Yueh Hua a.k.a. Ngok Wah (Cantonese), Yue
Hua, Yo Hua, and Mr Nice Guy.
Along with Wang Yu and Lo Lieh, Yueh Hua was
one of modern martial art cinema’s very first male lead stars and he went
on to perform in over eighty martial art films including several classics
of the genre. Yet, despite an especially long and rich career he never
really caught on with the Western-viewing crowd and remains today one of
the most under-appreciated old-school players of all. Part of the
reason for this lies in the plain and simple fact that precious few movies
showcasing him were exported to the international movie market in the way
those of some other martial art stars were. Further more, Yueh’s established
screen persona was of the dashing and gallant Chinese knight, a far less
eye-catching type for Westerners than the flamboyant manly and raw icons
of the likes of Ti Lung, Fu Sheng and the Venoms. But while he went largely
unnoticed overseas, in H-K itself, Yueh was a highly successful and esteemed
actor who shone in all sorts of roles in both the movies as well as on
TV.
Yueh Hua was born Liang Le-hua in 1942, in Shanghai
from parents originating from the Guangdong province near Hong Kong. In
his youth he attended the Shanghai Music Institute and then at twenty he
immigrated to Hong Kong, a part of the wave of Shanghai-born migrants which
also included among others Cheng Pei Pei, Wang Yu, Danny Lee as well as
a toddler named Wong Kar-wai. For a while young Liang worked as a construction
worker and he also had a stint at the Nan Guo Experimental Film Institute.
Then in 1963 he answered an advertised recruitment call made by the Shaw
Brothers and among a crowd of hundreds of candidates was one of a handful
to be selected. He was then groomed for the limelight by attending Shaw’s
classes in acting, dance, singing as well as screen martial arts. He was
signed as a contract player in 1965 and received the screen name Yueh Hua.
Yueh Hua’s first part was as the flamboyant offbeat
role of the Monkey King in the Shaw’s adaptation of the Journey to the
West classic novel; THE MONKEY GOES WEST (January 1966). Yueh reprised
the role in the follow-up released nine months later PRINCESS IRON FAN
(September 1966), which co-starred a fresh new female talent named Cheng
Pei Pei. An earlier film featuring the two had been released already though
called COME DRINK WITH ME (July 1966) starring Pei Pei as a lady knight
and in which Yueh plays a drunken beggar who is actually a martial art
master. As Yueh was a mere 23 years of age, director King Hu (who had actually
written the part with himself in mind to play it) thought him a bit too
young and green for the role and so had him dubbed by another actor. Also,
to help him get into character King Hu had Yueh drink two bottles of wine
before each scene. Poor Yueh had never before drunk in his life. So in
his first two lead parts, Yueh was called to play oddball buffoons.
In COME DRINK WITH ME though, this was just a facade for his character
that behind the humour resided a melancholic sensibility and above all
a great heroic resolve. These were the traits that are revealed in the
movie’s last third as he becomes the film’s true pivotal hero as actually
implied all along by the film’s Chinese title “BIG DRUNK HERO”.
In the H-K Mandarin cinema of the sixties (of
which Yueh Hua was a part of) female stars usually held center stage with
their male co-lead acting as their subordinate foil. Further more, the
romantic male ideal, as incarnated by top stars such as Peter Chan Ho and
Kwan Shan, was one of being a charmingly effete and sensible gentleman
but with a passive and ineffectual character. With the emergence in the
mid-sixties of a new brand of martial art cinema though, a stronger type
of male lead was needed to carry these roles. That is what Wang Yu, Lo
Lieh and Yueh Hua had been groomed for. Actually, Yueh did display a similar
smooth sensible gentleman outlook such as found in actors Chan and Kwan
but while he could show himself conflicted or troubled at times, deep inside
he had an assertive streak and valiant disposition that set him apart as
much from the romantic weaklings of old as the newly emerging raw and manly
heroes favoured by Shaw top martial art filmmaker Chang Cheh.
It’s worth noting that of all the Shaw studio
sixties top male martial art stars, Yueh Hua was the only one not to have
been discovered and moulded by Chang in his movies. Seething figures of
raw machismo, nihilistic brooding and exclusive male-bonding Chang’s fighting
boys may have made Yueh look like a much more conventional matinee idol
in comparison, especially considering that his key on-screen relationships
were usually with women. Yet Yueh had some unique qualities of his own.
