Liu Chia-hui, Gordon

Gordon Liu’s birth name is Xian Jinxi. His family’s hometown was in Gaoming County, Guangdong. Liu was born in 1951 and raised in Hong Kong, where he received education in eastern and western styles. His father was a businessman who ran a business that exported suanzhi (mahogany) crafts and antiquities. His father escaped to Hong Kong from Mainland China with the family as refugees. Only four of the eight children survived, and Liu was the youngest. As the Liu family was quite wealth then, Liu recalled that he lived the life of a rich man’s son who behaved in an arrogant, overbearing and disobedient way. His elder brother succeeded his father’s business, which Liu was not interested. Liu had ten maids who took care of him when he was small. They all left eventually because Liu used to scold and beat them often. His eldest sister thought that he was misbehaving, and therefore sent him to Salesian School, a boarding school in Shau Kei Wan. Liu began his boarding school life from the second form. Shau Kei Wan was a remote place, and the prose “a hero traps in Shau Kei Wan, wondering when he can be back in Central” circulated among students was the best description of the isolation.

Liu recalled that he lived a young master’s life in his childhood, and was used to being attended by servants. He compared the environment in his boarding school to a “chaotic prison”. Every day, he looked outside the window and sighed, thinking when he could leave and whether his parents sent him there out of hate. Between the third and the fifth forms, he was indignant at his own family. Salesian School is a Catholic English School. Liu understood that his sister wanted him to go there to learn English so that he could find a job more easily. Liu loved playing football, basketball and roller-skating at school, yet he did not concentrate on schoolwork much. Sometimes he would go to the priest to share his heart’s secrets and receive the holy icon. That was how he passed his childhood. The school was far away from the city area, so he was not disconnected with major events, trends and cultures out there. This, however, gave him the chance to become familiar with the Ten Commandments in the Bible.

The priest focused on imparting religious doctrines to students. Under the priest’s instruction, Liu used to work as an altar server and helped the priest dress up and carry out the communion right during the Mass. Such was a duty well respected by everyone. The Mass would be carried out in Latin in those days, so he had to learn the language from the priest. On the day of the Mass, he would wake up at six o’clock and arrived at the chapel by seven after washing, in order to get ready to serve at the altar. In the 1960s, Pope Paul VI once visited Hong Kong and hosted a Feast of Christ the King at the Hong Kong Stadium. A hundred altar servers were chosen to take part in it, and Liu was proud to be one of them.  

Liu would go home during school holidays, and his brother would take him to the cinema. He discovered his interest in martial arts after seeing films about Wong Fei Hung, and was particular fascinated by the Chinese cultural elements that the master embodied. In the 1950s, various styles of fist techniques were popular in Hong Kong, including Karate, Judo, and boxing. However, Liu only loved Chinese martial arts because he had a mind to pass on the Chinese culture. Liu recalled that the term wushu (martial arts) was not widely used in those days yet. Martial arts training places was called “guoshu institute” or “guoshu gymnastics academy” The training place managed by Liu was called Liu Jaam Gymnastics Academy. The change of regime in China in 1949 prompted a lot of mainland Chinese masters to leave the country for places like Singapore and Malaysia. A good number of them came to Hong Kong and opened their training places where they taught students.

Liu’s father was reluctant to let Liu learn martial arts, based on the impression that those who knew martial arts were mostly hooligans. Instead, he wanted Liu to study well and take over his business. If Liu’s English ability was good enough, he could at least become a policeman. However, Liu thought that he had to learn martial arts well in order to be a proper Chinese person. Although Liu studied in an English school and was highly interested in western music, he loved Chinese culture at the same time, especially the “culture of motion”. He 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”. A student should not disobey his/ her master’s orders. This is what Liu believes even until today. A master does not only teach martial art skills, but also shows students the way to be good people by setting examples. A master may scold the students, but he always does so for a reason. The students should figure out the reason and reflect on what they have done wrong.

