Jay Chou Impresses Girls with Cards

[Berri]

HE admits to using card tricks to impress girls, including his co-stars.

Yesterday, Taiwanese singer Jay Chou himself turned out to be the biggest 'da-pai' (Chinese for trumpcard) during a press conference in Taipei for new movie Kung Fu Dunk. The 28-year-old R&B prince stole the thunder from accomplished actors Eric Tsang and Charlene Choi. He clearly knows he's the ace in the pack.

Jay, who has only four movies to his name, kept his co-stars waiting but was still given the star treatment. The actors - Eric, Charlene, Baron Chen and Chen Po-lin - had long arrived when the event was scheduled to start at 1.30pm in Taipei's Grand Hyatt Hotel. But Jay was nowhere to be seen. After his co-stars have warmed their seats, Jay finally appeared with an entourage of seven people, no less.

His butt had barely touched the empty chair on the left of the table when all his co-actors stood up as if on cue, and promptly shuffled themselves to make sure Jay gets the centre seat. More than 100 journalists from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore had their attention on Jay, too. Microphones were tossed into Jay's hands. He ended up holding at least seven of them, while his co-actors had about four each.

Jay plays the main lead in the new movie, which is expected to hit the screens in February next year. With a production budget of US$10 million ($15 million), the movie is the biggest production in Taiwan's history. In it, Jay plays an orphan (Shi-Jie) who grows up in a gongfu school. And he is highly skilled at basketball too. Under the pretext of helping him to look for his family, his uncle Wang Li (played by Eric) persuaded him to join the university basketball team. Little did Jay know that his uncle was making use of him to earn money. In the team, the captain Ting-Wei (played by Po-Lin) helped Shi-Jie combine his kung-fu and basketball skills. As a result, Shi-Jie improved tremendously and the team went on to win major competitions.

This movie sees Jay making the most breakthroughs, said director Kevin Chu Yin-ping. He quipped that within a very short time, Jay's acting skills have become very impressive.

'This is Jay's best movie. I'm very lucky because before this, he had worked with renowned directors such as Zhang Yimou who had helped him hone his acting skills,' said Kevin, who is best known for directing comedies like No Sir and Young Policemen in Love.

'One of the things I'm most proud of is that I've succeeded in making Jay very different from the aloof image that he used to portray in previous movies like Initial D and Curse of The Golden Flower,' he said.

'In this movie, he plays someone who is very innocent and comical at the same time. His acting is so good that he will move you to tears, even though the script is technically not a tear-jerker where he loses any of his loved one,' he added.

When they watched a particular scene where Jay wept, the actors and production team shed tears too.

'While we were watching, Jay went to play a piece on the piano, and it gelled so well with the mood of that scene. That was how absorbed he was in the entire process,' he added.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Having spent more than two years perfecting the script, Kevin has great expectations for the movie and added that he has never been so confident. And he was certain that Jay's music will be a great boost to the movie. Just look at Curse of the Golden flower, he said.

Jay wrote a song Ju Hua Tai (Chrysanthemum Platform) for the movie. The song is included in his latest album Still Fantasy. 'That song helped the movie gain so many points and vice versa,' said Kevin.

But despite his importance in the movie, Jay is far from a diva, said Kevin. Half in jest, he said: 'In fact, the diva is Eric. He comes late and leave early. And he's also the person with the most opinions.'

Jay said: 'I really let myself go in this movie. I discarded the aloof image that people have of me as a singer and I'm very happy with the change and results.'
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