The problem with being a martial arts film star is, as you get older, the audience still expects more from you in terms of continually out-doing the action in your last several films. An actor like Jet Li is finding that an increasingly difficult task. There are several peculiar problems going on with Li's latest "non-martial arts" film: the title; Jackie Chan; Li's return to a genre he said he would never do again and still believes he isn't; and whether he knows it or not, Li is back on two martial arts "tournament circuits," where this time his competition is not teenagers in a gym but a single martial artist in a dual competition on and off-screen. One may ask, who is he is battling? We'll investigate these issues one at a time.
As I was conducting my interviews for this article and writing it, I couldn't help but repeat the lyrics from the famous song by Edwin Star. "War. Good God ya'll. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Listen to me." The image of Jackie Chan in RUSH HOURS 1 and 3 muttering the song "War" while demonstrating his total lack of rhythm with his heading-bobbing hip-hop routine simply makes me cringe. He makes it hard not to buy into the stereotype that Chinese folks don't have rhythm (not that living in the Republic of China during the disco era didn't already clue me in). Plus, it doesn't help that a few weeks ago Chan was moaning about how he hated to do that "sing and dance" number. Li's latest film title is a bit too funky and in Hollywood, and America as a whole, funky film titles don't do as well as smart film titles.
But then what do I know? The opening weekend of Li's last film FEARLESS came in second behind JACKASS: NUMBER TWO, and from there it went downhill.
There are many things that most die-hard Li fans will already know about WAR: it used to be entitled ROGUE, with Li playing the film's title roll; it co-stars Jason Statham as Li's latest nemesis; during the filming of FEARLESS, Li announced to the International Press in China (note that the press conference was in Mandarin) that FEARLESS would be his last martial arts film ever, only to recant the statement after being offered a martial arts film role for mega-bucks (ROGUE); and now the cat is out of the bag, Li is supposedly playing the villain for the second time in his Hollywood film career.
At the time ROGUE was the working title of the film, Li was telling the world that FEARLESS would be his last martial arts film. This was initially announced to the Chinese press, in Mandarin, in China, where there would no doubt or mistranslation as to the Chinese cinematic genre words Li would be using to refer to his retirement. The Chinese press wrote that Li would not do any more wu shu pian films. This is a very tricky statement since wu shu films is a term for a martial arts film genre that does not really exist, per se.
Historically, there are five genres of Chinese martial arts films. The wu xia pian (loosely translated as "martial chivalrous-hero film") were the first genre of martial arts movies created during the 1920s in Shanghai and so named after the Chinese "Wu Xia Xiao Shuo" novels, literary masterpieces soaked in tradition and legends of superhuman swordsmen and magical feats, as were the films. The gung-fu pian (mandarin romanization) or kung-fu films, presented characters and fight choreography of a supposedly more realistic nature--in other words, less fantastical. The guo shu pian, translated as "national art films" (implying the national art was martial arts) were created by director Chang Cheh and Liu Chia-liang (Lau Gar-leung) for Shaw Brothers, which eloquently mixed the fight choreography of the kung-fu films with the popular savvy of the wu xia movies. The wu da pian (fight films using martial arts), were created by Jackie Chan, where he combined athleticism, martial arts and dangerously outrageous stunts wrapped in more contemporary themes and settings. And finally Fant-Asia films, with Tsui Hark being greatly responsible for leading the way in the mixing of the elements of wu xia and kung-fu films, which evolved into a unique genre with a seductive wild mix of horror, sex, sorcery, fantasy, science fiction and swordplay, all uniquely egg-rolled into something that Western filmgoers could understandably digest, entertainment-wise.
Li was actually using a new descriptive phrase in a very intelligent fashion, perhaps in an attempt to create a sixth genre and "keep up with the Smiths," so to speak (i.e., the "Chans"), which on the outside basically meant any kind of martial arts movie. However, when the press caught wind of Li's new contract to do ROGUE, Li stopped the presses and basically claimed that his statement did not include wu da films.
"No, I never said that I was stepping away from martial arts movies," he contends with a frown, "I said that FEARLESS was my last martial arts movie that has that kind of character and action. That film was mostly about my heart, my personal beliefs, the physical part, the mental part, the spiritual part of me is in that movie, and I won't be making those kind of films again.
"You know Chinese characters, look at the characters for martial arts. It is broken into two words: ?stop war' or ?stop fighting,' the real meaning is that a few thousand years ago, they started martial arts meaning to ?stop war.' But later on we take out the art, we only fight, fight, fight, violent. So FEARLESS is about ?martial arts' as it should be. But in WAR, it is an action film with martial art moves. These kind of characters I will do, but just action, physical contact, fighting, violent. And to me, in my heart, it's not about the art and so I see WAR not like FEARLESS but a different type of movie."
