King of Swords: the Groundbreaking Choreography of Tong Kai

Back when the Shaw Brothers movie studio was active, churning out dozens of titles each year, there was one martial artist who, more than anyone else, even more than auteurs like Chang Cheh (Zhang Che) and Lau Kar-leung, was responsible for creating the kung fu sequences that defined the Shaw “look.” Although he remains virtually unknown in the West, Tong Kai (aka Tang Chia, Tang Jia, or Tong Gaai) was the “go-to” guy for combat choreography at the Shaw studio through the 1970s and into the early 80s.

Tong Kai and Lau Kar-leung in the early 1980s (left) and late 1960s (right).

Tong was born in 1937. His father had two wives (simultaneously – this was legal in Hong Kong at the time), and each wife had ten children! Tong must have felt lost in the crowd of siblings, and set off on his own at an early age. He became a student of Yuen Wo-ping’s father Yuen Siu-tin, and even moved in with the Yuen family at age 19, training daily with Wo-ping and his brothers over the next couple of years. At that time, Yuen Siu-tin was working as stuntman and choreographer on the popular Wong Fei-hung film series starring Kwan Tak-hing. It was on the Wong Fei-hung sets that Tong Kai got his first taste of kung fu choreography.

Tong’s earliest official credit is 1958’s STORY OF THE VULTURE CONQUEROR, directed by Wu Pang. It was followed by an action film called STORY OF THE WHITE-HAIRED DEMON GIRL in 1959. He’s listed as a stunt actor in both films along with his sifu Yuen Siu-tin. Lau Kar-leung was also in the cast of the second film. It’s very probable that both Tong and Lau worked uncredited in dozens of action films in the mid- and late 1950s. By 1959, the Wong Fei-hung series was starting to wind down, although intermittent films would continue to be made for another decade. The new trend was for swordplay films. Yuen Siu-tin and his pool of stuntmen weathered the change. Their names and faces might not turn up in the glamor magazines, but they had steady work.

Tong Kai in THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN (1967).

From 1960 to 1963, Tong and Lau worked together as extras and stuntmen on martial arts films like THE SNOW PEAK NYMPH (1960, starring Yu So-chau, who was also the lead in VULTURE CONQUERER), WONG FEI-HUNG’S COMBAT IN THE BOXING RING (1960), SHOWDOWN AT CHING SENG HILL (1961), SWORDSWOMAN’S VENGEANCE (1961), HEROES OF KWAN TUNG (1962), and MAGIC SWORD AND THE DEVIL, PART ONE (1963). Tong also appeared on his own in productions like Ren Pengnian’s wuxia film NIGHT MISSION OF THREE KUNLUN SWORDSWOMEN (1961) and A GODDESS’ SWORD (1963). Both Tong and Lau are even credited as co-martial arts choreographers on a 1962 film called THE FLAMING MOUNTAIN. But at that point, they were essentially hired guns. They worked together, or not, at the whim of the production companies.

That changed with SOUTH DRAGON, NORTH PHOENIX in 1963. The director, kung fu movie veteran Wu Pang, wanted something new for the choreography. Lau Kar-leung has recalled that “Tong Kai came up to me and said, ‘Let’s join hands to take up the action choreography.’ Knowing that Yuan Xiaotian (Yuen Siu-tin), Tong’s master, had been in the position for years, I dared not say yes, for fear that this might offend the veteran. He said it made no sense, as this film needed martial arts of the southern school….Tong put in stuff of the northern school, and we teamed up to offer both martial arts from the north and the south, making the film quite a new experience for the audience. The success paved (the) way for our collaborations in the future.” According to Tong, “Lau devised action scenes involving fist and leg, while I concentrated on weapons.”

Kong Ngee ad for 1963 releases. SOUTH DRAGON, NORTH PHOENIX is in the center.

The duo became the most popular and prolific partnership in the 1960s-era kung fu movie world. Wuxia and kung fu, gangster melodrama and comedy, they did it all. Both would eventually be recruited by the Shaw Brothers studio, where they would help directors like Chang Cheh and Chu Yuan redefine Asian action cinema and put it on the international map.