Sammo Hung

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Image:SammoHung promophoto.jpg Sammo Hung (Template:Zh-cp; Cantonese: Hung4 Gam1 Bou2) (born in Hong Kong on January 7, 1952) is a Kung Fu movies actor, producer and director. He has choreographed fight scenes for Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, King Hu, Stephen Chow and John Woo. He is one of the Seven Little Fortunes.

Hung is one of most influential figures in Hong Kong cinema history. He was amongst the pivotal figures who spear-headed the Hong Kong New Wave movement of the 1980s, helped reinvent the martial arts genre and started the hopping corpse genre.

Hung is known for his distinctive, large frame. Despite his large frame, he is a surprisingly agile and formidable martial artist.

1 The early years
2 1960s and 1970s
3 The new wave
4 1990s
5 Partial acting filmography
6 See also
7 External links

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The early years

Born Hong Jin Bao, both his parents worked in the local film industry and guardianship was thrust upon his grandparents.

Hung joined the Master Yu Jim Yuen Opera Academy in 1959, after his grandparents heard about the school from their friends. Hung, who was known as Yuen Lung in the Seven Little Fortunes (七小福) performing group, would have a rivalry at the school with one of the younger kids, Yuen Lo. Yuen Lo would go on to become none other than international superstar Jackie Chan. Hung left the Academy after an injury left him bedridden for an extended time, during which his weight ballooned. After finding work in the film industry as a stuntman, he was given a nickname after a well-known Chinese cartoon character, Sam-Mo (三毛; Three Hairs).

In 1988, Hung starred in Alex Law's Painted Faces, a dramatic retelling of his experiences of the Peking Opera School. Among the exercises featured in the movie are numerous acrobatic backflips, and hours of handstands performed against a wall. Despite some of the more brutal exercises and physical punishments shown in Painted Faces, Hung and the rest of the Seven Little Fortunes consider the movie a toned-down version of their own experiences.

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1960s and 1970s

Hung had appeared in several children's movies in the 1960s, but it was not until the 1970s that his career began in earnest. Hung began working for Raymond Chow and the Golden Harvest company and was initially hired to choreograph The Fast Sword (1970). Hung's profile soon began to rise, due to the quality of his choreography and disciplined approach to his work, and caught the eye of celebrated Taiwanese director King Hu. Hung choreographed two of Hu's movies, A Touch Of Zen (1971) and The Fate Of Lee Khan (1973).

Also 1973, he was seen in the penultimate Bruce Lee classic, Enter the Dragon. Hung was the Shaolin student Bruce faces in the opening sequence.

In 1977, Hung made his directorial debut, The Iron Fisted Monk.

After Jackie Chan's Success with Drunken Master (1978) Hung was scheduled to make a similar movie featuring Yuen Siu Tien (AKA Simon Yuen) from Drunken Master. Sammo, being Jackie's elder, was supposed to be able to surpass him in popularity. The movie was called Magnificent Butcher (1979) and during filming Yuen Siu Tien died of a heart attack. He was replaced by Hoi San Lee and it is likely that his absence is what led to the low ticket sales.

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The new wave

Towards the late 1970s, Hong Kong cinema began to shift away from the Mandarin-language, epic martial arts movies popularized by directors such as Chang Cheh. In a series of movies, Hung, along with Jackie Chan, began reinterpreting the genre by making Cantonese comedy kung-fu. While these movies still strongly featured kung fu, they also feature a liberal mixture of humour.

As Hung's star began to rise, he used his newly-found influence to assist his former Opera classmates. Aside from regular collaborations with Chan, others such as Yuen Biao and Yuen Wah also began to make appearances.

In 1978 and 1981, Hung made two movies that are considered to contain the best examples of wing chun. The first, Warriors Two was the biggest role for Korean superkicker Casanova Won, who teams with Hung in the final fight.

The second film, The Prodigal Son, shot fellow Opera schoolmate Yuen Biao to stardom. It also featured what is considered one of the best wing chun to have been caught on film, performed by Lam Ching-Ying.

Hung's martial arts movies of the 1980s helped reinvent how martial arts was presented on screen. While the martial arts movies of the 1970s generally featured highly-stylized fighting sequences in fantasy settings, Hung's choreography was set in urban areas, was more realistic and frenetic and featured long one-on-one fight scenes. The fight sequences from several of these movies, such as Winners And Sinners (1982) and Wheels On Meals (1985) came to define 1980s martial arts movies.

In 1983, the collaboration between Hung, Jackie Chan, and Yuen Biao began with Jackie Chan's Project A. Hung, Chan and Yuen were known as the 'Three Dragons'. Their alliance lasted 5 years, with Dragons Forever being their final film to date.

Hung also created the hopping vampire genre with two landmark movies - Close Encounters Of The Spooky Kind (1981) and The Dead And The Deadly (1983). Both movies featured vampires who, as stiffened corpses, moved by hopping, and Taoist priests who were able to quell these vampires (and at times, each other) through magical spells and charms. These movies melded Chinese folk beliefs with special effects and breath-taking kung fu to create a genre that was uniquely Chinese. Hung's movie would later pave the way for movies such as the highly-popular Mr Vampire (1985).

In the mid-1980s Hung started Bo Ho, a film company that operated under Golden Harvest. Amongst the movies made by Bo Ho was the aforementioned Mr Vampire (1985), and also On The Run (1989).

Hung was also part of the popular Five Lucky Stars, a group who made a series of comedy kung-fu movies.

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1990s

In the late 1990s, Hung starred in an American television series by CBS called Martial Law (過江龍) (1998–2000), with Arsenio Hall as his costar. Reportedly he recited his English dialogue by rote.

Hung is one of the celebrities honoured on the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars.

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