Lau Kar-wing

Lau Kar-wing — Biography

Born in 1944 in the Xinhui district of Jiangmen, Guangdong, Lau Kar-wing was the fourth child of wing chun master Lau Cham; he began learning kung fu in secret at his father's school, and once his elder brother, director Lau Kar-leung, discovered this he began teaching him directly. He entered the film industry as an extra and choreographer on the black-and-white Wong Fei-hung films.

He became one of Shaw Brothers Studio's main action choreographers in the 1960s, and in the 1970s partnered with Sammo Hung and Karl Maka, founding the Gar Bo Motion Picture Company in 1978 and starring alongside them in 'Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog' and 'Odd Couple'. He moved into directing in the late 1970s and made 'City Cops' (1989), starring Cynthia Rothrock, before largely retiring from the industry after 1994.

He later worked with his brother as martial arts choreographer on 'Drunken Monkey' (2002) and was an uncredited advisor on 'Seven Swords' (2005), and is also known as a skilled lion dance performer. Internationally, he appeared alongside Cüneyt Arkın and Bolo Yeung in the 1974 Turkish film 'Karateciler İstanbul'da' and alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme in 1989's 'Kickboxer: Kana Kan'. His son, Lau Wing-kin, and his nephew, Lau Kar-yung, both carry on the family trade.