Wonderful chemistry in House of Fury
By Michael CheangHouse of Fury marks the second time American-born actor Daniel Wu is acting in a movie directed by Stephen Fung, and he was full of praise for his good friend.
“He is getting better and better (at directing),” said Wu. “This movie has a bigger budget than our first film together, Enter the Phoenix, and I think he has improved a lot,” said Wu in a phone interview during which he spoke a mixture of Cantonese, English and Mandarin.
“My character in House of Fury, Jason, has dual identities. He is Gillian’s (Chung) boyfriend, but he is actually an undercover agent whose duty is to protect the family, especially the father (played by Anthony Wong),” he said. “Jason is not a very honest person. When he is chasing Gillian in the beginning, he never admits his other role of protecting her father. So there are a lot of lies in the relationship, and this makes things complicated.”
“I think this movie is going to be really, really fun. Stephen has taken kung fu to a more accessible level for everyone with this movie,” Wu said. “Before that, kung fu movies were just for kung fu enthusiasts, and guys, but I think even young girls and older men will have fun with it.”
So what was it like working with one of his best friends?
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Daniel Wu, suspended by wires, performing a stunt in House of Fury. |
As for his own directorial debut, Wu said he has a long way to go. “Personally, I have no knowledge of being a director. I need to learn more about film, especially management. A director needs to know how to manage a team and has to be able to control the actors and crew. Actually, I think Stephen’s management skills are pretty good, and he has the talent to be a good director.”
Wu also said that he would love to work with Fung again, even on other types of films.
“Stephen as a director likes action and likes the old days of Hong Kong cinema when there were a lot of action movies. So I guess he would always want to include an element of action in his movies. But I think we could always easily do a drama or something that is not action as well.”
Speaking of action, Wu also got to work with one of the legends of Hong Kong cinema – action choreographer Yuen Wo Ping.
“It was a very good experience, but I wish I had been in better shape and that I wasn’t injured at the time,” Wu lamented. “I injured my knee the year before and had to go for surgery, so I was not able to do a lot of crazy action stuff. Hopefully I will have another chance to work with him.
“Also, I think he has a good comedic sense. This show may be a little different from all that he has done before, because there is a lot of comedy involved here and I was initially afraid that he would be very strict or fierce. But he had a good sense of humour.”
The hardest part of filming House of Fury was one scene where he had to jump across a 1524cm gap from one building to another, suspended by wires. “That scene was quite hard to shoot, because on that day, it was very hot, and the location was quite dirty and smelly,” he said. “I had to jump many, many times, which was scary because I am scared of heights! I got used to the height after three, four times, but the first time was very scary for me.”
Wu, who is currently in Shanghai filming Chang Hen Ge, a love story set in 1950s Shanghai, is not in a hurry to expand his horizons to Hollywood.
“If I were to go to Hollywood, a lot would depend on what kind of role they have to offer me,” he said. It has to be something worthwhile, not just another stereotype Asian role.”
“Right now, I’m happy to stay in Asia playing roles that are not based on my race, but more on my ability to play the character.”
Wu also reckons it would in his best interest to focus on China, because the future of movies in the region is going to be dependent on the Chinese market.
“In the future, it’s going to be all about Chinese movies, not just Hong Kong, Taiwan or Malaysia, but movies for all Chinese,” he said. “Even Hollywood is trying to enter the Chinese market, and what I like about what they are doing now is that they are investing in Chinese films, directed by Chinese people and made in the Chinese language; rather than just making a movie with a white director with Chinese actors speaking English.”
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