Over-the-top physical comedy and a heart-warming story about underdogs who triumph over evil made this film an international hit. Learn more about Action Director Ching Siu-tung from Films at the Gate Curator, Jean Lukitsh.

Tonight’s film will be preceded by a Tai Chi and martial arts demonstration class by Bow Sim Mark Tai Chi Arts Association and a short film by local filmmaker Nathan A. Quattrini titled: AMERICAN CHOP SUEY, starting at approximately 6:30PM.

Shaolin Soccer will be shown with Chinese language audio and English subtitles. Directions and event details here.

A limited number of rented chairs will be available. Please bring your own seating if possible, so we can save chairs for people who need them. See you tonight.

Tonight’s film, Drunken Master, is scheduled to be shown at the Chinatown Park, just on the other side of the Chinatown Gate from our usual location. In case of heavy rain heading into the evening, tonight will be cancelled—there will not be an indoor rain location.

Thanks for coming out last night. An early rain cleared up, and we all enjoyed Fist of Legend:

In this 1994 film, Jet Li plays Chen Zhen, the hero made famous by Bruce Lee in FIST OF FURY, who avenges the death of his teacher despite the opposition of the Japanese military. (Special thanks to Bey Logan, Vice-president of Asian Acquisitions and Co-production at The Weinstein Company, for permitting the screening of the Dragon Dynasty DVD Fist of Legend.)

Friday’s film will be preceded by a lion dance, a demonstration class, and a Kung Fu demonstration from approximately 6:30 PM to 7:30PM by the Wah Lum Kung Fu Athletic Association. Learn more about the demonstration classes at this year’s Films at the Gate. Tonight’s film will also be preceded by a short film by local filmmaker Nathan A. Quattrini titled: FIVE MINUTES FLAT at approximately 7:30 PM.

Thanks for helping us bring back a tradition of watching movies together in Chinatown. Full film schedule. Directions and details.

Nathan brings a fan’s passion for classic kung fu movies combined with a professional’s eye for choreography and direction to his work. The result is a New England take on Hong Kong action! See FIVE MINUTES FLAT on Friday and AMERICAN CHOP SUEY on Sunday at Films at the Gate.

Swords and sorcery save the day in this comedy/horror film about a hapless young scholar who loves a ghost and must learn to fight the demon who has enslaved her. Learn more about Director Ching Siu-tung from Films at the Gate Curator, Jean Lukitsh.

Drunken Master (1978): Yuen Siu-tin (left) & Jackie Chan

On Saturday night, Films at the Gate will feature Jackie Chan’s DRUNKEN MASTER. Check out the full schedule of films here, or read on as Films at the Gate Curator Jean Lukitsh introduces the real drunken master behind Saturday’s film:

Jackie Chan’s DRUNKEN MASTER (1978) is one of the best-loved kung fu comedies of all time. The story is very loosely based on the oral traditions of the Hung Gar school about a famous kung fu expert named Wong Fei-hung. The real Wong Fei-hung died in 1924, but his exploits have been inspired dozens of films. For DRUNKEN MASTER, Jackie Chan and his director, Yuen Woo-ping, decided to have a little fun with the legendary hero. They re-imagined Wong Fei-hung as a naughty teen whose high spirits and lack of restraint exasperates the adults around him. The joke was appreciated by Hong Kong audiences used to seeing Wong portrayed as an austere patriot.

Thundering Red Rose (1963): Yuen Siu-tin at left.

For Chan’s comic foil in the film, Yuen Woo-ping (best known for choreographing KILL BILL, the MATRIX films, and CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON) called in his own father, a veteran kung fu actor. Yuen Siu-tin (also known as Yuan Xiaotian) had been working in films since the late 1920s. His career started in Shanghai, the first Chinese film capitol, when he was hired to choreograph and stunt perform in a series of swordplay films by the pioneer action filmmaker Ren Pengnian (Yam Pang-nin). Ren’s wife, the martial arts actress Wu Lizhu, was the star of the films. Ren and Wu emigrated to Hong Kong shortly before World War II, and Yuen Siu-tin followed them after the war. Soon all three were working together again in the local film industry.

