Can you tell me something about how you got started in martial arts?
Conan Lee: My father started teaching me when I was 7 years old. Realizing that I was getting better and better every day, I devoted all my free time to studying various styles of martial arts. I didn’t know fatigue, and it was everyday training. After 45 years, I have made more than one of my dreams come true. I did it all myself. I am glad that I had the opportunity to thank all the legendary and great martial artists for their approval and respect for me, and I want to say thank you to all my friends and fans for supporting me so loyally all these years. Every martial arts student dreams of being in a movie to demonstrate the skills he has achieved through hard training and to gain recognition as a source of self-satisfaction. I was just like that. I enjoyed training and practicing martial arts in private. There are many reasons for this. One of them is so that I am not disturbed, and also so that no one sees my mistakes and weaknesses. I taught myself martial arts. I'm self-taught and proud of it!
Can you tell me about your Realistic fist style?
Conan Lee: The thing is that I didn't take a style I learned and improve it or change the name of the original style. “Realistic fist” is very simple. This is a street type of fighting that includes real fighting techniques found in most styles. But this is my personal invention, and students are taught according to their abilities. If you don't or can't jump, you won't learn a single jump kick. Master what suits you best and improve your strengths!
You burst onto the screens with the film “Ninja in the Dragon's Lair,” one of my favorites. What do you remember most then?
Conan Lee: My friend told me that a producer who “promoted” Jackie Chan has arrived in our city, and he is looking for a new star to replace him. Because Jackie Chan left him at the end of his contract. I told my friend that if this producer saw me, he would immediately want to sign a contract. I will go to Hong Kong to shoot the film, and when it is released, I will become the No. 1 kung fu star, and my dream will come true... That's exactly what I said, in that manner. I explained to the producer that I didn’t want to be compared to Jackie Chan or made his competitor, and they didn’t think that I came to take revenge for such an attitude [towards the producer]. Let the results speak for themselves! We all know what happened in the end. The film's box office receipts, starring a newcomer in his debut role, outpaced films starring Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen and Jet Li. Just one fight scene on stilts took 3 months. The allocated time was more than enough to shoot a full-fledged film. I just wanted to be in it, to make my dream come true, to make sure that I could do on screen what I thought I was capable of, and hoped that I would be accepted with the same open arms as Bruce Lee . It made me famous overnight, and in itself became one of the most unique classic kung fu films of all time. The stilt scene was never repeated or dubbed by any actor. In my opinion, what separates me from other actors is that I was an athlete who was fond of all types of popular sports in America, as well as a person who studied martial arts and trained tirelessly from dawn to dusk. I respect all action actors, fighters and athletes for their own efforts and achievements. I just always felt like I was a little superior to other action heroes in terms of versatility. The concept of a superstar and all that is just an illusion, for me it’s just a profession, I just want to be the best and do everything in my power to bring joy to fans all over the world with my roles. I'm proud to show off everything I've worked so hard to learn all these years. I want to show everything I can do so that the next generation of young people practicing martial arts will have something to strive for. So that their inspiration does not dry up... By the way, now I understand why Jackie Chan left Seasonal Film Co. Ltd. H.K.
How was it working with Corey Yuen?
