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Is this Ti Lung photo from the Sentimaental Swordsman?


GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG

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GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG

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Photo posted by: rage tigre 88de98600e1f27c5a9464cefed7b8e5e

Is this Ti Lung photo from the Sentimental Swordsman?

It does not look like the clothes Ti Lung was wearing in S.S.

GD Y-Y

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GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG
It's "The New One Armed Swordsman" I think.

Right you may be.

I knew it was not from S.S.

rage tigre got it wrong.

Thanks DM. :angel:

GD Y-Y

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Betty Pei Ti

La Rage Du Tigre is the French title of The New One-Armed Swordsman

Apart from that, look at his face, he is far too young in this picture to be The Sentimental Swordsman. Chang Cheh shot this movie 6 years later.

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GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG
La Rage Du Tigre is the French title of The New One-Armed Swordsman

Apart from that, look at his face, he is far too young in this picture to be The Sentimental Swordsman. Chang Cheh shot this movie 6 years later.

return-of-the-sentimental-swordsman-1981-ti-lung.jpg%3Fw%3D656

sentimental-swordsman-02.jpg

Awesome Betty Pei Ti.

Thanks.

GD Y-Y

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Eastern Evil

I love Ti Lung, I really do.

Fantastic actor as well as martial artist and that is really important to me when watching

these movies.

Bruce lee had the popularity Ti Lung should have had and Ti Lung had the

career that the Bruce Lee legend should have been able to have had if he had not died way too soon.

When I think of Bruce Lee, I think of Ti Lung more than any other actor.

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Betty Pei Ti
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GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG

The public library will not allow me to go to the Ti Lung interview.

Thanks though Betty Pei Ti.

GD Y-Y

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Eastern Evil
The public library will not allow me to go to the Ti Lung interview.

Thanks though Betty Pei Ti.

GD Y-Y

They are not in order, but I tried to post all the pages - pages 1 & 2 are last!

Hope it helps!

HKC : Can you tell us about your brother in arms with whom you would start a long saga?

Ti Lung : David Chiang is a hugely talented, very nimble person. Before being an actor, he was a stuntman. He’s a man of cinema, a connoisseur, because in his family, his father, his mother, his brother, all worked in the film industry. We worked together in so many films before Chu Yuan separated us.

HKC : How did you two get to work together? Did the alchemy work right from the first films?

Ti Lung : We started working on The Young Juvenile (Dead End, 1969). We had an audition, I wasn’t as good as David Chiang at that time so he would often get the leading role. He had much more experience than me and I’ve learnt a lot from him. Sometimes, he would challenge me, but I would also challenge him. So after so many years together, some people keep thinking that Chang Cheh preferred David Chiang to me. I don’t really agree with this. I’ve remained very patient ;I am like good wine, I would improve with time (and still do). I had to work twice as much, I had to improve my Mandarin, my kung-fu practice and then I waited… and the film Blood Brothers (1973) came out, proved my new status and after thatI became independent. Our roads parted. We may meet again on another occasion… When we are older who knows… we may work again together… Pourquoi pas? (‘Why not?’) [Ed': said in French]

HKC : Director Chang Cheh's actions were decisive in the making of your ‘duo’, but could have it been possible without him?

Ti Lung : As an actor, we have to learn how to survive in cinema. We are given new partners so that the audience doesn’t get fed up. To avoid monotony, we must always find something fresh, new. Thus, after Chang Cheh, I worked with other directors and I succeeded in finding my independence and in surviving in this industry without Chang Cheh and David Chiang.

[Ed’: After I show him a still from New One-Armed Swordsman] That scene out of New One-Armed Swordsman is one where I fall on the ground before dying. It was very difficult and I fainted. Actually, the whole rehearsal had to be done according to lighting and choreography, I managed to finish this scene as best as I could. It was a memorable scene and the action director Liu Chia Liang was a very talented person, he teamed with Tang Chia. Just like me with David Chiang, they parted, got back together for style matters. And this film New One-Armed Swordsman (1971) has something particular with this costume, it was a cow skin, and I had two swords which had to come out f my sleeve. And I had to act so that the two swords come out of my sleeve. And if you look closely, this scene was almost taken up in the film Hero, well borrowed. It happens all the time, that’s cinema. The film poster is more of a Korean style. (laughs)

HKC : Your duo with David Chiang was really brilliant in films such as New One-Armed Swordsman or Deadly Duo. Was it a ‘commercial’ duo or did you have friendly relationships outside the sets?

