Korean representative martial arts director Jung Doo-Hong
Jung Doo-Hong is a Korea’s representative martial arts director who has collaborated on innumerous Korea’s action films.
He has been working fiercely as an action as well as a martial arts choreographer. He started his career with a 1990s Korean Action Film <The General’s Son>. He became known as a martial arts director, and created plenty of action scenes during the growth of the Korean film industry.
As a leading martial arts choreographer in Korea, he had been through a lot of challenges, especially with the limited references in Korean action film history. In other words, he needed to learn from his own experiences. For examples, he experienced a wire action for the first time in a music video <Empress Myeongseong>, the first action with guns was in a Korean film <Shir>i, and <City of the Rising Sun>, <The Foul King> were his first try with boxing and wrestling. Here is a list of his filmography, <Hwayi: A Monster Boy> in 2013, <Berlin> in 2013, <Fists of Legend> in 2013, <The Unjust> in 2010, <Jeon Woo-chi: The Taoist Wizard> in 2009, including Hollywood Blockbuster film <G.I.Joe: Retaliation> and <Red 2>
In 1998, he realized a strong need for the nest of stunt actors, four of his colleague and him made a nest in a corner of gym in Boramae Park. They established a community called Seoul Action School, after a while, it turned into a training school for Stunt. In 2006, they moved into a new place in Paju where promises a bigger space and a better condition for martial arts training. These days, He is working in a sweat to design his new martial arts choreography. Here, I visited Seoul Action School to interview him, and I began with a question about Korean martial arts compare to the ones of other countries.
Q What do you think about the specialized Korean action?
A Until just recently we used to call Korean action as a ‘dogfight’ or a ‘real fight’. However, we are in the era of multi-cultural. For example, you can find a Hong Kong action in film <The Matrix>. Thus, we should create a new martial arts to come along with its scenario, rather than insisting on doing Taekwondo as a way of specializing Korean action.
Q in case of Hong Kong and Japan, each of them has a trademark in action.
A I think, it distinguished as now solely because of the influence of film. In Golden harvest’s action films, Including Jackie Chan’s Hong Kong action film likewise in Japanese action films, there is a Korean style Kick descended from Korean martial artist like Wang Ho, Tang Lung. Action scene is regarded as a supporting part in Korean film, while action scene plays the most active part in Hong Kong film, which gave strength on martial arts action and became a trademark in its field.
Q you must have spend a lot of time watching on action films from Asia, what do you think the action style looks so different from each other, even though we have quite similar physical condition?
A Because we are simply different, each country has completely different history and culture. In terms of martial arts, China has Kung Fu, and Japan has Samurai Kendo and Karate. We have Taekkyeon, but we normally modify its style when it comes to deal with scenario. For this reason, we cannot really specify the style of Korean martial arts in film.
Q Korean Action film reminds us of dogfight, and this ‘dogfight’ would be the main image of Korean action scene. At this point, I’m very curious that what makes this dogfight become the main style of Korean fight scene? (With regard to Korean culture and personality.) For example, we cannot say Chinese always do kung Fu when they get into a fight.
A I can say that it is not because we like dogfight, but it is what actually happens in reality. If we only talk about history of film, in regard of martial arts action films, in China and in Japan, they’ve never had a rupture of martial arts culture. On the contrary, Korean action film’ line has died out for around 10 years and made way for erotic movies. The interesting thing is I started my career in this field at that moment. Once I worked for broadcasting company, I did spin kick, and they criticized my style that I was mimicking Hong Kong martial arts. In fact, my seniors and me took a lot of reference from Hong Kong action films and its camera technique since we couldn't get any Japanese film, due to an import prohibition of Japanese culture at the period. From this experience, I tried to do ‘dogfight’ and took reference from Hollywood action film and actor like Sylvester Stallone. Come to think of it, I only used very simple equipment, and I didn’t identify my style of action clearly, moreover I got used to it.
Q After the films <Tiger and Dragon> and <The Matrix>, Kung Fu took lead in Hollywood action film.
A It seemed like wu shu (Chinese martial arts) dominated French action film and American action film. However, you might find Korean martial arts in Chinese martial arts, especially in kick motion. Actually, Jackie Chan’s action is also a mixture of Kung Fu and Taekwondo’s kick. Originally, they don’t have straight kick in Chinese martial arts. But they made it to theirs. Korean is good at kick, but when we see on the screen, fight scene with kick is poor visually; the action looks similar at any angles and too simple as well. Whereas, it is developed actions with upper body in Chinese martial arts, therefore, visually action looks very elegant; for instance, punching after a strong kick makes a great combination.
Recently, he was also the stunt double for actor Lee Byung-hun in Lee’s Hollywood film <G.I.Jeo: Retaliation> and collaborated for four months. Actor Lee Byung-hun shows advanced action techniques with the enemy Snake Eyes. Besides, he was not only the stunt double for actor Lee but also, he was the coordinator of martial arts for the film. So, I was asking him about Hollywood experience.
