Bruce Lee and the Triads

[Phantom Dreamer]

A thread to discuss Bruce Lee and his connection with the Triads, from his teens to his thirties. Do you believe the Triads played any role in Kung Fu Jesus' physical and mental decline, as well as his eventual death? Do you believe the Triads had any involvement in Brandon Lee's shooting death? Is it off limits? 

[Phantom Dreamer]

Did the Triads force Bruce Lee to be circumcised at the age of 22? Did the Triads force Bruce Lee to abuse cortisone for the last 3 years of his life? Did the Triads force Bruce Lee to undergo the normal surgical operation to having one's sweat glands removed? Did the Triads force Bruce Lee to take Betty Ting Pei on as a mistress? 

[shukocarl]

Did the Triads make Bruce wear odd socks?

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

I heard the triads tried to clone Bruce Lee with the aid of ex-nazi scientists but while the experiments ultimately failed, the unsuccessful clones were still sent to work, and thus we got Bruce Li, Bruce Le, Bruce Lo and even the more mutant speciments like Dragon Lee. There were tales of a mysterious runaway clone named Bluce Ree, but only one man has ever seen him, a man by the name of Andy Baltimore.

Edited January 15, 2018 by TibetanWhiteCrane

[Phantom Dreamer]

Triad tired

[DragonClaws]

11 hours ago, Phantom Dreamer said:

Did the Triads force Bruce Lee to abuse cortisone for the last 3 years of his life?

Nope, he was abusing at a time when many American football players were doing the same. Sadly at the time he hurt his back, Dr could hand cortinsone out to their patients, allowing them to use how and when they liked.

[Phantom Dreamer]

50 minutes ago, DragonClaws said:

Nope, he was abusing at a time when many American football players were doing the same. Sadly at the time he hurt his back, Dr could hand cortinsone out to their patients, allowing them to use how and when they liked.

Funny, on the post mortem reports, there was no mention of needle marks on his back, where I assume he injected cortisone. Strange omission?

[Fist of the Heavenly Sky]

Nothing is off the table. Regardless, I think it's wishful thinking to believe that the Triads were solely responsible for Bruce being utterly reckless with his own health time and again. 

I think the closest Bruce ever got to being associated with Triads was due to his partnership with Lo Wei. It's hardly a secret that Lo used his Triad chops to ensure that he could film both Big Boss and Fist of Fury without major incidents.

I don't doubt that Betty Ting was a Triad spy. In spite of his own flirtatious behavior, I honestly do not see Bruce voluntarily engaging in an affair with such a mentally ill person like her. 

[Phantom Dreamer]

Bruce Lee and the blank checks he was supposedly receiving from strangers off the street, one, is it true? and two, Triad related?

[Phantom Dreamer]

Chan Wait Man interviewed by Bey Logan:

Chan Wai Man lives in a three-storey, Sai Kung, Hong Kong, home. It's like the whole household is involved in fighting. Tyson, Chan's dog, is a champion from the illegal dogfights popular in the New Territories, so too are his pet bear and his specially trained chickens. His son and daughter both train in martial arts under one of Chan Wai Man's students, and the man himself is still more than capable of unleashing a fist or foot of fury. It would be easy to pass judgement on a man who has his pets fight for sport, on someone whose background includes streetfights, gangfights, boxing and kickboxing matches and, of course, choreographed martial artsmovie action. However, for those of you willing to encounter a real fighter, Chan's the man. 

The veteran of films like Dragon Lord and Project A, Part Two is the combatant that Bruce Lee may have wanted to have been. If Chan Wai Man died tomorrow, there would be none of the disputes over whether he was a `real' fighter that have marred The Little Dragon's memory. Unbeaten in the ring or on the street, Chan, a good friend of Lee's, is living proof that, sometimes, crime does pay. I went to visit the unrepentant folk hero at his home, and survived to file the following report. Chan Wai Man talks like he trains and fights: at full bore. When he warms to his theme, his face reddens, his neck muscles tense and he turns to one side to emit a stream of Cantonese expletives. He's a very trim fifty-year-old, still happy to go toe-to-toe with any man, and to doff his shirt to reveal his lean, mean and tattooed torso. Here's what this raging dragon had to say about his fighter's life... 

