Lau Kar-leung

In many of his best-known films, Lau was credited as Liu Chia-liang, the Wade–Giles spelling of his Mandarin name. He was part of a lineage of Hung Ga practitioners originating from Wong Fei-hung.

Lau was born in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province in 1934. He had a younger brother, Kar-wing, also a prominent martial arts actor and filmmaker. Lau began learning kung fu when he was nine years old, under strict tutelage from his father, Lau Cham. The elder Lau was a well-known practitioner of the Wong Fei-hung lineage of Hung Ga, as a disciple of Wong's pupil Lam Sai-wing. He was the headmaster of the Hua Chiang Martial Arts Society in Guangzhou, where he lived with his family until 1948, when they moved to British Hong Kong. Lau became adept in various styles of Southern Chinese martial arts, training rigorously with his father until the age of 28.

Before becoming famous, Lau worked as an extra and choreographer on black and white Wong Fei-hung movies. He teamed up with fellow Wong Fei-hung choreographer Tong Gaai on the 1963 Hu Peng-directed wuxia film South Dragon, North Phoenix. Their collaboration would continue on until the mid-1970s. His first appearance in a film was in Brave Lad of Guangong (1950). In the 1960s he became one of Shaw Brothers' main choreographers and had a strong working relationship with director Chang Cheh, working on many of Chang's films as a choreographer (often alongside Tong Gaai) including The One-Armed Swordsman, as well as other Shaw Brothers wuxia films, such as The Jade Bow. After a split with Chang on the set of Marco Polo, Lau evolved into a director during the sudden boom of martial arts films in the early 1970s. He occasionally did choreography work for non-Shaw films as well, such as Master of the Flying Guillotine. After Shaw Brothers stopped producing movies in 1986, Lau continued directing and choreographing films independently, despite numerous obstacles, among them the fact that Shaw Brothers considered his contract with them still valid despite the fact that they were no longer making movies. This led to a rumored four-film deal with Jackie Chan being canceled when Shaw approached Chan and warned him that Lau was still under contract to them. Additionally, because his last film for Shaw Brothers, Martial Arts of Shaolin (1986), had been filmed in Mainland China, Lau was not allowed to work in Taiwan and no Taiwanese distributors would handle his films. Lau approached Cinema City who agreed to settle his issues with Taiwan if he directed three films for them, Tiger on the Beat (1988), Aces Go Places 5: The Terracotta Hit (1989), and Tiger on the Beat 2 (1990). The box office successes of these three films reinvigorated his career. In March 1993, Lau began directing Jackie Chan in Drunken Master II, however, the film's star Jackie Chan and director Lau clashed over the style of fighting, resulting in Lau leaving the set before the shooting of the final fight scene, which was then taken over by Chan. Lau subsequently directed Drunken Master III and Drunken Monkey without Chan. His final credit was when he performed acting and choreography work for Tsui Hark's 2005 film Seven Swords.

Throughout his career, Lau only wrote four screenplays, but they were all for films that he himself directed. Those screenplays/films are My Young Auntie (1981), Legendary Weapons of China (1982), Lady Is the Boss (1983) and Eight-Diagram Pole Fighter (1983). All of the films also starred or featured Gordon Liu in some role or capacity.

Lau's most frequent collaborator is likely his "god brother" Gordon Liu Chia Hui, and he worked with Liu on a number of films, directing him as a star in the now classic The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978), as well as directing Liu as either a star or cast member in Dirty Ho (1979), Eight-Diagram Pole Fighter (1983), Executioners from Shaolin (1977), Return to the 36th Chamber (1980), Heroes of the East (1978), Legendary Weapons of China (1982), Disciples of the 36th Chamber (1985), Tiger on Beat (1988), Tiger on the Beat 2 (1990), Shaolin Warrior (1980), The Spiritual Boxer Part II (1979), Cat vs Rat (1982), Lady Is the Boss (1983), My Young Auntie (1981), Challenge of the Masters (1976), Shaolin Mantis (1978), Martial Club (1981), and Drunken Monkey (2003). They also appeared together as themselves in the Italian documentary "Dragonland" (2009, directed by Lorenzo De Luca).

Lau's nephew Lau Kar-yung (son of his older sister) is also an actor, choreographer and director. Another nephew, Lau Wing-kin (Lau Kar-wing's son) is also an actor, and assisted Lau Kar-leung with action directing on Seven Swords. As his acting career went smoothly, his family began to worry about his marriage. On seeing that Liu had reached the marriageable age and there was no suitable woman around him, they introduced him to a woman named Ho Sau-ha (何秀霞). Though Lau only had interest in his acting career, he proceeded with the marriage; they had four daughters and one son. In 1978, Lau first met the then 14-year-old Mary Jean Reimer, who was 30 years his junior and a fan of his. Lau helped Reimer in establishing her acting career. After divorcing his first wife and leaving the family, Lau married Reimer in 1984 and they had two daughters, Jeanne and Rosemary Lau.

Lau died on 25 June 2013 at Union Hospital, Hong Kong. He had been battling leukemia for two decades.

1975 The Spiritual Boxer - Director 1976 Challenge of the Masters - Director 1977 Executioners From Shaolin - Director 1978 36th Chamber of Shaolin - Director 1978 Deadly Strike / Breakout from Oppression - Director 1978 Shaolin Mantis - Director 1978 Heroes of the East - Director 1979 The Spiritual Boxer Part II - Director 1979 Dirty Ho - Director 1979 Mad Monkey Kung Fu - Director 1980 My Young Auntie - Director 1980 Return to the 36th Chamber - Director 1981 Martial Club - Director 1982 Legendary Weapons of China - Director, writer 1982 Cat vs Rat - Director 1983 Lady Is the Boss - Director 1984 The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter - Director, writer 1985 Disciples of the 36th Chamber - Director, writer 1986 Martial Arts of Shaolin - Director 1988 Tiger on the Beat - Director 1989 Aces Go Places 5: The Terracotta Hit - Director 1990 Tiger on the Beat 2 - Director 1994 Drunken Master II - Director 1994 Drunken Master III - Director 2002 Drunken Monkey - Director