Ji Chun Hua (Gai Chun Wa in Cantonese) was one of the many Wushu champions cast for Shaolin Temple Mainland China very first kung-fu movie starring Jet Li. With his looks Ji was naturally cast in the fierce lead henchman role which he played with great maniac gutso making his villain both menacing and oddly comical. Ji came back for similar villainous parts in Kids From Shaolin, Martial Arts of Shaolin as well as Yellow River Fighter. Unlike many of his wushu brethren, Ji continued his movie career in full during the nineties, playing in nearly a dozen movies always in his brutal henchmen roles. It’s worth noting that the bulk of these movies, if not all of them, were made-in-Mainland China Hong-Kong productions. Among the more notable titles there was Deadend Of Besiegers, White Lotus Cult and One Armed Boxer. Most notably though he became once more Jet Li’s nemesis on two movies (they had already clash in the eighties's Shaolin movies), Fong Sai Yuk II where for once he no longer played the brutal henchmen but the cunning head villain, as well as New Legend of Shaolin where he played his most outlandish bad guy yet the “Poison Juice Monster”
Ji went back to his more typical henchmen type role one last time in Tai Chi II before being gone from the movie screens for several years. He most likely continued his career on TV. He makes a bit of a comeback in 2002 for the Tsui Hark produce Era of Vampires where he plays his most atypical role; of a sword-wielding, zombie busting veteran exorcist master. In 2004 Ji was cast in the ambitious TV epic Seven Swords of Mount Heaven produces again by Tsui Hark but also by Cheung Yam Yim who has the director of both Shaolin Temple and Kids From Shaolin had being the first to used Ji back in the early eighties,
Yves Gendron (January 2005) |