 HKCinemagic : Early 1980s, you disappeared from the screen. Why?
|
| Bruce Leung : The trend of Kung Fu movies was falling down so I started TV instead. |
| |
| HKCinemagic :
You did action choreography very early in your career but it never became your main activity like for your brother. Why? |
| Bruce Leung : I prefer to be in front of the cameras rather than behind the scenes like my brother. It's more my style and it also makes more money. |
| |
| HKCinemagic : What kind of action film influenced you the most? |
| Bruce Leung : James Bond (smiles). Really. I am not a conservative person; I absorb things from western movies and mix them with fabulous actions which are needed on the screen. I liked the power in their fights because, as I fought for real, I know that after a punch, it's over. And in other Kung Fu movies, the fights were very long, less realistic. So I tried to mix those two things to create my own style. |
|
| HKCinemagic :
You worked on the action direction of Rich And Famous and Tragic Hero. There is a big quality difference in the action of those two movies which were shot at the same time. Can you tell us why?
|
| Bruce Leung : At the origin, it wasn't supposed to be two movies, just one. But it was too long at the end so they cut it in the middle and made it two films, adding in the second part a few things more for. |
|
| HKCinemagic : So, in your eyes, there is no difference in the action between the two?
|
|
| Bruce Leung : Well, the film was complicated to do. There were 4 or 5 directors, all had different opinions, plus the ideas of the producer Michael Mak, I wasn't sure how to do, also it was shot in a very short time. It was a mess, they were not done to be two movies. We finished the shooting, we put scenes together, and it became too long. Some stuff we shot for the end of the second found their way in the first and so on. Everybody was the director, it was impossible to meddle in the directing, with the 5 to 6 award winning actors, much stuff were done spontaneously. But the final result was not up to my expectations. I think it could have been a little bit better. |
|
| HKCinemagic : In the late 1980s, you disappeared from the industry. It is said it was because you were banned from the Taiwanese market. How did that happen?
|
| Bruce Leung : In 1983, I did a TV series which had some success in mainland. And at that time, I was a member of the Liberty Association based in Taiwan and, because of that, I was not supposed to have any relation with the Chinese mainland. I got an invitation from the cultural department in China and they knew I could not go there so we had discussions and agreed I would come secretly. Finally, it was known and that's how I got banned from Taiwan . |
| |
| HKCinemagic : So, it really had a huge impact on your career?
|
| Bruce Leung : Death penalty. |
| |
|
| |
| HKCinemagic : You managed to appear in one other movie even after this event called Like Holy Eight Divine Cane. How did it happen? |
| Bruce Leung : In 1991, China liberalized its restriction on Taiwanese (people). People in Taiwan still remembered me and asked me to do movies again, so I worked again on this first film. |
| |
| HKCinemagic : Still, you only did one.
|
| Bruce Leung :
During those years I could not do much, I got to do business. The reason I did this movie was that many people asked me to return. I took some time out of running my business to shoot the movie. When it's done, I got back to my business, so I stopped again. |
Intext Links
