Wu Ma

[paimeifist]

While watching Jet Lis “High Risk” last night, it occurred to me that this old “Shaw henchman” actor had serious longevity in martial arts cinema. Not just that he was in movies, but that he seems to be in rather popular movies of every era.

 

After looking him up on HKMDB, I see this to be true even up to the current era, I think I noticed he had a spot in “14 Blades.” and others films all the way up to 2016 I believe it was.

 

So whats the deal with Wu Ma, why was he able to secure a spot in solid projects for so long when other, more popular actors couldn’t? Is it because he wasn’t a “star”, but just a good guy to work with that had a great reputation in the industry? Is there some connection or allegiance I’m not aware of? Or am I underestimating his skill? He is always a memorable face and character, so clearly he had some charisma/acting chops.

 

Whats your favorite Wu Ma performance? I remember he had a great role as a drunken master type in some film, but I sadly can’t recall which movie that was. I believe he was even the high mark of that movie.

Edited August 14, 2020 by paimeifist

[DrNgor]

4 hours ago, paimeifist said:

I remember he had a great role as a drunken master type in some film, but I sadly can’t recall which movie that was.

He directed Kung Fu of 8 Drunkards and plays the comic relief friend to Meng Fei. At the end, he becomes Meng Fei's student.

As a director, my favorite film of his is Kick Boxer (1993). Other fans hold The Heroes (1980) and Showdown at Cotton Mill (1978) in high esteem.

I liked his swordsman role in A Chinese Ghost Story. 

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

Always loved the guy. A Chang Cheh fave and protégé, serving as assistant or co-director on about three handfuls of CC classics and later a Sammo fave and collaborator having helmed quite a few memorable efforts in between such as the underrated Manchu Boxer for Golden Harvest and Along Came a Tiger, where according to producer and star, Wang Tao, Ma as director would just go drinking and not show up to set and even secretly working on another film while he was suppose to direct ACAT. What a scamp.

An all-rounder in terms of talent, but probably a bit of a shifty, good-times fella one would imagine, never shy about cranking out some clone flicks such as Chinese Ghost Story rip-offs Picture of a Nymph and Fox Legend, the Bullet in the Head "inspired" Story of Kennedy Town and yeah, we all know what Kickboxer is emulating on a fraction of the budget.

Of his best directorial efforts The Dead and the Deadly and co-directing duties for Just Heroes comes to mind.

I love watching him pop up in random villain roles in the 70's, quirky weirdo characters in the 80's and old man parts in the 90's and beyond. Hey, the man kept appearing in films two years after his death.... Yuen Siu Tin style.

I just love his face... I could look at it all day.

 

Edited August 14, 2020 by TibetanWhiteCrane

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

Oh this Wu Ma homage thread is overdue! CHINESE GHOST STORY was my introduction to the genre, and I loved the guy ever since.

 

Edited August 14, 2020 by Chu Liu Hsiang

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

5 hours ago, TibetanWhiteCrane said:

Always loved the guy. A Chang Cheh fave and protégé, serving as assistant or co-director on about three handfuls of CC classics and later a Sammo fave and collaborator having helmed quite a few memorable efforts in between such as the underrated Manchu Boxer for Golden Harvest and Along Came a Tiger, where according to producer and star, Wang Tao, Ma as director would just go drinking and not show up to set and even secretly working on another film while he was suppose to direct ACAT. What a scamp.

An all-rounder in terms of talent, but probably a bit of a shifty, good-times fella one would imagine, never shy about cranking out some clone flicks such as Chinese Ghost Story rip-offs Picture of a Nymph and Fox Legend, the Bullet in the Head "inspired" Story of Kennedy Town and yeah, we all know what Kickboxer is emulating on a fraction of the budget.

Of his best directorial efforts The Dead and the Deadly and co-directing duties for Just Heroes comes to mind.

I love watching him pop up in random villain roles in the 70's, quirky weirdo characters in the 80's and old man parts in the 90's and beyond. Hey, the man kept appearing in films two years after his death.... Yuen Siu Tin style.

I just love his face... I could look at it all day.

 

What he said.

