Jamie Chung in Variety Japan
Friday, September 5th, 2008
Jamie Chung (Chi-Chi) was recently interviewed by Variety Japan, where she talks a little about Dragonball. Thanks to my source in Japan for the translation.
Jamie Chung, she appeared at the interview room in very high tension. As soon as she found out I was Japanese, she asked me the question, “Is it true that all Dragon Ball characters names derive from the name of vegetables?” The name of the Saiyan is so, I explained, she said “Well, what does Chi-chi mean in Japanese? Shooting place in Mexico, the crew spoke Spanish, all of them laughed when they called my name Chi-chi, I asked why they were laughing, they said that Chi-chi means boobs in Spanish!” I was surprised, in fact almost the same meaning in Japanese, when I told her it, “No!” She was shocked and put her hands on her head, but she rebound quickly, and showed an impish smile.
She is 25-years-old, a Korean American who was born and raised in San Francisco. The family lived in the Japan Town, She grew up surrounded by Japanese culture. The city where anime events are often held is her playground, Jamie says “Dragon Ball” and “Hello Kitty” is her Idol.
She knows the importance and high-visibility of Dragon Ball in Japan, so she take great care of Japanese fans.
“I know that a lot of Japanese actors wanted to play the movie’s roles, so I gave my best for Japanese fans to be satisfied with it, I’m happy if you enjoy. Director James Wong did diligent research, he read a lot of Japanese manga, I’m sure that this movie will be respecting the original as much as possible. I heard that his son who hadn’t read Dragon Ball yet, read it around this time and was fascinated with it. Japanese people may think the Japanese should be cast more in the movie, but when we thought of the story, Goku is an alien. Justin Chatwin looks astonishingly like Goku, I think he is exactly Goku. He looks like Japanese a little bit (laugh). ”
The most powerful woman to play, her weak scene was……
“Chi-chi is one of the strongest women. To play the action heroine is the dream of every actress. There are a lot of roles for romantic comedy and melodrama, but action heroine not so much. Producer Stephen Chow couldn’t come to the set, but he gave us a lot of the ideas for actions before the shooting, at the same time I watched the Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle to research action scenes. Staff of action sequences were very excellent, and I believe it will be amazing scenes mixed with various martial arts like tae kwon do and so on.
Jamie is slender and it looks like she has excellent reflexes. Her most
difficult scene was not action scene, she said.“It was kiss scene, because it was the first time for me……. This didn’t have choreography (unlike the action scenes), I had to think for myself. I was so nervous. It was very difficult, more so than action scenes (laughs).”
When I asked about Eriko Tamura, she showed beaming face.
“Eriko is a very good friend! She is a great, beautiful, cute and polite. She played Mai, a very evil and dark character, though she is very good and cheerful. But she is a method actor (acting based on the experience) so she got into the role even in the break time of shooting and controlled herself if she wanted to have a chat. She tried very hard.
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