THE STORMRIDERS: Hong Kong's CGI Breakthrough.

By: Craig Reid
Date: Sunday, January 23, 2000

While studying corn-pest predators in Illinois, I was once in the middle of 'flat' nowhere, when suddenly the skies darkened and a tornado ominously swooped down and weaved a destructive path through a field I had just been in. The next thing I knew, my colleague and I were in a pickup following it. I recall kung fu-ly thinking, 'It'd be cool if a man could harness that power for a fighting technique.' When I first saw Hong Kong's Fant-Asia actioner, THE STORMRIDERS (a.k.a. FUNG YUIN, literal translation: 'Wind, Cloud'), my mind repetitively mulled over my blustery bout with the tornado. My nutty notion had come true. Before my eyes, two young warriors had learned to harness the destructive dynamism of wind and rain and through the phenomenal CGI work done by Centro Digital Pictures, and I was blown away again.

So just when you thought Fant-Asia film was limping to its demise--its top cinematic talents having done the famed Chinese monkey prince thing, fleeing the Communist Chinese regime (like we didn't see it coming) by journeying to the West--along comes STORMRIDERS. We're talking about a typhoon-size masterpiece whose box office receipts have not only blown away all other Fant-Asia classics but have also even surpassed the Asian records previously held by Jackie Chan. After this record-breaking run in its native land, the film played at U.S. theatres in Chinese-American neighborhoods in late 1998; it is now available on DVD from Universe Video in subtitled form, and an English-dubbed version is in the works.

This must-see mass of mayhem is so wild, that wolf packs howl, apes brachiate, dogs catch their tails, buffaloes stampede and killer bees freeze. And due to massive facial contortions brought on by the film's awesome energy, audiences' faces develop wrinkles they never thought they could get. My face having recovered from its workout, I was honored to speak with the producer and Centro's president John Chu, and the film's director Andrew Lau, who exclusively filled us in on all the hype of arguably one of the world's best recent films you've probably never seen.

'I've always strongly believed that if we apply modern visual effects to a Chinese story there will be a market,' Chu relates. 'My company has always been developing techniques for visual effects. So when Golden Harvest approached me with this ambitious project and asked me to do the effects, I had no hesitation.'

When I first coined the term 'Fant-Asia' in the mid-'90s to describe Hong Kong's outrageous fantasy genre, only a handful of journalists were eagerly covering these films, trying to convey their presence to the American public. Although the excitement of discovery has somewhat waned, the term still exists with Canada's highly successful 'Fant-Asia Film Festival' (thanks guys). But since the 1997 take over (oops, hand over) of Hong Kong to mainland China, film production is down to 50 films a year; there's no government support; and Fant-Asia was the first genre to suffer. But Chu and Golden Harvest invested $10 million (US) into a movie that they hoped could provide the spark to save the failing postage stamp colonies' film industry. Why the risk?


'In the past, wu xia pian [old style Fant-Asia films] were popular,' Chu explains. 'But maybe there were too many, and they had the same fighting and stunts, so the audience became bored. But I thought if we use special effects to re-create the mythical and mystical kung-fu fighting powers from the Wu Xia Xiao Shuo novels [old style kung-fu superhero novels], deep down, people in Hong Kong would enjoy a well produced and good Chinese film.'

Lau shares with us his take on the genesis of the project. 'After I had finished my fifth YOUNG AND DANGEROUS [1997] film, which is from a comic book, my partner Manfred Wong and I thought our next project should be from this comic book called 'Tian Xia' by Ma Wing Sing, which at the time was not called 'Fung Yuin.' It's the biggest-selling comic book in Hong Kong. But the problem is that it's a period piece, and there are many famous kung-fu filmmakers here so we must think of a high-tech way to make the film. When I came to the States visiting FX companies, at that time, I saw this shot from BATMAN [1989] where Batman jumps down from a 20 foot building, lands on the ground and walks away. They said it was all CGI. I thought, 'Wow.' From then I was hooked on CG. So we talked to John Chu and Golden Harvest about what we wanted to do. I have worked on wu xia films and I was nervous if we could do things better than Ching Siu Tung [CHINESE GHOST STORY (1987), SWORDSMAN (1990)], and Tsui Hark [ZU: WARRIOR FROM MAGIC MOUNTAIN (1983), ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA (1991)]. So we thought using special effects to re-create the mythical and mystical kung-fu fighting powers from the kung-fu superhero novels, would be our edge.'