The third day of the third month on the Lunar Calendar is the birthday of Tin Hau. Liu insisted on taking part in the celebration at the training place, even if it meant that he had to skip school. One year, a birthday celebration took place on the island of Tsing Yi. Liu, who was already 16 to 17 years ago then, represented his training place in a race for the fireworks. In the midst of the event, two lion dance teams got into a fight. Liu’s team was caught in the middle of the mayhem. The fight got onto the newspaper and Liu’s father found Liu’s photos on it. It was not until then did he realize Liu was part of a martial arts training place. Liu successfully persuaded his father to let him continue with his training by arguing that 1) learning martial arts did not affect his schoolwork at all; 2) it rendered benefits on his constitution and his conduct; and 3) Liu Chia-liang absolute forbade his students to create trouble by misusing their martial art skills.

When Liu was learning martial arts at his training place, Liu Jaam, the master of Liu Chia-liang, had already passed away. At that time, Liu Chia-liang was already in the film business and seldom taught at the training place. Gordon Liu only saw him three to four times a year during worship, Tin Hau’s birthday, and the birthday of the deceased master Liu Jaam. Liu Chia-liang wished to uphold the reputation of Liu Jaam, therefore he set up the Liu Jaam Gymnastics Alumni Association, where fellow students could hold gathering and make themselves at home.

Gordon Liu chose to learn Hung Kuen because Kwan Tak Hing practiced it too. Moreover, he specifically chose it because he believed it is the toughest kind of fist technique. It takes 15 minutes to perform a full set of Hung Kuen. Every fist strike requires force and energy. One must jump and run over a large area. Wing Chun is less physically demanding and requires a smaller range of movement. A training place that taught Wing Chun could accommodate more students than one that taught Hung Kuen. It was also easier for the former to recruit students than the latter. Liu did not fear the hardship of learning Hung Kuen in those years because he really hoped to excel in it. He believed Hung Kuen is part of Chinese culture, and he had to learn it in order to become a proper Chinese person. Liu opined that his style of Hung Kuen was different from that of his master, Liu Chia-liang. He did not want just to become a clone of his master. The differences can be seen in the films, in which he intentionally infused artistic effects into his performance to align with the film characters he was portraying. Gordon Liu thought Liu Chia-liang’s Hung Kuen was educational because it showed the audience how to make offensive and defensive moves. Gordon Liu thought the films today are too commercialized, in the sense that they only focus on artistic effects but not on actual moves. While he agreed that a society must move forward economically, he held that society’s traditions must at the same time be retained. This is because traditions are the roots and basis of society. A society cannot innovate if it becomes rootless.

After graduating from secondary school, Liu started working for a Japanese firm at Prince Building. Since he did not how to type, he was asked to work as a messenger with a monthly salary of HK$280. A year later, he changed his job to work for the accounting department of Lane Crawford through a friend’s introduction. He had to wear a suit and a tie to work. With a monthly salary of HK500, he was responsible for operating a credit card issuing machine, dispatching credit cards and collecting credit card debts every month. At night, he would return to his training place to practice as well as to teach younger students. His girlfriend also went to the training place often.

Gordon Liu did not think of going into filming at first. He liked watching films during his free time, especially martial art films featuring John Chiang, Ti Lung, Chan Chung Tai and Men Ching. His favourite was Bruce Lee. Yet, he never imaged he would become a film star himself. Early martial art films were simply action films, notably Jimmy Wang and John Chiang’s The Range of Wind, and Ng See Yuen’s Death Beach (set in the Early Republican period). These films gave rise to a number of action film actors such as Kam Chun Tat and Tan Tao Liang. Bruce Lee’s films signified that birth of Modern Kung Fu. 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. Gordon Liu later went on to work as a stuntman, earning a daily wage of HK$70. The pay was not high, but Liu himself was able to cope financially. Although Liu heard a lot of mocking remarks from other people, he believed he should start from a low position and work his way up because, as a martial artist, he did not know much about film production. 

