Masters of Martial Marionettes
Tony Ching Siu-Tung is the most majestic maestro when it comes to wirework. Despite being primarily a martial arts moviemaker, one gets the sense that his talents could easily have been used on productions like a disaster movie or even a TV series about telekinesis. He is Hollywood’s most underused talent. In Donnie Yen’s Action Book, the titular subject made it pretty clear that it was not Yuen Woo-Ping who is the most magical magician for what became known in the West as Wire Fu. Irregarding his prolific association with Ching and Yuen, Donnie doesn’t really like to use wires.
Disregarding his popularity in the West due to The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Yuen Woo-Ping is fairly clumsy with wires as can be seen in an earlier film called The Tai Chi Master. There are different ways that you can hide wires. Besides CGI in Hollywood, vaseline was the tried and true method in old Hollywood along with smoke. In Hong Kong, they would paint the wires black but they found a way to obscure them for the camera by making sure that the light doesn’t hit them horizontally. One of the reasons why Tony Ching is better than Yuen Woo-Ping is that he knows more about lighting, so he will use different lighting techniques to hide the wires. In fact, one could say that Tony invests more time into the wirework than the actual choreography. His worse films for choreography could be described as slapdash slapstick.
In Donnie Yen’s opinion, Tony’s style of action is closer to anime than any other Hong Kong action director. Generally, not even Japanese directors can come close when it comes to making live-action adaptations of anime and manga. One technique that I would like to see Tony do would be to have the cameraman hoisted on a wire so as to simulate the point of view of a character who is hopping or flying with other characters. Before the advent of CGI, Tony would apply wax to part of the camera lens to obscure wires that were visible when observing from his viewfinder. Although Hollywood has come to be known as the main user of bluescreen, Hong Kong filmmakers had their own literal take of bluescreen cinematography by bathing the shots in blue light. This would emit either a sad feel or a haunting one, sometimes the feeling was romantic.
For Hong Kong directors who specialize in wirework, it wasn’t unusual to go to a mountaineering equipment store to get their gear. Having personal experience in abseiling was crucial to understand how wirework works, especially when you look at the climbing scenes in Sammo Hung’s Wheels on Meals (1984) and Jackie Chan’s Armour of God (1986). On a similar note, Tony Ching personally studied tactical rope gear to make the SWAT assault scenes in Wong Jing’s City Hunter (a 1992 Japanimation adaptation) look convincing. Coincidentally, Jing’s Crocodile Hunter (1989) had a bungee cord gunplay scene. Because of the manual nature of Hong Kong wirework, rarely would you see a fat person or a bodybuilder hoisted.
Many people have the misconception that wires are a cure-all, but they’re not. Wirework is time-consuming and dangerous. The person being hung must understand how the wire moves. Most of Hong Kong’s stuntmen have specialized knowledge and have been training for a long time before they do screen work. Tony Ching’s stuntmen practice swinging on wires while performing different sword techniques. There are various angles for actions such as pulling up, lowering, swinging across, twisting and pulling back e.g. doing a reverse shot to make it look like someone is levitating towards you like a ghost or a vampire. Regardless of the derivative and genre-hopping nature of Hong Kong cinema, there has yet to be a movie where Superman fights Dracula in a gravity-defying action sequence where floating goes hand in hand with gloating.
Western critics like to use the word “set-piece” when describing an action sequence, but Tony Ching took it to an all-new level by manipulating props with wires. One could argue that it was their mastery of wires, and not their choreography, which resulted in Hong Kong action directors being sought after by Hollywood. It speaks volumes that the Wachowski brothers had initially wanted Tony to be the choreographer for The Matrix. Corey Yuen Kwai was the second choice. As of 2005 (when Donnie Yen’s Action Book was published), the Hong Kong stunt community got their harnesses from “AMSPEC, Inc.” just like Hollywood professionals do. In Hong Kong, wires of 1.75 mm to 3 mm are usually used when dealing with humans. Dealing with wirework is as precious as dealing with explosions, which is why it’s common for several cameras to capture a wire movement.
A little known fact is that each wire should only be used briefly. After levering meters of wire and pulling a person up for a certain amount of time, the wire becomes twisted to the point that it can snap during subsequent use. To save money, the worn wires can be used for safer activities like hanging things or even bondage (whether it be to depict kidnapping or sexuality). Besides attaching a wire to a crane for a crane shot, it can be even attached to a tree. Although it is not necessary when pulling a simple prop such as a chair, it is necessary to pass a wire through a pulley and fasten it when pulling a person’s body. The three points are the person being hung, the pulley, and the person pulling the wire. Normally, it’s the stuntman (and not the stunt coordinator) who prepares the wires and attaches the pulleys. This is why you never want to rub a stuntman the wrong way even if you cross them in a way that is more to do with having metaphorical wires crossed.
Against the grain of modern wisdom, a programmed machine can never do it easier or quicker. It may be better to use a machine to lift a car, but it is not possible to lift a human without fellow human guidance. If done by a machine, it wouldn’t look natural. The human touch stops things from looking too simplistic. Back to Donnie Yen, he was surprisingly not brought up as a potential contender for the role of Seraph in the sequels to The Matrix. Jet Li was the first choice, and the eventual candidate was Ngai Sing (renamed Collin Chou à la Chiu Man-Cheuk being renamed Vincent Zhou). Perhaps Donnie wasn’t invited because he was already scheduled to act in and choreograph Blade II, which began filming in the same month as The Matrix Reloaded (i.e. March 2001). Then again, Donnie strayed from Yuen Woo-Ping after their relationship became strained in 1995. They would be estranged for many years before they would let water flow under the bridge for Ip Man 3 (2015).
Now it’s time for myself to quote Donnie from his rare book: “When we shot Legend of the Wolf, we didn’t have the budget for wires. So I made do with substitutes. There was a barbed wire fence near the site, so they cut and stretched it as best they could. Of course, this is not a method that I would recommend to everyone. Personally, I don’t really like wires. I feel that using them reduces the authenticity. Try to remember the action that left the most impression on the audience, whether it’s a single movie or just one action within it. I think it is unlikely that it is wire work.”
Donnie gives some examples of when he would rather prefer the use of wires: “I’d use a wire to do the scene where Jackie Chan falls off the clock tower in Project A. I use wires when I think the action will really help the movie. However, as we continue to work on it, we often end up debating whether we should do it with wires or change the action slightly so as to make do without them. When using multiple wires in one shot, it can be difficult to hide them from view. In Hollywood movies, the wires are erased in post-production with CGI, but in Hong Kong we would hover an umbrella or flag over the wire. Jackie uses wires discreetly. In Dragons Forever, if you look closely, you can see a glimpse of the wire harness. The usage is so natural that the average audience member probably won’t notice it. For example, the part where Yuen Biao turns to deliver two kicks while remaining static in the air.”
If you were doing a scene involving a lethal component like fire, electricity on water or fierce animals, you would need abstract stunt doubling: “The most dangerous wirework would be used with a mannequin instead of even a human who is doubling the actor.”
Donnie Yen’s final word: “Additionally, scenes that use wirework usually cannot be completed in one shot, so it is important to skillfully connect shots from multiple camera angles in editing to make them look like a single scene. When used sparingly and naturally, wirework can be used to highlight props and emphasize power in realistic fight scenes. For example, a person who has been kicked is propelled across the frame.”