Ti Lung : Our duo was ‘commercial’, our relationship was friendly. Each of us had a motorbike, and we would ride them to go from one shooting to another. We would constantly throw challenges to each other, and in the evening after the shooting, we would drink together. We discussed, went to clubs. But anyway if our relationship hadn’t been so good, it would have shown on screen, and we would have distanced ourselves from each other. Our relationship were very good, some people said we were two people with the same mind, in the same soul… and there are even some people who wondered if we were not a bit gay.

HKC : But you are not gay !

Ti Lung : (Laughs) I am not!

Page : 1 2 3 4 5 Top

Previous :

Page 2 : Directors Next :

Page 4 : After Shaw Brothers

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Eastern Evil

HKC : : Yourself have directed two films in 1974 and 1975: respectively Young Lovers on Flying Wheelsand The Young Rebel. What do you remember from those two shootings and why didn't you make more films afterwards?

Ti Lung : Why did I make these films? Well, because of Chang Cheh, he had a vision. When an actor reaches a certain level, at some point he needs to change, to get behind the camera as a technician or even a director. As my contract andDavid Chiang’s at the SB were soon over, Chang Cheh thought about recruiting us. He already had Taiwanese people, a new generation of actors-stuntmen (The future ‘Venoms’) that he wanted to put in the foreground. He had the idea of encouraging us to become directors him and me.

HKC : Thanks to Chang Cheh, you had the opportunity to write, play and direct your own films while Chang Cheh directed his own and produced yours…

Ti Lung : On my first film The Young Rebel, I wrote the script which is inspired from my childhood and we can describe it as a miserable, ‘une vie de chien’ [Ed'.: ‘a dog’s life’ in French]. I made this first film and that gave me the opportunity to know more things behind the camera. And for the actor, I chose David Chiang because he’s very slim and his figure was a lot like mine when I was 16/17 at that time I was very skinny and quite fragile. But as you know the work of director is tough, complex and my experience in that field was so limited. I was young so I can call the two films I made as immature. Yet they were very good experiences and I concluded from that that I preferred staying an actor, it takes time to play well. We had little success for the first time and I thought that as an actor, there was still a place for me.

Ti Lung in Drug Addict (1974)

HKC : You also played in David Chiang’s film The Drug Addict in 1974.

Ti Lung : We made a mutual promise to play in each other’s film and that time I was a bit large and I had to follow a drastic diet since I had to lose 15 pounds. [Ed': 7kg]

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Eastern Evil

HKC : The 1980s marked the decline of the Shaw Brothers empire. At this time, you played in a rather average Kung Fu films series produced in Taiwan, until 1986 when you saw John Woo who you met on the shooting of Chang Cheh's Blood Brothers . Could you detail us those ‘tough times’ when you were in exile in Taiwan?

Ti Lung : To come back to Taiwan, two people were significant at that time, the first was Wu Ma who was Chang Cheh's assistant-director, and Pao Hsueh Lieh who was a Shaw Brothers director. Thanks to them, I managed to continue my career in Taiwan by making five films that I would describe as rather mediocre, not as good as the SB ones. We can say that my career was declining… yet we worked very hard but the quality wasn’t there, not like at the SB.

Of course my incomes had increased a lot compared to the SB. But this career move was described as suicidal, the promotion of those films wasn’t good, neither was their artistic quality. I was thought as being ‘out’…

Chow Yun-fat, Ti Lung and Leslie Cheung in A Better Tomorrow (1986)

HKC : How were you contacted by John Woo to play in the A Better Tomorrow serie, which are tributes to Chang Cheh’s wu xia pian films, by the way?

Ti Lung : On my return from Taiwan, I met again an actor friend Shu Tien (Dean Shek) who with two other associates had founded a new society, the Film Workshop. And it’s thanks to those recommendations that I was able to sign a 3-years contract with the producer Tsui Hark. I played with Chow Yun Fat and Leslie Cheung.

HKC : How important was John Woo in the second part of your career (post SB)?

Ti Lung : The film of a rebirth and a recognition.

Drunken Master 2 (1994)

HKC : 1994, the union Lau Kar Leung / Jackie Chan gave birth to the masterpiece of kung-fu comedy that is Drunken Master II and it allowed you to interpret Wong Fei-hong’s father, a comedy alongside Anita Mui Yim Fong. How was the shooting of the magnificent Drunken Master 2 ?

Ti Lung : I made this film for free, I didn’t ask for a fee because the proceeds were going to be given to the HK Stuntman Association. I didn’t ask for a single dollar because as I’ve already told you, I had sent a few stuntmen to hospital for broken ribs or eye problems. This film had a great success in HK, the production earned a lot of money, the money was given to the association and after two years, the money disappeared…

The character I play is Jackie Chan's father. I loved this part because I didn’t merely fight, I could show my acting skills and my ability to please the audience.