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. Shaw sent Li Han Hsiang, a director, to make films in Taiwan. The films sold remarkably well, yet because of constraints in the Taiwanese system, the revenue could not be remitted to Hong Kong. As result, they sent Chang Cheh to station in Taiwan and make a series of martial art films. The objective was to spend all the money earned. Liu Chia-liang and Tong Gai were part of Chang Cheh’s team of martial arts coordinator. Liu Chia-liang hoped to introduce Gordon Liu into Shaw Brothers, so he arranged a meeting for him with Chang Cheh at Wa Daat Motion Picture and Development. Liu signed a contract right after the meeting to join Chang’s Films Co. (a subsidiary company of Shaw Brothers) and make the film “Hung Kuen and Wing CHun”. It was a three-year contract which stated that the salaries for the first three years would be HK$1,000, HK$1,500, and HK$2,000, respectively. Each film also offered a sum of bonus money. Liu had to work according to the notices given, either as actor or as stuntman.

The group departed at Kai Tak Airport on 6 June, 1974. This was the first time Gordon Liu ever got on an airplane and he felt heart-wrenched because he had to leave home for three years for a place where he would face language barriers. He could only return home once a year. Upon arriving in Taiwan, Chang Cheh took away everybody’s passport to prevent people from disserting. Liu jokingly recalled that it was just like human trafficking. He and his girlfriend could only communication by writing mails to each other. Soon after, Liu Chia-liang and Chang Cheh had a disagreement, and Liu Chia-liang retuned to Hong Kong. He then directed his first film, The Spiritual Boxer, for Shaw – a production that sealed his status as the first Cantonese director in Shaw.

During that time, Gordon Liu still remained in Taiwan, yet he was having a bad mood because his “older brother” (Liu Chia-liang) had left. He once considered breaking the contract with Chang’s Films Co. and exit from the film industry. Later, Chang Cheh summoned him for a meeting and told him that he could go back to Hong Kong in two weeks to appear in Young Heroes (a Shaw Brothers film later renamed Challenge of The Masters) as the young Wong Fei Hung. Chan Koon Tai would play the role of Luk Ah Choi. However, before he left Taiwan, he was assigned to work on another film by Chang Cheh called 7-Man Army. Liu was worried that the deal for him to appear in Young Heroes was going to fall through because Shaw Brothers might not want to wait long for a “nobody” like him. The problem was, he did not have his passport with him. Therefore, he had no choice but to stay in Chenggunglin, Taichung for another month to complete 7-Man Army. At that time, there were one and a half years left before the expiry of his contract. Later, Gordon Liu made it back to film Challenges of The Masters for Shaw Brothers. His film career was able to advance with the support of Liu Chia-liang, Liu Kar Wing and Lily Li. For that, he was totally grateful.

Ti Lung and John Chiang were the two major actors in the early films of Chang Cheh. The two actors had different styles: John Chiang had an elegant and refined image, while Ti Lung had a strong and robust appearance. Chang Cheh’s film was underpinned by blood, violence and vengeance. He played with the explosive tension coming out of the opposition between justice and evil. Ti Lung and John Chiang struck the right balance between toughness and gentleness. In the early days, Chang Cheh employed martial arts coordinators with Beijing Opera background such as Han Ying Chieh. Gordon Liu thought that a Beijing Opera crew did not possess solid martial art skills. Han Ying Chieh, Lin Jiao, Sammo Hung, and Jacky Chan all came from a Beijing background, which is why they do not know to play a complete set of fist technique and do not belong to any particular martial arts sect. From books, Liu learnt that each martial arts style has its own pedigree with a list of generations of masters. For example, Hung Kuen has now passed down to its seventh generation since it was founded by Hung Hei Gun. After the making of Taiwan’s first martial art film Five Shaolin Masters, the industry began to give up on Beijing Opera crew. When they made films about Wing Chun and Hung Kuen in Hong Kong, they would present fist techniques in their entirety in front of black and white backdrops. In the way, they could show the true face of Chinese martial arts culture through the cameras.

