“I’ve been collaborating with Luc Besson for the last 10 years, we’ve co-written some scripts together,” says writer-director George Huang. “He came to me with the idea for Weekend in Tapei a couple years ago, like, “Hey, I’m thinking of doing a female Transporter set in Asia, what would that look like?” So, he and I just started asking each other questions, riffing off each other. If it’s a female transporter, what is she transporting? Who’s she running from? Why is she running? What’s her deep, dark secret? What does she want to protect?”
George Huang is back in the director’s chair after a little over 20 years with Weekend in Taipei. Huang had first broken out with the 1994 Hollywood satire Swimming with Sharks, which he wrote, directed and was the dialogue editor and sound effects editor.
In the action-packed WEEKEND IN TAIPEI John Lawlor is a pit-bull DEA agent married to his job – there’s not a bad guy he can’t stop, nothing he won’t sacrifice to close out a case. Joey Kang is a top “Transporter” in Taipei – fast-driving and fast-thinking, she’s difficult to pin down, impossible to catch. The two of them weren’t supposed to fall in love, but fate brought them together… before forces of crime and corruption tore them apart. Now, 15 years later, fate puts Joey and John on a collision course during a weekend in Taipei. And the two will discover that the only thing harder than falling in love… is falling back in love.
Directed by George Huang, screenplay by Huang and Luc Besson.
An Interview With Writer/Director George Huang
How did this project come about?
I’d worked on several projects with Virginie Besson-Silla, and then this one came along. Luc and I got together and exchanged a number of ideas. We wanted the plot to be as spontaneous as possible, and then we worked on the action scenes and thought about their feasibility. We also worked on character development. It was a lengthy process, but honestly, it was quicker than on most films. It took two years from our first meeting to the finished film.
As writer and director, what were the main difficulties you had to face?
It’s quite an advantage to play both roles. It’s not really an obstacle, because there are a lot of elements that you can’t write down in the script and that only exist in your head. For example, when the crew asked me “What kind of clothes are the characters supposed to wear?” or “What kind of car do you want us to use?”, I’d already thought about it. But once I’m on set, because I know the story down to the last detail, I’m able to answer all the team’s questions.
The biggest challenge of this project – but also its greatest asset – was the international dimension of the team. Most of the team was from Taipei, and there were a few French post supervisors, notably for the physical stunts and cars, and the cinematographer… and others, like myself, who came from Hollywood. So some spoke Mandarin, some French and some English. Sometimes it’s a bit complicated, but once you know what you’re doing, you just have to take the time to explain it better. So that was the hard part. But it’s also exhilarating to work with people who have different approaches to cinema, and to draw on the best of each culture.
How did you orchestrate the casting?
Let’s start with Luke Evans. He’s a star! He’s played Dracula, Owen Shawn in the Fast & Furious saga, Bard in The Hobbit. He’s the kind of first-rate actor you dream of working with one day, but tell yourself he’s unattainable. We sent him the script and he very quickly responded positively. I think it’s a role that stands out from his previous films. He’s done a lot of physical training and he’s grown in stature, and we’d never seen him in an action film with such muscular scenes. But he’s also a very sensitive actor. For the lead role, we couldn’t have wished for an actor who combines these two facets.
We also met Gwei Lun Mei, who is extraordinary and whose work I knew. She plays dark, brooding characters in films like The Insider and Black Coal Thin Ice, but she also has a bubbly side, and it was great to be able to draw on both sides of her personality. We often joked that she had something of Margot Robbie’s character in Babylon!
As for Sung Kang, he’s another wonderful actor. We knew each other a little because there aren’t many Asian-American actors in Hollywood, although we hadn’t yet had the opportunity to work together. I was impressed by the power of his acting. He wanted to arrive two weeks ahead of schedule in Taipei to train for fight scenes and stunts. Above all, even before taking on the role, he was particularly keen for us to pay close attention to the representation of the Asian community in cinema. There are very few Asian actors in major Hollywood productions, and Sung is one of them.
Can you also tell us about the youngest actor in the film?
We found Wyatt, who plays Raymond, thanks to the hard work of the casting teams in Taipei. We had to find a 13-year-old boy in Taiwan who spoke good English and could act. He didn’t have much experience. He has a natural gift and a sunny personality that attracts people. Everyone wants to be friends with him. He’s the character who sets the plot in motion – the one everyone wants to catch and protect. For such a character to be believable, he has to be extremely endearing. And that’s the kind of character you’d be willing to fight for.
What were the biggest challenges on set?
In all honesty, when you’re shooting a film, every day is a new challenge. Apart from the translation problems, the hardest thing to deal with was the schedule. We shot in Taipei in summer, which many people had advised us against doing. As it happens, we were there during one of the hottest summers in history! It’s particularly difficult to shoot an action film involving chases and fights in the heat and humidity. But, paradoxically, that’s also what helped us in a way. In the third act, a spectacular battle breaks out, which was supposed to take place in the streets of Taipei, and when we were scouting the locations, we were swimming after a ten-minute walk. It was terribly hot!
It was unimaginable to spend several hours in the street. The poor actors would have run off. So we moved the final battle to a cinema where images from Zhang Yimou’s The Secret of the Flying Daggers are projected onto the actors. This makes the final battle more cinematic and aesthetically pleasing than we’d written it. So you always have to know how to adapt. It’s complex, but the end result is all the better for it.
How did you go about directing the film?
Frankly, the greatest source of inspiration was the city of Taipei. It’s a city of extraordinary visual richness. You can be right downtown, in the heart of a bustling, glittering metropolis with all its lights, and then, ten minutes later, find yourself in the middle of the mountains and lost in the forest. This biodiversity, with its spectacular aesthetics, became the visual signature of the film. We had the opportunity to shoot in extraordinary locations, such as the beachfront at Dawulun or the Ellipse 360 Tower. The Marriott hotel also gave us the freedom to shoot complicated action scenes… Taipei was a real goldmine for a shoot. I can’t wait to see how other foreign directors can make use of the Taipei setting. After all, we’ve only filmed a few locations, and there are many more to discover. I’d also like to make a special mention of our Art Director, Wern-Ying Hwarng, who directed all the film’s decor and costumes.