My plan questions for Gordon Liu at Fantasia

[Kung-Fu Scholar]

When I learned that Gordon Liu would be a guest at the Fantasia Fest this summer I set myself to write down a series of questions that would explore his life and career as thoroughly as possible. With at least several dozens questions planned I think I ended up perhaps going a bit overboard. Unfortunately while I did made a request for an interview it never happenned as he was too busy or I was unavailable when he was free. So in the end I had to contend myslef with a photo, a shake hand and a signature. Ah well it's better that nothing.

Now as a courtesy to my follow contributers and k-f movies fan, I'm posting the questions I was planning to ask. Even if they don't come with any answers I'm pretty sure some of you might have a ball reading them. There's so many it will take two posts to list them all.

Hope you find them interesting. Let my know what you think.

Gordon Liu questions

Early question

-Movie names (cantonese and mandarin), English name (), Othername) (Real name)

Hung Gar days

How did you get to do hung gar and why such style. .

Start in movies

-How did you get to do movies

-When and where did you learn acting for how long, who were your teachers

-How did you get to be name Lau Kar Fai? When?

-Is Lau Kar Fei just a stage name for you Do you still use you real name in everyday live.

-How your blood family felt about you becoming an actor and then a k-f movie star?

--How did you react when Lau Kar Leung cast you as a young Wong Fei Hung in Challenge of the Master

-Who came up with the surname «*Gordon*» and when?

-Is there any truth to the rumor that the Shaw forbate their actor the use of english surname.

Gordon Liu movies star

-How becoming a star change your life . ...

-You Had an hard time of 36 Chambers of shaolin was ii your most difficult shoot ever?

-Once you got establish as a kung-fu star did you receive offers by producers to lure you away from The Shaw Studio.

-Favorite rôle ever

-Most challenging part.

-Best fight ever.

-Most memorable film experience (for what movie)

-Who was your voice dubber.

-Did you feel the voice dub at time added to the character performance in a way you did not inticipate.

-First own dub.

-Voice dub your most proud of.or please with

-What was Eight Diagram Pole Fighter original story before Fu Sheng tragic passing?

-After the closure of Shaw Brother we don't see you in movies for a couple of years what did you do....

-Had you considered retired at that point. What made you chose to stay in movies.

-Favorite later movies.

Gordon Lau The muscicien

-What sort of music you like, your music idol.

-Do you regert not having push your musical career further.

TV career

TV career the black hole for western fan.

-how many serial and since when.

-best and/or favorite TV part ever,

-best series

-Best performance.

-After having played San Tok, Wong Fei Hung, Wen Ting, and Bak, Mei with other k-f heroes would you like to play.

-What next for Gordon Liu.

[Kung-Fu Scholar]

You got into the Lau family by being adopted by Lau Kar Leung's mother. What was her name, how was she like, what style did she do, did she try to pass it to you, did she look like any heroine from Lau Kar Leung movies.

-Lau Jaam date of birth, dead, personnality, did he live long enough to see Lau Kar Leung movies, how did he feel about them.

-Favorite kung-fu techniques and weapons. Why?

-The head butt strike: is it real or just made up for the movies.

-Besides hung gar what other k-f technique did you lears or at least got familiar with during your movie career.

-Ever been challenged or ever fought for rea.l

-How close did you ever come to fight for real.

-Ever wondred how good you were,fighting wise How do you put you skill to the test without resoring to violenc

-How did you get to do movies with Lau Kar Wing

-Wong Yu; how well was in train in k-f. how good (or Bad) was he at it.

-Personnalit/Pranks/interesting stories about him (Wong Yu)

When you shave your head did you thought wow I look like Yul Breynner.

-Do you know the Yul Breyner/Ultimate warrior Anecdote for Rick Meyer

-For Heroes of the East where did you recruit Japanese opponents.

-How did they take to have to lose to Chinese k-f.-Did they ever protest (I can't do that it's not japeneses or it's a dumb move)

-Did they have any input in the choregraphy or were they strictly following instruction.

-Did you fraternize or was it just strictly business.

-Dirty Ho most unusuel movie for Lau Kar leung how did it came about.

-How did you prepare to play the prince a rôle so unlike your previous parts. Did you feel up to it when you were cast

-Return to 36 chambers fully fledge comic rôle. How did you do it to play such a clown

-Ultimate fight with Wang Lung Wei for the finale of Martial Club (The alley fight) how long did it take to shoot. Was it you best fight was him.

Trained woman (?) -Kara Wei.

God father from Kwantung how did it camebout.

