The Art of Action: Martial Arts in Motion Picture (2002) - full transcript
A look at the history of martial arts films from their chinese roots to the present, presented by Samuel L. Jackson.
This is a story of how
the martial arts film genre was born...
...in a bloody rebellion...
...and transformed itself...
...into a spiritual
and creative revolution.
A martial artist has to
take responsibility for himself...
...and accept the consequences
of his own doing.
- What is the highest technique?
- To have no technique.
What are your thoughts
when facing an opponent?
- There is no opponent.
- Why is that?
Because the word "I"
does not exist.
A good fight
should be like a small play...
...but played seriously.
When the opponent expands,
I contract.
When he contracts, I expand.
And when there is an opportunity...
...I do not hit...
...it hits all by itself.
Martial arts films
have a Chinese expression:
Wu xia.
Wu means martial arts,
which signifies action.
Xia conveys chivalry.
Wu xia expresses the great
dichotomy that martial arts is:
Deeply spiritual,
yet potentially deadly.
In the best of martial arts films,
the themes are profoundly noble...
...and yet filled
with breathtaking action.
It is this combination,
infused with romance and humour...
...that has made this genre
one of the most popular in the world.
It is enjoying both box-office
and critical success.
Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon...
...was nominated for 10 Oscars,
including Best Picture, and won four.
Rush Hour 2 was America's number
one live-action comedy film of 2001.
Help!
And The Matrix...
...pushed special effects and
choreography to a whole new level.
You are about to discover
who its original pioneers were...
...and who is driving this
phenomenal film revolution today.
Everybody's got the idea wrong.
They think it's kicking and punching.
They miss the way-of-life thing...
...and the idea that what it's
really supposed to do...
...is improve the texture of your life
and the people around you.
How and where did
Chinese filmmakers...
...discover the possibilities
of martial arts?
From that came this.
Yes, martial arts films
derived from opera.
But not just any opera.
Peking Opera has been
part of Chinese culture for centuries.
And how did martial arts
become a part of opera?
Well, it occurred in the mid-1760s.
When the Manchu Dynasty
was taking over...
...they basically made Shaolin,
the monastery, illegal.
So they set about destroying
the Shaolin Temple.
And five men--
Students, disciples...
...out of hundreds,
were able to escape.
They see that their whole livelihood,
their brothers, everyone is dying...
...and they decide to challenge
the Manchu masters.
Out of the ruins,
they find their weapons...
...they find whatever speciality they
want to use to express themselves...
...in this last, pitched battle.
They train, and they train hard.
And it's life-and-death,
and it's a battle...
...and three out of the five
survive their battle.
But they preserve the Shaolin lore.
Like a phoenix coming out
of its own ashes...
...they found their strength
from the ashes of the monastery.
They went back to their roots
to have this battle, to fight...
...to do something grander,
bigger than yourself.
I think that's what...
...makes for heroes, you know.
Whether real life or, you know,
cinematic heroes...
...you look for something
worth fighting for...
...and it's greater, grander a concept
than just for yourself.
One monk who survived the
burning temple was Master Zhi Shan.
During the battles in 1765, he taught
his skills to the Peking Opera actors.
Zhi Shan did this for two reasons:
First, to continue teaching the
Shaolin traditions of martial arts...
...that the Ching Empire
was trying to eradicate.
And secondly,
to spread the seeds of revolt...
...to anyone who might want to rise
up against the tyrant of that time.
The opera players passed on this
knowledge and skill as they toured.
Nearly a century later, in 1850,
for the first time in Chinese history...
...a group of actors joined a rebellion
against the Ching Dynasty.
When it failed, the authorities
banned all theatre and opera.
Actors performed in secret...
...so that their traditions, enhanced
by the dynamics of martial arts...
...would not be lost.
Twenty years later,
the new government relented.
That's the remarkable connection
between the Peking Opera...
...and the Shaolin Temple's martial
arts and its Buddhist teachings.
You learn martial art not to fight.
You learn to discipline yourself.
And I found that quality
in martial art film fantastic.
When movies began in China
in the early 1900s...
...actors were needed.
They were found
at the local Peking Opera shows.
Peking Opera had no women.
It was male-dominated.
This wasn't theatre for guys who
liked to dress in women's clothes.
Many major actors today grew up
in the Peking Opera schools...
...and one thing that has not changed
over the years is the training.
It is still intense,
exhaustive, extreme...
...and often downright brutal.
When I was 7, I was in the school
training from 5:00 a.m. until night.
Very tough training.
The teacher said,
"Come. Come here.
I think it's about time
you have a Zha jiang min."
I was in big shock.
Even my father, my parents,
never hit me like this.
Your master punished you. I think at
that time, whipping is very popular.
Not only when learning Peking Opera,
but even in the apprentice trades...
...you're open to punishment
from your master.
I saw with my own eyes
that at that time...
...whipping was quite effective.
For centuries, acting has been
frowned upon as dishonourable.
Men performing
as women in Peking Opera...
...was an acceptable practice.
When movies began, it was
considered such an inferior art...
...that male actors would not lower
themselves to perform in them.
So women became the stars.
Tough martial arts were performed
by women dressed as men.
Go figure.
The first female martial artist star
was Fen Juhua.
She later taught martial arts,
mainly to actresses.
Tam Sau-zhen had an opera company
before her 40-year film career.
But without a doubt, the most
accomplished female martial artist...
...in Chinese cinema is Chin Tsi-ang.
In the 1930s,
she formed a film company...
...where she starred in and produced
many martial arts films.
Chin Tsi-ang's eldest grandson
is one of today's innovators:
Sammo Hung.
The martial arts film trend
started with the huge success of...
...Burning of Red Lotus Monastery
in 1928, in Shanghai.
Strong stories
married with notable action...
...has been the basis
of the best martial arts films.
The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple
established that tradition.
The film was so popular,
it spawned a series of 27 movies.
Sadly, not one of those films
exists anymore.
Fortunately, we did find several
movies from the silent period.
None of these early films have ever
been seen outside of Asia before.
Fantasy and magic are powerful
elements in Chinese culture...
...and were a big part of the florid
Peking Opera-style of storytelling.
These enchanting components
were utilized in early filmmaking.
As visually fantastic
as these stories seem...
...they invariably had deep meaning
for their audiences.
Many were based on history, spiritual
concepts, legends and novels.
The techniques might seem
a little crude by today's standards...
...but look closely and you'll notice
they're still being incorporated...
...into today's films.
With the introduction of talking
movies, a law was passed...
...that all films were to be shot in
Mandarin, the predominant dialect.
So many Cantonese-speaking
filmmakers to flee from China...
...to Hong Kong,
where restrictions were fewer...
...and many more movies were shot.
With the outbreak of World War II and
the occupation of Hong Kong...
...film production stopped.
It wasn't until the dusts of war
and revolution settled...
...that one of the most beloved
folk heroes in China...
...rescued the martial arts
film industry.
Everyone knows
Wong Fei Hung.
- Wong Fei Hung.
- Wong Fei Hung.
Wong Fei Hung represents a kind of...
...very honest
and upright sense of justice.
He eliminates the bullies.
And helps the downtrodden
anytime, anywhere.
He helps others,
and he never gives in to evil forces.
He also has a very kind
and sympathetic heart.
Not only does he use his medical
skills to save and heal people...
...but at the same time,
he's also a very patriotic hero.
Wong Fei Hung
was a martial arts master.
His fighting style appealed
to the film's director, Wu Pang.
Wu Pang hired martial artists instead
of Peking Opera choreographers.
One of them
was Master Lau Kar Leung.
I learned Hung Gar,
or Hung-style boxing.
My master, who is my father,
is Lau Jham.
And my father's master
was Lam Sai Wing.
Who was Lam Sai Wing's master?
Everyone knows it's Wong Fei Hung.
Who is Wong Fei Hung's master?
Luk Nga Choi.
Who was Luk Nga Choi's master?
Monk Zhi Shan.
He was Southern Shaolin.
When Wong Fei Hung
started filming...
...then of course I was useful,
because I fought the martial art.
In the beginning, we really
fought with real kung fu.
That's how we shot Wong Fei Hung.
The actor who originally played
Wong Fei Hung was Kwan Tak Hing.
Let's first talk about
Kwan Tak Hing.
He was in opera,
Cantonese opera.
When they were casting...
...they liked Kwan Tak Hing's
body language, his height.
It resembled
the real Wong Fei Hung.
And because he was not familiar
with Hung-style kung fu...
...my master and their brothers
had to teach him.
Kwan Tak Hing was very intelligent.
After all, he was an opera actor.
The spell Wong Fei Hung held over
Chinese audiences then...
...is still powerful today.
His magic has worked wonders for
the careers of two of today's stars:
Jackie Chan in a comedy,
and Jet Li in a drama.
Kwan Tak Hing made approximately
90 Wong Fei Hung movies.
He became so identified
with Wong Fei Hung...
...that Kwan Tak Hing himself
became a living legend.
When he retired, he became a healer
and taught martial arts.
Though Kwan Tak Hing's
Wong Fei Hung films were popular...
...women were still the real stars
throughout the 1950s.
In my first movie...
...it's not a woman in the movie.
In the movie, I'm a man, a guy.
At that time, maybe early in
the stage, acting was very low.
The man in the family,
they'd rather the wife...
To watch a lady do it.
The female stars of that period
were Pei Pei Cheng...
... Josephine Siao...
...Suet Nei...
...and Chan Po Chu.
Every one of them regularly
portrayed a man in a film.
Asian attitudes toward movies
had not changed since the 1920s.
The 1950s and early 1960s
had two major film companies.
One came to be known
as the Cathay Film Company.
The other was...
...the Shaw Brothers.
In the 1950s, the Shaw Brothers
built a huge, secluded...
...and totally self-contained studio
on Clearwater Bay, Hong Kong.
It was a city unto itself where
everyone worked, lived and slept.
Set painters, directors,
actors, prop masters, cameramen.
Anyone who had anything
to do with making a film...
...lived on the studio lot,
miles from anywhere.
In the early 1950s, Raymond
Chow joined Shaw Brothers...
...and is credited,
with owner Run Run Shaw...
...with improving production
and story standards.
Under Chow, Shaw Brothers
continued with the swordplay stories.
However, he and his directors were
taking note of Japanese filmmakers...
...particularly Akira Kurosawa.
I think Shaw Brother
has deliberate attempt...
...to copy samurai movies.
Because I think back then,
it's big moneymakers in Asia.
They're very influential.
Some of them get into artistic levels,
such as Kurosawa's.
I think the Japanese,
at that period in history...
