between 'bad me' and 'good me'; second, it is a science fiction film, and I have never made a science fiction film; finally, I could play 125 characters in this movie, both good and bad. It's amazing."

Li Zhi looked at the proud Jet Li and said, "Smelly, can you act well?" Jet Li said: "I used to enjoy seeing people filming two characters by one person. In fact, many things that look simple are quite complicated to do, and things that look complicated are relatively simple to do. Don't look at this movie. There are 125 characters. , it’s not difficult to act. For example, in the confrontation between “good me” and “bad me”, I shoot a set of “good me” moves, and then take a set of “bad me” moves, and then divide Cut shots, and some use computers to change the face of a "good me" or "bad me" to another person, and some use doubles. It can be said that this film uses both traditional and novel techniques. The acting skills have also improved a lot.”

"Who do you want to be your action guide this time?" Jet Li thought for a while and said, "Let's find our old partner Yuan Kui. "Savior" will be half successful if he joins. We two 'martial arts' walk together, and there will be wonderful martial arts scenes in the movie." Li Zhi said: "I heard that the protagonist of this movie was not you at first, is there such a thing?" Jet Li chuckled, and said: "The film company's earliest plan was to let the professional wrestler 'Rock' Johnson, who played the role of the Scorpion King in "Tomb Raider 2", play the leading role, but Johnson suddenly quit because of something wrong. He immediately found me and re-edited the script for me. My character in the film is full of Chinese cultural characteristics from character to costume, like an oriental knight.”

"Savior of the World" is Jet Li's first sci-fi film in decades since he started filming. He values ​​his first time very much, and feels that this film has a better story. The plot of the film is that in the distant future world, the universe that human beings live in is multi-dimensional. Somewhere in the universe, there are duplicates that are exactly the same as human beings. They have the same appearance, body, and even make friends. the same.These people can live in various galaxies without interference.However, the technology at that time was so developed that people could travel freely in various spaces, just like from China to the United States, so the corresponding management organization MAV was born, which is similar to today's international police.Youlan is an MAV policeman, but the residents are law-abiding. His work is nothing more than routine patrols and investigations. After get off work, he is greeted by his beautiful and gentle wife at home. He lives a peaceful and comfortable life.

But one morning he wakes up somehow with superpowers that can knock down a metal utility pole with one kick and run after cars.And this superpower is still growing.It turned out that it was the fault of "Bad Yulan", a replica from another parallel space. He had already killed replicas in other dimensions, and every time he killed a replica, the skills of the other replicas would increase.There are only two Yolans left in the entire universe. The bad Yolan wants to kill the good Yolan to make himself unique. The two fight wits and courage, and finally have a showdown in a factory. The film started shooting in Los Angeles, with a total investment of 70 to 80 million, which is also a relatively large investment in Hollywood.The crew rented a large studio and remodeled it into a future time and space.Jet Li dressed up as a policeman and began to devote himself to intense filming.

There are two most difficult scenes in "Savior Mundi", one is the time-space transformation scene, and the other is the final duel scene.During the shooting of the time-space transition, the scene of Yulan being captured was badly filmed, because the computer digital video special effects experts on the side also had to do synchronous visual effects, which was quite time-consuming and laborious.Jet Li repeatedly made painful expressions on the ground, and every time the director saw that the soldier who was going to handcuff Jet Li away couldn't handcuff him well, he couldn't help scolding this idiot in a low voice. The director scolded all morning, Jet Li's The expression was also made blunt, ossified into a bitter face.When shooting a duel, Yuan Kui asked the good Jet Li to play defensive Bagua boxing, while the bad Jet Li played aggressive Xingyi boxing, in order to let the audience distinguish between good and bad Yulan.When filming this scene, it was played by one person, Jet Li changed clothes as many as 18 times a day, and the last scene took 4 weeks to shoot.In addition, in order to make Yulan's actions with increased energy look faster and more powerful than other opponents, the director also used his brains on the shooting speed.Jet Li's 24 frames per second, others 96 frames.Moreover, when Jet Li beat Jet Li, the stand-in who fought with Jet Li had to wear a computer 3D mask. After the filming, Jet Li looked at the filming tape again, and re-shot his facial expressions to show another Jet Li.

