Nicholas Tse came out from behind the scenes, the curtain was black, and he was also wearing black. The black Nicholas Tse sat down in front of the black background, and the reporter and photographer both had dark eyes: not good.
But when we talked, talking about "the purest action movie", talking about "pain will make an actor more like a 'person'", Nicholas Tse's spirit soared, and his face that had barely changed when he was young had a luster. The 43-year-old Nicholas Tse is hidden in the black, allowing his expression, eyes and body language to be in the forefront. As he has been doing this expression over the years, using food and martial arts to simplify the complex, there is no need to talk much.
In the new movie "Customs Front" released in June this year, Nicholas Tse is the leading actor and action director at the same time, and he continues to fight desperately. In the air, on the deck of the ferry, on the bottom of the sea, falling from a height of dozens of meters, diving underwater for hand-to-hand combat for several minutes, one move, one punch and one kick, you can see it vividly.
"Action is a dialogue." Nicholas Tse told "South Wind Window" that in his eyes, martial arts, singing, and cooking are all the same, "Different fields are a channel for me to export myself, but the ingredients and tricks are different, and the senses are different." ”
Stills from "Customs Front".
"The singer in the heart of the 'post-80s', the actor in the heart of the 'post-90s', and the chef in the heart of the ...... of the 'post-00s'" Nicholas Tse knows that because of his versatility over the years, his image has been cut into different identities by different generations. So much so that many people forget that he is actually very capable of fighting.
became famous at a young age, set off an idol trend with rebellion and talent, and broke into the pop culture memory of at least two generations, and passed through the years of madness and precipitation under the attention and scrutiny of the world. From music to acting, from martial arts to cooking, Nicholas Tse's first half of life was like a dense forest, and he devoted himself to it and poured his heart and soul into every tree. He said that he missed the old days and occasionally regretted that he had not done enough in the past, but on the way forward, he continued to exert his strength and kept walking.
In fact, at the age of 43, he looks not much different from his twenties - he is still fresh without makeup, his skin is firm, his figure is straight, and his eyes are clear and focused. After three years, he brought the movie to meet the audience, and at the premieres and roadshows, there were always exclamations from fans thrown at him online and offline: "I'm old, you're not old yet!" ”
During the dialogue with "South Wind Window", Nicholas Tse's face occasionally overflows with a familiar sense of youth, but his words are much calmer and more cautious than when he was young. As a "post-95" interviewer, I often think of what I saw on the TV screen when I was a child, he didn't look directly at the camera, his eyes were constricted, and he loomed behind the iconic oblique bangs. He is good at "hiding", many characters don't talk much, always with a sense of forbearance and restraint, and expresses himself with galloping action language.
Nicholas Tse's iconic oblique bangs / stills from "Going with the Current".
Nicholas Tse once said, "I am most afraid of living in vain". Now, life is more in control. He doesn't have to strain himself, but he still wants to climb to the next peak. Now he appears in public places, wearing more black, plain, peaceful, and buried in his heart. After learning to "precipitate", he still wants the younger generation to know what a real "action movie" is.
For Nicholas Tse, action movies are not the glory of the past, nor are they ancient symbols of Hong Kong films, but the vitality that can still be activated and continued.
"Extreme"
"Why do you have to fight?"
This is the beginning of all problems, and it is also the questionnaire of the times that Hong Kong martial arts actors have always faced. However, in that bygone era, the answer is even more unquestionable. And today, imaging technology has evolved to artificial intelligence
, Nicholas Tse, who seems to have everything and has experienced everything, why does he still risk his life and "abuse" himself in action movies?
Except for some necessary sets, "Customs Front" uses almost no special effects. Explosions, car crashes and ship collisions are all real, and hand-to-hand combat is also real. In retrospect, the most dangerous scene in the whole film was when Nicholas Tse rolled down from a cargo box dozens of meters high. The photographer must follow himself down at the same rate, or he loses both.
During the early rehearsal, probably because he thought that he had experienced too many similar situations, Nicholas Tse "underestimated the enemy" and wore a pair of glasses, but as a result, he hit a sharp object, the skin at the corners of his eyes was cut, and blood immediately flowed down.
In "Customs Front", there is a real hand-to-hand fight
"An action movie isn't called an action movie if it's not dangerous." Danger and pain can stimulate a person's limiting state, or it can be said to be a kind of stimulation of creativity.
