Part two of Sammo Hung's interview before accepting the Hong Kong Film Award for Excellence. The first one is here.
Sammo Hungu I was lucky enough to meet the cult director early, King Hu. He was one of the children who sang in chorus backstage"Come have a drink with me” , Hu's 1966 wuxia classic. He later began working officially under Hu's direction on the film "A Touch of Zen” 1971, which later won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 1975.
Hungg still remembers how, in the summer sun at the Shin Mun Reservoir in Hong Kong's New Territories, Hu spent an entire day filming a single close-up of the actor looking down at the camera from above.
"We've all wondered, 'What's taking so long?' - he says. Just a few years later, when he was making his own directorial debut, "Monk with an Iron Fist” In 1977, Hong realized that it was possible to shoot more than 40 takes for one successful close-up of an actor (Fung Hak-ona).
Hong and Hu's collaboration continued in the films "Fate of Li Han” (1973) and"Brave” (1975).
After a day of filming, Hu would often invite us to dinner, and after that we would chat about the movie and the characters. He would eventually send us home at 4am and we would all wake up at 6am to go back to the set.
Sammo Hung
As Hong's career took off, they went their separate ways. The last time Sammo saw King was in the open parking lot of a hotel in Hong Kong, where he got out of his car and, as usual, started talking under the scorching sun. Hu invited Hong to join him in the film "Battle of Ono” (The Battle of Ono), which was supposed to be Hu's American feature debut before he died suddenly in 1997.
Around the same period that Hong was working with Hu, he also met Bruce Lee. He worked as a fight choreographer for the film "Thunderclap” (1973) when Lee came onto the set of Golden Harvest studios to visit some people.
"He had no idea who I was", says Hong about their first meeting. The subsequent turn of events - "..not a fight, just a friendly match", as he put it Sammo:
“I said, 'He's amazing.'” Lee must have heard and misunderstood because he immediately responded, “So what? Do you want to fight?’ I was like, ‘OK.’
...
Before I raised my leg to waist level, Lee's foot was already in front of my face. So I said, "Well done."
The "rematch" between them will take the form of the first fight in "Coming Out of the Dragon” (1973).
Sammo Hung is one of the most prominent members of the endangered breed known as martial arts movie stars, but it is no exaggeration to say that he, in his many other capacities, has reinvented Hong Kong cinema several times over.
In the late 70s, along with Jackie Chan (who also found success with films like 1978's The Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master), Hong ushered in a new era of kung fu comedy with hits like "Warriors together” (1978), "Fighting” (1979) and"Prodigal son” (1981), in which he starred and directed.
Hong and Chan have starred in a number of interesting films together, including "Project A” (1983), which made Jackie a superstar throughout Asia. The two former students remained close friends throughout their lives.
"It has to do with our personality.", says Sammo about the duo's signature brand of comedy:
But it also depends on the martial arts skills we learned during training, the skills we knew, the moves we could do—all of that was part of our arsenal. Not everyone could do what we did.
As if starting one trend wasn't impressive enough, Hong also pioneered the genre of action-comedy horror that began with "Encounters with ghosts” (1980), which he directed, and reached even greater heights with the series"Mister Vampire” (1985-88), which he conceived and produced.
His modern action comedies such as the series "Lucky stars” , spanning the 80s and 90s, were equally popular.
Looking back, Sammo says he was surprised by each film that became a hit:
"..because when I shot each one, I just assumed which one would be successful. I just thought, 'This is a good trick' or 'I think the audience will like it.'
Hong himself is somewhat of a “star master.” He had a strong working relationship with Angela Mao Ying, a legendary martial arts actress who rivaled Bruce Lee in popularity in the early '70s. Besides being her co-star, Sammo choreographed Mao's fight scenes in some of her biggest hits such as "Hapkido” And "Lady Circuit” (both 1972).
Ten years later, Malaysian actress and Oscar winner, Michelle Yeoh, first appeared in cinema with the 1984 film "Eagle owl and baby elephant” , directed by Hong; The following year, she played her first leading role in an action film"Yes, madam!” , which was produced by Hong.
When I ask Sammo specifically about Yeo, he says:
"She's a very hard-working person; she put in a lot of effort. I think behind every successful person is a story of hard work."
Hungg retired from the Hong Kong film scene in 1997 after directing Jackie Chan in film "Mister cooland Jet Li in "American adventures” .
I don't think too much about money as long as I come up with a good idea.
Sammo Hung
This was followed by a period in the United States, where he headlined the CBS television series "Chinese policeman” between 1998 and 2000, after which he returned to Hong Kong to pursue his film career and experienced a renaissance as a fight choreographer.
Hong's three Hong Kong Film Awards for fight choreography since the 2000s: "Yip Man” (2008), "Ip Man 2” (2010) and"SPL Stars of Destiny 3: Paradox” (2017) - all received for the director's films Wilson Yip.
According to many, Sammo Hung's board battle with Donnie Yen in Ip Man 2 is among the best martial arts movie sequences of the last 20 years.
О Jena, who may have made the A-list for his role as Ip Man, Hong jokes:
There's no point in assessing his career now - are you even allowed to say anything bad about him? Ian is such a big star. There is no need to say anything more.
When I ask Hoon if he still remembers the moment when he felt successful for the first time in his career, he replied:
"It's hard to say. After I made Ghost Encounters, some people who saw it beforehand said to me, 'How could you expect a film like that to be a success!' You don't stand a chance!' And then the movie came out and took the box office by storm, and those same people said, 'See? I knew from day one that your film would be a big hit!”
Hong pauses for a second to let the audience's laughter die down.
"So I'll just let others talk. I'll continue to do my thing and continue to implement the ideas that come into my head."
And that's all well and good - except that Hong has inserted this admittedly effective joke into every interview or public seminar he's given over the past few years, sometimes even linking it to various films, "The Iron Fist Monk," - one such example.
After I finished each film, the only moments I cared about were when I had to listen to the laughter in the cinema - that's when I was the happiest.
By Edmund Li (South China Morning Post)
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Tags: Enter the Dragon, Martial Law, paradox, Angela Mao, biography, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen, Yip Man, Ip Man 2, King Hu, Michelle Yeoh, Sammo Hung, Wilson Yip , Fung Hak-on
Tags: Enter the Dragon, Martial Law, paradox, Angela Mao, biography, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen, Yip Man, Ip Man 2, King Hu, Michelle Yeoh, Sammo Hung, Wilson Yip , Fung Hak-on
Let's hope for some decent hand-to-hand and bloody action.
The game is cool. I hope the series will be no worse.
Thanks for posting. Hopefully more comments soon.
I don't know about everyone else, but I'm crazy about Xiao Man (I hope I didn't misspell his name...