Dennis Chan Kwok-san is a familiar face in Hong Kong and to audiences around the globe. Dennis is a guy who literally has ‘been there – done that!’. After starting off in Hong Kong’s television circuit he then branched out into the territories movie business (not to mention two Hollywood martial arts actioners alongside Jean Claude Van Damme).

In this exclusive interview for Jade Screen, Dennis tells our own Richard Cooper how he got into the film industry, thoughts on his films, and why is has decided to devote the majority of his time these days behind the camera producing.

JS: In the West you are well known for appearing alongside Van Damme in Kickboxer and also the following films – how did you get the part?

DC: Yes, for about seven years I was very famous in the West and also in the Third World Countries (Laughing)… From South America to Africa – the kids just loved these movies.

JS: How did you get the part as Xian in the films?

DC: I was selected through the casting process… Also, not many people could speak English that well at that time in the Hong Kong film industry… Because with the first Kickboxer movie we shot it in Hong Kong and also Thailand, although in the film, the story just tells you it is all meant to appear to be in Thailand…

JS: What was Van Damme like to work with? Can you remember back that far to 1988? (Laughing)

DC: Was it 1988? I have no concept of time or anything… (Laughing) Van Damme – he realised that this was a very important movie. He was very serious on the set and also very demanding which is only right as the films Producer. But he couldn’t fit into the Oriental Culture yet so most of the crew and the extras are from Hong Kong and Thailand and there were some minor problems but I talked to him and soon he realised he had to change his attitude because handling the Chinese is totally different from the way you would handle the Westerners… he realised that and in the end it was a pretty good experience for me.

JS: And later on you starred in Kickboxer 2 and 3 as well but without Van Damme.

DC: Yes, part 2, part 3.

JS: So that experience didn’t put you off from working on any future Hollywood or Western films?

DC: Put me off?

JS: Yes, because the of filming procedures, the way the films are shot, the difference between the crews in Hong Kong and Asia.

DC: Yes, absolutely right… Two very different methods of working. I know the Hong Kong way pretty well but when I travelled to America to work on Kickboxer 2 and 3 I find the crew very meticulous, sometimes too organised and I really wanted to bring back some of the Western methods to Hong Kong but I find it doesn’t work. In Hong Kong, the filmmakers, the crews we rely on speed and also we have to learn to change and adapt very quickly. In Hong Kong we don’t work with a script most of the time, we only have a few sheets of paper giving us an outline of the movie. In Hong Kong it’s not unusual for the Director to be sitting on the set waiting for the next page of the script to be sent out. I would say the West’s system in very consistent but here in Hong Kong it just doesn’t work – it didn’t work back then and still doesn’t work today.

JS: What is the current favourite trend of Hong Kong films with audiences? Action? Comedy?

DC: Hong Kong movies… Frankly speaking my personal opinion is seven or eight years ago the trend is completely different to what it is now because the market is changing rapidly. It’s still changing to several main factors, the first major factor for this change is the opening up of the Mainland China market. Secondly, the traditional markets like Singapore and Taiwan, their economic situation, education, everything has improved and the audiences demand, their taste and what they expect from the movies has changed rapidly. I kind of saw it coming… I realised years ago that Hong Kong films must change. I didn’t know how they must change but they must change and then what happened? They didn’t change! So that’s why we now see the slump in the Hong Kong movie industry – in the prime time back in the 80s we would see 300/400 productions a year and now it’s only 30 to 40.

by Richard Cooper.

For the rest of the interview please see JADE SCREEN VOL. 4, ISSUE 5