Moon faced with a thin layer of baby fat on him, he could easily play on
his unusual looks to suggest a series of conflicting yet complementary
traits; youth and maturity, wisdom and foolishness even feminine and masculine
among others - evocative qualities which in turn created an appealingly
quirky screen persona. Furthermore, Yueh’s flexible acting talent also
allowed him to play his knight heroes in a variety of fashions - from odd-ball
types like his COME DRINK WITH ME drunken tramp, to charming rogue, to
more refined and severe scholarly type heroes. On occasion he could also
easily transpose his screen-persona into more modern times as a chivalrous
young man. Overall, while he never became a great martial art cinema icon
in the way most of Chang Cheh’s boys did, but at the same time unlike many
of them he never became so entrenched in his screen image that he was able
to take on many different roles and thus had an especially solid lasting
career.
As a martial art star, Yueh was naturally called
on to fight for the screen. While he had no real background in the fighting
arts his training in dance and screen fighting as well as the use of film
trickery made him look like the fighting master he played. Most of his
fight-scenes though did not have the raw, operatic qualities such as found
in a Chang Cheh movie.
In the early years of his career Yueh found
himself on occasion cast in a bit or supporting part (HONG KONG NOCTURNE,
THE SWORD AND THE LUTE (both 1967) and played in a handful of dramas THE
TRAPEZE GIRL (67), MIST OVER DREAM (68). But it was in martial art movies
that he found much of his fame in his pairings with some of the Shaw Brothers
great female stars of the period such as Ching Ping, Feng Ying, Chiao Chiao,
Lily Ho, Li Cheng and particularly Cheng Pei Pei. The pairing of Yueh and
Cheng Pei Pie shared the screen five more times in DRAGON SWAMPS (68),
RAW COURAGE (69) LADY OF STEEL (70), BROTHER FIVE and THE SHADOW WHIP (both
71).
As time went on trends changed and actors came
and went. Thus the era of the female star domination came to end at the
beginning of the seventies and many of the Shaw leading ladies went into
early retirement. Cheng Pei Pei, Chen Ping and Feng Ying left in 1971 and
Lily Ho later on in 1974. They were replaced by a new set of starlets who
now that the star system was in full male ascendancy never reached the
heights of their predecessors. Also, the swordplay genre came to be supplanted
by the rawer k-f movie and then martial art cinema as a whole starting
in 1973 entered into a lean and difficult transitional period. All these
changes did not undermine Yueh’s career although it certainly affected
it.
For one thing, unlike most of his martial art
contemporaries, he did not jump head-on into the bare-chested fighting
frenzy of the new k-f mania. Yueh’s strength was in his acting as well
as his dashing yet reserved chivalrous persona and not his physical prowess
and the more physically demanding brand of k-f choreography wasn’t for
him. That doesn’t mean he didn’t make any k-f movies at all, just that
he did much less than some and continued to stay more on the swordplay
side of the martial-art genre.
The most important set of changes brought by the
new era toYueh’s career was that while he continued to take regular turns
into pure martial art movies he was also cast in a variety of genre alternatives
such as modern action with THE PURSUIT (73) (which he is reported to have
co-directed himself - his one entry into filmmaking proper) and a crime
thriller with PAYMENT IN BLOOD (same). He also made a distinct return to
dramas for a couple of movies. Finally, it saw him make an important first
time encounter with some of Shaw’s top directorial talents such as Chor
Yuen, Li Han-hsiang and at long last Chang Cheh himself. For Chor
he appeared in four movies in less than two years including the stunningly
lurid female centred martial-art film INTIMATE CONFESSION OF A CHINESE
COURTESAN (72) as well as the breakthrough Cantonese dialect vaudeville
box office 1973 champ, THE HOUSE OF THE 72 TENANTS (73). For Li Han-hsiang
he played in a pair of brand new types of comedies that daringly mixed
explicit sexual themes and con games; FACET OF LOVE as well as ILLICIT
DESIRE (both 73). For Chang Cheh he was cast in the all-star cast
of WATER MARGIN (72) and then the following year played a martyred scholar
in the Chen Kuan Tai vehicle THE IRON BODY GUARD. This was as far as his
work with Chang Cheh ever went. On the other hand, Yueh would regularly
turn-up in Chor Yuen and Li Han Hsiang films again and again to the considerable
enrichment of his role repertoire. Although he was still the co-lead
star of many movies, Yueh was getting more and more supporting character
parts. That’s how the slow transition process in his career began which
would still take some years to reach its course.
