Richard Norton tells backstage stories of working with Jackie and Sammo in City Hunter, Shanghai Express and Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Stars. From the podcast - • RICHARD NORTON inspire... #JackieChan #SammoHung #RichardNorton
Love Richard Norton, comes across as such a lovely guy and anyone who can hold his own against Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan and Cynthia Rothrock in multiple movies is right up there with the very best action heroes!
I think Mr Nice Guy is somewhat underrated as a Jackie Chan movie. The fights on the streets of Melbourne are great, there’s some excellent visual comedy, and Richard Norton plays a mean bad guy!
I always say If you want to put a person who is great at what they do then let them be who they are. This was the same reason that Jackie's first couple of movies in the early 80's didn't work well, The Big Brawl and The Protector. The action films in Hong Kong I still believe is much better than anything produced here in America and there is still a cult follow of people here that still loved those movies.
Yes, one can watch an American action film once and forget it, but a Hongkong one a billion times and still be amazed. They are the masters of their art and Americans should be humble to recognize that, instead of limiting them.
Jackie, Samo n Yuen...what a legend. Most fights so well choreo. There won't be anor trio with such talents n with such passion in giving us comedy kungfu movies that's par excellent, unrivalled n never to be repeated again, sadly.
i used to watch these 80s martial arts movies on video tapes when i was a kid in hong kong, still my favourite, and part of 80s that i miss nowadays...
I believe that Benny Urquidez had a different experience for a reason. Jackie checked his abilities as a fighter, when he sent a man of his stunt team to fight him. Once he saw that and he sparred a little with him he realised the man is a pro in a sense that he was a great figther. Whereas Norton admits he was in the middle range. So, when Benny showed what he knew, Jackie went aha, great and so he let him contribute. Also, because Benny took on immediately the rythm and Norton did not, so Jackie had probably thought that Benny's input would be in the right rythm and it was. That's my two pence on it I may be wrong. Because there was only one person who was allowed to have in input, and that was Benny. Everybody else had to just obey. Of course, Brad Allen himself became part of the amazing team, so he had great input but that is an entirely different story.
Many thanks, appreciation and respect for the distinguished videos that take us back to the golden age of martial arts films and distinguished actors without cinematic tricks and computer effects. You are a legend.
How interesting to hear all this! Thank you for uploading it. It is awful hwo in America they do nto allow the expersts on coreographing fight scenes Sammo and Jackie do anything. The system is so very rigid. No wonder they were and Jackie still is frustrated by that. He often tells the audiences how it feels, on shows.
I loved seeing your interview and although some fights might be too long sometimes I would say that the end fight sequence in city hunter is a perfect movie fight as we have a great exchange among the 2 protagonists with each one getting the upper hand and surprising the adversary with a trump card followed by a great adaptation from Jackie. The fight in itself tells us a story and you can't imagine how great it was to see a normal looking guy being able to do a good fight against Jackie, instead of the usual over the top bad guy you incarnate in other movies (big bad guy beard and muscle in display). In city hunter this fight is so unexpected due to your look it makes it even better
Great insight! I did some pro-wrestling in the early 2000's, then some stunts in LA in the late 2000's, then stunts in Japan in the late 2010's. It's been fun to see the differences of eras or how locations are different. Very cool of Mr. Norton to touch on that stuff.
I grew up watching HK action and honestly the current action choreo from mainland china isn't as good. You can tell people like Richard, Sammo, Jackie, Tony Jaa, Donnie and Wu Jing have real skill. When you have great martial artists doing action, you know immediately! The cultural context for why movies and tv series over dramatize is two parts. The first is beijing opera the actors had to make sure the audience could see it. The second is chinese culture represses emotions, so movies is an outlet. Things have been changing. In the 80's public display of affection (PDA) was strictly taboo, but today it's more acceptable. As a result, acting styles have been evolving.
Loved the observation on the evolution of their styles through the decades. No wonder they stayed great. What a waste they couldn't get more of their input in for American films.
