A new spin on the sport drama

"The ball is too small for regular cameras to get clear shots. Also, the table tennis players move in a smaller space compared with basketball or soccer players. With few references in similar films or TV dramas, we had to experiment with the camera to deliver compelling scenes," Cheng adds.

To trace the movement of the ball, the crew rented two high-definition cameras capable of shooting a maximum of 3,000 frames per second. Usually, most feature-length films and TV dramas are shot in 24 frames every second.

In addition, before shooting the competition scenes, the actors were given some high-exertion exercises, such as running in circles, to make their faces look red and sweaty, providing a more realistic effect than makeup, Cheng says.

"To showcase tightened muscles in close-up shots, we needed to keep doing exercises until right before the shooting started," says Xu Weizhou, who plays the role of Yu.