Despite the rapid evolution of H-K cinema in general
and the martial art genre in particular, something that didn’t change much
was that Yueh Hua’s key screen relationship was usually with his fellow
female co-lead (except in the pair of Chang Cheh movies of course). Cheng
Pei Pei and her fellow Shaw princesses having retired one after another,
Yueh Hua was paired with new fresh faces such as fighting lady Shih Szu,
beautiful Karen Yip and sex-pot vixen Chan Ping. One of these newcomers
was to play an important role in his life; the Taiwanese born Tanny Tien
Ni, who specialised in playing cunning unscrupulous beauties. They would
marry in 1975.
In the mid-seventies Yueh was cast in two of
the Shaw’s international efforts - VIRGINS OF THE SEVEN SEAS (74) and SUPERMAN
AGAINST THE AMAZON (75). In 1975 Yueh was also lent for the first time
to a Taiwanese company for which he did MUTINY IN THE HIGH SEA. This started
a new turn in Yueh’s career during which he would periodically travel to
Taiwan to make martial art quickies. Over a seven-year span Yueh made around
two- dozen of them. They tended to be rather cheap and of uneven quality;
some rather lame and inconsequential, others more fun and entertaining.
At first his parts were of his usual knight role, but as the decade winded
down his roles began to evolve towards more of the supporting character
part variety. He was never a movie solo star and was paired with other
of the genre’s luminaries such as Taiwanese talents: Chia Ling and Polly
Shang Kuan Ling-feng or other H-K imported stars like Lo Lieh, or David
Chiang. Some of these titles are: FIERCE FIST (76), INVINCIBLE SWORDSWOMAN
(77), KUNG-FU GIRLS, UNIQUE LAMA (both 78), MONKEY FIST FLOATING SNAKE,
GREEN DRAGON INN, DREAM SNAKE, IDIOT SWORDSMAN, NINJA WOLVES (all 79),
BRUCE TUAN SEVEN PROMISE, DEADLY SECRET, THE FILTHY GUY, LUNG WEI VILLAGE,
MASTER AND THE KID, NINJA SUPREMO, ART OF WAR, EAGLE CLAW AND BUTTERFLY
PALM (all 80).
During the same period, Yueh Hua became a recurrent
player for Shaw’s director Chor Yuen’s string of lush, atmospheric literary-based
(mostly wuxia novelist Gu Long ) martial art screen adaptations. In all
he was cast in fifteen movies of the series (out of at least two dozen
made) more than any other of Shaw’s leading martial art players. Typically,
he was never the film’s lead hero. Instead the character he played allowed
him to bring offbeat, variations on his knight screen-role persona including
for the first time the villainous variety. These were KILLER CLANS, WEB
OF DEATH (both 76), CLANS OF INTRIGUE, JADE TIGER, DEATH DUEL, THE SENTIMENTAL
SWORDSMAN (all 77), CLAN OF AMAZON, LEGEND OF BAT, HEROES SHED
NO TEAR, SOUL OF THE SWORD (all 78), FULL MOON SCIMATAR (79), RETURN OF
THE SENTIMENTAL SWORDSMAN, DUEL OF THE CENTURY, BLACK LIZARD (all 81),
THE ENCHANTRESS (83).
In between his Taiwanese or Chor Yuen assignments,
Yueh Hua was still being cast as lead in the various genres of crime, action,
drama as well as given small parts in Shaw’s many stellar cast productions
such as the film opera LOVER’S DESTINY (75), the period drama LAST TEMPEST
(76) or the period farce VOYAGE OF EMPEROR CHIEN LUNG (78). He had a small
role in Shaw’s horror film BLACK MAGIC (75), a genre Yueh would return
to from time to time in lead or supporting roles: VENGEFUL BEAUTY (77),
GHOST STORY (79), RETURN OF THE DEATH (83), and SIAMESE TWIN (84).
