How martial arts actors David Chiang and Ti Lung stepped into Jimmy Wang Yu’s shoes at Shaw Brothers - interviews from the archive
- Chiang was a former child actor with an athletic and slim build, who developed into playing cheeky and charming characters
- A sturdy, muscular actor, Ti Lung exuded strength and solidity, and had the perfect appearance for heroic roles
David Chiang Da-wai, a former child actor, and Ti Lung, who had come to Shaw Brothers after answering a newspaper advertisement for an open audition, went on to form a brotherly duo which would dominate the martial arts scene for the next few years. Hits like Vengeance! and The Heroic Ones, both released in 1970, turned the two men into big stars, with the cheeky and charming Chiang attaining superstar status.
Although they both played heroic roles, the two were very different. Ti Lung was a sturdy, muscular actor who expressed strength and solidity, and possessed the perfect demeanour for chivalric roles. By contrast, Chiang had an athletic and slim figure, and brought an equivocal streak to his performances.
“Men in old Chinese films were book-reading types. The swordplay films gave us the classical hero types – tall, well-built, with a square torso. David was nothing like that. There’s an attractive sense of evil about him.”