One worked with Bruce Lee, the other with Michelle Yeoh: Hong Kong action film stars Nora Miao and Cynthia Rothrock
- American fighter Cynthia Rothrock was an instant hit in Hong Kong when Yes, Madam! was released in 1985. The film catapulted co-star Michelle Yeoh to fame
- Nora Miao was already a big star before she appeared with Bruce Lee in The Big Boss, Fist of Fury and The Way of the Dragon – and was a friend of the Lee family
Hong Kong films have a legacy of action heroines that far outmatches those made in other countries.
Two of the female stars who gained a lot prominence were Cynthia Rothrock, an American fighter who made it big in Hong Kong in the 1980s, and Nora Miao Ke-hsiu, an accomplished martial arts actress with links to Bruce Lee.
Cynthia Rothrock
Rothrock grew up in Pennsylvania in the United States, and had become interested in martial arts at the age of 13 when the parents of a friend started running tang soo do classes. Tang soo do is a Korean martial art that has its roots in karate, and developed into the more well-known taekwondo.
She excelled at martial arts and was a five-time world champion in non-combat martial arts forms and weapons before moving into film. Today, she holds black belts in seven martial arts styles.
Rothrock was spotted by Hong Kong director Corey Yuen Kwai while giving an exhibition in California – Yuen was looking for a male martial artist to develop into a Bruce Lee-style star, but was impressed by Rothrock’s skills.
“I did some self-defence moves, I did some free sparring and I did some weapons – I hooked my twin swords together and started swinging them at the ceiling and all this plaster came down. After the audition, [Corey Yuen] decided to pick me,” she says on her YouTube site.