Since February, Battle of Wits which starred Andy Lau, Fan Bingbing, Nicky Wu, Wang Zhiwen and Ahn Sung-kee and was a US$16 million investment by Huayi Brothers, Japan's Comstock Ltd, Korea's Boram Entertainment Inc and Hong Kong's Sundream Motion Pictures Ltd is undergoing post production, the editing had been completed and now the next stage of dubbing for the actors.
As actors from Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China are casted, thus a total of 7 actors need dubbing but the most important task is to find a suitable voice for Andy Lau's character - Ge Li.
Actually in House of Flying Daggers and World Without Thieves, his voice was dubbed as a suitable voice that's similiar to Andy was picked thus no audience discover this "secret". However, director Jacob Chang thinks that this requirement is not required for Battle of Wits as Ge Li is a character of more than 2,300 years ago, thus the direction would be on the character itself, therefore it would be rather to find a suitable voice for Ge Li rather than for Andy.
Whether the voice chosen is similiar to Andy is not important, most importantly is through Andy's performance and the "voice", the audience would be convinced that Andy is Ge Li, allowing the audience to get into the story is more important!
Thus, for Ge Li's dubbing, what's the standard set by Jacob? He says: "The voice must be convincing, shows leadership and strong language charisma." Of course, Andy being a heavenly king superstar in Asia, to find a suitable character with a "voice" that doesn't disappoint is no easy task.
Meanwhile for the voice management of the characters in the movie, Jacob seems to look at the direction of the characters, other than Andy, even farmers played by Mainland China actors need dubbing too in order for the audience to be convinced by the characters and the movie, in order to bring out the true meaning of the movie.
Jacon once collaborated with Andy some 20 years ago, he had a new feeling on this collaboration this time round. Jacob says: "Seeing him after 20 years, his performance has improved, also improved as a person, he's unlike a big brother, he's more like an assistant director." What touched the director is when Andy gave everyone present when the shooting ended.
Jacob says: "He gather every crew members' photographs and stick them together as if we had graduated, it's like a graduation photo, allowing everyone to find themselves on it, so thoughful of him."
news from: Sina.com
pictures of Taiwan AWC gathering from: Apple Daily News, Sina.com
Andy Lau
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