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Richard James Havis

Fennie Yuen Kit-ying was a major actress in the late 1980s and early 90s, starting off in teen fare like the Happy Ghost film series – she starred in three instalments between 1985 and 1990 – then changing tack with a career-making dramatic role in Ringo Lam Ling-tung’s School on Fire (1988).
She then cemented her fame as the memorable Blue Phoenix in Tsui Hark’s first two Swordsman films, released in 1990 and 1992, before moving mainly into television.
Here, we discuss Yuen’s primary roles with film historian Frank Djeng, who interviewed the actress numerous times to accompany the Shout! Factory Blu-ray releases of her major films.
Yuen had a different image from the other female stars of the era. What was her appeal?
Yes, she was different. She represented the rebellious side of Hong Kong teenagers, but she was not so rebellious that she would be taken for a “bad girl” or a triad girl.
Sara Lee Lai-yui’s character in School on Fire is very rebellious indeed and looks like she could do something evil. But even though Yuen’s character has a feisty attitude, you can see that deep down inside, she is still a good girl who wouldn’t do anything awful.
She is actually a good student in her films, and she gets good grades, even though she is a rebel. Teenage girls at that time identified with her.

Wasn’t she spotted in the street by Cinema City producers?
Raymond Wong Pak-ming from Cinema City was looking for someone to play a feisty female high school student in Happy Ghost II, and he wanted a newcomer.
When he and director Clifton Ko Chi-sum were driving one day, they passed a restaurant in Central and saw Yuen quarrelling with her boyfriend outside. He stared at her and thought, ‘She’s the kind of girl I’m looking for.’ So he got out of the car, gave her his business card and asked her to come to his office the next day for an audition – in the middle of the argument!
She won the part and she joined up with two other girls, Charine Chan Ka-ling and May Lo Mei-mei, and they became known as the “Happy Girls”.

Was Yuen still at school when she started acting?
Yes, she made films while she was still at school – she made her first Happy Ghost films back to back. She thought it would just be a summer job or something like that and she would be able to graduate.
But because she got so popular, her school suggested that she leave, although they didn’t actually expel her. The school felt she was becoming a nuisance because she was getting famous and her schoolmates were bothering her – they would actually go to her classroom just to stare at her.
So the principal said, ‘Maybe it is better that you leave and do acting as a full-time job.’ She was upset, because she really wanted to finish school, but the movie contracts were coming in, so she decided to leave and act full-time.

She gave an incredibly serious performance in School on Fire, playing a girl who is harassed and abused by a triad gang.
The turning point in her career came when Ringo Lam cast her in School on Fire, as before that, everybody thought she was just a teen idol who didn’t know how to act.
With School on Fire, she came out with a real head-turning performance. In the film, the triads get her to do worse and worse things until she snaps and decides to fight back. It was a bravura performance and audiences loved it.
Some of the scenes in which she is harassed by the triads are intense and disturbing. In Hollywood, a young actress like that would have to be extensively prepared for those scenes.
She just got stuck in and did it. But she told me that Lam explained every scene to her and why she was doing the things her character had to do. She said she felt that she had to go through quite a lot of emotional turmoil.
But she said that Lam and his brother Nam Yin, who wrote the script, were both very protective, so she felt very safe and confident doing those scenes.

Then came Pedicab Driver (1989) with Sammo Hung Kam-bo.
She was the second female lead alongside Nina Li Chi, and played a prostitute. It was quite a tough role, but just like Lam, Hung felt that she had the dramatic skills to carry it off.
It is one of Yuen’s favourite roles, although her all-time favourite character is actually Blue Phoenix from the first two Swordsman films.
What made her role as Blue Phoenix in the Swordsman films so special to her?
Yuen tried hard to make that character, which she closely based on the original in Louis Cha Leung-yung’s source novel, very memorable.
She asked producer Tsui Hark if Blue Phoenix could speak with a different accent as she was of Miao ethnicity. Although her dialogue was dubbed by another actor in post-production, it was Yuen’s creative decision to ensure the character did not sound too Cantonese.
She felt that Blue Phoenix was a very empowering character, because she is strong right from the start. She was grateful that Tsui also cast her in the sequel, because that allowed her to expand more on the character. She was actually the only performer from part one to come back and play the same role for part two!

