Eason Chan Yik Shun

Another HK pop singer just turned actor in Twelve Nights. He is a good looking fellow and perhaps for nearly a first performance he was not bad - but I have to say his character was quite annoying – always looking as if he had gotten out on the wrong side of the bed. He was also in Rumble Ages and City of Glass. Over the past few years he has taken on some very solid roles in films like Visible Secret I and II, Funeral March and Demi-Haunted but I still don't see any particular charisma or talent from his performances.

A report on Sanney's site had this information on Eason - "His career started on July 16, 1995, a date he rattled off easily because that was when he won both the first prize and the Best Individual Interpretation Performance prize at Hongkong's 14th Xinxiu Singing Competition. Shelving his architectural studies for a singing career, he has not looked back since, going on to win 15 major awards, including a number of Best Song prizes, for his vocal prowess over the years."

His father who worked for the government was convicted in 2003 for financial corruption and sentenced to jail.


Eddie Chan/Ngai Dik

The transvestite serial killer in He Lives By Night and also was in the horror film Devil Fetus and the Danny Lee film Law with Two Phases.


Eddie Ko Hung

This actor has been portraying tough characters for two decades now. His burning eyes and nearly always mustachioed visage has generally consigned him into the villain category, but he showed with John Woo’s Heroes Shed No Tears that he could do tough good guy just as well.

He just has this very cool sense of authority and stillness around him. Some other films that he was in were: The Postman Strikes Back, Duel to the Death, Miracle Fighters, Burning Ambition and Dreaming the Reality. In many of these films he has displayed some great action skills. He is still working and was in fact in the recent film The Mission in which he played Mr. Ko – the target of the killers.

Eddie Maher

One of those gwielos that almost always portrayed villains in many of the Girls with Guns films. He definitely shows some excellent kung fu moves – though his fate is inevitably to end up dying or being beaten at the hands of one of our heroines. Some films to see him get his comeuppance in are: Yes Madam (the fellow who fights Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock in the airport), In the Line of Duty 4 (goes against Cynthia Khan in this one), Mr. Mumble, New Kids in Town, Royal Warriors, Proud and Confident (the main terrorist) and Sea Wolves.

Here is some information I received from a fellow:

"Eddie was undefeated in over 10 years of HK full contact fights and is probably the nicest person I've ever met. He currently has a production company with Mark Houghton and is from Macau (and is half Chinese)."


Edison Chen

 Born: 10-7-1980 in Vancouver

(Received the following from MC Truong)

Edison is one of the most popular singers in Hong Kong today; he’s also an actor. Edison is one of the many loved idols in Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and throughout Eastern Asia. He was born in Vancouver, Canada and somehow made his way to Hong Kong and became what he is today, some people may say he’s spoiled since he comes from a wealthy background. He has 2 sisters, Patricia and another (whose name doesn’t come to mind right now). Patricia herself is a model, and wannabe actress. In magazines months ago, Edison had said, he did not want his sister to go into acting, that she did not need to take his job. But somehow that does seem rational.

He is supposedly going with female singer BoBo Chan, and fans seem very very unhappy and angry. Edison also keeps denying he does go out with BoBo, but he’s seen so frequently with her. A few of his good friends would be singer/actor Nicholas Tse and singer/actor Sam Lee.

Edison has a busy schedule pertaining to him making movies and recording new CD albums, he’s made and is making about 4-5 movies. His first appearance was in the sequel of Gen X Cops, Gen Y Cops and went on from there to Final Romance which again he co- starred with Sam Lee. His two newest films are Dummy Mommy Without A Baby co-starred with Miriam Yeung and Dance Of Dream co-starring long time actor/singer Andy Lau. And there is his long awaited film Princess D. His CDs old, recent and upcoming CDs are: GEN Y COPS soundtrack, Edison Chen EP, Visual Diary I, visual Diary II, a new Mandarin album Ed Is On and another upcoming Canto album Peace and Love.