In the late seventies Yueh Hua started working
in a brand new medium; television - in which he would prove very successful
by starring in tremendously popular TV serials primarily made by TVB, the
Hong-Kong TV station owned by the Shaw Brothers. He played a villain again
for the martial art serial LUK SIU FUNG PART II, a pious but cowardly son
in the trilogy FATHERLAND (80) and was the lead in GONE WITH THE WIND which
narrated the changing fortunes of an immigrant from China, a role quite
far-removed from his usual martial art roles. In the first several years
of his new venture his output was not effected, as he remained as prolific
an actor as ever with an average of around six to ten film productions
a year. By that time however, his movie screen status had nearly completely
shifted from lead star to the less time consuming supporting character
category. Also, his film roles were now mostly confined to the martial
or action variety with a couple of horror/fantasy films once in a while.
Yueh Hua’s entry and early success in the TV medium
coincided with Shaw’s rapid and steady decline as a filmmaking force. It
was no longer the most glamorous and sophisticated studio in all of South-East
Asia as it had been when Yueh started his career. It was becoming a costly
film factory unable to cope with the changing times and the fresher more
vibrant stars, trends and movies were being delivered by others studios.
It still produced polished and at times even bold productions, but they
were costly and met with little popular success. It was under these conditions
that Yueh strayed more and more from Shaw. In the early days of his career
he had little choice as by contract he was an exclusive Shaw property and
forbidden to work for any other studio unless he had been lent. At some
point however this contract was renegotiated and Yueh worked now as a freelancer
and could play supporting parts in such films as THE IMP (81) and COOLIE
KILLER (83).
.
As the Eighties unfolded Yueh Hua concentrated
more and more on his TV career. The big break occurred after 1983 when
his film output dropped suddenly and from then on he would only occasionally
return to the movies, in between his TV related activities. IN THE LINE
OF DUTY III, (88), PRINCESS MADAM (89) and the Chang Cheh retirement benefit
movie JUST HEROES (same). The Hong-Kong Movie Database credits him with
co-writing a script with director Li Han-Hsiang of old ILLICIT DESIRES
fame; THE SNUFF BOTTLE. As Yueh Hua has no history of screen-writing
though, this might be a mistake on the site.
Yueh finally retired from acting in the early
nineties and migrated with his wife Tanny and daughter to Vancouver, Canada
(the couple have since divorced). Since then he has only made a couple
of movie appearance, including a brief 2mn long guest star cameo for the
Jackie Chan shot in British Columbia production: RUMBLE IN THE BRONX (94).
He has been involved in some entertainment activities on occasions and
he has also become the chairman of the association of performing artists
of Canada.
In over thirty years, Yueh Hua made more than
one hundred films (105 reported on the HKMDB and it’s an incomplete list).
Of these, the more reputable titles are COME DRINK WITH ME, THE TWELVE
GOLDEN MEDALLION, PURSUITS, CASINO, INTIMATE CONFESSION OF A CHINESE COURTESAN,
ILLICIT DESIRE and of course all of Chor Yuen’s literary martial films.
The Taiwanese quickies: FIERCE FIST (76) as well as UNIQUE LAMA (80) has
also been reported as worthwhile while THE GREAT PLOT (82) is said to be
Yueh’s last good period film.
Yueh Hua also worked on sequel to COME DRINK
WITH ME, showcasing his character of the drunken beggar. Either left incomplete
or lost, no trace of it remains today except for some pictures.
Nothing is known by this writer of Yueh Hua’s
post early eighties TV career, but it must have been just as prolific and
successful as his movie work in the seventies.
Others movies by Yueh Hua: BLACK BUTTERFLY (1968)
KILLER DARTS (1968), VENGEANCE OF A SNOWGIRL (1971) LONG CHASE, THE (1971)
INVINCIBLE SWORD (1971) TRILOGY OF SWORDSMANSHIP (1972) FOURTEEN AMAZONS,
THE (1972) VILLAINS, THE (1973) FACETS OF LOVE (1973) 5 KUNG FU DAREDEVIL
HEROES (1973) VILLAGE OF TIGERS (1974) SEX, LOVE AND HATE (1974)
MY BEWITCHED WIFE (1975) DRUG CONNECTION, THE (1976), BEAUTIFUL VIXEN (1976)
LOVE SWINDLERS (1976) MOODS OF LOVE (1977) LADY EXTERMINATOR (1977) MURDER
OF MURDERS (1978) RED PHOENIX (1981) MARTIAL ART OF WAR BY SUN TZU (1981)
EAGLE'S CLAW AND BUTTERFLY PALM (1981) CHIVALRY, THE GUNMAN AND KILLER,
THE (1981) MAHJONG HEROES (1982) MY BLADE, MY LIFE (1982) SPIRIT
OF THE SWORD, THE (1982) SUPER DRAGON (1982) ON THE WRONG TRACK (1983)
FAITHFULLY YOURS (1995)
(Written by Yves Gendron)
Yuen King-tan/Kingdom Yuen.
