Packing a punch, with panache
Tony Ching’s multiple talents have earned him a unique place in the history of Hong Kong cinema. Mathew Scott spoke to the action choreographer in the lead-up to his masterclass with BAFTA in London.
Tony Ching Siutung has spent more than half a century in the Hong Kong film industry. Ching’s creativity behind the camera, whether as director or action choreographer, has been marked by a unique and distinctly individual eye for detail and a sense of the dramatic. He gave a magical, other-worldly spin to the love stories at the core of Zhang Yimou’s acclaimed Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004).
“Having a distinctive style is a must as an action director,” says Ching. “I prefer portraying my message on screen with natural
grace, romance and a poetic set.”
Ching spoke to China Daily in the lead-up to offering a masterclass in London hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) with support from the Asian Film Academy. His theme at the September 18 event was “stunt directing”, but like so many in Hong Kong’s film industry, Ching is a man of many talents – a trait he inherited from his family.
“My mother was an actress and singer, my father was a director (Ching Gong),” says Ching. “I grew up at Shaw Brothers Studio watching respectable directors — including Richard Li Hanhsiang (The Magnificent Concubine) and King Hu (Come Drink With Me) — at work. I fell in love with films and decided to study further. My martial arts hero is director Chang Cheh (One-Armed Swordsman), who set
the action trend of the time and brought to life various martial arts heroes on screen.”
Like countless Hong Kong kids growing up in the 1960s, Ching studied martial arts, combining the northern style of kung fu — made internationally famous by the exploits of the Shaolin monks — with formal drama training. The combination would prove a perfect match once Ching took up his position behind the camera.
The industry’s call came early and set Ching on a path he has continued to tread.
“I’ve been working in the film industry for over 55 years,” Ching explains. “I started working as an actor when I was barely seven or eight. They needed a child performer for a scene in one of my father’s films, so I was sent to work as a oneday temporary actor. I was nervous but very excited.”
Other bit parts followed. Ching worked mostly as a stunt man or an action scene extra until his big break as film director in 1983.
“Golden Harvest film company invited me to direct my first film due to the popularity of my martial arts design,” he recalls. “The film was called Duel to the Death and very well received. Since then I've been focusing on both directing and action directing. Films give me excitement. To me, each project I take on is like a 10-month pregnancy as each time I build a whole new world.”
Duel to the Death (1983) stars Norman Chu and Damian Lau and is a period piece set in the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). The plot centers around a fight for national honor between the best warriors from China (Lau) and Japan (Chu). But what set it apart from the hundreds of films that Hong Kong was producing back in those heady days was its visual style. Ching combined a balletic style of action with stunning sets that were gorgeously color-coordinated.
Working with the finest
This was a novelty in the 1980s and it caught the eye of another noted stylist, the filmmaker Tsui Hark, who called on Ching to collaborate with him on the star-studded A Chinese Ghost Story (1987). Featuring the rockstar Leslie Cheung, the martial arts-led box-office smash virtually invented the horror-comedy genre on which Hong Kong is still fixated.
A few years back Tsui had told me how watching Ching at work had changed the way a generation of filmmakers, including himself, would approach the genre, mixing fantasy with realism.
Ching however says he draws inspiration from his personal experiences, culled from daily life. Of course there are also sources such as “contemporary art, photography, fashion and architecture” to draw from. “I've a hobby of documenting things that I like with my camera, so I tend to be particular about the positioning of the camera as well as sets in my films,” says Ching, adding that such decisions define his work as a filmmaker.
In more recent years, Ching’s work on the likes of Hero, the BAFTA-nominated House of Flying Daggers,
The Sorcerer and the White Snake (2011) have expanded the possibilities of his generic style even further, aided by computergenerated technology and other advanced film-making techniques. Whether or not he's taking advantage of these tools, Ching’s work always retains a sense of the “real”.
“Film is the love of my life,” says the director. “And it’s a lifetime career. Everyone around the world understands action films irrespective of his location and language, as messages are conveyed through actions. These films also promote the martial art culture of China, our motherland. The world thinks kung fu is mysterious and a lot of films include elements of this martial art form nowadays.”