First Person: Bey Logan
As a producer and screenwriter, Bey Logan has worked in the Hong Kong film industry since the early 90s, following his passion for martial arts cinema from his native England all the way to the Far East. He talks to Adele Wong about his path to success in Hong Kong cinema and how he’s sometimes mistaken for Quentin Tarantino.
I was born in Stanford, a town outside Peterborough in England. When I was very young, I became fascinated with Chinese martial arts and culture and films in every way, shape and form.
When I found out there was such a thing as kung fu movies, I was like, that’s what I want to do. I wanted to make kung fu movies in Hong Kong.
Somebody that I knew was going to produce a film in Hong Kong. I knew next to nothing and they knew absolutely nothing. It was like the land of the blind, and I was the man with one eye. So I flew to Hong Kong and I thought, OK I’ll work for a couple of months.
It was utter chaos. It was just the most awful experience.
Third of the way through, these guys run out of money and everybody fell out and I was sitting there very depressed and thought I was either going to stay here and make a go of it or I’m going to go back to England and probably never have the courage to come back again.
I met an actor who I developed a friendship with, Donnie Yen. Now of course he’s a huge star, but for many years he was kind of the dragon in waiting, waiting for his chance. He’s got it now. But at the time, he was a known figure in the industry, he just wasn’t a superstar like he is today.