Golden Harvest - Leading Change in Changing Times

Golden Harvest:
Leading Change in
Changing Times
乘風變化嘉禾電影研究
Publisher: Hong Kong Film Archive
© 2013 Hong Kong Film Archive
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Contents 目錄
Preface 4 Po Fung
前言蒲鋒
Essays 評論
The Organisational Structure and 8 Po Fung
Developmental History of Golden Harvest 蒲鋒
嘉禾創立之架構及發展
The Vicissitudes of Golden Studios: 26 Sek Kei

From Factory-Oriented Production to Star System and Satellite Operation 石琪
嘉禾片場滄桑：從工廠制到明星衛星制
Golden Harvest’s Outreach Strategy and 34 Law Kar

Competitive Fronts in Thailand and Korea During Its Early Years 羅卡
嘉禾創業期的外展戰略和在泰韓兩國的戰線
From Shaw Brothers to Golden Harvest: Raymond Chow and Japan 43 Kinnia Yau Shuk-ting
從邵氏到嘉禾：鄒文懷的日本關係邱淑婷
More Detour Than Legacy: Golden Harvest’s Hollywood Gambit 50 Sam Ho

人言洛陽花似錦，偏我行來不是春─嘉禾初闖荷里活的教訓　何思穎
Mischievous Urban Fantasia: Michael Hui’s Comic Mode 54 Ernest Chan

都市鬼馬狂想─許冠文喜劇模式陳志華
Sammo Hung, the One and Only 63 Lam Chiu-wing

洪金寶地球最強林超榮
The Kid, the Cop, the Adventurer 71 Cheng Chuen-wai

小子、差人、冒險家小偉
Contents 目錄
The Female Kung Fu Chop 78 Stephen Teo

in Golden Harvest’s Films of the 1970s 張建德
以茅瑛為印記─七十年代嘉禾功夫電影的拓展
Like Brother, Like Sister: Angela Mao, 96 Udagawa Koyo

the ‘Female Dragon’ in the Eyes of Japanese Fans 宇田川幸洋
有龍兄必有龍妹：日本影迷眼中的茅瑛
From Wuxia to Comedy: Lo Wei and John Woo’s Early Works 108 Matthew Cheng
從武俠到喜劇─羅維與吳宇森早期的電影鄭政恆
Middle-Class Comedies by Mobile Film Productions 117 Wong Ain-ling

二友的中產喜劇黃愛玲
Reminiscences 憶述
The Way of the Big Boss: 126

Interview with Raymond Chow
鄒文懷：我對自己所做的事沒有失望
Good Business is the Best Art: 136

Louis Sit on the Management Style of Golden Harvest
薛志雄：電影是戲假情真
Riding High on Big Tides: 145

Albert Lee on Overseas Distribution of Golden Harvest’s Films
利雅博：開展一個全球市場
Appendices 附錄
The Golden Harvest Chronology 154

嘉禾公司年表
Profiles 161
人物小傳
4
PREFACE
Golden Harvest was established in 1970, the beginning of a critical period which, in many
ways, marks a turning point in the history of Hong Kong cinema. The advent of free-to-
air television not only brought new challenges to the film industry, but also nurtured a fresh
crop of talent. The relaxation of film censorship led to a rise in depictions of violence and
sex; Cantonese was beginning to overtake Mandarin as language of choice for mainstream
productions; and independent filmmaking by small companies was booming. Golden
Harvest was not only part of these different trends and developments, but was often a
driving force behind them.
Commercially speaking, Golden Harvest established itself as a rival to Shaw Brothers as
early as the 1970s, and was unquestionably the most successful of all new film companies
of the period. It maintained its status as a major player in the industry throughout the 1980s
and 90s. Indeed, it may be argued that Golden Harvest has been the most commercially
successful and stable film company in Hong Kong from 1970 to 2000.
This Golden Harvest research project coincides with our work on the Hong Kong
Filmography series, which has stepped into the 1970s. It also marks a continuation of
our previous research efforts into two major Hong Kong film companies before the rise of
Golden Harvest – Cathay Organisation and Shaw Brothers. Cathay quit the film production
business the same time Golden Harvest was set up, and the younger company took over
the Yung Hwa Motion Picture Studios from Cathay. In addition, during its first decade,
Golden Harvest was locked in fierce competition with Shaws, and on many occasions, it
5
directly or indirectly affected many developments and executive decisions within the ageing
film empire. One might, therefore, say that the story of Golden Harvest is at the same time
an extension of the stories of Cathay and Shaws.
Researching Golden Harvest is by no means an easy task. This is partly because the
organisation structure of Golden Harvest was even more complex than that of Cathay and
Shaws which ran their own production studios. On the one hand, Golden Harvest operated
on a similar system as these other two companies, in that it was involved in a wide range
of businesses, including production, distribution and studio filming. In certain cases, it
even expanded into business areas previously unexplored by Hong Kong film companies.
For example, at one point, Golden Harvest was actively involved in making Hollywood-
style motion pictures and had a specialised, independent department devoted to capturing
a greater overseas market. Yet unlike Cathay and Shaws, Golden Harvest developed a
business strategy of diversification. It owned a great number of satellite companies which
worked and filmed for Golden Harvest, but from time to time, it engaged the services of
film companies from outside as well. It also delegated different aspects of its business to
a variety of partnering companies. For instance, Golden Communications was a company
responsible for the overseas distribution of Golden Harvest films, as well as the filming and
production of Hollywood features. All Golden Harvest films were developed by Cine Art
Laboratory, and although the two companies worked closely together for many years, Cine
Art was not, strictly speaking, part of Golden Harvest. Only in 1991 did Golden Harvest
formally acquire Cine Art, just before it became listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Making sense of the complex web of relations between Golden Harvest and these other
companies is both a challenging and necessary task. To cite an obvious example, Golden
Harvest went public in 1994, but this only involved its film distribution businesses; film
production remained private. Misunderstandings can easily arise if such distinctions were
not made clearly. This book mainly focuses on the film production businesses of Golden
Harvest, and there is relatively little discussion on Orange Sky Golden Harvest Entertainment
(Holdings) Limited, a branch of Golden Harvest that deals mainly with film distribution.
The oral histories from people who worked at Golden Harvest were invaluable in helping
us gain a better understanding of its complex company structure. We have interviewed
several individuals, particularly executives, who have helped shape Golden Harvest as a
company. They include Mr Raymond Chow, founder of Golden Harvest; Mr Albert Lee, a
major figure in the company’s overseas distribution business; and Mr Louis Sit, Production
Manager from Golden Harvest’s early years. They have offered us an insider’s view of
Golden Harvest, and have also helped us gain a deeper insight into the company at its
various stages of development.
It is hardly possible for a single volume to cover in detail over 30 years of Golden
Harvest’s history of filmmaking. When putting together this book, we have primarily focused
our attention on the company’s early years in the 1970s, and while we also discuss its
6
development in the 1980s and 90s, the coverage is not as extensive. Also, our original
intention when compiling this volume was that we would not deliberately devote any
article to Bruce Lee, as a great amount of excellent research on the action star has been
published in recent years (including Bruce Lee Lives , published during the 2010 Hong Kong
International Film Festival, as well as the accompanying pamphlet to a major Bruce Lee
exhibition at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum this year). However, it turned out that Bruce
Lee is impossible to ignore in the story of Golden Harvest. Without having planned for it,
Bruce Lee figures in many of our writers’ work here. It is testament to his iconic status and
importance that he seems to permeate every aspect of Golden Harvest’s history as a film
company.
Our efforts here represent a preliminary step in what is no doubt a long and promising
process of research. As one of the most important film companies in Hong Kong cinema,
we expect Golden Harvest to continue to feature prominently in our future projects. [Translated
by Rachel Ng]
Po Fung
Research Officer, Hong Kong Film Archive
7
Essays
8
The Organisational Structure and

Developmental History of
Golden Harvest
Po Fung
Shaw Brothers enjoyed its glory days in Hong Kong cinema during the
1970s. Its long-term rival, Cathay Organisation, had a vast distribution
network and an enormous amount of capital, but the overall quality
of their productions failed to measure up, and the company’s features
lagged far behind Shaw Brothers’ blockbusters at the box office. Small-
scale Cantonese filmmaking studios had already been suffering for quite
some time before that, and the number of movies in the dialect continued
to decline before production came to a complete halt in 1971. Li Han-
hsiang left Shaw Brothers to found Grand Motion Picture Company in
Taiwan, but to no avail. Meanwhile, Shaws stood as a lone giant which
produced up to 48 films a year with its 12 studios, 1 embodying the
prowess and superiority of the large-scale production model. However,
a new organisation emerged in 1970 and became a force to be reckoned
with, dethroning Shaw Brothers in under a decade. The clearest indicator
lay in the annual top ten box-office records – motion pictures produced by
Shaw Brothers occupied nine spots in 1970, but only one made it into the
1 ‘An Inside Look – 1969: A Fruitful Year for Shaw Brothers’, Southern Screen , No 143, Hong Kong: Southern Screen Press,
January 1970, pp 52–55 (in Chinese).
The Or gani s ati on al Str u ctu re
and Develo pm e n t a l Hi st ory of G ol de n Ha r v e s t 9
list in 1979. 2 This company, which managed to stand on an equal footing

with Shaw Brothers in less than ten years, created a new and effective
production model for the Hong Kong film industry to emulate. Going
by the name of Golden Harvest, it was actually founded by Raymond
Chow, Leonard Ho Koon-cheung and Leung Fung, members of senior
management from the very studio they went on to compete against.
After its founding in 1970, Golden Harvest succeeded in surpassing Shaw Brothers
within its first decade of operation. Although it did not produce a lot of features, the majority
of them were blockbusters which performed much better than the average film at the box
office, achieving record-breaking results on a regular basis. As a matter of fact, the studio
remained as the box-office record holder from 1974 onwards, until Cinema City broke its
winning streak with Aces Go Places in 1982. Despite the rise of new companies such as
Cinema City and D & B during the 1980s, Golden Harvest was able to maintain commercial
success. What distinguished the studio from other major players was the fact that it was
never backed by colossal funds. When Shaw Brothers and Cathay Organisation established
their studios in Hong Kong, large amounts of capital was poured in from Singapore and
Malaysia. Likewise, the emergence of Cinema City was only made possible due to financial
support from the Golden Princess cinema chain which was, in turn, backed by The Kowloon
Motor Bus Co. Golden Harvest did not have much capital to work with at the time of its
founding, relying instead on the reputation and network of its senior management team
comprised of individuals with more than a decade of experience in the film industry. Despite
the lack of funding, they were still able to create a business that matched their large-scale
counterparts. It all came down to the founders’ vision and planning, as well as a little bit of
luck.
The studio’s good luck charm came in the form of Bruce Lee. Golden Harvest released
a total of ten films in 1971, the first being The Invincible Eight which grossed HK$920,000
at the box office. Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman followed, making HK$1.55
million despite the lawsuit that ensued, more than reasonable for a company which had
just started out. The hits kept coming, with The Last Duel , The Blade Spares None , The
Angry River , The Fast Sword , The Comet Strikes , The Chase and The Invincible Sword all
taking their turns on the silver screen that same year. The Comet Strikes performed best
2 The box-office top ten records only serve as an indicator that Shaw Brothers no longer dominated the scene and do not
accurately reflect the market positions of either company. Golden Harvest produced much less films than its rival. Take
the annual box-office records for 1979 as an example – Golden Harvest showed a mix of 10 new and old features which
grossed a total of HK$22.2 million, while Shaw Brothers earned HK$46.34 million with 42 current and past films. Although
they made twice as much money overall, each of Shaw Brothers’ motion pictures, on average, only grossed half the
amount of each Golden Harvest production.
at the box office with HK$800,000, while The Angry River and The Chase earned just over
HK$300,000, 3 a sum which would already have created some pressure for smaller studios.
The Big Boss , starring Lee, was Golden Harvest’s final release in 1971 – the blockbuster
grossed HK$3.19 million, shattering box-office records by an enormous margin. Five
months later, in March 1972, Fist of Fury (again starring Lee) went on to trump the studio’s
previous record by earning HK$4 million. The commercial success of the two films not
only made Golden Harvest’s financial pressure disappear in an instant, but also catapulted
the company to success unmatched by any other. Lee’s recruitment into Golden Harvest
after being let go by Shaw Brothers was, of course, a result of the foresight of the former’s
senior management. However, the fact that a relatively green star managed to pull in box-
office income far exceeding historical figures definitely came as a surprise to everyone. One
cannot exclude luck as a success factor.
Bruce Lee’s commercial value was not limited to the box-office revenue generated from
his films’ initial screenings. After he passed away in 1973, Golden Harvest released in the
following year The Manchu Boxer , starring Anthony Lau Wing, as well as Shaolin Boxer ,
starring James Tien. The promotion of both these films emphasised the connection that the
two male leads had with Lee. For instance, the newspaper ad for Shaolin Boxer described
Tien as ‘Lee Sam-keuk’s (Three Kicks) sidekick’. This marketing strategy, however, only had
minimal effect, as indicated by the films’ respective earnings of HK$190,000 and $140,000.
On the other hand, the rerun of Fist of Fury that same year brought in HK$770,000 – the
combined income of the two new films did not even amount to half of that made by an old
film starring Lee. Furthermore, the box-office performance of this rescreening was actually
among the most modest of them all – Golden Harvest did ten reruns of Lee’s old movies
between 1975 and 1981, nine of which hauling in over HK$1 million. The 1980 rescreening
of Fist of Fury made HK$4.14 million and even became one of the top ten grossing films of
that year. Reruns of Michael Hui’s works also had the same effect, thus the studio was able
to earn several millions extra each year simply by showing Lee and Hui’s older features.
Lee’s box-office appeal was not limited to Hong Kong either. Enter the Dragon , which
was released in Japan on 22 December 1973, paved the way for other locally-produced
films, such as Michael Hui’s Mr Boo! and Jackie Chan’s action movies, to break into the
Japanese market. Golden Harvest could be considered as both the first and last Hong
Kong studio to ever have their films played on the silver screens of this country. 4 Similarly,
Bruce Lee also helped Golden Harvest expand into the European and US markets, with
3 Box-office figures according to First Round Box-Office Records: 1969 to 1989, Hong Kong: Film Biweekly Publishing
House, 1990 (in Chinese).
4 Leung Cheuk-fan, ‘The Lure of the Exotic – Hong Kong Cinema in Japan’, in Border Crossings in Hong Kong Cinema , the
24th Hong Kong International Film Festival catalogue, Hong Kong: Leisure and Cultural Services Department, 2000, pp
156–159.
The Or gan i s ati on al Str u ctu re
and Dev elopm e n t a l Hi st ory of G ol de n Ha r v e s t 11
the studio’s collaboration with Warner Bros on Enter the Dragon most likely serving as
a confidence booster. Several years later, Golden Harvest established its own foreign-
language film division in the US and invested in the production of Hollywood-style features
targeted at the American market. The Amsterdam Kill (1978, also directed by Robert
Clouse, who worked on Enter the Dragon ) was the first of such films. Battle Creek Brawl
(1980, again directed by Clouse) and The Cannonball Run (1981) soon followed, serving
as star vehicles for propelling Jackie Chan to the international arena. Raymond Chow’s
decision to head west came about because of his personal network with industry individuals
in the US, 5 with the success of Enter the Dragon and Lee’s other movies in the market
acting as a catalyst. 6
The late martial arts star’s value to Golden Harvest did not lie solely in box-office
revenue either. During its early days, the studio employed directors (like Lo Wei, Huang Feng
and Hsu Tseng-hung) and actors (such as Jimmy Wang Yu and Chang Yi) who used to work
for Shaws, while the films it made were of the wuxia genre, which its rival studio pioneered
(it also went as far as using the well-known One-Armed Swordsman character created by
Shaw Brothers). All this might have been unavoidable, but it prevented the company from
establishing its own image. The emergence of Bruce Lee enabled the studio to distinguish
itself from its peers by using authentic kung fu as a selling point. Before Lee arrived onto
the scene, Shaws had already made several kung fu features. The Chinese Boxer (1970),
self-directed by and starring Wang, was among the most notable as it grossed over HK$2
million at the box office – the film can be considered as having set the foundation for future
works of the genre. As opposed to just being an actor like Wang, Lee came from a martial
arts background and was able to use powerful yet simple fighting techniques to bring an
unprecedented sense of realism and excitement. Thus, Golden Harvest began to focus
on making movies involving more realistic fight scenes. One particular success story was
the transformation of Angela Mao Ying, originally from a Beijing opera background, into a
fierce female action star in Hap Ki Do (1972), making her an icon of the kung fu genre in
the 1970s. Wang also assumed the leading role in several other Golden Harvest features,
such as One-Armed Boxer (1972), A Man Called Tiger (1973) and The Man from Hong
Kong (1975). He tried to model himself after Lee in creating an action star image, achieving
a certain degree of success with the creation of his own fighting style in One-Armed Boxer .
The association of martial arts films with Golden Harvest can be considered as an intangible
5 Raymond Chow worked for Voice of America (VOA) in Hong Kong (Hong Kong’s United States Information Service was
responsible for broadcasting VOA ’s programmes) during the 1950s. Andre Morgan, who assisted in the production of
Golden Harvest’s foreign-language films in the US, was introduced to Chow through a friend who was teaching at a
university there (Michael Maliszewski, ‘Film Producer Andre Morgan and the Evolution of Asian Martial Arts in Movies’,
Journal of Asian Martial Arts , Vol 11, No 3, Santa Fe, New Mexico: Via Media Publishing Company, 2002, pp 50–65).
6 For further details on the successes and failures of Golden Harvest’s Hollywood ventures, please refer to ‘More Detour
Than Legacy: Golden Harvest’s Hollywood Gambit’ by Sam Ho, pp 50–53 in this volume.
asset which Lee imparted to the studio.

Although Bruce Lee’s box-office appeal could not be foreseen, he continued a long-
term working relationship with Golden Harvest after his rise to stardom. This was due to
the studio’s innovative production policies and flexibility in managing affairs, the former of
which differed from Shaws significantly. The ways in which Golden Harvest modified its
rival’s approach to production have already been discussed by many in the past, 7 thus the
purpose of this piece is to fill in the gaps by examining Golden Harvest’s policies and their
evolution in detail.
Golden Harvest’s senior management team was already determined to reform the
business strategy used by Shaws when they decided to found the studio. This is evident in
an article of declaratory nature from the first issue of Golden Movie News , an official Golden
Harvest publication, in April 1972:
The major studios in the US and Japan are on the way down, and corporate policy is
one of the key saboteurs. An organisation with several consecutive poor-selling motion
pictures or an insufficient supply of films employing a sizeable staff is like a house of cards.
An objective observation identifies this as one of the major downfalls of large corporate
systems. In addition, complicated employee relations become an unavoidable problem.
They may operate on a seniority-based system, so despite having a large pool of talent, not
everybody can contribute to his or her fullest. Because of these various difficulties, the big
US studios have no choice but to opt for the independent production model, which is more
advantageous. Golden Harvest was founded in April 1970 and released its first motion
picture in 1971. By the end of that same year, the studio rolled out a total of ten films, some
of which were self-produced, several co-produced, with others made by independent
production companies. Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman and The Big Boss were
last year’s representative works for Golden Harvest. The former is an excellent example
of collaborating with an independent production unit, while the latter was of the studio’s
own creation. Common features apparent in both films include the enlistment of the most
sought-after stars using the independent production model, as well as the selection of
fresh screenplays, resulting in blockbusters which were immensely popular… Only the
independent production model can ensure the timely screening of a studio’s concurrent
projects.8
7 Further reading: Stephanie Chung Po-yin, ‘The Industrial Evolution of a Fraternal Enterprise: The Shaw Brothers and the
Shaw Organisation’, in Wong Ain-ling (ed), The Shaw Screen – A Preliminary Study, Hong Kong: Hong Kong Film Archive,
2003, pp 1–17; and Stephanie Chung Po-yin, ‘Golden Harvest – A New Challenger’ and ‘Cinema Chains as the Backbone
of Production and Sales’, in A Century of Hong Kong Cinema (Revised Edition) , Hong Kong: Joint Publishing (HK) Co Ltd,
2011, pp 225–238 & pp 292–303 (in Chinese).
8 Di Xing, ‘Where Do Mandarin-Language Films Go from Here?’, Golden Movie News, No 1, Hong Kong: The Four Seas
Publication Ltd, April 1972, pp 20–23 (in Chinese).
Although on the surface this article addressed the problems large studios in the US and
Japan were facing, it seems to be referring to Shaw Brothers if one read between the lines.
The emphasis on production quantity in order to sustain the studio’s large staff numbers,
as well as internal autocratic tendencies preventing certain people from maximising their
full potential, were among the major flaws identified. Golden Harvest’s solution to these
problems was the employment of the independent production model.
Raymond Chow reiterated on this strategy in an interview published in Golden Movie
News in 1973:
The power of one person and one company is limited. Hong Kong and Taiwanese
filmmakers passionate about Chinese-language movies must join hands together in order
for the situation to improve. Therefore, from the very day Golden Harvest was founded,
we pledged to support independent producers in addition to making our own features. We
hope to become a hub for Chinese-language film production, as opposed to a movie empire.
This is why our slogan says ‘Golden Harvest, bringing you the best’, and not ‘It’s the best,
because it’s Golden Harvest’. Because we’re serving as a hub for our industry peers, we not
only want to make outstanding movies ourselves, but would also like to see high calibre
works by our contemporaries.9
Below is a detailed description of how this independent production model worked from
Chow’s most recent oral history account:
There were many independent producers and production companies in America – as long
as you had a prospective film project and a good ‘track record’, big distributors would come
knocking on your door offering to help you out. This was a lot easier in the US – the large
companies needed films, so you went directly to their studio and they gave you an office to
set yourself up as an independent production unit on their premises. If they were interested
in what you were doing and signed with you, you could basically take the contract to the
bank and borrow the money needed to shoot your movie without spending your own. This
system was a good way of encouraging film production. It was real independent production
without any external interference – you could do whatever you wanted to. I used the
Hollywood model as a guideline to work with many directors and producers, giving them
a great degree of freedom and room for development. We were the first company that
operated on this system back then.10
The most important reason behind Golden Harvest’s implementation of this model
9 Geng Ren, ‘Golden Prospects Ahead for Golden Harvest’, Golden Movie News , No 10, Hong Kong: The Four Seas
Publication Ltd, January 1973, pp 35–39 (in Chinese).
10 Yu Mo-wan, Cynthia Liu, Law Kar, Sek Kei, Po Fung, Lau Yam, Cecilia Wong & Winnie Fu (interviewers), Po Fung & Lau
Yam (collators), ‘The Way of the Big Boss: Interview with Raymond Chow’, p 129 in this volume.
The Or gan i s at i on al Str u ctu re
was because it didn’t have the same financial prowess as Shaws. Despite not being able
to afford a large team of staff or studio facilities, the company had the support of Cathay
Organisation. He further revealed:
Cathay was beginning to struggle after Mr Loke Wan Tho passed away in an aviation
accident. Its Vice-Chairman, Mr Heah Hock Meng, took charge shortly after, and although
his title remained unchanged, he was actually the one calling the shots. Mr Heah looked me
up and asked if I could give him the distribution rights to Golden Harvest’s films, and in
return, he’d support us in the Singaporean and Malaysian markets. The setup at Yung Hwa
Studios wasn’t huge, but Cathay still didn’t use it to its fullest, making it uneconomical. It
would be a win-win situation if they leased it out to us, so that’s what happened. We hit
it off right away – we took over Yung Hwa Studios, establishing Golden Harvest’s base
there.11
The series of events taking place at Cathay Organisation from 1970 onwards is
testament to the commentary above. First of all, senior managers and directors such as
Dong Qianli, Yuan Qiufeng, Evan Yang, Shen Zhong and Chan Tung-man, as well as a large
percentage of the studio’s actors began resigning in 1970. 12 Then in February 1971, Cathay
Organisation announced its decision to screen Golden Harvest’s films in its 102 cinemas
in Singapore, Malaysia and Borneo – the studio had only just released two motion pictures
at the time. 13 By October that same year, Cathay Organisation handed Yung Hwa Motion
Picture Studios over to Golden Harvest, even before the company managed to stand on its
own two feet with the success of The Big Boss . 14 From this, one can observe that Cathay
Organisation’s withdrawal from production and the emergence of Golden Harvest were, to a
certain extent, synchronised. Several other small but active production houses also surfaced
during the 1970s, such as Yangtze (founded by Yeo Ban Yee, a former senior manager from
Cathay Organisation), Datong (created by promotions veteran, Chan Tung-man), as well as
Seasonal (belonging to Ng See-yuen). All of these companies had an extensive personal
network and managed to achieve some degree of success, but none of them were able
to match the accomplishments of Golden Harvest, most likely because they did not have
the backing of a larger organisation like Cathay Organisation. Of course, Golden Harvest’s
11 Ibid.
12 Shen Bin, ‘What Does the Year of the Pig Hold for Hong Kong Cinema now that the Chicken and Dog have both Fled?’,
The Milky Way Pictorial , No 154, Hong Kong: The Milky Way Pictorial Press, January 1971, p 24 (in Chinese); and Yu
Zhong Hua, ‘Numerous Actors Resign as Cathay Organisation Undergoes Reform’, The Milky Way Pictorial , No 157, April
1971, pp 46–47 (in Chinese).
13 ‘Cathay Organisation Distributes for Golden Harvest in Singapore and Malaysia. Katsu Shintaro Due in Hong Kong
Tomorrow for Celebrations’, Wah Kiu Yat Po , Hong Kong: Wah Kiu Yat Po Ltd, 10 February 1971 (in Chinese).
14 ‘Yung Hwa Studios Now Known as Golden Studios, a Joint Venture Between Cathay Organisation and Golden Harvest’,
Wah Kiu Yat Po , Hong Kong: Wah Kiu Yat Po Ltd, 2 October 1971 (in Chinese).
attempt in adopting a new approach to production by working with independent producers

from the very beginning was also instrumental in the studio’s business triumphs.
With regards to the independent production policy at Golden Harvest, director Chang
Cheh once summed it up concisely in his self-written 30 Years of Hong Kong Cinema in
Retrospect :
The first of Golden Harvest’s main contributions to Hong Kong cinema was the launching of
Bruce Lee and Michael Hui’s careers, the second being the introduction of the independent
production model. This system is already very popular in the US and Europe, replacing
the Hollywood assembly-line style of filmmaking – Hong Kong is now also shifting
towards this approach. The basis of this model relies on an established organisation with
a distribution network (that would be a cinema chain as far as Hong Kong is concerned)
providing a certain level of financial support to an independent producer (regardless of
whether he or she is an ‘executive producer’ or ‘director’) to shoot a film. The subject
matter, screenplay, staff and cast are all agreed upon beforehand, with the financier being
responsible for distribution after production is complete. The amount of financial support,
level of interference in subject matter, screenplay and delegation, as well as how the profit is
distributed, differ from contract to contract.
The assumption of sole responsibility for profits and losses, however, is a shared condition
across all agreements. Compared with the mass production model, there is less financial
strain as remuneration and production costs, which are always on the rise, are already
accounted for. Although this may result in less income (due to profits being shared by two
parties), it helps draw in talent because if the movie performs well at the box office, one’s
earnings is not limited to a fixed salary. Secondly, there are less restraints imposed on all
parties involved, enabling independent producers to exercise their creativity in a manner
consistent with their personalities and viewpoints. The disregard of traditional production
company policies here allows individuals to think outside the box with ease, facilitating a
diversified range of works. Consequently, reduced revenues may not necessarily be the final
outcome.15
Both Raymond Chow and Chang Cheh highlighted the flexibility of the working
relationship under the independent production model which allowed strategic partners to
participate as much as they desired. We can see that various changes have been brought
about from the development of Golden Harvest’s satellite companies.
Golden Har vest already established the system of working with other people the
day it came into being. As Di Xing mentioned in his article, ‘Zatoichi and the One-Armed
15 Chang Cheh, 30 Years of Hong Kong Cinema in Retrospect , Hong Kong: Joint Publishing (HK) Co Ltd, 1989, pp 106–107
(in Chinese).
Swordsman is an excellent example of collaborating with an independent production unit.’ It

was a joint production with Katsu Shintaro’s Katsu Film Production Company. There were no
records on who financed the motion picture, but under the mutually beneficial arrangement,
each party received the distribution rights to their own respective regions. As a result,
Golden Harvest acquired a film starring a big Japanese star without having to invest a
large sum of money. The studio’s partnership with Lo Wei was not a one-off affair either.
According to Lo:
When I officially started working for Golden Harvest, I re-registered Swank Motion Pictures
as a limited company. This was because the contract stated that for every three films I made
for Golden Harvest, I could make one of my own. I had no problems with production at the
time, but distribution was a completely different story! Therefore, I gave a third of Swank’s
shares to Raymond Chow to take care of that aspect. Since I’d already made a name for
myself then, investors were willing to make advance deposits, so we didn’t need to rely on
the studio’s capital to begin new projects.16
Golden Harvest’s debut production, The Invincible Eight , was a self-produced feature.
The exact same team worked on The Comet Strikes which hit theatres in August that same
year, but it was released under Swank Motion Pictures. The credits listed Lo as Supervisor
and Raymond Chow as Producer. Although the terms for this project are unclear, it goes to
show that Golden Harvest had more than one way of collaborating with the same person.
This is more apparent in the studio’s partnership with King Hu. He once gave an
account of how he worked with the company: ‘The Fate of Lee Khan (1973) and The Valiant
Ones (1975) were produced by my company (King Hu Film Productions) which I founded in
1970 after returning to Hong Kong. Both were collaborations with Golden Harvest. They had
the rights to the former and I the latter. Both films were shot at around the same time.’ 17
The productions were likely to have been financed by Golden Harvest and both utilised
the company’s studios and staff. Although they were distributed by Golden Harvest, each
party had the rights to one film. This illustrates a cooperative approach whereby the same
person made two films, with the rights to each belonging to a different party.
It was with the flexibility of this very system that Golden Harvest succeeded in retaining
Bruce Lee after he shot to superstardom. Lee originally signed a two-film deal with the
studio, but still decided to continue working with them after Fist of Fury . This was because
Golden Harvest formed a joint venture, by the name of Concord Productions, with Lee
16 Lo Wei (dict) and Sin Nong (collated), 40 Years in the Film Circles , Hong Kong: Jing Yi Press, 1987, pp 156–157 (in
Chinese).
17 King Hu (dict), Yamada Koichi & Udagawa Koyo (authors), Lai Ho & Ma Sung-chi (trans), A Touch of King Hu , Hong Kong:
Rightman Publishing Ltd, 1998, p 135 (in Chinese).
and paid him dividends. This was a strategy that large companies like Shaws would never
consider:
As time went by, we also put a bonus system in place. I think Bruce Lee was the first actor
to sign a contract under this new arrangement. After he rose to stardom, others began to
offer him enormous amounts of money to make films for them. He was always open with
me regarding this situation. We could not afford to pay him what other companies offered,
so I proposed that we set up a joint venture company. We’d let him know how much we
earned with the distribution of his films and negotiate on the percentage cut he’d receive
beforehand. He agreed to being paid the sum as laid out in his actor’s contract as long as
he was given a bonus if his films were profitable. This was how Concord Productions came
into existence. From then on, we worked with quite a number of people this way, so Golden
Harvest had many satellite companies, such as Michael Hui’s Hui’s Film Company, with
which we cooperated for many years.18
The advantage of having satellite companies through which actors and directors can
receive dividend payouts is not only the retention of talented individuals, but those who
decide to stay are actually people who are willing to put their heart and soul into their films.
This approach eventually led to significant changes in the way the industry operated in
Hong Kong. Concord Productions and Hui’s Films, both of which made some blockbusters
for Golden Harvest, were the studio’s most successful satellite companies in the 1970s. In
addition to being the financier for most of these collaborations, Golden Harvest provided
studio facilities and technical support. It would also have the distribution rights to the
completed works. For example, when Bruce Lee was shooting The Way of the Dragon
(1972), Raymond Chow asked the Japanese cinematographer Nishimoto Tadashi to come
on board. Likewise with Games Gamblers Play (1974), the studio brought John Woo in as
Assistant Director to aid Michael Hui in his directorial debut. Apart from earning a basic
salary, Lee and Hui also received dividend payouts. Moreover, the company also supported
several Taiwanese productions. One-Armed Boxer , directed by and starring Jimmy Wang
Yu, was released under Zhengming Film Company, with Chow ser ving as Executive
Producer. Golden Harvest was likely to have financed the production, among many others
during the 1970s.
One point worth elaborating on is that despite Golden Harvest’s different levels of
involvement with its satellite companies, the studio was still predominantly making self-
produced motion pictures in the 1970s. It wasn’t until the 1980s, when production picked
up with Sammo Hung’s Bo Ho Films Company and Jackie Chan’s Golden Way Films Ltd
(formerly known as Authority Films Ltd), that the number of features being made by Golden
18 See note 10, pp 129–130.

Harvest’s satellite companies were slowly beginning to surpass the quantity produced by
the studio itself. The case is more noticeable with Bo Ho – not only were the films directed
by and starring Hung tremendously popular, but even features like Pom Pom (1984) and Mr
Vampire (1985), on which he served as Executive Producer, turned out to be unexpected
blockbusters despite the lack of star-studded casts. In addition to becoming an important
pillar to Golden Harvest, the company also began collaborating with other studios. Although
these independent production companies were nominally co-owned by Golden Harvest and
their respective star filmmakers (such as Bruce Lee and Michael Hui), they relied heavily
on the studio’s resources during the 1970s. This started to change in the 1980s and
there were some partnerships which did not require any production support from Golden
Harvest at all. Happy Bigamist (1987), produced by Bo Ho and distributed by Mobile Film
Productions, is a case in point – the majority of the cast and crew were not Golden Harvest
employees, except for Chow Siu-lung, who was in charge of dubbing, and the team from
Cine Art Laboratory (which had close ties with the studio) responsible for film development.
The mid-1980s also saw Golden Harvest expand its network of satellite companies.
Genesis Films, created by Johnny Mak and Raymond Chow, was of particular importance.
After making Long Arm of the Law (1984) for Bo Ho, Mak went on to form Genesis Films
with Golden Harvest, paving the way for long-term cooperation. He shot blockbusters
such as Spiritual Love (1987, Genesis Films), The Greatest Lover (1988, Johnny Mak
Productions, with Raymond Chow as Executive Producer) and To Be Number One (1991,
Johnny Mak Productions) for the studio under the name of various production companies.
Even though Mak still made movies for other studios, Genesis was one of the most
important satellite companies brought into the Golden Harvest fold in the 1980s.
Bo Ho, Golden Way and Genesis were all Golden Harvest satellite companies which
made movies for the studio exclusively. Mobile Film Productions, on the other hand, was an
individual entity, and produced films for Golden Harvest through outsourcing by Bo Ho. By
the 1990s, the studio began approaching independent production companies for filmmaking
as opposed to its satellite companies. 19 Golden Harvest’s most well-known motion picture
during that period, Once Upon a Time in China (1991), was produced by Tsui Hark’s Film
Workshop which also made features for other studios. Golden Harvest also absorbed
already established companies – UFO, founded by Peter Chan Ho-sun and several other
partners, fell into financial difficulty after the company had made a name for itself. Golden
Harvest assisted them in achieving solvency and, consequently, UFO became the studio’s
19 Kwok Hin-ching, ‘Golden Harvest’s production policy had already changed by the early 1990s, relying mostly on
independent production and outsourcing. Excess staff, however, were not laid off immediately.’ ‘The Age of Independent
Film Production’, Ming Pao Daily News , Hong Kong: Ming Pao Publishing Company, 2 July 1998 (in Chinese).
satellite company, supplying films to them exclusively. 20

Apart from producing films, Golden Harvest was also involved in other aspects of the
industry through its subsidiaries. For instance, Cine Art Laboratory was a joint venture with
technician Eugene Chao which enabled the studio to serve its own film processing needs. 21
Moreover, Golden Communications was formed in 1977 for the production of Hollywood-
style features and the distribution of the studio’s motion pictures in the unchartered
European and US markets. 22 Most important of all was the launch of the Golden Harvest
cinema chain in Hong Kong.
Quoting Chang Cheh’s comments on independent production from earlier: ‘The basis
of this model relies on an established organisation with a distribution network (that would
be a cinema chain as far as Hong Kong is concerned) providing a certain level of financial
support to an independent producer (regardless of whether he or she is an “executive
producer” or “director”) to shoot a film. The subject matter, screenplay, staff and cast
are all agreed upon beforehand, with the financier being responsible for distribution after
production is complete.’ Thus, in order for Golden Harvest to implement the independent
production model, it was necessary for the studio to have its own distribution setup and
movie theatre chain.
Golden Harvest’s first release, The Invincible Eight , was screened in a total of ten
cinemas, mostly shared among the Queen’s Theatre (on Hong Kong Island) and Rex Theatre
(in Kowloon) chains, the former of which originally showed foreign-language features. The
18 features that followed were essentially also played by these two franchises, with the
number of theatres varying depending on how well the films were doing. The studio already
had a stable distribution network from the very beginning, but as it did not own a cinema
chain, it did not have authority over scheduling. Production and distribution go hand in
hand, and not having your own movie theatres meant that you were constantly subject
to someone else’s control. Take D & B as an example – the studio did not make a great
number of films, but always ran into trouble with listings. 23 Consequently, it ended up taking
over Shaw Brothers’ cinema chain. Conversely, if one operated a movie theatre franchise
without producing films, the quality of what was put on the silver screen would not be
guaranteed. No matter how good the location of your theatres may be, this would impede
the generation of revenue and buzz. This was the problem the Golden Princess chain faced
before it financed Cinema City to make films. And even if you had both, production quantity
20 Li Cheuk-to & Alvin Tse (interviewers), ‘Claudia Chung: UFO – The Pains of Independent Filmmaking’, in Li Cheuk-to (ed),
Peter Ho-Sun Chan: My Way , Hong Kong: Joint Publishing (HK) Co Ltd, 2012, pp 45–48.
21 See note 10, pp 128–129.
22 Po Fung, Lau Yam & Cecilia Wong (interviewers), Po Fung & Lau Yam (collators), ‘Riding High on Big Tides: Albert Lee on
Overseas Distribution of Golden Harvest’s Films’, pp 145–146 in this volume.
23 Leng Xiaoqing, Ji Er & Mu Mu, ‘D & B: Another Chapter in the Film Legend’, Film Biweekly , No 175, Hong Kong: Film
Biweekly Publishing House, 28 November 1985, pp 3–5 (in Chinese).
and quality had to be managed carefully. Otherwise, owning a cinema business could
have adverse effects on filmmaking, just like how D & B had to sacrifice the quality of its
films in order to maintain a steady supply. 24 Therefore, despite the availability of a secure
distribution outlet, Golden Harvest needed to have its own cinema chain in order to proceed
with the implementation of its independent production model. It did not take long for this to
be realised:
Recently, we received news that xxx [text missing from original article] has rented the Royal
Theatre in Mongkok at HK$180,000 a month. Although Raymond Chow is yet to confirm
the news, it is highly likely to be true.
Golden Harvest’s rise to prominence just within a year of being founded is a feat
unparalleled by its contemporaries. In addition to each of its films grossing an average
of HK$1 million at the box office, the studio is also a keen supporter of independent
production. From this, we can see how diversified Golden Harvest’s business scope is.
The company currently has its own studios, several independent production collaborators,
as well as a stable distribution network. The only thing missing is the backing of a self-
operated cinema chain in Hong Kong.
Although the studio’s features are screened at the theatres of two of the biggest franchises,
Queen’s and Rex, scheduling is beyond its control. This is why Chow has decided to acquire
his own movie theatre chain. In doing so, he will have the option of showing Golden
Harvest’s motion pictures at his own set of cinemas, or boost its standing in the industry by
showing them in conjunction with Queens’s and Rex. In short, a production company must
have its own cinema chain in order for it to flex its muscles.
Sources report that the lease for Royal Theatre will come into force in 1973, which explains
why Golden Harvest has been busy kicking off new projects and ramping up independent
productions of late – if the studio manages to procure its own movie theatres, it will need to
have at least 36 films on hand for year-round operations.25
The first Golden Harvest feature to grace the screens of Royal Theatre ended up being
The Way of the Dragon , released on 30 December 1972. This marked the beginnings of
the studio’s dealings in the cinema chain business, with Queen’s Theatre on the Hong
Kong Island side and Royal Theatre in Mongkok at the forefront adding up to a total of
approximately 14 theatres. Royal Theatre terminated the lease with Golden Harvest in
1977, 26 and the company went on to form the Jiale chain with Shaw & Sons Ltd, which was
24 Qiu Zi, ‘Coffee or Tea?’, Ming Pao Daily News , Hong Kong: Ming Pao Publishing Company, 29 January 1988 (in Chinese).
25 Celeste, ‘Golden Harvest to Form Own Cinema Chain with Royal Theatre Lease Valued at $180,000’, Celeste’s Corner,
The Kung Sheung Daily News , Hong Kong: The Kung Sheung Daily Company Limited, 25 August 1972 (in Chinese).
26 Liu Wenhe, ‘Upcoming Changes for Movie Theatres in Hong Kong and Kowloon’, Ming Pao Daily News , Hong Kong: Ming
Pao Publishing Company, 8 February 1975 (in Chinese).
also in the cinema business, in 1978:
A new movie theatre chain will come into being in 1978. Jiale chain will be an amalgamation
of Golden Harvest’s existing cinemas, namely Queen’s, State, Tai Ping, Kam Ming, Scala,
Golden Harvest, Ace, International, Good View, Teatro Nam Van (in Macau) and Shuangli
chain’s Rialto, Lux, Ying Wah, Kwun Tong, Nam Cheong and Jubilee. The creation of the
Jiale chain signifies a close alliance between industry magnates Golden Harvest and Shaw
& Sons.27
What was unique about the Golden Harvest cinema chain was that the studio did not
have physical possession of its theatres. It was more like a coordinator which formed a
chain using existing cinemas through leases and contracts. This, however, did not prevent
the franchise from becoming one of the most successful of its time in Hong Kong. The
reason behind this was because of Golden Harvest’s thriving production setup – first
there was Bruce Lee, then Michael Hui, followed by Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan. The
continual supply of blockbusters facilitated the cinema chain’s rise to prominence which, in
turn, attracted other high calibre features requiring an outlet channel. Senior management’s
choices of what to show at the theatres were, of course, also a contributing factor to the
chain’s success. In the 1970s, Golden Harvest never reached Shaw Brothers’ output of
over 40 films, even with the inclusion of productions by its satellite companies. It rolled out
somewhere between 10 to 20 films each year, an insufficient supply for the chain’s 52-
week operations, hence its need to show movies produced by other studios. Due to the
franchise’s reputation and foresight, it was able to haul in hits such as Bang Bang Film
Productions’ debut feature, Jumping Ash (1976), Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow (1978) and
Drunken Master (1978) by Seasonal Film Corporation, as well as Lam Ah Chun (1978) by
Hi-Pitch belonging to Josephine Siao, one after the other.
Golden Harvest’s involvement in distribution was not limited to Chinese-language
films. Through the acquisition of Panasia Films Limited in 1975, 28 it became a pioneer in
the distribution of foreign-language features in Hong Kong. United International Pictures
which, at the time, was a joint venture of four of Hollywood’s eight major film studios –
MGM, Paramount, Universal Studios and United Artists – appointed Golden Harvest as its
Hong Kong distributor in 1988, hence the birth of the Panasia cinema chain. 29 Midnight
Run (1988), the first motion picture to grace the screens of this newly-established chain,
27 ‘Golden Harvest and Shaw & Sons Form Jiale Cinema Chain. High Hopes for the Year Ahead’, Wah Kiu Yat Po , Hong
Kong: Wah Kiu Yat Po Ltd, 20 December 1977 (in Chinese).
28 ‘Raymond Chow Announced Golden Harvest’s Succession of Panasia’s Entire Business Yesterday, Including Jinghua and
Kwaile Theatres and All Motion Pictures’, Wah Kiu Yat Po , Hong Kong: Wah Kiu Yat Po Ltd, 19 March 1975 (in Chinese).
29 ‘Panasia to Form Cinema Chain in February with UIP as Film Supplier‘, Ming Pao Daily News , Hong Kong: Ming Pao
Publishing Company, 17 January 1989 (in Chinese).
proved to be an instant runaway hit with its box-office grossing of HK$7.78 million. Other
blockbusters, such as Back to the Future Part II (1989) and Ghost (1990) followed, the
most notable being Jurassic Park (1993) which demolished Hong Kong box-office records
by earning HK$61.98 million. It was the company’s accomplishments in this area which led
to the listing of Golden Harvest’s distribution division in 1994, while the production segment
remained private.
By examining Golden Harvest’s entire business structure, one can observe that the
company was in possession of its own production unit, studio facilities, film development
division, distribution department, as well as cinema chain – a setup that covered everything
from the creative process to point of sale. It had all that Shaw Brothers did, albeit much
smaller in scale – Golden Harvest operated three studios while its rival ran 12. This naturally
imposed restrictions on production, but then again, the company was always more about
quality rather than quantity. The upside of smaller operations was reduced overhead
expenses, relieving Golden Harvest of a fixed heavy financial burden. Moreover, it was
able to accomplish feats that Shaw Brothers was never able to, such as breaking into the
Japanese market with movies by Bruce Lee, Michael Hui and Jackie Chan. These films were
also well-received in Europe and the US, marking the success of its distribution business
outside of the traditional markets. Other examples include the production of Hollywood-
style blockbusters made in the US, as well as achievements in the distribution of foreign-
language features in Hong Kong. The company broke down the traditional industry model
and created an empire through an army of subsidiaries. Not only was Golden Harvest able
to match, or even better, Shaw Brothers at its most prosperous, but its magnitude is yet to
be surpassed by local film companies which have come into existence since then.
Successful enterprises like Golden Har vest have influenced Hong Kong cinema
immensely in various ways. The following section attempts to analyse in detail the
significance that the company had during the 1970s – the ushering in of a new generation
of locally-produced films. First, let us revisit the names of the directors of the studio’s first
ten motion pictures released in 1971. They were: Lo Wei (The Invincible Eight , The Comet
Strikes and The Big Boss ), Hsu Tseng-hung (Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman , The
Last Duel and The Invincible Sword ), Ip Wing-cho (The Blade Spares None ), 30 Huang Feng
(The Angry River and The Fast Sword ) and Wong Tin-lam (The Chase ).
These directors all shared a special trait, that is, all of them were northerners who
moved to Hong Kong after the war – the first generation of postwar, southbound filmmakers
(Ip Wing-cho may be considered second-generation, but in fact he was already an assistant
30 Ip Wing-cho was Lo Wei’s assistant director. Shaw Brothers once sued Lo for breach of contract because he directed The
Blade Spares None . For further details, please refer to Zhu Bajie, ‘Shaw Brothers and Lo Wei Talk Things Out’, The Milky
Way Pictorial , No 152, Hong Kong: The Milky Way Pictorial Press, November 1970, p 4 (in Chinese).
The Or gan i s ati on al Str u ctu re
and Dev elopm e n t a l Hi st ory of G ol de n Ha r v e s t 23
choreographer by 1966). Of them, Lo Wei, whose films were especially popular, and Huang
Feng became the twin pillars of early Golden Harvest days, filming more than anyone
else. Later, Zhu Mu, who shared a similar background, also made several films for Golden
Harvest that were well received, such as Supremo (1974) and All in the Family (1975).
King Hu, also from a similar background, made two films with the studio. These postwar,
southbound filmmakers are seen as the directorial backbone of early Golden Harvest.
But a decade later, none of these directors remained. Lo Wei left Golden Harvest
early in 1974; Huang Feng left later, after his last film for the company, Naked Comes
the Huntress (1978). Zhu Mu’s swansong at Golden Harvest was The Ladykiller , also in
1977. All the rest had stopped making movies for the company long ago. From 1974,
the key directors for Golden Harvest became Michael Hui, John Woo, Sammo Hung and,
later, Jackie Chan. Richard Ng, as an actor, also had certain influence. These filmmakers,
much younger than the first-generation directors, were all raised locally in Hong Kong after
the war. Hung and Chan had a northern background, but having spent their childhood in
Hong Kong, they were very much so locals. Suddenly, Golden Harvest had a completely
transformed background of its creative mainstay. This transformation can be traced back
to Bruce Lee, whose appearance blew new life into Golden Harvest films for the first time.
With his self-written, produced and directed The Way of the Dragon , which he also starred
in, he proved that the new-generation filmmakers could bring fresh dynamics to the game.
After his sudden death, Golden Harvest managed to bring in Hui, whose Games Gamblers
Play influenced Hong Kong comedy almost to the extent that Lee did with kung fu films.
In the year Lo left, Woo joined and replaced his solid production rate. Similarly, as Huang
faded out, the legacy was handed to Hung, who took up directing and replaced Huang’s
kung fu film style with his signature comedic kung fu movies. Thus the era changed. 31
In contrast to Shaw Brothers, the evolution of Golden Harvest was especially evident.
Moving on to 1979 and 1980, Li Han-hsiang and Chang Cheh were still the key directors
at Shaw Brothers. Its highest-grossing directors then were Lau Kar-leung and Chor Yuen,
who were both from Guangdong but also veteran filmmakers who had joined the fray since
the 1950s. More worthy of note is that the new core directors at the studio in the 1970s,
including Kuei Chih-hung (debut film: A Time for Love , 1970), Pao Hsueh-li (debut film:
Oath of Death , 1971), Sun Chung (debut film: The Devil’s Mirror , 1972), Hua Shan (debut
film: The Super Inframan , 1975) and Mou Tun-fei (debut film: Bank-Busters , 1978), all grew
up and learned their craft in Taiwan. It wasn’t until the 1980s before Shaw Brothers began
truly using local Hong Kong directors who grew up after the war, such as Wong Jing, who
31 Sammo Hung was always the martial arts choreographer in Huang Feng’s films. In Hung’s directorial debut, The Iron-Fisted
Monk (1977), Huang was one of the writers.
directed Challenge of the Gamesters (1981), Alfred Cheung, who made Let’s Make Laugh
(1983) and Ann Hui, who directed Love in a Fallen City (1984); at least five to six years
behind Golden Harvest.
The rise of the young, local directors in Golden Harvest brought significant changes to
the face of Hong Kong film, both in technical aspects and from a social perspective. Let us
focus on one particularly important aspect – the issue of language. A most peculiar situation
in Hong Kong cinema during 1970s was the predominance of Shaw Brothers’ Mandarin-
language films in a place where 90 per cent of the population was Cantonese. As a matter
of fact, the production of Cantonese-language films came to a complete halt between 1971
and 1973. The hiatus came to pass with Chor Yuen’s The House of 72 Tenants (1973) and
Cantonese-language features gradually went on to replace their Mandarin counterparts
as the mainstream staple. Although Shaw Brothers led the revival with The House of 72
Tenants , it was in fact Michael Hui’s blockbusters, such as Games Gamblers Play , The Last
Message (1975) and The Private Eyes (1976), made in conjunction with Golden Harvest,
which really redefined the scene. Movies with Cantonese dialogue became the trend in the
late 1970s, but a large proportion of productions by Shaw Brothers were still in Mandarin.
Li Han-hsiang’s works were full of northern flavour, with the use of animated Beijing dialect
noted as a unique feature – this would all be lost in translation if it was dubbed over with
Cantonese, thus it was a logical decision to keep it in its original language. Chang Cheh,
Chor Yuen and Sun Chung’s wuxia films, however, were still dubbed in Mandarin. This may
have been a result of senior management’s bias due to their northern upbringing rather than
the product of market considerations.
Despite being in the same language as previous Cantonese features (and even those
that came after 1973, like Chor Yuen’s Hong Kong 73 [1974], Wong Fung’s Gossip Street
[1974] or Yeung Kuen’s The Country Bumpkin [1974]), Michael Hui’s films differed greatly in
style. The abundant use of jargon, locution and vogue words, as demonstrated in the theme
song for Games Gamblers Play , made his movies stand out from the rest. While such
devices have been employed in Cantonese-language films in the past, Hui used them at an
unprecedented level. Furthermore, he was able to incorporate slang into gags which were
unique to Chinese culture (like the conversation between Ricky Hui and himself when the
former was asked to verify whether a bomb was real in The Private Eyes ), giving his works
the extra cheeky factor. He also brought a level of sarcastic mockery rarely seen before,
illustrated by a well-known line from Games Gamblers Play : ‘You think you can get rich just
by working hard? Look how well the cows in the New Territories are doing!’ Hui was able to
keep the jeering well under control because the perpetrators always ended up making fools
of themselves. Moreover, derision was never the crux of any of his works, and he always
drew them to a close with heart-warming endings, as he did in The Private Eyes . Hui set a
new trend for the genre through the mischievous use of Cantonese, fresh gags and scornful
remarks which others would soon follow. This is evident in the subsequent release of other
popular comedies like The Pilferers’ Progress (1977), Winner Takes All (1977) and Lam Ah
Chun (1978), which were also made in Cantonese. By this time, Li Han-hsiang and Lo Wei’s
comedy blockbusters could no longer keep up.
The hardcore kung fu film, The Shaolin Plot , released in April 1977, was still in
Mandarin, but when The Iron-Fisted Monk came four months later, Cantonese was used
in order to infuse comedic elements into the film. The Iron-Fisted Monk and Snake in the
Eagle’s Shadow marked the birth of kung fu slapstick, and Cantonese dubbing has been
used ever since due to its inseparable association with comedy. Not only was the dialogue
of Cinema City’s Aces Go Places series, Sammo Hung’s Winners & Sinners series, Stephen
Chow’s films, as well as most locally-made comedies of the 1980s, in the Cantonese
language, but the delivery method also seemed to have been influenced, consciously or
unintentionally, by Hui to a certain extent. However, they lacked the level of control Hui
exercised, making the male protagonists of 1980s comedies conceited, disrespectful and
garrulous troublemakers who habitually insult others, whether he be Frankie Chan, Nat
Chan or Kenneth Choi (Merry Go Round [1986]). 32 Language has always been an important
element of social consciousness – filmmakers used Cantonese to create hit movies and, at
the same time, the dialect garnered the Hong Kong people’s collective recognition through
this widespread medium. The disappearance and resurgence of Cantonese-language films,
together with their ultimate victory over Mandarin-language features, all took place within
the 1970s, introducing a new era in Hong Kong cinema where subject matter and dialogue
bore relevance to contemporary society. Contrary to being a sheer coincidence, it was more
likely the result of the Hong Kong people’s quest in establishing their own identities. The
flexibility of Golden Harvest’s production model, as well as the studio’s readiness to take a
leap of faith with new-generation filmmakers, was undoubtedly instrumental in this cinematic
revolution. [Translated by Johnny Ko]
Po Fung is currently Research Officer of the Hong Kong Film Archive. He is the author of An Analysis
of Martial Arts Film and Its Context (2010, in Chinese).
32 For an analysis of Michael Hui’s comedies and their predecessors, please refer to ‘Mischievous Urban Fantasia: Michael
Hui’s Comic Mode’ by Ernest Chan, pp 54–62 in this volume.
26
The Vicissitudes of Golden Studios:

From Factory-Oriented
Production to Star System and
Satellite Operation
Sek Kei
The achievement and legacy of Golden Harvest over the past decades
in Hong Kong cinema is an important topic to discuss in retrospect.
This essay looks at the life of Golden Harvest from its studio system, an
approach pointing to the fact that Golden Studios was the platform on
which the company grew and made it to the road of international fame.
The studio, located on Hammer Hill Road, Ngau Chi Wan, had already a
decade-long history before Golden Harvest acquired it in 1971. Sadly it
is now a forgotten place of much historical value to Hong Kong cinema.
Traces of the once industrial landmark were obliterated by the drastic
urban changes. The place is now Kingsford Terrace, a residential area
built in the late 1990s. Little would the inhabitants know their home had
once been the creative home of superstars like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan;
the incubator of the world-famous ‘Chinese Kung Fu’.
I write also with reminiscences of past gaiety, as I used to work at the Art Department
of the studio when it was owned by Cathay Organisation. The time was late 1960s, when
several of my friends, all film enthusiasts joined Cathay; Lin Nien-tung, John Woo, Kam
Ping-hing were among those who worked their way up in the studio. When Cathay shut
down its Hong Kong production line, we were all laid off. Before long, Golden Harvest got
its hands on the studio. Since then, I only got to visit the studio twice. The first time was
The Vi ci ss i t u des of Gol den St u di os :
From Fact o ry-O ri e n t e d P rodu c t i on t o S t a r Sy s t e m a n d Sa t e llit e O p e r a t io n 27
in the company of a few ex-colleagues, and we ran into the shooting of To Hell with the
Devil (1982) by John Woo. The second time was when Lai Git, publicist of Golden Harvest
brought us to the site, where we took our one last look just before it was dismantled. The
studio had not changed much since I left. It was the transformation of Hammer Hill Road
and its neighbouring Diamond Hill and San Po Kong that was more radical. And so is life;
Lai Git passed away a few years ago.
Golden Studios was originally named Yung Hwa Motion Picture Studios, owned by
the film company of the same name set up after the Second World War by Mainland
filmmakers like Li Zuyong and Zhang Shankun. It became the foothold of a large group
of film professionals migrating to Hong Kong from Shanghai. Yung Hwa Studios was
first located in Boundary Street, where The Soul of China (1948) by Bu Wancang and
Sorrows of the Forbidden City (1948) by Zhu Shilin were produced. Both were epics with a
staggering budget at that time. Despite its vision, the company was poorly run and prone
to misfortune: the Mainland market shrank after the establishment of Communist China in
1949; a fire broke out in 1954, destroying the company’s film vaults; and the government
decided to redevelop the plot on which the studio was built.
With great fundraising effort, Li Zuyong managed to gather investment from mainly
Singapore and Taiwan to relocate the studio to Hammer Hill Road. In 1955, the company
was acquired by its creditor International Films Distributing Agency and closed down after
several years. The new studio produced only very few movies of Yung Hwa. In fact, the new
Yung Hwa Studios became the base of Motion Picture & General Investment Co Ltd (MP
& GI) that was restructured from International Film by Singaporean tycoon Loke Wan Tho,
owner of Cathay Organisation (Singapore). Under Loke’s leadership, MP & GI established
itself as the predominant force in filmmaking at the time. In 1956, New Yung Hwa Studios
was praised by International Screen magazine as the most established and well-equipped
studio in Southeast Asia. 1 Adding to its strength was the introduction of the Hollywood
studio system, outstripping other local studios such as Wader, Great Wall, Grandview,
Wanli, Nanyang, Kwokar. Clear Water Bay Film Studio that housed the pro-China triumvirate,
Great Wall, Feng Huang and Sun Luen, as well as the Shaw Movie Town built by Run Run
Shaw (a different establishment from Nanyang Studio by Shaw & Sons Ltd), came just after
New Yung Hwa Studios was set up.
1 ‘East Asia’s Largest Film Studio in the Making’, International Screen , No 6, Hong Kong: International Screen Pictorial
Press, March 1956, pp 14–15 (in Chinese).
It is also important to identify New Yung Hwa’s connection with its neighbour, the
adjacent Asia Film Studio. As Yung Sai-shing states, 2 several sources point to the fact that
The Asia Foundation of the United States was actually behind Asia Pictures Limited and
Asia Press, both founded by journalist and publisher Chang Kuo-sin; the establishments were
strongly anti-Communist. The essay also traces that Asia Pictures was founded in 1953,
and by the time New Yung Hwa was built, Chang set up Asia Film Studio nearby. Also,
Chang sat on the Board of Management of New Yung Hwa. Soon after Cathay acquired
New Yung Hwa, Chang’s Asia Film Studio was also rented to Cathay. Directors Evan Yang,
Tang Huang and actress Diana Chang Chung-wen, once working for Asia Film Studio,
became MP & GI’s main artists. It is not difficult to map out the close relationship between
Yung Hwa, Asia Film and MP & GI.
Asia Film Studio was expanded in 1964. For a time it was renamed MP & GI Studio
and housed the MP & GI headquarters. Loke Wan Tho funded Li Han-hsiang, then a Shaw
director, to set up his own business, Grand Motion Picture Company in Taiwan, a move
rather crucial to the boom of Taiwan cinema. Unfortunately, Loke and his chief executives
died in a plane crash while attending the Asian Film Festival, causing a devastating loss to
MP & GI. The company was renamed Cathay and managed by a new executive from the
Singapore headquarters, floundering to put the movie production back on track but failed
to save the company from decline, particularly in times of fierce rivalry with Shaw Brothers.
Once a hothouse of Mandarin movies, and after repeated changes of names, Cathay was
finally closed down in 1971, ironically at the time when Hong Kong Mandarin film triumphed
over its Cantonese counterpart.
I remember seeing signage of Yung Hwa and Asia Film when I worked in Cathay. It
showed Yung Hwa had three soundstages, A to C; a fourth one came under the name of
Asia Film. In fact all of those studios belonged to Cathay and Cathay’s office was located
in Asia Film. Yet, Asia Film was not ‘adjacent’ to Yung Hwa; the two studios in fact shared
facilities among themselves. Apart from making its own pictures, Cathay’s soundstages
were at times rented to other film companies. Tong Shu-shuen’s The Arch (1970) was
shot in Yung Hwa Studio C; The Legends of Cheating (1971), a blockbuster by Li Han-
hsiang was shot in Asia Film Studio just before Cathay closed down. The film witnessed the
change of style of the returning auteur from Taiwan. It also set the trend of gambling flicks
and fengyue films (softcore erotica) in Hong Kong cinema. Later, Yung Hwa became Golden
Studios and was separated from Asia Film Studio which was sold off to Salon Cinema
Productions.
2 Yung Sai-shing, ‘Containment and Integration: A Preliminary Study of Asia Press and Asia Pictures Limited’, in Wong Ain-
ling & Lee Pui-tak (eds), The Cold War and Hong Kong Cinema , Hong Kong: Hong Kong Film Archive, 2009, pp 125–141 (in
Chinese).
These details were rarely discussed. In reflection, due to poor records, it is now rather
difficult to trace all the past film studios in Hong Kong, which are now replaced by sprawling
high-rises. For example, one could only vaguely locate Nanyang Studio in Pak Tai Street,
Kowloon City; Wader Studio in Castle Peak Road; and Grandview Studio in Tai Hom Village,
Diamond Hill. It seems urgent to conduct an archaeological research to make up for the
loss.
The heyday of MP & GI was followed by years of decline after it was restructured into
Cathay. However, the same studio lot enjoyed a new lease of life under Golden Harvest and
gave birth to the kung fu world of megastar Bruce Lee. Its operation system and production
model were set anew.
Raymond Chow, Leonard Ho Koon-cheung and Leung Fung were among the cohort
who founded Golden Harvest in 1970. Originally a top executive of Shaw Brothers –
and Run Run Shaw’s right-hand man, Chow had played a significant part in creating the
centralised production system for Shaw Brothers, then Cathay’s top rival. In an interview
with Hong Kong Film Archive years ago, he recalled some of the new modes of practice
at that time, 3 such as replacing all overnight shooting with day shifts, and on-set sound
recording with post-production dubbing. Years after, Chow began to realise the limitations
of the studio system. He reckoned even Hollywood, upon which his system was modelled,
had to cope by creating new approaches. Project-based contracts instead of standard
long-term contracts were offered to movie stars and directors. Very soon as Chow left
Shaws, he pioneered a more flexible studio system to his own new company, allowing
filmmakers more creative freedom than Shaws and MP & GI/Cathay.
Chow forged a relationship with Cathay for his fledgling studio. He mentioned in the
interview that he negotiated a distribution deal with Cathay that guaranteed their access to
Cathay’s Southeast Asia market. He met Heah Hock Meng, Vice-Chairman of Cathay whose
tenure fell into the recession of the company, to discuss the collaboration. ‘It seemed
that Heah wanted to close down Cathay’s production facility. So we became each other’s
perfect partner. The collaboration allowed us to acquire Yung Hwa Studios and turn it into
the production base of Golden Harvest,’ said Chow. 4
The film that put Golden Harvest on the map was The Big Boss , directed by Lo Wei,
featuring Bruce Lee. Released in October 1971, it created resonance with the audience
in Southeast Asia by telling a story about a Chinese living there. In the first place, it was
3 Law Kar & Sei Kei (interviewers), Angel Shing (collator), ‘Interview with Raymond Chow’, Hong Kong Film Archive Oral
History Project, 14 November 1997 (in Chinese).
4 Ibid.
doubtful if Bruce Lee, an ex-child actor returning from Hollywood, would make a strong
appeal to the public given his long hiatus from home. It turned out his stylistic martial arts
stunts and humour opened everyone’s heart. Out of expectation, the film took the box office
by storm.
From the start, Golden Harvest was averse to the convention of centralised, standard
production and permanent employment. Instead of maintaining a large staff, the company
only engaged teams of workers when there was a production demand. The Art Department
was closed down as the company chose to subcontract set decorators from Shaw Brothers
who took on outside jobs. Directors were also employed on a contract basis. It was not
until years later that Golden Harvest supported its one and only ‘in-studio’ director: the
emerging John Woo. Started off as a script supervisor in Cathay, Woo was promoted
to assistant director but was laid off when the company closed down. Chiu Kang-chien
then introduced him to Shaw Brothers and Woo became the deputy to Chang Cheh. His
directorial debut was a small-budget independent title, Farewell Buddy (after many delays
in its release, it was finally picked up by Golden Harvest and renamed The Young Dragons
[1975].) Recruited by Golden Harvest, Woo returned to the Hammer Hill studios to formally
start his directorial career.
Golden Harvest pioneered its star system as it tried to forge a closer relationship with
super idol Bruce Lee. In a groundbreaking move, the company granted creative freedom
to its star, resulting in Lee’s directing and starring in The Way of the Dragon (1972). By
then a top-grossing movie actor, Lee was also able to enjoy a profit-sharing deal with the
company, and set up his own film company Concord in association with Golden Harvest.
Golden Harvest entered into a co-production with Warner Bros in Hollywood for Enter
the Dragon (1973), a worldwide hit created unprecedentedly by a Chinese actor springing
from Chinese cinema. The legacy of Bruce Lee to Chinese kung fu, Hong Kong cinema
and the action genre is incomparable even today. Golden Harvest’s innovative star system,
satellite company system and its internationalised operation continued to thrive after the
tragic death of the kung fu hero.
The Golden Harvest model quickly bore fruit for both the company and another iconic
figure after Bruce Lee. Michael Hui was a topflight television talent and gained his fame
also in several Li Han-hsiang movies. He jumped to Golden Harvest to escape from the
restrictive environment in Shaw Brothers. A Golden Harvest satellite, Hui’s Film Company
was set up. Together with his brothers Sam Hui and Ricky Hui, the trio from his popular
TV show The Hui Brothers Show (1971–72), he conceived Games Gamblers Play (1974)
to remarkable success (John Woo helped direct several early comedies by Michael Hui,
including this one). The film was an instant hit and a box-office record breaker. It also
spurred a revival of Cantonese cinema in Hong Kong.
Early Golden Harvest titles, including the kung fu films of Bruce Lee, were in fact
dubbed in Mandarin. It was the time when Cantonese cinema market was completely
shattered by Mandarin movies. The revival of Cantonese cinema came as Chor Yuen
directed The House of 72 Tenants in 1973, speaking to the taste of a substantial group of
local audiences who were Cantonese-speaking. The growing popularity of television also
stimulated the reception of local culture. The colloquial Cantonese language in Games
Gamblers Play gave an even stronger touch of the everyday, urban Hong Kong. Cantonese
cinema was finally able to turn the table as the Hui Brothers comedies continued to be box-
office toppers for many years (also released in Mandarin and other languages for Taiwan
and overseas markets).
Set in modern-day Hong Kong, the Hui Brothers comedies successfully captured the
spirit of a local culture in formation during the 1970s. Even nowadays, many locals identify
strongly with the Cantonese songs written by Sam Hui for the movies. The Hui Brothers also
further promoted sibling acts in the industry. Unlike the director-centred troupes (such as
Chang Cheh’s Troupe), the sibling acts were less hierarchical. The image of working peers
appealed strongly to the young audience. In the following years, two new faces from the
sibling group Seven Little Fortunes became Golden Harvest’s most valued players. Sammo
Hung and Jackie Chan took a uniquely Hong Kong mix of kung fu and comedy to the next
level.
Sammo Hung joined Golden Harvest in 1971 as a stuntman, martial arts choreographer
and actor. He rose to fame in 1977 after directing and starring in The Iron-Fisted Monk
where he successfully established himself as a kung fu comedian, blazing the trail for other
martial arts choreographers aspiring to stardom. His 1983 title Winners & Sinners , an urban
action comedy, marked the departure from the period kung fu comedy mostly set in late
Qing or early years of the Republic. Since then, modern action drama became the leading
genre, bringing about the next wave of Hong Kong action cinema that featured gunplay
and gangsters. The movie series by Sammo Hung’s Troupe during the 1980s created a hit.
Hung also ran a prolific film company, Bo Ho.
A younger member mentored by Hung’s master Yu Zhanyuan in the same Beijing opera
school was also on the rise. For a while, Jackie Chan was groomed to be the next Bruce
Lee as he took up the lead role in New Fist of Fury (1976) by Lo Wei. The film, however,
did not bring Chan instant fame. It was Yuen Woo-ping’s debut action comedy Snake in the
Eagle’s Shadow (1978) and also Drunken Master (1978), that propelled him to the spotlight.
And so was born a world-famous kung fu megastar after Bruce Lee. Yuen Woo-ping and
Ng See-yuen, who lined up Chan for Yuen’s projects, restrained from creating a Bruce
Lee replica. Instead, they allowed room for Chan to develop his own distinctive flair from
his traditional fight style and his unruly character. Having built a strong international profile,
Chan returned to Golden Harvest to direct and act in a number of blockbusters, such as
The Young Master (1980), Project A (1983), and Police Story (1985). He also set up Golden
Way, a Golden Harvest spinoff. Undoubtedly he was the dominant figure in Hong Kong
cinema during the 1980s and 90s.
The star system and satellite system of Golden Harvest enabled its film talents, namely,
Bruce Lee, Michael Hui, Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan to take up multiple roles as
director, actor and producer. This recalls the practice common in the silent film era when
star comedians enjoyed great freedom in creating their own works. Exemplary figures
such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton were actor-directors who also wrote their own
screenplays and performed stunts by themselves. Adopting a similar mode of practice over
half a century later, Hong Kong cinema in the 1970s was characterised by the hype of Hong
Kong-style combat and humour. This rendered Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan the Chinese
equivalent of Chaplin and Keaton.
Throughout the years, what made up the backbone of Golden Har vest were not
directors but superstars with box-office firepower as well as artistic autonomy: Bruce Lee,
Michael Hui and Jackie Chan. Except Michael Hui from TV, the company’s mainstays such
as Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and its only home director John Woo all started
off in traditional film studios. John Woo directed a variety of films for Golden Harvest: stories
about female Taekwondo athletes, Cantonese opera, wuxia , and modern action comedy.
His first attempt at gunplay movies, Heroes Shed No Tears (1986, originally titled Sunset
Fighters ) was also a Golden Harvest title. Despite the film’s failure, it was crucial in the
shaping of Woo’s famous heroic bloodshed genre that followed: A Better Tomorrow (1986),
The Killer (1989) and the likes.
For a generation of Hong Kong studio-based filmmakers, not only was Golden Harvest
the stage on which they made a strong showing, it was also their last stronghold. Golden
Harvest picked up what Yung Hwa, MP & GI and Cathay had left behind, and established its
early library of works by making ‘new wuxia ’ films, a genre fashioned by Shaw Brothers in
the 1960s. It introduced more flexibility to the studio system and was more responsive than
its rival to Hong Kong’s transformation into a modernised city during the 1970s and 80s.
Despite absorbing a wealth of television talents, the company relied heavily on studio-based
filmmakers, carving out its specialty of kung fu titles, these filmmakers’ main strength.
No different from the old-fashioned film empires, Golden Harvest operated with its own
studio and theatre circuit. The kind of ‘Chineseness’ in the heart of Chinese cinema was
always in its blood. Its workforce and resources were mostly drawn from the old Shanghai
(Raymond Chow from Guangdong studied and worked in Shanghai when he was young;
Lo Wei, the company’s founding principal director was an actor in Shanghai), Southeast
Asia and Taiwan. Compared with Shaw Brothers whose forte lay in Chinese-style costume
drama, Golden Harvest anchored a more modernised, localised image. Yet, it was still
‘Chinese kung fu’ that propelled Bruce Lee, Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan to international
fame. The genre, blending a new Hong Kong style of humour, defined Golden Harvest’s
capacity. The essence of Chinese culture remained a value of great importance to Golden
Harvest in its heyday, if not renewed and reinforced.
As television helped usher in a new era of entertainment in the 1960s and 70s, Golden
Harvest became the last stronghold of Hong Kong studio-based filmmakers. The time
saw many veterans making career transition from film to television but rarely vice versa.
Golden Harvest capitalised on the talent pools but without repeating the way Shaw Brothers
maintained a massive flow of new blood. Not long after, the studio era came to an end.
Hong Kong cinema was in full bloom during the 1980s, giving rise to a number of new
production houses. Cinema City created a great sensation with Aces Go Places (1982) and
A Better Tomorrow and was for a while considered a fierce competitor to Golden Harvest.
Its success also fashioned the practice of collaborative scripting and directing. Among the
cohort were directors Karl Maka, Tsui Hark, John Woo and Johnnie To, a new artistic force
no longer dominated by movie stars. Nevertheless, these new companies, namely Cinema
City, D & B and Bang Bang, among others, fizzled out and failed to outmatch Golden
Harvest which had a strong studio backup.
When the Golden Studios was pulled down in the 1990s, its fate was sealed. The local
movie industry underwent a drastic decline. Golden Harvest floundered by scaling down
its operation, until it finally merged with Orange Sky Entertainment Group. It was renamed
Orange Sky Golden Harvest and became less involved in filmmaking. Even though the studio
lot may not be the key to Golden Harvest’s decades of success, it seemed the place had
been a blessing for the company. Inexplicably, its business burned out as the studio was
pulled down.
A question remains whether the Digital Age will eventually replace the studio era of
traditional filmmaking, given the all-encompassing filming capacity of mobile devices and
virtual reality. The truth is that new technologies do not dismiss at all the need to build
large-scale film sets in studios. As Hollywood remains robust, more theme park-like film
bases sprouted in China. The golden age of Hong Kong film studio might have been gone
forever but who knows when its revival will come. One thing for certain is that, the sooner
the research into old Hong Kong film studios gets started, the better chance more valuable
historical materials could be saved. [Translated by Vivian Leong]
Sek Kei is a veteran film critic and author of Sek Kei Film Reviews, Vols 1–8 (1999, in Chinese).
34
Golden Harvest’s Outreach Strategy

and Competitive Fronts in Thailand
and Korea During Its Early Years
Law Kar
After leaving Shaw Brothers in 1970, Raymond Chow, Leonard Ho Koon-

cheung and Leung Fung co-founded Golden Harvest (HK) Limited.
The next year, Cathay Organisation (Singapore) ended its operations in
Hong Kong, handing over Cathay Studio to the management of Golden
Harvest and offering generous support to the production and distribution
business of the latter. With the joining of former Shaw staff, namely Lo
Wei, Hsu Tseng-hung, Peter Choi, Huang Feng, Wu Jiaxiang and Jimmy
Wang Yu, Golden Harvest positioned itself as an arch rival of Shaws right
from the start. Back in the day, Shaws gained the upper hand having its
own cinema network in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Hong Kong,
as well as studios in Hong Kong that were arguably the best in Southeast
Asia (with approximately a dozen soundstages and a 1,500-strong staff).
However, Golden Harvest, whose founders including Raymond Chow
used to be leading executives of Shaws for years and thus familiar with
its operations and the ways of Run Run Shaw, was able to come up with
a strategy that enabled itself to counter its rival. This essay is hardly a
comprehensive or exhaustive study in this regard; it sets out instead to
take a closer look at Golden Harvest’s outreach strategy and competition
within the industry in the first decade after its establishment (1970–79),
with special emphasis on Thailand and Korea.
Gol den Ha r v es t’s O u treach St r at egy
and Co mpe t i t i ve F ron t s i n Th a i l a n d a n d K o re a Du r in g I t s Ea r ly Ye a r s 35
The foundation years

I believe 1970–79 is a reasonable definition of Golden Harvest’s foundation years. At its
inception it was no match for Shaw Brothers in terms of distribution network and box-office
earnings. Its debut work, The Invincible Eight released in the Chinese New Year of 1971
failed to hit the HK$1 million mark; the several wuxia films made in Hong Kong and Taiwan
or distributed by Golden Harvest in the same year were unsuccessful. It was not until the
release of The Big Boss on 31 October 1971 which made almost HK$3.2 million that the
company had its first taste of triumph.
Despite the financial success of Bruce Lee’s kung fu movies such as The Big Boss , Fist
of Fury (1972), The Way of the Dragon (1972) and Enter the Dragon (1973), Golden Harvest
had yet to lay a strong foundation by the early 1970s. Bruce Lee’s death in 1973 dealt the
company a heavy blow. Kung fu films were made in increasing quantity at the expense of
quality and the market faced a downturn after the trend had passed. Meanwhile, Michael
Hui was raring to try his hands at directing after starring in several runaway hits at Shaws,
but failed to reach a consensus with the company. Golden Harvest took the chance and
hired him to direct Games Gamblers Play (1974), The Last Message (1975) and The Private
Eyes (1976), with which Hui established his own brand of comedy. The success also
helped lift Golden Harvest out of the slump, despite the fact that the company had yet to
break free from the confines of Shaws.
As a result of economic recession, film productions in Hong Kong shrank and so
did Golden Harvest’s annual box-office revenue. It started diversifying by adding comical
and erotic elements to contemporary action films and making gimmicky comedies, youth
dramas, fantasy/horror films and even Cantonese opera pieces. Between 1974 and 1977
the local box-office figure had yet to record a stable increase, but by entering the Korean
market and expanding overseas distribution network, the company’s distribution business
saw considerable growth. After 1977, Golden Harvest hired Sammo Hung to direct The
Iron-Fisted Monk (1977), Warriors Two (1978) and Knockabout (1979) and to star in The
Magnificent Butcher (1979) directed by Yuen Woo-ping. Successful fusions of Chinese
kung fu and comical genius, these works ushered in a new trend of kung fu comedy. In the
early 1980s it created a brand-new image for Jackie Chan and opened up new vistas for
the kung fu/action genre. It was from then on the local box office began to prosper.
Throughout the 1980s, a remarkable increase in market share enabled Golden Harvest
to introduce Jackie Chan to worldwide fame, whereas Shaw Brothers was caught in a
downward spiral. Prior to its rapid growth, Golden Harvest went through a difficult period
in the 1970s, its annual output in Hong Kong averaging just slightly more than eight titles.
Production figure grew at a rather slow rate over the first six years and picked up only in the
last four years – an upward trend on the whole that would lay solid groundwork for the two
decades to come.
Outreach strategy
As early as before World War II, film companies in Hong Kong had started collaborating
with their overseas counterparts. The trend flourished in the 1950s and in the mid-1960s
Shaws co-produced with Korea’s Shin Films a body of period dramas, shot in studio set
in Hong Kong and on location in Korea. These collaborative efforts, packaged as major
blockbusters, eventually made it into the Korean market. Korean directors Choi Kyung-ok,
Chung Chang-hwa, Kim Soo-yong together with some local actors were also recruited by
Shaws to work in Hong Kong. In the mid-1960s, in order to optimise the usage of studio
facilities and to learn from the Japanese who were known for their advanced technology,
Shaws hired Japanese directors and technicians to work on over 30 projects in Hong
Kong, while also working with filmmakers from the UK, Germany and Italy at the same
time. Raymond Chow’s experience in overseeing these projects, his knowledge of the
terms of collaboration, as well as his understanding of the capabilities of his staff were all
instrumental in his later endeavours to shoot films in Japan, Thailand, Korea, Europe and
the US in the 1970s.
Based on the experience of Shaws, Golden Har vest flexibly devised an outreach
strategy according to its own strengths. As Shaws had cast a network covering Hong Kong,
Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan, Golden Harvest decided that it would be wiser to extend
the competition beyond these countries – a strategy of closing in from the periphery that
eventually proved to be effective.
By 1970, Golden Harvest had yet to establish its own studios but filming activities had
started outside, some of its movies shot entirely or partially in Taiwan, Thailand or Japan.
Although the company’s outreach efforts in 1970 and 1971 might have been a result of
circumstances, they continued as a long-term strategy after the company had acquired
its own studios. On one hand, shooting overseas spared Golden Harvest the cost of
maintaining a huge staff of writers, directors and technicians that big studios like Shaws
had to endure; on the other, overseas ventures brought new ideas, locations and actors
and most importantly, new markets. Filming multiple titles back to back in one location also
helped reduce costs. Golden Harvest’s outreach strategy was therefore key to its survival
and its rise against strong competition.
Leaving Japan and Taiwan for Thailand and Korea

Golden Harvest’s Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman grossed merely HK$1.55 million
when released side by side with Shaws’ The New One-Armed Swordsman (Director: Chang
Cheh) in 1971. Realising that collaboration with Japan was not profitable enough, Golden
Harvest hardly worked with the Japanese again throughout the 1970s, except A Man Called
Tiger (1973, director: Lo Wei) and Seaman No 7 (1973, director: Lo Wei) which were filmed
in Japan simultaneously and solely by the company, with a significant part of the latter also
filmed in Taiwan. Golden Harvest often made films in Taiwan during its early days but with
little success, possibly due to strong competition. As filming in Taiwan lessened after 1974,
the company offered local independent productions more support by way of distribution,
while taking on talent from the region at the same time. For the first decade after its
founding, Golden Harvest’s major outreach partners were Thailand and South Korea which
were considered to be more suitable.
Despite an urge to develop its own film industry, Thailand was hampered by a shortage
of talent and technical knowhow so Hong Kong, relatively more developed, was a welcome
business partner. The sizeable Chinese population there also guaranteed a market for Hong
Kong films. Golden Harvest’s first project in Thailand was The Big Boss , which earned a
record-breaking $3.19 million in Hong Kong and turned Bruce Lee into a household name.
It was thanks to Thailand that Golden Harvest made its presence felt. The company went on
to make four more films in Thailand until 1976, with yet little success.
In the 1970s, Korea also set out to expand its film industry in a bid to counter the
onslaught of Hollywood products. Stringent restrictions were put on foreign films with the
exception of co-productions. In the late 1960s, Chang Cheh and King Hu’s wuxia films set
off a craze in Korea, followed by Bruce Lee’s kung fu movies which became hugely popular.
Raymond Chow then took the opportunity to cement the first deal with Korea’s Shin Films
in 1971, collaborating on three wuxia /kung fu titles which broke the monopoly of Shaw
Brothers. Golden Harvest has since continued filming in Korea in various ways, and most of
its action movies went down well with the Korean audience.
Endowed with a rich heritage of historic architecture as well as natural landscape,
Thailand and Korea were both perfect locations for wuxia /kung fu pictures, not to mention
the abundance of accomplished martial artists and the lower cost of production. As the
markets for Hong Kong films in these two countries were still taking shape, Raymond Chow
seized the chance to make them the main targets of the company’s outreach efforts.
Golden Harvest’s collaboration with Thailand and Korea had been largely limited to
the kung fu/action genre. As the company went from strength to strength in the 1970s, it
became more ambitious and started reaching further out to regions such as Europe, the
US and Japan. The rest of this essay however remains focused on Golden Harvest’s filming
activities in Thailand and Korea during the 1970s.
Thailand
In 1971, The Big Boss was shot in Pak Chong, Thailand and, as Lo Wei recalled, it was
an uphill task. In order to minimise costs and save time, ‘filming was done in whatever site
we found.’ After a 34-day shoot in Thailand and additional filming for a few more scenes
in Hong Kong, The Big Boss was released in October the same year. Even though the film
appeared crude and Bruce Lee was given little chance to show his best, his unique charm
as well as lightning-quick footwork alone took the world by storm.
In May 1973, Lo Wei once again led his crew to Thailand where they worked on The
Tattooed Dragon (1973). Sets were built on the outskirts of Bangkok and the battle scenes
were shot in the Old Town district. It was smooth sailing this time and the crew returned to
Hong Kong in early July. The Tattooed Dragon hit the screens in December but was not well
received. Later in August 1973, Korean director Chung Chang-hwa put into production The
Skyhawk (1974) – the first Wong Fei-hung movie starring Kwan Tak-hing after his three-year
hiatus. The 37-member crew travelled in three groups and was said to be the largest ever
sent to Thailand for a Mandarin film. Premiered on 22 January 1974, the film made a little
more than HK$1 million and received rave reviews; a Mandarin version reportedly opened in
Korea at the same time. The film was a considerable success.
Huang Feng’s The Tournament (1974), which went into production in May 1974, was
filmed largely in Hong Kong. The crew stayed in Bangkok for a fortnight the following month
to work on some location scenes. Several Thai boxers were invited to Hong Kong in July for
the tournament scenes which were shot at a boxing ring mounted in Southorn Playground,
Wanchai. The film was completed in July and premiered in September. Efficient as the
production process might seem, the movie itself was just as shabby, packed with scene
after scene of combat, rivalry and revenge. The only highlight was Thai boxing, with Angela
Mao Ying taking on her male opponents. Another film, Springtime in Pattaya premiered in
January 1976 was opportunistic from the onset. Directed by Wu Jiaxiang and featuring a B-
or C-list cast with several sex bombs from Thailand, the film brought in a mere HK$267,000
at the box office. As it turned out, this film was produced by another company, probably
a speculative piece with the backing of Golden Harvest behind. To sum up, among the
company’s outreach projects in Thailand, The Big Boss and The Skyhawk were relatively
successful but the rest were hardly so.
Korea
As early as 1971, Golden Har vest had stationed Huang Feng in Korea to oversee
production. According to news reports the company collaborated with Shin Films first on
Bandits from Shantung (1972), followed by Lady Whirlwind (1972) and Hap Ki Do (1972);
Golden Harvest bore the costs of directors, actors and technicians, the Koreans supplied
food, shelter and extras, while certain expenses on equipment and sets were shared.
Huang stayed for a year for the three films, all released in 1972. Hap Ki Do was the highest
grosser with over HK$870,000 in the box office, whereas the other two each made just
above HK$400,000. It was heartening though that both Hap Ki Do and The Big Boss made
it into the US market. On 16 May 1973, The Big Boss , Hap Ki Do and Shaw Brothers’ King
Boxer (1972) ranked Top Three on the US box-office chart in Variety magazine; on 23 May,
Hap Ki Do climbed to Number One, an indicator indeed of the initial success of Golden
Harvest’s outreach strategy. In the same year, Golden Harvest recruited Chung Chang-hwa,
the Korean director of King Boxer who was still under contract with Shaw Brothers, for The
Devil’s Treasure (1973). Shot at a small town in Korea, the film achieved little success.
From late April to mid-May 1973, Huang Feng did the location shooting in Korea again
for When Taekwondo Strikes (1973), which was shot in studio later in Hong Kong. Although
in his 50s already, Huang was extremely ambitious and keen to incorporate new action
elements. His Hap Ki Do featured Hong Kong karate school owner Carter Wong in the lead,
alongside Korea’s ‘Hap Ki Do Helmsman’ Ji Han-jae and his principal apprentice Hwang
In-shik. Also, famed Taekwondo master Jhoon Rhee and his female student Anne Winton
were brought in from the US for When Taekwondo Strikes . In January the following year,
John Woo spent three months in Korea filming The Dragon Tamers (1975), which featured
women’s Taekwondo and a cast of new actresses from Korea and Japan. The project
however ended up both a commercial and critical failure. In 1975, Woo went to Korea again
for Hand of Death (1976). With the experience of the past project, he fared much better
this time around. Meanwhile, Peng Chang-kuai, a director born in China and brought up
in Korea, made his debut with Tiger of Northland (1976). It featured young Chinese martial
artist Po Chin-quan (stage name Tang Yuanhan) and was wholly filmed in Korea, but the
response was barely satisfactory.
The Shaolin Plot (1977) was Golden Harvest’s largest project in Korea, as well as the
most acclaimed work by Huang Feng. A temple on Mount Ling Jiou was used as Shaolin
Temple in the film, and hundreds of Korean actors participated in the shoot deep in the
mountains which lasted for three months. Released in 1977, it earned HK$1.24 million and
was dubbed into English for global release. Huang’s last project in Korea, Naked Comes the
Huntress (1978), went into production in 1977. Filming started in a set built near Seoul but
due to an untimely lack of snow, the crew eventually had to film for two extra weeks under
harsh conditions on Mount Zaou in Hokkaido, a ski resort in Japan. The movie received
widespread media attention upon release but only brought in HK$870,000 at the box office.
Aside from the above, The Stormy Sun (1973, director: Wu Minxiong), a Taiwan picture
distributed by Golden Harvest, also had its combat scenes in northern China deserts
shot in Korea. Other titles such as The Manchu Boxer (1974, director: Wu Ma), Chelsia
My Love (1976, director: Sung Chuen-sau), Broken Oath (1977, director: Chung Chang-
hwa), The Iron-Fisted Monk and Warriors Two were also partially filmed in Korea. Golden
Harvest’s overseas filming mostly took place in Korea, thanks to its magnificent landscape
that resembles China and the plentitude of cheap talents. Some films were billed as co-
productions with Korea (which might not be true in actuality) to secure distribution rights in
the country, including The Stormy Sun , Hand of Death , Chelsia My Love , The Shaolin Plot ,
The Iron-Fisted Monk and Rainbow in My Heart (1979), all of them released in Korea with
additional credits for a Korean co-director. The plot therefore often incorporated elements
receptive to Korean viewers, such as anti-Japanese sentiments, the extraordinary prowess

of Korean martial arts, or Japanese karate no match for Chinese and Korean martial arts put
together. By the end of the 1970s, Golden Harvest had distributed more than 18 titles in
Korea.
Flag-bearers
During the founding years, most of the talents in Golden Harvest, including directors,
scriptwriters, cinematographers, musicians, production designers and editors, were
originally from Shaw Brothers. Of all the high-flyers, Lo Wei, Huang Feng, Chung Chang-
hwa and John Woo are worth mentioning in particular.
Lo Wei
Lo Wei joined Golden Harvest in 1970. His directorial works The Big Boss and Fist of
Fury brought himself and the company tremendous fame. He ventured into making films
in Thailand (The Tattooed Dragon ), Japan and Taiwan (A Man Called Tiger , Seaman No 7 )
as well as the US (Yellow-Faced Tiger , Chinatown Capers , both 1974). An actor-director
of the older generation, Lo was good at non-action drama while his tenure with Shaw
Brothers gave him a wealth of experience in action films, which proved extremely useful at
Golden Harvest despite a lack of innovation. Golden Harvest was highly supportive of his
company Swank Motion Pictures (he recalled that he would be allowed to make one film for
every three films he had made for Golden Harvest), a great incentive for him to work fast
and well. He made 13 films for Golden Harvest from 1970 to 1974 with strong box-office
results, making him the most prolific director of the company. He had also discovered Nora
Miao and Sylvia Chang and cast Bruce Lee and Sam Hui in his films – certainly one of the
founding fathers of Golden Harvest.
Huang Feng
If Lo Wei was the founding father of Golden Harvest, then Huang Feng must have been the
‘expedition commander’ (also known in the media as the ‘director in exile’), flying back and
forth across Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand and Nepal since 1970, including allegedly
20 trips to Korea alone. By 1978 he had already directed 11 movies for the company, all
kung fu titles, exploring new forms of combat and novelties along the way, such as Shaolin
Kung Fu, Esoteric Martial Arts, Japanese Karate, Korean Hap Ki Do and Taekwondo as well
as Thai Boxing. In Taiwan he scouted Angela Mao Ying, a new action actress with prior
training in Beijing opera who would become his regular. He also put Sammo Hung at the
helm as martial arts choreographer for his films. Huang’s role in Golden Harvest was similar
to that of Chang Cheh in Shaw Brothers, only his scriptwriting and film language lacked
finesse and failed to measure up to his creative capacity. Hap Ki Do and The Shaolin Plot
were among his best works.
Chung Chang-hwa
A renowned director in Korea, Chung Chang-hwa was recruited to work in Hong Kong in
1958 and later joined Shaw Brothers. In 1973 he jumped ship to Golden Harvest where
he broadened his repertoire. Apart from The Skyhawk filmed in Thailand, his only title that
deserved to be called a kung fu film, his works included The Devil’s Treasure , a modern
thriller shot in Korea; The Double Crossers (1976), a gangster flick shot on location in
Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia; as well as The Association (1975) and Broken Oath
which featured Japanese and Korean porn stars. Unlike his Shaw titles which relied
heavily on studio sets, his Golden Harvest projects were filmed largely in real locations,
with combat scenes set in the streets, countryside and highways of Hong Kong, Korea,
Singapore, Malaysia and Bali in Indonesia, featuring modern thriller elements as well as
chases and gunfights both on land and at sea. While adhering to the company’s outreach
strategy, Chung also made a conscious effort to satisfy the pressing need for change in
the fist-and-kick kung fu genre after 1973. Chung directed five films for Golden Harvest
from 1973 to 1977. All mid-to-low-budget projects, they nonetheless propelled the
transformation of conventional kung fu flicks into modern action films.
John Woo
In 1974 John Woo made The Dragon Tamers , his Golden Harvest debut shot in Korea, which
however turned out to be a commercial and critical flop. His second attempt, Hand of Death ,
depicted male friendship and camaraderie among a group of Ming rebels rising against the
Qing court. He was fond of both the subject matter and the characters. The addition of
hilarious scenes of martial arts training also made the film a pioneer of kung fu comedy. Highly
regarded by Golden Harvest, Hand of Death was submitted to the Cannes Film Festival in May
1976 and released during the summer holidays to rave reviews. By January the same year,
Woo had in fact made a mark with Chor Fung Ming Troupe’s Cantonese opera film Princess
Chang Ping , which raked in HK$3.44 million at the box office. His The Pilferers’ Progress (1977)
and Follow the Star (1978), both shot in Hong Kong, earned over HK$5 million and HK$3.59
million respectively, making him one of the most bankable names at Golden Harvest. And ever
since, he was no longer required to shoot overseas for the outreach projects.
Conclusion
First initiated during the company’s early years to make up for the shortage of studio
facilities, Golden Harvest’s outreach strategy continued for a long time and finally turned
the company’s weakness into its strength. Japan, Thailand and Korea were selected for
Gol den Ha r v es t ’s O u treach St r at egy
and Co mpe t i t i ve F ron t s i n Th a i l a n d a n d Ko re a Du r in g I t s Ea r ly Ye a r s 42
trial and much emphasis was put on action movies. Among these productions, the Korean
projects turned out to be the most rewarding; they outnumbered works made in the other
two countries, boasted a fair quality on the whole, and successfully gained a foothold in
the Korean market. These overseas attempts were markedly different from offerings by the
bigger studios, with more outdoor scenes of magnificent landscape, more varied actions,
and a heightened sense of realism. Through its outreach endeavours, Golden Harvest
was able to acquire new talents and subject matters and therefore more novelties. It also
facilitated overseas brand-building and market extension, paving the way for the company
to expand its business worldwide in the 1980s. From 1976 to 1979 when Golden Harvest’s
local productions began to enjoy greater success, such outreach efforts became less
frequent except for some location shoots from time to time. [Translated by Carmen Ting]
Law Kar is a seasoned film scholar. He was formerly Programmer of the Hong Kong International Film
Festival in charge of the Hong Kong Cinema Retrospective section, as well as Programmer of the Hong
Kong Film Archive. His English/bilingual publications include From Artform to Platform – Hong Kong
Plays and Performances 1900–1941 (co-authored, 1999) and Hong Kong Cinema: A Cross-Cultural View
(Revised Edition) (co-authored, 2011), etc.
References
． Lo Wei (dict), Sin Nong (collated), 40 Years in the Film Circles , Hong Kong: Jing Yi Press, 1987 (in Chinese).
． Chang Cheh, 30 Years of Hong Kong Cinema in Retrospect , Hong Kong: Joint Publishing, 1989 (in Chinese).
． Box-Office Records of First-Run Movies, 1969–1989 , Hong Kong: City Entertainment Press, 1990 (in Chinese).
． Wong Ain-ling (ed), The Shaw Screen – A Preliminary Study , Hong Kong: Hong Kong Film Archive, 2003.
． Lau Shing-hon (ed), A Study of the Hong Kong Martial Arts Film , the 4th Hong Kong International Film Festival catalogue,
Hong Kong: Urban Council, 1980.
． Law Kar (ed), Border Crossings in Hong Kong Cinema , the 24th Hong Kong International Film Festival catalogue, Hong
Kong: Leisure and Cultural Services Department, 2000.
． City Entertainment (ed), Golden Harvest’s 30th Anniversary Special: Our Bygone Days , Hong Kong: City Entertainment
Press, 2000 (in Chinese).
． Production reports and interviews with film workers from various issues of Golden Movie News, Hong Kong: The Four
Seas Publication Ltd, 1972–78 (in Chinese).
． Film reviews from Close Up Magazine , Hong Kong: Close Up Press, 1975–78 (in Chinese).
． ‘Shaw Brothers’ Films Took the World by Storm’, Hong Kong Movie News , No 92, Hong Kong: Hong Kong Movie News
Press, August 1973, pp 25–27 (in Chinese).
． ‘The Story of Raymond Chow and Golden Harvest’, Hong Kong Film Magazine , No 2, Hong Kong: Hong Kong Film
Magazine Culture Ltd, December 2007, pp 122–125 (in Chinese).
． Movie section and film advertisements in Wah Kiu Yat Po , Ming Pao Daily News and The Kung Sheung Daily News , Hong
Kong, 1971–78 (in Chinese).
． Michael Curtin, Playing to the World’s Biggest Audience, The Globalization of Chinese Film and TV , Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California Press, 2007, pp 47–56.
． Daiwon Hyun, ‘Hong Kong Cinema in Korea: Its Prosperity and Decay’, in Asian Cinema , Vol 9, No 2, Drexel Hill,
Pennsylvania: Asian Cinema Studies Society, Spring 1998, pp 38–45.
． Kim Dong-ho (publisher), Rediscovering Asian Cinema Network: The Decades of Co-production between Korea and Hong
Kong , the 9th Pusan International Film Festival catalogue, Pusan: Pusan International Film Festival Organizing Committee,
2004, pp 21–23 & 72–77.
43
From Shaw Brothers to Golden

Harvest: Raymond Chow and Japan
Kinnia Yau Shuk-ting
To Hong Kongers born in the 1960s and 70s, childhood memories of

watching films will always include the deep, booming ‘dung dung
dung dung’ and those four red rectangular blocks that come together
to make the Golden Harvest logo. Interestingly, many Japanese born in
the same era have the same memories – proof indeed, that the influence
of Golden Harvest in Japan was no small thing. Just over a decade
ago, as I was writing my PhD thesis, Japanese and Hong Kong Film
Industries: Understanding the Origins of East Asian Film Networks , at
The University of Tokyo, I was lucky enough to meet some 20 filmmakers
from Hong Kong who told me interesting stories about making movies,
and many of those stories told of the intimate relationship between
Golden Harvest and Japan. This year, just as the Hong Kong Film Archive
is publishing a Golden Harvest monograph, this essay takes advantage of
the chance to set the record straight on how Raymond Chow, the founder
of Golden Harvest, established and managed all these business and
personal Japanese relations.
The Shaw era

Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong has slowly but surely
replaced Shanghai as the leader of Chinese film production. And because they understood
From Shaw Broth er s to G ol den H ar v es t :
Raymo nd Ch ow a n d J a pa n 44
how important the overseas Chinese market was for Japanese film exports, the Japanese
film industry was happy to get close to Hong Kong, the base of Chinese film production.
To the Hong Kong film industr y of the time, working with Japanese filmmakers
allowed them easy access to more advanced technology for elevating the quality of local
productions, and of everyone, Shaw Brothers was the most enthusiastic. Apart from buying
out the Southeast Asian rights to a wealth of Japanese films, Shaws also worked with Daiei
and Toho to produce Princess Yang Kwei Fei (1955, director: Mizoguchi Kenji) and Madam
White Snake (1956, director: Toyoda Shiro). During the mid- to late-1950s, in order to
bring in Eastmancolour and widescreen shooting technologies, Shaws employed Japanese
cinematographers, Nishimoto Tadashi 1 and Kakita Isamu; in the mid-1960s, Shaws hired
several Japanese directors, including Inoue Umetsugu, 2 Furukawa Takumi, Nakahira Ko, 3
Murayama Mitsuo, Shima Koji and Matsuo Akinori, as well as expert gaffers, soundmen,
art directors, special effects personnel, dance and action choreographers to increase the
number of films produced. At the same time, the studio entered into its golden period in
terms of both production quality and quantity.
Stepping into the 1970s, Shochiku, Toho, Daiei, Toei, Nikkatsu, and other such
1 Nishimoto Tadashi, 1921–97. Born in Kyushu, orphaned at a young age, moved to Manchuria in 1925 with his sister.
Joined the Manchurian Film Cooperative in 1941 as a cameraman’s apprentice; in 1942, perfected his art at the Tokyo
Institute for Cinematographers (later, the Japan Academy of Moving Images), learning from renowned cinematographer
Midorikawa Michio. In 1943, he was promoted to Chief Cinematographer, filming features and newsreels for the
Manchurian Film Cooperative. After the defeat of the Sino–Japanese War in 1946, he returned to Japan with his wife,
Teruko. Later, he joined Shin Toho (New Toho) studio to work under Mimura Akira and Kawazaki Kikuzo. In 1954, he
was promoted again to Cinematographer, working on several of Nakagawa Nobuo’s ghost films. In 1957, he accepted
the invitation of Shaws to shoot The Lady of Mystery (1957, director: Wakasugi Mitsuo) and Love with an Alien (1958,
directors: Wakasugi Mitsuo, Tu Guangqi, Chua Chang-geun) in Hong Kong. He then returned to Japan to shoot the
acclaimed film, The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959, director: Nakagawa Nobuo). In 1959, he was again recruited by Shaws to
shoot ancient palace epics in colour, winning the recognition from director Li Han-hsiang and actresses Li Lihua and Linda
Lin Dai; The Magnificent Concubine (1962, director: Li Han-hsiang) for which he worked the camera, won Grand prix de
la commission supérieure technique du cinéma français at the Cannes Film Festival that year. In January 1966, Nishimoto
took a dozen of technical staff from Shaws to Shochiku Studio to observe the work there. Up till the early 1970s, not only
did he nurture a large number of directors and cinematographers at Shaws, he also brought in many Japanese directors,
cinematographers, gaffers and other technical crew. In Hong Kong, Nishimoto Tadashi was often credited with his Chinese
alias: He Lanshan.
2 Inoue Umetsugu, 1923–2011. Born in Kyoto and graduated from Keio University with a degree in Economics. In 1947,
he started out as an assistant director in Shin Toho, working for directors such as Saeki Kiyoshi, Chiba Yasuki and Abe
Yutaka. In 1952, he was promoted to Director with his debut film, The Cheerleader of Love . In 1955, he joined Nikkatsu
and became the mainstay of the company with his speedy production time and box-office sales. With his 1957 film, Man
Who Causes a Storm , he made a star out of Ishihara Yujiro, kicking off a decade of action films at Nikkatsu. Inoue left
Nikkatsu in 1960 and went on to make films for Takarazuka, Daiei, Shochiku and Toei. He was also recruited by Shaws,
and as his filmmaking style coincided with Shaws’ demands for efficiency and quality, he was highly favoured by Run Run
Shaw. From 1966 to 1972, he completed as many as 17 films for Shaws in both Japan and Hong Kong, laying a solid
foundation for Shaws’ musicals and youthful romances. In particular, Hong Kong Nocturne (1967), directed by him, was
the pinnacle of the musical film in Hong Kong.
From Shaw Brot h er s to G ol den H ar v es t :
production companies all faced operational difficulties. After several personnel changes,
Shaws and the Japanese filmmakers seemed to face growing alienation. However, the
newly-established Golden Harvest and other independent production companies managed
to continue Shaws’ style, hiring Japanese actors and crew, and even continued to work
with several independent Japanese companies on co-productions. From then on, Hong
Kong–Japan cooperation broke through the monopoly by the big studios and started a new
page.
The Golden Harvest era

‘Golden Harvest’ was the name of the highest accolade awarded at the Southeast Asia
Film Festival, held in 1954 for the first time. Naming his company after the award, Raymond
Chow’s ambition to take over the Asian film market was obvious. However, it must be said
that a big part of Golden Harvest’s success story was due to Chow’s excellent network of
relationships he established while still at Shaws.
In 1958, Raymond Chow officially joined Shaw Brothers as Publicity Manager. As
previously mentioned, in the 1950s and 60s, Shaws got the help of Japanese filmmakers
through various means to raise the quality of its products, among whom the most well-
known were cinematographer Nishimoto Tadashi and director Inoue Umetsugu. In recalling
why he stopped making films for Shaws, Inoue once said it was mainly because Mona
Fong had replaced Chow at Shaws. 4 Coincidentally, Nishimoto Tadashi also left Shaws not
long after Fong started work. 5 According to his wife Teruko, Nishimoto, who was already
the boss of East Central Company, had no intention of coming back out to make films.
3 Nakahira Ko, 1926–78. Born in Tokyo to parents who were well-known in the arts world and received a Westernised
education in a school run by the church. He dropped out of The University of Tokyo when he was hired to be an assistant
director at Shochiku Ofuna Studio, and through self-introduction, became the Assistant Director in two of Kurosawa
Akira’s films: Scandal (1950) and The Idiot (1951). In 1954, he left with his senior Kawashima Yuzo to work for Nikkatsu,
and directed A Man Spied On (1956), although it wasn’t released until after Crazed Fruit (1956), which was completed
later. That film was lauded as the magnum opus of ‘Sun Tribe’ films, not only garnering high praise from François Truffaut,
but also seen as the ‘enlightenment film’ of the 1959 French New Wave. Along with Masumura Yasuzo, the first Japanese
director schooled in Italy, he is considered to be a pioneer in Japanese cinema. Nikkatsu later sidelined him for his bad
attitude. From 1967 to 1969, he took assistant directors Murata Keizo, Ichiko Seichi, art director Otsuru Yasuhiro and
cinematographer Mamiya Yoshio to Shaws, and using his Chinese alias, Yang Shuxi, he made four films for the company,
where it is said that because of the same bad attitude, he was constantly fighting with Shaw actors and crew.
4 Inoue Umetsugu told the author that because Doven Chow was busy managing his own cinema business, he quit his job
as the accountant at Shaws. In desperation, Shaws put Production Manager, Raymond Chow, in charge of accounts,
but this allowed Chow to approve any and all expenditures. Upon seeing this, Run Run Shaw put Mona Fong in place to
keep Chow in check. See Kinnia Yau Shuk-ting, An Oral History of Japanese and Hong Kong Filmmakers: From Foes to
Friends , Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2012, p 47 (in Chinese).
5 Mrs Nishimoto recalled her husband’s reason for leaving Shaws as mainly because Shaws had no pension scheme in
place. At the same time, coincidentally, Dentsu Group, Production 21, Chuo Senko and other such Japanese production
houses were recruiting Nishimoto to work on TVCs. As such, he decided to open his own company to provide production
services. See Kinnia Yau Shuk-ting, op cit, pp 80–81.
From S ha w Broth er s to G ol den H ar v es t :
Ray mond C h ow a n d J a pa n 46
It was only because of his relationship with Raymond Chow that he flew to Italy to shoot
The Way of the Dragon (1972, director: Bruce Lee), and that before then, he did not know
Bruce Lee. 6 Later, Chow invited Nishimoto again, this time to work on the Golden Harvest
comedy, Games Gamblers Play (1974, director: Michael Hui).
Some of the early Golden Har vest titles were also co-produced with Japanese
filmmakers, such as Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman (1971, directors: Yasuda
Kimiyoshi, Hsu Tseng-hung). This film that kicked up a storm back in the day was the first
collaboration between Chow and Katsu Shintaro. 7 It’s said that in order to satisfy the Hong
Kong and Japanese audiences, as well as Jimmy Wang Yu and Katsu himself, there were
two endings to the film – one where the One-armed Swordsman defeats Zatoichi, and
one where the Swordsman loses to Zatoichi. Amusingly, the selling point of the film was
the great battle between two heroes, yet the actual screen time the two actors got was
extremely little. Chua Lam joked that it was because privately, the two actors did not get
along at all. 8
Renowned producer Chua Lam, 9 who was Shaws’ representative in Japan, has
always had close links with Japan. In the late 1980s, he represented Golden Harvest in a
collaboration with Fuji Television Network to co-produce the sci-fi films Peacock King (1989,
director: Nam Nai-choi) and Saga of the Phoenix (1990, directors: Nam Nai-choi, Lau Sze-
yu), in which Katsu Shintaro played Abbot Ji Ku. Based upon Japanese manga, these two
films were hugely popular in Japan, and the star of the films, Gloria Yip, even became a
pin-up girl in Japan because of them. As with Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman ,
the leading cast of Peacock King catered to both lands: the two stars were Yuen Biao from
Hong Kong and Mikami Hiroshi from Japan. Also worth noting is that the director of these
films, Nam Nai-choi, was a protégé of Nishimoto Tadashi during his Shaw days.
Another protégé of Nishimoto’s, Lau Koon-wai directed the 1985 horror-comedy, Mr
Vampire (produced by Bo Ho Films, distributed by Golden Harvest), creating a vampire
6 Kinnia Yau Shuk-ting, op cit, p 80.