-Korean movies in early eighties how did it came about

--What's the Story behind Shaolin vs Wutang credited to you but reportedly done by Lau Kar Leung. Why. Where was it shot.

--ever any input in the choregraphy, or did you just fellow instruction to the letter.

-Injuries.

-Besides acting what else did you do in the Shaw Brother Studio (promotion, training?)

-Trip abroad in the early eighties. Any anecdotes. Your reaction of westerner attention.

-How do you feel about the Masterkiller surname

-Best martial art movie ever IYO? (besides those of Lau Kar Leung)

-You been practicing hung gar for more than 40 years. What would be IYO the strengh and weaknesses of the style.

-How long did it take you to get a grasp of it.

-what future for such a style...considering competing easier more parctical styles

-How do you feel about Quentin Tarentino, and his work.

-How did he tell you to play your character, what sort of indiaction did he gave you. Were they detail and precese or did he just let you do your thing.

[Kwok Choi]

Ask him to throw some light on Robert Tai's story about the clash between the Liu Chia Liang camp versus the Venoms.True or false we have been dying to know the truth.What actually happened?

[Kwok Choi]

Do I take it that these were the questions you were planning to ask but it never happened and instead you want to share the questions with us to find out what we think? If so sorry,my bad,I misunderstood.

[silver hermit]

man.. you really should have posted these earlier, when he was in toronto he spent a great deal of time with one of the posters here but i won't say any names. maybe he'll be back as his relatives live here... maybe. great post by the way i will have to save these for future

[kungfusamurai]

When he was in Toronto a few weeks ago, he did a brief Q&A with an audience at a screening of Heroes of The East. He talked about learning kung fu secretly as a youngster because his dad didn't approve of it. He said his favorite movie wasn't one that was directed by Pops because he was such a tough director. He felt bad for Wong Yue because Wong couldn't let go of the glory days of the Shaw Brothers years. He lived in the past, and he thinks that led to his health problems, so one should look to the future and not to the past. And if there was the prospect of Tarantino doing a Pai Mei movie with Liu playing the role again he said 'I wish'.

KFS

[Asmo]

I can tell you that LKL's mother practiced Wing Chun (I guess she knew Hung Gar too). I remember reading an old interview with LKL where he related how his mother would say stuff to the effect of 'Your father's kung fu is outdated! I shall teach you mine".

[Kung-Fu Scholar]

Do I take it that these were the questions you were planning to ask but it never happened and instead you want to share the questions with us to find out what we think? If so sorry,my bad,I misunderstood.

That's the idea yes.

great post by the way i will have to save these for future

Thanks

I can tell you that LKL's mother practiced Wing Chun (I guess she knew Hung Gar too). I remember reading an old interview with LKL where he related how his mother would say stuff to the effect of 'Your father's kung fu is outdated! I shall teach you mine".

I'm the one who translated the interview from French to english years ago.

(it originates from a 1984 Cahier du cinema piece) Even though I know the wing chun answer I'm asking anyway hoping from a more elaborate responce.

Best.

[FrankBolte]

-Lau Jaam date of birth, dead, personnality, did he live long enough to see Lau Kar Leung movies, how did he feel about them.

.

if I may,I have not the birthdate but the year when Lau Jaam passed away,it was 1960. He was very famous in southern china,specially in the martial arts scene...many old masters in HK still talk very respectful about LJ.

[HAZ]

Here is an article from the Gazette that people might find of interest:

Fantasia loves Gordon Liu

Actor and martial artist Gordon Liu was presented to Fantasia audiences at least three times during his visit to the festival and he got a standing ovation every time. It looked like this enthusiastic reception made him really happy.

When I talked to him, we were interrupted several times (politely) by fans who came over to express their admiration and ask if they could take photos. He always obliged with a smile.

Our chat was all over the map, so there might not be much structure to this post.

Liu grew up in Hong Kong. His father wanted him to be an accountant. (Ha! Take a moment to picture Liu, slicing through thick ledger books with a powerful blow of his hand....)

A story I read on the Internet said he had gone to some English schools and yet most of my questions to him got translated into Cantonese by Fantasia staff. When I questioned this, one of the guys said with a laugh, “He was not studying (English) very hard.”

