"I really admire him." "His work ethics and attitude, his perseverance..." "Impacts, falls, very difficult stunts, he can do them all." "Project A probably... took a year and a half." "And so... if you're talking about making the scenes, each scene was hard." "Each scene was very big." "The most difficult was on the ship." "The ship was on the sea and it was difficult to control." "It was big and the positioning of fights and the stunts was more difficult to do." "It was harder to control." "The rest was easier to control." "In the studio, you have more control and it's not so difficult but on the sea, it was much harder." "But if you were used to making films, it wasn't a case of it being difficult, it was just hard work." "Jackie, Sammo and Yuen Biao are martial arts brothers." "We are very different outside this brotherhood." "Each of them has different personalities and styles, and each one of them has something outstanding about them." "But they're not as outstanding as Jackie-he's become a superstar." "But if we talking just kung fu," "Yuen Biao has more ability than Jackie." "But Jackie has a wider range of skills and does more dangerous stunts himself." "There is a special bond that we have and the three of us together can talk and discuss things freely." "It's a very..." "There's no need to communicate specifically." "We don't have to worry about it." "If three actors who aren't familiar with one another make a film, they won't be so relaxed." "But with the three of us, we all know what each other is doing." "When one of us speaks, we know what he means." "Ever since we were young, we had the same teacher, we'd talk and we knew each other well, so it's easy." "When the three of us are together, we have a kind of telepathic bond which we developed in our childhood." "I can't explain it to you." "It's like you look at me and I know what will happen next." "It is a special... attitude." "It's like when your parents see a look on your face and know what you are up to." "They know what you are up to." "Say you want to speak and you move like this first." "There are a lot of little nuances like this with us." "Like when we say, "Remember that from when we were young?"" "Only we would know." "Nobody else will." "A director doesn't have to speak to us individually." "The three of us..." "Well, it's a lot quicker." "Working with Sammo is like being in a family." "Although he's my boss, he's like a teacher and he's very dedicated." "Like, I'd punch him and he'd say it wasn't hard enough." "So I'll hit him hard enough to make him bleed, then he'd say it is OK." "So if he hit me and I bled, I'd feel it was warranted, because if he can take it, so can we." "As a teacher he is very highly respected." "He's a great guy." "From the very beginning of my career in film," "Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung were my favourites." "The first time I met Yuen Biao, I felt very excited and tense." "In action scenes with him..." "I was very impressed by his excellent skills." "That's why he's such a popular guy." "He's a team player, he's very strong and he's also a really good actor." "In terms of stunts in Hong Kong, what I can do, no-one else can." "If it was physically possible, I'm confident that I could do it." "Obviously not now, but back when I was extremely fit." "With Jackie, the two of us would just sit there thinking." "In a day, we'd come up with just one or two moves and see if these moves would look good on film." "We may not even come up with anything." "It was just like..." "Sometimes creating action was very draining." "If you were tired, it was hard to be creative unless you'd done your homework the night before." "But when you're making action films, you can't write it down." "Pictures can't portray what you want." "So you have to use your brain." "The disadvantage is that everyone hates the villain." "The audience curses him." "I have been told by many people that I am a bad person." "I don't mind this, because it is in fact difficult to play a villain." "There are all kinds of emotions to portray and other things as well." "The only disadvantage of playing a villain is, even when I am not working, when I walk on the streets, people are often hostile to me, or they are afraid." "I have heard people talking about me and they say, "He's evil, stay away from him."" "That's the result of playing villains." "However, I am happy to hear that because it means I play the roles very well." "Am I really evil?" "Of course not!" "When they wanted me to play the role of Lo San, when Sammo Hung wanted me for the role, I was very happy, of course, because it was the first time that a bad guy would fight the three main characters." "Jackie Chan told me later that they had never fought with just one man." "So when I heard that, I was very happy, very excited." "So I gave it my best shot." "Whenever they thought of the bad guy... that was Dick Wei." "But I was very persistent in my own requirements." "Even though I was a bad guy," "I wanted to do a bad guy with a lot of character." "I didn't act out any rapes..." "I didn't do those X-rated films." "As far as I remember, that bell tower was built in the studio from scratch." "It was built in a street at Golden Harvest Studios." "It resembled a bell tower dating back to 1920s or '30s." "The interior was like a normal bell tower with the mechanism in it." "It was a huge construction." "We were trying to catch him and there was a lot of fighting going on in the tower." "The bell tower was a