Q&A with Gordon Liu at Heroes of the East: screening

Colin Geddes (left), Gordon Liu (centre)

After the screening of Heroes of the East / 中華丈夫 on Saturday July 19, 2008 Colin Geddes sat down with star of the film Gordon Liu for a Q&A much to the delight of the audience. Here are some of the stories Gordon Liu shared with us.

He never imagined that doing martial arts would lead to fame and fortune in the movie world, but that he did it for his health. He also pointed out that in the film there is no killing, the fight is to create a dialogue and understand each other.

His parents were against him doing kung fu, and his father imagined his son to live a traditional life graduating from school, and getting a steady job. He would learn kung fu by going out after dinner with his schoolbag, under the guise of doing school work. After three years, his parents figured it out what was really happening and his father was okay with the kung fu considering he was still getting passing grades.

In the film Heroes of the East / 中華丈夫, the drunken boxing master is actually the director Lau Kar-Leung who was also his teacher since day one and is like extended family. That is how he got into doing films, one day Lau Kar-Leung if he wanted to be in a movie. He has a lot of respect for Lau Kar-Leung and treats him as sifu and godfather.

An audience member asked which film was the funnest to make. Play the video for the response, including English translation:



Continuing about Quentin Tarantino, they really clicked and he found Quentin Tarantino to be very amusing and very respectful of culture. They both wore black suits on the set of Kill Bill Vol. 1.

Gordon Liu shared a piece of advice with the audience to sum up the Q&A period in reference to holding on to the glory days: "Don't look back, just look ahead"

The screening and the Q&A was a truly unique experience. Gordon Liu has a delightful presence and graciously accepted audience questions as well as our applause.




The crowd at Innis for the screening