Editor/director David Wu Taiwai (not David Wu Dawei, the actor in Full Throttle) is one of the rare film technicians celebrated internationally for his sense of editing has transcended fast-paced actions flicks from HK. Montage has indeed played an important role in the global recognition of HK action cinema from the 1980s-90s. Wu’s signature slow-motion and fast-cut editing of John Woo’s action movies has become a trademark of HK films from this period, before spreading to films from the rest of the world.
Wu started his career in the 1970s, working with director Chang Cheh and editing his masterpiece The New One-Armed Swordsman final scene. He then wormed his way through the mythic Shaw Brothers studio. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the prolific film editor collaborated with arguably the best action Chinese directors of the time: Tsui Hark (Gunmen, Big Heat, Swordsman); John Woo (The Killer, Bullet In The Head, Hard Boiled); and Ronny Yu (The Bride with White Hair 1 and 2). He also wrote scripts, produced, acted and directed many films.
With the decline of the film industry, Wu relocated to North America (Vancouver, B.C.) in 1995, and directed and edited a string of films and mini-series (Merlin’s Apprentice, The Snow Queen, Son of a Dragon, G Spot), playing down his editing zeal.
Most recently, Wu has directed a USD 13-million Sino-Canadian co-production, one that doesn’t demands hyper kinetic action, Iron Road (with Betty Sun Li, Peter O’Toole, Tony Leung Ka-Fai). The film, based on an opera by Chan Ka Nin and Mark Brownell, is rather a romantic cum adventure flick and Wu has abandoned his visual signature for more down to earth filmmaking.
We caught up with Wu to check if his past had determined his present.
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David Wu : The way we made movies in HK has given me a powerful gear to execute a plan to make the days in a very systematic structure of movie-making in North America.
Back in HK we shot in “guerilla” system, which is to shoot and tell a story economically, while here in America we spent a lot of time and effort on pre-productions and meetings and paper works. It’s a good thing. Good preparations do give a lot of advantages to avoid things go wrong. I especially appreciate the safety prep here better than in HK. And every single department has their duties and responsibility. I must say I felt very spoiled the first time I set foot on the set here in North America, eleven years ago. I remembered one night when we were filming a big exterior action scene at night; I lost my brief case in the chaos of unit move. Less than ten minutes later, my assistant director told me they had secured it in my trailer. We Hong Kong directors never had the luxury to have a trailer, we were lucky enough to have a chair. |
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