I think Edison Chen was discovered when he first made a commercial for a credit card featuring Cecilia Cheung and Leon Lai. On the subject of Edison Chen and commercials, Edison also sponsors PEPSI and has made a couple of commercials for them, my favorite would be the 2000 New Years Pepsi commercial, featuring Aaron Kwok.

Seeing how this guy’s career is going, I think we’ll be seeing him much more for years to come.


Edmund Leung Hon-man

Born on 11/05/71

Edmund won a TVB new talent singing contest - and from this he went on to a career in both singing and at TVB. At one point he was hyped as "the next big superstar", but though this hasn't happened he is a popular singer in HK. His album "Breath" was received with much critical praise. He has used his innocent good looks in film as well - the young man in Mongkok Story, Banana Club, Take Five and Gigi Lai's courter in the awful Super Energetic Man.


Eileen Tung Oi Ling

Born on 11/23/72

This lovely winsome Taiwanese actress has been in only a few films – but the number of web sites dedicated to her are evidence of her popularity. I think much of her popularity revolves around her singing career.

Some of her films are Under the Rainbow, Over the Skirt (the object of the young man’s desire), Most Wanted (1994), Mack the Knife, Your Place or Mine (1998) and Sunshine Kids (1999). Her favorite sport – bowling!

Ekin Cheng Yi Kin/Dior/Noodle

Born on 10/04/67

In one of the greater mysteries of life, Ekin has managed to overcome various name changes and an empty cupboard full of talent to become perhaps HK’s biggest movie star in the second half of the nineties. How did he do this? Sure he is good looking – but he is nearly unable to change his expression on screen – it looks like his face would crack if he were to attempt this – and he has no action skills (which has been an entry for many HK actors in the past) – and yet he is everywhere. When he started dating Gigi Leung and dumped his old girlfriend Maggie Sui, it was front-page stuff and became the obsession of the HK press corps for months. In an interview Ekin said simply "I'm just an ordinary guy who had fallen out of love and who simply wanted to carry on with my life."

I lay his success down to the Idolization of HK films over the last few years. To some degree this has been going on for years – i.e. Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok – but never like this. Idol Making machines find a new attractive face – push it onto every magazine – get them a singing contract – have them appear at every event and hope lightening strikes. The way they look and dress has become far more important than their acting ability. But give Ekin credit – he is the King Idol and has stayed on top while other Idols come and go  - but now that he is into his thirties one has to wonder how much longer this can go on.
Like many actors, he first began acting training at TVB – was in several dramas and the children's show Shuttle 430 and then made his debut film (Girls Without Tomorrow) in 1992. He also appeared in other fluffy films such as Boys are Easy (in a similar role to that he had in Girls Without Tomorrow:  I.e., as a man who is so shy around women that he’s an over-aged virgin), I’m Your Birthday Cake, Future Cops and Mermaid Got Married. Then in 1996 he starred in this silly little film called Young and Dangerous – that became a gigantic phenomenon and Ekin was well on his way to Idolhood. Many more Y&Ds came his way, the Feeling 100% films – and then finally with the help of computer generated effects he became a huge action star with Storm Riders (1998) and A Man Called Hero (1999). He admits that he is not really much of an action star though and that his dream "is to take part in a simple story [that is] the saddest love story ever - something I've wanted to do since I left TVB's Artist Training Class. No fancy set like Titanic though, but more intense on the emotional level."

What’s amazing is that his acting has actually gotten worse over his career – it is as if Idolization has set his face in stone. It will be interesting to track his career as he gets older – how long can he stay on top of the pops?


Elaine Kam Yin Ling/Elaine Jin/Elaine Gam

The mother in Gorgeous (1999), Tempting Heart, City of Light and the Soong Sisters (1997) all had one thing in common. Elaine Kam played them all. It’s amazing how quickly she moved to motherly roles.

