Fan Siu Ming/ Fan Mei Sheng

This rotund, grizzly HK veteran appeared in some terrific films – The Postman Strikes Back, The Young Master, Millionaires Express, The Story of Ricky (the Assistant Warden), Rich and Famous, Magnificent Butcher (he was the beggar) and Dreadnaught (as the Marshall).


Fan Siu-Wong/Louis Fan

Why this wonderfully skilled martial artist didn’t become more successful in films is a complete mystery to me. In films like Stone Age Warriors and The Story of Ricky he is simply astounding at times with some of his acrobatic moves – and he is certainly good looking with a touch of charm – but he has spent much more time doing TV than films. One of these TV series also starred Moon Lee – which I would not at all mind seeing.

A couple other films to catch him in are Project S (as the young cop), Organized Crime and Triad Bureau, Death Games, Master of Zen and Twist. He is (so I read in a post) the son of Fan Siu Ming and he made his film debut in the film Righting Wrongs (1986) as the teenager in trouble and was also in the 1986 film Silent Love. In these early films, he is very skinny and a bit of a wimp and apparently his father (above) was upset with this and sent him to study martial arts in China for three years. He came back with an incredible physique that is well displayed in Story of Ricky.

Fann Wong Foong

Born 01/27/71

This actress has been popular in her home of Singapore for a few years with a career in modeling, singing and TV – but her film debut in The Truth About Jane and Sam made a good impression outside of that small island as well. She plays a slightly quirky character and brings a splash of Faye Wong charm to it. Since then she has also been in When I Fall in Love with . . . Both. In 2003 she got a role in the Hollywood Jackie Chan film Shanghai Knights and as his feisty kung fu sister she steals every scene she is in.


Farini Cheung Yui-ling

Born in 1972

5' 6'' - 34-24-35

This actress has one of those seductive come on smiles that one dreams of seeing directed at themselves some late evening in a slightly disreputable bar. It has oodles of promise of things to come. It regretfully hasn’t been utilized in film as much as I would like.

She was Veronica Yip’s roommate in Scarred Memory, one of the girls in Twenty Something, the vengeful daughter in Once Upon a Time in Triad Society (in which her few minutes of screen time is perfect), the friend to Pinky Cheung in Dark Rose. A couple of others are Women on the Run, Husbands and Wives, Victory (one of the sister volleyball players), Green Hat, 97 Lan Kwai Fong and Option Zero. She dropped out of the film business for a while, but has recently returned. Her career started in the music business in a group called Ascension.

Faye Wong Fei

Born 08/08/69 in Beijing

In some forty-five minutes of screen time this singer won more fans and more hearts than most actresses do in a lifetime. Watching her in 1994’s Chungking Express was like receiving an adrenaline shot straight to the heart or entering a dizzying gravity free environment as she went through the film sprinkling her fairy dust charm over everything she touched. She is magical as she effectively utilizes her wide-eyed gamine look and her wiggling bottom (to the sounds of California Dreaming) to seduce and enchant the viewer. She is pure pop.

She had never been in a film previous to this – and a large cadre of fans eagerly anticipated her next film. These fans waited and waited and waited. Faye seemed to be in no hurry though – focusing on her tremendously popular singing career, her marriage and her child. One began to suspect that it really was magic or a mirage that might never be repeated. Finally, in 2000 she once again made a film Okinawa Rendez-Vous – and though it was neither the deepest nor most magical of films (and not nearly enough of Faye) it was still a tremendous pleasure having her back in the movies.
When she made Chungking Express in 1994, she was of course already one of the biggest singing sensations in Asia. In 1987 at the age of 18, she left her hometown of Beijing for the bright lights of Hong Kong in order to take singing lessons. Two years later she released her first album for Cinepoly under the name Shirley Wong Jing Nam. Initially she was just another Canto-pop ballad singer without her own personality being stamped on her image or her music - but after a trip to New York City in 1992 she returned with a determination to do it her way. She started using the name Faye, began dressing however she wanted and began her difficult relationship with the press. She also began singing primarily in Mandarin on her albums and her music took on a different/alternative aspect that was clearly influenced by music from the West. It all worked wonderfully well - and she became a major star and celebrity.

Early in her career, while still going by the name of Wong Jing Nam, Faye appeared in three HK soap operas. They are Legendary Ranger, Files of Justice II and Eternal Lover. (Thanks to Caroline Chai for this info)

She has continued to be immensely popular with her private life constantly under the intrusive and prying eyes of the HK press. Needless to say her breakup with her husband in 1999 and subsequent flirtation with Nicholas Tse (a mere 19 years old) was huge news. I am not really a big fan of Canto-pop, but god is she a wonderful singer. Even though I can’t understand a single word she is singing, it still has a real emotional impact. I think it is in Woody Allen’s film Manhattan in which he lists the things that make life worthwhile. Listening to Faye Wong sing would definitely be on my list.


Feh Yang/Fong Yau/Fang Yeh

Flaming Brothers (Alan Tang's contact in Thailand), City on Fire (head of Danny Lee's gang), The Club (the owner of the club). His career spanned from the early 1970's to the late 1990's.


Fennie Yuen Kit-ying

Born 09/15/70

Ah, Fennie. For some reason it took me a long time to connect up the rebel heroine Little Melon in Tai Chi Master, the Tony Leung's girl in Bullet in the Head and Blue Phoenix in Swordsman I & II with the young and adorable actress in some of those Cinema City comedies of the mid-80s such as Isle of Fantasy, Happy Ghost II and Happy Ghost III. Back in the mid-80s Fennie along with Loletta Lee, Bonnie Law and Charine Chan were all discovered by Raymond Wong and they were termed "The Happy Little Girls Troupe" But, somewhere along the way Fennie grew up.

A film that stands to a large degree, as her adult coming out debut was Ringo Lam’s stark and brutal School on Fire in which Fennie plays a school girl who goes through some horrific traumas during the film. It was a gut checking performance as she shed all of her cutie pie mannerisms of her earlier comedies.
She has a very interesting and varied filmography – other than the ones already mentioned she was also in the underrated The Raid, My Flying Wife, Royal Tramp I and II, White Cult Lotus, Sam the Iron Bridge and a stunningly heartfelt performance in Pedicab Driver. Over the past few years her film production has dropped to a very few regretfully – but she still is a star in TV. Recently, she was in the papers for an apparent eating disorder - but is now doing advertisements for diets!

(Partial information provided from Crayon)


Fiona Leung Yui-ling

Born in 09/28/65

Fiona has been a major TVB star since the mid-80s appearing in such series as State of Divinity, A State of Turbulence, The Legend of Book and Sword, Iron Butterfly and many more. She began her TV career after winning the Championship in the First Women's Body Fitness Competition organized by TVB. But I only know Fiona from her wonderful performance in Milkyway’s A Hero Never Dies. As the tough, stubborn and justice seeking girlfriend of Lau Ching-wan she cuts an unforgettable character. As far as I know, her only other film credit is another Milkyway film – Needing You (2000) in which she looks quite glamorous as Andy Lau's ex-wife. It is unusual for an actress to begin her film career in her 30’s (in HK most actresses are retired by 30!) – but hopefully there will be many other films ahead for her.

(Info provided by Sebastian Tse)


Flora Chan Wai Wai Shan

Flora Chan graduated from Boston College with a degree in Journalism.  She worked for a period of time as a production assistant in the States before moving to HK to pursue a career there.  She started working for TVB as a reporter for the Pearl Channel when Tang Tak Hei, the producer of the popular File of Justice series, asked her to try out for a role for FOJ V.  Flora Chan's debut performance was very well received and she quickly went on to become the first female lead for many series, like Untraceable Evidence I & II, Sidebeat, A Taste of Love etc.  Her roles are mostly strong professional women.

While filming the 106 episode At the Threshold of an Era (1999/2000,) her personal life took a little beating when a ear infection forced her to stop work for a while. Her husband, Chung Wai Ming, and her also filed for divorce.

However, she bounced back in 2001 and made her first film Love au Zen.

