Who would of thought that a minor supporting character from the 1970's Marvel horror comic book, "Tomb of Dracula" would essentially end up being one of the most successful, comic book adaptation, superhero film and basically owe it all to Hong Kong? Certainly not the creator Marv Wolfman who is still in the process of suing Marvel Comics over the rights to his Blade character, an ongoing struggle that started way before the first BLADE film (1998). And not to be confused with BLADE (1973), a film about a New York detective who stalks a psycho who murdered the daughter of a powerful right-wing congressman.
Adding to BLADE'S "swordid" affair, Marvel and Wesley Snipes threatened lawsuits against the non-threatening actor Jeff Falcon several years ago when Falcon's film THE BLADE had to change the title to SIX-STRING SAMURAI. They must have overlooked Tsui Hark's action masterpiece BLADE, which even with its highly inferior budget and minuscule shooting schedule, from an action point of view, totally blew Snipes back to his pathetic PASSENGER 57 choreography days. But in Snipes's defense, BLADE came closer than most American films did in duplicating the wild and wooly, frenetic pace of Hong Kong's "heroic bloodshed" films, despite its ending that ailed in plot twists reminiscent with a bout of BATMANitis. BLADE was also unable to top its opening vampire disco set-piece, as the rest of the film's action seemed to flutter in the breeze of complacency as it blatantly wallowed in self-absorbed pseudo-heroics and Hong Kong, copycat delusions. So why should we go see BLADE 2? It has a better director in Guillermo Del Toro, Hong Kong's Donnie Yen does the fight choreography, and although it may have sounded like I just trashed BLADE, I still liked it.
KUNGFUMAGAZINE.COM caught up with Donnie and Guillermo recently for a couple of exclusive interviews as we sat down and discussed BLADE 2. New Line is not only guaranteeing that the film will be scarier but that the action will far outdo the first one. Is it just studio hype or what? Yen takes a breath and shares, "To be honest, I originally wasn't in the film, they wanted me in the film but I turned it down several times. All I really wanted to do was just the fight choreography. I was a fan of BLADE, and thought it was a brilliant idea to mix vampires and the Hong Kong style of martial arts. The fights weren't that bad for during that time but I wanted to bring something in for this and make it more up to date. Guillermo and Wesley were very enthusiastic and wanted me to be a part so I was convinced to play a cameo. But I can't say there is too much of an expectation from me playing Snowman, my character. However, my costume is very stunning, there should be a starring role just on the Snowman (laughs)."
Half vampire, half man, Blade (Snipes) is a daywalker armed with silver laced weapons and super human strength. Trained by the legendary vampire hunter, Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), Blade walks this earth to battle his vampire brethren that see humans as a food source and something to be ruled over. The first film ends with Whistler's death as Blade kills vampire leader Frost who was bent on icing the world. The film ends with Blade in Russia amidst falling snow about to kill a male vampire trying to feed on an unsuspecting female. So does Yen's character Snowman have anything to do with that?
"That's funny, I asked them that too, but no it doesn't, it's just really a nickname and it also doesn't have anything to do with snow. It's more like that he is ice cold or something like that. Frankly speaking I play a very small part in this. I use a samurai sword and I did what I could."
In answer to the question about better action? "Well," Yen pauses, "You know, I try to explain to Americans, that fight choreography is not about choreography but how it is shot and so in a big film like this there are just too many departments. I was hired to do choreography, the fights, advise the director. But it's such a huge production (rumored over $70 million) and I don't think that it's totally the way I wanted it to be. So Guillermo can bring in his specialty, which is thriller and suspense to the film and also he added a touch to the action oriented effects of BLADE." 
Born and raised in Mexico, Guillermo del Toro broke into the American scene with his horror hit CRONOS (1993) followed four years later with the insect fear film fest MIMIC (1997). And now four years later, he's broken out of diapause to direct BLADE 2 which he confidently blurts will be more horrific in nature (as compared to BLADE which was more science fiction.) And similar to Yen, del Toro was initially not interested in doing the film. "They (writer David Goyer, producer Peter Frankfurt) came back to me because they had always wanted me to be involved in the first one but we couldn't get around to it. And then they wanted me for the second one but I wasn't happy taking someone else's creation. Yet through several new drafts of the screenplay, I thought it would now become a great film, so I agreed to direct it. The main thing was to develop biologically a new type of vampire because the others are all a little bit too obsolete. Something more efficient from the animal point of view and to emphasize the meanness and horror elements of the franchise without diminishing the action. BLADE dealt with the vampires almost in a social context, they were almost like drug dealers. In this film I wanted to go into the antique aspect of their society yet at the same time see a more human aspect of some of the vampires. It's more gothic than the first and visually, it looks more like the action in a James Cameron film but is more of a horror film. Darker and more like the comicbook yet the darkness is blended with sharp color. They agreed to that and the new screenplay gave me the possibility of doing so, and I was happy with that."
In BLADE 2, a new blood virus that turns vampires and humans into monsters called Reapers leads Blade to form a shaky alliance with a group of vampires called the Bloodpack. Reapers don't suck blood through their mouths but instead use suckers on the palms of their hands. How many of you recall the creature that did something similar in the original STAR TREK series where instead of blood it sucked out salt? Whistler, who shot himself in the head in part 1, has turned into a vampire but after Blade kicks butt (again in an opening nightclub fight scene) he injects Whistler with that vampire-reversing formula developed in part 1.