After completing Challenges of The Masters and Executioners from Shaolin, Liu’s third film was The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. He became the first lead actor ever to appear with his head shaved. In Challenges of The Masters, Chan Koon Tai helped pave the way for La Ka Fai to rise. To return the favour, Liu Chia-liang let Chan be the sole lead actor in Executioners from Shaolin, while arranging Gordon Liu to play the less important role of Tung Tien Chin. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin became a smashing hit upon its release, and was screened at major cinemas like Jade, Pearl, Golden Harvest, Hollywood and Rex. Gordon Liu was well-received among the audience. According to Gordon Liu’s analysis, the storylines of Liu Chia-liang’s films were designed to showcase martial art films, unlike the other films out there which were normally based on historical narratives. Gordon Liu officially joined Shaw Brother after making The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, and had followed Liu Chia-liang ever since. He appeared in other films of Liu Chia-liang such as Mad Monkey Kung Fu and Heroes of the East, and also made a guest appearance in Shaolin Mantis.

There were 12 studios in Shaw Brothers Studio. Eminent directors like Li Han Hsieng had priority in booking the studios and building his own backdrops inside. Owning to weaker financial strength and influence, less prominent directors would typically waited for their turn to move into the studio and they would slightly refurnish the backdrops for their own films. Cantonese films, like Killer Constable and The Flying Guillotine, accounted for the majority of action films in those days. One could divide action films into two categories: wuxia films and martial art films. The former was more exaggerated and imaginative, focusing on chivalry and gracefulness. Examples were Ho Meng Hwa’s Killer Constable and Chor Yuen’s Clans of Intrigue. Sun Chung was one of those who made wuxia films, but he also worked with Tong Gai on martial art films. Martial art films depend on the martial arts prowess of the actors themselves. Liu Chia-liang was the only one in the Hong Kong film industry that emphasized on authentic martial art skills. No wires were used when Gordon Liu made The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.

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.

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.

The other film that Liu liked was Heroes of The East. Born in the 1950s, Liu always heard people taking negatively about the Japanese. However, after completing Heroes of The East, he changed the way he saw the Japanese. Heroes of The East was written by Liu Chia-liang and Chua Lam. It allowed Gordon Liu to play various characters. He had to fight with Japanese artist in the film. Yasuaki Kurata fought Liu with kendo. Kurata was a Japanese martial art masters recruited by Chang Cheh from the early days when he filmed The Water Margin. Liu admired the professionalism of Kurata because Kurata did not mind seeing Japanese martial arts getting beaten by Chinese martial arts in the film. This Japanese master possessed the spirit of a fighter for he respected his filming work without letting face or prestige get in the way. Real knifes and spears were used in Liu Chia-liang’s films. Gordon Liu was worried about getting injured in the beginning, but he became sure of his own skills after getting encouragement from Liu Chia-liang. Kurata used Japanese kendo in the dual against Liu, acting quickly and aggressively without holding back. Moreover, kendo was highly esteemed among Japanese martial art styles. That is why it was unforgettable to Liu until today. As a martial art master, Kurata expressed disagreement on the design of certain moves during rehearsal. However, Liu Chia-liang instantly demonstrated the underlying principle of the design to him, which convinced everyone including Kurata himself.

Gordon Liu thought that Liu Chia-liang had learnt to derive different new styles out of Hung Kuen, which gave his films diversity and richness in terms of content. He thought Ching Siu Tung and Liu Chia-liang were different from each other. Ching was a martial arts designer, and created fanciful artistic effects in his film shots. This diverged from what a martial arts master would do. With a foundation in Hung Kuen as well as references from other styles, Liu Chia-liang invented new moves such the “monkey fist” in Mad Monkey Kung Fu and “mantis fist” in Shaolin Mantis. What The 36th Chamber of Shaolin displayed was not real Hung Kuen, but was somehow that shadowed it. 

