RIP, Phillip Ko (Ko Fei)

[Jimbo]

One of the finest old-school KF film stars, Phillip Ko passed away on March 30. He was 67 years old. He played both heroes and villains, but was usually cast as villains, at which he particularly excelled. Regardless, he was always fun to watch. He worked his way up from being a stunt extra; reportedly, his first appearance onscreen was as a corpse in a Shaw Brothers film directed by Chang Cheh. Also as a stunt extra, he was one of 3 of Han's henchmen (along with Chan Lung and Alan Hsu Chung-Hsin) who escorted John Saxon to the courtyard for the final battle in Enter the Dragon. But he would go on to do so much more.

Phillip Ko's film career went on to span more than 30 years, and over 200 movies, both in front of and behind the camera.

The following vid shows only a tiny sample of some of Phillip Ko's onscreen work:

@ 0:00, from The Loot;

@ 3:49, from Two on the Road (a.k.a., Fearless Dragons);

@5:10, from 8 Diagram Pole Fighter.

[GeneChing]

Thanks for posting, Jimbo.

[Jimbo]

Thanks, Gene.

Here is another action clip of Phillip Ko, this one from Gold Connection (a.k.a., Iron Dragon Strikes Back), this time with Phillip as a hired assassin vs. Ho Chung-Tao (a.k.a., Bruce Li). IMO, this was arguably the best screen fight scene of Ho Chung-Tao's movie career. It also allowed Phillip Ko to begin displaying his ability to engage in more brutally physical (and almost claustrophobic) onscreen fights, apart from the more stylized 'kung fu shapes' he was so known for.

*Note:
Unfortunately, clicking on this vid takes you to YouTube to view it, as playback on other websites has been disabled by the owner.

[Jimbo]

Phillip Ko, discussing Bruce Lee on the set of Enter the Dragon (I would have preferred subtitles to the voice-over, but still interesting):

[Jimbo]