Lau Kar-leung (28 July 1934 – 25 June 2013) was a Hong Kong martial artist, filmmaker, actor, and fight choreographer. He is best known for the films he made in the 1970s and 1980s for the Shaw Brothers Studio. His most famous works include The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978) starring Gordon Liu as well as Drunken Master II (1994) starring Jackie Chan.

Lau began learning kung fu when he was nine years old, under strict tutelage from his father.^[1]: 253 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 [fr] 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).^[2]

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,^[3] 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 V - The Terracotta Hit (1989), and Tiger on the Beat 2 (1990). The box office successes of these three films reinvigorated his career.^[4]

In March 1993, Lau began directing Jackie Chan in Drunken Master II,^[5] 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.^[6] Most recently, Lau performed acting and choreography work for Tsui Hark's 2005 film Seven Swords.

Mark Houghton opened the Lau Family Hung Kuen school Lau Family Hung Gar academy in Hong Kong / Fanling with the support of his sifu, Lau. He gave his disciple the permission to spread the art of Lau Family Hung Kuen to chosen students. There are already branches in England, Philippines, and China.

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).

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.

In 2005, Lau won a "Best Action Choreography" award at the Golden Horse Award for his action choreography work on Tsui Hark's Seven Swords. He also won another Golden Horse Award in 1994, for "Best Martial Arts Direction" in the film Drunken Master II (or The Legend of the Drunken Master). In 1995, Lau also won a "Best Action Choreography" award at the Hong Kong Film Awards for his choreography in Drunken Master II and in 1997, the film won "Best Film" at the Fantasia Film Festival. Lau was also nominated for a "Best Action Choreography" Hong Kong Film Award in 2006 for his work on Tsui Hark's Seven Swords, and nominated in 1983 for a "Best Action Choreography" Hong Kong Film Award for his work on Legendary Weapons of China (1982), which he also directed and wrote.^[7]

In 2010, Lau was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards for his contributions to the martial arts film genre.^[7]

Lau was the third child of Lau Cham (Lau Jaam, 劉湛), a martial arts master who studied Hung Gar under Lam Sai-wing, a student of Wong Fei-hung.^[8] He has a brother who makes a living in the film industry, actor/choreographer Lau Kar-wing, as does Gordon Liu, Lau's pupil and adopted godson to Lau's father, Lau Cham. His 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.

Lau began training students Hung Gar before the age of 5 and was already quite proficient in the style. Bruce Lee treated Lau as an elder uncle and asked him for advice in regards to his film career.

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). However Lau only had interest in his acting career but proceed with the marriage anyway, they had four daughters and one son.

In 1978 Lau first met the then 14 years old Mary Jean Reimer who was 30 years his junior and was a fan of his and 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.^[9]

Lau died on 25 June 2013 at Union Hospital, Hong Kong. He had been battling leukemia for two decades.^[10]

• 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^[11][12]
• 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

• Lau Kar-leung at IMDb
• Hong Kong Cinemagic: Lau Kar Leung