Written by From Kung Fu Rookie, Shaolin to Sammo Hung by Sky Liam Martial Arts Action Adventurer
I typed in the website and pulled up some photos. We were in the school library, and my friend was a black belt in Karate. I showed him pictures from the Kung Fu school I’d just joined.
His mouth hung open. “I’ve never seen anything like that.” The other kids at the Chinese Kung Fu Association, where they taught traditional Shaolin plus modern Wushu, could punch, kick, and seemingly levitate in ways I could hardly believe.
I hated going to class. I’d already embarrassed myself by falling flat onto my back during basic kicking drills. I’d hyperventilate waiting in line for my turn to kick. I just knew I was going to mess it up.
But somehow I couldn’t stop. I began to practice in my backyard before and after class. I practiced in the park at lunch. Sifu (“master” in Cantonese and our instructor’s native Vietnamese) said to practice every day. I was drawn to the esoteric power of the art, especially when he performed. There seemed to be some secret in the movements that I yearned to decipher.
After a couple of years, the big moment came. The CKFA was entering a local tournament. Sifu was very traditional and would select only a few top students to represent us. I didn’t make the cut.
I watched as my classmates earned perfect 10s and Grand Championships for their forms. Maybe next year, it’ll be me…
It wasn’t. Or the year after that. And the year after that it was time to leave the hamlet of Portland, Oregon for college in Los Angeles. I had no idea what I was getting into when I picked up the book American Shaolin, author Matthew Polly’s hero’s journey from Kansas to the Shaolin Temple, where he stayed for two years and became the first American disciple.
I was held captive by every word, and as I’d always done, treated the book as a blueprint. I had to get to China, but neither I nor anyone in my family had ever been out of the country. The only option I saw was if I got my university to send me. And the only way I could do that was if I studied Mandarin. I needed at least four semesters to apply for study abroad.
I hopped on a flight to Beijing the first semester I became eligible.
I didn’t imagine I’d soon share a stage with Shaolin monks during a temple show, perform at universities across the city as a cultural ambassador for Peking University, and be interviewed for Chinese Central Television. I also found a Wushu coach to train with 5 days a week.
It wasn’t enough. Ever since seeing that first tournament back home, I was determined to become a champion. After one semester in China, despite all my experiences, I only managed to move from last place scores to middle-of-the-pack.
With the help of one of my Chinese teachers, I applied for funding from the Chinese Scholarship Council. I sent photographs of myself performing hoping they would discern my talent and desire amongst all the other applicants. At the end of the summer, I was awarded a full scholarship to the Capital Institute of Physical Education for a year in the Wushu program.
Before I left, I set two goals: compete in an international tournament, and act in two movies (despite dropping my film major, I had added theater to my degree). A few weeks into my matriculation, I saw my previous Wushu coach from Beijing. He was completing his doctorate at the university.
A month later he called me. “Hey, do you want to be in a movie with Jet Li?”
The audition was today. Right now. I met him outside my dorm and we bussed to an office outside the Olympic Bird’s Nest stadium. I improvised a scene, and wrote out a resume with all my short film and school play experience.
And I got a callback.
The movie was already shooting – called Tai Chi (later released as Tai Chi 0), with Jet Li replaced in pre-production by an ensemble cast including Eddie Peng, Siu-Lung “Bruce” Leung, Angelababy, and even a cameo by Daniel Wu.
The callback was on set, and I rehearsed a routine of kicking, boxing, and Chinese broadsword. When the other hopefuls and I exited the van, the production crew gathered to watch us.
In the center was Sammo Hung.
I found out then and there that he would be directing all scenes involving action. He was polite enough to clap after my audition, despite there being almost nothing on earth I could show him he hadn’t seen before.
Day after day I texted my coach for updates. Then the call came – I’d been cast!
I quickly learned that set life on a Chinese film had little in the way of basic comforts. We shot at night in sub-freezing temperatures, wearing only felt costumes, without even chairs to sit on in the mountains outside Beijing. On the first night, I watched every other actor do anything and everything in front of camera while I paced nervously, trying to maintain feeling in my limbs. The entire night passed.
The second night began in the same way. I began to lose hope in my nascent film career. Around 4am, a production assistant came over.
“Big brother wants to talk to you.”
One thing I learned from my first Sifu was, if he told you to do something, you’d better run. I sprinted faster than I ever had as Sammo beckoned for me to lean in close.
“I want you to run up to the tank… and climb that ladder.”
It was the most glorious ladder climb of my life. And it was still glorious over the next seven takes.
On the third night, Sammo’s assistant told me I’d have a fight scene on top of the tank. He handed me a staff and started setting the movements. I had about 10 minutes to practice before the cameras would roll.
After 5 minutes they changed the choreography and had me relearn everything. Side by side was my stunt double – dressed in the same uniform, same British military hat, same fake muttonchop sideburns. Earlier I’d learned he was a Sanda kickboxer at Beijing Sports University.
Time was up. I had to demonstrate the choreography for Sammo’s stunt coordinator, followed by my double. That night my Wushu weapons experience came in handy.