Yuen doesn’t know kung fu, but did she do any wirework (“flying” on wires)?
Yes, she did some wirework, as she had some scenes in mid-air, mainly in Swordsman II, where she is attacked and Jet Li Lianjie has to save her. She is unforgettable in that – she played one of the stand-out characters in that film series.
She was also effective in John Woo Yu-sum’s Bullet in the Head, even though she only showed up in the Hong Kong sequences as Tony Leung Chiu-wai’s new wife. Do you know how she found working with Woo?
Yes, Woo didn’t give her a lot of instructions – she said he trusted his actors completely. Woo just said, ‘OK, this scene is your wedding night, and your husband went out after the wedding and hasn’t come back, you’re getting worried, that’s it.’
She had to interpret the character’s agitation and concern in her own way. Apparently, that’s how Woo works with actors. She found that approach liberating.
In this regular feature series on the best of Hong Kong cinema, we examine the legacy of classic films, re-evaluate the careers of its greatest stars, and revisit some of the lesser-known aspects of the beloved industry.
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Fennie Yuen in a still from Pedicab Driver (1989).

Hong Kong actress Fennie Yuen (pictured in 2005) started her career while still at school, appearing in the Happy Ghost film series before moving on to dramatic roles such as in School on Fire and the Swordsman films. Photo: SCMP

(From left) Fennie Yuen, Danny Poon, Raymond Wong and Charine Chan on the set of Happy Ghost III (1986).

“Happy Girls” members Charine Chan, Fennie Yuen and May Lo in 1985. Photo: SCMP

Fennie Yuen (right) and Sara Lee in a still from School on Fire (1988).

Fennie Yuen in a still from Swordsman (1990).

How Pang Ho-cheung’s early black comedies disrupted Hong Kong cinema

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A still from You Shoot, I Shoot.

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(From left) Jordan Chan, Michael Tse, Ekin Cheng and Jason Chu in a still from Young and Dangerous (1996). Jerry Lamb also stars. Photo: Golden Harvest

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Sharla Cheung Man in a still from the Ming dynasty wuxia drama Swordsman (1990). Photo: Fortune Star Media

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Classic Hong Kong cinema

Classic Hong Kong cinema: John Woo on action, violence, influences, growing up in poverty and working in Hollywood in 1997 interview

Legendary Hong Kong action film director John Woo in 1990. Photo: SCMP

Famous Hong Kong action film director John Woo talks about his life and work in a 1997 interview. Photo: SCMP

John Travolta (top) and Nicolas Cage in a still from Face/Off.

John Woo during an interview in 1996. Photo: SCMP

Tony Leung (left) and Chow Yun-fat in a still from Hard Boiled (1991), directed by Woo.

Woo (left) shakes hands with actor Tom Cruise at a photo call in Tsim Sha Tsui in 2000.

Danny Lee (left) and Chow Yun-fat in a still from The Killer, a 1989 film directed by John Woo.

Woo in his office in 1993. Photo: SCMP

Woo on the set of Red Cliff, with actor Takeshi Kaneshiro.

How Ringo Lam crime thriller Full Alert mixed realistic action on Hong Kong streets with premonition of 1997 handover

Lau Ching-wan in a still from Full Alert.

Lau Ching-wan hunting down an escaped robber in the mean streets (Bird Street) of Mong Kok in Ringo Lam’s 1997 movie Full Alert.

Ringo Lam, pictured in 1995. Photo: SCMP

Lau Ching-wan (left) and Francis Ng in a still from Full Alert.

Amanda Lee (front) in a still from Full Alert. Photo: Eureka Entertainment

Francis Ng in a still from Full Alert.

Ringo Lam in an interview with the Post in 1997. Photo: SCMP

Hong Kong’s first art-house film, Cecille Tong Shu-shuen’s The Arch, starring Crazy Rich Asians’ Lisa Lu Yan, was ahead of its time

Lisa Lu in a still from Cecille Tong Shu-shuen’s The Arch (1970), considered to be Hong Kong’s first art-house film.

Cecille Tong and members of her staff at Joss, the Chinese restaurant she runs on Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles.

Lisa Lu, who starred in The Arch and The Empress Dowager, poses with her daughter Lucia Hwong in 1978. Photo: SCMP

Lisa Lu in a still from The Arch.

Promotional stills for Sup Sap Bup Dup (1975), directed by Tong.

A scene from the 1974 film China Behind, directed by Tong.

How Bruce Lee’s Way of the Dragon made Chuck Norris a star with their fight in Rome’s Colosseum, and what the film showed about Lee’s directing

Bruce Lee in a still from The Way of the Dragon (1972). Photo: Criterion Collection

Bruce Lee in a still from The Way of the Dragon (1972), which he starred in and directed. Photo: Criterion Collection

Bruce Lee as Ah Lung (front) and Nora Miao as Chen Ching Hua in a still from The Way of the Dragon. Photo: Golden Harvest

Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee in a still from The Way of the Dragon. Photo: LCSD

Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris in a still from The Way of the Dragon. Photo: Criterion Collection

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Interview with award-winning actress Maggie Cheung Man-yuk at Grand Hyatt Hotel.

