Producer, director, actor, kung-fu choreographer, even screenwriter, he is a living legend of kung-fu cinema who I’ve had the pleasure of talking with several times during his illustrious career. At our latest meeting, at the prestigious New York Asian Film Festival, I was again struck by how prodigious his talent was, despite the facial scars and girth that might stymie any other leading man.

It is safe to say that there is no one else like Sammo Hung Kam-bo.
--R.M.

INSIDE KUNG-FU: How did your career start?
SAMMO HUNG: I was born into a movie family. My father and mother both worked in the Hong Kong movie industry. My mother was a set decorator. My parents were very hard working and they didn't have a lot of time to spend on me. A friend of my father suggested that he take me to a Peking Opera School, because I could learn something that could make my life better. The society is different now than it was then. Now children have a lot more time and opportunity. I learned all the traditions of the Peking Opera until I was 16. Then I became a freelance stuntman. I worked for Shaw Brothers and all the other studios. I learned karate, judo, tae kwon do and hapkido, which were the basic needs of my profession. The kung-fu film industry was pretty prosperous. Even though it didn't look real on screen, I had to spend a lot of time preparing for the fight scenes. It was old-fashioned, traditional kind of kung-fu.

IKF: Do you have a favorite style?
SH: Actually, I like every kind of kung-fu. I didn't think about which one was better than the other; I just learned everything I could. When I was in Hong Kong, I learned there. When I went over to Korea for filming, I learned there. Names were not important. The most important thing was how to defeat somebody. When I was young, things could get very violent. I had a lot of fights. That's how I got my facial scars. I was in a nightclub and some drunk got angry that I did a flip on the dance floor. He said, “Hey, fat guy! What do you think you're doing?” When I get to my car, there are three people waiting to ambush me. I tell my friend, “I'll take two. You take the other one.” But before my friend can move, the third guy comes up behind me and swings a broken bottle into my face. I'm actually very lucky. If it had gone into my eyes, that would have been it. Even so, it took 23 stitches.

IKF: When did you start directing your own movies?
SH: My first major movie as star and director was called Shaolin Monk. Here it's called The Victim, and the funny thing was I wasn't originally supposed to be in it. I wanted Jackie Chan to do it. He was nothing at that time, but I wanted him. But the producers say no. They decide that I'm not too bad, so they say “go, you do it.” From the very beginning I like to do things different. I like to maintain character and humor more. I like unusual heroes. The audience has more sympathy toward them. My movies were successful, so I continued on. The Iron Fisted Monk, The Magnificent Butcher, The Prodigal Son, and all the rest—combining comedy, tragedy, and a lot of action. Later on, I found out it was better to concentrate on comedy. The audience likes to laugh more than they like to cry, so I mostly try to do action comedies. The hero has to go through changes. He has to have some bad times with the good times. He can't be like a superhero who everyone knows will win. That's unrealistic fantasy. Heroes should be recognizably human.

IKF: One of my favorite fight scenes of all time was the one in Heart of Dragon. You could teach a whole semester in action editing and filming for that one scene alone!
SH: I spent most of the movie working on that final fight scene. I wanted it to be very different. I wanted it to have incredible style. From the very beginning to the very end of the final fight sequence I used a track camera to create a really exciting, thundering style.

IKF: All your fight scenes are exceptional, but your first fallow period came after all these budget-busting movies for Golden Harvest.
SH: (That’s because the) Shaw Brothers Studios closed. So I started doing big movies with large casts: Noble Express, Eastern Condors, and a few others. I didn't do it to give the (Shaw Studio actors) work, but at least they were finally available to work with me. They wanted to work with me and liked to work with me, and I liked the opportunity to do many things with them. I just gave them a call, and they all said, "fine." In Noble Express alone, there was Yuen Baio, Dick Tei Wei, Wang Lung Wei, Hsaio Ho, Shoji Kurata, Kenny Bee, Eric Tsang, Richard Ng, Richard Norton, Cynthia Rothrock, Jimmy Wang Yu, and Shih Kien. It took three months to prepare and five months to shoot. It was a lot of work but it wasn't difficult.

Pre-production on Eastern Condors started in July 1987. We started shooting in November 1987 in Canada. We shoot for a month, then go to Hong Kong to film a basketball scene. That took a month and we wound up editing it out! The studio wanted a movie no longer than 9,000 feet and I had already shot 4,000 feet.

Then we went to Bangkok for a month. In January 1988, we all go to the Philippines and spend four and a half months there. Finally we come back to Hong Kong and spend another month there. We finished in June 1988. All together, almost a year. You see, I don't follow a script like a Bible. I use the idea in the script, then manipulate the film from beginning to end to best showcase the main theme and to give the audience a lot of fun and action.

IKF: So you made smaller, wilder films, but the fights were still incredible.
SH: My fighting got more savage in these, because I was in an increasingly worse mood. Everything was the same in these movies. I was getting in a rut. So I got more serious and savage in my fighting. I like doing the dramatic films like Painted Faces and 8 Taels Of Gold very much because action movies are so tiring!

IKF: Then came the American TV show “Martial Law,” the return of Hong Kong to the Chinese, and the collapse of the Japanese economy.
SH: Yes, when I got back to Hong Kong, everything had changed. It was getting harder to find good actors.

IKF: Yes, after movies like SPL, you were working harder than ever. But you’re almost 60 and now working with more and more untrained fighters. I hear that led to some problems.
SH: Yes. In a big scene in Ip Man 2, Darren Shahlavi (who plays a ripped psycho British boxer) didn’t want to hit me hard, but I insisted. But he kept holding back, so we kept doing retakes. Finally, he hit me full force and I went down! Blood was in my nose and mouth—I couldn't talk. But we continued filming for another five hours. Finally I was taken to the hospital and received stitches in my face. My kneecap was also injured, and took a long time to recover.


IKF: With all the new technology available to you, is it easier or harder to choreograph great fight scenes?
SH: About the same. You have less and less actors who know any martial arts, but there are now computers that can add or erase many things.
Ric Meyers is a contributing editor of Inside Kung-Fu.

Up Close
Name: Hung Kam Po
Nickname: Sammo, after a rotund cartoon character
Birthdate: Jan. 7, 1952
Birthplace: Hong Kong
Personal: Married Joyce Godenzi in 1995
Children: 3 boys, 1 girl
Contributions: Spearheaded the Hong Kong new wave movement in the 1980s
His Start: Joined the Peking Opera School in 1961
Contact: www.sammohung.com

Did You Know?
Sammo Hung’s hand prints and autograph are on display on Hong Kong’s Ave of Stars.