Since the early nineties the bossy and colourfully
tacky brothel madam, the mousy shrieking friend or the loony harridan have
been the calling card role of wacky lady clown Yuen King-tan. While her
film appearances have usually tended to be brief, the often outlandish
nature of the roles she plays, of the performance she delivers and of the
outfits she wears have made her one of H-K’s comic cinema’s most noticeable
stock comediennes - not to mention one of it’s most shameless and proficient
scene stealers. Because of the often-lowbrow nature of the humour she represents
or that her comic scenes often come in the middle of horror or action films,
her presence is often not that well appreciated by some western viewers.
That she has made many movies where her scene appears to have been especially
tailor-made for her are undeniable proof of both her talents and her popularity
among the H-K viewing public.
Primarily a TV comedienne, she never became a
comic movie queen like Carol Cheng and Sandra Ng but as a semi-regular
player for both Stephen Chow and Wong Jing movies, she has contributed
to some of H-K cinema’s greatest classic comic moments of the decade.
Yuen King-tan was born in H-K around 1962 or
1963, and after graduating from high school she entered RTV station acting
class and became a TV performer. Television was, and still is, a very demanding
medium for actors especially for beginners with long hours and usually
low pay but it is a very good training ground with its hectic pace of production,
the showy brand of acting it requires and the need to play many kind of
roles to keep one’s career rolling. Yuen King-tan’s body of TV work is
almost complete terra incognito for most Western viewers but it is
quite extensive. Naturally her own mousy look, comic flair, and smart-alec
mouth must have classified her as a character actress early on.
It’s not known by this writer though when she
started to get more substantial parts or when she began to really make
a name for herself and in which series. Its been reported however that
her early career didn’t contain that many comedic works, which may surprise
those who only know her for all her wacky movie parts. She has most definitively
proven herself adept at drama though and one of her most defining TV roles
ever is said to be her part as a slightly retarded woman in the series
Kindred Spirits in which she brings a surprising amount of sensibility
and humor to her character which she completely inhabited.
Yuen King Tan first recorded film appearance
was KILLER ANGELS playing lead heroine Moon Lee’s fellow angel. Bespectacled
and mousy looking she looks at first an unlikely crime buster, that is
up until she handles a crossbow, a couple of grenades and a machinegun.
She was also given a couple of stunts to do as well as a fight scene which
came early in the film when in the best fighting female tradition she beat
the hell out of a witness under her protection who was crudely hitting
on her. Her third role was as a ghost in HERE COMES THE VAMPIRES by Yuen
Clan brother Yuen Cheung-yan, a reportedly schlocky unremarkable supernatural
comedy but where she still managed to make her character quite memorable.
Once having started in film, Yuen quickly became
highly prolific although usually in bit parts in comedies or in comedic
interludes within an action or romantic movie. Her movie workload
kept growing year after year. 10 movies in 1992, 15 in 1993, 15 more in
1994. Early on she became a semi-regular in H-K comedy king Steven Chow’s
movies being one of the rare follow comic performers able to stand up to
his dead pan prater schtik. Her first appearance was in FIGHT BACK TO SCHOOL
(91) as one of the teachers who makes life so miserable for poor undercover
Stephen, and she came back poisoning his life in JUSTICE MY FOOT (92),
KING OF BEGGAR (same), MAD MONK (93) GOD OF COOKERY (96) and FORBIDDEN
CITY COP (same). Her two most memorable roles however would be in FLIRTING
SCHOLAR (93) where she was especially hilarious as an ugly nymphomaniac
handmaid and HAIL THE JUDGE (93) where as a bombastic sharp tongue brothel
madam she passed her explosive vocal skills on to a beleaguered Stephen
Chow.