7 With One-Armed Swordsman (1967, director: Chang Cheh), actor Jimmy Wang Yu became well-known throughout
Southeast Asia. Raymond Chow hoped to make him an international superstar, so he also hired Katsu Shintaro, whose
name also dominated Southeast Asia, to have them both headline a sword-fighting film as Golden Harvest’s debut
production. A lawsuit ensued as Shaws accused Golden Harvest of infringing its rights for the One-Armed Swordsman
franchise. Golden Harvest won in the first hearing, but the order was reversed upon appeal by Shaws. See ‘Disputes over
One-Armed Swordsman Unsettled, Shaws’ Appeal Granted and Golden Harvest Files Appeal to England’, The Milky Way
Pictorial , No 170, Hong Kong: The Milky Way Pictorial Press, May 1972, pp 52–53 (in Chinese)
8 See Kinnia Yau Shuk-ting, op cit, p 26.
9 Chua Lam’s father, Chua Boon Hean, worked with the Shaw brothers in the 1930s, going from Shanghai to Singapore to
open up new markets, and worked in Shaws’ distribution department for over 40 years. Because of his father, Chua Lam
fell in love with the movies at a very young age and studied Fine Arts at the Nihon University.
legend craze in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. Later, Chua Lam connected Golden Harvest
with Japan’s Amuse Inc to co-produce The Christ of Nanjing (1995, director: Tony Au),
based on Akutagawa Ryunosuke’s 1920 short story, The Christ of Nanking . 10 In the 1980s,
former Shaw employee Tai Chen-kuo 11 took over the Golden Harvest Asian division; Hsu
Tseng-hung 12 and Eugene Chao, 13 both of whom had studied in Japan, also moved from
Shaws to Golden Harvest.
One of Golden Harvest’s biggest successes in Japan was the introduction of Bruce
Lee, Michael Hui and Jackie Chan to the Japanese masses. 14 Raymond Chow had allegedly
tried to sell the distribution rights of Fist of Fury (1972, director: Lo Wei) to Katsu Shintaro,
to no avail. 15 Unlike other US/European/Asian markets, Japanese audiences first met
Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon , which was co-produced by Concord Productions (a Golden
Harvest–Bruce Lee company) and Warner Bros. As such, it wasn’t until after his death that
Japanese people came to know of Bruce Lee – a similarly sad parallel to James Dean. Early
in the Sino–Japanese War period, Japanese filmmakers already had plans to use Shanghai
films to enter the Southeast Asian market. After the war, because the base of Chinese-
10 In addition, Golden Harvest also worked with the Japanese to co-produce The Body is Willing (1983, directors: Ohara
Koyu, David Lai), The Soong Sisters (1997, director: Mabel Cheung), Kitchen (1997, director: Yim Ho), Anna Magdalena
(1998, director: Yee Chung-man) and City of Glass (1998, director: Mabel Cheung).
11 Tai Chen-kuo is a university graduate from Taiwan, who was transferred by Shaws to Hong Kong in the 1960s. Because
he was fluent in Japanese, he often worked with Japanese directors such as Inoue Umetsugu and Nakahira Ko as their
translator and assistant director. He has a similar background to director Kuei Chih-hung.
12 In January 1966, Shaws sent a 13-man team (all cinematographers, gaffers, art directors, props masters and assistant
directors: Nishimoto Tadashi, Hsu Tseng-hung, Wu Jiaxiang, Kuei Chih-hung, Hua Shan, Chen Fen, Pun Man-fai, Lee
Wah, Tung Shih-hsien, Kuan Ying-chuan, Lau Tit-chi, Au Kow and Wu Mingsheng) to Shochiku Studio to observe the
filming methods in Flame and Rule (1966, director: Inoue Umetsugu). Group leader Hsu Tseng-hung said: ‘During the trip
to Japan, in addition to watching the filming process, we also focused on technical issues regarding set decoration and
lighting design. The gaffers and art directors all learned a lot from the trip. The studios in Japan are much the same as
Shaws’ in terms of size and equipment, in fact, some of their sceneries weren’t as good as Shaws’, but they made some
props and larger sceneries from light plastic, which made transporting these much easier. For example, a huge stone lion
or a huge rocky mountain made from plastic would look just as real, but the one fault was that it is easily breakable if one
is careless. So we got to see the real thing and assess the methods for our own use.’ See ‘Shaws’ Observation Tour in
Japan’, Southern Screen , No 98, Hong Kong: Southern Screen Press, April 1966, p 75 (in Chinese).
13 In 1965, Shaws sent recording and printing technician Eugene Chao to Japan to study the techniques of colour printing.
In February 1968, under the supervision of Chao, Shaws’ colour printing lab opened for business. See Liu Yafo, ‘Shaws’
Colour Printing Centre’, in Hong Kong Movie News , No 28, Hong Kong: Hong Kong Movie News Press, April 1968, p 32
(in Chinese). This brought many advantages to Shaws’ operations and productions, for example, it raised the standard of
technical excellence, it quickened the completion time for many productions, it could readily print copies to be shipped
to other places, it eliminated the chances of film exposure while in transit and other chemical reactions happening due to
being under pressure for too long, it could train and prepare more talent, etc. It is said that this printing centre, the best in
Southeast Asia, could print up to 40 films a year (including 15 copies and 27 trailers per film).
14 Regarding the experiences of the three entering the Japanese market, see Leung Cheuk-fan, ‘The Lure of the Exotic –
Hong Kong Cinema in Japan’, in Law Kar (ed), Border Crossings in Hong Kong Cinema , the 24th Hong Kong International
Film Festival catalogue, Hong Kong: Leisure and Cultural Services Department, 2000, pp 156–159.
15 Chino Jiro, ‘The Dragon’s Revolution and the Rise of Golden Harvest’, The Combative History of Hong Kong Cinema ,
Tokyo: Yosensha Co Ltd, 1999, p 74 (in Japanese).
From Shaw Brot h er s to G ol den H ar v es t :
language filmmaking moved from Shanghai to Hong Kong, Japanese filmmakers began
to pave the way towards Hong Kong–Japan collaborations. But the Japanese still held
the same criticism of Hong Kong films as with Shanghai films: pace too slow, too much
dialogue and low technological standard.
It has long been considered that Enter the Dragon , which caused a kung fu fever in
Japan, marked the greatest divide in the development of Japan–Hong Kong film connection –
it allowed Japanese audiences to feel the appeal of Hong Kong films for the first time.
Because of this, film critic Udagawa Koyo named 1973 as ‘Year Zero of Hong Kong Cinema
in Japan’. 16 In 1974, riding the Bruce Lee-martial arts wave, 28 kung fu films were imported
into Japan and Japanese TV stations even started broadcasting Hong Kong kung fu films
during primetime. The Bruce Lee fever also led to the emergence of several Japanese
kung fu stars, including Chiba Shinichi, Shihomi Etsuko and Sanada Hiroyuki, etc. Uchida
Makoto, one-time assistant to Ishii Teruo and Fukasaku Kinji, commented that the Bruce
Lee fever inspired Toei to produce a series of Japanese-made kung fu films, including the
Street Fighter’s Last Revenge series (director: Ozawa Shigehiro, starring Chiba Shinichi and
released in Japan in 1974) and the Sister Street Fighter series (directors: Ozawa Shigehiro
& Yamaguchi Kazuhiko, starring Shihomi Etsuko and released in Japan in 1974–76). 17 All
these productions were influenced by the films of Bruce Lee. From Katsu Shintaro’s refusal
to distribute Fist of Fury , we can see the conservative side of Japan’s film industry at the
time; if it was not for the involvement of Warner Bros in Enter the Dragon , this film may well
have never reached the Japanese audiences. But the success of the film started a raging
war between Japanese distributors for the rights to other Bruce Lee films. It was because
of Raymond Chow’s relationship with Kawakita Nagamasa 18 that allowed Toho-Towa to gain
the majority of the distribution rights to Bruce Lee, Michael Hui and Jackie Chan’s films.
16 Udagawa Koyo, ‘From Bruce Lee to Hong Kong’s Reunification with China 1970–1997’, in Uekusa Nobukazu (ed), Kinema
Junpo Extra: A Full Feast of Hong Kong Films – The Know-It-All’s Guide to Hong Kong Cinema , Tokyo: Kinema-Junposha
Co Ltd, 14 March 1997, No 1,217, p 106 (in Japanese).
17 Hiraoka Masaaki & Uchida Makoto, ‘A Dialogue on the Asian Dragon that Dominated the World: Bruce Lee’, in Uekusa
Nobukazu (ed), Kinema Junpo Extra: Bruce Lee Returns – A Superhero’s Legend , Tokyo: Kinema-Junposha Co Ltd, 8
August 1997, No 1,230, p 46 (in Japanese).
18 Kawakita Nagamasa, 1903–81. Born in Tokyo, studied at the Faculty of Arts of Peking University but dropped out because
of anti-Japanese sentiments triggered by the May Fourth Movement; advanced his studies in Germany after World War I.
Upon returning to Japan in 1928, he established Towa Trading Company (now Toho-Towa Co Ltd), which distributed the
German film Asphalt (1929, director: Joe May) in Japan, to much popularity. Along with his wife, Kashiko, he continued
in his business of distributing European films in Japan. In June 1939, he became Senior Managing Director at China Film
Company Limited in Shanghai, and with his motto of ‘patriotic to each own’s country’, was highly respected and trusted
in both the Chinese and Japanese filmmaking circles. After the Japanese were defeated in the war, he was branded by
General Headquarters as a perpetrator of the war, and for three years, between October 1947 and October 1950, his
rights to work in film and leave the country were revoked. In February 1951, along with Mori Iwao, he became a senior
consultant at Toho. From then on, he became a bridge between Japan and the European and Southeast Asian film
markets.
Looking back at the history of Golden Harvest, Japanese filmmakers, audiences and
market have played a pivotal role. It cannot be denied that all the hard work Run Run Shaw
had put in over the years, ended up paving the way for the grand success of his former
staff, Raymond Chow. [Translated by Diane To]
Kinna Yau Shuk-ting received her PhD from The University of Tokyo in 2003. She is now
Associate Professor at the Department of Japanese Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Her latest publications include An Oral History of Hong Kong and Japanese Filmmakers: From Foes
to Friends (2012, in Chinese). She is the recipient of the Young Researcher Award 2008 (CUHK), as
well as a Harvard-Yenching Institute visiting scholar in 2010–11.
50
More Detour Than Legacy:

Golden Harvest’s Hollywood Gambit
Sam Ho
Early in the French film Persepolis (2007), co-directed by the Iranian

filmmaker Marjane Satrapi and based on her autobiographical graphic
novel, the central character remembers growing up in Tehran in the 1970s.
One of her childhood dreams is to become a prophet, a figure of religious
and divine significance. Another desire – just as impossible and perhaps
even more fanciful – is to be a disciple of the kung fu star Bruce Lee. That
a little girl in Shah-era Iran would aspire to be a follower of a Hong Kong
actor is a testimony to the remarkable, far-flung reach of Golden Harvest
films.
Bruce Lee was of course the star who kicked down international doors for Hong Kong
films, his artistry, both martial and cinematic, ushering in an era of worldwide appreciation
and phenomenal ticket sales. Lee’s films also became a cash cow for Golden Harvest,
generating profit of unimaginable margins for the upstart company in its early years.
Throughout Golden Harvest’s eventful tenure, Bruce Lee – his work as well as his iconic,
longer-than-life mythic presence – never stopped producing deposits for the company’s
coffer, likely a major factor in allowing it to embark on ventures otherwise too unrealistic and
too unwise to undertake. Namely, the making of Hollywood films.
Golden Harvest’s Hollywood exploits are by now legendary, even fabled. Few Hong
Kong endeavours had been as daringly international and grand in scale – and none as high
profiled – as the company’s production of Hollywood films. They tell stories for a mostly
Western audience and aimed at reaching beyond, to audiences all over the world. All of the
More Detou r Th an L egacy :
Gol d en Ha r v e st’s Ho l l y wo o d G a m bi t 51
films are directed by Westerners and the majority star established Hollywood actors, with a
couple of exceptions featuring Jackie Chan (Battle Creek Brawl [1980] and The Protector
[1985]) and, arguably, two films starring Cynthia Rothrock (China O’Brien [1990] and its
sequel [1990]), who, though American, made her movie name in the Hong Kong industry.
Yet, looking back, Golden Harvest’s Hollywood venture had been just that, a venture.
It was an amazing undertaking that involved risk and required boldness, if not outright
courage. But, despite the hype, especially in Hong Kong and the Chinese diaspora, the
undertaking was all too brief, unable to sustain a lasting tenure. It started in 1977, with the
release of The Amsterdam Kill (1977) and The Boys in Company C (1978), followed by a
productive period in the early 1980s, with Night Games and Battle Creek Brawl in 1980,
Death Hunt and The Cannonball Run in 1981, Megaforce and The Rats in 1982, High Road
to China and Better Late Than Never in 1983, Lassiter and Cannonball Run II in 1984, The
Protector and The Big Bet in 1985 and Dream to Believe in 1986. Production then stopped
for several years, resuming with a bang in 1990 with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and, with
less bang, A Show of Force , and two guns-and-kung fu flicks starring Cynthia Rothrock,
China O’Brien and China O’Brien II . These are followed by the 1991 and 1993 sequels of
Turtles . After that, things came to a halt.
The slate of films includes a wide variety of genres. There are the obligatory staples of
actioners, from crime thrillers like The Amsterdam Kill and Death Hunt to martial arts flicks
like Battle Creek Brawl and China O’Brien to the high-tech action film Megaforce . There
are the genre blenders that find parallel a Hong Kong penchant, such as High Road to
China , which mixes adventure with comedy and romance, much to the taste of Hong Kong
audience, or the Cannonball Run films, with elements of comedy and car-chase action.
There are comedies, which run the gamut of elderlies drama Better Late Than Never (which
preceded the big hit Cocoon [1985] by two years) and the teen-sex romp The Big Bet .
There are also horror films like Mother’s Day (which went on to gain cult status) and The
Rats as well as the softcore porn Night Games (directed by Roger Vadim, perhaps the
genre’s best-known helmer) and the teen-girl sports film Dream to Believe .
Despite the diversity of genres, with its apparent goal to capture differing audiences,
Golden Harvest’s Hollywood gambit was, in truth, not quite influential and did not produce
much lasting impact – not on world cinema, not in America and not even for the Hong Kong
film industry. The most distinct imprint appears to be Jackie Chan’s penchant for using
outtakes during the run of end credits in his films, apparently inspired by The Cannonball
Run , the Golden Harvest Hollywood production he appeared in, which was directed by
Hal Needham, who pioneered the use of end-credit outtakes in Hooper (1978), which the
director also collaborated with Cannonball Run star Burt Reynolds.
The reasons for the lack of sustained impact are many. Australian researcher Mike
Walsh, using Golden Harvest as a case study, observes that for Asian film companies
with global ambitions, the all-important North American market was a hard nut to crack.
The difficulties they faced were not unlike those which troubled American mini-majors
Gol d en Ha r v e st ’s Ho l l y wo o d G a m bi t 52
like Cannon, Orion and Carolco. Walsh identifies several enduring factors that mitigated
against Golden Harvest’s efforts to become a global player, such as the dominance of
US distribution majors in the international market, the ability of Hollywood to ‘replace
overseas niche successes with domestic versions’, the rise of production costs in
America and fluctuations of international currencies. Without a ‘stable relationship with a
major North American distributor’ and unable to establish one of its own, Golden Harvest
was handcuffed in its moves. Walsh points out that although some of Golden Harvest’s
Hollywood productions such as the Cannonball Run films were indeed successful, they
were, like those of the aspiring American mini-majors mentioned above, ‘exceptions which
encouraged (it) on to failure’. 1
A s s u c h , G o l d e n H a r v e s t ’s i n t e r n a t i o n a l l e g a c y i s m o r e d e f i n e d b y t h e e a r l y
breakthrough of Bruce Lee than the mid-term splashes of Cannonball Run and the twilight
resurgence of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles . While Bruce Lee’s modestly-produced
works scored surprising and phenomenal successes on a global scale, the high-minded
projects that followed failed to measure up to the promise and ambition fuelled by the
earlier triumphs. Lee’s films were targeted primarily towards only the Chinese audiences.
His appeal is physical and personal, his remarkable spirits and fighting abilities elevating
an individual’s bodily capacities to new levels, enabling his work to reach across borders
and cultures, rendering the usually the all-important issue of production quality moot. The
company’s later films, on the other hand, had sights set on much wider horizons, marked
literally for the world. They had much bigger budgets, packaged for broader appeal and
were made by professionals that came with much higher price tags. Yet, as Walsh has
posited, such invested efforts were not enough to propel the Golden Harvest team to
leap over major barriers in the North American market, the necessary platform on which to
launch high-end international success.
The company’s frustrations in fact presaged the Hollywood experience of other Hong
Kong filmmakers. The likes of Chow Yun-fat, Sammo Hung, Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam had all
ventured to Los Angeles to mine American gold. All of them were unable to make any real
impact across the Pacific. Even Jackie Chan, Jet Li and John Woo, who did enjoy some
measures of success, were unable to realise sustained influence with their Hollywood work. I
had argued in another forum that, in the cases of Chan and Chow, the Hong Kong stars were
unequipped and unprepared to swim with the American sharks, unable to negotiate deals that
would allow them to shine with their respective strengths in their Hollywood films. 2
1 Mike Walsh, ‘Hong Kong Goes International: the Case of Golden Harvest’, in Gina Marchetti & Tan See Kam (eds), Hong
Kong Film, Hollywood and the New Global Cinema: No Film is an Island , Abingdon, UK: Routledge, pp 167–176.
2 Sam Ho, ‘What Happened to Chow, Chow and Chan? A Look at Post-Reunification Hong Kong Cinema Through Its
Biggest Stars’, Today Literary Magazine , No 99, Beijing: Today Literary Magazine, 2013 (in Chinese).
Gol d en Ha r v e st’s Ho l l y wo o d G a m bi t 53
Just as Golden Harvest was tripped by a lack of footing in North American distribution,
Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-fat and other Hong Kong star filmmakers were restricted by poor
positioning at the negotiating table.
Golden Harvest’s Hollywood enterprise now looks more like a transition, an international
detour that proved to be unfeasible for a Hong Kong company. The company was able to
establish a truly significant legacy with its Hong Kong films and its eventually abandoned
international detour is in truth a sidebar to that legacy. Much the same can be said of Chan,
Chow, Woo and the rest of the Hong Kong crew that sought Hollywood fortune. Despite
their ballyhooed landing on North America, their true and lasting stature remain firmly
planted on Hong Kong soil.
The Hong Kong film industry had been going through a difficult decline in the past 20
years, its former glories of the 1980s and early 1990s looking more and more like a page
in history that will not be repeated. Attempts to put a stake in the uncertain but lucrative –
and potentially much more lucrative – Chinese market had been made with a certain degree
of success. But, as China becomes surer and surer of itself, its market will develop with its
own characteristics and its filmmakers their own ways of making movies. In the midst of this
development, the Hong Kong film industry and its filmmakers will, on one hand, contend for
a share of the new development and, on the other, play a role in the Chinese film industry’s
contention with Hollywood, certainly on the Chinese market and possibly on the international
arena.
Golden Harvest’s international foray will therefore serve as a model on which the
Chinese industry can look for lessons, if not inspirations. As China becomes more and
more integrated into the world economy, its film industry will need to find ways to control its
own market, including the very essential area of distribution, while playing fair without the
helping hand of the government. It also has to look to the experience of Chan and Chow,
learning how to spin with the sharks that had been circling the Chinese waters for bites, if
not swallows, of the Chinese market. And if the Chinese film industry is to have any designs
for international commercial success, not only does it need to sharpen its creative tools but
also figure out a way to land a firm footing on the distribution ground and secure a good
seat on the negotiating table.
Editor’s Note: American and European release dates are used in this essay.
Sam Ho is a renowned film critic and ex-Programmer of the Hong Kong Film Archive.
54
Mischievous Urban Fantasia:

Michael Hui’s Comic Mode
Ernest Chan
If it can be said that Bruce Lee establishes the model for kung fu film,
Michael Hui is the one who revolutionises comedy in Hong Kong. Many
of his films have broken the box-office records of Chinese and Western
films in Hong Kong, 1 and started the craze of comedy in the 1970s and
80s. His first film, Games Gamblers Play (1974), succeeded in catching the
pulse of society of the time. With materials taken from Hong Kong daily
life, his comedies with their satire have become the products and the
emblems of the period.
Games Gamblers Play is a huge box-office success, leaving in its wake a whole line
of similar comedies. Raymond Chow of Golden Harvest once suggested John Woo turn
to comedy, who went on to become the unnamed hero in the making of Games Gamblers
Play , and the Executive Producer of The Private Eyes (1976). 2 When he was at Golden
Harvest, he made the widely popular The Pilferers’ Progress (1977), Follow the Star (1978)
and From Riches to Rags (1980). These films bear the imprint of Michael Hui’s comedy, but
something of Woo’s personal style also comes through. Among the stars, Richard Ng and
Josephine Siao adapt to the big screen the comic characters from TV programme It’s Not
1 Games Gamblers Play (1974) scored HK$6.25 million; The Private Eyes (1976) in excess of $8.5 million; Security Unlimited
(1981) in excess of $17.76 million.
Mischi evo u s U r ban F an t as i a: M i c h a e l H u i’s C o m ic M o d e 55
So Simple (1976–77). Richard Ng, moreover, appeared in British TV comedies when he

was studying in the UK. When it comes to the mastery of the comic tempo, he is closest to
Hui. Taken as a whole, however, there is no one who could replace Michael Hui’s position in
comedy through the 1970s, let alone surpass him in achievement.
The emergence of Hui’s comic mode marks the watershed of Hong Kong comic theatre.
It is strikingly different from the popular The House of 72 Tenants (1973) or the films of
Li Han-hsiang at the time. It lays the foundation for the comic kung fu film as well as the
comedies of Cinema City of a later time. This article will focus on Hui’s films from his Golden
Harvest period.
From The Hui Brothers Show to Games Gamblers Play

Michael Hui’s comic mode dates back to The Hui Brothers Show (1971–72), a TV
programme that he hosted with his brother Sam Hui. Sam was the main voice of the band
Lotus in the 1960s. In 1967, he started a music programme, Star Show , at Television
Broadcasts Limited (TVB), while Michael wrote for Enjoy Yourself Tonight , and hosted an
inter-school quiz show. Selina Leung suggested the Hui Brothers team up in a programme,
and thus was born The Hui Brothers Show . It captured the increasingly western trend of
society, featuring many English songs sung by the two brothers and using gags extensively
as in foreign comic TV shows such as Dan Rowan and Dick Martin’s Laugh-In (1968–73).
The difference is that The Hui Brothers Show adopts the format of the variety show. 3 The
programme proves to be so popular that some of its catch phrases have entered the daily
language of Hong Kong.
2 Michael Hui said in an interview, ‘When we made Games Gamblers Play , I was not sure what to do with the scene of
more than a thousand gamblers. Golden Harvest rang me up late at night, assuring me that I didn’t need to worry. They
had found someone who would do a good job. That someone appeared, and he spent several nights taking care of the
gambling scene. I was struck by his expertise with the camera. It is clear that he is a professional director. But he was not
uppity about it at all, but simply stood by me to give me advice now and then, “Michael, what do you say if we do this and
that…?” A lot of credit should go to him. Even when the film broke the box-office record, he did not go around tooting his
horns. This person is John Woo. He is a great help in this film.’ See Wong Hiu-hung, The Biography of John Woo: From
Lion Rock to Hollywood , Hong Kong: Crown Publishing, 2004, p 103 (in Chinese). Chang Cheh has this to say about
Games Gamblers Play : ‘Raymond Chow told me, “John Woo contributed a lot to the film.”’(Wong Hiu-hung, op cit, p 87)
Golden Harvest’s official magazine also says of Michael Hui’s directorship: ‘With John Woo’s help in coordination, as soon
as Games Gamblers Play went into production, Michael and Sam were able to devote themselves fully to acting, with
excellent results.’ See Sahara, ‘Golden Harvest Targets on Comedies’, Golden Movie News , No 64, Hong Kong: The Four
Seas Publication Ltd, July 1977, p 24 (in Chinese).
3 Tony Rayns (interviewer & collator), Li Cheuk-to (trans), ‘An Exclusive Interview with Michael Hui: New Directions of Hong
Kong Comedies of the 1980s’, Film Biweekly , No 53, Hong Kong: Film Biweekly Publishing House, 31 January 1981, p 17
(in Chinese).
Mi schievou s U r ban F an tas i a: M i c h a e l H u i’s C o m ic M o d e 56
Following the 1967 Riots, Hong Kong society became relatively stable in the 1970s,
but rising crime rate, widespread corruption, inflation, the rifts between government and the
people and industrial disputes became foci of the media. 4 The Hui Brothers Show turned
the grumbles of the people into biting satire which provides the viewers with, if nothing else,
a hearty laugh. Michael Hui’s success on TV attracted the attention of Li Han-hsiang, who
gave him major roles in The Warlord (1972), 5 The Happiest Moment (1973), Scandal (1974)
and Sinful Confession (1974). It was rumoured at that time that Hui approached Shaw
Brothers with the proposal of Games Gamblers Play , and a request for a share in the profit,
but Shaws turned him down. Only then did Hui agree to work with Golden Harvest. Another
rumour has it that Hui wanted to use the name The Hui Brothers Show for the title of the
film, but gave up the idea after TVB objected. 6 The two brothers then formed a company
of their own, and with the help of Golden Harvest, completed Games Gamblers Play with
gambling and swindling as the theme.
Episodic structure and the formula of jokes

To understand the breakthrough that Games Gamblers Play represents, one has to take a
good look at Hong Kong comedies of the 1970s. Critics have pointed out that the film owes
its inspiration to Li Han-hsiang’s The Legends of Cheating (1971), while parts of its plot
come from The Sting (1973). 7 The film inherits the tried formula of The Hui Brothers Show
in that it retains the loose structure of the TV show. Li Han-hsiang’s ‘The Cheating Trilogy’
(The Legends of Cheating , Cheating in Panorama [1972], Cheat to Cheat [1973]) and Sinful
Confession which stars Michael Hui, build their stories on gambling and swindling, but they
are a far cry from Games Gamblers Play . In the words of one critic, Li Han-hsiang ‘varnishes
his cynicism with an aesthetic coating in either one of two ways’: by directing ‘large, hastily
assembled casts’ or by ‘loose, anti-structural narratives constructed as vignettes of several
stories’. 8 Such an episodic structure may bear some resemblance to Games Gamblers Play
but is entirely different in spirit.
4 James Kung & Zhang Yue’ai, ‘Hong Kong Cinema and Television in the 1970s: A Perspective,’ in Li Cheuk-to (ed), A Study
of Hong Kong Cinema in the Seventies (Revised Edition) , the 8th Hong Kong International Film Festival catalogue, Hong
Kong: Leisure and Cultural Services Department, 2002, Figure 3, p 11.
5 Reportedly, ‘the actor that was slated for the role of the warlord, Tsui Fu-sheng, could not come to Hong Kong. On the
spur of the moment, Li Han-hsiang thought of Michael Hui (for all we know, it might have been planned).’ See Ba Ni, ‘This
Fellow Michael Hui’, Cinemart , No 49, Hong Kong: The CINEMART Publications Co, January 1974, p 50 (in Chinese).
6 Lau Tin-chi, Beware of the Television , Hong Kong: Cosmos Books Ltd, 1996, p 192 (in Chinese).
7 Law Kar, ‘Michael Hui: A Decade of Sword Grinding’, in Li Cheuk-to (ed), A Study of Hong Kong Cinema in the Seventies
(Revised Edition) , note 4, p 65.
8 Stephen Teo, ‘Li Hanxiang’s Aesthetics of the Cynical’, in Li Cheuk-to (ed), A Study of Hong Kong Cinema in the Seventies
(Revised Edition) , note 4, p 96.
Games Gamblers Play sets great store by the high frequency of jokes, while Li Han-
hsiang’s films call to mind the tale structure of Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron . The
final surprising comic twists of Li’s films come as a result of a slow build-up that takes
up whole segments of the film to develop, while Games Gamblers Play relies on a high
concentration of jokes and a crisp tempo. With his northern background, Li’s raw materials
and verbal gags originate from the northern folk tradition. Games Gamblers Play ’s jokes
come from a process of brainstorming; its original wordplay is local. The rhymes, homonyms
and all the double-entendre are also based on Cantonese, and the joke structure, with a
fast-paced build-up and a snappy punchline, is one that is familiar to the local viewers.
TV culture and dubbing in Cantonese

Mandarin-dubbed films were the mainstream productions in Hong Kong in the 1970s. There
was only one Cantonese film in 1971, and none at all in 1972. The popularity of The House
of 72 Tenants marked the point when more and more films were beginning to be dubbed in
Cantonese. Its success should not be interpreted only as the revival of Cantonese cinema,
however, for it also represents the convergence of the two media: film and TV. The cast
is made up of TV celebrities, the soundtrack is dubbed in Cantonese, and its structure
resembles that of TV drama. In Li Han-hsiang’s films, Michael Hui’s roles are all dubbed in
Mandarin, but in Games Gamblers Play , Hui uses his own voice. He understands that with
the broadcasting of The Hui Brothers Show , his is a voice that viewers can recognise. In the
9
shooting of a later film, The Last Message (1975), he even requested sync sound in order
to give the film a heightened sense of realism.
The Cantonese theme song of Games Gamblers Play , penned by Sam Hui, is also a
major landmark in the development of Cantonese pop songs. The film is different from The
House of 72 Tenants , which is also dubbed in Cantonese. Chor Yuen, the director of the
latter, cut his teeth in Cantonese films of the 1950s, and adheres to the comic tempo of
that period. The scene where the landlady steals cloth, for example, takes five minutes to
develop. With the joke structure mentioned above, Games Gamblers Play is much more
efficient in provoking a response. There is practically a joke a minute – the comic ‘Jeet
Kune Do’ in a sense – in full conformity with the urban rhythm of the 1970s.
9 Yu Qi, ‘Michael Hui Turning to Ricky Hui for Help; Sync Sound for New Movie’, Ming Pao Daily News , Hong Kong: Ming
Pao Publishing Company, 16 April 1975 (in Chinese).
The pragmatic joker

The image of Michael Hui as the urban little man – greedy, selfish and happy with his own
cleverness – has taken shape in Games Gamblers Play . His deadpan style of humour is
also formed at that time. All his later roles – the janitor of the mental hospital who steals
from the dead in the morgue in The Last Message , the exploitative director of a private
detective company in The Private Eyes , the sharp-tongued and erratic walk-on at the TV
station in The Contract (1978) and the lecherous but henpecked husband in Teppanyaki
(1984) – are variations of the prototype.
Hui’s comic mode is in keeping with the trend of the rising economy of Hong Kong,
where pragmatism and efficiency are names of the game. The film is touted in the trailer
as one ‘made by a group of university students for the masses’, emphasising the vitality of
the younger generation, and the freedom from the moral pressure from which the directors
of an earlier age cannot escape. Hui is to make fun of society, but not to censure the
exploitative class structure. Rather, he sees through the ambivalence of the working class,
angry at those with a vested interest such as their employers, but fantasising the possibility
of joining their ranks by getting rich one day. More often than not, he is only pointing out the
human weakness that has been made evident by the new power structure.
Popular culture and social topics

In his later films, Hui turns to intertextual references in creating humour. Sausages turn
into nunchaku in the style of Bruce Lee in The Private Eyes . In the fancy dress ball scene
in Security Unlimited , Lau Hark-suen appears as a warlord, echoing the role that Hui plays
in The Warlord . Because sharks are in the mind of the viewers after the success of Jaws
(1975), they appear time and again in Hui’s films. The shark jaw-bone is used as a weapon
in The Private Eyes . A model of a shark appears in the chasing scene in the soundstage in
The Contract . In Teppanyaki , the plane falls into the sea in the midst of a school of sharks.
Most of these references are made to popular culture that has immediate resonances at
that time, which quickens the viewers’ response to his films.
Apart from these intertextual references, Hui’s films reflect various social phenomena.
Made during the stock crash of 1973, The Last Message does not shy from ridiculing the
mass obsession with the stock market. The film also points to the action of the Independent
Commission Against Corruption. Ernest Hunt, the police officer notorious for taking bribes,
is mentioned in the dialogue, and the opening credits sequence shows a Westerner
wearing a hat with the letters ICAC printed on it. But Michael Hui does not make these films
to castigate the social system. He has commented in a number of interviews that ‘viewers
spend a few dollars on a film for the entertainment, and not to worry their brains over
things… Since a film has to cater to the majority of the viewers, it has to keep in mind the
10
not-so-educated who are more numerous in number.’
The development of Michael Hui’s comic mode

As opposed to The Last Message which is set in a mental hospital, the jokes of The Private
Eyes are derived from situations closer to daily life. The few scenes that are most talked
about are the ‘chicken calisthenics’, the duel in the kitchen and the mass mugging in the
cinema. The inspiration of ‘chicken calisthenics’ comes from his own helper who likes to
watch TV while cooking. The mugging scene is a divine touch. It was shot in Royal Theatre,
with a huge number of temps.
In The Private Eyes , Michael Hui resorts to action slapstick rather than verbal gags. In
the first scene that shows the detective tailing a suspect, for example, the camera focuses
on his feet, which get trampled on, causing the sole of the shoes to fall off. Soon after, he
steps on a burning cigarette butt. There is another scene, recalling Harold Lloyd in Safety
Last! (1923), where he climbs out of the building through the window. With the superb
combination of the set and editing, the film succeeds in creating a realistic shot of the
character suspending in mid-air. The scene is re-enacted in The Contract , except that the
characters now start from the roof, then climb down the wall and into the apartment. In
Security Unlimited , the scene evolves to a chasing scene among the elevated platforms of
a building; and in Happy Din Don (1986), it becomes a free fall from the building. Visually
stunning, these scenes also generate laughter by putting the characters in awkward
situations.
The pros and cons of Michael Hui’s comic world

In an interview, Michael Hui confesses: ‘The few films that I made after leaving TV are quite
naive. They put together a few gags on the basis of the flimsiest plot. I called them “high-
concentration comedy” then, trying to argue that the more laughter there is, the better the
11
film. It is such a naive defence.’
It would seem, in Hui’s eyes, Games Gamblers Play , The Private Eyes and Security
Unlimited are successful because they are cut from the same mode. Besides, failure, by
his definition, is ‘not breaking the box-office records’. 12 In Teppanyaki and Happy Din Don ,
10 Yu Yiying, ‘What was Michael Hui Thinking in Taipei?’, Golden Movie News , No 61, Hong Kong: The Four Seas Publication
Ltd, April 1977, p 29 (in Chinese).
11 Ji Er, ‘Michael Hui: My Game, but Whose Rules?’, Film Biweekly , No 203, Hong Kong: Film Biweekly Publishing House, 18
December 1986, p 19 (in Chinese).
12 Ibid, p 21 (in Chinese).
where Sam Hui does not have a role, Michael turns to other topics, partly because he did
not want to repeat the old formula, and partly because the times had changed. The Aces
Go Places series produced by Cinema City has replaced Hui’s films as box-office hits,
but he expressed reservations about their way of collective creativity. Teppanyaki touches
upon the new subject of extra-marital affairs. The film was furthermore shot on location in
the Philippines. Happy Din Don , on the other hand, was shot in Thailand, a project that he
described as a remake of Some Like It Hot (1959), down to the last line of the dialogue ‘Well,
nobody’s perfect.’ There is, as he puts it, ‘no emotional involvement and no creativity’.13 The
result is that neither film elicited the response he was expecting. It is not until Chocolate
Inspector (1986, director: Philip Chan, screenwriters: Michael Hui & Philip Chan), Chicken
and Duck Talk (1988, director: Clifton Ko, screenwriters: Michael Hui & Clifton Ko), and Mr
Coconut (1989, director: Clifton Ko, screenwriters: Michael Hui, Raymond Wong & Clifton
Ko), which came under the care of other directors, that Hui slowly got back to shape as an
actor.
Variations in the hands of John Woo

As Hui’s comedies gets popular, other people begin to imitate his style and rhythm. Films
made around that time often make references to his work.
John Woo is a behind-the-scene hero of Hui’s films. The two learn from each other.
Woo’s mastery of camerawork reinforces Hui’s mise-en-sc ne and action comic elements.
On his own, Woo readily acknowledges what he has learned from Hui, saying, ‘During the
shooting of Games Gamblers Play , I learned for the first time how to design a comedy that
14
can attract viewers anytime.’
Even though he inherits the comedy mode from Hui and participates in the making of
Hui’s comedy, John Woo has walked a different path in his exploration of comedy. The
fundamental difference is that while he does not measure up to Hui in jokes and rhythm, he
is more skilful with visual gags. The Pilferers’ Progress takes after Topkapi (1964) in showing
the thief coming down to the house on a rope to steal. Not a line is spoken in this scene of
four minutes; the suspense is maintained by incidents such as the caterpillar crawling on
the rope and drops of perspiration falling down. Silence also reigns the first three minutes
of Follow the Star where Roy Chiao hangs out his laundry with a gadget that Rube Goldberg
would be happy to have invented, yet the viewers are tickled by the trivial and ingenious
machine. Josephine Siao plays the clumsy cellist shortly after the beginning of Plain
13 See note 11, p 21 (in Chinese).

14 Wong Hiu-hung, op cit, p 104 (in Chinese).
Jane to the Rescue (1982), succeeding in making viewers laugh solely by her awkward
actions. Lastly, the intricate installation whose purpose is to murder the wife in Hello Late
Homecomers (1978) is more than likely John Woo’s brainchild.
In contrast to Michael Hui, Woo tends to exaggerate in his shots, giving them a
cartoonist treatment. In The Pilferers’ Progress , for example, Richard Ng bumps his head
against the door, and immediately a lump the size of a ping-pong ball appears on his
forehead. On the sight of the secretary in her low-cut outfit, the lump disappears just as
quickly. In Follow the Star , the five assassins dangle from the roof of the building on a
human chain by holding hands. When they excavate graves for the treasures inside, the
dynamites blow up the dead bodies of real and fictitious historical figures, all dressed in
stage costumes. The hold-up in the tunnel in Plain Jane to the Rescue turns to a mahjong
party and then to a concert by the popular singer Roman Tam. The duel of the good and
evil in To Hell with the Devil (1982) takes the form of an electronic game.
Michael Hui’s ‘high-concentration comedy’ has won for him approving laughter from the
audience in the 1970s, but starting from The Pilferers’ Progress , John Woo’s comedy has
gained a more conspicuous edge because of the social criticism it contains. The ending of
The Pilferers’ Progress captures the twisted humanity after the rise of the economy. To Hell
with the Devil , an allegory of the loss of the soul for fame and gains of the modern man,
brings to mind the Faustian story. The protest scene against forceful evacuation in Plain
Jane to the Rescue points its finger at the real estate industry that goes to great length
to ruin the homes of ordinary citizens. As for the hostage hold-up turned concert scene
mentioned above, Roman Tam sings ‘Seeking Dreams with You’. According to Woo, it is his
way of voicing his wish that ‘whatever the difficulties, Hong Kong people will stick together
15
to create a space to live and to look for a new hope.’
That Woo looks up to the chivalry spirit is evident as early as Follow the Star and Plain
Jane to the Rescue . Religious images, similarly, are visible in his early comedies. Good
and evil personified by the priest and the devil come to clash in To Hell with the Devil . In
Laughing Time (1980), it is clearly stated in the dialogue that ‘great…is the power above.’
The final showdown in Follow the Star takes place in a church, and the treasure is marked
by the crucifix. The images of the church and religion clearly carry with them connotations
of salvation and redemption in Woo’s films.
15 Wong Hiu-hung, op cit, p 151 (in Chinese).

Conclusion
Michael Hui’s comic mode has become the basic style of Hong Kong comedy. Even though
people have pointed out that his films after Teppanyaki have become less funny, and the
plot gets more detached from reality; a contrary voice has also emerged, maintaining
that from Chocolate Inspector on, the loss of laughter is compensated by the gain in
the meaning. 16 For example, while The Last Message makes fun of those suffering from
emotional disturbance, Chocolate Inspector holds a more sympathetic attitude to the
same group of people. And if Chicken and Duck Talk and Mr Coconut equate humans with
animals, the purpose is to underscore the need of the characters to see the error of their
ways and restore their self-respect. [Translated by Tam King-fai]
Ernest Chan is currently Chairman of the Hong Kong Film Critics Society, and Honorary Member of
the Cantonese Cinema Study Association.
16 Ng Ho, ‘Michael Hui’s Comic World’, Hong Kong Cinema in the Eighties (Revised Edition) , the 15th Hong Kong
International Film Festival catalogue, Hong Kong: Urban Council, 1999, p 24 (in Chinese).
63
Sammo Hung, the One and Only

Lam Chiu-wing
As usual, we, a group of screenwriters, converged on the glass house

of Golden Harvest's studio in Hammer Hill Road this afternoon where
Jackie Chan was brainstorming stories with his crew. And as usual,
Sammo Hung was there for a visit.
Jackie asked Sammo where he had been.
Sammo said he was with Leonard Ho earlier, selling stories.
What did Mr Ho think?
He asked me to put together a budget by the time I got to the third scene.
Which story is that?
Sammo’s team has just too many stories on hand – some for himself, some
for his buddies, and some that he is to produce at the satellite companies’
request…
Thus, with Sammo, it always has to start with the first scene. It is a joy for novice
screenwriters like us to listen to Sammo and Jackie go back and forth with their stories. Even
at this early stage, they are going into such details as dividing shots, choreographing action
scenes, working out lines of dialogues and all other things that needed to be done to make a
full-fledged film with sight and sound. Jackie may put in a word here and there as the mood
strikes him, making the whole thing hopping all the more with energy.
Edward Tang, the screenwriter, said listening to the two of them hammer out a story is like
watching two street boxers sparring to entertain the crowd.
Sammo Hu n g, t h e O n e a n d O n l y 64
When the two work on a story, there is everything but a theme, or a plot.
The year was 1983. Filming was about to start, but there was nothing but five characters to
the project. Just the same, Leonard Ho had complete faith in Sammo. Three months later, this
skeleton of a story became the box-office hit Winners & Sinners (1983).
Comedies
S a m m o ’s s t o r y t e l l i n g i s u n s u r p a s s e d a m o n g d i r e c t o r s w h o c u t t h e i r t e e t h a s a c t i o n
choreographers. There are plenty of non-action scenes in his actioners, which are especially
strong in their dialogues. In Sammo’s hands, they come out snappy and touching.
The most spectacular instance of this can be found in The Prodigal Son (1981). The
spendthrift Yuen Biao asks Lam Ching-ying to take him as a disciple but Lam has turned
him down a number of times. He is going to make the same request again. On the screen
is a montage of Lam Ching-ying sitting indoors, with the sound of the door opening in the
background. A glimmer of light comes behind Lam. As the door closes, the light fades away.
The camera remains stationary. Lam knows that Yuen has entered the room, and one can tell
from his expression that he is going to grant Yuen his wish this time. So far, not a word has been
spoken; the whole story is told but by light and sound.
‘I am sorry.’ Yuen Biao hands Lam a cup of tea.
‘Where are your manners? Do you pour tea to your teacher standing up?’ Lam answers with
a stern look on his face.
The depiction of the master–disciple bond reaches a high point. A heavier touch would tip
the scene to sentimentalism. Sammo, who has been peeking in from outside, barges into the
room at this moment, surprising Yuen and Lam. In his funny Taishan accent, Sammo blurts out,
‘Sorry, guess I have spoiled the atmosphere.’ Such is Sammo’s way of mixing the flippant with
the serious, echoing Hong Kong people’s refusal to be bogged down by solemnity.
Ng Ho, the film critic who specialises in comic theory, points out comedy is at its greatest
when it is only separated from tragedy by a thin line. In Warriors Two (1978), for example,
Sammo avenges the death of his master, Tsan. The enemy is now dead. Just when sadness
pervades the scene, Sammo addresses the lifeless body, ‘don’t let me run into you again. I
will give you a whacking!’ to the roaring laughter of the audience. Sadness switches over to
merriment in just one line. 1
Remarkably, in handling non-action scenes, Sammo is capable not only of injecting playful
comedy, but also earth-shattering lofty emotions as well as bitter-sweet black humour.
1 Ng Ho, ‘Kung-fu Comedies: Tradition, Structure, Character’, in Lau Shing-hon (ed), A Study of the Hong Kong Martial
Arts Film , the 4th Hong Kong International Film Festival catalogue, Hong Kong: Urban Council, 1980, pp 44–45.
Subverting the world of kung fu

In the 1970s, the formula of mixing action and comedy had just become a fashion. Sammo’s The
Iron-Fisted Monk (1977) and Warriors Two , as well as Yuen Woo-ping’s The Magnificent Butcher
(1979) in which he plays the title character, are works that led the trend.
The most important element in Sammo’s comedy lies in subverting the world of kung fu.
Perceptively, Sammo highlights the practical aspects of martial arts by exploding the myth of
the orthodoxy of fighting styles. The Prodigal Son compares the short-style Wing Chun that is
suited for the stature of women with the long-style more appropriate for the hefty male physique.
He argues that one has to learn both, saying, ‘Who cares what sort of Wing Chun it may be?
As long as you can beat your opponent, it is the right style for you.’ Such a sentiment captures
the utilitarian bent of Hong Kong people. As long as the end is met, why bother with what is
orthodox and what is not?
Knockabout (1979) is the most anti-orthodox of all in this regard. Leung Ka-yan and Yuen
Biao are two small-time punks. They try to rob Lau Kar-wing, only to get a sound beating from
him. The two then come up with a way of revenge; they would become Lau’s disciples, learn
everything that Lau has to teach them, and then combine their strength in defeating Lau. It turns
out that Lau, as they have suspected, is a bad guy. He takes Leung Ka-yan’s life, while Yuen
Biao finally acquires the skill to inflict such injury on Lau that the latter dies. In the moral world of
conventional kung fu film, what Leung and Yuen do is a betrayal of the orthodoxy and would not
be allowed. Sammo’s kung fu films are not bound by such concerns. Earlier, he has already set
the precedent of putting modern language in the mouth of characters from a different period and
modern thoughts in their mind. His are not kung fu films, but action films, which can be set in
the contemporary world, as in the case of Carry On Pickpocket (1982) and Winners & Sinners ;
or even ghost films such as Encounter of the Spooky Kind (1980) and The Dead and the Deadly
(1982), quasi-western The Millionaires’ Express (1986), and war film Eastern Condors (1987).
Magnum opuses
Encounter of the Spooky Kind and The Prodigal Son are two of Sammo’s best works, setting a
standard that has yet to be surpassed.
The original script of The Prodigal Son is characterised by its perfect form and an
outstanding plot. When I worked as a screenwriter at Golden Harvest, I came across an old
mimeographed copy of the script, which bears the name of Wong Jing as the Screenwriter. Lau
Tin-chi was the Creative Director. The most outstanding character of the film is Leung Chan,
a martial arts fanatic, who runs into another fanatic played by Frankie Chan. The outcome is
that the two young expert martial artists come to a duel, where the ideal of friendship by fair
competition is realised.
Sammo Hung has always been known for his high concentration of gags. In an otherwise
serious drama, he puts himself in as the overweight master, whose purpose there is to add
levity to the film. His first scene in the film sees him integrating martial arts with the genteel arts
of Chinese calligraphy and painting. The idea is unorthodox as it is, but in his operatic style, he
was able to execute the scene with such comic abandonment that turns a non-action scene to
an action one, earning from the audience their thunderous applause.
To prepare for the film, Sammo Hung turned to a Wing Chun expert Lai Ying-chau, also a
well-known film producer, for lessons in Wing Chun for half a year. The fighting in The Prodigal
Son is therefore quite genuine. Sammo Hung injects memories of his childhood in a drama
troupe into the plot: the humiliation for a man to play a woman role, the vow of silence that
binds the actor playing the role of Lord Guan after the ritual of applying makeup… all such
stage customs add interest to the film. The scene of the attack of the drama troupe shows
Sammo Hung’s masterly skill at its best. The images of the stage in flames dazzle and excite the
audience. All in all, The Prodigal Son represents the zenith of Sammo Hung’s achievements.
The Prodigal Son depicts martial arts in the human world, while Encounter of the Spooky
Kind turns to the nether world where ghosts and spirits reign. Both are imbued with Cantonese
folk flavour. In addition to the usual realistic action, Encounter of the Spooky Kind harks back to
the occult of traditional China and the West in scenes of spirit possession. If the skin of an apple
breaks when it is being peeled, for example, spirits will emerge. With kung fu integrated with
special effect, and the world of living intermeshed with that of the dead, Sammo succeeds in
opening a space for unlimited imagination in the otherwise tangible world of kung fu.
The Dead and the Deadly , sequel to Encounter of the Spooky Kind , boasts a symmetrical
script and smooth camerawork. The film was produced and choreographed by Sammo and
directed by Wu Ma. I had the great fortune of going through the rushes in the studio with
Sammo’s crew at the end of each shooting day. Sammo is hailed as one of the producers who
knows best what to look for in the rushes. He can see by a glance what needs patching and
what needs discarding. So stringent is the standard to which he holds himself that there was
one time he demanded a scene be reshot immediately when he detected something wrong in
the rushes instead of waiting until another day.
Sammo possesses a director’s creativity and a producer’s perspicacity. He knows whether
a film is ready for shooting just by listening to the outline of the story. Leonard Ho of Golden
Harvest had the greatest confidence in him. Many an unfinished film thus fell on Sammo’s
shoulders. I recall that in 1983, the shooting of Jackie Chan’s Project A had dragged for a year.
There was hardly enough footage to make one-third of the film. Leonard Ho recognised that the
film had stalled long enough and gave word for Sammo to take over the directorship of the film.
The result is that the film made it to the cinema by the Christmas and New Year slot. Jackie is a
box-office success as a director, who but Sammo could take over the film from him? The famous
shot of Jackie jumping down from the clock tower, which had by then been postponed for three
months, would never have come to being had not been for Sammo. With the loudspeaker in
his hand, Sammo shouted from where he was on the ground to Jackie above: ‘Big Nose, if you
don’t jump now, you can forget about making any more film.’ A second later, Jackie completed
the most stunning shot in Hong Kong film history.
Brotherhood
In 1985, Sammo and Jackie collaborated in Heart of Dragon . Sammo plays the handicapped
older brother, and becomes Jackie’s care, for whom Jackie has to give up his goal of becoming
a sailor. Barry Wong, the screenwriter, told me that the story is inspired by John Steinbeck’s Of
Mice and Men (1937), which Sammo found exciting, not because it is a piece of world-famous
literature, but because it would allow him to put aside his fighting skill and hide among a group
of innocent child actors. The theme of brotherhood is evident in the film, with the two brothers
weeping in each other’s arms over pain and anguish that cannot be put into words. Those who
know of the tearful childhood of the ‘Seven Little Fortunes’ where they apprenticed under the
strict master who did not spare the rod will appreciate the depth of feelings of the scene. The
film is a sublimation of the experience of those days.
In addition to playing the handicapped character, Sammo was also the director and the
action choreographer. His responsibilities were heavy. He has always had important roles to play,
be it in Golden Harvest, Bo Ho Films or simply one of Jackie Chan’s films. Films in this respect
are representation of the reality. As the oldest disciple, he has a whole lot of younger ones to
take care of. The more capable he is, the heavier his responsibilities are. He could not but give
up his childhood innocence before time in order to take care of those younger than him.
The body
Sammo knows how to display his body – hefty but, to the amazement of the viewers, gracefully
agile. He appears nude quite often in his film, just as naturally as he displays his remarkable martial
ability. In Encounter of the Spooky Kind , he writes out charms naked. In The Dead and the Deadly ,
he gives up his body to be possessed by the spirit. Even in Heart of Dragon where the plot does
not call for nudity, he sits in the bathtub without a stitch to play with the rubber ducky.
Sammo’s action films are very violent. His crew and Jackie’s are well-known for subjecting
their bodies to extreme torture. In a scene shortly after the beginning of Winners & Sinners ,
Sammo slides down from the roof on pulley right into the police car that has arrived in the scene
and happens to have the door open at that instant. During the shooting, his stand-in, Yuen Mo,
came down on the pulley and crashed into the car door that did not open in time, knocking
himself out. Sammo’s choreography is at once more sumptuous and violent than Jackie’s. Falling
from a high place is not shocking enough for him, and so he has to add a mid-air collision to
add to the impact. The action in Heart of Dragon is particularly cruel and violent. The explosion
scene at the construction site sees a number of stuntmen come crashing down on the ground.
The movie boasts a record-breaking rate of injury.
The negative characters in most of Sammo’s action films end up being beaten to a pulp.
The more injury a body takes, the more the film succeeds in attracting the audience. Injury, self-
inflicted or otherwise, becomes a source of pleasure, or even rises to the level of ritual. You
will come to understand that in the traditional training of Beijing opera, this is how the most
fundamental skills are taught. Such demanding discipline proved to be too much for many of the
fellow-students of the Seven Little Fortunes, who left the school never to return. Among these is
Ng Ming-choi, the famous action choreographer. Self-inflicted pain is a part of choreography for
those who have gone through such demanding training. It is a bragging gesture to their peers,
giving them a sense of accomplishment beyond words.
Women
The Seven Little Fortunes developed a strong sense of brotherhood as they grew up together.
Yet, the narrowness of their circle also gives rise to something not so admirable – male
chauvinism. The disdain for women in Sammo’s film has to be the worst in all of Hong Kong
productions. In Encounter of the Spooky Kind , Sammo’s wife carries on an affair. Towards the
end of the film, Sammo gives his wife a round of severe punching and kicking, at the same time
screaming at her, ‘You slut!’ The audience broke out in applause, in full identification of the male
chauvinism he represents.
Deanie Ip is exceptional among actresses in that she demonstrates beauty and wisdom in
Sammo’s film. In Carry On Pickpocket , she plays the role of a police officer, winning the trust
of a group of pickpockets only in order to snatch from them their loots. At the end of the story,
Sammo succeeds in entrapping her and she receives the punishment she deserves. The other
actress that is favoured with Sammo’s magnanimity is Joyce Mina Godenzi, who plays the
daring and brainy Cambodian guerrilla in Eastern Condors motivated by a high sense of mission.
However, even she is fated to act against the male world. She betrays Sammo in the end, who
cuts off her hand. In perplexing contrast to Sammo’s hard-heartedness to women is Jackie’s
meekness, whose characters do the bidding of women with much comic effect.
The wise man

Sammo is most adept in staging group scenes, be it a kung fu film of the Republican era or an
action flick of the contemporary period. Since the success of Winners & Sinners , he has the
formula down packed: men making fun of women plus action scenes in contemporary setting plus
a touch of exoticism of the foreign lands. The formula is at play in different films: Wheels on Meals
(1984) in Spain, Twinkle, Twinkle, Lucky Stars (1985) in Japan, and The Millionaires’ Express in the
Canadian snowy mountains, complete with trains that crisscross the American West. The scene
continues to change to the battlefield in Vietnam in Eastern Condors . Different periods, different
stories, different costumes, but the same group scenes with the same buddies.
The Winners & Sinners series has an easy story to grasp. One after another, these little men
of characters appear on the screen. A strange case happens randomly and just as randomly, it
is solved. Mistakes are made unintentionally, and remedies are effected unexpectedly. In their
midst, Sammo plays the role of the leader, seemingly clueless but displaying a subtle kind of
wisdom that effortlessly makes things happen, bringing in thereby the theme of personal will.
Lurking in this comic mode is the wise man, who leads the main character to success.
Sammo’s wise man behaves in mysterious ways. On the surface, he appears to act without a
goal, but in fact things are painstakingly planned, leading the errant characters back to the right
path. In kung fu films, the wise man is the master, and in Winners & Sinners , he is Stanley Fung.
An undercover agent, Fung keeps a close watch over the other characters in solving cases. In
The Owl vs Bumbo (1984), Sammo and George Lam are burglars who give in to Fung’s pressure
in reforming a group of delinquents.
Sammo knows only too well that as a man of action, he needs the guidance of a wise
man to succeed. In real life, his wise man is Leonard Ho, who, of all people in the film circles,
commands his highest respect. In the Golden Harvest days, Ho was given the task of ‘managing’
Sammo and Jackie, which he performed admirably. He did not direct but suggest. After Sammo
left Golden Harvest, he lost his wise man, and suffered the consequence of it. His ticket sales
have never been as good as before.
Commander-in-chief
Leonard Ho placed high stakes on Jackie and Sammo in Golden Harvest. Jackie is the intrepid
fighter, leading the charge and winning the battles; but when it comes to amassing the troops
and laying out the war plan, one cannot but turn to Sammo’s leadership. With his varied themes
and styles, Sammo is a maverick in the film world. He is the most outstanding actor and director
of his times in integrating Chinese martial arts with contemporary drama. He is also able to
apply the same formula to any subject matter and background. With his box-office success, he
deserves to be called the best in the world.
During his time at Golden Harvest, the cost of production of his films scaled higher and
higher. Even though his films continued to sell well, the cost of production could not but cut
into the profit. After he left Golden Harvest, he took with him a group of talents. Bravely, they
charged on, but without the sage advice of the wise man, the glory of the past is no more.
Screenplay
Sammo has his own brand of black humour, bitter and yet detached, which he uses to make fun
of himself and to spur himself on. Eastern Condors ends with the death of all but Sammo, Yuen
Biao and Billy Lau. Lau whines, ‘Fucking America! Goddamn America!’ Sammo turns to him and
asks, ‘Well, where will you go now?’ Lau answers, ‘America, of course!’
Sammo relies heavily on those who ply their trade in writing, especially the two
screenwriters, Barry Wong and Szeto Cheuk-hon with their tongue twisters and dialogues full
of non-sequiturs and off-colour references. Barry, with whom Sammo has worked most often,
is capable even of injecting life into the most unstructured episode. He has been described as
the brain-on-the-go, and can be found 24 hours a day by Sammo’s side, much as a personal
secretary would. While Sammo designs the scene, he designs the dialogue. There was a time
when Cinema City resorted to the collective creativity of a seven-member writing team, which
Golden Harvest matched with a lone screenwriter in situ . It was rumoured that one time Barry
came up with sheets of dialogue for Sammo, who proceeded to throw out the first page, ripped
the second, sent the third to the wastepaper basket, deleted the fourth, axed out the fifth, and
took all but two lines of the sixth. Those turned out to be usable.
Sammo’s brand of action films has scripts with a major plot that is easy to follow but
individual scenes full of minor twists and surprises. Of all the directors of action flicks, he
succeeds in striking a balance between comedy and action where things hang together just
right.
The chef
It is a well-known fact that Sammo is a gambler, in the studio as in the race course. That he is
also a famous cook is less well-known, but the fact is that the soup that he makes for the crew
during the shooting and the feast that he prepares to celebrate the completion of a project are
equally delicious.
A gambler in film knows too well that there is no eternal winning formula. In his gamble with
the cinemagoers, he has yet to recoup his loss. But as a maker of the popular taste, he has
already left behind many wonderful dishes for us: some with a folksy flavour, some with the
special Hong Kong seasoning, and some that combine Chinese cuisines and those from the
West. The chef’s recipe is now lost to us. And as we dip into the best of his works, there is
indeed plenty to savour. [Translated by Tam King-fai]
Lam Chiu-wing has been writing screenplays, mostly comedies, since the 1980s. His latest credit is
Vulgaria (2012). Having worked for film companies including Golden Harvest and Cinema City, he is a
founder of the Hong Kong Screenwriters’ Guild. He started writing film critiques extensively in the 1980s,
and is currently a member of the Hong Kong Film Critics Society, as well as a TV/radio presenter hosting
film review programmes. Apart from scriptwriting, he is an all-rounder who excels in various capacities
such as executive producer, planning producer and actor.
71
The Kid, the Cop, the Adventurer

