Andy Lau

From TVB to the big screen

Andy Lau (Lau Tak-wah, born Lau Fook-wing) was born on 27 September 1961 in Tai Po, in Hong Kong's New Territories. In 1980 he joined the TVB actor training programme and signed with the network the following year. The series The Emissary (1982) made his name, and playing Yang Guo in The Return of the Condor Heroes (1983), from Jin Yong's martial arts novel, turned him into a television wuxia hero. In the 1980s he was one of TVB's "Five Tiger Generals", and in the 1990s one of the "Four Heavenly Kings" of Cantopop.

On film he appeared in Ann Hui's Boat People (1982), then landed his first lead in On the Wrong Track (1983), a Shaw Brothers action picture. He left TVB in the late 1980s after refusing a five-year exclusive contract and worked nonstop: As Tears Go By (1988), Wong Kar-wai's first feature, God of Gamblers (1989), A Moment of Romance (1990). In 1991 he set up his own company, Teamwork Motion Pictures, renamed Focus Group in 2002.

Swords, staffs and kung fu

Lau has no documented martial arts background before film; his biographies list none. He learned on set from Hong Kong's fight choreographers. In Moon Warriors (1992), directed by Sammo Hung, he plays Fei, a fisherman protecting a prince on the run. He led Lau Kar-leung's Drunken Master III (1994) and The Three Swordsmen (1994), two period martial arts films. Kung fu fans will see the gap with Jet Li or Donnie Yen: shorter takes, more doubles, but enough screen presence to carry the scene.

For A Fighter's Blues (2000), directed by Daniel Lee and his 100th film, he trained extensively in Muay Thai. He plays Mong Fu, a fighter released after thirteen years in prison who returns to Thailand and steps back into the ring against a young champion. The role earned him his first Best Actor award at the Golden Bauhinia Awards. A year earlier, Johnnie To's Running Out of Time (1999) had won him the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor, the first of three, alongside Running on Karma (2003), in which he plays a former monk turned bodybuilder, and A Simple Life (2011).

The big period epics

In the 2000s he became one of the faces of Chinese blockbusters. In Zhang Yimou's House of Flying Daggers (2004) he plays Leo, a captain of the imperial police, in a weapons film staged by Ching Siu-tung. In Peter Chan's The Warlords (2007) he shares top billing with Jet Li and Takeshi Kaneshiro as a bandit leader turned soldier. Daniel Lee cast him again in Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon (2008) as General Zhao Zilong, famous for his spear.

Tsui Hark gave him the title role of Di Renjie in Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010), with fights choreographed by Sammo Hung. In Benny Chan's Shaolin (2011) he plays Hou Jie, a warlord betrayed by his lieutenant who takes refuge in the temple and becomes a monk; Jackie Chan plays the cook Wudao. The film showcases Shaolin kung fu and the defence of the monastery in a long final battle.

Still working

Lau played Strategist Wang in Zhang Yimou's The Great Wall (2016), then a police bomb disposal officer in Herman Yau's Shock Wave (2017) and its 2020 sequel. He has won two Golden Horse awards for Best Leading Actor, one for Infernal Affairs III (2004). For fight film fans, his career reads through Moon Warriors, A Fighter's Blues, House of Flying Daggers, The Warlords and Shaolin: roles where the actor carries the fight more than he practises it.