One of the most informative looks at the life and career of David Chiang before,during and after the Shaw Bros.
Most of today’s Hong Kong viewers would know of David Chiang for having played Luke, the ill fated would be revolutionary of ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA II starring Jet Li. Few would guess that twenty years before OUATIC, it was Chiang who was one of the top martial stars of his time, cutting down and fighting dozens of enemies at a time, jumping about like a graceful gazelle, a dashing cool dude with a wily smile on his face. Paired with the majestic Ti Lung they were the great "Deadly Duo" of Hong Kong martial cinema, the stars of a dozen "Blood Brothers" movies that were the most violent and intense martial potboilers of the early seventies and they ruled the Hong Kong action movie screens. Yet as the Blood Brothers period came to an end and time passed on, his partner Ti Lung went on to have a successful movie career maintaining his flawless reputation, but Chiang’s career began to decline and even worse he, along with (Jimmy) Wang Yu, became one of the most under appreciated kung fu performers of all. Later fans of the genre found his physical skills unsatisfactory, complained about the tacky seventies fashions which he often wore and were a bit annoyed by his screen persona. The fact remains though that Chiang was not only a major player in his time but an able screen-action performer as well as an award winning actor with an original screen persona who often outshone Ti Lung. He was the real heart and centre of some of Chang's Blood brothers movies.
David Chiang was born Yim Wai in 1947, the second son of two famed actors Yim Dut and Hong Wei. Later on his widowed mother having remarried with a movie producer she gave birth to another son. All three siblings were destined to a have a great movie career: the first Paul Chun as a renown character actor and the youngest Derek Yee as an actor/director. Young Wai received a college education in Hong Kong but had already started appearing in movies as a child actor, most notably THE CALLS OF THE NIGHTBIRDS, LITTLE ANGEL OF THE STREET and YOUNG VAGABOND the two latter also featuring his elder brother Paul Chun (then known asYim Cheong) and produced by his step-father. He also appears to have received some Peking Opera training - not enough to make him a top performer the likes of Jackie Chan or Sammo Hung but more than enough to gave him an unusual agility and solid physical skills. Following graduation, he started working as a stuntman in the movies.
Chiang had graduated to fight-instructor by the time he was spotted by Shaw Brothers leading martial art director Chang Cheh, who brought him into the studio in the winter of 1966 where he then groomed him for a couple of years. By the time he emerge he was known as David Chiang Dai-Wai,. The meaning of his stage name and it’s origin appear to be rather obscure: Chiang he may have taken it for no other reason than it was a very recognizable name (because of Taiwan president Chiang Kai Shek) with a star quality feel to it. His original first name being Wai , “Dai” was added to make it mean “True Greatness”, “Dai-wai” being also the direct transliteration of the English name “David”, it may also have been deemed a suitable stage-name for him because his small frame and scholarly looks were evocative of the Biblical David of the David and Goliath famed. Having an English name may also have served to give him a suitable urbane and sophisticated air that played well with his deceptively scholarly, effete look. Regardless Chiang Dai wei can be glimpsed in GOLDEN SWALLOW (1968) as well as THE INVINCIBLE FIST (1969), but his first major role was in the gangster flick DEAD END (1969). He graduated to full martial star the following year with WANDERING SWORDSMAN and especially VENGEANCE, the first of Chang Cheh’s "Blood Brothers" movies pairing the deadly duo of Chiang and Ti Lung. It was also a watershed movie of Hong Kong martial arts cinema that defined and cemented Chang Cheh’s cinematic approach for years.
For a couple of years the Blood Brothers movies were all the rage, Hong Kong’s top ranking box office champions with such films as HEROIC ONES, THE SINGING KILLER (both 1970), THE NEW ONE ARMED SWORDSMAN, THE DUEL, DUEL OF IRON FIST, THE DEADLY DUO, THE ANONYMOUS HEROES (all 1971) and THE ANGRY GUEST (1972). Ti Lung and Chiang were paired splendidly together – a wonderful contrast to one another - Ti Lung big, majestic, very masculine and impetuous; Chiang small, urbane, dashing, wily yet secretive and introverted. Chiang had very much an effete, romantic quality to him but instead of being ineffectual and passive as these types of characters tended to be within the frame of Chinese literature, he could go on a rampage or quietly undermine an opponent with his sneaky, mysterious ways. This gave him an air of ambiguity, as nobody knew where he stood for a while.
With the sudden arrival of Bruce Lee in late 1971, the Blood Brothers movies lost some of their steam - their formula began looking tired and Chang Cheh appeared to be losing interest Still, Chiang remained very active by performing in a handful of Chang martial extravaganzas such as THE WATER MARGIN (aka: SEVEN BLOWS OF THE DRAGONS), THE FOUR RIDERS, TRILOGY OF SWORDSMANSHIP (all 1972) and the PIRATE (1973). He was continually paired with Ti Lung but the drama and the chemistry between them wasn't quite the same as in the old Blood Brothers movies. He also played a small but crucial role of a dashing, charismatic young gang boss in BOXER FROM SHANTUNG (1972) which was the starring debut of Chang Cheh’s latest discovery, kung fu star Chen Kwan Tai. He was also the star of a couple of Chang’s contemporary dramas such as YOUNG PEOPLE (1972), GENERATION GAP (1972) and FRIENDS (1973).