In Nicholas Tse's eyes, the essence of drama lies in "storytelling". "I think the action is exactly the same as the dialogue, it is all expressed through your body or lines, to enrich a character. Your punches, your heels, your pains, it's all body language. Therefore, the action should be in line with the role, "you can't say that this leg is good-looking, you can use this leg", playing is not a show of skills, and the action must serve the "people".
However, after more than 20 years of fighting, Nicholas Tse can't say that he is used to pain, "there are benefits of not being used to it". He thought for a moment and explained: "That kind of pain will make the actor's micro-expression more like a real person, whether it is broken glass, explosion, fire, there is no sense of oppression when playing in front of the green set, but when an actor knows that the car next to him will really explode, [his] reaction is completely different." ”
Good actors know that what can't be acted is the most valuable. In action movies, the biggest challenge is how to make the audience feel a kind of "limit".
The last time Nicholas Tse entered this extreme state was the movie "Rage: A Serious Case" released in July 2021. He and Donnie Yen played opponents, fighting on the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui, fighting on the rooftops and in the narrow alleys, and the extreme impact and pain penetrated the screen.
Nicholas Tse and Donnie Yen / stills from "Rage: Serious Case".
There is a scene where Donnie Yen presses Nicholas Tse's head and rolls the piano with his face. Chen Musheng originally didn't plan to shoot like this, he and Donnie Yen were worried about safety, but Nicholas Tse insisted on this setting, "I am also a martial arts actor."
It's a pity that director Chen Musheng didn't wait for the movie to be released and died of nasopharyngeal cancer.
Chen Musheng is Nicholas Tse's important guide and partner in the field of action movies. Since he collaborated on the first action film "SWAT New Human" at the age of 19, Nicholas Tse has made 7 movies with Chen Musheng, each of which was "made with life as a bet". In those years, the persuasiveness of Hong Kong action movies was basically playing with life.
Chen Musheng's departure brought a big blow to Nicholas Tse. In an interview after the release of "Rage: A Serious Case", Nicholas Tse was asked "whether he has the determination to carry the banner of Hong Kong action movies", Nicholas Tse was a little at a loss: "I don't know how to continue." I have accumulated more than 20 years of tacit understanding and trust with him (Chen Musheng), and we have taken a lot of quite 'perverted' scenes together. I'm 40 years old this year, and even if I have the heart, I don't necessarily have the strength. ”
Stills from "Rage: A Serious Case".
Three years later, he still feels difficult, "Action scenes are actually very contradictory, it's useless to be a person, you need everyone around you to be able to play." The so-called "limit" refers not only to physical strength, but also to willpower and belief.
Since his first movie "New Crazy Boy" when he was 17 years old, Nicholas Tse has experienced this firsthand. He broke a bone in his ankle in that film, but insisted on continuing filming for six hours before going to the hospital. At that time, he said to director Liu Weiqiang, "This is my first film, can you guarantee that you can find more than 300 identical extras tomorrow?" Later, when he came to the hospital, Nicholas Tse was required by the hospital to sign a "life and death contract" before he could perform the operation.
In 2014, when Jackie Chan mentioned the next generation of "kung fu superstars" in his eyes in an interview, he used two words to evaluate Nicholas Tse: "bold enough" and "flexible". Jackie Chan has a training base in Beijing, and there are two people who practice there forever, one is Nicholas Tse and the other is Li Zhiting.
Many years later, Jackie Chan was invited to participate in an acting variety show, and he used it to encourage young people who want to film well to "equip themselves first", because they don't know when they might play.
In the 2009 historical film "October Siege", Nicholas Tse played a disabled driver. Wang Xueqi, another actor in the movie, later recalled in an interview that in a fight scene, Nicholas Tse specially found a boxer to beat him, "because others dare not beat him". punch after punch, the director was worried about leaving sequelae for Nicholas Tse, but Nicholas Tse was only worried, "It's too fake if you don't really fight".
Nicholas Tse as the coachman Ah Si / stills from "October Siege".
Really, it's the bottom line for action movies and martial arts actors. But whether it's true or not, does the audience really care?
The dilemma came earlier than expected. There is a scene in the 2012 movie "Disappearing Bullet" where Nicholas Tse rushes out of the real blast with a little girl in his arms. When the movie premiered, Nicholas Tse heard an aunt in the theater sighing: "The current computer special effects are so realistic." At that moment, Nicholas Tse was in a trance: What is the need to really fight?