Yuen Siu-tin became one of Hong Kong’s top kung fu movie choreographers, joining an elite group called the “Dragon Tiger Masters.” He worked on dozens of martial arts and action films from the late 1940s through the 1960s. His sons, including Woo-ping, followed him into the profession. For DRUNKEN MASTER, Yuen Siu-tin stepped into a rare leading role. He plays the disreputable Beggar So, an unconventional kung fu master who whips Jackie’s bad boy into shape. Despite being over forty years older than Chan, Yuen Siu-tin is a worthy adversary. His comic timing and adroit way with the action choreography (he’s sometimes stunt-doubled by his son Brandy Yuen) contributed greatly to the success of the film. Yuen went on to reprise the Drunken Master role in at least a half dozen other films before his death in 1980.

ALL THE PEOPLE OF ONE MIND (1948), directed by Ren Pengnian, starring Wu Lizhu, and with Yuen Siu-tin playing a Japanese soldier.

Jean Lukitsh: How did you get started in filmmaking and what kind of training did you receive?

Ching Siu-tung: I started when I was eight years old at a Peking Opera school in Hong Kong and I was there for seven years. I started working after that, taking juvenile roles or standing in for child actors, and then moved up to martial arts [as a stuntman], assistant directing, then going up to directing.

Mark Pollard: Your father, Ching Gong, was a famous Shaw Brothers director. Could you tell us a little bit about him and what impact he had on your filmmaking?

CST: Because of my father, I grew up on the Shaw Brothers sets and lived in their quarters.

JL: Did you work on any films with him?

CST: I worked on many of his movies, including 14 AMAZONS.

JL: How would you describe the role of “action director,” since it’s a different kind of job in Hong Kong than it is in Hollywood, and different from the choreographer’s job?

CST: A choreographer listens for directions from the director. The director is there telling you to “do this, shoot this.” And you are doing just the action part. Martial arts directors [in contrast] are in control of the action, and sometimes the director is not even actually on the set. Then they have to get involved in plot development. The director will listen to the action director. They are really involved in the story part of the film as well.

JL: How about the editing? Would you be involved with that too?

CST: As action director, I do my own editing. Choreographers sometimes do the editing too.

MP: On your choreography, you do so many different things, it’s always very creative. Where do you get a lot of your ideas, your inspiration?

CST: Any choreographer or action director should have much creativity anyway. It’s in my head. You get to a point where you have your own style, and then the audience will recognize it and look for it.

JL: Do you have a favorite weapon, film element, or actor that you enjoy working with?

CST: No, because I like variety. Even when working with a particular actor or actress, everybody has different styles and brings different things to the table. It’s the same with weapons and such. Variety is important.

JL: How do you go about making non-martial arts actors look like good fighters on screen?

CST: It really doesn’t take a lot of time. Before it wasn’t the case, but now, a lot of the actors have a little bit of training so at least they know how to move and do some basic [action] movements. It doesn’t take much time. The reason is I just know how to adjust the angle, adapt the filmmaking to the actors to make them look good. I always hold the camera myself. I work the camera so I have complete control.

MP: Films of yours like DUEL TO THE DEATH feature strong violence that is a little gory, but also funny and exaggerated. Is this a decision on your part to put some comedy or excessive elements into the fighting to make the violence less dark?

CST: Yes, [the comedy] lightens up the violence but also makes the movie more commercial.

JL: Talking about comedy action sequences, you have a long history of working with Stephen Chow. SHAOLIN SOCCER is one of the most popular martial arts movies of the past few years, and it’s also very funny. Is it more difficult to do comic fighting or straight action?

CST: Action with comedy is the most difficult.

