ONCE UPON A TIME IN HONG KONG: A TSUI HARK RETROSPECTIVE May 25-28, 2001 at the Anthology Film Archives
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	Kenny Bee His soft-spoken charm and easy going smile have made Kenny a fan favorite from when he first began working in films in the 1970s to the present. Before he began his film career, he was a member of a tremendously popular rock group in Hong Kong called the Wynners. Two of his band members, Alan Tam and Anthony Chan, also became well known actors. One of his most famous and likable roles was in Tsui Hark's glorious Shanghai Blues in which he portrays a lovelorn musician waiting for fate to tap him on the shoulder. Over the next decade he appeared in many other highly regarded films, Sammo Hung's Millionaire Express, My Heart is that Eternal Rose, A Fishy Story, Saviour of the Soul and Moon Warriors. In 1995 Tsui Hark once again put Kenny to wonderful use as the heartfelt down on his luck alcoholic chef in The Chinese Feast. [top]
	Jacky Cheung Hok-yau Jacky has come a long ways since his days as a Cathay Pacific staff member in the early 1980's. He has been one of Asia's top singers for over fifteen years and has earned the title as one of the "Four Sky Kings" of Canto-pop. While working away like a madman at his singing career, he has also managed to become a top-notch actor and has appeared in many classic films. Some of these are John Woo's Bullet in the Head, three films from Tsui Hark - Swordsman, Chinese Ghost Story II and Wicked City - and three films from auteur director Wong Kar Wai - Ashes of Time, Days of Being Wild and As Tears Go By. These days he has seemingly retired from the film business, but still continues his extremely successful singing career. [top]
	Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing Leslie has been the hardest working Diva in Hong Kong for the past twenty-years. During this time he has become both one of Hong Kong's finest actors as well as one of it's most popular male singers. Even his oft-hinted at homosexuality and flamboyant concerts that make Madonna's look tame have not negatively impacted his popularity as a leading romantic man in Hong Kong films. He is simply a Hong Kong institution and he knows it. Leslie came in second place at an Asian Singing Contest in the late 70's and he released his first album in 1978. Soon after, he made his film debut in 1980 (Leslie himself described his first venture into film, Erotic Dream of the Red Chamber, as "a disaster, a low-budget movie, very indecent" in an interview with the author of Hong Kong Babylon (1997), Fredric Dannen). Over the next two decades he has worked simultaneously at both careers, appearing in many great films and consistently producing well-received albums. His big film break came in 1986 when John Woo and Tsui Hark cast him as the idealistic cop in A Better Tomorrow. Though Chow Yun Fat and Ti Lung were the stars of the film, Leslie's idol looks made him a popular star as well. From this point on Leslie was to become one of the premier actors in Hong Kong. His reputation as a romantic leading man was cemented the following year in 1987 when he appeared as a shy scholar in A Chinese Ghost Story opposite Joey Wong. The two of them were a smash hit in the sequel as well. Though Leslie could easily have continued doing romantic idol roles, he has never been one to shy away from a challenging part and he has taken on difficult roles in a series of films such as Days of Being Wild, Ashes of Time, Farewell My Concubine and Double Tap. When he wasn't involved in serious dramas, Leslie showed that he was still the perfect romantic lead in such classics as He's a Woman, She's a Man and The Chinese Feast (both of which he strikes up lovely sparks with Anita Yuen) and The Bride with White Hair (in a rapturous pairing with Brigitte Lin). [top]
	Maggie Cheung Man-yuk The camera loves Maggie Cheung. It captures every facet of her stunning angular face like a fine diamond. It simply revels in her beauty like an awe struck teenager unable to turn their eyes away. Directors and audiences alike have been exhilarated and delighted with Maggie since her giddy comedies of the 1980s through her more dramatic acting performances in the 1990's. Along with her family, Maggie emigrated to the United Kingdom when she was eight years old. She settled in for the next nine years in the county of Kent where she did her best to fit in and managed to pick up her slightly cockney accented English (which can be heard in Irma Vep). In 1983, after a year working in a London bookshop, she took her captivating grin and adorable crooked tooth smile to Hong Kong where she first got work as a beautician and then as a model. She entered the Miss Hong Kong Beauty Contest where she came in