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Lam Ching Ying |
by Martin Cleary
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Although the name may not be familiar to you, if you have watched
many Hong Kong films from the Shaw Brothers to Bruce Lee, from
Jackie Chan up until the actioners of the 1990’s, then the chances
are that you have seen Lam Ching-ying and his work.He is most famous
for his role as the Taoist Priest / Vampire hunter of the Mr Vampire
films, but Lam Ching-ying has been involved in many of the biggest
and most groundbreaking HK films ever made.
Born in Hong Kong on December 27 1952, Ching-ying had only two years
of formal schooling when he enroled at the Peking Opera School of
Madame Fun Guk Fa, where he stayed for five years. This was a school
similar to that which Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and the rest of the
Seven Little Fortunes were training, and - although rivals - the two
schools had some interaction. Ching-ying’s training at the school
not only gave him some unique physical
abilities (fighting and gymnastically) but also taught him the rare
skill to be able to play female roles! [As well as performing
stunt-doubling for actresses, his ‘female’ side can probably be best
seen in The Prodigal Son in which he plays a eunch and female
impersonator] At the age of 17, the slender Lam began a career as a
stuntman and action choreographer for the Shaw Brothers Studios.
After a two year apprenticeship at Shaw Brothers, Ching-ying changed
studios to work at the new Golden Harvest company after he was
hand-picked by Bruce Lee to work as stuntman and extra in what was
to become Lee’s explosive entrance onto the big screen - The Big
Boss. Lee and Lam worked well together, they both had studied Wing
Chun as a fighting style and were serious in their work. They became
good friends – at one point filming was suspended on The Big Boss,
because Bruce had to bail Ching-ying out of jail as he had been
arrested for fighting. Bruce rehired Lam as his personal assistant
and co-action director when filming for Fist of Fury began. This
working relationship continued through
all of Lee’s films. Most famously, on the film Enter The Dragon,
Ching-ying played the stunt double for Shih Kuen who portrayed the
villain, Han. When Bruce Lee died suddenly just prior to the release
of Enter The Dragon, Ching-ying was incredibly saddened by his
passing, he had a great deal of respect for Lee. Throughout his life
many of his friends and co-stars spoke
of Ching-yings ‘respect’. If he did not respect you, then he had
very little time for you.
Lam had slowly become close friends with Sammo Hung (who can be seen
fighting Bruce in the opening of Enter The Dragon), and he decided
to join Sammo’s stunt team (Hung Gar Ban) as stuntman and action
director. As a result, his on screen roles slowly increased - and so
did his reputation.His first real on-screen breakthrough came during
the attention grabbing fight between himself and Yuen Biao in The
Magnificent Butcher. In 1982 Ching-ying won an award for best action
direction for Prodigal Son which displays his Wing Chun training,
and his portrayal of the female impersonator Leung Yee Tai steals
the film. Two of the films highlights are Ching-yings duel with
Frankie Chan and the training and sparring that he puts Yuen Biao’s
central character through. The award for action direction was won
again the next year by Lam and the rest of Sammo’s team for their
work on Winners and Sinners.
Around 1985, Lam Ching-ying trained Michelle Yeoh, (at the time she
was Michelle Kahn) who had previously been a ballet dancer and
beauty queen, into an on-screen martial artist. One of Michelle’s
earliest films ‘Yes Madam’ (released the following year) established
her credibility in the martial arts movie and she has subsequently
risen to become one of the most
recognizable faces in HK cinema. Also in 1985 Lam starred as for the
first time as the Taoist monk in the comedy Mr Vampire. Low on
action but high in laughs, Mr Vampire proved that
his comedy timing and skills were just as sharp as his martial arts
ability. This was the role that won him the most recognition not
only in Hong Kong but worldwide. Mr Vampire plays well with Lam’s
‘serious’ appearance and the whole cast seem to enjoy a certain
amount of ‘spoofing’ of their on-screen personas. Ching-ying cashed
in on the Mr Vampire craze by starring in many sequels both official
and unofficial. Although he had become typecast as this
‘Taoist priest’, it was a role Ching-ying embraced, before heading
off back into Sammo-directed films such as Eastern Condors and
Shanghai Express. Ching-ying seems to appear in pretty much all of
the Sammo Hung directed films of this period, very often as a
villain. His ‘cool’ approach works well when playing a bad guy, and
his fighting skills mean he always appears
to be a formidable fighting opponent. In 1988, Lam also proved his
acting skills in two non-action roles in the films School On Fire
(directed by Ringo Lam) and the film Painted Faces, which depicts
the training of the Seven Little Fortunes at the Peking Opera
School. He followed this in 1989 with his directorial debut, an
unofficial spin-off from the Mr Vampire series titled ‘One Eyebrow
Priest’ (also well known as Vampire Vs. Vampire)
In 1995, Lam reprised his Mr Vampire role yet again for a television
series called The Vampire Expert. An attempt to make a Mr Vampire
television series for America had previously collapsed, but the Hong
Kong series was a big success. It had a second run in 1996 and
pre-production for a third series began. The third series was never
made as Ching-ying became ill. At this time Ching-ying discovered
that he had developed liver cancer. This was a hereditary disease,
from which his brother had sadly died. Lam never publicly announced
his illness, not even telling his closest friends. He quietly
retired to his sisters’ home for what were to be his remaining few
weeks and at the beginning of November, Lam fell into a coma. After
being moved to St Teresa’s hospital in Kowloon, he died on 8
November aged forty-five. He left behind a wife, Cheng Bing Bing,
and two children. A memorial service was held at Lam Ching-yings
three-hour long memorial service on the 13th November 1997. While
his close family and friends were in attendance, fifty Buddhist
monks prayed and some of the biggest names in Hong Kong cinema -Sammo
Hung, Jackie Chan, Billy Chan, Wu Ma, Chin Kar-lok and Chong Fat -
were his pallbearers. Ching-ying was cremated and his ashes were
sent over to the USA. On his gravestone a calligraphic tribute reads
‘One Smile Returns To The West’.
Although he never reached the realms of superstardom worldwide that
many off his peers have reached, Lam has in many ways been vital to
the success their films. Lam Ching-ying left behind a fantastic
legacy of films, many of which will still be entertaining viewers of
Asian cinema for many years to come.
Recommended Films :
The Big Boss (1971)
Enter The Dragon (1973) (plays Hans stunt double, but - come on -
it’s a classic film)
Magnificent Butcher (1979)
Encounters Of The Spooky Kind (1980)
Prodigal Son (1981)
Mr Vampire (1985)
Shanghai Express (1986)
Eastern Condors (1987)
Painted Faces (1988)
School On Fire (1988)
Magic Cop (1990) |
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