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Liu Chia-hui, Gordon
Liu Chia-hui, Gordon
Kingfu Actor, Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong) Limited
Sex: Male Birthyear: 1951 Age at Interview: 58 Education: Senior Secondary Occupation: Movie & TV Artist Theme: Art and Culture Liu hoped to emulate Wong Fei Hung and decided to learn Hung Kuen, so he applied to Liu Chia-liang to become his student. Liu Jaam Gymnastics Academy was in Sheung Wan at that time, only a block away from the company of Liu’s father. Since his father was determined to stop Liu from learning martial arts, Liu stopped boarding during secondary school. He would go out after dinner with his books, and pretended that he was going to see a tutor. In reality, he was secretly going to the training place to practise martial arts. For many years, he trained daily from 8pm to 11pm. As the youngest among all students, Gordon Liu had a gentle deposition and was helpful with miscellaneous chores at the training place. This earned him the favour of Liu Chia-liang’s mother. Gordon Liu thought that he was respectful towards his master, as he believed in the saying that “a master for a day is a father for life”.
Title Liu learnt martial arts when he was a student without letting his father know Date 11/11/2009 Subject Art and Culture Duration 3m01s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project Accession No. CC-LKF-HLT-001 After Lee’s death, the film industry sank into recession. In 1973, Liu Chia-liang served as the martial art coordinator of Sha Chu Chong Wei and he invited Gordon Liu to be the lead actor. Gordon Liu accepted his master’s invitation and went to Macau for two months to complete the filming. Despite a strong cast that consisted of film starts like Maggie Li, Dean Shek, and Paul Chun, the film was not met with great popularity. Lu Kar Leung’s mother liked Gordon Liu very much, and gave him the stage name of “Gordon Liu” that he has used since his first film, Sha Chu Chong Wei. As such, Gordon Liu was often mistaken as Liu Chia-liang’s own brother in the beginning. His father was quite understanding and did not object to Liu giving up his family name.
Title Filming his first film, Sha Chu Chong Wei Date 11/11/2009 Subject Art and Culture Duration 48s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project Accession No. CC-LKF-HLT-002 Shaw Brothers was dominated by non-Cantonese people who spoke the dialects of Shanghai and Ningbo as well as Mandarin Chinese. There were just a small number of Cantonese people who did not know Mandarin, and they were assigned to play insignificant roles in the films. There were Cantonese action films too, yet their market was smaller than that of Mandarin ones. Shaw Brothers’ Cantonese action film actors included Suet Nei, Tong Gai, and actors from Xianhe Ganglian Company. The Mandarin action films were directed by Han Ying Chieh, who specialised in Beijing Opera.
Title Memory of Shaw Brothers Studio (I) Date 11/11/2009 Subject Art and Culture Duration 57s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project Accession No. CC-LKF-HLT-003 The vintage appearance was just a frame only. In each new film, new props like lanterns and stalls would be added so as to give the audience a fresh look. Shaw Brothers’ dormitory was divided into four classes. Liu had lived in Dunhoului which was in the highest class. Dunhoului was reserved for directors Chang Cheh and film stars like Gordon Liu himself, Anthony Liu, Man Tze Leung, Yee Tung Sing, Kara Hui, and so on. The building next to it was a normal dormitory with one bedroom, one toilet and one little kitchen in each unit. Shaw Brothers had got its own comprehensive set of production equipment like photofinishing room, editing room, audio booth, etc. They never relied on external service providers, so there was no worry about copyright issues.
Title Memory of Shaw Brothers Studio (II) Date 11/11/2009 Subject Art and Culture Duration 3m04s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project Accession No. CC-LKF-HLT-004 Gordon Liu did not know much about the size of the filming budgets that Liu Chia-liang operated on. He only remembered that 80 teams worked together at one point during the filming of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. The actors put on their make-ups every day at 9am. The call time for work was 10am, according to the notice. However, Liu Chia-liang did not usually start working until after he had finished breakfast at around 11am. While waiting for the director, the actors and stuntmen would practice their martial art skills. Gordon Liu received HK$15,000 in payment and a bonus of HK$5,000 for The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. Later, he learnt that the film had become a box office hit, earning HK$40 million for Shaw Brothers. During the making of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Shaw Brothers gave him the English name “Gordon Liu”, which he still uses today. When he later travelled to India for filming, he found that everyone there knew him by the name of Gordon Liu.
Title The 36th Chamber of Shaolin was fervently received by the audience Date 11/11/2009 Subject Art and Culture Duration 1m50s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project Accession No. CC-LKF-HLT-005 Liu’s most favourite Shaw film was Eight Diagram Pole Fighter. He especially loved the tragic story told in the film, which is about the return of only six out of the seven sons of the Yang family after a military expedition. In that film, Gordon Liu portrayed the fifth son in the Yang family who rescued the sixth son played by Alexander Fu. As Fu died before the film was completed, the story was changed such that the fifth son had to rescue his younger sister, the eighth child of the family (played by Kara Hui). Gordon Liu belonged to Liu Chia-liang’s crew, while Alexander Fu belonged to Chang Cheh’s. Both film crews were very prestigious. It was a significant thing for the two crews to work together. The boss of Shaw Brothers probably facilitated their cooperation for the benefit of the box office. Unfortunately, Fu died prematurely before the filming process ended. Not only that the script must be changed, the crew members all suffered a blow emotionally.
Title Most favourite Shaw Brothers film: Eight Diagram Pole Fighter Date 11/11/2009 Subject Art and Culture Duration 1m17s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project Accession No. CC-LKF-HLT-006 Gordon Liu believed that “Return to The 36th Chamber” is a real classic martial art film. It is a martial art-based comedy made by Liu Chia-liang. In those days, the workers who built bamboo scaffoldings did not wear gloves and used real thin bamboo strips. Therefore, the actors did not use any protective tapes on their hands either. It was a common thing to get accidentally cut by the bamboo strips. Liu’s hands were pieced by those strips, but he dared not sound a word about it and only went to the hospital to get his wounds stitched after the end of filming. While staying at the hospital, he hoped his master Liu Chia-liang would come and visit. He put his life on the line as a martial art actor, even though he was the son of a rich man. Yet, he felt miserable because he never heard a world of sympathy for what he experienced. His master finally visited him the next morning and asked him, “Are you dead yet?” This made Liu happy again.
Title Accidentally injured while filming the classic action film Return to The 36th Chamber Date 11/11/2009 Subject Art and Culture Duration 2m38s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project Accession No. CC-LKF-HLT-007 Liu stressed that he is a Hong Kong person who was born and raised locally. Fortune and diligence were the two reasons of the success he enjoys today. He chose to learn music and martial arts in the first place not because he wanted to make a career out of them. His hope was to preserve Hong Kong’s culture, music and martial arts in order to educate future generations about what Hong Kong has achieved.
Title Gordon Liu looking back into his career Date 11/11/2009 Subject Art and Culture Duration 2m52s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project Accession No. CC-LKF-HLT-008