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Richard James Havis

The late Brandon Lee is best known for Hollywood films like The Crow, but the actor actually made his first film in Hong Kong.
Legacy of Rage, directed by Ronny Yu Yan-tai in 1986, is a taut crime film about a naive young man, played by Lee, who is framed for a murder by his scheming best friend, played by Michael Wong Man-tak.
Spice is added by the fact that Michael’s character also wants Lee’s girl, and will stop at nothing to get her.
Film historian Frank Djeng, who provided the commentary for the 88 Films release of the movie, discussed Lee’s only Hong Kong film with the Post.


How did Brandon Lee end up making a film in Hong Kong?
In the mid-1980s, D&B Films, the production company, were trying to give their films some international appeal, and they thought Brandon Lee would provide that.
Brandon did not speak Chinese, so they needed a local director with good English skills. Ronny Yu spoke good English, as he had studied in Canada, and he was also a true fan of Bruce Lee, so he jumped at the chance.
Ronny flew to Los Angeles where Brandon was making television movies, and persuaded him to come to Hong Kong.

Why had Brandon never made a film in Hong Kong before?
He thought that working in Hong Kong would be too difficult, as he was Bruce’s son. He felt that he would have to live up to his dad’s legacy.
It did lead to some difficulties – when he met the press in Hong Kong, they asked him a lot about his dad. He would ignore the questions, and sometimes even walk out of the interviews. So the Hong Kong media thought him rude.
It was a tense time for Brandon, but Ronny helped him get through it, and ensured that they got the film done.
Is it true that he didn’t want to do kung fu in the movie so that people didn’t compare him with his dad?
Yes, initially he didn’t want to do any kung fu in Legacy of Rage. Brandon knew he was not as good as Bruce, and he wanted to be recognised on his own merits. He wanted to be regarded as a serious actor, and he asked Ronny if he could put in more drama scenes, and take out the action.
But Ronny gently told him that he had been signed up to do the film as he was Bruce’s son, so he had to do action scenes.

Is it him in the action scenes?
Brandon didn’t mind doing the stunt work, and he drove the cars in the stunt scenes. But he didn’t want to do martial arts work – he got stunt doubles in for many of those scenes. In the fight with Bolo Yeung in the alleyway, you can see three stunt doubles.
But Brandon gradually accepted that he would have to do more action, and as the film progressed he got more comfortable with it.
His aversion to kung fu didn’t go down well with Mang Hoi, the martial arts choreographer.
No, it didn’t, not at first anyway. Mang Hoi idolised Bruce Lee – he was the kid that Bruce had patted on the head in Enter the Dragon, on the way to the island in the boat.

Mang Hoi was proud about being in that scene with Bruce, and he was really looking forward to working as the martial arts choreographer for Brandon. So he was upset when Brandon didn’t want to do any kung fu.
As the film progressed, they both adapted. By the time they got to the finale, Mang Hoi had accepted Brandon’s wishes, and he made it revolve more around guns.
By contrast, Michael Wong – who plays the villain – and Brandon got on very well.
Yes, they did hit it off. Michael spoke English – he couldn’t speak Cantonese – and Regina Kent, the female lead, also spoke good English. The fact that Michael spoke English really helped to relax Brandon when he was shooting.

They all hung out together, and Ronny wrote their lines in English, and they were dubbed. That really helped them understand what the film was about.
Wong puts in one of his best performances – one critic described it as his “least annoying” role – and it’s one of only a few times he’s played a villain.
It was a forward-looking film as it had a good-looking guy – Michael – as the bad guy. Normally, villains in Hong Kong were not good looking; they were played by actors like James Tien and Yuen Wah – not the most handsome men alive.
To have Michael Wong as a well-dressed urban professional yuppie as the bad guy was very innovative at that time. They didn’t usually choose the best looking guys as villains!

They also had some older performers like Bolo Yeung. So there is a bit of nostalgia, too. Bolo and Bruce Lee had never fought, so it was a nice idea to have Brandon fight Bolo. There is also Michael Chan Wai-man, who was Bruce Lee’s friend.
The explosions at the end are massive, even by Hong Kong standards.
They are! The shoot-out at the end broke the record for the amount of blood squibs and explosions used in a Hong Kong film up to that time. They hired an expert from the UK to do the pyrotechnics. This was the first Hong Kong film to hire a foreigner to do that.
How did the film do when it was released in Hong Kong?
It did well. Audiences seemed to accept that Brandon was a different kind of performer to Bruce. It was in cinemas for three weeks during Christmas 1986, and Brandon was nominated for best newcomer at the Hong Kong Film Awards.

Brandon never came back to Hong Kong to make another film, though, as he was focused on his Hollywood career.
What do you think of the film – it seems to be a bit underrated?
Yes, it is underrated. Hardcore fans know it, but many casual international viewers don’t even know that Brandon made a film in Hong Kong.
Brandon is fantastic in this; it’s his best film after The Crow. He gives his best dramatic performance, and you can see that he is channelling all the problems he was having, all the anger, into his performance.
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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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Why Brandon Lee’s first and only Hong Kong film Legacy of Rage was his best after The Crow

Brandon Lee in a still from Legacy of Rage. Photo: D &amp; B Films Co.

