Costly fantasy ‘Asura’ debuts tomorrow
This is an unprecedented experience over my over 30 years’ experiences as an actress. The film would show me only in a helmet. Carina Lau, actress
BEIJING: The big-budget fantasy film Asura, starring Hong Kong actors Tony Leung and his wife Carina Lau is to premiere in China tomorrow.
Costing 750 million yuan ( RM454 million) to produce, it is one of the most expensive Chinamade films in recent years.
The story follows the adventures of Ru Yi ( Wu Lei), a young shepherd who one day learns he is the reincarnation of one of the heads of the threeheaded king of the world known as Asura.
The Chinese studio worked closely with an A- class Hollywood production team that included costume designer Ngila Dickson, who worked on The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Martin Mernandez, audio director for the Oscar-winning film The Revenant.
Aside from renowned cast members, the ambitious Eastern epic also stars foreign performers such as Matthew Knowles and Bonetics, the 18-year- old bodytwister from the 2015 season of Britain’s Got Talent.
Many of the film’s scenes were shot in the remote areas of Northwest China including the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
Producer Yang Zhenjian, describing the film as a “world- class visual feast,” said that “Asura faced numerous technological challenges, such as portraying three heads on a single body.”
On the challenges of his role, Tony said: “This is a real conundrum for me in my filming experiences. It’s already difficult for me to play the King together with Carina Lau, not to mention Wu Lei’s participation.”
In many Oriental lands, the word Asura means demigods. In the film, it has three heads, which show three respective functions, namely desire, strategy and bravery.
Said Carina: “This is an unprecedented experience over my over 30 years’ experiences as an actress. The film would show me only in a helmet. I had to comply with how Tony Leung acts because in the film the King is made up of my head and his body.”