second and afterwards the acting offers came tumbling in. Soon Maggie began making a series of cute comedies whose sole reason for existence was to watch Maggie pout and grin her way through the film. In 1985 she was chosen by Jackie Chan to be his girlfriend in the Police Story films. Though her role was relatively small, it gave her a great deal of exposure and her popularity skyrocketed. Maggie has admitted in interviews that in these early years she had no idea what she was doing. She went from film to film and did what the director asked her to do and never thought twice about it. She never considered acting as a serious profession and says "I was just having fun and I knew that playing the stereotypical pretty girl in a film wasn't going anywhere, you know there will be a younger, prettier girl along soon, but I planned to just take the money and go." In 1988 though, a young first time director asked Maggie to appear in his film. She initially declined because she had so many offers from better-known directors, but he persisted until she finally agreed. The film was As Tears Go By and the director was Wong Kar-wai and for Maggie it was a professional watershed. Wong demanded a performance that she didnąt realize she had within her it was a revelation to her. It changed her life and made her decide that acting was what she really wanted to do. It wasnąt just work, it was now a calling. From this point on Maggie was different on the screen, more in command, more assured, more nuanced as she took on more challenging roles and she became an actress in the truest sense. In the nineties she became Hong Kong's finest dramatic actress winning Best Actress Awards for A Fishy Story, Centre Stage, Comrades: Almost A Love Story and The Soong Sisters. Still a fan favorite, Maggie continued making terrific comedies and glorious fantasy films. Some of these more commercial films were The Heroic Trio, Flying Daggers, Boys are Easy, Moon Warriors and two films for Tsui Hark, Dragon Inn and as Joey Wong's sweet and curious sister snake in Green Snake. She has recently achieved a great amount of international acclaim with her performance in Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love. [top]
	Ching Siu-tung Born and bred on the Shaw Brothers lot, Ching Siu-tung's dad, Shaw Brothers director Cheng Kang, kept his son near him throughout his early life. An elementary school drop-out, Ching wound up studying stunt work, Peking Opera, and martial arts. He went to TV during the New Wave years, choreographing action scenes for period dramas. In 1982 he directed DUEL TO THE DEATH and went on to collaborate with Tsui Hark, a collaboration that would result in A CHINESE GHOST STORY 1 and 2, SWORDSMAN, and their masterpiece, SWORDSMAN 2. Ching is a creature of passions, his movies unfolding like nightmares and dreams, reaching its straight-from-the-id zenith with THE EAST IS RED, the sequel to SWORDSMAN 2, in which samurai warriors split open to reveal midgets, and religious ecstasy reaches bloody apocalyptic proportions. Much like Jackie Chan, his action designs stem from pure inspiration, and very little preplanning. The cliff duel in DUEL TO THE DEATH took 12 days to film, the first day of which he just walked up and down the cliff, thinking. The finale of John Woo's THE KILLER took 60 days. Today, his free floating, dream-like action has been supplanted by the lightning-fast hand-to-hand mayhem of Yuen Woo-ping and Cory Yuen. Occasionally Ching Siu-tung surfaces like a stealth submarine in enemy waters to serve up a lighter-than-air confection like 2000's CONMAN IN TOKYO, but the days when filmgoers could see his subconscious splashed across screens thirty feet tall seem to be past. [top]
	Chiu Man-cheuk (a.k.a. Zhao Wen-zhao) In many ways the career of Chiu Man Cheuk has shadowed that of Jet Li's. He trained at the same martial arts school in Beijing and later replaced Jet in Tsui Hark's Once Upon a Time in China series. Two other traits that he shares with Jet are an irrepressible boyish charm and astounding martial art skills. In his debut film in 1993, he portrayed the villain in Fong Sai Yuk and had a bone crunching, frenetic battle to the death against Jet. After Jet Li's falling out with Tsui, Chiu became the director's favorite martial artist and starred not only in the Once Upon a Time in China series, but as the righteous monk in Green Snake, a kung fu chef in The Chinese Feast and the one-armed swordsman in the mind-bending The Blade. [top]
