Movies always leave me with regrets. 100 minutes or so is not long enough for me to get my ideas across.
There are two kinds of movies: one that looks after an investment and is a business venture; and the other one that doesn’t care about money and just tells its story.
Fearless involved hundreds of people working over two years. Betty Sun went to a school for the blind to experience how blind people really live and Dong Yong spent 12 days spoiling himself to help him play the rich business man. These people are struggling for dreams.
I don’t have any idols, not since I was a kid. Huo Yuanjia was the first to present the Chinese martial arts spirit as something to be admired. But people and times change, and the people you admire change, too.
Working with Director Ronny Yu was a great experience. I remember the first time I saw him walking into a restaurant on crutches, I thought he was a perfect example of someone constantly striving to be stronger.
Michelle Yang is my buddy—she appeared in the movie for free. But both her and the Thai boxing scenes had to be cut because the film was too long—nearly three hours.
In Internet forums, people have mentioned that the dialogue in Fearless is unconvincing. But I’m doing it my way. Should I change the script just because people in forums tell me to?
Making money by shooting action movies is easy. You just let the good guy suffer all kinds of misery at first, then the bad guy gets his comeuppance. But that’s not the story I want—movies have to appeal to people outside your own town.
The Once Upon a Time in China series is regarded as my best-known work. But in the USA, only two cinemas screened them, and only for few days.
This is my last movie about the spirit of martial arts, but it won’t be my last action movie. Martial arts are different from action. Anything can be called “action” but martial arts contain a whole philosophy.
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