Yuen also became a regular in inspired schlock
maker Wong Jing’s movies appearing even in some of it’s most (in)famous
productions like RAPED BY AN ANGEL, FUTURE COPS as well as his string of
CAT III lurid period farces: CHINESE TORTURE CHAMBER STORY (94), ANCIENT
CHINESE WHOREHOUSE, SEX AND THE EMPEROR (all 94) and LOVER OF THE LAST
EMPRESS (95). One of her most memorable sightings in a Wong Jing movie
was as the bowling lady in BOYS ARE EASY (93) where she engaged in a delightful
singing duet with Tony Leung Kar Fai before he throws her head first into
bowling pins. Than there was LAST HERO IN CHINA (93) where as a brothel
madam again she sings a very naughty rendition of the famed Wong Fei-hung
On the General’s Order tune. Yuen was paired with the king stud of the
Cat-III genre Elvis Tsui Kam Kong in THE FRUIT IS SWELLING (97), where
they played a horny married couple. Despite her regular appearances she
was never expected to get into the sexual action herself as she was brought
into those kind of films not for her body but for her wacky stock persona
and sharp tongue.
Beginning with THOU SHALT NOT SWEAR (93),Yuen
King Tan also became a regular for H-K oddball mixture of Horror/comedy
series of films and has appeared later on in such films as ETERNAL EVIL
OF ASIA (95), THE DAY THAT DOESN’T EXIST (same), JULY 13, SATAN RETURNS
(both 96) MIDNIGHT ZONE, 24 HOURS GHOST STORY, TROUBLESOME NIGHT,
HAUNTED KAROKE, GHOST STORIES; GODMOTHER OF MONGOK (all 97) , HOROSCOPE
1 (99) VAMPIRE CONTROLER (01), and HAUNTED OFFICE (02). Typically her appearances
in those brand of films usually didn’t go much beyond the special cameo.
Yuen found one of her rare substantial roles in
WING CHUN (94) playing the heroine's foul-mouthed soya stinking auntie.
Playing a greedy spinster who discovers the joy of sex and then marriage,
Yuen provided excellent comic relief. In the film she stole her every scene
and evidenced what a great shame it was that she did not get more of these
types of supporting roles or even starring ones, instead of her more usual
cameo bits.
All this while Yuen still continued to do TV work
while making movies, and thus around 1994 or 1995 she was cast in a supernatural
series inspired by the classic MR VAMPIRE (85) and starring everyone’s
favorite ghost-busting Taoist Lam Ching-ying himself. The two started a
romance shortly afterward, but tragically it wasn’t to last as Lam was
soon diagnosed as having liver cancer. A very private and proud man Lam
didn’t want his dying to burden Yuen and he tried to send her away but
she stood by him until the end in November 1997.
Since that time, Yuen King-tan has kept herself
busy in both film and TV. Her movie career hit its peak in 1995, but still
was going strong for a couple more years. Afterwards she sharply reduced
her movie output for a couple of years in keeping with H-K cinema’s lumbering
decline but made a bit of a comeback in recent time. Besides movies she
has been involved in various sorts of TV activities such as host for games
or talk shows. She has also done a talk show on radio as well as done some
theater. In 1999 she even wrote a cook book; “King Yuen Delicacies”. Without
a doubt though her most eccentric non-movie venture has been to promote
for the beauty product market, a bust enhancement cream - a product that
sounds absolutely inane to most westerner but would seem to be taken quite
seriously by a good deal of Asian consumers.