CONAN LEE: That was his debut too. He is, of course, a magnificent choreographer, but he is very tyrannical. Since the first day, we have never seen each other face to face. They liked to break into groups, sort of like families. I can understand this because everything comes from family values, and at an early age they did not know any real support from their loved ones or parental love and were, in essence, orphans studying at the opera school of Master Yu Jim Yuen, take the same Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. I went to Hong Kong to make kung fu movies and meet all the screen legends, not join some ridiculous group whose members act like they are the best in the business and everyone else is their enemy. I came to work and earn my living, thereby taking care of my mother, family and friends. Also, we had different mentalities and their way of thinking made me feel uncomfortable. I started working and refused to join their group because I didn’t want to get involved with all this political nonsense. Then they tried to make all of my action scenes very difficult and dangerous, thinking that I was too big and muscular and wouldn't be that agile or flexible. How wrong they were - I performed all these dangerous and difficult episodes with such apparent ease that they began to worry even more. They were very jealous of my skills and my unwavering confidence. Their egos suffered from the fact that they had never thought of seeing a muscular fighter capable of moving so quickly, jumping with lightning speed and accuracy, a person endowed with incredible strength and endurance. In the end, they had to respect me, because I completed all their “dirty” and tricky tasks. I never complained then. I remember Corey making me fall as hard as I could onto the cement more than ten times. It was my first film and I was completely sure that I was doing something wrong. And then I heard the cameraman with a displeased expression on his face say to Corey: “The first two takes turned out well, you shouldn’t do this to him, let’s move on to the next episode.” I knew he wanted to overload me with work. I was in too good a physical shape and would not let anything stop me from realizing my dream, I could not break the promise I made to my mother - I told her that I would return as a winner and would take care of her and my family for the rest of my life. I thank Seasonal Film Co. Ltd.” (SFC) for the opportunity, and to pay off that debt, I helped them make more money than they ever made in this business. To this day, my film is SFC's masterpiece and their highest-grossing action film. As for Corey, I commend him for his excellent choreography and direction. In turn, the film became a successful directorial debut for him.
To be continued ...
Author: econdor
Source: easternfilmfans.co.uk
Translation: EvilDollaR
Thanks to Elvin for the link.
Eee... does anyone really take seriously this narcissistic nonsense of a schmuck who accidentally rose from rags to riches?!! If you want to know how he actually got into cinema and what the person who brought him there and made him a “star” thinks of him, and especially HOW this freak later repaid him, then watch this interview.
youtube.com/watch?v=xy-smvR_CyA - watch from 2:45
First warning for Tagil resident.
Yeah)) With one hand he shows “class”, and with the other he holds a book...)))
Offtopic: poster for "Assassin Games" ("Weapons") in high resolution.
[img]http://forum.kinopoisk.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=243694&d=1310768054[/img]
Thank you. I took that into account. It also says EDT.
Added a channel. Have you taken into account the time difference? ;)
Alexander, did you receive my letters yesterday? Probably got into spam again :) There is a link to an online channel with an event that Iyara will hold. There will probably be a broadcast there. The date and time are indicated there.
I read it. Interesting. Thank you.
One thing I don’t understand is what kind of orphans are they? Each of the Peking Opera students had full-fledged families, as far as I know... Well, Jackie was an orphan for the duration of his studies with living parents. But they all had families.
My pleasure. Xenic, you haven’t read the second part yet. He says this there... o_O I’ll publish it in half an hour.
Offtop:
- trailer for "Assassin Games" ("Weapons") in high quality.
Offtop: http://www.assassinationgames-movie.com/ - official website of the "Assassin Games" ("Weapons").
Offtopic: Van Damme in May with Alena Kaverina.
[img]http://cs9788.vkontakte.ru/u21121857/-6/x_2a7d95c9.jpg[/img]
[img]http://cs9868.vkontakte.ru/u21121857/-6/x_96d1ce51.jpg[/img]
By the way, in the second photo Jean-Claude you Damm says the opposite, mirrored)
Ha, it seemed to me that all the fingers on his left hand were right. :)
Offtop: http://vkontakte.ru/al_video.php?act=s&oid=139906032&vid=160628889 - greetings from Van Damme to Russian fans.
Offtopic: new photos of Van Damme.
[img]http://forum.kinopoisk.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=243669&d=1310752668[/img]
[img]http://cs10091.vkontakte.ru/u139906032/138070676/x_d57092c5.jpg[/img]
when Big Boss came out with Bruce Lee, he broke all the records of action films of that time. And each of his films collected more and more... Maybe it just seemed to me, but he somehow doesn’t really relate to Jackie, Bruce and everyone who was able to break into Hollywood...
I don’t remember a film that beat Jackie’s films at the box office, much less Bruce Lee... (his “Enter the Dragon” collected almost 300 million). And I almost never heard about Conan Lee....
He meant debut films.