Bey Logan: First of all, could you tell us a Little about your background, where you grew up and where you began your martial arts training? 
Chan Wai Man: I'm of Hakka stock, so my family comes from the New Territories. When I was very young, around ten years old, I started learning Northern Shaolin kung fu under my first Sifu, Yau Han Gung-Si. Later, I started to study Tam Ka Sam Gin. It looks like karate (he demonstrates a few Goju Ryu style movements). Very slow, but big power! Then, I moved on to western boxing. 

Bey Logan: You fought !n the ring, didn't you, as both a boxer and a kickboxer? 
Chan Wai Man: Yes. In 1972, I was the South-East Asian kung fu fighting champion. I fought for that title in Singapore. I also fought boxing matches against westerners, fighters who were stationed with the British army here in Hong Kong. I was never an international boxing champion, just the Hong Kongchampion. I like boxing very much, though. I think that, if I'd been born overseas, I would have pursued that as a career. 

Bey Logan: You were one of the first of the kung fu heroes to have a physique like a western boxer, a very lean look. What kind of training regimen did you follow? 
Chan Wai Man: I had the same attitude as Bruce Lee. In the old days, you could learn traditional kung fu, and you had to train many years before you could fight well. With boxing, or kickboxing, you could train hard for only one year, and already be effective I had worked as a bodyguard before, and you couldn't use kung fu to fight. It wasn't like a kung fu challenge match! When you fought, it was like what we call a 'dar-gow', a dogfight. Anything goes! For this reason, I stopped learning kung fu and shifted to the boxing style. BruceLee was the same. He started focusing on western style conditioning, like running, skipping, weights, bagwork. 

Bey Logan: When you faught in the ring, what did you consider to be your most effective technique? 
Chan Wai Man: For my weight, I could punch hard. At that time, I used to enter these empty hand kung fu fighting tournaments and, compared to me, the fighters couldn't hit hard, so I used to knock them out. Later, the standard of those kind of matches improved. Now we have quite a few good ring fighters in Hong Kong. I had about sixteen bouts. All but two ended in knock-outs. Many of them, I could knock out with my jab! 

Bey Logan: That's unusual. Which of the western boxersdid you admire? 
Chan Wai Man: Ali. Not just for his skills, but because he was a real star He wasn't that powerful, but he was very light, very fast. Now, I like Tyson. He looks like a tiger! However, Tyson cannot fight for a long time. He lacks stamina. If the fight goes to the eleventh or twelfth round, he starts to look tired. In the early rounds, he's very powerful, very dangerous. Ali was very smart, though. He'd had very clever tactics. Of all the fighters, I like to watch Muhammad Ali the best. 

Bey Logan: We've talked about your punching. What were your favourite kicking techniques? 
Chan Wai Man: I looked at the kicking techniques from all styles, Taekwondo, Thai boxing, kung fu. The Korean kicks look very beautiful. However, I have to say that the best kicking I saw was by Bruce Lee. Fast, but very powerful! Some people were faster, but they lacked power Only Bruce had this, so, of course, I tried to follow his kicking style. 

Bey Logan: I believe the person who started off your film career was Victor Lam, who works with Samo Hung now... 
Chan Wai Man: Yes! He was my boss a long time ago, when I made this film called The Killer from Denmark. Victor saw me fighting in Taiwan on television, knocking down my opponent. He told a mutual friend of mine that he wanted to meet me. I asked this friend what he wanted. "To make a movie," he replied. "I don't know anything about making movies!", I replied. He said: "No need! It's a fighting film! No need to act, just fight." That was in the early Seventies. 

