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Richard James Havis

Simon Yam Tat-wah, who began his film career as an extra in 1975, is perhaps Hong Kong’s most ubiquitous actor.
Best known for his parts in Category III (adults-only) films in the 1990s and for a slew of roles playing Hong Kong triad criminals, the prolific film and television performer has in fact played all kinds of characters in all kinds of genres.
Below, we explore Yam’s significant contribution to Hong Kong cinema with Grady Hendrix, a bestselling novelist and expert on Asian film.
Simon Yam has made around 240 films since 1975. What’s the secret of his success?
Quite simply, he works at it. He grew up quite poor and his dad was a tough guy – a Hong Kong police officer – who had a very vigorous work ethic. Yam really internalised that.
He has said in interviews that it is important to be on time, be prepared, and to get on and do the work. He loves acting and wants to make as many films as he can, and that approach also works out financially for him – he has never been ashamed to talk about making money.

Sometimes it seems like he takes any role he is offered.
In the 1990s, the triads controlled much of the moviemaking business, so there were a lot of terrible films coming out – and he was in a lot of them. Back then, he did not seem to be able to say no.
But that changed after 1998, when the Asian financial crisis hit the Hong Kong film industry and the production bubble burst. He said this led to some benefits on a personal level, as all of a sudden there were less films being made, and the ones that were often had better scripts and better directors. There were not so many fly-by-night movies.
Yam has always chosen to work in many different kinds of genres.
Yes, he has appeared in all kinds of genres. He was in the Gigolo and Whore films in the early 1990s – they were kind of romantic comedy dramas about a male prostitute.

He has played cops in innumerable action films. He has played hit men, he has played good guys and he has played bad guys. He played real-life triad members in the early 1990s in films which were sometimes funded by real-life triad members.
Viewers outside Hong Kong may not be aware of his more serious dramatic side.
Yes, he is fantastic in Echoes of the Rainbow, directed by Alex Law Kai-yui and produced by Mabel Cheung Yuen-ting, in which he stars as a Hong Kong everyman, a shoemaker who is kind of everyone’s favourite dad.
He recently did A Light Never Goes Out, in which he plays the guy who makes neon signs for Hong Kong. He should get more credit for his work in Ann Hui On-wah’s Night and Fog.

It was not unusual for mainstream stars to appear in adults-only Category III films in the 1990s, but Yam seems to have done it with gusto – he is famed for shockers like Raped by an Angel and Dr Lamb.
He has done a lot more Category III and Category IIB films than other actors, and he is happy to go to places other people will not.
He is a very handsome leading man to get to star in a Category III film, and I think that once producers realised he would say yes to those roles, they kept offering them to him – they realised that Chow Yun-fat and Andy Lau Tak-wah were not going to say yes to Category III films, but Yam would.
Anthony Wong Chau-sang was another actor who would say yes to them – but Yam is better looking.


Why do audiences and producers like him so much?
He is an incredibly good-looking guy with a really expressive face. He is one of those actors who look interesting when they are not actually doing much on screen. Even if he is just thinking on screen, he looks interesting. Yam just has that magnetism – he does not have to be “acting” to get your attention.
The other thing is that he has been around since the 1970s. People in Hong Kong have seen him on the screen all their lives – they have grown up with him. There is a familiarity that he brings with him, and that is really important to his career.
How do you rate his acting?
He is a really talented actor, and he is fearless. Even back in his television days at TVB he was fearless in his choice of roles.

In the film Dr Lamb he puts in a really intense portrayal of the killer – and he did not just play him once, as he had played him in a television movie before that. As he has got older, his intensity has muted, but he is still compelling.
He is not in the first rank of actors like Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung Chiu-wai, but he is certainly above the second rank. Where does he fit in?
Chow Yun-fat has that smile and he is the good guy. Andy Lau Tak-wah can bring an edge but he is still the good guy, even though he played the triad punk when he was younger. Tony Leung is always likeable, even in Hard Boiled.
Simon Yam has that quality, but he is less concerned with his image and more concerned with doing the work. He likes to bring intensity to his roles and do something new, and if that makes the character he is playing seem monstrous, well OK.
Yam has never worried too much about his image, and that has made him a better actor. But it has also kept him from being a movie star at the level of Tony Leung or Chow Yun-fat.

In the late 1990s, Yam surprised local viewers by turning up in idiosyncratic Johnnie To Kei-fung films like The Mission and PTU. Did they help his career?
Their first movie together was Expect the Unexpected in 1998. Yam had done Casino and The King of Robbery, in which he had played real-life triad guys – they were really cheap movies and they did not do a lot for his reputation.
Then Expect the Unexpected came out with Yam in a classical leading man role. That movie is a really fantastic two-hander between Yam and Lau Ching-wan.
After that, there was To’s The Mission, and then Wilson Yip Wai-shun’s Juliet in Love. Yam’s performances in these three films led to him being taken a lot more seriously as an actor.
In this regular feature series on the best of Hong Kong cinema, we examine the legacy of classic films, re-evaluate the careers of its greatest stars, and revisit some of the lesser-known aspects of the beloved industry.
Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook


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Simon Yam at the 2017 Hong Kong Film Awards presentation ceremony. Photo: Edward Wong

Hong Kong actor Simon Yam at an interview with the Post in 2013. Yam is known for his work ethic, his roles in 1990s adults-only films, and for playing triad criminals. Photo: Antony Dickson

Simon Yam pictured in 1988. Photo: SCMP

Simon Yam (left) and Sandra Ng in a still from Echoes of the Rainbow (2010).

