OUR MAN VAN (DAMME) : Checking in with Hong Kong’s Belgian connection.
When we met this evening in the coffee shop of the Peninsula Hotel, I tried to figure out how many years I’ve known Jean-Claude Van Damme. I remember distinctly the first time I set eyes on him. Cannon Films ran a full page Variety ad for a film called ‘Bloodsport’, using a still from another film, the as-yet-unreleased No Retreat, No Surrender. I was in Thailand when I came across a copy of the former. JCVD was so little-known at the time, the sleeve of the (pirate) videotape listed leading lady Leah Ayres as the star. Watching the film in my room at Sidyodtong Muay Thai camp, I realized that a new style of Hollywood action hero had been defined.
I was already writer/editor of Combat magazine, and so was able to convey my enthusiasm for this new star to a ready audience. We met for the first time in 1989, when Jean-Claude, en route back from filming Kickboxer, came to London to do press for his earlier films. I met him and his wife, former bodybuilding champion Gladys Portugues, outside Gold’s Gym (which was closed) and we walked down Charing Cross Road to a YMCA basement, where I conducted Van Damme’s first interview and cover shoot for a British magazine.
Given the way the industry has changed, it’s hard to convey the impact this action idol had on the martial arts movie mad youth of the UK. ‘The Muscles From Brussels’ had
extraordinarily broad appeal. Action movie fans, martial artists, teenage girls (and their older sisters), the gay community… No-one seemed immune to his charms. Knowing that I knew him, at least en passant, I was badgered with demands for autographs and more. Two single mothers in Bath called and wanted me to offer JCVD the time of his life if he came for the weekend…
Though he has never appeared in a full-fledged Hong Kong kung fu movie, Jean-Claude has had a long relationship with the industry. As an unknown European martial arts champion, he flew here to visit a family friend, and did the circuit of local film companies. He offered himself as a movie bad guy to a number of local stars, including Jackie Chan, but no-one really caught his potential until, several years later, producer Ng See-yuen received a package containing JCVD’s images and showreel.
NG, as he’s called, heads Hong Kong’s Seasonal Films, and is the man who made a star out of Jackie Chan. American martial artist Roy Horan, who had appeared in Ng’s Snake In The Eagle’s Shadow and Tower Of Death, was working for Seasonal at the time, and NG passed the package to him. Roy remembers how his teacher, Taekwondo superkicker Wong Jang Lee, had shown him how you could tell, simply from a photo, the level of attainment of a martial artist. Using this method, Roy says he decided that JCVD had potential, and so he was eventually offered the role of main fighting villain in Seasonal’s first international film, No Retreat, No Surrender.
NRNS was directed by action ace Corey Yuen, and saw Van Damme rise to the challenge of Hong Kong style choreography. His character is very much the kind of high kicking bad guy Wong Jang Lee played in many of his Hong Kong movies. Originally, JCVD was scheduled to reprise his role in NRNS2: Raging Thunder, which was to be shot in Thailand. However, by this time, Van Damme had already had his first starring role in Bloodsport, and, as matters transpired, did not return to the fold, with his part being taken by German actor Matthias Hues.
Bloodsport was filmed entirely on location in Hong Kong, with studio work undertaken at the Clearwater Bay facilities now occupied by ATV. It features a number of prominent local talents on and off camera. Foremost among these is my good friend Bolo Yeung, whose career was given a new lease of life by his being cast as our hero’s nemesis. Also on hand was John Chang, star of the cult kung fu video title Snake In The Monkey’s Shadow, and prolific actor/producer Philip Chan (who co-stars in the recent DD release Hard Boiled). Despite the low budget, Bloodsport remains one of the most indisputably entertaining films in the Van Damme canon. (Ironically, given some of the dreck their company foisted on the public in this period, the producers at Cannon Films initially declared Bloodsport unreleasable, and it took a year for JCVD to convince them otherwise.)
Though his muscles may hail from Brussels, Van Damme’s heart and soul remained in Asia, and he would return to the region again and again, either to shoot films here or to find talent to work on his international productions.
