Project A (1983)
I was thinking, that of all the films I’ve done commentaries for, apart
from the Bruce Lee titles, this is probably the most important, most
groundbreaking in history of Hong Kong Action Cinema, especially of its
star, Jackie Chan. Because the film came at a time when Jackie actually
needed to boost his career in Asia.
Here is the third member of our main cast, Sammo Hung, who again, needs little introduction. But for the newcomers to the genre let me say, you've all seen him as the guy that Bruce Lee fighted at the beginning of Enter the Dragon, former kung fu classmate of Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao, he’s giant to the industry physically, literally and figuratively, as a director and as a kung fu actor.
Our first scene between Jackie and Sammo. Fascinating to see the relationship between them on screen and off. They’re two guys who came up together, Sammo said, the relationship between them is very hard to define unless you’ve been through something similar. When they were like 7 years old, they were sleeping together underneath the same dog ridden, flee infested blanket in Yu Jim-yuen’s academy and basically suffering throughout their childhood, not really having a childhood in a proper sense, and they growing up together, Sammo getting into film before Jackie, working as a heavy, working as an actor and then as an action director and finally as a director. And for most of his career up to this point a step ahead Jackie, then Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow came out and Jackie jumped ahead and became a superstar. I guess because of Sammo’s unique image he was never gonna be a leading man to rival Jackie.
This sequence here influenced by the opera training, you see them, Jackie and Sammo have disguised themselves, they’re wearing black
night
time ninja outfits with these big bright opera masks. The routine they
perform when they’re on the boat is not from the Cantonese Opera, it’s
actaully from the Beijing Opera… Both of them, if you’ve ever worked
with them on a film, both men, Sammo and Jackie, they know loads and
loads of opera songs and folksongs and they can burst into tune in a
moment’s notice. And of course their timing is such, they can sing
opposite each other or perform opposite each other, they really don’t
need to rehearse or anything, the timing is there… So this sequence is
really playing to the score by Michael Lai with the opera beats and
it’s really playing to the fact that these guys are coming from an
Opera background rather than a kung fu background. And it has to be
said, that most of the generation of guys who were coming out in the
80s, were opera trained, either directors or leading men, action
players, they were really opera players more than they were kung fu
people… Audiences in HK get a different level to this the audience in
the West. Because the audiences from HK are familiar with the fact that
Sammo and Jackie were both member of The Seven Little Fortunes, which
was an opera performance team and of course they’re familiar with the
original opera they’re riffing on, and so they get like added enjoyment
above and beyond the film that we get from this very physical sequence.
This is a great sequence (restaurant fight) and again how to use martial arts in a way we
really haven’t seen. Short shot fight sequence and again showing the
timing between Jackie and Sammo. This film you get to see their verbal
timing, their singing timing, their fighting timing. These guys have
each others rhythm downpath as well as they should after all these
years working together, doing opera performances on the stage, training
every day. This is the first time in cinema history that we really got
them working together in this way.
Sammo more than Jackie is an admirer of the legacy of Lee, perhaps because he in a sense was at a higher level in the industry, when he worked with Bruce Lee. Sammo tends to hand more o fan even handed appreciation of what Bruce brought, but Sammo’s always referencing Bruce in his films with like a nod or a wink, more than Jackie is. I think Jackie probably has a respect for Bruce Lee, and the work Bruce Lee did and the impact that he made internationally, but he’s fed up with people asking him "Hey Jackie, who’s best, you or Bruce Lee?" Because he feels, quite rightly, that he’s made his own mark… Jackie doesn’t want to talk about Bruce Lee all the time… People have said to me in the past "Oh, Jackie hates Bruce Lee". He doesn’t hate Bruce Lee. He just doesn’t wanna talk about Bruce Lee and people in HK would never really ask him about Bruce, but in the West they do tend to, because I think the Bruce Lee legend is probably stronger now in the western markets than it is necessarily in HK.
