By J.D. Nguyen

It's funny how things happen. At first, you're dreaming about being a filmmaker and writing film reviews on the side for a local newspaper in Austin and the next thing you know, you're Sammo Hung's personal assistant, writing China's entry into the Academy Awards, and meeting all of your favorite Asian stars and filmmakers at parties in Hong Kong of all places. To anybody else, this would be a pretty complete life for a craving fanatic, but for Joey O'Bryan it's just the beginning of a pretty cool and unpredictable career.

I had a chance to throw the bull around and chat about films and talk about anything and everything cool with Mr. O'Bryan and all I have to say is that I'm utterly and totally envious of this guy. Why? Well, because he's cooler than me in ways I've only dreamed of. Yeah, I may be polishing his shoes a little, but he's had drinks with Anthony Wong and I haven't! Ha. Anyways, check out the interview and get ready to be inspired.

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[J. D. Nguyen]: Right off the bat, how the hell does it feel to have co-written Hong Kong's entry into the Academy Awards?

[Joey O'Bryan]: Pretty damn great but completely shocking. I mean, I've seen FULLTIME KILLER called everything from "a tremendous film" to "an insult to moviemaking." That kind of mixed response doesn't really lead you to expect any big accolades are coming your way, unless some critic is making a cruel joke at your expense. I know awards and reviews are supposed to be an unimportant abstraction to true artists, but, hey, I can't lie, it really does provide a jolt of encouragement whenever someone appreciates your work. Especially when you're just starting out, as I am.

[J. D. Nguyen]: What's the greatest compliment you've heard so far?

[Joey O'Bryan]: Johnnie ranking it alongside THE LONGEST NITE and THE MISSION in his filmography. And, oh yeah, nabbing the General Tao Gold award wasn't too shabby either.

[J. D.]: (Laughing) It must have been a crazy year for you, a definite rush for a first time screenwriter.

[Joey]: That's putting it mildly. Being a longtime Hong Kong film buff, getting a chance to work with guys like Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai was, cheesy as it might sound, a dream come true. To spitball ideas with the man behind TOO MANY WAYS TO BE #1... to have him and the director of THE MISSION bring it all to life... to see Simon Yam, SIMON FREAKIN' YAM for crying out loud, playing a character I helped create... I mean, come on. On top of all that, I landed another assignment, directed my first short, and finally got engaged to my long-suffering girlfriend. So yeah, for the most part, 2001 was a banner year.

[J. D.]: Congratulations on the engagement! Damn, I'm jealous! What are you going to do next? Play Golf with Woo? Going out to Denny's with Jackie Chan and Jet Li? Have slumber parties at Jaymee Ong's place?

[Joey]: Er...

[J. D.]: Did you act like a total geek and ask for autographs?

[Joey]: No, no... work is work.

[J. D.]: Tell us some of your adventures with the Milkway crew and what it was like?

[Joey]: As you might imagine from their prolific output, everyone at Milkyway works almost 24/7, so most of my time in Hong Kong was spent doing the same. I originally thought I was going be there for a week of creative meetings, after which I would return to the states and write the script. I wound up staying for just over a month, spending most of my time in a claustrophobic Tsim Sha Tsui hotel, writing a script no one quite knew how to end. That said, dinner with Johnnie To can be an event in and of itself, and I did get to visit the set of WU YEN. Didn't get a chance to meet Anita Mui though...

[J. D.]: Definitely seems like a wild ride! Man, the Celebrity in-crowd there must be amazing and enormous. Visiting sets, hanging out, going to restaurants... Did the Milkway guys pay for everything?

[Joey]: Uh-huh, pretty much.

[J. D.]: Anybody else notably cool that you met over in Hong Kong?

[Joey]: I ran into "Hollywood East" author Stefan Hammond at the premiere. He later introduced me to stunt coordinator and director Bruce Law, who seems to have worked on, well, everything. He told me a great story about how he shot a spectacular explosion for EXTREME CRISIS, complete with something like five cars flipping into the middle of an empty street, with no permits! It was also fun to meet internet legends like Ryan and Tim Youngs, who run the HKMDB and Another Hong Kong Movie Page. Indispensable sites and friendly guys. The language barrier kept me from saying much to Yau Nai-hoi, but it was a pleasure just sharing space with the guy. He's a brilliant writer. Lau Ching-wan and his wife, actress Amy Kwok, took me to a Japanese restaurant that also happened to be one of the primary locations in EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED. Afterwards, we went out for drinks with Anthony Wong. I felt like the luckiest fella in the world, sitting there shooting the breeze with two of the finest actors in world cinema. Undoubtedly the most fun I had in Hong Kong.

[J. D.]: Drinks with Anthony Wong! You lucky Bastard... Ahem... How did you get the opportunity work on FULLTIME KILLER in the first place?

[Joey]: Robert Sparks, who had small roles in KING OF COMEDY and RUNNING OUT OF TIME, introduced me to Johnnie. We talked at length and found that we liked a lot of the same films. He took a look at a screenplay I had written and liked it enough to ask me to work on a project that, sadly, remains unproduced. But my work on that script got me hired to do FULLTIME KILLER, so it wasn't a total loss. Far from it, in fact.

[J. D.]: What was working with Wai Ka-Fai like?

[Joey]: Challenging and exciting. He encourages experimentation and anything is worth trying, at least on paper. The man is a mad genius, full of wild ideas.

