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Lau Kar-leung
Lau Kar-leung (traditional Chinese: 劉家良; simplified Chinese: 刘家良; Jyutping: Lau4 gaa1-loeng4; pinyin: Liú Jiāliáng; 28 July 1934 – 25 June 2013) was a Hong Kong martial artist, filmmaker, fight choreographer and actor. He is best known for the films he made in the 1970s and 1980s for the Shaw Brothers Studio, notably those starring Gordon Liu. He is considered one of the most influential figures in the history of martial arts cinema.
In many of his best-known films, Lau was credited as Liu Chia-liang, the Wade–Giles spelling of his Mandarin name. He was part of a lineage of Hung Ga practitioners originating from Wong Fei-hung.
Lau was born in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province in 1934. He had a younger brother, Kar-wing, also a prominent martial arts actor and filmmaker.
Lau began learning kung fu when he was nine years old, under strict tutelage from his father, Lau Cham. The elder Lau was a well-known practitioner of the Wong Fei-hung lineage of Hung Ga, as a disciple of Wong's pupil Lam Sai-wing. He was the headmaster of the Hua Chiang Martial Arts Society in Guangzhou, where he lived with his family until 1948, when they moved to British Hong Kong. Lau became adept in various styles of Southern Chinese martial arts, training rigorously with his father until the age of 28.
Before becoming famous, Lau worked as an extra and choreographer on black and white Wong Fei-hung movies. He teamed up with fellow Wong Fei-hung choreographer Tong Gaai on the 1963 Hu Peng-directed wuxia film South Dragon, North Phoenix. Their collaboration would continue on until the mid-1970s. His first appearance in a film was in Brave Lad of Guangong (1950).
In the 1960s he became one of Shaw Brothers' main choreographers and had a strong working relationship with director Chang Cheh, working on many of Chang's films as a choreographer (often alongside Tong Gaai) including The One-Armed Swordsman, as well as other Shaw Brothers wuxia films, such as The Jade Bow. After a split with Chang on the set of Marco Polo, Lau evolved into a director during the sudden boom of martial arts films in the early 1970s. He occasionally did choreography work for non-Shaw films as well, such as Master of the Flying Guillotine.
After Shaw Brothers stopped producing movies in 1986, Lau continued directing and choreographing films independently, despite numerous obstacles, among them the fact that Shaw Brothers considered his contract with them still valid despite the fact that they were no longer making movies. This led to a rumored four-film deal with Jackie Chan being canceled when Shaw approached Chan and warned him that Lau was still under contract to them. Additionally, because his last film for Shaw Brothers, Martial Arts of Shaolin (1986), had been filmed in Mainland China, Lau was not allowed to work in Taiwan and no Taiwanese distributors would handle his films. Lau approached Cinema City who agreed to settle his issues with Taiwan if he directed three films for them, Tiger on the Beat (1988), Aces Go Places 5: The Terracotta Hit (1989), and Tiger on the Beat 2 (1990). The box office successes of these three films reinvigorated his career.
In March 1993, Lau began directing Jackie Chan in Drunken Master II, however, the film's star Jackie Chan and director Lau clashed over the style of fighting, resulting in Lau leaving the set before the shooting of the final fight scene, which was then taken over by Chan. Lau subsequently directed Drunken Master III and Drunken Monkey without Chan.
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Lau Kar-leung
Lau Kar-leung (traditional Chinese: 劉家良; simplified Chinese: 刘家良; Jyutping: Lau4 gaa1-loeng4; pinyin: Liú Jiāliáng; 28 July 1934 – 25 June 2013) was a Hong Kong martial artist, filmmaker, fight choreographer and actor. He is best known for the films he made in the 1970s and 1980s for the Shaw Brothers Studio, notably those starring Gordon Liu. He is considered one of the most influential figures in the history of martial arts cinema.
In many of his best-known films, Lau was credited as Liu Chia-liang, the Wade–Giles spelling of his Mandarin name. He was part of a lineage of Hung Ga practitioners originating from Wong Fei-hung.
Lau was born in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province in 1934. He had a younger brother, Kar-wing, also a prominent martial arts actor and filmmaker.
Lau began learning kung fu when he was nine years old, under strict tutelage from his father, Lau Cham. The elder Lau was a well-known practitioner of the Wong Fei-hung lineage of Hung Ga, as a disciple of Wong's pupil Lam Sai-wing. He was the headmaster of the Hua Chiang Martial Arts Society in Guangzhou, where he lived with his family until 1948, when they moved to British Hong Kong. Lau became adept in various styles of Southern Chinese martial arts, training rigorously with his father until the age of 28.
Before becoming famous, Lau worked as an extra and choreographer on black and white Wong Fei-hung movies. He teamed up with fellow Wong Fei-hung choreographer Tong Gaai on the 1963 Hu Peng-directed wuxia film South Dragon, North Phoenix. Their collaboration would continue on until the mid-1970s. His first appearance in a film was in Brave Lad of Guangong (1950).
In the 1960s he became one of Shaw Brothers' main choreographers and had a strong working relationship with director Chang Cheh, working on many of Chang's films as a choreographer (often alongside Tong Gaai) including The One-Armed Swordsman, as well as other Shaw Brothers wuxia films, such as The Jade Bow. After a split with Chang on the set of Marco Polo, Lau evolved into a director during the sudden boom of martial arts films in the early 1970s. He occasionally did choreography work for non-Shaw films as well, such as Master of the Flying Guillotine.
After Shaw Brothers stopped producing movies in 1986, Lau continued directing and choreographing films independently, despite numerous obstacles, among them the fact that Shaw Brothers considered his contract with them still valid despite the fact that they were no longer making movies. This led to a rumored four-film deal with Jackie Chan being canceled when Shaw approached Chan and warned him that Lau was still under contract to them. Additionally, because his last film for Shaw Brothers, Martial Arts of Shaolin (1986), had been filmed in Mainland China, Lau was not allowed to work in Taiwan and no Taiwanese distributors would handle his films. Lau approached Cinema City who agreed to settle his issues with Taiwan if he directed three films for them, Tiger on the Beat (1988), Aces Go Places 5: The Terracotta Hit (1989), and Tiger on the Beat 2 (1990). The box office successes of these three films reinvigorated his career.
In March 1993, Lau began directing Jackie Chan in Drunken Master II, however, the film's star Jackie Chan and director Lau clashed over the style of fighting, resulting in Lau leaving the set before the shooting of the final fight scene, which was then taken over by Chan. Lau subsequently directed Drunken Master III and Drunken Monkey without Chan.