Lau Kar-wing, born in Shaoguan, Guangdong in 1943 to a family from Xinhui, is a Hong Kong director, martial-arts choreographer and actor, the son of the Hung Gar master Lau Cham, the younger brother of Lau Kar-leung and the father of the actor Lau Wing-kin. He moved to Hong Kong with his family in 1949 and began learning Hung Gar from his father and elder brother at the age of ten, appearing occasionally in films with them in the early 1950s and working as a stuntman under Lau Kar-leung and Tong Kai from the late 1950s. He first worked as a martial-arts choreographer in 1966 on The Twin Butterflies, and in 1972 designed the action for Shaw Brothers' King Boxer (Five Fingers of Death), a huge hit in the United States; he was also sent to Spain to help shoot westerns and in 1974 took the male lead in Chen Hung-lieh's The Skyrocket. He worked as a choreographer in Taiwan before returning to Hong Kong in 1976, and in 1977 he directed his first film, Kung Fu Kid, which took over HK$1 million and established him as a director. He then balanced directing and acting, co-founding Gar Bo Films with Karl Maka and Sammo Hung for such films as Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog (1978) and Odd Couple (1979), and forming the Lau Brothers company with Lau Kar-leung for Kung Fu Genius (1978) and The Thundering Mantis (1979). He also appeared often in his brother's films, and their duel with ancient weapons in Legendary Weapons of China (1982) was especially admired. Active as a freelancer in the 1980s, he directed Cinema City's Till Death Do We Scare (1982) and the box-office hits The Dragon Family (1988) and Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon (1990). In 1991 he was action director on Tsui Hark's Once Upon a Time in China, sharing Best Action Choreography at the 11th Hong Kong Film Awards with Yuen Cheung-yan and Yuen Shun-yi, and in 1992 he was action director on Ringo Lam's Full Contact. He directed his last film, The Case of the Cold Fish, in 1994, after which he only worked occasionally in films and television dramas.
Coming from a Hung Gar family, Lau worked as a martial-arts choreographer from 1966 and shared the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Action Choreography for Once Upon a Time in China in 1991. He also directed kung-fu comedies such as Till Death Do We Scare, bringing the hard-edged Hung Gar style into commercial cinema.
Achievements
- 1977 · Directed his first film, Kung Fu Kid, which took over HK$1 million at the box office, and thereafter worked as both director and actor.
- 1990 · Directed the action comedy Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon.
- 1992 · Won Best Action Choreography at the 11th Hong Kong Film Awards for Once Upon a Time in China.