Podcast (a-better-yesterday): Play in new window | Download
A BETTER YESTERDAY – EP. 4: CHAN COMING OUT OF THE LEE’S SHADOW
In this episode of A Better Yesterday–a conversation series about the origins and evolution of Hong Kong action cinema culture — Ross O’Brien and Bey Logan pick up the story in in the immediate aftermath of Bruce Lee’s death, and trace how Hong Kong cinema processed the shock, grief, and commercial vacuum that followed.
Bey walks Ross through the “stages of grief” the industry went through: failed attempts to manufacture a new Bruce Lee, the rapid decline of former rival Jimmy Wang Yu, and the surprising rise of Cantonese-language comedy as the real box office heir to the dragon. They dive into the world of the Hui Brothers* and how their grounded, street-level humor sensibility later feeds into Stephen Chow’s mo lei tau nonsense comedy. In parallel, Shaw Brothers double down on ‘serious’ kung fu and wuxia cycles.
Bey then charts the long, winding road of Jackie Chan’s early career, from the anonymous stuntman and Taiwanese box-office poison under the wing of legendary director/gambler/underworld titan Lo Wei, to the breakthough of kung fu comedy with Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow and Drunken Master–two 1978 classics which used southern Chinese folk heroes, Shaolin myth and Cantonese slapstick, sealed with Jackie’s underdog “boy next door” persona that would define his career.
Join Ross and Bey as they map how Hong Kong cinema, reeling from tragedy, reinvented itself through farce — and how Jackie Chan, Yuen Woo-ping, and a wave of kung fu comedies turned 1978 into the most crucial year ever in Hong Kong cinema history.
Films discussed:
The House of 72 Tenants (1973)
Spiritual Boxer (1975)
New Fist of Fury (1976)
Spiritual Kung Fu (1978)
Dragon Fist (1979)
Magnificent Bodyguards (1978)
Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow (1978)
Drunken Master (1978)
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978)
Heroes of the East (1978)
This episode was recorded in Hong Kong and mixed and produced by Oneofus.net. Bey’s books 36 Chambers of Kung Fu Cinema (Volumes 1 & 2) and Bruce Lee and I are available at reeleast.com.
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.
You can subscribe to the A Better Yesterday podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and more, or use our RSS feed on whatever podcast service you use: https://oneofus.net/feed/a-better-yesterday/ and please leave us a review!
Please think about becoming a paid subscriber to Oneofus.net, support our huge network of shows, and get access to tons of bonus shows and videos in our forums! We cannot keep this site going without support from our listeners. For added information about being a subscriber, the benefits, and the forums, please go here.
| Subscription Levels |
