Wasted Opportunity - Dream Faceoffs Too Little Too Late

The last few years have given us, and by that I mean me, lots of dream matches that have made me thrilled, then pleased, then nonplussed, then depressed and very, very old.

Jet Li vs Dolph Lundgren
Jeff Hardy vs Rob Van Dam
Stallone vs Jean Claude Van Damme

All twenty years too late, or ten years for wrestlers, who age twice as fast.

So here's Donnie Yen and Ken Lo, the fastest kickers in Hong Kong, both in their fifties and looking much older with the clothes, haircuts, and tattoos.  Having said that, they still move better than me.  But not as good as 1994's Donnie Yen and Ken Lo.

Wasted Opportunity - Vincent Zhao

Vincent Zhao replaced Jet Li in the Once Upon a Time In China series, but failed to take his place in general when Li came to make mediocre films in America.

This is one of Ken Lo's two good fight scenes, the other being the amazingly kicky Drunken Master II, but frankly I think Lo probably got more of a career out of that than could have been expected.

When Wasted Opportunities Face Off

Chin Ka-Lok!

Yu Rong Guang!

Green Hornet!



It stinks!

Could have been a good fight, but this was a criminally cheap production shot almost entirely in a field.

Wasted Opportunity - Yu Rong-Guang

Yu Rong-Guang started out strong co-starring in Iron Monkey, possibly the best wire-fu movie ever.  The same year he was the villain against Michelle Yeoh in Project S, but aside from his excellent role as the baddie in Jet Li's My Father is a Hero, he was criminally underused.  Pretty soon he was playing dads in period pieces, but at least he seems to be finding steady work in non-fighting roles.  I seem to remember from reports at the time that audiences didn't care for his red Chinese origins or Mandarin accent.

Wasted Opportunity - Chin Ka-Lok

Leading up to the Chinese handover of Hong Kong in 1997 there was a huge drain of star power from the Hong Kong film industry.  Asian stars were becoming popular in the west, and seeking bigger opportunities (and fleeing an uncertain political future) most of the big names moved to America or Canada.

During this time I looked forward to several lower tiered actors getting their opportunity to shine.  It didn't happen.  The middle dropped out of the film industry, and we were left with Andy Lau blockbusters and Z level gambling or triad dramas.

Chin Ka-Lok could have, and should have, been the Bruce Li to Jackie Chan's Bruce Lee.  He didn't have the same level of charisma, but he could move and had a face for comedy.  Instead, he languished in Young and Dangerous knock-offs and ghost comedies.  Even when he was in Kung Fu movies, he rarely had a fighting role.

He got one starring role in a big budget Kung Fu action film, 1991's Bury Me High.  Here's a look at what we should have seen more of, presented in copyright filter baffling Vietnamese