HKCM:You
said in an interview that one of the filmmakers that influenced you was Stephen Chow.
Clement Cheng: Everybody is influenced by him, everyone.
HKCM:
You cannot beat him on his own turf.
Clement Cheng:
Of course I cannot beat him; no one can, he's the best. He's the king. What I didn't want is for people to go to see the movie and recognize [his style] and say: “Oh, this is very Stephen Chow." I purposely avoided that.
Tiger takes care of Dragon.
HKCM:
You avoided the reference.
Clement Cheng: Yes. At the beginning of the script, it wasn't a preserved duck but a salted fish. Because in Shaolin Soccerthey always talk about the salted fish [Ed.: the salted fish is a Chinese metaphor for old and rotten]. That's why I purposely avoided it. Everybody is heavily influenced by him and this movie is purposely, consciously going the other way. We don't reflect anything of him.