...were very, very realistic
in their depiction of what happens...
...in terms of a battle,
a sword fight.
Akira Kurosawa
was a great humanitarian.
His themes were counter to
the nationalistic fervour of the time.
He was one brave man.
All of the great
Kurosawa classics were...
...brilliant personification
of not only filmmaking...
...but the philosophies and the
spiritual aspects of the martial arts.
The Shaw Brothers management
screened Kurosawa's...
...and other Japanese films for
its producers, writers and directors.
The message was powerful drama
and realistic action was possible.
Three Shaw Brothers directors, King
Hu, Chang Che and Lau Kar Leung...
...were particularly influenced.
This trio would change
the face of martial arts films...
...and in very different ways.
King Hu and Chang Che
are of tremendous influence...
...to the martial arts films of the era.
Almost everyone is imitating them.
He is, I think,
very, very important people...
...for the Hong Kong martial art
movie. He totally changed the style.
It's a line there. Before that,
martial art movie just Beijing Opera.
Then, start from
Come Drink With Me...
...the martial art movie,
it's an action movie.
So I think that's totally different.
Make me very famous, that's right.
This movie changed my whole life.
Because after that,
I do a lot of martial art movies.
Even Crouching Tiger.
I'm still in martial art, right?
So it changed my whole life.
Most obviously, of course, King Hu,
I think he sets tone for many things.
The use of negative space due
to Chinese watercolour paintings.
I think that's a lot of his background.
And also Peking Opera influences.
Most of his films,
at least the best ones...
...are about the warm-up...
...paragraphs in a nice program,
Peking Opera performing.
Hero characters, bad characters,
they come to one milieu.
Good guys win, something happens.
But the rhythm,
the performing art...
...the music aspect of it,
the choreography, the poses...
...the rhythm:
And all those rhythms.
Along with some, I guess...
...Hitchcockian or Eisenstein
influences.
In addition to the beauty
of the movement...
...there was also a very strong
element of suspense.
So his films and Chang Che's
are very different...
...because King Hu emphasized the
romance between men and women...
...whereas Chang Che's films
placed greater importance...
...on the righteousness
and bonds between men.
Che was inspired by Kurosawa's
realism and masculine approach.
In Chang Che's movies,
women don't mean a thing.
They're a drag, at the best.
At the best.
Most of the time you don't see them.
I don't think he cared for women.
He enjoyed the beauty of men.
In those days,
most of the leading stars were ladies.
One Armed Swordsman
was one of the first pictures...
...that emphasized
on the male lead.
One Armed Swordsman.
That is the one
that really blew me away.
And for me...
...it means a lot because I had polio
when I was, like, a baby.
So I sort of considered myself
a little bit inadequate...
...not as normal as anybody.
And when I watched that movie,
it sort of, like...
...give me an electric jolt, you know,
like, "You can do it."
The guy with one arm can even fight
the best martial artists in the world.
And that has a lot
of great impression, that movie...
...when I was growing up.
To make use of the fact that other
people's perceived perception...
...of his weakness
or his inability is his strength...
...that is a concept of--
That's a true adaptation
of the philosophy of martial arts.
The 1967 film One Armed Swordsman
was a movie very much of its time.
The youth in Hong Kong
was finding its voice...
...rebelling against the status quo,
and Chang Che realized that.
For him, that was
what this film was about.
Master, I no longer
believe in your ways.
I have my own path to go.
He was saying,
"Don't let your youth be a weakness.
Understand and train it
to become your strength."
He acknowledged that this was his
version of the American classic...
...Rebel Without a Cause.
One Armed Swordsman was one of
100 movies Chang Che directed...
...many of which became classics.
And it wasn't just his marriage
of bloody realism...
...and intellectual insights
that made him revered...
...but also his stylised way
of shooting and editing.
He was influenced by Arthur Penn's
1967 seminal gangster movie...
...Bonnie and Clyde
and its use of slow motion.
I imitate a lot of things
of Chang Che.
When I had the chance in 1973 to
shoot my first film, Young Dragons...
...there are many shadows
of Chang Che in it.
The kind of spirit of
the male lead character in my film...
...his sense of justice,
of passion and righteousness...
...are very close to Chang Che's.
Chang Che's films emphasized the
so-called righteous and just spirit.
And it made me idolize him
very much.
The third important director from the
Shaw Brothers is Lau Kar Leung.
He's a true martial arts master
whose training lineage...
...can be traced all the way back
to Monk Zhi Shan.
Monk Zhi Shan was the master...
...who, after the second
Shaolin Temple was burned down...
...taught martial arts to the Peking
Opera in the first place.
It has been Lau Kar Leung's
life's work...
...to bring real martial arts
to the big screen.
With him, we have come full circle to
the main traditions of these films:
Peking Opera
and the Shaolin Temple.
At that time, no one had or would
shoot a film about monks.
They shot martial arts hero films with
handsome guys and great heroes.
Why would anyone use a new actor,
Gordon Liu, to play a bald monk?
No matter how you fight, it's useless.
Monk films have no romance.
Martial arts hero films
have romantic elements.
The producer and the director,
Lau Kar Leung, argued over this:
"How can it be without a love story?"
But monks can't have a love story.
So, what do we finally shoot?
The story of the spirit and
the perseverance of the monks.
We finally finished
The 36 Chambers of Shaolin.
Now 36 Chambers of Shaolin,
I wanted to show kung fu.
What is kung fu?
Kung fu does not rely on fighting.
Many things have to do
with awareness.
Your eyes, your ears to listen,
and all kinds of weapons.
Everyone must train
in all these chambers:
Chamber of blades, of kicks,
chamber of eyes, chamber of ears.
They must train in each chamber.
So I came up with the idea,
the human body...
...each part that moves has feeling of
motion. Every part has this feeling.
Feeling of motion.
It has its own kind of charisma.
So I decided to show it
in The 36 Chambers.
Human kung fu cannot be attained
by sitting there and moving one part.
The whole body must move.
For other directors
it may be difficult...
...but for Lau Kar Leung,
it was not...
...because he is known as
the "Dictionary of Kung Fu."
In my understanding, I feel that
the so-called real martial arts...
...is not to teach people
how to kill others...
...or to beat up people.
Real martial arts is a kind of
discipline for the heart and passions.
It is how to train yourself
to become a virtuous...
...just and righteous man.
Though martial arts films
were popular in Asia...
...they had not penetrated
the world market.
In 1970, two events occurred that
would change the martial arts genre:
First, producer Raymond Chow
left Shaw Brothers...
...and with Leonard Ho, formed
their own company, Golden Harvest.
I think in the late '60s...
...television was beginning...
...to become popular
in the United States.
I think the management
of Shaw Brothers...
...felt that the same effect
may hit Hong Kong...
...and was thinking
of cutting down the operation...
...and using half of the manpower...
...to go into-- And capital--
To go into television.
I didn't quite agree with that.
We left in 1970,
and we made--
First year, I think we made four or
five pictures. Four pictures already.
The other main event
of 1970 was a guy named...
Bruce Lee.
There's some things
up to this day...
...nobody do better than he does.
The spirit of fighting.
The charismatic, the stark kind
of attraction that comes along...
...not only with his performances,
but his philosophy in fighting...
...and deal with life.
That was very straightforward,
very Westernised...
...very gung-ho, can-do spirit...
...than the repressed Chinese
zigzagging kind of attitude.
Bruce Lee, who would have such
an impact on martial arts films...
...was actually born and raised
in San Francisco.
Bruce was an actor before
he was a martial artist.
He did his first commercial
when he was 5.
He didn't start studying
kung fu until he was 10.
And his father was an opera singer.
And, I mean...
That guy, he's a show-biz guy.
The first martial arts film--
Television actually...
...was Bruce Lee's Green Hornet.
One day I was watching
this obviously Asian guy...
...with a mask on, jumping up
and doing flying kicks.
Green Hornet
was a successful series...
...but the U.S. wasn't ready for Lee
to become a leading man.
I admire Bruce Lee. I remember in
one interview when he was saying...
...the Kung Fu TV series
is supposed to be written for him...
...and because he's Asian,
you know, Chinese face...
...and back then American television,
they don't believe...
...they would like to see
an Asian hero.
Bruce Lee left the United States
and headed back to Hong Kong.
When Bruce first joined us...
...the first picture we had him make
was done in Bangkok.
And after the first day's work...
...the director called and said:
"I want to change Bruce Lee
because he can't fight."
I said, "Why?"
He said, "Everybody knows...
...that we're now calling him
'Lee Three Kicks'...
...because he can
kick only three times."
So I flew to Bangkok,
looked at the situation...
...and asked Bruce what happened.
Bruce said, "This director is useless
because these guys are just soldiers.
Very low-down soldiers
who can't really fight.
If I have to spend five minutes
dealing with them...
...what am I going to do when I meet
the real, good martial artists?"
"And besides," he said,
"the way I kick these three kicks...
...is so strong,
they should be out completely."
So I look at the film,
and I agree with him.
And we just quietly change
the director.
And really,
the rest is history.
He has an effect on each of us who
are Chinese and in this industry.
His ethnic identity is very strong,
and it makes everyone excited.
He stands out and is proud
of being a Chinese.
His sense of identity,
of being a Chinese, is really strong.
I think Bruce...
He was much more
than just a martial artist.
And he was much more than
a martial arts actor or superstar.
The philosophy that he had,
the things that he wrote...
...The Tao of Jeet Kun Do...
...the ideas that he had
were so far and ahead of his time.
I said, "Empty your mind. Be formless.
Shapeless, like water."
Now, you put water into a cup,
it becomes the cup.
You put water into a bottle,
it becomes the bottle.
You put it in a teapot,
it becomes the teapot.
Now, water can flow
or it can crash.
Be water, my friend.
His most special quality
is that he had his own character.
He allowed his character and
acting to be different from others.
His confidence is high. He combined
Chinese and Western styles.
His style is not purely Chinese...
...but he included
the Westernised ingredients...
...in expressing his loyalty
to his country and race.
Watching him is not only
seeing an actor...
...but more and very special.
Styles tend to not only
separate men...
...because they have
their own doctrines...
...and then the doctrine became the
gospel truth that you cannot change.
But if you do not have style,
if you just say:
"Well, here I am
as a human being...
...how can I express myself
totally and completely?"
Now, that way,
you won't create a style...
...because style is a crystallization.
That way, it's a process
of continuing growth.
When you do punch--
I'm leaning forward a little...
...hoping not to hurt
any camera angle.
You gotta put the whole hip into it...
...and snap it and get
all your energy in there...
...and make this into a weapon.