It was only in 1989 when she played the sexy female gun smuggler in Wild Search – but her credits go back to the mid 70’s. Some of her better known films are I am Sorry, Love Unto Waste, King of Stanley Market and Heart into Hearts. This Taiwan-born actress was also in this terrific Taiwanese film I saw a few years ago called Confucian Confusion.

Elaine Lui Siu-ling

One of the few highlights in Sammo Hung’s TV show Martial Law was the appearance in a few episodes of Elaine Lui who played the deadly evil daughter of Sammo’s nemesis. I hadn’t seen her in anything since 1995’s Red Wolf and had no idea what she was up to or how she looked. All I can say is she looked fabulous – lean, mean and sexy – and very flexible.

Elaine was in Angel (1987) the film that really got the Girls with Guns films underway and the film that kick started the careers of Moon Lee and Yukari Oshima. Even though Elaine was also very impressive in this film, for some reason it didn’t seem to give her career the same boost as it did the others. A year before Angel, Elaine had shown some terrific action credentials in a little known film called Innocent Interloper – and after Angel she made Angel II – but her filmography only totals to around 10 films. Two of these besides the Angel films are classics though – Stone Age Warriors and Bride with White Hair – and Bullet for Hire (1991) is a solid film tool. She was interviewed for the fighting femme film compilation Fighting Deadly Dolls and in the interview she definitely comes across as somewhat bitter that she didn’t achieve more success. I think it’s a shame as well.

Elizabeth Lee Mei-fung

Born 08/31/63

The moment Elizabeth Lee turns her head and smiles in The Greatest Lover, Chow Yun Fat loses his heart – and its no surprise. She looks gorgeous – all chiffon and chewy caramel. Of course in the end Chow falls in love with Anita Mui and leaves Elizabeth broken hearted.

To some degree that seems to exemplify this Singaporean’s acting career. Though she was in a number of good films (and some not so good ones) she never made a real breakthrough and ending up retiring only eight years after her first film in 1988. She was the evil ghost in Picture of a Nymph and was also in Gunmen, Yuppie Fantasia, one of the few survivors in Widow Warriors, Sword Stained with Royal Blood, Lady Reporter and the target of Anthony Wong’s insanity in Love to Kill.

Elle Choi Suet-man

Born 02/07/80

She went to school in Australia and has just recently gotten some good roles in solid films - Lord of Amusement and True Love – and is in the Idol Machine. According to Sanney's site she is having troubles with her fellow Idols on the make!


Ellen Chan Nga Lun

Born 02/16/66

Ellen Chan was definitely one of the sexier stars in HK from the mid 80's to the mid 90's. She never quite made it to the "A" list in terms of films, but she had and still has many fans. In the 80's she was in a number of solid films - Sam Hui's secretary in Aces Go Places 5, Tiger on the Beat 2, one of the squad in Inspector Wears Skirts and Max Mok's love interest in Lung Fung Restaurant. Even in these relatively innocent films, she had a smoldering sexuality to her - but it was hidden to some degree under an extremely cute and chipper veneer.

In the 90's though, for whatever reason, she decided (ala Loletta Lee) to take advantage of her fabulous looks and made a few Cat. III films that displayed some of her charms. These were Fatal Love (with Michael Wong), Why Wild Girls and then the classic Love that is Wrong in which she played a murderous lesbian. Her movie career seems to have come to an end in the mid 90's with another "B" classic Eternal Evil of Asia. John Charles reports on his site Hong Kong Digital that she was actually blacklisted from films for publicly referring to the "casting couch" policy of director Wong Jing. She has recently been in a Mainland TV production and a few low budget HK films in 2002 -  Salon Beauty and Market's Romance - and she still looks great.

Elsa Yeung Wai-san/Yang Hui Shang

This actress from Taiwan has appeared in a few cult like films – Pink Force Commando, Golden Queen Commandos, Thrilling Bloody Sword (the villainess) and Five Lady Venoms and some low budget films (Life of Ninja, Impossible Woman, Seven Knights) with kung fu legend Chen Kuan-tai in the 80's. Elsa had an affair with a Taiwanese actor (whose wife is a famous writer) and the scandal destroyed her film career. After this, she and her lover ventured into the glass-making business. Presently, she is one of the world's most famous glass-making artists and most of her work is considered a treasure by collectors.

