The prolific Lau Kar-leung, also known as Liu Chia-liang, who died in 2013, was a major contributor to Hong Kong filmmaking for 60 years, working as a martial arts choreographer, actor, and director. Lau choreographed 176 films, appeared in 215 films, and directed 25 of his own, including the classic The 36th Chamber of Shaolin . He choreographed, with long-time colleague Tong Kai, most of Chang Cheh’s earlier films, and directed the first kung fu comedy, 1975’s The Spiritual Boxer . Challenge of the Masters , Lau’s second film as director, along with his follow-up Executioners from Shaolin , set out the framework for his approach to martial arts filmmaking. “My only aim in making a film is to exalt the martial arts,” Lau said in an interview, and his goal was always to present the different styles of kung fu as accurately as possible. Lau, who was born in 1937, had an impressive martial arts lineage. He learned kung fu from his father, Lau Cham, a well-known martial artist who ran the Hua Chiang Martial Arts Society in Guangzhou in the 1930s, before moving to Hong Kong in 1948. Lau Cham had studied under Lam Sai-wing, a student of the legendary Wong Fei-hung. According to Roger Garcia, whose 1980 essay The Autarkic World of Liu Chia-Liang is still the definitive work on the director, Lau studied martial arts between the ages of nine and 28, initially because of a need “as a fairly weak child, for self-protection from bullying”. He became an expert in the southern styles of kung fu, notably hung ga . At the school, Lau also learned about the heroes and legends of the martial arts world from the masters and older pupils, and he would use this knowledge later as a foundation for his films, which usually featured real characters such as Hong Xiguan, the originator of the hung ga style of kung fu. Hong Kong martial arts cinema: everything you need to know Lau was introduced to filmmaking by his father, who performed in a long-running series of films with Wong Fei-hung as their central character, which starred Kwan Tak-hing. Lau appeared alongside his father in some of the Wong Fei-hung films, starting with Wong Fei-hung’s Rival for the Fireworks in 1955. Kwan Tak-hing, in his role as Wong Fei-hung, said that martial artists should adhere to a rigorous moral code, and that idea featured heavily in Lau’s own work as a director. The approach contrasted with the violent and angry personalities of Chang Cheh’s New Wave heroes, who were the predominant type in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Challenge of the Masters is a blueprint for Lau’s work as director. The film loosely follows the real history of the young Wong Fei-hung but, as with much of Lau’s work, recasts it as part of an original storyline while keeping the personality of the hero intact. In the film, the young Wong Fei-hung, played by Gordon Liu Chia-hui, is forbidden to learn kung fu by his father, Wong Kei-ying, who runs a well-known martial arts school. Bullied by other youths who like to humiliate him because of his lack of martial skills, Wong asks his father’s revered master Lu A-cai (Chen Kuan-tai) to teach him instead. The plot hinges around a competition between two rival schools to win a martial arts prize at a yearly firecracker festival. The suspicious looking Ho Fu (played by director Lau himself), who has mastered the illegal Death Kick strike, arrives in town and is hired by the one of the schools to teach its students some new techniques to ensure they win the competition. But Ho Fu is wanted for a crime, and a visiting police inspector, a friend of the Wong family, is sent to arrest him. When Ho Fu kills the inspector, Wong Fei-hung vows to use the martial skills he is acquiring to avenge his friend. Lau sets out his concerns clearly in the film. Martial arts must be shown as accurately as possible, and long training sequences featuring Wong and Lu A-cai – one of which features the “Shaolin wooden man” machine – present the physical techniques of hung ga kung fu. As became typical for Lau’s films, an abstract opening sequence features an exhibition-style fight to show hung ga in a relatively pure form. The need for a martial artist to be ethical, an idea that underlay the Wong Fei-hung film series, is also telegraphed. During his training, Lu A-cai tells Wong that martial arts must not be used in anger or for revenge, and a martial artist should act with honour and a sense of justice. As a result, instead of killing the criminal Ho Fu, Wong hands him over to the police. Wong even turns the other cheek at the martial arts competition by refraining from striking a knockout blow. Instead, he uses the event as an opportunity to promote the ideals of brotherhood and camaraderie. The martial arts in the film are realistic, although Lau’s long experience of martial arts choreography meant he knew that fighting styles had to be adapted to make them look effective on the big screen. The low kicks that would be effective in a real fight do not look good on screen, he says, which is why martial artists kick higher in films. “There are four kinds of kung fu,” Lau said in an interview. “The first one is the one you use to fight, free fighting, kicking the sandbags, running, not much to learn. The second is for strengthening your body – tai chi, which strengthens your chi . The third kind is for exhibition – showing off, so even people sitting far away can see it. The fourth kind is my kind – I learned it to fight in movies!” The film relates to Lau’s own life, Garcia notes. “ Challenge of the Masters is very much a reverential tribute to figures who are important to Lau’s own formation,” he writes. In this regular feature series on the best of Hong Kong martial arts 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 genre. Read our comprehensive explainer here . Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook