The Wynners’ drummer on directing a film about the iconic Hong Kong band, and their lasting brotherhood
‘House of the Rising Sons’ is an accurate history of the popular ’70s Hong Kong band and the music scene of the time, but for director Anthony Chan, also The Wynners’ drummer, casting his bandmates – and himself – was a challenge
Most filmmakers direct from the heart. But Anthony Chan Yau, who achieved fame as the drummer in the popular 1970s Hong Kong band The Wynners, is doubly invested in his new film House of the Rising Sons as it tells the story of the band, and features an actor playing his younger self.
“If it wasn’t for The Wynners I would not be doing what I am doing,” Chan tells the Post in an interview at the New York Asian Film Festival earlier this month. “That’s why I wanted to do this story – it’s so close to my heart.”
It has been more than 25 years since Chan directed his last film, My Americanised Wife (1992). “Since 1993, I have been in China working on a content-related business, so I have been part of the corporate world for over 20 years. I decided that I wanted to do things from the heart, rather than by using my brain – and that’s how this film was born.”
The Wynners were one of Hong Kong’s most influential groups, debuting in 1974 with the English-language album Listen to the Wynners. They soon switched to singing in Cantonese – at the behest of their record company, Chan says – and, with Sam Hui Koon-kit, were among the earliest exponents of the Canto-pop genre.
The band went their separate ways in 1978, with the two frontmen, Alan Tam Wing-lun and Kenny Bee (aka Chung Chun-to), going on to superstardom as solo stars. Chan had already directed a movie, Let’s Rock, which featured The Wynners, in 1975 and he wound up in the film industry as an actor and director, before quitting for the corporate world in the 1990s.
