(gentle music) (upbeat music) - [Darren Leung] Any kind of martial arts style in China, you would call it the name of the style and then add Kung Fu because it's basically, you can consider it to mean martial arts.

So it's like Wing Chun Kung Fu.

(upbeat music) My father learned Wing Chun from Yip Man, but he was brought to him by Bruce Lee.

They were both kids around the same time in Hong Kong.

So they would hang out and they would fight in the streets all the time.

Bruce was always looking for something fresh and something new and he came upon Wing Chun.

And he started learning from Yip Man.

And then sort of showed it off to my dad.

Beat him up.

My dad was like, okay.

I gotta check this guy out.

So they went to Yip Man and then he started taking lessons as well.

(upbeat music) My dad almost, always had a Kung Fu school in the U.S. except for the last 15 or so years.

So I always heard his fight stories growing up.

So I thought, yeah, you know, Wing Chun sounds awesome.

And I just-- you know, I wanna learn it.

So I just joined classes at nights after school.

Well, it definitely looks like a smaller building when I was here, but started here when I was 12.

So it's in industrial area in Virginia Beach.

I was just like one of the two, maybe three little kids that was working out.

My dad was tough on everybody just because he was a real stickler for details and how to do things right.

(upbeat music) So I decided to keep the sign from the old office.

Thought this was pretty cool because it had the snake and the crane on there and double knives.

Still keep a pair of those around for training.

What I love about Wing Chun is its efficiency because that really goes to my personality.

Something simple.

(sticks clanging) Something efficient.

Something that makes sense.

It's gotta make sense.

When I was a kid, I was always taught the snake is just capable of striking directly and that was a bad thing.

Later on I found out that's actually a good thing.

You wanna be able to be direct.

So Wing Chun, we are very direct in our strikes.

(sticks clanging) The crane represents being able to do two things at one time.

In his case, he is using a wing to cover.

We call it "covering."

Some people might call it "blocking."

And using his beak or his talons to attack the snake.

So we do a lot of simultaneous covering defensive work with offensive attack work.

(upbeat music) When I was sort of encouraged into musical theater in high school, there was a buzz backstage and all the prep work that goes into just like two, three days of performances.

That really got me.

Elbert Watson, who's the dance instructor at Academy.

I'd known him since I was in like fifth grade, sixth grade.

You were like "Darren Leung."

(laughing) And then you're like, "hey, how's it going?

And you're like "what do you think about auditioning for the musical?"

And I was like "no way."

(laughing) And you were just-- just kept pushing me.

You're like-- - [Elbert Watson] Yeah.

- "Come on.

Just do it."

And I was super shy.

- You made it because you're very agile.

- I couldn't dance, but I could flop around a lot.

And I was perfect because that was the first role I had, which is scarecrow in "The Wiz."

- You could sing a little bit too.

- I couldn't hold a note.

- Yet you skipped those things.

- I know, but I know I missed plenty of notes.

(upbeat music) - I wanted realness.

Some of the best actors are the ones who don't know it.

- That would be the first bit that really got me for the acting side.

(orchestra music) Right out of college, was working as an engineer for a couple of years.

That switched to IT.

The economy was no good.

The environment was no good.

So I quit.

Back to Virginia.

I would go down to the Kung Fu school and just work out here and there.

One of the students doing Wing Chun, he came up with this idea.

It was strange.

He said, "hey, do you wanna be involved in a movie?"

You know, it's all this buzz.

All the actors doing their thing and then crew doing their thing.

And then when everybody's got to go silent, it's just like everything is focused on at one point in time to get it right.

And then you can hear the film running through the camera and it's just like, oh, this is so cool.

(chuckles) The fact that everybody can just move together and just get that little bit down, was the best.

I was hooked.

Dead hooked.

(Upbeat music) My dad was spending tons and tons of time out in nature.

He hooked me up with a guy named Frankie Chan who was starting up a TV series in Shanghai called (speaking foreign language) but we just call it "TaeKwonDo Kids."

'Cause it was about two competing TaeKwonDo schools.

And so he said, "okay, I'll write you a role in there."

And I was like, "wait a minute."

(chuckles) I don't if I-- I just wanna do a walk on.

So I was like one of the best fighters in one of the outfits.

And so I got like a pretty important role.

After we finished the TV series, I got introduced to (indistinct) who is an independent producer making films for the Chinese market.

Over two years, we did four pictures.

Until the call finally came.

I was like, okay, we're ready to start "The Grandmaster."

(lightning strikes) (intense music) Wong Kar-Wai had specifically planned to make a movie about Grandmaster Yip Man.

Who was the guy who taught my father and my father taught me.

So it's sort of like a perfect timing to get involved.

You know, I'm a nobody.

But my dad, he's one of the, what they call "closed door disciples" for Grandmaster Yip Man.

And so Kar-Wai being somebody who wants something authentic, goes to my dad.

And he's like, I want you to train the lead actor for this, Tony Leung.

And my dad said, "I'll teach him but Darren's gonna help train him."

When it came time to shoot the scenes, they would just sort of come to us for reference so that we would have our authenticity of the motions.

And then what Kar-Wai wanted cinematically and what Yuen Woo Ping wanted action-wise.

(upbeat music) That work on "The Grandmaster" would eventually lead to "Ip Man 3" because we had now established a working relationship with Yuen Woo Ping.

I was gonna help our officially assistant choreographer because they'd still needed me there to train the actors.

And then when they do the choreography, they get stuck in something.

Well, what do you have in mind for an action that would sort of get us out of this situation?

(upbeat music) You know, martial arts is what?

It's an art of fighting.

In a real fight, you don't know the punch is coming.

You don't know the kick is coming.

In a movie, you do know.

It's all choreographed because I know that one's coming, so as soon as you come in, I grab you, I twist you around, et cetera, et cetera.

So it becomes a dance.

(upbeat music) (airplane engine humming) My father no longer teaches in Virginia Beach.

He's in Zhuhai.

That's in Southern China.

It's just over the border from Hong Kong.

And has a bunch of students still.

There's a term we use generally across Chinese Kung Fu.

It's called "Sifu".

A "Sifu" is another way of calling somebody a master or a teacher, really.

Everything for our style and actually for a lot of styles, is just mouth to ear.

It's not like in the movies, whereas there's a secret book and somebody goes to steal, you know.

For the first time, in a long time, I had the chance to actually sit down with my father and go through some techniques.

To sort of deconstruct things.

Found out a lot of things that he hadn't been teaching because of the way he teaches.

Not because he was holding it back, but just because he does things ad hoc and so there's no structure to it.

And I just been trying to structure it and so it's been a great trip so far.

(sticks clanging) (upbeat music) If you love to paint, it's part of your life.

I've made Wing Chun a part of mine because you love what you do.

You love the art.

You live and breathe it.

(upbeat music)