Lam on the Silver Screen

Lam Kar Sing began making films as early as 1947 in a career that was to span 20 years and over 300 appearances on the silver screen. To begin with, he played supporting roles but was rarely cast as a villain because his character always seemed to fit that of the well-mannered gentleman with a good heart. In 1958, when Fong Yim Fun, the leading diva of Cantonese opera on stage and the silver screen, announced that she would star in a film version of Why Don’t You Return? and handpicked Lam as the other protagonist of the story, Man Ping Sang, on grounds that she preferred an exponent of Sit Kok Sin’s style. When the film opened in the cinemas, it was a huge box office success and won critical acclaim. In the film version of Princess Jade Lotus later that year, Lam’s interpretation of Cheung Yu, who vows to boil the sea till it dries so he can save his beloved, also received enthusiastic reviews, and from that point on he was always cast in the lead role.

As a film actor, Lam commanded a huge range of roles. He appeared in film versions of costume musicals, action films involving martial arts, contemporary romances and dramas, comedies and tragedies, and he was able to create memorable characters – from a filial son to a chivalrous swordsman, from a paragon of a king to a gentlemanly scholar, from a valiant general to an honest and upright young man. His convincing characterisations won him a huge following, and his films often featured in the ‘top ten’ movies of the year. The Secret Book from 1962 even set a box office record as the highest earning film in Hong Kong of the preceding decade.

Many of Lam’s film versions of Chinese operas, such as The Invincible Yeung Generals, Seven Woman Generals, The Sounds of Battle, Paragons of Heroism and A Warrior Couple Contending for Supremacy, are still fondly remembered today. The martial scenes in several of his action pictures offer displays of the masterly skills that he wielded so confidently, including close combat, aerial leaps and riding. His solid training, charisma and consummate talent were all captured perfectly on celluloid.

Despite his film successes, Lam still regarded Cantonese opera as his lifelong passion and, after making one last film in 1966, he announced his retirement from the silver screen to concentrate on the stage.