The success of both films gave Yu a reputation for horror in the US, and led to him directing a chilling episode of the NBC television horror series Fear Itself in 2008.
Yet Yu was not known as a horror-film director in Hong Kong, although he had made a couple of ghost films, and horror movie The Trail, early in his career.
How Hong Kong New Wave director Yim Ho explored rarely seen sides of China
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Below we look at Yu’s Hollywood films.
Warriors of Virtue (1997)
This film about kung fu kangaroos fighting to uphold Chinese virtues in an alternative universe was an odd project from the start.
Although US studios distributed the film, it was actually produced – to the tune of US$36 million – by four Hong Kong-born doctors and their rich father.
The doctors, who all lived in the US, wanted to do something fun together, and settled on making a film. They commissioned a script and then asked Yu to make it.
“I was a little concerned, as I’ve never done a family film before,” Yu told the Post in 1997. “That’s a lot of responsibility.”
The doctors convinced Yu to take on the production, and he shot the movie in the Beijing Film Studios with a crew from Hong Kong, the US and mainland China.
The result plays out like a weird martial arts version of the fantasy film Labyrinth (1986). Although dragged down by a crazy script, Yu’s operatic visual style shines through, and a martial arts scene set in a busy kitchen is a stand-out.
“It’s a very positive movie, which is what I want for my Hollywood debut,” Yu told this writer in 1995. “I don’t want to get typecast as an action director.”
The film performed badly at the box office. “Warriors of Virtue had very noble ambitions,” Yu told the Post in 1999. “It was going to be a movie that would propagate Eastern philosophies and Eastern action. But these concepts were totally alien to the market and people stayed away.”
Bride of Chucky (1998)
Yu was not a fan of American horror films, and initially balked at the offer to direct the fourth instalment of Child’s Play, a tacky slasher series about an ugly doll called Chucky which is possessed by the soul of a serial killer and murders people in grotesque ways.
Yu thought that directing a B-movie horror was a step backwards, but his friend Terence Chang, John Woo’s manager, convinced him to do it, noting that the earlier Child’s Play films had been popular.
Yu signed on, but not before he had established that he could have creative leeway to do what he wanted.
“The producers were very up front about the fact that they weren’t interested in making a sequel, but that what they were looking for was a director to help reinvent Chucky. They were willing to let me incorporate my own interpretation of the script in the film,” he said.
Bride of Chucky is full of lewd sexual situations and gore, in the manner of horror films from the 1990s. The film stars Jennifer Tilly as a goth sadist who transforms into an evil doll that becomes Chucky’s bride.
The film was not a critical success, but it was a hit with lovers of B-grade horror fare. Yu was offered the next film in the series, Seed of Chucky, but he turned it down.
Formula 51 (2001)
This UK-set gangland comedy about a chemist who has invented an incredibly potent recreational drug is loud, coarse and unfunny, and has little to recommend it.
The film came about when Yu was rejected as director for the Samuel L Jackson feature Snakes on a Plane. Jackson, who stars in Formula 51, turned out to be a big fan of Hong Kong films and suggested that Yu direct the film, which was his pet project.
The film bears none of Yu’s hallmarks.
Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
This mash-up of Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street was in development hell for nine years before Yu was brought on board to direct.
The idea of Nightmare’s Freddy Krueger doing battle with Friday’s Jason Voorhees had originated with horror fans before it was picked up by studio executives. But rights issues – the franchises belonged to different studios – and difficulties with the script caused a long delay.
The producers wanted Yu to direct because they liked his work on Chucky, but he once again tried to refuse, mainly because the writers could not come up with a satisfactory ending. No one wanted to choose a winner and risk alienating the losing character’s legion of fans.
Yu took the job when he realised how popular the two film series were. “I don’t seek out horror movies but I do believe that even with something that sounds as outrageous as Freddy vs. Jason, you can still treat the project with respect,” he told the Post.
Yu had only seen the first instalments of each series, and immersed himself in the many different incarnations of the two villains before he started to direct.
“I didn’t want to be this arrogant director who stepped in and just start changing things without respecting the legacy. I wanted the fans of both Freddy and Jason to be satisfied,” he said.
How filming Hard Target taught John Woo some hard lessons about Hollywood
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Yu also trimmed down the sprawling script by excising characters, realising that the fans were only interested in one thing – the showdown between his two villains. “It’s like King Kong versus Godzilla – there’s got to be a huge fight,” he told the Post.
The lengthy fight scene is highly entertaining, although Yu intentionally avoided showcasing Hong Kong-style action. “I felt I should go back to basics and have them really chop each other up rather than resort to wirework and things like that,” he said.
“I used the World Wrestling Federation as a model of what I was trying to do with the battles between Freddy and Jason. I wanted the battles to be very raw,” he said.
Fans of both Freddy and Jason loved the result.
In this regular feature series on the best of Hong Kong cinema, we examine the legacy of classic films, re-evaluate the careers of its greatest stars, and revisit some of the lesser-known aspects of the beloved industry.