(Written up by Caroline Chai)


Flora Cheung Tien-oy

This refined looking actress was educated in England and starred in only a very few films that I see her credited for  in the early 1980’s. These are Duel to the Death, Life After Life (the model) and Return of the Deadly Blade. She is the daughter of Sir Cheong-Lee, ex-Legislative Councillor in the decade of the 70's. Coming from such a prominent family definitely hindered her film career. Flora is also the ex-wife of the Chairman of Esprit Co., who is now married to another ex-actress - Brigitte Lin! Currently, Flora is a famous fashion designer in HK.

(Write-up from Sebastian Tse)


Francis Ng Chun Yu

Born on 12/21/61

Though Francis has been appearing in films since the mid 80’s, it is really only over the past few years in which this intense bullet headed actor has come to be considered one of the finest actors in HK. I had seen him in a number of films without really focusing on him – he always seemed to be playing a vicious or insane type of one kind or another – until I saw him in three films that made me step back and take another look at this actor.

In short succession I watched the two Once Upon a Time in Triad Society films and then Sexy and Dangerous and I was simply knocked out by what he did in them. He created brilliantly clever and original characters with such an edge that you just could not take your eyes off of him. Edge is something that Ng gives nearly all of his characters. It’s often like watching a drunk on a high wire – you never know where he is going with his characters but you know it will be interesting.

He graduated from TVB acting class in 1985 (after failing three times!) and was soon doing TV and some low budget films like Dragon Fighter and Devil Hunters. Perhaps it is his eyes, which appear to be set too closely together – but for years he was almost always cast as a bad guy  - and not just any bad guy – but usually a particularly nasty foaming at the mouth bad guy. Someone who would just as soon rip your heart out as he does in Satan Returns as shake your hand – a couple other well known evil roles were in Handsome Siblings, Bride with White Hair and Young and Dangerous.

In 1996 he made Young and Dangerous, the Once Upon a Time films and Sexy and Dangerous  - and then in 1997 the very interesting Full Alert. Here again he plays a criminal – but it is a wonderfully nuanced performance that brings his character a real sense of humanity. And he began getting very busy – 7 films in 1997, 8 films in 1998 and 11 films in 1999. Some of them are not particularly good (though he is usually still worth watching) – but Ng had clearly moved to the “A” list of actors getting parts in high budget productions like Gen X Cops (the best thing in this film by far), A Man Called Hero and 2000 A.D. But it was in some smaller films in which he really began to have the opportunity to shine on the screen – Bullets Over Summer, H.K. Triad, Too Many Ways To Be No.1,The Mission and then recently he finally got a romantic lead – Juliet in Love – though with Ng you know it won’t be your ordinary romance.

He has tried his hand at directing twice – 9413 (which means 1 in ten chances) which has received much critical acclaim and What is a Good Teacher which has not.

Francoise Yip Fong-wah

Born in British Columbia, Canada

This very attractive and sultry actress grew up in Canada – the product of a Chinese father and a French mother – and won a number of awards for playing the piano. In college she modeled part time and in 1995 answered a casting call for Jackie Chan’s Rumble in the Bronx (which was of course shot in Canada and not in the Bronx!). Jackie chose her and her performance in Rumble was very appealing. The film may have had its detractors – but most people (men in particular) wanted to see much more of Francoise.

Afterwards, she went to HK to further develop her acting career. She generally appeared in some mildly trashy films like Infatuation (her scene rising from the pool is a well known image), Wild (directed by Billy Tang), On Fire (directed by Clarence Fok) and Web of Deception. None of these films did much for her acting reputation, but certainly created a male fan base for her.

She did land one important role though – as the female member of Squad 701 in Jet Li’s Black Mask. This may have helped lead to her getting a few roles in Hollywood films – Future Sport and the recent Jet Li film Romeo Must Die. In Romeo Must Die she only has a short cameo – but a very snazzy one. She has also appeared in the movie A Good Burn as well as the television series: The City and Robocop: Prime Directives and is now back living in Canada.


Frankie Chan Chi-leung

This is the muscle enhanced Frankie Chan – not to be confused with the other Frankie Chan. This one was the S.E. Asian body building champion and this led to a few movie roles in the early 90s. Some of these were Operation Scorpio, Vampire Kids, Scorpion King, the zombie in Magic Cop, Crocodile Hunter, Fatal Mission, Walk In (the big henchman) and in his best known film as Simon Yam’s henchman in Full Contact.


