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Zhao Wen Zhuo (Chieu Man Cheuk)
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Zhao Wen Zhuo is another one of the newer breed of action actors, trained in wushu in mainland China. He was born on 10 April 1972, in Harbin, a city in Heilongjiang Province of China, into a working class family of five. He developed an interest in sport at an early age, and began training in wushu. He specialized in the straight sword, spear and empty hand. His preferred styles of empty hand appear to be Tong Bei Quan (Through Back Fist), Chen Tai Ji Quan (Chen Tai Chi Fist) and Bagua Zhang (Eight Trigrams Palm) as he often performs them in his films. In 1990 he was accepted into the Beijing sports academy majoring in wushu, and continued his training under the strict guidance of some of China's best coaches. |
Zhao was approached by legendary action director Corey Yuen Kwai in 1993 for the role of the villain opposite Li Lian Jie (Jet Li) in the movie Fong Sai Yuk. The film became a success which not only firmly established Jet Li's stardom in Hong Kong but got Zhao Wen Zhuo noticed by producer and director Xu Ke (Tsui Hark). Tsui Hark had been in Beijing searching for a suitable actor for his next film, and made arrangements to meet with Zhao.
Zhao later signed a contract with Tsui Hark's film workshop and began his film career as the lead in Huang Fei Hong IV (Wong Fei Hong IV). Zhao is still very grateful to Corey Yuen Kwai for the opportunity to work on Fong Sai Yuk. Zhao states that without this opportunity he would never have had the chance to meet with Tsui Hark.
Zhao's view on taking over the reins of Huang Fei Hong were mixed. Although he had confidence in his martial art abilities, Huang Fei Hong was a widely known and treasured character in Hong Kong. In addition viewers had already warmed to Jet Li's performance in the first three Huang Fei Hong films. He felt that viewers would also need time to feel comfortable with a new actor in the role.
Some of the action sequences developed for Jet Li had to be changed to accommodate Zhao, who is much taller and would look awkward performing them. Zhao suggested he use his Tai Ji Quan skills mixed with other techniques for the action scenes. Having very long legs Zhao felt using Tai Ji Quan would have a better result. The result was the very impressive demonstration at the beginning of Huang Fei Hong IV. Although both Li and Zhao are very capable martial artists, neither performed very much of the Nan Quan (Southern Fist) which Huang Fei Hong was famous for.
Besides being well known as the new Huang Fei Hong, Zhao Wen Zhuo has also starred in many additional movies such as Blacksheep Affair and Mahjong Dragon. He has also recently participated in some TV series, including Mulan and Hero of Shanghai.