yuen shun yi

[jethro]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZxkivbJP3ko

This has to be one of the weirdest moment in cinema history. Yuen Shun Yi is freaking scary.

[doug maverick]

this was my favorite film as a kid.

[jethro]

Correct, Donnie's first movie and a good showcase of Tai Chi, although Woo Ping later perfected this style in his tv show-Tai Chi MAster.

But mor importantly, you learn how to make a wooden rocking horse with your bare hands.

[Li Kao]

The clip can be summed up as:

The practical side-benefits of Qigong *or* Kung Fu Meets Carpentry :D

Nice clip Jethro -- hadn't seen that in a while...

[jethro]

I think I saw someone first post this clip here so I can't really take credit for it, i jsut forgot who posted it first.

It is an amazing scene but it isn't even the weirdest scene in the movie. You also have the fireworks fight and the Chinese Opera break dancer. And all of those scenes aren't even nearly as weird as the rest of the drunkard series! The Yuen clan made great movies, but you have to wonder what kind of drugs they were on back then.

[Jimbo]

Yuan Xinyi (Yuen sum-yi) first started playing strange "monster" characters in Dreadnaught as a crazy mute serial killer. Next came The Miracle Fighters, where the Yuen clan began doing the weird magical tricks/odd inventions. In Miracle Fighters Yuen Sum-Yi played a bat-like evil magician/monster. That of course led to Shaolin Drunkard, Taoist, Drunken Tai Chi, etc.

[jethro]

He did have an amazing start to his career. He was even a good substitute for Jackie Chan in Dance of the Drunken Mantis(the sequel to DM).

Most people will probably know him as Chief Fox in Iron Monkey. He was also in a ton of other newer Yuen movies like In the Line of Duty 4 and he lets Jet Li out of prison in OUATIC part 1. Operation Scorpio... he was in too many to name, the guy is good in everything.

[Jimbo]

Also, before he became a "name" performer, Yuen Sum-Yi appeared in at least one of Chang Cheh's early Fu Sheng Shaolin movies as an extra alongside Yuen Woo-Ping. Also can be seen in Invincible Armour, where John Liu wraps a chain around his throat against a tree. Also he's Hwang Jang-Lee's victim in the opening scenes of Drunken Master.

I thought he did a particularly good job in Buddhist Fist.

[jethro]

I haven't seen enough shaw films in my life to have ever recognized him but i certainly recognize many others in the Yuen clan in those old movies. I think he fought along side Yuen Baio in Invincible Armour if I remember correctly. He was in a ton of Corey Yuen, Woo PIng, ang Ng See-Yuen movies.

And yes, he was AWESOME in Buddhist Fist.

AND YOU ARE RIGHT, he is the guy that Hwang faces in Drunken Master. Good call!

[Jimbo]

Jethro:
Actually, the guy who teamed with Yuen Biao in Invincible Armour was none other than Yuen Kuei, aka, Corey Yuen. Corey Yuen also had another small role in that film as one of the bullies who tries to take away the kid's older sister. Yuen Sum-Yi was the red-faced(?) ugly guy who I think allows Li Hai-Sheng to escape from John Liu. By the way, Corey Yuen was also Hwang Jang-Lee's evil disciple in Dance of the Drunk Mantis.

Useless trivia, I know.;)

[jethro]

Yeah, haven't seen Invincible Armor in a while. I do now remember his part. It is one of my favorite scenes actually where the kid stands up for his sister.

And Corey Yuen good in Drunken Mantis. He had that great scene with that lady with the legs from DM. My favorite scene from Corey Yuen has to be from 7 grandmasters. He is also great in Fong Sai Yuk 2. He probably did the action for Invincible Armor. He did so many in the 70's and early 80's and never gets enough respect for it. He always came up with new stuff every movie, like Buddha Assassinator for one. I think he has a cameo in the opening sequence of that movie.

[Jimbo]

You're right, Corey Yuen did play a part in the opening of Buddha Assassinator.

It's interesting how many of the Yuen family starred in films. BTW, Corey Yuen was not a member of the Yuen family, but was given the name Yuen when he was a student with Yu Jim-Yuen, along with Yuen Wah, Yuen Tak, Yuen Biao, Jackie Chan, etc.

Yuen Yat-Chor was the guy who played the young Huo Yuanjia in Legend of a Fighter, and was also the lead in Miracle Fighters, Shaolin Drunkard,etc., etc. Also appeared in Instand Kung Fu Man. Yuen Bun(?) starred in Young Hero, was the monkey style henchman in Magnificent Butcher, and was an extra in countless films.

Yuen Cheung-Yan was the drunken Taoist in Shaolin Drunkard, the kung-fu bookseller in Kung Fu Hustle, and countless others. And their father, Yuen Siu-tin you already know is the drunken master and acted in the old Wong Fei-Hung series.

I guess they could be called the First Family of the kung fu genre.

[jethro]

Yuen Cheung Yan was a Taoist weird type of guy in TONS of movies. The 3 Drunkard films, Drunken Tai Chi which is pretty much the 4th, and even movies like Tai Chi Master and Legend of a Fighter. Legend of Fighter he just has a cameo, but there are still more!

Then you have Yuen Tak and Yuen Bun who are responsible for basically every Hong Kong action movie made in the 80's and 90's. And they are still working.

I would put the Lau family first though. Simon Yuen was probably in movies before the 2 Lau's, but the Lau's are the ones that started everything and developed the genre into what it became. I am sure there were people before them, but they I the first big names we really know of. And of course Lau Kar Leung is more well known.

[Jimbo]

On second thought, I'd have to agree with you that the Lau family should be first. Lau Kar-Leung was a movie stuntman way back in the early '60s, and started directing fight scenes for Chang Cheh very early. And he was the first to start choreographing movies that featured actual kung fu styles and style training sequences in the Chang Cheh Shaolin series. Lau Kar-Leung's first self-directed movie was 1975's The Spiritual Boxer starring Huang Yu, a kung-fu comedy that pre-dated Snake in the Eagle's Shadow by 3 years.

Before Lau's choreography in the Shaolin series, KF movie fights tended to be generic fight scenes with (mostly) sloppy, poorly-trained performers. The one BIG exception at that time being Bruce Lee.

Oddly enough, Lau said in a documentary that of all the people in movies, only Bruce Lee ever showed real Chinese kung fu. I thought that kind of odd.

[jethro]

That is an odd comment.