“The camaraderie built around doing something difficult is something you can’t have with doing something easy. ”

— Philip Ng

Tell us a bit about yourself and your story.

I was born in Hong Kong (HK), I grew up in the United States in the suburbs outside of Chicago in the United States. My parents worked really hard when we moved over. I didn't have a lot when I was a kid but we didn't need a lot to be happy so it was cool.

At an early age, I did martial arts with my father and uncle and later moving on to learning from other people as well. I was just like any other normal kid, except I guess I trained kung fu a little more than what a regular kid might've.

I always had a dream to come here. After I got my master's degree in education, I worked a bit and told my parents that I really wanted to go back to HK and give it a try. It was a crazy dream that I thought about. My parents were cool about it so I packed my bags and came to HK. When I first came to HK, I didn't know anything about the industry.

(Photo Courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment)

How did you enter the entertainment industry once you moved to HK?

In college, I took my dad's old recorder and filmed myself doing a bunch of martial arts, used my limited knowledge of editing and made a 7-minute tape (yes, VHS!). I had this box of tapes in my suitcase and then I went to HK.

I joined the artists Christian fellowship in Hong Kong where my uncle did some Christian singing on the side. There, I met an actor / singer, Joe Tay, who ultimately changed the course of my career. He actively helped me out and gave my tape to one of his best friends, Chin Ka-Lok, HK actor and action director.

At the time, Ka-Lok was working on a movie called Star Runner which starred Vanness Wu and Andy On. He needed someone who can help out on the traditional kung fu - Wing Chun and Hung Kar kung fu. Ka-Lok hired me as an assistant choreographer which was my first big gig.

We all became best friends because of this movie. It was Vanness' first time as a lead role in an action movie and Andy won the best newcomer award for this movie - it was a first for all of us.

After your first big break, what happened next?

After that, I continued to learn the ropes of being an action director, action / martial arts choreographer, and also a stuntman. My goal was to become an actor as well so I was talking to Ka-Lok and he told me to learn the behind-the-scenes work first and when there's a chance for on-screen you'll be more in tuned to what you are doing. So every time they worked on editing, I would go in as well and learn how to edit.

Like learning anything, there's a systematic way of doing things. As long as you understand the goals of what you are trying to do and the basic steps to achieve those goals, then you can take this basic alphabet and make it a language. I later signed on to a management company and they taught me the ropes of the industry.

What challenges have you faced since going to HK?

The big challenges would be the same for anyone coming into this industry. You really need to have perseverance - it's not like other jobs.

Especially in the beginning, you need to have very thick skin and work your way up. For the longest time, the majority of the HK press was not very kind because of my position in the industry. Before I signed to my current company and boss, Wong Jing, who's a very well-established veteran in this industry - it was a little bit more difficult. After signing, with him I had a lot more opportunities and I see the change in perception about me. Being in the position I am in now, I feel like I have paid my dues. I did it through hard work. I'm proud to be where I am.

What has been the most memorable experience of your career so far?

My most memorable would probably be the whole process of filming and releasing my first leading role in a big movie, Once Upon a Time in Shanghai. This is a big deal for me as I was carrying the movie, and it had my best friend in it, Andy On, playing a supporting role. The action director, Yuen Woo-Ping (The Matrix, Kill Bill, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) is someone I look up to and admire immensely. My boss and producer of this movie, Wong Jing, went above and beyond to get this project off the ground and we made a movie that I'm very proud of.

All movies are group projects, it's not a one-person thing. Just like a high school group project, not everyone will agree or be happy with the end result but with this movie, from top to down, we're all very proud of it. Every member of the crew put in 110%. So far this has been the biggest highlight of my career.

Tell us about the story of Once Upon a Time in Shanghai and the role / character you play in the movie.

I'm playing a Chinese folk hero named Ma Wing Jing, which has been played in the old Shaw brothers days by Chen Kuan Tai, Takeshi Kaneshiro and the most recent reincarnation was played by me. The original actor who played Ma Wing Jing, Chen Kuan Tai, is also in the movie. Sammo Hung's in the movie, one of my all time favourite martial arts idols.

Ma Wing Jing, despite being a legendary and historical character that existed, nobody really knew how he looked like or how he really was like. So at the same time, I was able to be more free in interpreting his character.

Several actors were in talks to play the supporting role; a character where at first we don't like eachother and then we become friends. They selected my best friend, Andy On to play this role which was awesome because we've been talking for years about things we would do together. Up to that point, I have worked a lot with Andy, choreographed movements for him to fight other people, but haven't fought with him on screen.

