5 Movie Directors Who Influenced RZA
In order to truly master a field, studying has to be apart of your daily routine. It doesn't help your cause if you don't do the homework on your predecessors and at least acknowledge the immense contributions they've made to the art you're trying to learn and eventually master.
RZA took it a few steps further than studying and actually worked with several directors before embarking on his official debut. The difference is glaring between RZA's first amateur-director endeavors and his most recent work, The Man With The Iron Fists, which he directed after spending time with some of the soon to be mentioned directors. He spents hours on their movie sets as an actor or just as a student observing a master at work.
Remember, often a student is only as good as his teacher so RZA sought out and learned from the best. Here are five of his "film sifus."
CLICK ON THE MAIN IMAGE TO BEGIN
RZA took it a few steps further than studying and actually worked with several directors before embarking on his official debut. The difference is glaring between RZA's first amateur-director endeavors and his most recent work, The Man With The Iron Fists, which he directed after spending time with some of the soon to be mentioned directors. He spents hours on their movie sets as an actor or just as a student observing a master at work.
Remember, often a student is only as good as his teacher so RZA sought out and learned from the best. Here are five of his "film sifus."
CLICK ON THE MAIN IMAGE TO BEGIN
Quentin Tarantino: At the top of Rza's directorial influences sits the man who taught rza a lot by allowing him to sit in during the making of both Kill BIll movies and observe what it takes to make a feature length film. "I would sit in my chair and just watch the whole twelve hour day of filming and take my notes," remembers Rza. "That was a big part of my film education."
John Woo: A huge success in China before he got any recognition in the states Woo has helmed Wu Tang classic fodder like The Killer and Hard Boiled. Eventually he made himself a star with Face/Off and Mission Impossible II . Though he's attained recognition for his ultra violent yet creative shoot outs and rumbles, he has criticized Hollywood for being to bogged down with people who have nothing to do with film, something Rza agrees with in many ways.
Jim Jarmusch: Though Rza had already mastered the realm of music it was Jarmusch who first bought him into the film world with Ghost Dog. Rza had a cameo in the film but more importantly he contributed music and was keeping a keen eye on all the activity on the set. Jarmusch also sparked a deeper film fascination in Rza with his piece Coffee and Cigarettes, which Rza and Gza made cameos in.
Ridley Scott: Scott casted Rza as a narcotics undercover cop in 2007's American Gangster. Rza admired how he gave specific direction to his actors but still left certain things open to their interpertation. "Plus the guy made Blade Runner ," adds Rza. "Even though that film was considered a disappointment when it was first released it's now considered a classic. You have to realize your vision the way you see it. Eventually the rest of the world will catch up."
Chang Cheh: This 5 Deadly Venoms director might have been one of Rza's earliest influences. Often referred to as "The Godfather of Hong Kong Cinema," Bobby Digital was a huge fan of his work before the Wu Tang Clan was even a thought. Rza would post up in TImes Square with 40s and dust blunts and marvel at the silver screen filled with soldiers and warriors who upheld a code of morals and kinship. Cheh also tried his hand at writing music for his films, something Rza relates to after scoring films for Tarantino and now TMWTIF. Cheh's output was also inspiring, sometimes completing four or five carefully choreographed films in a single year.