JL: I like how SHAOLIN SOCCER shows both tai chi and Shaolin kung fu, hard and soft styles working together. It’s a funny movie, but it demonstrates some truths about those different styles of Chinese martial arts. Was tai chi a part of the story from the very beginning, or was it brought in later to contrast with the hard style?

CST: From the beginning, tai chi was in the movie. It’s an important part of the movie.

JL: That’s great!

MP: Some of your best films are those you directed, such as A CHINESE GHOST STORY. Do you plan on doing more directing in the future?

CST: I have always been doing both action choreography and directing all the time. I just finished a film in Thailand (BELLY OF THE BEAST). I was working on a project based on a Hong Kong comic book, but unfortunately that is not going on at this time. I will always want to do both.

MP: Most Westerners are unfamiliar with the many martial arts series on Chinese television. Have you done a lot of TV work?

CST: Of course. I just finished two TV series after making HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS. I’ve made about 1,500 TV programs. I have made about 100 movies as an action director and fifteen movies as a director. Since my very first movie, I have also won many awards as director and action director.

JL: The wirework in HERO is beautiful. Approximately how many stunt crew members does it take to make a movie like HERO?

CST: There are about twenty crew members on my stunt team.

JL: And do they step in to do the wirework, or do the actors do it themselves?

CST: It is really mostly the actors doing it themselves.

MP: Did you feel pressure to outdo yourself on HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS?

CST: No pressure, but, of course, every movie should be better than the last one.

Jean and Mark Pollard of kungfucinema.com conducted this interview with Ching in 2004, just prior to the US release of HERO, which would hold the top box office ranking for two weeks despite English subtitling, and shortly after completing HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS. Tony Ching Siu-tung is one of the most versatile filmmakers in the business, having collaborated on hit films with people like Zhang Yimou (HERO, HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS), Stephen Chow (ROYAL TRAMP, SHAOLIN SOCCER), and Donnie Yen (BUTTERFLY AND SWORD, THE EMPRESS AND THE WARRIORS), as well as directing classic martial arts movies like A CHINESE GHOST STORY and the SWORDSMAN trilogy.)

Reprinted with permission from kungfucinema.com. Special thanks goes to Alice Yeung at Edko Films for making this interview possible. Translation was provided by PK Shiu.

(In 2001, Jean Lukitsh, Films at the Gate curator, interviewed actor Donnie Yen and director Yuen Wo-Ping about their work on IRON MONKEY.)

Tonight’s film will be preceded by a 10 minute performance by Bow Sim Mark Tai Chi Arts Association and Rick Wong’s Chinese Martial Arts at 7:20 PM.

Come join us as we conclude Films at the Gate 2008 this evening.

When people talk about old school kung fu movies—they mean this one. Also known as MASTER KILLER, from its dubbed-in-English 1980s video release. Gordon Liu (KILL BILL) plays San Te, a Shaolin monk who masters the 35 training chambers of Shaolin kung fu and persuades the monastery to open a 36th chamber in order to train lay students to fight the oppressive Qing government (thereby setting up a scenario played out in countless kung fu films). Directed by Lau Kar-leung. Starring Gordon Liu. Special thanks to Bey Logan at The Weinstein Company, for permitting the screening of the Dragon Dynasty DVD of 36th Chamber.

Due to rain, tonight’s screening was held at Wolff Auditorium, Tufts Medical Center (map). Thanks to Tufts Medical Center for use of the auditorium.

On Friday, Films at the Gate features the 1929 silent film RED HEROINE with an original score created and performed live by Devil Music Ensemble. This silent film from 1929 is the oldest complete swordplay (wuxia) film in existence. It’s also a good example of the classic “nu xia” or “female knight” plot, where the young heroine learns to fight the bandits who have taken over her town. Jean Lukitsh, Films at the Gate curator, has posted an entry on her blog Electric Shadows about the return of Red Heroine to the screen. Friday’s performance begins Devil Music Ensemble’s nationwide 32-city Red Heroine Tour 2008 with funding from New England Foundation for the Arts.