(Write-up from Sebastian Tse)


Elsie Chan Yik Si

Elsie had a cuddly sweet look to her with just a hint of sexiness thrown in that made her quite alluring in her short film career. She was the eldest daughter in the Mad Mad Mad World comedy series, the happy go lucky prostitute in Call Girl 88 and one of the lady cops in Operation Pink Squad

After quiting the film business, Elsie joined her mother in a business in China. Currently though, she is up to her neck in trouble as she is being sued by Chinese banks operating in HK for embezzling over HK$50 million!

(Info provided by Sebastian Tse)


Emil Chow/Chau Wah-kin

Born 12/22/60 in Taiwan

Emil is primarily known for his singing ability – but he dabbles from time to time in film, as is much more the practice in Asia as compared to the United States. His acting is quite low key – but reasonably good. He was the HK cop that teamed up with Michelle Yeoh in Project S (N.B. the end song in the HK -- as opposed to American dubbed -- version of this film is sung by him), the head cop in Purple Storm, Jackie’s friend and rival in Gorgeous and was wedded to Anita Yuen in Just Married.  He also makes a cameo appearance (as himself) in Who’s the Woman, Who’s the Man.


Emily Chu Bo Yee

Born 10/31/60

Emily was born and raised in California and went to HK to get work as a model. Film offers quickly came to this dark eyed shy smiling beauty – first from Jackie Chan as his girlfriend in Heart of Dragon (1985), a small part in Millionaires Express and then two very good roles. She co-starred with Chow Yun Fat in The Witch from Nepal in which they shared a steamy love scene and then was Leslie Cheung's wife in A Better Tomorrow I and II. Her scene in which she is giving birth as he is dying and yet talking to her on the phone is a classic melodramatic Woo moment.

After this she had a few other decent parts – in the classic Rouge and the odd film Scared Stiff – but she also was making some very weak films like Ghostly Love, Visa to Hell, Vampires Breakfast, Devil's Curse. Her last film appearance was in 1992.

Emily Kwan Bo Wai

Her filmography has more trash in it than the city dump. Though I don’t know anyone who likes her all that much, she has appeared in a truck full of Cat III films – some of them classics in bad taste. Dr. Lamb (the dim female cop), Untold Story (again the dim female cop), Dream Killer, Bloody Friday, Love in the River, Hanky Panky, Desirous Express, Twist, Spider Woman, Yu Pui Tsuen III, Severely Rape, Temptation of an Angel. Get the story? What’s really odd is the fact that she has also appeared in two terrific Ringo Lam films – as the policewoman in both Full Alert and Victim. She must have pictures! In the dvd commentary for Untold Story, Anthony Wong mentions that she was in the same acting class as him but she didn't learn much and was terrible in the film!


Emotion Cheung Kam-chin

Emotion was the much loved sushi boy in the cult classic Bio-Zombie. A few other films in his filmography are – Love Cruise, Demon Baby, Gigolo of Chinese Hollywood and Love and Sex in Eastern Hollywood.


Eric Kot Man-fai

Hold on a second while I scream. Arrrrrrrggggghhhhhh! OK I feel better – but that’s what watching Eric Kot generally does to me. Loud, obnoxious and silly only begin to hint at his style of comedy.  He has to be the most irritating man in HK cinema. His presence in a film makes me want to hide out in a padded cell. His comedy is generally like being hit over the head with a dull brick until you collapse into a heap of drooling spit.