Hung Hei Gun raised the banner of Hung Kuen high up along the coastal areas of Guangdong and promoted the practice of fist techniques. His students subsequently set up different sects: Hung, Liu, Choi, Lee, and Mok. Together they were called the “Five Great Sects of Guangdong”, with the Hung sect being the leader of all. There was a saying of “hongtoucaiwei” (Hung comes first; Choi comes last), as people regard the Hung sect as the leader and the Choi sect the follower. Hung Kuen is an original fist style, and has engendered all the other sub-styles. Films do not show the sets of fist technique in full. When performing the techniques, it was like fighting with air. To offset each move, one needs to pick out useful moves from the set and apply them flexibly. Fighting only comes alive when one gets into body-to-body contact with the opponent.

Looking back at the past three or four decades, Gordon Liu deplored the disappearance of martial art films. Neither Jet Li’s Fearless and Once Upon a Time in China nor Donnie Yan’s Ip Man can be considered martial art films because it focused on the story and gave little attention to the fight. Films in the 1970s focused 70% of the time on fighting, although their stories were slovenly written. Foreign films like Rocky also gave more focus on the story than the fight. In Liu’s opinion, fight scenes should make up 50-60% of a real thrilling martial art film. A martial art film cannot have little fight scenes. All male lead actors in the 1970s all knew martial arts and all actors in the black-and-white era of The Story of Huang Feihung series knew how to fight.

Beipai and Wushu are two different groups of people. Beipai is linked to theatrical performance. The Chinese Artists Association is a troupe of that nature. Wushu is different. During the 150th anniversary of Wong Fei Hung’s birth, Liu attended the celebrations, feeling that he is part of the wulin. Under the rubric of wushu, there are “nanquanbeitui” (fist technique from the South and feet technique from the North). The northerners have a taller build in general and they often perform palm and feet techniques, while the shorter southerners are more used to short-range attacks. In Chinese culture, martial art practitioners would use different styles depending on the opponents’ figures, bond structures, and the surrounding environment, in order to gain advantages in a fight. Therefore, Liu Chia-liang would design different moves according to the context of each film. Gordon Liu was impressed by the film Martial Club, which shows a progression of style from wuxingquan to tiexianquan. There are three valued components in Hung Kuen: gongzifuhu, huhexiangxing and tiexianquan. In that film, Gordon Liu and Wang Lung Wei engaged in a prolonged fight, moving from an open area all the way to narrow alleys, and changing from changquan to duanqiao moves. He admired Liu Chia-liang for thoroughly displaying every essence of Hung Kuen in the film. The filming crew captured the scenes from somewhere high above.

There are two martial art unions in Hong Kong: traditional wushu union and modern wushu union. The former consists of masters such as Wong Fei Hung, Choy Li Fut, Bak Hwak, and their students. The chairman of the modern wushu union is Timothy Fok. The Chinese Government placed tradition wushu under modern wushu with the intention to reduce in-fighting among sects and to develop wushu as a sport, even an Olympic sport. Liu thought it would be difficult to unify all martial art styles because there have been too many of them. He joined both unions out of respect, but was sad to see the two unions criticizing each other and lacking unity. In addition to sectarian fighting, students belonging to the same sect might also battle each other in order to vie for leadership. Since Shaolin martial arts were brought onto the silver screen by Jet Li, China has been training its athletes in modern wushu.

Fan Siu Wong, son of Fan Lei Shan, was also an actor since his childhood and knows martial art. When he was young, his father enrolled him in the Shandong wushu team to learn martial art skills. He was training in both taolu and changquan styles. Few martial art actors studied martial arts at a training place; Chan Koon Tai was one of those who did. Chan’s master, Chan Sau Chung, happened to be running the “duanwei system” in Hong Kong. He encouraged martial art practitioners by saying that higher levels do not necessarily denote higher fighting abilities. Instead, he shared the deep insights he had gained through his experience in the realm of wushu.