In this film, there is a scene when I punish my son (Jackie Chan), I hit him with a stick. I tell Jackie Chan that we will only make one take and warn him that he must put stuffing under his costume to protect himself for I won’t fake my blows, I must look very angry. He protected one side… but I hit the other side! Another actor would have been scared to play this scene, but not him, although he’s extremely popular and has a lot of power.

HKC : Will we keep seeing you on screen and / or television ? Any current activities and projects?

Ti Lung : Now what I’m looking forward to is retirement, making the most of life. I’ve just finished two television series. The first one is General Yang, a part which demanded a lot of energy because the series contains many equestrian fights. The second one deals with a very famous painter.

I talked with my wife and we should spend the rest of our lives spending our money and not keeping it. Moreover, my son Tam Jun-Yin is starting out in the film industry, he’s starting a film career, and it’s now my turn to help him and to guide his steps.

I wanted to thank the French audience for their support, and the interest they have for Hong Kong films.

Pierre Rissent, Ti Lung, Lau Kar and Philip Cheah at the press conference of the 2004 Amiens Film Festival

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Eastern Evil

1st page:

Amiens, November 6th, 2004, I discover the city in the afternoon… that same evening, I meet Ti Lung and his wife. I introduce myself, it is impossible not to recognize Ti Lung, he is still the same elegant, charismatic man that I know through films and photos.

At first I am slightly intimidated by him, I explain to him the reason why I’m here and specify that we will soon meet again. During their presence at the Festival, I have the chance to meet the couple every day. When the ‘official day’ of the interviews comes, I nearly have no more apprehension in front of Ti Lung, we know each other a little. The discussion is a delight by all means, he tells me he is glad to have been invited in France, and asks me why such an honour, such a particular attention, I simply answer him that it is normal for a great actor to be acknowledged. A simple question, a simple answer…

Amiens, its festival, the retrospective dedicated to Ti Lung, its welcome are still vivid in my mind and so will be my respect for a man with a legendary class…

presentation

HKC : How did you end up at the Shaw Brothers?

Ti Lung : At the age of 19, I liked watch a lot of Shaw Brothers (SB) films, my idol was Jimmy Wang Yu (the top star at the moment). So to try to join the SB, I started practising body building by going to the gym, I would practise the Wing Chun (Ed.: a type of Kung Fu) techniques so as to be ready for an audition. Then one day, I read an ad in the newspaper, specifying that Chang Cheh was recruiting new actors.

HKC : So you were recruited by Chang Cheh himself.

Ti Lung : No, not by Chang Cheh at first, because you know, there were different directors who worked at the SB. The SB was a very big organization with many actors and directors and actually it’s a Japanese director who made me take different tests, physical tests like jumping or breaking planks… Once I was selected by this director, Chang Cheh made me take other tests.

HKC : The selection must have been really tough.

Ti Lung : One must know that at that time, there were 1000s of young people who were trying to apply for this kind of work and once selected, we would sign a long-term contract for 5 or 8 years. Then we would start taking a lot of lectures. The second test I took with Chang Cheh was more like an audition because he was testing my acting skills ; I was given dialogues to play, and I was therefore assessed on my acting skills.

And another crucial element at that time, marketing. Films, then, were shot in Mandarin, and in HK we speak Cantonese. Cantonese people in HK didn’t speak Mandarin perfectly. So Chang Cheh found the solution, and this was for me a golden opportunity. I owe all this to Chang Cheh who gave me an 8-year contract and then I went back to the SB school because you must know that our voices were dubbed in Mandarin, it was another actor who dealt with the dubbing into Mandarin. We spoke Mandarin but the accent wasn’t perfect. Now with time, my acting skills in Mandarin have improved. I master it as if it were my mother tongue. Most actors were given western first names to recognize them.

Ti Lung with his wife

HKC : Who found your cinema name? (‘Ti Lung’ from ‘De Lon’ a transliteration of the french actor Alain Delon name).

Ti Lung : At that time, when we went to the SB school, it was very, very tiring. Our classes were very intense and even after that, I would go and see films and I admired a lot Alain Delon's. So I asked the production to choose me a name which would be close to Alain Delon’s in the hope of being as good an actor as him and one day a secretary from the production found this name of Ti Lung, ‘Ti’ is a lucky name and ‘Lung’ means dragon.

HKC : You were given a very good name since you have a face that can be very severe and very gentle at once.

