Phong Giang is a stunt performer, martial artist and actor who recently starred in Plan B: Der Film which tells the story of three young martial artists who embark on a relentless treasure hunt in order to free their friend from the grasp of a ruthless gangster, they get entangled in a complex conspiracy staged to dethrone Berlin’s underworld kingpin.
We sat down and chatted with Phong about the movie and if we can expect Plan C…
I recently just saw Plan B for the first time and was blown away by it; the action was superb. How did the whole project come together?
We always wanted to create an action film in our own style. It took years to come to fruition. It all started with a script idea we had in mind and we were looking for an investor to get the money from. After countless meetings we finally found one investor who had trust and believed in our story. That´s the short story of our adventure.
You, Can Aydin, Cha-Lee Yoon and Eugene Boateng are all great on-screen together. How did you all meet?
I knew Can and Cha for 10 years from a training facility where everyone could come and train their acrobatic moves. We had the idea of forming a group of stuntguys for a long time and it happened 9 years ago. I got to know Eugene from various stage shows and saw his potential as a dancer and actor. Since we needed another funny guy in our script who could dance and act; he was the perfect match to us.
There were so many nods to classic action movies like Die Hard, Cobra, Rambo and RoboCop; what are some movies that have influenced you personally?
I started watching movies from Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao at an early age and was fascinated by them. I always felt the energy of their movies in my heart but could never express them openly. People might have thought about me as a nerd. LOL. Additional to that I also was fascinated by the Hollywood Blockbusters like Rambo, The Rock, Die Hard and Bad Boys 1 & 2.
What was your training regime like for this movie?
I was following a strict diet plan of low carbs eating and I was training 6 to 7 days a week. In the morning I was going to a fitness gym to get in shape visually. After that I was heading to the stunt gym to clean my basics in kickboxing and kicking for 2 hours. A short break follows and then I was right into the fight choreography with the team. We were coming up with different ideas of fighting and filming the whole piece. Yes, this was pretty much my week and I had one rest day which was Sunday in this case.
You use your real names in the movie; is Phong similar to you in terms of personality?
Yes we used our real names just because we were mostly playing ourselves as friends in Berlin. We changed some edges of our characters in the movie but it was pretty much our real ego. I would say 70% real Phong and 30% scripted Phong.
Plan B was a love letter to everything that was great about the 80’s what do you think is the appeal of the decade to everyone aside from having the best action movies?
I like a lot about the 80´s. Starting from the music, the e-guitars and synthesizers. The action was mostly special fx and not visual fx like nowadays. You could feel the difference of the danger as an audience and the story telling was much tighter. In general I would say the heroes were cooler back in the days.
The music was amazing; any word on if the soundtrack/score will be available? I need it!
Yes, you can download the soundtrack of Plan B right here: https://knightblaze.bandcamp.com/releases
We tried to keep it 80´s how we like it and we are glad you like it too.
These characters are far too much fun to just be in one movie; are we going to get Plan C at some point?
We are working on a “Plan C” but I can´t tell you now anything about the release since it´s in a work-in-progress state. One thing I can tell you for sure: it´s going to be bigger and funnier than the first one. 😉
What do you want audiences to take away from the film?
I hope they appreciate the movie since it started as an independent movie idea, which got distributed later on by 20th Century Fox. I also hope they like the action, which has no Vfx and still could enjoy it without having the impression of missing something. I don´t wanna say that Vfx are bad, but on the other hand I want to show that action can be done without much computer work. I´m talking about practical stunts.
Any future projects in development?
There are several projects in the pipe line and we have to see which one comes to fruition. But for sure we are going to continue our passion. “Plan B” was just the start of everything. Hope to get interviewed by you soon again for our next movie.
