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Update | Kung fu actresses Lily Li and Shih Szu, rising stars in the era of the legendary Cheng Pei-pei – their best films celebrated

  • A veteran of more than 100 movies, Lily Li’s performance in The Wandering Swordsman made her a star. Precise and controlled kung fu was her forte
  • Li's death from cancer at the age of 74 on October 27, 2024, was reported by Malaysian website Hybe, citing a social media post

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Lily Li and Chen Kuan-tai in a still from Executioners from Shaolin (1977). Li and Shih Szu were major female stars in Hong Kong martial arts films of the 1970s.
Martial arts actresses like Cheng Pei-pei and Angela Mao Ying have become legends. But they weren’t the only great female martial arts film stars of the 1970s. We recall two of the other great actresses of the era.

Lily Li Li-li

Shaw Brothers star Lily Li Li-li had a long and venerable career – she only gave up acting in 2020, when she decided not to renew her contract with TVB because she felt that it was time to retire. Li was a constant presence in the Shaw Brothers films of the 1970s, playing martial arts roles, and also female lead and supporting roles in which she was not called upon to fight.

A veteran of some 106 movies, she was best known for her appearances opposite David Chiang Da-wei in Chang Cheh’s The Wandering Swordsman , the 1970 film which made her a star and established her as an action heroine, and in Lau Kar-leung’s classic 1977 Executioners from Shaolin , in which she had a key role as Fung Yung-chan, the wife of legendary martial artist Hong Xiguan.

“Her appearance in Executioners from Shaolin bore witness to a depth and sensitivity rare among actresses in Hong Kong cinema,” wrote a local critic in 1980. Li also played many notable supporting roles.

Hong Kong-born Li joined the Acting Training Course at Shaw Brothers at the age of 14, and signed a contract with the company in 1965. Her first important role was in Yue Feng’s The Dragon Creek (1967), a drama with some action which starred Cheng Pei-pei.

After her starring role in The Wandering Swordsman in 1970, Li mainly appeared in martial arts films, although she was not always called on to demonstrate her impressive fighting skills in movies like Challenge of the Masters.

 

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