"Wolf Totem" is no longer China's entry to the Best Foreign Film Award after being disqualified on a technicality. (Photo : Reuters)
"Wolf Totem" star Feng Shaofeng recently shared his experience with wolves.
According to the Shanghai-born actor, his co-stars, which are 20 baby wolves, sniffed his neck from behind the first time they met.
Playing the lead role in "Wolf Totem," Feng worked with Canadian animal trainer Andrew Simpson, who told him he needed to earn the trust of the wolves the first time he met them so that they would cooperate in the filming, Sina English reported.
Feng would be too tall for the wolves to approach if he remained standing, so the first thing he did upon entering the compound where the pups were living was to sit down.
"I felt like my soul floated away at that moment," said Feng, describing the moment he sat down and the wolves came up to him from behind and started to smell him.
There are 35 wolves featured in the film. The actor was able to establish a strong bond with the wolves, especially with one named Caesar which he tried to adopt but failed to do so because it would not be practical.
Simpson took all the wolves back to Canada after filming "Wolf Totem."
Based on the 2004 Chinese best-selling novel by Jiang Rong of the same name, the story of "Wolf Totem" is set in Inner Mongolia and revolves around the lives of two young men living in a grassland with wolves.
The novel depicts the differences between the Han Chinese and the lives of Mongolian nomads, China Daily said. It was so successful that Penguin published an English version four years later.
Directed by French Oscar winner Jean-Jacques Annaud, "Wolf Totem" was filmed in Inner Mongolia featuring Feng as Chen Zhen, a young student sent to the Inner Mongolian grasslands during the revolution from 1966 to 1976.
Also starring Dou Xiao, "Wolf Totem" will be released on Feb. 19, the Chinese New Year, simultaneously with Jackie Chan's "Dragon Blade" and Chen Kun's fantasy film "Zhong Kui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal."
