Director WKW's 1st historical Kung Fu film, Grandmaster
It is really a difficult problem to describe fully Chinese Martial Arts, it involves the costumes to portray the Ming Kuo dynasty. Kung fu should be genuine without the digital artifacts. It should describe the genuine physical talents. Nowadays those genuine aspects do not exist anymore. This kind of work will take long persistence. But I am willing to continue, as this kind of project is my favorite.
This period started 1996. That time I am working on the film. 春光乍泄. One day while I was in Argentine train station, I saw two posters in a newspaper stand which attracted my attention. One is Chairman Mao, and the other is Bruce Lee. This stand usually has the articles for the young people, not for older people interested in historical items. Those youngsters, one is an idol, and the other is hero. Director Wong is wondering why this hero has such an attraction to the audience, he has watched the Bruce Lee films since he was a little boy. He cannot believe why after 20 yrs. after his death, still attracting the audience. He is thinking about making a film for Bruce Lee, but a lot of films about him have already been produced. What kind of person is the master of Bruce Lee, who could produce a Kung Fu hero like Bruce? Then I went to HK, I saw on TV Master Yeh Wont in a film which was taken 3 days before his death. Most strange thing in that film is he suddenly hesitate in his Kung fu performance, may be due to tiredness or forgetfulness about his Kung fu. That time I have no idea why he hesitates. Later on I understand that there is a saying in Kung fu world: You have to light a candle while you are still living, so that people will gather around that light, so that his martial art talent will keep going on. If he can produce a man like Bruce Lee, he will be a great master of Kung fu world. Why? Because he is not only Kung fu master, but also he can generate another Kung fu star as Bruce Lee, better than himself. A lot of Kung fu masters want his followers to replicate all his movements, but this Master Yeh Wont allows his followers creativity to even exceed his own talents.