Kung fu legend Sammo Hung on his seven-decade career, working with Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen

In a career that has spanned seven decades, Hong Kong action movie legend Sammo Hung has seen a lot, and moreover, his body has been through a lot. So it wasn’t a surprise to see the 72-year-old use a cane as he took the stage for a masterclass session at the Tokyo International Film Festival. But as he captivated an appreciative audience, the confidence and humor that have seen Hung through his illustrious career in martial arts movies shone bright.

Born into a showbiz family, Hung’s career began as a child actor while at the China Drama Academy, a Peking Opera school in Hong Kong. He made his film debut in the early 1960s, aged nine. A slightly grainy, black and white clip of the film showed a fresh-faced boy Hung, to coos from his assembled admirers. “Training at the school was very severe. We learned all the fundamental movements. By the time you’ve graduated, you can do nearly any move,” said Hung.

One of his big breaks came when he fought Bruce Lee in the opening scene of 1973’s seminal Enter the Dragon. Lee’s death that year left Game of Death unfinished, and in 1978, Hung was charged with the fight choreography for the reshoots.

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In his 1977 directorial debut The Iron-Fisted Monk, in which he also starred, Hung incorporated more of the comedy touches he had noticed audiences reacting well to in previous films. It helped kick off a trend for comedy kung fu flicks, made famous by rival and collaborator Jackie Chan in classics such as Drunken Master. “And Hong Kong films at that time were mostly in Mandarin, but we used Cantonese [for The Iron-Fisted Monk], and from then on decided to do all our films in Cantonese,” said Hung.

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Hung was also instrumental in creating the jiangshi genre of horror kung fu in the 1980s, inspired by his childhood love of ghosts and monsters. “I was always thinking about new elements that I could add to my action movies,” he said. “I barely took any time off during that golden era of Hong Kong cinema. I was still young and could go at that pace. Making movies was preferable to resting.”

While the 1990s didn’t see Hung reach the heights of previous decades at home, he starred in two seasons of CBS’s Martial Law from 1998 to 2000, making him a rare East Asian lead on a U.S. broadcast network show. Co-starring with Arsenio Hall, the show was a surprise hit, despite Hung’s dialogue being limited by his English ability.

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Next up was a clip of the iconic table-top fight scene between Hung and Donnie Yen in Ip Man 2 (2010). Hung was asked if it was difficult to shoot the combat sequence with the athletic Yen, known for his martial prowess and training across multiple disciplines.

“It wasn’t hard work with Donnie, he’s very skillful, and I’m also very skillful. We could do a lot of those in one take. Donnie is incredible, but I’m even more incredible,” smiled Hung, to laughter and applause from the audience.

Here is the Sammo Hung Masterclass from the Tokyo International Film Festival (no English subs)