Speaking during Jakarta Film Week, the Hong Kong filmmaker reflects on the difficulties of training a new generation, the pleasure of producing and his hope that young audiences will enjoy discovering his earlier work.
Sammo Hung has worked as an actor, director, producer and action choreographer. Asked which role brings him the greatest happiness, his answer is producing.
Understanding the audience, however, has become harder.
Speaking during an interview at Jakarta Film Week, Hung describes a growing distance between the filmmaking environment he once knew and the expectations of contemporary viewers. Earlier in his career, he says, he found it easier to understand what people wanted from his films. Today, that relationship feels less certain.
It is a candid admission from a filmmaker whose work helped define the combination of martial arts, comedy and genre experimentation associated with Hong Kong cinema. For Hung, experience does not remove the challenge of making something that connects with a new generation.
Yet his reason for bringing older films to Jakarta is straightforward. He wants young filmgoers to discover them, enjoy them and encounter something of the pleasure that went into their creation.
In an additional conversation about his festival appearance, Hung says he hopes the screenings convey how much happiness filmmaking brought him and his collaborators decades ago. His wish is that audiences leave with an enjoyable experience and a renewed interest in cinema.
Training needs somewhere to lead
When the conversation turns to his Peking Opera training, Hung recalls a demanding and painful education. The conditions under which performers learn today, he says, differ considerably from those of his own childhood.
But his concern goes beyond whether younger actors could endure the same discipline. He questions what opportunities await them after years of preparation.
In mainland China, he suggests, martial arts training can still lead towards professional work. In Hong Kong, he sees fewer opportunities to turn those skills into a career in action filmmaking.
That leaves him with a difficult question about taking on students. If someone spends several years training but cannot find work afterwards, what has the training ultimately offered them?
Physical discipline may benefit their health, but a professional education also carries an expectation of employment. Hung worries about asking young people to invest years of their lives without a clear path into the industry.
His comments place the future of action cinema in practical terms. The skills that make a performance possible must be matched by productions willing and able to use them.
Character and story still come first
Asked about the enduring appeal of his action comedies, Hung returns to the foundations of a film: its subject, characters and story.
He does not suggest that making such work today is impossible. A strong subject and an interesting character can still provide a starting point. The difficulty lies in developing them into something audiences want to see.
His answer resists the idea that a recognisable style can simply be repeated. Even when the physical vocabulary is familiar, a film still needs characters worth following and a story that sustains interest.
For Hung, those were considerations when he made his earlier films, and they remain considerations now. What has changed is his confidence in knowing how audiences will respond.
The distinction is especially relevant when older films continue to attract affection. Their survival does not necessarily make the next production easier to conceive.
Enjoying life without announcing a farewell
When asked about future projects, he says he has no immediate plan to make a new film and is enjoying being cared for by his wife. Work is not occupying his attention in the same way it once did.
He leaves open the possibility of making something worthwhile in the future. His answer is a description of his present priorities, rather than a declaration that his filmmaking career has ended.
The contrast with his earlier comments is revealing. Producing remains the role he identifies with the greatest happiness, while the challenge of understanding today’s audience makes returning to it a more complicated proposition.
For the moment, he is content to enjoy his life and let audiences revisit work already made.
Different collaborators, no single favourite
A question about working with figures including Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan produces no ranking of favourite collaborators.
Hung describes the people he worked with as distinct personalities who were nevertheless agreeable colleagues. Their differences are part of what he remembers.
He also makes a point of distinguishing professional seniority. While some collaborators were his seniors, Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao were his juniors.
Rather than choosing one person above the others, he acknowledges the individuality of each working relationship.
Asked whether he is proud of what he has achieved, Hung says he is happy—and hopes more people will come to know his work.
That hope connects his recollections of collaborators with the purpose of a festival encounter. For viewers discovering these films now, an established career can still be a new discovery.
Revisiting films that tried something different
When invited to select favourites from his own work, Hung discusses the films screening in Jakarta Film Week: "Encounters of the Spooky Kind", "Eastern Condors" and "The Bodyguard".
What he emphasises is the satisfaction of attempting different kinds of filmmaking: a supernatural film, a war film and another approach to action and character.
He remembers them as opportunities to try something distinctive, rather than treating his career as a single repeated formula. They are also the works he recommends to audiences encountering him in Indonesia.
That interest in crossing genres is reflected in Jakarta Film Week’s own description of his work. The festival’s masterclass programme highlights his combination of martial arts with horror and comedy, alongside the influence of his choreography.
But Hung’s hopes for the festival audience are less concerned with explaining his influence than sharing an experience.
He wants younger viewers to see films made decades earlier and feel happy watching them. He wants them to understand that making those films was a source of happiness, too.
After a conversation about changing tastes, difficult training and uncertain opportunities, that is the invitation he leaves with Jakarta’s filmgoers: to discover the work and enjoy it.
Sammo Hung on Changing Audiences, the Future of Action Cinema and Finding Joy in His Films
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