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Han Yong-Cheol


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images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRPt8-tFN2KH8QCDZtiucKKog7FsBn3-JeU_JXF0b6nnxK5KLbq&t=1

Before Dragon Lee, Hwang Jang Lee, Benny Tsui, Elton Chong and others Korea had one big star, that was Han Yong Cheol.

Born in 1954, in early age Han Yong Cheol moved with his parents to USA during the war problems. This 1.84 tall Tae Kwan Do expert was chosen by Korean film directors to take a part in movie "Manchurian Tiger" and later whole string of other martial art movies including "Korean Connection", "The Succesor" & "My Name is Twin-Legs".

After he retired in 1982, Han went back to USA until 2-3 years ago when he appeared on several Korean film festivals along side Hwang Jang Lee, Dragon Lee, Casanova Wong and Kim Tae-Jeong.

What do you guys think about him? Favorite movie? Any cool lobby cards or anything to share?

Recently Han Yong-Cheol got page on hkmdb.com :smile:

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ShaOW!linDude

I don't know that I've ever even heard of him. He looks familiar but I haven't seen any of his movies that you've listed.

Thanks for bringing him to my attention. Hopefully someone around here knows more about him and his work.

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monkeygift

Great actor! but mainly did movies in Korea.

One memorable scene from one of his movies (The Korean Connection / aka: Returned single-legged man) is him fighting against a group of opponents, including a young Hwang Jang-lee who gets his ass kicked lol. The begining of that scene is pretty much like the opening scene of Once Upon a Time in the West (hero stepping out of a train far away) and that bridge on which he's fighting may look similar to the fighting scene in corridor in Old Boy.

His movies are definitly worth watching if you have a chance.

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This guy had the makings to be a superstar. He is goregous, charismatic, and such an excellent on screen fighter. I was also impress by his tall stature. If he had been in Hong Kong, he would have gone far, I will never understand why actors from korea and their movies are so underrated, heck to me they are the best. I wish he could have pursued a movie career here in the US, but this guy totally rocks, I hope more information about him can arise.

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this guy had the makings to be a superstar. He is goregous, charismatic, and such an excellent on screen fighter. I was also impress by his tall stature. If he had been in hong kong, he would have gone far, i will never understand why actors from korea and their movies are so underrated, heck to me they are the best. I wish he could have pursued a movie career here in the us, but this guy totally rocks, i hope more information about him can arise.

godfrey ho!

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billychang.jpgI'm late on this topic, but Korean Connection (that seems to have several english title like Left foot of wrath, One way bridge, Returned single-leggend man, Returned single legged man 2... but it looke like the very same movie), was the ONLY korean actioner released in my country, Italy, during the international spread of Kung-Fu cinema. It was retitled BILLY CHANG here. Below its the italian poster that looks like a comedy (released in 1976 when the overwhelming amount of martial arts "serious" movies  caused a fast collapse at italian box office, so the distributors tried to sell the title in a different way, cheating the audience sometimes). It went bad as money but later, thanks TV rieditions, it conquered a little fan-cult. I liked it anyway, even because director Lee Doo Young was a sort of Korean Chang Cheh (not a match for the real one anyway). I've read somewhere he took Charles Han Yong Cheol after his audition 'cause he was unusually tall and champion in Taekwondo. Curiously a brief segment of Korean Connection is seen in Dragon dies hard/B. Lee a dragon story, the first biopic with Ho Chung Tao (as you remember, the scene showing "Bruce Lee" directing a movie… a slice from the final fight of Cheol in the japanese headquarter). We never seen anything else with this unsung star, in Italy. But we seen a terrible movie again from Lee Doo Young (B. Lee fights back from the grave). Korean Connection stand tall in my mind for the final scene of the train arrival, with Cheol walking on the bridge killing everyone on his way; the final also stroke me, when after the battle he finds out his girlfriend killed herself, and he explodes in a vane scream of fury.  Thanx for the attention.

Edited by yiyuen
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One Armed Boxer

Oh to be in Korea right now! The Korean Film Archive in Seoul is holding a Han Yong-cheol Film Festival this month! To see that bridge shot from 'The Korean Connection' on the big screen with the archives pristine print, now that would be something else!

https://www.kmdb.or.kr/vod/plan/560?fbclid=IwAR07Nm3v2wI40Z5C42yiBqxzmIPSM6pG-KYnnDhiZonuqPWDPkUUpw6OsWY

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On 9/21/2020 at 7:06 AM, One Armed Boxer said:

'The Korean Connection' on the big screen with the archives pristine print, now that would be something else!

 

Finger crossed that print makes it onto Blu-Ray at some-point in the future. I think you must be the biggest advocate for Korean cinema on the forums @One Armed Boxer.

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One Armed Boxer
On 9/22/2020 at 9:58 PM, DragonClaws said:

Finger crossed that print makes it onto Blu-Ray at some-point in the future.

On 9/24/2020 at 8:10 AM, Killer Meteor said:

KOFA does release titles to BD and online, but so far, no martial arts films AFAIK.

Not Blu-ray, but perhaps the closest we'll get - the Korean Film Archive have released 2 movies that Han Yong-cheol made with director Lee Doo-yong to their Korean Classic Film channel on YouTube. HD with English subtitles!

The Manchurian Tiger - 

Returned Single-Legged Man - 

 

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One Armed Boxer
6 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

Thanks @One Armed Boxer, the links don't appear to be working at the moment?.

What’s the error that you’re getting? I’ve tried them across multiple devices and they all work. As the links state they’re age restricted so you need to be signed into YouTube and watch them on the YT site/app (which the links go to directly), so maybe that’s your issue?

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DragonClaws
16 hours ago, One Armed Boxer said:

What’s the error that you’re getting? I’ve tried them across multiple devices and they all work. As the links state they’re age restricted so you need to be signed into YouTube and watch them on the YT site/app (which the links go to directly), so maybe that’s your issue?

 

Yep, I no longer have an account on there, so thats probably answered it.

 

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