The legendary life of Wang Yu, the "first generation star player", and his turbulent past

When Tyson was interviewed by Cao Kefan, he once said: "I like Bruce Lee's Kung Fu philosophy very much, but Wang Yu is the first Chinese professional martial arts star I saw."

I don’t know if Tyson can beat Bruce Lee, but the first Chinese professional martial arts star he admitted personally was Wang Yu, not Bruce Lee at the same time.

When Tsang Jiang was slapped by Xie Xian, and then he asked him to surrender, it was not because of his status in the Hong Kong film and television industry, but because Tsang Jiang’s ex-brother-in-law was named Wang Yu.

He once had a tough fight with Bruce Lee, and was rumored to have been chased by Brigitte Lin. Regardless of his status in the world or in the film and television industry, Wang Yu was someone that Xie Xian did not dare to offend easily.

On April 5, Wang Yu passed away, leaving only a legendary story that is talked about.

Wang Yu was born in Shanghai on March 28, 1944, and his ancestral home is Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province.

Because his father and grandfather are both businessmen, the family also hopes to learn more knowledge and inherit the family business when they grow up.

But Wang Yu has been as strong as an ox since he was a child. He seems to have endless energy. He makes trouble in school all day long and knows nothing about the knowledge in books.

So, his father had no choice but to send Wang Yu to the Shanghai Institute of Physical Education to consume his strong energy.

Who would have thought that after systematic physical training, Wang Yu would become the little bully on the streets of Shanghai, followed by a group of admirers all day long, causing trouble everywhere.

In 1961, 17-year-old Wang Yu was expelled from the Shanghai Institute of Physical Education for fighting with his classmates.

It happened that the family business was to be moved to Hong Kong at that time, so his father took him there with him.

Having learned from the past, his father did not dare to let him study physical education again. Later, through connections, he was allowed to enter Zhuhai College and study in the Department of Civil Engineering.

But Wang Yu is not a person who likes to have his fate arranged by his family. After entering school, he put aside his professional courses and directly joined the swimming team. After that, he won the swimming competition championship twice in a row.

However, the glory of the championship did not bring about the respect of the classmates. As a child from Shanghai, it was natural to be ostracized.

As a result, he often got into fights with others at school, and was expelled from the swimming team in his third year.

Wang Yu, who was holding back his anger, was wandering on the street when he happened to see a Shaw Brothers martial arts drama recruiting male actors, so he swaggered out and applied.

Unexpectedly, Wang Yu was ruthlessly ridiculed and rejected by the staff because his Cantonese language had a slight accent. In anger, he knocked several of them to the ground.

Wang Yu pinched his waist and asked the Shaw Brothers: "How many more people can you call?"

The other party replied without confidence: "Hundreds!" < /p>

Wang Yu asked disdainfully: "Are there ten people?"

The people from Shaw nodded and ran in quickly.

By coincidence, this scene happened to be seen by director Zhang Che who was passing by. He was instantly impressed by Wang Yu's image. The arrogance between his eyebrows was exactly what he needed to be the leading actor in his next film. Of?

So, Zhang Che came forward to be the peacemaker, and pulled Wang Yu aside to paint a pie, claiming that he would form a Zhang family class and let him be his eldest disciple, and also said that he would be the leading actor.

Wang Yu was skeptical at first, but couldn't resist Zhang Che's nagging, and finally he said: "If you don't let me be the leading actor, I will beat you up even if you become my master."

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In 1964, Chang Cheh's first martial arts movie customized for Shaw Brothers was officially launched.

Zhang Che did not lie to him. The leading actor in this drama was played by Wang Yulai.

Zhang Che also doted on this eldest disciple and found several stand-ins for Wang Yu, who had never filmed before.

Unexpectedly, Wang Yu didn't appreciate it at all. He came to the stand-in, raised his eyebrows, pushed the stand-in a few meters away, and shouted to Zhang Che: "I have to do the action scenes myself. I can't do it well." You find someone to teach me, I don't need a substitute."