Bey Logan: That was when Bruce Lee was at his peak. What was your attitude towards him at that time? 
Chan Wai Man: He was already on the scene when I started making films. It was because of him that producers wanted to find real fighters to make kung fu films. Bruce Lee was my good friend, long before he made films, when we were both still at school. We went to different schools, but we knew each other well. 

Bey Logan: Later, when you were both working In films, did you train together? 
Chan Wai Man: We didn't train, as such, but I'd often visit him at his apartment in Waterloo Road and later at his house in Kowloon Tong. I'd see all his trainingequipment! We'd compare theories on fighting. Bruce was the most popular kung fu actor. I was already the best-known fighter in Hong Kong, and I was getting into a lot of street-fights at that time. Back then, if you worked in kung fu movies and you went out into Tsim Sha Tsui East at night, these lan jai (young punks) would say things like: "Hey, you! Can you really fight or is it fake?", and so you had to fight or lose face! Bruce was always fascinated by this, by real fighting. He would always ask me what technique worked, what didn't. We used to joke about it. He used to call me 'The Streetfighter' and I used to call him `The Academic'! 

Bey Logan: Do you think that, had he pursued a fighting career, Bruce Lee would have been a champion? 
Chan Wai Man: Oh, yes. He would definitely have been a good fighter. Obviously, fighters like Muhammad Ali were so much bigger and heavier than him, but, pound for pound, I don't think anyone could beat him, either in Hong Kong or internationally. However, I never saw Bruce Lee fight anybody. He didn't need to fight! He was a movie star! He wasn't a bad guy like me! However, he was very strong. He could beat Bolo at arm-wrestling. You know how big Bolo is! That was at Golden Harvest. I often used to visit the set when Bruce was filming there. 

Bey Logan: What was the atmosphere like on the set when Bruce was shooting? 
Chan Wai Man: He never used to stop! He was always moving! If he wasn't acting, he was choreographing the action, or else he was off practising kicks in the corner or having meetings with Raymond Chow. The only time I saw him relax was when he smoked dai ma (marijuana)! He wasn't like a traditional Chinese person, more like a westerner. 

Bey Logan: How come you never worked together? 
Chan Wai Man: We just never had the opportunity. The nearest we came to it was on The Unicorn Palm. Bruce's friend, Unicorn Chan (Siu Kay Lun), was the star of this film, and I played the bad guy. Bruce choreographed a couple of scenes for it, but Unicorn could never be a kung fu star! His action was no good. It was just that he was Bruce's friend. He died in a car crash quite a few years ago. 

Bey Logan: Right 1 saw film of you and Bruce together et the press conference for that film. Did you know Chieh Yuan, the kickboxer who worked with Bruce on the original Game of Death? 
Chan Wai Man: Yes, only he wasn't a kickboxer. He was a karate man. He died not too long after Bruce, of a brain tumour. I went to visit Bruce when they were preparing the sets for Game of Death, but not when they were filming. 

Bey Logan: Within the Hong Kong film community, why do people think Bruce Lee died? 
Chan Wai Man: Many rumours. People say he was struck by a sudden illness brought on by his engaging in too much sex! I don't believe that! Have you heard the story about how four Japanese fighters attacked BruceLee at an airport in America? They say he sustained a serious head injury, but didn't realise how bad it was until too late. They attacked him because he said karate was no good. 

Bey Logan: How about you? Did you ever go to fek kwoon (challenge a rlval school)? 
Chan Wai Man: Oh, yes! Many times! It was very well-known at that time. One time I went to the So Long gym, which was the biggest in Hong Kong at that time. This guy had knocked out one of my students so I went down there to tek kwoon. Another guy taught Thai Boxing, and said that Chinese kung fu was no good. He was very arrogant, I entered the Hong Kong Freefighting championships just to fight him, and then knocked him out. Afterwards, he told everybody "Chan Wai Man is not a kung fu man! He is a boxer!" I told him: "Shut your mouth! I win! You lose! Only I talking! You no talking!" 

Bey Logan: Did you ever engage in bei mo (challenge matches)? 
Chan Wai Man: Oh, many times. You'd get people challenging you in the streets. This is back in the Seventies. As soon as you had a name, people would come after you. I had a reputation for streetfighting. 

