He doesn’t look like an action hero.
His 5-foot-7-inch frame supports 230 pounds and, at 44 years old with a streak of gray in his thick black hair, he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who could play a role in any urban crime situation except as sobbing victim.
But Sammo Law, the title character in the new CBS action-adventure series “Martial Law” (8 p.m. Saturdays on WBBM-Ch. 2) can break up an army of mean men and bad boys without breaking a sweat — or even removing his jacket. A kung fu-trained Shanghai cop in California to help the LAPD, Law doesn’t carry a gun and has only his fast-flying fists and feet to stand between him and criminal anarchy. In short, short Sammo rocks harder than a Chinese earthquake.
The thing is that the gap between fiction and fact here isn’t all that wide. OK, so the guy who plays Law — Sammo Hung — isn’t a cop, but he is a portly Hong Kong martial arts master who not only went to the Peking Opera School with Jackie Chan but starred with and/or directed him in several Hong Kong movies, including the classic “Dragons Forever,” and most recently “Mr. Nice Guy.”
In fact, with some 140 films to his credit, actor-director Hung stands right behind Bruce Lee and Chan as the most visible face of Hong Kong action. With “Martial Law” doing respectably in the ratings against time-slot rivals such as “The Pretender” and “Fantasy Island,” Hung may become a household name. But the show almost didn’t happen — not because of any network jitters — but because of one of Hung’s fears:
“I’m afraid of my English,” Hung said by phone, in a thick accent. “They said it didn’t matter. It was very hard for me, and the English still is. I don’t worry about the fighting scenes. But when it comes to speech, I think, `Oh, god.’ “
Executive producer Andre Morgan remembers those initial conversations clearly. Hung was in the United States hunting for work as a director, like so many of his compatriots such as John Woo and Tsui Hark, and never dreamed someone would want him to act. “He said, `You must be joking. Who’s going to hire me?’ ” Morgan recalled. “He said, `I have to think about it.’ It’s very hard work being a martial-arts actor, staging those fights day in and day out. He came back a couple of days later and said, `I’d be willing to give it a try.’ “
Hung’s appeal lies not only in his kung fu skills but also in his calm approach, which is at odds with Chan’s harried freneticism and Lee’s take-on-the-world intensity. Looking more like the average TV couch potato than an athlete, Hung nevertheless rips through a line of thugs as easily as ripping open a bag of chips.
“Zen is an overused word in America, but part of what we’re selling is that he is a master, so there’s no muss, no fuss,” Morgan explained. “It’s an accumulation of knowledge that allows him to do things in an effortless way, with the least amount of exertion for the most result.”
“Martial Law” was conceived at the end of ’97 when Morgan, a producer behind “Walker: Texas Ranger,” and longtime Hong Kong director-producer Stanley Tong sold CBS on the idea of a weekly kung fu crime show. Carlton Cuse (“Nash Bridges”) was brought in to help executive-produce. But they had to find the right person to star. Jackie Chan was busy shooting “Rush Hour” so thoughts turned to Chan’s old sidekick, Hung.
But some at the network wanted a more svelte action star.
“There was obvious trepidation,” Morgan said. “It’s very hard to believe someone of his size and girth can be as agile as he is. But there’s no denying that he has an obvious appeal. When the people at CBS met him in person, their trepidation quickly vanished.”
The show itself is rather standard-issue police drama, putting Hung on a team with Louis Mandylor, Tammy Lauren and Kelly Hu to fight crime all across L.A. The bad guys — bad shots all and even worse at kung fu — never win and everyone’s problems are solved within the hour. Closer to Quinn Martin than Steven Bochco, there is none of the inner anguish of “Homicide: Life on the Street” or “NYPD Blue.” Instead, the plot serves to provide dividers between action scenes during which Hung and company get to show their stuff.
But action Jacksons looking to cruise on a long high of kung fu kineticism, as they can with Hong Kong films, may be disappointed. The action here is delivered in small, measured doses.
“(In Hong Kong movies) they’re flying in the air and one man can fight 100 people. They’re fantasy stories, and this is part of the Chinese culture,” Hung said. “American culture is different.”
“That’s something Hung and Stanley are very much aware of,” Morgan said. “This is a show designed for an American audience. You have to be cognizant and sensitive to American taste. It’s also an issue of which age group you slant the show for. If we produced this like `The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’ then the fight scenes would be longer. The truth of the matter is that this is a 9 o’clock show for the whole family, but emphasis is on the 14-to-48 demographic. Also, part of doing this kind of show is you want to leave the audience wanting more.”