Kickboxer was filmed in Thailand, with the Bloodsport performer John Chang behind the camera as action director. (Chang is a former Jackie Chan regular with a decent role in the recent DD release Police Story 2) JCVD’s master in the film, Xian, was best known in Hong Kong as a comedic supporting actor (he has a cameo in the aforementioned PS2) and is the brother of Philip Chan. Though he reprised the role in several Kickboxer sequels, he actually makes a living as a director of commercials.
JCVD returned to Hong Kong for Double Impact, which provided another high profile role for Bolo. (To see the kind of parts he was getting pre- Bloodsport, check out his cameo in the DD release Millionaire’s Express.) Also on hand, in a villainous role, is Philip Chan, who is currently head of production for Emperor Motion Pictures. John Cheung was back behind the camera as action director. (One of the film’s producers, Charles Layton, was, until recently, an executive at TWC, and mortified that I recognized him from Double Impact’s ‘behind the scenes’ documentary.)
In 1993, Van Damme played a key role in getting John Woo hired to shoot his first American movie, Hard Target. The finale saw Woo rework an action sequence from our DD release Hard Boiled, with two gunmen blasting at each as they run along opposites of a wall. (North American fans of John Woo will soon be able to discover his early classics on Dragon Dynasty, including A Better Tomorrow and The Killer.)
He teamed with a second Heroic Bloodshed helmer, Ringo Lam, for the thrillers Maximum Risk, Replicant and In Hell. The pair were set to work a third time on Wake Of Death, but Lam left the project over ‘creative differences’. This last was shot in South Africa, with Hong Kong star Simon Yam in the cast. (Simon also stars in the DD released Kill Zone, Dragon Heat and the forthcoming PTU.)
JCVD worked with legendary director Tsui Hark on Double Team, an uncredited reworking of the cult TV series The Prisoner. The film’s DP, Peter Pau, would later find fame with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and is currently shooting the Jackie and Jet vehicle Forbidden Kingdom. Hung Yan Yan (AKA Xin Xin Xiong) plays a fighting henchman in the film. A Wu Shu expert and former stuntman for Jet Li, he played a memorable Clubfoot in Tsui’s Once Upon A Time In China series. He also provided choreography for the film, as did Hong Kong action legend Sammo Hung (back when we was spelling his name ‘Samo’). (Check out one of Sammo’s finest hours in our release of Millionaire’s Express.)
Van Damme reteamed with Tsui Hark for the action comedy misfire Knock Off. JCVD himself admits that this was a low point for him, personally and professionally. I had moved to Hong Kong by now, and remember running in to an apparently endless stream of young, arrogant American producers. (As was proved by the recent Ultraviolet, there’s an inverse ratio between the number of stuck up yanks involved and the quality of the finished product.) This was actually intended as Jet Li’s first international film, but he pulled out at the very last moment. (He was replaced in the role of Han by Michael Wong). Action ace Sammo Hung provided choreography, and the film provides a bizarre snapshot of the people and energy present in pre-Handover 1997 Hong Kong.
The only one of the Cinema City generation of directors Van Damme hasn’t work with is Johnnie To, but his recent Until Death is a remake of To’s 1995 Shaw Brothers-produced drama Loving You. William Pfeiffer, boss of Celestial Pictures, gets a producer credit on the film, and you can check out further Celestial titles in our Shaw Brothers classics series.)
Our man Van now has a pied de terre in Hong Kong, and will spend increasing time in Asia. We’re looking for new projects on which to work together, and continue the legacy of this genuine evangelist for Hong Kong action cinema.
Comments
- Gavin, UK | 2007-08-17 04:03:14
- Lee Wright, UK | 2007-08-17 15:43:46
- Esco, Connecticut, USA | 2007-08-26 21:18:47
- Gav, UK | 2007-08-21 08:15:48
- Matt Stockton, Vienna, Austria | 2007-08-21 14:04:15
- Jason Beeston, UK | 2007-11-14 22:37:24
- T, Vancouver | 2007-08-27 22:47:20