After the filming was completed in May, Yuan Kui went back to Hong Kong, and the film has also entered the post-production stage and is scheduled to be released on Thanksgiving. When "Savior of the World" was launched, two selling points were emphasized. One is that the film has rich imagination.The screenwriter assumes that there are 125 small universes in this world, and the same person has different identities in different small universes.And in this one hundred and twenty-five small universes, Jet Li has one hundred and twenty-five identities and one hundred and twenty-five looks.What's rare is that Jet Li, who has always been serious, completely ignores his image in order to perform "Savior" and appears in various shapes, such as long hair, blond hair, ruffian appearance, or nerd appearance... The changeable appearance opened the audience's eyes. .

In addition to Jet Li's variety of looks, another selling point of "Savior" is the on-screen confrontation of two Jet Lis. In the film, Jet Li, who is pros and cons, opposes good and evil. They also use Chinese Kung Fu but use different boxing techniques.The evil Jet Li uses the "Xingyiquan" that is fast and straight, only advancing and never retreating, while the decent Jet Li uses the round and slow "Baguaquan". Fortunately, Jet Li has a deep foundation. There is no confusion at all. After the film was released, due to the bloody battles in the play, it was rated as a protection level, restricting children to watch it.However, the fighting scenes in the play really showed Jet Li's miraculous skills. The astonishment and screams of foreigners watching the movie became more and more excited as they went to the end.

The media also gave this movie a high evaluation, saying that this movie is a perfect combination of technology and real kung fu, especially the final fight is remarkable.In the end, they said: "In this film, Jet Li finally established his position as the Kung Fu Emperor, took over Bruce Lee's banner in Hollywood, and became the new Kung Fu Emperor." A week after its premiere in North America, "Savior Mundi" ranked second in the North American box office with a box office of 20 million US dollars, setting a new personal record for him to enter Hollywood.But compared with the investment of 70 to 80 million, the income of 20 million is obviously too little.Regarding this result, Jet Li knew exactly what it would mean?He said:

