Terrific Terence

The ISBN code of Terence Chang’s 2023 memoir is 9789888860487. With the focus of the book being his film career in Hong Kong, Hollywood and Beijing, perhaps Tertiary can be the title of the English edition seeing as how he can speak English. “Tertiary” is a particularly fitting word because his work in Beijing is less interesting than his Hollywood voyage and not as appealing as his Hong Kong sojourn. It really is a case of gold, silver and bronze in that order. Even more symbolic is that not only did Terence Chang work on films associated with Golden Harvest and Golden Princess, but Hollywood is referred to as the silver screen. One of the Cantonese sayings for “Thank you” sounds like the English word for enjoy, so enjoy what Terence has to say…

Bearing in mind that Terence Chang left Golden Harvest at the end of 1978: “During the break from filming Tower of Death, I was assigned a new task, which was to serve as the production manager of Itchy Fingers. As the name suggests, this is a treasure-stealing comedy written by Wong Jing and starring Richard Ng, Roy Chiao and Cora Miao. The director is Leung Po-Chi who returned from the U.K. Leung was originally an advertising director. This is my “one kick” production from start to finish. From the budget, casting, location scouting, arranging the set-up, etc., we do it all, so it’s divided efforts. During the preparation period, I often worked in the studio until midnight, and would sit on the sofa when I felt sleepy. But I didn’t expect that Leung Po-Chi couldn’t read Chinese, so I often had to translate the script to him. He is accustomed to using images to tell stories, and pays great attention to the composition and movement of the shots when shooting. There was a lot of Hong Kong humor in the dialogue, but he always wanted to delete it because he didn’t understand its meaning. I had to explain its meaning to him in English so that part of it could be retained.”

Like his colleague John Woo, Terence is nostalgic about the past: “I have a very good relationship with the three stars of Itchy Fingers. I have loved Roy Chiao’s movies since I was a child. His professionalism goes without saying, and what is even more unexpected is that he is affable. When he is not acting, he likes to entertain the crowd. In the same year, Richard Ng won the Best Actor Award in Hong Kong for John Woo’s The Pilferer’s Progress. He became a comedy star, but he had no pretensions. Itchy Fingers was filmed for 28 days at a time without a day off according to my journal. It was not suspended until Leung Po-Chi took leave to shoot a commercial in the U.K. It is stipulated that no more than two films can be shot at the same time. I feel very lucky to have such a good boss. This can be regarded as the golden age of Hong Kong movies.”

I’m reminded of a Triad actor named Michael Chan Wai-Man because not only he is obsessed with the Yakuza but he is known as the ruler of Tsim Sha Tsui: “When the opportunity came, Wong Sam said he found money to make another movie. I don’t know if I was subconsciously influenced by Johnny Mak, but I was particularly interested in the story of a prostitute, so I wanted to make a story about a young prostitute being sold to Thailand. But this time I had to work on the script seriously. With the help of a friend from the film industry, we visited a Japanese nightclub in Tsim Sha Tsui’s East District after 1 a.m. one night. These nightclubs are controlled by a certain society. After one o’clock, there is another world. The girls who serve the drinks are only twelve or thirteen years old and have not yet fully developed! I don’t know if they are here voluntarily or if they have taken ecstasy and are controlled by others? I think they are very pitiful. I felt very uncomfortable. Do I really want to make a movie like this? Do I have the skills to do it? Can I handle the big brother behind these girls? At this time, Linda Kuk asked me to work as an overseas distribution manager for the newly emerging D&B film company. I knew that if I agreed and changed my career direction, I might never be a director again. Filming prostitutes is not a subject I am really passionate about, and I am not good at screenwriting. I have nothing special to express, and I also doubtful as to whether I am a good director. I thought about it for a day and finally agreed to her offer.”

Before I continue with the constant quoting of Terence Chang, I should point out that Chan Wai-Man eventually appeared in a 1986 Brandon Lee film that Terence was working on - Legacy of Rage. During the making of this film, Brandon socialized with Michelle Yeoh (who didn’t appear in the film). Terence explained why Michelle’s name was changed: “D&B’s leading actress is Yeung Ji-King. Her second starring film was Royal Warriors directed by David Chung Chi-Man, and the film was handed over to a German film sales company called Atlas International to sell the European and American rights. Cinema City’s A Better Tomorrow was also handed over to this company, but the price was low. Linda Kuk introduced me to Dieter Menz, the owner of Atlas, and I went to his booth every day to see how he operated. First of all, he changed the English title of Royal Warriors to In the Line of Duty, which is a good title, but he changed Yeung Ji-King’s anglicized name from Michelle Yeoh to Michelle Khan! I asked why? He said that he did not know that she was of Chinese descent. I find it very strange. I said Do you think the film will sell better if she is from India or the Middle East? Later, Linda Kuk asked me if we had the confidence to sell the film ourselves, and I patted my chest and said absolutely yes.”

Why Hong Kong cinema became known for primarily making action films when the reverse was true: “At that time, Hong Kong movies were divided into traditional markets and non-traditional markets. The traditional markets are Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia along with Chinatowns in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Non-traditional markets include Japan, South Korea, Thailand and other parts of the world. If you want to sell to non-traditional markets, you have to look at the film genre, actors and the quality of the film itself. Generally speaking, action films have a higher chance. The scope of my responsibility is the world outside Hong Kong.”