Other films with Yuen King-tan; BB 30 (1990),
QUEEN OF TEMPLE STREET (1990) WHEN EAST MEETS WEST (1990) RETURN OF THE
EVIL FOX (1991) HERO OF THE BEGGARS (1992) SHOOTOUT, THE (1992) FRIDAY
GIGOLO (1992), TRUE LOVE (1992) TO MISS WITH LOVE (1992) MARY FROM BEIJING
(1992), SHE STARTS THE FIRE (1992) PRINCE OF TEMPLE STREET, THE (1992)
CASINO TYCOON II (1992), MILLIONAIRE COP (1993) PERFECT EXCHANGE (1993)
EAST IS RED, THE (1993) CHEZ N'HAM STORY (1993).TIGERS - THE LEGEND OF
CANTON (1993) KUNG FU SCHOLAR, THE (1994) ROMANCE OF VAMPIRE, THE (1994)
SHAOLIN POPEY (1994) WHY WILD GIRLS (1994).HE AND SHE (1994) MERMAID GOT
MARRIED (1994) EASY MONEY (1994) FAIT ACCOMPLI (1994) REINCARNATED II (1994)
KUNG FU MISTRESS (1994) LAND OF TREASURE (1995) HONG KONG GRAFFITI (1995)
PASSION 1995 (1995) MEANING OF LIFE, THE (1995) FAKE PRETTY WOMAN, A (1995)ONCE
IN A LIFETIME (1995) SECRET LOVER (1995) ROMANTIC DREAM (1995) FAITHFULLY
YOURS (1995) ,COMBO COPS (1996) TWINKLE TWINKLE LUCKY STAR (1996) ANOTHER
CHINESE COP (1996) HOW TO MEET THE LUCKY STARS (1996) STOOGE, MY LOVE (1996)
THOSE WERE THE DAYS (1997) HAUNTED KARAOKE (1997) GHOST STORY 'GODMOTHER
OF MONGKOK' (1997) HOW TO GET RICH BY FUNG SHUI? (1998) MR. WAI-GO (1998)
RAPED BY AN ANGEL 4: THE RAPER'S UNION (1999) TRICKY MASTER, THE (1999)
VAMPIRE CONTROLLER (2001) EVERYDAY IS VALENTINE (2001) ELECTRICAL GIRL
(2001) COP SHOP BABES (2001) DRY WOOD FIERCE FIRE (2002) WOMEN FROM
MARS (2002)
(Special thanks to Tim Young, Caroline Chai,
Jennifer Young, Chun Hei Cheung and a fifth person whose name I have unfortunately
lost for their references and contribution.)
(Written up by Yves Gendron)
Yuk Fong
The HK press trumpeted the arrival of this
Wong Jing discovery from Taiwan in 1999 with a series of sexy pictures
in the tabloids. So far she has been in Conman in Vegas (the cleavage endowed
female) and Temptation of an Angel – a fairly racy film in which Luk somehow
manages to reveal very little! But the fanfare didn't seem to go anywhere
as she seems to have no further credits.
Yukari Oshima/Cynthia Luster/Yukari Tsumara
Japanese actress Yukari Oshima hit the Hong
Kong scene in the mid-80’s like a tossed hang grenade – her famous glare
and roundhouse kicks made men shrink in their socks – and her astonishing
agility simply amazed. Along with Moon Lee, the two of them almost defined
the ‘Girls with Guns” genre that captivated the attention of many viewers
around the world. Yukari’s first Hong Kong role (she had a couple early
Taiwanese films under her belt) was as a female samurai in Millionaire’s
Express, but it was as the sadistic Madame Yeung in Angel (1988) that she
became a star.
Over the next five years she was to appear in
many of the classic “Girls with Guns” films – Burning Ambition, Brave Young
Girls, The Outlaw Brothers, Dreaming the Reality, Avenging Quartet, Beauty
Investigator, Kickboxer’s Tears, Angel Terminators II Yes Madam: A Serious
Shock. Though she is often tagged with the image of the villainess that
she was able to play so well – in the majority of her films she actually
played the heroine.
By 1994 the “Girls with Guns” films had lost their
popularity – though in truth they never went far beyond a loyal fan following
– and Yukari was able to find work primarily in very low budget films made
most often in the Philippines (where she went by Cynthia Luster). With
only a few rare exceptions was Yukari able to break out of the genre that
she helped create – as one of the male enforcers in The Story of Ricky
and as a cop in the dramatic film Lover’s Tears. She has continued making
the occasional film, but they are difficult to track down.
To get much more information on this wonderful
action actress, please check out the lengthy article
written up on her on this site.
Yum Yum Shaw/Siu Yam Yam/Shaw Yin Yin
Other than their famous kung fu films in the
70’s, the Shaw Brothers also released a number of soft-core sex films and
Yum Yum Shaw was one of their bigger stars in this genre. Though most HK
film fans from the West have likely not come across any of her early films
(due to their scarcity), hers was a name (created for western audiences
I assume?) that somehow seeped into the sub-conscious and held out a tantalizing
promise - Yum Yum - this was someone that you definitely wanted to see
more of!
Having seen her in a few films now it is not completely
clear to me why she became such a huge star in her time - sure she shed
her clothes quicker than a Roger Clements fastball but there were plenty
of actresses willing to do that. My guess is that the answer lies in her
innocent but saucy attitude - sex looked like fun for her - and along with
her petite but nicely proportioned figure she has a perfectly delicious
upturned upper lip that should have been preserved in a wax museum. A few
of her more notorious films are Oriental Playgirls, Girls for Sale, Starlets
for Sale, Moods of Love, The Scandalous Warlord and Confessions of a Concubine.
