In Memoriam: Walter Tso Tat-wah (1915-2007)

This was the first “Electric Shadows” post on Jan. 17, 2007. It really defines the scope of this blog, since Tso Tat-wah, along with iconic figures like Chin Tse-ang, Shek Kin, and Run Run Shaw, is one of the people who encompass practically the entire history of Chinese cinema in their illustrious careers. I’m re-posting it now because it fits in well with my current focus on the transitional period between the pre-War era and the kung fu movie boom in the early 1950s.

Walter Tso Tat-wah (Cho Tat-wah) 1915-2007.

I didn’t intend to start off with this topic, but I just heard that Walter Tso passed away at the age of 91 in a London hospital on January 13 (2007). His film career began in the silent era and continued well into modern times, encompassing more than 700 films, in mostly action roles. Tso was a Hong Kong teenager when he ran away to far-off Shanghai in 1933, determined to work in the film industry. A newspaper ad landed him at the Yueming studio, where he worked as a production assistant and extra for three years. Upon his return to Hong Kong, he found steady employment at the Grandview studio, where he appeared in a number of Kwan Man-ching’s patriotic anti-Japanese films. When the film industry was shut down by the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong, Tso supported himself by selling secondhand clothing.

After the war, Tso found himself in demand as a leading man in wuxia and kung fu films by directors like Ren Pengnian, the former head of Yueming, and Wu Pang. In 1949, Wu directed THE STORY OF WONG FEI-HUNG, the phenomenally successful kung fu epic that spawned almost one hundred sequels. Tso was cast in the film as Wong’s trouble-prone student Leung Foon, and went on to appear in most of the sequels (despite being quite specifically killed off in episode four, THE STORY OF WONG FEI-HUNG PART 4: THE DEATH OF LEUNG FOON). He even made a few Leung Foon movies without the Wong character, such as 1955’s LEUNG FOON AND LAM SAI-WING.

Many of Tso’s longtime fans remember him most fondly for the numerous low budget swordplay films that he made in the 1960s. Appearing opposite female action stars like Yu So-chau, Connie Chan Po-chu, and Josephine Siao, he generally portrayed the upright hero quick to defend righteousness with his deadly blade. The most popular film of this type was the multi-part BUDDHA’S PALM (1964). By the end of the decade, Hong Kong action style had evolved into a more realistic mode, and Tso segued into character parts, appearing in several Shaw Brothers studio films over the next dozen years, including Lau Kar-leung’s MY YOUNG AUNTIE (1980). His most typical role from the later period of his career was the senior police detective, as seen in the ACES GO PLACES and LUCKY STARS series of the 1980s (the latter being Jackie Chan vehicles). He was also in great demand for television productions, especially martial arts-related series like LEGEND OF THE CONDOR HEROES.

Tso Tat-wah had been splitting his time between Hong Kong and London since his retirement in the early 1990s. He was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Hong Kong Critics’ Association in 2001 and the Professional Achievement Award at the 2003 Hong Kong Film Awards.

Here’s another photo I’ve come across recently, from THUNDERING RED ROSE, aka TOMB OF THE ROSES (1964), a wuxia movie with an all-star cast. That’s Walter Tso on the right and “bad guy” Shek Kin on the left.

Tags: kung fu movie history, Walter Tso