In fact, I once had the opportunity to go to the A level, that is, "Savior", with an investment of 70 to 80 million, but unfortunately the box office did not succeed, then you have no chance to make this level again, unless your next movie If you succeed again, others may consider giving you another chance. Although the film did not achieve satisfactory results, the influence of Jet Li was played out. Shortly after the release of "Savior Mundi", the Hollywood entertainment website "Eonline" celebrated the launch of the "Ranking" channel with the theme of various elections. It started with the election of "The Sexiest Man in the Entertainment Industry".After the results came out, Jet Li ranked 24th, which shows his appeal in the international film world. After the results came out, at a press conference, a reporter asked Jet Li: "Not long ago, you were named the 'Sexiest Man of the Year' by an authoritative American magazine. What do you think about this?" Jet Li chuckled and said to the reporter who asked the question: "Do you think I'm sexy?" The reporter who asked the question laughed and said, "I didn't think it before, but now it looks a bit sexy." Everyone laughed, Jet Li also said with a smile: "As for whether I am sexy or not, I have no idea. How people comment on me, whether they like me or not, I have no idea. Because every nation looks at things The perspectives are always different. Moreover, the views of adults, children, and adults are different. For example, when I was in Southeast Asia, people thought Jet Li was the most old-fashioned one. Because, without packaging himself, the whole Every day I wear the same thing to meet reporters. After the photo is taken, the reporter doesn’t know which cover to put on. The reporter will say: "Huh? Why are you wearing the same clothes as the ones you wore two years ago?" That is to say, everyone looks at the problem The angle is different. When you come to America, you may be a very traditional Chinese. Besides, I am the kind of my own way. I just work hard to make my movies. If you like it, I will continue to make it. If you don’t like it, I will slap my ass and leave. I don’t have any regrets. Because I try my best every time I do it. Maybe it’s because this kind of personality is a little different! Moreover, maybe this kind of personality is for some girls in the United States. They think : Hey, I like this one! To be honest, I don’t know how to get the sexiest man.” The reporter immediately said, "Do you think you are a traditional Chinese? What does 'traditional Chinese' mean?" Jet Li said: "The tradition I understand should be that your way of being a person and your way of thinking are full of oriental philosophy, oriental philosophy, which is Chinese philosophy. Americans have never accepted my way of thinking. And when I was in Hong Kong, there were actually many people who didn’t accept it. To give an example, I treat everyone equally. When I was making a movie, I would scold the actors who were not serious about their performances. But there are two I will never scold people like people. One is the director, and the other is the heroine in the film. Why? The director is the leader, and generally speaking, he is also the elder. I will not make trouble. Actresses are women, from the Chinese point of view I believe that men who beat and scold women are incapable. Secondly, I am not like Western actors who focus on making money and enjoying themselves. I focus on career and family. The family is still busy with various affairs. Let me tell you something from the bottom of my heart. I hope to live the life of Youlan in "Savior of the World". The work is a routine patrol investigation. After work, there is a beautiful and gentle wife at home to welcome him. Live comfortably." Seeing that Jet Li took the initiative to talk about the things in life, the reporter asked: "The unanimous evaluation of you from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan entertainment circles is simplicity, strictness, diligence, and intelligence. What do you think of these four points?" Jet Li said with a smile: "The first two can barely be counted, and the latter two may not be counted. I was born in a bitter cold since I was a child. Although I have money now, I still live a simple life. I wear simple clothes and don't talk about famous brands. I usually don’t live in high-end hotels, I like to eat Beijing noodles with fried sauce and shredded potatoes, seafood and shark’s fin are generally not sticky, if you invite friends out for dinner and ask me to order, don’t think that I will order delicacies from mountains and seas.” Following the title of "Sexy Man", the US "Entertainment Weekly" listed 101 most powerful people in the entertainment industry today, and Jet Li, Jackie Chan, and Ang Lee were all on the list. However, there were also reports pouring cold water on Jet Li. An American media pointed out that "Savior" imitated a lot of "The Matrix" and plagiarized its scenes.When Yulan played by Jet Li was hunted down by another time and space, the bad Yulan had extraordinary power and ran faster than a sports car.He breaks a rifle with one hand, dodges bullets flying by in "slow motion," and has "fight scenes shot in 360 degrees," all of which are present in The Matrix. Second, Salvator Mundi is a parody of The Sixth Day.The protagonist played by Jet Li wants to escape the pursuit of another self and join hands with the Cosmic Criminal Police Organization to fight against the enemy.Such a familiar plot makes it easy to think of Arnold Schwarzenegger's new work "The Sixth Day". Not only the American media criticized his film, but some Asian film and television personnel also criticized his "Savior".Director Ying Ning said: "I am a fan of Jet Li, and I have a personal feeling for him, but I think Jet Li's performance in this film is a failure. His original look is