Jackie's Lo Wei pictures...anyone like any of them?

[Cognoscente]

Jackie was constantly going back and forth between working for Lo Wei and Ng See-Yuen. It's like when Michael J. Fox was alternating between acting on a sitcom (Family Ties) and a movie (Back to the Future).

[WaverBoy]

18 minutes ago, Cognoscente said:

Jackie was constantly going back and forth between working for Lo Wei and Ng See-Yuen. It's like when Michael J. Fox was alternating between acting on a sitcom (Family Ties) and a movie (Back to the Future).

Gotcha. Will Blaik’s essay says that he went to Seasonal, filmed SitES and DM back-to-back, then returned to Lo Wei and started on SKF and DF. And here I thought that the timeline mystery had already been cleared up. Nope; it had only been made more confusing. Looks like the definitive accurate account of the production history of Jackie’s Lo Wei period has yet to be written.

Edited May 29, 2022 by WaverBoy

[Cognoscente]

In HK, it was fairly common to alternate between various projects. Actors like Andy Lau and Stephen Chow took it to the next level in the late eighties and early nineties.

I remember a '90s interview that Jackie did where he was throwing shade (without naming names) at Ching Siu-Tung by making himself look better. Jackie said something to the effect that he is not like some choreographers who alternate between different projects instead of being fixated entirely on one project at a time like a proper filmmaker (I guess Jackie wasn't happy about Ching flitting between working on City Hunter and Stephen Chow's Royal Tramp).

[WaverBoy]

2 hours ago, Cognoscente said:

In HK, it was fairly common to alternate between various projects. Actors like Andy Lau and Stephen Chow took it to the next level in the late eighties and early nineties.

I remember a '90s interview that Jackie did where he was throwing shade (without naming names) at Ching Siu-Tung by making himself look better. Jackie said something to the effect that he is not like some choreographers who alternate between different projects instead of being fixated entirely on one project at a time like a proper filmmaker (I guess Jackie wasn't happy about Ching flitting between working on City Hunter and Stephen Chow's Royal Tramp).

I get that it was common to alternate between projects and studios in HK, but SKF and DF were filmed in South Korea — wouldn’t it have been a huge logistical pain in the ass for Jackie to go back and forth from SK to HK multiple times every month, as opposed to just shooting the two films back to back for Seasonal in HK and then going to SK to shoot SKF and DF?

[Cognoscente]

After SITES, Ng and Lo didn't care how inconvenient it was for Jackie because he was their cash cow.

I'm reminded of what James Glickenhaus said about the making of The Protector: "Jackie was basically like a cash machine to Golden Harvest, they just wanted him to make these chop-sockey, Asian films and comedies and he’d shoot three at a time, and they’d ship him off to Japan where he was allegedly a pop star. They were doing all these promotions with him, to promote his Chinese films, they were sending him to Japan to sing pop songs while we were shooting, we had to flip the schedule so we were actually shooting day for night, it was a bit of a pain in the ass!"

[Kevin Chan]

I was watching Half a Loaf yesterday (not as good as I have remembered) and noticed that in the beginning Jackie was wearing that terrible wig from Snake & Crane, but the more the movie progressed the more he could be seen with his real hair and a different kind of pony tail. I wonder if that's also due to a potentially long production period: Maybe in the beginning his hair was rather short so he used a wig, but in the end it was long enough naturally so they ditched the wig. Or maybe the wig got damaged or they just didn't care about continuity, lol.

[Cognoscente]

It's interesting how the finales of both films feature Jackie with more natural hair in comparison to the rest of the footage.

[Killer Meteor]

7 hours ago, WaverBoy said:

I get that it was common to alternate between projects and studios in HK, but SKF and DF were filmed in South Korea — wouldn’t it have been a huge logistical pain in the ass for Jackie to go back and forth from SK to HK multiple times every month, as opposed to just shooting the two films back to back for Seasonal in HK and then going to SK to shoot SKF and DF?

SKF was partly shot in Taiwan - the big fight with the Lo Hans uses that red wall temple from that country.

[Killer Meteor]

2 hours ago, Cognoscente said:

After SITES, Ng and Lo didn't care how inconvenient it was for Jackie because he was their cash cow.

I'm reminded of what James Glickenhaus said about the making of The Protector: "Jackie was basically like a cash machine to Golden Harvest, they just wanted him to make these chop-sockey, Asian films and comedies and he’d shoot three at a time, and they’d ship him off to Japan where he was allegedly a pop star. They were doing all these promotions with him, to promote his Chinese films, they were sending him to Japan to sing pop songs while we were shooting, we had to flip the schedule so we were actually shooting day for night, it was a bit of a pain in the ass!"

Could have been worse, could have been Jimmy Wang Yu.

[Cognoscente]

Which reminds me - it's peculiar that Jimmy only got Jackie to repay the favour only two times with Fantasy Mission Force and Island of Fire. You would think that Jimmy could have got him to either appear in more movies or at least make himself a producer on all of Jackie's movies post-fallout with Lo Wei. Hell, Jimmy should have forced Jackie to do The Millionaire's Express, so that he could exploit the star-studded connection.

