Yuen Wo-ping is considered the world's best action choreographer. A veteran of 50 Hong Kong kung fu movies, he is widely credited with helping Jackie Chan to international fame with his first two films as director, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master.
But it is his airborne stunt choreography, known as 'wirework', that has brought Yuen world renown. Not only does he make you believe a man can fly; he makes you believe he can glide, soar and do all the other things birds can do.
Yuen, 55, took things a stage further in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, in which Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh and newcomer Zhang Ziyi, do battle across rooftops, over mountains and lakes.
How did you get started in the business?
My family were all involved in Chinese opera. My father, Simon Yuen Hsaio-tien, was a movie actor and stuntman. He was my trainer. I used to go to movie sets to watch him work and got involved as a stuntman and background fighter in martial arts movies in the 1950s. In the early days, they always picked me to be the one to die first. I was very good at falling down dead.
How does 'wirework' work?
The actors have to wear a heavy canvas corset attached by metal cables to a wire, which hoists them in the air. These are worked by a team of 'puppeteers', working with the opposing actor's team to avoid mid-air collisions. There is no computer trickery involved. The only 'special effect' is when we remove the wire in post-production.