Cheng Chuen-wai
Marking Jackie Chan’s long-awaited return to directing, CZ12 (2012) not

only set a new box-office record for China–HK co-productions but also
is currently ranked as the second highest-grossing Chinese-language
film of all time. Unlike the recent spate of Chinese historical epics and
period martial arts films, Chan’s new action adventure encompasses a
much broader international perspective. Circling the globe and featuring
an international cast, the story of a quest to recover stolen national
treasures touches on nationalist sentiments and tackles issues around
counterfeiting that are all too familiar to Chinese audiences. Curiously,
Asian Hawk, Chan’s character in the film, originally appeared in the
Armour of God (1987). In the 1980s, Hong Kong cinema unconsciously
helped shape the Hong Kong identity, while at the same time, Hong Kong
filmmakers were also stepping onto the international stage. Jackie Chan
was one of the key representative figures of Hong Kong cinema from that
period.
In 1980, Chan, by then already a star, collaborated with Golden Harvest for the first time.
The Young Master (1980), directed by and starring Chan, broke Hong Kong box-office records,
grossing HK$11 million. Chan took his ‘Kung Fu Kid’ persona, first introduced in Snake in the
Eagle’s Shadow (1978), to new heights. Following the model for success set by Bruce Lee,
Chan’s next step was to conquer Hollywood. Battle Creek Brawl (1980) was Golden Harvest’s
The Ki d, t h e C op, t h e A dv en tu rer 72
first attempt to launch Chan into the international market. Directed by Robert Clouse, the
director of Enter the Dragon (1973), the film featured Chan’s kung fu kid persona and a fight
tournament scenario lifted from Bruce Lee’s movies. Unfortunately, it failed to attract audiences.
In retrospect, apart from its obvious flaws, the main reason why the film failed to match Bruce
Lee’s success was due to the fact that Hollywood films had regained its cultural dominance;
the US film industry had recovered from its slump in the early 1970s, when for a brief window
in time, genre films from around the world flourished in popularity. On the positive side, Battle
Creek Brawl was directed by an American director and presented audiences with a different side
of Jackie Chan.
Set in Chicago during the 1930s, the story follows Chan’s character, Jerry, who works in
his family’s restaurant. He has a Caucasian girlfriend. When a local gang abducts his brother’s
fiancée, Jerry is forced to participate in a street-fight competition. The female lead playing
opposite Chan was Kristine DeBell, a former Playboy cover girl, best known for her performance
in the adult film, Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Comedy (1976). Pairing a Caucasian
sex goddess with a rising Asian star was a daring move; it essentially challenged mainstream
Hollywood conventions. The film was also set in the 1930s, a time in America when interracial
marriage was not socially accepted. Unlike Chan’s previous roles, Jerry displays obvious desire
for the female body (albeit clothed). Made four years later, Wheels on Meals (1984, director:
Sammo Hung) was set in Barcelona. Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao appear as a couple of kung fu
kids who work as cooks (the stereotypical overseas Chinese). But this time they are presented
as modern characters without the added flavour of the usual ‘Chinese immigrant tropes’.
Unlike the Jackie Chan in Battle Creek Brawl , they react to the pretty Spanish ladies in a more
‘gentlemanly’ manner. Perhaps Chan encountered the same predicament that all Chinese actors
in Hollywood faced; at the time, Chinese actors were rarely cast as leads in major productions.
B-movies also rarely deviated from the formulaic combination of sex and violence. When Chan,
as the male lead, made a second attempt to break into the American market with The Protector
(1985), his character was transformed into a modern-day New York policeman. The scale of
the production was also much grander than Battle Creek Brawl . It was literally filming in every
location imaginable, in the air, on land and at sea. But director, James Glickenhaus’ American
version of the film was filled with clichéd exoticism and gratuitous nudity, adhering to exploitation
film conventions.
In discussing Jackie Chan’s many movie personas, he is most associated with his policeman
roles, ranging from the late 19th-century Hong Kong marine police, Ma Yu-lung, in the Project
A series (1983–87) to the super-cop, Chan Ka-kui, in the Police Story series (1985–96), to
Inspector Chan in Crime Story (1993). Chan’s roles as law enforcement officers were not
particularly complex or profound but they served as ideal vehicles to showcase his amazing
skills and spectacular stunts. But during the 1980s and 90s, the transitional period prior to the
transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997, they also served as ciphers for Hong Kong
audiences to project their own anxieties onto and identify with.
In 1983, China and Britain were still locked in negotiations that would determine the future
of Hong Kong. The works of local creative talent in theatre, film and television were concerned
with issues around the history of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong identity. Jackie Chan released
Project A (1983) during this period. Besides performing his own death-defying stunts, recalling
the spectacles of the early days of cinema, Chan also introduced an audience-friendly
interpretation of the early history of Hong Kong. He presented a portrait of the newly-established
colony as a place where pirates colluded with merchants; where Chinese and British civil
servants were at odds, and sabotaged each other, and where a law-abiding beat cop had only
his wits and skills to rely on to serve justice.
In Project A one could say that other than enforcing the law, it’s unclear what the character
of Ma Yu-lung believes in. In the sequel, Project A II (1987), made four years after the dust
settled on negotiations between the Chinese and British governments, Ma Yu-lung lays out
the cards and finally takes a stand. He states that he is merely a public servant, not a hero.
As the Western District Station Sergeant, he’s willing to assist the anti-Manchu revolutionaries
but refuses to join them. He confesses that he admires their noble cause to save China and its
people but he knows that such grand schemes often require operating outside the law in order
to achieve the goals. As an officer of the law he is obliged to uphold the law. At the same time,
he also believes that as long as everyone plays a part, society will be a better place. That’s why
he ultimately refuses to join the resistance against the Qing government. Whether or not Jackie
Chan chose this opportunity to express his political stance is up for debate. However, there’s
little doubt that placing faith in the judicial system and in one’s abilities while rejecting extremism,
reflected the values held by the majority of Hong Kong citizens.
Released in the same year as The Protector , Police Story (1985) served as a vindication for
Jackie Chan. The fast-paced Hong-Kong-style action flick trounced its American counterparts.
Written, directed by and starring Chan, the film offered a series of awe-inspiring spectacles,
including a downhill car chase, a set piece where he dangles from the end of umbrella on the
edge of a moving bus, a leap from a chandelier that hangs five-storey high, just to name a few.
Audiences were thrilled. The film’s protagonist, Chan Ka-kui, became Jackie Chan’s most talked-
about role. Once again serving in the Hong Kong police force, Chan Ka-kui faced a bureaucracy
even more massive and complicated than the one encountered by his late 19th-centur y
predecessor, Ma Yu-lung. His hands are tied by rules and regulations at each turn as he tries
to bring criminals to justice. His superior targets him as a scapegoat. But in the end, Chan still
manages to save the day by virtue of his wits and talent. Many years later, commentators have
viewed the character’s work ethic and dedication, in spite of his conflicts with the bureaucracy,
as a portrayal of the collective spirit of the Hong Kong people. This enduring role also continued
to reflect the times. The Chan Ka-kui in the first instalment of Police Story is essentially the Hong
Kong version of Dirty Harry: an angry cop who will resort to any means necessary to fight crime.
He even resigns from the force to take down criminals on his own. By the third instalment, Police
Story III – Super Cop (1993), Chan Ka-kui has matured into a sophisticated operative, able to
infiltrate a crime syndicate as an undercover agent. By the fourth instalment, First Strike (1996),
Chan Ka-kui has transformed into an invincible, Bond-style character – working closely with the
US and Soviet intelligence agencies and globe-trotting from Russia to Australia in order to save
the world from a nuclear destruction.
From Project A II to Police Story III – Super Cop , the protagonist has undergone dramatic
changes in terms of his political stance and his views on China. In the earlier films, he initially
shied away from such matters. By the final picture, he is deeply immersed in China and working
closely with the Mainland police; China is no longer a foreign and unwelcome place but an
important partner. In the film, though, the Mainland police are occasionally mocked for their
bureaucracy, stubbornness and even stupidity (for practising the discipline of ‘Hard Qigong’ in
order to become human sandbags), revealing the Hong Kong filmmaker’s knack for social satire
and comedy. Hong Kong cinema led the popular culture in establishing the collective identity of
Hong Kong as it began its long-term transformation in the face of a changing political climate.
Jackie Chan’s roles as policemen revealed the myths behind the idealised Hong Kong civil
servant, shaped over the course of two decades by the British administration and the local mass
media.
In Crime Story , made ten years after Project A , when a group of workers stage a protest
against their rich employer, demanding unpaid wages, Inspector Chan expresses genuine
sympathy for the protesters but also insists that they must not disturb the peace. After the
many protest marches in 1989, the idea of peaceful protests were imprinted in the collective
consciousness of the Hong Kong people. Through his character, Jackie Chan once again voiced
the unspoken sentiments of audiences. His recurring role as a police officer continues to pop up
in many of his later movies, including Rumble in the Bronx (1995), the film that Chan finally broke
into the American market with. In the US-produced Rush Hour series (1998–2007), Jackie Chan
also played a policeman from Hong Kong, who may or may not be on a mission.
‘Asian Hawk’ was another of Jackie Chan’s recurring roles that originated in the 1980s;
debuting in Armour of God , the adventurer was the Chinese version of ‘Indiana Jones’. Asian
Hawk also travels around the world in search of lost treasures, ranging from Armour of God
to the Nazi gold. But unlike Indiana Jones, Asian Hawk is not an archaeologist and his quest
does not serve any higher academic purpose. Money is his only objective of his worldwide
treasure hunts that result in his life-threatening adventures. Chan’s later roles in several Hong
Kong productions were basically variations on the same character, including an adaptation of
the Japanese comic, City Hunter (1993), Who am I? (1998) and The Accidental Spy (2001). But
even the original Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) borrowed heavily from the adventure model set
by the James Bond movies. As for Jackie Chan, he learned from both film franchises. In the films
that he made in the 1990s, his characters often collaborated with secret agents. After resolving
a nuclear crisis in Russia (in First Strike ), Chan eventually became a spy himself, playing a CIA
agent in Who am I? .
The popularity of spy films began in the 1950s and 60s and they all shared one thing in
common – the cinematic experience allowed worldwide audiences, who at the time had little
opportunity to travel abroad, a chance to travel the globe. Exotic locations were an essential
feature of these films. In this regard, Jackie Chan’s adventure films fulfilled more than the
requirements of the genre; while other Golden Harvest productions at the time (such as the
Winners & Sinners series) and other companies were still filming on location in Southeast Asia
and Japan, Jackie Chan’s Asian Hawk was traversing through African deserts, Amazonian
rainforests and European castles. Even as early as Wheels on Meals , there was a scene where
Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao got into a heated fight at the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. While
Hong Kong films fell into decline after the new millennia, Chan was turning Istanbul upside down
in The Accidental Spy . In the 1980s and 90s, Jackie Chan established his legendary film status
with his death-defying stunts in tandem with big budgets and high production values.
Like his policeman persona, Chan’s adventurer persona also undergoes some curious
changes over the course of 20 years. Armour of God II: Operation Condor (1991) opens with
Asian Hawk raiding a local tribe in the Amazon rainforest to steal a sacred gemstone. His
actions were far more mercenary than any Western film depictions of 19th-century adventurers.
In The Myth (2005) however, Chan’s post-millennial archaeologist character takes a moral
stance and declares that his business is archaeology, not tomb-raiding. He insists that all
archaeological discoveries are the property of the nation; stealing such artefacts under the
pretext of preservation or research is unlawful and immoral. But how does one resolve this
kind of intense nationalism around cultural artefacts when faced with such hypothetical
situations as ‘Han artefacts unearthed in Rome’? Does the newly-excavated artefact that was
lawfully exported during ancient times, belong to the country where it was unearthed or its
country of origin? Jackie Chan’s answer to the question appears to be quite straightforward;
when his archaeologist character ‘finds’ a Qin Dynasty sword from a sacred ground in India,
he immediately donates it to a Chinese museum. As to whether the sword ended up in India
because Indian travellers journeyed to Xianyang (the ancient capital of Qin) during the Qin
era and stole the sword, or some Qin Dynasty subjects visited India and left the sword there,
for Chan’s archaeologist it’s not even a consideration. This type of post-colonial yet insular
thinking is a departure from the earlier Asian Hawk, who behaves like a Western colonialist. His
transformation in the interim is rather interesting.
The 1980s were the golden era for the Hong Kong film industry. Jackie Chan established
his status as a screen legend, starting with his role as kung fu kid before moving up to playing a
dedicated policeman and finally a famous adventurer. On closer examination, the role of cop or
adventurer is merely a job title for Chan’s protagonist; whether it’s an officer demoted to traffic
cop or a superintendent on the rise, Chan’s character remains essentially the same, because
deep down he is the same kid – mischievous, naive, without clear motives. There’s no need
to elaborate on the fact that both the adventurer and the kung fu kid see life as a game, the
only difference is in the scale. When he finally successfully made his break in the American
mainstream market with Rumble in the Bronx , it came as no surprise that Jackie Chan once
again adopted the tried and true kung fu kid persona. His character Ma Hon-keung may be a
cop from Hong Kong, but as a foreigner in New York, confronted by local punks and gangsters,
he is once again reduced to proselytising to punks, while dispatching one bad guy after another
with his spectacular martial arts skills.
Targeting the international audiences with his next film, Mr Nice Guy (1997), Chan makes a
full reprisal of his kung fu kid persona. Like his predecessors from the era of Battle Creek Brawl
and Wheels on Meals , Chan’s character is a cook, only this time he’s a TV chef renowned for his
comical, acrobatic moves. The character may be wrapped up in an updated package, but like
the stereotypical Chinese immigrants depicted in Battle Creek Brawl , he has a lover who comes
from China.
Perhaps the reason why it’s impossible for Jackie Chan to break free of his kung fu kid
screen persona has more to do with the genre that made the actor famous in the first place –
kung fu comedy. A disciple of Master Yu Zhanyuan, Jackie Chan received traditional Beijing
opera acrobatic training. He became a member of the legendary ‘Seven Little Fortunes’ troupe
and performed at a variety of entertainment venues, mostly as a wuhang because singing was
not his forte. Wuhang is the title reserved for supporting roles in Beijing operas. During fight
scenes, wuhangs perform various acrobatics and martial arts; they act as foils to be beaten in
combat by the lead actors. However, in movies, stuntmen and stunt doubles take on the same
responsibilities. Naturally, they were the roles that a wuhang assumed when they transitioned
from stage to film, along with fight choreography. Jackie Chan served as a stunt double in Fist of
Fury (1972), standing in for Hashimoto Riki, the villain. His outstanding performance led to future
opportunities.
During the fight scenes of such kung fu comedies as Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, Drunken
Master (1978), and The Young Master , Chan's character is often at a disadvantage against his
opponents. To parry their blows, he stumbles, falls, jumps and also makes the audience laugh.
Chan adapted the acrobatic moves of wuhang villains for his film protagonists to underline
their underdog status. Chan's action choreography features realistic physical reactions; when
he punches someone, he hurts his hand and the pain is visible. These setups reinforce his
everyman persona – only superheroes don't cry out in pain. Throughout his acting career,
from his roles as the kid in kung fu comedies to the Hong Kong policeman in Police Story and
Project A , Jackie Chan played the underdog. Even in Rumble in the Bronx , despite Ma Hon-
keung's reputation as a cop with unparalleled martial arts skills, he spends most of his screen
time escaping from punks, allowing him to showcase his extraordinary skills. These carefully-
choreographed set pieces fall neatly into the grand tradition of slapstick comedy. In this regard,
Jackie Chan's movie persona has much in common with his idol Buster Keaton.
Perhaps it’s this approach to fight choreography that has forever limited Chan in terms of
his range, leaving him unable to break free of his kung fu kid persona. Whether he’s playing a
cop, a spy or an adventurer, Chan is always at a disadvantage and at the mercy of the villains.
Unlike most action film stars, the image that Jackie Chan projects is not that of the perfect, all-
knowing, invincible hero. At the same time, Chan often assumes the role of the big brother in his
films, delivering lofty moral speeches. Regardless of whether or not they agree with the contents
of his speeches, Hong Kong audiences tend to accept it as part of the conventions of comedy.
It recalls such early Cantonese screen legends as Ng Cho-fan or Lui Kay who both delivered
similar moral lessons in their films. In the end, the conflicting personas of the kid and the moralist
have become part and parcel of what has made Jackie Chan a screen legend and icon. [Translated
by Sandy Ng]
Cheng Chuen-wai is a cinephile and freelance writer. His articles appear in Hong Kong Economic
Journal , Ta Kung Pao , and Hong Kong Film Critics Society website, etc.
78
The Female Kung Fu Chop

in Golden Harvest’s Films
of the 1970s
Stephen Teo
Golden Harvest's moment in Hong Kong film history

The Golden Harvest studio was one of the Hong Kong film industry’s
major production studios in the late ‘golden era’ of the 20th century,
roughly the period from 1970 to 1993. It shaped the development of Hong
Kong cinema throughout the 1970s and 80s and well into the 1990s until
its fortunes declined in the late 90s. 1 In 2003, the studio effectively shut
its gates, having closed down production and evacuated the premises of
its Hammer Hill studio lot at No 8, King Tung Street due to the expiry of
its lease. In 2007, the studio was sold to Orange Sky, a Mainland Chinese
entertainment company and was renamed ‘Orange Sky Golden Harvest’
in 2009. It marked the end of the last of the major studios that oversaw
the remarkable expansion of Hong Kong film industry in the post-Second
World War period.
1 Golden Harvest was publicly listed in 1994. The company suffered tremendous losses as a result of the 1997 financial
crisis. In 1998, it was announced that the Hong Kong government would reclaim the lease on the Hammer Hill studio lot
and develop it into a commercial property. That year, Golden Harvest joined in the bid to run the newly-minted studio site
at Junk Bay but it did not succeed. See Si Rui, ‘The Love–Hate Relationship of Run Run Shaw and Raymond Chow’, All
Circles Magazine , No 7, Xi’an: Shaanxi CPPCC Future Publishing, 2011, pp 79–80 (in Chinese).
The Fema l e Ku n g F u C h op
i n Gol d en Ha r v e st’s F i l m s o f t h e 1970s 79
Golden Harvest was the sole leading studio in the 1980s, which is now recognised as
the last prosperous period of modern Hong Kong cinema just before the industry started to
decline from 1993 onwards. The present Hong Kong cinema is still mired in decline unable
to recover its past glory and it seems set to suffer further decline as much of its talent have
moved northwards. There is now much soul-searching over the future of Hong Kong cinema
and its inevitable absorption into the Mainland Chinese industry. It is perhaps timely now
that we look back at the history of Golden Harvest as a reminder of what Hong Kong cinema
was like in its halcyon days. The studio symbolised the last vestige of the glory of Hong
Kong cinema before that glory dissipated, but it has been relatively neglected by scholars
who have been slow in assessing the output of the studio, particularly in its early period
after it began operations in the early 1970s. It is therefore due for critical reassessment.
The Hong Kong Film Archive’s retrospective is a commendable effort to redress the relative
neglect. This new critical attention on the work of Golden Harvest complements the major
retrospectives and scholarly studies of the Cathay and Shaw Brothers studios that the Hong
Kong Film Archive had conducted in past years. 2
The past retrospectives of Cathay and Shaw Brothers covered the historical periods
of the 1950s and 60s in which both major studios competed and dominated the market.
As these two studios entered the 1970s, things began to change. Looking back over the
history of Hong Kong cinema that developed under the tutelage of the major studios, it
is perhaps the 1970s that was the most significant period of adjustment, and that should
be of immense critical interest to scholars. This was the period when Hong Kong cinema
effectively made inroads into the global market and became known internationally through
its kung fu films, which started the trend of co-productions with Hollywood and European
studios. Hong Kong cinema became more liberal on matters of sex and violence. The
industry as a whole, under the threat of television, was undergoing the kind of change
that would constitute a break from the past. For example, the Cantonese film industry had
declined to zero production in the early 1970s, and although Cantonese movies would
emerge again, the whole industry had been transformed and its aesthetic directions had
altered. While Mandarin films were ruling the roost at the beginning of the 1970s, by the
end of the decade, Mandarin movies had become a spent force, and Cantonese became
effectively the lingua franca of Hong Kong cinema, reflecting the reality of Hong Kong
society. A new generation of filmmakers, most trained overseas, took over the helm and
started to transform Hong Kong cinema: this was the beginning of the New Wave. However,
all this was far from evident at the start of the 1970s, which was when Golden Harvest
came onto the scene.
2 See Wong Ain-ling (ed), The Cathay Story and The Shaw Screen: A Preliminary Study , Hong Kong: Hong Kong Film
Archive, 2002 and 2003.
At the time, the predominance of Mandarin movies in the market was highly favourable
to Shaw Brothers, which up till then had prevailed over all its competitors. It had been
making Mandarin movies since the 1950s, priding itself on a heritage of Chinese tradition.
Shaws’ brand name was built on its historical costume film and its several sub-genres
such as historical epics, huangmei diao (‘Yellow Plum’) musicals, and martial arts films
that it had turned into a specialty form through the so-called ‘new school wuxia movies’.
Golden Harvest soon became Shaws’ major competitor, replacing Cathay, Shaws’ old rival
which had ceased production by 1971 and had ceded its operations in the market to the
new studio (eventually Golden Harvest did establish its own studio at Cathay’s old studio
lot in Hammer Hill in 1971). Golden Harvest signed an agreement with Cathay in 1971 to
distribute its films in Cathay’s network of theatres in Southeast Asia (essentially Singapore
and Malaysia), thus giving the freshman studio a tremendous leg up, allowing it to match
Shaw Brothers’ own network of theatres in the same region. 3
The role of Golden Harvest in facilitating the changes that would take place in the
1970s Hong Kong film industry is a topic that has not been much discussed thus far. 4
It was instrumental in effecting a smooth transition from Mandarin movies to Cantonese
movies after the latter re-emerged in the market. While Shaw Brothers was credited with
rejuvenating Cantonese movies through its successful production of The House of 72
Tenants in 1973, it was Golden Harvest’s backing of Michael Hui and his quirky comedies,
including The Private Eyes (1976), a key work of the 1970s and a comedy masterpiece,
which really tipped the balance. 5 But perhaps the most significant change which Golden
Harvest instituted and that really impacted on the way the industry worked was its adoption
of a quasi-independent production scheme in which stars and directors could produce their
own movies under co-production deals and share in the profits with Golden Harvest. Such
a scheme broke the back of the studio system as classically represented by Shaw Brothers
which was run essentially on the lines of a family business.
Golden Harvest began life on May Day in 1970 as a small outfit of producers and
executives who had broken away from Shaw Brothers. 6 Golden Harvest was essentially the
3 See Peng Chi, ‘A Strong Partnership Emerges in the Film World’, The Milky Way Pictorial , No 156, Hong Kong: The Milky
Way Pictorial Press, March 1971, pp 50–51 (in Chinese).
4 The sense of neglect has been fostered by the fact that most studies of the studio system in Hong Kong cinema over the
past 20 years or so have tended to focus on Shaw Brothers and Cathay, as exemplified by the Hong Kong Film Archive
publications already mentioned in note 2. See also Poshek Fu (ed), China Forever: The Shaw Brothers and Diasporic
Cinema , Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008.
5 On his support of Michael Hui and his films, Raymond Chow was quoted as saying, ‘I always believed that films in Hong
Kong should be in Cantonese, which is spoken by 95% of the population.’ See Fredric Dannen & Barry Long, Hong Kong
Babylon: An Insider’s Guide to the Hollywood of the East , New York: Hyperion, 1997, p 15.
6 See Anonymous, ‘Raymond Chow and Others Organise Golden Harvest Company’, Cinemart , No 5, Hong Kong: The
CINEMART Publications Co, May 1970, pp 16–17 (in Chinese).
handiwork of Raymond Chow, who had been the head of production and publicity at Shaw
Brothers. He was at the forefront of Shaws’ successful drives to win over the audience,
particularly the campaign of the ‘new school wuxia ’ films, with an emphasis on realistic
violence, from the mid-1960s onwards that sealed Shaws’ dominance of the film market in
Hong Kong and throughout Southeast Asia. 7 Chow’s key business partner in the Golden
Harvest enterprise was Leonard Ho Koon-cheung, who was his right-hand man at the
production department in Shaw Brothers. He also brought with him the chief of publicity at
Shaw Brothers, Leung Fung. Thus, Golden Harvest was founded by ex-executives of Shaw
Brothers who felt discontented and unfulfilled with their lack of promotion and reward in the
studio after many years of hard work and saw no future in it. 8
Golden Harvest was run as a kind of counter-studio to Shaw Brothers. It instituted a co-
production scheme with independent companies or partners, and was basically a studio
comprised of many production outfits that had independent status (under its banner were
companies such as Bo Ho, Golden Way, Hui’s Film, Swank, etc). This formula of production
became highly attractive and successful, particularly to the stars who had ambitions of
becoming their own producers and direct their own films. Golden Harvest competed fiercely
with Shaw Brothers and eventually gained the upper hand through its partnership deals with
stars of the calibre of Jimmy Wang Yu, Bruce Lee, Michael Hui, Sammo Hung and Jackie
Chan. Shaw Brothers eventually declined in the face of the competition and the alternative
system of co-production deals and profit sharing provided by Golden Harvest, and by 1985,
it closed down the film production part of its enterprise to solely concentrate on television
production.
Golden Harvest’s alternative system of production affords scholars an opportunity to
reinvestigate the nature of the 1970s Hong Kong film industry, particularly its dedication
to genre films – more specifically, martial arts kung fu films. At the same time, it is also
opportune to re-examine the notion of authorship in Hong Kong cinema under the new
conditions offered by Golden Har vest. Assuming that directors had more freedom to
create under Golden Harvest’s system than under that of Shaw Brothers, does it mean
that Golden Harvest was more prone towards cultivating a cluster of auteur-directors who
could yet work creatively within the demands of the commercial industry? This question
7 Si Rui, op cit, p 79.

8 Chow was rankled by the fact that after 13 years in the studio and doing the work of a senior general manager, he was
passed over for promotion into the post of general manager not once but three times by Run Run Shaw. Shaw then
favoured his mistress at the time, Mona Fong, who eventually became Shaw’s second wife (in 1997) and took over as
chief executive. See Si Rui, op cit, p 79. For a more on-the-spot report on Chow’s position at Shaw Brothers just before
he resigned, see Anonymous, ‘Raymond Chow’s Tomorrow: A Puzzle’, Cinemart , No 4, Hong Kong: The CINEMART
Publications Co, April 1970, pp 14–15 (in Chinese).
might underestimate the constraints of authorship under the prevailing studio system (even
if it is a semi-studio system) in the Hong Kong film industry, or conversely, the industrial
prerogatives of Golden Harvest as it practised its co-partnership schemes. Golden Harvest
was after all a commercial enterprise and its productions were carefully designed to be
commercial hits, never as self-conscious art films. With this in mind, it is still possible to
consider the notion of authorship within the precincts of a commercial industry and to
examine how directors working under the Golden Harvest banner could be more creative in
their output.
The director-partners of Golden Harvest included King Hu, Huang Feng, Lo Wei who
were all ambitious enough to form their own production companies and initiate their own
projects. King Hu, the best known, from an auteur perspective, of the directors who worked
with Golden Harvest in its early period made two of his best films as an independent, The
Fate of Lee Khan (1973) and The Valiant Ones (1975). At the same time, there were also
those stars, such as Bruce Lee, Jimmy Wang, Michael Hui, Sammo Hung and Jackie
Chan, who were eager to direct their own films and obviously found Golden Harvest an
encouraging if also perhaps a paternal associate. The Golden Harvest system of quasi-
independent production seems more responsive to actors who wanted to be their own
directors. Perhaps Raymond Chow was more partial to actors than to directors, a legacy
of his Shaw Brothers days when he was much closer to the actors than to the directors
whom he sometimes had disputes with over the making of their films. 9 Indeed, the most
memorable and impressive efforts of the Golden Harvest system are exactly those films
that were directed by its stars – here one thinks of the films directed by Bruce Lee, Michael
Hui, Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan, all of which constitute probably the best of the entire
Golden Harvest output. Among this crop of actor-directors, it is certainly conceivable that
some, if not all, can be considered auteurs. Golden Harvest was also the early training
ground for a director like John Woo before he became famous as an action auteur.
On the whole, Golden Harvest was much more director-friendly than Shaw Brothers,
which is partly a result of its deliberate policy of making deals and sharing profits with
independents or those aspiring to be independents. As the head of production at Shaw
Brothers, Chow was well aware that there were many discontented directors who felt
resentful of their treatment in the studio. Golden Harvest offered conditions to work more
creatively and with more independence. This is the preliminary theoretical premise for re-
evaluating some of the more unsung directors of Hong Kong cinema who saw their dreams
realised at Golden Harvest as virtual authors of their films and whose works have been
critically neglected even to this day. These directors include Lo Wei and Huang Feng, who
9 See Lin Tailu's interview with Raymond Chow, ‘Raymond Chow: A Pioneer of the Times’, City Entertainment , No 558,
Hong Kong: City Entertainment, 31 August 2000, p 41 (in Chinese).
were probably the most successful of the Golden Harvest team of directors as the studio
began its operations in 1970. These directors, working in tandem with Raymond Chow
as the nominal producer, established Golden Harvest as a commercial entity that could
compete with Shaw Brothers.
It is important of course to understand the background in which Golden Har vest
operated its system that favoured directors as more or less independent filmmakers. In an
interview published in the Hong Kong film magazine City Entertainment in 2000, Raymond
Chow disclosed that at the beginning of the 1970s, Run Run Shaw had observed that the
film industries of Hollywood and Japan were undergoing a process of quite tumultuous
change. Television had cast a deleterious blow on the film industry and studios were either
conglomerated or had closed down from the impact. Having studied the trend, Shaw had
decided that the way to go was to develop down the road of television rather than the
movies. Chow, however, saw things differently: ‘I saw an opportunity. If America and Japan
were not going to make movies, this was the right time for Hong Kong to do so.’ 10 This was
the major source of disagreement between the two men that ultimately compelled Chow to
leave Shaw Brothers, according to some commentators. 11 As history has shown, Run Run
Shaw did turn his attention and investments towards television production and eventually
focused on it while Chow kept to his instinct to go on making movies, as his own producer.
Because of the rise of Golden Harvest as a competitor, Shaw could not completely let go of
the movies and he maintained a strong and often intense rivalry with his erstwhile lieutenant
right from the very start. As a result of their competition, the Hong Kong film industry kept
on making movies. It is now imperative to consider just what kind of movies was it that
Golden Harvest proceeded to make.
Golden Harvest and the state-of-the-martial arts

The social and political economy of the Hong Kong film industry in 1970 determined
the kind of movies that would be made as Golden Harvest started to do business. The
martial arts genre product was the predominant and most distinctive type of film that the
Hong Kong film industry was making at the time. The industry was already tied to the
martial arts genre since the mid-1960s when the ‘new school wuxia ’ movies emerged and
eventually morphed into the kung fu sub-genre in 1970 with the release of Jimmy Wang’s
The Chinese Boxer (1970). Chow was partly responsible for the new school wuxia trend at
Shaw Brothers. 12 At Golden Harvest, he was instrumental in cultivating and strengthening
10 Ibid.
11 See Tong Cheng, ‘The Struggle between Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest’, Insight China , No 4, Beijing: Qiushi
Xiaokang Publishing, 2011, pp 80–83 (in Chinese). In this article, the writer stated that Run Run Shaw had decided to
cut down one-half of its film production budget and invest it in television. This decision was strenuously objected to by
Raymond Chow.
12 Si Rui, op cit, p 79.
the kung fu form through his mentorship of Bruce Lee. However, at the start of business in
1970, the wuxia form was still the most popular class of film entertainment in the domestic
and regional markets. The industry was literally overflowing with martial arts practitioners
of the cinema of one kind or another (either actors, stuntmen or stuntwomen, action
choreographers, and writers and directors specialising in the martial arts form), and they
had to be put to work or else their talents would have gone to waste.
Basically, the martial arts genre represented the collective endeavour of the industry.
Much of its talent was spent on actual physical exertion (the planning and execution of fight
scenes), such that even if one could not claim meritorious or creative service in the industry
there was at least a good deal of physical commitment and contribution to the work done.
The sheer physicality of the genre, applied both on the screen as behind it, attests to the
corporeality of the form. In this way, one could say that the history of this cinema was
more substantively imprinted on the screen. To quote Deleuze and Guattari: ‘Real history
undoubtedly recounts the actions and passions of the bodies that develop in a social field;
it communicates them in a certain fashion.’ 13 In the martial arts cinema, the actions and
passions are evident throughout the variations of the choreography, the styles of the martial
arts on display, and the level of skill, energy and exuberance exuded by the performers.
This is ‘real history’ that is communicated through bodies in a certain fashion – and, in my
opinion, the martial arts cinema is really one of the great ‘body genres’ in world cinema. 14
Put in another way, the body accentuates ‘real kung fu’, a term that the industry itself has
put out as a selling point in advertising, which is the notion that the actors who perform the
kung fu on the screen are themselves genuine practitioners and that, on the whole, what
you see is what you get (although in fact, special and optical effects are often manipulated
to achieve the final results on the screen).
The martial arts action recorded on the screen are in essence the stuff of ‘real history’
but perhaps the key to the true appreciation of this form of history is to consider the acts
and variations, which are often repetitive and redundant but yet it is within this context of
repetition that newness and creativity are sought after. If nothing else, the sheer physicality
of the genre should demand the admiration of the audience. Indeed, perhaps the only way
to appreciate a martial arts movie is really to assess the demonstrations of martial arts
as attraction or as exhibition. Narrative was only a secondary consideration. The martial
arts film best represents Hong Kong cinema’s predilection for spectacle, exploiting a
highly idiosyncratic form of cultural expression (the martial arts) to epitomise how Chinese
13 Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari (authors), Brian Massumi (trans), A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia ,
Minneapolis & London: University of Minnesota Press, 1987, p 81.
14 On the notion of ‘body genres’, see Linda Williams, ‘Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess’, Film Quarterly , Vol 44, No 4,
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991, pp 2–13.
filmmakers demonstrate the ‘cinema of attractions’. 15 Golden Harvest not only continued
this tradition of the cinema of martial arts attractions, it solidified it. In some instances, it
actually crafted some of the best films in the genre. The Bruce Lee films are well known,
and as the literature on Lee is quite abundant, I will not dwell on Lee at any length in this
article. Rather I will focus on the female aspect of the martial arts genre. It is the female act
and variation on the genre that was actually the primary motivation behind Golden Harvest’s
first production that it announced in 1970, The Angry River (1971), to be directed by Huang
Feng and featuring a new female lead (who turned out to be Angela Mao Ying, about whom
more later).
Director Huang Feng had started his directing career at Shaw Brothers where he
completed his first movie, also a wuxia movie, The Crimson Charm (1971). 16 He was one
of the talents that Raymond Chow brought along with him from Shaws to Golden Harvest.
Another director who went with Chow was Lo Wei who had gained a reputation while
at Shaws as a ‘million-dollar director’, meaning a director whose films had consistently
grossed more than a million dollars at the box office. Lo also specialised in the wuxia film
but unlike his other ‘million-dollar director’ colleague at Shaws, Chang Cheh, he preferred
highlighting the female knight-errant figure (nüxia ), 17 a tendency he would develop further
at Golden Harvest. The theme of this article is precisely the way in which Golden Harvest
marked out a path of featuring female-warrior stars in its martial arts films as a method of
reinvigorating the genre and to distinguish itself from its competitors. Golden Harvest’s
popularity in the martial arts form was established on the ground that it discovered and
promoted one male superstar (Bruce Lee) and one female superstar (Angela Mao).
The female variation in Hong Kong martial arts cinema is a topic that deserves further
evaluation and discussion. There still remains a perception that the martial arts genre has
traditionally been male-dominated, as typified by the Bruce Lee films. While it may be
argued that Golden Harvest maintained a balance of male-dominated martial arts films and
female-centred ones, the fact is that the critical literature has tipped the balance towards
the male side, driven by the overwhelming popularity of the Bruce Lee phenomenon.
Aesthetically, the Bruce Lee films were not necessarily on a higher level than the female
kung fu attractions that I will go on to discuss below, and in many ways, the female-
centred kung fu films might be more interesting on an aesthetic level. However, many of
15 See Tom Gunning, ‘The Cinema of Attraction: Early Film, Its Spectator, and the Avant Garde’, Wide Angle , Vol 8, Nos 3–4,
Ohio: Ohio University College of Fine Arts and Athens Center for Film and Video, 1986, pp 63–70.
16 Began in 1969, Shaws actually delayed the release of The Crimson Charm until 1971 after Huang’s The Angry River had
been released.
17 For an appraisal of Lo Wei’s nüxia films at Shaw Brothers, see Stephen Teo, ‘The “Missing” Female Knight-Errant in Hong
Kong Action Cinema 1965–1971: Back in Critical Action’, Journal of Chinese Cinemas , Vol 4, No 2, Bristol: Intellect Ltd,
2010, pp 143–154.
the early Golden Harvest films have been critically neglected and it is necessary to re-
evaluate them. It is therefore pertinent to bring up the fact that the bulk of these films
have quite consistently addressed the nüxia as a key action figure in the entire martial
arts sphere. This thesis will gain more credence as the films themselves are discussed in
more detail below.
As Golden Harvest designed and prepared its first productions to hit the market, it
was only natural that all of its films would be martial arts movies in the wuxia tradition,
given the career tendencies of its directors such as Huang Feng and Lo Wei, the
orientation of the market, and the need to compete with Shaw Brothers which was still
releasing martial arts movies in the wuxia form. The founding of Golden Harvest did not
mark a break with cinematic traditions nor with the market. Its films therefore had to
provide a sense of continuity, at the very least with what audiences were familiar with
and with the prevailing trend of production in the industry as a whole. Looking back at
the first crop of wuxia films released by Golden Harvest in 1971, including The Invincible
Eight (directed by Lo Wei), The Blade Spares None (directed by Ip Wing-cho), The Angry
River (directed by Huang Feng), The Fast Sword (directed by Huang Feng) and The Chase
(directed by Wong Tin-lam), what is perhaps striking about all these films is that they
were fundamentally not that much different from those produced by Shaw Brothers. This
is not surprising after all since the films were produced and directed mostly by ex-Shaws
veterans and featured a lot of familiar faces in front of the camera who had appeared
in supporting or bit parts as dazai (literally, fight boys). The idea of the Golden Harvest
wuxia movies was not to be completely different such that it would spoil the audience’s
enjoyment of such movies.
The objective of Golden Harvest as a credible studio was thus to match or to surpass
the quality of the productions put out by Shaw Brothers. This is evident in its first-ever
film released in the market (during the Chinese New Year holiday season), Lo Wei’s The
Invincible Eight , which was given a big budget and featured established stars and a
couple of new female talent, namely Angela Mao and Nora Miao. The film is not particularly
distinctive either in theme or style from most of the Shaw Brothers products, and it was
rushed into completion as Golden Harvest’s debut in the market although it was not the first
to go into production. Its plot deals with the attempts of eight heroic characters, three of
them female and all experts in the martial arts, who eventually join together to assassinate
an evil general responsible for the deaths of their fathers. The plot is similar to Lo’s Shaw
Brothers hit, Brothers Five (1970), in which five brothers, separated, must band together
to take revenge on the man who caused the death of their father. The five brothers come
under the guidance and supervision of a female knight-errant, played by Cheng Pei-pei.
Cheng’s female presence adds an interesting variation to the macho and paternalistic
concepts at play in the plot. Though the film is similar to Brothers Five , it is possible to
discern some differences between it and The Invincible Eight . The film was partly shot
in Taiwan, at considerable expense, 18 which gave it a fresh look in terms of some of its
outdoor scenery and sets. In contrast, many of the Shaw Brothers movies appeared to be
shot on the same kind of outdoor locations and its sets on the studio lot were so reused
and recycled that audiences would probably have grown tired watching them.
Lo Wei declared that the film was the most satisfactory of his wuxia efforts up to then, 19
and one of the more distinctive traits of the film was its unassuming integration of three
swordswomen into the largely male company of avengers to form ‘the invincible eight’.
Essentially, this complemented Lo’s previous Shaw Brothers film Brothers Five by adding
three women into the company of five males, and in so doing, it made some difference to
the way in which the plot of the new film would develop as well as to the tone and rhythm of
its narrative. Lo’s sense of satisfaction may well lie in the fact that he was able to rededicate
greater effort towards his theme of the female xia figure as a balancing act to the male xia
predominance. He was able to expand this balancing act in his Golden Harvest output as
he went on to direct Bruce Lee in The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972), and then to
direct Cheng Pei-pei in None But the Brave (1973), and Polly Shang-kuan Ling-feng in Back
Alley Princess (1973) and its sequel Chinatown Capers (1974). None But the Brave is the
female response to Fist of Fury and Cheng Pei-pei’s performance in it equals the nationalist
intensity brought to bear on the genre by Lee (the last scene in None But the Brave echoes
that in Fist of Fury in terms of the heroic martyrdom of the protagonists in each film). Lo’s
works merit a full chapter in itself. Here, we can only note his important contribution to
Golden Harvest as the proven commercially successful director whom Raymond Chow
relied on to shape and mould the studio’s martial arts products.
With The Invincible Eight , Lo’s task was to introduce the two female leads, Angela Mao
and Nora Miao (the third female was played by Lydia Sum, better known as a comedienne),
to the public. The two stars were still unproven and had yet to break through into the
genre although both were obviously groomed to become assets of the studio. The critics
were more impressed with Nora Miao (who played an aristocratic swordswoman) than with
Angela Mao, 20 but it was Mao who proved to have had the greater potential as a martial
arts star. She was more charismatic and was probably, of all the female martial arts stars
in this period (including Cheng Pei-pei), the best trained in the martial arts, having grown
up from childhood as a Beijing opera performer in Taiwan. All she needed at this stage was
the right vehicle, and this eventually came her way, in Huang Feng’s Hap Ki Do (1972).
Nora Miao would be cultivated as a star and was featured in a series of wuxia parts as
18 See Anonymous, ‘Director Lo Wei Most Contented with The Invincible Eight ’, Wah Kiu Yat Po , Hong Kong: Wah Kiu Yat Po
Ltd, 22 January 1971 (in Chinese).
19 Ibid.
20 See Vincent Wong, ‘Too Many Big Films’, South China Morning Post , Hong Kong: South China Morning Post Publishers
Ltd, 29 January 1971.
a swordswoman, including The Blade Spares None , The Comet Strikes (1971) and The
Hurricane (1972), but she is probably remembered today, if at all, for her supporting roles in
the Bruce Lee movies, Fist of Fury and The Way of the Dragon (1972). In all the Bruce Lee
films, she was more of a romantic interest and did not have much to do by way of actually
performing the martial arts.
Just as The Invincible Eight did not rock the boat in terms of making any startling
departures from the average run of wuxia films and helped to establish Golden Harvest’s
position in the market, the fledgling studio’s next major release in the same genre, The
Angr y River , was also essentially an up-to-standard product that shored up Golden
Harvest’s stock in the industry. As long as it was not an embarrassment or outright failure,
the film would be assured of success. It was Huang Feng’s second directing effort, after his
work at Shaw Brothers, The Crimson Charm . Just as The Invincible Eight was a continuation
of Brothers Five , it is also possible to see some continuity between The Angry River and The
Crimson Charm and to distinguish certain marks of difference between the Golden Harvest
product from the Shaw Brothers one. The Crimson Charm is actually not a bad first effort
from Huang Feng, who was a long-time screenwriter prior to becoming a director. The plot
again deals with revenge. Ivy Ling Bo plays a female follower of a martial arts school whose
arm is chopped off during a battle in which her master is killed. She is rescued by a nun
and is then trained as a one-armed swordswoman, whereupon she is able to exact revenge
on the man who plotted the murder of her master, together with another male follower who
has survived the attack. In The Angry River , Angela Mao plays a swordswoman who must
pass through a treacherous river to reach a master who can provide her with a magic herb
that can cure her father from a poison. To obtain the herb, the price she must pay is that all
her martial arts skills be completely vanquished from her body. She is thus tantamount to a
cripple. Eventually, she restores her powers by taking the herb herself so that she can exact
revenge on the villain who has ordered the death of her father.
The theme of impairment and that of revenge in The Crimson Charm is obviously carried
over into The Angry River , but while the character of the one-armed swordswoman in the
former is somewhat gimmicky (a derivation of Jimmy Wang in Chang Cheh’s One-Armed
Swordsman ), the impairment of the swordswoman in The Angry River is less an ingenious
device to highlight the prowess of the swordswoman, despite her impairment, and therefore
it comes across as a more thoughtful process of challenging and developing the archetype
of the nüxia , which by now had become something of a stereotype in Hong Kong cinema
but which, given the right actress and personality type, could still be developed in more
interesting ways, embodying more human, as opposed to superhuman, characteristics.
In The Angr y River , the swordswoman is thoroughly weakened as a result of her
impairment. She loses all her powers, and in a sense she is forced to embody the essence
of being female, which is that of the weaker sex. In a later scene, as she resumes her
difficult journey home, she is attacked by a gang of ruffians who are after the magic herb
for their own purposes. Having lost all her powers, she is completely helpless and can do
nothing about fighting off the men who are about to rape her. However, she is saved, not by
any outside power, but by the men’s own selfishness and greed as each man craves after
the magic herb and the power and riches that it represents. The men kill off one another.
Interestingly, director Huang Feng extended the motif of impairment (of a female combatant)
into his next wuxia film, The Fast Sword , which presented a blind elderly swordswoman,
memorably played by character actress Wang Lai. The blind swordswoman is captured and
taken as a hostage by the villain of the piece so as to force the hero, the son, to surrender
himself to the villain (the theme is one of double revenge: the hero has killed the villain’s
brother in revenge for his father’s death, and now the villain seeks revenge on the hero).
The impairment of the mother-swordswoman confers a deep sense of human vulnerability to
her character which renders her even more heroic as she expertly wields her walking cane
as a deadly weapon. She is entirely believable, and her scenes of combat are the best
things in the film.
No doubt, Huang Feng showed an affinity with his female performers, which was
something that he shared with Lo Wei. This was already apparent in their martial arts films
at Shaw Brothers, and Golden Harvest simply took further advantage of this directorial
receptiveness for the female presence to reconfigure the martial arts and basically pushed
it as an aesthetic direction in their productions as a strategy to show more creativity in the
genre. Hence, Golden Harvest relied on Huang to execute the martial arts project and attain
the studio’s objectives particularly in the realisation of the female variation of the genre.
Thus he set about firstly to form and cultivate a martial arts stock company, with Angela
Mao as its star attraction (other members of the company included Sammo Hung, Pai Ying,
James Tien, Carter Wong, and the Korean Hap Ki Do champion Hwang In-shik), and then
to conceive the films that would make use of this company of actors and martial artists.
Huang’s mentorship of Angela Mao was of course the most important of his tasks (perhaps
also one of the most impressive director–star relationships in Hong Kong cinema).
Fashioning the Angela Mao kung fu chop

