Horror stories, onscreen and off, from ‘The Ferryman’ cast

Cast of iQiyi’s “The Ferryman: Legends of Nanyang”

Watch your backs, K-dramas and Pinoy teleseryes. Chinese-language dramas (C-dramas) are making headway in viewer engagement and gearing up to take a sizable chunk out of the series-binging pie.

A survey involving 5,200 respondents across 26 countries in early August revealed that 76 percent of those who took part in the poll started sampling Chinese content within the past two years, with 43 percent of them watching C-dramas on streaming platforms.

While the most significant spikes come from Thailand (80 percent), Singapore (70 percent) and Malaysia (71 percent), the Philippines isn’t too far behind. In fact, the poll shows that 46 percent of Philippine respondents have established a regular habit of watching C-dramas, and more than half of them on iQiyi.

Last Friday, we attended the regional virtual launch of “The Ferryman: Legends of Nanyang,” iQiyi’s first-ever Southeast Asian Original series, as well as the grand rollout of the sizzle reels of the prison series “Danger Zone” (premiering Sept. 3) and the tantalizingly titled “Rainless Love in a Godless Land,” which follows the romance that blossoms between the God of Rain and a mortal.

As added treat, “Ferryman” lead stars Lawrence Wong, Qi Yuwu and Kate Kinney were joined by the other members of the ensemble, Tay Ping Hui, Jeanette Aw, Debbie Goh, Jojo Goh and Koe Yeet before the trio answered questions from the Philippine press in a roundtable interview.

“Ferryman,” which premiered on iQiyi yesterday, takes viewers into the underworld through the “Yin Yang eyes” of protagonist Xia Dong Qing (the charismatic Lawrence Wong) as he, along with his partners Zhao Li (Qi Yuwu) and Xiao Ya (Kate Kinney), helps distressed, wandering souls wrap up unfinished business in the world of mortals.

Like Lawrence and Kate, the series’ cast members weren’t the only reason that lured Yuwu to the gorgeous-looking show.

“It was the first time for China, Malaysia and Singapore to work together on a single production,” Yuwu explained. “The topic of the show was also new to me. I’ve never really acted in a horror show before this, but I myself am terrified of horror stories. But there’s more to ‘Ferryman’ than its horror component.

“It isn’t all horror because there are also all sorts of emotional stories in it—there’s romance, friendship and familial love. This gives the series a lot of depth, which makes the role very rewarding and satisfying for me as an actor.”

Swallowed by his emotions

For Lawrence, the project provided an opportunity to breathe life into a character that he could channel his empathy and sink his thespic teeth into.

“My character Xia Dong Qing feels so much for every ghost and soul he meets,” said 33-year-old Lawrence when asked about how the character resonated with him. “I can relate to it because, like most actors, I’m very much in touch with my emotions. I had to feel all those emotions well. And they sometimes just swallowed me up and were very draining for me.

“Even offscreen, I feel a lot easily, even for things that are not directly related to me. I can be scrolling through Facebook, then I see a video of an animal [in distress], and I cry …

“But if I see Xia Dong Qing, I will tell him to relax and just enjoy his [supernatural] gift—which is the ability to see ghosts—because he’s so tormented by it. Things will work out eventually. Just focus more [on the task at hand] because, with this ability, he can help so many souls.”

From left: Qi Yuwu, Lawrence Wong and Kate Kinney —PHOTOS COURTESY OF IQIYI

The role, Lawrence said, was as demanding physically as it was mentally and emotionally. “I remember I had to dive five meters deep into a pool for a scene where I’m supposed to be drowning … and I’m really not good in water, because I’m not a good swimmer!” he disclosed. “I also had to be hung up on a wire.

“They had to raise me all the way up to four stories high, then drop me down. And just before I hit the ground, they had to pull me back, and I was suspended at mid-air! There was also a war scene where I had to run and crawl around explosives while I was being shot at—very challenging stuff like that.”

Yuwu said that he felt safe, even if filming only began during the pandemic. But the shoot also presented unique challenges for the cast and crew.

For Kate, the limitations had taken their toll on her at some point—a horror story in itself!

“I’m the only actress/actor that had to be in lockdown in a hotel and I couldn’t go anywhere,” she shared. “Along with many of the crew, I had to stay in the hotel for five whole months—and that was pretty depressing. We weren’t allowed to go anywhere because it wasn’t safe.

“It was quite depressing because my room didn’t have a lot of sunlight, and the only thing I did was read the script every single day. Then, the director would keep asking me if I was already familiar with my role and there was no sunlight, so I was like, ‘Oh, I can’t do this anymore … !’

“But as soon as we started filming, I felt a lot better, because I was able to interact with other members of this great team, like Lawrence and Goh—and that was such a relief!”

Paranormal experience

For Lawrence, the task of bringing this paranormal story to life transported him back to his “close encounter” with things that go bump in the night.

“Yes, I have had a paranormal experience in the past,” he quipped. “Back in the day when I was still working as a cabin crew for Singapore Airlines, there’s one trip I particularly remember: On a long, overnight flight to Paris, when everyone was already asleep, somebody pressed a call button from the toilet. That’s common, right? Because sometimes, we mistake the flush button for the call-attendant button.

“But when I knocked on the door and asked, ‘Is everything OK?,’ the sign outside was suddenly swiped from ‘occupied’ to ‘vacant’! There was no answer, so I pushed the door a little bit. But when it was finally flung open, I realized there was no one inside!” INQ