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With his cross-eyed looks, Ma is difficult to miss in the films that he appeared in during the 70's and 80's. He was in flicks like Buddhist Fist (he gets his mustache shaved off by Yuen Hsun Yi), Dreadnaught, The Young Master (fights Jackie in the temple) and Dirty Kung Fu.

Joe Ma was a member of the G4 before he entered showbiz.  While still with the police, a friend suggested that he be a model and in 1991 he filmed his first commercial.  Joe then entered TVB and his first serial with them was Kindred Spirit in 1995. TVB kept him very busy for the next few years, in 1997, alone he appeared in 7 series and in 1999, he appeared in 8.  His roles in the beginning weren't that good and he was usually bad or in minor support roles.

Joe's first film was Raped by an Angel 2 in 1998 and he was also one of the bad guys in My Heart Will Go On (1999.)  His other films include Killers from Beijing (2000 – Brother Chick,) Victim (1999) and Clean My Name, Mr. Coroner (2000 – one of the cops loyal to Ti Lung) and Marooned (2000 – the superintendent). In a short span of time from 1998 to 2000 – he has been quite busy with 18 films to his credit.

(Written up by Caroline Chai)

Though to much of the West there is only one Maggie Cheung, in Hong Kong there are in fact two of them. Though this one has had a much less successful film career thus far, she has been an extremely popular TVB actress since the mid-90's. Her first film appearance was in Tsui Hark's A Better Tomorrow III in 1990 (as Tony Leung's cousin) followed by a small part in Tsui's Spy Games (Kenny Bee's girlfriend). After this though, she left the entertainment business and moved to England to finish her studies. She returned in 1994 and soon competed in the 1994 Miss Hong Kong contest. She did not win, but did well enough to land a contract with TVB and within a few years was one of their most popular actresses.

(Information provided by Maggie)

Born on 09/20/64 in HK

Simply put, Maggie Cheung is pure cinematic energy and joy. She sparkles on screen like an exquisite diamond drawing your eyes towards her in fascination and delight. Watching Maggie can make you giddy, make you sigh, make you laugh, make you cry – make you happy just to be human and alive. The camera just loves some people – but with Maggie it is more than that. It’s a love affair - it adores her, it embraces her, it caresses her like a gentle lover late in the night, it treats her face like a holy icon. But it isn’t just her beauty, it isn’t just her talent – it is just something that emanates from her that is so natural and real – it as if she has some inner glow within her that begins to radiate when she is in front of the camera.

Under Wong’s guidance that all changed - he worked with her – demanded a performance that she didn’t 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 wasn’t just work, it was a calling. For this, Maggie has always been grateful to Wong and willing to work through his long and unpredictable shoots such as in the recent In the Mood for Love. Though she continued making some silly little comedies, she was different on the screen – more in command – more assured – more nuanced – she took on more challenging roles - she was becoming an actress in the true sense – and was on her way to becoming one of the finest dramatic actresses of the 90’s with a series of classic films.

Films quickly came her way – this was the middle of the HK Golden Age of film and Maggie hopped on this incredible express going by. In 1989 she appeared in the glorious A Fishy Story – perhaps never looking so beautiful before – as a Hong Kong Holly Golightly. In 1990 she made a dramatic appearance in the Stanley Kwan film, Full Moon in New York, in which we get to hear her speak and curse in English for the first time. 1990 also saw her in one of her best performances in Song of Exile and in two terrific supporting roles – as Brigitte Lin’s best friend in Red Dust and in another Wong Kar-wai film, Days of Being Wild.

This young actress has thus far appeared in only a few films - Spacked Out (Bean-Curd), Diamond Hill (May), Inner Senses (Leslie Cheung’s character’s first love) – but has shown some real talent.

Born 05/22/79 in Hawaii

This beautiful woman hit the HK runways in the late 90’s and her intriguing looks - derived from her half Vietnamese and part Irish, Polish and French ancestry - made her an immediate hit. Maggie Q was soon being featured in nearly every magazine in town – picked up a hot actor boyfriend, Daniel Wu (now ex-boyfriend), and made her first film in 1999 (a small role in The Legendary Tai Fei).

In high school, she was a cross-country runner and received some athletic scholarship offers from universities but instead went to Japan to try her hand at modeling. She had little luck there and moved on to Taiwan. But again she had few job offers and decided to give HK her last shot. She was almost an immediate hit there with her modeling and soon was in a TV series. She has done a few others since. Her best role to date is in the ludicrous but quite enjoyable Naked Weapon in which she stars as a trained from childhood assassin who just wants to go good - her lap dance scene is worth the price of admission.

