Jackie Chan in 1985’s Police Story, which features some of the martial arts superstar’s all-time classic stunts. Photo1985. Hong Kong. Directed by Jackie Chan. Brigitte Lin, Chor Yuen and Maggie Cheung co-star. Photo: Golden Harvest
From Jet Li in The One to Jackie Chan in Police Story, eight favourite martial arts stories
From Cheng Pei-pei and Gordon Liu to Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh and Jet Li, a galaxy of stars have appeared in Hong Kong martial arts movies
Wong Kar-wai brought an elegiac feel to The Grandmaster, pitting Tony Leung Chiu-wai against Zhang Ziyi. Then there was surprise package Cynthia Rothrock
It’s the second birthday of the Post’s weekly Hong Kong martial arts film feature. To mark the occasion, we look back at some of the movies and stars we’ve enjoyed writing about over the past year.
Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster (2013)
An elegant and elegiac take on the kung fu genre, Wong Kar-wai’s delicate masterpiece combines martial arts history and romance to form a beguiling whole.
The Grandmaster uses Ip Man (played by Tony Leung Chiu-wai) to demonstrate the rivalry between the northern and southern schools of martial arts, and to depict the arrival of mainland Chinese martial arts masters in Hong Kong following the Japanese invasion of China.
Wong is relatively true to the different martial arts styles he shows, and the performances of Tony Leung, and Zhang Ziyi as his rival and heart’s desire, are precise and accurate, an achievement considering that Zhang has no formal martial arts training and Leung had only taken lessons in wing chun kung fu for a year. Read the full story
Sammo Hung in Martial Law (1998)
Sammo Hung Kam-bo didn’t play much of a part in the local martial arts revival of the early 1990s, but he did become a star in the US later in the decade due to the success of the CBS TV series Martial Law (1998), which ran for 44 episodes.
Co-produced by Hong Kong’s Stanley Tong, the show was a big hit with American audiences due to the quality of the martial arts scenes, which resembled the fights in Hong Kong films.
The secret of Martial Law’s success was simple – the combat scenes were choreographed independently by two Hong Kong teams, and were cut together by a Hong Kong editor skilled in martial arts montage. “I enjoyed making the show,” Hung said, “they had a big budget and I was comfortable.” Read the full story
Hong Kong martial arts star Sammo Hung in a still from Martial Law.
Cheng Pei-pei in Come Drink with Me (1966)
In the late 1960s Cheng Pei-pei was known as the “Queen of Swords” in Hong Kong, and was probably the city’s most famous female superstar. Even today, her combat scenes in films like the King Hu classic Come Drink With Me are unique, showing a fluidity that comes from her training in dance.
Cheng had no plans to become a martial artist when she joined Shaw Brothers, thinking that she would be used for dramatic roles, but Run Run Shaw noticed her potential, and she trained in “knives, swords and poles, and how to ride on horseback” at the Shaws’ acting school.
Cheng Pei-pei in a still from Come Drink with Me (1966).
Come Drink With Me made her a star, and Chang Cheh asked her to co-star with Wang Yu in Golden Swallow (1968). But she did not like working for Chang, saying that he did not value actresses as much as his male actors. Read the full story
Michelle Yeoh in Magnificent Warriors (1987)
Michelle Yeoh is today regarded as a martial arts legend the world over, but for Hongkongers she has been legendary ever since she started fighting on the screen.
Michelle Yeoh in a scene from Magnificent Warriors (1987).
In 1985’s Yes, Madam!, which also featured Cynthia Rothrock, she proved to local film bosses that audiences would accept a female fistfighter. “I was determined to show that girls could step up to the plate,” she said. “I wanted to look like the girl next door who could defend herself.”
Yeoh consolidated her fearless image in Royal Warriors (1986), and is fantastic at both martial arts and stunt work in Magnificent Warriors (1987), even though she had to wear a neck brace throughout due to a back injury. Read the full story
Jet Li in a still from The One (2001).
Jet Li in The One (2001)
Jet Li’s career in Hollywood got off to a mediocre start – his role in Lethal Weapon 4 propagated the stereotype of the villainous Chinaman, and the gangster movie Romeo Must Die did not showcase his talents. Li finally got it right with the science-fiction The One (2001), in which he played both a good and evil version of his character.
Fans had complained that there was too much wirework in Romeo Must Die, so Li and long-time friend and choreographer Corey Yuen Kwai kept the wires to a minimum in The One, and focused on depicting Li’s fighting styles of baguazhang (for the hero), and xingyiquan (for the villain). His fans approved. Read the full story
Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock in a still from Yes, Madam! (1985).
Cynthia Rothrock in Yes, Madam! (1985)
One of Hong Kong’s top kung fu stars of the 1980s was a Caucasian woman from the US – Cynthia Rothrock, who made her debut in 1985’s Yes, Madam! Rothrock was a martial arts champion who was talent-spotted by director and choreographer Corey Yuen during a visit to America.
Rothrock, who had never made a movie, turned up in Hong Kong with no knowledge of Chinese culture or the city’s films, and learned how to perform on screen under the tutelage of Yuen and Sammo Hung.
The Hongkongers pulled no punches in their new female star’s combat scenes, but Rothrock survived all the bruises to become a powerful presence on the city’s screens for the rest of the decade. Read the full story
Jackie Chan and Chor Yuen in a still from Police Story (1985).
Jackie Chan in Police Story (1985)
Police Story saw Jackie Chan increase the dramatic quotient of his movies. But although Chan wanted to take himself more seriously, that didn’t affect the stunts, which remain some of his all-time classics.
Police Story features the total destruction of a village by a fleet of cars, the classic stunt in which Chan scales the side of a moving bus with the aid of an umbrella – “It was actually made of metal,” Chan confided in this writer – and a dangerous jump down a pole swathed in electric lights in a shopping mall.
“I really thought I was going to die. Looking back, I don’t know how I did it,” Chan said of the jump. Read the full story
Gordon Liu (right) in a scene from Dirty Ho (1979).
Gordon Liu in Dirty Ho (1979)
Gordon Liu Chia-hui, regarded as one of the pleasantest men in the martial arts film world, became a star through a combination of natural talent and hard work – he would even arrive at film sets early to practise his kung fu.
Best-known as the novice student monk in his master Lau Kar-leung’s classic The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978), Liu also excelled as the idiosyncratic hero of Lau’s eccentric Dirty Ho (1979). In that film, Liu is called upon to take an ironic approach to kung fu while at the same time performing it to the highest standards – a difficult task which he approached with gusto.
Sadly, Liu is still recovering from the effects of a stroke he suffered in 2011. Read the full story
In this regular feature series on the best of Hong Kong martial arts cinema, we examine the legacy of classic films, re-evaluate the careers of its greatest stars, and revisit some of the lesser-known aspects of the beloved genre.Readour comprehensive explainer here.
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