Zhang Che had to find a martial artist to teach him the moves. During the learning period, Wang Yu was injured all over his body without shouting a word. After that, every action scene was like this. Go into battle in person.

Wang Yu is not only "overbearing" in his demands when filming, but he also treats his relationships the same way.

In 1966, Wang Yu, who was filming "The Three Border Town Heroes", fell in love with Lin Cui from the crew next door.

Lin Cui, who was born in 1936, was 8 years older than Wang Yu, and the woman was still a married woman at the time, so it was not suitable for dating.

Wang Yu couldn't control that much. He was domineering and let Lin Cui be her pawn.

Wang Yu's move can be said to have made Lin Cui feel entangled, and at the same time it was difficult to get off the tiger.

What troubled Lin Cui was that she and her husband Qin Jian had not yet divorced at the time, but she was somewhat unable to resist the Kormon emanating from Wang Yu.

Unlike Wang Yu's domineering attitude, Qin Jian was also a famous talent in Hong Kong at that time. He had discovered famous movie stars such as Xie Xian and Zeng Jiang, and Lin Cui happened to be Zeng Jiang's sister, so she could be regarded as a A brother and a sister.

But at that time, Qin Jian fell in love with gambling, and Lin Cui worked hard in filming to pay off his debts. In the end, he mortgaged the house but still couldn't fill the hole. The marriage had long existed in name only.

Lin Cui had been suffering from Qin Jian for a long time. Wang Yu's appearance undoubtedly gave her hope. The two quickly fell in love and started living together without telling Qin Jian.

In 1967, "The One-Armed Sword" was released, and it grossed millions at the box office upon release.

This film, which was hailed by industry insiders as the pioneer of the new martial arts genre at the time, pushed masters Wang Yu and Zhang Che to the pinnacle of their careers.

The image Wang Yu established in this movie has also become a benchmark for knight-errant movies.

A series of works created with this IP in the future will also indirectly influence two world celebrities, one is Bruce Lee and the other is boxing champion Tyson.

The popularity of "One-Armed Sword" made Wang Yu famous for a while, but what followed was that he received soft scripts.

At that time, Wang Yu spent all day on the set. He only had a small taste of life and had to experience the pain of getting together and leaving many. How could Lin Cui, who was still a tiger and a wolf, endure this?

For this reason, Lin Cui complained a lot to Wang Yu, and over time the seeds of resentment were planted in her heart, and her thoughts at the time also foreshadowed Qin Jian's death.

In 1968, Wang Yu, who was on location, received a call from Lin Cui and was told that he was about to be a father.

Lin Cui, who was several months pregnant at the time, was emotionally unstable. She needed Wang Yu to stay with her and wanted a status.

But at that time, Wang Yu had no time to deal with all these things, and Lin Cui had not divorced Qin Jian yet. There were a lot of scripts waiting for him to shoot.

As a result, Lin Cui broke off contact with Wang Yu in a fit of anger, which was very painful for Qin Jian.

After breaking off contact with Wang Yu, Lin Cui made a fuss about being pregnant with Wang Yu. Now everyone in the circle knew that Qin Jian had a very environmentally friendly hat.

On June 15, 1969, Qin Jian drank nine springs in the dormitory of Shaw Brothers Company and died at the age of 43.

Two months later, Lin Cui gave birth to a baby girl to Wang Yu. This child was Wang Xinping who later sang "Don't Ask Me Who I am".

The arrival of the child and the negative news flying everywhere made Wang Yu, who could not contact Lin Cui, uninterested in filming.

At that time, he and his mentor Zhang Che were filming more than half of the movie. Wang Yu, who was not interested in working, waved his hand: "No more filming!"

This move made the crew's work difficult. The staff lamented, which also caused a rift in the relationship between him and Zhang Che.

In 1970, Run Run Shaw handed over the power of the company to Fong Yihua. Miss Fang's first step after taking over the power was to reduce the cost of film production and also cut the wages of management and actors.

As the leading contracted actor, Wang Yu and others could not help but complain. While the workload increased, the pay was much less than before.

