Guest gfanikf Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 Cahiers: What do you think of Li Lin-jie? Lau K-l: He's still a kid! Very nice. He's beginning to learn how to act but in his very first movie, SHAOLIN TEMPLE, he did absolutely not know how to play comedy. His kung fu can be said to be not bad. When he learned that it was me who would direct, it scared the crap out of him, because he had already seen one of my movies. Cahiers: Shooting a movie in Mainland China -- isn't that going to put you in trouble with Taiwan? Lau K-l: I'm in trouble with Taiwan already. I can't go there anymore. Once again changcheh.0catch.com/lau-int.htm I would really recommend checking this site out. I'm going home to print it out when I get back for my paper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Isfahani Posted April 9, 2007 Share Posted April 9, 2007 Nice stuff, but be careful that site doesn't riddle you with ad/spyware... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Cognoscente Posted May 17, 2021 Member Share Posted May 17, 2021 The anti-Lau sentiment can't have been that widespread or long-lasting. At the 31st Golden Horse Awards (December 10, 1994), he won an award for best action choreography due to Drunken Master II. I like that interview. The Wayback Machine still has archived copies providing you click on the early years. The interview was conducted by: "Olivier Assayas and Charles Tesson, in collaboration with Elizabeth Cazer and Tony Rayns, conducted on April 26, 1984. Translated from Mandarin-Cantonese into French by Cai Kejian. Translated from French into English by Yves Gendron. Smoothed out into more colloquial English by Steven Feldman. Original (pre-Yves Gendron) version published in Cahiers du Cinema 362/363 (September 1984), pp. 26-30." I was completely taken aback by the Bruce Lee references... Cahiers: How did the coming of Bruce Lee change all that? Lau K-l: When Bruce Lee came to Hong Kong, he first contacted Shaws, but they dismissed him because he asked for a condition that was unacceptable: that they relinquish the rights of his movies in the USA. Later, Lo Wei, who appreciated Bruce Lee's value very well, went to find him. From then on, there was a distinction between the kung fu movies (those of Bruce Lee) and the sword-plays (those of Chang Cheh). Later, Chang Cheh departed from Shaws to go to work in Taiwan, because at that time, true sword-plays were dwindling. Cahiers: What do you think of Bruce Lee's kung fu? Lau K-l: When we were kids, we knew each other very well. Bruce Lee was passionate about kung fu. It was his life. His contribution was recognized by those of us who were doing kung fu. He introduced it to the whole wide world. But he was missing something; That was the "Wude" (martial arts philosophy) and the "Xiu yang" (self-control). He only knew how to fight. He hit to hurt, for the pleasure of the strikes. He was too much a Westerner. The traditional Chinese courtesy was alien to him. When you watch his movies, the violence and the power of his blows can't be missed. For us, the principle is Dian dao ji zhi (to stop when we hit the opponent, to know how to retrain yourself and slow down the strike at the very moment of the hit). Someone is really strong in kung fu only if he's able to do that. Bruce Lee was limited in his knowledge of martial arts: his kicks and his boxing -- that was it. Likewise, his "zhaoshu" (gestures) were also quite limited. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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