ME AND SUZIE WONG: A close encounter with Nancy Kwan.
As a youngster growing up in Peterborough, England, everything I knew about Hong Kong, I knew from the movies. From Enter The Dragon, I knew that it was a place that could spawn kung fu masters like Bruce Lee. From The World Of Suzie Wong, I knew that the city also boasted ladies as lovely as Nancy Kwan. I’d like to tell you that it was solely the prospect of the kung fu fighting that drew me to Hong Kong, but such is not the case…
My friend Brian Jamieson, a cheerful New Zealander, was formerly at Warner Bros, where he helped coordinate various Bruce Lee-related events, including the special edition DVD release of Enter The Dragon. Since leaving Warners, he’s been working on his dream project, Ka Shen’s Story, a documentary detailing the extraordinary life of Nancy Kwan. Though I had never met Ms. Kwan, Brian had earlier interviewed me for the film, asking me how I thought The World Of Suzie Wong had influenced the local industry, and the worldwide perception of Hong Kong. I was therefore delighted when he called to ask if I had time to meet Nancy herself at Hong Kong’s Kee Club.
The first thing that strikes you about Nancy Kwan is how, as someone once said of Paul Newman, age has purified, rather than eroded, her features. I know its standard practice to tell actresses they don’t look their age, but, in this case, it’s absolutely true. She tells me she now practices and teaches Tai Chi. An earlier exposure to martial arts came when Nancy was choreographed by Bruce Lee to perform a kung fu fight with Sharon Tate. This was in the Matt Helm film The Wrecking Crew, starring Dean Martin. Kwan and Lee became friends, which made it all the more appropriate that, years later, she played restaurateur Gussie Yang in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. I mention that one of my kung fu teachers, the formidable Kong Sifu, played the belligerent Chinese chef in that film. Nancy asks how he’s doing, and I mention, to her evident surprise, that Kong is as skilled in ballroom dancing as he is as kung fu.
In discussing the effect Suzie Wong had on Hong Kong cinema, I mention the 1985 Shaw Brothers release My Name Ain’t Suzie. Kwan admits she hasn’t seen it, but laughs at the name. This film offered a more realistic view of Wanchai night-life than the movie its title references, and gave Anthony Wong his first major movie role. (Anthony went on to become one of the territory’s most respected screen actors, and can be seen at the top of his game in the DD releases of the Infernal Affairs trilogy and John Woo’s Hard-Boiled.)
I wondered aloud why Nancy had never worked at Shaw Brothers, and she explained that it was purely a result of the industry politics of the day. Like such luminaries as Cheng Pei Pei, Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi, Kwan has a classical dance background, and would have made a formidable Shaw studio swordswoman had things worked out differently.
Another referential project, Suzie Wong Is Dead, was developed by actress-turned-director Crystal Kwok back when I was at Media Asia. The story was about a young European who comes to Hong Kong looking for his Asian dream girl, and is disappointed. One of several reasons I left the company was that I was replaced as writer on the film, which never got made. Crystal and I are still friends, though. Action fans will remember her best for her work opposite Jackie Chan in Dragons Forever and Jet Li in The Master.
Nancy Kwan has about her an enviable grace that gives even the briefest acquaintance, such as myself, the sense that they’ve known her for years. In a way, we have, though perhaps only as Suzie Wong. I’m looking forward to seeing Ka Shen’s Story to see what lies beyond that World….
