Handbill for Fong Sai-yuk and Junior’s Revenge (1950), starring Sek Yin-tsi and Law Yim-hing. (Courtesy David Wells)

If you’re a fan of Gordon Liu (Lau Kar-fei) and the classic films he made with his adopted brother, action director Lau Kar-leung, you already know more than a little about the history of hung gar kung fu. The Laus drew on oral traditions from their own martial arts lineage to create stories about heroes of the past like Hung Si-kuan and Wong Fei-hung, in films like Challenge of the Masters (1976) and 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978). Even before Lau Kar-leung directed his own films, he collaborated as choreographer with Shaw studio director Chang Cheh on a number of hung gar films, including Heroes Two and Men From the Monastery (both 1974). The tales associated with this broadly popular southern Chinese martial arts style have been retold many times in Hong Kong kung fu films over the years.

Hung gar hero Fong Sai-yuk (Fang Shih Yu) was one of the original “men from the monastery”, the anti-Qing Dynasty patriots associated with the Heaven and Earth Society, which was founded to resist the Manchu invaders. Although not as well known in the West as the late 19th century lineage representative Wong Fei-hung, the character of Fong Sai-yuk has a very respectable place in the history of action cinema.

The earliest record of a Fong Sai-yuk film appears to be the 1938 production The Adventures of Fong Sai-yuk, starring opera performer Sun Ma Si-tsang. It was directed by Hung Chung-ho, grandfather of modern kung fu star Sammo Hung. A sequel followed in 1939, called Burning of the Shaolin Temple. The next notable Fong Sai-yuk film dates to 1948. Called Fong Sai-yuk and Miu Chui-fa, it introduced another opera performer, Sek Yin-tsi, in the title role of Fong. Chan Yim-nung played his mother Miu Chui-fa, who, according to the legend, was also his kung fu teacher. Sek continued to play Fong Sai-yuk in a series of over 15 films made through the 1950s. His frequent costars included Yu So-chau, Law Yim-hing, and Shek Kin. The next kung fu actor who specialized in the role of Fong was Alexander Fu Sheng, who appeared in many of Chang Cheh’s action films of the 1970s, with choreography courtesy of Lau Kar-leung. Finally, Jet Li played Fong Sai-yuk in two wildly successful films from 1993, with Josephine Siao as his mother.

The handbill reproduced above (from the collection of David Wells) is from the 1952 film Fong Sai-yuk and Junior’s Revenge, starring Sek Yin-tsi, Law Yim-hing (large photo), and Shek Kin. According to the Hong Hong Film Archive database, the film’s synopsis is: "After their marriage, Fong Sai-yuk and swordswoman Ping-neung retire to the village. Ping-neung gives birth to a son. Ten years later, Lui Siu-pang seeks to exact vengeance on Sai-yuk for killing his guardfather Tiger Lui. First, he lures the disciples of Shaolin out to the open by announcing a martial arts contest. Next, he sends his underling Pak Hung to kidnap Lee Yuk-lan, Sai-yuk's fellow disciple. After learning the whereabouts of Sai-yuk, Siu-pang attacks his home by night, but Sai-yuk had gone to visit Monk Chi Sin. Ping-neung, outnumbered, is killed in a fire, while Sai-yuk's son manages to escape. A sickly Yuk-lan is taken to Mount Wutai, while her disciple goes to Monk Chi Sin to seek help. Thus, Sai-yuk comes to know about his family tragedy. Filled with grief and indignation, he heads for Mount Wutai to take revenge, and so does Fong Junior. Pak Hung meets a cute and clever Fong Junior on the road and leads him into the villains' lair, where the latter sees Yuk-lan in a dungeon. Yuk-lan asks him to find his father to come to her rescue. On his way, Fong Junior shows off his skills and beats Siu-pang's gang in the ring. Meanwhile, Yuk-lan pretends to agree to marry Siu-pang, hoping to kill him in the bridal chamber. But her attempt fails, and she is caught in a trap. Sai-yuk comes to her aid, engaging in a fierce fight with Siu-pang. Sai-yuk is caught in a bronze net, with arrows shooting at him when his son arrives in time to rescue him. The two join hands and kill the thugs. They also push Siu-pang into the pit of ten thousand swords. Having exacted their revenge, Sai-yuk and his son have no home to return. Yuk-lan takes pity on them and invite them to stay in her home".

The film was probably a sequel to The Fighting Bride parts one and two, which featured Yu So-chau in the role of Cho Ping-neung, Fong’s wife. Law Yim-hing played Lee Yuk-lan in this feature, and Shek Kin, always the villain, played bad guy Lui Siu-pang. In other films in this Fong Sai-yuk series, Shek played Fong’s frequent nemesis White Brow Monk.