Bey Logan: Gettlng back to your fllm career, you've done both tradltional kung tu and modern style actlon movies. Which are harder to make? 
Chan Wai Man: Period films. Many of the movements were unfamiliar to me. They were techniques I'd never use in a real fight, and you'd have to perform a sequence of twenty or more of them without a cut. That would be just one shot! If you forgot just one move, it'd be an `n.g.' (no good) shot. The old sword-play films were much easier. You iust made one movement in a tight shot, and then left the rest to a stuntman! I find modern day thrillers much easier to do. 

Bey Logan: One of the most innovative tllms you starred in was The Club (Mo Teng), directed by Kirk Wong for Bang Bang Fllms... 
Chan Wai Man: Right. The story was written specifically for me. It was based on real experiences in my life. 

Bey Logan: My God. You mean all that chopping and stuff...? 
Chan Wai Man: No comment! The Club was the first real Hong Kong gangster movie. It was before ChowYun Fat came on the scene. 

Bey Logan: Was there any controversy about the showing of a fllm In which the hero was a Triad gangster? 
Chan Wai Man: No. It passed through the film certification board. No problem. You know why? Because the police commissioner, the Hong Kong government, everybody already knows I'm a gangster! Actualiy, back when I was eighteen-years-old, I was apolice man for two years. No-one knows this! Then they discovered my Triad background and I got kicked out! 

Bey Logan: You've obviously got a good sense of humour, because you've played comedy roles in films Iike Carry On Yakuza. 
Chan Wai Man: Actually, I find comedy quite hard to do, but people in the industry seem to think I do it quite well. The audience don't like it, though. They like to see me play a killer! I did a few comedies, though. The Unmatchable Match, with Chow Sing Chi, and Carry On Yakuza. You know, they were all real yakuza in that film! They weren't actors. The Japanese mafia have a certain haircut, and the extras we got didn't look right, so we went out and got real yakuza members! We had no choice. You know who is Takakura Ken? He was the top Japanese gangster star He made a film with Robert Mitchum called The Yakuza. They used to call me `The Hong Kong Kurata Ken'! I did a Japanese style swordfight in a film called Gangland Odyssey. Did you see it? 

Bey Logan: With Luk Chuen (Yasuyoshi Shikamura), rlght? He's an old triend of mine. 
Chan Wai Man: Really? Well, I directed that film. For me, using a sword is easy, because I've used a chopper so many times in reality. I have a samurai sword here that some people in Japan gave me. Would you like to see it? 

Bey Logan: Just as long as there's no blood on it and saying it won't make me a witness to anything... (Chan shows us a truly impressive katana.) Have you ever appeared In any foreign films? 
Chan Wai Man: Yes. I was in one French film. I shot twenty days in Paris as a guest actor. 

Bey Logan: You've appeared in films wlth Jackie Chan,Dragon Lord and Project A, Part two. Did you work with him on any other movies? 
Chan Wai Man: Yes, back when he was a stuntman! I was the lead and you couldn't see him. He was just a stunt double! 

Bey Logan: On Dragon Lord, I'd guess that most of your scenes were cut from that tilm. 
Chan Wai Man: Jackie Chan was trying to imitate BruceLee in a couple of scenes, using that kind of fast, close range action, but he couldn't do it because he's never learned real fighting. He doesn't look powertul. That's why he does all this kung fu and acrobatics. He shot a lot of fights for Dragon Lord and then cut them. In fact, Jackie Chan shot lots of scenes for that film and then had to cut them later because the film was much too long. The choreographer on that film was my student, and he made me look very good. When Jackie Chan saw that, he didn't want me in the film to compete with him, so he cut all my fights out! 