“No, no! Do it more like the foreigner!”
I got to do the entire fight on the tank with no double.
(When I saw the finished movie, the entire tank sequence had been deleted. Luckily I had gotten a meatier role filmed in Chongqing in the movie Bagua Zongshi aka The Kung Fu Master about the creator of Bagua style Kung Fu).
I had two movie roles under my belt. And before my program ended at the university, I competed in international tournaments in Shanghai and Hangzhou, winning gold and silver.
When I got back to the States, every weekend I’d get in my car and compete at any tournament I could drive to. After a brief adjustment period, I began to make a name for myself on the Southern California circuit.
I had a secret weapon: during my university’s long winter break, I travelled to Henan province, home of the Shaolin Temple, to stay in a village outside Yuntai Mountain. Founded by former Shaolin Temple monks, the Yuntai International Martial Arts School felt like a place to obliterate one’s limits. Through training 6 hours a day 6 days a week, I was able to learn the 70 move Buddhist form Luohanquan as well as the Shaolin bullwhip. I knew the whip had only been performed at a few US tournaments, and I could use it to make a mark in competition, the same way it left marks on me during training.
I relished every time I stepped onstage and cracked the whip – all heads would snap in my direction. Winning Grand Championships with a traditional Shaolin form over acrobatic contemporary forms gave me pride in the foundation of Chinese martial arts. But my bullwhip form carried me to a gold medal at the first ever Shaolin Temple International Cultural Festival, and an overall Grand Championship at “the granddaddy of them all” – the Long Beach International Karate Championships where Bruce Lee first became known.
I wanted to be a champion, and my Shaolin forms and Wushu training in Beijing had gotten me there. As I started moving from competing in tournaments to competing in the motion picture industry in LA, the challenges were greater than long days in a Henan village.
Frankly, my credits in Chinese films didn’t count for much in Hollywood. I had to go through the same route of classes, short films, and auditions that every other actor does, but I eventually broke through to get my SAG card and act in several feature films for cable and streaming.
None of them were martial arts roles. I loved acting, but I felt that just like with the bullwhip, there had to be a way to make my mark and set myself apart in the entertainment industry.
My inspiration for beginning martial arts had been superheroic characters on the screen and on the page. As a comics fan, I knew Marvel had martial arts heroes – including the character “Iron Fist,” which they had developed a streaming series for. I wanted to put traditional Shaolin techniques into that story – the type of martial arts I felt the character would actually use.
Deciding to write, direct, star in, and edit my own martial arts short film was almost as gruelling as training in the shadow of Mount Yuntai. I raised money for the project any way I could – from friends, and family, even through banquets at Chinese restaurants where I’d perform Kung Fu and then walk around collecting donations.
Among the talent that came on board was my friend from acting class, Kara Wang, who had also started her career in Beijing. She dove into martial arts for the role, spending nearly three months preparing for the climactic fight scene as the character Colleen Wing. Our mutual friend Alfred Hsing – a legendary competitor who had won the first gold medal for the United States at the World Wushu Championships – joined as both action director and Steel Serpent, the final villain.
I worked every connection I had to get locations for free, and saved money on equipment rentals by shooting over the weekend for three nights. I trained and dieted so hard to create the image of a superhero that after the shoot finished, my first destination was to get a burrito. My stomach had shrunk so much I barely finished half. I slept in my car to safeguard the camera equipment before I had to return it the next morning.
That wasn’t the end of the challenges. Not all of the footage was usable, and the entire 15 minute narrative didn’t make sense without the missing pieces. I decided to recut everything into an old school movie trailer, with the look and feel that action fans in the 80s and 90s missed from today’s films. In the end, the exteriors of downtown LA and the neon lighting worked to our advantage when cut with period-appropriate music.
I learned two big lessons from doing martial arts in China. One: never give up on the daily grind, no matter how hard it is. Whether you’re fighting sub-freezing temperatures on a movie set, or training in a remote village, the moment you give up, the whole journey is wasted. Persevere, and you will thank yourself forever.
Two: I learned how much value can be taken from the little things. Practicing Wushu line kicks every single day can still be fun, and sometimes the most exciting memory will be Sammo Hung telling you to climb up a ladder.
Here I am, Hollywood. No matter what difficulties there are, I’m not giving up, and I’m going to enjoy every little victory along the way.
Watch the IRON FIST Trailer Concept video here. Let us know what you think.
Synopsis:
After training in a lethal style of martial arts to avenge his parents murder, Danny Rand finds the killer has already died. Now what, and who, will he fight for?
“Iron Fist 铁拳” (aka “Iron Fist Tie Quan”) is an 80s inspired film concept based on the original Marvel comics character first published in 1974.
STARRING
Sky Liam as Danny Rand, Kara Wang as Colleen Wing, Alfred Hsing as Steel Serpent, Jeremy Fels as Harold Meachum, Blake McCrary as Marcus, Kenny Ware as James.
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The post FIGHTING FOR SAMMO HUNG!!! first appeared on World of Martial Arts | WOMA.