As the second-in-command of Shaw Brothers, Zou Wenhuai saw that his position was not guaranteed, so he took Wang Yu, He Guanchang and others away and funded the founding of Jiahe.

Shaw Brothers not only failed to learn a lesson after losing Wang Yu due to "stinginess", but later personally pushed Bruce Lee into Jiahe's camp.

In 1971, Bruce Lee, who was not developing well in the foreign film and television industry, was robbed by major film and television companies as soon as he returned to Hong Kong, but he only took a fancy to Shaw Brothers, which had abundant resources.

What Bruce Lee, who has always been arrogant and arrogant, did not expect was that he was applying for a company that was even more arrogant than him.

Bruce Lee, who had extremely high requirements for film production, put forward his own conditions to Shaw Brothers: one is that the production budget for each film should not be less than 600,000, and the other is that his personal salary should not be less than 1 Ten thousand yuan.

The two requests were rejected by each other without even thinking about them.

Zou Wenhua over there learned the news that Bruce Lee was rejected, and immediately asked someone to visit him, regardless of any conditions the other party put forward.

In the end, Golden Harvest cooperated with Bruce Lee with a salary several times higher than that of Shaw Brothers.

Such favorable conditions made Wang Yu, who was Jiahe's top actor at the time, feel unhappy: What's so great about a new actor?

On the day Bruce Lee came to the company to "check in", he happened to meet Wang Yu face to face.

Their eyes met for a moment, and two different pairs of hands clenched together with a bang.

Bruce Lee raised his eyebrows and said in an unmistakable tone: "Compare!"

After saying that, he and Wang Yu started an arm strength competition, and the careless Bruce Lee lost in the first round.

In the second game, Bruce Lee, who was unconvinced, regained the game.

In the beginning of the third competition, both sides were evenly matched, but then Wang Yu showed signs of decline. When he saw that he was about to lose, Bruce Lee twitched his hand and gave him a thumbs up.

The news of Wang Yu and Bruce Lee's "fight" spread out somehow, and it immediately aroused discussions from all walks of life.

Later, Wang Yu said in an interview: "To put it mildly, it was a tie. In fact, only I know that he let me go."

In 1971, Jiahe collaborated with Bruce Lee. The first movie "Tangshan Brother" came out and directly broke the box office record that year.

Wang Yu, who was the star of martial arts movies at that time, suddenly became unpopular in the eyes of the audience. The emergence of Bruce Lee was like an unstoppable new star, covering everyone's light.

But what Zou Wenhua and Wang Yu didn't expect was that no one could keep Bruce Lee.

In order to retain people, Zou Wenhua supported Bruce Lee in setting up his own film and television company in the second year of his cooperation, and his status was only one person below Jiahe.

But Bruce Lee's ambitions went far beyond that. On one side was Golden Harvest's creative ability, and on the other side were Shaw Brothers' resources. He wanted them all.

On the other hand, Luo Wei, who carefully crafted the script of "Tangshan Brother", is inevitably unbalanced.

Luo Wei felt that he wrote the script himself, and of course he was the one who made Bruce Lee famous. Why should he have a higher status than himself?

Over time, irreconcilable conflicts developed between Bruce Lee and Luo Wei.

While Bruce Lee was cooperating with Jiahe, he also accepted Shaw Brothers' invitation and ran over to try on costume looks, while Wang Yu was left alone.

During this period, Bruce Lee became the center of the conflict between Shaw Brothers and Jiahe, but it was Wang Yu who suffered the final defeat.

In 1973, a generation of superstar Bruce Lee fell, and Golden Harvest was losing ground in the battle with Shaw Brothers.

Because only Wang Yu could play the IP character of "The One-Armed Sword" well, but the copyright was in the hands of Zhang Che. In the end, Jiahe had to take Wang Yu to transfer the market to Taiwan.

During his days in Taiwan, Wang Yu regained his glory and opened up his life in the world and colorful love history.

Bruce Lee's fall did not bring any benefits to Wang Yu, and he and Lin Cui reconciled and stayed away for a while.

