Connie Chan Po-chu
Encyclopedia
Connie Chan Po-chu was born in 1946 to impoverished parents, one of at least nine siblings, in Guangdong
, China. To increase their children's chances of survival, Chan's birth parents gave away some of their youngest to other families. As a result, Chan was adopted by Chan Fei-nung and his wife, Kung Fan-hung, who were renowned Cantonese opera
stars. During the 1960s, Connie Chan was one of Hong Kong cinema
's most beloved teen idols.
She made more than 230 films in a variety of genres: from traditional Cantonese opera and wuxia
movies to contemporary youth musicals; action films to comedies; melodramas and romances. Owing to her popularity she was dubbed "The Movie-Fan Princess". Her godfather is the late actor Cho Tat Wah
. She has a son named Dexter Yeung, who stars in the 2008 TVB Series Wasabi Mon Amour
and Moonlight Resonance
.
from her adoptive parents and later became an apprentice of Peking opera master Fen Juhua, who was one of the first wuxia actresses in Shanghai during the 1920s. When Connie was nine, she began performing onstage. One year later she and Leung Bo-chu (the daughter of the great comic actor and opera clown Leung Sing-po) were the leading stars of the Double Chu Opera Troupe. In 1958, Connie made her film debut in the Cantonese opera Madam Chun Heung-lin. The following year she played in two Mandarin-language productions for the MP&GI studio: as a widow’s daughter in Yue Feng’s melodrama For Better, For Worse
and as a young boy in Tao Qin’s comedy The Scout Master. That same year she also played the role of a filial son in Breaking the Coffin to Rescue Mother.
During her teenage years, Connie appeared more and more frequently on the silver screen: at first mostly in Cantonese operas (often with the legendary Master Yam Kim-fai
, who had taken Connie as her beloved student); but later almost exclusively in wuxia movies (usually in the company of veteran action stars Yu So Chow
, Cho Tat Wah
, and perennial bad guy Shih Kien
). She also joined the Sin-Hok Kong-luen Film Company’s stable of young stars (which included Suet Nei, Nancy Sit Ka-yin
, and Kenneth Tsang Kong
) and took part in director Chan Lit-ban’s ground-breaking adaptations of Jin Yong’s serialised novels, The Golden Hairpin (1963–64) and The Snowflake Sword (1964). Released in three and four parts, these films were blockbuster extravaganzas popular for their intricate plots, special effects, and complex action choreography. Two films in 1965 would give a boost to Chan’s career: The Six-Fingered Lord of the Lute (in which she played the lead male role and which was publicised with the creation of her very own fanclub) and The Black Rose (in which director Chor Yuen had the foresight to change her image by putting her in a contemporary role as a modern-day Robin Hood).
In 1966, her most frequent on-screen partner was Josephine Siao
, who had also studied opera under Fen Juhua. The two were often cast as disciples of the same master and sometimes—when Connie played the male lead —as young heroes in love. Capitalizing on their chemistry, veteran director Lee Tit gave them the lead roles in Eternal Love, his remake of a popular opera from the 1950s. Even more successful was Chan Wan’s Colourful Youth, which became the box office champ of the year and set the trend for Western-style musicals in Cantonese cinema. From then on, Connie and Josephine appeared increasingly in films with contemporary settings but less frequently in each other’s company. Both of them were paired off with a variety of leading men in a profusion of comedies, musicals, romances, and action movies. Movie-Fan Princess was a prototype combo of all four genres and, more significantly, the beginning of Connie’s four-year on-screen romance with her most popular leading man, Lui Kei. And then there was Lady Bond, Cantonese cinema’s answer to 007 that spawned three sequels and fueled the transition from traditional wuxia pictures to contemporary action movies.
Connie’s frenetic film output of the previous two years started to slow down a bit. Her contemporary action films had played themselves out and she settled down on-screen with leading man Lui Kei, who now became her most frequent costar in a medley of comedies, musicals, and romances—most of them directed by Wong Yiu and Chan Wan, who were responsible for the Chi-luen Film Company’s signature youth musicals. With the help of her mother, Connie founded her own film company in 1968. Hung Bo’s inaugural feature Teenage Love (1968) paired her with Lui Kei. Connie’s mother produced the film and she and Connie’s father had small roles. Love With a Malaysian Girl (1969) and Her Tender Love (1969), both written and directed by Lui Kei, were the only other films produced through Hung Bo. Within a year, Connie stopped making films altogether and moved to San Francisco to finish her education. When she returned to Hong Kong in 1972, she made one last film with director Chor Yuen, who had recently signed on with Shaw Brothers. The Lizard, a Mandarin-language production, was Connie’s final farewell to the silver screen.
