KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 2 — From fashion runway to the silver screen, handsome 42-year-old Hu Bing dazzles in the Japanese Film Festival 2013 opening film, Ken & Mary: The Asian Truck Express, which was filmed entirely in Malaysia.
The story is about a Japanese employee (played by well-known Naoto Takenaka) who lands in a tiny airport in a remote part of Malaysia. He is on a mission: to break off the engagement of his daughter (Kii Kitano) in two days.
By some coincidence, he becomes acquainted with a Chinese truck driver (Hu Bing), and off they go to Kuala Lumpur where his daughter resides. The film also stars Malaysian comedic actor Zizan Razak, who plays a friend of the daughter.
Says Hu Bing: “The most difficult part for me was language. I speak Japanese, though not fluently but I can definitely get by. However, I didn’t speak a word of Malay before this project.
“And, my character was supposed to speak Malay fluently, so I had to get familiar with the tone of the language and memorise my dialogues in a very short time.
“There were some pretty long dialogues and I practised with local Malaysians at every chance I had, and fortunately I was able to get it done.
“Long Japanese dialogues were also not easy, but the more difficult part was to adjust to Naoto’s rhythm.”
The well-known Takenaka has a habit of breaking out with new concepts on the spur of the moment and often used a lot ofJapanese slang Hu Bing wasn’t familiar with.
Adds Hu Bing: “There was also a scene when I had to rock it out with a electronic guitar, I’m a perfectionist, if I’m going to do something then have to do it right, so I had to spend a lot of time practising the guitar as well.
“It’s actually a great experience and definitely made me a stronger actor.”
Hu Bing was already in the public limelight before he became a model, as he was a professional athlete, a national rowing champion by the age of 16, and a former member of the Chinese National Rowing Team.
His athletic career ended at 19 after he suffered a back injury.
When he took to the catwalk in 1990, the dashing Hu Bing had the gay rumour mill in overdrive.
This son of parents with military backgrounds is reticient about his personal life, although he did deny a rumoured relationship with Edison Chen’s father, Edward.
His career remained steady as Hu Bing is the first Chinese male model to walk the international fashion runway.
He became a household name with the success of the 1999 Chinese television serial Love Talks, in which he played the male leading role.
It’s the movie, The Back, produced by Luc Besson, that brought Hu Bing to households in the West. At the 2010 International Rome Film Festival, Hu Bing was nominated for the “Best Actor” award for his leading-role performance in the French-Hong Kong co-production.
Hu Bing took on Ken & Mary for the chance to work with Oscar-winning producer Toshiaki Nakazawa, who gave us the 2008 hit, Departures and 13 Assasins (2010).
“At that point I had yet to read the script, but it’s every actor’s dream to work with a highly renowned producer and production team.”
After reading the script, Hu Bing was hooked. The whole film takes place inside the driver’s cabin of a trailer truck.
“It’s totally different from all of my past experiences and it was a challenge I wanted to take on.”
But “it was literally torture in that truck,” he adds.
“It was over 40 degrees Celsius outside (the truck) with at least 85 per cent humidity.
“But the cast and crew formed a very special bond, almost like brothers in battle. I became very good friends with my co-stars and still reminisce about those sweat-filled days from time to time.
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