More than ten years later, his thinking took a step forward, "Computer special effects can make the world infinite, and can make an actor's movements infinite, but I still hope that our new batch of actors are willing to exercise and lay a foundation, and one day in the future, he can also choose martial arts." ”
"Find Me"
Martial arts is an expression. Nicholas Tse likened Kung Fu to an "international language" that can cross ethnic and cultural barriers, "without knowing Cantonese or Chinese, but we can still communicate."
Singing, cooking, and acting are also expressions. "Just take different ingredients, different tricks, or different notes, except for the sensory differences, they are actually the same", for Nicholas Tse, these are all channels for "exporting themselves", they share the vitality of the same creator.
He doesn't need to explain it to anyone, not even to the world. The audience who understands will naturally understand, and the taste buds are the same as the visual and auditory senses, which can make people feel and resonate.
Now he jokes to himself that the identity of "Nicholas Tse" in the minds of different generations is different. Perhaps only long-term fans and movie fans have accompanied him through all the stages of singers, actors, and chefs.
Stills from "Sharp Flavor".
But he refuses to give preference to any one identity, "I don't care what image (in everyone's minds) is."
Since his debut at the age of 16, Nicholas Tse has been constantly training himself to "hear his voice" and find the real "me" from the noisy and noisy external spotlight. He admits that when he first started making music, he loved it later, and more importantly, he wanted to help his family and prove that he could support himself.
Nicholas Tse feels that it was probably from "Jade Butterfly" in 2001 that he began to have something "of his own". In the lyrics, he confesses to "butterflies" in different languages and writes love letters to living beings. Borrowing things to metaphor people, all things are like people. But "whatever you are called, you will be found in this world", no matter what you seem to call it, you are just "you", as long as it is "you".
Finding "you" is also a process of finding "me". At the age of 20, Nicholas Tse began to find his true self in this world, unaffected by the outside world. His rebellion gradually manifests itself as a kind of creativity that is stable at the core, protecting the purity and desire of a teenage superstar.
Wang Shuangjun, the producer of "Jade Butterfly", described Nicholas Tse as a person who "doesn't care what happens in the world". The idea in my head is "crazy", "I will do it when I think of it". I will make a song for a flower, and I will be excited to jump because of a snow. In Wang Shuangjun's eyes, Nicholas Tse's "rebellion" is essentially out of his "innocence".
Album "Jade Butterfly"
The maturity beyond age and the uninhibited innocence exist in Nicholas Tse at the same time, as a retardant of aging, and as an idol, the inner appeal that people bring.
In the words of director Xu Anhua: "Nicholas's rebellion is not bad, he has his own opinions and opinions, in fact, he is very mature." ”
In 2003, when Xu Anhua was filming "Jade Guanyin", there was a scene where Nicholas Tse was required to jump from a height of two meters after running for a while, "He can only wear slippers, but he has to jump without hesitation", Xu Anhua later said, "I always feel that there are fewer scenes for him".
After the 2009 album "Love Because of Love", Nicholas Tse did not release a new album for 9 years. But he was not idle, during this period, he won the Best Actor at the 30th Academy Awards with the movie "The Informant", becoming the first "post-80s" actor in the history of the Academy Awards.
A still from "The Informant".
At the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony, award presenter Chow Yun-fat said to Nicholas Tse in a half-joking tone: "Nicholas, the next 30 years of Hong Kong films depend on you." ”
At that time, Hong Kong films were still remnants of glorious warmth, but there was already a trend of green and yellow. Whether this message is a joke or a politeness, it expresses a kind of concern and sustenance for Hong Kong films and their spirit.
Until now, Nicholas Tse doesn't feel that he has any "mission". He chose the most conservative of terms, "to let young people know what a real action movie is", a small goal that seems simple, but it requires decades or even generations of patience and faith.
He is still looking for the one he has been cherishing in his heart since he was a teenager, "the real Nicholas Tse".
"The Complete Nicholas Tse"
Everyone thinks that Nicholas Tse has changed since cooking.
In 2012, Nicholas Tse began to study cooking, and two years later, the food program "Twelve Sharp Flavors" was launched. At the beginning, Nicholas Tse did not question it, and the outside world threw the voice of "I want to play it". But no one expected that he would do this for ten years.
