If you’re a fan of kung-fu cinema, you’ve probably heard the name Jimmy Wang-Yu. If not, there’s a whole rabbit hole you can go down. Wang Yu, who died this week at 79 in Taipei (according to Deadline), was arguably the first kung-fu star, predating Bruce Lee and his contemporaries. He starred in the Shaw Bros classic The One-Armed Swordsman, which helped kick off the genre. Indeed, he was a legend in the Hong Kong film industry and had a long run of hits, including The One-Armed Boxer and its sequel, Master of the Flying Guillotine, whose score and SFX (which were lifted from other movies), were sampled in Kill Bill.
Despite often playing one-armed heroes, Wang Yu did indeed have both arms. His career in front of the camera was extensive, with him most recently playing a bad guy in the Donnie Yen vehicle Wu Xia. Wang Yu, a controversial figure offscreen thanks to his bad-boy antics (he was once arrested for murder), was at his peak in the late sixties and early seventies despite having no formal martial arts training (he was a swimmer). Some of his deeds offscreen were legendary, with him apparently getting Jackie Chan out of trouble with the Triads at one point when the director he had a contract with (Lo Wei) disputed Chan’s wish to end his exclusive contract. To pay him back, Chan co-starred in a few wacky Wang Yu movies, Fantasy Mission Force and Island of Fire (released here as The Prisoner a decade after it came out in the East).
Wang Yu also made an abortive attempt at western stardom, starring in the cult classic The Man From Hong Kong for Aussie director Brian Trenchard-Smith, where he fought ex-James Bond, George Lazenby. The movie is actually a blast, but Wang Yu was not popular with the Australian crew. They told some pretty unflattering stories about him in the fantastic Ozploitation doc Not Quite Hollywood. Despite their issues, Trenchard-Smith paid homage to him in a Facebook post, writing, “despite our reported difficulties, I always remember Jimmy fondly. It’s the result that counts. He worked hard and was a great athlete. I believe he ultimately liked what I did with the film, but I only heard that second hand. We never spoke after the movie was over.”
For his part, Lazenby also seemed to harbour no ill will towards Wang Yu, posting on Twitter:
Jackie Chan also paid tribute to Wang-Yu via Facebook:
We here at JoBlo tip our hats to a legend. Rest well Jimmy Wang Yu!