Thursday, February 5, 1998
Hong Kong star comes to US screen
FILM: Fundamental shift underway as outside influence permeates
Hollywood
By Brandon Wilson
Daily Bruin Special Contributor
In case you hadn’t noticed, Hollywood is experiencing a minor
revolution. It may not be as dramatic as the change wrought by the
influx of German emigres fleeing Hitler’s Germany in the 1930’s,
but once again, another nation’s shift in power is bringing in a
tide of artists and artisans into an industry, which whether it
acknowledges such occurrences or not, depends on such periodic
transfusions to stay alive.
And this time they come from Hong Kong.
First came director John Woo ("Face/Off"), bringing with him his
signature style of balletic mayhem to the American action film.
Fellow directors Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark followed. Then came
superstar Jackie Chan, who had for years held action fans
spellbound with his brand of daredevil stuntwork. Michelle Yeoh,
who was once Chan’s co-star, has breathed new life into the James
Bond franchise with her star making turn.
Now, faster than you can say "they don’t make ’em like that any
more," another Hong Kong superstar is here. And like his
predecessors in this movement, his reputation precedes him.
If you haven’t already seen Hong Kong staple films like "The
Killer," "Hard-Boiled" or "A Better Tomorrow" (all directed by John
Woo) then you don’t know about Chow Yun-Fat. The international
superstar has a devoted cult following already in the states. He is
routinely compared to a young Clint Eastwood, Bogart and Cagney,
with just a dash of Lee Marvin.
On Friday, the unenlightened get a chance to meet Chow when his
first American film "The Replacement Killers." Critics are tossing
around phrases like "a legend in the making" when writing of Chow’s
new film turn, but for those devotees of Hong Kong’s high octane
grade of cinema Chow has had legendary status ever since he
appeared in Woo’s blockbuster "The Killer" almost 10 years ago.
In person, Chow Yun-Fat is no less impressive. Immaculately
garbed in a dark double breasted suit with tie, he possesses both
the other-worldly elegance he displayed most effectively in Woo’s
"The Killer" (playing a hitman looking for redemption and a way
out), tempered with an almost contradictory humble earthiness.
This duality is the key to understanding Chow Yun-Fat, a man at
ease with having a big studio production riding on his shoulders,
yet at the same time is taken aback by such commonplace Hollywood
amenities as the all-important location trailer. According to Chow,
the trailer sums up the contrast between Hollywood and Hong
Kong.
"The first difference is the big trailer, we don’t have that in
Hong Kong," says Chow with an easy smile. "It’s amazing to me.
Besides that, I can say that Hollywood is more structured, more
systematic. Everything is controlled by the studio. In a (Hong
Kong) Jackie Chan film, everything is controlled by Jackie Chan.
Even though most films in Hong Kong aren’t by Jackie Chan, for the
most part the studio and the producers don’t care what you do. You
can change your script on the set, sometimes every other minute,
you can do whatever you want. In Hong Kong, the director has total
control, but not in Hollywood. But the working spirit is about the
same."
Like Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh, Chow enjoys and understands
the meaning of action star; the Hong Kong actors seem devoid of the
self-consciousness of their Hollywood counterparts. But Chow
disagrees that his homeland has the market cornered on "big
stars"
"Actually I think Hollywood has more ‘big stars;’" Chow says.
"Hong Kong has big stars, but with the Chinese audience it’s more
like family, probably because everything is so concentrated; here a
star has his own jet, his own island or big house on a mountain;
after filming they leave L.A. But in Hong Kong everybody is very
close to each other; twenty actors might live within one block of
each other. In Hong Kong, you see actors on the subway, you can see
stars taking a taxi, it’s very normal, not like here.
"My working experience tells me that as an actor, I’m like a
worker in a factory," Chow continues. "I do my job, and the
audience is like my boss. Being an actor or a ‘star’ is no big
deal, just a way to make a living. Here it’s a different system,
here a star must have twenty or thirty guards, a limo, a jet; even
a director needs an agent, a manager, assistants and so on. In Hong
Kong, we do more on our own."
Hailing from a fishing village on Lamma Island in Hong Kong,
Chow Yun-Fat got his start in acting after leaving school at age
17. After enrolling in an actor’s training course at Hong Kong’s
most powerful TV station, Chow went on to become a network contract
player. Series TV made Chow a household name in the mid to late
seventies, and the actor made his first feature film in 1977.
His first breakthrough performance came in director Ann Hui’s
"The Story of Woo Viet," a "serious" Hong Kong film at a time when
the market was glutted with martial arts pictures.