Though most of her best known work was in the 70's, she has continued to
work sporadically ever since.
She also made appearances in more mainstream
films such as Buddah’s Palm, Chinatown Kid (the mistress) and Passing Flickers.
She appeared in one of the earliest precursors to the Girls with Guns films
with the 1977 Deadly Angels (also starring Evelyn Kraft and influenced
by Charley's Angels). With the release of many of her Shaw films over the
next few years, she should become better known to modern day audiences.
Later in the 90’s she appeared in the lusty bloodsucking
film Romance of the Vampires. She still has some presence in the film scene
– she had a cameo in You Shoot, I Shoot (mother-in-law), a role in Black
Cat in Jail, Eternal Flame of Fatal Attraction (2003) and a lengthy interview
in the documentary Women’s Private Parts. In her review of the film YTSL
has this to say about Yum Yum in the documentary - "Siu Yam Yam (AKA
Yum Yum Shaw) it was who contributed one of its most pensive moments (when
she told the story of her young son coming home from school and asking
her whether she had been a porn star) as well as most winning (with her
tale of how she handled that situation and conversation with a child she
loved and wanted to protect but also be honest to)".
She is also currently an executive board member
of the Hong Kong Performing Artists Guild along with Anita Mui, Sylvia
Chang and Tony Leung Ka-fai.
For some more on this actress, here
is some more information.
Yvonne Yung Hung/Ewong Yung
The number of Hong Kong actresses that have
successfully exploited their sizeable breast proportions can be counted
on less than a hand. The first major one was of course Amy Yip who took
Hong Kong by storm with her acres of revealed cleavage in the early 90’s.
The latest has been Diana Pang Dan who captured imaginations with her so
called “Mystical Breasts” from the mid-90’s on (but who has disappeared
as of late leaving the Breast Queen throne open and available to a new
ambitious successor). In between them was the lesser known but very comely
Yvonne Yung Hung.
Like Amy Yip, Yvonne had a pooky crinkly face
that gave no hint of what wonders lay beneath it – and it was this combination
of an innocent cutie-pie face and visibly voluptuous body that fans found
so enticing. What one discovers soon upon exploring Yvonne’s filmography
is that she was willing to go beyond the Yip Tease factor and show her
assets. Both Amy and Pang Dan made a science of showing only so much –
and leaving the rest to the male imagination – Yvonne leaves little.
In 1991 Yvonne won the Miss Asia Pacific Beauty
contest and a film career came calling at her door. Or perhaps that’s slithering
under her door. Her first film in 1992 was actually a mainstream film from
Alfred Cheung called Freedom Run Q, but not long after that film went nowhere
Yvonne quickly jumped into the world of Cat. III celluloid. The other former
winners of the Miss Asia Pacific contest were apparently not at all pleased
and condemned her!
First up was the Simon Yam psycho ride – certainly
a good introduction for Yvonne! – as he peeps on her TV anchor woman character
and has fun with a look-alike mannequin. It was really in period pieces
though that she claimed much of her fame – first with Ancient Chinese Whorehouse
and then with the classically trashy Chinese Torture Chamber Story. This
latter film perfectly captures her strong points as she plays an innocent
servant seduced by the master and then later tortured by the authorities.
Along the way her physical charms are responsible for an exploding penis.
This film was a huge Cat III film that has continued to gain fans and gave
Yvonne legendary status.
Another few period sex capers came along – Sex
and the Emperor and Lover of the Last Empress – as well as some contemporary
tales of lust – Spike Drink Gang, A Fake Pretty Woman, Daughter of Darkness
2 and Romance of the Vampires. None of these gained the notoriety of Chinese
Torture Chamber Story and her career began to dwindle. By 1997 she had
dropped out of Cat III films and told the press that she regretted having
appeared in such films. Of course, her many fans are not sorry at all!
She now turned up in the occasional mainstream
film such as Walk In (one of the wives), but turned most of her attention
to a career in television. Some of these series were The Legendary Four
Aces, Authentic Four Geniuses, Spirit of Lok, Our Family’s Name is Fuk
and Turf Turbulence.