Ti Lung : Alain Delon has a very attractive look, full of mystery ; he has the appearance of a tough guy but at other times seductive. All the girls can fall in love with him, he’s an international star, a great star and I admired him so much.

Ti Lung and Cheng Li in Blood Brothers (1973)

HKC : We can say you are the Asian Alain Delon and that Alain Delon is the French Ti Lung.

Ti Lung : (Laughs) yes.

HC : What training in martial arts did you have apart from Wing Chung ? Do you have the impression that your knowledge in martial arts has been displayed at its best in your films?

Ti Lung : I already knew the technique of the Wing Chun, but at the SB, you had to learn and work several techniques, a wide range of techniques, Thai boxing, karate, judo, taekwondo, the technique of the mantis… The martial arts we practised were a combination of all the techniques I have previously mentioned. We would observe some movements, we would try to copy them by trying to innovate. What’ was important in that you had to make sure not to hurt your partner, you needed both the intensity and a very good self-control. So the look, the facial expression had to trigger fear in the opponent, give this impression of power but while keeping an extreme control at the same time. During this long period when I worked for cinema, I have unfortunately sent several of my partners to hospital.

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Eastern Evil

2nd page:

HKC : You considered Chang Cheh as your father. With him, you became one of his favourite actors along side David Chiang. He liked showing bare-chested warriors who confronted each other in very bloody fights, with a lot of rage and blood. Sometimes they died in excruciating sufferings. Where did he get those ideas?

Ti Lung : I can’t answer about Chang Cheh. [Ed: Ti Lung considers Chang Cheh as his mentor and out of respect, he doesn’t wish to talk about the old master]

HKC : Chang Cheh was a trainer, a kind of drill sergeant and the one who introduced you in the film industry.

Ti Lung : Actually, I could almost say about him that he’s my godfather. At that time, we had small wages. When money was a bit short, we asked for an extra and Chang Cheh, very generously gave a bit of his money. That helped us to brighten up a bit our lives.

HKC : Not only was Chang Cheh a great director but he was also a respectable, very generous, very kind man. He wanted his actors to become "rich and famous" without anything in return.

Ti Lung : Exactly, he wasn’t only a good director, he was someone who liked helping others and moreover he was good at negotiations with the production. He knew how to bargain with them in a way to increase our wages and so increase our standard of living. He’s a wonderful person, a great director, and a leader.

Unfortunately one day, I had a problem. One night, I was drunk and I fought with two HK police officers, and they were two high-ranked police officers so I got arrested and sent to the police station. I was charged with assault and Chang Cheh personally found a lawyer for me who got me out of trouble and he acted in my favour. I was very lucky because I didn’t lose my job.

Ti Lung in Vengeance ! (1970)

HKC : I particularly like the film Vengeance! (shown in Amiens), which is very hard, very pessimistic with a heavy atmosphere. Which memories do you keep of this film?

Ti Lung : In Vengeance ! (1970), I play in the first part of the film and it was a difficult role. A challenge as an actor because I indeed played the part of a stage actor, and there were lots of fights. Finally, the film had a good career as it was a success at the box office, moreover, it got the award for the year’s best film and David Chiang was awarded best actor.

The film was liked in HK, critics described it as sometimes violent but also remarkable. But in Asian film festivals, it wasn’t very easy to get two awards and it wasn’t either a stroke of luck. It has a rare quality which attracts people.

HKC : Even if you don’t appear for a very long time in the film, your role is similar to Janet Leigh’s in Psycho. Since the character dies after ten minutes, but despite all this the character’s shadow can be felt throughout the whole film.

Ti Lung : Thank you.

Ti Lung in Heroic Ones

chu yuan

HKC : You have played the lead role in The Sentimental Swordsman and The Magic Blade.

Ti Lung : The Magic Blade (1976) was my first collaboration with Chu Yuan, it was the adaptation of a novel by a Taiwanese writer Gu Long. When it came, the film caused a sensation and it was the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between the three of us. So I went from Chang Cheh to Chu Yuan, and I worked for many years like this Chu's novels adaptations were released not only in HK but also in Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia. It was if I had won the lottery, it helped me to buy several houses. It was a very good partnership between us.

HKC : Chor Yuen (Cha Chu Yuan in Mandarin) is a very meticulous director, he would replace Chang Cheh’s bloody excesses by with a research more centeredmore on suspense and multileveled plots, with films with a more entrancing atmosphere.