Nicholas Tse is still like Wang Shuangjun said, "do what you think", and still ask for "extreme". If he had 18 hours a day, he could have spent 16 hours in the kitchen and had even been diagnosed with inflammation of the fascia of his hand. In those years, the movies he received were also related to cooking, and when it was filmed in 2017, Nicholas Tse spent 12-13 hours a day in the kitchen for 4 consecutive days.
Stills from "The Battle of the God of Food".
Because of his research on cooking, Nicholas Tse's long-term relatively estranged relationship with his parents has also regained. He went to the supermarket with his mother and made what he wanted to eat with the ingredients that his father had delivered to him. This is a very Chinese-style emotional connection, such as Ang Lee's "Eating Men and Women", which is Chinese-style blank, restrained, and soft.
Compared with singing, food is a more peaceful and warm expression, which is in response to the transition of Nicholas Tse at the age of 30-40. He no longer sings on stage as he used to, and is less scrutinized on the big screen. The kitchen is not a place where the spotlight shines, but even since his debut at the age of 16, he has experienced more than ten years of glamour, marriage and fatherhood. He began to want to precipitate.
For Nicholas Tse, cooking food is a "practice and precipitation". When asked about the difference between cooking and making movies, he replied: "Making movies is very passive, not every time you can encounter such a good script, such a good role, and it is very uncomfortable to shoot something that you don't want to go."
But cooking is relatively personal, the ingredients can be decided by themselves, and there is no language barrier to taste, which is very similar to kung fu. There is no need to say much, there is no need to explain it to the world, the audience and diners themselves will feel it.
He began to release the soft side of himself that had been or had been deliberately concealed, peaceful, sensual, and most importantly, slow. After starting to be a chef, Nicholas Tse feels that he has become much more patient, and he is no longer as anxious as before, "if the boiled water is not boiled, it is not boiled, and a piece of chicken breast is not cooked."
In 2018, Nicholas Tse finally released a new album. The Cantonese name of the song is "There is Fire", and Nicholas Tse sees it as a symbol of his rebellion. He continued to sing the ideal in the song, "Even if the dream is wrong, but it is the best mistake / Don't pay attention to the result......"
Album "There is Fire"
At that time, Nicholas Tse was 38 years old, but he felt that his current self was "the same heart" as when he was young, but the color was different. In an interview at the time, he said that "what used to be a red fire is now blue, and in the future it may become a white-hot fire," and that his goal was to "burn more intensively and more freely."
It was also in the issue of "Fengwei" that year that Nicholas Tse went to Beijing Beixinqiao to eat a braised stew. He was facing the camera to introduce the ingredients in the bowl to the audience, and when he looked down, he suddenly found a hair. He picked it out with a smile, silently, and continued to eat.
Whether as a chef or as a superstar, in various ways, Nicholas Tse is much more tolerant and low-key than when he was younger, and as he now said to reporters, "can understand a lot of things".
But Nicholas Tse is still a "perfectionist Virgo" Nicholas Tse, and even now, he occasionally looks back on the past and ponders the past, "I think, wouldn't it be better if I did that?" Should I have eaten that cake last night? When you are young, you should study more attentively...... "These specific and subtle thoughts will make him lose money, but when the anxiety is over, he will not reveal more."
Stills from "Customs Front".
This is a way for Nicholas Tse to protect and retain himself. When people reach middle age, from being forced to be exposed to getting used to the spotlight, from being rebellious and flamboyant to learning to be silent, and then gradually getting used to being free and self-reserving in Vanity Fair, he is the kind of Nicholas Tse - you know he will do it, cook it, fight it, express it, but he won't say much.
"But are you a person who pays more attention to the sense of life experience or the sense of achievement?"
"Both." He still smiled incomprehensibly, which was frustrating.
After the interview, I realized that maybe Nicholas Tse was not dodging, not cautious, but as always, unwilling to define himself. His "stable core", just like his body and physical fitness that he has maintained for decades, does not allow himself to deviate from the slightest, and even if he hesitates, he can quickly return to his place.
Nicholas Tse fitness photo
At least in the hearts of a generation, Nicholas Tse will always be the person who will take his pet turtle to the stage, sing with it on his pillow, use an iron to burn himself a "cockscomb" and then run to sing, and will jump up with excitement after seeing the winter snow. He is no longer a teenager, but he can always be a teenager.
He had seen all kinds of colors, dripping through fire and pain, leaving a body of effort and blood in vain. Even if the years are unforgiving, you have to leave something behind, you have to leave more.