	Cherie Chung Chor-hung During the 1980's there was perhaps no more popular actress in Hong Kong than Cherie Chung. In poll after poll of moviegoers, she was consistently voted the most popular, and it is not difficult to understand why. She was lovely and emitted equal amounts of warmth and charm along with just enough ditzy sexiness to be endearing. Her role as the slightly mercenary but nevertheless adorable sing-song girl in Peking Opera Blues perfectly captures these characteristics. She was discovered while working in a jewelry store and introduced to Johnnie To who then cast her in his directing debut, The Enigmatic Case in 1980. Over the decade she appeared in comedies, romances and dramas and found herself often paired up with Chow Yun Fat (in seven films). A few of her classic films besides Peking Opera Blues were Wild Search, An Autumn's Tale and John Woo's Once a Thief. In 1991. At the height of her career, she retired and opened a furniture store in the Central section of Hong Kong. [top]
	Sam Hui Goon-git Sam Hui is one the extraordinary talents of our time; a man that can seemingly do anything he puts his mind to. He is considered the "Father of Canto-pop", was involved in many of the ground breaking comedies of Hong Kong in the 1970s and 80s and also was an amazing athlete who could bring action heroes to the screen with a great deal of authenticity. In the 1970s, Sam was the lead singer and wrote the songs for a band called Lotus that revolutionized Chinese pop music by mixing Western and Chinese elements in a new musical soufflé that came to be termed Canto-pop. He and the band became an integral part of his brother Michael's edgy comedic TV show and when Michael left to direct films he brought his brothers (Sam and Ricky) along. In films such as Games Gamblers Play, Private Eyes and Security Unlimited, the three of them created a new kind of Hong Kong urban comedy that had real attitude. The films were hugely popular and had much to do with bringing Hong Kong cinema into the modern age and also with re-establishing Cantonese as the cinematic language. In the late 70's, Sam had a falling out with Michael and joined the new film company, Cinema City. With Karl Maka and Sylvia Chang he embarked on the Aces Go Places series that was to go on for five films into the late 1980s. With its non-stop pratfalls, gadgets and incredible stunts, the first Aces film broke every box office record existing in Hong Kong. Sam's catchy songs were as popular as the films and he had many hits with them (as he had with the earlier Hui Brother films). Sam worked with Tsui Hark on two of Cinema City's comedies Aces Go Places III and Working Class and both were popular hits. Though primarily known for his singing and comedic talent, Golden Harvest had initially attempted to make Sam a kung fu comic star in the early 70's when it paired him up with kung fu star Polly Shang Kwan for two classic films, Back Alley Princes and Chinatown Capers. Though he ended up going in a different direction, Sam later returned to his action roots in a number of films in the 1980's and early 90's with The Legend of Wisely, Dragon from Russia and Swordsman. In Swordsman Hui has the opportunity to sing one of the great songs on film, Hero of Heroes. It is one of those sublime Tsui Hark scenes when everything comes to a momentary stop and a sense of transcendent humanity overwhelms you. Close your eyes and listen to Sam Hui, Cecilia Yip, Wu Ma and Lam Ching Ying sing the words of the sacred song: The seas laugh, lashing on both shores Carried in the waves, we have only the here and now The heavens laugh at the troubled world Only they know, who is to win and lose The mountains laugh, the rain is afar When the waves grow old, the world still goes on The clear winds laugh, such a feeling of solitude Bygone camaraderie leaving behind a tinge of melancholy The earth laughs, solitude no more My sentiments laughing still Lai La Lai Lai Lai Lai La Lai Lai Lai [top]
	Lau Shun Lau Shun was a major star of the Peking Opera world until he was persuaded to move to Hong Kong and become a film actor at a fairly late stage in his life. With his ability to meld into many roles, he became a brilliant and memorable character actor though his specialty was in portraying eunuchs. Tsui Hark employed Lau in a few of his films with terrific results. Some of Tsui's films in which you can spot Lau are A Chinese Ghost Story II (the eunuch) and III, Swordsman I (again the eunuch) and II (Zen), Dragon Inn, Once Upon a Time in China III and IV, The Lovers and Love in the Time of Twilight. [top]
	Lau Siu Ming If Hark wasn't using Lau Shun for a character role, he was likely employing this versatile actor. In fact, Lau Siu Ming was in Tsui's very first film, Butterfly Murders, and worked in a number of his films from that point on. He appeared in all three of the Chinese Ghost Story films; in the first as the Tree Demon, in the second he portrays Joey Wong's father and in the final instalment he once again takes on the role of the Tree Demon. Lau also has a major role in Swordsman as the head of the Wah Mountain clan and the father of Kiddo. [top]