closed building, there were no windows at all." "The only aperture that resembled a window, through which you could look out, was the clock face." "You couldn't actually see through it, we had to break the glass to escape." "A whole group of us were trying to catch and kill him." "He had nowhere else to run, finally he threw himself out of the glass." "He thought he could escape." "He did that scene very well." "He did it himself." "We were quite scared when he was coming down." "Back then..." "Jackie was the boss." "There were many stunts we did not allow him to do." "He wasn't allowed to do our stunts." "As he was the boss, and if he got injured, nobody got paid." "We told him that if he wanted to do it, we'd get a stuntman to show him how to do it first." "If it looked OK and he was unharmed, then Jackie could do it." "He listened to us and said, "OK"." "So we rehearsed it." "We did the stunt." "But the stuntman got injured." "It wasn't a big injury, just a minor one, but he was scared." "So when it was Jackie's turn, we adjusted the stunt so it looked good when he came down and he was unharmed." "It was high-about 60 feet." "The bicycle scene was good to watch." "The stunts were perforrmed well." "It was quite safe." "Nobody was injured." "Even when we watch it now, we can feel being slammed around." "But back then, the stunts..." "Our kung fu was good." "We could take the impact of those stunts so the scene looked good and no-one got injured." "I was young, fit and game for anything." "It was very tough." "It was impossible to wear protective pads for any of the scenes." "So I was hurt and bruised in many places." "I'm better at using my fists and feet, I'm weaker at weaponry." "That scene required me to fight with a long spear." "Because of the director's choreography, I managed it easily." "Of course, it's more dangerous to fight with weaponry and there's more fancy moves." "I think that all hand-to-hand combat is similar." "Hand-to-hand combat is easier for me." "Because I didn't learn to use weaponry when I was young, after the fight choreographer had taught us the moves, we all went somewhere private." "We learnt it the best we could, then used it in the filming." "While I was fighting with Jackie Chan, before I turned around, Sammo Hung landed on my back." "So I wasn't prepared for it and it was a serious injury." "The impact hurt my shoulders, strained and injured my muscles." "After filming..." "after the completion of filming," "Jackie, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, they each privately told me there had never been a situation where three leading characters... three leading men were beaten up by one opposing character." "They said, "It's never happened before."" "When I heard that, for me, it was very exciting." "When Project A was released, it was received well in Hong Kong and it was released in Japan." "The Japanese Emperor watched it and thought it was very good and wanted to see the next part." "But there wasn't one." "In Hong Kong, we tend to make one episode and then another." "The Emperor thought it was good so Jackie had to do a second film." "The Emperor had spoken and so the company didn't have a choice but to make another." "There was a half-year deadline to finish the film so the Japanese Emperor could watch part two." "So that is why it was called part two." "It was not that the first film was split into two parts." "The first was one film." "And the second was another film - it was different from the first film." "But he wanted a second part, so we used the scenery from the first film to make the second." "At that time, the fighting style and the demands of the film..." "The very dangerous scenes, they were all unprecedented." "So that's why it's still so popular now." "That this film is still so popular after more than 20 years is solely Jackie Chan's achievement." "Of course everyone in the team made a great contribution but it is mainly due to Jackie's reputation and hard work." "Very few actors work as hard as he does." "Being the most popular film for more than 20 years is the result of Jackie's own hard work." "I usually do contemporary films." "In the first year and a half." "I was in a period drama using a pole." "But after that." "For more than a decade." "I was using my fists and feet." "So hand to hand is easier for me." "I was young back then and I had opened a martial arts studio in Taipei." "Chang Cheh borrowed my studio to film." "Then he told production that I could act... what do you think?" "In the end..." "I could try..." "I could consider it..." "He asked me to do a screen test." "He then showed the clip to Sir Run Run Shaw." "The boss of Shaw Studios." "Eventually." "He told me that he wanted to invite me to work over there... to sign up for a long term contract." "He wanted to make me a star." "So I then... at first." "I thought the contract was too long." "And I didn't want to go... so Director Chang Cheh said to me..." ""If I'm taking you to Hong Kong... then that means I have the confidence to make you a star."" "He's backed so many actors in the past." "About the terms of the contract..." "he told me not to worry... to ignore it." "So after listening to that." "I followed Chang Cheh to Hong Kong." "When I first started to act." "it was really difficult for me." "At first." "I thought that with a few kicks." "A few punches." "I was acting." "It wasn't so." "One needs to know how to act..." "For example..." "How to hold a sword and swerve and chop..." "The fight choreographer