Bey Logan: You did another film with hlm, Project A, Part Two. There's an amazing shot In that film where you flip this sofa over with your foot, then walk over it and sit down in one take. How many takes did that require? 
Chan Wai Man: That was the first take! The second time, I couldn't do it! I'd either kick it too hard or not hard enough. It wasn't on wires or anything. Jackie Chan wanted to cut that out, too, and said "No!". Some of my fighting with Jackie Chan was cut as well. Where I hit him is cut, where he hits me is left in! 

Bey Logan: How come you never worked with Samo Hung? 
Chan Wai Man: Maybe it was because I got into a fight with him one time at Hollywood East disco! That was a long time ago, though. 

Bey Logan: I remember one occasion when producer Ng See Yuen booked a studio at Golden Harvest to stage a death match befween Korean tighter Wong Jang Leeand a Chinese kung fu man. I believe you were on hand for that. What happened? 
Chan Wai Man: The Chinese guy was my younger kung fu brother, Chen Kay Ying. Mr. Wong told everyone his taekwondo was very powerful, and that no-one from Chinese kung fu could fight with him. For this reason, Hong Kong martial arts people were very angry, and so Chen Kay Ying challenged him to go to Golden Harvest to fight. No-one dared to referee such a match, so they called me. I was in Taiwan at the time. I came back to Hong Kong to referee the match. I had already known Wong Jang Lee for some time. However, someone called the police, and so the fight couldn't take place. I told Chen Kay Ying: "Good! Better you don't fight." I knew both guys and I knew that Wong Jang Lee very good. Also, it was a no-win situation for Wong. If he lost, then he could never make kung fu films in Hong Kong. If he won, he could never make films here, either! 

Bey Logan: Of all your tilms, whlch do you regard as the best? 
Chan Wai Man: I like quite a few of them, for different reasons. Of the modern day ones, Gangland Odyssey was good. It had a very good market in Japan. Of the kung fu films, I like The Heroes. It won an award in Japan. I like this film very much. 

Bey Logan: I don't thlnk I've ever seen a picture of you with any body-fat visible! What kind of training do you do now? 
Chan Wai Man: I don't train nearly as much as I used to. I like swimming and running, and I do some weight-training. Now, I'm fifty years old, and my physique is the same as ever. I'll show you. (He takes off his shirt to reveal his lean, mean physique, and the trademark tattoos of eagles that adorn his back.) As far as staying thin, my secret is that, when I go to the gym, I don't do any slow movements. I perform every exercise very fast. I train with the Bruce Lee mentality, and I believe this makes the muscle definition last longer. It looks better. 

Bey Logan: When did you get those tatoos done? 
Chan Wai Man: When I was very young. They used to be very bright. They've faded now. 

Bey Logan: After Bruce Lee died, there was quite a demand on the lnternational scene for a `new BruceLee'. Did you ever get approached by an overseas fllm company? 
Chan Wai Man: Yes, but I didn't do it. Firstly, I don't want to dishonour the memory of Bruce Lee by trying to capitalise on his death. Secondly, I feel that anyone making an obvious effort to copy Bruce Lee is going to get laughed at! If anyone can be allowed to imitate him, then it's his son, Brandon. In fact, I once introduced Brandon to some Japanese investors who wanted to make a film with him. They felt that Jackie Chan had dominated the Japanese market for too long. They wanted to find a new movie star. I flew to Tokyo with Brandon. Now, Bruce was great, right, but sometimes it's not 'like father, like son'. At that time, Brandon was such a 'sor jai' (silly boy). He was very stubborn. He didn't want me to tell people Bruce Lee was his father. He'd say: "I'm my own man! I'm Brandon Lee!". The Japanese producers wanted him to make a kung fu movie. They wanted him to learn the Bruce Lee style. They said: "Bruce Lee's blood flows in your body. If you learn a little of the Bruce Lee style, that's good. People will accept it." We felt the Japanese people would like this. Some other people who looked like Bruce Lee, Ho Chung To (Bruce Li), Tang Lung, Huang King Lung (Bruce Le), they all tried to follow Bruce Lee, but the Japanese market will not accept him. We felt that they would accept the son of Bruce Lee. Anyway, this was eight years ago, and I drew up a contract with the Japanese for three year contract. For this first film, he'd get paid H.K. $2 million dollars. Second movie, H.K. $3 million. 

