Han Ying-chieh (1927–1990) was one of the leading Northern-style martial arts choreographers in Hong Kong cinema. A Shandong native who moved to Beijing as a child, he trained for nine years from the age of nine with the Fuliancheng opera troupe and first worked in films in 1946. Invited to Hong Kong in 1947 by Cantonese opera artist Chan Kam-tong, he performed in the troupe Kam Tim Fa, then spent five years in Singapore doing Peking opera at the Great World amusement park and performing as a flying trapeze artist with the Shen Changfu Circus before returning to Hong Kong. Through the boom in Cantonese martial-arts films he worked on the Wong Fei-hung, Fong Sai-yuk, Buddha's Palm and Lady Bond series. He joined Shaw Brothers productions in 1959, was martial arts choreographer on Griffin Yue Feng's The Swallow Thief (1961), doubling for Linda Lin Dai and pioneering trampoline-assisted 'lightness skill'. He collaborated with King Hu on Sons of Good Earth (1965) and Come Drink with Me (1966), then followed Hu to Taiwan for Dragon Inn (1967) and A Touch of Zen (1971), also appearing on screen. Signing with Golden Harvest in 1971, he choreographed The Angry River (1971), The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972), and acted in King Hu's The Fate of Lee Khan (1973) and The Valiant Ones (1975). He also directed Lung Kim Fung and Poisonous Spider (both 1972) for Antar Motion Picture. He died in Hong Kong on 21 February 1990.
Achievements
- 1967 · Followed King Hu to Taiwan as martial arts choreographer on Dragon Inn.
- 1972 · Directed Lung Kim Fung and Poisonous Spider.