had to hold both my hands to do it." "I had to learn slowly." "To me." "Because I was young and had drive... working under Director Hung." "Sammo Hung... almost all his films were... very realistic." "He required that every punch hit flesh." "Very realistic..." "There was one film..." "We were filming in studio A. Jackie was filming in studio B." "When Jackie was passing our studio and saw me resting by the door... he stuck his head in to see what we were filming." "He said something to me that left a deep impression." "that I still remember..." ""Dick Wei." "You guys are still fighting like this?"" "I said. "Yes." "Every film is like this."" "Then he said." ""Ah... you guys do that then"." ""I'm not filming like that anymore."" "So that's why I still remember these words." "It's because Director Sammo Hung requires each punch to make contact..." "It's very." "Very realistic." "While with Jackie." "He requires technical expertise." "his own brand of agility... and... the design of the shot." "That's how he's different from Sammo Hung." "First of all." "I'll talk about "Eastern Condors."" "The whole film was filmed in the Philippines." "That film was with Yuen Biao and Joyce Godenzi." "When we shot the ending." "it was rather tough on all of us." "Because it was hot." "And situated in an inconvenient spot." "And..." "At that time." "Director Hung's requirements were... tough..." "He had high expectations." "We had to fight up a storm." ""Eastern Condors" was a good movie." "Let's go." "Since the movie "The Prodigal Son"." "there were ten years of movies having the same fight scenes." "The shots in the movies all looked the same." "And... in "Heart of Dragon" aka "The First Mission"." "Director Hung specially tailored a role for me so that I didn't have to talk." "An asassin who doesn't need to have dialogue." "He's against Jackie." "Against Jackie Chan." "Chasing after him to fight using a method whereby I just kept attacking him." "Fighting until Jackie said." ""Can't you stop attacking me?"" "Then I said. "No." "This is my duty."" "When he designs an action shot." "the scenery... his own actions... he will spend a lot of time designing them." "And his team work very well in tandem." "Each punch." "Each kick..." "The fighters in his team... really work well in unison with him..." "really adjust their moves to his... so you feel that each of his punches and kicks are really something." "That fighting scene led to both of us being in a lot of pain." "Hitting bricks." "Walls..." "We had to endure quite a lot of difficulties." "Because I was cast into a mould by all the Hong Kong distributors and film companies." "whenever they thought of an opponent to good." "every bad guy." "every opponent to good... that was Dick Wei." "But I was very persistent in my own requirements." "Even though I was a bad guy." "I wanted to do a bad guy with a lot of character." "I didn't enact any rapes..." "I didn't do those X-rated films." "I was a little bit tired of acting in action films." "The reason I wanted to leave Hong Kong was..." "I was typecast by all the Hong Kong film companies and directors." "Whenever they thought of an opponent to good" " Dick Wei." "Personally." "there was no breakthrough." "Whenever a film company looked me up." "we would talk." "And I would always know what to do already." "So." "I was a bit weary... so..." "I really wanted to act in a film of genuine depth." "With inner qualities." "Actually." "I played good guys several times." "I was a policeman." "a detective." "but most people wanted me to be the bad guy." "I filmed "Dragon Fight" with Jet Li in San Francisco." "At first." "In this film." "I was also the fight choreographer." "I once said to Jet Li." ""You were five times champion of martial arts in China"." ""Why don't you be the fight choreographer?"" "Eventually... he privately..." "pulled me outside to tell me..." "He said his type of kung fu is for performances." "From the time he was a child at a martial arts institute." "he performed with weapons." "acrobatics... for performances." "Eventually." "When we had to act in "Dragon Fight"." "the trend was to do freestyle fighting." "The fighting style is completely different." "He privately said to me that he hoped that I would be the fight choreographer." "because he had never done our type of fighting so that was why he didn't want to be the fight choreographer." "and asked me to do the job." "So... in that film." "With me acting in a role against him from beginning to end and having to be the fight choreographer too." "It was pretty tough." "The way they film in Taiwan and Hong Kong are different." "Hong Kongers... for example." "Staff... either they don't take the job." "Or if they do." "Then they're very responsible." "The investors don't want to spend a lot of money in Taiwan and... the talent is another factor." "Of course." "If the budget is low." "Then you can't really film a good movie." "You can't get any famous people to be in your cast." "So that's why Taiwan's action films have never been able to match Hong Kong's." "In the past two years." "I've done fewer films." "Two." "Three years ago." "with my elder brother Ti Lung." "and the Taiwan TV company "Baat Dim Dong"." "we filmed an important "movie special" for the 8pm slot." "I want to thank all of my friends for their support." "I feel that wherever I go where there's Chinese people." "in many countries... when I'm recognised." "I'm secretly very happy." "And overseas friends." "I would like to thank you