Bey Logan: So why dldn't Brandon ever make these fllms? 
Chan Wai Man: Because he told them he didn't want to make action films. He wanted to make a love story! He said that he hadn't learnt enough from his father to do amartial arts film. Then, we had a big dinner for him in Japan, and he turned up in scruffy jeans and a t-shirt, young American boy style! Ai Yahh! I gave him a slap round the head and sent him back to America! I was very angry. 

Bey Logan: What do you thlnk hls problem was? 
Chan Wai Man: I think that, at that time, he was angry at his father, because, being the son of Bruce Lee, everyone expected him to be like Bruce Lee. I told him: WYou're only worth 2 million dollars because you're Bruce Lee's son! If you were not his son, you're not worth twenty dollars!" 

Bey Logan: I remember Bolo Yeung telling me he had similar problems with Brandon when they made Legacy of Rage for D and B In Hong Kong. 
Chan Wai Man: Oh, I've known Bolo a long time. I knew him since he first came to Hong Kong from China. He swam over, do you know that? He had been a championbodybuilder in China, and then escaped to Hong Kong. He was the biggest guy in Hong Kong at that time. Later, he got into movies. I hear he's making all these films in America. It's amazing! Most of the films he made here, he only had a very small role. Just the heavy! 

Bey Logan: Are you Involved in making a film at the moment? 
Chan Wai Man: Yes. I'm producing and acting in a Triad action film in Malaysia. We're raising the financing now. (?) 

Bey Logan: Do you expect that your chlldren wlll follow In the famlly tradition and fight or make martJal arts movies? 
Chan Wai Man: My older son is studying in Canberra in Australia right now. He's not so much into martial arts. My son and daughter here in Hong Kong both train with one of my students. Who knows? 

Bey Logan: Given the years that you've been Involved In the martial arts, do you have any message for all the younger martial artists reading this interview? 
Chan Wai Man: Yes. I think that, when you're young, you think you'll be young forever Remember, training is not just for when you're young, but for your whole life. Don't train so hard that you have many injuries and pain in your old age. Remember that you're old for longer than you're young! 

Bey Logan: You certainly seem to be a Iiving example of the benefits of a healthy Iifestyle. Chan Sifu, thanks for taklng tlme to talk to Martial Arts Illustrated. 
Chan Wai Man: Thanks for coming all the way out here to see me!

(Author's note: Most of the interview was conducted in Cantonese, and translated into colloquial English by Po-Ling Choi and Bey Logan. However, on the occasions when Chan Wai Man burst into his own unique Englishlanguage expletives, I've retained the quotes verbatim, to give the flavour of his speech. Hence, the two different styles of language used in this piece. This interview is copyright of 'Martial Arts Illustrated' all rights reserved. Chan Wai Man also appears on Toby Russell's documentaries Cinema of Vengeance and Top Flghter.) 
 

[DragonClaws]

 

Quote

Word was that Lo Wei, was a Sun Yi On Triad, that he had an order that Jackie should be chopped to pieces if he came back to Hong Kong- thus, Jackie filmed in Taiwan for a couple of year's. Finally actor and member of an opposing Triad, Jimmy Wang Yu offered to help solve matter's by talking to Lo but only fnd himself cornered by unfamiliar Triad henchmen holding water melon knives, - a favored weapon for their razorlike slicing abilities.

Wang Yu was lucky that Policemen happened to be in the area and stopped the carving demonstration. The newpapers only reported that Lo Wei & Wang Yu were called in for questioning, nothing more. Raymond Chow of Golden Harvest eventually settled the matter by buying out Chan's contract. Of course, only those there know if this is the real story.