Q I heard that you were supposed to collaborate <G.I.Joe: The rise of Cobra> in 2009.
A Before long, I was long for experiencing Hollywood films. Actually, actor Lee was considering of starring in Hollywood film, after his work <The Good, the Bad and the Weird>. So, I encouraged him to go for it; also I offered him my help. Although his decision of going, we had a difficulty because he was not known in Hollywood. What was worse, my bad English didn't allow me to work for him. Unfortunately, I had to ask him to go without me.
Q Then, how did you participate the second film?
A Thanks to actor Lee Byung-Hun’s great work in the first film, he earned trust and a good reputation so that he could recommend me as a stunt double.
Q How was your daily schedule?
A Filming was from Monday to Friday, I drilled in when I don’t have schedule. I woke up at 6 in the morning to prepare the shoot, and started shooting at 7 in the morning. The time in between, I went back to practicing stunt and actor Lee trained with dialogue coach. Then, schedule finished around 5 pm and came back to lodging and having dinner. We again did training, finally go to bed around midnight. In case of night shoot, we worked till next morning from 5 pm. however, daily 12 hour-long personal breaks was given at any rate.
Q Could you give us more details about your given role?
A As I mentioned previously, I was mainly the stunt double for actor Lee Byung-hun, and also the coordinator for martial arts scene. In Korea, we commonly call martial arts director, whether car stunt or wire action or martial arts, but in Hollywood, they are separated. Give an example of it, I was the stunt double for Lee Byung-Hun, basically actors need to do the same action as I do. In numerous cases, production team picks the action scene that the actor did as much as possible, if not, they added the scene with stunt.
If actor in Korea practice all the martial arts, whether they have a double or not, as Hollywood does, then director would highly appreciate actor, because they cannot neglect in martial arts’ training.
Q Could you tell me the strong point of Korean action direction comparing to your Hollywood experience?
A In terms of directing martial arts, I strongly proud of Korean style. Sharing one episode in Hollywood, my role was doing a rehearsal and then acting in shoot as they choreographed; however, I sometimes modified as my style and shared back with them. They indeed loved my idea. The assistant director of <G.I.Joe> was very strict, but he was busy giving compliments on actor Lee and me for our ‘powerful’ and ‘energetic’ attitude. He especially liked the shout we gave for concentration.
Q How would you sum up your 4 month-experience of Hollywood?
A First of all, it made me thinking about how to approach this collaboration. And I kept the word “consideration” for others for 4 months. In other words, I tried not to be stubborn and be open-minded for better communication and work, since it has a different system to Korea. Besides, this reminded me of collaborator in Korea who might have suffered from my stubbornness, and I felt sorry for them. After this consideration, I got rid of my obsession and I could enjoy working more.
Jung Doo-Hong is a Korea’s representative martial arts director who has collaborated on innumerous Korea’s action films.He has been working fiercely as an action as well as a martial arts choreographer. He started his career with a 1990s Korean Action Film <The General’s Son>. He became known as a martial arts director, and created plenty of action scenes during the growth of the Korean film industry.As a leading martial arts choreographer in Korea, he had been through a lot of challenges, especially with the limited references in Korean action film history. In other words, he needed to learn from his own experiences. For examples, he experienced a wire action for the first time in a music video <Empress Myeongseong>, the first action with guns was in a Korean film <Shir>i, and <City of the Rising Sun>, <The Foul King> were his first try with boxing and wrestling. Here is a list of his filmography, <Hwayi: A Monster Boy> in 2013, <Berlin> in 2013, <Fists of Legend> in 2013, <The Unjust> in 2010, <Jeon Woo-chi: The Taoist Wizard> in 2009, including Hollywood Blockbuster film <G.I.Joe: Retaliation> and <Red 2>In 1998, he realized a strong need for the nest of stunt actors, four of his colleague and him made a nest in a corner of gym in Boramae Park. They established a community called Seoul Action School, after a while, it turned into a training school for Stunt. In 2006, they moved into a new place in Paju where promises a bigger space and a better condition for martial arts training. These days, He is working in a sweat to design his new martial arts choreography. Here, I visited Seoul Action School to interview him, and I began with a question about Korean martial arts compare to the ones of other countries.
Recently, he was also the stunt double for actor Lee Byung-hun in Lee’s Hollywood film <G.I.Jeo: Retaliation> and collaborated for four months. Actor Lee Byung-hun shows advanced action techniques with the enemy Snake Eyes. Besides, he was not only the stunt double for actor Lee but also, he was the coordinator of martial arts for the film. So, I was asking him about Hollywood experience.Q I heard that you were supposed to collaborate <G.I.Joe: The rise of Cobra> in 2009.A Before long, I was long for experiencing Hollywood films. Actually, actor Lee was considering of starring in Hollywood film, after his work <The Good, the Bad and the Weird>. So, I encouraged him to go for it; also I offered him my help. Although his decision of going, we had a difficulty because he was not known in Hollywood. What was worse, my bad English didn't allow me to work for him. Unfortunately, I had to ask him to go without me.