Liu got good marks in general though, and contrary to some reports did not skip school to practice kung fu. Because of all this translation I don’t have many direct quotes. I asked Liu about the prevailing attitude toward kung fu in his youth. He said that back then it was not studied as much as it is today. There was only a small group of people who cared about it annd most people did not regard it as an art form or a discipline. It was used mainly for fighting by delinquent types or those trying to defend themselves from those same delinquents. People learned it to survive, not with thoughts of becoming a master. The philosophical aspects were not of much interest to them. It wasn’t studied much by the well-educated. People who didn’t need to defend themselves had no use for it. After all, being good at kung fu wouldn’t help you find a job, and getting ahead is what it’s all about in Hong Kong, as we well know from our movie watching!

For some time Liu took his lessons secretly, not telling his parents. I asked how he paid for them then? Through cutting back on other things, he said. Saving his lunch money, walking instead of taking buses, etc. I asked him about his preferred style, Hung gar. He said that was the oldest style practiced in the area and that his teacher was a 7th generation practitioner of it. The horse stance is crucial in Hung gar and it can take many years to learn to do it properly.

I asked him if much research was done before making the Shaw Bros. films, were the clothes accurate for the period, etc. He said they were. And that he saw these films as not just entertainment but as a way to learn how to be a good man, and for Chinese people to know their history. You could tell from the way he talked about it that knowing one’s own history is a very important thing for him.

I asked him if he gets any kind of residual payments from DVD sales of his popular Shaw Bros. movies. Sadly, he does not. There weren’t any unions back then to look after the actors financial interests, let alone their physical safety. Here he rolled up his sleeves and showed me some scars acquired from long ago movie-set accidents. There wasn’t any insurance and there weren’t any schedules Or if there were, the actors never saw them. They would show up, rehearse, then shoot. Whatever the director wanted then to do, they did. They were never told in advance what that might be, whether it involved a fight or some dangerous leaps or other stunts.

What movies did he grow up with? In the 1950s and 1960s he saw lots of movies based on the life on Wong Fei Hong (a real person for those who don’t know.) When he was young there weren’t that many Western movies being shown in Hong Kong, but when they became more common he developed an admiration for the Ben-Hur era Charlton Heston, because he was a a strong hero. Later heroes included Clint Eastwood, Alain Delon and Charles Bronson.

I asked if his appearances in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2 had led people to check out his earlier movies and he said that they certainly had. People would ask themselves, “Who’s that guy? What else has he done?” Of course, as noted above, this increased his fame but not his bank account. Liu recently worked on a Bollywood movie, Chandni Chowk Goes To China,which he said is being edited now. It might be released in October.

Shooting took place in India, Thailand, Beijing and Shanghai. He said he enjoyed his time in India, worked well with the director and that he would welcome more foreign projects. He doesn’t want to confine himself to Hong Kong and wants to keep developing as an actor by challenging himself. He hopes people can continue to rediscover his old movies (not just because he's in them!) to take elements and inspiration from them for today’s films.

He lamented the fact that so much of the “kung fu” in today’s movies is done through wirework and CGI and that most of the actors don’t know kung fu at all. He hopes that some will learn it. He still practices kung fu several hours a day, in his home gym or sometimes on a beach. The sea brings him a Zen feeling, helping him to feel calm and freeing his imagination.

At the mention of “beach” we all reminisced a bit about the scene in the Jet Li movie Once Upon a Time in China where hundred of bare-chested guys are practicing their moves on a beach at sunset. To a real cool soundtrack.

Which gives me an excellent segue into.... ...music, Gordon Liu’s second passion. He’s a pretty animated and enthusiastic guy anyway, but did his face ever light up at the word music. He said that he would feel unfulfilled and empty without it. He has a studio in his home where he plays guitar and likes to jam with his friends.

One of the first songs he learned was 500 Miles. It’s been recorded by many people, but the version he’d heard was by Peter and Gordon.

(FYI: It’s a kind of folkie lament:

If you miss the train I’m on

You will know that I am gone,

For I’m 500 miles away from home.....)

The feeling is similar to Four Strong Winds by Canucks Ian and Sylvia. We did a 20 second duet of 500 Miles....too bad no one got it on tape!

He says he likes the older songs the best and named the Beatles, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Hendrix among his favourite artists. He likes Jim Croce, too, and even knows who John Martyn is. I was impressed by that one.

He said he often listens to hard rock during his kung fu workouts. He pointed out that just like music, kung fu is very rhythmic.

I think this covers most of our talk. I apologize for not posting this interview sooner, but I’ve been watching up to five films a day at Fantasia and the prospect of deciphering my interview notes at the end of those very long days was somewhat daunting.

I’ll try to return to this post later to add some of the pictures I took of Liu and his fans.

Liz Ferguson

[Asmo]

Great article.