It's an honor to finally meet you. I have a gift for you from someone you may have heard of: Dan Inosanto.
Wow! Thanks a lot! I've heard so much about him and followed his career for years, but I've never had the opportunity to meet him in person. Please thank him for me.
I spoke to him just before coming here and he is a big fan of yours. He praised your films and personal abilities, saying that Bruce Lee would be pleased with your work if he were alive.
I have no words... Please convey my gratitude to Sifu Inosanto. I always wanted to learn Kali from him. I've been a Bruce Lee fan since I was a kid, as you probably know. I later paid tribute to him by playing the role Chen Wife in the television series and then in the film.
Undoubtedly. Your performance in "Fist of legend" is one of my favorites.
It's funny... people have asked me if I knew Bruce Lee had already played the role. The whole point of why I took on this role was to show how much he inspired me in my career.
I could never be Bruce Lee. No one can. I wasn't trying to imitate him or imitate him, but the opportunity to honor him in these roles was very important to me. I've always said this, that if Bruce were alive today, I would become his most devoted student.
Did that influence you in any way when you got the offer to play Ip Man?
The pressure was enormous and it came from different sides. I first got an offer to play Ip Man about 20 years ago, but the film never got made due to production problems. A few years later, I was at a press conference in Beijing and received another call from the producer, who said that he had spoken with Grandmaster Yip's family and had their blessing, the new film had been given the green light, and he was offering me the lead role.
But there was already a film about Ip Man in production ("The Grand Master" with Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi), directed by Wong Kar-Wai. I expressed concern about this, but the producer assured me that there was nothing to worry about and that Wong had a reputation for taking his projects a long time. Plus, even though we were going to film about the same character, we had completely different stories.
When it was announced that we were going to make a film, different conversations immediately began. Critics claimed that our director, Wilson Yip , was not qualified enough to be at the helm of a project of this magnitude. While I had just starred in cop action films like SPL and "Hot spot", which had a lot of hardcore aggressive moments and whose fight choreography contained MMA at its core. These films and "Special Person" were the first Hong Kong action films to translate MMA fighting techniques into cinematic language. Thus, critics felt that I was not suitable for the role of the Grandmaster Ipa or to demonstrate the Wing Chun style in cinema.
All this happened before filming began?
Yes. I never expected that there would be so many doubters, although I assumed that it would be a landmark role.
The preparation for a role such as this must have been different given your extensive martial arts background. What was your main style when you learned from your mother? Was this modern wushu?
No, it was traditional Shaolin kung fu and then tai chi, but my tai chi is a little different. My mother, Master Mai Bao Chan, had a different style and I added my own signature to my tai chi.
When you were living in Boston, did you start experimenting with different styles of martial arts?
When I was a child, the Hunggar style was incredibly popular. I used Lam Sai Win's old books with drawings to study and practiced these positions and postures. Thinking back then, I was so excited and curious about learning martial arts from any source, regardless of style. I just wanted to absorb as much as I could. I still feel the same way when I see something I like.
Did you study Wing Chun then?
Unfortunately no. But there was one boy who knew a little about this style, and we used to skip school, take the train to the park and practice together, trying out different techniques. I was just trying to learn techniques from different styles and systems, including Taekwondo - not just Chinese martial arts.
You mentioned Bruce Lee as an inspiration. Have you watched other kung fu movies?
Oh yeah. I was a big fan of these films when I was a kid. I would see some movement that I thought was cool, or some character that inspired me, and I would try to emulate it physically or philosophically.
When it came time to prepare for the role of Ip Man, I understand that you spent a lot of time with both of the master's sons for this purpose?
I actually spent a lot of time studying Ip Man himself, his life, personal history and environment, not just studying Wing Chun. In order to be as close as possible to the source, I spent time with his sons, listening to their stories about their father, their family life and their martial art. I even went to Foshan to see the place where he lived.
Were the Yip brothers your technical coaches for the film?
I actually had a bunch of different Wing Chun instructors who helped me learn forms and basic exercises like lap sau and chee sau (sticky hands). It is very important that they helped me with the study of forms. I didn't have three years to devote to mastering Wing Chun, so I could only try to embody the mindset and philosophy.
So it turns out there was more than one master who supervised all your training?
No, I didn't want to try to be a clone of any one teacher. I knew that I could never imitate Master Ip Man perfectly. I could only try to do the role justice, offering my interpretation of his philosophy in motion. Studying Grandmaster Yip's old black and white films was actually very valuable. This was the source I tried to rely on the most.
