Taiwanese star Vic Chou recently recalled visiting the Philippines years ago.
In a virtual interview with The STAR for his iQiyi series Danger Zone, he fondly spoke about how enthusiastic the Filipino fans were back then.
Fans would remember Vic coming to the country twice in the early 2000s as a member of the F4, the boy group that was formed after the phenomenal success of the 2001 Taiwanese drama Meteor Garden.
Twenty years after, Vic is leading the cast of the action-thriller Danger Zone and taking on a role that he said he has long been waiting for.
Christopher Lee, Berant Zhu, Sandrine Pinna, Wu Hsing-kuo and Tseng Jing-hua form the rest of the ensemble cast of this series, where law enforcers are forced to engage and work with criminals to solve multiple cases, consequently leading to a larger and more complicated crisis.
Vic was previously nominated for Best Actor at the 44th Golden Bell Awards for his performance in the series Black & White and won the Golden Bell Award for Best Actor for his performance in the movie Home. The Golden Bell Awards is known as Taiwan’s equivalent of the Emmy Awards.
In more recent years, he also starred in the period drama The Flame’s Daughter and historical drama Poetry of the Song Dynasty.
Danger Zone, meanwhile, is the first prison-themed, Chinese-language original of the Chinese streaming giant iQiyi. It’s now available on iQiyi International (iQiyi app or www.iQ.com) across 191 countries and regions.
Vic plays the lead character of Liang Yan Dong, who is described in the press notes as a “39-year-old, a reticent, insightful defense lawyer who maintains a low profile and believes that truth is the only answer.” He used to be a police officer with a specialization in criminal profiling. But an accident forced him to drop his police job. Later on, he became a lawyer fighting for vulnerable groups, but got arrested as a suspect in a sexual assault case.
While imprisoned and awaiting trial, Liang finds himself putting his expertise to use and teaming up with the criminal investigation team to solve criminal cases without evidence and serial homicides without suspects.
From the trailer, Vic makes a convincing portrayal of a cold and quiet “criminal”. But during the virtual press event, the cast members unanimously agreed that Vic has the “biggest contrast” in terms of his on- and off- screen personas because behind the cameras, he was “warm and often poked fun at others.”
The STAR had the chance to talk more to Vic, through an English interpreter, in a separate interview.
On his first reaction at being offered to be the show’s lead star:
“When I first received the script, I told myself that this is the genre, this is the role that I’ve been waiting for, so I decided that I’m going to dedicate the next four months to get myself into this character.
“I did extensive research, I tried to observe a lot of people, a lot of different things, a lot of different events. I ask whoever I can to find out about the things I need to find out about this character, and that’s what I did for the filming of this show.”
On the most challenging scenes (emotionally and physically) in the series:
“As long as I can handle physically, I put no limits on actions or genres. I am afraid of dull storylines and characters, so action scenes are a release to me. We filmed this series before I was 40 years old. I always hope to have work and a character that really fits my age and my performance. I wouldn’t say no if suitable opportunities appear. In fact, I had a lot of action scenes in historical dramas before.
“(Most challenging scene to pull off) There was a car accident, it was my first time to be on such a huge one, and the crane can actually pick up the whole car and then spin the car. So when I was in the filming process, it was very difficult and in many cases, we were upside down for a long time. So we have to close our eyes when they spin the car and there are a lot of fractures, lots of fragments of glass, so sometimes we have to wait up there upside down for a long time. Sometimes, it’s so unbearable to me, it’s so tiring that I can’t even open my eyes.”
On how Danger Zone is different from his past projects:
“I think for Danger Zone, it’s not just an action thriller, it’s actually a very powerful work. Because you can see all the characters, they are full of stories. We spent a lot of time trying to refine these characters to present the whole story of that character, the entire life. So some of the good guys, they don’t necessarily do good things, some of the bad guys, they probably are in a certain stage in life, they make a decision for themselves, and that changes the verdict of this character.
“So I think we have all these profound characters together in the show so that when the viewers see the series, see Danger Zone, they can see how the writers, how the actors, and how the entire crew try so hard to put in a lot of work to create these impressive roles.”
On his memories from previous visit/s to the Philippines, and why his show is a must-watch among fans from Philippines and Southeast Asia:
“I haven’t been to the Philippines for a long time. I went there for a performance many years ago. Those fans were very enthusiastic, but after 20 years, I wonder if they will be as enthusiastic about me as an actor.
“I think Danger Zone is mind-blowing. Every scene, object, or line may be a clue to the plot. I hope viewers will pay full attention to the show without distractions.”