 

Dying for Action: The Life & Films of Jackie Chan

Source- https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BZY3AQAAQBAJ&pg=PT88&lpg=PT88&dq=Lo+Wei+and+the+triads&source=bl&ots=uKxsq2eb6U&sig=ACfU3U3_vekgYeTiyLvNLmnyBmJQSFAayQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi0j9-p1_HlAhVJh1wKHUlBDOc4ChDoATAJegQICRAB#v=onepage&q=Lo Wei and the triads&f=false

 

 

Quote

Sun Yee On (Chinese: 新義安), or New Righteousness and Peace Commercial and Industrial Guild, is one of the leading triads^[1] in Hong Kong and China. It has more than 55,000 members worldwide.^[2] It is also believed to be active in the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Belgium.^[2][3]

Source- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yee_On

 

Hong Kong Police hunt leaders of two Sun Yee On triad factions after tit-for-tat attacks - (2016-Article)

Heads of Tsim Sha Tsui and Kwun Tong gangs thought to have fled to the mainland.

Source- https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1939362/hong-kong-police-hunt-leaders-two-sun-yee-triad-factions

 

 

Director and former Teen idol Lo Wei directs Jackie Chan and Nora Miao, on the set of New Fist of Fury(1976).

[DragonClaws]

 

6-minute English subtitled excerpt taken from a much longer interview.

 

 

 

 

This appears to be the complete original interview?, minus the english subs.

 

 

 

[DragonClaws]

 

Hong Kong Triads and 'their' lucrative movie industry (Article)

Link- http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/hong-kong-triads-and-their-lucrative-movie-industry

 

Quote

Michael Bay has run into some problems while filming Transformers 4 on location in Hong Kong. He’s been the victim of two separate extortion attempts in as many weeks. One attempt even featured a member of a Triad. The Triads, the Chinese version of the Mafia, have a notorious and bloody history in the Hong Kong movie industry.

Quote

With the recent extortion attempt by members of the Sun Yee On it is interesting to take a look at the leadership of this Triad group, since it’s there where we can see the strong links between the criminal underworld and the film industry.

Heung Wah-yim led the Sun Yee On for decades before being sentenced to over seven years in prison in 1988. He would only serve two years though and went on to control the Triad after his release. By then, Heung’s two brothers Charles and Jimmy were heavily involved in the bustling Hong Kong film industry with their production studio Win's Entertainment Ltd. Together with the aforementioned Golden Harvest these two were the most successful production companies in Hong Kong.

In 1992, Jimmy left the movie business, allegedly to become a leader of the Sun Yee On, while Charles founded the China Star Entertainment Group. The company produced films starring Jet Li, Andy Lau, Sammi Cheng, and Simon Yam.

Jet Li, who is now a big Hollywood actor, starring in movies such as Romeo Must Die, Lethal Weapon 4, and The Expendables franchise, began working exclusively for the Heung brothers after his own manager was murdered.

 

[Killer Meteor]

Interesting that Chan Wai-Man says he was the villian in Fist of Unicorn. He's not in the finished film, but he is in the press conference footage I believe.

[DragonClaws]

On 11/27/2019 at 4:04 PM, Killer Meteor said:

Interesting that Chan Wai-Man says he was the villian in Fist of Unicorn. He's not in the finished film, but he is in the press conference footage I believe.

 

I wonder what his involvment was?, did he have an acting contract with the studio who produced the movie?. Or was it run by friends of his?.

[Cognoscente]

On 1/16/2018 at 12:05 AM, Fist of the Heavenly Sky said:

I think the closest Bruce ever got to being associated with Triads was due to his partnership with Lo Wei. It's hardly a secret that Lo used his Triad chops to ensure that he could film both Big Boss and Fist of Fury without major incidents.

 

When Van Williams was interviewed for Fighting Stars magazine (the April 1978 issue), he recalled his final meeting with Bruce in May '73. Van said: "The Chinese mafia approached him about certain things. I don't know what the whole story was."

[Cognoscente]

When Bruce threatened Lo Wei on July 5 in 1973, Lo was attending a screening of a film called Snake Girl. According to an interview that he did for Robert Clouse's BL biography, Raymond Chow had invited him to lunch where he asked him about "a picture from Cambodia" that was making very big money. Raymond wanted him to view the film, which they had at the studio, and to the suggest the reasons for its success.