Friday’s film will be preceded by a lion dance, performed by members of the Nam Pai Kung Fu Academy. The lion dance will begin around 7:15 PM.

Last night, nearly all 200 rented chairs were in use. We encourage you to bring your own seating if available—there’s plenty of room to set up more chairs on the lot. See you tonight.

On Sunday night, Sep. 7, Films at the Gate will wrap up five nights of outdoor films with IRON MONKEY (1993) directed by Yuen Wo-ping. Yuen Wo-ping is one of Hong Kong’s most prolific and successful filmmakers. His father, Yuen Siu-tin, was a popular actor in the early kung fu movies, and Yuen Wo-ping has been acclaimed worldwide as one of the all-time top action directors. In 2001, while working on the MATRIX sequels, he discussed his work in IRON MONKEY with FATG programmer Jean Lukitsh. 

Q: How old were you when you started martial arts training? 

Yuen: I started learning martial arts at about 10 or 11 years old.

Q: And how old were you when you started to work in the Hong Kong film industry?

Yuen: I started in the film industry when I was about 18 or 19 years old.

Q: So this is pretty much your life’s work, practicing martial arts and making movies about martial arts?

Yuen: Yes.

Q: When you first started making your own movies, choreographing them and then directing them, what other choreographers or martial arts directors influenced and inspired you the most?

Yuen: Chang Cheh (Zhang Che) was the main person that affected me the most. Chang was the main director of the Shaw Brothers studio in Hong Kong. (note: Chang Cheh directed a number of prominent kung fu films in the 60s and 70s, including THE ONE ARMED BOXER, HEROES TWO, and FIVE VENOMS.)  

Q: Are there any directors from the West that you liked or influenced you? Or have you mainly been focused on Asian cinema?

Yuen: I feel my influences have been mainly through Asian cinema, mainly from China, Hong Kong, and other parts of Asia.

Q: You’ve been working in the Hong Kong film industry for more than three decades. How has filmmaking in Hong Kong changed over that time period?

Yuen: The Hong Kong film industry has gone through many changes these last 30 years. I’ve had the experience of working for big companies like Shaw Bros. and small independent businesses.

In the 1960s, if a film was from Shaw Brothers, its quality was a lot better because Shaw was a very big operation in Chinese cinema. So every day, they would do 1 to 2 shots (scenes), without rushing. And with the budget, we could afford the slow and good quality work. Because of the fact that there was more money to experiment – if something didn’t work, we could redo it. Thus we could say it was more professional. On the other hand, when we worked for the small independent businesses, everything was very rushed and tightly budgeted, with no room for mistakes. 

Nowadays in Hong Kong, the movie production is very different from before. There’s a lot of high quality work because of higher budgets.

Q: IRON MONKEY is one of the best martial arts movies ever made. It’s obviously inspired by the ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA series, but stands alone as a skillful and funny re-imagining of the Wong Fei-hung legend. Weren’t Wong Fei-hung and his father, Wong Kei-ying, real people in the 19th century?

Yuen: The two main characters Wong Fei-hung and his father Wong Kei-ying were real people but the movie’s story was created. 

Q: You’ve made movies about Wong Fei-hung before, most notably DRUNKEN MASTER, with Jackie Chan, which also focussed on the father/son relationship between Fei-hung and Kei-ying. But in the earlier movies, young Fei-hung is always shown as a troublemaker, and the relationship between the two is explosive and punitive. In IRON MONKEY, a more tender bond is shown between father and son. Where did that idea come from?

Yuen: The way that I created the father and son’s character, I strongly believed that I should put in love, family and feeling.  It is not only respect that is shown, it also needs to have love. The father brought the son with him to search for herbs. Medicine was one of the main examples in the movie which also showed the father and son’s relationship. I created scenes with Wong Fei-hung and his father expressing different emotions for each other within different situations.  

