by WADE MAJOR
Hong Kong Action section. Reprinted courtesy of Entertainment Today.
1999

Thanks Nameless!

Hong Kong Legend Chow Yun-fat Talks About His Burgeoning Hollywood Career in his Second English-language Film, The Corruptor

Even fifty feet away, there’s no mistaking the man or the smile; the air is so thick with charm and charisma that it almost takes on a life of its own. By the time Chow Yun-fat shakes your hand, it’s hard not to swoon. Few movie stars in Hollywood or elsewhere possess this kind of presence. He is, in every sense of the term, a celebrity, a movie star, a superstar. And if you’re not already a fan, stick around.

After a decade climbing through Hong Kong's rough-and-tumble ranks, Chow rocketed to superstardom during the early- and mid-1980’s portraying edgy, tainted heroes and likable gangsters in the films of directors John Woo and Ringo Lam. A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Hard-Boiled, Full Contact and City on Fire are only a few of his memorable classics.

With his English-language debut just two years ago in The Replacement Killers, Chow inaugurated a new Hollywood phase of his career, a step that many say will at least replicate the success he enjoyed in Hong Kong. To be sure, there is no mistaking the character he plays in his newest film, The Corruptor. Like his most popular Hong Kong characters, Chow’s NYPD detective Chen is a tainted hero in search of a soul, a Chinatown cop whose reliance on favoritism from Triad organized crime bosses seems to have hopelessly distorted his sense of morality. Until, that is, he is inexplicably paired with a young Caucasian partner-Danny Wallace (Mark Wahlberg)-through whom he finally sees a chance at redemption.

THE INTERVIEW

Q: The first film I saw you in was back in the early 1980’s, even before A Better Tomorrow, a little film called Hong Kong…

A: Hong Kong 1941! (laughs)

Q: Which you won an award for didn’t you?

A: Yes. I won the Taiwanese Golden Horse and the Asian-Pacific Award.

Q: I have to say, that in view of the persona you’ve evolved since that time, it’s almost strange to see you in something so romantic and tame today. It seems that now people almost can’t imagine you without a gun in your hand. Do you ever feel burdened by the image you’ve created? Or is it always a challenge?

A: As an actor, I would say it this way - I will cooperate with all the props, all the lines, all the elements on the set to create harmony, to project in front of the camera and make it work. If you say, “Yun-fat, can you be a Kung Fu or a martial arts actor?” I’ll say, “Yes. If you give me ten years, forty years for training, maybe I’ll do better than Jackie Chan or Jet Li!”

Q: Many other actors and directors who’ve come here from Hong Kong have mixed feeling about the artistic trade-off. In general, do you prefer Hollywood or Hong Kong?

A: I can say that it’s better here. For an actor, we have better treatment and better money, of course. You’re talking about seven or eight times as much. There is also more freedom, more time for an actor to prepare for his role. And, of course, it’s more professional while you are shooting. The only difficulty is the language. You have to work on that. But otherwise, I totally agree that working in Hollywood is one of the dreams of every actor.

Q: Did you or John (Woo) ever imagine, even at the peak of your collaboration, that you might both be coming to Hollywood someday?

A: No. I never thought about it. Never.

Q: Because already at the time of The Killer, there was buzz about bringing Hong Kong talent to Hollywood. Even then you never imagined?

A: No. Because at that time I still had an exclusive contract with my company. That’s why I had plenty of time to work with John Woo and Ringo Lam, because we were with the same company. I was the exclusive actor in the company, so I got shared with different directors. At the time, John Woo was under Tsui Hark at Film Workshop. And Film Workshop was one of the Golden Princess subsidiary companies. All the Ringo Lam movies, the John Woo movies, the Tsui Hark movies were under the same company. So, even though we knew that we had some good news from the West, we still never thought that one day we could move here. Then, in 1991, when John Woo made Hard Target with Van Damme, his partner (now Chow’s manager) Terence Chang said to me, “Are you interested in moving over? We have plenty of friends waiting for you.” So I thought, “Maybe it’s a good time for us to export our world to Hollywood.” And my wife tried pushing me very hard at the time, too. She lined up all these meetings, and we started meeting with agents to see if anyone was interested. Then, my exclusive contract expired in 1993 and we moved here in 1994. Then, in 1996, I shot my first Hollywood movie, The Replacement Killers.

