On January 30, the media was allowed visit to the set of Wushu, which is about 5 kids training rigorously at a wushu school, eventually making some accomplishments in the field, and spreading wushu ethos.
Director Antony Szeto, who's also choreographing the action scenes, says that the film employs only realistic combat scenes, with almost no doubling or special effects. They will show be showing a diverse range of Chinese wushu on the screen, including Southern Fist, Sanda, etc.
Szeto himself was once a member of the Australian Wushu Team, and has trained in the prestigious Beijing Sports University. He began his career as a stuntman for various television shows in Australia, before moving on to Hollywood where he also had small parts in action films. He then moved to Hong Kong to direct television episodes. His feature debut was in 2005, when he directed a CGI-animated martial arts tale titled Dragon Blade. Wushu marks his first attempt at directing a major motion picture.
Besides Anthony Szeto, there is other major talent at work in the production of Wushu. Sammo Hung, who will only be with the production for 1/3 of the principal photography, will get to direct one of the action scenes personally - the scene in which Sammo Hung rescues his son. Apart from Sammo Hung, newcomers Liu Feng Chao and Wang Wen Jie are also starring in the film.
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Sammo Hung says that he's old and should let the younger people shoot martial arts scenes while he does drama films. And indeed, he has more drama scenes in this film than action scenes.
Anthony Szeto says that while there are plenty of martial arts stars in their 30s and 40s, there isn't anyone else who is special. His hopes are on these young guys, "They are gifted, have good wushu foundation, have modern looks. I hope they would become the successors." Filming will be completed by end of February, and is being planned for release in around July.
Wushu features Wang Wen Jie, who has previously worked with Tsui Hark on Seven Swords, and Liu Feng Chao, who is a former member of the Hebei Wushu Team. Here is Liu Feng Chao in action:
Video by yaojianan
Plot: A modern day martial arts coming-of-age feel-good drama, Wushu features rarely seen training of young martial artists in China. Set in an actual 3,000 student strong martial arts school in a remote part of Shandong, China, Wushu tells the story of Li Er - a talented teenage sanda fighter (Chinese kickboxing) who falls in love with a beautiful girl training in wushu (a martial arts form practiced by international action star, Jet Li).
In order to woo her, Li Er goes against his coach’s desire to make him the provincial sanda champion, and takes up wushu instead. Li Er struggles with losing his sanda champion status to becoming a no body in wushu competition, while at the same time he tries to get his girl to notice him and not getting kicked out of school for his poor marks. Wushu will show real life martial arts, starring talented young martial artists, in their actual stark yet exotic location. The total budget for this beautiful and up lifting fight film is US$1.5million. Sina, Hippopotamus Films | Photos:Sina | Trailer:
The original wushuonefamily.com website was created in 2002 when Ray and Houman returned from their summer trip to Beijing, China. The intention of this website's founders was (and still is) to raise the profile of Chinese Martial Arts, Kungfu/Kung Fu, Taiji/Taichi, Qigong and all related Chinese arts by building an online community, and providing videos (including our famous W1F trailers), downloads, photos, competition results, forums, diaries, blogs, articles, stories and reference.
The Ultimate Jet Li website is no longer available, however if you are a Jet fan it might be good to check out W1F for more information on Jet's art, Wushu.