Set in ancient China, STORMRIDERS is adapted from the martial arts comic book series by Ma. Apparently, Ma's former boss was so mean to him that he was inspired to create a story based on a similarly 'virtuous' villain. Hence the creation of Xiong Ba, a martial arts grand wizard and head of the World Society clan whose sole ambition is to conquer the world. To accomplish this, Xiong was foretold that he must find Fung (Whispering Wind) and Yuin (Striding Cloud), two boys whose birth constellations corresponded with Xiong's destiny. However, at a later pre-ordained time, Xiong is presented with the second part of the fortune.

Xiong finds Fung and Yuin but in the process kills their parents. He takes them back to the World Society and adopts them as his pupils, but they vow to avenge their families. The boys grow up along side Xiong's daughter Kong Ci, and their love for her and her ultimate choice between them leads to everyone's undoing as Xiong now learns from the sealed Persian Box of Destiny that the only thing that can stop him is if these two warriors unite against him. This of course sets up the fantastical final confrontation. Adding to the anticipated ending is Xiong's search for the ultimate Invincible Sword, which leads to a 'what the hell was that?' and 'are you kidding me?' final showdown with the Sword Saint (Anthony Wong). (Curiously, Tsui Hark's extremely influential ZU: WARRIORS OF THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN, which started the Fant-Asia craze, was also a story about two young warriors who must unite to defeat a common foe.)

The film stars Hong Kong's top Canto-pop performers Aaron Kwok [BARE-FOOTED KID (1993), SAVIOR OF SOULS (1992)] as Cloud, Ekin Cheng [MAN CALLED HERO (1999)] as Wind, and samurai star Sonny Chiba as Xiong. (In actuality, Kenji Sahara from RODAN [1956] was also in the running for Xiong.)

'But Sonny Chiba was a God send,' confides Chu, a graduate from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematogratia of Rome film school. 'We searched for a master who would be able to authentically depict the character from the comic book, and we couldn't find this person in the Chinese film industry. Golden Harvest went to Japan and found Sonny at the last moment. With makeup and costume he looked exactly like the comic book character. He has this stature and air about him, a lot like the late Toshiro Mifune.'

'We really wanted a 'master' looking guy,' Lau agrees. 'And when I was young, I remember Sonny on TV shows I saw in Hong Kong. I always remembered his look. We had a lot of casting, but when he came to Hong Kong and I met him face to face, we looked at the comic book and we all thought 'God had given us a break.' He looked just like the comic book character. For the filming, all his lines were delivered in Japanese.'

Chu continues, 'Our challenge was to stick to the comic book and not upset all the local fans of the comic. After the film's showing, we got a lot of support and positive reactions from the fans. I would engage my friends who were also fans, and they'd say we were doing good.

'What's tough is that there are so many characters. Even the final version had too many. But we needed to find a balance for those who had never read the comic. Producer-writer Manfred Wong's script had 5 versions. We did location shooting for 4 1/2 months with 18 for post. We're currently re-editing a more suitable version for the European and non-Chinese prints. Our overseas buyers are requesting the film, and we want to simplify it a bit. Any suggestions?'

Blown away and honored by Chu's request, I pose several ideas, thinking that there must be some sort of Fate thing happening. The year I was seeking shelter in an irrigation ditch from a tornado, Tsui Hark was making ZU. I've gone from storm chaser, to storm creator (if you count the furor created by my term Fant-Asia) and to now possibly stormrider. Whoa.

Although Chu's previous efforts include the CGI for an array of award-winning commercials and films such as THE UMBRELLA STORY (1995) and THE SOONG SISTER (1996), STORMRIDERS is his most ambitious project to date. With over 500 special effects shots, totaling 40 minutes of action, many of the brain-scraping, wowee-zowee set pieces could never have been accomplished without computer-generated imagery. For instance, one of the fight scenes takes place on top of the 71-meter Great Buddha in Leshan, Szechuan, and appears to be filmed with a 360-degree revolving camera. In reality, the 'fight' took place against a blue-screen with the wire-harnessed actor stationed on a revolving plank and filmed using a 360 degree rising shot with Centro's motion-control camera rig. The figures were later scanned onto the computer image of the Buddha. Lau comments, 'That would have been logistically impossible to film, not only because of the tourists but also because of the height of the Buddha.'