Maggie Cheung at an interview with the Post in 2001. Photo: SCMP.

Maggie Cheung (left) and Cherie Chung in a still from Prince Charming (1984).

Maggie Cheung (left) and Andy Lau in a still from As Tears Go By (1988).

Maggie Cheung in a still from the 1996 film Irma Vep.

Maggie Cheung (left) and Tony Leung in a still from In the Mood for Love (2000).

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Anita Yuen (left) and Leslie Cheung in a still from He’s a Woman, She’s a Man (1994).

A promotional image of He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Father (1993), starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai (first from right) and Tony Leung Ka-fai (second from right). Peter Chan Ho-sun’s early films “have an international, almost placeless feel” despite their local issues and references.

Film director Peter Chan Ho-sun in 1995. Photo: SCMP

Eric Tsang (left) and Leslie Cheung in a still from He’s a Woman, She’s a Man, the 1994 film directed by Peter Chan.

Fallen Angels: Wong Kar-wai on casting Leon Lai, Michele Reis, Charlie Yeung and Karen Mok against type in 1995 film

Michele Reis and Takeshi Kaneshiro in a still from Wong Kar-wai’s Fallen Angels. Photo: Block 2 Pictures and Jet Tone Contents

Leon Lai in a still from Wong Kar-wai’s Fallen Angels, the 1995 film that was almost part of Chungking Express.

Wong Kar-wai in front of a promotional poster for Fallen Angels in 1995. Photo: SCMP

Takeshi Kaneshiro in a still from Fallen Angels.

Leon Lai (left) and Michele Reis in a still from Fallen Angels.

Michele Reis in a still from Fallen Angels.

(Clockwise from top left) Charlie Yeung, Michele Reis, Leon Lai and Takeshi Kaneshiro in a still from Fallen Angels.

Leon Lai plays a hitman in a still from Fallen Angels.

How Running Out of Time, starring Andy Lau and Lau Ching-wan, helped shape the ‘Johnnie To Cinematic Universe’

Andy Lau in a still from Johnnie To’s Running Out of Time (1999).

Andy Lau, pictured with Helena Law at the 19th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2000, where he was named best actor for his role in Running Out of Time. Photo: SCMP

A still from The Mission (1999).

Lau Ching-wan (left) and Andy Lau in a still from Running Out of Time (1999).

Johnnie To in his Kwun Tong office in 1999. Photo: SCMP

Ekin Cheng in a still from Running Out of Time 2.

Likened to Hollywood hit Love Story, this film beat Jackie Chan, Jet Li at the Hong Kong box office in 1993

Anita Yuen (left) and Lau Ching-wan in a still from C’est La Vie, Mon Cheri.

Anita Yuen (left) and Lau Ching-wan in a still from C’est la Vie, Mon Cheri. It beat films starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li to become a box-office hit in 1993. Photo: courtesy of LCSD 

Film director Derek Yee Tung-sing giving a thank-you speech after being awarded the best director prize at the 13th Hong Kong Film Awards for his film, “C’est La Vie, Mon Cheri”. Photo: SCMP

Lau Ching-wan (left) and Anita Yuen in a still from C’est La Vie, Mon Cheri.

Winners at the 13th Hong Kong Film Awards pose for a group picture. From left in the first row are best supporting actor Paul Chun Pui, best actor Anthony Wong Chau-sang, best actress Anita Yuen Wing-yee, best supporting actress Fung Bo-bo and best director Derek Yee Tung-shing. With the exception of Wong, all the others worked on C’est La Vie, Mon Cheri. Photo: SCMP

Brigitte Lin’s first gender-neutral role, Sally Yeh’s butch Beijing Opera performer make Tsui Hark’s 1986 period comedy Peking Opera Blues highly enjoyable

Peking Opera Blues starring Brigitte Lin remains an enjoyable tale of espionage, Chinese opera and gender bending. Mark Cheng (left) and Brigitte Lin in a still from Peking Opera Blues. Photo: Peking Opera Blues

Playwright Raymond To Kwok-wai, pictured in 1994, was the screenwriter behind both Shanghai Blues and Peking Opera Blues. Photo: SCMP

Sally Yeh (left) in a still from Shanghai Blues, which was released two years before Peking Opera Blues. Photo: Hong Kong Film Archive

(From left) Brigitte Lin, Cherie Chung and Sally Yeh in a still from Peking Opera Blues. Photo: Peking Opera Blues

Tsui Hark, posing beside the poster for another of his movies, A Better Tomorrow III, in 1989. Photo: SCMP

Brigitte Lin (right) in a still from Peking Opera Blues. Photo: Peking Opera Blues

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A still from Beast Cops. Photo: Handout

(From left) Sam Lee, Anthony Wong and Michael Wong in a still from Beast Cops, a Mong Kok-set gangs vs police action drama directed by Gordon Chan.

