Dream Team: All-Star Stunt Crew in ‘The Professionals’ (1967), Part 1

Features | Electric Shadows | by Jean Lukitsh

Wouldn’t it be amazing if Lau Kar-leung made a movie with Yuen Woo-ping?

Reader, if the very thought of that kind of old school mash-up makes you go weak in the knees, I have a treat for you. But for any newcomers to the genre, let me explain first that both Lau (THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN, HEROES OF THE EAST and EIGHT DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER) and Yuen (CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, the MATRIX films and KILL BILL) are legendary action directors who have helped shape modern cinema. Although they’ve never had a chance to collaborate as master filmmakers, they did work together in a handful of films back in the late 1960s. Lau Kar-leung (Liu Chia-liang) is almost ten years older than Yuen Woo-ping, and established himself as a top martial arts choreographer in 1963 with SOUTH DRAGON, NORTH PHOENIX. His colleague and collaborator on that film and many others from that era was Tong Gaai (Tang Chia). Over the next five years, their stunt crew would include not just Yuen Woo-ping and his brother Cheung-yan, but also Lau’s brother Kar-wing. All these men would play a major role in the development of kung fu cinema over the next 40 years.

Left: Josephine Siao in THE PROFESSIONALS. Right: Yuen Woo-ping plays a young thug.

It was no accident that the Lau’s, the Yuen’s and Tong ended up working together. Their association was forged in the 1950s, on the sets of the long-running Wong Fei-hung film series. Yuen Siu-tin, Tong Gaai’s sifu and father of Wo-ping and Cheung-yan, and Lau Cham, father of Kar-leung and Kar-wing, were the premiere stunt performers and choreographers for that highly influential early martial arts saga. By 1963, both Lau Kar-leung and Tong Gaai were in their late twenties and had years of experience as stuntmen. The mid-1960s was a transitional period in Hong Kong action cinema. The old stagebound Chinese opera-style choreography was evolving in a more cinematic direction. Lau and Tong began their careers as choreographers, but they were among the pioneers pushing the art in a new direction. The modern Hong Kong action director functions as more of a second unit director, controlling not just the actors’ movement but also camera placement and editing in the fight scenes.

In 1967, Lau Kar-leung and Tong Gaai choreographed a contemporary drama for the Kong Ngee studio. This was just before both men were recruited by the powerhouse Shaw Brothers company, where they would work with director Chang Cheh on his early kung fu hits. Kong Ngee specialized in urban drama and romance with an edgy, modern look. THE PROFESSIONALS, the film that Lau and Tong choreographed, starred Patrick Tse Yin and Josephine Siao. THE PROFESSIONALS owes a little bit to James Bond and a lot to THE AVENGERS, but the plot is pure jianghu. Rival gangs battle over a briefcase full of jewels as Tse and Siao, sometimes allies and sometimes adversaries, are drawn into the conflict. A 22-year-old Yuen Woo-ping plays a thug in one of the gangs, while his younger brother Cheung-yan, Lau and his brother Kar-wing, and Tong joined the cast as muscle for the other side. In the clip posted below, Patrick Tse Yin and Josephine Siao have just met at a restaurant and are confronted by some punks, including Woo-ping (in white shirt with dark pants and jacket). Mayhem ensues. Although Yuen Woo-ping’s role mostly involves reacting to Tse’s punches in a way that makes the star look good, he does have one nice bit when he leaps onto the bar and executes a series of short angled kicks in his opponent’s direction.

Part 2 of this review will look at Lau Kar-leung’s role in THE PROFESSIONALS.

Originally posted August 14, 2007.