Lau Kar Leung
| Lau Kar-leung | |||||||||||||||||
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| Chinese name | 劉家良 (traditional) | ||||||||||||||||
| Chinese name | 刘家良 (simplified) | ||||||||||||||||
| Pinyin | Liú Jiāliáng (Mandarin) | ||||||||||||||||
| Jyutping | Lau4 Gaa1-loeng4 (Cantonese) | ||||||||||||||||
| Born |
28 July 1934 Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
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| Died | 25 June 2013 (aged 78) Hong Kong
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| Other name(s) | Liu Chia-liang | ||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Director, action choreographer, actor | ||||||||||||||||
| Years active | 1953-2013 | ||||||||||||||||
| Spouse(s) | Mary Jean Reimer (1984-2013; his death) | ||||||||||||||||
| Children | Jeanne Lau, Rosemary Lau | ||||||||||||||||
| Ancestry |
Xinhui, Guangdong, China
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Lau Kar-leung (28 July 1934 – 25 June 2013), also known as Liu Chia-liang, was a Hong Kong-based Chinese actor, filmmaker, choreographer and martial artist. Lau is best known for the films he made in the 1970s and 1980s for the Shaw Brothers Studio. One of his most famous works is The 36th Chamber of Shaolin which starred Gordon Liu, as well as Drunken Master II which starred Jackie Chan.
Before becoming famous, Lau worked as an extra and choreographer on black and white Wong Fei-hung movies. He teamed up with fellow Wong Fei-hung choreographer Tong Gaai on the 1963 Hu Peng-directed wuxia film South Dragon, North Phoenix. Their collaboration would continue on until the mid-1970s. His first appearance in a film was in Brave Lad of Guangong (1950).
In the 1960s he became one of Shaw Brothers' main choreographers and had a strong working relationship with director Chang Cheh, working on many of Chang's films as a choreographer (often alongside Tong Gaai) including The One-Armed Swordsman, as well as other Shaw Brothers wuxia films, such as The Jade Bow. After a split with Chang on the set of Marco Polo, Lau evolved into a director during the sudden boom of martial arts films in the early 1970s. He occasionally did choreography work for non-Shaw films as well, such as Master of the Flying Guillotine.
After Shaw Brothers collapsed in the 1980s, Lau moved on and continued directing and choreographing films, among them Drunken Master II. However, the film's star Jackie Chan and director Lau clashed over the style of fighting, resulting in Lau leaving the set before the shooting of the final fight scene, which was then taken over by Chan. Most recently, Lau performed acting and choreography work for Tsui Hark's 2005 film Seven Swords.
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Wikipedia