The release date of the first action blockbuster starring Takeshi Kaneshiro, "The Masked Hero," is approaching. His excellent fighting scenes in the film not only impressed the great director John Woo but also received high praise from friends and fans who had a sneak preview. In the movie, Takeshi Kaneshiro plays a junior character who, after being defamed and identified as a suspect, clears his name through his own efforts and catches the real culprit. In this process, Takeshi Kaneshiro's character undergoes a transformation from an ordinary person to a national hero. Despite the hardships endured during filming, he calmly expressed that hardship was nothing, and making this film fulfilled his childhood dream of being a hero.
Whether or not to take on a role depends on whether there is an opportunity.
After completing "The Masked Hero," Takeshi Kaneshiro's understanding of heroes has completely changed. I later realized that true heroes are not necessarily the superheroes who come to rescue during emergencies. Many unsung heroes, through their constant efforts, prevent emergencies from occurring and stop tragedies from happening; these are the real big heroes.
Hard work in acting earns praise as a daredevil.
When I first got the script for "The Masked Hero," I knew it was a perfect movie. The storyline and character relationships were very interesting and surprising. Most importantly, our collaboration allowed the film to perfectly express what it wanted to convey. Takeshi Kaneshiro finally expressed hope that everyone would go to the cinema to watch this movie because only in the cinema can the audience deeply feel its charm: it is a generous and positive film that will make viewers feel happy after watching. Nowadays, many viewers choose to watch movies at home on TV screens, but it is really a pity to watch such a film on a small TV screen. This is a film worth going to the big screen in the cinema to appreciate to experience its impact. For example, even though my home playback equipment is already very advanced, it still does not match the visual impact of the cinema's large screen and the surround sound's stunning effects. Therefore, I sincerely recommend everyone to go to a good cinema and enjoy this dream-fulfilling work of mine.
"The Masked Hero" is adapted from a detective novel that has been best-selling for over 20 years. When Takeshi Kaneshiro was in elementary school, he had already read the original work and formed an impression of this character. His childhood hero complex also began with this novel. However, at that time, Takeshi Kaneshiro's understanding of heroes was very simple: his childhood dream was to become a police officer standing guard on the street, feeling that police officers were impressive and that they were heroes. As he grew older, he saw Ultraman and Kamen Rider in comics and thought that heroes should be like them—strong, brave, and majestic.
In the past, Takeshi Kaneshiro often appeared with a wise and handsome image, but this time he played a completely ordinary person. Because he was falsely accused, the magician he portrayed in the circus was beaten up until his nose and face were bruised. Then, after mistakenly entering Song Rongzi's bathroom, he was beaten until his head bled... One could say that Takeshi Kaneshiro's performance this time completely overturned his previous acting style.
In Chen Kaige's movie "The Warlords," Takeshi Kaneshiro did not have any meaningful action scenes, but in "The Masked Hero," he showed off a lot of challenging fighting moves. In one scene, to evade capture, Takeshi Kaneshiro performed a parkour stunt—not only continuously backflipping to dodge enemy gunfire but also constantly showing off his wall-running skills or leaping down from rooftops. He even managed to fight while hanging from a helicopter with one hand in a high-difficulty move, impressing the audience with his brilliant performance.
Our martial arts team is also highly skilled. So I kept thinking about how I could make the characters in this story more vivid. In actual filming, the majority of the fighting scenes were personally completed by Takeshi Kaneshiro himself, including wire stunts on a 32-meter-high iron tower despite his fear of heights. Such fearless effort earned him the nickname "daredevil" within the crew. After watching the trailer, even the great director John Woo was amazed by Takeshi Kaneshiro's incredible abilities.
His childhood dream was to become a police officer.