Frankie Chan Fan Kei

This Frankie Chan has had one of the more intriguing careers in HK film. Like so many people involved in HK film he has the aura of a Renaissance man about him as he has acted, directed, composed, produced and written scripts. He is basically a one-man shop. This is a guy who has some amazing physical skills – check him out in Prodigal Son (1982), The Good, the Bad and the Beauty (1988), Burning Ambition (1989) or Outlaw Brothers (1990) – and yet he also helped compose the wonderful soundtracks for Chungking Express (1994), Ashes of Time, Full Throttle and Fallen Angels (1995) with his musical partner Roel Garcia.

He is best known for his action films  - which tend to be low budget and messy but are fast and furious – loaded with action and a good deal of fun. Some of the individual fight scenes often tend to overshadow the rest of the film – but they are well worth catching. Burning Ambition has the classic Yukari and Kara Hui Ying Hung fight scene in which Kara has to fight in her bare feet on broken glass and Yukari has rarely looked better than she does in Outlaw Brothers.

Though Frankie is rightfully associated with the action genre he has on occasion directed some other types of films such as Perfect Match, Wraith of Silence and the recent (2000) I.Q. Dudettes.


Fung Fung

With his small, gauntly appearance and his twisted mouth, Fung Fung is one of these memorable faces that filled kung fu comedy. He was no bit player though, but rather a famed character actor, a prolific writer-director of Cantonese cinema as well as the progenitor of film talent with four of his eleven children making names for themselves within the industry.

Born in 1916, Fung Fung started acting at seventeen in Cantonese Opera. Eventually at some point during the thirties he began doing movies. Quite handsome in his young days, Fung played leading man parts. He started writing movie scripts in 1949 and directing the following year. One of the first movies he directed, THE KID, had him co-star with a young child actor of some repute, named Siu-lung, "Little Dragon", better known later on in the western world as Bruce Lee.

Later that year Fung Fung suffered a terrible accident with a fitness machine, which distorted his face and damaged his eye nerves. Fung’s days as a leading man were over and he began his career as a character-actor playing freaks, but he continued on as a filmmaker, directing and writing more than fifty movies over the next twenty years during the golden age of Cantonese cinema. He also continued sprouting offspring, four of which as mentioned earlier became involved in the film industry - eldest daughter Fung Siu-bo becoming a famed actress and star, Fung Hark-on a movie stuntman, action director, and perpetual villain, Fung Kit-lung a screen writer and Petrina Fung Bo Bo a beloved child actress and star of Cantonese cinema. Both daughters were part of the so-called Seven Cantonese Princesses (that also included Josephine Siao, Connie Po-chu and Nancy Sit).
With the collapse of Cantonese cinema at the very dawn of the seventies, Fung Fung’s career as a film writer/director was effectively over, and he turned to working in TV. As Cantonese Cinema made a comeback in the second half of the seventies, Fung took small parts and guest starring short cameos in kung fu and comedy vehicles; a good deal of the films in which he was appearing had his son Fung Hark-on working in an acting, fight choreographer or director capacity and was done seemingly as a favor to him. IRON FISTED MONK (77), ENTER THE FAT DRAGON (78), FOLLOW THE STAR (78), YOUNG MASTER (80), GOLD TREASURES (81) and LEGEND OF A FIGHTER (82).  Fung also made an appearance in EIGHTEEN JADE ARHATS (78), Tsui Hark’s WE’RE GOING TO EAT YOU (80), Michael Hui’s SECURITED UNLIMITED. (81).

Fung Fung passed away in February 2000.

(Written by Yves Gendron based in part by info provided by Christopher Fu.)


Fung Hark-on. Also known as: Feng Kean, Feng Ko-An, Fung Hak-on and The Rapist.

Along with Lee Hoi-shang, Fung Hark-on is one of the ubiquitous heavies of Hong Kong martial art/stunt action cinema and with his devilish face, his treacherous ways and his habit of ogling and raping maidens on occasion, one of the meanest and most loathsome of all. But he was also a formidable on-screen fighter, a skilled action choreographer, and a sought-after collaborator for Jackie and Sammo.