gone. What the audience wants is an actor. It's not a martial arts prop. I think there is a language problem, because the Americans didn't use Jet Li well." A director from Beijing Film Studio said: "I think this film reminds us that films can also be made in this way. An actor can play more than 100 faces in one film. It broadens the thinking of Chinese directors. In terms of creativity and story setting, the film is almost absurd, playful, and even a little mentally handicapped, but the picture makes the audience believe it is true, reasonable and unexpected." Faced with accusations, an American reporter asked Jet Li: "You have been going relatively smoothly, are you prepared for failure?" Jet Li talked about his understanding of movies. He said: "Life is like climbing a mountain. If you want to climb to the top, you have to come down. Life is like a long movie. The whole world has loved it in recent years. Watch Hong Kong-style Kung Fu movies made in the United States, but after a few years, audiences will fall in love with French-style movies again. No one can stay on the top for 20 years, let alone be popular forever. The world is reincarnated. In the past 20 years There are ups and downs. I remind myself to stay sane, and it doesn’t matter if I’m on top of a mountain or in a valley. People learn new things every day, and your worst enemy is yourself, and you have to push yourself. Now the audience is educated To a high degree, they see all kinds of movies every year, and they want to see something new, and you as a filmmaker have to satisfy them, so I often go to the theater and watch movies with them, good or bad , I want to see how the audience reacts to the movie, why they applaud it and why they hate it, so I'm not too happy or too sad about success or failure." Soon, the film was introduced to China and released in mainland China. After hearing the news, Jet Li was very happy and said: "It is a great thing for the filmmakers that the film can be screened in the motherland." In order to promote the film in mainland China, Jet Li returned to Beijing to do some publicity. He stayed at the International Grand Hyatt Hotel. Later, he accepted interviews from reporters in the hotel. Facing the reporters, Jet Li talked eloquently. A reporter asked: "The One feels like a typical Hollywood movie, do you have any expectations for the box office of this movie in China or even in Asia? Jet Li said: "I don't pay much attention to these things. Because my habit of doing things is that I will work very hard when doing things, give all my energy, and devote myself to work. Then, the filming After finishing it, I won’t think about it so much. Because this kind of movie is a kind of commercial movie in mainland China. Then, people of different levels like it differently. The reason is that basically like this kind of movie is Some mainland commercial films, commercial sci-fi, very commercial films, of course, people at different levels like them differently.” Another reporter asked: "This is your home country, do you hope the film will have a better box office in your home country?" Jet Li: "What if there is no special hope. Because the greater the hope, the more disappointment. For example: at the beginning, we assumed a standard of 10 million. Then, when it reaches 10 million, you will say: Oops! In fact, it can be done better, 12 million is fine. Then, if you reach 20 million, you should expect to say 30 million. But, in case of the reverse situation, the result is 8 million. Of course you will be very disappointed. In fact, this is the case, and the desire will expand endlessly. So, for me, I don’t think so much, it doesn’t matter. As long as you have really worked hard, It’s fine if you have a clear conscience. It’s fine if the audience likes you, but if the audience doesn’t like you, OK, there’s nothing I can do about it.” A reporter muttered below, saying that Jet Li has really learned Buddhism to a certain level, and can take everything lightly, so what is he interested in. As soon as he finished speaking, Jet Li went on to say: "In addition to being interested in movies, I am also very interested in surfing the Internet. I am still a netizen." Jet Li mobilized the enthusiasm of the reporters sitting here, and the reporter immediately asked: "Then what do you think about the Internet? Can you tell us something about your contact with the Internet in your life? Jet Li said with a smile: "I often play online now. A few years ago, I had my own website. When I first went to the United States, some young people helped me make it. It is in English. Now I have a German one. It’s in Japanese, but the Chinese part is still lacking. Because I think it’s basically compulsory to build a website, and it’s built by fans themselves. There are some in China, such as children from Shenzhen or Hangzhou, who say they’re willing to help me build a Chinese one site. But since I don't know them well enough, I can't let them do it. I'll let them do it in the future. The success of "Savior Mundi" has made Jet Li like the sky, and he is loved by thousands of people. In June 2001, he won the favor of the chairman of Miramax Company. After watching Jet Li's movies, he believed that Jet Li had already had enough box office appeal from "Sky Cannon 4" to "Savior" and decided to reuse it. Jet Li, signed a contract with Jet Li to make a brand new film.In addition to starring, Jet Li also serves as a producer, and his salary can reach 10 million US dollars. It can be seen that the chairman of Miramax really appreciates him. The action-comedy, which was conceived by Jet Li, tells the story of a Tibetan lama who travels to New York and meets an American family, leading to a lot of jokes.Jet Li tried to get rid of the hard and serious fighting image, and changed to Jackie Chan's action comedy.Jet Li attaches great importance to this work.He said that