The director Wong Ching-Po is superb. I haven't worked with anyone who had his handle on capturing movement.

What did it feel like to play Ma Wing Jing?

This is a big deal for me. There have been so many promises made to me on different projects. There were a couple of big projects that I was almost involved in but ended up getting cut short. You build this mentality, and you curve your own enthusiasm until the last possible minute, so that you don't get disappointed. I remember the night before the first day of shooting, I said to myself tonight I go to sleep and I'm Philip Ng, tomorrow when I wake up I'm Ma Wing Jing. It was a movie moment in real life for me.

You mentioned you learned to hold your enthusiasm, take me back to when you realized that this was actually happening.

It's like watching something shocking, you're numb and you don't process anything. When you're inside the process you have to focus on getting the job done.

Time was limited but the crew was amazing so we were able to turn around the scenes a lot quicker than we thought. It was beyond my physical and mental capabilities but I did it.

There's a scene at the end where there's a 1-minute long-take (where the camera doesn't cut) where I had to fight a hundred swordsmen. We had 1-day to choreograph, learn the sequence and film it - and I had to do two different sequences. I asked Yuen Woo-Ping "In America, how long do they get to prepare for this type of scene? He said, "Well you get a month to prepare and a week to shoot" (laughs).

You were only given 1-day to film such a complex fight scene, how did you do it?

I was a little surprised I was able to do it. It took about 30 takes. Imagine running a marathon 30 times, that's what it felt like. I remember during the middle of filming the first sequence, I was on the ground exhausted, and I looked up and asked Yuen Woo-Ping, Hey sir, can we cut this shot out? and he said "No way, you can't cut this shot out. This is the award-winning shot." So I said okay! and got up.

I realized I wasn't the only one putting in the effort. All the stuntmen had to get back up and fight me again. The camaraderie built around doing something difficult is something you can’t have with doing something easy. Everytime I messed up, they got up and said "Okay, no problem! Let's do this again!." When we would go through the takes on the monitor, they were all clapping when we finally had a good take (two good takes), it was like cheering on a person going through an obstacle course. It was cool but it wasn't easy.

There's a scene where Andy and I were jumping around like kids from one staircase to the other. During one of the takes, I slipped and almost tore my LCL on my knee. At that point, I still had one more fight scene to do with Andy, but we shot all the acting scenes first, which didn't require me to jump around. Then I just strapped up my leg really tight, and shot the final fight sequence.

It must take a lot of training in order to keep filming under injuries. What kind of training did you go through in order to prepare for this movie?

Martial arts-wise, I'm pretty confident as I'm always training but because we're making a movie, you're making a visual presentation of a martial artist. When you're making a kung fu movie, we do need to maintain a very fit physique. You have to prepare to be like a professional athlete. I did 99% of all the action that you see in the movie. So after a day of fighting, Andy and I would hit the gym. There was no time to sit around.

How would you describe Once Upon a Time in Shanghai in 3 words?

Brotherhood. High-impact. Classy.

With 2015 coming up, what are your New Year's Resolutions?

I guess my resolutions are the same every year. I went to Korea for vacation recently and haven't been back to the gym so one of my immediate resolutions would be to get back in shape and train martial arts. Also, to continue what I'm doing. Right now, I'm getting together some projects of my own, and there are always issues but I pray that God will make it as smooth as possible while I learn what I have to learn.

Other than filming Once Upon a Time in Shanghai, what have been some other highlights of the year?

I was the choreographer and one of the leading roles in Sifu vs. Vampire. I was also the head action director in Zombie Fight Club where I had a cameo and fought my good friend Andy again.

I just have to say one or two words, and he knows what he's doing - we have that kind of unspoken communication. A lot of us have family overseas, so we're all like orphans here. Guys like Andy are like my family here.

Andy and Vanness are one of your closest friends, how do you think they would describe you in 1 word?

Loyal.

I go out of my way to do things even when it seems impossible. But also when we see eachother do things that we don't think is the right thing to do, we'll say something, even if it's against the other person's opinion. That's what real families do. I think being honest to your friends for their own good is a type of love.

When your friends are down, you push them up. We do that for eachother and it's unspoken. It's always been like that and it's always going to be like that. We all have this loyalty towards eachother, we understand that there's no army of one - you're always stronger when you're in a group of like-minded individuals. Especially when those individuals really care about each other. We have a group of brothers and sisters that have that relationship here and we tend to work together, because you always work with people that you trust whenever you can.