Thanks Ayako!
Ent.qq has posted new movie stills of Keanu Reeves in his role as Doneka in Man of Tai Chi. There is also a clip on the page but it restricted to IP addresses coming from the mainland.
There is some text with the photos as well. The photos are here.I will update as soon as I can.
Update: Many thanks to Ayako who found the video clip on another site. Keanu, Tiger, Elliot Davis, Michael Cooney (script writer) Jpseph Porro (costume director, the set designer, Yuen Woo-Ping and other crew members discuss making the film. It’s a really good clip! It is here.
Update X2: The translation was extracted with the google translator and smoothed over. No copyright infringement is intended. Some parts of the translation were rough but I did the best I could with what I had to work with.
Keanu Reeves directorial debut starring Chen Hu, Karen Mok, Simon Yam and Yeh Qing will be released nationally on July 5. Recently, the film crew involved in the making of the film gathered and made a 5.5 min special edition film clip discussing the the details involved behind the scenes to make the film. In addition to known director Keanu Reeves, we hear from action choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping, the director of photography Elliot Davis, art director Hinata, costume designer Joseph Porro, the script writer Michael Conney and other Hollywood elites that also worked behind the scenes. Touched, Keanu said, “The energy and the good teamwork in this film is my greatest achievement.”
Recently, the international superstar Keanu Reeves was seen running around two major international film festivals, BIFF and Cannes, to promote his directorial debut Man of Tai Chi. While the director was promoting his first work, he had generous words of praise for the actor Chen Hu. Several times he said that, Without Chen Hu there would be no Tai Chi Man. In this latest video clip, the two men sat side by side like brothers and talked about the origins of the film. The words between the brothers include, “Let’s make a movie about tai chi.” As a result there was six years of preparation as well as 6 months of shooting in China and Hong Kong that will culminate in the release of the finished film on July 5. Chen Hu served as “The Matrix” action guide and was Keanu Reeves martial arts instructor following his Bruce Lee karate chamionship. After his 10-year career in Hollywood he has moved from behind the scenes to star in Man of Tai Chi. He was not afraid of the director Keanu Reeves or his strict requirements for his performance. The role in the movie was tailored for him but the biggest challenge was to lose weight. Chen Hu shyly revealed that he ate nine months of special nutritious meals.
Keanu, as a director, prepared for the movie by first inviting Yuen Woo-Ping (Golden Triangle) to serve as the action director and choreographer for the movie. In addition he chose Elliot Davis (Twilight, Iron Lady, I Am Sam) as the director of photography, art director Hinata (Jinling 13 Hairpin, Swallowtail Butterfly), and costume designer Joseph Porro (Resident Evil, Bodyguards and Assasins). The elite (? martial arts experts) from the United States, Japan and other countries gathered for a movie scene that was important to show the Chinese and Western style of the film. Screenwriter Michael Cooney said: “We took an authentic Chinese film and put a lot of effort into the dialogue. The dialogue is very Chinese and there are several versions of the working script. We had an English version of the script as well as a ‘Chinglish’ version including the spelling of the words and I hope the audience realizes the difficulty after watching the film.
This was such a dragon (?top notch) team directed by Keanu Reeves and he touchingly said: “I really enjoyed directing this film and setting up the camera shots. The energy and teamwork was so good – it is my greatest achievement.”