Chen Kuan-tai explained

Chen Kuan-tai
Native Name:	陳觀泰
Native Name Lang:	zh
Other Names:	Chan Goon-Tai Chen Kwan-Tai Chan Koon-Tai Chan Kuan-Tai Chen Kung-Tai Chen Guan-Tay Chen Guan-Tai Chan Kun-Tai Ah Tai
Birth Date:	24 September 1945
Birth Place:	Guangdong, Republic of China

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| children = | awards = | module =

Child:	yes
T:	陳觀泰
S:	陈观泰
P:	Chén Guāntài

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Chen Kuan-tai (; born 24 September 1945) is a Hong Kong martial arts actor, director, and action choreographer. Chen rose to fame in the early 1970s for his movies with the Shaw Brothers Studio and is credited as being one of the film company's first professionally trained martial artists.^[1]

Early life

Chen was born in Guangdong, China. At age 9, he was accepted as a pupil of kung fu practitioner Chen Xiu Zhong, founder of the Tai Sing Pek Kwar Martial Arts Association which specializes in monkey style kung fu.^[2] While studying in Pui Kiu Middle School, he excelled in athletics, notably in javelin and soccer. After graduating, he worked as a stuntman and action director, his first project being Chor Yuen's 1970 film, Cold Blade.^[3] Chen attracted the attention of Cantonese filmmakers in 1969 after winning a light-weight division championship in Singapore's National Skills Competition.^[4] He eventually signed with the Shaw Brothers Studio in November of 1971. Unlike his contemporaries, Chen did not adopt a stage name.

Career

Chen had been cast in some two dozen films with Shaw Brothers playing tertiary roles, amongst them Jimmy Wang Yu's The Chinese Boxer (1970) and Chang Cheh's Vengeance (1970) before he was cast in the role of Ma Yung Chen by Chang in the latter's kung fu film, The Boxer from Shantung. The film was his first lead role. At the time, Chen had been working with Ng See-yuen on his independent film, The Bloody Fists (1972) and left mid-production to film Chang's movie. Released in 1972, The Boxer From Shantung was a commercial success, netting over HK $2 million in ticket sales and launched Chen into stardom overnight. By the mid-1970s, he had become one of Hong Kong's most famous kung fu stars and achieved several hits including The Teahouse (1974), Heroes Two (1974), Big Brother Cheng (1975), and The Flying Guillotine (1975). At the 20th Asia-Pacific Film Festival, Chen was awarded Most Popular Male Actor by the Taipei Press Association.^[5]

In 1976, the actor expanded his career into directing and in February that year, made his directional debut with the comedy film, The Simple-Minded Fellow. The film was a moderate success at the box office. In October, Chen continued directing and filming with independent film companies in Taiwan, resulting in the Shaw Brothers Studio filing and winning a temporary injunction against the actor that prohibited him from making movies with any other company other than Shaw Brothers. Chen was also ordered to pay HK $700,000 in subsidies. The dispute lasted for nearly two years resulting in him briefly leaving Shaw studio after completing Lau Kar-leung's Challenge of the Masters (1976) and Executioners from Shaolin (1977). Due to his legal dispute, the five films he made in Taiwan, including his second directional project Iron Monkey (1977), were withheld or frequently pulled from theaters. The case was eventually settled in 1978 and Chen would return to Shaw Brothers after signing a new four-year contract requiring him to make at maximum two films per year with the company. Upon his return, Chen starred in Chang Cheh's Crippled Avengers, a film credited as revitalizing the actor's career.^[6] He would remain with the Shaw Brothers until their closure in 1985. His 1980 film, Killer Constable, has been praised as one of the studio's best wuxia films.^{[7] [8]}

To date, Chen has starred in 164 films,^[9] around 80 of which were with Shaw Brothers. He has gone on to direct five more films including Return to Action (1990) while his starring roles often focused on action, crime and, occasionally, comedy. He remains active in the Hong Kong film industry.

Personal life

Chen was close friends with Chang Cheh and Ku Feng. He has cited Chang as his favorite director and credited Ku as helping him learn Mandarin.

Chen has been married four times. In 1976, he married fellow Shaw Brothers actress Cai Zhen-ni (stage name Ying Ying), with whom he has a daughter, Chen Yong-xi. Chen and Cai divorced in the following year. His second marriage was to Taiwanese actress and singer, Fong Yee-chun, with whom he has a son, Chen Jun-xiang. Chen and Fong later divorced. In 1990, he married Zhao Ting-ting in Australia, but the couple divorced a few years later. Chen married his fourth wife Tang Liping in 2017.

