Yuen Biao – Little Brother, Big Star

For most people, the 1980’s were the heyday of Hong Kong action cinema, with one classic kung fu flick after another being produced by giants like Golden Harvest. The choreography of fights in this period are unrivalled to this day thanks to the innovation of legends such as Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Kwai. All of who went to the same school! That being sifu Yu Jim Yuen’s Chinese opera academy. One other man to come from this school to have just as big an impact was Yuen Biao, often thought of as Sammo and Jackie’s youngest brother.

Born in 1957 as Ha Ling Tsan, he quickly became interested in Chinese opera, to the point where aged six, his father enrolled the unruly boy in Yu Jim Yuen’s academy where his long relationship would begin with the young boys that would later shape action cinema world-wide. All boys at the school were given a stage name beginning with Yuen. Ling Tsan became Yuen Biao, Sammo was Yuen Lung while Jackie was named Yuen Lo. Many of the school’s students have retained those names to this day and it has become synonymous with quality in the world of Hong Kong action.

Shortly after leaving the school when his ten year contract finished, Biao visited a film studio where Sammo worked as a choreographer, gaining minor stunt work and bit parts in a few films such as ‘Fist of Fury‘ and ‘Enter the Dragon‘, later becoming a stunt double for Bruce Lee on ‘Game of Death‘. The death of Bruce Lee in 1973 almost completely killed the industry, making it very difficult for stuntmen to get work. As a result, Biao went to America with his old sifu and other opera players to perform shows and demonstrations. Unfortunately, this was unsuccessful and Biao was again left out in the cold.

The late 70’s saw a revival in Hong Kong’s martial arts movie industry, and Biao was contacted by his father convincing him to return, again working with Sammo, but this time with more weight as an assistant choreographer prior to gaining his first starring role in 1978 with ‘Knockabout‘. This was to be the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship with Sammo, and a start of a long line of great action movies. His biggest break came when he was asked to star alongside a hugely popular Jackie Chan in the 1980 classic ‘The Young Master‘. This movie broke Hong Kong records grossing over 10 million dollars at the box-office. However, the best was yet to come!

Beginning with ‘Winners & Sinners‘ in 1983, an unbeatable trio formed to create some of the greatest Hong Kong films and fight choreography ever seen. This trio combined the perfect foil of speed in Jackie Chan, power in Sammo Hung and awesome acrobatics in Yuen Biao. The films that followed have all become classics of the genre and are still being re-mastered and re-released to this day, such as ‘Project A‘, ‘Wheels on Meals‘ and ‘My Lucky Stars‘. The good times rolled until the completion in 1987 of ‘Dragons Forever‘ where tension between the director Sammo and the star Jackie, coupled with Biao’s desire to become a solo star, saw the brothers break up and have not worked as a trio since. Ironically, ‘Dragons Forever’ is seen by many as their finest hour and is the only film where the three can be seen fighting each other at the same time! Since then, tensions have dropped and Sammo has directed Jackie in ‘Mr Nice Guy‘, while Biao was fight choreographer for the recent US hit ‘Shanghai Noon‘.

Following the break up, Biao went it alone. Starring in a number of quality movies such as action classic ‘Righting Wrongs‘ with Cynthia Rothrock, ‘The Iceman Cometh‘ and the dramatic ‘On The Run‘, as well as co-starring with Jet Li in ‘Once Upon a Time in China‘. He even made his directorial debut in 1992 with ‘A Kid From Tibet‘ his self confessed favourite film. Since then however, times have not been so good with Biao starring in low budget Taiwanese actioners, and rushed Hong Kong productions such as ‘Circus Kid‘ with Donnie Yen and a rare Shaw Brothers outing ‘Hero‘. Biao partially retired from the industry causing what seemed like a sad end to a good career.

Hopefully, the future will be a lot brighter for Biao, as he has since worked as action choreographer on Jackie Chan’s ‘Shanghai Noon’ as well as recently completing another collaboration with Sammo Hung in ‘The Avenging Fist‘, which is expected to get a US release this summer. According to many, it should not be too long before the 3 brothers reform their heroic trio and relight cinema screens near you! But whatever happens next, Yuen Biao will always be remembered as one of the greatest screen fighters and natural acrobats ever to dish out some fancy bootwork in Hong Kong cinema’s finest films, and would undoubtedly appear in most kung fu fans top ten list of action stars.