	Jet Li Watching Jet Li in motion is pure exhilaration, his combination of strength, speed, control and grace should rank up there as one of the wonders of the world. Jet Li has led a most remarkable and, to some degree, a charmed life. From wushu champion at an early age, to movie star while still a teenager, to the momentous films of the 90's, to Hollywood, and then to top it off his marriage to the beautiful actress Nina Li Chi. It is almost a fairy tale, but like all lives there have been plenty of bumps, hard work and bruises along the way. While still in primary school, Jet put on an exhibition one day against a school bully by leaping onto a desk and displaying some skills that were to take him a long ways. A teacher noticed this agility and had Jet transferred to the Peking Amateur Sports School for wushu training at the age of eight. Or so the legend goes. Training was exhausting, studying in the daytime and training in martial arts at night. His mother (his father had died when Jet was two) wanted him to stop, but Jet became obsessed with the martial arts and trained even harder. At the age of 11 he was chosen as a delegate of the Peking wushu team and was able to participate in the National Wushu Championship. In an incredible display of dexterity and ability, Jet won the awards for boxing, swordplay, spear play, routine boxing, Pu swordsplay and duel practice. After these honors he gave demonstrations abroad, even performing for President Nixon at the White House. Over the next four years Jet was to again win the all-around championship at the National Wushu Tournament. So when the Hong Kong Chuen Yuen Film Company was looking for a Mainland star to be in their new film about the Shaolin Temple it was only natural that Jet Li would be a prime candidate. Initially though, he was almost rejected for being too short! The film took a few years to shoot and is simply gorgeous with breathtaking shots of the Chinese Mainland and some incredible displays of martial arts prowess. The film was a large hit and it was soon followed up with two more films (Kids from Shaolin and Martial Arts of Shaolin) in what has come to be called The Shaolin Trilogy. By the time that Martial Arts of Shaolin was completed in 1986 the cinematic landscape had changed. The Shaolin Trilogy was very traditional kung fu filmmaking but by 1986 it was clear that traditional kung fu films were no longer in vogue. So Jet had to set his sights in a new direction. His choice was an odd one. He decided to direct himself in the brutal Born to Defense, bit it did not fare well at the box office. At a loss now with what to do with his career, Jackie Chan and the heroic bloodshed films dominated HK cinema at the time, Jet left for the United States. During his two-year stay in America, Jet made two films Dragon Fight (in which he met Nina Li Chi) and The Master. The Master is a bit of a mess and in fact it wasn't even released until after Jet had become a star. What is important about the film though is that it was the first collaboration between Jet Li and director Tsui Hark. As weak as The Master was perceived to be, Tsui Hark at least took from it the knowledge of what skills Jet had and what sort of an actor he was. He only needed the right project to better showcase these talents. With Once Upon a Time in China in 1990 this was accomplished. The period kung fu film was brought back with a blast and a difference. Under Hark's direction it was deliriously fast, very wire enhanced and a visual feast. Jet Li made a perfect Wong Fei-hung, a real life folk hero who had been characterized many times before. The film was very popular and brought on a resurgence of kung fu period films. Hitting his stride, Jet made a series of films in the early 90's that have classic written all over them, two more in the OUATIC series, Fong Sai Yuk and perhaps his most delirious film Swordsman 2. He had a falling out with Hark though and left the OUATIC series (only returning much later for part VI) and started working with the low-end commercial producer Wong Jing. The films that Jet Li made with Wong are entertaining but far less serious than his others were. Last Hero in China, Kung Fu Cult Master, New Legend of Shaolin and High Risk had large and frenetic action along with lots of Wong Jing crass humor. Once again though period kung fu films became played out and Jet's entrance into contemporary action (Bodyguard, My Father and High Risk) met with mixed results at the box office. Again Jet was at a career crossroads as he tried sci-fi (Black Mask), Indiana Jones (Dr Wai) and comedy (The Hitman) but none of these did particularly well either. With HK film in the doldrums and his popularity ebbing at home, it seemed an appropriate time to turn once more to America. [top]
