How CBS’ Martial Law brought martial arts star Sammo Hung out of acting retirement and into Hollywood

Sammo Hung Kam-bo became one of the most well-known Hong Kong performers in the US in the late ’90s thanks to the success of martial arts show Martial Law

One of the main factors behind the CBS show’s success was the quality of the fight scenes, choreographed by teams specially brought over from Hong Kong

Reading Time:4 minutes

Sammo Hung Kam-bo starred in Martial Law, a martial arts show created in the US but choreographed by Hong Kong teams. Photo: CBS

Published: 5:15am, 18 Apr 2021Updated: 5:15am, 18 Apr 2021

Sammo Hung Kam-bo, like many Hong Kong stars and filmmakers in the late 1990s, wanted a career in Hollywood. He moved to Los Angeles looking for directing work, and had not considered acting in the United States because he could not speak English fluently.

Hung, though, became one of the most well-known Hong Kong performers in the US thanks to the success of Martial Law – a CBS television martial arts show in which he played a Shanghai detective on loan to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).

The series ran for two seasons and 44 episodes between 1998 and 2000, and averaged between 10 and 11 million viewers in a popular 9pm Saturday slot. Hung’s character, Sammo Law, was so popular he made a guest appearance in two other CBS shows, Early Edition and Walker, Texas Ranger (where Hung co-starred with American martial artist Chuck Norris). Even today, Martial Law still has fans.

One of the main reasons for the show’s success was the quality of the martial arts scenes. Unusually for a US television series, they were wholly choreographed by two teams specially brought over from Hong Kong by Martial Law’s executive producer, Stanley Tong Kwai-lai, who at the time was best known for directing Jackie Chan in Police Story III: Supercop.

Even more unusual, according to the show’s co-creator Carlton Cuse, was the fact that the fight scenes were put together by a Hong Kong editor skilled in cutting together martial arts performances.