Christopher Lee starring in Taiwanese film adaptation of 'It started with a Kiss' as Christy Chung's husband

The film is helmed by the same director of Taiwanese movie 'Our Times'.

Zhangxin Zheng | February 12, 2019, 04:57 PM

Former Channel 8 actor, Christopher Lee, will be starring in the upcoming Taiwanese film adaptation of Japanese manga series 'Itazura na Kiss' also known as 'It started with a Kiss'.

The plot centres around Jiang Zhishu, a handsome, intelligent student, from class A and a ditzy girl called Yuan Xiangqin from class F.

Yuan is secretly in love with Jiang.

Like the name suggests, the plot starts with an unexpected kiss, and follows their eventual feelings for each other.

Lee will play Jiang's father, while Hong Kong actress Christy Chung will take on the role of Jiang's mom.

Image from 一吻定情Fall in Love at First Kiss Facebook page.

Highly-anticipated remake

While there have been plenty of adaptations of the book, this is the first big screen remake of the popular manga series.

Image from 一吻定情Fall in Love at First Kiss Facebook page.

 

Image from 一吻定情Fall in Love at First Kiss Facebook page.

This remake will be helmed by Frankie Chen Yu-shan who directed the 2015 Taiwanese hit 'Our Times'.

She's also helmed plenty of idol dramas as well.

Jiang will be played by Darren Wang who previously collaborated with Chen on 'Our Times' while Jelly Lin, who starred in Stephen Chow's 'The Mermaid', plays the female lead, Yuan.

Photo from 一吻定情Fall in Love at First Kiss Facebook page.

Photo from 一吻定情Fall in Love at First Kiss Facebook page.

A different version of the older Jiang

According to Lee, the director wanted to challenge the audience's idea of the older Jiang which prompted her to choose Lee for this role.

Compared to previous iterations of the Jiang's father, Lee appears to be less comical and more stylish.

As such, Lee's version of this character will be entirely different from the manga series.

Here are some older versions of Jiang's parents.

Original Japanese version:

2005 Taiwanese version:

Why Lee took up the role

Lee revealed that he took up this role mainly because he wanted to work with the director, as well as actors such as Wang and Chung.

Although he has not watched 'Our Times', Lee had heard of Chen's meticulous handling of emotional scenes.

Lee also shared that the movie focuses heavily on the romance between the two younger main leads so it was a fun cameo for him.

Photo from 一吻定情Fall in Love at First Kiss Facebook page.

Photo from 一吻定情Fall in Love at First Kiss Facebook page.

As they only shared a few scenes, Lee did not get to really know Wang and Lin, but has met Chung before while attending a variety show in China with Fann Wong.

Photo from 一吻定情Fall in Love at First Kiss Facebook page.

The movie will screen in China and Taiwan on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14 and will open in Singapore on Feb. 28.

Here's a trailer of the movie:

Top photo collage from 一吻定情Fall in Love at First Kiss Facebook page and movie trailer