Fung is the son of famed character actor/director Fung Fung. He trained at the Peking Opera Academy of Madame Fan Fok-fa alongside the likes of the aforementioned Lee Hoi-shang, Lam Ching-ying, Meng Hoi and Mars. In his teen years he played a baddie in Cantonese films, then became a stuntman for the Shaw Brother Studio working in Chang Cheh movies under the supervision of Shaw’s top action choreographer Lau Kar-leung.
One of his earliest appearances was as one of the henchmen who escape David Chiang’s murderous wrath in the bloody finale of VENGEANCE (70). As time went-on, he started getting more visible bits such as playing David Chiang’s carriage driver in the BOXER FROM SHANGTUNG (72) and he probably rose within the Lau stunt group as well to the position of assistant

Fung strayed a couple of times outside of the Shaw Brothers and thus he can be spotted as one of the hero's friends in the independent production THE PRODIGAL BOXER (72) whose fighting was choreographed by another Shaw strayed dog Lau Kar-Leung’s own brother Lau Kar-wing with Fung likely working as his assistant. Also, Fung played a part in THE YOUNG DRAGONS, the directorial debut of one of Chang Cheh’s assistant directors - a young fellow by the name of John Woo. Thus began a peculiar habit by Fung of appearing in the debut of future top seminal performers/filmmakers of Hong Kong martial/action cinema. He would repeat this at least three more times, which goes to show how much in the middle of things he was. Fung also did the YOUNG DRAGONS action choreography, his first fully fledge job in such a position.

When Chang Cheh moved to Taiwan in 1974 and started his Shaolin cycle, Fung at last began getting consistent roles in the heavy's parts as Manchu henchmen or Chinese collaborators: HEROES TWO (74), SHAOLIN MARTIAL ART (74), FIVE SHAOLIN MASTER (75), DISCIPLES OF SHAOLIN (75) battling the likes of Fu Sheng, Chen Kwan-Tai, and Chen Kwan-chun. Then when Chang Cheh and Lau Kar-leung parted ways, Fung stuck with Lau, went back to Hong Kong and once again played a henchmen in his mentor’s directorial debut SPIRITUAL BOXER (75), a major watershed movie of martial art’s cinema as it was the very first time a fight choreographer ever graduated to fully fledged filmmaker.

After having played the student of a bad kung fu school in Lau's second picture, CHALLENGE OF THE MASTERS (76), Fung took his leave of him and somehow found his way to Shaw Studio’s chief competitor Golden Harvest where he reaquainted himself with John Woo, who now worked there, and got acquainted with Golden’s own house action director a big fella by the name of Sammo Hung. Forming his own stunt team, Fung did the stunt/action for Woo’s comedic caper MONEY CRAZY while also working as Sammo's assistant in the fight choreography of his directorial debut THE IRON-FISTED MONK. Playing the film's chief villain, Fung is seen graphically raping a young woman and then displaying Mantis Fist to great effect in a whirlwind finale. Both films proved to be enormous successes - ranking two and six in 1977’s box office chart.

