We had the pleasure and honour to interview two amazing people that presented The Furious. Kenji Tanigaki, director of the movie, and Tse Miu, its star.
Mike y sus Chinos: How is the experience of going to this festival? How have you seen the audience? How have you seen the organization?
Tse Miu: Well, this is my very first time to be in Spain, in Sitges. And I love this city just because it's very beautiful. And I really love the audience, their reactions. Because this is the people, this is the reaction, this is the passion that I imagined before I came, right? Yeah, I love it here. Yeah, I love Sitges. Because Sitges loves our film.
Kenji Tanigaki: You know, we spend a lot of time with these movies. Maybe two years or two years and a half. Every day we were thinking about this movie or how to make it good. And then our shooting period, we have the good day, we have the tough day, of course, right? But yesterday, what happened? The whole audience is, wow! That's deserved. Before that, the struggle is nothing. That was a very memorable day for us.
MysC: It was truly amazing to see the movie in a theatre. the sound, and the images, Tse Miu running a lot with flip-flops and barefoot! It was truly amazing. I think you're going to win the audience award.
KT: Oh, that's a bonus! That would be an honour. But yesterday, that applause is already enough for me.
TM: For me too.
MysC: I wanted to tell you that I really liked that the martial styles of each character, they are very different. As a martial artist and as a teacher, it was a pleasure to look how each character has a different style. It's rare, but it was beautiful.
KT: Because a lot of the action in the movie is for the fanboy (I'm the fanboy). So, I don't like to watch if I don't understand who is winning, who is losing. And if everything, every actor and every character look and fights the same, I don't want to watch this. This time, we are so lucky to have talented actors who can really move. And every actor has a strong martial arts background. Like him (to Tse Miu), Kung Fu, Wushu, and Joe (Taslim) has Judo. There’s Silat and karate, everything. And our main actor who plays Kung Fu and the other plays Judo. So, their distance and the feeling of distance is totally different, right? If you confront Kung Fu and Judo, Judo is trying to grab his sleeve. That decides everything, how they fight. Do you remember the fight between Tse Miu and Joe Taslim in the security room?, It's a narrow space. That kind of fighting is representing their character. Because Judo guys try to grab your sleeve and Kung Fu guys don't want to let you grab. That's the distance. That kind of space, to me, is very interesting. That's why, in the middle of this battle, he took his jacket off. That means, I don't let you grab. And Joe Taslim said, oh, my fingers! Because when he plays Judo, which part is the most tired? Fingers. That's a very organic reaction from him.
I don't think all the audience can understand. Some of the audience would say, oh, that's a cool fight or, oh, they can move fast. But if some of the audience understand, I think it's enough. And, you know, that's a very characteristic introduction, I think much better than a lot of dialogue.
If you watch carefully at the end, Tse Miu used Judo soul to beat up this guy. That was very important for us, because Joe Taslim died, but he helped him. Kung Fu guy used Judo soul. That's very narrative.
In the first half of the shooting, I try to lead the story and lead the characters. But at the second half, the character or the actor or the story lead us.
One day, we talked about that we can use the Judo soul at the end. Because in the script, we didn't have this kind of thing. We were shooting, shooting, shooting, and differentiating Kung Fu style and Judo style and karate style. So, maybe we can use Judo soul by Kung Fu guy. That was a very perfect combination. This kind of leading is thanks to the actors, thanks to the characters, and thanks to the story. So that's the most important thing.
MysC: We noticed that, because this is something that my Sifu, my teacher, told me. When you are fighting with another person, another kind of martial art, like Judo, you have to take off your sleeves so they don't grab you.
KT: Maybe we need a Catalan fighter next movie (laugh).
MysC: (laugh) And for us, it was an experience to see this movie because of that, the technique of the martial arts.
KT: Joe is from the national team of Judo. So why don't use his technique? We have Yayan (Ruhian), Brian Le, Joey (Iwanaga). We wanted a kick fighter, nice kick fighter like in the 70s, 80s. We had a lot of kick fighters from Korea in the 80s. But recently, no movies. Not any movie with kick fighter. So, I need a kick fighter to beat him up.
MysC: Brian remembered us to Sammo Hung. He's a lovely, lovely villain, with a lovely face.
KT: Very charming.
MysC: How do you prepare for a film as complicated as d?
TM: Actually, we started a month in advance. I started training in Thailand. I trained every day, practiced for six days, and took a day off. I was like a professional athlete. Even for the first month, it just takes 50% of the actions. And for the last part, we just try to fill it and try to do a lot of rehearsals to finish the film. Because the director is really focused on the details. So even for me, sometimes I don't understand the part of the choreography. For example, when the knife is coming, I know the director has precisely designed every movement for the actors. So, for this action film is like a net.
KT: I remember four months before our action team started the design some of it, not the choreography, but some of the characters' fighting style. So, we shot, we tested the style, and I sent it to Tse Miu.
TM: I was surprised.