Her first starring role is in Model from Hell, but the film isn’t exactly a world-beater, but Maggie still managed to look moderately good in it – not an easy thing if you are playing a two-headed monster! At least her performance was good enough for her to be slated to appear in Gen – Y Cops in 2001. Maggie appeared in an American financed film directed by Alfred Cheung called Manhattan Midnight and she  revealed her two points in it! This generated a fair amount of publicity in Hong Kong. You can also spot her very briefly in Rush Hour II as the girl in the car that Chris Rock tries to flirt with. She also recently made the cover of Time Magazine in Asia - quite a feat - in an article on "Why Eurasians are the new face of Asia". In 2002 she took her acting to the stage in British playwright David Pinner’s All Hallow’s Eve in which she played a 16-year old! From accounts she did quite well.

Born on 02/27/65 in HK

Maggie Siu recently received a lot more press than she ever wanted to. Her life became a three ring circus when it was discovered that Ekin Cheng was leaving her for fellow idol Gigi Leung. Maggie and Ekin had been together for seven years - pre idol Ekin - and this news did not sit well with HK audiences.

(Info provided by Caroline Chai)

Thus fellow shows up in a lot of small roles - generally as a bit of a low life (e.g., the flasher whose penis gets utilized as a bookmark by Michelle Yeoh in Yes Madam!, one of a group of thugs in Double Fattiness) and in the 90s he acted with ATV.

(Information provided by Sebastian Tse)

Born in 1909 in Shanghai

Though Chin Tsi-ang is largely known today because she is the grandmother of Sammo Hung, she has an amazing Hong Kong film background in her own right. When she was a baby, a fortuneteller told her parents that if she weren’t brought up as a boy, she would have an early death. So she was allowed to participate in many activities that were usually open only to males – one of these being martial arts that she began practicing at the age of 8 – though initially she had to disguise herself as a boy.

Born in 1957 in HK

This rotund funny looking fellow has had a number of small roles in various films over the years – often acting in a slightly perverted manner – so it was a major surprise to discover that he was Manfred Wong. Since 1990 Manfred has been one of the top producers in Hong Kong often working in conjunction with Andrew Lau. His films are often very commercial and also very popular. He also thankfully was the man who discovered and invited Hsu Chi to Hong Kong!

Manfred studied at St. Paul's Convent School and later majored in Communications at the Baptist College. He dropped out though and began writing TV scripts for RTV - and over a period of time got into the production side of things. In 1995 along with Andrew Lau and Wong Jing he formed the BOB Film Company.

You can spot him in It’s a Mad Mad Mad World II, Bless this House, Yuppie Fantasia, Ghostly Vixen, Erotic Ghost Story (the next door neighbor), She Starts the Fire, Golden Girls, Forbidden City Cop and many more.

Sebastian Tse sent in the following information:

This fellow is the chameleon Manfred Wong. There is no need for me to talk about his career after the success of the Y&D series. Interestingly, he was nearly broke before 1995 thanks to his wife, who's been a middle-ranking administrator in Commercial Radio before climbing up as the Public Relations Officer of the company now. Manfred was responsible to some extent for Wong Kar Wai's Ashes Of Time as he was willing to put up the money to produce the Ashes Of Time Photo Book. I still remember back in the summer of 1994 when I came to his small office to get my pre-ordered photo book. I had a good conversation with this man. He's very talented and back in the mid-to-late '70s, Manfred Wong was a major writer for one of the most influential rock music magazines in HK, Music Week.

Lam Chiu Wing recently wrote in an on-line magazine and told a story about Manfred Wong and Charles Heung (major film producer with well-known ties to the triads). Heung summoned Manfred Wong to write a script and ordered him to stay in the hotel to complete the job, but the small guy was not that manageable and he left the hotel several times out of extreme boredom. So one day Charles Heung stormed into his room and started to talk to Manfred. He asked Manfred if he wanted to eat anything. Manfred said he wanted an apple. So Charles started to peel off the apple skin while talking Manfred into writing the script. Manfred was very tense and couldn't write anything.  Charles then held up the apple to Manfred and left the room. Manfred looked at the apple and found that its body was cut into an irregular form. Later Manfred told Lam that this was the signal Mr. Heung had sent to him. Manfred Wong finally completed the script without leaving the room.

