Making a martial arts film in English to me is the same as John Wayne speaking Chinese in a western.
When something possesses me, I go ahead and do it.
Not taboo – it’s just that straight actors still risk their careers commercially and economically. They have to please the crowd – they’re movie stars; their image is their industry. It goes beyond acting.
So many times you see beautiful lovemaking scenes with a lot of exposure or an awkward lovemaking scene, but I think it’s very rare that you see it private.
The most mysterious feminine factor, the existence that we men, we don’t know. It’s woman. It’s feminine. That’s what the sword is about. That’s the symbolic meaning of the sword.
When I sent those scripts, that was the lowest point of my life. We’d just had our second son, and when I went to collect them from hospital, I went to the bank to try and get some money to buy some diapers, the screen showed I’ve got $26 left.
I am not particularly religious. But I think we do face the question of where God is, why we are created and where does life go, why we exist. That sort of thing. And it is very hard to talk about it these days, because it cannot be proven. It is hard to discuss it rationally.
I grew up pretty peacefully, in that Eastern way. You easily solve problems, believe in harmony. Reduce conflicts, take orders until one day you give orders.
I think doing period piece is easier, because after a certain distance, everybody is equal, I think. The relative contemporary is harder. I think that’s the way it is.
Thinking back to those earlier days, I felt I was weak when I wasn’t making movies, and then when I was, I thought I was weak as a family member.
The way I go about a lovemaking scene is that we will talk about it during the rehearsing time.
I had to find my way of translating the excitement you get when you’re reading comic books to the big screen.
I like to do drama, something about life that could be disappointing.
I look at American movies, the big muscles, and try to apply that to Chinese film-making.
I think each movie-making process is a very exhausting and satisfying and fulfilling experience for me.
I’m a big boy now, and I have to deliver.
In Taiwan, I’d be like Michael Jordan walking down the street.
In the past I’ve made movies that were pretty universally liked. You can’t really hate them. You can discard them, but you can’t really hate them.
No matter how widely spread out the films are, how different, you still are you.
The fear factor actually brings the genuineness.
I think the book struck me in a few ways that I thought very interesting to pick it as my first martial arts film. It has a very strong female character and it was very abundant in classic Chinese textures.