He was initially part of a comic duo (Soft and Hard Core Kids) with his partner Jan Lam – and the two of them then made a number of film appearances together – To Spy with Love (1990), Tricky Business (1995), Run (1994), Conjugal Affairs, Tale from the East, Land of Treasure and City Hunter (1993). Around 1995 Eric began making film appearances in his own right – Love in the Time of Twilight, Mean Street Story, Saint of the Gamblers, Feel 100%, Lawyer Lawyer, He comes from Planet K and recently Sausalito. In nearly all of these his characters feel like they are acting in a different movie from everyone else. Apparently though he is fairly popular in HK. Not to be completely unfair I did enjoy his performance in Love Amoebae Style. He also turned in an okay performance as a shy suitor of Sandra Ng’s character in Juliet in Love. As an addendum - I will say that his screen persona appears to be maturing and after his role as the sifu in Just One Look and the assassin in the lovely comedy You Shoot, I Shoot, I look forward to his future work.
Interestingly, he has directed three films – a segment in 4 Faces of Eve (a Sandra Ng showcase), Dragon Heat and First Love: the Litter on the Breeze (which was produced by Wong Kar Wai) – and though I have seen none of these they have good reputations among the art house crowd.

Eric Tsang Chi-wai

Born 1954

In the early 80s’ Eric Tsang was almost as annoying in his films as Eric Kot is in the 90’s. He often was stuck playing leering or loud or moronic characters with all the subtlety of a head butt in a large number of comedies. There were the Lucky Star films, the Mad Mad World series and many more. Somehow though as irritating as he could be he still managed to be endearing. His slightly high pitched, often fast talking raspy voice is a joy to listen to.

In the 90’s though, he shook off all these old roles and much to my amazement turned out to be an absolutely terrific character actor. In films such as He’s the Woman, She’s the Man, Comrades A Love Story, Hold You Tight, Task Force, Fly Me to Polaris, Metade Fumaca, Wedding Days, Merry Go Round, Three, Golden Chicken and Infernal Affairs – he has been so good and brings a real sensitivity and depth to his roles. That doesn’t mean he still can’t be silly as shown in Mr. Wai-go – but now I quite enjoy his leering characters!
To look at his short roly-poly body one would never think that he began his career as a stuntman – and before that he was a soccer player (his father Tsang Kai-wing had been a professional soccer player) – but this is the case. In 1974 he joined director Chang Che’s film company and performed stunts first and worked his way up (at Sammo's advice). Before he got into acting he first began directing. His debut directing film was in 1979 – The Challenger – and he followed this with The Loot and then two of the Aces Go Places films. The Aces films were a huge success and solidified his place in the industry. In the early 80’s he also began acting and was soon cast in a huge number of movies. He was an integral part of the success of Cinema City – and won the Best Actor award in 1991 for Alan and Eric – Between Hello and Goodbye. Some other films directed by Eric are Handsome Siblings, Those Were the Days (1996) and Come Fly the Dragon. In the 90's he was also a vital part of the success of UFO as a producer and had many good supporting roles in many of their films. With his recent involvement - in front of or behind  the screen - in films like Infernal Affairs, Men Suddenly in Black, The Eye, Three and Golden Chicken, Tsang has put a stake in the ground as one of the more important go-to guys in Hong Kong film.

Eugenia Yuan/Yuen

Though (supposedly) U.S./Hollywood based, the eldest of three daughters of legendary actress, Cheng Pei Pei, has also appeared in Flying Dragon, Leaping Tiger (where she has a smaller fighting female role then her mother) and the Peter Chan directed portion of Three (as Leon Lai’s character’s wife). With these two films she has shown a terrific range – showing some solid action moves in Flying Dragon, Leaping Tiger and in Three she takes on a highly unusual role and gives it an astonishing amount of poignancy.

Among the U.S. raised woman’s Stateside appearances has been one movie (Charlotte Sometimes) along with guest appearances on TV series like Martial Law, NYPD Blue and Baywatch.  Despite this 2003 HKFA Best Newcomer (for Three: Coming Home) having had more professional success thus far than sister Marsha, Eugenia appears to have chosen to be based in the U.S. rather than focus on having a career in Hong Kong cinema.