None of the Sek Yin-tsi films about hung gar hero Fong Sai-yuk seem to have survived, but we can still hope a print may show up some day. Sek never completely stopped making opera films, but the bulk of his output was in the kung fu genre. He starred in Three Attempts at the Nine Dragon Cup (1949) with Yuen Siu-tin, and costarred with Kwan Tak-hing, Tso Tat-wah, and Law Yim-hing in an all-star adaptation of the kung fu novel Brave Archer in 1951. It’s a shame that so many of these early films vanished without a trace, but I remember how even the prints from the 1970s were circulated until they literally fell apart. The good news is that there are people working on conservation and restoration, at the Archive and elsewhere.

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Law Yim-hing (1930- )

Hong Kong action cinema really took off in the years following World War II, when director Wu Pang made The Story of Wong Fei-hung (1949) and proved there was an international market for martial arts films. The burgeoning industry recruited performers and stunt crews from opera troupes and local kung fu schools. Not all opera performers specialized in martial arts, but the ones who did were usually very good at it. Women who played the daomadan role were expected to learn genuine fighting arts in addition to singing and acting. Hong Kong cinema’s top daomadan of fifty years ago was Law Yim-hing (Law Yim-heng, Luo Yanqing).

Law wasn’t just a martial actress - she was a respected dramatic lead and in the first rank of Cantonese opera stars. Her opera films paired her with famous singers like Yam Kim-fai, Hung Sin-nui and Sun Ma Si Tsang. In Beating the Matchmaker (1949), an adaptation of the traditional “Dream of the West Chamber” story, she played the beautiful Tsui Ang-ang and Hung Sin-nui played her maid Hung Neong. She sang in most of her films, including the martial arts stories.

Although little of her early work has survived, she was a favorite of many of the kung fu actors and directors of the time, people like Wu Pang, Kwan Tak-hing, Walter Tso Tat-wah, and Shek Kin. She frequently co-starred with Walter Tso in his Leung Foon movies, a spin-off of the Wong Fei-hung films. She also co-starred with Sek Yin-tsi in another successful early series based on the life of kung fu hero Fong Sai-yuk. In 1951, Law starred in a high-profile film called Big Blade Wong Fifth's Revenge that promised in newspaper ads to provide “over 70 martial arts action setpieces in the film.” The producer was rumored to be a student of Wong Fei-hung himself. One of the martial artists appearing in the film was Lau Cham, father of action director Lau Kar-leung. In 1953, she starred in Crossing Yuanyang River by Night, part of the Leung Foon series, with fight choreography credited to both Lau Cham and his son Kar-leung. Law sang two songs in the film, “Missing You” and “Love Sickness Intensifies Facing the Moon.”

Like most of the people who worked in the Hong Kong film industry during the post-war boom, Law Yim-hing was astonishingly prolific. She averaged 20-30 films a year from 1949 through the mid-1960s. Her output included a 3D film about an acrobatic troupe in 1953, called Happy Lovers, as well as comedy (1953’s Mr. Country Bumpkin, 1959’s A Fool in the Army) and serious drama with directors like Lee Tit, Lo Dun, and Ng Wui. If there is any doubt that this woman was completely devoted to her work, consider this: In the 1953 comedy Not All People Have the Same Fate, Law co-starred with her new husband, Ho Fei-fan. The couple used film shot at their actual wedding for the scene in which their characters get married!

I’ve tracked down two of Law’s films, Han Gong Gate (1961) and Five Tigers Conquered the West (1962). She bears an astonishing resemblance to kung fu actress Angela Mao. Electric Shadows will continue this tribute to the screenfighting career of Law Yim-hing in the next entry.

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Lee Kui-on (left) and Connie Chan Po-chu (right)


Six-Fingered Lord of the Lute (Parts 1, 2, & 3) (1965). Directed by Chan Lit-bun. Starring Connie Chan Po-chu, Shek Kin, Lee Kui-on, Nancy Sit, Lam Jing, and Tam Cheng-hong. Fight choreography by Kwan Ching-leung.

Part One of Six-Fingered Lord of the Lute toured the US about four years ago in the Heroic Grace film series curated by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. I saw it then at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It impressed me chiefly for the fine performances by Shek Kin and Lam Jing (Lin Ching) as Connie Chan’s parents. Believing that their only child has been kidnapped, they take on the entire jianghu world. I just found all three films in a VCD set from Tien Seng, and watched the whole series (without subtitles, unfortunately, but moviefanprincess.com has a detailed synopsis of the plot here). Some of the scenes have been chopped up, especially at the end of part one. But the films are a fine introduction to the work of wuxia director Chan Lit-bun. (And Stephen Chow fans will enjoy picking out the references he worked into Kung Fu Hustle.)

Chan Lit-bun started out as an actor in the post-war martial arts movie boom of the late 1940s. He frequently worked with the director Hung Suk-wan, a great-uncle of kung fu star Sammo Hung. Chan gradually switched over to the production side, picking up continuity and assistant director credits through the 1950s. He first stepped into the director’s chair with the well-received Golden Hairpin series of 1963-64. He continued to turn out a number of critically praised wuxia films over the rest of the decade, including Paragon of Sword and Knife (1967), Green-eyed Demoness (1967), and The One-Armed Magic Nun (1969). Ultimately it was the decline in Cantonese cinema that occurred around this time that ended his career. He went to Taiwan in 1972 and made a couple of kung fu movies, but it’s easy to guess that the change in style and language just made it too difficult to re-invent himself.