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

If you want to get a better background to Wu Ma as a director, watch this interview with Chi Kuan Chun. Wu was able to make films with and without Shaw Brothers, Golden Harvest or whatever, whereas many (including the somewhat overrated Chang Cheh) were lost once they left Shaw Brothers. Also, he seemed to be better at director the acting. If you want to see a really good, but melancholy film, watch the Dumb Ox. Exceptional movie about loneliness in Chinese society along with being a bang up martial arts films. Pretty much Kam Kong's best film. Get the German DVD. Saw it on the big screen as well, and instead of putting 36th Chamber up again for the 1,000th time as the only kung fu movie to get a screening, someone should try this movie. Anyway, rant over.

 

[ShawAngela]

1 hour ago, NoKUNGFUforYU said:

f you want to get a better background to Wu Ma as a director, watch this interview with Chi Kuan Chun. Wu was able to make films with and without Shaw Brothers, Golden Harvest or whatever, whereas many (including the somewhat overrated Chang Cheh) were lost once they left Shaw Brothers. Also, he seemed to be better at director the acting. If you want to see a really good, but melancholy film, watch the Dumb Ox. Exceptional movie about loneliness in Chinese society along with being a bang up martial arts films. Pretty much Kam Kong's best film. Get the German DVD. Saw it on the big screen as well, and instead of putting 36th Chamber up again for the 1,000th time as the only kung fu movie to get a screening, someone should try this movie. Anyway, rant over.

 

Wow ! What a great interview ! Thanks for sharing !

Who is the actor who speaks after Chi Kuan Chun ?

And Tan Tao Liang looks so young in this tournament !!

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

34 minutes ago, ShawAngela said:

Who is the actor who speaks after Chi Kuan Chun ?

I believe that's Ching Kwok Chung... use to play fatty roles in a bunch of Taiwanese KF films.

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

1 hour ago, ShawAngela said:

Wow ! What a great interview ! Thanks for sharing !

Who is the actor who speaks after Chi Kuan Chun ?

And Tan Tao Liang looks so young in this tournament !!

Toby Russell interviewed him.

 

Edited August 15, 2020 by NoKUNGFUforYU

[DragonClaws]

 

How do people rate Wu Ma as a Director?.

[ShawAngela]

1 hour ago, DragonClaws said:

How do people rate Wu Ma as a Director?.

High, for me.

I didn't watch all of his directorial movies, but I watched several of them without even paying attention that he was the director, and when discovering it, I found myself thinking "what ? That's him ? What a superb work he did with this movie !"...

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

5 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

 

How do people rate Wu Ma as a Director?.

Much higher than Chang Cheh, Chor Yuen, and most of the guys at the time. Higher than Sammo as well. His rape scenes in movies just put me off. He is fun to watch and does nice choreography but he seems like a terrible person.

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

18 minutes ago, NoKUNGFUforYU said:

Much higher than Chang Cheh, Chor Yuen, and most of the guys at the time. Higher than Sammo as well. His rape scenes in movies just put me off. He is fun to watch and does nice choreography but he seems like a terrible person.

Let me just get this straight.... you rate WU MA higher as a director than CHANG CHEH, CHOR YUEN and SAMMO HUNG? Now there's a hot take if I ever saw one.

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

Sammo seems to like to beat women in his films. Chang ran out of ideas after 1976 or so and Chor Yuen is overrated. 

[Killer Meteor]

I don't find Wu Ma very interesting or unique as a director...he is a very good comic actor though.

[DrNgor]

On 8/15/2020 at 2:13 PM, NoKUNGFUforYU said:

Much higher than Chang Cheh, Chor Yuen, and most of the guys at the time. Higher than Sammo as well. His rape scenes in movies just put me off. He is fun to watch and does nice choreography but he seems like a terrible person.

 

On 8/16/2020 at 12:25 AM, NoKUNGFUforYU said:

Sammo seems to like to beat women in his films.

I do think these observations about Sammo Hung come across as being rather unfair. Yes, sexual assault shows up in some of his films (Iron-Fisted Monk; The Victim), but you talk about it as if it were the defining feature of his directorial style. It is not. Saying that he comes across as a terrible person just because his freshman directorial effort has rape scenes comes across as being rather judgmental.