Mang Hoi was another important member of Sammo Hung's stunt team during the 80’s – and often worked with Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao in their films as well. Like most of that stunt group, he alternated between stunt work for other actors and appearing in front of the camera as a character. He did have a few major roles though in his career. With his cherubic face and small stature and seemingly good nature he has been very popular with HK film fans.

His sister is female kung fu actress Kitty Meng Chui - a small site on her can be found here.

Yves Gendron also informs me of the following:

A very young Mang Hoi can be glimpsed in Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon. He is the boy who is grabbing the rope that is securing the small boat where the brutish gweilo has been trapped on. Mang, also, actually won a Best Supporting Acting award for his part in Yes Madam. For a time he was the boyfriend of Cynthia Rothrock and directed part of her action vehicle Lady Reporter/Blonde Fury. He has made one movie as full time director, The Tantara back in 1991.

This actress has been performing in films since the early 80’s – appearing in films such as Carry on Police (1982), Centipede Horror (1982), Final Victory (Tsui Hark’s character’s wife), Tiger on the Beat II, Brave Young Girls (1990) and With or Without You. These days she is doing TV.

In her many films Maria often comes across as a tough broad though often with a tender heart. The parts that this Filipino woman usually has are often not much more than extended cameos but her hefty size and unusual looks make her quite unforgettable. Some of her film appearances were in The Enigma of Love (Maggie Cheung’s partner), Jail House Eros (one of the inmates), Sexy and Dangerous (one of the Mahjong players), Lost and Found (the mother of the invalid), Tiger on the Beat II, Street Angels and To Spy with Love (one of the members of the band).

Devil Woman (the psychologist), Sexy and Dangerous (one of the quartet of girls), Ebola Syndrome, Troublesome Night 4.

With his lean muscular build and chiseled jaw line, Cinema City attempted to make Mark into a leading man in the mid-80s with films like Cupid One (his debut in 1985), Abracadabra, Evil Cat, The Thirty Million (Dollar) Rush and Isle of Fantasy. He also got the main male role in what is often cited as perhaps the greatest film ever - Peking Opera Blues (financed by Cinema City) – as Brigitte Lin’s contact in the revolutionary force. Even so, none of this really made him into the star that people expected. There is a glint of hardness – almost cruelty – in his eyes and his being a hero on the screen never took with the audiences.

At one time in the 80s, he and Ann Bridgewater were an item, but he ended up marrying Yukari Oshima from 1991 to 1995. He has recently talked about wanting to retire to Malaysia (a la Charlie Yeung and Petrina Fung Bo Bo).

This beefy blonde British native appeared in a number of Hong Kong productions in the late 80’s to mid-90s. Most of these were “Girls with Guns” films and he was always cast as a bad guy. Usually his parts were fairly small – fodder for the Chinese hero to beat up or kill. Some films in which he gets his butt eventually kicked are: Aces Go Places 5, Angel Enforcers, Angels Project, Cheetah on Fire, City Cops, Killer Angels, Mission of Justice, Outlaw Brothers, Thunder Mission, Angel Terminators, Love, Guns & Glass and Oh Yes Sir!

He was actually a student of Lau Kar Leung, which is what led to his movie roles. Learning Kung Fu with the master was probably his main occupation while staying in Hong Kong and he just did movies to be helpful. He also got to teach some hung gar moves to Yukari Oshima during the filming of Outlaw Brothers.

(Info provided by Yves Gendron)

Here is some more info on Mark that was provided by a reader:

"Mark Houghton still lives and works in HK. He was the first non-Chinese to be a member of the HK stunt man association. He speaks fluent Cantonese and has a production company with Eddie Maher.  Mark is probably the toughest person I've ever trained with."

Mark Lui looks to be a surprisingly young guy considering what a reputation he has already gained as a film composer. He is credited – often along with James Wong – for some classic film music beginning in the early 90s – Moon Warriors, Fong Sai Yuk, Green Snake, Eagles Shooting Heroes, Crime Story, My Father is a Hero and Lost and Found.

Born in 1954

In the 80’s Mars became a fan favorite in Jackie Chan’s stunt team and appeared in a number of his films – either acting or doing stunt work. While growing up, he was a student at the Peking Opera School run by Madame Fan Fok-fa where he practiced from 5 in the morning till 9 at night. As a child he showed up in many films – Monkey, Blue Skies and was one of the children in the King Hu classic Come Drink with Me (as were some of the 7 Little Fortunes).