He owns a restaurant called Jimmy's Kitchen in Kolkata, India.^[10]

In 2012, Chen was expelled from the Tai Sing Pek Kwar Martial Arts Association due to a dispute with his mentor, Chen Xiu Zhong.^[11]

Filmography

width=5%	Year	width=25%	Title	width=25%	Role	width=25%	Notes
1969	Two Sisters Who Steal	Thug
	Redress	Robber with coloured face
	Have Sword, Will Travel	Guard
1970	Modern School Life	Peter
	Wong Fei-Hung: Bravely Crushing the Fire Formation
	The Secret of the Dirk	Black Tiger Clan member
	Cold Blade		Producer, action director
	Vengeance
	The Chinese Boxer	Casino guard (uncredited)
1971	Betrayer	Hung Tien-piao
	The Duel	Liu Shou Yi's guard
	Maria	Gang member
	Story of Thirty-Six Killers	Jiao Meng
	The Comet Strikes	Waiter
	The Chase		Action director
	The Deadly Duo
	Bus stop		Action director
	The Invincible Iron Palm		Action director
1972	Huo Tang De Ai Ren
	Many Faces of a Diamond
	The Boxer from Shantung	Ma Yung Chen
	The Hurricane
	Impetuous Fire	Shi Di-Fen
	The Water Margin	Tattooed Dragon Shih Chien
	The Bloody Fight	Sun Ta-kuei
	The Bloody Fists	Japanese long-haired boss
	Young People	Ho Tai
	Man of Iron	Chou Lien Huan
	Four Riders	Li Wei-shi
1973	Blood Brothers	Huang Chung
	The House of 72 Tenants	Police constable
	Thunderbolt		Action director
	Iron Bodyguard	Wang Yu
	The Savage 5	Ma Dao
	All Men Are Brothers	Shi Jin
	The Bloody Escape	Bandit Gu Hui
1974	The Teahouse	Wang 'Big Brother' Cheng
	Heroes Two	Hung Hsi-kuan
	The Savage Five	Ma Tao
	Men from the Monastery	Hung Hsi-kuan
	Hong Kong 73	Ambulance driver
	Five Tough Guys	Wu Wen-Yuan
	The Two Faces of Love
	The Crazy Instructor		Producer
1975	The Floating Clouds	Lo Chin-Ying
	Big Brother Cheng	Hung 'Big Brother' Cheng
	The Flying Guillotine	Ma Teng
	Temperament of Life
	All Men Are Brothers	'Tattooed Dragon' Shih Chen
	Lover's Destiny
	The Imposter	Captain Lo Gin Yin
	The Big Holdup	Ma Rulong
	The Spiritual Boxer	Boxer #2
1976	Big Bad Sis	Big Brother Cheng
	7-Man Army	Chiang Ming-kun
	Challenge of the Masters	Luk Ah Choy
	King Gambler	Peng Tien-shih
	The Simple-Minded Fellow		Director
1977	Executioners from Shaolin	Hung Hsi Kuan
	Hero of Shanghai
	Iron Monkey	Iron Monkey	Director
	Layout	Hsieh Hsiao-Lin
	The Hero Tattoo with Nine Dragons		Producer
	Go a Little Crazy		Producer
1978	Crippled Avengers	Dao Tian-du
	Duel at the Tiger Village	Cool Head
	Invincible Monkey Fist		Director, action director
1979	Big Boss of Shanghai	Wong Chun Yung	Director
	Iron Fists	Chiu Tien-Hsing
	Invincible Enforcer	Min
1980	The Master	Jin Tien-yun
	Rendezvous with Death	Golden Staff Ku Fei Tien
	Killer Constable	Leng Tian-Ying
1981	Bloody Monkey Master	Iron Monkey
	Red Rattlesnake
	Challenge of the Gamesters
	Notorious Eight
	The Battle for the Republic of China	Huang Ming-Hsuan
	Dangerous Person	Inspector Chan	Director
	Notorious Eight	Zhou Shiqiang
	Ambitious Kung Fu Girl	Qin Ge
	Deadly Duo
1982	Don't Love Any Stranger
	Blood Brothers
	Human Lanterns	Tan Fu
	Raiders
	The Tycoon
	New Pilgrims to the West
	Rolls, Rolls, I Love You	Mr. Cui Tung-Sing
	Gang Master	Mang Yi-Tu
	Little Flying Dragon
	Winner Takes All	Miyamoto
	Dirty Trick
	Who Is the Killer?		Director
	Seven Knights
	Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils
1983	Little Dragon Maiden
	Deadly Life of a Ninja	Chow Han-wei
	The Black Magic with Buddha	Chin Ben
	Mission Thunderbolt
	The Lost Generation	Paul
	The Challenge of the Lady Ninja	Lee Tong
1984	Opium and the Kung-Fu Master	Rong Feng
	Shanghai 13	Shen Gang Fu
	Return of the Bastard Swordsman	Mochitsuki Soryu Han
	Butcher
	The 3 Heroes
	Death Ring
	Majestic Thunderbolt
	Chak Sing
	I Will Finally Knock You Down, Dad!
1985	How to Choose a Royal Bride	Tian Di Hui chief
	The Dancing Warrior	Rich man
1986	Tai-Pan	Wung	Cameo role; First appearance in an English-speaking movie; credited as Chan Koon Tai
1987	Fortune Hunters	Leopard
1988	Human Sentiment Law
	Long Fa Tang
	The Rebellious Husband
1989	Just Heroes
	The Sniping
	Angel's Mission
1990	Return to Action	Chen Yun Chan	Director, producer
	The Fortune Code	Triad boss gambler
	Sleazy Dizzy	Chen Yuan Long
	Forsaken Cop		Producer
	Blood Stained Tradewind		Producer
1991	Tri in Triad
	All Mighty Gambler	Tai
	The Tigers	Hon-Wai
	Today's Hero	Triad boss
1992	Heroin Tunnel
	The Trouble Couple
	Gambling Soul	Policeman
	Ghost Killer
	The World of Desire	Uncle Won
1993	Bogus Cops	Officer Wu
	Angel of the Road
	Shadow Cop
1996	How to Meet the Lucky Stars	Liu Tin
2001	The Final Winner	Brother Cheng
2002	The Era of Vampires	Zombie wrangler
2004	Hero Youngster	Wei Bai-Hao
	Fearful 24 Hours	Shih Jin Jiang
2005	Where Is Mama's Boy?	Mad Cow
2006	Dragon Tiger Gate	Ma Kun
	My Wife Can Fight
2007	The Valiant Ones New
2008	Kung Fu Hip-Hop	Second uncle
2009	Murderer	Tai
2010	14 Blades	Fazheng
	Gallants	Dragon
2011	White Vengeance	Qiu Ran
2012	No Retreat
	The Man with the Iron Fists	Golden Lion^[12]
2013	Conspirators
	7 Assassins
	Glory Days	Brother Tai
	The Real Iron Monkey	Iron Monkey
2014	Once Upon a Time in Shanghai	Baldy Bai
2015	The Master	Dojo head
	The Choice: A Story of the Old Shanghai
2016	Cherry Returns
	Xin Gui Da Gui
	Muay Thai Girls
	Shed Skin Papa	Brother Tai
2017	The Hidden Sword	Master Kong
	Dealer/Healer
	An Idiot Lost in Xiangxi
2018	Burning Summer
	Keyboard Warriors
	Iceman: The Time Traveler	Eunuch Wei
2019	Real You, Fake Me
2022	Legendary in Action!	Master Dragon