More film projects followed, and Chow’s next big step came when
he teamed with director John Woo in 1986 for his operatic gangster
bulletfest "A Better Tomorrow." The picture broke box office
records in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand,
Indonesia, South Korea, and Chinatowns around the world, spawning a
sequel, and marked the beginning of Chow’s most famous director
collaboration.
After "A Better Tomorrow 2," the pair reteamed for "The Killer,"
the definitive Woo picture and the definitive Chow performance.
Chow wore a spotless white suit, waxed chivalric and dealt death to
about a thousand gunsels, with handguns, shotguns, machine guns and
a kitchen knife.
Woo and Chow’s last film together was 1991’s "Hard-Boiled"
(Woo’s last Hong Kong picture before going to America), and the
actor has been fortunate enough to work with all of Hong Kong’s top
directors.
When Woo made his leap to the States, Chow began thinking about
what America and his future might have in common.
"In the early nineties when John Woo made his first American
movie ‘Hard Target,’ my manager Terence Chang, also John Woo’s
manager, said if you want to make the move to Hollywood, you better
make it now. At the time, the Hong Kong film industry was beginning
to hit hard times, and it didn’t seem like things could continue
like they had. By that time (Chang) had begun talking to and lining
up some projects with American studios; at the time I was still
under exclusive contract with my Hong Kong film company. My
contract ran out in 1994 and I moved temporarily to L.A. I met with
studio people, agents; finally, lucky stars shined on me, and
Columbia Pictures said they had a script called ‘The Replacement
Killers.’"
Written for a white male lead, the script was changed to suit
Chow, who plays John Lee, a contract killer in an unnamed American
city who works for a Chinese mob boss. The plot thickens when Lee
refuses to kill a child, earning the ire of Boss Wei. Lee is
running for his life, his family back home in jeopardy and his only
ally is a document forger (Mira Sorvino) who gets dragged into the
fray against her will.
Chow’s method in finding his characterizations is both simple
and practical. Like the actors of Old Hollywood, Chow grounds his
work on the text, and then relies on his instincts.
"Mostly I talk to the writer, especially this time on my first
American movie. It was important that this character was from
China, not an American. So his English, like my English, won’t be
perfect. This character is very traditional, very connected to the
old world and his family there, that’s why he does what he does for
Mr. Wei.
"The writer (Ken Sanzel), the director (Antoine Fuqua) and I
discussed the character for many hours, and John Woo did a good job
of managing these kinds of problems," Chow continues. "This
character, being from China, is a very good introduction to
American audiences for me."
Besides the work of finding a character, big challenges in this
kind of filmmaking come from the sheer physical toll it can take on
an actor. Chow was plagued by blisters after firing over 500 rounds
while filming at a car wash. The climactic gun battle proved no
easier to shoot:
"One night shooting the final scene in the alley, I had two
guns, and we had to shoot this from many different angles. So that
night alone I shot over 50 rounds just for one shot; the gun
coordinator gave me bandages to protect my wrists. But by the end
of the night you’re exhausted. And you have to work the fingers all
the time to pull the triggers with both hands. After six or seven
hours of that, again and again, I can’t hold my chopsticks the next
morning."
Though it’s easy to think of Chow only as an action king, it’s
important to remember that the actor got his start doing comedies
and dramatic leading man turns – roles he may be returning to
sooner than later.
"I want to do more than hold two guns. I want to do films that
are just comedy, or drama. I’d really like to do a comedy, to make
people laugh or cry, not just action."
Chow also sees his future split between Hollywood and Hong Kong.
Unlike Woo and Jackie Chan, who seem to have relocated permanently,
Chow plans to alternate between the two film capitals. After "The
Replacement Killers" premiere, the actor returns to Hong Kong to
add another picture to his 70 plus film body of work.
Later this year, the actor is slated to star in "King’s Ransom,"
written by the writers of "Face/Off" and to be directed by John
Woo.
As for the Hong Kong influx and influence on Hollywood, Chow
sizes up the situation with characteristic humility and
perspective.
"When you look at the majority of Hollywood films, I don’t think
Hong Kong has had a big effect. You can see ‘Face/Off’ or
‘Reservoir Dogs’ or ‘True Romance,’ those are cult movies compared
to big budget Hollywood films like ‘Titanic’ or ‘Independence Day.’
I don’t think Hong Kong has been a big influence. And who was
holding two guns first? John Wayne. So I think it amounts to a fair
trade."
FILM: "The Replacement Killers" opens in theaters tomorrow.
Columbia Pictures
Chow Yun-Fat plays a professional killer in "The Replacement
Killers."