I’m building a theory of Sammo Hung’s action style.
Recently Phantom Killer was released on YouTube. The action is that very exciting 1981 style: the camera is cutting more often, gags are done in an edit rather than in a wide.
Billy Chan Wu Ngai is the only action designer credited here on HKMDB. His camera and editing are more montage-like than his previous action direction. It’s pretty good, but the pacing isn’t quite there.
Before this, Billy Chan was with Sammo on the big action pictures like The Victim (1980), Two Toothless Tigers (1980), and Prodigal Son (1981). All of these have blazing fast action, but the camera and editing were still the older style – less editing, longer takes, gags done in the wide. But in Phantom Killer, there’s a lot of action done in shorter takes, which amps up tension. There’s a nice texture to it. Again, it doesn’t have the same depth as Sammo’s later work, but I think that was the only missing ingredient here: Sammo’s influence as a matchmaker.
Billy Chan joined Sammo the next year on Carry On Pickpocket and Sammo has basically adopted the same shooting and editing style from Phantom Killer, but Sammo perfects it: Sammo knew how to use the montage to accent the different styles used against each other. Dick Wei as a kickboxer was the perfect match for him as an everyman.
Sammo’s filmmaking style is now a mix between smaller impact and “style” shots intercut with longer combat shots. These were what’s missing from Billy Chan’s style: Sammo knew the styles and could mix them up nicely, he was a sort of chemist. “What would happen if a kickboxer went against a guy with a stick?” He uses longer, wider shots as connective tissue between the montage shots, and this is the 80s Sammo style.
The last time Billy Chan’s name pops up in the action direction list is on Heart of Dragon (1985), and after that I assume he’s either absorbed into the Hung Ga Baan team or is only directing, because Sammo’s style basically remains the same.
Sammo ratchets the style up significantly in Pedicab Driver (1989), arguably to perfection. There are shots that are maybe 12 frames long in the finale against Billy Chow, like when he grabs Chow’s front kick to throw him and there’s a half-second shot of Chow’s reaction as he’s lifted up into the air. It’s all perfectly intercut with longer phrases of action, dynamic dolly shots, slomo real-contact impacts, and montage sequences. Not only is Sammo’s filmmaking on point, but his matchmaking couldn’t be better. All his fights have character, which makes for great comedy, like butter. The fights with Meng Hoi (the light sabers), Lau Ka Leung (the old master), Eddie Mahler (cocky fast guy), and Billy Chow (with a toothpick in his mouth the entire time) are loaded with great moments and have a big bang-for-your-buck effect. Sammo’s fight against pops is long but all the other ones are fairly short and that works fine: you can’t sustain action like this for more than 2-3 minutes.
Then, contrast Pantyhose Hero (1990), which Sammo directed, with Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon (1990), which Lau Ka Wing directed. The first is pure adrenaline, the latter plays more like a Shaw Kung Fu film. Both also have Ridley Tsui and the stunts in both are bonkers, but shot completely differently. I imagine the action in Pantyhose was very technical to shoot: tons of shots, montages, dolly moves. This must have eaten up a lot of time on set, and as a result the fights are short. Good, but short. But they also lose the impact of Pedicab’s fights because the matchmaking isn’t there. Ridley Tsui is cast as a psycho, which is fun, but it doesn’t play to his strengths as a kickboxer. You have to wonder why Sammo did this. Ridley would’ve been the perfect Billy Chow replacement, except Ridley was a bonkers stuntman, the most bonkers stuntman, which Chow wasn’t. Ridley seemed to be competing on two fronts at the time: trying to out-kickbox Donnie Yen, and trying to out-fall Chin Ka Lok (see Nightlife Hero (1992)). I don’t know if this worked to his advantage. Chow was always cast as a terminator and character actor, and probably has fewer concussions as a result. I don’t think Sammo had an ego over Ridley; I think he was trying to use Ridley in the way he was using himself, as a fall-fight guy. Ridley is actually very memorable, but this clearly wasn’t the path he wanted to take. The result is, again, a decline away from the greatness of Pedicab Driver.
Sammo’s budgets decrease with Slickers VS. Killers (1991). I don’t think he was able to command the same number of setups he once did. His finale against Colin Chou is good, but you can tell it was rushed. This is the last of “80s Sammo”. After this Sammo’s style takes a major hit and has to edge toward the more economical. (He did manage to make this work in America with Martial Law (1999-2000), but all reports from that shoot indicate that it was only through Sammo’s insane talent that anything really got done. After 2 seasons he just couldn’t keep that pace going anymore.)
Jackie, however, kept making hits. I don’t think this was just because he was talented. His filmmaking style is more economical than Sammo’s. Less editing, longer takes in a wide, but tons of takes. This might be tough for the performers, but they can take it. Jackie seemed to be making things easier for the crew. “Set up the camera, decorate for the shot, and just follow me.” I have a feeling Jackie’s filmmaking crew enjoyed working with him, and the talent probably enjoyed that they were basically always on camera, no matter how many takes were needed. In Young Master (1980), Jackie is purely in the old style. In Dragon Lord (1982), Jackie is still in the old style, but leaning into the Vaudeville aspect. In Project A (1983), the style was a bit more like Sammo’s, maybe influenced by his presence on the set. Police Story (1985) and Armor of God (1985) are slightly more montage-y, the same year as the equally montage-y Heart of Dragon.
But watch in Project A II (1987) and Police Story 2 (1988): the shots seem to breathe more. Jackie deliberately plays choreography to the wide. This is the Toei-style of shooting, a departure from Sammo’s montage style. Jackie achieves true greatness in Mr. Canton and Lady Rose (1989) with this style. It’s hard to pick a best fight from these films. Every scene is a painting.
If Jackie’s scenes are paintings, then Sammo’s 80s scenes are frescoes on the level of the Sistine Chapel. Impressive and multi-dimensional, but impossible to sustain when that high renaissance money begins leaving the country. I would like to know what Sammo’s crew thought of doing a hundred setups a day to pull off his action scenes. Probably not fun. You don’t want your crew getting tired. Your stunt team gets tired and will complain in your ear; so you rub their wounds, give em adjustments, take em out to eat, buy em Harleys. You see em all in frame, too. This is Jackie 101.
Sammo took care of his team too, but Sammo thought about action differently: the montage style is the style of a man who thinks about fighting. It’s a mix of the psychological and the permative. You’re in the fighter’s heads in the montage, then you’re in the crowd in the wide phrase shots. With Jackie, you’re mostly in the crowd. You have to wonder if Jackie saw himself this way: from a bird’s eye view, more critical, obsessively even? This style gives you more time for contemplation, to discern motives, to be rewarded for catching subtle physical gags. Sammo’s matchmaking produced celebrities like Billy Chow and Dick Wei, but his stunt team don’t seem to have become celebrities. His team consisted of Cho Wing by the time Mr. Nice Guy (1997) rolled around. Cho Wing should be a celebrity (a national hero, really), but he’s not. Billy Chan should be a celebrity, but he’s not. Jackie’s stunt team members became celebrities. Everyone who’s anyone knows Mars, Ben Lam, Sam Wong, John Chiang, and Andy Cheng. There’s a reason for this. I don’t think this is anything about ethics: this is an issue of style.
Looking forward to getting more into this.
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