too." "Thank you." "When I was small, I was taught Peking Opera." "I was about 10 years old then." "After learning Peking Opera, I went on to do acting and after I had graduated, I entered the film industry." "The techniques used in Peking Opera are very difficult to learn." "The training was delivered in boarding schools." "It was a long commitment once you entered into those schools." "The courses were of different lengths, five, seven or ten years." "Some went in aged six and didn't graduate until their twenties." "There's no time limit." "The hard part was practising." "You had to practise." "We were like those gymnasts but it was harder than that." "We got up at five o'clock in the morning." "We went up the hill to work on our throats - in those days, we didn't have microphones to make us louder, so in the morning, we did voice exercises." "After voice exercises, we went back to have breakfast." "After breakfast, it was martial arts." "In a day..." "it was over ten hours' work." "Lets see if you can catch me out this time." "Bravo!" "Well done!" "When I was young, I probably looked a bit weird." "My head was completely shaved." "When I was young and performing in Thailand," "I was involved in a car accident." "I had to have 28 stitches because of the crash." "I have two interesting scars - one smiles and the other cries." "As an actor back then, I always had my head shaved." "People called me a Martian and all sorts of names, probably because of how I looked." "Chor Yuen used to call me Weird Simpleton." "It implied that I didn't think, tell me to do something and I would." "One time, we were filming in Thailand and there was an actor - he was a boxing champion and was the lead man - and there was another actor, a supporting actor, who was called something like Tsang..." "Lui Kong." "One day we were rehearsing with the boxing champion, we didn't know his abilities even though he was a champion." "When you're acting, you have to be in control." "The coordinator told me to come over and try a few moves with him." "A simple punch is easy." "I punched, he blocked and followed through and I reacted." "The move we created looked OK, so we tried it." "I hit him and he hit me back." "By the time I got there, he had hit me." "One punch." "And my whole eye went black." "The director saw he couldn't control him and didn't know what to do." "So he had the supporting actor be the lead and had me supporting." "I didn't mind doing it that way." "After doing it, you get credited." "Credited with what name?" "I said my name was Cheung Wing-fat." "The director disliked Cheung Wing-fat and asked me for a stage name." "But what stage name?" "The fire star was Mars, so I was called Mars." "It didn't matter as it was my first film." "The leading man was Kwan San." "It was a long time ago." "That was how Mars became my stage name." "Back then the child actors..." "Well, as children..." "It was simple and we were obedient." "We went to work and did exactly what we were told." "It is a lot different now." "Maybe we were learning acting so we were willing as youngsters." "Being child actors was easy then." "Today's child actors haven't learnt acting." "A director would pick a child and see if they could do the film." "Child actors were easier to work with in the past." "Bruce Lee was incredible." "What can I say?" "He was everyone's idol." "It was..." "Everyone speaks so highly of him." "Thats natural - he was a real superstar." "His leaving us so early was just a waste." "Its a great pity." "If he was still alive," "I feel the film industry would have turned out differently." "It wouldn't be as it is now." "I respect him." "I don't know what to say about him." "Everything has already been said." "I wouldn't know what to add." "Compared to the past, it is much better being a stuntman now." "In the past, you took risks." "Every part of your body was punished and you broke arms and legs." "There was a lot of this." "It has lessened now." "When we did stunts and had to fall 10 or 20 feet, we just fell with nothing to cushion us." "But now the director wouldn't allow a fall that high." "The insurance is expensive and its easy to get hurt." "The camera angle now hides the safety mats." "Its much more comfortable being a stuntman now." "Unlike the past, when you got..." "Now it is just fake." "There is a big difference." "You can see it in the action." "The stunts in the '70s compared to those in the '90s, you'd think anyone can do them now but not everyone could do a stunt back then." "You had to have the skills so you didn't get hurt." "But not getting hurt..." "There was always the possibility." "So you lived with it." "The safety standards were not high back then." "The Jackie Chan Stuntman Association was set up two years before they made The Young Master." "I hadn't joined then," "I had the lead role in another film." "After that film, I took some time off." "It was at that time that Jackie started to make The Young Master." "He asked if I could help with the martial arts." "I hadn't joined yet." "There was a scene where Wong In Sik was hitting people all over the place." "I was there to help out." "The reactions we had to do were strange, like being thrown into the air and you weren't allowed to touch the ground - they had a wire that pulled you backwards." "Reactions like that." "It was experimental and we created these action sequences." "It was OK." "The fight scenes in the film were awesome." "Jackie said it was good and asked when I could join his troupe." "I said, "Not