Hong Kong Cinemagic
Version française English version
 Capsule Reviews   English Board   Facebook  
 People
 Movies
 Movie Studios
 Glossary
 Your Settings

HKCine Search
Switch to Google Search
>> Help

 Film directors
 Actors
 Technicians
 Producers

 Comedy
 Drama & Opera

 Shaw Brothers
 Film Industry
 Cultural & Societal

 DVD Tests
 HK Cinema Books
 Where to buy?

 OST & Music
 PDF & E-books
 VIP Guestbook

 Site Map
 Editos Archives
 Staff
 Site History
 Links
 Visitor guestbook
 Aknowledgement
 HKCinemagic 2

Statistics :
11630 Movies
19215 People
1448 Studios
29 Articles
73 Interviews
12 DVD Reviews
32452 Screenshots
3722 Videos
Conversations with Peter Chan Ho Sun
The Warlords 4/8 - Page 11
Info
Author(s) : Thomas Podvin
Date : 27/10/2008
Type(s) : Interview
 
 Intext Links  
People :
Tony Ching Siu Tung
Sammo Hung Kam Bo
Lau Kar Leung
Jet Li
Corey Yuen Kwai
Yuen Woo Ping
Movies :
Going Home
 
< Previous
Page 10 : Censoring
 
Next >
Page 12 : Women


High contrast
HKCinemagic : Let’s talk about visuals. What instructions did you give to director of photography Arthur Wong?
Peter Chan : I wanted the film to be in very high contrast. I wanted the film to be very frightening to the eye, very harsh. I wanted to feel the burning sun, that it’s actually uncomfortable. I wanted the audience to feel the discomfort that the characters feel. So it needs to be very hot and have very high contrast. And we chose a digital color correction of what we called a hot copper tone. It’s not exactly cold and yellow, but it makes everything like that. We decreased the color of the first two thirds of the film. We also used a lot of half shutter. We open the shutter to 90 degree or even more.
 
HKCinemagic : It’s a technique Spielberg used in Saving Private Ryan, didn’t he?
Peter Chan : He used it. And I also used it in Three (Going Home). When Leon got arrested. So we used a lot of that. Very little slow motion/high speed. And everything seems very real.

Xu Jinglei and Arthur Wong
A flexible kung fu
HKCinemagic : As for action design, there is not fantasy kung fu inside, just real fighting. But you used action choreographer Ching Siu Tung, most famous for his fantasy swordplay films. How did you work with him?
Peter Chan : Yes, when we think of him we think he is the master of unreal, of wires. But, who else? You could name Yuen Woo Ping, but he could shoot only one on one fights. Yuen Woo Ping doesn’t like to shoot more than one on one fight. So who you can go to? You can go to Yuen Kwai, who is also a very good friend of mine. The only thing we could do is to find someone who is the most flexible person in HK. We decided on Tony Ching Siu Tung, because he doesn’t just do wired works. Even if Ching is not an expert of this kind of film nobody is.

And the rumor has that Jet Li will only work with three choreographers: Ching, Corey Yuen Kwai or Yuen Woo Ping. So he only works with the best. Other choreographers they will be scared in front of Jet because Jet knows so much about action. That is very hard for a very young up and coming action director to approach him. And there is really no young up and coming guy around anyway.


The action director Tony Ching Siu Tung and the director Peter Chan
HKCinemagic : Still, there is Sammo Hung or Lau Kar Leung.
Peter Chan : I am just hearing rumors. But anyway, all I am saying is that I thought Ching was the one who had the most flexibility, because he changes all the time, he could adapt to whatever the director wants and gives him the best. He is willing to explore new ideas. Chinese are not very good at changing. Whatever they are good at they stay put. And action people are even more like that. So I thought Ching Siu Tung was the most flexible.
HKCinemagic : We can say it is your first action film. So what do you think of this genre?

Peter Chan : It’s not easy. Making it was difficult because there were a lot of uncertainties in my part. For action, I cannot constantly tell people exactly what I want with a lot of confidence. I can describe you roughly what I want, but I can’t do it and cannot tell you how to do it. Whereas in drama films, I can tell you exactly what I want. And if anybody says I don’t know what it is I can explain exactly what it is.
In action, all I can say to Ching is what I told you, and wait until he shows me something to say “no that’s not right, we got to redo it.” By the time you say that’s not right, it’s three days later and half a million dollars later. So it is not easy.

I was lucky that we got through this rather painlessly. But it could have been a disaster. Ching can show you some action that you can greatly dislike. And then you try to tell him how to do but you don’t know how. You only know what you want but you don’t know how to do it.

So it is not easy. Unless, you make the kind of action film where you can actually go to a DVD shop, point to a film and say I want it exactly like that. But I can’t because there is nothing that has been made like that.

 
HKCinemagic : So Ching came up with different options, and you had to choose.
Peter Chan : Yes.
 
Page :  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11   12  13  14  15  Top
Previous :
Page 10 : Censoring
Next :
Page 12 : Women

 Advertise with Google AdSense   Submit a review   Contact   FAQ   Terms of use   Disclaimer   Error Report  
copyright ©1998-2013 hkcinemagic.com