WONG IS RIGHT: How reports of Melvin’s death have been exaggerated.
How often do you get to look into the eyes of a dead man? A couple of years back, there was buzz on the internet (where else?) saying that Hong Kong character actor Melvin Wong had passed away. And yet somehow I just got back from coffee with the charming villain of ‘Righting Wrongs’. This Yuen Biao starrer is coming soon from Dragon Dynasty, and its bad guy hasn’t gone anywhere. I raised the rumour with Melvin, and suggested that it was someone else with the same name. ‘That’s right,’ he quipped, ‘I’m wiping them out one by one, until only I remain…’
Wong is one of those wonderful Hong Kong multi-hyphenates. He’s been variously an actor, producer, pharmacist, club owner and barrister. He’s also, according to his IMDB listing, 69-years-old, in which case I’ll have what he’s been having. Though he didn’t pay me to say it, he could still shoot pick up shots for Righting Wrongs, which was filmed 21 years ago. I first met Melvin in the late 80s, when we were both training at Eddie Maher’s gym in Energy Plaza. That was the place to go if you wanted to run into Hong Kong movie stars, and I did. I’d already seen Righting Wrongs (AKA Above The Law) and remember discussing it with him then. Decades later, by curious happenstance, I ended up firing questions at the same urbane actor about the same film. It happened like this: I was sitting down to do my notes for the Righting Wrongs commentary, a lovely lady lawyer friend at my side, and, the moment Melvin came on screen, she goes, nonchalantly, ‘I know him. He’s in the same chambers as me. His office is just upstairs.’ Having watched the movie Melvin wreak several kinds of havoc on the cast (James Tien, Lau Siu-ming, Corey Yuen and Yuen Biao), she called the man himself. ‘I’ll never look at you the same away again!’
A San Francisco native, Melvin earns a doctorate in Pharmacy, and is currently an advisor to the Hong Kong Pharma-whatever-the-adjective-is College. Like all good pharmacists, he was simultaneously learning White Crane kung fu. His teacher is the famed sifu Quentin Fong. Melvin also studied a plethora of other martial arts, including the manly art of Hung Kuen (which is what I study, naturally), Praying Mantis kung fu and Wing Chun. The latter was put to good use when he was enlisted to replace real life Wing Chun master William Cheung on the film ‘Descendant Of Wing Chun’. (Clips from that film turn up in Bulletproof Monk, when Sean William Scott copies the moves from a kung fu movie.) As if that wasn’t enough, he trained in Taekwondo under Wang Jang Lee, the thunder kicking bad guy from Jackie Chan’s Snake In The Eagle’s Shadow and Drunken Master. ‘I saw him a couple of weeks back,’ he mentioned. ‘He lives in Cheju Island now.’ (I make a note for when we need a Wang Jang Lee interview…)
Despite his martial arts background, Melvin has seldom fought in his films. He’s best-known for playing police officers, though he made a memorable villain in Po-chih Leong’s romantic thriller ‘Fatal Love’. In the 80s, Melvin worked as a producer at D and B, the company formed by Dickson Poon (ex-husband of Michelle Yeoh) and Sammo Hung. (He made Sammo’s version of ‘Randall And Hopkirk, Deceased’, ‘Where’s Officer Tuba?’). He also owned a share in Hollywood East, a nightclub where the great and not so great used to spend their evenings. (I was in the latter category).
Given his perfect English and evident acting chops, I’m surprised he didn’t do more international films. He was in an episode of the lame British TV series Yellowthread Street. (I was supposed to work on the second season, doubling Bruce Payne, but there never was one. Story of my life…) He also appeared in a film directed by ‘Alan Smithee’, the pseudonym used by Hollywood directors (in this case Stuart Rosenberg). Shot partly in New Zealand (as was Righting Wrongs), ‘Lets Get Harry’ starred Gary Busey and Robert Duvall.
In the 90s, obviously feeling himself to be an under-achiever, Melvin went to law school in London, and was called to the bar in 1997. This didn’t mean it was his round. ‘Barristers’ are those lawyers that get to wear the wig and gown in court. Despite the Hong Kong Handover, this aspect of the British legal system remains.
But enough about the generally uneventful life of Melvin Wong. What does he remember about Righting Wrongs? Actually it’s all on my commentary for our DVD release. What cult movie icon bulked him up in record time? Which action star-turned-director doubled him? Who actually directed the final reel duel between Melvin and Yuen Biao? It’s all on there, folks, and my thanks to Melvin for giving me some insights into the Righting Wrongs experience. “To this day, people recognize me from that film,” he observes. “Black guys in America, especially. One time, I was getting hassled by customs, and the officer next to him goes ‘Its okay. He’s the guy from Righting Wrongs…’”. And so he is.
Comments
- Brian, Toronto | 2007-03-17 18:30:00
- Jeff Wildman, Canada | 2007-03-18 10:17:35
- ctown, san francisco | 2007-03-19 02:08:42
- Lee Rawlings, Epping UK | 2007-03-19 13:32:00
- Lee G. (http://www.myspace.com/the_8th_sword), South Ozone Park, New York | 2007-03-20 19:31:45
- Andrew Gorham, Kalamazoo, Mi | 2007-03-24 13:09:12
- I. Sanchez, Fort Lauderdale,FL | 2007-03-25 09:28:18
- Jeff, HKCuk.co.uk | 2007-03-29 06:44:48
- Gary, Toronto | 2007-04-12 09:13:58
- Andrew Gorham, Kalamazoo, Michigan | 2007-04-12 14:30:20
- Philip Kenny, Hong Kong | 2007-06-02 20:31:09
- Rikard, Norway | 2007-03-17 01:43:09