this work will be the most important play in his career, and he hopes to surprise the audience. For a while, Jet Li's stardom was brilliant. However, the movie ended up running aground due to various reasons, and Jet Li stopped because of this.After taking a short break, Jet Li thought that it was necessary for him to think about it and summarize his career in martial arts movies and his experience in Hollywood over the past few years. Jet Li hid in the room and thought, so far, he has acted in nearly 30 movies, and without exception, all of them are characters who are good at fighting.From Jueyuan in "Shaolin Temple" to Youlan in "Savior of the World", from Beijing to Hollywood, what exactly do I want to express through fighting?In the eyes of the audience, in the eyes of Westerners, what is martial arts?Is Chinese Kung Fu just Chinese martial arts, Chinese Kung Fu is just fighting, there is nothing other than fighting, Bruce Lee also played when he came 30 years ago, Jackie Chan also played when he came, Jet Li still played when he came, he will fight when he sees Chinese people, What else is there besides fighting?What else can martial arts express in movies? After analysis, Jet Li found that Westerners think martial arts is a kind of fighting, a kind of sport, a kind of competition, a kind of striving for strength, a way of expressing the limit of using violence to control violence.Through their own films, Western audiences only see the violent side and cannot see anything other than violence. So, what else is there to do in martial arts besides fighting?Jet Li thinks further about the essence of martial arts. Jet Li thought that if a person's martial arts reaches the top level, he can knock down ten or fifteen people at any time, but if he doesn't understand responsibility, friendship, family, love, family, and if he doesn't understand human nature, even his No matter how high the martial arts are, he is no different from an animal. He is just an attack and defense tool ordered by people.The difference between humans and animals is that humans have feelings, love, and kinship. Humans can control this technology, and they don't live for this technology.There are two outcomes. One outcome is that you stand here, and I will use my skills to defeat you to prove my strength.Another kind, as long as I am strong, you don't dare to hit me easily while sitting here, this is also the purpose of my martial arts training.Because I stopped your psychological pressure to hit me, you dare not hit me easily, because I am strong.From a national point of view, a hundred years ago, China was a state of disunity, and eight countries could mess China up because China itself was not strong enough.A hundred years later, China, because of its own strength, still did not fight foreign countries, but he stood there, and anyone who wanted to fight China had to think about it and think about it, and decided whether it was necessary to do this move, and did not use martial arts to fight against it. To prove this thing, as long as you are strong.The same is true from a personal point of view.It is not necessary to win the championship in martial arts practice, it is only about self-transcendence and self-improvement. Jet Li further analyzed the meaning of martial arts from the structure of Chinese characters. Wu is composed of the word Zhi and the word Ge, Zhi means to stop, and Ge means fighting and fighting, which can also represent all forms of violence.Therefore, the original meaning of the word Wu should stop fighting. Since it is Zhige, the real purpose of practicing martial arts is to cultivate the mind. Through practicing martial arts, one can surpass oneself. After some thinking, Jet Li had a deeper understanding of martial arts. He looked back at his previous movies, as well as some martial arts masterpieces in film history, and found that most of the movies used martial arts as a way to control violence with violence. Jet Li felt that it was necessary to make a movie about the essence of martial arts thinking, and infuse new spirits into his martial arts movies. To this end, he called Yuan Kui to discuss the issue. After Jet Li talked about his thoughts, he said to Yuan Kui: "Looking around, the movies in the world of Chinese martial arts will always be like this, hatred, although at the end of every movie we see the good guys succeed, but imagine the back, the bad guys The children of the bad guys have grown up again, and the children of the bad guys come to take revenge again, so what should we do? Yuan Kui laughed out loud and said, "That's retribution." "Yes, our movies basically stay in this pattern, but I want to express a larger idea of ​​martial arts and express a kind of mind." Yuan Kui said, "What kind of mind do you want to express?" Jet Li, said: "I don't want to make martial arts movies full of hatred. I have seen many people who practice martial arts all over the world and different martial arts, Japanese martial arts, Western martial arts, Chinese martial arts, their bodies are getting stronger, but because they are for I haven’t seen through the joys, anger, sorrow, power, and desires in my life, so I live in pain. In fact, the purpose of human life is happiness and happiness, and everyone is. In fact, the pursuit of martial arts to the final state is also this. .Tai Chi is Yin and Yang, offensive and defensive, tall and short, male and female, from these two opposite worlds, the world of contradictions, to the final world of Promise, Promise is a world of equality, a unified world, everyone A happy state is also the highest state of martial arts." What Jet Li said made Yuan Kui applaud repeatedly. After sorting out his thoughts, Jet Li began to choose a script that suits his martial arts thinking.At this time, a script was sent from Beijing, my hometown thousands of miles away, titled, and directed by Zhang Yimou.