---

Born 05/16/68

I just find Chingmy to be absolutely luscious and sexy, but she also brings along an impish sense of humor and a twinkle in her eye that always says to the audience "don't take this image too seriously" lets just have some fun. One friend refers to her looks as "chipmunk sexiness" and I think that captures it nicely. I always enjoy watching her perform no matter how weak the material is because she always gives it her best shot and always seems to be enjoying herself.

He has a very good part in "Blade of Fury" (1993) and appears in many mainland martial arts movies like  "Young Hero of Shaolin" (two different roles -  as a fighter, he is also the action director), "Kung Fu  Hero Wang Wu/Kung Fu Hero Wang Wie" (has two very good fights) and as the leading actor in the classic  "Undaunted Wu Tang" (1983). He is the Prince in One Arm Hero and in "White Lotus Cult" he has a short guest appearance.

(Write-up from Michael Kistner)

Born in 1934 in Guangzhou

Do you recall the villain from Police Story I and II or Carina Lau's manipulative father in He Ain't Heavy, He's My Father? He was played by Chor Yuen - who I just realized recently was one of the most important HK directors of the 50's and 60's. He was vital in modernizing HK films and as Stephen Teo writes in his book Hong Kong - The Extra Dimension - "Chor formed the link between the old generation of Cantonese directors and the new generation who would make their mark from the mid-70s onwards, from Michael Hui to the new wave directors of the 80's."

A supporting actor for the most part - Bodyguards of the Last Governor, I Have a Date with Spring (the male singer),Girls without Tomorrow - but had a larger role in Stephen Chow's Out of the Dark.

Born 05/18/55 on Lamma Island

The God of Actors. There really doesn't seem to be much need to add more. He burst onto the HK movie scene in a big way in 1986 and has never slowed down, becoming HK’s most popular actor. He has now gone on to Hollywood to make films (with the intention unfortunately of not returning). He is perhaps the most charismatic male actor of our time.

This terrific actress generally has classy but strong ensemble roles in a number of films: The Age of Miracles, Love is not a Game, but a Joke, The Group, Magnificent Team, No Risk No Gain and 9413.

A few years back her husband unfortunately died a few months after their marriage. Christine got into a long and messy battle with her husband's family over his will (a big family business), and I think to this day that it's still not settled. It was this that started rumours of her being 'bad-luck', which didn't help at all with her career in ATV. After moving on to the opposing TV station, TVB, they re-packaged her and now she's quite often seen in major roles in drama series. She is even considered a sexy actress after starring in "Feel 100%" as the lethal seductress, and in a provocative music video for The Grasshoppers. She just recently re-married.

(Write-up and information provided from Crayon)

Born 09/19/70 in Canada

This doey eyed beauty became a favorite of many in the mid-90s with a series of popular films. Her radiant creamy complexion seemed to override the fact that she could not speak Cantonese and that her acting still needed a lot of work.

She also had a small part in the recent critically ravaged Jackie Chan film, The Medallion, but from where I was sitting she was the one highlight of the film.

Here is an excerpt from a piece on her in a Montreal newspaper by Kristian Gravenor that gives some information on her background:

"Chung’s serendipitous rise to glory started in 1992 when, as a marketing student at École Polytechnique, her boyfriend brought her along on a visit to Miss Chinese Montreal organizer Ruth Koo Lam. The boyfriend was trying to land a singing gig at the upcoming pageant but Lam’s eyes were on Chung, whom she eventually persuaded to enter the contest.   After bagging the crown, Chung was entered into the Miss Chinese International Pageant in Hong Kong. At the time, Chung, who had once failed an audition as a VJ at MusiquePlus for being “too shy,” had just been hired as a TV weather reporter at Radio-Canada. “That was a point in my life—to decide whether to stay in Montreal and be a weather girl or go to Hong Kong and try to make my fame,” she says.  Chung’s wanderlust won out. “It was my first trip away. I had never left Montreal. I was in awe of the buildings, I was just happy to be here,” she says in a phone interview from Hong Kong. And to her surprise, she won the bigger title. “I never thought in a million years I’d win the title because at that time I couldn’t speak Cantonese. When they called my name, I didn’t realize it. The girl sitting next to me had to explain, ‘You just won the title.’”

Although Chung’s film experience consisted of a mere 10-second appearance as a gum-chewing prostitute in Love and Human Remains, she found herself immediately getting top billing in Hong Kong films, a rarity in a system that generally requires actors to apprentice in afternoon soaps. “I was a foreigner, a Westernized woman, and here I was suddenly doing movies. It was pretty awesome considering that I didn’t speak the language at all,” says Chung, who reports that her language skills have improved somewhat since."

How does HK manage to come up with so many actors that can play mean and nasty? Chui Chung San has a face that only a triad head could love – pockmarked and scary. He also has one of those maniacal bad guy laughs that would be right at home in your neighborhood insane asylum.

Ralsoong sent in the following information:

Chui Heung Tung had been in a few mainland martial arts movies - he was the wu-shu champion in the early 80's, specializes in the "eagle claw" style. He was in one of my favorite mainland Chinese martial arts movies from 1985-6 called something like "Bodhi-dharma's robe" - I am not sure of the English name of the movie where he played a monk on a mission-to hide the "robe" from the evil Manchus, who sent their heavy weight to take over the Shaolin Temple.  One the run, he battles the evil Manchu/former Shaolin traitor played by Yu Rong Guang (another wu-shu champion).  The fight scenes are fantastic and the final battle is out of hand.

