Sammo Hung Kam-bo (Chinese: 洪金寶; Jyutping: Hung4 Gam1-bou2; born 7 January 1952) is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, and filmmaker, known for his work in martial arts films, Hong Kong action cinema, and as a fight choreographer for other actors such as Kim Tai-chung, Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, and Yuen Wah.
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 popularized the zombie-like jiangshi 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.
Both Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan were often addressed as "Dai Goh", meaning "Big Brother", until the filming of Project A (1983), which featured both actors. As Hung was the eldest of the kung fu "brothers", and the first to make a mark on the industry, he was given the nickname "Dai Goh Dai", meaning "Big, Big Brother", or "Biggest Big Brother".
Born in Hong Kong, both of his parents worked as wardrobe artists in the local film industry and guardianship was thrust upon his grandparents. His grandmother was archetypal martial art actress Chin Tsi-ang and his grandfather was film director Hung Chung-ho.
Hung joined the China Drama Academy, a Peking Opera School in Hong Kong, in 1961. He was enrolled for a period of seven years, beginning at the age of 9, after his grandparents heard about the school from their friends. The opera school was run by Master Yu Jim Yuen and as was customary for all students, Hung adopted the given name of his sifu as his family name whilst attending. Going by the name Yuen Lung (元龍), Hung became the foremost member of the Seven Little Fortunes (七小福) performing group, and would establish a friendly rivalry with one of the younger students, Yuen Lo. Yuen Lo would go on to become international superstar Jackie Chan.
At the age of 14, Hung was selected by a teacher who had connections to the Hong Kong film industry to perform stunts on a movie. This brief foray into the industry piqued his interest in film and he took particular interest in the operation of film cameras. As the eldest of the troupe, Hung would give his opera school brothers pocket money from his earnings, endearing him greatly to his young friends. Shortly before leaving the Academy at the age of 16, Hung suffered an injury that left him bedridden for an extended period, during which time his weight ballooned. After finding work in the film industry as a stuntman, he was given a nickname after a well-known Chinese cartoon character, Sam-mo (三毛; Three Hairs).
Many years later, in 1988, Hung starred in Alex Law's Painted Faces, a dramatic re-telling of his experiences at the China Drama Academy. Among the exercises featured in the film are numerous acrobatic backflips, and hours of handstands performed against a wall. Despite some of the more brutal exercises and physical punishments shown in Painted Faces, Hung and the rest of the Seven Little Fortunes consider the film a toned-down version of their actual experiences.
Hung appeared as a child actor in several films for Cathay Asia and Bo Bo Films during the early 1960s. His film debut was in the 1961 film Education of Love. In 1962, he made his first appearance alongside Jackie Chan in the film Big and Little Wong Tin Bar, followed by a role in The Birth of Yue Fei, in which he played the ten-year-old Yue Fei, the historical figure from the Song Dynasty who would go on to become a famous Chinese general and martyr. The majority of Hung's performance was alongside another actor portraying Zhou Tong, Yue's elderly military arts tutor.
In 1966, at the age of just 14, Hung began working for Shaw Brothers Studio, assisting the action director Han Yingjie, on King Hu's film Come Drink with Me thanks to the fact that Han was his master's son-in-law. Between 1966 and 1974, Hung worked on dozens of films for Shaw Brothers, their two main rivals Golden Harvest and Cathay, as well as numerous independent production companies, progressing through the roles of extra, stuntman, stunt co-ordinator and ultimately, action director.
In 1970, Hung began working for Raymond Chow and the Golden Harvest film company. He was initially hired to assist Han Yingjie in choreographing the action scenes for the very first two Golden Harvest films, The Invincible Eight and The Angry River. Golden Harvest sent Hung to Korea to choreograph films with their director Huang Feng where Hung studied hapkido with Master Ji Han-Jae and earned his black belt. While in Korea he became the martial arts director on three Angela Mao vehicles, Lady Whirlwind, Hapkido, and When Taekwondo Strikes. His popularity soon began to grow, and due to the quality of his choreography and disciplined approach to his work, he again caught the eye of celebrated Taiwanese director, King Hu. Hung choreographed Hu's The Fate of Lee Khan (1973).
Also in 1973, he was seen in the Bruce Lee classic Enter the Dragon. Hung was the Shaolin student Lee faces in the opening sequence. In 1975, Hung choreographed the action for The Man from Hong Kong, the first Australian co-production undertaken by Golden Harvest.
In the mid-70s, martial arts movies began to lose some of their punch at the box office and Golden Harvest signed the Hui Brothers to a contract. Michael, Ricky, and Sam Hui had been at Shaw Brothers but wanted to direct their own movies. When Shaw refused they signed with Golden Harvest and their blockbuster comedies kicked off a comedy wave in Hong Kong. When it came time to direct his first film, The Iron Fisted Monk (1977), Hung made sure to lean into the comedy, delivering what many feel to be the first out-and-out kung fu comedy film.
In 1978, Raymond Chow gave Hung the task of completing the fight co-ordination for the re-shoot of Game of Death, the film Bruce Lee was unable to complete before his death in 1973.
In 1978, Hung directed his second film, the comedy Enter the Fat Dragon, for H.K. Fong Ming Motion Picture Company, also playing the lead role Ah Lung; a character who idolises and impersonates Bruce Lee. Hung has impersonated Lee on film twice more - in the final fight scene against Cynthia Rothrock in Millionaire's Express (1986), and throughout the 1990 Lau Kar-wing film Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon.
After Jackie Chan's success with Drunken Master (1978), Hung was scheduled to make a similar film featuring Drunken Master's "Beggar So" character played by Yuen Siu Tien (aka Simon Yuen). As his elder, Sammo's films were expected to surpass Chan's in popularity. The film was The Magnificent Butcher (1979), which Hung co-directed with Yuen Woo-ping. However, during filming Yuen Siu Tien died of a heart attack. He was replaced by Fan Mei Sheng and Yuen's absence may have led to low ticket sales.
As Hung's fame grew, he used his newly found influence to assist his former China Drama Academy classmates, as well as the former students of "rival" school The Spring and Autumn Drama School. Aside from regular collaborations with Chan, others such as Yuen Biao, Yuen Wah, Lam Ching-ying and Mang Hoi also began to make regular appearances in his films.
In 1978 and 1981, Hung made two films that contain fine examples of the Wing Chun style. The first, Warriors Two, was the most significant role to date for South Korean super kicker Casanova Wong, who teamed up with Hung in the final fight. The second film was The Prodigal Son, in which the Wing Chun fighting was performed by Lam Ching-Ying. The release of The Prodigal Son, along with another film directed by and co-starring Hung, Knockabout (1979), also elevated his fellow Opera schoolmate Yuen Biao to stardom.
Hung's martial arts films of the 1980s helped reconfigure how martial arts were presented on screen. While the martial arts films of the 1970s generally featured highly stylised fighting sequences in period or fantasy settings, Hung's choreography, set in modern urban areas, was more realistic and frenetic - featuring long one-on-one fight scenes. The fight sequences from several of these films, such as those in Winners and Sinners (1983) and Wheels on Meals (1984) came to define 1980s martial arts movies.