PRODUCTION NOTES

KNOCK OFF, an out-of-control action thriller staring Jean-Claude Van Damme, marked a number of notable professional reunions. The first between Van Damme and Steven E. de Souza, the screenwriter who made his directorial debut on Street Fighter. The second was between Van Damme and Tsui Hark, the renowned Hong Kong filmmaker who made his American directorial debut on Double Team. And the third between Tsui and producer Nansun Shi, the husband and wife team who had made Shanghai Blues(1985), an award-winning picture that had been screened in over twenty international film festivals. All of these creative talents would come together in Hong Kong-Tsui and Nansun's homeland-to create a wild tale that combined terrorism, the Russian mob and bootlegged designer jeans.

Tsui, widley regarded as the pioneer of the Hong Kong action film, had begun his career in 1977 directing "Gold Dagger Romance" for television. The series caught the attention of film producers who hired Tsui to direct his first team project, The Butterfly Murders(1979). By the time he made Double Team(1997), Tsui had directed such classics as Peking Opera Blues(1986), Swordsman(1990) and Once Upon a Time in China(1991), and served as the inspiration for his two proteges, John Woo and Ringo Lam. After having made Double Team in France and Rome, however, Tsui longed to return to his native Hong Kong, where he could make a film in the raw style he was accustomed to. That film was, of course, KNOCK OFF, written by de Souza(Die Hard) and produced by Tsui's wife, Nansun, a media executive who resigned her position at the CIM Group of Companies to concentrate on her own company, Film Workshop Co. Ltd.

KNOCK OFF would mark Van Damme's second collaboration in a row with Tsui, continuing the star's innovative decision to work with the cream of Hong Kong action specialists, Woo, Hard Target(1993) and Lam, Maximum Risk(1996). Once Van Damme was aboard, the filmakers proceeded to sign an international cast of talented actors to support him on-screen: Rob Schneider (Deuce Bigalow, Male Jigalo), Paul Sorvino( William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet), Lela Rochon(Waiting to Exhale), and Michael Wong(TV's "Once Upon a Thief"). They, in turn, would be supported by a first-class team of behind-the-camera craftsmen recruited from around the world.

NANSUN: "We have crew members from Australia, Thailand, American and Asia, each experts in their field. The world is getting smaller all the time, and KNOCK OFF is a tremendous example of how a highly skilled crew can deliver to audiences the trademark frenetic energetic style of Hong Kong film they treasure and enjoy."

VAN DAMME: "When you are making a film in Hong Kong, people are more focused on getting the job done and all trivial politics that exist on a Hollywood set are throw out the window. There is no complaining on the set, and the crew is efficient and hard working with non-stop endurance."

KNOCK OFF, whose storyline was set against the hand-over of Hong Kong to China, was shot during the actual return itself, a highly unusual example of fact meeting fiction.

NANSUN: "It was incredibnly exciting to be in Hong Kong during this amazingly historical time with the change- over happening right in the middle of our shooting schedule. We were thrilled and honered to be the only Western film allowed to shoot in Hong Kong while the territory was in such transition."

KNOCK OFF opened on September 4, 1998, an inventive, action-packed look into a world of eccentricities, conspiracy and danger. Or as Jean-Claude Van Damme said upon completing the film, "The combination of KNOCK OFF and Hong Kong is like Blade Runner on Earth."

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