Here are some things you should know about the living legend that is Gordon Liu.
1. His parents didn't want him to learn kung fu.
Liu became interested in learning kung fu after watching martial arts films at the cinema with his uncle as a child, but his parents were adamantly against it, as they believed it would lead to arguments.
“As a kid, I was really naughty and avoided going to school. Then I saw Lau Cham and I knew kung fu was something I had to learn and that kung fu was going to be an important part of my life. So now I had an excuse to skip school to train in martial arts,” Liu told Kung Fu Magazine.
Liu said he chose to learn the “Southern Boxing” style of Hung Gar because it is difficult and he wanted to challenge himself.
2. He joined Liu Jialiang's family.
3. He worked under Chang Choi when he was young.
Lau Kar-leung rose to fame in the 1960s as the martial arts choreographer for influential film director Chang Cheh, and when Chang moved to Taiwan in 1974 to set up an unofficial Shaw Brothers production subsidiary, Lau accompanied him and invited Liu to join him as an actor.
Lau had previously given Liu extra and starring roles. Escaping oppression Although he made his acting debut in 1973, Liu wasn't serious about acting – he was working as an office worker at an accounting firm at the time.
“Lau wanted me to take two months off to make a film, and I was only 17 or 18 so I thought I'd give it a go,” he told the Post. Eventually, Lau signed a deal with Chan.
However, Lau had a bitter conflict with Chan and returned to Hong Kong to begin directing films himself for Shaw Brothers, leaving Liu behind in Taiwan.
Chan did not think highly of Liu's acting skills: “The hardest part was being on my own. I didn't have many opportunities to act. On set, it was mostly fighting. If I had one line, I'd practice saying it all day,” Liu told The Post.
4. He became famous as a bald monk, but he preferred long hair.
Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, Lau grew his hair long – and apparently liked it – until he was offered the chance to join the Hong Kong police force, but turned it down because the job would have meant cutting his hair.
“After high school, my brother-in-law became a police inspector and encouraged me to do the same,” he told Kung Fu Magazine. “But what was stopping me? There was no way I was going to cut my long, flowing hair.”
Liu agreed to shave his head to play the monk San Te in Lau's breakthrough film. Shaolin Temple Room 36The film made him famous and audiences identified him with the character, so he decided to remain bald.
“At that time, very few actors shaved their heads to stay handsome,” he says. “I wasn't handsome, but when I shaved my head, people thought I was special. When I was in Japan, people told me I looked like Yul Brynner, and I loved that.”
5. He is an avid martial artist.
“Acting is not the reason I practice martial arts. Even if my kung fu movie wasn't a big hit, I would still practice,” he told the Post. “It's my life.”
“Kung fu is not about killing. There is a philosophy and ethics behind it,” Liu told the Post.
6. He enjoyed working with Quentin Tarantino
Liu has appeared in two films directed by Quentin Tarantino. Kill Bill and Kill Bill Vol. 2In the first film he played gang leader Johnny Mo, and in the second he played Pai Mei, a nefarious Shaolin traitor who defected to the rival Wudang sect.
“Tarantino said he wanted to make an action movie in the 1970s fighting style used in old Hong Kong movies. He didn't want flashy action, he wanted good, old-fashioned kung fu,” he told the Post.
This regular feature series highlighting the best of Hong Kong cinema examines the legacy of classic cinema, reassessing the careers of some of Hong Kong's greatest stars and revisiting lesser-known aspects of a beloved industry.