at the moment," as I still had other films to do." "We talked every day and went to his office a lot." "Later, when I'd finished a film I was working on, everything was put on hold." "They allowed me to go over to Jackie's." "As soon as I got there, Jackie gave me a film." "It was Dragon Lord." "I hadn't joined Jackie's troupe yet." "I was an actor." "After that film, he urged me to join his troupe." "And so after making Dragon Lord, I joined Jackie's troupe." "Back then, Jackie and I... we had been at the Peking Opera school in the same year, so we knew of each other." "Being in the same martial arts field, we often bumped into one another." "We were also good friends." "We saw each other a lot and were friendly with one another." "So when he asked me, I joined his Jackie Chan Stuntman Association." "Ah Ngao..." "Apart from being an actor, I also did stunts." "As well as being an action director, where Jackie and I created the fight sequences," "I did it all - I did everything." "If it was part of Jackie's work, no matter how big or small " "I was on set, so I would do it." "It has changed greatly." "From my perspective, it had to happen." "The era changed." "Why do I say that?" "Why did the box office take so much in the past?" "Because you could only watch a film at the cinema and nowhere else." "When videos and VCRs came out, people watched films at home." "Because technology had advanced, making films became very hard." "Its now so convenient to watch a film." "VCRs-they have everything." "Before, they had to go to the cinema." "Thats why movie stars were so popular back then." "You had to go to the cinema to see the famous stars." "But now, you can see them on TV." "They're on every TV set in the street." "They didn't have TVs back then." "So now... and in the future it will be even more difficult." "The directors are just running out of new ideas." "Every film script is getting unbelievable." "How are people supposed to do them?" "So it is this that is affecting our film careers." "So we hope... to see what new technology will come along to make our films into blockbusters." "Hold it!" "I am now working in television," "I still work with Jackie but I am no longer contracted to him." "So if he wants to hire me, I will still do it." "In television I am still doing stunts - its no different than with Jackie's troupe." "I am doing what I already know and putting it to use." "Not only can I do young parts, I can play older roles too - because I'm not young any more - and see if there is a film that will allow me to use my abilities fully." "Of all my films..." "I don't have many." "The most I had done was in Lackey And The Lady Tiger and Dragon Lord." "I didn't perform much in the rest." "There were mediocre roles that you couldn't expand." "I wasn't the lead in Dragon Lord." "I was in Lackey And The Lady Tiger but that was only a small film." "I am not satisfied." "I hope someday that I will be able to give a better performance." "Go!" "Quickly!" "I don't know what to say, just that I hope my European fans and friends keep supporting my kung fu films." "so I will endeavour to use what I have learnt and create the best fight scenes in the most beautiful surroundings for the audience to appreciate." "I hope you will keep supporting me." "I've been working in the film industry for more than 30 years." "At first I did it part time, because at that time" "Ti Lung and David Chiang had just started directing." "I was teaching kung fu and they asked if I wanted to take part." "I asked, "Is this really going to suit me?"" "They said they couldn't tell because everyone is unique." "They also told me that if I were interested, I must be prepared." "I had to be tough and it would be very hard work." "On hearing this, I asked, "Really?" ""Will it be harder than practising kung fu?"" "And I agreed to do it, which was how I started my career." "But for the first few years," "I didn't think of it as my profession." "I did it for fun, as I already had a proper job." "But before I knew it, 30 years had passed." "I started learning Wing Chun rather late." "I was always interested in kung fu." "I knew karate and judo." "Whether other forms of martial art are good or not, I shouldn't say, but when I heard of Wing Chun, I wanted to try that as well." "I've been practising Wing Chun for many decades since then." "Actually, I rarely use my own kung fu moves in the films." "Thats because there is always an action director on the set." "All the actors have to follow his instructions." "The roles that I have played seldom required me to show my Wing Chun styles." "The action director designs the moves in the films." "As actors, we just follow his instructions." "So its not up to me to use my Wing Chun styles in films." "There are no problems, as they're two different things." "There is an aesthetic factor in the action in films." "I can't say if the actions are realistic or not." "Basically, as long as it looks good, the audience likes the feeling, then it is a successful film." "It doesn't matter whether I'm working with Lau Kar-leung or Sammo Hung." "The most important things is, in my case, when I started out, many action directors would ask," ""A master meets an action director, will it work?" ""He usually teaches people kung fu," ""it will be disastrous if he doesn't listen to the action director."" "So once I started this career, I had to obey the action director." "He may come up with something that is impossible to perform in normal circumstances." "But it