Brandon Lee in a still from Legacy of Rage (1986). Although the crime martial arts film earned Lee a Hong Kong Film Awards nomination, it is underrated. A film expert explains why, and the battles Lee was fighting on and off screen. Photo: Fortune Star Media Limited


Brandon Lee (left) and director Ronny Yu on the set of Legacy of Rage. Photo: D & B Films Co. Ltd.

Michael Wong in a still from Legacy of Rage. Photo: D & B Films Co. Ltd.

Lee and Mang Hoi in a still from Legacy of Rage. Photo: D & B Films Co. Ltd.

Chu Hak and Regina Kent in a still from Legacy of Rage. Photo: D & B Films Co. Ltd.

Lee (right) and Bolo Yeung in a still from Legacy of Rage. Photo: D & B Films Co.

Lee in a still from Legacy of Rage. Much of the actor’s martial arts in the movie ended up revolving around guns. Photo: D & B Films Co. Ltd.

Is the ‘flying guillotine’ a real weapon? How Hong Kong martial arts films created a myth

A still from The Flying Guillotine (1975), which spawned a number of films that featured the fictional assassin’s weapon of the same name.

Chen Kuan-tai as Ma Teng (centre) in a still from The Flying Guillotine (1975).

Chin Kang as Fung Sheng Wu Chi in a still from Master of the Flying Guillotine (1976).

How the Pang Brothers’ The Eye movies led Hong Kong cinema’s horror genre in the 2000s

Angelica Lee Sinje in a still from The Eye (2002), directed by twin brothers Oxide Pang Chun and Danny Pang Fat.

Danny Pang (left) and Oxide Pang at an interview with the Post in 2003. Photo: SCMP

A still from The Eye.

Lawrence Chou (left) and Angelica Lee in a still from The Eye. Photo: Applause Pictures and Raintree Pictures

Shu Qi in a still from The Eye 2 (2004).

Chen Bo-lin (left) and Isabella Leong in a still from The Eye 10 (2005).

How Hong Kong’s gambling film genre was spurred by Andy Lau, Chow Yun-fat and Stephen Chow

Andy Lau in a still from Casino Raiders (1989). Photo: Eureka Entertainment

Chow Yun-fat in a still from God of Gamblers, Wong Jing’s gambling classic that broke Hong Kong box-office records in 1989, and, along with Casino Raiders the same year and All for the Winner in 1990, set the gambling movie genre in motion.

(From left) Andy Lau, Chow Yun-fat and Ronald Wong in a still from God of Gamblers (1989).

(From left) Sharla Cheung, Stephen Chow and Ng Man-tat in a still from All for the Winner (1990). Photo: Win’s Movie Production.

Andy Lau (left) and Stephen Chow in a still from God of Gamblers II (1990), which introduced All for the Winner star Chow to the series.

3 of the best Hong Kong crime movies of the 2000s and how director Derek Yee created them

Daniel Wu (left) and Andy Lau in a still from Derek Yee’s Protégé.

(From left) director Derek Yee, Daniel Wu and Cecilia Cheung on the set of One Nite in Mongkok in 2004. We unpack this crime film and two others he made in the 2000s,  Protégé and Triple Tap. Photo: Handout

Daniel Wu as the hitman Lai Fu in a still from One Nite in Mongkok (2004). Photo: SCMPost

Director Derek Yee and Cecilia Cheung on the set of One Nite in Mongkok. Photo: Handout

Andy Lau as crime lord Quin and Anita Yuen as his wife in a still from Protégé (2007). Photo: Handout

Louis Koo as Kwan (left) and Daniel Wu as Jerry Chang in a still from Triple Tap (2010). Photo: Handout

What killed Bruce Lee? 4 leading theories medical and martial arts experts proposed after his shock death 50 years ago in July, 1973

Bruce Lee on the set of “The Big Boss”. Lee died two years after the movie’s 1971 release, and in the years since, competing theories have been posited as to what exactly killed the martial arts star.  Photo: Yau Leung

Bruce Lee in a still from “Fist of Fury” (1972).

Lee with Taiwanese actress Betty Ting Pei. The two spent time together soon before Lee’s death.

Bruce Lee in a still from “Enter the Dragon” (1973). Photo: TNS

 Lee circa 1970. He had “chronic fluid intake” by virtue of his alcohol- and juice-based diet. Photo: Getty Images

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The Crow was Lee’s best movie but he was great in dubbed crime film, despite refusing to do kung fu for fear of comparisons with his dad


The Crow was Lee’s best movie but he was great in dubbed crime film, despite refusing to do kung fu for fear of comparisons with his dad.
