JULY 2015 NEWS UPDATE

 

July is a busy month for Wallace with the release of the movie “Monster Hunt” and the reality show I Go to School on 16th. Then he flew to Seoul on the 17th for the booting ceremony of his new movie “Tik Tok” which has commenced filming. For your information, Bounty Hunter has been postponed to September so Wallace can concentrate on acting in one movie at a time.

The booting ceremony was conducted with the “Korean style.” They wrote down their wishes on a piece of paper which will be sealed to enable their wishes to come true. Then the cast, director and production crew went on the stage to display their professional and strict attitude towards the film and also their wishes to have a smooth filming experience. Finally the Korean and Chinese representatives had a “Chinese style”  exchange of a glass of wine to conclude the blessing ceremony.

I mentioned that Lee Min Ho and Karena Ng got their roles in “Bounty Hunters” because of nepotism. Now it is our Wallace’s turn 😦 This is a joint production by Hairun which is Wallace’s management company. For your information, I think he has the same agency as Zhao Li Ying. The female lead in this movie is Lang Yue Ting. I don’t know anything about her except that she is known as “Johnnie To’s girl.” This means she always acts in his films.  I guess she is in the same boat as Wallace, both being Johnnie’s pets 😛  Her role is rather mysterious so you have to watch the movie to find out how her relationship with the two male leads will play out.

Shooting will take place entirely in Seoul and Goyang which is about 20 mins from Seoul. Thus I think we won’t see much of Wallace in public in the month of August 😦 In a nutshell, the movie is about the fierce physical and mental battle between Wallace & Lee Jung Jae. A lot of time and effort will be spent on polishing this movie from creation to shooting so you can be assured of its quality.  The Koreans seem to have high hope for this movie with the mayor of Goyang predicting that it’ll most probably make the President’s recommendation list. Wallace was chosen because of his box office appeal as well as his versatile acting skill in notable films such as “Drug War,” “The Continent” and “Monster Hunt.” It is  touted  that this will be Wallace’s breakthrough role and a chance for him to broaden the range of his roles. This cross border cooperation is expected to bring unprecedented pleasant surprises for his fans.

On a side note, the people on weibo wrote Wallace’s clothes is from Paul Smith’s spring-summer 2015 collection. Do the fashion critics here approve of his choice? Don’t you think he looks too casual compared with Lee Jung Jae?

Below is a fan-made poster for the movie.

This is Wallace’s latest weibo on July 16, in reply to a weibo by I Go to School‘s account.

“I’ve returned to life in school. In the drama class, the teacher asked for volunteers, but fellow classmates were not very eager. And so, the teacher said, ‘Students, if you do not courageously grasp every opportunity that comes your way, in the future, you will only ever be the spectators of someone else’s life, only watching as other people shine.’ I muse now, if life was simply the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division we learned in our childhood, then what should we choose to let go? What should we choose to take up? ‘Maturing’ and ‘growing up’ lie in understanding one day the toils your father and mother went through or holding back your tears. Being 17 is so nice. Everything is just starting.” (translated by hoju)

Monster Hunt broke the China domestic film’s record with RMB173m on the 1st day of opening and 500m RMB after 3 days!!! Thus it becomes the fastest film to surpass the 500m RMB mark and will be the most popular film in China this summer. So far, the film has taken only eight days to reach the one billion RMB mark. The movie also opened number one internationally as reported by Deadline Hollywood. It is reported that 2 more installments of the movie are in the pipeline but I doubt Wallace will be in them since he is not the lead. Anyway we should be happy that Wallace got to participate in such a blockbuster and successful movie. This will look good on his acting resume. Himmy had just watched the movie and will write a glowing review on it soon.

From the stats, I saw that some Koreans do visit this blog. Hence, could you please briefly translate this article for us? Is oppa truly popular in Korea? I read somewhere that he is well-known in Korea because of My Sunshine being broadcast there as well as it and The Stand- In being nominated in the 2015 Seoul International Drama Awards. Anyone saw Wallace filming in Korea?