is possible in a film." "So we must obey him." "It does not matter whether it is Northern or Southern style." "There is no problem at all." "As I have said, it is up to you to rid yourself of that attitude." "Although I specialise in Short Bridge style, it looks awful in a film." "It has to do with cinematography." "Short Bridge requires swift action." "However, if you view it on a big screen in a cinema, movements like Short Bridge do not look very nice." "Big, sweeping movements that occupy the whole screen" "look more beautiful and appeal more to the audience." "I don't mind at all." "I'm usually more concerned about the role itself." "I have to know the character and his style well enough so I can perform that style and use it to express the character." ""I can't" is not an excuse, you just follow the director." "Chinese weapons are very tricky to use." "Luckily I was naughty when I was a boy." "I have played with all kinds of knives and rods and things, although I've never specialised." "Flexible weapons are the most difficult to use." "For example, the whip - it takes time to learn to control it." "It takes a lot of practice to master it." "Rods, knives and swords are easier to learn." "As long as you don't grip the handle too tight, you'll be fine." "You often see people holding a rod too tightly." "The flexibility of your wrist is very important." "As long as you're agile, nothing is really difficult." "Soft weapons are the most difficult because they're hard to control." "You have to calculate how far they recoil, otherwise you'll hit yourself." "The only drawback of playing a villain is, even when I'm not working, when I'm out in the street, people are often hostile towards me or afraid." "I've heard people talking about me." "They say, "He's evil and mean, don't go near him."" "Thats what happens when you play villains." "However, its nice to hear that, because it means I play the roles very well." "Am I really evil?" "Of course not!" "I don't mind playing the bad guy but I'd like to try different roles." "That the film is still so popular after over 20 years is Jackie Chan's greatest achievement." "Of course everyone in the team contributed but it is mainly due to Jackie's dedication and hard work." "Very few actors work as hard as he does." "Being the most popular actor for more than 20 years is the result of Jackie's own hard work." "Come on." "Try me." "This film took almost a whole year to make." "Sometimes his demands were very great." "If it was less than perfect he didn't want it." "He had to have it perfect and it had to look real." "Not just the filming - even safety, he took that very seriously." "He wanted to give people a false impression, and he did." "His stunts were always like a natural action." "When he held onto the hands of the clock face, when they turned..." "There's a long hand and a short hand, when one hand turned, he slipped and caught the other one." "Catching one then the other." "This is a natural action." "Anyone who is holding on to something and slips will grab at something else." "He did that sequence until it looked natural." "So whatever the scene or stunt, he treated it seriously." "Thats why it took a long time to make." "Yuen Biao was quite... something." "He and Sammo Hung, Jackie, Yuen Wah." "Not Yuen Wah." "They were martial arts brothers." "Although he was younger, he took his work seriously." " You don't believe me, do you?" " How dare you resist us!" "Those two took film-making very seriously." "In truth, even though I do kung fu, tumbling and jumping was stuff I learnt from them." "I remember when I started..." "The action director was..." "His nickname was Uncle Eight." "Ng See-yuen was the director." "At first, when I tumbled - of course I was not as proficient as them " "I remember we were on a hillside in Taiwan." "Wong Yong Lee was after me, he wanted to kill me." "I was jumping and tumbling and rolling around on that hill." "This was something I was not used to." "But I thought if I do it often enough, I'd become good at it." "It just takes practice." "So by the time I was with Jackie and Sammo, I was OK." "I had no trouble with this style of action." "Kung fu and tumbling were no different-the same." "Most importantly, they took things seriously." "I like being serious." "I'm not saying the stunts today are not as good." "They've had to become less risky." "Its because the actors back then did the... as you say, the hard work." "So today's actors don't have the same determination." "You did it until it was right." "The action sequences are now shorter so they can do it." "In the past the action sequences were very long." "It wasn't one or two moves then "Cut!"" "We had to do the whole thing." "From the hilltop, all the way down to the bottom." "The cameraman followed, holding his camera." "So you could do anything." "But now, they would cut and edit the film." "Thats what I mean when I say its different." "It wasn't a problem." "Because in film, if it looks fake they won't hire you again." "Unless you were reincarnated, as you died in the first film." "I can do the next film as a new character and the two films were made several years apart." "So I don't think the audience would mind." "There are a lot of actors now." "In the past, there were only a handful of martial arts actors." "It was the same bunch of people who made the films." "I don't think there is a problem." "Let me ask you, is there a problem?" "Even today, I would still like to try playing every character." "The problem