After the family moved to Taiwan, Lin Cui gave birth to two more daughters, but Wang Yu did not choose to be a good husband just because he was the father of three children.

His arrival caused a sensation in the local streets. For a time, the house was full of guests, and there were many warblers and swallows around him. His wife and children were forgotten by him.

In 1974, Wang Yu went to the crew to visit his brother Ke Junxiong, and Brigitte Lin happened to be nearby.

Lin Qingxia's eyes lit up when she saw this long-famous idol, and then she asked Ke Junxiong for Wang Yu's contact information.

After asking for contact information, Brigitte Lin took the initiative to send an invitation to Wang Yu, saying that she would invite him to watch a movie.

It was the first time that Wang Yu heard that a girl took the initiative to invite him to watch a movie. It was rare that he didn’t have to pay for the date, so he became interested in this girl for a while.

When a temperamental man meets a pure and beautiful girl in her early twenties, the ambiguous atmosphere quickly forms a barrier, shrouding the two people together.

After dating for a period of time, Brigitte Lin proposed to let Wang Yu teach driving, but he refused at first.

But what he didn't expect was that Brigitte Lin's driving skills were much better than his own, and she drove the "car" to a place that was protected from wind and rain and had a bed.

The love affair between Wang Yu and Lin Qingxia spread a lot on the island. Lin Cui saw no hope in this man, so she filed for divorce.

However, after divorcing Lin Cui, Wang Yu and Brigitte Lin did not stay together for long. Their relationship was strongly opposed by Lin's mother.

The person who let go first was Wang Yu. He thought to himself: He has a bad reputation for fighting and causing trouble all day long. After all, he can't give this girl a home, so he should break up!

Wang Yu, who was no longer bound by emotions, then set off a "storm and rain" on this small island.

In 1976, Wang Yu, on behalf of "Z United", held a banquet at the Xinghua Pavilion Restaurant to entertain Xiang Huaqiang who came from Hong Kong.

Unexpectedly, after three rounds of drinking to say goodbye to the group, Wang Yu suddenly wanted to talk about life with a young lady. After being rejected, he overturned the table and started an argument.

It just so happened that several big bosses from "Sihai" were also in the box next to them, and the two parties were "talking" on the second floor of Xinghua Pavilion.

During the "confession" process, the two sides got into a fight over a disagreement. Later, the dispute ended with Lao Chen from "Sihai" being pointed at his head.

This incident also caused a sensation in the local area. Relevant personnel were "invited" to build roads one after another, and Wang Yu had no choice but to flee Hong Kong.

Lao Wang left cleanly, who will clean up the mess?

While running away, Wang Yu took the time to get married to the flight attendant Wang Kaizhen he met by chance, completely forgetting that he still had a lot of unfinished business.

After coming to Hong Kong, Wang Yu returned to his old career and began to write, direct and act on his own, but in the end he suffered a huge loss.

After several years of dealing with each other, Wang Yu thought that his grievances with "Sihai" were over, and Lao Chen, the head of "Sihai", also invited him to Taiwan to reminisce about the past.

After being invited, Wang Yu combed his hair like an adult, put on a handsome suit, and happily booked a first-class flight.

How did he know that this was a Hongmen Banquet?

At the end of 1980, Wang Yu, who had not even taken a bite of the hot dumplings, had just gotten off the plane when he was invited to his restaurant by the enthusiastic "Sihai Shopkeeper" Lao Liu.

Wang Yu thinks Lao Liu is so enthusiastic, so he will deliberately lose 100 to show his support!

Unexpectedly, the other party had a huge appetite and refused to let Wang Yu leave after just losing 100, thus angering Lao Liu.

A few months later, Wang Yu found a restaurant to entertain old friends. Unexpectedly, he was stabbed 7 times by the "Sihai" boy who had ambushed him early and was sent to the hospital on the spot.

While in hospital, Wang Yu was ambushed twice more, and finally had to ask for help from Lao Chen of the "Bamboo Alliance".

According to the rules, if Wang Yu was hit with 7 knives, he would have to repay the other party with 14 knives. As the "Shopkeeper of Bamboo Alliance", Lao Chen is also very trustworthy.

