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Jimmy Wang Yu, who had become the biggest star of Asian martial arts cinema until the appearance of Bruce Lee in movies like “One-Armed Swordsman,” died on April 5 in Taipei, Taiwan. He was 79 years old.
His daughter, Linda Wong, announced his death at the hospital, but did not reveal the cause. It was reported that Mr. Yu suffered a stroke in 2011 and 2016.
As a seminal figure in the martial arts, known for his emphasis on hand-to-hand combat, Mr. Yu paved the way for stars such as Mr. Lee and Jackie Chan who achieved great success outside of Asia. After Mr. Yu’s death, Mr. Chan said on Facebook, “Your contributions to kung fu movies and the support and wisdom you have given to the younger generation will always be remembered in the industry.”
Mr. Yu worked at the large Hong Kong studio owned by the Shaw brothers in the 1960s and acted in the films “One-Armed Swordsman” in 1967 and “The Golden Swallow” and “Sword of Swords” in 1968.
At that time, Mr. Yu said in a 2014 interview with Easternkicks, a website devoted to Asian cinema, that he was frequently in the news of fighting with police officers.
“How did I become popular in Hong Kong?” said. “I guess it’s for one reason – I’m a street fighter.” “I think a lot of people were like, ‘I see you fighting in the movie, is he really a good fighter or not?’ says,” he added.
“The Chinese Boxer” (1970), directed by Mr. Yu and portraying a man who takes revenge on Japanese bandits who destroyed a kung fu school in China, was probably his most influential film. It helped transform the genre, with its focus on hand-to-hand combat rather than the sword-fighting and fantasy elements common in Hong Kong action movies at the time.
In an article published in 2020 on the website of New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles, Quentin Tarantino, who directed martial arts films, “Kill Bill: Vol. 1” (2003) and “Kill Bill: Vol. 2” (2004), wrote that “The Chinese Boxer” was groundbreaking because it “meaning that the hero, whose entire room is filled with vagrants, whether in a teahouse, casino, or dojo, would become just as essential. kind of as a western bar fight or a quick draw showdown.”
“Chinese Boxer” became a challenge for Mr. Lee, who worked on “The Green Hornet” and other television series in Hollywood before returning to Hong Kong where he grew up.
“Jimmy Wang Yu was the biggest action star in Hong Kong and Bruce had his eye on him,” Matthew Polly, author of the book “Bruce Lee: A Life” (2018), said in a telephone interview. “They didn’t like each other and had to be kept out of the same room.”
“In a way, Jimmy Wang Yu was responsible for Bruce Lee’s success because he set the template for the kung fu movie ‘Chinese Boxer’ and Bruce used it as the model for ‘Fist of Fury’. ‘The Chinese Boxer’ is less of a duplicate.” Released in 1972, “Fist of Fury” made Mr. Lee a major star in Hong Kong.
Mr. Lee only appeared in two films before he died in 1973. His last movie, “Enter the Dragon” (1973), made him an international star and has secured his popularity to this day.
Mr. Yu was born Wang Zhengquan in Shanghai on March 28, 1943, and moved to Hong Kong with his family when he was young. Before his film career began, he was a swimming champion and served in the Chinese Army.
After “Chinese Boxer,” Mr. Yu tried to break his exclusive contract with the Shaw Brothers to film elsewhere, but they successfully sued, which blacklisted him in Hong Kong. He moved to Taiwan where he continued his career with Golden Harvest and other studios.
In 1975, Mr. Yu starred in “The Man From Hong Kong,” which was also released in the United States as “The Dragon Flies,” playing a respected detective who is sent to Australia to extradite a drug trafficker.
George McKinnon, who reviewed “Dragon Flies” in The Boston Globe, wrote that the frantic search of Chinese studio chiefs to find Mr. Lee’s successor may have ended with Mr. Yu, who was 32 at the time. “Under the impeccable Hong Kong tailoring,” he said. “A wild dragon lies,” he wrote. However, unlike Mr. Lee and Mr. Chan, Mr. Wu did not become a star in the United States.
George Lazenby, who starred with Mr. Yu in both “The Dragon Flies” and “International Assassin” (1976), had spent four months training in martial arts in anticipation of making a movie with Mr. Lee. After Mr. Lee died, Mr. Lazenby returned to work with Mr. Yu and did his own shows.
“They were really more demonstrations than dialogue,” said Mr Lazenby, best known for his role as James Bond in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” (1969). “Jimmy was a real fighter – you would feel it if he hit you. You just had to trust that he wasn’t going to hit you.”
Mr. Yu continued to work regularly until the early 1990s, and after a long hiatus, he acted in four films between 2011 and 2013.
Full information about the survivors was not immediately available.
Mr. Yu received lifetime achievement awards from the New York Asian Film Festival in 2014 and the Golden Horse Film Festival in Taiwan in 2019.
After Mr. Yu’s death, Academy Award-winning Taiwanese director Ang Lee told China News Agency: “For many fans like me, he represents the mood of a certain era. His movies and heroic spirit will be greatly missed.”
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