Huang Feng discovered Angela Mao in Taiwan and brought her to Hong Kong to act in The
Angry River . He went on to establish her as a superlative martial arts star in Hap Ki Do .
With that film, he succeeded in fashioning a formulaic matrix (or a development model) with
Angela Mao as its major element in the kung fu genre that Golden Harvest was producing
in the wake of the Bruce Lee phenomenon (The Big Boss , starring Bruce Lee, had already
been released in 1971 and had made a sensation at the box office). Mao was one of the
elements in the new kung fu matrix created by Golden Harvest, and perhaps the most
important one, but it is worth our while to consider what other elements there were as we
move into the discussion below. Briefly, the elements in the matrix as it relates to the Angela
Mao ‘chop’ may be summarised as the female equivalent of the male fighting form in kung
fu, some sex, an inclusive brand of martial arts that configures Chinese forms with foreign
forms, and finally, an infusive sense of Chinese values and tradition (even with the drive
towards internationalisation in the 1970s, this sense of Chineseness was always implicit in
the genre and was used as a selling point). All these elements will become evident as I go
on to discuss Mao’s films below.
Hap Ki Do broke new ground of course in its provision of a female equivalent of Bruce
Lee in the kung fu genre, but it was in the kung fu itself that Golden Harvest had to deliver
a sense of freshness in keeping with its sponsorship of a female star. It achieved this in
its emphasis on the Korean martial arts form of Hap Ki Do, a school that was a worldwide
fad at the time (perhaps the first early wave of the subsequent Korean cultural wave in the
1990s boosted by Korean pop, television drama and movies). Mao was sent by the studio
to train in South Korea to prepare for the film. 21 Her efforts paid off. She obtained a black
belt, third dan (as announced in the original trailer), and appeared a natural performer,
demonstrating expert techniques such as flying kicks and spinning turns. Her body was a
weapon which was quite literally exerted onto the screen, and the image is indelible – all
the more so when she is pitted against an all-male array of opponents. The form of Hap Ki
Do suited Mao’s physique and this allowed her to be a physical and graceful presence, an
important sign in the genre that signified genuineness in the tradition of ‘real kung fu’ (the
notion that the actors themselves are executing the moves and performing the action).
The studio had made a concerted effort to present Mao as a real kung fu fighter, and it
was Hap Ki Do that was the vehicle to show off her new status as a kung fu star. However,
Golden Harvest first released another film, Lady Whirlwind (1972, also directed by Huang
Feng), that was more or less produced at the same time as Hap Ki Do and was also partly
shot in South Korea even though it did not particularly emphasise Korean martial arts. Lady
Whirlwind can be seen as a market appetiser, serving to stimulate the audience’s interest in
the female star Angela Mao and to demonstrate her adaptability to the kung fu form. Prior to
this, Mao had appeared as a wuxia actress wielding a sword but the wuxia form was now
being displaced by kung fu, and she needed to show her martial arts abilities with her fists
and legs (the kung fu film is also sometimes known as quanjiao pian , meaning fist-and-
leg films). Lee’s second film Fist of Fury had also become a huge hit when it was released
in 1972. Lady Whirlwind followed Fist of Fury in the chronology of their releases and it was
obviously meant to be taken as the female counterpoint of the kung fu movie contrasting
Bruce Lee’s male-melodic line.
The English title Lady Whirlwind is also an outright promotion of Angela Mao as a kung
21 See Angela Mao, ‘Hap Ki Do and I’, Golden Movie News , No 2, Hong Kong: The Four Seas Publication Ltd, May 1972, pp
38–41 (in Chinese).
fu star. However, even with Angela Mao as a star attraction, her movies still needed a more
distinctive selling point than just the female warrior figure which was not exactly a novelty in
Hong Kong cinema (Cheng Pei-pei, who essentially established the female warrior prototype
at Shaw Brothers, preceded Angela Mao by at least five years). Sex was also a selling point
of course, but Mao’s kung fu persona of moral uprightness, honour and duty, loyalty and
filial piety, precluded her body and gender from being exploited in a patently sexual fashion
though in fact sex was often incorporated, gratuitously, into the martial arts films produced
by Golden Harvest, mostly in the form of female nudity and the display of naked breasts (as
was the case in Hap Ki Do ).
While Mao was proficient as a martial arts performer, it was the Korean martial arts
angle in Hap Ki Do that was ultimately the device to show newness in the form. It also
represented Golden Harvest’s outreach on an international level. The film also featured
several Korean masters of the art including the top Hap Ki Do champion, Ji Han-jae, who
made his screen debut. The film was also shot in South Korea, and just as the location
shooting in Taiwan of earlier films provided a refreshing look to outdoor scenes, the South
Korean locations constituted a sign of creativity in the genre that distinguished the Golden
Harvest product from its competitors. The Korean cultural setting was absorbed into and
integrated with the preconditioned Chineseness of the lead characters (apart from Mao,
the co-stars were Carter Wong and Sammo Hung). In the prologue of the film, we actually
see the lead characters all dressed-up in the Korean national costume and their Chinese
identity only becomes apparent when Mao is harassed by a Japanese man who recognises
that she is Chinese (the time-setting of the story is the 1930s, when Korea was a Japanese
colony and China was invaded by Japan). The first fight scene then occurs between the
Chinese and the Japanese – against a Korean backdrop with the Chinese utilising Hap Ki
Do skills. Thus the Korean imprint on the kung fu branding of the martial arts genre came
along with an anti-Japanese theme, which also helped to suggest that Koreans and Chinese
were natural allies and friends (the point was also made that Hap Ki Do was influenced by
Chinese Tai Chi techniques). Following the success of Hap Ki Do , Korean martial arts and
Korean nationalism (often conflated with Chinese nationalism) and the concomitant theme of
anti-Japanese resistance became something of a Golden Harvest specialty.
The Huang–Mao team followed up with another Korean-themed martial arts picture,
When Taekwondo Strikes (1973). It focused on another form of Korean martial arts and
therefore tried to make the most of the innovation of amalgamating Angela Mao with
Korean combat techniques that began with Hap Ki Do . As a part of its attraction, the film
employed Jhoon Rhee, the South Korean Taekwondo master who introduced the art to
America and was known as the ‘Father of American Taekwondo’, to appear as Mao’s co-
star. His role was in fact the lead and Mao actually had the secondary role. Rhee played
the key role of a Taekwondo master-cum-patriotic-leader of a South Korean resistance
group against the Japanese. Under disguise, the patriot works as a gardener of a French
Catholic priest whose niece is the pupil of the Taekwondo master (in this way, the film
also featured another female martial artist, the Caucasian Anne Winton, a real-life student
of Jhoon Rhee in the United States). The presence of Caucasians in the film signified the
move towards internationalising the genre. By this time, kung fu movies had hit the top of
the US box-office chart in 1973. 22 The first two movies on the chart (Bruce Lee’s The Big
Boss , retitled Fists of Fury , and Angela Mao’s Lady Whirlwind , retitled Deep Thrust ) were
Golden Harvest products. Hence, Golden Harvest was eager to capitalise on this success
by consciously making When Taekwondo Strikes as a film with more international and not
just regional appeal (the Korean theme of its martial arts had incidentally, both a regional
and international following: thus Jhoon Rhee was advertised in the trailer as a master who
had half a million students in the US – all, no doubt, potential patrons of the movie).
As an early undertaking of the internationalisation of the genre, When Taekwondo Strikes
is hampered by the awkward amateurish turns to acting by its martial arts stars Jhoon Rhee
and Anne Winton, but Angela Mao saves the film with her utter professionalism in both her
acting and martial arts chops. She effectively outshone the male star, Jhoon Rhee, whose
performance was barely adequate (this was his first and only movie) but Rhee’s master
status as a Taekwondo expert undoubtedly conferred a sense of novelty on the film as well
as a higher level of intensity to the action (in contrast the real Hap Ki Do champion Ji Han-
jae appeared only briefly in the first half-hour of Hap Ki Do ). The film benefited from Jhoon
Rhee’s performance of Korean martial arts, to be sure, but it is remembered today for
Angela Mao’s appearance and her charismatic and authoritative display of martial arts in a
style that she made her own. In a sense, the Korean styles of Hap Ki Do and Taekwondo
gave Mao a kind of martial arts branding (her kung fu chop, so to speak) just as Jeet Kune
Do was Bruce Lee’s brand of martial arts. Yet, in the final analysis, the Korean ‘branding’
seems to exert little or no difference on Angela Mao’s persona as a Chinese kung fu fighter.
In both Hap Ki Do and When Taekwondo Strikes , Mao plays Chinese women who are skilled
in Korean martial arts and though the point is implicitly made that kung fu is inclusive, fusing
and uniting all East Asian martial arts (the films show Chinese, Koreans and Japanese all
utilising various aspects of their national martial arts styles), Mao’s identity transforms the art
into a personalised form that we can call ‘Chineseness’, for lack of a better term. This was
certainly a strong element in the kung fu matrix of formulaic films manufactured by Golden
Harvest as it tried to sell the films in the region and further abroad (kung fu was essentially
denoted as ‘Chinese kung fu’) – and Chineseness was a kind of stamp that was also
impressed upon the films featuring Bruce Lee.
Chineseness here is equated with an intrinsic form of heroism in the philosophical
22 See David Desser, ‘The Kung Fu Craze: Hong Kong Cinema’s First American Reception’, in Poshek Fu & David Desser,
The Cinema of Hong Kong: History, Arts, Identity , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp 19–43.
tradition of xia , or chivalric knight-errantry, which informs the characters’ moral stance. In
Hap Ki Do , the Korean master actually gives a lecture to his Chinese students about the
virtues of Chineseness as a moral position, prime of which is the idea of ren , or tolerance.
Ren was in fact a recurrent theme in Golden Harvest martial arts films, showing their heroes
being fundamentally tortured by this concept. 23 Interestingly, Angela Mao’s character is
identified as the personification of ren whereas her male colleagues are more headstrong
and less forbearing. The Chinese value of ren was also invoked in the creation of Bruce
Lee’s kung fu persona. Lee was portrayed as essentially a Chinese kung fu bumpkin who
must adhere to ren and gradually resort to kung fu violence as his tolerance runs out.
The exception was perhaps Enter the Dragon (1973), an international co-production with
Warner Bros which necessitated a slight modification of Lee’s persona that cut down on the
bumpkin qualities and emphasised his more heroic type, la James Bond.
Angela Mao’s persona was somewhat similar to Lee’s and their careers do run parallel
to each other (she was in fact cast as Lee’s sister in a cameo appearance in Enter the
Dragon , the only film in which they appeared together). In Mao’s films, however, her gender
was incorporated into the theme of Chineseness as a heroic trait, which is to say that her
sex seems to engender a greater sense of heroism whenever her characters spring into
action. This is evident in her vehicle films such as Lady Whirlwind , Hap Ki Do and When
Taekwondo Strikes , and it is also true of her appearance in King Hu’s The Fate of Lee Khan
which is the one film that presents Mao outside of the formulaic matrix of heroic ren (she
plays a patriotic pickpocket). In the vehicles, there is a greater sense of her innate virtues
of patriotism and gallantry in contrast with her male counterparts who appear to fall short
in terms of their effectiveness and heroism. In Lady Whirlwind , for example, her character
seeks revenge on the male hero (played by Chang Yi) for causing the death of her sister but
allows him to complete his own quest of vengeance before settling scores with him. Her
tolerance and forbearance in no way implies any sense of weakness. By contrast, the male
hero seems feeble and ham-fisted. In the end, she always manages to defeat all her male
opponents either on a one-to-one basis or one against many men (she also works well as
part of an ensemble team against the chief villain at the climactic fights). The exception to
this rule is seen in A Queen’s Ransom (1976), one of Golden Harvest’s international co-
production potboilers in which she plays a Cambodian princess who is bested by the ex-
James Bond, George Lazenby in their fight scene at the climax. In a perverse way, this
might actually reaffirm Mao’s basic Chinese and female identity, because by international
23 One of the more impressive examples is The Dragon Tamers (1975), John Woo’s second film in which he demonstrated a
highly assured and confident command of all the elements in the kung fu matrix put in place by Golden Harvest, including
a Korean theme in the martial arts as well as the female element (the villain is a Japanese female martial artist who is
featured in the last duel scene with the male hero).
rules at the time, it would appear that Chinese (or Asian) girls cannot beat Caucasian males.
Mao continued to appear in martial arts action films as a standard flag-bearer of the
genre and as the most outstanding of its female stars in the 1970s. Her other films included
Thunderbolt (1973), 24 Stoner (1974), The Tournament (1974), The Himalayan (1976),
and Broken Oath (1977). Only The Himalayan and Broken Oath are above average, the
former film being shot on locations in Nepal and referring to Tibetan culture and its Tantric
Buddhist school of martial arts, imparted by a Lama to Mao and another male disciple
(played by Tan Tao-liang), both of whom are on a quest of revenge. Mao was directed
once again by Huang Feng, and The Himalayan was essentially their swansong together
(their last collaboration was in 1978’s The Legendary Strike , made for Huang’s independent
company, Graphic Fortune). Her director on Broken Oath was the Korean Chung Chang-
hwa, who had made King Boxer (1972) at Shaw Brothers, and then left to join Golden
Harvest. The collaboration between Chung and Mao was perhaps to be expected, given
the Korean design and martial arts motif in Mao’s career up to this point (they had worked
together before in the 1975 release, The Association ). The film, however, has no Korean
theme whatsoever, and, if anything, it maintains the element of Mao’s identity as a Chinese
female kung fu fighter by effectively showing her as an avenger who succeeds in her duty
of killing off all the men who were responsible for her father’s death (the ‘broken oath’ of
the title refers to her character having broken the Buddhist commandment against killing
since she was brought up in a Buddhist nunnery). Here the revenge theme is so generic
to the kung fu film produced in Hong Kong that it becomes a marker of the genre product
identity. Broken Oath was the last of Mao’s films made for Golden Harvest, and as such, it
also marked the end of the female tendency in the kung fu genre as it was fashioned by the
studio. Mao continued to make kung fu martial arts films for smaller independent outfits in
Hong Kong and Taiwan, but that phase of her career is beyond the scope of this paper.
Conclusion
Golden Harvest’s moment in Hong Kong film history coincided with the growth of the martial
arts genre. It provided a turning point in the development of the genre, from wuxia to kung
fu with its production of the Bruce Lee films. It also concentrated its attention on the female
strand of the genre and promoted a singular star in that strand, Angela Mao. While Golden
Harvest produced films that featured other female stars in the kung fu genre, notably Cheng
24 Thunderbolt was actually a wuxia film made during the period from 1970 to 1971 when Mao was typed as a wuxia star in
films such as The Invincible Eight and The Angry River. It was never released until 1973 after the kung fu wave had made
the wuxia form redundant (it was actually released after When Taekwondo Strikes ), and predictably, did not do well at
the box office. See Liu Wenpeng, ‘Thunderbolt an Outdated Wuxia Movie’, Ming Pao Daily News , Hong Kong: Ming Pao
Publishing Company, 14 October 1973 (in Chinese).
Pei-pei and Shang-kuan Ling-feng in films directed by Lo Wei, Angela Mao represented a
fresher and younger female hero. Her freshness was invigorating and this was an important
ingredient in the success of the kung fu female line produced by Golden Harvest (in the
same way, Bruce Lee also brought a fresh touch to the male line). Mao was perhaps the
best trained of the female stars in the martial arts (Cheng Pei-pei was actually trained as
a dancer) and this undoubtedly gave her an edge and helped Golden Harvest to secure
its line of kung fu films as the more competitive products over those of Shaw Brothers. If
nothing else, Golden Harvest showed that it produced the more immortal kung fu stars.
Shaws in fact did not produce a veritable female kung fu star of the quanjiao (fists and legs)
variety who was able to hit and kick as gracefully and naturally as Angela Mao. The closest
it came to it was Kara Wai, who did not really shine until My Young Auntie in 1981.
The collaboration between Huang Feng and Angela Mao was thus an important sign of a
director’s creative authorship of a star under the new conditions of work at Golden Harvest.
Similarly, Lo Wei’s direction of Cheng Pei-pei and Shang-kuan Ling-feng are notable efforts
of directorial authorship in creating female martial arts figures that leave strong impressions
on the screen. Huang Feng’s direction of Angela Mao is arguably more significant in that
Mao was a new star and her screen persona had yet to be established between 1970
and 1971 when she was signed by Golden Harvest to make her first films. Mao’s ‘kung fu
chop’ was firmly stamped by 1973 when she became identified with Korean martial arts.
The female form of Angela Mao, Korean martial arts, location shooting in South Korea,
and inter-Asian stars from Japan and South Korea were all distinguishing elements in the
kung fu matrix put in place by Golden Harvest. Though the Korean angle faded over time
and Mao’s star glimmer began inevitably to dim (she retired from the limelight in 1982), the
films that are left behind are still a welcome reminder of historic moments and opportunities
of creativity in the Hong Kong film industry. Mao remains a unique female symbol of this
moment in the 1970s. Projecting her body and her physical energy, the kung fu movie
reached heights that it never arrived at before and no one after her has yet to equal and
better her achievements.
Steph en Teo i s A ssoc iate Professor of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communicat ion and
Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is the author of Hong Kong Cinema:
The Extra Dimensions (1997), Wong Kar-wai (2005), King Hu’s A Touch of Zen (2007), Director
in Action: Johnnie To and the Hong Kong Action Film (2007), Chinese Martial Arts Cinema: The
Wuxia Tradition (2009), and The Asian Cinema Experience: Styles, Spaces, Theory (2013).
96
Like Brother, Like Sister:

Angela Mao, the ‘Female Dragon’
in the Eyes of Japanese Fans
Udagawa Koyo
From the perspective of Hong Kong movie fans in Japan, this essay
is an attempt to discuss how Angela Mao Ying charms her way into
the hearts of Japanese audiences and what makes her a star.
Newborn star
Like many other countries around the globe, the onslaught of Hong Kong film culture
first happened in Japan when Warner Bros of the United States distributed Enter the
Dragon worldwide in 1973. The movie came to theatres towards the end of the year and
immediately took the Japanese by storm. We were even more shocked when we learned
that Bruce Lee, the all-powerful superhero in the picture, was no longer with us by the time
we saw him on the screen.
This is not to say, however, that the Japanese didn’t know at all the existence of Hong
Kong cinema before Enter the Dragon . Sorrows of the Forbidden City (1948) and The
Kingdom and the Beauty (1959), for instance, were exhibited in Japan soon after they were
completed. Back in the 1960s, the co-productions between Japanese film studios such as
Toho and Hong Kong’s Shaw Brothers and MP & GI (Motion Picture & General Investment
Co Ltd) were once a buzz topic; Lucilla You Min, thanks to these collaborative efforts, even
became a big star in Japan. Yet a decade later, the long-held image of Hong Kong – an
atmospheric tourist destination known as the ‘Pearl of the Orient’ – was all shattered by
Bruce Lee as the meteor came roaring in. And not long after, there came also Angela Mao.
Like Broth er, L i ke Si s t er :
Angel a M ao , t h e ‘F e m a l e Dr a g o n ’ i n t h e E y e s o f J a p a n e s e Fa n s 97
Among the Japanese viewers back then, the group most impacted by the Bruce Lee
phenomenon should have been those aged between 10 to 15 – in other words, those
who were born from the late 1950s to mid-60s. Film critic Edoki Jun (born 1962 and thus
belonging to the ‘Bruce Lee Generation’), writer of The World Manifesto of Bruce Lee-ism ,
has this to say:
For many of us in Japan, it was Angela Mao, the little sister of Bruce Lee’s character in Enter
the Dragon , who gave us a first taste of ‘Hong Kong Kung Fu’. Needless to say, Bruce Lee
held the audience captive right from the start and pulled them in with his extraordinary
aura. But during the first half of the film, any hardcore combat was yet to be seen. Then
came Angela Mao – a feeble-looking girl who took on several guys with a flurry of quick-
moving jabs and rapid-fire kicks. Her heroic calibre filled the audience with awe. Soon after,
however, she had nowhere to flee, and ended up killing herself. That moment, the audience
felt they were part of the story and shared Bruce’s wrath. By the time the grief-stricken
Bruce avenged his sister’s death, excitement among us reached fever pitch, adrenaline
pounding all around until the emotionally-charged ending. Thus began the ‘Dragon Boom’
that nothing had ever rivalled. (Kinema Junpo , No 1,499, January 2008)
This way, the good fight for life or death that first greeted us was all fought by our heroine,
Angela Mao. So overwhelmed were we that the rush of exhilaration, after all these years, is
still inside our bodies. Shock was the emotion that first washed over us when we saw, most
probably for the first time, a woman battling it out on the screen – and this would eventually
turn into something sublime.
In Japanese costume dramas, there’ve been swordswomen or dagger-toting women,
but invariably they are mere devices in fictional scenarios with little veracity to speak of.
When it comes to actual combat, women are always excluded. Similarly, in traditional
narratives when women in distress kill themselves in defence of chastity, attention has been
paid to the more realistic depiction of their feelings. This being said, the fact remains that
they have contemplated suicide as a way out from the onset, making no attempt at all to
fight back.
Angela Mao, by contrast, never hesitates to fight – and she fights with all her might. The
point here is that she always keeps honing her skills and gives her all once she’s in action.
We the Japanese had never seen women fighting as hard as she did.
In Enter the Dragon , tension is visible on Mao’s face during the brawl before she slays
herself. Suicide is the only option she is left with, as all of her faculties have been brought
to bear – which makes her death all the more tragic. In the film, we saw for the first time a
woman struggling ferociously from the jaws of death. The beauty in her facial expressions
and bodily movements was simply captivating.
Glory undimmed
By then, Japanese moviegoers had yet to know the other Chinese action actresses, namely
Hsu Feng in A Touch of Zen (1970–71 in Hong Kong and Taiwan), Cheng Pei-pei in Come
Drink with Me (1966), and Polly Shang-kuan Ling-feng in Dragon Inn (1967, Taiwan release).
(To be precise, Dragon Inn was shown only in Hokkaido in 1968.)
Today after four whole decades, women fighters have saturated the entertainment
media, be it in Hollywood movies, comic books, animations, or electronic games. These
characters have even come to be called the ‘Pretty Girl Fighters’. Despite this, Angela
Mao has not been dwarfed by her modern-day counterparts. What has made her such an
enduring success?
Riding the crest of the Enter the Dragon wave, 30-odd titles of kung fu movies were
released in Japan in 1974. In June the same year, the Angela Mao-starring Hap Ki Do (1972)
came out, much to the delight of those who had become her fans after just watching her
briefly in Enter the Dragon . Mao also attended the media campaign in Japan, winning over
more loyal supporters than ever. This was followed by Stoner (1974), another actioner with
a contemporary setting which hit the screens a few months later in December.
As it happened, however, the hubbub quickly died down the following year, which also
marked the end of theatrical release for works featuring Angela Mao. And yet for the Bruce
Lee Generation, Mao’s screen persona which they also witnessed in person has lodged in
their minds.
Famed kung fu film scholar Chino Jiro (born 1963) confessed in his book, The
Combative History of Hong Kong Kung Fu Movies (1999):
When asked which action actress I like the most, my answer is certainly Angela Mao. She
has left an indelible mark in the hearts of 1970s kung fu movie fans. The heroic presence of
‘Lady Hurricane’ lasts forever!
And he went on to analyse what constitutes her screen appeal:
Angela Mao’s appeal lies in her high-speed spin kicks, as well as her ruthlessness when
grappling with her opponent…. At the climactic moment during the fight, the sheer
resolution shown on her face and her unadorned sensuality coalesce to create an allure of
hers that overwhelms.
Decades later, the heated passions of the Bruce Lee Generation were summed up at
a film festival (in fact, the video company personnel and the festival staff involved were all
from this generation.). The festival took place in Tokyo from November through December,
2007.
The Tokyo FILMeX has cemented a reputation for collecting and featuring accomplished
movies from across Asia. In 2007, Hap Ki Do was selected for a retrospective special
with Angela Mao coming over to greet the audience. Over a week starting 1 December,
screenings of ten Angela Mao vehicles, all slated for release on DVD, were held. Ever
since she retired from film and emigrated to New York in the 1980s, the former screen diva
had kept herself from public view. After all these years Mao suddenly stood in front of our
very eyes – nothing short of a ‘dream encounter’ indeed for her enthused fans. Already a
57-year-old, she looked very much the same as she had been, still fast and agile as ever.
Action actress
During Mao’s stay in Tokyo at the time, I had the privilege of interviewing and chatting with
her on more than a few occasions. In the following, I attempt to string together what I’ve
heard and to talk in more detail about her early works. Before this, I will slip in an interview I’ve
conducted with Mao to give an overview of her entire career. It is based on my article first
published in Kinema Junpo , No 1,499, January 2008.
– Were you born in Taiwan?

~ I was born in Taipei in 1950. After the war, my father and mother, in 1947 and 1948
respectively, brought my elder brother and sister from the Chinese mainland to Taiwan.
– It was said that you studied Beijing opera at the Fu Hsing Dramatic Arts Academy from
age 6 to 14, and that you performed at Tokyo’s Imperial Theatre when you were 12. Which
titles did you perform?
~ Quite a few, such as excerpts from Romance of the Three Kingdoms , and ‘Money Tree’
from Journey to the West . Before we headed out to Japan we first performed in Thailand
and the Philippines. After Japan, we returned to Taiwan before touring the US for a year.
– What roles did you play?

~ I was the lead in one of the plays. My first lead role came when I was seven. Back then,
tensions ran deep between the Communists and the Kuomintang. I still remember when we
were in Thailand, a suspected Communist spy tried to cause troubles at the performance.
– What was your stage name at that time?

~ Mao Fujing. I was born Mao Jingying, one word from my birth name (Jing) and another
from the opera school name (Fu) – that’s how my stage name came about. Graduates from
the same school who would enter the Hong Kong film industry later include James Tien,
Chang Yi, Charlie Chin, Chia Ling and Lau Kong, to name a few.
– At the time when Mr Raymond Chow was setting up Golden Harvest, you’re reported to
have done an audition in Taiwan. Did Mr Chow know you as the Beijing opera performer
Mao Fujing?
~ Perhaps he did. Back in the day when people talked about daomadan (actors playing
acrobatic or martial women roles) in Beijing opera, it’s probably my name that would come
to mind.
– And before that, you’d auditioned for director King Hu’s Dragon Inn (1967) as well?
~ Yes. There were four panelists, among them only Director Hu wanted to take me on. I
couldn’t make it in the end. But that encounter also brought me an opportunity later when I
got an offer from Director Hu on The Fate of Lee Khan (1973).
– Your early works, such as your debut The Angry River (1971), have traces of other King
Hu pictures such as Dragon Inn and A Touch of Zen …
~ At that time I was a complete novice, I didn’t even think about it. But there’s one thing
for sure about Mr Hu: he was great as a director. He storyboarded the shots all by himself,
spelling out all the scene breaks and other fine details. His talent must have been the envy
of other directors, I thought. As it turns out, his techniques have been borrowed, if not
stolen, by many, even though the story plot might’ve been different.
– Directors in Hong Kong rarely storyboard their films?

~ Probably no one would’ve been as meticulous as Mr Hu. The storyboard was a great help.
The first thing we got to see on set was the storyboard. The blocking, camera and lighting
setup, all laid out before our eyes. Mr Hu would also talk us through our parts, and he
would add that within the designated spaces we could do it our way. We would think: my
profile looks better onscreen, or I punch better with my left hand…we could think well
in advance how to highlight our strengths to their best advantage while following the
storyboard. Other directors wouldn’t have allowed us such room for creation.
– Your acrobatic moves were captured beautifully in The Fate of Lee Khan .
~ It’s possible only if you’ve found a real master, and only under the guidance of masters
like Mr Hu could we actors be the best of ourselves.
– Even though you were not the lead, I still think The Fate of Lee Khan is one of your
signature works.
~ It’s an ensemble piece with six leading ladies, which makes it extra hard to strike a
balance. It shows why Mr Hu is a master. I didn’t think about who was the lead and who
wasn’t among the six of us. All I did was to act out my part the best I could.
– What was it like starring opposite Hsu Feng? Did you see her as a rival?
~ Not at all, as our parts were different, and she was not formally trained in martial arts.
Before shooting the fight scenes, we would exchange ideas as to how we could bring out
the best in each other. My years of martial arts training stood me in good stead: the average
actor would did as told, but I would invent my own ways, and my moves had more power
and speed.
– When did you start learning martial arts?

~ Back in the days when I was at the opera school. Like ballet dancers, we would walk
like tiptoeing, with a wooden plank fastened to the heel, somewhat like foot binding. The
training would last for four whole hours every morning. Boys performing female roles had
to do this, too. Later on, they would get three tables stacked on top of each other and we’d
jump down from the top. While falling, we'd have to do a flip in mid-air, and the planks on
our feet couldn’t touch the floor the moment we landed.
I’d only performed Beijing opera once since I came to Hong Kong. That was during a
publicity campaign by Golden Harvest. I performed ‘Money Tree’. I was new to the
profession, so I took the chance to introduce myself to the audience what I’d done before.
– That was before the release of The Invincible Eight (1971), the debut feature of yours as
well as Golden Harvest?
~ Before I arrived in Hong Kong, one-third of the picture had been shot on location in
Taiwan, and the remaining scenes were shot later in studio in Hong Kong. I performed
Beijing opera before the film’s release.
– By then, had the Golden Harvest Studio on Hammer Hill Road started work?
~ The film company was already there but had yet to run its own production studio. Its first
two pictures were both shot in the Wader Studios which specialised in Cantonese-speaking
features. Only from the third production Thunderbolt (1973) did they start using the Golden
Harvest Studio.
– Was location shooting for costume pictures all done in Taiwan back then?
~ 80 to 90% was done in Taiwan, and Korea would be the location for snowing scenes.
– The Himalayan (1976) was shot in Nepal and The Tournament (1974) in Thailand?
~ Yes. In Thailand, women can’t enter the boxing ring. Fighting scenes in the ring had to be
shot in studio after we came back to Hong Kong.
– On average how long did a movie take to make?

~ Around two to three months. If an actor were badly injured or so, it’d be necessary to spin
things out. When I was working on Thunderbolt , I suffered a fracture of the lumbar spine.
For 15 days I had to sleep on a hard wooden board, and the shoot had to be delayed. Even
now I still feel the pain sometimes.
– We all know you’ve studied Beijing opera. In terms of martial arts, apart from learning
Hap Ki Do in Korea before you did the movie, have you practised Chinese fist as well?
~ I haven’t learned any school of Chinese fist.
– Please name the films you like and dislike.

~ The Angry River is the one I like the least. That was the first time I’d been in a film. I
didn’t know a thing, be it makeup or scene break. It feels weird when I rewatch it today.
Hap Ki Do is my favourite. It’s action-packed, it’s right up my alley. My communication
with the entire cast went smoothly, too.
Cinematic reminiscences
On top of the above, the Japanese-edition DVDs of ten of her major works also carry some
other interviews (compiled by Chino Jiro and myself), in which Angela Mao talks liberally
about her past.
Shortly before turning 20, Angela Mao signed an exclusive contract with Golden Harvest
and formally entered the Hong Kong motion picture industry. As per Chino Jiro, before that
she had participated in The Eight Bandits (1968) in Taiwan. Mao added that she was 14 at
the time, still studying at the opera school, and that she played the male lead’s little sister –
a role that was to become a major characteristic of her screen image.
At the aforesaid audition for Golden Harvest headed by Huang Feng, who would direct
her in many of her staple works, Mao donned some period drama costume, jumped down
from a height inside a hotel building and performed an array of stunts in front of the panel.
Angela Mao together with Nora Miao, a homegrown Hong Kong-Chinese, became
Golden Harvest’s first crop of star actresses. Sometime after, the Taiwan-born Maria Yi also
joined the fray.
Shaw Brothers was the biggest player in the industry during its heydays in the 1960s.
In 1970, Raymond Chow left the company and set up Golden Harvest on his own, filling
its stable with big-name actors such as Bruce Lee, Michael Hui and Jackie Chan. On the
threshold of a new era in Hong Kong cinema, Angela Mao also emerged to become one of
the stars.
Shortly after Mao was signed by Golden Harvest – that was around the summer of
1970 – director Huang Feng began shooting the location scenes in Hualien, Taiwan for his
wuxia picture, The Angry River . In the movie, Mao goes on an arduous search for the Black
Lingzhi, an antidote badly needed for her father who’s been poisoned by a flying weapon of
his foes. The first half of the film trails how she struggles to keep herself out of harm’s way,
from the searing Angry River to the Godzilla-like monsters. The touch of absurdity reminds
one of the black-and-white Cantonese-speaking fantasy wuxia film from the 1950s and 60s.
Later in the second half, Mao’s showdown with the villain Pai Ying and his underling Han
Yingjie bears traces of Dragon Inn . The mixture of creative elements from wuxia pictures old
and new is indeed fascinating.
Angela Mao once talked about the movies she had watched as a child: ‘In the older
Cantonese films from the times of Connie Chan and Josephine Siao, there were scenes
with waves of qigong running out of their palms and lights beaming out from their swords. I
watched those films a lot and liked them really much.’ By the time of The Angry River , such
special effects had become something that audiences would look back with fondness.
‘Director Huang Feng might have wanted to pay homage to 1960s Cantonese films to
savour the nostalgia with the audience,’ added Mao.
Among Mao’s Golden Harvest credits, The Angry River was her second feature released
in Hong Kong. Her screen debut, as well as Golden Harvest’s founding film, was The
Invincible Eight that opened on 22 January 1971. It was directed by Lo Wei, featuring Nora
Miao and James Tien in the lead, backed by a stellar cast of veterans like Patrick Tse Yin
and Lydia Sum, apparently an ambitious effort meant to make a star of the tyros. The film
had a successful run, eventually placed 21st in the box-office chart that year. After The
Invincible Eight came Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman (1971) which finished sixth.
The new studio got off to a good start.
During those years, Golden Harvest had two exclusive directors – Huang Feng and Lo
Wei. Angela Mao was regularly paired with Huang, whereas Nora Miao chiefly worked on
Lo’s projects.
Angela Mao and Nora Miao have distinctive star qualities. Mao said: ‘Nora is so pretty
she’s like a doll, she is very sweet and humble as well.’ It is true that anyone can be
knocked out by her looks and charm. Even at the duelling scenes, there is a dance-like
rhythm to her moves, as if the set pieces were choreographed in a way that sheds light on
her beauty.
On the other hand, Angela Mao is always at her best when she is in action. The taut
look on her face and her slick acrobatics all serve to accentuate her glamour. Adorable as
she is, her glory grows by leaps and bounds when this feebly feminine side to her character
combines with her exceptional strength as a fighter. One time she recalled with a smile on
her face how her co-stars, Pai Ying and the likes, treated her like a boy. Her boyish charm
is probably part of her magic as well.
By 1974, there was no way at all for film buffs in Japan to grasp a clearer view of the
developmental history of Hong Kong cinema. Bruce Lee thus became the ground zero
from which we started with our search, as we tried to ease our craving by getting hold of
whatever Hong Kong films that were related to him. And therefore, when it comes down
to movie actresses, Angela Mao who played Lee’s sister in Enter the Dragon was the first
among her peers to have grabbed our attention. She was followed by Maria Yi, the heroine
in The Big Boss (1971); and Nora Miao who played a small role but was given special
mention in the film. It is fair to say that the trio, dubbed the ‘Three Daughters of Golden
Harvest’, represented the entirety of Hong Kong movie actresses.
As far as popularity is concerned, Fist of Fury (1972), which opened in Japan in July
1974, put its leading lady Nora Miao ahead of her two sisters. Roadshow , a film magazine
which had been in circulation for only two years, gained a broader readership by devoting
separate pages to Bruce Lee in each issue. Updates of Nora Miao were widely covered as
well. In January 1975, The Way of the Dragon (1972) became a nationwide hit in Japan.
The film gave Nora Miao a break, as she successfully joined the ranks of American and
European actresses and garnered high ratings in audience polls, her popularity especially
high among fans of foreign-language movies in Japan.
Looking back, Angela Mao was one and only in that she managed to carve a niche
for herself with her own vehicles, rather than borrowing the fame of Bruce Lee as his co-
star. Her debut work Hap Ki Do was titled ‘アンジェラ・マオ（Angela Mao）の女活殺拳’
in Japanese – she literally headlined the film. This rare treatment was also a measure of the
profound impact Enter the Dragon had on her.
As opposed to Enter the Dragon which featured only a fraction of Mao’s kung fu, Hap
Ki Do was a much fuller showcase of her martial prowess, which held her Japanese fans
spellbound.
In terms of storyline, Hap Ki Do is arguably the female version of Fist of Fury – Angela
Mao, albeit in a different light, plays once again the ‘little sister’ of Bruce Lee. In face of
the tyrannical ways of the Japanese, both of them are ready to stand tall and confront
evil head-on. According to Mao, she was offered a part in Enter the Dragon by Bruce Lee
himself while Hap Ki Do was in production. Few would disagree that she was indeed the
best candidate.
Although not as sought-after as Nora Miao as an actress, Angela Mao’s strong
personality as shown in two of her 1974 products, Hap Ki Do and Stoner , deeply affected
the Japanese viewers. During that time, Mao should have been much in demand,
particularly among her fans. Sadly, the Dragon Boom quickly lost its momentum starting
1975, which left little room for the other movies of Mao’s to be brought into Japan.
Myriad faces
From here on, let’s cast our mind back from 1974’s Japan to 1971’s Hong Kong. The Law
Chi-directed Thunderbolt was Angela Mao’s third collaboration with Golden Harvest; it was
chronologically her ninth considering the date of release, as the film had been shelved
for two years after completion and didn’t come out until 1973. Her first three titles – The
Angry River , The Invincible Eight and Thunderbolt in question – were creations by different
directors; they were all well-made costume wuxia pictures modelled after the existing
formula of the same genre.
Mao once spoke of her fellow action actress Cheng Pei-pei: ‘That was the time when
Cheng got married and retired from film. I think I was cast mainly to fill up the void she’d
left behind.’ Her hairstyle in these three features might have been an indicator – her long
tresses partly swept up into a bun, the remaining locks left untied and falling down over
her shoulders, a style that imparts a touch of femininity to the fighting heroine. Hers was an
image largely in the same vein as her predecessors’, namely Connie Chan, Josephine Siao
and Cheng Pei-pei, the typical beautiful swordswoman familiar to many.
Thunderbolt deserves study in that Angela Mao plays the ‘little sister’ in two different
capacities – the birth sister of the eldest brother (played by Lam Kau) and the sworn sister
of the third brother (James Tien). Mao and Tien join forces against the fiendish Pai Ying,
who had wiped out their entire clan. Yet Lam, taken in by their foes, mistakes Tien for a
turncoat, putting Mao in a tight spot between her two brothers.

As the plot develops, Mao and Tien go into hiding in the mountains, steeling themselves
vigorously for a fatal duel with Pai and his indomitable technique, the ‘Hurricane Slash’.
It is only natural that Mao and Tien become romantically involved – in fact rumours have
been going around in the martial world about them – and yet Mao puts their ambiguous
relationship on hold, remaining faithful to her status as the ‘little sister’. In much the same
fashion as Thunderbolt , The Himalayan directed by Huang Feng sees a revenge-seeking
Mao training tirelessly at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, where she has every reason to
deepen her ties with her family servant (played by Tan Tao-liang). But again, nothing of the
kind happens.
After the three costume dramas, Angela Mao spent almost a year in Korea making
three other films, all the while learning Hap Ki Do (during the time she also returned to
Hong Kong on and off for studio shoots). The three films (in chronological order by date of
release), Lady Whirlwind (1972), Hap Ki Do (1972), When Taekwondo Strikes (1973), were
all directed by Huang Feng. Mao’s changing screen image might be due to the fact that
after the rise of Bruce Lee, period films quickly fell out of fashion. Market trends dictated
that Mao relinquished the sword she had used in Beijing opera for some newer fighting
techniques in order to break new grounds. Eventually, Mao rose to the occasion and even
created for herself a unique style.
In these three productions, Mao adopts more or less the same persona – the ordinary
working-class woman from 1920s and 30s China. Her characters wear pants in order to
easily move around, her hair slicked carefully with a fringe trimmed neatly right across the
forehead in a straight line – a very simple silhouette on the whole.
In Lady Whirlwind (also chronologically the first film she made in Korea as per the
commencing date of shooting), the black-clad Mao brings to mind the taciturn gunman
in westerns. Wandering through studio sets of a township, she enters a casino, a setting
common in westerns, her gazes razor-sharp, and hardly would she bother to speak.
(Incidentally her voice was dubbed by Chiao Chiao during those days.)
Perhaps because director Huang Feng was inspired by Italian-made westerns, or
because he liked Kurosawa Akira’s Yojimbo (1961), Lady Whirlwind ’s pared-down story
plot set amidst the barren lands evinces a sense of experimentation. The heavy shades of
black in her costume and makeup serve to set off the mystique that this ‘all-black Angela
Mao’ radiates. In Mao’s hands, the part of a solitary avenger – the murderous intent in
her icy glares and the shadow of loneliness – was acted out to the fullest. In retrospect,
Huang Feng, in this early collaboration with Mao, might have already started exploring how
he could bring to the fore the forbidding demeanour of hers. Costume and hairstyle aside,
Mao’s signature pose – the ‘hands up to face height, ready to fight’ stance – was said to
be a creation by Sammo Hung at that time. And it’s worth noting that Mao here in Lady
Whirlwind is yet another ‘little sister’ – this time to exact vengeance for her elder sister.
Hap Ki Do is widely considered as Mao’s tour de force, even Mao herself always names
it her personal favourite. Whenever asked to list a few works she likes, her answers might
be slightly different, yet Hap Ki Do is the one title that she would never miss out. As what
Bruce Lee did in Fist of Fury , the scene where Mao’s character infiltrates a Japanese dojo
and defeats a throng of adversaries is the high point of the film. There were also reports
that as many as 52 retakes were done for a specific scene.
In the movie, Mao’s character has two senior fellow apprentices, played by Carter Wong
and Korean Hap Ki Do master Hwang In-shik respectively. Again her role as the ‘little sister’
has been part and parcel of the storyline.
As I view Hap Ki Do again today, I am surprised to find that many members of the cast
have become movers and shakers in the film world. These include Sammo Hung, Mao’s
frequent co-star and action choreographer on her projects; Leung Siu-lung (better known
as Bruce Liang), Lam Ching-ying, as well as the future Jackie Chan whose face is visible
in one short sequence. This project also marked the start of Hwang In-shik’s collaboration
with Golden Harvest; he went on to star in When Taekwondo Strikes , and played opposite
Jackie Chan as his nemesis in The Young Master (1980).
In my opinion, it is fair to say that the above three titles, which Angela Mao made
during her Hap Ki Do practice, sealed her image as the adorable ‘little sister’ who would
nevertheless pit her strength against the worst of enemies.
In The Fate of Lee Khan , director King Hu crafts a ravishingly beautiful world which
affords Mao ample room to put her Beijing opera skills to the best use. (Her moves
when she sneaks through a window into a chamber trying to steal the secret manual are
marvellous!) The other works of Mao thereafter also spread her full-fledged screen image far
and wide, keeping the Angela Mao saga alive and kicking.
Mao’s persona as a woman fighter is not confined to the imaginary world of ancient
or early Republican China; it transcends time and space. In Back Alley Princess (1973,
director: Lo Wei) and Stoner , for instance, she appears as a hooligan, and is dressed in
police uniform (the real occupation of her character) in the latter. In The Tournament , she is
seen wearing men’s T-shirt and pants in Thailand; and in The Himalayan she even sets foot
in Nepal.
Mao is a great actress in that she not only has a wide range but a strong identity. In
the make-believe world of drama, her acting is not mere replication, but boasts a personal
touch that is entirely her own. This is what Bruce Lee did in revolutionising Hong Kong
cinema, and he was joined by his ‘little sister’ Angela Mao, who happened to be there too
at this historic moment of change.
With regards to the influence she had on her successors, let me quote again the words
of Edoki Jun:
As the ‘Female Dragon’ who has achieved enormous fame, Angela Mao has had a defining
influence on the action actresses that came after her. Japanese actress Shihomi Etsuko in
her early works, for example, portrayed herself obviously as a continuation of Mao; in
the 1980s, when Hong Kong’s D & B Films marketed their staple actresses, Michelle Yeoh
and Cynthia Khan (aka Yang Li-tsing), emphasis was put on their fiery stares, spectacular
footwork and wholesome sensuality. It is also no exaggeration to maintain that the ‘Girl
Fighters’ so commonplace in today’s comic books, animations and electronic games all have
their roots in Angela Mao.
In 2007, Mao, after a lull of 20-odd years, made it clear to her ardent fans in Japan
that if circumstances permit, she would love to return to the screen. Recently, Nora Miao
received positive reception for her turn in Run Papa Run (2008). If only Angela Mao, our ‘Lady
Kungfu’, would be able to make her comeback soon. [Translated by Elbe Lau]
Udagawa Koyo is a film critic born in Tokyo, Japan in 1950. Ever since 1972 he has been a
contributing writer to Kinema Junpo , Roadshow etc. Starting from 1986, he made frequent visits to
Hong Kong and interviewed plenty of local film workers and personalities throughout the 1980s and
90s. He is also the author of A Touch of King Hu (co-authored, 1997, in Chinese), The No-Limit
Zone: From Shirley Temple to Shaolin Temple (2002, in Japanese). He currently writes film reviews
for The Nihon Keizai Shimbun .
108
From Wuxia to Comedy:

Lo Wei and John Woo’s Early Works
Matthew Cheng
Introduction
1970 was a spectacular year for Shaw Brothers. The company brought
out almost all of the highest-grossing Hong Kong films of the year. 1
As a matter of fact, Shaw Brothers had maintained its edge over the
competition and dominated the market since the late 1960s. However,
Golden Harvest soon rose to prominence and the two companies were
neck and neck throughout the 1970s. To a certain degree, the beginnings
of Golden Harvest were similar to that of its rival – both produced
Mandarin-language films which were shot in studios, with the proportion
of wuxia to kung fu features set at a given ratio. Their paths diverged
from the mid-1970s, evolving into two different, competing styles –
Golden Harvest’s films undoubtedly became more and more localised.
In other words, they were more focused on Hong Kong society and the
mentality and lifestyle of its people at the time.
1 For the top ten grossing Hong Kong films of the 1970s, see Li Cheuk-to (ed), A Study of Hong Kong Cinema in the
Seventies (Revised Edition) , the 8th Hong Kong International Film Festival catalogue, Hong Kong: Leisure and Cultural
Services Department, 2002, p 182; for the top ten grossing Hong Kong films from 1970 to 1974, see Kwok Ching-ling
& Shen Biri (eds), Hong Kong Filmography, Vol VII (1970–74) , Hong Kong: Hong Kong Film Archive, 2010, pp xix–xxi (in
Chinese).
From Wuxia to C om edy : L o We i a n d Jo h n Wo o ’s Ea r l y Wo r k s 109
The primary focus of this essay is to discuss the works of Lo Wei and John Woo, two
of Golden Harvest’s most important directors, during their tenure at the company. From their
films, we can see the change in social mentality of the Hong Kong people, as well as Hong
Kong’s gradual maturation into a modern capitalist society. Both directors have gone with
the flow and produced box-office hits, while Woo has also occasionally rowed against the
tide in an attempt to include his own social critique in otherwise commercial films, another
subject which is worth elaborating on.
From Shaw Brothers to Golden Harvest

Shaw Brothers was virtually a one-stop shop as far as production and distribution was
concerned. Production staff, as well as actors, were employed under contract, facilitating
the mass production of movies like goods on an assembly line. Due to its enormous studio
complex in Clearwater Bay, the company put emphasis on re-creating settings as opposed
to location shooting. Consequently, the films featured visual aesthetics that were unique to
studio-made productions. Colour motion pictures shot in Shawscope became a key crowd-
drawer, production quality was relatively refined (although a number of works were repetitive
and lacked soul due to assembly-line style operations), and the company had its own movie
theatre chain. It is also interesting to note that the films made by Shaws during the 1960s
and 70s were predominantly in the Mandarin language as opposed to Cantonese, the more
commonly-spoken dialect in Hong Kong. Moreover, the studio was a ‘dream factory’ which
elicited emotions and fantasies of a ‘cultured China’ from Mainland Chinese and overseas
audiences alike. Thus, productions tended to be ‘made in Hong Kong’ rather than ‘made for
Hong Kong’.
Raymond Chow, one of Golden Harvest’s founders, was born in Hong Kong. A graduate
of St John’s University in Shanghai, he held a senior position at Shaws before departing
in 1970 to found Golden Harvest with fellow colleague, Leonard Ho, and Leung Fung, an
editor also from Shaws. The new company managed to obtain some of the resources left
behind by Cathay, both in terms of studios and distribution networks. The biggest difference
between the two companies was that Golden Harvest worked with independent filmmakers –
many of its productions were collaborations with satellite companies, with whom they would
split the profit, rendering the company greater flexibility over its rival.
Lo Wei’s blockbusters
Lo Wei first worked at Motion Picture & General Investment Co Ltd (MP & GI) and then at
Shaw Brothers in the 1960s. He went on to take up a post at Golden Harvest in the 1970s,
becoming the company’s leading director during its early years. He was both the director
and screenwriter for Bruce Lee’s first two films after his return to Hong Kong from the
United States, namely The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972). Lo also directed several
blockbusters for Golden Harvest during the 1970s, such as The Invincible Eight (1971),
A Man Called Tiger (1973), Back Alley Princess (1973), Chinatown Capers (1974) and
Naughty! Naughty! (1974).
The Invincible Eight was of the wuxia genre which was hugely popular in the 1960s and
70s. It was a period production shot in the studio as per common practice and the dialogue
was in Mandarin. Furthermore, the film starred ten of the most sought-after actors at the
time in order to make Golden Harvest’s presence known. The plot revolves around eight
assassins who are seeking revenge and emphasis is put on their different backgrounds –
chivalrous heroes who wander in the wilderness, roam the streets or serve the court, and
even a chef untrained in martial arts (played by Li Kun) join forces to overthrow the despotic
Great General and his housekeeper. The film was the studio’s first theatrical release and the
mix of artistes involved reflected a certain degree of potential and openness – some had
a background in Cantonese- and/or Mandarin-language films, others worked in television,
while there were also new talents present. The ending, whereby the Great General is
defeated at the hands of the chef, signifies the victory of the common man. Looking back
at the operating models of the two rival studios and how they eventually turned out, it is
difficult not to think that The Invincible Eight was some kind of parodic prophecy.
The centre of attraction in The Big Boss and Fist of Fury was undoubtedly the star, not
the director. Both works brought out the image of the repressed youth and hinted at the
direct relationship between repression and rebelliousness. If rebellion led to an outbreak
of violence, however, one must answer to the law. This theme is echoed in A Man Called
Tiger , where Jimmy Wang Yu plays a Chinese youth against the backdrop of Kyoto. He
appears as a solitary wanderer at the beginning of the film, but the audience soon realises
that the reason for which he became a gangster is to find out the truth behind his father’s
death. One could say he is on an ‘undercover operation’ to seek out the truth, something
that he accomplishes at the casino at the end of the film. The interesting thing to note is
that the gambler, played by Lo Wei himself, is actually a policeman also on an ‘undercover
operation’. The paradoxes and complexities inherent in the movie give it a certain degree of
modernity.
No morals, just survival

Sam Hui landed his first leading role with Back Alley Princess , an urban comedy with
martial arts elements. An ‘odd couple’ is featured as the protagonists and the ordeals they
go through are closely related to real-life situations. The fraternal roles are played by Polly
Shang-kuan Ling-feng and Sam Hui (with the former playing a role of the opposite sex). At
the time, Hui was already well-known by the general public as a hip and energetic youngster
through his career in music and the television show The Hui Brothers Show (1971–72). His
honest but rather thick-headed character, Embroidered Pillow, in Back Alley Princess helps
bring out the more audacious and aggressive Chili Boy played by Shang-kuan, a character
who is more likely to survive in modern Hong Kong.
Instead of portraying the clash of morals or conflict between good and evil, Back Alley
Princess focuses on the compromises, adjustments, negotiations and battles that ordinary
people make with society in order to survive. In other words, the film is a reflection of
the materialistic life of the capitalist jungle, where morals are thrown aside for the sake of
staying alive.
The scene with street vendors and buskers in tai tat tei (flea market) is a vivid illustration
of this barbarous mentality. It was one of the few scenes of Back Alley Princess that was
not shot on location, but still turned out very realistic (the masses of extras moving about
certainly helped). This was partly due to Lo Wei’s mise-en-sc ne which added a touch of
realism to the studio set, and partly because the conversations between the characters
reflected an inner truth. In the beginning, Chili Boy rants and raves about a hat which he is
trying to sell. After he succeeds, a part of the profit ends up in a fortune-teller’s pockets.
From this, we see that as opposed to honest physical labour, cash flow is generated by
creating the desire to consume. Chili Boy then goes to buy some fruit, but before long, the
money changes hands again as the local gang comes to collect extortion fees from the stall
vendor – this time, a case of bullies oppressing the weak and helpless. Finally, the brothers
come across a troupe of street entertainers. Chili Boy helps them draw in the crowds by
causing a ruckus and making people laugh, while the real performance takes the backseat,
emphasising the importance of packaging and the use of gimmicks.
Moreover, Chili Boy solves his problems by stealing and cheating throughout the movie –
this depiction of the moral grey area indicates a disregard for the law. For instance, when
his friend is about to receive a parking ticket, he steals the traffic ticket book from the police
officer. His friend tells him that he’s committing an offence, to which Chili Boy replies, ‘If I
don’t commit this offence, you’ll end up committing one.’ To add to this, Chili Boy saves an
innocent girl by ‘going undercover’ at the end of Back Alley Princess . From these scenarios,
it can be seen that Chili Boy has a rather shaky moral compass and chooses survival skills
over the law. Lastly, the character’s androgynous nature also adds another layer to the
theme of ambiguity.
That said, Back Alley Princess is not completely void of traditional elements. The
cramped living environment where several families are housed in one unit is such an
example – people literally living side by side, having occasional conflicts and facing the
possibility of eviction due to rising rents, scenarios similar to those of The House of 72
Tenants (1973) which was released by Shaws later in the year – echo the tradition of
illustrating real-life situations of antecedent Cantonese films.
From The Big Boss , Fist of Fur y , A Man Called Tiger , Back Alley Princess and
Chinatown Capers , we can see that the law always manages to overpower criminal forces
at the end of Lo’s works. But instead of winning a victory, the law simply seems to be used
as a force of balance. Real righteous do-gooders are virtually nonexistent (the police always
arrive too late), rendering the protagonists’ actions as more effective solutions, suggesting
that ability is more powerful than regulation.
From Lo Wei to John Woo

Lo Wei was Golden Har vest’s key director during the company’s early days. He was
extremely active during the early 1970s, but went on to become a producer and executive
producer after shooting The Bedevilled (1975), gradually distancing himself from the studio.
Lo’s departure and the rise of the Hui Brothers and John Woo is symbolic in a way, as Lo
represented the generation of Mandarin-language filmmakers from the North who were
beginning to fade out from Hong Kong cinema’s sphere of influence. Meanwhile, locally
born and bred filmmakers who spoke Cantonese were stepping into the mainstream. In the
context of Hong Kong’s social and cultural development, this meant that those who were
born in the Republic of China era and fled south during the civil war of the 1940s, such as
Chang Cheh and Li Han-hsiang of Shaws, were no longer at the helm of propelling Hong
Kong’s culture. It was the filmmakers born locally after the war or around 1949 who took up
the mantle to create a new culture which represented them.
Features released by Golden Har vest from the mid-1970s onwards captured the
studio’s transition to more modern times, a move which helped the company gain a steady
footing in the industry. Changes at Shaws, on the other hand, were relatively slow. The
revolution brought about by Chang Cheh, Li Han-hsiang, Lau Kar-leung and Chor Yuen had
limited effect, while Kuei Chih-hung and Mou Tun-fei’s works were too extreme, making
it difficult for the general public to relate to. By the time younger directors such as Wong
Jing and Alfred Cheung were brought into the fold in the 1980s, it was already too late.
Ultimately, Shaws fell behind and the company was no longer as influential as it used to be.
Conversely, Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, with whom Golden Harvest have been working
closely, had already broken into the mainstream by the late 1970s through numerous
action films, an indispensible genre of Hong Kong cinema. John Woo rose to prominence
during the mid-1970s, and apart from following the footsteps of Lo Wei and Huang Feng
in becoming one of Golden Harvest’s most important directors, he also worked for several
other major studios such as Shaw Brothers, Cinema City and Film Workshop. The projects
he was involved in are a testament to the changes in Hong Kong cinema culture, as well
as the local society itself. Below is a discussion centred on Woo’s films during his time at
Golden Harvest, works from which one can observe how he has linked the past of Hong
Kong cinema with its future.
John Woo’s early comedies

John Woo shot some experimental films in his early days and was the assistant director to
Chang Cheh at one stage. He made numerous films for Golden Harvest from the mid-1970s
onwards and was the studio’s sole resident director for a period of time. In addition, he also
helped Michael Hui with Games Gamblers Play (1974) and The Private Eyes (1976). From
this, it can be seen that Woo played a key role in making Hong Kong comedy films with a
local flavour.
Shaw Brothers had a number of its productions enter the box office top ten in 1977,
perhaps the final moment of glory for the studio. The Hui Brothers did not release any films
that year and the top spot went to The Pilferers’ Progress , directed by Woo and starring
Ricky Hui – it was the one and only Golden Harvest feature that made it into the top ten.
Woo found his niche as a comedy director from there until he hit a creative low in the
1980s, from which he re-emerged by making ‘heroic bloodshed’ films. The following section
examines the ‘Average Joe Tetralogy’, a collaborative work between Woo and Ricky Hui
comprising The Pilferers’ Progress , From Riches to Rags (1980), To Hell with the Devil (1982)
and Plain Jane to the Rescue (1982). A closer look at these films reveals Woo’s criticism
of putting survival and money first and foremost in a materialistic society. In addition, one
also finds the director’s attempts at conveying his own values – that friendship, mortal life,
humanity and ambitions are worth more than money or anything that you can buy with it.
The character which Hui plays in The Pilferers’ Progress is similar to Chicken from The
Private Eyes (even the name has been plagiarised) – a weakling who gets beaten up and
suffers frequently. His partner in crime played by Richard Ng is the smarter one, much like
Sam Hui’s character in the latter film. The two protagonists use every trick they have up
their sleeves to help their godfather (played by Yu Ming) steal the three diamonds that are
hanging around Conman Chan’s (played by Cheung Ying) neck. The film’s comic elements
take after those of other features by the Hui Brothers and there is an indirect reflection
of the ordinary citizen’s values in a capitalist society. The fact that Chicken ends up with
nothing is a clear indication of Woo’s conviction that friendship is prized over quick cash.
Ricky Hui once again takes up the lead role in From Riches to Rags , this time teaming
up with Johnny Koo who plays Fatso. Similar to The Pilferers’ Progress , the story is told
from the point of view of the average wage earner, but Woo’s use of irony made this film
more successful – Hui’s character gets lucky and wins the lottery, but then suspects that he
is suffering from a terminal illness and hires a hitman to kill himself. Woo infused the work
with religious wisdom, clearly echoing the phrase ‘What will it benefit a man if he gains the
whole world yet loses his life?’ from the Gospel, 2 and used irony and euphemism to criticise
2 Verse 26, Chapter 16, Gospel of Matthew.

the ridiculous things that people would do for money. The presentation style in the final
scene at the asylum is uncannily absurd, which not only denotes a characteristic of Hong
Kong cinema, but also Woo’s extreme cartoonish approach to comedy film.
To Hell with the Devil is a modern Faustian tale. Both God and the Devil’s emissaries
come to Earth to claim the soul of a young man. This time, Ricky Hui plays Lee Kit, a
musician unsuccessful at making ends meet no matter how or what he tried. He first sells
his soul to the Devil’s agent and signs a contract, a scenario which depicts the relationship
between Woo and Golden Harvest, as well as one that reminds the audience of Michael
Hui’s The Contract (1978). Later on, he wants to back out, but has to embark on an
arduous journey to regain his freedom being bound by the contract. If the film serves
a noble purpose, it is to warn us not to sell our souls for fame or affection, while on a
personal level, the work is a reflection of Woo’s own protestations and religious stance.
In Plain Jane to the Rescue , Ricky Hui plays a downright coward who has a secret
crush on Plain Jane but cannot muster the courage to profess his love for her. The focus
of the film, however, is on the social critique it conveys – it is effectively an expression of
disapproval of real estate hegemony. The movie opens with property developers demolishing
civilian homes, and ends with the government surrendering to the citizens’ demands due to
a car collision which blocks the Cross-Harbour Tunnel. The occurrence of an accident turns
out to be an opportunity for the general public to voice out their sentiments. The whole
affair becomes some kind of wild carnival, with pop singer Roman Tam entering the scene
and singing ‘Seeking Dreams with You’ in the accompaniment of a full band to heighten the
tension further. The story does not put forward any political ideologies, but is told from the
same angle as The Pilferers’ Progress and From Riches to Rags , thus still showing a degree
of social dissatisfaction, albeit in a somewhat comic and abstract manner.
Woo kept a close eye on television culture and often borrowed from it to make his films
easier for the masses to relate to. For example, the look of Josephine Siao’s character
came from the television show It’s Not So Simple (1977), as well as the films Lam Ah Chun
(1978) and Lam Ah Chun Blunders Again (1979), directed by Ricky Chan and Wong Wah-
kay respectively. Meanwhile, the Devil’s emissary played by Stanley Fung in To Hell with
the Devil closely resembles the one from the television drama You Only Live Twice (1982) –
incidentally, both works were released at around the same time. By discussing these four
comedies together, one discovers that money is an important symbolism for personal desire
throughout the tetralogy and that Woo is less than hesitant to mock those who vie for
wealth and power.
Last Hurrah for Chivalry : Prelude to ‘heroic bloodshed’ films

Woo’s self-written and self-directed wuxia film, Last Hurrah for Chivalry (1979), is one of his
best early works. It is different from his comedies and more along the lines of Chang Cheh’s
style, with particular emphasis on male bonding, the mutual respect between kindred
spirits, masculinity and heroism. There are many gory and romanticised scenes, images of
the hero dressed in white and blood-stained gowns, as well as the use of slow motion, etc.
Furthermore, the values embodied in this film are brought into full play in Woo’s later works
of the ‘heroic bloodshed’ genre.
The feature opens with a revenge killing – Pak Chung-tong (played by Lee Hoi-san)
comes to the House of Ko on Ko Peng’s (played by Lau Kong) wedding day to rain blood on
the festivities, highlighting the destructive power of hatred. From there on in, Ko’s actions
are justified by power instead of righteousness and principles, and in his defence, says ‘His
times are of the past… I have my own way of doing things.’ This mentality is similar to that
of Waise Lee’s character, the newly-appointed gang leader in A Better Tomorrow (1986),
also directed by Woo. Ko then goes on to kill his grandmaster and claims his sword, a
scene representing the destruction of traditional values of trust, loyalty and decency and
the birth of a tyrannical monster. The film ends with Cheung Sam and Tsing Yi (played
by Damian Lau) seeking vengeance, bringing order out of chaos with gallantry and self-
sacrifice.
Last Hurrah for Chivalry is one of Woo’s works of genius that is often overlooked, but a
lot of heart and soul had actually been put into much of the film. For example, in the scene
before Cheung and Tsing embark on their journey of retribution, Woo transforms the lines
‘I draw my sword to cut the running water, yet it flows more vigorously. I raise my cup to
drown my sorrows, alas my woes grow deeper’ from a poem by renowned Chinese poet,
Li Bai, into stunning visual imagery. This not only adds historical flavour, but also highlights
the friendship and brotherly bond between the two male characters (as well as casting
women aside for a moment). Apart from finding traces of Chang Cheh’s style, Woo also
incorporated some elements from Gu Long’s wuxia novels into the film, such as the ever-
present and intricate literary dialogue, unexpectedly sinister characters and sudden plot
twists.
Conclusion: Wuxia , kung fu and comedy