Q: Which brings us to The Corruptor, which is very much in keeping with your persona - you’re heroic, but still deeply flawed. What made this the right project to follow The Replacement Killers?

A: Honestly, at the very beginning, when I signed up my agent, they set up tons and tons of meetings. Finally, we worked out a schedule - the first film would be The Replacement Killers, the second The Corruptor, the third Anna and the King, and fourth would be King’s Ransom. So until I’ve finished King’s Ransom, I don’t have the right to pick any projects of my own. I’m still a new kid here! Anything, if you name it, just put me in it, I’ll be very happy about it.

Q: But that’s certain to change, considering how quickly your following is growing. Americans, too, seem to be connecting with the characters you play, because they’re so different, so unique relative to what American action stars do.

A: I have to thank my early boss at the TV station where I started working in 1973, when I got into the training class. It was one year of training and I stuck with the same TV station for 14 years. During that time, maybe every day I’d suffer a lot, physically and mentally because sometimes you work twenty hours per day, eight days per week. But it gives you tons and tons of acting ability and acting experience, every day playing a different role in a different TV series. There’s a lot of soap opera, drama, melodrama, comedy. Every day you have to finish about twenty to thirty scenes of all kinds. So I have a lot of data already stored up in my mind. Once, as an actor, you go through a character, it’s in your blood. What I did in the John Woo movies - The Killer or even Ringo Lam’s City on Fire - that’s like a lot of what I did on TV. Now when you see The Corruptor, I did a lot of this character in my old Hong Kong movies. So nothing is really new for me. I think people want a certain kind of performance from me. They don’t want to see another kind of Yun-fat. He must play in-between the Devil and God. This takes a certain kind of ability for an actor, to be so specific. I like Bogart, I like how he always plays his characters with a secret, a very low voice. I think every star, every actor, they have their trademark. This is my trademark.

Q: What is it about these characters that so compels your fans?

A: I don’t know why. I can maybe explain it because of my background in Hong Kong. When I was young, when I was popular on TV, I did a lot of naughty things. But I have a good side - I respect my mother, take care of my family. No matter how bad the news about me in the newspaper, people always have the idea that Yun-fat is not that bad because he takes care of his mother, he’s a very good son. So once they go to the cinema, if they know this guy in the picture is very bad, maybe they think about the reality of Yun-fat. To me, this is amazing. This is the human bond, between the audience and the actor. When I go to the cinema, one of these actors I like the most is William Hurt - every single move, every single look, I feel it, I touch it. And I don’t know why.

Q: Until A Better Tomorrow, nobody thought about Hong Kong movies as having that kind of style or quality. All they thought of were poorly-dubbed Kung Fu films and period films. Then, suddenly, you and John and Jackie Chan and Tsui Hark created a caliber of films with the New Wave that were taken seriously. You proved that there was real filmmaking talent in Hong Kong. What brought this transition about?

A: I think it’s not by coincidence. A lot of the younger generation during the 70’s migrated to United States or Canada to study in the film industry. They wanted to be filmmakers. Then, because many new Hong Kong TV stations started up in the 1970’s, they needed new blood, so they absorbed a lot of new talent. On the other hand, a TV station is very good training for young students once they graduate from UCLA or USC. So when they come back to Hong Kong, they work as an assistant director. Then, by the time they have the experience they need, the King Fu movies are no more. So in the early 1980’s, the economy is booming and these young, new filmmakers decided to invest in something new. That created the environment to make good movies from the mid-80’s to the early 1990’s. Now, it’s no more. Everybody is gone. It lasted just six or seven years.

Q: But you and John will work together again here.

A: Yes. That’s The King’s Ransom. After he’s done Mission: Impossible part two and I’ve done Anna and the King.

Q: Which will be an interesting switch for you…

A: Yes. It’s not a musical.

Q: And it’s a kind of role you haven’t played in a long time.

A: Oh, yeah. Tons and tons of dialogue. And a lot of passionate moments with Jodie Foster.

Q: So you’re looking forward to it?

A: Oh, I’m dying for it.

Q: Have you and Jodie already met and talked about it?

A: Yes. I love her. I just love her.

Q: When does that start shooting?

A: In March. In Malaysia. And I can’t wait.

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