Leo Au Yeung was one of the fight choreographers on the Ip Man movie set. Recently, he agreed to do the following interview.

Hi Leo. Thank you very much for agreeing to do this interview. How are you today?

1. Where did you grow up?
   I originally grew up in Hong Kong.
2. How did you come to be in England?
   I came here to study when I were 17.
3. How did you get involved in the martial arts?
   I always liked martial arts since I was 4 years old, however I didn’t know which style to choose or where to start. I was confused and did not know what to do until I met my uncle who had done Wing Chun for years. I showed my interest to learning kung fu and he introduce me to Wing Chun and suggested that I learn from Grandmaster Ip Chun as he is one of the best known Masters in Hong Kong. This is how I begin my Wing Chun training.
4. Can you tell us about your Wing Chun background? I understand you started training under the great Ip Chun. How was that?
   My first Wing Chun training started in 1995 and my first Wing Chun teacher is Grandmaster Ip Chun. The training was very enjoyable and I have gained quite a good understanding on what is good Wing Chun.

   After two years training I came to England to study but I go back to Hong Kong to train every summer. Every summer holiday I go back to Hong Kong and train for 6-7 days a week. I attended all the Ip chun’s classes no matter morning or evening class, he even give me the key of the gym, this means I can go there to practice if there had no class.

   In that’s period of time I learnt quite a lot about Ip Chun’s style because every summer there were a lot of foreigners came to Hong Kong to learn from Ip Chun, most of the time I am the only one who can speak fluent English therefore I did all the translation for him. For this reason I am not just learn Ip Chun wing chun, I also learn how he teach and the way how he see wing chun.

   I had done this for a few years until I started working in Preston, and I start to train under Master Samuel Kwok. Master Kwok just live about half hour from me, initially I just train once a week with Samuel, however for some reason we get on very well, may be we got a similar background and teacher, end up I see him 5-6 days a week again. I went to all his classes during the week and seminars every part in the country. After a year training I become his assistance, I help him to teach all the classes when he is aboard for holiday and seminars etc. I have done this for about 3-4 years until I got my new job in London.

5. How did you become involved in the making of the Ip Man movie?
   One of the Ip Man movie investors is a Wing Chun enthusiast. His intention in making this movie was to demonstrate the ‘real’ Wing Chun to the rest of the world. For this reason he searched for some top class Wing Chun instructors all over the world and he found Master Samuel Kwok lineage. At the end he contacted Samuel and asked him was anyone could recommend to him to choreograph the Ip Man movie. He was looking for someone with the requirement of having a very good understanding of Wing Chun and able to demonstrate the art in a more traditional manner. Master Kwok straight away thought that I would be the most suitable candidate, firstly because he has true confidence of my ability in Wing Chun. He believes that I am capable to represent him to choreograph the movie. On the other hand beside Wing Chun I also know a wide range of martial arts, so it really helped when making the comparison between Wing Chun and other styles.
6. Can you tell us about your experiences working as a fight choreographer on the Ip Man movie?
   Off course our biggest challenge was how to made Wing Chun look good on the screen, as you know most of the Wing Chun moves are very small and simple. Therefore sometimes we have to exaggerate the movement a bit, or we have to close up the movements, in order to make them look impressive on screen. However, we still have to keep the accent of Wing Chun. In the end we still spent over 7 days to choreograph just 3 mins in the movie.
7. How can I get a role in the next movie you choreograph?!
   If you are serious you could send some of your detail to me e.g. picture and video of you, you martial arts background, may be some video you doing some wing chun or other martial art. I can help you to give them to the movie producer or director. Who knows may be you will in Ip man 2.
8. Did you spend much time with Donnie Yen/Sammo Hung? How were they?
   I only meet Donnie very briefly but the impression he gave me is he is very passionate about martial arts and he is a very professional action actor.
   Sammo is a very easy going and humours person. He just like a ‘big brother’ to us, he always looks after his crew. For example he would always buy us breakfast in the morning, in order to keep us warm. Sometimes he would ask his wife to cook something the night before and he would bring it to us in the next day. Moreover he would always be the first few to arrive on set, so he would really set a good example to the rest of the crew. I really respect him and it is a pleasure to work with him.
9. Although I’ve not seen the full film yet, I’ve seen some of the Ip Man fight scenes on Youtube and love them! Do you have a favourite fight scene?
   My favourite would be the fist fight scene when ip man fighting in his house and when Donnie fight one against ten Japanese.
10. I believe that there are 2 more Ip Man movies planned. Will you be working on those?
    As far as I know they still working on the script and the story at the moment, so it is still early to say will I get involved yet but of course I will if I have the chance.
11. How much do you train each day/each week?
    I train about 1.5h per day, however in my opinion martial art is not just about how long and how hard you train, it is more important how correct you train. I have come across a lot of wing Chun practitioners who have trained for years but they still don’t know some fundamental concept and principle of wing chun. I always tell my students how many years you had been training doesn’t mean a thing. What is the most important is how correct do you train.
12. Do you have a favourite martial arts movie?
    I would say all Lau kar leung’s movie, eg the 36th Chamber of Shaolin , My Young Auntie and Mad Monkey Kung Fu etc . Firstly he is the grandmaster of my Hung Gar, secondly all the actors who acted in the movie are martial artists, there are no special effects or computer graphic etc. In my opinion those are ‘pure’ martial arts films. Of course the more recent one is Ip Man.
13. Do you get to meet up with Ip Chun often?
    Ip Chun is my first teacher in wing chun of course I will see him from time to time, I tried to see him every year but I cannot really made it because my my job etc.
14. You run a martial arts school in London. Tell me more…
    The objective of our school is to teach first -rate traditional Chinese kung fu. I only teach kung fu to a small group of people, because I believe quality is more important than quantity. Especially in Wing Chun, for me half of an inch difference is dead or alive. I pay attention to every single detail, even one finger is out of place is an mistake for me. I am not teaching martial art for living, this mean I don’t need to run my school like a business or factory, my first priority is train my student up, not increase the number of school.In wing Chun it is important to have correct body structure and arm position .It just takes an inch out of position to have a negative impact on a student. In larger classes you don’t have the opportunity to notice or correct this and over a period of time this becomes a habit with the student. This flaw becomes apparent when the student goes onto Chi Sau, giving more opportunities for an opponent to hit. It is sad for me when I chi Sau with some wing Chun practitioners who have trained for years only to find they have not covered the foundations properly.

Again, thank you Leo for taking time out to tell us more about yourself. The following is a gallery of photos that Leo took whilst on the set of Ip Man.

Ip Man Movie Photo Set

Leo is currently teaching Wing Chun, Hung Gar and Tai Chi in London. Check out his website for further details