Yes, women occasionally get beat up in his films (Mr. Nice Guy; Encounter of the Spooky Kind), but that's nothing that other directors haven't done, including Jackie Chan (Police Story I and II; Operation Condor), Lau Kar-Leung (Tiger on Beat), and many others. Singling Sammo out for it comes across as unjust. 

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

15 minutes ago, DrNgor said:

 

I do think these observations about Sammo Hung come across as being rather unfair. Yes, sexual assault shows up in some of his films (Iron-Fisted Monk; The Victim), but you talk about it as if it were the defining feature of his directorial style. It is not. Saying that he comes across as a terrible person just because his freshman directorial effort has rape scenes comes across as being rather judgmental.

Yes, women occasionally get beat up in his films (Mr. Nice Guy; Encounter of the Spooky Kind), but that's nothing that other directors haven't done, including Jackie Chan (Police Story I and II; Operation Condor), Lau Kar-Leung (Tiger on Beat), and many others. Singling Sammo out for it comes across as unjust. 

Not just judgmental and unjust.... it's fucking moronic. Sometimes this place turns into "hot take" central where people act like kids on the playground, waving their arms around yelling "look at me!". It's pathetic.

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

2 hours ago, TibetanWhiteCrane said:

Not just judgmental and unjust.... it's fucking moronic. Sometimes this place turns into "hot take" central where people act like kids on the playground, waving their arms around yelling "look at me!". It's pathetic.

Pistols at dawn. You've already said that lame ass Meng Fei was better than Fu Sheng, so it's come to this....

[Killer Meteor]

On 8/16/2020 at 9:37 AM, Killer Meteor said:

I don't find Wu Ma very interesting or unique as a director...he is a very good comic actor though.

And I must backtrack a bit on him as a director, I really liked FROM CHINA WITH DEATH

[Killer Meteor]

5 hours ago, DrNgor said:

 

I do think these observations about Sammo Hung come across as being rather unfair. Yes, sexual assault shows up in some of his films (Iron-Fisted Monk; The Victim), but you talk about it as if it were the defining feature of his directorial style. It is not. Saying that he comes across as a terrible person just because his freshman directorial effort has rape scenes comes across as being rather judgmental.

Yes, women occasionally get beat up in his films (Mr. Nice Guy; Encounter of the Spooky Kind), but that's nothing that other directors haven't done, including Jackie Chan (Police Story I and II; Operation Condor), Lau Kar-Leung (Tiger on Beat), and many others. Singling Sammo out for it comes across as unjust. 

I think my problem with it boils down to IRON FISTED MONK alone - that rape scene is really vile. Makes I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE downright respectable by comparision.

 

There are rapes in various kung fu films, but they are usually over with fairly quickly and don't come across as too pornographic.

 

Don't get me wrong, I like porn. Just not rape porn.

Edited September 9, 2020 by Killer Meteor

[DrNgor]

7 minutes ago, Killer Meteor said:

And I must backtrack a bit on him as a director, I really liked FROM CHINA WITH DEATH

I watched that last night (as I posted in the other thread). It's certainly one of his better films as a director, for what it's worth.

[ShawAngela]

2 hours ago, Killer Meteor said:

There are rapes in various kung fu films, but they are usually over with fairly quickly and don't come across as too pornographic.

There is one in the series with Pai Piao I talked about a little while ago and for which I got only two episodes, Duel with the devils, and not only it's a very long and violent one, but also, it shows more than in movies, and I was rather surprised to see this kind of scene in an old TV series...

[Cognoscente]

On 9/9/2020 at 2:36 PM, DrNgor said:

I do think these observations about Sammo Hung come across as being rather unfair. Yes, sexual assault shows up in some of his films (Iron-Fisted Monk; The Victim), but you talk about it as if it were the defining feature of his directorial style. It is not. Saying that he comes across as a terrible person just because his freshman directorial effort has rape scenes comes across as being rather judgmental.

Yes, women occasionally get beat up in his films (Mr. Nice Guy; Encounter of the Spooky Kind), but that's nothing that other directors haven't done. 

Having said that, he missed his calling as a rape revenge director. Had he directed such a movie with Lily Li in the early years of his directorial career, it would have been a powerful film. What I've always liked about Sammo is that his attempts at drama are not always melodramatic as would be the case with other HK directors. He can be remarkably subtle.

Edited June 4, 2021 by Cognoscente