is I didn't always get to do what I'd like to try." "The problem is that the director..." "Does the director feel that I fit the role?" "Like being the bad guy in a comedy," "I wouldn't mind that." "You have to see what the script is like." "Being merely nasty isn't quite enough to be a villain." "You've got to be able to put up with being fooled around." "The audience will then get a sense of satisfaction, so then there is a response and the film will be successful." "It doesn't matter if its a comedy or not, its about the character." "If the character required me to be funny, I'd play it funny." "If I had to be straight, then I'd play it straight." "It was basically up to the director." "Whatever the director wanted, we would do." "I worked with a lot of very good directors." "Back when I was acting, they weren't very famous." "But they are now." "Actors like Ng Yee-sum," "Sammo Hung, Jackie and many others are now household names." "Lau Kar-leung as well." "They've all become very famous." "They deserve it because of their commitment." "If it wasn't for the sake of making ends meet," "I'd have moved into the realm of directing too." "Being a budding director wasn't like being an actor where you could choose what you liked." "And make a lot of money." "A budding director has to pick and choose." "It takes at least a year." "You can't just do it." "You have to start out as an assistant director." "Even though one may have a good understanding of how a camera works, its still paramount to prime the skill." "The opportunity has passed." "I would like to say to everyone, don't just look at my appearance." "Fierce?" "I'm actually quite gentle." "I hope you will accept my films." "If there's anything you aren't happy about, write to me and tell me which bits are not good." "I'm only too happy to hear." "But don't get the impression that I am a bad person or an evil person." "OK?" "Thank you." "Everybody, I am going to demonstrate a basic Wing Chun kata." "If you want to learn Wing Chun, you will have to do this." "This is called Sui Lim Toh." "I was born in Hong Kong." "I didn't like going to school as a child." "I never went to school and my parents..." "I was always going out to play and watching opera." "My parents always went to..." "Like most Shanghai people of that era, they loved going to the opera." "As I didn't like studying or going to school," "I accompanied my parents to the opera." "There I saw Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Wah and others..." "We went to the same opera school, but they started well before me." "I went to watch them every night." "It was exciting..." "all the tumbling and the kung fu." "As my father liked it, he enrolled me into school - into a Peking Opera school." "That was when I first joined a school." "My real surname is Har..." "and my real name is Har Ling-jun." "When we entered the school, we all had to change our names, with the word Yuen in them, because our master was called Yu Jim Yuen and his pupils were called "Yuen this" and "Yuen that"." "Jackie was called Yuen Lau, Sammo was called Yuen Lung." "Yuen Wah and so on, you know." "My relationship with our teacher..." "As a child, meeting my teacher was like meeting a tiger." "If he was in front, we'd be behind him." "If he was sitting, we sat next to him." "We showed him respect, ever since we were little, because he was so fearsome." "He'd beat you if you were even the slightest..." "You just couldn't tolerate his punishment." "But that was what he went through." "Our teacher said it was like this when you learnt Peking Opera." "As a child, he also learnt under a strict regime." "As a child, my teacher was like a tiger." "I saw my teacher and thought, "You wait and see." "When I grow up..."" "It was like that, I didn't know any better as a child." "But by the time we came out to work in this industry, we realised that our teacher had taught us very useful things, since we didn't go to normal schools." "After we graduated, we never thought "what next", as we were too young." "My parents sent me out to learn opera..." "A child is not intelligent enough to think about his future." "Who at that age knows what he is going to do in the future?" "It was only when people often asked me this, that I would think." "A child would not think this far." "It was never, "I'm learning to be an operatic actor so I will be one."" "As an apprentice you learnt a trade and later you had the option to use it if you wanted to." "It's like studying a particular subject, to do a specific job." "We studied opera so we'd enter the entertainment industry." "And if we followed through with it, this would be our career." "Otherwise we'd have nothing." "In Hong Kong there wasn't anything." "If there wasn't a film industry, we'd be lost." "We were lucky that then in Hong Kong people liked this kind of film, and there were people who could perform it to represent Hong Kong." "This became the mainstream film." "Then eventually, Hong Kong became renowned for its action movies." "Romance could never achieve that," "Because there is a language barrier in foreign markets." "They do not understand Cantonese, nor do I understand English." "But with movements, you could understand easily." "So, this was to our advantage." "Peking Opera is..." "It hasn't got thrust, power or speed." "It has endurance." "Like holding your leg up and leaving it there." "The audience likes this." "We learnt this as children - endurance and stability." "But you can't use Peking Opera on film so I