Yu Chenghui

Yu Chenghui
Chinese name 于承惠
Pinyin Yú Chénghuì (Mandarin)
Jyutping Jyu4 Sing4-wai6 (Cantonese)
Born (1939-08-16)16 August 1939
Shangdong, China
Died 4 July 2015(2015-07-04) (aged 75)
Other name(s) Yue Sing-wai
Occupation Actor, action director, martial artist
Years active 1982–2015
Ancestry Yantai, Shandong, China
This is a Chinese name; the family name is Yu.

Yu Chenghui (16 August 1939 – 4 July 2015), sometimes credited as Yue Sing-wai, was a Chinese actor, action director and martial artist.

Martial arts career

Yu started practising martial arts at the age of 11, specialising in the use of the jian (Chinese sword). He won the championship title at the age of 20 in a wushu competition held in Qingdao. He joined the Shandong wushu team later and emerged as the champion in the zuijian ("Drunken Sword") category in another wushu competition.[1]

Yu once injured his leg during a training session and almost lost the use of his leg due to delayed medical treatment.[1] He left the wushu team later to recover from his injury and worked in a factory for the next decade or so. During that period of time, Yu spent his free time studying martial arts and interacting with other martial artists to improve his techniques until he had fully recovered.

For 14 years during the course of his martial arts career, Yu had been working on recreating the shuang shou jian (double-handed sword) movement, which was believed to be extinct since the Tang Dynasty.[2] In the wee hours of the morning of 15 September 1975, during a thunderstorm, Yu saw how a praying mantis reacted in response to the heavy downpour and conceived the ideas for completing the design of the swordplay technique.[1] The shuang shou jian is now officially recognised as a category in wushu competitions.[2]

Film and television career

Yu was discovered by film director Chang Hsin-yen of Great Wall Pictures, who cast him as the villain "Wang Renze" in the 1982 film Shaolin Temple, which starred Jet Li as the protagonist.[2] Following his first successful role in Chinese cinema, Yu continued to star in other martial arts films such as Kids From Shaolin (1984) and Martial Arts of Shaolin (1986).

In 1993, Yu served as the action director for the film Donggui Yingxiong Zhuan and was awarded the "Star of Martial Arts" kudos by the Chinese Wushu Association in 1998 for his unique achievements in his martial arts choreography on screen.[2]

In the 2000s, Yu turned his attention to wuxia-themed television series. Between 2001 and 2009, Yu worked with television series producer Zhang Jizhong on a number of projects, mostly in adaptations of Louis Cha's wuxia novels. He also portrayed Yip Man in the 2008 television series The Legend of Bruce Lee.

Yu stated in a 2005 newspaper interview that he never shaved his trademark beard, even at the request of movie producers, because he wanted to portray Zhou Tong, a famous Song Dynasty military tutor, in a future film.[3] He went on to say "He is an outstandingly able person from the northern and southern Song Dynasties and many Water Margin heroes are his disciples. This person is very important in martial arts and many people want to portray him in films."[j][3] He died at the age of 75 in 2015.[4]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1982 Shaolin Temple
少林寺
Wang Renze
1984 Kids From Shaolin
少林小子
Pao Feng
1986 Martial Arts of Shaolin
南北少林
He Sao
1988 Yellow River Fighter
黃河大俠
Ma Yi
1993 Donggui Yingxiong Zhuan
東歸英雄傳
Action director, screenwriter
2006 A Battle of Wits
墨攻
Dongbo
2012 Judge Archer
箭士柳白猿
2014 Snow Blossom
大寒桃花开
filmed in 2004
2014 The Four III

Television

Year Title Role Notes
2001 Laughing in the Wind
笑傲江湖
Feng Qingyang
2002 Shaolin King of Martial Arts
少林武王
Tong Dabao
2003 Lian Cheng Jue
連城訣
Mei Niansheng
2005 Trail of the Everlasting Hero
俠影仙蹤
Taoist Chisong
2006 The Return of the Condor Heroes
神鵰俠侶
Huang Yaoshi
2006 Seven Swordsmen
七劍下天山
Fu Qingzhu
2007 Sword Stained with Royal Blood
碧血劍
Mu Renqing
2007 The Legend of Shaolin Temple
少林寺傳奇
Bandit leader
2008 Royal Tramp
鹿鼎記
Feng Xifan
2008 The Legend of Bruce Lee
李小龍傳奇
Yip Man
2009 The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber
倚天屠龍記
Zhang Sanfeng
2011 Journey to the West
西遊記
Subhuti

References

 a)^ "他是一个奇人,横跨北宋南宋两朝代,很多水浒好汉都是他的弟子。这个人物在武术界很重要,很多电影人都想拍这个人物。"
  1. 1 2 3 (Chinese) Yu Chenghui on Baidu Baike
  2. 1 2 3 4 Yu Chenghui at the Hong Kong Movie Database
  3. 1 2 Liang Lijie. "Shandong actor would like to portray Zhou Dong and make him popular" (in Chinese). Populace daily paper. Retrieved 2007-07-17.
  4. "Yu Chenghui died". NetEase. 5 July 2015. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
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