Recently, the TV series "Blossoms" starring Hu Ge, Ma Yili, Tang Yan, Xin Zhilei and others released the second trailer, 17 months have passed since the last trailer. It is reported that "Blossoms" began preparations in 2017, started in September 2020, and is still being filmed, when it can be completed is still unpredictable, after all, the director is Wong Kar-wai.
Wong Kar-wai has always been known for his slow work, and since "Chongqing Forest", the shooting time has also increased exponentially. "A Fei's True Story" was filmed for almost a year, "In the Mood for Love" was filmed for 15 months, "East Evil and West Poison" was filmed for more than two years, "2046" was filmed before and after 5 years, "A Generation of Grandmasters" took 3 years to shoot alone, and the preparation time was more than 8 years.
Slowness is only one aspect, Wong Kar-wai is more famous for "torturing actors", he likes to shoot while writing scripts, often the crew has been on for several months, and the actors have not yet got the script. And he doesn't directly tell the actor what he needs, only in the actor's replay over and over again, to find the feeling he wants. The actor knows nothing about what will happen to him in the next second, and can never guess the director's mind. What's more, after filming, Wong Kar-wai also likes to change the plot while cutting. Many actors worked hard for several months to shoot the scene, and finally were cut by Wong Kar-wai.
When Tony Leung was filming "A Fei's True Story", there was a scene of eating pears, and the director was satisfied after eating pears 27 times. Tony Leung's mentality collapsed after filming, and he cried and went home to tell Carina Lau, "I can't act." He filmed the scene for more than three months in the crew, and was finally cut by Wong Kar-wai to only three minutes. And the pear eating scene that made him act into self-doubt was also cut.
When Jacky Cheung was filming "A Fei's True Story", a raised expression was filmed more than 60 times, but the director was still not satisfied, and did not tell him where the problem was, and finally said "forget it" and walked away, which made him feel deeply hit in his heart, and he was still haunted many years later.
When Takuya Kimura was filming the movie "2046", there was no character information and no specific script, he went to ask Wong Kar-wai, and Wong Kar-wai couldn't tell him clearly, but kept telling him: You are professional, you have to deal with this scene. The worst thing is that the filming stopped and stopped, and finally filmed for 5 years. Takuya Kimura spent 5 years participating in the shooting, but in the end it was cut to only 7 minutes. Kimura Takuya later said that he should not cooperate with Wong Kar-wai again, unless Tony Leung was also there.
It feels like gathering the actors together and can have a season of spit conventions.
There is also "East Evil and West Poison", known as the Great Unjust Crew, looking through the interviews of the actors at that time, it is really pitiful and funny.
Since there was no script at the time of filming, the actors did not know what role they were playing.
Netizens called the actors of this drama "Wong Kar Wai Victims Alliance"
Tony Leung thought he was playing the Eastern Evil when filming, and after the film was cut, he found out that he was a Western poison, but the final role was actually a blind samurai.
When Leslie Cheung entered the group, he thought that he was playing the Eastern Evil Yellow Medicine Master, and he was very much looking forward to the martial arts play, but he ended up playing the Western Poison Ouyang Feng, and there was almost no play.
Maggie Cheung thought that she was playing a fallen princess, but in fact, the role was Ouyang Feng's sister-in-law
Wang Zuxian said that he took on the play because he completely trusted the director, and as a result, it was filmed for 2 months, and the final scene was cut to only 15 seconds.
Leslie Cheung once joked on the show: "I don't agree with Wong Kar-wai."
Although he was complained about by everyone, it did not prevent Wong Kar-wai from becoming one of the best directors of our time. It takes him years to make a work, because he always overturns himself, and he has to reshoot a line or a picture if he is not satisfied, even if it consumes a lot of manpower and material resources. For him, nothing is more important than a good work. It is precisely this kind of behavior that strives for perfection to the point of almost grotesqueness that has made so many classic film works.
He may not be a director that the management and actors like, but he is indeed a director who is responsible for the art of film and the audience.