Woo Bang Clan

Image credit: Windtalkers: Stephen Vaighan

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Windtalkers

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You're known for action sequences that bring a sense of beauty to the blood bath. To make an anti-war movie, did you have to change your approach?
Usually my kind of action is pretty fancy, like a ballet. But war isn't a ballet; war is hell. So all of the action sequences I intended to look pretty much like a documentary. I wanted it to be real and horrifying. And I also tried to shoot all the action sequences emotionally. I gave my sympathy to not only all the guys on our side, but the enemy, too. I just feel none of them had a choice about fighting. But it was hard to find the balance between the action and the drama. I wanted to get the bigger impact, the human suffering.

Since the movie was originally supposed to be released a year ago, did that give you more time to finesse things in postproduction?
We spent eight months cutting the film, just trying to get a good balance. I didn't want the action to overwhelm the drama, and I didn't want the drama to feel like it wasn't enough. Usually I only take a couple of months, and I even had three editors to work with!

How do you feel about the delay? A number of other war films, like ''Black Hawk Down'' and ''We Were Soldiers,'' beat you to the box office.
I think the audience will find something different in our film, since it's based on a true story, and the code talkers are something people haven't heard about before. So I think getting postponed until summer is okay. It's still good timing. It's not meant to compete with ''Spider-Man.'' And as long as somebody finds something they like in our film, I'm already very happy.

What's next for you? Another action movie?
I love comedy, and made a lot of them in Hong Kong, so I'd like to make one here. I love Jerry Lewis and movies like ''The Pink Panther.'' I like movies that are romantic, elegant comedies. They make life so much more beautiful. But before I make a comedy, I'd like to make another historical film. Next I'm doing ''Man of Destiny,'' which is about the Irish and Chinese building the railroad in America. It's going to star Nic Cage and Chow Yun-Fat. And after that, I plan to make a Western. The story is a good love story set in the West. Then, after that, I would like to make a comedy and a love story.

You last directed with Nicolas Cage on ''Face/Off.'' You must like working with him.
He's a very creative actor. He always wants to do something different. He's seen all my movies, and he especially loves ''Bullet in the Head,'' and that's why he wanted to work with me. On the set, we don't need to say anything, because we know what the other is thinking. What I like best is he isn't someone who worries about the camera angles. Some actors are pretty aware of that and do everything for the camera. But he's not that kind of actor. He's unpredictable, but in a good way. Sometimes he will do more than what's in the script, so I'll set up two or three cameras from different angles to cover it in case something new happens. I like it when an actor surprises me, and it's good for the movie.