Director Sneaked in Wine for Me

Man in the Net  Yueh Hua in Killer Clans.

Yueh Hua, along with the likes of Cheng Pei Pei, Ti Lung and David Chiang, was among a group of actors cultivated by Shaw in the 1960s to star in its successful wuxia movies. He acted in Shaw Brothers' films from 1964 to the mid-1980s, and then did TV dramas for Hongkong stations ATV and TVB.

Now 60, he lives with his wife and 24-year-old daughter in Vancouver, Canada. He does volunteer work such as emceeing for fund-raisers, but says he would act again if offered a good role. He spoke to Sunday Life! in Mandarin.

Background: 'I joined Shaw's training studio in 1963 at the age of 21. I was born in Shanghai, but left for Hongkong when I was 19 to join my father, who was working in the construction industry there.

'I studied music in Shanghai and played the flute. At Shaw's school, I received training in all kinds of art forms: acting, martial arts, even ballet.'The Shaw years: 'I acted in more wuxia movies than anything else because these were the money-spinners and the company wanted the younger actors, who were more agile, to do them.

'The most unforgettable part of making movies then was the camaraderie among the actors. While filming, most of us lived in the Shaw studio's dormitory. We were like one big family.'On Come Drink With Me: 'I played a drunken beggar who was a skilled pugilist. I had to pretend to be drunk yet very alert.

'When we were filming, King Hu smuggled wine into the gourds for me to make it more realistic, so at certain points in the film, I was drunk.'

King Hu was Like a Brother

Thirty years on, her gamine features still sparkle as they did in Come Drink With Me, where her two swords made swift work of less nimble enemies. Cheng Pei Pei (right), now 56, was in town last Wednesday for the DVD and VCD launch of the Shaw library. She acted in Shaw Brothers' movies for seven years before moving to the United States with her husband in the early 1970s.

She is now a mother of four grown-up children. Her daughters, Eugenia and Marsha Yuan, are also actresses, the former in Hollywood and the latter in Hongkong. Cheng Pei Pei now lives in Hongkong with Marsha. She spoke to Sunday Life! in English.

Background: 'I was born and raised in Shanghai. My father had been jailed for opposing the communists, so one by one, the rest of the family moved to Hongkong. I migrated in 1961 at the age of 15. In Hongkong, I had a language problem. I could not speak Cantonese and I had no friends.

'At that time, Shaw Brothers had a training school called the Southern Drama School. Many of their films were in Mandarin; the production values of Cantonese movies were going down and fewer people were watching Cantonese movies.

'Since I had been learning ballet and Chinese dance since I was eight, and acting was something similar, my mother and I thought I could make friends at the drama school.'Breakthrough role: As Golden Swallow in Come Drink With Me, she plays a girl who enters the pugilistic world as a swordsman to rescue her captive brother.

'After that, the company always wanted to use me in swordfighting dramas. Until now, I still do them, so it has been a big influence on me.'Favourite directors: King Hu and Yue Feng, one of the most prolific and professional directors of the time.

'Yue Lao Ye (Teacher Yue) was a very honest, upright person who always asked us whether we were in the business for fame and money or for the love of acting. He told us: Stars don't last but actors do.

'The King Hu we knew was not only a teacher but also a brother. He was only about 10 years older than us and a bachelor at the time, so we used to have gatherings at his house.'