According to HKMDB, Snake Girl was filmed in Thailand. Either way, it's an odd film to choose from until I noticed that the director of Snake Girl, Heung Ling, had also directed Chan Wai-Man in Thailand for a 1973 film called Angry Tiger. Both films have the same Thai actor: Phairoj Jaising.

According to a Hong Kong book called Golden Harvest: Leading Change in Changing Times, Lo Wei went to Thailand in May 1973 to film The Tattooed Dragon and returned to Hong Kong in early July. Perhaps Chan Wai-Man and Lo were working in Thailand at the same time. By the time that it was July, Chan was working on The Chivalrous Knight - produced by the same company who did Fist of Unicorn: Star Sea.

One of the last films that Heung Ling directed was a 1977 fantasy called Deadly Snail vs. Kung Fu Killers. One of the stars is Unicorn Chan, who was a friend of Chan Wai-Man. Back to Bruce, when he went up to Lo and called him a beast in human clothes, perhaps he was defending Maria Yi's honour. The below comment had put me on this line of thought.
 

Heung Ling had a very short career - four films from 1973 to 1978. His last two films feature an actor named Tin Ching, who acted in 19 films with Kelly Lai Chen. The significance being that Kelly was one of Lo Wei's collaborators and closest friends. Kelly can be seen on the set of The Big Boss and Fist of Fury. He attended Bruce's funeral alongside Lo, and he even married someone who appeared in Enter the Dragon: Angela Mao. Lo and Tin had worked on 10 films together.

Given how brief that Heung's career was, perhaps it was an alias for Tin Ching. Under his real name, he has a credit as an assistant director for a 1970 film called The Extra Duty of a Governess.

[ShawAngela]

2 hours ago, Cognoscente said:

Heung Ling had a very short career - four films from 1973 to 1978. His last two films feature an actor named Tin Ching, who acted in 19 films with Kelly Lai Chen. The significance being that Kelly was one of Lo Wei's collaborators and closest friends. Kelly can be seen on the set of The Big Boss and Fist of Fury. He attended Bruce's funeral alongside Lo, and he even married someone who appeared in Enter the Dragon: Angela Mao. Lo and Tin had worked on 10 films together.

Given how brief that Heung's career was, perhaps it was an alias for Tin Ching. Under his real name, he has a credit as an assistant director for a 1970 film called The Extra Duty of a Governess.

Are you talking about the Shaws' and Cathay's actor Tien Ching ? Except him and another Tin Ching mentioned on hkmdb, I don't see who you are talking about, because none of them is credited as assistant director.

[ShawAngela]

On 11/27/2019 at 5:04 PM, Killer Meteor said:

Interesting that Chan Wai-Man says he was the villian in Fist of Unicorn. He's not in the finished film, but he is in the press conference footage I believe.

I just read the interview and was about to say the exact same thing ! Chen Hui Min didn't appear in Fist of Unicorn !

[Cognoscente]

This Tin Ching (scroll all the way down): https://hkmdb.com/db/people/view.mhtml?id=2521&display_set=eng

[ShawAngela]

6 hours ago, Cognoscente said:

This Tin Ching (scroll all the way down): https://hkmdb.com/db/people/view.mhtml?id=2521&display_set=eng

That's really Tien Ching, then. Thanks for confirming.

[mpm74]

10 hours ago, Cognoscente said:

When Bruce threatened Lo Wei on July 5 in 1973, Lo was attending a screening of a film called Snake Girl. According to an interview that he did for Robert Clouse's BL biography, Raymond Chow had invited him to lunch where he asked him about "a picture from Cambodia" that was making very big money. Raymond wanted him to view the film, which they had at the studio, and to the suggest the reasons for its success.

They're remaking it! 

 

[Cognoscente]

It's like a Chinese version of something they'd show on SyFy.