KT: I must say, our Japanese stunt team, especially Sonomura our action director, he's our colleague, we worked together this time, and they did a great job. Their choreography is very detailed. And sometimes, to me, so much detail. I don't know how actors can bring this kind of feeling. But to me, it's very unique. I want to bring this kind of uniqueness.
And luckily, two months before or one month and a half before we shot, everybody came to Bangkok to open up the stunt camp. So, every day, starting from the morning they practised the choreography again and again. Our actors brought it better than I expected. That’s actually why I'm so happy to have they training and working together because in the screen, they fight each other, but they must work together. It was very good to have a stunt camp. And even our DP, I put our DP into the stunt camp.
MysC: This is something I wanted to ask you. I was amazed about the work of the camera person. Everything was very fast for me to see. But it was hard for me to understand how much work this camera person was putting into the movie.
KT: That's why we put the camera crew to the training camp too. Not training together with the actors, he just grabbed the camera and move around. So he knew how to capture that moment. At the ending, is not five guys fighting, he said almost six guys fighting, including the camera crew. That was very important, because usually in the action scenes the first take is the last rehearsal with the camera man. After the first take, the camera man says, oh, now I know. No, no, no, for us that is too late. Because for us the first take would be the best take, right? I didn't want to waste that opportunity.
So yeah, everybody came to the stunt camp. And then everybody knew what was going to happen, that was very important.
MysC: About Sonomura...
KT: Oh, you know Sonomura? He's a character.
MysC: I noticed the choreography style of Sonomura in the film, too. It’s very low to the ground.
KT: You know everything (laugh).
MysC: (laughing) No, no, no, I don’t! Sometimes Tse Miu looked like a spider. It was like you had eight arms. But you only had two in real life.
TM: Sometimes even I don't understand what I'm doing, actually, during the shooting. I was like, I don't know what I'm doing. But it's just right there. They're special.
KT: I don't know if it works very well or not, But I can see the uniqueness of that choreography. The Japanese team, and of course Sonomura, and Thai team. Oh the Thai team! Thai team was very strong. Tse Miu uses his hammer to hit them! But they were very collaborative. And they worked together very well.
MysC: The best of all the action world.
KT: Yeah, I think so.
MysC: What were you looking when you chose the main actors?
KT: Day one, Bill Kong, our producer, told me, I want to shoot the ultimate action movie. And I need Tse Miu. Day one, this guy is on board. And we need a partner to fight with him. Who is good? I don't want some character similar to him, so it gave me the gap. We have the difference. Oh, maybe Joe Taslim, because he does judo is very strong and a big guy.
I flew to Jakarta, we ate together and become friends. Friends first. And then I told him, hey Joe, do you want to play the role in our film? He said, oh yeah! Yeah, he's willing to be part of the film. And then, for the villain? Who's good? Oh, maybe I can call Brian Lee. Hey, Brian, you have the time? Yeah, yeah! And Joey. I worked with Joey many times, he has fought with Donnie Yen or played a part of Rouroni Kenshin. So I know his ability. I call him and luckily, everybody is willing to be a part of this movie.
MysC: With Jija too.
KT: Oh Jija, yes. The screen time is not so much, but I needed a strong introduction for this movie. So I asked the casting director, can I call Jija? Because we know Jija. Our friendship is long. The casting director asked Jija and she said, oh, no. I don't want to play. And after she knew I was directing this movie she was willing to. I'm so lucky to have her.
This time, we were be able to use her martial arts background. But Jija, as you know, she's a taekwondo fighter. But Navi (Joe Taslim) and Jija are a couple. And because Joe Taslim is a judo guy she must learn judo. She said, oh, maybe we can kick, kick, kick. No judo. Because judo is very hard. But, yeah, she tried very hard to play judo girl. And she did it. She was great.
MysC: How was the experience with the rest of the cast?
TM: Well, to be honest, they're very good people. And actually, I really like working with them. I remember that there was a very impressive scene that we did with Joey and Brian Lee. There was this thing that we fight each other at the end. And there is one move, one take, I don't feel is complete and I wanted to try again. And they never complained, they were very cooperative. Everything was just right there at the first take. They were very professional.
MysC: Do you have any interesting or surreal anecdotes from the shooting? Something fun, something difficult?
TM: To my recollection, I don't see any, interesting anecdotes on the set. There's a lot of pressure on the set, because you have to remember a lot of moves. So it's a lot of pressure. You'll see that, especially in the ending, there are five actors on the set, and they'll be in a different corner each practising their moves all alone.
KT: I remember our first shoot, when Tse Miu is running. It was April in Bangkok and it was so hot and humid. He must run barefoot, and you don’t see this in the shot, but we put a carpet for him because I wanted to protect his feet. And after we put the carpet we had lunch. After lunch time, the carpet is very hot. So in this take, he can run very fast for real. Yeah, very, very fast.
TM: That was my fastest 15 meters ever!
MysC: Thank you so much.