I never see anybody do change of
rhythm in a fight so well as him...
...even up to these days.
And it's choreographed:
And nobody fights like that.
But his fight looks
more powerful and real...
...and more spiritual because...
...every punch, every block,
every change of rhythm...
...even eye shifting,
means something.
And that's very intriguing. It's
great entertainment and inspiring.
He always looked forward. Those
movements were so tremendous...
...on set, they made sounds.
The winds from his fists scare you.
I went to see Enter the Dragon...
...and came back
and said to Jerry Thorpe:
"Have you seen this?"
He said, "No."
I said, "You haven't?
You gotta see this."
I decided to make it mandatory that
everyone on the crew see the movie.
He said, "We're up against
the James Bond...
...of martial arts, you know."
I said, "No, we're up against
the James Dean of martial arts."
Big difference.
To me, okay, to me...
...ultimately, martial art means
honestly expressing yourself.
Now, it is very difficult to do.
I mean, it is easy for me
to put on a show and be cocky...
...and be flooded with a cocky feeling
and then feel pretty cool and all that.
I can make all kinds of phoney
things, you see what I mean?
Blinded by it. Or I can show you
some really fancy movement.
But to express oneself honestly,
not lying to oneself...
...and to express myself honestly,
now that is very hard to do.
Audiences often wonder
why most martial arts films...
...were period pieces set long ago.
Bruce Lee had a simple answer.
Nowadays, you don't go around
kicking people or punching people.
Because if you do, that's it.
I don't care how good you are.
In spite of this belief, Bruce Lee
was one of the first...
...to portray martial arts
in a contemporary setting.
In 1973, at the age of 32...
...Bruce Lee tragically died
from a brain edema.
He had only completed four movies,
but they would open the world...
...to the martial arts genre.
Almost as soon as the world
got to appreciate him...
...he passed away.
Over 20,000 fans showed up
for his funeral.
People still love Bruce Lee.
He makes this keep on.
His spirit is still there.
The movie still keeps on showing.
So many things still impress us.
He's the only kung fu master,
I think...
...in our Chinese show business.
Not because he's a real
kung fu martial artist.
He can make the kung fu
become a kind of kung fu plus ballet.
Plus a kind of soul.
To some, something to explain...
...that he's a spirit
that can show on pictures.
Lee's death created a vacuum
unprecedented in martial arts films.
Suddenly, the future
was looking bleak for the genre.
Fortunately, in 1973,
a U.S. television series...
...helped keep martial arts alive
and popular around the world.
Ironically, it was the series
that Bruce Lee had hoped to star in.
Learn this, Grasshopper.
The mind of every creature...
...is the master of his own body.
But only if the mind flows with nature
may that mastery be fully exercised.
There is no limit to
the wondrous powers of the body...
...nor is there a limit to the ways
one may harness those powers...
...to the mastery
of the harmonious mind.
It may take half a lifetime
to master one system.
- What do you hear?
- I hear the water.
I hear the birds.
Do you hear the grasshopper
which is at your feet?
Old man, how is it
that you hear these things?
Young man, how is it
that you do not?
As a kid, I'd try to grab the
grasshopper and replicate Kung Fu.
No one will die today.
You wish to save
this worthless devil?
A Shaolin.
A coward. A peasant
who carries vegetables.
An old woman who runs
from shadows.
That was always a fantasy.
Here was a guy...
...interested in righteousness...
...representing the common
and little man.
But when called upon,
he could step up...
...and kick ass,
fight for righteousness.
I always found that very magical.
Go.
I feel sort of privileged
to have managed to fall into--
I may be the only martial arts star...
...who came to it from
the point of view of an actor.
Many roads often lead
to the same place.
Many roads lead to places no one
wishes to go. You're up to something.
It is said that a moth that lives too
close to the flame leads a short life.
But in China, it is said...
...there is little difference between
a long and short life.
Both are but moments in time.
The people who make martial arts
movies are martial artists...
...who have devoted their lives
to martial arts and then given it up...
...to try to be actors
kind of late in life.
And I'm a born and bred actor.
It wasn't about revenge.
It wasn't about crime.
It was about philosophy.
And it was historical.
Enough!
I felt like that.
When I first started doing it...
...and through the series, I felt like,
"I'm getting to say things...
...you just don't get to say
in movies."
After Bruce Lee died, the whole
movie industry going down.
Bruce Lee is the best. Some other
action movie, nobody's gonna see it.
And at that time,
I was quite disappointed.
The martial arts genre
needed a breakthrough...
...and in the late 1970s
got the shot in the arm it required...
...from its old friend:
Peking Opera and comedy.
In the theatre, there is
a troupe where we all performed.
For example, Jackie Chan...
...Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao
and all of us lived together...
...and we learned Peking Opera.
We all became stuntmen.
Actually, it was really Sammo.
Sammo Hung was the first
to get started.
Then it was Jackie Chan.
Then me, then Yuen Biao.
Sammo Hung got out of school
three years ahead of us.
When we learned opera,
he was the first to enter the school...
...and was considered
our eldest martial arts brother.
So he had to start
looking out for us then.
If he did not look out for us,
he would not be given food...
...so he had to look out for us.
Painted Faces
is an autobiographical movie...
...of Jackie, Corey, Yuen Biao
and Sammo's lives...
...in the opera school.
Audiences who see it
think it's harsh.
For us, who lived through it,
it doesn't show all that went on.
For us, it doesn't
tell the truth adequately.
Since the audience
considered it bad enough...
...if we added more into it,
the actual experiences...
...the audiences would never
accept the truth.
It was decided to romanticize
the experience and show...
...some of our training.
I still think it's a pretty good movie.
Sammo Hung, Corey Yuen and Yuen
Biao each have successful careers...
...but Jackie Chan would be the one
to be embraced by the world.
It wasn't an easy road. Producers
tried to make Jackie into Bruce Lee.
All those films failed.
Jackie is quite different.
I'd say entirely different from Bruce.
I think it's very wise
of him to take that route.
Jackie relies more on comedy...
...to increase the attraction...
...of his martial arts.
Jackie's breakthrough movie
utilized his strengths:
His comedy and imagination.
A snake mouth. I make the reason
why you have to, like this. Okay.
You just block somebody arms.
Okay, that's a snake mouth.
And when you turn around,
that's a snake tongue:
Then I go home.
I look at a mirror. I just like this:
When everybody's asleep, I practise.
It looked good for the movie.
That's a new style.
It's not like:
It's like coming:
Do some comedy, you know:
These kinds of things. Everybody:
Jackie followed Snake in the Eagle's
Shadow with Drunken Master.
This made him Asia's
number one star.
Each temple, one Buddha.
Each master, his own technique.
Jackie acknowledges his influences
are the early American silent stars...
...Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd.
Older movies, Chinese movies,
every movie--
When you see the double,
you can tell.
Everybody do:
Like this.
When you look at a Jackie Chan
movie, when I'm doing the stunts...
...that's me.
I hate violence. Yes, I do.
It's a kind of a dilemma.
Every time I saw him perform,
I would copy moves.
I would remember what he did and
try them. He was my inspiration.
People recognize that it's not CG.
It's not created in a computer.
That's just someone who's worked
and studied for a long time...
...and can pull it off
in front of the cameras.
Jackie Chan has been the top
martial arts actor for nearly 30 years.
In the last few years,
he has arguably become...
...the number one box-office star
in the world in any genre.
Here's Jackie.
Everybody have a dream.
I have a dream.
I hope one day, my name
and footprints on this star row.
- Jackie's my hero.
- Jackie Chan, he's a great man.
- Hey, buddy. You bet.
- Thank you.
He's got a sense of humour,
which is good.
You see a wonderful actor.
It's just innocence and charm.
And suddenly, this wonderful
physical activity going on.
How many people can do that?
Almost simultaneously
to the needed comedy boost...
...Hong Kong created
its own film festival.
This encouraged new talent
to become more experimental.
A new wave of filmmakers emerged...
...led by the likes of Tsui Hark...
... John Woo, Yuen Woo Ping,
Jet Li, Corey Yuen...
- ...and Jackie Chan.
- You have to watch me.
In Asia, writer, director and producer
Tsui Hark...
...is often mentioned in the same
class as directors Steven Spielberg...
...and Alfred Hitchcock.
Born in Vietnam...
...he found his way to Texas
to learn American filmmaking.
One of his favourite movies
is the classic Citizen Kane.
In 1977, Tsui returned to Hong Kong
and began a prolific career.
His early work Zu: Warriors
From the Magic Mountain...
...was the first major special effects
movie made in Hong Kong.
Tsui doesn't like to wrap for the day.
He's mad. His passion scared us.
This is a good director,
but his crew will find their work...
...to be rather physically straining.
He's very creative.
He was never just happy
to do the usual thing.
He was always figuring out
a new way to do things...
...in a more innovative fashion.
In 1984, Tsui formed his production
company, Film Workshop...
...and experimented with historic
dramas, horror, swordplay movies...
...fantasy, science fiction,
comedy and romance.
There's not a style
Tsui hasn't attempted...
...a camera angle he hasn't tried...
...and a technology
he hasn't sampled.
He is truly a forerunner
of the MTV generation.
But his films are not
style over substance.
He invited writers and directors to
work by stating simple goals:
"Develop your own style.
There must be a point to your story.
It must make the audience feel better.
We'll become one with the audience.
They go to the movies to feel...
...not to understand."
Tsui Hark is the modernizer of both
the kung fu and swordplay subgenre.
Kung fu, everybody knows his
Once Upon a Time in China series.
The star of Once Upon a Time
in China, Jet Li...
...was a martial arts champion. His
career has exploded internationally.
Tsui Hark collaborated with
the new talent...
...as a producer, director or writer.
Amongst them is director...
...and one of the great contemporary
choreographers, Yuen Woo Ping.
Every 10 years,
when martial art films...
...the energy, the genre
begins to die down...
...he did something that will blossom
the genre for another 10 years.
People will copy him for years.
Yuen Woo Ping
was one of the pioneers.
One of his specialties
is acrobatic movements.
In Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, some
of his early work, Drunken Master...
...there were acrobatic elements.
Playing with a stool,
playing with a chopstick.
Because he grew up
in that environment.
He grew up learning from his father...
...who was a very influential
martial arts choreographer.
His father started off
as Beijing Opera.
So they all learned all their
physical skill from Beijing Opera.
Same as Jackie Chan and Sammo.
He's an artist. He cares for those
things, though he doesn't admit it.
And I think with his experience...
...and talent and mastery in the art,
he still has an open heart...
...like a child.
That's why I love him so much.