[J. D.]: It must have been difficult since he didn't know English and you Cantonese.

[Joey]: It was at first, since we were communicating primarily through a translator, with lots of arm waving thrown in for punctuation. I'd gotten used to that sort of thing though, having spent the past couple of years working for Sammo Hung, so it was really just a matter of everyone becoming familiar with one another and developing a kind of shorthand.

[J. D.]: Describe a regular session with these guys writing FULLTIME KILLER.

[Joey]: Well, this is a project Johnnie and Ka-fai had been itching to do for some time. Ka-fai had already written a draft, so first we explored what the style, tone, and themes of the piece were going to be. Once I had a good idea of where he and Johnnie were coming from, they turned me loose to write my own draft. I think they wanted to see what I would come up with on my own, knowing good and well they would always be able to reel the material back to Earth later. Ka-fai took a look at what I'd done and we met again to discuss and argue the strengths and weaknesses of both drafts. I did another polish before turning it in to Ka-fai and he did a final pass before filming began. I wasn't around for shooting, but I still found myself frantically working on a couple of scenes via e-mail, which was something of a surreal experience.

[J. D.]: Any particular scene you penned that you were generally proud of that made it to the screen?

[Joey]: Yes. The mid-film Tok/Chin/O/Nancy montage. I did a lot of work on that and felt I made a real contribution. Six pages. Visceral. Not much in the way of dialogue. Pure cinema. Very much the kind of stuff I want to do in movies. Turned out the sequence adhered closely to what was on the page and it played much like I'd imagined. It was very exciting for me to see those scenes cut together for the first time. Johnnie and Ka-fai totally nailed it.

[J. D.]: Any that didn't make it?

[Joey]: In an earlier draft, as Tok dies sprawled on the floor, his life flashes before his eyes as a movie trailer for "Fulltime Killer", referencing his speech from earlier in the film. I can't say for sure how that would've played, but it would have been fun to find out.

[J. D.]: While you were working on the script, did you have any idea of the impact FULLTIME KILLER would make this year at the Hong Kong box office and with the fans?

[Joey]: I always figured Andy Lau's involvement would insure us a solid opening weekend, at the very least. It was a new kind of role for him, and he delivered a go-for-broke performance. Also, beyond his obvious appeal as a performer, he really believed in the picture and put a lot of marketing muscle behind it. Still, I never imagined we'd wind up the 5th highest grosser of the year. Of course, the film's impact with fans is harder to gauge. Some people absolutely loved it, others were pretty disappointed. I think that's to be expected with a film as playful and purposefully disorienting as FULLTIME KILLER. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, and that's okay.

[J. D.]: Who were your own personal casting choices you had in mind while writing Tok, O, Chin, and Inspector Lee?

[Joey]: I knew from the beginning that Andy Lau was on board as Tok and that Takeshi Sorimachi was being pursued for "O", so that didn't leave a whole lot of room for daydreaming. Besides, casting isn't anything most writers have any control over, so it's really not worth worrying about.

[J. D.]: You mentioned working with Sammo Hung.

[Joey]: I was a production assistant on ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA AND AMERICA and later his personal assistant on MARTIAL LAW.

[J. D.]: What was that like?

[Joey]: Amazing. Here's a man who's been in the business for over 30 years, a giant of action cinema, responsible for classics. Classics. He's also worked with everyone from King Hu to Wong Kar-wai, so it pays to pay attention. ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA & AMERICA was a troubled production, but it was a real education to watch guys like him, Tsui Hark, Lau Kar-wing, Jet Li, Mars, and Hung Yan-yan at work. A real crash course in the physical realities of moviemaking. You could honestly fill a book with wild stories about making that picture. Having said that, Sammo is incredibly focused and totally committed to his filmmaking. He runs his set as if it were a military operation and the dedication he commands from a crew is very inspiring. There was so much to learn, an exciting time. MARTIAL LAW was a more bittersweet experience. Sweet because of the time spent with Sammo and company, bitter because of the missed opportunity the show represented in my mind. America wasn't getting to see the best of Sammo, especially during the second season. He was really never given the creative freedom he should have had, but he remained a true professional throughout and always did his best to make the most of the material.

[J. D.]: What's your fondest memory of being Sammo Hung's personal assistant?

[Joey]: Lunch. Sammo loves to cook, you know, and he's damn good at it. He often made lunch, and, since I'm a vegetarian, he would always make me something special, in spite of my repeated insistence that he need not trouble himself. That, and the time spent getting to know one another over those mountains of spicy food, talking about movies, storytelling, always meant a lot to me.

[J. D.]: Before you became a screenwriter, you were a critic for the Austin Chronicle, correct?

[Joey]: Among others. I probably wasn't much of a film critic, but I was certainly at my most productive when working for the Chronicle, thanks largely to a wonderful and supportive editor, Marge Baumgarten.

[J. D.]: Being an aspiring filmmaker, how did you get into Journalism?

[Joey]: I was writing for a local zine, for fun, and just sort of fell into it. The first review I was paid to write was for Clarence Ford's THE BLACK PANTHER WARRIORS, in which I cheekily compared the director's hyper-kinetic style to action painting. That probably should've been the end of my career in film criticism, but, alas, it was only the beginning.

- PART 2 - Click Here!