I also tried to get a sense of Ip Man's personality from his students, in addition to his family. I also used social media enough to understand how different groups interpreted Wing Chun. It was very interesting.
This gave me the opportunity to see how representatives of different wing chun styles reflected the system physically and strategically. From super-traditional to more modern and aggressive versions, I wanted to get a broader understanding of what type of martial art people are drawn to. I used all this to portray my character. Fortunately, the public responded well to this.
Throughout the franchise, fight scenes seem to have certain recognizable moves.
You see a lot of mun sau poses from Ip Man because they suit him. The teacher came from a wealthy family, he was educated and very reserved. Wing Chun is also a physically conservative style. You won't see a lot of explosive, sweeping movements there. So in order for the action to be exciting, the fight scenes had to be presented in a way that made those effective movements visually appealing.
В Ip Man 3, like the previous two films, the theme of family is strong. There are moments where it was the family that motivated Ip Man to show off his martial arts. Is this piece of fiction connected to your life?
Absolutely! As you can see, my wife Cecilia is here in the same room with us, she is also my business partner, but I absolutely know how it goes. Fortunately, my wife understands me and what I do very well. She fully supports me.
For an actor to portray a character well, it's really important to experience something like that to be able to evoke that kind of emotion and bring life to the character. If you haven't had that kind of depth of experience, it will be difficult to share it through a screen.
The director of all three films, Wilson Yip, understood this very well. He also knew what stages I was going through in my personal life. So he didn't just tell me what to play and how to play it, he made sure I could bring something special to the character and allowed me to express aspects of myself in the role. I can't tell you how precious it is when you work in an environment like this.
Earlier you mentioned the economy of movement in Wing Chun compared to other martial arts styles. Does this mean that MMA films, for example, are more physically challenging?
I'll be very honest with you. Shooting long MMA fight scenes where there are a lot of hard falls and a lot of takes, with a lot of replay, one after another, one after another... to capture the right frame with the right visual strength - yes, it really takes a toll on the body!
If you look at some of the fight scenes in my other films like "Flashpoint" or "Last of the Best", you will see the intensity that I tried to show on camera. My body certainly paid the price for it.
I received various types of therapy every two days to keep my body functioning.
In fact, the hardest thing about Ip Man movies is getting the master character right. More than a physical challenge, Ip Man films are a mental and emotional challenge for you as an actor. I've always believed that once you get the essence of a character right, physical expression will happen naturally.
After the first two films, I was lucky and I am very glad that the audience accepted me in this role. And the style I demonstrated was acceptable enough for most Wing Chun practitioners, so the physical aspect was not too difficult for me.
After you did Ip Man 1 and 2, did you receive any special status from the wing chun wing?
Look, I come from a traditional martial arts home myself, so I know how it all goes [laughs]
I don't care about seeking status in martial arts through my films. It's as if you asked me to teach you wing chun... but I'm not a wing chun master. There are many other people who have dedicated their lives to the study, research and development of Wing Chun. These are Wing Chun masters, not me.
What's important to me is that authentic, traditional martial arts have been overlooked for many years in favor of exciting action films. But now that audiences are more educated and can recognize traditional martial arts, it is more important than ever for me to portray these arts and the personalities associated with them with some dignity. The fight scenes must be realistic and convey the principles of the styles used for the film.
When a film inspires people to do something more with their lives, that's a real reward for me. I didn't make films about Ip Man for wing chun representatives; it's about focusing on a character that inspires people. This is not about Wing Chun compared to other styles.
And the last question. I heard that you are going gradually avoid martial arts films. Is it true?
I'm just a person. Sometimes we say things in the heat of the moment. There were days when my body was simply tired of the beatings I subjected it to during high-power, high-intensity choreographed fights. But at the end of the day, if I sit down and turn on the TV or see some action scenes on the screen and think: "Oh... Come on! Is this all? I can do better than this!" What gets in the way is the spirit of competition. I'm an actor, but inside I'm also a fighter.
As for kung fu films... I don't really have much motivation to make them now, especially after I've already done roles like Guan Yu and Ip Man. But when it comes to modern action films, I feel like I have a lot of knowledge in using martial arts in film and techniques that I can still show, that I still want to show.
Thank you very much. I enjoyed reading it.