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A BETTER YESTERDAY EPISODE 1
A Better Yesterday is a conversation series about origins and evolution of Hong Kong action cinema culture — told from inside the wǔ guǎn.
In this first episode, Ross O’Brien sits down with Bey Logan — writer, producer, martial artist, and one-man archive of Hong Kong film lore — in his lair, to unpack how a post-war refugee city accidentally became the kung fu capital of world cinema.
Bey explains how post–World War II migration from mainland China flooded Hong Kong with opera troupes, kung fu masters, and storytellers — the raw ingredients for a global film industry. In this crucible, Cantonese opera and southern Chinese martial arts met and gave birth to the first wave of Wong Fei Hong films: grounded, realistic (sort of?) kung fu on screen.
Ross and Bey then talk about the rise of Shaw Brothers: their studio system, Mandarin-language color epics, and the leap from swordplay to barehanded combat—the door through which Bruce Lee’s dragon was to enter in the 1970s. They jump down a Shaolin mythology rabbit hole, discussing how it was remixed on film, and explore why the one-armed swordsman was such a recurring figure in the genre.
Join the pair in a rambly conversion about what kung fu cinema means for the world: as entertainment, moral instruction, self improvement fantasies—and for many, a real-life calling.
Films discussed:
True Story of Wong Fei Hung series (c. 1949–1951)
Come Drink With Me (1966)
One-Armed Swordsman (1967)
The Chinese Boxer (1970)
King Boxer / Five Fingers of Death (1972)
The Big Boss (1971)
This episode was recorded in a raucous industrial warehouse space in Hong Kong’s New Territories (with apologies! We’ll find a quieter space next time!) and was mixed and produced by Mark Haskins of Post-Op Media.
YOUR HOSTS
Bey Logan (A Better Yesterday)
Bey Logan is a Hong Kong-based screenwriter, producer and martial arts film historian. His films include Jackie Chan’s ‘The Medallion’ and ‘The Twins Effect’, Sammo Hung’s ‘Dragon Squad’ and ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny’, which starred Donnie Yen and Michelle Yeoh. He has produced documentaries about Bruce Lee, as well as a book entitled ‘Bruce Lee and I’. Bey’s recent publications include the two-volume ‘36 Chambers of Kung Fu Cinema’.
Ross O’Brien (A Better Yesterday)
Ross O’Brien writes about technology and economics in Asia from a fishing village on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island. Most evenings he stares out at the South China Sea, fretting about what the salt air is doing to his comic books and Del Rey paperbacks. He has no film credits to speak of, unless you count the voice-overs he did for Vidal Sassoon shampoo commercials when he was hard up in Singapore in the 1990s.
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