He inspired me, not only...
...in making martial arts scenes,
but as a filmmaker in general.
You know, what if Baryshnikov
or Nureyev did a martial arts film?
From choreographer Yuen Woo Ping
to someone who moves his camera...
...like Woo Ping uses a body
to highlight a moment.
- He's the Woo man.
- The Woo man...
- He's the Woo.
- ...is director John Woo.
He's the man.
So first of all, I really loved
The Wizard of Oz.
What impressed me the most was
Judy Garland and her three friends.
One was the Tin Man.
One was the Lion.
The Tin Man was actually very weak.
And so I felt that he was
similar to my personality.
- Well, you're perfect now.
- My neck. My neck.
Perfect? Bang on my chest
if you think I'm perfect.
Go ahead, bang on it.
Beautiful. What an echo.
It's empty.
The tinsmith
forgot to give me a heart.
No heart?
No heart. All hollow.
I felt that I was him.
I related to his character.
And so later in the story,
he became very strong.
So he gave me a lot
of encouragement.
My favourite was
the theme song of the film...
..."Over the Rainbow."
"Over the Rainbow"
gives me great emotional support.
For me, it means
at the rainbow's end...
...there is still
a very beautiful world.
People should not give up their hope.
They should endlessly work hard...
...to find hope.
And at that time when I was living in
a difficult environment...
...it gave me great encouragement.
Wizard of Oz to The Killer, Face/Off
and Mission: Impossible II?
Let's back up and see
the evolution of John Woo...
...who has made martial arts
films, comedies, a musical, action...
...and some of the bloodiest
scenes ever shot.
When I was about 5, my whole family
moved from China to Hong Kong.
And at that time, we were very poor.
We lived at a squatter area,
and we slept on the street.
I lived in that poverty till I was 9.
I never had the chance
to go to elementary school.
Later, we received help from the
church and an American family.
The American family sent money
to the church for my education.
At that time, I loved watching movies,
and I entered the world of films.
Besides opera films,
I watched a lot of martial arts films...
...especially the Wong Fei Hung
films.
It was because I felt the place
where I lived was just like hell...
...that life was very dark and grey
and very hopeless...
...because I was living
in a world full of evil and sins.
In the cinemas and in the church...
...they were my only refuge.
John Woo has never forgotten
how transcendent the song...
..."Somewhere Over the Rainbow"
was in his violent childhood.
He used a version of the song
in his film Face/Off.
Don't be scared, all right?
And so in my films...
...my characters sometimes
are between good and evil.
We've got something in common.
We both know our guns.
When I shoot gunfight films, I use the
same feelings as a martial arts film.
Only I use double guns
in place of the sword.
For example,
the layout of my scenes...
...character design
and those action designs...
...are all very close to Chang Che's
martial arts film style.
The heroes in my films
shoot many times continuously...
...and people get hit continuously.
That feeling has the Chang Che's
martial arts film's shadow.
With my hero...
...his stance as he holds the gun,
and his views of the gun...
...is the same as the hero's
in the martial arts film...
...but he holds a sword.
How he uses his sword,
and the way he sees his sword...
...the feeling is exactly the same.
So my personality will forever
stand on the side of justice.
So I will always believe
justice will win.
In the 1980s, after nearly
two decades out of the spotlight...
...women found themselves
centre stage again.
Because a woman's body...
...the beauty in movement
is very beautiful.
When I first shot Michelle Yeoh
and Cynthia Rothrock...
...it started a new trend.
When that film came out...
...I saw the fame of Michelle Yeoh
and Cynthia Rothrock.
A lot of women
started to be in action films.
People say, "You can wear lipstick
when you do martial arts?"
Of course you can.
Kung fu. Kung fu is something
I have to use when I shoot films.
Kung fu is my tool
with which I make a living.
Kung fu...
...is what destroyed my health.
Okay?
And so to me,
kung fu is a love-hate thing.
I can't be without it. But with it,
I feel I hurt myself very much.
But when you don't use it,
you won't be doing your best.
So I do love it, yes.
But in my personal life...
...I would not be in contact with it.
Very contradictory.
With many successful contemporary
films in the '70s and '80s...
...it was a surprise to the world
to see a resurgence of period films.
Hong Kong, however,
was not mystified.
There was great political uncertainty
as the British government...
...prepared to hand back the province
to mainland China in 1997.
Audiences embraced...
...and seemed to want to be reminded
of a familiar and rich history...
...full of heroes that might lead them
through this transitional period.
With the renewed interest
in period stories, it seemed...
...contemporary films
would fall into a cyclical slump.
But that hasn't happened.
It seems as if martial arts in movies
has matured beyond simple trends...
...and has become
fully accepted as a genre...
...allowing all kinds of stories
to be produced.
From high action...
...to science fiction...
...to comedy...
...romance...
...and period.
This is proven with the huge success
of films like The Matrix...
...Rush Hour 2...
...and Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon.
Finally, Shaolin Temple
and Peking Opera-influenced styles...
...live side by side.
The pinnacle of the world's respect
for martial arts films...
...is highlighted by the awards,
accolades and success...
...of Ang Lee's
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
All of the best qualities
have been captured:
Spiritual, mythical,
dramatic, romantic...
...beautiful photography and
choreography, and fantastic action.
I was surprised, of course.
A decade ago I would never expect...
...a Chinese-language
martial art epic...
...to be mainstream
and win an Oscar.
There's no shortage
of heroines in the movie...
...but I suspect that is
society's fantasy...
...to see heroic women fight.
It's something to watch...
...to admire.
This Chow Yun Fat character
is giving this young prodigy...
...who happens to be
so attractive-looking...
...some lessons on bamboo top.
What do you think I'm after?
I think Ang Lee is a genius...
...in the way that he sort of, like...
Find a very authentic
Chinese period story.
Period. I mean,
it's not contemporary, right?
They all dress funny, right?
But then, the subject matter...
...of the character
inside the story...
...are telling
a very contemporary story.
You know? The situation
with the girl, the young girl.
It's just like nowadays teenagers.
Very rebellious against tradition,
like, free spirit...
...looking for identity,
you know, trying to break through.
And then you have...
...this forbidden love between
Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh.
They love each other because
they're bound by the tradition.
I want to interrupt you.
I will say...
...I'm sort of
a hopeless romantic also.
And the martial arts in its true sense
is a fairly, sort of...
...solitude path.
I think there's some dialogue
when Chow Yun Fat is dying...
...and he looks up to Michelle Yeoh...
...and he's had trouble all his life
telling this woman he loves her...
...which has been another problem
I've had.
I'm not very good at that either.
The martial arts
are also the essence of love...
...and the nurturing,
motherly protection of love...
...that love should have.
The filmmaker that directed
and made it, Ang Lee...
...brought a sensitivity in the story
and the way he shot it.
The most memorable thing for me
is when Chow Yun Fat...
...and Michelle Yeoh are talking...
...in this cement building...
...and in the backdrop of this huge
window it's a beautiful scenery...
...of mainland China in the backdrop,
and you realize that.
And the confinement they're in, they
can't consummate their relationship.
Just outside is the beauty of nature.
Everything is available to them...
...but yet they can't go beyond,
they're closed in.
I thought, "Wow."
That's a real filmmaker
and storyteller's sensibility.
The first question he asked me is,
"Do you mind being a bad guy?"
I've never been a bad guy.
That's my first time.
But of course,
not the last time though.
Because I think maybe
in person I'm very kind...
...very sweet.
So nobody thinks
I could be a bad guy.
But he's the first one.
I said, "It's okay. I don't mind.
As long as you think I can do it,
then I can do it."
The ending,
when the girl flies down...
...I thought, "I want to make a movie
that's targeted toward that image."
Many of these martial arts
pioneers and innovators...
...have acknowledged the influence
of American films on their styles...
...from the tender Wizard of Oz
to the bloody Bonnie and Clyde.
But elements of martial arts
have appeared in American films...
...that were definitely not
martial arts stories.
Sinatra strutted his stuff seriously
in the Manchurian Candidate.
Peter Sellers highlighted his
techniques in the Pink Panther films.
And it continues on...
...to current successes
like Charlie's Angels.
And even the animation
favourite Shrek.
After Bruce Lee's
influence in the '70s...
...Hollywood embraced martial arts
as a central story component.
And it continues today.
Buddha.
In the hearts of these innovators
who have fought...
...to make martial arts films
a success...
...what does this achievement mean?
That just shows you
the world's getting closer...
...more open-minded.
America is getting
more open-minded.
They're open enough to accept
good things if the thing is good.
If the product is good, it doesn't
matter what languages, what culture.
Well, it means that
there is...
...some serious audience out there
who wants to see martial arts films.
I hope to see more Chinese films
with a traditional martial arts spirit...
...that sense of righteousness, to
make it shine in a very realistic way.
Just like Bruce Lee.
Everyone knows Bruce Lee.
Not everyone appreciates martial
arts, they appreciated Bruce only.
Now people are starting to appreciate
martial arts. It's all about timing.
I cannot predict where it goes.
But this is a genre that never dies,
at least for the Chinese.
It's always go up and down.
But when you say it's dying,
somebody figure a way to do it...
...and do something new
and exciting. It will get hot again.
Wu xia, that Chinese term
I mentioned at the beginning?
Wu means martial arts,
which signifies action...
...xia conveys chivalry.
Say it gently:
And it's a breath of serenity
embracing you.
Say it with force:
And you can feel its power.
Such is the dichotomy
of martial arts films...
...a genre born in a bloody rebellion
and continues on today...
...with its own spiritual
and creative revolution.
A lot of martial arts'
first principles...
...is how to discipline
our heart and passions...
...and to train our own virtue.
To me it's a dance.
Because I'm a dancer.
I think martial art is--
I keep saying--
Martial art is not just
two guys fighting each other.
Martial arts itself...
...I think is more spiritual
than anything.
Real martial arts is a kind of
discipline for the heart and passions.
It is how to train yourself
to become a virtuous...
...just and righteous man.
To me, martial art is about
interpreting yourself...
...in the most devoted,
the most honest way.
To me, martial art is an expression.
The most important thing
is to be loyal.
Failure is unimportant.
If you fail, you should think about
whether you worked hard.
Be loyal, stay loyal.
If in the future they don't like
my films...
...I would just be another actor then.
I am faithful to this art.
That is a real deep question.
They just go and kick ass.
What I find most interesting
is the emotional component...
...the discipline that is part
and parcel of something...
...that, to the untrained
American mind or whoever...
...you think it's just physical,
but it's very emotional.
It's very focused.
It's very cerebral.
To me, okay, to me...
