Tower No. fifteen

In twenty ten, director Feng Xiaogang brought the film crew of If You Are the One 2 to Tower No. fifteen. The film was meant to open with a marriage proposal. Ge You played Qin Fen, an older groom seeking marriage; Shu Qi played Liang Xiaoxiao, willing to stay with him but not sharing his confidence in their future.

Ge You had to go down on one knee and hold out a ring. From this point, the wall runs along an open ridge, so the actors could be framed with towers, battlements, and the ridge's long curve all at once. Feng Xiaogang wanted to film everything at sunset: the ancient masonry was to lend weight to Qin Fen's action, and the low light was to set Xiaoxiao's white figure apart from the wall.

First, the scene was filmed in daylight. Then the crew stayed to wait for the few evening minutes cinematographers called “devil's time”: the light is mesmerizing and disappears almost at once. Although the actors' movements were simple, the episode took two days. All that time, the director, cinematographers, Ge You, and Shu Qi returned to one knee, one ring, and one turn of the head, until the sunset matched the shot.

The resulting scene opened the film, and it also ended the first promotional trailer. However, the on-screen proposal did not lead the characters to a wedding. Qin Fen and Xiaoxiao decided first to live as spouses without registering their marriage; the trial ended in a breakup, and they got back together only later.

Even before the premiere, the Beijing tourism authority and the film studio agreed to mark filming locations with special signs. A plaque bearing the film's title still stands by Tower No. fifteen, and couples repeat Ge You's pose for the camera. They go down on one knee where the film crew waited two days for a few minutes of light to act out a proposal that was not followed by a wedding.