When the World Shifts: Albert Leung on Action, Craft and Courage in Hong Kong Cinema
When the World Shifts: Albert Leung on Action, Craft and Courage in Hong Kong Cinema
Every time an industry changes, it creates space for new voices, new methods, and a different kind of courage. On the evening of 29 October 2026 at The Refinery Club in Taikoo Place, that idea sat at the centre of The Refinery Dialogues as director, actor and producer Albert Leung took the audience behind the scenes of Stuntman (武替道) and the broader craft of Hong Kong action filmmaking.
Moderated by Film Critic & Chief Global Risk Advocate Andrew Chan FCA, the conversation moved fluidly between the intensity of stunts and the quieter discipline of storytelling. Albert, co-director with his twin brother Herbert of the award-nominated feature Stuntman, spoke from lived experience. A former stuntman and member of the Hong Kong Stuntman Association who has worked with legends including Sammo Hung, he traced his own path from performing to directing a film that pays tribute to the golden age of Hong Kong action while confronting how much the industry has changed.
Several themes stood out. One was the generational shift in how action is made. The old “red-trousers” master-and-student system — where a choreographer’s word was final and risk was often taken on instinct — has given way to a more coach-and-athlete dynamic. Safety standards, insurance and professionalisation have improved, yet something of the raw, inventive spirit that defined 1980s films such as Police Story and Heart of the Dragon has become harder to replicate. Stuntman dramatises this tension through the relationship between a veteran action director (Stephen Tung Wai) and a younger generation of performers. Many of the film’s most striking sequences draw on real incidents from the era, including unauthorised street shoots and high-risk leaps that would be impossible to stage the same way today.
Albert was clear that the goal is not nostalgia for its own sake. The film is about passion and the calculated risks required to keep a craft alive when budgets are tighter, audiences have shifted, and the international market for pure Hong Kong-style action has narrowed. He and his brother shot the feature in just 19 days (12 of them action days), working closely with veterans who brought both authenticity and practical safety knowledge. Their twin collaboration itself became a practical lesson in decision-making: disagreements stayed private so that, on set, the team received one clear direction.
For those in the room whose daily work involves risk — whether in film, business or elsewhere — the evening offered a useful parallel. Action filmmaking has always been an exercise in managing residual risk under time pressure: how much is acceptable, what controls can be put in place without killing the performance, and when the story itself demands that someone still jumps. Albert’s account of the physical toll of years of stunt work (worn joints, torn shoulders) and the economic reality that many stunt performers need second jobs also underscored a quieter point: resilience is not just about surviving the stunt, but about finding a sustainable way forward when the old model no longer works.
The conversation closed on a note of measured optimism. Honouring the past, Albert suggested, is necessary, but so is the willingness to adapt without abandoning the core spirit of invention and commitment. In a private members’ club setting that values thoughtful dialogue over spectacle, the evening felt like exactly the right place for that discussion — intimate, precise, and grounded in real craft.
Thank you to Albert Leung for the candour, to The Refinery Club for hosting, and to everyone who joined. The space for new voices in Hong Kong cinema remains open. The question is what kind of courage we bring to it.
Andrew Chan FCA is a film critic (Film Critics Circle of Australia), moderator, and founder of the CRO Chief Risk Officer community.
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