Lee Chiang
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Biography
This guy has got to be, one of the most noticeable background fighters there is, in kung-fu films. You'll see him in a great deal of kung-fu films, yet, you won't see him do a great deal of fighting (not that he can't fight). He's one of those actors, who get to stand around making threats (but never making good on them) and before you know it, he's been killed. Which, in a lot of ways is a shame, because he had some decent skills and when it's called for (it's always called for), he will fight.
In Fatal Needles, Fatal Fists, he just seemed to pop up in the last part of the film and you weren't even sure, that you'd seen him in the earlier part of the movie. Next thing you know.............POW! (He's dead). He stood out, in the film White Butterfly Killer, only because he had a much longer scene, than most of the time (there must have been a shortage of real villains around). Though, he did die (this time), it was explained why he died. He, basically, had a rape scene and a death scene and then Hsu Feng punched his lights out and this didn't even take up a good 30 minutes of the movie. Still, that's probably one of the better on-screen performances, I've seen him give.
In the early 70's you could almost, always, find him lurking in a Jimmy Wang-Yu film and as he (and time) progressed, he would land more roles. Yet, these roles, were of the same calibre and not too much different from what he was always playing (villains who don't live past the first 45-minutes). He just didn't really have what it took, to be considered a real threat to anyone, but given the film, he can be quite entertaining.
The film - New Game Of Death with Bruce Li, was one of my favorites. Here, he played the Indian fighter, who tries to stop the hero from getting to the top of the pagoda. He's swinging his sword and the hero keeps disappearing (camera-trickery, of course), but it was so funny, because even after the hero has moved on to the next room, you can still hear him swinging his sword and yelling (like he was still, trying to kill someone). While, he (definitely) had the face to pull of villainous portrayals -- premium roles [just] seemed to past him by. I think, one of his best films was Shaolin Heroes (with Wang Kuan-Hsiung and Tsung Hua). Here, he was was the lead villain and he got to show off his capabilities as a first-rate killer (and did quite well).