Q: You did a wonderful job, especially the scenes where the little boy imitates the father. It shows how much affection there is. You really came up with a physical equivalent of that relationship. Like when his father would eat a certain way, young Fei-hung would do the same. It was like the boy was the mirror image of his father, and shows how close they really are to each other.

Yuen: The way I wanted it, as the director of this movie, was to show the son’s form of admiration and respect by doing exactly what his father would do, such as copying and imitating him as an expression of his heart. 

Q: Now I want to ask you about some of the fight sequences in IRON MONKEY. There’s quite a range of weapons and martial arts techniques that are used. How do you start the preliminary work of choreographing a fight scene? What sort of planning do you do? How much is planned, and how much is improvised? 

Yuen: The way that I produced the martial arts sequences in the movie was first I had to think and plan ahead of time. Before we shot the scene, we had to plan and organize. I had to work the choreography out on site with the action team. The major emphasis is the martial arts output – the visual result is based on how I form the kung fu fight and how it all moves together. The most important element is how to relate the good characters and bad characters together in the movie. The weapons are based on using the actors’ ability to work with the weapon. It took me about one month to plan out the final fight sequence.

Q: That final sequence in IRON MONKEY looks as though it must have been extremely dangerous and difficult for both you and the actors. How did you plan that scene? How long did it take to shoot? Were you ever concerned for the safety of the actors or stuntmen?

Yuen: The way I think about and plan the martial arts sequences can take a long or short time, depending on many factors. Like the final sequence of the movie, I spent a month thinking about how I wanted to film it to be really good. It took me 2 weeks to actually shoot the final sequence, after the planning was complete. We were very experienced and were very accurate and careful, so the whole team knew the fight action was very safe.  But we did worry about how we could control the fire to be as least dangerous as possible. It was really not easy to control because it was hard to tell whether the fire would spread.

Q: The fight scenes in IRON MONKEY display an impressive range of weaponry and martial technique. How do you decide what weapons to use?  Do you decide based on what techniques you’d like see on screen, or do you use whatever the actors are familiar with? For instance, in IRON MONKEY, we see Iron Monkey use the chain- whip against bad guys with straight sword and double broadswords, and we see Wong Kei-ying fight four monks who each have double daggers. These are all traditional Chinese weapons, so how do you decide which weapons the characters are going to use?

Yuen: I had to plan ahead of time on which actor is using which weapon. In the movie, you will see the monks using long and short swords. This important decision was based on what the character’s personality was and what would bring out the best performance out of each actor – so the audience can see the most beautiful performance from the movie.

Q: So you use weapons that would help advance the characterization of the movie, with each weapon representing the character’s personality?

Yuen: Weapons in the movie also represent the personality of the character, and the way the character fights with that weapon also indicates his capability and skills.

Q: How important is it for you to show the strategy behind the techniques? For example, the father, Wong Kei-ying, fights using empty-handed technique with the four monks – then they come out with their double daggers. Wong has to adapt and change his technique. How important is it to put this strategic component into the scene?

Yuen: The fight with Wong Fei-hung’s father and the four monks started with both sides without weapons. Then in the middle of the fight, Wong was still empty-handed and the monks pulled their weapons out to show how unfair they were in order to save themselves as they were on the weaker side. They did not care much of the rules or manner, thus showing how uneducated they were. They turned out to be very nasty. My strategy in the movie is to show the relationship between kung fu, manner, behavior and weapon. The bad guy would not win. For example, Wong, under bad conditions, had his skill and technique like his No-Shadow kick. He was still powerful, even without a weapon. It is important to show that bad guys can never win by being unfair. It is very important to include this strategy in the kung fu movies.

