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Get Gordon for Kill Bill
Straits Times, 16 August 2003 Wong Kim Hoh
Quentin Tarantino was dead set on one Hong Kong actor when he began casting for his new movie Kill Bill a couple of years ago. Not Jackie Chan, not Jet Li, but Gordon Liu. The American director of cult hits such as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction had his reasons. Kill Bill is his tribute to1970s Hong Kong martial arts flicks, and Gordon Liu just happens to be one of the biggest gongfu stars from the era. Gordon Liu made his mark as a lethal fighting monk in scores of movies produced by Shaw Brothers in the 1970s and 1980s. Many, such as 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978), Legendary Weapons of China (1978) and The 8-Diagram Pole Fighter (1983), have become cult kungfu classics.
"It was embarrassing but I didn't know Quentin Tarantino at all when I was told he wanted me to act in his movie," says Gordon Liu in Cantonese over the phone. "But he personally came to see me in Hong Kong. I was very touched especially since I'm no longer at the height of my fame. That period of my life was more than 20 years ago," adds the still-very-fit 50-year-old, who now takes on dramatic roles in Cantonese serials produced by Hong Kong's top broadcaster, TVB, and has recently appeared in Shaw Brothers latest kungfu movie, Drunken Monkey.
The actor, who took up wushu in his teens, obviously more than delivered. Quentin Tarantino was so impressed that he increased Gordon Liu's screen time and even gave him another role in the movie. The role - a 100-year-old gongfu master called Bai Mei - was one which Quentin Tarantino wanted to play himself.
Kill Bill, which will be released in two parts, the first in November this year, tells the story of an assassin (Uma Thurman) who gets shot on her wedding day by her boss Bill. She wakes up from her coma to exact revenge. In the movie, Gordon Liu plays both Uma Thurman's martial arts master as well as Lucy Liu's macabre Japanese henchman.
"When we first started filming, Uma Thurman had just given birth to her second baby. But she was very cool, she trained very hard and did a lot of the stunts herself," he says. "Lucy Liu was also very friendly; she's very smart," he says when asked what he thought of the film's two leading actresses.
The father of two children - a 21-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son - Gordon Liu got his lucky break in movies from his sworn brother, Liu Chia Liang. The latter is a well-known martial arts choreographer who has also directed many top-grossing Hong Kong action movies including 36th Chamber of Shaolin and Drunken Master II.
"I started learning gongfu at his school when I was very young. My parents didn't know at first; I would tell them I was off to the library when I was in fact going to martial arts classes. They thought only bad boys learnt how to fight."
Gordon Liu still trains daily to keep in tip-top shape. "If I had a paunch, or if I stoop, I think Quentin Tarantino would have been very disappointed. But I'm still very fit, that's why he was so impressed when we met," he says with pride.
"Actors from our era are a different breed. Today, anyone can become an action star as long as he looks good. In our days, it was different. We had to have the real thing."
____________ Kill Bill, whose martial arts director is Yuen Wo Ping, is slated to open in Singapore on Nov 27, 2003.
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