The ‘localisation’ of Golden Harvest’s features throughout the 1970s was a process of
gradual change (hence this piece’s tendency in avoiding the discussion of the ‘localness’
of the studio’s films). Just looking at comedies on their own, Lo Wei’s works were already
more local than those by his counterpart, Li Han-hsiang. The Hui Brothers brought flavours
that were even closer to home, while John Woo’s comedies were not only full of local
colours, but also examined and criticised capitalist modernisation.
Both Lo and Woo have directed wuxia , kung fu and comedy films, three genres
that all enjoyed a long run during the 1970s and 80s. Some wuxia features released by
Golden Harvest in the 1980s were influenced by the New Wave in Hong Kong cinema,
presenting audiences with something they hadn’t seen before. The Sword (1980) by Patrick
Tam, Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983) by Tsui Hark and Duel to the Death
(1983) by Tony Ching Siu-tung were particularly successful examples. Sammo Hung and
Jackie Chan have been infusing action films with acrobatic and comedic elements since
the late 1970s, leading the genre’s front during the years of its popularity in the 1980s
and becoming indispensible assets to Golden Har vest. Chan eventually entered the
international scene with The Cannonball Run (1981) and broke into Hollywood with some
skilfully choreographed action films, a feat that Woo was also able to accomplish. As for
Woo’s unique brand of ‘heroic bloodshed’ film, its origins can be traced back to his time
with Chang Cheh at Shaws, as well as Last Hurrah for Chivalry , which he shot for Golden
Harvest. By examining his works closely, one is able to track the development of his career
from Shaw Brothers to Golden Harvest, Cinema City and, finally, Hollywood. [Translated by
Johnny Ko]
Matthew Cheng work s at the Centre for Humanities Research, Lingnan University, and is
currently Vice-Chairman of the Hong Kong Film Critics Society. His authored works (in Chinese)
include The First Book of Recollection (2007), Recommended Prize winner at the 10th Hong Kong
Biennial Awards for Chinese Literature; Wait and See: Anthology of Six Up-and-Coming Hong Kong
Writers (co-authored, 2010). He is also the editor of Time to Read (2012), 2011 Hong Kong Cinema –
A Retrospective (2012), Hong Kong Literature: Heritage and Transformation (co-edited, 2011),
Hong Kong Literature and Cinema (co-edited, 2011), and lastly Selected Works of Hong Kong
Contemporary Writers – Novels (co-edited, 2011), which earned him the 5th Hong Kong Book Prize.
117
Middle-Class Comedies by
Mobile Film Productions
Wong Ain-ling
Although Hong Kong had yet to develop a full-fledged middle class

in the 1950s and 60s, Hong Kong movies of that period were already
beginning to portray stories and characters from this emerging social
class. This trend was particularly prominent in Mandarin films. Film
studios from the modern and Westernised Motion Picture & General
Investment (MP & GI), to the more conservative and leftist Great Wall
and Feng Huang, all rushed to jump on this bandwagon. Invariably,
their films depicted new immigrants from the north who had moved
to Hong Kong after the war, who were all well-educated, well-dressed,
and generally well-off. Often, these productions were criticised for their
lack of realism, and indeed, the fact that most of the city’s immigrants
had to endure poor living conditions was rarely addressed in such films.
However, this is not to say that these middle-class comedies were pure
fantasies completely detached from reality.
On the other hand, not all Cantonese films of the period were exactly ‘Union Film-
style’ kitchen sink realism. From the mid-1950s, Chun Kim and Chan Man left Union Film
and started up their own film company, Kong Ngee. During its early years, Kong Ngee was
very similar to Union Film in style, but within two or three years, it had nurtured a dazzling
new generation of stars: Patrick Tse Yin, Patsy Kar Ling, Nam Hung and Kong Suet. It also
gradually developed a studio style of its own: modern, urban and middle-class. According
Middle-Clas s C om edi es by M obi l e F i l m Pro d u c t io n s 118
to Ho Kian-ngiap, one of the helmsmen of Kong Ngee, ‘Kong Ngee films catered to middle-
class tastes of the growing band of nouveaux riches . Contemporary dramas attracted
a young audience and going to the cinema had become a popular pastime for young
lovers. Opera films, on the other hand, appealed to older audiences who revelled in weepy
melodrama.’ 1
After the unfortunate death of Loke Wan Tho at a plane accident in 1964, MP & GI
struggled to get back on track as a company. Shaw Brothers began to dominate the
Chinese film market with its ‘new school wuxia epics’, and this had a profound effect on
Hong Kong cinema. For the next few decades, hyper-masculine and action-packed films
would rule the roost. This trend had far-reaching influence, even on Hong Kong films today.
It is no mere coincidence, for example, that the Hong Kong Film Critics Society decided not
to bestow the Best Actress award to anybody this year. In the 1970s and 80s, the hugely
popular Golden Harvest films featuring the ‘two dragons’ (Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan) and
the Hui Brothers all focused on elements of action and comedy that appealed mainly to
the more down-to-earth and grassroots-oriented male audiences. Yet after the mid-1980s,
especially in 1988 and 1989, Golden Harvest put together a string of dramatic releases,
including light-hearted urban romantic comedies as well as more serious-minded art films.
This essay will focus on discussing some titles belonging to the former group.
To properly discuss 1980s middle-class comedies, we should begin with Let’s Make
Laugh (1983), written and directed by Alfred Cheung. The film was produced by Shaw
Brothers, and achieved considerable critical and box-office success. Cheung was honoured
as Best Screenwriter at the 3rd Hong Kong Film Awards for his efforts. At the time, Shaw
Brothers was entering a period of sharp decline. Although its more experienced directors,
including Li Han-hsiang, Chang Cheh, Chor Yuen and Lau Kar-leung, were still making
films, they struggled to connect with younger audiences or to keep up with new trends in
the industry. On the other hand, younger players on the rise, such as Golden Harvest and
Cinema City, were forces to be reckoned with. Cheung’s low-budget romantic comedy
caught everyone by surprise with its box-office success and positive reviews, and seemed
to breathe new life into the much fatigued Shaw Brothers brand. In the following years,
Shaws continued to experiment with different genres, such as Eddie Fong’s An Amorous
Woman of Tang Dynasty (1984), Wong Jing’s Prince Charming (1984), Ann Hui’s Love in a
Fallen City (1984), Jamie Luk’s Love with the Perfect Stranger (1985), Mabel Cheung’s The
Illegal Immigrant (1985) and Stanley Kwan’s Women (1985). These efforts, however, failed
to resuscitate Shaws’ dying film empire.
1 Wong Ain-ling, Sam Ho, Yung Sai-shing, Grace Ng (interviewers), ‘Oral History: Ho Kian-ngiap’, in Wong Ain-ling (ed), The
Glorious Modernity of Kong Ngee , Hong Kong: Hong Kong Film Archive, 2006, p 179.
Let’s Make Laugh featured a cast and crew worthy of our attention. Although it was
a Shaw title, it was not filmed as a traditional studio production. Rather, it was filmed by
Go Go Film Productions, a company formed in 1981 by Kenny Bee and Anthony Chan,
both members of the pop band The Wynners. The first film produced by Go Go was
Monkey Business (1982), which also marked the first collaboration between the three men:
Kenny Bee as leading man, Anthony Chan as planning producer and actor, and Alfred
Cheung as director. At the time, Kenny Bee was a pop star as well as a popular actor
in Taiwanese romance films, such as Chelsia My Love (1976) and Rainbow in My Heart
(1979), both Golden Harvest productions directed by Taiwanese filmmaker Sung Chuen-
sau who also worked in Hong Kong. The story of Let’s Make Laugh was allegedly based
on the experiences of Anthony Chan. Once, Chan left Hong Kong for over a month and
completely forgot that he had missed the final deadline for paying his taxes. The Inland
Revenue Department sent an agent to inspect his properties and his house in order to
begin liquidating his assets. Although the agent was refused entry by Chan’s wife (who was
staying alone at home), he nonetheless remained on site until the next day to ensure that all
taxes had been paid. Alfred Cheung wrote the screenplay for the film based on this story of
Chan’s. 2
In Let’s Make Laugh , a young woman (played by Cecilia Yip) is abandoned by her
husband, who runs off with his lover and all the money in the house after facing bankruptcy.
The court sends Kenny Bee’s character, a guard, over to the house so as to make sure that
the rest of its assets are not moved away. The relationship between Cecilia Yip and Kenny
Bee’s characters develop from animosity to love over the course of seven days. Towards
the end of the film, the husband, who had been swindled out of his money, comes back
as though nothing has happened, and life returns to normal. Ironically, even though it was
the husband who had betrayed his wife in the first place, he begins to suspect his wife of
being unfaithful to him. The wife, who has had to suffer her husband’s whims and caprices,
is forced to act in an apologetic and guilty manner in front of her spouse. The film, shot
entirely on location at a big, Western-style house on an outlying island, offers a peek into
the privileged and comfortable lifestyles of the bourgeoisie. Even Kenny Bee’s character
is more of a fantasy than a fully realistic character, with his bourgeois notions of romance
despite coming from a working-class background and living in a hut made out of rusty
sheets of iron.
A f t e r L e t ’s M a k e L a u g h , A n t h o n y C h a n a n d A l f r e d C h e u n g f o r m e d M o b i l e F i l m
Productions. They began to make films for Shaw Brothers either in their company’s name
or their individual capacity, including Family Light Affair (1984), Mr Virgin (1984), Let’s Make
2 Ah Yuen, ‘Alfred Cheung the Go-Getter’, Southern Screen , No 306, Hong Kong: Southern Screen Press, September
1983, p 32 (in Chinese).
Laugh II (1985) and Carry On Doctors and Nurses (1985), but without much success.
During this time, Golden Harvest was trying to diversify its output as well. Its collaborative
efforts with Mobile Film proved to be more fruitful, particularly some of its urban romantic
comedies. The first one was Strange Bedfellow released in January, 1986. The next one
came in June the same year: 100 Ways to Murder Your Wife produced by Go Go Films,
featuring Kenny Bee as both leading man and director. In the film, both he and Chow
Yun-fat play ‘ordinary joe’ types who are married to two domineering wives, played by
a vivacious Joey Wong and a shrewish, demanding Anita Mui. The two long-suffering
husbands, after getting fairly inebriated one day, make a deal – they would kill each other’s
wife. Naturally, this sets off a chain of outrageous and hilarious complications. Afterwards,
Mobile Film worked, and sometimes even co-produced, with Golden Harvest on a series
of films, such as Happy Bigamist (1987), One Husband Too Many (1988), The Bachelor’s
Swan Song (1989) and A Fishy Story (1989). 3
These films produced by Mobile Film were, in terms of theme and genre, greatly
influenced by Hollywood productions; they were in many ways a throwback to middle-
class comedies of the 1950s and 60s as well. Back in the day, Kong Ngee and its sister
company, Sun Ngee, produced many romantic comedies poking fun at the domestic
squabbles and misunderstandings of white-collar couples. Examples include Chun Kim’s
How to Get a Wife (1961) and Ng Wui’s Leading the Wolves into the House (1963), as well
as Mok Hong-si’s Lady’s Husband (1965). All these films feature overbearing wives who
always get the upper hand over their spouses. The husbands, in contrast, seem especially
ineffectual and occasionally, even spineless. These were acute and timely reflections of
changing gender roles in contemporary society. Similarly, the two male leads in 100 Ways
to Murder Your Wife are amusingly inept characters who engage in a farcical version of
Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (1951).
Happy Bigamist reminds one of A Tale of Two Wives (1958), written by Eileen Chang.
Both films featured an ex-wife, who decides to intrude into the world of a newly-married
couple, causing a series of comical misunderstandings and gags. 4 In One Husband Too
Many , Cherie Chung plays a wealthy girl who has a one-night stand with the character
played by Anthony Chan. Later, she falls in love with his good friend, played by Kenny Bee.
3 Bo Ho was one of the main satellite companies owned by Golden Harvest and was run by Sammo Hung. Alfred Cheung
was great friends with Hung, and sometimes would even offer ideas and advice. Their two film companies therefore
worked closely together, and Mobile Film would often borrow staff and crew from Bo Ho. See ‘For Better or Worse:
Sammo Hung is Hesitant about Leaving Golden Harvest’, Ming Pao Daily News , Hong Kong: Ming Pao Publishing
Company, 16 August 1988 (in Chinese).
4 According to Po Fung, it has been pointed out that the plot of Happy Bigamist is strikingly similar to that of One Cook, the
Other Doesn’t (1983), an American TV-movie once broadcast on TVB Pearl. See ‘Letters from Readers 1’, Film Biweekly ,
No 214, Hong Kong: Film Biweekly Publishing House, 28 May 1987, p 3 (in Chinese).
Throughout the film, Chung’s character is completely unapologetic and she shares some
similarities with some of the proto-feminist characters in Eileen Chang’s The Battle of Love
(1957). In one of the scenes in One Husband Too Many , Kenny Bee tries to impress Cherie
Chung by taking her on a tour around his big mansion. He takes her to the living room, but
falls into an indoor swimming pool instead; he walks into the kitchen, only to find out that it
is merely the storage cabinet. This is more or less exactly taken from Chang’s screenplay
for The Battle of Love . Naturally, of course, Chang herself was deeply influenced by plot
devices and conventions of Hollywood films and Anglo-American plays, of which she was a
big fan.
Another notable example of Mobile Film’s urban comedies is My Americanized Wife
(1992), distributed by Newport Entertainment. Like Let’s Make Laugh , the story of the
film is also based on Anthony Chan’s personal experiences. In My Americanized Wife , a
family is forced to divide their time between Hong Kong and the United States – a setup
very common among middle-class families of the time who were trying to emigrate abroad
prior to the 1997 handover. In the film, the wife character has to raise her children alone in
New York, while her husband stays in Hong Kong. Despite initial difficulties, she becomes
extremely competent and independent. At the end, the husband is humbled and learns to
give up his male pride in order to persuade his wife to stay in Hong Kong and salvage his
marriage.
Out of Mobile Film’s middle-class comedies and dramas, A Fishy Story , written and
directed by Anthony Chan, is perhaps its most ambitious venture. As a melodrama, the
film is an apt reflection of its times. Much of the film is based on Blake Edwards’ Breakfast
at Tiffany’s (1961). In its striking opening sequence set to the tune of ‘Smoke Gets in Your
Eyes’ (sung by The Platters), A Fishy Story begins with a montage of news photographs
of the 1967 Leftist Riots in Hong Kong, along with stills of Maggie Cheung staring at the
shop windows of The Peninsula. The background to one of these still photographs is the
shop front of Tiffany’s – a subtle tribute to the Hollywood classic. In the photos, Maggie
Cheung, dressed in a white dress and her hair in an elegant coiffure, tries on a black mink
coat with an expression of unbridled joy. After reading the price tag however, she takes
the coat off in dejection, conveying both a sense of innocence as well as pure materialist
vanity. The parallels are obvious with the unforgettable opening of Breakfast at Tiffany’s , as
Audrey Hepburn strolls down Fifth Avenue in the early hours of the morning, dressed in a
slinky black gown and her hair held in place with a tiara, and peers into the shop window of
Tiffany’s as she enjoys her breakfast. Eventually, she drags herself away from the window,
her body heavy from what has doubtlessly been a long night of parties, but her heart giddy
and light with her dreams of the future.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s was adapted from a novella of the same title by Truman Capote.
The novella is narrated in first person by a writer character, who meets Holly Golightly, a
young girl who has left her home in the South to New York. She mingles with glamorous,
upper-class party-goers, in the hopes of becoming a star or marrying a wealthy man.

The two main characters are next-door neighbours, and at the end of the story, they go
separate ways. In the Hollywood film, the romantic elements of the story are played up, and
the film ends with a conventional happy ending, as the hero and heroine are seen kissing in
the rain, with Holly’s cat squeezed tightly between them.
Quite obviously, Hong Kong is a long way from New York, and A Fishy Story makes
clever adjustments so as to transpose the story to an entirely different cultural context. The
character of the writer becomes Ah Kung, a taxi driver without a proper licence, whose
down-to-earth, working-class background becomes more accessible and appealing to
Hong Kong audiences. Maggie Cheung plays the hopelessly materialistic Ah Yuk, who
comes from the New Territories and dreams of fame and wealth. The story is set in 1967,
a time when the influence of the Cultural Revolution in Mainland China began to cross the
border and influence Hong Kong politics. In the film, Yuk gets bullied by a director with a
Mandarin accent, reflecting the cultural dominance of Shaws’ Mandarin films back in the
1960s. And yet in reality, in 1989, the year A Fishy Story was released, locally-produced
Cantonese films were immensely popular when Hong Kong cinema was in the midst of its
‘golden decade’.
As fate would have it, Yuk’s mother passes away and Kung’s taxi is destroyed by rioting
workers on strike. As Yuk returns home after a tough day at the movie studio, she listens to
‘The End of the World’ playing in the background. She makes the decision to fly off to the
States with a married man, and so she resolves to learn English from a South Asian guard,
albeit with a South Asian accent. Indeed, during the 1967 Leftist Riots, many of those who
could afford to emigrate overseas chose to begin a new life in Canada or the States. For
example, Hsia Moon, the great star of Great Wall Movie Enterprises, moved to Canada in
autumn that year. Although A Fishy Story may be a romantic melodrama, it reflects a lot
of the anxieties and uncertainties shared by many in Hong Kong, as the 1997 handover
loomed imminent. Yet because of its generic restrictions, A Fishy Story does not attempt
to delve too deeply into political issues. Its characters are not politically engaged; nor do
their predicaments inspire them to any form of radical action. Like most people, they simply
want to live quietly and emerge out of hardship relatively unscathed. The film also features
several memorable scenes of rioting and protests, where emotions run extremely high,
almost to the point of hysteria. When the film was first released in September, 1989, Hong
Kong audiences had yet to forget the violent events which occurred in real life just a few
months before in China. Watching such protest scenes in the dark theatre then must have
struck an emotional chord among viewers.
One year later, John Woo would make Bullet in the Head (1990), and in 1996, United
Filmmakers Organization (UFO), under the leadership of Peter Chan Ho-sun, made
Comrades, Almost a Love Story for Golden Harvest. Chan’s film is a romantic comedy,
similar to A Fishy Story . In Comrades , Chan maps the course of a romantic relationship
between two immigrants in parallel to the ten crucial years before Hong Kong’s handover
back to China. Cleverly arranged and not overly sentimental, the film combines both realism
and romantic whimsy. Maggie Cheung plays a street-smart, hard-nosed immigrant from
Guangzhou. Upon first meeting Leon Lai’s character (who hails from Tianjin), she tries to
persuade him to sign up for English classes in order to earn a commission from the deal,
telling him that ‘Once you know English, you can make a living anywhere.’ The scene
reminds one of Yuk in A Fishy Story , who tries to learn ‘curry English’ from the guard. Both
of these urban comedies, although relatively light-hearted in tone, make sharp observations
of Hong Kong society at a key moment in the city’s history.
The early 1980s were a remarkable time for Hong Kong. The postwar baby boomers
were growing up and approaching their 20s and 30s; the economy was taking off, allowing
for greater social mobility and a rapidly expanding middle class. As John Chan Koon-chung
writes in My Generation of Hong Kongers , ‘I belong to an absurdly lucky group of people.
We may not be particularly bright or talented, but because of historical forces beyond our
control, we have achieved much as a generation.’ 5 The three men behind Mobile Film, Alfred
Cheung, Anthony Chan and Kenny Bee, all born in the 1950s, belong to this generation.
They were educated locally and never had to go through any immense hardship such as
war. As history would have it, they reached their prime in the 1980s, the golden era of Hong
Kong cinema. In other words, Hong Kong should have been in prime position to develop
and produce a range of high-quality films catering for middle-class tastes. After all, the city
had no lack of talented filmmakers or middle-class audiences. During this period, Golden
Harvest also made other romantic comedies similar to those produced by Mobile Film, such
as Couples, Couples, Couples (1988), Chaos by Design (1988), The Yuppie Fantasia (1989)
and Brief Encounter in Shinjuku (1990). At the same time, D & B Films also released some
notable urban comedies, including its ‘Three People’ series – Heart to Hearts (1988), Heart
into Hearts (1990) and Heart against Hearts (1992).
The Her Fatal Ways series (1990–94), which focused on the ever-shifting dynamics
between Hong Kong and the Mainland, was the most important work of Mobile Film in the
1990s. The series marked a new direction in Mobile Film’s efforts, but at the same time,
their signature urban comedies started to run out of steam. In his essay entitled ‘A Glimpse
of Wonder: Middle-Class Films of the 1980s’, Cheung Chi-sing writes, ‘In their fleeting
moment of glory, such films once made me believe that Hong Kong would be capable of
nurturing a crop of high-quality productions targeting middle-class audiences. Yet that
moment soon passed, never to return again.’ 6 One may argue that Peter Chan’s UFO films
5 John Chan Koon-chung, My Generation of Hong Kongers , Hong Kong : Oxford University Press, 2005, p 6 (in Chinese).
6 See Hong Kong Cinema in the Eighties (Revised Edition) , the 15th Hong Kong International Film Festival catalogue, Hong
Kong: Urban Council, 1999, p 28 (in Chinese).
of the 1990s catered for middle-class audiences, but such productions were clearly aimed
at a more youthful demographic than that Cheung Chi-sing alludes to. Statistics tell us
that by the 1990s, the middle class formed over one-fourth of Hong Kong’s population.
However, mainstream Hong Kong films never really attempted to produce more refined
and ambitious works to fully exploit this market. Instead, filmmakers have tended towards
dumbing down and vulgarising their material. The middle-class urban comedies of Mobile
Film were simply part of a short-lived trend of the 1980s. [Translated by Rachel Ng]
Wong Ain-ling is a film scholar and critic, and formerly Research Officer of the Hong Kong
Film Archive. She is the author of Dreamy Talks (2012, in Chinese), and the editor of Fei Mu, Poet
Director (1998, in Chinese), among many other titles.
125
Reminiscences
126
The Way of the Big Boss:

Interview with Raymond Chow
Date of 1st interview: 27 February 1997

Interviewers: Yu Mo-wan & Cynthia Liu
Date of 2nd interview: 14 November 1997
Interviewers: Law Kar & Sek Kei
Date of 3rd interview: 4 December 2012
Interviewers: Po Fung, Lau Yam, Cecilia Wong & Winnie Fu
Compiled by Po Fung & Lau Yam

Translated by Johnny Ko
Revised and edited by Mr Raymond Chow
The founding of Golden Harvest was the most important film industry
event of the 1970s. Apart from operating a film business that prevailed
for more than 30 years, it also brought about a significant change in film
production methods in Hong Kong. It paved the way for the golden era
of Hong Kong cinema and played an indispensable part in propelling
locally-made motion pictures to the international arena. Everything
was made possible because of Mr Raymond Chow’s industry insights.
Over the course of three interviews, Mr Chow shares with us his journey
of founding Golden Harvest and how he executed the strategy he
formulated using his knowledge of the film business.
I worked at Shaw Brothers for many, many years. I love the movie industry and had decided
to dedicate my whole life to it. I gave it my heart and soul, but as time went by, I realised that
certain aspects of the job weren’t getting done the way I would have liked. At the end of the
day, however, I was just an employee, so even if I had some good ideas, there were company
policies and operational guidelines to adhere to. Upper management might have had other
things to worry about, or they might have had different thoughts, which was why I eventually felt
the urge to venture out on my own.
The Way of the Big Boss: Interview with Raymond Chow 127
I came to grips with how difficult it was to maintain an enormous studio during my latter
days at Shaw Brothers. For example, signing long-term salary-based contracts spanning five to
seven years with actors or directors was extremely challenging. The revenues being generated in
overseas markets by Hong Kong-made movies at the time were greater than ever before and the
economy was beginning to take off. Our distribution clients in Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan
requested movies starring specific actors or made by certain directors, thus we had to follow
this law of supply and demand. Setting prices based on a star or director’s box-office appeal
certainly resulted in higher distribution income for the company, but an actor’s remuneration
under a long-term contract was, obviously, much lower in comparison. Consequently, some
talented people weren’t earning what they deserved, causing discontent among the staff.
Some directors were left completely helpless as their contracts forbade them from shooting
movies for other studios. On the contrary, a bunch of assistant directors who weren’t bound to
the company were able to do so, becoming directors themselves and earning higher salaries
than their mentors. Our directors, of course, found this unacceptable and when a few of them
came to discuss the matter with me, I could only say ‘The best that I can do is to give you a
bonus,’ to which they replied, ‘It’s not that we don’t trust you, but we’ve heard this before.
The problem lies in what defines a film as being profitable and who is entitled to a share of the
money.’ I understood all too well how difficult it would be to retain our directors in the long run,
so I brought up the issue with management. From the employer’s point of view, the easiest
option was to wait until their contracts expired and then giving them a raise upon renewal.
However, the willingness of our directors and actors to put in an extra effort had a significant
impact on our films. The situation was starting to spiral out of control. I observed how the major
Hollywood studios handled this situation – they’d already changed their mode of operations and
Japan was beginning to do the same.
Golden Harvest was a three-way partnership of Shaw Brothers alumni. Leung Fung was in
charge of administrative matters, finance and publicity, while Leonard Ho and I were responsible
for planning, production and distribution. We all worked our way up from the bottom, so we had
our own ways of conducting business. Many friendships and working relationships had been
forged when we were working at Shaw Brothers, so when we left Shaws, a number of employees
decided to join us. We rented an 800-ft 2 office in Tung Ying Building and had it divided into one
small room, three bigger ones and an open space. Leonard, Leung Fung and I worked in the
larger offices, while Peter Choi and Wong Nguk-chung used the smaller one. That’s how we got
started.
We only had our own capital to work with when we first started. However, many distribution
companies abroad knew that we’d started our own company – they had confidence in us and
were interested in becoming investors. In doing so, they formed a foreign distribution network
for our films. I referenced American film industry practices. Their production and distribution
businesses were financed by banks. So when we set up our company, we negotiated with the
banks for a similar business arrangement. In the end, Chase helped us out and we were able to
build the first Golden Harvest Cinema on Jordan Road, which opened in January 1977.
Li Han-hsiang actually left Shaw Brothers before us and founded Grand Motion Picture
Company in Taiwan. Generally speaking, if people who work in the arts don’t pay close attention
to management, financing and distribution, it’ll be difficult to develop their businesses. Even
if you manage to make a film in the end, you’ll have to hand it over to the bigger distribution
companies. There were only two such organisations back then and it wasn’t easy to distribute
yourself, so that was a problem. The few of us at Golden Har vest’s senior management
came from an administrative background, so we had a meticulous approach when it came
to operations-related matters such as financial planning. As far as the artistic aspect was
concerned, we simply needed to hire proficient directors. We had talented people from all facets
of operations at Golden Harvest, so we were able to develop into an all-inclusive organisation
which took care of everything from production to distribution and exhibition, including film
development and video distribution.
The studio
Many of Golden Harvest’s early works were filmed in Taiwan. Shaw Brothers wouldn’t lease us
their studio and Cathay was also making their own movies. We didn’t want to work with Cathay
straight after we left Shaw Brothers because we didn’t want to be mistaken for bearing a grudge.
Meanwhile, independent filmmaking was thriving in Taiwan at that time, and many studios were
available for rental. This was why we decided to shoot films in Taiwan instead.
Sometime after, we took over Yung Hwa Motion Picture Studios from Cathay. The company
was beginning to struggle after Mr Loke Wan Tho passed away in an aviation accident. Its
Vice-Chairman, Mr Heah Hock Meng, took charge shortly after, and although his title remained
unchanged, he was actually the one calling the shots. Mr Heah looked me up and asked if I
could give him the distribution rights to Golden Harvest’s films, and in return, he’d support us
in the Singaporean and Malaysian markets. The setup at Yung Hwa Studios wasn’t huge, but
Cathay still didn’t use it to its fullest, making it uneconomical. It would be a win-win situation if
they leased it out to us, so that’s what happened. We hit it off right away – we took over Yung
Hwa Studios, establishing Golden Harvest’s base there.
Mr Heah originally came from a foreign-language film distribution background. Cathay had a
cinema circuit that spanned Singapore and Malaysia whose scale rivalled that of Shaw Brothers.
We formed a distribution company in London together. Although Mr Heah was already extremely
busy taking care of the business at Cathay as its Vice-Chairman, he still flew to London from
time to time to discuss the promotion of Chinese-language films with European distributors.
He put a lot of effort into expanding the overseas market, making a major contribution to the
development of Chinese cinema.
Even before acquiring Yung Hwa Studios, we founded Cine Art Laboratory Limited. Film
processing is an essential part of production. Among those that left Shaw Brothers with us, an
engineer named Mr Eugene Chao was particularly knowledgeable when it came to machinery
and film development. I already knew him before working for Shaws, and I was the one who
recruited him after seeing how outdated the Processing Department at the Shaw Studio had
become. Eugene Chao was an engineer right down to the core – it was all about the machinery
with him and it didn’t take him long to earn himself a reputation within the industry as an expert.
When we ventured out on our own, we got him on board right away. He reorganised the setup
at Yung Hwa Studios after we took over, replacing and restocking equipment as required. Back
in the day, no one knew very much about film processing machinery. Everyone would rely on
renowned American company Western Electric to handle such matters. Of course, the bill that
ensued would have given most people a heart attack. Eugene Chao knew what he was doing
and determined which pieces had to be purchased from Western Electric and which ones could
be ordered from Europe. He’d then assemble everything himself.
There were many independent producers and production companies in America – as long
as you had a prospective film project and a good ‘track record’, big distributors would come
knocking on your door offering to help you out. This was a lot easier in the US – the large
companies needed films, so you went directly to their studio and they gave you an office to
set yourself up as an independent production unit on their premises. If they were interested in
what you were doing and signed with you, you could basically take the contract to the bank
and borrow the money needed to shoot your movie without spending your own. This system
was a good way of encouraging film production. It was real independent production without any
external interference – you could do whatever you wanted to. I used the Hollywood model as a
guideline to work with many directors and producers, giving them a great degree of freedom and
room for development. We were the first company that operated on this system back then.
As for the directors, like Lo Wei in the early days, we wanted our directors to focus solely
on shooting – all they had to do was make great films for us. Sometimes, Lo Wei wanted to
make movies under his own company’s name – being as prolific as he was, we were unable
to give him as many films as he could direct, so we allowed him to do that when he had the
time, as long as Golden Harvest had priority in distributing the finished product. We were all
happy working together this way, and once in a while we’d distribute a Swank Motion Picture
production made by Lo Wei’s own setup.
As time went by, we also put a bonus system in place. I think Bruce Lee was the first actor
to sign a contract under this new arrangement. After he rose to stardom, others began to offer
him enormous amounts of money to make films for them. He was always open with me regarding
this situation. We could not afford to pay him what other companies offered, so I proposed that
we set up a joint venture company. We’d let him know how much we earned with the distribution
of his films and negotiate on the percentage cut he’d receive beforehand. He agreed to being
paid the sum as laid out in his actor’s contract as long as he was given a bonus if his films were
profitable. This was how Concord Productions came into existence. From then on, we worked
with quite a number of people this way, so Golden Harvest had many satellite companies, such
as Michael Hui’s Hui’s Film Company, with which we cooperated for many years. I recall once
when we first started working together, I was having a chat over a meal with Michael. He said,
‘I hear that a lot of people say that I’m difficult to work with. Doesn’t that scare you?’ to which I
replied: ‘Haven’t you heard from others that I’m difficult to work with? If you’re willing to work with
us, I don’t see any reason I should be worried.’ This policy of hands-off cooperation worked very
well for Golden Harvest.
Sammo Hung started his career as a stuntman and worked his way up to become a martial
arts choreographer and, eventually, a director. He was extremely intelligent and picked up on
a lot of things by watching how others worked at the studio. His company had a contract with
ours, and Leonard Ho agreed to all the conditions that Sammo negotiated. His terms were quite
simple; he just said, ‘When you don’t have any films for me to work on, I’ll take on other studios’
projects.’ That was more than fair as we ourselves weren’t sure if we could shoot a large quantity
of films at the time. Meanwhile, Sammo kept himself busy with his martial arts choreography,
being a stunt double and doing pretty much anything and everything.
Apart from production, Golden Harvest continued to expand its own cinema chain and
distribution network. As far as movie theatres were concerned, we didn’t necessarily need to
have our own, and we couldn’t own every single one that screened our features either. Cinemas
needed motion pictures, so as long as you made films that grabbed their attention, they’d play
them.
Managing the studio was a different matter. Shaws did everything from production to
processing and distribution. They also ran hundreds of movie theatres in Southeast Asia. When
cinemas show a film, if it is produced by your own studio, you can continue to show it for
however long you wanted, regardless of box-office performance; since you owned everything
from production to exhibition, you make money on either end. This was the advantage that
large organisations had. So having your own chain of cinemas definitely gave you an edge, but
you also had to consider the burden it would bring. A lot of the time, such large investments
didn’t give you very much return, and sometimes losses would be incurred. The most important
thing was to know what you were capable of, how much capital you had and how competent
your team was. Golden Harvest didn’t make that many motion pictures – we never reached the
numbers that Shaws did when it was at its peak.
When it came to distribution, we had already proven ourselves in the past. In addition,
because we were in personal contact with distributors all over the world, partners in almost
every region, including the ones we had always been dealing with, were willing to distribute our
films. Thus, we easily established a foreign distribution network.
Distributing overseas and in Japan

Business development in Japan was extremely challenging as it was a very conservative country
that sort of shut itself out from the world, and was not particularly open to foreign films. In the
early days, Mr Kawakita Nagamasa from Towa Company approached us with regards to the
distribution of our films which starred Bruce Lee. After seeing how well they did in the rest of the
world, he was sure there’d be a market in his home country. Consequently, Toho-Towa Company
became our distributor in Japan, with Towa handling distribution and playing our features through
the Toho cinema chain. It was a huge success. With the excellent box-office response to Bruce
Lee’s first Golden Harvest film, 1 Toho-Towa hoped to continue to distribute other Bruce Lee films.
But Bruce’s second Golden Harvest film, Fist of Fury (1972), is about him beating Japanese
people to a pulp. I was too embarrassed to offer them this film, and recommended The Way of
the Dragon (1972). But Mr Kawakita continued to ask about Fist of Fury . Finally, he asked why
I refused to sell him the Japanese distribution rights. Had I sold them to someone else? I could
only confess that I would never sell those rights to anyone else, but I felt that the film is not
suitable for showing in Japan. I was purposely trying not to embarrass him because I cannot
imagine anyone showing Fist of Fury in Japan. But Mr Kawakita said, ‘In those days, there were
a lot of bad Japanese people who did many things they should not have done. It is not a bad
thing to show this to our young people nowadays, as a cautionary tale to them. Don’t worry. I will
handle any negative response to the film.’ With that kind of confidence boost, I stopped worrying
and let them have the picture. Fist of Fury had a very successful run in Japan.
Toho-Towa paid close attention to the Hong Kong box office. At one time, the bestselling
films in Hong Kong were the comedies made by the three Hui Brothers, Michael, Ricky and Sam,
such as Games Gamblers Play (1974), The Private Eyes (1976), etc. More than half of the comic
elements of those films came from dialogue. While I was confident that our action films could
be popular overseas, I was and still am of the belief that the sense of humour in every country,
and indeed different parts of each country, may be different. Besides, when foreign films are
shown in Japan, they are not dubbed. Only subtitles would accompany the original soundtrack.
How, then, could the Japanese enjoy the Hui Brothers’ films? When the people from Toho-Towa
came to Hong Kong, they saw that the local audience enjoyed the Hui Brothers’ films very much,
and laughter resounded through the cinema. They hoped to bring this kind of enjoyment to the
Japanese audience. Of course, they were the experts who knew the Japanese market intimately,
but I still had my doubts. I mentioned that these films must be promoted very well. They invited
me to attend their publicity meetings.
So I went to Tokyo to sit in on their meetings. Toho-Towa valued this film highly, and
the meeting was attended by their entire publicity department. During the meeting, a young
employee of lower rank enthusiastically proposed that they call Michael Hui’s character ‘Mr Boo’
and package the Hui Brothers’ films into a series, also called Mr B oo! . At the time, the younger
staff nodded in agreement, but the higher-ranked, middle-aged managers didn’t think too highly
1 The first Bruce Lee film released in Japan is Enter the Dragon (1973) distributed by Warner Bros, and the second one is
The Big Boss (1971).
of that. I asked what the term ‘Boo’ meant. They told me that ‘Boo’ was a slang word that was
at that time very popular among young people. The actual definition of the word is ambiguous,
and seemed to mean both ‘yes’ and ‘no’, depending on the situation. When young people met
each other on the street, they would also greet each other with ‘Boo’. I felt that, given that target
audience of the films were young people, the title was creative and appropriate.
They spent US$2 million on publicity, ads and prints for the nationwide release of the film,
an incredibly large amount in those days. In the years that followed, vampire movies, and movies
directed by and starring Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao also did very well in Japan. Toho-Towa
also distributed Jackie Chan’s films, and Jackie Chan thus became the most popular idol in
Japan in the 1980s.
Making Hollywood films

Our first official collaboration with Warner Bros was Enter the Dragon , starring Bruce Lee.
Since we had no experience with global distribution at the time, we thought it would be a great
opportunity for our employees to do and learn many different things. The decision turned out to
be correct, as Enter the Dragon is considered to have a prominent place in cinematic history. It
was a co-production, and we wanted to use the opportunity to train some of our employees. An
important characteristic in shooting Hollywood motion pictures lay in budgeting and scheduling
which were a lot more precise than that for locally-made Cantonese films at the time. It’s not to
say that they never exceeded the budget or never went overtime, but they were generally more
scientific and accurate. We learned a lot in this regard.
Then I went directly to the US to make Hollywood-style films. I didn’t take a lot of money
with me, as I wanted to do it the American independent producer way – approaching banks
for financing, using the projected income of the films as collateral. Hong Kong banks didn’t do
that but for American banks it was a common way of doing business and most major banks
had a department dedicated to film finance. We made a total of almost 30 Hollywood-style
motion pictures. Among them, The Cannonball Run, Parts 1 & 2 (1981 & 1984) were box-office
champions in the US when they opened. Meanwhile, in 1980, in the midst of making production
deals and pre-producing a number of films, I received the ‘International Showman of the Year’
Award from the National Association of Theater Owners of the United States. I hired a seasoned
bank Vice President Ron Dandrea to Hong Kong to run our finances, especially in regards to film
financing.
In terms of production, as mentioned before, we signed independent production agreements
with various of the major Hollywood studios such as Paramount, Columbia, Fox, etc. According
to your needs they would provide an office, or even your own bungalow, on their lot. Everything
you could ever want would be included, from security, janitors, assistants, pre-production,
production and post-production equipment and facilities, billed to you according to usage.
These are very well-developed one-stop services.
Our first Hollywood feature was The Amsterdam Kill (1978). Half my team comprised of
experienced individuals from the industry and the other half were my own people. The only way
for us to learn was by observing how others worked. Nishimoto Tadashi from Japan was our
cinematographer. We’ve known each other for years, so we trusted each other and there wasn’t
much to worry about. Nishimoto-san was the one who helped us shoot Bruce Lee’s The Way
of the Dragon in Rome. He had excellent technique, was well-mannered and willing to teach
others. We told him: ‘You don’t need two assistants, but we’d like you to have two, so that they
can learn from you?’ ‘Yes, yes,’ he replied. He loved Hong Kong.
I think my biggest accomplishment during that period was making The Boys in Company
C (1978). But I was too confident about the film. When it came time to handle its distribution,
Paramount was willing to pay US$7 million, a very large sum at the time, for a straight buyout.
However, I insisted on US$7 million minimum guarantee, with profit participation. Neither of us
would give in, so in the end I decided to distribute it myself. However, the film didn’t do too well
in the box office, and we only made about US$1 million, just enough to cover our costs. Later,
fellow filmmakers told me that it was a wonderful film, but if I had waited a year, or even several
months to release it, Vietnam veteran affairs would be a hot topic in the US and business would
have been much better. Because of my over-confidence, I lost US$6 million. I still feel badly
about it to this day.
Many people asked why I decided to make a movie called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
(1990). Thomas Gray was in charge of our LA service company at the time. He called me up and
said: ‘I’ve got some news for you. Are you standing up?’ ‘What’s the matter?’ I asked. ‘If you’re
standing up, you’d better sit yourself down before I go on.’ ‘OK. I’m sitting down. Go ahead.’ ‘I
want to film turtles,’ he told me. He had gone to the local comic book convention, where he met
the authors of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic books, who were selling their immensely
popular comics as well as film rights to their works. In the comic books, the title characters
were martial arts heroes with turtle heads and human bodies. By putting Hong Kong stuntmen
in masks and suits, we could easily and cheaply produce the best martial arts action; slap on
different soundtracks and we’d have an English, Chinese, French or Japanese movie. I gave
him the go-ahead. But when pre-production began, everyone became very serious. Thanks to
the foresight of producer David Chan, the whole concept was changed from a cheapy movie
to a world-class production. Of course the martial arts was not a problem, but the director was
equally concerned about acting, facial expressions, etc.
In the end, in addition to the Hong Kong stuntmen in charge of the martial arts sequences,
we had another quartet of actors to perform the acting scenes, and another quartet in charge of
the non-martial arts action. The production cost started to rise, but the dailies on the tapes sent
back to us looked like a major motion picture. Finally, the film wrapped at a budget that was still
considered low for a Hollywood film, but was much higher than we had originally anticipated. But
when the film was completed, all the major studios backed out on their verbal promises to us: no
one was willing to distribute the film. It took us a lot of doing to find a newer company that was
more willing to take risks, but that was much smaller in scale, New Line Cinema, to distribute it.
In the end, of course, we all ended up making a healthy profit. A few years later, they distributed
some of our Hong Kong-produced Jackie Chan films such as Rumble in the Bronx (1995), First
Strike (1996), etc, and took our products into the American mainstream market. Both of us did
very well on that deal, too. New Line later produced and distributed the Lord of the Rings trilogy
(2001–03) and became one of the best-known film companies in the world. The owner sold the
company at a very high price and retired in luxury.
In the 1980s, in my many trips to the US (one time I counted 19 Hong Kong–Los Angeles
round trips in a two-year period), I saw a new cinema concept, the multiplex cinema. It was easy
for us to see the business sense in having numerous screens at the same location – for us,
scheduling can better follow audience demands, and the same ticket office and concessions bar
can service many more people. For the audience, there is a much greater choice of films and
screening times. We found a suitable location in Singapore, received tremendous support from
the Singaporean government and in 1992 opened the first multiplex cinema in Asia – the Golden
Village Yishun 10. Due to the tremendous response, we built numerous multiplexes in Southeast
Asia, including Hong Kong, over the next few years. By 1997, we had over 200 screens. At our
peak, we had over 330 screens at over 40 cinemas in seven countries and territories.
At the beginning of 1997, we established the Golden Harvest China Film Fund to produce
motion pictures in Mainland China. Because of this, the Chinese government gave us special
permission to build a cinema in China, so we built China’s first multiplex cinema in Shanghai.
When building cinemas in major cities, we must almost always work within the spaces that the
developer had designated for us. But in January 2005, we opened the Golden Harvest Multiplex
Cinema in Shenzhen, a project we designed ourselves from ceiling height to column placement
to locations of the entrances and exits of every cinema to the placement and layout of the
ticketing office and concessions bar.
Golden Village Yishun, the first multiplex we built in Singapore, had ten theatres. It became
the base camp where we trained our talent pool. Every time we opened up a new multiplex,
we’d send the most senior person from Yishun over to train the new staff. The next in command
would then receive a promotion and take over operations at the ‘base’. After a period of time,
we’d send that person away and promote a third person, and so on and so forth.
Going public
Golden Harvest, with the exception of the production division, became public in 1994. It was
difficult to put a value to film productions, be it in China or the US. Whether in terms of process
or time line, investing in filmed productions, and its income stream is not easily understandable
to outsiders. The difference between profit and loss can be enormous, and the success or
failure of a film may not have a tangible analysis or explanation. Thus, this product is not suited
to being listed on the stock exchange. Conversely, distribution is similar to an import-export
business, and everyone can understand the logic behind a cinema’s operations, so we listed
those aspects of the business. Personally, I have absolutely no experience in listing a company
on the stock exchange. Fortunately, there are many such experts in Hong Kong. In going through
what was for me a totally foreign process, I experienced first-hand the amazing extent in which
Hong Kong is developed commercially, and realise the reason Hong Kong’s world of finance is
so renowned internationally.
Moving along with the times

In the 1990s, Golden Harvest began to sell its film library. Piracy was one of our main reasons.
We were very discouraged by the losses we suffered due to piracy. So when Mr Richard Lee
was setting up STAR TV, he planned to feature a movie channel. He wished to show Golden
Harvest films, so we sold them our first batch of about 400 titles. We were the first company in
Hong Kong to sell a film library.
In the late 1990s, the Hong Kong government took back the land grants of the studio on Hammer
Hill Road. Golden Harvest also successfully made the transformation to focus on the distribution and
exhibition aspects of the film business. In 2003, we made our last film, My Lucky Star .
In the 2000s, we were still looking ahead. At the time, we and our colleagues were looking
into applying digital technology to film production and projection. We worked again with our
old friends Toho-Towa from Japan, to try to do a live broadcast of a stage play in Japan onto a
movie screen in a Hong Kong cinema. In 2007, Orange Sky Entertainment took over my shares
in Golden Harvest, giving me the best 80th birthday gift I could hope for. I had been working
since doing part-time jobs when I was 18, so I felt ready to retire at age 80.
In retrospect
Looking back, I am not disappointed in the things I have done. There were difficult times,
because I was experiencing a time when there were big changes in the market which made
adaptation difficult. Ultimately, it came down to the exceptional teamwork of our colleagues
working together to overcome all the difficulties. I miss very much my partnership with Leonard.
It would be hard to find another partnership that worked so seamlessly. After we founded
Golden Harvest, he took care of the internal workings while I dealt with external affairs. He was
a journalist with years of news agency experience. He seemed very shy, but from listening
and observing in silence, he was able to discover the truth and logic behind everything. He
preferred working behind closed doors. He took his work very seriously, which was great for me
as I’m really lazy. That’s why I handled external development while he held down the fort. We
devoted our lives to our work and put all of our time, energy and wealth into it, but above all, we
trusted each other. I don’t have any regrets at all. He was my best friend. We could almost read
each other’s minds. His passing made me feel that my emotional support had suddenly been
snatched from under me. I shall always miss him.
136
Good Business is the Best Art:

Louis Sit on the Management
Style of Golden Harvest
Date: 6 November 2012

Interviewers: Po Fung, Lau Yam & Cecilia Wong
Translated by Rachel Ng
Louis Sit joined the newly-established Golden Harvest in 1971, upon

graduating from university. He was involved in the production of box-
office hits such as Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon (1973) and Michael
Hui’s Games Gamblers Play (1974), and was even the lyricist for the
theme song to the latter film. He was later promoted to the post of
Production Manager, where he led and nurtured a younger generation of
producers, until leaving the company in 1985. Effectively, he witnessed
and contributed to the development of Golden Harvest from its humble
beginnings to the very peak of the film studio’s glory days. As one of
the most important executives in the company’s history, Sit’s career at
Golden Harvest provides rich and unique insight into its management
structure and strategic planning.
An outsider-turned-manager
I started working for Golden Harvest once I graduated from The University of Hong Kong, upon
the recommendation of Mr Anthony Chow, brother of Mr Raymond Chow. Mr Anthony Chow had
been a teacher and mentor of mine at St Joseph’s College from Primary 5 to Secondary 5. After
I graduated from university, Anthony told me that his brother was starting a new company, and
was looking for people from outside the film business to fill the administrative posts. I thought
that the world of film sounded really exciting, and so I took up the offer at Golden Harvest.
Back then, Golden Harvest had one single office at the Tung Ying Building in Tsim Sha Tsui,
Good Bus i n es s i s th e Bes t A r t:
Loui s Si t on th e Ma n a g e m e n t S ty l e o f G o l d e n H a r ve s t 137
but had yet to run its own studio. We did have several films in production then, including The Big
Boss (1971), which was being filmed in Thailand. We were running a fairly bare bones operation
at the office, with Mr Raymond Chow, Mr Leonard Ho, Mr Leung Fung, Mr Peter Choi, as well
as two other producers, Kwan Chi-chung and Mao Lu, and a secretary. The film crew and the
directors did not have to come into the office, save for the occasional meetings.
The company bosses were Mr Chow, Mr Ho and Mr Leung, but later they were joined by
a fourth company director, Mr Shen Shan. Mr Shen had worked for the Taiwanese government
before, and although I never really asked him much about his background, I understood that he
had stayed in the US for quite some time, and as a result, his English was excellent. His role
was to focus on film distribution in the US and other overseas markets.
Technically speaking, I was part of the second ‘generation’ of Golden Harvest employees.
I was one of the first ever employees to have been officially recruited from the outside, as
opposed to the first generation, which consisted of people who had left Shaw Brothers with Mr
Chow to join his new venture. When I first met Mr Chow, I asked him what I should be doing.
He replied, ‘Don’t do anything. Don’t say anything. Just watch and learn, and if you have any
questions, come to me.’ I thought that it was a fine job, not having to do anything apart from
observing other people. Under Mr Chow’s arrangement, I started working under Mr Ho.
Shortly after joining Golden Harvest, around a few months into the job, the company took
over Cathay Studio at Ngau Chi Wan. When we arrived, we were greeted by Willie Chan, who
was representing Cathay Organisation and supervising the handover. From then on, Golden
Harvest was to take care of all the studio’s expenses, including government rent, staff salaries,
utility bills and so on. After we moved into the studio at Ngau Chi Wan, I was still ‘observing’
others and doing very little. However, after six months or so, I became the studio manager,
which was a position I held for some time before switching my efforts to film production. As the
studio manager, I was in charge of organising and keeping track of all sorts of equipment and
resources, anything from nails, blocks of wood, to backdrop boards, machines and various
lighting equipment. I was very much left to my own devices, and so I developed my own ways of
managing and running the place. Tu Meiqing, who had worked for Cathay before, was in charge
of general affairs. Although he was technically my subordinate, he was generous enough to
teach and share with me a lot of his knowledge and expertise.
The duties of a studio manager were wide-ranging. I had to oversee the studio schedule,
organise the lighting equipment and the machines, deploy people, manage the set decorations,
check up on the filming progress, as well as keep an eye on the budgeting. Golden Harvest had
three soundstages then. Soundstages A and B were the larger ones, and a few steps up the
slope was Soundstage C. The permanent street set of ancient China was built later, under my
supervision. We used and converted an empty site some way down from Soundstages A and B.
Apart from Cathay’s studios, Golden Harvest also took over 40 to 50 former employees of
Cathay, mainly prop makers, assistants, technicians and cinematographers. I still remember
who the managers were for each of the various teams and departments – Cheung Yiu-chung,
who was in charge of editing; Chow Siu-lung, responsible for recording; and Chu Sing-hei,
who took care of costumes. Wong Shun-cheung and Ma Man-chun were from the props team;
and Chris Chen, Lee Yau-tong and Cheung Yiu-cho (brother of Cheung Yiu-chung) were all
cinematographers. Chris Chen worked mainly for Lo Wei on a commission basis, and so did not
have to come in to work at Golden Harvest every day. Lee Yau-tong, on the other hand, worked
under Huang Feng. Things were different for Cheung Yiu-cho, who received a monthly salary
from Golden Harvest.
Many of our movies were filmed in South Korea. There were two main reasons. Firstly,
Golden Harvest productions were very popular in Korea, but because of the foreign currency
policies imposed by the government, things were far easier for us if we filmed there locally.
Secondly, we were producing a fair number of period productions back then, and there were
only two or three suitable locations in Hong Kong. In those days, we were not allowed to film on
the Mainland, so our almost only option was to film in Korea.
Planning is key
After working as the studio manager for some time, Golden Harvest began to film Enter the
Dragon , in collaboration with Warner Bros. The producers at Golden Harvest did not speak
any English, and so the team badly needed someone who was fluent in the language. As a
result, I got transferred from my duties at the studio to try my hand at film production for the
very first time. Basically, the job of a studio manager was to deploy all the resources in the
studio as effectively as they can, so as to facilitate the process of filming. A film producer did
similar things, except that they would have to manage and acquire resources from outside the
studio. This meant looking around all the time, or even conjuring something out of thin air, not to
mention the many factors and considerations a producer has to juggle, for example, choosing a
prop or resource that would produce the best effect in the film, and at the same time obtaining
such material in the cheapest way possible. So in many ways, I am very appreciative of Mr Ho
letting me become a studio manager before I moved on to film production. It meant that my
transition into the world of producing was relatively smooth and straightforward.
I learned a lot during my work with the Americans on Enter the Dragon . Most importantly,
I learned how to manage and organise resources in a way that was most efficient and would
maximise the effect of each individual scene in a film. The experience also taught me how
to keep a strict budget during production, and I reused this system time and again in all my
subsequent projects. In my memory, there were rarely any cases of Golden Harvest productions
running seriously over budget, or lagging behind schedule. I used to feel terribly guilty even if a film
ran over budget by a mere ten per cent. I suppose these were working habits and approaches I
had acquired from the production of Enter the Dragon .
Now let’s go into more detail about the idea of managing resources. Being a film producer
is not exactly rocket science; at the basic level, it simply demands that you think through every
little detail. Let’s say for instance that you have 100 members of staff on set. Everyone needs
to drink two bottles of Coke per day, and if the filming is to take 100 days, you have to prepare
20,000 bottles of Coke. Arranging beverages may sound easy, but obtaining 20,000 bottles of
Coke can be a real problem, as it involves at least tens of thousands of dollars. Making a film
relies on the cooperation between many departments – costumes, props, editing, to list a few –
and a slight glitch in any part of the machine could halt production altogether.
To give a further example, we were filming in Thailand once, and we had arranged to film at a
local five-star hotel on a particular day. Out of the blue one day, one of the producers came over
to me and said, ‘We have to shoot the day after tomorrow, but we just received news from the
hotel saying that they will be receiving some high-ranking officials from the US government that
day, and we are no longer allowed to film there due to security reasons. The hotel has asked
whether we can schedule another day for shooting the scene.’ Delaying the shoot by a couple of
days would mean that the whole film crew would be sitting around in Thailand and doing nothing
but burning money every day. The producer was so anxious that she started to cry as she told
me about her problem. I got a card out of my pocket and told her, ‘This gentleman here is from
another local hotel. Go talk to him, mention my name, and tell him that we would like to film at
his establishment the day after tomorrow. Pay him the deposit to settle the booking.’ She was
confused why and how I had arranged things with this hotel. I explained, ‘I wanted to be on the
safe side, so I looked for another hotel as backup in case things did not work out with the first.’
The producer was so delighted that she jumped and kissed me on the cheek twice, and went off
to talk to the manager at this second hotel. And when she was talking to him, I was already on
my way to look for a third hotel.
A good producer should be able to foresee any possible problems and take steps in
advance to solve them, so as to ensure that the film can be completed on time and within
budget. One piece of advice I often give is that the first thing one should do as a producer is to
not do anything at all. Take a pause, do all the planning first, before putting anything into action.
Great movies, big stars

Subsidiary companies were fairly commonplace at Golden Harvest, and they served as a way
of securing talent. Many of our talents were employed on a contractual basis, while others
were hired through these subsidiaries. Bruce Lee’s Concord Productions is one such example.
Golden Har vest supported Concord in terms of creative production, as well as the more
practical, day-to-day demands of running a company. However, you did not necessarily need to
run a subsidiary company of your own in order to claim your share of the profits. Golden Harvest
was always very open-minded about this, and you could choose whichever way you would like
to receive your share. If you wanted to be your own boss and open a company such as that of
Concord, Golden Harvest would make the necessary arrangements. On the other hand, if you
were like Huang Feng and trusted the company enough, you would receive your dues, even
without the formalities of setting up a subsidiary company.