After an absence of more than 25 years, Connie Chan emerged from retirement in 1999 to star in a stage production based on the life of her Master, Yam Kim-fai. Sentimental Journey won great acclaim and broke records with its 100-performance run; it was brought back for a six-week revival in 2005. After Sentimental Journey, Connie starred alongside Tony Leung Ka-Fai
and Carina Lau
in the stage play Red Boat, which ran for 64 performances. The play is an homage to the Cantonese Opera troupes that traditionally travelled by boat through the Pearl River delta region of China. In 2003 she staged a series of spectacular concerts, delighting fans with her cherished film songs and some Cantonese opera classics; her guest stars included Fung Bo-bo, Nancy Sit Ka-yin, and Maggie Cheung Ho-yee
(who played the character based on Connie in the TVB television series Old Time Buddy and the film Those Were the Days).
On 4 February 2006 she performed with the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. Later that year she starred with Adam Cheng
in the stage play Only You, which ran for 70 performances. In January 2007 Connie was honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the Hong Kong Drama Awards.
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
, China. To increase their children's chances of survival, Chan's birth parents gave away some of their youngest to other families. As a result, Chan was adopted by Chan Fei-nung and his wife, Kung Fan-hung, who were renowned Cantonese opera
Cantonese opera
Cantonese opera is one of the major categories in Chinese opera, originating in southern China's Cantonese culture. It is popular in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Malaysia. Like all versions of Chinese opera, it is a traditional Chinese art form, involving music, singing,...
stars. During the 1960s, Connie Chan was one of Hong Kong cinema
Cinema of Hong Kong
The cinema of Hong Kong is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese language cinema, alongside the cinema of China, and the cinema of Taiwan...
's most beloved teen idols.
She made more than 230 films in a variety of genres: from traditional Cantonese opera and wuxia
Wuxia
Wuxia is a broad genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists. Although wuxia is traditionally a form of literature, its popularity has caused it to spread to diverse art forms like Chinese opera, manhua , films, television series, and video games...
movies to contemporary youth musicals; action films to comedies; melodramas and romances. Owing to her popularity she was dubbed "The Movie-Fan Princess". Her godfather is the late actor Cho Tat Wah
Cho Tat Wah
Cho Tat-wah or Tso Tat-wah was a film actor of Hong Kong, most famous for the roles he played in a number of Wuxia films in the 1950s and 1960s....
. She has a son named Dexter Yeung, who stars in the 2008 TVB Series Wasabi Mon Amour
Wasabi Mon Amour
Wasabi Mon Amour is a TVB modern drama series broadcast in January 2008.- Synopsis :Although the food program turns out to be very popular, Mei often gets picked on by her half sister Ko Yim-Lai while at work. Lai is angry with Shau for being bad to her mother and she means to make things...
and Moonlight Resonance
Moonlight Resonance
Moonlight Resonance is an award-winning 2008 grand production HDTV drama by TVB. It is an spiritual sequel to 2007's award-winning series, Heart of Greed featuring most of the original cast members. The series is written and edited by Cheung Wah-biu and Sit Ga-wah. Sponsored by Kee Wah Bakery, the...
.
Career
At the age of five and a half she started learning Cantonese operaCantonese opera
Cantonese opera is one of the major categories in Chinese opera, originating in southern China's Cantonese culture. It is popular in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Malaysia. Like all versions of Chinese opera, it is a traditional Chinese art form, involving music, singing,...
from her adoptive parents and later became an apprentice of Peking opera master Fen Juhua, who was one of the first wuxia actresses in Shanghai during the 1920s. When Connie was nine, she began performing onstage. One year later she and Leung Bo-chu (the daughter of the great comic actor and opera clown Leung Sing-po) were the leading stars of the Double Chu Opera Troupe. In 1958, Connie made her film debut in the Cantonese opera Madam Chun Heung-lin. The following year she played in two Mandarin-language productions for the MP&GI studio: as a widow’s daughter in Yue Feng’s melodrama For Better, For Worse
For Better, for Worse (1959 film)
For Better, for Worse is a 1959 Hong Kong drama film written and directed by Yueh Feng. The film was selected as the Hong Kong entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 32nd Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.-Cast:...
and as a young boy in Tao Qin’s comedy The Scout Master. That same year she also played the role of a filial son in Breaking the Coffin to Rescue Mother.
During her teenage years, Connie appeared more and more frequently on the silver screen: at first mostly in Cantonese operas (often with the legendary Master Yam Kim-fai
Yam Kim Fai
Yam Kim Fai , also known as Ren Jianhui was a renowned Cantonese opera actress in China and Hong Kong.She was most notable for her unique ability to sing in the lower register...