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.

Liu remembered that there were 12 studios in Shaw Brothers Studio as well as other film sets such as mountain, foot log, vintage alley, and streets. Liu would practise his riding skills by going on the vintage alley. 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.

Liu regarded King’s Theatre as the most premium cinema in Shaw Brothers’ cinema chain. In the 1950s, it used to screen foreign films. But by the 1970s, it switched to show Shaw’s films. Photos of film stars such as Liu’s were hung inside the cinema, which made Liu very proud. Liu’s portrait was also shown in theatres like Golden Harvest and Hollywood. Yet such portraits were absent in Jade and Pearl. When a Shaw Brothers film was released, it would be screened at 13 to 14 cinemas at the same time. When negotiating show times with high-end cinemas, they made sure that best-selling films went on-screen during holiday seasons in order to safeguard box office income. In those years, Liu would buy tickets for the crew members and invite them to go to films at Golden Harvest Theatre as a token of recognition and appreciation. The celebration dinner was paid for by Liu Chia-liang. 

In the 1970s, Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest were competitors. When the actors signed their contracts with Shaw, they were allowed to work for a third-party film company once every year, with the exception of Golden Harvest. Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest produced martial films that were quite dissimilar in terms of content. Liu Chia-liang was the first director to make martial art comedy, and his first production of such kind was Spiritual Boxer. Golden Harvest had a lot of Beijing Opera artists, so oftentimes they used masks as well as rolling and diving moves in films like The Dead and the Deadly, Hocus Pocus and The Prodigal Son supervised by Sammo Hung. Liu Chia-liang put an emphasis on keeping the virtues of martial art while blending in comical elements. Yet he would never dress the actors up in outlandish fashions. Other companies like Cinema City Co. Ltd. also made martial art comedies such as Odd Couple and Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog led by Dean Shek and Ng Yiu Hon. Since they were produced by Beijing Opera crews, they followed similar lines as Golden Harvest’s films.

From 1985-86, the number of Shaw Brothers’ film production dwindled. Liu guessed it had to do with a change of focus from film towards over-the-air television broadcasts. In the 1980s, one film festival was held in Indonesia. Liu was not getting any prize but he followed the company’s group along with Kara Hui, Sir Run Run Shaw and Mona Fong. During the festival, they received the news about the passing of Lee Hsiao Wo. Lee was then the chairman of TVB. Soon after Lee’s death, Sir Run Run joined TVB and acted as chairman. In 1984 and 1985, martial art films entered a trough. This coincided with the rise of comedies. Liu remembered how Mona Fong rented out the entire cinema chain to D & B Films Co. Ltd. in order to cut down the number of employees. He guessed that Sir Run Run had found his new interest in television after spending many years in the film industry.

The 1980s was a period of downturn for martial art films. Gordon Liu gained permission from Liu Chia-liang to act in other directors’ films like The 82 Tenants by Lee Pooi Kuen and those of Sun Chung and Hung Kuei Chih. In 1986, Gordon Liu parted with Liu Chia-liang upon the official conclusion of his contract, and he went over to Taiwan to act in TV dramas. Two years later, he and Norman Chui pooled their money together and co-formed Attraction Film Co. Ltd. Their films were screened at the cinemas under Golden Princess Amusement Co., Ltd. In 1989, Liu joined TVB. Some thought that changing from the big silver screen to television was a kind of debasement, but Liu did not share that view. Taiwanese action films lagged behind their Hong Kong counterparts, and Liu thought that it was because Taiwan lacked the kind of diversity in Hong Kong and their martial arts were based on Taekwondo. After Kuomingdang brought Beijing Opera to Taiwan, the action moves in Taiwan had Northern Chinese characteristics.

