Black_Belt_-_October-November_2019

Director Chad Stahelski

on John Wick: Chapter 3

With John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum ($75 million budget; $314 million

worldwide box office as of press time), director Chad Stahelski has finally done

it! He’s created a superbly made American movie, filled with innovative fight and

camera choreography that matches the creativity of the man he accidentally

learned from, Yuen Woo-ping. Yuen, you may recall, did the fight choreography for

1999’s The Matrix and is still considered one of best directors of cinematic combat

in history. Now, you’re probably wondering what I mean by “accidentally.”

BY DR. CRAIG D. REID

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OR THE MATRIX, the

Wachowski brothers wanted

frenetic-paced, over-the-top,

Hong Kong–style martial arts

action, and they wanted to shoot it

in a way that no one had shot martial

arts action before. They needed two

things: cutting-edge special effects

and a Hong Kong fight director.

Their first choice, a man named

Ching Siu-tung, wasn’t interested.

Their second choice, Yuen Kwei, was

busy. Yuen Woo-ping, their third

choice, was reluctant. Not wish-

ing to make the brothers feel bad

and thereby cause the Hong Kong

film community to lose face, Yuen

assumed that requesting an exorbi-

tant fee would cause them to move

on to their fourth choice. But they

didn’t. Yuen then assumed that if he

asked for control of the fights and

insisted that the main actors train in

martial arts for four months — thus

precluding them from doing other

film work — the brothers would pass.

But they didn’t. The rest is history.

SINCE THE MATRIX was made, it’s

become standard for actors to engage

in serious martial arts training for

their fight roles. This notion didn’t

escape Stahelski, who while serving

as Keanu Reeves’ stunt double in

The Matrix learned to embrace the

importance of training the actors and

quickly recognized the value Yuen

placed on camera choreography as

he put his fights together.

Stahelski understood that if actors

did their own fights, they would be

more engaging and forge a stronger

emotional connection between the

viewers and the characters. That

notion shines though in John Wick 3

32 BLACKBELTMAG.COM ƒ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2019

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