Chou Han-ning (left) and Simon Yam in a still from A Light Never Goes Out (2022).

Simon Yam in a still from Dr Lamb (1992).

Simon Yam (front) in a still from The Mission (1999).

Who is Gordon Liu? Hong Kong martial artist played a bald monk and had two Kill Bill roles

Gordon Liu and Uma Thurman in a still from Kill Bill: Volume 2. Photo: AP

Gordon Liu in a still from The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter. Liu has had an illustrious film career that has spanned decades. Photo: Shaw Brothers

Liu in a still from The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. Photo: Shaw Brothers Studio

Lau Kar-leung (left) and Liu in a still from Challenge of the Masters (1976).

Liu (left) and Lau Kar-leung (centre) pictured in 2003. Photo: SCMP

Liu in a still from The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.

Liu (left) and Hsiao Ho in a still from Legendary Weapons of China.

Liu and Uma Thurman in a still from Kill Bill: Volume 2. Photo: AP

In Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, Tsui Hark mixes martial arts and Sherlock Holmes-style sleuthing

Andy Lau as Di Renjie in a still from Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame.

Andy Lau as Di Renjie in a still from Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame. Tsui Hark’s 2010 fantasy wuxia film was a box-office hit and spawned two sequels.

(From left) Director Tsui Hark, Andy Lau and Li Bingbing on the set of Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame.

Tsui Hark at an interview with the Post in 2010. Photo: SCMP

Carina Lau as Wu Zetian in a still from Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame.

Sammo Hung on the set of Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame.

Changing culture in Hong Kong around 1997 handover captured in Fruit Chan’s films The Longest Summer and Little Cheung

Mak Wai-fan (top) as Ah Fan and Yiu Yuet-ming as as Little Cheung in a still from Fruit Chan’s Little Cheung.

A still from Little Cheung. Fruit Chan Gor’s Made in Hong Kong, The Longest Summer and Little Cheung present a complete picture of Hong Kong working-class life at the time of the territory’s handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997.

Tony Ho (left) as Ga-yin and Sam Lee (right) as Ga-suen in a still from The Longest Summer.

Jo Kuk as Jane in a still from The Longest Summer.

Fruit Chan, director of The Longest Summer and Little Cheung, pictured in 1999. Photo: SCMP

Yiu Yuet-ming (left) as Little Cheung and Mak Wai-fan as Ah Fan in a still from Little Cheung.

Maggie Q, Andy Lau and Sammo Hung help bring alive 2 war epics Hong Kong directors filmed in China

Andy Lau in a still from Hong Kong-China co-production Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon. The 2008 war epic directed by Daniel Lee co-starred Maggie Q, with a cameo from Sammo Hung, and is a retelling of a story from the classic Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.  

Sammo Hung (left) as Luo Ping-an and Andy Lau as General Zhao Zilong in a still from Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon.

Daniel Lee at an interview with the Post in 2009. Photo: May Tse

Maggie Q in a still from Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon.

Sammo Hung (front) as a failed general and Vincent Zhao as general Qi Jiguang in a still from God of War.

Gordon Chan, pictured in 2014. Photo: Edward Wong

Yasuaki Kurata as a Japanese samurai leading the pirates in God of War.

How Infernal Affairs II and III tried to emulate the success of the original with Andy Lau and Tony Leung, but couldn’t

Kelly Chen Wai-lam (left) and Tony Leung Chiu-wai in a still from Infernal Affairs III. Photo: Media Asia Films

Andy Lau Tak-wah (front) and Leon Lai Ming in a still from Infernal Affairs III. This and Infernal Affairs II never lived up the original starring Lau and Tony Leung Chiu-wai, in part because the 2002 film didn’t leave much room for follow-ups. Photo: Media Asia Films

(From left) Andy Lau, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Kelly Chen, Leon Lai Ming and Chapman To Man-chat publicise the launch of Infernal Affairs III in Beijing in 2003. Photo: SCMP

Alan Mak Siu-fai (left) and Andrew Lau Wai-keung on the set of Infernal Affairs III.

Francis Ng (front) in a still from Infernal Affairs II.

Kelly Chen and Tony Leung in a still from Infernal Affairs III. Photo: Media Asia Films

Andy Lau (front) in a still from Infernal Affairs III.

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Magnetic, intense and fearless, Simon Yam is the star of Category III (adults-only) and mainstream crime films who also shot serious dramas


Adults-only and mainstream crime films, sex films, and serious dramas with Alex Law and Ann Hui – Simon Yam has done them all. Good-looking and with an expressive face, he has a work ethic second to none.