When martial art films were popular in the 1970s and 80s, there were three main crews in Hong Kong: the Liu’s, the Hung’s and Jackie Chan’s. Gordon Liu thought that Hung’s and Chan’s had the same heritage and style. In the 1970s, Shaw Brothers had martial art director Chang Cheh and Liu’s crew. After Tong Gai left Chang Cheh, Chang began to rely on Philip Kwok and Lu Feng from Taiwan. The two were part of a Beijing Opera crew. Taiwanese-style Northern Chinese moves were performed, for example, by the five people acting in The Five Venoms. Tong Gai joined Chor Yuen’s side after leaving Chang Cheh. Tang was skilled in stage performance, which suited Chor Yuen’s style. Gordon Liu thought the films collaboratively made by Tong Gai and Liu Chia-liang were very thrilling. Tang excelled in setting up big scenes and handling the overall arrangement of a film; whereas Liu Chia-liang was good at one-on-one or one-on-two fight scenes, showing the ways of martial arts artistically. Tang and Liu complemented and benefited each other. Gordon Liu was deeply impressed by how Liu Chia-liang single-handedly dealt with both the big scenes and one-on-one fighting scenes when filming Martial Club.

The influence of Shaw’s films spread all across European and American countries. Foreign actors all learnt a solid lesson from those films. Thus, it was not surprising that Bruce Lee would return to Hong Kong for acting. The foreign audience loved The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. They might not remember the words “SB” (logo of Shaw Brothers), but the vivid image of Liu’s baldness would still be fresh in their memory. During his time at TVB, Liu had already grown his hair back. One time, he went to the USA for an interview and all his fans who received him at the airport had their heads shaved. At a small restaurant, he, who had hair on his head then, was identified by people as Gordon Liu. Everyone hoped he could keep his image as a bald man as in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.

Filming worked differently in Hollywood from in Hong Kong. It was mandatory for a person to get 12 hours of rest after 12 hours of work. Work began at 8am and the lunch break came five hours later. Actors who had a named role could get a private rest room with endless supply of tea, coffee, soft drinks, sandwiches, fruits, among other snacks. Everyone could enjoy these snacks. However, this would not have happened at Shaw Brothers Studio.

Foreigners could learn from Shaw Brothers how to flexibly make martial art films by using techniques like “reverse motion” to achieve a qinggong effect. Liu believed that a director must have dreams. The director is the leader of the film, and should get others’ respect. Liu had worked with Quentin Tarantino, who would listen to Liu’s advice. However, the culture in Hong Kong was different. The director must bear his or her boss’s interests, the market and the big film starts in mind, so he or she did not always get the deserved respect. Hollywood could not capture the verse and aura of Hong Kong’s martial art films, and Liu attributed this to the fact that Hollywood’s editing was done independently of the martial art coordinator. Therefore, it could not reflect the coordinator’s intent and thoughts. Conversely, the editors, film directors and martial art coordinators in Hong Kong all worked together to ensure that the original meaning of the martial art moves stay intact.

Liu predicted that future Chinese films would mainly be big-budget productions. Chinese films could be particular about details. In a commercialized society like Hong Kong, actors get the audience’s attention with their looks. There is no way serious historical topics would be made into films in Hong Kong. He once played the role of Bai Chongxi, a Kuomindang commander, in a film in Mainland China. He found out that there were professors taking part in the filmmaking and explained historical background of Bai Chongxi to Liu. Actors must act in accordance to the professors’ historical research findings. From the moves to the costumes, everything was meticulous. The actors must have historical knowledge in order to act. Liu would describe the filming flow in Hong Kong as a hastened one. Foreign directors took rehearsals seriously, yet Hong Kong directors often requested actors to perform spontaneously.

Liu once went to Bollywood in India to help with designing action moves for a film. The Indians knew about Liu because of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. In retrospect, Liu believed that he not only got fame because of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, but also learned about filmmaking and problem solving. For that, he was grateful to Shaw Brothers and he would support any event or function organised by the company.