Happy birthday to the great 元彪 Yuen Biao 👊
Yuen Biao is regarded as one of the most acrobatic martial artists ever. Unfortunately, he is still underrated and not as popular as other contemporaries such as Jackie Chan, Sammo Kam-Bo Hung, and Jet Li even though he is the most critically acclaimed out of all of them and the most talented as well.
In “The 18 Gold Darts” (1966), the first three boys in this image from the left became famous: Sammo Hung, Kong San Chan (better known as Jackie Chan) is the second from left, and the third from left is Yuen Biao. When they were actors and producers in Hong Kong, the three were known as Oldest Brother, Middle Brother, and Little Brother respectively.
Yuen Biao turns 65 today. He was a part of the same opera troop as Jackie Chan and excelled in acrobatics. After getting into the film industry he became known as one of the best acrobats in kung fu cinema. Long story short, if an actor couldn’t do something, Yuen Biao would get a call.
Here’s his fight scene from Dragons Forever (1988). In my opinion, this is one of the finest action sequences of all time. Pure genius.