I should note that director Tsui Hark never reunited with John Woo after 1989. It’s noteworthy because Tsui split up with his wife in 2014 but they still went on to work together. Terence Chang left D&B in 1988, and joined Tsui’s Film Workshop: “I consider myself lucky in my film career. Every time I encounter difficulties, another door opens for me, and better opportunities follow. This time, Tsui Hark and Nansun Shi asked me to be the general manager of their film studio. One of them focuses on creation and production, and the other is in charge of operations and administration, which is the ideal thing. But they were a couple, and sometimes they had conflicts at work, and they didn’t want to bring these conflicts home at night, so Nansun Shi wanted to retreat behind the scenes of the company. Tsui Hark is full of talent and a director with outstanding style. He can often put old wine in new bottles, inject new elements and styles into familiar movie types, and surprise the audience. In 1984, he and Nansun Shi left Cinema City and formed their own film studio. Tsui Hark’s concept at that time was very good. He wanted to gather the best directors in Hong Kong to make some high- quality commercial films.”

1989: “When we were filming Swordsman, we first shot the exterior scenes in the bamboo forest in Taichung. Lead actor Sam Hui asked me to be on set so that if there were any problems, theycould be dealt with immediately. Other actors who also went there were Sally Yeh and Cecilia Yip. In addition, director Ann Hui, who once served as King Hu’s assistant director, came here to help this time. Director King Hu has filmed in Taiwan before and has a high reputation there. In one scene, he wanted the sunlight to shine through the top of a tree onto a piece of jade on Sam Hui’s hat, and then reflect onto his sword. But he was always dissatisfied with the shooting effect of his camera, and he spent two days shooting just for that one shot. There is no way to continue like this, the film will never be finished. In the end, under pressure from investors, Tsui Hark was forced to change directors.”

You can sort of see why Tsui Hark replaced singer/actor Sam Hui with Jet Li for Swordsman II (1992): “Tsui Hark wanted to continue filming, but Sam Hui had no schedule. When he had a schedule, Tsui went to the United States to shoot Jet Li’s The Master. But a lot of money has been spent, and the investment company Golden Princess ordered that it must be completed as soon as possible. Later, Tsui asked Ching Siu-Tung, Raymond Lee Wai-Man and Andrew Kam for help. The four of them used stand-ins to replace Sam Hui within a month and completed the entire film. They would then add Sam’s close-up shots when he was free. After the film came out, the reception was very good, and everyone was relieved. Tsui’s genius really lived up to his reputation! Many years later, King Hu was asked about this matter. He generously said, I have done everything I have to do, and the rest is up to Tsui Hark.”

The main author of a 1999 Hong Kong cinema book called City on Fire gets referenced: “I brought Chow Yun-Fat Movie Week to other cities and continued to introduce his films to Western audiences. We went to Boston, New York and London. When I was working with a local museum in Boston, an 11-year-old movie fan named Tyler Stokes, accompanied by his mother Lisa, flew from Florida to Boston to meet Chow Yun-Fat. Lisa is a film professor at the university, so Tylor has been influenced by movies since he was a child. After graduating from college, he went to Beijing to work as my assistant.”

Kirk Wong’s The Big Hit was released in 1998 but filming began in 1996 followed by a hiatus which then ended in 1997. One of the people who Terence mentioned, director Lee Wai-Man, had previously worked with Kirk on four Hong Kong films. Before I give you the quote, I should establish that John Woo was one of the producers of The Big Hit (which wasn’t a big hit): “When John Woo is filming in the United States, he doesn’t really want to use Hong Kong creators or leading actors. But Kirk Wong is just the opposite. He likes to have people he knows well by his side. In addition to me, there were also the producer he invited (Roger Garcia: later the director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival), the second unit director Raymond Lee Wai-Man along with the action director Lau Chi-Ho and his team. For the male lead, we originally talked about Jason Scott Lee, but he insisted that we use his friend as the stunt coordinator, and he also had some other requirements that Tri-Star Pictures couldn’t accept. Just then, Mark Wahlberg volunteered to play the part, so we immediately replaced Jason. Although I only have the title of producer on this film, I actually served as both producer and co-director.”

In A Better Tomorrow (1986), Chow Yun-Fat played a character named Mark Gor i.e. brother Mark. I mention this so that you can understand this quote: “On the other hand, I also found John Woo’s English teacher in Hong Kong to tutor Fat Gor, but he did not continue after the first lesson because he did not have much intention to work in Hollywood. Yes, he is the movie king in Asia. Why should he go to a new place to be a newcomer? But one morning in 1994, I received an urgent call from the couple as I was in my Los Angeles apartment. Chow Yun-Fat said “We are coming!” It turned out that Fat’s wife had promoted a movie invested by Taiwanese gangsters, and the next day she found a cat’s head that had been chopped off with a knife and thrown in their yard! In fact, there were people who asked him to act in Western films before, but there was no specific roles. A Chinese female producer once told me that if Chow Yun-Fat was willing to be her boyfriend, she could plan a movie for him. Of course I rejected this outright. He has a good wife, are you kidding me? I arranged for the Chows to go to Los Angeles to meet with agents, lawyers and presidents of various film companies.”

The Replacement Killers (1997): “Later, Columbia was interested in making a sequel, but ultimately dropped the project due to cost and other issues.”

Screenwriter Caroline Thompson had a quashed dream in the nineties. It was probably squashed by male Hollywood execs: “Because Thompson liked Rouge very much, she wanted to buy the English remake rights and wrote a script to set the story in Hollywood in the 1920s. She planned to have Johnny Deep perform Leslie Cheung’s role, but unfortunately filming did not start.”