When I first joined Golden Harvest, Mr Chow used to tell me, ‘We have to do things in a
different way from Shaws. They produce around 40 films per year to be played at their own
cinemas, and so they can afford this kind of business strategy. We are not capable of providing
a budget for 40 films; nor do we need to do so. But what we do need to do is to ensure that we
make high-quality films, so that we can substitute quantity with quality.’ How could we compete
with Shaws without producing as many films as they were? After all, Shaws produced 40 films
per year, while Golden Harvest could only release eight. This meant that we were effectively one-
fifth the size of Shaws. If we wanted to rival Shaws, we had to make sure that each of our eight
films was of such high quality that they would earn five times as much as a Shaw production.
How could we achieve this? There were two ways of doing this: firstly, you could distribute
your films in the same regions as your rivals, and make sure that your films were earning far
more than their competitors. The other option was to expand your distribution regions so as to
boost your box-office earnings. It was therefore part of Golden Harvest’s strategy that certain
responsibilities were split between Mr Chow and Mr Ho. Mr Chow was responsible for securing
the overseas markets, and so he was always jetting off to Taiwan, Southeast Asia and North
America. Yet he was also eyeing non-traditional markets such as Korea, and even countries in
the Mideast and in Africa. We used to joke that we barely ever saw him around at the office. Mr
Chow also worked closely with Mr Heah Hock Meng of Cathay, who had excellent connections
abroad. The fact that we eventually did succeed in breaking into the American and Japanese
markets was a result of many years of hard work. Mr Chow’s efforts effectively paved the way
for the international success of Bruce Lee and Chinese kung fu movies, a long time before
Lee had even entered the scene. Mr Ho, on the other hand, focused on aspects relating to
film production, producing a string of box-office hits and jumpstarting the careers of many
superstars. The division of labour between Mr Chow and Mr Ho was a huge success. The work
of the two men complimented each other perfectly, ensuring that the best products and the best
talents were made accessible to the widest audience possible.
Mr Ho had his own theory about what made a popular star or box-office hit. He used to tell
me, ‘One thing to remember about the movies is the importance of connecting with the audience
on an emotional level. It doesn’t matter if the script is not logical; life itself doesn’t make much
logical sense after all. But the emotions that the script conveys must be authentic.’ Mr Ho’s
concept of ‘emotional connection’ referred to more than simple romantic passion. He hoped that
his films could inspire and provoke strong reactions among audiences, and be able to capture
the thoughts and emotions shared by a whole generation of cinemagoers. You need to have
a good understanding of who your audience are, so then you can make films they can identify
with. Mr Ho also believed that a star actor possessed unique qualities and characteristics, but
more crucially, he or she would embody certain values and ideas representative of the age.
Although Mr Ho was not the screenwriter for The Big Boss , he made invaluable contributions
to developing the emotional arc of the story. He insisted that Bruce Lee’s character should
suppress his anger and rein in his emotions until the final, cathartic showdown at the end of
the film. Undoubtedly, Mr Ho was a master at creating emotional impact and dramatic effect.
He taught me to recognise one’s strengths and abilities, and also to enjoy the fruits of your
own labour. Indeed, Golden Harvest operated on such a system of meritocracy. After Bruce
Lee proved himself as a formidable talent, and asked to open his own company, Concord
Productions, he had the support and approval from Golden Harvest. We never coerced anyone
to stay with the company simply because we had helped them get their first break in their
careers. Instead, on occasion, Golden Harvest would even take the initiative and propose a deal –
we would help our actors set up a subsidiary company, and offer both creative and practical
support. Undeniably, Mr Ho’s vision and ways of running Golden Harvest proved immensely
successful.
Magic of Canto-pop
After Bruce Lee passed away, the next great Golden Harvest star was Michael Hui. I remember
when Mr Ho and I first discussed Michael Hui, Hui was still with Shaws. Mr Ho wanted to scout
him, but came to see me for advice on how to do so. Mr Ho was never shy about asking for
advice, which was one of his most exceptional qualities. Hui had been the star of a great hit TV
show, The Hui Brothers Show (1971–72), and then he started working for Shaws. He starred
in The Warlord (1972), the box-office hit directed by Li Han-hsiang, but afterwards, his career
went downhill. I felt that Hui’s talents lied in comedy styles similar to The Hui Brothers Show ,
where he worked with his brother, Sam Hui. It is easier for comedians if they could play off their
jokes against somebody else. Mr Ho agreed with me, and used the example of xiangsheng , a
traditional Chinese style of comedy usually performed by two comedians. Our idea was that this
was the career direction Hui should take. Not long after this conversation, Mr Ho invited Hui for
a chat at The Peninsula. We told him that Golden Harvest would be able to offer him greater
creative freedom, and that our philosophy was to produce quality blockbusters, as opposed to
run-of-the-mill productions. Our chat revolved around such ideas and work philosophies and the
subject of Hui’s salary never came up. Hui was extremely candid and straightforward, and he
agreed to come over to Golden Harvest after making two more films with Shaws, as dictated by
his contract. He did not even try to negotiate a price or salary.
I have vivid memories of the opening of Games Gamblers Play . Even before cinemas were
showing the film, its theme song was already a smash hit in Hong Kong and Macau. The witty
lyrics of the song really exemplified the charm of the Cantonese language. Naturally, there were
quite a few Canto-pop songs back then, but very few of them were written in such a colloquial
way. Songs such as ‘Fate in Tears and Laughter’ were written in more literary language, such
as ‘the lovers’ bosoms were stained with tears.’ The theme song to Games Gamblers Play was
very innovative in terms of its playful tone and language, ‘Will do anything for a quick buck/
Such is life.’ It seemed to coincide with a wider, more general revolution in popular culture at the
time. We achieved huge success, and the audience loved the film. Yet in some ways, we had
already expected it. Back when he was doing The Hui Brothers Show , Michael already felt that
the Cantonese-speaking population of Hong Kong (which accounts for more than 90 per cent of
the overall population) would really welcome songs and films which spoke the language of the
common people, as long as they were well-produced and connected well with the audience.
The success of Games Gamblers Play and its theme song are testament to this belief.
Mr Ho’s genius lied in his ability to create good working conditions that allowed people to
make good use of their talents. For example, Sam Hui had been acting in a couple of Golden
Harvest films, but he was not really able to show off his comedic talents because he was forced
to take up minor, Mandarin-speaking roles. Mr Ho arranged for Sam to start collaborating with
his brother again, and the two of them were able to re-create the wonderful chemistry that had
been so successful in The Hui Brothers Show .
Both Mr Ho and Mr Chow started their careers as journalists before working at the
promotions and publicity department at Shaws. Therefore, they were both ver y good at
drumming up publicity for our films. Even before a film was formally released, the two of them
would already be running a big promotional campaign for it. During the early days of Golden
Harvest, Mr Ho and Mr Chow came up with the brilliant idea of putting up posters of Nora Miao
at the Star Ferry Pier, all with the slogan, ‘Who’s this girl?’ We would consider promotional
strategies and campaigns during the pre-production stage of a film, rather than after its
completion.
Talent galore
John Woo joined Golden Harvest a few months before we started shooting Games Gamblers
Play . One afternoon, Mr Ho asked me to come over for a test screening of Farewell Buddy ,
which was directed by John Woo. [Ed: The film was renamed The Young Dragons upon its release in 1975.]
Mr Ho asked me what I thought after the test screening. I said I was very impressed, and asked
him who the director was. He told me that he was planning on inviting this director to join Golden
Harvest. I rewatched the film several days later, and was struck once again by how talented
the director was. After a couple more days, Mr Ho told me that Woo had signed the contract.
I remember telling Lau Tin-chi once that I was convinced Woo would become Hong Kong’s
first great international director. In those days, most of the Hong Kong-produced films relied on
flashy gimmicks, but Woo’s film made a deep impression on me. He had obviously put in a lot of
thought into the film, such as its visuals, colour scheme and other aspects of its film language.
Woo stayed in the company dormitories every day after he joined us. Back in those days, we
used to eat lunch in the dormitories and play a few games of mahjong before returning to work in
the afternoon. Woo showed great dedication to his work, and was willing to do anything that was
asked of him. However, he left the company after a few years, because he was in many ways
a special case. Most of the Golden Harvest superstars basically wrote, directed and starred in
their own productions. Therefore, it was virtually impossible for us to arrange for them to star in a
John Woo project. Woo had an offer from Cinema City, and was promised greater opportunities.
We understood how he felt, and we never tried to make Woo’s life difficult for trying to leave us.
This generosity of spirit and sense of tolerance, as displayed by Mr Chow and Mr Ho, provided
one of the most important life lessons I ever learned.
I was promoted to Production Manager shortly after Enter the Dragon . I had a few assistants
working for me, such as Chan Pui-wah, Catherine Chang, Barbie Tung, and for a short while, Lau
Tin-chi as well. Golden Harvest did not hire any screenwriters in a formal capacity back then,
but when Commercial Television closed down in 1978, Mr Ho asked me to invite writers such as
Lau Tin-chi, Kitty Ip, Shek Siu-ming and Edward Tang to join the production department. Each of
these writers paired up with a director and started working together. For example, Barry Wong
worked with Sammo Hung; Edward Tang worked with Jackie Chan; and Lau Tin-chi worked with
me on matters relating to management and coordination.
Keeping the balance

One of the toughest things about the film business is that filmmaking requires great creative
freedom, but at the same time, you need to be very scientific and systematic with regards to
administration and marketing. So how do you balance between these different interests and
demands? Golden Harvest was one of the few companies that ensured that its directors had a
free hand while operating a profitable business.
Both Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers were unique in their longevity as film companies
in Hong Kong, and this was in no small part thanks to the fact that they were run by executives.
In my opinion, directors and actors are usually poor choices to head and run film companies,
because they have so many other commitments to juggle, and also because they often let
personal ideas about art and filmmaking cloud their business judgements. Making a film is
really much more complex than it looks; the process involves everything from writing the script,
hiring the right actors to releasing the film and exploring new markets. To my knowledge, no
film company run by a director or actor has ever matched the successes of Golden Harvest
or Shaws. I believe that the executive management styles of Golden Harvest and Shaws are
worth studying because the two companies responded quickly and efficiently to meet market
demands. Of the two studios, Golden Harvest may perhaps make the more interesting case
study, because in addition to its business and marketing strategies, the company also operated
on the basis of certain philosophies and beliefs. Having executives at the helm was a very
practical and effective arrangement, and contributed to the sustainable development of Golden
Harvest as a company. This is why after Bruce Lee’s death, Golden Harvest did not try to create
a second Bruce Lee, or any other kung fu star to replace him. Instead, we nurtured new talent
and gave Michael Hui the biggest break of his career. None of this would have been possible if
Golden Harvest were not an ‘executive-led’ company.

The financial risks of the film business are huge. Many friends wanted to invest in the film
business and invited me to work for them when I was working at Golden Harvest. I refused all
of their offers, telling them that the only sure way to make money was if they gave me enough
money to make ten films a year, for three years. I could never guarantee anyone that any one film
that they invested in will definitely make money. I can only say that, according to my professional
experience and knowledge, usually at least five out of ten films make a profit, and those five films
are likely to earn more than enough to cover the losses of the other five. This is how business
works, after all. Take fashion designers as an example. It is very unlikely that a fashion designer
who invests his or her all into one single design can guarantee that it will be hugely profitable.
However, if you create 20 different designs for your collection, you really just need one of these
20 pieces to do well in order to make a sizeable profit. In other words, there is a method – and a
scientific one at that – in the madness of filmmaking.
I emigrated overseas in 1985, mainly because I hoped that my children could study abroad,
and I also wanted to try new things. Around one year before I left Golden Harvest, my former
teacher Mr Anthony Chow joined the company.
Mr Ho is the person I admire most in my life. His strengths as a film producer lied in his
flexibility and his understanding of the film medium, such as his theories about the emotional
connection between a film and its audience. He was also a very open-minded man, who could
handle failure and also tolerate differences. He always gave people second chances even if they
made mistakes. He taught me a lot, both in life and in work.
145
Riding High on Big Tides:

Albert Lee on Overseas Distribution
of Golden Harvest’s Films
Date: 18 November 2012

Interviewers: Po Fung, Lau Yam & Cecilia Wong
Translated by Johnny Ko
After completing his tertiary studies in the UK, Albert Lee returned
to Hong Kong and became an employee of Golden Communications,
a subsidiary of Golden Harvest, in 1979, partaking in the company’s
overseas distribution activities. He was an executive director of the
Golden Harvest Entertainment Company Limited when it went public in
1994, as well as General Manager of the unlisted Golden Harvest (HK)
Limited, before departing the organisation in 2000. He has shared some
precious memories and invaluable information with us, allowing us to
gain a better understanding of Golden Harvest’s developmental history
in overseas distribution.
I came back to Hong Kong from the UK when I graduated in 1975 and became a journalist
at The Star in early 1976. I left towards the end of 1978 and worked briefly as a stringer for The
Associated Press before joining Golden Harvest on 15 January 1979.
Back in those days, Golden Harvest produced and distributed both Chinese- and
foreign-language films. One particularly important subsidiar y in that respect was Golden
Communications. Robert Burton, whom we affectionately called Mr Burton or Bob, was in charge
of distribution at the company – he was a close friend of Mr Raymond Chow’s from Kansas
who started out as a scholar-journalist. I believe they had met while working at Voice of America
[Ed: Hong Kong's United States Information Service was responsible for broadcasting VOA 's programmes] and
once conducted an interview with Chang Kuo-tao together. After Golden Harvest was founded,
Ri ding Hi gh on Bi g Ti des :
Al b ert Lee o n O v e r se a s Di str i bu t i o n o f G o l d e n H a r ve s t ’s Fi l m s 146
Mr Chow enlisted Bob’s help to develop overseas markets. However, as his main line of work
wasn’t related to film, he wanted someone to assist him. Bob got in touch with Mel Tobias, a
well-known film critic in Hong Kong at the time, who in turn introduced me to him. My father
Lee Ping-cheung had been in the foreign-language film distribution business in Hong Kong for
decades and he already knew Mr Chow and Mr Ho (Leonard Ho Koon-cheung) personally. I also
had some related experience from summer jobs during my university years in the UK, which was
why I joined the company in 1979 and spent 21 whole years there.
Golden Communications’ main responsibilities were to develop the overseas distribution of
Golden Harvest’s films and to arrange movie shoots abroad. Our office was located at Golden
Harvest’s studio on Hammer Hill Road. Andre Morgan, who was in charge at the time, was said
to be a former student of Robert’s. An English barrister named Cameron Maxwell Lewis worked
in the Legal Department. Russell Cawthorne, an Australian media veteran, was responsible for
everything related to marketing. Robert was in charge of distribution, while David Chan and
Madalena Chan assisted Andre on the production side. We also had an Accounting Department
independent of Golden Harvest. Golden Communications was a comprehensive team with an
office in London, as well as a production office in LA. There must have been 30 to 40 of us
working together – a reasonably healthy size for a subsidiary of our scale.
Brave new world

Three Hollywood films had already been made by the time I joined the company. One of them
was The Boys in Company C (1978) directed by Sidney J. Furie. It was one of the first Vietnam
War-themed productions ever made – the movie was shot in the Philippines. The other two
features were The Amsterdam Kill (1978) starring Robert Mitchum and the Roger Vadim-directed
Night Games (1980), starring Cindy Pickett.
The LA office mainly oversaw production, and this was where Andre developed his
Hollywood film projects, such as The Cannonball Run (1981), Battle Creek Brawl (1980),
Megaforce (1982; released in Hong Kong in 1985) and High Road to China (1983; starring Tom
Selleck). We started off with an office on the Warner Hollywood Studio lot before moving to
another premise in Beverly Hills, right next to where The Peninsula stands today. The company
had a great network – for example, Andre was well-acquainted with the people at Fox and Mr
Chow was on very good terms with the people at Warners. We also had many professionals
from the US, such as lawyers and agents, working for us.
Golden Harvest had a long-standing relationship with Warners. Many of the company’s
early features, such as Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon (1973), were collaborations between the
two studios. The Boys in Company C and The Amsterdam Kill were distributed by Columbia;
AVCO Embassy was the domestic distributor for Night Games ; Fox for The Cannonball Run
and Warners for the sequel. However, it was Golden Harvest that made all the investments. We
did acquire the services of foreign financial institutions like banks for operational purposes, but
Golden Harvest remained the sole financier. As we were making many Hollywood features, the
CFO of Golden Communications was recruited from the US – Ron Dandrea, an ex-VP of Bank of
America and a film financing expert.
I believe Golden Harvest’s Hollywood film production was at its peak when The Cannonball
Run and its sequel were made. They were star-studded blockbusters which fared very well at
the box office. High Road to China , which came later, took a lot of time to come to fruition. The
staff was already working on the project when I joined the company and they continued to spend
a great deal of time on it. Quite a few big names were involved in pre-production, including
John Box, the award-winning production designer renowned for his work with David Lean. Still
the film took a long time to be completed. Things started to go downhill around the mid-1980s,
with Megaforce becoming particularly problematic. This sci-fi actioner cost a fortune to make,
but didn’t perform very well at the box office, hence Andre’s decision in downsizing subsequent
Hollywood productions. It wasn’t until 1990 that we hit another high with Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles .
Andre had already left Golden Harvest when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was developed
and the project was overseen by Thomas Gray who was transferred from London to head up
production in LA. Tom was recruited from United Artists and originally supervised our international
distribution operations in London. So despite not having a background in production, he was
able to head the project due to his experience in the industry. The first movie of the series didn’t
cost a lot to make, but did exceptionally well in the US market due to its novel concept. The
trilogy was quite successful as a whole. Tom spent a fair share of time in LA developing projects,
but the operational scope of the office changed constantly. There was a time when he even
focused on Chinese-language film distribution in North America, before moving on to something
else, all the while doing less and less production-related work. We eventually came to feel that
it was rather difficult to survive in the US market as a huge amount of capital was required to
sustain operations. We might have done quite well in Hong Kong and Asia, but taking on the
US was perhaps biting off more than we could chew. There was no way we could compete with
the American studios, and our prospects would look better if we injected that same amount of
capital into Asian operations – this was the reason why our core business gradually shifted away
from the US back to our home turf.
Mr Chow probably tried to emulate the mode of operations at Shaw Brothers to a certain
extent when he founded Golden Harvest as he had just left that studio. However, Golden
Harvest’s direction was greatly influenced by Bruce Lee’s sudden rise to worldwide fame. Mr
Chow, Mr Ho, as well as Mr Leung (Leung Fung), were visionaries – they realised that business
opportunities would be limited if the studio only focused on the Asian market, so expanding into
the US might have been the way forward. It’s also likely that they recognised the difficulty of
breaking into foreign markets with Chinese-language films given the extreme cultural differences.
Eventually they came to the conclusion that they should make Hollywood-style features. If these
movies could help put some Asian and Hong Kong actors on the international stage, that would
be the icing on the cake. The main objective was to gain a foothold in the US market and to
create a mini studio of our own. There was no way us young ones could have thought of doing
that when we joined the company, and in hindsight, I now see that it was a pretty bold move.
Looking at the current film companies in Hong Kong and Asia, I don’t think many of them
would ever have the courage or ambition to invest in such a venture. Today a film project in the
US could easily cost you US$100 or 200 million. The amount needed to play the game at the
time was more affordable, but the problem was sustainability. What happens after you finish
your first, second, or even third production? We wouldn’t have stood a chance against the major
studios which were making 10 to 20 movies a year, each backed with a sizeable budget. As a
matter of fact, Golden Communications was initially modelled after American film companies.
Senior positions were filled by foreign professionals and it was that way for a long, long time,
until they finally realised that it was impractical in the long run and decided to move the core
business back to Asia.
All about change

Apart from shooting Hollywood features, overseas distribution was Golden Communications’
another key area of business – this was what the majority of my work revolved around. In the
1970s, traditional Chinese-language film markets such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan
and Korea were handled directly by Golden Harvest, not Golden Communications. Golden
Harvest had long-term distribution partners in most of these territories. Mr Lee Woo-suk from
Dong-A Export was their sole distributor in Korea, for example; he distributed over 90 per cent of
their films. Mr Somsak Techaratanaprasert from the company now known as Sahamongkol was
the distributor in Thailand, while Cathay Organisation distributed almost all of Golden Harvest’s
early films in Singapore and Malaysia. In fact, many of Golden Harvest’s overseas distribution
offices were formerly owned by Cathay. Bruce Lee’s films were distributed worldwide through
Cathay’s London office. It wasn’t until around 1975 or 1976 that Golden Harvest took over that
office. As you can see, Golden Harvest was really quite a mature and full-fledged film studio –
no other Hong Kong film company, past or present, has ever reached the same capacity.
Japan was a really interesting case. Golden Harvest mainly worked there with Toho-Towa.
Mr Chow actually oversaw most of the business negotiations himself due to his close working
relationship with Toho-Towa, with us handling all the execution. He was already familiar with the
company and doing business with them since the Kawakita Nagamasa era. Japan had been a
major market for Hong Kong films since the 1970s, 80s and even during the early 90s. We spent
a lot of time developing our business there. Toho-Towa was perhaps our key strategic partner,
but Golden Harvest was on great terms with Toei and Fuji TV as well. Fuji TV was owned by the
Fujisankei Group, and one of its sister companies is Pony Canyon with whom we also worked
often. Back in those days, there was a small team dedicated to taking care of the business in
Japan. It was first headed by Mr Tai Chen-kuo, a Taiwanese gentleman fluent in Japanese – he
was an enormous help communicating with our Japanese clients. When Tai-san passed away,
his post was first taken up by Mr Lai Ho and later by Miss Myra Lau, both graduates of the Hosei
University.
Golden Communications’ London office, which was run by David Shepperd, took care of
international distribution with the exception of the aforementioned Asian territories. In 1979,
we enlisted the help of the renowned international sales specialist Howard Goldfarb who came
from Dino de Laurentiis. Later on, Thomas Gray from United Artists, whom I mentioned earlier,
also went to the London office to work with David, replacing Howard. Tom had extensive studio
experience and brought several people from United Artists with him, so we had a well-organised
and established team. We would always have a presence at events such as the Cannes Film
Festival, MIFED (Milan International Film Fair of Exhibitors and Distributors) and AFM (American
Film Market). Golden Harvest was one of the founding members of the AFM, so we were already
there at the very first convention held in 1981.
More than half of our income probably came from the traditional markets of Hong Kong,
Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and Korea. The first Golden Harvest film I handled
was Knockabout (1979), in which Yuen Biao landed his first leading role, followed by Itchy
Fingers (1979) directed by Leong Po-chih. The majority of Hong Kong films that were distributed
overseas were action movies. Selling art-house films and features like Patrick Tam’s The Sword
(1980), or John Woo’s Princess Chang Ping (1976), was extremely difficult. Distribution in itself
is something that costs money, so we would only market films that we considered commercially
viable. Apart from action movies, we also tried comedies. Michael Hui’s Mr Boo! series,
beginning with The Private Eyes (1976), is an excellent example. It went down very well with the
Japanese, but not so much when it came to the American and European markets. Incidentally,
Thomas Gray actually licensed from us its distribution rights for South America when he was still
working at United Artists, but it was never properly released. Whenever local humour and verbal
gags were involved, it was tough for foreign audiences to comprehend.
Golden Harvest’s action films were not easy to market in the US, but more manageable in
Europe, including the English-speaking territories, France and other French-speaking countries
such as those in Africa, Germany and the German-speaking Austria. Italy was in much better
shape back in those days, but the market is hardly accessible to Hong Kong films now. As for
the African continent, South Africa generated considerable demand back then, but not so much
so for East and West Africa. The Middle East was another market, but religious and political
issues often prevented us from distributing there. When I first joined the industry, Eastern Europe
was one of the toughest markets – it was basically impossible to break into when the Berlin Wall
was still standing.
We could have sold everything to one American studio if we had wanted an easy way
out. High Road to China was one such example – Warners wanted to distribute it in multiple
territories, so there was no need for us to go to each one and license it individually. We had
to do that sometimes for smaller productions – Latin America used to be such a case, but
not anymore. We now have to do a pan-Latin American deal. Brazil, where Portuguese is
spoken, was dealt with on its own. Spanish-speaking countries like Argentina, Paraguay and
Uruguay were handled as a collective; Peru and Bolivia were another, while Chile was managed
individually. The British West Indies were treated as a group, whereas Venezuela, Ecuador and
Columbia were taken care of as separate entities.
By the time I left Golden Harvest in 2000, the market had changed immensely. During
my early years, for example, 8mm rights were always included in any deal we concluded for
South Africa, but 8mm and 16mm reels no longer existed in the new millennium. There were
neither home video nor so many different types of television formats when I first started out.
For example, if we licensed a film to Toho-Towa in Japan, they would only be entitled to screen
it theatrically in cinemas. We would separately work with other companies for home video
distribution and television broadcasting. Nowadays, everything is rolled into one and we can only
make an all-rights deal with one distributor. The territorial makeup, on the other hand, remains
relatively unchanged.
Not every Jackie Chan film can go global, after all. He joined Golden Harvest in 1979 and
made his debut with The Young Master (1980). We all thought it would do well in the traditional
markets, but the pace of the film might not have suited foreign audiences – especially the
last fight scene with Hwang In-shik, which was extremely long. Consequently, we brought an
American editor on board to make another cut in order to cater to overseas markets. I think
it was Frank J. Urioste who had previously worked with us on The Boys in Company C . Did
that new cut help box-office abroad? Well, the film was quite widely sold but we’ll never know
for sure… Looking back, however, Jackie Chan’s action films were definitely better received
overseas than works like Itchy Fingers and John Woo’s The Pilferers’ Progress (1977). Jackie
Chan’s films were popular with certain international markets, such as France, very early on. I
remember Battle Creek Brawl getting a wide release there (through UGC) and Jackie going over
to promote it.
Jackie Chan is of course tremendously successful. Technically speaking, however, it
wasn’t until Rumble in the Bronx (1995) that his Hong Kong-produced films really managed to
break into the American mainstream market. This feature was distributed by New Line, making
it a nationwide release as opposed to just screenings in the Chinatowns of different cities.
First Strike (1996) followed in its footsteps, but that’s where it stalled. We had several more
productions that made the cut, but they weren’t as successful in the mainstream market as their
two predecessors.
When it comes to action films, those we managed to license internationally would stand
a good chance to make some profit because most of the costs had already been recovered
through the principal traditional markets, i.e. the Southeast Asian territories.
The 1980s were the most exciting of times when the industry flourished. New forms of
media began to emerge and opportunities were always on the horizon. Of course, sometimes
they would conflict with existing business pursuits. For example, when home video became very
popular, theatrical income suffered a setback. Similarly, the emergence of new television formats
had an adverse effect on the home video market. In short, the balance is constantly shifting.
A way of letting go
At some point around 1993 or 1994, Golden Harvest was faced with a major change. The
company was planning to go public and a part of its film library was to be sold off. I became
one of the company’s executive directors after it was listed. And yet, several functional units,
production being among them, stayed private – this is where I continued to assist Mr Chow and
Mr Ho. At Golden Harvest (HK) Limited, the part of the company which remained private, I was
General Manager.
To me, the decision to keep the production unit private was totally understandable. High
stakes are involved when production is concerned, so it’s always a big gamble. First of all, the
rollout of every film can have negative impacts on a company’s overall financial position, making
it unattractive in the capital market. Secondly, if this part of the organisation was to go public,
a lot of time and effort would have been needed in order to explain everything clearly to fund
managers and stakeholders at every meeting – it would be a very trying task to justify why a
certain amount of money is required to hire a specific actor to star in a particular movie. People
in the capital market don’t see things your way when you’re running a public company.
I recall life being particularly hectic, especially for my colleagues on the Board, in the
early days after the company went public as nobody had much experience working in a listed
company. We had to comply with countless regulations and it was very stressful for everybody,
even more so for Mr Chow. Village Roadshow, which is renowned for operating cinemas in
Australia and Asia, was one of our biggest stakeholders. We used to have business dealings
together in Singapore, Thailand and Korea, and subsequently, they invested in us when we went
public. However, due to differences in our respective professional and cultural backgrounds,
conflicts often arose. Mr Chow had to explain his decisions every day, which must have used
up a great deal of his time and energy, causing him a lot of grief. In the past, things could often
be done after a small chat with Mr Ho in the office opposite his own. Now with this new public
vehicle, things became a lot more complicated. The division of labour before was explicit –
Mr Ho was in charge of most production-related matters, while Mr Choi (Peter Choi) also took
care of some. So one thing that troubled Mr Chow the most when Mr Ho passed away in 1998
was how to fill the void left by his capable long-time partner. Jackie Chan was a case in point –
Mr Ho had always dealt with him, so what was to be done now that he was gone? I think Mr
Ho’s untimely departure had a huge impact on Mr Chow’s overall planning. Yes, he did bring in
Stephen Chu and other colleagues to take care of the production side of things at some stage,
but there was no way that Mr Ho’s presence at the company could be replaced. Everything
related to Mr Ho’s passing had a profound effect on Mr Chow.
Things started going downhill for Hong Kong cinema in the early 1990s. Many new
companies started emerging, each wanting a piece of the pie. Unfortunately, many didn’t
necessarily share the common goal, so it was a bit of a mess. I also felt that Hong Kong’s
resources, in terms of both on-screen and off-screen talent, were rather limited. This is evident
when you see that today’s most celebrated and sought-after stars are still actors like Andy Lau,
Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung Chiu-wai who have been around for a long, long
time.
Looking back, Golden Harvest went from its humble beginnings to become an ambitious
organisation hoping to take on the global market after the emergence of Bruce Lee. The studio
began making English-language productions in the late 1970s for more than a decade, until
the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series was released in the early 1990s. That was a period
of experimentation in the company’s history. Afterwards, the core business was shifted back
to Asia. In the mid-1990s, Mr Chow and Mr Ho decided that part of their business should
go public. This could be viewed from different angles – one was that we needed to acquire
additional capital to create something new, and another was that it might have been a way for
our bosses to start planning their exit. As Mr Ho and Mr Chow were getting old, they must have
thought about stepping down at some stage. Their children weren’t necessarily interested in
inheriting the business, so they might have felt that having the company listed was one way out.
This move was perhaps also a sign of letting go.
153
Appendices
154
The Golden Harvest Chronology

Translated by Diane To
Date Golden Harvest Story Hong Kong Cinema Story
1970.5.8 Golden Harvest (HK)

Limited is incorporated.
1970.7.16 Raymond Chow and Leonard

Ho Koon-cheung hold press conference
to announce the founding of Golden Harvest.
1971.1.22 First production The Invincible Eight

debuts at ten cinemas, box-office
reaching HK$920,000.
1971.1.30 Raymond Chow receives subpeona from

Shaw Brothers about copyright
infringement of Zatoichi and the
One-Armed Swordsman .
1971.2.3 Premiere of Super Boxer , the last
Cantonese-speaking film for the
next 1.5 years.
1971.2.5 Second production Zatoichi and the

One-Armed Swordsman opens,
grossing HK$1.55 million.
1971.2.9 Cooperation agreement with Cathay

Organisation is announced; productions
to be distributed by Cathay in Singapore,
Malaysia and Borneo.
1971.3.26 Colour film developer Cine Art Laboratory
Limited is incorporated.
1971.5.7 Zatoichi copyright case goes to court,

jury rules in favour of Golden Harvest.
1971.10.1 Cathay Organisation hands Yung Hwa

Motion Picture Studios to Golden Harvest.
1971.10.31 Bruce Lee's vehicle The Big Boss makes

HK$3.19 million at the box office and
breaks Hong Kong's Chinese- and
foreign-language film records.
1972.3.22 Fist of Fury reaches HK$4.43 million,

breaking record set by The Big Boss.
1972.4.1 First issue of official publication

Golden Movie News .
1972.4.29 High Court rules in favour of Shaw
Brothers in its appeal of the
Zatoichi copyright case.
1972.10.12 Angela Mao Ying's signature
film Hap Ki Do opens.
1972.12.30 Golden Harvest cinema chain launches;

its debut film The Way of the Dragon sets
a new box-office record of HK$5.3 million.
1973.1.23 Revokes voluntarily its appeal to the High

Court over the Zatoichi case, the Privy
Council accepts and the case closes.
1973.7.20 Bruce Lee passes away.
1973.9.22 Shaw Brothers' Cantonese film

The House of 72 Tenants breaks
box-office records held by Bruce Lee,
grossing HK$5.62 million.
1973.10.18 The collaboration with Warner Bros,

Enter the Dragon , debuts in Hong Kong,
later screened all over the US.
1974.1.19 Chang Cheh forms Chang's Film Co;

its debut production is Heroes Two .
1974.10.17 Hui Brothers film Games Gamblers Play

rakes in a record-setting HK$6.25 million.
1975.1.1 The Bedevilled , Lo Wei's last film directed

for Golden Harvest, opens.
1975.3.15 Theatrical release of The Dragon Tamers
by John Woo, Golden Harvest's first
in-studio director.
1975.3.18 Announces takeover of Panasia Films,

a foreign-language motion picture distributor.
1976.10.3 First Hollywood-style film project

The Amsterdam Kill goes into production
in the Netherlands.
1976.12.16 Premiere of The Private Eyes by the

Hui Brothers; HK$8.53 million sets
another box-office record.
1977.1.22 Golden Harvest Cinema in Jordan opens,

premiering Li Hsing's Painted Waves of Love .
1977.2.28 First of a four-day Golden Harvest global

business operations meeting. Decision made
to increase production of English-language films.
1977.8.25 Premiere of Sammo Hung's directorial debut

The Iron-Fisted Monk , kickstarting
a new wave of kung fu comedies.
1977.12.26 Global premiere of The Amsterdam Kill ,

Golden Harvest's first Hollywood film, in Denmark.
1978.1.1 Collaboration with cinemas run by

Shaw & Sons begins; the original
Golden Harvest cinema chain is renamed Jiale.
1978.3.1 Seasonal Film Corporation's Snake in

the Eagle's Shadow grosses HK$2.7
million, catapulting leading man
Jackie Chan into superstardom.
1978.3.23 The Game of Death opens, along with

the four-block logo that is continued in
other films and becomes iconic of Golden Harvest.
1978.5.7 Peter Choi is promoted as one of the

Directors of Golden Harvest and
Jiaxing Film Company.
1978.8.22 Commercial Television closes down.
1978.12.14 Theatrical release of Yim Ho's The

Extras , the pioneering work which
ushers in the Hong Kong New Wave.
1978 Construction begins for a permanent ancient

period street set in Golden Studios at
the end of the year, completed around April 1979.
1979.1.4 Led by Royal Theatre, Golden

Princess cinema chain is formed;
debut film is Shaolin Ex-Monk .
1980.2.9 Jackie Chan's first film with Golden Harvest

The Young Master opens, setting a new
box-office record of HK$10.26 million.
1980.8.19 Raymond Chow is voted 'International Showman

of the Year' by the National Association of Theater
Owners of the United States. Chow receives his
award in the US on 22 October.
1980.9.23 Production house

Cinema City starts work.
1981.1.30 Michael Hui's Security Unlimited breaks box-office

records, grossing HK$17.76 million.
1981.6.19 The Cannonball Run debuts in the US with

excellent reception, becoming 1981's fourth
top-grossing film in the US.
1982.1.16 Cinema City's Aces Go Places breaks

box-office records, making
HK$26.04 million.
1982.3.9 First Hong Kong Film Awards is held;

Father and Son (1981) directed by
Allen Fong wins Best Picture.
1982.8.10 Li Han-hsiang's The Burning of the

Imperial Palace (1983) and Reign
Behind a Curtain (1983) begin
shooting in Mainland China.
1983.7.7 Premiere of the Sammo Hung-directed

Winners & Sinners , which grosses HK$21.99
million and becomes Golden Harvest's first film
to hit the $20 million mark.
1984.1.15 Signs cooperation agreement with Mitsubishi

Motors, which provides Golden Harvest with
vehicles for filming for two years.
1984.8.17 Johnny Mak and Raymond Chow co-found

Genesis Films Limited and have it registered.
1984.10.17 Announces an agreement with the

newly-established Top Top Productions,
which will become a satellite company of
Golden Harvest, with debut film being
Affectionately Yours (1985).
1985.1.1 Forms a Taipei cinema chain with
Taipei Theatre to distribute
Golden Harvest films in Taiwan.
1985.2.9 My Lucky Stars , sequel to Winners & Sinners

opens, earning HK$30.74 million to see
Golden Harvest regain top spot in
box-office records.
1985.9.30 Announces film production in Taiwan,

first project being The Yesman (1986)
directed by Fu Li.
1985.11.7 Satellite company Bo Ho releases Mr Vampire ,

grossing HK$20.09 million and starting
a vampire film craze.
1985.11.22 Anthony Chow becomes Managing Director of

Golden Harvest (HK) Limited; Peter Choi
becomes Deputy Managing Director.
1985.11.25 Last screening of Let's Have a Baby

directed by Chor Yuen, marking the
end of Shaw's cinema chain and film
production operations.
1985.11.30 D & B cinema chain comes into

existence, debut film being Yes,
Madam .
1986.1.18 A B-cinema chain led by M2 Theatre is formed;
its founding movie is the English-language
film Volunteers .
1986.8.2 John Woo's A Better Tomorrow opens,

reaching a record-breaking HK$34.65
million in box-office sales.
1987.1.22 Armour of God directed by and starring

Jackie Chan opens and breaks box-office record.
1987.5.2 Leung Fung, one of Golden Harvest's

founders, dies of illness in Canada.
1987.12.19 Collaborates with Virgin Group to introduce

home video into Hong Kong, launching
eight films in the first round.
1988.2.20 Screening of Love Soldier of Fortune ,

which becomes the first bomb of
Newport, Hong Kong's fourth cinema
chain.
1988.3.26 The Wing-scope Company, whose films had

been distributed by Golden Harvest, announces
to self-distribute their films starting from
The Haunted Copshop II .
1988.5.23 Establishment of talent management agency
Panasia Films Production is announced, with
actresses Kara Wai, Tiffany Lau, et al
under its banner.
1988.7.14 Michael Hui presents Chicken and

Duck Talk in the Newport cinema
chain.
1988.10.19 Sammo Hung leaves Golden Harvest

and produces Spooky, Spooky under
Bojon Films. The film is screened in
Newport chain.
1988.11.10 The Film Censorship Ordinance and

the Three-Category film classification
system are put in place.
1989.2.2 Gains Hong Kong and Macau distribution rights

of United International Pictures; first film
screened is Midnight Run .
1990.3.30 Golden Harvest-invested Hollywood film

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles opens in the
US, grossing US$135.27 million, placing fifth in
US box-office sales of the year.
1990.8.18 Theatrical release of the Stephen Chow-starring

All for the Winner , co-produced with Seasonal
Film Corporation, setting a new box-office
record of HK$41.32 million.
1991.4.5 To Be Number One , produced by Johnny Mak

Productions for Golden Harvest, comes to
theatres and makes HK$38.7 million,
triggering a new wave of gangster movies.
1991.8.15 Theatrical release of the Golden Harvest-backed

Once Upon a Time in China produced by
Tsui Hark's Film Workshop. Box office reaches
HK$29.67 million; a Wong Fei-hung film
fever begins.
1991.11.30 Regal Films takes over D & B's theatre

operations, first film screened being
The Banquet .
1992.1.9 Gun-wielding thugs seize the film
negatives of All's Well Ends Well
(1992).
1992.1.15 The film industry kicks up a 'Show

Business Against Violence' rally to
protest against the All's Well Ends
Well case .
1992.4.16 Jim Choi, Director of Fu Ngai Film
Productions, is killed at a gunshot.
1992.5.13 South Korea imposes strict control over

the importation of Hong Kong films.
1993.1.1 The Mandarin circuit opens as Hong

Kong's fifth cinema chain; debut film
is Farewell to My Concubine .
Golden Princess cinema chain closes

and is restructured into Empire chain.
Hong Kong cinema reaches its peak

with a record HK$1.24 billion in total
box office. It drops continually after
this; in 1999, box-office sales totals
$345.71 million.
1993.7.29 Hollywood film Jurassic Park opens

and sets a new box-office record at
HK$61.98 million.
1993 Sells part of its film library to STAR TV.
1994.11.23 First day of Golden Harvest Entertainment

(Holdings) Limited as a listed company.
1995.1 Rumble in the Bronx is exhibited in Mainland

China under a box-office sales-sharing deal.
It is the second among the ten foreign films
that are distributed that year under the new policy.
1995.10.5 Collaborates with Centro Digital Pictures in

making Hong Kong's first CGI film,
The Umbrella Story .
1996.2.23 Jackie Chan's Rumble in the Bronx opens
in the US, grossing a total revenue of
US$32.33 million.
1997.3.5 Government announces to take back

Golden Studios plot on Hammer Hill Road to
build subsidised housing.
1997.4.21 Establishment of the Golden Harvest

China Film Fund in Singapore to invest in
Chinese-language filmmaking.
1997.12.18 Hollywood film Titanic opens, setting a

new box-office record of over HK$100
million in sales.
1998.2.16 Leonard Ho Koon-cheung, one of

Golden Harvest's founders, passes away.
1998.7.18 Theatrical release of Golden Harvest-invested

CGI wuxia film, The Stormriders , which later
tops the year's box office with HK$41.53 million.
1998.8.12 Golden Harvest Entertainment loses to a

Shaw group in its bid for the new
Tseung Kwan O film studio.
1998.9.30 Reveals decision to give up the

production studio on
Hammer Hill Road in October.
1998 Sells 172 titles from its film library to

Warner Bros.
2003.1.23 Theatrical release of the last film,

My Lucky Star .
2006.10.18 Golden Harvest Entertainment announces
the HK$22.6 million purchase of 39 films
from majority shareholder Raymond Chow and others.
2007.10.31 Orange Sky Entertainment Group purchases

all of Raymond Chow's shares in Golden
Harvest Entertainment for HK$202 million.
Profiles 161
Profiles
Writers: Po Fung, Tsang Siu-wang, Yang Meiyuan, Rachel Tam & Nicky Lam
Editors: Lau Yam & Nicky Lam
Translators: Hofan Chau, Vivian Leong & Vinci To
David CHAN
Executive Producer/Production Manager
Chan’s interest in film began with his involvement in the University
Life Cine Club in 1967, and he went on to work as a script holder
at the Cathay Organisation. Later, Chan went abroad to study Fine
Arts at Saint John’s University in Minnesota, USA, and a Masters in
Film at The University of Kansas in 1973.
On completion of his degree in 1975, Chan returned to Hong
Kong to work at Golden Harvest. He assisted Raymond Chow in the
creation of the company’s subsidiary, Golden Communications, and
was involved in the production of Hollywood features for Golden
Harvest, for example, The Boys in Company C (1978) and Death
Hunt (1981). Subsequently, Chan was promoted to Vice-President
of Golden Communications. He also directed and edited the
documentary Missiles over Falklands (1982); and later, was involved
in the planning for Jackie Chan’s American venture The Protector
(1985), as well as the high-budget Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
(1990).
When Golden Harvest ceased its production of Hollywood films,
Chan returned to Hong Kong to produce Downtown Torpedoes
Profiles 162
(1997), Enter the Eagles (1998), Summer Holiday (2000) and My

Lucky Star (2003), etc. By the time Chan left the company in 2008,
he had served Golden Harvest Entertainment Company in capacities
such as Chief Operating Officer, Deputy Chief Executive Officer
and Executive Director. Chan currently works at Media Asia Films
Limited.
Jackie CHAN (1954.4.7– )

Actor/Director/Screenwriter/Executive Producer
Born in Hong Kong as a native of Qingdao, Shandong, Jackie Chan
was given the birth name of Chan Kong-sang. He entered the Hong
Kong–China Opera Institute run by Yu Zhanyuan at age seven to
learn Beijing opera and kung fu. His stage name was Yuen Lau and
he became part of the ‘Seven Little Fortunes’, a performance group
of the school, along with Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. He made his
first foray into acting with the film Seven Little Valiant Fighters (1962).
As he entered adulthood, he worked as an actor and martial arts
director under the stage name Chan Yuen-lung in Golden Harvest’s
films, such as All in the Family (1975) and Hand of Death (1976).
Afterwards he took a break from the film industr y and went to
Australia. In 1976 he signed a contract with Lo Wei’s company and
changed his stage name to Jackie Chan (Sing Lung, which literally
means ‘becoming a dragon’). He then starred in kung fu films
such as New Fist of Fury (1976), Shaolin Wooden Men (1976) and
Spiritual Kung Fu (1978). He rose to worldwide fame with kung fu
comedies Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow (1978) and Drunken Master
(1978), both directed by Yuen Woo-ping and shot when Chan was
loaned to Seasonal Film Corporation.
In 1979, upon completion of his self-directed and self-starring
The Fearless Hyena , he began working for Golden Harvest and
beat Hong Kong’s box-office records with his first work The Young
Master (1980), which earned over HK$10 million. His performance
in Battle Creek Brawl (1980), an American film produced by Golden
Har vest, made a good impression on overseas audience. W ith
the scene of jumping off a clock tower, his following work Project
A (1983) established his acting style as dangerous and exciting.
Profiles 163
Police Story (1985) is another showcase of dangerous stunts. Its

box-office earnings exceeded HK$20 million and it was named
the Best Film at the Hong Kong Film Awards that year. Other major
works he directed and starred in include Armour of God (1987),
Project A II (1987), Police Story Part II (1988), Miracles (1989) and
Who am I? (1998, co-directed). Acting credits include Wheels on
Meals (1984), Heart of Dragon (1985), The Twin Dragons (1992),
Crime Story (1993), Rumble in the Bronx (1995), Thunderbolt (1995),
Mr Nice Guy (1997), Gorgeous (1999) and The Accidental Spy
(2001), etc.
For a very long time Chan was hailed as the highest-selling
actor in Hong Kong. Movies starring Chan have repeatedly broken
Hong Kong’s box-office records; and his popularity has extended to
Japan. His Rumble in the Bronx was released nationwide in the US
in 1996, grossing over US$30 million. Following this success, he
ventured to Hollywood and starred in a number of American films,
among them the Rush Hour series (1998–2007) was most well-
received.
Chan founded Authority Films, a Golden Har vest subsidiar y
which was later restructured as Golden Way. Apart from works that
featured Chan, the company also produced many movies for Golden
Harvest, including Rouge (1988), The Inspector Wears Skirts (1988),
I am Sorry (1989) and Center Stage (1992).
In 1998, Chan resigned from the position of non-executive
director of the Golden Harvest Entertainment Company, then a listed
enterprise, and later became an executive producer at Media Asia.
In 2004 he joined hands with Emperor Movie Group to found JCE
Movies Limited, and subsequently produced, directed and starred in
many films under this banner. Most recently, he directed and starred
in CZ12 (2012).
Profiles 164
CHAN King-sam (1933– )

Set Designer
A native of Xinhui, Guangdong and born in Hong Kong. Son of the
famous film set designer, Chan Ki-yui. He joined his father to work
at film studios at a young age, and became his father’s assistant
upon graduation from secondar y school. He started off doing
sketches for sets. The first film he earned the credit of Set Designer
was Wild Flowers are Sweeter (1950) directed by Hung Suk-wan.
During the 1950s and 60s, Chan worked independently on
Cantonese productions for various film companies, such as Union,
Kong Ngee, Lan Kwong and Hong Kong Films. He joined Shaw
Brothers in 1963 as Set and Production Designer, and was later
promoted to Head of Set and Art Department as well as the studio
chief.
Since Golden Harvest came into being in 1970, Chan began
to work for Golden Harvest under such pseudonyms as Chin Sum
and Chin Sun until the early 1980s. His major credits include The
Invincible Eight (1971), The Big Boss (1971), The Way of the Dragon
(1972), Enter the Dragon (1973), Games Gamblers Play (1974),
All in the Family (1975), The Private Eyes (1976), The Prodigal Son
(1981) and Project A (1983), among many others. He also designed
the set for Tsui Hark’s Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983)
uncredited.
Over the decades, the number of films he had designed for
exceeds 500, ranging from Mandarin, Cantonese to Chaozhou-
dialect productions. He won five Golden Horse Best Art Direction
Awards for The Empress Dowager (1975), The Adventures of
Emperor Chien Lung (1977), The Dream of the Red Chamber
(1977), The Tiger and the Widow (1981), and An Amorous Woman
of Tang Dynasty (1984). He has continued to act as a consultant for
Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) since his retirement from Shaw
Brothers in the mid-1980s.
Profiles 165
CHEUNG Yiu-chung (1946– )

Film Editor
Born in Shanghai, at the age of six Cheung moved with his family
to Hong Kong, where he completed his secondary education at the
Dong Fang Middle School. In 1963, he joined the Motion Picture
and General Investment Co Ltd (MP & GI), where he learned the
skills of film editing from Wang Zhaoxi. In 1971 when Golden
Harvest took over the film studio of MP & GI (by then renamed as
Cathay), Cheung stayed and was put in charge of the editing studio.
From then on he was credited for the editing of the films produced
by Golden Harvest, and shouldered the responsibility for editing
most of the company’s products, including those by Bruce Lee,
Sammo Hung, Michael Hui and Jackie Chan.
Cheung first won the Golden Horse Award for Best Editing for
Fist of Fury in 1972, and subsequently received the honour for
four consecutive times for The Way of the Dragon (1972), The Man
from Hong Kong (1975) and The Himalayan (1976). In total, he has
received the award for nine times. On top of this, Cheung won his
first Hong Kong Film Award for Best Editing for Long Arm of the
Law (1984), which was followed by three more award statuettes for
Rouge (1988), Crime Story (1993) and Big Bullet (1996). He also
received multiple Best Editing nominations, including for Duel to the
Death (1983), Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983), Hong
Kong 1941 (1984), Police Story (1985), Mr Vampire (1985), Witch
from Nepal (1986), Project A II (1987), Miracles (1989) and Rumble
in the Bronx (1995). Cheung left Golden Harvest at the end of the
1990s. Throughout a career that spanned nearly four decades, he
has edited more than 200 films.
Profiles 166
Wellson CHIN
Director/Executive Producer
Wellson Chin (born Chin Tsz-Leung) entered the film industry in
1978 as a script holder on Warriors Two . Later, he worked on
Sammo Hung’s films in the same capacity under the name of Chin
Leung. His first work as an assistant director was The Magnificent
Butcher (1979), and thereafter he followed Hung around, primarily
working for Hung’s Bo Ho Films. In 1986 he directed his first film,
Naughty Boys , under the name of Wellson Chin. The production
company that released this film was Jackie Chan’s Golden Way, a
satellite company of Golden Harvest.
In 1988 he shot The Inspector Wears Skirts , a comedy with
a strong female ensemble. The film achieved success at the box
office, and Chin went on to shoot the sequels The Inspector Wears
Skirts Part II (1989) and The Inspector Wears Skirts Part IV (1992) [Ed:
Part III not a Golden Harvest production] . In 1992 he and screenwriter Abe
Kwong started another satellite company of Golden Harvest called
PU Productions, which produced Thou Shalt Not Swear (1993) and
The Third Full Moon (1994). These films launched a trend of low-
budget horror movies, and helped establish the iconic psychic
role, ‘Granny Dragon’, for Helen Law Lan. In recent years Chin has
served as executive director for Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle
(2004) and CJ7 (2008).
Peter CHOI
Distributor/Cinema Chain Manager
Also known as Choi Tuk-sang, Peter Choi followed Raymond Chow
to join Shaw Brothers. In 1970, when Chow left Shaw Brothers
to form Golden Harvest, Choi followed him to head the publicity
department. Later, he was put in charge of Golden Harvest’s cinema
chain in Hong Kong and the distribution of its films; as well as the
distribution of foreign-language movies by Panasia Films.
Profiles 167
In 1979, Choi was promoted as one of the Directors of the

Golden Har vest (HK) Limited and the Jiaxing Film Company. In
1985, he was further promoted to Deputy General Manager of the
Board. When the Golden Harvest Entertainment (Holdings) Limited
became listed in 1994, Choi was one of the members of the Board.
Anthony CHOW (1933.2.3– )

Executive Producer
A native of Dabu County in Guangdong and Raymond Chow’s
younger brother, Anthony Chow was originally a teacher before
entering the film industry in the early 1980s. His first work as an
executive producer was Home at Hong Kong (1983), which was
directed by King Hoi-lam.
In 1985, Chow became the Managing Director of Golden
Harvest. From the mid-1980s to the 90s, he produced dozens
of films for Golden Harvest and its subsidiaries, such as Friend
C h e e r s , B o H o a n d G o l d e n W a y. A m o n g s u c h e f f o r t s w e r e
Affectionately Yours (1985), W itch from Nepal (1986), To Err is
Humane (1987), I am Sorry (1989), The Yuppie Fantasia (1989),
Farewell China (1990), Kawashima Yoshiko (1990), Zodiac Killers
(1991), Mary from Beijing (1992), Young and Dangerous 3 (1996),
Big Bullet (1996) and Too Many Ways to be No 1 (1997). He also
produced Taiwan films that Golden Harvest financed, including The
Yesman (1986), The Scalper (1986) and Osmanthus Alley (1988).
In 1988, Chow presided over Panasia Films Production, Golden
Harvest’s talent management firm until it disbanded in 1998. Under
this company were actors such as Kara Wai, Loletta Lee, Tiffany
Lau, Lau Ching-wan and Alex Fong. Chow once served as Vice-
Chairman of the Golden Harvest Entertainment (Holdings) Limited.
He emigrated to San Francisco, USA after retirement.
Profiles 168
Raymond CHOW (1927– )

Executive Producer
B o r n C h o w Ti n g - y a m i n H o n g K o n g , R a y m o n d C h o w ’s f a m i l y
originally came from Dabu County, Guangdong. Chow went to
study in Shanghai at the age of 13, and graduated from St John’s
University with a degree of Journalism. He returned to Hong Kong
in 1949 to work for Hongkong Tiger Standard as a proofreader and
political reporter. In 1951 he helped to manage Voice of America , a
radio programme under the United States Information Service (USIS).
In 1958, under the recommendation of Woo Kya-tang, Hongkong
Tiger Standard ’s Editor-in-Chief, Chow joined Shaw Brothers as
Publicity Manager. He was promoted to Deputy General Manager
and Production Manager in 1968, and became Run Run Shaw’s
right-hand man.
In the 1970s, Chow left Shaw Brothers with colleagues Leonard
Ho Koon-cheung and Leung Fung to found his own company,
Golden Harvest, where he presided as Managing Director. In 1972
Golden Harvest moved into the Yung Hwa Motion Picture Studios
formerly run by the Cathay Organisation; and established separate
departments for administration, production and distribution. Aside
from self-financed projects, the studio also supported independent
productions in both Taiwan and Hong Kong; and the works would
be distributed by Golden Harvest. Chow also put in place a bonus
system for directors and actors, thus changing the model of film
production in Hong Kong.
In the 1970s Chow invited Bruce Lee, who had returned to
Hong Kong from America, to star in The Big Boss (1971) and
Fist of Fury (1972), etc. The films broke all box-office records,
a n d e s t a b l i s h e d G o l d e n H a r v e s t ’s p l a c e i n t h e f i l m i n d u s t r y.
Subsequently, Golden Harvest entered into collaboration with the
American company Warner Bros to shoot Enter the Drago n (1973).
In 1975 Chow established a production branch in Hollywood, and
produced English-language films such as The Amsterdam Kill (1978),
Battle Creek Brawl (1980) and The Cannonball Run (1981). In 1980
he was honoured as the ‘International Showman of the Year’ by the
National Association of Theater Owners of the United States. He
Profiles 169
later financed the special effects kung fu film Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles (1990) which became a global box-office success.
Over his career from the 1970s to the turn of the millennium,
Chow served as Executive Producer for hundreds of movies. Many
were landmark works by major Hong Kong and Taiwan directors
and actors, including Bruce Lee, Michael Hui, Sammo Hung, Jackie
Chan, et al. From the 1980s onwards, Golden Harvest branched
out from film production into distribution, film development, cinema
circuits and video retailing around the world. In November 1994, the
Golden Harvest Entertainment Company Limited became listed on
the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In 1999, the film production branch
of Golden Har vest was moved under the corporation’s Golden
Har vest China Film Fund, and Chow became the corporation’s
chairperson and head of the Fund. In 2007, Chow sold Golden
Harvest to Orange Sky Entertainment Group. He stepped down as
the chairman and announced his retirement.
CHUA Lam (1941.8.8– )