Richard Norton! Wow sorry I almost forgot about him. But I still remember watching him all dressed up in fancy suits smoking big cigars and amazing leg kicks.
I kind of respectfully disagree with a little bit of what Mr. Norton says here regarding the evolving onscreen fighting styles of Jackie Chan, & Sammo Hung, I think if those guys were still physically capable of doing the kind of stuff they did in the 80s & early 90s, they'd still be doing that stuff. Yes, some of the action they've done in the last 20 years or so (Jackie's stuff in The Foreigner, for example) has been more "realistic", less fanciful, but that "realistic" stuff is also much easier & less time consuming than the stuff those guys were doing in the 80s. I recall reading an interview with Richard Norton in a 90s fanzine in which he told the same story about Sammo asking why the Hong Kong films didn't get a chance in America, but when movies like Rumble In The Bronx, Legend of Drunken Master (Drunken Master 2), Supercop, Mr. Nice Guy, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, even Sammo's TV series, Martial Law all featured 80s Hong Kong style action & American audiences enjoyed that action enough to pay for it! I think the primary reason American audiences "didn't go for" that classic style of Hong Kong action was because, until Rumble In The Bronx came along, 99% of Americans had never seen it! With all due respect (& I do respect Richard, he should write a tell-all autobiography, he's had an amazing life, I'd certainly buy it), Richard starred in his own martial arts movies with "better" plots & more "realistic" action scenes, but when did any of them ever have a successful theatrical release in America? All those "over the top" Hong Kong style action movies from Jackie, on the other hand, made money both in theaters & on home video.
Those movies got a new kind of people looking at them. The same thing happened in France where those movies were dispised by the critics and somehow black listed in the cinemas but loved by the youngsters especially in the ghettos but pretty much every kid and teenage would love to get his hands on a new HK masterpiece. There has been a dedicated fan base of those movies because we saw them for what they offered us : an incredible display of passion and athletism displayed on screen. Nowadays American industry got to learn how to get the young generation captive with their licence so there isn't all that untapped potential (the young who didn't have movies they could enjoy) and now your average 4 years old boy will have his spiderman backpack. Problem being that HK action is still despised by an elitist kind of critic world, more now than ever partly because it displays how a rowdy commoner can succeed in his quest through athleticism (a value that is promoted no more in occidental countries)
I respectfully disagree when he says many of the Kung Fu movies are dated. Not really, I've seen many young people becoming fans to all these 80s, 90s Kung Fu movies. Yes, many the characters are one dimensional, but it works for the movies.
Van Damme have said that he didn’t want to get beat by Jet Li, that’s why he wasn’t in The expendable part 1. Damn it could have been one of the greatest fight all time in movies to date
could someone recommend some new hong kong movies? i really dont know any since i dont follow the movies that much...but as jackie was part of my childhood would really love to see how the hong kong genre is novadays
I will recommend Raging Fire. Directing by Benny Chan (who pass away in 2020. RIP) Starring by Donnie Yen and Nicholas Tse. A great action movie. Very worth to watch.
Sha Po Lang : SPL ( killzone) Donnie Yen has incorporated MMA and grappling into his fight choreography. SPL is one, Flash point and Big Brother. Of course the one that starting using ground fight was Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon and Game of Death where he bite Kareem's leg.
@@joeofmacabre07 opps my bad. I got Bruce Lee all mixed up. He bit Robert Baker Russian character in Fist of Fury, not Kareem in GoD. 😊 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4ySZkNITezk.html
I find it funny when Richard touched on Jakie's frustration with the American style of movie making, but when American's have frustrations with Hong Kong style, they have to shut up and just deal with it. What goes around, comes around. Don't get me wrong though. I know for a fact whatever Jackie's input was would have been great to incorporate in the Rush Hour movies no doubt.
I remember hearing Brett Ratner said for rush hour 1 or 2 jackie edited an amazing fight scene but didn't accept it because he simply said you can't do that in american movies....psssshhh....
American asked Samo hung to act in the States yet not allowing him to have creative input? What a waste of his talent and expertise. Also show how great the Americans think about themselves.
