Hong Kong director Wilson Yip on SPL instalment Paradox, Wu Jing’s rise and Bruce Lee’s key part in the upcoming Ip Man 4

Filmmaker explains his casting of Louis Koo in a martial arts action film, says he’s not surprised SPL stars Donnie Yen and Wu Jing have become superstars, and talks about Ip Man 4’s focus on the relationship between Ip Man and Lee

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Hong Kong director Wilson Yip, whose latest film, Paradox, opens this week. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 2:16pm, 23 Aug 2017Updated: 4:58pm, 23 Aug 2017

Fans of Chinese kung fu cinema will recall the deadly fight scene between Donnie Yen Ji-dan and Wu Jing in the 2005 action film SPL – Hong Kong director Wilson Yip Wai-shun’s ambitious attempt to blend the gritty narrative of crime thrillers with bone-crunching violence delivered by top martial arts actors.

“In my opinion, that scene in particular looked like it’s coming from a wuxia film – even though the characters are in contemporary clothing,” says Yip. “Some of Johnnie To’s films, like Running Out of Time, also play like wuxia movies. SPL is a bit similar to that in style.”

While SPL was – even by Yip’s own account – “quite a weird movie”, it struck a chord with many movie fans, who have since seen both its main actors rise to superstardom – Yen via the Ip Man films, also directed by Yip, including Ip Man 3 , and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Wu with the record-breaking Wolf Warrior 2 .

Louis Koo as the chief villain in SPL2: A Time for Consequences.

Yip, 53, handed the directing duties to close friend and long-time work partner Soi Cheang Pou-soi (The Monkey King 2) when a sequel to SPL was made in 2015. By reshuffling its plot elements for a new story, SPL2: A Time for Consequences – on which Yip served as both producer and script consultant – provided an efficient template for future instalments to follow.