Best actress Sandra Ng Kwan-yu (left) and best actor Anthony Wong Chau-sang with their awards at the 18th annual Hong Kong Film Awards in 1999. Ng starred in Portland Street Blues and Wong in Beast Cops. Photo: SCMP

Jet Li in a still from Fist of Legend, the 1994 film directed by Gordon Chan.

Michael Wong (front) in a still from Beast Cops.

Directors Gordon Chan (left) and Dante Lam, pictured in 2006. Photo: SCMP

(From left) Anthony Wong, Kathy Chow and Michael Wong in a still from Beast Cops.

Anthony Wong in a still from Beast Cops.

Romance meets ghost story in Hong Kong movie masterpiece Rouge, starring Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung and directed by Stanley Kwan

Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung in a still from Rouge.

Leslie Cheung and Anita in a still from Rouge (1988), directed by Stanley Kwan, in which she plays a 1930s courtesan who returns 50 years later as a ghost seeking her lover, played by Cheung.

Anita Mui (centre) alongside Alex Man (left) and Elaine Chu in a still from Rouge.

Stanley Kwan in an interview with the Post in 1988. Photo: SCMP.

Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung in Rouge.

Made in Hong Kong, Fruit Chan’s take on grim reality of 1997 for many in the city, and how the groundbreaking independent film was conceived

Sam Lee in a still from Made in Hong Kong. Photo: Focus Films Limited

Sam Lee in a still from Made in Hong Kong, Fruit Chan’s 1997 film about the grim reality of life for many people in Hong Kong. Photo: Golden Scene

(From left) Wenders Li, Sam Lee and Neiky Yim in a still from Made in Hong Kong.

Fruit Chan (centre), winner of Best Director and Best Picture at the 3rd Golden Bauhinia Awards Ceremony, alongside actors Neiky Yim (left) and Sam Lee, in 1998. Photo: SCMP

Sam Lee and Neiky Yim in a still from Made in Hong Kong. Photo: Golden Scene

Sam Lee and Neiky Yim in Made in Hong Kong. Photo: Nicetop Independent

Why Boat People, starring Andy Lau and George Lam, Ann Hui’s hit film about post-war Vietnam, displeased the Chinese and French authorities

Andy Lau as To Minh in a still from Boat People (1982). Ann Hui intended the film to tell a human story that explained why refugees were fleeing Vietnam. Hong Kong film-goers saw it as an allegory of the city’s future under Chinese rule. Photo: Bluebird Film Company

George Lam (left) and Season Ma in a still from Boat People. Photo: Bluebird Film Company

Ann Hui won the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 77th Venice Film Festival in 2020. Photo: Reuters

A still from Boat People showing Vietnamese military personnel in the streets.

Andy Lau as To Minh (left) and George Lam as Akutagawa in a still from Boat People.

Andy Lau as To Minh in a still from Boat People.

What they said about In the Mood For Love: director Wong Kar-wai and stars Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung on filming the romantic drama

Maggie Cheung in a still from In The Mood For Love. Photo: Jet Tone Films

Maggie Cheung Man-yuk and Tony Leung Chiu-wai in a still from In the Mood for Love, directed by Wong Kar-wai. Photo: Jet Tone Films

Tony Leung (left), Maggie Cheung and director Wong Kar-wai during the promotion for In the Mood For Love in Cannes, in 2000. Photo: AFP/Jack Guez

Maggie Cheung in a still from In the Mood For Love. Photo: Jet Tone Films

Tony Leung in a still from In The Mood For Love. Photo: Jet Tone Films

Tony Leung (left) and Zhang Ziyi in a still from 2046. Photo: Block 2 Pictures and Jet Tone Contents

Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung in a still from In the Mood For Love. Photo: Jet Tone Films

Jackie Chan focused on ‘real kung fu’ in Drunken Master II in reaction to shoddy ‘wire fu’ martial arts films of the early 90s

Jackie Chan in a still from Drunken Master II (1994). The movie focused heavily on real kung fu by real martial artists, as an antidote to the slew of shoddy ‘wire fu’ movies in the early 1990s.

Jackie Chan at an interview with the Post in 1994. Photo: SCMP

Jackie Chan in a still from Drunken Master (1978). Photo: Golden Harvest

Jackie Chan (left) on the set of Drunken Master II.

