Wu Bai is a famous Rock Star in Taiwan. He had already played in a few feature films in Taiwan when Hong-Kong director Tsui Hark gave him a chance to work in Time and Tide.
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 HKCinemagic : You are Taiwanese, aren't you? So why did you choose to play your first important leading role in Hong-Kong?
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| Wu Bai : In HK, there is a real film industry with tons of different type of genres. In Taiwan, there is only a kind of art house cinema left. Moreover, I am a successful singer in Taiwan and the audience could have some clichés about me. It is then more difficult to be cast for a part in Taiwan. The advantage of being in HK was that I was back to square one, if you know what I mean. |
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| HKCinemagic :
Was the language a real problem during the shooting of Time and Tide ? [Cantonese is the HK dialect, whereas Mandarin is the language spoken in Taiwan].
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| W B : Yes, I had to learn Cantonese [and even Spanish], I wasn't dubbed at all for that. As it wasn't my mother tongue, I had the feeling that somebody else was playing the part. |
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| HKCinemagic : How was your relationship with director Tsui Hark?
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| W B : Tsui Hark and his producer knew very well my music. They decided to contact me after seeing my first feature. I was very surprised because Tsui is my idol. I really like his work and I was a bit scared to disappoint him. But we spent hours chatting and everything was going fine. So we decided to work together. |
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| HKCinemagic :
Tsui Hark shot a music video for your song written for Time and Tide.
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| W B : Yes, after the production of Time and Tide was finished, Tsui proposed to shoot the video for us. |
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| HKCinemagic : Do you feel close to Tsui Hark? |
| W B : Yes, we have the same type of sensitivity. The music I play is very influenced by the Blues. I like the melancholy from this type of music. Tsui has this very melancholic and romantic sensitivity as well. He asked me to write two songs for Time and Tide. As soon as he listened to them he felt that they were spot on for the ambience he was looking for in the movie. |
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| HKCinemagic : How did you get on with portraying Jack in Time and Tide ?
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| W B : I tried to be as relax as possible. Sometimes, I had doubts as to what to do but I tried to calm down. Then, one day Tsui said that I got it! From there, he didn't give me any more advises. It was a physical part as well so I trained for a week. I was shown the basis of fighting techniques and a police officer showed me how to use weapons. I did my own stunts and it was I who jumped from buildings! |
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| HKCinemagic : Did you get hurt?
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| W B :
Yes, a trolley felt on my spine. My back was very sour. As soon as we had a break, I had to go and lay down to rest. It lasted for a week. There was that time as well when I was holding a gun close to the face of my enemy. The gun slipped and as it was a real one and as it was very heavy, my fellow actor lost a tooth! As he has the face all swollen, Tsui had to shot him on the other side to hide his wound. |
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| HKCinemagic : What about the explosions? Wasn't it dangerous?
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| W B :
Most of them were CGI effects, because Tsui was interested about what was going on inside explosions. They were created during post-production. |
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| HKCinemagic :
How long was the shooting?
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| W B : Three months. Each scene was shot from different angles and we had to re-do them different ways. |
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HKCinemagic : Was there a full script ready the day of first photography? |
| W B : Yes, there was. But after a week there was hardly anything left. There were always changes. We had to adapt to the situation each time. Dialogues didn't change that much though. It was overall the character behaviour and his way to speak that changed. For example, Tsui asked us to play a scene a nasty way and then he asked us to play it again and again a more and more friendly way. |
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| HKCinemagic : Was it then possible to have a clue about what the movie will be like? |
| W B : Tsui has a bit the same way to work that I do to compose a new song. During the creation process, we don't know where we are going. Then, we both try to follow a way that nobody thought of. |
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HKCinemagic : What was your relationship with actor Nicholas Tse [Ting Fun], as he is also a very famous pop star in HK?
W B : As I am into music for a longer period than he is and as I played an older character than him, we had about the same relationship on the screen that we had on the set. I was a kind of big brother.
HKCinemagic : Why did you choose to start with Time and Tide to be a movie star since it is not exactly a commercial feature?
W B : Compared to Taiwanese films, this is a commercial movie. But, behind its casualness, Time and Tide talks about serious issues. That's what I liked in this movie. Moreover, Tsui managed to shot me as I really am. With another actor, no doubts that the result would have been different.
HKCinemagic : What are your plans after this movie?
W B : As I've been into music for ages, I always feel guilty when I go away a bit too far from it. So, I'm back to my music for the moment. In addition to that, it is pretty hard to find a good script. However, my collaboration with Tsui Hark will carry on. He has shot some of my music videos, and I might play in one of his next feature. HKCinemagic : Is there any other director you'd like to work with?
W B : Not at the moment. The director isn't the most important. Scripts and good plans are of first importance to me. |
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