...ultimately, martial art means
honestly expressing yourself.
Now, it is very difficult to do.
Subtitles by
SDI Media Group
the martial arts film genre was born...
...in a bloody rebellion...
...and transformed itself...
...into a spiritual
and creative revolution.
A martial artist has to
take responsibility for himself...
...and accept the consequences
of his own doing.
- What is the highest technique?
- To have no technique.
What are your thoughts
when facing an opponent?
- There is no opponent.
- Why is that?
Because the word "I"
does not exist.
A good fight
should be like a small play...
...but played seriously.
When the opponent expands,
I contract.
When he contracts, I expand.
And when there is an opportunity...
...I do not hit...
...it hits all by itself.
Martial arts films
have a Chinese expression:
Wu xia.
Wu means martial arts,
which signifies action.
Xia conveys chivalry.
Wu xia expresses the great
dichotomy that martial arts is:
Deeply spiritual,
yet potentially deadly.
In the best of martial arts films,
the themes are profoundly noble...
...and yet filled
with breathtaking action.
It is this combination,
infused with romance and humour...
...that has made this genre
one of the most popular in the world.
It is enjoying both box-office
and critical success.
Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon...
...was nominated for 10 Oscars,
including Best Picture, and won four.
Rush Hour 2 was America's number
one live-action comedy film of 2001.
Help!
And The Matrix...
...pushed special effects and
choreography to a whole new level.
You are about to discover
who its original pioneers were...
...and who is driving this
phenomenal film revolution today.
Everybody's got the idea wrong.
They think it's kicking and punching.
They miss the way-of-life thing...
...and the idea that what it's
really supposed to do...
...is improve the texture of your life
and the people around you.
How and where did
Chinese filmmakers...
...discover the possibilities
of martial arts?
From that came this.
Yes, martial arts films
derived from opera.
But not just any opera.
Peking Opera has been
part of Chinese culture for centuries.
And how did martial arts
become a part of opera?
Well, it occurred in the mid-1760s.
When the Manchu Dynasty
was taking over...
...they basically made Shaolin,
the monastery, illegal.
So they set about destroying
the Shaolin Temple.
And five men--
Students, disciples...
...out of hundreds,
were able to escape.
They see that their whole livelihood,
their brothers, everyone is dying...
...and they decide to challenge
the Manchu masters.
Out of the ruins,
they find their weapons...
...they find whatever speciality they
want to use to express themselves...
...in this last, pitched battle.
They train, and they train hard.
And it's life-and-death,
and it's a battle...
...and three out of the five
survive their battle.
But they preserve the Shaolin lore.
Like a phoenix coming out
of its own ashes...
...they found their strength
from the ashes of the monastery.
They went back to their roots
to have this battle, to fight...
...to do something grander,
bigger than yourself.
I think that's what...
...makes for heroes, you know.
Whether real life or, you know,
cinematic heroes...
...you look for something
worth fighting for...
...and it's greater, grander a concept
than just for yourself.
One monk who survived the
burning temple was Master Zhi Shan.
During the battles in 1765, he taught
his skills to the Peking Opera actors.
Zhi Shan did this for two reasons:
First, to continue teaching the
Shaolin traditions of martial arts...
...that the Ching Empire
was trying to eradicate.
And secondly,
to spread the seeds of revolt...
...to anyone who might want to rise
up against the tyrant of that time.
The opera players passed on this
knowledge and skill as they toured.
Nearly a century later, in 1850,
for the first time in Chinese history...
...a group of actors joined a rebellion
against the Ching Dynasty.
When it failed, the authorities
banned all theatre and opera.
Actors performed in secret...
...so that their traditions, enhanced
by the dynamics of martial arts...
...would not be lost.
Twenty years later,
the new government relented.
That's the remarkable connection
between the Peking Opera...
...and the Shaolin Temple's martial
arts and its Buddhist teachings.
You learn martial art not to fight.
You learn to discipline yourself.
And I found that quality
in martial art film fantastic.
When movies began in China
in the early 1900s...
...actors were needed.
They were found
at the local Peking Opera shows.
Peking Opera had no women.
It was male-dominated.
This wasn't theatre for guys who
liked to dress in women's clothes.
Many major actors today grew up
in the Peking Opera schools...
...and one thing that has not changed
over the years is the training.
It is still intense,
exhaustive, extreme...
...and often downright brutal.
When I was 7, I was in the school
training from 5:00 a.m. until night.
Very tough training.
The teacher said,
"Come. Come here.
I think it's about time
you have a Zha jiang min."
I was in big shock.
Even my father, my parents,
never hit me like this.
Your master punished you. I think at
that time, whipping is very popular.
Not only when learning Peking Opera,
but even in the apprentice trades...
...you're open to punishment
from your master.
I saw with my own eyes
that at that time...
...whipping was quite effective.
For centuries, acting has been
frowned upon as dishonourable.
Men performing
as women in Peking Opera...
...was an acceptable practice.
When movies began, it was
considered such an inferior art...
...that male actors would not lower
themselves to perform in them.
So women became the stars.
Tough martial arts were performed
by women dressed as men.
Go figure.
The first female martial artist star
was Fen Juhua.
She later taught martial arts,
mainly to actresses.
Tam Sau-zhen had an opera company
before her 40-year film career.
But without a doubt, the most
accomplished female martial artist...
...in Chinese cinema is Chin Tsi-ang.
In the 1930s,
she formed a film company...
...where she starred in and produced
many martial arts films.
Chin Tsi-ang's eldest grandson
is one of today's innovators:
Sammo Hung.
The martial arts film trend
started with the huge success of...
...Burning of Red Lotus Monastery
in 1928, in Shanghai.
Strong stories
married with notable action...
...has been the basis
of the best martial arts films.
The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple
established that tradition.
The film was so popular,
it spawned a series of 27 movies.
Sadly, not one of those films
exists anymore.
Fortunately, we did find several
movies from the silent period.
None of these early films have ever
been seen outside of Asia before.
Fantasy and magic are powerful
elements in Chinese culture...
...and were a big part of the florid
Peking Opera-style of storytelling.
These enchanting components
were utilized in early filmmaking.
As visually fantastic
as these stories seem...
...they invariably had deep meaning
for their audiences.
Many were based on history, spiritual
concepts, legends and novels.
The techniques might seem
a little crude by today's standards...
...but look closely and you'll notice
they're still being incorporated...
...into today's films.
With the introduction of talking
movies, a law was passed...
...that all films were to be shot in
Mandarin, the predominant dialect.
So many Cantonese-speaking
filmmakers to flee from China...
...to Hong Kong,
where restrictions were fewer...
...and many more movies were shot.
With the outbreak of World War II and
the occupation of Hong Kong...
...film production stopped.
It wasn't until the dusts of war
and revolution settled...
...that one of the most beloved
folk heroes in China...
...rescued the martial arts
film industry.
Everyone knows
Wong Fei Hung.
- Wong Fei Hung.
- Wong Fei Hung.
Wong Fei Hung represents a kind of...
...very honest
and upright sense of justice.
He eliminates the bullies.
And helps the downtrodden
anytime, anywhere.
He helps others,
and he never gives in to evil forces.
He also has a very kind
and sympathetic heart.
Not only does he use his medical
skills to save and heal people...
...but at the same time,
he's also a very patriotic hero.
Wong Fei Hung
was a martial arts master.
His fighting style appealed
to the film's director, Wu Pang.
Wu Pang hired martial artists instead
of Peking Opera choreographers.
One of them
was Master Lau Kar Leung.
I learned Hung Gar,
or Hung-style boxing.
My master, who is my father,
is Lau Jham.
And my father's master
was Lam Sai Wing.
Who was Lam Sai Wing's master?
Everyone knows it's Wong Fei Hung.
Who is Wong Fei Hung's master?
Luk Nga Choi.
Who was Luk Nga Choi's master?
Monk Zhi Shan.
He was Southern Shaolin.
When Wong Fei Hung
started filming...
...then of course I was useful,
because I fought the martial art.
In the beginning, we really
fought with real kung fu.
That's how we shot Wong Fei Hung.
The actor who originally played
Wong Fei Hung was Kwan Tak Hing.
Let's first talk about
Kwan Tak Hing.
He was in opera,
Cantonese opera.
When they were casting...
...they liked Kwan Tak Hing's
body language, his height.
It resembled
the real Wong Fei Hung.
And because he was not familiar
with Hung-style kung fu...
...my master and their brothers
had to teach him.
Kwan Tak Hing was very intelligent.
After all, he was an opera actor.
The spell Wong Fei Hung held over
Chinese audiences then...
...is still powerful today.
His magic has worked wonders for
the careers of two of today's stars:
Jackie Chan in a comedy,
and Jet Li in a drama.
Kwan Tak Hing made approximately
90 Wong Fei Hung movies.
He became so identified
with Wong Fei Hung...
...that Kwan Tak Hing himself
became a living legend.
When he retired, he became a healer
and taught martial arts.
Though Kwan Tak Hing's
Wong Fei Hung films were popular...
...women were still the real stars
throughout the 1950s.
In my first movie...
...it's not a woman in the movie.
In the movie, I'm a man, a guy.
At that time, maybe early in
the stage, acting was very low.
The man in the family,
they'd rather the wife...
To watch a lady do it.
The female stars of that period
were Pei Pei Cheng...
... Josephine Siao...
...Suet Nei...
...and Chan Po Chu.
Every one of them regularly
portrayed a man in a film.
Asian attitudes toward movies
had not changed since the 1920s.
The 1950s and early 1960s
had two major film companies.
One came to be known
as the Cathay Film Company.
The other was...
...the Shaw Brothers.
In the 1950s, the Shaw Brothers
built a huge, secluded...
...and totally self-contained studio
on Clearwater Bay, Hong Kong.
It was a city unto itself where
everyone worked, lived and slept.
Set painters, directors,
actors, prop masters, cameramen.
Anyone who had anything
to do with making a film...
...lived on the studio lot,
miles from anywhere.
In the early 1950s, Raymond
Chow joined Shaw Brothers...
...and is credited,
with owner Run Run Shaw...
...with improving production
and story standards.
Under Chow, Shaw Brothers
continued with the swordplay stories.
However, he and his directors were
taking note of Japanese filmmakers...
...particularly Akira Kurosawa.
I think Shaw Brother
has deliberate attempt...
...to copy samurai movies.
Because I think back then,
it's big moneymakers in Asia.
They're very influential.
Some of them get into artistic levels,
such as Kurosawa's.
I think the Japanese,
at that period in history...
...were very, very realistic
in their depiction of what happens...
...in terms of a battle,
a sword fight.