Q: One of the most memorable sequences in IRON MONKEY is the scene where Dr.Yang and Orchid “fly” through the air to gather papers scattered by the wind. While not a fight scene, it establishes the kung fu ability of the characters. What was the inspiration for this scene? What were you trying to show about Chinese martial arts?

Yuen: Inspiration is created through the movie’s story. In the movie, the actor and actress are showing that, among the relationships in kung fu and martial arts, between humans, there was also love. The scene of the “paper” was a creative way I could show the fantastic and romantic relationship they had.

Q: From your work with Wu Tang sword technique in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, it seems that you are interested in the “internal” or soft styles of Chinese martial arts. That scene has a very strong internal feel. Is that what you intended?

Yuen: Yes. 

Q: Do you feel that Americans are appreciating martial arts movies more?

Yuen: American audiences will be very happy if our Chinese martial arts is a really great production, as everybody looks for high quality products.

Q: We’re also looking forward to seeing your work in the next two MATRIX movies.

Yuen: I am very happy to know that audiences appreciate my movies. 

Q: Since the choreography in a Yuen Wo-ping film is usually the work of “the Yuen Clan”, perhaps you could explain what it was like to work in a Hong Kong martial arts/filmmaking clan at that time.  

Yen: I’ve been working with Yuen Wo-ping for many years. We have a very long mutual working relationship. For every project, we try to be as creative as possible. With IRON MONKEY, which was Yuen Wo-ping’s first directing project after working with Tsui Hark and Jet Li on the ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA series, we were going back to “traditional kung fu” style, which we hadn’t done since starting the TIGER CAGE series (1988). The challenge was to take the standard higher, give audiences something they hadn’t seen before.

We had meetings before we even started shooting. We decided to go back to the traditional martial arts choreography and film it the traditional way too. That means long shots, more movement seen, uncut, in one shot. We wanted to show genuine martial arts skill, on camera.

Yuen Wo-ping asked me, “What do you want to do this time?”, and I said I wanted to do real Hung Gar style. You know, there isn’t really any Hung Gar in ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA. But it was popular in the ‘70s, in the Shaw Brothers movies, for instance. And Yuen said, “Isn’t that outdated?” And I said, “Not the way I do it – I’ll use my own rhythm and flavor to interpret it.”

Q: Did you ever study Hung Gar?

Yen: I’ve studied a lot of different styles, starting with my early years, learning from my mother (Yen’s mother is famed wushu master Bow Sim Mark), and moving on to many years of research and hands-on experimentation with the essence of various martial arts styles. You have to be able to pick up moves fast, and learn new styles fast, if you’re going to work with an expert like Yuen Wo-ping. In IRON MONKEY, I primarily kept the signature animal style of Hung Gar, the Tiger and Crane  techniques which I used as the skeleton of the combat choreography. And I emphasized another traditional technique, one of the Hung Gar classic moves, the hand technique with one finger extended. The name of this technique is translated as “To control the central land with one finger” – some say it dates back to the days of secret societies, with hand signals to identify the anti-Qing dynasty patriots.

So I took what I knew of Hung Gar, and gave it “Donnie Yen flavor”. Actually, shortly after IRON MONKEY, I was cast as Hung Gar founder Hung Hsi-kwan in the Hong Kong TV series THE KUNG FU MASTER. 

Q: What is the Shadowless Kick? What does that mean?

Yen: Well, a lot of kung fu moves have those poetic names. Obviously, in real martial combat, the Shadowless Kick is less dramatic. It was glamorized in ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA, where it was geared toward wire work rather than the origin of the technique itself. I wanted to build on that image of Wong Fei-hung by showing how the son learned from the father, but also to find a way to bring out the most realistic approach toward the essence of martial art, while still creating a dynamic effect which the audience would enjoy.

Q: What about the scenes where you draw a circle on the ground with your foot before kicking? What’s that all about?

Yen: It’s like a warning: Don’t come too close or you’ll be sorry. Like a gentleman’s warning, don’t come any nearer unless you want to feel my kick.

