We had the pleasure to have a one on one interview with Master Chiu Chi Ling of the hilariously funny Kung Fu Hustle at Comic-Con San Diego this year. I conducted most of the interview in Chinese with him so it is nearly everything said is paraphrased.

Joe: You played the tailor character who did quite a bit of fighting in the film, was the kung fu that you performed in the film created by you or by a choreoghrapher?

Master Chiu: The martial arts of the movie was actually a combination of a few different martial arts specialists. Stephen Chow enlisted the likes of Yuen Wo Ping (Matrix) and Sammo Hung (Martial Law)to do some of our own martial arts. The image of me using the rings was something that Stephen brought to the table and told Sammo and I to work with it.

J: You've worked with Sammo Hung?

MC: Yes we've worked in films together for 20 years along with Yuen Wo Pings father. We worked with a lot of the older generation film makers, Stephen Chow is one of the new generation.

J: How was working with Stephen Chow?

MC: He actually found me out and gave me the character of the gay tailor because we had worked together previously in the past. He asked me to play something different to challenge me.

J: Well you played the character very well, he was very funny.

MC: (laughs) Thank you, it was a fun experience.

J: What do you think of martial arts films now that have digital effects?

MC: It used to be expensive to do effects and now they're still expensive. But there are some benefits to the digital effects. It gives it a bit of a more cartoon quality making our movie more silly and better. Either way with practical or digital it allows for martial artist like Sammo, or Jackie Chan or even me to fly and perform unbelievable feats. Movies are about fantasy and with computers some of the crazy looking stunts can be done to look better and more fantastic.

J: Thank you so much for your time Master Chiu, it was a pleasure to meet you.