[WaverBoy]

4 hours ago, Cognoscente said:

After SITES, Ng and Lo didn't care how inconvenient it was for Jackie because he was their cash cow.

I'm reminded of what James Glickenhaus said about the making of The Protector: "Jackie was basically like a cash machine to Golden Harvest, they just wanted him to make these chop-sockey, Asian films and comedies and he’d shoot three at a time, and they’d ship him off to Japan where he was allegedly a pop star. They were doing all these promotions with him, to promote his Chinese films, they were sending him to Japan to sing pop songs while we were shooting, we had to flip the schedule so we were actually shooting day for night, it was a bit of a pain in the ass!"

But I’d think it would have been easier and less expensive for Ng and Lo to have Jackie do the two Seasonal films back-to-back and then shoot SKF and DF back-to-back. Doesn’t make sense.

[Cognoscente]

In an interview for a British magazine in the early '90s, Ng See-Yuen told Bey Logan that Jackie was wanted by Triads eager to exploit his stardom. Oscillating between productions in different countries was a way to shake them off his tail.

I can imagine that Lo and Ng had certain backers who wouldn't have the patience to wait for Jackie to film an entire movie before they get to work with him. It reminds me of an anecdote that Ng had about Conan Lee. A Triad producer came up to Ng about wanting to use him, Ng said he could but only after Conan did one for Ng. Sadly, the latter was beaten. Time is money, and misers can't wait!

[Killer Meteor]

2 hours ago, Cognoscente said:

Which reminds me - it's peculiar that Jimmy only got Jackie to repay the favour only two times with Fantasy Mission Force and Island of Fire. You would think that Jimmy could have got him to either appear in more movies or at least make himself a producer on all of Jackie's movies post-fallout with Lo Wei. Hell, Jimmy should have forced Jackie to do The Millionaire's Express, so that he could exploit the star-studded connection.

I suspect FMF was the sole favour. Island of Fire...well, Jackie's not the only major HK star in that, they can't all have owed Wang Yu! Could they?

[Cognoscente]

In the January '96 issue of Impact, Jackie implied it...

Impact: You mentioned that you never had pressure put on you to make films, but you did make a film for Wang Yu in Taiwan, Island of Fire. Why did do you that?

Jackie: Because of Wang Yu. He watched me grow up. When I was young, he was already a big star. You already know Wang Yu's (Triad) background. For all those years, he treated me like his younger brother. He asked me to come and help him, to be a guest star, but there wasn't any pressure. Some other people, yes. Not me.

Sammo claimed that he starred in it willingly because he was on good terms with JWY.

https://tw.news.yahoo.com/王羽籌拍-火燒島-成演員絕口不提黑歷史-成龍-為償還人情-072650665.html

Director Chu Yen-Ping claimed that both himself and Jackie were forced to do the movie...

 

[starschwar]

Island of Fire really does feel like the director was coming from a different place (in this case, coercion) than Fantasy Mission Force.  FMF was cracked out insanity, but it was full of imagination, creativity, energy.  I don't know exactly towards what end, but there really was passion in it.  Island of Fire just felt too ordinary by comparison.

[Cognoscente]

Funny how Chu got to direct Jackie on both occasions.

Imagine if he had been the one to direct City Hunter.

[FightingFool]

I wish would like "spiritual kung fu" more. There are some good stuff in film but when spirits appear feel like that scene goes on and on and on. And it`s boring stuff. On positive note spirits made smile at end fight...

[Cognoscente]

Going by their particular hairstyle, I wonder if Lo Wei was a fan of Toyah Willcox.

[Killer Meteor]

Or Bonnie Langford.

[Killer Meteor]

Do we have Taiwanese release dates for the JC/Lo Wei films?

[WaverBoy]

11 hours ago, FightingFool said:

I wish would like "spiritual kung fu" more. There are some good stuff in film but when spirits appear feel like that scene goes on and on and on. And it`s boring stuff. On positive note spirits made smile at end fight...

Aw, I like the ghosts, especially their signature head ornaments ❤️

[FightingFool]

4 minutes ago, WaverBoy said:

Aw, I like the ghosts, especially their signature head ornaments ❤️

I give it another(well saw it 1st time like 25 years ago think name was karate ghostbusters) go in some weeks..Like said earlier there is indeed some good stuff in movie...And it was hilarious way spirits helped to overcome villain. And I do not even like comedic kung fu in general..or sometimes do but not that big fan of genre.

Edited May 31, 2022 by FightingFool

[Cognoscente]

Lo Wei must have followed Bruce Lee's path in taking drugs to help himself come up with characters.

[FightingFool]

1 minute ago, Cognoscente said:

Lo Wei must have followed Bruce Lee's path in taking drugs to help himself come up with characters.

It kinda sucks he made best movies when at Shaws...tho this should maybe be posted to unpopular opinion thread...

[Killer Meteor]

It's interesting that when he was at Shaws and Golden Harvest, Lo Wei nearly always cast himself in a prominent speaking role - the main exception being THE BIG BOSS, of which he was not the original director. But once he started his own production company, he only appears on film for the pre-credits sequence of NEW FIST OF FURY...and if you look real fast, he is the "mystery dad" in SPIRITUAL KUNG FU when you see the character giving the kung fu manual to James Tien,