Jackie Chan (right) and Felix Wong in a still from Drunken Master II (1994).

Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle were not the films that made the Hong Kong comedian famous – so which ones did?

Stephen Chow as Trinket in a still from the film Royal Tramp.

Stephen Chow (left) and Ng Man-tat in a still from Royal Tramp. Critics called Chow 
 “the finest Hong Kong comedian of his generation” and “Hong Kong’s hottest actor” of the 1990s.

Stephen Chow at an interview with the Post in 1989. Photo: SCMP

Stephen Chow at a film shoot in 1989. Photo: SCMP

Ng Man-tat (left) and Stephen Chow in a still from All for the Winner.

Stephen Chow (left) and Anita Yuen in a still from From Beijing with Love.

Gong Li (left) and Stephen Chow pose for photographers to promote The Flirting Scholar in 1993. Photo: SCMP

Stephen Chow in a still from Shaolin Soccer.

‘I am not Jackie Chan or Chow Yun-fat’: Hong Kong actor Lau Ching-wan on why Hollywood doesn’t need him, bad guy roles, and The Godfather

Lau Ching-wan during an interview with the Post in 1996. Photo: SCMP

Lau Ching-wan during an interview with the Post in 1996. He reveals why he measures his English comprehension against The Godfather and why Hollywood does not need him. Photo: SCMP.

Leon Lai (left) and Lau Ching-wan in a still from A Hero Never Dies (1998).

Lau Ching-wan in a still from Full Alert (1997).

Lau Ching-wan (left) and Anita Yuen in a still from C’est La Vie, Mon Cheri (1993).

Lau Ching-wan in a still from Too Many Ways to be Number One.

Lau Ching-wan (third from left) in a still from Big Bullet (1996), directed by Benny Chan.

Lau Ching-wan in a still from Lifeline (1997).

Lau Ching-wan and his wife, Amy Kwok, pose for photographers on the red carpet of the 32nd Hong Kong Film Awards at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui in 2013. Photo: SCMP

What they said about The Killer: director John Woo and stars Chow Yun-fat and Sally Yeh on shooting the classic Hong Kong action movie

Chow Yun-fat and Danny Lee in a still from The Killer (1989), directed by John Woo.

Chow Yun-fat (right) as the hitman Ah Jong and Danny Lee as Detective Li Ying in a still from The Killer (1989), directed by John Woo.

Chow Yun-fat plays hitman Ah Jong in a still from The Killer.

John Woo in his Hong Kong office, pictured in 1993. Photo: SCMP.

Sally Yeh as Jennie the nightclub singer and Danny Lee as Detective Li Ying in a still from The Killer.

Chow Yun-fat (left) and Danny Lee in a still from The Killer.

Chow Yun-fat in a still from The Killer.

Hong Kong horror cinema, from kung fu ghost movies to adults-only shockers like the human flesh eaters of The Untold Story

A still from Mr Vampire (1985). Produced by Sammo Hung, the film about reanimated corpses spawned a series of sequels and imitators. Photo: Golden Harvest

A still from Encounter of the Spooky Kind (1980). The Sammo Hung film was one of the first Cantonese-language productions to successfully blend comedy, kung fu and Chinese superstition. Photo: Fortune Star Media

A still from Mr Vampire (1985).

A still from The Enchanting Shadow (1960).

Simon Yam in a still from Dr Lamb (1992).

Martial arts movies, erotica, lavish period dramas – Hong Kong filmmakers Chor Yuen and Li Hanxiang could turn their hand to many genres

Ti Lung (centre) and Lo Lieh (right) in a still from The Magic Blade (1976), directed by Chor Yuen. Like another versatile Shaw Brothers director, Li Hanxiang, he started out making films in a different genre entirely. Photo: Celestial Pictures Limited

Film director Li Hanxiang (centre) pictured in 1972. Photo: SCMP

A still from The Love Eterne (1963). Careful shot composition was a hallmark of Li Hanxiang’s films.

Chor Yuen (left) speaking before receiving a lifetime achievement award at the 37th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2018. Photo: AP

A still from The Great Devotion (1960)

Lily Ho Li-li (left) and Betty Pei Ti in a still from Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (1972)

How Fennie Yuen went from Happy Ghost idol to serious actress for Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A popular Hong Kong actress in the 1980s and 90s, Yuen started in teen comedies like the Happy Ghost films before pivoting to dramatic roles

A popular Hong Kong actress in the 1980s and 90s, Yuen started in teen comedies like the Happy Ghost films before pivoting to dramatic roles