Martial arts goddess Kara Hui
Kara Hui (Wai Ying-hung), Shaw Studios’ martial arts goddess during the 80s and the first-ever recipient of the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actress, is making a comeback with a new indie film called “At the End of Daybreak.” She talks to Johannes Pong.
I came from a really poor background. After school in Aberdeen, I’d go to Lockhart Road in Wan Chai and sell souvenirs to the American sailors there.
“Hawker girl” is a euphemism. In reality, I was a little beggar girl.
Those navy boys were barely in their 20s. They knew they might lose their lives in Vietnam, so they didn’t care about their cash, and were really good to us street kids. They’d buy us snacks and tell us stories.
Thirty years ago, “child labor” was everywhere. I became a dancer performing Chinese dances at the Miramar Nightclub when I was just 15. A talent scout came one night looking for new kung fu actresses for Shaw Studios.
I performed nightly for an audience of 1,000 tourists, so I got over stage fright pretty early. And I just went up to the director after casting. “Hey, please remember me!”
I didn’t come from a martial arts background, but as a dancer, I’d have to learn a whole dance in half an hour, so choreographed kung fu came pretty easily for me.
My mom refused to sign the actor’s contract with Shaw Studios for me though. She figured I made a pretty decent salary as a dancer. I was making around $800 a month. But I figured if I made it big as an actress, I’d earn way more than a dancer.
So I got my sister to sign the contract instead. The first year at Shaw Studios I made $6,000. The next year it was $30,000.
1970s Hong Kong was relatively poorer, but there were so many opportunities, and if you worked hard enough, there was a way out.
People had clearer goals. My goal at that time, like everyone else’s—escape poverty.
I understand why the young people nowadays have no clear goals. They can’t see a bright future.
If I were a young person now, I’d just go to a second-tier city on the mainland to make big bucks even though it would be really tough.
And then in two years time, you might be someone to be reckoned with.
It was a tough 20 years for me. But I got what I wanted. I was top of my game. I made so much money. But then my goals and values changed.
No matter how much money you make, you can’t do shit without health.
Then I turned 40, and everything changed. Suddenly all the scripts that came my way wanted me to play the mom, or a 40-year-old.
My reaction to everything was, “No way...” I couldn’t face reality. So I stopped everything for four years.
I lost all self-confidence. I would change clothes a hundred times before going out, then decide not to go out.
For two nights, I contemplated suicide. I called my mother and sister, saying, “I really don’t know if I’ll jump out the window or not.” Luckily, they came and stayed with me for those two nights.
My friend Maria Chung finally snapped me out of my funk. “Girlfriend, everyone loses their youth and beauty. And I’m a Miss Hong Kong!” I figured if a former beauty pageant winner got over it, so should I.
I was just being way too stubborn. I had lost all self-value, but I realized it was all my own doing.
You have to accept life, and change your point of view.
I can’t do kung fu movies anymore. I’d love to dropkick someone but my body just can’t take it anymore.
