Chen Sing
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Biography
He worked at Shaw Brothers, receiving small roles here & there. It seemed to me, the better he got, the smaller his roles became. The films The Heroics Ones, New One-Armed Swordsman, and The Deadly Duo. The biggest role he had at the studio, came courtesy of longtime friend, Jimmy Wang-Yu, in The Chinese Boxer. Having taken cues from Wang, he decided to try his hand elsewhere. Once he left the studio, he became a breakout star in such films as - Kung Fu, The Invisible Fist, The Bloody Fists, The Black List , Kung Fu, The Head-Crusher, The Black Panther, and Shaolin Warrior -- all as the lead hero (something he could’ve never achieved at Shaw Brothers).
I love his intensity when he's fighting, he just doesn't let up. From the first punch, he's all over you, coming at you from all angles, like a Hurricane that puts out a fist or a foot with every whirl. A consummate performer, who used to do his own stunts in the early 70’s (sometimes to disastrous results), cutting his leg severely on the set of The Black Panther as he jumped the a moving car windshield. This same move was later copied in the Chuck Norris film, Good Guys Wear Black and countless films there after. Later, Golden Harvest took the chance to sign him by "Per-picture" deals with the films - Iron-Fisted Monk, The Himalayan, The Shaolin Plot, and Naked Comes The Huntress. He [later] became one of the most in-demand character actors in the business; rivaled only by the likes of friends - Lo Lieh , Chang Yi, and Jimmy Wang-Yu.
He was (almost) always paired up with good friend Yasuaki Kurata, with whom he met while working at Shaw Brothers studios. They would later go on to star in several classics - often billed as Kung Fu - some were actually Karate techniques (and very good ones). The best was definitely Kung Fu, The Invisible Fist, which introduced the masses to such weapons as the Tonfa and the Sais (fork-like weapons also used by Ron Van Clief in his films). They were almost an equivalent of David Chiang and Ti Lung, in some respects.
Now, when he and Jim Kelly fought in the Tattoo Connection, if you covered of their faces, I swear I couldn't tell who was kicking. Sometimes I think that his feet are much deadlier than his fists, because you never know where they're coming from. In later years, he used a stunt-double for scenes that called for him to take too many "bumps and bruises" as in Kung Fu Executioner, going up against the very agile Billy Chong. Given that he could be very entertaining, not much was usually said about him as a villain, as he was everything a villain should have been.
He's played both the hero and the villain, and regardless of which he played, he always threw himself into his work. He did excellent "Animal Forms" and passed his Karate off, as kung-fu very convincingly, in a number of films. That (combined with good acting) helped to turned the film Shaolin Warrior, into a classic. In the Iron-Fisted Monk, he was in top form as the Monk who saves Samo Hung from Feng Ko-An and his gang of thugs. This was one of the best films of his career, along with (2) of my personal favorites, The Himalayan and Naked Comes The Huntress. Whether he was the hero or the villain, his acting was hard to beat. Like actor Chang Yi, you rooted for him more, as a villain, because you knew, you'd always get your money's worth.