Initially titled BLOODLUST, then BLOODHUNT, then BLADE 2: BLOODLUST and now just BLADE 2, an earlier screenplay hinted about introducing another 1970's Marvel vampire, Moebius the Living Vampire. Another script involved time-traveling, leading to an alternate universe where vampires ruled the world, which was probably too much like PLANET OF THE APES meets THE ONE. Although judging from the trailer, they used that same fast-slow camera work used to make the "bad" Jet Li fight the way he did. Also look for actor Tchecky Karyo in BLADE 2, that's the guy Jet gave the kiss of death to in the neck in KISS OF THE DRAGON.
The initial plan was to make BLADE 2 a wham bam, thank you man, over the top action extravaganza but that changed. "I am very familiar with Hong Kong action," del Toro noted, "but the moment we started BLADE 2 several years ago, a lot of things have happened that have made me re-approach the martial arts of the film, not so much from the Hong Kong point of view but an all American point of view. We made the fight style to be true to Blade (the comicbook) which is more street style. Plus the overuse of wire-fu in American films has now made that particular cinematic technique run its course. The apex of it all came with CHARLIE'S ANGELS. That film really buried it. If you can't believe that Drew Barrymore can really kick butt three times in the air, then everyone else can do it and that's not right or true. I don't believe she can and the film didn't make me believe she can. They even had her do things that were rip-offs from Donnie's IRON MONKEY.
"So I really refused to do wire work in this film although about 5% of the fights do have a little wire work but not like MATRIX or CROUCHING TIGER. I just really wanted to get away from that scene and Wesley was clear about that too. But I was directly involved in the action. One of my ideas was to make the action very fluid with the camera style and in the choreography. I have my say but don't participate in the technical aspect of the choreography but give my ideas and my cinematic imprint, that being that I was trying to keep the camera really smooth and when possible preserve the integrity of the movements and also try to make the camera more hectic and active in the fight participation.
"We went through enormous lengths, investing a lot of time, effort and money into making our camera, for long periods of time, participate in the action and when it seemed impossible for the camera to be involved in the action, and trying not to cut and keep it fluid say in the middle of a stunt. For example, when Wesley is falling three stories down and the camera is chasing him, it's done by taking 2-3 shots then blending them together digitally so that they give the appearance of a single shot. That is a technique we developed which we call the L-CAM, liberated camera, or if you are being Mexican about it EL-CAM (he laughs). The film has over 580 special effect shots and the special effects far surpasses the first film."
Yen closes on his takes of the action and how he subliminally worked with the camera crew to get at least a little bit of what he wanted. But was it enough?
"I didn't choreograph all the fights, I did most of them, the big one, the ones with Wesley. But for myself, I do little fighting in the film except beat up a Reaper, the new main villains in this film. Based on the script, there is a lot of intercutting. I suggested to the director, based on my experience, that this kind of intercutting will take away from the rhythm of the fights and make them very choppy, so I don't know how well they will do with the editing. Who knows, maybe they will chop me out completely (he grins) I have no control of that.
"In one fight scene I choreographed, I was there for every single move and I tried to manipulate very closely to the camera and the angles and was right next to Wesley, influencing him to influence everybody else. I believe that scene will come out pretty good. It's a ninja scene. When I do my fights, I have my editing points in mind, but I worked very diplomatically with them by presuming how they were going to use the camera. I walked onto set assuming how and where they would set the camera. So when I choreographed the fights, I choreographed the most basic sets for the camera angles they were going to use so my movements will come out close to the way I wanted it. During actual shooting and I'd see them moving the camera around, so I?d change the choreography slightly or go to Wesley, who I would like to add is a good martial artist and knows what he is doing. And I did this film because of him. So anyway, I go to him or the actors in the fight and tell them to work their angle and make adjustments instead of telling the DP (director of photography) and telling them not to use certain angles. In essence, to get the person and choreography to work with the camera and not the other way around. Jeff Ward was the stunt coordinator."
When I tell Yen that I met Ward and many of the fights guys from BLADE when they came in to do a few episodes when I was doing a fight directing apprenticeship on Sammo Hung's MARTIAL LAW he adds, "Well, you know how it is, it's a very tight circle. I brought in two guys with me from Hong Kong and all I really wanted to do was help Wesley. They were all cool with me and invited me in, and they were very passionate so it was great to be there and be a part of the project. But of course," he notes, "if I was to do it my way, I would have shot it differently.
"But the success of this film will not be dependant on just the martial art performances but on the overall look of the film. Will it be as successful as THE MATRIX or CROUCHING TIGER? I don't know. As I said, I have my concerns, too many talents with no direction, too many cooks. You know you have to have that essence and not many of the people understood that. You have to explain to them what this and that move is all about. They may be great in other areas, but when it comes to martial arts it is new to them. Everyone has their own vision."
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Dr. Craig D. Reid :
Written by Dr. Craig D. Reid for KUNGFUMAGAZINE.COM
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