In April 1981, after three months of investigation and ambushes, a young man from Sihai was stabbed 14 times.

Later, the people on the "Sihai" side had to ask "Uncle Taisheng", the elder of "Flying Eagle", to come out and make peace.

Who knows that "Uncle Taisheng" doesn't respect martial ethics and seems to be talking well, but then turns around and calls Wang Yu an "unloyal actor".

Wang Yu was furious when he learned about it and threatened to spend 400,000 to find someone to "touch" Uncle Taisheng's thigh until he could no longer walk.

In May of the same year, "Uncle Taisheng" was seriously injured by several younger brothers from the Bamboo Union, and Wang Yu was "invited" to admire the moon in an iron cage.

In 1984, Wang Yu came out after admiring the moon. Unwilling to be lonely, he sneaked to Hong Kong to start making movies.

After the last separation, the situation in Hong Kong has changed. He had no choice but to make peace with the master who brought him into the industry, Zhang Che.

Later, with a blunt attitude, he invited the popular fried chicken Andy Lau to film a movie "Shanghai Thirteen Taibo".

When the movie was released, it suffered huge losses, so he set his sights on Sammo Hung.

In 1986, Wang Yu and Sammo Hung co-directed "Wealth Train".

In order to give Wang Yu some face, Sammo Hung brought out his entire "Hong Family Team", with Lam Ching-ying, Yuen Biao, Qian Jiale, Eric Tsang and others all playing supporting roles.

In the end, the film was distributed by his old club Golden Harvest. Wang Yu was finally satisfied, and he and Sammo Hung became good friends.

In 1991, old brother Ke Junxiong also wanted to make a movie, so he approached Wang Yu with the script of "Fire Island", but neither of them wanted to pay.

Later, director Zhu Yanping, actors Jackie Chan, Andy Lau and others were all pulled over.

And Tony Leung Ka Fai was even more aggrieved. Less than halfway through the filming of the movie "Lover", he was pulled onto the plane and came to the crew.

However, this time Wang Yu and the others went too far, so that they later encountered strong resistance from a number of actors.

In 1992, Jackie Chan, Eric Tsang and other actors took the lead in launching a boycott against the Black Gang, which was involved in the film industry.

From then on, Wang Yu, Ke Junxiong and others did not dare to make unreasonable demands in a big way.

In the days that followed, the box office of Hong Kong movies was dominated by the "bi-weekly 100%" system, and Wang Yu gradually withdrew from the stage.

In 1999, his wife prepared a big surprise for Wang Yu at home. Wang Kaizhen gave him an environmentally friendly hat.

At this time, Wang Yu was already over fifty, and the Jianghu tricks had long since ceased to work!

In order to save his respect, he had no choice but to publicize this scandal. In the end, he suffered a loss of eight hundred to others and a thousand to himself.

It will be another 10 years until news of him appears again.

In October 2010, the movie "Martial Arts" directed by Chen Kexin officially started filming, and Wang Yu was invited to star in the villain.

It seems that it has been the last century since the last time he acted in a martial arts film. The 66-year-old Wang Yu still did not use a substitute like he did in his first martial arts film, and he only received a symbolic salary of 1 yuan. .

In the end, the movie "Martial Arts" was well received, and Wang Yu's "Seventy-Two Evils" in the movie was very domineering.

In addition to insisting on not using a substitute, Wang Yu no longer had the domineering attitude of the past.

During the interview, when asked what he wanted to say to the audience, Wang Yu said lightly: "At my age, thank you for remembering me. We will try our best to perform the show well, thank you. You guys!”

He didn’t use a stunt double in the first movie, and he still chose not to use a double in the last few movies he filmed.

After filming "Martial Arts", Wang Yu only took on one or two movies, and then there was news that he was seriously ill in bed.

On April 5, 2022, Qingming Festival, Wang Yu went to fight with Bruce Lee. One dragon and one tiger should have a winner, right?

Half of his life was given to the world and half to movies.

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