“That was pretty good acting, old man, I must say.” - Jackie Chan to Shek Kin in THE YOUNG MASTER (1980).
Maybe it was Shek Kin’s background in martial arts that led to his mastery of “bad guy” roles. Certainly it taught him how to convey menace or cowardice through posture and stance. He also learned to use his mobile face in a way that was easy for the audience to read – his brow corrugates, one eyebrow arches, a lip curls, and we instantly understand that this is a despicable guy.
Left: Shek Kin and Kwan Tak-hing in a Wong Fei-hung movie. Right: Shek Kin.
Shek was a very stylized actor in a period and genre that encouraged a high degree of stereotyping. He was probably quite aware of the camp value of some of his performances. His appearance can be cartoon-like to a virtuosic degree – chalk that up to his physical training. But time and again, he shows himself capable of unexpected nuances and subtlety in his acting.
Most of Shek Kin’s early films aren’t available on video – probably very few have survived. The Fong Sai-yuk and Wong Fei-hung films of the 1950s are among the missing. The earliest work of Shek’s now available is in the adaptation of Ba Jin’s Torrent Trilogy FAMILY, SPRING, and AUTUMN) from 1953-54. It’s not typical of his style in that he plays a straight dramatic role, neither martial artist or criminal. He found these dramatic parts harder to come by and so he carved a niche as a wuxia and kung fu villain. It was a wise decision, because he ended up making over 500 films in a career that stretched from 1940 to his retirement in the mid-nineties.
By 1960, Shek Kin was in demand for the newest incarnation of wuxia films, the ones starring Connie Chan Po-chu, Josephine Siao, Walter Tso Tat-wah, and Yu So-chau. These were generally shot on a shoestring budget over one to two weeks, leaving the cast little time to rehearse, reshoot, or rest. Shek was inevitably the evil kung fu master, scheming in a throne room dominated by a giant mural of a skull or demon. The rare production gave him room to create more complex characterizations, and he always crafted something worth watching. In JADE IN THE RED DUST (1966), his stereotypical thug moves to kill an infant, since he is unable to get his vengeance on the father. His hand hovers over the baby, and a look of confusion washes over his face. He’s confounded by the baby in his arms, and that changes his plan.
For the epic SIX-FINGERED LORD OF THE LUTE (1965), Shek was cast as Connie Chan’s father, in a rare wuxia protagonist role. He’s not entirely admirable. He’s too proud and a little slow on the uptake – his wife is the brains of the operation – but he is very, very brave. In this and other sympathetic parts later in his career, Shek showed he was able to effectively play against type, using his devilish smile and eyebrows to charm. In fact, over the decades “Bad Man Kin” changed into “Uncle Kin” for Hong Kong film audiences. He became the ideal “cool” grandpa. Jackie Chan played off this persona when he cast Shek as his comic nemesis in THE YOUNG MASTER. By 1980, Chan could get a laugh from the local audience by obscuring Shek’s face in their first shot together: he prattles innocently to the “old uncle” before letting the audience see the sinister smile on Uncle Kin’s face.
Shek Kin just turned 94 years old last month (he’s 95 now! – reposted 2/12/2008) . He still lives in Hong Kong. Although he’s been retired from the film industry for over a dozen years, he remains a favorite of audiences young and old in both Asia and the West.
Next: The Awesome Kung Fu of Shek Kin.
This entry was originally posted on Feb. 21 2007.
Related Topics:Jackie Chan • Shek Kin
