CLEMENT CHENG: THE 'GALLANTS' INTERVIEW (PART 1)
It also stars younger talents like Wong Yau-Nam ("Just One Look", "Ip Man"), JJ Jia ("Isabella") and the rapper MC Jin. Third movie directed by Derek Kwok after "The Pye-Dog" and "The Moss", "Gallants" is also the first movie that he co-directed with his long-time friend Clement Cheng, who makes his director debut with "Gallants". Enjoy the first part of an in-depth interview with of one of the most promising talent of Hong Kong cinema.
CLEMENT CHENG: THE "GALLANTS" INTERVIEW (PART 1)
Frédéric Ambroisine: So the Chinese title of "Gallants" means
"Boxing Ring"?
Clement Cheng:
It means "To enter the Boxing Ring", "To Fight in the Boxing Ring".
FA: You know there is already a movie with this
name?
CC:
Exactly the same, yes, by Kirk Wong.
FA: "Flash Future Kung-Fu" a.k.a. "Health
Warning".
CC:
Yes.
FA: Why did you choose this title?
CC:
Actually the original Chinese title is exactly the English title. It means "The Gallants"... It was "The Modern
Gallants" but we had to change it; we couldn't use the
original title anymore due to political reasons.
FA: What does "gallants" mean exactly for your
movie?
CC:
Exactly what it means: people
that are superheroes, people who are righteous, people who have a good heart,
people who help other people, people who are respected by others. So this is an irony.
FA: You've had this project a long time. Originally the story's background was music but
you decided to change it to fighting, kung fu...
CC:
Yes, exactly. More than ten years
ago we had a couple of projects and one of them was the original idea for "Gallants". It was not about kung fu, it was about a
bunch of people who were in a music band back in the 1960's and 1970's. After twelve years one guy had a stroke, and
he suddenly realized that he had never done anything in his life. He thought that he might die at any time so
his last wish is to go back to his youth, find all his friends and do a last
show. Just perform one song, one last
time. For the past ten years we've been
selling it, and nobody wanted it. So in
probably 2008, the people from Focus approached me and Derek. We gave them around twenty stories and they
weren't interested. So we said, let's
resell the story we have and repackage it.
Because people don't like music; it's not very commercial, I guess. A music-oriented movie is not really
appealing to a Chinese audience. So we
switched it to kung fu. And that's where
all the projects we did ten years ago come in.
We had another idea back in 1998 or '99, just a brief idea to gather all
the action actors from the 1960's and 1970's into one group, and all the action
actors from the 1980's and 1990's into another, and then they would fight. The
people from the Shaw Brothers and the Golden Harvest action stars would fight
against people like Donnie Yen, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and all those
people. The people who were supposed to
be heroes and protagonists are all bad guys, and all the bad guys from the
1970's are good guys. So we kind of
co-opted that idea into the music story, and that's how it came about.
FA: Did you go to many companies before you found
Focus Films? How did that happen? Have the people from Focus watched the first
movies you worked on [as scriptwriter] with Derek, "The Pye-Dog" and "The
Moss"?
CC: Yes
they have, and that's why the people from Focus asked me and Derek to present
our projects and ideas to them. When we
went up there we told them we had about twenty or twenty five story ideas and
they weren't interested. In the end we
talked about it and, as I said, we decided to repackage it and sell it to them
again. And for some reason they said
"Okay." I have no idea why. Derek and I liked it very much, but we
weren't looking for any big name actors.
Most of the protagonists are in their sixties or over sixty. They're really old. We loved the idea but it's not very common
for a film company to invest in such movies.
FA: As you said, you are lucky.
CC:
Very lucky. If it were not for
Andy Lau, this film would not have been made.
FA: Andy Lau approved it?
CC:
Yes.
FA: So you met him?
CC:
Not in the beginning, not directly.
He saw our story and he approved it.
The people from the office said, "Hm, this might work," and then they
gave our synopsis to Mr. Lau. And he
said he liked it and wanted to give it the green light. And, we were cool!
FA: This is a tribute to Old School kung fu
movies, and we find some Bruce Lee elements, like his music and the shout. You decided to choose Shaw Brothers kung-fu
stars Chen Kuan-tai from "The Boxer From Shangtung". Is it a tribute to some
movies in particular or to old school kung-fu movies in general?
