All started with the request of Oral Presentation for my English class.
As I need to do something, I want to do it nice, at least it looks nice.
I asked Bro Tintin for advice, he recommended Lam Ching Ying（林正英）, and his "geung si"（僵尸）movies. It is really a very impressive idea for me to recover my memory in the past boyhood years.
I want to share something .
Before Lam past away in 1997, he received a interview from foreign media. They asked him several questions, I am interested to 2 of them.
Q1：Why have the HongKong people been fascinated with "geungsi", with vampires for somany years since the first film, now the TVseries. Why are they interested invampires and ghosts?
A：I think that HongKong people are quite superstitious and they arefascinated by vampires because they are curious, they want to know more.Especially Chinese people and thepeople from the South-East of Asia have blindfaith on this aspect. They wantto learn more. And it is mysterious, too. Theywant to explore it.
Q2：You worked closely with Bruce Lee as an actor and choreographer. Canyou recall the first time youmet him?
A：It was on the shooting of The Big Boss(唐山大兄). Bruce Lee was a very righteous person and very tough. Irememberone day a Thai boxer broke the arm of a stuntman. Bruce became very angry and furious. He went up to the boxer and asked him to fight with him. He ran up to him and asked: "Are you really strong to fight with me? You should control yourself and stop before making trouble. Can't you see we are in a process of shooting? How could you break his arm, have you no mercy?" Lee really persuaded to fight with this Thai Boxer.
Then comes to his brief profile,most of whose main points come from the Wikipedia.
The third of seven children, Lam was born in Hong Kong attended Shun Yi Association（信义会）Elementary School in Hong Kong for two years before leaving school. In 1963/4, he joined The Spring and Autumn Drama School（春秋戏剧学校）, the"other" Peking Opera School in Hong Kong, which was run by Madame FanFok-fa (FunGuk-fa，粉菊花), the"rival" of Yu Jim Yuen（于占元）where Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung（洪金宝）were trained at around the same time. Actually, in the schools there were friends and students from both schools, whom are often mingled. A year after joining, Lam made his first public appearance. Madame reported Lam as a disobedient studentwho was beyond her ability to handle.
At 17, Lam became a stuntman and martial arts coach at the Shaw Brothers Studio (邵氏). Due to his slender build, he was often called upon to substitute actresses. He received $HK60 a day, $HK20 of which went to his master.
At 19, he was hand-picked by Bruce Lee for the role as assistant action director on The Big Boss（唐山大兄）.After The Big Boss, Lam continued to work with Lee until Lee's death. Lam later joined Hung's stuntman association (known as the Hung Kar Pan，洪家班).
In 1982, Lam won the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Action Direction, in the film Prodigal Son（败家子）.
The film that really brought him out as a star was this Wing Chun（咏春）movie. Before that film he always played the support and then become a co-lead with Yuen Biao（元彪）, Sammo Hung Kam Bo（洪金宝）, Frankie Chan Fan Kei（陈勋奇）. And in this movie, he played the best Wing Chun in HK movie history.
However, his star did not rise until 1985, with the release of Mr. Vampire(僵尸先生), the movie that fueled the hopping vampire （僵尸）genre. Lam was nominated for Best Actor for his role as the taoist priest. The character was an engaging mixture of naivety and stoic authority, and became a favourite for audiences. Lam was to reprise this role many times throughout hiscareer.
These great successes eventually became burdensome on him. He found himself typecast in the role. As the"geungsi" genre began to lose its popularity, quality roles for himalso began to dry, aside from small roles in The Swordsman (笑傲江湖)(1991) and a supporting role in PomPom and Hot Hot（神枪手与咖喱鸡）,most of his roles were in low-budget movies.
On November 8, 1997, Lam died at St Theresa's Hospital in Hong Kong, due to his liver cancer, accompany with his girlfriend Kingdom Yuen(苑琼丹).
Lam's career was a typical representative for the HK movie industry in that period, from prosperity to depression.
As Bro Tintin expressed:
"影片背后，我喜爱的是道教。道教不同于道家，道教起源于张道陵，而道家起源于老子。此两者难言优劣，但于电影中表现，前者形象生动，夺人眼球，后者流于纸，浮于言，难为草根所接受。茅山一脉源于上清，但符箓丹药却是道家末流。然而电影正式如此，它不于高屋建瓴，而是贴地近民，笔走“赦令”，口曰“急急”，一招一式都让人不禁想去模仿！配合上当年香港世界级武术指导，终于让功夫和神话有了完美的结合，中国式的结合。
可惜事与愿违，97回归后的尝试终究还是没能找回香港电影的黄金岁月。随着香港经济的衰退，好的电影人越来越少，为了拉动市场，大量的国际级大制作涌上台前。现在很多国产电影，奖项拿了不少，口碑差了。洋人请了不少，传统玩意儿丢了。那一部部拿奖拿到手软的电影在我看来哭点模板，笑点呆陈，食之无味。所以，相较于漫天横飞的3D，IMAX，我还是喜欢坐在电脑前看200MB不到的“高清”港片。说我怀旧？不是，新电影我也喜欢，只不过，看起来不用心了。国产电影的出路就是应该给国人看的，国际化路线，别走得太快才好。
林正英由于肺癌，在97年便去世了，而由林氏电影让我怀念起港片黄金岁月，却依旧迷人。正如题目所言，鬼片绝对不可怕，可怕的是即便还有林正英这样的好演员，却也再难听到《僵尸先生》里的那首《鬼新娘》了。"
However, times goes forward and the future is mysterious with many new opportunities and risks. I am an optimistic guy.
I really wished HK movie couldget its renaissance, just like it was in the past. Unluckily, with the economicdepression, the enthusiasm of many movie makers was beaten by the realism frommarket taste. Some of them left this industry after 1997. Recent years, therewere various blockbusters from international producing, they could never bring me the feel that once HK movies gave to me. Do we really need 3D, IMAX, whatever, or rely on the new technology to attract audience? I like movies like Avatar with astonish and marvelous scenes and high techs in the movies always give you fresh feeling that makes you exciting. But these should not be amovie's core. We should ensure the essential of a movie. Nobody will like amovie that you can find out the ending of it at the beginning with a tediousstory but surprise. Nowadays, Chinese movie makers, from TW, HK, mainland, get together, are searching, trying, and moving! Personally, I am confident about the new times for Chinese movie industry.
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