It took Maxi Lim 43 takes to complete a scene, which made him the ‘NG King’ among the cast in Jack Neo's upcoming film, The Lion Men.
“The line only consisted of six words: 有人心痛了 leh! (Someone’s hurting inside) and he took 43 times”, Noah Yap said during a press conference held at Resorts World Sentosa yesterday.
Co-actor Wang Wei Liang who was also present at that particular scene cut in, “We should help to put in some good words for him. In the 42 takes, minus 3 for mine, 3 for Charlie, 6 for Noah, Maxi still took 31 takes!”
(View more photos from the press conference here!)
“I was not feeling well lah, I was down with conjunctivitis”, Lim defended himself, to which the other cast members shouted ‘excuses’.
“I was ‘NG King’ for that one day. After that day, I got my game back and I passed my champion title to Noah Yap because we usually take our takes done within 8 takes but Noah was back.”
Apart from reuniting the cast from Ah Boys To Men, director Jack Neo recruited a pool of talents through an open-call audition where contestants had to act, sing and dance. Playing the female lead, it was Eva Cheng's first movie, and her first time filming in Singapore.
Expect lots of action and stunts in Neo’s latest Chinese New Year film, which will be screening in cinemas this Thursday, 30 January 2014. For the stunts sequences, Neo invited overseas stunt coordinators to carefully choreograph and support the major scenes which involved actors performing dance moves on poles.
Tosh Zhang who is one of the leads in the movie felt that going up on wires was harder than learning the art of lion dancing. Though Wang’s character in the film is the one who is afraid of heights, it is Zhang who screamed when he first went up 3 storeys high on wires.
“The first time when director Neo asked me to go up on the wires, I thought it was just a few feet up in the air but he raised me 3 storeys high! I was screaming all the way," he recounted. “After a while it was actually quite fun!”
There were many ‘firsts’ in the upcoming film, including the actor’s first on-screen kiss. In addition, it wasn’t a long-planned scene, but a ‘surprise’ from director Neo when both leads came on set. The latter told them they ‘should be close’ at that point of their relationship and would ‘have to kiss’.
Neo previous films have always been a box-office hit with local cinemagoers. Ah Boys To Men 2 holds the top spot as the top-grossing local movie of all time. With The Lion Men, actor Chen Tian Wen said he hopes it’ll hit ‘more than 7 million’ while Neo didn’t want to put a figure to it.
“Let’s not give a limit to it, we hope if this movie resonates well with the viewers, please do give us the support,” Neo continued. “It’s the Lunar New Year, so bring your family down to watch it!”
The Lion Men stars Wang Wei Liang, Tosh Zhang, Maxi Lim, Noah Yap, Charlie Goh and Eva Cheng, opening inCinemas 30 Jan 2014!