Yves Gendron has more to add:

Like Jet Li, Chui Heung-tung is a Mainland Wu-shu champion (speciality Eagle Claw) who got recruited in the movies in the early eighties. HKMDB credits him with only one production, HOLY ROBE OF SHAOLIN (84) where he plays a young fighting monk in a mission to hide a holy robe from some of the Shaolin Temple enemies including a Wu Tang assassin played by Yu Rong-guang. This superior, bombastic Mainland Wu-shu film showed   Chui as a superb Wu-shu performer, appropriately intense and stoic but somewhat bland except for a nice set of puppy eyes which played well into the movie’s ill-fated romantic sub-plot with Chui’s fighting-maiden co-star.

If Chui made any other Mainland movie it is not known by this reviewer. He did a brief but noticeable appearance in WING CHUN (94), as Master Wong who challenges the titular character to the tofu duel; one of the film’s great moments. Chui looked significantly older and less wooden than in Holy Robe as he was given plenty of goofy faces to do as he is bested by Michelle Yeoh.

Born 04/10/72 in Heilongjiang China.

Chiu Man Cheuk has incredible martial arts abilities combined with loads of boyish charm, but unfortunately appeared on the stage a bit too late to become the success that he deserves. These are days in HK film where the kung fu period film is out of style and the low film budgets do not allow for the sort of wild action that he is capable of doing. It's a shame that such a talented actor has to make films like Body Weapon, Blacksheep Affair and Fist Power.

After being discovered by Tsui Hark in 1992, Chiu was being touted as the next Jet Li. He shares the same innocent charm, fabulous skills, was brought up in Beijing and even trained at the same martial arts school - but unless things change in the HK film landscape, it is unlikely that he will ever achieve Jet's success. These days he is doing much more TV than film.

He studied - along with a number of other HK film stuntmen/actors - in Madame Fan Fok Fa's Peking Opera School and then in the 80's he joined Sammo Hung's stunt team. His lean looks and long narrow face generally threw him into the category of being a bad guy, but one of his best roles was as the good wizard in Encounter of the Spooky Kind.

Conan Lee grew up in Queens, NY and made a film in the states before jumping into the world of HK film. He has an incredible physical build and was quite a good martial artist, but apparently an oversized ego as well and it brought his career in HK to a halt. As one of the DVD bios states "unavoidably he has Gweilo character"!

Born in 1947

During the 1960's there were two young actresses in Cantonese films that were especially popular - one was Josephine Siao and the other was Connie Chan. Both were part of a group of seven actresses termed "The Seven Cantonese Princesses". Connie appeared in all types of films in the 60s' - dramas, comedies, action, spy spoofs, martial arts and musicals. Connie was the daughter of Opera stars Chan Fei-nung and Kung Fan-hung and was trained in both the Southern and Northern schools of martial arts. Some of her films were The Wedding Gown, Her Tender Love, Three Young Girls, The Tin-Long Gang, The Goddess of Mercy, Eternal Love, the Iron Lady Battles the One-Eyed Dragon and I'll Get You One Day. As one of the first teen idols, she made nearly 250 films before retiring at the grand old age of 25 in 1972! In 1999 she returned to the stage in the drama Sentimental Journey and in 2000 is appearing on stage with Tony Leung Kar-fai and Carina Lau in Red Boat.

The information and pictures for this bit on Connie was from Paul Fonoroff's terrific book - Silver Light.

This very fine dramatic actress was in a number of serious films in the 1980's and also appeared in some films directed by her husband Wayne Wang.

Considered one of the best fight choreographers in HK film, Corey went to the same Peking Opera School as Jackie and Sammo and was one of the Seven Little Fortunes. Like all the others, he began as a stuntman and worked his way up to choreographer and then director. He has often appeared in films but generally doesn't perform any fancy action moves in them.

Born 05/13/66

Crystal just recently shocked the HK film establishment by directing one of the most intriguing, stylish and sexually adventurous films ever from HK and is one of the first women to direct a Cat III film. It is called The Mistress and it goes down some mature psychological avenues that few HK films have attempted.

She has also recently (2004) gone into theater and has produced and written a play ("Fertility Goddess") which was shown at the Fringe Club this month. Marsha Yuan had the lead role but was accompanied by Cheng Pei Pei (her real-life mother) in a supporting part. (thanks to Pete for that info).

(Info provided by Sebastian Tse)

This lovely Taiwanese actress grew up wanting to be a dancer, but switched her interest to acting when that didn't work out. Her dance training certainly came in handy though when Dickson Poon was looking to replace the retiring Michelle Yeoh in the Line of Duty films. She had appeared in a few small films in Taiwan, but this break was to launch her career as one of the top female action stars of the 80's and early 90's. The English name given to her was a combination of Michelle Khan (as Michelle Yeoh was billed at the time) and Cynthia Rothrock.

Cynthia is one of the few gweilos in HK film who actually was portrayed as a good guy instead of the usually stereotypical gweilo villains. She is also one of the few gweilo action stars that generally receives respect from the often dismissive western HK film fans. Part of this may be because her skills were just so good. Back in the U.S.A. before getting into movies, she won the World Karate Championships for five consecutive years (1981-1985) in the "Forms and Weapons" category (which is not divided into male and female sections). She holds five Black Belts.