, who had taken Connie as her beloved student); but later almost exclusively in wuxia movies (usually in the company of veteran action stars Yu So Chow
Yu So Chow
Yu So Chow is a Chinese actress born in Beijing on July 9, 1930 to a Peking opera family. She is the daughter of late Master Yu Jim Yuen who ran the China Drama Academy, a Peking Opera School in Hong Kong, and teacher of many well-known actors....
, Cho Tat Wah
Cho Tat Wah
Cho Tat-wah or Tso Tat-wah was a film actor of Hong Kong, most famous for the roles he played in a number of Wuxia films in the 1950s and 1960s....
, and perennial bad guy Shih Kien
Shih Kien
Shek Wing-cheung , better known as Shih Kien, was a Chinese actor from Hong Kong. He is sometimes credited as Shek Kin or Kien Shih...
). She also joined the Sin-Hok Kong-luen Film Company’s stable of young stars (which included Suet Nei, Nancy Sit Ka-yin
Nancy Sit
Nancy Sit Ka Yin is a Hong Kong actress on the TVB network. Her acting career dated back to the 1960s, when she was a popular teen idol alongside Connie Chan Po-chu, and Josephine Siao...
, and Kenneth Tsang Kong
Kenneth Tsang
Kenneth Tsang Kong is a Hong Kong actor. Tsang's career has spanned 50 years and included a variety of acting roles.Tsang was born in Shanghai, China with family roots in Jida, Zhuhai, Guangdong. He attended high school in Wah Yan Hong Kong and then Wah Yan, Kowloon...
) and took part in director Chan Lit-ban’s ground-breaking adaptations of Jin Yong’s serialised novels, The Golden Hairpin (1963–64) and The Snowflake Sword (1964). Released in three and four parts, these films were blockbuster extravaganzas popular for their intricate plots, special effects, and complex action choreography. Two films in 1965 would give a boost to Chan’s career: The Six-Fingered Lord of the Lute (in which she played the lead male role and which was publicised with the creation of her very own fanclub) and The Black Rose (in which director Chor Yuen had the foresight to change her image by putting her in a contemporary role as a modern-day Robin Hood).
In 1966, her most frequent on-screen partner was Josephine Siao
Josephine Siao
Josephine Siao Fong-Fong MBE is a Hong Kong movie star who became popular as a child actress and continued her success as a mature actress, winning numerous awards including Best Actress at the 1995 Berlin Film Festival...
, who had also studied opera under Fen Juhua. The two were often cast as disciples of the same master and sometimes—when Connie played the male lead —as young heroes in love. Capitalizing on their chemistry, veteran director Lee Tit gave them the lead roles in Eternal Love, his remake of a popular opera from the 1950s. Even more successful was Chan Wan’s Colourful Youth, which became the box office champ of the year and set the trend for Western-style musicals in Cantonese cinema. From then on, Connie and Josephine appeared increasingly in films with contemporary settings but less frequently in each other’s company. Both of them were paired off with a variety of leading men in a profusion of comedies, musicals, romances, and action movies. Movie-Fan Princess was a prototype combo of all four genres and, more significantly, the beginning of Connie’s four-year on-screen romance with her most popular leading man, Lui Kei. And then there was Lady Bond, Cantonese cinema’s answer to 007 that spawned three sequels and fueled the transition from traditional wuxia pictures to contemporary action movies.
Connie’s frenetic film output of the previous two years started to slow down a bit. Her contemporary action films had played themselves out and she settled down on-screen with leading man Lui Kei, who now became her most frequent costar in a medley of comedies, musicals, and romances—most of them directed by Wong Yiu and Chan Wan, who were responsible for the Chi-luen Film Company’s signature youth musicals. With the help of her mother, Connie founded her own film company in 1968. Hung Bo’s inaugural feature Teenage Love (1968) paired her with Lui Kei. Connie’s mother produced the film and she and Connie’s father had small roles. Love With a Malaysian Girl (1969) and Her Tender Love (1969), both written and directed by Lui Kei, were the only other films produced through Hung Bo. Within a year, Connie stopped making films altogether and moved to San Francisco to finish her education. When she returned to Hong Kong in 1972, she made one last film with director Chor Yuen, who had recently signed on with Shaw Brothers. The Lizard, a Mandarin-language production, was Connie’s final farewell to the silver screen.
