Veteran action movie ace Sammo Hung, Japanese actor Kurata Yasuaki and action choreographer-turned director Tanigaki Kenji had a ball on Thursday in Tokyo as they took a light-hearted trip down memory lane to discuss the state of martial art action movies from Hong Kong.
In a panel discussion held in the confines of TIFFCOM, the rights market aligned with the Tokyo International Film Festival, the three were seemingly selected to represent the past, present and future of the genre.
“Hong Kong’s place in the film world is well deserved. We worked so hard for it,” said Hung. “Nobody paid attention to us for ages, so we could do what we liked. Then, finally, our time came.”
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Hung (real name Hung Kam-bo) has over 250 film credits according to the Internet Movie Database in roles ranging from actor and stuntman to producer and director. These include “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In,” the action dram that this year broke box office record in Hong Kong, was selected as the territory’s Oscar contender and also plays in Tokyo.
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But Hung’s lonely training paid off, rapidly elevating Hong Kong cinema to a global stage and creating the condition for a ‘Golden Age” that lasted for more than two decades from the mid-1970s.
Kurata recalled being out of his depth when he made a reluctant debut in Hong Kong in 1968. “I was surprised by the volume of martial arts in my first film. It was unlike Japan where action only represented a scene or two,” he said. “And I wondered why, they did so many takes. I thought they were crazy. In fact, they were perfectionists. We could do as many as 60 takes just for one scene, under Sammo or Jackie Chan.”
Having turned down an annual studio contract, Kurata regularly continued to pick up other martial arts roles in Hong Kong including the 1985 Hung-directed “Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars,” which Kurata on Thursday generously named as one of his top three Hong Kong film titles.
Tanigaki, who studied at a film academy in Osaka, but has spent much of his career in Hong Kong, notably developing long term relationships with Jet Li and Donnie Yen, echoed the older pair in praising Hong Kong’s craft skills. “They have a very good system. Action directors, choreographers and editors are very established. They are experts in their field, but also are trained to have an understanding of the whole process,” he said. “But it did mean that I had to learn to speak Cantonese.”
Asked how he was able to contend with so many different variants of martial arts – Beijing Opera style, Wing Chun, Taekwondo he laughed. “I had to do more than that. I had to design movement. I read Chinese cartoons and saw that new movements were possible. Effort will never betray you. You can do what you believe in. These days I can only talk,” said Hung in unusual self-deprecating fashion.
Tanigaki, who choreographed the action scenes in “Twilight,” is currently in post-production on “The Furious” a big-budget actioner that he shot this summer in Thailand with a pan-Asian cast, but which its producer Bill Kong insists is a modern Hong Kong movie.
“’Furious’ was shot in Thailand, but it was very influenced by the Hong Kong style of action. That action is now embedded in our bodies,” he said. “Hong Kong martial arts has influenced the whole world of film.”
Despite the upbeat, fighting talk, the talk session rounded off with a succession of audience questions which variously asked how Hong Kong martial arts could be saved, promoted or taught.
Hung, returning to his habitual ebullient mode, had no doubt. “Buy tickets to Hong Kong movies. Rent the whole theatre,” he said.
