Sean Parker
At the centennial celebration of the Academy Awards, which will take place in 2027, stunt performers will finally be recognized with an Oscar. This inclusionary measure is a long time coming. So far, there have only ever been two stuntmen who have received a statue, both of whom received lifetime achievement awards. But think of all the men and women who have put their lives and bodies at risk over the years to provide pure adrenaline to our entertainment. My head shifts to the audacious stunts we used to see in ‘80s and ‘90s action pictures, and of course, to the man who brought Hong Kong stunt performing to America: Jackie Chan. I’m also certain it was writers Anastasia Tsang and Oliver Yip’s first thoughts when they set down to pen Stuntman.
It’s no secret that movie sets have changed over thirty to forty years. It was only about a year ago that I wrote an article on Boston Underground Film Festival’s repertory screening of 1990s Fatal Termination, where one stunt literally had me holding my breath the entire time. It’s maybe a one-minute sequence of a man holding onto a young girl’s hair while holding her out the window of a moving car. Meanwhile, the driver’s vision is blocked by the girl’s mother pulling a T.J. Hooker on the hood. The stunt is far and away the boldest thing I’ve ever seen attempted on celluloid, far beyond that of many stunts allowed by Hollywood movie studios. A stunt like this could only be done by the brazen stunt teams of Hong Kong.
This is where Tsang and Yip’s Stuntman story starts, way back in the heyday of dangerous Hong Kong stunts. Hard Boiled’s Wei Tung plays disgraced stunt director Lee Sam, whose years of making big action blockbusters have been overshadowed by also being the man who single-handedly ended Hong Kong’s golden age of action cinema. After having a stunt go so horribly wrong that it left a young man paralyzed, years later, Sam is approached to make a new action film with old-school stunts.
On the other side of this story is Lee Sai Lung (Chun-Him Lau), a young man in love with the old Hong Kong stuntwork who hopes to become a Stuntman himself one day. He valets for Leung Chi Wai’s (Phillip Ng) stunt team, but longs to be a part of the action despite the team picking on him and putting him in bad situations. During one such moment, Sam witnesses the group gang up on Lung, which also puts Sam face-to-face with Wai, who was supposed to do the stunt in place of the man who got hurt on Sam’s set. So when Sam gets the gig, he names Lung his Stunt Coordinator, putting him in charge of Wei’s team when Sam hires them.
At the same time, Sam is also trying to get back into the good graces of his estranged daughter, Cherry (Cecilia Choi). With her wedding day right around the corner, Sam tries wholeheartedly to become the father she always needed, but Cherry isn’t warm to his efforts, reminding Sam of the father who raised her with each of Sam’s attempts.
The Leung brothers, Albert and Herbert, direct the hell out of Stuntman, infusing this oft dramatic love-letter to Hong Kong actioneers with mind-bending stunts right until the film is over. The final one will leave you breathless. The film is said to have been shot in only nineteen days, thirteen of which were stunt days. I can’t imagine they didn’t infuse new tricks into their old-school production, but if you watch the outtakes during the credits (the way the old Jackie Chan films used to show off their stunts) it becomes pretty clear that the cast must have been at least a little bruised after the production wrapped, and in some sequences you can feel it.
As a celebration of stunt performers and all that they have brought to film, Stuntman delivers, but the story feels slightly generic. The idea of a man seeking redemption and getting a second chance is a great story regardless, and one that is endlessly watchable, but there are moments where the film reminded me heavily of last year’s A Samurai in Time, a Japanese movie about a time traveling samurai who ends up working on “jidaigeki” films (Japanese period films) as the genre begins to die out. These films are eerily similar in their love for filmmaking, as they are both celebrating respective eras in their nations’ film history. If there was ever an aesthetic I never knew I was into, it’s the subgenre of imported films writing love letters to their nations’ film history.
Stuntman gets a little caught in the weeds at times, but the film is relatively solid. There are many perspective moments for Sam. At times, it can be frustrating watching him not understand where people are coming from as he hardens himself around confrontation and distrust. The film works best when the viewer’s watching all of the performers work in tandem to protect each other, and less so when Sam acts like Kubrick behind the camera, calling for multiple takes of a stunt to get under a performer’s skin. But like him or hate him, Sam is an ideology that existed in old-world Hollywood, and possibly Hong Kong in the ‘80s as well. There’s also something to the notion of excitement in nostalgia, a theme that resonates with millennial cinephiles who grew up with these films.
Regardless, some of Stuntman’s scenes are just pure gold. Plus, seeing noted Stuntman Wei Tung, who has a long list of stunt credits under his belt, get back into the action is something really special. One scene in particular is right up there with Michael Mann’s Heat in intensity and is so ridiculously fun to watch. That’s the thing about a movie like Stuntman, even if the story is something you may have seen before, some sequences have an incredible power to reel you in and blow you away. The Leungs may only be just starting to understand what they can do with a feature. Still, they have ridiculous talent in the powers of captivation, and I’m sure whatever they have planned to follow Stuntman with will be equally spellbinding.
Stuntman played as part of the 2025 Fantasia International Film Festival on Tuesday, July 29, with a second showing on Thursday, July 31. Check out the film’s page on the Fantasia website for more information.
Stuntman – Hong Kong Actioner – In UK Cinemas from 11 Oct
STUNTMAN, the Hong Kong actioner from real-life stuntmen turned filmmakers, Albert Yeung & Herbert Yeung, will hit the UK screens from 11 Oct. The film stars Terrance Lau and Philip Ng, who both featured in recent box office hit Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In; also stunt veteran Stephen Tung Wai, a 7-time winner of Best Action Choreography at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