After an absence of more than 25 years, Connie Chan emerged from retirement in 1999 to star in a stage production based on the life of her Master, Yam Kim-fai. Sentimental Journey won great acclaim and broke records with its 100-performance run; it was brought back for a six-week revival in 2005. After Sentimental Journey, Connie starred alongside Tony Leung Ka-Fai
Tony Leung Ka-Fai
Tony Leung Ka-fai is a three-time Hong Kong Film Award-winning Chinese film actor.Because he is often confused with actor Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Tony Leung Ka-fai is known as "Big Tony", while Tony Leung Chiu-Wai is known as "Little Tony", nicknames which correspond to the actors' respective...
and Carina Lau
Carina Lau
Carina Lau Kar-ling is a Hong Kong actress. She was especially notable in the 1980s for her girl-next-door type roles in films....
in the stage play Red Boat, which ran for 64 performances. The play is an homage to the Cantonese Opera troupes that traditionally travelled by boat through the Pearl River delta region of China. In 2003 she staged a series of spectacular concerts, delighting fans with her cherished film songs and some Cantonese opera classics; her guest stars included Fung Bo-bo, Nancy Sit Ka-yin, and Maggie Cheung Ho-yee
Maggie Cheung Ho Yee
Maggie Cheung Ho-yee ; not to be confused with Maggie Cheung Man-yuk, is a Hong Kong actress, under contract to the television channel TVB.Born in 1969, she competed in TVB's 1994 Miss Hong Kong beauty pageant, reaching the final five but not placing...
(who played the character based on Connie in the TVB television series Old Time Buddy and the film Those Were the Days).
On 4 February 2006 she performed with the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. Later that year she starred with Adam Cheng
Adam Cheng
Adam Cheng Siu-chow is a Hong Kong TVB actor and Cantopop singer.-Career:Cheng started his career in the 1970s, where he gained a reputation for playing the lead roles in TVB Wuxia drama series based on the works of Louis Cha and Gu Long, such as The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber and Chor Lau Heung...
in the stage play Only You, which ran for 70 performances. In January 2007 Connie was honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the Hong Kong Drama Awards.
Selected filmography
- For Better, For WorseFor Better, for Worse (1959 film)For Better, for Worse is a 1959 Hong Kong drama film written and directed by Yueh Feng. The film was selected as the Hong Kong entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 32nd Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.-Cast:...
(1959) - Breaking the Coffin to Rescue Mother (1959)
- The Unroyal Prince (1960)
- Filial Piety (1960)
- Good Humanity (1960)
- Han Gong Gate (1961)
- Beauty (1961)
- The Monkey King Stormed the Sea Palace (1962)
- Battle at Sizhou (1962)
- How the Magic Boy on the Mythical Crane Slew the Dragon and Saved His Mother (1962)
- The Golden Coat, Parts 1-2 (1963)
- Red Thread Steals a Precious Box (1963)
- The Golden Hairpin, Parts 2-4 (1963–64)
- Story of the Sword and the SabreStory of the Sword and the SabreStory of the Sword and the Sabre is a four-part Hong Kong film released in 1963 and 1965. The film was adapted from Louis Cha's novel The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber...
(1965) - The Snowflake Sword, Parts 1-4 (1964)
- The Flying FoxThe Flying Fox (film)The Flying Fox, also known as The Purple Lightning Sword, is a 1964 Hong Kong wuxia film produced by Gam Wing and directed by Siu Sang.-Cast:*Yu So-chow as Tik Siu-ching*Cheung Ying-choi as Man Lei-wan*Connie Chan as Tung-fong Ming...
(1964), also known as The Purple Lightning Sword - The Black Rose (1965)
- The Six-Fingered Lord of the Lute, Parts 1-3 (1965)
- The Furious Buddha’s Palm (1965)
- Eternal Love (1966)
- Movie-Fan Princess (1966)
- Aftermath of a Fire, Parts 1-2 (1966)
- Girls Are Flowers (1966)
- The Dutiful Daughter Zhu Zhu (1966)
- The Black Killer (1967)
- Waste Not Our Youth (1967)
- A Glamorous Christmas Night (1967)
- Paragon of Sword and Knife, Parts 1-2 (1967–68)
- Opposite Love (1968)
- Four Gentlemanly Flowers (1968)
- The Reincarnation of Lady Plum Blossom (1968)
- Won’t You Give Me a Kiss? (1968)
- Teenage Love (1968)
- Young, Pregnant and Unmarried (1968)
- The Dragon Fortress (1968)
- Beauty in the Mist (1968)
- Love with a Malaysian Girl (1969)
- Her Tender Love (1969)
- The Young Girl Dares Not Homeward (1970)
- I’ll Get You One Day (1970)
- The Lizard (1972)