Hong Kong action movies have always been the benchmark of Chinese films, and a large number of action stars emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, and the kung fu master we are going to talk about today is The Four-Legged King, known as the Whirlwind Leg Kasava
At the age of 16, he won the national taekwondo championship, and at the age of 18, he founded the gymnasium as a coach, his leg skills are known for being domineering, especially the back spin kick, which is particularly fierce, so it is known as the "human tornado", from the naughty boy to the king of the legs in the film world, how Kassava stepped on the peak step by step, today let's take a look at this leg master
Born in 1952 in Jindi, South Korea, Kasava did not love to learn from an early age, but he was extremely obsessed with taekwondo, in order to practice taekwondo, he almost abandoned his normal studies, so that he was ordered to repeat the grade by the school in the second year of junior high school, in the eyes of his parents and teachers, Kasava seems to be a "bad boy" who does not learn and has no skills, but in fact, he is also making corresponding efforts for his interests, and has achieved good results step by step
In the second grade of junior high school, he participated in the Jeonbuk Nambara National Taekwondo Competition as a repeat student, although he was a fledgling newcomer, his performance was remarkable, under the attack of the leg method, supplemented by the defensive block of the boxing method, one after another, direct hits, so that the viewers were always excited, but due to the lack of competition experience, Kasavar only won the runner-up title in the end
But this did not make him angry, but gave him the motivation to continue to move forward, after a year of hard training, the third grade of junior high school he as the captain, led the team members to win the national taekwondo competition team championship, but also a realization of the year's one-step championship dream, although not outstanding in learning, but the young age can achieve such excellent results in taekwondo, his parents and teachers are really happy for him
So slowly they changed from opposition to support, and this change gave Kasava more room for development, he had more time to practice, and he could sign up for various competitions, so whether it was technically or in terms of combat experience, Kasava's taekwondo level has made great progress
In the sophomore year of high school, Kasava has become a well-known taekwondo master in the school, under his influence, Korean schools even set off a wave of martial arts craze, when both male and female students, are to learn taekwondo as a trend indicator, Kasava also took this opportunity to create a gymnasium and serve as a coach, although still a student, but Kasavar has begun to break out of his own reputation on the road of taekwondo
After graduating from high school in 1972, Kasava entered the South Korean Marine Corps to serve in the military, during which with his profound taekwondo skills, he was recommended as a player to participate in the corresponding competitions many times, of course, he also obtained many good results, with many years of taekwondo technology support, coupled with physical training in the army, in 1974, at the age of 22, he was invited to become a member of the First World Taekwondo Competition Korea National Demonstration Team, which also fully shows that he has reached the national level in the field of taekwondo
So thanks to his excellent martial arts skills, Kasava was noticed by The Korean action film director Kwon Yong-moon, and in 1974, he shot his first film in life, "The Bridge of Life and Death", although in the film he was only a dragon runner, but it was also half a foot into the film and television circle
Here we briefly introduce Kwon Yongwen, who is a world-renowned martial arts master, with the top rank in many martial arts projects such as taekwondo Aikido kendo, has served as a martial arts instructor for more than 120 movies, and has cooperated with Jackie Chan Jet Li Tom Cruise and others in Hollywood
Another leg king, Huang Zhengli's first film "The Return of the One-Man 2", the martial arts director is Kwon Yongwen, which shows that the strength of this predecessor should not be underestimated, and being able to be favored by this master is enough to reflect Kasava's good martial arts ability, and later in 1976 he starred in an action movie called "Secret Guest"
In this movie, he and Huang Zhengli as the lead actor, the taekwondo of various wonderful moves, through the way of hitting to the audience to fully show, the film once released to get a lot of praise, Kasava and Huang Zhengli have thus become household names in martial arts stars, since then he can be regarded as officially entering the show business circle
At that time, it was also at the peak of the development of Hong Kong films, and in the case of the action actor "green and yellow", the martial arts of Kasava was naturally a fragrant feast that everyone was competing for, including Hong Jinbao, the boss of Hong Jiaban
In 1977, Casava was invited to participate, Hong Jinbao's first self-directed and self-acting action movie "Sande Monk and Gang Mi Liu", although it was only a cameo at the beginning, but that kung fu really amazed Hong Jinbao, so under the recommendation of Hong Jinbao, Kasava starred in a lot of Hong Kong action movies
The most famous of these is the movie "Mr. Zan and Finding Qianhua", in this film, Kasafa plays the Wing Chun master "Looking for Qian Hua", because he accidentally learned that Mo Laoqing and jiangyang thieves conspired to assassinate the mayor of the town, which led to the disaster of killing, fortunately Hong Jinbao saved his life, and then in order to avenge Ryazan as a teacher to learn Wing Chun, and finally launched a life-and-death duel with Hong Jinbao with the evil people
In the film, Kasava integrates taekwondo leg method with traditional Chinese martial arts, and does not lose its own characteristics in the decent fight, especially in the fight with the mantis fist Feng Ke'an at the end of the film, you come and I punch to the flesh, and finally Kasava used a long-distance take-off to turn around and kick sideways, before finally subduing Feng Ke'an
Its practical "Find Qianhua" movie, to show the superbness of Kasa vahua leg gong is not very appropriate, because Wing Chun is a typical southern boxing technique, do not pay attention to high-leg combos, "skirt foot" is its typical move, meaning that in order to seek safe concealment, even the skirt is not lifted too much when the foot is out, so this film does not let Kasa va really show his super strong leg skills, but this did not prevent him from catching fire
In the follow-up, he took on a lot of action movies, such as "Liuhe Thousand Hands", "Dragon Shaped Hands Golden Bell Cover", "Little Boy Fate" and other films, it is worth saying that during the filming process of "Heavenly Tiger", Kasava perfectly demonstrated his serial kicking skills, first performing a volley three kicks to knock down three people, and then knocking down the fourth person with one punch when he landed
In that era when there was no special effects bonus, this could fully show Kasava's superb leg skills, and in Bruce Lee's "Game of Death", Kasavar also launched a leg contest with Tang Long as a supporting role, although the scenes were few, they could still attract attention
It is precisely because of such excellent leg skills that he and Huang Zhengli Tan Daoliang and Liu Zhongliang were known as the "four-legged king of the Hong Kong film industry" together, and the limelight was unmatched at that time
But unfortunately, with the decline of Hong Kong kung fu films, Cassava's career in Hong Kong entered a downturn, so he chose to return to South Korea in the mid-to-late 80s, and then gradually shifted from the front of the stage to the backstage, in recent years, I heard that Kasavar worked as a martial arts instructor in the Seoul Local Police Department in South Korea, although it did not continue to appear on the screen, but this can also be regarded as a contribution to the martial arts community
Throughout Kasava's life, from the bad boy in the eyes of the teacher to the famous leg king in the film world, because of his love for taekwondo, he persevered and walked down, and then presented us with so many excellent works, here we thank the same old predecessors as Kasava, thank them for their hard work