Tiger Yang
(Yang Cheng-Wu | Dong Yang)
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Biography
(Born 1945). A man of many talents, he actually taught Tae Kwon Do, in Chicago during the 70's (he owned (7) schools there). He had a one-hour variety show in Hong Kong, which included song and dance numbers, along with a 15-minute martial-arts demonstration, at the end of each program. Having studied acting and singing in college in both Korea and Taipei, he sang popular Chinese, Japanese, and Korean songs (he claimed his singing style was closer to Tom Jones). A good friend of Hapkido expert Bong Soo-Han (of Billy Jack fame), he was said to have made (14) films in 2 1/2 years, including a television movie in the US in 1974. I have yet, to find him in more than (8), so go figure.
An all-around bad guy, yet, he always managed to pull off a winning performance every time. He gave an excellent showing in the Samo Hung classic Warriors 2 and his fight scene with Cassanova Wong should have definitely been longer. His leg skills are pretty good and he has decent hand techniques as well. He claimed that Timing, was the hardest thing for him to learn when acting in kung-fu films. He could (would) overshadow someone like Meng Fei, because it seemed most kickers gave him fits, but the acrobatic Ng Ming-Tsai, seemed like the perfect foil for him, in the film Little Mad Guy.
He got a chance to fight John Chang, over his recently won bride Yang Pan-Pan, in the 2 Wondrous Tigers and even fared well against Bruce Li and the late Simon Yuen in the hit Blind Fist Of Bruce. It's a shame, that he didn't make that many movies, considering his skill level and presence on screen. I though he should have had a bigger part in Enter 3 Dragons, as well as Tower Of Death, where he could have provided Kim Tai-Chung with a much better fight scene than the "short, but sweet" one they gave us. He really "sold" that kick he received in the jaw (through the crate), Whoa!!
His portrayals of villains were good [ but still ] - somewhat of a stretch for him, as it seemed he was trying a bit too hard to be [more] convincing. It seems, that scowl on his face, put him in the villain category, when he probably could have played an interesting hero (something I never saw him do). The last time I saw him, he was on one of those late night Infomercial hawking an Abdominal Machine.