Ti Lung : Chu Yuan started his career at a very very young age as a scriptwriter and also as Shu Tieh’s assistant, a very famous director, his father was the number one actor in Cantonese, his wife was a talented actress, all his family were composed of very talented people. Chu Yuan was an artist with a strange behaviour, he could show up in pyjamas at work because he had forgotten to put his suit, on. He could turn up with something to eat, having slept in his car and then write down any ideas that could come up to his mind and resume work. He was a fundamentally optimistic person who believed in his lucky star.

He was a cinema genius, from his first film The Whispering Palms to House of 72 tenants (1973) which was the first film in Cantonese [for a long time in HK] and which destroyed the Mandarin film market. And then came the film series with Gu Long’s novels adaptations. Chu was a hugely creative person and when he had nothing to do, he would play mah-jong or elaborate new ideas.

HKC : Can you tell us more about your character in The Magic Blade?

Ti Lung : It’s true that I had an aspect quite close to Clint Eastwood’s, a way to challenge an opponent by looking right into the eyes. Actually, contrary to the idea that an actor must always be elegant, Chu Yuan did the opposite. He had a vision, and on the other hand, he had a lot of imagination regarding weapons, he was the one who invented for me a slightly boomerang-like weapon.

Ti Lung in Magic Blade (1976)

HKC : Was your relationship with Chu Yuan very different from the one with Chang Cheh ?

Ti Lung : My relationship with Chu Yuan wasn’t the same as the one with Chang Cheh. For instance, Chu Yuan would come for dinner at my house and play mah-jong with my wife [Ed': a quick knowing glance to his wife present at the interview]. But it wasn’t the same with Chang Cheh. Because he was my mentor, my Pygmalion. With Chu Yuan, it wasn’t as serious, it was more both a brotherly and respectful relationship.

HKC : Which notable differences have you seen between Chang Cheh and Chu Yuan’s productions?

Ti Lung : Chang Cheh had a more original approach, he himself wrote his own scripts, tailor-made scripts for his actors. He showed his actors in a more glamorous way and at the same time showed deeper aspects, he had his own guiding lines, the characters were more attractive. While Chu Yuan would make adaptations, he would take several novels, he took some elements from each of them, combining them and get a very satisfactory result.

If I had to compare them with trees, Chang Cheh would be a very straight pine tree, whereas Chu Yuan would be a Christmas tree. Chang Cheh was more devoted to his work whereas Chu Yuan was more of a playboy, someone who preferred having fun.

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GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG
HKC : : Yourself have directed two films in 1974 and 1975: respectively Young Lovers on Flying Wheelsand The Young Rebel. What do you remember from those two shootings and why didn't you make more films afterwards?

Ti Lung : Why did I make these films? Well, because of Chang Cheh, he had a vision. When an actor reaches a certain level, at some point he needs to change, to get behind the camera as a technician or even a director. As my contract andDavid Chiang’s at the SB were soon over, Chang Cheh thought about recruiting us. He already had Taiwanese people, a new generation of actors-stuntmen (The future ‘Venoms’) that he wanted to put in the foreground. He had the idea of encouraging us to become directors him and me.

HKC : Thanks to Chang Cheh, you had the opportunity to write, play and direct your own films while Chang Cheh directed his own and produced yours…

Ti Lung : On my first film The Young Rebel, I wrote the script which is inspired from my childhood and we can describe it as a miserable, ‘une vie de chien’ [Ed'.: ‘a dog’s life’ in French]. I made this first film and that gave me the opportunity to know more things behind the camera. And for the actor, I chose David Chiang because he’s very slim and his figure was a lot like mine when I was 16/17 at that time I was very skinny and quite fragile. But as you know the work of director is tough, complex and my experience in that field was so limited. I was young so I can call the two films I made as immature. Yet they were very good experiences and I concluded from that that I preferred staying an actor, it takes time to play well. We had little success for the first time and I thought that as an actor, there was still a place for me.

Ti Lung in Drug Addict (1974)

HKC : You also played in David Chiang’s film The Drug Addict in 1974.

Ti Lung : We made a mutual promise to play in each other’s film and that time I was a bit large and I had to follow a drastic diet since I had to lose 15 pounds. [Ed': 7kg]

Thanks my friend.

GD Y-Y

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Betty Pei Ti
The public library will not allow me to go to the Ti Lung interview.

Thanks though Betty Pei Ti.

GD Y-Y

@Sorry you couldn't open the link, GD Y-Y! But Eastern Evil gaves us a hand! :bigsmile:

@Thank you so much, Eastern Evil!:wink:

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GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG
@Sorry you couldn't open the link, GD Y-Y! But Eastern Evil gaves us a hand! :bigsmile:

@Thank you so much, Eastern Evil!:wink:

Thanks.

GD Y-Y

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