1973 also saw Chiang as part of the trio assembled along with Ti Lung and Chen Kwan Tai in Chang Cheh’s most ambitious martial movie drama to date: BLOOD BROTHERS aka: DYNASTY OF BLOOD. In 1974 he was picked by Shaw Studios to play the Chinese lead in the Shaw Brother/ Hammer hybrid horror/kung fu production LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES, which was Chiang’s one shot at international stardom. It showed him in good fighting form and speaking fluent if accented English, but unfortunately his role was pretty much limited to being of the helpful and disposable amiable ethnic man-servant variety.
That same year, a world-wide economic crisis struck Hong Kong and that along with the disarray of the martial art’s genre following Bruce Lee’s death, forced Shaw Brother to reduce their expenses which they did by letting go of some of their major stars, including David Chiang - although he would always remain closely associated with the studio on a freelance basis. His first independent effort was trying his hand at directing a social drama of all things - titled THE DRUG ADDICT, which turned out to be a flop.
For the following decade Chiang would alternate between movies for Chang Cheh/ Shaw Brothers, some freelance work and his own productions. His Chang Cheh movies included SAVAGE FIVE (1974), FIVE SHAOLIN MASTERS (aka FIVE MASTER OF DEATH), ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS (both 1975), SEVEN MEN ARMY, SHAOLIN TEMPLE (both 1976), NAVAL COMMANDOS and MAGNIFICENT WANDERER (1977). Most of these films appear to have been routine efforts from Chang when compared to his earlier works with Chiang, capitalizing mostly on a stellar kung fu cast. In 1976, Chiang once again tried his hand at directing with the CONDEMNED. Probably in the hope of revitalizing his by now sagging career, Chiang then teamed up with another martial star whose hour of glory had passed, (Jimmy) Wang Yu, and the pair founded their own Taiwan based film company: their first film being ONE-ARMED SWORDSMEN which Chiang also directed. Truly his own master now, Chiang starred in his own self-production that he made at a frantic pacing. Chiang found his best work of the period with martial director Lau Kar Leung who had choreographed him in all the Chang Cheh movies of the early seventies, with SHAOLIN MANTIS (1978), which not only offered him the opportunity to deliver perhaps his best screen-fighting performance, but also to play quite an unusual part as an unwilling Quin dynasty spy sent to infiltrate a family of Ming dynasty rebels. In one of his other notable Shaw Brothers films, he shaved his head so as to play the titular character in ABBOT OF SHAOLIN (1978).
Curiously enough, in a couple of the freelance works he did for an independent company, Chiang changed his name first to Gareth Lo before settling on John Keung (Keung being the Cantonese version of Chiang). The truth of the matter was that “John” had been his true personal English name all along, while David was but his stage-one that he now tried to discard. Nevertheless he continued to be known as David Chiang by western fans of Hong Kong. Among nearly a dozen freelance films there is YOUNG REBEL co-starring and directed by his old partner Ti Lung, as well as DEATH DUEL, the film debut of his younger brother Derek Yee (1977) .
In the second half of the seventies as martial art films evolved towards more and more comedic, Chiang moved with the time, starring in a handful of such films. He had already done MAGNIFICENT WANDERERS back in 1977 and now under the wing of director/ character actor Eric Tsang he did THE LOOT (AKA BLOODY TATOO) (1980) and The CHALLENGER. In 1981 he even directed one himself called LEGEND OF THE OWL produced by his brother Paul Chun. As marital films then came less popular he also gradually started doing pure comedy as well as drama and switched from leading man to character parts. By the time the martial art era came to a definitive close with the folding of the Shaw Brother’s movie operation, Chiang had given up on kung fu for some time already. Beside his acting work, he also focused much more on directing with a string of movies done through the later eighties and early nineties consisting primarily of comedies - SILENT LOVE (1986), MR HANDSOME (1987) DOUBLE FATTINESS (1988), MY DEAR SON (1989), WHEN EAST MEETS WEST (1990) and WILL OF IRON (1991). He also planned or produced a handful of films as well including JUST HEROES, a movie that involved a dozen of Chang Cheh’s close associates in order to help finance his planned retirement and the Jackie Chan twin’s movie TWIN DRAGONS. After a hiatus of several years he came back one last time to directing with MOTHER OF A DIFFERENT KIND in 1995.
His most noticeable acting performances since the mid-eighties include: a Cinema City ghost comedy TILL DEATH DO WE SCARE (1982), an action comedy with Sammo WHERE’S OFFICER TUBA (86), SHANGHAI 13 (his last movie for Chang Cheh (1986)), ANGEL (1989), ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA II (1992), WHAT PRIZE GLORY (1994) and LEGEND OF SPEED (1999). He also has done some TV work. In total, Chiang has acted in more than 75 movies so far: (around 30 by Chang Cheh alone). He has also appeared in YES MADAM, TWINKLE TWINKLE LUCKY STARS (both cameos, both 1985), IT'S A MAD MAD WORLD, SOUL (both 1986), TIGER ON A BEAT (1989), MARY FROM BEIJING (1992) and THE ADVENTURERS (1995). So although his glory days as a top ranking martial art/action star were relatively short in duration, he has had a long-lived and deserving career that continues to this day.
Written by Yves Gendron
***Here are some random pics of David Chiang from him as a young child to pics of him at home with his family upto the present time as recent as pics taken last month.
Click on thumbnail pics to open them full size
***Here are some random Video Clips of David Chiang on Asian T.V. -interviews,tv series,etc.
Movie clip at 13 years old from 1960
TV Series from 1992
Interview from 1993
TV News Interview from 11/10/2004
TV Show from 11/19/2004
