A Tribute to Action Choreographers

Three years ago, I heard about an event that caused me to seriously consider dropping everything and jumping on a plane to Hong Kong, cost be damned. The occasion was the 30th Hong Kong International Film Festival, held in April 2006 – more specifically, the festival program titled “A Tribute to Action Choreographers.” Lau Kar-leung, Yuen Woo-ping, Sammo Hung, and Ching Siu-tung were among the honored attendees. Only the conviction that it would be impossible to score a ticket at such short notice kept me at home, sulking.

The silver lining was an announcement by the HKIFF that a book documenting the tribute would be compiled from interviews and archival material, and published soon after the event. Sure enough, “A Tribute to Action Choreographers” appeared on the festival’s website later in the year. Unfortunately, I could never get the online order option to work, and, believe me, I tried many times. Recently I was able to score a copy on eBay, and now I can recommend the book without qualification to any serious student of kung fu choreography. Maybe if enough potential buyers speak up, a savvy dealer will make more copies available!

The heart of “A Tribute to Action Choreographers” is a series of priceless interviews with Han Yingjie, Tong Kai (Tong Gaai), Lau Kar-leung, Yuen Woo-ping, Sammo Hung, Ching Siu-tung, Stephen Tung Wai, Tony Leung Siu-hung, Chin Tsi-ang, Yueng Ching-ching, and Fung Hak-on. (Two additional interviews with the early choreographers Kwan Ching-leung and Tsui Chung-hok are unfortunately not translated into English.) Some of this material has been previously published in abridged versions in Hong Kong Film Archive books, but new interviews were also commissioned and translated for “Tribute.” Above all, it’s the fact that we can hear these men and women tell their stories and describe their work in their own voices that makes this resource so extraordinary.

Along with the interviews, the book features brief essays on wire work, dealing with injuries, working on Western productions, and the future of Hong Kong action filmmaking. One essay is devoted to the influence on kung fu films of the US production of the Steve McQueen vehicle THE SAND PEBBLES, which shot in Hong Kong in 1966. Lau Kar-leung, Tong Kai, Kwan Ching-leung, and Tsui Chung-hok were among the local stuntmen recruited for the film, and they took what they learned about Western technology and acting craft back to the Hong Kong studios. Another valuable feature, but also unfortunately not translated, is the “Genealogy of Hong Kong Martial Artists” – charts of the opera schools, stunt crews, and studio troupes that contributed to film and TV productions from the 1950s up to the present day.

From left: Ching Siu-tung, Yuen Woo-ping, Sammo Hung, and Lau Kar-leung at the 30th Hong Kong International Film Festival in 2006.

The festival program, consisting of 20 classic kung fu and action films, not only lists production and distribution data for each film, but also includes a quotation from pertinent interviews or contemporary press coverage, giving fans a fuller understanding of the film’s impact on the genre’s development. All in all, “A Tribute to Action Choreographers” is a fine example of the kind of research sorely needed in this field: scholarly but readable, historically informed, and respectful of the artists who are responsible for producing these extraordinary films.

If anyone wants to try ordering a copy from the HKIFF site, here’s the link.

Related Topics: action choreography, Ching Siu-Tung, Lau Kar-Leung, Sammo Hung, Yuen Woo-ping