learnt other kung fu katas." "On top of our basic knowledge, we also learnt some practical martial arts, like Tae Kwon Do, karate, boxing, etc." "So we learnt this and incorporated it and added some difficulty to see if it was possible to add it to a film." "If you were filming, I was always thinking of ways of kicking, ways to make kicking look good, always thinking of different ways." "I was interested in creating ways of doing this." "I made them up myself." "Nobody taught me that." "I created these action sequences for others to do." "If they couldn't do it, I went and did it myself." "The audience likes watching me fight, not laugh or cry." "Leung Kar-yan has a different style, the audience can see this." "I don't think the audience would compare the two actors on screen and we wouldn't do that as actors." "We would do our best and to the way the director wanted it." "Whatever the audience likes to watch, we'll try and do it so the audience would react, "Wow!"" "We'd try and think of more ways to do this." "We'd known about Bruce Lee ever since we were children." "Regarding what he could do, he did deserve people's admiration." "On film, his kung fu was magnificent but regarding filming technique... those old films were not that sophisticated, they were one-man shows." "If he wasn't so great, there would be nothing to see." "Let's go, they're coming." "We went to the same school..." "When we had left school..." "we had all done Bruce Lee's films." "like Bruce Lee's last film, Enter The Dragon." "He died before finishing The Game of Death." "We did Enter The Dragon together, Lam Ching-ying..." "Bruce Lee liked our group." "He liked us, the stuntmen, very much." "So in Enter The Dragon..." "From the Big Boss..." "We had collaborated on a lot of Bruce Lee films as martial artists." "After Bruce Lee died, action films declined for a short time, then Sammo Hung and us emerged." "We made action movies together, with Sammo Hung as leader." "Don't hit me, don't." "He is... you can say that..." "he was mentored by Sammo Hung, started as a martial artist, then became a stuntman." "Did you do Fist Of Fury?" "Yes, we made it." "But we were very young, about 16 or 17." "They used a lot of martial artists." "There was a lot of talent." "Hong Kong had a lot of stuntmen." "How would I describe it?" "There were groups of us, we were the Peking Opera group - those who'd learnt from childhood." "So, we went into the Peking Opera groups." "There were those who did Cantonese films, like those fashionable..." "For example, those by Yu Soo-chow and Lau Kar-leung." "They were all different." "Those in the Peking Opera groups were all about the same age and had all started out together." "So us and Lam Ching-ying and one other, Chan Wui-ngai, were all doing it together." "We started our career as martial artists, then proceeded to be action directors, then action actors, until Lam Ching-ying passed away and we..." "So we don't have an ordinary relationship." "If we met now, we wouldn't have a lot to talk about." "We worked with each other every day for over 10 years." "Though we have nothing to say, our relationship is special." "Oh, that... how do I put it..." "Amongst all the brothers, I am the introvert." "Jackie and Sammo, they love going out and enjoying themselves." "They like socialising, I don't." "I prefer going home after work." "I can stay at home all day doing my own thing." "I don't like to hang around much." "I'd rather do the things I like doing." "My relationship with Sammo Hung was like any other of the school relationships except it was special in a way..." "When everyone graduated, we all went our separate ways but Sammo and I stuck together and worked together, we were together since that time." "The others went and did their own films but the two of us always worked together on films, throughout all our time in the industry, well, at Golden Harvest anyway." "After Golden Harvest, we parted and didn't make films together any more." "But my relationship with Sammo was different." "Apart from being at school, where we grew up together, we worked together as well." "So it was different." "A lot of things have made the film industry..." "It's good for Hong Kong." "It made Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-fat Hollywood stars." "So all those years of hard work by the Hong Kong film industry weren't wasted." "It really was hard work." "From my point of view, this society..." "How do I say it... decline?" "To decline is inevitable." "You see the trends in society." "But it can backtrack - what was fashionable can become fashionable again, which is not uncommon." "As for talent, it's abundant in China." "But is there an experienced person who can mould this potential to make films, action films?" "There is a lot of potential there." "But is there someone who is... like Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan, who has the desire for action films, able to teach them?" "I don't think that there ever will be." "Take that!" "I'm very happy to meet my English fans as I have not performed in England before." "I have been to England but only during my spare time and not on a work basis." "So I hope for an opportunity one day to be able to go to England with those in the film industry or those who love watching films." "I look forward to that day." "I hope there will be more of my films." "I hope you continue to support my films." "If it's good, please applaud it." "And if it's bad, you can criticise." "I hope to see you all soon."