The director, Zhang Yimou was the main attraction for me and as for all that martial arts stuff I hardly know anything it is all mainly down to the choreographer.

How much training did you have to do?

I practised basic swordplay for about one month and then the action director worked out the scenes mainly whilst we were on set. I always looked after my face.

What appealed to you....

He’s already been dubbed the Asian Johnny Depp. Now the Taiwanese-Japanese actor’s profile in the West is about to be raised with Zhang Yimou’s House of Flying Daggers, which continues the director’s shift from neorealist rural portraits (Red Sorghum) and....

When Johnny To signed on to direct the wistfully romantic Turn Left Turn Right, the Hong Kong filmmaker knew exactly whom he wanted to play the male lead. In the illustrated novel by Jimmy Liao, from which the new movie is adapted, the protagonist is so estranged from society that he's depicted floating above the city, like a melancholy blimp. When you want someone who practically oozes that kind of ethereal alienation, whom are you going to call?

Answer: Takeshi Kaneshiro, the half-Taiwanese, half-Japanese movie....