The first half of STORMRIDERS plays more like an ultra-artsy film, wherein careful camera choreography, slow motion, step-printing and twisted sound effects create a remarkable quasi-European sensibility without sacrificing those typical patented Hong Kong visual elements. For example, during Sonny Chiba's first duel against Wind's father, while bodies flicker in and out of frame and dutch camera angles rock back and forth, the chromatic palate melts from color to color. Then suddenly, at what appears to be the pseudo-apex of the battle, all movements freeze and all we are left with is the loud churning sound of a single leaf rapidly flip-flopping through screen. Wow.

Then when Wind conjures up the power of wind, he surrounds himself within a detritus-ladened, miniature tornado that looks like something out of TWISTER (1996). Cloud's ferocious use of water is wonderfully depicted as he sweeps his hands in circles around his body, causing bucket loads of liquid to sway and move in rhythm with his arm motions. He then folds his arms and punches his hands forward shooting the water out of its circular path into liquefied missiles that impale his opponents. Then of course the most powerful technique is reserved for Xiong's growing, light-pulsating, crystal ball maneuver that is partially reminiscent of something out of THE PRISONER (1968) except it's much more damaging.

'But the biggest challenge,' Lau contends, 'was creating the mythical Fire Kirin, a fire-breathing beast that duels with Wind. It was all CGI, and we couldn't afford to even build a cardboard model to help Ekin, who had never worked with 'nothing' before. We did a lot of storyboarding, which is something not often done in Hong Kong films, and that helped him. In fact, apart from having 5 versions of the script, we had 3 versions of storyboards. Of the four and half months for shooting this thing, it took us 15 shooting days for the Kirin sequence, the longest of the shoot. In Hong Kong, that is a long time. But at least we had 18 months for post.'

A drawn out sigh of reflection later, Chu interjects, 'This is an instance where we didn't follow what the comic book had as the Kirin. Instead, we had to create this animal that only exists in our minds, because nobody has ever seen the Kirin before, so we wanted to make it fiery, a burning coal, so it also had to have this light-emitting energy. We somehow blended it with the design of the comic, and what we felt was in people's minds. Also remember that Ekin had to fight something that wasn't there, and that is not only a new experience for the actors but for also our Hong Kong crews.

'The challenge was also to keep the texture of the scales on its skin while maintaining that fiery body effect. Plus, we needed to capture all the facial expressions and the beasts body postures and language. So character design began with many illustrations detailing facial features, skeleton, musculature and skin texture. A clay model was sculpted based on drawings; then its coordinates were digitized as the basis for the first computer model but that CG model proved limiting. So the Kirin was essentially re-modeled from scratch.' (Curiously, the latest TV commercial for the Marines is a direct rip-off of the Kirin created by Chu.)

So by using state-of-the- art effects, STORMRIDERS has been able to finally give authentic life to those old-style kung-fu novels that Fant-Asia films have been trying to emulate for decades. To the Hong Kong film fans, it's the elaborate swordplay and fight choreography that holds a special wonderment in their psyches, because nobody in the world and no stuntmen in their right minds can do it like the Hong Kong filmmakers. So although the film is loaded with special effects, fight director Dion Lam (THE MATRIX, MARTIAL LAW) gives the film that 'Made in Hong Kong' label with fights that maintain the frenetic-paced pugilistic action and wild wire work that makes you cringe because you know it's a real guy doing that stuff.

Yet ironically, the film's strength is also its partial weakness. Just imagine trying to figure out what is going on in Ching Siu Tung's classic swordplay films like DUEL TO THE DEATH (1983) or SWORDSMAN II (1992) while the images are covered up in swirling winds and crashing water. The effects essentially hide a lot of the fight choreography, sometimes making it difficult to figure out who is attacking whom. But on the flip side, except for Sonny Chiba, you're dealing with actors who don't practice martial arts and who are basically Canto-pop singing idols of the masses. (Although the film is loaded with special effects and martial arts, according to Lau, 'It's still sort of a love story.')

If The Doors were around, they would be proud if their song 'Riders on the Storm' could be used on the soundtrack of the English-dubbed version, because like Jim Morrison, this film is far-out, psychedelic and unpredictable. Just ask Cloud how his arm was saved. (See the film if you want to know what I'm talking about.) STORMRIDERS may not save the Hong Kong film industry, but for a cool $10-million budget, it not only puts many of the recent Hollywood big budgeted affairs to shame; it downright chews them up, spits them out, then eats them a second time after they have sprouted. It's what MORTAL KOMBAT (1995) should have been. Larry Kasanoff, are you listening? Too late.