Akira Kurosawa
was a great humanitarian.
His themes were counter to
the nationalistic fervour of the time.
He was one brave man.
All of the great
Kurosawa classics were...
...brilliant personification
of not only filmmaking...
...but the philosophies and the
spiritual aspects of the martial arts.
The Shaw Brothers management
screened Kurosawa's...
...and other Japanese films for
its producers, writers and directors.
The message was powerful drama
and realistic action was possible.
Three Shaw Brothers directors, King
Hu, Chang Che and Lau Kar Leung...
...were particularly influenced.
This trio would change
the face of martial arts films...
...and in very different ways.
King Hu and Chang Che
are of tremendous influence...
...to the martial arts films of the era.
Almost everyone is imitating them.
He is, I think,
very, very important people...
...for the Hong Kong martial art
movie. He totally changed the style.
It's a line there. Before that,
martial art movie just Beijing Opera.
Then, start from
Come Drink With Me...
...the martial art movie,
it's an action movie.
So I think that's totally different.
Make me very famous, that's right.
This movie changed my whole life.
Because after that,
I do a lot of martial art movies.
Even Crouching Tiger.
I'm still in martial art, right?
So it changed my whole life.
Most obviously, of course, King Hu,
I think he sets tone for many things.
The use of negative space due
to Chinese watercolour paintings.
I think that's a lot of his background.
And also Peking Opera influences.
Most of his films,
at least the best ones...
...are about the warm-up...
...paragraphs in a nice program,
Peking Opera performing.
Hero characters, bad characters,
they come to one milieu.
Good guys win, something happens.
But the rhythm,
the performing art...
...the music aspect of it,
the choreography, the poses...
...the rhythm:
And all those rhythms.
Along with some, I guess...
...Hitchcockian or Eisenstein
influences.
In addition to the beauty
of the movement...
...there was also a very strong
element of suspense.
So his films and Chang Che's
are very different...
...because King Hu emphasized the
romance between men and women...
...whereas Chang Che's films
placed greater importance...
...on the righteousness
and bonds between men.
Che was inspired by Kurosawa's
realism and masculine approach.
In Chang Che's movies,
women don't mean a thing.
They're a drag, at the best.
At the best.
Most of the time you don't see them.
I don't think he cared for women.
He enjoyed the beauty of men.
In those days,
most of the leading stars were ladies.
One Armed Swordsman
was one of the first pictures...
...that emphasized
on the male lead.
One Armed Swordsman.
That is the one
that really blew me away.
And for me...
...it means a lot because I had polio
when I was, like, a baby.
So I sort of considered myself
a little bit inadequate...
...not as normal as anybody.
And when I watched that movie,
it sort of, like...
...give me an electric jolt, you know,
like, "You can do it."
The guy with one arm can even fight
the best martial artists in the world.
And that has a lot
of great impression, that movie...
...when I was growing up.
To make use of the fact that other
people's perceived perception...
...of his weakness
or his inability is his strength...
...that is a concept of--
That's a true adaptation
of the philosophy of martial arts.
The 1967 film One Armed Swordsman
was a movie very much of its time.
The youth in Hong Kong
was finding its voice...
...rebelling against the status quo,
and Chang Che realized that.
For him, that was
what this film was about.
Master, I no longer
believe in your ways.
I have my own path to go.
He was saying,
"Don't let your youth be a weakness.
Understand and train it
to become your strength."
He acknowledged that this was his
version of the American classic...
...Rebel Without a Cause.
One Armed Swordsman was one of
100 movies Chang Che directed...
...many of which became classics.
And it wasn't just his marriage
of bloody realism...
...and intellectual insights
that made him revered...
...but also his stylised way
of shooting and editing.
He was influenced by Arthur Penn's
1967 seminal gangster movie...
...Bonnie and Clyde
and its use of slow motion.
I imitate a lot of things
of Chang Che.
When I had the chance in 1973 to
shoot my first film, Young Dragons...
...there are many shadows
of Chang Che in it.
The kind of spirit of
the male lead character in my film...
...his sense of justice,
of passion and righteousness...
...are very close to Chang Che's.
Chang Che's films emphasized the
so-called righteous and just spirit.
And it made me idolize him
very much.
The third important director from the
Shaw Brothers is Lau Kar Leung.
He's a true martial arts master
whose training lineage...
...can be traced all the way back
to Monk Zhi Shan.
Monk Zhi Shan was the master...
...who, after the second
Shaolin Temple was burned down...
...taught martial arts to the Peking
Opera in the first place.
It has been Lau Kar Leung's
life's work...
...to bring real martial arts
to the big screen.
With him, we have come full circle to
the main traditions of these films:
Peking Opera
and the Shaolin Temple.
At that time, no one had or would
shoot a film about monks.
They shot martial arts hero films with
handsome guys and great heroes.
Why would anyone use a new actor,
Gordon Liu, to play a bald monk?
No matter how you fight, it's useless.
Monk films have no romance.
Martial arts hero films
have romantic elements.
The producer and the director,
Lau Kar Leung, argued over this:
"How can it be without a love story?"
But monks can't have a love story.
So, what do we finally shoot?
The story of the spirit and
the perseverance of the monks.
We finally finished
The 36 Chambers of Shaolin.
Now 36 Chambers of Shaolin,
I wanted to show kung fu.
What is kung fu?
Kung fu does not rely on fighting.
Many things have to do
with awareness.
Your eyes, your ears to listen,
and all kinds of weapons.
Everyone must train
in all these chambers:
Chamber of blades, of kicks,
chamber of eyes, chamber of ears.
They must train in each chamber.
So I came up with the idea,
the human body...
...each part that moves has feeling of
motion. Every part has this feeling.
Feeling of motion.
It has its own kind of charisma.
So I decided to show it
in The 36 Chambers.
Human kung fu cannot be attained
by sitting there and moving one part.
The whole body must move.
For other directors
it may be difficult...
...but for Lau Kar Leung,
it was not...
...because he is known as
the "Dictionary of Kung Fu."
In my understanding, I feel that
the so-called real martial arts...
...is not to teach people
how to kill others...
...or to beat up people.
Real martial arts is a kind of
discipline for the heart and passions.
It is how to train yourself
to become a virtuous...
...just and righteous man.
Though martial arts films
were popular in Asia...
...they had not penetrated
the world market.
In 1970, two events occurred that
would change the martial arts genre:
First, producer Raymond Chow
left Shaw Brothers...
...and with Leonard Ho, formed
their own company, Golden Harvest.
I think in the late '60s...
...television was beginning...
...to become popular
in the United States.
I think the management
of Shaw Brothers...
...felt that the same effect
may hit Hong Kong...
...and was thinking
of cutting down the operation...
...and using half of the manpower...
...to go into-- And capital--
To go into television.
I didn't quite agree with that.
We left in 1970,
and we made--
First year, I think we made four or
five pictures. Four pictures already.
The other main event
of 1970 was a guy named...
Bruce Lee.
There's some things
up to this day...
...nobody do better than he does.
The spirit of fighting.
The charismatic, the stark kind
of attraction that comes along...
...not only with his performances,
but his philosophy in fighting...
...and deal with life.
That was very straightforward,
very Westernised...
...very gung-ho, can-do spirit...
...than the repressed Chinese
zigzagging kind of attitude.
Bruce Lee, who would have such
an impact on martial arts films...
...was actually born and raised
in San Francisco.
Bruce was an actor before
he was a martial artist.
He did his first commercial
when he was 5.
He didn't start studying
kung fu until he was 10.
And his father was an opera singer.
And, I mean...
That guy, he's a show-biz guy.
The first martial arts film--
Television actually...
...was Bruce Lee's Green Hornet.
One day I was watching
this obviously Asian guy...
...with a mask on, jumping up
and doing flying kicks.
Green Hornet
was a successful series...
...but the U.S. wasn't ready for Lee
to become a leading man.
I admire Bruce Lee. I remember in
one interview when he was saying...
...the Kung Fu TV series
is supposed to be written for him...
...and because he's Asian,
you know, Chinese face...
...and back then American television,
they don't believe...
...they would like to see
an Asian hero.
Bruce Lee left the United States
and headed back to Hong Kong.
When Bruce first joined us...
...the first picture we had him make
was done in Bangkok.
And after the first day's work...
...the director called and said:
"I want to change Bruce Lee
because he can't fight."
I said, "Why?"
He said, "Everybody knows...
...that we're now calling him
'Lee Three Kicks'...
...because he can
kick only three times."
So I flew to Bangkok,
looked at the situation...
...and asked Bruce what happened.
Bruce said, "This director is useless
because these guys are just soldiers.
Very low-down soldiers
who can't really fight.
If I have to spend five minutes
dealing with them...
...what am I going to do when I meet
the real, good martial artists?"
"And besides," he said,
"the way I kick these three kicks...
...is so strong,
they should be out completely."
So I look at the film,
and I agree with him.
And we just quietly change
the director.
And really,
the rest is history.
He has an effect on each of us who
are Chinese and in this industry.
His ethnic identity is very strong,
and it makes everyone excited.
He stands out and is proud
of being a Chinese.
His sense of identity,
of being a Chinese, is really strong.
I think Bruce...
He was much more
than just a martial artist.
And he was much more than
a martial arts actor or superstar.
The philosophy that he had,
the things that he wrote...
...The Tao of Jeet Kun Do...
...the ideas that he had
were so far and ahead of his time.
I said, "Empty your mind. Be formless.
Shapeless, like water."
Now, you put water into a cup,
it becomes the cup.
You put water into a bottle,
it becomes the bottle.
You put it in a teapot,
it becomes the teapot.
Now, water can flow
or it can crash.
Be water, my friend.
His most special quality
is that he had his own character.
He allowed his character and
acting to be different from others.
His confidence is high. He combined
Chinese and Western styles.
His style is not purely Chinese...
...but he included
the Westernised ingredients...
...in expressing his loyalty
to his country and race.
Watching him is not only
seeing an actor...
...but more and very special.
Styles tend to not only
separate men...
...because they have
their own doctrines...
...and then the doctrine became the
gospel truth that you cannot change.
But if you do not have style,
if you just say:
"Well, here I am
as a human being...
...how can I express myself
totally and completely?"
Now, that way,
you won't create a style...
...because style is a crystallization.
That way, it's a process
of continuing growth.
When you do punch--
I'm leaning forward a little...
...hoping not to hurt
any camera angle.
You gotta put the whole hip into it...
...and snap it and get
all your energy in there...
...and make this into a weapon.
I never see anybody do change of
rhythm in a fight so well as him...
...even up to these days.