Television

width=5%	Year	width=25%	Title	width=25%	Role	width=25%	Notes
1980	Blowing in the Wind	Shi Jiawei
	Dai dey yan ching	Lee Dai-sek
1983	Never Bow Down	Zeng Zhanpeng
	Never Bow Down sequel	Zeng Zhanpeng
	Super Hero	Lei Huaiwu
1984	Looking back suddenly
1986	The Romance of the White Hair Maiden	Ngok Ming-or
	A generation of heroes	Tan Si	director
1987	Pretty girl good luck
1990	Pioneer of Integrity (Third Series)	Zhu Taixing
1991	Sai Jinhua	Lu Yufang
2000	The Duke of Mount Deer	Hong Antong
	Mi Xia
2002	The Legendary Siblings 2	Ye Tianzhao
2004	Yixinren
2005	dangerous person	Liu Youxing	Episode 9 "Betting on Life"
2008	JingWuChenZhen	Ichiro Watanabe
2010	Who's the Hero	Fu Xiaobo
	Detective Tanglang	Sheng Ting Fan
2013	Bloody Island	Hiroshi Fujiwara
2017	Psycho Detective	Deputy Director Chen
2019	fantasy adventure king	He Baiqin

Notes and References

1. Celestial Pictures DVD release of Five Tough Guys
2. Web site: 斷50年師徒情 大聖劈掛門獎門數臭陳觀泰 . Eastweek.
3. Web site: Interview with big brother Chen Kuan Tai . Hong Kong Cinemagic.
4. Web site: The Flying Guillotines: History of the Shaw Brothers Trendsetter, Its Sequel and Imitators Part 2 . Cool Ass Cinema.
5. Web site: The Flying Guillotines: History of the Shaw Brothers Trendsetter, its sequel and Imitators Part 1 . Cool Ass Cinema.
6. Web site: Film Review: Killer Constable (1980) by Kuei Chih Hung . Asian Movie Pulse.
7. Web site: Killer Constable . Dundee Contemporary Arts.
8. Book: Teo, Stephen . Chinese Martial Arts Cinema: The Wuxia Tradition . 2015 . 9781474400091.
9. Web site: Chen Kuan-Tai . Hong Kong Movie DataBase.
10. Web site: 屢敗屢結 女友年輕30載陳觀泰73歲又再婚. Apple Daily 蘋果日報. 2018-12-28.
11. Web site: 陳觀泰遭師傅逐出門 .
12. Web site: Yamato . Jen . UFC Fighter Cung Le Talks RZA's 'Iron Fists,' Bruce Lee, And Facing Off Against Rich Franklin . Movieline . October 31, 2012 . November 1, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20121110093138/http://movieline.com/2012/10/31/ufc-cung-le-man-with-the-iron-fists-rich-franklin/2/ . November 10, 2012 . live .