The man who was Fong Sai-yuk: Early kung fu actor Sek Yin-tsi (1920-1986)

Even before Jet Li took on the role of legendary fighter Fong Sai-yuk back in 1993, Hong Kong filmgoers had already seen plenty of movies about the young hero. Fong’s story is part of the hung gar kung fu lineage. This southern Chinese martial art school was famous for producing tough, colorful masters whose exploits could be profitably dramatized by the Cantonese film industry. Wong Fei-hung is the best known hung gar hero, but Hung Hei-kuen, Luk Ah-choi, and Fong Sai-yuk have also inspired dozens of films.

If you’re a fan of action director Lau Kar-leung, you already know more than a little about the history of the hung gar school. The Lau family was firmly rooted in the lineage – father Lau Cham was a student of Lam Sai-wing, another legendary master who trained with Wong Fei-hung. Lau Kar-leung drew on oral traditions from his own school to create stories about hung gar heroes in films like CHALLENGE OF THE MASTERS and 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN (both 1978). Even before Lau directed his own films, he collaborated as choreographer with Shaw studio director Chang Cheh on a number of other hung gar films, including HEROES TWO and MEN FROM THE MONASTERY (both 1974). 

Flyers for THE TRUE STORY OF FONG SAI-YUK (1951) and FONG SAI-YUK AND JUNIOR’S REVENGE (1950), starring Sek Yin-tsi.

Fong Sai-yuk (Fang Shih Yu) was one of the original “men from the monastery,” the anti-Qing Dynasty patriots associated with the Heaven and Earth Society, which was founded to resist the Manchu invaders. Most accounts place him as either a friend or fellow disciple of lineage founder Hung Hei-keun. Sometimes he’s shown as a student at the Shaolin Temple, but other accounts say that Fong’s primary teacher was his mother, kung fu expert Miu Chui-fa. In that version of the story, Fong’s mother treated him at a very young age to an herbal bath that made his skin impervious to strikes from fists or weapons. The story ends with the unfortunate Fong killed by the White Eyebrow monk Pai Mei.

Flyer for LEE FUNG-KIU’S FLYING DAGGERS (1951) with Sek and Law Yim-hing.

The earliest record of a Fong Sai-yuk film is probably a 1938 production: THE ADVENTURES OF FONG SAI-YUK, starring opera performer Sun Ma Si-tsang. It was directed by Hung Chung-ho, grandfather of modern kung fu star Sammo Hung. A sequel followed in 1939, called BURNING OF THE SHAOLIN TEMPLE. After the war, Hung and his wife Chin Tse-ang recruited a young Cantonese opera performer to play Fong Sai-yuk in a 1948 production called FONG SAI-YUK AND MIU CHUI-FA. The actor was Sek Yin-tsi (Sek Yin-ji), a specialist in martial roles who had been performing onstage since he was 11 years old. The martial arts choreography was contributed by Yuen Siu-tin, and Cham Yim-nung played Fong’s mother Miu Chui-fa. Sek Yin-tsi played Fong Sai-yuk in at least 18 films between 1948 and 1955. His co-stars frequently were the kung fu actresses Yu So-chow, Law Yim-hing, and Yam Yin. Perennial bad guy Shek Kin usually played the cruel Pai Mei.

Flyer for THE FIGHTING BRIDE (1950), starring Sek Yin-tsi as Fong Sai-yuk and Yu So-chow as his wife.

Sek Yin-tsi became one of the most prolific martial arts actors of the early 1950s, starring in over 100 action films. One of his last onscreen appearances was in John Woo’s A BETTER TOMORROW (1986), where he played an elderly gang boss. The next kung fu actor who specialized in the role of Fong Sai-yuk was Alexander Fu Sheng, who appeared in many of Chang Cheh’s action films of the 1970s, with choreography courtesy of Lau Kar-leung. Finally, Jet Li played Fong Sai-yuk in two wildly successful films from 1993, with Josephine Siao as his mother.

As these handbills from the early Fong Sai-yuk films show, there was a strong opera flavor to the fight scenes. Some of the films (for instance, 1951’s FONG SAI-YUK”S EXPEDITION OF THE GRAND PEAK, with its “Flying Cloud Chariot” and magical “Hundred Treasure Ball”) sound overly reliant on special effects, but others appear to be genuine kung fu showcases. The publicity for FONG SAI-YUK’S NINE BATTLES AT O-MEI HILL (1949) and THE BATTLE BETWEEN FONG SAI-YUK AND THE FLYING HERO OF THE NORTHEAST (1951) explicitly touts the presence of real martial artists in the cast. It’s a shame that none of the films have survived.