Six-Fingered Lord of the Lute made Connie Chan a bona fide wuxia star. She plays a boy here, and so does a very young Nancy Sit, who is better known to modern audiences as the loony judge at the climactic cook-off in Stephen Chow’s God of Cookery (1996). The older actress Lam Jing is wonderful as Chan’s mother, the one who is always smarter than everyone else in the room. Shek Kin enjoys a rare sympathetic role as her husband, and shows off his broadsword expertise. The real revelation for me was the performance of a young actress named Lee Kui-on, who plays Chan’s love interest. In Part One, she is chained up by a villain and continues to wear the wrist shackles, along with about four feet of thick chain attached, on each arm after being freed. In Part Two, she has an amazing fight scene where she uses the shackles as double chain whips. She leaps on a table, spins and whirls the chains around her body in complex patterns of concentric circles, one waist high and the other, double time, over her head. Then she switches to “flowering”, rotating the circles on either side of her body in quick succession, spinning in place all the while. There are cutaway shots to an overhead camera, highlighting the precision of the interlocking patterns, but there’s never any doubt that it’s Lee doing the movement rather than a stunt double. There are plenty of close-ups showing her fighting in real time with the whips.

The action in the Lord of the Lute films is credited to Kwan Ching-leung, a Shanghai native who was one of the post-war “Dragon-Tiger Masters” of mid-20th Century Hong Kong martial arts cinema. He was an early student of Peking Opera master Yu Zhanyuan, father of wuxia actress Yu So-chau (see entry of 1/23/07) and sifu of Jackie Chan.

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Shek Kin came to his acting career with a background in martial arts, rather than the usual opera training. His first teacher seems to have been Chao Lien-cheng, a specialist in Northern Shaolin style who was affiliated with the Chin Woo Association founded by Huo Yuan Jia (see Jet Li’s Fearless). Shek eventually became a full time student at the Chin Woo branch in Canton (Guangzhou), where he trained with a well known master named Sun Yu-fung. Sun’s expertise was in do (broadsword or sabre) and lohan techniques. In later years Shek described his personal style as mi tsong lohan chuan or “combined lohan fist.”* He also studied Chinese wrestling, or shuai jiao, and tan tui (spring leg) kicking techniques. Other teachers included Chao Kuei-lin, who taught him mantis and eagle claw boxing, and Wong Yung-feng, who trained him in the use of an obscure “secret weapon” called piao, which seems to have been a kind of dart.

This eclectic background undoubtedly contributed to his success as a martial arts actor, since it gave him the versatility needed to master the choreography quickly. It makes sense that lohan boxing became Shek’s specialty, since it consists of dramatic poses that mimic traditional Buddhist devotional statues - ideal training for an aspiring kung fu performer!

Although Shek picked up a couple of “Assistant Action Director” credits during his lengthy screen career, he doesn’t seem to have been interested in controlling the entire choreography of a film. Probably he has always been one of the stalwart and easily overlooked pillars of the Hong Kong action film genre, ready to contribute ideas or bits of business, if needed, or even set his own moves, but just as happy to take the choreography and adapt it to his characterization. He could do a fight scene in the soft opera style if he had to. But give him a chance to show real kung fu onscreen, and boy, he really stands out!

One of the first things that strikes a modern viewer watching Shek’s old fights on film is how lively he is. He bounds into the fray, jumps and skips, and tosses in a front jumping kick or spin without slowing down. That would be the tan tui influence, I guess. Even when forced to slow down or soften his onslaught to match his opponent, his movement is always very emotionally expressive. And that would be the lohan influence showing up. His weapon strikes are precise and powerful. He’s a true professional, a master of his trade. It’s no wonder that when Warner Brothers teamed up with Bruce Lee and the Golden Harvest studio to make Enter the Dragon, Shek Kin was tapped to play the evil Mr. Han. He had the moves and the experience. Although he was nearly three decades older than Lee and had to be stunt-doubled in many shots, he still takes an amazing amount of abuse from the young powerhouse. His own performance emphasized raw power and physical tension rather than the fluidity he was capable of. Altogether he made a worthy adversary for Lee in the most famous martial arts film of all time.

This blog will continue to look at many of Shek Kin’s older films and provide analyses of individual performances. Stay tuned...

*According to my sifu, Master Bow Sim Mark, Shek used this phrase in conversation with her about his background.



Shek Kin (center) in Boston, 1980. Master Bow Sim Mark is to the right of Shek. Choy Lay Fut Master Lee Koon Hung is second to the left of Shek. Donnie Yen is third from left in front row. The author is third from right in front row.