From the Vault: Interview with Gordon Liu

One of the most exciting yearly events for kung fu fans in the Northeastern US is Master Hu Jianqiang’s annual tournament and demo, sponsored by his Shaolin Wushu Center in Hartford, CT. Master Hu is a former national champion of China and he co-starred in several of Jet Li’s earliest wushu films. Previous tournaments have included special guests like Yu Chenghui and Ji Chunhua of SHAOLIN TEMPLE (1982), Zhao Changjun of BLADE OF FURY (1993), and Gordon Liu, with whom he worked on Lau Kar-leung’s DRUNKEN MASTER 3. Last year Master Hu was too busy opening a branch of his school in Los Angeles to host the tournament, but the 2009 edition of the Greater Hartford International Chinese Martial Arts Festival will take place on May 9 (for more information, go here). Special guests from the kung fu movie world may be announced shortly before the event, but right now it looks like there will be plenty of real martial arts experts. Visitors can expect to see some of the best wushu practitioners in the world.

Gordon Liu (above and left with Hu Jianqiang) in Hartford CT in May 2006.

To highlight the event, I’m reprinting my interview with Gordon Liu from three years ago:

The Greater Hartford International Chinese Martial Arts Tournament, hosted by Hu Jianqiang’s Shaolin Wushu Center, boasted a very special guest this year. The Master Killer himself, Gordon Liu, a longtime fan favorite for his work in films like 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN (1978) and DIRTY HO (1979), attended the tournament and taught a Hung Gar seminar to the starstruck participants. Liu has practiced Hung Gar kung fu for many years. In films like CHALLENGE OF THE MASTERS (1976) and MARTIAL CLUB (1981), he even played Wong Fei-hung, the famous Hung Gar fighter whose life inspired over one hundred films.

“I know all about Wong Fei-hung,” he confided. “You know, I learned Hung Gar. My sifu is Lau Kar-leung’s father (Lau Cham, student of Wong’s disciple Lam Sai-wing). From the Hung Gar first generation, Hung Hei-koon, until now, I’m seventh generation. That’s the history. So when I play Wong Fei-hung, I have a very big responsibility, I cannot lose face before my school.” Liu has been working in the Hong Kong film industry since 1974, when he appeared in a Chang Cheh film, SHAOLIN MARTIAL ARTS (1974), that was choreographed by his adopted brother, Lau Kar-leung. Of all the Shaw Brothers films that he made with Lau, his favorite is EIGHT DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER (1984), for sentimental reasons. “Because I acted with Alexander Fu Sheng. Halfway through the production, he died, so I was very upset. It was very hard. It left me with deep feelings.” 

   Gordon Liu taught a Hung Gar seminar and joined the students for a light-hearted photo session afterwards.

One of Gordon Liu’s landmark films is the oft-sampled SHAOLIN AND WU TANG (1983), which he also directed. That production, with its nonstop action sequences, was a collaboration between Liu and his brother. “Lau Kar-leung was the action director,” he stated. “Everybody just knows Shaolin. They don’t know Wu Tang. Shaolin is very hard and Wu Tang is soft. Wu Tang has the sword and Shaolin has the staff.” Unlike many kung fu films that kill off the villain at the end, SHAOLIN AND WU TANG lightens the mood with comedy in the final scene. “Because Lau Kar-leung and I don’t want it to be too dark at the end.”

Liu has become known to a much wider audience since Quentin Tarentino cast him as both Johnny Mo, the leader of Lucy Liu’s Crazy 88s gang, and the cruel Pai Mei in his homage to action films, KILL BILL (2003-2004). “In Vol. 1, I was just playing Johnny Mo. Quentin was supposed to play Pai Mei.” But Tarantino observed Liu during his first days on the set as Johnny Mo. “He was watching to see how I act, how I fight. Then he decided I would be Pai Mei.” The character Pai Mei was inspired by roles played by Hong Kong actor Lo Lieh – “Quentin likes Lo Lieh very much!” – and Liu modeled his performance on the acting style of those old school films. “Johnny Mo and Pai Mei, both are roles I like, but I like Pai Mei more.”

Johnny Mo has a very cool weapon, a stick that pulls apart into double swords. It was designed by action director Yuen Wo-ping for Liu. “[He] knows my strengths. Sword and bo (staff) are what I’m stronger at.” Once the choreography has been set, Liu still has to interpret it in a way consistent with the part he is playing. “I don’t care who directs the action, because when I fight, it’s my character. The movement is ‘1 – 2 – 3 – 4,’ but when I fight, I’m acting in character. Just like in KILL BILL. When Johnny Mo fights Uma Thurman, it’s to kill, it’s revenge, so I fight very seriously.” But for Pai Mei, “I played that a little bit comedy.” Does he prefer comedy or drama? “Both – it depends on the story. I think my audience expects to see me do kung fu, but sometimes I do ‘comedy action’.”

In the seminar that followed, Liu told his students that Hung Gar was “not beautiful, but powerful”. His demonstrations of the “kiu sau”, the highly articulated hand techniques of Hung Gar, were nevertheless both beautiful and powerful. A video from the seminar is here.

Tags: Gordon Liu, Hu Jianqiang