Blackie Ko (1953-2003), nicknamed 'Siu Hak', was a Taiwanese actor, stuntman, director and racing driver. Born on Yushan Island off Zhejiang, he fled with his family to Taitung, Taiwan during the 1955 Dachen withdrawal, did motorcycle stunts as a boy and won the Taiwan motorcycle obstacle championship in 1975. Entering the Hong Kong film industry in 1977 as action director, stunt performer and director, he became famous for Aces Go Places (1982), in which he rode a motorcycle at about 200 km/h out of a second-floor window, hung in the air for three seconds and dropped into the sea, a scene now regarded as a classic of Hong Kong cinema; he was known thereafter as 'Daring Ko'. On 15 November 1992 he jumped a motorcycle 38 metres over the Jinshanling Great Wall, earning a place in the Guinness records, and on 1 June 1997, on the eve of Hong Kong's handover, he drove a car across the Hukou waterfall on the Yellow River; on 1 October 2002 he flew the Potala Palace square in Tibet, earning the title 'Asia's first flying man'. He directed his first feature, Whampoa Blues, in 1988, appeared in the Young and Dangerous series and starred in the Taiwanese film A-pu. He was married to Song Li-hua and his elder son, Alan Ko, later became a singer and actor. He died in Shanghai in December 2003, aged 50, and received a posthumous Professional Spirit Award at the 2004 Hong Kong Film Awards; at his wish, his friend Max Mok later buried part of his ashes in Tibet.
Blackie Ko made his name with stunts performed in person, and his leaps over the Great Wall and the Hukou waterfall brought the stuntman out of the background and into public view; this willingness to trade life for a shot became one of the selling points of Hong Kong action films in the 1980s and 1990s.
Achievements
- 1982 · Performed the famous stunt in Aces Go Places, riding a motorcycle out of a second-floor window and into the sea.
- 1992 · On 15 November jumped a motorcycle 38 metres over the Jinshanling Great Wall, a Guinness record.
- 1997 · On 1 June, on the eve of Hong Kong's handover, drove a car across the Hukou waterfall on the Yellow River.