	Brigitte Lin Ching-hsia One can safely say that there has been no actress like Brigitte Lin in the history of cinema. She is an icon, a cinematic Goddess, a hyper kinetic splash of dazzling paint thrown against the canvas. Her film career is a startling montage of flashing images burning through one's mind like a runaway train. For twenty years Brigitte Lin was the most revered actress throughout Asia from her home country of Taiwan to Chinese communities around the world. Most HK film fans from the West first glimpsed Brigitte Lin in one of her mesmerizing fantasy roles of the 1990s. That first look was like a bolt of electricity directly injected into our nerves. Who was this woman? What was this woman? Seemingly more a force of nature than a flesh and blood actress. Whether she was a man transmuting into a woman (Swordsman 2) or a woman coyly disguised as a man (Handsome Siblings) or a woman warrior deeply in love with her comrade (Dragon Inn) or an insane gender switching schizophrenic (Ashes of Time) or the filial daughter who has to betray her father for her fatherland (Peking Opera Blues), she held us transfixed with her infamous glare, her enigmatic smile, her swirling grace and her rapturous presence. She exuded power, confidence, beauty, style and charisma unlike any actress ever. Long before this though it all began with a simple walk through the streets of Taipei. She was spotted by a talent agent and asked to come for a screen test. In 1973 at the age of nineteen she made her debut film, Outside the Window, and immediately her winsome features and engaging smile made her a major presence. During the 1970's Brigitte was in fact the biggest female star in Taiwan, but her films were a far cry from the movies she was to make in Hong Kong. These films were a mix of melodramatic weepies and gentle comedies that rode on the aura of Brigitte's unrelenting beauty and soft, sweet persona. After a strange series of collaborations with cult director Chu Yin-ping (Golden Queen Commandos, Fantasy Mission Force), Brigitte was in a sense rediscovered and reinvented by director Tsui Hark. Wanting to fill his movies with strong female characters, Tsui found his perfect vehicle in the determined chiselled face of Brigitte Lin. Over the next ten years, Brigitte was to appear in many of Tsui's most glorious films Zu Warriors, Peking Opera Blues, Swordsman II, The East is Red and Dragon Inn. One has to wonder if the wuxia phenomenon of the 1990s could even have existed without the charisma of Brigitte Lin as she also left her imprint on many other wuxia films such as the divinely lush The Bride with White Hair. After completing two films for Wong Kar-wai in 1994, Ashes of Time and Chungking Express, Brigitte retired from the silver screen at the age of forty. Though Tsui Hark has often requested that Brigitte return for one of his films, she is now happily married and is soon expecting her second child. She has left behind a legacy of films and a career that would make an incredible movie in itself. [top]
	Joey Wong Tso-yin In the mid-80's Joey left her homeland of Taiwan to try her hand in the hard knock world of Hong Kong cinema and immediately her soft ethereal features and dewy eyes found a receptive audience. In a film career that lasted only nine years before she retired at the age of twenty-six, Joey Wong appeared in many of Hong Kong's greatest films. Though her film career encompassed both period and contemporary films, it is her period films that seem so magical and for which she is best remembered. She floats though these films like a haunted spirit. Joey had worked with Tsui Hark in an earlier gentle comedy, Working Class, but her big break came in 1987 when Tsui offered her the role as a sad eyed ghost who falls in love with a human in A Chinese Ghost Story. The film was a huge success and many similar films followed in its wake (including the two sequels of A Chinese Ghost Story). Joey was the ghost of choice in many of these films and became so identified with spirit roles that she was unable to obtain work as a product spokesperson due to her association with death. Some of her other films that were very quite popular are A Picture of a Nymph, The East is Red, My Heart is that Eternal Rose and Green Snake. In Green Snake Tsui Hark captured a slinky, sensual side of Joey that had rarely been witnessed before. After seeing this film you will never view snakes in quite the same way. After her retirement, she focused on her successful singing career and recently returned to make her first film (Peony Pavillion) in over seven years. [top]
