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The Road to Dragon Tiger Gate
It has
been almost five years from pre-production to the
completion of shooting of ‘Dragon Tiger Gate’. It took
almost three years just to finalize the script and to
assemble the perfect crew and cast.
When Mandarin Entertainment (Holdings) Ltd was listed on
the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in
September 2001, Chairman Raymond Wong set the plans to
achieve his goal of reviving the dying film industry in
Hong Kong by making investments in quality movies. Wong
has had years of experience in the film industry and has
been involved in or invested in numerous films covering
all genres, but never a film adopted from a comic book
series. Wong, wanting to do something different, started
talking to his good friend Wong Yuk-long, also known as
the godfather of Hong Kong comics. As a result he bought
the film rights to many of Hong Kong’s most popular
comics.
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Wong Yuk-long is best known for his martial arts comics
of which most of them are period pieces. Raymond Wong’s
original idea was to adapt a comic story set in the
past, and produce an epic period martial arts film as
the company’s maiden piece. At the end of 2002, the
period martial arts film ’Hero’ was a box office hit.
This was a huge boost for the Asian film market and
further strengthened his belief in the success of a
period martial arts film. As Wong was developing his
project, Tsui Hark, his old friend from the Cinema City
days, was about to start shooting ‘Seven Swords’, a
period martial arts epic. He liked Tsui’s project and
decided to invest. But with the completion of ‘Seven
Swords’, Wong predicted that many other similar projects
would soon be flooding the market, so he decided to
delay the period martial arts piece and shoot the more
contemporary action film ‘Dragon Tiger Gate’ instead.
Wong said, “‘Dragon and Tiger Heroes’ is Wong Yuk-long’s
piece de resistance and after 35 years it is still being
published. It is a miracle in the comics world. To adapt
it into a film would be very difficult and would require
a long time to prepare.” It would be impossible to tell
a story panning 35 years in a mere 90 minutes, the shear
amount of characters and fighting moves are
overwhelming. What would be the best way to cut down the
story or choose from the thousands of scenes? What
characters should we focus on? How faithful to the
original story should we stay? The endless amount of
choice became a stumbling block in the creative process.
In contrast, by removing ourselves from the story of the
original comics our creativity would be free to soar. To
date, we have been through 20 different storylines, and
more than 10 versions of the present script.
‘Dragon Tiger Gate’ is set in the present, yet the
fighting styles are of the familiar martial arts period
film vein, such as the ‘Eighteen Dragon Slaying Kick’.
Marrying the past with the present is an idiosyncrasy of
the comic world. How do we translate this into film
world? How would it look if a contemporary character
fought in this obviously antecedent style? Instead of
being put off by all these questions, Wong was further
spurred on by these challenges to shoot ‘Dragon Tiger
Gate’. He remarked, “To succeed one must be original,
and if we can solve these problems we will be able to
create an original and fresh style of action film.” |
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Wong also believes that the reason an audience can
accept unbelievable actions in a period martial arts
film, such as leaping up a three story building, is
because all period martial arts films show this and the
audiences have come to believe this was really possible
in those bygone days. As for modern action films, the
audience can accept exaggerated gun fights because they
know that guns exist, but when they look at body combat
they will be guided by their logic, which is why fight
action set in the contemporary world tend to be more
realistic. Wong also said, “We need to inform the
audience that the world of ‘Dragon Tiger Gate’ is
neither contemporary nor antecedent, but the fantasy
world of the comics! Take films like ‘Superman’,
‘Batman’ or ‘X-Men’, they are set in the comic book
world, the only difference is they use technology and
super powers while in ‘Dragon Tiger Gate’ we use the
legendary skills of Chinese martial arts.”
Faced with such a large investment not everyone has the
courage and far-sightedness to embark on something
untested. However, Wong found a strong supporter in
Nansun Shi, an influential figure in the film industry,
who commented that, “This is the perfect timing for
‘Dragon Tiger Gate’.” This gave Wong a boost of
confidence as Shi, recently nominated as ‘Producer of
the Year 2005’ by Cineasia, undoubtedly has foresight
and knowledge of what the film industry needs. Shi
believes that action films should be humanistic and not
rely solely on digital effects, as the audiences have
had their share of glamorous digital effects and are
yearning for something more real. Yet if the action
scenes become too lack lustre, it would then appear
outdated, so the trick is to find the right balance. In
‘Dragon Tiger Gate’ the action scenes are fantastical
yet not over the top; the fights are authentic yet
innovative; the imagery lavish yet realistic, by mixing
the perfect cocktail a new film style will emerge.
In order to transfuse the spirit of the period style
martial arts with a modern touch, the action director
had to be someone with a deep understanding of martial
arts with a contemporary outlook. Donnie Yen was a name
that came to the forefront for both Wong and Shi. Yen’s
action choreography has always had a contemporary style
and he has always been keen on innovation and
originality. This makes him the perfect candidate for
the position of action director for ‘Dragon Tiger Gate’.
A good script needs a good director to make it into a
good movie. As the emphasis on ‘Dragon Tiger Gate’ was
its innovation, Wong decided that a younger director
would add what was needed to the mix. Wong noted, ”Yip
Wai-Shun stands out amongst the generation of young
directors. There is often an element of surprise in his
steadfastness. ‘SPL’, the film he collaborated on with
Yen, was critically acclaimed. And as the two have
worked together before, this will be a great advantage
in the shooting of ‘Dragon Tiger Gate’.” Shi also added,
“Yip has a fine touch when dealing with the characters
of his films. He also has a very unique style in his
handling of scenes. He is a director with a strong
personal style.”
Wong has stood up to all the challenges to assemble a
stellar ensemble – Producer, Nansun Shi; Director, Yip
Wai-Shun; and Action Director, Donnie Yen. Together they
will create a brand new style of action film that will
stun the audiences like never before.
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