And it's choreographed:
And nobody fights like that.
But his fight looks
more powerful and real...
...and more spiritual because...
...every punch, every block,
every change of rhythm...
...even eye shifting,
means something.
And that's very intriguing. It's
great entertainment and inspiring.
He always looked forward. Those
movements were so tremendous...
...on set, they made sounds.
The winds from his fists scare you.
I went to see Enter the Dragon...
...and came back
and said to Jerry Thorpe:
"Have you seen this?"
He said, "No."
I said, "You haven't?
You gotta see this."
I decided to make it mandatory that
everyone on the crew see the movie.
He said, "We're up against
the James Bond...
...of martial arts, you know."
I said, "No, we're up against
the James Dean of martial arts."
Big difference.
To me, okay, to me...
...ultimately, martial art means
honestly expressing yourself.
Now, it is very difficult to do.
I mean, it is easy for me
to put on a show and be cocky...
...and be flooded with a cocky feeling
and then feel pretty cool and all that.
I can make all kinds of phoney
things, you see what I mean?
Blinded by it. Or I can show you
some really fancy movement.
But to express oneself honestly,
not lying to oneself...
...and to express myself honestly,
now that is very hard to do.
Audiences often wonder
why most martial arts films...
...were period pieces set long ago.
Bruce Lee had a simple answer.
Nowadays, you don't go around
kicking people or punching people.
Because if you do, that's it.
I don't care how good you are.
In spite of this belief, Bruce Lee
was one of the first...
...to portray martial arts
in a contemporary setting.
In 1973, at the age of 32...
...Bruce Lee tragically died
from a brain edema.
He had only completed four movies,
but they would open the world...
...to the martial arts genre.
Almost as soon as the world
got to appreciate him...
...he passed away.
Over 20,000 fans showed up
for his funeral.
People still love Bruce Lee.
He makes this keep on.
His spirit is still there.
The movie still keeps on showing.
So many things still impress us.
He's the only kung fu master,
I think...
...in our Chinese show business.
Not because he's a real
kung fu martial artist.
He can make the kung fu
become a kind of kung fu plus ballet.
Plus a kind of soul.
To some, something to explain...
...that he's a spirit
that can show on pictures.
Lee's death created a vacuum
unprecedented in martial arts films.
Suddenly, the future
was looking bleak for the genre.
Fortunately, in 1973,
a U.S. television series...
...helped keep martial arts alive
and popular around the world.
Ironically, it was the series
that Bruce Lee had hoped to star in.
Learn this, Grasshopper.
The mind of every creature...
...is the master of his own body.
But only if the mind flows with nature
may that mastery be fully exercised.
There is no limit to
the wondrous powers of the body...
...nor is there a limit to the ways
one may harness those powers...
...to the mastery
of the harmonious mind.
It may take half a lifetime
to master one system.
- What do you hear?
- I hear the water.
I hear the birds.
Do you hear the grasshopper
which is at your feet?
Old man, how is it
that you hear these things?
Young man, how is it
that you do not?
As a kid, I'd try to grab the
grasshopper and replicate Kung Fu.
No one will die today.
You wish to save
this worthless devil?
A Shaolin.
A coward. A peasant
who carries vegetables.
An old woman who runs
from shadows.
That was always a fantasy.
Here was a guy...
...interested in righteousness...
...representing the common
and little man.
But when called upon,
he could step up...
...and kick ass,
fight for righteousness.
I always found that very magical.
Go.
I feel sort of privileged
to have managed to fall into--
I may be the only martial arts star...
...who came to it from
the point of view of an actor.
Many roads often lead
to the same place.
Many roads lead to places no one
wishes to go. You're up to something.
It is said that a moth that lives too
close to the flame leads a short life.
But in China, it is said...
...there is little difference between
a long and short life.
Both are but moments in time.
The people who make martial arts
movies are martial artists...
...who have devoted their lives
to martial arts and then given it up...
...to try to be actors
kind of late in life.
And I'm a born and bred actor.
It wasn't about revenge.
It wasn't about crime.
It was about philosophy.
And it was historical.
Enough!
I felt like that.
When I first started doing it...
...and through the series, I felt like,
"I'm getting to say things...
...you just don't get to say
in movies."
After Bruce Lee died, the whole
movie industry going down.
Bruce Lee is the best. Some other
action movie, nobody's gonna see it.
And at that time,
I was quite disappointed.
The martial arts genre
needed a breakthrough...
...and in the late 1970s
got the shot in the arm it required...
...from its old friend:
Peking Opera and comedy.
In the theatre, there is
a troupe where we all performed.
For example, Jackie Chan...
...Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao
and all of us lived together...
...and we learned Peking Opera.
We all became stuntmen.
Actually, it was really Sammo.
Sammo Hung was the first
to get started.
Then it was Jackie Chan.
Then me, then Yuen Biao.
Sammo Hung got out of school
three years ahead of us.
When we learned opera,
he was the first to enter the school...
...and was considered
our eldest martial arts brother.
So he had to start
looking out for us then.
If he did not look out for us,
he would not be given food...
...so he had to look out for us.
Painted Faces
is an autobiographical movie...
...of Jackie, Corey, Yuen Biao
and Sammo's lives...
...in the opera school.
Audiences who see it
think it's harsh.
For us, who lived through it,
it doesn't show all that went on.
For us, it doesn't
tell the truth adequately.
Since the audience
considered it bad enough...
...if we added more into it,
the actual experiences...
...the audiences would never
accept the truth.
It was decided to romanticize
the experience and show...
...some of our training.
I still think it's a pretty good movie.
Sammo Hung, Corey Yuen and Yuen
Biao each have successful careers...
...but Jackie Chan would be the one
to be embraced by the world.
It wasn't an easy road. Producers
tried to make Jackie into Bruce Lee.
All those films failed.
Jackie is quite different.
I'd say entirely different from Bruce.
I think it's very wise
of him to take that route.
Jackie relies more on comedy...
...to increase the attraction...
...of his martial arts.
Jackie's breakthrough movie
utilized his strengths:
His comedy and imagination.
A snake mouth. I make the reason
why you have to, like this. Okay.
You just block somebody arms.
Okay, that's a snake mouth.
And when you turn around,
that's a snake tongue:
Then I go home.
I look at a mirror. I just like this:
When everybody's asleep, I practise.
It looked good for the movie.
That's a new style.
It's not like:
It's like coming:
Do some comedy, you know:
These kinds of things. Everybody:
Jackie followed Snake in the Eagle's
Shadow with Drunken Master.
This made him Asia's
number one star.
Each temple, one Buddha.
Each master, his own technique.
Jackie acknowledges his influences
are the early American silent stars...
...Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd.
Older movies, Chinese movies,
every movie--
When you see the double,
you can tell.
Everybody do:
Like this.
When you look at a Jackie Chan
movie, when I'm doing the stunts...
...that's me.
I hate violence. Yes, I do.
It's a kind of a dilemma.
Every time I saw him perform,
I would copy moves.
I would remember what he did and
try them. He was my inspiration.
People recognize that it's not CG.
It's not created in a computer.
That's just someone who's worked
and studied for a long time...
...and can pull it off
in front of the cameras.
Jackie Chan has been the top
martial arts actor for nearly 30 years.
In the last few years,
he has arguably become...
...the number one box-office star
in the world in any genre.
Here's Jackie.
Everybody have a dream.
I have a dream.
I hope one day, my name
and footprints on this star row.
- Jackie's my hero.
- Jackie Chan, he's a great man.
- Hey, buddy. You bet.
- Thank you.
He's got a sense of humour,
which is good.
You see a wonderful actor.
It's just innocence and charm.
And suddenly, this wonderful
physical activity going on.
How many people can do that?
Almost simultaneously
to the needed comedy boost...
...Hong Kong created
its own film festival.
This encouraged new talent
to become more experimental.
A new wave of filmmakers emerged...
...led by the likes of Tsui Hark...
... John Woo, Yuen Woo Ping,
Jet Li, Corey Yuen...
- ...and Jackie Chan.
- You have to watch me.
In Asia, writer, director and producer
Tsui Hark...
...is often mentioned in the same
class as directors Steven Spielberg...
...and Alfred Hitchcock.
Born in Vietnam...
...he found his way to Texas
to learn American filmmaking.
One of his favourite movies
is the classic Citizen Kane.
In 1977, Tsui returned to Hong Kong
and began a prolific career.
His early work Zu: Warriors
From the Magic Mountain...
...was the first major special effects
movie made in Hong Kong.
Tsui doesn't like to wrap for the day.
He's mad. His passion scared us.
This is a good director,
but his crew will find their work...
...to be rather physically straining.
He's very creative.
He was never just happy
to do the usual thing.
He was always figuring out
a new way to do things...
...in a more innovative fashion.
In 1984, Tsui formed his production
company, Film Workshop...
...and experimented with historic
dramas, horror, swordplay movies...
...fantasy, science fiction,
comedy and romance.
There's not a style
Tsui hasn't attempted...
...a camera angle he hasn't tried...
...and a technology
he hasn't sampled.
He is truly a forerunner
of the MTV generation.
But his films are not
style over substance.
He invited writers and directors to
work by stating simple goals:
"Develop your own style.
There must be a point to your story.
It must make the audience feel better.
We'll become one with the audience.
They go to the movies to feel...
...not to understand."
Tsui Hark is the modernizer of both
the kung fu and swordplay subgenre.
Kung fu, everybody knows his
Once Upon a Time in China series.
The star of Once Upon a Time
in China, Jet Li...
...was a martial arts champion. His
career has exploded internationally.
Tsui Hark collaborated with
the new talent...
...as a producer, director or writer.
Amongst them is director...
...and one of the great contemporary
choreographers, Yuen Woo Ping.
Every 10 years,
when martial art films...
...the energy, the genre
begins to die down...
...he did something that will blossom
the genre for another 10 years.
People will copy him for years.
Yuen Woo Ping
was one of the pioneers.
One of his specialties
is acrobatic movements.
In Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, some
of his early work, Drunken Master...
...there were acrobatic elements.
Playing with a stool,
playing with a chopstick.
Because he grew up
in that environment.
He grew up learning from his father...
...who was a very influential
martial arts choreographer.
His father started off
as Beijing Opera.
So they all learned all their
physical skill from Beijing Opera.
Same as Jackie Chan and Sammo.
He's an artist. He cares for those
things, though he doesn't admit it.
And I think with his experience...
...and talent and mastery in the art,
he still has an open heart...
...like a child.
That's why I love him so much.
He inspired me, not only...
...in making martial arts scenes,
but as a filmmaker in general.
