The director starts by learning from the abilities of renowned directors.

Chapter 22 Filming

On November 15th, filming for "Taken" officially began in Dehong, Yunnan Province.

The filming location changed from the original film's location shooting in France to the current version's location shooting in Yunnan Province, simulating Southeast Asia. With the environment changed, the action design could not be completely copied from the original film.

Shen Qing could only try to preserve the essence of the original action scenes.

With Jackie Chan's professional expertise and the original film as a reference, Shen Qing naturally took full charge of the action design work.

At first, the members of Cheng's team just thought that Shen Qing had a high level of comprehension. But after getting to know him better, they found that he was not only highly comprehension-oriented, but also capable of designing moves that everyone else couldn't even come up with after racking their brains.

Shen Qing can not only design the actions, he can also perform them himself!

Those high-difficulty moves were performed by veteran stuntmen with decades of experience. Even the best in the industry wouldn't dare say they could complete them smoothly. But once filming officially started, Shen Qing was able to easily perform many highly difficult professional moves.

The Cheng family troupe was initially a bit unconvinced and encouraged Li Zhongzhi to design an action sequence that no other director in Hong Kong could accomplish, wanting to see what this director was all about.

On the second day, Lee Chung-ji designed a very difficult move during the stunt rehearsal. Shim Cheong thought it was really amazing and very suitable for the movie style, so she agreed to add it. When Lee Chung-ji tentatively suggested that a stunt double could be used, Shim Cheong tried it herself first and then completed it on the second try.

This really surprised a lot of people.

After that, some members of the Cheng family troupe guessed that Shen Qing must have come from the mainland martial arts team, just like Li Lianjie.

This sentence reminded Li Zhongzhi that he had long felt that Shen Qing's filming style resembled someone, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Now, hearing his brothers mention Li Lianjie, he immediately became certain.

It's not that Li Lianjie is blind; it's just that Shen Qing's acting style is exactly the same as his own Jackie Chan!

Then one day there's a scene where the protagonist is chasing the villain, and the male lead needs to jump from an overpass onto a van traveling below.

The entire crew suggested using a stunt double, because if the director and lead actor were injured, the entire production would have to stop, which would be too costly.

But Shen Qing only stood on the overpass and let the van go through once before concluding that he was confident.

Then filming officially began, and Shen Qing jumped on the count of three under everyone's tense gaze, and then it was over!

……

"Director, have you studied martial arts?"

Inside a residential house, a fight scene had just been filmed, and the effect was perfect. Seeing that Shen Qing was in a good mood, Fan Bingbing came up to chat with him.

"I haven't learned it, why?"

"Action scenes are very difficult to film. A single line in the script can take several days to film. The action scene just now was obviously very difficult, but the director did a great job."

"Hehe, I guess I'm somewhat athletic."

Fan Bingbing was very curious about Shen Qing. She had never heard of this director before, but he suddenly became famous this summer. She heard that he had directed two TV movies before, but she had never seen them.

How dramatic was Shen Qing's rise to fame this summer?

A young director who was only 24 years old, with a production budget of 170 million, shot a movie in less than a month, in which everyone gathered in one house, using 35mm film, and the movie grossed 5200 million at the box office.

Throughout the summer, the name Shen Qing was everywhere in the industry.

After I officially met Shen Qing, my first impression of him was that he was young and handsome. He didn't look like a director, but more like an actor.

He is indeed an actor; he played Qi Leshan himself. Many friends in the industry said that Qi Leshan was not easy to play, but Shen Qing played him very well.

When filming officially started, Shen Qing left her with the impression of confidence and leadership.

The crew of "Taken" had more than 100 people, and he organized them in an orderly manner. Everyone performed their duties and corrected the mistakes of other groups from time to time. Most of the people he corrected looked at him with great admiration, which showed that his corrections were correct.

It didn't seem like they were faking it. When someone was first corrected, their indifference in their eyes was very obvious, but once they actually adjusted according to what he said, their previous indifference often immediately turned into sudden realization, and only after realizing the truth did they admire or worship him.

When they started filming high-intensity action scenes, they discovered that his physical abilities were ridiculously strong, and... he could do those moves that even stuntmen couldn't do!

It can even be made more sharp and aesthetically pleasing.

Recently, she discovered another characteristic of Shen Qing: his energy was frighteningly high.

He was both the director and the lead actor, and he even designed the action sequences himself. After the actors finished work that night, they had already showered and gone to bed, but I heard that the director was still in his room having a meeting with the main creative team.

The meeting wasn't over yet. The sample films brought back by the film scouts usually had to be checked that same day, so even though it might be late at night, the director was still watching the films with the cinematographer and others in the sample film screening room.

Then every day when she started work, Shen Qing was always full of energy, as if she had inexhaustible strength.

She has such amazing energy; she's even a little envious of Wan Qian, who plays a supporting role.

It's no secret on set that this woman and the director are having an affair.

……

The crew filmed in Yunnan Province for half a month. Action scenes are notoriously difficult to film. This time, the funding was relatively sufficient, and Shen Qing had high requirements, so it naturally took a lot of time.

After finishing filming in Yunnan Province, the large crew marched back to Beijing, where they filmed for half a month before finally wrapping up on January 29, 2005.

At the wrap party, Fan Bingbing brought over a wine glass and clinked it with Shen Qing's. They each took a sip, and she said, "It was a pleasure working with the director. I look forward to working with him again."

Shen Qing smiled and said, "It shouldn't be too long, right?"

……

After communicating with several producers, Shen Qing decided on a strategy to release "Taken" during the summer of 05. With relatively ample time, Shen Qing decided to go back to his hometown for the Chinese New Year this year.

This year's Lunar New Year film season was dominated by "A World Without Thieves" and "Kung Fu Hustle," especially "Kung Fu Hustle," which was incredibly popular, to the point that tickets were extremely hard to come by.

With the explosive popularity of "Kung Fu Hustle", the female lead Huang Shengyi became an overnight sensation across the country. This girl, who only appeared for a mere 5 minutes and didn't even have any lines, touched the hearts of countless people.

The scene where she cried with a knife held to her neck by Stephen Chow, in particular, touched the hearts of countless people.

At this point, some viewers recalled that there was another movie this year that also had a character with no lines and only 5 minutes of screen time, yet it also moved countless people – the Nightingale in "Fame and Fortune".

The Nightingale is played by Liu Yifei.

Netizens and media compared the two films, and while most people felt that the tearful scene in "Kung Fu Hustle" was more touching, it is an undeniable fact that Liu Yifei, Yang Mingli, and even Shen Qing all became popular again because of "Kung Fu Hustle".

After returning from her hometown for the Chinese New Year, Shen Qing threw herself into post-production editing.

Although "Taken" is a realistic action film with hard-hitting action, it is inevitable that some actions still rely on wire work. In the film era, it is far less convenient to erase the traces of wire work than in the digital age.

As a result, the later stages of the work were prolonged.

It wasn't until early April that the film finally completed all its post-production work.

Then came the test for Shen Qing: the investors arranged to watch a film together.