Steve Wang has had a legendary career as a practical makeup effects artist.

He was one of the main designers of the Predator.

He built the Gilman suit in the Monster Squad, and he had a major hand in the creatures of Gremlins too,

and that is just scratching the surface. But I don't think enough people know that he is an

amazing director, having helmed one of the best live-action anime adaptations with Giver Dark Hero,

and, in my opinion, has directed the greatest

action film to come out of North America in the 90s, which is the Mark DeCascoastas starring Drive.

I'd even go as far to say that it is one of the ultimate examples of Hong Kong style action

cinema, realized by people who understand how it works

and want to do the best version of it possible. I reached out to Steve and asked him if I could

interview him about his directorial career and he was nice enough to take some time out of his day

to answer my questions. So I hope you enjoy our following discussion.

So if you don't mind, I like to start all the way at the beginning because I've read

interviews that you said you weren't really interested in filmmaking until you were about 18 years

old. Do you recall what event actually made you go, oh, you know what? I want to be a director.

My friend Matt Rose and Don Allen

in the Bay Area. And they were making movies, little short films and whatnot. And then one of my

friend, my good friend Johnny Psycho, he asked you, hey, can you come and help? You know,

with just, I need something to hold reflectors and whatnot. So 7 a.m. in the morning, we're driving

up to Stevenson Ranch. And it's raining and it's cold and I'm out there holding reflectors and I'm just going, God, this is miserable. Who the heck want to make movies? You know, not knowing that a year later that I would be making a short film on my own. So it cut to like a year later and Johnny was always talking about, oh, you know, I wanted to make movies and make movies. And I thought, you know, hey, I got another idea. Like, why don't we make a movie called Kung Fu Rascals? And I wanted to, like, you know, try to direct this thing. And so it took about six months and just organizing friends on weekends. And it was just a complete nightmare. Like it was no fun organizing it. Nobody shows up. You know, it's like all the worst problems, like worse than putting a band together, right? And so finally, after six months, finally made the film, edit the film, and then we did put the sound on it on VHS, like directly live, you know, recording sound and whatnot. And then I was realized I was bit by the bug after I watched it.

I was like, wow, look at this.

Look at what we made, you know? And that was Kung Fu Rascals Monster Beach Party, right? Yes, Monster Beach Party, yeah. I noticed when I was watching Guy Ver 2, there was a clip on the TV, and I'm like, that looks like Kung Fu Rascals, but I don't recognize that scene. Yeah, that was the Monster Beach party.

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