	Xiong Xin-xin Born in China, the spring-loaded Xiong Xin-xin studied wu shu from the time he was twelve years old. He was selected as one of the school's best students, and wound up accompanying a friend to Beijing to get work on Lau Kar-leung's MARTIAL ARTS OF SHAOLIN. He rapidly proved his mettle and wound up being Jet Li's stunt double as he had a better grasp of wirework than the star. After the production ended he got a correspondence style film education watching pirated videos of Hong Kong movies until 1987 when he emigrated to Hong Kong, doubling for Chow Yun-fat and other stars of the day. Lau Kar-leung adopted Xiong Xin-xin as his protege and student and the bald-headed martial artist worked steadily for three years. In 1991, when Tsui Hark called Jet Li to be his Wong Fei-hung, Jet Li called Xiong Xin-xin to be his stunt double. (Xiong would perform the climactic warehouse fight for Li, who broke his leg on the first day of shooting). Tsui Hark saw Xiong Xin-xin as a comedian and an actor, casting him in THE CHINESE FEAST and THE BLADE (which Xiong considers the best movie to come out of Hong Kong due to its lack of wirework). [top]
	Sally Yeh Tse-man Sally will always have an honored position in Hong Kong film history for being in two of its most celebrated films - as Jenny in The Killer and as Pat in Peking Opera Blues. If this were not enough, Sally was also the "Queen of Canto-pop" during the 1980s with a room full of hit albums. She was born in Taiwan but moved to Canada at the age of four. When she was eighteen she returned to Taiwan in hopes of starting a singing career. Instead though, she got her opportunity in films first debuting in 1982 in the horror film Marianne. In some of her following films though she had an opportunity to sing the theme song and was soon a huge singing star. Most of her early films were low budget "B" films, though some such as Golden Queen Commandos and Pink Force Commandos (both of which starred Brigitte Lin) have taken on cult status. She began working for Cinema City and in 1984 she was one of the three main leads in Tsui Hark's Shanghai Blues playing a lovably dizzy provincial girl in the big city. It was a wonderful role for Sally and she attacked it with a comic zest that was inspired. Not long afterwards, Tsui was to use her once again as he teamed her up with Brigitte Lin and Cherie Chung in Peking Opera Blues, a film that many consider the greatest ever made. In Peking Opera Blues, Sally is the rebellious daughter who wants to break into the male preserve of Opera, but instead ends up joining a revolution to free her country. She received a HKFA Best Actress nomination for this effort. She also sang the beautiful theme song that became a hit. She continued acting until the early 90's, but retired soon after The Killer to focus on her singing career. In 1996 she married fellow actor and legendary singer George Lam. [top]
	Anita Yuen Wing-yee For a number of years during the 1990's, this former Miss Hong Kong was the "It Girl" of Hong Kong film with a series of comedies that tickled the funny bones of audiences throughout Asia. Her quirky characters, wide-eyed gamine looks and appealing grin captured the hearts of men and women alike. Her unique shorthaired coiffed style was a sensation and it had nearly every teenage girl in Hong Kong asking her local beauty parlor for the "Anita" look. She was awarded the Best Newcomer Award for her debut film (Days of Being Dumb) in 1992. She followed this with Best Actress Awards for C'est La Vie Mon Cherie in 1993 and He's a Man, She's a Woman in 1994. Anita had two male co-stars that she often created film magic with. She was teamed up with Lau Ching-wan in a number of romances and with Leslie Cheung in four films. Three of these are comedic classics - He's a Woman, She's a Man, Who's the Woman, Who's the Man and The Chinese Feast. Anita and Leslie are like a Hong Kong equivalent of Carole Lombard and Cary Grant with oodles of unmistakable latent sexual sizzle between all the laughs. [top]
	Fennie Yuen Kit-ying Fennie was a popular teenage star in the Cinema City production house during the 1980's, but within a few years she began to receive more mature roles. The film that stands as her adult coming out party was Ringo Lam's stark and brutal School on Fire in which Fennie plays a schoolgirl who is put through horrific traumas. It was a gut wrenching performance in which she shed all of the cutie pie mannerisms of her earlier comedies. Her role as the snake-throwing, bee summoning Blue Phoenix in both Swordsman and Swordsman II has made her a favorite of wuxia fans for years. Another high profile role was in the martial art film, Tai Chi Master, in which she, Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh fight heroically against a tyrannical eunuch. [top]

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