CC: One
would say that the movie is a tribute to all of the kung fu movies from the
1960's and 1970's, but Derek and I weren't so much making a tribute to those
films as it is simply in our blood. We
grew up with those films. So we thought
it was interesting and it would be good to share with other people who may not
have a chance to watch them. To us, it's
a very interesting idea to have a storyline that asks, "What if the heroes back
in the 1960's and 1970's were old?" One
of the elements that really intrigued us is this: when Clint Eastwood was young, he was really
awesome and everybody liked him. You
know, "Dirty Harry", "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". He was really a hero. But when he got old I said, "Hey, I like him
better than when he was young." You can
almost feel this energy in his heart. It
moves me to watch him. Somehow that
intrigues me. We thought the story was
pretty original. Nobody has done
anything very similar, maybe something like it but not very similar. So, what if we
incorporate something we like from the past into what we like in the
present? The theme, or idea, that we had
at the very beginning is that we wanted a bunch of seniors to make a movie
about youth. That was our goal. Not only teenagers have youth. I think that if people who are in their 50's,
60's and 70's still have youth in their heart, they can still manifest it
through something. If only they have a
chance, they can really do something about it.
FA: How did you meet Derek Kwok?
CC: In
1997 I came back to Hong Kong from Canada.
We didn't know each other back then, and we both enrolled in a course
set up by the Hong Kong Director's Guild.
They wanted to educate young people who want to be directors or
writers. They have a really intensive
eight month course, and we met in the class.
We started to collaborate. And
that's how we met. After that we quit
our jobs and have been working together ever since. We were art directors, writers, assistant
directors. We filmed and did everything
together. If we didn't have enough
money, sometimes I would work to pay the rent and he would work in the
movies. Because movies don't really pay
well. And sometimes if I was doing
something and we didn't have enough money to pay the rent or have dinner or
breakfast, he would work. So we
alternated. I still remember one time
when we decided to start writing scripts, we had to quit doing anything for
three months so that we had no interference.
One day when we had almost finished our third script, there was no money
in our bank accounts. Nothing. Zero.
For both of us. And we hadn't
eaten for two days. So we went around
the house trying to find change. You
know, under the sofa. Finally we found
about thirty Hong Kong dollars. The
dilemma was: should we buy some food to
eat or buy cigarettes? (laughs) In the end we bought cigarettes. (laughs)
And we didn't eat for two more days.
(laughs) We had a rule, because
cigarettes are pretty expensive in Hong Kong, that we could only have one
cigarette after we finished one scene.
So we had to work really, really hard to earn a cigarette. That's how we got started back in the
day.
FA: What exactly did you do for "The Pye Dog"?
CC:
I wrote. I didn't have time to go
to the shooting location. I just co-wrote
it at the very beginning stages.
FA: But you got credit for it?
CC:
Yes.
FA: And "The
Moss"?
CC: I
wrote "The Moss" and was the second unit
director. It was pretty hectic, and the
time frame was pretty tight. We had to
have two camera crews, so I took over one of them.
FA: When was it decided that you would co-direct "Gallants"?
CC: At
the very beginning, when we thought up the idea. "The
Pye Dog" was started by Derek himself, and I helped him develop
it. The same with "The Moss". He had a very concrete
idea already and I helped him develop it.
But we did "Gallants" together. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to
shoot something like that because you don't see something like that every day
in the cinemas. It was a privilege, a
gift for us to have a chance to shoot that.
FA: How did you share the work writing and
directing "Gallants"?
CC: The
writing work is always the same: we talk
it over, we write scene by scene. He
writes one scene and I write one scene. Afterwards
we switch and correct each other's work.
And then we bring it all together.
In directing, we've been friends and have been working together for so
long that we know each other's style and what we want. So when he goes left, I'll go right. When he goes right, I'll go left. So we cover for each other. While he's shooting one scene, I will prepare
for the next scene and shoot it. We
alternate. We both talk to the actors
but we filmed it in such a short time:
eighteen days...
FA: "The
Gallants"? Eighteen days? It seemed like a bigger budget.
CC:
There was no budget.
FA: Wow, eighteen days! Like one more day than "The Pye Dog"?
CC: "The Pye Dog" was 17 days, I think. That's one more day than "The Pye Dog".
FA: A kung fu movie in eighteen days? Impossible!
CC:
Nobody thought it was possible.
That's why it comes in handy having two directors. We can do two people's jobs at the same
time. It takes half the amount of time
to shoot things when you really trust each other. And we really know what we want.
FA: Wow, I'm impressed.
CC:
Yeah, we had an extremely limited budget.
FA: This is the first kung fu action movie you
made, so how did you work with the action director? How did you work the action scenes?
