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Edmund Lee

IT ALL STARTED WITH a random encounter after school. On the way home, then-primary student Wong Ching-po became mesmerised by a film that he saw playing on a television in the front window of a video rental store.
The film was the Chang Cheh and Pao Hsueh-li-directed Boxer from Shantung (1972), a movie which recounts the heroics of folk legend Ma Yongzhen. The young boy could not tear himself away from the Shaw Brothers classic, and stood there and watched it to the end.
"I thought it was awesome," says Wong, now 40, and a director with six feature-length works under his belt. "Although I had no idea who Chang Cheh or [novelist and co-scriptwriter] Ni Kuang were back then, the film left an indelible mark on me. I thought it was even greater than all the Wong Fei-hung movies."
Given his passion for the tales of Ma Yongzhen, it must have seemed like a dream come true when he was approached by producer Wong Jing to direct a film about the cultural icon.
A populist filmmaker who has repeatedly returned to decadent Shanghai of the 1930s for movie ideas, the 58-year-old Wong was planning two new projects set in the era. One of these became his own gangster epic  The Last Tycoon (2012); the other is the upcoming Once Upon a Time in Shanghai, a martial arts drama scripted and produced by Wong Jing, and directed by Wong Ching-po.
Sitting in Wong Jing's office, the director speaks as if he still can't believe the turn of events that shaped his latest film.
"After I said yes to Wong Jing's invitation to direct the film, I asked him who the action director was going to be. He said it was Eighth Master," he recalls, referring to storied action choreographer Yuen Wo-ping by his popular nickname.
"I thought he was joking at the time, but when I came for a production meeting, Eighth Master and his brother [Yuen] Cheung-yan were sitting right there," he says.
Like the 1972 Chang Cheh film, which starred Chen Kuan-tai and David Chiang Da-wei as Ma Yongzhen and the triad boss who would become his best friend, Once Upon a Time in Shanghai follows the Shandong-raised martial artist (Philip Ng Wan-lung) after he arrives in Shanghai.
Striving hard to stay away from criminal activities despite a new friendship with the formidable mobster Long Qi (Andy On Chi-kit), Ma is nonetheless forced into action when the lives of his neighbours, Master Tie (Sammo Hung Kam-bo) and his daughter (Michelle Hu), are threatened by the deadly Axe Fraternity.
For the director Wong, whose previous film Let's Go! (2011) also follows a reluctant hero who springs into action after the victimisation of a close friend, the theme of brotherhood is one that has resonated in him for as long as he could remember. "I started to admire this brotherhood among men when I was very little. I'm easily moved by that," he says.
The director found a pair of genuine friends in Philip Ng and Andy On, and their real-life chemistry has carried over onto the big screen. The Asian-Americans met each other while working on 2003's Star Runner.
This marked Ng's first job as an assistant action director, as well as On's acting breakthrough - he was named best performer at the Hong Kong Film Awards for his part in the film. "We're closer than biological brothers," says Ng of their decade-long friendship.
In addition to finding the perfect co-stars, the director enjoyed a level of artistic support that is almost unheard of for a Wong Jing project. It is Wong Ching-po's first Hong Kong-mainland co-production, and he admits to having had "nearly zero input" on aspects such as the title, poster design, marketing and promotion.
But he did take a striking approach to the art direction - starting with a decision to tone down the colour saturation to give it the look of a film from the past. He originally wanted to make a black-and-white film, but that didn't fly with the producer.
"When I first told Wong Jing I wanted to make a black-and-white movie, he almost fell out of his chair," says the director, before explaining that his vision of old Shanghai originated from the photographs taken by European journalists at the time.
"The figure of 19 per cent was the bottom line for the distribution department. I feel that 19 per cent is not quite true to my original vision, but it's acceptable enough. It's daring to apply this to the whole movie," he says.
The fact that the younger Wong is willing to shed his artistic pretentions for a purely commercial project certainly speaks to his maturity as a filmmaker since his earliest days, when the consensus was that he was more style than substance.
And while it is far removed from the acquired taste of his last two films - the brooding Juno Mak Chun-lung vehicles Revenge: A Love Story (2010) and Let's Go! - Once Upon a Time in Shanghai is arguably the most accomplished film the director has made for a while.
"I feel that I do need to adjust my mentality," he says of working for Wong Jing, "Those auteur-driven films may not be a feasible option at his company [Mega-Vision Pictures].
"But as a director, I should be able to work with any topic and any people. I have to adjust to the fact that I'm a director joining a team, and that my job is to make the movie. I haven't gone out of my way to inject symbolism or extra meanings into this one, because it's not a movie of that kind," he says.
edmund.lee@scmp.com
 
Once Upon a Time in Shanghai opens on January 16
 


Master's strokes: director Wong Ching-po and the art of compromise

From left: Wong Ching-po, Michelle Hu, Andy On and Philip Ng. Photo: Paul Yeung

Sammo Hung.

Michelle Hu and Philip Ng.

Philip Ng with Andy On.

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Director Wong Ching-po tells Edmund Lee how filmmaking is as much about compromise as it is about realising your personal vision


Director Wong Ching-po tells Edmund Lee how filmmaking is as much about compromise as it is about realising your personal vision.


Master's strokes: director Wong Ching-po and the art of compromise

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Director Wong Ching-po tells Edmund Lee how filmmaking is as much about compromise as it is about realising your personal vision

Director Wong Ching-po tells Edmund Lee how filmmaking is as much about compromise as it is about realising your personal vision