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Above, clockwise from top left: An old woman, the Bone Demon, the Snake Demon and Zhu Bajie, the piggy character. Below: a bald cap. by local Beijing artist "Caroline." When Stephan was not available to do the application, Ralis Khan fi lled in for him. This make-up had to survive long days often ending in extreme close-ups that are featured throughout the fi lm. Gong Li, arguably the greatest actress in the history of Chinese cinema, played the Bone Demon. The Bone Demon is an evil porcelain-skinned beauty in the tradition of Chinese cinema, with hair rising six inches above her head and extending nearly to the fl oor in layers resembling an Escher-esque structure. Each day, it took the hair team three hours to build this look from scratch onto a wire frame using more than 50 wefts of hair. The make-up was a multilayered airbrush make-up fi nished with pearlessence and clear sheen to enhance the illusion of translucency. The Bone Demon also disguises herself as an old peas- ant woman. We had to build this make-up in China in our closet-sized, makeshift make-up effects lab. It was a seven-piece overlapping silicone prosthetic and Pros-Aide transfer make-up with a custom lace wig. Her make-ups were applied by Scott Wheeler and Shaun Smith. Our piggy character, Zhu Bajie, provided comedic relief for the fi lm. His pig face and body was created with sili- cone ears, a silicone nose and a full-on beer belly silicone appliance. Luckily, he was willing to shave his head for the character. Patrick Baxter did the application. The Sand Monk or Sha Seng was a massive muscular bald-headed Himbo demon with a large black beard and blue skin. The daily make-up was tackled by Ralis Kahn. Toward the end of our shoot, Shannon Shea took over for Ralis. There were many unique and challenging design ele- ments to this make-up. It had to look organic despite being very stylized in form and in color. Trying to fi nd a way to make a massive muscular bald character with a large black beard and blue skin look believable was no easy assignment. We went through several paint schemes before fi nding the combination of blues and other fl eshier colors to create the look. The make-up consisted of a foam rubber bald cap, a silicone forehead prosthetic, an integrated full upper body foam rubber suit and a lace beard. This character was only supposed to work 10 days originally, but since every day was "anything can happen day," he ended up working 60 days. Even our one principal character that was actually human, ended up being a big make-up. That being a bald cap with no collar in the back of the costume. This bald cap ulti- mately, was shot in extreme close- ups at the end of the day during one of the most dramatically important scenes of the movie. To make mat- ters even more complicated, our actor requested that we not put any glue in his hair. For these most critical scenes, we did a double bald cap and a latex cap covered by a vinyl cap. The latex cap gave us the tension and strength we needed to push down his hair, create a good head shape and give us a glue down that would last for the long day of shooting. The vinyl cap further enhanced the proper head shape and gave us a better cosmetic fi nish with superior edges. The stunt unit was headed up by legendary martial art- ist Sammo Hung. In China, legendary martial artists are 58