This is damn good Sammo Hung stunt here (falling off the stairs). And
it really is him, he’s pretty hard to double. Boom, as he goes off the
stairs, and down to the ground. And bear in mind that skinny blokes
like Yuen Biao, when they go flying through the air, yes, it’s gonna
hurt, but you get a 300 pounder like Sammo, when he hits an object,
gravity is gonna do its thing.
groundbreaking in history of Hong Kong Action Cinema, especially of its
star, Jackie Chan. Because the film came at a time when Jackie actually
needed to boost his career in Asia.Here is the third member of our main cast, Sammo Hung, who again, needs little introduction. But for the newcomers to the genre let me say, you've all seen him as the guy that Bruce Lee fighted at the beginning of Enter the Dragon, former kung fu classmate of Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao, he’s giant to the industry physically, literally and figuratively, as a director and as a kung fu actor.
Our first scene between Jackie and Sammo. Fascinating to see the relationship between them on screen and off. They’re two guys who came up together, Sammo said, the relationship between them is very hard to define unless you’ve been through something similar. When they were like 7 years old, they were sleeping together underneath the same dog ridden, flee infested blanket in Yu Jim-yuen’s academy and basically suffering throughout their childhood, not really having a childhood in a proper sense, and they growing up together, Sammo getting into film before Jackie, working as a heavy, working as an actor and then as an action director and finally as a director. And for most of his career up to this point a step ahead Jackie, then Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow came out and Jackie jumped ahead and became a superstar. I guess because of Sammo’s unique image he was never gonna be a leading man to rival Jackie.
This sequence here influenced by the opera training, you see them, Jackie and Sammo have disguised themselves, they’re wearing black
night
time ninja outfits with these big bright opera masks. The routine they
perform when they’re on the boat is not from the Cantonese Opera, it’s
actaully from the Beijing Opera… Both of them, if you’ve ever worked
with them on a film, both men, Sammo and Jackie, they know loads and
loads of opera songs and folksongs and they can burst into tune in a
moment’s notice. And of course their timing is such, they can sing
opposite each other or perform opposite each other, they really don’t
need to rehearse or anything, the timing is there… So this sequence is
really playing to the score by Michael Lai with the opera beats and
it’s really playing to the fact that these guys are coming from an
Opera background rather than a kung fu background. And it has to be
said, that most of the generation of guys who were coming out in the
80s, were opera trained, either directors or leading men, action
players, they were really opera players more than they were kung fu
people… Audiences in HK get a different level to this the audience in
the West. Because the audiences from HK are familiar with the fact that
Sammo and Jackie were both member of The Seven Little Fortunes, which
was an opera performance team and of course they’re familiar with the
original opera they’re riffing on, and so they get like added enjoyment
above and beyond the film that we get from this very physical sequence. This is a great sequence (restaurant fight) and again how to use martial arts in a way we
really haven’t seen. Short shot fight sequence and again showing the
timing between Jackie and Sammo. This film you get to see their verbal
timing, their singing timing, their fighting timing. These guys have
each others rhythm downpath as well as they should after all these
years working together, doing opera performances on the stage, training
every day. This is the first time in cinema history that we really got
them working together in this way.Sammo more than Jackie is an admirer of the legacy of Lee, perhaps because he in a sense was at a higher level in the industry, when he worked with Bruce Lee. Sammo tends to hand more o fan even handed appreciation of what Bruce brought, but Sammo’s always referencing Bruce in his films with like a nod or a wink, more than Jackie is. I think Jackie probably has a respect for Bruce Lee, and the work Bruce Lee did and the impact that he made internationally, but he’s fed up with people asking him "Hey Jackie, who’s best, you or Bruce Lee?" Because he feels, quite rightly, that he’s made his own mark… Jackie doesn’t want to talk about Bruce Lee all the time… People have said to me in the past "Oh, Jackie hates Bruce Lee". He doesn’t hate Bruce Lee. He just doesn’t wanna talk about Bruce Lee and people in HK would never really ask him about Bruce, but in the West they do tend to, because I think the Bruce Lee legend is probably stronger now in the western markets than it is necessarily in HK.
This is damn good Sammo Hung stunt here (falling off the stairs). And
it really is him, he’s pretty hard to double. Boom, as he goes off the
stairs, and down to the ground. And bear in mind that skinny blokes
like Yuen Biao, when they go flying through the air, yes, it’s gonna
hurt, but you get a 300 pounder like Sammo, when he hits an object,
gravity is gonna do its thing.