Yu
Rong-Guang has worked with some of the best performers
in the Hong Kong film industry. Action superstars like
Michelle Yeoh and Jackie Chan are just a sample of the
talented costars that populate Yu's filmography. Perhaps
thoughts of movie stardom crossed Yu's mind as a youth
in Mainland China, as he trained diligently in the Peking
Opera School. As Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao
had done before him, Yu parlayed his opera training into
an impressive martial arts film career.
Since his debut, Yu-Rong
Guang has made several notable screen appearances. His
most famous is perhaps the title role in Iron Monkey (1993), which saw Yu appear alongside popular action star
Donnie Yen. Other noteworthy film appearances include Swordsman III: The East is Red (1993) with Brigitte
Lin Ching-Hsia and My Father is a Hero (1995),
in which Yu played a villain to Jet Li's heroic protagonist.
Though many U.S. audiences might be unfamiliar with Yu's
Hong Kong work, his small appearance in Shanghai Noon (2000) may ring some bells. The actor made his American
debut in this popular Jackie Chan-Owen Wilson comedy as
an Imperial guard who briefly duels with Jackie Chan near
the film's climax.
Yu's recent performance
in the South Korean film Musa: The Warrior (2001)
ranks among one of his best. In the sweeping epic, Yu
plays a Mongol general battling a ragtag group of Korean
soldiers in the hopes of capturing a haughty Ming princess
(portrayed by current Chinese "It Girl" Zhang
Ziyi). Based on the overall quality of the films he has
associated himself with over the last decade and a half,
it would not be a stretch to predict even more winning
film performances from Yu Rong-Guang in the years to come.
(Sanjuro 2003) |