CC: We
had endless meetings. From the time that
we had the first draft of the script, we talked to Yuen Tak. He was really the key man; without him we
could not have shot it. We were pretty
green back then, especially me since it was my first time. He really poured his heart into it and didn't
discriminate against us. He really tried
to understand what we were trying to do.
So the choreography is really spot on.
When he first heard that we were going to do it in such a short amount
of time, he thought it was impossible and didn't want to do it but we kind of
convinced him. He said, "Okay, I'll try
to help you." Eventually he did. Without him we could not have finished the
movie.
FA: In regards to casting, all of the actors are
amazing. Let's talk first about those
from the old generation like Chen Kuan-tai, Lo Meng...
CC: ...Bruce
Leung and [Michael] Chan Wai-man.
FA: Who chose
the actors?
CC: Derek
and I. There were two kung fu actors
that we really, really wanted; we knew that we had to have them: Chan Kwan Tai and Bruce Leung. If they didn't want to do it, then we weren't
going to film it. In the very beginning
we were writing it for them; they inspired us.
Before we finished the first draft, Derek and I went to visit Bruce
Leung. We talked four or five times
about his kung fu philosophy and martial arts.
We flew all the way to Beijing to meet with Chan Kwan Tai. He educated us about his history and his
philosophy of kung fu. We kind of
incorporated that into our script. Then,
in the middle of writing our script we had writer's block. We couldn't go on because we didn't know who
was going to be the master. We were
stuck for two or three days. We couldn't
write anything. We couldn't picture the
master. But it was funny because Teddy
was always with us. We knew him a long,
long time. He taught us how to play the
guitar; he taught us a lot of things.
One day I said, "Hey wait a minute, maybe Teddy can be the master." And so I called him and told him I was
writing a character for him. He hadn't
done any movies for the past nine or ten years, so I wasn't sure if he was
willing to do it. But he has known us
for a very long time, so he should trust us not to make fun of him. If there is a good character, we would give
it to him. Fortunately he really trusted
us. When we knew that he was willing to
do it, we knew how to write it. Then the
script became alive.
FA: Comedy is perhaps the toughest genre. To write; to make it work.
CC:
To make it really funny, yeah!
FA: It's very hard because every comedy has a
different sense of humor, a different level. It's a very precise job...
CC:
It's very delicate.
FA: There is some nonsense in your movies.
CC:
(laughs) Yeah.
FA: It's also touching comedy. It's funny, and then it's emotional. So how did you manage to make it work?
CC:
I don't know; does it work?
FA: It works!
CC:
It does? Really?
FA: I'm a foreigner and I think I had the same
reaction at the same time as the local audience.
CC: Really?
FA: The chicken/duck scene- it works for me.
CC:
(laughs)
FA: "Gallants" is very funny and very touching at
the end. The writing has to be very
precise, right?
CC: When
we were writing it we had one thing in mind.
I don't know if it's precise or not.
The first and foremost important thing is that we never, ever made fun
of the people in the movie. We're not
making fun of them. We're making fun of
the situation, and we're seeing things through their eyes. Once we knew Teddy was going to be the master,
we knew how it was going to be because we knew him so well. We know his timing is pretty spot on. When we were writing it, we knew how he would
say it and how he would act out the comedy.
So to us, it was not so much calculated; it just came really naturally. I guess the thing is, the only comedy that
works is based on tragedy. If we base it
on a tragedy and we laugh at the tragedy, then it will work better than just a
pure comedy. On the other hand, if we
want things to be a bit more touching and emotional, we have to base it on
something that is comedic. Then it will
be easier for the audience to feel and receive the effect of the emotion. That's what we believe when we write.
FA: So what about the choice of [Michael] Chan
Wai-man? He doesn't act much
nowadays. How did you convince him to
act in this movie?
CC: It's
a long story but I'll make it short.
There are a lot of legends and stories about who among actors is the
best real-life fighter. People say Bruce
Lee or Sammo Hung, Donnie Yen, Chan Wai-man, Bruce Leung or Chen Kuan-tai. Who can really fight? But we wanted seniors, so we got Bruce Leung
and Chen Kuan-tai. So, what actor is the
same caliber as these people? Of the
legends we have been hearing about for such a long time, it must be Chan Wai
Man. He is a really bad
motherfucker. I've seen his boxing
matches. There are a lot of rumors about
him kicking people's asses or killing people.
So of course we had to have him.
End of part 1.
Interview conducted by Frédéric Ambroisine in Hong Kong (March 2010) and
edited by Sylvia Rorem (May 2010). Cross-published on Alive Not Dead.