You know, what if Baryshnikov
or Nureyev did a martial arts film?
From choreographer Yuen Woo Ping
to someone who moves his camera...
...like Woo Ping uses a body
to highlight a moment.
- He's the Woo man.
- The Woo man...
- He's the Woo.
- ...is director John Woo.
He's the man.
So first of all, I really loved
The Wizard of Oz.
What impressed me the most was
Judy Garland and her three friends.
One was the Tin Man.
One was the Lion.
The Tin Man was actually very weak.
And so I felt that he was
similar to my personality.
- Well, you're perfect now.
- My neck. My neck.
Perfect? Bang on my chest
if you think I'm perfect.
Go ahead, bang on it.
Beautiful. What an echo.
It's empty.
The tinsmith
forgot to give me a heart.
No heart?
No heart. All hollow.
I felt that I was him.
I related to his character.
And so later in the story,
he became very strong.
So he gave me a lot
of encouragement.
My favourite was
the theme song of the film...
..."Over the Rainbow."
"Over the Rainbow"
gives me great emotional support.
For me, it means
at the rainbow's end...
...there is still
a very beautiful world.
People should not give up their hope.
They should endlessly work hard...
...to find hope.
And at that time when I was living in
a difficult environment...
...it gave me great encouragement.
Wizard of Oz to The Killer, Face/Off
and Mission: Impossible II?
Let's back up and see
the evolution of John Woo...
...who has made martial arts
films, comedies, a musical, action...
...and some of the bloodiest
scenes ever shot.
When I was about 5, my whole family
moved from China to Hong Kong.
And at that time, we were very poor.
We lived at a squatter area,
and we slept on the street.
I lived in that poverty till I was 9.
I never had the chance
to go to elementary school.
Later, we received help from the
church and an American family.
The American family sent money
to the church for my education.
At that time, I loved watching movies,
and I entered the world of films.
Besides opera films,
I watched a lot of martial arts films...
...especially the Wong Fei Hung
films.
It was because I felt the place
where I lived was just like hell...
...that life was very dark and grey
and very hopeless...
...because I was living
in a world full of evil and sins.
In the cinemas and in the church...
...they were my only refuge.
John Woo has never forgotten
how transcendent the song...
..."Somewhere Over the Rainbow"
was in his violent childhood.
He used a version of the song
in his film Face/Off.
Don't be scared, all right?
And so in my films...
...my characters sometimes
are between good and evil.
We've got something in common.
We both know our guns.
When I shoot gunfight films, I use the
same feelings as a martial arts film.
Only I use double guns
in place of the sword.
For example,
the layout of my scenes...
...character design
and those action designs...
...are all very close to Chang Che's
martial arts film style.
The heroes in my films
shoot many times continuously...
...and people get hit continuously.
That feeling has the Chang Che's
martial arts film's shadow.
With my hero...
...his stance as he holds the gun,
and his views of the gun...
...is the same as the hero's
in the martial arts film...
...but he holds a sword.
How he uses his sword,
and the way he sees his sword...
...the feeling is exactly the same.
So my personality will forever
stand on the side of justice.
So I will always believe
justice will win.
In the 1980s, after nearly
two decades out of the spotlight...
...women found themselves
centre stage again.
Because a woman's body...
...the beauty in movement
is very beautiful.
When I first shot Michelle Yeoh
and Cynthia Rothrock...
...it started a new trend.
When that film came out...
...I saw the fame of Michelle Yeoh
and Cynthia Rothrock.
A lot of women
started to be in action films.
People say, "You can wear lipstick
when you do martial arts?"
Of course you can.
Kung fu. Kung fu is something
I have to use when I shoot films.
Kung fu is my tool
with which I make a living.
Kung fu...
...is what destroyed my health.
Okay?
And so to me,
kung fu is a love-hate thing.
I can't be without it. But with it,
I feel I hurt myself very much.
But when you don't use it,
you won't be doing your best.
So I do love it, yes.
But in my personal life...
...I would not be in contact with it.
Very contradictory.
With many successful contemporary
films in the '70s and '80s...
...it was a surprise to the world
to see a resurgence of period films.
Hong Kong, however,
was not mystified.
There was great political uncertainty
as the British government...
...prepared to hand back the province
to mainland China in 1997.
Audiences embraced...
...and seemed to want to be reminded
of a familiar and rich history...
...full of heroes that might lead them
through this transitional period.
With the renewed interest
in period stories, it seemed...
...contemporary films
would fall into a cyclical slump.
But that hasn't happened.
It seems as if martial arts in movies
has matured beyond simple trends...
...and has become
fully accepted as a genre...
...allowing all kinds of stories
to be produced.
From high action...
...to science fiction...
...to comedy...
...romance...
...and period.
This is proven with the huge success
of films like The Matrix...
...Rush Hour 2...
...and Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon.
Finally, Shaolin Temple
and Peking Opera-influenced styles...
...live side by side.
The pinnacle of the world's respect
for martial arts films...
...is highlighted by the awards,
accolades and success...
...of Ang Lee's
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
All of the best qualities
have been captured:
Spiritual, mythical,
dramatic, romantic...
...beautiful photography and
choreography, and fantastic action.
I was surprised, of course.
A decade ago I would never expect...
...a Chinese-language
martial art epic...
...to be mainstream
and win an Oscar.
There's no shortage
of heroines in the movie...
...but I suspect that is
society's fantasy...
...to see heroic women fight.
It's something to watch...
...to admire.
This Chow Yun Fat character
is giving this young prodigy...
...who happens to be
so attractive-looking...
...some lessons on bamboo top.
What do you think I'm after?
I think Ang Lee is a genius...
...in the way that he sort of, like...
Find a very authentic
Chinese period story.
Period. I mean,
it's not contemporary, right?
They all dress funny, right?
But then, the subject matter...
...of the character
inside the story...
...are telling
a very contemporary story.
You know? The situation
with the girl, the young girl.
It's just like nowadays teenagers.
Very rebellious against tradition,
like, free spirit...
...looking for identity,
you know, trying to break through.
And then you have...
...this forbidden love between
Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh.
They love each other because
they're bound by the tradition.
I want to interrupt you.
I will say...
...I'm sort of
a hopeless romantic also.
And the martial arts in its true sense
is a fairly, sort of...
...solitude path.
I think there's some dialogue
when Chow Yun Fat is dying...
...and he looks up to Michelle Yeoh...
...and he's had trouble all his life
telling this woman he loves her...
...which has been another problem
I've had.
I'm not very good at that either.
The martial arts
are also the essence of love...
...and the nurturing,
motherly protection of love...
...that love should have.
The filmmaker that directed
and made it, Ang Lee...
...brought a sensitivity in the story
and the way he shot it.
The most memorable thing for me
is when Chow Yun Fat...
...and Michelle Yeoh are talking...
...in this cement building...
...and in the backdrop of this huge
window it's a beautiful scenery...
...of mainland China in the backdrop,
and you realize that.
And the confinement they're in, they
can't consummate their relationship.
Just outside is the beauty of nature.
Everything is available to them...
...but yet they can't go beyond,
they're closed in.
I thought, "Wow."
That's a real filmmaker
and storyteller's sensibility.
The first question he asked me is,
"Do you mind being a bad guy?"
I've never been a bad guy.
That's my first time.
But of course,
not the last time though.
Because I think maybe
in person I'm very kind...
...very sweet.
So nobody thinks
I could be a bad guy.
But he's the first one.
I said, "It's okay. I don't mind.
As long as you think I can do it,
then I can do it."
The ending,
when the girl flies down...
...I thought, "I want to make a movie
that's targeted toward that image."
Many of these martial arts
pioneers and innovators...
...have acknowledged the influence
of American films on their styles...
...from the tender Wizard of Oz
to the bloody Bonnie and Clyde.
But elements of martial arts
have appeared in American films...
...that were definitely not
martial arts stories.
Sinatra strutted his stuff seriously
in the Manchurian Candidate.
Peter Sellers highlighted his
techniques in the Pink Panther films.
And it continues on...
...to current successes
like Charlie's Angels.
And even the animation
favourite Shrek.
After Bruce Lee's
influence in the '70s...
...Hollywood embraced martial arts
as a central story component.
And it continues today.
Buddha.
In the hearts of these innovators
who have fought...
...to make martial arts films
a success...
...what does this achievement mean?
That just shows you
the world's getting closer...
...more open-minded.
America is getting
more open-minded.
They're open enough to accept
good things if the thing is good.
If the product is good, it doesn't
matter what languages, what culture.
Well, it means that
there is...
...some serious audience out there
who wants to see martial arts films.
I hope to see more Chinese films
with a traditional martial arts spirit...
...that sense of righteousness, to
make it shine in a very realistic way.
Just like Bruce Lee.
Everyone knows Bruce Lee.
Not everyone appreciates martial
arts, they appreciated Bruce only.
Now people are starting to appreciate
martial arts. It's all about timing.
I cannot predict where it goes.
But this is a genre that never dies,
at least for the Chinese.
It's always go up and down.
But when you say it's dying,
somebody figure a way to do it...
...and do something new
and exciting. It will get hot again.
Wu xia, that Chinese term
I mentioned at the beginning?
Wu means martial arts,
which signifies action...
...xia conveys chivalry.
Say it gently:
And it's a breath of serenity
embracing you.
Say it with force:
And you can feel its power.
Such is the dichotomy
of martial arts films...
...a genre born in a bloody rebellion
and continues on today...
...with its own spiritual
and creative revolution.
A lot of martial arts'
first principles...
...is how to discipline
our heart and passions...
...and to train our own virtue.
To me it's a dance.
Because I'm a dancer.
I think martial art is--
I keep saying--
Martial art is not just
two guys fighting each other.
Martial arts itself...
...I think is more spiritual
than anything.
Real martial arts is a kind of
discipline for the heart and passions.
It is how to train yourself
to become a virtuous...
...just and righteous man.
To me, martial art is about
interpreting yourself...
...in the most devoted,
the most honest way.
To me, martial art is an expression.
The most important thing
is to be loyal.
Failure is unimportant.
If you fail, you should think about
whether you worked hard.
Be loyal, stay loyal.
If in the future they don't like
my films...
...I would just be another actor then.
I am faithful to this art.
That is a real deep question.
They just go and kick ass.
What I find most interesting
is the emotional component...
...the discipline that is part
and parcel of something...
...that, to the untrained
American mind or whoever...
...you think it's just physical,
but it's very emotional.
It's very focused.
It's very cerebral.
To me, okay, to me...
...ultimately, martial art means
honestly expressing yourself.
Now, it is very difficult to do.
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