MASTER HUNG, PLAYING MASTER HUNG

One of the Hong Kong movie actors who is always fun to watch is Hung Kampo (洪金寶), also known as Sammo Hung, and 大哥大.

[The name Sammo comes from 三毛, a character in a Chinese comic strip. 大哥大 ("taai-go taai") means oldest of the brothers, and derives from his early work in kungfu movies.]


Hung Kampo is an unlikely martial arts actor, in that he veers towards the rotund.
His involvement in this field was primarily due to his Peking Opera training, particularly the choreography of movements on stage in martial operas. After working as a stuntman for a few years during his teens, he went to Korea and actually studied kungfu.
Since then, following in the footsteps of his grandmother (Chin Tsi-Ang 錢似鶯), he has further developed his craft and honed his quite considerable skill.

[Chin Tsi-Ang (錢似鶯): the first female movie martial artist, sixteen years old in her first movie role in 1925, aged 90 in her last, made in 2000. She died in 2007.]


He is probably the fastest fat man you'll ever see. One of his best roles, though least lauded, was in the short-lived American television series 'Martial Law'. In one early scene he proved his artistry by deftly, elegantly, wittily, beating the crap out of someone with a chalk-board eraser. Clouds of white dust everywhere!

The most recent Hung Kampo movie I've watched is Ip Man 2.
It isn't his movie, but he is one of the primary actors in it.
I suspect that it would have been a more fully developed tale had he written it, or directed it.


葉問2: 宗師傳奇 IP MAN 2

Master Yip (Ip Man, played by Donnie Yen 甄子丹) has fled from the mainland to Hong Kong, where he continues to teach Wing Chun martial arts (詠春) under straightened circumstances. Conflict with other martial arts schools provides plenty of opportunity for superlative fight scenes, one of which involves what can only be described as stellar upside down stool ballet with a rickety table - both Donnie Yen and Hung Kampo prove their superlative physical grace at this point in the movie. Hung Kampo plays master Hung Chun-nam (洪震南).
After this fight scene, master Hung and master Yip become friends of sorts.

For some reason, the final part of the movie starts with a highlighting of corruption in the ranks of the Hong Kong police force as spearheaded by a real sob Britisher (police superintendent Wallace, acted with degenerate verve by Charles Mayer), which comes to a head in a match with a truly sadistic crassly vulgar boxing champ, well played by Darren Shalavi.
Master Hung is killed in the first match with Taylor (Shalavi), and subsequently avenged by master Yip who succeeds in beating the poxy bastard to a pulp. Cheers, huzzah!
Police superintendent Wallace is arrested for corruption and led off in handcuffs.

It's an entertaining and well-done bit of martial-arts fluff, more or less based on real events in the life of master Ip Man, who later ended up teaching Bruce Lee.


A very elegant and stylish film, with great performances. And also a wonderful window into the Hong Kong martial-arts environment in the early fifties, with splendid old-timey scenes and sets.


But still, the movie was somewhat disappointing. Much of the story is predictable, some of the characters are too one-dimensional to really grip, and the women have no real personalities, serving merely as props or backdrops - nice women who defer to their men, and support them in the crazy sh*t that they do.

Only one of the women comes across as in any way interesting: mrs. Jin, wife of former bandit now martial artist Jin Shanzhao, friend of master Hung. She has about three minutes of screen time.
After Yip, Jin, and a martial arts student get arrested, she comes to bail out her husband, and gives him a piece of her mind. He then wheedles her into forking over more money they can ill afford to get master Yip out too.
A strong-minded woman. A tough woman. A ferocious bitch with just eppes tons of personality.

Remarkably, I cannot remember her face at all, and I have no clue who played the role.
But good heavens, that really would be someone worth knowing.
The kind of woman who can hold her own.
And then some.



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