Q: In one shot, you jump up in the air, kick two guys simultaneously, then swing one leg to the side to kick a third guy before landing! Was that done with wires?

Yen: No! 

Q: It’s a real jump?

Yen: Oh yeah. I have always tried to limit wirework. After all, what separates good martial arts films from great martial arts films is not cinematic techniques like wirework, computer graphics, rapid-fire editing, etc., but the actual skill of the actor himself!

Q: How do you train for something like that?

Yen: Of course one needs to have a solid martial arts background as well as knowledge of the language of film.

Q: What do you know about the monk’s deadly palm strike?

Yen: We choreographed his moves first, looking for something that would look good on film. When we found something we liked, we gave it a name. “This looks good, let’s call it Wonder Palm!”

Seriously, there are a lot of myths around traditional martial arts. “Iron Palm” technique, “Iron Body Armor”…I believe there’s something to it, but the kung fu writers probably exaggerate it. It’s easier to show these techniques in historical films. As the stories get closer to modern times, it’s harder for people to accept it.

Q: There is quite a range of weapons displayed in IRON MONKEY, from unusual types like the Monk’s Spade and Chain Whip to a simple staff. But the most unorthodox weapon used is an umbrella. Once again, it foreshadows an experience of the adult Wong Fei Hung in ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA II. How do you do “umbrella kung fu”?

Yen: In the highest standard of Hong Kong martial arts choreography, one can turn any prop into a weapon, to allow the characters in the story to be more versatile, and to give each movie something new, something different.  For example, many classic kung fu films use props like wooden benches, wine jars, chopsticks – whatever is on hand -as weapons. In IRON MONKEY, we wanted to transform the umbrella by giving it the characteristics of various traditional weapons, e.g. chops and blocks from broadsword technique and thrusts, jabs, and Wu Dang-style wrist movement  from double edged sword (Wu Dang sword technique is a specialty of Yen’s mother Bow Sim Mark). The handle of the umbrella was also used for hooking and trapping joints. Basically, anything is possible – the key is how you use it! 

Q: The scene at the end of IRON MONKEY, where you and Yu Rong-guang and Yan Yee-kwan balance on flaming poles as you fight is one of the finest examples of “wire fu”. But were you really standing on those poles? How did you keep from slipping off as you fought?

Yen: That scene was designed to be very dramatic, kind of over-the-top. But real martial arts skills are still there. You can’t take the skill away. We were fighting on poles! We were stepping around from pole to pole. The wire catches you if you fall, but it can’t make you look stable. You have to be a superb martial artist to work with an expert like Yuen Wo Ping. 

We spend a lot of time on these movies, doing retake after retake, trying to get it just right. In the West, (fight scenes) aren’t as much of a priority. The support they give martial arts scenes in the West is a lot less than the typical Hong Kong movie, let alone a Yuen Wo-ping movie.

Q: How long does it take to shoot a Hong Kong fight scene?

Yen: That depends on who’s doing it. For my scenes with Jet Li in ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA II, we spent about 3 days on our first  battle. Something like that would take maybe 20 days in the USA, to get the same level of quality. Yuen Wo-ping used to take one month to shoot his more complex action scenes, in the old days. The filmmaking is just as important as the action. Hong Kong camerawork is more sophisticated when it comes to getting the movement on screen. We know how to emphasize little details.

Q: What was the hardest part about making IRON MONKEY?

Yen: The hardest thing was pulling off the concept! First, can we top the action in ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA? That’s what we were measuring ourselves against. I was playing Wong Fei Hung’s father, and audiences know what Wong Fei Hung can do. That was a challenge. And second, we were using Hung Gar, not the Northern style kung fu associated with the Jet Li version of Wong Fei Hung. That was hard, not knowing how audiences would react to a return to traditional Hung Gar style.

Q: How did audiences react?

Yen: They loved it!