Xu Ruiqi Was 'Brain Dead' During Kissing Scene, Zheng Binhui Scores 0 in Poker Skills While Playing God of Gambling

Last year, Singaporean TV King Xu Ruiqi, who was nominated for Best Actor at the 62nd Golden Horse Awards for "Good Kid," was exposed by rookie actress Li Jingyan about behind-the-scenes details of shooting a kissing scene for "My Life, My Mahjong." The incident almost left Xu Ruiqi's mind frozen, unable to respond.

The film will be released on February 26th (the tenth day of the Lunar New Year). On Monday afternoon, director Wang Fulin led a cast including Xu Ruiqi, Zheng Binhui, Xu Qi, and Li Jingyan to Malaysia to promote the movie. The film, entitled "My Life, My Mahjong," tells the story of the ups and downs at a Nanyang mahjong table, serving as a metaphor for the highs and lows of life.

Li Jingyan, acting for the first time, had to take on an intimate scene. She admitted that she didn't know about the scene beforehand, "The director let us decide. I didn’t think too much about it and just went with the flow." She even revealed that Xu Ruiqi told her: "I'll give you a surprise." As soon as she said this, all eyes turned to the leading man. Xu Ruiqi blushed immediately and explained, "We did communicate first, and during rehearsal we didn’t actually kiss. The idea was to make it look more real when filming for real."

Xu Qi, who played Xu Ruiqi's mother, protested to the director on the side: "Why don’t I get a kissing scene? I'm ready! 1, 2, 3, take—I can do it!" Although she didn’t have a kissing scene, her mother-son emotional interplay with Xu Ruiqi was deeply moving, even tear-jerking. Xu Qi laughed and said that many had warned her in advance to “watch out” for Xu Ruiqi, the drama king, but when they worked together, they clicked unexpectedly well and everything went extremely smoothly.

Xu Ruiqi, whom the director rated 100 out of 100 in acting, plays "Tian Cai" in the film—a character blessed with natural luck, who almost always wins at the table, until he offends four mahjong gods and his luck turns sour. The director described him as having "swagger," which was why he was chosen; Xu Ruiqi clarified: "I just look swaggering on the surface." He also revealed that in real life, he almost never had to study in elementary school to get high scores, and was super confident. But then he failed the Singapore Primary School Leaving Examination, suffered a blow to his self-esteem, and was scolded by his parents. "I remembered that moment for a long time. I went from a child prodigy to learning humility. Life is just like a game of mahjong."

As for Singapore's “No.1 Brother” Zheng Binhui, who plays a god of gambling in the mahjong world, he was full of presence on screen, but off-screen, he was a total mahjong rookie. In real life, his mahjong skills were basically zero, so in order to portray the mahjong king perfectly, he had to take a crash course, urgently learning mahjong skills and professional hand gestures. Asked if he had ever experienced a memorable “winning hand” moment in real life, he shared that he had been unexpectedly selected by a Chinese director once, when faced with a group of good-looking young actors. He thought he'd have no chance but was ultimately chosen. "Sometimes you think you have no chance, but as long as you're willing to try, the opportunity might come to you."