Winners and Sinners

Sammo Hung is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, film producer and director, known for his work in many martial arts films and Hong Kong action cinema. He has been a fight choreographer for, amongst others, Jackie Chan, King Hu, and John Woo. Hung is one of the pivotal figures who spearheaded the... Hong Kong New Wave movement of the 1980s, helped reinvent the martial arts genre and started the vampire-like Jiang Shi genre. He is widely credited with assisting many of his compatriots, giving them their starts in the Hong Kong film industry, by casting them in the films he produced, or giving them roles in the production crew. In East Asia, it is common for people to address their elders or influential people with familial nouns as a sign of familiarity and respect. Jackie Chan, for example, is often addressed as "Dai Goh" , meaning Big Brother. Hung was also known as "Dai Goh", until the filming of Project A, which featured both actors.
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Yuen Biao is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist. He specialises in acrobatics and Chinese martial arts and has worked on over 80 films as actor, stuntman and action choreographer. Along with Peking Opera School "brothers" at the China Drama Academy, Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan, he was one of the... Seven Little Fortunes. Born 夏令震 Xià Lìng-Zhèn in Hong Kong, he was the fifth child in a family of eight children. At the age of six he was enrolled at the Peking Opera School The China Drama Academy. He was given the stage name Yuen Biao and trained alongside schoolmates Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Corey Yuen, Yuen Wah and several others, under master Yu Jim-yuen, who would later become famous in Hong Kong cinema. He quickly showed a talent for acrobatics. According to Jackie Chan's autobiography when Yuen was first asked by his master, upon his first day with him, to do a backflip, Yuen did a proper backflip on his very first try. He remained at the school until the age of 16. When he left, Yuen followed his classmate Sammo Hung into a career in the Hong Kong film industry. Yuen Biao has appeared in over 130 films.
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Lam Ching Ying was a Hong Kong actor, action director and director. A physically talented and graceful martial artist, Lam was best known for playing the stoic Taoist priest in Mr. Vampire . Lam died in 1997 of liver cancer. The third of seven children, Lam was born in Hong Kong attended Shun Yi... Association Elementary School in Hong Kong for two years before leaving school. In 1963/4, he joined The Spring and Autumn Drama School, the "other" Peking Opera School in Hong Kong, which was run by Madame Fan Fok-fa , the "rival" of Yu Jim Yuen where Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung were trained at around the same time. In actuality, the schools were friends and students from both schools often mingled. A year after joining, Lam made his first public appearance. Madame reported Lam as a disobedient student who was beyond her ability to handle. At 17, Lam became a stuntman and martial arts coach at the Shaw Brothers Studio. Due to his slender build, he was often called upon to substitute female actors. He received $HK60 a day, $HK20 of which went to his master.
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