[2016.01.08] RONNY YU WANTS TO TELL THE SECRET BEHIND FEARLESS

Ronny Yu wants to remake FEARLESS to tell the secret behind Fok Yuen Gap's death

CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON

Ronny Yu reveals that Jet Li is hurting all over
courtesy of on.cc

Famous Hong Kong director Ronny Yu Yun Tai earlier returned to Hong Kong from Australia. He revealed intentions of remaking his classic film FEARLESS (FOOK YUEN GAP), the reason of which was an even stranger story. After two years without a film Ronny actually was preparing for three new films, one of which was a Chinese super hero science fiction film. Once industry insiders predicted by 2018 China will officially replace the U.S. as the world's largest film market. Although Hollywood films were big hits in China, over the years few Chinese films have performed well in Hollywood. The highest grossing North American foreign film was still the 2000 Ang Lee film CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON. Thus Ronny felt very fortunate that his 2006 film FEARLESS was one of the top ten highest grossing foreign films. He revealed that he was putting all of his efforts into exploring the "key" to success of opening up the North American box office.

Aside from three new films, Ronny would also like to remake FEARLESS. Back then when Jet Li (Lee Nin Kit) invited him to direct FEARLESS he wanted to bring out the message of the truth behind martial arts. At th time when he and his team were working on the film's post production in Japan, he took the chance to look up some information about Fok Yuen Gap at the library there. He discovered that Fok Yuen Gap did not die from being poisoned by the Japanese, actually an organization hired the Japanese to kill Fok Yuen Gap with poison!

Ronny revealed that FEARLESS kept running to trouble in post production at the time. For example the composer Japanese film music master Shigeru Umebayashi got a ride to the recording studio but did not arrive after a long time, actually he ran into a car accident. Later Ronny asked a Taoist friend to help and realized that "Fok Yuen Gap" did not want the film to be released. He hoped that Ronny and othres would speak up on his behalf and tell the secret behind "his" death! Thus Ronny hoped to remake FEARLESS to do just that.

Aside from the strange events behind the making of FEARLESS, Ronny also revealed that Lee Nin Kit during the shoot had to take a variety of pain killers daily because over the years Lee Nin Kit was injured all over from his martial art scenes. He also revealed that some stunt coordinators were less than mentally stable. Every time when they sparred with big stars they fought for "real" in order to relieve their rage!

Ronny also revealed when he resigned from CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON: THE GREEN DESTINY. At the time Harvey Weinstein invited him to direct he wanted to adapt the novel after CROUCHING, IRON KNIGHT SILVER VASE. Ronny after reading the original really wanted to make the film, but later after he read the script he decided against it as he was upset at the changes in the script. In particular he was the most surprised by the romance between Donnie Yen Chi Tan's and Michelle Yeoh (Yeung Chi King)'s characters. In the end he gave up directing and Yuen Woo Ping took over.