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KING OF BEGGARS (1993) Stephen Chiau Sing-Chi plays So Chan, the son of a Qing dynasty General of Guanzhou (Ng Man Tat, his frequent comedic partner). They lead a life of leisure smoking pipes and visiting brothels until one day Chan meets Yu-shang (Sharla Cheung Man) and falls in love with her. She is a member of the Beggars Association and is posing as a prostitute so she can kill the man who killed her father, who was the King of Beggars. She tells Chan he has to be the best at kungfu before she'll marry him and he takes this to mean he has to become the Kungfu Scholar (Mo Chong Yuen), which is a problem as it includes a written test and he cannot even write his own name. His rich and influential father attempts to grease the wheels, moving his whole household to the capital in order to help his son win the exalted title of Kungfu Scholar. One thing leads to another and Chan and his father end up beggars themselves, with he and his father almost freezing to death on the streets of Beijing. Who should they bump into at the height of their misery but Yu-Shang, who invites them to join the Beggars Association. Chan feels a total failure and gets very depressed and gothic at this point, refusing to get out of bed, but luckily his ghostly beggar sifu visits his dreams to teach him sleeping style (actually a real shaolin lohan position). His new found skills come in handy when Yu-Sheng is captured by a traitorous general who plans to use her in a plot to assassinate the Emperor and Chan is finally roused to action and takes his rightful place as the King of Beggars. The gorgeous period costumes, panoramic settings (including scenes shot at the Great Wall and the Forbidden City) and lush production values make this a must see on the big screen. It was the number one New Year box-office hit in Hong Kong in 1993, and is loosely based on the legend of Chinese folk hero Beggar So, the founder of Drunken Fist boxing. There are also people who claim that in this film he is deconstructing Jackie Chan, continuing his postmodern assault on kungfu stars. While there is a heavy element of genre parody in this film and others it is clear that Chiau himself has a great love for his own native cinema and respect for Chan who he refers to as his Big Brother. Kungfu fans will enjoy seeing him perform an unusual amount of martial arts action, liberally dosed with plenty of physical comedy, of course. He began training in Wing Chun as a child, studying with Yip Man, Bruce Lees' sifu ( being himself a great fan of the Little Dragon). Many people wish he would concentrate more on Kung Fu films, and they have had their wishes fulfilled in his latest effort Shaolin Soccer. SARAH WHEATLEY Sarah Wheatley is an artist and a writer with a fascination for all aspects of Chinese culture. She has a particular fondness for the films of Stephen Chiau, as evidenced by her website Chiaumania. Her Top Ten for Heroic-Cinema consists entirely of his films. She has also previously contributed an article on Shaw Brothers movies, one of the most popular features of Heroic-Cinema.
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