To prepare for her role in last year’s Ip Man 4: The Finale, Vanda Margraf remembers taking up tai chi a month before filming started, and she fell in love with the ancient physical and spiritual practice.
“It helps train the body and mind,” says the 16-year-old, who suffered a nosebleed filming one scene in which her character gets bullied by a gang.
“It was the first time I’d had a nosebleed in my life. But the experience was worth it. What’s most important is whether the scene is done well. I love making movies, so I don’t think it’s harsh.”
Margraf plays Wan Ruonan, the daughter of a tai chi master who fell out with Ip Man when the Wing Chun master arrived in San Francisco in 1964. She was subsequently saved by her father’s nemesis from being bullied by the locals.
Her on-screen father Wan Zonghua, head of the Chinatown Chinese Benevolent Association, is played by Wu Yue, while Donnie Yen reprises the title role one last time as Ip. The movie had taken US$193 million worldwide by the end of February, according to box office data aggregator The Numbers.
The young actress is grateful to Yen for looking after her during filming: “He took particular care of me on set. Just like the character he played in the film who goes out of his way to support me, he does the same.”
As it’s my first movie, it has great significance for me. I am very happy that people acknowledge my work. Whether I can get the award depends on serendipity - Vanda Margraf
Margraf is a nominee for best new performer at this year’s Hong Kong Film Awards. (Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the awards ceremony, expected to be held on April 19, has been postponed.)
The teenager tells the Post she is excited by the nomination. “As it’s my first movie, it has great significance for me. I am very happy that people acknowledge [my work],” she says, and adds that she has much to learn from other nominees in the best new performer category. “Whether I can get the award depends on serendipity,” she says.
Though Ip Man 4: The Finale was Margraf’s first outing on the big screen, she cut her teeth in showbiz when she was eight when she appeared on a Chinese talent TV show with her sister, singing Michael Jackson’s Earth Song, to appeal to people to protect the environment. The performance by the pair of ethereal-looking German-Chinese girls left a big impression on viewers.
Chinese photographer Xiao Quan took a set of pictures of the siblings. When Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai saw the images in a photo exhibition by Xiao, he was so impressed by Margraf’s looks that he signed her to his management company, Project House, a talent division of Jettone Films, last year. She is the youngest actress currently managed by Project House, which also represents noted artists such as Taiwanese actor Chang Chen.
Margraf’s next film is Cry of The Birds, which finished shooting in January. Directed by Chinese filmmaker Tian Zhuangzhuang and set during China’s Cultural Revolution, the film revolves around a tug of war between forest dwellers in Yunnan province, southwest China, and the “intellectual youth” bent on clearing their land to plant rubber trees.
The role would appear tailor-made for Margraf, who grew up in a forest in Yunnan with her family.
The story of Margraf’s parents and how they met has been widely reported. In 1997, her German father, Josef Margraf – a biologist, environmentalist and rainforest expert – was assigned by the European Union to lead a rainforest protection project in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan. In 1999, he met a journalist, Li Minguo in Kunming, the provincial capital; they married and she quit her job to join her new husband on the forest project.
The project oversaw the regeneration of a large area of rainforest that had been cleared for a plantation of rubber trees. Josef Margraf died of a heart attack in 2010.
Margraf spoke of the unique experience of growing up in a forest in an interview with Cosmopolitan last year: “Dad always plucked a flower from the garden and put it on mom’s pillow after he woke up. He would kiss her hand and tell her ‘I love you’ before going downstairs to make coffee …
“We built tree houses and jumped around the trees. Draped in white bedsheets, we ran around the garden at night … I love downpours. Whenever it rained heavily, I’d go out to lie on the mud, get drenched in rain, or run amid the rain with Linda (her younger sister). Our bodies would be so covered by mud that only our eyes and teeth showed.”
Besides protecting nature, Margraf, who is current studying at Beijing Dance Academy, says she also loves learning foreign languages, horse riding and archery. “At this stage [in my life], everything is novel to me. I like [to explore] everything.”
Margraf says she intends to devote her life to rainforest protection. “I have a perfect growing-up experience and a very happy childhood. I am very thankful for my mother and father. [For my future plans in my movie-making career], I want to try all kinds of roles. I hope that I can play each role well and bring positive power to people.”
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