Jiang Wen’s “the Lost Bladesman” press interview where a reporter was being very unprofessional by saying that the movie is “selling yaoi element”. Jiang Wen corrected and acknowledged the difference between yaoi and gay while the director clearly has a crush on Donnie Yen’s body.
PS: In China (and Taiwan at least), yaoi/腐 is strictly about a sub-culture that creates usually unrealistic homo- erotic/romantic materiel between good looking boys to (mostly) straight female audience to satisfy their sexual fantasy. It is very different to realistic gay relationship and some part of the yaoi sub-culture can be very homophobic and misogynistic (even though in recent years, there are more people taking a more respectful and realistic approaches so the line might be a bit blur). It is not something you should say on a press interview.
Translation below cut:
Reporter: I’d like to ask Mr. Jiang Wen about a scene in the previous trailer, your character Cao Cao told Donnie Yen’s character Guan Yu “I simply like you”. Now many people said this movie sells on yaoi element like “Let the Bullet Fly”. What do you think?
JW: Hmm… what does “yaoi” mean?
Man in the press: GAY!
JW: Yaoi is gay? No it is not. Those are two different things. Let her (the reporter) explain. Gay is not yaoi, am I correct? It is called yaoi fangirls.
JW: What do you mean “sells on yaoi element”? For real, tell me.
Reporter: It’s just… a man likes another man a lot…
Man (either in the press or on the stage, I can’t really distinguish the origin of the voice since it’s not very loud): Isn’t that gay?
JW: Gay isn’t all about “liking”, sometimes it works when “liking” is not involved. That’s what I think. What do you think?
Reporter: So do you think your character Cao Cao has…
JW: Yaoi. You haven’t tell me about (the definition of) yaoi. Yaoi isn’t about two men like each other. Two men like each other is only a required scenario. This scenario of two men liking each other being provided to an audience who enjoys to view this scenario of two men liking each other, and this audience might be connected to the yaoi (as a group). That’s what it is about, right?
Reporter: No, it is… it’s just… many female audience especially like the thing between two male characters, and they hope…
JW: Ah, the female audience likes about two male (characters) liking each other.
Reporter: Yes.
JW: Well then, it is totally fine.
Director (Or someone on stage with JW): That would be too easy.
JW: Right? Many movies are about that.
Reporter: So what kind of feeling do you think your character, Cao Cao, has to Jiang Wen– no, Donnie Yen’s character, Guan Yu?
JW: (Cao Cao) definitely cherishes him a lot, and wants to pursue him. As a matter of fact, Cao Cao want’s Guan Yu to stay. He doesn’t want Guan Yu to go back his big brother (Liu Bei), because his big brother is treating him too good, and the three of them (Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei) are all men… if you go by this, does that mean Cao Cao has some “yaoi fangirl” spirit in him? I have no idea.
JW: But here’s one thing I need to tell you. They edited my line in the trailer. Originally, my line is “I simply like you because of such such and such”. But in the trailer, they cut and edited it into “I simply like you”. The complete line is “I simply like you because of such such and such”.
Director: I simply like you because of your body.
JW: … I didn’t say that.
A Force Sensitive Phasesixer 