Well Go Entertainment’s “The Paper Tigers” is a film about martial arts you might not expect.
When I was a kid, I was coo-coo for Kung Fu. (Or maybe I should say ga-ga for Gung Fu, depending on whether or not you want to pronounce it in its correct Chinese pronunciation.). Anyway, the point is, both my brother and I freaking loved us some martial arts. We didn’t care about the story, the character development, or any of that. If it had martial arts, we’d watch it.
There’s a certain beauty and art that comes in directing and shooting a martial arts film. You can go gritty like the original Bruce Lee films. Comically choreographed like a Jackie Chan flick. YOu can go wild and wacky like Stephen Chow’s “Kung Fu Hustle ” (which has a similar fantastical frenzy to Edgar Wright’s “Scott Pilgrim vs the World”). Or create what looks like a Cirque du Soleil dance with something like “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” or “Hero.”
On this week’s episode of Crossing the 180, we have the producer and director respectively of “The Paper Tigers”—Al’n Duong and Bao Tran. In addition to learning about how they brought this film to life (a decade-long journey), they share:
- Their take on Asian representation in the business
- What they think makes a great martial arts film (Bao’s answer will DEFINITELY surprise you)
- and I ask them the infamous question: whose version of Old Boy had the best hallway fight scene: Park-Chan wook, or Spike Lee.
There are no spoilers for the film, so feel free to listen to this episode safely. But also, I strongly recommend watching it on Amazon, or getting the Blu-ray.
The video of Al’n I reference at the beginning of the show.
