Yellow Haired Super Villains & Heroes (Question)

[DragonClaws]

After recently sitting through The Woman Avenger(1980), it got me thinking about yellow haired super villains/heroes in Kung Fu movies. Peng Kong's yellow hair bad guy Kwong Wu-Chi really stole the few scene he appeared in. He reminded me of Gam Ming's performance as the yellow haired Great Pluto in The Hot The Cool The Vicious(1976). These characters are very much like the iconic white haired villains, such as Carters Wong's Wu Ching character in Born Invincible(1978). How-ever they look far less healthy, with poor complexions and hair that has a yellow look to it. Peng Kong character even starts out looking normal and healthy, but by the end of the film he looks really rough. Despite his Kung Fu skills being sharper than ever. I'm guessing that the look is some kind of effect from heavy long term opium use?, even though they don't mention the drug in the prints I've watched.

Can anyone here name any old school Kung Fu movie characters, that sound like the one two mentioned above?.

Peng Kong trys to subdue Ha Kwong-Li's lethal leg work.

 

Gam Ming aka Tommy Lee(centre).

 

 

[Shaolivevil]

The late great Robert Tai gave an unforgettable performance as the yellow haired villain in Incredible Kung Fu Mission AKA Kung Fu Commandos (1979)

 

[DragonClaws]

10 hours ago, Shaolivevil said:

The late great Robert Tai gave an unforgettable performance as the yellow haired villain in Incredible Kung Fu Mission AKA Kung Fu Commandos (1979)

Now that movie has been on my to see list for far too long, something I will have to rectify next year.

I'd viewed pictures of Tai in that role, but completely forgot about him.

There must be at least a few more yellow haired devils out there in the Martial World?.

 

[odioustrident]

I can only think of the bad guy in Golden Sabre right now. Not a super villain... just a good swordsman. Hwang Jang Lee's wig in Ninja Terminator probably shouldn't count right?

 

[DragonClaws]

2 hours ago, odioustrident said:

I can only think of the bad guy in Golden Sabre right now. Not a super villain... just a good swordsman.

Appreciate you mentioning the character, do you know who plays him?.

 

2 hours ago, odioustrident said:

Hwang Jang Lee's wig in Ninja Terminator probably shouldn't count right?

 

He would be perfect for this thread, but the fact its a wig means he doesnt quite qualify. That said, the actors already mentioned are all wearing wigs, they just pretend their real for the movies at least. Also Hwang Jang Lee looks far too healthy in his Ninja Terminator role.

[Omni Dragon]

While I wouldn't say he looks unhealthy. In the Kung-Fu of Eight Drunkards (1980) the character Gold Tiger (Lung Siu-Fei) of the Silver and Gold Tiger's has gold hair:

 

On 11/5/2017 at 7:04 PM, DragonClaws said:

I'm guessing that the look is some kind of effect from heavy long term opium use?

Could another possibility be albinism?

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

Well, first of all it's a gimmick. But the reasoning, if there really is one, I always thought they were albinos like SAGD just mentioned. The white haired pale skinned villains are usually eunuchs or Chi Gong masters, but I think the yellow hairs is its own thing.

I seem to remember a yellow haired villain or henchman in the film A Real Man, known internationally as Fearles Fighters.... but that's but a faint memory.

[DragonClaws]

15 hours ago, TibetanWhiteCrane said:

Well, first of all it's a gimmick. But the reasoning, if there really is one, I always thought they were albinos like SAGD just mentioned. The white haired pale skinned villains are usually eunuchs or Chi Gong masters, but I think the yellow hairs is its own thing.

At first I wasn’t sure if they were trying to imply they were half Chinese/half Gweilo. This idea got de-bunked, when I watched the Woman Avenger and you see the villainous character has undergone a big physical change.

 

20 hours ago, Silver and Gold Dragon said:

Could another possibility be albinism?

I think that might just be the case with some of the white haired villains?.

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

Then how do we explain Lee Hoi San in "Enter the Fat Dragon"?

[DragonClaws]

16 hours ago, TibetanWhiteCrane said:

Then how do we explain Lee Hoi San in "Enter the Fat Dragon"?

Only Sammo Hung can explain that one, doesnt Lee Hoi San don a similar look in Soul Brothers Of Kung Fu?.

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

No, I think that was Carl Scott 

[Gaijin84]

Sze Ma Lung in 18 Fatal Strikes

[DragonClaws]

2 hours ago, TibetanWhiteCrane said:

No, I think that was Carl Scott 

Lee Hoi San does do the same dodgy get-up in The Secret Of Bruce Lee, and all his students look the same.

1 hour ago, Gaijin84 said:

Sze Ma Lung in 18 Fatal Strikes

From what still's I've seen his hair looks more white?. It may appear a different colour in the movie though?. Sadly as we all know, a lot of the old school movie prints, have really bad faded/distorted colouring. It's a moive I picked up as part of a box-set but never gotten round to watching.

Appreciate you highlighting the character for me @Gaijin84.

