- "Answer me! Or I will kill you!"
- ―Stephen Chang as the Viet Cong commander in First Blood.
Stephen Chang as the Viet Cong commander in First Blood.
Grandmaster Stephen Chang is a Chinese actor and Kung Fu expert. He played the Viet Cong Commander in First Blood and has many interesting stories from the filming. One such story is that he was personally chosen by Sylvester Stallone without an audition because he enjoyed Chang's films.
Chang is a Grandmaster highest rank since 1977, when he became a Grand Champion. He owns 8 Kung-Fu Schools, speaks eight languages and eight Chinese dialects.
First Blood[]
Chang has said that he had many fun experiences while working on the film. Chang says that there was a flashback that explained how he managed to capture John Rambo. Chang said that they filmed a scene of him digging a pit trap and covering it with branches and leaves. After Rambo fell into the deep pit, Chang said that it was scripted for him to throw dirt and sewage on Rambo as well as spit on him. Chang had numerous other scenes filmed that detailed Rambo's time in captivity, but these scenes were cut and have not been put on any DVDs as extras. Chang stated that the flashback where Rambo remembers getting sewage dumped on him was actually just chocolate milk for color mixed with peanut butter for texture.
FIRST BLOOD 1982 Interview with Grandmaster Stephen Chang - The VC Commander
Although most of his scenes were cut, the only scene of his that remains is the infamous "torture flashback" scene, which he said took an entire afternoon to shoot. Chang was told to threaten to cut Rambo, and they said that because he knew many different Asian languages, to choose which language to speak the threat in. Chang chose Cantonese, and stated instead that he would 'kill' him instead of just cut him. Chang said that it was very difficult to choose the right knife to torture Rambo in, and a bayonet for a rifle was eventually chosen. When Chang dragged the blade across Stallone's chest, a stream of fake blood trickled down the blade and gave the illusion that Rambo was actually being tortured. Chang stated that this was another scene that was hard to get correct as it took almost an entire day to film it; because the blood either came out too slow or too fast, although they eventually got the effect right, and the disturbing shot is often thought of as one of the most graphic and cringe-inducing moments in the entire series.
To this day, Chang's famous movie is First Blood, although he is literally only on screen for seconds. Chang was chosen for numerous other movie roles because of his small yet memorable bit part in First Blood.