Why Shaw Brothers Hong Kong wuxia film star Ti Lung only played heroes, and why Chen Kuan-tai traded on his ‘real kung fu’ skills as opposed to Jackie Chan’s stage kung fu

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Chen, 78, has had a varied career, making his name in period films directed by the legendary Chang Cheh – his powerful debut in 1972’s Boxer from Shantung is particularly dynamic – and also playing dramatic roles across the full spectrum of martial arts films.
He has starred in many classic films, including Chang’s The Blood Brothers and Heroes Two, Lau Kar-leung’s Executioners from Shaolin, and cult favourite The Flying Guillotine.

The Tea House (1974) and Big Brother Cheng (1975), two films he made for director Kuei Chi-hung at Shaw Brothers, may rank as the first triad films ever made.

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Chen differs from many of the stars of the 1970s in that he was tough looking and lacked the movie-star looks of fellow actors like Alexander Fu Sheng.

His kung fu skills were his strength, rather than his image. Chen prided himself on the fact that, unlike most of his peers, who learned kung fu at the Shaw Brothers studio acting school, he was a professional martial artist before he entered the film industry.

Chen had trained in Monkey-style kung fu, and won the lightweight title at the first Asia Kung Fu tournament in Singapore in 1969.

Chen Kuan-tai (front) and Alexander Fu Sheng in a still from “Heroes Two” (1973). Photo: Celestial Pictures Limited
“In films, I can tell those who can do real kung fu and those who have just learned it for the movies,” he said in an interview for the Hong Kong Film Archive book When the Wind Was Blowing Wild. “ Jackie Chan, for instance, taught himself well, but he’s still not doing combat kung fu – he learned it from the stage, from Peking opera.”

Chen has also aspired to be more than an actor, and has always kept an eye on the money. He formed his own production company, Tai Shen, as early as 1973, and moved into directing in 1977 with Iron Monkey – a film which led to a two-year lawsuit with his employers Shaw Brothers over his contract, which he lost.

Chen started learning Monkey-style kung fu at seven years old. His big competition win was noticed by Shaw Brothers, who gave him a contract, and he began working as a stunt man on films like Chang’s Vengeance!.
Chen Kuan-tai pictured in 1972. Photo: SCMP
His skills were noticed by Chang and choreographer Tong Kai, and he was given the lead in Chang’s big-budget production Boxer from Shantung, a gangster film about a young fighter who becomes a crime boss in Shanghai.

Boxer from Shantung was a hit, leading the Post to note that “actor Chen is now so busy on his new assignments that he hardly finds any time to spend with his family”.

“Director Chang often started very late at night,” Chen told the Film Archive. “He would often look like he was napping on set, but you couldn’t assume that he had actually fallen asleep, because he was always aware if a shot was good or not.”

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Killer Constable, directed in 1980 again by Kuei Chi-hung, is a stand-out from the later part of his career at Shaw Brothers – he returned to the studio after losing the lawsuit. Chen plays a vicious police official who indiscriminately kills his suspects in this Qing dynasty drama.

The little finger on his right hand was cut off during filming, when his on-screen opponent accidentally aimed a sword blow at his head instead of his body.

“Out of instinct, I tried to block the blow with my hand, and my little finger was cut off. I was lucky, as all my fingers could have been cut off,” he said.

David Chiang (left) and Chen Kuan-tai in a still from “The Blood Brothers” (1973).

Ti Lung, the valiant one

Unlike Chen, Ti Lung was not an expert in martial arts, although he had received some after-work training in wing chun before he joined Shaw Brothers.

Ti Lung (centre) and Lo Lieh (right) in a still from “The Magic Blade” (1976). Photo: Celestial Pictures Limited

Moreover, Ti, whose real name is Tam Fu-wing, was almost exclusively cast in heroic roles. His honest face and upright demeanour meant that directors had difficulty envisioning him as anything but a valorous hero.

With the exception of his first-rate role as a troubled gangster in John Woo Yu-sum’s trendsetting 1986 triad film A Better Tomorrow, Ti, 77, is most remembered for his swordsman roles in wuxia films.

“Anyone can swing a sword, but Ti Lung swings one with charisma,” one critic noted.

Ti Lung pictured in 1972. Photo: SCMP
Although he is modest about his hand-to-hand fighting skills, he did co-star in some of Chang’s Shaolin kung fu films. He also acted in some of the prolific director’s lesser-seen contemporary gangster dramas, and took a purely dramatic role as Emperor Kuang Hsu – playing opposite Lisa Lu Yan – in Li Hanxiang’s The Empress Dowager.

Often paired with David Chiang, whom he looked up to, Ti made his name as a regular star of Chang’s acting squad in the 1970s.

Highlights include the cowboy-Western-influenced Have Sword, Will Travel, Vengeance! (in which he excelled as a Peking opera performer who was killed in the first third of the film), and New One-Armed Swordsman.

Chiang was usually cast in impish roles, and Ti – who was usually billed under Chiang – would play his upstanding counterpart. Ti has said that screenwriter Ni Kuang modelled the fictional characters on the real personalities and values of Chang’s stars.

Ti has always believed in the values of Shaolin kung fu. “In a wuxia film, one must uphold the wuxia spirit,” Ti told the Film Archive in 1999. “One must not kill the innocent, and you must honour your teachers and respect their learning.”

Interestingly, Ti only had a major role as a wuxia villain once, and it was his most memorable performance. In Chang’s brilliant The Blood Brothers, he was cast in the role of a martial artist who becomes a general and betrays his friends in the pursuit of power – and his best friend’s girl.

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“I think that villains are simply unfortunate souls who are sacrificed in the narrative,” he told the Film Archive. “They can be very human.”

In 1986, production house Cinema City asked him to star as a troubled gangster trying to go straight in John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow. Ti thought that the wuxia spirit was present in the gangster – whom he described as “half-hero, half-villain” – and he accepted.

(From left) Leslie Cheung, Lau Siu-ming and Ti Lung in a still from “A Better Tomorrow II” (1987).
Although Chow Yun-fat’s gun-wielding gangster Mark gets all the attention today, Ti’s measured and mature performance is superior.
Ti, who continues to take minor roles in films today (most recently in this year’s Lonely Eighteen), still believes in the virtuous values of Shaolin. “We were nurtured by martial arts films,” he said.

In this regular feature series on the best of Hong Kong cinema, we examine the legacy of classic films, re-evaluate the careers of its greatest stars, and revisit some of the lesser-known aspects of the beloved industry.

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