When Jason Statham signed on to be in ROGUE, the film's title changed to WAR. Why? No one is talking, but let's look at the numbers. The American box office grosses for Li's last two films FEARLESS (2006) and DANNY THE DOG (aka UNLEASHED; 2005), were a disappointing $24.6 and $24.5 million, respectively. The American box office grosses for Statham's last two films THE TRANSPORTER 2 (2005) and CRANK (2006) was better than Li's, with earnings of $43 and $29 million, respectively. In Hollywood's eyes that makes Statham a more bankable star, and so if anything, Statham should be the film's title character, but he's the good guy and Rogue the bad, so the film was changed as a measure of star power. So now it is WAR and in a sense, Li was out-competed by his opponent Statham. And of course they are also competing on-screen as hero vs. villain...or are they?
Li says, "My character in WAR, well, I never played this kind of character before because to myself, I don't know if he is a good or bad guy, I guess the audience will decide that later after they have seen the movie. What I can tell is that this character is very violent and has a reason for being the way he is, and so in my mind it is not about being a villain, because to me, as my character, I am not a bad guy.
"All my characters in my Chinese films, I am very clearly a good guy and it is very simple to see that from beginning to the end of the film, but WAR is different," Li explains. "My character is violent, not like in FEARLESS, where Huo Yuen Jia has a philosophy, but now I seemingly use martial arts just for violence to kill people. It is also like a martial arts weapon, a weapon is not good and not bad, it really depends on the person using it. Martial arts has a lot of culture behind the physical movements and so again, I don't think this is a martial arts movie, it is an action movie and not a typical Chinese film that we call a gung-fu or a wu-xia style movie."
So what exactly is WAR about? Set amidst the violence of America's Asian underworld, WAR puts two adversaries on a collision course to see just how far one man is prepared to go to avenge the death of his best friend. After his partner is brutally murdered by the infamous assassin Rogue (Li), FBI agent Jack Crawford (Statham) vows to find the elusive killer and personally avenge his partner's death. But Rogue proves untraceable until three years later when he resurfaces to ignite a bloody turf war between Chinese mob leader Chang (John Lone) and Japanese Yakuza boss Shiro (Ryo Ishibashi). Eager to capture Rogue once and for all, Crawford leads his team of crime specialists headlong into the conflict. But Crawford's thirst for vengeance jeopardizes his professional judgment, and as the violence escalates, Crawford finally comes face to face with his enemy to discover that nothing about Rogue or his plan is quite what it seems.
And neither is the director, Phillip Atwell, quite what he seems. He's a major Bruce Lee fan, yet his favorite martial arts film is SHANGHAI KILLERS (1973), the typical backstreet martial arts film that would play in a grindhouse on the "wrong side of the tracks" in early 1970's Philadelphia, the type of place where Phillip Atwell as a lad would hang out.
"Yes, I liked those kind of films way back then, but it is not the kind of film that served as any sort of reference to me when making WAR," he says, cutting to the chase.
Atwell honed his skills in the music video biz, directing backstreet sensibility rap glitz for 50 Cent, Eminem and Xzibit. But he's quick to point out, "If you talk to anyone in the music video world, they'll tell you that they never got into it to stay there, it is just a working platform for creative people to work in, but the goal for many of us is film."
Atwell says that he was working on another film project for Statham for several months but it just wasn't coming together and so he decided to shelve it with the intention of coming back to it later. "But that didn't happen," Atwell says. "Instead Steve (Li's manager Steve Chassman) told me there is another film that looks like a go, if I was interested, I could direct it. Oh, and by the way, Jet Li is attached to it. Those old martial art film times rushed back and so how could I not do it?
"When I came on to the project it was more of a genre film and I wanted to make it more realistic, so we removed all the special effects and far-out stuff and made it more realistic. I mean if you see MATRIX, and that bullet-time effect, it's not worth doing anything similar. So I had to come up with something unique and remove the glare."
Corey Yuen was brought in, per usual for Li's films, to work with Atwell to remove that genre sheen and translate Atwell's realistic vision into reality. The obvious question to ask Atwell is concerns the difference between working with a top fight choreographer like Yuen and the top dance choreographers in music videos. Are there any similarities?
Without hesitation, Atwell says, "No, it's a totally different level. Corey's work is far more technical to any dance choreographer I've seen or worked with. The level of abstract thinking that is involved with a fight choreographer is far greater than any dance choreographer. Hey, make it clear, I am in no way putting down dance choreographers, but to do a fight and make it believable is an amazing thing."
Although not a martial artist or a martial arts film buff, Atwell took the time to understand how it works in Hong Kong films: that when it comes time to do action, the director has faith in the kung-fu choreographer that he will present and provide for the vision of the director.
"Corey spent a lot of time with me in pre-production going over the style and what we were after in the film, and going over the fight sequences. But when it came time to put the fight choreography into action, once we start filming it, he really takes over and controls his unit. Which is fine, because we're shooting two units simultaneously. I'm on first and he's on second doing the action sequences."
Atwell's background of rap videos exposed him to an underworld where some of its leading talents were at constant odds with each other, the lines of murder and attempted murder were often crossed, and egos were out of control. So when I ask Atwell what he feels is the theme of WAR, it's almost as if there's an all-knowing aura about his words.
"You never know who to trust."
About
Dr. Craig Reid :
Written by Dr. Craig Reid for KUNGFUMAGAZINE.COM
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