As I continue to look back at the historical development of kung fu movies in Hong Kong and China, the period from about 1967 until 1973 stands revealed as a time when the old traditions collided with a newer, more modern approach to action filmmaking, resulting in an explosive burst of talent and creativity. Yuen Siu-tin, Shek Kin, and Kwan Tak-hing were all still active, but up-and-comers like Lau Kar-leung, Tang Kai, Chang Cheh, King Hu, Cheng Pei-pei, Jimmy Wang Yu, Ti Lung, David Chiang, Sammo Hung, and, above all, Bruce Lee, brought youth and energy to the screen. Never again would Hong Kong cinema draw on such an abundance of real kung fu ability. Not every film made during that time was a masterpiece, but very many of them remain an inspiration and a standard to aspire to even today.
Left: Han Yingjie (far left), Li Lihua, and Bai Ying in THE FATE OF LEE KHAN (1973) and on right in COME DRINK WITH ME (1966).
The name of Han Yingjie (Han Yin-chieh) isn’t as well known as it should be, and that’s a shame, because he was a top action director at the time. He choreographed COME DRINK WITH ME (1966), the original DRAGON GATE INN (1966), and A TOUCH OF ZEN (1969) for director King Hu, and ESCORTS OVER TIGER HILLS (1969) for director Wang Xinglei. He is also credited as the action director on Bruce Lee’s THE BIG BOSS (1971) and FIST OF FURY (1972), although Lee no doubt controlled much of his own performance. And Han was Sammo Hung’s first mentor, taking the opera-trained youth on as a stuntman and setting him on the path to becoming a rising action director and star of the next generation.
Han Yingjie was born in 1927. He trained in Peking Opera in Beijing from the age of nine, and eventually moved to Shanghai, where he joined the prestigious Fu Lian Cheng troupe. His specialty was acrobatics, and he worked in the circus as well as on stage. He also briefly joined the local film industry as a stuntman in 1946, but he appears to have left Shanghai a year later. Like so many other entertainment professionals from the war-torn mainland, he ended up in Hong Kong and found work in the film industry and on stage. According the Hong Kong Film Archive, he was an uncredited stunt coordinator and action director on many of the Wong Fei-hung and Fong Sai-yuk films of the 1950s. By 1966, Han’s reputation had grown to the point that wuxia director King Hu selected him as action director on his groundbreaking series of swordplay films. Hu attracted international notice by bringing modern production techniques and an exquisitely artistic sensibility to Chinese action films. But Han was the one who made the actors soar.
Left: Han Yingjie was credited with the fight choreography in Jackie Chan’s NEW FIST OF FURY (1976). Right: Promotional magazine for ESCORTS OVER TIGER HILLS (1969).
Director Lo Wei also tapped Han Yingjie as choreographer on films like THE BLACK BUTTERFLY (1968), DEATH VALLEY (also 1968), and DRAGON SWAMP (1969, starring Cheng Pei-pei). It was this connection that probably led to Han working with Bruce Lee on the Lo Wei-directed films THE BIG BOSS and FIST OF FURY. Han played Lee’s nemesis, the titular Boss, in the first film, as well as contributing choreography. With his harshly angular face, Han could be an arresting presence onscreen. He appears in King Hu’s FATE OF LEE KHAN (1973) as one of the secret revolutionaries and in THE VALIANT ONES (1975) as a pirate – both films are choreographed by his protege Sammo Hung. Han’s career slowed down later in the 1970s, but he did choreograph NEW FIST OF FURY (1976), an early Jackie Chan vehicle.
In this clip from THE FATE OF LEE KHAN, Han Yingjie (in turban) is seen fighting three soldiers of the Manchurian government. His character in this film is a scruffy but resourceful itinerant musician; his mission in this scene is to quietly take out a patrol without alerting the larger body of troops. He’s using a loose, almost awkward fighting style. Its purpose is to deceive his opponents into underestimating him. (In an earlier scene, he pretends to be incompetent but somehow always tangles himself up with his foes in a way that prevents them from fighting.) Nevertheless, his movements are precise and effective.
This entry was originally posted on Oct. 10, 2007. I’m re-posting it now because COME DRINK WITH ME will be released on DVD by Dragon Dynasty in a few weeks. Full disclosure: I’m working on a newsletter for their website. As part of my research, I watched COME DRINK WITH ME again (my old Celestial VCD version). It’s such a gorgeous film, and Han Yingjie’s jazzy choreography perfectly complements the intricate games being played on the screen. I’ll be posting another entry on COME DRINK WITH ME soon.
Related Topics:
Cheng Pei-pei • Han Yingjie • King Hu
