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Chia Hui Liu, Gordon Liu, The Kung Fu Legend from "Kill Bill 2" and "36th Chamber of Shaolin"
Chia Hui Liu , also known as Gordon Liu, was born in the Guangdong province of China. He lived in Hong Kong with his family growing up. Like a few other Kung Fu legends he too regularly skipped school in order to practice Kung Fu. He studied Kung fu at the Lau Gar School ran by Lau Charn. It was there that Chia Hui Liu, Gordon Liu, learned ‘Hung Fist', which is the style of Kung Fu taught by Wong Kei Ying to his son, Wong Fei Hung then to be taught to Lam Sai wing under whom Lau Charn studied. Gordon was not a blood relative to Lau Charn, nor was he an adopted son as so many think. Because Gordon was one of Lau's favorite students and became 'godson' to him. This is when Gordon took on his master's surname Lau Kar Fai of which the Mandarin version is Chia Hui Liu. He adopted 'Gordon' during his time at English schools in Hong Kong. He started working with his God-brother
Lau Kar Leung
in the Shaw Brothers studio. He did choreography for a while and some small roles until "Challenge of the Masters" (1976) Where he played Huang Fei Hung and "Executioners from Shaolin" (1976), where he played the Pai Mei.
This made Gordon an international superstar. Drawing fans like a young Quentin Tarantino who would later put the Kung Fu Legend in "Kill Bill volume 1" and "Kill Bill volume 2" . Working with the Shaw Brothers, Chia Hui Liu and Lau Kar Leung paired up to make many more films together including "Shaolin challenges Ninja", "Dirty Ho" , "The Lady is the Boss", "My Young Auntie", "Fist of the White Lotus" , "Carry on Wise Guy", "Heroes of the East" "Legendary Weapons of China" and the amazing "Eight Diagram Pole Fighter" . Liu made his directorial debut with "Shaolin vs. Wu Tang" in 1981. After 1985, Gordon experienced a decline in work for a while. He re-emerged playing more bad guy characters when period Kung Fu made a comeback doing movies like Stephen Chow's "Flirting Scholar" and "Once Upon a Time in China". He reunited with Lau Kar Leung when Shaw Brothers opened again in 2003 with "Drunken Monkey". Undoubtedly Gordon Liu was thrust back into the international limelight in "Kill Bill Volume 1" where he played Johnny Mo. He worked with renowned fight choreographer Yuen Woo Ping on this film but he and Ping had different backgrounds in Northern and Southern style martial arts.
Liu is quoted saying “Master Yuen's work in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was very beautiful, a work of art. But it was not real fighting. I knew that Quentin wanted something different. He wanted real fighting. And I knew that when those two approaches were put together, the result would be something unique.”Chia Hui Liu knocked it out of the park with the follow up "Kill Bill Volume 2" where he played Pai Mei, a character Quentin originally intended to play himself until he realized how grueling the training would be. Instead Quentin chose to dub Liu's voice in classic Kung Fu movie style, leaving the acting and fighting to Chai Hui Liu who made his mark in this huge international hit. Chai Hui Liu continues to make movies and tv series in China. He is a Kung Fu great and will always be a true Kung Fu Legend .
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Gordon landed his signature role as Shaolin hero San Te in
