Member Elemental Fist Posted July 15, 2011 Member Share Posted July 15, 2011 Something has been bugging me for quite a while for some reason, I know Andy Lau wasn't classically trained in martial arts like Donnie Yen, Jackie Chan or Jet Li. However many of his bio's state that he had martial art training when he joined TVB’s Artist Training Program when he started as an actor. And while a lot of sources say he did use stunt doubles, they also state he got to do stunts himself (he even got injured doing some of them) including in his own concerts. So, particularly in the late 80's to early 90's era of his career, how was he when his fight and stunt scenes start (how much was it him compared to a double in those scenes)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Reel Power Stunts Posted July 15, 2011 Member Share Posted July 15, 2011 Every actor in HK gets/got doubled at some point, and it wasn't always a reflection of their ability/courage. Andy Lau was doubled quite often by Chin Kar-lok back in the day. The documentary "Cinema of Vengeance" shows behind the scenes footage of "Moon Warriors" where Kar-lok is doubling Andy. Another instance of Andy being doubled from that period is Ridley Tsui performing somersaults for Lau in "God of Gamblers 2". The guy who regularly doubled him more recently is apparently a bit of a ringer... Lau was not a martial artist per-se, but did indeed train at TVB, and get to perform many fight scenes in their TV series too. So while he may not be the best acrobat or kicker, he does have a good knack for performing choreography. Just to balance things, while every actor in HK has been doubled at some point - including the very talented and courageous (eg Donnie, Yuen Biao, Sammo, Jackie etc) - it is also true that at some point most HK actors/actresses got to perform action and stunts that in the west would normally be performed by doubles. So Andy has performed on wires, around pyro, crashing through sugarglass etc Dunno if that answers your question, but hope is of interest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Elemental Fist Posted July 15, 2011 Author Member Share Posted July 15, 2011 ^^ So basically, he got to perform more stunts and fight choreography than your typical Hollywood action star, right? Thanks for the reply, it does shed a bit more light on the subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member luckystars Posted July 16, 2011 Member Share Posted July 16, 2011 I think he had some help from Sammo Hung. See him in Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars, one of his first action roles..he's very good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TibetanWhiteCrane Posted July 16, 2011 Member Share Posted July 16, 2011 If you look at him in his non wire stuff like Lucky Stars Go Places and Magic Crystal, in the shots where you can see it's him, you can tell that he must have put in the hours, to look that good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member peringaten Posted July 16, 2011 Member Share Posted July 16, 2011 Don't know about doubling, but he did an excellent job going toe-to-toe against Lu Feng in Shanghai 13. Check this clip from 44 mins 10 secs in: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XODIzODMxMTI=.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Reel Power Stunts Posted July 16, 2011 Member Share Posted July 16, 2011 I love that movie...and "Shanghai 13" kind of illustrates what I was saying - Lau performs the choreography very well (better than many "real" martial artists could), with timing and control, but is doubled for the more acrobatic moves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member AlbertV Posted July 18, 2011 Member Share Posted July 18, 2011 Lau did train in TVB's artist program, but yes Chin Kar-Lok had done a good amount of doubling for Lau. I will say for SHAOLIN, he did train extensively in Seven Star Long Fist from co-star Shi Yan-Neng (aka Xing Yu) and Abbot Shi Yong-Xin. He definitely can perform fights very well given the amount of time he takes to train for each movie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Bronx Rican Posted July 20, 2011 Member Share Posted July 20, 2011 I love that movie...and "Shanghai 13" kind of illustrates what I was saying - Lau performs the choreography very well (better than many "real" martial artists could), with timing and control, but is doubled for the more acrobatic moves. He did his thing quite well, to his credit, and S13 seemed to have more than a few screen fighters doing their best work. The emphasis on real-life martial skill should belong to discussion of choreographers more than that of any of the actors, so some of the knocks on Andy Lau aren't well-deserved. That said, he did get doubled quite a bit on S13 also: he didn't carry himself over the banister, and that was Chiang Sheng somersaulting over the back of that one thug, and that twirl off the desk... oh, hell no. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Cognoscente Posted June 11, 2021 Member Share Posted June 11, 2021 It's a pity that Andy Lau wasn't better at screen fighting because he evokes the essence of Robin Shou here. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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