With the full blooming of kung fu comedy, Fung was now busier than ever and he provided the action/stunt job for FOLLOW THE STAR (78) another caper by John Woo, now dubbed the "king of comedy" by Golden Harvest. In Sammo’s new film WARRIOR TWO (78) he again did double duty as assistant and the film’s chief villain, using once more mantis prey as his fighting style of choice. Dressed in a black robe and sporting a bald cap to enlarge his already prominent brow, Fung had truly a mantis like appearance reducing Sammo and co-star Casanova Wong to bloody pulps in a half visceral / half cartoony final showdown that would remain Fung's greatest ever fighting showcase of his career. In between his Golden Harvest assignments, Fung found time to do other work appearing in among others DIRTY TIGER CRAZY FROG (78) co-starring Sammo, DIRTY KUNG-FU (78) by his old associate Lau Kar Wing and making a brief appearance in fight choreographer Yuen Woo Ping directorial debut, SNAKE IN THE EAGLE SHADOW, the film that put Jackie Chan on the map. This was Fung’s fourth and last debut in a director’s career.
1979 saw the apex of Fung’s collaboration with John Woo, providing superb and spectacular fight choreography for his swordplay revival LAST HURRAH FOR CHIVALERY. He gave himself the role of a ruthless swordsman named "Prey", setting-up a memorable bloody duel between him, and hero Wei Ping, as well as a battle set in an candlelight filled chamber, between the heroes and his Peking opera brother Lee
Hoi-shang. Then in Sammo and Yuen Woo-ping’s collaborative work MAGNIFICENT BUTCHER Fung played one of his most extended parts ever as the bad seed son of a kung fu master (Lee again) raping and killing a maiden and framing poor Sammo for it. In the non-Golden Harvest SNAKE  DEADLY ACT (80) Fung played an evil kung fu master who saves the life of a young kung fu kid and trains him in his snake style but for his own malevolent ends. This part and a couple of others showed that Fung was capable of going beyond being a mere fighting stooge - that he had the stuff of a capable character actor like Ku Feng before and Phillip Kwok and Yuen Wah later on. But such was not his destiny and in fact with the action-stunt caper supplanting kung fu as Hong Kong’s dominant form of action film, Fung drastically restricted his on-screen appearances to often no more than brief cameos and began dedicating himself to fight choreography.

When Jackie Chan became Golden Harvest’s "Golden Boy", Fung became his assistant for YOUNG MASTER (80), for Chan’s misbegotten endeavor DRAGON LORD (82), and then a couple of years later POLICE STORY (86), where he played the part of the evil nephew Johnny, seen throwing female lead Brigitte Lin into a glass casket before being kicked in the chin by Jackie and doing a back flip on top of a moving escalator. In between these projects Fung worked on Tsui Hark’s groundbreaking hallucinogenic wire-fu swordplay ZU WARRIOR OF THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN (83) where he portrayed, along with co-fight choreographer Corey Yuen, one of the lightning demons. He also remained a regular fight-extra on Sammo's pictures such as WINNER AND SINNERS (85), YES MADAM (part deleted) (85) and HEART OF THE DRAGON (85).

After having been in so many directorial debuts by others, Fung had at long last his own in 1981 with GOLD HUNTERS that is said to be a worthwhile effort. He has directed twice more since then - the horror film MISS MAGIC (88) co-starring his own sister famed actress Petrina Fung Bo Bo, and the Yukari Oshima vehicle GODFATHER DAUGHTER MAFIA BLUES (91). Through it all his main occupation however remained as a sought-after action director for such films as Michelle Yeoh's MAGNIFICENT WARRIORS (87), Kirk Wong's GUNMAN (88) and Eddie Fung's KAWASHIMA YOSHIKO (90). With BURNING AMBITION (89) Fung began a solid association with action star/director Frankie Chan, choreographing both OUTLAW BROTHERS (89) (with helping tips from Jackie Chan himself) as well as THE FUN AND THE FURY (92) and appearing as a legless kung fu master walking on stilts in A WARRIORS TRAGEDY (93). Another durable association was with SNAKE DEADLY ACT 's director, action choreographer Wilson Tong, which continued with GHOST BALLROOM (89), THE SNIPER (90) and GHOSTLY BUS (95), Fung’s last recorded credit on the HKMDB website. What Fung has done ever since is somewhat difficult to discern but it appears likely that he may have retired.
Some other noteworthy appearances by Fung include:  ENTER THE FAT DRAGON (78), DESCENDANT OF WING CHUN (78), DREADNOUGHT (81), LEGEND OF A FIGHTER (82) and HANDSOME SIBLINGS (92). He probably did some TV too but I have no information on that area.

(Written up by Yves Gendron)


Fung King Man

He was an extra back in the 50’s/ 60's Cantonese movies – and later shifted to become an extra in the Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest films of the 70's and 80's. He can be seen in numerous small film roles – Rosa, The Magnificent Butcher, Romancing the Star III, The Banquet, Pedicab Driver (the brothel manager) and The Incorruptible are only a few of them.

(Info provided by Sebastian Tse.)