Executive Producer
A native of Chaozhou and born in Singapore. His father Chua Boon
Hean assisted Shaw Brothers in the distribution and promotion of
its films in Singapore. At the age of 18, Chua Lam studied at the
Department of Fine Arts, Nihon University. He supported himself
by working as the manager of Shaws’ Japan office as well as the
company’s translator.
In 1963, he moved to Hong Kong and started working at
Shaws as Production Manager. He left Shaws in 1982 and became
General Manager of the Century Motion Pictures, conceiving the
iconic film Nomad (1982). He joined Golden Harvest after Century
closed down, taking up the post of Vice-President of the Production
Department and chiefly assisting Leonard Ho Koon-cheung.
During the 1980s and 90s, he produced several dozens of
movies, many of which starring Jackie Chan, such as Wheels on
Profiles 170
Meals (1984), Heart of Dragon (1985), Armour of God (1987), Crime

Story (1993), Thunderbolt (1995) and Mr Nice Guy (1996). He also
produced Cherry Blossoms (1988), Peacock King (1989), Erotic
Ghost Story (1990), Au Revoir, Mon Amour (1991) and The Christ
of Nanjing (1995), among others. He was one of the key figures
in Golden Harvest’s collaborations with film companies in Japan.
In 1989, he co-hosted Celebrity Talk Show with James Wong and
Ni Kuang on Asia Television Limited (ATV). The talk show was an
instant hit, and ever since he has remained active as a television
presenter. Chua is also a popular columnist and writer. His works
have been published in more than 100 titles to date.
CHUNG Chang-hwa (1928.11.1– )

Director
Korean by birth, Chung graduated from the Seoul Music
Conservatory. His first film as a director, Final Temptation (1953),
was shot at the age of 22. In his native country he directed over
30 films, including Horizon (1961), for which he was recognised
with a Best Director award in Korea. In 1958, he directed Watching
Hometown , a Korean–Hong Kong collaboration. This collaborative
relationship continued in films such as Deep in My Heart (1967).
In 1968 he was officially invited by Shaw Brothers to Hong Kong
to direct films such as Temptress of a Thousand Faces (1969) and
Valley of Fangs (1970), which made him particularly well-known for
the innovative treatment of his action sequences. His action flick
Five Fingers of Death (1972) was Shaws’ first kung fu foray into the
Euro–American market, and was ranked Number Three in Variety ’s
top ten grossing movies of the week across the US.
In 1973, he left Shaw Brothers to join the newly-fledged Golden
Harvest and directed five films within the span of five years, namely,
The Devil’s Treasure (1973), The Skyhawk (1974), The Association
(1975), The Double Crossers (1976) and Broken Oath (1977). In the
Profiles 171
early days of Golden Harvest, Chung was among the company’s

most prolific directors, only second to Lo Wei and Huang Feng.
He specialised in action films, and despite moving from ready-
built studio sets he was used to at Shaws to outside locations set
abroad, he was able to maintain the standard in his productions.
In 1977, Chung returned to Korea, where he founded a company,
became a producer and gave up directing. Broken Oath was
therefore his final film as a director. He emigrated to California, USA
with his family upon retirement and has been living there since. In
2012, he received the Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award at the
New York Asian Film Festival.
Robert CLOUSE (1928.3.6–1997.2.4)

Director
Born in Wisconsin, USA. In the early 1960s he began to make short
films and his first two works, The Cadillac (1962) and The Legend
of Jimmy Blue Eyes (1964) were both nominated for Best Live
Action Short Film at the Oscars. In 1970 he made his first full-length
feature, Darker Than Amber . Under Golden Harvest’s collaborative
venture with Warner Bros, Clouse was invited to Hong Kong to
direct Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon (1973). The film was a huge
success, and he was subsequently invited by Golden Harvest to
make more films.
Later, Golden Harvest invested in its first foreign-language film,
The Amsterdam Kill which was screened in Hong Kong in 1978. The
film was directed and written by Clouse. In the same year, he was
also asked to help complete Bruce Lee’s posthumous work, The
Game of Death (1978). In 1980, he served as the writer-director for
the Golden Harvest-funded Battle Creek Brawl , with which Jackie
Chan made his mark overseas. Other works Clouse directed under
the Golden Harvest banner include The Rats (1982), China O’Brien
(1990) and its sequel starring Cynthia Rothrock. His last film was
Ironheart (1992).
Clouse was the author of Bruce Lee: The Biography . He died of
renal failure in Oregon, USA on 4 February 1997.
Profiles 172
Leonard HO Koon-cheung (1925–98)

Executive Producer
One of the founders of Golden Harvest. Born in Hong Kong as
a native of Guangdong, Ho graduated from the Department of
Journalism, Fudan University, Shanghai. In the 1950s, he worked
at Hong Kong Times as the Head of News. In 1958 Raymond
Chow became the Publicity Manager at Shaw Brothers and, at his
invitation, Ho joined the company and became his long-time deputy.
In 1970, Ho left Shaws with Raymond Chow and Leung Fung to co-
found Golden Harvest and together, they formed the company’s
Board of Directors. Under his management, film production at
Golden Harvest went from strength to strength. In 1974, he
engaged John Woo as a director-in-residence, and went on to
nurture Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan as the mainstay of Golden
Harvest. In the 1980s, Ho acted as Executive Producer for both
Sammo Hung’s Bo Ho Films and Jackie Chan’s Golden Way Films.
By the time he died in 1998, he had served Golden Harvest for 28
years and produced over 100 films.
HUANG Feng (1919– )

Director/Screenwriter
A native of Hefei, Anhui. During the Second Sino–Japanese War, he
worked for the performance troupe in the Chinese army. After the war,
he moved to Hong Kong and became a film actor in 1952, appearing
in works such as Dog Murderer (1952). Later, he wrote screenplays
for Shaw Brothers’ Mandarin films, which were mostly directed by
Yan Jun: The Frosty Night (1957), No Time for Love (1957), The Story
of Yuan Yuan Hong (1958), An Appointment after Dark (1958), North
Meets South (1964), etc. He was also Yan’s long-time deputy having
worked on The Long Voyage Home (1959), Moonlight Serenade
(1967), Lady Jade Locket (1967), Mist over Dream Lake (1968) and
more. Later, he was promoted to director and made his debut with
The Crimson Charm (1971, filmed in 1969).
In 1970, Huang followed Raymond Chow to leave Shaw Brothers
and became Golden Harvest’s regular director. During the period,
Profiles 173
he directed a dozen of wuxia and kung fu films, such as Golden

Harvest’s first project The Angry River (1971), Lady Whirlwind (1972),
Hap Ki Do (1972), When Taekwondo Strikes (1973), Stoner (1974),
The Tournament (1974), The Himalayan (1976), The Shaolin Plot
(1977) and Naked Comes the Huntress (1978).
As a director, Huang was keen on overseas shooting, particularly
in Korea. Apart from directing he also appeared on screen at times.
As the two most productive directors in Golden Harvest’s early
days, Huang and Lo Wei had nurtured action stars such as Angela
Mao Ying, Hwang In-shik, Carter Wong, and engaged Sammo Hung
as his martial arts choreographer for years. He co-wrote and acted
in Hung’s directorial and scriptwriting debut The Iron-Fisted Monk
(1977). Later he worked independently and set up Graphic Fortune.
The Legendary Strike (1978) was the company’s debut film. With
the backing of Golden Harvest, he produced Sammo Hung’s The
Victim in 1980. Later that year he officially announced retirement
from the film scene.
Michael HUI (1942.9.3– )

Executive Producer/Director/Actor
A native of Panyu, Guangdong and born in Guangzhou. Hui moved
to Hong Kong with his family in 1950. After graduation from the
Department of Sociology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, he
worked as a teacher and an advertising agency manager. He first
joined Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) in 1968 as a programme
host and a comedy-script writer. He was later joined by his younger
brother Sam in hosting The Hui Brothers Show (1971–72), an
enormously popular comedy show that put both of their names on
the map. He was then invited by director Li Han-hsiang to join Shaw
Brothers. His debut The Warlord (1972) was an instant hit, followed
by The Happiest Moment (1973), Scandal (1974) and Sinful
Confession (1974).
After joining Golden Harvest in 1974, Hui directed and wrote
Games Gamblers Play (1974) under his own production studio,
the Hui’s Film Company. This film, starring both Michael and Sam,
scored over HK$6 million at the box office, breaking all previous
records of both local and foreign-language films. The Last Message
Profiles 174
(1975) also became the top grosser of the year. In 1976, The
Private Eyes in which his another brother, Ricky, joined them in the
lead, earned a record high of $8 million. The Contract (1978) and
Security Unlimited (1981) again topped the box-office chart of the
respective years, the latter another record-breaker grossing over $17
million. These runaway hits successfully broke into the markets of
Taiwan, Japan and Southeast Asia. In the 1970s, Michael Hui was
undoubtedly one of the most sought-after names at the time.
Hui received the accolade of Best Actor for his performance in
Security Unlimited at the inaugural Hong Kong Film Awards in 1982.
In the early 1980s, he produced and wrote Ronny Yu’s The Trail
(1983). After leaving Golden Harvest in 1987, Hui collaborated with
other filmmakers in creating more comedies such as Chicken and
Duck Talk (1988), Front Page (1990) and The Magic Touch (1992).
He continued making films but at a less prolific rate starting the
1990s. His occasional screen appearance in recent years include
Three of a Kind (2004) and Rob．b．hood (2006).
Ricky HUI (1946.8.3–2011.11.8)

Actor
A native of Panyu, Guangdong and born in Guangzhou. He moved
to Hong Kong with his family in 1950. He worked at the Agence
France-Presse in 1967 after graduating from secondary school. In
1971, he enrolled on the inaugural actors’ training programme co-
organised by Shaw Brothers and Television Broadcasts Limited
(TVB), and earned an actor’s contract from Shaws upon completion.
He was then cast in several Shaw titles such as The Generation
Gap (1973), Illicit Desire (1973), Rivals of Kung Fu (1974). Joining
Golden Har vest later, he began to gain his popularity with his
performance in The Private Eyes (1976), directed and written
by his brother Michael Hui. Since then, he was featured in more
Hui Brothers movies such as The Contract (1978) and Security
Unlimited (1981).
Hui’s first lead role came in The Pilferers’ Progress (1977), a
comedy directed by John Woo that made HK$5 million and topped
the box-office chart of the year. He went on to star in a number of
Profiles 175
Golden Harvest comedies by Woo, namely From Riches to Rags

(1980), To Hell with the Devil (1982), Plain Jane to the Rescue
(1982). These were followed by a string of Golden Harvest horror-
comedies including The Trail (1983), Mr Vampire (1985) and The
Haunted Copshop (1987), among which Mr Vampire even set off a
craze for vampire movies. Later Hui also took the lead in Chicken
and Duck Talk (1988), Mr Coconut (1989), Front Page (1990), Mr
Vampire 1992 (1992) and Laughters of ‘Water Margins’ (1993).
Ty p e c a s t a s a t i m i d , g o o d - h e a r t e d e v e r y m a n , H u i ’s b e s t
achievement was always in comedy. Since 2000, he only appeared
occasionally on screen and his last acting credits were Super Model
(2004) and Forever Yours (2004). He died from a heart attack in
2011.
Sam HUI (1948.9.6– )

Actor
A native of Panyu, Guangdong and born in Guangzhou. Hui moved
to Hong Kong with his family in 1950. Drawn to Western pop early
on, he started the band ‘Lotus’ in the mid-1960s with friends and
was the lead singer. In 1967, he hosted a pop music programme
for Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB). He earned a Psychology
degree from The University of Hong Kong in the early 1970s. By
1971 he had gained tremendous popularity as he hosted The
Hui Brothers Show (1971–72) with his elder brother Michael Hui.
Golden Harvest took him on as a regular actor in 1972, resulting
in his first screen appearance in Back Alley Princess (1973). He
later took the lead in such films as The Tattooed Dragon (1973),
Chinatown Capers (1974) and Naughty! Naughty! (1974). In 1974,
he and Michael Hui made for Golden Harvest Games Gamblers Play
(1974) under the banner of their own production studio, the Hui’s
Film Company. The movie became the highest-grossing film in Hong
Kong until then.
Hui was featured in a number of Hui Brothers money-spinners
including The Last Message (1975), The Private Eyes (1976), The
Contract (1978) and Security Unlimited (1981), all would become
the highest grosser of the respective years. The songs that he
composed for the movies remain some everlasting masterpieces
Profiles 176
in Canto-pop history. In 1981, he jumped ship to Cinema City,

starring in Aces Go Places (1982) which again broke local box-
office records. Following the success, he starred in Aces Go Places
II (1983), Aces Go Places III – Our Man from Bond Street (1984),
Working Class (1985) and Aces Go Places IV (1986). In 1987, he
became seriously ill during the shooting of The Legend of Wisely in
Nepal and became less active ever since. Swordsman (1990) and
Front Page (1990) were some of his later works.
After Laughters of ‘Water Margins’ (1993), he retired from
film and in recent years he only made a cameo performance in
Winner Takes All (2000). Apart from acting, Hui is also a prominent
pop singer. Since the 1970s, he has composed a body of highly
colloquial Canto-pop songs that speak to the hearts of Hong Kong
people.
Sammo HUNG (1952.1.7– )

Executive Producer/Director/Martial Arts Choreographer/Actor
A native of Ningbo, Zhejiang and born in Hong Kong. Sammo is
his infant’s name. At the age of ten, he began to study Beijing
opera under Yu Zhanyuan and enrolled in Yu’s Hong Kong–China
Opera Institute. He was the captain of the school’s performing
troupe ‘Seven Little Fortunes’. Under the screen name Chu Yuen-
lung, Hung’s early film appearances included Education of Love
(1961) and Seven Little Valiant Fighters (1962). He began working
as a stuntman in the late 1960s, and served as the martial arts
choreographer on Shaw Brothers’ The Golden Sword (1969).
After Golden Harvest was established, Hung participated in
Lo Wei, Huang Feng and Chung Chang-hwa’s films as both a
martial arts choreographer and actor. He was also the martial arts
choreographer of King Hu’s The Valiant Ones (1975). In 1977, he
directed for the company his self-starring debut, The Iron-Fisted
Monk , this time in the name of Sammo Hung. This box-office
draw catapulted Hung to stardom, as the comedic character won
over audiences with his remarkable agility despite his bulk. This
was followed by a series of action comedies, including Warriors
Profiles 177
Two (1978), Knockabout (1979) and The Prodigal Son (1981), all
directed by and starring Hung himself.
In 1978, Hung set up Gar Bo Films with Karl Maka and Lau Kar-
wing, producing Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog! (1978) among others. In
1979, he founded Bo Ho, a satellite company of Golden Harvest.
The company’s debut work Encounter of the Spooky Kind (1980),
which Hung again directed and starred in, was a pioneer in action
horror-comedy. He also produced a body of high-quality genre
films including Pom Pom (1984), Long Arm of the Law (1984) and
Mr Vampire (1985). The contemporary actioner Winners & Sinners
(1983) he directed for Golden Harvest blossomed into a bestselling
series. He went on to collaborate with Jackie Chan on Project A
(1983), Heart of Dragon (1985) and in 1984, co-founded D & B with
Dickson Poon and John Sham to produce The Owl vs Bumbo (1984),
Yes, Madam (1985) and Where’s Officer Tuba (1986).
At the height of his career during the 1980s, Hung was revered
as an all-rounder in producing, writing, directing and acting; Bo Ho
was also the most prolific among the many satellite companies of
Golden Harvest. His varied success thus earned him the nickname
of ‘Big Brother’. Hung left Golden Harvest in 1988 to focus on his
new company Bojon, producing such celebrated titles as Spooky,
Spooky (1988), Pedicab Driver (1989) and Don’t Give a Damn
(1995). In 1997, he directed a Golden Harvest title, Mr Nice Guy
featuring Jackie Chan. Afterwards, he ventured into the US market,
starring in an American television drama Martial Law (1998–2000)
and received positive reception.
Hung was honoured twice as the Best Actor at the Hong Kong
Film Awards for his performances in Carry On Pickpocket (1982)
and Painted Faces (1988); and Best Action Choreographer for Ip
Man (2008) and Ip Man 2 (2010). Today, he is still one of the most
sought-after action film directors.
Profiles 178
LAM Ching-ying (1952.12.27–1997.11.8)

Actor
A native of Shanghai. Birth name Ken-bo. Born in a poor family, Lam
could not afford formal schooling and had to drop out in Primary 2.
His parents enrolled him to the Spring and Autumn Drama School
founded by Fen Ju Hua. He spent five years in the school, during
which John Lone, Austin Wai and Stephen Tung Wai were also
studying there.
At 17, he began to work as a stuntman in films, doubling for
many actresses including Cheng Pei-pei. Two years later he tried
his hand at martial arts choreography. His impressive performance
in Golden Harvest’s The Big Boss (1971) won Bruce Lee’s favour.
Thereafter he would assist in the martial arts choreography of all
Bruce Lee films, except The Way of the Dragon (1972).
After Sammo Hung directed his first film The Iron-Fisted Monk
(1977), Lam joined his Hung Troupe and began to play supporting
roles in his movies while also working as martial arts choreographer.
Examples include Encounter of the Spooky Kind (1980), The Dead
and the Deadly (1982) and Winners & Sinners (1983). He was first
brought to the public eye with his cross-dressing part of an opera
diva in The Prodigal Son (1981). His later turn as a Taoist monk in
Mr Vampire (1985) finally put his name on the map. He went on to
play the role as the vampire slayer in the ensuing sequels, which
would turn him into an icon of the Hong Kong vampire film.
Later, he co-founded Diagonal Pictures with Chua Lam and
Nam Nai-choi. Funded by Golden Harvest, he directed and starred
in the company’s first product Vampire vs Vampire (1989), playing
again the monk. His last film credit was The Green Hornet (1994).
After that, he starred in the Asia Television Ltd (ATV) drama series
Vampire Expert I & II (1995–96), where he again played the Taoist
monk. He died from liver cancer in 1997.
Profiles 179
LAU Koon-wai (1949.12.20– )

Director/Cinematographer
Lau’s family was originally from Zhongshan, Guangdong, but he was
born and raised in Hong Kong. He quit school in Form 3 and began
working at a shop that sold camera equipment. He entered the
film industry as a photography assistant in 1967, and apprenticed
under Japanese cinematographer Nishimoto Tadashi at a time. His
first credit as Cinematographer was the Taiwanese film 17 Years
in Search of Mum (1971). In 1978 he worked the cameras for
Sammo Hung’s Enter the Fat Dragon . From then on, he became
a cinematographer Hung came to depend upon, resulting in films
such as Warriors Two (1978), Knockabout (1979), The Prodigal Son
(1981) and Winners & Sinners (1983); as well as productions of
Hung’s Bo Ho Films, such as Pom Pom (1984) and Hocus Pocus
(1984).
Lau’s early works as a director include Crazy Couple (1979)
and Two Toothless Tigers (1980). In 1985, his remake of the horror-
comedy Mr Vampire for Bo Ho Films scored HK$20 million, thus
starting a craze for vampire films in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Riding
on this wave, he followed it with sequels Mr Vampire II (1986), Mr
Vampire III (1987) and Mr Vampire Saga 4 (1988). When Hung left
Golden Harvest, Lau continued to direct films for Hung’s Bojon
Films, including Encounter of the Spooky Kind II (1990). Most
recently, he has served as the Director of Action Cinematography
for Wushu – The Young Generation (2008).
LAU Leung-wah (1933– )

Actor/Production Manager/Executive Producer
A native of Guangdong, Lau grew up in Shanghai and moved to
Hong Kong in the 1940s. In 1952, she was enrolled to the actors’
training programme of the Taishan Film Company founded by Bu
Wancang. Her screen debut was The Seven Maidens (1953).
Joining Shaw Brothers afterwards, she starred in movies such as
Springtime in Paradise (1957) and An Appointment after Dark (1958).
In 1957, she co-founded Swank Motion Pictures with Lo Wei. Its
Profiles 180
debut film Romance on Lake Emerald (1958), which she starred in,
won her considerable attention.
In the mid-1960s, she and Lo Wei returned to Shaws. Besides
working as a contract actress, Lau also assisted Lo in film
production. In 1970, the duo joined Golden Harvest where she
continued to serve as Production Manager, participating in such
films as The Blade Spares None (1971), The Big Boss (1971), The
Hurricane (1972), Fist of Fury (1972), Back Alley Princess (1973)
and The Tattooed Dragon (1973). She was also the Golden Harvest
representative who went to the US to seal the deal with Bruce Lee,
who would thereby make films in Hong Kong.
Lau separated with Lo Wei in 1974. In the early 1980s, she co-
founded Philip Chan Films with Philip Chan, producing two titles,
Sealed with a Kiss (1981) and Krazy Kops (1981), both distributed
by Golden Harvest.
LAU Tin-chi (1948– )

Executive Producer/Production Manager/Scriptwriter
Born in Hong Kong. A Philosophy graduate from The Chinese
University of Hong Kong in 1974. He first started his scriptwriting
career during his university years. In 1968, he wrote dramas for
Commercial Radio and worked later at Television Broadcasts Limited
(TVB), writing gags for The Hui Brothers Show (1971–72) and even
appearing in the sitcom 73 (1973–76).
After graduation from the university in 1974, Lau followed
Michael Hui to join Golden Har vest, where he scripted Games
Gamblers Play (1974) and The Last Message (1975). In 1975,
he returned to TVB as a scriptwriter and script supervisor, before
jumping ship to Commercial Television in 1978 with Selina Leung et
al, taking up the position of Creative Director. He resigned before
Commercial Television closed down in the same year, and returned
to Golden Harvest. During the period, his screenwriting credits
included Follow the Star (1978), Making It (1978), Knockabout
(1979), The Young Master (1980), The Sword (1980); he was both
the screenwriter and co-director on Hello Late Homecomers (1978).
I n 1 9 7 9 , h e r e t u r n e d t o T V B a g a i n a s C r e a t i v e D i r e c t o r,
Production Director and Production Advisor. He joined Cosmopolitan
Profiles 181
Films in 1988 and produced a number of titles including Mr

Possessed (1988), Mother vs Mother (1988), How to Pick Girls Up
(1988), Look Out, Officer! (1990) and The Story of My Son (1990).
Lau emigrated to Canada in 1990. He returned to Hong Kong
a few years later and wrote The Poet (1998). He is currently a radio
personality and lectures part-time at universities. His books (in
Chinese) include The Secret Manual for Scriptwriters , The Vampire
and the Dracula , etc.
Albert LEE (1953.9.24– )

Production Manager/Executive Producer/Distributor
Born in Hong Kong, Lee’s family originally came from Xinhui,
Guangdong. His father, Lee Ping-cheung, worked at the publicity
department for many cinemas, such as the Lee Theatre; and in the
1960s he founded Imperial Pictures, which distributed many British
films. After his secondary school education, Lee went abroad to
study Economics at University of Wales Institute of Science and
Technology in the UK. During this period he also worked at the
publicity department of EMI in London.
When he graduated in 1975 Lee returned to Hong Kong and
worked for the English paper, The Star , as well as The Associated
Press. In 1979 he joined Golden Communications, a subsidiary of
Golden Harvest. He was responsible for the distribution of Golden
Harvest’s films overseas and opened many new markets for the
company. The first film that he distributed was Knockabout (1979),
and in the 1990s he became the Executive Vice-President of
Golden Communications.
In 1994, when the Golden Har vest Entertainment Company
Limited went public, Lee became its executive director, and General
Manager of the unlisted Golden Harvest (HK) Limited. In 2000 he
left Golden Harvest to work for Rock Records & Tapes in Taiwan.
In 2003 he became the Chief Executive Officer of Emperor Motion
Pictures, responsible for the production and distribution of films and
television programmes and fostering co-productions between Hong
Kong and Mainland China. Films executive-produced by Lee include
The Twins Effect II (2004), Beast Stalker (2008), Aftershock (2010),
etc.
Profiles 182
Bruce LEE (1940.11.27–1973.7.20)

Actor
Born Lee Jun-fan in San Francisco, USA in 1940. His father was
the famous Cantonese opera star Lee Hoi-chuen and his family
originally came from Guangdong’s Nanhai. As a child actor, he
starred in various Cantonese films such as The Kid (1950), A Son is
Born (1953) and In the Face of Demolition (1953). In 1959 he went
to the US to further his studies. Before he left, Lee managed to star
with Ng Cho-fan in The Orphan (1960), and received critical acclaim
for his portrayal of an errant teenager.
While studying in the US Lee also taught Chinese martial
arts. He invented his own style called Jeet Kune Do and became
recognised in America’s martial arts scene. In 1966 he starred in
the American TV series The Green Hornet as the title character’s
assistant Kato, a role that allowed him to showcase his talents.
Although Lee wanted to return to Hong Kong, negotiations with
Shaw Brothers fell through. However, in 1971, he was invited by
Golden Harvest to star in The Big Boss (1971), where he held the
audience captive with the explosive power of his kung fu and high-
speed kicks. Box-office sales for this film reached a record high
of HK$3.19 million and earned him the nickname of Lee Sam-
keuk (‘Three Kicks’). His subsequent portrayal of Chen Zhen in Fist
of Fury (1972) took the world by storm and set a new box-office
record at HK$4.43 million.
Under Concord Productions which he co-founded with
Raymond Chow, Lee directed, wrote and starred in The Way of the
Dragon (1972) opposite American karate champion Chuck Norris.
This set yet another box-office record of HK$5.3 million and opened
the international market for Golden Harvest. When Enter the Dragon
(co-produced by Warner Bros and Golden Harvest) came out in
1973, Lee became an international superstar and generated a craze
for kung fu movies all over the globe. His unexpected death on 20
July of the same year shocked the entire world. Lee was only 32
years old. His unfinished film, The Game of Death , was completed
later by Golden Harvest and screened in 1978.
Profiles 183
LEUNG Fung (1918–1987.5.2)

Distributor/Publicist
One of the founders of Golden Har vest. Born Leung To-kin in
Guangzhou. His family was from Guangdong’s Heshan. In 1943,
he graduated from Chongqing’s Central Cadre Academy. During
the Second Sino–Japanese War, he worked in Chongqing as the
Editor for Central Daily News , and when the war ended he was
sent into Guangzhou to work in the cultural sector. There, he
served as the General Manager for Zhongshan Daily as well as the
Guangzhou correspondent for Shanghai Daily News . While working
for Shanghai’s Shun Pao he came into contact with Raymond Chow.
In 1949, Leung moved from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, where
he continued to work in the media. His posts have included being
Editor-in-Chief for Shanghai Daily News , Editor for the literar y
supplement to Hong Kong Times , and also Editor-in-Chief for the
Thai publication, Universal Daily News .
U n d e r t h e i n v i t a t i o n o f R a y m o n d C h o w, h e j o i n e d S h a w
Brothers as the editor for their magazine, Southern Screen in
1958. Subsequently, he was placed in charge of publicity for the
company. Leung also launched Four Seas Weekly which focused on
entertainment news. In 1970, he left Shaws and established Golden
Har vest together with Raymond Chow and Leonard Ho Koon-
cheung, serving as an executive director and business manager.
Responsible mainly for film distribution and publicity, he also
published and distributed the company magazine Golden Movie
News .
Leung was once the chairperson of the Hong Kong and
Kowloon Cinema & Theatrical Enterprise Free General Association
(now renamed as the Hong Kong & Macau Cinema and Theatrical
Enterprise Association). He passed away in Canada in 1987.
Profiles 184
LO Wei (1918–1996.1.20)
Executive Producer/Director/Actor
Born with the surname of Cheung; Lo Ching was given the family
name of Lo after being adopted by his mother’s brother at a young
age. During the Second Sino–Japanese War, he acted in stage
plays and movies in Chongqing and Shanghai. Lo moved to Hong
Kong after the war, and joined Yung Hwa Motion Pictures in 1948,
for which he acted in The Soul of China (1948) and Sorrows of the
Forbidden City (1948). Gradually he rose to become an established
actor in Mandarin cinema.
In the early 1950s, he made his directorial debut with The
Husband’s Diary (1953) which he co-directed with Tang Huang.
Later he co-founded Swank Motion Pictures with Lau Leung-wah,
where he directed and acted in films such as Romance on Lake
Emerald (1958) and Mischievous Girl (1958). In 1961, he joined
Motion Picture & General Investment Co Ltd (MP & GI) as a regular
director, before moving on to Shaw Brothers in 1965 and directing
The Golden Buddha (1966) and Angel with the Iron Fists (1967),
etc. The box office of his Dragon Swamp (1969) even exceeded
HK$1 million.
Lo joined the start-up studio Golden Har vest when it was
founded in 1970. Both he and Huang Feng were hailed as the most
productive directors in the early years of Golden Harvest, while Lo
was acclaimed for his ability to make the highest grossers for the
company in those days. The Invincible Eight (1971), the inaugural
work of Golden Harvest he directed, earned over HK$900,000 at
the box office. Following this success, he wrote and directed two
blockbusters that broke box-office records in Hong Kong: The Big
Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972), both starring Bruce Lee. He
continued to make A Man Called Tiger (1973), Back Alley Princess
(1973), Chinatown Capers (1974) and Naughty! Naughty! (1974). All
of these grossed over HK$1 million. He left Golden Harvest in 1974
and established his own company, Lo Wei Motion Pictures, where
he produced and directed The Girl with the Dexterous Touch (1975),
Profiles 185
Shantung Man in Hong Kong (1975) and more. Later he signed a

contract with Jackie Chan to film New Fist of Fury (1976) and The
Killer Meteors (1976) in Taiwan.
Lo Wei stayed active as an independent Hong Kong–Taiwan film
producer until the 1980s when he moved on from directing, but he
still continued to work as an executive producer. His last producing
credit was Blade of Fury (1993). Lo passed away of a heart attack
in 1996. In the following year he was honoured posthumously with
the Lifetime Achievement Award at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards.
Johnny MAK (1949.12.2– )

Executive Producer/Screenwriter/Director
Born in Hong Kong. Mak joined the 5th training programme
at Rediffusion Television (RTV) after completing his secondar y
education. He started out as an actor and assistant director, and
soon established himself by writing and directing to critical acclaim
two episodes of the RTV drama series Ten Sensational Cases
(1975). Subsequently he wrote and directed Big Sister (1976) and
The Real Man (1977), etc. He was promoted to Production Manager
in 1977 and Production Director in 1978.
Mak left RTV in 1981 to establish his own production house,
becoming the Executive Producer for movies such as Lonely Fifteen
(1982), Crimson Street (1982), Possessed (1983) and Everlasting
Love (1984). Among these, Lonely Fifteen stirred up much
discussion in society. Later on he received support from Bo Ho
Films to direct Long Arm of the Law (1984), which was known for its
gritty realism and dramatic tension.
In 1984, Mak co-founded Genesis Films with Raymond Chow,
and since then Mak has produced movies under different company
names for Golden Har vest. Films made under such conditions
include The Seven Angels (1985), Midnight Girls (1986), Spiritual
Love (1987), Moon, Star & Sun (1988), The Greatest Lover (1988),
Iceman Cometh (1989) and Sentenced to Hang (1989), etc. In
1991, he shot To Be Number One for Golden Harvest. Not only
did the movie gross a box-office income of HK$38 million, it also
fuelled a wave of biographical films on mafia legends. He went on
Profiles 186
to make two more films on the same theme but in larger scale:
Lord of East China Sea and sequel (both 1993). He also brought
out the lucrative costume porn movie Sex and Zen (1991). The last
film Genesis Films shot for Golden Harvest was The Train Robbers
(1995). The most recent film Mak produced in his own name was
Island of Greed (1997).
Angela MAO Ying (1952.9.20– )

Actor
Birth name Mao Jingying. A native of Zhejiang but born and raised in
Taiwan. At the young age of six, Mao entered the Fu Hsing Dramatic
Arts Academy and was trained for eight years in Beijing opera. Her
schoolmates included Chang Yi and James Tien. Upon graduation,
she worked under the stage name Mao Fujing in an opera troupe as
wudan (role of female warriors) and soon topped the list of the ‘Ten
Best Wudans in Taiwan’.
Mao jumped to the big screen in 1968 and made her debut film
appearance in The Eight Bandits . Her talent was soon recognised
by director Huang Feng who invited her to join Golden Harvest as
regular actor in 1970. She took the lead role in The Angry River
(1971), the first film Golden Har vest put into production; and
appeared in The Invincible Eight (1971), the company’s debut
release. With Lady Whirlwind (1972), Mao finally rose to stardom.
In preparing her role in Hap Ki Do (1972), she studied the Korean
martial art with famous Hap Ki Do guru Ji Han-jae.
Mao is best known for her strong physicality and kinetic
brilliance, and is widely considered the best action heroine of
Golden Harvest. Her acting credits in Golden Harvest were mostly
wuxia and kung fu films, such as Hap Ki Do , Enter the Dragon
(1973), Back Alley Princess (1973), When Taekwondo Strikes (1973),
Stoner (1974), The Himalayan (1976), A Queen’s Ransom (1976)
and Broken Oath (1977), turning her into a popular kung fu star in
Hong Kong, Taiwan as well as Japan. As her contract with Golden
Harvest ended in the mid-1970s, she began to freelance in both
Profiles 187
Hong Kong and Taiwan, appearing in films such as The Legendary

Strike (1978), Snake Deadly Act (1980) and The Stunning Gambling
(1982).
Nora MIAO (1952.2.8– )

Actor
Birth name Chan Wing-han. A native of Nanhai, Guangdong and
born in Hong Kong. Miao graduated from St Rose of Lima’s College.
Her first starring role came in 1970, when Golden Harvest openly
recruited the female lead for The Blade Spares None (1971) in the
newspaper. Groomed by Golden Harvest, she was assigned one
of the lead roles in the company’s debut work, The Invincible Eight
(1971). Together with The Blade Spares None and The Comet
Strikes (1971) that followed, these wuxia films successfully put
Miao’s name on the map. Now coined ‘Princess of Golden Harvest’,
Miao was chosen to star opposite Bruce Lee in Fist of Fury (1972)
and The Way of the Dragon (1972). Altogether she starred in 11
Golden Har vest projects during her five-year tenure, including
Skyhawk (1974) and Naughty! Naughty! (1974). Afterwards, she
turned freelance and divided her time between Hong Kong and
Taiwan. She starred opposite Jackie Chan in New Fist of Fur y
(1976), Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin (1978) and Dragon Fist (1979)
produced by Lo Wei Motion Pictures. By the late 1970s and early
80s, she ventured into television and appeared in drama series by
Rediffusion Television such as Reincarnated (1979).
Miao emigrated to Canada in the 1990s and worked as a
presenter at a Chinese-language radio station in Toronto. Since
2007, she occasionally returned to the screen, appearing in movies
such as Run Papa Run (2008) and Merry-Go-Round (2010). The
former brought her nominations at the Hong Kong Film Awards and
Golden Horse Awards for Best Supporting Actress.
Profiles 188
Andre MORGAN
Executive Producer
An American born in Morocco, Morgan came to Hong Kong in 1972
with an unfinished degree from The University of Kansas. He joined
Golden Harvest through the recommendation of his professor. He
worked as the producer for Enter the Dragon (1973) and The Man
from Hong Kong (1975), and also played a part in When Taekwondo
Strikes (1973).
In 1977, Golden Harvest set up its satellite company Golden
Communications to handle distribution in Europe, America and
Japan, as well as to shoot English-language films. Morgan was
the person in charge, and made The Amsterdam Kill (1978) and
The Boys in Company C (1978), etc. In 1979 he was promoted to
Director of the company. Subsequently, Morgan made a number of
American movies for Golden Harvest, including Battle Creek Brawl
(1980), The Cannonball Run (1981), Death Hunt (1981), Megaforce
(1985), Cannonball Run II (1984) and Lassiter (1985). Among these,
The Cannonball Run ranked Number Six in the US box-office charts
in 1981 with an income of over US$70 million.
Morgan left Golden Communications in 1984 to form his own
production company and produced the American TV series Martial
Law (1998–2000) starring Sammo Hung. His recent film credits
include Perhaps Love (2005), My Kingdom (2011) and The Locked
Door (2012).
Richard NG Yiu-hon (1939– )

Actor
A native of Huiyang, Guangdong. Born and raised in Hong Kong. Ng
attended secondary school in England, studied theatre afterwards
and appeared in British television soaps and films. In 1970, he
moved back to Hong Kong to run his own business, but also acted
on television. A born comedian, he first made guest appearances
in Michael Hui’s comedy show The Hui Brothers Show (1971–72)
before hosting It’s Not So Simple (1976).
Ng founded Advance Films in 1975 and performed in his own
production The Yellow Panther (1977), which achieved considerable
Profiles 189
success in the box office. Following this he co-starred with Ricky

Hui in Golden Harvest’s The Pilferers’ Progress (1977), directed by
John Woo, which became the highest grosser of the year scoring
over HK$5 million. In the same year, he starred again in his own
production, Winner Takes All , which ranked second in the box-office
charts. Ng emerged as the best comedian after Michael Hui.
Ng went on to star in Golden Harvest’s Itchy Fingers (1979),
Murder Most Foul! (1979; self-directed) and Super Fool! (1981).
The scene in Sammo Hung’s Winners & Sinners (1983) where he
was conned into thinking he was invisible was also particularly
memorable among the audience.
Ng continued to co-star with John Sham in Golden Harvest’s
blockbuster comedy, Pom Pom (1984); and the success of this
film prompted the duo to reunite in four more box-office hits as the
same characters. In the following years he also played major roles
in some other Golden Harvest productions such as My Cousin, the
Ghost (1987) and Mr Vampire III (1987). In addition to comedies, he
also appeared in more serious features such as The Wrong Couples
(1987) and Beyond the Sunset (1989). His recent acting credits
include Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010)
and Supercapitalist (2012).
Louis SIT (1947.4.21– )

Production Manager/Planning Producer
Born in Hong Kong. Graduate of The University of Hong Kong.
Recommended by Raymond Chow’s brother Anthony Chow who
taught Sit in his secondary school years, Sit entered Golden Harvest
and was soon installed at the helm of the Golden Studios Ltd.
Sit served as an assistant production manager on Enter the
Dragon (1973), and since then committed himself to film production.
Working under Leonard Ho Koon-cheung throughout the years,
Sit became the manager of the production department in 1979,
producing over 30 Golden Har vest titles: Michael Hui’s Games
Gamblers Play (1974), The Contract (1978) and Teppanyaki (1984);
John Woo’s Princess Chang Ping (1976), The Pilferers’ Progress
( 1 9 7 7 ) a n d Plain Jane to the Rescue ( 1 9 8 2 ) ; S a m m o H u n g ’s
Warriors Two (1978), Encounter of the Spooky Kind (1980); Chung
Profiles 190
Kwok-yan’s Vice Squad 633 (1979) and Hired Guns (1981), etc.
He penned the screenplay for The Last Message (1975) and Elmo
Takes a Bride (1976), co-writing Hello Late Homecomers (1978)
with John Woo and Lau Tin-chi. He also wrote lyrics for some
famous songs from these films. In 1985, he left Golden Harvest and
emigrated to Canada.
Edward TANG (1946– )

Screenwriter/Planning Producer
A native of Zhongshan, Guangdong and born in Macau. Tang moved
to Hong Kong in 1963, working in turn as a mariner, technician
and salesman. He enrolled on the scriptwriting course of Television
Broadcasts Limited (TVB) in the 1970s, and upon graduation he was
employed by the company as a scriptwriter. Later, he jumped ship
to Commercial Television, which closed down in 1978. Since then,
he switched to writing film scripts and joined Golden Harvest with
Lau Tin-chi, penning The Magnificent Butcher (1979) and Wedding
Bells, Wedding Belles (1981), etc.
A long-time working partner of Jackie Chan, Tang was the
Screenwriter and Assistant Director of Chan’s directorial efforts,
i n c l u d i n g The Young Master ( 1 9 8 0 ) , Dragon Lord ( 1 9 8 2 ) a n d
Project A (1983). In 1985, Jackie Chan’s production company,
Authority Films was restructured into Golden Way. The newly-formed
company brought out many blockbusters such as Police Stor y
(1985), Armour of God (1987), Project A II (1987), Police Story, Part
II (1988), Miracles (1989), Armour of God II – Operation Condor
(1991), all penned and coordinated by Tang. He also worked as
the Planning Producer on other directors’ projects: That Enchanting
Night (1987), Rouge (1988), The Inspector Wears Skirts (1988) and
sequel (1989), Stage Door Johnny (1990) and The Shootout (1992).
Tang also wrote lyrics for film songs. He is best known for the
title song from Rouge (composed by Michael Lai and performed
by Anita Mui). His Golden Harvest screenplays from the 1990s
included Drunken Master II (1994), Rumble in the Bronx (1995) and
Profiles 191
Mr Nice Guy (1997). Red Zone (1995) was the first film he directed
and scripted.
James TIEN (1942– )

Actor
B o r n C h a n M a n , J a m e s Ti e n w a s f r o m C h a o ’ a n , G u a n g d o n g
and later moved to Hong Kong. Same as Angela Mao Ying, he
graduated from the Fu Hsing Dramatic Arts Academy in Taiwan.
He worked as a stuntman at Shaw Brothers in the mid-1960s,
appearing in Vengeance of a Snow Girl (1971) in which he was also
the martial arts choreographer. He joined Golden Harvest soon after
it opened, and adopted the screen name James Tien since. He was
the male lead in the company’s early works, such as The Invincible
Eight (1971), The Blade Spares None (1971), The Chase (1971) and
Thunderbolt (1973, filmed in 1971). He was also cast in Bruce Lee’s
vehicles such as The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972). From
A Man Called Tiger (1973) and Seaman No 7 (1973) onward, he
was often seen playing the villain; thereafter, he starred in a number
of kung fu films, such as Shaolin Boxers (1974), The Dragon Tamers
(1975), Hand of Death (1976) and The Shaolin Plot (1977).
I n 1 9 7 8 , Ti e n b e g a n t o w o r k f o r L o We i M o t i o n P i c t u r e s ,
appearing in the Jackie Chan-starring Magnificent Bodyguards
(1978), Spiritual Kung Fu (1978) and Dragon Fist (1979), all
produced in Taiwan. Tien remained active throughout the 1980s,
mostly taking part in Golden Harvest projects, including Winners
& Sinners (1983), Twinkle, Twinkle, Lucky Stars (1985), Heart of
Dragon (1985), The Millionaires’ Express (1986), Eastern Condors
(1987) and Super Lady Cop (1992). He was also the Assistant
Director on Righting Wrongs (1986), Panty Hose Hero (1990),
Slickers vs Killers (1991) and Blade of Fury (1993). Tien retired in
the mid-1990s.
Profiles 192
Tony TO (1940.7.23– )
Publicist
Pen name Ah To. Born and raised in Guangzhou and came to Hong
Kong in 1960. He had worked as a trainee and a seaman, and had
lived in New York, USA. After returning to Hong Kong in 1971, he
began to work on newspapers first reporting local news, before he
moved on to writing entertainment news, including his own column
in Ming Pao Weekly , all the while working for Golden Harvest on the
side. In the late 1970s, he officially joined the studio taking charge
of public relations and business promotions, and stayed behind as
a consultant for Golden Harvest Entertainment after the publicity
department disbanded in the late 1990s. He retired in 2011. His
published works (in Chinese) include The Starry Heavens (2010)
and Picking Seashells on the Milky Way (2012).
Jimmy WANG Yu (1943– )

Actor/Director
Wang’s birth name was Zhengquan. His family was originally from
Jiangsu’s Wuxi. Wang swam competitively in his youth in Shanghai.
He arrived in Hong Kong in the 1960s and studied Civil Engineering
at Chu Hai College.
Wang gained his first lead role in Shaw Brother’s Tiger Boy
(1966) through open audition, and rose to public prominence with
the Chang Cheh-directed One-Armed Swordsman (1967). Following
this success, Wang continued to work with Chang Cheh on The
Assassin (1967), The Golden Swallow (1968) and Return of the
One-Armed Swordsman (1969). As the embodiment of a cool,
arrogant young hero so rarely seen in the silver screen in those
days, Wang emerged to become the premier male lead in the richly
coloured wuxia pictures by Shaws. His debut as a director was with
The Chinese Boxer (1970), which became the highest grosser of
the year with box-office earnings of over HK$2 million. In the same
year he left Shaws and moved to Taiwan to continue his film career.
From then on he was ver y active in the Taiwan film scene and
worked on many of Golden Harvest’s outreach projects in Taiwan
Profiles 193
and overseas. His first performance with Golden Har vest was
Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman (1971), which was shot in
Japan. In 1973, he starred under the direction of Lo Wei in A Man
Called Tiger , which made over HK$2 million at the box office. Other
performances under Golden Harvest include The Invincible Sword
(1971), Seaman No 7 (1973); and he also directed, wrote and
starred in other Golden Harvest titles such as One-Armed Boxer
(1972) and Beach of the War Gods (1973).
Wang took up the lead role in The Man from Hong Kong (1975)
and A Queen’s Ransom (1976), both star-studded international
ventures by Golden Harvest. From the late 1960s to late 70s, Wang
was one of the most influential stars in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and
only gradually faded from the film scene in the 1990s. His most
recent performances include Wu Xia (2011), directed by Peter Chan
Ho-sun, and Let’s Go! (2011), directed by Wong Ching-po.
Barry WONG (1946.11.24–1991.10.15)

Screenwriter/Actor
A native of Wuzhou, Guangxi. After receiving a Fine Arts degree
from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, he took up various jobs
such as civil servant and secondary school teacher. He first started
scriptwriting at Commercial Television and ventured into filmmaking
in the early 1980s. He wrote the screenplays for Jackie Chan’s
Authority Films titles, namely Read Lips (1980), The Gold-Hunters
(1981) and Dragon Lord (1982). He also worked with Sammo
Hung on such blockbusters as The Prodigal Son (1981), Carry On
Pickpocket (1982) and The Dead and the Deadly (1982). Among
these, Winners & Sinners (1983) that he wrote for Hung spawned a
lucrative series. This was followed by a trend of vampire films which
first started with Mr Vampire (1985), where Wong was the Planning
Producer.
Wong’s strength was in comedy, and he was widely celebrated
as one of the top-notch screenwriters in Hong Kong. He is best
remembered for his long-time collaboration with Sammo Hung,
producing a wealth of works for the Hung’s Troupe. He had written
screenplays for many different production companies. Within his
Profiles 194
vast repertoire, his most acclaimed titles include The Other Side
of Gentleman (1984), The Haunted Copshop II (1988), Curry and
Pepper (1990), Alan & Eric: Between Hello and Goodbye (1991)
and Fight Back to School (1991), which brought him multiple
nominations for Best Screenplay at the Hong Kong Film Awards. He
also made occasional film appearances, best known for his part as
the Superintendent in Fight Back to School .
In October 1991, Wong died from cerebral haemorrhage in
Germany. He was given posthumously a Professional Achievement
Award by the Hong Kong Film Awards in 1992.
John WOO (1946– )

Director
Born in Guangzhou, John Woo grew up in Hong Kong and started
filming experimental movies at the age of 19. In 1969, he joined
Cathay Organisation as a script holder. He became an assistant
director for Chang Cheh at Shaw Brothers in 1971, where he
assisted in the making of Boxer from Shantung (1972) and The
Blood Brothers (1973), etc. In 1973 he made his directorial debut
with Farewell Buddy (later renamed as The Young Dragons ), which
was shown in theatres in 1975 and picked up by Golden Harvest
for distribution. Raymond Chow recognised his talent, and Woo was
offered the post of resident director by Golden Harvest.
Woo assisted Michael Hui in the filming of Games Gamblers
Play (1974), before moving on to direct kung fu films, The Dragon
Tamers (1975) and Hand of Death (1976), as well as the Cantonese
opera film Princess Chang Ping (1976). He later returned to assist
Michael Hui in the planning of The Private Eyes (1976). Woo’s
directorial success came with the comedy The Pilferers’ Progress
(1977), a vehicle of Ricky Hui and Richard Ng. It was the biggest-
grossing Hong Kong film that year. In the days that followed, he
directed Follow the Star (1978), From Riches to Rags (1980), To
Hell with the Devil (1982), Plain Jane to the Rescue (1982), among
others, most of which were comedies in collaboration with Ricky
Hui. He also directed the martial arts film Last Hurrah for Chivalry
(1979). Meanwhile he wrote and directed Cinema City’s debut
Profiles 195
movie Laughing Time (1980) under the pseudonym of Ng Sheung-

fei. The film was a sizeable box-office hit. In 1983, on completion
of Sunset Fighters (which was renamed Heroes Shed No Tears and
released in 1986), he left Golden Harvest for Cinema City.
In 1986, he directed A Better Tomorrow , which broke box-
office records with over HK$30 million. Following its success, Woo
established a niche of making action movies which depicted the
bond of brotherhood with intense but stylish gun-fight scenes. The
Killer (1989), Bullet in the Head (1990) and Hard-boiled (1992) are
examples of this. In 1992, Woo made a career decision to move to
Hollywood and directed movies such as Hard Target (1993), Face/
Off (1997) and Mission: Impossible II (2000). Recent directorial
works of his include Red Cliff (2008) and Red Cliff II (2009).
Maria YI (1953.6.3– )
Actor
Birth name Wei Lina. A native of Zhejiang. After graduation from
Jinou Girls High School in Taiwan, she was discovered by Raymond
Chow and offered an actor’s contract by Golden Harvest in 1970.
She received training in Taiwan before coming to Hong Kong.
Together with Nora Miao and Angela Mao Ying, Yi became one
of the emerging stars of Golden Harvest. Her screen debut was
The Chase (1971) directed by Wong Tin-lam. In the same year
she appeared also in The Big Boss (1971) starring Bruce Lee and
directed by Lo Wei. Later she was cast in more films by Lo Wei
such as Fist of Fury (1972), A Man Called Tiger (1973) and Seaman
No 7 (1973).
In 1972, she was sent by Golden Harvest to work for Pai Ching-
jui and Li Hsing at Ta Chung Motion Pictures in Taiwan, starring in
Story of Mother (1973) directed by Sung Chuen-sau. That was one
of Yi’s rare performances in romance films. Upon her return to Hong
Kong, she was featured in more Golden Harvest titles including The
Tournament (1974) and Tiger of Northland (1976). She got married
in 1974 and retired from the scene after her contract with Golden
Harvest was over.
Profiles 196
YUEN Biao (1957.7.26– )

Actor/Martial Arts Choreographer
Born in Hong Kong by his birth name Ha Ling-chen, Yuen started
learning Beijing opera under Yu Zhanyuan at the age of five, and
became a member of the troupe ‘Seven Little Fortunes’. In the early
1970s, he followed his elder schoolmate Sammo Hung to work as
a stuntman at Golden Harvest. In 1979, he was given the lead role
in Knockabout directed by Sammo Hung and became known for
his spectacular somersaults and kicks. His lead role in The Prodigal
Son (1981) made a hero of him and yet he remained active as a
martial arts choreographer.
In 1983 he was cast in the costume epic Zu: Warriors from the
Magic Mountain . In the same year, alongside the release in Japan
of The Champions in which he played the lead, Yuen also starred in
Project A opposite Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan, thereby making
his name in Japan. Afterwards he took part in several major titles
directed by Sammo Hung, including Wheels on Meals (1984), My
Lucky Stars (1985), The Millionaires’ Express (1986) and Eastern
Condors (1987); and starred in two co-productions of Golden
Harvest and Fuji TV, Peacock King (1989) and Saga of the Phoenix
(1990).
Yuen was twice honoured as the Best Action Choreographer
at the Hong Kong Films Awards for The Prodigal Son (1981) and
Winners & Sinners (1983) together with Sammo Hung, Lam Ching-
ying and Bee Chan. He co-founded Taihe Film Company with Corey
Yuen Kwai in the mid-1980s and starred in the company’s debut
Righting Wrongs (1986). His Iceman Cometh (1989) and Once
Upon a Time in China (1991) were both commercial and critical
successes.
Yuen set up Yuen Biao Productions in the 1990s where he
directed and acted in A Kid from Tibet (1992). After his contract with
Golden Harvest ended in 1993, he appeared in Kick Boxer (1993),
Circus Kids (1994) and A Man Called Hero (1999). His latest acting
credits include Laughing Gor Turning Point (2009) and The Legend
is Born – Ip Man (2010).

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Golden Harvest:

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The Vicissitudes of Golden Studios: 26 Sek Kei

Golden Harvest’s Outreach Strategy and 34 Law Kar

More Detour Than Legacy: Golden Harvest’s Hollywood Gambit 50 Sam Ho

Mischievous Urban Fantasia: Michael Hui’s Comic Mode 54 Ernest Chan

Sammo Hung, the One and Only 63 Lam Chiu-wing

The Kid, the Cop, the Adventurer 71 Cheng Chuen-wai

The Female Kung Fu Chop 78 Stephen Teo

Like Brother, Like Sister: Angela Mao, 96 Udagawa Koyo

Middle-Class Comedies by Mobile Film Productions 117 Wong Ain-ling

The Way of the Big Boss: 126

Good Business is the Best Art: 136

Riding High on Big Tides: 145

The Golden Harvest Chronology 154

The Organisational Structure and

list in 1979. 2 This company, which managed to stand on an equal footing

asset which Lee imparted to the studio.

attempt in adopting a new approach to production by working with independent producers

Swordsman is an excellent example of collaborating with an independent production unit.’ It

18 See note 10, pp 129–130.

satellite company, supplying films to them exclusively. 20

also in the cinema business, in 1978:

The Vicissitudes of Golden Studios:

Golden Harvest’s Outreach Strategy

After leaving Shaw Brothers in 1970, Raymond Chow, Leonard Ho Koon-

The foundation years

Leaving Japan and Taiwan for Thailand and Korea

receptive to Korean viewers, such as anti-Japanese sentiments, the extraordinary prowess

From Shaw Brothers to Golden

To Hong Kongers born in the 1960s and 70s, childhood memories of

The Shaw era

The Golden Harvest era

6 Kinnia Yau Shuk-ting, op cit, p 80.

More Detour Than Legacy:

Early in the French film Persepolis (2007), co-directed by the Iranian

Mischievous Urban Fantasia:

So Simple (1976–77). Richard Ng, moreover, appeared in British TV comedies when he

From The Hui Brothers Show to Games Gamblers Play

Episodic structure and the formula of jokes

TV culture and dubbing in Cantonese

The pragmatic joker

Popular culture and social topics

The development of Michael Hui’s comic mode

The pros and cons of Michael Hui’s comic world

Variations in the hands of John Woo

13 See note 11, p 21 (in Chinese).

15 Wong Hiu-hung, op cit, p 151 (in Chinese).

Sammo Hung, the One and Only

As usual, we, a group of screenwriters, converged on the glass house

Subverting the world of kung fu

The wise man

The Kid, the Cop, the Adventurer

Marking Jackie Chan’s long-awaited return to directing, CZ12 (2012) not

The Female Kung Fu Chop

Golden Harvest's moment in Hong Kong film history

7 Si Rui, op cit, p 79.

Golden Harvest and the state-of-the-martial arts

Fashioning the Angela Mao kung fu chop

Like Brother, Like Sister:

And he went on to analyse what constitutes her screen appeal:

– Were you born in Taiwan?