[Gaijin84]

5 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

From what still's I've seen his hair looks more white?. It may appear a different colour in the movie though?. Sadly as we all know, a lot of the old school movie prints, have really bad faded/distorted colouring. It's a moive I picked up as part of a box-set but never gotten round to watching.

Appreciate you highlighting the character for me @Gaijin84.

I think you're correct, it was more white than yellow colored.

[HyperDrive]

On 11/6/2017 at 8:31 PM, TibetanWhiteCrane said:

I seem to remember a yellow haired villain or henchman in the film A Real Man, known internationally as Fearles Fighters.... but that's but a faint memory.

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

Yeah, that's the guy... that musketeer looking motherfucker. And that's most def yellow hair.

[DragonClaws]

Thanks for posting the picture @HyperDrive.

 

On 06/11/2017 at 9:46 PM, Silver and Gold Dragon said:

While I wouldn't say he looks unhealthy. In the Kung-Fu of Eight Drunkards (1980) the character Gold Tiger (Lung Siu-Fei) of the Silver and Gold Tiger's has gold hair:

The golden haired character you pointed out, alos appears on this foriegn promotional poster.

 

[DragonClaws]

Would Shut Chung-Tin's character from Battle Wiazrd(1977) count as a blond haired super villian?. The fact he can breath fre, certinaly makes him a super villiain. Having not watched the movie, I'm not 100% sure if his character has yellowish hair?.

 

Not sure if its the lighting/image, that makes his hair appear lighter here?.

[kevenzz]

Hwang Jang Lee had yellow air in Snuff Bottle Connection.

and he also looks completely ridiculous in Ninja Terminator.

[DragonClaws]

17 hours ago, kevenzz said:

Hwang Jang Lee had yellow air in Snuff Bottle Connection.

Man I should have known about that one, thanks for listing those titles @kevenzz

[Omni Dragon]

22 hours ago, kevenzz said:

Hwang Jang Lee had yellow air in Snuff Bottle Connection.

I'd say HJL was more of a white haired in Snuff Bottle.

 

[DragonClaws]

15 hours ago, Silver and Gold Dragon said:

I'd say HJL was more of a white haired in Snuff Bottle.

In the first image posted, featuring Roy Horan, it looks more yellowish.

While in the clips you posted, it appears to be more white.

[Omni Dragon]

6 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

In the first image posted, featuring Roy Horan, it looks more yellowish.

While in the clips you posted, it appears to be more white.

I could be wrong but my limited understanding is, it's a tricky thing colour with camera images, most cameras uses an approximation of the way a human eye sees colour. I not too familiar with how colour film works but have heard and read that digital camera sensors are essentially monochrome sensors with red green and blue (RGB) filters in front. (I think that some earlier colour TV cameras had a kind of similar filter system but on sort of rotating disk.)

On 12/7/2017 at 11:11 PM, kevenzz said:

As for that image to me at least it looks too yellow/a warm colour temperature that is unlikely to be the natural state, for example the sky has a yellow hue.

I'd guess it should look a little more like this:

but perhaps this in itself might be bit too blue/ a cold colour temperature.

I guess it's subjective at the end of the day and my knowledge is limited and I can't be bothered to speculate too much on why that first image looks too yellow to me but IMO (and from my perspective) HJL was more probably intended to white haired in Snuff Bottle.

[DragonClaws]

On 09/12/2017 at 7:13 PM, Silver and Gold Dragon said:

I could be wrong but my limited understanding is, it's a tricky thing colour with camera images, most cameras uses an approximation of the way a human eye sees colour. I not too familiar with how colour film works but have heard and read that digital camera sensors are essentially monochrome sensors with red green and blue (RGB) filters in front. (I think that some earlier colour TV cameras had a kind of similar filter system but on sort of rotating disk.)

Then there's the problem of old images and film fading/changing colour with age. 

On 09/12/2017 at 7:13 PM, Silver and Gold Dragon said:

I guess it's subjective at the end of the day and my knowledge is limited and I can't be bothered to speculate too much on why that first image looks too yellow to me but IMO (and from my perspective) HJL was more probably intended to white haired in Snuff Bottle.

Agreed, appreciate your feed back on the subject.

 

Hwang Jang Lee's hair has a yellow tint here, due to the poor quality/yellow tint on the print.

 

Here's a better quality shot, from the same movie, Dance Of Drunken Mantis, with the hiar looking white.

[Omni Dragon]

On 12/11/2017 at 8:20 PM, DragonClaws said:

Then there's the problem of old images and film fading/changing colour with age. 

Yeah the colours will be subject to ageing of film/prints along with what the white balance of the film was, the processing/development, lighting which is the for the HJL/Horan image is almost certainly natural sun light which is obviously white light  but is affected by passing through atmosphere, dust, clouds etc, I imagine the digitalising process of the HJL/Horan image will have changed it's look a bit, I was also thinking the ground around them is close to yellow and it could have influenced the over all image through reflection.